Biography
Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko was born on January 22, 1853 in a Russian fortress called Temir-Khan-Shura in Dagestan. He studied at the 1st Moscow Military Gymnasium, graduated (in 1871) from the 1st Pavlovsk Military School, the Officers' Artillery School.
After graduating from college, he began serving in the 38th artillery brigade as an ensign. In 1873 he participated in the Khiva campaign.
Medal "For the Khiva Campaign"
On September 22 (according to the old style), 1908, during maneuvers in a mountainous area in the upper reaches of the Geomi-su mountain river near Ashgabat, Private Vasily Kharin fired several shots with live ammunition at P.I. As a result, Mishchenko was wounded in the leg, and an orderly in the retinue of his commander, a cornet of the 1st Caucasian Cossack regiment Zabey-Vorota, was also wounded.
From 1910, P. I. Mishchenko became a general of artillery, and from February 1911 to September 1912, he served as the military ataman of the Don Cossacks.
I will give an example of two well-known, outstanding, military commanders - the commander of the 9th Army, Lechitsky and com. corps Mishchenko. Both who served on the outskirts of our vast Russia, especially distinguished themselves in Japanese war which promoted them to high positions. Deeply military in spirit, imbued with love for military affairs, to which they gave their long service to the Fatherland, always modest, they left their posts with a heavy heart, as their conscience did not allow them to remain spectators of the destruction of the Army. Lechitsky, an old bachelor, left for the Vyatka province, where his father was a village priest, and quickly died. Mishchenko - to his wife in the Dagestan region, where they had a house with a garden. According to the speech of the Communists, although the local Soviet of Deputies treated him with respect, he demanded to remove his shoulder straps. The old, wounded combat general replied: “I don’t go outside the garden fence, from the age of 10 I got used to wearing shoulder straps with them and I’ll lie down in a coffin.” And he shot himself.
A few days after our departure, the Bolshevik authorities, restored in Shura, decided to pay attention to the peacefully living general Mishchenko. One of the commissars, if my memory serves me right, Kargalsky, accompanied by a detachment of Red Army soldiers from Astrakhan, appeared at the general's dacha and his wife, who came out to him, said that he wanted to see the general's comrade. General Mishchenko came out, as always, in an officer's jacket with shoulder straps and the St. George Cross around his neck. The commissioner's first phrase was: "That's it, comrade, first take off these trinkets, and then we'll talk." The Red Army soldiers behaved boldly, defiantly and tried to rip off his shoulder straps. General Mishchenko examined them intently, and then, without saying a word, turned around, went into his house, went up to his room and shot himself.
Raid on Yingkou
Companions of Pavel Ivanovich considered this raid the only unsuccessful operation carried out under his command. However, despite the fact that Yingkou could not be taken, Mishchenko managed to avoid encirclement and saved consolidated detachment from total annihilation.
Governor General
Using the unlimited power granted to him, Pavel Ivanovich did a lot "for the prosperity of the lands entrusted to him." And he succeeds a lot in this. The Russian Order of St. Vladimir of the 2nd degree from Russian monarch and the Order "Iskander Salis", granted combat general emir of Bukhara.
Conscientiously fulfilling the duties of a new administrative position, Mishchenko is clearly burdened by it, asking, as the greatest favor, to be transferred to the troops. And in the fall of 1912 he received a new appointment - he became the commander of the 2nd Caucasian Army Corps. At the head of which he meets the First World War.
Great War
“In these accursed forests, the Russians showed their wolf teeth,” a later killed German officer wrote in his diary. “We thought at first that they were Japanese, then it turned out that they were Caucasian Circassians.”
No "Circassians" in
- Well, dad, we're taking these tsatskis, now you don't need them anyway. - A broken-looking sailor, imposingly chewing on a cigarette, scooped orders and medals lying on the table into an old shabby bag and unceremoniously blew a cloud of acrid smoke right into the face of the gray-haired old man.
A few soldiers standing a little way off were clearly embarrassed by the unceremonious behavior of their young comrade. They knew perfectly well what kind of person was standing in front of them. But they were silent, not knowing how to get out of this situation. Finally, a man in civilian clothes, the main one among those present, broke the oppressive silence:
- Citizen General, I am Commissar Kargalsky. You should know that all the awards of the former Russian Empire the new government declared invalid. Therefore, they are subject to seizure as items of jewelry value.
The soldiers lowered their heads even lower. And the sailor regarded the commissioner's words as an approval of his actions.
- Hey, grandfather, take off this trinket, too, - he nodded at the Order of St. George, whitening on the general's bekesh. Then he extended his hand to the saber with a black-and-orange lanyard on the hilt, hanging from the old man's belt. - And we will take your “herring”.
- But this is unlikely, gentlemen! The General, who had remained silent until now, turned sharply and went into the next room, slamming the door behind him.
A few seconds later, a dry revolver shot sounded behind her ...
Kant of raspberries and gray horses ...
PAVEL Ivanovich Mishchenko, the son of one of the heroes of the Caucasian War, was born on January 22, 1853 in the Russian fortress of Temir-Khan-Shura, present-day Buynaksk. The first documentary mention of him can be found in the "Noble family tree book of the Stavropol province, Terek and Kuban regions." In it, in particular, it is reported that Colonel Ivan Kuzmich Mishchenko with his sons Pavel, Mikhail, Alexander and Ivan on October 20, 1866 by definition noble assembly recognized as nobles. On June 9, 1867, this definition was approved by decree of the Governing Senate No. 3910.
Youthful milestones of fate future national hero of Russia, what he will become later, and even a little later will be unfairly forgotten, are typical of young people of his class and the turbulent time in which they were lucky to live. Mishchenko, among other illustrious fellow tribesmen, stands out, perhaps, only in that, having received an initial military education as an artillery officer, he became famous and entered the Russian military as a brilliant cavalry general, an unsurpassed master of dashing raids and deep raids behind enemy lines ...
