“Who walks wounded under the red banner”
“Song about Shchors”, work of Palekh masters
In several previous articles we have already mentioned Ivan Kochubey and Grigory Kotovsky. Nikolai Aleksandrovich Shchors, who in the USSR was called the “Ukrainian Chapaev”, is another thoroughly forgotten hero of the Civil War.
Heroes of the Civil War on Soviet postcards of the 1960s: Nikolai Shchors, Grigory Kotovsky, Vasily Chapaev, Ivan Kochubey
Once upon a time, all schoolchildren knew the name Shchors, but now only some of the parents of modern children and teenagers can hardly remember. Today we will talk a little about this undoubtedly talented and extraordinary person.
Origin and early years
The hero of the article was born on May 25 (June 6), 1895 in the village of Snovsk - now a city in the Koryukovsky district of the Chernigov region of present-day Ukraine. His father, Alexander Nikolaevich, was a railway worker. However, some argue that he also had a plot of land and was still a fairly prosperous peasant.
19-year-old Alexander Shchors came to Snovsk from the small Belarusian town of Stolbtsy (in the modern Minsk region). Here the visitor met his future wife, Alexandra Tabelchuk, in whose parents’ house he rented a room. In this marriage she gave birth to 5 children. The future red commander was the first-born of this family.
Nikolai Shchors demonstrated good learning abilities and at the age of 6 he could already read and write. From the age of 8, he began studying with Anna Vladimirovna Gorobtsova, who, for money, prepared local children for admission to the railway parochial school. 10-year-old Nikolai Shchors entered this educational institution in 1905.
In 1906, his mother died of tuberculosis, and his father brought a new wife into the house. Nikolai’s relationship with his stepmother, Maria Konstantinovna, was very strained at first, but later he recognized and accepted her. This woman gave birth to 5 more children. Nikolai Shchors graduated from school with a diploma of commendation in 1909. He really wanted to continue his education and, despite his father’s resistance, tried to enter the Nikolaev Naval Paramedic School, but missed one point.
However, Nikolai did not give up and, together with his younger brother Konstantin, went to take exams at the Kyiv Military Paramedic School. This attempt was successful: the brothers successfully passed the entrance tests. He graduated from this school in 1914 and in June, as a junior paramedic, he was sent to the motor artillery division of the Third Army Corps, which was stationed near Vilna.
Service in the Imperial Army
As we remember, on August 1, 1914, Russia entered the First World War. Shchors, with the rights of a volunteer (which made it possible to pass the exam for the rank of ensign), ended up on the North-Western Front. In December of the same year, he was wounded, but chose to remain in his unit. In January 1916, Nikolai Shchors was sent to an accelerated course of study at the Vilna Military School, which at that time had already been evacuated to Poltava, and on June 1 of the same year he was promoted to ensign.
At first he was sent to the 142nd Infantry Reserve Regiment, which was located in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk), but in October he was transferred to the 335th Anapa Regiment, which was part of the 84th Infantry Division.
N. Shchors in the tsarist army
Now N. Shchors found himself on the southern fronts of that war - first on the South-Western, then on the Romanian. In May-April 1917, he “improved his qualifications” at the courses for commanders of trench assault teams and received the rank of second lieutenant. However, already in May Nikolai Shchors fell ill with tuberculosis and was sent to the Simferopol military hospital. It was here that the hero of our article became acquainted with the ideas of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks.
After six months of treatment, he was demobilized for health reasons and in December 1917 returned to his homeland - Snovsk. At this time he was 22 years old.
Red commander
In February 1918, under an agreement with the Central Rada, German and Austrian troops entered the territory of Ukraine.
Territories occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary in March-April 1918
In March, they also occupied the Chernigov province. Nikolai Shchors, together with his uncle Kazimir and younger brother Konstantin, left Snovsk occupied by the Germans for the city of Semyonovka, where he organized a partisan detachment of about 400 people. He several times entered into battle with the invaders near Klintsy and Zlynka (a city on the territory of the modern Bryansk region), but the forces were unequal.
At the beginning of May 1918, Shchors' detachment moved to territory controlled by the authorities of Soviet Russia, where it was disarmed and disbanded near the city of Unecha. And Shchors went to Moscow because he wanted to continue his studies - already at the medical faculty of the university. In order to have the right to enter it, he provided a fake certificate of graduation from the Kyiv Seminary. But fate decreed otherwise.
In July 1918, the All-Ukrainian Central Military Revolutionary Committee (VTsVRK) was created in Kursk, which set as its goal the liberation of Ukraine. Preparations for an armed uprising began, Shchors was asked to form and lead a regiment of one and a half thousand people, which received the name of the punishable hetman Ivan Bohun, a comrade-in-arms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky who died in the Chernigov region.
