Russia, Imperial. Three Early Twentieth Century Military General Postcards

Russia (Imperial); Black and white, matte finish, each with postcard style backers. First postcard illustrates General-Adjutant General Alexei Nikolayevich Kuropatkin in uniform from the waist up, large epaulettes on both shoulders, aiguillettes protruding from the right epaulette, travelling down the right breast and finishing at the opening of the tunic, a large sash angled across the left shoulder, wearing various awards at the neck, on both the right and left breasts, along with a group of twelve on a suspension across the top of his chest, inscribed "А. Н. Куропаткинъ / Генералъ-Адъютантъ, Генералъ oтъ Инфантерiи Главно-Командующiи Манджурскои Армiеи." (A. N. Kuropatkin, General-Adjutant General of the Infantry, Chief Commander of the Manchurian Army) at the bottom, printer marked at the lower left and numbered "514" at the lower right on the obverse, handwritten inscriptions in black ink on both the obverse and reverse, postmarked April 9, 1904 and stamped on the reverse, 89 mm x 138 mm); Second postcard illustrates General-Lieutenant Nikolai Petrovich Linevich in uniform from the waist up, large epaulettes on both shoulders, a large sash angled across the left shoulder, wearing various awards at the neck, on both the right and left breasts, along with a group of twelve on a suspension across the top of his chest, inscribed "Н. П. Линевичъ / Генералъ-Леитенантъ, Командующiи Манджурскои Армiеи." (N. P. Linevich, General-Lieutenant, Commander of the Manchurian Armenians) at the bottom, printer marked at the lower left and numbered "518" at the lower right on the obverse, 89 mm x 140 mm); and Third postcard illustrates Major-General Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov in uniform from the waist up, large epaulettes on both shoulders, aiguillettes protruding from the right epaulette, travelling down the right breast and finishing on the front of the tunic, the Order of St. Anne at the neck, along with a group of four on a suspension across the top of his chest, inscribed "В. П. Сахаровъ / Генералъ-Маiоръ Командиръ 1-го Сибирскаго Корпуса." (V. P. Sakharov, Major-General of the 1st Siberian Corps) at the bottom, printer marked at the lower left and numbered "534" at the lower right on the obverse, 89 mm x 139 mm). Near extremely fine.

Footnote: 1. Alexei Nikolayevich Kuropatkin (March 29, 1848 - January 16, 1925) was the Russian Imperial Minister of War from 1898 to 1904, and often held responsible for major Russian defeats in the Russian-Japanese War, most notably at the Battle of Mukden and the Battle of Liaoyang. Kuropatkin was born in 1848 in Kholm Uyezd, Pskov Governorate, in the Russian Empire. His father, a retired army captain, came from landed gentry. Educated in the Cadet Corps and Pavlovsky Military School, Kuropatkin entered the army in 1864. On August 8, 1866, he was promoted to Lieutenant in the 1st Turkestan Infantry Battalion, and took part in the conquest of Bukhara, the storming of Samarkand and other battles in the Russian conquest of Turkestan. He was promoted to Major in August 1870. From 1872 to 1874, Kuropatkin studied at the Nicholas General Staff Academy, after which he was dispatched as a military attaché to Berlin and Paris, completing his military studies, and with the French troops in Algiers, accompanying a French expedition to Sahara. Returning to Russia in late 1875, he was assigned to the Turkestan Military District. He was awarded the Order of St. George (4th Class) for his role in the Russian conquest of Kokand. From 1875-1876, Kuropatkin was employed in a diplomatic mission to Yaqub Beg (ruler of Kashgaria) to resolve the issues of Russian border claims in the Fergana Valley. From September 1877 to September 1878, he was Chief of Staff of the 16th Infantry Division. In August 1879, he was commander of the Turkestan Rifle Brigade. In December 1880, he and five companies made a eighteen-day march across 500 miles of desert to join General Mikhail Skobelev’s invasion of Turkmenistan. Kuropatkin led the main assault at the Battle of Geok Tepe on January 24, 1881. He was awarded the Order of St. George (3rd Class) for his victory in the battle. After the war, he wrote a detailed and critical history of the operations which was highly regarded. During the 1880s, Kuropatkin served on the south-eastern frontier in command of the Turkestan Rifle Brigade.

