In the civil war, a variety of forces opposed the Bolsheviks. These were Cossacks, nationalists, democrats, monarchists. All of them, despite their differences, served the White cause. Having been defeated, the leaders of the anti-Soviet forces either died or were able to emigrate.
Alexander Kolchak
Although the resistance to the Bolsheviks never became fully united, it was Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (1874-1920) that is considered by many historians to be the main figure of the White movement. He was a professional military man and served in the navy. In peacetime, Kolchak became famous as a polar explorer and oceanographer.
Like other career military men, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak gained a wealth of experience during the Japanese campaign and the First World War. With the coming to power of the Provisional Government, he emigrated to the United States for a short time. When news of the Bolshevik coup came from his homeland, Kolchak returned to Russia.
The admiral arrived in Siberian Omsk, where the Socialist Revolutionary government made him minister of war. In 1918, officers carried out a coup, and Kolchak was named Supreme Ruler of Russia. Other leaders of the White movement at that time did not have as large forces as Alexander Vasilyevich (he had an army of 150,000 at his disposal).
In the territory under his control, Kolchak restored the legislation of the Russian Empire. Moving from Siberia to the west, the army of the Supreme Ruler of Russia advanced to the Volga region. At the peak of their success, White was already approaching Kazan. Kolchak tried to attract as many Bolshevik forces as possible in order to clear Denikin’s road to Moscow.
In the second half of 1919, the Red Army launched a massive offensive. The Whites retreated further and further into Siberia. Foreign allies (Czechoslovak Corps) handed over Kolchak, who was traveling east on the train, to the Socialist Revolutionaries. The admiral was shot in Irkutsk in February 1920.
Anton Denikin
If in the east of Russia Kolchak was at the head of the White Army, then in the south the key military leader for a long time was Anton Ivanovich Denikin (1872-1947). Born in Poland, he went to study in the capital and became a staff officer.
Then Denikin served on the border with Austria. He spent the First World War in Brusilov's army, took part in the famous breakthrough and operation in Galicia. The Provisional Government briefly made Anton Ivanovich commander of the Southwestern Front. Denikin supported Kornilov's rebellion. After the failure of the coup, the lieutenant general was in prison for some time (Bykhovsky prison).
Having been released in November 1917, Denikin began to support the White Cause. Together with generals Kornilov and Alekseev, he created (and then single-handedly led) the Volunteer Army, which became the backbone of the resistance to the Bolsheviks in southern Russia. It was Denikin that the Entente countries relied on when they declared war on Soviet power after its separate peace with Germany.
For some time Denikin was in conflict with the Don Ataman Pyotr Krasnov. Under pressure from the allies, he submitted to Anton Ivanovich. In January 1919, Denikin became the commander-in-chief of the VSYUR - the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. His army cleared the Bolsheviks from Kuban, the Don Territory, Tsaritsyn, Donbass, and Kharkov. The Denikin offensive stalled in Central Russia.
The AFSR retreated to Novocherkassk. From there, Denikin moved to Crimea, where in April 1920, under pressure from opponents, he transferred his powers to Peter Wrangel. Then came the departure to Europe. While in exile, the general wrote his memoirs, “Essays on the Russian Time of Troubles,” in which he tried to answer the question of why the White movement was defeated. Anton Ivanovich blamed the Bolsheviks exclusively for the civil war. He refused to support Hitler and criticized collaborators. After the defeat of the Third Reich, Denikin changed his place of residence and moved to the USA, where he died in 1947.
Lavr Kornilov
The organizer of the unsuccessful coup, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov (1870-1918), was born into the family of a Cossack officer, which predetermined his military career. He served as a scout in Persia, Afghanistan and India. During the war, having been captured by the Austrians, the officer fled to his homeland.
At first, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov supported the Provisional Government. He considered the leftists to be the main enemies of Russia. Being a supporter of strong power, he began to prepare an anti-government protest. His campaign against Petrograd failed. Kornilov, along with his supporters, was arrested.
With the onset of the October Revolution, the general was released. He became the first commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army in southern Russia. In February 1918, Kornilov organized the First Kuban to Ekaterinodar. This operation became legendary. All leaders of the White movement in the future tried to be equal to the pioneers. Kornilov died tragically during an artillery shelling of Yekaterinodar.
Nikolai Yudenich
General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich (1862-1933) was one of Russia's most successful military leaders in the war against Germany and its allies. He led the headquarters of the Caucasian Army during its battles with the Ottoman Empire. Having come to power, Kerensky dismissed the military leader.
With the onset of the October Revolution, Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich lived illegally in Petrograd for some time. At the beginning of 1919, using forged documents, he moved to Finland. The Russian Committee, which met in Helsinki, proclaimed him commander-in-chief.
Yudenich established contact with Alexander Kolchak. Having coordinated his actions with the admiral, Nikolai Nikolaevich unsuccessfully tried to enlist the support of the Entente and Mannerheim. In the summer of 1919, he received the portfolio of Minister of War in the so-called North-Western government, formed in Revel.
In the fall, Yudenich organized a campaign against Petrograd. Basically, the White movement in the civil war operated on the outskirts of the country. Yudenich's army, on the contrary, tried to liberate the capital (as a result, the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow). She occupied Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and reached the Pulkovo Heights. Trotsky was able to transport reinforcements to Petrograd by rail, thereby nullifying all attempts by the Whites to gain the city.
By the end of 1919, Yudenich retreated to Estonia. A few months later he emigrated. The general spent some time in London, where Winston Churchill visited him. Having come to terms with defeat, Yudenich settled in France and retired from politics. He died in Cannes from pulmonary tuberculosis.
Alexey Kaledin
When the October Revolution broke out, Alexei Maksimovich Kaledin (1861-1918) was the chieftain of the Don Army. He was elected to this post several months before the events in Petrograd. In the Cossack cities, primarily in Rostov, sympathy for the socialists was strong. Ataman, on the contrary, considered the Bolshevik coup to be criminal. Having received alarming news from Petrograd, he defeated the Soviets in the Donskoy Region.
Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin acted from Novocherkassk. In November, another white general, Mikhail Alekseev, arrived there. Meanwhile, the Cossacks for the most part hesitated. Many war-weary front-line soldiers eagerly responded to the slogans of the Bolsheviks. Others were neutral towards Lenin's government. Almost no one disliked the socialists.
Having lost hope of restoring contact with the overthrown Provisional Government, Kaledin took decisive steps. He declared independence. In response to this, the Rostov Bolsheviks rebelled. Ataman, enlisting the support of Alekseev, suppressed this uprising. The first blood was shed on the Don.
At the end of 1917, Kaledin gave the green light to the creation of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army. Two parallel forces appeared in Rostov. On the one hand, it was the Volunteer generals, on the other, the local Cossacks. The latter increasingly sympathized with the Bolsheviks. In December, the Red Army occupied Donbass and Taganrog. Meanwhile, the Cossack units had completely disintegrated. Realizing that his own subordinates did not want to fight Soviet power, the ataman committed suicide.
Ataman Krasnov
After Kaledin's death, the Cossacks did not sympathize with the Bolsheviks for long. When the Don was established, yesterday’s front-line soldiers quickly began to hate the Reds. Already in May 1918, an uprising broke out on the Don.
Pyotr Krasnov (1869-1947) became the new ataman of the Don Cossacks. During the war with Germany and Austria, he, like many other white generals, participated in the glorious The military always treated the Bolsheviks with disgust. It was he who, on the orders of Kerensky, tried to recapture Petrograd from Lenin’s supporters when the October Revolution had just taken place. Krasnov's small detachment occupied Tsarskoye Selo and Gatchina, but the Bolsheviks soon surrounded and disarmed him.
After the first failure, Pyotr Krasnov was able to move to the Don. Having become the ataman of the anti-Soviet Cossacks, he refused to obey Denikin and tried to pursue an independent policy. In particular, Krasnov established friendly relations with the Germans.
Only when capitulation was announced in Berlin did the isolated chieftain submit to Denikin. The commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army did not tolerate his dubious ally for long. In February 1919, Krasnov, under pressure from Denikin, left for Yudenich’s army in Estonia. From there he emigrated to Europe.
Like many leaders of the White movement who found themselves in exile, the former Cossack chieftain dreamed of revenge. Hatred of the Bolsheviks pushed him to support Hitler. The Germans made Krasnov the head of the Cossacks in the occupied Russian territories. After the defeat of the Third Reich, the British handed Pyotr Nikolaevich over to the USSR. In the Soviet Union he was tried and sentenced to capital punishment. Krasnov was executed.
Ivan Romanovsky
Military leader Ivan Pavlovich Romanovsky (1877-1920) during the tsarist era was a participant in the war with Japan and Germany. In 1917, he supported Kornilov’s speech and, together with Denikin, served an arrest in the city of Bykhov. Having moved to the Don, Romanovsky participated in the formation of the first organized anti-Bolshevik detachments.
The general was appointed Denikin's deputy and headed his headquarters. It is believed that Romanovsky had a great influence on his boss. In his will, Denikin even named Ivan Pavlovich as his successor in the event of an unexpected death.
Due to his directness, Romanovsky conflicted with many other military leaders in the Dobrarmiya, and then in the All-Soviet Union of Socialists. The white movement in Russia had an ambivalent attitude towards him. When Denikin was replaced by Wrangel, Romanovsky left all his posts and left for Istanbul. In the same city he was killed by lieutenant Mstislav Kharuzin. The shooter, who also served in the White Army, explained his action by saying that he blamed Romanovsky for the defeat of the AFSR in the civil war.
Sergey Markov
In the Volunteer Army, Sergei Leonidovich Markov (1878-1918) became a cult hero. The regiment and colored military units were named after him. Markov became famous for his tactical talent and his own courage, which he demonstrated in every battle with the Red Army. Participants in the White movement treated the memory of this general with special reverence.
Markov's military biography in the tsarist era was typical for an officer of that time. He took part in the Japanese campaign. On the German front he commanded a rifle regiment, then became the chief of staff at several fronts. In the summer of 1917, Markov supported the Kornilov rebellion and, together with other future white generals, was under arrest in Bykhov.
At the beginning of the civil war, the military man moved to the south of Russia. He was one of the founders of the Volunteer Army. Markov made a great contribution to the White Cause in the First Kuban Campaign. On the night of April 16, 1918, he and a small detachment of volunteers captured Medvedovka, an important railway station, where volunteers destroyed a Soviet armored train, and then broke out of encirclement and escaped pursuit. The result of the battle was the salvation of Denikin’s army, which had just completed an unsuccessful assault on Ekaterinodar and was on the verge of defeat.
Markov's feat made him a hero for the whites and a sworn enemy for the reds. Two months later, the talented general took part in the Second Kuban Campaign. Near the town of Shablievka, his units encountered superior enemy forces. At a fateful moment for himself, Markov found himself in an open place where he had set up an observation post. Fire was opened on the position from a Red Army armored train. A grenade exploded near Sergei Leonidovich, fatally wounding him. A few hours later, on June 26, 1918, the soldier died.
Peter Wrangel
(1878-1928), also known as the Black Baron, came from a noble family and had roots associated with the Baltic Germans. Before becoming a military man, he received an engineering education. The craving for military service, however, prevailed, and Peter went to study to become a cavalryman.
Wrangel's debut campaign was the war with Japan. During the First World War he served in the Horse Guards. He distinguished himself by several exploits, for example by capturing a German battery. Once on the Southwestern Front, the officer took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough.
During the days of the February Revolution, Pyotr Nikolaevich called for troops to be sent to Petrograd. For this, the Provisional Government removed him from service. The black baron moved to a dacha in Crimea, where he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. The nobleman managed to escape only thanks to the pleas of his own wife.
