The hunger hike. How did the Orenburg army die
Smoot. 1919 year. At the end of 1919, the White Orenburg Army was killed. The Cossacks, under the command of Generals Dutov and Bakich, made a Hunger trip in December from the war zone near Akmolinsk to Sergiopol. This campaign began simultaneously with the Great Siberian Ice Campaign of the Kolchak Army.
Retreat of the Orenburg Army
On October 29, 1919, the Red Army occupied Petropavlovsk and began an almost non-stop pursuit of the enemy along the Trans-Siberian Railway. On November 14, 1919, the whites left Omsk. The Siberian government fled to Irkutsk. Czechoslovak troops, defending the Siberian Railway, refused to fight with the Reds, withdrew and moved to Vladivostok. Thus, they blocked the Trans-Siberian Railway and practically destroyed the opportunity for whites to quickly retreat, break away from the enemy, regroup remaining forces and gain a foothold at a new remote frontier in order to survive the winter and spring offensive again. Broken and demoralized Kolchakites retreated to the east. The Great Siberian Ice Campaign began.
On the left flank of the white Eastern Front, the Dutov Orenburg army retreated to Ishim, and by the evening of October 30, the headquarters of the 4th Orenburg Army Corps arrived in Atbasar. The army was in the most deplorable state. In fact, she was in the formation stage, which she did not have time to complete. Units retreated along the bare, deserted steppe with no supplies. There was no artillery, transport, ammunition, provisions and uniforms. There was no warm clothing, which in the conditions of the onset of winter quickly affected in the most negative way. Settlements were rare and small, that is, they could not become a full-fledged base for the troops. Cossacks surrendered in whole regiments. They did not want to go far east, sought to return to their native villages. Typhus raged in the troops, knocking out half of the manpower. The most combat-ready core of the army was the 4th Orenburg Army Corps of General Bakich, which restrained the onslaught of the enemy.
Dutov planned to defend the Ishim River to cover the concentration of the main forces of the army in the area of Atbasar-Kokchetav-Akmolinsk. Together with the 2nd Steppe Corps, keep Pavlodar and Semipalatinsk. This area was convenient for wintering, as there was food and fodder. The commander offered to organize a guerrilla war, to smash the enemy rear. In winter, complete the formation of the army, replenish with mobilization, arm, supply and in the spring go on a counterattack. But all this was already a dream. The White Eastern Front finally collapsed. After the fall of Omsk, the White Cossacks first retreated east. The Kokchetav group of the 5th Soviet Army did not allow the White Cossacks to stay in this area. The Reds went around Atbasar from the north and north-west and went to the rear of the army of Dutov. The Cossacks left Atbasar.
The small Orenburg army had to retreat in conditions of constant clashes with the Reds and the rebels. All Siberia at that time was blazing. The initial direction to Pavlodar, in order to reach the Great Siberian Way, soon had to be abandoned. The city of Pavlodar, located 700 miles from the White Cossacks, was occupied by the Reds at the end of November. Slowly moving south, the Orenburg army was moving along the sparsely populated and deserted region to Akmolinsk and Karkaralinsk. When leaving, the remains of artillery were thrown. On November 26, the Reds occupied Atbasar, on November 28 - Akmolinsk.
The hunger hike
Arriving in Karkaralinsk, Dutov found out that the red parts were going to cross him from Pavlodar. At the same time, news came that in Semipalatinsk there was an uprising - the soldiers of the 2nd Steppe Corps rebelled and killed their officers. They switched to the side of the Reds, who soon occupied Semipalatinsk. As a result, the remnants of the Orenburg army lost hope of joining Kolchak’s troops and could only retreat to Sergiopol, Semirechye, which was occupied by the forces of ataman Annenkov. A trip to the east through a deserted steppe began in the first week of December 1919 and continued until the end of December.
The path from Karkaralinsk to Sergiopol (550 versts) ran along a desert, partially mountainous terrain, almost without settlements, without water sources. Rare groups of nomads, as the Cossacks approached, immediately left with their cattle south, to Lake Balkhash. The troops and refugees had virtually no supplies, and there was no way to get them along the way. To survive, they cut and ate horses, camels. In fact, at that moment the army was no longer there, numerous convoys, groups of horsemen and foot refugees were moving. Typhoid epidemic was rampant. The wounded died, people died from disease, from hunger and cold.
On December 12, the Reds occupied Karkaralinsk. Initially, the red cavalry pursued the retreating, then lagged behind. However, it was necessary to engage in battles with the red partisans. Partisans of the Red Prince of Khovansky, who recaptured many convoys with refugees and property, caused especially great damage.
Winter came into its own with 20 degrees of frost. In the conditions of the desert steppe area, purged by all the winds, for the hungry, exhausted by the many-day transitions of people, without normal warm clothes it was death. As the campaigner recalled:
This terrible march was called the “Hunger Campaign”, since on the one hand it passed through the vast waterless expanses of the Hungry Steppe. On the other hand, due to the general tragic conditions: many Cossacks and members of their families died from wounds, hunger, cold, exhaustion and typhoid. Data on the strength and loss of Dutov’s army during the Hunger Campaign are very different. From 20 to 40 thousand people went camping. Half went to Sergiopol. However, many survivors were ill with typhoid.
End of the army
At the end of December 1919, the remnants of the Orenburg Army reached Sergiopol, where they planned to rest. The north-eastern part of the Seven Rivers was occupied by the troops of Ataman Annenkov. Considering himself the owner of the Semirechye, Annenkov refused to recognize the atman Dutov as a senior. He ordered that the Orenburg Cossacks be given neither housing, nor food, nor ammunition. The Orenburg units were completely demoralized, there were many patients with typhoid, so they could not exert force pressure.
