Kharkevich, Vladimir

Born September 1856; died Aug. 13 (26), 1906. Russian military figure and historian. Lieutenant general (1904).

Kharkevich graduated from the Mikhail Artillery School in 1876 and the Academy of the General Staff in 1882. He fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. From 1900 to 1902 he taught at the Academy of the General Staff. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, he was first quartermaster general of the Manchurian Army (April-October 1904), then chief of staff of the First Manchurian Army (October 1904–March 1905), and finally chief of staff of the armed forces in the Far East (from March 1905).

Kharkevich was a representative of the school of scientific criticism in Russian bourgeois military historiography. His works on the Patriotic War of 1812 were distinguished by the extensive use of source materials, profound analysis, and an effort to depict the actions of both sides objectively. Kharkevich published a number of sources, including The Patriotic War of 1812 (vols. 1–22, 1900–14) and The Year 1812 in the Diaries, Sketches, and Recollections of Contemporaries (fascs. 1–4, 1900–07).