After graduating from the 1st Moscow Military Gymnasium, Pavel Mishchenko was enrolled as a cadet in the Pavlovsk Military School in August 1869, from which two years later he graduated as an ensign in the 2nd Battery of the 38th Artillery Brigade, stationed in the Caucasus. In 1872, he received a promotion in rank and position - he became a second lieutenant and battery commander in the 21st artillery brigade of the Transcaspian region. And in this capacity he takes a baptism of fire - he participates in the Khiva campaign, which began in the spring of 1873.
By this time, the robberies by the Khiva Turkmens of caravans en route from Orenburg to Persia and other countries had become a real scourge for Russian trade, and raids on Russian settlements and the capture of prisoners with subsequent sale into slavery (in the second half of the 19th century!) took on a regular and mass character. .
Taking advantage of the patience of the Russian government, which tried to solve the problem through diplomacy, the Khiva people got a taste of almost complete impunity. The last attempt at a peaceful settlement of the "Asian problem" was the ultimatum of the Turkestan governor-general von Kaufman, who turned to the Khiva ruler Seid-Muhamet-Rahim-Bogodur-khan with a demand to extradite all Russian slaves, to stop attacks on Russian territory and on the territory of subject Kyrgyz. There was no answer. And then Russia switched to active military operations.
Russian troops moved to Khiva from four directions: from Orenburg, Tashkent, Krasnovodsk and from the Mangyshlak peninsula. Under the mercilessly scorching sun, soldiers in white caps with long nape caps falling on their shoulders walked, drowning in quicksand dunes. Camels dragged guns stuck in the sand along their very axis, rocked on their humps machine tools for launching military rockets, which instilled panic in the Khiva cavalry, which was waiting for troops at every oasis, at every well.
Khiva, surrounded on all sides, surrendered without a fight. All members of the Russian Expeditionary Corps - from the highest commanders to privates - were awarded silver medals on the St. George-Vladimir ribbon with the inscription "For the Khiva campaign of 1873." This was the first combat award of Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko.
The next was the Order of St. Anna 3rd degree with swords and a bow, which "caught up" with the young lieutenant almost immediately after the brigade returned to winter quarters (or, as they would say today, to the place of permanent deployment).
Three years later, military fate threw the young artillery officer to the Balkans, where he took part in Russian-Turkish war 1877–1878. He returned to Russia as a cavalier of the Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree and with captain's epaulettes.
The peaceful respite did not last long: in May 1880, the Akhal-Teke expedition began - the campaign of the Russian army against the Turkmen Khanate, led by General Mikhail Skobelev. And Pavel Ivanovich again had a chance to experience how Asian sand creaks on his teeth.
A months-long passage through the desert, completely devoid of water and any vegetation, ended with the encirclement and assault of the Geok-Tepe fortress, this “eastern Ishmael”, whose garrison more than doubled the Russian troops - twenty-five thousand stood against eleven! This ratio did not bother Skobelev, and he gave the order for an assault, which ended in a desperately bloody massacre on the walls and inside the citadel. Not the last role in the success of the Russians was played by the competent actions of artillery batteries, one of which was commanded by Captain Mishchenko.
The result of the Akhal-Teke expedition was the final transfer of the Turkmens to Russian citizenship, the establishment of peace and prosperity in the Transcaspian possessions of the Russian Empire. Leaving the once troubled region, Pavel Ivanovich went to study at the Officer Artillery School, located in Tsarskoe Selo, for the successful completion of which in 1886 he was awarded the order St. Stanislaus 2nd degree.
In the next thirteen years, he resignedly pulled the strap in the Caucasus, commanded artillery units in Brest-Litovsk and Central Asia, which had already become native to him. But all this time, despite the titles received on time and awards for long service, he was clearly burdened by the dull garrison life. Therefore, as soon as the opportunity arose to be again in the present case, he filed a report on the transfer to a new duty station - to the Far East ...
At the back of the empire
There is an entry in our hero's SERVICE RELEASE that can be bewildering and perplexing to an uninformed amateur military history. It reads: “March 6, 1899–June 2, 1901. Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, Major General Gerngross. What is an obscure position? And why, in those two and a half years of service “in the financial department”, Pavel Ivanovich was awarded the two most respected orders in the officer environment - St. Vladimir 3rd degree with swords and St. George 4th degree, which, as you know, were given only for personal courage and bravery shown on the battlefield. Moreover, it was on June 2, 1901 that he was promoted to major general "for differences in cases against the Chinese"! What kind of things are these?
... At the end of the 19th century, the treeless plains of Manchuria - Northeast China - seemed to Russian railway engineers more suitable for laying a railway line between Chita and Vladivostok than the rocky taiga of Transbaikalia, Amur and Primorye. The matter remained for the small - the consent of the Chinese authorities. On August 27, 1896, the Celestial Empire granted Russia the right to build sections of the railway line in Manchuria and operate them for 80 years. The future steel line, even before the start of work, received the name of China-East railway(CER). Its laying began in April 1897 from the Manchurian city of Harbin in the direction of Vladivostok, Port Arthur and Chita.
Already at the very beginning, the builders faced a serious problem - the Honghuz, Manchurian robbers, whose numerous gangs had been plundering for hundreds of years. The power of these gangs was terrifying. The Honghuzi were unsurpassed masters of ambushes and lightning raids, they had a huge network of hired and voluntary informers, they successfully operated both in the taiga and on the rivers. They did not rob the poor, thanks to which they relied everywhere on the support of the local population, and were distinguished by a brilliant internal organization that any regular army could envy. Each hunghuzi group had its own reconnaissance and even commissary service, a reserve for replenishment. The selection into these gangs was the strictest: for one who wanted to join the Honghuz, at least twenty already established robbers had to vouch.
