The father of the future Cossack leader, Ilya Petrovich, a military officer of the era of the Turkestan campaigns, in September 1907, upon dismissal from service, was promoted to the rank of major general. Mother - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Uskova - the daughter of a constable, a native of the Orenburg province. Alexander Ilyich himself was born during one of the campaigns in the city of Kazalinsk, Syrdarya region.
A. I. Dutov graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky cadet corps 1897, and then Nikolaev cavalry school in 1899, he was promoted to the rank of cornet and sent to the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment, stationed in Kharkov.
Then, in St. Petersburg, he completed courses at the Nikolaev Engineering School on October 1, 1903, now the Military Engineering and Technical University and entered the Academy of the General Staff, but in 1905 Dutov volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War, fought in the 2- oh Munchzhur army, where for "excellent diligent service and special labors" during the hostilities he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 3rd degree. Upon returning from the front, Dutov A. I. continued his studies at the Academy General Staff, which he graduated in 1908 (without being promoted to the next rank and being assigned to the General Staff). After graduating from the Academy, Staff Captain Dutov was sent to the Kiev Military District to the headquarters of the 10th Army Corps to get acquainted with the service of the General Staff. From 1909 to 1912 he taught at the Orenburg Cossack cadet school. Through his activities at the school, Dutov earned the love and respect of the cadets, for whom he did a lot. In addition to exemplary performance of his official duties, he organized performances, concerts and evenings at the school. In December 1910, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree, and on December 6, 1912, at the age of 33, he was promoted to the rank of military foreman (the corresponding army rank was lieutenant colonel).
In October 1912, Dutov was sent to Kharkov for a year of qualified command of the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment. After the expiration of his command term, Dutov passed a hundred in October 1913 and returned to the school, where he served until 1916.
World War I
On March 20, 1916, Dutov volunteered for the active army, in the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, which was part of the 10th Cavalry Division of the III Cavalry Corps of the 9 Army of the Southwestern Front. He took part in the offensive of the Southwestern Front under the command of Brusilov, during which the 9th Russian Army, where Dutov served, defeated the 7th Austro-Hungarian Army in the interfluve of the Dniester and Prut. During this offensive, Dutov was wounded twice, the second time seriously. However, after two months of treatment in Orenburg, he returned to the regiment. On October 16, Dutov was appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, together with Prince Spiridon Vasilyevich Bartenev.
Dutov’s certification, given to him by Count F. A. Keller, says: “The last battles in Romania, in which the regiment took part under the command of military foreman Dutov, give the right to see him as a commander who is well versed in the situation and makes appropriate decisions energetically, by force which I consider him an outstanding and excellent combat commander of the regiment. By February 1917, for military distinctions, Dutov was awarded swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class. and the Order of St. Anne 2nd class.
After the oath to the provisional government
After the February Revolution of 1917, in March 1917 he was elected chairman of the All-Russian Union of Cossack Hosts, in April of the same year he headed the congress of Russian Cossacks in Petrograd, in September he was elected ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks and head (chairman) of the military government. In his political views, Dutov stood for republican and democratic positions.
Anti-Bolshevik uprising by A. I. Dutov
October 1917 - another milestone in the rapid rise of Dutov. By October, the 38-year-old Dutov had grown from a run-of-the-mill staff officer into a major figure known throughout Russia and popular among the Cossacks.
On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began to work in his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on non-recognition on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, the power of the Bolsheviks, who carried out a coup in Petrograd.
Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communication with Turkestan and Siberia. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and the army until its convocation. On the whole, Dutov coped with this task. The Bolsheviks who arrived from the center were seized and put behind bars, and the decomposed and pro-Bolshevik garrison (due to the anti-war position of the Bolsheviks) of Orenburg was disarmed and sent home.
In November, Dutov was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly (from the Orenburg Cossack army). Opening on December 7 the 2nd regular Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack army, he said:
On December 16, the ataman sent out an appeal to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. People and weapons were needed to fight the Bolsheviks; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight, only in some places stanitsa squads were formed. Due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers from officers and student youth, no more than 2 thousand people in total, including old people and youth. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to the fight.
Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks launched an offensive against Orenburg. After heavy fighting, the detachments of the Red Army under the command of Blucher, many times superior to the Dutovites, approached Orenburg and on January 31, 1918, as a result of joint actions with the Bolsheviks who settled in the city, captured it. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the Orenburg army and went to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, which was far from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks.
But in March, the Cossacks also surrendered Verkhneuralsk. After that, the Dutov government settled in the village of Krasninskaya, where by mid-April it was surrounded. On April 17, having broken through the encirclement with the forces of four partisan detachments and an officer platoon, Dutov escaped from Krasninskaya and went to the Turgai steppes.
But in the meantime, the Bolsheviks with their policy embittered the main part of the Orenburg Cossacks, which had been neutral to the new government, and in the spring of 1918, out of touch with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st military district, led by a congress of delegates of 25 villages and a headquarters headed by military foreman D. M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed the detachment of the chairman of the council of the Iletsk Defense P. A. Persiyanov, on April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya, the punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee, S. M. Tsviling, and on the night of April 4, the detachment of Cossacks of the military foreman N. V. Lukin and a detachment of S. V. Bartenev made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for a while and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with cruel measures: they shot, burned the resisting villages (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and they imposed indemnities.
As a result, by June, more than 6,000 Cossacks took part in the insurrectionary struggle on the territory of the 1st military district alone. At the end of May, the Cossacks of the 3rd military district, supported by the rebel Czechoslovaks, joined the movement. The Red Guard detachments on the territory of the Orenburg army were defeated everywhere, and on July 3 Orenburg was taken by the Cossacks. A delegation was sent from the Cossacks to Dutov, as the legally elected military chieftain. On July 7, Dutov arrived in Orenburg and headed the Orenburg Cossack army, declaring the territory of the army a special region of Russia. On September 28, the Cossacks took Orsk, the last of the cities on the territory of the troops occupied by the Bolsheviks. Thus, the territory of the army was completely cleared of the Reds for some time. Parts of Dutov in November became part of the Russian army of Admiral Kolchak. The Orenburg Cossacks with varying success fought against the Bolsheviks, but in September 1919 Dutov's Orenburg army was defeated by the Red Army near Aktobe. The chieftain with the remnants of the army retreated to Semirechye, where he joined the Semirechye army of ataman Annenkov. Due to the lack of food, the crossing of the steppes became known as the "Hunger March". Upon arrival in Semirechie, Dutov was appointed by Ataman Annenkov as the Governor-General of the Semirechensk Region. In May 1920, he moved to China along with the Semirechensk army of Ataman Annenkov.
Death
On February 7, 1921, Ataman Dutov was killed in Suidun by agents of the Cheka under the leadership of Kasymkhan Chanyshev. The Chekist group consisted of 9 people. Dutov was shot at point-blank range in his office by a member of the group, Makhmud Khadzhamirov (Khodzhamyarov), along with 2 sentries and a centurion. Dutov and the guards killed with him during the battle were buried with military honors in Ghulja. Chekists returned back to Dzharkent. On February 11, a telegram was sent from Tashkent on the fulfillment of the assignment to the chairman of the Turkestan Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front, G. Ya. Sokolnikov, and a copy of the telegram was sent to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) ..
Awards
- Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class.
- Order of St. Anne 3rd class
- swords and bow to the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class
- Order of St. Anne 2nd class
Life brilliant Russian officer, who became a member of the White Guard movement and the chieftain of the Cossack army, seems very unusual, and, therefore, attracts special attention.
Alexander Dutov was born August 5, 1879 in the city of Kazalinsk, located on the territory of present-day Kazakhstan. The ancestors of the boy, who later became a legendary figure, were Cossacks. His father was Ilya Petrovich Dutov, a military Russian officer who rose to the high rank of major general. Mother named Elizaveta Nikolaevna, came from a noble family of a constable. Sasha became her first child.
The boy was born at a time when his family was on a campaign with the army. And so it happened that he was born in Kazalinsk, and spent his childhood in other large Russian cities, where troops were quartered.
For two years he lived in the northern capital, where Sasha first crossed the threshold of the school. Subsequently, he had to move to another general education institution in order to prepare for entry into a cadet institution.
In 1889, a cherished dream came true - ten-year-old Sasha became a cadet of the Orenburg Corps. All the long years of study, he, as an excellent student, received a military scholarship. This was followed by training at the Nikolaev School of Cadets, culminating in graduation in 1899. At the age of twenty, Dutov became cornet and went to Kharkov, where at that time his Orenburg regiment was located.
Three years later, the future chieftain went on a business trip to Kyiv to pass the preliminary exams for a new engineering specialty and subsequent transfer to St. Petersburg, to prepare and pass serious tests that lasted 4 months.
Alexander was the first of the students to do well in the exams for full course and after a while he became a teacher, first at the sapper, and, some time later, at the telegraph school.
In 1903 Dutov received another title lieutenant. In the autumn of the same year, he married hereditary noblewoman Olga Petrovskaya. Despite continuing his studies at the Academy of the General Staff, Alexander considers it his duty to go to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.
For the entire period of hostilities, he showed himself to be an excellent officer and was awarded Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class
After the end of the war and returning to his homeland, Dutov continued his interrupted studies and graduated from the Academy in 1908, having received the rank of staff captain.
For three years, Alexander Ilyich held the position teacher at the Orenburg cadet school. The following fact is interesting: he became the mentor of the future famous military ataman G.M. Semenov. From 1912 to 1916, Dutov was the commander of the Orenburg Cossack Regiment. All this time he was in Kharkov.
With the outbreak of the First World War, Alexander Dutov voluntarily went to the front. He served bravely under the command of the legendary General A.A. Brusilova, was wounded twice. But even after receiving a serious wound and treatment, he again became operational. For the revealed courage and courage, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anna.
After the revolutions of 1917, the hero becomes a truly iconic figure and, indeed, an unusually popular personality among the Cossacks.
He categorically does not accept Bolshevik power, and, therefore, upon returning to Orenburg, he was the first among other chieftains of the Cossack troops to declare his refusal to recognize her in the army entrusted to him. For a long time he strictly controlled the most important region of the country and was able to close the communication of the central regions with Siberia.
At the beginning of 1918, the strengthened troops of the Red Army launch a large-scale offensive on Orenburg and capture the city, after a long resistance from the Dutov detachments. The commander goes alone to Verkhneuralsk to form new forces there and direct them against the Bolsheviks.
However, this city soon surrendered. Then Dutov decided to establish his government in a neighboring village, but he was also surrounded and could hardly get away from the enemy.
As a result of dissatisfaction with the new policy and the beginning of a powerful insurrectionary movement, in which more than six thousand Cossacks were involved, Orenburg was taken in July, and somewhat later the city of Orsk. Consequently, the entire territory of the Orenburg region was freed from the power of the Reds. One of the first A.I. Dutov recognized and fully supported the power of Admiral A.I. Kolchak.
A year later, his army suffered a crushing defeat and began to retreat to Semirechye with fighting. In connection with the onset of a larger army of the Bolsheviks and the lack of food, in the spring of 1920, Dutov, along with a detachment, left the borders of Russia and went to neighboring China.
In order not to go to the benefit (3-4-year mandatory break in the service of a Cossack officer, caused by the need to deploy Cossack regiments of the 2nd and 3rd stage in case of war), which was supposed to be in the Orenburg Cossack army after three years of military officer service, Dutov decided transfer to the engineering troops, where there were no such breaks in the officer’s military service as in the Cossack troops. He probably wanted to quickly earn the next rank. So, in 1902, a young capable officer was first sent to Kiev for a preliminary test at the headquarters of the 3rd sapper brigade to be transferred to the engineering troops, and after passing the tests, he went to St. Petersburg to take an exam at the Nikolaev Engineering School for the right to be seconded to the engineering troops. The preparation took four months, and then, having successfully passed the exam for the entire course of the school (according to the official biography, the first one), Dutov entered the disposal of the Main Engineering Directorate and again ended up in Kiev, in the 5th engineer battalion, for a test in service and subsequent translation.
Three months later, in the battalion, Dutov was appointed a teacher in a sapper, and since 1903, a telegraph school. In addition to this work, he was in charge of a battalion soldier's shop; October 1, 1903 received the rank of lieutenant. At this time, his marriage took place to Olga Viktorovna Petrovskaya, who came from hereditary nobles of the St. Petersburg province. Apparently, Petrovskaya was a cousin of K.V. Sakharov (1881-1941) - the future lieutenant general, commander-in-chief of the armies of the Eastern Front in 1919. He made another important decision - to enter the Nikolaev General Staff Academy. To get into the Academy, at the beginning of the twentieth century. the officer had to serve at least three years in the ranks and take part in at least two camp gatherings.
The dropout rate, even at the stage of preliminary tests, at the district headquarters, was quite high. Having successfully passed the preliminary written exams at the headquarters of the Kyiv military district in the summer of 1904 (tactics, political history, geography, Russian language, horseback riding), the 25-year-old Dutov again went to the capital. For preparation and delivery entrance exams As a rule, officers spent a year of hard work at the Academy, they had to show knowledge of combat regulations, artillery, fortification, mathematics, military administration, political history, geography, topographic drawing, Russian and foreign languages). As a result of the exam, Dutov was enrolled in the junior year of the Academy.
As soon as classes began, he volunteered for the war with Japan. His sapper battalion as part of the 2nd Manchurian Army took part in the war at its final stage. Lieutenant Dutov was in Manchuria from March 11 to October 1, 1905, and for "excellent diligent service and special work" during the hostilities in January 1906 he was awarded the order St. Stanislaus 3rd degree. After the war, Dutov resumed his studies at the Academy. At about the same time, they studied at the Academy with him and, very likely, already in the academic years, his future wrestling comrades-in-arms in the years civil war M.G. Serov, I.M. Zaitsev, N.T. Sukin and S.A. Shchepikhin.
On May 31, 1907, Dutov's daughter Olga was born. The future ataman graduated from two classes of the Academy in the first category and an additional course "successfully", but "without the right to be promoted to the next rank for graduating from the academy and for inclusion in the General Staff", as he believed, due to the presence of a family. The failure gave him a feeling of inferiority, which he tried to overcome all his life. The dissatisfaction with his achievements that arose in Dutov after the Academy did not manifest itself in any way until 1917. But, having received in the spring of 1917 a chance to rehabilitate himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of those around him, Dutov seized on it and took full advantage of this chance.
At the end additional course graduates of the Academy were distributed among military districts to pass the staff qualification, and the first ten officers in the graduation had the right to be appointed to vacancies in the St. Petersburg military district. For each year of training, it was supposed to serve a year and a half in the military department. To get acquainted with the service of the General Staff, Staff Captain Dutov was sent to the Kiev Military District, to the headquarters of the X Army Corps, located in Kharkov. After three months of practice, in the autumn of 1908 he returned to his 5th engineer battalion, where he had not been since 1905.
At the beginning of 1909, Dutov went on a "temporary business trip" to his native Orenburg Cossack army and took up the post of teacher at the Orenburg Cossack cadet school. Why did he do this, what guided him in his desire to get into such a seemingly insignificant position for an Academy graduate?! There is no documentary evidence of this. But there are several possible reasons: firstly, Orenburg was Dutov’s hometown, where his parents and numerous relatives lived, and secondly, Dutov could transfer to a school in order to get a calm, quiet place and live comfortably, devoting himself to his family, and finally, more one possible reason- Dutov's desire to realize his skills acquired at the Academy and in engineering troops. Such a step characterizes him in this period of his life by no means as a careerist.
