"These allies will sell me ..."
KP Belov. Preliminary arrest of Kolchak. 1965
According to the memoirs of Major General M.I. Zankiewicz (in November 1919 - January 1920 - Chief of Staff of the General Headquarters of the Eastern Front), said Admiral A.V. Kolchak, agreeing to go east from Nizhneudinsk in a wagon under the flags of Great Britain, France, the USA, Japan and Czechoslovakia ...
December 7 1919 of the year. Arrival in Nizhneudinsk
The drama in Nizhneudinsk was played out against the backdrop of the retreat of the troops of the Supreme Ruler of Russia (from November 18 1918) to Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. At the same time, the Czechoslovak units were breaking through to Vladivostok in an effort to save their lives and looted property. At the beginning of 1919, the commander of the Czechoslovak Corps, Major General J. Syrovy, announced the section of the main line between the Novonikolayevsk and Irkutsk operational sections of his troops. So the Trans-Siberian Railway was actually under the control of the Allies, commanded by French General M. Janin.
27 December 1919, two trains of the Supreme Ruler (his own and a train with a gold reserve) arrived at the station Nizhneudinsk. Two days later they were detained by the Czechs. The "Nizhneudinsk seat" began, which lasted about two weeks and was described by the biographer Admiral PN. Zyryanov (based on the memoirs of General Zankevich).
“Not far from the station, the trains were stopped by a semaphore. Soon a Czech officer approached, according to the order of the headquarters of the Allied forces, the Admiral’s trains were delayed“ until further orders. ”The Major also announced his intention to disarm the Supreme Governor’s convoy. He was denied this, and he I went for new instructions. At the same time, it turned out that a new government had already been established in Nizhneudinsk.
A few hours later the major returned and briefed General MI. Zankevich, chief of Kolchak's marching headquarters, with instructions received from the allies:
The trains of the admiral and with a gold reserve are under the protection of the Allied powers.
When the situation allows, these trains will be exported under the flags of England, USA, France, Japan and Czechoslovakia.
Station Nizhneudinsk declared neutral. Czechs should guard trains with an admiral and a gold reserve and prevent the newly formed government in Nizhneudinsk from entering the station.
Admiral's convoy does not disarm.
In the event of an armed clash between the forces of the Admiral and the Lower Udinsky, disarm both sides; otherwise, give the admiral free rein.
The trains were escorted to the station and cordoned off by Czechoslovak troops. Communication with the outside world could be carried out only through their mediation "1.
One of the latest photos of the Supreme Ruler. Admiral A.V. Kolchak (left) and Rear Admiral M.I. Smirnov (center) on the way to Tobolsk. Autumn 1919
December 29 1919 of the year. Detention
Under the guise of guards from the guerrillas ’attack“ allies ”(now this word can be written that way, in quotes), they actually took the Supreme Ruler hostage. By that time, a rebellion broke out in Cheremkhovo, and behind it in Irkutsk. It was unacceptable to pass Kolchak "to the rear of the revolutionary troops that had encircled Irkutsk. It was necessary to hold diplomatic negotiations with the Czechs, threatening to destroy the road, to stop it in Nizhneudinsk," testifies the report of the authorized Cheremkha political center I.S. Alco.
About the same mentioned G.K. Hins (chief executive officer of the Supreme Governor and the Council of Ministers): "... the forces of the" Lower Udinian Republic "were so weak that one Admiral convoy could cope with the" republic "if the Czechoslovakians did not close access to the city" - a quote from the book of the historian S.P. Melgunova2.
In the echelon of Kolchak were about 500 soldiers and 60 officers of the convoy, staff and military officials. The Allied Command offered the admiral to leave Nizhneudinsk in one of the cars without convoy and accompanying persons. But it was impossible for Kolchak. Through General Zankevich, he sent a telegram to the Commissioner of Japan, Kato:
"The admiral insists on exporting the entire train, and not just one of his cars, since he cannot throw his subordinates to the mercy of the crowd. If the request cannot be fulfilled, the admiral refuses to export his car and share the fate with his subordinates, as terrible she was neither "3.
