For many years, the First Cavalry was the sacred military cow Soviet power. In the minds of an ordinary citizen of the USSR, the First Cavalry was the Red Army of the times civil war , that invincible force that defended the Workers' and Peasants' Republic from the invasion of 14 powers, Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich and Wrangel. In the civil war, 17 field and 2 cavalry armies acted on the side of the Reds. total number 5 million people, but in people’s memory the 30,000-strong Cavalry was preserved first of all. Many books have been written about her, songs have been composed in her honor, and her heroic struggle has served as the theme of films, plays, paintings and monumental sculpture.
Soldiers of the 1st Cavalry
Throughout the twenties and thirties, cavalrymen dominated the leadership of the country's armed forces. The traces of this dominance are very visible. For 58 years, from 1918 to 1976, the Soviet state changed - under various names - 10 military ministers. Three of them served in the Cavalry, they led the country's defense for 25 years: 1925-1940 K. E. Voroshilov, 1940-1941 S. K. Timoshenko, 1967 – 1976 A. A. Grechko. We must also remember that during the 19-year interval between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Patriotic War, only 3 years, and even then at the very beginning, there was no cavalryman at the helm of the Red Army.
First Cavalry Army. Video
Staying in the First Cavalry served as a pass to occupy senior command positions. Such a dictatorship of cavalry in the army of a great power, unprecedented for the 20th century, was able to establish itself because the country was ruled by the godfather of the First Cavalry - Stalin, and the armed forces by its political mentor Voroshilov. Just as Emperor Caligula introduced his horse into the Senate, these two horse worshipers flooded the army elite with cavalrymen. Cavalry soldiers S. M. Budyonny, G. I. Kulik, E. A. Shchadenko, A. A. Grechko, K. S. Moskalenko were deputy ministers (people's commissars) of defense, K. A. Meretskov was the chief of the General Staff. When personal military ranks were introduced in 1935, two of the first five marshals were cavalrymen, and the third, Egorov, commanded the front on which the First Cavalry was created. It is worth mentioning that both commanders in chief of the civil war did not receive marshal ranks, nor Yakir And Uborevich. In total, 8 marshals emerged from Budyonny’s cavalry Soviet Union(including Georgy Zhukov), 9 army generals and marshals of the military branches, as well as a significant number of other generals.
Before the war, Budenovites played an exceptional role in the Red Army. Naturally, they bear a huge share of responsibility for the disaster of 1937–1938. and the defeats of the first years of the war. Only with the outbreak of hostilities was the complete military insolvency of Voroshilov, Budyonny, Timoshenko, Shchadenko, Tyulenev, Apanasenko and Kulik revealed. The latter was demoted twice for disgraceful behavior at the front and was promoted from marshal to major; Stalin still did not allow one of his main advisers to completely slide pre-war years, and Kulik was allowed to die as a major general. In the mid-sixties, the marshal's baton was posthumously returned to him.
All this makes us take a closer look at the First Cavalry. We do not intend to cover her story in in full. We will only try to restore the truth regarding some facts and episodes.
Creation of the First Cavalry
In Soviet literature it is considered indisputable that the First Cavalry represents the first modern history wars, an association of strategic cavalry. It's not that simple. Indeed, horse armies didn't exist before. At the same time, the idea of creating strategic cavalry, performing independent decisive tasks in isolation from the main forces in the deep rear of the enemy, belongs to Anton Ivanovich Denikin. He not only put forward this bold idea, but also formed a cavalry association of two corps in August 1919. Subsequently, this group under the command of General Mamontova the cavalry corps was added Skin. Thus, Denikin had at his disposal a strategic cavalry group equal in strength to the army. Mamontov's group made a breakthrough Southern Front red and within a month successfully operated in their rear, capturing Tambov, Kozlov, Voronezh. Counteroffensive Soviet troops was torn down. Moreover, Mamontov’s actions allowed the general’s army May-Maevsky move far north. After the Whites captured Kursk and Orel, an immediate threat arose to Tula with its weapons factories and to Moscow itself.
IN Volume III In the Soviet “History of the Civil War” (1930) we read: “The significance of the actions of large cavalry masses in the conditions of the civil war was correctly taken into account by the red command from the example of the Mamontov raid. This raid finally formalized the decision to create large cavalry masses of the red cavalry...” (p. 261). This evidence of Denikin’s priority is all the more valuable because it belongs to the highest leaders of the Red Army of that time - the editors of the volume were S. S. Kamenev, Bubnov, Tukhachevsky, Eideman. Further Soviet historians We tried to completely forget this confession.
Dumenko and Budyonny
The second important and extremely confusing question: from what was the First Cavalry born? For a long time we were informed that it arose on the basis of Budyonny’s convoy corps, which grew out of Budyonny’s 4th Cavalry Division. In the 1960s, through the efforts of relatively honest historians (T. A. Illeritskaya, V. D. Polikarpov), the veil of lies was temporarily lifted. This caused an extremely sharp reaction in the camp of the Budenovites, and further research stopped.
What caused the violent anger of elderly people who had not lost their influence? For example, the head of the Academy. Frunze, Army General A.T. Stuchenko even girded himself with a saber and in this form appeared at the editorial office of “The Week,” which published Polikarpov’s essay. They were outraged, even offended by the attempt to restore the true circumstances of the death of one of the participants in the civil war - B. M. Dumenko, who in 1918 formed a cavalry detachment from the rebels of Salsky and other districts. In July, the First Cavalry Peasant Socialist Punitive Regiment was formed on its base. The regiment was commanded by Dumenko, and after some time Budyonny became his assistant. Subsequently, this formation grew into the very 4th Petrograd Cavalry Division, from which the First Cavalry originated. Dumenko commanded the division until May 1919 and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. But then seriously injured puts Dumenko out of action until the fall. During his treatment, the First Concorps was created, consisting of the 4th and 6th divisions. Budyonny was appointed to command it instead of the wounded Dumenko. On November 17, Budyonny’s corps, enlarged by the addition of other units, was renamed the 1st Cavalry Army. Upon recovery, Dumenko received a new appointment - commander of the emerging Cavalry Combined Corps. In January 1920, it was he who defeated the Denikin cavalry near Novocherkassk, which made it easier for the First Cavalry and the 8th Army to capture Rostov-on-Don.
Boris Dumenko
However, in February 1920, two Budenovites - division chief S.K. Timoshenko, who was temporarily removed for drunkenness, and B.S. Gorbachev, commander of the Special Cavalry Brigade (cavalry Cheka) - fraudulently arrested Dumenko. He was taken to the headquarters of the First Cavalry, at the origins of which he himself stood, and from there to Rostov. There he was tried by a tribunal on a formal charge of organizing the murder of Commissar V. Mikeladze, who was sent to him in the Cavalry Corps. The last one died under unclear circumstances. The tribunal did not have any evidence, however, on May 11, 1920, Dumenko, a hero of the Red Army, whose merits far outshone the glory of Budyonny, was shot. More than forty years later, Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR Blinov, who studied the materials of this case, was forced to state: “If this is the law, then what is blatant lawlessness?!” There were rumors that the real reason Dumenko's death became his "anti-Semitism". Soviet newspapers, reporting the verdict, wrote to him:
Komkor Dumenko, chief of staff Abramov, chief of intelligence Kolpakov, chief of the operational department Blechert... pursued a systematic anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet policy, cursing the central Soviet government and calling the responsible leaders of the Red Army Jews in the form of insulting abuse, did not recognize political commissars, in every possible way slowing down political work in the corps ... To deprive the awards received from the Soviet government, including the Order of the Red Banner, the honorary title of Red Commanders and apply to them the highest measure punishment - to shoot... The verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
The name of Corps Commander Dumenko was erased from the history of the Red Army; Budyonny took credit for his merits. In 1920, Dumenko was a serious competitor to Budyonny in his claims to the role of the first red cavalryman. There is reason to believe that Budyonny, together with Voroshilov, had a hand in eliminating the corps commander. This assumption is supported not only by the circumstances of Dumenko’s arrest, but also by the presence of the cavalryman E. A. Shchadenko on the tribunal, and later many years of malice about Dumenko, and Budyonny’s behavior towards his other rival - Philippa Mironova. It is also worth noting that the command of the First Cavalry repeatedly raised the question of subordinating Dumenko’s corps to him.
Semyon Budyonny
The role of the First Cavalry in the defeat of Denikin
After Uborevich's group inflicted Volunteer Army Denikin defeat at Orel, Budyonny’s cavalry became a trump card in the hands of the Red command. In October 1919, Budyonny's convoy corps, reinforced by a cavalry division and a rifle brigade, Voronezh-Kastornensky operation brought down death blow to the white strategic cavalry. Essentially, Budyonny already had a cavalry army under his command, the creation of which was formally formalized in November. The result was expressed not only in the defeat of Mamontov’s group, from which it never recovered, but also in a colossal moral impact: now Denikin’s rear was under constant threat.
The White Front collapsed. Soviet command quickly developed into success. In January 1920, the First Cavalry captured Rostov with a lightning strike. The success of the cavalry was consolidated by the 8th Army. The retreating Denikin troops created a line of defense along the left bank of the Don with a key point in Bataysk. The idea of the command of the Caucasian Front (V.I. Shorin), at whose disposal the First Cavalry came, was to prevent the main White forces from retreating to Novorossiysk by bypassing or capturing Bataysk. Thus, Denikin was deprived of the opportunity to cross the Crimean peninsula and form a new front there.
