Mikhail Frunze's Crimean triumph
M. Frunze in the early 20s.
Today we will continue the story about M.V. Frunze, which began in the two previous articles.
As we recall, on August 15, 1919, M.V. Frunze was appointed commander of the Turkestan Front. Born and raised in Central Asia, he knew local customs and traditions well, and therefore acted very effectively. He would undoubtedly have been very useful in this post. However, the situation unfolded in such a way that on September 20 of the following year, 1920, the best Soviet commander of the time had to be sent to a new front—the Southern Front. Frunze was to lead the operation to liberate the Crimean Peninsula, which had become the White Guards' last stronghold in the European part of the country. Before leaving for Kharkov (where the new front's headquarters were located), Frunze visited Moscow and participated in the 9th All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b). Then he went to join the troops. Riding in the same train car with him was the peasant poet Demyan Bedny.
At this time, Frunze was already recognized by all as a great military leader, and his chief of staff, the former tsarist major general F. Novitsky, later wrote:
Frunze possessed an amazing ability to quickly understand the most complex and new issues for him, to separate the essential from the secondary, and then to distribute the work among the performers in accordance with the abilities of each... he also knew how to select people, as if instinctively guessing who was capable of what.
White Crimea
In fact, the civil war in southern Russia should have ended back in March 1920—after two disastrous evacuations of Denikin's forces from Odessa and Novorossiysk. The words of a Red Cavalry commander addressed to the White Guards gathered in the Novorossiysk port on March 27 are telling:
Comrades, don't shoot! The war is over!
Red Army soldiers in Novorossiysk
folded weapon The White Guards were not repressed, and many joined the Red Army. The Whites' agony was prolonged by one man (a good reason to reflect on the role of personality in stories), who, by the way, later openly said in Constantinople:
It was I who prolonged the Civil War for fourteen long months, thereby causing additional casualties. I repent.
As you've probably guessed, it was Yakov Slashchev. And he saved White Crimea twice. The first time was in the summer of 1919. At that time, the White Guards only held a small bridgehead near Kerch. But Slashchev landed with a small force and secured a bridgehead near Koktebel. Receiving reinforcements, he captured Feodosia, and then drove the Red forces out of the peninsula entirely.
Meanwhile, the campaign of Denikin's Armed Forces of Southern Russia on Moscow ended in complete failure. At the end of 1919, the remnants of the White forces first retreated, then fled to Novorossiysk, where Denikin's reputation as a commander was finally destroyed. And so the strange decision to rebury this general's remains in Moscow's Donskoy Monastery in 2005 is puzzling: never, under any circumstances, should heroes be molded out of utter losers. The same applies to Kolchak.
But let us return to Slashchev, who recalled:
The command, apparently, looked upon Crimea as a territory condemned to surrender, counting on holding back the Red onslaught on the Don or somewhere in its region and near the Bug, in order to go on the offensive again from there, acting along external operational lines and with one move forcing the Reds to abandon the siege of Crimea or to clear it if they occupied it.
But he had other plans, and he issued his own order:
I assume command of the troops defending Crimea. I declare to everyone that as long as I command the troops, I will not leave Crimea, and I make the defense of Crimea a matter not only of duty, but also of honor.
Ya. Slashchev in Crimea
In December 1919, Slashchev had only 4 soldiers at his disposal, compared to 40 for the Reds. Nevertheless, he held the peninsula, sometimes retreating from Perekop and Yushun, sometimes pushing back the advancing Red units beyond them. These battles lasted three months and became known as the "Crimean swings." It was then that Slashchev's adjutant brought his commander's famous reply to the governor of Crimea:
The rear bastard can get off his suitcases.
Slashchev was also called “the darling of the front and the scourge of the rear.”
The downside of these successes was the nickname "Hangman" (which the Whites themselves gave him) and the rhyme:
There is smoke coming from the shootings,
Then Slashchev saves Crimea.
Then Slashchev saves Crimea.
It was thanks to Slashchev that Crimea became the final destination for the White Guards' evacuation from Novorossiysk—they could have sailed directly to Turkey. But unfortunately, on April 4, 1920, only Denikin and his closest associates departed for Constantinople. That same day, Wrangel, previously dismissed by Denikin, arrived from that city: he became the last "Supreme Ruler" of White Russia. The baron detested Slashchev, the "Savior of Crimea": he promoted him to lieutenant general and soon dismissed him. Later, in Constantinople, he "demoted him to the rank of private" and, in his memoirs, declared him a pathetic alcoholic and drug addict.
