Kuban Cossacks during the years of Soviet power (civil war, years of repression). Don Cossacks in the Civil War Officers and Cossacks eqv in the Civil War

Mass uprising of the Cossacks against Soviet power. The first transformations of the new government were directed against the Cossacks. Some Cossack troops, such as Amur, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Semirechensk, Transbaikal, were declared abolished. Cossacks of the Semirechensk army were deprived of voting rights by the local Soviet authorities. The contradictions between the Cossack and non-Cossack populations escalated over the Cossack land. Extrajudicial reprisals against Cossack officers began.
The Cossacks begin to gather in detachments and wage partisan struggle. In April 1918, a massive Cossack uprising broke out in the largest army - the Don. At the same time, a struggle flared up in the Urals, a Cossack uprising broke out in Transbaikalia and Semirechye. The fight goes on with varying success. But the offensive of the German troops along the Black Sea and Azov coasts and the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps on the line railway from the Volga to Far East divert the forces of the Bolsheviks.
Summer 1918 Don Cossacks led by ataman P.N. Krasnov occupy the entire territory of the Don and, together with the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin help the rebellious Kuban Cossacks. In August 1918, Astrakhan Cossacks join the uprising.

Since June 1918, the Cossack uprising on the Terek begins. By November, the Bolsheviks manage to defeat the rebel forces, but in December, the Kuban come to their aid and Volunteer army. Cossack power is established on the Terek, headed by ataman Vdovenko.
In July 1918 Orenburg Cossacks occupied Orenburg. Atamans Krasilnikov, Annenkov, Ivanov-Rinov, Yarushin take control of the Siberian and Semirechensk troops. Transbaikalians unite around Ataman Semenov, Ussuri around Kalmykov. In September, the Amur Cossacks, together with the Japanese, occupy Blagoveshchensk.
Thus, by the autumn of 1918, most of the Cossack troops liberated their territories and established their military power there.
Cossack state formations. On the territory of the oldest Cossack troops, having experience of independence and self-government, bodies of the old Cossack power spontaneously arise. While the picture of the future Russia is not clear, some Cossack troops announce the creation of their own state formations, state paraphernalia, standing armies. The largest public education among all the Cossack troops, the “All-Great Don Army” becomes, which exposes a 95,000-strong army to the borders of the Don.

Farthest in their desire for independence are the Kubans, their Ukrainian-speaking part. The delegation of the Kuban Rada is trying to achieve recognition by the League of Nations that Kuban is an independent state.
However, the struggle dictates to the Cossack governments the need to unite with the White Guard armies fighting for the "United, Great and Indivisible Russia". Kuban and Tertsy are fighting as part of the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin. In January 1919, the Don Cossacks recognized Denikin's leadership. It is the Cossacks in the South of Russia who give mass strength to the "white" movement. The Bolsheviks call their Southern Front "Cossack".
At the end of 1918, the authority of Admiral A.V. was recognized. Kolchak Orenburgers and Uralians. After some bickering, Ataman Semyonov recognizes Kolchak's power. Siberians were a reliable support for Kolchak.
Being recognized as the "Supreme Ruler of Russia", A.V. Kolchak appointed Ataman Dutov as the Supreme Marching Ataman of all Cossack troops.
"Red" Cossacks. In the struggle against the Soviet power, the Cossacks were not united. Some of the Cossacks, mostly the poor, took the side of the Bolsheviks. By the end of 1918, it became obvious that in almost every army, approximately 80% of the combat-ready Cossacks were fighting the Bolsheviks and about 20% were fighting on the side of the Bolsheviks.

The Bolsheviks create Cossack regiments, often on the basis of the old regiments of the tsarist army. So, on the Don, for the most part, the Cossacks of the 1st, 15th and 32nd Don regiments went to the Red Army.
In battles, the Red Cossacks appear as the best combat units of the Bolsheviks. On the Don, the Red Cossack commanders F. Mironov and K. Bulatkin are very popular. In the Kuban - I. Kochubey, Ya. Balakhonov. The Red Orenburg Cossacks are commanded by the Kashirin brothers.
In the east of the country are drawn into guerrilla war against Kolchak and the Japanese, many Transbaikal and Amur Cossacks.
The Soviet leadership is trying to further split the Cossacks. To guide the Red Cossacks and for propaganda purposes - to show that not all Cossacks are against the Soviet regime, a Cossack department is created under the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
As the Cossack military governments became more and more dependent on the "white" generals, the Cossacks singly and in groups go over to the side of the Bolsheviks. By the beginning of 1920, when Kolchak and Denikin were defeated, the crossings become massive. Entire divisions of Cossacks are beginning to be created in the Red Army. Especially many Cossacks join the Red Army when the White Guards evacuate to the Crimea and leave tens of thousands of Donets and Kuban on the Black Sea coast. Most of the abandoned Cossacks are enrolled in the Red Army and sent to the Polish front.

Starting with a spontaneous popular uprising, the revolutionary events of 1917 led to large-scale changes in the habitual way of life of all segments of the population. And the Cossacks were no exception. No sooner had the emperor abdicated than he was replaced by a new provisional government. It was unbearable for the freedom-loving and self-willed Cossacks to accept such a state of affairs. Therefore, at a certain moment the situation got out of control of the central government: instead of meekly bowing their heads, the Cossacks began to fight.

