Don Cossack ataman who opened the first White stronghold in the south
11 February 1918: after hearing at his final government meeting that only 147 bayonets remained to defend the Don, Kaledin resigned and wrote to General Alekseev: 'The Cossacks refuse to follow their ataman.' Then he shot himself.
A cavalry general who spearheaded the Brusilov Offensive and broke through at Lutsk in World War I. Elected in June 1917 as the Don Cossacks' first chosen ataman since Peter the Great abolished the election, he rejected Soviet power outright after October, declared the Don independent, and opened the first White stronghold in the south. But the returning Cossack regiments declared neutrality, and when the Volunteer Army itself prepared to abandon the Don in February 1918, Kaledin wrote that 'the Cossacks refuse to follow their ataman' and shot himself.
Career Timeline
- 1903–06Headed the Novocherkassk Cossack Junker School
- 1912–15Commanded 12th Cavalry Division, early World War I
- 1915–16Commander of 12th Corps, then 8th Army; broke Lutsk in the Brusilov Offensive
- 1916–17Promoted General of Cavalry; continued commanding 8th Army
- 1917.6Elected Don Cossack ataman, the first election since 1709
- 1917.10–11Rejected Soviet power, declared Don independence, sheltered White officers
- 1918.1–2Front collapsed as Cossacks declared neutrality; resigned and shot himself