As an aristocrat and supporter of the monarchy, for Wrangel the White Idea was the only position during the Civil War. He joined Denikin. The military leader served in the Caucasian Army and led the capture of Tsaritsyn. After the defeats of the White Army during the march to Moscow, Wrangel began to criticize his superior Denikin. The conflict led to the general's temporary departure to Istanbul.
Soon Pyotr Nikolaevich returned to Russia. In the spring of 1920, he was elected commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Crimea became its key base. The peninsula turned out to be the last white bastion of the civil war. Wrangel's army repulsed several Bolshevik attacks, but was ultimately defeated.
In exile, the Black Baron lived in Belgrade. He created and headed the EMRO - the Russian All-Military Union, then transferring these powers to one of the grand dukes, Nikolai Nikolaevich. Shortly before his death, while working as an engineer, Peter Wrangel moved to Brussels. There he died suddenly of tuberculosis in 1928.
Andrey Shkuro
Andrei Grigorievich Shkuro (1887-1947) was a born Kuban Cossack. In his youth he went on a gold-mining expedition to Siberia. During the war with the Kaiser’s Germany, Shkuro created a partisan detachment, nicknamed the “Wolf Hundred” for its daring.
In October 1917, the Cossack was elected as a deputy to the Kuban Regional Rada. Being a monarchist by conviction, he reacted negatively to the news about the Bolsheviks coming to power. Shkuro began to fight the Red commissars when many of the leaders of the White movement had not yet had time to loudly declare themselves. In July 1918, Andrei Grigorievich and his detachment expelled the Bolsheviks from Stavropol.
In the fall, the Cossack became the head of the 1st Officer Kislovodsk Regiment, then the Caucasian Cavalry Division. Shkuro's boss was Anton Ivanovich Denikin. In Ukraine, the military defeated the detachment of Nestor Makhno. Then he took part in the campaign against Moscow. Shkuro went through battles for Kharkov and Voronezh. In this city his campaign fizzled out.
Retreating from Budyonny's army, the lieutenant general reached Novorossiysk. From there he sailed to Crimea. Shkuro did not take root in Wrangel’s army due to a conflict with the Black Baron. As a result, the white military leader ended up in exile even before the complete victory of the Red Army.
Shkuro lived in Paris and Yugoslavia. When World War II began, he, like Krasnov, supported the Nazis in their fight against the Bolsheviks. Shkuro was an SS Gruppenführer and in this capacity fought with the Yugoslav partisans. After the defeat of the Third Reich, he tried to break into the territory occupied by the British. In Linz, Austria, the British extradited Shkuro along with many other officers. The white military leader was tried together with Pyotr Krasnov and sentenced to death.
The civil war became a terrible test for Russia. This page of history, which was heroized for many decades, was in fact shameful. Fratricide, numerous betrayals, robberies and violence coexisted with exploits and self-sacrifice. The white army consisted of different people - people from all classes, representatives of various nationalities who inhabited a huge country and had different education. The Red troops were also not a homogeneous mass. Both opposing sides experienced many of the same difficulties. In the end, four years later the Reds won. Why?
When did the Civil War start
When it comes to the beginning of the Civil War, historians give different dates. For example, Krasnov nominated units subordinate to him with the goal of taking control of Petrograd on October 25, 1917. Or another fact: General Alekseev arrived on the Don to organize the Volunteer Army - this happened on November 2. And here is Miliukov’s Declaration, published in the Donskaya Rech newspaper on December 27. What is not a reason to consider it an official declaration of war? In a sense, these three versions, like many others, are true. In the last two months of 1917, the Volunteer White Army was formed (and this could not happen at once). In the Civil War, it became the only serious force capable of resisting the Bolsheviks.
Personnel and social profile of the White Army
The backbone of the white movement was the Russian officers. Since 1862, its social and class structure has undergone changes, but these processes reached particular speed during the First World War. If in the middle of the 19th century, belonging to the highest military leadership was the lot of the aristocracy, then at the beginning of the next century, commoners began to be increasingly allowed into it. An example is the famous commanders of the White Army. Alekseev is the son of a soldier, Kornilov’s father was a cornet of the Cossack army, and Denikin’s father was a serf. Contrary to the propaganda stereotypes that were being introduced into the mass consciousness, there could be no talk of any “white bone”. By their origin, the officers of the White Army could represent a social cross-section of the entire Russian Empire. During the period from 1916 to 1917, infantry schools graduated 60% of people from peasant families. In Golovin, out of a thousand warrant officers (junior lieutenants, according to the Soviet system of military ranks), there were 700 of them. In addition to them, 260 officers came from the middle class, workers and merchants. There were nobles too - four dozen.
The white army was founded and formed by the notorious "cook's children." Only five percent of the organizers of the movement were wealthy and eminent people; the income of the rest before the revolution consisted only of officer salaries.
Modest debut
The officers intervened in the course of political events immediately after. It represented an organized military force, the main advantage of which was discipline and the presence of combat skills. Officers, as a rule, did not have political convictions in the sense of belonging to a specific party, but they had a desire to restore order in the country and avoid the collapse of the state. As for the quantity, the entire White army, as of January 1918 (General Kaledin’s campaign against Petrograd), consisted of seven hundred Cossacks. The demoralization of the troops led to an almost complete reluctance to fight. Not only ordinary soldiers, but also officers were extremely reluctant (approximately 1% of the total) to obey mobilization orders.
By the beginning of full-scale hostilities, the White Volunteer Army numbered up to seven thousand soldiers and Cossacks, commanded by a thousand officers. She did not have any food supplies or weapons, nor did she have any support from the population. It seemed that an imminent collapse was inevitable.
Siberia
After the Reds seized power in Tomsk, Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, underground anti-Bolshevik centers created by officers began to operate. corps became the signal for their open action against Soviet power in May-June 1918. The West Siberian Army was created (commander - General A. N. Grishin-Almazov), into which volunteers began to enroll. Soon its number exceeded 23 thousand. By August, the White army, united with the troops of Captain G.M. Semenov, was formed into two corps (4th East Siberian and 5th Amur) and controlled a vast territory from the Urals to Baikal. It consisted of about 60 thousand bayonets, 114 thousand unarmed volunteers under the command of almost 11 thousand officers.
