Presidential Library – on mutiny and General Kornilov's "Ice" campaign

30 August 2025 marks the 155th anniversary of the birth of Russian military commander, General of Infantry, military intelligence officer, traveller and one of the leaders of the White Movement, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov.

He lived a vibrant, eventful life. He had a brilliant military education, courage bordering on madness, knowledge of nine languages, service in the Turkestan Military District, research expeditions to East Turkestan (Kashgar), Persia, Afghanistan, India, participation in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, service in the General Staff, work as a military attaché in China, command of an infantry division, which was named "Steel" during the First World War, the Battle of Galicia, fighting in the Carpathian foothills, Austrian captivity and a daring escape... In March 1917, it fell to Lavr Kornilov, who at that time held the post of commander-in-chief of the Petrograd Military District, to announce to the Empress in Tsarskoye Selo the arrest of the entire royal family. In essence, by carrying out this order from the Provisional Government, Kornilov simultaneously took the tsar's family under his protection – the guards under the command of the Petrograd Military District headquarters were a better option than other supervisors.

Soon, unwilling to submit to the control of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Kornilov resigned and left for the front. In July 1917, he took command of the Southwestern Front, and on 1 August (19 July according to the old calendar), he became Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all Russian armies and became increasingly involved in political struggles, seeing a way out of the socio-economic crisis in a decisive strengthening of state power. Ahead lay the Kornilov rebellion and the "Ice" campaign. It is these two events, connected with the biography of Lavr Kornilov, that are the subject of the pages of the Presidential Library's collections, which have been included in a single history textbook for senior school pupils.

The section of the collection entitled Kornilov's Uprising recounts General Kornilov's attempt to establish a military dictatorship in the country, one of the most important events of 1917. It includes memoirs of contemporaries (A. I. Denikin, L. D. Trotsky, Z. N. Gippius, and others), who assess not only Kornilov's actions, but also the general political situation in Russia at that time; materials from numerous periodicals (Vestnik Vremennogo Pravitelstva, Rech, Novaya Zhizn, Volya Naroda, Russkaya Volya, Den, etc.); a large collection of archival documents, in particular letters, telegrams and appeals by Kornilov, documents of the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies soldiers' deputies reflecting the process of organising resistance to the general's actions, telegrams, radiograms and records of negotiations of the Provisional Government's office, materials from the trial of Kornilov and his supporters, as well as photographic materials, including from the general's personal archive.

When Kornilov's rebellion was suppressed with the help of units of the Petrograd garrison loyal to the Provisional Government and formed detachments of the Red Guard, and the general himself was arrested and imprisoned in the city of Bykhov, one of his political opponents said: "Kornilov must be executed; but when that happens, I will come to his grave, bring flowers and kneel before this Russian patriot." Anton Ivanovich Denikin recalled this in his speech delivered in Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar) in 1919.

Another section related to Kornilov's name tells about his role in the first Kuban campaign of the Volunteer Army, which went down in history as the "Ice Campaign".

The campaign was prompted by an active offensive by Red Guard troops, accompanied by the Don Cossacks' unwillingness to fight against the Bolsheviks, which led to the capture of Rostov on 23 February 1918 and Novocherkassk on 25 February by Soviet forces. In these circumstances, in an effort to preserve the army, Generals L. G. Kornilov and M. V. Alekseev decided to retreat south, towards the capital of the Kuban Cossack Army – Yekaterinodar, considering the region as a possible base for the deployment of the army. The number of troops that went on the march was about 4,000, not counting a significant number of civilians who fled from the Bolsheviks. However, the volunteers' plans were thwarted by the news that the city had been abandoned by units of the Kuban regional government under the command of Colonel Pokrovsky, and that the Red Guard had entered Yekaterinodar on 14 March. General Kornilov announced that the army would advance further, beyond the Kuban, where he planned to give the soldiers a rest in the "mountain villages and Circassian auls" and "wait for more favourable circumstances." In Zakuban, the army found itself almost completely surrounded by the Bolsheviks and fought continuously. Nevertheless, it managed to join forces with the Kuban units, increasing the army's strength to 6,000 men. The constant fighting was complicated by the sharply changing weather conditions: rain gave way to frost with piercing winds and snowstorms, so that the soldiers' clothes were covered with a crust of ice. According to one version, this is why the campaign was dubbed "The Icy One."

On 9–13 April 1918, Kornilov attempted to storm Yekaterinodar, but the superior forces of the Reds repelled the attacks of the Volunteer Army, which suffered heavy losses under the city walls: General Kornilov was killed on 13 April.

"Fate is relentless and merciless. It spared the life of a man who had looked death in the eye hundreds of times. It struck him and the soul of the army at the hour of its greatest anguish. Only one enemy grenade hit the house, only Kornilov's room, when he was in it, and killed only him," wrote General A. I. Denikin in Essays on the Russian Troubles (1921–1926).