What did Denikin do in the civil war? Anton Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born on December 16, 1872 in the suburb of Wloclawek, which at that time was listed as a county town in the Warsaw province of the Russian Empire. As historians later noted, this future fighter against communism had a much more “proletarian origin” than those who later called themselves “leaders of the proletariat.”
Ivan Efimovich, Anton Denikin's father, was once a serf. At the time of his youth, Ivan Denikin was recruited, and for 22 years of faithful service to the sovereign, he managed to obtain the status of an officer. But the former peasant did not stop there: he remained in the service and built a very successful military career, which is why he later became a role model for his son. Ivan Efimovich retired only in 1869, having served for 35 years and rising to the rank of major.
Elizaveta Franciskovna Wrzhesinskaya, the mother of the future military leader, came from a family of impoverished Polish landowners, who once owned a small plot of land and several peasants.
Shorts.ru Anton Ivanovich was brought up in strict Orthodoxy and was baptized at the age of less than a month, since his father was a deeply religious man. However, sometimes the boy visited the church with his Catholic mother. He grew up as a gifted and precocious child: already at the age of four he read perfectly, spoke excellent not only Russian, but also Polish. Therefore, subsequently it was not difficult for him to enter the Włocław Secondary School, and later – the Łowicz Secondary School.
Russia 360 Although Anton’s father was a respected retired officer at that time, the Denikin family was very poor: his mother, father, and the future politician himself had to live on his father’s pension in the amount of 36 rubles a month. And in 1885, Ivan Efimovich died, and Anton and his mother’s money became very bad. Then Denikin Jr. took up tutoring, and at the age of 15 he received a monthly student allowance as a successful and diligent student.
Beginning of a military career
The family, as already mentioned, served as a source of inspiration for Anton Denikin: from a young age, he dreamed of building a military career (like his father, who was born a serf and died a major). Therefore, after completing his studies at the Lovichi School, the young man did not think for a second about his future fate, having successfully entered the Kiev Infantry Junker School, and then the very prestigious Imperial Nicholas Academy of the General Staff.
Edges He served in various brigades and divisions, took part in the Russo-Japanese War, worked on the General Staff, and was the commander of the seventeenth Arkhangelsk Infantry Regiment. In 1914, Anton Denikin received the rank of general, entering service in the Kiev Military District, and soon after that he rose to the rank of major general.
Political Views
Anton Ivanovich was a man who closely followed the political life of his native country. He was a supporter of Russian liberalism, spoke out for reforming the army, against bureaucracy. Since the end of the 19th century, Denikin has published his thoughts more than once in military magazines and newspapers. The most famous is his series of articles “Army Notes”, published in a magazine called “Scout”.
Coollib.net As in the case of the Russo-Japanese War, immediately after the outbreak of the First World War, Anton Ivanovich submitted a report, asking to be appointed to duty. The fourth brigade of the Iron Rifles, commanded by Denikin, fought in the most dangerous areas and repeatedly demonstrated courage and bravery. Anton Denikin himself received many awards during the First World War: the Order of St. George, the Arms of St. George. In addition, for breaking through enemy positions during the offensive operation of the Southwestern Front and the successful capture of Lutsk, he received the rank of lieutenant general.
Life and career after the February Revolution
During the February Revolution of 1917, Anton Ivanovich was on the Romanian front. He supported the coup and, despite his literacy and political awareness, even believed numerous unflattering rumors about the entire royal family. For some time, Denikin worked as chief of staff under Mikhail Alekseev, who, soon after the revolution, was appointed supreme commander of the Russian army.
Officers of the Russian Imperial Army When Alekseev was removed from his post and replaced by General Brusilov, Anton Denikin resigned his position and took over as commander of the Western Front. And at the end of August 1917, the lieutenant general had the imprudence to express his support for the position of General Kornilov by sending a corresponding telegram to the Provisional Government. Because of this, Anton Ivanovich had to spend about a month in Berdichev prison awaiting reprisals.
Colors.life At the end of September, Denikin and other generals were transferred from Berdichev to Bykhov, where another group of arrested senior army officials (including General Kornilov) was being held. Anton Ivanovich stayed in the Bykhov prison until December 2 of the same year, 1917, when the Bolshevik government, preoccupied with the fall of the Provisional Government, forgot for some time about the arrested generals. Having shaved his beard and changed his first and last name, Denikin went to Novocherkassk.
