V.I. Chapaev: interesting facts

Vasily Chapaev was born on February 9, 1887 in the small village of Budaika, in the Kazan province. Today this place is part of Cheboksary - the capital of Chuvashia. Chapaev was Russian by origin - he was the sixth child in a large peasant family. When it was time for Vasily to study, his parents moved to Balakovo (then modern Samara province).

Early years

The boy was sent to a school assigned to the church parish. Father wanted Vasily to become a priest. However, his son's subsequent life had nothing to do with the church. In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army. He was sent to Ukraine, to Kyiv. For some unknown reason, the soldier was returned to the reserves before the end of his service.

The blank spots in the biography of the famous revolutionary are associated with the banal lack of verified documents. In Soviet historiography, the official point of view was that Vasily Chapaev was actually kicked out of the army because of his views. But there is still no documentary evidence of this theory.

First World War

In peacetime, Vasily Chapaev worked as a carpenter and lived with his family in the city of Melekess. In 1914, the First World War began, and the soldier who was in the reserve was again drafted into the tsarist army. Chapaev ended up in the 82nd Infantry Division, which fought the Austrians and Germans in Galicia and Volhynia. At the front he was wounded and promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.

Due to his breakdown, Chapaev was sent to a rear hospital in Saratov. There the non-commissioned officer met the February Revolution. Having recovered, Vasily Ivanovich decided to join the Bolsheviks, which he did on September 28, 1917. His military talents and skills gave him the best recommendation in the conditions of the approaching

In the Red Army

At the end of 1917, Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was appointed commander of the reserve regiment located in Nikolaevsk. Today this city is called Pugachev. At first, the former officer of the tsarist army organized the local Red Guard, which the Bolsheviks established after they came to power. At first there were only 35 people in his squad. The Bolsheviks were joined by the poor, flour-milling peasants, etc. In January 1918, the Chapaevites fought with local kulaks who were dissatisfied with the October Revolution. Gradually the detachment grew and grew thanks to effective propaganda and military victories.

This military formation very soon left its native barracks and went to fight the whites. Here, in the lower reaches of the Volga, the offensive of the forces of General Kaledin developed. Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev took part in the campaign against this. The key battle began near the city of Tsaritsyn, where party organizer Stalin was also located at that time.

Pugachev brigade

After the Kaledin offensive failed, the biography of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev turned out to be connected with the Eastern Front. By the spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks controlled only the European part of Russia (and even then not all of it). In the east, starting from the left bank of the Volga, white power remained.

Chapaev fought most of all with the People's Army of KOMUCH and the Czechoslovak Corps. On May 25, he decided to rename the Red Guard units under his control into the regiment named after Stepan Razin and the regiment named after Pugachev. The new names were references to the famous leaders of popular uprisings in the Volga region in the 17th and 18th centuries. Thus, Chapaev eloquently stated that supporters of the Bolsheviks defended the rights of the lowest strata of the population of the warring country - the peasantry and workers. On August 21, 1918, his army expelled the Czechoslovak Corps from Nikolaevsk. A little later (in November), the head of the Pugachev brigade initiated the renaming of the city to Pugachev.

Fighting with the Czechoslovak Corps

In the summer, the Chapaevites found themselves for the first time on the outskirts of Uralsk, occupied by the White Czechs. Then the Red Guard had to retreat due to lack of food and weapons. But after the success in Nikolaevsk, the division found itself with ten captured machine guns and a lot of other useful requisitioned property. With this goods, the Chapaevites went to fight the People's Army of KOMUCH.

11 thousand armed supporters of the White movement broke through down the Volga in order to unite with the army of the Cossack ataman Krasnov. There were one and a half times less red ones. The proportions in comparison of weapons were approximately the same. However, this lag did not prevent the Pugachev brigade from defeating and scattering the enemy. During that risky operation, the biography of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev became known throughout the Volga region. And thanks to Soviet propaganda, his name became known to the whole country. However, this happened after the death of the famous division commander.

In Moscow

In the fall of 1918, the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army received its first students. Among them was Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. The short biography of this man was full of all kinds of battles. He was responsible for many people under his command.

At the same time, he did not have any systematic education. Chapaev achieved his success in the Red Army thanks to his natural ingenuity and charisma. But now the time has come for him to complete his course at the General Staff Academy.

Chapaev's image

At the educational institution, the director amazed those around him, on the one hand, with the agility of his mind, and on the other, with his ignorance of the simplest general educational facts. For example, there is a well-known historical anecdote that says that Chapaev could not show on the map where London was located and because he simply had no idea about their existence. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, like everything connected with the myth about one of the most legendary characters of the civil war, but it is difficult to deny that the head of the Pugachev division was a typical representative of the lower classes, which, however, only benefited his image among his comrades.

Of course, in the rear calm of Moscow, such an energetic person who did not like to sit still, like Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev, languished. The brief elimination of tactical illiteracy could not deprive him of the feeling that his place as a commander was only at the front. Several times he wrote to headquarters with requests to recall him in the thick of events. Meanwhile, in February 1919, another aggravation occurred on the Eastern Front associated with Kolchak’s counteroffensive. At the end of winter, Chapaev finally went back to his native army.

Back at the front

The commander of the 4th Army, Mikhail Frunze, appointed Chapaev as head of the 25th Division, which he commanded until his death. Over the course of six months, this formation, consisting mainly of proletarian conscripts, carried out dozens of tactical operations against the whites. It was here that Chapaev revealed himself to the fullest as a military leader. In the 25th Division, he became known throughout the country thanks to his fiery speeches to the soldiers. In general, the division commander was always inseparable from his subordinates. This feature revealed the romantic nature of the Civil War, which was later praised in Soviet literature.

Vasily Chapaev, whose biography spoke of him as a typical person from the masses, was remembered by his descendants for his unbreakable connection with this very people in the person of ordinary Red Army soldiers who fought in the Volga region and the Ural steppes.

Tactician

As a tactician, Chapaev mastered several techniques, which he successfully used during the division's march to the east. A characteristic feature was that it acted in isolation from the allied units. The Chapaevites have always been in the vanguard. It was they who launched the offensive, and often finished off the enemies on their own. It is known about Vasily Chapaev that he often resorted to maneuver tactics. His division was distinguished by its efficiency and mobility. The Whites often did not keep up with her movements, even if they wanted to organize a counterattack.

Chapaev always kept a specially trained group on one of the flanks, which was supposed to deliver the decisive blow during the battle. With the help of such a maneuver, the Red Army soldiers brought chaos into the enemy ranks and surrounded their enemies. Since the fighting took place mainly in the steppe zone, the soldiers always had room for maneuver. Sometimes they took on a reckless character, but the Chapaevites were invariably lucky. In addition, their courage baffled their opponents.

Ufa operation

Chapaev never acted in a stereotyped manner. In the midst of a battle, he could give the most unexpected order, which turned the course of events upside down. For example, in May 1919, during clashes near Bugulma, the commander initiated an attack on a wide front, despite the risk of such a maneuver.

Vasily Chapaev moved tirelessly to the east. The short biography of this military leader also contains information about the successful Ufa operation, during which the future capital of Bashkiria was captured. On the night of June 8, 1919, the Belaya River was crossed. Now Ufa has become a springboard for the further advance of the Reds to the east.

Since the Chapaevites were at the forefront of the attack, having been the first to cross the Belaya, they actually found themselves surrounded. The division commander himself was wounded in the head, but continued to command, being directly among his soldiers. Next to him was Mikhail Frunze. In a stubborn battle, the Red Army recaptured street after street. It is believed that it was then that the whites decided to break their opponents with a so-called psychic attack. This episode formed the basis for one of the most famous scenes of the cult film “Chapaev”.

Death

For the victory in Ufa, Vasily Chapaev received. In the summer, he and his division defended the approaches to the Volga. The division commander became one of the first Bolsheviks to arrive in Samara. With his direct participation, this strategically important city was finally taken and cleared of the White Czechs.

By the beginning of autumn, Chapaev found himself on the banks of the Ural River. While in Lbischensk with his headquarters, he and his division were unexpectedly attacked by the White Cossacks. It was a bold, deep enemy raid organized by General Nikolai Borodin. The target of the attack was largely Chapaev himself, who turned into a painful headache for White. In the ensuing battle the division commander died.

For Soviet culture and propaganda, Chapaev became a uniquely popular character. A great contribution to the creation of this image was made by the Vasiliev brothers’ film, which was also loved by Stalin. In 1974, the house where Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was born was turned into his museum. Numerous settlements are named after the division commander.

There are many legends and myths about the life and death of Chapaev. And the point is not that the truth is not known! Not at all! The events are quite meticulously documented. I bring to your attention two views on a historical event; they do not radically contradict each other, but complement each other. First, the whites' point of view.

CHAPAYEV - DESTROY!

What do we know about the life and death of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev - a man who truly became an idol for the older generation? What his commissioner Dmitry Furmanov said in his book, and, perhaps, what everyone saw in the film of the same name. However, both of these sources turned out to be far from the truth.
The destruction of the legendary hero of the Reds - V.I. Chapaev with the headquarters and a significant part of the considered invincible Red 25th Infantry Division, which crushed the famous Kappelites, is one of the most outstanding and surprising victories of the White Guards over the Bolsheviks. Until now, this special operation, which should go down in the history of military art, has not been studied. Our story today is about what actually happened on that distant day, September 5, 1919, and how a large detachment of Reds led by Chapaev was destroyed.