Kuban Republic

The collapse of the Russian Empire was marked not only by civil war and riots. Against the backdrop of a drastic redistribution of power and massacres over the dissenters, several autonomous Cossack republics were proclaimed - Kuban, Don, Terek, Amur, Ural. They arose largely due to the impotence of the central government, which failed to quickly suppress the riots in remote regions.

One of the most durable Cossack republics was the Kuban. Having no great influence on the outcome of events at the very beginning of the revolution, during the Civil War, its participants noticeably increased their power. And not just built up, but established their own constitution and issued many decrees. The laws of the separated Cossacks were objectionable to the central authorities, but were implicitly carried out on the ground.

Yielding to others in numbers, the Kuban Republic, however, was a formidable military force. The Cossacks more than made up for the lack of people and weapons with daring. On the battlefield, they repeatedly managed to defeat officer companies, which outnumbered them dozens of times. Even under hurricane fire, the Kuban Cossacks moved in even and regular rows, gradually pushing the enemy back and capturing a large number of prisoners. It is quite natural that such a state of affairs cheered up in the villages, and more and more people wanted to take the side of the Kuban.

Don Republic

Like the Kuban Republic, the Don military government was formed shortly after the 1917 revolution. Blinded by the promises of the Bolsheviks to end the war, the Don Cossacks at first remained neutral. This allowed the Red Commissars to occupy the Don relatively easily.

However, after the invaders began to rigidly impose their orders and physically destroy all those who resisted, the Cossacks came to their senses. Ataman A.M. Kaledin, at the head of the Don army, quickly organized powerful resistance and drove the Reds from their positions. Shortly after these events, independence was proclaimed and a draft constitution adopted.

Despite the bright prospect, the Don Cossacks suffered the fate of their Kuban neighbors. In many ways, the split occurred due to the fact that they were involved in the political games of the white movement. Although one should not belittle the influence on such a development of events of the fact that the Don Cossacks refused to fight for the good of Russia. With significant military power, they wanted to fight solely for themselves: for their honor and independence.

The situation was aggravated by the pronounced isolation of the people, which sometimes went to extremes. The Don Cossacks did not just consider representatives of other nationalities as strangers, they avoided any contact with them in every possible way. Under the ban were placed mixed marriages, close communication and any other domestic issues. Cossack communities lived as isolated as possible.

Terek Cossack army

The most unique among the Cossacks of Russia was, perhaps, the Terek Cossack Host. And the point here is not the fate of its representatives - it was similar for all representatives of the pre-revolutionary Cossacks. Having managed to organize the republic and developed a further plan of action, the Terek Cossacks could only exist for about two years, after which it, along with others, was abolished in 1920.

However, this did not prevent the Terek Cossacks from remaining the most colorful representatives of the estate, and they invariably stood out due to their appearance and cultural customs. Living in close proximity to the Caucasian highlanders, the Terts entered into mixed marriages with them and accepted them into their army. This was reflected in the appearance of the Cossacks: dressed in Caucasian hats and cloaks, with daggers at the ready, they did not at all resemble other cavalry troops.

It was the Terek Cossacks who became the first repressed ethnic group that was forcibly evicted from their native villages. Even the fact that most of them fought for central power did not help. Everyone suffered the same fate: to leave their native places alive or die, refusing to give up their homes to the Ingush, Chechens and other representatives of the newly formed North Caucasian republics.

Other Cossack troops

The revolution and the war that followed it became a turning point in the lives of several million Russian Cossacks. Regardless of the region of residence and way of life, they had a common national identity and, for the most part, were not in solidarity with the new government. As a result, February 1917 had serious consequences for the Kuban, Don, Terek, Ural, Astrakhan and Orenburg Cossacks.

The abdication of Emperor Nicholas II from the throne brought confusion to the well-established centralized command and control of the troops. Most of them were in a suspended and indefinite state for a long time, which did not benefit the awareness of oneself as a single community. The situation was aggravated by capitalist relations, which penetrated deeper and deeper into the Cossack environment, destroying it from the inside.

Today and are of great interest. They allow you to feel the spirit of that era.

Last summer 2015, while visiting his relatives, he crossed Don land from the city of Shakhty through the village of Oblivskaya to the banks of the Volga, where for the first time in the bay I saw how the lotus blossomed. The flowers of the plant are pale pink. I involuntarily recalled the memorial alley of busts of the "white" heroes of the Pacific Don in the Cadet Cossack Corps named after Ataman Baklanov in the city of miners. And after all, there were famous “red” Cossacks, about whom they don’t write very much these days. But they were both "white" and "red" were and remained in history all Cossacks. Both of them practically had one goal - to protect their people. But the opponents understood each according to their own people's dream of freedom, and they shed people's scarlet blood ....

The "Red" Cossacks Podtelkov and Kochubey were hanged, the "White" Cossacks were drowned in the Black Sea.

