Oddities and mysteries of the Kornilov rebellion
A. F. Kerensky and L. G. Kornilov in a group of members of the Provisional Government
In previous articles (first, second) we talked about the origin of Lavr Georgievich Kornilov, the beginning of his military service, participation in the Russian-Japanese and World War I, and his role in the events of the February Revolution. The time has come to tell about the famous Kornilov rebellion, which quite recently before our eyes was parodied by Yevgeny Prigozhin - without hesitation, he sent his bribed private army straight to Moscow. Being at that time on board the ship returning to Moscow from Kazan, I remembered, it would seem, a long and completely forgotten rhyme by V. Vishnevsky:
And I began to think where I should go and what to do in Moscow that was closing before our eyes. And how to get to Kaluga. Fortunately for all of us, Prigogine turned out to be the hero not of a tragedy, but of an operetta. On the way to the capital, he changed his mind and fled from his fighters to Lukashenka in Belarus.
Actually, I'm lucky to do things like this. In Egypt, for example, my daughter and I found ourselves when Mubarak was overthrown there, we saw how the streets of Sharm el-Sheikh were empty before our eyes and, cursing the Cairo revolutionaries, the Arabs seeing off the last tourists were crying. We left on the last plane. And then I was returning light (without a suitcase carefully taken at the airport door) from Hurghada after the liner of the Kagalym-Avia company was blown up over the Sinai Peninsula.
But let us return to the story of the tragic events of August 1917.
Reasons for the movement of troops to Petrograd
So, in August of that year, Kornilov, who held the post of supreme commander, was at the peak of his popularity. The apotheosis, as we remember, was the so-called State Conference, which was held in Moscow from 12 to 15 (25-28) August. The applauding audience literally begged the general to "save Russia", the officers carried him to the crowd in their arms, the exalted ladies fell to their knees.
Smart people, however, tried to warn Kornilov that this support of the crowd is actually worth nothing (just as thousands of “likes” and laudatory “posts” on the Internet are worth nothing now). Vasily Maklakov, one of the leaders of the Constitutional Democrats, asked the chairman of the Main Committee of the Union of Officers, Leonid Novosiltsev, to tell Kornilov that at the decisive moment he would not have supporters - "everyone would hide." But Kornilov already "believed in his star."
The situation in the country was rapidly deteriorating. In Kazan, either because of negligence or as a result of sabotage, an arsenal caught fire: an explosion followed, destroying about a million shells and 12 machine guns. At the front, soldiers killed the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, General Konstantin Girshfeld, and the commissar of the Special Army, Fyodor Linde. August 20 (September 2) the German army captured Riga. The next day it was decided to begin preparations for the government's move to Moscow.
The troops of the Petrograd Military District, which was now becoming front-line, were supposed to be placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, that is, Kornilov. The government turned to him with a request to send a detachment of reliable units to Petrograd from the front. At the same time, two conditions were set for Kornilov.
Firstly, not to put General Alexander Krymov, who was considered right-wing, at the head of the sent troops (who, as we remember from the previous article, at the beginning of January 1917, at a meeting with Duma deputies, proposed to capture and send Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to the monastery).
Secondly, the "temporary" were categorically against participation in the campaign against the capital of the Caucasian native ("Wild") division, 90% consisting of Muslim volunteers - as it was "embarrassing to entrust the establishment of Russian freedom to the Caucasian highlanders."
Soldiers of the "Wild Division"
However, Kornilov did not fulfill these wishes of the government: it was Krymov who led the troops to Petrograd, and the Wild Division was at the forefront of his units.
The incredibly ambitious Alexander Kerensky, who already saw conspiracies everywhere, assured himself of Kornilov's malice. The situation was aggravated by the former chief prosecutor of the Synod, Vladimir Lvov, who, on his own initiative, decided to become an intermediary in the negotiations between Kornilov and Kerensky. At the same time, he spoke to Kornilov in such a way that the general decided that he was literally “called to the kingdom”, and replied that he was a modest person and did not even think about anything like that - but it was necessary, it was necessary.