Retreat

It was August 1919. On the Ural Front, the Cossacks, desperately resisting, retreated under the powerful onslaught of the 4th and 11th Red Armies. The Soviet command paid special attention to this front, realizing that it was through the lands of the Ural Cossack army that it was easiest to unite the troops of Kolchak and Denikin, that the Ural Cossacks could keep the connection between Soviet Russia and Red Turkestan under constant threat, and also that this area was strategically important, as it was not only a grain granary capable of feeding a large army, but also a territory rich in oil.

Ural Cossacks

At this time, the Ural Cossacks were in a difficult situation: most of their territory was under the occupation of the Reds and was devastated by them; a typhus epidemic raged among the population and military personnel, daily snatching away dozens of irreplaceable soldiers; there were not enough officers; The army experienced a catastrophic shortage of weapons, uniforms, ammunition, shells, medicines, and medical personnel. The Ural Cossacks largely had to gain everything in battle, since there was almost no help from Kolchak and Denikin. At this time, the Bolsheviks had already pushed the whites back beyond the village of Saharnaya, beyond which the sandy, infertile lower reaches of the Ural River began, where there was nothing to feed the horses. A little more - and the Cossacks will lose their horses, their main strength...

"Adventure"

To try to find a way out of the situation, the ataman of the Urals, Lieutenant General V.S. Tolstov, convened a circle of officers from hundreds to corps commanders. At it, the old commanders, led by General Titruyev, advocated a conventional offensive operation, proposing to unite the cavalry units of the Urals from 3 thousand checkers into 3 lavas and attack the well-fortified village of Sakharnaya with 15 thousand people of red infantry, a large number of machine guns and guns. Such an attack across the steppe, as flat as a table, would have been obvious suicide, and the plan of the “old men” was rejected. They accepted the plan proposed by the “youth”, which the “old people” called an “adventure”. According to this plan, a small but well-armed detachment of the best fighters on the toughest horses was allocated from the Ural Separate White Army, which was supposed to secretly pass the location of the Red troops without engaging them in battle, and penetrate deep into their rear. Just as secretly, he had to approach the Lbischenskaya village, occupied by the Reds, take it with a sudden blow and cut off the Red troops from their bases, forcing them to retreat. At this time, Cossack patrols caught two Red orderlies with secret documents, from which it became clear that the headquarters of the entire Chapaev group, warehouses of weapons, ammunition, and ammunition for two rifle divisions were located in Lbischensk, and the number of Red forces was determined. According to Dmitry Furmanov, commissar of the 25th Infantry Division, “the Cossacks knew this and took this into account during their undoubtedly talented raid... They had very strong hopes for their operation and therefore put the most experienced military leaders at the head of the matter.”

Special squad

The White Guard special detachment included the Cossacks of the 1st Division of the 1st Ural Corps, Colonel T.I. Sladkov, and the White Guard peasants, Lieutenant Colonel F.F. Poznyakov. Combat General N.N. Borodin was placed at the head of a detachment with a total number of 1192 people with 9 machine guns and 2 guns. On the campaign, they were ordered to take only enough food for a week and more ammunition, abandoning the convoy for speed of movement.
The task before the detachment was almost impossible: Lbischensk was guarded by Red forces of up to 4,000 bayonets and sabers with a large number of machine guns; during the day, two red airplanes patrolled the area of ​​the village. To carry out the special operation, it was necessary to travel about 150 kilometers across the bare steppe, and only at night, since daytime movement could not go unnoticed by the Red pilots. In this case, further operation became pointless, since its success depended entirely on surprise.

The special squad goes on a raid

On August 31, at nightfall, a white special detachment left the village of Kalenoy into the steppe to the west. During the entire raid, both Cossacks and officers were forbidden to make noise, talk loudly, or smoke.

The first mistakes of the Reds

As it turned out, the red foragers noticed the patrols, but Chapaev did not attach much importance to this. He and the divisional commissar Baturin only laughed at the fact that “they were traveling in the steppe.” According to red intelligence, there were fewer and fewer fighters in the ranks of the whites, who were retreating further and further to the Caspian Sea. Naturally, they could not believe that the Whites would dare to undertake such a bold raid and would be able to slip through the dense ranks of the Red troops unnoticed. Even when it was reported that an attack on the convoy had been carried out, Chapaev did not see any danger in this. He believed that these were the actions of someone who had wandered far from his patrol.

Capture of Lbischensk

At 10 o'clock in the evening on September 4, 1919, a special detachment went to Lbischensk. Before leaving, Colonel Sladkov addressed a parting word to the soldiers, asking them to be in battle together, and when taking the village, not to get carried away with collecting trophies and not to scatter, as this could lead to the failure of the operation.

How Chapaev died

A special platoon assigned to capture Chapaev broke through to his apartment - headquarters.

Party committee resistance

Esaul Faddeev saw a group of Reds appear from the direction of the river, counterattack the Whites and take up residence at the headquarters. This group covered Chapaev’s crossing, trying at all costs to detain the Whites, whose main forces had not yet approached the center of Lbischensk, and Chapaev was missed. The defense of the headquarters was headed by its chief, 23-year-old Nochkov, a former officer in the tsarist army. By this time, the detachment stationed at the headquarters paralyzed all the Whites’ attempts to capture the center of Lbischensk with brutal machine-gun and rifle fire. The headquarters was in such a place that all approaches to the center of the village were covered from it. After several unsuccessful attacks, Cossacks and soldiers began to accumulate behind the walls of neighboring houses. The Reds recovered, began to defend stubbornly and even made several attempts to counterattack the Whites. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses of the battle, the shooting was such that no one even heard the commander’s orders. At this time, part of the communists and soldiers of the red escort (firing) team, led by Commissar Baturin, who had nothing to lose, occupied the party committee on the outskirts of the village with a machine gun, fighting off attempts by the whites to capture Chapaev’s headquarters from the other side. On the third side flowed the Urals with a high bank. The situation was so serious that a hundred Cossacks, blocking the road from Lbischensk, were pulled up to the village and attacked the party several times, but rolled back, unable to withstand the fire.

Red headquarters taken

At this time, the Cossacks of the cornet Safarov, seeing the delay at the headquarters, quickly jumped out in a cart 50 steps away from him, hoping to suppress the resistance with machine-gun fire. They did not even manage to turn around: the horses that were carrying the cart and everyone who was in it were immediately killed and wounded. One of the wounded remained in the cart under the lead rain of the Reds. The Cossacks tried to help him, running out from around the corners of the houses, but they suffered the same fate. Seeing this, General Borodin led his headquarters to his rescue. The houses were almost cleared of the Reds, but a Red Army soldier was hiding in one of them, who, seeing the general's shoulder straps sparkling in the morning sun, fired from his rifle. The bullet hit Borodin in the head. This happened when the Reds no longer had any hope of retaining the village. Colonel Sladkov, who took command of the special detachment, ordered the machine-gun special platoon to take the house where Baturin was holed up and then take over the red headquarters. While some distracted the Reds by exchanging fire with them, others, taking two Lewis light machine guns, climbed onto the roof of a nearby, higher house. After about half a minute, the resistance of the party committee was broken: the Cossack machine guns turned the roof of his house into a sieve, killing most of the defenders.
At this time, the Cossacks pulled up the battery. The Reds could not withstand the gunfire and fled to the Urals. The headquarters was taken. The wounded Nochkov was abandoned, he crawled under a bench, where the Cossacks found him and killed him.

Losses of Chapaevites

The only major omission of the organizers of the Lbishchensky raid was that they did not promptly transport a detachment to the other side of the Urals that could destroy all the fugitives. Thus, for a long time, the Reds would not know about the disaster in Lbischensk, continuing to send convoys through it to Sakharnaya, which would invariably be intercepted by the White Guards. During this time, it was possible to encircle and liquidate the unsuspecting red garrisons of not only Sakharnaya, but also Uralsk, thereby causing the collapse of the entire Soviet Turkestan front...
A chase was sent for the few who swam across the Urals, but they were not caught up. By 10 o'clock on September 5, the organized resistance of the Reds in Lbischensk was broken, and by 12 o'clock in the afternoon the battle stopped. In the area of ​​the village, up to 1,500 Reds were killed, 800 were taken prisoner. Many drowned or were killed while crossing the Urals and on the other bank. In the next 2 days of the Cossacks’ stay in Lbischensk, about a hundred more Reds were caught hiding in attics, cellars, and haylofts. The population gave them all up. P.S. Baturin, commissar of the 25th division, who replaced Furmanov, hid under the stove in one of the huts, but the owner handed him over to the Cossacks. According to the most conservative estimates, during the Battle of Lbischen the Reds lost at least -2,500 killed and captured. The total white losses during this operation were 118 people - 24 killed and 94 wounded. The most severe loss for the Cossacks was the death of the valiant General Borodin.
Knowing nothing about the battle that took place, soon large red convoys, rear institutions, staff workers, a school of red cadets, and a punitive “special forces detachment” came to the village, sadly “famous” during decossackization. They were so confused by surprise that they didn’t even have time to offer resistance. They were all immediately captured. The cadets and the “special forces detachment” were almost completely cut down by sabers.

The trophies taken in Lbischensk turned out to be huge. Ammunition, food, equipment for 2 divisions, a radio station, machine guns, cinematographic devices, and 4 airplanes were captured. On the same day, one more was added to these four. The red pilot, not knowing about what had happened, landed in Lbischensk. There were other trophies. Colonel Izergin talks about them like this: “In Lbischensk, Chapaev’s headquarters was located not without amenities and a pleasant pastime: among the prisoners - or trophies - were a large number of typists and stenographers. Obviously, the Red headquarters write a lot..."