North
In the Civil War, in addition to Siberia and the Far East, the White Army fought on three more main fronts: Southern, Northwestern and Northern. Each of them had its own specifics both in terms of the operational situation and the contingent. The most professionally trained officers who had gone through the German War concentrated in the northern theater of military operations. In addition, they were distinguished by excellent education, upbringing and courage. Many commanders of the White Army came from Ukraine and owed their salvation from the Bolshevik terror to the German troops, which explained their Germanophilism; others had traditional sympathies for the Entente. This situation sometimes became the cause of conflicts. The white northern army was relatively small.
Northwestern White Army
It was formed with the support of the German armed forces in opposition to the Bolshevik Red Army. After the Germans left, its composition numbered up to 7,000 bayonets. This was the least prepared White Guard front, which, however, was accompanied by temporary success. The sailors of the Chud flotilla, together with the cavalry detachment of Balakhovich and Permykin, having become disillusioned with the communist idea, decided to go over to the side of the White Guards. Volunteer peasants also joined the growing army, and then high school students were forcibly mobilized. The Northwestern Army fought with varying success and became one of the examples of the curiosity of the entire war. Numbering 17 thousand soldiers, it was controlled by 34 generals and many colonels, among whom were those who were not even twenty years old.
South of Russia
Events on this front became decisive in the fate of the country. A population of over 35 million, a territory equal in area to a couple of large European countries, equipped with a developed transport infrastructure (sea ports, railways) was controlled by Denikin’s white forces. The south of Russia could exist separately from the rest of the territory of the former Russian Empire: it had everything for autonomous development, including agriculture and industry. The White Army generals, who received an excellent military education and extensive experience in combat with Austria-Hungary and Germany, had every chance of winning victories over often poorly educated enemy commanders. However, the problems were still the same. People didn’t want to fight, and it was never possible to create a single ideological platform. Monarchists, democrats, liberals were united only by the desire to resist Bolshevism.
Deserters
Both the Red and White armies suffered from the same disease: representatives of the peasantry did not want to join them voluntarily. Forced mobilizations led to a decrease in overall combat effectiveness. Russian officers, regardless of tradition, constituted a special caste, far from the masses of soldiers, which caused internal contradictions. The scale of punitive measures applied to deserters was monstrous on both sides of the front, but the Bolsheviks practiced executions more often and more decisively, including showing cruelty towards the families of those who escaped. Moreover, they were bolder in their promises. As the number of forcibly conscripted soldiers grew, “eroding” combat-ready officer regiments, control over the execution of combat missions became difficult. There were practically no reserves, supplies were deteriorating. There were other problems that led to the defeat of the army in the South, which was the last stronghold of the whites.
Myths and reality
The image of a White Guard officer, dressed in an impeccable uniform, certainly a nobleman with a sonorous surname, spending his leisure time drinking and singing romances, is far from the truth. We had to fight in conditions of constant shortage of weapons, ammunition, food, uniforms and everything else, without which it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain the army in combat-ready condition. The Entente provided support, but this help was not enough, plus there was a moral crisis, expressed in the feeling of fighting against one’s own people.
After defeat in the Civil War, Wrangel and Denikin found salvation abroad. Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1920. The army (White) lost more and more territories with each bloody year. All this led to the forced evacuation from Sevastopol in 1922 of the surviving units of the once powerful army. A little later, the last centers of resistance in the Far East were suppressed.
Many songs of the White Army, after some alteration of the texts, became Red Guard songs. The words “for Holy Rus'” were replaced by the phrase “for the power of the Soviets”; a similar fate awaited other wonderful ones that received new names (“Across the valleys and along the hills”, “Kakhovka”, etc.) Today, after decades of oblivion, they are available to listeners interested in history of the White movement.
Who dedicated his entire life to the army and Russia. He did not accept the 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 participant in the heroic defense of Sevastopol. From childhood he was taught to love his Fatherland and defend it. Therefore, the future general received his education, first at the Voronezh Military Gymnasium, and later at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.
He began his military service in the Far East in the horse artillery battery of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. The young officer was distinguished by his seriousness and concentration. He constantly strived to master military science to perfection and entered the Academy at the General Staff.
Kaledin's further service takes place as staff officers in the Warsaw Military District, and then in his native Don. Since 1910, he has held only command positions 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 into a Cossack officer family in Transbaikalia. In 1911 With 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 had an excellent command of 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 the Chinese resident under guard, 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. In Poltava he graduated from the Cadet Corps named after, and by 1897 he completed his studies with honors at the Nikolaev Engineering School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in. Alexander Sergeevich’s military career began with the 11th Engineer Regiment, from where a year later he was transferred as an adjutant to the headquarters of the 12th Infantry Division, and from 1902 his service took place in the Kiev Military District, where he was appointed to the headquarters as a senior adjutant. For the excellent performance of his official 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 to the Charter related to mobilization, personally supervised draft laws on personnel recruitment, being in the position of head of the mobilization department of the Main Directorate of the General Staff.
In 1913, Lukomsky was appointed assistant to the head of the chancellery of the War Ministry and, already serving in the ministry, received the next military rank of major general, and as a reward to his existing one - the ribbon of the Holy Great Martyr and St. George the Victorious.
Markov Sergei Leonidovich was born on July 7, 1878 in the family of an officer. Having graduated with honors from the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps and the Artillery School in St. Petersburg, he was sent to serve in the 2nd Artillery Brigade with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he graduated from the Nikolaev Military Academy and went to military service, where he showed himself to be an excellent officer and was awarded: Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow. Sergei Leonidovich's further career continued in the 1st Siberian Corps, where he served as a headquarters adjutant, and then at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District, and eventually, in 1908, Markov ended up serving in the General Staff. It was during his service in the General Staff that Sergei Leonidovich created a happy family with Putyatina Marianna.
