Michail Frunze was born in 1883 in Tver to a working-class family. His father worked at a factory, which produced one of the leading export goods – furniture. During the Witte’s industrial reforms, the factory, where the Frunze’s father worked, scaled twofold and he was promoted to a clerk in 1895. Furniture industry was a profitable business, so he could pay school education of his son. Young Michail entered a Realschule in Tver having an excellent education.
There are some words about the city, where Michail was born. Tver had been a capital of the Russian Tsardom for a long time. After the conversion to catholic faith, King Alexandr moved the capital from Moscow to Tver in 1432. He has chosen Tver as a major trade city and bulwark of the new Catholic faith in Russia. The Tverian period in the Russian history was marked by continuous expansion to all points of the compass: Siberia, Black Sea, Finland and Caucasus.
Tsar Peter the Great founded Saint-Petersburg in 1703 as a new capital of the renewed Russian Empire, oriented at the West. Despite losing the status of capital, Tver continued to be an important economic and military center. The Tombs of the Meri’s located in Tver, and every new Tsar visited the city after coronation. Nicholas II Meri was at Tver in June 1900. And a young boy could see the Tsar on the father’s shoulders in a crowd. Tver has become one of the most developed regions on a par with Moscow, Vladimir and Kazan up to the end of XIX century. Thousands of labors worked at factories, supplying army by artillery, ammunition, and small arms. Civil economy was presented by furniture, forest industry and machine parts. Tver was a real workshop of Russia.
However, Michial Frunze didn’t become a worker. In 1897, he graduated with distinction from Realschule and then enlisted in the Cadet Corp in Moscow. Parents were able to pay for university education, but the boy chose military career and attended the Military Academy as a cadet. He was a well-built boy, who loves horse-riding, shooting and physical exercise. Moscow was a heart of the Russian Military-Industrial Complex, where soldiers and officers were obtaining military skills.
Michial Frunze studied at the Academy from 1897 to 1905. Cadets worked through an intensive curse of military art by the experts, who were fighting during the Balkan War (1900-1904). Michial Frunze went to the front at Headquarter of the Russian Balkan Army in the last year of education (21 years old). The war was over and the Russian army gradually and slow was leaving Czechoslovakia, looting small towns and pillaging villages on the path toward Russia. High Command condoned looting despite the complaints from local citizens and peasants.
He graduated the Academy with excellent remarks and later he was sent to military service at the Far East. Tsar Nicholas II Meri turned to the East, facing strong resistance from the Japanese Empire. Japan had successfully implemented modernization of society and become an Empire in the mid XIX. A new-born Asian Empire invaded and occupied the weakened and unmodernized Korea in the 1890s, that was contested by the ruling circles in the Russian Empire. Korea was perceived as a de facto satellite of Russia, after the series of wars with Manchuria.
Port Arthur was a naval base and stronghold of Russia in Manchuria. Michial Frunze arrived there in March 1906 as a junior officer under the command of General Kuropatkin. Russian Ground Forces as well as Pacific Ocean Squadron were preparing for the coming war with Japan. Michial Frunze was enrolled in the Okhotsk Life Guards Regiment in the rank of lieutenant. Next two years he was improving his martial art skills in artillery, combat engineering and fortification. In 1908 he was advanced to the rank of First Lieutenant.
The Russian-Japanese War broke out on 17 June 1908 by attacking the Japanese Fleet in Yellow Sea. Tsar Nicholas II Meri decided to strike first! During 20-hours naval battle enemy vessels were burned; bodies of killed men were everywhere, ripped to pieces. The Russian fleet began to hunt weak and disorganized enemy ships around the Japanese isles. Japan was soon completely blockaded, that had severe detrimental effects on economy and military forces.
Ground Forces invaded the Sakhalin Island and suddenly attacked the Japanese garrison. Despite the superior in number, the Russian army won the battle with heavy causalities: more than 70 000 soldiers were killed during the battle lasted for about 4 months. Enemy could retreat to homeland – the Russian fleet was distracted by clashes with the Japanese monitors, and the garrison of Sakhalin Island managed to rescue encirclement.
Michial Frunze took part in a few of land battles in Manchuria during the war. The Japanese continental forces were cut off from the ally troops by sea blockade. They tried to break through to the main body of the Japanese occupation forces in Korea. However, General Konstantin Ivanov managed to intercept them. The battle was extremely tough and bloody, the Russian troops met with stubborn resistance from the moving Japanese army. After the months of maneuvers and small clashes, the Japanese were encircled and destroyed.
