Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich - (born 4 (16) November 1874 - death February 7, 1920) military and political figure, leader of the White movement in Russia - Supreme Ruler of Russia, admiral (1918), Russian oceanographer, one one of the largest polar explorers of the late XIX - early XX centuries, full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (1906).
Hero of the Russian-Japanese and World War I, one of the most striking, controversial and tragic figures in Russian history at the beginning of the 20th century.
Education
Alexander Kolchak was born on November 4, 1874 in the village of Aleksandrovskoye, Petersburg district, Petersburg province. Until the third grade, he studied at a classical gymnasium, and in 1888 he moved to the Naval Cadet Corps and 6 years later he graduated second in seniority and academic performance with a cash prize named after Admiral P.I. Rikord. In 1895-1896. the midshipman moved to Vladivostok and served on the ships of the Pacific squadron as a watch officer and junior navigator.
During the voyages, Kolchak visited China, Korea, Japan and other countries, became interested in Eastern philosophy, studied the Chinese language, independently engaged in an in-depth study of oceanography and hydrology. Upon his return, in "Notes on Hydrography" he published the first scientific work "Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravity of sea water, made on the cruisers" Rurik "and" Cruiser "from May 1897 to March 1898."
1898 - Kolchak was promoted to lieutenant. However, after the first campaign, the young officer became disillusioned with military service and began to think about switching to commercial ships. He did not have time to get into the Arctic voyage on the icebreaker "Ermak" with S.O. Makarov. 1899, summer - Alexander Vasilyevich was assigned to inland navigation on the cruiser "Prince Pozharsky". Kolchak filed a report on the transfer to the Siberian crew and the watchman of the battleship "Poltava" went to the Far East.
Polar expedition (1900-1902)
Upon the ship's arrival in Piraeus, the lieutenant was offered to take part in the expedition of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in search of the Sannikov Land. 1900, January - by order of the Naval Headquarters, he returned to the capital. For several months he trained at the Main Physical Observatory of St. Petersburg, the Pavlovsk Magnetic Observatory and in Norway to be a hydrologist and a second magnetologist. In 1900-1902, on the schooner Zarya, Kolchak took part in polar expedition, which was headed by Baron E.V. Toll.

He carried out observations of temperatures and specific gravity of the surface layer of sea water, carried out deep-sea work, investigated the state of ice, and collected the remains of mammals. 1901 - together with Toll, Alexander Vasilyevich made a sledge expedition to the Chelyuskin Peninsula, carried out geographical research and compiled maps of the coast of Taimyr, Kotelny Island, Belkovsky Island, discovered Strizhev Island. Toll named one of the islands in the Kara Sea after Kolchak (now Rastorguev Island), and an island in the Litke archipelago and a cape on Bennet Island are named after Kochak's wife Sophia Fedorovna. The young researcher published the results of the work in the publications of the Academy of Sciences.
Rescue expedition (1903)
1903 - Toll went with the astronomer of the expedition and the Yakut industrialists on a sledge expedition to Cape Vysoky of the New Siberia Island, with the intention of reaching Bennett Island, and disappeared. Upon the return of Zarya, the Academy of Sciences developed two rescue plans. Alexander Vasilievich undertook to fulfill one of them. In 1903-1904. on behalf of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, first on dogs, then on a whaleboat, he crossed from Tiksi Bay to Bennett Island, almost drowning in an ice crack.
The expedition delivered notes, Toll's geological collections, and news of the scientist's death. 1903 - for the polar journey, Kolchak was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree. 1905 - for "an outstanding geographical feat associated with labor and danger," the Russian Geographical Society presented the future admiral to be awarded the large gold Konstantinovsky medal, and in 1906 elected him as a full member.
Russo-Japanese War
1904, March - having learned about the Japanese attack on Port Arthur, Alexander Kolchak handed over the affairs of the expedition, went to the Far East and appeared to Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov. At first, Kolchak was appointed watch commander on the Askold cruiser, from April 1904 he began to act as an artillery officer on the Amur mine transport, from April 21, 1904 he commanded the Angry destroyer and made several bold attacks.
Under the leadership of Kolchak, they set up a minefield on the outskirts of Port Arthur Bay, as well as a mine bank at the mouth of the Amur, on which the Japanese cruiser Takasago was blown up. Kolchak was one of the developers of the expedition plan to break through the blockade of the fortress from the sea and intensify the actions of the fleet against Japanese transports in the Yellow Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
After the death of Makarov, Vitgeft abandoned the plan. From November 2, 1904, until the surrender of the fortress, Kolchak commanded 120-mm and 47-mm batteries on the northeastern wing of the defense of Port Arthur. Wounded, with exacerbation of rheumatism, he was taken prisoner. Alexander Vasilievich was repeatedly awarded for distinctions near Port Arthur: the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree, a golden saber with the inscription "For Bravery" and the Order of St. Stanislaus of the 2nd degree with swords. 1906 - he received the silver medal "In Memory of the Russo-Japanese War".
Scientific work
As an expert on naval issues, Kolchak sought in the defense commission of the 3rd State Duma government appropriations for the construction of military ships for the Baltic Fleet, in particular 4 dreadnoughts, but could not overcome the resistance of the Duma members, who initially demanded reforms of the maritime department. Disappointed in the possibility of implementing his plans, in 1908 Alexander Vasilievich continued lecturing at the Nikolaev Naval Academy. 1907 - he was promoted to captain-lieutenant, in 1908 - to captain of the 2nd rank.

At the suggestion of the head of the Main Hydrographic Department A.V. Vilkitsky, Kolchak took part in the development of a project for a scientific expedition to explore the Northern Sea Route. 1909, April - Kolchak made a report "North-Eastern passage from the mouth of the river. Yenisei to the Bering Strait" in the Society for the Study of Siberia and the Improvement of its Life. At the same time, the scientist wrote his main work, "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas", which was published in 1909. Based on observations made during Toll's expedition, it did not lose its significance for a long time.
1909, autumn - icebreaking transports "Taimyr" and "Vaigach" set off from Kronstadt to Vladivostok. These ships made up the expedition of the Arctic Ocean, which was supposed to study the route from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean along the coast of Siberia. Kolchak, as the commander of the Vaigach icebreaker transport, came on it in the summer of 1910 across the Indian Ocean to Vladivostok, then sailed to the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea, where he performed hydrological and astronomical studies.
Return to the Naval General Staff
The scientist failed to continue his activities in the North. In the autumn he was recalled from the expedition, and from the end of 1910 Kolchak was appointed head of the Baltic Operational Directorate of the Naval General Staff. Alexander Vasilievich was involved in the development of the Russian shipbuilding program (in particular, ships of the Izmail type), taught at the Nikolaev Maritime Academy, and as an expert of the State Duma sought to increase appropriations for shipbuilding. 1912, January - he presented a note on the reorganization of the Naval General Staff. Kolchak prepared the book "Service of the General Staff: messages on the additional course of the naval department of the Nikolaev Naval Academy, 1911-1912", in which he insisted on the introduction of complete autocracy of the commander in the fleet. He firmly pursued this idea in all the posts he occupied.
Service in the Baltic Fleet
1912, spring - at the suggestion of Admiral N.O. Essen, Kolchak took command of the destroyer Ussuriets. 1913, December - for excellent service, he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, appointed flag captain of the operational unit of the headquarters of the commander of the naval forces of the Baltic Sea and at the same time commander of the destroyer "Border Guard" - the admiral's messenger ship.
World War I
At the beginning of the First World War, a captain of the 1st rank drew up the disposition of wartime operations in the Baltic, organized the successful laying of mines and attacks on the caravans of German merchant ships. 1915, February - 4 destroyers under his command put up about 200 mines in the Danzig Bay, on which 12 warships and 11 enemy transports were blown up, which forced the German command to temporarily not put the ships out to sea.

1915, summer - on the initiative of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, they introduced into the Gulf of Riga battleship"Glory" to cover the mine setting off the coast. These productions deprived the advancing German troops of the support of the fleet. Temporarily commanding the Mine Division since September 1915, since December he was also the head of the defense of the Gulf of Riga. Using the artillery of the ships, he helped the army of General D.R. Radko-Dmitriev repel the onslaught of the enemy at Kemmern. The landing in the rear of the enemy troops, which was landed in accordance with the tactical plan of Kolchak, played its role.
For successful attacks on the caravans of German ships that delivered ore from Sweden, Kolchak was presented with the Order of St. George, 4th degree. 1916, April 10 - he was promoted to rear admiral, and on June 28 he was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet with promotion "for distinction in service" to vice admiral. Kolchak did not want to go to the unfamiliar maritime theater. But he was able to quickly get used to it, and already in July 1916, on the battleship Empress Maria, he took part in a raid of Russian ships in the Black Sea, started a battle with the Turkish cruiser Breslau. A month later, under the command of Kolchak, the blockade of the Bosphorus and the Eregli-Zonguldak coal region was strengthened, massive mining of enemy ports was carried out, as a result of which the enemy ships entered the Black Sea almost stopped.
After the February Revolution
1917, March 12 - Admiral Kolchak swore the fleet to the Provisional Government. Alexander Vasilievich actively fought against the revolutionary "fermentation" and the gradual decline of discipline in the fleet. A supporter of the continuation of the war to a victorious end, he opposed the end of hostilities. When, under the influence of agitators who arrived from the Baltic, the sailors began to disarm the officers, Kolchak in mid-June 1917 transferred command to Rear Admiral V.K. Lukin and, at the request of Kerensky, went with the chief of staff to Petrograd to explain the unauthorized resignation. Speaking at a government meeting, Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich accused him of the collapse of the army and navy.
In America
1917, early August - the vice admiral was appointed head of the naval mission in America. Upon arrival in Washington, he made his proposals for the planned landing in the Dardanelles, and was collecting technical information about American military preparations. 1917, early October - the admiral took part in naval maneuvers on the American battleship Pennsylvania. Realizing that the Americans did not intend to help Russia in the war, by mid-October he decided to return to his homeland.
In Japan
But, having arrived in Japan in November 1917, Kolchak learned about the establishment of Soviet power and the intention of the Bolsheviks to make peace with Germany, after which he decided not to return. He considered the Bolsheviks to be German agents. Since the war took possession of his entire being, the admiral at the beginning of December 1917 turned to the British ambassador in Japan with a request to accept him into the British military service. 1917, the end of December - agreement followed. 1918, January - Kolchak went from Japan to the Mesopotamian front, where Russian and British troops fought with the Turks. But in Singapore, he received an order from the London government to come to Beijing to the Russian envoy, Prince N.A. Kudashev, to work in Manchuria and Siberia.
In China
In Beijing, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was elected a member of the board of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). From April to September 21, 1918, he was engaged in the creation of armed forces for the defense of the CER. Obviously, those who chose the candidacy of the vice-admiral were impressed by his determination. But soon Kolchak's political unpreparedness fully affected. The admiral promised to restore order, intended to create a stronghold in the Far East to fight the Bolsheviks. But at the headquarters of the commander-in-chief they were unhappy that he did not understand anything in military affairs and demanded an immediate campaign against Vladivostok, not having sufficient forces.
Civil War
Kolchak entered into a struggle with Ataman Semenov, relying on the detachment of Colonel Orlov created by him, which was not much different from the Ataman. In an attempt to remove Kolchak, he threatened to call in the troops. Until the end of June, the situation remained uncertain. The commander tried to launch an offensive. But the Chinese refused to let the Russian troops through, and the admiral left for Japan. Kolchak did not know what to do. He even had the idea to go back to the British on the Mesopotamian front. Finally, he decided to make his way to the Volunteer Army of General M.V. Alekseev. Along the way, in October 1918, he arrived in Omsk with the English General A. Knox.
On October 14, the commander-in-chief of the forces of the Ufa directory, V.G. Boldyrev, invited the admiral to enter the government. On November 4, by decree of the local Provisional Government, Kolchak was appointed military and naval minister and immediately went to the front.
"Supreme ruler"
The activities of the directory, which was a coalition of different parties, including the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, did not suit Kolchak. On November 17, having entered into a conflict over the relationship of the directory to the naval ministry, the admiral retired. Relying on reliable troops, on November 18, he arrested the members of the directory and convened an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers, at which he was promoted to admiral and transferred power with the title "Supreme Ruler".

Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich granted the commanders of military districts the right to declare areas under a state of siege, close press organs and impose death sentences. With cruel measures, the admiral fought against the opponents of his dictatorship, at the same time, with the support of the allies, increasing and arming his regiments.
1918, December - as a result of the Perm operation, Kolchak's troops took Perm and continued their offensive deep into Soviet Russia. The first successes drew the attention of the allies to Kolchak. On January 16, the Supreme Ruler signed an agreement on coordinating the actions of the White Guards and interventionists.
French General M. Janin became the commander-in-chief of the troops of the allied states in Eastern Russia and Western Siberia, and the English General A. Knox - the head of the rear and supply of the Kolchak troops. Significant deliveries of military equipment and weapons from America, England, France, and Japan made it possible to increase the strength of Kolchak's armies to 400,000 by the spring. The admiral organized the attack. In March, the Eastern Front of the Red Army was broken through. Part of the Kolchak troops moved to Kotlas to organize the supply of supplies through northern seas, while the main forces made their way to the south-west to join with A.I. Denikin.
The successful offensive of the Kolchakites, who took Buguruslan on April 15, prompted French Prime Minister J. Clemenceau to recommend that Janin attack Moscow with the main forces, and join Denikin on the left flank and form a united front. It seemed that this plan was quite feasible. Kolchak's troops approached Samara and Kazan at the end of April. In May, Kolchak's supreme power was recognized by A.I. Denikin, N.N. Yudenich and E.K. Miller.
But the unsuccessful choice of Kolchak's closest assistants, the extreme optimism of the commander of the Siberian Army, Lieutenant General Gaida and his young generals, who incorrectly assessed the situation and promised to enter Moscow in a month and a half, soon affected. As a result of the counteroffensive of the Red Army in May-June 1919, the best Siberian and Western armies of Kolchak were defeated and rolled back far to the east.
Arrest and execution of Admiral Kolchak
Siberians did not like the restoration of autocratic government; grew in the rear partisan movement. The allies had a huge influence, on the supplies of which the actions of the army depended. Defeats at the front caused panic in the rear. In October, the evacuation of Czech troops caused the families of the White Guards to flee from Omsk. Hundreds of echelons blocked the railroad.
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak tried to democratize power, but it was too late. The front has collapsed. The Czechs arrested Kolchak, who was moving under the protection of the Allied flags, and on January 15, 1920, at the Innokentievskaya station, they surrendered to the Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik "Political Center".
The Center transferred Admiral Kolchak to the Bolshevik Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee (VRK). Interrogations began on January 21. At first, it was supposed to send the admiral to the capital, but, having received instructions from Moscow, the Military Revolutionary Committee shot Kolchak and Pepelyaev on February 7, 1920.
A source:
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Wrangel Petr Nikolaevich (born August 15 (August 27), 1878 - death April 25, 1928) Baron, lieutenant general, participant in the Russian-Japanese, World War I and Civil Wars, commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia and the Russian Army.
He was awarded the Order of St. George of the 4th degree (1914), the soldier's St. George's Cross (1917) and other orders. Author of memoirs "Notes: in 2 parts" (1928).
Origin
The Wrangel family, leading its genealogy from the 13th century, was of Danish origin. Many of its representatives served under the banners of Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Holland and Spain, and when Livonia and Estonia finally gained a foothold in Russia, the Wrangels began to faithfully serve the Russian crown. There were 7 field marshals, 18 generals and 2 admirals in the Wrangel family (the islands in the Arctic and Pacific oceans are named after one of them, F. Wrangel).
Many of the representatives of the Wrangel family in Russia devoted their lives to a military career. However, there were those who refused it. One of them was Nikolai Georgievich Wrangel. Abandoning military career, he became the director of the Equitebl insurance company, which was located in Rostov-on-Don. Nikolai Georgievich had the title of baron, but there were no estates or fortune. He inherited the title to his son, Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, who became one of the most famous military figures of the early 20th century.
Education
Wrangel Petr Nikolayevich was born in Novoaleksandrovsk on August 27, 1878. He received his primary education at home, and then entered the Rostov real school. After graduating from college, Peter went to St. Petersburg, where in 1896 he successfully passed the exams at the Mining Institute.
The title of baron and family ties allowed the young Pyotr Wrangel to be accepted in high society, and higher education made it possible for him to serve military service, mandatory for Russian citizens, for only one year and choose the place of service himself.
Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905
Pyotr Wrangel graduated from the Institute in 1901 and in the same year he joined the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment as a volunteer. The following year, he was promoted to cornet, having passed the exams for an officer's rank at the Nikolaev Cavalry School. Then, having retired to the reserve, he went to Irkutsk as an official for special assignments under the Governor General. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. found him in Siberia, and Wrangel, again enters active military service, and goes to the Far East. There, Pyotr Nikolayevich was enrolled in the 2nd Argun regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack army.
1904, December - Pyotr Wrangel was promoted to centurion - "for distinction in cases against the Japanese." During military operations, for courage and bravery, he receives his first military orders - St. Anna of the 4th degree and St. Stanislav. 1905 - service in a separate division of scouts of the 1st Manchurian army, and by the end of the war, ahead of schedule, received the rank of podsaul. During the war, Wrangel strengthened his desire to become a regular military man.
Revolution of 1905-1907
First Russian Revolution 1905-1907 walked through Siberia, and Pyotr Nikolaevich, as part of the detachment of General A. Orlov, took part in pacifying the riots and eliminating the pogroms that accompanied the revolution.

1906 - with the rank of headquarters captain, he was transferred to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment, and the next year he was a lieutenant of the Life Guards Horse Regiment.
1907 - Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel entered the Nikolaev Military Academy of the General Staff, from which he graduated in 1910 among the best - seventh on the list. It should be noted that the future Marshal of the Soviet Union B. Shaposhnikov studied on the same course with Wrangel.
1911 - he takes a course at an officer cavalry school, having received a squadron under his command, becomes a member of the regimental court in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment.
World War I
The outbreak of the First World War brought Pyotr Nikolaevich to the front. Together with the regiment in the rank of captain of the guard, he became part of the 1st Army of the North-Western Front. Already in the first days of the war, he was able to distinguish himself. 1914, August 6 - his squadron attacked and captured a German battery. He was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. After an unsuccessful East Prussian operation Russian troops retreated, but, despite the fact that there were practically no active hostilities, Wrangel was repeatedly awarded for bravery and heroism. He was promoted to colonel and awarded the St. George golden weapon. For him, the rank of officer had a lot of meaning, and he said that he owed his personal courage to set an example for his subordinates.
October 1915 - Pyotr Nikolaevich was transferred to the South-Western Front and took command of the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Host. When translating, he was given the following description by his former commander: “Outstanding courage. Understands the situation perfectly and quickly, very resourceful in a difficult situation.
Under his leadership, the regiment fought in Galicia and took part in the famous " Brusilov breakthrough". 1916 - Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich was promoted to major general and he becomes commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri Cavalry Division. By the end of the war, he was already at the head of a division.
Wrangel was a monarchist in his convictions, but he often criticized in conversations as the highest command staff, and personally Emperor Nicholas 2. He associated failures in the war with the weakness of command. He considered himself a true officer and made high demands both on himself and on anyone who wore officer shoulder straps. Wrangel repeated that if an officer admits that his order may not be carried out, then "he is no longer an officer, there are no officer epaulets on him." He enjoyed great respect among fellow officers and ordinary soldiers. He considered military prowess, intelligence and honor of the commander and strict discipline to be the main ones in military affairs.
Civil War
February revolution Pyotr Nikolaevich immediately accepted and swore allegiance to the Provisional Government. But the collapse of the army, which began soon, had a very hard effect on her state of mind. Not wanting to continue to take part in this, Pyotr Nikolaevich, citing illness, went on vacation and left for the Crimea. For almost a year, he led a very secluded life, practically did not communicate with anyone.

1918, summer - Wrangel decides to act. He comes to Kyiv to the former commander of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, General, and now Hetman Skoropadsky, and becomes under his banner. However, the hetman did not care much about the revival of Russia, he fought for the "independence" of Ukraine. Because of this, conflicts began to arise between him and the general, and soon Wrangel decided to leave for Yekaterinodar to General Denikin.
Having joined the Volunteer Army, Wrangel received a cavalry brigade under his command, with which he participated in the 2nd Kuban campaign. Having extensive combat experience behind him, without losing his courage, determination and courage, Pyotr Nikolayevich very soon gained recognition as an excellent commander, and the 1st cavalry division was entrusted to his command, and after 2 months the entire 1st cavalry corps.
In the army, he enjoyed great prestige and often addressed the troops with bright patriotic speeches. His orders were always distinguished by clarity and precision. 1918, December - he was promoted to lieutenant general. It should be noted that Wrangel under no circumstances allowed a weakening or violation of discipline. For example, during successful operations in Ukraine, cases of looting became more frequent in the Volunteer Army. Many commanders turned a blind eye to this, justifying the actions of their subordinates by the poor supply of the army. But the general did not want to put up with this and even used public executions of marauders in the units entrusted to him as an edification to others.
Successful operations in the south greatly increased the front of the offensive. At the end of May 1919, a decision was made to create a new Caucasian army for operations on the Lower Volga. Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel was appointed commander of the army. The offensive of the Caucasian army began successfully - they were able to take Tsaritsyn and Kamyshin and undertake a campaign against Saratov. However, by the autumn of 1919, large Red forces were drawn up against the Caucasian army, and its victorious offensive was stopped. In addition, all reserves were transferred from the general to the Volunteer Army, which was advancing towards Tula and Moscow, which greatly weakened the Caucasian army.
Having suffered a crushing defeat under the counterattacks of the Southern Front, the Volunteer Army retreated. The remnants of the White armies were brought together in one corps under the command of Kutepov, and Wrangel was instructed to go to the Kuban to form new regiments. By this time, the disagreements between him and Denikin, which began in the summer of 1919, reached their highest point. General Wrangel criticized Denikin both for the methods of military leadership, and for questions of strategy, and for his civil policy. He opposed the attempted campaign against Moscow and insisted on joining with Admiral Kolchak. The result of the disagreement was that Wrangel was forced to leave the army and go to Constantinople.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South
March 1920 - Denikin resigns and asks the Military Council to find a replacement for him. The new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South was elected (unanimously) Wrangel Petr Nikolayevich.