In order to protect the construction, and subsequently the railway itself, from the Manchu gangs, the Russian General Staff in the fall of 1897 instructed the commander of the 4th Transcaspian Rifle Battalion, Colonel A. A. Gerngross, to immediately begin to form a brigade of 15 squadrons and several infantry companies, which received the name Guards of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
The best of the best were selected to serve in it. The length of service for the guards was counted two days for three. A special uniform was introduced for the personnel: blue trousers of cavalry cut, black jackets, peaked caps (although at that time the lower ranks in the Russian army were supposed to have peakless caps), black hats. On the standard of the Security Guard was woven a yellow dragon - the national symbol of China. The same dragons adorned the cockades of the guards. The units were armed with three-line Mosin rifles and Nagant revolvers, dragoon and officer checkers. The protection of the highway, the total length of which after the completion of construction amounted to almost 2,500 kilometers, was carried out by stationary foot posts and mobile horse patrols, which, if necessary, were combined into maneuverable groups.
The officers who happened to serve in those places recalled: “The unusual living conditions in the wild, sometimes associated with hardships and always with dangers, developed a special type of guard - brave, well acquainted with the area, always ready to attack the enemy, regardless of his numbers. . The service was difficult and disturbing: each rank patrols along the way for 8 hours, the next 8 hours stands at the post ... Posts on the CER - wattle fence, hastily knocked together a house, a tower with two dozen rag torches - that's all the "equipment", plus the feet of the guards, their keen eye and firm hand. Sometimes, it happened, at the posts it was necessary to keep the defense for several hours, until help arrived in time.
All these "forts" were part of the three lines of protection - Sungaria, Argun and Port Arthur. Colonels Denisov, Zubkovsky and Mishchenko, respectively, were appointed chiefs of the lines.
The life and service of the guards in the backyards of the empire was full of dangers. Whatever the page of the staff magazine, then the message about the raids of bandits, theft of people, livestock, robberies. Yet the most serious test for the Guard Guard of the Chinese Eastern Railway was the Boxer Rebellion, which began in Northern China in late 1899.
It was called so because many of its leaders and ordinary participants were fond of Chinese boxing (kungfu). The goal of the "boxers" was to destroy the foreign commercial and industrial monopolies that actually dominated China, to which, according to the rebels, the CER belonged. The uprising was actively supported not only by the Honghuzi, but also by many parts of the Chinese army. So in the summer of 1900, units of the Security Guard, armed only with rifles, revolvers and checkers, were forced to fight with regular troops who had artillery. That's when Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko came in handy with all the previously acquired combat experience.
The beginning of truly hostilities found him in Mukden. Having only four hundred mounted and foot guards, unable to hold out in the city, the colonel led his detachment to Liaoyang, fighting the enemy almost continuously for eight days and repelling his raids. Then a handful of guards held Liaoyang for two days, allowing the families of the railroad workers to leave the city. After that, Mishchenko continued to retreat to Aisanjian and Dashichao, gathering around him the remnants of the few surviving garrisons of the Security Guard. Several attempts to encircle and destroy his detachment, undertaken by the Chinese, ended in failure - Pavel Ivanovich each time skillfully eluded the networks set up with exquisite oriental cunning.
Having made his way to the Yingkou region, where Russian expeditionary troops were accumulating, arriving to suppress the rebels, Colonel Mishchenko, who was placed at the head of a detachment reinforced by artillery, was given the task of taking control of the forts that blocked the entrance to the mouth of the Liaohe River. And brilliantly fulfilled it, taking the fortress with a swift assault.
All this happened in June-July. And in the fall of 1900, the Russians, having gathered enough forces, launched a decisive offensive. On September 13, during the assault on Aisanjian, Colonel Mishchenko commanded a flying cavalry detachment that cut off the Chinese retreat and, in fact, decided the outcome of the battle. The next day, put at the head of the vanguard, he withstood a fierce battle at the Shahe station. On September 14, he led one of the columns to storm Liaoyang, and three days later he was the first to break into Mukden.
Such was the service of the "Minister of Finance, who was at the disposal"! ..
Fires lit up across the Liaohe River...
Skillful command of cavalry detachments in dashing raids and personal courage shown in battles with the Chinese put forward Pavel Ivanovich among the generals who were favored by the authorities and whom the subordinates idolized. Before the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Mishchenko, who continued to serve in the Far East, successively commanded the cavalry units of the South Manchurian detachment, the consolidated Cossack brigade and a separate Trans-Baikal Cossack brigade. "We are Mishchenko's!" - Soldiers and Cossacks answered proudly when visiting inspectors or officers on their way to a new duty station asked them which part the brave-looking daring men belonged to.
Immediately after the start of the war, the Trans-Baikal Cossack Brigade was transferred to Korea, where the 1st Japanese Army of General Kuroka landed. In order to determine the size of the enemy and reveal his intentions, Mishchenko, on instructions from the command, led 22 hundreds into a deep raid: the Cossacks, having knocked down the posts of the Korean border guards, crossed the Yalu River, overcame more than one hundred and twenty miles with a swift throw and entered into a skirmish with the outposts of the Japanese as far as in the vicinity of Pyongyang! Taking languages and trophies, the detachment began to withdraw to the north, destroying communications and having almost daily skirmishes with the advance guards of the advancing Japanese.
While Port Arthur held out, the main events in the land theater of operations unfolded around this fortress, to which all the attention of the warring parties was riveted. But if the infantry burrowed into the ground, limiting its activity to maneuvers and building up forces, the cavalry operating on the flanks of the Russian army, even in the conditions of a positional war, did not have to be bored with nothing to do. It was at this time that the name of General Mishchenko began to rumble.
