Alexander Kutepov was born into the family of a personal nobleman, Konstantin Mikhailovich Timofeev, and his wife, Olga Andreevna, in Cherepovets, Novgorod Governorate.

In 1892, Olga Andreevna married hereditary nobleman Pavel Aleksandrovich Kutepov, an official for peasant affairs of the Foresters' Corps; after the Stolypin reform, he became chairman of the Land Survey Commission.

On 9 March 1893, by a ruling from the Novgorod District Court, children born by Olga Andreevna in her first marriage (including Alexander) were legally adopted by her second husband, Pavel.

A year later, the younger clerk-junker Kutepov had been noticed at the parade by the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who appointed him right away to sergeant-major, bypassing the rank of senior caravan-junker.

Soon he led a night-time raid on a Japanese outpost in which Russian scouts captured rich trophies, including machine guns and rifles.

[4] Alexander Pavlovich was returning from Manchuria to the capital separately from his regiment after being appointed to a special team sent to Russia to train new recruits.

Here Kutepov first encountered a revolution: en route to Saint Petersburg, they stopped in a community where the local revolutionaries had declared a republic, the administration was confused, and he had to break through, taking full responsibility for the echelon and arresting the strike committee of the railway station.

[5] Upon arrival in Saint Petersburg, on a presentation to the emperor, Kutepov received from the Tsar's hands the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree with swords and a bow for his front-line services.

With the beginning of mobilization, the training team was disbanded, and Kutepov accepted the 4th company of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment, with which he went to the front in the First World War.

[8] Granted by George's Arms During the course of the war, he rose from company, to battalion to commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment when he was promoted to colonel on 25 November 1916 with seniority from 26 September 1916.

However, his detachment was not supported by other military units located in Petrograd, and part of the officers sent to his disposal showed no desire to fight for the monarchy.

[11] After the victory of the revolution, he returned to the front as the commander of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment, which was one of the few units of the army that retained combat effectiveness in conditions of active anti-war agitation.

[12] According to his fellow officer V. Deutrich: After the October Revolution, Kutepov joined the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army, part of the White Movement, at the very outset of the Russian Civil War.

(In the beginning of the Russian Civil War the small Volunteer Army had a surplus of officers, which meant that many of them had to serve as common soldiers.

At the same time, however, Kutepov ordered mass executions of hundreds of Red Army soldiers and thousands of workers suspected of sympathizing with the Bolsheviks.

[21] According to the declassified UDBA documents compiled in early 1955,[22] shortly prior to his abduction, Kutepov received 7 million francs from his French sponsors meant for the ROVS' activity.

The son of General Kutepov, Pavel Aleksandrovich (1925-1983) in 1944 crossed the front line in Yugoslavia and joined the Red Army, served as a translator in SMERSH, but was soon arrested and taken to the USSR, where he was interned in the Vladimir Central Prison.