One story relates how Kornilov was originally born as a Don Cossack
Kalmyk named Lavga Deldinov and adopted in
Ust-Kamenogorsk,
Russian Turkestan (now
Kazakhstan) by the family of his mother's brother, the
Russian Cossack Khorunzhiy Georgy Nikolayevich Kornilov, whose wife was of
Kazakh origin. But his sister wrote that he had not been adopted, had not been a Don Cossack, and that their mother had
Polish and
Altai Oirot descent. (Though their language was not a Kalmyk/Mongolian one, but because of their Asian race and their history in the Jungar Oirot (Kalmyk) state, Altai Oirots were called Altai Kalmyks by Russians. They were not Muslims or Kazakhs.) But
Boris Shaposhnikov, who served with Pyotr Kornilov, the brother of Lavr, in 1903, mentioned the "Kyrgyz" ancestry of their mother—this name was usually used in reference to Kazakhs in 1903. Kornilov's
Siberian Cossack father was a friend of
Grigory Potanin (1835–1920), a prominent figure in the Siberian autonomy movement. Kornilov entered military school in
Omsk in 1885 and went on to study at the
Mikhailovsky Artillery School in
St. Petersburg in 1889. In August 1892 he was assigned as a lieutenant to the
Turkestan Military District, where he led several exploration missions in
Eastern Turkestan,
Afghanistan and
Persia, learned several Central Asian languages, and wrote detailed reports about his observations. Kornilov returned to St. Petersburg to attend the
Nikolayev General Staff Academy and graduated as a captain in 1897. Again refusing a posting at St. Petersburg, he returned to the Turkestan Military District, where he resumed his duties as a military intelligence officer. Among his missions at this post was an attempt at traveling incognito to
British India in 1904, though he was quickly discovered and subsequently kept under close surveillance. During the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 Kornilov became the
chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade, and was heavily involved in the
Battle of Sandepu (January 1905) and the
Battle of Mukden (February/March 1905). He was awarded the
Order of St. George (4th class) for bravery and promoted to the rank of
colonel. Following the end of the war, Kornilov served as
military attache in
China from 1907 to 1911. He studied the
Chinese language, travelled extensively (researching data on the history, traditions and customs of the Chinese, which he intended to use as material for a book about life in contemporary China), and regularly sent detailed reports to the General Staff and Foreign Ministry. Kornilov paid much attention to the prospects of cooperation between Russia and China in the Far East and met with the future president of China,
Chiang Kai-shek. In 1910 Kornilov was recalled from Beijing but remained in St. Petersburg for only five months before departing for western Mongolia and
Kashgar to examine the military situation along
China's border with Russia. On 2 February 1911 he became Commander of the 8th Estonian Infantry Regiment and was later appointed commander of the 9th Siberian Rifle Division, stationed in
Vladivostok. In 1914, at the start of
World War I, Kornilov was appointed commander of the 48th Infantry Division, which saw combat in
Galicia and the
Carpathians. In 1915, he was promoted to the rank of
major general. During heavy fighting, he was captured by the Austrians in April 1915, when his division became isolated from the rest of the Russian forces. After his capture, Field Marshal
Conrad von Hötzendorf, the commander of the
Austro-Hungarian Army, made a point of meeting him in person. As a major general, he was a high-value prisoner of war, but in July 1916 Kornilov managed to escape back to Russia and return to duty. After the abdication of
Tsar Nicholas II, he was given command of the
Petrograd Military District in March 1917. On 8 March, Kornilov placed the Empress
Alexandra and her children under house arrest at the
Alexander Palace (Nicholas was still held at
Stavka), replacing the
Tsar's Escort and Combined Regiments of the
Imperial Guard with 300 revolutionary troops. On 21 April, when the
Provisional Government declined to give him the authority he sought to deal with protestors in Petrograd, he resigned as commander of the Petrograd district and was transferred at his request to command the Russian Eighth Army. During the
Kerensky Offensive, his army inflicted a spectacular defeat on the Austrians, taking 10,000 prisoners—Russia's only notable military success in the year 1917—though after five days, was forced to retreat. On 24 July, he was appointed commander of the southern front. A week later, he replaced
Aleksei Brusilov as Supreme
Commander-in-Chief of the Provisional Government's armed forces. ==Kornilov Affair==