Who led the army. Famous military leaders of Russia
VOLUNTARY ARMY, the main military force of the White movement in the south of Russia in 1918-1920.
It arose on December 27, 1917 (January 9, 1918) from the Alekseevsk organization - a military detachment formed on November 2 (15), 1917 on the Don by General M.V. Alekseev to fight the Bolsheviks. Its creation pursued both a military-strategic and political goal: on the one hand, the Volunteer Army, in alliance with the Cossacks, was supposed to prevent the establishment of Soviet power in southern Russia, on the other, to ensure free elections to the Constituent Assembly, which was to determine the future. state structure country. It was recruited on a voluntary basis from officers, cadets, students, gymnasium students who fled to the Don. The supreme leader is Alekseev, the commander is General L.G. Kornilov. The deployment center is Novocherkassk. Initially it numbered about two thousand people, by the end of January 1918 it had grown to three and a half thousand. It consisted of the Kornilov shock regiment (commanded by Lieutenant Colonel M.O. Nezhentsev), officer, cadet and Georgievsky battalions, four artillery batteries, an officer squadron, an engineering company and a company of guards officers. Later, the Rostov volunteer regiment (Major General A.A. Borovsky), a naval company, a Czechoslovak battalion and a death division of the Caucasian division were formed. It was planned to increase the size of the army to ten thousand bayonets and sabers and only then begin large-scale military operations. But the successful offensive of the red troops in January-February 1918 forced the command to suspend the formation of the army and send several units to defend Taganrog, Bataysk and Novocherkassk. However, a few detachments of volunteers, not receiving serious support from the local Cossacks, could not stop the enemy's onslaught and were forced to leave the Don region. At the end of February 1918, the Volunteer Army moved to Yekaterinodar to make the Kuban its main base (the First Kuban campaign). On February 25, it was reorganized into three infantry regiments - Consolidated Officer (General S.L. Markov), Kornilovsky Shock (M.O. Nezhentsev) and Partizansky (General A.P. Bogaevsky), on March 17, after joining regional government, - in three brigades: 1st (Markov), 2nd (Bogaevsky) and Horse (General I.G. Erdeli). The Volunteer Army, which had increased to six thousand people, made several unsuccessful attempts to take Yekaterinodar on April 10-13. After the death of Kornilov on April 13, General A.I.Denikin, who replaced him at the post of commander, took the thinned detachments to the south of the Don region to the area of the villages of Mechetinskaya and Yegorlykskaya.
In May-June 1918, the position of the Volunteer Army was strengthened thanks to the liquidation of Soviet power on the Don and the emergence of a new ally - the Don army of Ataman P.N. Krasnov, who transferred to it a significant part of the weapons and ammunition he received from the Germans. The number of the Volunteer Army increased to eleven thousand people due to the influx of the Kuban Cossacks and the addition of the three thousandth detachment of Colonel M.G. Drozdovsky to it. In June, it was reorganized into five infantry and eight cavalry regiments, which made up the 1st (Markov), 2nd (Borovsky), 3rd (M.G. Drozdovsky) infantry divisions, 1st cavalry division (Erdeli) and the 1st Kuban Cossack Division (General V.L. Pokrovsky); in July, the 2nd Kuban Cossack Division (General S.G. Ulagai) and the Kuban Cossack Brigade (General A.G. Shkuro) were also formed.
On June 23, 1918, the Volunteer Army began the Second Kuban campaign (June-September), during which it defeated the troops of the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic and took Yekaterinodar (August 15-16), Novorossiysk (August 26) and Maikop (September 20), established control over the main part of the Kuban and the north of the Black Sea province. By the end of September, she already numbered 35-40 thousand bayonets and sabers. After Alekseev's death on October 8, 1918, the post of commander-in-chief passed to A.I. Denikin. On October 28, volunteers captured Armavir and drove out the Bolsheviks from the left bank of the Kuban; in mid-November they took Stavropol and inflicted a heavy defeat on the 11th Red Army, led by IF Fedko. From the end of November, they began to receive large supplies of weapons from the Entente through Novorossiysk. In connection with the increase in the number of the Volunteer Army was reorganized into three army corps (1st General A.P. Kutepov, 2nd Borovsky, 3rd General V.N. Lyakhov) and one cavalry corps (General P.N. Wrangel ). At the end of December, she repelled the offensive of the 11th Red Army in the Yekaterinodar-Novorossiysk and Rostov-Tikhoretsk directions and at the beginning of January 1919, inflicting a strong counterattack on it, cut it in two and threw it back to Astrakhan and beyond the Manych. By February, the entire North Caucasus... This made it possible to transfer the grouping of General V.Z. May-Mayevsky, formed from selected regiments, to the Donbass to help the Don army retreating under the onslaught of the Bolsheviks, and the 2nd Army Corps to the Crimea to support the Crimean regional government.
On January 8, 1919, the Volunteer Army became part of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia; Wrangel was appointed its commander. On January 23, it was renamed the Caucasian Volunteer Army. In March, the 1st and 2nd Kuban Cavalry Corps became part of it. Deployed in April in the Donbass and on Manych, the army launched an offensive in the Voronezh and Tsaritsyn directions and forced the Reds to leave the Don region, Donbass, Kharkov and Belgorod. On May 21, units operating in the Tsaritsyn direction were separated into a separate Caucasian army, and the left-flank (Voronezh) group was returned to the name of the Volunteer Army; May-Mayevsky became its commander. It included the 1st (Kutepov) and 2nd (General M.N. Promtov) army, 5th cavalry (General Ya.D. Yuzefovich), 3rd Kuban cavalry (Shkuro) corps.
In the offensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia against Moscow, which began on July 3, 1919, the Volunteer Army was assigned the role of the main striking force - it was supposed to capture Kursk, Orel and Tula and capture the Soviet capital; by this time, more than 50 thousand bayonets and sabers were in its ranks. In July-October 1919, volunteers occupied Central Ukraine (Kiev fell on August 31), Kursk and Voronezh provinces and repulsed the August counteroffensive of the Bolsheviks. The peak of their success was the capture of Orel on October 13. However, due to heavy losses and violent mobilization, the army's combat capability in the fall of 1919 decreased significantly.
During the offensive of the red units in October-December 1919, the main forces of the volunteers were defeated. On November 27, Denikin removed May-Mayevsky; On December 5, Wrangel again led the Volunteer Army. At the end of December, the troops of the Soviet Southern Front cut it into two parts; the first had to retreat beyond the Don, the second - to Northern Tavria. On January 3, 1920, it practically ceased to exist: the southeastern grouping (10 thousand) was consolidated into a separate Volunteer Corps under the command of Kutepov, and from the south-western (32 thousand) they formed the army of General N.N. Schilling. In February-March 1920, after the crushing defeat of the whites in the Odessa region and in the North Caucasus, the remnants of the volunteer formations were evacuated to the Crimea, where they became part of the Russian army, organized by Wrangel in May 1920 from the surviving units of the Armed Forces of southern Russia.