Shchors coped with the task perfectly; his regiment turned out to be one of the most disciplined and combat-ready formations and operated very successfully in the rear of the German troops. Shchors' organizational and military abilities did not go unnoticed; already in October he was appointed commander of the 2nd brigade, which, in addition to Bohunsky, also included the Tarashchansky regiment of the 1st Ukrainian Soviet division.
On October 23, 1918, the Red Army went on the offensive, in which Shchors' brigade liberated Klintsy, Starodub, Glukhov, Shostka, as well as his hometown of Snovsk (it was occupied by the Tarashchansky regiment). The offensive continued in January 1919, when Chernigov, Kozelets and Nizhyn were occupied. Shchors unexpectedly showed himself to be a skilled military leader, who, moreover, was not afraid to be on the front line and took care of his soldiers in every possible way. The commander of Soviet troops in Ukraine, Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, wrote about him:
“The Red Army men loved Shchors for his care and courage, the commanders respected him for his intelligence, clarity and resourcefulness.”
Mikhail Insarov-Vaks, who served under the command of Shchors, recalled:
“His (Shchors) powerful figure goes through all the campaigns against the Petliurites and battles with them... Combining boundless courage and the rebellious spirit of a partisan with the clear, disciplined mind of a red leader, Nikolai Alexandrovich was a very sympathetic and sincere comrade.”
Shchors, indeed, was very loved among the troops and in terms of this indicator he can only be compared with Kotovsky and Chapaev, as well as with Makhno. The hero of the article was then only 23 years old, and his subordinates already unanimously called him dad.
On February 1, 1919, the Shchors brigade, having defeated Petlyura’s vastly superior troops, occupied Brovary, and on February 5 it entered Kiev. Shchors was awarded a personalized gold medal weapons and became the commandant of this city. Then Zhitomir and Berdichev were liberated.
On March 19, 1919, Shchors was appointed commander of the First Ukrainian Soviet Division. Developing his success, he drove Petlyura’s troops out of Vinnitsa, Zhmerinka, Shepetovka and Rivne. At the same time, Shchors’ proposal to create a school for red commanders was accepted, to which 300 former front-line soldiers were sent.
In general, there were all the prerequisites for Nikolai Shchors to become one of the best commanders of the young Soviet state. However, he had very little time to live.
N. Shchors. Watercolor from a photograph of 1919
In June 1919, the Ukrainian units of the VTsVRK were included in the united Red Army. The 1st Ukrainian Soviet Division of Shchors was merged with the 44th Rifle Division of the Red Army, commanded by I. N. Dubovoy. Shchors became the commander of the new unit, which became part of the 12th Army. Shchors was confirmed as the head of the united 44th division on August 21 - and just 9 days later he died under mysterious and not entirely clear circumstances.
The tragic denouement
So, against the backdrop of high-profile victories, many of which were won by the young Nikolai Shchors, the complete liberation of Ukraine seemed a done deal. However, Poland then entered the war. The White Army managed to take advantage of the situation, defeating Soviet troops in the Donbass, occupying Crimea, Novorossiysk provinces and even part of Slobozhanshchina.
In western Ukraine, only in the area of Birzuly (in the future - Kotovsk, now - Podolsk) the Red Army units of Iona Yakir still fought fierce battles. From there, Grigory Kotovsky will lead his Tiraspol brigade to Kyiv behind enemy lines. And in the rear, one after another, all kinds of “fathers” raised uprisings.
Shchors was forced to retreat to Korosten - and there was nothing to reproach him for: he walked, snarling like a lion. It was his division that covered the evacuation of Soviet institutions from Kyiv in rearguard battles.
On the fateful day of August 30, 1919, Shchors, his deputy Ivan Dubovoy (former army commander, then commander of the 44th division of the Red Army, who fell subordinate to Shchors) and commissar Pavel Tankhil-Tankhilevich went to the forward positions of the 3rd battalion of the 388th infantry regiment near the village of Beloshitsa. In this direction he was opposed by the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Corps of the Galician Army of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (this ephemeral state formation was in alliance with the Whites). Here the young division commander received a fatal wound to the head. Ivan Dubovoy recalled:
“I especially remember one machine gun showing “activity” near the railway booth. This machine gun forced us to lie down, as the bullets literally dug the ground near us. When we lay down, Shchors turned his head to me and said: “Vanya, look how the machine gunner shoots accurately.” After that, Shchors took binoculars and began to look at where the machine gun was firing. A moment later, the binoculars fell out of Shchors’s hands, and his head bowed to the ground... The bullet hit the left temple and exited at the back of the head.”
