Russia
Paul von Rennenkampf
1854–1918 Commander, Russian First Army, 1914
Paul von Rennenkampf, a Baltic German nobleman born in Estonia in 1854, graduated from the General Staff Academy and won distinction in China in 1900 and in the Russo-Japanese War. During the 1905 Revolution he suppressed the Chita Republic, and in 1913 he took command of the Vilna Military District. In August 1914 his First Army invaded East Prussia and won at Gumbinnen. When Samsonov's Second Army was destroyed at Tannenberg, Rennenkampf was blamed for advancing too slowly to help it, and popular opinion accused him of treachery. Relieved of command after the Battle of Łódź, he was dismissed from service in October 1915. The Bolsheviks killed him at Taganrog in April 1918.