Caucasian accent in Siberian shelves
World War I had a profound effect on history and the identity of Caucasian society. The peoples of the Caucasus took an active part in hostilities as part of various units and formations of the Russian army on the Caucasus and the German fronts. Caucasians served in the Siberian infantry regiments of the Russian army, which were formed in Siberia, far from the Caucasus.
The history of the Siberian regiments of the Russian army began at the end of the XVI century, when, after the conquest of Siberia by Yermak, special military teams were created to guard the border with China. The role of the Siberian regiments in the Great Patriotic War is well known. About their participation in the battles on the German front in 1914-1917. little is known.
The soldiers of the Siberian regiments were mostly natives of Siberia. The majority were Russian, there were a significant number of Tatars, Bashkirs and representatives of other peoples of Siberia and Turkestan. The majority were Orthodox, in second place were Muslims, there were a small number of representatives of other religions. Due to the large number of people from the western provinces of the Russian Empire (Germans, Poles, etc.), the officers were distinguished by an even greater degree of ethnic and confessional diversity than the composition of the lower ranks.
Among officers of Caucasian origin were both direct natives of the Caucasus, and those whose ancestors once moved from there to different cities and provinces of Russia. Every year of the German war and the recruits coming to the Siberian regiments, the proportion of Caucasians in their composition increased markedly.
The archival documents of the 29 and 67 of the Siberian rifle regiments (SSP) stored in the Russian State Military Historical Archive allow us to trace the role of the Caucasian component in the Siberian rifle regiments on the German front. The 29 th Siberian rifle regiment was one of the oldest regiments of the Russian army. The official date of its creation is 31 in August 1771 of the 67 th Siberian rifle regiment was one of the regiments of the 4 th line, it was formed in January of 1917 at the expense of officers and soldiers isolated from the 29 of the CSP and other 8 regiments Siberian Rifle Division. The 67 of the CSP was disbanded at the end of 1917, its personnel were poured in as a recruiting party to the 29.
The 29 Siberian Rifle Regiment went to the German front from its permanent location in the Siberian city of Achinsk shortly after the start of the war. At this time there were several officers of Caucasian origin in the regiment. From 1906 in it served as a staff captain from the 54 of the Minsk Infantry Regiment in the rank of captain Tumanov Ivan Levanovich. During the movement to the front, the 1 th battalion of the regiment was stationed under its command in the main first echelon.
In September, 1914 suffered heavy casualties during heavy fighting in the August forests in Poland, 10 officers and more than 400 soldiers were killed, 15 officers and more than a thousand soldiers were injured, about 600 went missing. One of the wounded officers was Captain of the Mists.
For several days the outcome of the fierce fighting in the August forests was unclear. The headquarters of the 10 Army had already ordered to retreat, but the commander of the 3 Siberian Army Corps, General Rodkevich, did not execute this order. As a result, the Siberian regiments and other parts of the Russian army went on the offensive and defeated the German troops.
On September 20, parts of the 2 Caucasian Corps liberated Suwalki, occupied by the Germans for more than a month, September 21 1914 (all dates are old-fashioned), the Germans were forced to retreat back to East Prussia.
In the fighting, Captain Tuman proved himself as a brave and courageous officer. In the spring of 1915, the regimental magazine of military operations recorded: “12 March 1915 in 6½ o'clock in the morning 1 battalion under the command of Captain Tumanov is sent to the railway bridge. By evening, the 1 battalion reaches the wire barriers of the fortified German positions, where it dug in. At about 10 in the evening, the 1 battalion was subjected to a terrible machine-gun and rifle fire, after which the Germans began to emerge from their trenches, but, met by our rifle fire, rushed back and disappeared into their trenches. Our attempts to cut the wire during the night failed due to rifle, machine gun and artillery fire. ”
15 April 1915, in a battle near the Polish city of Kalwaria, during a massive shelling by German artillery, Captain Tuman was seriously wounded in the head with a shell fragment and died the next day in the Red Cross hospital.
