In the civil war against the Bolsheviks came a variety of forces. They were Cossacks, nationalists, democrats, monarchists. All of them, despite their differences, served the White cause. Defeated, the leaders of the anti-Soviet forces either died or were able to emigrate.

Alexander Kolchak

Although the resistance to the Bolsheviks never became fully united, it was Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (1874-1920) who is considered by many historians to be the main figure of the White movement. He was a professional soldier and served in the Navy. In peacetime, Kolchak became famous as a polar explorer and oceanographer.

Like other military personnel, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak gained rich experience during the Japanese campaign and the First World War. With the coming to power of the Provisional Government, he briefly emigrated to the United States. When news of the Bolshevik coup came from his homeland, Kolchak returned to Russia.

The admiral arrived in Siberian Omsk, where the Socialist-Revolutionary government made him Minister of War. In 1918, the officers made a coup, and Kolchak was named the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Other leaders of the White movement did not then have such large forces as Alexander Vasilyevich (he had a 150,000-strong army at his disposal).

In the territory under his control, Kolchak restored the legislation of the Russian Empire. Moving from Siberia to the west, the army of the Supreme Ruler of Russia advanced to the Volga region. At the peak of their success, the Whites were already approaching Kazan. Kolchak tried to pull over as many Bolshevik forces as possible in order to clear Denikin's road to Moscow.

In the second half of 1919 the Red Army launched a massive offensive. The Whites retreated farther and farther to Siberia. Foreign allies (Czechoslovak Corps) handed over Kolchak, who was traveling east on a train, to the Socialist-Revolutionaries. The admiral was shot in Irkutsk in February 1920.

Anton Denikin

If in the east of Russia Kolchak was at the head of the White Army, then in the south Anton Ivanovich Denikin (1872-1947) was the key commander for a long time. Born in Poland, he went to study in the capital and became a staff officer.

Then Denikin served on the border with Austria. He spent the First World War in the army of Brusilov, participated in the famous breakthrough and operation in Galicia. The provisional government briefly made Anton Ivanovich commander of the Southwestern Front. Denikin supported the Kornilov rebellion. After the failure of the coup, the lieutenant-general was imprisoned for some time (Bykhov's seat).

Released in November 1917, Denikin began to support the White Cause. Together with Generals Kornilov and Alekseev, he created (and then single-handedly led) the Volunteer Army, which became the backbone of resistance to the Bolsheviks in southern Russia. It was on Denikin that the Entente countries staked, declaring war on Soviet power after its separate peace with Germany.

For some time, Denikin was in conflict with the Don chieftain Peter Krasnov. Under the pressure of the allies, he submitted to Anton Ivanovich. In January 1919, Denikin became the commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic of Russia - the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. His army cleared the Kuban, the Don region, Tsaritsyn, Donbass, Kharkov from the Bolsheviks. Denikin's offensive bogged down in Central Russia.

VSYUR retreated to Novocherkassk. From there, Denikin moved to the Crimea, where in April 1920, under pressure from opponents, he transferred his powers to Pyotr Wrangel. This was followed by a trip to Europe. In exile, the general wrote a memoir, Essays on Russian Troubles, in which he tried to answer the question of why the White movement was defeated. In the civil war, Anton Ivanovich blamed only the Bolsheviks. He refused to support Hitler and was critical of the collaborators. After the defeat of the Third Reich, Denikin changed his place of residence and moved to the United States, where he died in 1947.

Lavr Kornilov

The organizer of the unsuccessful coup, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov (1870-1918), was born into the family of a Cossack officer, which predetermined his military career. As a scout, he served in Persia, Afghanistan and India. In the war, having been captured by the Austrians, the officer fled to his homeland.

At first, Lavr Georgievich Kornilov supported the Provisional Government. He considered the left to be the main enemies of Russia. Being a supporter of strong power, he began to prepare an anti-government speech. His campaign against Petrograd failed. Kornilov, along with his supporters, was arrested.

With the onset of the October Revolution, the general was released. He became the first commander in chief of the Volunteer Army in southern Russia. In February 1918, Kornilov organized the First Kuban to Yekaterinodar. This operation has become legendary. All the leaders of the White movement in the future tried to be equal to the pioneers. Kornilov died tragically during the shelling of Yekaterinodar.

Nikolai Yudenich

General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich (1862-1933) was one of Russia's most successful military leaders in the war against Germany and its allies. He led the headquarters of the Caucasian army during its battles with the Ottoman Empire. Having come to power, Kerensky dismissed the military leader.

With the onset of the October Revolution, Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich lived illegally in Petrograd for some time. At the beginning of 1919 he moved to Finland with forged documents. The Russian Committee, which met in Helsinki, proclaimed him commander-in-chief.

Yudenich established a relationship with Alexander Kolchak. Having coordinated his actions with the admiral, Nikolai Nikolayevich unsuccessfully tried to enlist the support of the Entente and Mannerheim. In the summer of 1919, he received the portfolio of minister of war in the so-called Northwestern government formed in Reval.

In autumn, Yudenich organized a campaign against Petrograd. Basically, the White movement in the civil war operated on the outskirts of the country. Yudenich's army, on the contrary, tried to liberate the capital (as a result, the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow). She occupied Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and went to the Pulkovo Heights. Trotsky was able to transfer reinforcements to Petrograd by rail, which nullified all attempts by the whites to get the city.

By the end of 1919, Yudenich retreated to Estonia. A few months later he emigrated. The general spent some time in London, where he was visited by Winston Churchill. Getting used to defeat, Yudenich settled in France and retired from politics. He died in Cannes from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Alexey Kaledin

When the October Revolution broke out, Alexei Maksimovich Kaledin (1861-1918) was the chieftain of the Don army. He was elected to this post a few months before the events in Petrograd. In the Cossack cities, primarily in Rostov, sympathy for the socialists was strong. Ataman, on the contrary, considered the Bolshevik coup to be criminal. Having received disturbing news from Petrograd, he defeated the Soviets in the Donskoy Host Region.

Alexei Maksimovich Kaledin acted from Novocherkassk. In November, another white general, Mikhail Alekseev, arrived there. Meanwhile, the Cossacks in their mass hesitated. Many front-line soldiers, tired of the war, responded vividly to the slogans of the Bolsheviks. Others were neutral towards the Leninist government. Almost no one felt hostility towards the socialists.

Having lost hope of restoring contact with the overthrown Provisional Government, Kaledin took decisive steps. He declared independence. In response, the Rostov Bolsheviks revolted. Ataman, having enlisted the support of Alekseev, suppressed this speech. First blood was shed on the Don.

At the end of 1917, Kaledin gave the green light to the creation of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army. Two parallel forces appeared in Rostov. On the one hand, it was the Volunteer generals, on the other - local Cossacks. The latter increasingly sympathized with the Bolsheviks. In December, the Red Army occupied the Donbass and Taganrog. The Cossack units, meanwhile, finally decomposed. Realizing that his own subordinates did not want to fight the Soviet regime, the ataman committed suicide.

Ataman Krasnov

After Kaledin's death, the Cossacks did not long sympathize with the Bolsheviks. When yesterday's front-line soldiers were established on the Don, they quickly hated the Reds. Already in May 1918, an uprising broke out on the Don.

Pyotr Krasnov (1869-1947) became the new chieftain of the Don Cossacks. During the war with Germany and Austria, he, like many other white generals, participated in the glorious. The military always treated the Bolsheviks with disgust. It was he who, on the orders of Kerensky, tried to recapture Petrograd from Lenin's supporters when the October Revolution had just taken place. A small detachment of Krasnov occupied Tsarskoe Selo and Gatchina, but soon the Bolsheviks surrounded and disarmed it.

After the first failure, Peter Krasnov was able to move to the Don. Having become the ataman of the anti-Soviet Cossacks, he refused to obey Denikin and tried to pursue an independent policy. In particular, Krasnov established friendly relations with the Germans.

Only when the surrender was announced in Berlin did the isolated ataman submit to Denikin. The Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteer Army did not long tolerate a dubious ally. In February 1919, under pressure from Denikin, Krasnov left for Yudenich's army in Estonia. From there he emigrated to Europe.

Like many leaders of the White movement, who found themselves in exile, the former Cossack ataman dreamed of revenge. Hatred of the Bolsheviks pushed him to support Hitler. The Germans made Krasnov the head of the Cossacks in the occupied Russian territories. After the defeat of the Third Reich, the British extradited Pyotr Nikolaevich to the USSR. In the Soviet Union, he was tried and sentenced to capital punishment. Krasnov was executed.

Ivan Romanovsky

The military leader Ivan Pavlovich Romanovsky (1877-1920) in the tsarist era was a participant in the war with Japan and Germany. In 1917, he supported the speech of Kornilov and, together with Denikin, served his arrest in the city of Bykhov. Having moved to the Don, Romanovsky participated in the formation of the first organized anti-Bolshevik detachments.

The general was appointed Denikin's deputy and led his headquarters. It is believed that Romanovsky had a great influence on his boss. In his will, Denikin even named Ivan Pavlovich his successor in the event of an unforeseen death.

Due to his directness, Romanovsky was in conflict with many other military leaders in the Dobrarmia, and then in the All-Union Socialist Republic. The white movement in Russia treated him ambiguously. When Denikin was replaced by Wrangel, Romanovsky left all his posts and left for Istanbul. In the same city, he was killed by lieutenant Mstislav Kharuzin. The shooter, who also served in the White Army, explained his action by the fact that he blamed Romanovsky for the defeat of the All-Russian Union of Socialist Rights in the civil war.

Sergey Markov

In the Volunteer Army, Sergei Leonidovich Markov (1878-1918) became a cult hero. A regiment and colored military units were named after him. Markov became known for his tactical talent and his own bravery, which he demonstrated in every battle with the Red Army. Members of the White movement treated the memory of this general with particular trepidation.

The military biography of Markov in the tsarist era was typical for an officer of that time. He participated in the Japanese campaign. On the German front, he commanded an infantry regiment, then became the head of the headquarters of several fronts. In the summer of 1917, Markov supported the Kornilov rebellion and, along with other future white generals, was under arrest in Bykhov.

