The future White General Denikin Anton Ivanovich was born on 12/16/1872 in a village not far from the Polish capital. As a child, Anton dreamed of becoming a military man, so he bathed horses together with lancers and went with a company to the shooting range. At the age of 18 he graduated from a real school. After 2 years he became a graduate of the infantry cadet school in Kyiv. At the age of 27 he graduated from the General Staff Academy in the capital.
As soon as the military conflict with Japan began, the young officer sent a request to be sent to the warring army, where he became the chief of staff of the Ural-Transbaikal division. After the end of the war, Denikin was awarded two military awards and granted the rank of colonel. When returning home after the war, the path to the capital was blocked by a number of anarchist republics. But Denikin and his colleagues formed a detachment of volunteers and with weapons by rail made their way through the turmoil-ridden Siberia.
From 1906 to 1910 Denikin served on the General Staff. From 1910 to 1914, he served as commander of an infantry regiment, and before the First World War, Denikin became a major general.
When the first world conflict began, Anton Ivanovich commanded a brigade, which was later reformed into a division. In the fall of 1916, Denikin was appointed commander of the 8th Army Corps. Being a participant in Brusilov's breakthrough, General Denikin was awarded two Orders of St. George and weapons encrusted with precious stones as a reward for courage and success.
In the spring of 1917, Denikin was already the chief of staff of the supreme commander, and in the summer instead of Kornilov he was appointed commander in chief of the Western Front.
Anton Ivanovich was very critical of the actions of the provisional government of Russia, which, he believed, contributed to the disintegration of the army. As soon as Denikin found out about the Kornilov rebellion, he immediately sent a letter to the provisional government, where he expressed his agreement with Kornilov's actions. In the summer, Generals Denikin and Markov with other associates were arrested and put in the casemates of Berdichev. In the fall, the prisoners were transferred to the Bykhov prison, where Kornilov and his associates were already languishing. In November, General Dukhonin ordered the release of Kornilov, Denikin and the rest of the prisoners, who immediately went to the Don.
Upon arrival on the Don land, the generals, which included Denikin, began to form the Volunteer Army. As deputy commander, Denikin took part in the "Ice" campaign. After General Kornilov died, Denikin took up the post of commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army and ordered a retreat back to the Don.
With the beginning of 1919, Denikin headed all the Armed Forces of southern Russia. Having cleared the entire North Caucasus of the Red Guards, Denikin's armies began to advance. After the liberation of Ukraine, the Whites took Orel and Voronezh. After the assault on Tsaritsyn, Denikin decided to march on the capital. But already in the fall, the Reds turned the tide of the Civil War, and Denikin's armies began to retreat south. The army of the White Guards was evacuated from Novorossiysk, and Anton Ivanovich, having surrendered command to Baron Wrangel and greatly experiencing defeat, went into exile. An interesting fact: the white general Denikin never presented orders and medals to his fighters, because he considered it shameful to be awarded in a fratricidal war.
Denikin Anton Ivanovich(1872 – 1947)
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born on December 4, 1872 in the village of Shpetal Dolny, a suburb of Vlotslavsk, a county town of the Warsaw province. The surviving metric record reads: “I hereby testify with the application of the church seal that in the metric book of the Lovichi parish Baptist Church for 1872, the act of baptizing the infant Anthony, the son of retired major Ivan Efimov Denikin, of the Orthodox confession, and his legal wife, Elisaveta Fedorova, of the Roman Catholic of confession, is written as follows: in the account of births of the male sex No. 33, time of birth: one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, December the fourth day. Time of baptism: the same year and month of December, the twenty-fifth day. His father - Ivan Efimovich Denikin (1807 - 1885) - came from serfs in the village of Orekhovka, Saratov province. At the age of 27, he was recruited by the landowner and for 22 years of "Nikolaev" service served the rank of sergeant major, and in 1856 he passed the exam for an officer rank (as A.I. Denikin later wrote, "officer exam", according to it was very simple for that time: reading and writing, four rules of arithmetic, knowledge of military regulations and writing, and the Law of God”).
Having chosen a military career, after graduating from college in July 1890, he joined the 1st Infantry Regiment as a volunteer, and in the autumn he entered the military school course of the Kyiv Infantry Cadet School. In August 1892, having successfully completed the course, he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and sent to serve in the 2nd field artillery brigade, stationed in the city of Bela (Sedletskaya province). In the fall of 1895, Denikin entered the Academy of the General Staff, but at the final exams for the 1st year he did not score the required number of points for transfer to the 2nd year and returned to the brigade. In 1896 he entered the academy for the second time. At this time, Denikin became interested in literary work. In 1898, his first story about brigade life was published in the military magazine Scout. Thus began his active work in military journalism.
