Wrangel, Baron Piotr Nikolayevich

Wrangel, Baron Piotr Nikolayevich (pyô'tur nyikulī'uvich vrän'gil) [key], 1878–1928, Russian general. After serving in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5) and in World War I, he joined (late 1917) the anti-Bolshevik armies in S Russia. After the rout in early 1920 of the Denikin forces, Wrangel succeeded Denikin in command and soon whipped the demoralized remains of the White Army into shape. He also tried to win popular support with a program for land reform. He was successful for a while on the Crimean front, but the Russian armistice with Poland, with which it was at war from April to Oct., 1920, enabled the Communists to concentrate larger forces against him. Wrangel was forced back into the Crimea, and in Nov., 1920, he had to evacuate his forces to Constantinople. The Russian civil war thus came to an end. Wrangel died in exile at Brussels.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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