At the beginning of the civil war, the military moved to the south of Russia. He was one of the founders of the Volunteer Army. Markov made a great contribution to the White cause in the First Kuban campaign. On the night of April 16, 1918, with a small detachment of volunteers, he captured Medvedovka, an important railway station, where the volunteers destroyed a Soviet armored train, and then escaped from the encirclement and escaped persecution. The result of the battle was the salvation of Denikin's army, which had just made an unsuccessful assault on Yekaterinodar and was on the verge of defeat.

Markov's feat made him a hero for the Whites and a sworn enemy for the Reds. Two months later, the talented general took part in the Second Kuban Campaign. Near the town of Shablievka, its units ran into superior enemy forces. At a fateful moment for himself, Markov found himself in an open place, where he equipped an observation post. Fire was opened on the position from a Red Army armored train. A grenade exploded near Sergei Leonidovich, which inflicted a mortal wound on him. A few hours later, on June 26, 1918, the military man died.

Pyotr Wrangel

(1878-1928), also known as the Black Baron, came from a noble family with Baltic German roots. Before joining the military, he received an engineering education. The craving for military service, however, prevailed, and Peter went to study as a cavalryman.

Wrangel's debut campaign was the war with Japan. During the First World War, he served in the Horse Guards. He distinguished himself by several exploits, for example, by capturing a German battery. Once on the Southwestern Front, the officer took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough.

During the days of the February Revolution, Pyotr Nikolaevich called for troops to be sent to Petrograd. For this, the Provisional Government removed him from service. The Black Baron moved to a dacha in the Crimea, where he was arrested by the Bolsheviks. The nobleman managed to escape only thanks to the pleas of his own wife.

As for an aristocrat and a supporter of the monarchy, for Wrangel the White Idea was a non-alternative position during the years of the civil war. He joined Denikin. The commander served in the Caucasian army, led the capture of Tsaritsyn. After the defeats of the White Army during the march on Moscow, Wrangel began to criticize his boss Denikin. The conflict led to the general's temporary departure to Istanbul.

Soon Pyotr Nikolaevich returned to Russia. In the spring of 1920, he was elected commander-in-chief of the Russian army. Crimea became its key base. The peninsula turned out to be the last white bastion of the civil war. Wrangel's army repulsed several attacks of the Bolsheviks, but in the end was defeated.

In exile, the Black Baron lived in Belgrade. He created and headed the ROVS - the Russian All-Military Union, then transferring these powers to one of the Grand Dukes, Nikolai Nikolayevich. Shortly before his death, working as an engineer, Pyotr Wrangel moved to Brussels. There he died suddenly of tuberculosis in 1928.

Andrey Shkuro

Andrei Grigoryevich Shkuro (1887-1947) was a native Kuban Cossack. In his youth, he went on a gold-digging expedition to Siberia. In the war with Kaiser's Germany, Shkuro created a partisan detachment, nicknamed the "Wolf Hundred" for its prowess.

In October 1917, the Cossack was elected to the Kuban Regional Rada. Being a monarchist by conviction, he reacted negatively to the news about the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. Shkuro began to fight the Red Commissars when many leaders of the White movement had not yet had time to make themselves known. In July 1918, Andrei Grigoryevich with his detachment expelled the Bolsheviks from Stavropol.

In the fall, the Cossack became the head of the 1st Officer Kislovodsk Regiment, then the Caucasian Cavalry Division. Shkuro's boss was Anton Ivanovich Denikin. In Ukraine, the military defeated the detachment of Nestor Makhno. Then he took part in a campaign against Moscow. Shkuro fought for Kharkov and Voronezh. In this city, his campaign bogged down.

Retreating from the army of Budyonny, the lieutenant general reached Novorossiysk. From there he sailed to the Crimea. In the army of Wrangel, Shkuro did not take root due to a conflict with the Black Baron. As a result, the white commander ended up in exile even before the complete victory of the Red Army.

Shkuro lived in Paris and Yugoslavia. When World War II began, he, like Krasnov, supported the Nazis in their fight against the Bolsheviks. Shkuro was an SS Gruppenführer and in this capacity fought with the Yugoslav partisans. After the defeat of the Third Reich, he tried to break into the territory occupied by the British. In Linz, Austria, the British handed over Shkuro along with many other officers. The white commander was tried together with Peter Krasnov and sentenced to death.

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny - Soviet military leader, commander of the First Cavalry Army of the Red Army during the Civil War, one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union.

He created a revolutionary cavalry detachment that acted against the White Guards on the Don. Together with the divisions of the 8th Army, they defeated the Cossack corps of Generals Mamontov and Shkuro. Troops under the command of Budyonny (14th Cavalry Division Gorodovikov O.I.) took part in the disarmament of the Don Corps Mironov F.K., who went to the front against Denikin A.I., allegedly for trying to raise a counter-revolutionary rebellion.

Post-war activities:

Budyonny is a member of the Revolutionary Military Council, and then deputy commander of the North Caucasian Military District.

Budyonny became the "godfather" of the Chechen Autonomous Region

Budyonny is appointed assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Red Army for cavalry and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Red Army cavalry inspector.

Graduates from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze.

Budyonny commanded the troops of the Moscow Military District.

Member of the Main Military Council of the NPO of the USSR, Deputy People's Commissar.

First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense

Blucher V.K. (1890-1938)

Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher - Soviet military, state and party leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union. Cavalier of the Order of the Red Banner No. 1 and the Order of the Red Star No. 1.

He commanded the 30th Infantry Division in Siberia and fought against the troops of A. V. Kolchak.

He was the head of the 51st Infantry Division. Blucher was appointed commander of the 51st Rifle Division, which was transferred to the reserve of the High Command of the Red Army. In May, he was appointed head of the West Siberian sector of the VOKhR. Appointed Chairman of the Military Council, Commander-in-Chief of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic and Minister of War of the Far East.

Post-war activities:

He was appointed commander of the 1st Rifle Corps, then - commandant and military commissar of the Petrograd fortified area.

In 1924 he was seconded to the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR

In 1924 he was sent to China

Participated in the planning of the Northern campaign.

He served as assistant commander of the Ukrainian military district.

In 1929 he was appointed commander of the Special Far Eastern Army.

During the fighting near Lake Khasan, he led the Far Eastern Front.

• He died from beatings during the investigation in Lefortovo prison.

Tukhachevsky M.N. (1893-1937)

Kamenev S.S. (1881-1936)

Post-war activities:

Red Army Inspector.

Chief of Staff of the Red Army.

Chief Inspector.

Head of the Main Directorate of the Red Army, chief head of the tactics cycle of the Military Academy. Frunze.

At the same time a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

He was admitted to the CPSU (b).

He was appointed head of the Air Defense Directorate of the Red Army

• Kamenev was awarded the rank of commander of the 1st rank.

Vatsetis I.I. (1873-1938)

Ioakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis - Russian, Soviet military leader. Commander of the 2nd rank.

After the October Revolution, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks together. He was the head of the operational department of the Revolutionary Field Headquarters at the Headquarters. He led the suppression of the rebellion of the Polish corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky. Commander of the Latvian Rifle Division, one of the leaders of the suppression of the Left SR rebellion in Moscow in July 1918. Commander of the Eastern Front, Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the RSFSR. Simultaneously commander of the Army of Soviet Latvia. Since 1921, he has been teaching at the Military Academy of the Red Army, commander of the 2nd rank.

Commander of the established Volunteer Army. Killed on 04/13/1918 during the assault on Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) in the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign.

Krasnov P.N. (1869-1947)

Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov - General of the Russian Imperial Army, Ataman Great Don Army, military and political figure, famous writer and publicist.

Don army Krasnov occupied the territoryRegions of the Don Cossacks, knocking out parts Red Army and he was elected chieftain Don Cossacks. The Don army in 1918 was on the verge of death, and Krasnov decided to unite with the Volunteer Army under the command of A. I. Denikin. Soon Krasnov himself was forced to resign and went toNorthwest Army Yudenich , based in Estonia.

Post-war activities:

Emigrated in 1920. Lived in Germany, near Munich

Since November 1923 - in France.

Was one of the foundersBrotherhood of Russian Truth»

Since 1936 lived in Germany.

Since September 1943 the chief Main Directorate of the Cossack TroopsImperial Ministry of Eastern Occupied Territories Germany.

In May 1945 surrendered to the British.

He was transferred to Moscow, where he was kept in the Butyrka prison.

By verdict Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSRP. N. Krasnov hanged in Moscow, inLefortovo prison January 16, 1947.

Grigory Mikhailovich Semyonov - Cossack ataman, leader of the White movement in Transbaikalia and the Far East,lieutenant general white army . Continued to form Transbaikalia equestrian Buryat-Mongolian Cossack detachment. Three new regiments were formed in Semyonov's troops: the 1st Ononsky, the 2nd Akshinsko-Mangutsky and the 3rd Purinsky. Was created military school for junkers . Semyonov was appointed commander of the 5th Amur Army Corps. Appointed commander of the 6th East Siberian Army Corps, assistant to the chief commander of the Amur Territory and assistant commander troops of the Amur Military District, commander of the troops of the Irkutsk, Trans-Baikal and Amur military districts.

In 1946 he was sentenced to death.

Yudenich N.N. (1862-1933)












Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich- Russian military leader, infantry general.

In June 1919 Kolchak appointed him commander-in-chief of the North-West. army, formed by the Russian White Guards in Estonia, and became part of the Russian White Guard North-Western government formed in Estonia. Undertook from the north-west. army second campaign against Petrograd. The offensive was defeated near Petrograd. After the defeat of the north-west. army, was arrested by General Bulak-Balakhovich, but after the intervention of the allied governments, he was released and went abroad. Died frompulmonary tuberculosis.




Results of the Civil War




In a fierce armed struggle, the Bolsheviks managed to keep power in their hands. All state formations that arose after the collapse of the Russian Empire were liquidated, with the exception of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland.




Topic status: Closed.

1. Sleep, fighting eagles,
   Sleep with peace of mind!
   You deserve it folks
   Glory and eternal rest.

   Long and hard suffered
   You are for your homeland,
   You heard a lot of thunder
   Many and groans in battle.

