People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Political and party leadership 1 Military command 1
Affiliation

Most people

Any Russian Empire state institutions 1 Russian White movement 1

All 2 affiliations

Russia

Russian Empire state institutions 1 Russian White movement 1
Position
Any Imperial establishment and White movement 1 Nationalism 1
Citizenship(set)
Any Soviet Union 4 Russia 2 Kazakhstan 1
Background(set)
Any Russia 177 Ukraine 7 Armenia 3 Georgia 3 Germany 3 Kazakhstan 2 Poland 2 Korea 1
Era
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The old regime and its challengers1905–1917 1 The revolutionary generation1917–1940 1
Citizenship: Russia Background: Kazakhstan Clear all

Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov

Лавр Георгиевич Корнилов
Russian Empire state institutions Imperial establishment and White movement Russia Kazakhstan 1870–1918 ✕ Killed in action

The general who offered Russia a “strong hand”

November 1914, a night assault at Takosány: Kornilov leads the charge, captures 1,200 prisoners — and the Austrian general Raft, who says, "Kornilov is not a man, he is a force of nature."

A Cossack soldier’s son risen to commander-in-chief. In August 1917 he sent a cavalry corps against the Soviet, and railwaymen and agitators dissolved it before it arrived. Leading the White Volunteer Army in the early civil war, he was killed by a shell before Yekaterinodar in 1918.

Career timeline
  • 1914–1916Divisional commander; escapes Austrian captivity to national fame
  • 1917.03Commands Petrograd district; places the Empress under arrest
  • 1917.07Appointed commander-in-chief
  • 1917.08Moves the corps on the capital; fails, held at Bykhov
  • 1917.11–1918.04Escapes to found the Volunteer Army; killed before Yekaterinodar
Scenes Kornilov is coming

Mustafa Shokay

Мустафа Шокай
Nationalism Russian Empire Kazakh 1890–1941 ○ Suspicious death

Kazakh nationalist who led the Kokand Autonomy and dreamed of an independent Turkestan

"I cannot accept the offer to lead the Turkestan Legion and refuse further cooperation. All the consequences of my decision, I realize." — Letter to Ribbentrop, 1941

Mustafa Shokay was a Kazakh nationalist political leader who headed the Kokand (Turkestan) Autonomy, the first modern autonomous government in Central Asia after the collapse of the Russian Empire. A graduate of Petrograd University's law faculty, he served as secretary of the Muslim faction in the State Duma and opposed the Tsarist colonial administration's policies in Central Asia. When the Bolsheviks crushed Kokand by force in 1918, he fled to France and spent two decades in exile, propagating the idea of Turkestan independence internationally through journals such as Yash Turkestan. In 1941, the Nazis offered him leadership of the Turkestan Legion, but after witnessing the conditions of Soviet POWs, he refused, and died in Berlin shortly afterward under suspicious circumstances.

Career timeline
  • 1914–1917Secretary, Muslim Faction, Russian State Duma
  • 1917Chairman, Turkestan National Council
  • 1917Member, Turkestan Committee of the Provisional Government
  • 1917–1918Foreign Minister, then Head, Kokand (Turkestan) Autonomy
  • 1918–1919Member, Alash Orda Government
  • 1921–1941Exiled journalist and editor, editor-in-chief of Yash Turkestan