As A.R. writes Tushnovich in “Memoirs of a Kornilovets”, in September 1917 Kornilovsky shock regiment, numbering 3 thousand soldiers, was renamed the Slavic Shock Regiment, retaining the emblem and insignia. In October, the Kornilovites confronted the Red Guards in street battles in Kyiv. Then they moved to the Don to join the emerging Volunteer Army of the White Movement. In the Volunteer Army, according to the encyclopedia “Revolution and Civil War in Russia: 1917-1923,” about 600 Kornilov shock troops fought (according to A.R. Tushnovich, only during several months of 1918 the Slavic Regiment included more than 15 thousand people).

The Kornilovites took part in the First and Second Kuban Campaigns of the Volunteer Army, stormed Orel, Rostov-on-Don and Ekaterinodar (during its assault L.G. Kornilov was killed), and also participated in other equally important battles Civil War. Near Kakhovka, the Kornilov strike division suffered huge losses. According to historians, from the moment the Kornilov strike units were formed (summer 1917) until the evacuation of their remnants from Crimea (November 1920), these “berserkers” lost about 50 thousand people killed and wounded.

After emigrating from Soviet Russia, associations of Kornilovites existed in France and Bulgaria. The most remarkable is the fate of one of the military leaders of the Kornilov regiment, Major General N.V. Skoblina: already in France he was recruited by the GPU and contributed to the kidnapping of General E.K. Miller - leader of the emigrant Russian All-Military Union.

Friends, today we have a rare section “Absolutely Motivating Photo”, add it to your bookmarks or better yet, print it out and look at it when it’s really hard for you to grind your teeth. The photo shows the ranks of the Kornilov Shock Regiment in the highest moment of despair.

Shock regiments began to form in Russian Imperial Army with the beginning of the disintegration of the front after the February Revolution of 1917. Soldiers who were ready to make a breakthrough in the most difficult and dangerous sectors of the front were enrolled as volunteers in the Shock Regiments in order to raise the morale of the remaining units that had lost the will to win. Due to the disintegration of the front (Bolshevik agitators were already working hard in the troops), the shock troops were often the only ones in their sector who went on the attack and broke through the German lines without any support from the rest of the army, which did not want to fight. These were not people - gods wars that continued to fight alone against the entire German and Austrian armies - and to fight successfully. With the beginning of the Civil War, shock troops joined the White Guard, becoming its steel skeleton. Even when the rest of the elite colored units of the White Guards retreated, the shock troops continued to fight, looking like imperturbable angels of death in their black uniforms. From 1917 to 1920, the Russian Grim Reapers endured 570 (!!!) battles, collecting a rich harvest of communist souls, always leaving their battles as the very last and only after repeated demands from the command. On the chest of one of the shock troops you can see the badge for the Ice Campaign (sword with a crown of thorns), the rarest and most respected award among the White Guards, meaning that its owner went through Hell and came back.

These are not people - gods of war.

However, their faces are gloomy and concentrated. Why? Because the photo was taken in 1920 in Turkey, in Gallipoli, where 150,000 Russian refugees and the remnants of the Volunteer Army arrived from Crimea, forced to leave Russia. The gods of war did everything they could - in particular, they surrounded and destroyed until last person the red cavalry group of Zhloba, equal in number to them (a completely impossible operation from the point of view of classical military science - but in last days White Crimea the word “impossible” was banned) - but “everything” turned out to be not enough. The people in the photo held out for a week against the FIVE TIMES superior Red Army, and then retreated in an organized manner, allowing everyone who wanted to evacuate, holding the berths until the last bullet and allowing them to escape as much as possible more civilians. They were beyond courage and perfection, but there was no reception against the endless streams of the Red Horde.

And now they are in Turkey. In a foreign land. Having just lost the war. Those who have just lost their homeland. Among crying women and children. Without a penny of money. No skills peaceful life- the officer only knows how to fight. In the cold. In hunger. In old rotten barracks. Their world collapsed. They have no future. There is no past. There is no real one. There is no longer Russia, for which thousands of their friends and comrades died. There is nothing more. They fought without sparing themselves for six years, since 1914 - and all they got was bunks without a mattress in a Turkish barracks. Gods of war. Those left without the war.

Take a closer look at full of despair the eyes of people who despised death and fought beyond human capabilities. Feel all the pain, all the bitterness, all the darkness swirling in their souls. Think about how ridiculous and insignificant your problems are compared to theirs. Consider whether you have any problems at all compared to die-hard strikers. Laugh at what insignificant nonsense you just thought was a problem and tragedy. Sit back in your chair. Smile.

And now the best part:

A month after the evacuation (“We’ve cried and that’s enough”), General Kutepov announced the introduction of the most severe drills in the camp with constant tactical exercises and parades, with severe punishments for the slightest violation of discipline. “Gentlemen, no one fired you from the army!” Two months later, the first newspaper, the first theater, the first library, and the first cadet school opened in the camp. Three months later, French inspectors were surprised to find, instead of a crowd of desperate, hopeless refugees, a fully combat-ready army, perfectly imprinting the step, as in parades before the Sovereign Emperor, as well as a well-developed infrastructure, including its own radio station (“Says the Voice of Exiles: “We are still alive, although you may think otherwise!"), a gymnasium, an Orthodox church, a fencing school, a newspaper with poems and stories, and even kindergarten. Nannies in in perfect order nursed Russian babies, teachers, as if nothing had happened, hammered knowledge into the heads of schoolchildren, officers showed bayonet fighting techniques to cadets, and in the evenings everyone Russian society going to concerts and football matches.

Black melancholy, empty eyes, gray faces disappeared: the army was fiercely preparing for a new campaign against the USSR, women were furiously organizing their life and cultural life, children were given double homework (“Just because you are in Turkey, young man, is not a reason to turn into an illiterate lumpen!”), and even artists painted the sad barracks with scenes of Russian life, creating an impressive panorama of St. Basil’s Cathedral. Less than three months had passed before Little Russia arose in the middle of Turkey: perfectly organized, seething with feverish activity, ready to continue the struggle. It was... no, not a miracle. Just the Russian character in action. Noticing that the local Turks had already begun to bow to General Kutepov and call him Kutepov Pasha, the French became worried and greatly accelerated the resettlement of the Russians to friendly Balkan countries - the Russian camp is only 200 kilometers from Constantinople, you never know...

The Russians set off for Bulgaria and Serbia in perfect order, with their heads held high, with a valiant bearing, as befits a retreating but not defeated army, which had preserved itself in a foreign land with amazing strength of spirit and organization. The men are greased, the women are made up, the children are with ice cream, the orchestra is playing - this is how the Russian emigration left Gallipoli after an absolutely monstrous winter that would have broken any other nation.

And now look again at the faces of the drummers, at their eyes full of mortal melancholy and despair, at the extinct eyes of people who went through Hell and lost everything. In a month they will be organizing poetry competitions and discussing new plans for the invasion of the USSR, because they are... Russian.

Whatever problem you have. No matter what misfortune befalls you. No matter what terrible blow fate deals you... if you are a real Russian, you will cope.

(Based on materials from the book “Kornilov Shock Regiment”)

In March 1917, General Kornilov was appointed Commander of the 8th Army operating in Galicia and Bukovina. The new Commander began by touring his troops. At all headquarters they reported to him that the power of the officers was paralyzed by committees, discipline was shaken, and the combat effectiveness of the regiments was falling every day. General Kornilov became convinced of the collapse of his Army when he began to walk around the trenches. His keen eyes noted the disorder and debauchery of the soldiers everywhere, but what awaited him in one battle area surpassed everything. No one met the commander, there were no soldiers. In eerie silence he walked through the empty trenches, just a few steps from the enemy line. Kornilov walked and muttered: “Traitors!.. Traitors!..” Then he turned to the young captain accompanying him General Staff Nezhentsev and said: “What a shame!.. The Germans are watching us and don’t even fire at us... It’s like they’re mocking our powerlessness. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I bump into them now and they play a counter march for me...”

“There was so much bitterness in these words of General Kornilov,” Captain Nezhentsev later said, “that everything turned upside down in my chest. I also felt that I would follow Kornilov to the ends of the earth.”

In May 1917, it became obvious to all sensible Russian people at the front that our Army was moving along the path of disintegration at an ever-accelerating pace. The commanders of the Army units reported this to the highest headquarters every day, the military officers spoke about it in whispers so that the “comrades” would not overhear, it was discussed loudly and sometimes heatedly at meetings of various committees. Meanwhile, the country, tired of three years of war, longed for a speedy peace; peace could only come from a decisive victory over the enemy, but the Army did not want to attack, and therefore victory and the desired peace became unattainable. And the rulers of the new type decided to resort to their favorite method of management: agitators flowed into the Army from all sides, driving alone and in groups in staff vehicles along the front and talking, talking endlessly... It seemed that the Army had turned into a continuous meeting, assembled for the purpose of to persuade the gray mass of soldiers to go on the offensive “in the name of freedom and revolution” and thereby force the enemy to peace “without annexations and indemnities.”

But the words remained just words. Soldiers, hearing them today,

they agreed with them, and tomorrow they agreed with the words of another agitator, of the Bolshevik persuasion, who said the diametrically opposite, and the matter did not advance one step. Naturally, therefore, attention command staff The Army, even regardless of the general situation in the country, was focused on solving the problem of how to bring the Army out of the state of prostration into which our home-grown “managers” plunged it. At this time, the idea of ​​forming shock assault units made up of volunteers arose among some of the best officers of the Army. The first project of this kind belongs to Captain of the General Staff Mitrofan Osipovich Nezhentsev. He, as who at that time held the position of assistant senior adjutant of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 8th Army, saw the picture of the collapse of the Army more clearly than anyone else, since he had the opportunity to study this process not only from our sources, but also from the data enemy. Captain Nezhentsev was a bright type of patriotic officer, who devoted all the strength of his spirit and understanding to military affairs, which he loved with all the strength of his soul. After graduating from the Academy with the outbreak of war, he does not go to serve at the headquarters, but goes into service, where for eleven months he valiantly commands a company and battalion, for which he is awarded all the military awards up to and including the St. George's Arms, and then the Order of St. George. And if by the time in question we meet him at the headquarters of the 8th Army, it is only because he was forced to go to the headquarters so as not to lose his rights as an officer of the General Staff.

For a more complete coverage of the personality of Colonel Nezhentsev, I provide information about him from other sources.

Report of General Stogov in Paris on the 14th anniversary of the first battle of the Kornilovites. Paris, October 1931.

“Today, on the 14th anniversary of the glorious first battle of the Kornilovites, our thoughts are involuntarily transported to that terrible year in Russian history, when the thousand-year-old Russian state collapsed and the best representatives of the great Russian people, seduced by utopias and in the terrible convulsions of the onset of the disease, trampled all their historical past, were looking for a way out in an effort to bring the people to reason, to inspire in them love for the Mother Motherland and sacrifice for eternal love To native land bring your personal benefits and life itself. One of these best representatives of the Russian people was the founder and first commander of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, Captain of the General Staff Mitrofan Osipovich Nezhentsev. I remember him, a modest officer of the General Staff, who served at the headquarters of the 8th Army, first as an assistant adjutant in charge of communications, and then as a senior adjutant in charge of intelligence. And then Captain Nezhentsev showed his, I would say, soul. So, he was always looking for ways to improve the business he was working on. He could not be content with the experience and knowledge that had been developed before him, and go with the flow, so to speak, but tried to find something new that would make it possible to perform his duty in the service of his Motherland even better. Naturally, a person with such inclinations could not sit quietly at a time when the foundations of Statehood were crumbling, and the Russian once great Army I was seriously ill.

Even when he was the Commander of the 8th Army, General Kaledin, Captain Nezhentsev had the idea to create a detachment that could set an example for the entire Army and carry it along with him into battle. But this idea came true only when General Kornilov became the head of the 8th Army. He joyfully and with his characteristic liveliness grabbed hold of the idea of ​​Captain Nezhentsev, and the latter quickly formed a Detachment, which received the name of its Army Commander, a special emblem on the sleeve in the form of a skull and crossbones, and the motto of the Detachment was to bring external war to the bitter end by enlisting the entire Army. Subsequently, the Detachment grew into a Regiment, and then, during the White Movement, into a Division.