To get out of a critical situation, Dutov lost. Annenkov was paid a significant ransom for the supply and provision of housing to the Orenburg Cossacks. Dutov was appointed ataman Annenkov as the civil governor general of the Semirechensk region, and left for Lepsinsk. The command of the Orenburg army, which was being reorganized into the Orenburg detachment, passed to General Bakich, with submission to Ataman Annenkov. Bakic was an experienced, brave and disciplined commander. He fought with the Japanese and Germans, in 1919 he headed the 4th Orenburg Army Corps.
Annenkovtsy and Dutovtsy were not able to establish normal interaction. Their differences eventually grew to a deadly feud. The fact was that Annenkov was an ataman-separatist like ataman Semenov in Transbaikalia, did not reckon with anyone and ruled Semirechye with the help of mass terror. He mercilessly destroyed not only the Bolsheviks and the Reds, but also crushed any resistance. The talented organizer of white partisans, Annenkov, in December 1918, at the head of his Partisan division, was sent to Semirechye to fight peasant rebels of the Lepsinsky and Kopalsky counties. However, the pacification of the uprising dragged on for almost a year. Annenkov, despite the instructions of Kolchak, did not want to leave the Semirechye and strengthen the White East Front with his division in the crucial period of the summer of 1919 and continued the war with the peasants of Semirechye. In the most cruel way, the chieftain drowned in the blood the uprisings of Russian peasants, destroying entire villages. Numerous wild atrocities committed by the Annenkovites led to the fact that Annenkov’s volunteers were very notorious even among the White Guards themselves.
In December 1919, the Separate Semirechye Army was formed in Semirechye, with a strength of over 7 thousand bayonets and sabers. Thus, in late 1919 - early 1920, Annenkov in Semirechye was in the position of a local tsar, who, if it was in his interests, formally subordinated to the power of the Siberian government, and if not, acted at his own discretion. He did not tolerate obvious rivals and tried to eliminate.
The Annenkovites also treated the refugees from the Dutov army accordingly, and committed numerous robberies and violence against them. They considered themselves the owners of the Semirechye and did not want to endure the aliens at home. The Dutovites were dangerous as an organized armed force. The Annenkovites, who at that time lived quite calmly, accused the Dutovites that they had brought typhus with failure, brought the Reds on the tail, which led to the emergence of a new front. Also, the Dutovites were accused of complete decay, loss of discipline and fighting efficiency. So Annenkov himself in his order in March 1920 wrote: “So, the two-year struggle in Semirechye gave sad results, thanks only to the arrival of such“ refugee guest performers ”as Dutov, who came with ragged, hungry and bloated people, taking with him a lot of women, but without shells and ammunition, bringing typhoid and collapse with them. ”
Later, already at the trial, Annenkov noted that the Orenburg Army “was completely incapacitated. These were decaying units, rapidly rolling towards the Chinese border. Together with them was a decadent mood in all parts of versts at 900 along the front. In addition, most people were sick with typhoid. In fact, the whole army was a continuous typhoid infirmary. Not a single cavalry unit was riding, everyone rode on a sleigh ... "
Annenkov refused to supply the Dutovites with ammunition, although they together opposed the Reds. Annenkovtsi also refused to issue food and forage to the Dutovites. On the other hand, the butchery manners of the Annenkovites were deeply disgusted by the Orenburg Cossacks, although they themselves were used to war and blood. Later, already in China, General Bakich wrote that “the method of command and order in the partisan units of Ataman Annenkov, where the basic requirements of military service were not respected, law and order were denied, incredible atrocities and robberies were allowed, as in relation to the civilian population of villages and villages , as well as in relation to the ranks of my detachment, which, due to illness, which could not fend for themselves, provoked bitterness against the partisans of General Annenkov from the ranks of my detachment. "
Parts of the Semirechensky army of Annenkov and Bakich’s detachment occupied the front between Lake Balkhash and the mountains of Tarbagatai. In March 1920, the Red Army launched an offensive from Semipalatinsk along the entire Semirechye front. Annenkov’s army was defeated. Annenkov himself with the remnants of the troops fled to China, in Xinjiang. Before this, Annenkov tricked and disarmed soldiers who did not want to flee to China (mass shooting near Lake Alakol). After this massacre, the entire once-thousands of Annenkov’s army was reduced to several hundred complete “scumbags”. Also, the Annenkovites once again “distinguished themselves” by torture, violence and killings over the families of white officers and refugees who retreated with the Cossacks. In response, the Orenburg Regiment named after General Dutov separated from the Annenkov division and went to Bakich, who also retreated to China. In 1926, the Chinese extradited Annenkov to the Soviet authorities, he was tried and executed in 1927.
General Bakich also sent his troops to China. With him, up to 12 thousand people left for China. At the same time, Bakich asked the Chinese authorities to place the Annenkovites separately from his detachment at a distance of at least 150 miles. Otherwise, a clash between the Annenkovites and the Dutovites is possible. Dutov, with a personal detachment and civilian refugees, also fled to China. On February 7, 1921, Ataman Dutov was killed by agents of the Cheka during a special operation. After the death of Dutov, Bakich led the Orenburg detachment, but its number dropped sharply already in 1920. Half of the refugees returned to their homeland, some went to the Far East, others scattered throughout China. In 1921, Bakich’s detachment was defeated in Mongolia and surrendered to the Mongol forces. In 1922, the general was extradited to the Soviet authorities, he was tried and shot.
- Alexander Samsonov
- https://ru.wikipedia.org/
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