Formation and functioning of the Volunteer Army
Anton Ivanovich Denikin took an active part in the creation of the Volunteer Army, smoothing out conflicts between Kornilov and Alekseev. He made a number of important decisions, became commander-in-chief during the first and second Kuban campaigns, finally deciding to fight the Bolshevik regime at all costs.
Graphage In the middle of 1919, Denikin’s troops fought so successfully against enemy formations that Anton Ivanovich even planned a campaign against Moscow. However, this plan was not destined to come true: the power of the Volunteer Army was undermined by the lack of a coherent program that would be attractive to ordinary residents of many Russian regions, the flourishing of corruption in the rear, and even the transformation of part of the White Army into robbers and bandits.
Anton Denikin at the head of the army | Russian courier At the end of 1919, Denikin’s troops successfully recaptured Oryol and settled on the approaches to Tula, thereby proving more successful than most other anti-Bolshevik formations. But the days of the Volunteer Army were numbered: in the spring of 1920, the troops were pressed to the sea coast in Novorossiysk and, for the most part, captured. The civil war was lost, and Denikin himself announced his resignation and left his native country forever.
Personal life
After fleeing Russia, Anton Ivanovich lived in different European countries, and soon after the end of World War II he went to the USA, where he died in 1947. His family: his faithful wife Ksenia Chizh, from whom fate repeatedly tried to separate them, and his daughter Marina, took part in these wanderings with him. To date, quite a lot of photographs have been preserved of the emigrated couple and their daughter abroad, especially in Paris and other cities of France. Although Denikin wanted to have more children, his wife could not give birth anymore after a very difficult first birth.
WikiReading In exile, the former lieutenant general continued to write on military and political topics. Including, already in Paris, from his pen came the “Essays on Russian Troubles”, well known to modern experts, based not only on the memories of Denikin himself, but also on information from official documents. A few years after this, Anton Ivanovich wrote an addition and introduction to the “Essays” - the book “
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was born on December 4 (16), 1872 in the Warsaw province. His father came from serf peasants in the Saratov province; in his youth he was recruited and managed to rise from the rank and file to major. My mother, a Polish woman, never learned to speak Russian well until the end of her life.
After graduating from real school, young Denikin entered military service, which he always dreamed of. He completed military school courses at the Kiev Infantry Junker School, and then graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1899).
During Russo-Japanese War in March 1904, Denikin submitted a report on his transfer from Warsaw to the active army. At the front, he became the chief of staff of the Trans-Baikal Cossack division, and then of the famous Ural-Trans-Baikal division of General Mishchenko, famous for its daring raids behind enemy lines. Anton Ivanovich was awarded the Orders of St. Stanislav and St. Anne and promoted to the rank of colonel.
Anton Ivanovich Denikin. Photo from late 1918 or early 1919
IN revolutionary In 1905, the path of return from Manchuria to Russia was blocked by several anarchist “republics”. Denikin and other officers put together a detachment of reliable fighters and, on a train with weapons in hand, broke through the rebellious Siberia. Nevertheless, Anton Ivanovich was a liberal, spoke out in the press against the outdated order in the army, stood for a constitutional monarchy, and in his views was close to the Cadets.
In June 1910, Denikin became commander of the 17th Arkhangelsk Infantry Regiment. In June 1914 he was promoted to major general. Having no “patronage from above,” Denikin acted throughout his life on the principle of “honest service, not servility to those in power.”
With the beginning First World War Denikin refused the headquarters post of Quartermaster General of the 8th Army and went to the front as commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade, which was called Zheleznaya and was subsequently deployed into a division. She became famous throughout Russia. Denikin was awarded the Order of St. George 4th and 3rd degree and (for breaking through enemy positions during Brusilov offensive in 1916 and the second capture of Lutsk) with the Golden Arms of St. George with diamonds. In September 1916, he was appointed to command the 8th Corps on the Romanian Front.
In March 1917, under Provisional Government Denikin, as a well-known liberal general, was appointed to the high position of chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. But he openly did not approve of the policies of the new government, leading to the collapse of the army. After General Alekseev was removed from the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief and replaced by an opportunist Brusilov Denikin was removed from Headquarters. On May 31 (June 13), 1917, he was transferred to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front.
