Three days and three nights of the Maykop massacre
After the assault on Maykop, most of the townspeople lurked, because they had heard about the atrocities of the troops associated with the Kuban Rada in the region. Only a few bourgeois decided, so to speak, to convey "credentials" to General Viktor Pokrovsky. For this, a gala dinner was arranged. In this way, the bourgeoisie tried to bargain for security and immunity. But even they did not know that Pokrovsky, under the guise of "legitimate authority", had already begun to set the stage for mass executions and robbery.
Legislative cynicism of Pokrovsky
Following order No. 1 of the “commandant” Yesaul Razderishin, discouraging his ignorance, followed by “Order No. 2” already signed by “the head of the 1st Kuban Division, Major General Pokrovsky.” A horrifying order of cynicism read:
Contributions must be paid within a three-day period and by no means by promissory notes.
In case of failure to fulfill my requirements, the above-mentioned outskirts of the city will be burned to the ground.
“I lay the collection of contributions on the commandant of the city, Yesaul Razderishin.”
The cynicism of this order was not even that the indemnity was imposed indiscriminately on the city, which was supposedly "liberated from the Bolsheviks." Sophisticated cynicism was that the inhabitants of the outskirts (settlements) were mostly workers and poor employees, who, with all the desire, could not collect such a colossal sum for neither three nor ten days.
At the same time, Order 3 came out. This order introduced martial law in the city, in the aforementioned settlements, all movement was prohibited from seven in the evening until six in the morning, the lighting should have been turned off at that time, including in the houses, and a military court would wait for anyone who violated this order and, most likely shooting. At the same time, Pokrovsky did not forget about his hedonistic ways, so in the center of Maykop the owners of cafes, restaurants and other entertainment venues did not just ask to open their enterprises, but demanded their immediate opening without limiting hours of work.
Order No. 4 signed by General Pokrovsky demanded that the population surrender everything in their hands weapon, as well as all items of equipment and uniforms, including overcoats and flasks. And under the concept of "weapons" fell and daggers. What exactly relates to knives, was not indicated. All those who were allowed to find prohibited items during the search were ordered to be shot on the spot.
Three days and three nights of executions
Early in the morning of September 21, while Pokrovsky took part in the next solemn event regarding the capture of Maykop (a prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral), on his orders, the Cossacks broke into working settlements. At that time, few people knew that even at night the White Cossacks had chopped up hundreds of people, and in the afternoon they intended to completely clean up the working areas of the city. Slobodki could not pay the indemnity, which the general expected, and therefore, as he threatened, the outskirts were devoted to fire and plunder. Using order No. 4, Pokrovsky's punishers simply robbed civilians. Guided by order No. 2, they hid their crimes by burning looted houses.
Victor Pokrovsky
One of the witnesses to the Maikop massacre was former hieromonk Sergei Trufanov (Iliodor), the Black Hundred, once a friend of Rasputin and a rather knowledgeable and at the same time odious person with a frank raid of adventurism. Despite his specific views, there is no reason to doubt Trufanov's objectivity. First, he could not find a clear common language with the Bolsheviks. And secondly, he himself was detained in Maykop by Cossacks Pokrovsky, so he found himself in the center of events.
What happened truly shocked even the very experienced Trufanov:
And these terrifying testimonies were only the beginning:
Sergey Trufanov
They were exterminated not only by ideological and class grounds, but also by age qualification. So, men of draft age who managed to stay in families and avoid conscription were executed without trial in their own homes in front of mothers, wives, and children. The severed parts of the bodies lay almost throughout the city. Starving dogs pulled apart bodies, turning into aggressive cannibals to match people.
But back to Trufanov’s memoirs:
- Keep your head up! Tilt your head below! Raise your face above! ..
