Artillery General Vladimir Aleksandrovich Irman Irmanov
Artillery General Vladimir Aleksandrovich Irman (Irmanov). Born in 1852 near Kiev, he graduated from the Moscow Military Gymnasium then served as an ensign in the 134th Feodosia Infantry Regiment before joining the 34th Artillery Brigade in 1872. After service against the Turks in 1877-78, then in the Boxer Rebellion, he was commander of the 4th East Siberian Artillery Brigade at Port Arthur (earning three St. George Crosses in personal actions) where he advocated fighting to the last man rather that surrender. While a subsequent POW in Japan, he was one of the few officers to attempt escape. By 1912, as a Lt. General, he was commander of the 3rd Caucasian Army Corps and served with distinction in the Great War against the Austrians on the Carpathian Front and formed Shkuro’s partisan unit. Falling out with the new Revolutionary government, he was cashiered to a desk job in the Caucus by June 1917. Well into his 60s, he joined Deniken’s White Army and led first the 1st Caucasian Cossack division then the 3rd Kuban Corps. During the evacuation to Gallipoli in November 1920, the 68 year old general elected to remain with on deck huddled in his cloak in 12 degree weather while other, much younger generals in their 30s, accepted warm cabins below. Settling in Yugoslavia in exile, he was active in assorted Monarchist and White organizations and died in 1931 of a stroke. Buried in Novi Sad on the banks of the Danube, his grave was later descrated after 1944 when the Soviets entered the city.