Denikin really hoped, if he failed to gain a foothold on the Don, to withdraw to the Crimea through Novorossiysk. However, the Reds failed to break through the white front on the move. The First Cavalry and 8th Army made several attempts to take Bataysk, but all of them were unsuccessful. There was a dangerous delay in the advance of the Red Army, which Denikin eventually took advantage of. Shorin's plan was foiled. 40 thousand whites crossed to Crimea.
The “Bataysk traffic jam” gave rise to extremely sharp disagreements in the Red camp. Shorin accused Budyonny and the commander of the 8th G. Ya. Sokolnikov of the absence active actions. Budyonny complained about the “completely unsuitable terrain for cavalry operations,” Sokolnikov reproached the Cavalry for showing “extremely low combat stability.” Without going into the essence of the dispute, we note that at Bataysk, for the first time, the inability of strategic cavalry to overcome densely prepared defenses was revealed. Undoubtedly played a role unfavourable conditions terrain: water barrier (Don) and swampy left bank. But a psychological factor cannot be ruled out. It was extremely difficult for Voroshilov and Budyonny to withdraw their horsemen from warm and rich Rostov in the depths of winter.
In the spring of 1920, the First Cavalry was transferred in marching order from the Caucasus to the front of the Soviet-Polish war that had just begun. On May 18, she appears near Elizavetgrad. By this time, the Poles, who had captured Kiev, went on the defensive along the entire front. The commissioning of the Cavalry creates a turning point in favor of the Soviet troops. On June 5, she broke through the enemy front near the village of Ozernaya and with all four divisions reached the Polish rear. It was a major operational success and the culmination of the First Cavalry's military career. The threat of complete encirclement and destruction loomed over the 3rd Polish Army of General Rydz-Smigly. But Operation Kyiv Cannes was not destined to come true. The groups of Yakir and Golikov were late in completing their tasks. The First Cavalry, in violation of the order, did not hit the rear of Rydz-Smigly, bypassed the fortified Kazyatyn and captured Berdichev and Zhitomir with rich warehouses. Major success Southwestern Front was incomplete. The Poles lost all the territory captured in Ukraine, but managed to preserve manpower.
During the Soviet offensive, Commander-in-Chief S. S. Kamenev developed a plan for the further conduct of the campaign, which received approval from the Politburo. It was planned that after all the Red forces had reached the Brest-Southern Bug line, the administration of the Southwestern Front (commander Egorov, members of the Revolutionary Military Council Stalin, Berzin) would transfer the First Cavalry, 12th and 14th armies to the command of Tukhachevsky, and would itself turn against Wrangel, who had advanced at that time to Northern Tavria. But Stalin was not at all happy with the prospect of refusing to participate in the seemingly imminent capture of all of Poland. Tukhachevsky subsequently wrote that “the existence of the capitalist world, not only of Poland, but of all of Europe,” was at stake.” The frantic revolutionary Stalin wanted to personally attack world capitalism.
By mid-July 1920, Tukhachevsky’s troops, having overturned the opposing front of General Sheptytsky, occupied Bobruisk, Minsk, Vilna and broke into Polish territory. The situation of the Poles became desperate. A threat arose to Warsaw and the youngest Polish state. Western diplomacy rushed to Pilsudski's aid. July 12 followed Curzon note. The British Foreign Secretary demanded an end fighting and establish the so-called between Poland and Soviet Russia. ethnographic border along " Curzon lines", approximately corresponding to the current one. The ultimatum was rejected, but after direct appeal Poles began negotiations in Borisov. Meanwhile, the Red offensive continued on both fronts.
At the beginning of August, the commander-in-chief decides on a concentric attack of all forces on Warsaw. In this regard, he gives the order to transfer first the 12th and First Cavalry Armies, and then the 14th Army, to the subordination of the Western Front (Tukhachevsky). At this moment the ruler of Poland J. Pilsudski assesses his situation as catastrophic. He believes that Polish troops are unable to hold back the offensive from the east and south and asks the commandant of the Lvov fortified area to divert at least three Red divisions to himself.
Suddenly, Pilsudski had hope of salvation, because the command of the Southwestern Front sent the very armies that were intended to attack Warsaw to storm Lvov. Thus, original plan The Reds were thwarted, and the enemy received an unforeseen opportunity to organize a retaliatory offensive. Partial blame lies with Commander-in-Chief Kamenev, who was not persistent enough in carrying out his own directive, in addition to last second he was afraid of the imaginary Romanian danger. But the main responsibility lies with Stalin, who really wanted a resounding success in the form of the capture of Lvov. The amorphous Yegorov could not resist the pressure of the future leader. Meanwhile, the well-fortified Lviv proved too tough for the First Cavalry and the 12th Army. Lenin categorically objected to the “spread-out-fingered” strike and insisted on taking Warsaw. Stalin stood his ground. The fruitless exchange of telegrams continued for 10 days. Finally, under pressure from Lenin, the commander-in-chief on August 13 categorically demanded that the directive on the transfer of three armies to Tukhachevsky be fulfilled. Stalin remained true to himself and did not sign the order prepared by Yegorov for the front. It should be remembered that in those years the commander’s order had no legal force without the signature of one of the members of the RVS. Until this time, Stalin, as the first member of the RVS, sealed all the operational orders of the commander. Another political commissar of the front, R.I. Berzin, was on the sidelines of purely military affairs. On this basis, at first he also did not want to put his signature and did so only after the direct instructions of Trotsky.
Stalin's willfulness interrupted his military career for 20 years. He sent a telegram to Moscow about his resignation, in the hope that his plan of action would be accepted. However, the plenum of the Central Committee that took place in those days removed Stalin from the front and generally removed him from military work. He also did not make it into the next composition of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.
Only after the described telegraph battles did the First Cavalry switch to the Warsaw direction. However, time was lost. The situation has changed dramatically. The Poles took advantage of the respite and launched a counteroffensive. The Polish command struck the weak Mozyr Red group between the fronts and achieved a turning point in the course of the campaign. Now a certain numerical superiority of the Poles and the better equipment of their army were complemented by a solid operational advantage. The war also stirred up the national-patriotic feelings of the Polish people. The calculation of the Russian Bolsheviks and their Polish like-minded people ( Dzerzhinsky, Marchlewski, Unschlicht) to support the proletariat of Poland turned out to be a fiction.
Red Army troops on both fronts rolled back, losing to the Poles western part Ukraine and Belarus. The First Cavalry, advanced to Zamość, barely escaped destruction. Riga world, which ended the Soviet-Polish war in March 1921, established the border much east of the “Curzon Line”.
Tukhachevsky, from whom Stalin’s selfish calculations deprived him of the opportunity to successfully complete the operation, never looked for specific culprits of the defeat (see his book “The March for the Vistula”). Stalin and the Stalinists were not so delicate. Even before Tukhachevsky’s arrest, he was accused of mistakes on the Polish front. After the death of the marshal (see the article “The Military Process”), a standard formulation was included in all textbooks and military works: the traitors Trotsky and Tukhachevsky thwarted the capture of Lvov and Warsaw.
The lessons of the Polish campaign allow us to soberly assess the strengths and weaknesses of the First Cavalry, as well as strategic cavalry in general. Large cavalry masses were effective in breakthroughs, raids behind enemy lines, and raids. The Civil War differed from the preceding World War in the absence solid line front and low fire density. There were 135-180 rifles per mile of the front, which was even lower than the corresponding figure for outposts in the World War. The number of cannons and machine guns was negligible. Under these conditions, the breakthrough of the front, which, by the way, had a huge length, was greatly facilitated. Due to the lack of layered defense, movement behind enemy lines occurred almost unhindered, which ensured complete surprise in an attack on the concentration of troops. But in the case of overcoming the prepared defense, the cavalry lost its advantages: it suffered heavy losses and did not achieve success. This was the case at Bataysk, and this was also revealed by repeated fruitless attempts to take control of Lvov. The cavalry itself was poorly adapted to conducting defensive battles. Here she needed solid infantry support. But the strength of the cavalry lay precisely in its ability to solve major problems independently of the main forces. A contradiction arose that seemed insoluble. It turned out that large horse masses were needed only for a short period of the civil war, suitable only for its specific conditions. Armed with dialectics, Marxist military thought in the persons of Voroshilov, Budyonny and Egorov coped with this antinomy. They announced that all wars from now on will be exclusively maneuverable, and the Red Army will only advance - which means it cannot do without powerful cavalry...
In all types of combat operations, the First Cavalry was easily vulnerable from the air. Air raids brought her heavy losses near Lvov and later in the fight against Wrangel. “Bombing from airplanes flying in groups over the mounted masses is not paralyzed by anything on our side,” Voroshilov complained to Frunze in November 1920.
First Cavalry on the Wrangel Front
But even earlier, on the way to the Wrangel front, the Cavalry had to go through the most difficult trials. Having just experienced the bitterness of defeat, the rather battered First Mounted start decompose . However, motley personnel Budenov's army had never before been guilty of an addiction to military discipline. The Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry had difficulty restraining the passions of these freemen. Due to the need to self-supply, acute excesses arose every now and then in relations with the civilian population. The army command had to make excuses on this issue more than once to high authorities - right up to Lenin and Trotsky. Back in Rostov, Voroshilov gave up the city commandant for organizing a Jewish pogrom. A. Ya. Parkhomenko before the tribunal, which sentenced him to death. Only the intervention of Stalin and Ordzhonikidze saved the life of the legendary division commander.
