Paul von Rennenkampf


Paul Georg Edler von Rennenkampff, more commonly known as Paul von Rennenkampf in English, was a Baltic German nobleman, statesman and general of the Imperial Russian Army who commanded the 1st Army in the Invasion of East Prussia during the initial stage of the Eastern front of World War I. He also served as the last commander of the Vilna Military District.
Rennenkampf gained a reputation as an effective cavalry commander during the Boxer Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War. Following service in the latter, he led the detachment that suppressed the Chita Republic during the 1905 Russian Revolution. This earned him further promotion, and by the outbreak of World War I Rennenkampf was commander of the Vilna Military District, whose forces were used to form the 1st Army under his command. He led the 1st Army in the invasion of East Prussia and won an early victory at Gumbinnen in late August 1914, but was relieved of command after defeats at Tannenberg, the Masurian Lakes and Łódź, although he was later proved innocent for the mistakes made in the Battle at Łódź. Exonerated by an official inquiry into his actions, Rennenkampf was shot by the Bolsheviks in Taganrog during the Red Terror in 1918.

Biography

Origin

Paul Georg Edler von Rennenkampff was born 29 April 1854 in the Konofer Manor in the Governorate of Estonia, one of eight children of Captain Karl Gustav Edler von Rennenkampff and Anna Gabriele Ingeborg Freiin von Stackelberg, he came from the Konofer-Tuttomäggi-Sastama branch of the Baltic German Rennenkampff family and was of Lutheran faith. His family was of Westphalian origin, originating in Osnabrück. On his mother's side was the Stackelberg family, whose common ancestor was Carl Adam von Stackelberg, a Swedish cavalry officer and participant of The Great Northern War, making him a fifth cousin of the Russo-Japanese War general Georg von Stackelberg.

Early career

As a youth, Rennenkampf was educated in the , a German-speaking school built especially for Baltic German aristocrats. Upon graduation, he joined the military as a non-commissioned officer in the 89th Infantry Regiment. He graduated the in Helsinki. He began his military career with the Lithuanian 5th Lancers Regiment. He graduated at the top of his class from the Nicholas General Staff Academy in St. Petersburg in 1881. From late November to late August 1884, he was an over-officer for instruction of the 14th Army Corps. In late September 1886, he was the chief of staff of the Warsaw Military District serving under General Count Gurko. In early 1888, he was appointed to the Kazan Military District. Rennenkampf subsequently became the senior adjutant to the headquarters of the Don Cossacks. In late October 1889, he was appointed headquarters officer for special assignment at the 2nd Army Corps headquarters. In late March 1890, he was appointed the chief of staff of the Osowiec Fortress in Russian Poland. The same year he was promoted to Colonel, after which he served in several different regiments until late November 1899, when he was appointed chief of staff of the Transbaikal region, and was promoted to Major General.

Boxer Rebellion

Rennenkampf participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China from 1900 to 1901. He distinguished himself with extreme success during the campaign, and for military distinction, he was awarded both the 4th and 3rd classes of the Order of St. George.
in 1901
In mid-September, Rennenkampf left for Dagushan, leaving hundreds of troops to protect the mint and arsenal. After several days of resetting, he with his detachment attacked and occupied Tieling and Mukden, which he occupied until October. During the occupation, the general had faced numerous assassinations, during one encounter, when he and his troops entered a manor, three Chinese men with spears charged toward the general, but saved by a Cossack named Fyodor Antipyev, getting stabbed upon himself. For military distinction, he was awarded the Order of St. George of the 3rd degree.
In the war, the raid of the cavalry detachment of Rennenkampf was one of the most successful and decisive military operation in the Boxer Rebellion. In just three months of actions, Russian troops had taken over 2,500m2 of land, the best trained Chinese troops stationed at Heilongjiang were defeated and were pushed out of Manchuria, rebel detachment were dispersed, leading to the cessation of the Chinese resistant movement against their Russian occupiers.

Russo-Japanese War

In February 1904, after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Rennenkampf was appointed commander of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Division. In June, he was promoted to lieutenant-general for military distinction.
In late June 1904, while scouting the Japanese positions at Liaoyang, he was shot in the leg, shattering the shin. After less than two months, he returned to active service, without fully recovering from his wounds. In the Battle of Mukden, Rennenkampf again distinguished himself commanding the Tsinghechensky detachment, which was stationed at the left flank of the 1st Manchurian Army led by General Nikolai Linevich. During the battle, he showed great persistence, which combined with other reinforcements, was able to repulse Field Marshal Kawmura's offensive.
According to some historians and writers, after the Battle of Mukden, a personal conflict occurred between Rennenkampf and General Samsonov, and it came to an exchange of blows, which made the two of them lifelong foes. While some other historians argue that there could be no clashes between the generals. The main source of this rumor is the memoirs of the German general Max Hoffmann, who was a military agent in the Japanese army during the war and therefore capable of personally observing relations among Russian generals and would subsequently become one of Rennenkampf's enemies in the First World War. In Hoffmann's memoirs, referring again to rumors, mentioned that both generals quarrelled in Liaoyang after the battle, which was physically impossible, since at this time Rennenkampf was seriously injured.
After the war he commanded numerous army corps, including the 7th Siberian Army Corps, the 3rd Siberian Army Corps and Army Corps.

