He graduated from the Page Corps, an elite school for the children of Russian nobility in 1885 and from the General Staff Academy in 1892.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 to 1906, he initially held an assignment at the office of the Quartermaster-General of the Manchurian Army, but later commanded a Cossack brigade.

[1] After the end of the war, from 1906 to 1910, he served as chairman of a commission to investigate the reasons for the failure of Russian forces in that conflict.

With the outbreak of World War I, he led the division in East Prussia and at Battle of Lodz in November 1914 before receiving an appointment as Chief of Staff to Mikhail Alexeev.

[1] However, he was relieved of his command only two months later by the Russian Provisional Government for expressing support of the monarchy.