Extending his "temporary business trip", Dutov in September 1909 first achieved a transfer to the school as an assistant class inspector with the renaming of the podesauly, and in March 1910 he was enlisted in the army. By this time, Dutov was already Yesaul. From 1909 to 1912 he served in the school in various positions, temporarily served as a class inspector. Among the wards of Dutov was the cadet G.M. Semenov (graduated from college in 1911), later ataman of the Transbaikal Cossack army. During this, probably the most calm period in Dutov's life, two more daughters Nadezhda were born in 1909 and Maria in 1912. The youngest daughter Elizabeth was also born in Orenburg, but already during the First World War - August 31, 1914. Dutov also had a son, Oleg, but documents about his birth were not found, it can only be argued that he was born in 1917-1918. Dutov obviously liked just such a calm, measured and predictable life of a provincial officer.
Through his activities at the school, Dutov earned the love and respect of the cadets, for whom he did a lot. In addition to exemplary performance of his official duties, he organized performances, concerts and evenings at the school. In December 1910, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree, and on December 6, 1912, at the age of 33, he was promoted to military foreman (the corresponding army rank was lieutenant colonel); for comparison, his father received the same rank only at the age of 47.
In October 1912, Dutov was sent to the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment in Kharkov to acquire an annual qualification for command of a hundred. “In the service of this headquarters officer, there were no circumstances depriving him of the right to receive an insignia of impeccable service or postponing the term of service to it,” read the standard wording from the track record of the future ataman, compiled on January 24, 1913. During the qualifying command, Dutov earned several thanks from the head of the 10th Cavalry Division. At that time, thanks to Major General Count F.A. Keller meant a lot in the cavalry. The 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment was Keller's favorite regiment, and Dutov, during his stay in the division of this talented general, who seriously prepared his units for a future war, probably learned a lot as a cavalry officer. After the expiration of his command term, Dutov passed a hundred in October 1913 and returned to the school, where he served until 1916. In 1914-1915, in addition to military service, he was a full member of the Orenburg Scientific Archival Commission, which by 1914 had already published 30 volumes of its scientific papers. Dutov, being a member of the commission, collected materials about A.S.'s stay in Orenburg. Pushkin. In general, history for Dutov was one of his favorite sciences.
Despite the attempts of the school authorities to leave Dutov at the school, on March 20, 1916, he went to the front. As they said, Dutov got ready in three days and left for the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment of the 10th Cavalry Division, already familiar to him, the Heir to the Tsarevich). The circumstances of the departure and the reason why he in 1914-1915. remained in Orenburg, are known from the memoirs of the chief ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, General M.S. Tyulina: the authorities, who did not have an academic education, did not want to let Dutov go to the front out of envy. Still, it is not entirely clear why he was never able to go to the front before. It is possible that he was expecting a suitable vacancy, but it is obvious that he was clearly not rushing to the front.
The regiment was considered one of the best in the Orenburg Cossack army. By December 1915, there were five cavaliers of the Order of St. George of the 4th degree, six cavaliers of the St. George weapons, 609 Cossacks of the regiment were awarded St. George's crosses, 131 were awarded St. George's medals. During this time, the regiment took 1,200 prisoners, 4 guns, 15 cartridge carts, about 200 guns, 42 camping pack kitchens, and a lot of wagon trains. At the time of Dutov's arrival, the regiment was fighting the Austrians as part of the 9th army of General P.A. Lechitsky. On March 29, the Cossacks were personally greeted by Nicholas II, then they received rest and from April 6 they guarded state border along the river Prut.
Lechitsky's army was located on the left flank of the Southwestern Front, its left flank was covered by Keller's III Cavalry Corps, and the left flank of the corps was covered by the 10th Cavalry Division. Thus, Dutov fought on the extreme left flank of the entire Eastern Front, near the Romanian border itself. 9th Army during the preparation by the commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front, General A.A. Brusilov offensive was assigned a supporting role. Lechitsky decided to first defeat the enemy in Bukovina, then advance towards the Carpathians, and then transfer the blow to Transnistria.
At the front, Dutov formed a rifle division, which from April 3 took part in the battles on the Prut River. The division was organized by Dutov from scratch and gradually acquired its own transports and workshops. At dawn on May 22, 1916, the troops of the 9th Army went on the offensive. According to the regiment's war diary, the crossing of the Prut on May 28 took place under heavy artillery fire. The Cossacks crossed the river ford (the bridges were blown up), with a strong current, and the water, according to the participants in the crossing, was above the waist as a result of the spring flood (probably they were crossed on horseback). In the night battle while crossing the Prut, Dutov's rifle division took the line of trenches and held it for two days before the shift, losing 50% of the lower ranks and 60% of the officers. Despite the shell shock, Dutov remained in the ranks and in the chain until the end of the battle and left after the last shift.
The operation developed successfully. Enemy losses amounted to 95,000 killed, wounded and captured. The 9th Army lost 26,500 men. At its first stage, Keller's cavalry was assigned only the passive role of providing the left flank. After the occupation of Chernivtsi on June 5, the shock group of the army was stopped on the line of the Prut River to change the operational direction, and the III Cavalry and Consolidated Corps were allocated to pursue the retreating enemy. It was not possible to cut off the Austrians from the Carpathians, retreating, they organized a stubborn defense.
Dutov's division as part of the III Cavalry Corps took part in the pursuit of the Austrians from Chernivtsi through Bukovina to the Carpathian mountain passes near Kirlibab - Dorna Vatra. As noted on July 24 in the regiment's war diary, "the conditions in the position are very difficult - snow, cold, strong piercing wind at the heights." The division practically did not lag behind its cavalry regiment, having fought 450 miles on foot in 10 days. Dutov's reports were laconic: “Your order was executed by the village (Nei-Itskani in the Carpathians. - A.G.), thanks to the valor of the shooters, taken; I go further, to a height of 1227. Another report during the attack on a fortified position near Runkul is no less brief and eloquent: “Having overcome seven rows of wire and taking four lines of trenches, the arrows and Cossacks of the sector entrusted to me are pursuing the enemy to Kirlibaba. I represent 250 prisoners and trophies. Losses are insignificant. Now with a chain I am at the Obchina height.
Subsequently, the 130,000-strong 7th Austro-Hungarian army in the interfluve of the Dniester and Prut was defeated. The 9th Russian Army threatened Hungary and the oil wells of Galicia. In July, Lechitsky's army acted in two directions: to Galich and to Transylvania. The fighting on the front of the army was distinguished by maneuverability, there were horse clashes, but the command could not properly use the cavalry. Of course, the cavalry was not intended for mountain warfare, however, for some reason, there was no other use for Keller's corps at that time. On July 28, Lechitsky's troops occupied Stanislav. The army was preparing to march through the Carpathians to Transylvania. On August 14, Romania entered the war against Austria-Hungary on the side of the Entente, largely due to the brilliant actions of Lechitsky's troops, which, however, did not lead to the strengthening of the Russian front, but rather, on the contrary, weakened it.
The offensive of the 9th Army to assist the Romanians was scheduled by Brusilov for 18 August. Lechitsky's army was supposed to advance in the direction of Kirlibaba-Sigot, and the consolidation of the Sigota region for the Russian troops, in the opinion of the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, in fact Commander-in-Chief General M.V. Alekseev, was supposed to provide Romanian operations in Transylvania. Keller's corps was part of the southern group of the 9th Army, operating in the sector from Kirlibaba to the Romanian border.
August and September at the army front were fought in fierce and extremely heavy battles, and already in September the troops in the Carpathians fought in deep snow. Lechitsky was still opposed by the 7th Austro-Hungarian Army. The Germans from the division transferred there, to reinforce, from the Western Front, the battles at Dorn-Vatra, Kirlibaba and Jacoben seemed harder than at Verdun. However, the Russian offensive developed extremely slowly. Until September 13, when Lechitsky was forced to suspend the operation due to significant losses (145 officers and 10 thousand soldiers), the fighting went on without interruption. The troops occupied the heights commanding the Kirlibaba-Dorna-Vatra highway.
On October 1, near the village of Panichi in Romania, Dutov was secondarily shell-shocked and, in addition, wounded by a shell fragment, as a result of which he lost his sight and hearing for some time and received a cracked skull. It seemed that the young officer would be forced to leave the ranks forever, but after two months of treatment in Orenburg, he returned to the regiment. On October 16, Dutov was appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg His Imperial Highness the Heir to the Tsarevich Cossack regiment. The newly-made commander arrived at the regiment on November 18, and on December 15, due to the uncertainty of his status, he wrote to the chief of staff of the 10th cavalry division: “I arrived at the regiment on November 18, which I reported. Please do not refuse [tell] whether there was an order for the division about my position or not. Then, how to consider the rifle division surrendered, or else I need to surrender it. Troop[ova] Sergeant[ina] Dutov.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued near Kirlibaba. The losses were significant. As A.A. Kersnovsky, “the slopes of the mountains near Kirlibaba turned into vast Russian cemeteries ... All November there were heroic battles in the clouds and beyond the clouds ... Their history will someday be written. Our trophies in this mountain war were significant, losses were huge, heroism was boundless. On November 15, the 9th Army launched an offensive against the city of Dorna-Vatra, the fighting also took on a protracted character, and it was not possible to dislodge the Austrians from the Carpathian mountain passes. As A.G. Shkuro, “the mountains were terribly steep, the movement of convoys was impossible, the delivery of products had to be carried out in packs along mountain paths, and the removal of the wounded was difficult. In general, the work was terribly difficult.
On November 15, Brusilov ordered the III Cavalry Corps to march to the Rymnik area. In connection with the defeat of the Romanian army, Russian troops had to save both their new ally and the position on the left flank of their own Eastern Front. From the Prut, the troops followed the territory of Wallachia in marching order, the horses were extremely exhausted. Having overcome 500 miles from Bukovina to Bucharest, in December the corps became part of the 6th Army, which occupied the front from Firul Mare to the Black Sea coast.
Interesting are the attestations of Dutov, given in February 1917 by the head of the 10th Cavalry Division, General V.E. Markov and corps commander Count Keller. On February 11, Markov wrote: “The recent battles in Romania, in which the regiment took part under the command of the troops [new] foreman DUTOV, give the right to see in him a commander who is well versed in the situation and makes appropriate decisions energetically, which is why I consider him outstanding , but for the brevity of the time of command of the regiment, only quite appropriate for its purpose.
In his own certification dated February 24, it was noted: Dutov “is in good health. He does not complain about the severity of camp life - he is always cheerful. Morality is good. Mentally developed well. Lively interested in the service and loves it. Well read and well educated. He does not yet have combat experience, but is striving for independent decision combat missions. In battle, he is somewhat impressionable and tends to give the battlefield the impression of the younger ones and is somewhat exaggerated. He likes to work for show, although in general he is tireless in his work. The economy knows. Caring about subordinates. Good [commander]. Corresponds to the position of the commander of the Cossack regiment. Keller got acquainted with both certifications and expressed his opinion: “I do not agree with the first certification of the division chief and completely join the second, since I always considered the military foreman DUTOV an excellent combat commander of the regiment. "Excellent" [,] is quite consistent with the position. Signed: General Graf KELLER. By February 1917, for military distinctions, Dutov was awarded swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class. and the Order of St. Anne 2nd class. The authors of Dutov's official biography argued that his merits in the war were evaluated very little by the former government, he had few orders - the reason for this was the independence of the ataman, unwillingness to flatter the higher authorities, defending Cossack interests and complete contempt for deliberately false reports in order to decorate their affairs and describe exploits. Judging by the above data, there are many exaggerations.
Dutov was in the post of regiment commander for only four months, February Revolution changed it, pretty run-of-the-mill so long life path unknown Cossack staff officer. In March 1917, Prime Minister G.E. Lvov gave permission to hold the first general Cossack congress in Petrograd “to ascertain the needs of the Cossacks,” and on March 16, military foreman Dutov arrived in the capital as a delegate from his regiment. His political career began.
As noted by A.V. Shmelev, "the role of the Cossacks in the events of 1917 has not yet been clarified in many respects." A serious study of this role is impossible without considering the activities of Dutov, one of the largest political figures put forward by the Cossack environment in 1917. By February 1917, he had not yet taken place as a political figure, he was only one of hundreds of regimental commanders, he was not a coward in the war ( he stayed at the front for about a year), but had it not been for the revolution, he would hardly have been able to show all his abilities.
In the spring of 1917, the fate of this man changed dramatically. Unfortunately, there is no completely reliable information about what threw him onto the crest of a revolutionary wave. The official biography of the Orenburg chieftain reports that Dutov was elected because he was "the commander of the regiment, loved by both officers and Cossacks." The only evidence that clarifies at least something belongs to the Orenburg Cossack general I.M. Zaitsev. Zaitsev wrote about Dutov: “At first it seemed strange why a commander was sent from the regiment, while the representatives of the divisions were, in most cases, chief officers. Subsequently, it turned out that the regiment was dissatisfied with its commander and, in order to get rid of him under a plausible pretext, he was delegated to Petrograd. The thing is this: in the first days of the revolution, the dashing Count Keller, the commander of the III Cavalry Corps, which was at that time in Bessarabia, urgently invited the commanders of the regiments and asked them: “Can they with their regiments go on a campaign to Tsarskoye Selo, free royal family". A.I. Dutov, as the commander of the chief regiment, on behalf of the regiment, declared that his regiment would willingly go to free his chief. It was this, as it were, that aroused the discontent of the entire regiment. Such conversations were then. Subsequently, as a result of all the events, it turned out that the main agitator against Dutov, who condemned his statement on behalf of the regiment about the readiness of the Cossacks to go to save the royal family, was the old officer of the regiment, Losev, who later remained with the Bolsheviks.
One way or another, in the spring of 1917, the Cossacks, together with the whole country, found themselves in new, largely incomprehensible conditions for them. The first general Cossack congress (later called preliminary) was held in Petrograd on March 23-30, but the telegrams were late and a number of Cossack troops did not have time to send their delegates from the field. Part of the Cossack troops was represented exclusively by front-line delegates. The congress was opened by a member of the State Duma from the Don Cossack army A.P. Savvateev. The congress was attended by the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General L.G. Kornilov. The idea immediately arose of creating a mass Cossack organization - the Union of Cossack Troops with its own permanent Council. The Council of the Union of Cossack Troops was supposed in the future to free the Cossack units from the corrupting influence of various committees and councils of soldiers' deputies. It was expected that this would preserve the combat effectiveness of the Cossack units even in the conditions of decomposition regular army will make them an impressive force in the all-Russian political arena.
However, the congress participants themselves did not consider it authorized to resolve such issues, so it was decided to convene a more representative second all-Cossack congress in May (it was also called the First All-Russian Cossack congress, or circle). A commission was formed to work on the creation of the Union of Cossack Troops, called the "Provisional Council of the Union of Cossack Troops" chaired by Savvateev. Dutov became one of the comrades (assistants) of the chairman. As I.M. Zaitsev, in Petrograd, Dutov turned to him “with a request for assistance. He asked what he should do and whether he could find any use for him. I advised him to continue working in the Provisional Cossack Council, together with Savvateev, and to work in the spirit and direction of the directives given by A.I. Guchkov and that, under this condition, one can hope for his secondment to the General Staff. Indeed, they managed to arrange a secondment to the General Staff, and A.I. Dutov was entrusted with work on the Cossack issue together with Savvateev.