1905 Russian Revolution

After the war, he commanded an infantry battalion with several machine guns, which followed a train in Harbin, restoring the communication of the Manchurian Army from Western Siberia. During this time, the Revolution broke out, and they were interrupted by a revolutionary movement in Eastern Siberia, the Chita Republic. Rennenkampf and his forces were sent to suppress the movement and restored order in Chita.
After this successful campaign, he became the assassination target for numerous rebel groups, and several plots to assassinate him were planned. In late October 1906, he faced an assassination attempt, while walking along the street with two of his adjutants, a SR member, who was sitting on a bench, threw a bomb on to the general's feet, but the bomb only worked partially, instead of blowing Rennenkampf and his adjutants to shreds, the explosion only stunned them, and the rebel was later arrested and tried.
, c. 1914
The decisive actions of Rennenkampf in the course of a war and decisive action in suppressing rebels led to further advancement in Rennenkampf's career. And in late December 1910, he was promoted to General of the Cavalry, and in 1912, General-Adjutant and the commander-in-chief of all the troops of the Vilna Military District in mid-January 1913.

World War I

In the beginning of the First World War, Rennenkampf was appointed commander of the troops of the 1st Army of the Northwestern Front under commander-in-chief General Yakov Zhilinsky, along with his rival Samsonov, who was the commander of the 2nd Army, which was invading East Prussia from the south. On 7 August August 1914, Rennenkampf and his troops entered East Prussia from the east. While on the retreat under the order of the defending 8th Army commander General Maximilian von Prittwitz, a gap was created between the Russians, causing the 1st Division led by General Hermann von François to counterattack at the Battle of Stallupönen, starting the Eastern Front of WWI. Although it was a victory for the Germans, Russian artillery bombardment halted the German offensive, causing François to withdrew to the town of Gumbinnen. Rennenkampf continued his advance, defeating the 8th Army under the Prittwitz's command at the Battle of Gumbinnen. But due to a later incorrect assessment made by Zhilinsky, the victory at Gumbinnen did not develop. After the battle, Rennenkampf was ordered by Zhilinsky to launch an offensive against the heart of East Prussia, Königsberg, but his army did not link up with Samsonov's 2nd Army due to a mistake made by Zhilinsky. As a result, the German 8th Army under the new commander, General Paul von Hindenburg, charged through the gap, encircled and nearly wiped out the 2nd Army near Allenstein. When the desperate Samsonov sent his appeals for help, and instead of immediately replying and head south to aid Samsonov, Rennenkampf almost completely ignored the appeal, and when he finally began to head south, he and his men were a lot slower than it should had and it was already too late. This remained one of the main reasons for the defeat of the 2nd Army at the battle. After the battle, Samsonov, fearing to hold responsibility for the defeat, committed suicide.
After the 2nd Army's annihilation at the Battle of Tannenberg, Rennenkampf's army took over all the defenses along the Deyma, Lava and the Masurian Lakeland. On 7 September, the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes began, as the Germans attacked the left flank of the 1st Army with a powerful detachment, Zhilinsky broke the promise to provide Rennenkampf with reinforcements from other formations. As a result, the 1st Army had to retreat in a hurry. The 2nd Army Corps led by General Vladimir Slyusarenko resisted desperately, so did Rennenkampf himself, who brought all the cavalrymen, reserves, and troops, all transferred from the right to left flank of the 20th Army Corps, in order to avoid encirclement by Hindenburg. By 15 September, he skillfully withdrew his men from encirclement and withdrew behind the Neman, saving all the remaining troops he had. After this failure, despite his best efforts to blame Rennenkampf for the defeat, Zhilinsky was dismissed and was replaced by the General Nikolai Ruzsky.
In mid-November at Łódź, due to the indecisiveness and mistakes made by Ruzsky, the 1st Army was unable to prevent the XXV Reserve Corps of General Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel from escaping out of the encircling movement, causing the front to retreat. A sharp conflict then broke out between the two men. After the incident, Rennenkampf was dismissed from the office. His acts during the battle became the subject of a special commission under General Peter von Baranoff, he was even considered being tried for treason. He was then dismissed in early October 1915 "for domestic reasons with a uniform and pension." After that, he stayed in Petrograd, living in retirement with his wife Vera until the Bolshevik coup. However, his retirement life was extremely unsettling, as he was falsely accused for being a traitor, and all across Russia on all streets and public places, people insulted him of his action. Even Baltic Germans accused him, on Vera's recall, the Baltic Germans considered him "too Russian patriot" and "terrible Russophile". All this events rendered Rennenkampf into deep moral suffering.
Here was part of a letter from the army chief of staff General Nikolai Yanushkevich to the Minister of War General Sukhomlinov about the issue of German General in the Russian Army:
In a further investigation, it was revealed that it was Ruzsky's strategic mistakes that had let Scheffer-Boyadel and his troops escape rom the encirclement. This however did not return Rennenkampf back to service.

