Russian in the fight against Bolshevism in China

27 September 2012 1

White condottieri walk around with impunity throughout China and, using their high military qualifications, win victories ”(USSR Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin, Head of the Foreign Department of the GPU Meyer Trilisser 16 in January 1925).

The first Russian émigré unit in the service of the ruler of Manchuria, Marshal Zhang Zolin, appeared during his war with General Feng Yusyan in 1923. The idea apparently belonged to Russian military advisers who served in the Marshal’s headquarters. Russian volunteers signed up for the 300 squad, but he was soon disbanded because of the signing of peace with Finn. The idea of creating a Russian detachment was revived in 1924 in connection with the start in September of this year of the second war between Zhang Zholin and the coalition of marshals of middle China led by Wu Peifu. The army of Zhang Zolina was commanded by General (later Marshal) Zhang Zuchang, who during the Russian-Japanese war, being a Hunghusian foreman, collaborated with Russian intelligence and received the rank of captain of the Russian army, and later worked as a contractor in Vladivostok. A large number of Russian military and civilian specialists were concentrated at the headquarters of Zhang Juchang, who spoke good Russian.

The Russian detachment, soon renamed 1 Brigade 1 of the Mukden Army, was originally formed by Colonel V.A. Chekhov, later promoted to the generals of the Chinese service. In the summer of 1924, the brigade was headed by General Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev, and Colonel Chekhov became the head of its headquarters. In the Civil War, Nechaev, in the rank of colonel, fought as a part of the corps of General Kappel, with whom he participated in the Siberian Ice Campaign. In 1920, he was the commander of the Chita garrison and commander of the 1 Manchurian Horse Division. In 1921, he was promoted to lieutenant general, at the end of the same year he emigrated to Harbin, where he worked as a cab driver. 1924 Nechaev received the rank of colonel of the Chinese service from Zhang Zuchang and was put in charge of the Russian brigade.
A brigade of 200 Russian volunteers (two companies and a machine-gun and bombing teams) with two guns received their 28 September 1924 in the valley of the Temin-he river. Acting under the command of Nechaev on the right flank of the Mukden army, the brigade overthrew the forces of Marshal U Peifu, which decided the outcome of the battle. According to the testimony of Colonel N. Nikolayev, “in the first battle a handful of Russians broke a large detachment from the army of U Peifu and then the victorious march of a small Russian brigade began”. After the battle, Nechaev received a general's rank from Zhang Zuchang.

Soon the part was replenished with a third company and an armored train. Overcoming the Great Wall of China, she took the city of Shanhaiguan, while the Russian brigade smaller than the battalion defeated several Chinese divisions. Tilting the pieces at U Payfu, the brigade moved to Tianjin, which was taken at the end of December 1924. There, the former minister of Primorye, N. D. Merkulov received the post of senior political advisor to the Tupan (governor) Zhang Juchang. As part of the brigade was formed equestrian division of two squadrons.

The Russian military school (“Shandong officers' instructor detachment”) was created after the army was occupied by Zhang Juchang of Shandong province and transferred to the capital of its residence Tsinanfu. In total, around the school was about 500 people of Russian youth
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At the beginning of 1925, it was decided to advance on Nanjing and Shanghai. On January 16, the Russians embarked on ships and descended down the Yellow River, entering the rear of the enemy. 18 January they took the city of Chikiang. According to historian D. Stefan, the squad Nechaev “sowed where he was going, horror. The Russians fought desperately, knowing what fate awaited stateless prisoners. ” The success of the White Guards so agitated the Bolsheviks that the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin was forced to turn to Trilisser, who was in charge of the KGB agents abroad, with a request to take action.

After a five-day assault, Russian 29 January took the fortress Kyaning. By that time, there were already 800 people in the squadron and, despite the losses, his number was constantly growing. The division of armored trains under the command of Colonel Kostrov was removed from the brigade and directly subordinated to Zhang Juchang, and all parts of the brigade were reorganized into two regiments - 105-th Separate consolidated and Separate equestrian. The brigade itself was renamed the Avant-garde group of troops of Marshal Zhang Jolin.