The composition of the Provisional Council from the delegates of the congress included 34 representatives of 13 Cossack troops. Dutov was a member of the economic, financial and economic, organizational and military affairs commissions of the Provisional Council. In April, he made a detour of the front-line Cossack units, agitating for the continuation of the war. In May, he and Council member A.N. Grekov obtained an audience with the military and naval minister A.F. Kerensky, the conversation lasted about an hour. Dutov reported on the purposes of convening and the work of the congress and the Provisional Council, official permission was received to hold the 2nd General Cossack Congress, and Kerensky asked to come to him and keep him informed of the work. A counterbalance to the Provisional Council also arose - the Cossack section of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies, which sought to subordinate the Provisional Council to itself. As Dutov himself later wrote, “the work of this Council was extremely tense, nervous and difficult. The Cossacks in Petrograd were viewed from a biased point of view, and therefore it was difficult to carry out the idea of the Cossacks. But labor and energy won, and the voice of the Cossacks became audible in Petrograd. Initially, the Provisional Council had absolutely no funds, but over time, work began to improve. The Cossacks were given the premises of the former Main Directorate of the Cossack troops. The 2nd congress opened its work on June 1. In addition to representatives from the places elected by the military circles, two elected delegates from each Cossack unit were to be present at the congress. (In Soviet historiography, it was unsubstantiated that the elections to the congress were falsified and that only the Cossack elite participated in its work.)
The congress opened in a large hall in the building of the Assembly of the Army and Navy in the presence of about 600 delegates. Dutov was unanimously elected chairman of the congress, which brought him all-Russian fame. Dutov was, however, in many respects an accidental person in this post - he had practically no experience in political and social activities. In the mornings, general meetings were held, in the evenings there were meetings on the Cossack troops. This way of working turned out to be very advantageous, since the political figures present at the congress had the impression of the complete unity of the entire Russian Cossacks. During the work of the congress, the meetings were attended by A.F. Kerensky, M.V. Rodzianko, A.I. Guchkov, P.N. Milyukov, N.V. Nekrasov and V.D. Nabokov, foreign ambassadors and military attaches; a large audience was present. The main slogan of the congress is "War to the bitter end", the delegates also actively supported the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. From the first days of work, contradictions were revealed between the front-line Cossack youth and representatives of the Cossack regions, mainly "old people". The final general resolution included such provisions as: united and indivisible Russia, broad local self-government, war until victory, honorable peace, all power to the Provisional Government until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly and the decision on the form of government. On June 13, the delegates elected the composition of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops - a permanent, representative and completely legitimate Cossack body, which was supposed to work during the break between congresses. 36 (according to other sources, 38) people were elected to the Council for a period of three years in proportion to the number of their Cossack troops, and many of the elected members had previously been members of the Provisional Council.
During this period, Dutov, apparently, successfully established contacts, joining the military and political elite of post-February Petrograd. He collaborated with the "Republican Center", and within this organization there allegedly existed a "conspiratorial military department" that united various military alliances, including the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops. It is obvious that the Soviet authors, and somewhat earlier Kerensky, tried in this way to prove the existence of a carefully prepared military conspiracy of the Rights in the summer of 1917. An indication of Dutov's collaboration with some underground organization requires evidence, but they (in the form of references to sources) are absent; weighty evidence of the very existence of a large-scale conspiracy, and even more so of the participation of the Council of the Union of Cossack troops in it, has not yet been identified.
Dutov's role during the days of the congress appears to be purely technical - to lead meetings, put questions to a vote, and so on. At the same time, he happened to make the first political statements. On July 7, he claimed: “We (Cossacks. - A.G.) we will never part ways with all Russian democracy.” Dutov attended some meetings of the Provisional Government as a permanent representative of the All-Russian Cossacks, until October 1917 he was a member of the commissions under the Provisional Government to convene the Constituent Assembly, on Cossack affairs, and on interdepartmental work. On August 6, the Soviet issued a resolution in support of Kornilov. This statement of the Cossack representatives was a kind of ultimatum to Kerensky. The resolution quickly appeared in the press and received the full support of the Union of Officers and the Union of Knights of St. George.
By mid-August the center political life briefly moved to Moscow. At the Moscow State Conference, the Cossack Council was given 10 seats, and since many of its members participated in the meeting as representatives of their troops, it turned out that almost the entire composition of the Council took part in the meeting. The comrades of the chairman of the Cossack faction were Dutov and M.A. Karaulov. At the first meeting, two commissions were formed: on general issues (chairman - Karaulov) and on military issues (chairman - Dutov). During the work of the State Conference, the unity of views of the Cossack representatives was revealed, and by August 13 they developed a common resolution; its final version was prepared by Dutov and F.A. Shcherbina. The next day, on behalf of the entire Cossacks, it was read out by the Don Ataman A.M. Kaledin. According to V.I. Lenin, it was "the most significant political statement made at the Moscow Conference." What could be more convincing than such a confession made by a direct enemy!
According to rumors, which were also leaked to the press, on August 28-29 a new action of the Bolsheviks was expected in Petrograd in connection with the six-month "anniversary" of the February events. To suppress a possible rebellion, the Provisional Government called in troops from the front, and the members of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops were aware from August 24 that the III Cavalry Corps of General A.M. Krymov, by order of Kornilov, moves to the capital. However, on August 26, Kerensky declared Kornilov a traitor and began to arm the Petrograd workers.
There is no definite information about the role of Dutov in those days, so it is difficult to talk about the reliability of the reports, according to which he was supposed to raise an uprising in Petrograd. In the future, Dutov worked closely with the Provisional Government, was promoted to the next rank and received a responsible appointment in the Orenburg province, which would have been impossible if his involvement in any conspiracy had been clarified. The Council of the Union of Cossack Troops organizationally did not participate in the Kornilov movement. Moreover, all the activities of Dutov and the Council of the Union of Cossack troops during the period of Kornilov's speech speaks of their neutrality, however, to a greater extent benevolent towards Kornilov. As Kerensky later testified, the leaders of the Soviet "belonged to that group of people, like Miliukov, who were convinced that victory would be on the side of Kornilov, and not on the side of the revolution." The position taken by Dutov did not suit either the right or the left.
August 31 at Winter Palace Dutov was called. He said he was ill and did not go, staying at the hotel. On behalf of Dutov, military foreman A.N. went to Kerensky. Greeks. Kerensky received him in the former imperial office and demanded decisive action against Kornilov and Kaledin: the Soviet was to declare Kornilov a traitor and Kaledin a rebel. Grekov refused to comply with his request, saying that he did not have the necessary authority. Then Kerensky demanded to himself the entire Presidium of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops, with whom he spoke in raised tones, seeking from the Council a decisive condemnation of Kornilov and Kaledin. Dutov answered, drawing Kerensky's attention to the fact that the Cossacks had already proposed a peaceful solution, but had been refused permission to go to Headquarters, and now Kerensky was faced with a refusal. Then he told the delegates that this was the decision of the Cossack officers, and not the labor Cossacks, and demanded a resolution of the entire Council. After this conversation, the members of the presidium got the impression that Kerensky would arrest them. To clarify the situation, Dutov, before leaving, asked him if the members of the Council present could consider themselves safe and if their refusal would cause reprisals. Kerensky replied to this: “You are not dangerous to me, I repeat to you, the labor Cossacks are on my side. You can be free; I expect from you today the resolution I need.” At 18:00 Dutov appointed an emergency meeting of the Council. At the meeting, Dutov stated his point of view, after the debate, together with Karaulov, who was present, he wrote a letter to Kerensky. The letter listed all the grievances inflicted by the government on the Cossacks. It was noted that Kaledin and Kornilov are Cossacks and the Council cannot condemn them without clarifying all the circumstances. In addition, it was pointed out that the Council could not work when threatened. It was decided to send the answer of the Council not with officers, but exclusively with ordinary Cossacks, in order to clearly demonstrate to Kerensky that this was the decision of the labor Cossacks. When the delegates were received by the Prime Minister, Kerensky asked them to take the paper back, but the Cossacks refused. "So much the worse for you, I can't vouch for the consequences," was Kerensky's last phrase. On the same day, Kornilov and Kaledin were declared traitors and rebels. The Council of the Union of Cossack Troops, in response, passed a resolution that Kerensky did not have the right to remove the elected Don ataman, which was Kaledin (Kerensky believed that since he approved Kaledin in office, he could recall him).
Kerensky's attitude towards the Soviet worsened after the suppression of Kornilov's speech. There is, however, information that, in relation to the case of Kaledin, Kerensky regretted "the misunderstanding that had arisen between him and the Cossacks." Perhaps, in order to come to terms with the Cossacks as his last support, he decided to appease its representatives, not only with words of apologies and regrets, but also with new appointments and ranks. Kerensky's populist steps towards the Cossacks were crowned with success - Lenin, right up to the 20th of October, seriously feared their coming out in defense of the Provisional Government.
On September 16, Dutov's program article "Position of the Cossacks" appeared in the press. From this article one can judge his political views, at least at the time of the Bolshevik coup. Even if we discard the probably forced bowing to the Provisional Government after the August conflict, Dutov stood for republican and democratic positions. Then he was called to Orenburg for the Extraordinary military circle, which became a continuous triumph for Dutov, who managed to fully reap the fruits of his work in Petrograd.
The first meeting on September 20 was opened with a welcoming speech by the first elected military ataman, General N.P. Maltsev, who, apparently, did not enjoy authority among the Cossacks. A.I. was elected Chairman of the Circle. Krivoshchekov. On the very first day, Dutov's welcoming speech was heard, and the speaker himself was elected honorary chairman of the Circle. On September 22, Dutov received the right to a decisive vote in the Circle. The next day, he spoke to the deputies of the Circle with a report on the political position of the Cossacks. According to reports, Dutov was extremely negative about the situation in the country, which seemed to him chaotic. The speech caused a great resonance among the listeners. On September 27, the work of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops, headed by Dutov, was highly appreciated by the deputies. On September 30, he was elected a candidate for deputy of the Constituent Assembly from the Orenburg Cossack army, and on October 1, by secret ballot, he was elected military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army and chairman of the military government. Dutov's powers were determined for a period of three years.
Dutov could triumph, but the autumn of 1917 was far from the most favorable time for the leaders of the Cossacks. On October 7, Dutov left for Petrograd to transfer his post as chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops and report to the Provisional Government on the state of affairs in the army. Soon he was approved in the ataman's position and promoted to colonel.
October 1917 - another milestone in the rapid rise of Dutov. By October, the 38-year-old Dutov had grown from a run-of-the-mill staff officer into a major figure known throughout Russia and popular among the Cossacks, albeit controversial. Of course, during 1917 he changed, developed in himself the will to fight, became both more demanding of himself and more ambitious. Perhaps not the last role in his rise was played by the feeling of dissatisfaction with himself that arose in him after the Academy, the desire to overcome the injustice committed against him under the old regime. And if by October he was already a very significant figure for Petrograd, then in the provincial Orenburg the scale of Dutov's personality seemed much larger. In addition, he was the only well-known Orenburg politician in the country. So, Dutov in 1917 is a figure created by the revolution. However, later, thanks to the scope that his activities acquired during the Civil War, Dutov in the public mind turned into a figure created by the counter-revolution.
In Petrograd, on October 15, Dutov resigned his positions as a member of commissions under the Provisional Government and was appointed chief food officer for the Orenburg Cossack army, Orenburg province and Turgai region with the powers of a minister. He held this position until January 1, 1918. It was Dutov, according to the testimony of General I.G. Akulinin, came up with the idea of holding in Petrograd on October 22, 1917, the day of the Kazan Mother of God, a general demonstration of all Cossack units of the Petrograd garrison. Lenin feared that this demonstration would frustrate his plans to seize power, but the Provisional Government itself did not allow the procession to take place. On October 22-23, the leader of the Bolsheviks wrote to Ya.M. Sverdlov: “The cancellation of the demonstration of the Cossacks is a gigantic victory. Hooray! advance iso all the forces and we will win in a few days! Best regards! Your". With the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops ceased to play any significant role, and in early December it was crushed.
On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began to work in his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on non-recognition of the violent seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. Dutov's actions were approved by the Commissioner of the Provisional Government, Lieutenant N.V. Arkhangelsky, representatives of local organizations and even the Orenburg Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, who condemned the actions of the Bolsheviks and promised not to speak in Orenburg until they received instructions from the party leadership from Petrograd on this matter (the Bolsheviks did not constitute a majority in the Soviet). By order of Dutov, the Cossacks and cadets occupied the station, post office, telegraph, rallies, meetings and demonstrations were banned. Orenburg was declared under martial law. Nevertheless, rallies were held in the city. Due to the unwillingness of the local Bolsheviks to obey, on the orders of Dutov, the Orenburg Bolshevik Club was closed, the literature stored there was confiscated, on November 5 the set of the 3rd issue was scattered and the further publication of the Proletary newspaper was prohibited, the editor of the newspaper A.A. Korostelev was detained, but ten hours later, under pressure from the "public", he was released.
Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communication with Turkestan and Siberia, and this also affected the food supply central Russia. Dutov's speech overnight made his name known throughout the country. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and the army until its convocation. On the whole, Dutov coped with this task. Personally, he could not take part in the work of the Constituent Assembly, although he was elected a deputy.
There were no military operations on the territory of the troops until the end of December, since the opposing sides did not have sufficient forces for this. At his disposal, Dutov had the Cossacks of the Orenburg Cossack reserve regiments and the cadets of the Orenburg Cossack School. In relation to the first period of the struggle, one can speak of Dutov's defensive strategy, which implied the exclusion of Bolshevik detachments from the province and the army.
On November 4, 27-year-old S.M. arrived in Orenburg from Petrograd. Zviling is a delegate to the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, appointed by the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee as Extraordinary Commissar of the Orenburg Governorate. He was a determined man who distinguished himself even during the years of the first Russian revolution by participating in robberies in Omsk and Tomsk, and even the Social Democrats then preferred to dissociate themselves from his actions. In November 1917, Zwiling proposed to replace the former provincial commissar Arkhangelsky, but he handed power over to Dutov, whom it was not so easy for Zwiling to replace. During the week after his arrival, Zviling spoke daily at rallies in front of the troops of the Orenburg garrison with calls to overthrow Dutov.
On the night of November 7, the leaders of the Bolsheviks were arrested and sent to the villages of Verkhne-Ozernaya and Nezhinskaya. Among the reasons for the arrest were not only calls for an uprising against the Provisional Government, the distribution of appeals and oral agitation among the soldiers of the Orenburg garrison and workers, but also Zwiling's statement about the opening of hostilities by the Bolsheviks, information about the movement of Bolshevik troops from Tashkent to Orenburg and the discovery of a wagon at the Orenburg station with hand grenades from Kazan. However, intensive agitation did its job, and on November 7 the Orenburg Soviet of Soldiers' Deputies was re-elected, the Bolsheviks acquired the leading role (90% of the seats). They were preparing to seize power, counting on the 104th, 105th and 238th infantry reserve regiments, which were part of the local garrison (in addition to these units, the Orenburg garrison included reserve battalions of the 48th infantry division). Eliminating the threat of a local Bolshevik coup in Orenburg itself became the main task for Dutov, and he coped with it.
Meanwhile, rather significant groups of officers began to arrive in Orenburg, including those who had already taken part in the battles with the Bolsheviks in Moscow, which strengthened the position of supporters of active armed resistance to the Reds. In particular, on November 7 from Moscow to Orenburg with the assistance of the sister of mercy M.A. Nesterovich managed to get through 120 officers and cadets (in November - at least 188). For "self-defense and combating violence and pogroms, no matter what side they come from," on November 8, the Orenburg City Duma established the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, chaired by the mayor V.F. Baranovsky; The Committee included 34 representatives of the Cossacks, city and zemstvo self-government, political parties (except for the Bolsheviks and Cadets), public and national organizations. Socialists played the leading role in it.
In response to the arrest of the Bolshevik leaders, on November 9, a strike of workers at the main railway workshops and depots began, and railway traffic stopped. On November 11 or 12, the Extraordinary Commissioner of the Orenburg province and Turgai region P.A. secretly arrived in Orenburg to clarify the situation. Kobozev, it was he who was to lead the fight against Dutov. The Orenburg Bolsheviks drew up an ultimatum to Dutov, which was supposed to be presented to the ataman after receiving a telegram from Kobozev indicating that he had gathered troops for the offensive. Kobozev left for Buzuluk, and in his absence, the Orenburg Bolsheviks, perhaps because of Zwiling's ambitions, decided to force things.