In my archive there is a document dated October 1986, which I cite for the first time. "Evidence. This certificate was compiled in the presence of N.M. Eremin, head of the local history circle. and circle members Mamtseva L.G., Ponamareva N.F., Kovalenko I.V., Tabatskova S., Khodareva S., Boyko S., Davletova O., that Kamenchuk Evdokia Yakovlevna, born in 1905, living in the village of Shelkovskaya on street Cooperative, house 27; Otinova Elena Vasilievna, born in 1900, living in the village of Shelkovskaya along Komsomolskaya street, house 16; Dmitriev Efim Stepanovich, born in 1909, living in the village of Shelkovskaya along Partizanskaya street, house 20, are eyewitnesses and witnesses of the fact that during the Civil War in November 1918 - February 1919 in the former ataman's board of the village of Shelkovskaya Terek region (now the Shelkovskaya district is located there) there was a stanitsa revolutionary committee, the chairman of which was the Cossack Luchininov Prokofy Savelyevich. During the entry of Denikin's troops in February 1919 into the village, Luchinov was killed by white bandits as a supporter of Soviet power.
On the same night, the Cossack Shapovalov and the soldier Kosov were killed. Subsequently, two streets in the village were named after them, but Luchininov, as a former tsarist officer, was not awarded such an honor ....
There is a fraternal cemetery in the village, where hundreds of nameless victims of the Civil War were buried.
Cossack girl Anna Voloshina told me that blood flowed in a stream through the threshold of the village school, because whites shot sick with typhus and wounded Red Army soldiers through the window, and then dragged them out of the room with hooks and buried them on the outskirts of Shelkovskaya.

In the eighties of the twentieth century, with the participation of the Grebensky Cossack of the village of Kurdyukovskaya, Vasily Lobov, I managed to record the memoirs of contemporaries about the “red” brigade commander, Cossack Ivan Antonovich Kochubey.

Ivan Kochubey was born in 1893 on the farm Grove of the Kuban region. During the First World War, he showed courage and prowess. He was awarded the George Cross. When his former commander, Colonel Shkuro, created a detachment of supporters of the "white movement", Ivan Kochubey gathers "red" partisans. At the head of this unit in the spring of 1918, he liberates the village of Nevinnomysskaya from the whites. For the personal courage shown during this bold and daring operation, Kochubey was promoted to brigade commander. The military glory of the Kochubeevites spread widely throughout the Southern Front and they did not have a single lost battle.

... January 1919. The 11th Red Army retreated in the direction of Astrakhan through Mozdok, Chervlennaya and Kizlyar. The Terek villages met and saw off the departing "Reds" silently. Until now, the Tertsians have not seen such a stream of people, which seemed to have no end. The refugees of the cities and villages of the Kuban and Terek, Taman and Stavropol left with the troops.
On January 13, the "whites" began an active offensive along the entire front. On the brigade of Ivan Kochubey, covering the withdrawal of the army, the best regiments of the White Guards were thrown. The Kochubeevs with unparalleled courage repulsed the attacks, counterattacking the enemy. Kochubey inspired the fighters with his personal example, appearing in the most dangerous areas of defense. Near Georgievsk, an officer division was defeated, stopping the enemy's offensive and enabling the XI Red Army to continue its retreat to Kizlyar. In the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Mekenskaya, the Leninsky regiment, which came to the rescue from Astrakhan, was surrounded. Thanks to the timely help of the Kochubeevs, the regiment got out of the encirclement, and after a short and fierce battle, the enemy was thrown back to the village of Alpatovo.

Evdokia Deonisievna Kabylina, a Cossack from the village of Kurdyukovskaya, testifies to that time. “It was January 1919. Winter was still not cold, with little snow, which often happens in our places.
Before dinner, I go out for water to the well, and the stanitsa daredevil Sidorka Kadaskov jumps along the street and yells: “The Reds are coming, meet Dunyasha!” And at the very smile of joy from ear to ear. And already from a distance he shouted: "Kochubey is coming!" I got some water and quickly go home, and to meet the riders in cloaks, kubankas under hoods. We galloped to the center of the village, and behind them the convoy. I stand and look from behind the wattle fence. And I'm scared and curious, I was still a girl. I wanted to look at Kochubey, what he is. After all, they told different things about him.
Then a cart drove up to our yard. They unharnessed the horses, began to give water, hay. There was an altercation. I got scared and ran into the house. Well, I think, maybe these will rob, like the "cadets" and the "greens". And let's push your little chest with the dowry into the darker corner. And then two people entered the house. One, which is younger, with a Mauser in his hands, the other has a saber on his belt. "What are you hiding?" - they ask. I died, but I shouted: “I won’t give it, it’s my mother who collected it for me as a dowry!” Where did my fear go? The Cossacks smiled, they hid the weapons and told me: “Well, here’s the thing, girl, gather something to eat, and take it to the wounded in the convoy.” I was about to roar after they left, but then I thought: who knows, maybe like this, my brothers are toiling somewhere. One of them was with the Red partisans, and there was no news about the other for many years.
I handed over the food and went back to the house, and the young Cossack who was with the Mauser was sitting on the footboard of the cart, leaning on his saber. He saw me and said: “Well, did the maiden get away? Don't be afraid, the time is now. Soon we’ll be back, then there will be no one to be frightened of. ” And he himself seems not to be talking to me, but looking somewhere into the distance. Then they called him: "Father, go to dinner." I marveled, the guy is young, and they call him dad. After dinner, the cavalrymen left, and they told me that this "father" was Ivan Kochubey. This is how fate brought me to the famous brigade commander. I heard that at the Black Market behind Kizlyar he was captured and persuaded to serve the Whites. He didn't agree to the deal. He answered this way to his opponents: “I have a straight soul. I knew what I fought for, I know what I would die for. I don't fear death. If I met you in battle, I would cut you without looking! The whites executed Ivan Kochubey.
Then, in the fifties, a film about Kochubey was shot on our Terek. Through the Terek, near the village of Chervlennaya, they staged a battle, they put chains from our Cossacks in breakers ... .. Russian lieutenant colonel Georgy Mazurov, whose grandfather was a Cossack colonel of the 2nd Kizlyar-Grebensky regiment in the Great War, held his breath watching the Soviet film "Kochubey", where in the episode was filmed by his father.
And in the villages on the Terek, Kurdyukovskaya and Kargalinskaya, Dubovskaya and Borozdinovskaya, Staroshchedrinskaya and Starogladkovskaya, Chervlennaya and Nikolaevskaya, there were monuments to the “red” Cossacks.
At the entrance to the modern regional city of Belgorod, on the north side, there is now an Orthodox cross on the mass grave of the “white” Denikinists.
There are no winners in the Civil War!