Having taken office, Pyotr Nikolayevich began first of all to put the army in order and began to reorganize it. The generals whose troops were distinguished by indiscipline, Pokrovsky and Shkuro, were fired. The commander-in-chief also changed the name of the army - now it has become known as the Russian army, which, in his opinion, should have attracted more supporters to its ranks. He himself and the “Government of the South of Russia” created by him tried to create a new state on the territory of Crimea, which could fight the Soviets as an example of a better state system. The reforms carried out by the government were not successful, and the support of the people was not received.
1920, the beginning of summer - the Russian army numbered 25,000 people in its ranks. Wrangel carried out a successful military operation to capture Northern Tavria, taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Reds were in Poland. In August, he sent an amphibious assault to the Kuban, which, not meeting the support of the Cossacks there, returned to the Crimea. 1920, autumn - the Russian army tried to take active steps to capture the Donbass and break through to the Right-Bank Ukraine. The size of Wrangel's army by this time had reached 60,000 people.
Fall of white Crimea
But soon hostilities in Poland were stopped, and 5 armies were thrown against the Russian army, including two cavalry armies under the command of M.V. Frunze, numbering more than 130,000 people. It took the Red Army just one week to liberate Northern Tavria, break through the Perekop fortifications and break into the Crimea. The Russian army, unable to resist the numerically superior enemy, began to retreat. Nevertheless, General Wrangel managed to make this retreat not a disorderly flight, but an organized withdrawal of units. Tens of thousands of soldiers of the Russian army and refugees were sent from the Crimea to Turkey on Russian and French ships.
Emigration
In Turkey, Baron Wrangel stayed for about a year, staying with the army, maintaining order and discipline in it. During this year, the soldiers of the Russian army gradually dispersed around the world, and many went back to Russia. At the end of 1921, the remnants of the Russian army were transferred to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
Instead of the collapsed Russian army in Paris, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) was founded, which had departments in countries where former officers and members of the White movement found shelter. The goal of the ROVS was to preserve officer cadres for future struggle.
Until his death, Baron Wrangel remained the head of the EMRO and did not stop fighting the Bolsheviks. The ROVS carried out extensive intelligence work and had a combat department that developed plans for carrying out armed actions on the territory of the USSR.
Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich died in Brussels on April 25, 1928, several months before his 50th birthday. His body was transported to Yugoslavia and solemnly buried in Belgrade in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity.
Y. Lubchenkov

Why did the Bolsheviks shoot Kolchak?

The officers of Denikin and Wrangel were lambs compared to the admiral's punishers

Contrary to the popular myth that the evil Bolsheviks arrested the admiral and shot him almost immediately, Kolchak's interrogations went on for 17 days - from January 21 to February 6, 1920.

Kolchak is perhaps one of the most controversial figures of the Civil War. One of the largest explorers of the Arctic, a traveler, an unsurpassed master of minecraft during the First World War, a staunch monarchist. This is one side of the coin.

But there is also a second one. The White movement had many leaders: Kornilov, Denikin, Yudenich, Wrangel, Mai-Maevsky, Shkuro, Semyonov, Kaledin, Slashchev, Alekseev, Krasnov ... But it was Kolchak's troops that were remembered for their particular cruelty.

When the admiral took power in Siberia, the majority of the population took it quite favorably. But Alexander Vasilyevich was not a very good politician or trusted his officers too much, who, fighting partisans and others who disagreed with the authority of the Supreme Ruler, did not stop at nothing. Then, during interrogations, Kolchak said that he knew nothing about the cruelties that some of his officers had committed. But the fact remains - even the Cossacks from the “Wolf Hundred” of Ataman Shkuro, who fought in the ranks of the Volunteer Army of Denikin, and then obeyed Wrangel, were lambs compared to the military foreman Krasilnikov and other punishers of Admiral Kolchak.

In a word, the collapse of Kolchak's army, in many respects, is a consequence of the short-sighted and not always smart policy of the straightforward, albeit loving Russia, admiral. Contrary to the myths according to which the evil Bolsheviks captured Kolchak and immediately put him to death, they planned to hold a trial over the admiral. Moreover, not in Omsk and not in Irkutsk, but in Moscow. But the situation is different.

Here are excerpts from the last interrogation of Admiral Kolchak

... Alekseevsky. Tell me your attitude towards General Kappel, as one of the largest figures in the Volunteer Army.

Kolchak. I did not know Kappel before and did not meet him, but the orders that Kappel gave marked the beginning of my deep sympathy and respect for this figure. Then, when I met with Kappel in February or March, when his units were withdrawn to the reserve, and he came to me, I talked with him for a long time on these topics, and I became convinced that he was one of the most outstanding young commanders ...

... Popov. The Commission has at its disposal a copy of the telegram with the inscription: "Arrest the members of the Constituent Assembly through the Supreme Ruler."

Kolchak. As far as I remember, it was my decision when I received this telegram threatening to open a front against me. Perhaps Vologodsky, having simultaneously received a copy of the telegram, made a resolution, but in any case, Vologodsky did not take any part in this decision. About 20 members of the Constituent Assembly were arrested, and among them there were no persons who signed the telegram, with the exception, it seems, of Devyatov. After reviewing the lists, I called the officer who escorted them, Kruglovsky, and said that I did not know these persons at all; and that they apparently did not take any part in the telegram and did not even seem to be persons belonging to the composition of the committee of members of the Constituent Assembly, such as, for example, Fomin. I asked why they were arrested; I was told that this was an order from the local command, in view of the fact that they acted against the command and against the Supreme Ruler, that the local command was ordered to arrest them and poison them in Omsk ...

... Popov. How did their fate develop and under whose pressure? But you know that most of them were shot.

Kolchak. They were shot 8 or 9 people. They were shot during the uprising in the twentieth of December ...

... Alekseevsky. Did you give him any special instructions about this?

Kolchak. No, everything was done automatically. In case of alarm, once and for all, a schedule of troops was drawn up - where to which units to be located. The city was divided into districts, everything was taken into account. There were no surprises, and I didn't have to give instructions. On the eve of the speech, in the evening, Lebedev informed me by telephone, or rather, in the morning of the next day, that the headquarters of the Bolsheviks, including 20 people, had been arrested the day before - this was a day before the speech. Lebedev said: "I consider all this sufficient for everything to be exhausted and there will be no performance."

Popov. What did he report about the fate of the arrested headquarters?

Kolchak. He only said that they were arrested.

Popov. And he did not report that there were executions at the place of arrest?

Kolchak. They were shot on the second day after the trial...

... Popov. The executions in Kulomzin were carried out on whose initiative?

Kolchak. Field court, which was appointed after the occupation of Kulomzin.

Popov. You are familiar with the situation of this court. Do you know that in essence there was no trial?

Kolchak. I knew that this was a field court, which was appointed by the head of the suppression of the uprising.

Popov. So, like this: three officers gathered and shot. Was there any business going on?

Kolchak. There was a field court.

Popov. The field court also requires formal proceedings. Do you know that this production was carried out, or you yourself, as the Supreme Ruler, were not interested in this? You, as the Supreme Ruler, should have known that in fact there were no trials, that two or three officers were imprisoned, 50 people were brought in, and they were shot. Surely you didn't have that information?

Kolchak. I did not have such information. I believed that the field court operates in the same way as the field court generally operates during uprisings ...

... Popov. And how many people were shot in Kulomzin?

Kolchak. Man 70 or 80.

Denike. Didn't you know that mass flogging was practiced in Kulomzin?

Kolchak. I knew nothing about flogging, and in general I always forbade any kind of corporal punishment - therefore, I could not even imply that flogging could exist somewhere. And where it became known to me, I prosecuted, deposed, that is, acted in a punitive way.

Popov. Do you know that the persons who were arrested in connection with the uprising in December were subsequently subjected to torture in counterintelligence, and what was the nature of these tortures? What was done by the military authorities and by you, the Supreme Ruler, against these tortures?

Kolchak. No one reported this to me, and I believe that there were none.

Popov. I myself saw people detached to the Alexander Prison, who were literally completely covered with wounds and tormented by ramrods - do you know that?

Kolchak. No, I was never reported. If such things were made known, the perpetrators were punished.

Popov. Do you know that this was done at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Kolchak, in counterintelligence at headquarters?

Kolchak. No, I couldn't know because the bet couldn't do it.

Popov. This was done during counterintelligence at headquarters.

Kolchak. Obviously, the people who did this could not report to me, because they knew that I was on legal grounds all the time. If such crimes were committed, I could not know about them. Are you saying that this was done at the rate?

Popov. I say: in counterintelligence at headquarters. I return to the question of the court-martial in Kulomzin.

Kolchak. I believe that the proceedings were the same as those required in a court-martial.

Popov. In Kulomzin, in fact, about 500 people were shot, they were shot in whole groups of 50-60 people. In addition, in fact, there was no battle in Kulomzin, because only the armed workers began to go out into the street - they were already seized and shot - that was the uprising in Kulomzin.

Kolchak. This point of view is new for me, because there were wounded and killed in my troops, and even Czechs were killed, whose families I gave out benefits. How do you say there was no fight?...

The deputy chairman of the Irkutsk Gub.Ch.K. K.Popov

During interrogations, Kolchak, according to the memoirs of the Chekists, kept calm and confident. But the last interrogation took place in a more nervous atmosphere. Ataman Semenov demanded the extradition of Kolchak, Irkutsk could be captured by parts of General Kappel. Therefore, it was decided to shoot the admiral.

The sentence was carried out on the night of February 6-7, 1920. As Popov later wrote, Admiral Kolchak behaved extremely dignified and calm during the execution. As befits a Russian officer... But the Supreme Ruler did not turn out from a brilliant naval officer...

In the post-Soviet period, a reassessment of the events and results of the Civil War began in Russia. The attitude towards the leaders of the White movement began to change to the exact opposite - now they are being filmed about them, in which they appear as fearless knights without fear and reproach.

At the same time, many people know very little about how the fate of the most famous leaders of the White Army developed. Not all of them managed to maintain honor and dignity after the defeat in the Civil War. Some were destined for an inglorious end and indelible shame.

Alexander Kolchak

On November 5, 1918, Admiral Kolchak was appointed military and naval minister of the so-called Ufa Directory, one of the anti-Bolshevik governments created during the Civil War.

On November 18, 1918, a coup took place, as a result of which the Directory was abolished, and Kolchak himself was endowed with the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia.

From the autumn of 1918 to the summer of 1919, Kolchak managed to successfully conduct military operations against the Bolsheviks. At the same time, in the territory controlled by his troops, methods of terror were practiced against political opponents.

A series of military setbacks in the second half of 1919 led to the loss of all previously captured territories. The repressive methods of Kolchak provoked a wave of uprisings in the rear of the White Army, and often at the head of these speeches were not the Bolsheviks, but the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.

