Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel

Born Apr. 16 (28), 1883; died Jan. 25, 1920, in the village of Nizhneozernaia, near Nizhneudinsk. White Guard lieutenant general (1919), descendant of a noble family of Kovno Province.

Kappel’ graduated from the Nicholas Cavalry School in 1903 and from the Academy of the General Staff in 1913 and fought in World War I. In the Civil War of 1918–20 he was at first commander of the troops of Komuch (Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly), which operated on the right bank of the Volga near Syzran’, Simbirsk, and Kazan from June to August 1918; he then commanded the Volga Corps of Kolchak’s army, which was defeated by the Red Army in May-June 1919. From June to October the corps commanded by Kappel’ operated in the region of Cheliabinsk and on the Tobol River. During the retreat of the White Guards toward Omsk, Kappel’ headed the so-called Moscow group of troops. In November 1919, he became commander of the Third Army, and in December 1919 Kolchak appointed him commander in chief of the Eastern Front. Kappel’ died during the retreat of the White Guards from Irkutsk. The remnants of Kolchak’s troops in Transbaikalia and in the Far East called themselves kappelevtsy (“Kappelovites”).