The news of the division commander's injury spread among the soldiers, who, wanting revenge, went on the attack and knocked the Galicians out of their position. They did not take prisoners that day.
The authors of the “Song about Shchors” written in 1936 (verses by M. Golodny, music by M. Blanter) left the hero alive:
“The regiment commander walked under the red banner.
The head is tied, blood on the sleeve,
A bloody trail spreads across the damp grass.”
The head is tied, blood on the sleeve,
A bloody trail spreads across the damp grass.”
However, in fact, Shchors died 15 minutes later. He was only 24 years old, and his common-law wife, Fruma Efimovna Rostova, was 8 months pregnant at that time; a month later she gave birth to a daughter, Valentina.
Shchors' death came as a shock to the soldiers, who sincerely mourned their commander. His body was transported to Klintsy, where soldiers and city residents said goodbye to the hero for 4 days from September 1 to 4, 1919. The situation at the front was unstable; it could not be ruled out that the enemies could desecrate Shchors’ grave, just as in Zhitomir they desecrated the grave of Vasily Bozhenko, Shchors’ friend.
Tarasenko V. Shchors and Bozhenko, 1972
Shchors' common-law wife F. Rostova decided to bury him in her hometown - Samara. The corpse was kept in a saline solution for a day, then placed in a coffin lined with galvanized iron, which, in turn, was placed in a sealed zinc box. Shchors' body was accompanied by F. Rostova and her three sisters, three brothers of the murdered man, several soldiers from his division and an honor guard of 10 cadets from the school of red commanders he organized.
Still from the film “Shchors”, 1939
A special train (“funeral train”) was formed, consisting of a saloon car in which the coffin was located, and two cars for accompanying people. This train arrived in Samara on September 13. The next day, September 14, 1919, Shchors’ body was buried at the All Saints Cemetery. Later, the Samara Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks allocated funds for the installation of a monument made of white marble. The inscription read: “Chief of Division 44 Nikolai Aleksandrovich Shchors 1895–1919.”
In 1921, one of Shchors’ former subordinates, I. Tishchenko, while passing through Samara, with the help of master Brannikov (who made the monument), installed a fence.
However, in 1926, construction of a new plant began on the site of this cemetery. For some reason, Shchors’ grave was forgotten, and his body was not reburied in a new place.
The mystery of the death of Nikolai Shchors
We remember that I.N. Dubovoy became a subordinate of Shchors after the unification of their divisions. And already in August and September 1919, there were rumors among Shchorsovites that it was Dubovoy who killed their beloved commander in order to take his place. A supporter of this version was even the commander of the 388th regiment Kvyatek, who, being arrested in 1937, wrote to the People's Commissar of the NKVD N. Yezhov:
“I want to talk about the murder of the former commander of the 44th Infantry Division Shchors and everything that leads me to the firm belief that Dubovoy was involved in this case... there was intense talk among the soldiers that Shchorsa was killed by Dubovoy in order to take Shchors’ place. This thought also occurred to me back then. “I proceeded from personal suspicions, based on the circumstances of Shchors’ death, which I myself observed.”
Dubovoy emphasized loyalty to the division commander in every possible way; in 1935 he published the book “My Memories of Shchors.”
For some time, the name of Shchors was not heard, but he was remembered in the 30s, when the official “pantheon” of heroes of the Civil War began to form. Shchors entered into it quite deservedly. In 1936, the above-quoted “Song about Shchors” was written and became very popular. In 1939, a film by Alexander Dovzhenko was released, in which the role of Shchors was played by E. Samoilov.
Poster for the film "Shchors"
Evgeny Samoilov as Shchors
Books about Shchors also appeared, including the above-mentioned memoirs of I. Dubovoy. In 1935, the hero’s name was given to his hometown - Snovsk (and lost it in 2016). And in 1949, the authorities remembered the lost grave of Shchors. Some witnesses to his funeral were still alive and the grave was found.
Monument at the grave of Shchors in Samara, erected in 1954
But at the same time, a shocking circumstance was revealed: the specialists who examined the remains stated that the bullet that killed Shchors was fired from a short-barreled weapon from a short distance and entered the back of the division commander’s head. That is, it turned out that Shchors was treacherously killed by the man who was next to him - behind and to the right. The documents on this case were immediately classified, but the question arose about the killer. Some decided that Semyon Aralov, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 12th Army, the future founder of the GRU, could be interested in the death of Shchors.