On November 14, the executive committee of the Orenburg Soviet was re-elected. On the night of November 15, on the initiative of Zwiling, the Council held a meeting in the building of the Caravanserai, which was attended by 125 people. At about two o'clock in the morning, a decision was made to create a military revolutionary committee and an order was immediately issued to transfer all power in Orenburg to the Military Revolutionary Committee. Opponents of the Bolsheviks reacted immediately. At the insistence of Dutov, the Committee decided to arrest the conspirators. The caravanserai was cordoned off by Cossacks, junkers and police, after which all those gathered were detained. Up to 36 members of the Orenburg Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies from the Bolshevik Party were arrested, some were sent to the villages, and later returned to prison, where they were kept in a sparing regime (already on the night of December 13, those arrested managed to escape). The Military Revolutionary Committee, and with it the threat of the Bolsheviks seizing power in the city, were eliminated.
At the end of November, Dutov was elected a deputy of the Constituent Assembly from the Orenburg Cossack army. The centers of two military districts were subordinate to Dutov (the territory of the army in military and administrative terms was divided into 3 military districts - the 1st (Orenburg), 2nd (Verkhneuralsky), 3rd (Troitsky), in the fall of 1918 was formed and 4 th (Chelyabinsk) military district) - Verkhneuralsk and Troitsk, as well as the cities of Orsk and (quite conditionally, only from November 2 to 20) Chelyabinsk. Thus, in November, Dutov formally placed the vast territory of the Southern Urals under his control. The demobilization of the Orenburg garrison was announced, which the soldiers had long dreamed of. The decomposing garrison (about 20,000 people) was disarmed by the forces of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Cossack Reserve Regiment, which made it possible to provide weapons for the detachments formed in Orenburg (the headquarters of the reserve regiments continued to exist in December). Dutov also mobilized older Cossacks.
In order to liquidate the strike of the railroad workers, on November 11, the Food Committee stopped issuing bread to the strikers, on November 15, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution made a similar decision regarding the wages of the strikers. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks began to blockade Orenburg, not letting food into the city by rail. Also, soldiers returning from the front were not allowed into Orenburg, which is why about 10,000 soldiers soon accumulated in the area between the stations of Kinel and Novosergievka. On November 22, Orenburg workers and railroad workers turned to Lenin for help. November 24 L.D. Trotsky in a conversation with the Bolshevik commander-in-chief N.V. Krylenko declared: “We offer you, Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, to immediately move in the direction of Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Orenburg such forces that, without shaking our front line, would be powerful enough to wipe out counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Cossack generals and the Kadet bourgeoisie.
The leaders of the Bolsheviks quickly realized how dangerous the performance of the Orenburg Cossacks was for them. On November 25, an appeal by the Council of People's Commissars to the population about the fight against Kaledin and Dutov appeared. The Southern Urals were declared under a state of siege, negotiations with the enemy were prohibited, the leaders of the Whites were outlawed, support was guaranteed for all Cossacks who went over to the side of Soviet power. Commissioner Kobozev informed the Council of People's Commissars about the announcement of the Orenburg province in a state of siege on December 2.
On the military circle in December 1917, supporters of the Bolsheviks T.I. Sedelnikov and podesaul I.D. Kashirin demanded the resignation of Dutov and the recognition of Soviet power, but their proposal was not supported. Dutov was again elected ataman, and on December 11, by a decree of the military circle, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, the Bashkir and Kyrgyz congresses, the Orenburg Military District was formed within the borders of the Orenburg province and Turgai region (commander - Dutov, chief of staff - Colonel I. G. Akulinin) . Ataman knew what processes were taking place on the outskirts of Russia and hoped that the autonomized Cossack and national outskirts could become the embryos of the future unification of the country on the anti-Bolshevik platform. In the meantime, he temporarily allowed some isolation of the Orenburg Cossack army and the Orenburg province.
On December 16, the ataman sent out an appeal to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. One of Dutov's letters was intercepted by the Tashkent Bolsheviks, did not reach the addressee and was then published in order to discredit Dutov. People and weapons were needed to fight the Bolsheviks; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to the fight. Those volunteer detachments that were organized in 1917 in the Southern Urals by Dutov mainly consisted of officers and young students; village squads were formed. Dutov managed to induce the merchants and townspeople to raise funds to organize the struggle.
In November-December 1917, Dutov's opponents had no idea of his weakness and were misinformed by information coming from Orenburg, in particular, information that Dutov had up to 7,000 Cossacks. In fact, due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers and students of military schools, no more than two thousand people in total, including old people and young people. Most of the combat-ready Cossacks had not yet returned from the front of the First World War, and those returning, as already mentioned, did not want to take up arms again, since the new government had not yet had time to prove itself, and there seemed to be nothing to fight for. It is interesting that in Soviet historiography there was a figure of "15,000 well-armed and trained fighters."
Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks were building up their forces. Already in December, the Reds gathered at least 5,000 people against Dutov from Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Perm, Ivashchenkov, Ufa, Buzuluk, Chelyabinsk, Moscow, Petrograd and other cities, as well as from Arkhangelsk, Asha-Balashovsky, Beloretsky, Bogoyavlensky, Katav- Ivanovsky, Minyarsky, Simsky, Tirlyansky and Yuryuzansky factories, however, the detachments that came out to fight Dutov were motley. However, it was far from a random rabble. For example, sailors Baltic Fleet, who were part of the consolidated Northern flying detachment of midshipman S.D. Pavlov, were recruited from the teams of the battleships "Andrew the First-Called" and "Petropavlovsk". The crews of these ships tore to pieces their own officers in Helsingfors in March 1917. In addition to the sailors, veterans of the revolutionary underground, who were in the militant detachments back in the years of the first Russian revolution, participated in the fight against Dutov at its initial stage. By the beginning of 1918, over 10,000 people were drawn to the fight against Dutov by the Reds.
On December 20, the Extraordinary Commissar Kobozev, who led the fight against Dutov, sent him an ultimatum. There was no answer. On December 23, the Reds went on the offensive. Their echelons reached the Platovka station, but it was possible to move further only with battles. The first battle with the use of artillery took place near the Syrt station. At the entrance to the Kargala station near Orenburg, the Reds discovered an officer detachment posted by Dutov and fled in a panic to Platovka, pursued by the Whites. On the stretch between Kargala and Perevolotsk, telegraph poles were sawn down, which was enough for the Reds to flee, who decided that the army had risen against them.
The offensive began almost simultaneously from the northwest and northeast - from Buzuluk and from Chelyabinsk. At the same time, the Reds tried to act by advancing from Turkestan from the direction of Tashkent. The overall leadership and coordination of actions was at a very low level, which the Reds themselves recognized. The first serious offensive of Kobozev's formations on Orenburg completely failed. At the same time, the offensive of the Bolsheviks in the Chelyabinsk region was crowned with success. On December 24, the Reds occupied the villages of Yemanzhelinsky and Nizhne-Uvelskaya, and on the night of December 25, Troitsk, the center of the 3rd military district of the Orenburg Cossack army (the Cossacks in Troitsk were carried away by the celebration of Christmas, which the Bolsheviks took advantage of.).
With the approval of the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution and the small military circle, on December 31, Dutov ordered an end to the pursuit of the enemy to occupy the Novosergievka station, since the territory subject to him would thus be cleared of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, it was supposed to set up a barrier on Novosergievka from officers, junkers and Cossack volunteers numbering 100-150 people with a machine gun and conduct close mounted and undercover reconnaissance, a reserve (200 Cossacks with a machine gun) was to be located at Platovka station. These parts had to be replaced periodically. The remaining forces were planned to be withdrawn to Orenburg.
During the second offensive of Kobozev on Orenburg on January 7, 1918, a strong battle took place east of Novosergievka, but the battles for the Syrt station, occupied by the Reds on January 13, were the most fierce. The Reds estimated the strength of Dutov's supporters, who retreated after that to Orenburg, at only 300 people.
Finally, on January 16, in the decisive battle near the Kargala station, the Reds could not be repulsed. On January 18, as a result of the retreat of the Cossacks and the uprising of the workers in the city itself, Orenburg was surrendered, the volunteer detachments were declared disbanded. Those who did not want to lay down their arms retreated in two directions: to Uralsk and Verkhneuralsk, or temporarily took refuge in the villages. The ataman himself had to hastily leave the military capital, accompanied by six officers, with whom he took military regalia out of the city. On January 19, the Reds entered the city. On the occupation of Orenburg, on January 22, Lenin sent a radiogram to “Everyone, everyone”: “Orenburg was taken by the Soviet authorities, and the leader of the Cossacks, Dutov, was defeated and fled.” Despite the demands of the Bolsheviks to detain Dutov, the promise of a reward for his capture and the almost complete absence of his guards, not one of the villages betrayed the army chieftain. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the army and went to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, which was far from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks without losing control of the army.
The basis of the new formation was the partisan detachments of military foremen G.V. Enborisov and Yu.I. Mamaeva, podesaulov V.A. Borodin and K.N. Mikhailov. On the territory of the district, Dutov's detachments held out until mid-April. In March, the Cossacks also surrendered Verkhneuralsk. After that, the Dutov government settled in the village of Krasninskaya, where by mid-April it was surrounded. At the military council, it was decided to break through to the south and, if it was not possible to stay on military land, to leave along the Ural River to the Kyrgyz steppes. There they thought to stay until the opportunity to resume the fight against the Bolsheviks opens up (there are obvious parallels with the Steppe campaign of the Don Cossacks). Dutov himself subsequently claimed that the Cossacks went on a campaign in order to get cartridges from the depots in Turgay, and also to rest after a tense struggle, that is, he denied the forced nature of the withdrawal, which was not true.
On April 17, having broken through the encirclement with the forces of four partisan detachments, as well as an officer platoon, Dutov escaped from Krasninskaya. This date can be considered the beginning of the 600-verst Turgai campaign. “The spring thaw did not allow them to be pursued (Cossacks. - A.G.), and they (the Cossacks - A.G.), breaking up into small groups in the Turgai region, dispersed in different directions, ”wrote V.K. Blucher. It is not clear whether the thaw was the decisive reason for their salvation. Probably, the intensification of rebel actions on the territory of the army also played a certain role. Blucher's instruction on the division of the Cossacks into "groups" does not correspond to reality either. On the way to Turgay, the Cossacks, on the contrary, united in one detachment. In Turgay, the partisans got significant food and ammunition depots left after the departure of the detachment of General A.D. Lavrentiev, who pacified the Kyrgyz unrest in 1916. In addition, the Cossacks got 2.5 million Romanov rubles. During their stay in the city (until June 12), the Cossacks had a rest, replenished the horse staff, updated the materiel.
The conflict between the old men and front-line soldiers that took place in the Orenburg Cossack army, as well as in other troops, prevented Dutov from uniting significant masses of Cossacks around him at the initial stage of the struggle. However, the new government, disregarding the Cossack traditions and way of life, spoke to the Cossacks mainly from a position of strength, which caused acute discontent among them, which quickly grew into an armed confrontation. For the majority of the Cossacks, the struggle against the Bolsheviks took on the character of a struggle for their rights and the very possibility of a free existence.
Thus, in the spring of 1918, out of touch with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st military district, led by a congress of delegates from 25 villages and a headquarters headed by military foreman D.M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed the detachment of the chairman of the council of the Iletsk Protection P.A. Persianov, April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya - a punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee S.M. Zviling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of military foreman N.V. Lukin made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for a while and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with cruel measures: they shot, burned the resisting villages (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and they imposed indemnities. As a result, by June, over 6,000 Cossacks took part in the insurrectionary struggle on the territory of the 1st Military District alone. At the end of May, the Cossacks of the 3rd military district, supported by the rebel Czechoslovaks, joined the movement.
In the 20th of May, a delegation of the Congress of the United Villages arrived in Turgay - a member of the military government G.G. Bogdanov and podesaul I.N. Pivovarov, who conveyed to Dutov the request of the chairman of the Congress, Krasnoyartsev, to come to the army and lead the fight against the Bolsheviks there. Krasnoyartsev, addressing Dutov, wrote: “Batko Ataman. I and the congress of 25 united villages ... having heard your proximity, we ask you to come to the village of Vetlyanskaya together with the government. You are needed, your name is on the lips of everyone, you will inhale even more unity, cheerfulness and uplift with your presence. The struggle has been going on for five months, and 11 machine guns, four good cannons have been beaten off and on hand ... The spirit is cheerful, there is hope, the Bolsheviks from Russia are chasing: Samara, Syzran, Penza, Kuznetsk, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Kamyshin are overthrown, the life of the Bolsheviks in them ends. The Urals are in league with us. Go help, there's a lot of work." Probably, with a similar proposal a little later, two Cossacks from Chelyabinsk, liberated from the Bolsheviks on May 26, 1918, arrived at Dutov, they reported on the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps and the uprising of the Cossacks of the 3rd district.
As a popular Cossack leader, Dutov could unite large masses of Cossacks around him. He was legally elected even under the Provisional Government, a military ataman, one of the most authoritative Cossack leaders. Among the commanders of the insurgent detachments and even fronts, junior officers, unknown to the bulk of the Cossacks, prevailed, while several staff officers (including those with an academic education) and members of the military government went on the campaign along with Dutov.
In view of the news of major anti-Bolshevik uprisings, the detachment returned to Orenburg, liberated from the Bolsheviks on July 3 by detachments under the command of military foremen Krasnoyartsev and N.P. Karnaukhov. Solemnly met Dutov and the military government of the Cossack capital. July 7, 1918, the day the partisan detachment of the Orenburg Cossack army entered Orenburg, should be considered the end date of the Turgai campaign. For the anti-Bolshevik movement in the Orenburg Cossack army, the importance of the Turgai campaign can hardly be overestimated. Having gone to the Turgai steppes, the Cossacks managed to preserve both their administration (ataman, military government) and the core of the ideological supporters of the anti-Bolshevik movement, around which the Orenburg Cossacks were later able to unite to further fight the Bolsheviks.
The liberation of the territory of the army from the Bolsheviks was undertaken from two sides: in the south - by the forces of the rebel detachments of the Orenburg Cossacks, in the north - by the combined forces of the Cossacks and parts of the Separate Czechoslovak Rifle Corps that rebelled against the Bolsheviks, and the Orenburg Cossack units in the north operated as part of the Siberian Army and subordinated to Provisional Siberian government. The delicacy of Dutov's position was that, as a result, the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army was divided between the Samara Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) and the Provisional Siberian government. Meanwhile, Dutov immediately upon his return to the army recognized Komuch and, as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly, became a member of it. On July 13, he left for Samara, from where he returned on July 19 in the new position of Komuch's chief commissioner in the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, the Orenburg province and the Turgai region.
Shortly after his return from Samara, he went to Omsk to establish contacts with Siberian politicians. This trip should not be considered a manifestation of a double game. The Orenburg ataman adhered to his own political line, kept an eye on those political forces that surrounded him, and sometimes flirted with both, trying to achieve maximum benefits for his army. Considering that the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army was divided between the Samara and Omsk governments, Dutov, as the ataman of the entire army, had to maintain relations with both. In terms of its political orientation, the coalition (from the Socialist-Revolutionaries to the monarchists, with a predominance of representatives of the right wing) the Provisional Siberian Government that existed in Omsk was much more to the right than the Socialist-Revolutionary Komuch, which was one of the reasons for the sharp disagreements between them. In this situation, Dutov's visit to Siberia was considered by the Socialist-Revolutionaries almost as a betrayal of Komuch's interests. Meanwhile, according to some reports, on July 24-25, 1918, an attempt was made on Dutov in Chelyabinsk, but the ataman was not injured.
