A. S. Kruchinin

Steppe hike and its meaning

“In retribution of military prowess and excellent courage shown by the participants of the “Steppe campaign” of the detachment of the Marching Ataman of the Don Army General P. Kh. ”,” read the order of the Don Ataman, General A.P. Bogaevsky, dated April 23 (all dates according to the old style), 1919.The same order also determined the chronological boundaries of the campaign - from February 12 to May 5, 1918 (this was the inscription on the established Cross), but a number of provisions of the order introduced additional strokes into the periodization of the campaign.

Those who joined the ranks of the detachment no later than March 1 and remained in it at least until April 4, with the exception of the ranks of the detachment who left it "without the permission of the Headquarters of the Marching Ataman" (even if this happened after April 4), were subject to the award; in addition, the Cross could be obtained in the case of "active participation in the organization of the struggle against the Bolsheviks, openly shown no later than January 29, 1918." All these dates require brief explanations, however, quite obvious.

January 29 "Kaledinsky shot" - the suicide of the Army Ataman General A. M. Kaledin - sounded a formidable warning about the critical situation on the Don, which was subjected to a massive offensive by "columns" of Red Guards, Bolshevik soldiers and sailors (Commander-in-Chief V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko) and Cossack units of the "Don Revolutionary Committee" (chairman F. G. Podtelkov, the actual commander of the troops is the former military foreman N. M. Golubov).Thus, from among the “active participants” of the resistance, those who recognized the essence of Bolshevism hostile to Russia and the Cossacks at the very beginning of the Civil War, without waiting for the bitter experience of the Soviet occupation and the severe hangover that befell the Cossacks, were singled out and equated to the participants of the Steppe Campaign. January 1918, who actually abandoned his elected Ataman.

The date March 1 has less clear explanation. The beginning of March (the “first half” of the month) dates the contemporary “the first outbreaks of active action” by the Cossacks, who raised uprisings against Soviet power and began to form amateur stanitsa squads and detachments, and it is possible that the same circumstance is implied in the order to establish the Steppe Cross. Thus, the participants in the “outbreaks” who fled after their suppression (the initial performances of the Cossacks were not successful) and who sought to find shelter and refuge in the detachment of the Marching Ataman rather than the possibility of continuing the struggle are excluded from the number of “Stepnyaks”.

P. Kh. Popov

Finally, April 4 - the date of the retreat from Novocherkassk of the stanitsa squads who occupied it and the relocation of the base of the uprising to the village of Zaplavskaya - marks not only the formation of a new center of struggle, to which individual ranks or entire units could be sent from the Marching Ataman's detachment, but also the appearance of an object for ... desertion of those who for some reason did not get along with General Popov or considered the new theaterfighting more for myself preferred.

So, the wording of the order of Ataman Bogaevsky, upon careful consideration, lifts the veil over certain difficulties, contradictions, clashes that surrounded the Stepnyakov detachment and led to an ambivalent attitude towards the campaign itself and the emergence of questions about its purpose, nature and meaning, which have not been fully resolved to this day. day.

But first - some circumstances of the campaign. On February 10, 1918, at a meeting of the chiefs of military units stationed in Novocherkassk, it was announced that the Don capital was not supposed to be defended from the advancing Golubov's Cossacks and that on February 12 the city would be abandoned, and the choice - to leave for the steppes or not - was proposed to be made by everyone for themselves personally (the next day there were cases of discussion of this information at “hundreds of rallies»). By order of the successor of the late Kaledin, the Don Ataman, General A. M. Nazarov (he himself, as the elected head of the Army, remained in Novocherkassk for the Bolshevik massacre), and under the command of the Marching Ataman, General P. Kh. Popov, 1,500 bayonets left Novocherkassk at four in the afternoon and checkers with 10 guns and 28 machine guns (according to other sources - with 5 guns with 500 shells and 40 machine guns). The qualitative composition of the detachment is given some idea by the fact that on the eve of Kaledin’s suicide, in one of the partisan detachments defending Novocherkassk, according to the memoirs of its member, there were “250-300 fighters, of which at least 75 percent were under the age of 17 years ".

Remember, remember to the grave

Your cruel youth

A smoking crest of a snowdrift,

Victory and death in battle

Longing hopeless rut,

Anxiety in frosty nights

Yes shine dull shoulder strap

On fragile, on children's shoulders.

We gave everything we had

You, eighteenth year,

Your Asian blizzard

Steppe - for Russia - campaign, -

N. N. Turoverov

wrote a member of the campaign, the Don officer Nikolai Turoverov, and for many his poems remained the leitmotif of ideas about those events. However, even then, in 1918, there was a completely different assessment - not the dedication of the "Stepnyakov", there were no disagreements - but the position of their superiors and, as a result, the significance of the campaign as a whole.

“Whatever the explanation for the betrayal of General Popov, it was a self-evident betrayal. Its results were very great for the Dobrov[ol'skaya] army and all its work! This insignificant man brought grave harm to the common cause of all of Russia and the Don for the sake of shamefully petty personal motives, but he still did not remain in the chieftains: almost losing his entire detachment in aimless walking around the winter quarters near the village of Velikoknyazheskaya, he was dismissed one of the first same orders of the military ataman Krasnov, ”the journalist A. A. Suvorin wrote then, laying on command "Stepnyakov" blame for refusing to join the Volunteer Army, which, under the command of Generals L. G. Kornilov and M. V. Alekseev, left on the same days on his legendary First campaign against the Kuban. General A. I. Denikin was later, in his “Essays on the Russian Troubles”, less strict towards the Marching Ataman: “Popov explained that, considering the mood of his troops and commanders, he could not leave his native Don and decided to wait for awakening in his steppes Cossacks. They also said about him that ambition kept him from submitting to Kornilov. For us, Don was only a part Russian(italics by A.I. Denikin. - A.K.) territory, for them the concept of “homeland” was divided into its constituent elements - one is closer and more tangible, the other is distant, speculative.

It seems that there is no need to talk about the increased ambition of the Camping Ataman - from a young age, "capable, but calm, melancholy-minded", he made a measured career all his life in staff and military teaching positions (from 1910 to 1918 he was the head of the Novocherkassk Cossack military school) and ambitious plans, it seems, did not differ, although here the influence of his Chief of Staff, Colonel V. I. Sidorin, whose ambitions are contemporariesrated as much higher. At the same time, General Popov’s plan was not without its reasons, and the general himself described it this way in his memoirs of a meeting with the command of the Volunteer Army on February 13: which at that time the red gangs did not dare to go far, rest, organize, repair, replenish in abundance with horse composition and calmly wait until the Cossacks get sick and themselves turn with a request for help. We won’t have to wait long for this, since the spring and the beginning of field work should undoubtedly produce a radical upheaval in the Cossack’s soul.”

Let us note that in his prediction about the radical nature of the "coup" Popov was, in fact, mistaken (we will see this later); but Alekseev's plan - to transfer the Volunteer Army to the Kuban - was also based on an erroneous idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe strong position of the Kuban Military Government and the significant strength of its armed formations (after all, it was not so much a military campaign that was supposed to be the First Kuban, but rather the relocation of the Army). Therefore, the difference between the two positions did not lie in one degree or another of insight, but in something even more significant - in views on the strategy of struggle.

Emphasizing "the question of the possibility of fulfilling those nationwide tasks that our organization set itself," General Alekseev wrote to Kornilov: "... With such a decision (in agreement with the plan of the Marching Ataman. - A.K.) it is impossible not only to continue our work, but even, if necessary, the relatively painless liquidation of our cause and the salvation of the people who entrusted us with their fate. In winter camps, the detachment will very soon be compressed on one side by the blooming Don River, and on the other, by the Tsaritsyn - Torgovaya - Tikhoretskaya - Bataysk railway, and all railway junctions and exits of dirt roads will be occupied by the Bolsheviks, which will completely deprive us of the opportunity to receive replenishment of people and objects supplies, not to mention the fact that being in the steppe will put us aside from the general course events in Russia. Thus, Alekseev, even with a general “waiting strategy” (“starvation”), strives to preserve the opportunity for active action, while Popov’s same “waiting strategy” borders in essence on the “strategy survival” in the hope of awakening Don.

But it wasn't easy to survive either. The frequently encountered word "wanderings" does not fully characterize the Steppe Campaign. “During this heroic campaign, he stepped into it (in a newspaper publication it is erroneously “from him”. - A.K.) a small Cossack detachment withstood 28 battles with hordes of Reds, ”said on February 24, 1919, at a meeting of the Great Military Circle, its chairman V.A. for 80 days, that is, on average, two days on the third - this is not at all a little. But the exaggeration, if any, turned out to be not very significant: General Popov recalled how many difficulties the unfolding red agitation brought to the detachment.

“Calling on the help of the Stavropol and Astrakhan residents to fight the“ Cadets ”(the common name for the Whites in the mouth of the Reds. - A.K.), they (red agitators. - A.K.) they said that the Cadets, on their way, completely massacre the entire population, not sparing even children, rob property, burn villages and in their barbarity know no boundaries.

Such absurd, absolutely unbelievable rumors had their results: the Salsky, Astrakhan, and Stavropol peasants rose up. From villages 200-300 versts from the border [of the Don Region], they hurried on carts with weapons in their hands to the rescue of their “offended comrades”. […] And the more calmly we kept, the stronger they became, which is why small skirmishes and skirmishes of reconnaissance units soon turned into battles.

For the most part, the fighting was not as stubborn as those that the Volunteer Army had to endure in the First Kuban campaign, but for a small detachment of "Stepnyaks" the severity turned out to be quite proportional. The transitions were also difficult. “Evening is coming soon, but I can’t rest from yesterday’s crossing ... 55 miles! It’s easy to pronounce this figure, but passing it in one “sit” is not a joke ... The whole body aches unbearably, the legs are rubbed and swollen ... Now these are not legs, but some kind of logs! To move them, you need to make a big effort, which gives off pain in every joint ... "- complains the officer" Stepnyak "- and what can we say about those young of his comrades-in-arms, whose unaccustomed to hard and dirty military work could only be partially compensated youth and enthusiasm. “Two words about our detachment ... - writes the same author. - A small number of people (with all the “furshpanniks”, the cook and his assistant did not reach such an insignificant numbers like 50) - he could combine in himself a whole regiment in spirit ... At least, such shameless fun, such jokes and such friendly laughter at a time when your heart hurts and sucks in the stomach - I still I have never watched in my life... It is difficult to explain why and why the partisans-members had so much fun... Maybe because each of they, taken separately, were not even 17-18 years old? […] I am almost inclined to think that my comrades-in-arms were so young that they did not want to think about the danger they were exposed to, and with all the ardor and youthful ardor characteristic of adolescence and youth, they responded to the call of their superiors and went to the foggy distance to defend their homeland ... "

E. F. Semiletov

But for this, the bosses had to have the necessary charm to inspire their subordinates. And in them, obviously, some kind of hidden strength and faith in the work they started were felt, since not only the Marching Ataman with his “epic calmness” (“not with one of his gestures, not one movement, not even appearance [...] - he does not never betrayed his true feelings”), but also his closest assistant, the commander of the largest of the detachments, military foreman E.F. Semiletov, in which the observer noted"distant, aloof, gaze" - became the idols of the partisans.

“The partisan Vasily Chernetsov was fabulous, all from the intoxicating wind.

But Semiletov is calm and fit as a father for a young captain.