Markov Sergei Leonidovich was engaged in teaching at various St. Petersburg schools. He knew military affairs very well and tried to convey all his knowledge of strategy and maneuvering to the students in full and at the same time sought the use of non-standard thinking during combat operations.
At the beginning, Sergei Leonidovich was appointed chief of staff of the “iron” rifle brigade, which was sent to the most difficult areas of the front and very often Markov had to put his unconventional strategic moves into practice.
Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg is perhaps the most extraordinary personality in everything. He belonged to an ancient warlike family of knights, mystics and pirates, dating back to the times of the Crusades. However, family legends say that the roots of this family go back much further, to the times of the Nibegungs and Attila.
His parents often traveled around Europe; something constantly attracted 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 boy's contradictory character did not allow him to become a good high school student. For countless offenses 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 graduating when he began. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg quits training and joins an infantry regiment as a private. However, he did not get into the active army and was forced to return to St. Petersburg and enter the elite Pavlovsk Infantry School. Upon completion, von Ungern-Sternber is enrolled in the Cossack class and begins service 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 the desperate baron. His persistence, cruelty and flair surrounded his name with a mystical aura. A dashing rider, a desperate duelist, he had no loyal comrades.
The leaders of the White movement had a tragic fate. People who suddenly lost their homeland, to which they swore allegiance, and their ideals, could not come to terms with this for the rest of their lives.
Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs, outstanding, lieutenant general, was born on April 5, 1874 in a family of hereditary officers. The knightly family of Dieterichs from Czech Moravia settled in Russia in 1735. Thanks 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. With the rank of captain, he participated in the Russian-Japanese War, where he distinguished himself as a brave officer. For heroism shown in battles he was awarded III and II degrees, IV degrees. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Further service took place at army headquarters in Odessa and Kyiv.
The First World War 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 brought victories to the Russian army, Mikhail Konstantinovich was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav with swords, 1st degree.
Diterikhs continues to serve in the Russian Expeditionary Force in the Balkans and participated in the battles for the liberation of Serbia.
Romanovsky Ivan Pavlovich was born into the family of a graduate of the artillery academy on April 16, 1877 in the Lugansk region. He began his military career at the age of ten, entering the cadet corps. He graduated with brilliant results in 1894. Following in his father's footsteps, he began studying at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, but finished his studies at the Konstantinovsky School for religious reasons. And after graduating with honors from the next level of education - the Nikolaev General Staff Academy, Ivan Pavlovich was appointed company commander of the Finnish Regiment.
In 1903, he started a family, marrying Elena Bakeeva, the daughter of a landowner, who later bore him 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.
Outstanding, active participant in the White movement, 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 from the Pavlovsk Military School. Having received the rank of second lieutenant, he began serving in the Life Guards Volyn Regiment. After three years of service, Drozdovsky decided to enter the Nikolaev Military Academy. Sitting at a desk turned out to be beyond his strength, 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 served first at the headquarters of the Zaamur Military District, and then at the Warsaw Military District. Mikhail Gordeevich constantly showed interest in everything new that appeared in the army, studied everything new in military affairs. He even completed pilot observer courses 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, while participating in battles, the young officer proved himself so well that he was awarded a rare honor: with the rank of lieutenant, he was transferred to the Preobrazhensky Life Guards, serving in which was very honorable.
When it started, Kutepov was already a staff captain. He takes part in many battles and shows himself to be a brave and decisive officer. He was wounded three times and awarded several orders. Alexander Pavlovich was especially proud of the 4th degree.
The year 1917 begins - the most tragic year in the life of the 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 engineer battalion. Every two years, Marushevsky receives another military rank for excellent service. During these same years, he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy under the General Staff.
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he was already a captain and chief officer for especially important assignments. He served at the headquarters of the IV Siberian Army Corps. During the fighting, Marushevsky was quickly promoted in service for his courage.
In the post-Soviet period in Russia, a reassessment of the events and results of the Civil War began. The attitude towards the leaders of the White movement began to change to the exact opposite - now films are being made about them, in which they appear as fearless knights without fear or reproach.
At the same time, many know very little about the fate of the most famous leaders of the White Army. Not all of them managed to maintain honor and dignity after 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 Minister of War and Navy 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 given 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 failures in the second half of 1919 led to the loss of all previously captured territories. Kolchak’s repressive methods provoked a wave of uprisings in the rear of the White Army, and often at the head of these uprisings were not the Bolsheviks, but the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.
Kolchak planned to get to Irkutsk, where he was going to continue his 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 guarantee of 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 Commission of Inquiry. After the final transfer of power in Irkutsk to the Bolsheviks, the admiral’s fate was sealed.
On the night of February 6-7, 1920, 45-year-old Kolchak was shot by decision 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 film “Chapaev” in the USSR, which depicted the so-called “psychic attack” - when chains of Kappel’s men moved towards the enemy without firing a single 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 subsequently deployed into the Separate Rifle Brigade of the People's Army of Komuch. The Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly (Komuch) became the first anti-Bolshevik government of Russia, and Kappel’s unit became one of the most reliable in his army.
An interesting fact is that the symbol of Komuch was the 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 eastern Russia were united under the general control of Admiral Kolchak, General Kappel led the 1st Volga Corps, later called “Kappel Corps”.
Kappel remained faithful to Kolchak to the end. After the arrest of the latter, the general, who by that time had received command of the entire collapsing Eastern Front, made a desperate attempt to save Kolchak.
In severe frost conditions, Kappel led his troops to Irkutsk. Moving along the bed of the Kan River, the general fell into a wormwood. Kappel received frostbite, which developed into gangrene. After the amputation of his foot, he continued to lead the troops.
On January 21, 1920, Kappel transferred command of the troops to General Wojciechowski. Severe pneumonia was added to the 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 crossing, 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 general and his associates spent the period from September 1 to November 1917 under arrest in Mogilev and Bykhov.
