In a popular Soviet song about the First Cavalry Army it was sung: “The chieftain dogs remember./The Polish gentlemen remember./Our cavalry blades.” But there were no special words about Ukrainian independentists. This is despite the fact that the 6th Infantry Division of the Ukrainian Army people's republic(UNR) was in the summer of 1920 a constant enemy of Budyonny’s army all the way from the Dnieper to San. Could it be because she finally stopped the First Cavalry's advance?
Petliurists in the Polish army
In 1919, the UPR army led by Symon Petlyura had to fight on three fronts: against the Red Army, against the White Guards Armed Forces the south of Russia (VSYUR) of General Denikin and against the Poles. She would have to form an alliance with one of them. Ukrainians are divided. One part advocated an alliance with Poland at the cost of losing part of the territory of Ukraine. The other did not agree with this and in November 1919 went over to Denikin’s side. Finally, an entire brigade led by Colonel Emelyan Volokh went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and joined the Red Army.
Petliura led a group that advocated an alliance with the Poles. Preparing to resume the war with Soviet Russia, Pilsudski, in turn, attracted Ukrainian and Belarusian bourgeois nationalists to his side. On April 21, 1920, in Warsaw, he and Petliura signed an agreement under which Poland recognized the independence of Ukraine. In return, Poland received western territories inhabited by Ukrainians - not only those that were part of Austria-Hungary before the First World War (Eastern Galicia with Lvov), but also the Kholm region and all of Volyn with the cities of Lutsk, Kovel and Rivne. The eastern border of Ukraine was to be determined by a future treaty with the RSFSR after the victory. Petlyura received the right to form the Ukrainian army.
So, in the same ranks with the Polish army, the UPR army fought against the Soviet Republic in 1920. The first to be formed was the 6th Infantry Division under the command of General Mark Bezruchko. Back in the winter of 1919/20, on the instructions of Petliura, she carried out a raid on the rear of the All-Soviet Union of Socialists and the Red Army, and in the spring of 1920 she took part in the offensive of Polish troops in Right Bank Ukraine. In the summer of 1920, she took part in repelling the Soviet offensive there; she was badly battered, but retained her combat effectiveness. Together with the Polish troops, she retreated west of the river Bug in Volyn.
To the rescue of the Western Front
In August 1920, it seemed to many that the Soviet-Polish war would soon end with the triumphant entry of the Red Army into Warsaw. It seemed to most observers that the Red Army would not stop there. They already imagined the Reds in Berlin and other European capitals. However, the Soviet leadership itself shared these illusions. It planned to carry the banner of the proletarian revolution further, to Germany and Western Europe.
While the armies of the Soviet Western Front under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky were approaching Warsaw, the troops of the Southwestern Front (commander Alexander Egorov, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council - Stalin, who had a great influence on Egorov) were going to take Lvov. On August 11, the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic's troops, Sergei Kamenev, ordered Egorov to reassign the 1st Cavalry and 12th Armies to the Western Front. They needed to be sent to Warsaw to increase the force of the strike. However, the command of the Southwestern Front ignored this directive, citing the fact that the First Cavalry was already involved in the battles for Lvov, and its regrouping would take a lot of time.
Meanwhile, Pilsudski concentrated his forces to attack the flanks of the Red Army group advancing on Warsaw and on August 16 launched a counteroffensive. The Soviet Western Front suffered a heavy defeat and retreated from the Polish capital. Now the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic demanded that Yegorov and Stalin transfer the 1st Cavalry to the Western Front in order to save it from complete defeat. However, this order was carried out very late.
The Red Command decided to redirect the First Cavalry to Lublin in order to capture this city to create a threat on the right flank of the enemy’s Warsaw group of forces and force it to suspend its attack against the Western Front. Tukhachevsky gave the corresponding directive to Budyonny on August 24 by order of the RVS, although he himself did not believe in its feasibility.
The First Cavalry has continuously participated in offensive battles since June 1920, with the liberation of Kyiv. In the last unsuccessful battles for Lviv, she suffered heavy losses and did not have time to make up for them. She began her raid on Lublin with no more than 8 thousand soldiers in service in her four cavalry divisions.
Battles of Zamosc and Komarov
On August 27, the First Cavalry began moving out of the Sokal area. On the way lay the city of Zamosc (Polish: Zamość), defended by the 6th Ukrainian division, numbering 4,000 bayonets. It is interesting that its neighbors at the front were also national and White Guard units that entered into an alliance with the Poles: on the right - the Don Brigade, on the left - the 2nd Ukrainian Division, the Kuban Brigade and the Belarusian Brigade of “father” Bulak-Balakhovich. The stubborn defense of Zamosc, which was an important center of local communications, by the Petliurists, riveted the forces of the First Cavalry.
On August 29, Budyonny’s advanced detachments tried to capture Zamosc on the move, but met strong resistance. The next day, the main forces of the Soviet 6th and 11th cavalry divisions approached the city. They managed to surround the city. The dismounted red horsemen launched several attacks. Zamość was surrounded by a chain of separate rifle cells, only here and there covered with one or two rows of barbed wire. The Petliurists took up a perimeter defense.
Both sides acted bravely and accurately. Thus, the Budennovites managed to disable two of the three armored trains that supported the besieged. But they could not take the city. The Petliurists launched desperate counterattacks, including night ones, and held Zamosc. The Reds could not move further to Lublin, having the untaken Zamość in their rear. Staying where you were was also dangerous. The First Cavalry went too deep into the enemy rear, and the neighboring 12th Army, despite all Budyonny’s requests, was unable to support it. General Haller’s group consisting of the 13th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Polish Divisions was approaching from the south, and the 2nd Legionnaire Division was approaching from the north. In fact, on August 31, the First Cavalry itself found itself surrounded. On the same day, Budyonny decided to retreat and make his way to the main forces of the Southwestern Front.
When breaking through the Polish encirclement at Komarov, the First Cavalry suffered new heavy losses. From September 1 to 6, under continuous attacks from Polish troops, it retreated beyond the Bug to the Vladimir-Volynsky region. Soviet military historian Nikolai Kakurin pointed out that heavy rains, which washed out roads in wooded areas, prevented Budyonny from carrying out the original directive. It is obvious, however, that these same roads prevented the Poles from pursuing the retreating First Cavalry, which saved it from complete destruction. And an important role in its defeat was played by the defense of Zamosc by the Petliurists, who gained two days to concentrate around the Polish troops.
For many years, the First Cavalry Army was the sacred military cow of Soviet power. In the minds of an ordinary citizen of the USSR, the First Cavalry was the Red Army of the times civil war, that invincible force that defended the Workers' and Peasants' Republic from the invasion of 14 powers, Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich and Wrangel. In the civil war, 17 field and 2 cavalry armies with a total number of 5 million people acted on the side of the Reds, but the 30,000-strong Cavalry was primarily preserved in the people's memory. Many books have been written about her, songs have been composed in her honor, and her heroic struggle has served as the theme of films, plays, paintings and monumental sculpture.
Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry
Throughout the twenties and thirties, cavalrymen dominated the leadership of the country's armed forces. The traces of this dominance are very visible. For 58 years, from 1918 to 1976, the Soviet state changed - under various names - 10 military ministers. Three of them served in the Cavalry, they led the country's defense for 25 years: 1925-1940 K. E. Voroshilov, 1940-1941 S. K. Timoshenko, 1967 – 1976 A. A. Grechko. We must also remember that during the 19-year interval between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Patriotic War, only 3 years, and even then at the very beginning, there was no cavalryman at the helm of the Red Army.
First Cavalry Army. Video
Staying in the First Cavalry served as a pass to occupy senior command positions. Such a dictatorship of cavalry in the army of a great power, unprecedented for the 20th century, was able to establish itself because the country was ruled by the godfather of the First Cavalry - Stalin, and the armed forces by its political mentor Voroshilov. Just as Emperor Caligula introduced his horse into the Senate, these two horse worshipers flooded the army elite with cavalrymen. Cavalry soldiers S. M. Budyonny, G. I. Kulik, E. A. Shchadenko, A. A. Grechko, K. S. Moskalenko were deputy ministers (people's commissars) of defense, K. A. Meretskov was the chief of the General Staff. With the introduction in 1935 of personal military ranks two of the first five marshals were cavalrymen, and the third, Egorov, commanded the front on which the First Cavalry was created. It is worth mentioning that both commanders in chief of the civil war did not receive marshal ranks, nor Yakir And Uborevich. In total, 8 marshals emerged from Budyonny’s cavalry Soviet Union(including Georgy Zhukov), 9 army generals and marshals of the military branches, as well as a significant number of other generals.
Before the war, Budenovites played an exceptional role in the Red Army. Naturally, they bear a huge share of responsibility for the disaster of 1937–1938. and the defeats of the first years of the war. Only with the outbreak of hostilities was the complete military insolvency of Voroshilov, Budyonny, Timoshenko, Shchadenko, Tyulenev, Apanasenko and Kulik revealed. The latter was demoted twice for disgraceful behavior at the front and was promoted from marshal to major; Stalin still did not allow one of his main advisers of the pre-war years to completely slide, and Kulik was allowed to die as a major general. In the mid-sixties, the marshal's baton was posthumously returned to him.
All this makes us take a closer look at the First Cavalry. We do not intend to cover its history in full. We will only try to restore the truth regarding some facts and episodes.
Creation of the First Cavalry
In Soviet literature it is considered indisputable that the First Cavalry represents the first modern history wars, an association of strategic cavalry. It's not that simple. Indeed, horse armies didn't exist before. At the same time, the idea of creating strategic cavalry, performing independent decisive tasks in isolation from the main forces in the deep rear of the enemy, belongs to Anton Ivanovich Denikin. He not only put forward this bold idea, but also formed a cavalry association of two corps in August 1919. Subsequently, this group under the command of General Mamontova the cavalry corps was added Skin. Thus, Denikin had at his disposal a strategic cavalry group equal in strength to the army. Mamontov’s group broke through the Southern Front of the Reds and within a month successfully operated in their rear, capturing Tambov, Kozlov, Voronezh. The Soviet counteroffensive was thwarted. Moreover, Mamontov’s actions allowed the general’s army May-Maevsky move far north. After the Whites captured Kursk and Orel, an immediate threat arose to Tula with its weapons factories and to Moscow itself.
In Volume III of the Soviet “History of the Civil War” (1930) we read: “The significance of the actions of large cavalry masses in the conditions of the Civil War was correctly taken into account by the Red Command from the example of the Mamontov raid. This raid finally formalized the decision to create large cavalry masses of the red cavalry...” (p. 261). This evidence of Denikin’s priority is all the more valuable because it belongs to senior managers The Red Army of that time - the editors of the volume were S.S. Kamenev, Bubnov, Tukhachevsky, Eideman. Subsequently, Soviet historians tried to completely forget this confession.
Dumenko and Budyonny
The second important and extremely confusing question: from what was the First Cavalry born? For a long time we were informed that it arose on the basis of Budyonny’s convoy corps, which grew out of Budyonny’s 4th Cavalry Division. In the 1960s, through the efforts of relatively honest historians (T. A. Illeritskaya, V. D. Polikarpov), the veil of lies was temporarily lifted. This caused an extremely sharp reaction among the Budenovites, and further research was stopped.
What caused the violent anger of elderly people who had not lost their influence? For example, the head of the Academy. Frunze, Army General A.T. Stuchenko even girded himself with a saber and in this form appeared at the editorial office of “The Week,” which published Polikarpov’s essay. They were outraged, even offended by the attempt to restore the true circumstances of the death of one of the participants in the civil war - B. M. Dumenko, who in 1918 formed a cavalry detachment from the rebels of Salsky and other districts. In July, the First Cavalry Peasant Socialist Punitive Regiment was formed on its base. The regiment was commanded by Dumenko, and after some time Budyonny became his assistant. Subsequently, this formation grew into the very 4th Petrograd Cavalry Division, from which the First Cavalry originated. Dumenko commanded the division until May 1919 and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. But then a serious injury puts Dumenko out of action until the fall. During his treatment, the First Concorps was created, consisting of the 4th and 6th divisions. Budyonny was appointed to command it instead of the wounded Dumenko. On November 17, Budyonny’s corps, enlarged by the addition of other units, was renamed the 1st Cavalry Army. Upon recovery, Dumenko received a new appointment - commander of the emerging Cavalry Combined Corps. In January 1920, it was he who defeated the Denikin cavalry near Novocherkassk, which made it easier for the First Cavalry and the 8th Army to capture Rostov-on-Don.
Boris Dumenko
However, in February 1920, two Budenovites - division chief S.K. Timoshenko, who was temporarily removed for drunkenness, and B.S. Gorbachev, commander of the Special Cavalry Brigade (cavalry Cheka) - fraudulently arrested Dumenko. He was taken to the headquarters of the First Cavalry, at the origins of which he himself stood, and from there to Rostov. There he was tried by a tribunal on a formal charge of organizing the murder of Commissar V. Mikeladze, who was sent to him in the Cavalry Corps. The latter died under unclear circumstances. The tribunal did not have any evidence, however, on May 11, 1920, Dumenko, a hero of the Red Army, whose merits far outshone the glory of Budyonny, was shot. More than forty years later, Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR Blinov, who studied the materials of this case, was forced to state: “If this is the law, then what is blatant lawlessness?!” There were rumors that the true cause of Dumenko's death was his "anti-Semitism". Soviet newspapers, reporting the verdict, wrote to him:
Komkor Dumenko, chief of staff Abramov, chief of intelligence Kolpakov, chief of the operational department Blechert... pursued a systematic anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet policy, cursing the central Soviet government and calling the responsible leaders of the Red Army Jews in the form of insulting abuse, did not recognize political commissars, in every possible way slowing down political work in the corps ... To deprive them of the awards they received from the Soviet government, including the Order of the Red Banner, the honorary title of Red Commanders, and to apply capital punishment to them - to shoot... The verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
The name of Corps Commander Dumenko was erased from the history of the Red Army; Budyonny took credit for his merits. In 1920, Dumenko was a serious competitor to Budyonny in his claims to the role of the first red cavalryman. There is reason to believe that Budyonny, together with Voroshilov, had a hand in eliminating the corps commander. This assumption is supported not only by the circumstances of Dumenko’s arrest, but also by the presence of the cavalryman E. A. Shchadenko on the tribunal, and later many years of malice about Dumenko, and Budyonny’s behavior towards his other rival - Philippa Mironova. It is also worth noting that the command of the First Cavalry repeatedly raised the question of subordinating Dumenko’s corps to him.
Semyon Budyonny
The role of the First Cavalry in the defeat of Denikin
After Uborevich's group inflicted Volunteer Army Denikin defeat at Orel, Budyonny’s cavalry became a trump card in the hands of the Red command. In October 1919, Budyonny's convoy corps, reinforced by a cavalry division and a rifle brigade, Voronezh-Kastornensky operation dealt a mortal blow to the white strategic cavalry. Essentially, Budyonny already had a cavalry army under his command, the creation of which was formally formalized in November. The result was expressed not only in the defeat of Mamontov’s group, from which it never recovered, but also in a colossal moral impact: now Denikin’s rear was under constant threat.
The White Front collapsed. The Soviet command quickly developed its success. In January 1920, the First Cavalry captured Rostov with a lightning strike. The success of the cavalry was consolidated by the 8th Army. The retreating Denikin troops created a line of defense along the left bank of the Don with a key point in Bataysk. The idea of the command of the Caucasian Front (V.I. Shorin), at whose disposal the First Cavalry came, was to prevent the main White forces from retreating to Novorossiysk by bypassing or capturing Bataysk. Thus, Denikin was deprived of the opportunity to cross to the Crimean Peninsula and form a new front there.
Denikin really hoped, if he failed to gain a foothold on the Don, to withdraw to the Crimea through Novorossiysk. However, the Reds failed to break through the white front on the move. The First Cavalry and 8th Army made several attempts to take Bataysk, but all of them were unsuccessful. There was a dangerous delay in the advance of the Red Army, which Denikin eventually took advantage of. Shorin's plan was foiled. 40 thousand whites crossed to Crimea.
The “Bataysk traffic jam” gave rise to extremely sharp disagreements in the Red camp. Shorin accused Budyonny and the commander of the 8th G. Ya. Sokolnikov of the lack of active actions. Budyonny complained about the “completely unsuitable terrain for cavalry operations,” Sokolnikov reproached the Cavalry for showing “extremely low combat stability.” Without going into the essence of the dispute, we note that at Bataysk, for the first time, the inability of strategic cavalry to overcome densely prepared defenses was revealed. Unfavorable terrain conditions undoubtedly played a role: a water barrier (Don) and swampiness on the left bank. But a psychological factor cannot be ruled out. It was extremely difficult for Voroshilov and Budyonny to withdraw their horsemen from warm and rich Rostov in the depths of winter.
In the spring of 1920, the First Cavalry was transferred in marching order from the Caucasus to the front of the Soviet-Polish war that had just begun. On May 18, she appears near Elizavetgrad. By this time, the Poles, who had captured Kiev, went on the defensive along the entire front. The commissioning of the Cavalry creates a turning point in favor of the Soviet troops. On June 5, she broke through the enemy front near the village of Ozernaya and with all four divisions reached the Polish rear. It was a major operational success and culmination battle path First Cavalry. The threat of complete encirclement and destruction loomed over the 3rd Polish Army of General Rydz-Smigly. But Operation Kyiv Cannes was not destined to come true. The groups of Yakir and Golikov were late in completing their tasks. The First Cavalry, in violation of the order, did not hit the rear of Rydz-Smigly, bypassed the fortified Kazyatyn and captured Berdichev and Zhitomir with rich warehouses. The major success of the Southwestern Front was incomplete. The Poles lost all the territory they captured in Ukraine, but managed to maintain manpower.
During the Soviet offensive, Commander-in-Chief S. S. Kamenev developed a plan for the further conduct of the campaign, which received approval from the Politburo. It was planned that after all the Red forces had reached the Brest-Southern Bug line, the administration of the Southwestern Front (commander Egorov, members of the Revolutionary Military Council Stalin, Berzin) would transfer the First Cavalry, 12th and 14th armies to the command of Tukhachevsky, and would itself turn against Wrangel, who had advanced at that time to Northern Tavria. But Stalin was not at all happy with the prospect of refusing to participate in the seemingly imminent capture of all of Poland. Tukhachevsky subsequently wrote that “the existence of the capitalist world, not only of Poland, but of all of Europe,” was at stake.” The frantic revolutionary Stalin wanted to personally attack world capitalism.