“I rewarded myself”

There were some oddities too. Pogodaev describes one of them: “The Cossack Kuzma Minovskov rode up to Myakushkin on a horse. On his head, instead of a cap, he had a pilot’s helmet, and his chest, from one shoulder to the other, was decorated with as many as five Orders of the Red Banner. “What the hell, what kind of masquerade, Kuzma?!” Do you wear the Red Order?!” - Myakushkin asked him menacingly. “Yes, I took off the rubber cap from the Soviet pilot, and we got these orders at Chapaev’s headquarters. There were several boxes of them... The guys took as much as they wanted... The prisoners say: Chapai had just been sent to the Red Army soldiers for fighting, but he didn’t even have time to distribute them - we came here... But of course, he earned money in a fair fight. Then Petka and Ma-karka were supposed to wear it, and now the Cossack Kuzma Potapovich Minovskov is wearing it... Wait for them to reward you, he rewarded himself,” the fighter answered. Nicholas marveled at the inexhaustible cheerfulness of his Cossack and let him go..."

Reasons for the defeat

Furmanov, speaking about the reasons for such a stunning defeat of the Reds, writes that Chapaev’s entourage was someone who removed the most “vigilant fighters of the revolution” - the Red cadets from the guard, and that during the battle in Lbischensk itself, the residents of the village raised a revolt at the very an inopportune moment for the Bolsheviks, and that warehouses and institutions were captured immediately. Not a single document speaks in favor of Furmanov’s arguments. Firstly, it was impossible to put the cadets on guard, since they simply were not in Lbischensk on September 4, since they did not have time to arrive there and arrived when everything was over. Secondly, in Lbischensk only children, decrepit old men and women remained among the inhabitants, and all the men were in the ranks of the whites. Thirdly, the captured transporters told us where the Reds were and where the most important points were located.
As the reasons for the complete success of the Whites, one should note the highest professionalism of the White Guard command and officers, the dedication and heroism of the rank and file, and the carelessness of Chapaev himself.
Now about the “inconsistencies” between the film and the book “Chapaev”. This article is written on archival materials. “Why then was it necessary to deceive the people with the beautiful death of Chapai?” - the reader will ask. It's simple. A hero like Chapaev, according to the Soviet authorities, should have died as a hero. It was impossible to show that he was almost captured sleepily and was taken out of the battle in a helpless state and died from a wound in the stomach. It turned out somehow ugly. In addition, there was a party order: to present Chapaev in the most heroic light! For this purpose, they invented a white armored car that did not really exist, which he allegedly threw grenades from the headquarters. If the white detachment had armored cars, it would have been immediately discovered, since the noise of engines in the silence of the night can be heard in the steppe for many kilometers!

Conclusions

What was the significance of the Lbischen special operation? Firstly, it showed that the actions of relatively small special forces in one strike, which took a total of 5 days, can nullify the two-month efforts of a much superior enemy. Secondly, results were achieved that are difficult to obtain by conducting military operations “as usual”: the headquarters of the entire military group of the Red Army of the Turkestan Front was destroyed, there was a breakdown in communication between the Red troops and their demoralization, which forced them to flee to Uralsk. As a result, the Reds were thrown back to the lines, from where they launched their offensive against the Urals in July 1919. The moral significance for the Cossacks of the very fact that Chapaev, who boasted at every rally of crushing victories over the Urals (in fact, not a single Cossack regiment was defeated by him) was destroyed by their own hands, was truly enormous. This fact showed that even the best Red bosses can be successfully beaten. However, the White Guards were prevented from repeating such a special operation in Uralsk by inconsistency of actions between commanders, the catastrophic development of a typhus epidemic among personnel and a sharp increase in Red forces on the Turkestan front, which were able to recover only after 3 months due to the collapse of Kolchak’s front.

Sergey BALMASOV.
magazine "Soldier of Fortune"

How did Chapaev die?

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev- one of the most tragic and mysterious figures of the Civil War in Russia. This is connected with the mysterious death of the famous red commander. Discussions continue to this day regarding the circumstances surrounding the murder of the legendary division commander.

The official Soviet version of the death of Vasily Chapaev states that the division commander, who, by the way, was only 32 years old at the time of his death, was killed in the Urals by White Cossacks from the combined detachment of the 2nd division of Colonel Sladkov and the 6th division of Colonel Borodin. The famous Soviet writer Dmitry Furmanov, who at one time served as political commissar of the “Chapaev” 25th Infantry Division, in his most famous book “Chapaev” talked about how the division commander allegedly died in the waves of the Urals.

First, about the official version of Chapaev’s death. He died on September 5, 1919 on the Ural Front. Shortly before Chapaev’s death, the 25th Infantry Division, which was under his command, received an order from the commander of the Turkestan Front, Mikhail Frunze, about active operations on the left bank of the Urals - in order to prevent active interaction between the Ural Cossacks and the armed formations of the Kazakh Alash-Orda.

The headquarters of the Chapaev division was at that time in the district town of Lbischensk. There were also governing bodies, including the tribunal and the revolutionary committee. The city was guarded by 600 people from the divisional school; in addition, there were unarmed and untrained mobilized peasants in the city. Under these conditions, the Ural Cossacks decided to abandon a frontal attack on the Red positions and instead carry out a raid on Lbischensk in order to immediately defeat the division headquarters.

The combined group of Ural Cossacks, aimed at defeating the Chapaev headquarters and personally destroying Vasily Chapaev, was led by Colonel Nikolai Nikolaevich Borodin, commander of the 6th division of the Ural Separate Army. Borodin's Cossacks were able to approach Lbischensk without being noticed by the Reds. They succeeded in this thanks to timely shelter in the reeds in the Kuzda-Gora tract.

At 3 a.m. on September 5, the division began an attack on Lbischensk from the west and north. The 2nd division of Colonel Timofey Ippolitovich Sladkov moved from the south to Lbischensk. For the Reds, the situation was complicated by the fact that both divisions of the Ural Army were mostly staffed by Cossacks - natives of Lbischensk, who had excellent knowledge of the terrain and could successfully operate in the vicinity of the town. The surprise of the attack also played into the hands of the Ural Cossacks. The Red Army soldiers immediately began to surrender, only some units tried to resist, but to no avail.

Local residents - Ural Cossacks and Cossack women - also actively helped their fellow countrymen from the Borodino division. For example, the commissar of the 25th division Baturin, who tried to hide in a stove, was handed over to the Cossacks. The owner of the house where he lived reported where he had gotten into. Cossacks from Borodin's division massacred captured Red Army soldiers. At least 1,500 Red Army soldiers were killed, and another 800 Red Army soldiers remained in captivity. To capture the commander of the 25th division, Vasily Chapaev, Colonel Borodin formed a special platoon of the most trained Cossacks, and appointed the under-soldier Belonozhkin to command it.

Belonozhkin's people found the house where Chapaev lived and attacked him. However, the division commander managed to jump out the window and run to the river. Along the way, he collected the remnants of the Red Army - about a hundred people. The detachment had a machine gun and Chapaev organized the defense. The official version says that it was during this retreat that Chapaev died. None of the Cossacks, however, were able to find his body, even despite the promised reward for “Chapay’s head.” What happened to the division commander? According to one version, he drowned in the Ural River. According to another, the wounded Chapaev was placed on a raft by two Hungarian Red Army soldiers and transported across the river.

However, during the crossing, Chapaev died from loss of blood. The Hungarian Red Army soldiers buried him in the sand and covered the grave with reeds. By the way, Colonel Nikolai Borodin himself also died in Lbischensk, and on the same day as Vasily Chapaev. When the colonel was driving down the street in a car, Red Army soldier Volkov, who was hiding in a haystack and served as a guard for the 30th air squadron, shot the commander of the 6th division in the back.

The colonel's body was taken to the village of Kalyony in the Ural region, where he was buried with military honors. Posthumously, Nikolai Borodin was awarded the rank of major general, so in many publications he is referred to as “General Borodin,” although during the assault on Lbischensk he was still a colonel. In fact, the death of a combat commander during the Civil War was not something extraordinary. However, in Soviet times, a kind of cult of Vasily Chapaev was created, who was remembered and revered much more than many other prominent Red commanders.

Who, for example, besides professional historians - specialists in the history of the Civil War today, does the name of Vladimir Azin, the commander of the 28th Infantry Division, who was captured by the whites and was brutally killed (according to some sources, even torn alive, being tied to two trees or, according to another version, to two horses)? But during the Civil War, Vladimir Azin was no less famous and successful commander than Chapaev.

First of all, let us recall that during the Civil War or immediately after its end, a number of Red commanders died, the most charismatic and talented, who were very popular “among the people,” but were very skeptically perceived by the party leadership. Not only Chapaev, but also Vasily Kikvidze, Nikolai Shchors, Nestor Kalandarishvili and some other Red military leaders died under very strange circumstances. This gave rise to a fairly widespread version that the Bolsheviks themselves were behind their deaths, who were dissatisfied with the “deviation from the party course” of the listed military leaders.

And Chapaev, and Kikvidze, and Kalandarishvili, and Shchors, and Kotovsky came from Socialist Revolutionary and anarchist circles, which were then perceived by the Bolsheviks as dangerous rivals in the struggle for leadership of the revolution. The Bolshevik leadership did not trust such popular commanders with the “wrong” past. They were associated by party leaders with “partisanship,” “anarchy,” and were perceived as people incapable of obeying and very dangerous.

