White Guard commanders. The main characters of the White movement. White Movement and the National Constituent Assembly

Who devoted his whole life to the army and Russia. He did not accept October Revolution and until the end of his days he fought the Bolsheviks with all the means that the honor of an officer could allow him.
Kaledin was born in 1861 in the village of Ust-Khoperskaya, in the family of a Cossack colonel, a member of the heroic defense Sevastopol. From childhood, he was taught to love his Fatherland and protect it. Therefore, the future general received education, first at the Voronezh military gymnasium, and later at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.
military service he started on Far East in the horse artillery battery of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. The young officer was distinguished by seriousness and concentration. He constantly strived to master military science and entered the Academy at the General Staff.
Kaledin's further service takes place in the posts of staff officers in the Warsaw Military District, and then, in his native Don. Since 1910, he has occupied only command posts and gained considerable experience in leading combat formations.

Semenov Grigory Mikhailovich (09/13/1890 - 08/30/1946) - the most prominent representative in the Far East.

Born in an officer Cossack family in Transbaikalia. In 1911 In the rank of cornet, he graduated from the Cossack military school in Orenburg, after which he was assigned to serve on the border with Mongolia.

He was fluent in local languages: Buryat, Mongolian, Kalmyk, thanks to which he quickly became friends with prominent Mongolian figures.

During the separation of Mongolia from China, in December 1911. took under the protection of the Chinese resident, delivering him to the Russian consulate, located in Urga.

In order not to cause unrest between the Chinese and the Mongols, with a platoon of Cossacks, he personally neutralized the Chinese garrison of Urga.

Lukomsky Alexander Sergeevich was born on July 10, 1868 in the Poltava region. Finished in Poltava cadet corps named after him, and by 1897 he completed his studies with honors at the Nikolaev Engineering School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in. A military career began for Alexander Sergeyevich from the 11th sapper regiment, from where he was transferred a year later as an adjutant to the headquarters of the 12th Infantry Division, and from 1902 his service proceeded in the Kiev military district, where he was appointed to the headquarters as a senior adjutant. For the excellent performance of his duties, Lukomsky was awarded the rank of colonel, and in 1907 he took the post of chief of staff in the 42nd infantry division. Since January 1909, Alexander Sergeevich dealt with mobilization issues in case of war. He participated in all changes in the Charter related to mobilization, personally supervised the draft laws on the recruitment of personnel, being the head of the mobilization department of the Main Directorate of the General Staff.
In 1913, Lukomsky was appointed assistant chief of the Office of the War Ministry and already serving in the ministry received another military rank major general, and as a reward to what he has - the ribbon of the Holy Great Martyr and George the Victorious.

Markov Sergey Leonidovich was born on July 7, 1878 in the family of an officer. After graduating with honors from the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps and the Artillery School in St. Petersburg, with the rank of second lieutenant, he was sent to serve in the 2nd Artillery Brigade. Then he graduated from the Nikolaev military academy and went to where he showed himself to be an excellent officer and was awarded: Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow. Later career Sergei Leonidovich continued in the 1st Siberian Corps, where he served as an adjutant of the headquarters, and then at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District, and as a result, in 1908, Markov was in the service of the General Staff. Just while serving in the General Staff, Sergei Leonidovich created a happy family with Marianna Putyatina.
Markov Sergey Leonidovich teaching work in various Petersburg schools. He knew military affairs very well and tried to fully convey all his knowledge of strategy, maneuvering to students and at the same time sought to use non-standard thinking during the conduct of hostilities.
At the beginning, Sergei Leonidovich was appointed chief of staff of the "iron" rifle brigade, which was heading to the most difficult directions front and very often Markov had to put into practice his non-standard strategic moves.

Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg is perhaps the most extraordinary person in everything. He belonged to an ancient warlike family of knights, mystics and pirates, leading their genealogy since crusades. However, family legends say that the roots of this family go back much further, to the time of the Nibegungs and Attila.
His parents often traveled around Europe, something constantly beckoned them to their historical homeland. During one of these trips, in 1885, in the city of Graz, Austria, the future irreconcilable fighter against the revolution was born. The contradictory nature of the boy did not allow him to become a good schoolboy. For countless misdeeds, he was expelled from the gymnasium. The mother, desperate to get normal behavior from her son, sends him to the Naval Cadet Corps in. He was only one year away from graduation, when he began. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg drops out of school and joins a private in infantry regiment. However, he did not get into the active army, he was forced to return to St. Petersburg and enter the elite Pavlovsk infantry school. Upon completion, von Ungern-Sternber is credited to the Cossack estate and begins serving as an officer of the Transbaikal Cossack army. He again finds himself in the Far East. There are legends about this period in the life of a desperate baron. His perseverance, cruelty and flair surrounded his name with a mystical halo. A dashing rider, a desperate duelist, he did not have faithful comrades.

Figures white movement had a tragic fate. People who suddenly lost their homeland, to which they swore allegiance, their ideals, could not come to terms with this until the end of their lives.
Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs, an outstanding lieutenant general, was born on April 5, 1874 in a family of hereditary officers. The knightly family of the Diterichs from Czech Moravia settled in Russia in 1735. Due to his origin, the future general received an excellent education in the Corps of Pages, which he then continued at the Academy of the General Staff. In the rank of captain, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War, where he distinguished himself as a brave officer. For the heroism shown in battles he was awarded the III and II degrees, IV degrees. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served further at the army headquarters in Odessa and Kyiv.
World War I found Dieterichs in the position of chief of staff in the mobilization department, but he was soon appointed quartermaster general. It was he who led the development of all military operations of the Southwestern Front. For successful developments that bring victory to the Russian army, Mikhail Konstantinovich awarded the order St. Stanislaus with swords 1st degree.
Diterichs continues to serve in the Russian Expeditionary Force in the Balkans, participated in the battles for the liberation of Serbia.

Romanovsky Ivan Pavlovich was born into the family of an artillery academy graduate on April 16, 1877 in the Luhansk region. He began his military career at the age of ten, enrolling in the cadet corps. With brilliant results he finished it in 1894. Following in the footsteps of his father, he began to study at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, but finished his studies at Konstantinovsky for religious reasons. And already after graduating with honors from the next stage of education - the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, Ivan Pavlovich was appointed company commander of the Finnish regiment.
In 1903, he started a family, taking as his wife Elena Bakeeva, the daughter of a landowner, who subsequently gave birth to three children. Ivan Pavlovich was a devoted family man, a caring father, always helping friends and relatives. But she broke the idyll of family life. Romanovsky left to fulfill his duty as a Russian officer in the East Siberian Artillery Brigade.

An outstanding, active participant in the White movement, was born in 1881 in Kyiv. Being the son of a general, Mikhail never thought about choosing a profession. Fate made this choice for him. He graduated from the Vladimir Cadet Corps, and then, Pavlovsk military school. Having received the rank of second lieutenant, he began serving in the Life Guards Volynsky regiment. After three years of service, Drozdovsky decided to enter the Nikolaev Military Academy. Sitting at a desk turned out to be too much for him, it began, and he went to the front. A brave officer in the unsuccessful Manchurian campaign was wounded. For his courage he was awarded several orders. He graduated from the Academy after the war.
After the academy, Drozdovsky's service was held first at the headquarters of the Zaamursky military district, and then - the Warsaw one. Mikhail Gordeevich constantly showed interest in everything new that appeared in the army, studied everything new in military affairs. He even completed courses for pilot-observers at the Sevastopol Aviation School.
and enters the cadet school, after which, having received the rank of second lieutenant, he begins service in the 85th Vyborg Infantry Regiment.
It begins by participating in battles, the young officer showed himself so well that he was awarded a rare honor: with the rank of lieutenant, he was transferred to the Preobrazhensky Life Guards, in which it was very honorable to serve.
When Kutepov began, he was already a staff captain. He participates in many battles, shows himself to be a brave and determined officer. He was wounded three times and was awarded several orders. Alexander Pavlovich was especially proud of the 4th degree.
1917 begins - the most tragic year in the life of a thirty-five-year-old officer. Despite his young age, Kutepov is already a colonel and commander of the second battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.
Petersburg, where he graduated from high school. After graduating from the Nikolaev engineering school, with the rank of second lieutenant, he begins his military career in the 18th sapper battalion. Every two years, Marushevsky receives another military rank for excellent service. In the same years he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy at the General Staff.
Back to top Russo-Japanese War he is already a captain and chief officer for especially important assignments. He served at the headquarters of the IV Siberian Army Corps. During the hostilities, Marushevsky was quickly promoted for his courage.