By mid-July 1920, Tukhachevsky’s troops, having overturned the opposing front of General Sheptytsky, occupied Bobruisk, Minsk, Vilna and broke into Polish territory. The situation of the Poles became desperate. A threat arose to Warsaw and the youngest Polish state. Western diplomacy rushed to Pilsudski's aid. July 12 followed Curzon note. The British Foreign Secretary demanded an end fighting and establish between Poland and Soviet Russia so-called ethnographic border along " Curzon lines", approximately corresponding to the current one. The ultimatum was rejected, but after a direct appeal from the Poles, negotiations began in Borisov. Meanwhile, the Red offensive continued on both fronts.
At the beginning of August, the commander-in-chief decides on a concentric attack of all forces on Warsaw. In this regard, he gives the order to transfer first the 12th and First Cavalry Armies, and then the 14th Army, to the subordination of the Western Front (Tukhachevsky). At this moment the ruler of Poland J. Pilsudski assesses his situation as catastrophic. He believes that Polish troops are unable to hold back the offensive from the east and south and asks the commandant of the Lvov fortified area to divert at least three Red divisions to himself.
Suddenly, Pilsudski had hope of salvation, because the command of the Southwestern Front sent the very armies that were intended to attack Warsaw to storm Lvov. Thus, the original Red plan was thwarted, and the enemy received an unforeseen opportunity to organize a retaliatory offensive. Partial blame lies with Commander-in-Chief Kamenev, who was not persistent enough in carrying out his own directive, and in addition, at the last second, he was afraid of the imaginary Romanian danger. But the main responsibility lies with Stalin, who really wanted a resounding success in the form of the capture of Lvov. The amorphous Yegorov could not resist the pressure of the future leader. Meanwhile, the well-fortified Lviv proved too tough for the First Cavalry and the 12th Army. Lenin categorically objected to the “spread-out-fingered” strike and insisted on taking Warsaw. Stalin stood his ground. The fruitless exchange of telegrams continued for 10 days. Finally, under pressure from Lenin, the commander-in-chief on August 13 categorically demanded that the directive to transfer three armies to Tukhachevsky be fulfilled. Stalin remained true to himself and did not sign the order prepared by Yegorov for the front. It should be remembered that in those years the commander’s order had no legal force without the signature of one of the members of the RVS. Until this time, Stalin, as the first member of the RVS, sealed all the operational orders of the commander. Another political commissar of the front, R.I. Berzin, stayed away from purely military affairs. On this basis, at first he also did not want to put his signature and did so only after the direct instructions of Trotsky.
Stalin's willfulness interrupted him for 20 years military career. He sent a telegram to Moscow about his resignation, in the hope that his plan of action would be accepted. However, the plenum of the Central Committee that took place in those days removed Stalin from the front and generally removed him from military work. He also did not make it into the next composition of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.
Only after the described telegraph battles did the First Cavalry switch to the Warsaw direction. However, time was lost. The situation has changed dramatically. The Poles took advantage of the respite and launched a counteroffensive. The Polish command struck the weak Mozyr Red group between the fronts and achieved a turning point in the course of the campaign. Now a certain numerical superiority of the Poles and the better equipment of their army were complemented by a solid operational advantage. The war also stirred up the national-patriotic feelings of the Polish people. The calculation of the Russian Bolsheviks and their Polish like-minded people ( Dzerzhinsky, Marchlewski, Unschlicht) to support the proletariat of Poland turned out to be a fiction.
Red Army troops on both fronts rolled back, losing to the Poles western part Ukraine and Belarus. The First Cavalry, advanced to Zamość, barely escaped destruction. Riga world, which ended the Soviet-Polish war in March 1921, established the border much east of the “Curzon Line”.
Tukhachevsky, from whom Stalin’s selfish calculations deprived him of the opportunity to successfully complete the operation, never looked for specific culprits of the defeat (see his book “The March for the Vistula”). Stalin and the Stalinists were not so delicate. Even before Tukhachevsky’s arrest, he was accused of mistakes on the Polish front. After the death of the marshal (see the article “The Military Process”), a standard formulation was included in all textbooks and military works: the traitors Trotsky and Tukhachevsky thwarted the capture of Lvov and Warsaw.
The lessons of the Polish campaign allow us to soberly assess the strengths and weaknesses of the First Cavalry, as well as strategic cavalry in general. Large cavalry masses were effective in breakthroughs, raids behind enemy lines, and raids. The Civil War differed from the preceding World War in the absence of a continuous front line and the low density of fire. There were 135-180 rifles per mile of the front, which was even lower than the corresponding figure for outposts in the World War. The number of cannons and machine guns was negligible. Under these conditions, the breakthrough of the front, which, by the way, had a huge length, was greatly facilitated. Due to the lack of layered defense, movement behind enemy lines occurred almost unhindered, which ensured complete surprise in an attack on the concentration of troops. But in the case of overcoming the prepared defense, the cavalry lost its advantages: it suffered heavy losses and did not achieve success. This was the case at Bataysk, and this was also revealed by repeated fruitless attempts to take control of Lvov. The cavalry itself was poorly adapted to conducting defensive battles. Here she needed solid infantry support. But the strength of the cavalry lay precisely in its ability to solve major problems independently of the main forces. A contradiction arose that seemed insoluble. It turned out that large horse masses were needed only for a short period of the civil war, suitable only for its specific conditions. Armed with dialectics, Marxist military thought in the persons of Voroshilov, Budyonny and Egorov coped with this antinomy. They announced that all wars from now on will be exclusively maneuverable, and the Red Army will only advance - which means it cannot do without powerful cavalry...
In all types of combat operations, the First Cavalry was easily vulnerable from the air. Air raids brought her heavy losses near Lvov and later in the fight against Wrangel. “Bombing from airplanes flying in groups over the mounted masses is not paralyzed by anything on our side,” Voroshilov complained to Frunze in November 1920.
First Cavalry on the Wrangel Front
But even earlier, on the way to the Wrangel front, the Cavalry had to go through the most difficult trials. Having just learned the bitterness of defeat, the pretty battered First Cavalry began decompose . However, the motley personnel of Budenov’s army had never before been guilty of predilection for military discipline. The Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry had difficulty restraining the passions of these freemen. Due to the need to self-supply, acute excesses arose every now and then in relations with the civilian population. The army command had to make excuses on this issue more than once to high authorities - right up to Lenin and Trotsky. Back in Rostov, Voroshilov gave up the city commandant for organizing a Jewish pogrom. A. Ya. Parkhomenko before the tribunal, which sentenced him to death. Only the intervention of Stalin and Ordzhonikidze saved the life of the legendary division commander.
What happened during the transfer of the First Cavalry from the Polish front was much more serious. The morals of the cavalrymen, truthfully described Babel, horrified many readers. But these descriptions dated back to the era of the war with Poland. Babel did not see the Cavalry on the way to the Crimea, when, according to Voroshilov, its “dark days” began. Unbridled robberies of civilians began. While trying to stop them, the commissar of the 6th Cavalry Division, Shepelev, was killed. Voroshilov reacted decisively. As his biographer Orlovsky, former secretary of the RVS of the Cavalry, writes, Voroshilov realized that this outbreak of “partisanship” could destroy the army. The division was put on trial (an unprecedented case in the Red Army) and disbanded. Under the gunpoint of special officers, the division's fighters, laying down their banners and weapons, began to point out the marauders. There were 150 of them. 101 of them were shot. The division's personnel were given the opportunity to wash away this shame with blood.
The First Cavalry moved slowly to the Wrangel front and arrived there greatly weakened. Moreover, Voroshilov and Budyonny sought a special status for themselves and wanted to fight according to their own plan. For these reasons, Frunze used the First Cavalry to close Crimean operation, when the victorious outcome was no longer in doubt.
The last major outbreak of “partisanship” occurred in 1921 in the North Caucasus. Under the impression of grain requisitions, Maslakov’s brigade, led by a brigade commander, broke away from the First Cavalry and turned into an anti-Soviet partisan detachment. In parallel with this, self-supply continued with inevitable robberies. The tribunals got down to business. A significant part of the Cavalry was shot. In May 1921, the First Cavalry was disbanded.
Later, I. S. Kutyakov, who commanded the 25 “Chapaevskaya” rifle division on the Polish front, wrote the book “Kyiv Cannes” in collaboration with N. M. Khlebnikov. It showed how the Third Polish Army managed to avoid encirclement and defeat. In 1937, Kutyakov handed over the manuscript to People's Commissar Voroshilov, after which he was arrested and died.
Stalin had to admit this (“On the Question of the Strategy and Tactics of Russian Communists”). Despite this, until the Patriotic War, the thesis about the support of the Red Army by the proletariat of the countries at war with the USSR was an integral part of the Soviet military doctrine and was deeply rooted in the popular consciousness.
One should not think that if there had not been a hitch with the First Cavalry, Warsaw would certainly have been taken and Poland defeated. Our description only applies to operational environment. When analyzing from a higher point, one has to take into account that behind Poland was the military and especially economic power of the entire Entente. Lenin openly called the failure of the Polish campaign a miscalculation in politics . Regarding the purely military side of the matter, he once remarked in a conversation: “Well, who goes to Warsaw through Lvov...”
06/02/2002 at 00:00, views: 9240 Some time ago I left work on this book. As usually happens, I got caught up in a hectic routine, but when these documents fell into my hands, I immediately put everything aside and got to work...There is nothing more interesting than revealing the secrets of the past. Collect bit by bit the meager lines of archival documents to create a unified picture of the recent era.
We all know about the First Cavalry Army: legendary, famous. When we talk about the Civil War, what immediately comes to mind is: “Tachanka” by Grekov, “Cavalry” by Babel, Budyonny’s mustache.
But it turns out that we really don’t know anything about the First Cavalry. We don’t know about the fears and horrors that filled every minute of those days...
I called this book, not yet fully written, “Dungeons of the Lubyanka.” It is there, in the archives of the most mysterious intelligence service on the planet, that the truth about the Civil War is hidden.
And not only about her.
There is a lot of work, but I hope to have time to publish this book by the 85th anniversary of the Lubyanka...
It’s a miracle that these documents have survived in the Lubyanka archives to this day. A true miracle, because both Klim Voroshilov and Semyon Budyonny would give dearly for these leaves, yellowed by time, to disappear forever.
Have you heard: the first marshals, heroes of the Civil War, favorites of the entire Soviet people and personally of Comrade Stalin... Father's old Budenovka, which we found somewhere in a closet... Cavalry cart - all four wheels... We are red cavalrymen, and about us...
...But what, in fact, could the eloquent epic writers talk about? It’s not about the fact that the legendary First Cavalry was in fact a haven for bandits and pogromists. That the cavalrymen massacred entire towns - killing men, raping women. That Budyonny and Voroshilov foamed at the mouth to defend the murderers in “dusty helmets”...
“The working population, who once greeted the 1st Cavalry with jubilation, now sends curses after it,” even the Revolutionary Military Council of the Army was forced to admit. * * *
September 1920. The 1st Cavalry marches across Ukraine. On the recent estate of Father Makhno.
Only local residents For some reason, the cavalrymen who are “liberated” do not show joy. The Budennovites behave like real pogromists. They break into houses, beat and rape, and steal things. First of all, they bandit in Jewish towns.
The Budennovites are tired. The army had just emerged from the Lvov encirclement. New battles lie ahead: the First Cavalry must be sent against Wrangel, on the Southern Front.
The dashing army commander Semyon Budyonny loves his soldiers. They have earned the right to rest. Three days for plunder is a sacred thing.
True, some horsemen are so carried away by pogroms that they lag behind their units. The commissars have to force them out of the towns. They mocked - and it will be...
September 28,
m. Polnoye.
...The military commissar of the 6th division, Shepelev, had not yet recovered from sleep when a sweaty soldier ran into the hut. He was so out of breath that in the first minutes he could not say anything, he could only shake his head.
- What is it?! - the military commissar could not stand it. - Speak clearly!
“Our Jews are beating,” the fighter exhaled.
The dream disappeared in an instant, as if there were no restless nights. Shepelev tensed, the nodules were running down his cheeks.
- Where?! - the military commissar asked dully.
- And in Polonnoye, and in another place, a mile away from it...
When Shepelev, together with his secretary Hagan - also a Jew, but a normal guy, one of his own - rushed to the town, the pogrom was in full swing. You could almost hear screams from every house. Budennovtsy were restoring the nerves lost in saber cutting.
We went into the first hut, where two tethered horses were shifting from foot to foot near the outskirts. On the floor, hacked to pieces with broadswords, lay a Jewish family - an old man about 60 years old, an old woman, their son. Another bloodied Jew was moaning on the bed.
Assistant Military Commissar Hagan turned pale. He probably remembered the Black Hundred pogroms, the drunken faces of bandits under the royal banners. There are no more banners, red crimson banners are now fluttering in the wind - what has just changed?..
Meanwhile, looters were operating in the next room. Some Red Army soldier, together with a pretty woman in a medical headscarf, was stuffing simple Jewish belongings into immense trunks.
- Don `t move! - the military commissar said imperiously, but the Red Army soldier - where did the agility come from? - he pushed him away and rolled out of the house head over heels. The woman also followed him. They ran down the street, raising their legs high, and Shepelev even felt sorry for them. He imagined how funny these two people would twitch now, how, having flown forward by inertia, they would fall flat on the ground as soon as they pressed the trigger on the revolver.
- Whoa-oh-oh!!! “Shepelev shouted as loud as he could, but the marauders did not listen to him, and then the military commissar raised his revolver.
One clap. Second.
After the third shot, the marauder fell dead, and with him, screaming like a woman, the nurse collapsed in fear into the dust.
She lay there, unable to utter a word, and only silently whispered something with her lips white with fear.
- Who is she? - Shepelev leaned over the woman. - Which regiment?..
She didn’t answer right away, catching her breath:
- 4th squadron, 33rd regiment - and, as if waking up, she began to shout at the top of her voice: - Don’t kill! I pray to Christ God... Have mercy on the children!
“Stand up,” the military commissar said disgustedly. - No one will kill you... Come with us.
...Generosity is a property strong people. If the commissar had shot the marauder on the spot, his whole life could have gone differently. But he took pity on her.
How did Shepelev know that he had no more than an hour to live...
From the report of the secretary of the military commissar of the 6th division Hagan:
September 29, 1920, No. 2
“Driving further through the town, we kept coming across individuals along the street who continued to rob. Comrade Shepelev convincingly asked them to disperse in parts. Many had bottles of moonshine in their hands; under the threat of execution on the spot, it was taken from them and immediately poured out.
When leaving the town we met Brigade Commander 1 (commander of the 1st brigade. - Author) Comrade A book with a half-squadron, which, in turn, was engaged in expelling bandits from the town. Comrade Shepelev told about everything that happened in the town and, having handed over the horse of the shot man along with his arrested sister to the military commander of the brigade, Comrade. Romanov, we went in the direction of Poleshtadiv (field headquarters of the division. - Auto.)”.
From the report of the commander of the 1st brigade Knigi, the military commissar of the brigade Romanov and the chief of staff of the brigade Berlev:
1920 September 28, No. 4928
“We met with Comrade Shepelev, who reported that he shot a soldier of the 33rd Cavalry Regiment at the scene of the robbery. Having reported this, Comrade. Shepelev went ahead. After some time, we also went for our units and, having caught up with them, we learned that Comrade. Shepelev was arrested by the 31st Cavalry Regiment...”
September 28,
m. New Place
...The clatter of hooves grew closer, and finally military commissar Shepelev caught up with the line of fighters.
- Which regiment? - Pausing, he called out to the commander.
- Thirty third!
Shepelev spurred his horse, but did not have time to gallop far.
“Here he is, this bitch,” someone’s heart-rending scream was heard, “he wanted to shoot us!”
The despondency immediately left the faces of the fighters. The squadrons stopped. About ten people rushed to the military commissar. Most looked expectantly, but some also broke ranks.
- Look, what a face he got... While we're dying here, these bitches are fattening...
The screams became more and more aggressive, and Shepelev already regretted that he had stopped.
“Kill him... Finish him... Discarded...” boomed through the ranks.
- Stop it! - regiment commander Cherkasov screamed at the top of his lungs. His throat was tinned, dating back to the First World War, he could shout out anyone. However, Shepelev was also a proven commissar.
They barely shouted down the fighters. Cursing, the Red Army soldiers returned to duty, spitting from powerlessness and anger.
It seems to have passed... But, as luck would have it, brigade commander Book arrived. In his saddle sat an arrested rioter - a sister of mercy.
- Babu, for what?! - the fighters got excited. - Of course, it’s easier to fight with women...
The brigade commander tried to silence the nurse, but this only added fuel to the fire.
- We no longer have the old regime! - the Budennovites roared. - Let the woman explain what she did wrong...
The military commissar wearily turned to the nurse: “Speak.”
“I mean this...” the woman took a deep breath. - What am I... They killed Vasyatka...
- Who?!! - the crowd went wild.
“This one,” the nurse pointed to the military commissar. - Personally...
Everything started again.
- Stop this nit! - the cavalrymen shouted. - He kills our brothers, and we remain silent?!
Later, the secretary of the military commissar Hagan, remembering these minutes, will wonder again and again: how did he manage to stay alive?! Miraculously, brigade commander Book managed to pull him and the military commissar out of the ring of enraged, half-drunk people. True, this could no longer change anything. The heated crowd was thirsty for blood, and they were already carried along, as if they were carried, unable to stop, by stones during a mountain collapse...
From the report of the secretary of the military commissar of the 6th Cavalry Division Hagan:
“We didn’t even have time to drive a hundred fathoms when about 100 Red Army soldiers separated from the 31st regiment, caught up with us, jumped up to the military commissar and snatched his weapon. At the same time, the Red Army soldiers of the 32nd regiment, which was marching ahead, began to join. (...)
A shot was fired from a revolver, which wounded Comrade. Shepelev in the left shoulder right through. Comrade managed with difficulty. The book is to tear him wounded out of the frenzied heap and take him to the first hut he comes across and provide medical assistance.
When Comrade Book, accompanied by me and military commissar Romanov, called Comrade. Shepelev goes outside to put it on the ruler, we are again surrounded by a crowd of Red Army soldiers, pushing me and Kniga away from Comrade. Shepelev, and with a second shot mortally wounded him in the head.
