Mikhail Frunze. The End of the Civil War in Southern Russia and Aid to Mustafa Kemal
M. Frunze in Turkey
In previous articles, we discussed Mikhail Frunze's revolutionary activities and successful career as a Soviet military leader, including victories over Kolchak and Wrangel. Today, we'll continue that story.
The end of the civil war in Ukraine
Thus, Crimea was liberated. Then, in November of that same year, 1920, Red Army units finally routed Petliura's forces in the so-called Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), which had been established by local nationalists led by Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Petliura on November 13, 1918, and which had constantly fought against Soviet Russia, including on the side of Poland. At the same time, the problem of Nestor Makhno's anarchist republic was also resolved. Makhno had fought four times on the Bolshevik side and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, but he only carried out orders that pleased him, and so all attempts at alliance ended in yet another rupture and confrontation.
S. Korolkov, “In Makhno’s Camp,” 1931
Makhnovists in a photograph from 1920.
And so it was that Semyon Kolesnikov's Makhnovist brigade, along with the Red Army, crossed the Sivash on November 8, 1920. However, after their victory over Wrangel, the Makhnovists again disobeyed the order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, refusing to leave Crimea for the Caucasus, and were attacked by Red Army units.
On December 7, 1920, the remnants of Makhno's forces managed to cross the Sivash River again and reunite near the village of Novospasovka in the Berdyansk district. According to Makhno's chief of staff, V. Belash, the old man still had approximately 3,500 cavalry, up to 5,000 infantry, 16 artillery pieces, and 500 machine guns. But now the decision was made to finally liquidate the intractable old man's anarchist republic.
For the same reason and for the same considerations, the Zaporizhian Sich was dispersed by order of Catherine II. Both the Zaporizhian Cossacks and the Makhnovists had lost their importance as military allies, but they refused to disarm. The Zaporizhian Cossacks refused to become service Cossacks, and the Makhnovists refused to become regular army soldiers. So, in the midst of peaceful territory, in both cases, lands were occupied by an illegal armed formation led by some "shady" atamans who disobeyed the orders of the central government and lived by their own laws. And believe me, the French government would never have tolerated some anarchist republic in Normandy, the British government in Wales, the American government in Arizona, the Spanish government in Catalonia, and so on. Catherine II and the Bolsheviks didn't tolerate it either. The overly independent and headstrong Zaporizhian Cossacks were dispersed by Peter Tekeli. And Makhno was forced to flee to Romania by Mikhail Frunze.
On March 16-17, 1921, the 9th Cavalry Division defeated the main forces led by Batka himself, capturing the office, the convoy and artilleryMakhno narrowly escaped capture but managed to escape, and by early May he had assembled a new detachment of approximately 4 men, 190 machine guns, and 8 cannons. However, he no longer had any chance of victory. On June 13, 1921, near the village of Nedrigailov (in what is now Sumy Oblast), Makhno suffered a decisive defeat in a battle against the 8th Cavalry Division of the Red Cossacks. His closest collaborator, the former anarchist sailor Feodosiy Shchus, was killed there.
Nestor Makhno and the very stylish anarchist Feodosiy Shchus (to his right)
The remnants of Makhno's forces fled to the Romanian border—only 78 men made it. On August 28, 1921, the seriously wounded Nestor Makhno was transported to the right bank of the Dniester by Lev Zinkovsky (Zadov), who would become the hero of A. N. Tolstoy's novel "The Road to Calvary." Soon, this head of Makhno's intelligence and counterintelligence services, as well as the head of his personal security, would return home and join the Cheka. He would become the authorized representative of the OGPU Foreign Department for the Odessa region and the senior authorized representative of the 3rd (counterintelligence) Department of the Odessa NKVD, organizing an agent network of Russian émigrés in Romania.
Chekist L. Zinkovsky with colleagues
And for Frunze, it was the defeat of Makhno’s troops that ended his participation in the civil war.