His cavalry group was formed from the cavalry units of all three Russian armies operating in Manchuria. It consisted of 75 hundreds and squadrons, seconded from the Ural-Transbaikal Cossack, Caucasian Cavalry, 4th Don Cossack divisions and the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment, reinforced by a combined hundred from the division of mounted scouts of Baron Mannerheim, two hundred border guards, a horse-sapper semi-squadron, three horse batteries and machine-gun crew.
Since the group operated on the left flank of the front, it soon became known as the "Eastern Cavalry". Rumors about her glorious deeds reached St. Petersburg earlier than official reports from the headquarters of the Manchurian army. The Japanese rear was literally trembling from the regular raids of General Mishchenko's cavalry. But do not think that these raids were pleasure walks. Just one fact: the staff of the cavalry group in the state consisted of five officers. As follows from the combat documents, in the five months of 1904, 22 people passed through these positions, replacing colleagues who were retired due to injury or "for death on the battlefield." And that's not counting the liaison officers and orderlies of the general. Also, by the way, who was wounded in one of the heated skirmishes with the Japanese.
It would not be out of place to mention that the chief of staff of General Mishchenko's cavalry group was Colonel Nikolai Nikolaevich Baratov, in the near future - a general and one of the outstanding Russian cavalry commanders.
Lieutenant Colonel Anton Ivanovich Denikin also fought under his command at that time. When the cavalry group of General Mishchenko is transformed into the Consolidated Cavalry Corps, it is Denikin, on the proposal of Pavel Ivanovich, who will become his chief of staff ...
As for General Mishchenko himself, in the summer of 1904 he was rewarded according to his deserts: on August 11, Pavel Ivanovich was enrolled in the retinue of His Imperial Majesty, on August 14, "for differences in cases against the Japanese," he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav, 1st degree , and a week later Georgievsky - a checker decorated with diamonds with the inscription "For Courage". But his greatest exploits were yet to come.
The fall of Port Arthur radically changed the situation in Manchuria. The most numerous of the Japanese armies, the 3rd Colonel General Nogi, was hastily transferred by rail to Marshal Iwao Oyama. The Russian imperial court and the cabinet of ministers persistently demanded offensive actions from the commander-in-chief of the Manchu armies, General Kuropatkin. Under these conditions, it was decided to strike at the left flank of the Japanese forces, which was to be preceded by a deep raid of the Russian cavalry to disorganize the rear of the enemy, destroy the railway and railway bridges in the Liaoyang-Tashichao-Dalniy sector.
This daring enterprise went down in history as a "raid on Yingkou." It was commanded by General Mishchenko. Before the start of the operation, he announced to his subordinates:
I warn you, Cossacks: against all human rules, we will leave the wounded and sick on the road, so as not to detract from the speed of movement. If anyone doubts, he can stay: only hunters go on a raid.
Volunteer hunters gathered more than 7500 sabers. On December 26, 1904, the detachment, having broken through Japanese positions with a fight, crossed the ice across the Liaohe River and moved along enemy rear lines ...
We must pay tribute to Japanese intelligence: Marshal Oyama's headquarters knew about the upcoming raid long before it began. No wonder that General Mishchenko's detachment was already expected in Yingkou. On the outskirts of the city, the Cossacks were met with rifle salvos and machine-gun bursts. After several hours of fighting, it was not possible to completely master Yingkou. When reinforcements approached the garrison, Mishchenko, in order to avoid encirclement, was forced to retreat to the north, having previously subjected the city to shelling, destroying the railway station and part of the port facilities with shells. After that, Yingkou burned for several days.
During the retreat near the village of Sinyupuchenza, the detachment was nevertheless surrounded by the Japanese, but managed to break through to their own. During the eight days of the campaign, the Cossacks fought over 270 miles, destroyed more than 600 enemy soldiers, dismantled two sections of the railway track, burned eight food depots, interrupted telegraph and telephone communications for six days, derailed two trains with ammunition, captured several hundred prisoners and 300 wagons with various military equipment. The losses of the detachment also turned out to be considerable: in the raid on Yingkou, 408 Cossacks laid down their heads, and General Mishchenko, who could hardly stay in the saddle, brought a Japanese bullet stuck in his thigh ...
Six months later, a sad song was already circulating in the Don and Kuban villages:
Across the Liaohe River, lights lit up,
Terrible cannons rumbled in the night,
Hundreds of brave eagles
From the Cossack regiments
They rode to Yingkou for a raid.
Cossacks made their way there day and night,
Overcame both mountains and steppes.
Suddenly, far away, by the river,
Bayonets flashed,
These were Japanese chains.
And without fear, the detachment rode against the enemy,
For a bloody terrible battle,
And the constable out of hand
Piku suddenly dropped ...
The remote heart is pierced.
He fell under the hooves in a dashing attack,
Snow pouring hot blood.
You are a black horse
Pass it on dear
Let not the Cossack wait in vain.
Across the Liaohe River, the lights were dying out.
There, Yingkou burned out at night.
From the run back
The squad returned
Only there were few Cossacks in it ...
In 1924, the authorship of this song, having altered the words, appropriated the fighter of the Belgorod detachment CHON Nikolai Kool, the former head of the political education department of the Kursk district committee of the Komsomol, who published his poems and ditties under the pseudonym "Kolka the Baker". And the song "Death of a Komsomol member" from "hundreds of young soldiers from the Budyonny troops" for many years became a real hit among Soviet youth ...
And Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko, after a militarily ineffective, but full of courage and courage raid on Yingkou, was named a national hero, received the rank of lieutenant general and the Order of St. Anna 1st degree with swords. Until the end of the campaign, he managed to distinguish himself in several more front-line operations. Alas, they did not affect the overall outcome of the Russo-Japanese war.