Every Russian knows that civil war 1917-1922 opposed two movements - "red" and "white". But among historians there is still no consensus on how it began. Someone believes that the reason was Krasnov's March on the Russian capital (October 25); others believe that the war began when, in the near future, the commander of the Volunteer Army, Alekseev, arrived on the Don (November 2); there is also an opinion that the war began with the fact that Milyukov proclaimed the “Declaration of the Volunteer Army, delivering a speech at the ceremony, called the Don (December 27). Another popular opinion, which is far from unfounded, is the opinion that the Civil War began immediately after February Revolution when the whole society split into adherents and opponents of the Romanov monarchy.

"White" movement in Russia

Everyone knows that "whites" are adherents of the monarchy and the old order. Its beginnings were visible as early as February 1917, when the monarchy was overthrown in Russia and a total restructuring of society began. The development of the "white" movement was during the period when the Bolsheviks came to power, the formation of Soviet power. They represented a circle of dissatisfied with the Soviet government, disagreeing with its policy and principles of its conduct.
The "whites" were fans of the old monarchical system, refused to accept the new socialist order, adhered to the principles of traditional society. It is important to note that the "whites" were very often radicals, they did not believe that it was possible to agree on something with the "reds", on the contrary, they had the opinion that no negotiations and concessions were allowed.
The "Whites" chose the tricolor of the Romanovs as their banner. Admiral Denikin and Kolchak commanded the white movement, one in the South, the other in the harsh regions of Siberia.
The historical event that became the impetus for the activation of the "whites" and the transition to their side for the most part former army empire of the Romanovs, is the rebellion of General Kornilov, who, although he was suppressed, helped the “whites” strengthen their ranks, especially in the southern regions, where, under the command of General Alekseev, huge resources and a powerful disciplined army began to gather. Every day the army was replenished due to newcomers, it grew rapidly, developed, tempered, trained.
Separately, it must be said about the commanders of the White Guards (this was the name of the army created by the "white" movement). They were unusually talented commanders, prudent politicians, strategists, tacticians, subtle psychologists, and skillful speakers. The most famous were Lavr Kornilov, Anton Denikin, Alexander Kolchak, Pyotr Krasnov, Pyotr Wrangel, Nikolai Yudenich, Mikhail Alekseev. You can talk about each of them for a long time, their talent and merits for the "white" movement can hardly be overestimated.
In the war, the White Guards won for a long time, and even brought their troops to Moscow. But the Bolshevik army was growing stronger, besides, they were supported by a significant part of the population of Russia, especially the poorest and most numerous sections - workers and peasants. In the end, the forces of the White Guards were smashed to smithereens. For some time they continued to operate abroad, but without success, the "white" movement ceased.

"Red" movement

Like the "whites", in the ranks of the "reds" there were many talented commanders and politicians. Among them, it is important to note the most famous, namely: Leon Trotsky, Brusilov, Novitsky, Frunze. These commanders showed themselves excellently in battles against the White Guards. Trotsky was the main founder of the Red Army, which was the decisive force in the confrontation between the "whites" and the "reds" in the Civil War. The ideological leader of the "red" movement was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, known to every person. Lenin and his government actively supported the most massive sections of the population Russian State, namely, the proletariat, the poor, the small and landless peasants, the working intelligentsia. It was these classes who quickly believed the tempting promises of the Bolsheviks, supported them and brought the "Reds" to power.
The main party in the country was the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party of the Bolsheviks, which was later turned into a communist party. In fact, it was an association of intelligentsia, adherents of the socialist revolution, whose social base was the working classes.
It was not easy for the Bolsheviks to win the Civil War - they had not yet completely strengthened their power throughout the country, the forces of their fans were dispersed throughout the vast country, plus the national outskirts began a national liberation struggle. A lot of strength went into the war with the Ukrainian People's Republic, so the Red Army during the Civil War had to fight on several fronts.
Attacks of the White Guards could come from any side of the horizon, because the White Guards surrounded the Red Army soldiers from all sides with four separate military formations. And despite all the difficulties, it was the “Reds” who won the war, mainly due to the broad social base of the Communist Party.
All representatives of the national outskirts united against the White Guards, and therefore they also became forced allies of the Red Army in the Civil War. To win over the inhabitants of the national outskirts, the Bolsheviks used loud slogans, such as the idea of ​​"one and indivisible Russia."
The Bolsheviks won the war with the support of the masses. The Soviet government played on the sense of duty and patriotism of Russian citizens. The White Guards themselves also added fuel to the fire, since their invasions were most often accompanied by mass robbery, looting, violence in its other manifestations, which could not in any way encourage people to support the "white" movement.

Results of the Civil War

As has been said several times, the victory in this fratricidal war went to the "Reds". The fratricidal civil war became a real tragedy for the Russian people. The material damage caused to the country by the war, according to estimates, amounted to about 50 billion rubles - unimaginable money at that time, several times higher than the amount of Russia's external debt. The level of industry because of this decreased by 14%, and Agriculture- by 50%. Human losses, according to various sources, ranged from 12 to 15 million. Most of these people died from starvation, repression, and disease. During the hostilities, more than 800 thousand soldiers from both sides gave their lives. Also, during the Civil War, the balance of migration dropped sharply - about 2 million Russians left the country and went abroad.

WHITE ARMY OF THE CIVIL WAR

white army(also white guard) - a collective name common in historical literature for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Soviet governments during the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922). During the construction of the White Army, the structure of the old Russian army was mainly used, while almost every single formation had its own characteristics. Military art The White Army was based on the experience of the First World War, which, however, was strongly imprinted by the specifics of the civil war.

ARMED FORMATIONS

In the north

In North-west

On South

In the East

In Central Asia

COMPOUND

White armies were recruited both on a voluntary basis and on the basis of mobilizations.

On a voluntary basis, they were recruited mainly from officers of the Russian Imperial Army and Fleet.

On a mobilization basis, they were recruited from the population of controlled territories and from captured Red Army soldiers.

The number of White armies fighting against the Red Army, according to intelligence estimates by June 1919, was about 300,000 people.

Management. In the first period of the struggle - representatives of the generals of the Russian Imperial Army:

L. G. Kornilov ,

General Staff General of Infantry M. V. Alekseev ,

Admiral, Supreme Ruler of Russia since 1918 A. V. Kolchak

A. I. Denikin ,*

General of the cavalry P. N. Krasnov ,

General of the cavalry A. M. Kaledin ,

Lieutenant General E. K. Miller ,

General of Infantry N. N. Yudenich ,

Lieutenant General V. G. Boldyrev

Lieutenant General M. K. Diterikhs

General Staff Lieutenant General I. P. Romanovsky ,

General Staff Lieutenant General S. L. Markov

other.

In subsequent periods, military leaders come to the fore, ending the First World War with more officers and who received general ranks already during the Civil War:

General Staff Major General M. G. Drozdovsky

General Staff Lieutenant General V. O. Kappel ,

General of the cavalry A. I. Dutov ,

Lieutenant General Ya. A. Slashchev-Krymsky ,

Lieutenant General A. S. Bakich ,

Lieutenant General A. G. Shkuro ,

Lieutenant General G. M. Semyonov ,

Lieutenant General Baron R. F. Ungern von Sternberg ,

Major General B. V. Annenkov ,

Major General Prince P. R. Bermondt-Avalov ,

Major General N. V. Skoblin ,

Major General K. V. Sakharov ,

Major General V. M. Molchanov ,

as well as military leaders who, for various reasons, did not join the white forces at the time of the beginning of their armed struggle:

P. N. Wrangel - the future Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in the Crimea of ​​the General Staff, Lieutenant General Baron,

M. K. Diterikhs - Commander Zemskoy Ratyugeneral-lieutenant.

HISTORY OF CREATION

The first white army was created by the Alekseevskaya Organization on a voluntary basis from former officers, which was also reflected in the name of the army - on 12/25/1917 (01/07/1918) the Volunteer Army was created on the Don.

