Former General Staff general who advised at Brest-Litovsk and then commanded the Red 6th Army in the north and briefly the Eastern Front
Born in Moscow to an army doctor's family, he was a General Staff intelligence officer who rose to major general in the First World War and became chief of staff of the 10th Army. After the October Revolution he sided with the Bolsheviks, led the military commission of the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk and volunteered for the Red Army in February 1918. From November 1918 to April 1920 he commanded the 6th Army on the Northern Front against the Allied interventionists and the Whites, directing the Shenkursk operation and the taking of Arkhangelsk and Onega, and for four weeks in May 1919 he commanded the Eastern Front in the Buguruslan and Belebey operations. He took part in the peace talks with Finland and Turkey in 1920–1921, became a lieutenant general of aviation in 1940 and in 1944 joined the Communist Party, one of the last old-army General Staff officers to do so.
Also known as: Alexander Samoylo · Aleksandr Samoylo
Activities and affiliations
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1890–1917
Russian Empire state institutions
Military command -
1918–1948
Soviet Union state institutionsMain
Military command -
1944–1963
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1898Graduated from the Nicholas General Staff Academy
- 1909–1914Intelligence section of the General Staff, Austria-Hungary desk
- 1915–1917Assistant quartermaster general, Western Front staff
- 1916Major general
- 1917Chief of staff of the 10th Army
- 1918Head of the military commission of the Soviet delegation at Brest-Litovsk
- 1918Volunteered for the Red Army; chief of staff of the 6th Army
- 1918–1920Commander of the 6th Army, Northern Front
- 1919Commander of the Eastern Front (May)
- 1920Peace talks with Finland
- 1920–1921Head of the All-Russian Main Staff
- 1921Peace talks with Turkey
- 1940Lieutenant general of aviation
- 1944Joined the Communist Party
- 1958Memoir "Two Lives"