Kolchak planned to get to Irkutsk, where he was going to continue the resistance, but on December 27, 1919, power in the city passed to the Political Center, which included the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries.

On January 4, 1920, Kolchak signed his last decree - on the transfer of supreme power to General Denikin. Under the guarantees of the representatives of the Entente, who promised to take Kolchak to a safe place, the former Supreme Ruler arrived in Irkutsk on January 15.

Here he was handed over to the Political Center and placed in a local prison. On January 21, interrogations of Kolchak began by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission. After the final transfer of power in Irkutsk into the hands of the Bolsheviks, the fate of the admiral was sealed.

On the night of February 6 to February 7, 1920, 45-year-old Kolchak was shot by order of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee of the Bolsheviks.

General Staff Lieutenant General V.O. Kappel. Winter 1919 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Vladimir Kappel

General Kappel gained fame thanks to the popular in the USSR film "Chapaev", where the so-called "psychic attack" was captured - when the chains of the Kappelites moved towards the enemy without firing a shot.

The “psychic attack” had rather mundane reasons - parts of the White Guards were seriously suffering from a shortage of ammunition, and such tactics were a forced decision.

In June 1918, General Kappel organized a detachment of volunteers, which was later deployed into the Separate Rifle Brigade of the Komuch People's Army. The Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly (Komuch) became the first anti-Bolshevik government in Russia, and Kappel's unit became one of the most reliable in his army.

An interesting fact - the symbol of Komuch was a red banner, and the Internationale was used as the anthem. So the general, who became one of the symbols of the White movement, began the Civil War under the red banner.

After the anti-Bolshevik forces in the east of Rossi were united under the general command of Admiral Kolchak, General Kappel led the 1st Volga Corps, later called the "Kappelevsky".

Kappel remained loyal to Kolchak to the end. After the arrest of the latter, the general, who by that time had received the entire crumbling Eastern Front under his command, made a desperate attempt to save Kolchak.

In conditions of severe frosts, Kappel led his troops to Irkutsk. Moving along the channel of the Kan River, the general fell into a hole. Kappel received frostbite, which developed into gangrene. After the amputation of the foot, he continued to lead the troops.

On January 21, 1920, Kappel transferred command of the troops to General Wojciechowski. Severe inflammation of the lungs was added to gangrene. The already dying Kappel insisted on continuing the march to Irkutsk.

36-year-old Vladimir Kappel died on January 26, 1920 at the Utai junction, near the Tulun station near the city of Nizhneudinsk. His troops were defeated by the Reds on the outskirts of Irkutsk.

Lavr Kornilov in 1917. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Lavr Kornilov

After the failure of his speech, Kornilov was arrested, and the period from September 1 to November 1917, the general and his associates spent under arrest in Mogilev and Bykhov.

The October Revolution in Petrograd led to the fact that the opponents of the Bolsheviks decided to release the previously arrested generals.

Once free, Kornilov went to the Don, where he set about creating a Volunteer Army for the war against the Bolsheviks. In fact, Kornilov became not only one of the organizers of the White movement, but one of those who unleashed the Civil War in Russia.

Kornilov acted with extremely harsh methods. Participants of the so-called First Kuban "Ice" campaign recalled: "All the Bolsheviks captured by us with weapons in their hands were shot on the spot: alone, in tens, hundreds. It was a war of extermination.

The Kornilovites used tactics of intimidation against the civilian population: in the appeal of Lavr Kornilov, the inhabitants were warned that any "hostile action" against the volunteers and the Cossack detachments acting together with them would be punished by executions and burning of villages.

Kornilov's participation in the Civil War turned out to be short - on March 31, 1918, the 47-year-old general was killed during the storming of Yekaterinodar.

General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich. 1910s Photo from Alexander Pogost's photo album. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Nikolai Yudenich

General Yudenich, who during the First World War successfully operated in the Caucasian theater of operations, returned to Petrograd in the summer of 1917. He remained in the city after the October Revolution, going into an illegal position.

Only at the beginning of 1919 did he leave for Helsingfors (now Helsinki), where, at the end of 1918, the Russian Committee, another anti-Bolshevik government, was organized.

Yudenich was proclaimed the head of the White movement in the North-West of Russia with dictatorial powers.

By the summer of 1919, Yudenich, having received funding and confirmation of her authority from Kolchak, created the so-called North-Western Army, which was tasked with capturing Petrograd.

In the autumn of 1919, the Northwestern Army undertook a campaign against Petrograd. By mid-October, Yudenich's troops reached the Pulkovo Heights, where they were stopped by the Red Army reserves.

The White front was broken through, and a rapid retreat began. The fate of Yudenich's army was tragic - the units pressed to the border with Estonia were forced to move to the territory of this state, where they were interned and placed in camps. Thousands of soldiers and civilians died in these camps.

Yudenich himself, announcing the dissolution of the army, left for London via Stockholm and Copenhagen. Then the general moved to France, where he settled.

Unlike many associates, Yudenich retired from political life in exile.

Living in Nice, he headed the Society of Zealots of Russian History.

Denikin in Paris, 1938 Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Anton Denikin

General Anton Denikin, who was one of General Kornilov's associates in the summer 1917 coup attempt, was among those who were arrested and then released after the Bolsheviks came to power.

Together with Kornilov, he went to the Don, where he became one of the founders of the Volunteer Army.

By the time of Kornilov's death during the storming of Yekaterinodar, Denikin was his deputy and assumed command of the Volunteer Army.

In January 1919, during the reorganization of the White forces, Denikin became the commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia - recognized by the Western Allies as "number two" in the White movement after General Kolchak.

Denikin's greatest successes came in the summer of 1919. After a series of victories in July, he signed the "Moscow directive" - ​​a plan to take the capital of Russia.

Having captured large territories of southern and central Russia, as well as Ukraine, Denikin's troops in October 1919 approached Tula. The Bolsheviks seriously considered plans to leave Moscow.

However, the defeat in the Oryol-Kromsky battle, where Budyonny's cavalry loudly declared itself, led to an equally rapid retreat of the whites.

In January 1920, Denikin received from Kolchak the rights of the Supreme Ruler of Russia. At the same time, things were going disastrously at the front. The offensive launched in February 1920 ended in failure, the Whites were driven back to the Crimea.

The allies and the generals demanded that Denikin transfer power to the successor, for whom he was chosen Pyotr Wrangel.

On April 4, 1920, Denikin transferred all powers to Wrangel, and on the same day left Russia forever on an English destroyer.

In exile, Denikin withdrew from active politics, taking up literature. He wrote books on the history of the Russian army in pre-revolutionary times, as well as on the history of the Civil War.

In the 1930s, Denikin, unlike many other leaders of the white emigration, advocated the need to support the Red Army against any foreign aggressor, with the subsequent awakening of the Russian spirit in the ranks of this army, which, according to the general, should overthrow Bolshevism in Russia.

Second World War found Denikin in France. After the German attack on the USSR, he received several offers of cooperation from the Nazis, but invariably refused. Former like-minded people who entered into an alliance with Hitler, the general called "obscurantists" and "Hitler's fans."

After the end of the war, Denikin left for the United States, fearing that he might be extradited to the Soviet Union. However, the government of the USSR, knowing about Denikin's position during the war years, did not put forward any demands for his extradition to the allies.

Anton Denikin died on August 7, 1947 in the USA at the age of 74. In October 2005, on the initiative Russian President Vladimir Putin the remains of Denikin and his wife were reburied in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.

Pyotr Wrangel. Photo: Public Domain

Pyotr Wrangel

Baron Pyotr Wrangel, known as the “black baron” for wearing a black Cossack Circassian coat with gazyrs, became the last leader of the White movement in Russia during the Civil War.

At the end of 1917, Wrangel, who left, lived in Yalta, where he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Soon the baron was released, as the Bolsheviks did not find any corpus delicti in his actions. After the occupation of the Crimea by the German army, Wrangel left for Kyiv, where he collaborated with the government of Hetman Skoropadsky. Only after that did the baron decide to join the Volunteer Army, which he joined in August 1918.

Successfully commanding the white cavalry, Wrangel became one of the most influential military leaders, and came into conflict with Denikin, not agreeing with him on plans for further action.

The conflict ended with the fact that Wrangel was removed from command and dismissed, after which he left for Constantinople. But in the spring of 1920, the allies, dissatisfied with the course of hostilities, succeeded in Denikin's resignation and his replacement with Wrangel.

The baron's plans were extensive. He was going to create an "alternative Russia" in the Crimea, which was supposed to win the competitive struggle against the Bolsheviks. But neither militarily nor economically, these projects were not viable. In November 1920, together with the remnants of the defeated White Army, Wrangel left Russia.

The "Black Baron" counted on the continuation of the armed struggle. In 1924, he created the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which united most of the participants in the White movement in exile. Numbering tens of thousands of members, the ROVS was a serious force.

Wrangel failed to carry out plans to continue the Civil War - on April 25, 1928 in Brussels, he suddenly died of tuberculosis.

Ataman of the VVD, cavalry general P.N. Krasnov. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Petr Krasnov

After the October Revolution, Peter Krasnov, who was the commander of the 3rd cavalry corps, on the orders of Alexander Kerensky, moved the troops not to Petrograd. On the outskirts of the capital, the corps was stopped, and Krasnov himself was arrested. But then the Bolsheviks not only released Krasnov, but also left him at the head of the corps.

After the demobilization of the corps, he left for the Don, where he continued the anti-Bolshevik struggle, agreeing to lead the uprising of the Cossacks after the capture and retention of Novocherkassk by them. May 16, 1918 Krasnov was elected Ataman of the Don Cossacks. Having entered into cooperation with the Germans, Krasnov proclaimed the Great Don Army as an independent state.

However, after the final defeat of Germany in the First World War, Krasnov had to urgently change his political line. Krasnov agreed to the joining of the Don Army to the Volunteer Army, and recognized the supremacy of Denikin.

Denikin, however, remained distrustful of Krasnov, and forced him to resign in February 1919. After that, Krasnov went to Yudenich, and after the defeat of the latter he moved into exile.

In exile, Krasnov collaborated with the ROVS, was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth, an organization that was engaged in underground work in Soviet Russia.

On June 22, 1941, Pyotr Krasnov issued an appeal stating: “I ask you to convey to all Cossacks that this war is not against Russia, but against communists, Jews and their henchmen who sell Russian blood. God help the German weapons and Hitler! Let them do what the Russians and Emperor Alexander I did for Prussia in 1813.”

In 1943, Krasnov became the head of the Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops of the Imperial Ministry of the Eastern Occupied Territories of Germany.

In May 1945, Krasnov, along with other collaborators, was captured by the British and extradited to the Soviet Union.

The military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR Peter Krasnov was sentenced to death. Together with his accomplices, the 77-year-old Nazi henchman was hanged in Lefortovo prison on January 16, 1947.

Photo by A. G. Shkuro, taken by the USSR Ministry of State Security after his arrest. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Andrey Shkuro

At birth, General Shkuro had a less euphonious surname - Shkura.