In some of his character traits, Kornilov was very similar to Nezhentsev. So, I remember well how, having arrived for service in Petrograd, at the Main Directorate of the General Staff, I heard there that shortly before that, Colonel of the General Staff Kornilov filed a report that due to lack of work he did not consider his further stay in the Directorate of the General Staff headquarters useful for the Motherland and asks to give him another assignment. Gentlemen, it's not a joke to file a report with Peaceful time that there is nothing to do... But this same case shows that the authorities, even though they had many shortcomings, did not wipe Colonel Kornilov off the face of the earth for an impudent act, but transferred him not to a lesser, but rather to a greater position of a military agent in China".

Memories last boss Headquarters of the Kornilov Shock Division, now a professor of military sciences, General Staff, Colonel Messner, Evgeniy Eduardovich, about meeting Colonel Nezhentsev.

“Staff Captain Nezhentsev, Mitrofan Osipovich, had already completed two courses at the Imperial Military Academy when, after mobilization in 1914, like all Academy students, he was returned to his unit - to the 58th Prague Infantry Regiment (stationed in Nikolaev). We. The officers of the 15th artillery brigade stationed in Odessa did not know the officers of the Prague Regiment, and I met Nezhentsev already on the campaign. The first impression was unfavorable: “moment”! (“Moments”, combatant officers called those officers of the General Staff who considered themselves celestials in comparison with those without higher education). We all, according to the order, put on soldiers’ tunics and overcoats, but Nezhentsev remained in his tunic, and altered the overcoat to fit his figure. His dapperness was further enhanced by the fact that he wore pince-nez, which was prohibited for officers (glasses were allowed), and spoke with a drawl and often with irony. But in all this there was nothing pretentious, and behind all this there was a wonderful officer’s soul: Mitrofan Osipovich was brave, courageous, strong-willed, but soft and cordial in relation to his comrades and subordinates. On the campaign and in battles, I, the adjutant of the artillery division, often visited him in the column, at the observation post, in the headquarters hut, because the regiment commander, Colonel Kushakevich, using his military knowledge, appointed him to the non-staff position of tactical adjutant. In this position he proved extremely valuable; Possessing a tactical sense, knowledge of the matter, and resourcefulness, he served as an excellent complement to his colonel, a brave man, a combat soldier, but not a tactician. It was clear that Mitrofan Osipovich was a great military talent, for whom the combat sector infantry regiment too small a field of activity. By the summer of '15, he was transferred to the General Staff and received a staff appointment. After parting with him as friends, we began to correspond occasionally. At the beginning of 1917, I received a letter from him: he decided to form a volunteer strike force in the 8th Army and recommended that I do the same in the 4th. I replied that, although I was the chief of staff of the 15th division, I was unknown to anyone in the Army and therefore no one would follow me. They followed Nezhentsev because he knew how to infect people with his energy, his optimism and his confidence in the usefulness of the work he had undertaken. And it was, indeed, useful and necessary: ​​to counter the anarchy developing in the Army with discipline, feeling military duty and the soldier's will to win. To characterize Nezhentsev, it is necessary to cite two episodes: after the battle at Pavelche, Kerensky sent five crosses per company, but Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev refused them. The excuse for refusal - everyone equally distinguished themselves, but real reason refusal - contempt for the lawyer - the Minister of War. The second case: after the battle in Kyiv against the Ukrainians and Bolsheviks, the Kornilovsky regiment was released from the city captured by the Reds, but Nezhentsev did not agree to leave with the regiment until the Konstantinovsky Military School was sent by train to Ekaterinodar - it fought shoulder to shoulder with the Kornilovites, and Kornilovets Nezhentsev did not abandon the cadets to the Bolsheviks.

In the first battle of the Kornilov Shock Detachment, June 25, 1917, near the village. Pavelche, both the commander of the Detachment and the Detachment passed the exam brilliantly. The detachment was deployed to the Regiment, the youngest regiment of the Russian Army. Six months later it became the oldest regiment of the Volunteer Army.

The loyalty and devotion of the Kornilovites to General Kornilov in the troubled Mogilev days and in the dangerous Bykhov weeks was magnificent. The deposed and arrested General appreciated this and, handing Nezhentsev the order to move to the Don, blessed his Kornilovites for feats of arms for the honor of Russia and the Army. Colonel Nezhentsev fulfilled this covenant to the death in battle, just like thousands of Kornilovites.

Death separated them for only one night: Colonel Nezhentsev was killed on March 30, and the Commander on the 31st, but military glory united them forever.”

Colonel Nezhentsev did not leave a service record, and already in exile I turned to his chief of staff of the detachment during formation - Colonel Leontiev, Konstantin Ivanovich - with a request to help me restore exactly the path of service of Mitrofan Osipovich. In response to this, in 1965 he wrote to me: “On this issue I can say little, since from the headquarters of the 8th Army Colonel Nezhentsev, I and captain Prince Ukhtomsky, Nikolai Pavlovich, were temporarily sent only to form the Shock Detachment (nobody believed in this formation) and to participate with this Detachment in breaking through positions, and this was the end of our business trip. During such a short temporary trip, the Army headquarters did not transmit the service records to the Detachment headquarters. Mitrofan Osipovich himself was a reserved person by nature and spoke little about his service. And there was no time for these conversations. A lot of preparatory and creative work was in full swing all around to assemble and train the arriving reinforcements. He was immersed in this work without fail, not only during the day, but also sat up at night drawing up a lesson plan for the next day. He paid even greater attention to preparation officers. Almost exclusively young warrant officers arrived to replenish the Shock Detachment, who were little familiar with the soldiers and knew even less combat work at the front. Mitrofan Osipovich took all the training of officers into his own hands, and in this he achieved great success, as the offensive of June 24 showed. Colonel Leontyev."

I continue according to the book “Kornilov Shock Regiment”.

And so an officer like Captain Nezhentsev, imbued with the deepest love for the Motherland, burning with a thirst for feat for the glory of Russia and the Army, seeing such shame and abomination that is happening at the front, has the idea of ​​​​creating a detachment of people who share his views, people with selflessly courageous hearts and deeply patriotic feelings, like his own. His dream was, at the head of this Detachment, to break through the enemy front and, with an example of his high valor, in an uncontrollable impulse to carry away the nearest sections of the front. Under the influence of this thought, on May 5, 1917, Captain Nezhentsev presented a report (No. 8) on the organization of shock battalions to the Quartermaster General of the 8th Army headquarters. By order of the 8th Army of May 19, 1917, General Kornilov authorized the formation of the “1st Shock Detachment under the 8th Army.” The headquarters of the 8th Army was very reluctant to help the formation. Captain Nezhentsev was allowed to recruit volunteer soldiers only from spare parts and among rear institutions, but not from the front. Only after intense efforts did Captain Nezhentsev obtain permission to call six volunteer officers with the rank of staff captain from the front. Captain Nezhentsev showed amazing persistence: he constantly visited the reserve battalions and especially often visited the machine gun courses that were located in Chernivtsi, at the headquarters of the 8th Army. Main cast The officers of the Detachment were newly released warrant officers. He talked with them for a long time about the revolution and about the Motherland, about the decline of discipline in Active Army and the need to raise its combat effectiveness at all costs. At first, I didn’t particularly like the look of the smart staff officer in pince-nez, but then the officers began to respect him, and by May 10, almost all the course students, about 25 people, had signed up for him. Nezhentsev suggested recruiting soldiers to young warrant officers. Many soldiers responded to all persuasion: “You, Mr. Ensign, haven’t smelled gunpowder yet, but if you smell it, then you’ll know what war is!” The position of the young officers, who had not yet been fired upon, was at its peak: the soldiers, without embarrassment and with all frankness, examined the arguments for and against continuing the war, but the young shock troops stubbornly continued to carry out the work entrusted to them, and the soldiers began to enroll in the Detachment. By mid-May, an almost complete machine gun team had been formed. Companies quickly began to form around this main core. When the companies already had 90 people, General Kornilov agreed, at the request of Captain Nezhentsev, to give the Detachment his Patronage, after which he began to visit his shock troops. General Kornilov was short and thin. His black hair and dark, slightly high-cheekboned face were more reminiscent of a Mongolian than a Russian. Everyone was amazed by the extraordinary simplicity of General Kornilov and his trusting sincerity during conversation. The very first visit of the Commander is still kept in the memory of those few survivors who were there. In his notes, Captain Shinin recalls:

“After General Kornilov’s speech on that memorable day, I, like everyone else equally, was overwhelmed with enthusiasm. With his visit and his words, General Kornilov took away all our souls, all our will, all our feelings. We were ready to go to any hardship for him. Now, after so many years, I’m trying to understand why General Kornilov could cause such delight? Was he a wonderful speaker? No, that’s not it... He didn’t speak badly, but his strength was not in his oratory. His words about the Fatherland? Maybe yes. But each of us has been told about the Motherland many, many times, but no one has ignited our hearts like that. My youth? But I was the same 20 years old when I graduated from the ensign school, and while I was in the reserve regiment, and when I was leaving for the front, when I heard the same speeches about the Motherland... Yes, the same speeches, but, apparently, not the same people, like General Kornilov, they were told..."

And another volunteer from former soldiers told:

“Before the war, I was a worker, a typesetter, and it seemed that I should have stayed with the Bolsheviks, but I saw Kornilov and followed him into the Volunteer Army.”

General Kornilov had a talent for capturing hearts.

At the end of May, six staff captains arrived from the front to Captain Nezhentsev: Gavrilenko, Morozov. Petrov, Savkov, Prince Chichua and Skoblin. Many of the officers of the regiments of the 8th Army sought to get into the Shock Detachment, but a limited number of vacancies gave the right to this to the most distinguished, such as the future commander of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, and then the head of the Kornilov Division, Staff Captain Skoblin. In the very first year of the war, while still with the rank of ensign of the 126th Rylsky Infantry Regiment, he was awarded the Order of St. Great Martyr and Victorious George and the golden weapon of St. George.

With the arrival of the staff captains, the Detachment was transferred to Streletsky Kuty, where work began on its deployment, training and consolidation. Everyone took their positions, everyone began to improve in their specialty. At the same time, unnoticed by themselves, the drummers joined the cathedral action, and in this action they merged with everyone into a single whole, into a single, as it were, spiritual Order. For the military unit of the RUSSIAN Army was not a gathering of mechanically welded people, but a living organism, with a single spirit, with a single life inherent in it. The regiment held together with spiritual strength, spiritual unanimity. The regiment maintained its unwritten laws - traditions, its past - its military chronicle, its present - its name and external differences. In the regiment, like leaves on a tree, people changed, new ones appeared, the entire composition was renewed, but invisible roots continued to nourish it with life-giving juices, the cathedral action of the regiment remained unchanged.

At the front, the regiments still lived, but were already doomed. And in this tragic time, the “1st Shock Detachment under the 8th Army” was born, later renamed the Kornilov Shock Regiment. It was born in the flames of the revolution, when the air was saturated with faith in the coming renewed Russia, but from the very first days of its life, along with this faith, the Detachment absorbed the military precepts of the Imperial Army, which were instilled in it by the officers of the old regiments. The first, indisputable covenant was “sacrificial love for the Fatherland”, the second - “perish yourself, and save your comrade!” The extent to which Captain Nezhentsev attached exceptional importance to the spiritual bond between the officers and soldiers of his Detachment can be seen from what he wrote in his orders:

“I don’t need routine serving of hours in class. From you, Messrs. officers, I demand that you be fully bosses, but not those who only know how to give dry orders. You must be bosses who show your subordinates an example of a warrior, a man of duty and order. You must be among the soldiers during your leisure hours, talk with them, explain all their doubts and hesitations... There must be a strong bond in the Detachment, achieved by mutual trust, common interests and love for the cause for which you have been assembled. Let all of Russia know that she still has sons who said: “Better death than slavery!”

