HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 371

tant administrative post, becoming the first gov-
ernor of the Russian colonies in Alaska, a post he
held until 1835. From 1840 to 1849 he was the
director of the RUSSIAN AMERICAN COMPANY , the
colonial trading company, first chartered in 1799,
that had a monopoly on commerce with Alaska
and the Aleutian Islands. In 1855 Wrangel was
appointed minister of the navy, a post he held
until 1857. After retiring from government ser-
vice in 1864, he came out in strong opposition to
the Russian government's plan to sell Alaska to
the United States, a purchase that was com-
pleted in 1867. Wrangel was an active partici-
pant in the scholarly world of his time, both as a
member of the Russian ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
and as a founder of the Russian Geographical
Society. He also published several books, includ-
ing the Narrative of an expedition to the polar sea in
the years 1820, 1821, 1822 & 1823 (1841) and Rus-
sian America: statistical and ethnographic information
(1839). His name also lives on in several geo-
graphical features: the Wrangel Mountains in
Alaska, three different Wrangel islands, two capes
and a volcano.

commander during World War I, he joined Gen-
eral Aleksei Kaledin in his opposition to the Pro-
visional Government's military reforms and was
forced to resign in July 1917. He followed
Kaledin to the Don area, and after Kaledin's sui-
cide in February 1918, Wrangel attached himself
to General Anton DENIKIN 's anti-Bolshevik
armies. Wrangel emerged as a talented comman-
der when he reached the Kuban, in the north
Caucasus, in late 1918, and more prominently
with the capture of Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd) in
July 1919. After the failure of the advance on
Moscow, Wrangel briefly commanded the Volun-
teer Army, but his poor relations with Denikin
led to his dismissal for conspiracy in early 1920.
Exiled briefly to Constantinople, Wrangel was
recalled to Crimea to command the White forces
in April 1920, following Denikin's resignation.
The most talented White officer had been given
command when the cause was almost lost. He
showed relative political sophistication, unlike
his predecessors, initiating a modest land reform
that passed land to peasants and proposing an
alliance with Poland, then at war with Soviet
Russia, but which the Polish leader Jozef Piłsud-
ski rejected. By November 1920, cornered into
the Crimean Peninsula, Wrangel organized the
evacuation of more than 150,000 White troops,
families, and sympathizers from Sevastopol
across the Black Sea to Turkey. Settling in Bel-
gium, Wrangel remained a leader of the Russian
émigré movement until his death and organized
the Russian Social Union, an association of
White veterans. He died in Brussels but is buried
in Belgrade.

Wrangel, Baron Petr Nikolaevich
(1878-1928)
military commander
The last and perhaps most skilled major comman-
der of the White (anti- BOLSHEVIK ) armies during
the Russian civil war, Wrangel came from a Baltic
noble family of Swedish origin. After service in
the RUSSO - JAPANESE WAR , he graduated from the
Academy of the General Staff in 1910. A cavalry