On July 25, Dutov was promoted to major general by Komuch, but it seems that after a few days the leaders of the Committee regretted this. Dutov arrived in Omsk on July 26 and was received in the Council of Ministers in the evening of the same day; his first meeting with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Siberian Government P.V. Vologda. The Omsk visit caused an extremely negative reaction in Samara.
Following Dutov, Comrade Chairman Komuch and Head of the Department of Finance I.M. arrived in Omsk. Brushvit. Upon returning to Samara, Brushvit made the following report at the Committee meeting on August 9: “Having arrived in Siberia, I intended to talk with the Minister-Chairman of Vologda, but I did not manage to talk with him. I was denied admission. At this time, a meeting of the Siberian government was taking place together with Dutov. Dutov at first behaved rather modestly. But later he said: there is nothing serious in Samara. The army is led by Soviets. For these reasons, they allocated an active part of the Cossacks to liquidate the Samara Committee. He asks for the inclusion of the Cossacks in the Siberian Republic. Dutov's report was received unfavorably. However, he had several confidential conversations with Grishin-Almazov."
On August 4, Dutov returned from Omsk and took up operations at the front, and in addition, he was forced to explain himself to Samara. The fighting in August-September was characterized by attempts by the Orenburgers to take Orsk, the last center not controlled by the whites on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army. With varying success, there were battles in the Tashkent direction. After the capture of Orsk, Dutov planned to develop an offensive against Aktyubinsk and liquidate the entire southern front. However, this could only be achieved if all of Turkestan was completely liberated from the Reds, for which, given its colossal territory, very significant forces were needed. Such a task was unbearable for the Orenburgers; they could not count on any third-party assistance, with the exception of supplies. Attempts to take Orsk dragged on until the end of September, and already in early October, in connection with the collapse of the Volga front, the Buzuluk front was formed in the north, which became the main one for the Orenburgers.
According to his political sympathies in the summer of 1918, Dutov belonged to the liberal camp, most likely to the supporters of the Kadet party. The Orenburg ataman spoke very kindly about Komuch, which makes it possible to lay the blame for the further conflict on the representatives of Samara. The imaginary hostility up to a certain point was exclusively a figment of the fantasy of Komuch's figures. On August 12, against the background of the developing conflict with Komuch, Dutov took an unprecedented step - the autonomy of the territory of the army, which significantly strengthened his position as chieftain. The autonomization of the army was formally a manifestation of separatism, but Dutov himself was a statesman, not a separatist, it’s just that at that moment in Russia there was no supreme authority authoritative enough for the Cossacks, and by decree of August 12, the leaders of the Cossacks sought to protect the army from external dangers and ill-conceived decisions of this or that or other government (Samara or Omsk). Autonomization made Dutov more independent in conflict and negotiations with Komuch. Nevertheless, dependence on Samara for the supply of ammunition and food did not allow Dutov to completely break with Komuch.
As a result of Brushvit's report, apparently, already on August 13, a telegram from Samara was sent to Orenburg depriving Dutov of all the powers of Komuch. A member of Komuch V.V. was also sent to Orenburg. Podvitsky, who was considered a right SR, with the aim of subordinating the recalcitrant region to the Samara government. “These actions of the Committee,” Dutov wrote, “are clearly insulting, defiant, and yet there is no need to raise a sharp question, because just at that time the Bolsheviks went on the offensive, and again cartridges and shells were needed. These are the conditions under which you have to work.” The regime established by Dutov in the Southern Urals was relatively mild and tolerant of various political currents, up to the Menshevik. Obviously, in order to strengthen his position, Dutov sought to enlist the support of the widest possible spectrum of political forces.
Meanwhile, Dutov’s position, not only on the political scene of the White East of Russia, but even in the Orenburg Cossack army itself, upon returning from Turgay, became precarious: political opponents appeared in the Cossack leadership, an opposition began to form, which most clearly manifested itself in the second half of 1918 .
In order to eliminate partisanship in the armed formations of the Orenburg Cossacks as soon as possible, and at the same time to weaken the opposition of the former rebels, Dutov made a successful attempt to unify the Cossack units in order to create in the future his own Cossack army, on which one could rely entirely (decree of the military government No. August 31, 1918). A month and a half after this reorganization, the South-Western Army was created, the basis of which was the Orenburg Cossack units.
The schedule of Dutov's daily work has been preserved. His working day began at 8 am and lasted at least 12 hours with virtually no break. Dutov was completely accessible to ordinary people- any person could come to the ataman with their questions or problems.
At the September State Conference in Ufa, the purpose of which was to create a unified state power in the territory not controlled by the Bolsheviks, Dutov was elected a member of the Council of Elders of the Conference and chairman of the Cossack faction. Dutov spoke at the Meeting only once, on September 12, with a secret report on the difficult situation at the front, and in this report he emphasized the need to create a unified command and central authority. The main outcome of the work of the State Conference was the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government (Directorate). In its orientation, the government of the white east of Russia turned out to be Kadet-Socialist-Revolutionary and did not receive recognition from either the left or the right. That is why the fall of the Directory and the coming to power of Admiral A.V. Kolchak were relatively painless.
On September 28, the Cossacks took Orsk, the last of the cities on the territory of the troops occupied by the Bolsheviks. Thus, the territory of the army was completely cleared of the Reds for some time. This success was largely ensured by Ataman Dutov himself, who, despite the strong opposition to his power from the Social Revolutionaries from the military intelligentsia and part of the rebel leaders, managed to retain sole power and subjugate the previously independent rebel partisan detachments, bringing them to the traditional form of the Cossack units. For the capture of Orsk, Dutov, by decision of the Military Circle, was promoted to lieutenant general on October 1, officially the production was carried out “for services to the Motherland and the Army” and approved by the Supreme Commander of all land and naval armed forces of Russia, General V.G. Boldyrev.
Upon the liberation of the territory of the troops, most of the Cossacks, considering their task completed, sought to disperse to the villages and take care of the household. This, of course, played into the hands of the Bolsheviks. The retreat of the Whites from the Volga region turned the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army into a front line.
At Headquarters, it was decided to transform the Cossack and army formations in the area into a separate army, called the South-Western. The name of the army was explained by the fact that this association included in its composition all the anti-Bolshevik forces of the southwestern direction in relation to the Headquarters in Ufa. The Southwestern Army was formed on October 17, mainly from units of the Orenburg Cossack army; however, it also included the Ural and Astrakhan Cossack units, however, along with the South-Western army, there was also the Ural army (orders for the army for 1918 are known), which, apparently, had tactical independence. Naturally, Dutov was appointed commander of the army. The headquarters of the Southwestern Army owned only the general management of the operations of the Urals, which is reflected in the orders for the army. Their subordination to Dutov was purely formal (however, the same as their subordination to Kolchak and Denikin), since for a long time the Urals fought separately from their allies in anti-Bolshevik struggle. As of December 28, 1918, Dutov's army consisted of 23 battalions and 230 hundreds, or 10,892 bayonets and 22,449 sabers, of which 2,158 bayonets and 631 sabers were in the reserve of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The number of hundreds in the army was 10 times the number of battalions!
In the second half of 1918 - the first half of 1919, the fate of Russia was decided in the fierce struggle in the Urals. The situation on the front of the Southwestern Army developed as follows. The Buzuluk group of Colonel F.E. was included in the army. Makhina. Makhin himself was appointed commander of the troops of the Tashkent group and commander of the Orenburg Cossack Plastun division, and on October 20 he left for Ak-Bulak, and the head of the 2nd Syzran rifle division, Colonel A.S., took command of the troops of the Buzuluk group. Bakich. In addition to the Buzuluk and Tashkent groups, the Ural group under the command of General V.I. Akutina. The task of the army was to hold back the advance of the Reds, and in the Buzuluk direction it was supposed to keep the defense on supposedly fortified positions - until the formation of the Orenburg Cossack consolidated division, after which the offensive was probably supposed. The Ural group was supposed to defend in the Saratov direction and cover the Ural region, as well as get in touch with the Astrakhan Cossack army and the troops of Colonel L.F. Bicherakhov, operating on the western coast of the Caspian Sea. Only the Tashkent group of Makhin, after the regrouping, was supposed to go on a decisive offensive and take Aktyubinsk, preparing "for a non-stop advance on Tashkent." However, fighting happiness changed Dutov. On October 29, Buzuluk fell, and from the second half of November, the Reds launched an offensive against Orenburg.
On November 18, as a result of a coup in Omsk, Kolchak came to power, who became the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander of all the land and sea armed forces of Russia. The reaction of political and military figures in the East of Russia to the Omsk events was far from unequivocal. On November 20, 1918, one of the first among them recognized Kolchak's supreme power and Ataman Dutov entered his operational subordination, which largely influenced the choice of other leaders. There were also dissatisfied with the coup. In particular, after the fall of the Directory of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, he declared Kolchak an "enemy of the people" and sentenced him to death in absentia.
On November 23, the military ataman of the Transbaikal Cossack army, Colonel G.M. Semenov sent Prime Minister P.V. Vologda, Supreme Commissioner of the Directory in the Far East, General D.L. A telegram to the Croat and Ataman Dutov, in which he indicated that he was protesting against the candidacy of Kolchak, and that he would accept only Denikin, Horvat or Dutov as the Supreme Ruler. The nomination of Dutov's candidacy was the initiative of Semenov himself, Dutov did not know about this, however, such an initiative compromised him to some extent before the supreme authority, although he did not claim it, probably not wanting to take responsibility and not considering himself for this capable enough. On December 1, Dutov sent a letter to Semyonov, one of his former pupils, urging him to recognize Kolchak.
With the advent of Kolchak to power, the socialists made a number of unsuccessful attempts at revenge. One of the most dangerous for white movement can be called an attempt to seize power as a result of a conspiracy against Ataman Dutov in Orenburg. The danger of the Orenburg conspiracy for the whites was that among its organizers were representatives of several diverse and influential political forces: V.A. Chaikin, Bashkir leader A.-Z. Validov, the Kazakh leader M. Chokaev, the Social Revolutionary, the commander of the Aktobe group of the Orenburg Cossack army Makhin and the ataman of the 1st military district, Colonel K.L. Kargin. Having seized power, the conspirators could split the anti-Bolshevik camp in eastern Russia and thereby lead to the fall of the entire Eastern Front, the defeat of Kolchak.
Validov, judging by his memoirs, hated Kolchak more than many Social Revolutionaries, and was constantly negotiating by direct wire with members of the Constituent Assembly in Ufa. To coordinate the underground work, a member of the Central Committee, the leader of the Turkestan Social Revolutionaries and a politician of the extreme left, V.A., arrived in Orenburg. Chaikin is an old friend of Validov; they easily found a common language.
Together with another future conspirator, a deputy from the Fergana region, Chokaev, Chaikin fled Chelyabinsk on November 22, 1918. It was then, according to Chokaev's memoirs, that they came up with a plan to liberate Turkestan from the Reds, for which it was necessary to remove Dutov. On November 6 and 25, Validov inspected units loyal to him at the front, where he met with future conspirators: Makhin and Kargin (Kargin came from the same village of Buranna as Makhin's father), agreeing with them on measures against Dutov. Makhin and Kargin differed in their left-wing views, and the first was a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party almost from 1906, and the second before the revolution was under covert police surveillance for some time.
On the night of December 2, the conspirators held their only meeting in Orenburg, in the building of Caravanserai, the seat of the Bashkir government. The meeting, according to Chokaev's memoirs, was attended by Validov, Chokaev, Makhin, Kargin and Chaikin. The conspirators approved the composition of the future united government of the three countries (Kazakhstan, Bashkurdistan, the Cossack state). Makhin was to become commander in chief, Kargin was to become the military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army (instead of Dutov), Validov was scheduled to be the ruler of Bashkurdistan, S. Kadirbaev of Kazakhstan (representative of Alash-Orda in Orenburg), Chokaev was to become minister of foreign relations; Chaikin also received a position in the future government. At that time, four Bashkir rifle regiments, the Ataman division of the Orenburg Cossack army, the 1st Orenburg Cossack reserve regiment, an escort hundred and guard company, as well as artillery and technical units were stationed in Orenburg. The conspirators, relying on the Bashkir units, had every reason to count on success.
However, Lieutenant A.-A. Veliyev (Akhmetgali), a Tatar merchant from Chelyabinsk, informed the commandant of Orenburg, Captain A. Zavaruev, about the secret meeting. He, in turn, warned the head of the Orenburg military district, General Akulinin, about this. The Ataman division and the reserve regiment were immediately put on alert, the Caravanserai and the barracks of the Bashkir units were monitored, Russian officers who served in the Bashkir regiments were called to the commandant of the city. During the night, the conspirators tried to gather units loyal to them at the Orenburg station, which was in their hands. However, realizing that the initiative had passed to Dutov's supporters, Validov left the city at noon on December 2, seizing all the wagons available. The conspiracy against Dutov and Kolchak failed. Dutov managed to keep the troops under his control, destroying the plans of the socialists.
Dutov fought hard not only with real opposition, but in general with any threats to his power. This was most clearly manifested in the case of a member of the military government, Colonel V.G. Rudakov, whom Dutov simply betrayed in order to prove his loyalty to the Supreme Ruler Kolchak. No less harshly, using intrigues, Dutov fought with his potential competitor for the post of military ataman, General N.T. Sukin. Such reprehensible methods of one of the largest Cossack leaders of the period of the Civil War could not but affect the overall outcome of the White Struggle in the East of Russia.
By order of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander No. 92 of December 28, 1918, the Southwestern Army was divided into separate Orenburg and Ural armies under the command of Generals Dutov and N.A. Saveliev. On January 21, 1919, the whites left Orenburg, which had an extremely unfavorable effect on the mood of the Cossacks. The very next day, units of the 24th Simbirsk Iron Rifle Division and the cavalry of the Red Turkestan Army, which had broken through from the south, entered Orenburg. Soon after leaving Orenburg, the military government and the ataman moved first to Orsk, and then to Troitsk.
Considering the main task to prevent the Reds from establishing a regular railway connection with Turkestan, Dutov fought for every piece of the railway track on the section between the Iletsk Protection and Aktyubinsk that was still under the control of the Cossacks. Preventing the connection of Turkestan with Soviet Russia was one of the most important strategic tasks, and, to the credit of the Southwestern, Separate Orenburg and Southern armies, which are sometimes considered almost worthless associations, this task was successfully solved until the end of hostilities in the Southern Urals in the fall of 1919 Mr. Dutov himself, recalling this difficult period, said: “One of the best parts of the Bolshevik army acted against us ... the so-called“ iron division ”under the command of Guy ... They had excellent weapons, there was excellent discipline at first. Our position was sometimes very difficult. But... I never despaired!”.
In January 1919, units of the Separate Orenburg Army, having lost contact with the Separate Ural Army, retreated to the east, deep into the territory of the army. The Reds developed their success by advancing along the Orskaya line railway. A separate Orenburg army retreated with heavy fighting. On February 13, the Council of Ministers in Omsk decided to establish the position of chief chief of the Orenburg Territory with the Orenburg province subordinate to him (without the Trinity and Chelyabinsk districts), as well as the Kustanai and Aktobe districts of the Turgai region. The decision on the inclusion of the Trinity and Chelyabinsk districts in the region was left to the discretion of the command. Dutov was appointed head of the region with the rights of a governor-general. As a result of the retreat of Dutov's troops, the territory of the Orenburg province subordinate to him was minimal (in fact, only part of the Orsk and Verkhneuralsk districts). Too many responsibilities were already entrusted to Dutov, in connection with which he could not start working in his new post for a month.
