General Vasiliy Vladimirovich Cheslavsky was born on January 4, 1885, in the Priluki County of the province of Poltava. He received his education first at the Poltava School for Cadets, and later at the Elisavetgrad School of Cavalry. In 1902 he was promoted to the rank of officer of the Third Dragoon Novorossiysky Regiment and had to go to the Far East, to Manchuria. He participated in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 and 1905. At that time he was the commander of a cavalry squadron. He was in the ranks for twenty-two months. He was wounded in the Battle of Laoyan. He was decorated for his bravery with the cross of St. George, for capturing a Japanese company consisting of 164 soldiers and three officers and having at its disposal three machine-guns.

General Cheslavsky was in all the battles, from that on the River Yalu 2in April, 1906, to that of Mukden. After the Russo-Japanese war he returned to his regiment and was sent to the Cavalry Officers School in St. Petersburg, where he completed his studies in two years. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and sent again to the Far East to join there the Primorsky Regiment of Dragoons. In May, 1914, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and made commander of the 10th, or Ingermanlendskiy, Regiment of Hussars. With this regiment he went to the war and was its commander till the year 1916. He was made major-general and given the command of the Second Brigade of the 10th Cavalry Division. He was still holding this military office when the revolution broke out.

After the proclamation of the independence of the Ukraine General Cheslavsky was appointed commander of the Volynsky Cavalry Division of the army of the Hetman Skoropadski. After the downfall of the Skoropadski regime, General Cheslavsky went to Germany where the Inter-Allied Commission entrusted to him the transportation of Russian prisoners from 3Germany to Russia. With the last contingent of Russian prisoners, in the autumn of the year 1919, the general sailed on the steamer "Reshid Pasha," via England, Gibraltar, the Dardanelles and Constantinople, to Sebastopol. He delivered there five thousand Russian prisoners who wanted to join the army of General Denikin.

When the White armies were entirely disorganized in 1921, General Chevslavsky went to England where he stayed till 1923. From England he sailed to America and went straight to Chicago, where at that time was residing his good friend and fellow officer, Prince M. M. Cantacuzine. The general found employment at the Western Electric Company, with which he worked until 1928. In that year he became an American citizen, changing his name to Basil W. Chesly.

Later he worked two years with the Commonwealth Edison Company. He lost his job because of the depression.

In 1934 General Cheslavsky became the editor of the Russkoye Obozreniye (Russian Review), a weekly newspaper published in Chicago by Mr. Savitsky. Previously this paper had very few subscribers. When General Cheslavsky became the editor he made the paper much more interesting, and the number of subscribers increased very considerably. He edits the paper on strictly non-partisan lines and endeavors to get reliable and interesting information from talented collaborators holding different political views. Among the collaborators of the Russian Review are such well known members of the Russian colony of Chicago as Prof. Paul Haensel, Mr. Varsha, engineer; Mr. J. J. Voronko; Mr. Zakharov, engineer; Professor Nedzelnitsky, and others.

While editing the Russian Review, General Cheslavsky has been writing a book containing his reminiscences of the World War. Chapters of this book have appeared regularly on the pages of the Russian Review. Soon these memoirs will be published in book form.