According to official version, the creators and leaders of the legendary First Cavalry during the Civil War were Semyon Budyonny and Klim Voroshilov. Actually this is not true. Indeed, they were the leaders, but the creators... The real organizer of the cavalry units on the Don was the former sergeant of the tsarist army, full Knight of St. George Boris Dumenko. Back in the spring of 1918, he organized a cavalry regiment to fight the counter-revolution. In September 1919, under his command, a cavalry-consolidated corps of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) was created, which fought the troops of the white generals Krasnov and Denikin. Dumenko established strict discipline, which, combined with skillful battle tactics, ensured his victory over the enemy. At the direction of Lenin, Trotsky, who was the organizer of the Red Army, People's Commissar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, personally presented Boris Dumenko with the Order of the Red Banner. From the regiments and brigades of his corps, Dumenko formed two cavalry armies - the First under the command of his deputy Budyonny and the Second under the command of Philip Mironov. By the way, both the very existence of the Second Cavalry and the name of its commander were completely erased from the annals of the Civil War. Subsequently, the story of the ascent to Olympus of the First Cavalry and its commanders begins. Boris Dumenko and his closest associates were arrested on false charges of murdering the military commissar of the corps Mikeladze. Taking advantage of this provocation (and perhaps even organizing it), Budyonny, together with members of the RVS First Cavalry Voroshilov and Shchadenko, gave a negative characterization of Dumenko - and on May 11, 1920 he was shot (he was rehabilitated in 1964). Then it was the turn of the commander of the Second Cavalry, Mironov. He was a talented and skillful commander, under his leadership the Second Cavalry played a decisive role in crossing Sivash and defeating Wrangel. Mironov did not want to acknowledge the superiority of the First Cavalry and its command. Taking advantage of the fact that Mironov openly protested against the Bolshevik terror on the Don, a case was opened against him and on February 13, 1921 he was arrested and shot 1.5 months later (Mironov was rehabilitated in 1960). Now no one stopped Budyonny from being considered, according to Lenin, “the most brilliant cavalry commander.”
Unlike Dumenko's army, Budyonny's troops, although they had high fighting qualities, were the most undisciplined units of the Red Army. Drunkenness, looting, robberies, executions, and Jewish pogroms were commonplace here, to which Budyonny did not even pay attention. This anarchic free spirit that reigned in the First Cavalry is well described by Babel, who fought as part of it, in the book “Cavalry.” After the publication of Cavalry, Budyonny publicly threatened the writer to “chop that Jew Babel into cabbage” and even published an article “Babel’s Babism” in the central press. Gorky stood up for the writer and assessed the work positively. Subsequently, Babel will be remembered for this too, declaring him a spy for two foreign intelligence services at once.
In September 1919, Budyonny and Voroshilov became close during the defense of Tsaritsyn with RVSR member Stalin, which significantly affected their future fate. They were impressed that Stalin, just like them, hated Trotsky with his orders, desire for harsh discipline, attraction of military specialists from the former royal officers. Voroshilov at one time was even part of the opposition, which demanded the expulsion of military experts from the army. Trotsky wrote: “Voroshilov is a fiction, a limited provincial without an outlook and without military abilities.” Subsequently, history fully confirmed the correctness of these words. During the hostilities, he really did not show any military talents, but he was always distinguished by the “purity” of his party views. It was under Tsaritsyn that he first and fully demonstrated his incompetence in military affairs, and after Stalin’s departure, Trotsky removed Voroshilov from command of a group of troops.
Nevertheless, thanks to his friendship with Stalin, Voroshilov, after the end of the civil war, became the deputy of the new People's Commissar of Military Affairs, Frunze. In the same People's Commissariat, Budyonny also occupied a fairly high position. There was only one step left to the pinnacle of glory. And Stalin again helped take this step. The fact is that Stalin was dissatisfied with Frunze, who did not attach the necessary importance to the work of political commissars in the army. Frunze suffered from a stomach ulcer for many years, but always refused to undergo surgery. And then, at the end of 1925, a special decision of the Party Politburo forced him to undergo surgery. According to Stalin’s former personal secretary Boris Bazhenov, who fled to the West in 1928, “during the operation, exactly the anesthesia that Frunze could not bear was used. And he died on the operating table. His wife was convinced that he had been stabbed to death and committed suicide. Voroshilov became People's Commissar, extremely limited person, who was associated with Stalin during the civil war." Writer Boris Pilnyak in his “Tale of the Unextinguished Moon” wrote about the mysterious circumstances of Frunze’s death (Pilnyak was shot in 1938). Frunze's children - 5-year-old daughter Tanya and 2-year-old son Timur (during the war he died in an air battle and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union) – were taken in by the childless family of Voroshilov(!).