Oddly enough, Shkuro earned notoriety back in the years of the First World War, when he commanded the Kuban cavalry detachment. His raids were sometimes not coordinated with the command, and the fighters were seen in unseemly acts. Here is what Baron Wrangel recalled about that period: “The detachment of Colonel Shkuro, led by his chief, operating in the area of ​​​​the XVIII Corps, which included my Ussuri division, mostly hung out in the rear, drank and robbed, until, finally, at the insistence corps commander Krymov, was not recalled from the corps section.

During the years of the Civil War, Shkuro began with a partisan detachment in the Kislovodsk region, which grew into a large unit that joined Denikin's army in the summer of 1918.

Shkuro's habits have not changed: successfully operating in raids, his so-called "wolf hundred" also became famous for total robberies and unmotivated reprisals, before which the exploits of the Makhnovists and Petliurists pale.

Shkuro's decline began in October 1919, when his cavalry was defeated by Budyonny. A wholesale desertion began, because of which only a few hundred people remained under the command of Shkuro.

After Wrangel came to power, Shkuro was dismissed from the army, and already in May 1920 he found himself in exile.

Abroad, Shkuro worked odd jobs, was a rider in a circus, an extra in silent films.

After the German attack on the USSR, Shkuro, together with Krasnov, advocated cooperation with Hitler. In 1944, by a special decree of Himmler, Shkuro was appointed head of the Reserve of Cossack troops at the Main Headquarters of the SS troops, enrolled in the service as an SS gruppenfuehrer and lieutenant general of the SS troops with the right to wear a German general's uniform and receive maintenance for this rank.

Shkuro was preparing reserves for Cossack Corps who carried out punitive actions against the Yugoslav partisans.

In May 1945, Shkuro, along with other collaborating Cossacks, was arrested by the British and handed over to the Soviet Union.

Passing on the same case with Pyotr Krasnov, a 60-year-old veteran of raids and robberies shared his fate - Andrei Shkuro was hanged in Lefortovo prison on January 16, 1947.

At the end of the 2nd year of the existence of the Soviet Republic, the Red Army pressed Kolchak along the Siberian Railway. roads, dooming him to final defeat and defeat.

Denikin's hordes were forced into a grandiose retreat; they had to stop only in the Caucasus, where death awaited them between Rostov and Novorossiysk. Mr. Lloyd George, however, calmly declared that he never believed in the victory of Denikin and Kolchak, as if they had never enjoyed the support of England.

Bolshevism, he said, cannot be destroyed by the force of the sword. Why Kolchak and Denikin had to perish is now clear even to the bourgeois press. The news about the state of affairs behind Kolchak's rear, published in the summer in the Manchester Guardian, written by an English observer, speaks the same language as the confessions we now hear from Denikin's followers.

In the rear of Denikin, an unbridled bacchanalia of profit and careerism dominated: orgies were celebrated by speculators, plundered and plundered everything. Suffice it to say that the British were forced to personally deliver uniforms to individual military units, not to be stolen and sold on the way.

While unheard-of sums were madly shot into the air, the population languished under the weight of high prices and all sorts of crises. The richest southern grain region suffered greatly from a lack of bread. Having at its disposal a coal region of world importance, inexhaustible reserves of oil, due to a lack of fuel, neither transport nor industry could be set in motion.

The horrendous selection of the personnel of the administration in the localities turned all lofty words about legality and law into bullying. The old zemstvo chiefs, the revived bailiffs, the dregs of the old tsarist government, invested with authority, ran into places and fed, trying to restore the power of the old landowners, who, with the help of local authorities and troops, compensated for their previous losses and took revenge on the peasants.

There was a systematic robbery. IN Lately this surprised no one. Soldiers dragged, officers robbed, many generals robbed. This describes the position of Denikin's rear counter-revolutionary journalist G. N. Rakovsky in his book "In the Camp of the Whites", published in Constantinople.

The collapse of the counter-revolution forced the main partners of the civil war in Russia - the Soviet and British governments - to state clearly what they intended to do next.

The Soviet Republic gave an answer to this question at the Congress of Soviets, which took place in December 1919. Cannons were still roaring near Rostov-on-Don, the army still faced the difficult task of delivering the final blow to Denikin's hordes during the harsh winter. But the eyes of the Soviet government have already turned to peaceful construction. The congress of workers, peasants and Red Army deputies was held under the slogan of peaceful construction.

A lively discussion flared up in the circles of the Communist Party about the methods and forms of organizing production - a discussion that ended at the March Party Congress and served as the starting point for the greatest efforts through labor armies to use the strength of the peasantry to restore industry, without which the peasant economy would have to fall to the level of the Middle Ages. .

The Soviet press was filled with propaganda of labor discipline. Labor was elevated to a religion, and ever wider circles embraced the joyful consciousness that the time for bloodshed was over and the Soviet government and the Soviet republic turned to the tasks for which it arose: to fight against want and poverty, to organize the economic forces of a devastated country.

The leading force of the European counter-revolution, the British government, seeing the impracticability of the plan to defeat Soviet Russia with arms in hand, seemed to go towards the peaceful aspirations of Soviet Russia. The end of January 1921 brought a radio telegram about the decision of the Union Council to lift the blockade from Russia.

One had to experience the impression of this news on the Russian front in order to imagine how fervently and deeply there was a desire for peace and labor in the Russian masses.

The negotiations that Litvinov, one of the best diplomatic forces of Soviet Russia, began in December with O "Grady in Copenhagen, led to negotiations on modus" e vivendi between Soviet Russia and the capitalist world: Krasin, one of the best Russian technicians, soon joined Litvinov and at the same time an old member of the Russian Communist Party.

Soviet Russia was ready to make significant concessions in order to secure the possibility of peaceful labor. Its leading spheres, as well as the masses on which it relies, proceeded in this regard from the view that we set forth in February 1919 in the following words:

"Until the proletariat is victorious in all the principal states, until it is able to use the productive forces of the whole world for construction, until the capitalist states exist side by side with the proletarian states, until then the former are compelled to make compromises with the latter, until then there will be no pure socialism. , no pure capitalism; being territorially separated from each other, they will be forced to grant each other concessions on their own territory".

It was soon to be revealed whether England really had the desire to honestly conclude a compromise with Soviet Russia. The Polish question was the touchstone of the peaceful intentions of the British government.

POLISH DANGER

The Polish war was part of the war that the Entente waged against the Soviet Republic from the end of 1918. Soviet Russia defended the independence of Poland against German imperialism even in Brest-Litovsk.

When Poland, liberated by the Russian revolution from the clutches of tsarism, was also liberated by the German revolution from the shackles of German imperialism, the Soviet Republic recognized the Polish Republic and proposed to the government of Polish social patriots headed by Daszyński and Piłsudski to enter into negotiations which were to finally liquidate the legacy of tsarism.

But the Polish social patriots were afraid of a revolution in their own country. As the ideologists of the petty bourgeois, they wanted to introduce socialism in independent Poland "painlessly", in a democratic way. They were afraid of peaceful relations with Soviet Russia because they were afraid of revolution.

And squeezed between the Russian and German revolutions, full of fear of their revolutionary influence, they turned their eyes to the Entente, the only unshakable capitalist group, and expected salvation from it. It was supposed to give them raw materials and machines, it was supposed to give them weapons against the revolution.

For the Entente, in general, Poland was a rampart against Soviet Russia, for France in particular, a guarantee of the Versailles Peace. Poland had to arm itself to the teeth in order to be ready, as a vassal of France, to collect Russian debts and protect her from Germany. Poland took over this role and opposed Soviet Belarus and Soviet Lithuania, under the pretext that Soviet Russia trains attack on Poland.

During the year the Warsaw government sent the sons of Polish peasants and workers to the eastern front, during the year telegraph agencies reported on Polish victories over the Red troops. This fame was bought cheaply: Soviet Russia, which was in a difficult struggle with Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich, Estonia, Livonia, Petliura, held out defensively against Poland.

Polish victories were won on paper. And at the moment of the decisive struggle against the Russian counter-revolution, Soviet Russia even entered into secret relations with Pilsudski, on the basis of which the Red Army retreated behind the agreed line. Mr. Piłsudski and Polish social patriots shamefully betrayed Denikin and the Entente: they were more afraid of the tsarist generals than of Soviet Russia.

They were convinced that a White victory meant the end of Polish independence. Therefore, although they humbly and conscientiously continued to take French and English gold for the war against Soviet Russia, they agreed with this latter how not to wage this war.

Soviet Russia proposed a direct end to the war with peace treaties, which were supposed to provide Poland with all of Belarus up to the Berezina, Volhynia and Podolia. But Piłsudski was afraid of a break with the Entente, he needed at least the semblance of war, so as not to be forced into demobilization, which was supposed to unleash internal social contradictions.

When Denikin and Kolchak were defeated, white Poland expected that Soviet Russia would now turn its liberated forces into an offensive on the western front. The Entente press tried to strengthen her in this confidence. Soviet Russia, which honestly sought peace with Poland, tried to dispel these fears of the Polish government with a whole series of statements.

In one statement of the highest representation of Soviet Russia, Ts. I. K. Sovetov, as well as in the statement of the Council of People's Commissars, The independence of Poland was solemnly recognized, and peace negotiations were offered to it.

The Polish government sought advice from the allies. In France's responses, it went without saying about the support of the military faction of the Polish government. French imperialism succumbed to pressure from the British government, agreeing to lift the trade blockade, but it did not give up the idea of ​​overthrowing Soviet Russia. England responded evasively.

True, Lloyd George told the Poles that it would be better if they made peace. However, he was careful not to push for the conclusion of peace in any way. And Lloyd George was not alone in representing the British government. Next to him, a representative of petty-bourgeois views and a supporter of peaceful trade, there was also a second British government - the government of V. Churchill and Lord Curzon.

This second government consisted of two cliques: military and Indian.

The military clique grouped around Churchill sees in Russia the instigator of the world revolution. It fears the victory of communism in Germany and the possible alliance between Soviet Russia and Soviet Germany. It stands for worldwide efforts for the military overthrow of Soviet Russia and at the same time for concessions to bourgeois Germany, which should be strengthened by the Polish onslaught on Soviet Russia.

Lord Curzon of Sedleston grew up in the tradition of defending India. As a former viceroy of India, he views English politics and the world situation from the terrace of an Indian viceroy's palace.

Main idea foreign policy Curzon was and will remain the weakening of Russia, Russia in general, no matter what the Russian government is.

Curzon feared the victory of the white generals. He was convinced that white Russia would pursue a course of expansion in Asia in order to make the Russian people forget about the revolution and strengthen the glory of the ruling generals' clique, and at the same time its internal position.

Therefore, in August 1919, he annulled the old Russian-Persian treaty and placed Persia - that military glacis of an Indian fortress - under indivisible British control. Therefore, he destroyed the agreement on the Dardanelles and took them under the "protection" of the English guns. He did not like Denikin's victories, and perhaps history will someday prove that Curzon played his hand in the game if Denikin and Yudenich were not supported by all the might of England.

After Denikin's defeat, Curzon's concerns were to turn to the thought how to prolong the state of civil war in Russia, how to prevent the wounds of Russia from healing. Curzon had to forge two things while the iron was hot.

One part of Denikin's troops was at the moment of defeat in the Crimea, where they, reinforced by refugees from the Caucasus under the leadership of Wrangel, could form the starting point for a new intervention. Polish troops were stationed in the west.