Business trip to Turkey
On October 31, 1918, aboard the British ship Agamemnon, Turkish representatives were forced to sign the Armistice of Mudros, which effectively became the country's act of capitulation. And the following day, the British newspaper The Times solemnly informed its readers:
Access to the Straits will give us not only control over the Black Sea, but also the best opportunity to influence Russian affairs. For now, the Black and Baltic Seas are closed to us. fleetOur naval power cannot influence Russia's future. Siberia and Murmansk are, at best, inconvenient back doors. But with the British fleet in the Black Sea, the front door is open. The Allies' imminent dominance over the Black Sea will sound the death knell for Bolshevik rule in Russia.
Words were matched by deeds, and on November 23, 1918, the British cruiser Canterbury entered the port of Sevastopol. Two days later, she was joined by four battleships (two British, one French, and one Italian), two cruisers, and nine destroyers. I think you now understand why the government of Soviet Russia was so willing to cooperate with Mustafa Kemal (the future Atatürk): it was vitally important to help the bleeding young Turkish Republic restore both its sovereignty and control over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.
Things were looking very bad for the Turks. Since November 18, 1918, the "Allied Aegean Squadron"—167 warships and auxiliary ships of various ranks, including 14 battleships, 14 cruisers, 11 gunboats and monitors, and 17 destroyers—was moored in Constantinople harbor.
French warship in the harbor of Constantinople
English sailors and soldiers at the Galata Tower
An Entente army of 49,516 soldiers and 1759 officers was stationed in Constantinople. And the French General d'Esperey, emulating Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, triumphantly rode into Constantinople on horseback (the occupation forces remained there for five years, until the army of Mustafa Kemal, now nicknamed Gazi—the invincible, but not yet Atatürk—approached the city).
D'Espere's entrance to Constantinople
The British occupied forts in the straits, the French occupied Cilicia, and both divided Turkey's African possessions between them. The Greeks moved their troops into Smyrna. The Italians occupied southwestern Anatolia and the Dodecanese Islands (part of the Southern Sporades archipelago). Plans were made to establish a Kurdistan state on Turkish territory.
In May 1919, the so-called Second Greco-Turkish War began, in which the Turks initially suffered defeats.
The Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal (elected April 23, 1920), approached V. I. Lenin with a proposal to establish diplomatic relations and a request for assistance in the struggle "against imperialist governments." Two treaties were signed: "On Cooperation" (August 24, 1920) and "On Friendship and Brotherhood between the RSFSR and Turkey" (March 16, 1921). It should be noted once again: for Soviet Russia, it was vital to close the Black Sea straits to Entente warships, and therefore this alliance was mutually beneficial.
Mikhail Frunze was also sent to Turkey: on November 4, 1921, he and a group of military advisers departed Kharkov for Batumi by train. In Batumi, on November 25, they all boarded the Italian steamship Sannago, bound for Trebizond. Naturally, the mission was secret, and the Soviet soldiers traveled under false names (Frunze obtained the documents of a certain merchant, Mikhailov). In Samsun, Frunze was met by S. I. Aralov, a former staff captain in the Tsarist army, the first head of the Registration Directorate of the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Red Army, and later one of the founders of the GRU.
Colonel S. Aralov during the Great Patriotic War
On December 13, the Soviet delegation arrived in Ankara, where the "masks" were dropped, and Frunze now acted as the head of the extraordinary embassy of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic—and was received with all due honors. He addressed the deputies of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and Mustafa Kemal declared in his response:
The mere fact that the Soviet government sent Frunze, one of the outstanding political figures, who was also one of the most valiant commanders and heroic leaders of the victorious Red Army, to Ankara, evoked special gratitude from the National Assembly.
The visit did not go unnoticed abroad. The Berlin newspaper "Rul" wrote:
In connection with the arrival in Angora of the third Soviet representative, Aralov, with a mission consisting entirely of General Staff officers, Greek newspapers report that the presence in Angora of three authorized Soviet representatives (Frunze, Aralov, and Frumkin) indicates the intention of the Bolsheviks to take control of military operations in Anatolia.
M. V. Frunze with his colleagues in Ankara, 1922.
On January 2, 1922, the Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood was signed between Turkey and the Ukrainian SSR.
