Irkutsk, Siberia. Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (Russian: Александр Васильевич Колчак) is executed by the Red Army. He was a Russian scout, admiral, and politician who commanded part of the anti-Bolshevik White Army forces during the Russian Civil War. Kolchak had lost the support of potential allies such as the Czech Legion and the Fifth Polish Rifle Division, which withdrew from the conflict in October 1918 but remained. The 7,000 American troops stationed in Siberia declared themselves strictly neutral regarding “Russian internal affairs” and remained only to oversee the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. American commander William S. Graves, in agreement with President Woodrow Wilson, also had a personal dislike for Kolchak’s government, which he considered royalist and autocratic. When the Red Army forces managed to reorganize and counterattack in 1919, Kolchak’s army began to lose ground. The Bolsheviks launched a counteroffensive in April, focusing their attack on the center of the White line, capturing Ufa. Following an order from Moscow, he was summarily sentenced to death in Irkutsk along with Prime Minister Viktor Pepelyaev. They were shot at dawn on February 7, and their bodies were dumped on the Ushakovka River. Most historical judgments are still influenced by a bias dating back to the Civil War, and therefore negative judgments are expressed by those closer to the Bolshevik side and less so by anti-communist ones. In fact, Admiral Kolchak showed undoubted military qualities, especially in the naval field, while he had less experience in land military tactics.
