Who was Kolchak during the civil war. golden admiral

Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich (1874-1920), Russian admiral (1916), one of the leaders of the White movement.

Born November 16, 1874 in St. Petersburg in the family of an engineer, a retired major general of naval artillery.

In 1894 Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps; in 1900-1902 participated in the polar expedition of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. commanded a destroyer, a minelayer, and then a battery in Port Arthur; was in captivity.

After the war, Kolchak, with a group of naval officers, prepared proposals for the reform of the Russian navy. In 1914 he was appointed head of the operational department of the Baltic Fleet, and in July 1916 - commander of the Black Sea Fleet with the rank of rear admiral. June 9, 1917, in response to the requirement of the ship's committee to hand over personal weapons, Kolchak with the words "You didn't hand it to me, you won't take it!" threw into the sea a golden saber with the inscription "For bravery". The next day he was recalled to Petrograd and sent to the USA as a mine specialist.

At the end of 1917, Kolchak arrived in the Far East. Heading to the Volunteer Army, he stayed in Omsk and on November 4, 1918 was appointed Minister of Defense of the newly formed All-Russian Provisional Government.

On November 18, after a military coup in Omsk, the admiral, thanks to his great authority, was proclaimed "the supreme ruler of the Russian state." In this capacity, he was recognized by the governments of the Entente countries and the United States, but relations with the allies did not develop. Kolchak's main goal was the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks, but he also had to curb the allies in their encroachments on the sovereign rights of Russia.

After the defeat of the Eastern White Army, on January 4, 1920, the admiral transferred his powers to A. I. Denikin. The troops of the Czechoslovak Corps, commanded by the chief officer of the allied forces in Siberia, French General Janin, transferred Kolchak to the temporary Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik “Political Center” in Irkutsk in exchange for free passage to Vladivostok.

A little later, the admiral was in the hands of the Bolsheviks.

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Midshipman Kolchak

During interrogation before being shot, Kolchak said about himself: “I grew up in a purely military family. My father, Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak, served in the naval artillery, was the receiver of the Naval Department at the Obukhov plant. When he retired with the rank of major general, he remained at this plant as an engineer ... I was born there.” This event took place on November 4 (16), 1874.

The Kolchak family owed its unusual surname to the Turk of South Slavic origin, Ilias Kolchak Pasha, commandant of the Khotyn fortress, captured by Russian troops in 1739.

Many men from the Kolchak family chose the military path for themselves, and Alexander was no exception. He graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and was promoted to midshipman. His classmate wrote: “Kolchak, by the seriousness of his thoughts and actions, inspired us boys with deep respect for himself. We sensed in him a moral force which it was impossible to disobey; felt that this is the person who must be unquestioningly followed. Not a single educator officer, not a single corps teacher instilled in us such a sense of superiority as midshipman Kolchak.

At the end of the corps, Kolchak went on voyages on the cruisers "Rurik" and "Cruiser", while, in addition to the service, he was engaged in research in the field of oceanography and hydrology.

In December 1898, Kolchak was promoted to lieutenant. He established himself as a brilliant officer and a thoughtful scientist, and in 1900 he received an invitation from the Academy of Sciences from Baron E. V. Toll to take part in his expedition.

On July 21, 1900, the schooner "Zarya" set off along the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula. Kolchak patiently endured all the hardships of a difficult expedition, wintering in harsh conditions. Baron Toll wrote: “Our hydrographer Kolchak is not only the best officer, but he is also lovingly devoted to his hydrology. This scientific work was carried out by him with great energy, despite the difficulty of combining the duties of a naval officer with the activities of a scientist. In honor of Kolchak, the island and cape discovered by Toll were named.

But the Zarya was crushed by ice. It was decided to split up - Toll and the magnetologist Zeberg went on foot north of the New Siberian Islands, and the rest of the participants of the polar expedition followed to the mouth of the Lena and returned to St. Petersburg through Yakutsk and Irkutsk.

Upon arrival in the capital, Kolchak reported on Toll's decision and his disappearance. In 1903, an expedition was organized led by Kolchak to rescue the polar explorer, during which it turned out that the baron and his companions were killed ...

Supreme ruler

When Kolchak was returning from a tragic polar expedition, the Russo-Japanese War began. He was assigned to the destroyer "Angry", took part in the siege of Port Arthur. Kolchak was wounded and spent 4 months in captivity.

After the war, Kolchak actively served in the Naval General Staff, and also designed the Taimyr and Vaygach icebreakers. Kolchak commanded the last during a cartographic expedition to the Bering Strait and Cape Dezhnev.

When the First World War began, Kolchak developed and took part in brilliant operations that brought him fame, orders and the rank of admiral.

The February revolution made its own adjustments to the admiral's career, and in 1917 Kolchak was removed from command. He received an invitation from the American mission, and, as a military adviser, went first to England, and then to the USA.

In 1918, he arrived in Russia, where the council of ministers of the "Directory" - the united anti-Bolshevik government, insisted on his proclamation as the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander of the armed forces. He became the leader of the White movement, fought against Bolshevism, launched an offensive throughout the Urals, but failed - due to many reasons that historians still argue about. But, one way or another, the reality is that Kolchak lost and paid for it with his life - his own and many people - both the Bolsheviks and the White Guards ...

Kolchak transferred power to Denikin and found himself under the protection of the Czech allies. But they betrayed the admiral and handed him over to the Bolsheviks - in exchange for free passage through the territory of Russia ...

January 15, 1920 Kolchak was arrested in Irkutsk. Interrogations of the admiral were carried out until February 6, and on February 7 Kolchak was shot on the banks of the Ushakovka River, and his body was thrown into the hole ...

In Soviet times, Kolchak became a purely negative figure, all his services to the fatherland were forgotten.
Today, the name of Kolchak is being actively rehabilitated. The Duma of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug decided to return the name of Kolchak to an island in the Kara Sea, a memorial plaque was opened on the building of the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg, and a monument to the admiral in Irkutsk.

"My dear dove"...

For many people, Kolchak's difficult personal life is of particular interest. In 1904, after a polar expedition, Alexander Vasilyevich got married in Irkutsk with Sofia Fedorovna Omirova. The wedding was postponed several times due to Kolchak's expeditions, but Sophia patiently waited for the groom, whom she loved very much. They had two daughters, who died in infancy, and a son, Rostislav. Sofya Vladimirovna meekly endured all the hardships of life, moving, constant separation from her husband.

But fate dealt her a heavy blow - in 1915, Kolchak met Anna Timireva, whom he fell in love with with deep love. After the revolution, Sophia and her son ended up in Paris, and Anna Timireva spent the last months of his life with Kolchak and voluntarily went under arrest with him. And it was to her that the last lines of the admiral were addressed: “My dear dove, I received your note, thank you for your kindness and care for me ... Do not worry about me. I only think about you and your fate... I don't worry about myself - everything is known in advance. My every step is being watched, and it is very difficult for me to write... Write to me. Your notes are the only joy I can have. I pray for you and bow before your self-sacrifice. My dear, my adored, do not worry about me and save yourself ... Goodbye, I kiss your hands.

After the death of Kolchak, Anna Timireva cruelly paid for her love. She spent many years in prisons and exile. In the short intervals between the conclusion she was interrupted by odd jobs - she was a librarian, painter, draftswoman. She was rehabilitated in 1960. Advised Sergei Bondarchuk during the filming of the film War and Peace.

She died in 1975. And all these years she continued to love Alexander Kolchak and wrote poetry to him:

And every year on the seventh of February
One with my stubborn memory
I celebrate your anniversary again.
And those who knew you are long gone,
And those who are alive - everyone has long forgotten.
And this, for me, the most difficult day -
For them, the same as everyone else, -
Torn off calendar sheet.

Gold Reserve: Looted, Drowned or Buried?

A special column in the biography of the admiral is, undoubtedly, the gold reserve of Russia, which the White Guards recaptured from the Bolsheviks, and Kolchak allegedly hid somewhere in Siberia.

According to the official version, indeed, at the end of November 1918, the gold reserves of the Russian Empire in the amount of 650 million rubles (505 tons) were moved to Omsk and placed at the disposal of the Kolchak government. Of these, the admiral spent 68 million on the purchase of weapons and uniforms for his army. But gold did not help the Whites to return the old regime, they were forced to retreat. Not far from Irkutsk, where the highway was controlled by the Czechs, the admiral was forced to transfer the train with the gold reserves under the control of the Czechoslovak Corps. Part of it they gave to the Bolsheviks. But the rest disappeared without a trace. Thus, the strategic reserve of the young Soviet state has lost more than 30%!

