Fedor Vasilevich Kostiaev

Born Feb. 8 (20), 1878, in Jelgava; died Sept. 27, 1925. Soviet military figure; professor.

Kostiaev graduated from the Nikolai Engineering School in 1899 and from the Academy of the General Staff in 1905. He fought in World War I (1914–18) as a major general. After entering the Red Army in 1918, he was chief of staff of the Pskov region, chief of the Petrograd Division, and chief of staff of the Northern Front. He was chief of the Field Staff of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic from October 1918 to June 1919. Kostiaev began teaching at the Military Academy in September 1919. He wrote several scholarly works on military geography, the history of the Civil War of 1918–20, and the services of the General Staff. In 1921–23 he was a member and a military representative on the commission for the establishment of state borders with Poland; in 1924–25 he was chairman of the USSR commission for the establishment of state borders with Finland.