Pyotr Wrangel

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General Baron Pyotr Wrangel
Пётр Врангель
Pyotr Wrangel, The Black Baron
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia
In office 4 April 1920 – 21 November 1920
Preceded by	Anton Denikin
Succeeded by	Office disestablished
Personal details
Born	August 27 [O.S. August 15] 1878 Novalexandrovsk, Zarasai County, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	25 April 1928(1928-04-25) (aged 49) Brussels, Belgium
Awards	See below
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Russian Empire (1902–1917) White Movement (1917–1920)
Branch/service	Imperial Russian Army White Army
Years of service	1902–1920
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands	Caucasus Army of South Russia
Battles/wars	Russo-Japanese War World War I Russian Civil War

Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (Russian: Пётр Николаевич Врангель, pronounced [ˈvranɡʲɪlʲ]; German: Peter von Wrangel; August 27 [O.S. August 15] 1878 – 25 April 1928), also known by his nickname the Black Baron, was a Russian officer of Baltic German origin in the Imperial Russian Army. During the final phase of the Russian Civil War, he was commanding general of the anti-Bolshevik White Army in Southern Russia.

A member of the prominent Wrangel noble family, Pyotr Wrangel was educated as a mining engineer and volunteered in the Russian Imperial Guard. He served with distinction during World War I as a cavalry commander, reaching the rank of major general. After the February Revolution and Russia's exit from the war, Wrangel retired to the Crimea. He was arrested by the Bolsheviks following the October Revolution, but was soon released^[1][2] and later escaped and joined the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army of the White movement. In 1918, he became Anton Denikin's chief of staff in the Armed Forces of South Russia.

Wrangel succeeded Denikin as commander-in-chief of the White forces in the Crimea in April 1920. As head of the South Russia military government, he attempted to carry out sweeping land reforms, reorganised the White armies into a Russian Army (more commonly known the Army of Wrangel), and established relations with anti-Bolshevik independence movements. Severely outnumbered by the Red Army and facing certain defeat, Wrangel organised a mass evacuation from the Crimea in 1920. Early in his exile he lived in Constantinople and Serbia, and came to be known as one of the most prominent White émigrés.^[3] He relocated to Brussels in 1927 and died a year later.