Since then, scientists and treasure hunters around the world have been struggling with the riddle - where is the lost gold.

Alexander Kolchak Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

According to one version, hundreds of tons of gold were sent through Vladivostok to the Japanese, British and Czechs. In addition, Siberian partisans confiscated almost two hundred tons from Kolchak - during the Civil War, many hunted robberies. However, there is no evidence for this version.

According to another version, the Czechoslovak Corps hid some of the gold and secretly transported it to their homeland.

The third version says that the Czechs pushed the wagons with supplies to Baikal when partisans attacked them on the circum-Baikal section of the Trans-Siberian Railway. So they drowned the gold so that the Reds would not get it.

And, finally, the most intriguing legend is that Kolchak buried gold somewhere in Siberia, which means that any treasure hunter can be lucky in the form of countless treasures. And although most experts agree that the gold reserves of the Russian Empire have long been squandered, this has been haunting the minds of mankind for many years.

At one time, even Stalin himself authorized the search "movement". Special agents masquerading as geologists tried to get information about the missing gold. And after a hundred years, the search for treasures continues.

Anna Timireva: courtesan or wife?

If you look at the biography of Alexander Kolchak in various encyclopedias, the “Family” section contains the following information: wife, Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak (1876-1956), was born in 1876 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Podolsk province of the Russian Empire.

Anna Timireva Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

And not a word about Anna Timireva, his fatal love and civil wife, who remained devoted to the admiral so much that she even voluntarily went under arrest with him.

They met in 1915 in Helsingfors. At that time, 43-year-old Kolchak had been married for 11 years. Anna, who is 18 years younger than the admiral, was also married. Their crazy romance lasted five years - that's how much has passed since the first meeting until the execution of the naval commander.

They rarely saw each other, sometimes they didn’t meet for months, and when Kolchak was promoted to vice admiral in 1916 and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet, their separation lasted a year. It was a novel in letters. Passionate, spontaneous and without much hope.

“We were carried away, as if on the crest of a wave,” Timireva wrote later. Interestingly, both Sergei Timirev, Anna's husband, and Sofya Kolchak, were well aware of their connection. Once the admiral's wife even confessed to her friend: "You'll see, he will divorce me and marry Anna Vasilievna."

The final decision was made by them in 1918. Then, in May, Sergei Timirev, with his wife Anna, arrived in Vladivostok on a mission. And in June, while traveling from Harbin to Japan, Alexander Kolchak also arrived there.

Alexander Vasilyevich and Anna Vasilyevna left for Japan already together. At their request, Sergei Timirev filed an application with the Vladivostok Consistory about the desire to dissolve the marriage with Anna. He sent the resulting divorce certificate to her in Japan. So Anna became the civil wife of Kolchak.

When the admiral was arrested in 1920 and placed in an Irkutsk prison, she demanded that she be sent there as well. The last meeting between the self-named spouses took place an hour before the execution of Alexander Vasilyevich in his cell. Anna Timireva paid for her love with 37 years in prison and exile. She was rehabilitated only in 1960.

The execution of the admiral: the body was never found

Admiral Kolchak was shot on the night of February 6-7, 1920, without trial or investigation, on the banks of the Ushakovka River, which flows into the Angara.

Although some historians claim that the sentence was brought into force in accordance with the decision of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee, many facts indicate that the paper was drawn up after the execution, as an acquittal document. The fact is that the decision is dated February 7, and they arrived at the prison for the prisoner the night before. There is also the text of a telegram from the Chairman of the Sibrevkom and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 5th Army, I. N. Smirnov, which says that the decision to shoot Kolchak was made at a meeting on February 7.

The execution was led by the chairman of the GubChK, Samuil Chudnovsky, to whose offer to blindfold Kolchak resolutely refused, reminding Chudnovsky that he was a commissar by rank, and he, Kolchak, was an Admiral of the Russian fleet. And so he will command his execution himself. The sentence was carried out under the leadership of Alexander Vasilyevich himself. The body of the shot admiral was thrown into the water, under the ice of the Angara.

After his death, his beloved Anna Timireva tried to take the body: “I ask the extraordinary investigative commission to tell me where and by virtue of what sentence Admiral Kolchak was shot and whether I, as his closest person, will be given his body to be buried according to the rites of the Orthodox Church. Anna Timireva. However, the resolution on the letter was unequivocal: "Answer that Kolchak's body is buried and will not be given to anyone."

Anna Timireva Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

By the way, according to historians, the remains of the admiral were never found - the Angara was covered with ice until May, and under it there was a strong current, so it was hardly possible to find the body.

And the fateful day, February 7, is immortalized in the poem of Anna Timireva, the only and sacrificial love of the murdered admiral.

And every year on the seventh of February

One with my stubborn memory

I celebrate your anniversary again.

And those who knew you are long gone,

And those who are alive - everyone has long forgotten.

And this, for me, the most difficult day -

For them, the same as everyone else, -

Torn off calendar sheet.

Terrible state - to order without real power
ensure the execution of orders, in addition to their own authority.
From a letter from A. V. Kolchak to L. V. Timereva

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, his fate made many sharp turns in a matter of years. At first he commanded the Black Sea Fleet, but instead of the historical laurels of the first Russian commander who took the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, he turned into a commander in front of a fleet that was losing discipline.

Then followed a new round of the incredible fate of the admiral. An unexpected interest in his person was shown by the Americans. The US military mission turned to the Provisional Government with a request to send Kolchak to advise the allies on the mine business and the fight against submarines. In Russia, the best domestic naval commander was no longer needed, and Kerensky could not refuse the "allies" - Kolchak was sent to America. His mission is surrounded by secrecy, it is forbidden to mention it in the press. The path lies through Finland, Sweden and Norway. There are no German troops anywhere in the above countries, but Kolchak travels under a false name, in civilian clothes. His officers are also disguised. Why he resorted to such a disguise, the biographers of the admiral do not explain to us ...

In London, Kolchak made a number of important visits. He was received by the Chief of the Naval General Staff, Admiral Hall, and invited by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Jellicoe. In a conversation with the admiral, the head of the British fleet expressed his private opinion that only a dictatorship could save Russia. History has not preserved the admiral's answers, but he will stay decently in Britain. Probably, intimate conversations with Kolchak were conducted by people from a completely different department. This is how a person is gradually probed, his character and habits are recognized. A psychoportrait is drawn. In a couple of months, October will happen in Russia, the country allied with Great Britain will collapse into chaos and anarchy. She will no longer be able to fight Germany. The highest-ranking British military see all this, they know and the recipe for saving the situation is dictatorship. But to insist that Kerensky, who is smoothly leading the country towards the Bolshevik revolution, take tough measures, the British do not dare or even try. They only share smart thoughts in personal conversations with the former Russian admiral. 11 Why exactly with him? Because the strong-willed and energetic Kolchak, along with General Kornilov, was considered as a potential dictator. Why not help the strong-willed military man take power instead of Kerensky's rag? Because the dictator will be needed not before October, but after! Russia must first be destroyed to the ground, and only then must it be reassembled and restored. And this should be done by a person loyal to England. Feeling affection and gratitude towards Foggy Albion. The British are choosing a future dictator, an alternative to Lenin. Nobody knows how things will turn out. Therefore, it is necessary to name, on the bench, both our revolutionaries, and our Romanovs, and a grateful strong-willed dictator ...

Kolchak's stay in the USA is in no way inferior to his stay in London in terms of the level of his visits. It is hosted by the father of the Federal Reserve System, President Wilson himself. Again, talk, talk, talk. But in the naval ministry, the admiral was in for a surprise. It turned out that the offensive operation of the US naval forces in the Mediterranean, for the sake of which he, in fact, had been invited to advise, was being canceled.

According to the book of the American professor E. Sissots "Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution", Trotsky swam and Russia to make a revolution, having an American passport issued personally by Wilson. Now the president is talking to Kolchak, who will later become the white head of Russia. This is. casting.

Why did Kolchak come a long way to the American continent? So that we do not think that it was for the sake of intimate conversations that Kolchak was dragged across the ocean, a beautiful explanation was invented. For three weeks the former head of the Black Sea Fleet visits the American sailors and tells them:
♦ on the state and organization of the Russian fleet;
♦ about the general problems of mine warfare;
♦ introduces the structure of Russian mine-torpedo weapons.

All these issues, of course, require the personal presence of Kolchak far away. No one, except for the admiral (!), can tell the Americans how the Russian torpedo was built ...

