Vasilii Boldyrev

Born Apr. 5 (17), 1875; died after 1932. One of the leaders of the counterrevolution in Siberia; lieutenant general (1917).

Boldyrev graduated from the Penza Surveying School, the School of Military Topography (1895), and the Academy of the General Staff (1903). During World War I he held staff and command posts, and from September 1917 he commanded the Fifth Army. After the October Revolution he was arrested for insubordination to the orders of the Soviet command, but he was soon freed. In 1918, Boldyrev was a member of the counterrevolutionary organizations National Center and Union of Rebirth. From September to November 1918 he was a member of the Ufa Directory and head of its troops. After Kolchak’s coup, the Kolchak government sent him to Japan; he advocated extensive Japanese intervention. During 1920–22 he held different military posts in the White Guard governments of the Far East. After the liberation of Vladivostok from the interventionists and White Guards (1922), Boldyrev was arrested. While in prison he declared his wish to serve Soviet power, and in 1926 he was granted amnesty. Boldyrev is the author of a number of works on military history and tactics, as well as his memoirs (The Directory: Kolchak: The Interventionists, parts 1–3, 1925).