However, young people came to him, and followed him, impetuous, dashing.

In his detachment, the schoolboys danced the lezginka to the strumming of the balalaika.

He had Chinese in his squad.

Shango the captain, said the yellow faces.

The future deacons are staid, the priests of the village, - forgetting about the troparia and censers, - the seminarians went to Semiletov, ”the publicist Viktor Sevsky (V. A. Krasnushkin) wrote about him, reflecting on the “secret of charm” of the leaders of the Stepnyakov and coming to conclusion:

“They were followed by the shadows of the old chieftains, and they, these shadows, called under the banner of the steppe generals all the free, all the brave.

For they were the stewards of Kaledin's soul."

Most of the Cossack authors agree on this. “The very fact of the existence of the Steppe Detachment indicated that the Cossacks were not dead, not strangled, they were fighting for their existence. This thought instilled courage, eliminated apathy, discouragement, slavish subordination, called for struggle, for a feat, this explains the speed with which the uprising began, ”says the Don politician K. Kaklyugin. “Moreover, when the uprisings began, it was precisely where the “Steppe detachment” roamed that the Marching Ataman became the center of the movement, the central authority. He helps and promotes the uprising. Villages and farmsteads adjoin the uprising, where the “Steppe detachment” appears ... ”But in this assessment, along with a fair grain, there is also a clear exaggeration.

Not only the scale of the uprising and the strength (numbers, weapons) of the rebels should not be exaggerated, but their very spirit was far from being so sacrificial and heroic. So, a number of stanitsa squads, which had mobilized themselves and opposed the Bolsheviks, according to Popov’s memoirs, simply thwarted the planned operation on March 30: “... The Cossacks rallied and went to their villages, abandoning their positions. No persuasion of the commanders of the detachments had any effect on them, and the warning of the marching ataman (Popov himself. - A.K.) that in this way they will bring the Reds to their villages and bring on their homes and families all the horror of their demonic malice and destruction. The sobering-up, apparently, was very relative, and it was no coincidence that General Denikin drew attention to the fact that already in April, “the marching ataman, who was preparing an attack on Novocherkassk, had to send punitive expeditions more than once to the unrepentant villages that supported the Bolsheviks, located even in the immediate vicinity of the ataman headquarters.”

So, the emotional impact on the Cossacks hardly reached the level that his leaders expected, and moreover, they said that “General Popov, having arrived in the village of Nizhne-Kurmoyarskaya, under the impression of losing faith in the possibility of a Cossack recovery and uprising, on the 1st April gave the order to disperse his detachment, as a result of which part of the partisans dispersed with weapons, ”and even the autonomous actions of the cavalry detachment of Colonel K.K.Mamantov was explained by the fact that he “decided to separate from the main forces of the Marching Ataman” (Popov denied this). And yet, having passed through this moment of crisis, the "Stepnyaki" survived as a combat-ready formation and provided significant support to the Zaplavskaya group of rebels.

The “Provisional Don Government” formed in Zaplavskaya, headed by the Yesaul G.P.

“After a difficult campaign, Major General Pyotr Kharitonovich Popov arrived at the head of his detachment at the head of his detachment.

The Provisional Don Government is in full unity with the valiant Command of the Don Army (this name was adopted by the armed formations of the Provisional Government. - A.K.) decided for the good of the cause and the success of the struggle against the rapists over the Don Cossacks - to transfer the supreme Command and the fullness of military power to the Marching Ataman, Major General P. Kh. Popov.

The Provisional Don Government, elected and invested with the confidence of the insurgent Cossacks, reserves, until the convening of the Don Salvation Circle, full civil power and supreme control over all issues related to the success of the struggle against the Bolsheviks.

The Don Salvation Circle must be convened immediately upon the liberation of the capital of the Don from the Bolsheviks.

Having taken general command, General Popov formed three military groups from the units at his disposal: North - from their partisans, led by Semiletov, and from the former "Don Army" - Zadonsk, led by General P. T. Semenov, and South - from the Zaplavskaya group, led by Colonel S. V. Denisov, before that who held the post of Chief of Staff of the Don Army; The commander of the Army, General K.S. Polyakov, was left out of work, which was later blamed on the Marching Ataman. The sympathies were not warmed up by the statements of Popov, who, according to the memoirs of a contemporary, divided all the Don officers into the following categories: “1) the heroes who left with the Marching Ataman and thereby fulfilled their duty to the Motherland, 2) the criminals who remained on February 12 in Novocherkassk and thanks to this, they did not fulfill their duty to the region, and therefore deserved only one punishment, and 3) middle officers who left Novocherkassk on April 4 ”(if such a classification really took place, and was not an invention of the memoirist, then we have to admit that Subsequently, the Camping Ataman significantly softened his reproaches to those who "remained on February 12 in Novocherkassk" - some of them could even, as we know, claim to be awarded the Steppe Cross).

Despite the numerical superiority of the rebels, their qualitative composition left much to be desired: a participant in the events notes that “the Southern Group of the Cossacks of the rebel villages [-] up to 6 1/2 thousand fighters [-] was 2–2 1/2 times larger than the detachment Marching Ataman (Northern Group), but in terms of combat effectiveness it was incomparably weaker: after the abandonment of Novocherkassk, the “heartbeat” was not restored, ”and the main strategic task was to strike atto the center of the formation of the miners' Red Guard, Aleksandrovsk-Grushevsky, Popov entrusted his partisans, tested in the campaign, who, with the relative passivity of the Denisov group ("With the exception of a few combat episodes, the Southern Group remained present, and not an active force in the development of the planned operation"), fulfilled their duty : "... The main task is the mastery of Alexander-Grushevsky (so in the original source. - A.K.) - The steppe detachment had to decide almost on its own, which led to a delay in the operation, repeated attacks and unnecessary losses among the partisans.

M. G. Drozdovsky

However less as a result of combined actions with the participation of the approaching detachment of Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky (who completed his legendary campaign from the Romanian front to join the Volunteer Army), it was possible to repel the red threat from the coal basin and liberate Novocherkassk (April 23), where the congress met on April 28 representatives from the rebellious villages and military units, who declared himself the "Circle of Saving the Don". Having decided to restore the ataman rule, on May 3, the Circle elected General P. N. Krasnov as the Army Ataman; On the 4th, Krasnov officially assumed power, and on the 5th he announced the formation of a new government (“Council of Managers of Departments of the Government of the Great Don Army”), and the last date, as we know from the inscription on the Steppe Cross, was the end date of the Steppe campaign.

How can its results be characterized? Obviously, the Steppe Detachment failed to fully inspire the Cossacks and raise them to fight by the mere fact of its existence, although, of course, it played a certain role in this capacity. In general, the nature of the Civil War is such that "popular movements" (uprisings, demonstrations, etc.), as experience shows, do not achieve success, no matter how courageous and combat-ready their contingent may be - if regular forces do not come to the rescue, but a detachment The marching Ataman was such a force, despite his partisan character, and here his role and significance are undeniable. And the Steppe Campaign, like the rest of the First Campaigns, acquires even greater significance if we move from consideration of earthly and material problems to the spiritual level.

In fact, Kornilov and Alekseev hoped to find a base in the Kuban to fight - but they met with fierce resistance from the Red troops; the goal of the campaign - Yekaterinodar - was achieved, but almost became the grave of the entire Volunteer Army, which escaped from the hardest battles with significant losses, of which we will name the death of Kornilov as the first. Drozdovsky's detachment was moving to join the "Kornilov" volunteers, but not only did they approach the Don too late, when the Volunteer Army had already left it, they also suffered significant losses in the very first serious battle, and the result of the battle was perceived at first simply as defeat. The steppe detachment was on the verge of dispersion, and although the hopes for a “Cossack awakening” were partially realized, the forms of this “awakening” differed significantly from those that Popov and his associates imagined for themselves ... But over all these toils and hardships, battles and campaigns, it seemed the sacred motto burns -E the Gospel commandment: enduring to the end, he will be saved.

“The Lord will not leave us,” General Alekseev said in the days of the First Kuban campaign to a silent question addressed to him about the fate of the Army. The words, strange and even pitiful in the mouth of a commander-strategist, were great and necessary for the Leader-Christian in such terrible years as the Troubles of the 20th century became for Russia. And no matter how controversial or vain the earthly calculations on which the First Campaigns were built, the Campaigns themselves forever went down in history as a great feat of the Spirit.

STEPPE HIKE

In January-February, the Red Army units advanced from the north to Novocherkassk and Rostov, displacing the White formations. Under the onslaught of those had to leave the Don. A volunteer detachment was formed, headed by Colonel P.Kh. Popov numbering 1700 people. The colonel took the military valuables, part of the military gold reserves, the property of the quartermaster warehouses and took the Cossacks from Novocherkassk to the Steppe campaign, to the Salsky steppes. Ataman knew that sooner or later the Cossacks would not accept the new government. The task of this campaign was to preserve a combat-ready core until spring, around which the Don Cossacks could once again rally and raise weapons.

The campaign lasted three months, 16 partisan formations participated - first two, and then almost three thousand bayonets and sabers. A participant in the Steppe campaign was the Don poet Yesaul N.N. Turovers. In the detachment were teenagers of a younger age - the cadets, who were part of the combat units. One of them, a pupil of the 7th grade of the Konstantinovsky real school N.N. Evseev, died of wounds, was buried on March 26 near the village of Erketinskaya. “I don’t know why and who needs it, who sent them to death with an untrembling hand ...” And they lowered him into eternal rest - into the bitter-salty land of the Kalmyk steppe. They called themselves the "Detachment of Free Don Cossacks."

I had to experience many difficulties, February, either with a thaw, or with frost, fettered all living things. Participants of the Campaign spoke about their relationship with the local Cossacks: “When we “figured out” on the Don what kind of Soviet power it was, we had to meet many atamans of villages and farms (sometimes very far away) and Kalmyks riding on horseback, sometimes suffocated (bareback) with a request to the gene. Popov to lead their uprising. Separately, the lists of personnel of the Steppe campaign included four Kalmyk hundreds, more than 500 sabers under the command of General I.D. Popov.

Along with the units, a Kalmyk group of members of the Military Circle followed. The Kalmyk Cossacks from the Zadonsk villages joined the partisans. In the village of Vlasovskaya, a large gathering of Kalmyk clergy from all 13 villages was announced in support of the white movement. At this stage, a group of more than 500 sabers joined, which amounted to about 20% of the "Stepnyaks", in March 1918 only 2000 Kalmyks were fighting in the white partisan detachments.

A detachment under the command of the cornet Abushi Alekseev from the village of Grabbevskaya joined the Campaign on March 5. With the support of the Kalmyk-Cossacks of the Platov village ataman Abushi Sarsinov, this detachment executed several non-residents - supporters of the new government. After the departure of the Steppe Detachment, the angry peasants struck back at the families of the Don Kalmyks. They were subjected to repression. Esaul Badma Seldinov, centurion B.S. Bakbushev were shot in March 1918. They were escorted from Remontnaya station to Zimovniki station and executed on the way.

The Whites also tried to mobilize the peasants, but when the opportunity arose, they deserted, scattering home.