From the regimental treasury were paid the costs of sending his body to his homeland, to buy a coffin and a wreath. A month later, Matrena Ivanovna Tumanova from the regiment sent 18 rubles for the revolver of her dead husband to the address: Moscow, B. Gruzinskaya, B. Tishinsky pereulok, No. 30-24.
At that time, salaried officers bought themselves horses, weapon, binoculars and other equipment for their own funds. One of the officers of the regiment bought the captain Tumanov's revolver, the money was sent to his widow.
Among the wounded officers in the battle of Augustow was a graduate of the Alexander Military School Malsagov Soserko Artaganovich. He served in the regiment with 1913, after being wounded in September, 1914 was transferred to the Ingush regiment of the Wild Division. The further fate of S. Malsagov is indicative. In 1917, he participated in the campaign of General Kornilov, in the Volunteer Army he commanded the First Ingush Cavalry Regiment, participating in battles up to 1920.
In 1923, believing in the amnesty declared by the Soviet government, Malsagov returned from Turkey, voluntarily surrendered to the Cheka. He was arrested and convicted of anti-state activities. In 1925 he escaped from the Solovetsky camp, in 1926 he published the book Infernal Island in England.
In 1927-1939 served in the Polish cavalry. In September, 1939, being a squadron commander, was captured. In 1944, he escaped, participated in the Polish resistance, then was abandoned by British intelligence agencies for sabotage work in France. After World War II, he worked at the Islamic Cultural Center in England, until the end of his life he remained an opponent of Soviet power.
At the beginning of the German war, the commander of the economic part of the regiment was Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Tsvimetidze. His remittances, sent by Nina Bezhanovne Tsvimetidze to Vladikavkaz, suggest that his family lived there. July 29 1915, Lieutenant Colonel Tsvimetidze was appointed commander of the 1 Battalion. At the beginning of August 1915, the Germans launched an offensive against Minsk, and fierce fighting ensued, in which Russian troops managed to hold their positions.
The German attack on the positions of the 8 Siberian Rifle Division began in the morning of August 13. 1915. The 29 th regiment was in the thick of hostilities, under heavy artillery fire. The archive contains two award sheets of Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Tsvimetidze, in which he appears to be awarded for differences in battles. The first of these recorded: Lieutenant Colonel Tsvimetidze, an Orthodox religion, has the order: St. Stanislav 2 St., received on February 18 1912 (by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the North-Western Front from February 28 1915, No. 702 was awarded for the second time with the Order of St. Stanislaus 2 Art.), St. Anne 3 Art., Granted 25 on June 1906 and St. Stanislav 3 Art., Granted by 23 on April 1898. For the current campaign by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the North-Western Front of 28 in February 1915 No. 702 awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus 2 Art. (awarded erroneously, was to receive the Order of St. Anne 2 Art., as having the Order of St. Stanislav 2 Art. for distinguishing peacetime) for his efforts to mobilize the regiment and hard work to meet all the needs of the regiment for the 4-month war period.
It was presented to the Order of St. Anne 2 Art. with swords for the fact that September 14 1915 g., commanding a battalion in the battle of der. Capes, with an energetic action, kept the enemy offensive not only in his sector, but also in the sector of the battalion next to him, to which the Germans attacked considerable forces (two battalions). By giving support to the fire, he gave this opportunity to the neighboring battalion to prepare for counteracting enemy coverage. The presentation to the award was approved by order of the commander of the 10 th army from 28 December 1915, Lieutenant Colonel Tsvimetidze was awarded the Order of St. Anne 2 Art. with swords.
The second award list states that the commander of the 1 battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Tsvimetidze, in the current campaign was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 2 Art. for the excellent-diligent service and difficulties suffered during the hostilities, St. Anne 2 Art. with swords for participating in battles from August 13 to 14 September 1915, where he showed stewardship under particularly difficult conditions.
