Aleksandr Vassilievich Samsonov , born the November 2nd 1859 and dead the August 29th 1914, is a Russian officer of staff having been useful as a commander of the second Russian army during the Great War.
Military experiment
He engages in the Russian army at the 18 years age and undergoes his baptism of fire during the Russo-Turkish war (1877 - 1878). After the war, it perfect its martial knowledge with the Military academy Nikolaevsky in Saint-Pétersbourg. It orders a detachment of cavalry at the time of the Rébellion of the Boxers (1900) and during the Guerre Russo-Japanese woman (1904 -05).By its experiments with the combat, Samsonov forges a reputation of energetic and qualified officer, although certain observers question its strategic capacities. Following the Battle of Moukden in 1905, it shows the general Paul von Rennenkampf to have failed in its duty while not carrying assistance to him whereas it was in annoying posture. As of this moment, the two men maintain a conflict which will never be regulated. This episode will have important impacts later, at the time of the First World War, where a situation similar to that of Moukden occurs with catastrophic consequences for the whole of the Russian face. Following the conflict against the Japanese, it is named chief of staff of the military district of Warsaw and later, administrator of the Turkménistan.
Battle of Tannenberg
At the beginning of the First World War, Samsonov is named ordering second Russian army for the invasion of the Eastern Prussia. Advancing in German territory by the South-eastern border, it must join the first army carried out by Rennenkampf which, it, advances in Prussia by the North-East. However, the animosity which reigns between the two men prevents an effective coordination of the projection.
The second Russian army, which however has a numerical advantage on the eighth German army carried out by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, is made encircle and reduce to nothing with the Bataille of Tannenberg without the troops of Rennenkampf not intervening. Only 10.000 men on the few 200.000 that the second army has manage to escape the hecatomb. Incompetent to support such a defeat and incompetent to bring back the extent of the disaster to the tsar Nicolas II, Samsonov commits suicide close to Willenberg the August 29th. Its body would have been found by a German patrol which would have given him a military burial.
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