January marks one hundred years since the adoption by the organizational bureau (Orgburo) of the RCP(b) of the so-called "Circular letter of the Central Committee on the attitude towards the Cossacks" ("To all responsible comrades working in the Cossack regions").

The document was adopted on January 24, 1919. This controversial document was in effect for less than two months, until March 16, 1919, when it was suspended. In modern bourgeois propaganda, this "circular letter" is widely used to whip up anti-Soviet sentiments in the historical regions of the Cossacks, primarily on the Don. Therefore, it is important to know why this document was adopted, what its effect was, and why its effect was canceled.

Bourgeois anti-communist propaganda is inventing itself in every possible way, trying to portray the "circular letter" as a kind of directive that set in motion the "genocide of the Cossacks" along ethnic lines. In publications on this topic, propagandists compete in Solzhenitsyn's style - who will name the largest number of Cossacks "shot by the Bolsheviks." True, it is not clear - if the Bolsheviks carried out the "genocide" of the Cossacks, then where did the people who call themselves Cossacks come from today? And why, if there was a "genocide", then the Bolsheviks, who won the civil war, did not shoot the ancestors of these people?

The appeal "To all responsible comrades ..." was adopted by the Orgburo, led by Y. Sverdlov, which gives some publicists reason to claim that he was the author of the document. However, by 1919 Sverdlov held a number of posts and signed many documents. The topic of dealing with the Cossacks was never his topic. In fact, the authors of the "circular letter" remained unknown. There are versions that the text of the document could have been developed in the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs. However, most historians are inclined to believe that it was prepared by the Don Bureau (Donburo) of the RCP(b) and adopted by the Organizing Bureau based on a report from the Don. The Orgburo itself consisted of three people - Sverdlov, M. Vladimirsky and N. Krestinsky.

In modern publications, they like to quote the first paragraph of the letter: “To carry out mass terror against the rich Cossacks, exterminating them without exception; to carry out merciless mass terror against all Cossacks in general who took any direct or indirect part in the struggle against Soviet power. It is necessary to apply to the average Cossacks all those measures that give a guarantee against any attempts on their part to new actions against the Soviet power.

Thus, the document deals with the fight against the rich and the Cossacks who fought against the Soviets. Citing this paragraph, anti-Soviet propagandists immediately begin to assert with foam at the mouth: you see, you see, this is an order to kill Cossacks ... They try not to turn attention, blurting out the essence.

The document stated that to the average Cossacks "it is necessary to apply all those measures that give a guarantee against any attempts on their part to new performances." The measures are not indicated, and it is obvious that different measures were assumed. But modern liars do not even notice this, repeating: "... terror, terror ...". Some scribblers realize that there are not enough arguments and falsify the document by adding the “same” particle to the text. It turns out: "all the same measures must be applied to the average Cossacks ...". So they try to convince that the Soviet government did not make a difference between the rich and the average Cossacks. But fortunately, photocopies of the "circular letter" exist in the public domain, which expose the forgery.

The existence of poor Cossacks, who supported Soviet power and fought for it with weapons in their hands, and, accordingly, did not belong to either the enemies - the rich Cossacks, or the hesitant average Cossacks, modern hacks do not remember at all. Some kind of strange picture of "genocide" is obtained ...

But everything falls into place, if you remember who today, in early XXI century, calls himself "Cossacks" and draws an informational picture in this topic.

Let's take, for example, a person who today holds the position of "ataman of the military Cossack society" Great Don Host "" - Viktor Goncharov. ... And we find out that he is also the deputy governor of the Rostov region.

Or let's take the "ataman of the Kuban Cossack army" - Nikolai Doluda. And then we find out that he is also the deputy governor Krasnodar Territory. And so - throughout the power vertical in the modern "Cossacks". Its leaders are at the same time officials, big businessmen, deputies from United Russia…

Now it is clear why they perceive the directive of 1919 on the extermination of wealthy Cossacks - enemies of Soviet power - is perceived as a call for the "destruction of the Cossacks." Because today they themselves are “rich Cossacks”. The cat smells whose meat it has eaten. The only pity is that they are trying to draw into the anti-Soviet bacchanalia also ordinary members of the Cossack societies, who are not “rich Cossacks”.

Let's move on to what were the consequences and results of the action of the "circular letter" and why it was necessary to cancel it. At the beginning of 1919, only the northern part of the Don region (Upper Don) was occupied by the Red Army. The rest of the Don continued to remain in the hands of the Whites (which is why the Bolsheviks could not arrange a "genocide" against the Cossacks, even if they had such an intention). How many Cossacks were shot as a result of terror? Member of the Donkom of the RCP(b) S. Syrtsov (future "right-wing deviationist", himself shot in 1937) reported: “Mass executions were carried out in the region. Exact figures are not available (over 300). The mood of the Cossack population from the very beginning was depressed, but oppositional. The planned conspiracy was revealed, the participants were shot. The conduct of terror was hampered by the opposition of the 8th Army.

Thus, the number of those executed was about 300 people. On the "genocide" is clearly not drawn. It is another matter that the January directive of the Orgburo, which staked on terror, actually set in motion excesses in the localities. The northern part of the Don region was occupied by Red Army units, which consisted mainly of Red Army peasants who were not friendly to the Cossacks. The events of 1905 were still in my memory, when the Cossack units, loyal to the tsar, mercilessly suppressed peasant uprisings. The Red Army soldiers also saw the cruelty of the White Cossacks towards the peasant population on the Don during the civil war. The reciprocal hatred of the peasants for the Cossacks gave rise to abuses and led to unnecessary repressions against the Cossack population. But, as we see from Syrtsov's report, even then the leadership of the 8th Army prevented the implementation of unnecessary measures of terror. The point of the directive on terror “in relation to all Cossacks in general who took ... participation in the fight against Soviet power” was generally absurd and impracticable, since in 1918 a significant number of Cossacks who had previously fought on the side of the Whites crossed into the Red Army - sometimes they crossed over with entire regiments .

However, local excesses, coupled with White Guard agitation, which frightened the Cossacks with the coming "horrors of Bolshevism", led to the fact that on March 11, 1919, an anti-Soviet rebellion broke out in the north of the Don.

The situation was analyzed in Moscow by the Soviet government. On March 16, a plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) was held with the participation of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin. The plenum decided that the decision of the Orgburo was "impossible for the Don Cossacks" and suspended "the use of measures against the Cossacks", in fact canceled the effect of the "circular letter". The kink has been eliminated.

Today, bourgeois propaganda in every possible way exaggerates the consequences of the “circular letter” (which was in effect for less than two months), attributing “cruelty” to the Bolsheviks, but does not want to notice the real atrocities of the White Guards, the reaction to which was, among other things, that directive. Meanwhile, it is the actions of the Whites - both in relation to the Cossacks who supported the Soviet power, and in relation to the peasant population ("out-of-town") - that fall under the definition of genocide.

In 1918, during the reign of the white general Krasnov on the Don, a real policy of “decossackization” was carried out, when the Cossacks, accused of sympathizing with the Soviets, were expelled from the Cossack class. Exclusion meant expulsion from the territory of the Cossack region. According to historians, over 30 thousand Cossacks were subjected to such expulsion, according to the "stanitsa sentences".

The peasant population, who did not submit to the whites, was also subject to expulsion. Let's turn to the documents of the Whites themselves. On August 29, 1918, General Krasnov wrote an order about the situation in the white "1st Don Plastun Division", recruited from the peasants. Revolutionary agitation was discovered in the division. In response to this, the white general ordered "the families of all the listed guilty persons to be immediately sent outside the all-great Don army, and the property of the latter to be confiscated." “In the event of a repetition of these sad phenomena, I will disband the units from the peasants with all the further consequences for them, that is, the eviction of families from the army,” the general threatened.

On November 6, 1918, Krasnov repeated similar threats about the expulsion of the non-Cossack population against the inhabitants of the Taganrog district, who disrupted the mobilization in white army. “I warn the inhabitants of the Taganrog district that if by the future recruitment they do not recover from Bolshevism and do not give the army a healthy and honest contingent of recruits, then all those families in which there are scoundrel soldiers or who evade the supply of recruits will be deprived of the right to land: the land and property they have will be taken away to the army, the lands and property will be transferred to the defenders of the Don, and they themselves will be expelled from the Army as beggars. Then do not let these worthless sons of our country bother me with requests for mercy to their elderly parents, wives and small children. There should be no place for tares among the rich fields of the Don ... ”, - said the White Guard leader.

Why, then, does modern bourgeois propaganda not write about "genocide" in this case?

In the case where the masses of the people rose to open resistance, the White Guards passed with fire and sword. The inhabitants of the village of Stepanovka rose in revolt, shooting one Cossack and capturing a white officer. “For the murdered Cossack, I order 10 inhabitants to be hanged in the village of Stepanovka ... For capturing an officer, burn the entire village,” wrote the order on November 10 (October 28, old style), General Denisov, Chief of Staff of the White Army.

“I forbid arresting workers, but I order them to be shot or hanged”, “I order all arrested workers to be hanged on the main street and not removed for three days,” General Denisov wrote in his orders dated November 23 (November 10 old style).