First P.Kh. Popov was able to resist only the local Red Guard detachments, in quantity and quality hardly superior to the stanitsa Cossack squads. Ataman wrote: “Here, in the wilderness, far from the railway, at rest, it was supposed to give rest to the troops, replenish the detachments, and put in order the transport unit. However, the situation turned out differently. With the appearance of partisan detachments in the Zimovniki region, the movement captured not only the Salsk district, but penetrated into the depths of the Astrakhan and Stavropol steppes. 36 Then armored trains and echelons of the Red Guards were sent against him from Tsaritsyn and Torgovaya (n / to the city of Salsk).

Armored trains on the line Tsaritsyn - Tikhoretskaya were often used, they were an effective means of combat. For the whites, these were “General Alekseev”, “Forward for the Motherland”, for the reds, “Wrestler”, “Will”, “Bryansky”.37

In the second half of February 1918, on the instructions of the Kotelnikovsky Revolutionary Committee, a detachment under the command of P.A. Lomakin set out for the Remontnaya station, where he joined up with the Tsaritsyn detachment of I.V. Tulak and with the Kotelnikovites. There were up to 200 fighters under the command of V.F. Boltruchuk. On the armored train moved to Velikoknyazheskaya. "Stepnyaki" under the command of General M.N. Gnilorybov repulsed the offensive. The Red partisans retreated to Repairnaya, P.A. Lomakin left the station for the steppe through the farms of Maryanov and Gureev.

The Whites took the center of the Salsky District, the village of Velikoknyazheskaya. Along the way, they dissolved the farm and stanitsa Soviets.

The Reds once again rallied their forces, established communications and supplies with the Tsaritsyno divisions, and drove the Stepnyakov out of Velikoknyazheskaya. Those had to break out to the right bank of the Don through the villages of Burulskaya - Erketinskaya - Andreevskaya - the Korolev farm. Not far from the Savoskin farm (n / in the Zimovnikovsky district), a battle took place with the Red Guard units, there were losses on both sides.

As a result, the Steppe campaign turned out to be surrounded by the Reds, under their pressure it was ousted from the winter quarters of the horse breeders, and they had to move north. Moving forward with battles, the detachment reached the villages of Andreevskaya and Erketinskaya. On March 10, they occupied the village of Chunusovskaya, in Potapovskaya there was a connection of detachments. Here they deployed into a large military group: Commander General I.D. Popov, 5th Don cavalry regiment under the command of military foreman K.A. Lenivova, 6th Kalmyk Cavalry Regiment - Prince D.Ts. Tundutov. Detachment K.V. Sakharov concentrated in the villages of Atamanskaya, Potapovskaya, Belyaevskaya, Erketinskaya. In total, in Zadonye, ​​the Whites formed a group of 1,435 people.

It was decided to encircle and defeat the Red troops in the area of ​​the Gashun and Repair stations. The offensive was scheduled for the night of March 13. I.D. group Popova cut the railway between the stations Remontnaya - Kotelnikovo. Parts of S.L. Markov attacked in the forehead, on the left flank of the Kalmyk regiment. The Reds, surrounded, resisted for two days, I.V. Tulak was killed.

On the night of March 19, a Kalmyk arrived at the ataman, who was on reconnaissance in the area of ​​​​the villages of Erketinskaya and Andreevskaya. He said that back in the first half of March, the Andreevites raided the Kotelnikovo station to obtain weapons. The village is ready to attack the Bolsheviks at any moment. A "messenger" from the rebellious Cossacks of the 2nd Don District, as well as other envoys from 11 Cossack villages, arrived at the general. They declared that they recognized in his person the supreme military authority.

The participants of the Steppe campaign Junker Kazantsev and four partisans who lived there arrived at the Moiseev farm. The commander of the Dubovsky detachment of the Reds G.G. Markin ordered them to be arrested and taken to the Repair station. The Cossacks of the surrounding farms raised the alarm and began to ask for help from the villages. The next morning, 70 horsemen gathered and moved towards Repairnaya. Along the way, Cossacks from Zhukov and other farms joined, by the evening of March 24, about 300 Cossacks stood at the station, demanding the release of their own. They yielded, the partisans were returned. But it was already impossible to stop the uprising. A detachment of 600 people gathered in the village of Baklanovskaya. On the way to the Repair station, he was replenished with Cossacks from neighboring farms.

On April 7, the Dubovsky Revolutionary Committee was convened in the station building. The meeting was disrupted, a consolidated detachment of Cossacks approached from the direction of the Barabanshchikov farm, they surrounded the station, took Repairnaya on foot.

G.G. Markin fired back on the street near the station (in the place where a two-story residential building is now built).38 He was hacked to death. Bantiev, a deputy from the Kapylkov farm, was seriously wounded by a saber. The Revkomites set sail across the Sal and fled, some to Zimovniki, some to Velikoknyazheskaya.

After the capture of the Revolutionary Committee, it was necessary to decide its fate. Prosperous peasant Ya.I. Ocheretin and V. Kovalenko, an agent for buying leather raw materials. The deputies were driven to the Minaevsky farm and further to the village of Baklanovskaya. Then the prisoners were returned to the Dubovsky farm, where a court-martial was held, the Cossack Pokhlebin from the village of Tsymlyanskaya presided, a member of the court, the ataman of the Dubovsky farm D.F. Frolov. Soon, a Red Guard detachment approached from Kotelnikovo, the trial did not take place, the deputies were released.

Having learned about the performance of the Baklanovites, new squads of the villages of Ternovskaya, Filippovskaya and Romanovskaya approached Repairnaya, which increased the number of rebels to 3000. They destroyed the railway, under the command of Yesaul G. Andrianov captured Semichnaya. However, the stanitsa got tired of fighting, they protested and began to disperse, the indignation of the Cossacks dried up.

The uprising was preceded by a clash in the village of Tsymlyanskaya. A Council was elected there, which seized the village property and the treasury, and imposed an indemnity on the Cossacks. A Red Guard squad was formed, but the stanitsa gathering decided to disband it. On April 2, a detachment of 70 people led by Konstantin Leontiev began to leave for the Remontnaya station.

The Cossacks rose in a flash. Troop foreman I.E. Golitsyn announced the beginning of the uprising. Following the Reds, intelligence was sent, led by the centurion G.I. Chapchikov, fifty from the village of Efremovskaya joined her. The path of the Red Guards was blocked by a detachment from the Sadkov farm, led by the sergeant major Efrem Popov. The Cossacks now had more than 150 sabers, they were armed with pikes, checkers, and there were very few rifles.

On April 8, the squad was driven to a low meadow place, about two versts from the railway, between the farms of Kravtsov and Shcheglov. Seeing the hopelessness of their situation, and the cartridges were running out, the combatants threw their rifles, threw out a white flag. But the Cossacks attacked from all sides, the checkers flashed and did their fatal deed. The Red Guard Fevralyov, seeing his wife’s brother among the Cossacks, threw himself on the neck of his horse, shouting: “Brother, save, save!” But the blade with a whistle interrupted the death cry. A Cossack from the Shcheglov farm killed the commander of the detachment K.M. Leontiev. In a few minutes it was all over. Only two managed to survive. At night, the Cossacks returned home, and near the Shcheglov farm Zhirov grew a mound of a mass grave without a cross, 66 people were buried. Currently, there is a monument on this site.

After the defeat of the Tsymlyansk squad, the Cossack uprising began to spread again through the villages of the 1st and 2nd Don districts. Under the command of Colonel S.K. Borodin and Yesaul G. Andrianov On April 8, the village of Baklanovskaya flared up, the Cossacks got in touch with the partisans.

At this time, the "Stepnyaks" continued to move with battles, they were forced out by the Reds from the village of Burulskaya. On April 8, the main forces of the partisans, led by Kalmyk guides, headed to Erketinskaya. In order not to interrupt the connection, Kalmyk patrols were sent. By evening, they settled in the village, the horse-officer hundred occupied the winter quarters of B.S. Bakbusheva. Junker detachment of Yesaul N.P. Slyusareva (96 people), Ataman detachment of Colonel G.D. Kargalsky (92 people) and the detachment of K.K. Mamontov occupied the village of Andreevskaya. The Kalmyk hundreds of General I.D. were stationed here. Popova, commanders: 1st hundred Colonel D.L. Abramenkov, 2nd hundred military foreman S. Kostryukov, 3rd hundred commander P.M. Avramov, 4th centurion Yamanov.39

P.H. Popov received a letter from Colonel A.I. Boyarinov from the Nizhne-Kurmoyarskaya village, which reported: the right-bank villages were ripe for an uprising, the partisans needed to hurry beyond the Don in order to raise them. The defense of the village of Erketinskaya was entrusted to the military foreman E.F. Semiletov.

The general decided to move to the village of Andreevskaya and cross the Sal River there. There were no crossings on the river. The "Stepnyaks" had a survey of the wounded and sick, a quartermaster, squad convoys. In the spring of that year there was a strong flood, Sal spread widely. Military K.A. was appointed the head of the crossing. Lenivova.

The Reds learned that the headquarters of the Whites was now in Erketinskaya, and the Andreevskaya stanitsa Cossack squad joined them. We decided to move to the station. We hid in the khotunka Tsagan, then along the bank of the Bolshoi Gashun we went to the outskirts, we can already see the khurul. The red partisans from the Gashun station arrived in time, the detachment of G.N. Skibs, entered into battle with a group of E.F. Semiletov.

Leaving the village of Erketinskaya, the whites took up a position three versts from Andreevskaya. A detachment of junkers joined, leaving B. Bakbushev's winter quarters. Andreevsky Cossacks provided assistance, with their participation more than a dozen rafts on barrels were built, for the construction of which non-resident villages were mobilized. The crossing lasted all day on April 8. The battery, having crossed the Sal River, took up a firing position in the stanitsa cemetery. Until about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when the crossing of the convoys ended, E.F. Semiletov repulsed the attacks of the Reds, and then began to withdraw units subordinate to him from the battle, ferrying them across the river to Andreevskaya. The last, until dusk, on the left bank were the Kalmyk hundreds, who, together with the junkers, repeatedly went on the attack. Under cover of fire from four guns, they overcame Sal by swimming.

The Reds left Erketinskaya. Having missed the Stepnyakov, they headed for the settlement of Ilyinka. During this period of the war, most of the Red Guard detachments left the fight, in the best traditions of peasant wars, they did not want to leave their native places. They did not rush into battle: "the Cadets are fleeing, and there is no need to fight."

All the forces of the whites concentrated in the village of Andreevskaya, they were joined by the village team. The ataman intended, moving towards the Don, to cut the railway and stop for 1-2 days in the Korolev farm. To ensure the safety of the passage of the partisans, the ataman ordered the cadet detachment N.P. Slyusarev with the onset of darkness to blow up the roadbed at the station Semichnaya. On April 10, the Ataman cavalry detachment occupied the Repairnaya station, the 2nd separate battery of E.A. Kuznetsova fought off the battleship and for a short time also entered Repairnaya.

On April 13, they concentrated in the farms of Minaev and Korolev. In Korolev P.Kh. Popov conferred with the leaders of the local rebels. Those asked to strike with all their might on Kotelnikovo, where they could capture artillery guns and many other weapons. But the general sought to go to the Don and cross to the right bank.

