Forbidden relationship of Admiral Kolchak, or love, which is stronger than death

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

When it comes to the Civil War, many remember the white generals Denikin, Yudenich, Kornilov, Kappel, the red commanders Budyonny, Kotovsky, Mironov, Lazo, Frunze. And there is no end to disputes over who was right and who was wrong in that war. But there is a special name in the history of the Civil War - Anna Timireva, the beloved of Alexander Kolchak, at that time the Supreme Ruler of Russia.

Anna Vasilievna Safonova from the nobility. She was born in Kislovodsk in 1893. When she turned 13, the family moved to St. Petersburg. There Anna studied at the gymnasium of Princess Obolenskaya and graduated very successfully in 1911. Anna was a very educated lady, fluent in German and French. At the age of 18, she married a naval officer and after 3 years gave birth to his son Vladimir. But this marriage was happy only until the moment when Timiryova met in Kolchak.

They first met in 1915 in Helsingfors. Anna's husband, a captain of the first rank, served there. It was a real passion! Anna Vasilievna and Alexander Vasilievich were not stopped even by the fact that both of them were not free. Meetings became frequent, and passion eventually turned into love. Timiryova simply idolized the then vice admiral, and he often wrote touching letters to her.

In 1917, almost immediately after the revolution, Timireva's husband emigrated, Kolchak's wife and son remained in Paris. As soon as Kolchak returned from England, Anna Vasilievna came to him. In 1918-1919, Timiryova worked in Omsk as a translator in the Press Department under the Affairs Directorate of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Ruler (as Kolchak was now called). She was often seen in the hospital near the wounded and in the workshop for sewing underwear for soldiers.

Anna Vasilievna remained with Kolchak under any circumstances: when his army was defeated by the Reds, and when the leadership of the Czechoslovak corps, with the tacit consent of the French General Janin, agreed to hand Kolchak over to the Military Revolutionary Committee. When the Cheka interrogated the white admiral for two weeks, Anna not only voluntarily went under arrest, but was also able to break through to him three times on a date - as she could support her lover before imminent death.

After the execution of Kolchak, Anna Timireva was released from prison, but it was from that time that her real journey of the cross began. Already in June 1920, she was sent to a two-year forced labor in the Omsk concentration camp. After she was released from prison, she petitioned the authorities to leave the country for Harbin, where her first husband lived. But in response came a resolution - "Refuse" and another year in prison. In 1922, she was arrested for the third time, and in 1925 she was sent to prison for another three years "for communication with foreigners and former white officers."

After her release, Anna Vasilievna married railway engineer Vladimir Kniper. But the spring of 1935 brought another arrest "for hiding his past." True, the camp after a while was replaced by supervised living in Vyshny Volochok, where she worked as a janitor and a seamstress. In 1938, the sixth arrest took place. But Anna's freedom came only after the end of the war. By that time, she had no family left. 24-year-old son Volodya was shot on May 17, 1938. Vladimir Kniper could not stand the persecution of his wife and in 1942 he died of a heart attack. Anna was not allowed to live in Moscow, and she moved to Rybinsk (then Shcherbakov), taking a job as a prop in a local drama theater.

In December 1949, Anna Vasilievna was arrested again. This time for anti-Soviet propaganda on the slanderous denunciation of colleagues in the shop. Again ten months in the Yaroslavl prison and a transfer to Yeniseisk. Returning to Rybinsk again and again working in the drama theater.

By that time, she already looked like an intelligent, neat old woman with bright lively eyes. In the theater, no one knew the story of Anna Vasilievna associated with Kolchak. But everyone was surprised why the theater director (they said that he was from the nobility), whenever he saw Anna Vasilievna, came up and kissed her hand.

Anna Vasilievna was rehabilitated only in 1960. She immediately moved to Moscow and settled in a communal apartment on Plyushchikha. Oistrakh and Shostakovich procured her a 45-ruble pension. Sometimes she was invited to the crowd scene at "Mosfilm" - in the "Diamond Hand" Gaidai flashed as a cleaning lady, and in "War and Peace" by Bondarchuk - at the first ball of Natasha Rostova as a noble elderly lady.

Five years before her death, in 1970, she writes lines dedicated to the main love of her life - Alexander Kolchak:

Not so long ago, a film directed by A. Kravchuk "Admiral" was released in 2008. It contains an apologetic interpretation of the image of the famous leader of the White movement. What's in this movie truth and fiction about Admiral Kolchak we tried to figure it out in our review.