What happened during the transfer of the First Cavalry from the Polish front was much more serious. The morals of the cavalrymen, truthfully described Babel, horrified many readers. But these descriptions dated back to the era of the war with Poland. Babel did not see the Cavalry on the way to the Crimea, when, according to Voroshilov, its “dark days” began. Unbridled robberies of civilians began. While trying to stop them, the commissar of the 6th Cavalry Division, Shepelev, was killed. Voroshilov reacted decisively. As his biographer Orlovsky, former secretary of the RVS of the Cavalry, writes, Voroshilov realized that this outbreak of “partisanship” could destroy the army. The division was put on trial (an unprecedented case in the Red Army) and disbanded. Under the gunpoint of special officers, the division's fighters, laying down their banners and weapons, began to point out the marauders. There were 150 of them. 101 of them were shot. The division's personnel were given the opportunity to wash away this shame with blood.
The First Cavalry moved slowly to the Wrangel front and arrived there greatly weakened. Moreover, Voroshilov and Budyonny sought a special status for themselves and wanted to fight according to own plan. For these reasons, Frunze used the First Cavalry to close Crimean operation, when the victorious outcome was no longer in doubt.
The last major outbreak of “partisanship” occurred in 1921 in the North Caucasus. Under the impression of grain requisitions, Maslakov’s brigade with a brigade commander at its head broke away from the First Cavalry and turned into an anti-Soviet partisan detachment. In parallel with this, self-supply continued with inevitable robberies. The tribunals got down to business. A significant part of the Cavalry was shot. In May 1921, the First Cavalry was disbanded.
Later, I. S. Kutyakov, who commanded the 25 “Chapaevskaya” rifle division on the Polish front, wrote the book “Kyiv Cannes” in collaboration with N. M. Khlebnikov. It showed how the Third Polish Army managed to avoid encirclement and defeat. In 1937, Kutyakov handed over the manuscript to People's Commissar Voroshilov, after which he was arrested and died.
Stalin had to admit this (“On the Question of the Strategy and Tactics of Russian Communists”). Despite this, until the Patriotic War, the thesis about the support of the Red Army by the proletariat of the countries at war with the USSR was integral part Soviet military doctrine and deeply rooted in the popular consciousness.
One should not think that if there had not been a hitch with the First Cavalry, Warsaw would certainly have been taken and Poland defeated. Our description only applies to operational environment. When analyzed with more high point we have to take into account that behind Poland was the military and especially economic power of the entire Entente. Lenin openly called it a failure Polish campaign miscalculation in politics . Regarding the purely military side of the matter, he once remarked in a conversation: “Well, who goes to Warsaw through Lvov...”
The story is almost a century old. This year marks the 95th anniversary of the creation of the legendary 1st Cavalry Army. The text below was written 75 years ago for the 20th anniversary. I think that it is simply permeated with the spirit of that time. I invite you to “plunge” into the atmosphere of those years.
Evidence of the SPIRIT is present...
“We are red cavalrymen, and about us
The eloquent epic writers tell the story
About how clear nights
About how on stormy days
We proudly and boldly go into battle!..”
Twenty years ago, in November 1919, the 1st Cavalry Army was created, which was the only example in the history of wars of uniting large cavalry masses to solve problems on a front-line scale.
The organization and the entire heroic path of the 1st Cavalry Army are inextricably linked with the name of the great Stalin and his best comrade-in-arms and friend, the greatest proletarian commander Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov. In his work “Stalin and the Red Army,” Comrade Voroshilov writes that the initiative to create the 1st Cavalry Army “...belonged to Comrade Stalin, who clearly understood the need for such an organization.”
The 1st Cavalry Army, led by comrades Voroshilov and Budyonny, covered itself with unfading glory. The heroic defense of Tsaritsyn, the destruction of the white cavalry near Voronezh and Kastornaya, the rapid pursuit of the whites from Voronezh to Maykop, the defeat of the White Poles in the region of Zhitomir and Lvov, the liberation of Crimea - this is far from a complete, unprecedented in history, military path of the Red cavalry. The white generals and their foreign masters experienced its crushing strength and power. Many books have been written, many songs and folk tales have been written about the legendary exploits of the red horsemen and their military leaders.
One of the first fighters, organizers and commanders of the Red Cavalry is S.M. Budyonny, the son of a poor peasant from the village of Platovskaya. Long years farm labor and soldier service instilled in Comrade Budyonny a deep hatred of the exploiters. In February 1918, Comrade Budyonny organized a small partisan detachment. Soon Semyon Mikhailovich’s fellow countryman, Comrade O.I., joined his detachment. Gorodovikov, a Kalmyk by nationality, and comrade S.K. Timoshenko, a poor peasant from Bessarabia. Our glorious Red Cavalry was formed from small detachments and groups in the Stavropol steppes, which from the very first days of its life began to fight the White Guard units created by the tsarist generals Kornilov and Alekseev.
On February 28, 1918, Comrade Budyonny and a handful of brave men made a bold raid on the Platovskaya village, occupied by the whites. Two hundred White Cossacks were surrounded and disarmed. Budennovtsy captured 2 cannons, 4 machine guns, 300 rifles, 16,000 cartridges and 150 horses. Using the captured trophies, Comrade Budyonny formed a cavalry squadron of 100 sabers with machine guns and artillery in the area of the village of Platovskaya.
The Red Horsemen wrote many glorious pages in the history of the Red Army during the defense of Tsaritsyn. Selected cavalry units of generals Fitzkhelaurov and Mamontov received a crushing rebuff from the red cavalrymen. In the village Martynovka, the whites managed to surround a detachment of red infantry and cavalry. Being encircled, the Martynovites repelled the furious attacks of the Whites for 35 days. The Martynovites had no shells, cartridges, or bread, but they held out steadfastly. The cavalry detachment of Comrade Budyonny liberated the invincible Martynovites from the enemy encirclement. This operation was personally led by Comrade Voroshilov.
Comrades Stalin and Voroshilov had to do a lot of work to unite the red cavalry into large cavalry formations. At the height of the Tsaritsyn battles, they organized the 4th Cavalry Division, which was the main backbone of the 1st Cavalry Army. Comrade S.M. was appointed commander of this division. Budyonny. Great importance Comrade Voroshilov’s speech at the station played a role in uniting the scattered cavalry detachments. Repair in June 1918. In simple, convincing words, Comrade Voroshilov told the red horsemen about the political situation and the tasks of the Red Army.
The fatherly care and attention of Comrade Stalin accompanied the Red Cavalry throughout its heroic path. In response to this, the soldiers and commanders of the 1st Cavalry Army on December 9, 1919 elected Comrade Stalin an honorary Red Army soldier of the 4th cavalry division, and in July 1920 they presented him with a saber with the inscription:
"The cavalry army - to its founder,
Red cavalryman of the 1st squadron
19th Regiment 4th Cavalry Division
I.V. Stalin"
The vile Trotskyist degenerates, led by the chief bandit Trotsky, tried in every possible way to disrupt the organization of the Red Cavalry. They assured that the cavalry had outlived its usefulness. Life has refuted the hostile assertions of the Trotskyists.
The red troops grew rapidly. They included poor and middle peasants with horses and weapons, workers from industrial areas, as well as soldiers of the old tsarist army trained in horsemanship during the World War. From Wednesday best soldiers and non-commissioned officers of the cavalry of the old tsarist army, the first cadres of cavalry commanders were formed.
The heroism and skillful actions in battle of the Red commanders and political workers created them enormous popularity. The high authority of such cavalry commanders as Budyonny, Shchadenko, Parkhomenko, Gorodovikov, Dundich, Kolesov, Apanasenko and others was one of the reasons for the rapid growth of the Red cavalry.
Commanders of the First Cavalry Army S. K. Timoshenko, O. I. Gorodovikov, I. V. Tyulenev, T. T. Shapkin, N. I. Shchelokov with S. M. Budyonny and K. E. Voroshilov
The Lenin-Stalin party paid special attention to the selection of commissars. The most politically developed and courageous communists were appointed as commissars. With their courage, the commissars of the cavalry units often surprised the bravest cavalry commanders. The commissioners carried out great job on the political education of fighters. They instilled in the Red Army soldiers courage, heroism, dedication and mutual assistance in battles with the enemy.
In each unit, cultural and educational commissions were created, which, under the leadership of the commissars, organized the training of the illiterates, held rallies, conversations, newspaper readings, organized lectures, concerts, and supplied fighters with newspapers and literature. Rallies held 2-3 times a week were extremely popular among fighters. At rallies, commissars explained to the fighters issues of international and internal situation, and in connection with this the tasks of the Red Army.
The newspaper "Red Cavalryman" published by the political department of the 1st Cavalry Army was the favorite newspaper of the Red Army soldiers. Its circulation was 300,000 copies per month.
Much work was carried out to raise the political level of party members in party schools of formations and in party cells of units.
In June 1919, the 4th and 6th cavalry divisions were united into the Cavalry Corps, the command of which was assumed by S.M. Budyonny.