These demands of Captain Nezhentsev to the officers of the 1st Kornilov Shock Detachment yielded brilliant results, and General Stogov said about them in his report in October 1931 in Paris, on the day of the first battle of the Kornilov troops near Yamnitsa and Pavelche:

"Noting character traits Chief of the Kornilov Shock Regiment and its first regiment commander, Captain Nezhentsev, I would consider my task unfulfilled if I had not dwelled a little on what, in the end, gave birth to the first Volunteer Regiment and how it happened, what was the reason that the volunteer units fought so valiantly and with such outstanding success against the Bolsheviks. It is especially worthy of surprise if we remember that subsequently, during the development of actions, the replenishment of volunteer units was obtained from the same captured Bolsheviks. The reason for this, or rather one of the reasons, is the valor of the entire officer corps, the presence of such units as officer regiments and companies that served as an example in everything, and finally a special way of life that brought officer and soldier closer to the limit, and the Kornilovites were indeed right when , when developing the rules for wearing the regimental breast badge, they wrote in the first paragraph of these rules that since officers and shock troops carried out the same service as ordinary soldiers, the badge is approved to be the same as for the towns. officers and for shock troops. Let us remember the time of the birth of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, remember the time of volunteerism and say: “That was the time when only the joint life of a soldier and an officer gave complete confidence in trouble-free combat work.”

* * *

The Detachment completed its formation in mid-June. Captain Nezhentsev became the head of the Detachment, by order of General Kornilov. Through his own efforts, without any assistance from the headquarters, he selected his closest collaborators among his friends and like-minded people. Colonel Leontyev became the chief of staff of the Detachment, appointed Captain Agapov of the Guard as his assistant, and Lieutenant of Prince Ukhtomsky, Nikolai Pavlovich, who was serving his military service in one of the Guards regiments and called up from the reserve, as his adjutant. Now Prince Ukhtomsky has become a monk and at one time was the rector of the memorial church on Shipka (“Eagle’s Nest”), on Mount St. Nicholas, in Bulgaria, where many of our disabled people lived out their lives, including the Kornilovskys. The detachment consisted of two battalions, each with a thousand bayonets, and three machine-gun teams of 600 people. (I must add on my own behalf that from beginning to end machine guns were the Kornilovites’ favorite type of weapon and they were their main striking force). A team of foot scouts was formed from captured Czech volunteers, and a hundred Don Cossacks, who were at the disposal of the headquarters of the 8th Army, became horse scouts. By joining Colonel Nezhentsev's Detachment, the Cossacks caused such displeasure at headquarters that their horses were taken away from them - they said, go on foot. And yet, the Cossacks left under the command of military foreman Dudarev and military foreman Krasnyansky. During the formation of the Detachment, the most difficult situation was created with its food: the Army headquarters categorically refused to supply the Detachment with economic units. Captain Nezhentsev went to the Chief Commissioner of the Red Cross under the 8th Army, the city of Lerche, with whom he was in good relations, and asked him for help. Lerche immediately sent a sanitary flyer to Nezhentsev’s disposal, who began to feed the Detachment at the expense of the Red Cross. A sister of mercy became the head of the economic department, - elderly woman small in stature, who was nicknamed “Tiny”. It remained in charge until the Detachment was reorganized into a regiment, after which it transferred to the regimental area.

ral Kornilov. The three-thousandth detachment was formed in a square. Everyone wears steel helmets, black and red shoulder straps, and on the left sleeve there is a stern emblem: on the shield is a skull above crossed swords, with a grenade underneath. The skull is white, the grenade is red, the shield is dark blue - the national colors of Russia. A jerky team rode along, the music began to play a counter march. The viewing has begun.

General Kornilov handed the kneeling Captain Nezhentsev

black and red Detachment Banner: a banner on which the words “1st Shock Detachment” were written in white. General Kornilov made a speech. He said:

“The Russian people have achieved freedom, but the hour has not yet struck to build a free life. The war is not over, the enemy is not defeated, there are still Russian lands under him. If the Russian Army lays down its arms, the Germans will enslave all of Russia for many years. Our children and grandchildren will have to work for the Germans. We must win... Victory is close... The Austrians and Germans are tired, they have not gone on the offensive for a long time, but we are now more powerful than ever in guns and shells. One of ours

strong pressure and the enemy will be broken. All the great sacrifices made by the Russian people will not be in vain. True, our troops are also tired, all those who do not care about our Motherland, its honor and glory take advantage of this and are embarrassed by them... But You, volunteers and shock workers, have vowed to inspire all those who are weak in spirit. The symbol of death is sewn on your sleeves - a skull on crossed swords. This means victory or death. It’s not death that’s scary, it’s shame and dishonor.”

From that day on, all the drummers called themselves “Kornilovites.” They inscribed this word above their emblem.

Baptism of fire of the Kornilovites

A few days after the review, Captain Nezhentsev received an order to go to the front and, replacing the Zaamur Division in the 12th Corps, which was supposed to move to the right, occupy the Yamnitsa-Pavelche line with its fortified tete-de-pont. For some of the shock workers, the front was a mysterious and terrible place, which they knew about by hearsay and which everyone imagined in their own way. All along the way we greedily absorbed front-line pictures. We drove past old, neglected trenches, entangled in rusty, torn wire on rickety gray stakes. They looked at the corpses of horses, and the hot June wind carried a sickening, sweetish smell of decay. In the dead of night, the detachment began to replace the Zaamurtsev. At dawn we looked around. The trenches were neglected and dirty, the ramps from many dugouts were removed, the logs were split into fires for tea. They immediately began to put everything in order and build new nests for machine guns and bomb launchers. Through small slits-loopholes they studied the area. Columns of smoke are streaming here and there behind the enemy's wire. The machine guns were aimed at the intended targets, and woe was that bluish figure (Austrian uniform) that suddenly appeared and loomed carelessly. A short burst from a machine gun, and the figure fell. A man was killed, but he didn’t think about it, like on a hunt after a successful shot. One day there was a short thunder somewhere ahead, a pop was heard overhead, as if someone had thrown a handful of peas from above. The ensign standing at the machine gun saw how the non-commissioned officer, number one on the machine gun, sank heavily in mid-sentence, as if the rod had been pulled out of him. They forcibly lifted the terribly heavy body with dangling arms. Many times later the shock troops saw death and got used to it, but the first death in war and in such close proximity remains in the memory for the rest of their lives. At night, bomb throwers could barely lift heavy shells and put them into wide and short barrels. Sheaves of red flame flew out with a roar, and columns of black smoke rose with a roar over the enemy trenches. The shock troops went on reconnaissance, bringing prisoners who showed that their regiments were surprised where these devils had been brought to the front. Committee members came from neighboring regiments and indignantly demanded to stop the shooting, threatening to knock the Kornilovites out of the trenches with bayonets. The committee members were sent away.

The shock troops spent six days in the trenches and began to grumble about their inaction. Finally, in mid-June, a general offensive of the 8th Army was ordered. According to Colonel Leontyev, chief of staff of the 1st Shock Detachment, the battle near the village. Yamnitsa began on June 24, 1917. Break through the front and inflict main blow should have been the 12th Corps. Artillery preparation began the day before. For the first time, the drummers heard the simultaneous roar of hundreds of guns. It seemed as if the sky had opened up with continuous thunderclaps. A chill ran down my spine, but a proud feeling for my Russian power also rose. The Austrian trenches were no longer visible - everything was covered in clouds of dust and smoke. The enemy batteries also thundered, but quickly, one after another, fell silent. Only our artillerymen could not find the heavy German batteries. Huge shells drilled into the sky and fell either on the Kornilov trenches or on the Zaamur neighbors. The commander of the 12th Corps, General Cheremisov, summoned Captain Nezhentsev and told him that, by order of the committee, his corps would not go on the attack until a group of heavy German batteries hidden somewhere to the right of the village of Yamnitsa was taken, and that the committee He declared with gloating - let the Kornilovites take these batteries. “So, my dear,” the general finished, without looking the young captain in the eye, “you should try somehow...” “I obey!” - answered captain Nezhentsev.

In the book “Kornilovtsy,” published in 1967 for the 50th anniversary of the Regiment, the former chief of staff of the Detachment, Colonel Leontyev, said that he was present at this classic response from Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev to the corps commander. He notes that both the oral order of the corps commander and the wording of the order said that other units would go on the offensive “if the assault battalion, that is, the Kornilovites, is successful.” On the 23rd, artillery preparation for the attack began; on the 24th, reconnaissance was sent, which established that the enemy's wire fences and trenches had been partially destroyed. Then Kornilov mortars supplemented the work of artillery. At 9:45 a.m. the rocket took off. "Advance!" The guns roared louder and more quickly than before, and the machine guns started firing. No one remembers how he plunged into the powder haze and rushed to the enemy trenches. The Kornilov attack came in waves, every 3-5 minutes one team after another overwhelmed the Austrian trenches. The first wave had already reached the third enemy line. Here the Austrians tried to go on the attack, but the Kornilovites overthrew them with bayonets and broke into their last main trenches. From here the enemy's rear was already visible. Ensign Shinin, the commander of a machine-gun platoon, suddenly noticed gray cannons in the ravine. Shinin shouted: “Platoon, quickly - fire on the battery.” Everything was confused near the battery, the horses fell. The Kornilovites ran to the battery. The Kornilovites completed their task: they captured 4 heavy guns and two light ones. In two hours of battle, they broke through the enemy’s front seven miles deep and approached the bend of the Kalush-Stanislavov railway. From a high embankment, the Kornilovites saw how the Zaamurians were advancing in battle to their right and behind. “Thank God, the Zaamurians have gone!” - was heard everywhere. The neighbors on the left also heard animation - rifle and machine-gun fire. Already less often, as if there was a lull in a thunderstorm, dull rumbles could be heard.

Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev received orders to assemble his Detachment and, taking refuge in the nearest ravine, form a corps reserve. They quickly found a large basin, and Kornilovites flocked into it from all sides. Everyone has excited, sweaty faces. The basin began to hum. Everyone wanted to tell what flashed before his eyes. One kept marveling at the Austrian trenches: “No dirt, no dirt, it’s clean, like in barracks, there’s concrete everywhere... And in the officers’ dugouts, as if in a master’s room, there are armchairs, beds with linen, portraits on the walls...” Our artillery is all But she coped with her task perfectly: all the trenches were broken. The officers were counting losses and loot. In addition to guns and charging boxes, machine guns and bomb throwers, 26 officers and 831 soldiers were captured. Everyone wanted to eat, they sent to their trenches for duffel bags and soon received a message that all the property left behind had been “stolen” by the arriving reserves. Captured Austrian kitchens came to the rescue. We had lunch. The officers sat in a separate group, the shock troops scattered around the ravine and mixed up their companies. Some were lying down, some were changing their shoes. They waited impatiently to see if they would soon go on vacation, as the regiment commander had promised, to the newly captured village of Yamnitsa.

It was already seven o'clock in the evening. Suddenly, on the front ahead of the Kornilovites, everything immediately became silent, as if cut off - not a single shot was fired. Everyone fell silent, listening intently. Just as unexpectedly, the silence was broken by strong machine-gun fire and rifle salvos. Along the top of the ravine, soldiers began to run past the Kornilovites, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. They just shrugged off all the shouts and hurried on. The officers ran upstairs. Our soldiers were retreating across the entire plain in complete disorder, followed by closed chains of Germans in helmets with bayonets at the ready. As it turned out later, this was a “steel” German division, hastily transferred by rail to restore the situation from Mackensen’s phalanx. Staff Captain Skoblin shouted: “Kornilovites, forward, attack!” Without sorting out the companies, the Kornilovites, all as one, jumped out of the basin. Some with bayonets at the ready, others with grenades, all rushed at the Germans. There was a clash and the Germans ran back. The Kornilovites pursued them until complete darkness. Machine guns were captured. The Kornilovites themselves lost about three hundred people, one hundred of them were bayoneted.