In January-March 1925, the nonchay won a number of victories in the Nanjing-Shanghai area. In the summary of the Red Army Information Department, it was reported: "When the Russians attacked, Chinese troops Chi-Tsi-Juan, despite a huge numerical superiority, literally melted and fled, so, for example, 600 Chinese soldiers who defended the railway station, retreated before the three Russians." At the end of January, the Kostrov Armored Division was occupied by Shanghai, landing troops there. The city with a population of three million surrendered to two Russian armored trains. Wu Payfu's last ally, General Bi-Ven, fled to Japan.
Over the past six months, a handful of White Guards turned the tide of the Chinese civil war, smashing the previously unbeatable Wu Peifu and making Zhang Zolin the main candidate for the rulers of China. Following this, a lull came at the front, the Russians were allotted to Changzhou for reshaping and replenishing, including at the expense of the Cossacks of General Glebov who arrived from Shanghai. The truce, which lasted from March to October 1925, was carried out by the Nechais in the town of Tayanfu, where the 2 Russian Battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Gurulev was created, which also included the Junker Company.

In October 1925, the troops of Marshal Song Chuangfang, an ally of Wu Peifu, attacked the Mukdans. October 21 against them spoke Zhang Juchang. On October 22, he conferred the rank of lieutenant-general to Nechaev, and Major-General to Chekhov and Kostrov. In the Russian Brigade by that time there were 1200 people.

In November 1925, a detachment of Nechaev, who was in 400 kilometers south of Beijing, almost died because of the treachery of Zhang Tszolin's troops, bought by U U Peifu and the communists. 5-Division Zhang's army rebelled and opened fire on the Russian rear. On November 2, at the Kuchen station, the 3 of Russian armored trains and about fifty Russian fighters, including Major General Kostrov, were killed. According to the story of Officer Zubts, “Kostrov, Meyer, Bukas - all the old officers of armored trains remained on the battlefield. Wounded Kostrov, his comrades carried a long time on his hands under heavy fire. He was wounded immediately in both legs. Porters were knocked out one by one. The bullet that hit the head was finally finished off by Kostrov himself. He was laid on the ground, covering his face with a jacket. The enemy after the massacre did not leave a single person alive on the battlefield. Embittered by stubborn resistance, the Chinese perekolli one at a time, shot, cut everyone who was still alive and who did not guess or could not himself put a bullet in the forehead. ”

The Soviet press presented the disaster of Kostrov’s detachment as the defeat of the entire Nechaev brigade, but in fact the Russians already launched a counter-offensive on November 5 and fought fierce battles for two days. Their outcome was decided by the flight of the Chinese units of Zhang Zolin, after which the Russians had to retreat to the city of Tayanf in order not to be surrounded. In exchange for the dead armored trains, Russian engineers at the beginning of 1926 built four new armored trains at the plant in Jiannan - Shandong, Yunchui, Honan and Taishan.
That same November, 1925 in Manchuria, General Guo Songling raised a rebellion, which almost ended in the fall of Zhang Zolin. Not less than 600 agents (instructors, agitators, etc.) who penetrated into Manchuria from the USSR took part in the rebellion. Guo Songling and a number of generals were bribed by the communists who were acting in alliance with Wu Peifu and Fyn. According to the plan of the communists, after the destruction of the main force of Zhang Zholin - the Nechaev brigade - U Peifu and Feng were to finish off the Chinese troops of Zhang and come to the aid of the rebels in Manchuria. It was expected that the Soviet employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway would block the railway and would not allow the approach of the loyal troops of Zhang Zholin to Mukden. However, the Nechaev in stubborn battles thwarted the plans of the conspirators and saved the Northern coalition. Peifu and Feng took Tianjin, but they could not go any further, and the conspirators in Manchuria were defeated without external support.