The October Revolution in Petrograd led to the fact that opponents of the Bolsheviks decided to release the previously arrested generals.
Once free, Kornilov went to the Don, where he began creating a Volunteer Army for the war with 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 in 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 dozens, hundreds. It was a war of extermination.
The Kornilovites used intimidation tactics against the civilian population: in the appeal of Lavr Kornilov, residents were warned that any “hostile action” towards the volunteers and the Cossack detachments operating with them would be punishable by executions and the burning of villages.
Kornilov’s participation in the Civil War was short-lived - on March 31, 1918, the 47-year-old general was killed during the storming of Yekaterinodar.
General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich. 1910s Photo from the photo album of Alexander Pogost. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Nikolai Yudenich
General Yudenich, who successfully operated in the Caucasian theater of military operations during the First World War, returned to Petrograd in the summer of 1917. He remained in the city after the October Revolution, going illegal.
Only at the beginning of 1919 did he go to Helsingfors (now Helsinki), where at the end of 1918 the “Russian Committee” was organized - another anti-Bolshevik government.
Yudenich was proclaimed the head of the White movement in North-West Russia with dictatorial powers.
By the summer of 1919, Yudenich, having received funding and confirmation of her powers from Kolchak, created the so-called North-Western Army, which was tasked with capturing Petrograd.
In the fall of 1919, the Northwestern Army launched a campaign against Petrograd. By mid-October, Yudenich's troops reached the Pulkovo Heights, where they were stopped by the reserves of the Red Army.
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 cross into the territory of this state, where they were interned and placed in camps. Thousands of military and civilians died in these camps.
Yudenich himself, having announced the dissolution of the army, went to London through Stockholm and Copenhagen. Then the general moved to France, where he settled.
Unlike many of his associates, Yudenich withdrew from political life in exile.
Living in Nice, he headed the Society of Devotees of Russian History.
Denikin in Paris, 1938. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Anton Denikin
General Anton Denikin, who was one of General Kornilov's comrades in the coup attempt in the summer of 1917, 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 took 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 occurred in the summer of 1919. After a series of victories in July, he signed the Moscow Directive, a plan to take the Russian capital.
Having captured large territories of southern and central Russia, as well as Ukraine, Denikin’s troops approached Tula in October 1919. The Bolsheviks were seriously considering plans to abandon 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 catastrophically at the front. The offensive, launched in February 1920, ended in failure; the Whites were thrown back to the Crimea.
The allies and generals demanded that Denikin transfer power to a successor, for whom he was chosen Peter Wrangel.
On April 4, 1920, Denikin transferred all powers to Wrangel, and on the same day he left Russia forever on an English destroyer.
In exile, Denikin withdrew from active politics and took 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, followed by the awakening of the Russian spirit in the ranks of this army, which, according to the general’s plan, should overthrow Bolshevism in Russia.
The Second World War found Denikin on French territory. After Germany's attack on the USSR, he received offers of cooperation from the Nazis several times, but invariably refused. The general called former like-minded people who entered into an alliance with Hitler “obscurantists” and “Hitler admirers.”
After the end of the war, Denikin left for the United States, fearing that he might be extradited to the Soviet Union. However, the USSR government, knowing about Denikin’s position during the war, 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.
Peter Wrangel. Photo: Public Domain
Peter Wrangel
Baron Pyotr Wrangel, known as the “Black Baron” because of his wearing a black Cossack Circassian cap 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, since the Bolsheviks did not find any crime in his actions. After the occupation of Crimea by the German army, Wrangel left for Kyiv, where he collaborated with the government of Hetman Skoropadsky. Only after this 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 actions.
The conflict ended with Wrangel being 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, achieved the resignation of Denikin and his replacement with Wrangel.
The baron's plans were extensive. He was going to create an “alternative Russia” in Crimea, which was supposed to win the competitive struggle against the Bolsheviks. But neither militarily nor economically these projects were 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 the majority of participants in the White movement in exile. Numbering tens of thousands of members, the EMRO was a serious force.
Wrangel failed to implement his plans to continue the Civil War - on April 25, 1928, in Brussels, he died suddenly from tuberculosis.
Ataman of the VVD, cavalry general P.N. Krasnov. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Peter Krasnov
After the October Revolution, Pyotr Krasnov, who was the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Corps, on the orders of Alexander Kerensky, moved troops from Petrograd. On the approaches to 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 Cossack uprising after they captured and held Novocherkassk. On May 16, 1918, Krasnov was elected ataman of the Don Cossacks. Having entered into cooperation with the Germans, Krasnov proclaimed the All-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 annexation 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 this, Krasnov went to Yudenich, and after the latter’s defeat he went into exile.
In exile, Krasnov collaborated with the EMRO and was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth, an organization engaged in underground work in Soviet Russia.
On June 22, 1941, Pyotr Krasnov made an appeal that said: “I ask you to tell all the Cossacks that this war is not against Russia, but against the communists, Jews and their minions trading in Russian blood. May God help German weapons and Hitler! Let them do what the Russians and Emperor Alexander I did for Prussia in 1813.”
In 1943, Krasnov became head of the Main Directorate of 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 collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Pyotr Krasnov to death. Together with his accomplices, the 77-year-old Hitler henchman was hanged in Lefortovo prison on January 16, 1947.
Photo by A. G. Shkuro, taken by the USSR MGB after his arrest. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Andrey Shkuro
At birth, General Shkuro had a less euphonious surname - Shkura.
Shkuro earned notoriety, oddly enough, during the First World War, when he commanded the Kuban cavalry detachment. His raids were sometimes not coordinated with the command, and the soldiers were seen in unseemly acts. Here is what Baron Wrangel recalled about that period: “Colonel Shkuro’s detachment, led by its 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 area.”
During 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, in comparison with which the exploits of the Makhnovists and Petliurists pale.
Shkuro's decline began in October 1919, when his cavalry was defeated by Budyonny. Mass desertion began, which is why only a few hundred people remained under Shkuro’s command.