The detachment of the Marching Ataman in the majority consisted of officers and cadets, and the Cossacks still had strong anti-officer sentiments. With all the fighting qualities, the rebel Cossacks, having liberated their village, did not want to go further, and it was not possible to raise them to pursue the enemy. Rallies began among the rebels, the squads melted away, they began to leave for their farms, practically nothing was left of the detachment of the village of Baklanovskaya. Remaining with P.Kh. Popov's forces began crossing the Don at the Krivsky farm and the village of Nizhne-Kurmoyarskaya. Thus ended the Steppe campaign, 28 battles in 80 days. Then the chieftain organized the overgrown forces, sent his "Stepnyakov" and the remnants of the personnel regiments from the village of Nizhne-Kurmoyarskaya to Novocherkassk, where the detachment joined the Don Army. A year later, all participants in the campaign were awarded the Steppe Cross badge. Of the two thousand, 610 people survived, by March 1920, 400 had survived.

The blizzard swept up the paths and paths of the small steppe army.

IN COLOVERTI

Tsaritsyn defended four times in two years. The Zadonsk steppes witnessed the movement of huge masses of people to Tsaritsyn and back. The civil war in the summer and autumn of 1918 is a struggle for communications. The direction of operations through the stations Repairnaya - Semichnaya each time was, if not decisive, then in any case one of the main ones. It was here, on the line Kotelnikovo - Velikoknyazheskaya, that there was a junction, a significant section of the intersection of the interests of the warring parties. The most important was the natural boundary - the railway bridge over the river Sal. From a tactical point of view, the Remontnaya station was the southern gate to Tsaritsyn.

In the spring and summer of 1918, the situation in the troops, both white and red, was uncertain. On both sides, there were cases of refusal to obey orders, leaving positions. Some stanitsa squads that opposed the Bolsheviks, according to the memoirs of the Marching ataman, disrupted the planned operation to force the march to the right bank of the Don: “The Cossacks held a meeting and went to their villages, abandoning their positions. No persuasion of the chiefs of the detachments had any effect on them ... "

The same was true for the Reds. When the commander of the Southern Front decided to leave Zadonye and transfer detachments, concentrating them on the defense of Tsaritsin, the commander (as in the order) G.K. Shevkoplyasov replied: “The Red Army soldiers of the front, having learned about the transfer of troops to the northern front, do not trust the commanders, as there are already cases that the Martyninites wanted to shoot Sitnikov, who was elected by them and commanded them for more than six months.”41

Only by 1919 everything fell into place. There was nowhere to run.

According to the laws of the time of troubles, insolent people were born in large numbers, in the past they were tried for deeds that were by no means of a political nature. A typical product of a revolution is scum on the crest of events. Before the capture of Rostov in 1918 by German troops, the city was subjected to spontaneous and devastating robbery: banks, shops, and arsenals were opened. Weapons, government valuables, gold, expensive goods without regard were loaded into trains. These trains moved to Tsaritsyn along the Vladikavkaz branch. Black banners were raised. The transports of Chernyak, Beryozka, Gulyai-Gulyayko passed through the Remontnaya station in early June.

The most incredible rumors reached the anarchists, the legends about the Marusya detachment were especially popular. In a narrow circle, on thieves' "raspberries" she was called Murka. There were other Nikiforovs, there are still disputes about which of them is the prototype of the "heroine" of thieves' songs. On the way to Tsaritsyn, Marusya learned that Petrenko and Chernyak were disarmed. She did not tempt fate, she tried to hide on the dusty tracts of the Salsky steppes. The path was short, we stumbled upon a Red Army patrol from the S.A. detachment. Sitnikov. The detachment was completely destroyed, Marusya was shot. She was brought in a leather uniform for identification to the Semichnaya station, and a burial was made here among the graves of 13 anarchists who died in the battle near Meliorative - Kotelnikovo. Rostov-papa, - history is silent.

Since the morning of May 13, five echelons had been stationed at the Semichnaya station and the junctions, the anarchists did not want to hand over their weapons. They shot Stefan Baklanov, a Cossack from the Dubovsky farm. One of the echelons was fired upon by the Reds, several dozen more people were killed and wounded. Anarchist P.K. The foreman with all the weapons went over to the Reds, was determined to reinforce the garrison of the Semichnaya station.

The front line between the opposing sides became increasingly clear. The right bank of the Don became the starting position of the Volunteer Army and the Don Army, the left bank bristled with bayonets of partisan detachments and Red Guard squads. Detachment P.A. Lomakin, who operated in the area of ​​​​the villages of Atamanskaya and Andreevskaya, defended the region from the east, a detachment of P.Z. Chesnokov, in the area of ​​​​the villages of Verkhne-Kurmoyarskaya and Nagavskaya, took the blows from the right side of the Don. In the area of ​​the Semichnaya station, the detachment of T. Lobashevsky, together with the anarchists, covered Kotelnikovo from the south side. In the Kotelnikovsky sector alone, 3,500 red bayonets and sabers were under arms.

On the night of June 12, 1918, two hundred Kalmyk volunteers under the command of Yesaul B. Seldinov took the village of Vlasovskaya (Bembyakhinskaya) and the Gashun station. The partisan period of the formation of units of the White Kalmyk-Cossacks ended here, they joined the regular units of the Don Army.

At this time, the Whites took Novocherkassk. Atamans A. Sarsinov from the village of Platovskaya and A.A. Alekseev from Grabbevskaya, with the support of a member of the Troop Government B. Ulanov, obtained permission to form the Zyungarsky (Kalmyk) regiment in the Salsky district. The idea received the assistance of the military ataman P.N. Krasnov.

The ancient homeland of the Kalmyks, Zyungaria (Dzungaria), was named the regiment in memory of the distant homeland. "Kalmyk" - not from the fact that the whites formed a purely national regiment, there were many other Donets in it. This name was received for the merits of the Don Kalmyks in the Steppe campaign. The regiment was organized in the village of Konstantinovskaya, had five hundred, consisted of the Cossacks of Platovskaya, Burulskaya and Grabbevskaya and other villages that were in the Steppe campaign.43 A.A. Alekseev commanded the 4th hundred of the regiment, and was also engaged in the supply and uniforms of the regiment. Cornet P.B. served in the Zyungar regiment. Abushinov from the village of Chunusovskaya. One of the first baptisms of the Zyungars was the battle of the units of Major General I.F. Bykadorov against the red detachments, which took place on July 9 near Chunusovskaya.

Subsequently, the regiment became known as the 80th DKP, fought in the Don region as part of the K.K. Mamontov against the red detachments of G.K. Shevkoplyasova. According to the memoirs of ataman G.D. Balzanov, it was one of the most reliable white Don regiments, the only one in the Don army that went through the entire Civil War without disbanding, reorganizing and changing its name, was able to cross to the Crimea after the Novorossiysk disaster A.I. Denikin.

Then, from seven Kalmyk villages, including Chunusovskaya, Potapovskaya, Erketinskaya, Colonel A.A. Alekseev and Yesaul B. Seldinov, the 3rd Don Kalmyk Regiment was formed in the village of Vlasovskaya. The regiment was dressed in blue trousers with yellow stripes, a khaki tunic, a cap with a black plush rim and a yellow top. On the banner is an image of the ancient Kalmyk god of war "Yamanndag" on a dark bay horse. The gonfalon was handed personally by the Lama to all Don Kalmyks to M.B. Bormanzhinov. The present banner is stored in the Novocherkassk Museum of the History of the Don Cossacks.

The first commander was the military foreman Suvorov. After he was wounded, the regiment was accepted by the captain (then through the rank - colonel) N.P. Slyusarev. An English officer described him in his memoirs: “Their colonel, a youthful-looking man with one of the most cruel and self-confident faces that I have ever seen, was of a European type, although Kalmyk blood, which showed its presence in dark skin color and narrow, slanting eyes” .

In total, six Kalmyk regiments fought in parts of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Most of the Don Kalmyk Cossacks sided with the White movement, about 5,000 in all. The Astrakhan and Stavropol Kalmyks did not seek to participate in hostilities.44

There were also Kalmyks in the Red Army. In the Zadonsk steppes, groups of Red Kalmyks were formed under the leadership of K.E. Ilyumzhinov, Kh.B. Kanukova, E.A. Basanova, M.D. Shapsukova, O.I. Gorodovikov. They subsequently joined the regular units.

As part of the red formations formed on the Don, at first there was one Kalmyk national unit - the cavalry detachment of the battalion of the 37th Infantry Division, on the basis of which two squadrons of the 2nd Kalmyk Regiment were formed. In June 1919, the 1st Separate Kalmyk Cavalry Regiment was formed in the village of Denisovskaya under the command of Kalmyk V.A. Khomutnikov.

Soon their leaders became prominent figures in the new government. Oka Gorodovikov - commander of the 2nd Cavalry Army, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov - brigade commander, Vasily Khomutnikov - regiment commander, Harty Kanukov - political commissar of the division.

The trouble with the Kalmyks was that during the Civil War, the Whites often used the steppes in special operations. The Quiet Don says: “At noon, a punitive detachment of Salsk Kalmyk Cossacks drove into Tatarsky. Some of the farmers must have seen Pantelei Prokofievich making his way home; an hour after the punitive detachment entered the farm, four Kalmyks galloped to the Melekhovsky base.

In the fight against desertion, the Kalmyks were again on the crest of events, and detachments were assembled from them to search for and punish them. And again at M.A. Sholokhov: “Fourteen captured deserters were awaiting trial. The trial was short and merciless. The elderly captain, who presided over the meetings, asked the defendant for his last name, first name, patronymic, rank and unit number, found out how long the defendant had been on the run, then in an undertone exchanged a few phrases with the members of the court - an armless cornet and a mustachioed and plump-faced man who had eaten on light bread sergeant major - and announced the verdict. Most of the deserters were sentenced to corporal punishment with rods, which was carried out by the Kalmyks in a non-residential house specially designated for this purpose.

What did not add a positive attitude towards the Kalmyk Cossacks.

Each side continued to grow. The Sal group of the Reds, leaving the stations Dvoynaya, Kuberle, Gashun, retreated to the area of ​​​​the village of Dubovsky. Having blown up the railway bridge across the Sal River, the Reds created a defensive fortified area to the left of the farms of Sadkov and Drummers. Also, the Dono-Stavropol cavalry brigade G.I. Kolpakov with a large convoy of bread. Near the Repair Brigade met with the forces of the Red Army. Thus, the village of Dubovskoye temporarily became the center of the organization of defense against the advancing white troops. To the north, having the Kotelnikovo base, the First Kotelnikov Socialist Division was formed:

1. Detachment P.A. Lomakin was staffed to a regiment with a deployment in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe villages of Atamanskaya and Andreevskaya, with the task of protecting the approaches to the Kotelnikovo defense from the steppe side.

2 . The regiment of T. Lobashevsky was at the Semichnaya station with the task of providing cover at the junction with the Salsk group of troops.

3. Detachment P.K. The foreman in 185 sabers was withdrawn from the combat forces of T. Lobashevsky and redeployed from the Semichnaya station to Kotelnikovo.

In the Salsky detachment of the Reds, there were 9000 infantrymen, 1300 horsemen, 30 machine guns, 18 guns, 3 armored trains.

It was at this time that the famous cart was born. The first documentary mention is found in the memoirs of F.I. Nefyodova: “An order of the following content was soon issued in the detachment: select several carts, put Maxim machine guns on them, choose better, faster horses, experienced riders, instruct Nefyodov (i.e. me) to teach them how to properly install machine guns, firing at high speed.”45 This happened in June, when a regiment was being formed, which at that time was in the settlement of Ilyinka. Perhaps the first mention of the use of a cart refers to the battle near the village of Romanovskaya (May 1918), but the red units were equipped with this innovation precisely on the territory of the Dubovsky district. And the carts of N.I. Makhno appeared later, Batko spent his first battles in September, raiding German farms and estates.

