Mikhail Drozdovskii

Born 1881; died Jan. 14, 1919, in Novocherkassk. White Guard major general (1918); prominent counterrevolutionary in southern Russia.

Drozdovskii graduated from the Academy of the General Staff in 1908 and served in World War I (1914-18) with the rank of colonel as a regimental and division commander. In December 1917, Drozdovskii formed a counterrevolutionary detachment of about 1,000 volunteers in Bessarabia, consisting primarily of officers and cadets. In the spring of 1918 he fought his way through the Ukraine to the Don. On May 5, Drozdovskii’s troops reached Rostov, where they supported the White Cossacks in the fight for the city and in June joined General Denikin’s volunteer army. In Rostov Drozdovskii’s detachment was reorganized into the 3rd Infantry Division, which was renamed the Drozdovskii Division after Drozdovskii’s death. Drozdovskii actively fought against Soviet troops in the Northern Caucasus.