In the spring of 1899, Denikin graduated from the academy in the 1st category. However, as a result of the plans started by the new head of the academy, General Sukhotin, with the blessing of the Minister of War A.N. Kuropatkin’s changes, which affected, among other things, the order of counting points scored by graduates, he was excluded from the already compiled list of those assigned to the General Staff.
In the spring of 1900, Denikin returned for further service in the 2nd field artillery brigade. When the feelings about the obvious injustice subsided somewhat, from Bela he wrote a personal letter to the Minister of War Kuropatkin, briefly outlining "the whole truth about what happened." According to him, he did not expect an answer, "I just wanted to take my soul away." Unexpectedly, at the end of December 1901, news came from the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District that he had been assigned to the General Staff.
In July 1902, Denikin was appointed senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division, stationed in Brest-Litovsk. From October 1902 to October 1903, he served as a qualified command of a company of the 183rd Pultus Infantry Regiment stationed in Warsaw.
From October 1903 he served as senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Corps. With the outbreak of the Japanese War, Denikin filed a report on transfer to the active army.
In March 1904, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and sent to the headquarters of the 9th Army Corps, where he was appointed chief of staff of the 3rd Zaamur border guard brigade, which guarded the railway between Harbin and Vladivostok.
In September 1904, he was transferred to the headquarters of the Manchurian army, appointed as a staff officer for special assignments at the headquarters of the 8th Army Corps and assumed the post of chief of staff of the Transbaikal Cossack division, General P.K. Rennenkampf. Participated in the battle of Mukden. Later he served as chief of staff of the Ural-Transbaikal Cossack division.
In August 1905, he was appointed chief of staff of the Consolidated Cavalry Corps, General P.I. Mishchenko; promoted to the rank of colonel for military distinction. In January 1906, Denikin was appointed as a staff officer for special assignments at the headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Corps (Warsaw), in May - September 1906 he commanded a battalion of the 228th Infantry Reserve Khvalynsky Regiment, in December 1906 he was transferred to the post Chief of Staff of the 57th Infantry Reserve Brigade (Saratov), in June 1910 he was appointed commander of the 17th Archangelsk Infantry Regiment, stationed in Zhytomyr.
In March 1914, Denikin was appointed a corrective general for assignments under the commander of the troops of the Kyiv military district, and in June he was promoted to the rank of major general. Later, recalling how the Great War began for him, he wrote: “The chief of staff of the Kyiv military district, General V. Dragomirov, was on vacation in the Caucasus, the general on duty too. I replaced the latter, and the mobilization and formation of three headquarters and all institutions - the Southwestern Front, the 3rd and 8th armies - fell on my still inexperienced shoulders.
In August 1914, Denikin was appointed Quartermaster General of the 8th Army, commanded by General A.A. Brusilov. He "with a feeling of great relief surrendered his temporary position at the Kiev headquarters to the general on duty who returned from vacation and was able to immerse himself in the study of the deployment and tasks ahead of the 8th Army." As quartermaster general, he took part in the first operations of the 8th Army in Galicia. But the staff work, according to his confession, did not satisfy him: “I preferred direct participation in combat work, with its deep feelings and exciting dangers, to drawing up directives, dispositions and tedious, albeit important, staff equipment.” And when he learned that the post of head of the 4th rifle brigade was being vacated, he did everything to go into service: “To receive such an excellent brigade in command was the limit of my desires, and I turned to ... General Brusilov, asking him to let me go and appoint to the brigade. After some negotiations, consent was given, and on September 6 I was appointed commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade. The fate of the "iron shooters" became the fate of Denikin. During his command of them, he received almost all the awards of the St. George Statute. Participated in the Carpathian battle in 1915.
In April 1915, the "Iron" brigade was reorganized into the 4th rifle ("Iron") division. As part of the 8th Army, the division took part in the Lvov and Lutsk operations. On September 24, 1915, the division took Lutsk, and Denikin was promoted ahead of schedule to lieutenant general for military merit. In July 1916, during the Brusilovsky breakthrough, the division took Lutsk a second time.
In September 1916, he was appointed commander of the 8th Army Corps, which fought on the Romanian front. In February 1917, Denikin was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army (Mogilev), in May - Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the Western Front (headquarters in Minsk), in June - Assistant Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, at the end of July - Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the South-Western front (headquarters in Berdichev).
