Kolchak, Denikin, Wrangel: a memo on three white generals - successors of each other

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

It so happened that no one confuses Budyonny with Chapaev and Chapaev with Kotovsky, but with the white generals of the Civil War it is often more complicated. Watching the film "Kolchak" (and its discussions) caused many to understand that these generals from school have merged in their heads into one common mass, and, perhaps, if you called the film "Wrangel", not every adult viewer would notice. Here is a small guide to help you get at least three white military leaders back in memory.

Alexander Kolchak

- I told everyone that comes from a Turkish bey, and looked something like that. - He said that his mother was a noblewoman, although she was from a merchant family. - Born and raised in St. Petersburg, finished only three grades of the gymnasium: he did not study well. - One of Kolchak's classmates, a Pole Menzhinsky, later became the chief of the Chekist after Dzerzhinsky. - I went to the midshipmen, before the exams I went on the Skobelev corvette for a month, passed the exams brilliantly. - I served at the Kronstadt Marine Observatory, was engaged in hydrographic and glaciological research in different parts of the world, participated in the Russian Polar Expedition and two other large expeditions, for his scientific activities he received the highest award of the Russian Geographical Society and the Order of St. Vladimir of the fourth degree. - He was a hero of the Russo-Japanese War, was wounded and two orders. - Knew several foreign languages. - Participated in First World War as Rear Admiral of the Baltic Fleet and as Vice Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet.

- After the February revolution, he dismissed the gendarmes and the police in Sevastopol (the police began to operate instead) and released political prisoners, although he did not support the revolution itself. He did a lot to reduce the intensity of passions in Sevastopol and a more or less calm atmosphere. - After a trip to Petrograd to meet with the Provisional Government, as he wrote to his beloved, he left with a moral emptiness. This moment is considered a turning point for Kolchak's transformation into a staunch counter-revolutionary. - When the sailors seized power in the navy and demanded that the officers surrender their weapons, Kolchak demonstratively threw the award saber into the sea. - Kerensky was exiled to the United States out of fears that he could seize power in Russia. - After the October Revolution he entered the service of the British. He joined the monarchists in Harbin precisely while in the English service. - First he became a minister of the All-Russian Provisional Government in Siberia, then he made a coup and, after a formal vote, accepted the posts of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia. He was supported by the Entente countries.

- One of his first laws was the cancellation of the anti-Jewish law adopted by the previous government. Established living wages in the regions, but their provision concerned only civil servants. - Organized an investigation into the execution of the royal family. Meanwhile, his army shot or publicly "punished" many sympathizers of the Bolsheviks. - In 1920 he was handed over to the Bolsheviks by foreign allies. After he was unable to retain power in Siberia after a series of uprisings (despite bloody attempts to suppress them, after which he completely lost the support of the peasantry), he was no longer needed.- When Kolchak was taken to execution, he asked why without trial. In response, he was asked how long he had become a supporter of executions in court. Before his death, he asked to tell his wife in Paris that he was blessing his son. After the execution, his body was thrown into the Angara.

Anton Denikin

- Half Pole, born near Warsaw. Father - a former serf, who rose to the rank of officer in the army. - From the age of thirteen, after the death of his father, he began to earn money by tutoring, at fifteen he received a scholarship and a place in the then analogue of a hostel for his successes, and he became the headman of a group of students living in the same place. infantry cadet school, and then the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg. - He published stories under a pseudonym, wrote articles about the problems of the army. - He volunteered for the Japanese war, before that he served in Warsaw. Received two orders in the war. - The beginning of the First World War was found in the rank of Major General in Kiev. During it, he showed heroism, was awarded more than once.