The corpse of the murdered comrade. Shepelev was besieged by a crowd of Red Army soldiers for a long time, and at his last breath they shouted “the bastard, he’s still breathing, kill him with swords.” Some tried to steal their boots, but the military commissar of the 31st regiment stopped them, but the wallet, along with documents, including a code, was pulled out from comrade. Shepelev from his pocket.”
From the report of the commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade V. Kniga to the head of the 6th Cavalry Division:
“I cannot indicate who exactly was the murderer of the military commissar, since in such a scuffle it was difficult to establish who exactly shot.”
September 28. Evening.
Headquarters of the 33rd Regiment.
No one could accuse the military commissar of the 33rd regiment - the same one where the marauder shot by Shepelev served - of cowardice. He went through hundreds of bloody fellings. Through German gases. Hand-to-hand hell.
But that evening, September 28, the military commissar, perhaps for the first time in many years, felt uneasy, and this long-forgotten feeling of frightening uncertainty infuriated him. It drove me crazy...
He learned about Shepelev's murder in the evening. He immediately gathered squadron commanders and commissars. He ordered that all measures be taken to ensure that the fighters were on the ground.
“Comrade military commissar,” the commander of the 4th squadron rose from his seat. “We won’t be able to restrain people... I’m actually afraid that something worse than pogroms would happen.”
- That is?.. - the military commissar did not understand.
- They can beat the commissars...
“They can,” the assistant of the 5th squadron supported him. - There is talk among the fighters: it would be nice to kill the commissars at night...
The military commissar turned pale. He knew his horsemen well: you can expect anything from these guys, they have no brakes.
They prepared for the night as if for battle. We took up defensive positions in the guardhouse. The military commissar of the 5th squadron, together with the soldiers - the squadron was calmer than the others - went on patrol.
That’s right: as soon as it got dark, the Red Army soldiers of the 3rd and 1st squadrons rushed to neighboring towns to smash the Jews. The regiment commander urgently went after them: he hoped, naively, to stop the pogrom. The military commissar rode to the division...
September 29.
Night. 6th Division Headquarters
- And so constantly - pogrom after pogrom... A week ago, in Golovlya, two peasants were killed just because they were cleanly dressed... Or another case: the military commissar of the 43rd regiment arrested three of my bandits for looting. The 2nd and 3rd squadrons walked by. The bandits were released, but the military commissar barely escaped with his feet. They wanted to kill.
Divisional Chief Apanasenko listened to the military commissar attentively and did not interrupt. When he finished, he put his hands under the wide belt. He shook his head:
- What do you offer?
- We could use someone more conscientious to help us...
The division commander yawned widely:
- Let’s do this: if there’s another emergency, you’ll whistle... Then we’ll send help. In the meantime,” he yawned again, “I’ll take a little nap... It’s been a night since I haven’t gotten enough sleep...
From the report of the military commissar of the 33rd cavalry regiment of the 5th cavalry division.
October 2, 1920, No. 536
“At 12 o’clock at night, having arrived at the apartment of the regimental headquarters, I managed to find out from the commander and his assistant that half of the crowd was drunk and in an excited state and the patrol could not cope. It was risky to send other squadrons, since their mood was uncertain.
After this, the former commander of the 3rd squadron, Comrade, enters the apartment of the regiment headquarters. Galka is drunk and a crowd of about 15-20 people is also in this state, all armed. Galka begins to shout at the regiment commanders and hit the floor with his rifle butt, threatening that I will kill everyone who dares to go against me and adding: I am no longer a soldier of the Red Army, but "bandit".
Most of the threats were addressed to the military commissar, and they were also looking for the chairman of the command cell of the 4th squadron, Comrade. Kvitka, who detained two robbers of the 3rd squadron and took the stolen things from them, Galka definitely shouted: I will kill Kvitka.
The division commander ordered the commander of the 34th Cavalry Regiment to send one squadron, but when we arrived at the apartment of the regiment headquarters, we learned from the Commander of the 34th that their situation was monotonous, the squadron did not come and the whole night there was general robbery and murder.”
September 29.
M. New Place.
There was silence over the rows. Such silence, to the point of ringing in the ears, which usually happens before the start of a battle.
The dashing Budennovites, the shaggy cavalry of the Sixth Division, dismounted and awaited their fate...
They were lined up at exactly noon. The entire personnel of the 33rd regiment - immediately after the night of riots and pogroms.
They did not yet know what awaited them ahead, but the stern appearance of the division commander and the head of the division’s special department who had hastily arrived clearly did not promise anything good, and therefore the soldiers in the ranks were silent, drooping. The fire of the night and the courage had long since disappeared, like hops, and not all of them, in the end, succumbed to this freedom: the majority kept to themselves.
Now these “mansions” looked at the ringleaders, not without superiority, and they themselves had already prepared for the worst...
The trumpet began to play. Divisional Chief Apanasenko pranced in front of the formation and rose dramatically in his stirrups:
“Listen, honest soldiers and commanders,” he shouted. - Listen, lads, to my speech... Haven’t we gone through hundreds of glorious battles with you?! Isn’t it you - the fighters of the legendary First Cavalry - that the entire labor republic looks at with love and pride?!
The faces of those standing in the ranks brightened. They expected anything - blasphemy, swearing - but not these beautiful words.
The regimental commissar - it was he who insisted on the meeting - closed his eyes in frustration and bitterness. He was sure that all participants in the night robbery would be immediately arrested. He believed in the authority of the division commander, in his justice and soldier’s honesty, but now the usual vulgar performance was being played out in front of the regiment.
The division commander - always so stern and tough - like a buyer at the market, persuaded his soldiers “not to misbehave.”
And the fighters felt this weakness instantly. Where did their recent confusion and despondency go? The regimental shouters take the floor. They demand the expulsion of all Jews from Soviet institutions. (“Actually from Russia!” - the ranks pick up.) All officers...
The division commander is treacherously silent. The commissioner was trying to stop the screamers. He says that the pogromists are raising a knife over the revolution itself, but he is not allowed to finish.
- We don’t need this agitation! - the fighters roar. - We ate our fill! Enough!!!
“Nothing,” the commander patted the commissar approvingly on the shoulder as he said goodbye. - It will settle down...
From the report of the military commissar of the 33rd regiment of the 5th cavalry division
October 20, 1920
“The meeting closed, the loudmouths felt like winners. Our stay now is useless, because the top ranks in the division have not done what is needed, but have done everything to destroy the prestige of the military commissars.
All the work that has been done up to now has gone down the drain only because our command staff from top to bottom has pursued and is pursuing a half-hearted policy in the sense of healing our units from dirty inclinations. We, military commissars, are not turning into political workers, we are becoming not the fathers of units, but gendarmes of the tsarist system. It is not surprising that they beat us and continue to kill us.
The leaders of the robberies and pogroms of the Jewish population are still in place, in the squadrons, and continue to do their job, and the former commander Galka, as if, will be the commander of his old squadron.
The regiment is located in worse condition: there is no discipline, orders in the sense of stopping robberies do not exist. The Jewish population is treated with hostility, has been terrorized and is capable of terrorizing upon first encounter with the Jewish population.
The killers of two peasants - eight people - are in the squadron; some crowd has released them from arrest. While the slogans “Beat the Jews and Communists” remain, and some glorify Makhno...”
What was he like, the deceased commissar Shepelev? The archives have not preserved anything for us except this simple surname.
He could become famous throughout the country, like, for example, another commissar - Furmanov. Rise to the rank of general (or even marshal) - provided, of course, that he managed to avoid Moloch on the 37th, but instead died a most absurd death at the hands of his own soldiers. But it was this death that brought the commissioner to the forefront of history.
However, should this be surprising: it is the extras who make history. Such as the commissar of the 6th division Shepelev, who found himself in the role of a catalyst for powerful historical processes that began immediately after his murder (and - we add - precisely because of his murder)...
Of course, echoes of the Budyonnovsk freemen had been heard in Moscow before, but for the time being, the leaders of the Soviets preferred to turn a blind eye to everything that was happening. “A revolution is not made with white gloves,” this is what Comrade Peters, the first deputy chairman of the Cheka, who managed to command the “Cheka” for three months, said. And even with all the desire, where did you get so many people wearing white gloves?..
Both Lenin and Trotsky could not help but understand (and therefore understood) what the famous First Cavalry represented. The usual rabble: half-bandits, half-Cossacks, gathered by the dashing grunt Senya Budyonny on a wave of permissiveness and anarchy. Swap “theirs” red flags for green flags of all kinds of bateks and atamans - no one will feel the difference.
So why tire yourself with empty moralizing? If Father Makhno - worst enemy- they persuaded us to speak out against the whites, which would anger God. And that on the way to a bright future the cavalrymen will ruin a couple of towns... They cut down the forest - the chips fly.
But the death of Commissar Shepelev, which was immediately reported to the Kremlin by the Cheka, forced the leaders to seriously reconsider. This was already a direct threat to the revolution. Today the Budennovites killed Shepelev - tomorrow, you see, they will turn the carts against the Soviet regime...
And all the reports and messages coming from the First Cavalry testified, alas, to a sad trend: the role of commissars (that is, representatives of Moscow) was reduced to a minimum in the troops. All power rests with the commanders, most of whom have never even heard of Marx.
Moscow was well aware of what this could lead to: how many times have they been burned by such “peasant-Cossack” armies...
Free spirit and freethinking. These words have the same root, but the meaning is completely different. And if Moscow was ready to forgive the freemen, with everything that followed from this - pogroms, robberies, then she could not let go of freethinking.
In all the years of its history, there has not been a more dangerous and hated enemy for the Soviet government, for freethinking (dissent, opportunism, dissidence - there are many names for this phenomenon) laid claim to the main asset of October - ideological monopoly...
Immediately after the murder of Shepelev, Moscow sent a special government commission, as they would say now, to the headquarters of the First Cavalry. The fact that this trip was not a mere formality is clear from its composition alone:
Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Kalinin, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic Kamenev, People's Commissar of Justice Kursky, People's Commissar of Health Semashko, People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky, Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) Preobrazhensky.
It is clear that officials of such magnitude could not go to positions on their own, without instructions from above. This means there was a team, and the most serious one at that. Whose? In those years, the country had only two leaders: Lenin and Trotsky... * * *
Meanwhile, events in the First Cavalry are developing rapidly. Realizing that information about Shepelev’s murder has already reached the very top and the situation is becoming irreversible, Budyonny and Voroshilov begin to do everything possible to justify themselves in the eyes of the Kremlin. Otherwise, they will face a shameful resignation.
At first, however, the army command does not take any serious measures: maybe it will blow over. It didn't work. In October, an angry dispatch from the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, Trotsky, arrived from Moscow. We can't delay any longer...
On October 9, Budyonny and Voroshilov issue a draconian order:
Disarm and disband the three regiments of the Sixth Division, “stained with unheard-of shame and crime,” and immediately arrest all “murderers, thugs, bandits, provocateurs and accomplices” and bring them to justice.
However, it is not enough to sign one order - it must also be implemented... Voroshilov himself later admitted: he and Budyonny were seriously afraid that this order could stir up the entire “disgraced” 6th Division and lead to a riot.
In order to avoid completely unnecessary unrest at this moment - then resignation certainly cannot be avoided - the army command is conducting a real military operation in the village of Olshanniki, where the 6th division is stationed...
Let us, however, give the floor to the direct organizer and participant of these events. This is how Deputy Army Commander Klim Voroshilov described what was happening before the government commission:
“It was ordered to build a division near the railway line. roads. But the bandits did not yawn, from which we can conclude that they had an excellent organization - the bandits did not show up, and the division was not built at full strength.
When we arrived, it was immediately ordered to cover the division from the flanks and rear, and along the canvas railway two armored trains became. Thus, the division found itself surrounded. It made an amazing impression. All the fighters and command staff did not know what would happen next, and the provocateurs whispered that there would be executions.
We demanded that everyone line up. The division commander immediately declares that he cannot do anything. To give orders to ourselves meant to lose prestige. We drove through rows of clean regiments. Comrade Budyonny and I said a few comradely words to them. They said that honest fighters should not be afraid of anything, that they know us, we know them, etc. This immediately brought a new mood. Order was quickly restored, clean brigades were pitted against dirty ones. The command “at attention” was given. After this comrade. Minin (member of the RVS 1st Cavalry. - Auto.) the order was read artistically (on the disbandment of three regiments and the arrest of the organizers of pogroms and murders. - Auto.).
After reading the order, they began to carry it out. One of the regiments had a battle banner from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, brought by Comrade. Kalinin. Commander (Budyony. - Auto.) orders the banner to be taken away. Many fighters start crying, outright sobbing. Here we have already felt that public(emphasis added - Auto.) everything is in our hands. We ordered to lay down our weapons, step aside and hand over the instigators. After this, 107 people were extradited and the fighters promised to present those who escaped...”
It’s not without reason that we highlighted the word “public”. It seems that in this almost “Freudian” clause lies the key to understanding everything that is happening.
“We felt that the audience was in our hands.”
Who could say such a phrase? Director? Yes. Theater entrepreneur? Without a doubt. At worst, the owner of a traveling circus. But not the future marshal and three times Hero. In his mouth it sounds wild, it hurts the ears.
And at the same time, not even a shadow of doubt arises that this time Voroshilov - contrary to his custom - is speaking sincerely. (What breaks out involuntarily, from somewhere gradually, is generally more believable.)
Years will pass. The theatrical talent of Voroshilov - a marshal who had not won a single battle, a party official declared “the first red officer” - would become known throughout the country.
It was he who was the first - back in the late 20s - to publicly call Stalin the most brilliant commander and attribute to him other people's victories in the Civil War.
It is he who will send thousands of generals and officers - his friends and comrades - to death, just to survive himself.
It is he, who sang hosannas to Stalin for thirty years, who will renounce him before the rooster even crows, and then just as shamelessly brand his own like-minded people with shame - Molotov, Kaganovich, “and Shepilov, who joined him”...
He will transform with the same ease as actors do on stage. Changing their views is how they change their roles. Masterfully get into character. So masterly that he will retire only in his ninth decade...
But if it weren’t for the play that Voroshilov and Budyonny staged in the fall of 20, perhaps this career would not have happened.
At all costs, they need to show the “federal center” that all the mistakes in the First Cavalry have been taken into account and corrected. That the murder of Commissioner Shepelev is an exclusively private phenomenon that has nothing to do with the overall picture. That the situation in the army is completely under the control of the command.
This is why a completely clumsy passage about the “organization of bandits” arises: they say, if a division did not line up on time, it means that the bandits have an “excellent organization” (a good organization: to destroy unarmed Jews when drunk).
This idea - that everything is to blame for the bandits who tricked their way into the orderly ranks of the cavalry - is very beneficial for Budyonny and Voroshilov. It is no coincidence that the text of the order to disband the three regiments, as if by chance, says: “someone’s spy hand immediately pulled Comrade out of his pocket. Shepelev secret military documents”...
From the order of the RVS of the First Cavalry Red Army.
1920 October 9, No. 89.
“Where the criminal regiments of the still glorious 1st Cavalry Army recently passed, the institutions of Soviet power are destroyed, honest workers quit their jobs and run away at the mere rumor of the approach of bandit units. The Red rear is ruined, upset, and through this the correct supply and leadership of the Red armies fighting at the front is destroyed.
The working population, who once greeted the 1st Cavalry Army with jubilation, now sends curses after it. The name of the first cavalry army is disgraced. Our glorious battle flags are stained with the blood of innocent victims. The enemy rejoices at the treacherous help he received.”
So, the Budennovites have nothing to do with the pogroms and robberies. This is the work of “bandits, robbers, provocateurs and enemy spies” (another quote from the same order).
Very convenient explanation. It not only relieves Voroshilov and Budyonny of responsibility for what is happening. It also whitewashes the entire First Cavalry, because it turns out that the army, for the most part, is clean and healthy. Only the 6th Division was mired in pogroms and murders - but they also managed to “deal with it”, encircling and driving even a couple of armored trains. ( The best remedy for dandruff, the French say, the guillotine.)
Of course, there was no point in dispersing the division. With the same success, almost half of all units of the Cavalry could have been disbanded. But common sense was the last thing that bothered Budyonny and Voroshilov. It was a demonstrative action. Special effect - to use theatrical language. A demonstrative flogging timed to coincide with the arrival of the Moscow commission. The 6th Division was simply sacrificed to the situation.
This is despite all the assurances and oaths of the divisional command. Ironically (or maybe because of orders from above: who knows?) the division leaders, trying to justify themselves, made the same arguments as Voroshilov and Budyonny, focusing on “saboteurs,” “saboteurs,” and “spies.” A sort of vertical of demagoguery.
Another quote - from the transcript general meeting all commanders and military commissars of the 6th Cavalry Division, convened on the initiative of Divisional Commander Apanasenko.
Each speaker skillfully places emphasis.
Chief of Staff of the Sheko Division:
“Agents of Petliura and Wrangel penetrate our midst and corrupt the division. We, all conscious people, need to unite in order to once and for all achieve victory over the enemies of the revolution.”
Assistant commander of the 31st regiment Sedelnikov:
“Knowing the soldiers of my regiment as honest defenders of the Revolution, I see in all this the vile work of agents of capitalism and the dying bourgeoisie.”
Chairman of the repair and procurement commission Dyakov:
“The insignificant groups of bandits who have clung to us are discrediting the honor of the division. I propose to swear that from this day on there will be no place in our division for such elements.”
This meeting was held on October 3rd. And on another day, the new military commissar of the division, Romanov, appointed to replace the murdered Shepelev, sends a devastating report to the RVS of the Cavalry.
One can only guess about the reasons for this action: Romanov was present at the divisional meeting, but for some reason did not want to take the floor. I preferred the written form.
What is this? The usual intrigue? Cry from the heart? Or maybe the military commander did not act on his own initiative? Someone advised Romanov to show “principle”? Did he hint that Voroshilov and Budyonny would not forget him?
However, all this is already in the realm of speculation. No documents or evidence on this matter were preserved in the archives (and could not have been preserved: experienced politicians leave no traces).
But the report itself has been preserved. It was he who served as the last straw in the decision of the army leadership to hand over the rebellious division to slaughter...
From the report of military commander Romanov.
October 4, 1920 No. 10.
“The situation of the division lately has been very serious. In almost every regiment, there are definitely gangs of bandits who have built strong nests there, with which it is necessary to wage the most decisive struggle, because now, taking our Army to the rear, they are doing something terrible along the way: robbing, raping, killing and setting fire even at home. In particular, all this manifests itself in relation to the Jewish population; there is almost no place where there would not be Jewish victims, completely innocent of anything.
The reason for all these phenomena are the following facts: firstly, this evil had been brewing for a long time in the division, and at one time no measures were taken to prevent it. This is the deceitful policy of the military commissars, at a time when they assured in their political reports that everything was going well in the units, which was not the case in reality.
The unconscious bandit mass, which is not amenable to absolutely political treatment, remains completely unpunished. An example is when I handed over those responsible for the wounding of the Military Commissar of the 31st Cavalry Regiment, Comrade. Kuznetsov to the Revolutionary Military Tribunal, then, instead of the criminals receiving due punishment, they were not only not convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal, but were even acquitted, and were returned back to the brigade, like the criminals for the murder of the Military Combrig, Comrade. Zhukov, who happened before me. The consequence of such actions was the murder of Comrade. Shepeleva.
I propose to urgently equip an expeditionary detachment to remove from the division all bandit elements, and hiding agents of Petliura, Wrangel and the White Poles, because, otherwise, the division will soon, in its larger composition, be able to serve as a good reinforcement for those gangs against which We’re going to fight now.”
October 14. Znamenka. RVS Cavalry.
- Well, who will start? - Chairman of the All-Union Central Executive Committee, All-Union Elder Kalinin, glanced through the round lenses of his glasses.
There was silence at the table for a few seconds. Everyone looked at Army Commander Budyonny, but he sat there without reacting, picking out dirt from under his nails with a knife.
“Allow me,” Voroshilov immediately hurried to his friend’s rescue. He, like no one else, knew how tongue-tied Budyonny could be. In saber cutting he has no equal, but disputes and discussions are not his element.
Kalinin nodded approvingly, and in this nod Voroshilov felt some kind of sign that was understandable to him alone. Take action, Klim. If you manage to swim, swim out, no one will drown you on purpose.
In general, he is not his enemy, Kalinin, - a normal man, from the workers, no match for any counts. Nobles - they are nobles. White bone. No matter what speeches are pushed from the stands about equality and brotherhood, they will never stand on the same level as the peasant. It’s like Turgenev’s bars, who talked with the servants casually, but pressed a scented handkerchief to their mouth: democracy is democracy, but the smell from the peasant is too heavy.
How many of these “pure” Bolshevik romantics did the former Luhansk mechanic Voroshilov meet on his way? Those who went to the revolution not out of hunger, not out of despair - from noble boredom or Jewish curiosity, having read all sorts of romantic dregs like Stepnyak-Kravchinsky.
Voroshilov understood: in these hours his future should be decided. If they fail to talk to the commission now, all their many years of work will go down the drain. But how much effort did they spend to subjugate the First Cavalry and get rid of competitors? The story with Dumenko alone is worth it. And Mironov?
Only who cares about this now. They will be removed in disgrace, sent somewhere beyond the Urals - to third roles. The successes of the First Cavalry blind the eyes of too many: and the ubiquitous security officers, who cannot forgive them and Budyonny for their independence, for the fact that they do not run to bow to them, do not curry favor, like others. And Leibe Bronstein-Trotsky, in whom Jewish blood plays: pogroms of small towns, you see, offend him, although Cossacks without pogroms are the same as a revolution without Jews.
Voroshilov once again glanced briefly at those sitting at the table, as if trying to understand what to expect from whom. Lunacharsky - People's Commissar of Education, Semashko - People's Commissar of Health; “white collar workers”, nobles - these are perhaps the most dangerous, they are too intelligent. Especially the commander-in-chief Kamenev is a former general staff colonel: like all “military experts,” he treats peasant commanders with contempt and does not take them seriously.
People's Commissar of Justice Kursky is a simpler man, a former warrant officer, although also one of the “old Bolsheviks.” Preobrazhensky is a member of the Central Committee, former secretary of the Ural Regional Committee. This is not clear: a dark horse, I haven’t managed to prove myself in any way yet.
In general, one hope lies in Kalinin, an old acquaintance from Petrograd: together we made a revolution in 1717. His opinion will be dominant: Voroshilov understood this immediately as soon as the commission arrived at army headquarters.
He shook his head for a second, as if about to jump off a cliff... *
“I want to touch on a brief history of our movement on the Polish front, so that the situation in which our army is now becomes clear,” Voroshilov began from afar. - While we were walking forward, the mood was excellent. When the moment of withdrawal arrived, by this time the army had reached highest voltage and overwork. It was necessary to immediately withdraw, at least in separate parts, for rest or pour in new fresh large reinforcements to make it possible to take a break on the spot. This was not done.
The commission members listened attentively, did not interrupt, and the silence was sweeter than any music.
“The elements opposed to it immediately raised their heads,” encouraged by the silence, Voroshilov moved to his favorite skate. - In addition, along the way there was a replenishment of volunteers, of whom, as it turned out later, there was a lot of rubbish. Especially the 6th division, consisting of volunteers from the Stavropol province - themselves small-proprietor elements, at the beginning of the retreat they formed a core of bandits.
(Inwardly he applauded himself: “About the 6th “rebel” division and small-proprietor elements - well done.”)
- For the first time on September 23-24, we learned that not everything was going well in the 6th Division. This division remained at a distance of 80-100 miles from us, and we, being in the main units, did not even suspect that anything was happening there, because there were no reports from the division commander. And those vile pogrom actions that began in the division were unexpected. But we quickly found out everything, and measures were immediately taken.
After these words, Kalinin nodded approvingly. They had already told him in detail about the measures taken. Forty rebels were expelled even before his arrival.
But not everyone agreed with Kalinin.
“You say that measures were taken immediately,” one of the commission members spoke up. Voroshilov did not have time to discern who exactly it was: most likely Lunacharsky. - Why were the bandit regiments disbanded only two weeks later?
“Oh, you're boring. You’re probably waiting for me to say: because a telegram arrived from Trotsky?!”
“We couldn’t immediately take drastic decisive measures,” Voroshilov immediately retorted. - In other divisions, the general objective situation was the same. Only subjectively the composition there was better. Therefore, it took about 2 weeks of preparatory work. It was necessary to have units that, if necessary, would shoot.
- What does it mean - the situation is the same in other divisions? - the voice did not stop.
“Yes, there were difficulties in other divisions,” Voroshilov answered as calmly as possible. It was stupid to hide the obvious. On the contrary, the more openly you talk about your shortcomings, the more trust you have.
- In the 11th division there was a little bit of it, but it was liquidated in advance. But the operation on the 6th Division, of course, made a sobering impression on the other divisions, we now need to “pump up” the public, and you came to us at a very necessary moment.
He uttered the last phrase especially for the “nobles” and from the way the commission members blushed, he realized that he had hit the nail on the head. A turning point was clearly evident in the general mood, and Voroshilov immediately hastened to take advantage of it.
“Of course, there was nothing dangerous or terrible,” after these words even Budyonny perked up in surprise and blinked his eyelashes in surprise, “although the 6th Division, of course, did a lot of outrages.” But now, I repeat, the army is absolutely healthy. Its combat effectiveness, even in the condition that existed in the 6th division, was not lost; all operational orders were carried out, because cutting up the Jews they did not make any connection with military discipline.
Voroshilov finished and looked around the table. By all appearances, his speech was a success. If only the following speakers don't let us down.
“Comrade Voroshilov, giving a picture of events, lost sight of one important circumstance,” Minin, a member of the army RVS, spoke without even asking a word, still feeling like a significant figure. In 1717, Minin was chairman of the Tsaritsyn Revolutionary Committee, then carried out special tasks for the Central Committee and Lenin personally on the Western Front and treated exile to the First Cavalry as a temporary phenomenon. If anyone should have expected a dirty trick from anyone, it was only him, although everything seemed to have been discussed and negotiated the day before.
- The command staff was knocked out in large numbers, and the 6th Division, while maintaining its combat capability, was almost a crowd, because commanders had to be appointed from among the fighters, and the army in this form began to retreat.
(“No, Minin didn’t let us down.”)
- It should also be noted that the enemy paid special attention to the cavalry army, in the sense of its internal decomposition. The 6th Division, during its retreat, was detained on the Polish front, and thus, without a leading command staff, left to its own devices, it immediately became filled with criminal elements.
Minin pronounced phrases abruptly, minted words. He was already carried away, and Voroshilov felt that now a member of the RVS, the old Bolshevik Minin, with all his party obstinacy, would steer in the wrong direction. And exactly.
- Then I must say (“I must! I must!”) that this negative phenomenon definitely affected other divisions. So, in the 11th division the supply chief was killed. Then, in the same 11th division, on September 30, at the station where we were stationed, individual bandit-minded units released those arrested from a special department. When we took action and drove away the bandits, after some time we received information that the regiments of the 2nd brigade of the 11th division were coming towards us. A delegation came and stated that Jews They arrested the Budennovites, and when they wanted to free them, they were fired upon. We explained what was happening and told the shelves to stop. But at this time they had already approached the station and were in great bewilderment when, instead of Jews saw us. The next day we demanded the extradition of the instigators, and 8 bandits and 9 instigators were handed over to us. This was on the 30th, and on the 28th the Berdichev prison was unloaded. It was done as before - under the slogan that Jews and the communists imprison the Budennovites. The Revolutionary Military Council gave an order to provide information and arrest the perpetrators. But information did not arrive for a long time, until finally we went ourselves and found out that the commanders of the 4th and 5th squadrons had been arrested.
(“Lord, where did it go?! Why was it necessary to touch other divisions?”)
However, Minin, it seems, had already realized his mistake, and therefore began to sharply turn back.
- The day of the operation in the 6th Cavalry Division should be considered a day of turning point, not in the narrow sense of the word - an increase in combat effectiveness, but of purification from unsuitable elements. Your arrival is a very happy coincidence with everything that happened. The turning point has already begun, we have 270 people who have been handed over as fighters, and now it should begin cleansing work. We propose holding a series of conferences and several days of party work so that the army is washed and perfumed. So your work will have very fertile ground.
He finished, quite pleased with himself. About the “happy” arrival of the commission and about the “washed up” army - it turned out well.
- Who else wants to speak? - Kalinin was in no hurry to draw conclusions, he was playing at democracy.
The head of the army's political department, Vardin, stood up. He pulled down his tunic.
- The army was in combat for three and a half months without a break, and when we start talking about political work, this must be kept in mind.
Vardin is worried, oh, worried. To speak before members of the Central Committee is not to read political literacy in Cossack circles.
- In the same 6th Cavalry Division during this time, the commissar composition changed 2-3 times and, of course, with a lower-ranking element. The most painful place for us is the squadron commissars. They are usually ordinary fighters, communists, but very weak communists, and who sometimes are not averse to shouting along with the fighters “beat the Jews.”
(“Thank God,” flashed through Voroshilov’s head, “that not a single Jew came with the commission. Apparently, the Central Committee realized that there was no point in teasing the geese.”)
“Now about anti-Simism,” Vardin said exactly that: “about anti-Simism.” - Yes, anti-Simism, as in any peasant army, took place. But anti-Simism is passive. The slogan “beat the Jews” has not yet been heard. For us, there was a much more serious issue - the attitude towards prisoners, who were mercilessly killed and stripped. But it was difficult for the political department of the Revolutionary Military Council to fight this.
And in this situation, our army did not receive even a 10th share of the number of political workers it needed. The first batch of workers - about 200 people - arrived at the end of June, from which it was possible to take a dozen or two workers who could carry out the work. The second serious detachment - 370 people, but when they began to distribute them, only a small part, some two or three dozen, turned out to be suitable, and the rest were either completely unsuited to the army, or were completely sick, deaf, lame...
“So,” Lunacharsky grinned, “300 deaf and mute agitators...
“That’s right,” Vardin grew bolder and spoke confidently and clearly. - All these circumstances led to the fact that political work stood and stands at a very low level. The other day a party conference was convened, at which anti-Semitic notes were submitted. They ask: why are the Jews in power? We simply deprived them of their mandates and allowed them to remain with the right of an advisory vote. Our prospects only depend on whether there will be people or not.
(“Well, he turned everything around,” Voroshilov appreciated the cunning wisdom of his student. “He shifted all responsibility to the center. They say, give us political workers, we will maintain the situation. No, blame yourself.”)
Meanwhile, without allowing the commission to come to its senses, Minin again seized the initiative. Purely Budennovsky tactics: organize a breakthrough of the enemy’s defense, throw all your forces at him.
“Given the situation in which our army was,” Minin continued, “the rear institutions were constantly being torn away, and the picture that emerged was that people with broken ribs were lying around for several days.” Previously, the institutions were so neglected that they did not look like Soviet institutions at all. For example, the head of the administrative department was shot for violence, other communists were shot for violating discipline, etc.
Finally, the army commander gave his voice - for the first and only time. As usual, it was out of place, and Voroshilov again praised the leaders for their generosity: if there were at least one Jew on the commission - the word “Jew”, so beloved by Budyonny and the Budyonnovites, he did not even utter in his thoughts, he loved his wife, Ekaterina Davidovna, too much - and so , if even one Jew had come with the commission, it wouldn’t have been easy for them and Budyonny...
“And here, even when we were passing through this idiotic Ukraine, where the slogan “beat the Jews” is everywhere,” Budyonny began right off the bat, again returning to the painful Jewish topic, although no one pushed him to this, “and, besides, the fighters are very dissatisfied people always return from hospitals. They are treated poorly in the infirmaries, and there is no help at the stations when returning. And so, having turned to one Jewish commandant, to another and not receiving help, or instead of help - abuse, they see that they are abandoned without any contempt, and, returning to the ranks, they bring disintegration, talking about grievances, they say that We fight here, give our lives, but no one does anything there.
Voroshilov saw how the faces of Lunacharsky, Semashka and other intellectuals stretched out, and he himself was rather offended by Budyonny’s speech. Typical anti-Semitic logic: the Jews are to blame for everything. And if the commandants were crests - what then? However, what else can you expect from an illiterate Cossack, a recent non-commissioned officer, who, by the will of fate, was carried by a wave to the very top.
“Of course, on this basis the criminal hand is deliberately campaigning,” Budyonny did not slow down. He managed to become quite good at disseminating demagoguery. - But we have already taken a big step in eradicating these criminal elements, and now we are all very happy to welcome you for coming, and we hope that you will work with our fighters, who, spending all their time in blood and battles, see no one and do little hear.
“Well,” Kalinin nodded with satisfaction, “it seems to me that the comrades told us in sufficient detail about what was happening in the army.” They didn’t hide anything, they didn’t try to hide their weaknesses from the Central Committee,” he smiled and looked at Voroshilov. - I propose to take their reports into account and make a final decision after returning to Moscow, but for now move on to solving purely technical issues...
“He’s insuring himself,” Voroshilov realized. “Apparently, there have been no clear indications about us yet.”
But something told him that main danger has already passed. The most unpleasant thing is behind us.
He and Budyonny withstood this battle, which, perhaps, was even more difficult than the Battle of Yegorlyk or the “Mironov case” taken together... * * *
The commission left for Moscow a few days later. We parted almost comradely.
And although Kalinin did not say anything specific in parting, he got off with general phrases, there was no longer the anxiety that Voroshilov had experienced earlier. He was almost sure that the enterprise he staged was a great success: none of the “artists” let us down. Even security officers.
The latter was especially important, because the relationship between the cavalry elite and the army counterintelligence had already gone too far.
The head of the special department, the stubborn Latvian Zvederis, became emboldened to the point that he sent slander directly to Dzerzhinsky, but neither Budyonny nor Voroshilov could do anything about it: the special officers did not obey them.
What started it all? If someone had asked them about this, neither Voroshilov nor Zvederis would probably have been able to explain anything right now. From ordinary little things.
One did not invite the other to the meeting. The second - without informing - undertook to carry out some kind of operation. Nonsense in general. But this nonsense, like a snowball, grew every day. No one wanted to give in to each other, from below, everyone considered himself too much of a boss. And when they came to their senses, it was already too late, the enmity had taken root too deeply.
More than once or twice, Voroshilov and Budyonny figured out how to get rid of the rebellious special officer and get him out of the army. But Dzerzhinsky did not give offense to his people: that is why he came up with military counterintelligence, to keep the army under control - it is no coincidence that he personally headed a special department of the Cheka.
But, as they say, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped...
And again we are invading the sphere of conjectures and hypotheses: too few documents have been preserved in the “case of the First Cavalry”. Most of the papers were destroyed back in the 70s.
The immutable facts are as follows: on October 13, Kalinin heard oral reports from the chief of logistics in Kremenchug and the head of the Kremenchug “check,” who told the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee about rampant banditry.
“We have about 2 thousand bayonets at our disposal, and up to 3 thousand organized bandits,” logistics chief Novitsky complained to Kalinin. “And they are also joined by armed peasants.”
“Help from our side is almost impossible,” Chairman of the Cheka Magon fully supported him. “A very undesirable phenomenon is that the Cheka is 70 percent Jewish, and it is absolutely impossible to send them to the village.”
Of course, these reports did not in any way compromise the hated counterintelligence chief Zvederis, especially since the special departments were not subordinate to the local security agencies. But almost certainly their words were etched in Kalinin’s memory, which means he couldn’t help but wonder: why do the bandits feel so free and unpunished in the province?
He receives the answer to this question two days later, from a certain representative of a special department of the Cavalry named Novitsky.
Who is Novitsky? What is his position? Why, in the end, he, and not the head of counterintelligence, makes a report to the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee - the second person in the state - none of this can now be established.
There is only a typewritten sheet containing an “oral report to the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the representative of the Special Department of the First Cavalry Army Novitsky,” which, however, is more like a denunciation.
“The work in the First Cavalry Army is unsatisfactory. Under the head of the Special Department, Zvederis, absolutely nothing was done. Anti-Semitic and anti-communist sentiments developed in the army. No measures were taken.
When retreating to the mountains. The first signs of pogroms appeared. When I reported to the boss and asked what needed to be done, I was told that nothing special had been done, that only 4 shops had been destroyed.”
Was this report inspired by Voroshilov and Budyonny, or was the security officer Novitsky used in the dark? And again - a question without an answer. It is only clear that on their own, without outside help, some “representative” of the special department would never have been able to achieve an audience with Kalinin himself.
And who, if not the army elite, was most interested in compromising the chief counterintelligence officer of the First Cavalry?
Budyonny and Voroshilov are experienced intriguers. They have already had plenty of similar provocations. Actually, it was primarily thanks to such “delicate” matters that the future marshals received the First Cavalry under their command and gained the glory of heroes of the revolution.
First there was the story of Dumenko, a career officer, under whose command the first St. George's cavalier Budyonny served, who began his career with 24 Cossacks - the same bashi-bazouks as himself - he flew into the village of Platovskaya, cut out the convoy and freed the prisoners Red Guards.
In the morning there were already 520 bayonets in his detachment. It was with them that Budyonny joined the retreating Tenth Army.
The cavalry talent of the experienced grunt quickly showed itself. Budyonny began to grow, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not advance to the leading roles. He always remained Dumenko's deputy - in the regiment, brigade, then in the division.
It was then that the party functionary Voroshilov, who was thrown into army work, noticed him. The future marshals became friends, and very soon Dumenko was arrested and sentenced to death: they accused him of a counter-revolutionary conspiracy. Having got rid of the burden, Budyonny was immediately appointed commander of the First Cavalry Corps.
But here a new obstacle lay in wait for the comrades-in-arms: the commander of the Second Cavalry Corps, Mironov, who did not want to recognize their superiority. And again the same methods were used: Budyonny arrested Mironov on a false charge of treason, and only the hasty intervention of the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Union, Trotsky, who personally knew Mironov, saved him from execution. Nevertheless, he lost the body. The Mironovsky units joined the Budennovsky formation: on their basis the legendary First Cavalry was soon created...
Of course, it would also be more convenient to accuse the security officer Zvederis of treason (and it would be more common), but it’s unlikely that anything will come of it. Dzerzhinsky will not hand over his spy to the slaughter - he will take all the denunciations to himself, double-check: the hour is uneven, and then he himself will have to take the rap for slander.
But it was not for nothing that Comrade Stalin said (or will say again): there are no fortresses that the Bolsheviks could not take.
Voroshilov and Budyonny were experienced, seasoned intriguers. They knew how to use even their own mistakes and failures - for which they almost had to say goodbye to their positions - to serve their interests.
From the report of the security officer Novitsky, it turns out that it is the head of the special department, and not the army commander and his deputy, who is responsible for all the sins of the First Cavalry. It was he who did not take any measures to stop the outrages. It was he who turned a blind eye to everything and condoned the rioters and robbers.
Then why punish Budyonny and Voroshilov? Here he is, the main culprit - counterintelligence officer Zvederis...
Familiar handwriting. In exactly the same way, according to the same scenarios, Dumenko and Mironov were already removed, and how many more will be removed later.
In one fell swoop, Voroshilov and Budyonny solved two vital problems at once. They not only shifted their blame onto the shoulders of the special officer, but also dealt with the enemy in this way.
“Now, after the disarmament of the 6th Cavalry Division,” Novitsky concluded his report, “the dark element in the division still remains and is campaigning for the release of the bandits handed over by the division.
We have very few forces, and if these remaining bandits want, they will be able to recapture those arrested.”
The conclusion suggests itself: if Zvederis remains in his post, new shocks await the First Cavalry. But in this case, all responsibility will lie with the government commission and Kalinin personally: after all, they were warned in advance.
Too serious a risk. And the stakes in this game are too high, there is no time for justice (and when, after all, did justice play any role in political squabbles?).
We do not know for certain whether the chairman of the Cheka made any efforts to protect his head of the special department. Even if we assume that something like this took place, Dzerzhinsky had practically no chance of winning. The fate of the rebellious Zvederis was now completely at the mercy of the Central Committee, it became a political issue, and even Felix rarely dared to argue with the Central Committee.
However, Zvederis does not want to give up without a fight. He manages to send a report to the Presidium of the Cheka...
From the report of the head of the special department of the First Cavalry Army:
“We have encountered an obstacle that we consider on a fundamental level. We are the Revolutionary Military Council, and, in particular, its member, Comrade. Voroshilov, accused of provocation. We can’t figure out which one. I am sending you a copy of the intelligence investigation to identify a gang of bandits in the mountains. Ekaterinoslav...”
A small digression. The FSB archives contain a negligible number of operational cases from the 1920s. Most of them were destroyed simultaneously with their performers and developers - back in the 30s.
One can only guess what the development was that the head of counterintelligence writes about. From the meager details mentioned by Zvederis, it is now impossible to build a single, integral picture. So - separate sketches, contours.
It's a shame. After all, this development became a stumbling block between the special department and Voroshilov. Because of her, the whole fuss flared up.
Read the report further:
“When this operation was carried out, Comrade. Voroshilov raised the question that this was “generally a provocation”: “What are these four bandits for us (apparently detained during the operation. - Auto.) when the building of the Gubernia Financial Department was destroyed.” I add that in the Gubernia Financial Department two windows were broken when the bandits tried to escape from the trap, and the ceiling was shot through during shooting. There was no further destruction. And, despite the fact that the development of the case was indicated and other bandits were handed over during interrogation, Comrade. Voroshilov remarked: “You will now grab everyone - whether he is guilty or not.” He doesn’t see any prospects for developing this case and considers our explanation to be unsubstantial.”
It was just a trailer. It must be said that Comrade. Voroshilov somehow generally has an unkind attitude towards the Special Branch, and with his arrival a thickened atmosphere was felt. Impatient of Emergency Bodies, comrade. Voroshilov organically cannot allow the Special Department of the Army to become stronger and get on its feet. Each boss stays for two or three months, after which, under some pretext, he is removed. The public knows this and is so used to it that now in some Divisions they are already impatiently saying, “Why did we stay here for three months?”
The first full meeting in the Revolutionary Military Council, where they had to defend the existence of a Detachment under the Special Department (most likely, an anti-banditry detachment subordinated directly to army counterintelligence. - Auto.) - when Voroshilov, denying the need for the required detachment, declared: “I will not allow anyone to carry out any operations in the units.” In general, the five questions raised at this meeting about the Special Department met with the most demagogic rebuff from Voroshilov, and buckets of all sorts of dirt were poured out at the Special Department.
Subsequently, I had to come to the following conclusion: Banditry will not be eradicated in the Army as long as such a person as Voroshilov exists, for a person with such tendencies is clearly the person in whom all these half-partisans, half-bandits found support.”
Such serious accusations, however, require strong evidence. Voroshilov is a distinguished man, an old Bolshevik.
Zvederis provides such evidence...
“By this time demobilization had begun. A special triumphant, demobilization-festive mood was created, which resulted in general drunkenness and the complete collapse of the work of the Headquarters and institutions, which reached the point that when Makhno was 20 miles from Yekaterinoslav, and only by chance did not turn to rob, in the city, not only was there no actual force, but no protective measures were positively taken. In a word, the night survey gave the Special Department a wealth of material on the hibernation of the Headquarters, the garrison, the absence of responsible duties, security measures for operational points, etc. and so on. Together with the seals and secret files of the Headquarters, its Operational Directorate, the Revolutionary Military Council, the City Commandant's Office, etc. that came to us.
At the same time, in the Revolutionary Military Council, both members, and especially their various “For Assignments” and secretaries, drank wine brought from the Crimea and the Caucasus. Things got so cynical that the public, drunk, went to various charity evenings, spending hundreds of thousands there, and demanded the commitment of the presence of a young communist to serve on the table.
We have established that among the drinking brethren, from the close knights, there are also quite politically ignorant persons, like Voroshilov’s secretary, Khmelnitsky, a former officer, a former communist, who went over to Denikin from the Red Army. Some of the drivers of Voroshilov and Budyonny, brought from Crimea, with officer faces, also turned out to be quite suspicious.
Of course, all this became known to Voroshilov, and, a tyrant by nature, he already hated us personally, deciding, at the same time, that further strengthening of the Special Department could have bad consequences for the existing routine, and personally for many high-ranking “flea dealers.” Without giving any actual support for strengthening and creating the apparatus of the Armed Forces Special Department, Voroshilov was looking for an opportunity to find fault and put the Special Department in the old place of a dead institution that was not bothering anyone. Such a case, in his opinion, would soon present itself - just this operation with bandits.
The next day, in the apartment of the Commander, Voroshilov, mainly, began to fabricate and intensively spread rumors that we had done the raid ourselves, that the Special Department was engaged in provocative work, that it was necessary to take measures against him.
For us it was indifferent, since we were doing our job, and to the threats from Comrade. Voroshilov - to arrest us and bring us to trial by the Revolutionary Military Tribunal of the Republic - we are of little concern.”
So, it turns out that this is what lies in main reason Voroshilov's enmity with the security officers. Two birds do not live in the same den.
Voroshilov and Budyonny did not need dangerous spies. Uncontrollable. Collecting compromising materials on them.
The time of KGB omnipotence will come later, and not once or twice will the first marshals remember the man whose stubbornness almost cost them their careers. Surely, thanks in large part to him, they will carry with them their dislike for their entire lives. scary building yellow color, to which even the iron Felix stood with his back turned.
Both Voroshilov and Budyonny miraculously survived the years of the Chekist Moloch. By miracle and blood, with which the “father of nations” baptized them - after all, all the deeds of the generals and commanders bore the simple signature of People’s Commissar Voroshilov.
And yet: in 1937, Budyonny’s wife was taken in as a “Polish spy.” In 1952, at the height of the fight against cosmopolitanism, Voroshilov himself was almost killed - they remembered his Jewish wife, and it was time to let in new blood. Only the quick death of the “leader” saved him from reprisals.
It is quite possible that the stubborn special officer Zvederis also died in the era of great terror. It’s even certain: such people did not heal for a long time - with rare exceptions, almost all the old KGB cadres were repressed. However, this is just our guess, because we were unable to find Zvederis’ personal file.
The last mention of him is dated January 21st. This is the conclusion of the Cheka, which put an end to the entire history that had already dragged on.
Special officer Zvederis was unanimously confirmed as the culprit of all the troubles of the First Cavalry. It turns out that he is “did not pay any attention to internal political life, without taking any measures in advance (...), due to which political life in the army proceeded abnormally, and every prison element was free to do their dark deeds.”
The conclusion is clear:
“Head of the Special Department of the 1st Cavalry Army, comrade. Zvederis, to be removed from his position
a/ on the one hand, as inconsistent with its purpose;
b/ on the other hand, a person who did not want to be interested in the enormous work that was entrusted to him.”
And in a few months Kliment Voroshilov will become a member of the Central Committee...
* * *
In the 30s there was a popular song:
“When the country orders you to be a hero, anyone becomes a hero.”
A sort of heroism according to the order...
Budyonny and Voroshilov are from this cohort. Despite all their regalia and titles, they had little understanding of military affairs. Voroshilov was not a commander at all: a party worker thrown into the troops “for reinforcement.” Budyonny was only good at saber cutting. Anecdotes were made about his intelligence.
Like this, for example:
“Tell me,” they ask Budyonny, “do you like Babel?”
- It depends on what kind of woman...
But “the country ordered” - and they had to become marshals. Pose for artists. Open parades.
They did it so well that over time they themselves believed in their own greatness. And then the war came, and hundreds of thousands of people had to pay for their mediocrity with their lives - those who were lucky enough to fight as part of the fronts under the command of “famous marshals.”
These people succeeded in something else: in a secret, behind-the-scenes war. In a war of intrigue and conspiracy.
Here they definitely had no equal. Only the head of the special department of the First Cavalry, Zvederis, realized this too late...
In Soviet historiography, the First Cavalry was in approximately the same position as Malaya Zemlya.
We are only now learning the real truth about what the army really was. Yes, and that one - abruptly.
After all, the developments on Voroshilov and Budyonny, which were started by a special department of the First Cavalry, were curtailed immediately after the expulsion of Zvederis.
The country needed heroes. And no one was allowed to defame them...
Urgent needs
Budyonny's first cavalry army was created on November 17, 1919 on the Southern Front of the Civil War. By order, it included three divisions of Budyonny’s first cavalry corps. Subsequently, the army grew and was supplemented by various military formations, until the number of personnel reached nineteen thousand sabers, which was quite a lot by those standards. The Red Army urgently needed to create a powerful, maneuverable formation that would quickly strike and carry out strategic missions. And then Anton Denikin was rapidly approaching Moscow from the southern lands. On September 7 of the same year, the White Guards captured Kursk, on September 23 - Voronezh, four days later - Chernigov, and at the very end of the month - Orel. The commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia planned to go to Tula, and from there the Bolshevik stronghold to Moscow. The Reds were threatened with complete defeat, and therefore, urgently, on the initiative of Kliment Voroshilov and Alexander Egorov, exactly such an army was born in this theater of military operations, capable of crushing Denikin.
Military uniform of Budennovtsy
Initially, it was assumed that the leader of the First Cavalry Army would be Boris Dumenko, under whose command was Semyon Budyonny. However, then Dumenko was seriously wounded, and therefore his assistant was put in place of the commander. Subsequently, Dumenko will be shot on charges of murdering his own red commissar, and Budyonny will survive the flywheel of repression of the thirties intact thanks to his friendship with Joseph Stalin. And before that, both of these people led the aforementioned first cavalry corps, which then became the backbone of the entire army.
Initially, Boris Dumenko was supposed to become the leader of the First Cavalry Army
Baptism of fire
This first corps also appeared during the active phase of the Civil War as a necessary unit capable of repelling the White Guards. So, in May 1919, Budyonny’s cavalry corps entered into a difficult battle near Tsaritsyn. Then on May 13, in a bloody battle near the village of Grabbaevskaya, the forces of the red cavalry and the Kuban cavalry corps clashed. And the Reds emerged victorious from this battle. A few days later, the cavalry corps made a successful maneuver behind enemy lines and managed to forcibly drive the white units across the Manych River.
In May 1919, Budyonny's cavalry corps entered into a difficult battle
Then Budyonny's cavalry won several more victories, thanks to which it was possible to stabilize the situation on this section of the front and prevent the White Volunteer Army from capturing the crossings across this river. And even then the fighting showed how powerful this kind of military formations could be. But ahead was the defense of Tsaritsyn.
Painting by Mitrofan Grekov “Trumpeters of the First Cavalry Army”
The first cavalry formations were immediately put into action at the very important areas front. Through Tsaritsyn, for which fierce battles were fought, the forces of Kolchak and Denikin could unite. If they won, the White Guards would surround the Reds in a tight ring. But counterattacks, alternating with rapid attacks, by the Budennovites against the Whites in June - July 1919 more than once saved the situation. Budennovtsy captured hundreds of people, captured enemy convoys and warehouses, and destroyed entire divisions. Thus, the First Cavalry swept away the Khoper division of General Mamontov, the Astrakhan infantry division and the third and fourth divisions of Pokrovsky. The White Guards tried to resist the red sabers with their cavalry in the form of Cossacks, but they were unable to provide adequate resistance.
Strikes of the first cavalry army
In October, when Denikin's Volunteer Army stopped briefly, the Reds launched a decisive offensive. Their goals were to push Denikin back beyond Voronezh and crush the White front as part of the Voronezh-Kastornensky operation. The strike group of the Red Army included, of course, Budyonny’s First Cavalry Army; he had to lead a general attack on the Don and Kuban corps, defeat them and clear the way for the Red infantry.
The strike group of the Red Army included Budyonny's First Cavalry Army
This time Budyonny encountered the same enemy - General Mamontov, who had already felt the full power of the cavalry army. And now he acted more carefully: throughout October the Budennovites were forced to either engage in defense, losing the initiative, or again make forays. The Whites stubbornly advanced towards Voronezh, occupying important settlements, but from November 5 to 15, the Red cavalrymen launched a series of unexpected attacks on enemy positions. Soon all the forces of the White Guards melted away, and the first cavalry corps was transformed into an army.
The cavalry served to carry out important strategic tasks
Further history
After the Voronezh-Kastornensky operation, the First Cavalry took part in the winter Kharkov offensive. And again the Budennovites delivered the main blows, jointly with the 14th Army of the Red Army, against the White positions. During these attacks, it was possible to separate the forces of the Volunteer and Don armies. Subsequently, the Reds managed to oust the Whites from the south of Russia as a result of the Donbass and Rostov-Novocherkassk operations with the help of cavalrymen. Already in January 1920, after the rapid capture of Rostov, the Cavalry drove the whites to the opposite bank of the Don.
The cavalry served to carry out important strategic tasks
The real test was the Battle of Yegorlyk, which lasted from February 25 to March 2, when Budyonny and his soldiers met with the battle-hardened cavalry of Pavlov, Kutepov and Yuzefovich. It was there that the largest counter cavalry battle of the Civil War took place: a total of twenty-five thousand sabers took part in the battle. And again Budyonny emerged victorious from this fight, and the Reds built on their success and quickly knocked the Whites out of the North Caucasus.
The Battle of Yegorlyk became a triumph for the First Cavalry Army
The first cavalry was useful to the Red Army in further military operations: it entered into battle with the Poles during the Soviet-Polish War, the Makhnovists and Wrangel troops. Despite numerous victories, the Budennovites staged numerous pogroms of the Jewish population. This was described in detail by Isaac Babel in the cycle of stories “Cavalry”, which met with sharp criticism from Semyon Budyonny. In general, there are many cases where loyal fighters of the revolution engaged in looting and committed crimes.
The 1st Cavalry Army saved the situation for the Bolsheviks
We can say that the 1st Cavalry Army saved the situation for the Bolsheviks. Thanks to her swift attacks, it was possible to turn back Denikin’s Volunteer Army and generally defeat the Whites on the entire Southern Front. The Red command at the time felt the need to create such a large formation and, moreover, immediately let it into battle. The cavalry existed until 1921 and was disbanded.
A year of unequal struggle of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia against the dictatorship of the international proletariat.
January 1 Art. Art. The 3rd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment was replaced by the reserve Kornilovsky Regiment (for some reason sometimes called the 4th Kornilovsky Shock Regiment).
January 1-5 Art. Art. During this time, the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was replaced by cadets, retreated to the south-eastern part of Bataysk and carried out guard duty in this direction. The Reds shelled Bataysk all the time from Rostov, throwing thousands of shells every day. And our artillery was quite strong and responded in kind.