Anton Denikin. The General's Path
On July 16 (29), 1917, at a meeting at Headquarters with the participation of Kerensky, Denikin made a sharp speech, calling for the elimination of the omnipotence of anarchist soldiers’ committees in the army and the removal of politics from it. Kerensky was unable to listen to this truth, looking Denikin in the eyes, and during his speech he sat at the table with his head in his hands.
In July 1917, after the appointment of General Kornilov as Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Denikin was appointed in his place as Commander-in-Chief of the Southwestern Front. Having learned that Kerensky ordered the removal of Kornilov right on the eve of the implementation of measures agreed upon with the government to decisively counter the Bolsheviks and the Soviet, Denikin sent an angry telegram to the supreme power, declaring that he would not go along with it along the path of “planned destruction of the army and the country.” Having learned about this, unbridled crowds of soldiers broke into the headquarters of the Southwestern Front, arrested generals Denikin, Markova and others (August 29, 1917) and threw them into Berdichev prison. They barely escaped a bloody massacre there. At the end of September, the generals arrested in Berdichev were transferred to Bykhov prison, where Kornilov’s group was already imprisoned.
November 19 (December 2), 1917, the day before the ensign arrived in Mogilev Krylenko with Red Guard militants, new Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin gave the Bykhov prisoners the opportunity to escape. They all went to Ataman Kaledin, to the Don Cossack region, where General Alekseev had already begun to create a center of struggle against the Bolsheviks who carried out the October Revolution.
In legendary 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign Volunteer Army Denikin acted as its deputy commander, Kornilov. When Kornilov died during the assault on Yekaterinodar on April 13, 1918, Denikin led the army and led it from the Kuban back to the borders of the Don region. [Cm. Russian Civil War - chronology.]
An extremely conscientious man, Denikin placed the blame on himself for these defeats. On April 4, 1920, he transferred the post of commander-in-chief to Peter Wrangel, and he and his family went to Constantinople, then to England. Later he lived in Belgium, Hungary, and again in Belgium. From 1926 he settled in Paris.
In exile, Denikin wrote a five-volume work “Essays on the Russian Troubles” - one of the best and most objective works on the history of the civil war. The Soviet authorities made several attempts to assassinate and kidnap Denikin, but fortunately they failed.
We continue our column dedicated to the figures of the Civil War of 1917-1922. Today we’ll talk about Anton Ivanovich Denikin, perhaps the most famous figure of the so-called “white movement”. This article will analyze the personality of Denikin and the white movement during the era of his leadership.
To begin with, let's give a brief biographical information. The future white dictator of the South of Russia was born on December 4 (16 old style) 1872 in the village of Shpetal Dolny, a Zavisla suburb of the city of Wloclawek, in the Warsaw province, which already belonged to the then decaying Russian Empire. The father of the future general was a retired border guard major, Ivan Denikin, a former serf, and his mother Elizaveta Wrzhesinskaya was from an impoverished Polish family of landowners.
Young Anton wanted to follow the example of his father to make a military career and at the age of 18, after graduating from the Łovichi Real School, he was enrolled as a volunteer in the 1st Infantry Regiment, lived for three months in a barracks in Plock and in June of the same year was accepted into the Kiev Infantry Junker School for a military school course. After completing this course, Denikin was promoted to second lieutenant and assigned to the 2nd artillery brigade, which was stationed in the provincial town of Bela, in the Siedlce province of the Kingdom of Poland.
After several preparatory years, Denikin went to St. Petersburg, where he passed a competitive exam at the Academy of the General Staff, but at the end of the first year he was expelled for failing an exam in the history of military art. After 3 months, he retook the exam and was again accepted into the academy. On the eve of young Denikin's graduation, the new head of the Academy of the General Staff, General Nikolai Sukhotin, adjusted at his own discretion the lists of graduates who were to be assigned to the General Staff and... Denikin was not included in their number. Anton Ivanovich filed a complaint, but they tried to hush up the matter, inviting him to apologize - “to ask for mercy,” to which Denikin did not agree and his complaint was rejected for his “violent temper.”