The commander of the 2nd battalion, Pyotr Chesnokov, a former sergeant major of the 22nd Cossack regiment, at the age of 24 already had experience in organizing military command and control. In the village of Nagavskaya there was a hundred Cossack regiment, in which P.Z. Chesnokov. When trying to go over to the side of the Reds, most of the hundreds were cut down by the Whites. Having learned about this, in early June, the sergeant-major took his former colleagues with whom he served in this regiment and, deciding to take revenge, went to Nagavskaya. The detachment was surrounded by whites, the commander was betrayed by a resident of the Aldobulsky farm Seraphim K.

The Whites suggested P.Z. Chesnokov to go to their service, but he refused. The Military Field Court of the village of Nizhne-Kurmoyarskaya, 1st Don District, consisting of: Chairman, Commander of the 4th Cavalry Detachment, Colonel A.V. Golubintsev, jurors Kapkanov and Rozgin decided to betray P.Z. Chesnokov the highest measure of punishment by hanging. On June 11, a gallows was built on Mount Krestov, near the Krivsky farm. The colonel approached the commander of the red detachment:

“Here is that hill, Chesnokov, from which you fired at us in March. Admire her... for the last time.

To which Chesnokov replied:

- My cause is right.

Now former colleagues have become enemies. Forgotten years of joint service. The idea for the award for the sergeant major, which was personally signed by the commander of the 22nd Don Cossack regiment A.V., has been erased from memory. Golubintsev.

As if there was no solemn awarding in Mogilev, when General A.A. Brusilov personally introduced P.Z. Chesnokov to Nicholas II as a Russian hero, awarded the St. George Crosses of the 3rd and 4th degrees, the St. George Medal of the 4th degree, 47 medals "In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty", "100th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino". And what in 1918 was the price of the “George” of a brave intelligence officer? Who of them turned out to be right, who was guilty is still unknown.

Corpse P.Z. The authorities did not allow Chenokov to take pictures, but the next day the body disappeared, he was secretly transported to his native farm of the Ostrovnaya Nagavskaya village, where he was buried. When the farm was occupied by whites, the body was thrown out of the grave. The Reds, having returned, again buried the commander.48

Colonel A.D. Antonov took command of the detachment bearing his name, made up of the Cossacks of Baklanovskaya, Nagavskaya, Upper and Lower Kurmoyarsky villages. The offensive of the units of Colonel V.I. Tapilina to Repairnaya took place on June 28, it was not possible to take the station, the fighting was suspended until reinforcements arrived.

For the Reds, the main thing was the unification of partisan commanders from scattered detachments into regular units of the Red Army. At the suggestion of the central leadership, they all joined in Kuberla and moved to Zimovniki. As a result of the reorganization, the partisan detachments of the Salsky District merged into the 10th Red Army, into the Don Soviet Rifle Division (head of division G.K. Shevkoplyasov).

At first, the Reds did not have enough cavalry. In the spring in Zadonye, ​​first a cavalry squadron was formed from the fighters of partisan detachments, then a division, and in June the horsemen were consolidated into the 1st Socialist Peasant Cavalry Regiment. B.M. was appointed commander. Dumenko, and S.M. Budyonny as his deputy. The regiment numbered about a thousand sabers, for a long time, by the standards of the war, it was stationed in the settlement of Ilyinka, and was part of the Don Rifle Division.

K.E. Voroshilov took command of the Tsaritsyn Front. Chairman of the newly formed Military Council of the North Caucasian Military District I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov and military instructor of the North Caucasian Military District A.E. On July 15, 1918, Snesarev arrived at the Repair station. We held a meeting of the headquarters, which took place in the station house.49 According to the memoirs of old-timers, now this is house number 3 on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street (perhaps this was a building that did not survive).

The task was to organize defense on the right bank of the Sal River. At the meeting, the question of disbanding the soldiers' committees was raised. They began to interfere with the organization of new army units. As a result of disputes, it was decided to leave political fighters in the units, and dissolve the committees.

After spending two weeks in the Remontnaya area, in early August 1918, I.V. Stalin followed to Kotelnikovo.

The Zadonsk Corps surrounded the Reds in Bolshaya Martynovka. At a meeting of the headquarters in Repairnaya, it was decided that it was necessary to help the partisans who were surrounded.

By the forces of the cavalry regiment B.M. Dumenko was ordered to attack the White units. From Ilyinka at one in the morning on July 29, the regiment went on a raid, the commander of the Tsaritsyn Front, K.E. Voroshilov followed with the regiment. In Kuteynikovo and Ilovaiskaya, three hundred Cossacks stationed there were suddenly attacked, about 100 horsemen were hacked to death. In battle, a detachment of Red Kalmyks under the command of O.I. Gorodovikov.

The Whites went on the offensive on Tsaritsyn on August 4, they crossed the Don south of the village of Kurmoyarskaya and, moving east, captured the Repair station. Thus, the 1st Don Rifle Division of the Reds, which remained at the defensive line in Zimovniki, was cut off from moving north to join units of the 10th Army. The division began to move north along the railway in order to fight its way to the main forces. It was difficult, but the only way to salvation.

Using a break in hostilities, a new unit was formed in the settlement of Ilyinka - the 1st Don Soviet Socialist Cavalry Brigade, consisting of two cavalry regiments, a Special Reserve Cavalry Division and a four-battery artillery division. Brigade commander - B.M. Dumenko, S.M. was again appointed his assistant. Budyonny. The brigade commander at that time was 29 years old, and at the age of 30 he already commanded a cavalry corps.

During the retreat of the Red division to the Gashun station and further to Repairnaya, they were joined by a train of Black Sea sailors en route from Tikhoretsk to Tsaritsyn. From the side of the village of Vlasovskaya, the Whites launched an offensive on August 12, their detachment wedged into the defenses of the Reds, installed guns and machine guns, and took control of the approaches to the bridge. The battle for the bridge went on for four days, the Red attacks were repulsed, they took Vlasovskaya.50

The sailors reminded the Vlasov Cossacks of the formation of the Kalmyk regiments. Once buried in greenery and orchards, it was completely burned out, only ashes with protruding pipes remained. Wooden houses with all outbuildings for livestock, barns for storing grain, everything was set on fire. A year later, the village was rebuilt, but according to Kalmyk beliefs, it was impossible to build in the old place, new houses were put up one and a half kilometers from the former location.

White responded in kind. Report: “On Popov’s savings, girls from the village of Zavetnoye were raped and tortured by the Cadets. In the farmsteads of the Ilyinsky volost, 5,000 rubles were taken from citizen Sergeev, bread, in addition, four girls from 12 to 18 years old were raped ... ”The regiment commander Lobashevsky, his assistant Inin.51

In Zimovniki, the 1st Don Rifle Division did not defend for long. She began to retreat to the village of Dubovskoye, took up defense along the right bank of the Sal River. In the south, the steppe group of white troops of General P.Kh. Popov, west of Tsaritsyn, units of Major General K.K. Mamontov, northwest of Tsaritsyn, the troops of Major General A.P. Fitskhelaurova.

Thus, the Reds were under the threat of encirclement. On the right bank of the Sal River, the 1st Don Division of the Reds took up defense, the 1st Cavalry Regiment was located in the settlement of Ilyinka. Squadron G.S. Maslakov was quartered in the farm Barabanshchikov. There was a battle near the village of Verkhnezhirov, the Reds lost 220 people, of which 80 were prisoners.

White sharply intensified hostilities. Corps Commander Major General K.K. Mamontov, with the forces of 12,000 bayonets and sabers from the right bank of the Don, hit the Vladikavkaz railway in the rear of the Reds. The left flank from the west attacked the Repair station, the Whites launched an offensive against Kotelnikovo. It was from three sides: from the farms of Mayorsky, Semichny, Nagolny. With forces of up to 45,000 bayonets and sabers, 150 guns, the Don Army delivered two blows: between Zhutovo - Kotelnikovo and Kotelnikovo - Repair. Detachment of Colonel P.S. Polyakova, numbering up to 10,000 bayonets and sabers, had the task of striking from the south, from the Velikoknyazheskaya area.

About 7,000 Reds retreated to Tsaritsyn. Cut off from the main forces, covering the city from the steppe side, the detachment of P.A. Lomakina fought with the Kalmyk units advancing from the villages of Atamanskaya and Andreevskaya. Strong fighting began at the Repairnaya station, the Whites captured three guns and 21 machine guns. But the Reds brought here three armored cars, two armored trains and infantry from Tsaritsyn. The Whites withdrew to Zimovniki, where the front stabilized for a while, then they left this station as well.

Then a new attack by whites. From the bend of the Don, from the farms of Baklanovsky and Maloluchensky, hundreds of Colonel V.I. Tapilina, attacking from the west, overcame a forty-verst deaf road and on August 4, 1918 broke into Remontnaya.52

From August 25 to September 2, during the offensive of the Don Army, due to the battles near Chunusovskaya - Andreevskaya, there were again heavy losses on both sides.

The Martyno-Orlovsky detachment of the Reds, after the raid and encirclement, went to the Zimovniki station, where it was reorganized into a rifle regiment of the 1st Don Rifle Division. However, the path of movement for connecting with units of the 10th Army was already cut off, the whites blocked the railway bridge. The detachment again found itself in a trap, with it were thousands of refugees. This huge mass moved on foot, in carts, in railway echelons. It was hot, clouds of dust hung over the roads. People and animals suffered from heat and thirst, were exhausted from hunger. In addition to the fighters of the division, all able-bodied people, even women and children, participated in the work on its restoration. Finally the bridge was restored, the refugees broke through to the north. The armored train "Chernomorets" destroyed the supporting piers of the railway bridge with shelling.

The way to salvation was to Tsaritsyn, but the village of Dubovskoye was occupied by the Whites. It was necessary to break through, they decided to do it bypassing through the village of Andreevskaya, where they were not expected. B.M. Dumenko threw two squadrons on the farm of Drummers to divert eyes. In Andreevskaya, opposite the village church, the main forces of the regiment crossed the Sal. From there, we went on an accelerated march to Ilyinka, familiar places. In the settlement they found the advanced guard of the whites, they learned that in Dubovsky there were up to three hundred whites, two plastun regiments were holding the railway bridge, in the village itself one and a half regiments, Cossacks and Kalmyks. The group was headed by Colonel V.I. Tapilin.

We decided to attack with two flanks. CM. Budyonny advanced in two squadrons to the right, to the Repairnaya station. The main forces of the regiment passed under the salsky ravines (past the current subsidiary farm and the laboratory of the SPTU) to the depression near Staraya Dubovka, disguised themselves behind the Tatar (Ibragimov) mound.

Looking from the mound, the regiment commander saw how the white cavalry advanced from the side of the Yerikovsky farm. In a head-on collision, lava upon lava, the decisive word was said by machine guns, removed from carts in time. G.S. Maslakov drove the Whites off the bridge with his squadrons. About the results of the battle in the book "Clouds go to the wind" by V.V. Karpenko wrote: “The black wind seemed to pass through the steppe. Bodies, bodies in the most incredible poses.”

There are many graves left on both sides of the railway, on both sides of the Sal. How many Cossacks and Red Guards, peasants and volunteers, how many of them perished on the salty land of the Don...