January 3 Art. Art. The 3rd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment loaded onto the train and left for the village of Timoshevskaya for replenishment. Thus, on the Bataysk-Koysug front, the 1st and 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiments remained with their reserve regiment, composed almost exclusively of miners from the Donetsk basin.
January 6 Art. Art. Bataysk is defended by: the southeastern part - the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment; the northern part, to the railway, exclusively. - 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment; the northern and northwestern part from the railway, inclusive, and to Koysug, exclusively, the cadets; Koisug is the reserve regiment of the division.
The Reds have been especially diligent in shelling Bataysk today and are trying to advance. By evening, all their attempts to attack were repulsed.
6th January The 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment arrived in the village of Timoshevskaya, where it stayed until February 14.
The period of the Red Army’s decisive transition to the offensive has arrived, and therefore it is necessary to establish in as much detail as possible the balance of forces of both sides and the role of the Kornilov Shock Division in these battles. To roughly determine the balance of forces, it is necessary to recall the organization of both armies in order to avoid a fantastic and constant exaggeration of our forces by the Bolsheviks. The Red armies did not have corps, but were composed of divisions, the number of which in the army was at least three or more, depending on the army’s mission. Divisions had three brigades, brigades had three regiments. A division should have 15 batteries and, what was very important for us, the divisions each had their own cavalry regiment.
Composition of Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army
Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army attacked the Donetsk Basin consisting of:
- 4th Cavalry Division, 3-brigade composition - 6 cavalry. regiments,
- 6th Cavalry Division, 4-brigade composition - 8 cavalry. regiments,
- 11th Cavalry Division, 4-brigade composition - 8 cavalry. regiments
When crossing the Don, it was reinforced with: the 12th Infantry Division of the 3rd Army and the 9th Infantry Division of the 13th Army, Sverdlov's auto squad - 15 vehicles with machine guns and the Aviation Detachment - 12 aircraft. In addition, there are four armored trains: “Red Cavalryman”, “Kommunar”, “Death of the Directory” and “Worker”.
The regiments of the 1st Cavalry Army each had five squadrons, plus a reconnaissance squadron of the best fighters. There are 4 machine guns per squadron, and a separate machine gun team in the regiment. There is one 4-gun battery per cavalry brigade. Attached to the cavalry division is an artillery battalion of four batteries with 4 guns.
Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army was always distinguished by the strength of its fire, especially machine gun fire on carts. Even if it suffered heavy losses during the offensive, it was well replenished, mobilizing the entire population, from its partisans to our prisoners, inclusive, who managed, before we moved to Crimea, to run over to us again. But the most important thing for the success of the Red Army was its excellently placed beast-like apparatus of the Cheka or GPU with combat units and in the rear, which we did not have at all, and also the consciousness of the army masses in their numerical superiority over us. The psychology of the crowd is the same everywhere - it obeys force.
What were the “Forces of the South of RUSSIA”? Torn apart by independent trends in the rear, which slowed down the actions of the front, they lost faith in success in the Voronezh-Oryel battles. If they fought courageously, it was by inertia, knowing in advance that death was better than slavery in the clutches of the Red International.
Without deviating from my task of collecting materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, here too I will only give the composition of the Kornilov Shock Division at the moment. According to the book “Kornilov Shock Regiment,” page 157, there were 415 officers and 1,663 soldiers in the three regiments of the division. With the departure of the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment for formation and the arrival of the “reserve regiment of the division” under the command of Lieutenant Dashkevich, this number increased to approximately 2,500 people. To this must be added about a hundred machine guns with nine batteries. Two armored trains were approaching Bataysk. Section of the front of the Kornilov Shock Division - from the village. Kuleshovka, exclusively, where the section of the Drozdovskaya Rifle Division began, and up to Bataysk, inclusive. From that time on, the Volunteer Corps of General Kutepov became subordinate to the Don Army.
The Red Army goes on the offensive
According to Shorin's order, Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army with the rifle divisions attached to it goes on the offensive. In Budyonny’s book “My Traveled Path” he talks about it this way: “ January 3/16 a combat order was given to the 1st Horse Army to cross the Don and occupy the Bataysk bridgehead. However, starting on January 17 A.D. Art. offensive, mounted army (6th Cavalry Division) even on foot she could not turn around in the Batai swamps, was unable to use either artillery or machine guns. During one of the attacks in the direction of Bataysk, Voroshilov came under heavy enemy artillery fire. A whole line of shells that fell on the attackers broke the ice, and Kliment Efremovich along with his horse (?) ended up in the water. The fighters, under a hail of bullets, helped Voroshilov get out of the water and saved the horse. Having no success, the cavalry army retreated to its original position by nightfall.”
The combat log of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment for this date only notes the intensification of artillery fire near Bataysk and the Reds’ attempts to advance, which were repulsed by artillery and machine-gun fire.
January 5/18, 1920 In the same book, Budyonny writes: “On the morning of the 18th, units of the cavalry crossed the Don again and went on the offensive. The 12th Infantry Division from Rostov and the 6th Cavalry Division were advancing towards Bataysk (and according to our data, the 9th Infantry Division was also advancing towards Bataysk from the Gnilovskaya station). All day long, with the active support of armored trains, they fought heavy battles, but were unsuccessful. The 4th and 11th cavalry divisions crossed the Nakhichevan crossing. By joint actions, with the support of the right-flank 16th Infantry Division of the 8th Army, in a stubborn battle they knocked out the enemy from the village of Olginskaya and pursued him until darkness in the direction of the village of Khomutovskaya,”
The enemy himself here claims that near Bataysk the 12th Infantry Division with the 6th Cavalry Division (and, according to our data, with the 9th Infantry Division, from the village of Gnilovskaya), despite the active support of armored trains, were repulsed by the Kornilovites. But in this battle, the Kornilovites also suffered heavy losses: our untrained young “reserve regiment of the division” was injured, and the commander of the 1st regiment, Colonel Gordeenko, was wounded twice. Staff Captain Chelyadinov took temporary command of the regiment, who in turn was wounded, and Lieutenant Dashkevich took his place, and Staff Captain Filipsky took over the “reserve regiment”.
January 6/19. From the book of Soviet Colonel Agureev, page 173: “On January 19, having regrouped their forces, the cavalry army and the 16th Infantry Division went on the offensive, trying to master Bataysk, the village of Zlodeisky and Khomutovskaya. By this time, enemy cavalry had approached Bataysk and the Zlodeisky farm, and fierce battles broke out along the entire front, from Bataysk to Khomutovskaya. Having a strong superiority in manpower (?!) and especially in technology, Denikin’s troops began to push our units towards the Don. Holding back the onslaught of the White Guards, Soviet cavalry and infantry They fought back to the north, holding the approaches to the Nakhichevan crossing and Olginskaya. Having suffered heavy losses and not achieving decisive success, the enemy was forced to retreat to the Bataysk - Zlodeisky farm - Khomutovskaya line, leaving part of the forces of the 3rd Don Corps in the Olginskaya area.
About the same from Budyonny’s book, page 389: “At dawn on January 619, the 4th and 11th cavalry divisions launched an energetic offensive, with the task of reaching the line Kagalnitskaya, Azov, Kuleshovka, Koisug, Bataysk, Zlodeisky farm. The 6th Cavalry Division was used to build on the success of the 4th and 11th Cavalry Divisions. However, the enemy, having taken advantageous positions near Bataysk and concentrated large forces of cavalry, artillery and machine guns, with the active support of armored trains, pinned down our units with heavy fire and disrupted the offensive. At night the divisions withdrew: the 4th Cavalry Division to Nakhichevan, the 6th and 11th to Olginskaya, where the 16th Infantry Division of the 8th Army arrived in the evening. All night the enemy stormed Olginskaya, trying to knock out our units from the village.”
DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF JANUARY 6/19, 1920 ACCORDING TO THE COMBAT JOURNAL OF THE 2nd KORNILOV SHOCK REGIMENT
(At the site of General Kutepov’s Volunteer Corps)
On January 6/19, even before dawn, Cossack patrols discovered a large movement through the Nakhichevan and Aksai crossings. Indeed, at dawn the Reds launched a cavalry offensive from the village of Olginskaya to the Zlodeisky farm, bypassing Bataysk. By this time, the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment had finished replacing the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment, which was withdrawn in the direction of the Zlodeisky farm to assist the cavalry. As it was reported then, the enemy advanced to the village of Khomutovskaya unhindered, and from the village of Zlodeisky the Terek Cavalry Corps of General Toporkov came out to meet him, and by the same time, around 12 o’clock, the cavalry brigade of General Barbovich began to move along the railway line to the southern part of Bataysk. The advanced units of General Toporkov were first thrown back by the Reds, and the entire mass of Budyonny’s cavalry followed them to the Zlodeisky farm. But at this time, General Toporkov’s units themselves went on the offensive almost simultaneously with General Barbovich and, with the support of armored trains and the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment, struck Budyonny’s cavalry from the southern part of Bataysk in the eastern and northeastern directions. The entire battlefield was clearly visible from the right flank of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, as it was a continuous plain covered with shallow snow, with reeds up to the Don and small hills towards the Zlodeisky farm. By this time, the Red infantry went on the offensive with the 12th Infantry Division from the north to Bataysk and Koisug, but was repulsed by the division's reserve regiment and a battalion of the 2nd regiment. The remaining battalions of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, according to the order, went on their own at about 2 p.m. to the offensive directly east, along the Don, which was particularly beautiful. The entire huge field from the railway near Bataysk to the village of Olginskaya was covered with a mass of cavalry and only at Bataysk with infantry. There was enough artillery of various calibers and machine guns on both sides, and their work made everything hum and bubble. On the Red side, as it was then determined, there were at least 15 thousand checkers (4th, 6th and 11th cavalry divisions) and 12th, 9th and 16th rifle divisions. On our side is the cavalry of General Toporkov. Combined Kuban-Tersky Corps, no more than 1,500 sabers, General Barbovich's cavalry brigade of 1,000 sabers and the Kornilov Shock Division consisting of the 1st, 2nd and reserve regiments of 1,600 bayonets on the front of the Zlodeisky farmstead, exclusively, Bataysk and Koisug. There were few cadets. From the side of Art. Egorlytskaya was led by the 4th Don Corps of General Mamontov, who at that time became dangerously ill, and the corps was commanded by General Pavlov. This section of the Don Army was not observed from our sector, and therefore we know about its actions from their data.
The beginning of our attack was so energetic, such a loud “hurray” rolled from everywhere, that the battle, despite the obvious superiority of the enemy forces and the depressed state of our troops, promised us success. It was visible how our cavalry, in almost a continuous line, attacked the Reds, knocked them down and walked steadfastly under the destructive fire of machine guns. With the onset of dusk, the Reds were defeated and driven back to our sector beyond the Don, from where their artillery from Rostov showered the entire battlefield with shells over our heads. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, with a blow along the Don, from Bataysk to Nakhichevan, finished off the fleeing units of the famous 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny in the semi-darkness. On the shoulders of those running, it would have been easy to break into Rostov and Nakhichevan, but this was not our task and we were ordered to retreat to our old positions. The losses of our infantry were small, but the cavalry, especially the Terets, suffered heavy losses. General Toporkov himself was wounded.
The success of General Barbovich's cavalry and General Toporkov's cavalry was reaped by the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, with its strike along the Don, cutting off the path of the Reds fleeing to Rostov, taking abandoned guns and machine guns. Such a quantity of actually selected weapons - in total the regiment took 15 guns and several dozen machine guns - was possible to take, in addition to the valor of our cavalry and Cossack cavalry, also because the meadows were still difficult to pass for cavalry, and even more so for artillery,
January 7/20. In the combat log of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment for this date it is noted that Art. Olginskaya was taken by the Don Army.
January 8/21. On the front of the Kornilov Shock Division, all attacks by the 9th and 12th Rifle Divisions were repulsed,
January 8/21 according to Budyonny’s book:“Fierce fighting broke out on January 21. On the right flank, the 9th Infantry Division, which was previously in the army reserve, was thrown into battle. The regiments of this division, operating southwest of Rostov, stormed the farms of Obukhov and Ust-Koysug all day. The 12th Infantry Division went on the offensive in the center. The 3rd brigade of this division, despite hurricane machine-gun and artillery fire from the enemy and quicksand swamps, crossed the Koysug River two miles from Bataysk. However, due to the unsuccessful actions of other parts of the division and under pressure from many times superior enemy forces, the brigade withdrew.”
During the same day, two brigades of the 4th Cavalry Division and the entire 6th Cavalry Division of Budyonny, together with the 31st and 40th Rifle Divisions, attacked Olginskaya, a sector of the Don Army, and took it, but were driven back beyond the Don by a counterattack.
Description of the same day by Soviet Colonel Agureev: “Having pulled up fresh forces, January 21 AD. Art. The cavalry and 8th armies again went on the offensive. The 4th, 6th and 11th cavalry divisions and five rifle divisions were brought into battle (of which the 9th and 12th, which were subordinate to the cavalry army, the 31st and 40th divisions of the 8th 1st Army and 21st - 9th Army). From the mouth of the Don to st. Fierce fighting took place in Manychskaya. The 9th and 12th rifle divisions, advancing from the mouth of the Don to Bataysk, met stubborn resistance from the Drozdovskaya, Kornilovskaya and Alekseevskaya (only one regiment) divisions of the “Volunteer Corps” and, having failed to achieve success, retreated to their starting lines in the evening.” (The 9th and 12th rifle divisions had 18 rifle regiments and two cavalry regiments attached to the divisions, and our divisions had a maximum of 7 small regiments. The remaining units of the Red Army operated in the Don Army sector and, also without success, were thrown back beyond the Don).
January 9-10/22-23. It's calm at the front. The Red Command apparently decided to leave us alone and was thinking of striking somewhere else.
So, the order of the commander of the Southwestern Front Shorin, given on January 3/16, 1920, to the 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny with the rifle divisions attached to it by January 9th Art. Art. completely failed. On this occasion, a stormy explanation took place between the front commander Shorin and the commander of the 1st Cavalry Army Budyonny, from which we can partially learn about the reasons for the failure and the losses of the 1st Cavalry Army Budyonny. First I'll give you materials from Budyonny’s book “My Path Traveled”:
Page 385: Disagreements between the commander of the 8th Army and the 1st Cavalry are outlined on the issue that the latter should not have taken Rostov and Nakhichevan, since this area was allocated to the 3rd Army, and this reached the commander of the Southwestern Front Shorin in unpleasant lighting for the 1st Cavalry Army.
Page 388: The Revolutionary Council of the 1st Cavalry protested against the fact that Shorin was sending the army to attack a fortified enemy head-on and where it ended up in a swampy area. Having tried to advance, they could not bring with them a single cannon, not a single machine-gun cart (?!). The cavalry army lost its main quality - mobility and maneuver. Despite the obvious inexpediency of an attack on Bataysk, we were forced to carry out Shorin’s directives.
Page 389: Having no success on January 17 AD. Art. Budyonny asks Shorin to cancel the directive to attack Bataysk. Shorin refused, but promised to give instructions on the offensive of the right-flank divisions of the 8th Army.
Page 391-392: Convinced of the futility of frontal attacks on Bataysk and Olginskaya, Budyonny asks Shorin to cancel the attack on Bataysk from Rostov. However, Shorin rejected this request and stated that the cavalry army had drowned its military glory in the Rostov wine cellars. This unheard-of insult hurled by Shorin at the heroic soldiers of the cavalry outraged us to the core. We declared that the cavalry army was drowning and dying in the Batai swamps due to the fault of the front command and that until he, Shorin, arrived in Rostov, we would not send the army on an aimless offensive.
Page 392 and 393: After this, Budyonny addresses himself politically, to Stalin, with accusations against Shorin and with a proposal to entrust the defense of Rostov and Nakhichevan to the 8th Army, and to transfer the 1st Cavalry to the area of the village of Konstantinovskaya, where it is easy to cross and advance to the southwest
Page 393-394: Shorin himself came to the 1st Cavalry Army, looked at the units and stated that he found the order of using armies correct and would adhere to this order in the future. The cavalry army must take Bataysk. This ended Shorin’s conversation with Budyonny. On the same day, the command of the cavalry sent a telegram to Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. The next day, the commander-in-chief ordered the commander of the Caucasian Front to “cancel frontal attacks on the front of the 8th and cavalry.” Thus, Budyonny was successful politically and Shorin was removed.
Page 403: In a conversation with Stalin by telegraph, Voroshilov said: “We are all incredibly glad that Shorin has been removed. If you come to Rostov, then make sure on the spot that a simple shift, and even with a promotion, is not enough for him. We all consider him a criminal. His ineptitude or evil will ruined more than 40% of the best fighters, command staff and commissars and up to 4,000 horses. One and the most important request, which cannot tolerate a single day of delay: in order to preserve the composition of the cavalry, insist (?) on the immediate secondment to our disposal of the 9th Infantry Division. Our defeat is a consequence of the lack of covering the flanks with infantry units and consolidating the achieved lines. Second request: point out the urgent need for urgent replenishment of the cavalry.”
Full recognition of the colossal losses of the 1st Cavalry Army is the content of Budyonny’s letter to Lenin.
Page 398: “The village of Bogaevskaya on the river. Don, February 1 Art. 1920 Dear leader, Vladimir Ilyich! Forgive me for writing this letter to you. I really want to see you in person and bow before you as the great leader of all poor peasants and workers, but the work of the front and Denikin’s gang prevents me from doing this. I must inform you, Comrade Lenin, that the cavalry army is going through difficult times. Never before had my cavalry been beaten the way the whites were now beating. And they beat her because the front commander put the cavalry army in such conditions that it could die completely. I’m ashamed to tell you this, but I love the cavalry army, etc...” Next come Shorin’s accusations of all mortal sins.
Now we will try, from our Kornilov point of view, to weigh and analyze the reasons for the temporary success of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia in the tragic conditions for us of retreating 700 miles from Orel and retreating beyond the Don, leaving large reserves of weapons and supplies in Rostov and Novocherkassk.