Three months later, in April 1918, the Defense Council of the Don Army formed the Don Army.

In June 1918, the Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly, based on the detachment of Lieutenant ColonelV. O. Kappelya created the People's Army, and the Provisional Siberian Government at the same time created its own Siberian Army.

On September 23, 1918, the Ufa Directory united the Volga People's Army and the Siberian Army into one Russian Army (not to be confused with the Russian Army of General Wrangel).

In August 1918 the Supreme Administration Northern region in Arkhangelsk created the troops of the Northern Region, sometimes referred to as northern army(not to be confused with the Northern Army of General Rodzianko).

In January 1919, the Don and Volunteer armies were merged into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR).

In June 1919, the Northern Army was created from Russian officers and a soldier of the Northern Corps, who left the Estonian army. A month later, the army was renamed the North-Western.

In April 1920, in Transbaikalia, from the remnants of Admiral Kolchak's troops under the leadership of General G. M. Semyonov, the Far Eastern Army was created.

In May 1920, the Russian Army was formed from the troops of the All-Union Socialist League that had withdrawn to the Crimean Remains.

In 1921, from the remnants of the Far Eastern Army of General Semyonov in Primorye, the Belopovstanskaya Army was formed, later renamed the Zemskaya Rat, since in 1922 the Amur Zemstvo government was created in Vladivostok.

From November 1918 to January 1920, the armed forces of the White movement recognized the supreme leadership of Admiral A. V. Kolchak. After the defeat of the troops of Admiral Kolchak in Siberia, on January 4, 1920, the supreme power passed to General A. I. Denikin.

THE WHITE MOVEMENT AND THE NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Back in September 1917, while the future leaders of the White movement were imprisoned in Bykhov, the “Bykhov program”, which was the fruit of the collective labor of the “prisoners” and the main theses of which were transferred to the “draft constitution of General Kornilov” - the very first political declaration of the White movement, which was prepared in December 1917 - January 1918 by L. G. Kornilov said: "The resolution of the main state-national and social issues is postponed until the Constituent Assembly ...". In the "constitution ..." this idea was detailed: "The government created under the program of the gene. Kornilov, is responsible in her actions only to the Constituent Assembly, to which she will transfer all the fullness of state-legislative power. The Constituent Assembly, as the sole owner of the Russian Land, must develop the basic laws of the Russian constitution and finally construct the state system.

Since the main task of the white movement was the fight against Bolshevism, the white leaders did not introduce any other tasks of state building into the agenda until this main task was resolved. Such a non-prejudicial position was theoretically flawed, but, according to the historian S. Volkov, in conditions when there was no unity on this issue, even among the leaders of the white movement, not to mention the fact that supporters of various forms of the future state structure of Russia were present in its ranks, it seemed the only one possible.

WAR ACTIVITIES

BUT) Wrestling in the Urals

It acted at the beginning against the Red Guard detachments, from June 1918 - against the 4th and 1st armies of the Eastern, from August 15 - the Red Turkestan fronts. In April 1919, during the general offensive of Kolchak's armies, she broke through the front of the Reds, laid siege to Uralsky, abandoned in January 1919, and reached the approaches to Saratov and Samara. However, limited funds did not allow to master the Urals.

In early July 1919, the troops of the Turkestan Front launched a counteroffensive against the Ural army. The well-equipped and armed 25th Rifle Division, transferred from Ufa, under the command of V. I. Chapaeva 5-11 July defeated units of the Ural army, broke through the blockade of Uralsk and 07/11/1919. entered the city. The Ural army began to retreat along the entire front.

On July 21, 1919, the operational control of the Ural Army was transferred by Admiral Kolchak A.V. After the transition of the Ural Army to the operational subordination of the command of the All-Union Socialist Republic, its composition was divided into 3 areas:

Buzulukskoye, as part of the 1st Ural Cossack Corps (commander, colonel Izergin M.I.); with its 1st, 2nd and 6th Cossack and 3rd Iletsk, 1st Ural infantry divisions and their 13th Orenburg, 13th, 15th and 18th Cossack, 5th Ural infantry, 12th Consolidated Cossack and several other separate regiments (total 6,000 bayonets and sabers);

Saratov, as part of the 2nd Iletsk Cossack Corps (commander, Lieutenant General Akutin V.I.); and his 5th Cossack division with a number of separate regiments (4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th Ural Cossack, 33rd Nikolayevsky Rifle, Guryevsky Foot Regiments, total 8,300 fighters);

Astrakhansko-Guryevskoye, as part of the Ural-Astrakhan Cossack Corps (commander, Major General Tetruev N. G., partisan detachments of Colonels Kartashev and Chizhinsky and the Separate 9th Ural Cossack Regiment (about 1,400 fighters).

At the end of July 1919, the Ural army withdrew to Lbischensk (which it left on August 9, 1919), then further down the Urals. In late August-early September, a special detachment of Cossacks of the 1st divisionT. I. Sladkova and peasants lieutenant colonel F. F. Poznyakov (1192 soldiers with 9 machine guns and 2 guns) under the general command of colonel N. N. Borodin, undertook a successful raid into the deep rear of the Reds, to Lbischensk, where on September 5, 1919. destroyed the entire headquarters of the 25th Infantry Division, which was also the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front, led by SV. I. Chapaev, returning Lbischensk to the Ural army. According to tentative estimates, during the Lbischensky battle, the Reds lost at least 2,500 people killed and captured. The total losses of the whites during this operation amounted to 118 people - 24 killed (including Major General (posthumously) N. N. Borodin) and 94 wounded. The trophies taken in Lbischensk turned out to be very large. About 700 people were taken prisoner, a lot of ammunition, food, equipment, a radio station, machine guns, cinematographic cameras, several airplanes, cars, etc. were captured.

During the raid, important results were achieved: the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front was destroyed, as a result of which the troops of the front lost control, decomposed and were demoralized. Parts of the Turkestan Front hurriedly retreated to the positions they occupied in July, in the region of Uralsk, and in fact ceased active hostilities. The Cossacks, in October 1919, again surrounded and besieged the city.

But after the collapse of the Eastern Front of Kolchak in October-November 1919, the Ural army found itself blocked by superior Red forces, thereby losing any sources of replenishment with weapons and ammunition. The defeat of the Urals by the Bolsheviks was only a matter of time.

On November 2, the Turkestan Front, as part of the 1st and 4th armies (18.5 thousand bayonets, 3.5 thousand sabers, 86 guns and 365 machine guns) launched a general offensive against the Ural army (5.2 thousand bayonets, 12 thousand sabers , 65 guns, 249 machine guns), planning to encircle and destroy the main forces of the Urals with concentrated attacks on Lbischensk from the north and east. Under the pressure of the superior forces of the Reds, the Ural army began to retreat. On November 20, the Reds captured Lbischensk, however, they could not surround the main forces of the Urals. The front stabilized south of Lbischensk. The Turkestan front pulled up reserves and replenished with weapons and ammunition. The Ural army had neither reserves nor ammunition. On December 10, 1919, the Reds resumed their offensive. The resistance of the weakened Ural units was broken, the front collapsed. On December 11, Art. Slamihinskaya, on December 18, the Reds captured the city of Kalmykov, thereby cutting off the retreat paths for the Iletsk corps, and on December 22 - the village of Gorsky, one of the last strongholds of the Urals before Guryev.