For example, Nestor Makhno was also a Red commander at one time, but then he again opposed the Bolsheviks and turned into one of the most dangerous opponents of the Reds in Novorossiya and Little Russia. It is known that Chapaev had repeated conflicts with the commissars. Actually, due to conflicts, Dmitry Furmanov, by the way, himself a former anarchist, left the 25th division. The reasons for the conflict between the commander and the commissar lay not only in the “managerial” plane, but also in the sphere of intimate relationships.

Chapaev began to show too persistent signs of attention to Furmanov’s wife Anna, who complained to her husband, and he openly expressed his dissatisfaction with Chapaev and quarreled with the commander. An open conflict began, which led to Furmanov leaving his post as division commissar. In that situation, the command decided that Chapaev was a more valuable cadre as a division commander than Furmanov as a commissar. It is interesting that after Chapaev’s death, it was Furmanov who wrote a book about the division commander, largely laying the foundation for the subsequent popularization of Chapaev as a hero of the Civil War.

Quarrels with the division commander did not prevent his former commissar from maintaining respect for the figure of his commander. The book “Chapaev” became Furmanov’s truly successful work as a writer. She attracted the attention of the entire young Soviet Union to the figure of the Red commander, especially since in 1923 the memories of the Civil War were very fresh. It is possible that if not for Furmanov’s work, Chapaev’s name would have suffered the same fate as the names of other famous Red commanders of the Civil War - only professional historians and residents of his native places would have remembered him. Chapaev was survived by three children - daughter Claudia (1912-1999), sons Arkady (1914-1939) and Alexander (1910-1985). After the death of their father, they remained with their grandfather, the father of Vasily Ivanovich, but he soon died too. The division commander's children ended up in orphanages.

They were remembered only after Dmitry Furmanov’s book was published in 1923. After this event, the former commander of the Turkestan Front, Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze, became interested in Chapaev’s children. Alexander Vasilyevich Chapaev graduated from technical school and worked as an agronomist in the Orenburg region, but after military service in the army he entered a military school. By the time the Second World War began, he served with the rank of captain at the Podolsk Artillery School, went to the front, after the war he served in artillery in command positions and rose to the rank of major general, deputy commander of the artillery of the Moscow Military District.

Arkady Chapaev became a military pilot, commanded an aviation unit, but died in 1939 as a result of an airplane accident. Klavdia Vasilievna graduated from the Moscow Food Institute, then worked in party work. Meanwhile, another version, contradicting the official one, appeared about the circumstances of the death of Vasily Chapaev, or more precisely, about the motives for revealing the location of the red commander.

It was voiced back in 1999 to the correspondent of “Arguments and Facts” by Vasily Ivanovich’s daughter, 87-year-old Klavdiya Vasilievna, still alive at that time. She believed that the culprit in the death of her father, the famous division commander, was her stepmother, the second wife of Vasily Ivanovich Pelageya Kameshkertsev. Allegedly, she cheated on Vasily Ivanovich with the head of the artillery warehouse, Georgy Zhivolozhinov, but was exposed by Chapaev. The division commander staged a harsh showdown with his wife, and Pelageya, out of revenge, brought the whites to the house where the red commander was hiding.

At the same time, she acted out of momentary emotions, without calculating the consequences of her action and, most likely, simply without thinking with her head. Of course, such a version could not be voiced in Soviet times. After all, she would have cast doubt on the created image of the hero, showing that in his family there were passions that were not alien to “mere mortals,” such as adultery and subsequent female revenge. At the same time, Klavdia Vasilyevna did not question the version that Chapaev was transported across the Urals by Hungarian Red Army soldiers, who buried his body in the sand. This version, by the way, does not in any way contradict the fact that Pelageya could get out of Chapaev’s house and “surrender” his location to the whites.

By the way, Pelageya Kameshkertseva herself was already placed in a psychiatric hospital in Soviet times, and therefore even if her guilt in Chapaev’s death had become clear, they would not have brought her to justice. The fate of Georgy Zhivolozhinov was also tragic - he was placed in a camp for agitating the kulaks against the Soviet regime. Meanwhile, the version about the wife being a cheater seems unlikely to many. Firstly, it is unlikely that the whites would talk to the wife of the red commander, much less believe her. Secondly, it is unlikely that Pelageya herself would have dared to go to the whites, as she might have feared reprisals. It’s another matter if she was a “link” in the chain of betrayal of the division commander, which could have been organized by his haters from the party apparatus.

At that time, a rather tough confrontation was planned between the “commissar” part of the Red Army, oriented towards Leon Trotsky, and the “commander” part, to which the entire glorious galaxy of red commanders who came from the people belonged. And it was Trotsky’s supporters who could, if not directly kill Chapaev with a shot in the back while crossing the Urals, then “substitute” him for the Cossacks’ bullets.

The saddest thing is that Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev, a truly military and honored commander, no matter how you treat him, in the late Soviet and post-Soviet times, completely undeservedly became the character of completely stupid jokes, humorous stories and even television programs. Their authors mocked the tragic death of this man, the circumstances of his life. Chapaev was portrayed as a narrow-minded person, although it is unlikely that such a character as the hero of jokes could not only lead a division of the Red Army, but also rise to the rank of sergeant major in tsarist times.

Although a sergeant major is not an officer, only the best of the soldiers, those capable of command, the most intelligent, and in wartime, the bravest, became one. By the way, Vasily Chapaev received the ranks of junior non-commissioned officer, senior non-commissioned officer, and sergeant major during the First World War. In addition, he was wounded more than once - near Tsumanya his arm tendon was broken, then, returning to duty, he was wounded again - by shrapnel in his left leg. The nobility of Chapaev as a person is fully demonstrated by the story of his life with Pelageya Kameshkertseva. When Chapaev's friend Pyotr Kameshkertsev was killed in battle during the First World War, Chapaev gave his word to take care of his children.

He came to Peter's widow Pelageya and told her that she alone could not take care of Peter's daughters, so he would take them to the house of his father Ivan Chapaev. But Pelageya decided to get along with Vasily Ivanovich herself, so as not to be separated from the children. Sergeant Major Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev graduated from the First World War with the Knight of St. George, having survived battles with the Germans. And the Civil War brought him death - at the hands of his fellow countrymen, and maybe those whom he considered comrades-in-arms.

The combined Cossack detachment of Colonel of the Ural Army Timofey Sladkov, having carried out a secretive raid behind the rear of the Reds, reached the approaches to Lbischensk on September 4, 1919. The headquarters of the 25th Infantry Division of the 4th Army of the Turkestan Front was located in the village, which was then considered the best and most combat-ready division in almost the entire Red Army.

And in terms of its numbers, power and weapons, it was quite comparable with other army formations of that time: 21.5 thousand bayonets and sabers, at least 203 machine guns, 43 guns, an armored vehicle detachment, and even an attached aviation detachment.

Directly in Lbischensk, the Reds had from three to four thousand people, although a significant part of them were headquarters services and rear units. Divisional Chief - Vasily Chapaev.

MASSACRE IN LBISHCHENSK

Having cut the telegraph wires at night and silently removed the Red Army posts and guards, the strike group of Sladkov’s detachment burst into the village at dawn on September 5, 1919, and by ten in the morning it was all over.

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev

As stated in the operational report of the headquarters of the 4th Army No. 01083, dated 10 o’clock in the morning on September 6, 1919, “on the night of September 4th to 5th, the enemy in the amount of up to 300 people with one machine gun with one gun carried out a raid on Lbischensk and Kozhekharovsky outpost, captured them and moved towards the Budarinsky outpost.

The Red Army units located in Lbischensk and the Kozhekharovsky outpost retreated in disarray to the Budarinsky outpost. The headquarters located in Lbischensk was completely captured. The staff of the headquarters were cut down, chief Chapaev with several telegraph operators tried to hide on the Bukhara side, but was seriously wounded and abandoned by the telegraph operators.”

Usually fear has big eyes, but here, out of fear, the enemy’s numbers were greatly underestimated: according to white memoirists, 1,192 soldiers with nine machine guns took part in the raid on Lbischensk, and there was also a gun.

Of course, all this mass simply had nowhere to turn around at night on the narrow streets of the village, so there were probably no more than 300 people in the strike group, the rest were on the flanks and in reserve.

But this was enough, the defeat was so terrifying that even a day later there was no one to convey to the army headquarters the real details and details.

And who could believe that such a significant detachment of the enemy, which the headquarters of the Turkestan Front believed was already practically defeated and was retreating randomly to the Caspian Sea, managed not only to freely penetrate the rear of the Red group, but also to go unnoticed over 150 km along the bare and scorched steppe, approaching the village, over which airplanes tirelessly patrolled during the day.

Nevertheless, the division headquarters was cut out, divisional logistics support units, artillery and engineering departments - with sapper units, a command and communications center, foot and horse reconnaissance teams, a divisional school for junior commanders, a political department, a special department, a revolutionary tribunal, and part of an armored squad were destroyed.

Vasily Chapaev (in the center, sitting) with military commanders. 1918

In total, the Cossacks killed and captured over 2,400 Red Army soldiers, took considerable trophies - over 2,000 carts with various property, a radio station, five cars, captured five airplanes with pilots and service personnel.

Of the taken, the Whites were able to take out “only” 500 carts, they had to destroy the rest - there were as many as two divisions’ worth of weapons, ammunition, ammunition and food in the carts and warehouses of Lbischensk. But the main loss was the division commander himself, Chapaev.

What exactly happened to him never became known: he simply disappeared without a trace, he was never found among the living or among the dead - neither white nor red. And all the versions of what happened to him - killed, hacked beyond recognition, drowned in the Urals, died from wounds, buried secretly - are not based on either documents or evidence.

