Kolchak's liquidation
Awful state - to order, without having real power
ensure the implementation of orders, in addition to its own authority.
From a letter by A. V. Kolchak to L. V. Timereva
ensure the implementation of orders, in addition to its own authority.
From a letter by A. V. Kolchak to L. V. Timereva
Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak, his fate in a few years has made many steep turns. At first he commanded the Black Sea fleetbut instead of historical laurels of the first Russian military leader who took the Dardanelles "Bosphorus, he turned into a commander in front of a fleet that was losing discipline.
Then came a new round of Admiral's incredible fate. The Americans showed an unexpected interest in his person. The US military mission appealed to the Provisional Government with a request to send Kolchak to advise allies on the mine business and the fight against submarines. In Russia, the best Russian naval commander was no longer needed, and Kerensky could not refuse to "allies" - Kolchak was sent to America. His mission is surrounded by a secret, in the press to mention it is prohibited. The path lies through Finland, Sweden and Norway. There are no German troops anywhere from the above countries, but Kolchak travels under an alien name, in civilian clothes. Just disguised and his officers. Why he resorted to such a disguise, the admiral's biographers do not explain to us ...
Kolchak made a number of important visits in London. He was received by the chief of the Naval General Staff, Admiral Hall, and invited the first Lord of the Admiralty, Jellico, to his place. In a conversation with the admiral, the head of the English fleet expressed his private opinion that only a dictatorship can save Russia. History did not save the admiral’s answers, but he stayed well in Britain. Probably, intimate conversations with Kolchak were conducted by people from a completely different department. So, a person is gradually palpated, his character and habits are recognized. A psycho portrait is drawn. October will happen in Russia in a couple of months, an allied UK country will collapse into chaos and anarchy. She will no longer be able to fight Germany. The most senior British military see all this, they know the recipe for saving the situation - this is dictatorship. But to insist that Kerensky, smoothly leading the country to the Bolshevik revolution, take tough measures, the British do not dare or even try. They only share clever thoughts in private conversations with the former Russian admiral. Why exactly with him? Because the strong-willed and energetic Kolchak, along with General Kornilov, was considered as a potential dictator. Why not help the strong-willed military take power instead of Kerensky's rag? Because the dictator will be needed not until October, but after! First, Russia must be completely destroyed, and only then assembled and rebuilt. And this should be done by a man who is loyal to England. Affectionate and grateful to the Foggy Albion. The British are choosing a future dictator, an alternative to Lenin. After all, no one knows how events will turn. Therefore, you need names on the bench and their revolutionaries, and their Romanovs, and a grateful strong-willed dictator ...
Kolchak's stay in the United States is in no way inferior to his stay in London in terms of his visits. He is received by the very father of the Federal Reserve, President Wilson. Again conversations, conversations, conversations. But in the maritime ministry the admiral was in for a surprise. It turned out that the offensive operation of the US naval forces in the Mediterranean, for the sake of advising which it, in fact, was invited, is canceled.
According to the book by American Professor E. Sissots "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution", Trotsky sailed and Russia to make a revolution, having an American passport issued by Wilson personally. Now the president is talking with Kolchak, who will then become the white head of Russia. This is a casting.
Why did Kolchak make a tremendous journey to the American continent? So that we would not think that it was precisely for the sake of intimate conversations that they dragged Kolchak across the ocean, a beautiful explanation was invented. For three weeks the former head of the Black Sea Fleet goes to the American sailors and tells them:
♦ on the state and organization of the Russian fleet;
♦ general problems of mine warfare;
♦ introduces the device of the Russian mine-torpedo weapons.
All these questions, of course, require the personal presence of Kolchak to distant lands. No one except the admiral (!) Can tell the Americans the device of the Russian torpedo ...
Here, in San Francisco, Kolchak learned about the Lenin coup d'état in Russia. And he immediately received ... a telegram proposing to run for the Constituent Assembly from the Cadet Party. But it was not destiny to become a militant admiral parliamentary leader. Lenin dispersed the Constituent Assembly and deprived Russia of a legitimate government. Immediately began the collapse of the Russian Empire. Having no strength, the Bolsheviks did not hold anyone. Poland, Finland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine disappeared.
Kolchak moved to Japan and again abruptly changes his life. He enters the service of the British. 30 December 1917, the admiral was assigned to the Mesopotamian front. But Kolchak never reached the place of his new service. The reasons for this, he said during his interrogation: “In Singapore, the commander of the troops, General Ridout, came to me to greet me, he passed me a telegram urgently sent to Singapore from the IntelligenceDepartament director of the informative department of the military general staff in England (this is military intelligence. - Y. C). This telegram read: the English government ... due to the changed situation on the Mesopotamian front ... considers ... it is useful for the common allied cause that I return to Russia, that I am recommended to go to the Far East to start my activities there, and this, from their point of view, it is more profitable than my stay on the Mesopotamian front. ”
During interrogation before the shooting, Kolchak confessed, realizing that this was his last chance to bring something to his descendants. In a letter to his beloved A.V. Timireva from 20 in March 1918, he only modestly says that his mission is secret. It took a little more than half a year after Kolchak's intimate conversations, as the admiral's incredible fate began his ascension to the heights of Russian power. The British instructed him to knock together anti-Bolshevik forces. The place of their organization is Siberia and the Far East. The first tasks are minor - the creation of white troops in China, on the CER. But business stops: in Russia there is no Civil War. Real, terrible and destructive. Kolchak returned to Japan, sitting idle. Until the Czechoslovak insurgency happens, which is the most terrible of all Russian wars and begins.
It is important to understand the causal relationship. At first Kolchak is “examined”, talking to him. Then, when he agrees to cooperate, he is officially accepted into the English service. Then follows a series of small orders, a standby mode. Finally, the “English employee” Mr. Kolchak abruptly brings to the scene and almost at lightning speed ... is appointed the supreme ruler of Russia. Really interesting?