Here, in San Francisco, Kolchak learned about the Leninist coup that had taken place in Russia. And then he received ... a telegram with a proposal to run for the Constituent Assembly from the Cadets. But it was not destiny to become a combat admiral as a parliamentary figure. Lenin dispersed the Constituent Assembly and deprived Russia of a legitimate government. The disintegration of the Russian Empire began immediately. Lacking strength, the Bolsheviks did not hold anyone. Poland, Finland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine fell away.

Kolchak moves to Japan and again abruptly changes his life. He enters the service of the British. On December 30, 1917, the admiral was assigned to the Mesopotamian Front. But Kolchak never arrived at the place of his new service. He said about the reasons for this during his interrogation: “In Singapore, the commander of the troops, General Ridout, came to me to greet me, handed me a telegram urgently sent to Singapore from the director of the Intelligence Department of the intelligence department of the military general staff in England (this is military intelligence. - Y. S). This telegram read: the British government ... due to the changed situation on the Mesopotamian front ... considers ... useful for the common allied cause that I return to Russia, that I am recommended to go to the Far East to begin my activities there, and this, from their point of view, is more profitable than my stay on the Mesopotamian front.

During interrogations before the execution, Kolchak spoke frankly, realizing that this was his last chance to convey at least something to posterity. In a letter to his beloved A. V. Timireva dated March 20, 1918, he only modestly says that his mission is secret. A little more than six months have passed since Kolchak's intimate conversations, as the incredible fate of the admiral began his ascension to the heights of Russian power. The British instruct him to put together anti-Bolshevik forces. Their place of organization is Siberia and the Far East. The first tasks are insignificant - the creation of white detachments in China, on the CER. But things are stalling: there is no Civil War in Russia. Real, terrible and destructive. Kolchak returns to Japan, sits idle. Until the Czechoslovak revolt happens, which begins this most terrible of all Russian wars.

It is important to understand the cause and effect relationship. First, Kolchak is “examined”, they talk with him. Then, when he agrees to cooperate, they are officially accepted into the English service. This is followed by a series of small assignments, standby mode. And finally, Mr. Kolchak's "English collaborator" is abruptly brought to the stage and almost instantly ... appointed the supreme ruler of Russia. Really interesting?

It was done like this. In the fall of 1918, Kolchak arrives in Vladivostok. Our hero arrives not alone, but in a very interesting company: together with the French ambassador Repier and the English general Alfred Knox. This general is not simple: until the end of 1917, he served as the British military attache in Petrograd. Before his eyes, let's not be modest, with his active participation, two Russian revolutions took place. Now the task of the brave general is exactly the opposite - to make one counter-revolution. Who to support and who to bury in this struggle will be decided in London. On the political chess board, one must play for both blacks and whites. Then, regardless of the outcome of the game, you win.

Further events develop rapidly. This is always the case in the careers of those in whom British intelligence is interested. At the end of September 1918, Kolchak, together with General Knox, arrived in the capital of white Siberia - Omsk. He has no office, he is a private, civil person. But already on November 4, the admiral was appointed military and naval minister in the All-Russian Provisional Government. Two weeks later, on November 18, 1918, by decision of the Council of Ministers of this government, all power in Siberia was transferred to Kolchak.

Kolchak becomes the head of Russia a little over a month after his arrival in it.

Moreover, he himself does not arrange any conspiracy for this and does not make any efforts. A certain force does everything for him, already putting Alexander Vasilyevich before a fait accompli. He takes the title of supreme ruler and becomes the de facto dictator of the country, the bearer of supreme power. There were no legal grounds for this. The government that gave power to Kolchak was itself elected by a handful of deputies from the dispersed Constituent Assembly. In addition, it made its "noble" step as a result of the coup, being arrested.

Russian patriots breathed a sigh of hope. Instead of talkers, a man of action came to power - so it seemed from the outside. In fact, in order to understand the tragedy of the admiral's position, one must remember that it was not Kolchak himself who came to power, but it was given to him! Tough conditions were put forward for such a gift as power over all of Russia. It is necessary to be "democratic", it is necessary to use socialists in power structures, it is necessary to put forward slogans that are incomprehensible to ordinary peasants. All this seems like a small price to pay for the opportunity to raise an army and defeat the Bolsheviks, it is nothing compared to the opportunity to save Russia. Kolchak agrees. He does not know that it is these factors that will lead him to a complete collapse in a year ...

When we evaluate Kolchak as a statesman, we must remember how short a period he occupied the highest position of power in Russia. It is easy to calculate: he became the supreme ruler on November 18, 1918, renounced power on January 5, 1920. Kolchak lost real power already in November 1919, when the entire white statehood in Siberia collapsed under the weight of military failures and rear SR betrayal. The admiral was in power for only a year.

And almost immediately he began to show his English friends independence and stubborn disposition. Following General Knox, other representatives of the "allies" came to Siberia. To communicate with the army of Admiral Kolchak, France sent General Janin. Having visited the supreme ruler of Russia, Zhanen informed him of his authority to take command not only of all the forces of the Entente in this theater, but also of all the white armies in Siberia. In other words, the French general demanded complete submission from the head of the Russian state. At one time, both Denikin and other leaders of the White movement recognized Kolchak as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, that is, in fact, the dictator of the country. The "Allies" did not recognize him, but at that time they did not recognize Lenin either. In addition, Kolchak is not just the head of the country, but also the head of the armed forces - the Supreme Commander. All white armies are formally subordinate to him. Thanks to the subordination of all the other White Guards to the admiral, the French actually crushed the entire White movement under them.

From now on, orders to Russian patriots were to come from Paris. This is a complete loss of national independence. Such subordination killed the idea of ​​Russian patriotism, because Kolchak could be called "the spy of the Entente" in response to the accusations of Lenin and Trotsky of complicity with the Germans.

General Janin

Kolchak rejects Janin's proposal. Two days later the Frenchman comes again. What he talked about with Kolchak is not known for certain, but a consensus was found: “Kolchak, as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, is the commander of the Russian army, and General Zhanen of all foreign troops, including the Czechoslovak corps. In addition, Kolchak instructs Janin to replace him at the front and be his assistant.

When such “faithful helpers” stand behind you, your defeat and death is only a matter of time. The interventionists behaved in a peculiar way, allegedly coming to help the Russians put things in order. The Americans, for example, established such "good neighborly relations" with the red partisans, which greatly contributed to their strengthening and disorganization of Kolchak's rear. The matter went so far that the admiral even raised the question of the removal of American troops. An employee of the Kolchak administration, Sukin, reported in a telegram to the former foreign minister of tsarist Russia, Sazonov, that "the withdrawal of American troops is the only way to maintain friendly relations with the United States." The fight against the Bolsheviks was not included in the plans of the "interventions". For 1 year and 8 months of "intervention", the Americans out of about 12 thousand of their soldiers lost 353 people, of which only 180 (!) People were in battle. The rest died from disease, accidents, and suicide. By the way, losses of such a ridiculous order are very common in intervention statistics. What kind of real struggle with the Bolsheviks can we talk about?

Although outwardly the Americans carried out useful work for the white government. They seriously took up the problem of the Trans-Siberian Railway, sending 285 railway engineers and mechanics to maintain its normal functioning, and in Vladivostok they set up a plant for the production of cars. However, such touching concern is by no means caused by a desire to quickly restore Russia and establish transportation within the country. The Americans themselves need to take care of the Russian railways. Namely, they will export a significant part of the Russian gold reserves and many other material values ​​abroad. To make it more convenient, the "allies" conclude an agreement with Kolchak. From now on, the protection and functioning of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway becomes the business of the Czechs. Poles and Americans. They fix it, they provide work. They guard it and fight the partisans. It would seem that white troops are being released and can be sent to the front. This is true, only in the Civil War the rear sometimes becomes more important than the front.

Kolchak tried to win the recognition of the West. To him, who came to Russia at the suggestion of the British and French, the absence of their official support seemed incredible. And she kept postponing. It was always promised and never happened. It was necessary to be even more "democratic" and less "reactionary". Although Kolchak already agreed to:
♦ convocation of the Constituent Assembly as soon as he takes Moscow;
♦ refusal to restore the regime destroyed by the revolution;
♦ recognition of Poland's independence;
♦ recognition of all external debts of Russia.

But Lenin and the Bolsheviks were always more compliant and more accommodating. In March 1919, Kolchak rejected an offer to start peace negotiations with the Bolsheviks. He again and again demonstrated to the emissaries of the West that the interests of Russia are above all for him. He gave up trying to divide Russia and Denikin. And then the British, French and Americans finally decide to bet on the Bolsheviks. It was from March 1919 that the West headed for the final liquidation of the White movement.

