Alexander Kutepov

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Alexander Pavlovich Kutepov (Александр Павлович Кутепов in Russian) (9.16(28).1882 — 1930) was a Russian counterrevolutionary in South Russia and White Army Infantry General (1920).

Kutepov graduated from Junker Infantry School in St.Petersburg in 1904. He then participated in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I, commanding a company, a battalion and a regiment. Kutepov joined the Volunteer Army from the very start and held different military posts from company commander to commander of the 1st infantry division. After the Whites captured Novorossiysk in August of 1918, Kutepov was appointed governor general of the Black Sea. Starting in January of 1919, he was a commander of the 1st army corps in the Denikin army. Later, Kutepov was put in charge of a corps and 1st Army in the Wrangel army. Kutepov had a reputation of being a brave, decisive and no-nonsense military leader. After Wrangel's army defeat, Kutepov and the remnants of his army evacuated to Gallipoli in November of 1920. Despite unfavorable circumstances, his troops in Gallipoli kept their military coherence. He then moved to Bulgaria in late 1921, but two years later was expelled from the country during an uprising, staged by the local communists. Kutepov settled down in Paris and headed a group of supporters of Grand Prince Nikolai Nikolayevich. After Wrangel's death in 1928, Kutepov became the leader of the Russian All-Military Union and continued its anti-Soviet activities.

On January 26, 1930, Kutepov was kidnapped by the OGPU agents and secretly transported from Paris to Soviet Russia. General Nikolai Skoblin, an Inner Line member, was suspected of being an accomplice in his kidnapping. He died in detention on his way to Novorossiysk.