During the period of Stalinist repressions, the commanders of the First Cavalry showed their human qualities most brightly. Thus, Voroshilov was the main conductor of the “cleansing” of the army launched by Stalin. Under his leadership, about 40 thousand commanders were “cleaned out like a vile infection.” At the same time, he personally authorized most of the arrests and executions. Budyonny, his faithful deputy, did not lag behind his boss. At the party plenum in March 1937, he spoke out for the execution of Bukharin and Rykov, in May of the same year - for the execution of Tukhachevsky and Rudzutak: “these scoundrels need to be executed.” Budyonny became part of the Special Judicial Presence at Supreme Council The USSR, which on June 11, 1937 examined the case of the “military-fascist” conspiracy - the case of Tukhachevsky and other major military leaders. After the trial of Tukhachevsky, a talented and intelligent man, one of the first 5 marshals of the Soviet Union, whom he had disliked since the Civil War, Budyonny wrote a letter of loyalty to Stalin approving the court’s decision. And even many years later, after the cult of personality had been debunked, Budyonny, among his comrades in the First Cavalry, said: “Yes, they were all shot correctly.” At the same time, he saved several directors of stud farms, and literally pulled Rokossovsky, a former fighter of the First Cavalry, from the dungeons of the Lubyanka. By the way, the former fighters of this army generally suffered relatively little in those years - despite the fact that Voroshilov and Budyonny dragged them to all more or less responsible posts in the People's Commissariat of Defense. Thus, a former member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the First Cavalry, Shchadenko, became deputy people's commissar for personnel in 1937 and also took part in repressions in the army. But the greatest damage to the Red Army was, of course, done by Marshal (since 1940) Kulik, former boss artillery of the Budyonny Cavalry, and from May 1937 - Deputy People's Commissar of Defense and Head of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army. In addition to the fact that he took part in reprisals against the military, he rejected the importance of mechanization of the army, emphasizing only horse traction. On his instructions, tank corps were disbanded, heavy artillery was removed from service, and he actively opposed the creation of the Katyusha guard mortars and the famous T-34 tanks.
Marshal Voroshilov was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Defense in 1940, after unsuccessful actions in the Soviet-Finnish war. The Great Patriotic War began - and the mediocrity of the Red Marshals from the First Cavalry was revealed in full force. Voroshilov was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Direction, but soon, having shown his complete inability to lead troops in a modern war, he was sent as front commander to Leningrad. And here he suffered crushing defeat. German troops came so close to the city that Voroshilov at the Military Council of the front raised the question of preparing for the explosion of the main industrial enterprises, in other words, actually admitted the possibility of the city surrendering to the enemy. When Stalin learned that Voroshilov had personally led the attack military unit, in a marshal's uniform and with a pistol in his hands, he urgently recalled him to Moscow. He was entrusted with the purely formal post of Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement. Marshal Zhukov later recalled that “Voroshilov remained an amateur in military matters to the end and never knew them deeply and seriously.”
Marshal Budyonny from July to September 1941 was the Commander-in-Chief of the troops of the South-Western direction. His inept leadership led to the fact that the 600,000-strong Red Army group was surrounded and completely destroyed north of Kyiv, led by its commander, Colonel General Kirponos. In August 1941, on the orders of Budyonny, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station was blown up. At the same time, not only those who broke through died German units, but also a large number of Soviet soldiers, civilians and hundreds of thousands of heads of livestock. In one hour, the entire lower part of Zaporozhye was demolished - with huge reserves of industrial equipment that were being prepared for evacuation to the Urals. After his removal from office, Budyonny commanded the Reserve Front. In October 1941, due to poor organization of defense, the Germans
They broke through the left flank of the Reserve Front defending Moscow. In April 1942
Stalin appointed him commander-in-chief of the North Caucasus direction, as a result the Germans broke through to the Caucasus. In the end, Budyonny also received a purely nominal position as commander of the cavalry of the Red Army.
The third marshal from the First Cavalry, Kulik, for inept actions in the Crimea and near Rostov in 1942, was deprived of all awards and demoted to the rank of major general (according to other sources, to lieutenant or even to private). Then he was dismissed from the army for drunkenness and embezzlement of state property and in 1950 he was shot “for participation in an anti-Soviet conspiracy” (rehabilitated in 1956).
It is noteworthy that both of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (Voroshilov twice, and Budyonny three times) not during the war and not even immediately after the victory, but after Stalin’s death, in the late 50s - 60s, when Khrushchev and Brezhnev distributed high awards left and right.
To the credit of the First Cavalry, it should be noted that from its ranks came such talented commanders, like Egorov (one of the first 5 marshals, shot in 1939), Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Timoshenko, Sokolovsky, Pliev.
P.S. In preparing this essay, the author used the following literature: B. Bazhenov “Memoirs of Stalin’s Personal Secretary”; G. Zhukov “Memories and Reflections”; L. Vasilyeva “Kremlin Wives”; R. Gul “Red Marshals”; E. Dolmatovsky “Green Gate”; I. Babel “Cavalry”; A. Chakovsky “Blockade”; L. Trotsky “Portraits of Revolutionaries”; Biographical encyclopedic Dictionary; “Boris Dumenko and Semyon Budyonny” Livejournal; Marlen Insarov "Philip Kuzmich Mironov."
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. Heroic Defense 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 the 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 of 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. The speech of Comrade Voroshilov at the station played a great role in uniting the scattered cavalry detachments. Repair in June 1918. In simple, convincing words, Comrade Voroshilov told the red horsemen about 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 rapid growth 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 cavalry units often surprised the bravest cavalry commanders. The commissars did a lot of work on the political education of the 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 Stalin's brilliant 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 it manpower. Comrade Stalin's plan was accepted Central Committee parties.
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 of all 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 the Don region. The Red Cavalry again defeated the enemy and prevented the connection of the Don and Denikin's Volunteer armies.