After this incident, in 1900, Anton Ivanovich Denikin returned to Bela, to his native 2nd Artillery Brigade, where he stayed until 1902, when he wrote a letter to Minister of War Kuropatkin, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the Far East, in order to ask to consider the long-standing situation. This action was a success - already in the summer of 1902 Anton Denikin was enrolled as an officer of the General Staff, and from that moment the career of the future “white general” began. Now let’s digress from a detailed biography and talk about his participation in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars.
In February 1904, Denikin, who by this time had become a captain, received a secondment to the active army. Even before arriving in Harbin, he was appointed chief of staff of the 3rd brigade of the Zaamur district of the Separate Border Guard Corps, which stood in the rear and clashed with the Chinese robber detachments of Honghuz. In September, Denikin received the post of officer for assignments at the headquarters of the 8th Corps of the Manchurian Army. Then, upon returning to Harbin, he accepted the rank of lieutenant colonel and was sent to Qinghechen to the Eastern Detachment, where he accepted the post of chief of staff of the Transbaikal Cossack Division of General Rennenkampf.
Denikin received his first “baptism of fire” during the Battle of Tsinghechen on November 19, 1904. One of the hills in the battle area went down in military history under the name “Denikin” for repelling the Japanese offensive with bayonets. Afterwards he took part in intensive reconnaissance. Then he was appointed chief of staff of the Ural-Transbaikal division of General Mishchenko, where he proved himself to be a capable officer, and already in February-March 1905 he took part in the Battle of Mudken.
His fruitful activity was noticed by the highest authorities and “for distinction in cases against the Japanese” he was promoted to colonel and awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree with swords and bows, and St. Anne, 2nd degree with swords. After the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, he departed back to St. Petersburg in turmoil.
But the real “test” of his qualities came with the First World War. Denikin met her as part of the headquarters of the 8th Army of General Brusilov, for which the beginning of the war went well: it continued to advance and soon captured Lvov. After this, Denikin expressed a desire to move from a staff position to a field position, to which Brusilov agreed and transferred him to the 4th Infantry Brigade, unofficially called the “iron” brigade for its exploits in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78.
Under the leadership of Denikin, it won many victories over the Kaiser and Austro-Hungarian armies and was renamed “iron”. He particularly distinguished himself in the battle at Grodek, receiving the St. George's Arms for this. But these were only local successes, because the Russian Empire was not ready for war: the collapse of the army was observed everywhere; corruption simply flourished on a titanic scale, starting from the generals of the main Headquarters and ending with minor military officials; food did not reach the front, and cases of sabotage were frequent. There were also problems with the military-patriotic spirit. Inspiration was observed only in the first months of the war, and that was due to the fact that government propaganda widely used the patriotic feelings of the population, but as the supply situation worsened and losses grew, pacifist sentiments spread more and more.
At the beginning of 1915, the Russian Empire was suffering defeats on all fronts, maintaining a timid balance only on the border with Austria-Hungary, while German troops boldly advanced on the western borders of the Republic of Ingushetia, defeating the armies of Samsonov and Rennenkampf, one of the reasons for which was long-standing rivalry and mutual distrust between these generals.
Denikin at this time went to help Kaledin, together with whom he threw the Austrians behind a river called San. At this time, he received an offer to become the head of a division, but did not want to part with his “eagles” from the brigade, for which reason the authorities decided to deploy his brigade into a division.
In September, with a desperate maneuver, Denikin took the city of Lutsk and captured 158 officers and 9,773 enemy soldiers, for which he was promoted to lieutenant general. General Brusilov wrote in his memoirs that Denikin, “without any difficulties as an excuse,” rushed to Lutsk and took it “in one fell swoop,” and during the battle he himself drove a car into the city and from there sent Brusilov a telegram about the capture of the city by the 4th Infantry division. But, soon, Lutsk had to be abandoned to level the front. After this, relative calm established at the front and a period of trench warfare began.
The entire year of 1916 for Denikin was spent in constant battles with the enemy. On June 5, 1916, he re-took Lutsk, for which he was again awarded. In August, he was appointed commander of the 8th Corps and, together with the corps, was sent to the Romanian Front, where Romania, which had gone over to the Entente side, suffered defeats from the Austrians. There, in Romania, Denikin was awarded the highest military order - the Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd degree.
So, we have come to the most significant period of Denikin’s life and the beginning of his involvement in the political game. As you know, in February 1917, the February Revolution took place and a whole chain of events took place, as a result of which the tsar was overthrown, and a noisy bourgeoisie, but completely incapable of active action, came to power. We have already written about these events in “Politsturm”, therefore, we will not deviate from the given topic and return to Denikin.
In March 1917, he was summoned to Petrograd by the Minister of War of the new revolutionary government, Alexander Guchkov, from whom he received an offer to become chief of staff under the newly appointed Supreme Commander of the Russian Army, General Mikhail Alekseev. Denikin accepted this offer and on April 5, 1917, he assumed his new position, in which he worked for about a month and a half, working well with Alekseev. Then, when Brusilov replaced Alekseev, Denikin refused to be his chief of staff and on May 31 was transferred to the post of commander of the armies of the Western Front. In the spring of 1917, at a military congress in Mogilev, he was marked by sharp criticism of Kerensky's policies, the essence of which was the democratization of the army. At a meeting of Headquarters on July 16, 1917, he advocated the abolition of committees in the army and the removal of politics from the army.
As commander of the Western Front, Denikin provided support for the Southwestern Front. On the way to his new destination in Mogilev, he met with General Kornilov, in a conversation with whom he expressed his consent to participate in the uprising. The February government found out about this and already on August 29, 1917, Denikin was arrested and imprisoned in Berdichev prison (primarily because he expressed solidarity with General Kornilov in a rather harsh telegram to the Provisional Government). The entire leadership of his headquarters was arrested along with him. A month later, Denikin is transferred to Bykhov to an arrested group of generals led by Kornilov, along the way almost becoming a victim of soldier lynching.
The investigation into the Kornilov case dragged on due to the lack of substantiated evidence of the generals’ guilt, so they met the Great October Socialist Revolution while in custody.
The new government forgets about the generals for a while, and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin, taking advantage of the opportune moment, releases them from the Bykhov prison.
At this moment, Denikin changed his appearance and moved to Novocherkassk under the name of “assistant to the head of the dressing detachment Alexander Dombrovsky,” where he began to take part in the formation of the Volunteer Army and became, in fact, the organizer of the so-called. "volunteer movement" and, accordingly, the first anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia. There, in Novocherkassk, he began to form an army, which initially consisted of 1,500 people. In order to get weapons, Denikin’s people often had to steal them from the Cossacks. By 1918, the army numbered about 4,000 people. Since then, the number of participants in the movement began to grow.
On January 30, 1918, he was appointed commander of the 1st Infantry (Volunteer) Division. After volunteers suppressed the workers' uprising in Rostov, the army headquarters moved there. Together with the Volunteer Army, on the night of February 8 to February 9, 1918, Denikin set out on the 1st Kuban Campaign, during which he became deputy commander of the Volunteer Army of General Kornilov. He was one of those who suggested that Kornilov send an army to the Kuban region.
An important moment for the volunteers was the assault on Yekaterinodar. They suffered heavy losses, ammunition was running out, and on top of that, Kornilov was killed by a shell. Denikin was appointed head of the volunteer army, who curtailed the offensive and withdrew the troops.
After the retreat, Denikin reorganizes the army, increases its strength to 8-9 thousand people, receives a sufficient amount of ammunition from allies abroad and begins the so-called. “2nd Kuban Campaign”, as a result of which the capital of the Kuban nobility, Ekaterinodar, where the headquarters was located, was taken. After the death of General Alekseev, supreme power passes to him. Autumn 1918 - winter 1919 General Denikin's troops recaptured Sochi, Adler, Gagra, and the entire coastal territory captured by Georgia in the spring of 1918.
On December 22, 1918, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army went on the offensive, which caused the collapse of the front of the Don Army. In such conditions, Denikin had a convenient opportunity to subjugate the Cossack troops of the Don. On December 26, 1918, Denikin signs an agreement with Krasnov, according to which the Volunteer Army merges with the Don Army. This reorganization marked the beginning of the creation of the AFSR ((Armed Forces of the South of Russia). The AFSR also included the Caucasian Army and the Black Sea Fleet.
The Denikin movement achieved its greatest success in 1919. The size of the army was, according to various estimates, about 85 thousand people. Entente reports for March 1919 drew conclusions about the unpopularity and poor moral and psychological state of Denikin’s troops, as well as their lack of their own resources to continue the fight. Therefore, Denikin is personally developing a military action plan for the spring-summer period. This was precisely the period of greatest success of the White Movement. In June 1919, he recognized the supremacy of the “Supreme Ruler of Russia” Admiral Kolchak over himself.