After the February Revolution, Denikin, as far as possible, opposed the democratization of the army: in "rally democracy", the activities of soldiers' committees and fraternization with the enemy, he saw only "collapse" and "decay". He defended the officers from violence by the soldiers, demanded the introduction of the death penalty at the front and in the rear, supported the plans of the supreme commander-in-chief, General L.G. Kornilov to establish a military dictatorship in the country to suppress the revolutionary movement, liquidate the Soviets and continue the war. He did not hide his views, publicly and firmly defending the interests of the army, as he understood them, and the dignity of the Russian officers, which made his name especially popular among the officers. The "Kornilov rebellion" put an end to Denikin's military career in the ranks of the old Russian army: by order of the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, he was removed from his post and arrested on August 29. After a month of detention in the garrison guardhouse in Berdichev, on September 27-28, he was transferred to the city of Bykhov (Mogilev province), where Kornilov and other participants in the "mutiny" were imprisoned. On November 19, by order of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General N.N. Dukhonin was released along with Kornilov and others, after which he left for the Don.
In Novocherkassk and Rostov, Denikin took part in the formation of the Volunteer Army and the leadership of its operations to protect the center of the Don region, which M.V. Alekseev and L.G. Kornilov was considered as the base of the anti-Bolshevik struggle.
On December 25, 1917, in Novocherkassk, Denikin married with his first marriage to Ksenia Vasilievna Chizh (1892 - 1973), the daughter of General V.I. Chizh, a friend and colleague in the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade. The wedding took place in one of the churches on the outskirts of Novocherkassk in the presence of only a few of the closest.
In February 1918, before the army set out on the 1st Kuban campaign, Kornilov appointed him his deputy. March 31 (April 13), 1918, after the death of Kornilov during the unsuccessful assault on Yekaterinodar, Denikin took command of the Volunteer Army. He managed to save the army, which suffered heavy losses, avoiding encirclement and defeat, and withdraw it to the south of the Don region. There, thanks to the fact that the Don Cossacks rose to the armed struggle against the Soviets, he was able to give the army a rest and replenish it with an influx of new volunteers - officers and Kuban Cossacks.
Having reorganized and replenished the army, Denikin moved it to the 2nd Kuban campaign in June. By the end of September, the Volunteer Army, having inflicted a number of defeats on the Red Army of the North Caucasus, occupied the flat part of the Kuban Territory with Ekaterinodar, as well as part of the Stavropol and Black Sea provinces with Novorossiysk. The army suffered heavy losses due to an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition, replenished by the influx of volunteer Cossacks and supplied with the capture of trophies.
In November 1918, when, after the defeat of Germany, the army and navy of the allies appeared in the south of Russia, Denikin managed to solve the supply issues (thanks primarily to commodity loans from the British government). On the other hand, under pressure from the allies, Ataman Krasnov in December 1918 agreed to the operational subordination of the Don Army to Denikin (in February 1919, he resigned). As a result, Denikin united in his hands the command of the Volunteer and Don armies, on December 26 (January 8, 1919) he accepted the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia (VSYUR). By this time, the Volunteer Army, at the cost of heavy losses in personnel (especially among volunteer officers), had completed the cleansing of the Bolsheviks in the North Caucasus, and Denikin began the transfer of units to the north: to help the defeated Don Army and launch a broad offensive into the center of Russia.
In February 1919, the Denikins had a daughter, Marina. He was very attached to the family. Calling Denikin "Tsar Anton", his closest employees were kindly ironic. There was nothing "royal" in his appearance or manners. Of medium height, dense, slightly disposed to fullness, with a good-natured face and a slightly rude low voice, he was distinguished by naturalness, openness and directness. The offensive of the All-Union Socialist Republic, launched in the spring of 1919, developed successfully on a wide front: during the summer - early autumn, three armies of the All-Union Socialist Republic ( Volunteer, Don and Caucasian) territories were occupied up to the line Odessa - Kyiv - Kursk - Voronezh - Tsaritsyn. The "Moscow directive" published by Denikin in July set specific tasks for each army to occupy Moscow. In an effort to quickly occupy the maximum territory, Denikin (in this he was supported by his chief of staff, General Romanovsky), tried, firstly, to deprive the Bolshevik government of the most important areas for fuel extraction and grain production, industrial and railway centers, sources of replenishment of the Red Army with human and horse staff and, secondly, to use all this for the supply, replenishment and further deployment of the VSYUR. However, the expansion of the territory led to the aggravation of economic, social and political problems.
In relations with the Entente, Denikin firmly defended the interests of Russia, but his ability to resist the self-serving actions of Great Britain and France in southern Russia was extremely limited. On the other hand, the material assistance of the allies was insufficient: the units of the Allied Forces of South Russia experienced a chronic shortage of weapons, ammunition, technical equipment, uniforms and equipment. As a result of the growing economic ruin, the disintegration of the army, the hostility of the population and the insurrectionary movement in the rear in October-November 1919, a turning point occurred in the course of the war on the Southern Front. The armies and military groups of the All-Union Socialist League suffered heavy defeats from the superior armies of the Soviet Southern and South-Eastern fronts near Orel, Kursk, Kyiv, Kharkov, Voronezh. By January 1920, the VSYUR with heavy losses retreated to the Odessa region, to the Crimea and to the territory of the Don and Kuban.