This is how the first baptism of fire of the Kornilovites took place, their first conciliar action at the front. A telegram was received from the Army Commander: “Heartfelt thanks to the dashing shock troops, who in practice proved their loyalty to their military covenants. I’m happy that they are in the ranks of the Army and proud that they bear my name.” And on June 29, in front of the deployed Detachment, General Kornilov announced: Minister of War Kerensky ordered the distribution of five crosses per company and, turning to the adjutant, said: “Give these crosses!” Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev stepped forward and reported: “Your Excellency, the Kornilovites refuse these crosses, since there is no way to single out those who distinguished themselves.” “I thought so,” said General Kornilov.

Here I consider it my duty to note that in exile, in 1963, an attempt was made in the press to debunk the Kornilovites and to attribute the battle of Yamnitsa and Pavelche to others. An analysis of this issue is presented in the Kornilovtsy newsletter No. 55, 1963. Paris, page 6. The composition of the “1st Kornilov Shock Detachment” before the battle near the SS. Jamnitsa and Pavelce: General Staff Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev, Chief of Staff of the Detachment Colonel Leontyev, 2 military foremen, 2 captains, 9 staff captains, 4 lieutenants, 13 second lieutenants and 55 warrant officers, 1,763 shock troops (bayonets in two battalions), a banner platoon, three machine guns teams, a team of foot reconnaissance, a team of mounted reconnaissance (one hundred Donets), a communications team. There was also a mortar team.

When assessing the combat effectiveness of the “1st Kornilov Shock Detachment”, and subsequently the Kornilov Shock Regiment and Division, one should never lose sight of the fact that they were almost normal composition. The exception in the civil war was: in the 1st Kuban campaign of General Kornilov, the Regiment was a purely officer battalion of four companies, after the battles for the city of Ekaterinodar, consolidated into one officer company named after General Kornilov. At first there was an officer company in the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment large composition, and after the occupation of Kursk, it turned into an officer battalion of three companies, sometimes reaching up to 750. officers and existed until the end. In the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment there was one and at times two small officer companies. The reserve regiment of the Division had a cadre of normal composition.

Trophies for the battle at Yamnitsa and Pavelche: four heavy guns were taken head-on by the 7th company of Lieutenant Lakhtionov. Two light guns, from which Ensign Shinin's machine guns killed the horses and dispersed the servants, were taken by the 1st company. Both batteries are taken with charging boxes. In addition, 26 officers and 831 soldiers were captured. When the counterattack was repulsed in the evening, 4 machine guns and up to 3 thousand prisoners were taken. According to the chief of staff of the Detachment, Colonel Leontiev, who lived in Argentina in 1969, according to a report from Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev, in the attack on the villages of Yamnitsa and Pavelche, the trophies of the Kornilovites were 14 machine guns, 4 heavy and 2 light guns, 10 charging boxes, captured 26 officers and a LOT OF SOLDIERS. Losses of the Detachment for the entire battle: 24 officers and 506 shock troops killed and wounded.

The same Colonel Leontyev testifies that in this battle the Banner of the Detachment was pierced by a shell fragment.

Awards only for this battle: Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev, Second Lieutenant Lakhtionov and Ensign Mazin - Order of St. George 4th degree, 11 officers - Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree with swords and bow, 1 officer - Order of St. Anna 2nd degree with swords, 24 officers - Order of St. Anna 4th degree with the inscription “For bravery”. All drummers received St. George's Crosses, and both sisters of mercy received 4th class medals.

Colonel Leontyev ends his description of this battle in the book “Kornilovtsy” as follows: “Born in the fire of the First World War and in the sea of ​​blood of the revolution, he showed with his exploits and fabulous courage that Suvorov’s miracle heroes have not disappeared in Rus'. General Kornilov and Lieutenant Colonel Nezhentsev erected a truly non-man-made monument for themselves. Russia will not forget them! Glory to them forever!”

Kornilov shock division

Formed on October 14, 1919 on the basis of the 1st-3rd Kornilov Shock Regiments of the 1st Infantry Division.

Was part of I AK.

01.1920 – 2,078 pieces. and sub., incl. 415 officers.

10.1920 – 1,860 pcs. and sub

In the battles of Greater Tokmak, the division lost approx. killed and wounded. 2,000 people

In the Kakhovka operation of 1920, the division lost 3,200 people killed and wounded.

Total in 1917-20. The Kornilovites lost 14,000 people killed and 34,002 people wounded.

Uniform: dark green cap with a black band, black and red shoulder straps with the letter “K” and white piping. The sleeve emblem is Adam's head (skull and crossbones).

1. Chief: Major General (1919) Nikolai Vladim. Skoblin (from 10.1919) (06.9.1893, Nezhin - 1939(?)), son of a retired colonel. He graduated from the Chuguev Military School (1914) and became an ensign in the 126th Rylsky Infantry Regiment. Order of St. George, 4th class. and the Golden Arms of St. George. Since 06.1917, commander of the 2nd battalion of the 1st Shock Detachment of the 8th Army, captain. In the Volunteer Army from the beginning of its formation. Participant Ice hike. Since November 1, 1918, commander of Kornilovsky shock regiment. In the spring of 1920 he fell ill with typhoid fever. Then he was wounded in the battle near Rohachik. Gallipolitan. 06.1921 married the performer folk songs N.V. Plevitskaya. In November 1921, at the head of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, he moved to the village of Gorno-Panicherovo (Bulgaria). At the end of 1922, he went on vacation - together with his wife, who performed her concerts, he visited Germany, Belgium, France, KSHS, Poland and the Baltic states. For being late from vacation in 1923, he received a severe reprimand from the commander of the AK of the Russian Army, Infantry General Kutepov. On May 1, 1924, he left for France, then visited the USA with his wife. After returning from America on 05.1927, he settled in the French department of Var. By this time, together with his wife, he became a paid agent of the OGPU (operational pseudonym “Farmer”). On February 9, 1927, by order, the head of the EMRO, Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel, was relieved of command of the Kornilov Shock Regiment. 07/08/1928, by order of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, upon presentation to the head of the EMRO, General Kutepov, he was returned to the post of commander of the Kornilov shock regiment.

Acting Major General Mikhail Aleksan. Peshnya (wounded 10.1920) (1886 – † 4.12.1937, Paris), from the burghers. He graduated from the gymnasium, the Vilna Military School (1907) and the Officers' Gymnastics and Fencing School (1910). Colonel RIA. During the Great War, commander of the 73rd brigade, Order of St. George, 4th class. 09.1918 commander of the 3rd battalion of the Kornilov shock regiment.

Acting Major General Lev Mikh. Erogin (from 10/27/1920) (d. 1943, Warsaw), son of a captain. Graduated 2nd cadet corps(1901) and Konstantinovsky Artillery School (1904). Lieutenant Colonel RIA. During the Great War, the commander of the battery of the 18th Art. br. Order of St. George, 4th class. 12.1917-01.1918 commander of the 3rd officer battery of the Volunteer Army. Participant of the Ice Campaign - commander of the 3rd separate battery, then the 1st battery of the 2nd artillery. br. Colonel (approved November 6, 1919). Commander of the 2nd Art. br. Colonel (approved November 6, 1919). Gallipolitan. 01.1921-1925 commander of the Kornilov artillery division in Bulgaria. Then he moved to Poland, the head of the local department of the EMRO.

1. NS: General Staff ( accelerated courses Academy of the General Staff 1917) Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Lev. Kapnin (11/6/1919 – 08/1920) (1890 – after 1944), from descendants. nobles He graduated from the Sumy Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School (1909). Captain RIA. In 1917 i.d. chief officer for assignments at the headquarters of the X AK. Gallipolitan. In 1945, he was captured in Prague by SMERSH and taken to the USSR.

General Staff Colonel E.E. Messner (from 08.1920)

3. senior adjutant: Colonel of the General Staff Vyacheslav Orzhanovsky, in 1922 he left for the Soviet Republic.

4. adjutant: captain Kopetsky

1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment

Created on May 19, 1917 as part of the 8th Army as the 1st Shock Detachment.

Since August 1, 1917, a shock regiment of 4 battalions.

Since 08.1917, the Slavic Shock Regiment was part of the Czechoslovak Corps.

On 10.1917 he took part in the battles in Kyiv against the Bolsheviks.

12/19/1917 arrived in Novocherkassk.

01/01/1918 - 50 officers, 500 lower ranks, 4 machine guns.

02/11-13/1918 the regiment in the village of Olginskaya included the St. George Company (100 units) and the Officer Detachment of Colonel Simanovsky.

02.1918 – 1220 pieces, incl. about 400 officers.

commander: General Staff (1914) Lieutenant Colonel Mitrofan Osip. Nezhentsev(1886 – 03/30/1918, Ekaterinodar, killed in battle), son of a collegiate assessor. He graduated from the Nikolaev Gymnasium and the Alexander Military School (1908). Participant in the battles in Kyiv in October 1917. 12/19/1917 regiment to Novocherkassk. Participant of the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign.

Guard Colonel (summer 1916) Alexander Pav. Kutepov (31.03-12.06.1918) (16.09.1882, Cherepovets -† 01/26/1930, Paris, killed during an attempted kidnapping), son of a forester. Graduated from 6 classes of the Arkhangelsk classical gymnasium and the St. Petersburg cadet school (sergeant major, 1904). Came out in the 85th Vyborg of the German Emperor Wilhelm II pp. Participant Russo-Japanese War in the reconnaissance team of the 85th infantry regiment. Ord. St. Vladimir with swords and bows. Lieutenant L.-Gv. Preobrazhensky Regiment. During the Great War, staff captain, commander of the 4th company. 08/20/14 wounded in the left leg near Lublin. On 11/1914 he returned to the regiment. 03.1915 wounded in the right leg. 06.1915 wounded in the groin near Wlodawa. Order of St. George 4th Art. St. George's weapon (summer 1916, for the battle in the Svinyukha forest on the Stokhod River). On 02.1917 he held Liteiny Prospekt and part of Nevsky, repelling the attacks of the rebels. Regimental commander. Since 12/24/17 commandant of the Taganrog garrison. Member of the Ice Campaign.

Colonel Vladimir Iv. Indeykin (06/12/10/31/1918) († 10/31/1918, killed in battle near Stavropol), from the peasants of the Department of Internal Affairs . During the Great War, commander of the 23rd Siberian Regiment. Member of the Ice Campaign.

Colonel N.V. Skoblin (from 10/31/1918)

Colonel M.A. Peshnya (until 10/14/1919)

ColonelKarp Pavel. Gordeenko (from 10/14/1919) († 07/29/1969, Grasse, France). In 1917, temporary commander of the Siberian military unit. From 10/28/1918 in the ranks of the Kornilovsky regiment, commander of the company named after General Kornilov, commander of the 1st battalion, wounded on 10/1920. During his service in the regiment he received four wounds. Studied in France farming. Son is an engineer, granddaughter.

Lieutenant Colonel V.V. Chelyadinov (from 01.1920)

Lieutenant Colonel (1920) Mikhail Nikit. Dashkevich (01.-02.1920, born 07.1920) (d. after 1929), from the clergy class. Graduated from the Theological Seminary. Lieutenant RIA. Participant of the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign. From 06.1918, company commander, from 07.1918 - 9th company of the Kornilov shock regiment. For May 1920 in KSHS. Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. On 12/18/1920 at the headquarters of the Kornilov regiment in Gallipoli. Colonel. From December 24, 1921, commander of the 1st battalion. In the fall of 1925, as part of a regiment in France. Since 1930 in the French Foreign Legion in Indochina.

Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Joseph. Shirkovsky (from 03/08/1920) († 01/1954, France). Staff Captain RIA. Member of the Ice Campaign. Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Gallipolitan.

Colonel Vasily Vas. Chelyadinov (from 08.1920). Staff Captain. Participant of the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign. Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. On 12/18/1920 at the headquarters of the Kornilov regiment in Gallipoli, from 12/24/1921 assistant commander of the 1st battalion. In the fall of 1925, as part of a regiment in the KSHS.