It was made like this. In the autumn of 1918, Kolchak arrives in Vladivostok. Our hero does not come alone, but in a very interesting company: along with the French Ambassador Repeat and the English General Alfred Knox. This general is not simple: until the end of 1917, he served as a British military attache in Petrograd. In his eyes, let us not be shy, with his active participation two Russian revolutions took place. Now the task of the brave general is just the opposite - to make one counter-revolution. Whom to support, and who to bury in this fight, will be decided in London. On the chessboard political board one must play both black and white. Then at any outcome of the game you win.
Further events develop rapidly. It always happens in the careers of those who are interested in British intelligence. At the end of September 1918, Kolchak, along with General Knox, arrived in the capital of white Siberia - Omsk. He has no position, he is a private, civilian person. But on November 4, the admiral was appointed military and naval minister in the All-Russian Provisional Government. Two weeks later, on November 18 of 1918, by the decision of the Council of Ministers of this government, all power in Siberia was transferred to Kolchak.
Kolchak becomes the head of Russia a month after his arrival.
And he does not arrange for this no conspiracy and does not put any effort. A certain force is doing everything for him, already putting Alexander Vasilyevich before a fait accompli. He takes the title of supreme ruler and becomes the actual dictator of the country, the bearer of higher power. There were no legal grounds for this. The government, which gave power to Kolchak, was itself chosen by a handful of deputies of the dispersed "Constituent". Moreover, it made its “noble” step as a result of the coup, being arrested.
The patriots of Russia sighed with hope. Instead of talkers, a man of business came to power - it seemed from the outside. In fact, in order to understand the tragedy of the admiral’s position, one must remember that it was not Kolchak himself who came to power, but it was given to him! For such a gift as power over all of Russia and the conditions were put tough. It is necessary to be "democratic", it is necessary to use the power structures of the socialists, it is necessary to put forward slogans that are not easily understood by simple peasants. It all seems like a small price to pay for the opportunity to form an army and defeat the Bolsheviks, which is nothing compared to the ability to save Russia. Kolchak agrees. He does not know that these factors will lead him to a complete collapse in a year ...
When we evaluate Kolchak as a statesman, we must remember how short a period he occupied Russia's highest power position. It's easy to count: he became the supreme ruler on November 18 1918 of the year, renounced the power of 5 on January 1920. Kolchak lost real power as early as November of 1919, when all white statehood in Siberia collapsed under the weight of military setbacks and rearward Social Revolutionary betrayal. The power stood admiral just a year.
And almost immediately he began to demonstrate his English friends independence and stubborn temper. Following General Knox, other representatives of the “allies” also came to Siberia. For communication with the army of Admiral Kolchak, France sent General Janin. Visiting the supreme ruler of Russia, Zhanen informed him about his authority to take command not only with all the forces of the Entente in this theater, but also with all the white armies in Siberia. In other words, the French general demanded complete submission from the head of the Russian state. At one time, both Denikin and other leaders of the White movement recognized Kolchak as the supreme ruler of Russia, that is, in fact, the dictator of the country. The “allies” did not recognize him, but at that time they did not recognize Lenin either. In addition, Kolchak is not just the head of the country, but also the head of the armed forces - the Supreme Commander. All white armies formally obey him. Thanks to the subordination of the rest of the White Guards to the admiral, the French actually crushed the entire White movement.
From now on, orders to Russian patriots were to come from Paris. This is a complete loss of national independence. Such subordination killed the idea of Russian patriotism, because Kolchak could be called the “spy of the Entente” in response to the accusations of Lenin and Trotsky of complicity with the Germans.
Kolchak rejects the proposal of Zhanen. Two days later the Frenchman comes again. What he talked about with Kolchak is unknown for certain, but a consensus was found: “Kolchak as the supreme ruler of Russia is the commander of the Russian army, and General Janin is all foreign troops, including the Czechoslovak corps. In addition, Kolchak instructs Zhanen to replace him at the front and be his assistant. ”
When such “faithful helpers” stand behind your back, your defeat and death is only a matter of time. The interventionists behaved in a peculiar way, ostensibly coming to help the Russians restore order. The Americans, for example, established such "good neighborly relations" with the red partisans, which greatly contributed to their strengthening and disorganization of Kolchak’s rear. The matter went so far that the admiral even raised the issue of the removal of American troops. An employee of the Kolchak administration, Sukin, reported in a telegram to the former foreign minister of Czarist Russia, Sazonov, that "the recall of the American troops is the only way to maintain friendly relations with the United States." The struggle against the Bolsheviks was not part of the “interventionists” plans. Over the 1 year and the 8 months of “intervention”, Americans out of about 12 thousand of their soldiers lost 353 people, of whom only 180 (!) People were in battle. The rest died from disease, accidents and suicides. By the way, the loss of such a ridiculous order is very often found in the statistics of the intervention. What is the real fight against the Bolsheviks?
Although outwardly the Americans were doing useful work for the white government. They seriously tackled the problem of the Trans-Siberian Railway, sending 285 railway engineers and mechanics to maintain its normal operation, and in Vladivostok they launched a car manufacturing plant. However, such a touching concern was caused not by the desire to quickly restore Russia and to establish transportation within the country. Care about the Russian railways is necessary for the Americans themselves. But it will be exported abroad a significant part of the Russian gold reserves and many other material values. To do this was more convenient, the "allies" enter into an agreement with Kolchak. From now on, the protection and functioning of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway becomes the business of the Czechs. Poles and Americans. They repair it, they provide work. They protect it and fight with partisans. It would seem that white troops are released and can be sent to the front. This is so, only in the Civil War, the rear sometimes becomes more important than the front.
Kolchak tried to achieve recognition of the West. He, who came to Russia with the filing of the British and French, seemed incredible lack of official support. And she always postponed. Constantly promised and never happened. It was necessary to be even more "democratic" and less "reactionary." Although Kolchak and so agreed to:
♦ convocation of the Constituent Assembly as soon as it takes Moscow;
♦ refusal to restore the regime destroyed by the revolution;
♦ recognition of the independence of Poland;
♦ recognition of all external debts of Russia.