By the end of 1919, Wrangel's criticism of Denikin's policy and strategy led to a sharp conflict between them. In the actions of Wrangel, Denikin saw not just a violation of military discipline, but also an undermining of power. In February 1920, he dismissed Wrangel from military service. 12 - 14 (25 - 27) March 1920 Denikin evacuated the remnants of the All-Union Socialist Republic from Novorossiysk to the Crimea. Bitterly convinced (including from the report of the commander of the Volunteer Corps, General A.P. Kutepov) that the officers of the volunteer units no longer trust him, Denikin, morally defeated, on March 21 (April 3) convened a military council to elect a new commander-in-chief of the All-Russian Union of Youth Leagues. Since the council proposed the candidacy of Wrangel, Denikin on March 22 (April 4) appointed him commander-in-chief of the All-Union Socialist League on March 22 (April 4). In the evening of the same day, the destroyer of the British Navy "Emperor of India" took him and his entourage, among whom was General Romanovsky, from Feodosia to Constantinople.
The “Denikin group” arrived in London by train from Southampton on April 17, 1920. The London newspapers marked their arrival in Denikin with respectful articles. The Times devoted the following lines to him: “The arrival in England of General Denikin, the valiant, albeit unfortunate commander of the armed forces, who supported the allied cause in the South of Russia to the end, should not go unnoticed by those who recognize and appreciate his merits, as well as what he tried to carry out for the benefit of his homeland and organized freedom. Without fear or reproach, with a chivalrous spirit, truthful and direct, General Denikin is one of the most noble figures put forward by the war. He is now seeking refuge among us and asks only that he be given the right to rest from his labors in the calm home atmosphere of England ... "
But due to the flirtation of the British government with advice and disagreement with such a situation, Denikin and his family left England and from August 1920 to May 1922, the Denikins lived in Belgium.
In June 1922 they moved to Hungary, where they lived first near Sopron, then in Budapest and Balatonlelle. In Belgium and Hungary, Denikin wrote his most significant work, Essays on Russian Troubles, which is both a memoir and a study on the history of the revolution and the Civil War in Russia.
In the spring of 1926 Denikin and his family moved to France, where he settled in Paris, the center of Russian emigration. actively exposed Hitler's aggressive plans, calling him "the worst enemy of Russia and the Russian people." He argued the need to support the Red Army in the event of war, predicting that after the defeat of Germany, she would "overthrow the communist regime" in Russia. “Do not cling to the specter of intervention,” he wrote, “do not believe in a crusade against the Bolsheviks, because simultaneously with the suppression of communism in Germany, the question is not about the suppression of Bolshevism in Russia, but about the “Eastern program” of Hitler, who only dreams of conquering south of Russia for German colonization. I recognize as the worst enemies of Russia the powers that think of dividing it. I consider any foreign invasion with captivating goals a disaster. And the repulse of the enemy by the Russian people, the Red Army and emigration is their imperative duty.
In 1935, he transferred to the Russian Foreign Historical Archive in Prague part of his personal archive, which included documents and materials that he used when working on the Essays on Russian Troubles. In May 1940, in connection with the occupation of France by German troops, Denikin and his wife moved to the Atlantic coast and settled in the village of Mimizan in the vicinity of Bordeaux.
In June 1945, Denikin returned to Paris, and then, fearing forcible deportation to the USSR, six months later he moved to the United States with his wife (daughter Marina remained to live in France).
On August 7, 1947, at the age of 75, Denikin died of a second heart attack at the University of Michigan Hospital (Ann Arbor). His last words, addressed to his wife Ksenia Vasilievna, were: “Here, I won’t see how Russia will be saved.” After the funeral service in the Church of the Assumption, he was buried with military honors (as a former commander-in-chief of one of the allied armies during the First World War), first at the Evergreen military cemetery (Detroit). On December 15, 1952, his remains were transferred to the Russian cemetery of St. Vladimir in Jackson (New Jersey).
His last desire was for the coffin with his remains to be transported to his homeland when she threw off the communist yoke ...
May 24, 2006 memorial services for the general were held in New York and Geneva Anton Denikin and philosopher Ivan Ilyin. Their remains were taken to Paris, and from there to Moscow, where on October 3, 2006, the ceremony of their reburial took place in Donskoy Monastery. The first stone of the memorial of civil accord and reconciliation was also laid there. Consent to the reburial of Anton Denikin was given by the 86-year-old daughter of General Marina Denikina. She is a well-known historian and writer, author of about 20 books on Russia, in particular White movement.
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born on December 4 (16), 1872 in the Warsaw province. His father came from the serfs of the Saratov province, in his youth he was recruited and managed to curry favor from the rank and file to the majors. His mother, a Polish woman, never learned to speak Russian well until the end of her life.
After graduating from a real school, young Denikin entered the military service, which he had always dreamed of. He took military school courses at the Kiev Infantry Cadet School, and then graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1899).
During Russo-Japanese War in March 1904, Denikin filed a report on the transfer from Warsaw to the active army. At the front, he became the chief of staff of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Division, and then the famous Ural-Trans-Baikal Division of General Mishchenko, who became famous for daring raids behind enemy lines. Anton Ivanovich was awarded the orders of St. Stanislav and St. Anna and promoted to the rank of colonel.
Anton Ivanovich Denikin. Photo from late 1918 or early 1919
AT revolutionary In 1905, several anarchist "republics" blocked the way back from Manchuria to Russia. Denikin and other officers put together a detachment of reliable fighters and broke through rebellious Siberia on a train with weapons in their hands. Nevertheless, Anton Ivanovich, was a liberal, spoke in the press against obsolete orders in the army, stood for a constitutional monarchy, and was close in his views to the Cadets.
In June 1910, Denikin became commander of the 17th Archangelsk Infantry Regiment. In June 1914 he was promoted to major general. Having no "patronage from above", Denikin acted all his life on the principle of "honest service, and not subservience to those in power."
Since the beginning First World War Denikin refused the headquarters post of Quartermaster General of the 8th Army and went to the front as commander of the 4th Rifle Brigade, which was called the Iron Brigade and was subsequently deployed into a division. She became famous all over Russia. Denikin was awarded the Order of St. George 4th and 3rd degree and (for breaking through enemy positions during Brusilov offensive in 1916 and the second capture of Lutsk) with the Golden George Arms with diamonds. In September 1916 he was appointed to command the 8th corps on the Romanian front.
In March 1917, with Provisional government Denikin, as a well-known liberal general, was appointed to the high post of chief of staff of the Supreme Commander. But he openly did not approve of the policy of the new government, leading to the collapse of the army. After the dismissal of General Alekseev from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief and replacing him with an opportunist Brusilov Denikin was removed from Headquarters. On May 31 (June 13), 1917, he was transferred to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front.
Anton Denikin. General's way
On July 16 (29), 1917, at a meeting at Headquarters with the participation of Kerensky, Denikin made a sharp speech, calling for the elimination of the omnipotence of the anarchist soldiers' committees in the army and the removal of politics from it. Kerensky was unable to listen to this truth, looking into Denikin's eyes, and during his speech he sat at the table with his head in his hands.
In July 1917, after General Kornilov was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Denikin was appointed commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front in his place. Upon learning that Kerensky ordered Kornilov to be dismissed right on the eve of the implementation of measures agreed with the government to decisively oppose the Bolsheviks and the Soviet, Denikin sent an angry telegram to the supreme power, declaring that he would not follow the path of "planned destruction of the army and the country." Upon learning of this, unbridled crowds of soldiers broke into the headquarters of the Southwestern Front, arrested Generals Denikin, Markova and others (August 29, 1917) and threw them into the Berdichev prison. They barely escaped the massacre there. At the end of September, the generals arrested in Berdichev were transferred to the Bykhov prison, where Kornilov's group was already imprisoned.
November 19 (December 2), 1917, the day before the ensign arrived in Mogilev Krylenko with the Red Guard militants, the new Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin gave Bykhov's prisoners the opportunity to escape. They all went to Ataman Kaledin, in the Don Cossack region, where General Alekseev had already begun to create a center of struggle against the Bolsheviks who had committed the October Revolution.
In legendary 1st Kuban (Ice) Campaign Volunteer army Denikin acted as deputy commander, Kornilov. When Kornilov died on April 13, 1918 during the storming of Ekaterinodar, Denikin led the army and took it back from the Kuban to the borders of the Don region. [Cm. Russian Civil War - Chronology.]
An extremely conscientious man, Denikin laid the blame for these defeats on himself. On April 4, 1920, he handed over the post of commander-in-chief to Peter Wrangel, and he left with his family for Constantinople, then to England. Later he lived in Belgium, Hungary, again in Belgium. From 1926 he settled in Paris.
In exile, Denikin wrote a five-volume work "Essays on the Russian Troubles" - one of the best and most objective works on the history of the civil war. The Soviet authorities made several attempts to assassinate and kidnap Denikin, but they, fortunately, failed.
Russian military leader, lieutenant general (1915). Member of the Civil War of 1918-1920, one of the leaders of the white movement. Commander of the Volunteer Army (1918 - 1919), Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (1919-1920).
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born on December 4 (16), 1872 in the village of Shpetal Dolny, a suburb of Wloclawek, a district town of the Warsaw province (now in Poland), in the family of a retired border guard major Ivan Efimovich Denikin (1807-1885).