The fact that the military affairs of the Russian cavalry in Manchuria was closely followed and admired in Europe can be evidenced by the fact that after the end of the war, General Mishchenko, who took command of the 2nd Caucasian Army Corps, was awarded two foreign awards: in September 1906 he was "highly allowed to accept and wear the Serbian Order of the White Eagle of the 1st degree", and in October 1907 "to accept and wear the bestowed Prussian Order of the Red Eagle of the 1st class with swords."
Commander of the Yellow Devils
AFTER the Russo-Japanese War, General Mishchenko's career went up steeply. In May 1908, Pavel Ivanovich was appointed Governor-General of Turkestan. He combines this post with the posts of commander of the troops of the Turkestan military district and the chief ataman of the Semirechensk Cossack army. That is, it becomes, in fact, the undivided master of the Central Asian possessions of the Russian Empire.
Using the unlimited power granted to him, Pavel Ivanovich did a lot "for the prosperity of the lands entrusted to him." And he succeeds a lot in this. The award for labors in the military-administrative field is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir of the 2nd degree from the Russian monarch and the Order of Iskander Salis, granted to the military general by the Emir of Bukhara.
However, the following year, 1909, Senator Count Palen visits Turkestan. Tactless and completely unfamiliar with the peculiarities of doing business in the East, this high-ranking government official accuses Mishchenko of softness and pandering to the natives to the detriment of the interests of the empire. The straightforward governor-general expresses to the face of the "Petersburg peacock" everything that he thinks about him and ... submits a resignation report. It is accepted, but only temporarily. Having delved into the essence of the conflict, Nicholas II promotes Pavel Ivanovich to the generals of artillery and appoints the chieftain of the Cossack Don Army, at the same time granting him the Order of the White Eagle.
Conscientiously fulfilling the duties of a new administrative position, Mishchenko is clearly burdened by it, asking, as the greatest favor, to be transferred to the troops. And in the fall of 1912 he received a new appointment - he became the commander of the 2nd Caucasian Corps. At the head of which he meets the First world war.
In August 1914, the corps of General Mishchenko was transferred to the North-Western Front. And after a couple of months, he finds himself in the thick of the battle in the Augustow forests. At first, its course was favorable for the Russian armies. The 2nd Caucasian and 22nd Army Corps delivered a frontal attack in the area of Sopotskin-Koptsyovo-Suwalki and occupied the town of Augustow. “In these accursed forests, the Russians showed their wolf teeth,” a later killed German officer wrote in his diary. “We thought at first that they were Japanese, then it turned out that they were Caucasian Circassians.”
There were no "Circassians" in the 10th Army of the North-Western Front. These were the steel regiments of General Mishchenko's corps, which received the name "yellow devils" from the enemy because of the characteristic tan of soldiers and officers who arrived from the Caucasus. In the very first battles, they captured about three thousand prisoners and 20 guns.
For a while, the front stabilized. The Germans used the respite to regroup and build up forces. And in the second half of November they struck back with terrible force. “The case almost turned into a disaster,” wrote one of the officers of the headquarters of the North-Western Front in his memoirs. - The German 9th Army broke through the front, but could not develop its success. Her blow fell on the best of our corps - the 2nd Caucasian General Mishchenko. Mackensen ran into the "yellow devils". The old regiments of the Caucasian grenadiers and the young 51st divisions repelled dozens of attacks from fresh Pomeranian and Württemberg divisions. The 2nd Caucasian Corps bled to death, each of its divisions was reduced to a battalion, but the enemy did not get any prisoners or a single gun. The massacre of November 21-29 was the most fierce of all the former so far. After him, the Caucasian Grenadier Division was reduced to five companies, the 51st - to four companies. And these consolidated companies continued to fight!
After the actual death of his corps, General Mishchenko arrived at Headquarters directly from the front line. And there he gave vent to his emotions ... After which Pavel Ivanovich was dismissed from his post "for openly condemning the actions of the high command" and ... rewarding with the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky with swords!
The general's temporary inactivity did not last long: already in March 1915 he was appointed commander of the newly formed 31st Army Corps. At the head of this unit, Pavel Ivanovich fought for two years. His corps took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough, defeating several enemy divisions near Pinsk.
In February 1917, General Mishchenko, who had unprecedented popularity among front-line officers and comfrey soldiers, was asked by the commissars of the Provisional Government to take command of one of the armies of the Southwestern Front. But the old campaigner flatly refused, stating that "it is inappropriate for the sovereign's adjutant general to serve swindlers, no matter how they call themselves." Having submitted a resignation letter “for health reasons”, the 64-year-old general left for Dagestan, in his hometown Temir-Khan-Shura, whose honorary citizen he became back in 1910.
In peaceful life, Pavel Ivanovich turned out to be a good gardener and a passionate beekeeper. For a year, on one and a half hectares of his estate, he laid out a park, where he carefully grew Syrian lilacs and several varieties of roses, peonies and lilies. He arranged an orchard, built a small power plant.
This idyll did not last long: in the fall of 1918, a delegation of revolutionary soldiers and sailors led by Commissar Kargalsky raided the estate to the retired general. The gray-haired old man, who invariably wore the Order of St. George on his gray bekesh, and the award St. George weapon on his belt, obviously irritated them ...
About the last shot of General Mishchenko and the motives that prompted him to pull the trigger, Anton Ivanovich Denikin spoke best and most intelligibly in his memoirs. Already in exile, he wrote: “I have more reason and right to speak about the army and from the army than those alien people who, in arrogant conceit, barely touching the army, broke the foundations of its existence, judged leaders and warriors; which even now, after hard experiments and trials, do not leave hope for the transformation of this powerful and terrible instrument of state self-preservation into a means for resolving party and social desires.