Denikin came to wide fame within Soviet Russia in connection with the offensive of his armies in June 1919, when “volunteer troops” took Kharkov (June 24, 1919) and Tsaritsyn (June 30, 1919). The mention of his name in the Soviet press became ubiquitous, and he himself was subjected to the most fierce criticism. In July 1919, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin wrote an appeal with the title “Everyone to fight Denikin!”, which became a letter from the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to the party organizations, in which Denikin’s offensive was called “the most critical moment of the socialist revolution.” On July 3 (16), 1919, Denikin, inspired by the successes of previous campaigns, issued a Moscow Directive to his troops, providing for the ultimate goal of capturing Moscow - the “heart of Russia” (and at the same time the capital of the Bolshevik state). The troops of the All-Soviet Union of Socialists under the general leadership of Denikin began their famous “march against Moscow.”
September and the first half of October 1919 were the times of greatest success for Denikin’s forces in the central direction; in October 1919 they took Orel, and the advanced detachments were on the outskirts of Tula, but this was where luck stopped smiling on the White Guards.
A special role in this was played by the policy of the “whites” in the controlled territories, which included all sorts of anti-Soviet activities (“fighting the Bolsheviks to the end”), praising the ideals of “United and Indivisible Russia,” as well as the widespread and harsh restoration of the old landowner orders. Let us add to this that Denikin acted as a person who was strongly opposed to the creation of national outskirts - and this caused discontent on the part of the local population; also, the “white general” assumed the liquidation of the Cossacks (his own allies) and pursued a policy of active intervention in the affairs of the Verkhovna Rada.
The peasants, realizing the insignificance of the ideas and plans of the “whites”, the goal of which was not to improve the life of a simple worker, but to restore the old order and oppression, began, if they did not enroll en masse in the ranks of the Red Army, then to offer fierce resistance to “Denikinism” everywhere. By that time, Makhno's rebel army had inflicted a number of serious blows on the rear of the AFSR, and the troops of the Red Army, having created quantitative and qualitative superiority over the enemy in the Oryol-Kursk direction (62 thousand bayonets and sabers for the Reds versus 22 thousand for the Whites), in October 1919 went on a counter-offensive.
By the end of October, in fierce battles that went on with varying success south of Orel, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Egorov) defeated small units of the Volunteer Army, and then began to push them back along the entire front line. In the winter of 1919-1920, Denikin’s troops abandoned Kharkov, Kyiv and Donbass. In March 1920, the retreat of the White Guards ended in the “Novorossiysk disaster”, when the White troops, pressed to the sea, were evacuated in panic, and a significant part of them were captured.
Lack of unity within the southern counter-revolution, heterogeneity of goals of the struggle; the sharp hostility and heterogeneity of the elements that made up the body of the white power of the South of Russia; vacillation and confusion in all areas of domestic policy; inability to cope with issues of establishing industry, trade and foreign relations; complete uncertainty in the land issue - these are the reasons for the complete defeat of Denikinism in November - December 1919
Shocked by the defeat, Denikin resigns from the post of commander-in-chief, and Baron Wrangel takes his place, immediately criticizing Denikin’s “Moscow Directive”. But Wrangel is no longer able to return the previous success to the “white movement,” which from now on is doomed to defeat. On April 4, 1920, General Denikin ingloriously left Russia on an English destroyer, never to return to it again.