But the most deceitful version is the canonical one, launched into wide circulation in 1923 by the former commissar of the Chapaev division, Dmitry Furmanov, and from his novel “Chapaev” migrated to the famous film.

Still from the film "Chapaev" (1934)

Confrontation between the Chief and the Commissioner

What could Furmanov know about the Lbischensky tragedy? He also could not work with original documents - due to their complete absence in nature, as will be discussed below. And he also didn’t really communicate with direct witnesses from among the former Chapaevites, since during the three months of his commissarship with Chapaev he did not acquire any authority among the fighters, and remained a stranger to them, sent solely to spy on their beloved commander.

Yes, he himself never really hid his open contempt for the Chapaevites: “bandits commanded by a mustachioed sergeant major” - this is from Furmanov’s own personal notes. Furmanov himself composed the legend about the wonderful and even supposedly friendly relationship between the commissar and Chapaev.

In real life, judging by the documents, the commissioner hated Chapaev. In any case, this is eloquently evidenced by letters and diary entries published by historian Andrei Ganin from Furmanov’s collection, located in the manuscript department of the Russian State Library.

And the division commander did not burn with love for the commissars as such, he was known as a anti-Semite and always deliberately distorted the commissar’s surname, calling him “Comrade Furman,” as if hinting at his nationality.

“How many times have you mocked and mocked the commissars, how much you hate political departments,” Furmanov, who had already been transferred from the division, wrote to Chapaev, “... you mock what the Central Committee created.” Adding with an open threat: “After all, for these evil ridicule and for their boorish attitude towards the commissars, such fellows are expelled from the party and handed over to the Cheka.”

And it turns out that this is also because the men did not share the woman - Chapaev fell for Furmanov’s wife! “He wanted my death,” Furmanov seethed indignantly, “so that Naya would go to him... He can be decisive not only for noble, but also for “vile deeds.”

Offended by Chapaev’s tender attention to his wife (who, by the way, does not reject these advances at all), Furmanov sends an angry message to Chapaev. But the duel, even on feathers, did not work out: the commander, apparently, simply beat his commissar. And he writes a report to front commander Frunze, complaining about the offensive actions of the division commander, “reaching the point of assault.”

Painting by P. Vasiliev “V. I. Chapaev in battle"

They hint to the division commander that he should be more delicate with the commissar, and Vasily Ivanovich takes a step towards reconciliation. In Furmanov’s papers, some of which were published by the historian Andrei Ganin, the following note was preserved (the original style has been preserved):

“Comrade Furman! If you need young ladies, then come, 2 will come to me, and I’ll give you one. CHAPAYEV."

In response, Furmanov continues to write complaints against Chapaev to Frunze and to political authorities, calling the division commander a vain careerist, an adventurer intoxicated with power, and even a coward!

“They told me,” he writes to Chapaev himself, “that you were once a brave warrior. But now, not for a minute lagging behind you in battles, I am convinced that there is no more courage in you, and your caution for your valuable life is very similar to cowardice...” In response, Chapaev pours out his soul... to Furmanov’s wife: “I can no longer work with such idiots, he should not be a commissar, but a coachman.”

Furmanov, going crazy with jealousy, writes new denunciations, accusing his rival of betraying the revolution, anarchism, and that he specifically sends Furmanov to the most dangerous places in order to later take possession of his wife!

High authorities carefully send inspections that pester the division commander with inquiries, as if he had nothing else to do. The enraged Chapaev responds by reporting that his commissar has completely neglected all political work in the division. Shakespeare's passions are resting, but this is the front, war!

Furmanov was not even too lazy to inform Chapaev himself that he had accumulated incriminating evidence on him:

“By the way, remember that I have documents, facts and witnesses in my hands.”

“I have all these documents in my hands, and if necessary, I will show them to the right people in order to reveal your vile game. ... When necessary, I will expose the documents and comb through all your baseness.”

And he exposed it, sending another lengthy denunciation to Chapaev. But the front command, tired of the slanderous epic, removed and punished Furmanov himself, sending him to Turkestan.

CLEANING "BATEK"

In fact, Furmanov was Leon Trotsky’s supervising eye in Chapaev’s division. It’s not that the leader of the Red Army did not personally tolerate Chapaev (although not without it) - he simply hated and feared the “bateks” as such, elected (and former elected) commanders. The year 1919 was notable for the massive “death” of the most popular elected Red commanders; the purge of the “people’s division commanders”, organized by Trotsky, unfolded.

Chief Vasily Kikvidze dies from an “accidental” bullet in the back during reconnaissance.

At the direction of Trotsky, “for failure to follow orders” and “discrediting political workers,” the commander of the so-called southern Yaroslavl Front, Yuri Guzarsky, was shot.

The popular Ukrainian brigade commander Anton Shary-Bogunsky was shot - again on Trotsky's orders. Timofey Chernyak, also a popular commander of the Novgorod-Seversk brigade, was killed “accidentally”. “Dad” Vasily Bozhenko, commander of the Tarashchansky brigade, comrade-in-arms of Bohunsky, Chernyak and Shchors, was eliminated.

On August 30, 1919, it was the turn of Shchors himself, who received a bullet in the back of the head - also “accidental”, also from his own people.

Like Chapaev: yes, yes, he also received a bullet in the back of the head - at least the members of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 4th Army had no doubt about it. A recording of a conversation over a direct wire between a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 4th Army, Sundukov, and the newly appointed commissar of the 25th division, Sysoikin, has been preserved.

Sundukov instructs Sysoykin:

“Comrade Chapaev, apparently, was at first lightly wounded in the arm and during the general retreat to the Bukhara side he also tried to swim across the Urals, but did not have time to enter the water when he was killed by a random bullet in the back of the head and fell near the water, where he remained. Thus, we now also have information about the untimely death of the leader of the 25th division...”

This is the installation version with interesting details! No witnesses, no body, but a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the army, sitting tens or even hundreds of miles from Lbischensk, speaks so convincingly about the “accidental” bullet in the back of the head, as if he himself was holding a candle! Or did you receive a detailed report from the performer?

True, the new commissar of the 25th division, realizing that it is better not to stutter about the bullet in the back of the head, immediately offers a more interesting version: “Regarding Chapaev, this is correct, such testimony was given by the Cossack to the residents of the Kozhekharovsky outpost, the latter passed it on to me. But there were a lot of corpses lying on the banks of the Urals; Comrade Chapaev was not there. He was killed in the middle of the Urals and sank to the bottom...” A member of the Revolutionary Military Council agrees: to the bottom, to the bottom, even better...

Also noteworthy is the order signed by the commander of the Turkestan Front Frunze and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Eliava Front, dated September 11, 1919:

“Don’t let the insignificant success of the enemy, who managed to disrupt the rear of the glorious 25th Division with a cavalry raid and force its units to retreat somewhat to the north, bother you. Don’t let the news of the death of the valiant leader of the 25th Division Chapaev and its military commissar Baturin bother you. They died a heroic death, defending the cause of their native people to the last drop of blood and to the last opportunity.”

Only five days passed, not a single witness, and Frunze’s headquarters also figured out everything: there was not a disorderly panic flight, and not even a “general retreat,” but just “an insignificant success of the enemy,” which forced parts of the glorious 25th division “several retreat to the north." What exactly happened to the division commander is also clear to the front headquarters: “to the last drop of blood” - and so on.

And was the very fact of Chapaev’s death the subject of a separate investigation? Or was it carried out so secretly and quickly that it left absolutely no traces in the documents? It is still understandable that the division’s documents disappeared down to the last piece of paper. But precisely for that period there is nothing in the documents of the army headquarters - a huge documentary layer as if a cow licked it with its tongue. Everything was cleaned up and cleaned up, and at the same time - between September 5 and 11, 1919.

BEHIND COTTON AND OIL

Meanwhile, shortly before the Lbishchensky tragedy, it became known that the Southern Group of the Eastern Front was renamed the Turkestan Front for a reason: the front, like its 25th division, would soon have to go beyond the Ural River - to Bukhara. Back on August 5, 1919, the chairman of the RVSR and People's Commissar for Military Affairs, Leon Trotsky, submitted a note to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), proposing to carry out an expansion to the Hindustan foothills, through Bukhara and Afghanistan, to strike at the British Empire.

So the Turkestan Front was preparing for a general offensive and further conquests that would create a completely new geopolitical situation. In the above-mentioned order of Frunze dated September 11, 1919, it was said: “The glorious troops of the Turkestan Front, paving the way for Russia to cotton and oil, are on the eve of completing their task.”

Then Frunze harshly adds: “I expect from all the troops of the 4th Army strict and unwavering fulfillment of their revolutionary duty.” A completely unambiguous hint that not all comrades fulfill their revolutionary duty as strictly and unswervingly as the party demands of them.

Yes, that’s how it was: Vasily Ivanovich, although he was the commander of the regular army, but, in fact, still remained a typical peasant leader, “father.” He conflicted with the commissars and hit them in the face, sent obscenities over a direct line not only to the Revolutionary Military Council of the 4th Army, but sometimes to Army Commander Lazarevich, a former tsarist officer, who could not stand the security officers, and his attitude towards representatives of some nationalities has already been mentioned above.

And his division itself was, in fact, a huge peasant camp, albeit nomadic, but not at all willing to leave the usual theater of military operations, moving away from their native lands “to the Bukhara side.” The attack on Bukhara was just getting ready, but the division was already experiencing food shortages such that the soldiers of one of the brigades rebelled from hunger.

