Aleksandr Kutepov

Upon arrival at the regiment, Kutepov asked for the appointment into the survey corps — the part that was entrusted with the most dangerous missions. Soon he excelled in a night with several hunters upon a Japanese outpost. Russian scouts captured rich trophies (machine guns and rifles). For this case, the Order of St. George was awarded to the head of the survey corps who did not participate in the case. When the details of the operation became known after the war, efforts were made to ensure that Kutepov also received the order. Kutepov himself did not know anything about this, but nothing had happened. However, he was still awarded the military order for this reconnaissance — it was a reward from the German prince (the 85th Vyborg regiment had the German emperor Wilhelm as his chief), who found out the details of one of the Kutepov's operation, thus, the order of the German Crown with swords and on the ribbon of the Iron Cross was awarded in this regard.

He was an actor, known for Artakarg handznararutyun (1966), Rasskazy o Lenine (1958) and Povest o latyshskom strelke (1958).

According to the declassified UDBA documents compiled in early 1955, shortly prior to his abduction, Kutepov received 7 million francs from his French sponsors meant for the ROVS' activity.

On 26 January 1930, Kutepov was kidnapped in Paris by OGPU agents. According to Pavel Sudoplatov,

Aleksandr Kutepov was born on October 11, 1929 in Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, USSR as Aleksandr Yakovlevich Kutepov.

In May 1922, he was expelled from Bulgaria during the upheavals of the Aleksandar Stamboliyski era and resided in Serbia until 1924, when he and his wife settled in Paris. After General Pyotr Wrangel's death in April 1928, he became the commander of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). In this position, he abandoned the ROVS' strategy of waiting for Western powers' intervention in Russia, instead he stepped up sabotage and terrorist activities by ROVS inside the USSR. He is credited with setting up a counter-intelligence branch of ROVS, the Inner Line.

In 1921, near the Russian cemetery of the Turkish city of Gelibolu, on the European shore of the Dardanelles, the memorial in the form of a stone mound was opened by Kutepov leadership together with the other ranks of the Russian Army and blessed by the Russian Orthodox Church. When the army left the Gallipoli camp, the cemetery and memorial were solemnly transferred to the care of the local administration. After the earthquake of 1949, the mound was severely destroyed and later demolished. In 1961, a copy of the Gallipoli monument was restored at the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, near which the symbolic grave of General Kutepov is located. After the remains of General Kutepov are found, according to one version located near Paris, they will be buried in the grave reserved for the general. In 2008, the memorial was restored and again solemnly consecrated by the Russian Orthodox Church.

After the White Army's final defeat in the Crimean Peninsula in November 1920, Kutepov and the remnants of his corps evacuated to Gallipoli. Despite very unfavourable and demoralizing circumstances, the troops in Gallipoli kept up their morale thanks to Kutepov's leadership. In the beginning of the Gallipoli period, Kutepov was disliked by many of the troops because of his disciplinary measures, but by the end, he was warmly regarded by most of them. When the Gallipoli camp was disbanded, Kutepov moved to Bulgaria in late 1921.

Starting in January 1919, 36-year-old Lieutenant General Kutepov became the commander of the 1st Army Corps of the White Army. Throughout his career, Kutepov had a reputation for being a decisive, direct and no-nonsense military leader. During the chaotic times of the Russian Civil War, order was usually rapidly restored after Kutepov's arrival. He accomplished this, however, by means of the swift and ruthless application of the death penalty on suspected looters and pogrom perpetrators.

After the October Revolution, Kutepov joined the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army (part of the White Movement) at the very outset of the Russian Civil War. At the start of the Ice March in early 1918, Kutepov was a company commander of an officer's regiment. (In the beginning of the Russian Civil War the small Volunteer Army had a surplus of officers, which meant that many of them had to serve as common soldiers. These formations soon became the crack units of the White Army.) After the death in battle of Colonel Nezhentsev, Kutepov took over the command of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, and after the death of the commander of the 1st Infantry Division, he became its commander. When the Whites captured Novorossiysk in August 1918, Kutepov was appointed Governor General of the Black Sea region.

After the victory of the revolution, he returned to the front. Since 27 April 1917 — the commander of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment, which was one of the few units of the army that retained combat effectiveness in conditions of active anti-war agitation. For special differences in the battles near the village of Mshany during the Tarnopol breakthrough, on 7 July 1917, he was presented by the St. George Duma to the Order of St. George of the 3rd degree, but did not receive it because of a representation that did not reach the government in post-revolutionary chaos. According to his fellow regiment V. Deutrich:

He was promoted to colonel on 25 November 1916 with seniority from 26 September 1916. In December 1916, Colonel Kutepov was elected by the general meeting of officers of the regiment to the court of honor and to his administrative team. 1 April 1917, already in the context of the ongoing "democratization" of the army, was re-elected to the court of honor.

With the beginning of mobilization, the training team was disbanded, and Kutepov accepted the 4th company of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment, and with which he went to the front of the First World War. He was wounded in a battle near Vladislavov on 20 August 1914. In 1915 he was promoted to captain with seniority from 19 July 1915. He was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree

On 18 November 1906 he was sent to the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and on 1 November 1907 — for the "military distinctions" he was transferred to the regiment. Since 1907, he has been a lieutenant; since 1911, he has been the captain. He served in the regiment as an assistant to the head of the training team, head of the machine gun team, head of the survey team, commander of the 15th company, and head of the training team.

Alexander Kutepov was educated at the Arkhangelsk gymnasium (graduated from 7th grade). In 1902 he entered the ranks of the rank junker at the Junker Infantry School in St. Petersburg, which he graduated in the 1st category. A year later, the younger clerk-junker Kutepov has been noticed at the parade by the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich who appointed him right away in the sergeant-major, bypassing the rank of senior caravan-junker. As a young infantry officer, he fought in the Russo-Japanese War, where he was severely wounded in action and decorated for valor. On 9 August 1904 he was promoted to lieutenant of the 85th Vyborg Infantry Regiment, which acted in the army. In 1906, he was transferred to the Preobrazhensky Regiment, an elite guards regiment. During World War I, he received several decorations for bravery and was again severely wounded in action. During the course of the war, he rose from company, to battalion to commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. As such, he became the last commander of this historic regiment.

Alexander Kutepov was born in the family of a personal nobleman Konstantin Mikhailovich Timofeev and his wife Olga Andreevna in Cherepovets, Novgorod Governorate. In 1890, K. M. Timofeev died. In 1892, Olga Andreevna married a hereditary nobleman Pavel Aleksandrovich Kutepov, an official on peasant affairs of the corps of foresters (after the Stolypin reform, he became chairman of the Land Survey Commission). On 9 March 1893, by the definition of the Novgorod District Court, children born by Olga Andreevna in her first marriage — including Alexander, P. A. Kutepov became adopted.

Alexander Kutepov was married to the daughter of a college adviser Lydia Davydovna, née Kut (Kutt) (1888-1959). The son of General Kutepov, Pavel Aleksandrovich (1925-1983) in 1944 crossed the front line in Yugoslavia and joined the Red Army, served as a translator in SMERSH, but was soon arrested and taken to the USSR. Contained in the Vladimir Central Prison. He was released in 1954, in 1960-1983 he worked as a translator in the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Alexander Pavlovich Kutepov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Па́влович Куте́пов ; 28 September 1882 in Cherepovets, Novgorod Governorate, Russian Empire – 26 January 1930 in Paris, France) was the leader of the anti-communist Volunteer Army during the Russian Civil War. From 1928 to 1930 he was Chairman of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS).