Pyotr Wrangel is one of the most controversial figures of the White movement. Until the end of his life, he waged both open and "secret" war against the Bolsheviks, their agents abroad and the false organization "Trust".

black baron

Of all the leaders of the White movement, Baron Wrangel was almost the only one who combined the qualities of a military man and a manager, a general and an official. He came from an old noble family, which gave Russia a whole galaxy of talented military men, pioneers and successful businessmen, who was the father of Pyotr Nikolaevich, Nikolai Yegorovich Wrangel. He predicted a secular career for his eldest son, who, however, did not show much interest in military activities and was safely listed as a cornet of the guard in reserve.

Everything changed during the Russo-Japanese War, when the young baron voluntarily took up the saber and never let it go. The bloody Russo-Japanese War brought awards for bravery and "distinction in deeds against the Japanese", "Saint George" for a crazy cavalry attack near Kashen during the First World War, which was supposed to end in defeat, but ended in complete victory and the capture of the enemy battery. Then the Civil War, the birth of the "black baron" and long years fruitless labors in exile.

Pyotr Wrangel received the nickname "black baron" due to his invariable habit of wearing a black Cossack Circassian coat. It was replicated with the lines of the song “The Red Army is the strongest of all”, became a household word and for a long time was an allegory of world evil, the enemy of the people No. And he himself complained far from few. It is he who owns the famous phrase: "Though with the devil, but against the Bolsheviks."

The Case of the Annulled Amnesty and the Missing Manifesto

Under the command of Peter Nikolaevich were small, but still powerful remnants of his army. And he was going to keep them, by all means, even if he sacrificed moral principles.

On November 8, 1920, the White troops lost the battle for the Crimea - numerous Frunze troops broke through to the territory of the peninsula. This was followed on the radio by an offer of voluntary surrender and amnesty: “for all offenses connected with the civil strife,” which at that time was a popular practice of the Soviets, which allowed replenishing the Red Army with valuable personnel. However, the appeal did not reach the soldiers. Wrangel ordered the closure of all radio stations, except for one served by officers. The lack of an answer was taken by the Soviet side as an obvious refusal, and the amnesty proposal was cancelled.

The manifesto of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, sent to Wrangel twice, also disappeared without a trace: by mail and with an opportunity. The second son of Vladimir Alexandrovich, the third son of Alexander II, declaring himself guardian of the throne of the absent Emperor Nicholas II (the fate of the imperial family was unknown at that time), offered Wrangel "profitable cooperation." It consisted in organizing a new open confrontation with the Bolsheviks with the help of the remnants of the White Army. It would seem, what else could dream of sitting in exile white general struggling to find political power capable of fighting the Bolsheviks.

However, the reputation of Kirill Vladimirovich was very doubtful. Not only was his marriage to his cousin, the Catholic Victoria Melita, not recognized by Nicholas II, who seriously intended to deprive the “possible” heir of the rights to the throne, he was also the first to support the February Revolution of 1917. But the main reason for the refusal, of course, was not an old resentment, but the short-sightedness of the prince. Wrangel understood that the slogans “for the restoration of the empire” would not be supported by the Republicans who fought for Denikin. This means that the forces may not be enough. Therefore, referring to the non-receipt of the manifesto, which had already disappeared without a trace twice, Pyotr Nikolayevich refused the new guardian of the throne.

However, the story didn't end there. The White Army of Wrangel was too tasty a morsel to simply give it up. On August 31, 1924, the self-named "guardian" declared himself the All-Russian Emperor Kirill I. Thus, the army automatically passed under his command, since formally it was subordinate to the emperor. But the next day the army was gone - it was disbanded by Wrangel himself, and in its place appeared the Russian All-Military Union, headed by Pyotr Wrangel. Oddly enough, but the ROVS exists, to this day, following the same principles of 1924.

Party with a fake ally. Operation "Trust"

The Wrangel formations caused serious concern among the Soviet command. "Special people" began to come for Denikin's successor. So, in the fall of 1923, Yakov Blumkin, the murderer of the German ambassador Mirbach, knocked on his door.

The Chekists posed as French cameramen, whom Wrangel had previously agreed to pose for. The box imitating the camera was filled to the brim with weapons, an additional one - the Lewis machine gun was hidden in a case from a tripod.

But the conspirators immediately made a serious mistake - they knocked on the door, which was completely unacceptable both in Serbia, where the action took place, and in France, where they switched to doorbells a long time ago. The guards rightly considered that only people who had come from Soviet Russia, and the gate, just in case, was not opened.

A more serious opponent turned out to be the false monarchist organization "Trust", whose tasks were to infiltrate the emigrant elite, find out their plans, make a split in their midst, and eliminate key representatives of the white movement. Assurances that counter-revolutionary forces are gaining strength in the new Russia, and that a retaliatory blow will soon be struck, “bought” many: Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, on whom Peter Wrangel relied, thirsty for the activities of General Alexander Kutepov, who began to send his people to Petrograd, Socialist-Revolutionary Boris Savinkov. Even the famous British intelligence officer Sydney Reilly, the "king of espionage" and the future prototype of James Bond, could not figure out the enemy in time, and was executed at the Lubyanka.

But Wrangel immediately suspected something was wrong, doubting the very possibility of the existence of counter-revolutionary forces in Russia at that time, during the rampant red terror. For the final test, the black baron sent "home" his man, a brave monarchist and best friend of General Vasily Shulgin, who sought to find his missing son. "Trust" promised to assist. Shulgin traveled around NEP Russia for three months, describing everything he saw. His impressions are set forth in the book "Three Capitals", which was published in a huge edition. In it, he talked about the number of dissatisfied with the Soviet government. Allegedly prominent Soviet figures constantly came to him and talked about how nice it would be to "bring everything back."

The trump card of the "black baron"

But Wrangel's people followed his movements in the USSR and found out that all his interesting fellow travelers and representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia were career Chekists. However, the baron was in no hurry to share his discoveries. Only after the cessation of funding by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, who preferred to invest in the senseless terrorist attacks of Kutepov, and the subsequent refusal of the British government to help, did Pyotr Wrangel decide on an open speech.

On October 8, 1927, in the magazine Illustrated Russia, which is popular abroad, an article by the journalist Burtsev about Shulgin's journey is published, under the telling title "In the networks of the GPU." Burtsev wrote:

“The provocateurs knew that V.V. Shulgin would write memoirs about his trip to Russia, and they expressed to him the fear that he, not familiar with the conditions of Russian life, would not make any hints in the book that would help the GPU decipher his journey. Therefore, they asked that before printing his memoirs, he would give them the opportunity to look through the manuscript of his book. V. V. Shulgin, of course, agreed to this and, thus, his memoirs were edited in Moscow at the GPU before printing.

Almost a month later, in the same publication, an interview was also published by the “black baron”, where he recalled the “merits” of Nikolai Nikolayevich and Alexander Kutepov, who, by their actions, deprived the white movement of the last chances for existence: “The methods of the GPU, unprecedented in their monstrosity, lulled many. Is it because the incompetent commander lost the battle, throwing his units on the offensive, not carrying out proper reconnaissance, not providing this offensive with the proper forces and means, should we conclude that the eternal principle “only an offensive ensures victory” is wrong? Work in Russia is necessary and possible. The world is beginning to understand that Bolshevism is not only a Russian, but a worldwide evil, that the fight against this evil is a common cause. Healthy forces are maturing and strengthening within Russia. Despite all the trials I have experienced, I look to the future with confidence.”

Of course, such an unexpected death, which came for the general in the midst of his counter-revolutionary activities, could not but cause rumors and rumors about the elimination of Wrangel by agents of the OGPU. The Parisian newspaper Eco de Raris was the first to announce this the day after his death: “very persistent rumors circulate that General Wrangel was poisoned, that he allegedly “recently told one of his friends that he should have taken extreme take precautions with regard to his diet, as he fears poisoning."

This point of view was supported by members of the Wrangel family. According to their version, the "poisoner" was an unknown guest who stayed at the Wrangel's house on the eve of his illness. Allegedly, this was the brother of the orderly Yakov Yudikhin, who was under the general. A sudden relative, whose presence the soldier had not previously spoken of, was a sailor on a Soviet merchant ship that was stationed in Antwerp.

The reasons for such a sudden death of the "black baron", as the communists called him, or the "white knight" (in the memoirs of his white comrades-in-arms) remain a mystery.

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Lieutenant General,
baron Petr Nikolaevich Wrangell.

Wrangel Petr Nikolaevich, baron (1878 - 1928). native of noble family Swedish origin, he studies as a mining engineer, then enters the military service, participates in the Russo-Japanese War, and later, already during the First World War, distinguished himself in East Prussia and Galicia. After October revolution , refusing to go to the service of the Ukrainian hetman Skoropadsky, who is supported by the Germans, he joins the Volunteer Army. AT April 1920 he becomes the successor Denikin when he, having retreated to the Crimea, leaves the command of the white army. Taking advantage of the outbreak of war with Poland to regroup his troops, Wrangel goes on the offensive in Ukraine and forms a government that France recognizes. In the autumn of the same year, pressed by the Red Army (which had a free hand after the armistice with Poland), he retreated to the Crimea and in November 1920 organized the evacuation to Constantinople of 140 thousand military and civilians. Having settled with his headquarters and part of the troops, first in Turkey, then in Yugoslavia , he refuses to continue the armed war and moves to Belgium, where he dies in 1928.

Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich (15.8.1878, Novo-Aleksandrovsk, now Zarasai Lit. SSR, -25.4.1928, Brussels), lieutenant general of the Russian. army (1917), one of the leaders of the southern. counter-revolution during the Civil. wars and military interventions in Russia. Graduated from the Mining Institute (1901), Military. Academy of the General Staff (1910). In 1902, being a volunteer, he was promoted to officer. Member of Russian-Japanese. and the 1st World Wars, commanded the cavalry. body. After Oct. Revolution fled to the Crimea and in August. 1918 entered the Denikin volunteer army, was com-rum kav. divisions, then corps. In the spring of 1919 he headed the White Guard. Caucasian army, in Dec. 1919 - Jan. 1920 teams. Volunteer army. Ambition, careerism, the desire to advance to a leading role in the White Guard movement led V. to conflict with the leader of the south. counter-revolutionaries A. I. Denikin, who sent him abroad. In Apr. 1920, at the insistence of the Entente, V. was appointed commander-in-chief of the so-called. Russian army in Crimea. Undertook a political, economic and military measures to save the remnants of the south. counter-revolutions (see Wrangelism). In 1920 the army of V. was defeated by the Soviets. With the army, V. himself, together with part of his troops, fled abroad. In 1924 he created a right-wing monarchist in France. Rus. All-Military Union (ROVS), led an active anti-Sov. activity.

Used materials of the Soviet military encyclopedia in 8 volumes, volume 2.

Captain Wrangel Petr Nikolaevich,
student of the General Staff Academy. 1908

Was poisoned by Koch's wand

WRANGEL Petr Nikolaevich (08/15/1878-04/25/1928). Colonel (12/12/1914). Major General (01/13/1917). Lieutenant General (11/22/1918). He graduated from the Mining Institute (1901), the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1910) and the course of the Cavalry Officer School (1911). Member of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905: in the 2nd Verkhneudinsky and 2nd Argun Cossack regiments. Member of the First World War: squadron commander of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, 05.1912 - 09.1914; chief of staff of the consolidated cavalry division, 09-12.1914; in the retinue (adjutant) of Emperor Nicholas II, 12.1914 - 10.1915; commander of the 1st Nerchinsk regiment, 10.1915-12.1916; Commander of the 2nd Ussuri Brigade mounted divisions, 12.1916-01.1917; commander of the 7th Cavalry Division, 01 - 07.1917; from 07/10/1917 commander of the Consolidated Cavalry Corps, 07 - 09.1917. Resigned command of the 3rd cavalry corps, 09.1917; left for the Crimea (outside the army), 10.1917 - 07.1918. In the White movement: from 08/28/1918 brigade commander of the 1st cavalry division and from 08/31/1918 - commander of the 1st cavalry division; 08-11.1918; commander of the 1st cavalry corps, 11.1918 - 01.1919. By agreement between Generals Denikin and Krasnov, on December 26, 1918, a unified command of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR) was formed, which included both the Volunteer Army and the Don Army under the general Command of General Denikin. At the same time, General Wrangel was appointed commander of the Volunteer (Caucasian) Army, replacing General Denikin in this post, 01-08.05.1919. Was ill with typhus 02-03.1919. Commander of the Caucasian Army VSYUR, 05/08-12/04/1919. Commander of the Volunteer Army, 12/4/1919-01/02/1920. On behalf of Denikin, he was seconded to the Kuban to form new divisions, 12/22-29/1919. Departed for Constantinople (Turkey) from Crimea on 01/14/1920. In exile (Turkey) due to disagreements with Denikin on February 28 - March 20, 1920. On March 23, 1920, he took command of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSUR), replacing Denikin by decision (voting) of the Military Council in the Crimea convened to resolve this issue. Commander of the VSYUR, 03.23-11.05.1920. On April 28, 1920, he reorganized the former Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR) into the Russian Army. Commander of the Russian Army (Crimea, Novorossia, Northern Tavria), 04/28 - 11/17/1920. Evacuated from Crimea on 11/17/1920. In exile: from 11.1920 - Turkey, from 1922 - Yugoslavia and from 09.1927 - Belgium. 09/01/1924 created the Russian All-Military Union - ROVS, which united the former Russian military of all branches of the White and Russian armies. Died 04/25/1928 in Brussels (Belgium), buried in Belgrade, Serbia.
According to one version, supported by his daughter (1992), General Wrangel was killed (poisoned with Koch's wand) by his former batman, an NKVD agent, who visited him 10 days before Wrangel's death. After this visit, Wrangel suddenly fell ill with severe tuberculosis and the sharpest form, with which he had never been ill before (the daughter suggests that the former batman managed to plant artificial deadly poisonous bacteria created in the special laboratories of the NKVD in Wrangel's food).

Used materials of the book: Valery Klaving, The Civil War in Russia: White Armies. Military History Library. M., 2003.

Wrangel at the staff train, Tsaritsyn 1919.

"Combat work is his vocation"

Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich (1878 - 1928, Brussels) - military leader, one of the leaders of the counter-revolution. Descended from hereditary nobles of St. Petersburg, lips. Wrangel's father was the director insurance company in Rostov-on-Don. Here Wrangel spent his childhood and youth. He studied at first at home, then at the Rostov real school, and completed his secondary education in St. Petersburg, where he entered the Mining Institute, which he graduated in 1901. He went to the military service as a volunteer in 1902, passed the exam for an officer rank and, having retired, he went to Irkutsk as an official for special assignments under the Governor-General. In Siberia, Wrangel was caught by the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, to which he volunteered. His colleague General P.N. Shatilov recalled this period of Wrangel's life: "He instinctively felt that wrestling was his element, and combat work was his vocation." After the end of the war, Wrangel studied at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, graduating in 1910. In 1911 he took a course at the Cavalry Officer School and the next year became commander of the Life Guards Horse Regiment. With the outbreak of the First World War on 6 Aug. 1914 near the village of Kaushen attacked the German battery in the equestrian formation and captured it, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. He commanded a regiment, brigade, division and was promoted to major general. He was appointed to command the 3rd Cavalry Corps, but, according to his "track record", "due to the Bolshevik coup, he refused to serve the enemies of the Motherland and did not take command of the corps." Wrangel went to the Crimea, then to the Don, where he joined the Volunteer Army. In Wrangel he became commander of the Caucasian Volunteer Army, but when the Whites began to suffer defeats at the end of the year, relations between Wrangel and A.I. Denikin who differently understood the priority military tasks. In 1920, Wrangel became commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces in southern Russia, made an unsuccessful attempt to create a state in the Crimea ( Government of the South of Russia), in which reforms would be carried out that would make it possible to fight the Bolsheviks with an example of a better social order. As a result of the agrarian reform, the peasants received the right of personal ownership of the land they used, and they could also purchase part of the landowner's land for redemption (a fifth of the annual harvest for 25 years). Considering that the land was already in fact in the hands of the peasants, and the payments were onerous, the law caused discontent among the peasants. The "reform of local self-government" did not work either. The most difficult economic situation in Crimea, forced requisitions from the population, lack of support from peasants, Cossacks, workers, etc. led Wrangel, regardless of his personal aspirations, to collapse. After 8 months, the Crimean state ceased to exist. After the breakthrough of the Red Army through Perekop in 1920, Wrangel, together with the remnants of the army, fled from the Crimea to Turkey. In 1921 - 1927, Wrangel, while remaining commander in chief, lived in the town of Sremski Karlovtsy in Serbia, where he wrote notes on the civil war in southern Russia (Memoirs of General Baron P.N. Wrangel. M., 1992.). A staunch monarchist, Wrangel represented the right wing of the Russian emigration, was the creator of the Russian All-Military Union, whose goal was to preserve officer cadres for future struggle.

Used materials of the book: Shikman A.P. Figures of national history. Biographical guide. Moscow, 1997

General P.N. Wrangel, chairman of the civil government of Crimea A.V. Krivoshein and General P.N. Shatilov. 1920

white guard

Wrangel Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich (1878-1928) - Lieutenant General of the General Staff. He graduated from the Rostov Real School and the Mining Institute of Empress Catherine II in St. Petersburg. He entered the service on September 1, 1891 as a private in the Life Guards Horse Regiment. In 1902, he passed the test for the cornet of the guard at the Nikolaev Cavalry School and, by order of October 12, he was promoted to cornet with enrollment in the reserve. During the Russo-Japanese War, at his own request, he was assigned to the 2nd Verkhneudinsk Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army. In December 1904, he was promoted to centurion - "for distinction in cases against the Japanese" and was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 4th degree with the inscription "For Bravery" and St. Stanislav with swords and a bow. On January 6, 1906, he was transferred to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment and promoted to headquarters captain. March 26, 1907 - transferred to the Life Guards "Horse Regiment as a lieutenant. In 1910 he graduated from the course at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, but remained "of his own free will" to serve in the ranks of his Life Guards Horse Regiment 1). In 1913 - Captain and squadron commander Knight of St. George - for capturing a German battery in cavalry, in accordance with the order of the 1st Army of August 30, 1914. In September 1914 he was appointed assistant commander of the regiment. He was awarded the St. George weapon. December 12, 1914 In October 1915, he was appointed commander of the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army, and on December 16, 1916, commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri Cavalry Division. majors and temporarily took command of the Ussuri Cavalry Division. On July 9, 1917, he was appointed commander of the 7th Cavalry Division, and the next day, July 10, - commander of the consolidated cavalry corps. For covering the retreat of infantry to whether on the Zbruch River, during the Tarnopol breakthrough of the Germans in July 1917, by the decision of the Duma of the parts of the consolidated corps, he was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross of the 4th degree. On September 9, 1917, he was appointed commander of the 3rd cavalry corps, but did not take command.

He arrived in the Volunteer Army on August 25, 1918. On August 28 he was appointed commander of a brigade in the 1st Cavalry Division, on August 31 - temporary commander, and on October 31 - chief. On November 15, 1918 he was appointed commander of the 1st cavalry corps and on November 22 of the same year he was promoted to lieutenant general - "for military distinctions." On December 26, 1918, at the Torgovaya station, General Denikin met with Don Ataman General Krasnov, at which it was recognized as necessary to introduce a single command and subordinate the Don Army to General Denikin. By virtue of this decision, on December 26, 1918 (January 8, 1919), General Denikin became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia (VSYUR). Thus, the post of Commander of the Volunteer Army was vacated. Already on December 27, 1918, General Wrangel was appointed to the post of Commander of the Volunteer Army. On January 10, 1919, in connection with the division of the Volunteer Army into the Crimean-Azov General Borovsky and the Caucasian, General Wrangel was appointed commander of the Caucasian Volunteer Army. On the same day, January 10, 1919, General Wrangel gave an order to the Caucasian Volunteer Army, in which he noted the valor of the 1st Cavalry Corps and other troops, thanks to which the Kuban and Stavropol province were liberated, and set the task of liberating the Terek. At the end of January 1919, General Wrangel fell ill with severe typhus. At this time and the commander of the army, his chief of staff, General Yuzefovich, on the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic, transferred the main parts of the Caucasian Volunteer Army to the Donbass. At the end of March, having recovered from his illness, General Wrangel arrived in Yekaterinodar and found that the main volunteer regiments had been reduced to the corps of General Mai-Maevsky and were fighting hard in the coal basin. In this regard, on April 4, 1919, he submitted a secret report to General Denikin with a proposal to consider "our main and only operational direction - the direction to Tsaritsyn, which makes it possible to establish direct contact with the army of Admiral Kolchak." General Denikin did not agree with this proposal of General Wrangel, because he considered the shortest line to Moscow through Kharkov - Orel - Tula as the main direction for the offensive. It was from this time that serious disagreements began between General Wrangel and General Denikin, which later turned into a painful conflict. On April 24, 1919, in a letter from the Chief of Staff of the All-Russian Union of Youth, General Romanovsky, General Wrangel was asked to take command of the new Kuban Army, to rename the Caucasian Volunteer Army simply to Dobrovolcheskaya, and to appoint General Mai-Maevsky as commander. Initially, General Wrangel refused this proposal, but when the offensive of the 10th Red Army from the Grand Duke to the Trade began, threatening the rear of the Volunteer Army, General Wrangel agreed to the insistent request of Generals Denikin and Romanovsky to take command of a group of troops, composed mainly of cavalry corps , to repel the offensive of the 10th Red Army under the command of Yegorov. On May 2, 1920, a fierce battle began near Velikoknyazheskaya, during which General Wrangel personally led his troops on the attack, inflicted a decisive defeat on the 10th Red Army and forced it to hastily retreat to Tsaritsyn.

After the battle of Velikoknyazheskaya, General Wrangel remained in command of the Caucasian army, which now included mainly the Kuban units. On May 8, 1920, General Denikin, Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation, ordered General Wrangel to capture Tsaritsyn. On June 18, General Wrangel captured Tsaritsyn, and on June 20, Commander-in-Chief General Denikin arrived at Tsaritsyn, who then gave the order with his famous "Moscow Directive". According to this directive, General Wrangel was asked to go to the Saratov-Balashov front and then advance on Moscow through Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir. At the same time, General Mai-Maevsky was ordered to advance on Moscow in the direction of Kursk - Orel - Tula. General Wrangel considered the "Moscow Directive" "a death sentence for the armies of the South of Russia." There was no maneuver in it and the dispersion of forces was allowed. At this time (that is, at the end of June 1919, when the armies of Admiral Kolchak were retreating), General Wrangel suggested to General Denikin "to concentrate a large cavalry mass in 3-4 corps in the Kharkov region" and to operate with this cavalry mass in the shortest direction to Moscow, together with Volunteer corps of General Kutepov. However, all these proposals were ignored, and only when the complete failure of General Mai-Maevsky and the catastrophic situation on the front of the Volunteer Army was revealed, General Wrangel on November 26, 1919 was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army and commander-in-chief of the Kharkov region. Due to the deep breakthrough of Budyonny's cavalry and the lack of a sufficient number of combat-ready cavalry in the Volunteer Army, General Wrangel, in a report dated December 11, 1919, proposed to withdraw the right group of the army to the line of the Mius River - Novocherkassk, and the left - to the Crimea. General Denikin did not agree with this, since he believed that the Volunteer Army should in no case break away from the Don Army. On the same day, December 11, a meeting was held in Rostov between the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation and the commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin, and with the commander of the Volunteer Army, General Wrangel. At this meeting, the Commander-in-Chief announced his decision to bring the Volunteer Army into a separate Volunteer Corps and operationally subordinate it to the commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin. General Wrangel was entrusted with the formation of new Cossack corps in the Kuban and Terek. On December 21, 1919, General Wrangel gave a farewell order to the Volunteer Army and left for Yekaterinodar, where he discovered that the same task of mobilizing the Cossacks had been entrusted to the Commander-in-Chief, General Shkuro. On December 26, 1920, General Wrangel arrived in Bataysk, where the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief was located, and received an order to go to Novorossiysk and organize its defense. However, soon an order came to appoint General Lukomsky as Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Region. Finding himself out of work, General Wrangel settled in the Crimea, where he had a dacha. On January 14, 1920, he unexpectedly received from General Schilling, who had left Odessa and arrived in Sevastopol, an offer to accept the position of his assistant in the military unit. Negotiations on this issue with the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief dragged on. Many public figures, as well as General Lukomsky and the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Nenyukov and his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Bubnov, suggested appointing General Wrangel to the place of General Schilling, compromised by the Odessa evacuation. Having received no answer, General Wrangel resigned on January 27, 1920. On February 8, 1920, General Denikin issued an order to the General Staff "to dismiss from service" both Generals Wrangel and Shatilov, and General Lukomsky, Admiral Nenyukov and Admiral Bubnov. At the end of February 1920, General Wrangel left the Crimea and arrived in Constantinople. On March 18, 1920, General Wrangel and other prominent generals of the White armies of the South of Russia received a telegram from General Denikin, inviting them to arrive in Sevastopol on the evening of March 21 for a meeting of the Military Council chaired by General of the Cavalry Dragomirov to elect a successor to the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic.

Baron Wrangel (center) in Zeon Castle with friends.
Standing from left to right: second from left - Nikolai Mikhailovich Kotlyarevsky, secretary of General Wrangel; Natalia Nikolaevna Ilyina, Sergei Alexandrovich Sokolov-Krechetov,Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin .

On the morning of March 22, 1920, General Wrangel arrived at Sevastopol on the English battleship Emperor of India. At the Military Council, which met on March 22, General Wrangel was unanimously elected as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. On the same day, General Denikin gave the order for his appointment. Having taken command, General Wrangel first of all began to restore discipline and strengthen the morale of the troops. By April 28, 1920, he reorganized them into the Russian Army. The government of the South of Russia, created by him, issued a declaration on the national question and proposed to determine the form of government in Russia by “free will” within the framework of a broad federation. Along with this, the government embarked on a series of reforms; in particular, the “law on land”, “law on volost zemstvos”, etc. was adopted. Having received de facto recognition from France, General Wrangel set about organizing the 3rd Russian Army (the Russian army in the Crimea was divided into two armies) in Poland . Having carried out a number of successful operations in Northern Tavria, General Wrangel faced a significant increase in the forces of the Red Army in the summer and autumn, especially after the Riga truce with Poland. The unsuccessful outcome of the landing of General Ulagai on the Kuban in August 1920 and the Zadneprovsk operation in September significantly reduced the forces of the Russian army of General Wrangel, and at the end of October 1920 she was forced to retreat to the Crimea. The evacuation of the army and all comers from the Crimea in November 1920 was skillfully carried out by the headquarters of General Wrangel, and above all by the new commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Kedrov.

In Constantinople, finding himself without funds, General Wrangel sought to prevent the dispersion of the army, which was in the camps at Gallipoli and on the island of Lemnos. He managed to organize the transfer of military units to Bulgaria and to the Kingdom of the Union of Artists, where they were accepted for residence. General Wrangel himself with his headquarters moved from Constantinople to the Kingdom of the SHS, in Sremski Karlovitsy, in 1922. In an effort to keep the personnel of the Russian army abroad in new, emigre conditions, General Wrangel gave on September 1, 1924 (confirmed on December 1 of the same year ) an order to create the Russian General Military Union (ROVS), initially consisting of 4 departments: 1st department - France and Belgium, 2nd department - Germany, Austria, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania; 3rd department - Bulgaria and Turkey; 4th department - the Kingdom of the CXC, Greece and Romania. In September 1927, General Wrangel moved with his family from the Kingdom of the Union of Artists to Belgium - to Brussels, where he soon fell seriously ill and died on April 25, 1928. He was buried in Belgrade in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity.

General Wrangel's Peru: Notes: At 2 o'clock// [Sat.] White Case: Chronicle of the White Struggle. Materials collected and developed by Baron P. N. Wrangel, Duke G. N. Leuchtenberg and His Grace Prince A. P. Lieven. Ed. A. A. von Lampe. Book. V, VI. Berlin: Bronze Horseman, 1928.

The second (reprint) edition was published in one volume: Memoirs: At 2 o'clock. Frankfurt am Main: Sowing, 1969.

1) See: Order No. 17 for 1911 on the General Staff // List of the General Staff. 1912. S. 757.

Prayer in parts of the Russian army.
Ahead Wrangel P.N. behind him is Bogaevsky, Crimea, 1920.

P.N. Wrangel when creating ROVS (a). Paris, 1927

white hero

Wrangel Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich (1887-1928) - Lieutenant General of the General Staff. He graduated from the Rostov Real School and the Mining Institute of Empress Catherine II in St. Petersburg. He entered the service on September 1, 1891 as a private in the Life Guards Horse Regiment. During the Russo-Japanese War in December 1904, he was promoted to centurion - "for distinction in cases against the Japanese" and was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree with the inscription "For Bravery" and St. Stanislav with swords and a bow. In 1913 - captain and squadron commander. During the First World War - Knight of St. George - according to the order of the 1st Army of August 30, 1914 - for capturing a German battery in horseback ranks. In September 1914 he was appointed assistant commander of the regiment. Awarded with the St. George weapon. December 12, 1914 promoted to colonel. From October 1915 he was appointed commander of the 1st Nerchinsk regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army, and on December 16, 1916 - commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri Cavalry Division. On January 13, 1917, he was promoted "for military distinction" to major general and temporarily took command of the Ussuri Cavalry Division. July 9, 1917 appointed commander of the 7th Cavalry Division, and the next day, July 10, - commander of the consolidated cavalry corps. For covering the retreat of the infantry to the line of the Zbruch River, during the Tarnopol breakthrough of the Germans in July 1917, he was awarded the soldier's St. On September 9, 1917, he was appointed commander of the 3rd cavalry corps, but did not take command.

He arrived in the Volunteer Army on August 25, 1918, and in the same year, was promoted to lieutenant general - "for military distinctions." On December 26, 1918, at the Torgovaya station, General Denikin met with the Don Ataman, General Krasnov, at which it was recognized as necessary to introduce a single command and subordination of the Don Army to General Denikin. By virtue of this decision, on December 26, 1918 (January 8, 1919), General Denikin became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia (VSYUR). Thus, the post of Commander of the Volunteer Army was vacated. Already on December 27, 1918, General Wrangel was appointed to the post of Commander of the Volunteer Army. On January 10, 1919, in connection with the division of the Volunteer Army into the Crimean-Azov General Borovsky and the Caucasian, General Wrangel was appointed commander of the Caucasian Volunteer Army. On the same day, January 10, 1919, General Wrangel gave an order to the Caucasian Volunteer Army, in which he noted the valor of the 1st Cavalry Corps and other troops, thanks to which the Kuban and Stavropol province were liberated, and set the task of liberating the Terek. At the end of January 1919, General Wrangel fell ill with severe typhus. At this time and the commander of the army, his chief of staff, General Yuzefovich, on the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic, transferred the main parts of the Caucasian Volunteer Army to the Donbass. At the end of March, having recovered from his illness, General Wrangel arrived in Yekaterinodar and found that the main volunteer regiments had been reduced to the corps of General Mai-Maevsky and were fighting hard in the coal basin. In this regard, on April 4, 1919, he submitted a secret report to General Denikin with a proposal to consider "our main and only operational direction - the direction to Tsaritsyn, which makes it possible to establish direct contact with the army of General Kolchak." General Denikin did not agree with this proposal of General Wrangel, because he considered the shortest line to Moscow via Kharkov-Orel-Tula. It was from this time that serious disagreements began between General Wrangel and General Denikin, which later turned into a painful conflict. On April 24, 1919, in a letter from the Chief of Staff of the All-Russian Union of Youth, General Romanovsky, General Wrangel was asked to take command of the new Kuban Army, to rename the Caucasian Volunteer Army simply to Dobrovolcheskaya, and to appoint General Mai-Maevsky as commander. Initially, General Wrangel refused this proposal, but when the offensive of the 10th Red Army from the Grand Duke to the Trade began, threatening the rear of the Volunteer Army, General Wrangel agreed to the insistent request of Generals Denikin and Romanovsky to take command of a group of troops, composed mainly of cavalry corps , to repel the offensive of the 10th Red Army under the command of Yegorov. On May 2, 1920, a fierce battle began near Velikoknyazheskaya, during which General Wrangel personally led his troops on the attack, inflicted a decisive defeat on the 10th Red Army and forced it to hastily retreat to Tsaritsyn. After the battle of Velikoknyazheskaya, General Wrangel remained in command of the Caucasian army, which now included mainly the Kuban units. On May 8, 1920, General Denikin, Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation, ordered General Wrangel to capture Tsaritsyn. On June 18, General Wrangel captured Tsaritsyn, and on June 20, Commander-in-Chief General Denikin arrived at him, in Tsaritsyn, who then gave the order with his famous "Moscow Directive". According to this directive, General Wrangel was asked to go to the Saratov-Balashov front and then advance on Moscow through Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir. At the same time, General Mai-Maevsky was ordered to advance on Moscow in the direction of Kursk-Orel-Tula. General Wrangel considered the "Moscow directive" "a death sentence for the armies of the South of Russia." There was no maneuver in it and the dispersion of forces was allowed. At this time (that is, at the end of June 1919, when the armies of Admiral Kolchak were retreating), General Wrangel proposed to General Denikin "to concentrate a large cavalry mass in 3-4 corps in the Kharkov region" and act with this cavalry mass in the shortest direction to Moscow jointly with the Volunteer Corps of General Kutepov. However, all these proposals were ignored, and only when the complete failure of General Mai-Maevsky and the catastrophic situation on the front of the Volunteer Army was discovered, General Wrangel on November 26, 1919 was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army and commander-in-chief of the Kharkov region. Due to the deep breakthrough of Budyonny's cavalry and the lack of a sufficient number of combat-ready cavalry in the Volunteer Army, General Wrangel, in a report dated December 11, 1919, proposed to withdraw the right group of the army to the line of the Mius River - Novocherkassk, and the left - to the Crimea. General Denikin did not agree with this) since he believed that the Volunteer Army should in no case break away from the Don Army. On the same day, December 11, a meeting was held in Rostov between the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation and the commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin, and with the commander of the Volunteer Army, General Wrangel. At this meeting. The Commander-in-Chief announced his decision to bring the Volunteer Army into a separate Volunteer Corps and operationally subordinate it to the commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin. General Wrangel was entrusted with the formation of new Cossack corps in the Kuban and Terek. On December 21, 1919, General Wrangel gave a farewell order to the Volunteer Army and left for Ekaterinodar, where he discovered that the same task of mobilizing the Cossacks had been entrusted to the Commander-in-Chief, General Shkuro. On December 26, 1920, General Wrangel arrived in Bataysk, where the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief was located, and received an order to go to Novorossiysk and organize its defense. However, soon an order came to appoint General Lukomsky as Governor-General of the Novorossiysk region. Being out of work, General Wrangel settled in the Crimea, where he had a dacha. On January 14, 1920, he unexpectedly received from General Schilling, who had left Odessa and arrived in Sevastopol, an offer to accept the position of his assistant in the military unit. Negotiations on this issue with the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief dragged on. Many public figures, as well as General Lukomsky and the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Nenyukov and his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Bubnov, suggested appointing General Wrangel to the place of General Schilling, compromised by the Odessa evacuation. Having received no answer, General Wrangel resigned on January 27, 1920. On February 8, 1920, General Denikin ordered the General Staff "to dismiss from service" both Generals Wrangel and Shatilov, and General Lukomsky, Admiral Nenyukov and Admiral Bubnov. At the end of February 1920, General Wrangel left the Crimea and arrived in Constantinople. March 18, 1920 General Wrangel and other prominent generals of the White armies of the South of Russia received a telegram from General Denikin, inviting them to arrive on the evening of March 21 in Sevastopol for a meeting of the Military Council chaired by General of the Cavalry Dragomirov to elect a successor to the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Russian Union of Youth Unions.

On the morning of March 22, 1920, General Wrangel arrived in Sevastopol on the English battleship Emperor of India. At the Military Council, which met on March 22, General Wrangel was unanimously elected as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. On the same day, General Denikin gave the order for his appointment. Having taken command, General Wrangel first of all began to restore discipline and strengthen the morale of the troops. By April 28, 1920, he reorganized them into the Russian Army. The government of the South of Russia created by him issued a declaration on national question and proposed that the form of government in Russia be determined by "free will" within the framework of a broad federation. Along with this, the government embarked on a series of reforms; in particular, the “law on land”, “law on volost zemstvos”, etc. was adopted. Having received de facto recognition from France, General Wrangel set about organizing the 3rd Russian Army (the Russian army in the Crimea was divided into two armies) in Poland. After spending a number successful operations in Northern Tavria, General Wrangel faced a significant increase in the forces of the Red Army in the summer and autumn, especially after the Riga truce with Poland. The unsuccessful outcome of the landing of General Ulagai on the Kuban in August 1920 and the Zadneprovsk operation in September significantly reduced the forces of the Russian army of General Wrangel, and at the end of October 1920 she was forced to retreat to the Crimea. The evacuation of the army and everyone from the Crimea in November 1920 was skillfully carried out by the headquarters of General Wrangel, and, above all, by the new commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Kedrov.

In Constantinople, finding himself without funds, General Wrangel sought to prevent the dispersion of the army, which was in the camps at Gallipoli and on the island of Lemnos. He managed to organize the relocation of military units to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, where they were accepted for residence. General Wrangel himself with his headquarters moved from Constantinople to Yugoslavia, to Sremski Karlovitsy, in 1922. In an effort to keep the personnel of the Russian army abroad in new, emigrant conditions, General Wrangel gave September 1, 1924 (confirmed on December 1 of the same year) an order to create the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), initially consisting of 4 departments: 1st department - France and Belgium, 2nd department - Germany, Austria, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania; 3rd department - Bulgaria and Turkey; 4th department - Yugoslavia, Greece and Romania. In September 1927, General Wrangel moved with his family from Yugoslavia to Belgium, to Brussels, where he soon fell seriously ill and died on April 25, 1928. He was buried in Belgrade in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity.

General Wrangel's books belong to Peru: "Caucasian Army" (1928), "The Last Commander-in-Chief" (1928).

Curriculum vitae reprinted from Russkiy Mir magazine (enlightenment almanac), N 2, 2000

Wrangel and Gen. Mazhen (France) in the Crimea.

P.N. Wrangel at the portrait of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich. Paris, 1927

Member of the White Movement

Wrangel Petr Nikolaevich (15.8.1878, Novo-Aleksandrovsk, Kovno province - 22.4.1928, Brussels, Belgium), baron, lieutenant general (22.11.1918). He was educated at the Mining Institute, after which in 1901 he joined the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment as a volunteer. Passed officer exams for an officer of the guard at the Nikolaevsky cavalry. school (1902), graduated from the Nikolaev military academy(1910). Member of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-05, during which he commanded a hundred of the 2nd Argun Kaz. regiment of the Trans-Baikal Kaz. divisions. In Jan. 1906 transferred to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment. In Aug. 1906 returned to the Life Guards Horse Regiment. From 22/5/1912 he was temporarily commander, then commander of His Majesty's squadron, at the head of which he entered the world war. On September 12, 1914, the chief of staff of the Consolidated Cossack division, and on September 23. assistant commander of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment for combat unit. For battles in 1914, one of the first Russian. officers was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree (10/13/1914), 13/4/1915 was awarded the St. George weapon. On October 8, 1915, the commander of the 1st Nerchinsk regiment of the Trans-Baikal Kaz. troops. From 12/24/1916 commander of the 2nd, 19/1/1917 - 1st brigade of the Ussuri cavalry division. Jan 23 V. was appointed temporary commander of the Ussuri Cavalry Division, from July 9 - commander of the 7th Cavalry. division, from July 10 - consolidated cavalry. body. On July 24, by order of the Duma of the corps, he was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross of the 4th degree for distinction in covering the retreat of infantry to the Sbrug line on July 10-20. 9 Sept. V. was appointed commander of the III Cavalry Corps, but since. Former Commander Gen. P.V. Krasnov was not removed, he did not take command. After October revolution V. went to the Don, where he joined the ataman gene. A.M. Kaledin, whom he helped in the formation of the Don Army. After the suicide of Kaledin V. 28/8/1918 joined the ranks of the Volunteer Army. From 31 Aug. commander of the 1st cavalry division, from 15 November. - 1 cavalry corps, from 27 Dec. - Volunteer army. On January 10, 1919, V. was appointed commander of the Caucasian Volunteer Army. From 11/26/1919 commander of the Volunteer Army and commander-in-chief of the Kharkov region. Dec 20 in view of the disbandment of the army, he was placed at the disposal of the commander-in-chief of the All-Russian Union of Youth. 8/2/1920 due to disagreements with the gene. A.I. Denikin was dismissed.

After the resignation of Denikin, by decision of the majority of the senior command staff of the All-Union Socialist League. On March 22, 1920, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation from May 2 - the Russian army. Having concentrated it in the Crimea, he went on the offensive to the north, but failed and on November 14. was forced to evacuate to Turkey with the army. In 1924 he created the ROVS, which united the white military emigration.

Used material from the book: Zalessky K.A. Who was who in World War I. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. M., 2003

P.N. Wrangel. 1920

Ostsee German

Baron P.N. Wrangel came from an old Baltic German family, known since the 13th century. Representatives of this family served the masters of the Livonian Order, then the kings of Sweden and Prussia, and when the Eastern Baltic became part of the Russian state, the Russian emperors.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel was born on August 28, 1878 in the town of Novo-Aleksandrovsk, in Lithuania. But soon the family moved to Rostov-on-Don, where the father of the future leader of the white movement, Nikolai Georgievich Wrangel, became the director of the insurance company.

Pyotr Wrangel, after completing his studies at a real school in Rostov, went to the capital, where he successfully graduated from the Mining Institute. But he never became an engineer. Serving, as a Russian citizen should, military service, he served in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, known for its distinction in many battles. In 1902, he passed the officer's exams and retired, but was not in the civil service for long. When the Russo-Japanese War began, Wrangel joined the Transbaikal Cossack Host. He showed courage in battles, earned an order and an early promotion in rank. Since that time, the choice was irrevocably made in favor of a military career. In 1909, Wrangel graduated from the Academy of the General Staff, then the Cavalry Officer School.

In the very first battles of the First World War, Wrangel, who commanded a squadron of guards cavalry, gained fame as a hero. On August 6, 1914, in a battle with the Germans near the town of Kaushen, it was his squadron that took the German position with a bold attack, behind which the stubborn bloody battle. Wrangel was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. In December of the same 1914, he was promoted to colonel, in October 1915 he was entrusted with the command of the 1st Nerchinsk Cossack regiment of the Ussuri division. In this post, he again managed to distinguish himself, especially in the battle in the Wooded Carpathians on August 22, 1916. Then, on the eve of the revolution, Wrangel commanded the 1st Cavalry Brigade and for some time the entire Ussuri Division.

Wrangel, a supporter of the monarchy, took the February Revolution without optimism. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1917, he again distinguished himself on the battlefields of the First World War and was awarded the soldier's George Cross of the 4th degree.

According to Baron Wrangel, the revolutionary events contributed to the country's slide into anarchy, into disaster. It is no coincidence that he was among the supporters and active participants in the Kornilov speech. General Krymov, who shot himself because of unfair accusations from Kerensky, was his immediate superior. But, despite the failure and the arrest of Kornilov, Wrangel did not suffer for his support.

After the October Revolution, Pyotr Nikolaevich resigned, came to the Crimea, where his wife's estate was located. When Soviet power was established in the Crimea, he was arrested on a false slander, but was soon released. Then the Germans captured the Crimea.

In 1918, Wrangel, after visiting Ukraine, went to the Kuban, to Yekaterinodar, and from that moment connected his fate with the Volunteer Army. On behalf of Denikin, he commanded first the 1st Cavalry Division, then the Cavalry Corps. A supporter of order and discipline, Wrangel tried to stop robberies and even executed several marauders. But then he resigned himself to the inevitable and tried only to somehow streamline the division of the booty.

Wrangel's actions at Armavir and Stavropol were marked by success, followed by his appointment to the post of commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps and promotion to lieutenant general.

At the end of 1918, the Volunteer and Don armies formed the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, being united under the leadership of Denikin. The command of the Volunteer Army was transferred to Wrangel, and when at the beginning of 1919 the Volunteer Army was divided into two parts, Wrangel led the Caucasian Volunteer Army.

It was during this period that disagreements began between Denikin and Wrangel regarding further actions. Contrary to the opinion of the Commander-in-Chief, who considered the Ukrainian as the leading direction, Wrangel argued that it was necessary to move the main forces in the Volga region, to join with Kolchak.

However, then a new responsible assignment followed - Wrangel was asked to command the entire white cavalry in the Manych direction. Thanks to the resourcefulness of Wrangel, who managed to find a way to transport artillery to the other bank of the Manych River (which had not been possible before), the Whites achieved success in this sector. In early May, in three-day battles in the area of ​​the Manych River, the Reds suffered a crushing defeat and began to retreat to the north. After that, another task was assigned to Wrangel - the Caucasian army was to take Tsaritsyn. And the order was successfully carried out - the city was taken by storm in mid-June 1919.

But the disagreements between Wrangel and Denikin regarding further actions were not resolved, since Wrangel considered the offensive conceived by the Commander-in-Chief to be doomed to failure. o By order of Denikin, Wrangel's army headed north, towards Saratov, in order to then advance to Nizhny Novgorod, and from there to Moscow. But no reinforcements arrived, and the Reds put up fierce resistance. Among the population of the Volga region, the Caucasian army did not meet the expected support. All these circumstances led to further failures.

The Whites began to retreat and retreated to the Tsaritsyn positions. True, twice the offensive of the Reds on Tsaritsyn was repulsed, and then Wrangel, having received reinforcements, even threw the Reds away from the city. On the whole, however, the situation was unfavorable. I had to go on the defensive.

During the decisive battles that determined the fate of the white movement in southern Russia, Wrangel was in the Kuban, where he had to pacify the separatist actions of part of the local leadership.

In the autumn of 1919, there was a turning point in favor of the Reds. The Whites were defeated and retreated. Wrangel again expressed objections to Denikin's proposal to retreat to the Don. He believed that military operations should be moved to the west, closer to the Poles. But Denikin did not agree, he believed that this would be regarded as a betrayal of the Cossacks.

The conflict between Wrangel and Denikin reached such a pitch that many believed that Wrangel was going to carry out a coup.

The differences were aggravated by the difference in the political orientation of the white generals: Wrangel was supported by zealous supporters of the monarchy, while Denikin took a more liberal position and could find a compromise with the Republicans.

In the face of military defeats and intrigues, on January 27, 1920, Wrangel submitted his resignation. In February, Denikin ordered the dismissal of Wrangel from service, then, at the request of the Commander-in-Chief, Wrangel left Russia and went to Constantinople, where his family had been sent shortly before.

But soon Wrangel received an invitation to take part in the Military Council, which was to elect a new Commander-in-Chief. He returned to the Crimea and was elected Commander-in-Chief.

When Wrangel took command of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, the situation seemed hopeless. The British even advocated that the Whites surrender to the Bolsheviks, provided that the latter guaranteed an amnesty for their defeated opponents.

I had to refocus on France and, leaving plans for a campaign against Moscow, try to gain a foothold at least in the Crimea. The troops remaining there were reorganized and became known as the Russian Army. Those generals who had previously participated in political intrigues were sent abroad by the new Commander-in-Chief. In the Crimea, in the territory controlled by the Whites, Wrangel tried to establish order, as far as possible, to raise discipline, to stop hooliganism and excesses.

Meanwhile, the situation has changed. The main forces of the Red Army were diverted by the war with Poland. Therefore, Wrangel in the summer of 1920 even managed to go on the offensive. He took possession of Northern Tavria, sent troops to the Don and Kuban, tried to achieve coordination with the Poles and launch an offensive along the Dnieper.

But the successes achieved were fragile. On the Don, the Whites were defeated, and then the troops had to be withdrawn from the Kuban. And when the Poles concluded a truce with the Soviet government, the last hopes collapsed. The Reds sent forces against Wrangel, four times the size of his army. In a few days, the Whites were driven out of Tavria, and in November 1920 they were forced to leave the Crimea. Together with P.N. Wrangel left Russia 145 thousand people, and he was responsible for their arrangement in foreign countries. Peaceful refugees were placed in the Balkan Orthodox countries, from where they gradually moved to other European states. The army was in Gallipoli and endured many hardships. For a long time, Wrangel still hoped to continue the fight against the Soviet regime, but to no avail. Remaining | warriors gradually began to be stationed in the Slavic countries - Serbia and Bulgaria. Wrangel himself settled in Belgrade. On his initiative, in September 1924, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) was created. But soon Wrangel handed over the leadership of this organization former Commander-in-Chief Russian troops to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich - a representative of the Romanov dynasty. Petr Nikolayevich himself moved to Belgium, where he wrote his memoirs. His health deteriorated due to illnesses and injuries. April 12, 1928 Wrangel died. Subsequently, he was reburied in an Orthodox church in Belgrade.

Used materials from the book: I.O. Surmin "Most famous heroes Russia" - M.: Veche, 2003.

Kuban people at the funeral of P. N. Wrangel.

The first grave of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army
General Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel
at the Uccle-Calevoet cemetery in Brussels.

Belgrade. Temple Holy Trinity,
where is the second and last grave of P.N. Wrangel

Wrangel with his wife.

Descendant of the Danish Wrangels

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel 1878-1928. General Wrangel was a distant descendant of the Danish Wrangels, in the 17th - 18th centuries. resettled in different countries of Europe and in Russia. In the Wrangel family, there were 7 field marshals, more than 30 generals, 7 admirals, including in Russia 18 generals and two admirals had this surname at different times. Islands in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans are named after the famous Russian navigator Admiral F. Wrangel.

The representative of the Russified Wrangel family, Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, was born in the city of Novo-Aleksandrovsk (Zarasai), in Lithuania. By inheritance, he had the title of Russian baron, but did not have estates and fortunes. Peter received his secondary education in a real school, in 1896 he entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute. Upon graduation, he was called up for active military service, was a volunteer in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment; after graduating from the regimental school, he passed the exam for the rank of cornet. Then he retired to the reserve, but in 1904 the Russian-Japanese war began, and the 25-year-old Wrangel put on officer shoulder straps again, going to the Far East. Acting as part of the 2nd Argun Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army, he showed courage and courage, having earned the first orders, at the end of 1904 he already commanded a hundred, in September 1905 he became a podsaul ahead of schedule.

In 1906, Wrangel had a difficult mission - as part of the detachment of General A. Orlov, to pacify the riots and stop the pogroms in Siberia that accompanied the revolution of 1905-1907. Then he served in the Finnish Regiment, again in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, in 1907 he became a lieutenant and entered the Nikolaev General Staff Academy, which he graduated from among the best - seventh on the list. The future Red Marshal B. Shaposhnikov studied with him on the same course. While studying at the academy, Pyotr Nikolaevich married a wealthy noblewoman O.M. Ivanenko, who was in the retinue of the empress.

Wrangel met the war of 1914 with the rank of guard captain and spent more than a year in the ranks of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, which was part of the troops of the 1st Army of the North-Western Front. In one of the very first battles, on August 6 near Kraupishten, the captain distinguished himself by rushing with his squadron to the German battery and capturing it (the previous squadron that attacked the battery fell down). Wrangel's award was the Order of St. George, 4th class. Subsequently, recalling this battle, Pyotr Nikolaevich explained his fearlessness by the consciousness that he wears the shoulder straps of an officer and is obliged to set an example of heroism to his subordinates.

After an unsuccessful East Prussian operation the troops of the front began to retreat, hostilities proceeded sluggishly, nevertheless, Wrangel continued to receive awards, became an adjutant wing, colonel, cavalier of the St. George weapons. His personal courage was undeniable, but it should be recognized that these awards were partly facilitated by the nobility of the Wrangel family and the influence of his wife, the maid of honor of the Empress. In October 1915, Pyotr Nikolaevich was sent to the Southwestern Front, where he took command of the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Host. The commander of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, when translating Wrangel, gave him the following description: "Outstanding courage. He understands the situation perfectly and quickly, very resourceful in a difficult situation."

With his Cossack regiment, Wrangel fought against the Austrians in Galicia, participated in the famous "Brusilov breakthrough" in 1916, then in defensive positional battles. At the forefront, he continued to put military prowess, military discipline, honor and mind of the commander. If an officer gave an order, Wrangel said, and it was not carried out, "he is no longer an officer, he has no officer epaulettes." New steps in the military career of Pyotr Nikolayevich were the rank of major general and his appointment as commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri cavalry division, then head of this division.

He associated Russia's failures in the First World War with the weakness and moral degradation of the top leadership, headed by Nicholas II Romanov. "I know them all well," Wrangel said of the Romanovs. "They can't rule because they don't want to... They've lost their taste for power." After the February Revolution of 1917, he swore allegiance to the Provisional Government and soon became a corps commander. In the troops, broken by a fruitless war, the baron general continued to be respected; evidence of this was the decision of the St. George Duma, elected from the rank and file, to reward him with the soldier's St. George's Cross (this was in June 1917).

But the collapse of the army, unbearable for Wrangel, was in full swing. Shortly before the October events, Pyotr Nikolaevich, under the pretext of illness, took time off on vacation and left for the Crimea, where he spent about a year, moving away from everything. In the summer of 1918, he shook off his stupor and decided to take action. In August, Wrangel arrived in Kyiv to General Skoropadsky, but soon became disillusioned with the former commander of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment: the general, who became hetman, did not want to think about the revival of Russia and focused on "Ukrainian sovereignty." In September, Pyotr Nikolaevich appeared in Yekaterinodar, at the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, to join the fighting ranks of the White movement.

Kindly received by A. Denikin, Wrangel received a cavalry brigade in his command and became a member of the second Kuban campaign of the Volunteer Army. He quickly showed himself to be an excellent cavalry commander, able to correctly assess the situation, make decisions on the spot, and act boldly and decisively. Recognizing in him the qualities of a commander, Denikin entrusted him with the 1st Cavalry Division, two months later he was promoted to commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps, and in December he was promoted to lieutenant general. Tall, lean, in an unchanging Circassian coat and a wrinkled hat, Wrangel made an impression with his gallant horse guard bearing, impressed the troops with his demeanor, energy and self-confidence, bright, emotional speeches. His written orders were distinguished by the clarity of demands, combined with the pathos of patriotic appeals.

With the creation of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia on January 8, 1919, Denikin, who headed them, entrusted Wrangel with the post of commander of the Volunteer Army, which formed the backbone of Denikin's troops. Having completed the conquest by spring North Caucasus, The Volunteer Army launched active operations in Ukraine, in the Crimea and on the Manych River. During the period of success, the first signs of a weakening of military discipline and the development of the disease of looting began to appear, which many generals justified by the weakness in the supply of troops. Unlike them, Wrangel did not put up with robberies, repeatedly arranged public executions marauders.

Meanwhile, the offensive front of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia was expanding, and on May 22, Wrangel received under his command the newly formed Caucasian Army, intended for operations on the Lower Volga. Already on May 24, his troops crossed the Sal River and, advancing with battles to Tsaritsyn, on June 30 captured the city, which in 1918 General Krasnov unsuccessfully besieged for four months. Continuing to move north along the Volga, Wrangel took Kamyshin and created a threat to Saratov. The Reds, having pulled up large forces, including Budyonny's cavalry corps, were able to stop the Caucasian army. Giving up his last reserves to the Volunteer Army, which was rushing towards Tula and Moscow, Wrangel was forced to retreat to Tsaritsyn by the beginning of September. In October, he again went on the offensive, but the worst was ahead: the Volunteer Army, unable to withstand the counterattacks of the Southern Red Front, rolled back, and a general retreat began. Trying to save the situation, on December 5 Denikin replaced the demoralized commander of the Volunteer Army, General Mai-Maevsky, with Wrangel, but it was too late. In early January 1920, the remnants of the Volunteer Army were brought together in a corps under the command of Kutepov, and Wrangel was instructed to go to the Kuban to form new cavalry regiments there.

The setbacks strained relations between Denikin and Wrangel. Back in the summer of 1919, Pyotr Nikolaevich criticized the decision of the commander-in-chief to attack Moscow and openly reproached him for his unwillingness to go east, to join Kolchak. (It is curious that Kolchak, in turn, was reproached in Siberia for the fact that the unification of the white forces of the South and East did not take place.) Wrangel, while in the Kuban, continued to criticize Denikin, finding flaws in his strategy, methods of military leadership, civil policy . Anton Ivanovich, who endured such criticism for a long time, in his opinion unfair and opportunistic, finally sharply condemned it, and at his request Wrangel was forced to leave the army and left for Constantinople.

Having gathered the remnants of the Armed Forces of the South in the Crimea in March 1920, Denikin, unable to find the strength to take further action, decided to resign and asked the Military Council to find a replacement for him. The military council, which met in Sevastopol, at first tried to dissuade Denikin, and when he announced the irrevocableness of his decision, he voted for the appointment of Wrangel as the new commander in chief. Arriving in Sevastopol in early April, he promised nothing but "with honor to lead the Army out of its difficult situation," and even took a subscription from the members of the Military Council that they would not demand an offensive from him. At the same time, Wrangel was not going to capitulate without a fight.

With a titanic effort, he set about putting the army in order and reorganizing it. The new commander-in-chief dismissed generals Pokrovsky and Shkuro from its ranks, whose troops were distinguished by indiscipline and robberies. Having come out with the slogan "Help me, Russian people, save my homeland," Wrangel renamed the Armed Forces of the South into the Russian Army. The government of the South of Russia led by him developed an agrarian reform program acceptable to the peasants, but the peasantry, exhausted by the war, was in no hurry to follow the Russian army. Realizing that they needed success to encourage the troops, in June Wrangel undertook a bold offensive operation in Northern Tavria and mastered it, taking advantage of the diversion of the main forces of the Red Army to the war with Poland. In August, he was sent to the Kuban amphibious assault General Ulagay, but, not meeting the support of the Cossacks there, he returned to the Crimea. In September-October, Wrangel tried to take active steps to capture the Donbass and break through to the Right-Bank Ukraine. By this time, the Russian army had already numbered up to 60 thousand people, compared with 25 thousand in June.

The armistice between Soviet Russia and Poland changed the situation. At the end of October, five red armies of the Southern Front (commander M. Frunze), including two cavalry armies ( total strength troops of the front - over 130 thousand people), attacked the Russian army of Wrangel. In a week they liberated Northern Tavria, and then, breaking through the Perekop fortifications, moved to the Crimea. To Wrangel's credit, he skillfully led the withdrawal of his troops and managed to prepare in advance for the evacuation. Several tens of thousands of soldiers of the Russian army and refugees on Russian and French ships left the Crimea and found refuge in Turkey.

Not wanting to leave the Russian army in trouble, Wrangel spent about a year with her in Turkey, maintaining order in the troops and fighting hunger. His subordinates gradually dispersed, about seven thousand deserted and left for Russia. At the end of 1921, the remnants of the army were transferred to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, where many soldiers and officers later settled, others were further drawn by fate.

Instead of the collapsed Russian army, Wrangel founded the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) in Paris with departments in the countries where there were former officers and members of the White movement. The ROVS was distinguished by its irreconcilable attitude towards Soviet Russia, developed plans for the mobilization of its members at the right time, conducted intelligence work, had a combat department (headed by Kutepov), which prepared armed actions in the USSR.

Wrangel did not stop fighting the Bolsheviks until his death, which befell him at the age of 49, in 1928 (according to one of the unproven versions, he was poisoned). From Brussels, where he died, his body was transported to Yugoslavia and solemnly buried in one of the Orthodox cathedrals. A procession with wreaths stretched through Belgrade. After Wrangel's death, two volumes of his Notes were published in Berlin.

Used materials of the book: Kovalevsky N.F. History of Russian Goverment. Biographies of famous soldiers figures of the XVIII- the beginning of the XX century. M. 1997

The photographic materials of Wrangel's page were prepared by Igor Marchenko.

Literature:

Entente and Wrangel: Sat. Art. Issue. 1M.; Pg.: Gosizdat, 1923. - 260 p.

Vashchenko P.F., Runov V.A. The revolution is defended: [On the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Wrangel's troops] // Military. thought. - 1990. - No. 19 - S. 46-51.

Wrangel Petr Nikolaevich // Military Encyclopedia: In 8 vols. T. 2 .- M .: Military Publishing House, 1994. -S. 295 - 296.

Wrangel P.N. Memories of General Baron P.N. Wrangel. 4.1-2.-M.: TERRA, 1992.

Karpenko V.V., Karpenko S.V. Wrangel in the Crimea: East. novel. - M.: Spas, 1995. - 621 p.- (Spas. History).

Karpenko S.V. The collapse of the last white dictator. - M.: Knowledge, 1990. -64 p.- (New in life, science, technology. Series "History"; No. 7).

Lampe A.A., background. General Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel // New sentry, St. Petersburg. -№1.-S. 43-74.

Marchuk P. The Way of the Cross of the White Army of the Black Baron: [P.N. Wrangel] // Motherland. - 1994. - No. 11. - P. 24 - 33.

Alexander Kuprin. About Wrangel. Once again about Wrangel, and, of course, not the last. 1921

Letter from S. Petliura to the Chairman of the Council of People's Ministers of the UNR regarding negotiations with General Wrangel. October 9, 1920.

Slashchov-Krymsky Yakov Alexandrovich. Crimea, 1920. (There you can find a lot of interesting things about Wrangel).

The name of Baron Wrangel is naturally associated with the events of the last period of the civil war, victorious for the Soviet government - Perekop, Sivash, "the island of Crimea" - "the last span of the Russian land." The originality of Wrangel's personality, the saturation of his biography with stormy dramatic events have repeatedly attracted the attention of historians, publicists, writers, who sometimes gave directly opposite assessments of his role and place in these events. The controversy around this person continues to this day.

Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel was born on August 28, 1878 (all dates according to the old style) in the city of Novo-Aleksandrovsk, Kovno province, in a family of ancient Ostsee nobles, dating back to the 13th century. The Wrangel barons (baronial dignity since 1653) owned lands in Livonia and Estonia, granted by the masters of the Livonian Order and the Swedish monarchs. Military service was the main occupation, the purpose of life for most representatives of this family. 79 Wrangel barons served in the army of Charles XII, 13 of them were killed in the Battle of Poltava and 7 died in Russian captivity. In the Russian service, the Wrangels reached the highest military ranks during the reign of Nicholas I and Alexander II. But his father, Nikolai Georgievich (who left very interesting memories and a remarkable essay on the landscape art of Russian estates) did not choose a military career, but became the director of the Equitebl insurance company in Rostov-on-Don. Peter spent his childhood and youth in this city. Family N.G. Wrangel was not distinguished by wealth and family ties, acquaintances that could provide children with a quick promotion. The future general had to "make a career" relying only on own forces and abilities. Unlike many officers of that time, Pyotr Wrangel did not graduate cadet corps or military school. Having initial home education, he continued his studies at the Rostov real school, and then at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. Having received the profession of a mining engineer in 1900, young Wrangel was very far from a military career. After graduating from the institute, he underwent compulsory military service as a volunteer of the 1st category in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. Having risen to the rank of standard junker and having passed the test for the rank of cornet, he was enrolled in the reserve of the guards cavalry in 1902. Getting first officer rank and service in one of the oldest regiments of the guard gradually changed his attitude towards a military career. General A.A. Ignatiev, Wrangel's colleague in the guards, described this period in the life of Pyotr Nikolayevich in his memoirs: dashing Estandart Junker of the Horse Guards... Wrangel, in a few months of military service, transformed into an arrogant guardsman... I advised the young engineer to leave the regiment and go to work in a place I had known since childhood Eastern Siberia. Oddly enough, but my arguments worked, and Wrangel went to make a career in Irkutsk.

The indefinite position of an official for assignments under the Irkutsk Governor-General, received by the young Wrangel, could hardly satisfy his ambitious and active nature. Therefore, immediately after the start of the war with Japan, he voluntarily entered into active army. As for A.I. Denikin, S.L. Markova, V.Z. May-Maevsky, A.P. Kutepov and other future generals of the White Army, the Russo-Japanese War was Wrangel's first real combat experience. Participation in reconnaissance, bold raids and combat sorties as part of the detachment of General P.K. Rennenkampf strengthened the will, self-confidence, courage and determination. According to his closest associate, General P.N. Shatilov "in the Manchurian war, Wrangel instinctively felt that the struggle was his element, and combat work- his vocation". These character traits distinguished Wrangel at all subsequent stages of his military career. Another trait of his character, which manifested itself in the first years of military service, is spiritual restlessness, a constant desire for more and more success in life, and a desire to "make career", not to stop at what has already been achieved. The Russo-Japanese War brought the first awards to the commander of the Transbaikal Cossack army P.N. Wrangel - the Order of St. Anna of the 4th degree and St. Stanislav of the 3rd degree with swords and a bow.

Participation in the war finally convinced Wrangel that only military service should be his life's work. In March 1907, he returned to the ranks of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment with the rank of lieutenant. The received "military qualification" and combat experience made it possible to hope for an advantage when entering the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff - the cherished dream of many officers. In 1909, Wrangel successfully graduated from the academy, and in 1910 - an officer cavalry school, and upon returning to his native regiment in 1912, he became commander of His Majesty's squadron. After that, his future was quite clear - a gradual promotion from rank to rank through the ranks, measured regimental life, social balls, meetings, military parades. Now, no longer a lanky student in a jacket of the Mining Institute, but a brilliant officer - a horse guard, attracted attention in the high-society salons of St. Petersburg, Gatchina and Krasnoye Selo. An excellent dancer and conductor at balls, an indispensable participant in officer meetings, witty, easy to communicate, an interesting conversationalist - this is how Wrangel was remembered by his friends. True, at the same time, according to Shatilov, he "usually did not refrain from expressing his opinions frankly", gave "accurate" assessments of the people around him, his fellow soldiers, because of which "already then he had ill-wishers." His marriage to the maid of honor, the daughter of the chamberlain of the Imperial Court, Olga Mikhailovna Ivanenko, was also successful. Two daughters were soon born in the family - Elena and Natalya and son Peter (the second son - Alexei, was born already in exile). At the first stages of married life, there were some complications associated with the continued entertainment of Pyotr Nikolaevich, and Olga Mikhailovna needed a lot of mental strength and tact in order to direct family life into a normal course, to make it calm and strong. Mutual love and fidelity accompanied the spouses throughout their subsequent life together.

The officers of the Horse Guards were distinguished by unconditional devotion to the monarchy. The commander of the "patronage squadron" Captain Baron Wrangel fully shared these convictions. "The army is out of politics", "Guards on guard of the monarchy" - these commandments became the basis of his worldview.

August 1914 changed his fate: the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment went to the front and during the fighting in East Prussia acted as part of the army of General Rennenkampf. On August 6, 1914, a battle took place near the village of Kaushen, which became for Wrangel one of the most striking episodes of his military biography. Guards cuirassier regiments, dismounted, advanced at full height on the German artillery batteries, which shot them at close range. The losses were huge. The squadron of Captain Wrangel, the last reserve of the cuirassier division, captured the German guns with a sudden and swift cavalry attack, and the commander himself was the first to break into the enemy positions. At the same time, all officers in the squadron died, 20 soldiers were killed and wounded, but the battle was won.

For Kaushen Wrangel was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. His photograph appeared on the pages of Chronicle of War, the most popular illustrated military magazine. And although the opportunities to excel in major battles Wrangel did not have so much during the war - in the conditions " trench warfare"Horse units were used mainly in reconnaissance - the career of Captain Wrangel began to quickly move up. In December 1914, he received the rank of colonel and became the adjutant wing of His Majesty's retinue, and from October 1915 he commanded the 1st Nerchinsk regiment In December 1916, Wrangel was appointed brigade commander of the Ussuri Cossack division, and in January 1917, at the age of 39, he was promoted to major general for "combat distinctions".

The provisional government in the eyes of Wrangel had no authority, especially after the issuance of the well-known order No. 1, which introduced control of the army committees over the command staff. Undisciplined, dissolute soldiers, endless rallies irritated the former horse guard. In relations with his subordinates, and even more so with the "lower ranks", even in the conditions of the "democratization" of the army in 1917, he continued to support exclusively statutory requirements, neglecting the innovative forms of addressing soldiers to "you", "citizen soldiers", "citizens Cossacks", etc. He believed that only firm, resolute measures could stop "the collapse of the front and rear." However, during the August speech of General L.G. Kornilov, Wrangel could not send his cavalry corps to support him. Having come into conflict with the "committees", Wrangel submitted a letter of resignation. It was not necessary to count on the continuation of a military career. "Democratic" Minister of War, General A.I. Verkhovsky considered it impossible to appoint Wrangel to any position "according to the conditions of the political moment and in view of a political figure."

According to Wrangel, after August 1917, the Provisional Government demonstrated "complete impotence", "the daily increasing collapse in the army can no longer be stopped," therefore the events of October 1917 seemed to him the logical outcome of "eight months of the deepening of the revolution." "More than one weak-willed and incompetent government was to blame for this disgrace. Both the senior military leaders and the entire Russian people shared responsibility with it. This people replaced the great word "freedom" with arbitrariness and turned the resulting liberty into violence, robbery and murder ..."

Wrangel did not participate in the formation of the White movement. At a time when, on the cold, gloomy days of November 1917, the first detachments of the future Volunteer Army (then still "the organization of General M.V. Alekseev") were being formed in Rostov-on-Don, when Generals Kornilov and Denikin made their way to the Don from Bykhov , Markov, Romanovsky, after being arrested for participating in the "Kornilov rebellion", Wrangel left for the Crimea. Here in Yalta, at the dacha, he lived with his family as a private person. Since he did not receive any pension or salary at that time, he had to live on income from the estate of his wife's parents in the Melitopol district and bank interest.

In Crimea, he survived both the Crimean Tatar government and the Tauride Soviet republic and German occupation. During the Soviet regime in the Crimea, Wrangel almost died from the arbitrariness of the Sevastopol Cheka, but due to his wife’s happy support for him (the chairman of the Revolutionary Tribunal, “Comrade Vakula”, was amazed at the marital fidelity of Olga Mikhailovna, who wished to share the fate of captivity with her husband) was released and hid, until the arrival Germans, in Tatar villages.

After the beginning of the German occupation and the coming to power of Hetman Skoropadsky, Wrangel decides to return to military service and first tries to enter the ranks of the formed army of "independent Ukraine", and then goes to the Kuban, where by this time (summer 1918) fierce battles of the Volunteer Army had unfolded, speaking in his 2nd Kuban campaign. By this time, a kind of hierarchy had developed in the White Army. It did not take into account past military merits, ranks, awards and titles. The main thing was participation in the fight against the Bolsheviks from the first days of the emergence of the White movement in southern Russia. Generals, officers, participants of the 1st Kuban ("Ice") campaign - "pioneers", albeit in small ranks, as a rule, always enjoyed advantages when appointed to certain positions. In this situation, Wrangel did not have to count on receiving any significant rank. His fame as a cavalry commander helped. Due to his "past fame" Wrangel was appointed commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, composed mainly of the Kuban and Terek Cossacks. But in this position, the general faced serious problems.

The fact is that the Cossack units during the years of the civil war were very selective about their superiors. Such Cossack generals as A.G. Shkuro, K.K. Mamantov, A.K. Guselshchikov, V.L. Pokrovsky were the first among equal comrades for the Cossacks. The Cossacks did not accept the relations of commanders and subordinates determined by the traditional charter. Obviously, Wrangel, who considered it necessary to restore the statutory discipline in the Cossack regiments, caused alienation from some of his subordinates by his actions. And although later estrangement was replaced by recognition from the majority of the ranks of the 1st Cavalry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Corps, of which Wrangel became commander from mid-November 1918, relations with the Cossacks were not of the nature of "fraternal" trust. The white cavalry gradually learned to make flank strikes, regroup, rapidly attack under enemy fire, act independently, even without the support of infantry and artillery. This, of course, was the merit of Wrangel. His authority as a cavalry commander was confirmed during the October battles near Armavir, and in the battle for Stavropol, and during raids in the cold Stavropol and Nogai steppes.

By the end of 1918, the entire North Caucasus was controlled by the Volunteer Army. 11th Soviet army was defeated, its remnants retreated to Astrakhan. The White Army also suffered heavy losses, but behind it was victory, there was hope for future military successes. The military career of Peter Nikolaevich continued. On November 22, 1918, for the battles near Stavropol, he was promoted to lieutenant general and began to command the Caucasian Volunteer Army. Now the former brilliant horse guard was distinguished by a black Circassian coat with the Order of St. George on gazyrs, a black hat and a cloak. That is how he remained in numerous photographs of the period of the civil war and emigration. The name of the young commander becomes known. A number of villages of the Kuban, Terek and Astrakhan troops accepted Wrangel as "honorary Cossacks". On February 13, 1919, the Kuban Rada awarded him the Order of the Salvation of the Kuban, 1st degree.

But in January 1919, Pyotr Nikolaevich suddenly fell ill with typhus in a very severe form. On the fifteenth day of illness, the doctors considered the situation hopeless. Denikin in "Essays on Russian Troubles" noted that Wrangel experienced his illness as "a punishment for his ambition." However, his biographers write that immediately after the arrival of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, there was an improvement. Wrangel owes his recovery, of course, to the caring care of his wife, who shared military service with him - she was in charge of the hospital in Yekaterinodar. A serious illness, however, seriously undermined the health of Peter Nikolayevich, who had already suffered two wounds and a concussion by that time.

By the spring of 1919, the first disagreements between Wrangel and the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Revolution were also related. In a report addressed to Denikin, he argued the need to concentrate the main attack of the Armed Forces of South Russia on Tsaritsyn, after which it would be possible to connect with the armies of Admiral A.V. advancing towards the Volga. Kolchak. Such an operation made it possible, according to Wrangel, to create a united anti-Bolshevik front in the south of Russia, and the united white armies could hit "Red Moscow" with a vengeance. Of course, the main blow to the connection with Kolchak, according to this plan, was to be delivered by the Caucasian army of Wrangel. This report, according to Denikin, testified to the "ambitious plans" of the baron, who sought to "stand out" during the upcoming operation. Wrangel, in turn, condemned Denikin's desire to attack Moscow, "so as not to share the laurels of victory with Kolchak." Wrangel saw the main reason for the rejection of his plan in personal antipathy towards himself on the part of the Commander-in-Chief. According to him, "son army officer, myself most having spent his service in the army, he (Denikin - V.Ts.), being at its top, retained many of the characteristic features of his environment - provincial, petty-bourgeois, with a liberal tinge. From this environment he retained an unconscious prejudiced attitude towards the "aristocracy", "court", "guards", a painfully developed scrupulousness, an involuntary desire to protect his dignity from illusory encroachments. Fate unexpectedly dumped on his shoulders a huge state work alien to him, threw him into the very maelstrom of political passions and intrigues. In this work alien to him, he apparently lost himself, fearing to make a mistake, did not trust anyone, and at the same time did not find in himself sufficient strength with a firm and confident hand to guide the ship of state across the stormy political sea ... "

Denikin really did not have the graceful polish of the guards, secular manners and subtle political "flair". In comparison with him, a tall guardsman dressed in a black Circassian coat, with a loud voice, confident, resolute and quick in character and actions, Pyotr Nikolaevich, of course, won. In the characterization of the Commander-in-Chief, given by Wrangel, the hostility of the aristocratic guardsman to the "army man" - Denikin, of low, in his opinion, origin and upbringing, is clearly traced.

Alienation in relation to Wrangel, in turn, manifested itself on the part of Denikin. Therefore, for example, preference for appointment in the spring of 1919 to the post of commander of the Volunteer Army was given not to Wrangel, but to Mai-Maevsky, who, although he was not a "pioneer", was absolutely loyal to the Headquarters and the Commander-in-Chief himself.

Although the Headquarters rejected the plan to attack the Volga, the capture of Tsaritsyn was necessary for the White Army. They could not have advanced on the Ukraine with the red Tsaritsyn in the rear. The headquarters decided to break through the positions of the Reds with a concentrated blow from all the cavalry regiments united in a group under the command of Wrangel. The Tsaritsyno operation, which ended victoriously on June 18, 1919, made the name of the Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian one of the most famous and authoritative generals of the White Army. "Hero of Tsaritsyn", as the newspapers of General Wrangel were now called, became known and popular in the white south. Obliging officials of the Propaganda Department hung everywhere his photographs, lurid, in the popular style, pictures in which the general was depicted in the pose of the "Bronze Horseman" - with his hand pointing to Moscow (a clear allusion to the emergence of a new leader - "Peter IV"). The commander of the Caucasus was presented with the march "General Wrangel", composed by one of the officers. Such clumsy, and perhaps deliberate propaganda was perceived by Pyotr Nikolayevich himself without proper understanding - he was convinced of his popularity, considering it well deserved. On the young general the representatives of the allies also drew attention. For the capture of Tsaritsyn, he was awarded the English Order of St. Michael and George.

On June 20, 1919, in the occupied Tsaritsyn, Denikin signed the Moscow Directive proclaiming the start of a campaign for "the liberation of the capital from the Bolsheviks." But while the Volunteer Army approached Kyiv, Kursk, Voronezh, the Caucasian Army could only advance as far as the city of Kamyshin (60 versts from Saratov). And after the thousand-mile front of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, curved in the direction of Orel, Tula and Moscow, was broken in October 1919 and the troops began to retreat, Wrangel was appointed to command the Volunteer Army (instead of Mai-Maevsky). Denikin himself explained this appointment by the need to change tactics at the front. The created cavalry group under the command of Wrangel was supposed to stop the offensive of the Red Army, to defeat Budyonny's corps. Politicians of the center-right Council of the State Association of Russia (headed by the former tsarist minister A.V. Krivoshein, P.B. Struve, N.V. Savich, S.D. Tverskoy), who supported the general, were also interested in such an appointment, because the post of commander Volunteer could become the last step to the post of Commander-in-Chief, and in this case, the above-mentioned politicians could get into the formed government.

This appointment was preceded by the events in the Kuban, in which Wrangel was a direct participant. Ever since the beginning of 1919, the Kuban parliament - the Rada - sought to establish the Kuban Army as an independent, separate state, with its own borders, a separate Kuban army, subordinate only to Cossack generals and officers. Speaking on behalf of the "independent Kuban" at the Paris Peace Conference, the Rada delegation entered into an alliance with the government of the Mountainous Republic. This act became the reason for the "pacification" of the recalcitrant Rada, which was entrusted to Wrangel. On November 6, he ordered the arrest and transfer to a court-martial of 12 Rada deputies, and on November 7, one of them - A.I. Kalabukhov was publicly executed in Yekaterinodar. The "Kuban action", carried out with the direct participation of Wrangel, of course, did not add to his sympathy from the Cossacks. In addition, the opposition in the Rada received a pretext for accusing the Denikin government of "suppressing the interests of the Cossacks."

However, the change of command in itself could not immediately improve the situation at the front, the new commander needed time to navigate the unfamiliar theater of operations. In the conditions of the weakness of military units, the absence of normal supply and communications, the absence of fortifications in the rear, a major offensive operation turned out to be impossible. At the end of 1919, units of the Volunteer Army were dismembered, the "white capitals" Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don were hastily evacuated, and the volunteer regiments, which had decreased by more than 10 times, retreated beyond the Don. The remnants of the Dobrarmiya were consolidated into a corps under the command of General Kutepov, and Wrangel "in view of the disbandment of the Army, was placed at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief."

In the winter of 1919/20. Wrangel's conflict with the Headquarters and the Commander-in-Chief himself turned into an open confrontation. In the South Russian White movement, after the impressive successes of the summer-autumn of 1919, a sharp change in military happiness and the subsequent abandonment of a vast territory in just two months was perceived very painfully. To the question "Who is to blame?" it would seem that orders for the army and Wrangel's reports to Headquarters clearly answered. His correspondence with the Commander-in-Chief very soon became known at the front and in the rear.
Wrangel's greatest dissatisfaction was caused by "vices" white south, sharply indicated in the report of December 9, 1919. Written clearly in non-statutory language, the report gave an eloquent assessment of the reasons for the defeat of the “campaign against Moscow”: “Continuously moving forward, the army was stretched out, the units were upset, the rear grew exorbitantly ... The war turned into a means profit, and contentment with local funds - into robbery and speculation ... The population, who met the army with sincere enthusiasm during its advancement, suffered from the Bolsheviks and longed for peace, soon began to experience the horrors of robbery, violence and arbitrariness. As a result, the collapse of the front and uprisings in the rear... There is no army as a fighting force."

In January 1920, Wrangel left for the Crimea. The personification of the "criminal rear" for Wrangel and his entourage was now the Commander-in-Chief of New Russia, General N.N. Shilling. The officers of the Black Sea Fleet, the chairman of the Special Meeting, General Lukomsky, telegraphed to Headquarters: "There is great excitement against Schilling. There is only one way out - this is the immediate appointment of Wrangel to replace Schilling." Finally, the "public figures" of the Crimea turned to the Headquarters with a demand to appoint "at the head of power in the Crimea ... a person who has earned the trust of both the army and the population by his personal qualities and military merits" (that is, Wrangel - V.Ts.). The appeal was signed by A.I. Guchkov, Prince B.V. Gagarin, N.V. Savich, the future head of the Wrangel Department of Agriculture G.V. Glinka and others. The pressure on the Headquarters went in several directions, and Denikin should have had the impression that the front and rear fully supported Wrangel. It is noteworthy that in this "camp on power", leading role it was no longer Wrangel who played, but those political groups and circles (primarily the aforementioned Council of the State Association of Russia) that supported him, based on purely practical calculations - having replaced the Commander-in-Chief, come to power themselves. Of course, it was supposed to carry out not only a change of leadership, but also a change political course South Russian White movement.

Wrangel was sincerely convinced that both the army and the rear wanted a change in the leadership of the White movement, only based on the need for more effective fight with the Soviet government. The words of General B.A. also testify to the predominance of personal ambition in relations between the Commander-in-Chief and Wrangel. Shteifon: “In terms of their mindset, character and worldviews, Denikin and Wrangel were completely different people. And fate would have liked such different natures to learn, each quite independently, the same conviction. General Denikin and General Wrangel suspected each other of that their differences ... are explained not by ideological considerations, but exclusively by personal motives. This tragic, but completely conscientious error entailed many sad and grave consequences ... "

The final act of this conflict was the dismissal of Wrangel by the order of the Commander-in-Chief of February 8, 1920.

AT last days February, the Wrangel family left the Crimea, going to Constantinople with the intention of moving on to Serbia. Together with them, the white south left Krivoshein, Struve, Savich. They saw the armed struggle in the Crimea and the North Caucasus as hopelessly lost, and Denikin's position as doomed. Unexpectedly, news came from Sevastopol about the upcoming Military Council, which was supposed to decide on the appointment of a new Commander-in-Chief.

The outcome of the Military Council held on March 21-22, 1920 was essentially a foregone conclusion. And on March 22, 1920, Denikin published last order, who transferred the powers of the Commander-in-Chief to Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel. Thus ended the "Denikin period" in the history of the white movement in southern Russia. The new Commander-in-Chief had to solve the problems left as a legacy from the past.

Very many in the white Crimea were oppressed by the consciousness of the futility of the struggle against the Soviet regime. If the “campaign against Moscow” ended in defeat, is it possible to hope for the possibility of a successful defense of the Crimea? Wrangel was required to have a clear, definite word about what awaits the white Crimea further. And this "word" was uttered on March 25, 1920 during solemn parade and a prayer service on Nakhimovskaya Square in Sevastopol. “I believe,” said the last Commander-in-Chief of the white south, “that the Lord will not allow the destruction of a just cause, that He will give me the mind and strength to lead the army out of a difficult situation. Knowing the immense valor of the troops, I unshakably believe that they will help me fulfill my duty to homeland and I believe that we will wait for the bright day of the resurrection of Russia. Wrangel said that only the continuation of the armed struggle against the Soviet regime was the only possible for the white movement. But this required the restoration of the white front and rear, now on the territory of the "island of Crimea" alone.

Sole proprietorship principle military dictatorship, which had established itself in the white south since the time of the first Kuban campaigns, was strictly observed by Wrangel in 1920. Not a single significant law or order could be put into effect without his sanction. “We are in a besieged fortress,” Wrangel argued, “and only a single firm power can save the situation. We must beat the enemy first of all, now there is no place for party struggle ... all parties must unite into one, making a non-party business work. The greatly simplified apparatus for managing me is built not from the people of any party, but from the people of action. For me there are neither monarchists nor republicans, but only people of knowledge and labor.

Wrangel defined the main task of the activity of his government as follows: "... It is not by a triumphal procession from the Crimea to Moscow that Russia can be liberated, but by creating, at least on a piece of Russian land, such an order and such living conditions that would pull to itself all the thoughts and forces of the groaning under the red yoke of the people." Thus, the rejection of the main goal of the South Russian White movement - the occupation of Moscow, was proclaimed an attempt to create a kind of springboard from the Crimea, on which it would be possible to implement a new political program, create a "model of White Russia", an alternative to "Bolshevik Russia".

Similar considerations were expressed by Wrangel in a conversation with V.V. Shulgin: "The policy of conquest of Russia must be abandoned ... I strive to make life possible in the Crimea, although on this piece of land ... to show the rest of Russia ...; here you have communism, famine and an emergency, and here a land reform is underway, order and possible freedom are being established... Then it will be possible to move forward, slowly, not as we did under Denikin, slowly, securing what we have seized.Then the provinces taken from the Bolsheviks will be a source of our strength, not weakness, as it was before..." But it turned out to be impossible to create an "experimental field" from Crimea for the future Russia. Nevertheless, the experience of state building in 1920 is very indicative from the point of view of the evolution of the White movement in southern Russia.

So in national policy, relations with the Cossacks, the Government of the South of Russia defined its actions as a rejection of the principles of "one, indivisible Russia." On July 22, in Sevastopol, an agreement was solemnly concluded with representatives of the Don, Kuban, Terek and Astrakhan (generals Bogaevsky, Vdovenko and Lyakhov), according to which the Cossack troops were guaranteed "complete independence in their internal organization and management." In September - October, attempts were made to conclude an alliance with representatives of the Union of Highlanders of the North Caucasus, with the sanction of Wrangel, contacts were established with the grandson of Imam Shamil, an officer French service Said-bek, on the basis of the recognition of the mountain federation. The attempt to establish an alliance with Makhno was also indicative. Emphasizing the "democratism" of its policy, the Wrangel government proposed that Makhno's army join the White Army. And although the "father" himself defiantly refused any contact with the "counter-revolutionaries", a number of smaller rebel detachments (atamans Khmara, Chaly, Savchenko) supported Wrangel, publishing appeals calling for an alliance with the Whites, and Ataman Volodin even formed a "special partisan detachment". All such actions were dictated by the expectation of creating a common front with everyone who, to one degree or another, expressed dissatisfaction with the Soviet government. So in public policy White Crimea embodied the slogan proclaimed by Wrangel "with whomever you want - but for Russia," that is, "against the Bolsheviks."

But main part all inner life the White Crimea of ​​1920 was the land reform, designed to create a new social base for the White movement, the prosperous and middle peasantry, capable of supplying the army and rear, supporting the white government. This "reliance on the peasants" would, in Wrangel's opinion, ensure "victory over Bolshevism." On May 25, 1920, on the eve of the offensive of the White Army in Northern Tavria, the "Order on the Land" was promulgated. "The army must carry the land on bayonets" - that was main point agrarian policy of the White Crimea. All land, including that "captured" by the peasants from the landlords during the "black redistribution" of 1917-1918. stayed with the peasants. No one had the right to deprive them of it. But, in contrast to the demagogy of the Bolshevik "decrees", the "Order on the Land" assigned the land to the peasants as property, albeit for a small ransom, guaranteed them the freedom of local self-government (the creation of volost and district land councils - here Wrangel was not afraid to use even the "revolutionary "the term is advice), and the former landowners did not even have the right to return to their estates.

The last pages of the history of the civil war in southern Russia became in the life of Wrangel the time of the highest tension of forces, energy in organizing the struggle to hold on to the "last span of Russian land" - the white Crimea. Eyewitnesses noted in the Commander-in-Chief a constant state of great internal excitement. Shulgin recalled that "a high-voltage current was felt in this man. His mental energy saturated the environment, ... faith in his work and the ease with which he carried the burden of power, power that did not crush him, but, on the contrary, inspired him, - it was they who did this deed of keeping Taurida, a deed bordering on the miraculous. In good faith trying to delve into all the circumstances of the issues under consideration, Wrangel did not consider himself entitled to leave any case or petition without consideration. Not having sufficient knowledge in many civil matters, he entrusted their consideration to his assistants. He himself spoke about this: “The trouble is that they turn to me with various questions on the state system, on all sorts of economic and trade issues - what can I tell them? I must believe those who tell me. I don’t like it. Give me a horse corps and I'll show you!"

Wrangel personally held military reviews, awarded distinguished soldiers and officers, handed over banners. One of the participants in the last review of the Kornilov shock division (September 1, 1920) recalled: "The arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, his fiery speech and his inimitable cry (there is no other way to express it) - "Eagles-s-s Kornilovtsy-s-s!" - were accompanied for me with continuous nervous trembling and internal sobbing that almost exploded ... The powerful hoarse voice of the Commander-in-Chief seemed torn and, as it were, expressed the overstrained Volunteer Army.
The army was gradually imbued with confidence that the Commander-in-Chief would be able to lead it out of any difficult situation.

His wife in the Crimea continued to study charitable activities. A hospital in Sevastopol was organized at her expense, charity evenings and concerts were repeatedly held, the funds from which went to help wounded soldiers and civilian refugees.

The continuation of the armed struggle in white Tavria in 1920 was impossible without a well-organized, disciplined army. During April - May, about 50 different headquarters and departments, "regiments", "divisions" and "detachments" were liquidated, the entire composition of which did not exceed several dozen fighters. The Armed Forces of the South of Russia were renamed the Russian Army, thus emphasizing the continuity from the regular Russian army until 1917. The reward system was revived. Now, for military distinctions, they were not promoted to the next rank, as was done under Denikin (25-year-old generals were already serving in the army), but they were awarded the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the status of which was developed by Wrangel, was close to the status of the Order of St. George.