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 Torgovaya, Peschanokopskaya, Sredne-Egorlykskaya and Belaya Glina areas, Comrade Voroshilov was awarded the order 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. 50 thousandth Polish army, having pushed back small parts of the Red Army, occupied Kyiv and began to gain a foothold 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
5 May cavalry army For the first time in the history of the cavalry, it broke through a 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 urgent assistance Tukhachevsky's front threw the Cavalry Army into an aimless raid on Zamosc, where it was surrounded by Belopole divisions.
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 of the 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 battle path with the final defeat of the armed forces of the “black baron”.
Such is the glorious path of 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 greatest glory and respect is not only in the hearts and eyes of the proletarians Soviet Russia, but also 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, wrote a new brilliant page in the history of its existence on the Ukrainian and Belarusian fronts.
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
A year of unequal struggle of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia against the dictatorship of the international proletariat.
January 1 Art. Art. The 3rd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment was replaced by the reserve Kornilovsky Regiment (for some reason sometimes called the 4th Kornilovsky Shock Regiment).
January 1-5 Art. Art. During this time, the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was replaced by cadets and retreated to southeastern part Batayska also carried out guard duty in this direction. The Reds shelled Bataysk all the time from Rostov, throwing thousands of shells every day. And our artillery was quite strong and responded in kind.
January 3 Art. Art. The 3rd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment loaded onto the train and left for the village of Timoshevskaya for replenishment. Thus, on the Bataysk-Koysug front, the 1st and 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiments remained with their reserve regiment, composed almost exclusively of miners from the Donetsk basin.
January 6 Art. Art. Bataysk is defended by: the southeastern part - the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment; the northern part, to the railway, exclusively. - 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment; the northern and northwestern part from the railway, inclusive, and to Koysug, exclusively, the cadets; Koisug is the reserve regiment of the division.
The Reds have been especially diligent in shelling Bataysk today and are trying to advance. By evening, all their attempts to attack were repulsed.
6th January The 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment arrived in the village of Timoshevskaya, where it stayed until February 14.
The period of the Red Army’s decisive transition to the offensive has arrived, and therefore it is necessary to establish in as much detail as possible the balance of forces of both sides and the role of the Kornilov Shock Division in these battles. To roughly determine the balance of forces, it is necessary to recall the organization of both armies in order to avoid a fantastic and constant exaggeration of our forces by the Bolsheviks. The Red armies did not have corps, but were composed of divisions, the number of which in the army was at least three or more, depending on the army’s mission. Divisions had three brigades, brigades had three regiments. A division should have 15 batteries and, what was very important for us, the divisions each had their own cavalry regiment.
Composition of Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army
Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army attacked the Donetsk Basin consisting of:
- 4th Cavalry Division, 3-brigade composition - 6 cavalry. regiments,
- 6th Cavalry Division, 4-brigade composition - 8 cavalry. regiments,
- 11th Cavalry Division, 4-brigade composition - 8 cavalry. regiments
When crossing the Don, it was reinforced with: the 12th Infantry Division of the 3rd Army and the 9th Infantry Division of the 13th Army, Sverdlov's auto squad - 15 vehicles with machine guns and the Aviation Detachment - 12 aircraft. In addition, there are four armored trains: “Red Cavalryman”, “Kommunar”, “Death of the Directory” and “Worker”.
The regiments of the 1st Cavalry Army each had five squadrons, plus a reconnaissance squadron from best fighters. There are 4 machine guns per squadron, and a separate machine gun team in the regiment. There is one 4-gun battery per cavalry brigade. Attached to the cavalry division is an artillery division of four batteries with 4 guns.
Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army was always distinguished by the strength of its fire, especially machine gun fire on carts. Even if it suffered heavy losses during the offensive, it was well replenished, mobilizing the entire population, from its partisans to our prisoners, inclusive, who managed, before we moved to Crimea, to run over to us again. But the most important thing for the success of the Red Army was its excellently placed beast-like apparatus of the Cheka or GPU with combat units and in the rear, which we did not have at all, and also the consciousness of the army masses in their numerical superiority over us. The psychology of the crowd is the same everywhere - it obeys force.
What were the “Forces of the South of RUSSIA”? Torn apart by independent trends in the rear, which slowed down the actions of the front, they lost faith in success in the Voronezh-Oryel battles. If they fought courageously, it was by inertia, knowing in advance that death was better than slavery in the clutches of the Red International.
Without deviating from my task of collecting materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, here too I will only give the composition of the Kornilov Shock Division at the moment. According to the book “Kornilov Shock Regiment,” page 157, there were 415 officers and 1,663 soldiers in the three regiments of the division. With the departure of the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment for formation and the arrival of the “reserve regiment of the division” under the command of Lieutenant Dashkevich, this number increased to approximately 2,500 people. To this must be added about a hundred machine guns with nine batteries. Two armored trains were approaching Bataysk. Section of the front of the Kornilov Shock Division - from the village. Kuleshovka, exclusively, where the section of the Drozdovskaya Rifle Division began, and up to Bataysk, inclusive. From that time on, the Volunteer Corps of General Kutepov became subordinate to the Don Army.