We had to cut the bread ration for all the division soldiers by half a pound. There were already problems with drinking water, food for horses and draft animals in general - this was in their own area, but what awaited them on the hike? There was unrest among the fighters, which could easily result in a mutiny. Chapaev himself did not arouse enthusiasm for the upcoming trip to the Khorezm sands; he did not have the slightest desire to get involved in this adventure.

On the other hand, the organizers of the expedition “for cotton and oil” also needed to protect themselves from potential surprises. Chapaev was already superfluous here. Therefore, it was in September 1919, when the Turkestan Front was supposed to launch a general offensive towards the Hindustan foothills, that the time had come to get rid of the obstinate division commander. For example, having dealt with him with the wrong hands, exposing him to Cossack sabers. Which, as historians believe, Trotsky did - through Army Commander Lazarevich and the Revolutionary Military Council of the army, which was under his special control.

It was by order of the command of the 4th Army of the Chapaev division that such a strange dislocation was determined, in which all its parts seemed to be deliberately torn apart: between its scattered brigades there were holes of dozens, or even 100-200 miles of steppe, through which they could easily Cossack detachments will infiltrate.

The headquarters in Lbischensk was located completely isolated from the brigades. He, like bait for the whites, loomed literally on the frontier, right on the banks of the Urals, beyond which the hostile “Bukhara side” began: come and take it! They couldn't help but come, and they came. Moreover, they had something and someone to take revenge for - the Chapaevites exterminated the “kazara” mercilessly, sometimes completely cutting out entire villages.

As the same Furmanov wrote, “Not a Cossack woman ordered Chapaev to take prisoners. “Everyone,” he says, “knock off the scoundrels!” In the same Lbischensk, all the houses were robbed, the residents’ crops were taken away, all the young women were raped, everyone who had officer relatives was shot and hacked to death...

THE LAST RESURRECTION

However, whites are white, and it didn’t hurt to be on the safe side with your executor, otherwise, how could a member of the RVS get such accurate information about a “random bullet in the back of the head”? Although, perhaps, the division commander was never shot. In the documents of the secretariat fund of the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov there is an interesting memo addressed to him by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda for 1936.

Poster "Chapaeva"

One people's commissar tells another that soon after the release of the film "Chapaev" a certain legless invalid was discovered who claimed that he was Chapaev. The security officers took him very seriously, launching a full-fledged inquiry. They even wanted to confront him with the former Chapaev brigade commander, Ivan Kutyakov, who in 1936 was the deputy commander of the PriVO troops.

Apparently, Kutyakov was in shock and categorically refused to confront the disabled person, citing being busy, although he agreed to be identified using the photographs brought to him by the special officers. I peered at them for a long time, hesitated - it looked like him too. Then he said, not too confidently: neon.

An impostor claiming heroic laurels after the release of the film “Chapaev”? But it followed from the document that the disabled man did not at all strive to become a hero of his own free will, but was identified by vigilant authorities - most likely during the certification process that was carried out at that time.

If Vasily Ivanovich survived in Lbischensk, becoming disabled, which is quite possible, then after healing his wounds - when he was already declared a dead hero - there was no longer any reason for him to resurrect himself from the dead.

He understood perfectly well where that “random bullet in the back of the head” had come from, and guessed just as well what would happen to him if he suddenly showed up after he “sank to the bottom” of the Urals. So I sat quietly until the certification came. By the way, such serious people's commissars would not correspond in real life about some impostor, it is not their level.

So, they knew perfectly well that they were not an impostor?! But since the living Chapaev has not been needed since 1919, he must go where he belonged - to the pantheon of dead heroes of the Civil War. That's the end of it.

Red, white and ex-wives wished death for the commander

A schoolboy nephew tells a joke: “Petka and Ivan Vasilyevich are coming...” - “Vasily Ivanovich!” - I correct. “It’s like this for you, but it’s like this for us!” - the nephew is angry. The youth of the red commander of the distant Civil War Vasily CHAPAYEV and his orderly Petka don’t know what to do. They did not watch the black-and-white film by the VASILIEV brothers “Chapaev,” which the older generation dismantled for quotes. But it is noteworthy that even in their anecdotes these legendary characters appear, albeit with inaccurate names. On the 130th anniversary of Chapai’s birth, we decided to remember the most amazing facts from his life..

Heroic guy

Carpenter Vasily Chapaev, whom his parents dreamed of seeing as a priest, fought desperately in the First World War. In August 1915, the Austrians broke through the front near the village of Snovidova. Chapaev went on reconnaissance and was slightly wounded in the head. One of the Austrians walking around the trenches even kicked him with the toe of his boot, but did not suspect anything. A post was placed next to the trench. Our daredevil waited patiently for eight hours for the enemy to lose his vigilance. After the two fell asleep, the “dead man” came to life, stunned the patrolman, disarmed the other two and led him to his company. Moreover, on the way he ordered us to pick up our seriously wounded soldier. For this feat, by order of the 82nd Infantry Division, he was awarded the St. George Cross, III degree. By the end of the war, sergeant major Chapaev had the St. George Medal and three St. George Crosses.

Vasily Ivanovich with his wife Pelageya METLINA. Photo: RIA Novosti

"Lady bitch"

First wife, 16-year-old priest's daughter Pelageya Metlin Chapaev loved passionately. He was 22 years old at the time. We got married as expected. Before the birth of their first child (they had three children in total), Pelageya worked at a confectionery factory, and Vasily was contracted to build houses and restore icons. We lived together for six years.

After Chapaev went to the front, Metlina fled to her neighbor, a carriage driver. Makar worked in the city and, by local standards, received a large salary. This is what Chapaev’s father wrote to the front: “Son, you should know that your wife, this lascivious bitch, cheated on you, ran away with the conductor. I dragged her by the braid twice, and she ran away again. She left your Sanka to us, but took Klavka and Arkashka. The conductor left his wife. His children collect alms, and my Katya also takes care of their paralyzed mother Marusya. Things like that."

At the beginning of 1917, Chapaev returned and took the children away from the traitor. They never saw each other again. Having learned about the death of the division commander, Metlina, who was pregnant again at that time, decided to return her offspring. I went to my father-in-law across the frozen Volga, but fell into the wormwood. I didn't drown, but I did catch a bad cold. She gave birth to a stillborn boy and died soon after.

Pelagia No. 2

Another lover was Pelageya Kamishkertseva. She was the widow of her comrade Chapai - Petra Kamishkertseva. Peter and Vasily swore to each other that if anything happened to either of them, the survivor would take care of the family of the deceased.

In 1919, Chapaev settled Kamishkertseva with his and her children (daughters Olimpiada and Vera) in the village of Klintsovka near the division’s artillery depot.

And then Pelageyushka gave up. She cheated on her friend and patron with the head of this warehouse Georgy Zhivolozhnov. Here’s how Chapaev’s daughter from Metlina, Klavdia Vasilievna, talked about it:

Dad comes home one day and looks and the door to the bedroom is closed. He knocks and asks his wife to open. And she has George. The father screams, and then Zhivolozhnov starts shooting through the door. His soldiers were with dad, they went around the other side of the house, broke the window and started firing with a machine gun. The lover jumped out of the room and began shooting with a revolver. My father and I were miraculously saved.

After this, Chapaev immediately went to division headquarters.

Seduced Furmanov's wife

No less remarkable was Chapai’s affair with his commissar’s wife. Dmitry Furmanov Naei ( Anna Stetsenko). Furmanov, in the spirit of revolutionary times, did not marry Anna, but concluded a “Project of love-free-marital relations” with the former nurse.

Maybe the lady just lacked romance? And here is such a mustachioed hero-order bearer.

All this could have ended very badly if not for the intervention Kuibysheva And Frunze. The leaders sent Furmanov out of harm's way to Turkestan, and Naya left after her husband at the end of August 1919. And on September 5, Vasily Ivanovich passed away. Their acquaintance lasted only six months.

Cheater

According to one version, the 32-year-old commander was brought to death by his unfaithful wife Pelageya Kamishkertseva. This is what the great-granddaughter of the legend says Evgenia Chapaeva:

After the betrayal, Kamishkertseva went to Vasil Ivanovich to make peace and took his youngest Arkashka. He spent some time with his son. And he didn’t even let the cheater onto the threshold. Angry, she went to the enemy headquarters. Grandmother found out about this several years after Chapaev’s death. One day I came home from school. And the stepmother and her partner are arguing. Standing with her back to the door and to Claudia, she shouted: “Are you cheating on me again with a young woman?!” Because of you, I betrayed Vasil Ivanovich - I went to the whites!..” Claudia rushed to her stepmother - and let’s scratch her face with her nails! She hit and bit. Almost strangled me.

Even if this is true, historians state that the population of Lbischensk and the surrounding area, which consisted of Ural Cossacks, already sympathized with the whites. So they were intimately aware of the situation in the city.

They hated theirs

The commander of the 4th Army of the Eastern Front was interested in the death of Chapaev Tikhon Khvesin and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Leon Trotsky. Chapaev's popularity was like a bone in their throat. When Vasily Ivanovich asked the Revolutionary Military Council to send a patrol airplane, they sent him as many as four. But, according to Klavdia Vasilievna, there were traitors in them. They deliberately did not report the enemy's location. Enemies from the Red headquarters promised 15 thousand gold for Chapaev’s head, the Whites - 25 thousand. There is something to risk... Two were allegedly personally killed for treason by a division commander's guarantor Petr Isaev, Petka's prototype. But two still received their pieces of silver.