Ivan Krivushin
Portrait of Lieutenant General Michael Jackson commanding the massacre of civilians in Londonderry - Bloody Sunday of Ulster - and Kosovo.
Fern Lane, a columnist for the Irish Republican News, called his post just that: to emphasize the historical continuity of the two events.
Let us remind our readers a little about the events of Bloody Sunday in Ulster.
It happened on January 30, 1972 in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry, which the Irish themselves prefer to call Derry. Sinn Fein chapter Jerry Adams describes the events of the day in his autobiography Before Dawn: “The paratroopers were deployed against the civil rights march .... I have no doubt that the killing of civilians was planned. military operation designed to instill fear in the hearts of all Irish nationalists living under the British yoke - through the brutal extermination of unarmed people. The paratroopers, the "shock" troops of the British army, trained for the most aggressive military action, were thrown against the demonstration of 20,000 people, mostly workers, demanding civil rights.
Some suggest that the paratroopers acted emotionally, that they got out of control of the command, but perhaps the most vile in this story is precisely the fact that these events were controlled, decided and planned in advance at the highest political and military level. It was a cold-blooded, premeditated massacre of civilians in a peaceful demonstration. The demonstration was stopped by the troops, a slight fermentation began, several stones were thrown by young guys; but most of the audience calmly listened to the speeches being made, when the paratroopers suddenly suddenly opened fire - calmly, measuredly and definitely, they aimed at the "legitimate target" - "any men of draft age" in the crowd. They continued to shoot both when people ran and at those who rushed to help the wounded. 13 innocent lives ended that day, another seriously wounded died later; 29 people were injured ...
Ireland was in convulsions from Bloody Sunday, which happened - unlike other events - in public, in daylight and in the presence of journalists. The TV coverage, which caused a chilling silence in the audience, could not be ignored. Everyone got the feeling that the British government had really gone too far this time. Tens of thousands of workers in the Republic of Ireland, Dublin, have stopped working. Even the clergy and the Dublin government could not remain silent. In Dublin, 3 days of marches and riots culminated in the arson of the British Embassy in front of a crowd of 30,000. Barricades Erected in Ulster ... In the British Parliament, Bernadette Devlin gave a public slap in the face to the British Minister of Affairs Northern Ireland... Money, weapons and recruits poured into the IRA in a flood .... "
Was it not then that NATO began to practice the technique of mass murder of "legitimate targets" in the person of civilians?
Wasn't it then it already did it without blushing, in the face of journalists and the whole world?
Fern Lane writes: "... and how no wonder it turned out that this" our man in Kosovo "- a man with an infinite number of nicknames," Macho Jackson "," Akshen Jackson "," Prince of Darkness ", turned out to be a veteran of Bloody Sunday, in which he participated in the rank of adjutant of the 1st Airborne Regiment.
Although he was never called to testify before a tribunal, as the Italian journalist Fulvio Grimaldi notes (in his 1972 book Blood in the Streets), Jackson "was largely responsible for what happened." In his description of Bloody Sunday at Derry, Grimaldi - whose photographs, along with sound recordings taken by his colleague Susan North, are today the most important proof of what happened that day - so characterizes the English paratroopers: "soulless mechanical instruments, little stupid people unable to talk , to look you in the face and see your eyes, incapable of listening; and hearing, incapable of understanding and knowing ... Little robots programmed to use weapons. "
It is unclear if General Jackson will appear before the Saville Inquiry, but he is, in his own words, determined to “defend the dignity” of British paratroopers, describing the last 30 years in Ulster as an “ethnic conflict”.
Explanation: The Saville Investigation (Tribunal) is only now, more than a quarter of a century after Bloody Sunday, taking up the challenge. And even now, after all these years, the investigation is being hindered by the British press and the British government. The president of the tribunal, Lord Saville, decided that the names of the soldiers who participated in the execution should be publicly named (they are not even threatened with imprisonment - they just want to be summoned to court so that they "explain their actions"!).
The British Supreme Court in London recently overturned this decision and demanded that the soldiers be guaranteed anonymity. The British Department of Defense spent more than 1 million British pounds to appeal against the decision of Lord Seville in court. But it is ready to go for more - if only the truth about its dirty deeds does not surface: Secretary of Defense George Robertson said that his department will not only cover all legal costs, but, if necessary, is ready to pay for life-long protection and creation "a new life under a different name", as is done in America, for each of the soldiers.
Tony Blair also noted that "it would be unethical not to support our own troops in the face of any investigation and not intercede for them ...", although he continues to insist that his government is neutral in the Seville investigation. And all this is said by people who foaming at the mouth shout about "the atrocities of the Serbian special forces in Kosovo"!
The families of those killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday demanded that the tribunal file an appeal. At the same time, they are forced to conduct a trial against 2 British newspapers: the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, which seek to defame the memory of the victims and the honor of their families. Newspapers also defended "our gallant British warriors" and said that to deprive those who fired at the unarmed crowd in 1972 of the right to anonymity would mean signing their estimated sentence for the IRA to carry it out. With the aim of "moral support" for the paratroopers, both newspapers published hysterical slander against the families of the victims ...
But back to Fern Lane's article.
"A little detail about Jackson's involvement in Bloody Sunday seems to have been overlooked by the English press in their enthusiastic description of his career; in particular: in those parts of it, in which the authors go out of their way, trying to find false "noble" successive links between the sending of British paratroopers to Kosovo and their activities in the 6 counties of Ulster. They prefer to focus on his more general reputation as a "tough guy" with a monastic lifestyle - monastic, except for the fact that he is married and has a weakness for long parties with whiskey ...
On June 5, the BBC stated that "the Serbian military will probably find him more agreeable than other commanders, since his role so far allows him not to have Serbian blood on his hands" - and this was said, that his soldiers shot a Serb a few hours after entering Kosovo!
And by June 14, despite his supposed role of "peacemaker", the BBC changed its tone, saying that "in the face of the enemy, we need an officer who looks active ...".
Jackson spent a total of 6 years in Ulster, at 3 different stages of his service, the second time as commander of the 1978-1980 campaign and the third time in 1989-1992, when he was the commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade. He is a hereditary military man who entered the service at the age of 19, before he received his university degree in Russian in Birmingham in the late 1960s - which could have been useful for his intelligence work in Berlin during the height of the Cold War. In 1970 he joined the British Airborne Regiment; and his other "military exploits" include the role of commander of the British corps in Bosnia. According to some sources, the hero of the "Prince of Darkness" is the Duke of Ellington; and like Margaret Thatcher, he is known for sleeping less than 4 hours a night.