The army must be approached with caution, not forgetting that not only the historical foundations, but even the seemingly strange and ridiculous trifles of its life have meaning and significance.
An old veteran, a favorite of officers and soldiers, General Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko, when the Bolsheviks came to him with a search and, by the way, casually wished to remove shoulder straps and crosses from him, went into the next room and shot himself ... Let whoever can laugh at "obsolete prejudices ". We will honor his blessed memory.”
We honor too. Really, he deserves it...
- Biography:
Orthodox. A native of Temir-Khan Shura. Educated at the 1st Moscow Military Gymnasium. He entered the service on 08/11/1869. He graduated from the 1st Pavlovsk School (1871). Released as Ensign (Article 08/11/1871) to the 38th Artillery Brigade. Second lieutenant (Art. 11/06/1872). Member of the Khiva campaign of 1873. Lieutenant (st. 12/29/1873). Headquarters Captain (Art. 12/09/1876). Member of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78. Captain (Art. 12/18/1878). Lieutenant Colonel (Art. 10/05/1889). Graduated from the Officer Art. school "successfully". He commanded a battery of the 2nd Grenadier Art. brigades (9 l. 3 m.). Colonel (pr. 1896; item 05/14/1896; for distinction). Assistant to the head of the security guards of the CER, Major General Gerngross (03/06/1899-06/02/1901). During the suppression of the Ihetuan uprising of 1900-01, he showed himself to be a brave and efficient commander, was the head of the southern department of the CER. For success in the Chinese campaign, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree (VP 12/22/1900). Major General (pr. 1901; art. 06/02/1901; for distinction). Commander of the 1st brigade of the 39th infantry division in the Kwantung region (06/02/1901-03/09/1902). He was at the disposal of the commander of the troops of the Kwantung region (03/09/1902-03/23/1903). Head of a separate Trans-Baikal Kaz. brigades (03/23/1903-02/17/1905). Adjutant General (1904). Member of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. Lieutenant General (pr. 1904; art. 10/22/1904; for military distinctions). He earned a reputation as one of the best Russian cavalry commanders. army. Brilliantly proved himself in the battles of Shah, Sandepu. He was enrolled in the retinue of His Highness (1904). Adjutant General (1904). Head of the Ural-Transbaikal consolidated kaz. divisions (17.02.-30.08.1905). He was at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief in the Far East (30.08.-09.11.1905). He was awarded the Golden Weapon (VP 08/21/1904). The commander of the consolidated cavalry corps (09.11.1905-05.05.1906). He was at the disposal of the Minister of War (05.05.-21.09.1906). Commander of the 2nd Caucasian Army. Corps (21.09.1906-02.05.1908). Turkestan Governor-General, Commander of the Turkestan Military District, Chief Ataman of the Semirechensky Kaz. troops (05/02/1908-03/17/1909). Consisted of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Host (03/17/1909-12/23/1910). General from artillery (pr. 01/12/1911; item 12/06/1910). was at the disposal of the K-shchy troops of the Caucasian Military District (from 12/23/1910). On February 25, 1911, the military ataman of the Don army. 09/23/1912 appointed to be with the troops of the Caucasian Military District. At the beginning of the war, for some time he commanded units of the 2nd Caucasian Army. Corps (Caucasian Grenadier Division and 51st Infantry Division) instead of V. A. Irmanova. Participated in the offensive of the 10th Army in the area of Augustow-Kopciovo in 09.1914. 03/19/1915 received command of the 31st Army. corps operating on the Southwestern Front. During the purge of the senior command staff after February Revolution dismissed from the post of corps commander and 04/16/1917 dismissed from service due to illness with a uniform and a pension. In 1917 he left for his homeland in Dagestan. After the establishment of the owls. authorities in Dagestan, Commissar Kargalsky (?) appeared at M.'s dacha, accompanied by a detachment of Red Army soldiers. M. came out to them in uniform and with orders. In response to a demand to remove "these trinkets" and after an attempt to rip off his shoulder straps, M. went to his room and shot himself.
- Ranks:
he is the Semirechensk Cossack army, lieutenant general, adjutant general, military ataman
he is the retinue of His Imperial Majesty, lieutenant general, adjutant general of the EIV retinue
- Awards:
- Additional Information:
- Sources:
- grwar.ru
- East Prussian operation. Collection of documents of the world imperialist war on the Russian front (1914-1917). M., 1939.
- Offensive of the Southwestern Front in May-June 1916. Collection of documents of the world imperialist war on the Russian front (1914-1917). M., 1940.
- Zalessky K.A. Who was who in the First World War. M., 2003.
- X file
- List of generals by seniority. Compiled on 04/15/1914. Petrograd, 1914
- List of generals by seniority. Compiled on 07/10/1916. Petrograd, 1916
- "Military Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George. Bio-Bibliographic Reference" RGVIA, M., 2004.
- "Chronicle of the War with Japan" ed. regiment. Dubensky (1904-1905). Information provided by Dmitry Nikolaev (Moscow)
- Kuznetsov B.M. "1918 in Dagestan", New York, 1959.