Dutov's activities in his new capacity focused primarily on the complications associated with the national question: the betrayal of a part of the Bashkirs, headed by the head of the Bashkir military department, Validov, was ripe. After almost three months of secret negotiations, on February 18, the Bashkirs went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and opened the front to them. Already in December-February, before the actual transition to the side of the Reds, the Bashkirs showed disobedience to the command of the South-Western and Separate Orenburg armies, acted independently, and the Bashkir leadership transferred secret information about the White troops to the Reds. The main reason for the betrayal was, obviously, the political predilections and ambitions of the Bashkir leadership, in particular, Validov himself, a supporter of the Social Revolutionaries, who considered Kolchak and Dutov to be his worst enemies. It should also be noted that the white command lacked the necessary flexibility in resolving the extremely painful national issue. The Bolsheviks, despite initial hesitations, hastened to satisfy all the demands of the Bashkirs (broad autonomy), if only the latter would come over to their side.
As a result of the betrayal of the Bashkirs, a gap formed at the junction of the Western and Separate Orenburg armies, which the Reds were not slow to take advantage of, and an urgent need arose to restore communication between the two White armies. To do this, the left flank of the Western Army was supposed to stretch to the village of Kizilskaya, the II Orenburg Cossack Corps was formed, and the IV Orenburg Army Corps was to provide the right flank of the Separate Orenburg Army and communication with the Western Army. Subsequently, to cover the gap, the Western Army formed the Southern Group on its left flank under the command of General P.A. Belova (G.A. Wittekopf).
Failures led to the fact that the morale of the troops dropped sharply, the Cossacks began to arbitrarily go home and run over to the Reds. The significant overwork of the troops and the shortcomings of the militia staffing of the units also had an effect. To increase the morale of the troops, Dutov had to disband unreliable units, take measures to strengthen discipline, and reform the command staff of the army.
In early March, the Western Army of General M.V. Khanzhina went on the offensive, the ultimate goal of which was to be the occupation of Moscow. On March 13, Ufa was taken by parts. Successes on the front of Khanzhin's army from the second half of March strengthened the position of the entire left flank of the white Eastern Front. On March 18, the simultaneous offensive of the units of the Southern Group of the Western Army and the Separate Orenburg Army began.
From the first days of April, Dutov no longer actually commanded the Separate Orenburg Army, but went to Omsk and worked there political activities. From April 7 until the very disbandment of the army, Dutov was replaced (with a break from April 18 to April 25) by his chief of staff, General A.N. Vagin. Thus, it is hardly appropriate to blame Ataman Dutov for any military failures of this period - he no longer had anything to do with them.
On April 9, Dutov arrived in Omsk. In an official interview, he named some of the purposes of his visit: 1) military issues; 2) the question of the new borders of the Orenburg Territory; 3) national question- relations with Bashkirs and Kirghiz; 4) the question of the seeding of fields due to crop failure in 1918.
The Omsk period of Dutov's life was far from cloudless. Active participation him in Omsk political life gave rise to General Baron A.P. Budberg (assistant to the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief) to speak of him as a person "poking his nose everywhere." According to the correspondent of the newspaper Sibirskaya Rech, who spoke with Dutov for the first time in the summer of 1918, over the past months “the general has changed noticeably. Fatigue, exhaustion are poured into his features. The wrinkles around the lips became deeper and sharper. Only the eyes - black and shiny, still burn with iron will and prowess.
May 23 Separate Orenburg Army was reorganized into the South. The Headquarters, apparently, realized the impossibility of an independent struggle of the Cossack cavalry without the support of the army infantry (the cavalry could not storm the fortified areas in the railroad strip, and military operations were tied specifically to it) and created a mixed army with a significant proportion of the Orenburg Cossacks (over 45%). Kolchak appointed Dutov as a marching ataman of all Cossack troops and inspector general of the cavalry, while also retaining the post of military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack troops.
On May 27, Dutov took up his new duties. Initially, its headquarters was located in Yekaterinburg, later moved to Omsk. The position of a marching chieftain and cavalry inspector was considered almost an honorable resignation (this is also indicated by the initial location of the headquarters of the marching chieftain in Yekaterinburg), however, most likely, Kolchak sought to strengthen the status of Dutov, which was incomprehensible after the disbandment of the Separate Orenburg Army, who had long been in Omsk.
Not only Dutov enjoyed the support of Kolchak, but the Supreme Ruler himself benefited from the support of such an authoritative and energetic figure as Dutov was. There is information that on May 29 Dutov left for Yekaterinburg and further to Perm to clarify the situation on the eve of Kolchak's visit to the city to resolve the conflict with the commander of the Siberian Army, General R. Gaida. On the eve of his arrival in Perm, Kolchak considered the most different variants solution of this conflict, up to the use of force, for which he took his convoy with him on a trip and ordered the battalion of the Headquarters guards, who was in Yekaterinburg, to be brought to a state of high combat readiness. Apparently, in order to resolve the issue peacefully and preserve the prestige of the supreme power, Kolchak needed Dutov's assistance in negotiations with Gaida. Kolchak visited Perm on the night of June 1, apparently immediately after Dutov's arrival. The Orenburg ataman took part in negotiations with Gaida, even asked Kolchak for rebel general which contributed to a compromise resolution of the situation. And in the future, Dutov, for reasons that are still unclear, supported Gaida in various issues.
June 2 Kolchak, Dutov, Gaida and V.N. Pepelyaev left Perm for Yekaterinburg, where they were joined by General M.K. Dieterichs; On June 4, Kolchak, Gaida, Diterikhs and Dutov returned to Omsk. Then Dutov went on an inspection tour of the Cossack troops Far East, where he led the fight against the partisan movement, and also established relationships between the supreme state power and local chieftains G.M. Semenov, I.P. Kalmykov and I.M. Gamow, who oriented their policy towards Japan. The main result of Dutov's trip was the reorientation of Omsk towards cooperation with local chieftains in the fight against the partisan movement. The chosen course strengthened the significance of the Cossacks in Kolchak's policy. The chieftains themselves tried to demonstrate their complete loyalty to the Supreme Ruler, but they did not give a single unit to the Eastern Front. Dutov returned to Omsk only on August 12.
On September 18, 1919, the Southern Army was renamed the Orenburg Army, and on September 21, Dutov took command of it (in fact, he was forced to stay in Omsk to participate in the work of the Cossack conference). Dutov and his chief of staff, General Zaitsev, arrived at the troops when they were in the area of the cities of Atbasar and Kokchetav. Dutov took on a difficult economy - the army collapsed and relentlessly retreated across the bare, deserted steppe, lacking food. Typhus raged, which by mid-October had wiped out up to half of the personnel. On October 14, the 5th Soviet Army crossed the Tobol and went on the offensive. The Whites retreated to the next line - the Ishim River. On the evening of October 23, the Reds (Kokchetav group of the 5th Army) began to develop the offensive and on October 29, having occupied Petropavlovsk, they began an almost non-stop pursuit of the Whites along the Trans-Siberian Railway. On the left flank of the white Eastern Front, Dutov's troops retreated to Ishim in order to take up defense along this river, covering the concentration of the main forces of the army. From the Atbasar-Kokchetav region, it was convenient to launch a flank attack on the 5th Army, which was advancing along the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, due to a significant increase in the typhus epidemic and the onslaught of the Reds, it was not possible to gain a foothold on Ishim. Dutov ordered to continue moving towards Atbasar with a forced march. Retreating, the troops lost contact with the enemy. On November 6, news was received about the renaming of the Orenburg Army into a Separate Orenburg Army. On the same day, the concentration of the army was suspended. Parts took up defensive positions in the Atbasar-Kokchetav region. Until the news of the surrender of Omsk, left by the Whites on November 14, was received on November 19, the army stood still, on the front of the still most combat-ready IV Orenburg Army Corps, General Bakich, it was calm. Only after receiving news of the fall of the capital of white Siberia, the retreat was continued, at the same time, the Reds reactivated.
During this period, Dutov developed a plan for partisan actions. This plan was set out in detail by him in a telegram to Kolchak and Sakharov, but it hardly found any application. On November 22, it became known that the Reds were bypassing Atbasar from the north and north-west and entering the rear of Dutov's army. On November 25-26, the enemy attacked at the front, and in addition, skillfully maneuvering, on the night of November 26, he bypassed Akmolinsk from the north and captured it. Later, the Reds continued to operate in the rear of the Separate Orenburg Army and advanced in the direction of Karkaralinsk, where the army headquarters was located.
The hardships that fell to the lot of the retreating units of Dutov can, perhaps, be compared only with those experienced by the troops of the Separate Ural Army, which almost completely died in Turkestan in early 1920. In the full sense of the word, for the Orenburgers, it was a “Hunger Campaign” - just that the name already in exile was received by the campaign of army units along the practically lifeless northern Hungry steppe in Semirechye in late November-December 1919. Truly, this was the way of the cross of the Separate Orenburg Army, whose troops retreated through a sparsely populated, hungry area, spending the night in the open. They slaughtered and ate horses and camels. Everything was taken away from the local population - food, fodder, clothes, sleds, but even this was not enough for the many thousands of people. For everything requisitioned, as a rule, money was paid, although not always in the proper amount. Mortality from cold and exhaustion increased, rivaling that from typhus. The seriously ill were left to die in settlements, the dead did not have time to bury and burdened the local residents with this sad rite. The troops moved in large transitions, breaking away from the enemy. The lagging behind single soldiers and Cossacks were often attacked by the Kirghiz, and it was impossible even to find out where the person had disappeared.
On December 1, the Reds captured Semipalatinsk, and on December 10 they took Barnaul, leaving Dutov's troops no chance to connect with the main forces of the White Eastern Front. The only way of further withdrawal was possible - in Semirechye, where units of General B.V. Annenkov. On December 13, Karkaralinsk was occupied by the Reds. Until the end of December, Dutov's troops retreated to Sergiopol. This segment of the journey (550 versts) was one of the most difficult. Data on the number and losses of Dutov's army during the Hunger March vary greatly. The closest to reality should be considered the option according to which out of the 20,000-strong army in the Kokchetav region, about half of the composition reached Sergiopol.
The arrival in Semirechie of emaciated, exhausted Dutovites, 90% of whom were sick with various forms of typhus, was met with hostility by the Annenkovites, who were relatively prosperous here, there were even cases of armed clashes. One of the participants in the White movement on the Eastern Front, who described himself as “a simple Russian intellectual ... who, by the will of fate, put on the uniform of the army of Admiral Kolchak,” noted that “having listened to all the stories of local residents, eyewitnesses, and judging by Annenkov’s attitude towards the Orenburgers, for it became clear to us that we ended up in the most - after the Bolsheviks - place without rights, and if anything, the ataman (Annenkov. - A.G.) gets into his head, then he will do with us.
By order of Dutov on the Separate Orenburg Army No. 3 of January 6, 1920, all units, institutions and establishments of the army were reduced to a separate "Ataman Dutov Detachment" under the command of General Bakich. Dutov himself became the civil governor of the Semirechensk Territory and settled in Lepsinsk. Perhaps Annenkov was afraid of competition from his more famous rival and sought to remove Dutov from the army. Dutov's detachment was included in Annenkov's Separate Semirechensk Army and subordinated to the latter in all respects. Dutov's last order to the army said: “The heavy cross fell to the lot of the Separate Orenburg Army. By the will of fate, the troops had to make very long, almost continuous for six months, movements - first from the region of the Orenburg province to Aral Sea, then through Irgiz, Turgai and Atbasar to the Kokchetav-Petropavlovsk region. From here through Akmolinsk and Karkaralinsk to the area of Sergiopol. All those difficulties, hardships and various hardships that the troops of the Orenburg army endured during this long march through the desert-steppe regions defy description. Only impartial history and grateful posterity will appreciate military service, labor and deprivation of truly Russian people, devoted sons of their Motherland, who, for the sake of saving their Fatherland, selflessly meet all kinds of torment and torment.
In March 1920, Dutov and his supporters had to leave their homeland and retreat to China through the Kara Saryk glacial pass (at an altitude of 5800 m). Exhausted people and horses walked without a supply of food and fodder, following the mountain ledges, it happened that they fell into the abyss. The ataman himself before Chinese border was lowered on a rope from a sheer cliff almost unconscious. In China, Dutov's detachment was interned in the city of Suiding, settling in the barracks of the Russian consulate. Dutov did not lose hope of resuming the fight against the Bolsheviks. It was with his activities in Soviet historiography that the preparation of the uprising in the Naryn district in November 1920 was associated. He maintained contact with the leaders of the Basmachi, made attempts to organize an anti-Bolshevik underground in the ranks of the Red Army.
To unite all the anti-Bolshevik forces of Western China for a campaign against Soviet Russia, Dutov was not up to the task. Nevertheless, on August 12 (July 30), 1920, Dutov issued Order No. 141 on the unification of anti-Bolshevik forces in Western China into the Orenburg Separate Army. In fact, Dutov's order was necessary, but the Orenburg ataman exceeded his capabilities and did not take into account the changed circumstances under which the commanders of the white detachments that had gone over to China actually turned out to be independent bosses.
The concern of the Soviet leadership about the presence of significant organized and hardened anti-Bolshevik forces near the borders of Soviet Russia is understandable, especially since the Whites themselves did not lose hope of overthrowing the Bolshevik regime. Dutov's anti-Bolshevik activities and his unquestioned authority among the Cossacks prompted Moscow to take drastic measures. A special operation was prepared, initially to kidnap, and later to eliminate Dutov. Under the guise of a like-minded person from Russia, the Soviet agent K.G. penetrated to the ataman. Chanyshev. On February 6, 1921, Dutov was killed in his apartment by one of Chanyshev's subordinates, M. Khodzhamiarov, two guards were mortally wounded while trying to resist. The killers managed to escape. This murder was, apparently, the first in a series of similar foreign liquidations carried out by the Soviet special services.
So tragically ended the life of the ataman - General A.I. Dutov, who laid the foundation for the White movement in the East of Russia. Ataman Dutov and the Cossacks who died with him were buried in a small cemetery near Suidin. According to some reports, a few days later, Dutov's grave was dug up at night, and the body was beheaded: the killers had to provide proof of the execution of the order. Apparently, this cemetery, like many other Russian cemeteries in China, was destroyed during the "cultural revolution".
The elimination of such a major political and military figure as Dutov dealt a severe blow to the Orenburg Cossacks. Of course, Dutov was not an ideal person, he did not stand out for his abilities, he had numerous weaknesses inherent in ordinary people, but at the same time he nevertheless showed qualities that allowed him to Time of Troubles stand at the head of one of the largest Cossack troops in Russia, create your own completely out of nothing efficient army and lead a merciless struggle against the Bolsheviks; he became the spokesman of hopes, and sometimes even the idol of hundreds of thousands of people who believed him.
To home
Defeated by the Red Army and found themselves outside of Russia, the leaders of the White movement did not at all consider their struggle to be over and did not get tired of making loud statements about the imminent new liberation campaign.
The Bolsheviks decided not to wait until life itself answered how real these dreams were and began to delete their enemies from political life one by one. They were tricked into the territory of Soviet Russia, where they were arrested and tried, persuaded to return to the USSR, and abducted. But more often than not, they were eliminated right on the spot. The first such operation of the Cheka, which ended in success, was the assassination of Ataman Dutov.
Irreconcilable fighter against the Bolsheviks
Ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks Alexander Ilyich Dutov was not an ordinary Cossack. Born in 1879 in the family of a Cossack general, he graduated from the Orenburg Cadet Corps, then the Nikolaev Cavalry School, and in 1908 - the Academy of the General Staff.
By November 1917, Colonel Dutov had two wars behind him (Russian-Japanese and German), orders, wounds, shell shock. He was very popular among the Cossacks, who elected him a delegate to the II General Cossack Congress in Petrograd, and then chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops.
The Orenburg Cossack ataman Dutov began to fight the Bolsheviks from the very first day. On November 8, 1917, he signed an order on non-recognition in the Orenburg province of the coup committed by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd and assumed full executive power.
