Alexei Petrovich was born on March 5, 1872 into a noble family . In 1890 he graduated from the Second Moscow Cadet Corps and in September entered the military service. In 1892, Arkhangelskii became a graduate of the 3rd Alexander Military School and, with the rank of second lieutenant, entered the service of the Life Guards Volynsky Regiment. On August 4, 1896, he rose to the rank of lieutenant. Two years later, Arkhangelskii graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. From 1899 to 1907 he was appointed by qualification as a company and battalion commander in a number of units of the Russian Imperial Army. In 1901, he began serving in the Main Directorate of the General Staff. In 1907 he received the rank of colonel, and in 1913 he became a major general. With the outbreak of the First World War, Arkhangelskii was appointed acting general on duty of the Main Directorate of the General Staff. From May 1917 to the end of November he was Chief of the General Staff.¹

After his dismissal from the post of chief of the General Staff, General Arkhangelskii, he worked in the Directorate for Command Staff, which since 1918 became known as the All-Russian General Staff. Actively recruited staff officers. He began to cooperate with the Bolshevik government. At the same time, he maintained active ties with the Moscow branch of the so-called underground National Center, the real existence of which is questioned by historians. In February 1919, Arkhangelskii fled to Yekaterinodar using forged documents. He was court-martialed but was later acquitted. On February 26, 1919, General Arkhangelskii was enrolled in the reserve ranks at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. November 20, 1920, by order of Wrangel, Alexei Petrovich was appointed duty general of the headquarters of the Russian Army.²

Arkhangelskii became a member of the commission chaired by Infantry General Eck , which developed the Provisional Regulations on the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (approved by the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Russian Union of Youth on April 30, 1920).

After the evacuation of the White Army from the Crimea, Arkhangelskii was appointed head of the personnel department of the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief. He served in Constantinople and Sremski Karlovice until 1926. He entered the ranks of the Russian General Military Union. He was chairman of the Society of Officers of the General Staff in Constantinople. On October 14, 1926, he became acting assistant to the chief of staff of the Commander-in-Chief: his work continued until the headquarters was disbanded in November 1926. He moved to Belgium after Wrangel and in 1927 headed the Association of the Life Guards of the Volynsky Regiment. Until 1928, Arkhangelskii headed the Headquarters of General Wrangel. He also collaborated with the Russian Invalid newspaper. March 20, 1938 was appointed head of the ROVS . He was the initiator of the creation of the "Russian People's Army" to participate in the Soviet-Finnish war on the side of the troops of Karl Mannerheim. During the Second World War, he was in Belgium and advocated the anti-Bolshevik struggle on the side of the Germans. He supported the creation of the ROA and General Vlasov in his endeavors. After the liberation of Belgium from the Nazis by the Allies, in 1944 the Soviet government demanded the extradition of General Arkhangelskii. In 1949, in Paris, Arkhangelskii became chairman of the Council of the Russian Foreign Host , which was created on the initiative of Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich. The general also headed the Russian National Association in Belgium. Due to illness, in 1955, Alexei Petrovich transferred the powers of the head of the ROVS to Major General von Lampe. In 1957, Arkhangelskii officially handed over his post to von Lampe, remaining an honorary member of the EMRO. General Arkhangelsky died in Brussels on November 2, 1959.³

Aleksei Petrovich Arkhangelskii (1872–1959)
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