But Lenin and the Bolsheviks were always more compliant and more accommodating. In March 1919, Kolchak rejected a proposal to start peace negotiations with the Bolsheviks. He again and again demonstrated to the emissaries of the West that the interests of Russia are above all for him. He refused to attempt to divide Russia and Denikin. And then the British, French and Americans finally decide to bet on the Bolsheviks. Since March 1919, the West has set a course for the final liquidation of the White movement.
But it was in the spring of 1919 that it seemed that the white victory was already near. The red front is about to collapse completely. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov writes in his memoirs: “Thus, the Bolsheviks were threatened from the north-west, south and east. The Red Army was still in its infancy, and Trotsky himself doubted its combat effectiveness. One can safely admit that the appearance of a thousand heavy guns and two hundred tanks on one of the three fronts would save the whole world from a constant threat. ”
You just need to help the white armies a little bit, just a little bit, and the bloody nightmare will end. The fighting is large-scale, because it requires a large number of ammunition. War is a breakthrough, devouring huge amounts of resources, people, and money. This is like a huge fire chamber of a locomotive where you have to throw, throw, throw. Otherwise, you will not go anywhere. Here you have another mystery. Did the "allies" help Kolchak at this crucial moment? Did they throw a coal into his military firebox? Do not suffer in thought - this is the answer from the memoirs of all the same Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov: “But then something strange happened. Instead of following the advice of their experts, the heads of the allied states led a policy that made Russian officers and soldiers experience the greatest disappointments in our former allies, and even admit that the Red Army protects the integrity of Russia from the encroachments of foreigners. ”
Let us distract for a moment and remember again that the excitement of the offensive in 1919 struck both Denikin, Yudenich and Kolchak. All of them have armies not fully formed, not trained and not armed. Yet white stubbornly go forward to meet his death. Amazing. Like an eclipse of some kind found on them all. Whites are going to take Moscow, but only attack it not at the same time, but at different times, in turns. This will allow Trotsky to break them in parts.
“The position of the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1919 was such that only a miracle could save them. It happened in the form of adopting the most absurd plan of action in Siberia, ”writes D. V. Filatyev, a professor at the General Staff Academy in his memoirs The Catastrophe of the White Movement in Siberia, who was Kolchak's assistant commander for supply. Wonder on us again. In our history, they are invariably associated with the activities of British intelligence. If we were to see under whose pressure Kolchak's military plans were being taken, then it will become completely clear to us who this time stood behind the curtains of the Russian turmoil.
In the spring of 1919, the supreme ruler of Russia had two options. They are remarkably described by D.V. Filatyev.
“Caution and military science demanded that we take the first plan in order to go towards the goal, although slowly and surely,” writes General Filatyev. Admiral Kolchak chooses an offensive. It is also possible to advance in two directions.
1. Putting a barrier in the direction of Vyatka and Kazan, direct the main forces to Samara and Tsaritsyn in order to unite with Denikin's army there and only then move together with him to Moscow. (Baron Wrangel unsuccessfully tried to obtain Denikin's approval for the same decision.)
2. Move in the direction of Kazan-Vyatka with a further exit through Kotlas to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, to the huge stocks of equipment concentrated there. In addition, this significantly reduced the time of delivery from England, because the way to Arkhangelsk is incomparably shorter than the way to Vladivostok.
Military science is a science no less complex than nuclear physics or paleontology. She has her own rules and dogmas. There is no need to go without a special need for a big risk; you must not give the enemy to beat himself in parts, freely moving forces along the internal operational lines; Himself should beat the enemy with all his might. Choose Kolchak attack on Samara-Tsaritsyn, and all the rules of military art will be observed.
Not one of these advantages gave the direction of all forces to Vyatka, because in this direction it was possible to count on complete success only in one assumption that the Bolsheviks would not guess to concentrate forces against the Siberian army, weakening for a while the pressure on Denikin. But there was no reason to base your plan on senseless or illiterate actions of the enemy, except for your own frivolity. ”
1. Putting a barrier in the direction of Vyatka and Kazan, direct the main forces to Samara and Tsaritsyn in order to unite with Denikin's army there and only then move together with him to Moscow. (Baron Wrangel unsuccessfully tried to obtain Denikin's approval for the same decision.)
2. Move in the direction of Kazan-Vyatka with a further exit through Kotlas to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, to the huge stocks of equipment concentrated there. In addition, this significantly reduced the time of delivery from England, because the way to Arkhangelsk is incomparably shorter than the way to Vladivostok.
Military science is a science no less complex than nuclear physics or paleontology. She has her own rules and dogmas. There is no need to go without a special need for a big risk; you must not give the enemy to beat himself in parts, freely moving forces along the internal operational lines; Himself should beat the enemy with all his might. Choose Kolchak attack on Samara-Tsaritsyn, and all the rules of military art will be observed.
Not one of these advantages gave the direction of all forces to Vyatka, because in this direction it was possible to count on complete success only in one assumption that the Bolsheviks would not guess to concentrate forces against the Siberian army, weakening for a while the pressure on Denikin. But there was no reason to base your plan on senseless or illiterate actions of the enemy, except for your own frivolity. ”
General Filatyev is wrong, it was not at all levity that Kolchak was attracted towards the disastrous path. After all, to the horror of their military. Kolchak chose ... an even more unfortunate strategy! The third option, the most unsuccessful, provided for a simultaneous attack on Vyatka and on Samara. 15 February 1919 of the year was made public by a secret directive of the supreme ruler of Russia, prescribing an offensive on all areas. This led to the disagreement of the armies in space, disjointed actions and to the exposure of the front in the gaps between them. The same mistake will be made by Hitler's strategists in the 1942 year, attacking both Stalingrad and the Caucasus at the same time. Kolchak offensive will also end in complete collapse. Why did the admiral choose such an erroneous strategy? He was persuaded to accept it. By the way, just such a disastrous plan of attack was reviewed and approved by the French General Staff. The British also insisted on it ardently. Their reasoning was compelling. We can read about it in the “White Siberia” of General Sakharov:
“They (the“ allies ”) brought all this to Vladivostok and put them in warehouses. Then the issue began, not only under control, but also under the most painful pressure on questions in all industries. Some foreigners did not like the fact that there was not enough proximity to the Social Revolutionaries, others considered the course of domestic politics to be not liberal enough, others spoke of the need for just such formations, finally, they even got to intervene in the operational part. Pointing and insisting on the choice of the operational direction ... Under such pressure, the direction was chosen for the main attack on Perm-Vyatka-Kotlas ... ”.