Considered and the option of care in Mongolia. Kolchak offered the soldiers of the convoy to make their own choice on their own - and most of them went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. Was such a “democracy” necessary in a dramatic situation? Contemporary historian A.S. Kruchinin explains the admiral's behavior in the following way: "... Alexander Vasilyevich was not only a military man, but also an experienced traveler, and he was well aware that every participant in such an expedition should be reliable - especially when there was a equally strong" temptation ": with difficulties, not only to turn back, but also to give out his officers to the enemy (this is how Baron Ungern would die, for example, a year and a half later) "4.
Nevertheless, the refusal of the soldiers to support him was a terrible moral blow for Kolchak.
4 January 1920 of the year. Renunciation of power
Another proposal was born - to get into Mongolia only with officers. Zankevich recalls how one of the “senior naval officers” addressed Kolchak with a proposal to leave Nizhneudinsk on the train, and to dissolve the officers: after all, no one would pursue them. "So you're leaving me," admiral snapped. "No, if you order, we will go with you." When we were alone, the admiral said bitterly: "Everyone left me." After a long silence, he added: "There is nothing to do, we must go." Then he said: "These allies will sell me." 5.
Kolchak was well aware of the fateful nature of his decision. But he understood, writes A.S. Kruchinin, and another: "The environment of the Supreme Ruler did not want any active actions at all - it wanted allies to take them out; but the allies spoke of one admiral ... and therefore everyone, for an anchor of salvation, grabs him. And the admiral, rescuing his subordinates [the author’s italics - N.K.], goes to the "Allied" carriage with a bitter premonition ... "6.
Naturally, Kolchak also rejected the proposal to be saved in one of the Czech echelons together with the adjutant - Lieutenant D.S. Trubcheninovymxnumx.
And the Irkutsk rebels increasingly insistently demanded from the Czechs the issuance of Admiral, Viktor Nikolayevich Pepeliaev (Chairman of the Council of Ministers in the Government of Kolchak) and the gold reserves, traveling with him. All this - in exchange for the possibility of the Czechs free to evacuate to the east. At the same time, negotiations were underway between the Political Center that headed the Irkutsk uprising (a coalition of Social Revolutionaries and Social Democrats with the tacit participation of the Bolsheviks), Zhanin and the Council of Ministers to hand over the last power to the Political Center.
3 January 1920, the Council of Ministers sends a telegram to Kolchak demanding the abdication and transfer of power to A.I. Denikin. The admiral had no choice but to fulfill this requirement, having issued his last decree the next day.
The commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Siberia, General M.Janen, and the commander of the Czechoslovak Corps, Major General J. Syrovy.
Early January 1920 of the year. Betrayal
The train with the car painted with the flags of the "Allied Powers" moved to Irkutsk. General Zhanen cynically betrayed Alexander Vasilyevich, stating: "We are psychologically unable to take responsibility for the security of following the admiral ... After I offered him to transfer the gold reserve to my personal responsibility and he refused to trust me, I did not can do "xnumx. In addition to selfish interests and fear for their lives, the crime of the "allies" had one more, more important reason, which A.S. Kruchinin. "And if there was even a fraction of the danger that, stepping on the" hard land ", the Supreme Ruler would raise his voice against the iniquities created under the leadership of Syrovy and with the connivance of Janin," Admiral Kolchak "denied" and also better - would have disappeared in some "democratic" prison "8.
The Ataman of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army G.M. tried to come to the rescue of the admiral. Semenov (with whom the admiral had a very difficult relationship). In 20 December, a group of three armored trains under the command of the captain KI left Chita. Archegov. One of the participants of the events wrote that her commander "... was verbally ordered to break into Nizhneudinsk by any means, without stopping to use weapons"10. 25 December, the detachment concentrated on the Baikal station. Here the Semenov learned about the uprising in Irkutsk. On the night of December 31, Archegov set off towards Irkutsk, two days in the city were fighting. But the Czechs forced the Russian units to stop fighting and withdraw to Baikal stations. Here 9 January 1920 was disarmed by the “allies” 11.
And it was the only attempt at real assistance to Admiral Kolchak.