The Red Army goes on the offensive
According to Shorin's order, Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Army with the rifle divisions attached to it goes on the offensive. In Budyonny’s book “My Traveled Path” he talks about it this way: “ January 3/16 a combat order was given to the 1st Horse Army to cross the Don and occupy the Bataysk bridgehead. However, starting on January 17 A.D. Art. offensive, mounted army (6th Cavalry Division) even on foot she could not turn around in the Batai swamps, was unable to use either artillery or machine guns. During one of the attacks in the direction of Bataysk, Voroshilov came under heavy enemy artillery fire. A whole line of shells that fell on the attackers broke the ice, and Kliment Efremovich along with his horse (?) ended up in the water. The fighters, under a hail of bullets, helped Voroshilov get out of the water and saved the horse. Having no success, the cavalry army retreated to its original position by nightfall.”
The combat log of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment for this date only notes the intensification of artillery fire near Bataysk and the Reds’ attempts to advance, which were repulsed by artillery and machine-gun fire.
January 5/18, 1920 In the same book, Budyonny writes: “On the morning of the 18th, units of the cavalry crossed the Don again and went on the offensive. The 12th Infantry Division from Rostov and the 6th Cavalry Division were advancing towards Bataysk (and according to our data, the 9th Infantry Division was also advancing towards Bataysk from the Gnilovskaya station). All day long, with the active support of armored trains, they fought heavy battles, but were unsuccessful. The 4th and 11th cavalry divisions crossed the Nakhichevan crossing. By joint actions, with the support of the right-flank 16th Infantry Division of the 8th Army, in a stubborn battle they knocked out the enemy from the village of Olginskaya and pursued him until darkness in the direction of the village of Khomutovskaya,”
The enemy himself claims here that near Bataysk the 12th Infantry Division with the 6th Cavalry Division (and according to our data, with the 9th rifle division, from the village of Gnilovskaya), despite the active support of armored trains, were repulsed by the Kornilovites. But in this battle, the Kornilovites also suffered heavy losses: our untrained young “reserve regiment of the division” was injured, and the commander of the 1st regiment, Colonel Gordeenko, was wounded twice. Staff Captain Chelyadinov took temporary command of the regiment, who in turn was wounded, and Lieutenant Dashkevich took his place, and Staff Captain Filipsky took over the “reserve regiment”.
January 6/19. From the book of Soviet Colonel Agureev, page 173: “On January 19, having regrouped their forces, the cavalry army and the 16th Infantry Division went on the offensive, trying to master Bataysk, the village of Zlodeisky and Khomutovskaya. By this time, enemy cavalry had approached Bataysk and the Zlodeisky farm, and fierce battles broke out along the entire front, from Bataysk to Khomutovskaya. Having a strong superiority in manpower (?!) and especially in technology, Denikin’s troops began to push our units towards the Don. Holding back the onslaught of the White Guards, Soviet cavalry and infantry They fought back to the north, holding the approaches to the Nakhichevan crossing and Olginskaya. Having suffered heavy losses and not achieving decisive success, the enemy was forced to retreat to the Bataysk - Zlodeisky farm - Khomutovskaya line, leaving part of the forces of the 3rd Don Corps in the Olginskaya area.
About the same from Budyonny’s book, page 389: “At dawn on January 619, the 4th and 11th cavalry divisions launched an energetic offensive, with the task of reaching the line Kagalnitskaya, Azov, Kuleshovka, Koisug, Bataysk, Zlodeisky farm. The 6th Cavalry Division was used to build on the success of the 4th and 11th Cavalry Divisions. However, the enemy, having taken advantageous positions near Bataysk and concentrated large forces of cavalry, artillery and machine guns, with the active support of armored trains, pinned down our units with heavy fire and disrupted the offensive. At night the divisions withdrew: the 4th Cavalry Division to Nakhichevan, the 6th and 11th to Olginskaya, where the 16th Infantry Division of the 8th Army arrived in the evening. All night the enemy stormed Olginskaya, trying to knock out our units from the village.”
DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF JANUARY 6/19, 1920 ACCORDING TO THE COMBAT JOURNAL OF THE 2nd KORNILOV SHOCK REGIMENT
(At the site of General Kutepov’s Volunteer Corps)
On January 6/19, even before dawn, Cossack patrols discovered a large movement through the Nakhichevan and Aksai crossings. Indeed, at dawn the Reds launched a cavalry offensive from the village of Olginskaya to the Zlodeisky farm, bypassing Bataysk. By this time, the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment had finished replacing the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment, which was withdrawn in the direction of the Zlodeisky farm to assist the cavalry. As it was reported then, the enemy advanced to the village of Khomutovskaya unhindered, and from the village of Zlodeisky the Terek Cavalry Corps of General Toporkov came out to meet him, and by the same time, around 12 o’clock, the cavalry brigade of General Barbovich began to move along the railway line to the southern part of Bataysk. The advanced units of General Toporkov were first thrown back by the Reds, and the entire mass of Budyonny’s cavalry followed them to the Zlodeisky farm. But at this time, General Toporkov’s units themselves went on the offensive almost simultaneously with General Barbovich and, with the support of armored trains and the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment, struck Budyonny’s cavalry from the southern part of Bataysk in the eastern and northeastern directions. The entire battlefield was clearly visible from the right flank of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, as it was a continuous plain covered with shallow snow, with reeds up to the Don and small hills towards the Zlodeisky farm. By this time, the Red infantry went on the offensive with the 12th Infantry Division from the north to Bataysk and Koisug, but was repulsed by the division's reserve regiment and a battalion of the 2nd regiment. The remaining battalions of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, according to the order, went on their own at about 2 p.m. to the offensive directly east, along the Don, which was particularly beautiful. The entire huge field from the railway near Bataysk to the village of Olginskaya was covered with a mass of cavalry and only at Bataysk with infantry. There was enough artillery of various calibers and machine guns on both sides, and their work made everything hum and bubble. On the Red side, as it was then determined, there were at least 15 thousand checkers (4th, 6th and 11th cavalry divisions) and 12th, 9th and 16th rifle divisions. On our side is the cavalry of General Toporkov. Combined Kuban-Tersky Corps, no more than 1,500 sabers, General Barbovich's cavalry brigade of 1,000 sabers and the Kornilov Shock Division consisting of the 1st, 2nd and reserve regiments of 1,600 bayonets on the front of the Zlodeisky farmstead, exclusively, Bataysk and Koisug. There were few cadets. From the side of Art. Egorlytskaya was led by the 4th Don Corps of General Mamontov, who at that time became dangerously ill, and the corps was commanded by General Pavlov. This section of the Don Army was not observed from our sector, and therefore we know about its actions from their data.