- VP for the military department / Scout No. 1255, 11/18/1914
- Russian Disabled. No. 212, 1915 / Information provided by Yuri Vedeneev
Adjutant General, General of Artillery, hero of the Russo-Japanese War, b. in 1853 in Dagestan; brings up-to the 1st washes. military gymnasium, in 1871 was released from the 1st military. Pavel. school prap-com to the 38th artillery. brigade; in 1873 M. took part in Khivin. campaign (order of St. Anne 3rd degree with a sword and a bow), in 1877-1878. participated in the war with Turkey in the Caucasus. theater, and in 1880-1881. in Akhal-Tekin. exp-tion (Order of St. Vladimir 4 degrees with a sword and a bow.), Then he commanded a battery in the 2nd Grenadier Artillery. brigade and in 1896 was promoted to the regiment. In 1899, Mr.. M. moved to the service of the Ministry of Finance and was appointed assistant chief of security. guards East-Kit. well. d. Boxing pacification. uprisings in China in 1900-1901. put forward M. as an energetic, entrepreneurial. and courageous. fights. chief.
Leading the southern department of road protection, M. to the beginning of the military. events was in Mukden.
When the excitement grew greatly, M., having at his disposal only 450 people. con. and on foot. the guards, cut off from Harbin by boxers and a hostile population, unable to hold out in Mukden, began a retreat to the south, walked all the time with a fight, and in Liaoyang on June 25, 1900 was surrounded by a crowd of boxers; after holding out in it for two days and repelling all the attacks of the prot-ka, M. then made his way to Aisan-jian, but did not want to retreat further and asked permission to move with his little one. detachment back to the village in order to restore the railway. etc., save the employees on it and put an end to the spread of the uprising to the south. However, he was refused this and ordered to retreat to Dashichao.
An attempt to encircle him along this path was also unsuccessful for the Chinese;
M. made his way through their hordes and was sent to Yingkou to guard this port. When, by comparison, on the Yingkou line - Haichen means. forces at the beginning of snt. the advance of our troops to Mukden began, M. was entrusted with the command of one of the columns, and during the attack on the position occupied by the Chinese at Aisanjian (13 Sn. 1900), he commanded the fly. detachment sent to cover the lion. flank and rear. The boxers' attempts to stop her movement were overcome by M., and he is successful. the actions of his small. detachment (2 companies, 2 hundred, 4 op.) forced the enemy to retreat to the village. Placed then at the head of the av-rda of our chapters. forces, M. withstood 14 snt., before they approach, hot. battle at st. Shahe, 15 St. - in the battle near Liaoyang he commanded a column aimed at a lion. whale flank. position, and on the 17th, directed from the front. detachment for reconnaissance of Mukden, occupied it and then was moved to Telin for a speedy. cleaning the line e. Awards him for fights. distinctions in this campaign were the rank of Major General and the Order of St. George 4th class and St. Vladimir 3rd class with a sword. From June 2, 1901 to 9 mri. 1902 M. commanded the 1st brigade of the 39th infantry. division, then was at the disposal of the commander of the Kwantung troops. area and 23 mrt. 1903 was appointed head of the department. Transbaikal. Cossack brigades.
At the head of this brigade, which became advanced in 1904. con. the Manchurian detachment. army, M. and glorified his name in the Russo-Japanese war, becoming its most popular hero.
With the start of the war. operations, the M. brigade was entrusted with reconnaissance of the number of Japanese. troops landing in Korea, and ways of their attack. Jan 28 1904 M. moved to Korea. border, crossed the river. Yalu and reached Peñan, but then on 18 Feb. was recalled back to the Yalu by General Linevich, who was afraid of the position of the M detachment being too advanced. he is again ordered to push deeper into Korea, already overrun by Japanese troops.
M. reached Chonchju and, having given them the first battle here, returned for the Yalu, skillfully crossing it into the ice drift.
The new task set by M. is to guard the Yalu and watch the landing of the Japanese. troops on Liaodong, - was interrupted by the defeat of the troops of the East. detachment at Tyurenchen, and M. was instructed to guard the paths to Haichen and Xuyan. To delay the advance of the Japanese to Gaizhou, M. withstood May 26 stubbornly. a battle with an entire division of the Kuroki army at Xuyan, and then from May 30 to June 15, a series of battles held back its onslaught on the horn. positions at Sakhotan, after which he retreated in the direction of Dashichao.
Then, commanding the vanguard of the Vost. detachment, M. withstood stubbornly. battle on July 18, and in the days of Laoyansk. guarded the battles with his horse. squad of rights. flank of the battle. location (village Uluntai) and covered the distance to Mukden.
During Sept. attack on the Shah M. was originally part of the total with the detachment. army reserve, but was soon moved forward to communicate between the app. and east. groups and carried the heads. the severity of the blows of the prot-ka, striving for a breakthrough between these groups.
In the days of calm in the military. action at the end of December. 1904 M. was sent to raid Yingkou at the head of 72? esq. and hundreds at 22 op., but this raid did not produce creatures. results During the operation at Sandepu M. with his con. the detachment energetically contributed to the invasion of the 2nd Manchurian. army, deeply ran into the location of the prot-ka, threw the Japanese back to Landungou and, having stumbled here on the strong reserves of the Oku army, stood with him hotly. battle and stopped their movement to the village of Sumapu, attacked by the troops of the bar corps. Stackelberg.
In this battle, inspiring personal. an example of a husband is a Cossack. shooter chain, M. was wounded by a bullet in the leg and in Mukdensk. did not take part in the events.
Nominated 17 Feb. 1905 head of the Ural-Transbaikal. reduce.-Cossack. divisions, M. led more raids on Xingmin-ting, Chantufu, Liaoyangvopu and Sanvaizi, but the war was already drawing to a close. His awards for this war were: enrollment in the retinue of His Imperial Majesty, the rank of g.-l. and the rank of Adjutant General of His Imperial Majesty, angry. bril weapon. and the Order of St. Anne 1st class with a sword. General Kuropatkin in the next. words spoken in Oct. 1904, outlined the merits of M. and his leaders. con. detachment in this war: "The role of the Cavalry in the war is enormous.
Unfortunately, the conditions of the place and the whole situation are present. wars greatly hinder its fulfillment of its task.
