Mikhail Dmitriyevich Bonch-Bruyevich (russian: Михаи́л Дми́триевич Бонч-Бруе́вич; – 3 August 1956) was an

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

n and Soviet military commander ( Lieutenant General from 1944). His family belonged to the nobility of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The son of a land surveyor and a member of the minor nobility, he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Surveying - and later from the General Staff Academy. From 1892 to 1895 Bonch-Bruyevich served as an officer with the

Lithuanian Guards Regiment Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other J ...

, posted at Warsaw.''From Tsarist General to Red Army Commander'' by Mikhail Bonch-Bruyevich, translated by Vladimir Vezey, Progress Publishers, 1966, p48

First World War

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 Bonch-Bruyevich commanded the

176th Perevolochensky Regiment The 176th Perevolochna Infantry Regiment () was a reserve infantry regiment in the Imperial Russian Army that fought during World War I as part of the 44th Infantry Division. Origins The regiment traced its seniority back to the formation of t ...

, based at Chernigov. He witnessed the Russian aviator

Pyotr Nesterov Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov (russian: Пётр Николаевич Нестеров ( – ) was a Russian pilot, an aircraft designer and an aerobatics pioneer. Life and career Nesterov was born on 15 February 1887 in Nizhny Novgorod, into ...

's fatal

aerial ramming Aerial ramming or air ramming is the ramming of one aircraft with another. It is a last-ditch tactic in air combat, sometimes used when all else has failed. Long before the invention of aircraft, ramming tactics in naval warfare and ground warfare ...

attack on 25 August 1914 .S.during the

Battle of Galicia The Battle of Galicia, also known as the Battle of Lemberg, was a major battle between Russia and Austria-Hungary during the early stages of World War I in 1914. In the course of the battle, the Austro-Hungarian armies were severely defeated and ...

. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

of March 1917, the Provisional Government put Bonch-Bruyevich in command of the Russian garrison in

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...

, where he was elected to the executive of the Pskov soviet. After the

German army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

captured

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

(3 September 1917) he was transferred to the northern front. He commanded the Northern Front from 29 August 1917 to 9 September 1917.

Under Communist rule

After the October Revolution of November 1917 Bonch-Bruyevich became one of the first high-ranking army officers to rally to the new regime, with which he had a strong family link: his younger brother, Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich was a leading Bolshevik. On 19 November 1917 he was appointed

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

of the Supreme Commander, Nikolai Krylenko. In March 1918 he was appointed military director of the Supreme Military Council, and chief of field staff of the

Revolutionary Military Council The Revolutionary Military Council (russian: Революционный Военный Совет, Revolyutsionny Voyenny Sovyet, Revolutionary Military Council), sometimes called the Revolutionary War CouncilBrian PearceIntroductionto Fyodor Ra ...

, and played a major role at the start of the Russian Civil War in organising the Red Army and the defence of the Soviet state. Former fellow-officers now in the White army declared him an outlaw, and attempted to catch him by raiding a train which they thought he was on. This incident may have contributed to his decision to resign his command. From March 1919 to October 1923 Bonch-Bruyevich served as the head of the ( ru , Высшее геодезическое управление (ВГУ)) for the Supreme Economic Soviet. He was arrested in 1923 and accused of sabotage, but released after the head of the

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( pl, Feliks Dzierżyński ; russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Poland, Polish n ...

intervened. In 1925 he organised the bureau of aerial photography. He was arrested again in February 1931, along with other former imperial army officers suspected of plotting against the Soviet regime, but was released without charge. He survived the Stalinist purges, and was promoted to the rank of divisional commander as the mass arrests of Red Army officers began in 1937. In 1944 he was promoted again - to the rank of lieutenant general.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonch-Bruyevich, Mikhail Dmitriyevich 1870 births 1956 deaths Military personnel from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent Soviet people of Polish descent Belarusian nobility Imperial Russian major generals Russian Provisional Government generals Soviet lieutenant generals Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class Recipients of the Gold Sword for Bravery Burials at Vagankovo Cemetery