The beginning of our attack was so energetic, such a loud “hurray” rolled from everywhere that the battle, despite clear superiority enemy forces and the depressed state of our troops promised us success. It was visible how our cavalry, in almost a continuous line, attacked the Reds, knocked them down and walked steadfastly under the destructive fire of machine guns. With the onset of dusk, the Reds were defeated and driven back to our sector beyond the Don, from where their artillery from Rostov showered the entire battlefield with shells over our heads. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, with a blow along the Don, from Bataysk to Nakhichevan, finished off the fleeing units of the famous 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny in the semi-darkness. On the shoulders of those running, it would have been easy to break into Rostov and Nakhichevan, but this was not our task and we were ordered to retreat to our old positions. The losses of our infantry were small, but the cavalry, especially the Terets, suffered heavy losses. General Toporkov himself was wounded.
The success of General Barbovich's cavalry and General Toporkov's cavalry was reaped by the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, with its strike along the Don, cutting off the path of the Reds fleeing to Rostov, taking abandoned guns and machine guns. Such a quantity of actually selected weapons - in total the regiment took 15 guns and several dozen machine guns - was possible to take, in addition to the valor of our cavalry and Cossack cavalry, also because the meadows were still difficult to pass for cavalry, and even more so for artillery,
January 7/20. In the combat log of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment for this date it is noted that Art. Olginskaya was taken by the Don Army.
January 8/21. On the front of the Kornilov Shock Division, all attacks by the 9th and 12th Rifle Divisions were repulsed,
January 8/21 according to Budyonny’s book:“Fierce fighting broke out on January 21. On the right flank, the 9th Infantry Division, which was previously in the army reserve, was thrown into battle. The regiments of this division, operating southwest of Rostov, stormed the farms of Obukhov and Ust-Koysug all day. The 12th Infantry Division went on the offensive in the center. The 3rd brigade of this division, despite hurricane machine-gun and artillery fire from the enemy and quicksand swamps, crossed the Koysug River two miles from Bataysk. However, due to the unsuccessful actions of other parts of the division and under pressure from many times superior enemy forces, the brigade withdrew.”
During the same day, two brigades of the 4th Cavalry Division and the entire 6th Cavalry Division of Budyonny, together with the 31st and 40th Rifle Divisions, attacked Olginskaya, a sector of the Don Army, and took it, but were driven back beyond the Don by a counterattack.
Description of the same day Soviet colonel Agureev: “Having drawn fresh strength, on January 21, Art. The cavalry and 8th armies again went on the offensive. The 4th, 6th and 11th cavalry divisions and five rifle divisions were brought into battle (of which the 9th and 12th, which were subordinate to the cavalry army, the 31st and 40th divisions of the 8th 1st Army and 21st - 9th Army). From the mouth of the Don to st. Fierce fighting took place in Manychskaya. The 9th and 12th rifle divisions, advancing from the mouth of the Don to Bataysk, met stubborn resistance from the Drozdovskaya, Kornilovskaya and Alekseevskaya (only one regiment) divisions of the “Volunteer Corps” and, having failed to achieve success, retreated to their starting lines in the evening.” (The 9th and 12th rifle divisions had 18 rifle regiments and two cavalry regiments attached to the divisions, and our divisions had a maximum of 7 small regiments. The remaining units of the Red Army operated in the Don Army sector and, also without success, were thrown back beyond the Don).
January 9-10/22-23. It's calm at the front. The Red Command apparently decided to leave us alone and was thinking of striking somewhere else.
So, the order of the commander of the Southwestern Front Shorin, given on January 3/16, 1920, to the 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny with the rifle divisions attached to it by January 9th Art. Art. completely failed. On this occasion, a stormy explanation took place between the front commander Shorin and the commander of the 1st Cavalry Army Budyonny, from which we can partially learn about the reasons for the failure and the losses of the 1st Cavalry Army Budyonny. First I'll give you materials from Budyonny’s book “My Path Traveled”:
Page 385: Disagreements between the commander of the 8th Army and the 1st Cavalry are outlined on the issue that the latter should not have taken Rostov and Nakhichevan, since this area was allocated to the 3rd Army, and this reached the commander of the Southwestern Front Shorin in unpleasant lighting for the 1st Cavalry Army.
