Editing Lavr Kornilov (section)

==Pre-revolutionary career==

[[File:Кадетъ.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Kornilov as a teenager]]

One story relates how Kornilov was originally born as a Don Cossack [[Kalmyks|Kalmyk]] named Lavga Deldinov and adopted in [[Ust-Kamenogorsk]], [[Russian Turkestan]] (now [[Kazakhstan]]) by the family of his mother's brother, the [[Russians|Russian]] [[Cossacks|Cossack]] [[Chorąży|Khorunzhiy]] Georgy Nikolayevich Kornilov, whose wife was of [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] origin.<ref>
A. L. Bauman. Governors of Saint-Petersburg. Saint-Petersburg, 2003. p. 409 Бауман А. Л. Руководители Санкт-Петербурга. стр. 409
</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://reporter-ufo.ru/996-kalmyk-ili-ne-kalmyk....html|title=Калмык или не калмык... » Общероссийская независимая газета Южный репортер|website=Reporter-ufo.ru|access-date=2014-04-30|archive-date=2014-01-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106040415/http://reporter-ufo.ru/996-kalmyk-ili-ne-kalmyk....html|url-status=dead}}</ref> But his sister wrote that he had not been adopted, had not been a Don Cossack, and that their mother had [[Polish people|Polish]] and [[Altai people|Altai Oirot]] descent. (Though their language was not a Kalmyk/Mongolian one, but because of their Asian race and their history in the Jungar Oirot (Kalmyk) state, Altai Oirots were called Altai Kalmyks by Russians. They were not Muslims or Kazakhs.) But [[Boris Shaposhnikov]], who served with Pyotr Kornilov, the brother of Lavr, in 1903, mentioned the "Kyrgyz" ancestry of their mother - this name was usually used in reference to Kazakhs in 1903.<ref>Shaposhnikov. Memoirs. 1982. p. 92 (Шапошников Б. М. Воспоминания. М., 1982, с. 92).</ref> Kornilov's [[Siberian Cossacks|Siberian Cossack]] father was a friend of [[Grigory Potanin|Potanin]] (1835–1920), a prominent figure in the Siberian autonomy movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dk1868.ru/statii/kornilov1.htm|title=Цветков В. Ж. Лавр Георгиевич Корнилов. Часть 1|website=Dk1868.ru|access-date=2014-04-30|archive-date=2015-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923215634/http://www.dk1868.ru/statii/kornilov1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Kornilov entered military school in [[Omsk]] in 1885 and went on to study at the [[Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy|Mikhailovsky Artillery School]] in [[St. Petersburg]] in 1889. In August 1892 he was assigned as a lieutenant to the [[Turkestan Military District]], where he led several exploration missions in [[Xinjiang|Eastern Turkestan]], [[Afghanistan]] and [[Iran|Persia]], learned several Central Asian languages, and wrote detailed reports about his observations.

Kornilov returned to St. Petersburg to attend the [[General Staff Academy (Imperial Russia)|Nikolayev General Staff Academy]] and graduated as a captain in 1897. Again refusing a posting at St. Peterburg, he returned to the Turkestan Military District, where he resumed his duties as a military intelligence officer. Among his missions at this post was an attempt at traveling incognito to [[British Raj|British India]] in 1904, though he was quickly discovered and subsequently kept under close surveillance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marshall |first1=Alex |title=The Russian General Staff and Asia, 1860-1917 |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |page=154}}</ref>

During the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904-1905 Kornilov became the [[Chief of staff (military)|Chief of staff]] of the 1st Infantry Brigade, and was heavily involved in the [[Battle of Sandepu]] (January 1905) and the [[Battle of Mukden]] (February/March 1905). He was awarded the [[Order of St. George]] (4th class) for bravery and promoted to the rank of [[colonel]].

Following the end of the war, Kornilov served as [[military attache]] in [[Qing Dynasty|China]] from 1907 to 1911. He studied the [[Chinese language]], travelled extensively (researching data on the history, traditions and customs of the Chinese, which he intended to use as material for a book about life in contemporary China), and regularly sent detailed reports to the General Staff and Foreign Ministry. Kornilov paid much attention to the prospects of cooperation between Russia and China in the Far East and met with the future president of China, [[Chiang Kai-shek]]. In 1910 Kornilov was recalled from Beijing but remained in St. Petersburg for only five months before departing for western Mongolia and [[Kashgar]] to examine the military situation along China's border with Russia. On 2 February 1911 he became Commander of the 8th Infantry Regiment of [[Estonia]] and was later appointed commander of the 9th Siberian Rifle Division, stationed in [[Vladivostok]].

In 1914, at the start of [[World War I]], Kornilov was appointed commander of the 48th Infantry Division, which saw combat in [[Battle of Galicia|Galicia]] and the [[Carpathian Campaign|Carpathians]]. In 1915, he was promoted to the rank of [[major general]]. During heavy fighting, he was captured by the Austrians in April 1915, when his division became isolated from the rest of the Russian forces. After his capture, [[Field Marshal]] [[Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf|Conrad von Hötzendorf]], the commander of the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]], made a point of meeting him in person. As a major general, he was a high-value prisoner of war, but in July 1916 Kornilov managed to escape back to Russia and return to duty.

After the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]], he was given command of the [[Petrograd]] Military District in March 1917.<ref>Preclík, Vratislav. Masaryk a legie (Masaryk and legions), váz. kniha, 219 pages, first issue vydalo nakladatelství Paris Karviná, Žižkova 2379 (734 01 Karvina, Czech Republic) ve spolupráci s Masarykovým demokratickým hnutím (Masaryk Democratic Movement, Prague), 2019, {{ISBN|978-80-87173-47-3}}, pages 15- 22, 36 - 39, 41 - 42, 111-112, 124–125, 128, 129, 132, 140–148, 184–199.</ref>  On 8 March, Kornilov placed the Empress [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Alexandra]] and her children under house arrest at the [[Alexander Palace]] (Nicholas was still held at [[Stavka]]), replacing the [[Cossacks|Tsar's Escort]] and Combined Regiments of the [[Imperial Guard (Russia)|Imperial Guard]] with 300 revolutionary troops.<ref>Rappaport, Four Sisters (2014), p. 295</ref> On 21 April, when the [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] declined to give him the authority he sought to deal with protestors in Petrograd, he resigned as commander of the Petrograd district<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beevor |first=Antony | author-link = Antony Beevor |title=Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=2022 |pages=55}}</ref> and was transferred at his request to command the Russian Eighth Army. During the [[Kerensky Offensive]], his army inflicted a spectacular defeat on the Austrians, taking 10,000 prisoners - Russia's only notable military success in the year 1917 - though after five days, was forced to retreat. On 24 July, he was appointed commander of the southern front. A week later, he replaced [[Aleksei Brusilov]] as Supreme [[Commander-in-Chief]] of the Provisional Government's armed forces.