The commander of the army, General V.S. Tolstov, and his headquarters withdrew to the city of Guryev. The remnants of the Iletsk Corps, having suffered heavy losses in the battles during the retreat and from the typhus and relapsing fever that mowed down the ranks of the personnel, were almost completely destroyed on January 4, 1920 and captured by the Red troops near the settlement of Maly Baibuz. At the same time, the Kyrgyz regiment of this corps, almost in full strength, went over to the side of the Alashordans, who at that time acted as allies of the Bolsheviks, having previously “cut out” the headquarters of the Iletsk Corps, the 4th and 5th Iletsk divisions, and “surrendered” the commander to the red corps of Lieutenant General Akutin V.I., who was shot by the troops of the 25th (“Chapaevskaya”) division (according to other sources, he was arrested and taken to Moscow, where he was later shot). The 6th Iletsk division, retreating to the Volga through the steppe of the Bukey Horde, almost completely died from disease, hunger, and mainly from the fire of the red units pursuing it.

On January 5, 1920, the city of Guryev fell. Part of the personnel of the Ural army and civilians were captured, part of the Cossacks went over to the side of the Reds. The remnants of the units of the Ural army, led by the commander of the army, General V. S. Tolstov, with carts and the civilian population (families and refugees), totaling about 15,000 people, decided to go south, believing to join the Turkestan army of General Kazanovich B. I. (VSYUR troops of General Denikin). The transition took place in the most difficult conditions of a harsh winter, in January-March 1920, in the absence of sufficient drinking water, a catastrophic shortage of food and medicine. The transition was carried out along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea to Fort Aleksandrovsky. After arriving at the fort, civilians, the wounded and sick, were supposed to be evacuated on the ships of the Caspian flotilla of the All-Union Socialist Republic of Russia to the other side of the sea in Port-Petrovsk. By the time they arrived at Fort Aleksandrovsky, less than 3 thousand Cossacks remained from the army, most of whom were sick (mostly different forms typhus), or frostbite. The military meaning of the campaign was lost, since by this time Denikin's troops in the Caucasus were retreating and the port of Petrovsk was abandoned these days (the last days of March 1920). On April 4, 1920, from the port of Petrovsk, which became the main base of the red Volga-Caspian flotilla, the destroyer Karl Liebknecht (until February 1919 had the name Finn) and the Zorki fighter boat approached the fort. He later wrote in a report:

A detachment of 214 people (several generals, officers, Cossacks, civilians (family members), led by ataman V.S. Tolstov, left for Persia on April 4, 1920, and the Ural army ceased to exist. The campaign from Fort Aleksandrovsky to Persia was detailed described in the book by V. S. Tolstov “From the red paws to an unknown distance” (Campaign of the Urals), first published in 1921 in Constantinople, at present the book is republished in 2007 in Uralsk, in the series “Ural Library” by the publishing house Optima LLP.

B) Turkestan military organization

The TVO was preparing an uprising against the Soviet regime in Turkestan. Active assistance to the organization was provided by agents of foreign intelligence services, primarily English from the border area, and agents acting under the guise of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in Tashkent under the government of the Turkestan Republic. Initially against Soviet power in the region it was planned for August 1918, but for a number of reasons the date of this performance later had to be moved to the spring of 1919.

The Turkestan military organization included many officers, led by Colonel P. G. Kornilov (brother of the famous leader of the white movement L. G. Kornilov), Colonel I. M. Zaitsev, Lieutenant GeneralL. L. Kondratovich, former assistant to the Governor-General of Turkestan, General E. P. Dzhunkovsky Colonel Blavatsky. Later, the commissar for military affairs of the Turkestan Republic, K., joined the ranks of the TVO. P. Osipov, in whose environment such officers as Colonel Rudnev, orderly Osipova Bott, Gaginsky, Savin, Butenin, Stremkovsky and others played a prominent role.

Ultimately, all the anti-Bolshevik forces of the region rallied around the TVO - the Cadets, Mensheviks, Right Social Revolutionaries and bourgeois nationalists, Basmachi, and the Muslim clergy, former officials of the tsarist administration, Dashnaks, Bundists. The headquarters of the TVO established contact with Ataman Dutov, General Denikin, Kazakh nationalists, the Alash Ordas, the Emir of Bukhara, the leaders of the Fergana and Turkmen Basmachi, the Caspian White Guards, and the British consuls in Kashgar, Kulja, and Mashhad. The leaders of the organization signed an agreement under which they pledged to transfer Turkestan under an English protectorate for a period of 55 years. In turn, the representative of the British intelligence services in Central Asia, Malleson, promised the representatives of the TVO assistance in the amount of 100 million rubles, 16 mountain guns, 40 machine guns, 25,000 rifles and the corresponding amount of ammunition. Thus, representatives of the British intelligence services not only helped the conspirators, they determined the goals and objectives of the organization and controlled its actions.

However, in October 1918, the special services of the Turkestan Republic - the TurkChK, together with the criminal investigation department of Tashkent - got on the trail of the TVO, after which a number of arrests were made among the leaders of the organization. The leaders of the underground who remained at large left the city, but some branches of the organization survived and continued to operate. The representative of General Malesson in Tashkent - Bailey went into hiding. It was the TVO that played an important role in initiating the uprising led by Konstantin Osipov in January 1919. At the last stage of its existence, representatives of the new Soviet nomenklatura, the Bolshevik-Leninist Agapov and the technician Popov, actually joined the ranks of the TVO.

After the defeat of the uprising, the officers who left Tashkent formed the Tashkent Officer Partisan Detachment (101 people), which since March fought together with other anti-Bolshevik formations against the red units in the Ferghana Valley, and then near Bukhara. Then the remnants of the Tashkent officer partisan detachment joined with units of the Turkestan army.

AT) Wrestling in the Northwest

General Nikolai Yudenichcreated on the territory of EstoniaNorth-Western Armyto fight the Soviet regime. The army numbered from 5.5 to 20 thousand soldiers and officers.

On August 11, 1919, the Government of the North-Western Region was created in Tallinn (Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance - Stepan Lianozov, Minister of War - Nikolai Yudenich, maritime minister-Vladimir Pilkini etc.). On the same day, under pressure from the British, who promised arms and equipment for the army in return for this recognition, the Government of the North-Western Region, under pressure from the British, recognized the independence of Estonia. However, the all-Russian government of Kolchak did not approve this decision.

After the recognition of Estonia's independence by the Government of the Russian North-West region, Great Britain provided him with financial assistance, and also carried out minor deliveries of weapons and ammunition.

N. N. Yudenich tried twice to take Petrograd (in spring and autumn), but each time failed.

The spring offensive (5.5 thousand bayonets and sabers for the whites versus 20 thousand for the reds) of the Northern Corps (from July 1, the North-Western Army) to Petrograd began on May 13, 1919. The Whites broke through the front near Narva and, moving around Yamburg, forced the Reds to retreat. On May 15, they captured Gdov. On May 17, Yamburg fell, and on May 25, Pskov. By the beginning of June, the Whites reached the approaches to Luga and Gatchina, threatening Petrograd. But the Reds transferred reserves near Petrograd, bringing the strength of their grouping, which was operating against the North-Western Army, to 40 thousand bayonets and sabers, and in mid-July went on the counteroffensive. In the course of heavy fighting, they pushed back the small units of the North-Western Army across the Luga River, and on August 28 they captured Pskov.

Autumn attack on Petrograd. On October 12, 1919, the North-Western Army (20 thousand bayonets and sabers against 40 thousand of the Reds) broke through the Soviet front at Yamburgai and on October 20, 1919, having taken Tsarskoe Selo, went to the suburbs of Petrograd. The Whites captured the Pulkovo Heights and broke into the outskirts of Ligovo on the extreme left flank, and scout patrols began fighting near the Izhora plant. But, having no reserves and not having received support from Finland and Estonia, after ten days of fierce and unequal battles near Petrograd with the Red troops (whose number grew to 60 thousand people), the North-Western Army could not capture the city. Finland and Estonia refused to help, because the leadership thiswhite army never recognized the independence of these countries. On November 1, the retreat of the North-Western White Army began.

