Andrey Medardovich Zayonchkovskiy: a Hidden Idealist and a Courtier

Abstract

On pages of the present article the research of the biography of one of many hundreds of officers of the Russian General Staff — the General from an Infanteriya Andrey Medardovich Zayonchkovsky has been conducted. Authors of article have come to a conclusion that the office and personal biography of the called person was quite typical for all Russian “genshtabist” of the period of the end of 19 — the first quarter of the 20th centuries. They have undergone bloody World War I (1914–1918) and quite often reached in her course of high ranks and posts, they as in particular, and the hero of our article have been forced to look for in days of “the second Russian distemper” of 1917–1920 new opportunities for the professional application in the conditions of crash of traditional social foundations. A. M. Zayonchkovsky’s case was aggravated, however, with the fact that he happened to be influenced even during the stay of existence of the imperial mode by injustice of the authorities. All this together promoted formation in soul at the officer of such qualities as “dexterity, ability to show it to good effect, flattery of the courtier”, the aspiration to adapt to the current circumstances at any cost. Though it is quite possible that at the same time at heart the hero of the present article deeply hidden idealism was concealed.