But it was precisely in the spring of 1919 that it seemed that the white victory was already close. The red front is about to collapse completely. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov writes in his memoirs: “Thus, the Bolsheviks were threatened from the northwest, south and east. The Red Army was still in its infancy, and Trotsky himself doubted its combat capability. We can safely admit that the appearance of a thousand heavy guns and two hundred tanks on one of the three fronts would save the whole world from a constant threat.

You just need to help the white armies a little, just a little, and the bloody nightmare will end. The fighting is on a large scale, therefore they require a large amount of ammunition. War is an abyss that devours resources, people and money in huge quantities. It's like a huge firebox of a locomotive, where you have to throw, throw, throw. Otherwise, you won't go anywhere. Here's another riddle for you. Did the "allies" help Kolchak at this decisive moment? Was a "coal" thrown into his military firebox? Do not suffer in thought - here is the answer from the memoirs of the same Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov: “But then something strange happened. Instead of following the advice of their experts, the heads of the allied states pursued a policy that forced Russian officers and soldiers to experience the greatest disappointments in our former allies and even admit that the Red Army protects the integrity of Russia from the encroachments of foreigners.

Let us digress for a moment and recall again that the excitement of the offensive in 1919 struck Denikin, Yudenich, and Kolchak. All of their armies are not fully formed, not trained and armed. And yet the whites stubbornly march forward to their doom. Marvelous. It was as if an eclipse had come over them all. The Whites are going to take Moscow, but only they are attacking it not at the same time, but at different times, in turn. This will allow Trotsky to smash them piece by piece.

“The position of the Bolsheviks in the spring of 1919 was such that only a miracle could save them. It happened in the form of the adoption in Siberia of the most absurd plan of action, ”writes Professor of the Academy of the General Staff D. V. Filatiev, who was Kolchak’s assistant commander in charge of supply, in his memoirs“ The Catastrophe of the White Movement in Siberia ”. Again breathed on us miracles. In our history, they are invariably associated with the activities of British intelligence. Tell us to see under whose pressure Kolchak's military plans were adopted, then it will become completely clear to us who this time was behind the scenes of the Russian unrest.

In the spring of 1919, the supreme ruler of Russia had two options for action. They were wonderfully described by D. V. Filatiev.

“Caution and military science demanded that the first plan be adopted in order to move towards the goal, albeit slowly, surely,” writes General Filatiev. Admiral Kolchak chooses an offensive. You can also move in two directions.

1. Having put up a barrier in the direction of Vyatka and Kazan, send the main forces to Samara and Tsaritsyn, in order to join Denikin's army there and only then, together with him, move to Moscow. (Baron Wrangel unsuccessfully tried to obtain Denikin's sanction for the same decision.)
2. Move in the direction of Kazan-Vyatka with a further exit through Kotlas to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, to the huge stocks of equipment concentrated there. In addition, this significantly reduced the delivery time from England, because the way to Arkhangelsk is incomparably shorter than the way to Vladivostok.

Military science is a science no less complex than nuclear physics or paleontology. She has her own rules and dogmas. It is not necessary to take great risks unnecessarily; one must not allow the enemy to beat oneself piecemeal, freely moving forces along the internal lines of operations; you yourself should beat the enemy with all your might. Choose Kolchak to attack Samara-Tsaritsyn, and all the rules of military art will be observed.

Not one of these advantages was provided by the direction of all forces to Vyatka, because in this direction one could count on complete success only on the one assumption that the Bolsheviks would not think of concentrating forces against the Siberian army, weakening the pressure on Denikin for a while. But there was no reason to base your plan on the senseless or illiterate actions of the enemy, except for your own frivolity.

General Filatiev was wrong; it was not at all frivolity that led Kolchak in the direction of a disastrous path. After all, to the horror of their military. Kolchak chose ... an even more unsuccessful strategy! The third option, the most unfortunate, provided for a simultaneous attack on both Vyatka and Samara2. On February 15, 1919, a secret directive from the supreme ruler of Russia was promulgated, ordering an offensive in all directions. This led to the separation of the armies in space, actions in discord and to the exposure of the front in the gaps between them. Hitler's strategists will make the same mistake in 1942, advancing simultaneously on Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Kolchak's offensive will also end in complete failure. Why did the admiral choose such an erroneous strategy? He was persuaded to accept it. By the way, just such a disastrous plan of attack was considered and approved by the French General Staff. The British also ardently insisted on it. Their reasoning was irresistible. We can read about it in General Sakharov's "White Siberia":

“They (“allies”) brought all this to Vladivostok and put it in warehouses. Then extradition began not only under control, but also under the most painful pressure on issues in all branches. Some foreigners did not like the fact that there was not enough closeness with the Socialist-Revolutionaries, others considered the course of domestic policy not sufficiently liberal, still others spoke of the need for such and such formations, and finally, even reached the point of interfering in the operational part. Pointing and insisting on the choice of the operational direction... Under such pressure, the direction for the main attack on Perm-Vyatka-Kotlas was chosen...”.

On April 12, 1919, Kolchak issues another directive and decides to start ... a general offensive against Moscow. Stalin’s “Short course of the VKI (b)” speaks well about the level of readiness of the whites: “In the spring of 1919, Kolchak, who had gathered a huge army, reached almost the Volga. The best forces of the Bolsheviks were thrown against Kolchak, Komsomol members and workers were mobilized. In April 1919, the Red Army inflicted a serious defeat on Kolchak. Soon the retreat of Kolchak's army began along the entire front.

It turns out that, having barely issued a directive (April 12) and starting to advance, the admiral's troops were immediately, in April, defeated. And already in June-July, the Reds, having thrown back his armies, broke out into the operational space of Siberia. Having advanced only two months, Kolchak's troops irresistibly rushed to retreat. And so they ran to the very end and complete collapse. Analogies spring to mind...

Summer of 1943, Soviet troops are preparing to deal a terrible blow to the Nazi Wehrmacht. Operation "Bagration" is carefully thought out. As a result of it, a large army grouping of Germans will cease to exist. This will be true, but if the Stalinist offensive had developed according to the principles of Kolchak and Denikin, then instead of Warsaw, Soviet tanks would again be near Stalingrad, and even near Moscow. That is, the collapse of the offensive would be complete. Yes, not one offensive, but the whole war ...

To sum up, Kolchak was not allowed to attack. But he not only did this, but also directed his armies along diverging straight lines. And even in this illiterate plan, he made another mistake by sending his most powerful army to Vyatka, that is, to a secondary direction.

The defeat of the armies of Kolchak (both Denikin and Yudenich) was not due to an incredible set of circumstances, but due to their elementary violation of the basics of tactics and strategy, the foundations of the foundations of military art.

Were the Russian generals illiterate officers? Didn't they know the basics of military art? Only those on whom the fighters “for the One and Indivisible” completely depended could force them to act contrary to common sense ...

What will historians say to this? Such, they say, are generals in England. It happened by chance. The English gentleman simply did not study well at school and the military academy, so he was mistaken. But all this, of course, with a smile, from a pure heart and without ulterior intent. In France, absolutely "accidentally", the generals are no better. The chief adviser to the future destroyer of Kolchak, General Janin, is the captain of the French army, Zinovy ​​​​Peshkov. Familiar surname?

Concurrently, this gallant French officer ... the adopted son of Maxim Gorky and the brother of one of the Bolshevik leaders, Yakov Sverdlov. One can only guess what recommendations such an adviser gave and for whom he ultimately worked. Under such conditions, the White Admiral's plan of offensive operations was indisputably known to Trotsky - hence the amazingly quick defeat of Kolchak. But at first it was still just a defeat. Military happiness changed many times during the Russian civil strife. Today the whites are coming, tomorrow the reds. Temporary withdrawal and failure is not the end of the struggle, but only one stage. Siberia is huge, new units are being formed in the rear. There are many reserves, fortified areas have been created. In order for the defeat of the Kolchakites to turn into a catastrophe and the death of the entire White movement, the “allies” had to try. And it was the Czechoslovaks who played the main role in strangling the Whites. But we remember that these are not just Slavic warriors - these are the official units of the French army, commanded by the French general Janin. So who in the end eliminated Kolchak?