S. Aralov (sitting below, fourth from left) with his wife in Turkey
Regarding the “visit” of Aralov and other Soviet military advisers to Turkey, the Berlin newspaper “Rul” wrote on August 14, 1921:
“In connection with the arrival in Angora of the third Soviet representative, Aralov, on a mission consisting entirely of officers of the General Staff, Greek newspapers report that the presence in Angora of three authorized Soviet representatives (Frunze, Aralova and Frumkin) indicates the intention of the Bolsheviks to take over the leadership of the military operations in Anatolia ”.
Aralov and Shchors were constantly in conflict; the following letter from Aralov to Trotsky has been preserved:
“The command staff is not fit for purpose. Many belong in prison. Divisional commander Shchors considers himself a king. His Bohunsky regiment is counter-revolutionaries... This is a threat to Soviet power.”
It is curious that Aralov turned out to be a very principled person; he criticized Shchors even when he was officially recognized as a hero of the Civil War. However, Aralov was not with Shchors, and therefore a frankly weak version was put forward that Commissar Pavel Samuilovich Tankhil-Tankhilevich became the executor of his will.
But the main suspicions fell on Shchors’ deputy and rival, I. Dubovoy. He previously commanded an entire army, which joined the 12th. And then Dubovoy lost his position as division commander - in this case, it was Shchors, under whose subordination he found himself, who crossed his path.
In fact, Ivan Naumovich Dubovoy was a very distinguished man. He was born in the Kyiv province into a peasant family in 1896, that is, he was a year younger than Shchors. His childhood was spent in the Donbass, where his father got a job as a miner. He received a good education - he graduated from a real school in Slavyansk and the Kiev Commercial Institute. In November 1916 he was drafted into the army and graduated from ensign school. He did not take part in hostilities, but served as a junior officer in the training team of an infantry regiment stationed in Krasnoyarsk. He joined the RSDLP in June 1917. He was distinguished by personal courage and had a reputation as a strict and demanding commander. In 1920 he received the Order of the Red Banner.
Ivan Dubovoy in 1923
He rose to the rank of commander of the Kharkov Military District; below is his photograph in this position:
Commander of the Kharkov Military District I. N. Dubovoy
He trained twice in Germany, because of which in 1937 he was accused of participating in a fascist military conspiracy and was shot in 1938 (rehabilitated in 1956).
And in 1949 they remembered that Dubovoy claimed that the bullet entered Shchors’ head from the front. And that Dubova forbade him to remove the bandage he personally applied - Shchors was sent to Samara with it (moreover, he was buried with it). It looks really strange and suspicious.
They also remembered then about the rumors about Dubov’s murder of Shchors, which circulated among the soldiers of the 44th Division, and about the testimony of Kvyatek quoted above. But there is still no direct evidence of Dubovoy’s involvement in Shchors’ death.
The simplest and therefore most plausible version of the rebound cannot be ruled out. After all, according to eyewitnesses, there were many large stones at the site of Shchors’ death. Dubovoy, seeing that the bullet hit the back of the division commander’s head, could have been afraid that the soldiers, avenging him, would simply kill everyone who was nearby. And therefore, having personally bandaged Shchors’ head, he ordered not to remove or touch the bandage.
Memory of Shchors and the war against monuments
Monuments to Shchors appeared in many cities of the Soviet Union.
Monument to Shchors in Bryansk
Monument to Shchors in Belgorod
Monument to Shchors in Chernigov
You probably guessed that in modern Ukraine, in the wake of decommunization, Shchors also suffered. For example, this memorial plaque to Shchors was dismantled in Vinnitsa in 2016:
The Nazis had the greatest difficulties with the Kyiv monument, which was erected in 1954.
The fact is that even before Euromaidan it was included in the State Register of “immovable” monuments of national significance in Ukraine. In addition, the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk claimed that it was he, as a student, who served as the model for the creation of this monument. As a result, Kiev residents began to call this sculpture “Lenya Kravchuk, who is going to the station to head off to his Rivne.” Let’s say right away that these are pure fantasies, and the authors of the sculpture knew nothing about any V. Kravchuk.
Mikhail Lysenko claimed that the model Anton Bozhko posed for the rough model of the monument, and Nikolai Sukhodol writes that when working on the “finishing version” a certain conservatory student named Nosenko posed. As a result, the Minister of Culture of Ukraine A. Tkachenko found what he apparently thought was a very ingenious solution. He declared that only the sculpture of a horse has artistic value, it:
“Recognized by all art critics as an outstanding artistic horse.”
Monument to Shchors in Kyiv
And he suggested leaving her, and removing the rider, Shchors. As they say, it would be funny if it weren't so sad. Currently, the monument to Shchors in Kyiv looks like this:
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