The headquarters carriage of General Maurice Janin. Omsk 1918-1919
15 January 1920 of the year. Arrival in Irkutsk
Echelon High approached Irkutsk. At the Cheremkhovo station, the guard of the revolutionary workers joined the Czechs guarding the Kolchak. Kolchak's associates, who had managed to leave Irkutsk for Chita, were still trying to put pressure on the allies in order to save the admiral. Maritime Minister of the All-Russian Government, Rear Admiral M.I. Smirnov and Lieutenant-General N.A. Lokhvitsky sent telegrams to Paris to the Minister of Foreign Affairs S.D. Sazonov. In vain. The "formal number" was performed by the Japanese. "Colonel Fukuda [the commander of Japanese troops in Irkutsk - N.K.] sent Colonel Mike to the Czechoslovak General Syrova with a proposal to transfer the guard to the admiral battalion of the Japanese troops stationed at Irkutsk, but Syrovoy replied that it was too late since the admiral had already been handed over to the rebels, then Fukuda sent colonel Mike to the rebels with the same offer, but they refused to hand over the admiral to the Japanese "12.
The circle is closed. And even more so he could not break the "Protest of the former members of the Russian Government gathered in Harbin, presented to the representatives of the Allied States" 13.
In the evening of January 15 the train arrived in Irkutsk, where Kolchak, Pepeliaev, A.V. Timirev and another 113 people who remained in the train were imprisoned in the Irkutsk provincial prison. Further events are well known.
7 February 1920 of the year. Decoupling
7 February 1920 Admiral Alexander V. Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the All-Russian Government Viktor Nikolayevich Pepeliaev were killed without a trial and sentence near the mouth of the Ushakovka River at its confluence with the Angara River.
POET VIEW
The betrayal in Nizhneudinsk and the tragedy of Kolchak was dedicated to the poem by the famous poet of the Russian Diaspora (and officer of the Kolchak army) Arseny Nesmelov (A.I. Mitropolsky). It was first published in the collection "White flotilla", published in Harbin in 1942
In Nizhneudinsk
The day flourished and was crystal,
A step creaked in the snow.
Hung over the station building
Helplessly non-russian flag.
And I remember the links of the train
Calmed down as inanimate
Standing at the blue car
Rosy Czech watch.
And it was exactly the funeral
Guard gloomy ring,
But suddenly, for a moment, in the glass mirror
Flashed a stern face.
A mouth, already without a drop of blood,
Sternly compressed mouth! ..
Eyes, broken eyebrows,
And between them is His line, -
That fold of pain, tension,
In which the fatal is ...
The hand itself came into motion
And passing, I saluted.
And this gesture in the frost fierce,
In that nacreous silence, -
My last salute was
Salute the heart and soul!
And he answered me with a slope
Your beautiful head ...
And the locomotive is a distant moan
Someone called out of the blue.
And it was bitter to me. And forge
Snow creaked in front of the car:
That with a tilted rifle
A ruddy Czech stepped over to me.
And the brakes rumbled, -
Clank approached, flew,
The Admiral's Czechs
In Irkutsk - for torture and execution.
1. Zyryanov P. Admiral Kolchak, the supreme ruler of Russia. M., 2006. C. 551 - 552.
2. Melgunov S.P. The tragedy of Admiral Kolchak. Of stories Civil war on the Volga, the Urals and Siberia. Prince the second. Part III. M., 2005. C. 432.
3. Zankevich [MI] Circumstances accompanying the issuance of Admiral Kolchak to the revolutionary government in Irkutsk // White case. Chronicle of the White struggle. Prince Ii. Berlin, 1927. C. 151.
4. Kruchinin A. Admiral Kolchak: Life, Feat, Memory. M., 2010. C. 510.
5. Zankevich [M.I.] Decree. cit. C. 152.
6. Kruchinin A. Decree op. C. 511 - 512.
7. Bogdanov K.A. Admiral Kolchak. Biographical novel-chronicle. SPb., 1993. C. 265.
8. Hins G.K. Siberia, the Allies and Kolchak. The turning point of Russian history 1918 - 1920 (Impressions and thoughts of a member of the Omsk Government). M., 2008. C. 559.
9. Kruchinin A. Decree. cit. C. 514 - 515.
10. Gordeev M.N. Attempt to save Admiral Kolchak (From a participant’s memories) // Ray of Asia. 1938. N 42. C. 41.
11. Ibid.
12. GARF. F. P-5881. Op. 1. D. 473. L. 13.
13. Ibid. L. 15-16.
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