Frunze managed to visit the active troops and offer some advice on their organization. Afterward, he left Turkey and returned to Kharkov. Aralov, however, remained: from January 5, 1921, to April 29, 1923, he served as the Plenipotentiary Representative (Ambassador) of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to Turkey. He recommended creating a shock cavalry corps of three divisions, which had previously operated separately. This gave birth to the Turkish "cavalry army," which performed brilliantly in battle, and its commander, Fahrettin, was nicknamed "our Budyonny" by the Turks. Aralov made numerous visits to the front and provided Mustafa Kemal with significant assistance in planning and preparing the general counteroffensive of August 1922.
Mustafa Kemal, Ismet Pasha (Inönü), the RSFSR Plenipotentiary Representative S. Aralov, and Military Attaché K. Zvonarev in the vicinity of Konya during preparations for the general offensive of Turkish troops against the Greek army. March 23, 1922.
The importance of his involvement in Turkish affairs can be judged by the famous Republic Monument in Taksim Square in Istanbul: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ordered the placement of sculptures of Voroshilov and Aralov to his left.
Sculptural images of Voroshilov and Aralov
Aralov's achievements are obvious, but why Voroshilov ended up at Atatürk's side remains a big question. Apparently, not all the archives have been opened yet, and somewhere lie documents revealing this man's role in Turkey's victory over the Greeks and the restoration of its independence.
President of the Republic of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the head of the Soviet delegation, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR K. E. Voroshilov at the military parade on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Republic, October 29, 1933.
On August 18, 1922, the Turkish army under Mustafa Kemal launched an offensive and defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Dumlupınar on August 30. Building on their success, the Turks liberated Bursa on September 5 and Smyrna on September 9-11. About a third of the Greek army managed to evacuate on British ships. Approximately 40 Greek soldiers and officers were captured, and 284 artillery pieces, 2 machine guns, and 15 aircraft were captured.
On October 14, 1922, the war ended with a complete victory for the Turkish Republic. This victory was achieved largely thanks to the financial and material assistance of our country. In total, Turkey received 6,5 million gold rubles, 33,275 rifles, 57,986 million rounds of ammunition, 327 machine guns, 54 artillery pieces, 129,479 shells, and 1,500 sabers. Two Black Sea Fleet ships, the Zhivoy and the Zhutkiy, were also returned. The gunboats, whose crews had taken them to Sevastopol to avoid surrender to the British, were also returned.
The Turks proved to be grateful and made every effort to assist the Red Army in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. The commander of the Eastern Army, General Karabekir Pasha, wrote to Halil Pasha and Nuri Pasha:
For the Bolsheviks to appear on Turkey's borders, the immediate seizure of the entire Caucasus would be necessary. Even their small forces, by entering Azerbaijan and advancing with the Azerbaijanis to the Turkish border, would benefit Turkish interests. It would be very opportune to secure the Bolsheviks' rise to power in Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and Georgia.
Turkish agents in Azerbaijan prevented the Musavatists from blowing up the oil rigs (the economic damage would have been enormous) and organized the virtually bloodless entry of the 11th Army into Baku. Ordzhonikidze wrote to Lenin:
Turkish askers and officers played a very active role in favor of the revolution in Baku, a detachment of which prevented the government from escaping from Baku.
The Turks retained their gratitude to the USSR even after the death of Kemal Atatürk—unlike the Bulgarians and Romanians, whose independence was paid for with the blood of Russian soldiers and officers. Atatürk's successor, İsmet İnönü, prevented Turkey from entering World War II on the side of Germany. In 1953, he (then the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party), upon learning of Stalin's death, was the first to arrive at the Soviet embassy, writing in the book of condolences:
A man who personified an era has passed away, someone I personally knew and, while not always agreeing with, held in high esteem! With Stalin's name, this era was equally linked to yours and ours. historyDuring wars, our countries often fought against each other, but during the years of revolutions and immediately after them, we were together and helped each other.
In the next article, we'll conclude our story about Frunze. We'll discuss his work as Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. And we'll also discuss the unexpected death of this extraordinary man.
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