After Wrangel came to power, Shkuro was dismissed from the army, and already in May 1920 he found himself in exile.
Abroad, Shkuro did odd jobs, was a rider in a circus, and an extra in silent films.
After the German attack on the USSR, Shkuro, together with Krasnov, advocated cooperation with Hitler. In 1944, by special decree of Himmler, Shkuro was appointed head of the Cossack Troops Reserve at the General Staff of the SS Troops, enlisted in the service as SS Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the SS Troops with the right to wear a German general's uniform and receive pay for this rank.
Shkuro was involved in preparing reserves for the Cossack corps, which carried out punitive actions against Yugoslav partisans.
In May 1945, Shkuro, along with other Cossack collaborators, was arrested by the British and handed over to the Soviet Union.
Being involved in the same case with Pyotr Krasnov, the 60-year-old veteran of raids and robberies shared his fate - Andrei Shkuro was hanged in Lefortovo prison on January 16, 1947.
Why did the white generals lose to the red lieutenants?
The events of the civil war in Russia, what happened in the country in 1917-1922, becomes for new and new generations of Russians almost the same ancient history as, for example, the oprichnina. If some 20 years ago the Civil War was presented in heroic and romantic tones, then in recent years the struggle between the “reds” and “whites” has been presented as a meaningless bloody meat grinder in which everyone lost, but the whites look more “fluffy”. Under the slogan of the final reconciliation of the “reds” and “whites”, the reburial of generals A.I. Denikin, V.O. Kappel and others from foreign cemeteries to domestic graveyards was initiated. Some of today's youth believe that more than eight decades ago the whites defeated the reds. Thus, some American schoolchildren sometimes imagine that the United States defeated Germany and the USSR in World War II.
M. V. Frunze
In this situation, it is worth asking the question posed in the title. Why did units of the Red Army under the leadership of half-educated student Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, Lieutenant Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky, sergeant Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny and others defeat the white armies of Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, generals Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich, Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel and others ?
Mikhail Vasilievich Frunze by 1917 he was 32 years old (born 1885). He studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, but was unable to complete his studies. In 1904 he joined the RSDLP, became a Bolshevik, and already in 1905 (at the age of 20!) he led the Ivanovo-Voznesensk strike, during which the first Soviets were formed. In 1909-1910 Mikhail Frunze was sentenced to death twice, in 1910-1915. he was in hard labor, from where he escaped.
In 1917, Frunze took part in the revolutionary events in Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Moscow. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was, as they said then, sent to military work. Frunze proved himself to be a major military leader. He commanded the army, then the Southern Group of Forces of the Eastern Front and, at the head of the entire Eastern Front, inflicted a decisive defeat on the armies of A.V. Kolchak. Under the command of Frunze, the troops of the Southern Front broke into the Crimea in the fall of 1920 and defeated the remnants of the Whites under the command of P. N. Wrangel. About 80 thousand soldiers, officers of the “Russian Army” and refugees were evacuated to Turkey. These events marked the official end of the Civil War. Commanded Frunze and the Turkestan Front.
V. K. Blucher
The opponents of the dropout student were professional military men with serious combat experience.
Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak ten years older than Mikhail Frunze. He was born in 1874 in the family of a naval officer, graduated from the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg (1894), and participated in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars. In 1916-1917 Kolchak commanded the Black Sea Fleet and received the rank of admiral (1918).
Kolchak was a direct protege of Great Britain and the USA, where he was after the February Revolution of 1917. He was considered a strong, integral and decisive person. In November 1918 he returned to Russia. He overthrew the Socialist Revolutionary government in Omsk, took the title “Supreme Ruler of the Russian State” and the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief. It was Kolchak who captured almost the entire gold reserve of the Russian Empire, with which he paid for the help of his patrons. With their support, he organized a powerful offensive in March 1919, setting the goal of reaching Moscow and destroying Bolshevik power. Ufa, Sarapul, Izhevsk, Votkinsk were occupied.
M. N. Tukhachevsky
However, the Bolsheviks were able to withstand the blow. The Red troops under the command of Frunze went on the offensive and in April-June 1919 carried out the Buguruslan, Belebey and Ufa operations. By August 1919, the Reds took control of the Urals, the cities of Perm and Yekaterinburg; by the beginning of 1920 - Omsk, Novonikolaevsk and Krasnoyarsk. Soviet power was established throughout Siberia all the way to the Far East. In January 1920, Kolchak was arrested by the Czechs near Irkutsk. Guided by their own interests, they handed Kolchak over to the Socialist Revolutionaries, who considered it best to hand over the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief to the Bolsheviks. The latter conducted a short investigation and shot Kolchak and Pepelyaev.
Another opponent of Mikhail Frunze - Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel - died a natural death in exile. He, a nobleman and a Baltic baron, was also older than Frunze, born in 1878. Pyotr Nikolaevich graduated from the Mining Institute and the Academy of the General Staff, was a participant in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars, rose to the rank of lieutenant general and received the title of baron. After the October Revolution, P. N. Wrangel left for Crimea.
S. M. Budyonny
In August 1918, he joined Denikin’s Volunteer Army, commanded the cavalry corps, and from January 1919, the Caucasian Volunteer Army. For criticizing A.I. Denikin and attempting to remove him from the post of commander in chief, Wrangel was removed from his post and went abroad, which indicated confusion in the leadership of the White movement. In May 1920, P. N. Wrangel not only returned to Russia, but also replaced A. I. Denikin as commander of the Armed Forces of southern Russia. The harsh repressive regime he established in Crimea in April-November 1920 was called “Wrangelism.” He was able to mobilize up to 80 thousand people into his army. The government of the South of Russia was created. Wrangel's troops, taking advantage of the advance of the White Poles, set out from the Crimea, but they had to again hide behind the fortifications of Perekop, on which they had counted heavily.
The operation to liberate Crimea took Frunze less than a month. Wrangel evacuated to Constantinople in November 1920. He created the Russian All-Military Union in Paris (1924), which numbered up to 100 thousand people. After Wrangel's death, the EMRO was paralyzed by the actions of OGPU-NKVD agents.
