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Oskar Ferdinand Gripenberg (russian: Оскар-Фердинанд Казимирович Гриппенберг, Oskar-Ferdinand Kazimirovich Grippenberg; 13 January 1838 – 7 January 1916) was a Finnish-Swedish general of the Russian Second Manchurian Army during the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
.


Biography

Oskar Ferdinand Gripenberg was born in Ikaalinen (Swedish: Ikalis),
Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecess ...
, the son of Uddo Sten Casimir Gripenberg and Maria Wilhelmina Elisabeth Ladau. The
Gripenberg Gripenberg is a locality situated in Tranås Municipality, Jönköping County Jönköping County ( sv, Jönköpings län) is a county or ''län'' in southern Sweden. It borders the counties of Halland, Västra Götaland, Östergötland, Kalma ...
Family was granted
nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...
in the
Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire was a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic region during the 17th and early 18th centuries ( sv, Stormaktstiden, "the Era of Great Power"). The beginning of the empire is usually ta ...
in 1678.The Gripenberg Family
was introduced into the Finnish noble house in 1866 His brother,
Carl Carl may refer to: * Carl, Georgia, city in USA * Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name * Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of ...
was an admiral in the Imperial Navy. Oskar Ferdinand Gripenberg married Hedvig Ida Angelique Lundh in 1874. They had four children.


Early career

Gripenberg began his military career in 1854 as a cadet in the ranks of the Russian Crimean Army. His first combat experience in the
Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
against the British and the French, and he was named in dispatches for bravery on 2 November 1855. As part of the Russian force which suppressed the Polish uprising in 1863-1864 he was promoted to lieutenant. He was subsequently assigned to the Turkestan Military District, where he was assigned to command a line battalion of
infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
from
Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the border with Kazakhst ...
and was promoted to major in 1866. He then commanded the 5th Turkestan Battalion, participating in numerous battles in the Turkestan War, including the conquest of the
Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara ( fa, , Amārat-e Bokhārā, chg, , Bukhārā Amirligi) was a Muslim polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land ...
and the storming of the fortress of Ura-Tube. For these campaigns, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne (3rd Class with Swords and Bow) and the highly prestigious Order of St. George (4th degree), and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. This was an unusual distinction as the award was normally only given to officers of at least general's rank. Gripenberg was further awarded the
Order of St. Stanislav The Order of Saint Stanislaus ( pl, Order Św. Stanisława Biskupa Męczennika, russian: Орден Святого Станислава), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Ponia ...
(2nd class) and Golden Sword of St. George with the inscription "For Bravery" in 1869. He was made commander of the 17th Infantry Battalion in 1872 and promoted to colonel. In 1877 he became commander of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the elite Imperial Russian Life-Guards. He saw combat again during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, where he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir (3rd degree with Swords), Order of St. Stanislaus (1st degree), and Order of St George (3rd degree) in 1877, and promotion to major general on 22 February 1878. In 1890 Gripenberg became commander of the prestigious First Division of the Moscow Life Guards and was promoted to lieutenant general. He lost this position in 1898 after criticizing heavy-handed Russian actions in Finland. He was eventually promoted to general of infantry in 1902, reassigned to command the Russian 6th Army Corps in 1900, and in 1904 was honored with the title aide-de-camp to
Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pol ...
.Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 135.


Russo-Japanese War

Gripenberg was assigned to command the Russian 2nd Manchurian Army during
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, arriving at
Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provinc ...
on 28 November 1904. Gripenberg was extremely critical of the
war of attrition The War of Attrition ( ar, حرب الاستنزاف, Ḥarb al-Istinzāf; he, מלחמת ההתשה, Milhemet haHatashah) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies fro ...
tactics adopted by commander-in-chief General
Aleksey Kuropatkin Aleksey Nikolayevich Kuropatkin (russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Куропа́ткин; March 29, 1848January 16, 1925) served as the Russian Imperial Minister of War from January 1898 to February 1904 and as a field command ...
, who had hoped to draw the
Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...
deep into
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
, where its supply lines would be overextended as part of a delaying tactic until the completion of the
Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...
would bring overwhelming Russian reinforcements. On arriving in Mukden, Gripenberg repeatedly told his men that anyone retreating from their position in the upcoming campaign would be shot. During the ensuing
Battle of Sandepu The Battle of Sandepu (also known as the Battle of Heikoutai) ( ja, 黒溝台会戦 (''Kokkōdai no kaisen''), russian: Сражение при Сандепу) was a major land battle of the Russo-Japanese War. It was fought within a group of v ...
in January 1905, Gripenberg perceived a weakness in the Japanese lines and launched a surprise assault that threw the enemy's left flank into disarray. However, Kuropatkin refused to commit troops to support his offensive, directly leading to the Russian defeat. Relations between the two officers had been strained from the beginning and Gripenberg asked to be relieved of his command of the 2nd Manchurian Army on 29 January 1905, only a day after the battle ended. Tsar Nicholas II allowed Gripenberg to return to
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
immediately, although he was not formally relieved until March. Gripenberg lost no time in publicly blaming Kuropatkin for Russia's defeats, which sparked a war of words between the two men in the press.


Final career

Nicholas II still thought highly of Gripenberg, and on 30 April 1905 appointed him Inspector General of the Infantry on 28 June 1905, and as a member of the State Council. As Inspector General, he developed a new manual for shooting, but on 23 March 1906, frustrated by health, he resigned from active service, but remained on the State Councilor nominally as
General-Adjutant An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in sta ...
. He spent his final days in continuing his campaign against Kuropatkin in the newspapers, pamphlets and books, blaming him for the Russian defeat at the
Battle of Mukden The , one of the largest land battles to be fought before World War I and the last and the most decisive major land battle of the Russo-Japanese War, was fought from 20 February to 10 March 1905 between Japan and Russia near Mukden ...
and for the loss of the war in general. He died on 25 December 1915 in Petrograd and was buried in the Tsarskoselsky Cemetery.


Honors

* Order of St. George, 4th class, 1867 * Order of St. Anne 1st degree, 1867 * Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd degree, 1867 * Gold Sword for Bravery (1869) * Montenegrin Medal (1878) * Order of St. George, 3rd class, 1878 * Order of St Vladimir, 3rd degree, 1878 * Order of St. Stanislaus 1st degree 1878. * Order of the Crown, with star (Prussia), 1878 * Order of St. Anne 1st degree 1881 *
Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( it, Ordine della Corona d'Italia, italic=no or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civi ...
, Officer's Cross 1882 (Italy) * Order of St Vladimir, 2nd degree, 1888 * Order of the White Eagle, 1896 * Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, 1905


References

*Connaughton, R.M (1988). ''The War of the Rising Sun and the Tumbling Bear—A Military History of the Russo-Japanese War 1904–5'', London, . *Jukes, Geoffry. ''The Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905''. Osprey Essential Histories. (2002). . * *Warner, Denis & Peggy. ''The Tide at Sunrise, A History of the Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905''. (1975). .


External links


The Russo-Japanese War: Primary Causes of Japanese SuccessBiography of Oskar Ferdinand Gripenberg (in Finnish)


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gripenberg, Oskar 1838 births 1915 deaths People from Ikaalinen Imperial Russian Army generals Russian military personnel of the Crimean War Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Russian people of Swedish descent Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Gold Sword for Bravery Swedish-speaking Finns Russian people of Finnish descent Swedish nobility