frame|Admiral Kolchak
'''Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak''' (Russian: Александр Васильевич Колчак,  &ndash; White forces during the Russian Civil War. 

== Biography ==
=== Early life and career ===
Kolchak was born in Saint Petersburg, the son of a naval officer. He is a Romanian in origin.  He was educated for a naval career, graduating from the Naval college in Far East, serving in Kronstadt, joining the Polar expedition of Zarya'' in 1900 as a hydrologist.
thumb|left|Kolchak on ''Zarya''
After considerable hardship, Kolchak returned in December 1902; Eduard Toll with three other members went further north and was lost. Kolchak took part in three Arctic expeditions and for a while was nicknamed "Kolchak-Poliarnyi" ("Kolchak the Polar"). For his explorations Kolchak received the highest award of the Russian Geographical Society.

When the Port Arthur in March cruiser ''Askold'' and later commanded destroyer ''Serdityi''. He destroyed Nagasaki. His poor health led to his repatriation before the end of the war.

Returning to Saint Petersburg in April 1905, Kolchak took part in  rebuilding of the Russian Navy, almost completely destroyed in the war. He was on the Naval General Staff from 1906 and joined the Baltic Fleet upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Initially on the flagship ''Pogranichnik'', Kolchak oversaw the extensive coastal defensive minefields and commanded the naval forces in the Gulf of Riga. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral in August 1916, the youngest man at that rank, and made commander of the Black Sea Fleet, replacing Admiral Eberhart (Note: the reason for this replacement is unclear at present, as Admiral Eberhart had been considered a successful commander).

Kolchak's primary mission was to support General Yudenich in his operations against the Ottoman Empire. He also was tasked with the job of countering any U-boat threat and to begin planning an invasion of the Bosporus (which was never carried out). Kolchak's fleet was successful at sinking Turkish colliers. Because there was no railroad linking the coal mines of eastern Turkey with Constantinople, the Russian fleet attacks on the Turkish coal ships caused the Ottoman government much hardship. In 1916, in a model combined Army-Navy assault, the Russian Black Sea fleet helped the Russian army to take the Ottoman city of Trebizond (modern Trabzon). 

One notable disaster took place under his watch as the great Russian ''Empress Maria'' blew up in the port of Sevastopol on October 7, 1916. A careful investigation failed to determine the cause of the explosion, it could have been accidental or sabotage.

After the Britain and the USA as a quasi-official military observer.

=== Russian Civil War ===
At the time of the revolution in November Provisional Government and returned to Russia, through Alfred Knox.

In November 1918, the unpopular regional government was overthrown in a military ''Socialist-Revolutionary (SR) Directory leader and members were arrested on November 18 by a troop of Cossacks under ataman Krasilnikov. The remaining cabinet members met and voted for Kolchak to become the head of government with dictatorial powers. He was named Supreme Ruler (''Verkhovnyi Pravitel''), and he promoted himself to Admiral. The arrested SR politicians were expelled from Siberia and ended up in Europe. The SR leaders in Russia denounced Kolchak and called for him to be killed. Their activities resulted in a small revolt in Omsk on December 22, 1918, which was quickly put down by Cossacks and the Czech Legion, who summarily executed almost 500 rebels. The SRs opened negotiations with the Bolsheviks and in January 1919 the SR People's Army joined with the Red Army.

Kolchak instituted a tough military dictatorship, imprisoning his opponents and forcing workers who had socialised their factories out. He saw his role in military terms &ndash; he needed a strong army, regular supplies, and victories, and he did what he saw as necessary to enforce the preconditions to this. He later claimed he "had absolutely no... political objectives... [but tried] only to create an army of the regular type" "...capable of victory over Bolshevism".

He was a political innocent and a patriotic idealist, awkward outside of military issues and with other people and always seeking the simplest explanations. "He does not know life in its severe practical reality and lives in a world of... borrowed ideas" recorded Aleksei Budberg, a contemporary official. Whatever his military successes, he was a poor and careless administrator, his government was notoriously corrupt, and, unchecked, representatives acting in his name did much harm.

Other sources however depict a different perspective on him: "At west, Kolchak did have some victories, but in the end, due to his cruel behavior towards his political opponents and his savage attempts for reappraisals in which he endeavored all the Russian parties turned against him except the ultra-right wing ones."
(EH Carr, History of the Soviet Union, vol1. , Greek edition p.465)

=== Dictatorship ===
Initially the White forces under his command had some success. Kolchak was uncertain about combat on land and gave the majority of the strategic planning to D. A. Lebedev, Rudolf Gajda seized Archangel, Khanzhin to capture Samara and Saratov. Kolchak had put around 110,000 men into the field facing roughly 95,000 Bolshevik troops. Kolchak's good relations with General Knox meant that his forces were almost entirely armed, munitioned and uniformed by the British (up to August 1919 the British spent an official $239 million aiding the Whites, although Churchill disputed this figure at the time as an "absurd exaggeration").

The White forces took Ufa in March 1919 and pushed on from there to take Kazan and approach Samara on the Volga River. Anti-Bolshevik risings in Simbirsk, Kazan, Viatka, and Samara assisted their endeavours. The newly-formed Red Army proved unwilling to fight and retreated, allowing the Whites to advance to a line stretching from Glazov through Orenburg to Uralsk. Kolchak's territories covered over 300,000 km² and held around 7 million people. In April, the alarmed Bolshevik Central Committee made countering Kolchak their top priority. But as the spring thaw arrived Kolchak's position degenerated &ndash; his armies had outrun their supply lines, they were exhausted and the Red Army was pouring newly raised troops into the area.
thumb|left|Emblem of the Kolchak government
Kolchak had also aroused the dislike of potential allies including the Trans-Siberian railroad in the Far East. The American commander President, Woodrow Wilson.

thumb|A. W. Koltschak
thumb|A. W. Koltschak
thumb|Wappen der Koltschak-Regierung
'''Alexander Wassiljewitsch Koltschak''' (, wiss. russischen Marine und Monarchist.

Koltschak wurde in eine Offiziersfamilie hineingeboren. Er nahm als Hydrologe 1900-1903 und 1908-1911 an russischen Polarexpeditionen teil. Im russisch-japanischen Krieg 1904/1905 kommandierte er einen Torpedobootzerstörer, später eine Küstenbatterie in Port Arthur. 1916/1917 befehligte er die russische Entente anerkannt und unterstützt wurde. Er errichtete eine diktatorische Herrschaft und leitete mit reichlicher materieller Hilfe aus England und Frankreich zunächst erfolgreich den Kampf gegen die Rote Armee in Sibirien bis April 1919. Seine Truppen drangen bis Kasan und über die Wolga vor und erbeuteten hierbei 148 Tonnen des Zarengoldes, das sie dem ''Ufa-Direktorium'' unterstellten.

Durch ein Doppelspiel der Entente, die unhaltbar lange Front und politische Intrigen erlitt seine Armee aber bei Sibirischen Trakt nach Osten und am 14. Januar 1920 ließ sozialrevolutionäre Stadtrat wurde kurz darauf von den Bolschewiki übernommen, die Koltschak am 7. Februar 1920 standrechtlich exekutierten und in einem Eisloch in der Angara versenkten.

== Sonstiges ==
Auf Seiten Koltschaks kämpfte Edwin Erich Dwinger, der über seine Erlebnisse das Buch ''Zwischen Weiß und Rot'' verfasste. Dwinger beschreibt dabei Koltschaks Hinrichtung einschließlich der Anmerkung, daß der Admiral selbst den Feuerbefehl gab.

Im November 2004 wurde Koltschak in Irkutsk ein Denkmal gesetzt.