The Civil War was reaping its harvest. According to P.N. Krasnov, "the quiet Zadonsk steppe became like the prairies of America, the time of its conquest." He was echoed by A.I. Denikin: “Power as such was in the hands of any armed man who took upon himself the right to execute and pardon at his own discretion.”53

The bloody wheel began to increase momentum, the war took the most brutal forms of mutual extermination and annihilation. Memoirs of a participant in the battles: “Sometimes you stab with a bayonet, you stop for a minute and think: am I a man or a beast? We are losing the human image... Do not judge us... In the great war, we remember bayonet fights without fail. One, two, three - and that's enough ... Talk about them for years. Do you know what's going on here? Here is hell. Here is something from which you can die, seeing once. We do not die, because we are accustomed to and completely killed the person in ourselves. For five months in a row, daily, hourly, we march in bayonet formation. Only bayonet, nothing else. You see, for five months to see every day, or even 2-3 times a day, the enemy a few steps away from you, shooting at point-blank range, to stab several people in a fit of frenzy, to see torn bellies, torn intestines, heads separated from the bodies, hear dying screams and groans... It's indescribable, but understand, it's so terrible. Sometimes, when you are madly tired, there is no thought in your head, and your nerves tremble like strings, you madly want this bayonet or bullet. It doesn't matter if it's too early or too late... Is it possible to survive in this war? No, don't judge. We are jackals and this damned war is a jackal.”

The intensity of mutual hatred reached such a scale that any reconciliation was impossible. Each side began to adhere to the position of jus talionis - the right to retribution. Not everyone accepted the Cossack proverb: a real warrior is the one who has mercy.

In a fit of revenge, not everyone lost their heads. The Cossacks of the village of Andreevskaya attacked the detachment of T. Lobashevsky passing by, lost 15 people. At the analysis, one of the old men suggested that two crests be shot for each Cossack killed. But the commander of the farm hundred Pluzhnikov objected: “Well, it turns out,” he said, “today we will shoot crests, and tomorrow the Reds will come and start shooting the Cossacks. I won't let anyone do that." The old men pursed their lips, the Cossacks standing in the ranks supported Pluzhnikov.

Following the execution of P.Z. Chesnokov, the Reds captured several dozen Cossacks. After long disputes, the Kotelnikovsky Revolutionary Tribunal pardoned everyone.

But these are just examples. More often it was completely different ... In the farmstead Khutorsky (n / in the Zimovnikovsky district), the Kalmyk Cossacks captured S. Litovchenko, forced him to go forward and call the partisans. While the Red Army soldiers were sorting out who was coming, the Kalmyks jumped up and chopped them with checkers. S. Litovchenko, K. Narozhny, I. Semchenko, I. Shakhaev, two brothers Apanasenko died. Next to the dead, the whites placed a plaque and wrote: "Whoever takes and buries the dead, the same death awaits him."

In the village of Atamanskaya, the Reds, under the rule, made a prison in the cellars. They killed the ataman of the farm Ilovlinsky S.I. Kolesov and 12 more Cossacks of the Ataman Yurt. The owner of the water mill L.Kh. Bykadorov was shot dead.55 In the pit in front of the cemetery, both stanitsa dwellers and newcomers were shot, so much so that they did not have time to bury them;

The village of Nagavskaya was defended by about four hundred old Cossacks. They fought to the end. In the midst of a fierce battle, some raised their hands. When the commanders of the regiments Barannikov and Miroshnichenko, who believed that the Cossacks were surrendering, jumped up, they were shot point-blank. The Reds destroyed all the Cossacks.

As the Whites seized power in July 1918, they formed Commissions of Inquiry to investigate the cases of those arrested who were suspected of crimes. For the arrests and searches, persons who were in the Red Guard were accused. These commissions referred cases first to the newly organized Military People's Courts, and then these bodies became known as the Military Field District Courts. N. Ilshev was appointed chairman of the court in the 1st Don district, and A. Popov was appointed chairman of the Salsk Judicial Investigation Commission in the village of Velikonyazheskaya. The Sal District Commission in July-August conducted 230 cases, 181 people were arrested.

The Reds, when they occupied Zadonye, ​​formed the Revolutionary Tribunals. They also had a short conversation.

The punitive measures of both sides since that time have become a regularity, a real consequence of the civil war. Modern historians characterize mutual mass repressions as follows: “Both Reds and Whites bear equal responsibility for the lawlessness and repressions that took place during their military confrontation.”57

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia A.I. Denikin drew attention: "The marching ataman, who was preparing an offensive against Novocherkassk, had to send punitive expeditions more than once to the unrepentant villages that supported the Bolsheviks."

In turn, the commander of the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Kovalev, observing the panic in the units, ordered: “For the successful collection of all able-bodied men for the front, allocate: one punitive squadron, which the front ordered not to be shy: all resisting and disobeying the order of the working people were shot would have been on the spot ”By this time, all participants in the fratricidal war realized that there was no turning back.

The Reds retreated, General I.F. Bykadorov moved troops to defeat the detached Sal group. I.V. Stalin gave the order to send part of the group of Reds to the defense of Tsaritsin. But that was no longer possible. Commander of the Gashun Front G.K. Shevkoplyasov reported: “I bring to your attention that, according to your order dated 02.08.1918 No. 2 / A, it is not possible at the moment to give the troops you require to help create the northern group, due to the fact that the troops of the Army entrusted to me are stretched along the line d.d .: Kotelnikovo station under the command of Steiger, Semichnaya - Repair station under the command of Kolpakov, Gashun station two battalions, Skiba's Salsky regiment in Zimovniki ... "

And again the battles near Barabanshchikov, Sadkami: “Squadron! By horses! Checkers to battle! For the umpteenth time, the farms passed from white to red, from red to white. The offensive of one force or another changed into a stampede, victory into a rout.

Along with armored trains and tanks, aircraft also took part in the Civil War. Esaul V.E. On September 7, 1918, Popov, on a Voisin aircraft, reconnoitered the positions of the Reds at the Repairnaya railway station. The scout did not rise to a height of more than 600 meters, and therefore became a target for rifle and machine-gun fire. Yesaul was seriously wounded, shrapnel pierced his chest. I had to transfer control to the co-pilot podesaul Zakharov. He dragged V.E. Popov to his place and continued to fight for the survivability of the apparatus. The plane barely made it to Gashun station, where it made an emergency landing. The fuselage flattened, the first pilot was thrown out of the cockpit, and the co-pilot suffered severe burns. The rescue of the pilots was organized by the commander of the Salsk detachment, Colonel V.I. Postovsky. An hour later, the captain died.

The Whites again occupied Repairnaya. IN AND. Postovsky went on the offensive further along the railway line. On the night of September 7, a detachment of military foreman A.V. Ovchinnikov, with a force of up to five hundred cavalry and infantry units with two guns, led an offensive against the regiment of T. Lobashevsky, attacked the Semichnaya station, which changed hands all day. In the regiment, many personnel sympathized with the whites, in the end, one of the hundreds began to disarm the rest. The Whites on the left flank of the defense broke through to the station and defeated the regiment. Commander T. Lobashevsky died in the battle, about 100 people were killed. The villages of Atamanskaya and Andreevskaya were occupied by the whites with their sidings, then they crossed the railway between Kotelnikovo and Remontnaya.

Polk B.M. Dumenko tried to destroy the rear of the Whites. From Ilyinka, the regimental commander passed the Yablochnaya beam to the Semichnaya station, where a bloody battle took place. The streets of the farm were littered with corpses, the screams of the wounded were heard everywhere. But these fights could not stop the whites.

In October, the cavalry of the 10th Army - parts of Dumenko, Kovalev, Shevkoplyasov, Steiger, were cut off and taken into a ring in the Kotelnikovo area. Thus ended the encirclement of the Southern Tsaritsyn Front of the Reds, the path to the Volga was open, the fighting moved north.

In the fall, the Salsk district completely came under the control of the whites. After that, a significant number of Cossacks arrived in the Don regiments. The power of the district ataman of the military foreman M.N. was established in Velikoknyazheskaya. Gnilorybova.

The bloody 1918 was coming to an end.

Remember, remember to the grave
Your cruel youth -
A smoking crest of a snowdrift,
Victory and death in battle
Longing hopeless rut,
Anxiety in frosty nights
And the shine of a dull shoulder strap
On fragile, on children's shoulders.
We gave everything we had
You, eighteenth year,
Your Asian blizzard
Steppe - for Russia - campaign.

Poet Nikolai Turoverov, participant of the campaign

On January 29 (February 11, according to the new style), 1918, in view of the need to leave the Don under the onslaught of the Bolsheviks, a volunteer detachment was formed led by the field ataman of the Don army, Major General P. Kh. Popov (chief of staff - Colonel V. I. Sidorin) numbering 1,727 combat personnel: 1,110 infantry, as well as 617 cavalry with 5 guns and 39 machine guns.
January 29 "Kaledinsky shot" sounded like a loud warning about the critical situation on the Don. The mass offensive of the Bolsheviks on the Don caused a meeting of the chiefs of military units stationed in Novocherkassk on February 10, 1918. At the meeting, it was announced that Novocherkassk would be abandoned on February 12, because. it was not supposed to defend the Don capital. Everyone was asked to make their own choice - to go to the steppe or stay. According to the order of the Don ataman General A. M. Nazarov, under the command of the field ataman General P. Kh. Popov, 1500 bayonets and sabers with 10 guns and 28 machine guns left the city of Novocherkassk (according to other sources - with 5 guns with 500 shells and 40 machine guns).
Thus began the famous Steppe campaign of the Don units of the White Army to the Salsky steppes, the purpose of which was to preserve personnel for the future Cossack army. Thus began the armed struggle of the Don Cossacks against the Red Army. The steppe campaign ended with the return of the surviving participants back to Novocherkassk in late April - early May 1918.

The publicist Viktor Sevsky (V. A. Krasnushkin) subtly described the participants in the campaign: “They were followed by the shadows of the old chieftains, and they, these shadows, called under the banner of the steppe generals all the free, all the brave. For they were the stewards of Kaledin's soul."

The Don campaign had a moral, psychological and patriotic impact on those who fought against the Bolsheviks. “The very fact of the existence of the “Steppe Detachment” spoke of the fact that the Cossacks were not dead, not strangled, they were fighting for their existence. This thought instilled courage, eliminated apathy, discouragement, slavish subordination, called for struggle, for feat, this explains the speed with which the uprising began, - says the Don politician K. Kaklyugin. “Moreover, when the uprisings began, it was precisely where the “Steppe detachment” wandered that the marching ataman became the center of the movement, the central authority. He helps and promotes the uprising. Cossack villages and farmsteads adjoin the uprising, where the “Steppe detachment” appears ... "
On April 11, the Provisional Don Government announced in an order: “After a difficult campaign, a marching ataman, Major General Pyotr Kharitonovich Popov, arrived at the head of his detachment in the village of Razdorskaya. The Provisional Don Government, in full unity with the valiant command of the Don Army, decided, for the good of the cause and the success of the struggle against the rapists over the Don Cossacks, to transfer the highest command and full military power to the marching ataman, Major General P. Kh. Popov.
The Provisional Don Government, elected and trusted by the insurgent Cossacks, reserves, until the convening of the Don Salvation Circle, full civil power and supreme control over all issues related to the success of the struggle against the Bolsheviks. The Don Salvation Circle must be convened immediately upon the liberation of the capital of the Don from the Bolsheviks.
General P. Kh. Popov took command and formed three military groups: Northern - from his partisans, led by Semiletov, and from the former "Don Army" - Zadonskaya, headed by General P. T. Semyonov and Southern - from the Zaplavskaya group, led by Colonel S. V. Denisov, who had previously held the post of chief of staff of the Don Army.