1. assistant commander: Colonel V.I. Indeikin (from 03/28/1918).
2. General Staff (1899) Major General (12.1916) Boris Il. Kazanovich (10.07.1871 – † 02.06.1943, Belgrade), from descendants. nobles He graduated from the Mogilev classical gymnasium and the military school course of the Moscow Junker Infantry School (1892) - went to the Turkestan linear battalion. Served at the headquarters of the Kyiv Military District. Participant in the Russo-Japanese War as part of the headquarters of the Xth AK. During the Great War, NSh 31st Infantry Division, from the end of 1915 to 03.1916, 127th Putivlsky Regiment, NSh Siberian Infantry Division, commander of the AK.
3. Captain Fedor Georg. Turkin (d. 05/08/1969, Paris) Ensign. Ensign RIA. Participant of the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign. In the All-Russian Socialist Republic and the Russian Army. Second lieutenant. On December 18, 1920, in the machine gun company of the Kornilov regiment in Gallipoli. In the fall of 1925, he was part of a regiment in Bulgaria. Then the head of the group of the Kornilov regiment in France, since 1936 a member of the NORR.
4. Lieutenant Rostislav Vyacheslav. Tolpygo, Tolpyga (d. 03/14/1932, Hungary). Evacuated to the island. Lemnos. On October 16, 1920, he left for Crimea on the ship “Kherson”. Evacuated by transport “Yalta”.
5. Private Alexey Feodor. Akinshin (†06/06/1920, British camp for Russian refugees Tell All-Kebir, Egypt, 23 years old). Junker of the Tiflis Military School.
6. Private Alexey Terent. Zimenko (†05/05/1920, British camp for Russian refugees Tell All-Kebir, Egypt, 29 years old), from the peasants of the Taganrog district of the Department of Internal Affairs.
   
   

1st Officer Battalion

commander: Colonel Evgeniy Gr. Bulyubash (1.09.1873, Poltava - † 2.10.1967, Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA), from descendants. nobles He graduated from the Kiev Cadet Corps (1892), Pavlovsk Military School (1894) and the Academy of the General Staff (1900). He served in the Life Guards in the Petrograd Regiment. Assistant chief and battalion commander of the Pavlovsk Military School. Commander of the 151st Pyatigorsk Infantry Regiment (1917). From November 3, 1917, he was the head of the Novocherkassk garrison. Member of the Ice Campaign. Seriously wounded (12.1918).

captain M.N. Dashkevich (10.1918).

Lieutenant Colonel D.I. Shirkovsky (07.-08.1920).

2nd company

commander: captain Makar Iv. Redko (10.1920) († 21.11.1959, Grasse, France). Lieutenant RIA. Platoon commander of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment (09.1919), company commander (09.-10.1919). Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Gallipolitan. In the fall of 1925, he was part of a regiment in Bulgaria.

3rd officer company

commander: staff captain R.F. Pooh.

3rd battalion (cadre of the St. George Regiment)

150 people

commander: Colonel Ivan Kasyan. Kiriyenko (1880 - after 1936), graduated from the Kiev Cadet Corps and the Kiev Military School - joined the 166th Rivne Infantry Regiment. Participant of the Russian-Japanese War as part of the 88th Perovsky Infantry Regiment. Then again in the 166th paragraph. During the Great War, the company commander of the 310th infantry regiment. Wounded three times, Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class. with swords and bow, Order of St. George 4th class. (for the battle 08/16/1916). 07.1917 began to form the 1st Reserve St. George Regiment in Kyiv (created 1.08.). On November 3, 1918, he arrived in the Don and joined the Alekseevskaya organization. Member of the Ice Campaign.

Colonel V.I. Indeykin (from 02/12/1918)

Machine gun company

commander: Lieutenant Matvey Mikh. Sumaistorčić (12.1918) († 1919, near Kursk, killed in battle). Second lieutenant of the Austro-Hungarian Army. Participant of the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign as part of a machine-gun company.

2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment

Formed on July 12, 1919 from among the officers of the Kornilov shock regiment and captured Makhnovists.

09.1919 - 2600 units, 85 machine guns.

10/5/1919 – 1150 units, 30 machine guns.

25.10. In 1920, the regiment received reinforcements - a platoon of officers who arrived after recovery from Egypt.

1. commander: Colonel V.P. Shcheglov (from 09/24/1919).

Colonel (10/8/1919) Yakov Ant. Pashkevich (05.1919-15.07.1920) († 15.07.1920, killed in battle in the village of Bolshoi Tokmak, Northern Tavria).(05.1919-15.07.1920) Lieutenant RIA. During the Ice March, he was the head of the machine gun team of the Kornilov shock regiment. Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker 2nd Art.

Colonel (06.1920) Mikhail Nikol. Levitov (from 07/15/1920) (1893 – † 12/15/1982, Paris), from the clergy. He graduated from the Theological Seminary and the Vilna Military School (1914). Lieutenant of the 178th PP. Member of the Ice Campaign. Lieutenant Colonel (03/13/1920). Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd Art. (1920). Wounded 13 times, 6 of them during the Civil War. Gallipolitan. Author of the book “Materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment” (Paris, 1974).

Vreed captain G.Z. Troshin (from October 26, 1920).

2. Adjutant: Staff Captain Anatoly Petr. Gok († 12/13/1963, Brussels). In exile he served in the Belgian Congo.

Captain Peter Yak. Grigul (1892 – 03/11/1971). Lieutenant RIA. From 07.1919 in the officer battalion of the 2nd regiment. Staff Captain. Gallipolitan. On 12/18/1920 in the 8th company of the Kornilovsky regiment. Graduated from the Higher Military Scientific Courses of General Golovin in Paris (1st graduation). Member of the board of the Gallipoli Society in Paris. He fought against the Reds in the ranks of General Franco's troops.

3. head of the training team: captain (12/26/1918) Ya.A. Pashkevich

4. commandant: lieutenant Vladimir Yeger (from 07.1919). Second Lieutenant RIA. Since 1932 in Kazanlak (Bulgaria), in 1933 he moved from Burgas to Pavlikeni.

5. Colonel Baron Sergei Aleksan. von Kalwisch († 15.8.1972, Greece).
6. Staff Captain Alexander Iv. Mikhalevich († 03/25/1920, 28 years old, Greece).

7. Lieutenant Igoshin Ivan. Second Lieutenant RIA. Gallipolitan. In 1932, he was the head of the regiment group in Sliven (Bulgaria).

Officer battalion

09.1919 – 700 pcs.

1st officer company

commander: captain Viktor Pavel. Ivanov (from 09.1919) (died after 1970, New York). 08.1919 defected from the Reds. Course officer at the Kornilov Military School.

1st officer company

commander: Staff Captain Fedor Plokhikh († 1920, Crimea, killed in battle).

3rd officer company

commander: Staff Captain Mikhail Panasyuk († 08/20/1920, killed in battle near Lyubimovka near Kakhovka). Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

2nd Battalion

captain Alexander Pomerantsev († 08/08/1920, died of wounds near Nizhny Kurkulak). Member of the Ice Campaign. Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

3rd Battalion

commander: Colonel V.P. Shcheglov

Colonel Alexander Joseph. Brzezicki (03.-28.08.1920) (approx. 1883 – †13.04.1971, Grasse, France). Commander of the Caucasus rifle regiment VSYUR. 08/28/1920 wounded. Evacuated by transport “Yalta”. On 12/18/1920 in the 8th company of the Kornilovsky regiment in Gallipoli, from 12/24/1921 assistant commander of the 2nd battalion. In the fall of 1925, he was part of a regiment in Bulgaria. In 1933 he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute, engineer. Served in the Russian Corps.

captain Semyon Nashivochnikov († 10/1/1920, killed in the battle near Arbuzovka). People's teacher. Lieutenant RIA. Since 07.1919, platoon commander of an officer battalion.

scout team

communications squadron

3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment

1. commander: esaul (08/20/1919) Nikolai Vas. Mileev (from 07/26/1919) († 03/1920, Crimea, shot himself), Orenburg Cossack. Finished university. During the Great War, the 6th Orenburgsky arrived Cossack chieftain Nagogo Regiment, from 1917 in the machine gun company of the Kornilov Shock Regiment. Member of the Ice Campaign.

Captain Ignatius Ign. Franz (10.-27.12.1919) († 27.12.1919, killed in battle while crossing the Don near the village of Aleksandrovskaya), Croat. Second Lieutenant RIA. On 11/1917 in Kyiv he joined the Kornilov Shock Regiment. Member of the Ice Campaign.

Colonel Vasily Pavel. Shcheglov (from 11.1919) (11.18.1883, Tula - 1930, Ozoir-la-Ferrier, France), from the bourgeoisie. Graduated from the Kazan Infantry Junker School (1904). During the Great War, captain, battalion commander of the 303rd infantry regiment. Participant of the 1st Kuban (“Ice”) campaign in the officer company of the Kornilov shock regiment, battalion commander. Wounded in the summer of 1918 (since 07.1919). Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Wounded on 10/28/11/10/1920. On 12/18/1920 in the 9th company of the Kornilovsky regiment in Gallipoli, from 12/24/1921 commander of the 3rd battalion of the Kornilovsky regiment. In the fall of 1925, as part of a regiment in France.

Colonel Roman Philip. Pooh (08.-10.1920) (d. 06.17.1958, Luxembourg). Staff Captain RIA. From 11.1917 in the detachment of Colonel Simanovsky of the Volunteer Army, participant in the Ice Campaign. 09.1918 seriously wounded near Stavropol. Wounded on 10.1920. Gallipoli resident, from 12.24.1921 commander of the 1st company of the Kornilov shock regiment. Together with the regiment he moved to Bulgaria. Head of the Luxembourg subsection of the V department of the EMRO. He was ordained a priest.

Wreed Colonel (11/5/1919) Mikhail Mikh. Minervin (from 10/26/1920) (d. 01/23/1949, Tarbes, France). He graduated from the Siberian Cadet Corps and the Pavlovsk Military School (1908). During the Great War, captain of the 2nd Siberian Regiment. Participant of the Ice Campaign as part of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, company commander. Wounded near Ekaterinodar. Gallipolitan. On 12/18/1920 in the 9th company, from 12/24/1921 commander of the 12th company of the Kornilov shock regiment. In 1925 in Bulgaria, then in France.

1. Assistant commander: Lieutenant Viktor Petr. Golubyatnikov (from July 26, 1919). Member of the Ice Campaign. Gallipolitan. On 12/18/1920 in the 3rd company of the Markovsky regiment, captain.

Lieutenant Colonel R.F. Pooh

1. adjutant: Lieutenant Evgeniy Vas. Zyukov (from 07/26/1919) (d. 09/26/1919, killed in battle near the village of Nikolskoye). Ensign RIA.
2. head of the field economic unit: staff captain (11/25/1919) Nikolai Gr. Tkachenko (1890 – 07/31/1975, USA). He graduated from the Alekseevsky Military School and became an ensign in the Life Guards in the Izmailovsky Regiment. Participant of the Ice Campaign, seriously wounded - lost an eye. Then in the Special Officer Company of the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant (11/23/1919). Gallipoli resident, on December 18, 1920 in the commandant’s team of the Kornilov regiment. Since 1932, head of the Kornilov Regiment group in the USA, captain.
3. Second Lieutenant Peter Ignat. Meshchaninov († 31.8.1922, Greece)

reserve battalion

Commander: Lieutenant Georgy Adam. Golovan (11/10/1892, Warsaw - 08/19/1966, Brussels). He graduated from the Novorossiysk gymnasium and the Telavi School of Ensigns (1916). From 11.1917 in the detachment of Colonel Simanovsky of the Volunteer Army. Gallipolitan.

3rd Battalion

commander: Staff Captain Vasily Alekseev. Skudarev (Moscow – 09/03/1919, killed in the battle near Lgov). Ensign RIA. Member of the Ice Campaign.

10th company

commander: lieutenant G.A. Golovan

12th company

Commander: Staff Captain Reke.

4th Kornilovsky Shock Regiment

Formed on 12.1919 in Azov. Most of the personnel are Donbass miners.

