Aleksei Alekseyevich Brusilov (19 August 1853-17 March 1926) was a general of the Russian Empire and Russian SFSR during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Brusilov was most famous for the 1916 "Brusilov Offensive" against the Central Powers in Eastern Europe, and he advised the Red Army after the war.
Biography[]
An aristocratic Russian cavalry officer and a professional in military affairs, Aleksei Brusilov despaired of the czarist regime's disorganization and incompetence. As commander of the Russian 8th Army fighting in Eastern Galicia in 1914-15, he proved the most talented of czarist generals even when defeated. Appointed to command the Southwestern Front army group in 1916, he launched a well-prepared offensive against Austria-Hungary in June, achieving surprise attacks at a number of points along a broad front, supported by precise artillery. In two months, his troops advanced up to 90 miles and took 400,000 prisoners before being halted by the arrival of German troops. In 1917, Brusilov was among those who encouraged Czar Nicholas II of Russia to abdicate. As commander-in-chief for Alexander Kerensky's Russian Provisional Government in the summer of 1917, he failed to repeat the success of his 1916 offensive, for by now the Russian Army was in a desperate, mutinous state. In 1920, Brusilov supported the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War, acting as an adviser to Leon Trotsky. He retired in 1924, and he died in 1926 in Moscow at the age of 72.