By mid-November 1919, Yudenich's army retreated to the territory of Estonia with stubborn battles. After the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty between the RSFSR and Estonia, 15 thousand soldiers and officers of the North-Western Army of Yudenich, under the terms of this agreement, were first disarmed, and then 5 thousand of them were captured by the Estonian authorities and sent to concentration camps.

Despite the exodus of the White armies from native land as a result of the Civil War, in the historical perspective, the White movement was by no means defeated: once in exile, it continued to fight against the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia and beyond.

"WHITE EMIGRATION"

White emigration, which since 1919 has assumed a massive character, was formed in the course of several stages. The first stage is connected with the evacuation of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin from Novorossiysk in February 1920. The second stage - with the departure of the Russian Army, Lieutenant General Baron P. N. Wrangel from Crimea in November 1920, the third - with the defeat of the troops of Admiral A. V. Kolchakai with the evacuation of the Japanese army from Primorye in the 1920-1921s. After the evacuation of the Crimea, the remnants of the Russian Army were stationed in Turkey, where General P.N. Wrangel, his headquarters and senior commanders were able to restore it as a fighting force. The key task of the command was, firstly, to obtain material assistance from the Entente allies in the required amount, secondly, to fend off all their attempts to disarm and disband the army, and, thirdly, to reorganize and demoralize the units disorganized and demoralized by defeats and evacuation put in order, restoring discipline and morale.

The legal status of the Russian Army and military alliances was complex: the legislation of France, Poland and a number of other countries on whose territory they were located did not allow the existence of any foreign organizations "having the appearance of military-style formations." The powers of the Entente sought to turn the Russian army, which had retreated, but retained its fighting spirit and organization, into a community of emigrants. “Even more than physical deprivation, we were pressed by complete political lack of rights. No one was guaranteed against the arbitrariness of any agent of the power of each of the powers of the Entente. Even the Turks, who themselves were under the regime of arbitrariness of the occupying authorities, were guided by the right of the strong in relation to us, ”wrote N.V. Savich, Wrangel’s financial officer responsible for finances. That is why Wrangel decides to transfer his troops to the Slavic countries.

In the spring of 1921, Baron P. N. Wrangel turned to the Bulgarian and Yugoslav governments with a request for the possibility of resettling the personnel of the Russian Army in Yugoslavia. Parts were promised maintenance at the expense of the treasury, which included rations and a small salary. September 1, 1924 N. Wrangel issued an order on the formation of the Russian General Military Union (ROVS). It included all units, as well as military societies and unions that accepted the order for execution. The internal structure of individual military units remained intact. The ROVS itself acted as a unifying and leading organization. The Commander-in-Chief became its head, the general management of the affairs of the EMRO was concentrated in the headquarters of Wrangel. From this moment on, we can talk about the transformation of the Russian Army into an emigre military organization. The Russian All-Military Union became the legitimate successor to the White Army. This can be said, referring to the opinion of its creators: “The formation of the ROVS prepares the possibility, in case of need, under the pressure of the general political situation, to accept the Russian army new form existence in the form of military alliances. This "form of being" made it possible to fulfill the main task of the military command in exile - the preservation of existing and the education of new army personnel.

An integral part of the confrontation between the military-political emigration and the Bolshevik regime on the territory of Russia was the struggle of the special services: reconnaissance and sabotage groups of the ROVS with the bodies of the OGPU - NKVD, which took place in various regions of the planet.

White emigration in the political spectrum of the Russian diaspora

The political moods and predilections of the initial period of Russian emigration represented a fairly wide range of currents, almost completely reproducing the picture of the political life of pre-October Russia. In the first half of 1921, a characteristic feature was the strengthening of monarchist tendencies, explained, first of all, by the desire of ordinary refugees to rally around a “leader” who could protect their interests in exile and in the future ensure their return to their homeland. Such hopes were associated with the personality of P. N. Wrangel and Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, to whom General Wrangel resubordinated the ROVS as the Supreme Commander.

The white emigration lived with the hope of returning to Russia and liberating it from the totalitarian regime of communism. However, the emigration was not united: from the very beginning of the existence of the Russian Diaspora, there was a fierce struggle between supporters of reconciliation with the regime established in sub-Soviet Russia (“Smenovekhites”) and supporters of an implacable position in relation to the communist government and its legacy. White emigration, led by the ROVS and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, formed the camp of irreconcilable opponents of the "anti-national regime in Russia." In the thirties, part of the emigrant youth, the children of white fighters, decided to go on the offensive against the Bolsheviks. It was the national youth of the Russian emigration, first called the "National Union of Russian Youth", later renamed the "National Labor Union of the New Generation" (NTSNP). The goal was simple: to oppose Marxism-Leninism with another idea based on solidarity and patriotism. At the same time, the NTSNP never associated itself with the White movement, criticized the Whites, considering itself a political party of a fundamentally new type. This eventually led to an ideological and organizational break between the NTSNP and the ROVS, which continued to remain in the same positions of the White movement and was critical of the “national boys” (as members of the NTSNP began to be called in exile).

History is written by the winners. We know a lot about the heroes of the Red Army, but almost nothing about the heroes of the White Army. Let's fill this gap.

1. Anatoly Pepelyaev


Anatoly Pepelyaev became the youngest general in Siberia - at the age of 27. Prior to this, the White Guards under his command took Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Krasnoyarsk, Verkhneudinsk and Chita. When Pepelyaev’s troops occupied Perm abandoned by the Bolsheviks, about 20,000 Red Army soldiers were captured by the young general, who, on his orders, were released home. Perm was liberated from the Reds on the day of the 128th anniversary of the capture of Ishmael, and the soldiers began to call Pepelyaev "Siberian Suvorov."

2. Sergey Ulagai


Sergei Ulagay, a Kuban Cossack of Circassian origin, was one of the most prominent cavalry commanders of the White Army. He made a serious contribution to the defeat of the North Caucasian front of the Reds, but especially the 2nd Kuban Corps Ulagay distinguished himself during the capture of the "Russian Verdun" - Tsaritsyn - in June 1919.

General Ulagay went down in history as a group commander special purpose Russian Volunteer Army of General Wrangel, who landed troops from the Crimea to the Kuban in August 1920. To command the landing force, Wrangel chose Ulagay "as a popular Kuban general, it seems, the only one of the famous who did not stain himself with robbery."

3. Alexander Dolgorukov


The hero of the First World War, who for his exploits was awarded admission to the retinue of His Imperial Majesty, Alexander Dolgorukov proved himself in the Civil War. On September 30, 1919, his 4th Infantry Division in a bayonet battle forced Soviet troops retreat; Dolgorukov captured the crossing over the Plyussa River, which soon made it possible to occupy Struga Beliye.

Dolgorukov got into literature. In the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov "The White Guard" he is bred under the name of General Belorukov, and is also mentioned in the first volume of the trilogy of Alexei Tolstoy "Walking through the torments" (attack of the cavalry guards in the battle of Kaushen).

4. Vladimir Kappel


The episode from the film "Chapaev", where the Kappelites go on a "psychic attack", is fictional - Chapaev and Kappel never crossed paths on the battlefield. But Kappel was a legend without cinema. During the capture of Kazan on August 7, 1918, he lost only 25 people. In his reports on successful operations, Kappel did not mention himself, explaining the victory by the heroism of his subordinates, up to the sisters of mercy.

During the Great Siberian Ice Campaign, Kappel got frostbite on the feet of both legs - they had to be amputated without anesthesia. He continued to lead the troops and refused a place on the hospital train. Last words the general were: "Let the troops know that I was devoted to them, that I loved them and proved it with my death among them."