By the beginning of the offensive in Northern Tavria, the Russian army was fully prepared, the units replenished their ranks, received new uniforms and weapons. The battles that unfolded in the expanses of the Tauride steppes were distinguished by great perseverance and bitterness. In June, as a result of the operation prepared by the Wrangel headquarters, one of the best red cavalry corps under the command of D.P. was defeated. Rednecks. At the same time, the Red troops managed to cross the Dnieper and in the Kakhovka region to capture a bridgehead, which over the next months, until October, would constantly threaten the rear of the White Army with a strike in the direction of Perekop and its encirclement in Northern Tavria. July and August passed in uninterrupted battles, during which the composition of the army decreased by more than half, and the reinforcements that arrived from the Russian units interned in Poland, mobilized Taurians, were lower in their fighting qualities than the first volunteer personnel tested in battles. Even prisoners of war of the Red Army were placed in the ranks of the white regiments, often again surrendering in the first battle. In September, during the attack on the Donbass, the Russian army achieved its greatest success. The Cossacks of the Don Corps captured one of the centers of the Donbass, Yuzovka, from a raid, and Soviet institutions were hastily evacuated from Yekaterinoslav. But here the same failure awaited Wrangel, which a year earlier had nullified all the successes of Denikin's armies. The front stretched out again, and the few regiments of the Russian army were unable to hold it.

The counteroffensive of the Red Army, which began in mid-October, was so strong and swift that the weakened units of the Russian Army could not hold the front. Budyonny's corps broke through to Perekop, threatening to cut off the escape route to the Crimea. Only the steadfastness and courage of the regiments of the 1st Corps of General Kutepov and Don Cossacks saved the position of the white army, and most of it went to the Crimea. The defeat in Northern Tavria became obvious. After the withdrawal to the Crimea, there remained the last hope for the possibility of a successful defense on the "impregnable", as it was constantly announced in the white press, fortifications near Perekop and Chongar. All official statements spoke of the possibility of "wintering" in the Crimea, that by the spring of 1921 Soviet power would be undermined by the discontent of the peasants and workers, and a new "exit from the Crimea" would be much more successful than in 1920.

But the Soviet command was not going to wait for spring. On the third anniversary of October 1917, the assault on the Perekop fortifications began. The regroupings of troops undertaken at the initiative of Wrangel were not completed by the time of the assault, and the white regiments had to go on counterattacks without the necessary preparation and rest. By the evening of October 28, on the third day of the assault, General Kutepov telegraphed to Headquarters that the Perekop fortifications had been broken through. The unexpectedly rapid fall of Perekop required Wrangel to make immediate decisions that could save the army and rear. "The storm was approaching, our fate hung in the balance, it was necessary to exert all our spiritual and mental strength. The slightest hesitation or oversight could ruin everything." In the current situation, Wrangel was able to quickly implement the developed evacuation plan.

On October 29, the Ruler of the South of Russia and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army issued an order to leave the Crimea. Noting the heroism of the troops and calling on the civilian population to restraint, the order, at the same time, warned those who were going to share its future fate with the White Army: "To fulfill the duty to the army and the population, everything has been done within the limits of human strength. Our further paths are full of uncertainty. We have no other land except Crimea. There is no state treasury either. Frankly, as always, I warn everyone about what awaits them." The government of the South of Russia "advised all those who were not in immediate danger from the violence of the enemy to remain in the Crimea." According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, everyone who decided to leave the Crimea could do it without hindrance. In all ports, with the exception of Feodosia, loading was organized and calm. The troops broke away from the pursuit of the Reds for several transitions and boarded ships without much difficulty. Wrangel left the pier of Sevastopol one of the last. Having delivered a speech in front of the guard of the junkers, the Commander-in-Chief, on the afternoon of November 1, 1920, embarked on the cruiser General Kornilov. On November 3, the cruiser approached Feodosia, where Wrangel supervised the loading of the Cossacks. After that, a squadron of 126 ships (most of the warships and transports of the Black Sea Fleet) went to the open sea. The last period of the "White Struggle" in southern Russia has ended, and with it the peak of General Wrangel's military and state activities has gone down in history.

More than 145 thousand people left White Crimea. Of these, almost half were military. Now Wrangel was faced with the task of arranging for a huge number of military and civilian refugees doomed to a half-starved existence. The Commander-in-Chief was convinced of the need to use the army to continue the "fight against Bolshevism" in the near future. On March 22, 1921, on the anniversary of taking command of the White Army, Wrangel addressed his associates with an order in which he wrote: “With unshakable faith, like a year ago, I promise you to come out of new trials with honor. All the forces of mind and will I give to the service of the army.Officers and soldiers, army and Cossack Corps I am equally dear to me ... As a year ago, I urge you to firmly rally around me, remembering that our strength is in unity. "As early as February 15, 1921, during the review, Wrangel declared: it will illuminate our Russia too... not even three months will pass... and I will lead you forward to Russia."

In Gallipoli, where the regimented units of the former Volunteer Army were located, the position of the troops was especially difficult. The camp was built literally on bare ground. Unfortunately, the army rarely saw its commander in chief. The French command, which controlled the stay of the White Army in Turkey, vigilantly ensured that the communication of the Commander-in-Chief with his army was as rare as possible. But even in isolated cases (Wrangel visited Gallipoli on December 18, 1920 and February 15, 1921) of military reviews and parades, the army felt the former strength and authority of its last commander. For most of the fighters, Wrangel remained the leader, or rather, the symbol of the white movement for the revival of Russia. One of the officers described the reason for such admiration for the Commander-in-Chief as follows: “We believed General Wrangel. We believed implicitly ... It was faith in a person ..., in his high qualities and admiration for the bearer of the White idea, for which thousands of our brothers laid down their lives The visits of the Commander-in-Chief acquired a very special meaning - holidays for the entire mass, who aspired ... to express their deep faith in him ... The army lived and realized itself ..., a close adhesion appeared again, the personal began to dissolve in the powerful consciousness of a single collective, and this team was again embodied in one dear and beloved person ... ".

The intransigence of Wrangel interfered with many. October 15, 1921 the floating headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief - the yacht "Lucullus", which was on the roadstead of the Bosphorus, was rammed by the Italian transport "Adria" and sank a few minutes later. The blow fell just in that part of the ship where the cabin of the Commander-in-Chief was located. Wrangel and his family were saved by chance - at that time they were on the shore. The investigation into the fact of the accident was never brought to an end, however, it was quite possible to assume the deliberate nature of the incident at that time.

No longer counting on the support of France, Wrangel began to negotiate with the Balkan countries to provide asylum to units of the Russian army. Passed since with great difficulty, they were successfully completed at the end of April 1921. Bulgaria agreed to deploy 9, and Serbia - 7,000 troops on its territory. At the end of 1921, the main part of the army was taken to these countries, and on May 5, 1923, the last soldier left Gallipoli.
A new stage began in the life of the White Army and the last in the life of its Commander-in-Chief. After being evacuated from Gallipoli, Wrangel moved to Belgrade with his family. Here, in Yugoslavia, he found himself at the center of the political passions that tore apart the Russian emigration. Former representatives of the leftist parties continued to demand that Wrangel stop supporting the army as an organized military force, while the rightists, the monarchists, intended to liberate Russia only if the army openly accepted the slogan of the revival of the monarchy. It largely depended on Pyotr Nikolaevich whether this slogan would be openly proclaimed in the military environment, or whether it would remain true to the traditional principle "the army is out of politics."

Wrangel responded to this by issuing "Order N 82" on September 8, 1923. It clearly stated: “Today, after three and a half years of exile, the Army is alive; it has retained its independence, it is not bound by any treaties or obligations either with states or parties ...” The order forbade army officers to join the ranks of any political organizations, engage in any political activities. Moreover, an officer who preferred the politics of the army had to leave its ranks. The attitude of Wrangel himself to the idea of ​​restoring the monarchy is very well characterized by his words: “The tsar should appear only when the Bolsheviks are finished ... when the bloody struggle that will take place when they are overthrown subsides. The tsar must not only enter Moscow" on white horse, "it should not have the blood of civil war on it - and it should be a symbol of reconciliation and supreme mercy." The appearance of the "Tsar" in exile, without strength and power, was absurd for Wrangel.

After the army ceased to exist as a separate military structure, it was necessary to maintain its unity. The created and existing military unions, regimental cells were to become the basis for the organization of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). On September 1, 1924, an order was issued to create it. Wrangel became its first chairman, subjugating all the military alliances from South America to Asia.

But formally continuing to retain the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Wrangel had actually already moved away from her daily problems. Last years Wrangel's life was spent in Brussels. According to the memoirs of General Shatilov, "he was no longer attracted to society, he avoided it in every possible way. He found pleasure only in conversations with people close to him ... There was no trace left of the habit of prosperity, the material comforts of life. The former sharpness in judgments about people was replaced by tolerance and condescension ... When you remember this time of his life, it involuntarily seems that although he seemed to be still completely healthy, but the proximity of death was already foreseen. Petr Nikolayevich again returned to the specialty with which he began his life path - the profession of a mining engineer. He devoted much attention to preparing his memoirs for publication. However, both volumes were able to see the light after his death. In February 1928, two months before his death, materials in which he played an important role in preparing for publication personal secretary N.M. Kotlyarevsky, were transferred to A.A. von Lampe - editor of the multi-volume edition "White Business". Rejecting any royalties for publication, Wrangel set the condition "that parts of the army, military unions and their individual ranks, when buying books, would enjoy the greatest possible discount."

The last days of the life of Peter Nikolayevich were surrounded only by relatives and people close to him. His mother Maria Dmitrievna, wife Olga Mikhailovna and children were next to him until last minute. Wrangel's illness proceeded hard, with excruciating exacerbations and attacks. His once mighty body was weakened by previous wounds and shell shock, typhus, constant nervous tension. Finally, his health was undermined by the flu, which turned into a severe form of tuberculosis and increased nervous breakdown. The rapid, terrible development of the disease became the basis for a later version of poisoning. Professor of Medicine I.P. Aleksinsky recalled that General Wrangel complained of a strong nervous excitement that tormented him terribly: “My brain is tormenting me ... I can’t rest from obsessive bright thoughts ... My brain is working feverishly against my desire, my head is always busy with calculations, calculations , drawing up dispositions ... The pictures of the war are always in front of me and I write orders all the time, orders, orders ... ". Even during some improvement (ten days before his death), he "had a severe nervous attack. From some kind of terrible internal excitement, he screamed for about forty minutes ..., no efforts of those around him could calm him down."

On April 12, 1928, at the age of 50, Lieutenant-General Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel died in Brussels. "God save the army ...", - such, according to eyewitnesses, were his last words. Later, his body was transported to Belgrade, and here on October 6, 1928, he was buried in a Russian Orthodox church, in a sarcophagus, under the canopy of the bowed banners of Russian regiments. The burial of the last Commander-in-Chief was a kind of demonstration of the loyalty of the army to its leader. The funeral ceremony was held in a solemn atmosphere. On an artillery carriage, the body of the general was carried along the soldiers and officers of the white army lined up in the guard of honor.

General Wrangel, his personality and his entire military biography became for the White Army the personification of an uncompromising struggle, in the name of which it was impossible to yield, to move away from the original traditions of the White movement. Despite the fact that the civil war had already ended, for those who shared their fate with the white army, being far from their homeland, Wrangel was presented as a leader, a leader under whose leadership one could hope for the success of the white struggle, for a speedy return to Russia. It is precisely because of this that the personality of the last white Commander-in-Chief remained “out of criticism” among the military emigration for a long time. The mistakes he made during the civil war were forgotten and forgiven, in particular, his conflict with Denikin, failures, miscalculations during the struggle in white Tavria in 1920 . Wrangel became an indisputable authority, and such an assessment of his activities became predominant in most of the works of authors of military emigration who wrote about the events of the civil war in southern Russia.

And for former allies Wrangel remained the leader of the White movement, an outstanding personality; after his death, his wax figure was in the Gervin Museum in Paris, and at his funeral, along with the Russians, the last honors were given to him by Serbian troops.

The materials of his personal archive are kept at the Hoover Institute for War, Revolution and Peace (USA). Many of these documents were collected, systematized and preserved by Wrangel's daughters, Elena and Natalya, and by their son Peter. It is also noteworthy that younger son his Alexei became a historian and devoted his scientific work to the study of his father's activities, as well as to the study of the past of the Russian cavalry.

Leading the White movement in southern Russia for last step In the armed struggle, Wrangel showed himself as a military leader and statesman, thanks to whom the political and ideological program of the white cause was finally formed. "White ideology" seemed to him not a simple antipode of communist ideology, but an ideology necessary for the future " National Russia", in which the interests of all classes and estates of Russian society should be united. In his opinion, the white cause, which had deep political foundations, could not develop its social base only because of the lack of sufficient time during the civil war.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel
Nickname:	black baron
Place of Birth:	Russian empire, Kovno province, Novoaleksandrovsk
A place of death:	Belgium, Brussels
Affiliation:	Russian empire White Guard
Type of army:	Cavalry
Years of service:
	General Staff Lieutenant General (1918)
Commanded:	Cavalry division; cavalry corps; Caucasian Volunteer Army; Volunteer army; V. S. Yu. R.; Russian Army
Battles/wars:	Russo-Japanese War World War I Civil War
Autograph:

Origin

Participation in the Civil War

Wrangel's policy in the Crimea

Leader of the White Movement

Fall of white Crimea

Sevastopol evacuation

Emigration

Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel(August 15 (27), 1878, Novoaleksandrovsk, Kovno province, Russian Empire - April 25, 1928, Brussels, Belgium) - Russian military leader, participant in the Russo-Japanese and World War I, one of the main leaders (1918? 1920) of the White movement in the years Civil War. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in the Crimea and Poland (1920). General Staff Lieutenant General (1918). Georgievsky Cavalier.

He received the nickname "Black Baron" for his traditional (since September 1918) everyday uniform - a black Cossack Circassian coat with gazyrs.

Origin

Came from home Tollsburg-Ellistfer the Wrangel family - an old noble family that traces its pedigree to early XIII century. The motto of the Wrangel family was: "Frangas, non flectes" (You will break, but you will not bend). A native of the Petersburg intelligentsia.

The name of one of the ancestors of Peter Nikolayevich is listed among the wounded on the fifteenth wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, where the names of Russian officers who died and were wounded during the Patriotic War of 1812 are inscribed. A distant relative of Peter Wrangel - Baron A.E. Wrangel - captured Shamil. The name of an even more distant relative of Pyotr Nikolaevich - the famous Russian navigator and polar explorer Admiral Baron F. P. Wrangel - is Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, as well as other geographical objects in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

Father - Baron Nikolai Yegorovich Wrangel (1847-1923) - art historian, writer and famous collector of antiques. Mother - Maria Dmitrievna Dementieva-Maikova (1856-1944) - lived throughout the Civil War in Petrograd under her last name. After Pyotr Nikolaevich became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, her friends helped her move to a refugee hostel, where she registered as the "Veronelli's widow", but continued to go to work in the Soviet museum under her real name. At the end of October 1920, with the help of the Savinkovites, her friends arranged for her to escape to Finland.

The second cousins ​​of the grandfather of Pyotr Wrangel - Yegor Ermolaevich (1803-1868) - were Professor Yegor Vasilyevich and Admiral Vasily Vasilyevich.

Studies

He graduated from the Rostov real school (1896) and the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg (1901). He was an engineer by education.

He entered the Life Guards Horse Regiment as a volunteer in 1901, and in 1902, having passed the exam at the Nikolaev Cavalry School, he was promoted to the cornets of the guard with enrollment in the reserve. After that, he left the ranks of the army and went to Irkutsk as an official for special assignments under the Governor-General.

