Pavel Bermondt-Avalov

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Pavel Rafalovich Bermondt-Avalov (Russian: Павел Рафалович Бермонт-Авалов) (1884-1973) was an Ussuri Cossack and warlord. He was appointed to lead the German-established Russian army (subsequently frequently known after his name as "the Bermontians") which was meant to go to fight the communists in the Russian Civil War, but, believing that communists would be defeated without his help, Pavel Bermondt-Avalov decided to strike the newly independent nations of Lithuania and Latvia instead. He believed that if his army would have managed to occupy these countries, he would later be rewarded by the government of the Russian Empire (he did not expect that the communists could come to power).

Bermondt-Avalov was promoted Major General in 1918. He took over the White Forces in the Baltic from Prince Anatoly Liven, who commanded a contingent in the Baltische Landwehr. In 1919, his forces joined those of Major General Rüdiger von der Goltz to form the so-called "Western Volunteer Army" (Западная добровольческая армия) which attempted to proclaim the "Western Central Government" in Riga. The Bermontians managed to capture large part of Samogitia and western Latvia, but later were defeated by the Lithuanian and Latvian armies, with the help of the Estonian forces and the Entente support. Pavel Bermondt-Avalov then emigrated to Western Europe, where he published a book of memoirs.

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