Beliaev, Mikhail Alekseevich

Born Feb. 23, 1863; died 1918. Russian infantry general (1914).

In 1893, Beliaev graduated from the Academy of the General Staff. He held staff positions during the Russo-Japanese War. During World War I he was named acting chief of the General Staff in October 1914 (confirmed in April 1916) and after June 1915 served simultaneously as assistant minister of war. In August 1916 he became a member of the Military Council and in September 1916, Russian army representative in the Rumanian general headquarters. A typical military bureaucrat, he was extremely unpopular in the army and was called “deadhead.” Chosen by the’tsaritsa for his devotion to the throne, he was appointed minister of war on Jan. 3, 1917. During the February Revolution of 1917 he tried to gather troops to put down the uprising but was arrested on March 1. After the October Revolution he was freed, but in 1918 he was again arrested and shot.