Jackson is also described as a "severely mentally damaged" officer by a professor of history at Cambridge, where he spent 6 months in 1989. One cannot but agree with this if one listens to his press conferences, which are distinguished more by rudeness and intolerance than by the quality of his intellect. "
And such a person will have to report Russian guys!
Irina MALENKO.
Dublin.
Marshals of the Great Patriotic War
Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich
19.11 (1.12). 1896-18.06.1974Great commander,
Marshal Soviet Union,
Minister of Defense of the USSR
Born in the village of Strelkovka near Kaluga in a peasant family. Furrier. In the army since 1915. Participated in the First World War, junior non-commissioned officer in the cavalry. In battles he was heavily contused and awarded 2 St. George's Crosses.
Since August 1918 in the Red Army. During the Civil War, he fought against the Ural Cossacks near Tsaritsyn, fought with the troops of Denikin and Wrangel, took part in the suppression of the Antonov uprising in the Tambov region, was wounded, was awarded the order Red Banner... After Civil War commanded a regiment, brigade, division, corps. In the summer of 1939, he conducted a successful encirclement operation and defeated the grouping of Japanese troops, General. Kamatsubars on the Khalkhin-Gol River. GK Zhukov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of the Red Banner of the Mongolian People's Republic.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he was a member of the General Headquarters, Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief, commander of the fronts (pseudonyms: Konstantinov, Yuryev, Zharov). During the war he was the first to be awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union (01/18/1943). Under the command of GK Zhukov, the troops of the Leningrad Front, together with the Baltic Fleet, stopped the offensive of Army Group "North" of Field Marshal FV von Leeb against Leningrad in September 1941. Under his command, the troops of the Western Front defeated the troops of Army Group Center of Field Marshal F. von Bock near Moscow and dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the German fascist army. Then Zhukov coordinated the actions of the fronts at Stalingrad (Operation Uranus - 1942), in Operation Iskra during the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade (1943), in the Battle of the Kursk Bulge (summer 1943), where Hitler's plan was thwarted. Citadel ”and the troops of Field Marshals Kluge and Manstein were defeated. The name of Marshal Zhukov is also associated with the victories at Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, the liberation of the Right-Bank Ukraine; Operation Bagration (in Belarus), where the Vaterland Line was broken through and the Center Army Group of Field Marshals E. von Busch and V. von Model was defeated. On final stage During the war, the 1st Belorussian Front, led by Marshal Zhukov, took Warsaw (01/17/1945), crushed Army Group A of General von Harpe and Field Marshal F. Scherner in the Vistula-Oder operation with a dissecting blow, and victoriously ended the war with a grand Berlin operation. Together with the soldiers, the marshal signed on the scorched wall of the Reichstag, over the broken dome of which the banner of Victory fluttered. On May 8, 1945 in Karlshorst (Berlin), the commander received an unconditional surrender from Hitler's Field Marshal V. von Keitel fascist Germany... General D. Eisenhower awarded G.K. Zhukov with the highest military order of the United States "Legion of Honor", the degree of commander-in-chief (06/05/1945). Later, in Berlin, at the Brandenburg Gate, British Field Marshal Montgomery placed on him the Grand Cross of the Knightly Order of the Bath, 1st Class, with a star and a crimson ribbon. On June 24, 1945, Marshal Zhukov hosted the triumphal Victory Parade in Moscow.
In 1955-1957. "Marshal of Victory" was the Minister of Defense of the USSR.
American military historian Martin Kaidan says: “Zhukov was a military leader in the war against massive armies of the twentieth century. He inflicted more casualties on the Germans than any other military leader. He was a "miracle marshal". Before us is a military genius. "
He wrote his memoirs "Memories and Reflections".
Marshal G.K. Zhukov had:
- 4 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (08/29/1939, 07/29/1944, 06/01/1945, 12/01/1956),
- 6 Orders of Lenin,
- 2 orders "Victory" (including No. 1 - 04/11/1944, 03/30/1945),
- Order of the October Revolution,
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov, 1st degree (including No. 1), a total of 14 orders and 16 medals;
- honorary weapon - a personal checker with the golden emblem of the USSR (1968);
- Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (1969); Order of the Tuvan Republic;
- 17 foreign orders and 10 medals, etc.
In 1995, a monument to Zhukov was erected on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow.
Vasilevsky Alexander Mikhailovich
18 (30) .09.1895-5.12.1977 Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR
Born in the village of Novaya Golchikha near Kineshma on the Volga. The son of a priest. Studied at the Kostroma Theological Seminary. In 1915 he graduated from courses at the Alexander Military School and was sent to the front of the First World War (1914-1918) with the rank of ensign. Head captain of the tsarist army. Having joined the Red Army during the Civil War of 1918-1920, he commanded a company, battalion, and regiment. In 1937 he graduated Military academy General Staff. From 1940 he served in the General Staff, where he was caught by the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). In June 1942, he became Chief of the General Staff, replacing Marshal B.M.Shaposhnikov due to illness. Of the 34 months of his tenure as chief of the General Staff, 22 A.M. Vasilevsky spent directly at the front (pseudonyms: Mikhailov, Aleksandrov, Vladimirov). He was wounded and shell-shocked. For a year and a half during the war, he grew from Major General to Marshal of the Soviet Union (19.02.1943) and, together with Mr. K. Zhukov, became the first holder of the Order of Victory. Under his leadership, the largest operations of the Soviet Armed Forces were developed A.M. Vasilevsky coordinated the actions of the fronts: in Stalingrad battle(Operation Uranus, Little Saturn), near Kursk (Operation Commander Rumyantsev), during the liberation of Donbass (Operation Don), in Crimea and during the capture of Sevastopol, in battles in the Right-Bank Ukraine; in the Belarusian operation "Bagration".
After the death of General ID Chernyakhovsky, he commanded the 3rd Belorussian Front in the East Prussian operation, which ended in the famous "star" assault on Konigsberg.
On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet commander A.M. Vasilevsky smashed Hitler's field marshals and generals F. von Bock, G. Guderian, F. Paulus, E. Manstein, E. Kleist, Eneke, E. von Busch, V. von Model, F. Scherner, von Weichs and others.
In June 1945, the Marshal was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Forces in the Far East (pseudonym Vasiliev). For the quick defeat of the Kwantung Army of the Japanese of General O. Yamada in Manchuria, the commander received a second Gold Star... After the war, from 1946 - Chief of the General Staff; in 1949-1953 - Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR.
