Ataman Semenov: love that grew into a betrayal

30 August 1946 was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to execution (hanged) of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Far East and the Irkutsk Military District, marching ataman of the Far Eastern Cossack troops and military ataman of the Transbaikalian Cossack army Lieutenant Grigoriy Iykhey Miriyyyyy Miriyyyyyy Miriyi Rykhiriyyyyyy

In the past two decades, apologetic publications have appeared in the scientific periodicals on the pages of Russian periodicals, the purpose of which is to rehabilitate the leaders of the White Case during the Civil War in Russia. Among these figures, the name of the Trans-Baikal ataman Grigory Mikhailovich Semenov most often sounds.

In the life of the ataman there was everything: love for his native Transbaikalia, army, Fatherland, heroism on the fronts of the First World War, the tragedy of the period of revolution and civil war, multiplied by geopolitical ambitions - the desire to create a Pan-Mongolian state and become its leader.

But there was another period in his life — emigration, which apologists for the Transbaikalian ataman try not to mention — whether through ignorance or on purpose.

In exile, geopolitical ambitions do not leave ataman G.M. Semenova. In the first volume of the 25-volume criminal case of chieftain G.M. Semenov, kept in the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation, placed the interrogation protocol No. 1 of August 26, 1945, carried out in Mukden in the area of ​​the 6th tank army, which reveals the essence of activity
Transbaikalian ataman in emigration [1].

In Manchuria, G.M. Semenov becomes the real leader of the Russian emigration in Manchuria. He again returns to the idea of ​​Pan-Mongolism, which is fully consistent with the militarist plans of Japan. According to the testimony of the chieftain, he is in 1934 – 1936 years. He repeatedly met with the head of the Japanese military mission, Major General Ando, ​​who invited him to prepare a draft of a possible creation of a buffer state in the Soviet Primorye, where it was then planned to resettle emigrants, using both methods of ideological and violent pressure. Later, he met with the former commander of Japanese forces in China, General Nakamura, who believed that he should not be limited to the territory of Primorye and the buffer should be expanded to Baikal [2].

After meeting General Nakamura G.M. Semenov received a task from the Japanese military mission to conduct military training among the Mongols and to carry out reconnaissance activities in the territory of Outer Mongolia and Transbaikalia [3]. It was Ataman G.M. Semenov established a permanent relationship with the head of the Mongolian Federation in Kalgan (Inner Mongolia). In 1941 G.M. Semenov prepared a project for creating a unified Mongolian state, seeking to unite the Mongolian People's Republic and Inner Mongolia and considering the new education as a buffer between the USSR and Japan. On the initiative of G.M. Semenov in Khingan began to form Mongolian military units under the leadership of Japanese officers. An Mongolian officers' school was established there [4]. Immediately it should be noted that in the circles of white emigration, not without coordination with the Japanese, the question of creating a state in the Transbaikalia like Manchukuo and appointing him ataman Semenov [5] as the king was discussed. This idea was implemented in the plans of the Kwantung Army Headquarters. In July, 1941, according to Soviet intelligence, the implementation of this plan was to begin after the Germans captured Moscow, with the result that "military units of Russian émigrés under the command of Lieutenant-General A.P. Baksheyev will enter the territory of Transbaikalia from Manchuria, and anti-Soviet power will be proclaimed, headed by ataman G.M. Semenov. After this, G. Semenov immediately had to turn to Japan for military help, the Kwantung headquarters would enter its troops and begin, together with Baksheyev, actions against the Red Army. With this, the Japanese are avoiding declaring war on the USSR ”[Solov'ev 2003: 258].

In 1943, on the own initiative of G.M. Semenov prepared the project “How to resolve the emigrant issue in Manchuria and other East Asian countries” [Kuras 2003: 226]. In 1944, Major-General Akikusa, head of the Japanese military mission, proposed replacing Japanese troops in China with Mongolian forces, the formation of which was proposed by ataman G.M. Semenov.

Thus, being in emigration, ataman G.M. Semenov did not leave his geopolitical ambitions aimed at creating a Pan-Mongolian state, managing to adapt them to the great-power plans of militarist Japan.

