Diterikhs, Mikhail

Born Apr. 5 (17), 1874, in St. Petersburg; died Oct. 9, 1937, in Shanghai. One of the leaders of the counterrevolution in Siberia and the Far East; lieutenant general (1919). Son of an officer.

Diterikhs graduated from the Corps of Pages (1894) and the Academy of the General Staff (1900). During World War I (1914-18), in September 1917 he became quartermaster general of General Headquarters of Supreme Commander A. F. Kerensky; on November 3 (16) he became chief of staff of General Headquarters under N. N. Dukhonin. On Nov. 8 (21), 1917, he fled to the Ukraine and soon became chief of staff of the Czechoslovak Corps; he was one of the organizers of the uprising staged by the Corps in May 1918. In July-August 1919 he commanded Kolchak’s Siberian Army; in August-September 1919 he was chief of staff and war minister; in October-November he was commander of the Eastern Front. In 1922 he was elected “sole ruler and commander of the zemstvo host” by the so-called Zemstvo Assembly with the support of the Japanese interventionists and declared a crusade against Soviet Russia for the restoration of the monarchy. After the defeat of the White Guards in the Far East he fled to Shanghai.