In the fall of 1919, relying on the broad support of the Entente, Denikin launched an attack on Moscow. His best divisions approached Orel at the end of September 1919, and the white cavalry of Mamontov and Shkuro captured Voronezh.
The Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party sent Comrade Stalin to the Southern Front, who in the shortest possible time achieved a turning point at the front.
Trotsky's treacherous plan with the direction of the main attack on Tsaritsyn-Novorossiysk was rejected. Comrade Stalin proposed his plan for the defeat of Denikin. The idea of genius Stalin's plan was to deliver the main blow to Denikin in the direction of Kharkov-Donbass-Rostov, split Denikin’s army into two parts and destroy its manpower. Comrade Stalin's plan was accepted by the Central Committee of the Party.
Budyonny's corps was entrusted with the task of defeating Mamontov-Shkuro's cavalry and breaking through the White front in the Voronezh-Kastornaya area.
On October 19, 1919, near Voronezh, the Cavalry Corps inflicted a heavy defeat on the cavalry corps of Mamontov and Shkuro. The Kuban White cavalry division, which rushed forward, was surrounded by Budyonny's cavalry and almost completely destroyed. General Shkuro fled in panic to Kastornaya, abandoning his headquarters train.
In subsequent battles that took place from November 10 to 15, Budyonny's Cavalry Corps completely defeated the corps of Shkuro and Mamontov. The Budennovites captured 4 armored trains, 4 tanks, 4 armored vehicles, 22 guns, more than 100 machine guns, 2 million rounds of ammunition, 5,000 rifles, over 1,000 horses, 3,000 prisoners and many other trophies. The defeated Denikin units, pursued by the heroic Red regiments, quickly rolled south.
Grekov's painting - Tachanka
The victory at Kastornaya was a huge operational-strategic victory for the entire Southern Front. This victory fully justified Comrade Stalin’s idea of the power of the cavalry masses and their enormous importance for crushing maneuvers. At this time, Comrade Stalin put forward the idea of deploying the Cavalry Corps into the army. Despite the sabotage of Trotsky and his henchmen, the 1st Cavalry Army was created in November 1919. In this interrogation, Comrade Stalin was warmly supported by V.I. Lenin, who closely followed the actions of the Red Cavalry. The Revolutionary Military Council of the created 1st Cavalry Army included comrades Voroshilov, Budyonny and Shchadenko.
Continuing the pursuit of Denikin's armies, the Cavalry Army approached N. Oskol on December 6, 1920. Fierce battles with the enemy began here. The Whites made a desperate attempt to delay the Red troops and thereby gain the time necessary for a systematic retreat to Don region. The red cavalry again defeated the enemy and prevented the connection of the Don and Volunteer armies Denikin.
Having recaptured Novocherkassk and Taganrog from the Whites, the Cavalry Army directed its attack on Rostov.
“On the night of January 7th to 8th, units of Budyonny’s cavalry, after bloody battles, broke into Rostov and Nakhichevan, taking 11,000 prisoners, 7 tanks, 33 guns, 170 machine guns on the outskirts of Rostov.”
(Pravda, January 8, 1935).
At this time, Denikin gained a foothold near Bataysk. It was impossible to knock the Whites out of the Bataille positions with frontal attacks. Comrades Voroshilov and Budyonny developed a plan to bypass the enemy across the river. Manych on Torgovaya and Tikhoretskaya.
This roundabout march of the Cavalry Army was unusually difficult. Snow, sharp winds and frost made movement difficult. The carts got stuck in the snowdrifts, and the tired horses refused to walk.
Having learned about the march-maneuver of the Cavalry Army to Manych, Denikin concentrated against it several cavalry corps numbering 29,000 sabers under the command of General Pavlov. Hot battles began near Torgovaya. After an unsuccessful attack on Torgovaya, the Whites retreated to Yegorlykskaya, leaving over 2,000 killed and frozen on the battlefield. For three days, the red cavalry, under the direct leadership of comrades Voroshilov and Budyonny, launched attacks against the whites who had settled in the village of Yegorlykskaya.
Soon Bataysk was taken. Denikinism was in agony. Denikin was finished off by a strike on Novorossiysk.
For victorious battles in the areas of Torgovaya, Peschanokopskaya, Sredne-Egorlykskaya and Belaya Glina, Comrade Voroshilov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
During a short rest of the 1st Cavalry Army in Maikop (April 1920), the new 14th Cavalry Division entered it. The division commander was A.Ya. Parkhomenko is an old Bolshevik underground fighter from Lugansk, a student of Voroshilov, a man of iron will, unshakable devotion to the Communist Party and unshakable faith in the victory of the working class.
On April 25, 1920, the Entente began its third campaign against Soviet power. The 50,000-strong Polish army, pushing back small parts of the Red Army, occupied Kyiv and began to consolidate on the left bank of the Dnieper.
On April 3, 1920, the 1st Cavalry Army began its historic transition to the Polish front. The 1st Cavalry Army covered 1,050 kilometers in 53 days. In the Gulyai-Polye region it defeated the Makhnovists, and at Chigirin it defeated the Petliurists.
On May 25, the Cavalry Army arrived in the Uman region and was placed at the disposal of the Southwestern Front, of which Comrade Stalin was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council. On the same day, Comrade M.I. visited the Cavalry Army. Kalinin, who presented the banners to the 11th and 4th cavalry divisions and a number of regiments.
To break the Polish front, it was necessary first of all to defeat their strongest Kyiv group. Comrade Stalin entrusted this task to the 1st Cavalry and 12th Armies.
The first cavalry is sent to the Polish front
On May 5, the cavalry army, for the first time in the history of the cavalry, broke through the fortified zone, broke into operational space and began to smash the Polish troops of Rydz-Smigly from the rear. The “brave” general, like 20 years later, in September 1939, abandoned his troops and fled in panic.
The 2nd Polish Army was completely defeated, and the 3rd Polish Army, operating in the Kyiv area, was surrounded and forced to fight its way to Warsaw. The entire Polish front trembled and ran first to the Bug and then to the Vistula. The Red Cavalry regiments pursued the retreating White Poles.
On August 18, the Cavalry Army besieged Lviv and from the morning of the 19th was preparing to capture the city. The advanced units of the divisions reached the outskirts of the city. At this moment, working for the benefit of the counter-revolution, the traitor Trotsky forbade the Cavalry Army to take Lvov and, under the pretext of urgent assistance to Tukhachevsky’s front, threw the Cavalry Army into an aimless raid on Zamosc, where it was surrounded by divisions of the White Poles.
In rainy autumn weather, with a lack of ammunition and shells, the 1st Cavalry fought bloody battles. And when Poles reported on the radio and in newspapers about the destruction of the Cavalry Army, comrades Voroshilov and Budyonny turned it to the east and led it out of the encirclement, capturing prisoners.
Thus, the enemies of the people Trotsky and Tukhachevsky snatched victory from the hands of the Cavalry Army near Lvov and sought to destroy it.
Victories over the White Poles cost the 1st Cavalry Army many losses.
In the battle near Rovno, the glorious commander of the proletarian cavalry, Krasny Dundich, died, the bravest of the brave, selflessly devoted to the party and the people, who fought in the forefront for the cause of the working class. Enemy bullets tore Division 4 Litunov from the ranks of the Cavalry Army.
In the summer of 1920, the White Guard degenerate “black” baron Wrangel emerged from the Crimea. The Wrangel front was a continuation of the Polish front, and as long as Wrangel had an army, our victory over the Polish lords could not be considered assured.
“In view of Wrangel’s success and the alarm in the Kuban, it is necessary to recognize the Wrangel Front as having enormous, completely independent significance, highlighting it as an independent front. Instruct Comrade Stalin to form the Revolutionary Military Council and concentrate his forces entirely on the Wrangel front...”
On the same day V.I. Lenin sent a note to Comrade Stalin: “The Politburo has just carried out a division of fronts so that you can exclusively deal with Wrangel...”
The loyal son of the party, M.V., was appointed commander of the front. Frunze.
To defeat Wrangel, Comrade Stalin removed the Cavalry Army from the Western Front and transferred it to Wrangel's front.
In an effort to delay the Cavalry Army, Wrangel threw armored cars, artillery and cavalry units against it. But nothing helped them - the red horsemen overthrew the whites and drove them to Perekop.
On the third anniversary October revolution The assault on Perekop began. After breaking through the Perekop positions, the Cavalry Army pursued the Whites to Sevastopol, where it completed its military journey final defeat armed forces of the "black baron".
That's how glorious journey the valiant 1st Cavalry Army. M.V. Frunze, in his greetings to the 1st Cavalry, wrote:
"With my own immortal exploits 1 The cavalry army deserves the greatest glory and respect not only in the hearts and eyes of the proletarians of Soviet Russia, but also in all other countries of the world. The name of the 1st Cavalry Army and its leaders, Comrade. Budyonny and Voroshilov are known to everyone.”
The Red Cavalry celebrates its glorious twentieth anniversary with new victories in battles with the Polish lords. Following the glorious traditions of the 1st Cavalry, the Red Cavalry, in the battles for the liberation of our half-brothers - Ukrainians and Belarusians, entered in Ukrainian and Belarusian fronts a new brilliant page in the history of its existence.
The Red Horsemen are ready to fulfill any task of the party and the Soviet government.
