Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

SUPREME RULER. This was the title (in Russian Verkhovnyi pravitel′) bestowed upon Admiral A. V. Kolchak by a decree of the Omsk government dated 18 November 1918, in the aftermath of the Omsk coup. Kolchak was recognized as supreme ruler by leaders of the Whites in South Russia, the Baltic, and North Russia (Generals A. I. Denikin, N. N. Iudenich, and E. K. Miller, respectively) and retained that title until his resignation, on 4 January 1920. The adoption of the title by Kolchak had been anticipated earlier (on 4 August 1918), when the former head of the Chinese Eastern Railway administration, General D. L. Khorvat, had had himself declared “Provisional Supreme Ruler of Russia” by the anti-Bolshevik administration he led in Manchuria and the Maritime Province.

Surin, Viktor Il′ich (11 April 1875–18 February 1967). Colonel (15 June 1915), major general (24 August 1917), lieutenant general (15 June 1919). A senior staff officer with the White forces in Siberia, V. I. Surin was born in Bessarabia guberniia and was a graduate of the Vladimir Cadet School in Kiev, the Mikhail Artillery School, and the Academy of the General Staff (1906). He subsequently occupied numerous staff positions and spent much of 1909 on a mission to France, before becoming assistant senior adjutant on the staff of the St. Petersburg Military District (from 20 December 1909). He was then transferred to the chancellery of the Ministry of War (7 September 1910). During the First World War, he served on the staff of the 2nd Army (from August 1915) and was commander of the 123rd Infantry (Kozlovskii) Regiment (from 15 September 1916), before becoming quartermaster general of the 3rd Army (from 18 April 1917). He was then made chief of the chancellery of the Ministry of War of the Russian Provisional Government (13 June 1917).

Following the October Revolution, Surin was seconded to the Academy of the General Staff as a teacher (from 3 April 1918), but deserted to the Whites following that establishment’s transfer to the Urals. Subsequently, on 16 August 1918, he was named chief of supply of the Siberian Army (at the same time accepting the portfolio of assistant minister of war in the Provisional Siberian Government). Following the Omsk coup, he became acting minister of war in the Omsk government of Admiral A. V. Kolchak (21 November 1918–5 January 1919), then returned to the post of assistant minister of war, with responsibility for supplies and technical units.

Following the collapse of the White effort in Siberia and the retreat of Kolchak’s forces into Transbaikalia and the Far East, Surin served briefly on the general staff of the forces of the Provisional Government of the Maritime Province (from 17 June 1920), before retiring from the service (1 September 1920). In emigration, Surin settled first at Harbin, working as a senior agent of the Economic Bureau of the Chinese Eastern Railway and (from 29 December 1931) as a lecturer in geography at the Harbin Law Faculty. He subsequently moved to San Francisco.

Suwałki Agreement (7 October 1920). This treaty, which established a provisional demarcation line for the border between Poland and Lithuania, was signed by representatives of the governments of those countires as Polish forces overran the Suwalki region while they were pursuing the Red Army eastward across the Nieman River in the closing stages of the Soviet–Polish War. The Lithuanians hoped that the line agreed upon, which partitioned Suwałki, would provide a guarantee of their possession of Vilnius (which, without being specifically mentioned in the terms of the treaty, was allotted to the Lithuanian zone). However, the Poles had only agreed to treat under heavy pressure from the League of Nations and remained determined upon securing the city that they called Wilno. On 9 October 1920, therefore, 24 hours before the Suwałki Agreement was scheduled to take effect, Polish forces under General Lucjan Żeligowski seized the city (the Żeligowski mutiny), effectively preempting the Suwałki Agreement and setting in train a process that would eventually result in Wilno (Vilnius) being incorporated into the Polish state in 1923.