"Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas"

"Supreme Leader and Commander-in-Chief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces"

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (1874-1920) is known best as "Supreme Leader and Commander-in-Chief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces."¹

Scholar of polar oceanography

However, in the early part of his career he was a scholar of polar oceanography and is known for his writing about the polar regions.² Under the czarist regime, Kolchak went to the Naval Academy, took part in an expedition to the North Pole, explored New Siberia in the Arctic Circle by dogsled, commanded a torpedo boat in the Russo-Japanese War, then returned to work at the Academy of Sciences, where he tested the first icebreakers.

Supreme Leader and Commander-in-Chief of All Russian Land and Sea Forces

In August 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral and was given command of the Black Sea Fleet. After the fall of Tsar Nicholas II, he was recalled to Petrograd and sent to the United States as a military adviser. Kolchak returned to Russia and joined the rebellion against the Bolsheviks and become minister in the Provisional All-Russian Government based in Omsk. In 1918 Kolchak was named Supreme Ruler. Bolsheviks executed him in February 1920, in Irkutsk and his body was thrown through the ice of the frozen Angara River.

The 262-page transcription of the interrogation of Kolchak upon his arrest by the Bolsheviks in early 1920 for treason and counterrevolutionary activities is at the US Library of Congress.³

Movie: The Admiral

A movie about Kolchak was released in 2008. It is available at Amazon Prime.

1. Smele,Jonathan D. (1996) Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, Cambridge University Press.

2. Kolchak, A. V. (1909). Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas. In Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Science. St. Petersburg. Imperial Academy of Science. 170 p. (in Russian).

Kolchak, A., (1909). The Arctic and the polynya. In: Joerg, W.L.G. 1928. Problems of polar research. New York: American Geographical Society:125–141.

3. Pliguzov, A. and A.Smith (1996). Kolchak's Last Stand: Papers Describe Death of Anti-Bolshevik Leader. Library of Congress Bulletin 55 (February 19).