12 April 1919 of the year Kolchak issues another directive and decides to start ... a general offensive against Moscow. Stalin's Short Course VKI (b) speaks well about the level of readiness of whites: “In the spring of 1919, Kolchak, who assembled a huge army, reached almost to the Volga. The best forces of the Bolsheviks were thrown against Kolchak, Komsomol members and workers were mobilized. In April, the Red Army 1919 inflicted a severe defeat on Kolchak. Soon began the retreat of the Kolchak army across the front. "
It turns out, barely issuing a directive (12 of April) and starting to attack, the admiral's troops were immediately, in April, defeated. And in June and July, the Reds, having rejected his armies, broke free to the operational expanse of Siberia. Having penetrated only two months, the Kolchak troops uncontrollably rushed to retreat. And the hook ran to the very end and complete collapse. Involuntarily, analogies come to mind ...
... The summer of 1943, the Soviet troops are preparing to deliver a terrible blow to the Nazi Wehrmacht. Operation Bagration is carefully thought out. As a result, it will cease to exist a large army group of Germans. This will be in reality, but if the Stalinist offensive had developed according to the principles of Kolchak and Denikin, then instead of Warsaw, Soviet tanks would have appeared again at Stalingrad, and even near Moscow. That is, the collapse of the offensive would be complete. Yes, not one offensive, but the whole war ...
To summarize - it was impossible to attack Kolchak. But he not only did it, but also sent his armies in divergent straight lines. And even in this illiterate plan, he made another mistake, sending his most powerful army to Vyatka, that is, in a secondary direction.
The defeat of Kolchak's armies (both Denikin and Yudenich) was not due to an incredible set of circumstances, but because of their elementary violation of the basics of tactics and strategy, the foundations of the foundation of the art of war.
Wasn Russian generals were illiterate officers? Do not know the basics of the art of war? To force them to act contrary to common sense could only those from whom the fighters "for the One and Indivisible" completely depended ...
What will historians respond to? Such, they say, England generals. It happened by chance. The English gentleman was just bad at school and at the military academy, so he was wrong. But all this, of course, with a smile, from a pure heart and without a back intent. In France, absolutely "by chance", the generals are no better. The main adviser to the future destroyer of Kolchak, General Zhanin - captain of the French army Zinovy Peshkov. Familiar last name?
Concurrently this brave French officer ... adopted son of Maxim Gorky and the brother of one of the Bolshevik ringleaders, Jacob Sverdlov. One can only guess what recommendations such an adviser gave and for whom he ultimately worked. Under such conditions, the very plan of the offensive actions of the white admiral was clearly Trotsky known - hence the amazingly quick defeat of Kolchak. But at first it was just a defeat. Many times changed military happiness during the Russian civil strife. Today comes white, tomorrow red. Temporary withdrawal and failure is not the end of the struggle, but only one stage. Siberia is huge, new parts are being formed in the rear. Many stocks created fortifications. In order for the defeat of Kolchak to turn into a catastrophe and the death of the entire White movement, the "allies" had to try. And the main role in the strangulation of the White Guards was played by the Czechoslovakians. But we remember that these are not just Slavic warriors - they are official units of the French army, commanded by the French general Jeanne. So who in the end liquidated Kolchak?
Having acted as the instigators of the present internecine war, the Czechs quickly left the front and went to the rear, leaving the Russians to fight with other Russians. Under their care, they take the railroad. They are occupied by the best barracks, a huge number of cars. The Czechs have the best weapons, their armored trains. Their cavalry rides in saddles, not on pillows. And all this effort stands in the rear, eating his cheeks on Russian grubs. When the White armies began to withdraw, the Czechs, who had occupied the Trans-Siberian railway, were in a hurry to evacuate. In Russia, they have grabbed a lot of good. The Czech corps numbered about 40 thousand soldiers and occupied 120 thousand railway cars. And all this colossus begins evacuation at once. The Red Army does not want to fight the Czechs, another powerful enemy is not needed, and the retreating whites. Therefore, they are powerlessly looking at the arbitrariness of the Czechs. Not a single Russian train is let through by the Slav brothers. Among the taiga are hundreds of cars with the wounded, women and children. It is impossible to bring ammunition into the army, because the retreating Czechs sent their trains on both tracks. They unceremoniously take away steam locomotives from Russian echelons, hooking them to their wagons. And machinists drive the Czech echelon, until the locomotive becomes unusable. Then they throw him and take another one from the nearest non-Czech train. This breaks the “circuit” of steam locomotives, now it’s impossible to take out values and people.
Further, the Taiga stations, on the orders of the Czech command, do not let anyone in, even the trains of Kolchak himself. General Kappel, appointed by the admiral to command the troops at this critical moment, sends telegrams to General Janin, imploring him to “let the Minister of Communications take over the Russian railway.” At the same time, he assured that there would be neither a delay nor a reduction in the movement of Czech echelons. There was no answer.
