One hundred years ago, Russian general Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel perished. He was born on April 28, 1883, in Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg Province, and died on January 26, 1920, at the Uta railway junction, near the Tulun station close to Nizhneudinsk, Irkutsk Province. Kappel was an outstanding military leader during the Civil War, participating in both World War I and the Civil War.

He was one of the leaders of the White movement in Eastern Russia and held the position of lieutenant general of the general staff of the White Army in 1919. That same year, he became the commander-in-chief of the armies of the Eastern Front of the Russian Army. Supreme Ruler A. V. Kolchak intended to promote him to full general for his services to the Motherland but did not manage to do so. In December 1919, taking command of the Eastern Front, which was on the brink of destruction, Kappel managed to lead the army out of encirclement near Krasnoyarsk and bring it to Baikal, sacrificing his life in the process.

After his death, it was decided not to leave the general's body behind to avoid desecration by the Bolsheviks. The retreating troops transported his body in a coffin for almost a month until they reached Chita, where Kappel was buried in the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky. Later, his ashes were transferred to the cemetery of the Chita Women's Monastery. However, in the autumn of 1920, with the approach of the Red Army to Chita, the remaining Kappelians transported his coffin to Harbin, northern China, and buried it at the altar of the Iverskaya Church. A monument was erected at the grave, which was destroyed by Chinese communists in 1955 (according to other sources, in 1956). There are suggestions that this destruction was sanctioned by secret directives from the KGB. According to Colonel Vyrypaev's recollections, thanks to the foresight of the official overseeing the funeral in Chita, Kappel was buried in permafrost, and during the transport to Harbin, his body remained untouched. At the funeral, poet Alexander Kotomkin-Savinsky read the poem 'On the Death of Kappel.' On January 13, 2007, General Kappel's ashes were reburied at the Don Monastery cemetery, next to the graves of General A. I. Denikin and philosopher I. A. Ilyin.