Nikolai Nikolayevich Obruchev (1830–1904) was a

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

Officer in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

, imperial Russian general staff officer, military statistician, planner and chief of the Main Staff.

Biography

Obruchev was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in a military family. He entered the

First Cadet Corps The First Cadet Corps was a military school in Saint Petersburg. History of creation The initiative to create cadet corps for noblemen in Russia belonged to Count Pavel Yaguzhinsky. By the decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna of July 29, 1731, the Se ...

and went on to the Nicholas Military Academy in 1848. In 1858, he founded ''Voyenny Sbornik'' (Military Collection) as a professional military journal. However after printing articles critical of Russian military logistics in the

Crimea War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, he was removed from the position. However he became a protégé of

Dmitry Milyutin Count Dmitry Alekseyevich Milyutin ( rus, Граф Дми́трий Алексе́евич Милю́тин, tr. ; 28 June 1816, Moscow – 25 January 1912, Simeiz near Yalta) was Minister of War (1861–81) and the last Field Marshal of I ...

who in 1863 appointed him secretary of the Military Academic Committee of the Main Staff. From this position he helped ensure Miliutin's military reforms were put into effect. He played a key role in preparing for the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...

of 1877 - 1878. In July 1877 he was posted to the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

front where he successfully planned the defeat of the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

. Then he was moved to the

Balkan The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

front where his plan for winter operations helped lead to the capitulation of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

In 1881

Pyotr Vannovskiy Pyotr Semyonovich Vannovsky (russian: Пётр Семёнович Ванновский, translit=Pëtr Semënovič Vannovskij; Russian (before 1918): Пётръ Семёновичъ Ванновскій; be, Пётр Сямёнавіч Ван ...

, the new

Minister of War A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

appointed him chief of the Main Staff. Obruchev now played a role in rearming the Russian Army, constructing fortifications on the western military frontier and laying plans for amphibious operation across the

Bosphorus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...

. At this time he proposed reorganising the Main Staff into five directorates: First and Second Quartermaster Generals, Adjutant General, Military Communications and Military

Topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

. However this structure was not implemented until 1903.''Secret Soldiers of the Revolution'' by Raymond W. Leonard, Greenwoodpress 1999 He attended the Franco-Russian Military Convention of 1892 and persuaded

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

not to intervene in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1895. Retired from active service in 1897, Obruchev died in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in June 1904.

References

* ''The Fateful Alliance'' by George F. Kennan, (1984), New York: Pantheon. * ''The Tsar's Colonels: Professionalism, Strategy, and Subversion in Late Imperial Russia'' by David Alan Rich (1998),Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Obruchev, Nikolai 1830 births 1904 deaths Burials at Nikolskoe Cemetery Imperial Russian Army generals Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Takovo Russian nihilists