General Kappel In vain, Kappel sent telegrams to General Janin, formally commanding all the "Allied" troops, including the Czechs. After all, the desire to block the road is not dictated by the selfish interests of Czech captains and colonels. This is a strict order of the generals. The impossibility of evacuation signs the death sentence to the White Guards. Scary scenes are played among the silent Siberian pines. Typhus echelons standing in the forest. Pile of corpses, no medicines, no food. The medical staff fell down himself or ran away, the engine froze cold. All the inhabitants of the hospital on wheels are doomed. The Red Army soldiers will find them later in the taiga, these terrible, dead-dead trains ...
Lieutenant-General Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel, a participant in the First World War, one of the most valiant white generals in Eastern Russia, established himself as a brave officer, who until the end had kept his debt once this oath. He personally led the subordinate units to the attacks, paternally cared for the soldiers entrusted to him. This valiant officer of the Russian Imperial Army forever remained a national hero of the White struggle, a hero who burned with the flame of an indestructible faith in the rebirth of Russia, in the correctness of his cause. A valiant officer, a fiery patriot, a man of crystalline soul and rare nobility, General Kappel entered the history of the White movement as one of his brightest representatives. It is significant that when, during the Siberian Ice Campaign in 1920, V.O. Kappel (he was then in the position of Commander-in-Chief of the White armies of the Eastern Front) gave his soul to God, the soldiers did not leave the body of their glorious commander in an unknown icy desert, and made an unprecedented hardest crossing over Lake Baikal with him in order to bring him to the earth in Read.
Film and article about Kappel: The last secret of General Kappel
Film and article about Kappel: The last secret of General Kappel
In other compositions, officers, officials and their families are fleeing from the Reds. These are tens of thousands of people. Behind the shaft rolls of the Red Army. But the cork organized by the Czechs does not dissolve. The fuel runs out, the water freezes in the engine. People go out and wander through the taiga, along the railway. Frost is a real Siberian - minus thirty, or even more. How many frozen in the forest, no one knows ...
The White Army is moving away. This way of the cross will later be called the Siberian Ice Campaign. Three thousand kilometers along the taiga, through the snow, along the bed of frozen rivers. Departing Whites bear all the weapons and ammunition. But the guns do not push through the forests. Artillery rushes. In the taiga is not found and feed horses. Scary landmarks mark the corpses of unfortunate animals waste remnants of the White Army. Not enough horses - you have to throw and all the extra weapons. They bring with them a minimum of food and a minimum of weapons. And such a horror lasts several months. The capacity is rapidly decreasing. The number of people with typhus is also growing rapidly. In small villages, where retreating come in for the night, and the sick and wounded along the side lie on the floor. About hygiene and nothing to think about. New parties of people are replacing the departed. Where the patient slept, he lies down healthy. There are no doctors, no drugs. There is nothing. The commander-in-chief, General Kappel, froze his legs, falling into a wormwood. In the nearest village, with a simple knife (!) The doctor cut off his toes and a piece of heel. No anesthesia, no wound treatment. Two weeks later, Kaniel died - pneumonia was added to the effects of amputation ...
And along the railway line winds an endless ribbon of Czech echelons. The soldiers are fed, they are sitting in warm houses, where the fire crackles in the ovens. Horses chew oats. Czechs are going home. The railway line is declared neutral by them. It will not be clashes. It will take a red squad town, through which the Czech echelons stretch, and white can not attack it. Break the neutrality of the railway track - the Czechs are threatened with a blow.
Going to the sleigh in the forests of the remnants of the White Army. The horses are heavy. There are no roads in the taiga. More precisely, there is - but only one.
Siberian highway - it is packed with carts of civilian refugees. Frozen women and children from the echelons, which had long been frozen on the road blocked by the Czechs, are slowly walking along it. Behind push the red. To get ahead, you literally have to sweep out of the road stuck carts and carts. The fires of things and sleds blaze. Nobody hears cries for help. Your horse has fallen - you died. No one wants to put you on his sleigh - because if his horse dies, what will happen to his children and his relatives? And in the forests red partisan detachments roam. They deal with the prisoners with particular cruelty. They do not spare the refugees, they kill everyone. So people are sitting in frozen trains and quietly dying out in the cold, plunging into a "saving" dream ...
The emergence of the partisan movement in Siberia is still waiting for its researcher. It explains a lot. Do you know under what slogan Siberian partisans went into battle? Against Kolchak, it is a fact. But why did the peasants of Siberia fight with arms in their hands against the power of the admiral? The answer lies in the propaganda materials of the partisans. The most significant and famous in Siberia was the detachment of former staff captain Shchetinkin. An interesting description of what slogans he went into battle, was left by captain G. S. Dumbadze. A detachment of White Guards in the village of Stepnoy Badzhey captured the typography of the red partisans. Drink thousands of leaflets: “I, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, secretly landed in Vladivostok, in order to start a fight with the people's Soviet soldier Kolchak, who sold themselves to foreigners. All Russian people are obliged to support me. ” No less striking is the end of the leaflet itself: “For the Tsar and the Soviet power!”
You still do not understand why the British insisted so strongly that the White Guards did not put forward "reactionary" slogans?
But even in the current dreadful situation, the frozen White Guards had a chance to stop and repel the offensive of the Red Army. If in the rear at once the fire of the uprisings prepared by the Social Revolutionaries had not caught on fire. As a schedule, almost at the same time, uprisings began in all industrial centers. The months-long agitation of the Social Revolutionaries did its job. The Bolsheviks were much closer to them than the “reactionary” Tsarist generals. In June 1919, the Siberian Union of Socialist Revolutionaries was created. Leaflets issued by him, called for the overthrow of the power of Kolchak, approval of democracy and the termination! armed struggle with the Soviet authorities. Almost simultaneously, 18-20 of June, at the XI Congress of the Party of Social Revolutionaries held in Moscow (!), Their main singers were confirmed. Home among them - the preparation of the peasants' speeches throughout the territory occupied by the Kolchak 2 in November in Irkutsk - as the final stage - a new authority was created - the Political Center. It was he who had to take power in the city, declared the white capital after the fall of Omsk.