In 1890, A. I. Denikin graduated from the Lovichsky Real School. In 1890-1892 he studied at the Kiev Infantry Cadet School, after which he was promoted to second lieutenant and assigned to the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.
In 1895-1899 A. I. Denikin studied at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. He was enrolled in the officers of the General Staff in 1902.
With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, A.I. Denikin obtained permission to be seconded to the active army. Participated in battles and reconnaissance operations, in February-March 1905 he became a member of the Mukden battle. For differences in cases against the enemy, he was promoted to colonel and awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd class with swords and St. Anna 2nd class with swords.
In 1906, A.I. Denikin served as a staff officer for special assignments at the headquarters of the 2nd Cavalry Corps in Warsaw, in 1907-1910 he was chief of staff of the 57th Infantry Reserve Brigade in.
In 1910-1914, A. I. Denikin commanded the 17th Archangelsk Infantry Regiment in Zhytomyr (now in Ukraine). In March 1914, he was appointed acting general for assignments under the Commander of the Kyiv Military District. On the eve of the outbreak of World War I, A. I. Denikin was promoted to major general and approved as quartermaster general of the 8th Army, General A. A. Brusilov.
In September 1914, A.I. Denikin was appointed commander of the 4th Rifle ("Iron") Brigade, which in 1915 was deployed into a division. For the battle at Grodek in September 1914, he was awarded the honorary St. George's weapon, for the capture of the village of Gorny Luzhok, where the headquarters of the Austrian Archduke Joseph was located - the Order of St. George 4th degree. AI Denikin participated in the battles in Galicia and in the Carpathian mountains. For the battles on the San River he was awarded the Order of St. George 3rd degree. Twice (in September 1915 and June 1916) troops under his command captured the city of Lutsk. For the first operation, he was promoted to lieutenant general, for the second - he was repeatedly awarded the honorary St. George's weapon with diamonds.
In September 1916, A.I. Denikin became the commander of the 8th Army Corps on the Romanian front. From September 1916 to April 1917 he was Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, in April-May 1917 he commanded the Western Front, and in August 1917 he became Commander of the South-Western Front.
For supporting the rebellion of General A.I. Denikin was imprisoned in the city of Bykhov. In November 1917, together with other generals, he fled to the Don, where he took part in the creation of the Volunteer Army. From December 1917 to April 1918, A. I. Denikin was the chief of staff of the Volunteer Army, after his death he took command of it, in September 1918 he became the Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteer Army, and from December 1918 to March 1920 he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South. In May 1919, A. I. Denikin recognized the power of the Supreme Ruler Admiral over himself, from June 1919 he was considered the Deputy Supreme Ruler. After renouncing power in January 1920, he was announced as the successor to the admiral as Supreme Ruler.
After the retreat of the White armies in the autumn of 1919 - in the winter of 1920 and the catastrophic evacuation from A.I. Denikin was forced to transfer command of the Armed Forces of the South to Baron P.N. Wrangel. In April 1920, he left the Crimea for emigration on an English destroyer. Until August 1920, A. I. Denikin lived in England, in 1920-1922 - in Belgium, in 1922-1926 - in Hungary, in 1926-1945 - in France. In November 1945 he moved to the USA. During the years of emigration, A. I. Denikin published memoirs, works on the history of the Russian army and the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. The most famous were his five-volume work Essays on Russian Troubles (1921-1923) and the book of memoirs The Way of a Russian Officer (1953).
A. I. Denikin died on August 8, 1947 at the Ann Arbor University Hospital of Michigan (USA). Initially, he was buried in Detroit, in 1952 his remains were transferred to the Orthodox Cossack St. Vladimir Cemetery in Kesville (New Jersey). In 2005, the remains of A.I. Denikin were transported to and reburied at the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.
DENIKIN Anton Ivanovich(1872-1947), Russian military figure, lieutenant general (1916). During the First World War he commanded a rifle brigade and division, an army corps; from April 1918 commander, from October commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, from January 1919 commander-in-chief of the "Armed Forces of the South of Russia" (Volunteer Army, Don and Caucasian Cossack armies, Turkestan army, Black Sea Fleet); simultaneously with January 1920 "Supreme ruler of the Russian state." From April 1920 in exile. Works on the history of the Russo-Japanese War; memoirs: "Essays on Russian Troubles" (vols. 1-5, 1921-23), "The Way of a Russian Officer" (1953).
DENIKIN Anton Ivanovich(December 4, 1872, the village of Shpetal-Dolny Vlotslav, Warsaw province - August 7, 1947, Ann Arbor, USA), Russian military leader, one of the leaders of the white movement, publicist and memoirist, lieutenant general (1916).