Died on 03.1920 in the village of Shkurinskaya, Kuban region.

commander: captain M.N. Dashkevich (12.1919).

Vreed Staff Captain I.L. Filipisky (01.1920)

Kornilov artillery brigade

Formed on November 10, 1919 on the basis of two divisions deployed from the 2nd Officer Battery, 5th, 6th and 8th Batteries of the 1st Artillery. br.

In Gallipoli, it was consolidated into the Kornilov art. division.

Uniform: dark green cap with a black band, black shoulder straps with red piping, gold crossed guns and the letter “K”. The sleeve emblem is Adam's head (skull and bones) in black, with artillery pieces on top of a grenade.

commander: Colonel L.M. Erogin (10/16/1919-10/1920)

1st Division

commander: Colonel (1918) Fedor Pavel. Korolev (11.1919) (1888 - ca. 1970, USSR). Graduated from the Tiflis Military School (1912). During the Great War, captain of the 52nd Art. br. Ord. St. George 4th Art. Participant of the Ice March as part of the 2nd officer battery. Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd class. Gallipolitan. 02.1921 in the 1st battery of the Kornilov artillery division. In the fall of 1925, as part of the Kornilov artillery division in Bulgaria. In 1944, he was captured by the Reds and taken to the USSR.

1st battery named after General Kornilov

She was awarded silver trumpets with ribbons of the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

commander: Colonel F.P. Korolev (09.1918)

Colonel (1920) Anthony Geor. Pio-Ulsky (11.1919) (07/16/1894, Oranienbaum - 02/20/1956, according to other St. 03/20/1956, New York, died at work), son of Major General of the Corps of Mechanical Engineers of the Fleet, professor of the Academy of the General Staff. He graduated from the 1st Cadet Corps (1913) and the Konstantinovsky Artillery School (1914) and joined the 18th Artillery Brigade. Then he was sent to Moscow in a heavy artillery unit, but soon returned to the front. In 1917 he joined the shock unit. Staff Captain RIA. In the Volunteer Army from 11.1917. Participant of the Ice Campaign as part of the 3rd separate battery. Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd class. Gallipolitan. 02.1921 in the 1st battery of the Kornilov artillery division. In the fall of 1925, as part of the Kornilov artillery division in the KSHS. In 1931, the head of the group of the Gallipoli Society and the Kornilov Art. br. in Belgrade. Since 1941 in the Russian Corps. Arrested by the Gestapo, after his release, company sergeant major of the 2nd regiment. In the USA he worked at a frozen fish factory, as a cleaner in a sewing workshop, and then at a match factory. Head of the Association of Kornilov Artillerymen in the USA and the New York branch of the Gallipoli Society. Member of the New York Chapter of the SSRK. Wife – Vera Dm.

2nd battery

commander: Colonel Efim Aleksan. Glotov (from 11.1919) († 7.11.1979, Paris). Captain RIA. Since December 1917 in the Volunteer Army. Participant of the Ice March as part of the 3rd separate battery. Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd class. Since September 19, 1920, member of the Cavalry Duma of the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Chairman of the cadet association in France.

2nd Division

Participated in the Bredov campaign, interned in Poland.

commander: Colonel Solomon David. Gegelashvili (from 05.1920) (05.1.1885 – 02.5.1973, Buenos Aires). He graduated from the Voronezh Cadet Corps (1902) and the Mikhailovsky Artillery School (1905). During the Great War, the commander of the artillery division of the 22nd Art. br. Commander of the 2nd battery of the 2nd light artillery division of the AFSR. From January 12, 1919, commander of the battery of the Training and Preparatory Artillery School. Then in the 2nd art. br. From July 22, 1919, commander of the 3rd division of the brigade. Participant of the Bredovsky campaign. Gallipolitan. 02.1921 in the 2nd battery of the Kornilov artillery division. Since 1924, as part of the Kornilov artillery division in Czechoslovakia. Commander of the 1st artillery regiment of the Czechoslovak Army. Head of the EMRO department in Czechoslovakia. Chairman of the Gallipoli Society in Prague. In 1944 he was evacuated to Germany. Head of the EMRO department in West Germany. Since 1948 in Argentina, assistant chief, then head of the EMRO department. Chairman of the Gallipoli Society in Argentina.

3rd battery

commander: captain A.F. Shinkevich.

4th battery

commander: colonel (08/28/1919) Nikolai Alekseev. Pospehov (from January 3, 1919). Captain RIA. Participant of the Ice March as part of the 3rd separate battery. Then in the 2nd light artillery division. Gallipolitan. 02.1921 in the 2nd battery of the Kornilov artillery division.

3rd Division

commander: Colonel Yuri (George) Nikol. Ropponet (09.-11.1919) (died after 1930, near Astakos, Greece). During the Great War, the commander of the 31st Art. br. Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Gallipolitan.

5th battery

1. commander: Colonel Yakov Mikh. Petrenko (from July 22, 1919) (died after 1930). From 07.1919 commander of an artillery platoon. Ord. St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Gallipolitan. In the fall of 1925, as part of the Kornilov artillery division in Bulgaria. In 1931 he headed a group of the Kornilov artillery brigade in Clichy (France).

2. Senior officer: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Alekseev. Korbutovsky (after 1954), from hereditary nobles. He graduated from the Theological Faculty of the University in Bulgaria, worked as a teacher of Russian language and history in gymnasiums. In 1944 he was captured by the Reds and taken to the USSR. After 10 years of hard labor he left for France.

6th battery

She was awarded silver trumpets with ribbons of the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

1. commander: Colonel Valentin Iv. Goetz (1889 – † 1968). Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd class. (1921).

2. fireworks Kudryavchenko († mortally wounded on 10.1920; both legs were torn off in a grenade explosion).

4th Howitzer Division

commander: Colonel Pavel Aleksan. Jackson (11/1919) († 08/10/1949, France). In the 2nd art. br. VSYUR from April 24, 1919. Gallipoli resident. 02.1921 in the management of the Kornilov artillery division.

7th howitzer battery

She was awarded silver trumpets with ribbons of the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

commander: Colonel Vladimir Geor. Khalyutin (11.1919) (died after 1924). Gallipolitan. 02.1921 in the 1st battery of the Kornilov artillery division. In the fall of 1925, as part of a division in Bulgaria.

8th howitzer battery

commander: Colonel P.A. Jackson (08.1919).

Colonel (1919) Nikolai Aleksan. Malm (11.1919). Gallipolitan. 02.1921 in the 2nd battery of the Kornilov artillery division.

separate cavalry division of General Kornilov

commander: Colonel Vladimir Iv. Kovalevsky (11.1919). Captain RIA. Gallipolitan.

Mountain Muslim General Kornilov division

separate General Kornilov engineering company

commander: Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Vas. Dobrovolsky (03.1920). Graduated Oriental Institute(1910). Gallipolitan. On December 18, 1920, Colonel. Served in the Russian Corps.

Reserve regiment (until October 29, 1919 battalion)

Bibliography

1. Volkov S.V. White movement. Encyclopedia of Civil Wars. St. Petersburg: Publishing House“Neva”, Moscow: Publishing house “OLMA-PRESS”, 2003.

2. Kornilovsky Shock Regiment. Paris, 1936.

3. Levitov M.N. Materials for the history of the Kornilov shock regiment. Paris, 1974.

Colonel Levitov and his “Kornilov Shock Regiment”

In August 2015, a reissue of the book “Materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment” was published, which was first published in 1974 in Paris. The book is dedicated to the Kornilov Shock Regiment and covers its entire history, from the founding of the regiment during the First World War (Great) in 1917, ending with the life of the Kornilovites in exile in 1960-1970. Much attention is paid to the fate of the regiment chief, General Lavr Georgievich Kornilov (1870-1918), the course of the Civil War in the south of Russia and the role of the ranks of the Kornilov units in its events are described in detail. The new edition is a scientific edition of the text “Materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment”, the responsible compiler of which was Kornilov resident Colonel Mikhail Nikolaevich Levitov. This is the first time the publication has been published in its entirety in Russia. The book is supplemented by a foreword and notes by the scientific editor, Dr. historical sciences R. G. Gagkuev, as well as appendices and a name index.

To coincide with the release of the new book, we bring to the attention of readers a preface to the 2015 edition, which tells about the fate of its author and compiler, Colonel M. N. Levitov, and the differences between the reissue and the original, which was published in 1975.

The name of Colonel Mikhail Levitov is not one of the names that is well known to the average reader interested in the history of the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922). And if we compare its role and significance in history internecine war with such historical figures like generals L.G. Kornilov, M.V. Alekseev, P.N. Wrangel, N.N. Yudenich, Admiral A.V. Kolchak and others, this can hardly be called unfair. However, if several historians involved in the history of the White movement were asked to name the name of the person who to the greatest extent personifies the type of volunteer officer who fought in the Civil War in the ranks of the famous registered regiments of the Volunteer Army, then they, without agreeing with each other, would certainly be one of the first to mention the name of Colonel Mikhail Nikolaevich Levitov. His biography is not only the tragic life story of a commoner officer who went to the front of the First World War immediately after graduating from military school, but also a concentrated image of a Russian patriot who went through the entire Civil War in the ranks of the whites from an ordinary soldier to a regiment commander, leaving unbroken emigrated after the defeat of the White movement. It is significant that the biographical information about Mikhail Nikolaevich Levitov was included by the historian N. N. Rutych in the first widely known modern Russia“Biographical directory of the highest ranks of the Volunteer Army and the Armed Forces of the South of Russia,” although formally, Colonel Levitov, who commanded only the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment at the end of the Civil War, can hardly be classified among the “highest ranks” of the white armies.

We know little about Levitov’s life before the outbreak of the First World War. It is known that Mikhail Levitov was born in 1893 into the family of a priest. After graduating from theological seminary, he chose military affairs as his future destiny. On December 1, 1914, Levitov graduated from the Vilna Military School, leaving it immediately for the front, in the first priority 178th Vvedensky Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division. Big losses among combat officers led to the fact that immediately after arriving at the front in December 1914, with the rank of ensign, he was appointed to command one of the regiment's companies. “I was never a junior officer during the Great War,” Levitov later recalled. After being promoted to lieutenant at the end of 1915, he “temporarily” or “for” commanded one of the Wendensky battalions for more than a year. Levitov remained in its ranks almost until the end of 1917, participating in all the battles that befell the regiment. During the First World War alone, he was wounded three times.

In his native Wenden regiment, Levitov met February 1917. “...The first news about the beginning of the revolution was received by us on the march, when our regiment, which had been replaced in position, went into reserve near the city of Riga,” recalled Mikhail Nikolaevich. - My old sergeant major of the company that I previously commanded comes up to me, full Knight of St. George, with the rank of ensign, hands me a Bolshevik leaflet with a message about the unrest in Petrograd and asks: “How do you look at this?” Not wanting to respond to the contents of the underground leaflet, I say: “We need to wait for official messages.” Sergeant Major Melnikov abruptly throws his hat onto the highway and says: “Nothing good will come of this.”

The reaction of Levitov, who certainly adhered to monarchist views, to the abdication of Sovereign Nicholas II from the throne is indicative: “When the revolution had already become an accomplished fact, one morning an order was received from the regiment headquarters to take the oath to the Provisional Government, at the will of the abdicated Sovereign Emperor. An order is an order, and besides, you can hear the enemy’s artillery hitting. But still, despite the farewell address to us by the Sovereign Emperor, there is anxiety in our souls. The form of the procedure for the oath itself helps: the orderlies shout: “Those who want to sign the oath, come out!” Some go to sign, the rest continue to sleep, and the clerks, apparently, will fill in the gaps.” The conditions mentioned by Mikhail Nikolayevich that accompanied the taking of the oath to the Provisional Government - “an order is an order” and “the enemy’s artillery strikes” - were, despite their convictions, decisive for the overwhelming majority of front-line officers. The Great War continued and it was necessary to fulfill the last will of the Sovereign to bring it to a victorious end. “Whoever now thinks about peace, who desires it, is a traitor to the Fatherland, its traitor. I know that every honest warrior thinks like this,” said the text of the last order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Emperor Nicholas II.