On the eve of the Lbishchensk tragedy, Trotsky and Khvesin disbanded the Chapaev brigade, united in battle, and he was entrusted with unprepared regiments of volunteers and ordered to advance in the direction of Uralsk. Near the village of Talovoe, the Chapaevites were surrounded. The enemy forces were five times greater. As it turned out, the commanders of the 4th Army deliberately extended the front to 250 kilometers. The next battle was the last...

Man and ship

In 1894, the family moved to the Samara province, where Vasya entered a parochial school and was preparing to become a clergyman.

In the fall of 1908 he was drafted into the army.

In the spring of 1909 Chapaeva transferred to the reserve. Returning to the village of Balakovo, he married the 17-year-old daughter of a priest Pelageya Metlina. He moved to Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region) and worked as a carpenter. There they had three children: Alexander - in 1910, Claudia - in 1912 and Arkady - in 1914.

On September 20, 1914, Chapaev was again called up for service and sent to the Atkar 159th reserve infantry regiment.

In January 1915 he went to the front. He fought in the 326th Belgorai Infantry Regiment in Volyn and Galicia, and was wounded.

In July 1915 he graduated from the training team, received the rank of junior non-commissioned officer, and in October - senior. For bravery he was awarded the St. George Medal and soldiers' St. George Crosses of three degrees.

He met the year 1916 and the end of the war with the rank of sergeant major (senior sergeant), undergoing treatment in a Saratov hospital.

On September 28, 1917 he joined the RSDLP(b). He was elected commander of the 138th reserve infantry regiment stationed in Nikolaevsk. There he became friends with Pelageya Kamishkertseva, the widow of a friend.

On December 18, 1917, he was elected military commissar of the Nikolaev district. Participated in the campaign against the general Kaledina.

On May 25, 1918, he reorganized the Red Guard detachments into two regiments of the Red Army: them. Stepan Razin and them. Pugacheva, united in the Pugachev brigade. Participated in battles with the Czechoslovaks.

In May 1919, he was appointed brigade commander of the Special Alexandrovo-Gai Brigade. He is going through a stormy romance with Tanka the Cossack, the daughter of a Cossack colonel.

From June 1919 - head of the 25th Infantry Division. Fights against the army Kolchak. During the capture of Ufa, he was wounded in the head by a burst from an air machine gun. Awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Seduces Anna Steshenko, the commissioner's wife Furmanova, which was the reason for Furmanov’s recall from the division.

1923 - Dmitry Furmanov’s novel “Chapaev” is published.

1924 - the first museum of V.I. Chapaev was opened in Lbischensk, now the village of Chapaev.

1932 - the first monument to Chapaev was unveiled in Samara.

1934 - the brothers’ film “Chapaev” is released Vasilievs. Starring - Boris Babochkin.

1935 - the first anecdotes are told about Vasily Ivanovich, his orderly Petka and machine gunner Anka. At the same time, the game of checkers “Chapaev” appeared.

1964 - the river cruise ship Vasily Chapaev is built in Hungary. By this time, several settlements had already been named in honor of the legendary division commander, dozens of songs had been written, and cartoons had been filmed.

1997 - the cult novel is published Victor Pelevin"Chapaev and Emptiness".

2012 - the television series “The Passion of Chapai” is successfully shown. Starring - Sergey Strelnikov.

2015 - Banderites destroyed the monument to Chapaev near the mine No. 2 plant named after. V.I. Chapaev in the village of Gornyak, Lugansk region, and the monument to Chapaev in the city of Volnovakha, Donetsk region, was renamed the “Kozak” monument.

Exactly 127 years ago, in the village of Budaika, everyone’s favorite Vasily Chapaev, the famous commander of the Red Army and a popular character in jokes, was born. In honor of this event, we have selected seven of the most interesting facts about the real life of the hero.

Difficult childhood

Vasily Ivanovich was born into a poor peasant family. The only wealth of his parents was their nine eternally hungry children, of whom the famous commander was the sixth. As the legend goes, he was born premature and warmed up in his father’s fur mitten on the stove. When his son grew up a little, his father sent him to the seminary, in the hope that he would become a priest. But when one day, the guilty Vasya was put in a wooden punishment cell in only his shirt in the bitter cold, the boy ran away. He tried to become a merchant, but he couldn’t - the basic trade commandment was too abhorrent to him: “If you don’t cheat, you won’t sell, if you don’t sell, you won’t make money.” “My childhood was dark and difficult. I had to humiliate myself and starve a lot. From an early age I hung around strangers,” the division commander later recalled.

"Chapaev"

It is believed that Vasily Ivanovich’s family bore the surname Gavrilovs. “Chapaev” or “Chepai” was the nickname given to the division commander’s grandfather, Stepan Gavrilovich. Either in 1882 or 1883, he and his comrades loaded logs, and Stepan, as the eldest, constantly commanded - “Chepai, chapai!”, which meant: “take, take.” So it stuck to him - Chepai, and the nickname later turned into a surname. They say that the original “Chepai” became “Chapaev” with the light hand of Dmitry Furmanov, the author of the famous novel about Vasily Ivanovich, who decided that “it sounds better this way.” But in surviving documents from the time of the Civil War, Vasily appears under both options. Perhaps the name “Chapaev” appeared as a result of a typo.

Academy Student

The education of the famous hero, contrary to popular opinion, was not limited to two years of parish school. In 1918, already an experienced warrior, he was enrolled in the military academy of the Red Army, where many soldiers were “herded” to improve their general literacy and learn strategy. According to the recollections of his classmate, the peaceful student life weighed on Chapaev: “The hell with it! I'll leave! To come up with such an absurdity - fighting people at their desks! Two months later, he submitted a report asking to be released from this “prison” to the front.
Several stories have been preserved about Vasily Ivanovich’s stay at the academy. The first says that during a geography exam, in response to an old general’s question about the significance of the Neman River, Chapaev asked the professor if he knew about the significance of the Solyanka River, where he fought with the Cossacks. According to the second, in a discussion of the Battle of Cannes, he called the Romans “blind kittens,” telling the teacher, military theorist Sechenov: “We have already shown generals like you how to fight!”

Motorist

We all imagine Chapaev as a courageous fighter with a fluffy mustache, a naked sword and galloping on a dashing horse. This image was created by the national actor Boris Babochkin. But, in fact, Vasily Ivanovich preferred cars to horses. Back on the fronts of the First World War, he was seriously wounded in the thigh, so riding became a problem. But Chapaev became one of the first Red commanders who switched to a car. He chose his iron horses very meticulously. The first one, the American Stever, was rejected due to strong shaking; the red Packard, which replaced it, also had to be abandoned - it was not suitable for military operations in the steppe. But the red commander liked Ford, which then pushed 70 miles off-road. Chapaev also selected the best drivers. One of them, Nikolai Ivanov, was practically taken by force to Moscow and made the personal driver of Lenin’s sister, Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova.

Women's cunning

The famous commander Chapaev was an eternal loser on the personal front. His first wife, the bourgeois Pelageya Metlina, whom Chapaev’s parents did not approve of, calling him a “city white-handed woman,” bore him three children, but did not wait for her husband from the front - she went to a neighbor. Vasily Ivanovich was very upset by her action - he loved his wife. Chapaev often repeated to his daughter Claudia: “Oh, how beautiful you are. She looks like her mother."
Chapaev’s second companion, although already a civilian, was also named Pelageya. She was the widow of Vasily’s comrade-in-arms, Pyotr Kamishkertsev, to whom the division commander promised to take care of his family. At first he sent her benefits, then they decided to move in together. But history repeated itself - during her husband’s absence, Pelageya began an affair with a certain Georgy Zhivolozhinov. One day Chapaev found them together and almost sent the unlucky lover to the next world. When the passions subsided, Kamishkertseva decided to go to war, took the children and went to her husband’s headquarters. The children were allowed to see their father, but she was not. Speaking, after that she took revenge on Chapaev by revealing to the whites the location of the Red Army troops and data on their numbers.

fatal water

The death of Vasily Ivanovich is shrouded in mystery. On September 4, 1919, Borodin’s troops approached the city of Lbischensk, where the headquarters of Chapaev’s division with a small number of fighters was located. During the defense, Chapaev was severely wounded in the stomach; his soldiers put the commander on a raft and transported him across the Urals, but he died from loss of blood. The body was buried in the coastal sand, and the traces were hidden so that the Cossacks would not find it. Searching for the grave subsequently became useless, as the river changed its course. This story was confirmed by a participant in the events. According to another version, Chapaev drowned after being wounded in the arm, unable to cope with the current.

“Or maybe he swam out?”

Despite a long search, neither Chapaev’s body nor grave could be found. This gave rise to a completely logical version of the surviving hero. Someone said that due to a severe wound he lost his memory and lived somewhere under a different name. Some claimed that he was safely transported to the other side, from where he went to Frunze, to be responsible for the surrendered city. In Samara he was put under arrest, and then they decided to officially “kill the hero,” ending his military career with a beautiful end. This story was told by a certain Onyanov from the Tomsk region, who allegedly met his aged commander many years later. The story looks dubious, since in the difficult conditions of the civil war it was inappropriate to “throw away” experienced military leaders who were highly respected by the soldiers. Most likely, this is a myth generated by the hope that the hero was saved.

There are an incredible number of legends, rumors and anecdotes about both the life and death of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. And there is probably no more unique person in Russian history than Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. His real life was short - he died at the age of 32, but his posthumous fame surpassed all imaginable and inconceivable boundaries.

Among the real historical figures of the past, you cannot find another one who would become an integral part of Russian folklore. What can we talk about if one of the varieties of checkers games is called “chapaev”.