The beginning of a military career
Father, Ivan Efimovich Denikin (1807-1855), came from serfs. In 1834 he was handed over to the recruits by the landowner. In 1856 he passed the exam for an officer's rank (he was promoted to ensign). In 1869 he retired with the rank of major. Mother, Elizaveta Fedorovna, nee Vrzhesinskaya (1843--1916), Polish by nationality, came from a family of small landowners.
He graduated from the Lovichsky real school, the military school course of the Kyiv infantry cadet school (1892) and the Imperial Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1899). He served in the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade (1892-95 and 1900-02), was a senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 2nd Infantry Division (1902-03) and the 2nd Cavalry Corps (1903-04). During the Russo-Japanese War in March 1904, he filed a report on transfer to the active army and was appointed staff officer for special assignments at the headquarters of the 8th Army Corps; in the theater of operations, he served as chief of staff of the Transbaikal Cossack, then the Ural-Transbaikal division, in August 1905 he took over as chief of staff of the Consolidated Cavalry Corps (at the same time he was promoted to the rank of colonel "for military distinctions"). Awarded with the Order of St. Stanislav and St. Anna 3rd class with swords and bows and 2nd class with swords.
In 1906-10 - in various staff positions in the General Staff; in 1910-14 - commander of the 17th Archangelsk infantry regiment. In March 1914 he was appointed acting general for instructions from the headquarters of the Kyiv military district, and in June he was promoted to major general.
As early as the 1890s, Denikin's political outlook took shape: he perceived Russian liberalism "in its ideological essence, without any party dogmatism", sharing its three positions: "constitutional monarchy, radical reforms and peaceful ways of renewing Russia." From the end of the 1890s, under the pseudonym Ivan Nochin, he published a lot in the military press, mainly in the most popular magazine "Scout", in which in 1908-14 he published a series of articles "Army Notes". He advocated an improvement in the system of selection and training of command personnel, against bureaucracy, the suppression of initiative, rudeness and arbitrariness in relation to soldiers; devoted a number of articles to the analysis of the battles of the Russo-Japanese War, in which he personally participated. He pointed to the German and Austrian threat, in the light of which he considered it necessary to carry out speedy reforms in the army; in 1910 he proposed convening a congress of officers of the General Staff to discuss the problems of the army; wrote about the need for the development of motor transport and military aviation.
During the First World
Having learned about the beginning of the war, Denikin filed a report with a request to send him into service. In September 1914 he was appointed commander of the 4th Iron Rifles Brigade. "Iron arrows" distinguished themselves in many battles of 1914-16, they were thrown into the most difficult areas; they were nicknamed the "fire brigade". For differences in battles, Denikin was awarded the St. George weapon, the Order of St. George 4th and 3rd degrees. For breaking through enemy positions during the offensive of the South-Western Front in 1916 and the capture of Lutsk, he was again awarded the St. George's weapon, decorated with diamonds and promoted to lieutenant general. In September 1916 he was appointed commander of the 8th Army Corps.
February Revolution
Denikin's military career continued to go up after the February Revolution. In April 1917 he was appointed chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, then in May - commander-in-chief of the armies of the Western Front, in July - commander-in-chief of the armies of the Southwestern Front. He sharply criticized the policy of the Provisional Government, leading to the collapse of the army, at the officers' congress in May 1917. At a meeting at Headquarters on July 16, in the presence of members of the Provisional Government, he delivered a speech in which he formulated an 8-point army strengthening program, which actually contained the demand the abolition of democratic gains in the army. On August 27, 1917, having received news of the speech of General L. G. Kornilov, he sent a telegram to the Provisional Government in support of its demands - bringing the war to a victorious end and convening a Constituent Assembly. On August 29, he was arrested and placed in a guardhouse in Berdichev, then transferred to Bykhov, where Kornilov and his associates were imprisoned. On November 19, 1917, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General N. N. Dukhonin, he was released from arrest, like some others arrested in the Kornilov case; with documents in a false name made his way to the Don.
Leading the Volunteer Army
In the late autumn of 1917 he arrived in Novocherkassk, where he took part in the organization and formation of the Volunteer Army. He sought to smooth out the differences between generals M. V. Alekseev and Kornilov, initiated the division of powers between them, as well as the Don ataman A. M. Kaledin. On January 30, 1918, he was appointed head of the 1st Volunteer Division. In the 1st Kuban ("Ice") campaign - Deputy Commander of the Volunteer Army, General Kornilov. On March 31 (April 13), 1918, after the death of Kornilov near Ekaterinodar, he took command of the Dobrarmia. He abandoned Kornilov's plan to storm Yekaterinodar, considering it suicidal, which made it possible to save the army. In June 1918, he undertook the 2nd Kuban campaign, during which Yekaterinodar was taken on July 3, 1918. On September 25 (October 8), 1918, after the death of General Alekseev, he became Commander-in-Chief of the Good Army. From January 1919, after the consent of the Don ataman, General P. N. Krasnov, to the creation of a unified command and subordination of the Don Army to Denikin, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR). Not wanting to split the anti-Bolshevik movement, in May 1919 he recognized Admiral A. V. Kolchak as the "supreme ruler" of Russia; in January 1920, the powers of the "supreme ruler" were transferred by Admiral Denikin.