With every blow, the crowd swayed with horror, and a sharp moan came. When all the couples were chopped up, the crowd was dispersed with lashes. ”
There are cases known and completely paradoxical in their fierce cruelty. So, one of the Cossacks of Pokrovsky killed his own brother’s wife, who went to the Reds, and almost all of his nephews, who caught his eye.
Anton Denikin
Even the bloodyness of the Civil War, in which there were no saints from either the whites or the reds, could not mitigate the deed Pokrovsky. They learned about the massacre at the headquarters of the Volunteer Army from an intelligence report to the Special Counterintelligence Division of the General Staff Division under the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia for November 1918 (given in abbreviation):
Thus, in this case, it is very difficult to establish the direct participation of the residents of the Nikolaev district in the shooting of General Gaiman's troops. The Pokrovsky district is so far from the retreat route that physically, by its location, it could not take part in the shelling of troops, not excluding, of course, the possibility of single shooting cases during the start of an attack on the city streets.
From the Trinity Territory, or rather, the so-called Niza, from the islands of the river and the banks, there were cases of shooting at the running residents of Maykop crossing the river, but there were no killed or wounded. This to some extent indicates that the shooting was not intense and was random in nature ...
All this indicates that the population of the outskirts as such could not have weapons and only individuals could have such. In addition, both the Bolsheviks and General Geiman suggested that the population surrender the existing weapons, which were demolished in significant numbers.
Meanwhile, when occupying the mountains. Maykop in the early days of the lesson, 2 Maykop inhabitants were cut down, which figure was called by General Pokrovsky himself at a public dinner ...
Indicate many cases of executions of persons completely unrelated to the Bolshevik movement. In some cases, even the identity and application of the institution did not help. So, for example, the petition of the teacher’s council of a technical school for one worker and teacher’s institute for a student Sivokonya ...
The most terrible thing is that the searches were accompanied by general violence by women and girls. Not even the old women were spared. Violence was accompanied by bullying and beatings. Randomly, the interviewed residents living at the end of Gogolevskaya Street, about two blocks along the street, reported the rape of 17 people, including girls, one old woman and one pregnant (testimony of Jezerskaya).
Violence was usually carried out “collectively” by several people one at a time. Two hold by the legs, while the rest use it. A survey of people living on Field Street, the mass nature of violence is confirmed. The number of victims is considered to be hundreds in the city.
It is interesting to note that the Cossacks, committing robberies and violence, were convinced of their innocence and impunity and said that "they are allowed to do everything."
As soon as the news of Pokrovsky’s atrocities spread throughout the south, literally everyone - white and red - began to despise him. In many memoirs of the White movement participants, Pokrovsky is listed exclusively as a bloodthirsty bastard. At the same time, the command did not draw the necessary conclusions, although both Denikin and Wrangel Pokrovsky disdained at least personal contact with this general. It was clear to everyone that the Maykop massacre was not just a crime, but a huge blow to the entire White movement. From the city, which it was difficult to call completely red before Pokrovsky, even the bourgeoisie reached out. The massacre lasted three days and three nights. The southern "valley of apple trees" has turned into a huge block.
Now even people loyal to the whites became supporters of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Pokrovsky continued to surround himself with ingratiating illiterate executioners like Yesaul Razderishin, commandant Maykop and the author of some Jesuit orders, and did not accept any criticism of his actions. On the contrary, the general considered his "policy of intimidation" the only true one. Pokrovsky did not even notice how his troops, who had once carried out a brilliant attack on the position of the Reds at the Enem farm with a small number of 300 Cossacks, turned into a gang of rapists, looters and thugs.
However, Pokrovsky himself was engaged in robbery - both in Maykop and in other cities. So, in his "Essays", Lieutenant General, hero of the First World War and personnel officer Yevgeny Isaakovich Dostovalov recalled:
Since there are many testimonies of the Maykop massacre, data on the dead are extremely different. They range from 1000 to 7000 killed. At the same time, the number of mutilated, raped, robbed and lost their homes was not counted by anyone at all.
To be continued ...
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