On January 28, 1887, in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Kazan province, the sixth child was born into the family of Russian peasant Ivan Chapaev; neither mother nor father could even think about the glory that awaited their son.
Rather, they were thinking about the upcoming funeral - the baby, named Vasenka, was born at seven months old, was very weak and, it seemed, could not survive. However, the will to live turned out to be stronger than death - the boy survived and began to grow up to the delight of his parents.
Vasya Chapaev did not even think about any military career - in poor Budaika there was a problem of everyday survival, there was no time for heavenly pretzels.
The origin of the family surname is interesting. Chapaev’s grandfather, Stepan Gavrilovich, was unloading timber and other heavy cargoes rafted down the Volga at the Cheboksary pier. And he often shouted “chap”, “chap”, “chap”, that is, “catch” or “catch”. Over time, the word “chepai” stuck with him as a street nickname, and then became his official surname.
It is curious that the Red commander himself subsequently wrote his last name exactly as “Chepaev”, and not “Chapaev”.
The poverty of the Chapaev family drove them in search of a better life to the Samara province, to the village of Balakovo. Here Father Vasily had a cousin who lived as a patron of the parish school. The boy was assigned to study, hoping that over time he would become a priest.
In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army, but a year later he was discharged due to illness. Even before joining the army, Vasily started a family, marrying the 16-year-old daughter of a priest, Pelageya Metlina. Returning from the army, Chapaev began to engage in purely peaceful carpentry. In 1912, while continuing to work as a carpenter, Vasily and his family moved to Melekess. Until 1914, three children were born into the family of Pelageya and Vasily - two sons and a daughter.
The whole life of Chapaev and his family was turned upside down by the First World War. Called up in September 1914, Vasily went to the front in January 1915. He fought in Volhynia in Galicia and proved himself to be a skilled warrior. Chapaev ended the First World War with the rank of sergeant major, being awarded the soldier's St. George Cross of three degrees and the St. George Medal.
In the fall of 1917, the brave soldier Chapaev joined the Bolsheviks and unexpectedly showed himself to be a brilliant organizer. In the Nikolaev district of the Saratov province, he created 14 detachments of the Red Guard, which took part in the campaign against the troops of General Kaledin. On the basis of these detachments, the Pugachev brigade was created in May 1918 under the command of Chapaev. Together with this brigade, the self-taught commander recaptured the city of Nikolaevsk from the Czechoslovaks.

The fame and popularity of the young commander grew before our eyes. In September 1918, Chapaev led the 2nd Nikolaev Division, which instilled fear in the enemy. Nevertheless, Chapaev’s tough temperament and his inability to obey unquestioningly led to the fact that the command considered it best to send him from the front to study at the General Staff Academy.
Already in the 1970s, another legendary Red commander Semyon Budyonny, listening to jokes about Chapaev, shook his head: “I told Vaska: study, fool, otherwise they will laugh at you! Well, I didn’t listen!”
Chapaev really did not stay long at the academy, once again going to the front. In the summer of 1919, he headed the 25th Rifle Division, which quickly became legendary, as part of which he carried out brilliant operations against Kolchak’s troops. On June 9, 1919, the Chapaevites liberated Ufa, and on July 11, Uralsk.
During the summer of 1919, Divisional Commander Chapaev managed to greatly surprise the career white generals with his military leadership talent. Both comrades and enemies saw in him a real military nugget. Alas, Chapaev did not have time to truly open up.
The tragedy, which is called Chapaev’s only military mistake, occurred on September 5, 1919. Chapaev's division was rapidly advancing, breaking away from the rear. Units of the division stopped to rest, and the headquarters was located in the village of Lbischensk.

On September 5, the Whites, numbering up to 2,000 bayonets under the command of General Borodin, carried out a raid and suddenly attacked the headquarters of the 25th division. The main forces of the Chapaevites were 40 km from Lbischensk and could not come to the rescue.
The real forces that could resist the Whites were 600 bayonets, and they entered into a battle that lasted six hours. Chapaev himself was hunted by a special detachment, which, however, was not successful. Vasily Ivanovich managed to get out of the house where he was quartered, gather about a hundred fighters who were retreating in disarray, and organize a defense.
There was conflicting information about the circumstances of Chapaev's death for a long time, until in 1962 the division commander's daughter Claudia received a letter from Hungary, in which two Chapaev veterans, Hungarians by nationality, who were personally present at the last minutes of the division commander's life, told what really happened.
During the battle with the Whites, Chapaev was wounded in the head and stomach, after which four Red Army soldiers, having built a raft from boards, managed to transport the commander to the other side of the Urals. However, Chapaev died from his wounds during the crossing.
The Red Army soldiers, fearing that their enemies would mock his body, buried Chapaev in the coastal sand, throwing branches over the place.
There were no active searches for the division commander’s grave immediately after the Civil War, because the version outlined by the commissar of the 25th division Dmitry Furmanov in his book “Chapaev” became canonical - that the wounded division commander drowned while trying to swim across the river.
In the 1960s, Chapaev’s daughter tried to search for her father’s grave, but it turned out that this was impossible - the course of the Urals changed its course, and the river bottom became the final resting place of the red hero.
Not everyone believed in Chapaev’s death. Historians who studied the biography of Chapaev noted that among the veteran Chapaevites there was a story that their Chapai swam out, was rescued by the Kazakhs, suffered from typhoid fever, lost his memory and now works as a carpenter in Kazakhstan, remembering nothing about his heroic past.
Fans of the white movement like to attach great importance to the Lbishchensky raid, calling it a major victory, but this is not so. Even the destruction of the headquarters of the 25th division and the death of its commander did not affect the general course of the war - the Chapaev division continued to successfully destroy enemy units.
Not everyone knows that the Chapaevites avenged their commander on the same day, September 5th. The commander of the White raid, General Borodin, who was victoriously driving through Lbischensk after the defeat of Chapaev’s headquarters, was shot by the Red Army soldier Volkov.
Historians still cannot agree on what Chapaev’s role as a commander in the Civil War actually was. Some believe that he actually played a significant role, others believe that his image has been exaggerated by art.
Indeed, Chapaev gained widespread popularity from a book written by the former commissar of the 25th division, Dmitry Furmanov.
During their lifetime, the relationship between Chapaev and Furmanov could not be called simple, which, by the way, is best reflected later in anecdotes. Chapaev's affair with Furmanov's wife Anna Steshenko led to the fact that the commissioner had to leave the division. However, Furmanov's writing talent smoothed out personal contradictions.
But the real, boundless glory of Chapaev, Furmanov, and other now popular heroes overtook in 1934, when the Vasilyev brothers shot the film “Chapaev,” which was based on Furmanov’s book and the memories of the Chapaevites.
Furmanov himself was no longer alive by that time - he died suddenly in 1926 from meningitis. And the author of the film’s script was Anna Furmanova, the commissar’s wife and the division commander’s mistress.
It is to her that we owe the appearance of Anka the Machine Gunner in the history of Chapaev. The fact is that in reality there was no such character. Its prototype was the nurse of the 25th division, Maria Popova. In one of the battles, a nurse crawled up to a wounded elderly machine gunner and wanted to bandage him, but the soldier, heated by the battle, pointed a revolver at the nurse and literally forced Maria to take a place behind the machine gun.
The directors, having learned about this story and having an assignment from Stalin to show in the film the image of a woman during the Civil War, came up with a machine gunner. But Anna Furmanova insisted that her name would be Anka.
After the release of the film, Chapaev, Furmanov, Anka the machine gunner, and orderly Petka (in real life, Pyotr Isaev, who actually died in the same battle with Chapaev) went into the people forever, becoming their integral part.
The life of Chapaev’s children turned out interesting. The marriage of Vasily and Pelageya actually broke up with the beginning of the First World War, and in 1917 Chapaev took the children from his wife and raised them himself, as far as the life of a military man allowed.
Chapaev's eldest son, Alexander Vasilyevich, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a professional military man. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, 30-year-old Captain Chapaev was the commander of a battery of cadets at the Podolsk Artillery School. From there he went to the front. Chapaev fought in a family style, without disgracing the honor of his famous father. He fought near Moscow, near Rzhev, near Voronezh, and was wounded. In 1943, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, Alexander Chapaev took part in the famous battle of Prokhorovka.
Alexander Chapaev completed his military service with the rank of major general, holding the position of deputy chief of artillery of the Moscow Military District.
The youngest son, Arkady Chapaev, became a test pilot, working with Valery Chkalov himself. In 1939, 25-year-old Arkady Chapaev died while testing a new fighter.
Chapaev's daughter, Claudia, made a party career and was engaged in historical research dedicated to her father. The true story of Chapaev’s life became known largely thanks to her.
Studying the life of Chapaev, you are surprised to discover how closely the legendary hero is connected with other historical figures.
For example, a fighter in the Chapaev division was the writer Yaroslav Hasek, the author of “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik.”
The head of the trophy team of the Chapaev division was Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak. During the Great Patriotic War, one name of this partisan commander would terrify the Nazis.
Major General Ivan Panfilov, whose division's steadfastness helped defend Moscow in 1941, began his military career as a platoon commander of an infantry company of the Chapaev Division.
And one last thing. Water is fatally connected not only with the fate of division commander Chapaev, but also with the fate of the division.
The 25th Rifle Division existed in the ranks of the Red Army until the Great Patriotic War and took part in the defense of Sevastopol. It was the fighters of the 25th Chapaev Division who stood to the last in the most tragic, last days of the city’s defense. The division was completely destroyed, and so that its banners would not fall to the enemy, the last surviving soldiers drowned them in the Black Sea.