5. Mikhail Drozdovsky


Mikhail Drozdovsky with a volunteer detachment of 1,000 people walked 1,700 km from Yassy to Rostov, freed him from the Bolsheviks, then helped the Cossacks defend Novocherkassk. Drozdovsky's detachment participated in the liberation of both the Kuban and North Caucasus. Drozdovsky was called "the crusader of the crucified Motherland."

Here is his description from Kravchenko's book “Drozdovites from Iasi to Gallipoli”: “Nervous, thin, Colonel Drozdovsky was a type of ascetic warrior: he did not drink, did not smoke and did not pay attention to the blessings of life; always - from Jassy and until death - in the same shabby jacket, with a shabby St. George ribbon in the buttonhole; out of modesty, he did not wear the order itself.

6. Alexander Kutepov


A colleague of Kutepov’s on the fronts of the First World War wrote about him: “Kutepov’s name has become a household name. It means fidelity to duty, calm determination, intense sacrificial impulse, cold, sometimes cruel will and ... clean hands - and all this is brought and given to the service of the Motherland.

In January 1918, Kutepov twice defeated the Red troops under the command of Sievers near Matveev Kurgan. According to Anton Denikin, "this was the first serious battle in which the art and enthusiasm of the officer detachments were opposed to the furious pressure of the unorganized and badly managed Bolsheviks, mostly sailors."

7. Sergey Markov


The White Guards called Sergei Markov the "White Knight", "the sword of General Kornilov", the "God of War", and after the battle at the village of Medvedovskaya - the "Guardian Angel". In this battle, Markov managed to save the remnants of the Volunteer Army retreating from Ekaterinograd, destroy and capture the armored train of the Reds, and get a lot of weapons and ammunition. When Markov died, Anton Denikin wrote on his wreath: "Both life and death - for the happiness of the Motherland."

8. Mikhail Zhebrak-Rusanovich


For the White Guards, Colonel Zhebrak-Rusanovich was a cult figure. For personal prowess, his name was sung in the military folklore of the Volunteer Army. He firmly believed that "there will be no Bolshevism, but there will be only one United Great Indivisible Russia." It was Zhebrak who brought the Andreevsky flag with his detachment to the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, and soon he became the battle flag of the Drozdovsky brigade. He died heroically, personally leading the attack of two battalions on the superior forces of the Red Army.

9. Viktor Molchanov


Izhevsk division of Viktor Molchanov was awarded special attention Kolchak - he handed her the St. George banner, attached St. George's crosses to the banners of a number of regiments. During the Great Siberian Ice Campaign, Molchanov commanded the rearguard of the 3rd Army and covered the retreat of the main forces of General Kappel. After his death, he led the vanguard of the white troops. At the head of the Insurrectionary Army, Molchanov occupied almost all of Primorye and Khabarovsk.

10. Innokenty Smolin


In the summer and autumn of 1918, at the head of the partisan detachment of his own name, Innokenty Smolin successfully operated in the rear of the Reds, captured two armored trains. Smolin's partisans played an important role in the capture of Tobolsk. Mikhail Smolin participated in the Great Siberian Ice Campaign, commanded a group of troops of the 4th Siberian rifle division, which numbering more than 1800 fighters came on March 4, 1920 to Chita. Smolin died in Tahiti. AT last years life wrote memoirs.

11. Sergei Voitsekhovsky

General Voitsekhovsky accomplished many feats, performing the seemingly impossible tasks of the command of the White Army. A faithful “Kolchakist”, after the death of the admiral, he abandoned the assault on Irkutsk and led the remnants of the Kolchak army to Transbaikalia on the ice of Baikal. In 1939, in exile, being one of the highest Czechoslovak generals, Wojciechowski advocated resistance to the Germans and created the underground organization Obrana národa ("Protection of the People"). Arrested by SMERSH in 1945. Repressed, died in a camp near Taishet.

12. Erast Hyacinths


Erast Hyacinths in the First World War became the owner of a full set of orders available to the chief officer of the Russian Imperial Army. After the revolution, he was obsessed with the idea of ​​overthrowing the Bolsheviks and even occupied with friends a number of houses around the Kremlin in order to start resistance from there, but in time he realized the futility of such tactics and joined the White Army, becoming one of the most productive scouts.

In exile, on the eve of and during the Second World War, he took an open anti-Nazi position and miraculously avoided being sent to a concentration camp. After the war, he resisted the forced repatriation of "displaced persons" to the USSR.

13. Mikhail Yaroslavtsev(Archimandrite Mitrofan)


During the Civil War, Mikhail Yaroslavtsev showed himself to be an energetic commander and distinguished himself by personal prowess in several battles. Yaroslavtsev embarked on the path of spiritual service already in exile, after the death of his wife on December 31, 1932. In May 1949, hegumen Mitrofan was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by Metropolitan Seraphim (Lukyanov).

Contemporaries wrote about him: "Always impeccable in the performance of his duty, richly endowed with wonderful spiritual qualities, he was a true consolation for very many of his flock ...". He was rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Rabat and defended the unity of the Russian Orthodox community in Morocco with the Moscow Patriarchate.

14. Mikhail Khanzhin


General Khanzhin became a movie hero. He is one of the characters feature film 1968 Thunderstorm over Belaya. The role of the general was played by Yefim Kopelyan. About his fate is also filmed documentary"The Return of General Khanzhin". For the successful command of the Western Army of the Western Front, Mikhail Khanzhin was promoted by Kolchak to the rank of general from artillery - the highest distinction of this kind, which was awarded by Kolchak when he was his Supreme Ruler.

15. Pavel Shatilov


A. V. Krivoshein, P. N. Wrangel and P. N. Shatilov. Crimea. 1920

Pavel Shatilov is a hereditary general, both his father and his grandfather were generals. He especially distinguished himself in the spring of 1919, when, in an operation in the area of ​​the Manych River, he defeated a 30,000-strong group of Reds. Pyotr Wrangel, whose chief of staff was later Shatilov, spoke of him as follows: "a brilliant mind, outstanding abilities, having great military experience and knowledge, with great capacity for work, he was able to work with a minimum expenditure of time." In the autumn of 1920, it was Shatilov who led the emigration of whites from the Crimea.

10 short facts about the White Army

Because of literature and cinema, we often perceive the White Army in a romantic way, books and films about it are full of inaccuracies, and the facts are distorted by the biased author's assessment.

Community support


The White Army did not have strong popular support. The opposite point of view is rooted in the results of the elections to the Constituent Assembly, when even at the fronts the majority of votes was won not by the Bolsheviks, but by the Socialist-Revolutionaries. The social base of the Red Army was initially much stronger than the White Army.

The Bolsheviks could rely on the support of the workers and the peasant poor. These categories of the population could always be mobilized for rations and a small allowance. The middle peasants fought both against the Whites and the Reds, but they were reluctant to go to foreign provinces and easily moved from one camp to another. After mass mobilization became the main principle of the formation of the White Army, the quality of its troops deteriorated noticeably and, in the absence of broad social support, this led to a significant decrease in combat effectiveness.

In addition, by the beginning of the Civil War, the Bolsheviks had already formed a terrorist network, in which yesterday's criminals, raiders and blatari were involved. They harassed regions controlled by whites with sabotage.

aristocrats

If you watch Soviet films about the Civil War, you can see that white officers are completely intelligent people, "white bone", nobles and aristocrats. They listen to romances, enter into officer disputes and indulge in nostalgia for the former Russia. However, this picture is, of course, greatly embellished.

The vast majority of white officers were from the so-called raznochintsy. Not all of them were even literate, which you can find out today if you look at the documents admission committee General Staff Academy. The officers entering it showed "poor knowledge of history and geography", "lack of clarity of thought and general indiscipline of the mind", and made many gross mistakes.

And these were not just officers, but the best, since not everyone could qualify for admission to the Academy. Of course, we will not claim that all white officers were illiterate, but that they all had " blue blood"is not true.

Desertion


When today they talk about the reasons for the defeat of the White Army, they like to talk about mass desertion from there. We will not deny that desertion took place, but both its causes and its extent were different. opposing sides. In addition to individual cases of voluntary departure from the White Army, there were also massive desertions, which was caused by a number of reasons.