In the ranks of the 178th Wenden Infantry Regiment, from July 6, 1917 until the end of August, Levitov participated in the suppression of the July uprising in Petrograd. Subsequently, the 45th Infantry Division, which included the 178th Regiment, occupied forts Ino and Krasnaya Gorka to calm Kronstadt, and in August it was transferred to pacify unrest among the sailors Baltic Fleet in Finland. At the end of August 1917, during the Kornilov offensive, the division was transferred to Petrograd to protect the Provisional Government, but then unexpectedly was hastily sent to the front near Riga. Levitov explained this use of the division, which had proven itself well in suppressing revolutionary unrest, by the fact that part of its regiments, upon arrival in Petrograd, did not respond to A.F. Kerensky “to his greeting” and for her “obvious sympathy for their Supreme Commander-in-Chief“To General L.G. Kornilov, she was sent to the front, away from Petrograd.

According to Levitov’s memoirs, at the end of September 1917, he was transferred from the 178th regiment to its reserve battalion, located at the regiment’s quarters in Penza. This transfer and Levitov's subsequent work indicate his connection with the officer organizations supporting General Kornilov and making efforts to gather forces to support him. At the same time, Levitov’s main task after the defeat of the Kornilov speech and the imprisonment of General L. G. Kornilov and his supporters in Bykhov was to study on the spot the “alleged possibilities of gathering Kornilov’s forces.” All this happened without connection with the work carried out by another future leader of the White movement, General M.V. Alekseev. In the fall of 1917, Levitov traveled along the route Rostov-on-Don - Kuban region - Vladikavkaz - Baku and back. “Having reported my impressions to my friends in Penza, I again made my way to Rostov in November, not knowing about General Alekseev’s intentions and taking into account only the transmitted assumptions of General Kornilov’s admirers,” he recalled. “Our partisan, purely officer battalion named after General Kornilov, four-company, formed by Colonel Simanovsky - well acquainted with General Kornilov - even before the campaign had in its ranks many officers from Penza and the Northern Front.”

With the final collapse of the Russian front of the First World War, Levitov firmly decided to go to the Don, where a small Volunteer Army had already begun its formation and the Partisan Battalion named after General Kornilov, led by Colonel V. L. Simanovsky, was located in it. Arriving in Rostov-on-Don at the beginning of 1918, Mikhail Nikolaevich immediately volunteered for the Officer Partisan Battalion. By the time Levitov arrived on the Don, the battalion’s strength was an impressive 500 people for the Volunteer Army of that time—mostly officers (Levitov was enlisted as a private). The problem of replenishing the Volunteer Army and recruiting officers into it was particularly acute at that time. There were thousands of officers on the Don who avoided joining the ranks of volunteers. Before going on the First Kuban Campaign, Levitov managed to take part in the work of the commission to register the numerous officers accumulated in Rostov-on-Don. At the same time, Mikhail Nikolaevich, together with another lieutenant of the Kornilov shock regiment V. Grinevsky, was sent by the command “... with a call to the officers at Mineralnye Vody from General Alekseev and General Kornilov.” The trip brought almost no results; the officers who were in Mineralnye Vody, declared “that they had their own “self-defense,” which in fact ended with all of them dying at the hands of a simple Red partisan detachment.” By own confession Before the start of the First Kuban Campaign, Levitov “traveled through the rear of the Reds twice, once safely, and the second time he was wounded by a dagger.”

During the reorganization of the Volunteer Army on February 12, 1918 in the village of Olginskaya, the Officer Battalion named after General Kornilov was merged into the Kornilov Shock Regiment, into its 1st battalion. Levitov became an ordinary drummer in the 1st officer company, and a little later was appointed sergeant major of the officer company named after General Kornilov. In the ranks of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, Levitov took part in all the battles of the First Kuban Campaign of the Volunteer Army. On March 28, 1918, Mikhail Nikolaevich was wounded for the second time during the Civil War in the fierce battles for Yekaterinodar. Unlike the first wound, the second one turned out to be more serious. He returned to the regiment only on June 27, 1918, at the beginning of the Second Kuban Campaign. Upon returning to the regiment, Levitov was appointed platoon commander in the 1st company, which, according to Mikhail Nikolaevich himself, “after 18 months of commanding my battalion in the Great War, it was still a mark.” But already on June 28, in a battle near the Bogomolov farm, Levitov was again seriously wounded in the arm. “This is already the third wound in the Volunteer Army, two of them on the 28th, which will bring me a lot of trouble in the future,” he recalled. After recovering from his wound at the end of September 1918, in a battle near Stavropol, Mikhail Nikolaevich was again wounded in battle. After his recovery, Levitov was sent from the regiment on a business trip to Crimea, where as a sergeant major he became part of the convoy to guard the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna until her departure from Russia.

Levitov returned to the Kornilov Shock Regiment only in May 1919, before the Volunteer Army left the Kamenny Coal region on the “wide Moscow road.” After the formation of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment began in June 1919 under the command of Captain Ya. A. Pashkevich, Lieutenant M. N. Levitov was appointed commander of its 1st battalion. According to the order for the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment No. 213 dated August 1, 1919, “due to the formation of a reserve regiment from the staff of the training battalion,” Levitov, along with other officers and shock troops, was excluded from the list of the 1st Regiment and was seconded to the battalion headquarters, on on the basis of which the 2nd Kornilovsky Regiment was deployed. Having barely completed its formation, the 2nd Regiment went to the front and showed itself brilliantly. On August 11, 1919, the order for the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment announced the order of the commander of the Volunteer Army, General V.Z. He received his baptism of fire in the battles at the Gotnya station, which the valiant Kornilovites occupied after stubborn battles. All ranks of the regiment [distinguished themselves in] courage and uncontrollable impulse forward. I am happy to testify that the young 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, led by the valiant young captain Pashkevich, seemed worthy younger brother senior Kornilovites. My deepest bow to you for your dashing military work. I am sure that on the way to Moscow you will not lag behind your valiant older brother. I ask Captain Pashkevich to accept my heartfelt gratitude.”

But already on August 3, 1919, Mikhail Nikolaevich was again wounded in the battle for the city of Oboyan. By order of the 2nd Kornilov Regiment No. 5 dated August 5, 1919, he was sent for treatment and returned to the regiment after the capture of Fatezh by the Kornilovites, on September 2, 1919. By order of Regiment No. 87 of October 10, 1919, Lieutenant Levitov was declared commander not the 2nd battalion, but the 1st battalion of the regiment (as amended by order No. 70). In the ranks of his battalion, Levitov participated in the assault on Orel by the Kornilovites - the highest success of the Armed Forces of southern Russia in their “campaign on Moscow.” In November, for a short time, Mikhail Nikolaevich temporarily served as commander of the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment. At the height of the retreat of the All-Soviet Union of Socialists on December 1, 1919, Levitov was appointed assistant commander of the 2nd Kornilov Regiment for combat units. On February 9, 1920, temporarily leading the 2nd Regiment, Levitov took part in the last success of the Whites on the Don Land - the regiment he led managed to take Rostov-on-Don by storm, capturing considerable trophies and a large number of prisoners.

In March 1920, for Levitov, who had been promoted to lieutenant back in 1915, a procedure unexpectedly took place, which he himself perceived as not the most necessary in the current situation of heavy defeat and retreat for the AFSR. On March 13, 1920, during the last battle on the outskirts of Novorossiysk, Mikhail Nikolaevich received news of his promotion to staff captain, captain and lieutenant colonel. This triple proceeding was carried out by orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the AFSR, General A.I. Denikin - dated February 17 (to staff captains and captains) and No. 017 of February 18, 1920 (to lieutenant colonel; seniority - December 1, 1919). "In that historical moment, under the thunder of a real cannonade, something happened to me that seemed completely unnecessary to me, a volunteer of the Great War and the Volunteer Army from the very beginning of its inception: I was immediately promoted to staff captain, captain and lieutenant colonel. […] And now, to the sound of artillery cannonade... the chief of staff of our division of the General Staff, Colonel Kapnin, drove up to me and gave me, with congratulations, the order for my production and the shoulder straps of a lieutenant colonel. I was so amazed by what seemed to me inappropriate at this moment production, although I had served it for a long time, that I was even embarrassed,” Levitov recalled years later. This attitude of Mikhail Nikolaevich to production through two ranks at once is indicative. For him, as for many other ordinary participants in the White struggle, this was far from the most important and decisive thing. He characterized his position in the regiment as follows: “I was considered an old lieutenant, and this saved my position among my many subordinates, senior to me in rank, and I never experienced any damage to my pride from this.” And there were quite a few lieutenants like him placed at the head of battalions and regiments who had senior ranks (and sometimes generals) under their command in the ranks of the 1st Army Corps of the AFSR.

From April 19, 1920, replacing Colonel Ya. A. Pashkevich, who took temporary command of the Kornilov shock division, Levitov temporarily commanded the 2nd Kornilov Regiment, holding this position until May 28, 1920, when Pashkevich returned to the regiment. At the beginning of June, Levitov again temporarily commanded the 2nd Regiment due to the departure of Colonel Pashkevich to division headquarters. The order for the 2nd Regiment No. 177 dated June 12, 1920 announced the awarding of Lieutenant Colonel Levitov with the insignia of the First Kuban Campaign - more than two years after its end. After Colonel Pashkevich was mortally wounded in the battle of Bolshoi Tokmak on June 15, 1920, Lieutenant Colonel Levitov became the head of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment. In the order for regiment No. 218 dated July 16, 1920, Levitov announced: “Due to the death of regiment commander Colonel Pashkevich from a serious wound in battle on July 15, I took command of the regiment.” Then, in June, Levitov was promoted to colonel in charge of the regiment during the defeat of D.P. Zhloba’s cavalry corps in June 1920. At the head of the 2nd regiment, he participated in all the battles of the Kornilov shock division in Northern Tavria. On October 7, 1920, by order of Commander-in-Chief P. N. Wrangel, Mikhail Nikolaevich was awarded the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In the last battles for Crimea, Levitov was seriously wounded on October 28, 1920 on the Perekopsky shaft.

With the evacuation of the Russian Army from Crimea to Gallipoli, the Kornilov Shock Division was reorganized into the Kornilov Shock Regiment. In it, Lieutenant Colonel Levitov was appointed commander of the 2nd battalion. Throughout his life in exile, Levitov’s activities were invariably associated with the Kornilov Regiment. Having passed the Gallipoli seat at the head of his battalion, after the transfer of the Russian army to the Slavic countries, Levitov found himself together with the Kornilovites in Bulgaria. He lived in it for seven years of his life. The position of the ranks of the Russian Army in fraternal Bulgaria was not simple. Added to the difficult political circumstances were difficult living conditions. To provide for themselves and their families, Russian emigrants had to do hard work. physical labor. Together with many other Kornilovites, Mikhail Nikolaevich went to work in the mines in the city of Pernik. In March 1926, as a representative from Pernik (997 people voted for him), Levitov took part in the work of the Russian Foreign Congress in Paris.

The story about the fate of Mikhail Nikolaevich Levitov would not be complete without mentioning his marriage to the sister of mercy of the Kornilov shock regiment, Varvara Sergeevna Vasilyeva. Born in Rostov-on-Don, Varvara was seven years younger than her husband. As a seventeen-year-old student at the Rostov Medical Institute, she volunteered to serve as a nurse in the Volunteer Army. Even before going on the First Kuban Campaign, she participated in the first battles of Ataman A.M. Kaledin near Rostov-on-Don, and then joined the Partisan detachment of Colonel Simanovsky. With the entry into the First Kuban Campaign, during the reorganization of the Dobroarmiya, Varvara Vasilyeva ended up in the Kornilov Shock Regiment . In its composition, she made the First Campaign. In 1919, during the retreat from Orel, the sister was captured and only miraculously escaped thanks to the help of an unknown priest. Returning after several months of wandering to Rostov-on-Don to her parents, when the city was captured by the Kornilovites in February 1920, she again found herself in their ranks.