December 7 The Russians took the city of Tayanfa on December 1925, and on December 10, Tavenko. At this time, the People’s Army of Phuang launched a counter-offensive against the troops of Zhang Jolin, who were attacking Beijing. The brunt of the blow fell on the Russian armored train, which tried to break into the Chinese capital, but, having received great damage, was forced to go back. By the end of 1925, the position of the Northern coalition was stabilized. From mid-December 1925 until the end of January 1926 was a truce, which the Russians held in Woosun.

In mid-February, the 1926 of the Russians was transferred to the Northern Front to Lynchen against the People’s Army of Fyn. February 21 they took the city of Changzhou with a fight. In late February, the Machan station was taken. The forces of Phyn in this battle were led by the Soviet instructor Primakov, according to whom “the chains of whites, dressed in Chinese uniform, attacked to their full height, only occasionally firing. There was a great disrespect for the enemy and the habit of being winners in this brave offensive. ”

In early March, heavy fighting began for Tianjin, the capital of the province of Zhili. On the night of March 15, the enemy attempted to destroy the Russian detachment by penetrating into the rear. When the column of enemies was discovered, Nechaev personally went on the attack in front of his chains with one stack in hand. As a result of a fierce battle that seethed all day long, out of several hundred Chinese who broke through into the Russian rear, only about fifty survived. However, in the evening, during one of the attacks in both legs, Nechaev was seriously wounded. One leg was amputated to him, and the next six months he was forced to spend chained to a hospital bed.

By the end of March, Tianjin was taken, but in just a month the Russians had lost 256 people. In early April 1926, the Northern coalition launched an offensive against Beijing, during which Fyn's army was defeated. At the end of April, the Russian units triumphantly entered the Chinese capital - the second time in a quarter of a century. Peifu finally lost his influence. In May, a truce was concluded.

In early October, Zhang Juchang conducted a review of Nechaevs. According to a Russian newspaper, Renaissance, published in Paris, “In a speech addressed to the junkers, Zhang Juchang stressed that the occupation of Tianjin, Beijing and Kalgan did not end with the Bolsheviks and that he considered it his duty to fight the hated enemy, wherever neither appeared until its complete destruction. In the same way, Zhang Juchang noted the sacrificial service of “a handful of Russian brave men”, who continued their active struggle against the Bolsheviks from weapons in the hands with his troops. "

9 December 1926 was ordered by the General Assembly of the St. George Knights of the Russian Brigade, Zhang Zuchan, was awarded the 4 degree of the Order of St. George the Victorious "for his personal courage and selfless bravery in battles with the Bolsheviks and their allies. The white marshal was extremely touched and thanked the Russians for the honor rendered to him. ” The next day, in turn, he awarded the Russian officers with the Order of the Fat Ear, as well as his lowest degree - all Russian soldiers and Cossacks.

Meanwhile, the situation in the south of China became complicated. Back in May, 1925, the Kuomintang party led by Chiang Kai-shek, supported by the USSR, launched a war against the marshals. Vasily Blucher was the main military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek under the pseudonym "Zoya Galin". In addition to military advisers, the USSR helped Kuomintang and Communists with intelligence information and ample supplies of weapons. 3 December 1926 The headquarters of the Russian group received from the headquarters of Zhang Juchang a secret message that "there will be a difficult and persistent war with the Red Canton." In February, 1927, the Russian units were transferred to the south and in Honan defeated parts of U Peifu, who then concluded peace and alliance with the northerners against Chiang Kai-shek.

In late February, the Russians moved to Nanking and Shanghai, where they took up positions against the Kuomintang troops. However, near Shanghai, the troops of the northerners were put to flight by the Kuomintang. 20 March 1927. Chiang Kai-shek's troops cut off the Shanghai-Nanjing railway. At the North Station of Shanghai, he was cut off from his Russian armored train “Chan-Zheng”, the crew of which was made up of 64 people led by Colonel Kostrov. Maneuvering on the remaining free section of the rail, the armored train shot from the attacking Kuomintang troops from all guns, so that the area surrounding the station soon turned into a sea of fire. The armored train was armed with large-caliber naval guns, which caused terrible losses to the troops of Chiang Kai-shek. From time to time, the Russians allowed the enemy’s chains to come close up, and then methodically shot them with machine guns and mortars. Hope Kuomintang that the Russian will soon run out of ammunition, did not justify, because the train was filled with them to the top. "Chan-Zheng" led a continuous battle for two days. On the night of March 24, part of his team managed to break through the Kuomintang screenings and take refuge in the European settlement, the remaining half of the day was fighting until almost everyone was killed or captured by the Chinese, who cut off their heads.

From Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek's forces continued their Northern Expedition to Nanking, where parts of Nechaev, stationed in the center of the Northern Coalition troops near the lakes on the Yangtze River, were pulled together. Under the pressure of the Kuomintang people, the northerners ran almost without a fight, leaving the Russian infantry, which was supported by only one armored train. The Russians, as always, fought perfectly, but they had to retreat under the pressure of a superior and better armed opponent, led by Soviet military experts. Nevertheless, the Nechaev managed to escape to the other side of the Yangtze, repelling an attempt by the troops of Chiang Kai-shek to force it.

In June, the 1927 of Nechaev resigned, citing the fact that due to a severe injury he could not command his detachment as before. The intrigues of Merkulov also played their part in his departure. As a reward for service, Nechaev received from Zhang Juchang two houses in Qingdao.

In early July, the 1927 of the Russians defeated the Kuomintang and occupied the city of Lynchen. In the same month, they participated in a successful march to Zintao and Kyansu, and at the end of August they again took the city of Suzhou. Following this, units of Chiang Kai-shek and Phuing launched a counterattack. Throughout October, there were battles with them with varying success. However, the resignation of Nechaev and the loss of the overall command of the Russian forces soon made themselves felt.
In November, 1927 fynovtsy captured 4 Russian armored train at the station Suzhoufu. The total number of Russians performing the combat mission in the area on the Lunkhai railway was 900 people, of whom 240 were on armored trains, the rest were infantry brigades. The combined forces were commanded by Major General Chekhov, Chief of the Armored Division, and by Major General Sidamonidze by infantry. During the retreat of the armored train "Honan", "Beijing", "Taishan" and "Shandun" were surrounded. The teams were forced to quit them and make their way to their own, during which the Russians lost about a hundred people killed.

Monthly salary delays and rivalry between commanders were added to the failures at the front. Desertion from the Russian brigade became widespread. Even more significant impact on her condition had events in the south of China. At the end of 1927, Mr. Chiang Kai-shek sank a rebellion in blood, which was raised against him in Canton by the Chinese Communist Party, killing about five thousand communists. Now that Chiang Kai-shek had become the enemy of the communists, the Russians saw no point in fighting against him. In the Russian brigade, calls began to be heard to go to Manchuria to fight the Bolsheviks there, or to move into the service of the Kuomintang.
Meanwhile, the fighting continued, taking a more and more unfavorable turn for the northerners. In April, 1928, they approached the capital of Shandong - Tsinanfu, where the headquarters of the Russian brigade was located. Panic began in the city. Zhang Juchang fled, leaving everyone, including the White Guards, to whom he was obliged for his former military glory. Evacuation had to take on Major General Mrachkovsky, the military commander of the city. He managed to take all the civilian Russians and the most valuable property out of the city, after which the Russian units left the city, which 2 entered in May of Chiang Kai-shek's troops. The Russians departed in two columns, one of which included the armored division, the other — the equestrian detachment of Semenov.

Fortunately for the northerners, the Japanese intervened in the war, who did not want to excessively strengthen the Kuomintang. Having accused them that several Japanese suffered during the capture of Tsinanfu, they attacked their troops and defeated them. In response, Chiang Kai-shek withdrew his army from Shandong.

At the end of May, Zhang Juchang launched his last counter-offensive against the troops of Chiang Kai-shek and Phung, in which the Russian Brigade also took part. After the northerners took several cities, they again rolled back. By June, Zhang Zuchang's army almost completely lost its combat capability, many units went over to the enemy. At the end of June, the Chinese, who served in the armored division, revolted and captured the Hubei armored train, killing almost all of his Russian team. At the same time, a Manchurian dictator Zhang Zolin perished as a result of an explosion arranged either by the communists or by the Japanese. His son, Zhang Xuelyang, who replaced him at the head of Manchuria, came into conflict with Zhang Zuchan.