Submitted to the Order of St. Vladimir 4 Art. with swords and bow, because in battle 9-10 March 1916, commanding the 1-m battalion, brought the company to the enemy's trenches, knocked the enemy out of them, occupied these trenches, all the time under artillery, rifle and machine-gun fire.
For this, the order of the commander of the 2 Army (pr. No. 140, 1916) for differences in battles with the Germans, Lieutenant Colonel Tsvimetidze was awarded not an order, but swords to the earlier Order of St. Stanislav 2 Art.
In January, 1917 Lieutenant Colonel Tsvimetidze was promoted to colonel and transferred to the service of the commander of the 3 battalion in the newly formed 67 SSP. He was also appointed chairman of the regimental court. In February 1917, the regimental court, under its chairmanship, sentenced Aleksey Karnauhov’s 2 gunner to a non-appearance on duty (February 4 instead of 25 January 1917 in January) without legal reason, but without a goal to completely avoid military service in the current army, to single imprisoned in the military prison on the month of 2 with transfer to the category of fined. Departure of detention in a military prison, the court decided to postpone until the end of the war, if by that time A. Karnaukhov did not deserve a forgiveness of the fine. The sentence was carried out only in the part that defines the transfer to the category of fines.
After the overthrow of the monarchy, the composition of the regimental court was determined at a general meeting of electors - officers and soldiers.
In the 67 regiment, such elections were held on 26 in July of 1917. The election results demonstrated that Colonel Tsvimetidze enjoyed great authority in the regiment: he received the largest number of votes (41 vote) and remained chairman of the regimental court.
The regimental order of 31 August 1917 recorded that Colonel Tsvimetidze sent to Smolensk for transfer to the reserve of the Minsk Military District.
A graduate of the Kiev Military School was Prince George Vladimirovich Tusiyev (Tusishvili), who began the war as a second lieutenant and head of the communications service. During the war years, he commanded communications teams, equestrian reconnaissance companies, various companies, and for several months in 1917 he was the head of teaching bombing at the 1 officer school of the 2 army.
During the war years G. Tusiev was awarded many military orders. In his submission to the award for differences in the battles 1915, written:
“Head of Communications Service, Staff Captain George Prince Tusiyev, of Orthodox faith. For the current campaign awarded the Order of St. Anne 4 Art. with the inscription “for bravery”, which repeatedly under heavy fire disposed of communications by telephone and orderlies, with the risk of his life, he carried out the instructions of the regimental commander to check communications with the combat sectors;
Order of St. Anne 3 Art. with swords and a bow, because under the enemy’s fire, on the instructions of the regimental commander, he collected information about neighboring units and went to the chiefs of the combat stations to familiarize himself with the situation and for information about the enemy, which he always performed well; Order of St. Stanislaus 2 Art. with swords for excellent courage and courage in the fights from January 27 to February 5 1915.
Submitted to the Order of St. Anne 2 Art. with swords for the difference in the battles under the city of Calvary 21-22 on April 1915, near the metro. Augment of 12 in August, near der. 13 August August, near the village 14 august arose and near the ae. (the manor's court, the manor. - AK. K.) Vizhulyany 1 September 1915 g. ".
At the end of the war, G. Tusiyev was the captain and commander of the 3 Battalion. His translations to the parents of Elena Rafailovna Princess Tusiyeva and Vladimir Zurabovich Prince. Tusiev, allow to establish the address of residence of his family: Tiflis, Moskovskaya Str., No. 18.
A graduate of the Alexander Military School was Second Lieutenant Kahiani. For differences in battles with the Germans, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne 10 Art. Of the order of the commander of the 11 Army from 1915 in February 3. with swords and bow. On the same day, Second Lieutenant Kahiani was killed in battle. Shortly after his death, a transfer was sent from the regiment to the Kutaisi District Military Commander worth 215 rubles, received from the sale of the horses of Second Lieutenant Kakhiani killed in battle to issue his mother, Maria Yakovlevna Kakhiani.