Meanwhile, the authority of the “drug addict” Slashchev was much higher than that of the majority of the “true-believing” émigré generals. High-ranking White Guards decided to return to Soviet Russia with him, including the commander of the Don Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General A. Sekretev, the former head of the Markov Division, Major General Yu. Gravitsky, the former commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Don Cossack Division, Major General I. Klochkov, the former head of the Alekseev Infantry Division, Major General E. Zelenin, the senior adjutant of the Kornilov Division headquarters, Colonel-General Staff V. Orzhanovsky, the former commander of the 1st Sunzhensk-Vladikavkaz Plastun Battalion, Colonel N. Klimovich, the former commander of the "United Russia" armored train, Colonel M. Lyalin, and the former commanders of the White Guard Samur Regiment, Major General E. Zelenin and Colonel D. Zhitkevich.
The effect of Slashchev's return and his appeal to the White Guards in exile exceeded all expectations: by the end of 1922, approximately 223 former White Guards had returned to Soviet Russia.
Wrangel's final offensive
But let's look at what was happening in Crimea during Wrangel's reign. The "Black Baron" was amassing his forces and, choosing a moment when the main Red forces were busy fighting Poland, he struck in two directions at once. The popular General Sergei Ulagai landed in the Kuban region, where he was supposed to stir up an anti-Bolshevik uprising and capture Yekaterinodar. But in the end, he barely escaped, saying:
The Reds were fools who didn’t let us into Yekaterinodar; not a single person would have left there.
The main forces were directed north: on June 6, 1920, an offensive began, capturing a vast territory between the Dnieper and the Sea of Azov. Wrangel's subsequent plans included the Trans-Dnieper Operation, during which the Whites were to encircle and destroy the Red Army's Kakhovka grouping, and then advance on Right-Bank Ukraine. In this situation, the Red Southern Front was commanded by Mikhail Frunze, who had arrived from Turkestan. On September 27, he addressed his troops:
Our armies are tasked with cutting this knot with a powerful blow and shattering all the calculations and plots of the enemies of the working people. This blow must be swift and lightning-fast. It must free the country from the hardships of the winter campaign.
The Hungarian Béla Kun became a member of the Southern Front's Revolutionary Military Council. In November, he would head the Crimean Revolutionary Committee, and then, along with R. Zemlyachka and Yu. Pyatakov, he would become a member of the "Extraordinary Troika for Crimea," which would organize the terror against the remaining Whites. But Frunze would have nothing to do with this. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
The retreat of Wrangel's "Russian Army" to Crimea
Frunze first reached an agreement with Makhno, who on October 2 agreed to renew the alliance with the Bolsheviks and committed to fielding 12 fighters with 500 machine guns and 10 cannons. The Whites still hoped for success, and on October 8, having crossed the Dnieper, they captured the city of Nikopol and the important railway station of Apostolovo.
The situation at the front in September-October 1920
On October 12, the Red Army began the three-day Nikopol-Aleksandrovsk counterattack, a victory for the Red Army. Filipp Mironov's Second Cavalry Army managed to break through to the Dnieper, and very soon the White Army's retreat in this direction turned into a rout. Unaware of this, General Vitkovsky, acting according to a previously approved plan, attempted to storm Kakhovka on October 14, but was also forced to retreat.
Frunze on a tank captured near Kakhovka, October 1920.
Wrangel made a mistake by refusing to immediately retreat to Crimea. Moreover, on October 20, the Whites launched an offensive on Pavlodar, suffered a defeat, and Budyonny's First Cavalry Army nearly broke into the Crimean Peninsula, cutting off the main White Guard forces from Wrangel's headquarters in Dzhankoy.
Only the uncoordinated actions of the Red commanders, who acted as they pleased, violating Frunze's orders, allowed the Whites to withdraw from Tavria to Crimea in battle at the end of October - beginning of November 1920.
On October 28 (November 8), 1920, the Reds' Southern Front went on the offensive, and on November 3, Red Army units occupied the Chongar Peninsula. The Whites managed to hold on to Crimea, blowing up all the bridges leading to the peninsula. Nevertheless, the success of Frunze's campaign was evident: Wrangel's army was depleted, losing up to 50% of its personnel killed, wounded, frostbitten, and captured. But it still had up to 40,000 soldiers, more than 200 artillery pieces, 1660 machine guns, three tanks, more than 20 armored cars, five armored trains (some sources say 14), and 24 aircraft (some say 45 aircraft). Decisive battles for the peninsula itself lay ahead.
The situation in the Crimea
The arid Crimean Peninsula had never been able to provide its population with food on its own. Now, Wrangel's army and some 400 civilians found themselves in Crimea, living off the Crimeans, mercilessly fleecing them. Yakov Slashchev, who was well-versed in the situation, wrote about this:
Crimea was overrun by gangs of people who lived off the population and plundered them. There was no accounting, and panic was total. Everyone dreamed only of plundering as much as possible, then boarding a ship or disappearing.