Forced by the defeat of the whites in Russia and the desire for peace by the English working class, for peace negotiations with Russia, Curzon did not want to allow the liquidation of the anti-Bolshevik - which meant to him: anti-Russian - forces. Under the guise of humanity, he began negotiations with Soviet Russia on the liquidation of the Wrangel front, in order to buy time to arm Wrangel. He correctly calculated that the Red troops, greatly weakened by the war, would not press Wrangel very hard if they were given views of the bloodless liquidation of the Wrangel front.

As for Poland, with the bellicose fervor of the French, it was enough for him and Churchill to let her know that she could continue to receive the promised weapons. When Poland became convinced that Lloyd George's peace position was not taken seriously by his colleagues, she stopped taking seriously the peace proposals of the British Prime Minister. And Lloyd George? Lloyd George, no less than Curzon, wanted the overthrow of Soviet Russia. He just did not believe in the victory of weapons.

Curzon and Churchill could, however, present to him the reports of their agents, primarily the Reval military mission, from which it followed that the Red Army was completely demoralized by a thirst for peace. The transfer of individual units of the Red Army to the position of the army of labor took the form of evidence in this report that the Soviet government itself sees the incompetence of the Red Army.

If this is so, then why not wait until Poland succeeds in crushing the Red Army? Then you won't have to make any concessions to the hated Soviet Russia. Lloyd George was strengthened in his intention to wait and to see (wait and see) by the behavior of Litvinov and Krasin in the Copenhagen preliminary negotiations.

Instead of plaintively pleading (whining) for peace and offering High Honorables to Russia for sale, Litvinov and Krasin bluntly stated that Russia was so weakened by the war she was waging with her allies and the new civil war they financed that she unable to pay the old royal debts and immediately export a large amount of grain and raw materials. She must first raise the fortunes of her transport with the help of the capital of the Entente, and set in motion industry before she is able to appear on the world market, as a supplier of raw materials and bread.

The Polish government announced that it was ready for peace talks. But it offered Borisov as a place for these negotiations - a town behind the Polish front, on the railway line leading to Minsk. The choice of a place for peace negotiations told every knowledgeable person what kind of peace Poland was thinking about.

The Russian-Polish front was divided into two parts: the southwestern and northwestern. It was clear to Poland that Soviet Russia must be weak on the southwestern front. Ukrainian railway network, the state of the Ukrainian population, which saw the change of twelve governments and therefore did not believe in any - was the explanation for this.

To this was added the consideration that a blow on the southeastern front could only then have an effect in the direction of the center of the Polish government in Warsaw if it were followed by a blow on the northwestern front.

The shortest road to Warsaw - went through Minsk. The Polish government, refusing a truce on the whole front and allowing it only on the Borisov front, was thus in a position, in case Russia did not go along with all the demands of Poland, to launch an attack on Kyiv during the peace negotiations, while the Red forces troops will remain tied up on the northwestern front.

Piłsudski wanted to play the role of General Hoffmann. And how Hoffmann put up the petty-bourgeois Ukrainian nationalist Petliura as a trump card against Soviet Russia in order to separate the Ukrainians from Russia, i.e. bread and coal, so Pilsudski concluded a deal with Petliura, by virtue of which this all-world ally and all-world traitor, thrice expelled by the Ukrainian workers and peasants, was recognized by Pilsudski as the defender of the independence of Ukraine.

On April 8, the Soviet Government addressed the British Government with a note in which it confirmed this state of affairs and, among other things, proposed London as the place for peace negotiations. At the same time, it was said: if the British government is really interested in peace, then it has the possibility of bringing about a compromise between Poland and Soviet Russia and thus eliminating the war through peaceful negotiations. If the British government does not do this, it will lose the right to interfere in the Russo-Polish war. As a "neutral" power, the British government took off its mask.

It did not respond to the note of the Soviet government; On April 29, Piłsudski's attack on Kyiv began, which was defended by only 6,000 people. On July 7th Kyiv fell. The French press ridiculed the British: you want to get raw materials and livelihood by negotiating with Soviet Russia. All this will be delivered to us by Pilsudski from the Ukraine.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH ENGLAND

Meanwhile, the British government was engaged in protracted negotiations. The government, which did not let Litvinov in, arguing that it was not a matter of politics, but of economic relations, began negotiations with Krasin on the question of overcoming political obstacles to economic relations.

It complained bitterly about the communist agitation being waged by Soviet Russia not only among the British workers, but also—what a crime—between the peoples of the East, who are destined by God himself to enjoy the blessings of English domination. It demanded the cessation of this propaganda as the main condition of the Russo-British trade agreement.

Krasin pointed out that England was the main anti-Russian coalition, the leader of the Russian counter-revolution. To the demand of the British to stop fighting against British interests in the East, Krasin replied by pointing out that Russia was in no way able to read in the eyes of the British what their interests in the East were.

Russia borders on the East, and although it does not pursue any selfish goals in the East, its interests are that no imperialist force should use the Eastern countries as a basis for the struggle against Soviet Russia, completely regardless of the fact that Russia is connected with the peoples of the East solidarity of the people, oppressed by world capital. Izvestia developed this idea.

They said: Soviet Russia in no way sees in the peoples of the East an object of trade. It is firmly connected with their rise, but it is clear that if England makes peace with Soviet Russia, this will create a situation in which the Eastern peoples, supported by Soviet Russia, will also be able to achieve a peaceful modus "a vivendi with England, if they are for the sake of peace they will make sacrifices, as Soviet Russia did in Brest-Litovsk.

The British government, which wanted to use the precarious position of Soviet Russia on the Polish front to conclude an agreement, insisted on its conclusion. July 6th - the agreement was signed by Soviet Russia. The agreement guaranteed freedom of commercial relations for both sides, on the condition that both sides refrain from any hostile actions and agitation, without listing them in detail. The British Government thought they had won a major victory with this agreement.

In fact, it received a piece of paper that still had to be concluded. Not because Soviet Russia intended, following the model of Bethmann-Hollweg, to regard every deal with a capitalist government as a piece of paper. Without attaching the significance of sacred scripture to diplomatic agreements, Soviet Russia intended, no doubt, to abide by the peace agreement, because she needed peace for her economic development.

The best guarantee for the preservation of peace by Soviet Russia is its interest in trade relations with the capitalist countries. But if England thought to bind Russia without binding herself, then this was a great delusion. Since with the hostile behavior of England against Soviet Russia, Russia's restraint would lose ground. Thus, the agreement was a blank sheet of paper, which still had to be filled in by both contracting parties.

At the same time, the Red Army tried to create conditions under which the British government would also become keenly interested in maintaining peace with Soviet Russia.

WAR WITH POLAND

The paper on which the Polish bourgeois talkers compared Piłsudski's victories with those of Bolesław the Brave had not yet dried, the flowers that Piłsudski had thrown on the streets of Warsaw upon his return from Kyiv had not yet withered, when Tukhachevsky's offensive began in the northwest.

The Poles held him back at Molodechno, however, at the cost of the participation of a number of divisions taken from the Kiev front. This so weakened the Polish Southern Front that when the cavalry of the former Wahmister Budyonny crossed the Dnieper, the Polish Southern Front faltered. Thanks to this, the northern front was left without support. He hung in the air.

While Budyonny's cavalry troops pushed the Poles back to Galicia in fierce battles, the northern front withdrew in a forced march to Brest-Litovsk and Bialystok, brutally pursued by Tukhachevsky's troops. "Hannybal ante portas" (Hannibal at the gates), shouted the same imperialist press of the Entente, which shortly before spoke of the Red Army as an undisciplined horde.

The French press screamed about military intervention in defense of Poland. Marshal Foch's chief of staff, General Weigand, took command Polish army, and England, which on April 8 did not want to hear anything about intervention in favor of peace, suddenly showed itself highly interested in establishing peace between Soviet Russia and Poland.

And although England, which saw Poland as a vassal of France, had no reason to sympathize with this support of the French aspirations for hegemony on the continent, it understood that the destruction of the White Guard Poland would have catastrophic consequences for the world bourgeoisie. Soviet Poland would be the foremost fortification of Soviet Russia.

The rule of the working class on the Vistula would not only deprive the Treaty of Versailles of support in the form of Poland, but would also hasten the victory of the German proletariat, since then the fear of being crushed between imperialist France and nationalist Poland would disappear. Therefore, England forgot that she could not conduct any political negotiations with the accursed Soviet Russia.

Kamenev went to London at the head of a political delegation; he was so kindly received by Lloyd George, as if he were the messenger of the bloodthirsty tsar, and not of the proletarian democracy of Russia. And the British government proposed a general conference on the Eastern question.

It made it clear that it was a matter of complete elimination of the anti-Bolshevik policy, which should be followed by the recognition of Soviet Russia. Lloyd George and his henchmen mysteriously let the Russian delegation know the secrets of their differences with the "bad" Millerand, which, of course, every street kid knew from the newspapers. The price that Soviet Russia had to pay for the honor of enjoying greater confidence in Lloyd George than Millerand allegedly had, the price of all these courtesies was to be

in the cessation of hostilities against Poland. Soviet Russia rejected British intervention. Neither English courtesies, nor threats of hellish torments, which always come on the scene when British imperialist interests are in danger, in view of the fact that the English people are chosen along with the Jewish people, neither the stick nor the carrot stopped the Russian offensive.

Soviet Russia was ready for peace, but it had to be a peace concluded between the Russian and Polish peoples, which would make it once and for all impossible for the Entente to raise the Polish saber over Soviet Russia.

The dangers of the offensive, however, were on the face. The farther the Red Army moved away from its base, the more difficult it was to feed it and supply it with military supplies. The heavy artillery could not follow the troops. There was a danger that the tired, stretched-out Red Army would collide with a closed enemy. The state of transport completely did not allow all available forces to take part in the battles.

In contrast to these considerations, which dictated a stop on the banks of the Bug, other considerations indicated that if the Poles were given time, they would, with the help of France, restore their weakened but not exterminated army and gather strength for a new blow.

England, on the other hand, was unable to assume any obligations binding France. The risk of failure has been taken into account. The Red Army crossed the Bug, Neman, rushed through Brest-Litovsk and Bialystok to Warsaw. She spread across the Vistula to prevent Danzig from supporting Poland with the Entente.

Despite the obvious danger that accompanies any major military operation, complete victory was possible. This opportunity crashed in the first place on organizational issues. The Red Army went on the offensive, divided into two parts - southwestern and northwestern, each under a special command. With the difficulty of communication, the joint work of both parts of the armies was unsatisfactory.

This was revealed during the struggle, and the southeastern group was subordinated to the general command of Tukhachevsky. Tukhachevsky, who knew that the Polish forces that had retreated near Brest-Litovsk had retreated not to Warsaw, but to Lublin, saw the danger of an attack from the flank on the army besieging the Warsaw suburb - Prague.

He ordered Budyonny's cavalry to stop fighting for Lvov and move in the direction of Lublin. Budyonny, however, on the basis of previous orders from the independent southwestern command, was drawn into heavy fighting and could not free himself from the enemy. This allowed Weigand to carry out a flank attack, which was joined by attacks from the north, aimed at dividing the Russian army; in themselves they would not have been of any decisive importance if Budyonny had arrived in time.

