Chilling hike. Yakut expedition Pepeliaeva
On gray snow wolves lure -
five officers, canned bank
five officers, canned bank
Towards the end of the Civil War, when the whites were already firmly pressed to the ocean, a group of several hundred desperate people went on an adventure in an attempt to turn the tide. stories about the knee. They suffered a fiasco, but the duel between the red and white in the wastelands of Yakutia, which are immensely huge even by Russian standards, remained one of the brightest plots of national history.
In 1922, the Reds gradually cleaned the Far East, Uborevich was preparing for the last dash to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. By this time, the majority of whites in the Far East had already been squeezed into China, either those who were most unlucky or persistent on a large scale remained. At that moment, General Diterikhs, who represented the remnants of the White Guard on DalVas, and his assistant Kulikovsky got the idea to light up northeastern Siberia. The plan envisaged a landing on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk east of Yakutsk, a quick takeover of the city and the creation of a center for a new uprising against the Reds there. Fortunately, envoys from the local population have already appeared from there, reporting about their desire to rebel against the Reds. It was supposed to march on 800 km into the depths of the continent on the road. Such an enterprise required volunteers, volunteers needed a commander. "Commandos" were found quickly, for the commander, too, it was not.
Among the other immigrants in northeastern China, in Harbin, lived General Anatoly Pepelyaev, the main character of our play. This was a young man, but having a noticeable combat experience. Pepelyaev was a regular military officer; by the beginning of the First World War, he was already the chief of intelligence of a regiment, and he waved the war with honor. "Anna" for courage, honorable weapon, officer "George", "Vladimir" with swords - even by those standards an impressive iconostasis. At the end of the war, when the commanders were elected, the soldiers took him to battalion commanders. He graduated from the First World War by a lieutenant colonel, and during the Civil War he joined Kolchak's army, and as usual, he quickly grew in rank. In general, Civilian is a time for generals younger than 30 years. Turkul, Manstein, Buzun ... That's 27-year-old Pepelyaev. In 1920, due to a conflict with ataman Semenov, to whom he submitted, Pepeliaev went with his wife and children to Harbin, where he had been living for the second year. The people of Diterikhs easily found him and offered to take part in a “special operation”.
In total, the detachment had 730 people, including as many as two generals and 11 colonels, all volunteers from the remaining areas of white control of the Far East and the Russian colonies of China. White had a great lack of weapons, so there were only two machine guns. There were plenty of rifles, but more than half of them were single-shot rifles, thanks for not being fusses of the time of Peter the Great. Ammunition was by the standards of the Civic is not too small, according to 250 ammunition and about a dozen grenades per brother. The case was complicated by the fact that it was a "one-time" ammunition, the supply was not provided. There was no artillery, and it was not required, more than 800 km had to be done in the wild wastelands from the place of intended landing to Yakutsk (the expedition diary mentioned somehow, for example, about the 8 km bog), no one would pull the guns.
This plan looks somewhat divorced from reality. To fight Yakutsk squad in 700 with a penny man. But the Reds had the same misfortune, armies of several hundred soldiers, often with quite sonorous names, were running through the vast spaces. The Pepeliaev group, for example, was called to disguise the “Militia of the Tatar Strait”.
Time and transport was not enough. In Okhotsk and Ayane landed in late August. Ayan is a village on the seashore, a dozen and a half houses, several warehouses and a couple of “suburbs” of the same virtues. By the way, in the brochure of Vishnevsky, one of the participants of the campaign, there is such an intriguing remark about this expedition: “The rain is especially dangerous in Ayan: it is extremely abundant and, due to the force of the wind, breaks through the walls of buildings.” It’s hard to say what you mean about breaks the walls ", but nature really did not favor hiking. White guerrillas and local residents, about a hundred people, were waiting in Ayan. The detachment was divided in two in order to collect white partisan units along the way. In Ayane, a gathering of local Tungus and local Russians gathered, which motorized our partisans, selecting three hundred deer. At this time, the second batch of the landing party was just about to start from Vladivostok. Pepelyaev was already moving into the depths of the continent, but because of off-road, he was walking slowly, barely overcoming swamps and rivers. The rendezvous point of the white detachments was the settlement Nelkan. Those who got there before others suffered from starvation, feeding on horses. The ships with the second wave of the landing arrived only in November. At the same time, the population collected transport, the very commemorated deer. By this time in Vladivostok, the whites were completely defeated. Pepelyaev from the commander of the partisan, or sabotage detachment has become the leader of the main white military forces. There was no one else behind.
Along the way, joined the detachments of the white partisans operating in these areas. Colonel Reinhardt (one of the two battalion commanders) estimated their combined strength in about 800 people. The guerrillas fairly turned against the local population, they ate from the same Yakuts and Tunguses, in general, the population, according to the whites, belonged to the red and white in the style of the unforgettable phrase “the red will come - rob, the white will come - rob” and not really adore neither of the others. Although a certain division of sympathies was noted: who is poorer - for the reds, who is more successful - more for the whites. The forces of the Reds were estimated at about 3 thousands of fighters in total.