Here it is just right to ask the question, why did the Social Revolutionaries feel so at ease in the Kolchak rear? Where did counterintelligence look? Why didn’t the High Ruler of Russia use a hot iron to burn out this serpentine revolutionary nest? It turns out that the British didn't allow him to do this. In every way they demanded the involvement of this party "in the proper way". They prevented the establishment of order and the establishment of a real dictatorship, which was more than justified in the conditions of the Civil War. Why are the "allies" so fond of the Social Revolutionaries? Why so strongly watch over them? Thanks to the action of this party, in a matter of months between February and October, the Russian army lost its combat capability, and the state became incapable. Specialists "in matters of destruction and decomposition, but not in constructive work" aptly characterized this fraternity white General Chaplin.
Socialist-Revolutionaries occupy posts in cooperatives, public organizations, run major Siberian cities. And they are conducting an active secret struggle with the ... White Guards. In stories about the death of Kolchak and his army, this is usually given little attention. In vain. “This underground activity of the Social Revolutionaries gave its results much later. - General Sakharov writes in his memoirs "White Siberia", - and turned the front's successes into a complete catastrophe of the army, led to the defeat of the whole case, headed by Admiral L. V. Kolchak. " Socialist-Revolutionaries began anti-Kolchak agitation in the army. Kolchak was difficult to answer adequately: the overthrow of the Bolshevik power led to the restoration of local and town government. These local authorities were elected by the laws of the Provisional Government in 1917, they are almost entirely composed of Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. You can not overclock them - it is undemocratic, the "allies" will not allow scarlet. You can not leave it either - they are strongholds and pockets of resistance to a rigid order. Until his death, Kolchak never solved this problem ...
21 December 1919 began the armed uprising of the Social Revolutionaries in the Irkutsk province, two days later they took power in Krasnoyarsk, then in Nizhneudinsk. The insurgency involved units of the 1 of the White Army, located in the rear of the formation. The retreating, demoralized, frozen parts of the Kolchakites, instead of reinforcements, meet the rebels and the red partisans. Such a stab in the back further undermines the morale of whites. The assault of Krasnoyarsk fails, the bulk of the retreating White Guards bypasses the city side. Begins mass surrender.
Soldiers who have lost hope do not see the point in continuing the struggle. Refugees do not have the strength and ability to flee further. However, a significant proportion of whites prefer to march into obscurity of shameful surrender to hated Bolsheviks. These irreconcilable heroes will pass their way to the end. They were waiting for the frozen channel of the Angara River, new hundreds of kilometers of taiga trails, a huge ice mirror of Lake Baikal. Around 10, thousands of deadly tired White Guards came to the Transbaikalia ruled by ataman Semenov, bringing with them as many exhausted typhoid patients. The death toll can not be counted ...
Part of the garrison of Irkutsk showed the same fortitude. The last defenders of power are the same as everywhere else: cadets and Cossacks remain loyal to the oath. The SRs begin to take over the city of 24 on December 1919 of the year. The uprising begins in the barracks of the 53 Infantry Regiment. They are on the opposite bank of the Angara from the troops loyal to Kolchak. Quickly suppress the hearth of the rebellion does not work. The bridge was “accidentally” dismantled, and all the steamers are controlled by “allies:”. To suppress the uprising, the head of the Irkutsk garrison, General Sychev, introduces a state of siege. Since he could not get to the rebels without the help of the “allies”, he decides to try to reason with rebellious soldiers with shelling.
We will notice many “accidents” in this revolt of the Social Revolutionaries. At the railway station of Irkutsk last week there are constantly Czech echelons moving to Vladivostok. But the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center begins its speech exactly when there is a train at the station ... the train of General Zhanin himself. Neither before nor later. In order to avoid misunderstanding, General Sychev notifies the Frenchman of his intention to launch artillery shelling of the positions of the rebels. The moment is critical - if we suppress a rebellion now, Kolchak's power has a chance of survival. Indeed, in Irkutsk there is a government evacuated from Omsk. (True, the admiral himself is not. Not wanting to part with the gold reserves, he and his echelons were stuck in Czech traffic jams in the area of Nizhneudinsk.)
The actions of the "allies" in the Irkutsk events best illustrate their goals in the Russian Civil War.
General Janin categorically forbids striking the rebels. In the event of shelling, he threatens to open artillery fire on the city. Subsequently, the “Allied” general explained his act with considerations of humanity and a desire to avoid bloodshed. The commander of the "Allied" troops, General Zhanen, not only prohibited the shelling, but also declared that part of Irkutsk, where the rebels had gathered, as a neutral strip. It becomes impossible to liquidate the rebels, as it is impossible not to pay attention to the ultimatum of the French general: the troops loyal to Kolchak in the city about 3 thousand bayonets, the Czechs - 4 thousand.
But whites do not give up. They are well aware that the defeat in Irkutsk will lead to the complete destruction of Kolchak power. The commandant mobilizes all the officers in the city, and the cadet teens are brought into the fight. Energetic actions of the authorities stop the transition to the rebels of the new parts of the garrison. However, it is impossible for White to advance into the “neutral zone”, so Kolchak’s players are only protected. Other parts of the rebels approach the city, and they attack. The situation fluctuates, no one can take over. Brutal street battles take place daily. A turning point in the direction of government troops could happen on December 30 1919, with the arrival of about a thousand soldiers in the city under the command of General Skipetrov. This detachment was sent by ataman Semenov, he also sent Zhanen a telegram asking "either to immediately remove the rebels from the neutral zone, or not to obstruct the order by the troops subordinate to me to immediately suppress the criminal rebellion and restore order".