In 1920, probably even before the forced emigration from Russia, the young people got married. Throughout the war, Varvara Sergeevna was in the ranks of the Kornilov shock division, right up to the evacuation from Crimea. In exile, she also took an active part in the life of the Association of Officials of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, helping her husband in every possible way in his work. It is no coincidence that it was she who designed the cover of the book “Materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment,” to the compilation of which M. N. Levitov devoted several years of his life.

After hard work in the mines in Bulgaria, Mikhail Nikolaevich moved to France in 1929. In Paris, he was appointed head of the Kornilov group in place of the deceased Colonel V.P. Shcheglov. “Due to ignorance of the language, I had to settle on the hardest job - washing cars at night, with minimum pay and work from 19 to 7 o’clock,” recalled Mikhail Nikolaevich. Soon, hard work at the plant forced Levitov to ask to replace him in this position: “Despite my endurance, I was still forced a year later to ask General Skoblin to relieve me of this position, mainly because I could not in the unfamiliar Parisian environment to implement what I had done before. The regiment commander granted my request and transferred the group in France under his command.”

In the early 1960s. Mikhail Nikolaevich headed the Association of Officials of the Kornilov Shock Regiment and remained in this post until the end of his life. 1960-1970s - became a time of active publishing work for Mikhail Nikolaevich. At this time, a number of publications written by Levitov or collections compiled by him were published. In 1963, Levitov took part in the creation of the collection “In the Service of the Fatherland,” published under the editorship of Colonel V.I. Shadnitsky and dedicated to the Vilna Military School. In 1967, the anniversary memo “Kornilovites” was published, the creation of which became for Mikhail Nikolaevich a kind of preparatory work before the subsequent major work dedicated to the Kornilovites. In 1970, a separate brochure authored by Levitov was published, dedicated to the exit of the Kornilov shock division in May 1920 beyond the Perekopsky Val. In 1972, the magazine “First Marcher” published a separate detailed material about the role of the Kornilovites in the defeat of D.P. Zhloba’s cavalry corps in 1920. Finally, in 1974, the main work was published in Paris, summarizing not only the life of Mikhail Nikolaevich himself, but also the writing of the chronicle of Kornilov’s history in exile. Levitov’s “Materials for the History of the Kornilov Shock Regiment” certainly became a milestone in the study of the history of the Russian Civil War.

Mikhail Nikolaevich died in Paris on December 15, 1982. Kornilovets Levitov was buried in the Gallipoli section of the Russian cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois. The names are engraved on the gravestone - Mikhail Nikolaevich Levitov and his wife, sister of mercy of the Kornilov shock regiment Varvara Sergeevna Levitova (Vasilieva) (1900-1988).

The book “Materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment” prepared by M. N. Levitov is not the only regimental history of its kind to see the light of day in Russia abroad. And although the authors and compilers of such publications themselves avoided calling them “regimental histories” (obviously, in comparison with the solid “regimental histories” published in the Russian Empire, created on the basis of a broad source base, with the involvement of considerable funds), they are in fact such, constituting a separate group of sources on the history of the Civil War in Russia.

Prepared for publication by direct participants in the hostilities on the basis of diary entries and a large amount of documentary materials, written and oral memories of fellow soldiers, they are, in fact, collections of documents. They include extensive fragments from the diaries of military operations of regiments and divisions, excerpts from orders, and personal impressions. Despite a certain bias in assessments and the use of already published memoirs, as well as works Soviet authors, regimental histories contain a wealth of factual material.

One of the first military units in 1931, the Markov artillery brigade published its history. In 1937, the book “Kornilov Shock Regiment” by the former head of the intelligence department at the headquarters of the 1st Army Corps of the Volunteer Army, M. A. Kritsky, was published. The next publication was the Markov regimental history, compiled by Lieutenant Colonel V. E. Pavlov. Later, a collection of essays by Markov pioneers and a history of Markov artillerymen were published. In 1974, a new regimental history of the Kornilovites, “Materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment,” was published in Paris, compiled by one of the Kornilov commanders, Colonel M.N. Levitov. The last chronological regimental history of the “colored” regiments was published in 1973-1975. a two-volume chronicle of the Drozdovites, compiled by staff captain V. M. Kravchenko.

As you can see, in the general collection of works, dedicated to history regiments of the 1st Army (Volunteer) Corps, works on the history of the Kornilov units took far from last place. It should be noted that the history of these white parts, of course, is not limited to these voluminous works. The ranks of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, and then the shock troops and officers who became part of the Association of Officials of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, were among the most active in publishing materials on the history of the Civil War. First of all, it is necessary to note the already mentioned anniversary memo “Kornilovtsy”, which, in fact, preceded the release of “Materials for the history of the Kornilov shock regiment” compiled by M. N. Levitov. Separate, as yet little introduced into scientific circulation The array of information is contained in the “Kornilovtsy” newsletter, 75 issues of which were published in Paris from 1952 to 1972. And, of course, the participation of the Kornilovites in writing the chronicle of the Civil War was not limited to the release of separate publications dedicated to the Kornilovites. A large number of publications of the ranks of the Kornilov Shock Regiment were published, first of all, in the magazines “Pioneer” and “Vestnik Pervohodnik”.

Levitov’s “Materials for the History of the Kornilov Shock Regiment” is a rather complex historical source, uneven in its structure and significance. The greatest value in it, of course, are the sources that were directly at the disposal of Mikhail Nikolaevich. These are, first of all, orders for regiments and divisions, combat logs of the Kornilov units, a number of memoirs sent to Levitov by shock troops and officers specifically for the upcoming publication, as well as his own memories, interspersed throughout the text of the book in separate passages signed by him. Of course, Levitov’s own assessments of certain events of the Civil War are also extremely interesting.

Almost always, he gives several opinions about certain military episodes, extensively citing both the memoirs of the leaders of the White movement and the memoirs of the commanders of the Red Army, as well as Soviet historians. It is characteristic that almost always the compiler of Kornilov’s history tries not to justify himself, but to understand the essence of the events that took place. At the same time, he does not avoid an unflattering assessment of some of the black pages of the White movement and the miscalculations of the white command.

In itself, Levitov’s polemics on the pages of the “Materials” with the works of Soviet historians published during their preparation, primarily the work of Colonel K. V. Agureev, are also interesting. The appeal to the latter’s work, published in 1961 during the period when the preparation of the “Materials” began, is far from accidental. For the majority of participants in the White movement, the “march on Moscow” remained an “unhealing wound” and it was extremely important to understand the reasons for its defeat. Less valuable are excerpts published by Levitov from well-known memoirs of prominent participants in the White movement, such as generals A. P. Bogaevsky, P. N. Wrangel, A. I. Denikin, P. N. Krasnov and others.

At the same time, it is necessary, of course, to evaluate the enormous compilation and publishing work of M. N. Levitov as a whole. Despite certain roughness in the compilation of materials in the collection, due primarily to the lack of experience and material resources, it represents a solid work on the history of the Civil War, worthy of the memory of all ranks of the Kornilov shock division.

The re-edition of the book “Materials for the History of the Kornilov Shock Regiment” that we bring to the attention of readers is not just a reproduction of the 1974 edition. In preparing the new edition, a thorough scientific editing of the text was carried out. Almost all texts cited by M. N. Levitov have been clarified historical sources, surnames of personalities, new content and name index have been compiled. Inaccuracies and typos in the quotations given by the compiler in the 1974 edition have been corrected according to the original sources.

Compared to the Paris edition, the publication has been significantly clarified and supplemented with new materials directly related to the history of the units that received the personal patronage of General L. G. Kornilov. This is, first of all, materials from the funds of the Kornilov shock division and the Kornilov shock regiments, stored in the funds of the Russian State Military Archive. Individual applications are published for the first time service records and some other archival materials dedicated to such famous Kornilovites as M. O. Nezhentsev, N. V. Skoblin and M. A. Pashkevich. Information on the number of Kornilov units, compiled on the basis of archival sources, is also published for the first time in separate appendices. Due to lack of space, they are not included in the publication. curriculum vitae about the Kornilovites. A considerable amount of archival material devoted to this topic is planned to be published in the future in a separate collection on the history of the Kornilov units.

When preparing the book for printing, documents and materials from state archives and libraries, as well as private collections, were used. The compiler of the publication expresses gratitude for the assistance in preparing the book to A. Vasiliev, A. S. Gasparyan, N. L. Kalitkina, N. A. Kuznetsov, V. Zh. Tsvetkov and S. G. Shilova, who provided a number of materials and documents for publication .

Notes

Rutych N. N. Biographical reference book of the highest ranks of the Volunteer Army and the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Materials on the history of the White movement. M., 2002. S. 171-172.

All dates in the preface until the end of the Civil War in Russia are given according to the old style (Julian calendar).

Melgunov S.P. The fate of Emperor Nicholas II after abdication. M., 2005. P. 70.

Russian State Military Archive (RGVA). F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 1. L. 1-2.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 1. L. 19

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 1. L. 12.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 2. L. 136 vol.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 22 vol.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 8. L. 1—1 volume.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 9. L. 14.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 13. L. 28-29.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 6. L. 1, 5 vol.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 13. L. 2.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 13. L. 20 rev.

RGVA. F. 39687. Op. 1. D. 14. L. 23-23 vol.

In the service of the Fatherland / Rep. ed. V. I. Shaiditsky. San Francisco, 1963. 527 pp.

Levitov M.N. To the anniversary of the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of the Kornilov shock division on May 25, 1920 and the exit beyond the Perekopsky shaft into Northern Tavria. Paris, 1970.

Levitov M.N. My impressions of the defeat of the Zhloba cavalry corps on June 19 and 20, 1920 in Northern Tavria as an assistant commander of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment for the combat unit // First Walker. Los Angeles, 1972. No. 8. P. 16-26.

History of the Markov artillery brigade. Paris, 1931.

Kritsky M.A. Kornilov shock regiment. Paris, 1937.

Pavlov V. E. Markovites in battles and campaigns for Russia in the liberation war of 1917-1920. Book 1: The Birth of the Volunteer Army. 1st and 2nd Kuban campaigns. Paris: b. i., 1962; Book 2: Attack on Moscow. Retreat. Crimean epic. Leaving the Motherland. Paris: B. i., 1964. When compiling the first volume of Markov’s regimental history, Lieutenant Colonel V. E. Pavlov used the testimony of 83 people, while preparing the second - 101 people.

Markov pioneer artillerymen: D., Viktor Larionov, Ivan Lisenko, Nikolai Pruts. Essays. [B. m.]. [B. G.]; Markov artillerymen. 50 years of loyalty to Russia. Paris, 1967.

Materials for the history of the Kornilov shock regiment / Comp. M. N. Levitov. Paris, 1974. 669 p.

Kravchenko V. M. Drozdovtsy from Iasi to Gallipoli. T. 1. Munich, 1973; T. 2. Munich, 1975.

Kornilovites: Anniversary memo, 1917 - June 10, 1967 / Comp. M. N. Levitov. Paris: Ed. Associations of ranks of the Kornilov shock regiment, 1967. 158 p.

Kornilovites. News bulletin. Paris. No. 1-4, 1952; No. 5-9, 1953; No. 14-18, 1954; No. 19-24, 1955; No. 25-29, 1956; No. 30-34, 1957; No. 36-38, 1958; No. 39-42, 1959; No. 43-46, 1960; No. 47-49, 1961; No. 51-53, 1962; No. 54-57, 1963; No. 58-60, 1964; No. 61-62, 1965; No. 64, 1966; No. 67, 1967; No. 68-69, 1969; No. 70-71, 1970; No. 74, 1971; No. 75, 1972.

Agureev K.V. The defeat of Denikin’s White Guard troops (October 1919 - March 1920). M., 1961.

Russian State Military Archive (RGVA). F. 39686. Directorate of the Kornilov shock division. 1919-1920; F. 39752. Headquarters of the Kornilov shock regiment. 1917-1919; F. 39687. Headquarters of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment. 1919-1920