We must pay tribute, the discipline was close to exemplary, there was no frostbite and lagging behind, although the last detachment came to Nelkan already in the winter to dry ground, making marches and at minus thirty.
December 20 squad made a speech at the village of Amga, the next stop in front of Yakutsk, 160 versts from the city. They walked on foot and on deer. I note that these edges are the coldest of all, which are in Russia. Amge came up on a cold night on February 2 of the year 1923 and attacked her from the march. During this final rush to Amge ... I almost wrote "thermometers showed," thermometers did not show a damn thing, because when they stood in the yard minus forty-five mercury freezes. Read about it and it was cold. White walkers with a frantic assault took Amgu on a bayonet, killing a small garrison.
Reds formally had at that time some numerical advantage. But they were not assembled together, but acted in three separate units. Pepelyaev decided to destroy the first thing the average in size, Strod squad. It was a red partisan group in 400 people, with machine guns, but without guns, burdened with baggage. Strode seemed like a good target.
Actually, who it was. Ivan Strod is actually Janis Strods, the son of Latvian and Polish, the main character of the red side of our history. He, like Pepeliaev, fought in the First World War. Only not a personnel officer, but a “mobilization” ensign. Ensign, I must say, was a dashing, four "George." In Civic he was an anarchist, later he joined the Bolsheviks, led a partisan detachment, with whom he went to meet Pepelyaev.
White leader has developed a plan for a surprise attack against Strod. Leaving one hundred and fifty bayonets of Colonel Peters in Amga, he moved forward, preparing to inadvertently pounce on the Reds. This plan had thirty-four virtues and one flaw. His advantages were that he was flawless, and the disadvantage was that he flew somersaults.
Pepelyaev podkuzmil human factor. Two soldiers, osatanev from frost, went to the village to warm up. There were already red, these two, broken in a warm yurt, seized. The plan was immediately opened to Stroud, and he frantically began to prepare for battle. Pepelyaev, realizing that there was no surprise, struck with brute force and beat off the wagon train. But the brave krasnopbalt not lost and did not lose heart. Strode sat down in the cabin under the poetic name Sasyl-Sysy. This, if I may say so, the village consisted of several houses surrounded by a fence, as Vishnevsky writes, of dung. There the red ones dug in and prepared for a perimeter defense. It was February 13. Before the 27 number, Pepeliaev desperately stormed these three yurts. Strod bristled with machine guns and fought back. By the way, it seems that frozen manure was really widely used in field fortification. Sovetskaya Gazeta writes that the Pepelayans tried to use something like a wagenburg from a sleigh with frozen dung. So most likely the fortress of doubtful material really had a place to be. At that hour, two other Red detachments, Baykalov and Kurashev, merged and made 760 people with guns. Together they attacked Amgu again. The squadron of 150 fighters, left there by Pepelyaev, lost more than half of the people under cannon fire and was forced to retreat. The brother of Baykalov died in battle, and this predetermined the sad fate of the captured officers. However, it must be said that information about the death of prisoners comes from the whites, so that its reliability is difficult to verify.
That was the end. 3 March siege was lifted. It is difficult to say what, in the sense of personal glory, it is to be called the winner of the Battle of Sasyl-Sysy, but for Strode this success was brought by the Order of the Red Banner and the laurels of the victor in the last siege of the Civil War.
The remnants of the Pepeliaev squad began to retreat to Ayan. The Yakuts, at first vigorously participating in the expedition, went home to scatter. As a result, Pepeliaev gathered everyone and ordered those who wanted to leave openly. The detachment left another two hundred people, three quarters - Yakuts. Meanwhile, General Rakitin, the commander of the detachment departing for Okhotsk, was about to break through to the south by land. In this he was promised to help the remnants of the white partisans who were here before the Pepeliaev raid group and knew the terrain. Off-roads also influenced the Reds; in every koshara it was necessary to leave a garrison, therefore they did not advance rapidly either. In addition, Pepeliaev led rearguard battles, not allowing special pressure. At the same time, a small outpost of whites in Kamchatka was destroyed, fifty people with an indispensable general at the head died, the noose around the white troops was compressed. It must be said that the Kamchatka outpost ruined itself, the Yakuts, angered by robberies, helped in red. Kamchatka, according to the Whites, fell quickly and without much pressure from the Reds, if it held out longer, perhaps Pepeliaev’s detachment could have been saved by remnants.
In early June, Rakitin was preparing for the siege of Okhotsk, but the city fell due to the workers' uprising inside. Rakitin shot himself from a hunting rifle. The partisans retired to the taiga.
In the middle of June, after a long ordeal of 1923, the remnants of Pepeliaev's squad, 640 people, gathered in Ayan. The smaller part was the paratroopers who landed here at the end of last summer, the larger part were the Yakuts, partisans and the like. White decided to leave the sea, for which it was necessary to build boats. However, they were not going to give time to the Reds.
The Reds had an agent in Ayan, a very valuable radio telegrapher. For this reason, they were aware of the preparations of the whites, and were not going to allow a departure. 15 June in 40 km from Ayan landed troops. Kraskandir Vostretsov secretly concentrated near the town. On the night of 17-number, hiding behind a fog, he sneaked into Ayan aki Freddy Krueger in an eighth-grader's dream and captured the headquarters. Pepelyaev, wanting to prevent the bloodshed, which had already become superfluous, gave the order to the subordinates who had not yet been captured to lay down their arms.