Page 388: The Revolutionary Council of the 1st Cavalry protested against the fact that Shorin was sending the army to attack a fortified enemy head-on and where it ended up in a swampy area. Having tried to advance, they could not bring with them a single cannon, not a single machine-gun cart (?!). The cavalry army lost its main quality - mobility and maneuver. Despite the obvious inexpediency of an attack on Bataysk, we were forced to carry out Shorin’s directives.
Page 389: Having no success on January 17 AD. Art. Budyonny asks Shorin to cancel the directive to attack Bataysk. Shorin refused, but promised to give instructions on the offensive of the right-flank divisions of the 8th Army.
Page 391-392: Convinced of the futility of frontal attacks on Bataysk and Olginskaya, Budyonny asks Shorin to cancel the attack on Bataysk from Rostov. However, Shorin rejected this request and stated that the cavalry army drowned its military glory in Rostov wine cellars. This unheard-of insult hurled by Shorin at the heroic soldiers of the cavalry outraged us to the core. We declared that the cavalry army was drowning and dying in the Batai swamps due to the fault of the front command and that until he, Shorin, arrived in Rostov, we would not send the army on an aimless offensive.
Page 392 and 393: After this, Budyonny addresses himself politically, to Stalin, with accusations against Shorin and with a proposal to entrust the defense of Rostov and Nakhichevan to the 8th Army, and to transfer the 1st Cavalry to the area of the village of Konstantinovskaya, where it is easy to cross and advance to the southwest
Page 393-394: Shorin himself came to the 1st Cavalry Army, looked at the units and stated that he found the order of using armies correct and would adhere to this order in the future. The cavalry army must take Bataysk. This ended Shorin’s conversation with Budyonny. On the same day, the command of the cavalry sent a telegram to Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. The next day the commander-in-chief ordered the commander Caucasian Front"cancel frontal attacks at the front of the 8th and cavalry." Thus, Budyonny was successful politically and Shorin was removed.
Page 403: In a conversation with Stalin by telegraph, Voroshilov said: “We are all incredibly glad that Shorin has been removed. If you come to Rostov, then make sure on the spot that a simple shift, and even with a promotion, is not enough for him. We all consider him a criminal. His ineptitude or evil will ruined more than 40% of the best fighters, command staff and commissars and up to 4,000 horses. One and the most important request, which cannot tolerate a single day of delay: in order to preserve the composition of the cavalry, insist (?) on the immediate secondment to our disposal of the 9th Infantry Division. Our defeat is a consequence of the lack of covering the flanks with infantry units and consolidating the achieved lines. Second request: point out the urgent need for urgent replenishment of the cavalry.”
Full recognition colossal losses The 1st Cavalry Army is served by the contents of Budyonny’s letter to Lenin.
Page 398: “The village of Bogaevskaya on the river. Don, February 1 Art. 1920 Dear leader, Vladimir Ilyich! Forgive me for writing this letter to you. I really want to see you in person and bow before you as the great leader of all poor peasants and workers, but the work of the front and Denikin’s gang prevents me from doing this. I must inform you, Comrade Lenin, that the cavalry army is going through difficult times. Never before had my cavalry been beaten the way the whites were now beating. And they beat her because the front commander put the cavalry army in such conditions that it could die completely. I’m ashamed to tell you this, but I love the cavalry army, etc...” Next come Shorin’s accusations of all mortal sins.
Now we will try, from our Kornilov point of view, to weigh and analyze the reasons for the temporary success of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia in the tragic conditions for us of retreating 700 miles from Orel and retreating beyond the Don, leaving large reserves of weapons and supplies in Rostov and Novocherkassk.
The first and main positive factor of our successes was the moral uplift in Cossack units in the face of the accomplished tragedy of our defeat through the efforts and hands of mainly independent movements, which almost destroyed the unity of command. The Don units were so shocked by this that the once glorious 4th Corps of General Mamontov, which had left its capital without a fight, now allowed General Sidorin to clean out its convoys, as a result of which about 4,000 people were put into service. The volunteer corps of General Kutepov was numerically weak, but he needed rest for vigor, which he received while the Reds were smashing Rostov, Nakhichevan and Novocherkassk as victors,
It is in vain that the Reds believe that terrain conditions hindered them. They were almost the same for both sides. From the heights of Rostov and Nakhichevan, the Reds perfectly covered their crossings back and forth with their artillery fire, and the plain from the Don to the line on our side, the village of Olginskaya - the village of Zlodeisky and Bataysk, was equally unpleasant for us, since in the first place it had no shelter from fire. Yes, our heights are on the line of station. Olginskaya - Zlodeisky farm partially hid the transfer of our reserves, but they cannot be compared with the heights of the right bank of the Don, which represented a real fortress, while ours were only slightly hilly terrain. It is also futile to exaggerate our numbers and weapons. All this was known then and now and serves as a red, bad cover for their medieval methods of subjugating peoples Russian Empire its international dictatorship.
Without going into the subtleties of assessing the balance of forces, then it seemed to us that our duty obliged us to defend our Motherland, and therefore we fought to the end according to the behest of our Leader and Chief of the regiment, General Kornilov, while our hands could hold weapons. You, everyday comrades, had something else: the madness of propaganda of the impossible, an unprecedented, brutal CHECK and unlimited power to foreign regiments that created unlimited resources and, we must never forget, that you always crushed us with your mass. And now, despite our temporary success, we realized that you would crush us, but in full consciousness of the rightness of our cause, we sacrificed our lives on the altar of our Motherland. Even your famous proletarians were infected with this - the miners of the Donetsk basin, of whom the “reserve regiment of the Kornilov Shock Division” was made up and who valiantly fought with you for national RUSSIA near Bataysk and to Novorossiysk. Eternal and glorious memory to these valiant heroes for their, albeit short-lived, but patriotic impulse, moreover, manifested in conditions of hopelessness of success.