Betrayal

At numerous interrogations, the Transbaikal chieftain tried to appear before the investigators as a Russian patriot, cheering for the fate of Russia, thinking of a post-war peace system, as an active fighter against Japanese militarism. However, the materials of interrogations suggest the opposite. So, from the interrogation report from 23 of October 1945, placed in the first volume, it appears that G. Semenov was most directly involved in the creation of the pro-Japanese puppet state of Manzhou-Go headed by the emperor (van) Henry Pu I. Back in 1928 g G. Semenov, on the instructions of the Japanese military mission (YVM), through the tutor of the future emperor Luo Ju Yu, established contact with Pu Yi and actually became an intermediary between him and Tokyo. Thus, G. Semenov was directly involved in the preparation of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria [6].

Even before the Japanese entered Manchuria, the head of the YaVM, Komatsubara, pushed aside the leader of the entire Russian emigration to the Far East, the Russian consul and the director of the pedagogical institute in Harbin Chionina. But after the creation of Manzhou-Go on the initiative of the headquarters of the Kwantung Army and personally the head of the Nuclear Weapons General, Major General Akikus, the bet was placed on Ataman G.M. Semenov, Russian fascists and Transbaikalian Cossacks. Candidate G.M. Semenov was supported by large industrialists who financed the activities of the ataman, many military émigré organizations, including the fascists [Kuras 1997; Kuras 2006; Kuras 2009].

In 1932, the Chief Bureau for Russian Emigrants (BREM) was established in Harbin, bringing together more than 50 emigre organizations [Kuras 2002: 132]. Each step of the BREM was monitored and endorsed by the YaWM [Kuras 2007; White Emission ... 1942]. This is eloquently indicated by the secret instruction “Warning on the treatment of white Russians”, addressed by the head of the Hailar special body, Suganaki Itsiro, to the head of the police department of the North Khingan province: “By order of the authorities, the leadership of white Russians, including also Tatars and Jews, is completely carried out by special bodies, in view of which, all serious measures in relation to White Russians, such as arrests, detention, etc., can be carried out only after agreeing on this wasp entrusted me with the body or its lizhayshimi offices "[Kermel 1996: 13]. According to the testimony of Ataman G. Semenov, he lived in Manchuria at st. Kakakashi and not engaged in political activities. Meanwhile, the ataman remained the spiritual leader of the Russian emigration in Manchuria, and the creation of BREM was carried out with his direct participation. This is evident from the interrogation materials of Lieutenant-General Alexei Prokopovich Baksheev from 8 in September of 1945, who stressed that G. Semenov was very active in creating BREM, met many times with representatives of YaWM and received instructions and instructions on the issue of leadership and unification of all emigration around the Bureau [7].

Testimony of General L.F. Vlasyevsky testifies that Ataman G. Semenov met in Mukden with the head of the YWM in Harbin, General Ando, ​​to resolve the issue of uniting all emigrants, creating BREM to fight Soviet power. Thus, emphasizes L.F. Vlasyevsky, “Semenov became the honorary head of white emigration in Manchuria” [8]. The significance of this step is indicated by the fact that prior to the creation of BREM in Manchuria there were more than 50 immigrant organizations that did not have central leadership. The bureau consisted of 5 departments: press and education, military training, intelligence and counterintelligence, supplies and charity. And at the head of the 1 department was the secretary general of the Russian Fascist Union (RFU) K.V. Rodzaevsky, and intelligence and counterintelligence was headed by a member of the Bureau of the RFU, MA. Matkovsky [9]. Thus, a direct link between the Transbaikalian ataman and the fascist organization is traced. Each department had a Japanese adviser. The overall leadership of the advisers was entrusted to Okachi, General Akikus, secretary-general of the JWM in Harbin. From the protocol of interrogation of G. Semenov from 27 in October of 1945, it is clear that the BREM courses were used to study the terminology adopted in the USSR, a sapper case, trainings were organized on organizing bridge blasts and collecting military information, mastering cold and firearms skills. weapons. The same protocol refers to the creation of intelligence courses by the editorial board of the fascist journal Nation, where 1934 emigrants were trained from 1938 to 200 and later abandoned in the USSR. From these materials it is clear that G.M. Semenov controlled all the activities of the Russian emigration directed against Russia.