AM Vasilevsky is the author of the memoirs "The Work of All Life".
Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky had:
- 2 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 09/08/1945),
- 8 Orders of Lenin,
- 2 orders "Victory" (including No. 2 - 01/10/1944, 04/19/1945),
- Order of the October Revolution,
- 2 Orders of the Red Banner,
- Order of Suvorov 1st degree,
- order Red Star,
- Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" 3rd degree,
- a total of 16 orders and 14 medals;
- an honorary personal weapon - a checker with the golden coat of arms of the USSR (1968),
- 28 foreign awards (including 18 foreign orders).
Konev Ivan Stepanovich
16 (28) .12.1897-27.06.1973 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the Vologda region in the village of Lodeino in a peasant family. In 1916 he was drafted into the army. At the end of the training team as a junior non-commissioned officer, art. division aims at Southwest Front... Enlisting in the Red Army in 1918, he took part in battles against the troops of Admiral Kolchak, Ataman Semyonov, and the Japanese. Commissar of the armored train "Grozny", then brigades, divisions. In 1921 he took part in the assault on Kronstadt. Graduated from the Academy. Frunze (1934), commanded a regiment, division, corps, 2nd Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army (1938-1940).
During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the army, fronts (pseudonyms: Stepin, Kievsky). He took part in the battles of Smolensk and Kalinin (1941), in the battle of Moscow (1941-1942). During the Battle of Kursk, together with the troops of General N.F. Vatutin, he defeated the enemy at the Belgorod-Kharkov bridgehead - the German bastion in Ukraine. On August 5, 1943, Konev's troops took the city of Belgorod, in honor of which Moscow gave its first salute, and on August 24, Kharkov was taken. This was followed by the breakthrough of the "Eastern Wall" on the Dnieper.
In 1944, a "New (small) Stalingrad" was organized for the Germans near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky - 10 divisions and 1 brigade of General V. Stemmeran, who fell on the battlefield, were surrounded and destroyed. I.S.Konev was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union (20.02.1944), and on March 26, 1944, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front were the first to reach the state border. In July-August, they defeated Army Group Northern Ukraine of Field Marshal E. von Manstein in the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. The name of Marshal Konev, nicknamed "General Forward", is associated with brilliant victories at the final stage of the war - in the Vistula-Oder, Berlin and Prague operations. During the Berlin operation, his troops reached the r. Elbe near Torgau and met with the American troops of General O. Bradley (25.04.1945). On May 9, the defeat of Field Marshal Scherner near Prague was completed. The highest orders of the "White Lion" 1st class and the "Czechoslovak military cross of 1939" were the marshal's award for the liberation of the Czech capital. Moscow saluted 57 times to the troops of I.S.Konev.
In the postwar period, the Marshal was the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces (1946-1950; 1955-1956), the first Commander-in-Chief of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member states (1956-1960).
Marshal I. S. Konev - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (1970), Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (1971). The bronze bust was installed at home in the village of Lodeino.
He wrote memoirs: "Forty-fifth" and "Notes of the front commander."
Marshal I.S.Konev had:
- two Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 06/01/1945),
- 7 Orders of Lenin,
- Order of the October Revolution,
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Kutuzov, 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star,
- a total of 17 orders and 10 medals;
- honorary personal weapon - a checker with the Golden Emblem of the USSR (1968),
- 24 foreign awards (including 13 foreign orders).
Govorov Leonid Alexandrovich
10 (22) .02.1897-19.03.1955 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the village of Butyrki near Vyatka in the family of a peasant who later became an employee in the city of Elabuga. A student of the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute L. Govorov in 1916 became a cadet at the Konstantinovsky Artillery School. He began his combat activities in 1918 as an officer of the White Army, Admiral Kolchak.
In 1919 he volunteered for the Red Army, took part in battles on the Eastern and Southern fronts, commanded an artillery battalion, was wounded twice - near Kakhovka and Perekop.
In 1933 he graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze, and then the Academy of the General Staff (1938). Participated in the war with Finland in 1939-1940.
In the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), artillery general L. A. Govorov became the commander of the 5th Army, which defended the approaches to Moscow in the central direction. In the spring of 1942, on the instructions of JV Stalin, he left for besieged Leningrad, where he soon headed the front (pseudonyms: Leonidov, Leonov, Gavrilov). On January 18, 1943, the troops of Generals Govorov and Meretskov broke through the blockade of Leningrad (Operation Iskra), inflicting a counter strike at Shlisselburg. A year later, they struck a new blow, crushing the "Northern Wall" of the Germans, completely lifting the blockade of Leningrad. German troops of Field Marshal von Küchler suffered huge losses... In June 1944, the troops of the Leningrad Front conducted the Vyborg operation, broke through the "Mannerheim Line" and took the city of Vyborg. L. A. Govorov became Marshal of the Soviet Union (06/18/1944), In the fall of 1944, Govorov's troops liberated Estonia, breaking into the enemy defense "Panther".
Remaining the commander of the Leningrad Front, the marshal was at the same time the representative of the General Headquarters in the Baltic States. He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In May 1945, the German Army Group Courland surrendered to the troops of the front.
Moscow saluted the troops of the commander L.A. Govorov 14 times. In the post-war period, the Marshal became the first Commander-in-Chief of the country's air defense.
Marshal L.A. Govorov had:
- Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (01/27/1945), 5 Orders of Lenin,
- Order "Victory" (05/31/1945),
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star - 13 orders and 7 medals in total,
- Tuvan "Order of the Republic",
- 3 foreign orders.
Rokossovsky Konstantin Konstantinovich
9 (21) .12.1896-3.08.1968. Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Marshal of Poland
Born in Velikiye Luki in the family of a railway driver, Pole Xavier Józef Rokossovsky, who soon moved to live in Warsaw. He began his service in 1914 in the Russian army. Participated in the First World War. He fought in the dragoon regiment, was a non-commissioned officer, was wounded twice in battles, was awarded the St. George's Cross and 2 medals. Red Guard (1917). During the Civil War, he was again wounded 2 times, fought on the Eastern Front against the troops of Admiral Kolchak and in Transbaikalia against Baron Ungern; commanded a squadron, division, cavalry regiment; awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner. In 1929 he fought against the Chinese at Jalainor (conflict at the Chinese Eastern Railway). In 1937-1940. was imprisoned as a victim of slander.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he commanded a mechanized corps, army, fronts (Pseudonyms: Kostin, Dontsov, Rumyantsev). Distinguished in the Smolensk battle (1941). Hero of the Battle of Moscow (09/30/1941 - 01/08/1942). He was seriously wounded near Sukhinichi. During the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943), Rokossovsky's Don Front, together with other fronts, surrounded 22 enemy divisions total number 330 thousand people (Operation Uranus). At the beginning of 1943, the Don Front liquidated the encircled group of Germans (Operation Ring). Field Marshal F. Paulus was taken prisoner (a 3-day mourning was declared in Germany). In the Battle of Kursk (1943), the Central Front of Rokossovsky defeated the German troops of General Model (Operation Kutuzov) near Orel, in honor of which Moscow gave its first salute (08/05/1943). In the grandiose Belorussian operation (1944), the 1st Belorussian Front of Rokossovsky defeated Field Marshal von Busch's Army Group Center and, together with the troops of General ID Chernyakhovsky, surrounded up to 30 dredge divisions in the Minsk Cauldron (Operation Bagration) ... On June 29, 1944, Rokossovsky was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The highest military orders "Virtuti Militari" and the "Grunwald" cross 1st class were awarded to the Marshal for the liberation of Poland.