He was promoted to Major General on January 29, 1882. He joined the General Staff the following year, and was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1890. From 1890 to 1898, Kurokatkin was Governor of the Transcaspian Region in Central Asia, based in Askhabad. During his tenure, he was known to have developed trade, agriculture and towns in an area formerly known for endemic banditry and slavery. He established a local judicial and school system, and encouraged the settlement of colonists from the interior provinces of the Russian Empire. As of 1895, Kuropatkin was bestowed the extraordinary Russian mission, called the Extraordinary Embassy to Persia, in order to proclaim the ascension to the throne of Tsar Nicholas II. One member of the mission was Pavel Piasetsky, who later painted his famous Panorama of Persia, showing the way from Anzali to Teheran. In 1898, Kuropatkin was recalled to St. Petersburg and appointed War Minister. His first priority was to improve the command structure of the army, as well as the icing conditions of its officers. His reforms included measures to rejuvenate the army by setting age limits for line officers and candidates for higher office, and by increasing the period of secondment of officers from the General Staff to combat units. He attempted to improve the quality of officers by raising the two-year cadet training program to three years, and by opening seven new cadet schools. He also increased the frequency of training maneuvers. However, with respect to the lower ranks, Kuropatkin's reforms fell short. While aware of the poor standards of food, clothing, and housing, he was unable to secure the necessary funds for improvements, so his activities were confined to improving morale through the increased use of chaplains, the abolition of corporal punishment, and improved field kitchens. Kuropatkin was involved in the negotiations with the Empire of Japan before the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. He did not support an armed conflict with Japan and opposed the Bezobrazov Circle.

His views became firmer after a visit to Japan in June 1903. Kuropatkin was heavily involved in the fiasco of the Russian land forces during the war. Although the rationale of his military approach was to wage a war of attrition and to avoid an offensive until the Trans-Siberian Railway brought sufficient troops and materiel, his cautiousness and hesitancy markedly influenced the repeated Russian defeats. Military historians consider his indecisiveness and organizational deficiencies in directing large-scale military operations as a major element in the Russiandefeat. After the Russian defeat at the Battle of Mukden, Kuropatkin was relieved of command and handed over his post to Nikolai Linevich, formerly commander of the 1st Manchurian Army. However, he insisted that he stay at the front and was given permission to take over Linevich's old post. In 1906, following the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Kuropatkin served as a member of the State Council of Imperial Russia. However, in 1907, he retired to his country house, and wrote his own, yet candid, defense, which was published in a number of books in several languages. The Russian government reportedly confiscated the history he wrote. At the start of the First World War, Kuropatkin requested to be reinstated and to be sent to the front; however, his requests were blocked by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. Nevertheless, once Tsar Nicholas II assumed the post of Supreme Commander, he put Kuropatkin in charge of the Grenadier Corps, in October 1915. At the end of January 1916, he was appointed commander of the 5th Army, and in February 1916, he became Commander of the Northern Front, in succession to General Pavel Plehve, whose health had broken down. In early March, his forces undertook a limited offensive near Riga, but were outflanked and forced to withdraw to the Dvina River. A second and larger offensive later that month only managed to advance a couple of kilometers. Tsar Nicholas II did not accept Kuropatkin’s excuses of a lack of artillery support, poor roads and bad weather. He planned a night attack which included setting up batteries of searchlights to blind the German defenders, a tactic which had worked in 1904 against Japanese troops. Unfortunately for his men in 1915, on being sent 'over the top', they were silhouetted and suffered thousands of casualties. Kuropatkin was relieved of command on July 22, 1916, and reassigned to Turkestan, where he served as Governor-General of the Turkestan Military District as well as ataman of the Semirechye Cossacks. The Russian involvement in the First World War, especially against the Ottoman Empire, was extremely unpopular among the indigenous peoples of Turkestan. However, Kuropatkin was very popular and helped to prevent a major rebellion from erupting. In the February Revolution of 1917 Kuropatkin was in St. Petersburg, and quickly pledged his allegiance to the Russian Provisional Government, cutting the royal insignia off his epaulettes. He was confirmed in his post as commander of the Turkestan Military District by Provisional Government War Minister Alexander Guchkov. However, this was disputed by the Bolshevik Tashkent Soviet of Soldiers and Workers' Deputies, who placed him under arrest and sent him back to St. Petersburg. Freed by order of the Provisional Government, he returned to his home province. Following the October Revolution, he became very skilled at playing the violin and taught at an agriculture school that he had founded, until his death in 1925. His awards included: the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky with diamonds, the Order of St. George 4th Class, the Order of St. George 3rd Class, the Order of the White Eagle, the Order of St Vladimir 4th Degree, the Order of St Vladimir 3rd Degree, the Order of St Vladimir 2nd Degree, the Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd Degree, the Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd Degree, the Order of St. Stanislaus 1st Degree, the Order of St. Anne 3rd Degree, the Order of St. Anne 2nd Degree, the Order of St. Anne 1st Degree, the French Legion of Honor Chevalier, the Romanian Order of the Star of Romania, the Bulgarian Order of St Alexander and the Italian Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (in 1902 during a visit to Russia of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy).