Fleeing from the reprisals of the White Guards, tens of thousands of people already in the summer of 1918 fled along with the retreating Red detachments. “With the 1st Don Rifle Division, thousands of refugees moved east to Tsaritsyn. With the liberation of the Martyno-Orlovsky detachment, the number of refugees increased to eighty thousand. This huge mass of people moved on foot, in carts, in railway echelons. People brought with them their meager property, drove cattle. It was hot, the vegetation dried up, clouds of caustic dust hung over the roads. In the area between Zimovniki and Kotelnikovsky there is no good fresh water, lakes and rivers here, with rare exceptions, are bitter-salty. People and animals suffered from excruciating heat and thirst, suffocated from the dust, and were exhausted from hunger. The weak could not stand, fell and died either from hunger and thirst, or from widespread infectious diseases. It was scary to watch how exhausted people, along with animals, fell into dirty puddles, teeming with all sorts of vile, near which the dying lay ... , a native of the Don peasants, Semyon Budyonny.

Isn't this a real genocide?

The rule of the White Guards in the Don and Kuban, in the Urals and Siberia in 1918-1919 demonstrated who is who in the civil war: it convincingly showed that the whites, henchmen of the capitalists and landowners, are the enemies of the working man, be he a Cossack or a peasant.

On February 29, 1920, the first All-Russian Congress of Labor Cossacks opened in Moscow. The congress adopted a resolution in which it emphasized the need to strengthen the unity of workers, peasants and labor Cossacks. Those Cossacks who, under duress or out of darkness, fought on the side of the Whites were offered amnesty in case of surrender. Lenin spoke at the congress, who said that the difficulties of the civil war "rallied the workers and forced the peasants and the laboring Cossacks" to follow the "truth of the Bolsheviks."

In 1920, the white generals were finally defeated. The end of the civil war opened the way for the popular masses in the South of Russia, including the Cossack population, to build a new society.

First World War clearly demonstrated that in the new conditions of warfare, the cavalry can only play an auxiliary role. Massive cavalry attacks are a thing of the past. The children, who dreamed of military exploits, imagined themselves no longer in a luxurious hussar uniform, but in a pilot's leather jacket or tanker uniform. However, the civil war that broke out in Russia showed that it was too early to write off the cavalry.

Donets begin

The initiative to create large cavalry formations in the Civil War belonged to the white side. This is not surprising: the counter-revolutionary forces had at their disposal the human resources of the Don and Kuban, and people from there made up a significant part of the former cavalry of the Russian Imperial Army (RIA). Horse breeding centers, both public and private, were also located there. Returned from the fields great war the Cossacks for the most part retained the horses, which made it possible already in 1918 to create many horse units as part of the Don army.

Initially, the cavalry was attached to foot regiments, forming a separate formation of 30 to 300 horsemen. Later, separate cavalry regiments began to be created from them. They were formed according to the stanitsa principle and united into numbered regiments, consisting of six hundred (in this situation, a hundred did not mean the number of soldiers). Their number was not constant and fluctuated between 150-1000 horsemen. During the hostilities of 1918, the Cossack cavalry, as a rule, was attached to the infantry. Ataman Pyotr Krasnov described the Cossack tactics as follows:

“Usually at dawn, an offensive was launched with very thin chains from the front, at the same time, a bypass column of the main forces with cavalry was moving in some intricate beam to the flank and rear of the enemy. If the enemy was ten times stronger than the Cossacks, this was considered normal for a Cossack offensive. As soon as a bypass column appeared, the Bolsheviks began to retreat, then the cavalry with a chilling boom rushed at them, overturned them, destroyed them and took them prisoner. Sometimes the battle began with a feigned retreat of twenty miles of the Cossack detachment, the enemy rushed to pursue, and at that time the bypass columns closed behind him, and he found himself in a bag.

The text quite realistically - if, of course, we discard the ratio of 1 to 10 - describes the specifics of the tactics of the battles of the Civil War in the Don region. As you can see, the cavalry here played a more auxiliary role, finishing off the fleeing enemy.

However, occasionally there were frontal attacks by riders. For example, on May 17, 1919, the Guards Brigade of the 1st Don Division attacked the positions of the Red Army soldiers near Lugansk on horseback. The attack was prepared by the fire of a white armored train and was supported by the infantry of the Gundorovsky battalion. Well-coordinated interaction led to a positive result: the enemy positions were captured, and with them several guns and machine guns, although the attack was carried out in a situation "inconsistencies between the forces of the attackers and the forces of the enemy, moreover, in conditions of a completely open area".

The first major operation of the Don cavalry is, perhaps, the raid of the Cossacks of General A.S. Secretev in May-June 1919. In March of the same year, the famous Veshensky rebellion began, later brilliantly described by Mikhail Sholokhov. Despite all the courage of the Cossacks, the numerically superior troops of the Red Army almost managed to suppress the uprising. Why almost? Yes, because the commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin, singled out an equestrian group of three divisions (8th, 11th and 12th equestrian) under the command of an experienced cavalryman, Major General Alexander Secretev. After passing more than 300 miles, the riders broke through the encirclement and joined with the rebels. Of course, not everything went smoothly. The pace of the advance of the cavalrymen was rather low. In addition, the Cossacks were often distracted from the main task, smashing the small detachments of the Red Army who were nearby. But in any case, this raid radically changed the situation in favor of the Whites, not only in the area of ​​​​the uprising, but also on the entire Southern Front, whose troops retreated 150 km.

