Alekseyev, Mikhail Vasilyevich

(mēkhəēl´vəsē´lyəvĭch əlyĭksyā´əf), 1857–1918, Russian general, chief of staff (1915–17) of Czar Nicholas II. With other officers he urged the czar to abdicate in favor of the czarevich in order to save the dynasty prior to the Russian Revolution. Alekseyev was briefly chief of staff in the provisional government headed by Aleksandr Kerensky after the czar was overthrown. After the Bolsheviks took over in Nov., 1917 (Oct., 1917, O. S.), Alekseyev and General Kornilov organized an anti-Bolshevik movement in the south.