The first and main positive factor of our successes was the moral upsurge in the Cossack units in the face of the accomplished tragedy of our defeat through the efforts and hands of mainly independent movements, which almost destroyed the unity of command. The Don units were so shocked by this that the once glorious 4th Corps of General Mamontov, which had left its capital without a fight, now allowed General Sidorin to clean out its convoys, as a result of which about 4,000 people were put into service. The volunteer corps of General Kutepov was numerically weak, but he needed rest for vigor, which he received while the Reds were smashing Rostov, Nakhichevan and Novocherkassk as victors,
It is in vain that the Reds believe that terrain conditions hindered them. They were almost the same for both sides. From the heights of Rostov and Nakhichevan, the Reds perfectly covered their crossings back and forth with their artillery fire, and the plain from the Don to the line on our side, the village of Olginskaya - the village of Zlodeisky and Bataysk, was equally unpleasant for us, since in the first place it had no shelter from fire. Yes, our heights are on the line of station. Olginskaya - Zlodeisky farm partially hid the transfer of our reserves, but they cannot be compared with the heights of the right bank of the Don, which represented a real fortress, while ours were only slightly hilly terrain. It is also futile to exaggerate our numbers and weapons. All this was known then and now and serves as a red, bad cover for their medieval methods of subjugating the peoples of the Russian Empire to their international dictatorship.
Without going into the subtleties of assessing the balance of forces, then it seemed to us that our duty obliged us to defend our Motherland, and therefore we fought to the end according to the behest of our Leader and Chief of the regiment, General Kornilov, while our hands could hold weapons. You, everyday comrades, had something else: the madness of propaganda of the impossible, an unprecedented, brutal CHECK and unlimited power to foreign regiments that created unlimited resources and, we must never forget, that you always crushed us with your mass. And now, despite our temporary success, we realized that you would crush us, but in full consciousness of the rightness of our cause, we sacrificed our lives on the altar of our Motherland. Even your famous proletarians were infected with this - the miners of the Donetsk basin, of whom the “reserve regiment of the Kornilov Shock Division” was made up and who valiantly fought with you for national RUSSIA near Bataysk and to Novorossiysk. Eternal and glorious memory to these valiant heroes for their, albeit short-lived, but patriotic impulse, moreover, manifested in conditions of hopelessness of success.
The coverage of the situation gives a clear idea of the brilliant role the Kornilovites played in these battles during the defense of Bataysk and Koisug. And in a reduced composition of two regiments, with the support of their reserve regiment of miners, in good spirits, they inflicted enormous damage on the enemy and were worthy of the rest they were given in reserve.
January 11 Art. Art. 1920 Replacement of the Kornilov Shock Division by Alekseevtsy and transfer to the reserve of the 1st Army Corps of the Volunteer Army in Kayal. The 2nd Regiment was assigned to Zadonskaya Sloboda at the Kayal station. Here the units sorted themselves out and perked up, and began drills and tactical exercises. During this time, news of the victory of the Donets on the river. Manych even gave rise to hopes for a new offensive. Ekaterinodar and its government evoked a completely opposite mood.
January 31st. Arrival of General Denikin. The regiments joyfully greeted their old comrade-in-chief and Commander-in-Chief. His speech shook up many and made them look at everything that was happening more rationally.
February 2. Performance at Koysug. The regiments reached Bataysk in trains and at dawn went in marching order to Koysug. stood severe frost, and all movements were constrained by him.
February 3 and 5. On the front of the Kornilov Shock Division, Bataysk-Elisavetovskaya village, all Red attacks were repulsed. The rest has noticeably lifted the spirits, and the battles are being fought amicably.
February 6. General Kutepov's volunteer corps goes on the offensive. An order was received for the Kornilov Shock Division to attack Rostov through Art. Gnilovskaya, which is supposed to be taken by a night attack. In the vanguard is the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment, behind it is the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment, to the right is the reserve Kornilovsky Regiment and the 1st Markovsky Infantry Regiment. The ledge behind the left flank of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, “boxes”, is the cavalry of General Barbovich. At 24 hours the movement of units began. There was a severe frost, which only the well-dressed could hardly bear, while the rest warmed themselves by moving. The movement took place on a flat, swampy area, in places overgrown with reeds. Infantry regiments marched in battalion-style columns, and cavalry in “boxes.” A frosty fog enveloped this entire majestic movement of the compact mass of troops.
February 7. In front of the village of Gnilovskaya, the Kornilovites crossed the Don and approached a high, steep bank. They began to climb it, the horses slid and fell, and in the darkness the steep slope seemed endless. Captain Shirkovsky and his battalion took the standing armored train, and the remaining battalions of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment captured the Bakhchisarai Regiment named after Lenin with all its guns and machine guns. The 2nd regiment became the reserve of the division in the village, and the reserve Kornilovsky regiment with the 1st Markovsky was sent to Temernik, a suburb of Rostov. The Reds went on the offensive from Taganrog. The Red cavalry, which did not imagine that we had occupied the village so quickly, approached it in columns and was shot at point-blank range by our reserves. At that time, the Red armored trains were coming from the same place, accompanied by infantry, with the goal of reaching our rear. Here too the enemy was brought close and repulsed by fire.
The advance of the 1st Markovsky and reserve Kornilovsky regiments met stubborn resistance from Temernik. At the Kornilovtsev site, a platoon of the Markov battery fired direct fire at the Red battery, which was captured. But despite this, our attack did not advance further than the station.
General Barbovich's cavalry went north.
The next day, the 1st and 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiments were ordered to take Rostov and Nakhichevan.
February 8. By morning, our units held Temernik, and the Reds were on the other side of the railway, in the streets of Rostov, placing machine guns everywhere. From the beginning of the offensive, our artillery from the Temernitsa church opened hurricane fire on the enemy position and knocked out almost all the machine guns. The regiments went on the attack, the Reds were thrown back and began to retreat, covering themselves with machine guns. The right-flank 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was given a section from the Don, inclusive, to Sadovaya Street, exclusively, and in Nakhichevan - Sobornaya Street, inclusive. The left-flank 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment - from Sadovaya to the outskirts of the city, inclusive, and so on to Nakhichevan, to its eastern outskirts. In some places the enemy put up stubborn resistance, but everywhere we successfully shot him down. With the onset of darkness, the regiments passed the city of Nakhichevan, and by 23 o'clock they were dispersed to apartments, setting up guards to the east and north. Movements of the Don units from the direction of the station. Aksayskaya was never seen until the end of the operation. The 3rd Soviet Army was defeated, the trophies of the Kornilovites alone were 13 guns, 74 machine guns, three armored trains and up to a thousand prisoners. In addition, General Barbovich's cavalry surrendered up to 800 prisoners.
The reserve Kornilovsky regiment suffered heavy losses on the first day of the offensive - 200 people were killed and wounded. The 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment lost 60 people, the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment - up to a hundred people. The temporary commander of the regiment, Captain Dashkevich, was wounded, and Staff Captain Shirkovsky took command of the regiment. The losses of the 1st Markov Regiment were up to one hundred people (see volume 2 of their book “In battles and campaigns for Russia”).
Here it is appropriate to cite the opinion of the squadron commander of His Majesty’s Cuirassier Life Guards Regiment, Captain E. Onoshkovich-Yanyn, as stated by him in the magazine “Military Story” No. 78, March 1966. In the excellent article “The Capture of Rostov on February 7 and 8, 1920” he describes the same battle only from what he saw in his sector and from this concludes that “the entire burden of the battle fell on the cavalry brigade of General Barbovich, more precisely, on one Consolidated Guards Regiment, the composition of which, according to the author, was 240 sabers with two machine guns in his squadron (there must have been the same number in the second squadron).” Or: “The actions of the Consolidated Guards Regiment remained unknown, but they were decisive, since the regiment passed through the rear of the enemy (only by attack knocking down his chain), completely demoralizing him and destroying his combat effectiveness” (?!)
In my materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, I warned the reader from the very beginning that I would cover the actions of the Kornilovites within their narrow framework in order to avoid reproach from judgments about the actions of other units. But in this case, in a long correspondence with captain E. Onoshkovich-Yatsyna, I wanted to prove the impartiality of the entries in our regimental journals, on the basis of which I describe this battle. Yes, the actions of General Barbovich’s cavalry brigade in this battle were brilliant. According to them, two armored trains surrendered to them in their area - they looked like armed auxiliaries. And subsequently the cavalry brigade acted as I described above in the description of this battle. If we compare the strength of General Barbovich's cavalry brigade with four infantry regiments, adding to them the Kornilov artillery brigade, the Markov battery under the 1st Markov infantry regiment, more than a hundred machine guns in only three Kornilov regiments, the Kornilov cavalry division and a squadron in each regiment, capture station and village of Gnilovskaya with an armored train and the capture of a full infantry regiment, with all its machine guns and artillery, and taking into account our losses in killed and wounded, then... all this will be far from the statement that “the entire burden of the battle” fell on one cavalry regiment with four machine guns.
I hope that the impartial reader will take into account everything I have stated above and, while paying tribute to the actions of General Barbovich’s cavalry brigade, will not forget about the actions of the four infantry regiments and their firepower. A large correspondence with captain E. Onoshkovich-Yatsyn with the attachment of a letter from his fellow soldier, captain Rauch, is stored in my materials. Colonel Levitov.
February 9th. February 3, when the 8th Soviet Army suffered a complete defeat, was a day of great hope for the continuation of our offensive, but fate was merciless to us, it was as if it was joking with us, hiding from us what was happening behind our right flank, where it was advancing Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army. The day of the 9th began with the arrival of still joyful news: large trophies were counted, at dawn the guard guards of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment unexpectedly discovered in their area a large number of abandoned machine guns, rifles and cartridges, apparently under the influence of our destructive machine-gun fire in the moment of the night battle beyond the eastern outskirts of Nakhichevan. I, in my position as assistant commander of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, examined my site and at the same time witnessed the collection of abandoned items. The horses were not alive; the riders must have run away on them; many carts stood loaded with cartridges and machine-gun belts, there were even several boxes with new rifles. Conscience did not allow depriving the drummers of the opportunity to rest after a two-day battle in such frost, and therefore few were engaged in collecting the abandoned items, and yet by the evening 11 serviceable machine guns and about three dozen carts loaded with machine guns, a large number of machine gun belts, and boxes with new rifles were delivered to the regiment and other valuable goods. Thus, within the narrow confines of our combat sector, everything was in a victorious mood, and under the impression of this I went with an evening report to the regiment commander, Colonel Pashkevich. It was here that I was one of the first to learn about all the vicissitudes of our cruel fate. In response to my joyful report, I received the order: “Tomorrow early in the morning the division leaves Rostov. The regiment should take the shortest route to the other side of the Don and move to Bataysk.” My surprise knew no bounds; I did not yet know about the actions of Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army and therefore naively asked: “Why are we retreating?” The commander lowered his head and walked nervously around the room. I could not resist and asked him the same question a second time. Usually extremely tactful in dealing with me - but this time the successes of the day do not save me - the commander stopped and impulsively blurted out: “You were not asked!” I turn around and leave with a heavy thought.
February 10. From Nakhichevan through Rostov, along Sadovaya and Taganrog Avenue, the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment crossed the Don by 4 o'clock and, as part of the division, takes the direction through Bataysk to Koysug. The inhabitants of Rostov were amazed by our retreat without a fight, and some of them fled with us. In Rostov it turned out that the Bolsheviks burned down one of our hospitals with our sick and wounded. In Koisug, the regiments went to their quarters and took up their positions.
The 14th of February. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was ordered to move to Bataysk. Before the regiment had time to settle into quarters, the enemy launched an attack on Koisug and occupied its northern outskirts. By order of the division chief, the regiment strikes the Reds on the flank, between Koisug and Bataysk, drives them back and reaches almost the Don. After the battle, the regiment was stationed in Koisuga. In this battle, our reserve regiment again suffered heavy losses.
February 15 and 16. There is a calm on the front of the Kornilov Shock Division Bataysk-Koysug. Under Art. Olginskaya is fighting heavily, and the Markovites have suffered heavy losses.
February 17. Without pressure from the enemy, our division retreats to Kayal station. The 2nd regiment occupies Bataysk.
February 19. Kushchevka village. Before us is a complete picture of the Army’s retreat: huge convoys are moving, driving herds and shoals, Kalmyks are traveling with their wagons, and here and there retreating units are trailing. The villagers pushed themselves hard for civil war and calmly wait for the Bolsheviks. The weather has turned bad, there is constant mud, and at the sight of this whole picture of retreat, everyone is in a disgusting mood.
February 20th. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment and the remnants of the reserve regiment, which was almost destroyed in the night battle, are in the village of Shkurinskaya. To the right, in Kushchevka, - the Kuban, to the left, in the village of Starominskaya, - the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment. By evening the enemy occupied Kushchevka.
February 21. In the sector of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, on the night of the 20th, the approaching Red infantry units launched an attack on the village and by 3 o’clock, having bypassed the left flank of the regiment, they approached the railroad bed, but the reserve battalions were thrown back across the Eya River. By evening, the enemy again occupied half of the village, but with a night attack the regiment drove him back and captured the commander of the red brigade. Ordered to retreat to the village of Novominskaya.
February 22. At one o'clock the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment left the village of Shkurinskaya and went not along the field road - there was terrible mud - but along the railroad bed through the village of Starominskaya, where it arrived at dawn. The enemy did not pursue.
24 February. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was ordered to move to Art. Krylovskaya. which is occupied by the Kuban Cavalry Regiment. Upon approach, it was discovered that the Red infantry was already approaching the village of Krylovskaya, and their cavalry went to the farmsteads, which are east of the village. The offensive was stopped. The regiment settled down in the village, and the enemy settled on the other side of the Chelbasy River, in the continuation of the village. The entire village was shelled by rifle and machine-gun fire, and enemy artillery made it difficult to move in our rear.
25 February. Since the morning there has been a battle on the river with enemy infantry, and their cavalry is encircling our right flank from the southeast. By evening, the 2nd Regiment withdrew across the Srednie Chelbasy River to the Ugrya village, where it linked up with the division.
February 26. Bryukhovetskaya village. Kornilovskaya Shock Division in the reserve of the commander of the Volunteer Corps, General Kutepov. In the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, its reserve battalion was consolidated into a company and merged into an officer battalion.
March 1, 1920 Kornilovskaya Shock Division in the village of Starovelichkovskaya, consisting of the 1st and 2nd regiments with their artillery. The 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment continued as before in Yekaterinodar and its environs, where it was well replenished.
March 4th. The Kornilovites were ordered to occupy the village of Poltavskaya and let all the units and convoys of the corps pass by. The Kornilovites had just settled down to rest in the village when they were attacked by the Red cavalry of the 16th division. The battle was short: having filled the entire village, they unexpectedly met the destructive resistance of the Kornilovites everywhere and, unable to stand it, retreated with great damage to themselves. The 2nd battalion of the 1st regiment captured the banner of the 96th Kuban Soviet Cavalry Regiment. At 18 o'clock the division moved to the station. Slavic. Here and in the following pages one can feel a friendly attitude towards us and fuller repentance for their behavior towards us. Of course, this belated and naked sympathy did not erase in our hearts the bitterness of the betrayal of the Cossack independents, who abandoned us and their patriots at the most critical moment of the fighting on the Voronezh-Orel front. And not just those who left us, but at times I wanted to open fire on these traitors, when before our eyes several hundred of them with their old Standard, with trumpeters, songs and in a drunken state, stretched past us along their native Kuban fields towards Lenin’s red army, so that help her finish us off for the glory of the dictatorship of the world proletariat. All this was so hard to worry about that perhaps the now heartfelt repentance of the Cossacks of the last villages did not make us happy. It's late...
5th of March. At 6 p.m., in the village of Troitskaya, the Kornilovites crossed the Kuban River. With heavy thoughts, the Kornilovites looked at the abundant and free-flowing waters of the historical Kuban River, on the banks of which we and her faithful sons shed so much blood in the name of our common Mother RUSSIA in the recent past, achieved glorious victories and now, by the grace of its traitors - independentists, last time We look at its mighty waters with deep faith that the times of betrayal and betrayal will pass, RUSSIA will throw off Bolshevism and free and free life will once again spread across the Kuban expanses.
The enemy is not pursuing.
March 7-10. Krymskaya village. Messages arrived about the abandonment of Yekaterinodar and the death of our 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment at the Elizavetinskaya crossing across the Kuban. His regiment commander himself, Captain Shcheglov, arrived and confirmed everything previously reported. The first time this regiment bled to death was in long and bloody battles from Orel to the Donetsk basin. From Bataysk he was sent to the Yekaterinodar region for replenishment, thus avoiding all the heavy battles for Rostov and the retreat to the Krymskaya village. It was known for sure that the regiment was well replenished and suddenly - some incomprehensible and inglorious death of the regiment? In connection with the general disaster, Captain Shcheglov was not put on trial and was not even removed from command of the regiment, having again revived it in the Crimea. The calendar of military operations of the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment briefly covers this tragic episode: by order of the command of the Don Army, the regiment set out from Yekaterinodar on March 3 at 20 o’clock to cross to the other side of the Kuban River at the village of Elizavetinskaya. On the way, the regiment had a halt at the place of death of General Kornilov and then went to apartments in Elizavetinskaya. There were no means of crossing in the village. At 8 o'clock on March 4, the regiment moved to the village of Maryinskaya, where it arrived at 12 o'clock. After standing there for two hours and not finding a crossing there either, the regiment turned back to the village of Elizavetinskaya. Just outside the village, the regiment was fired upon by sparse rifle fire from the forest to the north-west of the village. In the village itself there were already Red lodgers whom we had taken prisoner. Under the cover of the 2nd battalion, the crossing to the left bank of the Kuban was supposed to begin at the village of Hashtuk on a single boat that could accommodate 7 people. By morning, 201 people had been transported. At sunrise, the remnants of the regiment that had crossed moved to the village of Panakhes, where they had several hours of rest. At 13 o'clock on March 5 we moved to the Severskaya station, where we arrived at 10 o'clock on March 5 and, having boarded the train, on March 8 we arrived at the village of Krymskaya, where we united with our division (from the compiler of the notes: I, as a pioneer and then crossing at the village Elizavetinskaya from the left bank to the right on a small ferry, now about the crossing of our 3rd regiment here, but in a different situation, to the left bank, I hold a different opinion. If there was an order from the head of the crossing from the Don Army, relating only to the crossing of the regiment, and not defense such as “sacrificing oneself”, then it was not a combat order, and therefore it was possible to use various kinds of techniques in its execution and, first of all, use the telephone and horse reconnaissance to determine the presence of a crossing, and then hold it until the regiment approaches . Without this data, it would have been better to wait in line to cross the railway bridge, where there was hope of saving personnel, since everything else still had to be abandoned during the evacuation. It is undeniable that in order to carry out a combat order we must sacrifice ourselves, but in order to carry out simple transfers of units we must conserve our strength.