The vast territory of the Orenburg province was cleared of the Bolsheviks, and the Cossack ataman Dutov and his Orenburg army were the masters here. In November 1918, he unconditionally recognized the power of Kolchak, believing that in the name of a common victory he should sacrifice personal ambitions.
In September 1919, Kolchak's army finally ran out of steam. One military defeat followed another. The Orenburg army was also defeated. On April 2, 1920, Dutov and the remnants of his troops (about 500 people) crossed the Russian-Chinese border. The ataman himself settled in the border fortress of Suidun, most of the Cossacks settled in the nearby city of Ghulja.
Not resigned to defeat
Dutov immediately declared that he was not going to add up: "The struggle is not over. Defeat is not yet a rout" and issued an order to unite all anti-Bolshevik forces into the Orenburg Separate Army. His words "I will go out to die on Russian soil and will not return to China" became the banner under which the soldiers and officers who ended up in China gathered.
For the Turkestan Chekists, Dutov became problem No. 1. Cells of the white underground were discovered in the Semirechensk region, in the cities of Omsk, Semipalatinsk, Orenburg, and Tyumen. Dutov's appeals were found in the cities: "What is Ataman Dutov striving for?", "Appeal to the Bolshevik", "Ataman Dutov's word to the Red Army", "Appeal to the population of Semirechie", "Peoples of Turkestan", etc.
In June 1920, the garrison of the city of Verny (Alma-Ata) rebelled against Soviet power. In November, the 1st battalion of the 5th border regiment mutinied, and the city of Naryn was captured. And the strings from all these defeated underground organizations and suppressed rebellions led to the Suidun border fortress to Ataman Dutov.
In autumn, the KGB intercepted the emissary Dutov in Fergana. It turned out that the ataman was conducting very successful negotiations with the Basmachi about a simultaneous attack on Soviet Russia. In the event of the first successes of the joint offensive of the Orenburg Separate Army and the "warriors of Allah", Afghanistan could join the game. And in the center of all this stood Ataman Dutov.
In the bowels of the Cheka, a bold idea arose to steal the formidable ataman and try him in an open proletarian court. But who will undertake and, most importantly, will be able to get close to the ataman and complete the task? They began to look for such a person. And they found him.
"Prince" Chanyshev
Kasimkhan Chanyshev was born in the border town of Dzharkent (29 km from the border) into a wealthy Tatar family. He was considered a descendant of a prince or even a khan. For decades, the Chanyshev merchants had been smuggling opium and antler antlers with China, knew secret paths across the border, and had a network of suppliers and informers. Kasymkhan was desperately brave and he himself repeatedly walked across the border with a group of jigits personally devoted to him.
In addition to his native Tatar, he knew Russian and Chinese. He was a devout Muslim, respected Sharia law, and even before the revolution he made a hajj to Mecca. No one would be surprised if Kasymkhan became one of the leaders of the Basmachi movement during the revolution. But life sometimes throws out just amazing knees.
In 1917, Kasymkhan joined the Bolsheviks, and in 1918 he formed a Red Guard detachment from his horsemen, captured Jankert, established Soviet power in it, and took on the troublesome position of the head of the district police.
At the same time, Chanyshev's uncle (a highly respected wealthy merchant) lived in China in the city of Ghulja, Kasymkhan's father's gardens were confiscated, and numerous relatives suffered from dispossession. According to the Chekists, Chanyshev could well play the role of someone offended by the Soviet Power, and his position as chief of police was supposed to be the bait that Ataman Dutov would fall for.
Operation started
In September 1920, Chanyshev, with several horsemen, made his first trip to Ghulja. It was assumed that in the city Chanyshev would meet with Milovsky, who lived there - the former mayor of Dzhankert (once he and Chanyshev were connected by "trade matters"), and then - "act according to the circumstances," as the representative of the Cheka told Chanyshev. Chanyshev returned a few days later.
His report immensely delighted the Chekists. Kasymkhan managed not only to meet with Milovsky, but also got in touch with Colonel Ablaykhanov, who served as an interpreter under Dutov, and he promised Chanyshev to organize a meeting with the ataman.
Chanyshev went across the border five more times, met Dutov twice, managed to convince him of his dislike for the Soviet Power, of the existence of an underground organization in Dzhankert, handed over a certain amount of weapons and "got" a man of ataman - a certain Bad.
One of Chanyshev's horsemen, Makhmud Khodzhamiarov, regularly delivered messages from Nekhoroshko to Suidun: a spy reported that everything was ready in Dzhankert and they were just waiting for the ataman to start an uprising. As soon as the Dutovites crossed the border, Chanyshev's militiamen would seize the city, surrender it, and join Dutov themselves.
In turn, the Chekists received information about the forces that Dutov had. And the information was disturbing.
Things get tougher, plans change
According to Chanyshev, the ataman had at his disposal 5-6 thousand bayonets, two guns, four machine guns. In Ghulja, Dutov organized a factory for the manufacture of rifle cartridges. The Orenburg Separate Army was not at all a myth, as some had hoped. In addition, Dutov had connections with underground organizations in Przhevalsk, Talgar, Verny, Bishkek, Omsk, Semipalatinsk, who were ready to revolt at his signal.
In early January 1921, several clashes between peasants and food detachment fighters took place in the Peganovskaya volost of the Ishim district. In a few days, unrest swept the entire county and spread to the neighboring Yalutorovsky. This was the beginning of the West Siberian uprising, which will soon cover the Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg provinces and in which about 100,000 people will take part.
The Cheka decided that it was impossible to delay further. On the plan to lure Dutov for reconnaissance and negotiations with the "leaders of the underground movement" on the territory of Soviet Russia, to capture and judge by a "merciless proletarian court", they put an end to it, they decided to limit themselves to liquidation.
On January 31, a group of six people crossed the Soviet-Chinese border. The senior in the group was Chanyshev, who had the order to eliminate Dutov and as soon as possible. So that Kasymkhan would not be tempted to stay in China without completing the task, 9 of his relatives were arrested in Dzhankert.
For several days, Chaneshev and his horsemen circled around Suidun, hoping to watch for Dutov outside the fortress, until a messenger from Dzhunkert arrived and said that if Chanyshev did not liquidate before February 10, the hostages would be shot. For Chanyshev, there was no other choice but to hold an action in the fortress itself.
Death of chieftain
On the evening of February 6, a group of riders rode through the open gates into Suidun. Here they split up. One remained at the gate. His task was to prevent the guards from closing the gate so that the liquidators could leave without hindrance. Two dismounted and took up positions not far from Dutov's house - they will come to the aid of the main group if something goes wrong or a chase begins. Three drove up to the chieftain's house. The sentry asked: "Who?" - "Letter to Ataman Dutov from the Prince."
Makhmukh Khadzhamiarov and Kudduk Baismakov more than once delivered reports to Dutov from Dzhunkert, they were known by sight. The guard unlocked the gate. The trio dismounted. One remained with the horses in front of the gate, two went into the yard. Baismakov started a conversation with the sentry, and Khadzhamiarov, accompanied by an orderly, entered the house. "From the Prince!" - he handed Dutov a letter.
The chieftain sat down at the table, unfolded the note and began to read: "Mr. chieftain, stop waiting for us, it's time to start, everything is done. We're ready. We're just waiting for the first shot, then we won't sleep either." Dutov finished reading and raised his eyes: "But why didn't the Prince himself come?"
Instead of answering, Khadzhamiarov pulled out a revolver from his bosom and fired point-blank at the ataman. Dutov fell. The second bullet - in the forehead of the orderly. The third - in the ataman lying on the floor. The sentry standing at the gate turned to the shots and at that moment Baismakov stabbed him in the back with a knife. The liquidators ran out into the street, mounted their horses and galloped through the streets of Suidun.
Last point in operation
The Cossacks, who rushed to look for the killers of their ataman, did not find anyone. And it is not surprising, since the Dutovites rushed towards the Soviet-Chinese border, and Chanyshev and horsemen galloped at full speed. reverse side- to Gulja, where Kasymkhan's uncle lived and where they intended to sit out for several days. They believed that it was still too early for them to return to Soviet Russia, because they did not even know whether Dutov had been killed by them, or only wounded?
Ataman Dutov died on the morning of February 7 at 7 am from an internal hemorrhage as a result of a liver injury. He and two Cossacks who died with him - sentry Maslov and orderly Lopatin were buried on the outskirts of Suidun in a Catholic cemetery. An orchestra was playing, the Cossacks who were seeing off their ataman on their last journey were crying and swearing revenge.
A few days after the funeral, the ataman's grave was desecrated: unknown dug up the coffin, the corpse was beheaded. On February 11, Chanyshev returned to Dzhunkert with 100% proof of the completion of the assignment - Dutov's head. The hostages were released, a telegram was sent to Moscow about the liquidation of one of the most dangerous enemies of the Soviet Power.
Reward
Khodzhamiarov received from the hands of Dzerzhinsky a gold watch and a Mauser with an engraving "For personally carried out a terrorist act on ataman Dutov to comrade Khodzhamiarov." Chanyshev as the immediate leader of the operation - a gold watch, a personalized carbine and a "protection certificate" signed by the security officer of the country No. 2 Peters: "The bearer of this comrade Chanyshev Kasymkhan on February 6, 1921 committed an act of republican significance, which saved several thousand lives of the working masses from an attack by a gang, and therefore the named comrade is required to be treated attentively by the Soviet authorities and the said comrade is not subject to arrest without the knowledge of the Plenipotentiary Representation.
However, such high awards did not save them from purges during the era of the Great Terror. Khojdamiarov was shot in 1938, a few years earlier he fell under the deadly roller of repression Chanyshev. The "protection letter" did not help him either - Peters, who signed it, himself turned out to be an "enemy of the people" and was shot.
An exemplary operation to eliminate Dutov cannot be considered in any way. Its successful completion was the result of a fortunate combination of circumstances and desperate improvisation on the spot. But the Chekists learned quickly. This was followed by actions against Kutepov and Miller, Savinkov and Konovalets, Bandera and many others, which can no longer be called amateurish.
But more on that next time.
The ancestors of Alexander Ilyich in the male line came from the Samara Cossack army, which was subsequently abolished. The father of the future Cossack leader, Ilya Petrovich, a military officer of the era of the Turkestan campaigns, in September, upon dismissal from service, was promoted to the rank of major general. Mother - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Uskova - the daughter of a constable, a native of the Orenburg province. Alexander Ilyich himself was born during one of the campaigns in the city of Kazalinsk, Syrdarya region. His childhood years were spent in Fergana, Orenburg, St. Petersburg and again in Orenburg ...
World War I
On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began to work in his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on the non-recognition of the power of the Bolsheviks on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, who carried out a coup in Petrograd, thus becoming the first military chieftain to declare war on Bolshevism.
Ataman Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked the communication of the center of the country with Turkestan and Siberia. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and the army until its convocation. On the whole, Dutov coped with this task. The Bolsheviks who arrived from the center were seized and put behind bars, and the decomposed and pro-Bolshevik garrison (due to the anti-war position of the Bolsheviks) of Orenburg was disarmed and sent home.
In November, Dutov was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly (from the Orenburg Cossack army).
- these words opened the lengthy demagogic appeal of the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars of November 25, 1917. And the chief commissar Black Sea Fleet and the “Red Commandant of Sevastopol” V.V. Romenets, the SNK sent the following “installation” telegram: - an eloquent monument to “revolutionary legal consciousness” ... Opening on December 7 the 2nd Regular Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack Host, Dutov said:“Today we are living through the Bolshevik days. We see in the twilight the outlines of tsarism, Wilhelm and his supporters, and the provocative figure of Vladimir Lenin and his supporters clearly and definitely stands before us: Trotsky-Bronstein, Ryazanov-Goldenbach, Kamenev-Rosenfeld, Sukhanov-Gimmer and Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. Russia is dying. We are present at her last breath. Was Great Rus' from the Baltic Sea to the ocean, from the White Sea to Persia, there was a whole, great, formidable, powerful, agricultural, labor Russia - it does not exist "
On December 16, the ataman sent out an appeal to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. People and weapons were needed to fight the Bolsheviks; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight, only in some places stanitsa squads were formed. In connection with the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers from officers and student youth, in total no more than 2 thousand people, including old people and unshooted youth. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to the fight.
Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks launched an offensive against Orenburg. After heavy fighting, the detachments of the Red Army, many times superior to the Dutovites, under the command of V.K. Blucher, approached Orenburg and on January 31, 1918, as a result of joint actions with the Bolsheviks who settled in the city, captured it. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the Orenburg army and went alone on the messenger to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, located away from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks.
But in the meantime, the Bolsheviks with their policy embittered the main part of the Orenburg Cossacks, which had been neutral to the new government, and in the spring of 1918, out of touch with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st military district, led by a congress of delegates of 25 villages and a headquarters headed by military foreman D. M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed a detachment of the chairman of the council of the Iletsk Defense P. A. Persiyanov, on April 2, in the village of Izobilnaya, the punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee, S. M. Zwilling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of Cossacks of the military foreman N. V. Lukin and a detachment of S.V. Bartenev made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for some time and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with cruel measures: they shot, burned the resisting villages (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and they imposed indemnities.
|
||||||||||
An excerpt characterizing Dutov, Alexander Ilyich
On the same evening, as the prince gave orders to Alpatych, Desalle, having demanded a meeting with Princess Mary, told her that since the prince was not completely healthy and was not taking any measures for his safety, and according to the letter of Prince Andrei, it was clear that his stay in the Bald Mountains unsafe, he respectfully advises her to write with Alpatych a letter to the head of the province in Smolensk with a request to notify her of the state of affairs and the degree of danger to which the Bald Mountains are exposed. Desalles wrote a letter for Princess Marya to the governor, which she signed, and this letter was given to Alpatych with an order to submit it to the governor and, in case of danger, to return as soon as possible.Having received all the orders, Alpatych, escorted by his family, in a white downy hat (a princely gift), with a stick, just like the prince, went out to sit in a leather wagon laid by a trio of well-fed savras.
The bell was tied up, and the bells were stuffed with pieces of paper. The prince did not allow anyone to ride in the Bald Mountains with a bell. But Alpatych loved bells and bells on a long journey. The courtiers of Alpatych, the zemstvo, the clerk, the cook - black, white, two old women, a Cossack boy, coachmen and various courtyards saw him off.
The daughter laid chintz down pillows behind her back and under it. The old woman's sister-in-law slipped the bundle secretly. One of the coachmen put him under the arm.
- Well, well, women's fees! Grandmas, women! - puffing, Alpatych spoke in a patter exactly as the prince said, and sat down in the kibitochka. Having given the last orders on the work of the zemstvo, and in this no longer imitating the prince, Alpatych took off his hat from his bald head and crossed himself three times.
- You, if anything ... you will return, Yakov Alpatych; for the sake of Christ, have pity on us, ”his wife shouted to him, hinting at rumors of war and the enemy.
“Women, women, women’s fees,” Alpatych said to himself and drove off, looking around the fields, where with yellowed rye, where with thick, still green oats, where there are still black ones that were just starting to double. Alpatych rode, admiring the rare harvest of spring crops this year, looking at the strips of rye peli, on which in some places they began to sting, and made his economic considerations about sowing and harvesting and whether any princely order had been forgotten.
Having fed twice on the road, by the evening of August 4, Alpatych arrived in the city.
On the way, Alpatych met and overtook the carts and troops. Approaching Smolensk, he heard distant shots, but these sounds did not strike him. He was most struck by the fact that, approaching Smolensk, he saw a beautiful field of oats, which some soldiers were obviously mowing for food and along which they camped; this circumstance struck Alpatych, but he soon forgot it, thinking about his own business.