Repulsed at Warsaw, the army rushed back and, cruelly pursued by rearguard battles, could hardly stop at the Berezina.

While the Red Army on the Vistula was close to defeating the lackey of the world bourgeoisie - the Polish bourgeoisie, in order to shake the world domination of capital, the latter saw in his own possessions the emergence of a red danger. In Germany, strong unrest broke out among the working masses. They did not let the French transports of shells through and were close to reviving the workers' councils that had been destroyed by Noske's mortars. First spread in England

in the masses the idea of ​​revolution. To the threat of war Downingstreet "a, the working class, not yet freed from opportunism, responded by forming an Action Council and declared that it would resort to a general strike if the government tried to send an English fleet against Soviet Russia. For the first time in English history, the working class became a decisive factor in foreign politics.

A whole mountain fell off the shoulders of the world bourgeoisie when the Red Army retreated, defeated on the Vistula. But just as she was unable to understand the victories of the Red Army, so she was unable to correctly assess her defeats.

In August, wrote the editor of a leading English organ to his correspondents in Russia, the English bourgeois were convinced that the Red troops would be on the Rhine by Christmas. - And Mr. Churchill has already openly advocated an amnesty for the "Huns", no more black and no less civilized, however, than the Senegalese Negroes and Indian troops, which French and British capital forced to take part in the war to save civilization (brings 20%).

Now that the war danger from Soviet Russia had disappeared and the wave of the revolutionary working-class movement had receded, the united bourgeois press of the whole world predicted the collapse of Soviet Russia and praised the Polish gentry as the saviors of civilization. Those who, under King Sobiesk, saved Christianity from the Turkish danger, have now saved speculation. Glory to Pilsudski, the savior of civilization, and glory to General Weigand, who saved the headless Pilsudski!

The armistice in Riga and the overthrow of Wrangel

Soviet Russia had enough sons under arms to launch a third offensive against Poland. She, however, abandoned a new military campaign and embarked on the path of the Riga peace negotiations, with a firm decision to end them with a compromise with white Poland. The grounds that spoke in favor of this were identical. During the Polish war, France recognized Wrangel. This created a new center of Russian counter-revolution, backed by the entire might of France at the moment, and tomorrow could also be the entire might of England.

With the Polish counter-revolution a compromise was possible. Poland was severely exhausted by the war. The Polish bourgeoisie and the Polish gentry saw how insignificant was the help that France could give them. Her press called the defeat of the Red Army "a miracle on the Vistula", and miracles are factors that cannot be taken into account.

Negotiations in Minsk showed that the Poles had abandoned the Ukrainian adventure - the only issue on which no compromise was possible. One could thus speak of territorial concessions in Belarus and of an economic agreement. Of course, it was not easy for Soviet Russia to give the Belarusian peasants to the Polish gentry, who greeted the Red troops with jubilation.

But Soviet Russia, not for the first time, was compelled to give one part of its children as booty to the enemy, so as not to endanger the life of the Soviet Republic itself: if Soviet Russia remains unharmed, then the center of the world revolution, which in the future will liberate all the oppressed, will also be unharmed. There were no vital interests of Soviet Russia in the swamps and forests of Belarus. The possession of Belarus only made the economic position of the Polish bourgeoisie more difficult.

Concerning economic questions, a compromise between Poland and Soviet Russia was possible, and it was all the richer in possibilities because, of course, lengthy negotiations were required for it, during which the position of Soviet Russia could be strengthened by a victory over Wrangel.

There could be no compromises with Wrangel. Wrangel and Soviet Russia were two centers: the center of the counter-revolution and the center of the revolution in Russia. Both fought for power on an all-Russian scale. Recognized and supported by France, Wrangel began to gather the remnants of all the counter-revolutionary armies and threaten the vital nerve of Russia. It could cut off Soviet Russia from Baku's oil and North Caucasian bread, and it could destroy the work just begun to rebuild the Donets basin.

Wrangel had to be defeated. Even before the armistice with Poland was signed, military echelons began to withdraw from the Polish front to Wrangel's. All of Russia strained every effort to use the winter for fighting against Wrangel. And it was not just about defeating Wrangel. The victory over Wrangel was a victory over imperialist France.

It was proof that Soviet Russia had not been fundamentally shaken by the Polish defeats. The Daily News, the organ of the liberal English bourgeoisie, rightly wrote: "If Soviet Russia can withstand the shock of defeat in the Polish war, then it is strong enough." It is clear that a government with a solid foundation can bear the loss of tens of thousands of dead and tens of thousands of prisoners without the deepest shock. And how deep the shock was, the behavior of the Red Army on the Wrangel front could best show.

Whether she would not be weary of the Polish defeat, whether she would withstand the hardships of the war in the south during the winter - such were the questions that suggested themselves to everyone. The Soviet government was preparing for a winter campaign on the Wrangel front. In early October, an offensive began on Wrangel under the command of Comrade. Frunze. In early November, Wrangel was finished.

The fight against Wrangel is one of the most glorious pages in the history of the Red Army.

By that time, a severe winter had already set in in the south. Snowstorms and frosts interspersed with rain, which ruined all the roads. And although Moscow and St. Petersburg daily delivered 15,000 overcoats, the soldiers stood in the field, undergoing all the difficulties of late autumn and the beginning of winter. Heavy artillery could hardly be brought up.

And when the Red Army drove the Wrangel troops to both isthmuses connecting the Crimea with the mainland, it stopped in front of a well-built line of defensive fortifications, which were defended under the command of French artillery officers, superbly armed.