Perhaps the most colorful and popular figure of the Civil War - Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny(1883-1973). He was born in the Don region, but his father was not a Cossack with his own land, but a tenant farmer. Semyon grazed calves and pigs in his Bolshaya Orlovka settlement and worked as a farm laborer. In 1903, called up for military service, during the Russian-Japanese War in the Far East, he took part in the fight against the Honghuzes. The strong young guy chose to serve in the army over the fate of a farm laborer; he rode horses, preparing them for service.
During the First World War, in cavalry units he passed the ranks from non-commissioned officer to sergeant (January 1917). In the summer of 1917, S. M. Budyonny became chairman of the regimental soldiers' committee, and on his initiative, at the end of August 1917, part of the troops of General L. G. Kornilov was detained and disarmed.
In the Platovskaya village of the Salsky district, a demobilized cavalryman at the beginning of 1918 organized a village council of peasants and Kalmyks. But the councils were dispersed, and Budyonny began to form red detachments. At the beginning of 1919, he already commanded a cavalry division. During the Civil War, tanks, cars, and airplanes were used, but cavalry remained the main striking force. An important innovation of the Reds was the creation of large cavalry units, called cavalry armies. The creator of the first such army, Mironov, died due to the intrigues of Trotsky. In March 1919, S. M. Budyonny joined the RCP (b), in June he became a corps commander, and in November 1919, the formation he led was called the 1st Cavalry Army.
A. V. Kolchak
Budyonny's red cavalrymen broke enemy lines on the Southern Front in 1919, on the Polish Front in 1920, and in the Crimea. For Budyonny, the Civil War became the peak of his personal career. He was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and an Order of the Red Banner from the Azerbaijan Central Executive Committee. The former sergeant received golden weapons - a saber and a Mauser, both with the Order of the Red Banner.
Later he held command positions in the Red Army, and was deputy and first deputy people's commissar of defense. In 1941-1942. commanded troops on a number of fronts and directions, then the cavalry of the Red Army. He became one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union. By his 90th birthday, S. M. Budyonny was three times Hero of the Soviet Union.
He lived a long life and Anton Ivanovich Denikin(1872-1947), with whose troops Budyonny’s cavalry fought. The son of an officer who graduated from the General Staff Academy, Anton Ivanovich rose to the rank of lieutenant general.
After the Bolsheviks came to power, he became one of the organizers and then commander of the Volunteer Army (1918). From January 1919 to April 1920 he was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. In June 1919, he led the White campaign against Moscow from the south, when the Donbass, Don region, and part of Ukraine were captured. In September 1919, units of the Volunteer and Don armies captured Kursk, Voronezh, Orel and reached Tula. But on October 7, 1919, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, which lasted until January 1920. The Whites retreated to Crimea. Already in April 1920, A.I. Denikin transferred command to P.N. Wrangel and emigrated. While in exile, he wrote a huge work, “Essays on Russian Troubles.”
Guard second lieutenant of the Russian army was a participant in the First World War Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky. He comes from the nobility, was born in 1893, and in 1914 he graduated from military school.
8 During the First World War he was awarded several orders, he was captured, from which he escaped several times, including together with the future President of France Charles de Gaulle.
From the beginning of 1918, Tukhachevsky was in the Red Army, working in the Military Department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. As you know, the Bolsheviks initially decided that the Red Army would be formed solely on the basis of the principle of voluntariness. It was assumed that revolution volunteers would receive two recommendations from trustworthy persons. By April 1918, about 40 thousand people had signed up for the Red Army, a quarter of whom were officers of the old Russian army. One of them was M.N. Tukhachevsky. In May 1918, he was the military commissar of defense of the Moscow region, and in June 1918, at the age of 25, he led the 1st Army on the Eastern Front, proving himself to be an outstanding commander in battles against the White Guard and White Czechoslovak troops. In 1919, M. N. Tukhachevsky commanded armies on the Southern and Eastern fronts. For the battles during the defeat of Kolchak's troops, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Honorary Revolutionary Weapon. In February-April 1920 he commanded the Caucasian Front, and from April 1920 to March 1921 - the Western Front.
Tukhachevsky led the troops that suppressed the Kronstadt rebellion in March 1921 and the “Antonovism” in 1921-1922.
On September 4, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee appointed the first commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces of the RSFSR Joakim Joakimovich Vatsetis(1873-1938), not spoiled by the attention of authors and readers. Meanwhile, during the year that I. I. Vatsetis was in this post, 62 corps were created, consolidated into 16 armies, making up 5 fronts. To a much greater extent than Trotsky or Stalin, the creator of the Red Army is I. I. Vatsetis.
Joachim's childhood and youth were difficult. His grandfather was ruined by the Courland baron, and his father worked as a laborer all his life. Joachim himself also had to work as a laborer. An alternative to this fate was military service. The former farm laborer attended the Riga non-commissioned officer training battalion, the Vilna Military School and the Academy of the General Staff in 1891-1909.
In 1909-1915 I. I. Vatsetis rose from captain to colonel.
Nothing connected Vatsetis with the old system, just like the thousands of Latvian riflemen, whose corps he became the head of in December 1917. During the Civil War, the red Latvian riflemen, mostly children of the poor and farm laborers, formed a reliable support for Soviet power, guarded the most important objects, including the Kremlin.
At the age of almost 50 years, I. I. Vatsetis fulfilled his youthful dream - he became a student at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the Law Department of the 1st Moscow State University. Later, like many other prominent Soviet military leaders, he became a victim of Stalin's suspicion.
Why did the red lieutenants win the Civil War against the generals of the old formation? Apparently because at that moment history, the support of most of the people, and other circumstances were on their side. And military leadership talent is an acquired taste. In addition, about 75 thousand people from among the old officers served with the “Reds”. We can say that 100 thousand old officers formed the combat core of the White movement. But this was not enough.