The most famous leader of the White movement during the Civil War was born on December 4, 1872 in the small town of Wloclawek near Warsaw. He was one of the few White Guard generals who came from the lower classes. His father, a former military man, came from the serf peasants of the Saratov province, and his mother from the impoverished small-scale Polish gentry. After graduating from the Lovichi Real School, Denikin followed in his father’s footsteps, entering the Kiev Infantry Junker School in 1890. Two years later, upon graduation, he was promoted to second lieutenant and went to serve in the 2nd Artillery Brigade near Warsaw. In 1895 he passed the entrance exams to the General Staff Academy in St. Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1899. Three years later he was transferred to the General Staff and appointed to the post of senior adjutant of the 2nd Infantry Division. In 1903, Denikin transferred from infantry to cavalry and became adjutant of the 2nd Cavalry Corps located nearby. He served in this position until the outbreak of war with Japan. In February 1904 he left for the active army in the Far East, where he served in staff positions in several divisions. He was a participant in the Battle of Mukden. During the hostilities, he showed himself to be an proactive officer, for which he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree with swords and bows, and St. Anne, 2nd degree with swords. After the end of the war, he made a career from the position of staff officer of the 2nd Cavalry Corps to the commander of the 17th Arkhangelsk Infantry Regiment. Denikin met the First World War with the rank of major general at the headquarters of the 8th Army of General Brusilov. He soon transferred to a combat position and became commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade. For its successful leadership, he was awarded the St. George's Arms and the Order of St. George, 3rd and 4th degree. He was a participant in the Battle of Galicia. In September 1916, Denikin was already commander of the 8th Army Corps, with whom he fought on the Romanian Front. In February 1917, he welcomed the overthrow of the monarchy, for which he was appointed chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and a little later, he became commander-in-chief of the armies of first the Western and then the Southwestern Fronts.
General Denikin during the Civil War
In his political views, Denikin was close to the cadets, opposing the democratization of the army, so in August he supported the Kornilov coup attempt, for which he was arrested and imprisoned first in Berdichev and then in Bykhov. There he, together with Kornilov and his comrades, sat until the October Revolution.
After his release, under someone else’s documents, he fled to the Don to Novocherkassk, where, together with Kaledin, Kornilov and Alekseev, he took part in the organization and formation of the Volunteer Army. As its deputy commander, he took part in the 1st Kuban campaign. After the death of Kornilov on April 13, 1918 during the unsuccessful assault on Yekaterinodar, Denikin became its leader. During the summer-autumn, the Denikinites liquidated the North Caucasus Soviet Republic. In December 1918, all the anti-Bolshevik armies - Volunteer, Don and Kuban - united into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR) under the single command of Denikin, who, with the political and economic support of the Entente, launched an attack on Moscow in the spring of 1919. During the summer, Tsaritsyn and most of Ukraine were captured, including Kyiv, from where parts of the UPR were driven out. And by October, after the capture of Kursk, Orel and Voronezh, Denikin’s troops approached Tula, preparing for the final push on Moscow. During the campaign, the number of AFSR increased from 10 thousand in May to 150 thousand people in September. However, the stretched front and political mistakes led to defeat. Denikin was a fierce opponent of any form of self-determination for the territories of the former Russian Empire. This led to conflict both with Ukraine and the peoples of the Caucasus, and with the Cossacks of the Don and Kuban. Starting in August, battles between Denikin’s troops and UPR units began, and after they killed the chairman of the Kuban Rada Ryabovol, the Kuban Cossacks began to desert en masse from Denikin’s army. In addition, its rear on the Left Bank of Ukraine was destroyed by the Makhnovists, to fight whom it was necessary to withdraw units from the northern front. Unable to withstand the powerful counterattack of the Red Army, in October units of the AFSR began to retreat to the South.
By the beginning of 1920, their remnants retreated into the Cossack regions, and at the end of March, only Novorossiysk and the surrounding area remained under the control of the Denikinites. Fleeing from the Bolsheviks, about 40 thousand volunteers crossed to Crimea. Denikin was one of the last to board the ship.
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Denikin in exile
In Crimea, due to his growing unpopularity in the army and feeling responsible for military failures, on April 4 he resigned as commander-in-chief of the AFSR and on the same day departed with his family for England on an English ship. After Denikin's departure, Baron Wrangel became his de facto successor, although Denikin did not sign any orders for his appointment. He did not stay in England for long, since the British government expressed a desire to make peace with Soviet Russia. In August 1920, Denikin left the islands in protest and moved to Belgium, and a little later, to Hungary. In 1926 he settled in Paris, which was the center of Russian emigration. In exile, he withdrew from big politics and took up active literary work. He wrote about a dozen historical and biographical works dedicated to the events of the civil war and geopolitics, the most famous of which was “Essays on the Russian Troubles.” With Hitler coming to power in Germany, Denikin launched a vigorous public activity, condemning his policies. Unlike many other political emigrants from Russia, he considered it impossible to collaborate with Hitler to overthrow Bolshevism. With the outbreak of World War II and the occupation of France by the Germans, he rejected their offer to lead Russian anti-communist forces in exile. Remaining a staunch opponent of the Soviet system, he nevertheless called on emigrants to support the Red Army, and in 1943, Denikin used his personal funds to send a carload of medicines to the Soviet Union. The Soviet government knew about his fundamental anti-German position, so after the war it did not raise the question of his forcible deportation to the USSR with the allies. In 1945, Denikin emigrated to the United States, where he continued to engage in social and political activities. He died on August 7, 1947 and is buried in Detroit. In 1952, by decision of the White Cossack community in the United States, his remains were transferred to the Orthodox Cossack cemetery of St. Vladimir in the city of Keesville in New Jersey. In 2005, on the initiative of the Russian Cultural Foundation, the remains of Denikin and his wife, along with the remains of the Russian philosopher Ilyin and his wife, were transported to Russia and solemnly reburied in the Moscow Donskoy Monastery. In 2009, a memorial to white soldiers was built on their graves in the form of a granite platform framed by a symbolic marble fence, inside of which there are memorial obelisks and two white Orthodox crosses.
