Mikhail Ivanovich Batyanov () (1835 – 5 December 1916) was a general in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

Biography

Batyanov was a graduate of the

Sea Cadet Corps Sea cadets are members of a cadets youth program sponsored by a national naval service, aimed for young people with an interest in waterborne activities and or the national navy. The organisation may be sponsored in whole or in part by the navy or ...

in 1852, and served with the

Black Sea Fleet The Black Sea Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, are subordin ...

of the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

in the Caucasus campaigns of 1852–1854. As part of a

naval infantry Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

battalion, he distinguished himself at the

Battle of Sevastopol A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

during the Crimean War, where he was wounded. He was decorated with the Order of St Anne, 3rd class with swords (1854), and the

Order of St Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir () was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus'. Grades The order had four ...

, 4th class with swords (1855) during the war. Afterwards, Batyanov transferred to the

, serving with the Imperial Guards followed by the Zhytomyr 56th Infantry Regiment in 1861. He was awarded the

Gold Sword for Bravery The Gold Sword for Bravery () was a Russian award for bravery. It was set up with two grades on 27 July 1720 by Peter the Great, reclassified as a public order in 1807 and abolished in 1917. From 1913 to 1917 it was renamed the Saint George ...

in the campaigns against the

Caucasus War The Caucasian War () or the Caucasus War was a 19th-century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It consisted of a series o ...

in 1864 and was promoted to colonel in 1867 and commander of the Kabardian 80th Infantry Regiment. Promoted to adjutant in 1871, he participated in suppression of an uprising in the Terek region. Batyanov was awarded the

Order of St George Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * ...

, 4th class in 1873 for his actions as a midshipman in the Crimean War. In 1877, Batyanov was promoted to major general, and the following year received command of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Grenadier Division. The following year, he received the Order of St Anne, 1st class and the

Order of St Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus (, ), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Poniatowski of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It remained under the Kingdom of Poland between 1765 a ...

, 1st class with swords. He was commander of the Third Infantry Brigade from 1881 to 1886. Promoted to lieutenant general, he then commanded the 13th and 23rd Infantry Divisions. In 1883, he was awarded the Order of St Vladimir, 2nd class. From 1893 to 1896, Batyanov was commander of the 12th Army Corps in the

Kiev Military District The Kiev Military District (; , abbreviated ) was a military district of the Imperial Russian Army and subsequently of the Red Army and Soviet Armed Forces. It was first formed in 1862, and was headquartered in Kiev (Kyiv) for most of its exist ...

. He introduced many innovations, including rapid-fire weapons ( machine guns) and new tactics, placing strong emphasis on modernization of training. For this, he earned the strong disapproval of his superior, General Mikhail Dragomirov, who forced Batyanov into the reserves. However, Batyanov was reinstated only a year later, this time as commander of the 16th Army Corps, which he again attempted to modernize. In 1903, he was promoted to General of Infantry and appointed to the Military Council. During the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

, he was appointed commander of the Third Manchuria Army in May 1905, page 77 replacing General Alexandr von Bilderling after 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 ...

. He helped organize a new defensive line north of Mukden against a possible further Japanese offensive. Batyanov retired in January 1911 and died in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

on 5 December 1916. His grave was at the

Alexander Nevsky Lavra Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter I of Russia in 1710 at the eastern end of the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, in the belief that this was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240 when Alexa ...

Awards

*1854

Order of St. Anne 3rd degree *1855

4th degree *1864

*1873

RUS Order of Saint George 4th class ribbon 2000

, 4th degree *1879 Order of Saint Stanislaus Ribbon

Order of St. Stanislaus 1st degree *1880 Order of Saint Anna ribbon bar

Order of St. Anne 1st degree *1883

2nd degree

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batyanov, Mikhail Ivanovich 1835 births 1916 deaths Imperial Russian Army generals Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class Nobility from the Russian Empire Naval Cadet Corps alumni