This did not prevent, however, certain units from brilliantly overcoming all obstacles, adapting to the situation and conscientiously and continuously serving the army with their intelligence services.
As an example, I can give a department. Transbaikal. the brigade of General M. She worked tirelessly for 9 months, and I owe the most prices to her. information about the passage. "As a fighting commander, M. showed a precious property in this war - a desire to fight at all costs and under all conditions, and this was always reflected in the stubbornness with which he carried out each set of his task to the detachment, being able to combine the full breadth of the initiative inherent in its independent nature with the desire to fulfill the order given to it as accurately as possible.
With a huge personal courage, calmness in battle, the ability to quickly navigate in battles. situation, M. ardently cared for the Cossack and the shooter at the bivouac, was simple and sociable in relation to the officers; the troops firmly believed that "he will lead, but also lead out," and therefore willingly followed him into the fire. Aug 30 1905 M. was appointed to be at the disposal of the commander in chief (Adjutant General Linevich), then was at the disposal of the military. Minister and 21 St. 1906 received command of the II Caucasus. arm. frame; On May 2, 1908, M. was appointed Turkestan. governor-general, commander of the troops of Turkestan. military districts and punitive Ataman Semirech. Cossack troops, and 17 MRT. 1909 dismissed at the request of these posts with enrollment in Transbaikal. Cossack army.
After will not continue. state at the disposal of the commander of the Caucasus. military District M. 23 Feb. 1911 was again called to active duty. activities at the post of troops. order. ataman of the Don army.
He held this post until 23 St. 1912, when, at the request, he was dismissed from him with the appointment to be with the troops of the Caucasus. military oh ha. M. is listed in Transbaikal. and Donsk. Cossack troops and in the lists of the 1st Transbaikal. Cossack batteries. (V. A. Apushkin.
Mishchenko.
From the memoirs of the Russian-Japanese. war. SPb., 1908. Translated into it. language by V. Kaulberg, Berlin, 1910.; His own. "Chronicle of the War with Japan", No. 38; D. I. Anichkov.
Five weeks in the detachment of General M. St. Petersburg, 1907; Sveshnikov.
Raid on Yingkou. St. Petersburg, 1906; M. Svechin.
Horse raid. detachment of Adjutant General M. on Yingkou. St. Petersburg, 1907; Book. Vadbolsky.
Con actions. detachment of General M. in January. onslaught of the 2nd army. On Sat. articles "Rus-Jap. war in messages at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff." Part 2, St. Petersburg, 1907; Francis Mac-Cullagh, with the Cosacks, London, 1906). Member of the 1st World War. commander of the 2nd Caucasian army. corps, 31st arm. Corps (March 1915-1917). After the October Revolution, which M. did not support, but did not take part in the White movement, he lived in Turkestan.
He committed suicide in 1918 in Temir-Khan-Shura (later Buynaksk, Dagestan).
Lit .: Military Historical Bulletin.
Paris. 1956. No. 8. S. 29-31. (Military Enc.)
Mishchenko Pavel Ivanovich (January 22, 1853-1918) - Russian military and statesman, participant in the Turkestan campaigns, Turkestan Governor-General, commander of the Turkestan military district.
Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko was born on January 22, 1853 in a Russian fortress called Temir-Khan-Shura in Dagestan. He studied at the 1st Moscow Military Gymnasium, graduated (in 1871) from the 1st Pavlovsk Military School, the Officer Artillery School. After graduating from college, he began serving in the 38th Artillery Brigade as an ensign. In 1873 he participated in the Khiva campaign. P. I. Mishchenko participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 and the Akhal-Teke expedition of 1880-1881. Since 1899, P. I. Mishchenko continued to serve on Far East, while serving as Assistant Chief of Security Guards of the East China Railway. In 1900-1901, he participated in the fighting during the "Chinese Campaign" (the suppression of the "Boxer Rebellion"), establishing himself as an experienced and courageous commander. After that, he was promoted to major general. December 22, 1900 was awarded the Order of St.. George 4th degree For outstanding exploits during military operations in Manchuria, and, being surrounded in the Manchurian region by many times superior forces of the Chinese, he managed to break through with the ranks entrusted to him, inflicting great damage on the Chinese and did not leave trophies in the hands of the enemy. Since 1903, P. I. Mishchenko served as commander of a separate Trans-Baikal Cossack brigade. During the Russo-Japanese War in May and June 1904, a separate Trans-Baikal Cossack brigade, which he commanded, held back the Japanese advance on Gaijou and Sakhotan, during the Liaoyang battle covered the right flank of the Russian troops during the retreat to Mukden. During one of the battles in December 1904, he was wounded in the leg. From February to April 1905, he was the head of the Ural-Transbaikal consolidated Cossack division. From May 2, 1908 to March 17, 1909, Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko served as Governor General of Turkestan and commanded the troops of the Turkestan Military District. During this period, he was also the appointed military ataman of the Semirechensk Cossack army. From 1910, P. I. Mishchenko became a general of artillery, and in the period from 1911 to 1912, he served as the military ataman of the Don Cossacks. During the First World War, he commanded first the 2nd Caucasian Army Corps and then, from 1915, the 31st Army Corps on the Southwestern Front. According to Zalessky, after the February Revolution, in connection with the processes of "democratization" of the army, expressed, for example, in the formation of councils of soldiers' deputies in military units, and the processes of cleansing the highest command of the Russian army from the "monarchical elements" P. I. Mishchenko was removed from the post of corps commander and dismissed from service due to illness with a uniform and a pension. After his retirement, he constantly wore the insignia. When in 1918, during a search in his house in Temir-Khan-Shura, representatives of the new government took away his epaulettes and military awards, Pavel Ivanovich Mishchenko shot himself.