   Now, forgetting the past
   Wounds, anxieties, labors,
   You are under the tombstone
   Closely closed ranks.
   
   http://youtu.be/RVvATUP5PwE

2. Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich

   Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (November 4 (16), 1874, St. Petersburg province - February 7, 1920, Irkutsk) - Russian politician, Vice Admiral of the Russian Imperial Fleet (1916) and Admiral of the Siberian Flotilla (1918). Polar explorer and oceanographer, member of the expeditions of 1900-1903 (awarded the Great Konstantinovsky medal by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society). Member of the Russian-Japanese, World War I and Civil Wars. Leader and leader of the White movement in Siberia. A number of leaders of the White movement and the states of the Entente was recognized as the Supreme Ruler of Russia (although he had no real power over the entire territory of the country).
   The first well-known representative of the Kolchak family was the Turkish commander of Crimean Tatar origin, Ilias Kolchak Pasha, commandant of the Khotyn fortress, who was taken prisoner by Field Marshal Kh. A. Minikh. After the end of the war, Kolchak Pasha settled in Poland, and in 1794 his descendants moved to Russia.
   One of the representatives of this family was Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak (1837-1913), a naval artillery officer, major general in the Admiralty. V. I. Kolchak served his first officer rank with a severe wound during the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1853-1856: he turned out to be one of the seven surviving defenders of the Stone Tower on Malakhov Kurgan, whom the French found among the corpses after the assault. After the war, he graduated from the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg and, until his retirement, served as an acceptance officer for the Naval Ministry at the Obukhov Plant, having a reputation as a straightforward and extremely scrupulous person.
   The future admiral received his primary education at home, and then studied at the 6th St. Petersburg classical gymnasium.
   On August 6, 1894, Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak was assigned to the cruiser of the 1st rank "Rurik" as an assistant to the chief of the watch, and on November 15, 1894 he was promoted to the rank of midshipman. On this cruiser he departed for the Far East. At the end of 1896, Kolchak was assigned to the cruiser of the 2nd rank "Cruiser" to the position of chief of the watch. On this ship, for several years he went on campaigns in the Pacific Ocean, in 1899 he returned to Kronstadt. On December 6, 1898, he was promoted to lieutenant. In the campaigns, Kolchak not only performed his official duties, but also actively engaged in self-education. He also became interested in oceanography and hydrology. In 1899, he published an article "Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravity of sea water, made on the cruisers" Rurik "and" Cruiser "from May 1897 to March 1898."

   Upon arrival in Kronstadt, Kolchak went to Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov, who was preparing to sail on the Ermak icebreaker to the Arctic Ocean. Kolchak asked to be accepted into the expedition, but was refused "for official reasons." After that, for some time entering the personnel of the vessel "Prince Pozharsky", Kolchak in September 1899 switched to the squadron battleship "Petropavlovsk" and went to the Far East on it. However, while staying in the Greek port of Piraeus, he received an invitation from the Academy of Sciences from Baron E. V. Toll to take part in the mentioned expedition. From Greece through Odessa in January 1900, Kolchak arrived in St. Petersburg. The head of the expedition suggested that Alexander Vasilievich be in charge of hydrological work, and besides, be the second magnetologist. Throughout the winter and spring of 1900, Kolchak prepared for the expedition.
   On July 21, 1901, the expedition on the schooner "Zarya" moved along the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula, where the first wintering was coming. In October 1900, Kolchak participated in Toll's trip to the Gafner fjord, and in April-May 1901, the two of them traveled around Taimyr. Throughout the expedition, the future admiral carried out active scientific work. In 1901, E. V. Toll immortalized the name of A. V. Kolchak, naming the island and cape discovered by the expedition after him.
   In the spring of 1902, Toll decided to go on foot north of the New Siberian Islands, together with the magnetologist F. G. Seberg and two mushers. The rest of the expedition, due to a lack of food supplies, had to go from Bennett Island to the south, to the mainland, and later return to St. Petersburg. Kolchak and his companions went to the mouth of the Lena and arrived in the capital through Yakutsk and Irkutsk.
   Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Alexander Vasilievich reported to the Academy on the work done, and also informed about the enterprise of Baron Toll, from whom no news had been received either by that time or later. In January 1903, it was decided to organize an expedition, the purpose of which was to clarify the fate of Toll's expedition. The expedition took place from May 5 to December 7, 1903. It consisted of 17 people on 12 sledges harnessed by 160 dogs. The journey to Bennett Island took three months and was extremely difficult. On August 4, 1903, having reached Bennett Island, the expedition discovered traces of Toll and his companions: expedition documents, collections, geodetic instruments and a diary were found. It turned out that Toll arrived on the island in the summer of 1902 and headed south with only 2-3 weeks of provisions. It became clear that Toll's expedition had perished.
   Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak (1876 - 1956) - wife of Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak. Sofia Fedorovna was born in 1876 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Podolsk province of the Russian Empire (now the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine). By agreement with Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, they were supposed to get married after his first expedition. In honor of Sophia (at that time the bride) a small island in the Litke archipelago and a cape on Bennett Island were named. The wait dragged on for several years. They got married on March 5, 1904 in the church of the Znamensky Monastery in Irkutsk.
   Sofia Fedorovna gave birth to three children from Kolchak. The first girl (c. 1905) did not live even a month. The second was the son Rostislav (03/09/1910 - 06/28/1965). The last daughter Margarita (1912-1914) caught a cold while fleeing from the Germans from Libava and died.
   During the Civil War, Sofya Fedorovna waited for her husband to the last in Sevastopol. From there, she managed to emigrate in 1919: the British allies, who respected her husband, provided him with money and took her on Her Majesty's ship from Sevastopol to Constanta. Then she moved to Bucharest and went to Paris. Rostislav was brought there too.
   Despite the difficult financial situation, Sofya Fedorovna managed to give her son a good education. Rostislav Alexandrovich Kolchak graduated from the Higher School of Diplomatic and Commercial Sciences in Paris, served in an Algerian bank. He married Ekaterina Razvozova, the daughter of Admiral A.V. Razvozov, who was killed by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd.
   Sofya Fedorovna survived the German occupation of Paris, the captivity of her son, an officer in the French army. Sofya Fedorovna died in the Lunjumo hospital in Italy in 1956. She was buried in the main cemetery of the Russian diaspora - Saint-Genevieve de Bois.
   In December 1903, the 29-year-old Lieutenant Kolchak, exhausted by the polar expedition, set off on his way back to St. Petersburg, where he was going to marry his bride Sofya Omirova. Not far from Irkutsk, he was caught by the news of the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. He summoned his father and bride by telegram to Siberia, and immediately after the wedding he left for Port Arthur.
   Commander of the Pacific Squadron, Admiral S.O. Makarov invited him to serve on the battleship Petropavlovsk, which was the squadron's flagship from January to April 1904. Kolchak refused and asked for an assignment to the fast cruiser Askold, which soon saved his life. A few days later, the Petropavlovsk hit a mine and sank rapidly, taking to the bottom more than 600 sailors and officers, including Makarov himself and the famous battle painter V.V. Vereshchagin. Shortly thereafter, Kolchak achieved a transfer to the destroyer "Angry", and by the end of the siege of Port Arthur, he had to command a battery on the land front, since severe rheumatism - a consequence of two polar expeditions - forced him to leave the warship. This was followed by a wound, the surrender of Port Arthur and Japanese captivity, in which Kolchak spent 4 months. Upon his return, he was awarded the St. George weapon - a golden saber "For Courage".

   Freed from captivity, Kolchak received the rank of captain of the second rank. The main task of the group of naval officers and admirals, which included Kolchak, was to develop plans for the further development of the Russian navy.
   First of all, the Naval General Staff was created, which took over the direct combat training of the fleet. Then the shipbuilding program was drawn up. To receive additional appropriations, officers and admirals actively lobbied for their program in the Duma. The construction of new ships progressed slowly - 6 (out of 8) battleships, about 10 cruisers and several dozen destroyers and submarines entered service only in 1915-1916, at the height of the First World War, and some of the ships laid down at that time were already being completed in the 1930s.
   Taking into account the significant numerical superiority of the potential enemy, the Naval General Staff developed a new plan for the defense of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland - in case of a threat of attack, all ships of the Baltic Fleet, at the agreed signal, were to go to sea and put up 8 lines of minefields at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, covered by coastal batteries.
   Captain Kolchak took part in the design of the special icebreakers "Taimyr" and "Vaigach", launched in 1909. In the spring of 1910, these ships arrived in Vladivostok, then went on a cartographic expedition to the Bering Strait and Cape Dezhnev, returning to autumn back to Vladivostok. Kolchak in this expedition commanded the icebreaker "Vaigach". In 1909, Kolchak published a monograph summarizing his glaciological research in the Arctic - "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas" (Notes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Ser. 8. Physics and Mathematics Department. St. Petersburg, 1909. V.26, No. one.).
   In 1912, Kolchak transferred to serve in the Baltic Fleet as a flag captain for the operational part of the fleet headquarters.
   To protect the capital from a possible attack by the German fleet, the Mine Division, on the personal order of Essen, on the night of July 18, 1914, set up minefields in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, without waiting for the permission of the Minister of the Navy and Nicholas II.
   In the autumn of 1914, with the personal participation of Kolchak, an operation was developed to mine the blockade of German naval bases. In 1914-1915. destroyers and cruisers, including those under the command of Kolchak, laid mines near Kiel, Danzig (Gdansk), Pillau (modern Baltiysk), Vindava, and even near the island of Bornholm. As a result, 4 German cruisers were blown up in these minefields (2 of them sank - Friedrich Karl and Bremen (according to other sources, the submarine E-9 was sunk), 8 destroyers and 11 transports.
   At the same time, an attempt to intercept a German convoy carrying ore from Sweden, in which Kolchak was directly involved, ended in failure.