The coverage of the situation gives a clear idea of the brilliant role the Kornilovites played in these battles during the defense of Bataysk and Koisug. And in a reduced composition of two regiments, with the support of their reserve regiment of miners, in good spirits, they inflicted enormous damage on the enemy and were worthy of the rest they were given in reserve.
January 11 Art. Art. 1920 Replacement of the Kornilov Shock Division by Alekseevtsy and transfer to the reserve of the 1st Army Corps of the Volunteer Army in Kayal. The 2nd Regiment was assigned to Zadonskaya Sloboda at the Kayal station. Here the units sorted themselves out and perked up, and began drills and tactical exercises. During this time, news of the victory of the Donets on the river. Manych even gave rise to hopes for a new offensive. Ekaterinodar and its government evoked a completely opposite mood.
January 31st. Arrival of General Denikin. The regiments joyfully greeted their old comrade-in-chief and Commander-in-Chief. His speech shook up many and made them look at everything that was happening more rationally.
February 2. Performance at Koysug. The regiments reached Bataysk in trains and at dawn went in marching order to Koysug. stood severe frost, and all movements were constrained by him.
February 3 and 5. On the front of the Kornilov Shock Division, Bataysk-Elisavetovskaya village, all Red attacks were repulsed. The rest has noticeably lifted the spirits, and the battles are being fought amicably.
February 6. General Kutepov's volunteer corps goes on the offensive. An order was received for the Kornilov Shock Division to attack Rostov through Art. Gnilovskaya, which is supposed to be taken by a night attack. In the vanguard is the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment, behind it is the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment, to the right is the reserve Kornilovsky Regiment and the 1st Markovsky Infantry Regiment. The ledge behind the left flank of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, “boxes”, is the cavalry of General Barbovich. At 24 hours the movement of units began. There was a severe frost, which only the well-dressed could hardly bear, while the rest warmed themselves by moving. The movement took place on a flat, swampy area, in places overgrown with reeds. Infantry regiments marched in battalion-style columns, and cavalry in “boxes.” A frosty fog enveloped this entire majestic movement of the compact mass of troops.
February 7. In front of the village of Gnilovskaya, the Kornilovites crossed the Don and approached a high, steep bank. They began to climb it, the horses slid and fell, and in the darkness the steep slope seemed endless. Captain Shirkovsky and his battalion took the standing armored train, and the remaining battalions of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment captured the Bakhchisarai Regiment named after Lenin with all its guns and machine guns. The 2nd regiment became the reserve of the division in the village, and the reserve Kornilovsky regiment with the 1st Markovsky was sent to Temernik, a suburb of Rostov. The Reds went on the offensive from Taganrog. The Red cavalry, which did not imagine that we had occupied the village so quickly, approached it in columns and was shot at point-blank range by our reserves. At that time, the Red armored trains were coming from the same place, accompanied by infantry, with the goal of reaching our rear. Here too the enemy was brought close and repulsed by fire.
The advance of the 1st Markovsky and reserve Kornilovsky regiments met stubborn resistance from Temernik. At the Kornilovtsev site, a platoon of the Markov battery fired direct fire at the Red battery, which was captured. But despite this, our attack did not advance further than the station.
General Barbovich's cavalry went north.
The next day, the 1st and 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiments were ordered to take Rostov and Nakhichevan.
February 8. By morning, our units held Temernik, and the Reds were on the other side of the railway, in the streets of Rostov, placing machine guns everywhere. From the beginning of the offensive, our artillery from the Temernitsa church opened hurricane fire on the enemy position and knocked out almost all the machine guns. The regiments went on the attack, the Reds were thrown back and began to retreat, covering themselves with machine guns. The right-flank 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was given a section from the Don, inclusive, to Sadovaya Street, exclusively, and in Nakhichevan - Cathedral Street, inclusive. The left-flank 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment - from Sadovaya to the outskirts of the city, inclusive, and so on to Nakhichevan, to its eastern outskirts. In some places the enemy put up stubborn resistance, but everywhere we successfully shot him down. With the onset of darkness, the regiments passed the city of Nakhichevan, and by 23 o'clock they were dispersed to apartments, setting up guards to the east and north. Movements of the Don units from the direction of the station. Aksayskaya was never seen until the end of the operation. The 3rd Soviet Army was defeated, the trophies of the Kornilovites alone were 13 guns, 74 machine guns, three armored trains and up to a thousand prisoners. In addition, General Barbovich's cavalry surrendered up to 800 prisoners.
The reserve Kornilovsky regiment suffered heavy losses on the first day of the offensive - 200 people were killed and wounded. The 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment lost 60 people, the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment - up to a hundred people. The temporary commander of the regiment, Captain Dashkevich, was wounded, and Staff Captain Shirkovsky took command of the regiment. The losses of the 1st Markov Regiment were up to one hundred people (see volume 2 of their book “In battles and campaigns for Russia”).