Participation in the Russo-Japanese War

After the start Russo-Japanese War again enters military service, this time - for good. The baron volunteered for the active army and was assigned to the 2nd Verkhneudinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. In December 1904, he was promoted to the rank of centurion - with the wording in the order "for distinction in cases against the Japanese" and was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 4th degree with the inscription "For Courage" on cold steel and St. Stanislav with swords and a bow. On January 6, 1906, he was assigned to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment and promoted to the rank of staff captain. On March 26, 1907, he was again appointed to the Life Guards Horse Regiment with the rank of lieutenant.

Participation in World War I

In 1910 he graduated from the Nikolaev imperial academy General Staff, in 1911 - the course of the Cavalry Officer School. He met World War I as a squadron commander with the rank of captain. On October 13, 1914, one of the first Russian officers was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. In December 1914 he received the rank of colonel. In June 1915 he was awarded the St. George's Golden Weapon.

In October 1915 he was transferred to the Southwestern Front and on October 8, 1915 he was appointed commander of the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Host. When translating, he was given next feature by his former commander: "Outstanding bravery. Understands the situation perfectly and quickly, very resourceful in a difficult situation. Commanding this regiment, Baron Wrangel fought against the Austrians in Galicia, participated in the famous Lutsk breakthrough in 1916, and then in defensive positional battles. At the forefront, he put military prowess, military discipline, honor and mind of the commander. If an officer gave an order, Wrangel said, and it was not carried out, "he is no longer an officer, there are no officer epaulettes on him." New steps in the military career of Pyotr Nikolaevich were the rank of major general, "for military distinction", in January 1917 and his appointment as commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri cavalry division, then in July 1917 - commander of the 7th cavalry division, and after - Commander of the Consolidated Cavalry Corps.

For a successful operation on the Zbruch River in the summer of 1917, General Wrangel was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross, IV degree.

Participation in the Civil War

From the end of 1917 he lived in a dacha in Yalta, where he was soon arrested by the Bolsheviks. After a short imprisonment, the general, having been released, hid in the Crimea until the entry of the German army into it, after which he left for Kyiv, where he decided to cooperate with the hetman government of P. P. Skoropadsky. Convinced of the weakness of the new Ukrainian government, which rested solely on German bayonets, the baron leaves Ukraine and arrives in Yekaterinodar, occupied by the Volunteer Army, where he takes command of the 1st Cavalry Division. From this moment begins the service of Baron Wrangel in the White Army.

In August 1918, he entered the Volunteer Army, having by this time the rank of Major General and being a Cavalier of St. George. During the 2nd Kuban campaign he commanded the 1st cavalry division, and then the 1st cavalry corps. In November 1918 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

Pyotr Nikolaevich was opposed to the conduct of cavalry battles along the entire front. General Wrangel sought to gather the cavalry into a fist and throw it into the gap. It was the brilliant attacks of the Wrangel cavalry that determined the final result of the battles in the Kuban and the North Caucasus.

In January 1919, for some time he commanded the Volunteer Army, from January 1919 - the Caucasian Volunteer Army. He was in a strained relationship with the commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic, General A. I. Denikin, as he demanded an early offensive in the Tsaritsyno direction to join the army of Admiral A. V. Kolchak (Denikin insisted on an early attack on Moscow). A major military victory for the baron was the capture of Tsaritsyn on June 30, 1919, which had previously been unsuccessfully stormed by the troops of Ataman P.N. Krasnov three times during 1918. It was in Tsaritsyn that Denikin, who soon arrived there, signed his famous "Moscow Directive", which, according to Wrangel, "was a death sentence for the troops of the South of Russia." In November 1919 he was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army operating in the Moscow area. On December 20, 1919, due to disagreements and conflicts with the commander-in-chief V.S.Yu.R., he was removed from command of the troops, and on February 8, 1920, he was dismissed and left for Constantinople.

On March 20, the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Russian Union of Youth, General Denikin, decided to resign from his post. On March 21, a military council was convened in Sevastopol, chaired by General Dragomirov, at which Wrangel was elected commander-in-chief. According to the memoirs of P. S. Makhrov, at the council, the first name of Wrangel was named by the chief of staff of the fleet, Captain 1st Rank Ryabinin. March 22 Wrangel arrived in Sevastopol on the English ship "Emperor of India" and took command.

Wrangel's policy in the Crimea

For six months in 1920, P. N. Wrangel, the Ruler of the South of Russia and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, tried to take into account the mistakes of his predecessors, boldly made previously unthinkable compromises, tried to win over various segments of the population, but by the time he came to power The white struggle was in fact already lost, both internationally and domestically.

He advocated the federal structure of the future Russia. He tended to recognize the political independence of Ukraine (in particular, according to a special decree adopted in the fall of 1920, the Ukrainian language was recognized as a national language along with Russian). However, all these actions were aimed only at concluding a military alliance with the army of the Directory of the UNR, headed by Symon Petliura, who by that time had almost lost control over the territory of Ukraine.

Recognized the independence of the Mountain Federation of the North Caucasus. He tried to establish contacts with the leaders of the rebel formations of Ukraine, including Makhno, but he did not achieve success, and Wrangel's parliamentarians were shot by the Makhnovists. However, the commanders of smaller formations of the "green" willingly entered into an alliance with the baron.

With the support of the head of the Government of the South of Russia, a prominent economist and reformer A.V. Krivoshein, he developed a number of legislative acts on agrarian reform, among which the main one is the “Land Law”, adopted by the government on May 25, 1920.

His land policy was based on the provision that most of the land belonged to the peasants. He recognized as legal the seizure by the peasants of the landlords' lands in the first years after the revolution (albeit for a certain monetary or in-kind contribution to the state). He carried out a number of administrative reforms in the Crimea, as well as the reform of local self-government (“Law on volost zemstvos and rural communities”). He sought to win over the Cossacks by promulgating a number of decrees on the regional autonomy of the Cossack lands. He patronized the workers by adopting a number of provisions on labor legislation. Despite all the progressive measures, the Whites did not gain the confidence of the population in the person of the commander-in-chief, and the material and human resources of the Crimea were exhausted. In addition, Great Britain actually refused further support for the whites, proposing to turn "to Soviet government meaning to achieve an amnesty, "and saying that the British government would refuse any kind of support and assistance if the white leadership again refused to negotiate. It is clear that the very proposal to negotiate with the Bolsheviks was absolutely unacceptable and even offensive to the White Command, so the actions of Britain, regarded as blackmail, did not affect the decision to continue the fight to the end.

Leader of the White Movement

When he took office as Commander-in-Chief V.S. Yu. R. Wrangel saw his main task not as the fight against the Reds, but as the task of " with honor to lead the army out of a difficult situation". At that moment, few of the white military leaders could have imagined the very possibility of active hostilities, and the combat effectiveness of the troops after the catastrophe was called into question. A very heavy blow to the morale of the troops was dealt by the British ultimatum about ending the unequal struggle". This message from the British was the first international instrument received by Wrangel in the rank of leader of the White movement. General Baron Wrangel would later write in his memoirs:

In this regard, it is not surprising that General Baron Wrangel, upon assuming his position as Commander-in-Chief V.S.Yu.R., realizing the entire degree of vulnerability of the Crimea, immediately took a number of preparatory measures in case the army was evacuated - in order to avoid a repetition of the disasters of the Novorossiysk and Odessa evacuations . The baron was also well aware that economic resources Crimea are insignificant and incomparable with the resources of the Kuban, Don, Siberia, which served as bases for the emergence of the White movement and the isolation of the region can lead to famine.

A few days after Baron Wrangel took office, he received information about the preparations by the Reds for a new assault on the Crimea, for which the Bolshevik command brought here a significant amount of artillery, aviation, 4 rifle and cavalry divisions. Among these forces were also selected troops of the Bolsheviks - the Latvian Division, 3rd rifle division, consisting of internationalists - Latvians, Hungarians, etc.

On April 13, 1920, the Latvians attacked and overturned the advanced units of General Ya. A. Slashchev on Perekop and had already begun to move south from Perekop to the Crimea. Slashchev counterattacked and drove the enemy back, but the Latvians, who received reinforcements from the rear after reinforcements, managed to cling to the Turkish Wall. The approaching Volunteer Corps decided the outcome of the battle, as a result of which the Reds were driven out of Perekop and were soon partially cut down, partially driven away by the cavalry of General Morozov near Tyup-Dzhankoy.

On April 14, General Baron Wrangel launched a red counterattack, having previously grouped the Kornilovites, Markovites and Slashchevites and reinforced them with a detachment of cavalry and armored cars. The Reds were crushed, but the approaching 8th Red Cavalry Division, driven out the day before by the Wrangelites from Chongar, restored the position as a result of its attack, and the Red Infantry again launched an offensive against Perekop - however, this time the assault by the Reds failed, and their offensive was stopped at approaches to Perekop. In an effort to consolidate success, General Wrangel decided to inflict flank attacks on the Bolsheviks by landing two landings (Alekseev's ships were sent to the Kirillovka area, and the Drozdov division to the village of Khorly, 20 km west of Perekop). Both landings were noticed by red aircraft even before the landing, so after a hard unequal battle with the entire approaching 46th Estonian Red Division, with heavy losses, 800 Alekseyevites broke through to Genichesk and were evacuated under the cover of naval artillery. The Drozdovites, despite the fact that their landing also did not come as a surprise to the enemy, were able to fulfill the initial plan of the operation ( landing operation Perekop - Khorly): they landed in the rear of the Reds, in Khorly, from where they passed more than 60 miles along the rear of the enemy with battles to Perekop, diverting the forces of the pressing Bolsheviks from it. For Khorly, the commander of the First (of the two Drozdov) regiments, Colonel A.V. Turkul, was promoted to Major General by the Commander-in-Chief. As a result, the assault on Perekop by the Reds turned out to be generally thwarted, and the Bolshevik command was forced to postpone another attempt to storm Perekop to May in order to transfer more big forces and then act for sure. In the meantime, the Red Command decided to lock up V.S.Yu.R. in the Crimea, for which they began to actively build barrier lines, concentrated large forces of artillery (including heavy) and armored vehicles.

V. E. Shambarov writes on the pages of his research about how the first battles under the command of General Wrangel affected the morale of the army:

General Wrangel quickly and decisively reorganizes the army and renames it on April 28, 1920 into "Russian". Cavalry regiments are replenished with horses. Tough measures are trying to strengthen discipline. Equipment is starting to arrive. The coal delivered on April 12 allows the White Guard ships to come to life, which had previously been without fuel. And Wrangel, in orders for the army, already speaks of a way out of a difficult situation " not only with honor, but also with victory».

The offensive of the "Russian Army" in Northern Tavria

Having defeated several Red divisions, which were trying to counterattack to prevent the advance of the Whites, the "Russian Army" managed to break out of the Crimea and occupy the fertile territories of Novorossia, vital for replenishing the food supplies of the Army.

In September 1920, the Wrangel troops were defeated by the Reds near Kakhovka. On the night of November 8, the Red Army launched a general offensive, the purpose of which was to capture Perekop and Chongar and break into the Crimea. Parts of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies, as well as the 51st division of Blucher and the army of N. Makhno were involved in the offensive.

Fall of white Crimea

In November 1920, General A.P. Kutepov, who commanded the defense of the Crimea, could not hold back the offensive, and units of the Red Army under the general command of M.V. Frunze broke into the territory of Crimea.

The remnants of the white units (approximately 100 thousand people) were evacuated in an organized manner to Constantinople with the support of the Entente.

Sevastopol evacuation

Having accepted the Volunteer Army in a situation where the entire White Cause had already been lost by his predecessors, General Baron Wrangel, nevertheless, did everything possible to save the situation, and, in the end, was forced to take out the remnants of the Army and the civilian population, who did not want to remain under the power of the Bolsheviks. And he did it flawlessly: the evacuation of the Russian Army from the Crimea, much more complicated than the Novorossiysk evacuation, went almost perfectly - order reigned in all ports and everyone could board the ship and, although they would go into complete obscurity, save themselves from red violence . Pyotr Nikolaevich personally rode on a destroyer of the Russian fleet, but before leaving the coast of Russia himself, he traveled all the Russian ports and made sure that the ships carrying refugees were ready to set off for the open sea.

Emigration

Since November 1920 - in exile. After arriving in Constantinople, Wrangel lived on the Lucullus yacht. On October 15, 1921, near the Galata embankment, the yacht was rammed by the Italian steamer Adria, sailing from the Soviet Batum, and she instantly sank. Wrangel and his family members were not on board at that moment. Most of the crew members managed to escape, the captain of the ship, midshipman P.P. Sapunov, who refused to leave the yacht, the ship's cook Krasa and sailor Efim Arshinov, died. The strange circumstances of the sinking of the Lucullus caused many contemporaries to suspect a deliberate ramming of the yacht, which is confirmed by modern researchers of the Soviet special services. The agent of the Intelligence Agency of the Red Army Olga Golubovskaya, known in the Russian emigration of the early 1920s as the poetess Elena Ferrari, took part in the Luculla ram.

In 1922, with his headquarters, he moved from Constantinople to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in Sremski Karlovci.

In 1924, Wrangel created the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which united most of the participants in the White movement in exile. In November 1924, Wrangel recognized the supreme leadership of the ROVS as Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich (formerly the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army in the First World War).

In September 1927, Wrangel moved with his family to Brussels. He worked as an engineer in one of the Brussels firms.

He died suddenly in Brussels after an unexpected illness in 1928. According to the assumptions of his relatives, he was poisoned by the brother of his servant, who was a Bolshevik agent.

He was buried in Brussels. Subsequently, the ashes of Wrangel were transferred to Belgrade, where they were solemnly reburied on October 6, 1929 in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity.

Awards

• Order of St. Anne, 4th class "For Courage" (07/04/1904)
• Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class with swords and a bow (01/06/1906)
• Order of St. Anne, 3rd class (05/09/1906)
• Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class (12/6/1912)
• Order of St. George 4th class. (10/13/1914)
• Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class with swords and a bow (10/24/1914)
• Golden weapon "For courage" (06/10/1915)
• Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class with swords (12/8/1915)
• Soldier's Cross of St. George, 4th class (24.07.1917)
• Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker 2nd class

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel

Having become the head of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, Lieutenant General Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel was fully aware of the difficult, almost stalemate white army, transported from Novorossiysk to Crimea.

Wrangel said that in the absence of the help of the allies, there was no way to count on a successful continuation of the struggle, and the only thing he could promise was not to bow the banner to the enemy and do everything to bring the army and navy out of the situation with honor. To do this, he set himself the goal: “To create, at least on a piece of Russian land, such an order and such living conditions that would pull to itself all the thoughts and forces of the people groaning under the red yoke.”

The realization of this goal came up against the desperate economic situation of the resource-poor Crimea. The Whites needed access to the rich southern districts of Northern Tavria. Meanwhile, the Reds fortified these territories in order to more firmly close the exit from the Crimean peninsula.

Wrangell. The path of the Russian general. Film one

The troops of General Wrangel, renamed at this time in Russian army, were already a serious force numbering 40 thousand people with the material part put in order. The troops had time to rest and recover from a heavy defeat. At least temporarily, one could be calm about the fate of the Crimea.