In November 1920, Crimea was on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, and the Prime Minister of the Wrangel government, A. Krivoshein, already on board the British cruiser Centaur, declared with relief:
Better to evacuate than to endure a hungry winter.
One gets the impression he was even glad that Frunze had spared him responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people from starvation. The locals hated equally both the Whites who robbed and plundered them while holed up in the rear, and the front-line soldiers like Slashchev who tried to "protect" them from the Red Army.
The British had already refused to assist, while the French demanded full recognition of the financial obligations of all "Russian governments" and a guarantee of debt repayment over 35 years, with interest accruing at 6,5% per annum. They also demanded that France supply all grain exported from Ukraine and Kuban, three-quarters of all oil produced in Russia, and a quarter of the coal produced in Donbas. The "Russian patriot" Wrangel agreed to all demands without batting an eyelid, and his "compliance" outraged even many White Guards. Even in Crimea, Y. Slashchev openly criticized Wrangel, and G. Rakovsky wrote (albeit already in exile):
According to this project, the entire south of Russia with all its industrial enterprises, railways, customs, etc., was placed under direct bondage to France for many years.
Morale among both the White Guards' military and civilian forces was extremely low, yet the official press tried to maintain faith in success, calling Perekop a "second Verdun" and a "land Gibraltar." Here stood the 11-kilometer-long and 10-meter-high Turkish Wall, the Old Tatar Ditch, up to 10 meters deep and wide, and behind them the Yushun defensive line, consisting of several rows of trenches topped with barbed wire.
Fortifications were also present on the Arabat Spit, the Chongar front, the Lithuanian Peninsula, and at potential crossing points across the Sivash Gulf and the Chongar Strait. However, professional military personnel did not believe that all this would help stem the Red Army's advance, and in his memoirs, Wrangel wrote that upon assuming the post of Commander-in-Chief, he immediately began preparations for the army's evacuation from Crimea:
To avoid a repeat of the disasters of the Novorossiysk and Odessa evacuations.
The White Guards also didn't believe in the possibility of sustained resistance. French General A. Brousseau, inspecting the defensive fortifications of the Crimean Isthmus in November 1920, reported to his superiors that none of the officers in the units occupying them believed it was possible to "celebrate the New Year at Perekop."
The Red Army significantly outnumbered the enemy in every respect. By early November 1919, Frunze had at his disposal up to 186 well-motivated fighters, nearly a thousand artillery pieces, 57 armored vehicles, and 45 aircraft.
Liberation of Crimea
So, Frunze assembled a large group, which, among other units, included the cavalry armies of Budyonny and Mironov, the 51st division of V. Blucher and detachments of the peasant army of Makhno, whose command the father entrusted to Semyon Karetnikov.
Semyon Karetnikov
The Southern Front's offensive began on the night of November 8, 1920. Attacks were launched both frontally from Perekop and across the Sivash. The soldiers reached the Lithuanian Peninsula in chest-deep water at temperatures of -11 degrees Celsius. The attackers suffered heavy losses, especially among those who stormed Perekop, which they failed to capture. However, the units that had crossed the Sivash were already reaching the rear, and a day later, on the night of November 9, fearing complete encirclement, the White Guards abandoned the Perekop fortifications. Incidentally, in Mikhail Bulgakov's play "The Flight," the White General Khludov says to Bishop Afrikan:
Frunze walked across Sivash as if it were a parquet floor.
Wrangel's defense collapsed, and by November 12, the White Guard units had been driven from all positions. Having abandoned resistance, they retreated hastily to the sea. Some fled to Sevastopol, Yalta, and Yevpatoria, others to Kerch and Feodosia. In these cities, they immediately embarked on waiting ships. And on November 13, Wrangel signed a convention with French representatives in Sevastopol, stating that he:
Hands over his army, fleet and his supporters under the protection of France, offering France the proceeds from the sale of military and civilian fleets as payment.
Everyone hated Wrangel's men back then—and for good reason. Here's what they did to the Red Army soldiers (according to White officer Vladimir Kravchenko's testimony about the capture of Orekhov during the summer offensive):
Throughout the day of July 16, Red Army cadets stranded in the city were hunted out of cellars and various nooks, courtyards, and hidden places. Of the 1500 cadet brigade members, only about 400 managed to retreat to the Malaya Tokmachka River. Along the way, they were met by General Barbovich's cavalry, engaged in combat with the 46th Division, and they too suffered heavy losses. That day, General Barbovich captured approximately 800 men from units of the 46th Soviet Division. All captured cadets were executed.