   In July 1916, by order of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Alexander Vasilyevich was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
   After the February Revolution of 1917, Kolchak was the first in the Black Sea Fleet to swear allegiance to the Provisional Government. In the spring of 1917, the Stavka began preparations for a landing operation to capture Constantinople, but because of the disintegration of the army and navy, this idea had to be abandoned.
   In June 1917, the Sevastopol Council decided to disarm officers suspected of counter-revolution, including taking away his St. George weapon from Kolchak - the golden saber handed to him for Port Arthur. The admiral chose to throw the blade overboard. Three weeks later, divers lifted it from the bottom and handed it to Kolchak, engraving the inscription on the blade: "To the Knight of Honor Admiral Kolchak from the Union of Army and Navy Officers." At this time, Kolchak, along with the General Staff General of Infantry L. G. Kornilov, was considered as a potential candidate for military dictators. It was for this reason that in August A.F. Kerensky summoned the admiral to Petrograd, where he forced him to resign, after which, at the invitation of the command of the American fleet, he went to the United States to advise American specialists on the experience of using mine weapons by Russian sailors in the Baltic and Black Seas into the First World War.
   In San Francisco, Kolchak was offered to stay in the United States, promising him a minecraft department at the best naval college and a rich life in a cottage on the ocean. Kolchak refused and went back to Russia.
   Arriving in Japan, Kolchak learned about the October Revolution, the liquidation of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and the negotiations begun by the Bolsheviks with the Germans. After that, the admiral left for Tokyo. There he handed over to the British ambassador a request for admission to the English active army "at least as a private." The ambassador, after consultations with London, handed Kolchak a direction to the Mesopotamian front. On the way there, in Singapore, he was overtaken by a telegram from the Russian envoy to China, Kudashev, inviting him to Manchuria to form Russian military units. Kolchak went to Beijing, after which he set about organizing the Russian armed forces to protect the CER.
   However, due to disagreements with Ataman Semenov and the head of the CER, General Horvat, Admiral Kolchak left Manchuria and left for Russia, intending to join the Volunteer Army of General Denikin. In Sevastopol, he left his wife and son.
   On October 13, 1918, he arrived in Omsk, where a political crisis broke out at that time. On November 4, 1918, Kolchak, as a figure popular among officers, was invited to the post of military and naval minister to the Council of Ministers of the so-called "Directory" - the united anti-Bolshevik government located in Omsk, where the majority were Socialist-Revolutionaries. On the night of November 18, 1918, a coup took place in Omsk - Cossack officers arrested four Social Revolutionary leaders of the Directory, headed by its chairman N. D. Avksentiev. In the current situation, the Council of Ministers - the executive body of the Directory - announced the assumption of all the fullness of the supreme power and then decided to hand it over to one person, conferring on him the title of the Supreme Ruler of the Russian state. By secret ballot of members of the Council of Ministers, Kolchak was elected to this post. The admiral announced his consent to the election and, with his very first order in the army, announced that he had assumed the title of Supreme Commander.
   Addressing the population, Kolchak declared: “Having accepted the cross of this power in the exceptionally difficult conditions of the civil war and the complete breakdown of public life, I declare that I will not follow either the path of reaction or the disastrous path of party spirit.” Further, the Supreme Ruler proclaimed the goals and objectives of the new government. The first, most urgent task was to strengthen and increase the combat capability of the army. The second, inextricably linked with the first, is "victory over Bolshevism." The third task, the solution of which was recognized as possible only under the condition of victory, was proclaimed "the revival and resurrection of the perishing state." All the activities of the new government were declared aimed at ensuring that “the temporary supreme power of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief could transfer the fate of the state into the hands of the people, leaving them to arrange state administration of their own free will.”
   Kolchak hoped that under the banner of the fight against the Reds he would be able to unite the most diverse political forces and create a new state power. At first, the situation on the fronts favored these plans. In December 1918, the Siberian Army occupied Perm, which was of great strategic importance and had substantial stocks of military equipment.
   In March 1919, Kolchak's troops launched an offensive against Samara and Kazan, in April they occupied the entire Urals and approached the Volga. However, due to the incompetence of Kolchak in matters of organizing and managing the land army (as well as his assistants), the militarily favorable situation soon gave way to a catastrophic one. The dispersal and stretching of forces, the lack of logistics support and the general inconsistency of actions led to the fact that the Red Army was able to first stop Kolchak's troops, and then go on the counteroffensive. The result of it was more than a six-month retreat of Kolchak's armies to the east, which ended with the fall of the Omsk regime.
   I must say that Kolchak himself was well aware of the fact of a desperate personnel shortage, which ultimately led to the tragedy of his army in 1919. In particular, in a conversation with General Inostrantsev, Kolchak openly stated this sad circumstance: "You will soon see for yourself how poor we are in people, why we have to endure even in high positions, not excluding the posts of ministers, people who are far from corresponding to the places they occupy , but - this is because there is no one to replace them ... "
   The same opinions prevailed in the active army. For example, General Shchepikhin said: “It’s incomprehensible to the mind, like surprise, how long-suffering our passion-bearing ordinary officer and soldier is. What kind of experiments they didn’t make with him, what kind of kunshtuk our “strategic boys” didn’t throw out with his passive participation, - Kostya (Sakharov ) and Mitka (Lebedev) - but the cup of patience still has not overflowed ... "
   In May, the retreat of Kolchak's troops began, and by August they were forced to leave Ufa, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.
   Bolshevik detachments after the defeat in the fall of 1918 fled to the taiga, settled there, mainly north of Krasnoyarsk and in the Minusinsk region, and, replenished with deserters, began to attack the communications of the White Army. In the spring of 1919, they were surrounded and partly destroyed, partly driven even deeper into the taiga, partly fled to China.
   The peasantry of Siberia, as well as throughout Russia, who did not want to fight in either the Red or White armies, avoiding mobilization, fled to the forests, organizing "green" gangs. This picture was also observed in the rear of Kolchak's army. But until September - October 1919, these detachments were small in number and did not pose a particular problem for the authorities.
   But when the front collapsed in the fall of 1919, the collapse of the army and mass desertion began. Deserters en masse began to join the intensified Bolshevik detachments, which is why their number grew to tens of thousands of people. Hence the Soviet legend about a 150,000-strong partisan army, allegedly operating in the rear of Kolchak's army, although in reality such an army did not exist.
   In 1914-1917, about a third of Russia's gold reserves were sent for temporary storage to England and Canada, and about half was taken to Kazan. Part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire, stored in Kazan (more than 500 tons), was captured on August 7, 1918 by the troops of the People's Army under the command of the General Staff of Colonel V. O. Kappel and sent to Samara, where the Komuch government was established. For some time, gold was transported from Samara to Ufa, and at the end of November 1918, the gold reserves of the Russian Empire were moved to Omsk and placed at the disposal of the Kolchak government. The gold was deposited at the local branch of the State Bank. In May 1919, it was established that in total there was gold in Omsk in the amount of 650 million rubles (505 tons).
   With most of Russia's gold reserves at his disposal, Kolchak did not allow his government to spend gold, even to stabilize the financial system and fight inflation (which was facilitated by the runaway issue of Kerenok and tsarist rubles by the Bolsheviks). Kolchak spent 68 million rubles on the purchase of weapons and uniforms for his army. On the security of 128 million rubles, loans were received from foreign banks: the proceeds from the placement were returned to Russia.
   On October 31, 1919, the gold reserve under heavy guard was loaded into 40 wagons, and accompanying personnel were in 12 wagons. The Trans-Siberian Railway, stretching from Novo-Nikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk) to Irkutsk, was controlled by the Czechs, whose main task was their own evacuation from Russia. Only on December 27, 1919, the headquarters train and the train with gold arrived at the Nizhneudinsk station, where representatives of the Entente forced Admiral Kolchak to sign an order to renounce the rights of the Supreme Ruler of Russia and transfer the echelon with gold reserves under the control of the Czechoslovak Corps. On January 15, 1920, the Czech command handed over Kolchak to the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center, which a few days later handed over the admiral to the Bolsheviks. On February 7, the Czechoslovaks handed over 409 million gold rubles to the Bolsheviks in exchange for guarantees of the unhindered evacuation of the corps from Russia. The People's Commissariat for Finance of the RSFSR in June 1921 compiled a certificate from which it follows that during the reign of Admiral Kolchak, Russia's gold reserves decreased by 235.6 million rubles, or 182 tons. Another 35 million rubles from the gold reserve disappeared after it was transferred to the Bolsheviks, during transportation from Irkutsk to Kazan.
   On January 4, 1920, in Nizhneudinsk, Admiral A. V. Kolchak signed his last Decree, in which he announced his intention to transfer the powers of the “Supreme All-Russian Power” to A. I. Denikin. Until the receipt of instructions from A.I. Denikin, "the fullness of military and civil power throughout the entire territory of the Russian Eastern Outskirts" was provided to Lieutenant General G.M. Semyonov.
   On January 5, 1920, a coup took place in Irkutsk, the city was captured by the SR-Menshevik Political Center. On January 15, A. V. Kolchak, who left Nizhneudinsk in the Czechoslovak echelon, in a carriage flying the flags of Great Britain, France, the USA, Japan and Czechoslovakia, arrived in the suburbs of Irkutsk. The Czechoslovak command, at the request of the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center, with the sanction of the French General Janin, handed over Kolchak to his representatives. On January 21, the Political Center transferred power in Irkutsk to the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. From January 21 to February 6, 1920, Kolchak was interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission.
   On the night of February 6-7, 1920, Admiral A. V. Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian government V. N. Pepelyaev were shot by order of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee. The resolution of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee on the execution of the Supreme Ruler Admiral Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pepelyaev was signed by Shiryamov, the chairman of the committee and its members A. Svoskarev, M. Levenson and Otradny.
   According to the official version, this was done out of fear that the units of General Kappel, breaking through to Irkutsk, had the goal of freeing Kolchak. According to the most common version, the execution took place on the banks of the Ushakovka River near the Znamensky Convent. According to legend, sitting on the ice in anticipation of execution, the admiral sang the song "Burn, burn, my star ...". There is a version that Kolchak himself commanded his execution. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were thrown into the hole.
   Recently, previously unknown documents concerning the execution and subsequent burial of Admiral Kolchak were discovered in the Irkutsk region. Documents classified as "secret" were found during the work on the performance of the Irkutsk city theater "Admiral's Star" based on the play by former state security officer Sergei Ostroumov. According to the documents found, in the spring of 1920, not far from the Innokentievskaya station (on the banks of the Angara, 20 km below Irkutsk), local residents discovered a corpse in an admiral's uniform, carried by the current to the banks of the Angara. Arriving representatives of the investigating authorities conducted an inquiry and identified the body of the executed Admiral Kolchak. Subsequently, investigators and local residents secretly buried the admiral according to Christian custom. The investigators drew up a map on which Kolchak's grave was marked with a cross. Currently, all found documents are under examination.
   Based on these documents, the Irkutsk historian I.I. Kozlov established the alleged location of Kolchak's grave. According to other sources, Kolchak's grave is located in the Irkutsk Znamensky Monastery.