Our hero was decorated for bravery and later given command of infantry regiment with the grade of Captain. The Frunze’s regiment went to Korea to liberate the country from hostile occupation after the winning the Mukden battle. Local people greatly welcomed the Russian troops, who arrived in Korea. They hated the Japanese occupants because of their awful racial policy and segregation. Michial Frunze, a 25-yaer-old officer, was happy to be a liberator for the oppressed people.
Peace Treaty was soon signed on 2 September, 1910. Japan returned to Korea all the cored lands and paid reparations to Russia. Occupation troops had to get out the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria. The Treaty ended the imperialist aspirations of the Japanese Empire in Asia. Japan, that was exhausted by the war, collapsed twenty days after the signing the shameful peace agreement. The Fascists faction raised rebellion against the royal government in the north, while the communists upraised in the south. Within the months the Japanese Empire slipped into chaos. Fascists won the civil war lasted for three years (1913).
Michial Frunze continued his service in the Russian Manchurian Army as a commander of field artillery regiment. The regiment settled down near Port Arthur to protect the fortress. Garisson duties led to boredom, so the most of the officers were indulged in gambling, alcohol and love affairs. In contrast to other officers, serving at Port Arthur Michial Frunze was getting into reading the socialist literature but not leisure. After studying the Marxist section of economic literature, arrested from the Japanese communists, he decided to join the Bolsheviks party led by Vladimir Lenin.
A small political party of radical socialists was founded under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin in 1903.The Bolsheviks called for expropriation of private property, social justice and strong labor state against the outdated political system of the tsarist Russia. Michial Frunze joined a secret circle of the Bolsheviks after the massacre in St. Petersburg in 1911. Thousands of unarmed people were shot near the walls of Winter Palace. Horrific crime deeply shocked the conscience of nation! Michial Frunze decided to serve for the common people but not Tsars!!!
However, he was a soldier and had to join a punitive expedition against the people, whose beliefs he shared. The United Kingdom had been spared by huge unrest from the end of 1910. The British Communists, a radical socialist faction, rebelled against the Crown and successfully besieged London. The Russian Tsar took decision to provide military assistance to the British Monarchy in the form of Expeditionary Force. Michail Frunze was one of the excellent officers selected for participation in this deal. He neither wanted to kill the socialists nor leave military service.
The Russian Expeditionary Force arrived too late. At the time of landing, the British Government had capitulated and accepted all demands of the rebels. The British Monarchy was overthrown and replaced by the rule of the communists, but this was short-lived. The fascists brought the Red Government down and set up a fascist dictatorship. The Russian squadron left the British Isles and anchored at Kronstadt, a naval base of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Michail Frunze changed the place of military service and began servicing with the 1st Caucasus Army. He was later elevated to the rank of Colonel at the Imperial Army, stationed in southern Russia.
The Great War broke out on 08 June, 1915. The Russian Empire issued Bosnia-Herzegovina an ultimatum to return the Serbian provinces and withdraw from the disputed areas. Bosnia-Herzegovina rejected the ultimatum and Russia declared war on June 15. Bosnia-Herzegovina asked for help from the German Empire and the Great War began. Russia was supported by Belgium and Italy.
The Russian armies attacked the positions of the Bosnian and German troops, but soon were discarded and retreated into their own country. The Russian troops suffered defeats from the well-trained German Forces during the summer and autumn of 1915. The first victory took place only on 7 November, when the Russian army won the Battle of Grodno against the German forces, advancing towards Kiev. The Balkan Russian Army defeated the Bosnian troops and besieged Belgrade in the same month. The capital of Serbia was liberated five months later on 11 April, 1916. Plevna, a stronghold of the Bosnian defense line, had fallen in one month, and the Russian troops occupied all the territories of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the end of the year.
The Caucasus Army, where Michail Frunze served, joined the Great War only in the end of 1915, after horrific and shocking loses on the Western front. Colonel Michial Frunze took part in the liberation of Serbia, his regiment stormed Plevna. The Bosnian army was completely destroyed in a few months of fierce fighting. The Russian troops reached the borders of the allied Italy by the end of 1916. Unfortunately, the Russian armies were exhausted and had suffered heavy and irreplaceable losses on every front. Its allies – Belgum and Italy had capitulated and signed humiliating Treaties of Verdun and Venice.