General P. Kh. Popov did not want to leave the Don, to leave his native places, and for this reason did not join the Kuban campaign of the Volunteer Army. The Don Cossacks went to the winter camps located in the Salsky steppes, which made it possible, without interrupting the fight against the Bolsheviks, to maintain a combat-ready nucleus around which the Don Cossacks would rally.

For a month and a half, the Don partisans endured hunger and cold in the steppes, without rears and supply bases. The struggle against the Bolsheviks was bloody and merciless, but the Don land was not left for a single day. The Don partisans under the command of the marching ataman P. Kh. Popov remained a vivid example and hope for an uprising of the villagers. The steppe campaign had a secret task - to raise the Cossacks to fight for their Prize, showing the hostile essence of Bolshevism in relation to the Cossacks. There were uprisings all over the Don, and the idea of ​​fighting against the Soviet regime gained a wide scale. In early April, the Steppe campaign ended, and the graves of valiant partisans remained in the steppes, remembered by posterity as defenders of their native land. The living heroes of the Steppe campaign became part of the regiments of the revived Don army.
The Don partisans entered Novocherkassk on April 22, 1918, leaving a 70-day campaign across the Don steppes behind them. The steppe campaign became one of the glorious campaigns of the anti-Bolshevik movement, occupying a special place in the history of the Civil War. The Cossacks prepared the ground for the Volunteer Army and occupied important points for the continuation of the struggle against Bolshevism - Rostov and Novocherkassk. Returning to the capital, the Don partisans became a kind of flagship of the struggle.

In honor of the glorious Steppe campaign, a special insignia was established - the “Steppe Cross”.
“In retribution of military prowess and excellent courage shown by the participants of the Steppe campaign of the detachment of the marching ataman of the Don Army, General P. Kh. order of the Don ataman, General A.P. Bogaevsky. This award was awarded to those who joined the detachment no later than March 1, 1918 and stayed in its composition until at least April 4 (before the reorganization). Also, the insignia was given to the families of those who died in the Steppe campaign. Cross No. 1 was solemnly presented to P. Kh. Popov.

Igor Martynov,
military foreman, deputy ataman of the Tambov departmental
Cossack society

RSFSR Commanders

P. Kh. Popov I. D. Popov

B. M. Dumenko F. G. Podtelkov

Side forces Losses

steppe hike- campaign of the Don units of the White Army in the Salsky steppes in the winter-spring of 1918 (February-May). A military operation aimed at preserving the personnel of the future Cossack army.

Story

After the suicide of ataman Kaledin on January 29 (February 11, according to a new style), 1918, in view of the need to leave the Don under the onslaught of the Bolsheviks, a volunteer detachment was formed led by the field ataman of the Don army, Major General P. Kh. Popov (chief of staff - Colonel V. I. Sidorin) numbering 1727 combat personnel: 1110 infantry, as well as 617 cavalry with 5 guns and 39 machine guns.

The marching chieftain Pyotr Kharitonovich Popov did not want to leave the Don and break away from his native places, so he did not join the Volunteer Army for a joint trip to the Kuban. The Don Cossacks went to the winter quarters located in the Salsky steppes, where there was enough food and fodder for the horses. The task of this campaign was to maintain a healthy and combat-ready nucleus until spring, without interrupting the fight against the Bolsheviks, around which the Don Cossacks could once again rally and raise weapons.

This campaign began the armed struggle of the Don Cossacks against the Red Army.

see also

Sources

• Venkov A. V., Doctor of History, prof. -

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Southern and Southwestern Theaters of Operations of the Civil War in Russia

An excerpt characterizing the Steppe campaign

- If all Russians are at least a little like you, - he told Pierre, - c "est un sacrilege que de faire la guerre a un peuple comme le votre. [It's blasphemy to fight with people like you.] You who have suffered so much from the French, you don't even have a grudge against them.
And Pierre now deserved the passionate love of the Italian only by the fact that he evoked in him the best sides of his soul and admired them.
During the last time Pierre was in Orel, his old acquaintance, the Mason, Count of Villarsky, came to him, the same one who introduced him to the lodge in 1807. Villarsky was married to a wealthy Russian who had large estates in the Oryol province, and occupied a temporary position in the city in the food department.
Learning that Bezukhov was in Orel, Villarsky, although he never knew him briefly, came to him with those declarations of friendship and intimacy that people usually express to each other when they meet in the desert. Villarsky was bored in Orel and was happy to meet a man of the same circle with himself and with the same, as he believed, interests.
But, to his surprise, Villarsky soon noticed that Pierre was very behind the real life and fell, as he himself defined Pierre, into apathy and egoism.
- Vous vous encroutez, mon cher, [You start, my dear.] - he told him. Despite the fact that Villarsky was now more pleasant with Pierre than before, and he visited him every day. Pierre, looking at Villarsky and listening to him now, it was strange and incredible to think that he himself had very recently been the same.
Villarsky was married, a family man, busy with the affairs of his wife's estate, and service, and family. He believed that all these activities are a hindrance in life and that they are all contemptible, because they are aimed at the personal benefit of him and his family. Military, administrative, political, Masonic considerations constantly absorbed his attention. And Pierre, without trying to change his look, without condemning him, with his now constantly quiet, joyful mockery, admired this strange phenomenon, so familiar to him.
In his relations with Villarsky, with the princess, with the doctor, with all the people with whom he now met, there was a new feature in Pierre that deserved him the favor of all people: this recognition of the possibility of each person to think, feel and look at things in his own way; recognition of the impossibility of words to dissuade a person. This legitimate feature of every person, which previously excited and irritated Pierre, now formed the basis of the participation and interest that he took in people. The difference, sometimes a complete contradiction in the views of people with their lives and among themselves, pleased Pierre and evoked in him a mocking and meek smile.
In practical matters, Pierre suddenly now felt that he had a center of gravity, which was not there before. Previously, every money question, especially requests for money, to which he, as a very rich man, was very often subjected, led him into hopeless unrest and bewilderment. "To give or not to give?" he asked himself. “I have, and he needs. But others need it even more. Who needs more? Or maybe both are deceivers? And from all these assumptions, he had not previously found any way out and gave to everyone as long as there was something to give. In exactly the same perplexity he was before at every question concerning his condition, when one said that it was necessary to do this, and the other - otherwise.
Now, to his surprise, he found that in all these questions there were no more doubts and perplexities. Now a judge appeared in him, according to some laws unknown to him, deciding what was necessary and what was not necessary to do.
He was just as indifferent to money matters as before; but now he certainly knew what he must do and what he must not do. The first application of this new judge was for him the request of a captured French colonel who came to him, told a lot about his exploits and at the end almost demanded that Pierre give him four thousand francs to send to his wife and children. Pierre refused him without the slightest effort and tension, later marveling at how simple and easy it was that which had previously seemed insoluble difficult. At the same time, immediately refusing the colonel, he decided that it was necessary to use a trick in order to force the Italian officer to take money, which he apparently needed, when leaving Orel. New evidence for Pierre of his established view of practical affairs was his decision on the issue of his wife's debts and on the renewal or non-renewal of Moscow houses and dachas.
In Orel, his chief manager came to see him, and with him Pierre made a general account of his changing incomes. The Moscow fire cost Pierre, according to the account of the chief manager, about two million.
The chief manager, in consolation of these losses, presented to Pierre the calculation that, despite these losses, his income would not only not decrease, but would increase if he refused to pay the debts left after the countess, to which he could not be obliged, and if he does not renew the houses in Moscow and those near Moscow, which cost eighty thousand a year and brought nothing.
“Yes, yes, it’s true,” said Pierre, smiling cheerfully. Yes, yes, I don't need any of that. I have become much richer from ruin.
But in January, Savelich arrived from Moscow, told about the situation in Moscow, about the estimate that the architect had made for him to renew the house and the suburban area, speaking about it as if it had been decided. At the same time, Pierre received a letter from Prince Vasily and other acquaintances from St. Petersburg. The letters spoke of his wife's debts. And Pierre decided that the manager's plan, which he liked so much, was wrong and that he needed to go to Petersburg to finish his wife's affairs and build in Moscow. Why this was necessary, he did not know; but he knew without a doubt that it was necessary. As a result of this decision, his income decreased by three-quarters. But it was necessary; he felt it.
Villarsky was going to Moscow, and they agreed to go together.
Throughout his convalescence in Orel, Pierre experienced a feeling of joy, freedom, life; but when, during his journey, he found himself in the open world, saw hundreds of new faces, this feeling was even more intensified. All the time he traveled, he experienced the joy of a schoolboy at a vacation. All faces: the coachman, the caretaker, the peasants on the road or in the village - all had a new meaning for him. The presence and remarks of Villarsky, who constantly complained about poverty, backwardness from Europe, and the ignorance of Russia, only heightened Pierre's joy. Where Villarsky saw death, Pierre saw an extraordinary powerful force of vitality, that force that in the snow, in this space, supported the life of this whole, special and united people. He did not contradict Villarsky and, as if agreeing with him (since feigned agreement was the shortest means of circumventing arguments from which nothing could come out), he smiled joyfully as he listened to him.

Just as it is difficult to explain why, where the ants rush from a scattered tussock, some away from the tussock, dragging motes, eggs and dead bodies, others back into the tussock - why they collide, catch up with each other, fight - just as difficult it would be to explain the reasons that forced the Russian people, after the French left, to crowd in that place that was formerly called Moscow. But just as, looking at the ants scattered around a devastated tussock, despite the complete annihilation of the hummock, one can see from the tenacity, energy, and innumerable scurrying insects that everything has been destroyed, except for something indestructible, immaterial, constituting the entire strength of the tussock, so too and Moscow, in the month of October, despite the fact that there were no authorities, no churches, no shrines, no riches, no houses, was the same Moscow as it was in August. Everything was destroyed, except for something immaterial, but powerful and indestructible.
The motives of people striving from all sides to Moscow after its cleansing from the enemy were the most diverse, personal, and at first mostly wild animals. Only one impulse was common to all - it was the desire to go there, to that place that was formerly called Moscow, in order to apply their activities there.

October 4th, 2016

Remember, remember to the grave
Your cruel youth -
A smoking crest of a snowdrift,
Victory and death in battle
Longing hopeless rut,
Anxiety in frosty nights
And the shine of a dull shoulder strap
On fragile, on children's shoulders.
We gave everything we had
You, eighteenth year,
Your Asian blizzard
Steppe - for Russia - campaign.

Nikolay Turoverov - participant of the campaign.

Before moving on to summing up the results of the first round of the struggle in the Civil War in southern Russia, it is necessary to dwell on the Steppe campaign of the Don Cossacks under the command of the marching ataman Major General P.Kh. Popov. Which, as studies have shown, was a pivotal action for many subsequent events. Although in its scope and heroism it is lost in the eyes of other more famous campaigns of this kind: "Ice" and "Drozdovsky". In addition, it is very indicative from the point of view of the mood prevailing on the ground. Indeed, where else will you hear about the Chinese Cossacks (!), Children storming the positions of the Reds in the forehead, and you will find out: what are “Jesus machine gunners”. The participants in this campaign, by analogy with the "volunteers", I will call the "steppes" (although this is not accepted from the point of view of historiography, where they are listed as partisans).