At the final stage of the war, Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front took part in the East Prussian, Pomeranian and Berlin operations. 63 times Moscow saluted the troops of the commander Rokossovsky. On June 24, 1945, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of the Order of Victory, Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky commanded the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow. In 1949-1956 K. K. Rokossovsky was the Minister national defense Polish People's Republic. He was awarded the title of Marshal of Poland (1949). Returning to the Soviet Union, he became the chief inspector of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
He wrote his memoirs "Soldier's Duty".
Marshal K.K.Rokossovsky had:
- 2 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (07/29/1944, 06/01/1945),
- 7 Orders of Lenin,
- Order "Victory" (03/30/1945),
- Order of the October Revolution,
- 6 Orders of the Red Banner,
- Order of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- a total of 17 orders and 11 medals;
- honorary weapon - a checker with the gold Emblem of the USSR (1968),
- 13 foreign awards (including 9 foreign orders)
Malinovsky Rodion Yakovlevich
11 (23) .11.1898-31.03.1967 Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Minister of Defense of the USSR
Was born in Odessa, grew up without a father. In 1914, he volunteered for the front of the 1st World War, where he was seriously wounded and awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th degree (1915). In February 1916 he was sent to France as part of the Russian expeditionary corps. There he was again wounded and received a French military cross. Returning to his homeland, he voluntarily joined the Red Army (1919), fought against the Whites in Siberia. In 1930 he graduated from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze. In 1937-1938 he volunteered in battles in Spain (under the pseudonym "Malino") on the side of the republican government, for which he received the Order of the Red Banner.
In the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he commanded a corps, army, front (pseudonyms: Yakovlev, Rodionov, Morozov). Distinguished in the Battle of Stalingrad. Army Malinovsky, in cooperation with other armies, stopped and then defeated Army Group Don of Field Marshal E. von Manstein, who was trying to unblock Paulus's grouping surrounded at Stalingrad. The troops of General Malinovsky liberated Rostov and Donbass (1943), participated in the cleansing of the enemy of the Right-Bank Ukraine; defeating the troops of E. von Kleist, took the 10.04.1944 Odessa; Together with the troops of General Tolbukhin, they defeated the southern wing of the enemy front, encircling 22 German divisions and the 3rd Romanian army in the Iassy-Kishinev operation (20-29.08.1944). During the fighting, Malinovsky was slightly wounded; 09/10/1944 he was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front of Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky liberated Romania, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia. On August 13, 1944, they entered Bucharest, took Budapest by storm (February 13, 1945), liberated Prague (May 9, 1945). The Marshal was awarded the Order of Victory.
Since July 1945, Malinovsky commanded the Trans-Baikal Front (pseudonym Zakharov), which delivered the main blow to the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria (08.1945). Front troops reached Port Arthur. Marshal received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Moscow saluted 49 times to the troops of the commander Malinovsky.
On October 15, 1957, Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky was appointed Minister of Defense of the USSR. He remained in this post until the end of his life.
The Marshal's Peru owns the books "Soldiers of Russia", "The Wrathful Whirlwinds of Spain"; under his direction were written "Jassy-Chisinau" Cannes "", "Budapest - Vienna - Prague", "Final" and other works.
Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky had:
- 2 Gold Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union (09/08/1945, 11/22/1958),
- 5 Orders of Lenin,
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- a total of 12 orders and 9 medals;
- as well as 24 foreign awards (including 15 orders of foreign states). In 1964 he was awarded the title People's Hero Yugoslavia.
Tolbukhin Fedor Ivanovich
4 (16) .6.1894-17.10.1949. Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the village of Androniki near Yaroslavl in a peasant family. He worked as an accountant in Petrograd. In 1914 he was a private motorcyclist. Having become an officer, he participated in battles with the Austro-German troops, was awarded the crosses of Anna and Stanislav.
In the Red Army since 1918; fought on the fronts of the Civil War against the troops of General N. N. Yudenich, Poles and Finns. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In the post-war period, Tolbukhin worked in staff positions. In 1934 he graduated from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze. In 1940 he became a general.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) he was the chief of staff of the front, commanded the army and the front. Distinguished himself in the Battle of Stalingrad, commanding the 57th Army. In the spring of 1943, Tolbukhin became the commander of the Southern, and from October - the 4th Ukrainian, from May 1944 until the end of the war - the 3rd Ukrainian front... General Tolbukhin's troops defeated the enemy at Miussa and Molochnaya, and liberated Taganrog and Donbass. In the spring of 1944 they invaded the Crimea and on May 9 they took Sevastopol by storm. In August 1944, together with the troops of R. Ya. Malinovsky, they defeated the South Ukraine army group Ӑ Ր ݮ in the city of Frizner in the Yassy-Kishinev operation. On September 12, 1944, F.I.Tolbukhin was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Tolbukhin's troops liberated Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria. Moscow saluted 34 times to Tolbukhin's troops. At the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, the marshal led the column of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.
The health of the marshal, undermined by the wars, began to fail, and in 1949 F.I.Tolbukhin died at the age of 56. Three days of mourning was declared in Bulgaria; the city of Dobrich was renamed to the city of Tolbukhin.
In 1965, Marshal F.I.Tolbukhin was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
People's Hero of Yugoslavia (1944) and "Hero of the People's Republic of Bulgaria" (1979).
Marshal F.I.Tolbukhin had:
- 2 Orders of Lenin,
- Order "Victory" (04/26/1945),
- 3 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- Order of the Red Star,
- a total of 10 orders and 9 medals;
- as well as 10 foreign awards (including 5 foreign orders).