“...Our valiant force will more than once force people to talk about themselves as the powerful and victorious Red Cavalry.”
K.Voroshilov
Nonresident Ukrainians against everyone….
From a message from the military commissar of the 42nd division of the 13th army V.N.Cherny in December 1919: “There is not a single settlement that the Budenovites visited, where the continuous groan of the inhabitants would not be heard. Mass robberies, robbery and violence of the Budenovites replaced the rule of the whites. The cavalrymen of the concorps units took away from the population (indiscriminately from the kulaks and poor people) clothes, felt boots, fodder (sometimes not even a pound of oats was left), food, without paying a penny. By breaking into chests, they took women's underwear, money, watches, tableware, etc. There were allegations of rape and torture." In January 1920, the First Cavalry Army occupied Rostov. R.B. Gul wrote: “The city suffocated in the murders and violence of the Budenovites who seized upon the soldier’s joy of looting. Here Marx himself would have been hanged upside down on a lamppost by this peasant, Pugachev’s cavalry.” “In the first days,” recalled one of the witnesses to the robberies, S.N. Stavrovsky, “they smashed mainly wine shops, of which there were many in Rostov. Every now and then you could meet a Budenovsky Cossack or a Red Army soldier with a bunch of bottles in his bosom and in both pockets. Wine was taken away in buckets. The drunkenness and rioting were unimaginable. Several people, even from among the commanders of regiments and political committees, were shot. But the robberies and drunkenness did not subside until there was nothing left that could be robbed, and until the last drink was drunk. a bottle of wine." Commander of the troops Caucasian Front V.I. Shorin and member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the front V.A. Trifonov emphasized that the command of the Cavalry Army not only did not fight the robberies, but also sought to “take over shops, factories, warehouses in the shortest possible time, attacked everything indiscriminately and began the removal of items, sometimes completely unnecessary and of little value."
The plenipotentiary representative of the Cheka in the North Caucasus, J.H. Peters, accused Budyonny of delusions of grandeur and of keeping women at army headquarters “even street ones.” The Cavalry Army was followed by a whole tail of wagons with looted property. There were, according to the assistant to the head of military communications of the front for political affairs, I.N. Mironov, about 120. But here is the opinion of army commander G.Ya. Sokolnikov: “... the partisan-Makhnovist formations of the Cavalry will represent an even greater military and political minus in the future than in the present, and will be, if not a direct instrument of political adventure, then at least a breeding ground for banditry and decay.” And here is an excerpt from Voroshilov’s own letter dated March 4, 1920: “For a number of reasons, banditry, throat-grabbing and even robbery still flourish in our country. We need workers and much more to get rid of these terrible phenomena. The situation in which Lately the army, of course, has been unsuitable for spiritual revival.”
Entry in Babel’s diary dated August 18, 1920: “We are driving along the line with the military commissar, we beg not to cut down the prisoners, Apanasenko washes his hands. Sheko said - to cut down, it played a terrible role. I didn’t look at the faces, they pinned, shot, the corpses were covered with bodies, one is undressed, the other is shot, groans, screams, wheezing... Hell. The way we carry freedom is terrible. They search in the farm, pull out, Apanasenko - don’t waste cartridges, kill. Apanasenko always says - kill your sister, kill the Poles... Information about the defense of Lvov - professors, women, teenagers. Apanasenko will slaughter them - he hates the intelligentsia, this is deep, he wants an aristocratic in his own way, a peasant, Cossack state."
At the end of 1917, I. R. Apanasenko was elected chairman of the Council and Military Revolutionary Committee of the village of Mitrofanovskoye, Stavropol province. In May 1918, he organized a partisan detachment that fought in the Stavropol region against the troops of the White Army. From October (according to other sources from August) 1918, he became the commander of the brigade of the 2nd Stavropol Infantry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Division of the Stavropol Partisans, which was later renamed the 6th Cavalry Division and became part of the cavalry corps S. M. Budyonny, and then into the 1st Cavalry Army of the Red Army.
Report from the head of the 8th Cavalry Division of the Chervonny Cossacks, V.M. Primakov, dated October 2, 1920: “I report that yesterday and today the 6th Division of the 1st Cavalry Army passed through the location of the division entrusted to me, which along the way carried out mass robberies and murders and pogroms. Yesterday, over 30 people were killed in the borough of Salnitsa, the chairman of the revolutionary committee and his family were killed; in the borough of Lyubar, over 50 people were killed. Commanders and commissars are not taking any measures. Now the pogrom continues in the borough of Ulanov... In view of this , that the command staff also takes part in the pogrom, the fight against the pogromists will obviously result in the form of an armed clash between the Cossacks and the Budenovites. Yesterday I spoke with the division commander-6 (Apanasenko). The division chief told me that the division military commissar and several members of the command staff were killed a few days ago by their soldiers for shooting the bandits. The masses of soldiers do not listen to their commanders and, according to the division commander, no longer obey him. The 6th division goes to the rear with the slogans “beat the Jews, communists, commissars and save Russia”, the name of Makhno is on the soldiers’ lips as the leader who gave this slogan." Budyonny appeared in the division only a week later. An Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry worked in the Cavalry. 387 people were arrested, 141 people, including 19 representatives of the command staff, were sentenced to death. But these measures did not change the situation in the army. Opinion of an employee of the political inspection of the Southwestern Front P.Ya. Vitolin, referring to December 1920: “The mood of the units, as one of the responsible party workers put it, is militant: beat the Jews and communists and save Russia. And, indeed, these two elements are intertwined. Army militant, but anti-communist... Junk life is flourishing. Even a whole series of responsible comrades appeared in the cells, followed by carts with fox fur coats and other junk. Smetanniki are a common occurrence. The population where units of 1 Cavalry took place was literally terrorized." I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the First Cavalry Army was a combat-ready unit. Only this combat effectiveness was a consequence of great combat experience, but not high discipline. The fighters wanted to survive, and for this they had to win the battle, and victory requires courage and skill, which is what the Budenovites possessed. They were also united by faith in their chieftain.
He had the sad experience of commanding the gang of Budyonny and M.V. Frunze, when, during the defeat of Makhno, one of the divisions (4th) refused to carry out his orders. Prior to this, as part of the Southern Front, Budyonny’s refusal to carry out the order led to the death of two divisions, and in the campaign against Warsaw, to the failure of the entire operation. There was also a unique case when the commander of the 1st brigade of the 4th cavalry division, G.S. Maslakov, took the personnel of the 19th cavalry regiment with him to the bandits.
Right there in the house, in the next room, some Red Army soldier, accompanied by a woman who called herself a nurse of the 4th squadron of the 33rd regiment, continued to load bags with stolen property. When they saw us they jumped out of the house. We shouted to those who jumped out to stop, but when this was not done, the military commander of the division, Comrade. SHEPELEV killed the bandit at the crime scene with three shots from a revolver. They arrested the sister and led the shot man along with his horse.
Driving further through the town, we kept coming across individuals along the street who continued to rob. Comrade SHEPELEV convincingly asked them to disperse in sections; many had bottles of moonshine in their hands; under the threat of execution on the spot, it was taken from them and immediately poured out.
They stopped us and shouted, “Here is the military commissar who wanted to shoot us in the town.” About 10 Red Army soldiers of the same squadrons ran up, and the rest gradually began to join them, all leaving the ranks and demanding immediate reprisals against SHEPELEV.
At this time Comrade arrives. BOOK, together with the arrested sister, who managed to convey to the regiment that Comrade. SHEPELEV killed a fighter. Just then the whole regiment began to shout, shouting at all costs to shoot the military commissar who is killing honest soldiers. Before we had even driven 100 fathoms, about 100 Red Army soldiers separated from the 31st regiment, caught up with us, jumped up to the military commissar and snatched his weapon.
A shot was fired from a revolver, which wounded Comrade. SHEPELEV into the left shoulder right through. We are again surrounded by a crowd of Red Army soldiers, pushing me and the BOOK away from Comrade. SHEPELEV, and with a second shot mortally wounded him in the head. The corpse of the murdered comrade. Shepelev was besieged by a crowd of Red Army soldiers for a long time, and at his last breath they shouted “the bastard, he’s still breathing, kill him with sabers.” Some tried to steal their boots, but the military commissar of the 31st regiment stopped them, but the wallet, along with documents, including a code, was pulled out from comrade. SHEPELEV from his pocket. About half an hour after his murder, we managed to put his corpse on a cart and take it to Polestadiv 6.
RSFSR To the political department of the 6th Cavalry Division. MILITARY COMMITTEE to the division commander of the 33rd Cavalier. Regiment 5th Caval. Divisions. REPORT. October 2, 1920
On September 28, as soon as it got dark, the Red Army soldiers of the 3rd squadron and part of the first and individuals the rest of the squadrons went on foot in groups to the place where the pogrom began Jewish population. Comrade Military Commissar of the squadron Alekseev reported that the crowd was half drunk and in an excited state, and the patrol was unable to cope.
After this, the regiment's headquarters enters the apartment former commander 3rd squadron comrade. GALKA is drunk and a crowd of 15-20 people is also in this state, all armed, GALKA begins to shout at the regiment commanders and hit the floor with his butt, threatening that I will kill everyone who dares to go against me and adding: I am no longer a soldier of the Red Army, but "BANDIT". The commander began to persuade him, but I did not consider it necessary to enter into explanations with the drunken crowd, which came deliberately to cause a brawl, and found fault with every word. They were looking for the chairman of the command cell of the 4th squadron, Comrade. KVITKA, who detained two robbers of the 3rd squadron and took away the stolen things from them, GALKA definitely shouted: I will kill KVITKA.