February Revolution

Rennenkampf was arrested shortly after the February Revolution, as many of the revolutionaries remembered his role in the suppression of the Chita Republic back in 1905. He was then questioned by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Russian Republic, although he was not charged with anything.

October Revolution and death

Rennenkampf was arrested again after the October Revolution and, like many other tsarist officials, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was released shortly afterwards due to deteriorating health. After that, he, along with several other tsarist generals, went south to Taganrog, his wife's birthplace, and lived under the guise of a merchant named Smokovnikov.
After the Red Army took over the city, Rennenkampf disappeared under disguise of a Greek subject named Mandusakis, but was tracked down by the Red Army and identified, after which he was brought to the headquarters of the Bolsheviks under the order of Red Army commander-in-chief Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko. After arriving, the former general was offered a command in the Red Army, with refusal implying death. Rennenkampf refused to defect to the Bolsheviks and betray his Fatherland, saying:
At the time, the Germans were advancing toward Taganrog, as well as the Czech and Anton Denikin’s White Army. As a result, Rennenkampf was taken hostage and brought near the railway tracks running from the Martsevo station to the Baltic. Upon arrival, Rennenkampf was forced to dig his own grave and was stabbed before getting shot dead with a bullet to the temple.

Aftermath

According to Rennenkampf's wife Vera's memoirs, after his death, the Whites were told that Rennenkampf was on the way to Moscow. In May 1918, after the Whites had taken over Taganrog, a stick was found stuck into the ground near the railway tracks running from the Martsevo station to the Baltic Plant. After they dug out the grave, they found several bodies, including one nearly naked with a bullet wound to the head. When they took the corpses to a local cemetery in the city, Rennenkampf's wife Vera arrived at the cemetery and identified the nearly naked corpse as her husband Paul. The White troops and Rennenkampf's wife held a funeral that fulfilled Rennenkampf's wish of being buried in an unmarked mass grave with other victims of the Red Terror. But other her memoirs, there were no other evidence supporting Rennenkampf's burial ground to be in the Old Cemetery in Taganrog.
In recent years, researchers at the Hoover Institution archives of the Stanford University found several photos taken during the civil war. In the photos, a marked grave was clearly seen on the left with "P. K. Rennenkampf" written on it. This allowed historians and researchers to determine and establish the final resting place of Rennenkampf at the burial ground in the Old Cemetery in Taganrog.

Family

Born into a large and wealthy family, Rennenkampf had 5 brothers and 2 sisters:, including his brothers Woldemar Konstantin, a cavalryman and the director of the Russian gun industry, and Georg Olaf von Rennenkampff, a chief of the powder manufacture in Zawiercie.
Rennenkampf married 4 times. In 1882, he married Adelaide Franziska Thalberg, with whom he had 3 children: Adelaide Ingeborg, Woldemar Konstantin and Iraida Hermaine. Only all but one out of his three children survived into adulthood. Thalberg died in 1888 after only 6 years of marriage, after which Rennenkampf married three more times.
In 1890 in Vilno, Rennenkampff married Lydia Kopylova, with whom he had one more child, Lydia. He then married Evgenia Dmitryevna Grechova, with whom he had no children.
Finally, in 1907 in Irkutsk, he married Vera Nikolayevna Krassan, with whom he had a daughter, Tatyana, and adopted Vera's daughter Olga from her first marriage. Unlike his other marriages, Rennenkampf's marriage with Vera was long and happy. Vera, as the wife of the commander of the Vilna Military District, was a trustee and member of a branch of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. When the war broke out, she participated in organizations that cared for the wounded. In Vera's memoirs, she wrote of her founding of the Committee for Assistance to the families of reserve lower ranks, tailoring workshops for the front, and her participation in the formation of the flying car detachment of the Evangelical Red Cross that took the wounded from the battlefield.
After the war and Rennenkampf's death, the fate of his family was unknown, but Vera and Tatyana escaped to Paris, France. Olga was murdered at her doorsteps the same month her stepfather's murder. The rest of the family either fled to the Baltics or back to Germany during the civil war.

Legacy

Before his execution, Rennenkampf had asked his wife Vera to make every effort to "whitewash his name from slander." It was not only Vera who considered her husband to be innocent of the strategic mistakes that led to the Russian defeats in the East Prussian campaign. This view of the impeccability of Rennenkampf's acts in the campaign adhered to a significant part of the White émigré: the generals: Baron Wrangel, Anton Denikin, Nikolai Golovin and many others.
To rehabilitate the general's image and to "give the light to the real face of General Paul Georg Edler von Rennenkampff," on the initiative of his wife in November 1936, the historical society of the "Friends of Rennenkampf" was founded in Paris. The honorary chairman was Vera herself, and the president of the bureau was the husband of Rennenkampf's daughter Tatyana. The honorary committee included the widow of Baron Wrangel - Baroness Olga Mikhailovich, General Nikolai Epanchin, Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky and others.
in Taganrog

Personal collection

A collection of Chinese art pieces looted by Rennenkampf during the 1900 Chinese Campaign is on display in the Alferaki Palace in his resting place in Taganrog.

In popular culture

Russian Empire