Editing Anton Denikin (section)

== Childhood  ==
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Denikin was born on 16 December 1872, in the village of Szpetal Dolny, part of the city [[Włocławek]] in [[Warsaw Governorate]] of the [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Poland]]). His father, Ivan Efimovich Denikin, had been born a [[serf]] in the province of [[Saratov]]. Sent as a recruit to do 25 years of military service, the elder Denikin became an officer in the 22nd year of his army service in 1856. He retired from the army in 1869 with the rank of major.

In 1869, Ivan Denikin married Polish seamstress Elżbieta Wrzesińska as his second wife. Anton Denikin, the couple's only child, spoke both Russian and [[Polish language|Polish]] growing up. His father's Russian patriotism and devotion to the [[Russian Orthodox Church|Russian Orthodox religion]] led Anton Denikin to the Russian army.

The Denikins lived very close to poverty, with the retired major's small pension as their only source of income, and their finances worsened after Ivan's death in 1885. Anton Denikin at this time began tutoring younger schoolmates to support the family. In 1890, Denikin enrolled at the Kiev [[Junker (Russia)|Junker School]], a military college from which he graduated in 1892. The twenty-year-old Denikin joined an artillery brigade, in which he served for three years.

In 1895, he was first accepted into the [[General Staff Academy (Imperial Russia)|General Staff Academy]], where he did not meet the academic requirements in the first of his two years. After this disappointment, Denikin attempted to attain acceptance again. On his next attempt he did better and finished fourteenth in his class. However, to his misfortune, the academy decided to introduce a new system of calculating grades and as a result Denikin was not offered a staff appointment after the final exams. He protested the decision to the highest authority (the Grand Duke).{{which|date=January 2014}}

After being offered a settlement according to which he would rescind his complaint in order to attain acceptance into the General Staff school again, Denikin declined, insulted.

Denikin first saw active service during the 1905 [[Russo-Japanese War]]. In 1905, he won promotion to the rank of colonel. In 1910, he became commander of the 17th infantry regiment. A few weeks before the outbreak of the [[First World War]], Denikin reached the rank of major-general.