It finally became clear that the capital of the Don, Novocherkassk, could not be held immediately after the Donrevkom troops went on the offensive, under the command of Golubov. In the first battle, he captured the frantic partisan Cossack Chernetsov, where he was killed. Deprived of a charismatic and successful leader, the few hundreds of "Chernetsovites" could no longer be the defense of the Don capital. After only 147 people responded to Kaledin’s call, ready to defend the Don government, and the “volunteers” preparing for the evacuation simply ignored him, the latter had no choice but to put a bullet in his heart.

Administrator-General P.Kh.Popov, who did not have proper military experience, turned out to be either a talented or a successful organizer, since all the tasks of the campaign were solved with minimal losses for the Cossacks.

On the approach of the red detachments, the field ataman P. Kh. Popov, who had previously been the head of the Novocherkassk Cossack cadet school, decided to take the opponents of Soviet power to the Don steppes. And there were 1,727 combat personnel (including 1,110 infantry and 617 cavalry) with 5 guns and 39 machine guns. And 251 non-combatants (headquarters, artillery administration, hospital and political refugees). The convoy was large, but, as often happens in such cases, it could not carry out the proper supply of the detachment. There were few artillery shells and rifle cartridges.

It would seem that a serious force that could easily disperse the alien detachments of the Red Army and form a significant opposition to Golubov's red Dons. But, alas, this did not reflect reality. Not only did the Cossacks themselves have little desire to get involved in a fratricidal war, they were also distinguished by a very motley composition, where not a small part were students of the cadet school (like the “volunteers”, hot, but inexperienced youth was an active participant in the events). Here is what Mylnikov S.V. writes. in his memoirs:

Here is the composition of Captain Shchukin’s 2-gun seven-year battery: 8 artillery officers, 8 officers of other military specialties, 1 senior officer, 6 cadets of the Don Corps, a doctor, a lawyer, students, high school students, businessmen (students of a commercial school), officials and several citizens Cossacks - only about 60 people.
A similar situation was in the detachment of F.D. Nazarov. The 3rd machine-gun detachment "Maxim" consisted of two midshipmen of the Black Sea Fleet, two students, the author of memoirs (V.S. Mylnikov) and a chemistry teacher V.A. Grekov. When they were joined by the "Lewis machine gun manager" centurion Chernolikhov, "it turned out to be a very friendly company of four former realists with their teacher and two former high school students."
The foot hundreds of the Seven Years "consisted almost exclusively of students" and only the mounted hundreds of officers. Half of the 2nd foot hundred were Chinese, recruited by the centurion Khopersky. They were afraid to put them on guard, because they did not know the Russian language and, "even knowing the pass, they could shoot."
In the detachment F.D. Nazarov, about 30% of the fighters had experience of the war with Germany, the rest were young people.

I don’t know about you, but I was most impressed by the “recruited Chinese” among the free Cossacks. We know that it is the privilege of the Bolsheviks to use the international contingent in the "fight against the indigenous Russian population." But you can't take words out of a song.

Possessing a very motley composition, Popov quite reasonably doubted the striking power of his army, therefore he fairly correctly assessed the main task: to maintain the core of resistance until the expected uprising of the Don Cossacks. At the same time, it should be noted that Popov himself, despite the rank of major general, did not have special combat experience, remaining, above all, a good administrator. The fighting was led by his chief of staff, Colonel V.I. Sidorin.

As mentioned earlier, one of the first options for conducting a campaign was to unite with the Volunteer Army of Kornilov. What the latter was initially inclined to, but according to the results of intelligence and Alekseev's perseverance, he changed to the Kuban direction. At the same time, Popov hoped that the Don people, who fought along with the "volunteers", would not leave their native land. In the end, everything happened the other way around - he lost another part of the Cossacks eager for a fight, who went to Kornilov. Well, for those who had a lot of doubts, who also had a fair amount, they offered to “spray” by issuing fake forms of the Soviet infantry regiment.

The paths of the two armies parted. The "steppes" did not find great feats, but they also retained their human potential. For a detachment consisting of 60% of young people who had just come off the "mother's hem" - this was quite reasonable. However, this was facilitated by the weakness of the red detachments opposing the "steppes". The relatively hardened parts of Antonov-Ovseenko were transferred to the west to fight the Germans. The pro-Bolshevik 39th division was tied to the railway, and Golubov's Cossacks did not show much zeal in battles after the capture of Novocherkassk. It remained possible to transfer spare regiments from Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn or Stavropol, and to use local Red Guard detachments, which, by definition, did not have the proper number, or weapons, or combat stability.

A significant number of young people led to the use of a specific tactic on February 21 (March 6) in the battle against the detachments of Nikiforov and Dumenko near the Shara-Burak farm. Cadets (including younger ones) were thrown into the forehead on the enemy's fortifications, who crossed the river along a bridge flooded with water. The age of the participants in the attack was indicated by the fact that some of the teenagers were dragging rifles by the belt along the ground - it was so big and heavy for them. While the real attack was carried out by hundreds of officers on the flanks. However, there were no casualties among the youth, and later such a vicious practice was abandoned, giving the cadets the right to guard the convoy and be the last reserve of the command.

And the first serious clash took place at the crossing over the Manych at the Treasury Bridge, which was defended by a detachment of Red Guards from the village of Velikoknyazheskaya. Due to circumstances, it could become a serious defeat for a detachment without a convoy and rear. Nevertheless, either full of optimism, or hope for weak resistance from the Red detachments, led to the fact that Popov divided his detachment, sending 500 people led by Colonel K.K. Mamantov to the village of Platovskaya to raise the Kalmyks.

Here, the 2nd foot hundred of the Semiletians under the command of Yesaul Pashkov advanced on the forehead, and the Chinese (30-40 people) fought directly for the bridge. As a result of the artillery duel, the Red battery was suppressed, and the outcome of the battle was decided by a daring throw across the bridge of the 2nd fifty of the Seven-Letovites under the command of Yesaul Zelenkov. The Reds, having lost 2 guns and 3 machine guns, retreated. Subsequently, without a fight, he cleared the village of Velikoknyazheskaya, where the "steppes" got serious trophies.

Based on the village, the detachment made raids on neighboring farms, and about 200 people (mostly students) joined its composition. The stanitsa gathering, fearing reprisals, did not support the “steppe dwellers”. The proximity of the railway, which, as usual, was controlled by the Bolsheviks, affected. However, they did not have to wait long. Already on February 27 (March 12), an armored train of the Reds appeared from the direction of Tsaritsyn, and fierce battles ensued. Despite the fact that the forces of the Bolsheviks were clearly not enough, there was information about the approach from the Torgovaya side of another enemy armored train. Therefore, Popov decided not to risk it (although he understood that the Red forces from the west were bogged down in the fight against Kornilov) and ordered to leave for the steppes.

Distinctive sign of the participants of the "Steppe campaign".

On March 4 (17), the “steppe dwellers” retreated 60-80 miles deep into the steppe to the stud farm winter quarters, controlling an area of ​​40 miles in diameter. Where it was decided to wait out the Cossack "neutrality", train the green youth and disturb the enemy with raids, reminding him and the rest of the Cossacks of their existence.

However, the Bolsheviks, so, did not forget about them. Soon a detachment of 4,000 bayonets with 36 machine guns and 32 guns arrived from the direction of Tsaritsyn, which, however, began to sit out at railway stations. Where the call was made for the Cossacks of the Salsk district in the amount of 1500 drafts under the command of the podsaul Smetanin, who greatly hampered the preparation of cavalry detachments, and subsequently passed to the Whites. Detachments of the “leader of the revolutionary Cossacks” Golubov appeared from the west, however, they preferred negotiations and were not eager to fight. The Red Guard of peasant settlements was formed under the command of Kulakov and Tulak. The “stepnyaks”, who initially repulsed the enemy with raiding strikes, began to worry. Voices were heard: break through to Kornilov or disperse. But Popov was cold-blooded and offered to "stay in place, that soon everything will change and the Cossacks will be needed by the Don." And he turned out to be right, although events developed with varying degrees of success.

On the same day, representatives of the peasantry from Tulak arrived to agree on the possibility of "peace" with the "Cadets". At the same time, a messenger appeared from the village of Grabbaevskaya, where an uprising broke out, asking for help. That extremely inspired the Cossacks.

And at the same time, Semiletov's detachment, reflecting a possible blow from Tulak, was ambushed, losing 70% of its composition. The total losses of the "battle near Kuryachey Balka" amounted to killed and wounded under 200 people, and the "steppes" even had to leave the wounded on the battlefield. For example, in a machine gun team consisting of seminarians (Jesus machine gunners), out of 25 people, 6 remained.

In this regard, at a meeting on March 20 (April 2), Popov said that "sitting in the steppes is over" and "the Don needs them." Then he ordered to advance to the north.At the same time, the Astrakhan and Stavropol peasants, from communication with the Cossacks, decomposed, leaving the junction of these regions bare. The Cossacks arrested the delegation that arrived from Tulak's headquarters for peace talks - the peasants were released, and the communists were hanged.

On March 23 (April 5), the "steppe dwellers", led by Kalmyk guides, set off. What happened very timely, because, finally, the “Shock Southern Column” moved from its place, finally completing the formation of its cavalry units.

The Bolsheviks hung on the tail of the "steppe people" until they crossed the Sal River. After that, "they withdrew to Erketinskaya and ... disappeared." Astrakhan and Stavropol peasants did not want to go deep into the lands of the Don Cossacks. Golubov, anticipating the fall of Soviet power on the Don, preferred to be closer to politics in Novocherkassk, rather than knead the spring mud. Smetanin with mobilized Cossacks walked parallel to the "steppes", but held his detachment. For "the Cadets are fleeing, and there is no need to fight." With which, I think, the called-up Cossacks were in solidarity.

As a result, the Reds, having missed the “steppe dwellers”, withdrew to the Repair station, where “celebrations, drunkenness and self-demobilization for sowing work” began. The threat to the Don from the east has melted away - as it never happened.

Well, Popov's "steppes" marched across the Don land, engulfed by an anti-Bolshevik uprising. On April 2 (April 15), an order was issued to disband the "Detachment of Free Don Cossacks", which were now to become the backbone of the new Cossack army, organized in the rebel areas. Administrator General Popov fulfilled his task and, a month later, asked for his resignation from the post of commander of the Don Army, so that he would no longer play war games, being engaged only in administrative activities.

V.I. Sidorin subsequently ended up at the command helm of the Don Army, which, however, ended in failure. For, unable to withstand the pressure of the Reds, his 4th Don Corps, with its chaotic retreat, led the planned evacuation of Novorossiysk to a natural disaster. For which he was put on trial in the Crimea (4 years of hard labor, replaced by dismissal from the ranks of the armed forces without the right to wear a uniform).

Despite the successful confluence of the Steppe campaign, it turned out to be another element in the collapse of the White South. Feeling their strength, the Cossacks again began to play independence, in every possible way distanced themselves from the creation of a single military command body under the auspices of the Volunteer Army, which led to the dispersal of forces and, as a result, to the impossibility of achieving a strategic turning point in the offensive of 1919. However, more detailed conclusions will be made in the next part of "Red and White" Moses.