Nikolai Yudenich (30 July 1862-5 October 1933) was a general of the White Army during the Russian Civil War, commanding their army in northwestern Russia and the Baltics.
Biography[]
Nikolai Yudenich was born on 30 July 1862 in Moscow, Russian Empire. He graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1887, and he was promoted to Major-General after fighting in the Russo-Japanese War, being wounded in the arm at the Battle of Sandepu and in the neck at the Battle of Mukden. At the start of World War I, Yudenich was given command of the Russian Caucasus Army, winning the Battle of Sarikamish in late 1914-early 1915 against the Ottoman Empire. In 1916, he also captured Trebizond and won the Battle of Erzincan against the Turks, but in 1917 he was removed from command by the Provisional Government for insubordination after the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War, Yudenich led White forces in northwestern Russia and the Baltics, but he was forced to turn down an alliance with Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim of Finland to take the Red Army's capital of Petrograd due to Alexander Kolchak's refusal to recognize Finland as independent. Yudenich was captured by General Stanislaw Bulak-Balachowicz on 28 January 1920, but pressure from the United Kingdom and France led to his release, and he died near Nice, France in 1933.