We learned from Commander 34 that their situation was monotonous and the squadron did not come and the whole night there was general robbery and murder.
By 12:29 the regiment was built on east side N. A bunch of throat-huggers began to ask one after another to speak. All their speeches boiled down to this: immediate rest, expel all Jews from Soviet institutions, and some said from Russia altogether, as well as expel all officers from Soviet institutions, to which they proposed sending representatives from themselves to the Revolutionary Council of the 1st Cavalry Army.
The leaders of the robberies and pogroms of the Jewish population are still in place, in the squadrons, and continue to do their job, and the former commander GALKA, as if, will be the commander of his old squadron, the commander of 33 told me that the Division Chief has nothing against such an appointment and Brigade commander 2.
For now, the slogans “Beat the Jews and Communists” remain, and some glorify Makhno.
ORDER of the Revolutionary Military Council for the troops of the 1st Red Cavalry Army. No. 89. 1920 October 9, 24 hours, art. Rakitno.
We, the revolutionary military council of the 1st cavalry red army, in the name of the Russian Socialist Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic, declare:
Listen, honest and red fighters, listen, commanders and commissars devoted to the labor republic to the end:
For almost a whole year, the cavalry army defeated hordes of the most fierce enemies of the workers' and peasants' power on different fronts. Red banners fluttered proudly, drenched in the blood of the heroes who fell for the holy cause, and sprinkled with the joyful tears of liberated workers. And suddenly a terrible deed happened, and a whole series of unheard-of working peasant army crimes. These monstrous atrocities were committed by parts of one of the divisions, once also combative and victorious. Coming out of the battle, heading to the rear, the regiments of the 6th Cavalry Division, 31, 32 and 33, committed a series of pogroms, robberies, rapes and murders. These crimes appeared even before the retreat. So on September 18, 2 bandit raids were carried out on civilians; September 19 - 3 raids; September 20 - 9 raids; On the 21st - September 6 and 22 - 2 raids, and in total during these days there were more than 30 robber attacks.
In the town of Lyubar on 29/IX there was a robbery and pogrom of the civilian population, and 60 people were killed. In Priluki, on the night of 2/3/X there were also robberies, with 12 civilians injured, 21 killed and many women raped. Women were shamelessly raped in front of everyone, and girls, like slaves, were dragged away by beasts and bandits to their carts. In Vakhnovka 3/X, 20 people were killed, many were wounded, raped, and 18 houses were burned. During robberies, the criminals stopped at nothing, and even stole children's underwear from children.
Where the criminal regiments of the still glorious 1st Cavalry Army recently passed, the institutions of Soviet power are destroyed, honest workers quit their jobs and scatter at the mere rumor of the approach of bandit units. Labor population, which once greeted the First Cavalry Army with jubilation, now sends curses after it.”
ORAL REPORT TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE VTsIK TOV. KALININ REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SPECIAL DEPARTMENT OF THE FIRST CORDINARY ARMY. October 15, 1920. m. Znamenka.
Now, after the disarmament of the 6th Cavalry Division, a dark element still remains in the division and is campaigning for the release of the bandits handed over by the division. We have very few forces, and if these remaining bandits want, they will be able to recapture those arrested.
It should also be noted that our departments must be given the opportunity to deal with bandits on the spot. We are right on Makhno's territory. In Ekaterinoslav province. 2 prisons were unloaded by I cavalry. The bandits, knowing that their comrades were in prison, ran ahead and whispered to the army that the Budennovites were sitting in such and such a prison. The Budennovites came and opened prisons.
As a conclusion, it can be noted that the First Cavalry was the product of the dark peasant mass of the South of Russia, consisting mainly of ethnic Ukrainians. It was these people who, with bestial cruelty worthy of the Middle Ages, committed acts of violence against women and children. It is interesting that the behavior of the same Benderaites in Volyn at the end of the Second World War was distinguished by the same features. On the face common features national psychology.
In 1917, the capitalist world was shocked by a gigantic event - the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, which marked the beginning new era in world history - the era of socialism. In a fierce struggle against the tsarist autocracy and the bourgeois-landlord system, the working class of our country, in alliance with the working peasantry, under the leadership of the Communist Party and the great Lenin, eliminated oppression, violence and exploitation of man by man and proclaimed the Soviet socialist state. In the fire of the Civil War, imposed by the overthrown classes and international imperialism, the Soviet people created an army of a new type, which defended the great October conquests, covering its battle flags with unfading glory.
I dedicate my modest work to the blessed memory of the soldiers, commanders and political workers of the Red Army who died in battles for the freedom and independence of the Soviet state.
CM. BUDENNY
I. Until the Great October
Soon after the abolition of serfdom, my grandfather, a peasant from the Kharkov settlement, Biryuchinsky district, Voronezh province, was forced to leave his native places: the taxes and redemption payments that he had to pay for one tithe of the land he received turned out to be unbearable. Having abandoned his ruined farm, my grandfather and his three young children—among them was my two-year-old father—moved to the Don. But even here, in the rich Cossack region, for newcomers or, as they were called, nonresident peasants, life was no easier.
All the land on the Don has long belonged to the Cossacks and landowners. The lot of nonresidents was laboring. In search of seasonal work, they rushed around the edge. Among the privileged Cossacks, the nonresident peasant farm laborer was a completely powerless person. The Cossack could beat him and even kill him with impunity. And what kind of taxes did the Cossack atamans come up with for non-residents: for a dugout - a tax, for a window - a tax, for a pipe - a tax, for a cow, sheep, chicken - a tax.
My father, Mikhail Ivanovich, like my grandfather, worked as a farm laborer all his life. In his youth, not having his own corner, he wandered along the Don from village to village in search of work, and having married a peasant woman from the former serfs of the Bolshaya Orlovka settlement, Melania Nikitichna Yemchenko, he settled in the Kozyurin farm, not far from the village of Platovskaya. I was born on this farm in 1883 and lived here until 1890, when need forced our family to go to Stavropolytsina. That same year we returned to the Don and settled on the Litvinovka (Dalniy) farmstead, located on the right bank of the Manych River, forty kilometers west of the village of Platovskaya. Here, at the age of nine, I was assigned as a boy to the store of the merchant of the first guild, Yatskin, a former peddler who, in addition to the store, owned three thousand acres of land, which he rented from the Cossacks.
During the day I was at the beck and call of the owner and clerks, and in the evening, when all my peers were already asleep, I washed the dirty, trampled, spit-stained floors of the store. Then, when I was already a teenager, the owner sent me to work in the forge.
Working in the forge as a blacksmith's assistant and a hammer hammer from dawn to dusk, I could not go to school, but I wanted to study, and I began to learn to read and write with the help of the master's senior clerk, Strausov. He undertook to teach me to read and write, and for this I had to clean his room, shine his shoes, wash the dishes, and generally perform the duties of a servant. After work, I stayed in the forge and, in the light of the Kagan, learned the lessons given to me by Strausov.
It was difficult after a hard day at work. My eyes were drooping, and in order not to fall asleep, with a primer in my hand, I knelt on a pile of anthracite piled up in the forge or doused myself with water.
As a young man, I worked for the same merchant Yatskin on a locomotive thresher as a lubricator, fireman, and then as a driver.
In the fall of 1903 I was drafted into the army. I was drafted in the Biryuchinsky district of the Voronezh province, in the volost where my grandfather was from and where we received passports. Among the recruits called up for service in the cavalry, I was sent from the city of Biryucha to Manchuria. We arrived there in January 1904, when the Russo-Japanese War had already begun. Somewhere between Qiqihar and Harbin, a batch of recruits was selected from our echelon to replenish the 46th Cossack Regiment. In this regiment, which guarded the communications of the Russian army in Manchuria and carried out flying mail service, I served until the end of the war, and participated in several skirmishes with the Honghuzi.
After the end of the war, the 46th Cossack Regiment went back to the Don, and we, the young soldiers who served in it, were transferred to the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment, stationed in the village of Razdolnoye, near Vladivostok.
During my service in the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment, the first Russian revolution took place. Revolutionary uprisings also took place in military units, stationed at Far East, and especially on naval ships. We dragoons learned about this from the proclamations that we found in our barracks in the morning. Of the revolutionary slogans, the slogan that received the most ardent support among us, the majority of peasants: “The land should belong to those who cultivate it!”
In 1907, the regiment command sent me to the St. Petersburg School of Equestrians at the Higher Officers' School cavalry school. At that time, the cavalry regiments had the position of a rider, who was obliged to conduct instructor supervision over the dressage of young horses. These are the kind of rider-instructors that the school to which I was sent prepared. Graduating from this school promised me the opportunity to get rid of the difficult lot of being a farm laborer, which awaited me at home after returning from military service: a regimental rider who had served his term could always get a job as a bereytor (trainer) at some stud farm.
After studying at school for about a year, I learned well the rules of working with a horse and at competitions I took first place in dressage of young horses. This gave me the right, after completing the second year of training, to remain at the school as a riding instructor. But the regiment needed its own rider, and, not wanting to lose him, the regiment command hastened to recall me from school: enough, they say, to study, since I already came out in first place in the tests.