G.M. Semenova in numerous emigre press, which cause outright disgust. He congratulates Adolf Hitler on his birthday, with his victories over European countries, and wishes success on the Eastern front in the struggle against Bolshevism. For him, the failure of the blitzkrieg near Moscow, the defeat at Stalingrad becomes a personal tragedy. In these articles, you simply do not recognize the hero of the First World War, the brave man and the shirt-guy. They show some kind of ingratiation and humiliation. It is even harder to read his memoranda to the address of the leadership of the YaBM, in which the “hero” acts as an ordinary informant.

In 1941, a pact was concluded between the USSR and Japan, which corrected the tactics of the BREM, and the RFU forced them to go underground. However, Nuclear Weapons has not changed its plans for Russia, still relying on emigration. The propaganda of the Japanese way of life was conducted through legal literary circles named after Baikov, Krasnov, A.S. Pushkin, K. Romanova. Moreover, the emigrant youth were attracted to the specially created Japanese organization “Kio-wa-kai” (Commonwealth of Nations), where they had to learn Japanese politics and ideology. The president of the organization was Prime Minister Manzhou-Guo Jan Jin Kui, and the actual leader was Kuban Army officer [10]. Ataman G.M. was closely associated with her. Semenov, who was not only the leader and ideologist of emigration in Manchuria and a connecting link of emigration and JWM, but also a conductor of Japan’s policy in the Far East. The following fact speaks about the attitude of the NMM to ataman G. Semenov, which is given in the protocol of interrogation of Lieutenant-General A.P. Baksheeva: “After the 2 of the émigré congress, the head of the JWM in Harbin gave a banquet in honor of Semenov, which showed the Japanese look at Semenov as the head of emigration” [11].

At the same time, it can hardly be said that close cooperation with the Nuclear Weapons Factory was the ideological position of Ataman G. Semenov. From the minutes of the confrontation of one of the officers of the JWM Captain Takeok Yutaki and Ataman G. Semenov from 17 in August 1946, it is clear that the Ataman had been cooperating with Japanese military intelligence for a long time, for which he received a monetary reward [12].

After lengthy bickering, G. Semenov admitted that at different times they had been given Japanese intelligence about the state of the Soviet military fleet in the Pacific Ocean, the number of submarines included in it, the construction of new railways on the territory of the USSR, in particular BAM, on the deployment of Red Army units located within the Soviet Far East, as well as materials on the Soviet consulate in Dairen [13]. In the materials of the criminal case, there are more than a dozen episodes associated with the receipt by Ataman Semenov of money from employees of the nuclear materials department.

If we talk about the political credo of G. Semenov, then he was most fully characterized by General L.F. Vlasyevsky: “A man without definite political convictions, a political dreamer with large adventurous inclinations, but by no means a man of real politics” [14].

Speaking of the relationship GM Semenov and leaders of the Russian emigration, General A.P. Baksheyev noted that he had more enemies than friends. He made a lot of mistakes on an almost national scale. But we could not oppose him, “we would be accused of treason against Japan, which, apart from Semenov, will not support anyone” [15].

Thus, the years of emigration of ataman G.M. Semenova is closely connected with the activities of the Japanese military mission in Manzhou-Guo, which created and supported for many years his image as a leader and ideologist of the Russian emigration in Manchuria. For this, the chieftain served Japan faithfully. He also covered the activities of the Russian emigration, fulfilling the unseemly role of an informant and receiving a substantial monetary reward. His work was also closely connected with German and Russian fascism. Therefore, the idea of ​​Ataman G. Semenov as a Russian patriot, a statesman and a hero is nothing more than a myth refuted by documents from the criminal file of the Archives of the FSB of the Russian Federation.