Firstly, Denikin's army, despite the fact that it controlled fairly large territories, was not able to significantly increase its numbers due to the inhabitants living on them. Secondly, in the rear of the whites, gangs of “greens” or “blacks” often operated, who fought against both the whites and the reds. Deserters were often among them.

However, all the same, other things being equal, many more people deserted from the Red Army. In just one year (1919-1920), at least 2.6 million people voluntarily left the Red Army, which exceeded the total number of the White Army.

Allied support

The role of intervention in helping the White Army is greatly exaggerated. The troops of the interventionists practically did not clash with the Red Army, with the exception of minor battles in the North, and in Siberia they even collaborated with the Bolsheviks. Assistance to the White Army was limited, by and large, only to military supplies.

But the "allies" provided this assistance far from being in vain. They had to pay for armaments with gold reserves and grain, which is why the peasants were the first to suffer. As a result, the popularity of the movement for the restoration of the "former" Russia was steadily declining. Yes, and this help was insignificant.

Denikin, for example, the British supplied only a few dozen tanks, although after the First World War they had thousands in service. Despite the fact that the last military formations were ousted from the territory of the USSR (in the Far East) in 1925, in fact, the whole point of intervention for the Entente countries became obsolete after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

Captivity


The myth that white officers were very ideological and even under pain of death refused to surrender to the Bolsheviks, unfortunately, is only a myth. Only near Novorossiysk in March 1920, the Red Army captured 10,000 Denikin officers, 9,660 Kolchak officers. Most of the prisoners were accepted into the Red Army.

Because of a large number former whites in the Red Army, the military leadership of the Bolsheviks even introduced a limit on the number of white officers in the Red Army - no more than 25% of the command staff. "Surplus" went to the rear, or went to teach in military schools.

ROVS

On August 31, 1924, the self-named "guardian", Kirill Vladimirovich, declared himself the All-Russian Emperor Kirill I. Thus, the army automatically passed under his command, since formally it was subordinate to the emperor. But the next day the army was gone - it was dissolved by Wrangel himself, and in its place appeared the Russian All-Military Union, which the same Wrangel headed.

Oddly enough, but the ROVS exists, to this day, following the same principles of 1924.

Wrangel and Blumkin

The Wrangel formations caused serious concern among the Soviet command. Several assassination attempts were even organized on Wrangel. One of them ended before it even started. In the fall of 1923, Yakov Blumkin, the murderer of the German ambassador Mirbach, knocked on Wrangel's door.

The Chekists posed as French cameramen, whom Wrangel had previously agreed to pose for. The box imitating the camera was filled to the brim with weapons, an additional one - a Lewis machine gun was hidden in a case from a tripod. But the conspirators immediately made a serious mistake - they knocked on the door, which was completely unacceptable both in Serbia, where the action took place, and in France, where they switched to doorbells a long time ago.

The guards rightly considered that only people who had come from Soviet Russia could knock, and, just in case, they did not open the gate.

National politics


The big mistake of the White Army was that it lost" national question". Denikin's concept of "one and indivisible Russia" did not even allow a discussion of the issue of self-determination of the national territories that were part of Russia. When taking Kyiv, Denikin, who denied the independence of Ukraine, could not agree with the leadership of the UNR and the Galician army. This led to an armed confrontation, which, although it ended in victory for Denikin, could not have taken place at all.This deprived the white movement of the support of national minorities, many of which were opposed to the Bolsheviks.

General's honor

Was in the history of the White Army and his "Judas". They became the French General Janin. He promised to ensure, if possible, Kolchak's safe passage to wherever he wanted. Kolchak took the general at his word, but he did not keep him. Upon arrival in Irkutsk, Kolchak was detained by the Czechs and first handed over to the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Political Center, and then ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks and was shot on February 7, 1920. Janin received the nickname "general without honor" for his betrayal.

Annenkov


As we have already said, the whites were not entirely aristocrats with an impeccable sense of tact, there were real "outlaws" among them. The most famous of them can be called General Annenkov. His cruelty was legendary. A participant in World War I became famous as a commander of a raid detachment, he had awards. He raised an uprising in Siberia in 1918. He brutally suppressed the Bolshevik uprising in the Slavogorsk and Pavlodar districts.

Having seized the congress of peasants, he cut down 87 people. He tortured many people who were not involved in the uprising. Men were cut down by villages, women were raped and cut down. There were many mercenaries in Annenkov's detachment: Afghans, Uighurs, Chinese. The victims numbered in the thousands. After the defeat of Kolchak, Annenkov withdrew to Semirechie, crossed the border with China. He spent three years in a Chinese prison. In 1926 he was extradited to the Bolsheviks and shot a year later.

The White movement in Russia is an organized military-political movement that was formed during the Civil War in 1917-1922. The goals of the white movement in the civil war.

The white movement united political regimes, distinguished by the commonality of socio-political and economic programs, as well as the recognition of the principle of sole power (military dictatorship) on an all-Russian and regional scale.

The White movement originated in the conditions of opposition to the policy of the Provisional Government and the Soviets (the Soviet "vertical") in the summer of 1917.

In preparation for the speech of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General L.G. Kornilov took part as military officers ("Union of officers of the army and navy", "Union of military duty", "Union Cossack troops”) and political (“Republican Center”, “Bureau of the Legislative Chambers”, “Society for the Economic Revival of Russia”) structures.

Back in the Soviet Union, there was a myth that the White movement was monarchical: "The White Army, the Black Baron are again preparing the Tsar's throne for us." In the post-Soviet era, this myth was significantly supplemented by the fact that whites began to be considered the bearers of Russian state patriotism.

Like, the whites saved Russia, and the "bloody reds" ruined it. Although in reality the whites were ordinary mercenaries of Russian pro-Western capital and global capital. The Russian pro-Western, liberal-bourgeois elite of society (the Februaryists), having overthrown the tsar and destroyed the autocracy, dreamed of turning Russia into “sweet Europe”, turning it into a peripheral part of European civilization.

However, it didn't work out. The Westerners did not know Russia and the Russian people at all. Russian unrest began, aggravated by the destructive, stupid actions of the pro-Western Provisional Government.

The Februaryists-Westerners were quickly left with nothing and lost power, which was taken by the Bolsheviks in the center, and on the outskirts by the nationalists and Cossacks. But they did not want to accept and live quietly in Paris or Venice. In addition, there was an external order: the masters of the West wanted to destroy Russian civilization and the Russian superethnos once and for all, their main conceptual and geopolitical opponent.

Therefore, the hasty creation of nationalist and white governments and armies began, which translated the already ongoing Civil War ( peasant war began immediately after February, like the criminal revolution) to a new, more serious level. As a result, the whites acted as mercenaries of the masters of the West.

The mythical picture of lieutenants and cornets who stood up with their breasts in defense of the Motherland, “for faith, the tsar and the Fatherland” and in a minute free from fighting with tears in their eyes who sang “God save the tsar!” Is completely false.

No wonder one of the most prominent and talented white generals, Lieutenant General Ya. A. Slashchov-Krymsky, leaving the White Army and going over to the side of the Reds, wrote an article: “Slogans of Russian patriotism in the service of France.”

This is the whole essence of the White movement - serving the masters of the West under the guise of the slogan of saving "one and indivisible Russia." Hence the complete moral decay of the white elite, which understood or, at the subconscious level, felt its treacherous role in relation to the people.

White movement, taking over from the West and Japan financial assistance and military - in the form of direct intervention (invasion) of the western and eastern invaders, quickly lost even the external forms of the patriotic movement.

Thus, the anti-Soviet counter-revolution appeared as a pro-Western force, leading to the loss of the integrity and independence of Russia, the complete death of Russian civilization and superethnos. Even the great Russian scientist D. I. Mendeleev, starting to create “Russian studies”, set a minimum condition in this idea: “to survive and continue the independent growth” of Russia. This is precisely the minimal, unchanging and fundamental task of Russian statehood.