It was from this point on that the white leadership paid close attention to the strategic use of cavalry. The planning of operations was in the hands of the command of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR), created by combining the Don and Volunteer armies. The latter was headed by General Anton Denikin, who also headed the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation. Let's see how things were with the cavalry of the volunteers.

Volunteer Army Cavalry

Having begun to form an army in Rostov-on-Don to counter the Bolsheviks, the white command was faced with a shortage of horses: there were cavalrymen, but there were no cavalry. Speaking on the Ice Campaign, General Lavr Kornilov had only a little over 300 horsemen in three "regiments", which in March 1918 were consolidated into the 1st Cavalry Regiment under the command of Colonel Pyotr Glazenap. In May of the same year, after joining the Volunteer Army with the Drozdovsky detachment, the 2nd cavalry regiment was formed, the basis of which was the Drozdovites. Order No. 409 approved the temporary regimental staff of the cavalry, which was subsequently to be extended to the newly formed units. According to the document, the regiment consisted of six squadrons, each of which had 19 officers, eight non-commissioned officers and 120 combat soldiers. In total, there were 114 officers and 768 non-commissioned officers and soldiers in six squadrons. The staff of the machine gun team consisted of four officers, nine non-commissioned officers and 54 soldiers, the communications team - three officers and 26 soldiers, the non-combat team - two officers, seven combatants and 115 non-combatants. In the convoy of the 1st category there were 29, the 2nd category - nine, and in the machine-gun team - five convoy soldiers. In addition, the regimental headquarters consisted of four officers, seven military officials and one headquarters trumpeter. In total, the regiment had 127 officers, four class ranks and 965 soldiers with 1078 horses. Naturally, as in the Don army, the staffing level existed only on paper, but in reality it was much lower.

In the summer of 1918, two cavalry divisions had already been created in the Volunteer Army. The increase in numbers occurred mainly due to the Kuban cavalry units. And then disagreements broke out in the leadership over the further development of the cavalry. General Pyotr Wrangel was an ardent supporter of the creation of a regular cavalry. In his memoirs, he wrote:

« I attached great importance to the creation of a powerful cavalry in a real war, where maneuver played a dominant role. Knowing the Cossacks, he fully took into account that after the liberation of the Cossack lands they would be reluctant to take part in our further struggle, and considered it necessary to urgently attend to the restoration of regular cavalry units. A large number of cavalry officers remained idle or served in infantry units all the time as privates. The most valuable personnel of the best cavalry in the world were killed. Meanwhile, because among the people of the headquarters, starting with the Commander-in-Chief, with a few exceptions, the majority were infantry officers, the tops of the army were not only indifferent, but also negatively to the idea of ​​the need to create regular cavalry units.».

As you can see, the general accused Anton Denikin of incompetence, believing that the infantry general was unable to realize the advantages that cavalry could give. To a certain extent, General A.S. was in solidarity with Wrangel. Lukomsky, who emphasized that the command of the Volunteer Army, although aware of the need to create a mass cavalry, did nothing for this.

However, if we give the floor to General Denikin himself, the picture looks a little different. Wrangel, planning the growth of the cavalry, saw the restoration of the former regiments of the Russian Imperial Army as the main way to achieve the goal. The former cavalry officers themselves strove for the same, who largely retained their cadres: from 50% to 90% of the officers from each RIA cavalry regiment participated in the ranks of the White movement. In the Volunteer Army, and later in the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, 49 out of 57 regular army cavalry regiments were restored in the form of divisions, squadrons and even regiments. P. Wrangel himself laid the foundation for this, having restored the 10th Ingermanland Hussar Regiment back in October 1918: first as a division, and from May 1919 as a full-fledged regiment. Denikin reacted negatively, first of all, not to the development of cavalry, but to the development of cavalry in the way that Wrangel was guided by. The commander-in-chief thought:

“A major evil in the organization of the army was the spontaneous desire for formations - under the slogan “the revival of historical parts Russian army". The "cells" of the old regiments, especially in the cavalry, arose, became isolated, strove for separation, turning the combat unit - the regiment - into a mosaic team of dozens of old regiments, weakening the ranks, unity and strength of it. Such formations also arose in the rear, existed behind the scenes for whole months, extracting private funds or taking advantage of the connivance of authorities of various ranks, weakening the front and sometimes turning the ideological slogan “under native standards” into a cover for selfishness.

Which of the generals was right? The answer to this can be given by an overview of the military operations of the Combined Cavalry Division of the Don Army. Although the former regiments of the RIA were restored, as a rule, in the Volunteer Army, there was an exception here. The desire of cavalry officers to revive their units ran into opposition from the command of the volunteers, but unexpectedly received the support of the leadership of the Don. The reason was that the Don Ataman Afrikan Bogaevsky during the First World War led the 4th Mariupol Hussar Regiment - one of the units striving for restoration.

From left to right: military ataman Afrikan Bogaevsky, Lieutenant General Anton Denikin, ataman of the Great Don Army Pyotr Krasnov, Lieutenant General Ivan Romanovsky. Chir station, 1918.
en.wikipedia.org

On October 9, 1919, an order was given to the Don Army to form the 1st Consolidated Cavalry Division as part of the 4th Mariupol and 6th Klyastitsky Hussars, the 11th Chuguevsky Lancers and the Native Cavalry Regiments. Major General Pyotr Chesnakov was entrusted to command the division. However, due to the deteriorating military situation, on November 28, 1919, the division went to the front to defend the Donets Basin, without having had time to complete the formation process. The formation actively participated in the battles against the red 1st Cavalry Army in the northern part of the Donbass, in the area of ​​​​Svatovo and Rubizhnaya stations. The losses of the division were so great that it was folded into a combined cavalry regiment, which was later disbanded, and its remnants became part of other cavalry units.

