Born on 4 June 1849, Smirnov began his education in the
Polotsk Cadet Corps, then transferred to the Pavlovsk Military School on 23 August 1865. In March 1917, Smirnov relieved General
Aleksei Evert as commander of the
Western Front. A subordinate, V. Dzhunkovsky, lamented the end of Smirnov's long tour as commander of the 2nd Army, recalling: “The departure of the commander of the 2nd Army, General Smirnov: On the same day I published a farewell order of the commander of the army, the worthy General Smirnov, who received a different appointment. I was very sorry to leave the command of this honest, noble general.” Smirnov's command of the Western Front was short-lived. On 8 April 1917, he was reassigned to the
Ministry of War, and on 22 April 1917 he became a member of the Ministry of War's Military Council.
Russian Civil War After the
October Revolution, Smirnov moved from
Petrograd to the
Mineralnye Vody area. In September 1918, during the
Russian Civil War, he was taken hostage by the
Red Army and on 1 November 1918, together with generals
Nikolai Ruzsky,
Radko Dimitriev, and others, was shot at
Pyatigorsk. According to other sources, he was shot by the
Bolsheviks in
Kiev in sometime between February and April 1919. ==Awards==