Baron Piotr Nikolayevich Wrangel

Baron Piotr Nikolayevich Wrangel , 1878-1928, Russian general. After serving in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) and in World War I, he joined (late 1917) the anti-Bolshevik armies in S Russia. After the rout in early 1920 of the Denikin forces, Wrangel succeeded Denikin in command and soon whipped the demoralized remains of the White Army into shape. He also tried to win popular support with a program for land reform. He was successful for a while on the Crimean front, but the Russian armistice with Poland, with which it was at war from April to Oct., 1920, enabled the Communists to concentrate larger forces against him. Wrangel was forced back into the Crimea, and in Nov., 1920, he had to evacuate his forces to Constantinople. The Russian civil war thus came to an end. Wrangel died in exile at Brussels.

Bibliography: See his memoirs (1924, Am. ed. 1957).

Wrangel, Piotr Nikolaevich Baron (b. 15 Aug. 1878, d. 25 Apr. 1928). Russian general Born in St Petersburg, he joined a cavalry regiment as a private in 1901, and by 1910 had graduated from the Academy of the General Staff. He commanded a cavalry corps during World War I, but following the 1917 Russian (October) Revolution he joined the counter-revolutionary forces. In the ensuing Russian Civil War, he became commander of the Caucasian army, with which he advanced deep into Russian territory. He was dismissed after a quarrel with Denikin, whereupon he left for Constantinople. He returned after Denikin's defeat and took command of the rump forces of the White Army in the Crimea, trying to galvanize popular support through land reform. Despite early successes he was defeated by the Red Army, whereupon he organized the evacuation of over 150,000 soldiers and civilians across the Black Sea to Turkey. He died in Belgium.