There was no answer. General Janin did not write anything to Ataman Semenov, but the actions of his subordinates were more eloquent than any telegram. First, on the approaches to the city, under various pretexts, they did not miss the three white armored trains. The arrivals of Semenov nevertheless launched an offensive without them, and the cadets supported him from the city. Then this “attack was repelled by Czech machine-gun fire from the rear, while around the 20 junkers were killed,” an eyewitness wrote. The valiant Slavic legionaries in the back shot the attacking boys of the cadets ...
But this could not stop the White Guard rush. Semenovtsy advanced, and a real threat of defeat hung over the uprising. Then the Czechs, rejecting any talk of neutrality, openly interfered in the matter. Referring to the order of General Zhanen, they demanded the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of the detachment arrived, threatening in case of refusal to use force. Not being able to contact the Cossacks and the junkers in the city, the squad of Semenovtsy at the barrel of the guns of the Czech armored train was forced to depart. But the Czechs did not calm down on this. Apparently, in order to precisely safeguard the anti-Kolchak uprising, the "allies" disarmed the detachment of the Semenovtsy, treacherously attacking him!
It was the intervention of the "allies" that saved the heterogeneous forces of the Social Revolutionary Political Center from defeat. That it led to the defeat of government forces. It was not at all accidental. To verify this, it is enough to compare some dates.
♦ On December 24, 1919, the Irkutsk uprising began.
♦ On December 24, the train with gold reserves, in which Kolchak was traveling, was detained by the Czechs in Nizhneudinsk for 2 weeks. (Why? The White Guards are beheaded, the appearance of Kolchak, beloved by the soldiers, can change the mood of the fluctuating units.)
♦ On January 4, 1920, the struggle in Irkutsk ends with the victory of the Social Revolutionaries.
♦ On January 4, Admiral Kolchak resigned as the supreme ruler of Russia and transferred them to General Denikin.
Coincidences are noticeable immediately. The Czechs, at the suggestion of General Janin, do not allow to suppress the rebellion in order to have a beautiful excuse not to let Kolchak enter his new capital. The absence of the admiral and the obvious help to the "allies" helps the Social Revolutionaries to win. As a result of this - Kolchak renounces power. Simple and beautiful. Historians tell us about cowardly Czechs who are allegedly trying to simply run away from the advancing Reds and therefore are interested in a peaceful path. Dates and numbers break naive theories at the root. The soldiers of the Entente clearly and unequivocally began to fight with the whites, but this was required by the circumstances.
After all, the "allies" had another, very clear and specific goal. The issuance of Kolchak for reprisal in red is presented in historiography as a forced step of the Czechoslovaks. Foul-smelling, treacherous, but - forced. They say that the noble general Zhanin could not do anything else in order to quickly and without losses take out his subordinates from Russia. So he had to sacrifice Kolchak and give it to the Polit-Center. Moan. The issuance of Kolchak took place on 15 on January 1920 of the year. But two weeks before that, the weak SR political center not only could not take power on its own, but was saved from defeat personally by General Zhanin and the Czechs. Just four
Thousands of Slavic legionaries could dictate their will to white and turn the situation at the most decisive moment in the right direction. Why? Because behind them stood the entire 40-thousandth Czechoslovak Corps. This is power. No one wants to get involved with it - you start to fight the Czechs and add yourself a strong enemy, and your opponent a strong friend. That is why both red and white are courting the Czechoslovaks as they can. And brazen Czechs take steam locomotives from sanitary trains and leave them to freeze in the taiga.
If the "allies" wanted to take Kolchak alive, no one would interfere with this. Such a force simply did not exist. And the red loser admiral was not particularly needed. They don’t like to talk about it out loud, they didn’t show it in the last film, and after all, on January 4 Kochak renounced power and continued traveling under the guard-escort of the Czechs as an individual. Again, recall the chronology of the Irkutsk events and note that Kolchak was able to move forward with the golden echelon only after his renunciation. He was detained by the Czechs but ordered by General Janin, ostensibly to ensure his safety.
Representatives of the highest Russian authorities are expensive to take care of their safety. Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky for her maintenance sent the family of Nicholas II to Siberia. General Janin for the same did not let Kolchak's train to Irkutsk, where he could be taken under the protection of loyal cadets and Cossacks. Two weeks later, this caring French general calmly passed the admiral in Irkutsk to the representatives of the Social Revolutionary Political Center. But he gave the "word of a soldier," that the life of the former Supreme Ruler is under the protection of the "allies." By the way, when Kolchak was needed by the Entente, a year ago on the night of the coup that brought him to power, the house where he lived took the English part under protection. Now the Czechoslovaks have actually taken on the role of his captors.
This is not a weak newborn Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center dictating his will to the Czechs. This "allied" command, conniving at the Socialist-Revolutionaries, helping them in every way, "set" the date of their speech in Irkutsk. It was this that “prepared” the new regime, which “under the pressure of circumstances” was in a hurry to transfer to the admiral. Kolchak was not supposed to stay alive. But the Czechs themselves could not shoot him. Just like in the history of the Romanovs, which were supposed to fall from the hands of the Bolsheviks, the "allies" organized the Social Revolutionary bullet to the supreme ruler of Russia. And there were not only political reasons for this. Oh, anyone will understand these reasons! After all, we are talking about gold. Not about kilograms - about tons. About tens and hundreds of tons of precious metal ...
Much in common in the death of Kolchak and the family of Nicholas II. In the newspaper "Version" number 17 for 2004 year published an interview with Professor of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, doctor of historical sciences Vladlen Sirotkin. We are talking about "Russian gold", located abroad and illegally appropriated by the "allies." It consists of three parts: "Tsarist," Kolchak "and" Bolshevik. " Paz is interested in the first two. The royal part consists of:
1) of gold mined in the mines, piratically captured by Japan in March 1917-th in Vladivostok;
2) the second part: this is at least ten ships of precious metal, sent by the Russian government in 1908-1913 to the United States to create an international monetary system. There it remained, and the project was prevented by the "accidental" outbreak of the First World War;
3) about 150 suitcases with jewels of the royal family, which sailed to England in January 1917.