Acting as instigators of a real internecine war, the Czechs quickly left the front and went to the rear, leaving the Russians to fight with other Russians. Under their care they take the railroad. They occupy the best barracks, a huge number of wagons. The Czechs have the best weapons, their own armored trains. Their cavalry rides in saddles, not on cushions. And all this power stands in the rear, eating its cheeks on Russian grubs. When the White armies began to withdraw, the Czechs who occupied the Trans-Siberian Railway undertook a hasty evacuation. In Russia, they looted a lot of good. The Czech Corps numbered about 40 thousand soldiers and occupied 120 thousand railway cars. And all this colossus at once begins the evacuation. The Red Army does not want to fight the Czechs, and the retreating Whites do not need another powerful enemy. Therefore, they look helplessly at the arbitrariness perpetrated by the Czechs. Not a single Russian echelon is allowed by the Slav brothers. In the middle of the taiga are hundreds of wagons with the wounded, women and children. It is impossible to bring ammunition into the army, because the retreating Czechs sent their echelons along both ruts of the road. They unceremoniously take away the steam locomotives from the Russian trains, attaching them to their cars. And the drivers carry the Czech train until the locomotive becomes unusable. Then they leave him and take another one, from the nearest non-Czech train. So the "circulation" of steam locomotives is disrupted, now it is simply impossible to take out valuables and people.

Further, the Taiga stations, by order of the Czech command, do not let anyone through at all, even the echelons of Kolchak himself. General Kappel, appointed by the admiral to command the troops at this critical moment, sends telegrams to General Janin, imploring him to "leave our Minister of Railways in charge of the Russian railway." At the same time, he assured that there would be no delay or reduction in the movement of Czech echelons. There was no answer.

General Kappel

In vain Kappel sends telegrams to General Zhanen, who formally commands all the "allied" troops, including the Czechs. After all, the desire to clog the road is by no means dictated by the selfish interests of Czech captains and colonels. This is a strict order of the generals. The impossibility of evacuation signs the death warrant for the Whites. Terrible scenes are played out among the silent Siberian pines. Echelons of typhoid, standing in the forest. A heap of corpses, no medicines, no food. The medical staff fell down on their own or ran away, the locomotive froze. All the inhabitants of the hospital on wheels are doomed. The Red Army soldiers will find them later in the taiga, these terrible trains crammed with the dead ...

Lieutenant General Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel - a participant in the First World War, one of the most valiant white generals in the East of Russia, has established himself as a brave officer, who to the end kept the debt once given the oath. He personally led subordinate units into attacks, fatherly took care of the soldiers entrusted to him. This valiant officer of the Russian Imperial Army forever remained a national hero of the White Struggle, a hero who burned with the flame of indestructible faith in the revival of Russia, in the rightness of his cause. A valiant officer, a fiery patriot, a man of crystal soul and rare nobility, General Kappel went down in the history of the White movement as one of its brightest representatives. It is significant that when, during the Siberian Ice Campaign in 1920, V.O. Kappel (he was then Commander-in-Chief of the White Armies of the Eastern Front) gave his soul to God, the soldiers did not leave the body of their glorious commander in the unknown icy desert, but made with him an unparalleled difficult transition across Lake Baikal in order to worthily and according to the Orthodox rite commend him to the earth in Read.

In other formations, officers, officials and their families are fleeing from the Reds. These are tens of thousands of people. Behind rolls the shaft of the Red Army. But the cork organized by the Czechs does not dissolve in any way. Fuel runs out, water freezes in the locomotive. People go out and wander on foot through the taiga, along the railway. Frost real Siberian - minus thirty, or even more. How much is frozen in the forest, no one knows ...

The White Army withdraws. This way of the cross will later be called the Siberian Ice Campaign. Three thousand kilometers in the taiga, in the snow, along the bed of frozen rivers. The retreating White Guards carry all their weapons and ammunition. But cannons cannot be dragged through the forests. Artillery rushes. In the taiga you will not find food for horses either. Terrible milestones mark the corpses of unfortunate animals, the departure of the remnants of the White Army. There are not enough horses - you have to abandon all unnecessary weapons. They carry a minimum of food and a minimum of weapons with them. And this horror lasts for several months. Combat capability is rapidly declining. The number of typhoid cases is also growing rapidly. In small villages, where the retreating people come to spend the night, the sick and wounded lie side by side on the floor. There is nothing to think about hygiene. New batches of people come to replace the departed. Where the sick sleep, the healthy lies down. There are no doctors, no medicines. There is nothing. The commander-in-chief, General Kappel, froze his legs after falling into the wormwood. In the nearest village, with a simple knife (!) the doctor cut off his toes and a piece of his heel. No anesthesia, no wound treatment. Two weeks later, Kappel died - pneumonia was added to the consequences of the amputation ...

And next to it, an endless tape of Czech trains winds along the railway. The soldiers are fed, sitting in the cars, where the fire crackles in the stoves. Horses chew oats. The Czechs are going home. The railroad strip was declared neutral by them. It won't have fights. The red detachment will occupy the town through which the Czech echelons are stretching, and the whites cannot attack it. If you violate the neutrality of the railway track, the Czechs threaten to strike.

The remnants of the White Army are riding on a sleigh in the forests. Horses are dragging hard. There are no roads in the taiga. More precisely, there is - but only one.

The Siberian Highway is crammed with wagons of civilian refugees. Frozen women and children from the echelons slowly wander along it, which have long froze on the road blocked by the Czechs. The Reds are pushing in the back. To go forward, you have to literally sweep the stuck wagons and carts off the road. Bonfires are burning from things and sleighs. No one hears the cries for help. Your horse died - you died. Nobody wants to put you on their sleigh - after all, if his horse dies, what will happen to his children and his loved ones? And red partisan detachments roam in the forests. They deal with prisoners with particular cruelty. Refugees are not spared, everyone is killed. So people sit in frozen trains and quietly fade away in the cold, plunging into a "saving" dream...

The emergence of the partisan movement in Siberia is still waiting for its researcher. It explains a lot. Do you know under what slogan the Siberian partisans went into battle? Against Kolchak, this is a fact. But why did the peasants of Siberia fight with weapons in their hands against the power of the admiral? The answer lies in the propaganda materials of the partisans. The most significant and famous in Siberia was the detachment of the former staff captain Shchetinkin. An interesting description of the slogans under which he went into battle was left by Captain G.S. Dumbadze. A detachment of White Guards in the village of Stepnoy Badzhey captured the printing house of the Red partisans. There are thousands of leaflets in it: “I, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, secretly landed in Vladivostok in order to start a fight against the traitor Kolchak, who had sold himself to foreigners, together with the people's Soviet government. All Russian people are obliged to support me.” No less striking is the end of that same leaflet: “For the Tsar and Soviet power!”

You still do not understand why the British insisted so much that the White Guards did not put forward "reactionary" slogans?

But even in the current nightmarish situation, the frozen Whites had a chance to stop and repel the advance of the Red Army. If the fire of the uprisings prepared by the Socialist-Revolutionaries had not ignited in the rear at once. As scheduled, uprisings began almost simultaneously in all industrial centers. The many months of agitation of the Socialist-Revolutionaries did their job. The Bolsheviks were much closer to them than the "reactionary" tsarist generals. In June 1919, the Siberian Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries was created. The leaflets issued by Him called for the overthrow of Kolchak's power, the establishment of democracy and the cessation! armed struggle against the Soviet regime. Almost simultaneously, on June 18-20, at the XI Congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party held in Moscow (!) Their main songs were confirmed. The main of them is the preparation of the peasants' speech throughout the territory occupied by the Kolchakites. On November 2, in Irkutsk, as the final stage, a new power body was created - the Political Center. It was he who was supposed to take power in the city, declared the white capital after the fall of Omsk.

Here it is just right to ask the question, why did the Socialist-Revolutionaries feel so at ease in Kolchak's rear? Where did counterintelligence look? Why didn't the Supreme Ruler of Russia burn this revolutionary snake's nest with a red-hot iron? It turns out that the British did not allow him to do this. They in every possible way demanded the involvement of this party "in the cause." They prevented the establishment of order and the establishment of a real dictatorship, which in the conditions of the Civil War was more than justified. Why do the "allies" love the Socialist-Revolutionaries so much? Why are they being so strongly guarded? Thanks to the action of this party, in a matter of months between February and October, the Russian army lost its combat effectiveness, and the state became incapacitated. White General Chaplin aptly described this fraternity as specialists "in matters of destruction and decomposition, but not in creative work."

Socialist-Revolutionaries hold positions in cooperatives, public organizations, and lead large Siberian cities. And they are actively fighting secretly with ... the White Guards. In stories about the death of Kolchak and his army, little attention is usually paid to this. In vain. “This underground activity of the Socialist-Revolutionaries bore fruit much later. - writes General Sakharov in his memoirs "White Siberia", - and turned the failures of the front into a complete disaster for the army, led to the defeat of the whole cause, headed by Admiral L. V. Kolchak. The Social Revolutionaries begin anti-Kolchak agitation among the troops. It is difficult for Kolchak to adequately answer this question: the overthrow of the Bolshevik government led to the restoration of zemstvo and city self-government. These organs of local government were still elected according to the laws of the Provisional Government in 1917; they are almost entirely made up of Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. It is impossible to disperse them - this is undemocratic, the "allies" will not allow scarlet. It is also impossible to leave them - they are strongholds and centers of resistance to the establishment of a rigid order. Until his death, Kolchak did not solve this problem ...

