Who the "red marshal" Kotovsky really was: a lucky bandit or a fighter for justice

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Grigory Kotovsky's shaved head went down in history of the Russian hairdressing craft. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was enough to say: "under Kotovsky", and the master knew what he was talking about. Everyone knew about the dashing exploits of Grigory Ivanovich. An open question remains who he was after all: a successful bandit of hard times or a convinced fighter for justice?

The stutterer child and the steward-thief

Stuttering since childhood, Kotovsky, who grew up in Moldova, was left without parents early. Gregory was a nervous stutterer boy. His passion was sports and books. The love of physical education made Kotovsky an impressive strongman, and adventure novels drew adventurous scenarios in the growing head. After the death of his father, the teenager was taken care of by the godfather, the owner of the Manuk Bay estate. It was he who paid for the guy's education at the school, promising further education in Germany. But the plans were not destined to come true due to the death of Manuk-bey in 1902.

Kotovsky's biography is blurred and full of inaccuracies. But there is information that he did not complete his studies and was expelled for inappropriate behavior, after which he worked as a manager of the Bessarabian landowners' estates. He did not stay at work either. According to various sources, the employers were not satisfied with his conflict, incompetence, immorality and even theft. So, once Kotovsky was fired from the estate for seducing the owner's wife. And another time they got rid of him for stealing a large amount of the owner's money.

Kotovsky's gang and the horror of Bessarabia

According to the revelations of Kotovsky himself, during his stay in a real school, he met a group of Social Revolutionaries, in whose circle revolutionary sentiments were formed. The first arrests of the future Bessarabian Robin Hood were the result of his defense of the rights of farm laborers. Leading such a lifestyle and periodically ending up in prisons for various criminal offenses, Kotovsky turns into an authoritative leader of the gangster world of Bessarabia. During the Russo-Japanese War, Grigory Kotovsky did not appear at the recruiting station.

For evading service, he was arrested and assigned to a regiment stationed in Zhitomir. From there he successfully deserted, organizing a bandit squad of 12 desperate heads. Very soon Kotovsky's gang terrified the entire district. Newspapers regularly wrote about the crimes of Kotovsky and his cronies, and the Bessarabian landowners went into panic. The authorities initiated the adoption of emergency measures to catch especially dangerous criminals. The Kotovites became a real threat to the bourgeoisie, the defenders of the poor, and their leader was recognized as the "king" of the bandit world. This is how the period of "rebellion" began, as Kotovsky himself called this time. At the same time, noting that the events of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 pushed him onto the crooked path of criminality. Once the police drove the arrested peasants into the Chisinau prison through forests, but suddenly a gang ran into the convoy, freeing all the prisoners. Quickly hiding, the hijackers left a short note in the book of the senior guard: "The arrested were freed by Grigory Kotovsky."

Kotovsky combined the features of a terrorist, a criminal and a lover of a beautiful life. He had a weakness for women, music, and trotters. He played his criminal games skillfully and charismatically, throwing down a constant challenge to the security forces. The capture of Kotovsky became a matter of honor for the local police chiefs. A major award was announced for information about his whereabouts. And the efforts were justified - Kotovsky and his associates were finally captured.

Hard labor, escapes and a saving revolution

But the bandit did not plan to surrender, plotting an escape. And he was going to run away so that the whole country spoke about him. Having failed his first high-profile escape plan, he brilliantly implemented the second. With the assistance of the wife of a prominent administrator who visited Kotovsky in prison, he managed to seduce the warden with cigarettes, saw through the bars and leave the prison. The city panicked again - Kotovsky is free! However, freedom lasted no more than a month, after which he had to return to jail. Prison chiefs made repeated attempts to deal with the rebel with the hands of his inmates. But there were few who wanted to come into conflict with the authoritative bruiser.

In 1911, Kotovsky was sentenced to ten years in hard labor. He accepted his verdict very calmly, going on a stage to distant Siberia. After working there for 2 years, he killed the guards and disappeared into the taiga, jumping over a wide ditch. Until 1914, he illegally moved across Russia, eventually returning to his native Bessarabia with forged documents. Having got a job under a false name on a large estate, he himself let slip about who he was, and was again captured. This time, Kotovsky was facing capital punishment.

Saving revolution and Kotovsky - a military hero

The official authorities were preparing to carry out the final sentence, and Grigory Kotovsky filled up all sorts of instances with petitions to pardon. Everything went to the fact that soon the life of the dashing raider would end, but then a revolution broke out. Kotovsky knew that this was the last chance to get out of the water. And he loudly declared that he was ready to throw all his strength and skills into the service for Russia at the front. The First World War dragged on for the third year, and Russia was stuck in heavy battles with the Austro-Germans on the many kilometers of the front line from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

After the overthrow of the monarchical regime, the country was seized by a new revolutionary-patriotic outburst, and Grigory Ivanovich skillfully saddled this horse. In an appeal to the commander of the Odessa military district, he asked to be sent deep into the front. And in the summer of 1917, the volunteer Kotovsky arrived at the Taganrog infantry regiment. In his autobiographies, he described in detail how he participated in hot battles in the Romanian direction, earning the rank of ensign and high awards. But modern researchers do not confirm this fact. It is reliably known that he served on the regimental committee, being responsible for campaign work and propaganda. Here he joined the Left Socialist Revolutionary movement, and later to the new government, having made a brilliant military career.

And today historians argue about what the phenomenon of the 1st Cavalry Army, thanks to which the Budenovites were able to win the war against all