   Silver medal in memory of the reign of Emperor Alexander III (1896)
   - Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree (December 6, 1903)
   - Order of St. Anne 4th degree with the inscription "For courage" (October 11, 1904)
   - Golden weapon "For courage" - a saber with the inscription "For difference in business against the enemy near Port Arthur" (December 12, 1905)
   - Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd class with swords (December 12, 1905)
   - Large gold Konstantinovskaya medal for No. 3 (January 30, 1906)
   - Silver medal on the St. George and Alexander ribbons in memory of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 (1906)
   - Swords and a bow to the nominal Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree (March 19, 1907)
   - Order of St. Anne, 2nd class (December 6, 1910)
   - Medal in memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty (1913)
   - French Order of the Legion of Honor officer's cross (1914)
   - Badge for the defenders of the fortress of Port Arthur (1914)
   - Medal in memory of the 200th anniversary of the Gangut victory (1915)
   - Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree with swords (February 9, 1915)
   - Order of St. George 4th degree (November 2, 1915)
   - English Order of the Bath (1915)
   - Order of St. Stanislaus 1st class with swords (July 4, 1916)
   - Order of St. Anna 1st degree with swords (January 1, 1917)
   - Golden weapon - dagger of the Union of officers of the army and navy (June 1917)
   - Order of St. George 3rd degree (April 15, 1919)

   Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky (October 7, 1881, Kyiv - January 14, 1919, Rostov-on-Don) - Russian military leader, Major General of the General Staff (1918). Member of the Russian-Japanese, World War I and Civil Wars.
   One of the prominent organizers and leaders of the White movement in the South of Russia. Drozdovsky "became the first general in the history of the White movement who openly declared his loyalty to the monarchy - at a time when the" democratic values ​​"of February were still in honor."
   The only commander of the Russian army who managed to form a volunteer detachment and bring it in an organized group from the front of the First World War to join the Volunteer Army - the organizer and leader of the 1200-mile transition of the volunteer detachment from Yassy to Novocherkassk in March-May (n. St.) 1918 of the year. Commander of the 3rd Infantry Division in the Volunteer Army.

   Service start
   From 1901 he served in the Life Guards Volynsky Regiment in Warsaw with the rank of second lieutenant. From 1904 - lieutenant. In 1904 he entered the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, but, without starting training, he went to the front of the Russo-Japanese War.
   In 1904-1905 he served in the 34th East Siberian Regiment as part of the 1st Siberian Corps of the 2nd Manchurian Army. He distinguished himself in battles with the Japanese from January 12 to 16, 1905 near the villages of Heigoutai and Bezymyannaya (Semapu), for which he was awarded the Order of St. Anne 4th degree with the inscription "For courage" by order of the troops of the 2nd Manchurian Army No. 87 and 91. In the battle near the village, Semapu was wounded in the thigh, but since March 18 he commanded a company. On October 30, 1905, for participation in the war, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav, 3rd degree with swords and a bow, and on the basis of orders No. 41 and 139 of the Military Department, he received the right to wear a light bronze medal with a bow "In memory of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905".

   General Staff Officer
   After graduating from the Academy on May 2, 1908, "for excellent achievements in science" he was promoted to staff captain. For two years he passed the qualification command of a company in the Volyn Life Guards Regiment. From 1910 - captain, chief officer for assignments at the headquarters of the Amur military district in Harbin, from November 1911 - assistant to the senior adjutant of the headquarters of the Warsaw military district. On December 6, 1911 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class. Received the right to wear a light bronze medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812". Later, Mikhail Gordeevich will also receive the right to wear a light bronze medal "In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty."
   With the beginning of the first Balkan War in October 1912, Mikhail Gordeevich applied for a secondment to the war, but was refused.
   In 1913 he graduated from the Sevastopol Aviation School, where he studied aerial surveillance (he made 12 flights each lasting at least 30 minutes; he was in the air for 12 hours and 32 minutes in total), and also got acquainted with the fleet: he went to sea on an battleship for live fire, and even went to sea in a submarine and went down under water in a diving suit. Upon returning from the aviation school, Drozdovsky again served at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District.

   Participation in World War I
   At the beginning of World War I, he was appointed Acting Assistant Chief of the General Branch of the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front. From September 1914 he was a chief officer for assignments from the headquarters of the 27th Army Corps. He put into practice the experience gained during his stay at the flight school, while flying in an airplane and in a hot air balloon. Since December 1914 - acting staff officer for assignments at the headquarters of the 26th Army Corps. On March 22, 1915 - Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff, approved in his position. On May 16, 1915, he was appointed acting chief of staff of the 64th Infantry Division. Having headed the headquarters, he was constantly at the forefront, under fire - the spring and summer of 1915 for the 64th division passed in endless battles and transitions.
   On July 1, 1915, for distinction in cases against the enemy, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, 4th degree with swords and a bow.
   “By order of the commander of the 10th Army on November 2, 1915, No. 1270, he was awarded the St. George weapon for the fact that, taking a direct part in the battle on August 20, 1915 near the town of Ohany, he reconnoitered the crossing through the Mesechanka under real artillery and rifle fire, leading the crossing of it , and then, assessing the possibility of capturing the northern outskirts of the town of Ohany, he personally led the attack of the Perekop regiment and, with a skillful choice of position, contributed to the actions of our infantry, which fought off the advancing units of superior enemy forces for five days.
   From October 22 to November 10, 1915 - acting chief of staff of the 26th Army Corps.
   Since the summer of 1916 - Colonel of the General Staff. Served on the Southwestern Front. August 31, 1916 led the attack on Mount Capul.
   In the battle on Mount Kapul he was wounded in his right hand. At the end of 1917, for the courage shown in this battle, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
   He was treated in the hospital for several months, from January 1917 - acting chief of staff of the 15th Infantry Division on the Romanian Front. As Drozdovsky's closest assistant at the headquarters of the 15th Division of the General Staff, Colonel E.E. g.i.d. Senior Adjutant of the General Staff with the rank of Staff Captain: ... not fully recovering from a severe wound, he came to us and became the chief of staff of the 15th Infantry Division. It was not easy for me to serve as a senior adjutant under him: demanding of himself, he was demanding of his subordinates, and especially of me, his closest assistant. Strict, unsociable, he did not arouse love for himself, but he evoked respect: from his whole stately figure, from his thoroughbred, handsome face, nobility, directness and extraordinary willpower blew.
   According to Colonel E. E. Messner, Drozdovsky showed this willpower by handing over the headquarters of the division to him and taking command of the 60th Zamosc Infantry Regiment of the same division on April 6, 1917 - the general revolutionary looseness did not prevent him from being an imperious commander of the regiment and in combat, and in positional conditions.
   In 1917, events took place in Petrograd that turned the tide of the war: the February Revolution marked the beginning of the collapse of the army and the state, eventually leading the country to the October events. The abdication of Nicholas II made a very heavy impression on Drozdovsky, a staunch monarchist. Order No. 1 led to the collapse of the front - already in early April 1917.
   
   The October events in Petrograd - the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and the actual cessation of the war that followed soon - led to the complete collapse of the Russian army, and Drozdovsky, seeing the impossibility of continuing his service in the army in such conditions, began to lean towards continuing the struggle in a different form.
   In late November - early December 1917, against his will, he was appointed head of the 14th Infantry Division, but soon resigned his command, taking up the formation of volunteer anti-Soviet formations.
   After the General Staff of Infantry M.V. Alekseev arrived on the Don in November 1917 and the Alekseevskaya organization was created there (later transformed into the Good Army), communication was established between him and the headquarters of the Romanian Front. As a result, the idea arose on the Romanian front to create a Corps of Russian Volunteers for its subsequent dispatch to the Don. The organization of such a detachment and its further connection with the Volunteer Army became from that moment the main goal of Drozdovsky.
   Meanwhile, in the division subordinate to him, Drozdovsky has a serious conflict with the local committee; the committee threatened the head of the division with arrest. This circumstance prompted Drozdovsky to leave for Iasi (where the headquarters of the Romanian Front was located), for which his former colleague E.E. Messner, already mentioned above, wrote out a “fake” document to Drozdovsky - an order to go on a business trip to the headquarters of the front.

