General Anton Denikin
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Denikin was born on December 4 (16), 1872 in the village of Shpetal Dolny, the Zavlinsky suburb of Wloclawsk, a district town in the Warsaw province. In 1882, Anton Denikin graduated from elementary school and entered the Wroclaw real school. In 1885, his father died, and after four years Denikin chose a military career.¹ Denikin entered the Kiev cadet infantry school at the military school courses and studied there from 1890–1892. From 1892 to 1895, the future general of the White Army began his development as an officer. Six months after graduating from the school, Second Lieutenant Denikin was appointed “the brigade team teacher.” Next, he became the battery clerk. In October 1895, Denikin entered the Academy of the General Staff and continued his studies there until 1899.²

After graduating from the academy, Anton Ivanovich was not assigned to the corps of officers of the General Staff because of the arbitrariness of the Minister of War Kuropatkin. Kuropatkin didn't include Denikin in the list of officers of the General Staff. Denikin, in the ranks of graduates in front of the sovereign-emperor, made a complaint about this incident. And only after Denikin's personal petition to the Minister of War, on the orders of the sovereign in January 1902, was he ranked among the corps of officers of the General Staff. In the same year, the officer continued to serve in the infantry division near Brest-Litovsk.³

Until October 1903, he served in the qualifying command of the company of the 183rd Pultu infantry regiment in Warsaw. Following this, he continued his service as a senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 2nd cavalry corps. Denikin served in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), where he received military awards and the rank of colonel. In 1910, he became commander of the 17th Arkhangelsk regiment of the Kiev military district in the city of Zhitomir. In the First World War, he took up the post of Quartermaster General of the 8th Army. In September 1914, he was the head of the 4th rifle brigade and fought on the Southwestern Front. Moreover, by the end of 1916, he was commander of the 8th Army Corps of the 4th Army of the Romanian Front and served under General Alexei Brusilov.
In February 1917, the general was promoted to assistant chief of staff to the supreme commander in chief of the Russian army; in May, to commander-in-chief of the armies of the Western Front; in June, to assistant chief of staff to the supreme commander-in-chief, and at the end of July, to the commander-in-chief of the armies of the Southwestern Front. Following the Kornilov uprising on August 29, 1917, he was arrested.⁴

Denikin is one of the key figures in the history of the Civil War and the White movement. After “Bykhov's sitting”, on November 19, 1917, he was released on the orders of Dukhonin and went to the Don. In Rostov and Novocherkassk, Denikin formed the Volunteer Army together with Kornilov and Alekseev. In February 1918, he became deputy commander of the army, and in April, he was leading it. By 1919 Denikin was commanded Armed forces of the South of Russia. In June 1919, he came under the leadership of Kolchak. By the end of the year, Denikin’s policy of managing the armed forces was criticized by his subordinates, namely, Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel. On March 25–27, 1920, the forces of the ARSUR were evacuated to Crimea. On April 4, 1920, Denikin left the post of commander and handed it over to Wrangel.⁵

General Denikin and his family left the country for Constantinople, and after April 17, 1920, the former commander of the Volunteer Army arrived in London. In exile, he kept in touch with the leader of the Cadet Party, Pavel Milyukov. But immediately after arriving in England, Denikin and his family left for the provinces and were removed from the fight. He had only a couple of meetings with Milyukov and Minister of War Winston Churchill. In August of the same year, Denikin left for Belgium and stayed there until May 1922, when he moved to Hungary. In 1926, Denikin arrived in Paris. The Paris branch of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) became interested in Denikin and wanted to involve him in their work in every possible way. The general supported the activities of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Baron Wrangel, and generals Kutepov, Miller, and Krasnov. Nevertheless, Anton Ivanovich did not lead any active anti-Bolshevik activity. After the abduction of General Kutepov in 1930, Denikin’s connection with the ROVS was severed. In the 30s he began lectured in Paris.⁶

In exile, Denikin made friends with the writers’ circle that included Kuprin, Shapron, Shmelev, and Bunin. The general gave lectures in Romania and Czechoslovakia. In 1935, he transferred documents from his personal archive to the Russian Foreign Historical Archives in Prague.⁷ By the beginning of World War II, the Denikin family was in Paris. Denikin's also carried out a German occupation in the French capital.⁸ Denikin refused to cooperate with the Germans. In May 1940, he and his family moved to the village of Mimizan near Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast. He continued his historical and literary work, and in June 1945, fearing persecution from the USSR, Denikin and his family left for the United States. In New York, the former general published his notes and socio-political works. On August 7, 1947, Anton Ivanovich Denikin died of a heart attack at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.⁹