A. Denikin's objections in those conditions were quite reasonable. And yet the command of the Volunteer Army, not wanting to depend on the wayward Cossack generals, tried to at least to some extent reorganize and increase their own cavalry. All her cavalry units, created on the basis of old regiments Russian Empire, in July 1919 were consolidated into the 5th Cavalry Corps, which was headed by Lieutenant General Yakov Yuzefovich. This corps operated at the junction of the 1st Army Corps advancing on Moscow and the Kiev group of General N.E. Bredov. The 5th Cavalry Corps included the 1st (Major General I.I. Chekotovsky) and the 2nd (Colonel I.M. Miklashevsky) Cavalry Divisions. The number of regiments in divisions ranged from three to five, but their numbers were small. Volunteer cavalry played a secondary role, supporting the offensive of the shock "colored" divisions and repelling the counterattacks of the Red Army, but never acquired a strategic character. The White Guards still pinned all their hopes on the Cossacks.

What to fight?

Let's say a few words about the equipment of the white cavalry. It was based on the former stocks of RIA. However, there was no single supply, and therefore the armament and equipment of the troops was very diverse. For example, the division of the Sumy hussars was armed with

“Dragoon, Cossack, Caucasian checkers, hussar sabers, English and French broadswords, there was even one ancient sword found in an abandoned plundered estate. To match the edged weapons, there were saddles of a wide variety of models, including racing ones, Cossack, Caucasian, or even just one cushion from a Cossack saddle, pulled up by a saddle with stirrups thrown over it. The quartermastership did not give saddles ... "

Peaks were widely used in the cavalry units of the All-Union Socialist Republic. All regular cavalry, even hussars and dragoons, were armed with them, although in the RIA they were only in the uhlan regiments. As for the Cossacks, the peaks were used exclusively by the Don people: neither the Terts nor the Kuban used them. In the hands of an experienced cavalryman, the pike became a terrible weapon. An example of this is the legend of the Don Cossack Kozma Kryuchkov, who during the First World War in one skirmish stabbed eleven German soldiers with a lance.

Kuban Cossacks

Not only the Don Cossacks were in the ranks of the VSYUR. Another component of the White movement was the Kuban Cossacks. From the first days of the Civil War, the Kuban people supported the actions of the Volunteer Army. However, without having such military and political leaders as P.N. Krasnov, A.P. Bogaevsky and V.I. Sidorin, they failed to create a separate army, joined the volunteers and for a long time acted in the same ranks with them. For example, as mentioned above, the 1st Cavalry Division, formed in the summer of 1918, half consisted of Kuban units.

In May 1919, during the next reorganization, the Kuban formed the basis of the Caucasian army, which operated in the Tsaritsyno direction. It was the cavalry of the 1st (commander - Lieutenant General V.L. Pokrovsky) and 2nd (commander - Major General S.G. Ulagay) of the Kuban Corps that defeated the red cavalry corps of Boris Dumenko in the Zadonsk steppes in oncoming battles. The 3rd Kuban Corps (commander - Lieutenant General A.G. Shkuro) was attached to the Volunteer Army, advancing in the Donbass. The Cossacks of Andrei Shkuro were forced to act both against the Red Army and against their temporary ally, the army of Nestor Makhno, often acting as a kind of mobile fire brigade. The Kubans often broke through the line of the red front, but did not invade far behind enemy lines, acting in the interests of the “colored” regiments of the Volunteer Army. During the summer offensive against Moscow, the 3rd Kuban Corps operated at the junction of the Volunteer and Don armies, often interacting with the Cossacks of the 4th Don Corps (commander - Lieutenant General K.K. Mamontov). In the fall, the corps had to be divided. The 1st Terek Division (commander - Major General V.K. Agoev) continued to fight against the Reds, and the 1st Caucasian Division (commander - General Gubin) was sent against the Makhno rebels.

In December 1919, the 2nd Kuban Corps, which was already headed by Major General V.G., was transferred to the disposal of the Volunteer Army. Naumenko. Both Kuban corps, as well as the 4th Donskoy, were involved in the defense of Donbass in December 1919, where they were defeated by the red 1st Cavalry Army.

It should be noted that if in 1918 the Kubans were distinguished by high combat capability, then by the end of the next year they had become the most unreliable units of the All-Union Socialist League. The reason for this was the so-called Kuban action - the dispersal of the opposition VSYUR of the Kuban Rada, which pursued separatist goals. The fighting spirit of the Kuban formations was undermined. Cases of desertion and non-compliance with orders became more frequent. It was no longer necessary to count on the Kuban in a difficult combat situation.

Approximately such a situation developed with the white cavalry by the middle of 1919, when perhaps the most significant event related to the fighting of the cavalry took place - the cavalry raid of the Don Cossacks K.K. Mamontov. Most of all, paradoxically, the red side won from the raid, finally convinced that it was in the use of strategic cavalry that the key to victory lay.

To be continued

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