Rehabilitation is not subject to: the question of the frontier

General of the Russian Imperial Army, Chieftain of the Great Don Cossack Army, Head of the Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops of the Imperial Ministry of Eastern Occupied Territories of Fascist Germany, P.N. Krasnov; General of the Russian Imperial Army S.N. Skins; General of the Russian Imperial Army A.G. Sultan-Girey Klych; Lieutenant-General of the Red Army of the USSR A.A. Vlasov - the names of Russian officers, caressed by fate and power, on account of which many brilliant victories on the fronts of world wars. The country could be proud of them, but they preferred treachery to glory and went on to cooperate with Nazi Germany. All of them were sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR by hanging, which is a shame for the Russian officer corps. The “democratic public” of modern Russia has repeatedly attempted to rehabilitate Russian quislings. But the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized their crimes as not rehabilitable.

The Transbaikal Ataman G.M. Semenov. 4 April 1994 of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation chaired by Major-General of Justice L. Zakharov, having considered the case of “the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Eastern outskirts of Lieutenant-General of the White Army” Grigory Semyonov, decided the “Verdict of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the CCR from the 26– 30 of August in relation to Semenov Grigory Mikhailovich regarding his conviction under art. 58-10, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, cancel the case in this part for lack of corpus delicti. The rest of the sentence in relation to Semenov G.M. leave unchanged and recognize it as not rehabilitable. " That is, the ataman Semenov was dropped charges only in anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Because betrayal has no statute of limitations.

Today’s Russia is a frontier between the past and the future, between white and red; this is an attempt and a positive desire of the authorities and the public to make Russia united, as a result of which an understanding should arise that a civil war is a tragedy where there can be no heroes. But there is no betrayal in it today and there can be no place in the future.

[1] Archive of the FSB RF. Special fund. H-18765. T. 2.
[2] Ibid. T. 1. L. 35.
[3] Ibid. L. 103.
[4] Ibid. L. 105.
[5] Archive UFSB RF on RB. F. 2. Op. 1. D. 4. L. 73, 97.
[6] Archive of the FSB RF. Special fund. H-18765. T. 1. L. 95.
[7] Archive of the FSB RF. Special fund. H-18765. T. 5. L. 23.
[8] Ibid. T. 5. C. 36-37.
[9] Ibid. T. 5. L. 22-23.
[10] Ibid. T. 5. L. 101.
[11] Ibid. T. 1. L. 52.
[12] Ibid. L. 373-374.
[13] Ibid. L. 376.
[14] Ibid. T. 4. L. 190.
[15] Ibid. T. 5. L. 52.

Literature
White emigration in Manchuria. 1942. The 3 T. Chita. T. 1. Kermel L.V. 1996. White emigration in Manchuria. - News intelligence and counterintelligence (International Independent Newspaper on the work of special services), No 19.
Kuras L.V. 1997. All-Russian Fascist Party: Harbin - 30-ies. - Social and political issues stories (XVII – XX centuries). Bakhrushin 1997 readings of the year. Novosibirsk
Kuras L.V. 2002. Ataman Semenov and the Japanese military mission. - Siberia: XX century. Kemerovo. Issue 4.
Kuras L.V. 2003. Ataman Semenov in emigration. - The history of white Siberia. Materials 5-th international scientific conference. 4 – 5 February 2003 Kemerovo. C. 224-226.
Kuras L.V. 2006. Russian fascists in Manchuria in the 20-40-s of the twentieth century. - Siberia in the interwar period, the Mongolian policy. Systemic restructuring of society: 1917 – 1941
Tohoku: Tohoku University, Sendai Asian Research Center (Japan). C. 129-147.
Kuras L.V. 2007. Harbin - 30-ies of the twentieth century: The main bureau for Russian emigrants. - Siberia: the twentieth century. Kemerovo. Issue 5. C. 105-111.
Soloviev A.V. 2003. The alarming everyday lives of the Trans-Baikal counterintelligence (say the archives of the special services of the Chita region). M .: Rus, 554 with.

The village of Berezovka. Lower row (from left to right):
1 is a secret officer.
2 - Adjutant Semenova Torchinov.
3 is a personal ataman doctor.
4 - General Mayor Ogata.
5 - Ataman G. Semenov
6 - Major General Misyura AV, division commander.
7 - "Rebeca" (as it is written on the photo), Major General, in the form of "Separate Mongol-Buryat named after Zorikhto-Bator horse brigade." Most likely, this is the brigade commander Petr Petrovich Levitsky.
8 - Lieutenant Colonel, Chief of Staff of the Division General Misyura.