I must say, this order is not all executed. Since Ayan was very small, some of the officers were in the villages next door. Colonel Stepanov gathered about a hundred fighters, prepared for the march in a few hours, and went into the woods, his end is unknown. Another colonel, Leonov, led a dozen people at the head of the north to the shore, and succeeded, he was able to contact Japanese fishermen, find a steamer through them and leave for the anime country. Colonel Anders, who earlier defended Amgu, also tried to break through, but in the end he and his people were hungry and decided that it was better to surrender than to wear belts and boots. A total of 356 people were captured. So ended the Civil War in the Far East.
Pepelyaev and the men of his detachment were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment. Initially, the generals were going to be shot, but pardoned Kalinin. Apparently, in the camp the Reds believed that there was time to throw stones and there was time to collect them, they tried to return the whites to the USSR by military experts, and it was unnecessary to frighten them with executions. Interesting, by the way, is the characteristic that Pepeliaev gave to Vostrets who captivated him.
“Dear Comrade Soltz.
In 1923, I liquidated a gang of General Pepeliaev in the Okhotsk region - the port of Ayan, and more than 400 people were captured, including 2 / 3 officers.
They were tried in 1923 year in the mountains. Read and condemned for different periods, and they all sit in different houses of detention.
Having received a letter from one of the convicts, I decided to briefly write to you what General Pepeliaev was.
1. His idea is petty-bourgeois, or rather, Menshevik, although he considered himself non-partisan.
2. Very religious. Well studied literature on religion, especially Renan.
3. Personal qualities: very honest, disinterested; lived on a par with the other devotees of the fighting (soldiers); their slogan is all brothers: brother general, brother of soldiers, etc. I was told by his colleagues since 1911 that Pepeliaev does not know the taste of wine (I think this can be believed).
4. He had enormous prestige among his subordinates: what Pepeliaev said was for subordinates there was a law. Even in such difficult moments as his defeat near the city of Yakutsk and the capture in Ayan, his authority did not weaken. Example: a unit about 150 people were in the 8 ver. from the port of Ayan, and when he learned that the port of Ayan had been captured by the Reds, he decided to advance on the port of Ayan, and when they sent them halfway through the order sent from General Pepeliaev to surrender, they said, after reading this order, to fulfill, ”which they did, that is, they surrendered without a fight to captivity.
I have a thought: is it not time to release him from prison? I think that now he absolutely cannot do anything for us, and it can be used as a military expert (and he, in my opinion, is not a bad one). If we have such former enemies as General Slashchev, who outnumbered our brother more than one hundred, and now works in the "Shot" as a tactics teacher.
These are the thoughts that I had and stated to you as the person who manages this.
With communist greetings.
The commander of the 27-th Omsk page division S. Vostretsov. (13.4.1928). ”
In 1923, I liquidated a gang of General Pepeliaev in the Okhotsk region - the port of Ayan, and more than 400 people were captured, including 2 / 3 officers.
They were tried in 1923 year in the mountains. Read and condemned for different periods, and they all sit in different houses of detention.
Having received a letter from one of the convicts, I decided to briefly write to you what General Pepeliaev was.
1. His idea is petty-bourgeois, or rather, Menshevik, although he considered himself non-partisan.
2. Very religious. Well studied literature on religion, especially Renan.
3. Personal qualities: very honest, disinterested; lived on a par with the other devotees of the fighting (soldiers); their slogan is all brothers: brother general, brother of soldiers, etc. I was told by his colleagues since 1911 that Pepeliaev does not know the taste of wine (I think this can be believed).
4. He had enormous prestige among his subordinates: what Pepeliaev said was for subordinates there was a law. Even in such difficult moments as his defeat near the city of Yakutsk and the capture in Ayan, his authority did not weaken. Example: a unit about 150 people were in the 8 ver. from the port of Ayan, and when he learned that the port of Ayan had been captured by the Reds, he decided to advance on the port of Ayan, and when they sent them halfway through the order sent from General Pepeliaev to surrender, they said, after reading this order, to fulfill, ”which they did, that is, they surrendered without a fight to captivity.
I have a thought: is it not time to release him from prison? I think that now he absolutely cannot do anything for us, and it can be used as a military expert (and he, in my opinion, is not a bad one). If we have such former enemies as General Slashchev, who outnumbered our brother more than one hundred, and now works in the "Shot" as a tactics teacher.
These are the thoughts that I had and stated to you as the person who manages this.
With communist greetings.
The commander of the 27-th Omsk page division S. Vostretsov. (13.4.1928). ”
However, Pepeliaev spent 13 years in prison, although he was allowed some liberties, for example, correspondence with his wife. And in 38, he came under a roller of repression and was shot. Even earlier, in 37, Strod was arrested and shot. Pepelyaev’s detachment with the Vostrets paint didn’t finish his life much happily, in 1929 he participated in the conflict on the CER on one of the leading roles, and in 1932 he already committed suicide.
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