At school I was awarded the title junior non-commissioned officer. Returning to the regiment, I took up the position of rider and soon received the rank of senior non-commissioned officer. By virtue of my position, I enjoyed the rights of a sergeant.
My service period passed, but I remained in the Primorsky Dragoon Regiment as a super-conscript. In the summer of 1914, I was given leave with the right to travel to the village of Platovskaya, where by that time my father and his family had moved.
Soon after I arrived home, the First World War began. She interrupted my vacation, but I could no longer return to my regiment. According to the situation that existed at that time, as a non-commissioned officer of long-term service who was on leave, on the very first day of the announcement of mobilization I had to report to the local military presence and receive assignment to a military unit.
Only this year, when, in a cruel irony, marks the 80th anniversary of the creation of the 1st Cavalry, the FSB declassified documents that miraculously survived, revealing far from glorious pages in the history of the army that made Voroshilov and Budyonny famous. “The Case of the 1st Cavalry” tells about a small episode of the civil war - the murder of their military commissar Shepelev by the Red Army. The folders would certainly have been destroyed during the next historical purge of the archives, but they were considered monuments - the signatures of Voroshilov and Budyonny remained on some pages.
Even before Shepelev’s murder, military commissars and special officers inundated their headquarters with reports that the Red Peasant Army was “playing pranks” and that the military commanders themselves were no longer able to cope with bandit sentiments.
“We, military commissars, are not turning into political workers, we are becoming not the fathers of units, as stated in the instructions, but gendarmes... It is not surprising that they beat us and continue to kill us, I am sure they will continue to kill us...”
But it was Shepelev’s death that became the last straw, which overwhelmed the patience of the Revolutionary Military Council.
1.
SECRETARY of the Military Commissar of the 6th Cavalry Division
1st Cavalry IN REV. MILITARY OWL
1st CON. ARM.
REPORT
On September 28th of this year, in the morning, after the speech of Poleshtadiv 6 from the Polonny metro station in the direction of Yurovka, I, the Secretary of the Military Commissar of the Division and the Military Commissar of the 6th Comrade. SHEPELEV remained in Polonnoye in order to expel the lagging Red Army soldiers from the town and stop robberies against the civilian population. A mile from Polonnoye there is a new town, the center of which is inhabited exclusively by Jews; when we arrived there, we could almost hear screams from every house.
Entering one of the houses in front of which stood two saddled horses, we found an old man, about 60 years old, an old woman and a son on the floor, terribly disfigured by blows from broadswords, and opposite a wounded man lying on the bed. Right there in the house, in the next room, some Red Army soldier, accompanied by a woman who called herself a nurse of the 4th squadron of the 33rd regiment, continued to load bags with stolen property. When they saw us they jumped out of the house. We shouted to those who jumped out to stop, but when this was not done, the military commander of the division, Comrade. SHEPELEV killed the bandit at the crime scene with three shots from a revolver. They arrested the sister and led the shot man along with his horse.
Driving further through the town, we kept coming across individuals along the street who continued to rob. Comrade SHEPELEV convincingly asked them to disperse in parts, many had bottles of moonshine in their hands, under the threat of execution on the spot, it was taken from them and immediately poured out...
They stop us and shout, “Here is the military commissar who wanted to shoot us in the town.” About 10 Red Army soldiers from the same squadrons ran up, and the rest gradually began to join them, all leaving the ranks and demanding immediate reprisals against SHEPELEV...
At this time Comrade arrives. BOOK, together with the arrested sister, who managed to convey to the regiment that Comrade. SHEPELEV killed a fighter. Just then the noise of the entire regiment arose, shouting at all costs to shoot the military commissar, who is killing honest fighters... We had not even gone 100 fathoms when about 100 Red Army soldiers separated from the 31st regiment, caught up with us, jumped up to the military commissar and snatched it from him. weapon…
A shot was fired from a revolver, which wounded Comrade. SHEPELEV in the left shoulder right through... We are again surrounded by a crowd of Red Army soldiers, pushing me and the BOOK away from comrade. SHEPELEV, and with a second shot mortally wounded him in the head. The corpse of the murdered comrade. Shepelev was besieged by a crowd of Red Army soldiers for a long time, and at his last breath they shouted “the bastard, he’s still breathing, kill him with sabers.” Some tried to steal their boots, but the military commissar of the 31st regiment stopped them, but the wallet, along with documents, including a code, was pulled out from comrade. SHEPELEV from his pocket... About half an hour after his murder, we managed to put his corpse on a cart and take it to Polestadiv 6.
Secretary of the Military Commissariat 6 Hagan (signature).
2.
RSFSR
To the political department of the 6th Cavalry Division
VOENCOM to the division commander
33rd Cavalier. shelf
5th Kaval. divisions
REPORT
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On September 28, as soon as it got dark, the Red Army soldiers of the 3rd squadron and part of the first and individual individuals of the remaining squadrons went on foot in groups to the place where the pogrom of the Jewish population began... The military commissar of the squadron, Comrade. Alekseev reported that half of the crowd was drunk and in an excited state and the patrol was unable to cope...
After this, the former commander of the 3rd squadron, Comrade, enters the apartment of the regiment headquarters. GALKA is drunk and a crowd of 15-20 people is also in this state, all armed, GALKA begins to shout at the regiment commanders and hit the floor with his butt, threatening that I will kill everyone who dares to go against me and adding: I am no longer a soldier of the Red Army, but "BANDIT". The commander began to persuade him, but I did not consider it necessary to enter into explanations with the drunken crowd, which had come deliberately to create a brawl, and found fault with every word... They were looking for the chairman of the command cell of the 4th squadron, Comrade. KVITKA, who detained two robbers of the 3rd squadron and took away the stolen things from them, GALKA definitely shouted: I will kill KVITKA...
We learned from Commander 34 that their situation was monotonous and the squadron did not come and the whole night there was general robbery and murder...
By 12 o'clock on the 29th, the regiment was built on the eastern side of N. Place... A bunch of throat-huggers began to ask one after another for a word... All their speeches boiled down to this: immediate rest, expel all Jews from Soviet institutions, and some said even from Russia, as well as expel all officers from Soviet institutions, to which they offered to send representatives from themselves to the Revolutionary Council of the 1st Cavalry Army...
The leaders of the robberies and pogroms of the Jewish population are still in place, in the squadrons, and continue to do their job, and the former commander GALKA, as if, will be the commander of his old squadron, the commander of 33 told me that the Division Chief has nothing against such an appointment and Brigade commander 2.
While the slogans “Beat the Jews and Communists” remain, and some glorify Makhno...
VOENCOMM (signature)
3.
After the murder of Shepelev, Lenin and Trotsky sent a “landing party” of the top party officials to the 1st Cavalry. At a meeting of the Revolutionary Military Council, Voroshilov could no longer turn a blind eye to the “pranks” of his Red Army soldiers and “admitted mistakes”...
FROM TRANSCRIPT
JOINT SESSION
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PARTY Central Committee
AND MEMBERS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MILITARY COUNCIL
1st CAVE ARMY
Present: vol. Kalinin, Budyonny, Kamenev, Voroshilov, Minin, Semashko, Evdokimov, Lunacharsky, Kursky, Preobrazhensky, Gorbunov, Guryev, Ganshin.
VOROSHILOV: - ...As you know, the 1st Cavalry was moved to the Polish front from Maykop, by order of the Commander-in-Chief and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic; Comrade Budyonny and I were called to Moscow... We had very little time in Moscow, apart from, of course, personal pleasures, but when we returned back, we noticed that not everything was fine in the army...
It was stated that we were going to the front to fight the Poles, to take “Paris,” as some put it... The Red Army soldiers began to ask for leave. A whole pilgrimage began to let them go home. The provisional command failed to cope with the situation; the fighters, not receiving vacations, began to release themselves... Those who remained were indignant both at those who released themselves and at those who did not release...
When we arrived in Rostov, there, under the general mood negative elements the slogan was put forward: “the release of Dumenko, who was in prison at that time” (creator of the First Cavalry Army - V.M.) ...
There is no need to talk about the battles on the Polish front... In addition, along the way there was a replenishment of volunteers, of whom, as it later turned out, there was a lot of rubbish. Especially the 6th division, consisting of volunteers from the Stavropol province. - the small-proprietary elements themselves, at the beginning of the retreat they formed a nucleus of bandits...
It took about 2 weeks of preparatory work, during which terrible outrages happened in the 6th division... It was a guillotine; we knew that cleaning was needed, but for this cleaning we had to have strength behind us, we had to have units that, if necessary, could be shot. The division by this time was two-thirds bandit... As you know, the division commissar was killed. Having prepared, on the 9th an order was issued from the Revolutionary Military Council, and on the 11th an operation was carried out on the division.
The division was concentrated in the village of Olshaniky. It was ordered to build a division near the railway line. roads... Despite the order of the Revolutionary Military Council to line up on foot, they arrived on horses, and some even remained on horses under the guise of horse guides. But we immediately saw that there were too many horse breeders. When we arrived, it was immediately ordered to cover the division from the flanks and rear, and along the canvas railway two armored trains became. Thus the division found itself surrounded. It made an amazing impression. All the fighters and command staff did not know what would happen next, and the provocateurs whispered that there would be executions...