On December 21, 1919, the Social Revolutionaries began an armed uprising in the Irkutsk province, two days later they took power in Krasnoyarsk, then in Nizhneudinsk. Parts of the 1st White Army, which were in the rear of the formation, were involved in the rebellion. The retreating, demoralized, frozen units of Kolchak, instead of reinforcements, meet rebels and red partisans. Such a stab in the back further undermines White's morale. The assault on Krasnoyarsk fails, the bulk of the retreating White Guards bypass the city. The mass surrender begins.

Hopeless soldiers see no point in continuing the fight. Refugees do not have the strength and ability to run further. However, a significant part of the whites prefer the march into the unknown to shameful surrender to the hated Bolsheviks. These irreconcilable heroes will walk their way of the cross to the end. They were waiting for the frozen bed of the Angara River, new hundreds of kilometers of taiga trails, a huge ice mirror of Lake Baikal. About 10,000 deadly tired White Guards came to Transbaikalia ruled by Ataman Semyonov, bringing with them the same number of exhausted typhoid patients. The death toll is uncountable...

Part of the Irkutsk garrison showed the same fortitude. The last defenders of power are the same as everywhere: the cadets and Cossacks remain true to the oath. The Social Revolutionaries begin to capture the city on December 24, 1919. The uprising begins in the barracks of the 53rd Infantry Regiment. They are located on the opposite bank of the Angara from the troops loyal to Kolchak. It is not possible to quickly suppress the source of the rebellion. The bridge "accidentally" turned out to be dismantled, and all the steamers are controlled by the "allies:". To suppress the uprising, the head of the Irkutsk garrison, General Sychev, introduces a state of siege. Since he can’t get to the rebels without the help of the “allies”, he decides to try to reason with the rebellious soldiers with the help of shelling.

We will notice many "accidents" in this uprising of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. For the past few weeks, Czech trains have been constantly at the Irkutsk railway station moving to Vladivostok. But the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center begins its speech just then, when the train of General Zhanin himself is standing at the station. Not earlier, not later. To avoid misunderstanding, General Sychev notifies the French of his intention to launch artillery shelling of the rebel positions. The moment is critical - if the rebellion is suppressed now, the Kolchak authorities have a chance to survive. After all, the government evacuated from Omsk is located in Irkutsk. (True, the admiral himself is not there. Not wanting to part with the gold reserves, he and his echelons got stuck in Czech traffic jams in the Nizhneudinsk region.)

The actions of the “allies” in the Irkutsk events best illustrate their goals in the Russian Civil War.

General Janin categorically forbids striking the rebels. In case of shelling, he threatens to open artillery fire on the city. Subsequently, the “allied” general explained his act with considerations of humanity and the desire to avoid bloodshed. The commander of the "allied" troops, General Zhanen, not only forbade shelling, but also declared that part of Irkutsk where the rebels had accumulated to be a neutral zone. It becomes impossible to eliminate the rebels, just as it is impossible to ignore the ultimatum of the French general: there are about 3,000 troops loyal to Kolchak in the city, and 4,000 Czechs.

But White does not give up. They are well aware that the defeat in Irkutsk will lead to the complete destruction of Kolchak's power. The commandant mobilizes all the officers in the city, teenage cadets are involved in the struggle. The vigorous actions of the authorities stop the transition to the insurgents of the new parts of the garrison. However, it is impossible for White to advance into the "neutral zone", so Kolchak's men only defend themselves. Other parts of the rebels approach the city, and they attack. The situation fluctuates, no one can take over. Violent street fights take place daily. A change in the direction of government troops could have occurred on December 30, 1919, with the arrival in the city of about a thousand soldiers under the command of General Skipetrov. This detachment was sent by Ataman Semyonov, who also sent a telegram to Zhaien, asking "either to immediately remove the rebels from the neutral zone, or not to obstruct the execution of the order by the troops subordinate to me to immediately suppress the criminal rebellion and restore order."

There was no answer. General Zhanen did not write anything to Ataman Semyonov, but the actions of his subordinates were more eloquent than any telegram. At first, on the outskirts of the city, under various pretexts, they did not let three white armored trains through. The arrived Semenovites nevertheless launched an offensive without them, and the cadets supported him from the city. Then this “attack was repulsed by the fire of Czech machine guns from the rear, while about 20 junkers were killed,” an eyewitness wrote. The valiant Slavic legionnaires shot the advancing junker boys in the back...

But even this could not stop the impulse of the White Guards. The Semyonovites moved forward, and a real threat of defeat hung over the uprising. Then the Czechs, rejecting all talk of neutrality, openly intervened in the matter. Referring to the order of General Janin, they demanded a cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of the arriving detachment, threatening to use force in case of refusal. Unable to contact the Cossacks and junkers in the city, the Semenov detachment was forced to withdraw under the guns of the Czech armored train. But the Czechs did not calm down on this. Apparently, in order to exactly secure the anti-Kolchak uprising, the "allies" disarmed the Semenov detachment, treacherously attacking it!

It was the intervention of the "allies" that saved the heterogeneous forces of the Socialist-Revolutionary Politceptr from defeat. It was this that led to the defeat of the government forces. It was not at all random. To verify this, it is enough to compare some dates.

♦ On December 24, 1919, the Irkutsk uprising began.
♦ On December 24, the train with the gold reserves, in which Kolchak was traveling, was detained by the Czechs in Nizhneudinsk for 2 weeks. (Why? The White Guards are beheaded, the appearance of Kolchak, beloved by the soldiers, can change the mood of the vacillating units.)
♦ On January 4, 1920, the struggle in Irkutsk ends with the victory of the Socialist-Revolutionaries.
♦ On January 4, Admiral Kolchak resigned as supreme ruler of Russia and handed them over to General Denikin.

Matches are immediately noticeable. The Czechs, at the suggestion of General Zhanen, do not allow the rebellion to be suppressed in order to have a beautiful excuse not to let Kolchak into his new capital. The absence of the admiral and the obvious help to the "allies" helps the Socialist-Revolutionaries win. As a result of this, Kolchak renounces power. Simple and beautiful. Historians, on the other hand, tell us about cowardly Czechs, allegedly just trying to escape from the advancing Reds and therefore interested in a calm path. Dates and figures break naive theories in the bud. The soldiers of the Entente clearly and unequivocally began the fight against the whites, only this was required by the circumstances.

After all, the “allies” had one more, very clear and specific goal. The extradition of Kolchak for reprisal by the Reds is presented in historiography as a forced step by the Czechoslovaks. Foul-smelling, treacherous, but forced. They say that the noble general Janin could not do anything else to quickly and without loss take out his subordinates from Russia. So he had to sacrifice Kolchak and hand him over to the Political Center. Moan. The extradition of Kolchak took place on January 15, 1920. But two weeks before, the weak Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center not only failed to take power on its own, but was saved from defeat personally by General Zhanen and the Czechs. Only four
thousands of Slavic legionnaires could dictate their will to the whites and turn the situation at the most decisive moment in the direction they needed. Why? Because behind them was the entire 40,000-strong Czechoslovak corps. This is power. Nobody wants to get involved with her - you start fighting the Czechs and add a strong enemy to yourself, and a strong friend to your opponent. That is why both the Reds and the Whites court the Czechoslovaks as best they can. And the insolent Czechs take away the locomotives from the sanitary trains and leave them to freeze in the taiga.

If the "allies" wanted to take Kolchak out alive, no one would have prevented them from doing so. There was simply no such power. And the losing admiral was not particularly needed by the Reds. They don’t like to talk about it out loud, they didn’t show it in the last film, and after all, on January 4, Kochak renounced power and then went on under the guard-escort of the Czechs as a private person. Let us again recall the chronology of the Irkutsk events and pay attention to the fact that Kolchak was able to move forward with the golden echelon only after his abdication. He was detained by the Czechs but on the orders of General Zhaieia, allegedly to ensure his safety.

The “concern” for their safety is expensive for representatives of the highest Russian authorities. Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky sent the family of Nicholas II to Siberia to ensure it. For the same reason, General Zhanen did not let Kolchak's train go to Irkutsk, where he could be guarded by loyal junkers and Cossacks. In two weeks, this caring French general will quite calmly hand over the admiral in Irkutsk to representatives of the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center. But he gave the "soldier's word" that the life of the former Supreme Ruler is under the protection of the "allies". By the way, when Kolchak was needed by the Entente, a year ago, on the night of the coup that brought him to power, the house where he lived was guarded by the English unit. Now the Czechoslovaks have actually assumed the role of his jailers.

