Mikhail Pleshkov

Mikhail Pleshkov was the son of a cavalry general of the same name. Mikhail graduated from the Polotsk Cadet Corps in 1902 and from the Nikolaev Cavalry School in 1904. He then served in the Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment. He soon started competing in equestrian events and went on to win prizes in competitions in Russia and neighbouring countries. In 1908, he was promoted to lieutenant in the position of regimental adjutant.

In 1912, Pleshkov represented Russia in show jumping at the Stockholm Olympics. With his horse Yvette he placed 21st in the individual and fifth in the team event. In the same year, he was promoted to staff captain and appointed head of the regimental training team. In the following year, he became an orderly to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and won gold and bronze in the jumping events at the First Russian Olympics as well as silver in dressage. With the Russian team, he won the prestigious King Edward VII Gold Cup in London for two consecutive years (1913, 1914). Subsequently, he was assigned to the Main Directorate of State Stud Farming.

In World War I, Pleshkov first served in the Life Guards Lancer Regiment and was later transferred to the Narva 13th Hussar Regiment, now as a lieutenant colonel. In 1916, he was promoted to colonel and commanded a rifle regiment of the 13th Cavalry Division, the Kinburn 7th Dragoon Regiment and eventually again a rifle regiment of the 13th Cavalry Division. During the war, he was awarded the Orders of St. Vladimir, St. Stanislav and St. Anne. In 1918, he returned to Harbin, China, with units of the Ussuri Cossack Division.

Pleshkov then participated in the Civil War on the side of the Whites in the Russian Far East. As head of the instructor school in Vladivostok, he was promoted to major general. Until 1922, he was the last commander of the training and instruction school on Russky Island off the Siberian coast. After the victory of the Red Army, he emigrated first to China and in 1927, to the U.S. There, he worked as a riding instructor at Prince Boris Dmitrievitch Wolkonsky’s school and later opened his own riding school in Westchester, New York. In 1959, the year of his death, his book My Memories was published in München, Germany. He had one daughter with his wife Vera Anatolyevna Tetyukova, but divorced her after their immigration.