The greatest successes of Denikin's troops came in the summer - early autumn of 1919. On June 20, in the newly taken Tsaritsyn, Denikin signed the "Moscow directive" - on the attack on Moscow. However, the general did not take into account the peculiarities of the civil war, as well as the specifics of the areas where his troops were mainly deployed. Denikin was unable to put forward an attractive program, focusing on the doctrine of "non-predecision" (refusal to decide on the form of government before the expulsion of the Bolsheviks), the agrarian reform program was not developed. The Whites failed to organize the work of the rear, in which speculation and corruption flourished, and the supply system of the army, which led to "self-supply" and a fall in discipline, the degeneration of the army into a gang of robbers and rioters, which was especially pronounced in Ukraine, where Jewish pogroms were carried out by the Whites . Denikin was accused of a strategic miscalculation - the "camp on Moscow" led to the fact that the front was stretched, supplies were difficult, the Whites occupied vast territories that they were not able to hold. The attack on Moscow in two directions led to the dispersal of forces and made the troops extremely vulnerable to counterattacks by the Reds. In response to these accusations, Denikin reasonably pointed out that a civil war has special laws and it is impossible to approach operations only from the point of view of military strategy. But Denikin's troops undoubtedly achieved great success in comparison with other anti-Bolshevik fronts; in October 1919 they took Orel, and their forward detachments were on the outskirts of Tula.
However, the offensive bogged down, Denikin was forced to retreat rapidly. In March 1920, the retreat ended with the "Novorossiysk catastrophe". When the white troops pressed to the sea evacuated in a panic, and a significant part of them were captured. Shocked by the catastrophe, Denikin resigned and after April 4, 1920 handed over command to General P. N. Wrangel, he left Russia forever.
In exile
In Europe, Denikin experienced all the hardships associated with his forced emigration. First, in the spring of 1920, he ended up in Constantinople, soon ended up in London, and in August he left for Brussels. Being extremely scrupulous in financial matters, Denikin did not secure a livelihood; primarily due to material circumstances, his family moved to Hungary in June 1922, eventually settling in a place near Lake Balaton (it was in Hungary that his most famous book, Essays on Russian Troubles, 1921-1926, was written). In 1925 the Denikins returned to Brussels, and in 1926 they moved to Paris.
"Essays on Russian Troubles", published already in Paris, combined elements of memoirs and research. Denikin relied not only on the memory and materials of his archive; at his request, various documents were sent to him, members of the white movement put at his disposal their unpublished memoirs. "Essays" to this day are the most complete and valuable source on the history of the white movement in southern Russia; are read with growing interest and are written in expressive Russian.
His books The Officers (1928) and The Old Army (1929) were also published in Paris.
Literary earnings and fees from lecturing were the only means of his existence. In the 1930s, in the face of a growing military threat, he wrote and lectured extensively on problems of international relations; occupied an anti-Nazi position, which in no way meant his reconciliation with the Soviet regime. Published in Paris books and pamphlets "The Russian Question in the Far East" (1932), "Brest-Litovsk" (1933), "Who saved the Soviet government from destruction?" (1937), "World events and the Russian question" (1939). In 1936-38 he was published in the newspaper "Volunteer" and some other Russian-language publications .. After the capitulation of France in June 1940, the Denikins moved to the south of France in the town of Mimizan, near Bordeaux. The former general was very upset by the defeat of the Red Army and rejoiced at its victories, however, unlike many emigrants, he did not believe in the degeneration of Soviet power.
In May 1945 he returned to Paris, but, fearing forcible deportation to the USSR, he left for the USA six months later. In May 1946, he wrote in a private letter: "The Soviets bring a terrible disaster to the peoples, striving for world domination. Their impudent, provocative, threatening former allies, raising a wave of hatred, their policy threatens to turn into dust everything that has been achieved by the patriotic upsurge and the blood of the Russian people." In the United States, he continued to work on memoirs that he had begun in France. Died of a heart attack. He was buried with military honors at Evergreen Cemetery (Detroit); On December 15, 1952, Denikin's ashes were transferred to the Russian cemetery of St. Vladimir in Jackson (New Jersey).
The Denikin archive is stored in the library of the Institute for the Study of Russian and Eastern European History and Culture at Columbia University in New York.