Few counted on the possibility of forcing the isthmuses. The Red Command made preparations for strikes from the flanks, from the sea. But the Red troops, not discouraged by the Polish defeats, fearlessly went into one frontal attack after another.
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The second most powerful White Guard army after Kolchak's was Denikin's army. True, in the early spring of 1919, she was on the verge of death: Soviet troops pressed Denikin's troops to the Black Sea. The line of the Southern Front then passed only 40 kilometers from Rostov-on-Don. Another blow - and the White Guards would have been thrown into the sea. But this blow was not delivered. The Soviet armies of the Southern Front, after many months of continuous fighting, were drained of blood, and in the spring of 1919 replenishment went mainly to the Eastern Front. Meanwhile, the White Guards were not wasting their time. They hurriedly carried out new mobilizations of the population in their army. The imperialists of the Entente provided them with ever-increasing assistance with weapons and ammunition. Denikiptsy were armed much better than the Soviet troops. They had British tanks. Already in May 1919, Denikin had more than 100 thousand bayonets and sabers, while the Soviet troops of the Southern Front at that time numbered only 75 thousand. The enemy had a large numerical superiority in cavalry, which was especially important for fighting in the steppe area. The position of the Soviet armies was greatly complicated by the fact that a counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Don Cossacks broke out in their rear. Despite the fact that a significant part of the forces of the Southern Front was thrown there, it was not possible to completely eliminate the rebellion. The troops of the Ukrainian Front could have helped the Southern Front, but most of them were located on the western and southwestern borders of Ukraine, that is, far from the Donbass, where decisive battles were unfolding. In addition, some senior military officials of Ukraine did not understand the need to establish close cooperation between the Southern and Ukrainian fronts, and hesitated to send reinforcements to the Donbass. Great harm was done to the Soviet troops by the White Guard rebellion raised in early May by the commander of one of the divisions of the 2nd Ukrainian Army, the former Petliura officer Grigoriev. In the hands of this adventurer were 15 thousand bayonets and sabers. Grigoriev tried to draw the middle peasantry of Ukraine into the struggle against Soviet power, using their dissatisfaction with the surplus appropriation. But events showed that the enemies of Soviet power could not count on any significant support from the middle peasants. The middle peasantry did not support Grigoriev. His adventure was soon liquidated, but its consequences in the army made themselves felt for a long time, since the regiments sent to help the Southern Front from the Ukraine were diverted to fight Grigoriev. All this eased the position of the Whites in the south. Denikin, having created a powerful fist in the Donbass, on May 19, 1919, launched an offensive against the Soviet troops, who had previously pressed the enemy themselves. The cavalry corps of General Shkuro smashed to pieces south of Gulyai-Pole the brigade of the anarchist Nestor Makhno, who at that time acted on the side of the Red Army. Shkuro then attacked the 13th Army. The remnants of the Makhnovists, having exposed the front, went to the rear. Soon Makhno suddenly spoke out against Soviet power. The divisions of the 13th army fought bravely, but the enemy had a huge numerical superiority. - Suffering huge losses, the regiments of the 13th army began to retreat, on June 1 they left the city of Vakhmut. The neighboring 8th Army began to retreat. The entire Donbas fell into the hands of Denikin. The front was approaching Kharkov. Having achieved significant success in the Donbass, Denikin moved the center of attack to the east and launched a powerful offensive against the 9th and 10th Soviet armies. Denikin's men hurried to the rescue of Kolchak, hoping to join him on the Volga. In the twentieth of May, Denikin threw large forces against the Soviet 9th and 10th armies, broke through the front, connected with the rebellious Don Cossacks and developed an offensive to the southeast - to Tsaritsyn. So in the south - on the front from the Sea of ​​Azov to the Volga - the initiative of the offensive again passed into the hands of the enemy. Denikin decided to strike the main blow at Tsaritsyn. Here he concentrated his best, selected troops. In mid-June 1919, the enemy reached the near approaches to the city. An attempt by the White Guards to break into the city on the move was not successful. The enemy suffered huge losses. As in the summer of last year, fierce booms began around Tsaritsyn, in which the Soviet troops showed great stubbornness. The cavalrymen of the Cavalry Corps of S. M. Budyonny fought gloriously. On June 26, in the Loznoye area, they dealt a strong blow to the White Guard cavalry corps of Mamontov. But this did not save the situation. The enemy did not take into account the losses. On June 29, Denikin's troops launched an assault on Tsaritsyn, using artillery, armored trains, aircraft, and tanks. A huge technical superiority on the side of the enemy decided the outcome of the battle. On June 30, 1919, the White Guards captured Tsaritsyn. He got them at a high price. The Caucasian army of General Wrangel, subordinate to Denikin, which took Tsaritsyn, after the battles for the city, put itself in order for three weeks. And yet, Denikin's people did not achieve their main goal: they failed to rescue Kolchak. By the end of June 1919, Kolchak's troops had already retreated so far from the Volga that Denikin could not join them. The plan of a joint attack of Kolchak and Denikin on Moscow finally failed. But the position of the Southern Front in connection with the successes of Denikin was difficult. On June 24, the Whites captured Kharkov. Their troops came close to the central provinces of the country. At this moment, when Kolchak had already suffered huge defeats, Denikin became the main, most dangerous enemy of the workers' and peasants' state. In May 1919, the Entente imperialists made another attempt to help Kolchak. They threw the White Guard troops of Yudenich and Rodzianko into the offensive against Petrograd. Here, in the northwest, the counter-revolution had considerable forces at its disposal. In the Petrozavodsk direction, the interventionists and the White Guards acted, in the Olonets direction - the two thousandth white Finnish so-called "volunteer" Olonets army. On the Karelian Isthmus, near the border, White Finnish regular units were concentrated. On the Narva sector were the White Guard Northern Corps of Rodzianko (about 6 thousand bayonets and sabers) and the 1st White Estonian division (of the same number). The 2nd White Estonian division was aiming at Pskov. A powerful English squadron operated on the Baltic Sea, which included 12 cruisers, 20 destroyers, 12 submarines and other ships. All these forces were directed to Petrograd, the approaches to which were defended by the Soviet 7th Army and the Baltic Fleet; The army consisted of 15.5 thousand Ihabel bayonets, more than 400 machine guns and 162 guns. In May, the White Guard forces aimed at Petrograd were brought into action. True, Britain's hopes that Finland would come forward were not entirely justified. The Finnish dictator Mannerheim failed to obtain consent from Kolchdok to recognize the independence of Finland. Under these conditions, the Finnish bourgeoisie did not consider it possible to cooperate with the White Guards. But still, she sent the "Olonets Army" to capture Karelia, which invaded the area between the Onega and Ladoga lakes, creating a threat to the defenders of Petrograd from the rear. Even without the Finnish regular divisions, the enemy at first had a significant numerical superiority. The offensive of the main enemy forces on Petrograd began on the night of May 13, 1919. A detachment of White Guards from the Northern Corps of Rodzianko, under the guise of Red Army soldiers, made their way to the rear of the 7th Army and defeated the headquarters of one of the brigades of the 19th division. The Whites managed to capture the Soviet brigade commander L.P. Nikolaev, a former general of the old Russian army. The White Guards tried to force him to renounce Soviet power and enter their service, but A.P. Nikolaev flatly refused. He remained faithful to the oath to the workers' and peasants' state to the end. The White Guards hanged the brave commander. In the morning. On May 13, the main enemy forces in the Narva sector went over to the offensive. The enemy broke through the front and approached Yamburg. The White Guards sent part of the forces from the Narva region south along the eastern shore of Lake Peipsi - to Gdov and Pskov. Together with the White Guards, the White Estonian divisions entered the battle. Started hostilities against the Soviet Baltic Fleet and British ships. Parts of the 7th Army put up stubborn resistance to the enemy. Many commanders, political workers, ordinary Red Army soldiers and sailors showed high standards of courage and courage. Thus, N. G. Tolmachev, the former chief political commissar of the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front, heroically died in battle. The fighters of the communist detachment, which covered the withdrawal of troops from Yamburg, and the sailors of the destroyer "Gavriil", who entered into single combat with four British ships, fought bravely. But the enemy was strong, and the Soviet regiments had to retreat. Gdov fell on May 15, Yamburg fell on May 17. On May 25, White Estonians and White Guards broke into Pskov. Over Petrograd - the cradle of the proletarian revolution - a formidable danger hung. The difficult situation at the front aggravated the class struggle to the limit in the rear and in Petrograd itself. Various secret counter-revolutionary organizations raised their heads. New conspiracies arose, rebellions were being prepared. Some conspirators under the guise of military experts made their way to the headquarters of armies, divisions, commanded regiments, were the heads of forts. They carried out subversive work among the troops, decomposed weak units. Panic broke out in some regiments. There were cases of going over to the side of the enemy. Representatives of foreign missions located in Petrograd actively helped the White Guard conspirators. It was necessary to take urgent measures to defend Petrograd. On May 22, 1919, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) published an appeal "To the defense of Petrograd!" It said: “Red Petrograd is under serious threat. The Petersburg front becomes one of the most important fronts of the republic. Soviet Russia cannot give up Petrograd even for the shortest time. Petrograd must be defended at all costs. Too great is the significance of this city, which was the first to raise the banner of insurrection against the bourgeoisie and the first to win a decisive victory. Petersburg workers, sparing no effort, gave tens of thousands of fighters to all fronts. Now all of Soviet Russia must come to the aid of Petrograd.” At the request of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Soviet government, all forces were mobilized to defend revolutionary St. Petersburg. As early as May 17, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense decided to send to Petrograd a member of the Council of Defense and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) I. V. Stalin, who "provided great assistance to the front and the city. V. I. Lenin unremittingly followed what was happening in the Petrograd sector. He timely and decisively stopped the defeatist actions of the then Petrograd leadership, headed by Zinoviev, who was trying to start an evacuation from the city of industry and sink the Baltic Fleet. June 10, 1919, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) recognized the Petrograd Front as the first in importance. In connection with cases of betrayal at the front and sabotage in the rear, emergency measures were taken to uncover conspiracies. May 31, signed by V. I. Lenin and F. E. Dzerzhinsky, an appeal was published “Beware of spies!” It spoke of the need "to redouble vigilance, to think over and carry out in the most rigorous manner a number of measures to track down spies and white conspirators and to capture them" 78. All this increased the vigilance of the Red Army men and workers. On the night of June 14, the organs of the Cheka, with the help of mass searches and raids in bourgeois quarters and houses of foreign embassies.About 7,000 rifles, more than 140,000 cartridges, more than 600 revolvers and many other weapons were seized.VChK organs and workers' detachments detained many spies and conspirators.This improved the situation in the rear.At the same time, the strengthening and replenishment of units of the 7th army was carried out. In late May - early June, about 500 communists from the Tver, Vologda and North Dvina provinces arrived in Petrograd. Moscow sent many communists. Mobilizations were successfully completed in Petrograd. 750 communists of the city joined the army , 800 Komsomol members and many thousands of non-party workers. Political educational work was intensified in the units. 2nd Infantry Division arrived near Petrograd. From there, for the soldiers of the 7th Army and the workers of the city, dozens of wagons with bread, meat, and butter came. The help rendered to red Peter by the country soon yielded results. The 7th Army strengthened and halted the advance of the enemy. In mid-June, the balance of power was already in favor of the Soviet troops. Against 16.5 thousand bayonets and sabers of enemy troops, the 7th Army had 23 thousand. The Soviet troops still had a large advantage in weapons, especially in machine guns. Strengthened the Baltic Fleet. The rear of the 7th Army was strengthened. As for the situation in the enemy camp, despite the successes achieved by the White Guards, it not only did not strengthen, but, on the contrary, became more precarious than before. During the offensive, the enemy troops were significantly thinned out. Relations between the bourgeois government of Estonia and the command of the White Guard Northern Corps escalated. The Estonian bourgeoisie, as well as the Finnish, was extremely dissatisfied with the fact that the White Guards did not even want to hear about the recognition of the independence of the former outskirts of the Russian Empire. The rear of the White Guards was fragile. All this allowed the 7th Army in the twentieth of June to launch a decisive offensive against the enemy. But before that, at the front, there were important events , which could adversely affect the Petrograd defense. On the night of June 13, White Guard conspirators from the National Center organization mutinied at one of the main forts that protected the approaches to Petrograd, Krasnaya Gorka. The rebellion was led by the commandant of the fort - the former lieutenant Neklyudov. The rebels won over to their side the irresponsible part of the Red Army, arrested all the communists, commanders and fighters loyal to the Soviet regime, and also captured a detachment of communists that had just arrived from Kronstadt. In total, more than 350 people were arrested. All of them were locked in a concrete cellar. The next day, traitors shot 20 senior officials on the banks of the Kovashi River. Having captured the fort, the rebels radioed the British invaders that Krasnaya Gorka was at their disposal. At the same time, they turned on the radio to Kronstadt, as well as to other forts, with a proposal to join them. The rebels threatened: "Join us, otherwise Kronstadt will be destroyed." Soviet sailors and soldiers of the forts rejected the impudent demand. Only the Gray Horse and Obruchev forts joined the traitors. Krasnaya Gorka kept under fire the territory on land and at sea within a radius of 24 kilometers. The White Guards at that time, taking advantage of the betrayal in some parts of the 7th Army, moved forward and were already only 7-8 kilometers from Krasnaya Gorka. It was necessary to eliminate the rebellions in the forts. I. V. Stalin took part in the development of the operation plan. It was supposed to hit the forts simultaneously from land and from the sea. For this, the Coastal Group of Forces was formed, which included over 2 thousand sailors, infantry units, armored cars and an armored train. The fleet operated from the sea. Already on June 13, the battleships Petropavlovsk and Andrei the First-Called opened fire on Krasnaya Gorka. On 14 and 15 June they were joined by a cruiser and several destroyers. At the same time, Soviet airplanes raided the fort. At first, the rebels fired on Soviet ships, but soon their fire was suppressed. Neklyudov and his accomplices were waiting for the help of the English fleet, but it still did not arrive. The White Guard regiments did not have time to approach Krasnaya Gorka either. The rebels panicked. It intensified even more when the Coastal Group of Forces, having gone on the offensive on June 15, began to approach the fort. The rebels could not stand it and fled. On the night of June 15-16, Soviet troops captured Krasnaya Gorka. After that, Fort Gray Horse was taken. Fort Obruchev surrendered himself. The situation at the front was corrected. On June 21, units of the 7th Army launched a general offensive. The Coastal Group advanced along the coast of Kaporsky Bay, the regiments of the 6th division moved to Yamba rg, and then units of the 2nd division entered the battle. By the end of June, the offensive in the Narva direction expanded. The White Guards rolled further and further away from Petrograd. At the same time, units of the 7th Army began to defeat the White-Fip Olonets Army. The Soviet regiments, with the support of the ships of the military flotilla that landed troops, captured the main base of the enemy - Vidlitsa. The surviving "volunteers" were driven back beyond the border strip. On August 5, the red regiments broke into Yamburg. On August 26, after stubborn fighting, Soviet troops liberated Pskov from the enemy. In the battles for the city, the 87th and 88th ^ regiments of the 10th division especially distinguished themselves. By mid-September, the front stopped. The enemy went on the defensive. In his hands remained a small part of the Soviet territory with the city of Gdov. The attack on Petrograd failed. It did not have a significant impact on the course of events on the Eastern Front. However, in general, a difficult situation developed on the Western Front. On May 22, 1919, the German troops of von der Goltz and the Latvian White Guards managed to capture Riga. After that, the Soviet troops had to leave the territory of almost all of Latvia, with the exception of three counties. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie was restored in Latvia. In early June, the White Poles went on the offensive. They reached the line of the old German trenches. The front line was established west of Polotsk, east of Baranovichi and Pinsk. But these successes of the White Poles were already achieved when the Red Army won a decisive victory on the Eastern Front. So, in the summer of 1919, neither Denikin, nor Yudenich, nor the White Poles, nor any other counter-revolutionary forces subordinate to the Entente, were able to provide the necessary assistance to Kolchak. The imperialists of the USA, Britain, France and Japan were powerless to prevent the defeat of their main striking force - Kolchak's army. The Red Army honorably fulfilled its duty to the socialist motherland. One of the most powerful enemy attacks on the Soviet Republic was repulsed. A serious blow was dealt to internal and external counter-revolution. In this struggle, the Soviet Armed Forces became even more tempered, and the alliance between the working class and the working peasantry was strengthened. Great was the victory. But the Soviet Republic has not yet won the main thing for itself: the possibility of moving on to peaceful constructive work. Her enemies were still strong. A period of decisive battles was approaching.