Kerensky, after talking with Lvov, finally became convinced that Kornilov was leading troops to Petrograd in order to disperse the government and become a dictator. On the night of August 26, he demanded special powers for himself to "fight the rebellion."
Inadequate actions of Alexander Kerensky
Until the evening of August 26 (September 8), Kornilov was sure that he was acting in full accordance with the plans of the government, and therefore he was simply shocked when, on the morning of the 27th, he received a telegram from Kerensky demanding that he immediately surrender the post of Supreme Commander to Lukomsky and appear in Petrograd.
Surprised, Kornilov decided that the government and Kerensky personally were under pressure from some destructive forces, and in response he declared:
“In view of the grave situation of the country and the army, I decided not to give up the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief and to clarify the situation in advance.”
Later, a legend appeared that Kornilov allegedly promised to “hang Lenin on the first pillar, and Kerensky on the second” - but this is just a legend. Kerensky said that he was "between the hammer of the Kornilovites and the anvil of the Bolsheviks."
On August 28 (September 10), the Provisional Government issued a decree on the dismissal and trial of Kornilov, his chief of staff A. Lukomsky, the commander of the Southwestern Front A. Denikin and the chief of staff of the front S. Markov, as well as a comrade (deputy) minister means of communication in the theater of operations V. Kislyakova. On the same day, the Soviets created the Military Revolutionary Committee (VRC), whose leaders turned out to be the Bolsheviks persecuted by the government. Trotsky wrote about this:
“Under the direct pressure of the Bolsheviks and the organizations led by them ... whole tails of people who wanted to join the ranks of the Red Guard immediately formed in the regions. Training in rifle techniques and shooting has opened.
N. I. Shestopalov. Arming the Workers in the Days of the Kornilov Rebellion
And in modern Moscow, as you all remember, with the news of the Wagner PMC rebellion, the “tails” lined up at the check-in desks of airports. This is the result of the activities of anti-Russian organizations like the Yeltsin Center, the teaching of Solzhenitsyn's libels in schools and many years of anti-Soviet propaganda on all television channels in the country.
Railway stations, bridges, telegraph stations, the Winter Palace in those August days of 1917 were under the protection of Kronstadt sailors, many of whom had participated in the anti-government uprising (July crisis) less than two months ago.
Kronstadters who arrived in Petrograd to "fight against Kornilovism"
But it was precisely to fight the Bolsheviks that Kerensky, according to Boris Savinkov, called the corps to Petrograd, which General Krymov was now leading to the capital.
Let's continue to quote Trotsky:
“From the middle of the day on the 28th, on the orders of Kerensky, which looked very much like a humiliated request, sailors from the cruiser Aurora took over the protection of the Winter Palace. In the first half of July - defeated, condemned, slandered, at the end of August - the most reliable guard of the Winter Palace from the Kornilovites, at the end of October they will fire at the Winter Palace from the cannons of the Aurora.
O. N. Kartashev. To suppress the Kornilov rebellion
As a payment, the Bolsheviks demanded the release of comrades who had been arrested during the crushing of the July uprising. Some were released from prison immediately, others shortly after the failure of the Kornilov march to Petrograd. Trotsky, for example, was released on September 4 (17) - and a few days later he was elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.
The failure of the march of the Kornilov troops
The Kornilov units were stopped without firing a shot, and the main role was played by Bolshevik agitators and the powerful railroad trade union, about which Zinaida Gippius will write on November 9, 1917:
“We have become fence dogs,
Don't crawl away!
Already dismantled with black hands
Vikzhel - ways.
Don't crawl away!
Already dismantled with black hands
Vikzhel - ways.
Note that the black hands of Vikzhel are not a metaphor: the palms of the railway workers were black from stubborn coal dust and grease. To have such "ugly hands" for Gippius and the people of her circle was almost a crime.