To compensate for the great losses among junior officers in Russia, numerous accelerated training courses for warrant officers were organized.
In the autumn of 1915, recent graduates Ensign Khavtasi, Yerkoyshvili, Ter-Astsaturov, Vartapetyants, Balasianyants and Musaelov arrived to recruit the 29 of the Siberian Rifle Regiment.
In March, 1916, all of them in the 29 regiment, took part in the Russian offensive in the area of Dvinsk and Lake Naroch. The purpose of the offensive was to divert German troops from the Western Front and thus alleviate the plight of the Allies near Verdun. The offensive coincided with the spring thaw, the Siberian regiments and other parts of the front failed to break through the German position.
Nevertheless, the German command was forced to stop the attacks on Verdun, transfer some of its reserves to the Eastern Front, and this had a significant impact on the course of hostilities in France.
The 29 th regiment launched an offensive on March 10 before dawn. On this day, Ensign Khavtasi was thrown off a horse by an artillery bombardment, received a concussion and a broken collarbone. After returning from the hospital, he was appointed a junior officer in the team of equestrian scouts, then became its chief, was promoted to second lieutenant, then lieutenant.
In May, 1917, Lieutenant Khavtasi, was dismissed from his post as chief of the equestrian reconnaissance team, as he was late with his return from vacation for 29 days. The regiment commander decided that the reason for the delay is not worthy of attention. As punishment, Lieutenant Khavtasi was appointed 25 as a junior officer of the 1917 Company from 6 in May. Soon he was able to get a new sick leave for a period of six weeks, in which he departed from the 14 regiment of July 1917. As evidenced by the transfers to Semyon Lazarevich and Vera Yakovlevna Khavtasi at the address: Ozurhety, Kutaisi, Jincharadze's shop, ensign Khavtasi was native of Kutaisi province.
Ensign Erkomashvili was also a native of Kutaisi province. This is evidenced by the money transfer sent by him to the address: teacher David Ivlianovich Yerkomaishvili, mountains. Ozurgy Kutaisi Province. Shortly after arriving at the front, 4 October 1915 in the battle at der. Sutskov Ensign Yerkomeyshvili received a through-gunshot wound to his left thigh, two wounds to the same leg with splinters. After his recovery, he returned to the regiment.
In July, 1916 was stolen 190 rubles from Ensign Erkomaishvili. The circumstances of the case were fairly obvious. His former batman, Pyotr Kucherenko, who had been found 200 rubles and who claimed that he had not stolen them, but had won the cards, was accused of stealing money. The commander of the regiment, Colonel Basov, considered the money taken away from Kucherenko as "the wealth of the card players to be turned over to the treasury in favor of orphans and widows." Several lower ranks were punished for playing cards. At the end of the regimental order, it was said: “I offer everyone who has a lot of money in their hands, in case of missing them, not to burden the regiment’s office with pointless correspondence. There are sure storages for labor money. ” Ensign Yerkomishvili considered such an outcome unjust, and soon after that he achieved a transfer to the Georgian Infantry Regiment.
Ensign Sarkis Daniilovich Ter-Astsaturov lived in Baku before the war. After completing the 1 accelerated course of the Tiflis school of ensigns, he was promoted to the army infantry ensigns and arrived at the 25 regiment of September 1915, where he was appointed junior officer of the company.
In a battle at Lake Naroch 10 in March 1916, Ensign Ter-Astsaturov, at the head of his half company, rushed into the enemy’s trenches and was killed in a bayonet battle. He was posthumously awarded the Order of St. Anne 4 Art. with the inscription "for courage" and produced in lieutenants.
