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Vladimir Sukhomlinov

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Military Personnel

The Resume

    (August 16, 1848-February 2, 1926)
    Born in Telsiai, Lithuania
    Promoted to General (1898)
    Chief of the General Staff (1908-09)
    Russian Minister of War (1909-15)

Why he might be annoying:

    The French ambassador to Russia said, ‘I know few men who inspire more distrust at first sight.’
    He saw no reason why the infantry should not continue to depend on sabers, lances, and bayonets.
    He declared, ‘I have not read a military manual for the last twenty-five years.’
    He publicly insisted the army was adequately supplied even as combat operations were repeatedly hampered by shortages of ammunition, arms, and other war materiel.
    He was arrested after the Duma brought charges of corruption, malfeasance, and treason against him (April, 1916), but was released six months later at the insistence of Tzar Nicholas II.
    After the Czar was overthrown, the Kerensky renewed the charges against him. He was found guilty of corruption and malfeasance and sentenced to life at hard labor (September 12, 1917).
    He was freed during a May Day amnesty proclaimed by the Bolsheviks (May 1, 1918), then went into exile in Finland and Germany.
    Ironically (considering who he was fighting during WWI), he dedicated his memoirs to Kaiser Wilhelm II.
    Some historians claim that the charges against him did more to damage the image of the Romanov dynasty than the scandals surrounding Rasputin.
    He is the namesake for the Sukhomlinov Effect: a rule of thumb that in a war, the side with the flashier uniforms usually loses.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He received the Order of St. George and the Gold Sword for Bravery during his service as a cavalry officer in the Russo-Turkish War (1878).
    He tried to reverse the Russian army’s over-reliance on cavalry for offense and on fortresses for defense.
    He established Russia’s naval air fleet.
    He hired the Russian military’s first counterintelligence agents (1911).
    He was found not guilty on the charge of treason.
    He died of exposure on a park bench in Berlin.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 83.33% Annoying