Kirill Meretskov
26.05 (7.06) .1897-30.12.1968 Marshal of the Soviet Union
Born in the village of Nazaryevo near Zaraisk, Moscow Region, into a peasant family. Before serving in the army, he worked as a mechanic. In the Red Army since 1918. During the Civil War he fought on the Eastern and Southern fronts. Participated in battles in the ranks of the 1st Cavalry against the Poles of Pilsudski. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In 1921 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army. In 1936-1937 under the pseudonym "Petrovich" fought in Spain (awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner). During the Soviet-Finnish War (December 1939 - March 1940) he commanded an army that broke through the Manerheim Line and took Vyborg, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (1940).
During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded the troops of the northern directions (pseudonyms: Afanasyev, Kirillov); was the representative of the General Headquarters on the North-Western Front. He commanded the army and the front. In 1941 Meretskov inflicted the first serious defeat in the war on the troops of Field Marshal Leeb near Tikhvin. On January 18, 1943, the troops of Generals Govorov and Meretskov, inflicting a counter strike at Shlisselburg (Operation Iskra), broke through the blockade of Leningrad. Novgorod was taken on January 20. In February 1944 he became the commander of the Karelian Front. In June 1944 Meretskov and Govorov defeated Marshal K. Mannerheim in Karelia. In October 1944 Meretskov's troops defeated the enemy in the Arctic near Pechenga (Petsamo). On October 26, 1944, KA Meretskov received the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union, and from the Norwegian King Haakon VII the Grand Cross of "St. Olaf".
In the spring of 1945, the "cunning Yaroslavets" (as Stalin called him) under the name of "General Maksimov" was sent to Far East... In August - September 1945, his troops took part in the defeat of the Kwantung Army, breaking into Manchuria from Primorye and liberating areas of China and Korea.
Moscow saluted the troops of commander Meretskov 10 times.
Marshal K.A.Meretskov had:
- Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (03/21/1940), 7 Orders of Lenin,
- Order "Victory" (09/08/1945),
- Order of the October Revolution,
- 4 Orders of the Red Banner,
- 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st degree,
- Order of Kutuzov 1st degree,
- 10 medals;
- honorary weapon - a checker with the Golden Emblem of the USSR, as well as 4 higher foreign orders and 3 medals.
For some time now, we began to instill an opinion: we must sympathize with the whites. They are de nobles, people of honor and duty, the "intellectual elite of the nation", innocently ruined by the Bolsheviks ...
Some modern heroes, heroically leaving the enemy half of the territory entrusted to them, heroically without a fight, even introduce White Guard shoulder straps in the ranks of their militia ... The "red belt" of the country known to the whole world ...
It has become fashionable, on occasion, to cry over the innocently murdered and exiled nobles. And, as usual, the Reds are blamed for all the troubles of the present time, who treated the "elite" so much.
Behind these conversations, the main thing becomes invisible - the Reds won in that fight, and the “elite” of not only Russia, but also the strongest powers of that time fought with them.
And where did the current "noble gentlemen" get that the nobles in that great Russian turmoil were necessarily on the side of the whites?
Let's turn to the facts.
In the Red Army, 75 thousand former officers served (of which 62 thousand were of noble origin), while in the White Army there were about 35 thousand of the 150 thousand officer corps. Russian Empire.
On November 7, 1917, the Bolsheviks came to power. Russia by that time was still at war with Germany and its allies. Whether you like it or not, you have to fight. Therefore, on November 19, 1917, the Bolsheviks appointed Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ... a hereditary nobleman, His Excellency Lieutenant General Imperial Army Mikhail Dmitrievich Bonch-Bruevich.
It was he who would lead the armed forces of the Republic in the most difficult period for the country, from November 1917 to August 1918, and from the scattered units of the former Imperial Army and Red Guard detachments, by February 1918, he would form the Workers 'Peasants' Red Army. From March to August M.D. Bonch-Bruevich will hold the post of military leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Republic, and in 1919 - chief of the Field Staff Rev. Military. Council of the Republic.
At the end of 1918, the post of commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces of the Soviet Republic was established. We ask you to love and favor - his honor is the commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces of the Soviet Republic, Sergei Sergeevich Kamenev (not to be confused with Kamenev, who was then shot together with Zinoviev). A career officer, graduated from the Academy of the General Staff in 1907, colonel of the Imperial Army.
First, 1918 to July 1919, Kamenev made a lightning-fast career from the commander of an infantry division to the commander of the Eastern Front, and, finally, from July 1919 until the end of the Civil War, he held the post that Stalin would occupy during the Great Patriotic War. Since July 1919. not a single operation of the land and sea forces of the Soviet Republic was complete without his direct participation.
Great help to Sergei Sergeevich was provided by his immediate subordinate - His Excellency the Chief of the Field Headquarters of the Red Army Pavel Pavlovich Lebedev, a hereditary nobleman, Major General of the Imperial Army. As chief of the Field Staff, he replaced Bonch-Bruyevich and from 1919 to 1921 (almost the entire war) headed him, and from 1921 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Red Army. Pavel Pavlovich participated in the development and conduct of the most important operations of the Red Army to defeat the troops of Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich, Wrangel, was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and the Red Banner of Labor (at that time the highest awards of the Republic).
One cannot ignore Lebedev's colleague, the chief of the All-Russian General Staff, His Excellency Alexander Alexandrovich Samoilo. Alexander Alexandrovich is also a hereditary nobleman and major general of the Imperial Army. During the Civil War, he headed the military district, army, front, worked as a deputy for Lebedev, and then headed the All-Russian headquarters.
Isn't it an extremely interesting tendency that can be traced in the personnel policy of the Bolsheviks? It can be assumed that Lenin and Trotsky, choosing the highest command personnel The Red Army, made it an indispensable condition that these were hereditary nobles and career officers of the Imperial Army with the rank of colonel or higher. But of course this is not the case. Just tough war time quickly put forward professionals in their field and talented people, also quickly pushing all kinds of "revolutionary balaboloks".
Therefore, the personnel policy of the Bolsheviks is quite natural, they had to fight and win now, there was no time to study. However, it is truly surprising that the nobles and officers went to them, and even in such numbers, and served the Soviet power for the most part with faith and truth.
There are often statements that the Bolsheviks drove the nobles into the Red Army by force, threatening the families of the officers with reprisals. This myth has been persistently exaggerated for many decades in pseudo-historical literature, pseudo-monographs and various kinds of "research". This is just a myth. They served not for fear, but for conscience.
And who would entrust the command to a potential traitor? It is known only about a few betrayals of officers. But they commanded insignificant forces and are a sad, but still an exception. Most of them honestly performed their duty and selflessly fought both with the Entente and with their "brothers" in the class. They acted as they should true patriots of their homeland.