St. George's Knights of World War 1:
Anton Ivanovich Denikin was a prominent figure in the fight against Bolshevism. He is one of the founders of the Volunteer Army, the formation of which he was involved in along with and.
Born on December 4, 1872 in the family of an officer, his mother Elizaveta Fedorovna was Polish. Father Ivan Efimovich, a serf peasant, was recruited. After 22 years of service, he received an officer rank and retired with the rank of major. The family lived in the Warsaw province.
Anton was smart and educated, he graduated from the Lovichi School, military school courses at the Kiev Infantry Junker School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff.
He began his service in the Warsaw Military District. After the start of the war with Japan, he asked to be transferred to the active army. In battles with the Japanese, he earned the Order of St. Anne and St. Stanislaus. For military service he was promoted to colonel. In March 1914, Anton Ivanovich had the rank of major general.
At the beginning, Denikin was the Quartermaster General. On his own initiative, he joined the ranks and was the commander of the famous Brusilov Iron Brigade. His division quickly became famous. She took part in large and bloody battles. For his participation in battles, Anton Ivanovich was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th and third degree.
Denikin perceived Russia as entering the path of progressive reforms. He had a high military post during the rule of the provisional government, did not expect that Russia would soon be on the verge of destruction, and realized the tragedy of the events of February. He supported Kornilov’s speeches and almost lost his freedom and then his life for this.
On November 19, after the October coup, he was released from prison along with the participants in the Kornilov rebellion. Soon, using forged documents, he goes to Kuban, where he participates in the formation of the Volunteer Army together with Kornilov and Alekseev. Alekseev was in charge of finances and negotiations with the Entente, Kornilov was responsible for military affairs. Denikin commanded one of the divisions.
After the death of Lavr Kornilov, he led the Volunteer Army. Because of his slightly liberal views, he could not unite under his leadership all the forces of the white South of Russia. Both Keller and . Denikin expected help from his Entente allies, but they were in no hurry to provide it. Soon he managed to unite the armies of Krasnov, Wrangel and other white generals under his command.
In May 1919, he recognizes the Supreme Ruler of Russia and comes under his subordination. The autumn of 1919 was a time of success for the anti-Bolshevik troops. Denikin's armies occupied large territories and came close to Tula. The Bolsheviks even began evacuating government institutions from Moscow to Vologda. There were 200 kilometers left to Moscow. He didn't overcome them.
Soon his army began to suffer defeats. The Soviets threw enormous forces into the fight against the general. The number of the Red Army was sometimes three times greater. In April 1920, Denikin emigrated with his family to England. Then he moved to Belgium. Lived in France for some time. In emigration, he found himself in literary creativity. Anton Ivanovich is not only a talented military man, but also a writer. Essays on the Russian Troubles became a real bestseller. The general also has many other wonderful works. Died 08/07/1947 in the USA, buried in the Donskoy Monastery.
Anton Ivanovich Denikin is a worthy son of the Russian Land. A man who felt all the bitterness of the betrayal of his Entente allies, whom he sacredly trusted. Denikin is a hero, and no one will prove otherwise. He did not participate in battles on the side of Germany in World War II. This is probably why he became one of the few rehabilitated white generals. Although most of the civil war figures who fought on the side of the whites are certainly worthy of rehabilitation.