- Soon after the February Revolution, he was arrested, illegally released, fled to the Don and became one of the founders of the Volunteer Army. To provide the volunteers with weapons, he exchanged vodka for cartridges and rifles from the Cossacks. Over time, he became the commander of the army. The volunteers had the nickname "grandfather Anton." - He managed to occupy the North Caucasus and the Black Sea coast. Became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Only after that, the Entente (foreign allies) provided him with assistance with weapons, with which he captured almost all of Ukraine and the south of Russia. - He used aviation to spread propaganda leaflets over the positions of the Reds. Through agents he distributed among the Reds false orders of the Revolutionary Military Council. - In 1919, unexpectedly for everyone, he recognized Kolchak, who was in Siberia, as the supreme ruler of Russia. A little later, he was appointed his successor in the event of Kolchak's death or other unforeseen circumstances. - Unlike Kolchak, he took an anti-Jewish position, artificially raised the requirements for Jewish volunteers, considered Jews to be potential Bolshevik spies, regardless of the estate - that is, the merchants too. At the same time, he acted precisely in places with a large percentage of the Jewish population, which could give him support. - In many ways, Denikin's defeat is associated with the activity of the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno, who systematically cut off his logistical support, and quarrels with the Cossacks after his dissolution of the Kuban Rada.

- In 1920 he fled to Great Britain in an English destroyer. Then he settled in Paris. He wrote books and articles there. - With the coming to power of Hitler, he sharply condemned his proclaimed policy, with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he spoke in support of the Red Army against the Nazis. - After the occupation, he refused to register as a stateless person, stating that he was a subject of the Russian Empire. He refused to cooperate with the German authorities, openly defaming those emigrants who agreed as traitors. With his personal funds he bought and transported a wagon of medicines to the USSR, astonishing Stalin a lot. - After the war, he left for the USA. He died there.

Peter Wrangel

- It was him that Denikin left in his place when he escaped from Russia. - Baron. From an old German noble family with the motto "You will break, but you will not bend." - The song "White army, black baron" is about him. - He was an engineer by education. He joined the army in 1901 as a volunteer, later managing to pass the exam of the Nikolaev Cavalry School. He was enrolled in the reserve and further served in Irkutsk as an official on special assignments under the Governor-General. - Participant in the Japanese War. Upon graduation, he received the rank of lieutenant of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. During the war he was awarded two orders. After that, he decided to enter the Nikolaev Military Academy and graduated from it. - I met the First World War in the rank of a captain, showed heroism, was more than once awarded and promoted in rank.

- After the October Revolution he lived in a dacha in Yalta. He was arrested by the Bolsheviks as a baron. Soon he was released and at first went to serve for Hetman Skoropadsky in the Ukrainian state. Later he transferred to the Volunteer Army of Kornilov and Denikin. In the White Army, he dressed in a Circassian coat and a hat, this image became recognizable. - I constantly argued with Denikin on political and military issues. He was even dismissed once. - After Denikin's escape, he accepted the title of Ruler of the South of Russia. He tried to correct Denikin's mistakes and to make peace with the Cossacks, Caucasians, Jews, Ukrainians, and even Nestor Makhno and in general all the dissatisfied, even recognized the expropriation of the landlord's lands by the peasants as legal. But the split went too far, and besides, Great Britain refused to further support the White Army, advising him to surrender to the Soviet government and ask for an amnesty. - When Frunze offered the same thing, he refused. - Although he continued to conduct military operations, in fact, after Denikin's defeats, he had only to cover the evacuation of emigrants who do not want to stay in Soviet Russia. For this, including the ships of the fleet that remained subordinate to the White Army were used. - Before evacuating personally, Wrangel on the last ship went around all the ports of the Crimea to check that the ships with refugees were ready to go to Constantinople.

- In Constantinople, he lived on a yacht, which was rammed on an Italian steamer by the Soviet agent Olga Golubovskaya (she is also the poet Elena Ferrari). Her mission, however, failed. At that moment, Wrangel was on the shore with his family. - He lived first in Bulgaria, then in Brussels (Belgium). He worked as an engineer. He died in 1928 of tuberculosis, although a popular version is that he was poisoned. His ashes were reburied in Belgrade, because there were no Orthodox cemeteries in Belgium.

White officers have been very active in history, including in the confrontation with their own homeland. White emigrants in the fight against the Motherland: Which countries did Russian officers serve and why did they hate the USSR.