After replenishing the reserves and recruited fresh forces for the attack, the German Empire was able to descend upon Russia from Konigsberg to Belgrade.The Western Front collapsed in the spring of 1917, when the outnumbered forces of the German Empire crushed the weak and disorganized Russian army, that was broking to pieces. The German regiments advanced towards St. Petersburg, Moscow and Constantinople step by step. Nothing could stop the German drive! On 22 May 1917, Riga fell, and the gate to St. Petersburg was open wide for the German Army.
The Russian troops fought back the enemy at the Battle of Luga last time in the war (15 July 1917). Michial Frunze, who was recently elevated to General and received command of an infantry division, was seriously wounded in the leg. He was sent for treatment to the hospital in Moscow. His regiment was destroyed later in the Battle of Narva (20 October 1917). The German army surrounded the capital of the Russian Empie and Tsar Nicholas II Meri had to negotiate. Peace negotiations lasted for two months and ended on 03 December 1917 after the Treaty of Saint-Petersburg (Shameful Treaty).
Michial Frunze was overcome with anger at hearing about the Treaty of St. Petersburg. The Russian Empire fatally lost the war and ceased to exist, having lost huge continental territories and all the colonies in Asia and Far East. Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Belorussia and Ukraine had hopefully gained long-awaited independence under the protection of the German Empire, providing to them all needed military, diplomatic and financial support. He retired from the army in the following year and settled in Tver, where his parents lived. Frunze believed that his millitary career is over, and it's time to return to peacefull life. He was only 35 years old.
Circassia, the most economically developed vasal of the Russia Empire, declared independence and soon began attacking the neighboring countries like Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Military warehouses of the Russian army were looted and Circassia was soon capable of equipping big army. Georgia gained liberty and began fighting against Circassia for dominance in the region, involving other Caucasian states such as Armenia. Transcaucasian alliance was formed to resist aggressive policy of Circassia, that has treacherously acquired a huge piece of the Russian provinces on the South.
The Russian Empire had to transfer Constantinople and the surrounding areas to Greece. A huge crowd surrounded the Governor’s Palace in Constantinople and forced to restore the land to its legitimate owner – Greece. Emperor Alexandr I Meri solemnly entered the city a hundred years ago. His crowned successors Nicholas I Meri and Alexandr II Meri strengthened the Russian presence on the Balkans by sword and tough diplomacy. And now all is lost… Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia and Greece left the sphere of the Russia’s influence, and they Immediately began to fight against each other. Hungary attacked Bulgaria, while Greece annexed Macedonia after a short but bloody invasion. During the 1920s, in country after country, the fascists seized power either by the parliamentary way or a palace coup.
According to the Treaty of St. Petersburg, the Russian Empire has also lost half of Siberia and all overseas colonies particularly in the Pacific Ocean. Some provinces continued to belong Russia on the Far East, forming an enclave, remained cut off from the rest of the state. For the first time the Turkic states gained independence, Terek Pass and Turkistan have cut off the Far East from Russia.
The Reign of the House of Meri, that had been lasted for about 1 000 years, has tragically ended after the bitter fight with another continental empire. During the ten centuries of Meri’s rule in Russia, there were many successes, achievements and victories. But times are changing: Nicholas II Meri went to Azov and later sailed for Greece, accompanied by royal court and his own family. He reached Constantinople on 12 May 1918. He died of heartbreak in 1927 in Attika. His son Alexei became a head of the House Meri, hopeless dreaming of the Russian Imperial Crown.
The country continued to be called “EMPIRE” for a year, although the Tsar Nicholas II Meri abdicated on 12 February 1918 after the Russian defeat in the Great War. The V Duma has been elected on 01 July 1917 and consisted of 492 members. After the losing more than half of the country, the majority had lost mandates to represent economic and political interests of people in the Russian Parliament. Their constituents now lived in newly independant countries. Formally, the V Duma had been provisional also until the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was convoked. The Assembly was held a year later on 12 February 1919, the gelegates voted unanimously for the Republic at the openning meeting of the session. The seven hundred years reign of the House of Meri ended in catastrophe, the Russisn Empire collapsed into dozens separate states. Some of them first gained statehood (Latvia, Estonia, Crimea, Ukraine and Belorussia), while others rose from the ashes (Poland, Lithuania, Dagestan, Armenia and Circassia).
P.S. My Campaign was lost.