   Hike from Yass to Novocherkassk
   December 11 (December 24), 1917 Drozdovsky arrives in Iasi, where the formation of a volunteer corps was being prepared, which was supposed to go to the Don and join the Volunteer Army of the General Staff of Infantry General L. G. Kornilov. Drozdovsky became one of the organizers of this corps, while simultaneously participating in the activities of a secret monarchist organization. He enjoyed unquestioned authority due to his determination.
   By February 1918, however, the front command abandoned the project to create a volunteer formation and freed volunteers who signed up to serve in the corps.
   The reason for this decision was the lack of communication with the Don and the change in the military-political situation on the territory of Ukraine (Ukraine declared its independence, made peace with the Central Powers, declared neutrality, and special permission was required for the passage of an armed detachment through its territory).
   However, Colonel Drozdovsky, appointed commander of the 1st brigade in the emerging corps, decided to lead the volunteers to the Don. Made an appeal:

   I'm going - who's with me?
   His detachment included about 800 people (according to other sources, 1050 people), most of whom were young officers. The detachment consisted of a rifle regiment, a cavalry division, a horse-mountain battery, a light battery, a howitzer platoon, a technical unit, an infirmary and a convoy. This detachment in March - May 1918 made a 1200-verst campaign from Yass to Novocherkassk. Drozdovsky maintained strict discipline in the detachment, suppressed requisitions and violence, and destroyed detachments of Bolsheviks and deserters who met on the way.
   Pokhodniki subsequently testified that, despite all his apparent simplicity, Drozdovsky always knew how to remain a detachment commander, maintaining the necessary distance in relation to his subordinates. At the same time, according to his subordinates, he became a real father commander for them. So the head of the artillery of the brigade, Colonel N. D. Nevadovsky, left such evidence of the feelings that the commander experienced immediately after the bloody battles in Rostov: ... the Rostov battle, where we lost up to 100 people, affected his psychology: he ceased to be a harsh boss and became a father- commander in the best sense of the word. Showing personal contempt for death, he pitied and took care of his people.
   Subsequently, such a paternal attitude of Drozdovsky towards his fighters already during the Second Kuban campaign of the Good Army - when he sometimes delayed the start of operations, trying to prepare them as much as possible and then act for sure, avoiding unnecessary losses, and often hesitated, according to the commander in chief, with the deployment of attacks, in order to create the most safe conditions for the Drozdovites - sometimes it even caused discontent with the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin.
   Having passed in marching order from Romania to Rostov-on-Don, the detachment occupied the city on May 4 after a stubborn battle with detachments of the Red Army. Leaving Rostov, Drozdovsky's detachment helped the Cossacks, who rebelled against the Soviet regime, take Novocherkassk. By the evening of May 7, the Drozdovites, enthusiastically welcomed by the inhabitants of Novocherkassk and showered with flowers, entered the capital of the Don Cossack Region in orderly rows, in fact, saving the Doners from the prospect of getting it from the hands of the German occupying forces. Thus ended the 1200-verst two-month "Romanian campaign" of the First Separate Brigade of Russian Volunteers.

   Division Commander in the Volunteer Army
   Shortly after the end of the Romanian campaign, Drozdovsky went to a meeting at the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, located in Art. Mechetinskaya. There, a plan of further action was developed and it was decided to give rest to the Dobrarmia - in the Mechetinskaya area, and the Drozdovsky detachment - in Novocherkassk.
   While in Novocherkassk, Drozdovsky dealt with the issues of attracting reinforcements to the detachment, as well as the problem of its financial support. He sent people to different cities to organize the recording of volunteers: so Lieutenant Colonel G. D. Leslie was sent to Kyiv. The work of the recruiting bureaus of the Drozdovites was organized so efficiently that 80% of the replenishment of the entire Dobroarmiya at first went through them. Eyewitnesses also point to a certain kind of cost of this method of recruitment: in the same cities, recruiters from as many as several armies sometimes met, including independent agents of the Drozdovsky brigade, which led to undesirable competition. The results of Drozdovsky's work in Novocherkassk and Rostov also include the organization of warehouses in these cities for the needs of the army; for the wounded Drozdovites in Novocherkassk he organized an infirmary, and in Rostov - with the support of his friend Professor N. I. Napalkov - the White Cross hospital, which remained the best white hospital until the end of the Civil War. Drozdovsky lectured and distributed appeals on the tasks of the White movement, and in Rostov, through his efforts, even the newspaper Vestnik Volunteer Army began to appear - the first white print organ in the South of Russia. From the Don ataman, General of the Cavalry P.N. the composition of the Don army being formed on the rights of the Don Foot Guards - the Don people more than once later offered Drozdovsky to separate himself from General Denikin - however, Drozdovsky, without pursuing any personal interests and alien to petty ambition, invariably refused, declaring his adamant decision to unite with the Volunteer Army .
   It is important to note that Drozdovsky, after his detachment completed the Romanian campaign and arrived on the Don, was in a position where he could choose his own path: join the Volunteer Army of Denikin and Romanovsky, accept the offer of the Don Ataman Krasnov, or become completely independent and independent force .
   June 8, 1918 - after a rest in Novocherkassk - a detachment (Brigade of Russian Volunteers), already consisting of about three thousand fighters, set out to join the Volunteer Army and arrived on June 9 in the village of Mechetinskaya, where, after a solemn parade attended by the leadership of the Dobroarmiya, generals Alekseev, Denikin, headquarters and units of the Volunteer Army, by order No. 288 of May 25, 1918 of the Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin, the Brigade of Russian Volunteers, Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky was included in the Volunteer Army. The leaders of the Dobrarmia could hardly overestimate the importance of joining the Drozdovsky brigade - their army almost doubled in size, and they had not seen such a material part as the Drozdovsky brigade had brought to the army since its organization at the end of 1917.
   The brigade (later - divisions) included all the units that came from the Romanian front:
   2nd Officer Rifle Regiment,
   2nd Officer Cavalry Regiment,
   3rd engineering company,
   light artillery battery,
   howitzer platoon consisting of 10 light and 2 heavy guns.
   
   Parts of the detachment of Colonel Drozdovsky did not stay long in Mechetinskaya after the parade, proceeding after it to be quartered in the village of Yegorlytskaya.
   When the Volunteer Army was reorganized in June 1918, Colonel Drozdovsky's detachment formed the 3rd Infantry Division and participated in all the battles of the Second Kuban campaign, as a result of which the Kuban and the entire North Caucasus were occupied by white troops. M. G. Drozdovsky became its chief, and one of the conditions for the entry of his detachment into the army was the guarantee of his personal irremovability as its commander.
   However, by this time Drozdovsky was already ready to play an independent role - those six months that had passed since the beginning of the collapse of the Romanian front taught him to rely only on himself, as well as on proven and reliable personnel. In fact, Drozdovsky already had a fairly solid, and more importantly, a very successful experience in organizational and, of course, combat work. Knowing his own worth and estimating himself very highly, which, of course, he had a well-deserved right (recognized and highly placed by General Denikin), who was aware of his own importance and enjoyed the full support of his subordinates soldered by the monarchist spirit, for whom he became a legend during his lifetime, Drozdovsky had his own personal opinion on many things and questioned the expediency of many orders of the headquarters of the Good Army.
   Drozdovsky's contemporaries and associates expressed the opinion that it made sense for the leadership of the Volunteer Army to use the organizational skills of Mikhail Gordeevich and entrust him with the organization of the rear, let him supply the army or appoint him Minister of War of the White South with the order of organizing new regular divisions for the front. However, the leaders of the Volunteer Army, perhaps fearing competition from the young, energetic, intelligent colonel, preferred to assign him the modest role of division chief.
   In July-August, Drozdovsky participated in the battles that led to the capture of Yekaterinodar, in September he took Armavir, but under the pressure of superior Red forces he was forced to leave him.
   By this time, the tension in relations between the 3rd Infantry Division and the Army Headquarters had passed into the conflict phase. During the Armavir operation of the Volunteer Army, the Drozdovsky division was entrusted with a task that was not feasible by its forces alone and, in the opinion of its chief, the probability of failure of the entire operation, due to the literal implementation of the orders of the Dobroarmiya headquarters, which overestimated the forces of the division, was very high. Being all the time among his troops, correctly assessing his own forces, as well as the forces of the enemy, Drozdovsky, guided by the words of Suvorov, “the neighbor can see better in his proximity”, after repeatedly describing in his reports the position of the division and the possibility of achieving guaranteed success by transferring the operation to a pair days and strengthening the strike group at the expense of the available reserves, seeing the futility of these reports, September 30, 1918 actually ignores Denikin's order.
   In November, Drozdovsky led his division during stubborn battles near Stavropol, where, having led the counterattack of parts of the division, on November 13, 1918, he was wounded in the foot and sent to the hospital in Yekaterinodar. There, his wound festered, gangrene began. In November 1918 he was promoted to major general. On January 8, 1919, in a semiconscious state, he was transferred to a clinic in Rostov-on-Don, where he died.
   Initially buried in Yekaterinodar in the Kuban Military Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky. After the offensive of the Red troops on the Kuban in 1920, the Drozdovites, knowing how the Reds treated the graves of the White leaders, broke into the already abandoned city and took out the remains of General Drozdovsky and Colonel Tutsevich; their remains were transported to Sevastopol and secretly reburied on the Malakhov Kurgan. On the graves were placed wooden crosses with plaques and the inscriptions "Colonel M. I. Gordeev" on the cross at the grave of General Drozdovsky and "Captain Tutsevich". The place of burial was known only by five Drozdov hikers. A symbolic grave of Drozdovsky exists in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris, where a memorial sign has been erected.
   After the death of General Drozdovsky, the 2nd Officer Regiment (one of the “colored regiments” of the Volunteer Army) was named after him, later deployed into the four-regiment Drozdovsky (Rifle General Drozdovsky) division, the Drozdovsky artillery brigade, the Drozdovsky engineering company and (acting separately from the division) 2nd Officer Cavalry General Drozdovsky Regiment.

   posthumous fate
   The solemn funeral of Drozdovsky was in Yekaterinodar. The body was buried in a crypt in the cathedral. Then, next to Drozdovsky, they buried Colonel Tutsevich, the commander of the First Drozdov Battery, who died on June 2, 1919 near Lozova from the explosion of his own shell.
   When the Volunteer Army retreated from Ekaterinodar in March 1920, the Drozdovites broke into the already abandoned city and took the coffins with the bodies of Drozdovsky and Tutsevich out of the cathedral so as not to leave them red for desecration. The bodies were loaded in Novorossiysk on the Ekaterinodar transport and transported to the Crimea. In the Crimea, both coffins were buried for the second time on the Malakhov barrow of Sevastopol, but, due to the fragility of the situation, under false names on the crosses.
   During the Great Patriotic War, the graves on the barrow, which was stubbornly defending itself from the Germans, were dug up by craters from heavy shells. The exact burial place of Drozdovsky is now unknown.

   Awards
   Order of St. George 4th class
   Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow
   Order of Saint Anne 3rd class with swords and bow
   Order of St. Anne 4th class with the inscription "For Bravery"
   Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class with swords and bow
   George weapon.
   Medal "In memory of the Russo-Japanese War" (1906) with a bow
   Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812"
   Medal "In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty"
   

   Drozdovtsy
   The name of General Drozdovsky was of great importance for the further development of the White movement. After the death of the general, the 2nd Officer Rifle Regiment created by him (later deployed into a division), the 2nd Officer Cavalry Regiment, an artillery brigade and an armored train were named after him. "Drozdovtsy" were one of the most combat-ready units of the Volunteer Army and subsequently V.S.Yu.R., one of the four "colored divisions" (crimson shoulder straps). In 1919, the "Drozdovites" under the command of Colonel A.V. Turkul distinguished themselves by taking Kharkov, in 1920 - by successful operations during a raid in the Kuban, in the Crimea and on the Dnieper. In November 1920, the core of the division was evacuated to Constantinople, later based in Bulgaria.
   