The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Fleet is generally an aristocratic institution. Here is a list of its commanders during the Civil War: Vasily Mikhailovich Altfater (hereditary nobleman, rear admiral of the Imperial Navy), Evgeny Andreevich Berens (hereditary nobleman, counter-admiral of the Imperial Navy), Alexander Vasilyevich Nemitts (personal data are exactly the same).
But what are the commanders, the Naval General Staff of the Russian Navy, almost in full force, went over to the side of the Soviet government, and so it remained to lead the fleet throughout the Civil War. Apparently, Russian sailors after Tsushima perceived the idea of monarchy, as they say now, ambiguously.
This is what Altfater wrote in his application for admission to the Red Army: “I have served until now only because I considered it necessary to be useful to Russia where I could, and as best I could. But I did not know and did not believe you. Even now I still don't understand a lot, but I am convinced ... that you love Russia more than many of ours. And now I have come to tell you that I am yours. "
I believe that the same words could be repeated by Baron Alexander Alexandrovich von Taube, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Command in Siberia (former Lieutenant General of the Imperial Army). Taube's troops were defeated by the White Czechs in the summer of 1918, he himself was captured and soon died in the Kolchak prison on death row.
And a year later, another "red baron" - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Olderogge (also a hereditary nobleman, Major General of the Imperial Army), from August 1919 to January 1920, the commander of the Eastern Front of the Reds, finished off the White Guards in the Urals and eventually liquidated the Kolchak region ...
At the same time, from July to October 1919, another major Red front - the Southern - was headed by His Excellency, former Lieutenant General of the Imperial Army Vladimir Nikolaevich Yegoriev. The troops under the command of Yegoriev stopped Denikin's offensive, inflicted a number of defeats on him and held out until the reserves arrived from the Eastern Front, which ultimately predetermined the final defeat of the Whites in southern Russia. In these difficult months of fierce fighting on the Southern Front, Yegoriev's closest assistant was his deputy and at the same time the commander of a separate military group Vladimir Ivanovich Selivachev (hereditary nobleman, lieutenant general of the Imperial Army).
As you know, in the summer and autumn of 1919, the Whites planned to victoriously end the Civil War. To this end, they decided to launch a combined strike in all directions. However, by mid-October 1919, the Kolchak front was already hopeless, and a turning point was outlined in favor of the Reds in the South. At that moment White struck an unexpected blow from the northwest.
Yudenich rushed to Petrograd. The blow was so unexpected and powerful that in October the Whites found themselves in the suburbs of Petrograd. The question arose about the surrender of the city. Lenin, despite the well-known panic in the ranks of his comrades, decided not to surrender the city.
And now the 7th Red Army under the command of his nobility (former colonel of the Imperial Army) Sergei Dmitrievich Kharlamov is advancing towards Yudenich, and a separate group of the same army under the command of his Excellency (Major General of the Imperial Army) Sergei Ivanovich Odintsov enters the white flank. Both are from the most hereditary nobles. The outcome of those events is known: in mid-October, Yudenich was still examining Krasny Petrograd through binoculars, and on November 28 he was unpacking his suitcases in Revel (the lover of young boys turned out to be a worthless commander ...).
Northern front. From the fall of 1918 to the spring of 1919, this was an important area in the struggle against the Anglo-American-French invaders. So who is leading the Bolsheviks into battle? First, His Excellency (former Lieutenant General) Dmitry Pavlovich Parsky, then His Excellency (former Lieutenant General) Dmitry Nikolaevich Nadezhny, both hereditary nobles.
It should be noted that it was Parsky who led the detachments of the Red Army in the famous February battles of 1918 near Narva, so it is largely thanks to him that we celebrate February 23rd. After the end of the fighting in the North, His Excellency Comrade Nadezhny will be appointed commander of the Western Front.
This is the situation with nobles and generals in the service of the Reds almost everywhere. We will be told: you are exaggerating everything here. The Reds had their own talented military leaders and not from the nobility and generals. Yes, there were, we know their names well: Frunze, Budyonny, Chapaev, Parkhomenko, Kotovsky, Shchors. But who were they during the decisive battles?
When fate was decided Soviet Russia in 1919, the most important was the Eastern Front (against Kolchak). Here are his commanders in chronological order: Kamenev, Samoilo, Lebedev, Frunze (26 days!), Olderogge. One proletarian and four noblemen, I emphasize - in a vital area! No, I do not want to belittle the merits of Mikhail Vasilyevich. He is a really talented commander and did a lot to defeat the same Kolchak, commanding one of the military groups of the Eastern Front. Then the Turkestan Front under his command crushed the counter-revolution in Central Asia, and the operation to defeat Wrangel in the Crimea is deservedly recognized as a masterpiece of military art. But let's be fair: by the time of the capture of Crimea, even the whites did not doubt their fate, the outcome of the war was finally decided.
Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny was the commander of the army, his Cavalry Army played a key role in a number of operations on some fronts. However, one should not forget that there were dozens of armies in the Red Army, and it would still be a stretch to call the contribution of one of them decisive in victory. Nikolai Alexandrovich Shchors, Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev, Alexander Yakovlevich Parkhomenko, Grigory Ivanovich Kotovsky - division commander. Already because of this, for all their personal courage and military talents, they could not make a strategic contribution to the course of the war.
But propaganda has its own laws. Any proletarian, having learned that the highest military positions are occupied by hereditary nobles and generals of the tsarist army, will say: "Yes, this is a contradiction!"
Therefore, a kind of conspiracy of silence arose around our heroes and in Soviet years, and even more so - now. They won the Civil War and quietly disappeared into oblivion, leaving behind yellowed operational maps and stingy lines of orders.
But “their excellencies” and “noblemen” shed their blood for Soviet power no worse than the proletarians. Baron Taube has already been mentioned, but this is not the only example.
In the spring of 1919, in the battles near Yamburg, the White Guards captured and executed the brigade commander 19 rifle division former major general Of the Imperial Army A.P. Nikolaev. The same fate befell the commander of the 55th rifle division in 1919 former major general A.V. Stankevich, in 1920 - the commander of the 13th rifle division of the former Major General A.V. Sobolev. Remarkably, before they died, all the generals were offered to go over to the side of the whites, and they all refused. The honor of a Russian officer is more precious than life.
That is, you think they will tell us that the nobles and the regular officer corps were for the Reds?
Of course, I am far from this thought. Here you just need to distinguish the "nobleman" as a moral concept from the "nobility" as a class. The noble class almost entirely ended up in the white camp, it could not be otherwise.