All the interests of Alpatych's life for more than thirty years were limited by one will of the prince, and he never left this circle. Everything that did not concern the execution of the orders of the prince, not only did not interest him, but did not exist for Alpatych.
Alpatych, having arrived in Smolensk on the evening of August 4, stopped beyond the Dnieper, in the Gachen suburb, at the inn, at the janitor Ferapontov, with whom he had been in the habit of stopping for thirty years. Ferapontov twelve years ago, with the light hand of Alpatych, having bought a grove from the prince, began to trade and now had a house, an inn and a flour shop in the province. Ferapontov was a fat, black, red man of forty, with thick lips, a thick bump on his nose, the same bumps above his black, frowning eyebrows, and a thick belly.
Ferapontov, in a waistcoat and a cotton shirt, was standing by a shop overlooking the street. Seeing Alpatych, he approached him.
- Welcome, Yakov Alpatych. The people are out of the city, and you are in the city, - said the owner.
- What is it, from the city? Alpatych said.
- And I say - the people are stupid. Everyone is afraid of the French.
- Woman's talk, woman's talk! Alpatych said.
- So I judge, Yakov Alpatych. I say there is an order that they won't let him in, which means it's true. Yes, and the peasants ask for three rubles from the cart - there is no cross on them!
Yakov Alpatych listened inattentively. He demanded a samovar and hay for the horses, and after drinking tea he went to bed.
All night long the troops moved in the street past the inn. The next day, Alpatych put on a camisole, which he wore only in the city, and went on business. The morning was sunny, and from eight o'clock it was already hot. Expensive day for harvesting bread, as Alpatych thought. Shots were heard outside the city from early morning.
From eight o'clock cannon fire joined the rifle shots. There were a lot of people on the streets, hurrying somewhere, a lot of soldiers, but just as always, cabs drove, merchants stood at the shops and there was a service in the churches. Alpatych went to the shops, to government offices, to the post office and to the governor. In government offices, in shops, at the post office, everyone was talking about the army, about the enemy, who had already attacked the city; everyone asked each other what to do, and everyone tried to calm each other down.
At the governor's house Alpatych found a large number of people, Cossacks and a road carriage that belonged to the governor. On the porch, Yakov Alpatych met two gentlemen of the nobility, of whom he knew one. A nobleman he knew, a former police officer, spoke with ardor.
“This is no joke,” he said. - Well, who is one. One head and poor - so one, otherwise there are thirteen people in the family, and all the property ... They brought everyone to disappear, what kind of bosses are they after that? .. Eh, I would hang the robbers ...
“Yes, it will,” said another.
“What do I care, let him hear!” Well, we are not dogs, - said the former police officer and, looking around, he saw Alpatych.
- Ah, Yakov Alpatych, why are you?
“By order of his excellency, to the governor,” Alpatych replied, proudly raising his head and putting his hand in his bosom, which he always did when he mentioned the prince ... “They were pleased to order to inquire about the state of affairs,” he said.
- Yes, and find out, - the landowner shouted, - they brought that no cart, nothing! .. Here she is, do you hear? he said, pointing to the direction from which the shots were heard.
- They brought that everyone to die ... robbers! he said again, and stepped off the porch.
Alpatych shook his head and went up the stairs. In the waiting room were merchants, women, officials, silently exchanging glances among themselves. The door to the office opened, everyone got up and moved forward. An official ran out of the door, talked something to the merchant, called behind him a fat official with a cross around his neck, and disappeared again through the door, apparently avoiding all the looks and questions addressed to him. Alpatych moved forward and at the next exit of the official, laying his hand on his buttoned frock coat, turned to the official, giving him two letters.
“To Mr. Baron Ash from the general chief prince Bolkonsky,” he announced so solemnly and significantly that the official turned to him and took his letter. A few minutes later the governor received Alpatych and hurriedly said to him:
- Report to the prince and princess that I didn’t know anything: I acted according to higher orders - that’s ...
He gave the paper to Alpatych.
“And yet, since the prince is unwell, my advice is for them to go to Moscow. I'm on my own now. Report ... - But the governor did not finish: a dusty and sweaty officer ran in the door and began to say something in French. Horror appeared on the Governor's face.
“Go,” he said, nodding his head to Alpatych, and began to ask the officer something. Greedy, frightened, helpless looks turned to Alpatych when he left the governor's office. Involuntarily listening now to the close and ever-increasing shots, Alpatych hurried to the inn. The paper given by Governor Alpatych was as follows:
“I assure you that the city of Smolensk does not yet face the slightest danger, and it is unbelievable that it would be threatened by it. I am on one side, and Prince Bagration on the other side, we are going to unite in front of Smolensk, which will take place on the 22nd, and both armies with combined forces will defend their compatriots in the province entrusted to you, until their efforts remove the enemies of the fatherland from them or until they are exterminated in their brave ranks to the last warrior. You see from this that you have the perfect right to reassure the inhabitants of Smolensk, for whoever defends with two such brave troops can be sure of their victory. (Order of Barclay de Tolly to the civil governor of Smolensk, Baron Ash, 1812.)
People moved restlessly through the streets.
Carts loaded on horseback with household utensils, chairs, cabinets kept leaving the gates of the houses and driving through the streets. In the neighboring house of Ferapontov, wagons stood and, saying goodbye, the women howled and sentenced. The mongrel dog, barking, twirled in front of the pawned horses.
Alpatych, with a more hasty step than he usually walked, entered the yard and went straight under the shed to his horses and wagon. The coachman was asleep; he woke him up, ordered him to lay the bed, and went into the passage. In the master's room one could hear a child's cry, the woman's shattering sobs, and Ferapontov's angry, hoarse cry. The cook, like a frightened chicken, fluttered in the passage as soon as Alpatych entered.
- Killed him to death - he beat the mistress! .. So he beat, so dragged! ..
- For what? Alpatych asked.
- I asked to go. It's a woman's business! Take me away, he says, do not destroy me with small children; the people, they say, all left, what, they say, are we? How to start beating. So beat, so dragged!
Alpatych, as it were, nodded approvingly at these words and, not wanting to know anything else, went to the opposite door - the master's room, in which his purchases remained.
“You are a villain, a destroyer,” a thin, pale woman with a child in her arms and a handkerchief torn from her head shouted at that moment, bursting out of the door and running down the stairs to the courtyard. Ferapontov went out after her and, seeing Alpatych, straightened his waistcoat and hair, yawned and went into the room after Alpatych.
- Do you want to go? - he asked.
Without answering the question and not looking back at the owner, sorting through his purchases, Alpatych asked how long the owner followed the wait.
- Let's count! Well, did the governor have one? Ferapontov asked. - What was the decision?
Alpatych replied that the governor did not say anything decisively to him.
- Shall we go away on our business? Ferapontov said. - Give me seven rubles for a cart to Dorogobuzh. And I say: there is no cross on them! - he said.
- Selivanov, he pleased on Thursday, sold flour to the army at nine rubles per bag. So, are you going to drink tea? he added. While the horses were being laid, Alpatych and Ferapontov drank tea and talked about the price of bread, about the harvest and the favorable weather for harvesting.
“However, it began to calm down,” Ferapontov said, having drunk three cups of tea and getting up, “ours must have taken it.” They said they won't let me. So, strength ... And a mixture, they said, Matvey Ivanovich Platov drove them into the Marina River, drowned eighteen thousand, or something, in one day.
Alpatych collected his purchases, handed them over to the coachman who entered, and paid off with the owner. At the gate sounded the sound of wheels, hooves and bells of a wagon leaving.
It was already well past noon; half of the street was in shade, the other was brightly lit by the sun. Alpatych looked out the window and went to the door. Suddenly, a strange sound of distant whistling and impact was heard, and after that there was a merging rumble of cannon fire, from which the windows trembled.
Alpatych went out into the street; two people ran down the street to the bridge. Whistles, cannonballs and the bursting of grenades falling in the city were heard from different directions. But these sounds were almost inaudible and did not pay the attention of the inhabitants in comparison with the sounds of firing heard outside the city. It was a bombardment, which at the fifth hour Napoleon ordered to open the city, from one hundred and thirty guns. At first, the people did not understand the significance of this bombardment.
The sounds of falling grenades and cannonballs aroused at first only curiosity. Ferapontov's wife, who had not stopped howling under the barn before, fell silent and, with the child in her arms, went out to the gate, silently looking at the people and listening to the sounds.
The cook and the shopkeeper came out to the gate. All with cheerful curiosity tried to see the shells flying over their heads. Several people came out from around the corner, talking animatedly.
- That's power! one said. - And the roof and ceiling were so smashed to pieces.
“It blew up the earth like a pig,” said another. - That's so important, that's so cheered up! he said laughing. - Thank you, jumped back, otherwise she would have smeared you.
The people turned to these people. They paused and told how, near by, their cores had got into the house. Meanwhile, other shells, now with a quick, gloomy whistle - nuclei, then with a pleasant whistle - grenades, did not stop flying over the heads of the people; but not a single shell fell close, everything endured. Alpatych got into the wagon. The owner was at the gate.
- What did not see! he shouted at the cook, who, with her sleeves rolled up, in a red skirt, swaying with her bare elbows, went to the corner to listen to what was being said.
“What a miracle,” she said, but, hearing the voice of the owner, she returned, tugging at her tucked-up skirt.
Again, but very close this time, something whistled like a bird flying from top to bottom, a fire flashed in the middle of the street, something shot and covered the street with smoke.
"Villain, why are you doing this?" shouted the host, running up to the cook.
At the same instant, women wailed plaintively from different directions, a child began to cry in fright, and people silently crowded around the cook with pale faces. From this crowd, the groans and sentences of the cook were heard most audibly:
- Oh, oh, my darlings! My doves are white! Don't let die! My doves are white! ..
Five minutes later there was no one left on the street. The cook, with her thigh shattered by a grenade fragment, was carried into the kitchen. Alpatych, his coachman, Ferapontov's wife with children, the janitor were sitting in the basement, listening. The rumble of guns, the whistle of shells, and the pitiful groan of the cook, which prevailed over all sounds, did not stop for a moment. The hostess now rocked and persuaded the child, then in a pitiful whisper asked everyone who entered the basement where her master was, who remained on the street. The shopkeeper, who entered the basement, told her that the owner had gone with the people to the cathedral, where they were raising the miraculous Smolensk icon.
By dusk, the cannonade began to subside. Alpatych came out of the basement and stopped at the door. Before a clear evening, the sky was all covered with smoke. And through this smoke a young, high-standing sickle of the moon shone strangely. After the former terrible rumble of guns had fallen silent over the city, silence seemed to be interrupted only by the rustle of steps, groans, distant screams and the crackle of fires, as it were spread throughout the city. The groans of the cook are now quiet. From both sides, black clouds of smoke from fires rose and dispersed. On the street, not in rows, but like ants from a ruined tussock, in different uniforms and in different directions, soldiers passed and ran through. In the eyes of Alpatych, several of them ran into Ferapontov's yard. Alpatych went to the gate. Some regiment, crowding and hurrying, blocked the street, going back.
“The city is being surrendered, leave, leave,” the officer who noticed his figure said to him and immediately turned to the soldiers with a cry:
- I'll let you run around the yards! he shouted.
Alpatych returned to the hut and, calling the coachman, ordered him to leave. Following Alpatych and the coachman, all Ferapontov's household went out. Seeing the smoke and even the lights of the fires, which were now visible in the beginning twilight, the women, who had been silent until then, suddenly began to wail, looking at the fires. As if echoing them, the same weeping was heard at the other ends of the street. Alpatych with a coachman, with trembling hands, straightened the tangled reins and horses' lines under a canopy.
When Alpatych was leaving the gate, he saw ten soldiers in the open shop of Ferapontov pouring sacks and knapsacks with wheat flour and sunflowers with a loud voice. At the same time, returning from the street to the shop, Ferapontov entered. Seeing the soldiers, he wanted to shout something, but suddenly stopped and, clutching his hair, burst out laughing with sobbing laughter.
- Get it all, guys! Don't get the devils! he shouted, grabbing the sacks himself and throwing them out into the street. Some soldiers, frightened, ran out, some continued to pour. Seeing Alpatych, Ferapontov turned to him.
- Decided! Russia! he shouted. - Alpatych! decided! I'll burn it myself. I made up my mind ... - Ferapontov ran into the yard.
Soldiers were constantly walking along the street, filling it all up, so that Alpatych could not pass and had to wait. The hostess Ferapontova was also sitting on the cart with the children, waiting to be able to leave.
It was already quite night. There were stars in the sky and a young moon shone from time to time, shrouded in smoke. On the descent to the Dnieper, the carts of Alpatych and the hostess, slowly moving in the ranks of soldiers and other crews, had to stop. Not far from the crossroads where the carts stopped, in an alley, a house and shops were on fire. The fire has already burned out. The flame either died away and was lost in black smoke, then it suddenly flashed brightly, strangely clearly illuminating the faces of the crowded people standing at the crossroads. In front of the fire, black figures of people flashed by, and from behind the incessant crackle of the fire, voices and screams were heard. Alpatych, who got down from the wagon, seeing that they would not let his wagon through soon, turned to the alley to look at the fire. The soldiers darted incessantly back and forth past the fire, and Alpatych saw how two soldiers and with them a man in a frieze overcoat dragged burning logs from the fire across the street to the neighboring yard; others carried armfuls of hay.
Alpatych approached a large crowd of people standing in front of a high barn burning with full fire. The walls were all on fire, the back collapsed, the boarded roof collapsed, the beams were on fire. Obviously, the crowd was waiting for the moment when the roof would collapse. Alpatych expected the same.
- Alpatych! Suddenly a familiar voice called out to the old man.
“Father, your excellency,” answered Alpatych, instantly recognizing the voice of his young prince.
Prince Andrei, in a raincoat, riding a black horse, stood behind the crowd and looked at Alpatych.
– How are you here? - he asked.
- Your ... your Excellency, - Alpatych said and sobbed ... - Yours, yours ... or have we already disappeared? Father…
– How are you here? repeated Prince Andrew.
The flame flared brightly at that moment and illuminated Alpatych's pale and exhausted face of his young master. Alpatych told how he was sent and how he could have left by force.
“Well, Your Excellency, or are we lost?” he asked again.
Prince Andrei, without answering, took out a notebook and, raising his knee, began to write with a pencil on a torn sheet. He wrote to his sister:
“Smolensk is being surrendered,” he wrote, “the Bald Mountains will be occupied by the enemy in a week. Leave now for Moscow. Answer me as soon as you leave, sending a courier to Usvyazh.
Having written and handed over the sheet to Alpatych, he verbally told him how to arrange the departure of the prince, princess and son with the teacher and how and where to answer him immediately. He had not yet had time to complete these orders, when the chief of staff on horseback, accompanied by his retinue, galloped up to him.
- Are you a colonel? shouted the chief of staff, with a German accent, in a voice familiar to Prince Andrei. - Houses are lit in your presence, and you are standing? What does this mean? You will answer, - shouted Berg, who was now assistant chief of staff of the left flank of the infantry troops of the first army, - the place is very pleasant and in sight, as Berg said.
Prince Andrei looked at him and, without answering, continued, turning to Alpatych:
“So tell me that I’m waiting for an answer by the tenth, and if I don’t get the news on the tenth that everyone has left, I myself will have to drop everything and go to the Bald Mountains.
“I, prince, only say so,” said Berg, recognizing Prince Andrei, “that I must obey orders, because I always fulfill them exactly ... Please excuse me,” Berg justified himself in some way.
Something crackled in the fire. The fire subsided for a moment; black puffs of smoke poured from under the roof. Something else crackled terribly in the fire, and something huge collapsed.
– Urruru! - Echoing the collapsed ceiling of the barn, from which there was a smell of cakes from burnt bread, the crowd roared. The flame flared up and illuminated the animatedly joyful and exhausted faces of the people standing around the fire.