In August 1917, through the efforts of the railroad workers, the units of General Krymov moving towards Petrograd, according to Trotsky, "were dispersed among the stations, sidings and dead ends of eight railways."
General P. Krasnov recalled:
“According to someone’s order, unknown to anyone, a locomotive was hitched to some echelon and it was carried two or three hauls: forty, sixty miles, and then it ended up somewhere off to the side, at a dead siding, without fodder for horses and without lunch for people. People, seeing all this stupidity that was going on around, began to arrest officers and commanders.
And here is how Krasnov describes the work of the Bolshevik agitators:
“Almost everywhere we saw the same picture. Where on the tracks, where dragoons sat or stood in the carriage, and among them - a nimble person in a soldier's overcoat. Brief phrases were heard: “Comrades, what are you doing, Kerensky took you out from under the officer’s cane, gave you freedom, and again you wanted to reach out in front of the officer, but to be poked in the teeth. So what?” Or: “Comrades, Kerensky is for the freedom and happiness of the people, and General Kornilov is for discipline and the death penalty. Are you really with Kornilov?
Please note: the Bolsheviks did not attribute the decomposition of the army to themselves - where are they in this matter before Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky himself and other liberals of the Provisional Government!
Kerensky was also accused of disintegrating the army by Denikin, who on July 29, 1917, at a meeting at Headquarters, told him:
“Those who put the blame for the collapse of the army on the Bolsheviks are lying! First of all, those who deepened the revolution are to blame. You, Mr. Kerensky! The Bolsheviks are only worms that are wound up in a wound inflicted by the army by others.
Even the native "Wild Division" was successfully promoted. Here is how Trotsky writes about it:
“A Muslim delegation was sent to meet the“ wild division ”, which immediately showed up native authorities, starting with the grandson of the famous Shamil ... The highlanders did not allow their officers to arrest the delegation: this contradicts the centuries-old customs of hospitality.”
The role of Lukashenko was played by Colonel of the General Staff S. N. Samarin, who, according to Kerensky, explained to Krymov (who was his personal friend) "all the hopelessness of further resistance and all its mortal danger to the army."
Sergey Nikolaevich Samarin, played by Alexander Lukashenko in June 2023
Krymov, unlike Prigozhin, did not flee to Minsk or somewhere else, but arrived in Petrograd on August 31 (September 13), 1917. After a conversation with Kerensky, he shot himself, becoming the only victim of the Kornilov rebellion.
Unfortunately, there were more victims during the Prigozhin coup.
Kerensky appointed himself as the new Supreme Commander. One of the former supreme commanders in chief, Mikhail Alekseev, became the chief of his staff, and he was entrusted with the arrest of Kornilov and other generals. It happened calmly and without any excesses - September 1 (14). Kornilov did not even try to resist or run away. Alekseev resigned a week later.
Denikin wrote:
“General Kornilov and his accomplices were transferred to one of the Mogilev hotels, and on the night of September 12 they were all taken to Stary Bykhov, to the building of the women's gymnasium, hastily adapted for the detention of the arrested ... The outward guards were carried by half a company of St. George, very susceptible to the influence of the Soviets; internal - Tekintsy, devoted to Kornilov. There was great discord between them, and the Tekins often said to the Georgievites in broken language: “You are Kerensky, we are Kornilov; we will cut."
Georgievtsy
Tekins
Denikin himself and other officers accused of rebellion were brought to Bykhov a month later (before that they had been under arrest in Berdichev, at the headquarters of the Southwestern Front).
Aftermath
The results of Kornilov's speech, and especially of Kerensky's actions, were the most deplorable.
The Bolsheviks who had gone underground were again involved in the political life of Petrograd, and Trotsky, as we remember, was elected Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. The power of the Provisional Government weakened even more. But anarchy intensified on the fronts, half a year of incredible efforts to restore at least some order in the troops went to dust. The fall of the Provisional Government was only a matter of time.