To complete the picture of what happened with the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment, I present the testimony of Colonel Rumyantsev, Nikolai Kuzmich, which he sent to me in 1970 from the USA. After recovering from a serious wound he received in the ranks of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment during the attack on Kursk, he was appointed to the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment to the position of assistant regiment commander for combat units. “At the time of my arrival, the regiment was stationed about 30 versts from Yekaterinodar, and here I first met Colonel Shcheglov. He is a career officer, but spent almost the entire First Great War in non-combatant positions. I had never fought with him before. The regiment has just been replenished. There were very few old officers familiar from the 1st Regiment, and thus the entire composition of the 3rd Regiment was unfamiliar to me. Then the regiment was transferred to Ekaterinodar, where it was inspected by General Denikin, and at the end of February 1920, the regiment set out at 20 o’clock for the village of Elizavetinskaya. I remember the date well, since the tragic crossing was from March 3 to 4. Here I have my first disagreement with the regiment commander, as well as some of the senior officers of the regiment, because of the decision to cross the Kuban. We insisted on making the crossing in Yekaterinodar, but he gave the order to go along the bank of the Kuban to the Elizavetinskaya village. Colonel Shcheglov was stubborn and had little regard for the opinions of his assistants. I'll try to be objective. So, the regiment set out from Ekaterinodar to Elizavetinskaya in full force, with two guns. When approaching Elizavetinskaya, it was discovered that there was neither a crossing nor means for crossing. The commander walked at the head of the regiment, and I was ordered to be in the rearguard. Not finding a crossing, the regiment moved on. The villagers treated us, I won’t say hostile, but very, very cautious, wary. Information about our further movement was contradictory, some spoke of a crossing 10-15 miles away, others denied it. I suggested that Colonel Shcheglov leave the regiment at the village and send a horse patrol to look for a crossing, while we ourselves, on the spot, start looking for transportation means. I was allowed to leave several horsemen and half a company, while I myself led the regiment further. Remaining, I sent horsemen to illuminate the surrounding area and the village. One boat was found in good condition, for 15 people, and a yawl, for 5-4 people. About four hours later a message was received that the regiment was returning. By this time the boat and skiff had been brought to our shore. As the regiment approached, the crossing began. She walked intensely. Colonel Shcheglov himself crossed on one of the first boats to receive those crossing. First, nurses, sick and disabled people were transported. Everyone boarded the boat lightly, taking only rifles, ammunition and medicine. Unfortunately, I also had to throw away the box with my documents and photographs from the time of my childhood and the First World War. Some of the horsemen were sent to search for means of crossing. It was approaching dawn when I received a report from the outpost that the Reds were approaching the village. Some of the people, seeing that there was no hope of crossing, began to move along the river from the village, and some moved towards the village. Now it’s hard for me to remember, I’m writing and I’m nervous. As far as memory serves, there were 800-900 people in the regiment, but 300-400 crossed. They also transported three light machine guns because the machine gunners did not want to part with them. Guns, machine guns and everything else were abandoned. The last boats were already being fired upon by the Reds. I personally crossed with the treasurer, Lieutenant Serebryakov, holding on to the horse’s tail. The artillerymen, having damaged their guns, crossed also holding on to their horses. Fortunately, the morning was foggy, which saved us from the aimed fire of the Reds. They said that there were also those who drowned at the last minute. Having got ashore, we were met by Colonel Shcheglov, who distributed us in the village to houses, where we dried off and were fed. Then we set off to Tonelnaya station. On the way, we were joined by several ranks of the regiment who had crossed at other places on the river. There were no battles along the way, only skirmishes with the greens. At the Tonelnaya station, the regiment was ordered to remain in the rearguard until orders were received. The regiment commander sent to Novorossiysk to clarify the situation and receive further orders. I don’t remember how long we stood in Tonelnaya, but we stood calmly, and only our outposts exchanged fire with the Greens. Having received the order, the regiment set off for Novorossiysk, where it arrived safely. We were one of the last to arrive, so some had to be loaded onto other transports. Finally we set off. There is no need to describe what was happening in Novorossiysk. Some, together with other Kornilov stragglers, under the command of Colonel Grudino, went along the coast and then joined the regiment already in Kurman-Kemelchi. All this remains in my memory about this period of my stay in the regiment. This period was unlucky for him...”
Colonel Rumyantsev.
In the Russian Army of General Wrangel, the regiment grew stronger, received the Nicholas Banner for its battles, and in last battle at the Yushun positions, on Sivash, General Kutepov thanked him for the excellent reflection of the Reds. The very next day, during the transition of the 3rd regiment to the counterattack before my eyes, Colonel Shcheglov was wounded. Colonel Levitov).
10th of March. There are rumors about an order for our division to move to Temryuk, where it will hold the Taman Peninsula and then be loaded there for transfer to the Crimea. But... at the same time, half a company of the officer battalion of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment is assigned to the assistant division chief, Colonel Peshny, to perform commandant service in Novorossiysk. The remnants of the Caucasian Rifle Regiment with a hundred cavalry were poured into the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment.
11th of March. By 20 o'clock the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment arrived at the station. Tonelnaya (village Verkhne-Bakanskaya).
March 12. Enemy patrols and small groups launched an offensive in the morning, but were easily repulsed. By evening, a large column of Reds was seen descending from the mountains opposite the right combat sector of the regiment. With the onset of darkness, a battalion with a hundred cavalry was sent to strengthen the guard, with the assistant regiment commander, Lieutenant Levitov, to unite the actions. When the detachment approached the outpost, it became clear that no reconnaissance had been carried out. The cavalry hundred were ordered to illuminate the area in front of the front of the sector, and two companies and all the machine guns of the approaching battalion - about 20 machine guns in total - to strengthen the defense sector. The companies barely had time to take their places, and the cavalry hundred had advanced 300 steps, when the Reds began to shoot it at point-blank range and rushed to attack it. It turned out that a hundred ran into a chain of Reds lying down and preparing to attack, who had one regiment to attack our flank. Our infantry was positioned along the very outskirts of the village, along fences and rubble. The Reds advanced as a brigade and, when approaching the outskirts of the village, they met with their outflanking column, and at that moment our cavalry hundred dashingly attacked them according to the order of Lieutenant Levitov and forced them to reveal themselves prematurely. Having rushed to the attack, the red units came together even more, having in front of them only a hundred cavalry, which in no time turned and disappeared into the streets of the village, and the red, by inertia, rushed after it in a crowd, intoxicated by such an easy victory. The terrain in front of the village was as flat as a table, approaching our position in a not very wide strip, with almost impassable cliffs at the edges. The Reds were pushed within 250 steps and met with murderous machine gun, rifle and artillery fire. Of course, their “hurray” immediately stopped and they rushed back. Two companies were sent to pursue them under the command of Captain Pomerantsev. On the way down the cliff, they caught up with the delayed Red battalion, which they threw down with bayonets. The enemy suffered heavy losses in killed and wounded; prisoners and defectors were taken from among the Markovtsy and Drozdovtsy previously captured by the Reds. Our losses were 4 killed and 8 wounded. The successful outcome of this battle made it possible for numerous cavalry and our division with all the convoys with which the streets were clogged to calmly get out of the village. It is difficult to even imagine a different outcome of this battle, since the exit from the village was crossed by many ravines and cliffs.
March 15th. From 3 o'clock the 1st and 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiments began to gather at the assembly point, to the station. At dawn the regiments were already marching along the steep mountain road to the Novorossiysk pass. The enemy did not pursue, and his cavalry units walked almost parallel to our movement: we walked across the ridge to the southeast of the railway, and the Reds - to the northwest of it. When both sides descended from the passes into the valley of the Tsemes River, near the village of Mefodievka, a battle broke out. From the beginning, all units with convoys rushed to Novorossiysk, and there was such an avalanche of them that there was no point in thinking about proper evacuation. Our division had to remain in the rearguard. The enemy began to descend into the valley, and his artillery fired at us from the heights quite heavily. Several of our armored trains, our artillery and fleet quickly eliminated the Reds' advance, dispersing all their cavalry and batteries with one artillery fire.
(At this historical moment, under the thunder of a real cannonade, something happened to me that seemed completely unnecessary to me, a volunteer of the Great War and the Volunteer Army from the very beginning of its inception: I was immediately promoted to staff captain, captain and lieutenant colonel. Junior officer I was never in the Great War. Upon arrival at the front, in the 178th Wenden Infantry Regiment, at the end of 1914, I immediately received a company with the rank of ensign and then for more than a year I commanded the battalion “temporarily” or “for” with the rank of lieutenant since the end of 1915. Many injuries and the revolution brought me as a lieutenant to the position of an ordinary officer in the officer battalion of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, then I was a sergeant major of the officer company named after General Kornilov, I had the honor of being from the regiment in the convoy of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna ; behind this, I am the battalion commander of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, for a short time I was temporarily the regiment commander in two regiments, and then I spent almost the entire retreat, from the city of Fatezh to Novorossiysk, as an assistant regiment commander for combat units with an outstanding regiment commander Colonel Pashkevich, Yakov Antonovich, in the regiment, where the officer battalion remained until the end. I was considered an old lieutenant, and this saved my position among my many subordinates, senior to me in rank, and I never experienced any damage to my pride from this. And now, under the salute of artillery cannonade, up to the naval 12-inch artillery, inclusive, the chief of staff of our division drove up to me General Staff Colonel Kapnin and gave me, with congratulations, the order about my production and the shoulder straps of the lieutenant colonel. I was so amazed by what seemed to me inappropriate at this moment production, although I had served it for a long time, that I was even embarrassed. The now living captain Doyun, my junior officer in the Great War, who has now transferred to the cavalry of General Barbovich, helped me out with his congratulations. This exceptionally joyful coincidence shook me, and I came to my senses. Therefore, in the following narrative I will refer to myself as legally Lieutenant Colonel Levitov).
After defeating the Reds with such artillery fire, the division safely passed Methodievka and approached Novorossiysk. Here we were informed that the Voluntary Fleet transport “Kornilov” had been assigned to us, which we barely managed to load with coal and wrest from the hands of speculators who were trying to load it with tobacco.
From here, Lieutenant Colonel Levitov is assigned from the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment with a patrol to inspect the road to his transport. There was still a day when I set off, having received all the instructions from the regiment commander, Colonel Pashkevich. Before this, the battle and other events distracted attention from the situation in Novorossiysk, but now it appeared before us in all its tragic beauty. Armored trains, derailed, blown up, mutilated by the collision, presented a terrible picture, understandable only to the field troops. The entire space, as far as the eye could see, was filled mainly with abandoned convoys, artillery and a mass of cavalry leaving along the seashore towards Sochi. Clouds of smoke from fires and powerful explosions created the background of the unfolding tragedy - the defeat of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia. The city is “crammed full” of abandoned convoys and passing cavalry, and it hurts the eyes when hundreds after hundreds of healthy young men pass by, here having exchanged all their shabby uniforms for new ones, and with additional goods strapped on, but... without weapons. It seemed to me that on the faces of everyone who did not lose self-control at the sight of this terrible picture, some kind of mournful expression was written, saying: “When you have lost your head, you don’t cry over your hair!” They didn’t listen to General Kornilov, they left General Kaledin alone, they couldn’t rouse the Russian people to fight, which means carry your cross to the end.”
The question is: are they in the wrong direction, since without weapons they are going only to surrender, but they seem to be getting out on the Sochi road of salvation? Are these unfortunate people really having thoughts in their heads that someone will save them?! Yes, we had the misfortune to encounter this phenomenon throughout Russia in the very first days of the birth of the struggle for Her honor, and now, at the end, we see the same thing... And this, a decline in morality that has repeatedly disgraced our Motherland, is noted under our the gloomy name of the “time of troubles,” that is, the situation when the government of the country falls into the hands of international crooks, and the distraught people, destroying each other, follow the slogan: “Rob the loot!”
I managed to overcome the distance of about three miles separating the regiment from the pier only in the evening. At the pier I received confirmation that the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment remained in the rearguard, where it given time standing, the battalion of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment is also on the outskirts of the city, the division is loading, and the rearguards are ordered to retreat. Here the division chief emphasized that during loading, the 1st Regiment would become trellises, let everyone through, and then load itself. Having sent the report, I waited for the order to withdraw from the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment and, having received it at about 21:00, went to the regiment. By this time, the main mass of those retreating had already left the city, and I, having ridden my “faithful war horse” for the last time, quickly reached the regiment. The unprecedented procession of the regiment began: having removed the saddles and bridles, we set our faithful horse comrades free. Explosions of dynamite crackled at our artillery positions, with rifles on their shoulders and light machine guns and with heavy ones on their shoulder straps, there was a living, mighty force, battle-hardened and faithful in the old way to the precepts of its Leader and Chief of the regiment, General Kornilov. Along with the regiment comes the Kuban Plastun battalion attached to it. It was especially difficult to part with the weapon, knowing that it would still be useful, but the situation inexorably demanded it. They only took what they could carry.
As the regiment approached its Kornilov transport, we were told that there was no room for us. Then Colonel Pashkevich demanded the chief of staff of the division and directly told him: “Mr. Colonel, we have machine guns and rifles with us, and therefore the ship will not leave without us!” After the report to the division chief, loading began.
The Plastun battalion assigned to us was also completely immersed. Indeed, there was almost no space, and there was no order during loading. There was a lot of some kind of rear audience, but there was no specific place for the front part. Among the outsiders, the ship's administration refused to embark 10 officers and 60 Cossacks, who, almost without a word of reproach, went into the mountains, and some, upon leaving the pier, shot themselves. The transport was so overcrowded that it was impossible to sit in the lower holds without air, and some committed suicide in the most primitive way. And only at dawn the Kornilov transport went to sea.
Rare rifle fire was heard in the city, and near Gelendzhik there was quite a lively rifle and machine-gun firefight. I will not talk about the experiences of front-line soldiers at the time of departure, since only a front-line soldier can understand them. One thing can be said: the retreat revealed to us all the vileness, flabbiness and corruption of our rear. Novorossiysk, with its colossal warehouses and with the numerous personnel of various institutions who climbed onto our transport, polished the terrible picture and gave it a finished look.
There was only one thing left, the last inch of our native land at our disposal - this is Crimea. Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, so for most of us hope clung to this small piece of land, and each of us, rocking on the waves of the Black Sea, seemed to sum up the way of the cross we had passed and thought about possible resistance, both about our own and the common one. healing in ways of fighting. The senior command staff had the same thought. Looking at this mixed mass, our commanders were looking for a way to bring it into proper form to continue the fight. Even the inexperienced eye of a civilian could see that the composition of the rear institutions was colossal and required decisive measures to reduce it. The decision was made and implementation began.
There were conversations about the reasons for the defeat of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, and everyone saw them in the absence of unified power in the hands of General Denikin, while our enemy had not only unity of power and purpose, but also the bestial CHEK of the Polish nobleman Dzerzhinsky, who saved with his measures his fellow Russian nobleman Lenin. The union of two nobles, supported by the American Jew Trotsky, created a devilish force for the death and shame of national Russia. The complete exhaustion of physical and moral strength was such that the experience of the Novorossiysk disaster and their own were presented in the usual cruel military expressions: “Today you, and tomorrow me.” These are the laws of war.
March 15th. Transport "Kornilov" arrived in Feodosia. It was necessary to disinfect and unload a little. It was decided to use the transition from transport to shore to filter out all those who had boarded and to transport the division's regiments hanging out for replenishment. For this purpose, not far from the pier, a huge courtyard with high “fortress” walls was chosen, the road to it was guarded by trellises of the officer battalion of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, and then unloading began. The shelves in this courtyard were placed in their own sections, and the rest of the public began to be filtered. The majority did not expect such a measure, but expected to calmly unload somewhere in the area of Constantinople, and here - on you! Feodosia and an offer to join such and such a company of the Kornilov Shock Regiment! This whole crowd of dubious people immediately bristled and tried to “slither out” to freedom. Everyone began to bombard the controllers with terrible phrases, pointing out the high positions they held and their connections with Headquarters, but this number did not work for many and they had to be returned to some regiment for now. As soon as their first onslaught failed, everything immediately began to bustle and began to determine the height of the walls surrounding the courtyard. The picture that I witnessed gave us a complete description of all these gentlemen and their role in the Army. Five staff officers and several chief officers, due to the uncertainty of their position in the Army and their lack of proper documents, were assigned to the officer battalion of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment. Some of them appeared to the battalion commander, and some began to study the height of the walls. After some time, this whole warm company united, animatedly and mysteriously discussing something. Then they began to quickly rearrange something in their suitcases, throwing out everything unnecessary, after which, taking advantage of the lack of proper supervision, they began to try to take the barrier - the wall - and escape. A group of our officers watched this and laughed. The most zealous athlete turned out to be one old man who tried to overcome the wall at least five times and failed each time. Finally they were stopped, and the elder could not stand it and, waving his hand, said: “Damn it, I wish I didn’t actually have to serve!” The next night they all ran away.
So, the first good initiative met with resistance. The subsequent struggle became easier, since this kind of gentlemen actually had solid connections and they were gradually helped out.
At the feeding station, the division received hot food and in the evening began loading onto old transport.
March 16.At about 3 o'clock we set sail and headed to Sevastopol. Our artillery brigade remained in Feodosia. Everyone admired Livadia - the residence of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas 2nd, Kharaks, Ai-Todor, Dulber, Koreiz, Simeiz, etc. Monuments of art were still preserved and shone with their beauty. I had the opportunity to remember my stay here in the protection of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna from the Kornilov Shock Regiment. It was a good day, the orchestra was playing and everyone was somehow cheered up. At 13:00 the Kornilov transport arrived in Sevastopol. When passing by the cruiser General Kornilov, its crew and orchestra were lined up to meet on the deck. The Kornilov strikers and the Kornilov sailors greeted each other and a loud “hurray” echoed far across the bay. Our former Commander of the Volunteer Army, General Mai-Maevsky, came to meet us at the pier. It was hard for me to see him after the Battle of Eagle, and therefore I avoided participating in the meeting. Behind us is the tragedy of the failed struggle for two years for Russia. Now all our feelings and thoughts were directed to how the further struggle would develop on this last piece of native land?