It was very comfortable for them to sit on the neck of the Russian people, and they did not want to get off. True, the help from the nobles was just scanty for the whites. Judge for yourself. In the crucial year 1919, by about May, the number of shock groups of the white armies was: Kolchak's army - 400 thousand people; Denikin's army (the Armed Forces of the South of Russia) - 150 thousand people; army of Yudenich (Northwestern Army) - 18.5 thousand people. Total: 568.5 thousand people.
Moreover, these are mainly "bast shoes" from the villages, who, under the threat of execution, were driven into the ranks and who then with whole armies (!), Like Kolchak's, went over to the side of the Reds. And this is in Russia, where at that time there were 2.5 million noblemen, i.e. not less than 500 thousand men of military age! Here, it would seem, is the shock detachment of the counter-revolution ...
Or take, for example, the leaders of the white movement: Denikin is the son of an officer, his grandfather was a soldier; Kornilov is a Cossack, Semyonov is a Cossack, Alekseev is the son of a soldier. Of the titled persons - only Wrangel, and that Swedish baron. Who is left? The nobleman Kolchak is a descendant of a captive Turk, and Yudenich with a surname that is very typical for a “Russian nobleman” and a non-standard orientation. In the old days, the nobles themselves defined such their fellow class members as artless. But “fishless and cancer is a fish”.
You should not look for the princes Golitsyns, Trubetskoy, Shcherbatovs, Obolensky, Dolgorukovs, counts Sheremetevs, Orlovs, Novosiltsevs and among the less significant leaders of the white movement. The "boyars" sat in the rear, in Paris and Berlin, and waited for some of their slaves to bring others on the lasso. Didn't wait.
So Malinin's howls about the lieutenants Golitsins and the Obolensky cornets are just fiction. They did not exist in nature ... But the fact that the native land is burning under our feet is not just a metaphor. It really burned under the armies of the Entente and their "white" friends.
But there is also a moral category - "nobleman". Put yourself in the shoes of "His Excellency" who has gone over to the side of Soviet power. What can he count on? At most - a commander's ration and a pair of boots (an exceptional luxury in the Red Army, the rank and file were shod in bast shoes). At the same time, the suspicion and distrust of many "comrades" are constantly near the watchful eye of the commissar. Compare this with 5,000 rubles of the annual salary of a major general of the tsarist army, and after all, many excellencies also had family property before the revolution. Therefore, selfish interest for such people is excluded, one thing remains - the honor of a nobleman and a Russian officer. The best of the nobles went to the Reds - to save the Fatherland.
During the Polish invasion of 1920, thousands of Russian officers, including nobles, went over to the side of Soviet power. From the representatives of the top generals of the former Imperial Army, the Reds created a special body - a Special Meeting under the Commander-in-Chief of All Armed Forces Republic. The purpose of this body is to develop recommendations for the command of the Red Army and the Soviet Government to repulse the Polish aggression. In addition, the Special Meeting called on former officers of the Russian Imperial Army to defend the Motherland in the ranks of the Red Army.
The remarkable words of this address, perhaps, fully reflect the moral position of the best part of the Russian aristocracy:
“At this critical historical moment of our folk life we, your senior comrades in arms, appeal to your feelings of love and devotion to the Motherland and appeal to you with an urgent request to forget all grievances, voluntarily go with complete selflessness and hunting to the Red Army, to the front or to the rear, wherever the government of the Soviet Workers 'and Peasants' You were not appointed to Russia, and to serve there not for fear, but for conscience, so that by your honest service, not sparing life, to defend Russia dear to us at all costs and not to allow her to be plundered. "
The appeal bears the signatures of their Excellencies: General of the Cavalry (Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in May-July 1917) Alexei Alekseevich Brusilov, General of Infantry (Minister of War of the Russian Empire in 1915-1916) Alexei Andreevich Polivanov, General of Infantry Andrei Me Zayonchkovsky and many other generals of the Russian Army.
I would like to end this brief review with examples of human destinies that refute the myth of the pathological villainy of the Bolsheviks and the total extermination of the noble classes of Russia by them in the best possible way. I note right away that the Bolsheviks were not stupid, so they understood that, given the difficult situation in Russia, they really needed people with knowledge, talents and conscience. And such people could count on honor and respect from the Soviet government, despite their origin and pre-revolutionary life.
Let's start with his Excellency General of the Artillery Alexei Alekseevich Manikovsky. Alexey Alekseevich back in the First world war headed the Main Artillery Directorate of the Russian Imperial Army. After the February Revolution, he was appointed Comrade (Deputy) Minister of War. Since the Minister of War of the Provisional Government Guchkov did not understand anything in military matters, Manikovsky had to become the de facto head of the department. On the memorable October night of 1917, Manikovsky was arrested along with other members of the Provisional Government, then released. A few weeks later, he was arrested again and again released; he was not noticed in conspiracies against Soviet power. And already in 1918 he headed the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army, then he would work in various staff positions of the Red Army.
Or, for example, His Excellency Lieutenant General of the Russian Army, Count Alexei Alekseevich Ignatiev. During the First World War, he served as a military attaché in France with the rank of Major General and was in charge of the procurement of weapons — the fact is that the tsarist government had prepared the country for war in such a way that even cartridges had to be bought abroad. For this Russia paid a lot of money, and they lay in Western banks.
After October, our loyal allies instantly laid their hands on Russian property abroad, including on the government's accounts. However, Alexey Alekseevich got his bearings faster than the French and transferred the money to another account, inaccessible to the allies, and besides in his own name. And the money was 225 million rubles in gold, or $ 2 billion at the current gold rate.
Ignatiev did not succumb to persuasion about the transfer of funds from either the whites or the French. After France established diplomatic relations with the USSR, he came to the Soviet embassy and modestly handed over a check for the entire amount with the words: "This money belongs to Russia." The emigrants were furious, they decided to kill Ignatiev. And his brother volunteered to become the killer! Ignatiev miraculously survived - a bullet pierced his cap a centimeter from his head.
Let's invite each of you to mentally try on the cap of Count Ignatiev and think if you are capable of this? And if we add to this that during the revolution the Bolsheviks confiscated the Ignatiev family estate and the family mansion in Petrograd?
And the last thing I would like to say. Remember how at one time they accused Stalin, imputing to him that he killed all the tsarist officers and former nobles who remained in Russia?
So none of our heroes was subjected to repression, all died a natural death (of course, except for those who fell on the fronts of the Civil War) in glory and honor. And their junior comrades, such as Colonel B.M. Shaposhnikov, staff captains A.M. Vasilevsky and F.I. Tolbukhin, second lieutenant L.A. Govorov - became Marshals of the Soviet Union.
History has put everything in its place for a long time and no matter how many Radzinsky, Svanidze and other riffraffs, who do not know history, but who know how to get money for lying, try to misinterpret it, the fact remains: the white movement has discredited itself.
