Nikolai Vladimirovich Ruzsky (18 March 1854 – 18 October 1918) was an Imperial Russian Army general during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I.
Biography[]
Nikolai Vladimirovich Ruzsky was born in Kaluga Governorate, Russian Empire in 1854, and he joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1872. He was wounded during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, commanded the 2nd Manchurian Army during the Russo-Japanese War (during which he became known as one of the best generals in the Russian army), and took command of the Russian 3rd Army at the start of World War I. Ruzsky led the offensive against Lemberg (Lviv) in Austro-Hungarian Eastern Galicia during the 1914 Battle of Galicia, and, from September 1914 to March 1915, he was given command of the Northwestern Front. His forces fought at the Battle of the Vistula River and the Battle of Lodz, but his army was outmaneuvered by the German general Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel, forcing him to retreat. He survived his defeat at the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes by removing his subordinates Paul von Rennenkampf and Sergei Sheydeman from his command, but, in March 1915, he ceded command to Mikhail Alekseyev due to poor health. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia then appointed Ruzsky to the Military Council and the State Council, and Ruzsky later returned to the front as commander of the Northern Front. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ruzsky was among the generals who persuaded Tsar Nicholas to abdicate. Afterwards, Ruzsky was removed from command by the Russian Provisional Government for his disciplinarianism, and he was arrested by the Bolsheviks in September 1918 and executed alongside 100 other tsarist officers at Pyatigorsk at the age of 64.