It is clear that the Russian people instantly saw through the vile essence of the White movement. This predetermined the loss of broad support of the population and the defeat of the White Army. Even most of the officers of the former imperial army, who received a largely pro-Western liberal upbringing and education, but remained Russian at heart, realized this and supported the Reds, since they really advocated the restoration of Russian statehood and great Russia.

Half of the generals and officers of the General Staff, the color of the imperial army, began to serve in the Red Army. To the Red Army tsarist generals and the officers went to serve almost exclusively not for ideological, but for patriotic reasons.

The Bolsheviks had a project and a program for the development of Russia as an independent power, and not as a periphery of European (Western) civilization. General M.D. Bonch-Bruevich later wrote: "More by instinct than by reason, I was drawn to the Bolsheviks, seeing in them the only force capable of saving Russia from collapse and complete destruction."

He perfectly showed the essence of the views of Russian generals and officers who joined the Red Army, General A.A. Brusilov. In the appeal "To all former officers wherever they are,” addressed by a large group former generals The Russian army led by Brusilov on May 30, 1920, when a threatening situation developed on the Polish front, said:

“At this critical historical moment in our national life, we, your old comrades-in-arms, appeal to your feelings of love and devotion to the motherland and appeal to you with an urgent request to forget all insults, no matter who and wherever inflicted them, and voluntarily go with full selflessness and hunting in the Red Army and serve there not out of fear, but out of conscience, so that by their honest service, not sparing life, to defend at all costs Russia dear to us and not allow it to be plundered, because in the latter case it can irretrievably disappear , and then our descendants will rightly curse us and rightly blame us for the fact that, due to the selfish feelings of the class struggle, we did not use our combat knowledge and experience, forgot our native Russian people and ruined our mother Russia.

Even the anti-Soviet historian M. Nazarov in his book The Mission of the Russian Emigration noted: “The orientation of the White movement towards the Entente made many fear that with the victory of the Whites, the foreign forces behind them would subordinate Russia to their interests.” The Red Army was increasingly perceived as a force restoring the statehood and sovereignty of Russia.

It is obvious that the anti-Russian and anti-state essence of the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal (in the future white) project has matured and manifested itself even before the start of the turmoil. The alliance with the West during the Civil War only finally revealed this essence. It was the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal forces (the Februaryists) who crushed the Russian autocracy in February, which led to the collapse of the project and the Romanov empire.

The Westerners dreamed of leading Russia along western way development, for them England and France were the ideal state, socio-economic structure. The top of Russia - the rotten aristocracy along with the grand dukes, the nobility, the generals with some of the higher officers, industrialists and bankers, the bourgeoisie and capitalists, the leaders of most political parties and movements, the liberal intelligentsia - dreamed of being part of the "enlightened West".

The Westerners were for the "market" and "democracy", the full power of the "masters of money", the owners. But their interests did not correspond to the national interests of Russia, the code-matrix of Russian civilization and people. This radical break caused the Russian unrest. In Russia, turmoil begins when people's (national) interests are violated in the meanest way, which happened in 1917.

The essence of the pro-Western bourgeois-liberal (white) project, its anti-Russian and anti-state character are perfectly reflected both in "Milestones" and in "From the Depth", and by the writer V. V. Rozanov, and eyewitnesses of the "cursed days" - I. Bunin and M. Prishvin .

So, in Bunin's Cursed Days, on every page we see one passion - the expectation of the arrival of the Germans with their ordnung and gallows. And if not the Germans, then at least any kind of foreigners - if only they quickly occupied Russia, drove back into the mines and the "cattle" who raised their heads to corvée. “In the newspapers - about the German offensive that had begun.

Everyone says: “Oh, if only!” ... Yesterday we were at B. A decent number of people gathered - and all with one voice: the Germans, thank God, are advancing, they took Smolensk and Bologoe ... Rumors about some Polish legions, which also supposedly they are going to save us ... The Germans do not seem to go, as they usually go to war, fighting, conquering, but “they just go along railway"- occupy Petersburg ...

After yesterday's evening news that Petersburg had already been taken by the Germans, the newspapers were very disappointing ... It was as if a German corps had entered Petersburg. Tomorrow there will be a decree on the denationalization of banks... I saw V.V. He vehemently scolded the allies: they enter into negotiations with the Bolsheviks instead of going to occupy Russia...”

And further: “Rumors and rumors. Petersburg has been taken by the Finns... Hindenburg is going either to Odessa, or to Moscow... After all, we are waiting for help from someone, from a miracle, from nature! Now we go every day to Nikolaevsky Boulevard: hasn't the French battleship left, God forbid, which for some reason looms in the roadstead and in which it seems to be easier.

This is shown very strongly in the play by M. A. Bulgakov "Days of the Turbins", written on the basis of the novel "The White Guard". The Turbin brothers and their friends are presented to us as carriers of Russian officer honor, as the type of people from whom we should take an example. But if we look at justice, then we see how the "white guard" - officers and cadets, shoot from rifles and machine guns at some "gray people" and serve the Germans and their puppet hetman.

What are they protecting? Here is what: “And blows of lieutenant stacks on faces, and shrapnel rapid fire on recalcitrant villages, backs slashed with ramrods of hetman Serdyuks, and receipts on scraps of paper in the handwriting of majors and lieutenants of the German army: “To give a Russian pig for a pig bought from her 25 marks” . Good-natured, contemptuous laughter at those who came with such a receipt to the headquarters of the Germans in the City.

And the “gray” people who were shot by white officers, protecting the hetman and the Germans and at the same time dreaming of the invasion of the French and Senegalese into Russia, are Russian soldiers and peasants, brought by the former “elite” - gentlemen to the Civil War. And these officers are examples of honor and patriotism? Obviously not. Generals Brusilov and Bonch-Bruevich, Colonel Shaposhnikov, non-commissioned officers Rokossovsky and Chapaev - these are examples to follow and educate the younger generation in the spirit of love for the motherland.

Thus, the Whites were ready to rely on the Germans, like Ataman Krasnov, or on the French, British and Americans, like Denikin and Kolchak. Meanwhile, the Reds were feverishly recreating Russian (Soviet) statehood and the army in order to repulse the interventionists and their local lackeys.

The “supreme ruler” of Russia, Admiral A. V. Kolchak, who was so loved by the representatives of the modern liberal public of Russia (apparently they saw “their own”), was a real “condottiere”, a mercenary of the West, appointed by the masters of Great Britain and the USA.

He wrote about the Russian people literally as an extreme Russophobe of the times of perestroika: “a wild (and devoid of similarity) distraught people, unable to get out of the psychology of slaves.” Under the power of Kolchak in Siberia, such cruelties were committed against these people that peasant uprisings in the rear of the white army became almost the main factor in the defeat of the whites. In addition, Kolchak was a prominent February revolutionary, with his fate crushed the royal throne.

In today's Russia national hero tried to make A. I. Denikin. It is noted that he did not help Hitler and wished the victory of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic war. But this is in the declining years. And during the turmoil, Denikin de facto served the masters of the West.

As the remarkable Russian writer and researcher of the period of the Revolution and the Civil War in Russia V. V. Kozhinov noted: “Anton Ivanovich Denikin was in unconditional submission to the West.” Biographer A. I. Denikin D. Lekhovich defined the views of the leader of the White movement as the hope that "the Kadet party will be able to lead Russia to a constitutional monarchy of the British type," so that "the idea of ​​loyalty to the allies [Entente] has acquired the character of a symbol of faith."

It is impossible to separate the White movement and foreign intervention, as anti-Soviet researchers, supporters of the Whites, often do. They are inextricably linked.

Without the intervention of the Western powers and Japan, the Civil War in Russia would not have taken on such a scale. The Bolsheviks would have crushed the centers of resistance of the whites, nationalist separatists, Basmachi and gangs much faster and without such great sacrifices. Without Western supplies of weapons and materials, the white and national armies would not be able to expand their activities.

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