3. How Denikin pacified Chechnya.
   In the spring of 1919, an extremely unpleasant situation for the White Army developed in Chechnya. Chechnya became a hotbed of separatism and Bolshevism. General Denikin was entrusted to solve the problem. And he completed his task. Situation By the spring of 1919, an extremely unpleasant situation for the Whites had developed in Chechnya. Yes, they took Grozny on January 23, but all the same, Bolshevik propaganda was extremely strong in Chechnya and many Chechens, along with the Red Commissars, continued to resist. It was impossible to suppress Chechnya by military force alone, because the fronts were unsettled. Most of the White Army was occupied in important areas and did not have the opportunity to redeploy units. General Denikin was entrusted to solve the situation with Chechnya. The task before him was not an easy one. Time worked for the Reds, it was impossible to leave a serious hotbed of separatism and Bolshevism on fire, it was necessary to extinguish it. But how? Pushkin was killed in battle The first to try to "overcome" the Chechens, General Shatilov, he carried out several operations, but they were not successful, and Shatilov himself was wounded in battle. In his post he was replaced by Colonel Pushkin. Colonel Pushkin was killed in action. It was necessary to radically change tactics. This was done by Major General Daniil Dratsenko, who took up the matter (pictured). Given the experience of previous operations, he realized that it would be wrong to use traditional military techniques that are good at the front to suppress the enemy. He developed his own operation to suppress the Chechens. Dratsenko's Tactics Dratsenko realized that in order to defeat the Chechens, one must understand them, so the first thing he did was to find a few "experts" from among the elders, and learn from them not only the psychology of the Chechens, but also the alignment of forces in Chechen society. Dratsenko also studied the system of Chechen teips, learned that Chechen society is far from homogeneous. For the Chechens, this was not a civil war, and certainly not a people's war. It was a neighborly war. The main confrontation was between the Chechens and the Terek Cossacks. They had their own territorial and property accounts. Chechen "intellectuals" also said at the meeting that "the Chechen movement cannot be regarded as a phenomenon of Bolshevism, for the highlanders, being Muslims, are by nature hostile to atheistic communism." A certain cognitive dissonance was experienced by the "whites" when, for example, they watched through binoculars how the Bolshevik gathering was taking place, on which green Islamic flags and red Bolshevik ones flickered. For one such congress, just before the start of the Dratsenko operation, the "whites" watched through binoculars from the village of Ermolaevskaya. A memory of this has been preserved: "This case is very indicative, it characterizes the Chechens not only as good Muslims, deeply revering the truths of the Koran, but also capable of holding rallies under red flags and listening to the speeches of a representative of the godless International." The suppression of Denikin is still remembered in Chechnya. The tactic used by General Dratsenko in the battle was to literally level several villages near the Sunzha River to the ground, and then withdraw the troops back to negotiate. The first was the village of Alkhan-Yurt. The Chechens resisted, but the onslaught of the Kuban plastun battalion, cavalry and artillery was so unquestioning that the village fell. The Whites burned everything that could be burned, destroyed everything that could be destroyed, they did not take prisoners, but a few Chechens were released - so that they could tell "how it could be." More than 1,000 Chechens were killed in that battle. Denikin made it clear that he was not joking. The next day, Dratsenko attacked and burned the village of Valerik. This time the resistance was weaker. Congress On April 11, 1919, a congress was held in Grozny, at which Denikin expressed his peace conditions. Despite the fact that some demands were expressed in a very ultimatum (give out machine guns and artillery, return stolen property), the majority of Chechens agreed with them. Briggs, an English representative, was also at the meeting with Denikin. His role was limited to the fact that he assured the Chechens that "foreign countries" are on the side of the Whites (no matter what the red propaganda says). Some auls, however, continued to resist even after the congress. Tsotsin-Yurt and Gudermes resisted, but were crushed by Dratsenko with all the harshness. Denikin managed to change the balance of power in Chechnya, but in a year the Reds would come here again, and the White generals would soon emigrate. Some, like General Dratsenko, will become officers of the Wehrmacht in a little over 20 years.

The civil war became a terrible test for Russia. This page of history, which has been glorified for many decades, was in fact shameful. Fratricide, numerous betrayals, robberies and violence coexisted in it with exploits and self-sacrifice. The white army consisted of different people - people from all classes, representatives of various nationalities who inhabited a vast country and had different education. The Red troops were also not a homogeneous mass. Both opposing sides experienced largely similar difficulties. In the end, after four years, the Reds won. Why?

When did the Civil War start

When it comes to the beginning of the Civil War, historians give different dates. For example, Krasnov put forward units subordinate to him in order to take control of Petrograd on October 25, 1917. Or another fact: General Alekseev arrived in the Don to organize the Volunteer Army - this happened on November 2. And here is also the Declaration of Milyukov, published in the newspaper Donskaya Rech for December 27th. Why is there no reason to consider it an official declaration of war In a sense, these three versions, like many others, are true. In the last two months of 1917, the Volunteer White Army was formed (and this could not happen all at once). In the Civil War, she became the only serious force capable of resisting the Bolsheviks.



Personnel and social profile of the White Army

The backbone of the white movement was the Russian officers. Beginning in 1862, its social class structure underwent changes, but these processes reached a particular impetus during the First World War. If in the middle of the 19th century, belonging to the highest military leadership was the lot of the aristocracy, then at the beginning of the next century, commoners began to be increasingly admitted into it. The famous commanders of the White Army can serve as an example. Alekseev is the son of a soldier, Kornilov's father was a cornet of the Cossack army, and Denikin was a serf. Contrary to the propaganda stereotypes that were introduced into the mass consciousness, there could be no talk of some kind of “white bone”. The officers of the White Army, by their origin, could represent a social cross-section of the entire Russian Empire. Infantry schools for the period from 1916 to 1917 released 60% of people from peasant families. In Golovin, out of a thousand warrant officers (junior lieutenants, according to the Soviet system of military ranks), there were 700 of them. In addition to them, 260 officers came from the philistine, working and merchant environment. There were also nobles - four dozen.

The White Army was founded and shaped by the notorious "cook's children". Only five percent of the organizers of the movement were wealthy and eminent people, the income of the rest before the revolution consisted only of officer salaries.

Modest debut

The officers intervened in the course of political events immediately after It was an organized military force, the main advantage of which was discipline and combat skills. The officers, as a rule, did not have political convictions in the sense of belonging to a particular party, but they had a desire to restore order in the country and avoid the collapse of the state. As for the number, the entire White army, as of January 1918 (the campaign of General Kaledin against Petrograd), consisted of seven hundred Cossacks. The demoralization of the troops led to an almost complete reluctance to fight. Not only ordinary soldiers, but also officers were extremely reluctant (about 1% of the total) to obey orders for mobilization.



By the beginning of full-scale hostilities, the Volunteer White Army numbered up to seven thousand soldiers and Cossacks, commanded by a thousand officers. She did not have any stocks of food and weapons, as well as support from the population. It seemed that the imminent collapse was inevitable.

Siberia

After the seizure of power by the Reds in Tomsk, Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, underground anti-Bolshevik centers created by officers began to operate. corps was the signal for their open action against the Soviet regime in May-June 1918. The West Siberian Army was created (commander - General A.N. Grishin-Almazov), in which volunteers began to enroll. Soon its number exceeded 23 thousand. By August, the White army, having united with the troops of Yesaul G. M. Semenov, formed into two corps (4th East Siberian and 5th Amur) and controlled a vast territory from the Urals to Baikal. It numbered about 60 thousand bayonets, 114 thousand unarmed volunteers under the command of almost 11 thousand officers.



North

The White Army in the Civil War, in addition to Siberia and the Far East, fought on three more main fronts: Southern, Northwestern and Northern. Each of them had its own specifics both in terms of the operational situation and in terms of the contingent. The most professionally trained officers who went through the German war concentrated on the northern theater of operations. In addition, they were distinguished by excellent education, upbringing and courage. Many commanders of the White Army came from Ukraine and owed their salvation from the Bolshevik terror to the German troops, which explained their Germanophilia, others had traditional sympathies for the Entente. This situation has sometimes led to conflicts. The northern white army was relatively small.



Northwestern White Army

It was formed with the support of the German armed forces in opposition to the Bolshevik Red Army. After the departure of the Germans, its composition consisted of up to 7000 bayonets. It was the least prepared White Guard front, which, however, was accompanied by temporary success. The sailors of the Chudskaya flotilla, together with the cavalry detachment of Balakhovich and Permykin, having become disillusioned with the communist idea, decided to go over to the side of the White Guards. Volunteers-peasants also joined the growing army, and then high school students were forcibly mobilized. The Northwestern Army fought with varying success and became one of the examples of the curiosity of the entire war. Numbering 17 thousand fighters, it was controlled by 34 generals and many colonels, among whom were those who were not even twenty years old.



South of Russia

Events on this front were decisive in the fate of the country. A population of over 35 million, a territory equal in area to a couple of large European countries, equipped with a developed transport infrastructure (seaports, railways) was controlled by Denikin's white forces. The south of Russia could exist separately from the rest of the territory of the former Russian Empire: it had everything for autonomous development, including agriculture and industry. The generals of the White Army, who received an excellent military education and many-sided experience in combat operations with Austria-Hungary and Germany, had every chance of winning victories over the often poorly educated enemy commanders. However, the problems were still the same. People did not want to fight, and it was not possible to create a single ideological platform. Monarchists, democrats, liberals were united only by the desire to resist Bolshevism.



