Childhood
Denikin was born in Szpetal Dolny village, now part of the Polish city Włocławek (then part of the Russian Empire). His father, Ivan Efimovich Denikin, had been born a serf in the province of Saratov. Sent as a recruit to do 25 years of military service, Ivan Denikin became an officer in the 22nd year of his army service, in 1856. He retired from the army in 1869 with the rank of major. In 1869 Ivan Denikin married a poor Polish seamstress, Elżbieta Wrzesińska — his second wife. Anton Denikin, the couple's only child, learned to speak two languages (Russian and Polish) at the same time. His father's commitment to Russian patriotism and the Orthodox religion led to Anton Denikin's decision to become a soldier.
The Denikins lived very close to poverty, the retired major's small pension being their only source of income. After his father's death in 1885, Denikin's family financial situation got even worse. Anton Denikin began tutoring younger schoolmates so that the family could earn additional income. In 1890 Denikin began a course at the Kiev Junker School, a military college from which he graduated in 1892. The twenty-year-old Denikin joined an artillery brigade, in which he served for three years.
In 1895 he was first accepted into the General Staff Academy, where he did not meet the academic requirements in the first of two years. After the disappointment, Denikin attempted to attain acceptance again. On his next attempt he did better and finished fourteenth in his class. However, to his misfortune, the Academy decided to introduce a new system of calculating grades and as a result Denikin was not offered a staff appointment after the final exams. He protested the decision to the highest authority (the Grand Duke), and after being offered a settlement by which he would rescind his complaint in order to attain acceptance into the General Staff school again, Denikin declined, insulted by the lack of integrity represented by the offer.
Denikin first saw active service during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. In 1905 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In 1910 he was appointed commander of the 17th infantry regiment. A few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War, Denikin reached the rank of major general.
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