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There was a moment when the thought flashed that the entire division would rebel, but we all still had confidence that it would not come to that. We arrived along rows of clean regiments. Comrade Budyonny and I said a few comradely words to them, said that honest fighters should not be afraid of anything, that they know us, we know them... The clean brigades were opposed to the dirty ones. The command “at attention” was given. After this comrade. Minin artistically read the following order:
"ORDER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY
Military Council
24 hours, Art. Rakitno.
We, the revolutionary military council of the 1st cavalry red army, in the name of the Russian Socialist Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic, declare:
Listen, honest and red fighters, listen, commanders and commissars devoted to the labor republic to the end:
For almost a whole year, on different fronts, the 1st Cavalry Army defeated the hordes of the most fierce enemies of the workers' and peasants' power... Red banners flew proudly, watered with the blood of the heroes who fell for the holy cause, dotted with the joyful tears of liberated workers. And suddenly a dirty deed was committed, and a whole series of crimes unheard of in the workers’ and peasants’ army. These monstrous atrocities were committed by parts of one of the divisions, once also combative and victorious. Coming out of the battle, heading to the rear, the regiments of the 6th Cavalry Division, 31, 32 and 33, committed a series of pogroms, robberies, rapes and murders. These crimes appeared even before the retreat. So on September 18, 2 bandit raids were carried out on civilians; September 19 - 3 raids; September 20 - 9 raids; On the 21st - September 6 and 22 - 2 raids, and in total during these days there were more than 30 robber attacks...
In the town of Lyubar on 29/IX there was a robbery and pogrom of the civilian population, and 60 people were killed. In Priluki, on the night of 2/3/X there were also robberies, with 12 civilians injured, 21 killed and many women raped. Women were shamelessly raped in front of everyone, and girls, like slaves, were dragged away by beasts and bandits to their carts. In Vakhnovka 3/X, 20 people were killed, many were wounded, raped, and 18 houses were burned. During robberies, the criminals stopped at nothing, and even stole children's underwear from children.
Where the criminal regiments of the still glorious 1st Cavalry Army recently passed, the institutions of Soviet power are destroyed, honest workers quit their jobs and scatter at the mere rumor of the approach of bandit units. The working population, who once greeted the First Cavalry Army with jubilation, now sends curses after it...”
The order made a colossal impression. The guilty ones became despondent, but the innocent ones straightened up, and from their faces it was clear that they were condemning their comrades. We felt that we could rely on them. Although we, of course, knew that the real culprits did not come here.
After reading the order, they began to carry it out. One of the regiments had battle banner from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, brought by comrade. Kalinin. On behalf of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, I announced that the banner presented from supreme body, is selected and transferred to a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, comrade. Minina. The commander orders the banner to be taken away. This makes an even more amazing impression. Many fighters start crying, outright sobbing. Here we already felt that the audience was entirely in our hands. We ordered to lay down our weapons, step aside and hand over the instigators. They laid down their weapons unquestioningly, but hesitated in issuing them. Then we called the command staff aside and ordered to name the instigators. After this, 107 people were extradited, and the fighters promised to present those who escaped. Of those extradited, 40 have already been shot. After this, the regiments were declared disbanded, their weapons were returned to them and it was announced that they were being reduced to separate brigade. When the soldiers got their weapons back, there was no end to the jubilation...
So that's the situation. Of course, there was nothing dangerous or terrible, but, of course, the 6th Division did a lot of outrages. We don’t know much because we couldn’t go there. Now, I repeat, the army is absolutely healthy. Its combat effectiveness, even in the condition that existed in the 6th division, was not lost; all operational orders were carried out, because they did not connect the slaughter of the Jews with any connection with military discipline.
MININ (member of the Revolutionary Military Council): - A turning point has already been outlined, we already have 270 people handed over as fighters, and now the cleanup work must begin. We propose holding a series of non-party conferences and several days of party work so that the army is washed and perfumed...
ORAL REPORT
CHAIRMAN OF THE ALL-Russian Central Executive Committee
TOV. KALININ
REPRESENTATIVE OF SPECIAL DEPARTMENT
FIRST CORDINARY ARMY.
NOVITSKY
Now, after the disarmament of the 6th Cavalry Division, a dark element still remains in the division and is campaigning for the release of the bandits handed over by the division. We have very few forces, and if these remaining bandits want, they will be able to recapture those arrested.
It should also be noted that our departments must be given the opportunity to deal with bandits on the spot. We are right on the territory of Makhno......In the Ekaterinoslav province. 2 prisons were unloaded by I cavalry. The bandits, knowing that their comrades were in prison, ran ahead and whispered to the army that the Budennovites were sitting in such and such a prison. The Budennovites came and opened prisons...
On the 28th, the Berdichev prison was unloaded. It was done as before - under the slogan that the Jews and communists are imprisoning Budennovites...
On September 30, at the station where we were standing, individual bandit-minded units released those arrested from a special department. When we took action and drove away the bandits, after some time we received information that the regiments of the 2nd brigade of the 11th division were coming towards us. A delegation came and stated that the Jews had arrested the Budennovites, and when they wanted to free them, they were fired upon. We explained what was happening and told the shelves to stop. But at this time they had already approached the station and were in great bewilderment when they saw us instead of the Jews.
VARDIN: -...BANDITISM. The question that our cavalry army was fooling around was all the time... It was established that this was quite natural, because we did not have organized supplies, and it was necessary to organize the necessary robbery, from which, of course, it is easy to move on to robbery and not necessary.
ANTI-SIMITISM. The most sore spot in our case these are squadron commissars. They are usually ordinary fighters, communists, but very weak communists, and who sometimes are not averse to shouting along with the fighters: “beat the Jews...”
Anti-Semitism, as in any peasant army, took place. But anti-Semitism is passive... For us there was a serious issue - the attitude towards prisoners who were mercilessly killed and stripped. But it was difficult for the political department of the Revolutionary Military Council to fight this...
In this situation, our army did not receive even a 10th share of the number of workers it needed. The first batch of workers - about 200 people, arrived at the end of June... The second serious detachment - 370 people, led by Comrade Melnichansky. We celebrated the arrival of this party, but when we began to distribute them, only a small part turned out to be suitable, about two or three dozen, and the rest were either completely unsuited for the army, or were completely sick, deaf, lame, etc.
LUNACHARSKY: - Thus, 300 people are deaf and mute agitators...
VARDIN: - The other day a party conference was convened, at which anti-Simitic notes were submitted. They ask why the Jews are in power, we simply deprived them of their mandates and allowed them to remain with the right of an advisory vote...
BUDENNY: - ...And here, back when we were going through this idiotic Ukraine, where the slogan “beat the Jews” was everywhere, and, besides, the fighters always returned from the hospitals very dissatisfied. They are treated poorly in the infirmaries, and there is no help at the stations when returning. And so, having turned to one Jewish commandant, to another and not receiving help, or instead of help - abuse, they see that they are abandoned without any contempt, and, returning to the ranks, they bring disintegration, talking about grievances, they say that We fight here, give our lives, but no one does anything there...
4.
The meeting of the Revolutionary Military Council was secret, so naive special officers continued to write - now that even after the execution of more than two hundred bandits and riot instigators in the 1st Cavalry, nothing changed, because the main patron of the semi-gangster traditions of the 1st Cavalry is a member of the Revolutionary Military Council, comrade Voroshilov.
TO THE PRESIDIUM
ALL-RUSSIAN EMERGENCY COMMISSION.
REPORT
Banditry will not be eliminated in the Army as long as there is such a person as VOROSHILOV, for a person with such tendencies is clearly the person in whom all these half-partisans, half-bandits found support.
VOROSHILOV, a tyrant by nature, decided that further strengthening of the Special Department could have bad consequences personally for many high-ranking “junk dealers...”
Demobilization began. A special triumphant, demobilization-festive mood was created, which resulted in general drunkenness and the complete collapse of the work of the Headquarters and institutions, which reached the point that when MAKHNO was 20 versts from Yekaterinoslav, and only by chance did not turn in to rob, there was not only no actual forces, but no protective measures were taken positively...
At the same time, in the Revolutionary Military Council, both members (MININ was more careful and was not noticed) and secretaries drank wine brought from the Crimea and the Caucasus by DIZHBIT. Things got so cynical that the public, drunk, went to various charity evenings, spending hundreds of thousands there, and demanded an obligation to be present to serve a young communist at the table...
It has been established that among the drunken brethren, from the close knights, there are also quite dark in politically persons such as VOROSHILOV's secretary - KHMELNITSKY, a former officer, former communist, from the Red Army transferred to Denikin, who was there in a command position... In the Red Army he became VOROSHILOV’s favorite favorite. Some of the drivers of VOROSHILOV and BUDENNY, brought from Crimea, with officer faces, also turned out to be quite suspicious...
Nachosobtdela (Zvederis).
The fate of special officer Zvederis, who in his report tried to open his eyes to the legendary commander, is indicative: the report was added to the case, and Zvederis himself was eliminated. Indeed, it’s not right to eliminate the civilian hero Voroshilov?!
The editors express gratitude to the leadership of the Central Election Commission of the FSB of the Russian Federation for the materials provided.
Spelling and punctuation of documents have been preserved. Author's italics.
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