After receiving a demand from the Mukdans to immediately disarm the Shandong troops, Zhang Jucheng ordered to open hostilities against them. The Russian brigade was put in an extremely difficult position. On the one hand, the four-year service to the Tupan demanded to remain loyal to him, on the other hand, to wage war on two fronts simultaneously was tantamount to suicide. At a meeting of senior Russian military commanders at Shimen station, it was decided to surrender to the Mukden. However, only two armored trains under the command of General Makarenko and a horse regiment of Semenov managed to do this. The Mukdens who had surrendered the Russians were transported to Manchuria and disbanded there.

The rest of the Russian units were surrounded by Shandong and forced to engage in battle with the troops of Zhang Xuelyang. After a few days of fighting, the Mukdens were defeated, after which Zhang Juchang concluded a truce with Zhang Xuelyang, but soon decided to move on to Chiang Kai-shek. At the last moment, he changed his mind to surrender and disappeared, having received the news that Chiang Kai-shek was going to kill him. However, the remains of his Russian troops still surrendered to the Kuomintang. The latter, to the surprise of the Russians, accepted them very well and offered them to serve in their ranks. Total in the service of the southerners was about 230 former nechaevtsev. Most of them, however, were soon disbanded as a result of peace concluded between Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang.

Thus ended the four-year Chinese epic of the Nechaev brigade, during which the Russian soldiers, fighting in incredibly difficult conditions, in the real Asiatic hell among the yellow devils, managed to defend the honor of the white Russian weapon.

Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev after his resignation settled in Dalny, where he was engaged in political and public activities. He was a member of the Russian All-Union Union and the Russian Fascist Party, and headed the office of the Russian Emigrant Affairs Bureau. In September 1945, the city of Nechaev, was captured by Soviet troops who invaded Manchuria and transferred to Chita, where they were shot by the military tribunal.

It should be noted that Marshal Vasily Blucher, Nechaev’s opponent in the 1925-1927 war, was arrested by the KGB as early as 1938 and died in prison after eighteen days of torture. Four months later, he was posthumously sentenced to death for "participating in an anti-Soviet right-wing organization and a military conspiracy and espionage in favor of Japan" (the Soviet punitive organs cannot be denied in a kind of black humor). The first two wives of Blucher (the third wife went to a concentration camp), his brother and his brother's wife were shot.

It is estimated that in just four years of fighting more than 2000 Russians died - almost half of the Russian squad of the Nechaev brigade. In 1926, a monument was erected at the Russian cemetery in Tsinanfu, which was a high granite rock topped with an eight-pointed cross. An inscription was inscribed on the monument in Russian, English and Chinese: “The blessed memory of Russian soldiers who died in the ranks of the Shandong army in the struggle against the Bolsheviks”. The monument and cemetery were later destroyed by the Communists.

“It is no exaggeration to say that a handful of Russians really had a huge impact on history Of china. So, at the beginning of 1920's. almost no one doubted that China was destined to be united according to the scenario of Wu Payfu, who, before the advent of the Russians, beat all his opponents without problems. The appearance of a small Russian squad made the wheel of Chinese history spin in a different way. Thanks to a handful of almost unarmed Russians “five minutes to the Chinese lord.” Wu Payfu was defeated and left the political scene. Do not join the Russian mercenaries in the army of Zhang Juchang - he, like Zhang Jolin, would have finished off Wu Peifu. At the same time, at the end of 1925 - the beginning of 1926, it was Russian mercenaries who thwarted the plans of the communists to destroy the entire Northern coalition during the rebellion of Guo Songling and did not allow Zhang Jolin to collapse ... According to foreign experts, a handful of Russian mercenaries postponed the victory of the communists in China by twenty five years, which directly affected the course of world history "(S.S. Balmasov. Beloemigrantov in military service in China).