Ensign Artashes Vartapetyants was a native of Nagorno-Karabakh. After arriving at the regiment, he was appointed junior officer of the company, then a company commander. By order of the commander of the 2 Army from 31 in January 1917, for differences in the battles with the Germans, Second Lieutenant Vartapetyants was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 3 Art. with swords and bow. From January 1917, he was transferred to the service in the newly formed 67 th Siberian Rifle Regiment. In August, 1917, Lieutenant Vartapetyants returned to the regiment from a vacation with an overdue 24 day. The regimental order states that the reasons for the delay were the illness of the lieutenant Vartapetiants and the interruption of any report on the Shush - Yevlakh tract as a result of robberies, robberies and murders.
The regiment commander considered the reasons for the delay valid, the lieutenant Vartapetyants was appointed commander of the team of equestrian scouts, in September 1917 was promoted to captain-captain. In October 1917, he was left on secondment to the regimental headquarters until the end of the liquidation of the cases of disbanding the 67 regiment and handing over the property. 23 November 1917 Headquarters Vartapetyants departed on his seven-week leave to the Caucasus due to his difficult marital status. From that time on, he was excluded from the number of regiments assigned to the headquarters.
Ensign Balasanyants Al. (Alexander, Alexey?) Grigorievich sent his transfers to Shusha and Vak of the Elisavetpolskaya province. Most likely, he was a native of one of these settlements. He began his service in the regiment as a junior company officer, then was appointed interim chief of a machine gun command.
During the March offensive of 1916, as part of his advancing company, he had to lie in water and mud under enemy attack all day, without food or drink. He was not injured, but due to illness he was among the officers sent to the hospital. By order of the 4 army commander from 3 in September 1916, Ensign Balasanyants was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 3 Art. with swords and bow. In February, 1917 was trained at the 1 officers' school of the 2 Army and in June, 1917 was seconded to the 3 of the Siberian Mortgage Artillery Division.
Warrant Officer Musaelov before the war was a teacher in the city of Elizavetpol. For merits in the field of enlightenment already during the war, he was awarded the order of the civil department of 1 in January 1916, the Order of St. Stanislav 3 Art. After the end of the accelerated course in the 1 th Tiflis school of ensigns was promoted to ensigns.
The award list in 31 of March 1916 is written: “Ensign Musayelov, Armenian-Gregorian religion, junior officer of the machine-gun team. 8-15 March 1916, during the battle, Ensign Musaela, replacing the ensign Ensign Milchevsky, took command of two platoons of machine guns.
Being in the chain to parry the blows of the Germans, was under the brutal artillery and rifle fire of the enemy, and, being stunned by the explosion of the enemy projectile, remained in service until the end of the battle;
skillfully choosing a position and moving machine guns in time, prevented the possible subduing of machine guns by German shells. I think it worthy of awarding the Order of St. Anne 4 Art. with the words "for courage." 31 March 1916 Colonel Basov.
The higher authorities decided that the military merits of Ensign Musayalov deserve a higher mark and were ordered by the commander of the 2 Army from 3 on June 1916. He was awarded the Order of St. Anne 3 Art. with swords and bow. Then he was appointed head of a machine gun pack team and was on the list of officers presented for awards for participating in hostilities from October 5 1915 to May 6 on 1916. He was introduced to the swords of the Order of St. Stanislav 3 Art. to the department.
In July, 1917, Lieutenant Musayelov finished the campaign courses at the frontline congress in Minsk, and was promoted to captain-generals. 17 August 1917, at the general meeting of the regimental, company and command committees of the 29 Siberian Infantry Regiment, captain Musayalov was thanked for his "enhanced and highly useful cultural and educational work." At the same time, the meeting sounded accusations against him because of the "propensity for monarchism." It was decided to check the validity of such allegations. However, on the eve of the historical upheavals that were awaiting Russia, the case was unlikely to continue ...
These facts indicate that Caucasian society was deeply integrated into Russian society and felt itself to be an integral part of it. The peoples of the Caucasus regarded Russia as a common homeland, their representatives were ready to sacrifice their lives in order to protect it.
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