This is not a weak newborn Socialist-Revolutionary Politpentr dictated his will to the Czechs. This "allied" command, condoning the Socialist-Revolutionaries, helping them in every possible way, "set" the date for their performance in Irkutsk. It was it that "prepared" a new regime, to which "under the pressure of circumstances" it was in a hurry to transfer the admiral. Kolchak was not supposed to stay alive. But the Czechs themselves could not shoot him. Just as in the story of the Romanovs, who were supposed to fall at the hands of the Bolsheviks, the "allies" organized a Socialist-Revolutionary bullet for the supreme ruler of Russia. And there were not only political reasons for this. Oh, anyone can understand these reasons! After all, we are talking about gold. Not about kilograms - about tons. About tens and hundreds of tons of precious metal...

Much in common in the death of Kolchak and the family of Nicholas II. In the newspaper "Version" No. 17 for 2004, an interview was published by Professor of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Doctor of Historical Sciences Vladlen Sirotkin. We are talking about "Russian gold" located abroad and misappropriated by the "allies". It consists of three parts: "tsarist," Kolchak "and" Bolshevik ". Paz is interested in the first two. The royal part consists of:

1) from gold mined at the mines, pirated by Japan in March 1917 in Vladivostok;
2) the second part: these are at least ten ships of the precious metal sent by the Russian government in 1908-1913 to the USA to create an international monetary system. There it remained, and the project was prevented by the "accidentally" outbreak of the First World War;
3) about 150 suitcases with the jewels of the royal family, which sailed to England in January 1917.
And so the “allied” special services, with the hands of the Bolsheviks, organized the liquidation of the entire royal family. This is a bold point in the history of "royal" gold. It may not be given away. There is no one else to ask for a report - that's why the British and French do not recognize a single Russian government.

The second largest part of Russian gold is "Kolchak". These are funds sent to Japan, Britain and the United States for the purchase of weapons. Both the samurai and the governments of England and the United States did not fulfill their obligations to Kolchak. Today, the gold transferred to Japan alone is worth about $80 billion. Those who don't believe in politics, believe in economics! It was very profitable to sell and betray the White movement. After all, the noble general Zhanen and the Czechs really sold Kolchak, and to be quite precise, they exchanged him. For his extradition, the Reds allowed the Czechoslovaks to take with them one third of the gold reserves of the Russian treasury, kept by the admiral. This money will then form the basis of the gold reserves of independent Czechoslovakia. The situation is the same - the physical destruction of Kolchak put an end to the financial relations of the Entente with the white governments. There is no Kolchak, there is no one to ask for a report.

The numbers vary. Different sources estimate the amount of "Russian gold" in different numbers. But in any case, it is impressive. We are not talking about kilograms or even centners, but about tens and hundreds of tons of precious metal. The “allies” did not take out the accumulated wealth of the Russian people over the previous centuries in bags and trunks, but by steamships and echelons. Hence the discrepancies: a wagon of gold here, a wagon of gold there. Note that the White Guard gold is precisely “Kolchak's”, and not “Dennkin's”, not “Krasnov's” and not “Wrangel's”. Let's compare the facts, and the "diamond" of "allied" betrayal will sparkle us with another facet. None of the white leaders was extradited to the reds and did not die during the Civil War, with the exception of Kornilov, who died in battle. Only Admiral Kolchak was captured by the Bolsheviks. Denikin went to England, Krasnov to Germany, Wrangel evacuated from the Crimea along with the remnants of his defeated army. Only Admiral Kolchak, who was in charge of a huge gold reserve, died.

In fairness, let's say that the fact of Kolchak's death was so egregious that it caused a huge resonance. The "Allied" governments even had to create a special commission to investigate the actions of General Japin. “However, the matter did not end with anything,” writes Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. - General Zhanin answered all questions with a phrase that put the interrogators in an awkward position: "I must repeat, gentlemen, that with His Majesty Emperor Nicholas II even less ceremony."

It was not in vain that the French general mentioned the fate of Nikolai Romanov, but General Janin laid his hand on the disappearance of materials about the murder of the royal family. The first part "mysteriously" disappeared on the way from Russia to the UK. This is, so to speak, the contribution of British intelligence. The French are making their contribution to this dark history. Already after the death of Kolchak, at the beginning of March 1920, a meeting of the main participants in the investigation took place in Harbin: generals Diterikhs and Lokhvitsky, investigator Sokolov, Englishman Wilton and teacher Tsarevich Alexei. Pierre Gilliard.

The physical evidence collected by Sokolov and all the materials of the investigation were in the carriage of the Briton Wilton, who had diplomatic status. The question of sending them abroad was solved. At that moment, as ordered, a strike broke out on the CER. The situation escalated, and even General Diterichs, who opposed the removal of materials, agreed with the opinion of the others. In writing to General Janin, the participants in the impromptu meeting asked him to ensure the safety of the documents and remains of the royal family, which were in a special chest. It contains bones, fragments of bodies. Due to the retreat of the Whites, the investigator Sokolov did not have time to make an examination. He has no right to take them with him: the investigator only has access to the materials when he is an official. Power disappears. Seo ko yun who put him at the head of the investigation, his powers also disappear. Have no right to export documents and relics and other participants in the investigation.

The only way to save the evidence and the original documents of the investigation is to hand them over to Janin. In mid-March 1920, Dnterikhs, Sokolov and Gilliard handed over to Janin the materials they had, having previously made copies of the documents. Having taken them out of Russia, the French general must hand them over to Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Romanov in Paris. To the great surprise of all the emigration, the Grand Duke refused to accept Zhaneia's materials and remains. We will not be surprised: we will only remember that the former commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich Romanov, among other “prisoners”, was guarded by the wonderful detachment of the sailor Zadorozhny and was taken along with everyone on a British dreadnought to Europe. It was precisely such complaisant members of the Romanov family that were saved from death.

After Romanov's refusal to accept the relics, General Janin did not find anything better than to hand them over to ... the former ambassador of the Provisional Government, Girs. After that, the documents and remains were never seen again, and their further fate is not exactly known. When Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who declared himself the heir to the Russian throne, tried to find out their whereabouts, he did not receive an intelligible answer. Most likely, they were kept in the safes of one of the Paris banks. Then information appeared that during the occupation of Paris by the German army, the safes were opened, and things and documents disappeared. Who did it and why is still a mystery...

Now let's move from distant Siberia to north-west Russia. Here the liquidation of the Whites was not so large-scale, but it took place in the immediate vicinity of red Petrograd, the results for the Whites in their horror and degree of betrayal can compete with the tragedy of the death of Kolchak's army.

Literature:
Romanov A. M. Book of memories. M.: ACT, 2008. С 356
Filatiev D.V. Catastrophe of the White movement and Siberia / Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak. Moscow: Tsengrnolngraf. 2004, p. 240.
Sakharov K. White Siberia / Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2004. S. 120.
Dumbadze G.S. What contributed to our defeat in Siberia in the Civil War The Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak. M.: Centronoligraph. 2004. S. 586.
Novikov I. A. Civil war in Eastern Siberia M .: Tseitrpoligraf, 2005. P. 183.
Ataman Semyonov. About myself. M.: Zeitrpoligraf, 2007. S. 186.
Bogdanov K. A. Kolchak. St. Petersburg: Shipbuilding, 1993, p. 121
Romanov A.M. Book of memories. M.: ACT, 2008. S. 361

In the name of Kolchak, students were frightened in Soviet schools: a terrible person, a strangler of freedom, an enemy of the people. But what do we know about him?

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born in the family of a naval artillery officer, graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps.

In 1900, at the age of 27, he received an invitation to participate in the dangerous expedition of Baron Toll, equipped by the Academy of Sciences to the Arctic Ocean to explore the polar seas.

And in 1903, Kolchak himself led an expedition to Bennett's land, organized to search for the missing party of Baron Toll. The expedition was deadly. They moved in places on boats, in places on dogs. When food ran out, they kept only by hunting.

Finally, Toll's diaries were found - indirect evidence of his death. But Kolchak continued his journey among the ice and hummocks. He did not retreat until he was convinced that other versions were excluded.

For this expedition, the Academy of Sciences awarded him a large gold Konstantinovsky medal, which only three travelers in Russia had. The result of his expedition was the scientific work "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas", and the hero himself was called Kolchak-Polyarny.