But, could Kornilov really "put things in order in Petrograd" - provided that Kerensky would fulfill the previous agreements?
Most historians believe that he had no chance: the troops sent to the capital would have been propagated not on the way to it, but directly in Petrograd. The program offered to the people by the Bolsheviks was beyond competition. Their opponents simply had nothing to oppose to the slogans “Bayonet to the ground”, “Factories to the workers, land to the peasants”, “Peace to the huts, war to the palaces”. By the way, none other than Nikolai Berdyaev considered Bolshevism to be the “least utopian” continuation of the Russian stories, "the most faithful to some of the original Russian traditions."
Investigation of the Kornilov case
On August 29 (September 11), 1917, an Extraordinary Commission was created to investigate the case of Kornilov and his associates. The first results turned out to be very unpleasant for Kerensky, since by September 5 (18) the investigators came to the conclusion that Kornilov’s actions fell only under the article on “violent encroachment on a change in Russia or any part of the order established by the main state laws.”
However, later this accusation was also dropped, because, whatever one may say, the troops marched towards Petrograd on the orders of the Provisional Government, and their commanders did not manage to commit any illegal actions.
Finally, all that remained was the accusation of refusing to hand over the post of commander-in-chief in a timely manner. However, it turned out that Kornilov had been removed from her illegally - not by decree of the Provisional Government, but only by Kerensky's private telegram. A written document with an official order in the archive could not be found, it seems that they forgot to publish it.
As a result, all members of the Constitutional Democrats party, in solidarity with Kornilov, on September 9 (22), 1917, left the Provisional Government. The prisoners under investigation were gradually released.
After the October Revolution, the last prisoners were released. Generals Kornilov, Lukomsky, Romanovsky, Denikin and Markov were the last to be released - November 18 (December 1), 1917. However, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry officially finished its work only in June 1918, after the death of the main accused.
The existence of a conspiracy by General Kornilov was declared unproven.
The death of L. Kornilov
It should be said that the Bolsheviks who seized power at first were extremely peaceful. Tsarist dignitaries arrested after the February Revolution were immediately released from prisons.
Many officers and generals were also released under the "honest noble word" not to fight again against the revolution - and very many immediately broke this promise. Among them was, for example, the general and ataman of the Great Don Army Peter Krasnov, who later welcomed the German attack on the Soviet Union and headed the “Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops” created in the Imperial Ministry of the Eastern Occupied Territories. In May 1945, Krasnov was captured by the British and was handed over to representatives of the Soviet administration. According to the court verdict, he was hanged on January 16, 1947. In the last word, Krasnov said:
“I understood one thing very clearly - that the Russian people, led by the iron, steel will of their leader, have such achievements that hardly anyone could dream of ... I am condemned by the Russian people ... No punishment is terrible for my deeds, it is well deserved ... I ... excellent I understand that I have no place among people, and I do not find an excuse for myself.
But in 1998, near the Moscow Church of All Saints to the traitor Krasnov, as well as his accomplices - Pannvits, Shkuro, Domanov, Sultan Klych-Girey (executed along with Krasnov), a monument (marble slab) was erected with a blasphemous inscription:
"To the soldiers of the Russian general military union, the Russian corps, the Cossack camp, the Cossacks of the 15th cavalry corps, who fell for faith and the fatherland."
In 2007, on the eve of Victory Day, this slab was broken by unknown persons:
However, in 2014 it was restored with a new, also blasphemous, inscription:
"To the Cossacks who fell for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland".
Let us also remember that in Russian schools our children are still studying the slanderous opuses of Solzhenitsyn, who openly called the Vlasovites heroes and patriots. Let's not forget about the unpunished anti-Russian activities of the Yeltsin Center. And about many years of anti-Soviet propaganda openly conducted on many TV channels. And let us ask ourselves: do we have the right to be surprised at the queues at the Upper Lars border crossing in September 2022 and the business jets of Russian businessmen and officials that continuously took off on June 24, 2023?