Deserters

Both the Red and the White armies suffered from the same disease: representatives of the peasantry did not want to voluntarily join them. Forced mobilization led to a decrease in overall combat capability. Russian officers, regardless of traditionally constituted a special caste, far from the soldier masses, which caused internal contradictions. The scale of punitive measures applied to deserters was monstrous on both sides of the front, but the Bolsheviks practiced executions more often and more decisively, including showing cruelty towards the families of those who had fled. In addition, they were bolder in their promises. As the number of conscripted soldiers grew, "eroding" combat-ready officer regiments, it became difficult to control the performance of combat missions. There were practically no reserves, the supply was deteriorating. There were other problems that led to the defeat of the army in the South, which was the last stronghold of the whites.



Myths and reality

The image of a White Guard officer, dressed in an impeccable tunic, certainly a nobleman with a sonorous surname, spending his leisure time drinking and singing romances, is far from the truth. We had to fight in conditions of a constant shortage of weapons, ammunition, food, uniforms and everything else, without which it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain an army in a combat-ready state. The Entente provided support, but this assistance was not enough, plus there was also a moral crisis, expressed in a sense of struggle with one's own people.

After the defeat in the Civil War, Wrangel and Denikin found salvation abroad. In 1920, the Bolsheviks shot Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. The army (White) with each bloody year lost more and more new territories. All this led to the forced evacuation from Sevastopol in 1922 of the surviving units of the once powerful army. A little later, the last pockets of resistance in the Far East were suppressed.

Many songs of the White Army, after a certain alteration of the texts, became Red Guards. The words “for Holy Russia” were replaced by the phrase “for the power of the Soviets”, a similar fate awaited other wonderful new names (“Through the valleys and along the hills”, “Kakhovka”, etc.) Today, after decades of oblivion, they are available to listeners who are interested in history of the White movement.

Who devoted his whole life to the army and Russia. He did not accept the October Revolution and until the end of his days fought the Bolsheviks with all the means that the honor of an officer could allow him.
Kaledin was born in 1861 in the village of Ust-Khoperskaya, in the family of a Cossack colonel, a participant in the heroic defense of Sevastopol. From childhood, he was taught to love his Fatherland and protect it. Therefore, the future general received education, first at the Voronezh military gymnasium, and later at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School.
He began his military service in the Far East in the horse artillery battery of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. The young officer was distinguished by seriousness and concentration. He constantly strived to master military science to perfection and entered the Academy at the General Staff.
Kaledin's further service takes place in the posts of staff officers in the Warsaw Military District, and then, in his native Don. Since 1910, he has occupied only command posts and gained considerable experience in leading combat formations.


Semenov Grigory Mikhailovich (09/13/1890 - 08/30/1946) - the most prominent representative in the Far East.

Born in an officer Cossack family in Transbaikalia. In 1911 In the rank of cornet, he graduated from the Cossack military school in Orenburg, after which he was assigned to serve on the border with Mongolia.

He was fluent in local languages: Buryat, Mongolian, Kalmyk, thanks to which he quickly became friends with prominent Mongolian figures.

During the separation of Mongolia from China, in December 1911. took under the protection of the Chinese resident, delivering him to the Russian consulate, located in Urga.

In order not to cause unrest between the Chinese and the Mongols, with a platoon of Cossacks, he personally neutralized the Chinese garrison of Urga.





Lukomsky Alexander Sergeevich was born on July 10, 1868 in the Poltava region. In Poltava he graduated from the cadet corps named after, and by 1897 he completed his studies with honors at the Nikolaev Engineering School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in. A military career began for Alexander Sergeyevich from the 11th sapper regiment, from where he was transferred a year later as an adjutant to the headquarters of the 12th Infantry Division, and from 1902 his service proceeded in the Kiev military district, where he was appointed to the headquarters as a senior adjutant. For the excellent performance of his duties, Lukomsky was awarded the rank of colonel, and in 1907 he took the post of chief of staff in the 42nd infantry division. Since January 1909, Alexander Sergeevich dealt with mobilization issues in case of war. He participated in all changes in the Charter related to mobilization, personally supervised the draft laws on the recruitment of personnel, being the head of the mobilization department of the Main Directorate of the General Staff.
In 1913, Lukomsky was appointed assistant head of the chancellery of the Military Ministry and, already serving in the ministry, received the next military rank of major general, and as a reward for what he had - the ribbon of the Holy Great Martyr and George the Victorious.


Markov Sergey Leonidovich was born on July 7, 1878 in the family of an officer. After graduating with honors from the 1st Moscow Cadet Corps and the Artillery School in St. Petersburg, with the rank of second lieutenant, he was sent to serve in the 2nd Artillery Brigade. Then he graduated from the Nikolaev Military Academy and went to where he showed himself to be an excellent officer and was awarded with awards: Vladimir 4th degree with swords and a bow. The further career of Sergei Leonidovich continued in the 1st Siberian Corps, where he served as an adjutant of the headquarters, and then at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District, and as a result, in 1908, Markov was in the service of the General Staff. Just while serving in the General Staff, Sergei Leonidovich created a happy family with Marianna Putyatina.
Markov Sergey Leonidovich was engaged in teaching work in various St. Petersburg schools. He knew military affairs very well and tried to fully convey all his knowledge of strategy, maneuvering to students and at the same time sought to use non-standard thinking during the conduct of hostilities.
At the beginning, Sergei Leonidovich was appointed chief of staff of the "iron" rifle brigade, which was sent to the most difficult areas of the front, and very often Markov had to put into practice his non-template strategic moves.

Roman Fedorovich von Ungern-Sternberg is perhaps the most extraordinary person in everything. He belonged to an ancient militant family of knights, mystics and pirates, dating back to the days of the Crusades. However, family legends say that the roots of this family go back much further, to the time of the Nibegungs and Attila.
His parents often traveled around Europe, something constantly beckoned them to their historical homeland. During one of these trips, in 1885, in the city of Graz, Austria, the future irreconcilable fighter against the revolution was born. The contradictory nature of the boy did not allow him to become a good schoolboy. For countless misdeeds, he was expelled from the gymnasium. The mother, desperate to get normal behavior from her son, sends him to the Naval Cadet Corps in. He was only one year away from graduation, when he began. Baron von Ungern-Sternberg drops out of training and joins an infantry regiment as a private. However, he did not get into the active army, he was forced to return to St. Petersburg and enter the elite Pavlovsk Infantry School. Upon completion, von Ungern-Sternber is credited to the Cossack estate and begins serving as an officer of the Transbaikal Cossack army. He again finds himself in the Far East. There are legends about this period in the life of a desperate baron. His perseverance, cruelty and flair surrounded his name with a mystical halo. A dashing rider, a desperate duelist, he did not have faithful comrades.


The leaders of the White movement had a tragic fate. People who suddenly lost their homeland, to which they swore allegiance, their ideals, could not come to terms with this until the end of their lives.
Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs, an outstanding lieutenant general, was born on April 5, 1874 in a family of hereditary officers. The knightly family of the Diterichs from Czech Moravia settled in Russia in 1735. Due to his origin, the future general received an excellent education in the Corps of Pages, which he then continued at the Academy of the General Staff. In the rank of captain, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War, where he distinguished himself as a brave officer. For the heroism shown in battles he was awarded the III and II degrees, IV degrees. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served further at the army headquarters in Odessa and Kyiv.
The First World War found Dieterichs in the position of chief of staff in the mobilization department, but he was soon appointed quartermaster general. It was he who led the development of all military operations of the Southwestern Front. For successful developments that bring victory to the Russian army, Mikhail Konstantinovich was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav with swords of the 1st degree.
Diterichs continues to serve in the Russian Expeditionary Force in the Balkans, participated in the battles for the liberation of Serbia.

Romanovsky Ivan Pavlovich was born into the family of an artillery academy graduate on April 16, 1877 in the Luhansk region. He began his military career at the age of ten, enrolling in the cadet corps. With brilliant results he finished it in 1894. Following in the footsteps of his father, he began to study at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, but finished his studies at Konstantinovsky for religious reasons. And already after graduating with honors from the next stage of education - the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, Ivan Pavlovich was appointed company commander of the Finnish regiment.
In 1903, he started a family, taking as his wife Elena Bakeeva, the daughter of a landowner, who subsequently gave birth to three children. Ivan Pavlovich was a devoted family man, a caring father, always helping friends and relatives. But she broke the idyll of family life. Romanovsky left to fulfill his duty as a Russian officer in the East Siberian Artillery Brigade.


An outstanding, active participant in the White movement, was born in 1881 in Kyiv. Being the son of a general, Mikhail never thought about choosing a profession. Fate made this choice for him. He graduated from the Vladimir Cadet Corps, and then the Pavlovsk Military School. Having received the rank of second lieutenant, he began serving in the Life Guards Volynsky regiment. After three years of service, Drozdovsky decided to enter the Nikolaev Military Academy. Sitting at a desk turned out to be too much for him, it began, and he went to the front. A brave officer in the unsuccessful Manchurian campaign was wounded. For his courage he was awarded several orders. He graduated from the Academy after the war.
After the academy, Drozdovsky's service was held first at the headquarters of the Zaamursky military district, and then - the Warsaw one. Mikhail Gordeevich constantly showed interest in everything new that appeared in the army, studied everything new in military affairs. He even completed courses for pilot-observers at the Sevastopol Aviation School.
and enters the cadet school, after which, having received the rank of second lieutenant, he begins service in the 85th Vyborg Infantry Regiment.
It begins by participating in battles, the young officer showed himself so well that he was awarded a rare honor: with the rank of lieutenant, he was transferred to the Preobrazhensky Life Guards, in which it was very honorable to serve.
When Kutepov began, he was already a staff captain. He participates in many battles, shows himself to be a brave and determined officer. He was wounded three times and was awarded several orders. Alexander Pavlovich was especially proud of the 4th degree.
1917 begins - the most tragic year in the life of a thirty-five-year-old officer. Despite his young age, Kutepov is already a colonel and commander of the second battalion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.
Petersburg, where he graduated from high school. After graduating from the Nikolaev Engineering School, with the rank of second lieutenant, he begins his military career in the 18th sapper battalion. Every two years, Marushevsky receives another military rank for excellent service. In the same years he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy at the General Staff.
By the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he was already a captain and chief officer for especially important assignments. He served at the headquarters of the IV Siberian Army Corps. During the hostilities, Marushevsky was quickly promoted for his courage.