He also spoke about the events of August 12:
Heidelberg was captured by force. The brutality even reached the point of shooting and stabbing the wounded... The regiment executed all the Reds captured in Heidelberg (up to 200 people).
About Wrangel's "entertainment" on August 24:
In the Rosenthal colony, about 100 Reds were captured, almost all of whom were shot on General Manstein's orders. Continuing the offensive, two guns were captured in the Novo-Montal colony, whose crews fought back until the very last moment. All 14 captured gunners were executed on the spot. Quite a few communists were captured and suffered the same fate.
Here is what was happening at that time in Crimea, according to the testimony of the White journalist G.N. Rakovsky, who was close to Wrangel:
Crimean prisons, as before, were now, two-thirds overcrowded with those accused of political crimes. A significant number of these were military personnel, arrested for careless language and criticism of the high command. For months, in appalling conditions, without interrogation and sometimes without charges, political prisoners languished in prison, awaiting a decision on their fate. Military courts played a key role in Crimea. People were repeatedly shot. Even more were executed without trial. General Kutepov bluntly stated that "there's no point in instigating legal red tape; just shoot them and... that's it."
Is it any wonder that the Crimeans not only failed to provide any support to the Whites, but instead began seizing towns and villages themselves? And the detachments of Mironov's Second Cavalry Army, which entered Simferopol on November 13, were surprised to learn that the city had fallen under the control of A. Skripnichenko's partisans and the workers of the Anatra factory three days earlier and was now under the control of the Revolutionary Committee, led by the Bolshevik V. Vasiliev.
Two days later, Budyonny and Voroshilov arrived in Simferopol. Having contacted Sevastopol by telegraph, they were equally surprised to learn that this city, too, had already fallen under the control of the Reds: the local Revolutionary Committee had established Soviet power there on November 14, while Wrangel was still there (the "Black Baron" had boarded the cruiser General Kornilov at 2:50 p.m.). Representatives of the Sevastopol Revolutionary Committee reported:
There are no enemy ground units in the city who haven't laid down their arms. Everyone who didn't manage to board the ships has surrendered. There are about ten thousand prisoners.
Roughly the same thing happened in many other cities.
It must be said that, when studying documents on the Red Army's advance, one gets the impression that they were literally unable to catch up with the rapidly retreating White Guards. Why? After all, they had the opportunity to literally "bury" Wrangel's army in Crimea. It has now been established that Frunze approached Wrangel with an exceptionally generous offer, guaranteeing the lives of the White Guards who laid down their arms and free passage abroad. This information is confirmed by the commander of the French Mediterranean squadron, Vice-Admiral Charles Dumesnil, with whom Frunze also engaged in radio conversations, confirming his intention to build a "golden bridge" for Wrangel's forces. He issued an army order containing the following words:
The Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front calls on all Red Army soldiers to spare those who surrender and those captured. A Red Army soldier is feared only by the enemy. He is a knight to the vanquished.
And he gave the order to suspend the offensive for two or three days.
Wrangel didn't respond to Frunze's proposal; in fact, he concealed it from his troops, which became the main cause of the tragedy for the White Guards remaining in Crimea. But we'll discuss this in detail in the next article.
On November 13 (October 31), the Red Army entered Yevpatoria. Feodosia (November 15) and Kerch (November 16) were captured without a single shot being fired. On November 17, the Southern Front's Perekop-Chongar Operation ended with the liberation of Yalta.
After Wrangel's defeat, Mikhail Frunze became commander of all Soviet troops in Ukraine and Crimea (headquartered in Kharkov) and was awarded a saber inscribed "To the People's Hero." K. Voroshilov, A. Kork, F. Mironov, and V. Blucher also received honorary revolutionary weapons.
Commander of the First Cavalry Army Budyonny, commander of the Southern Front Frunze, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry_Voroshilov, 1920.
All servicemen on the Southern Front were given a bonus equal to a month's salary. The 15th Division was renamed the Sivash Division, the 30th Rifle and 6th Cavalry Divisions became the Chongar Division, and the 51st became the Perekop Division.
In the following articles, we will continue our story about Mikhail Frunze. We will discuss his offer of security guarantees to the White Guards in Crimea, which Wrangel concealed from his troops, and the tragic consequences of this action by the last "ruler" of White Russia. We will also discuss the final defeat of Nestor Makhno's forces. We will also discuss Frunze's assignment in Turkey and the assistance he provided to Mustafa Kemal. We will also discuss the peak of Mikhail Frunze's career and his unexpected death.
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