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Kolchak commanded a destroyer and a battery in Port Arthur. He was shell-shocked and taken prisoner.

Respecting him for his desperate courage, he, one of the few, the Japanese left weapons in captivity, and then, without waiting for the end of the war, they released him.

During the First World War, Kolchak commanded a mine detachment of ships of the Baltic Fleet. The successful actions of the detachment did not allow the Germans to break through to Riga and Petrograd.

In 1917, Kolchak, with the rank of vice admiral, was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and it was to him that Russia owed the salvation of the fleet on the Black Sea.

The February Revolution found Kolchak in the Black Sea. Far from politics, the admiral considered it his duty to faithfully serve his homeland, despite the unrest.

In June 1917, ship committee members burst into his flagship cabin with a warrant for arrest and a demand for the surrender of personal weapons. The admiral, looking directly into the eyes of the boatswain, who stretched out his hand to his dagger, firmly said: “You didn’t give it to me, you won’t take it away.” And the dagger, whistling through the air, flew into the open porthole ...

“He made high demands on himself and did not humiliate others with condescension to human weaknesses. He did not exchange himself, and it was impossible to exchange small things with him - is this not respect for a person?

This is how Anna Vasilievna Timireva wrote about Kolchak - a woman who shared a terrible fate with him, but never regretted it.

Anna Timireva (nee Safonova) was the daughter of the director of the Moscow Conservatory, an outstanding Russian pianist, teacher and conductor Vasily Ilyich Safonov, who educated many famous pianists (composer Alexander Skryabin was his favorite student).

Until the age of 18, this romantic girl lived in the world of music and books. Then she married 43-year-old Admiral Timirev, the hero of Port Arthur, and gave birth to a son.

Before meeting Kolchak, her life was measured and prosperous, and he had a reliable family, in which his son also grew up ...

“This is the Admiral-Polyarny, the same one,” Anna Vasilyevna whispered her husband, bowing to a sailor passing by. Thus began their acquaintance.

And the next day they accidentally met with friends and suddenly felt: this is fate. And you can't escape fate.

I've been looking for you for so long.

Was it so difficult?

This has taken my whole life.

But you have so much more ahead of you!

You're right: we have.

From that day on, they lived in anticipation of a meeting. After parting, they wrote to each other. Letters, short notes on scraps of paper have been preserved:

“When I approached Helsingfors and knew that I would see you, it seemed to me the best city in the world”;

"I always think about you";

"I more than love you"...

Meanwhile, the situation in the country was heating up. It became dangerous for officers to appear on city streets. Sailors could tear off shoulder straps, or even just put them against the wall. Subordinates refused to follow orders.

After his resignation from the post of commander and farewell to the Black Sea, Admiral-Polyarny rushed around the wide world: he taught Americans and Japanese minecraft, visited England, France, China, India, Singapore. But he refused the invitation to stay abroad.

During this troubled time, separation from Kolchak was especially difficult for Anna. She lived only waiting for letters, and when they came, she locked herself, read and cried ...

“You, dear, adored Anna Vasilievna, are so far from me that sometimes you seem to be some kind of dream. On such a disturbing night in a completely alien and completely unnecessary city, I am sitting in front of your portrait and writing these lines to you. Even the stars I look at when I think of you - the Southern Cross, Scorpio, Centaurus, Argo - are all alien. As long as I exist, I will think about my star - about you, Anna Vasilyevna.

When Anna Vasilievna's husband was seconded by the new government to the Far East to liquidate the property of the Pacific Fleet, she sent her son to her mother, in Kislovodsk, and went with her husband.

She strove with all her heart to Vladivostok, knowing that Kolchak was in Harbin - white troops were concentrated there. As soon as she arrived in Vladivostok, she sent him a letter through the British Embassy, ​​waited for an answer and, promising her husband to return, rushed to Harbin ...

We haven't seen each other for what seems like forever, Anna.

I think more.

Really in a day or two again for all eternity?

Now every day is an eternity, baby.

And you don't leave.

Don't joke like that, Alexander Vasilyevich.

I'm not kidding, Anna. Stay with me, I will be your slave, I will shine your shoes ...

Timireva wrote to her husband that she would not return. She burned bridges without looking back. The only thing that hurt my heart was about my son Volodya.

Meanwhile, the flames of civil war flared up in Siberia. Omsk was declared the capital of Siberia, where the Directory and the Council of Ministers were located.

The directory, which consisted for the most part of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, could not cope with the ever-increasing anarchy, with chaos. On November 18, 1918, the military carried out a coup, transferring full power to Admiral Kolchak.

Later he will be called a dictator, but is this fair? He did not strive for power, and his character was not despotic.

Kolchak was quick-tempered, but quick-witted, straightforward, but kind and simple-hearted, like most strong people. Outwardly severe, but trusting, sometimes even naive. And he did not deviate from the principles. This hindered him in the political struggle.

If Kolchak had announced that he was promising land to the peasants, as the Bolsheviks did, his army could have been saved. But he believed that he had no right to dispose of the land, that this issue could be decided only by the Constituent Assembly, elected by the people.

If Kolchak had promised the freedom of Finland - such a condition was put forward to him by Baron Mannerheim, he would have received military assistance. But the admiral refused, believing that only the Constituent Assembly could decide this issue.

He was a democrat, sacred to the rule of law, and in times of struggle for power and anarchy, such a position is doomed to failure.

After the defeat of the White Army in Siberia, Kolchak was offered to flee abroad under the guise of a soldier, but he refused and was arrested.

Anna suffered the same fate. They were in the same prison and sometimes saw each other for a walk. During interrogations, Kolchak never called Anna his wife, hoping to avert danger from his beloved woman, to save her. Just before the execution, he asked to see her, but was refused.

On the morning of February 7, 1920, Kolchak was taken to be shot. He rejected the offer to be blindfolded and commanded his execution himself. Kolchak's body was thrown into the hole.

And for Anna, from that time on, a continuous series of arrests, prisons, camps, exiles began: Butyrka, Karaganda, Transbaikalia, Yeniseisk ... In the intervals between arrests, she worked as a librarian, draftswoman, painter, kindergarten teacher.

In 1938, she learned about the arrest of her son, the young artist Vladimir Timirev. And ten years later, at the Karaganda camp, I heard a terrible story about the death of Vladimir. The criminals beat him to death in the camp bath. The body was thrown into a common pit outside the zone.

How to live after this? But Anna Timireva had some kind of inner core that did not allow her to break. This woman surprised everyone - from aristocrats to criminals.

The representative of the French military mission in Siberia, during the life of Kolchak, wrote about her:

“Rarely in my life have I seen such a combination of beauty, charm and dignity. It reflects the aristocratic breed developed by generations, even if, as they say, it is from a simple Cossacks.

I am convinced that aristocracy is not a social concept, but primarily a spiritual one. How many titled cretins I met on my way with the manners of provincial tavern-keepers and how many tavern-keepers with the soul of born grandees!..

I am a confirmed bachelor, but if I were ever attracted to family life, I would like to meet a woman like this.

As I know, she has been close to the Admiral since her marriage, but even now, when life itself has freed her from her previous obligations and brought them together, their connection is not evident to anyone, with such tact and delicacy they protect this connection from prying eyes.

It's rare to see them together. She tries to stay away from his affairs. More often it can be found in sewing workshops, where they sew uniforms for the army, or in an American hospital that performs the most unpresentable work to care for the wounded.

But even in these circumstances, her inherent graceful royalty does not leave her ... ".

Anna Vasilievna retained this graceful royalty until old age, despite the fact that she spent 37 years in prison.

The writer G.V. Egorov, who visited her in the early 70s in a Moscow communal apartment on Plyushchikha, was quite surprised to see in front of him an elegant, vigorous eighty-year-old woman with a very sharp tongue.

“She spent half her life in Soviet camps, including among criminals. And yet, for 37 years, not a single camp word stuck to her - her speech is intelligent, in all manners one can feel a brilliant noble upbringing.

The only thing that overshadowed the overall impression was that she smoked cheap cigarettes. She smoked incessantly, through a very long, primitively made mouthpiece. And she was poorly dressed. Very poor. But she spoke on her own. And very bold.

It seemed that after spending thirty-seven years, one could lose not only courage, but also personality. And she saved herself. She was aware of the cultural life of the country, if not the country, then at least the capital - that's for sure. Her head was bright ... ".

Indeed, at the end of her life, at 82, she was as young at heart as at thirty. She still loved those whom she lost, kept their love in herself and wrote poems about it.

Half a century I can't accept

Nothing can help

And you all leave again

On that fateful night...

But if I'm still alive

Against fate

Just like your love

And the memory of you.