And now the “allied” special services organized the liquidation of the entire royal family by the hands of the Bolsheviks. This is a fat point in the history of "royal" gold. It can not give. There is no one else to ask the report, which is why the British and French do not recognize any Russian authorities.
The second largest part of Russian gold is “Kolchak”. These funds are directed to Japan, England and the United States for the purchase of weapons. Both samurai and the governments of England and the United States did not fulfill their obligations to Kolchak. Today, only gold transferred to Japan pulls in the amount of about 80 billion dollars. Those who do not believe in politics, believe in the economy! Sell and betray the White movement was very profitable. Kolchak, after all, the noble general Zhanen and the Czechs did sell, and to be perfectly precise, they traded. For his extradition, the Reds allowed the Czechoslovakians to take with them one third of the gold reserves of the Russian treasury, stored by the admiral. This money will then form the basis of the gold reserves of independent Czechoslovakia. The situation is the same - the physical destruction of Kolchak put an end to the financial relations between the Entente and the white governments. No Kolchak, no one to ask for a report.
The numbers vary. Different sources estimate the amount of "Russian gold" in different figures. But in any case, it is impressive. It is not about kilograms or even centners, but about tens and hundreds of tons of precious metal. It was not in bags and trunks that the “allies” that had been accumulated by the Russian people over the previous centuries were exported, but steamers and trainloads. From here and different interpretations: the car of gold here, the car of gold there. Note that the White Guard gold is precisely “Kolchak”, and not “Dennkinskoye”, not “Krasnovsky” and not “Wrangel”. Let us compare the facts, and the "diamond" of the "allied" treachery will sparkle us with another facet. None of the white leaders were turned out to be red and did not die during the Civil War, with the exception of Kornilov, who died in battle. Only Admiral Kolchak was taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks. Denikin went to England, Krasnov to Germany, Wrangel was evacuated from the Crimea, along with the remnants of his defeated army. Only Admiral Kolchak was killed, with a huge gold reserve.
In fairness, we say that the fact of the death of Kolchak was so blatant that it caused a huge resonance. The "Allied" governments even had to create a special commission to investigate the actions of General Janin. “However, the matter did not end with anything,” writes Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. - General Janin answered all the questions with a phrase that put the interrogators in an awkward position: "I must repeat, gentlemen, that with His Majesty Emperor Nicholas II, there was even less ceremony."
No wonder he mentioned the French general about the fate of Nikolai Romanov. General Zhanin put his hand to the disappearance of materials about the murder of the royal family. The first part "mysteriously" disappeared on the way from Russia to the UK. This is, so to speak, the contribution of English intelligence. The French do their bit to this dark story. After the death of Kolchak, at the beginning of March 1920, a meeting of the main investigative participants took place in Harbin: generals Dieterichs and Lokhvitsky, investigator Sokolov, Englishman Wilton and teacher Tsarevich Alexei. Pierre Gilliard.
The material evidence collected by Sokolov and all the investigation materials were in the carriage of the British Wilton, who had diplomatic status. The question was about sending them abroad. At that moment, as ordered, a strike broke out on the CER. The situation was heated, and even General Dieterihs, who opposed the transportation of materials, agreed with the rest. Writing to General Zhanen in writing, the participants in the improvised meeting asked him to ensure the safety of the documents and remains of the royal family, who were in a special trunk. There are bones in it, fragments of bodies. Because of the retreat of the whites, the investigator Sokolov did not have time to do the examination. He has no right to take them with him: the investigator only has access to the materials when he is an official. Power disappears. Co-ordinated the investigators, his powers disappear. Have no right to export documents and relics and other participants in the investigation.
The only option to save the evidence and the original documents of the investigation is to hand them over to Jeanne. In mid-March, 1920, Dntrikhs, Sokolov, and Zhilyar, handed over to Janin carrying the materials they had, after making copies of the documents. Having taken them out of Russia, the French general should hand them over to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov in Paris. To the great surprise of all the emigration, the Grand Duke refused to accept materials and remains from Janen. We won’t be surprised: just remember that the former commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich Romanov, among other “prisoners”, was guarded by a wonderful detachment of sailor Zadorozhny and was taken out along with all of them on British Dreadnought to Europe. It was just such compliant members of the Romanov family who were saved from death.
After Romanov’s refusal to accept the relics, General Zhanin did not find anything better than to hand them over ... to the former ambassador of the Provisional Government, Girs. After that, the documents and the remains no one has ever seen, and their further fate is unknown for sure. When the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who declared himself the heir to the Russian throne, "tried to find out their whereabouts, he received no intelligible answer. Most likely, they were kept in the vaults of one of the Parisian banks. Then information appeared that during the occupation by the German army of Paris, the safes were opened, and things and documents disappeared. Who and why did it - the secret and today ...
Now let's fast forward from distant Siberia to northwest Russia. Here the elimination of whites was not so large, but it took place in close proximity to red Petrograd, the results for whites by their horror and degree of betrayal can compete with the tragedy of the death of Kolchak's army.
References:
Romanov A. M. Book of memoirs. M .: ACT, 2008.S. 356
D. Filatyev. The Catastrophe of the White Movement and Siberia / Eastern Front, Admiral Kolchak. M .: Tsengrnoln. 2004. C. 240.
Sakharov K. White Siberia / Eastern Front, Admiral Kolchak. M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2004. C. 120.
G. S. Dumbadze. What contributed to our defeat in Siberia during the Civil War: the Eastern Front, Admiral Kolchak. M .: Centronoligraph. 2004. C. 586.
Novikov I.A. The Civil War in Eastern Siberia. M .: Zeitrpoligraf, 2005. C. 183.
Ataman Semenov. About myself. M .: Zeitrpoligraf, 2007. C. 186.
Bogdanov K. A. Kolchak. SPb .: Shipbuilding, 1993. C. 121
Romanov AM Book of memories. M .: ACT, 2008. C. 361
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