2. Nikolai Petrovich Linevich, also Lenevich and Linevitch (January 5, 1839 [O.S. December 24, 1838] - April 23, 1908 [O.S. April 10, 1908]) was a career military officer, General of Infantry (1903) and Adjutant General in the Imperial RussianArmy in the Far East during the latter part of the Russo-Japanese War. A nobleman born in Chernihiv (today's Ukraine), Linevich entered military service as a cadet in 1855. Stationed with the 75th Infantry Regiment at Sevastopol, his first combat experience was against the mountain tribes of the western Caucasus Mountains. He made a name for himself in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), and was appointed commander of the South Ussuri Division in 1895. During the Boxer Rebellion, Linevich was commander of the 1st Siberian Army Corps. He participated in the Battle of Peking in 1900. In 1903, he was appointed Commander of the Priamur Region as Governor General of Dauria. At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War Linevich was temporarily in charge of the Russian Manchurian Army until the arrival of General Aleksey Kuropatkin on March 15, 1904. He was again placed in command of the First Manchurian Army from October 1904 to March 3, 1905.

After the Russian defeat at the Battle of Mukden, General Kuropatkin was relieved of his command, and Linevich was promoted to succeed him as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies in the Far East. However, once promoted, Linevich procrastinated, irking Tsar Nicholas II with never-ending demands for reinforcements, insisting that he had to have a 1.5:1 numerical superiority before he would be able to go on the offensive against the Japanese positions. He opposed peace negotiations with Japan, advising Tsar Nicholas that victory on land was certain once the requisite reinforcements arrived. After the Treaty of Portsmouth ended the war, Linevich oversaw the evacuation of Russian forces from Manchuria, hampered by strikes and revolutionary agitation by the railroad workers. He refused to take action against the workers, and when a portion of his troops revolted as part of the RussianRevolution of 1905, he was in no hurry to put down the risings. As a result, he was relieved of his duties in February 1906. Linevich spent the rest of his life in retirement. His wartime journal (The Russian-Japanese War. From the diaries AN Kuropatkin and NP Linevich) was published posthumously in 1925. His awards included: the Order of St. George 3rd Class (August 1900), the Order of St. George 4th Class, the Order of St Vladimir 3rd Degree, the Order of St Vladimir 4th Degree, the Order of St. Anne 3rd Degree, the Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd Degree, the Belgian Order of Leopold 1st Degree, the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun 1st Degree and the Order of St. Andrew. 3. Vladimir Viktorovich Sakharov (1853-1920) was a Russian General who served in the Russian Imperial Army. He served in the army from 1901 to 1917. From November 1903 to April 1904, Sakharov was Commander of the 1st Siberian Army Corps. Though the Russo-Japanese War had begun on February 8, 1904, the army corps did not take part in any combat under Sakharov's command. Sakharov started the war as the Commander of the 11th Army Corps. He participated in the Galician battle. From August 22, 1914 to September 4, 1915, he served as the Governor of Orenburg commanding the Orenburg Cossack troops. From September 4, 1915, he was formally re-appointed as the Commander of the 11th Army Corps. On October 25, 1915, he was Commander of the 11th Army. Under his command, this army was deployed on the South-Western Front. On October 19, 1916, he became commander of the Danube Army, set up to support Romania. With the creation of the Romanian Front from the Danube army and remnants of the Romanian army on December 12, 1916, Sakharov was appointed to serve under King Ferdinand I of Romania. After the February Revolution, Saharov was removed from any command on April 2, 1917. He remained only a member of the Alexander Committee for War Invalids. He lived in Romania, and then in the Crimea.

He was shot by the Green Army in Karasubazara, Crimea in 1920. His awards included: the Order of St. Anne 3rd Class (1879), the Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd Class (1880), the Order of St. Anne 2nd Class (1888), the Order of St. Vladimir 4th Class (1892), the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd Class (1900), the Golden Weapons (1901), the Golden Weapons with diamonds (1904), the Order of St. Stanislaus 1st Class with Swords (1904), the Order of St. Anne's 1st Class (December 6, 1911), the Order of St. George 4th Class (September 27, 1914, "For the differences in the cases against the enemy.") and the Order of St. George 3rd Class (October 27, 1915, "For the successful action in August and September 1915 in the area Gayvoronki and Sokolusa, including the taking of some 17 thousand prisoners.").