But let us return to 1918 and we will see that even after the assassination of Volodarsky (June 20), the chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, G. Zinoviev, resolutely suppressed the attempts of the Petrograd workers to lynch the officers and the bourgeoisie. By the way, he once said:
"Revolution? International? These are great events, but I will burst into tears if they touch Paris.
V. I. Lenin wrote then:
"The terror that the French revolutionaries used ... we do not use, and I hope we will not use."
Lunacharsky said:
"I will go with my comrades to the end, but surrender is better than terror."
The date of the official announcement of the beginning of the Red Terror is known: September 5, 1918. The reason was the events of August 30, 1918, when the chairman of the government, V. Lenin, was seriously wounded and the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Ya. Uritsky, was killed. At the same time, the head of the Cheka, Yakov Peters, said in November of that year:
“I was the first to raise a cry against terror ... This – I would say hysterical – terror is touched most of all by those soft-bodied revolutionaries who were unbalanced and began to be too zealous.”
Lenin, by the way, reacted to the attempt on himself with philosophical calmness, he said to Gorky who came to visit him:
"Fight. What to do? Everyone does what they can."
In 1920, Lenin tried to abolish the death penalty, but the war with Poland prevented this decision.
But why did the Civil War start then? Indeed, back in November 1917, the Norwegian Social Democratic Party nominated Lenin for the Nobel Peace Prize. His candidacy was rejected only for formal reasons - the delay of the application. The Balfour memorandum of December 21, 1917, supported by Clemenceau, pointed out the need
"to show the Bolsheviks that we do not want to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, and that it would be a profound mistake to think that we are helping the counter-revolution."
On January 8, 1918, US President Woodrow Wilson published "14 points": it was supposed to liberate all Russian territories, provide Russia with a full and unhindered opportunity to make an independent decision regarding its political development, Russia was promised admission to the League of Nations.
However, the Civil War nevertheless began - and it was the “whites” who started it.
The same Kornilov on November 20, 1917 moved to the Don - at first with the Tekinsky regiment loyal to him. At first, 627 young representatives of noble Akhal and Merv families served in this unit, who annually transferred 60 thousand rubles for its maintenance. But now it had 24 officers and about 400 enlisted men.
On November 27, 1917, at the Peschaniki junction (near Unecha), the Tekins were defeated by a detachment of the Red Army, 3 officers and 264 privates were captured. Having released the remaining Tekinites, Kornilov, disguised as a peasant, reached Novocherkassk by rail on December 6, 1917, where officers dissatisfied with the new government began to gather for him.
Kornilov with officers in Novocherkassk, 1918
But there were also those who could not forgive Kornilov for his participation in the events of the February Revolution. For example, General Count F. A. Keller, former commander of the III Cavalry Corps, stated:
Kornilov is a revolutionary general. I can only lead an army with God in my heart and the King in my soul.”
February 9 (22), 1918 - just a month after the publication by Wilson of his very profitable new Russia "14 Points", the Volunteer Army of one regiment set out on the First Kuban ("Ice") campaign against Yekaterinodar. And there was a lot of cruelty - on both sides.
D. Shmarin. "Ice Campaign" (picture 2008)
Already on March 31 (April 13), 1918, Kornilov died near Ekaterinodar. Denikin recalled:
"Only one enemy grenade hit the house, only in Kornilov's room when he was in it, and killed only him alone."
Demoralized by the death of the commander, the army retreated to the Don.
The next day, this place was occupied by the Red Guards, who accidentally found Kornilov's grave. His body was taken to Yekaterinodar, where it was burned.
However, the flames of the Civil War had already flared up, and it continued until October 25, 1922, although some consider June 16, 1923 to be the date of its end.
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