Here it is appropriate to cite the opinion of the squadron commander of His Majesty’s Cuirassier Life Guards Regiment, Captain E. Onoshkovich-Yanyn, as stated by him in the magazine “Military Story” No. 78, March 1966. In the excellent article “The Capture of Rostov on February 7 and 8, 1920” he describes the same battle only from what he saw in his sector and from this concludes that “the entire burden of the battle fell on the cavalry brigade of General Barbovich, more precisely, on one Consolidated Guards Regiment, the composition of which, according to the author, was 240 sabers with two machine guns in his squadron (there must have been the same number in the second squadron).” Or: “The actions of the Consolidated Guards Regiment remained unknown, but they were decisive, since the regiment passed through the rear of the enemy (only by attack knocking down his chain), completely demoralizing him and destroying his combat effectiveness” (?!)
In my materials for the history of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, I warned the reader from the very beginning that I would cover the actions of the Kornilovites within their narrow framework in order to avoid reproach from judgments about the actions of other units. But in this case, in a long correspondence with captain E. Onoshkovich-Yatsyna, I wanted to prove the impartiality of the entries in our regimental journals, on the basis of which I describe this battle. Yes, the actions of General Barbovich’s cavalry brigade in this battle were brilliant. According to them, two armored trains surrendered to them in their area - they looked like armed auxiliaries. And subsequently the cavalry brigade acted as I described above in the description of this battle. If we compare the numerical strength of General Barbovich’s cavalry brigade with four infantry regiments, adding to them the Kornilov artillery brigade, the Markov battery under the 1st Markovsky infantry regiment, more than a hundred machine guns in only three Kornilov regiments, the Kornilov cavalry division and a squadron in each regiment, the capture of the station and village of Gnilovskaya with an armored train and the capture of the entire infantry regiment, with all its machine guns and artillery, and taking into account our losses in killed and wounded, then... all this will be far from the statement that “the entire burden of the battle” fell on one cavalry regiment with four machine guns.
I hope that the impartial reader will take into account everything I have stated above and, while paying tribute to the actions of General Barbovich’s cavalry brigade, will not forget about the actions of the four infantry regiments and their firepower. A large correspondence with captain E. Onoshkovich-Yatsyn with the attachment of a letter from his fellow soldier, captain Rauch, is stored in my materials. Colonel Levitov.
February 9th. February 3, when the 8th Soviet Army suffered complete defeat, was the day great hopes to continue our offensive, but fate was merciless to us, it was as if she was joking on us, hiding from us what was happening behind our right flank, where Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army was advancing. The day of the 9th began with the arrival of still joyful news: large trophies were counted, at dawn the guard guards of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment unexpectedly discovered in their area a large number of abandoned machine guns, rifles and cartridges, apparently under the influence of our destructive machine-gun fire in the moment of the night battle beyond the eastern outskirts of Nakhichevan. I, in my position as assistant commander of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, examined my site and at the same time witnessed the collection of abandoned items. The horses were not alive; the riders must have run away on them; many carts stood loaded with cartridges and machine-gun belts, there were even several boxes with new rifles. Conscience did not allow depriving the drummers of the opportunity to rest after a two-day battle in such frost, and therefore few were engaged in collecting the abandoned items, and yet by the evening 11 serviceable machine guns and about three dozen carts loaded with machine guns, a large number of machine gun belts, and boxes with new rifles were delivered to the regiment and other valuable goods. Thus, within the narrow confines of our combat sector, everything was in a victorious mood, and under the impression of this I went with an evening report to the regiment commander, Colonel Pashkevich. It was here that I was one of the first to learn about all the vicissitudes of our cruel fate. In response to my joyful report, I received the order: “Tomorrow early in the morning the division leaves Rostov. The regiment should take the shortest route to the other side of the Don and move to Bataysk.” My surprise knew no bounds; I did not yet know about the actions of Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army and therefore naively asked: “Why are we retreating?” The commander lowered his head and walked nervously around the room. I could not resist and asked him the same question a second time. Usually extremely tactful in dealing with me - but this time the successes of the day do not save me - the commander stopped and impulsively blurted out: “You were not asked!” I turn around and leave with a heavy thought.
February 10. From Nakhichevan through Rostov, along Sadovaya and Taganrog Avenue, the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment crossed the Don by 4 o'clock and, as part of the division, takes the direction through Bataysk to Koysug. The inhabitants of Rostov were amazed by our retreat without a fight, and some of them fled with us. In Rostov it turned out that the Bolsheviks burned down one of our hospitals with our sick and wounded. In Koisug, the regiments went to their quarters and took up their positions.
The 14th of February. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was ordered to move to Bataysk. Before the regiment had time to settle into quarters, the enemy launched an attack on Koisug and occupied its northern outskirts. By order of the division chief, the regiment strikes the Reds on the flank, between Koisug and Bataysk, drives them back and reaches almost the Don. After the battle, the regiment was stationed in Koisuga. In this battle, our reserve regiment again suffered heavy losses.
February 15 and 16. There is a calm on the front of the Kornilov Shock Division Bataysk-Koysug. Under Art. Olginskaya is fighting heavily, and the Markovites have suffered heavy losses.
February 17. Without pressure from the enemy, our division retreats to Kayal station. The 2nd regiment occupies Bataysk.
February 19. Kushchevka village. Before us is a complete picture of the Army’s retreat: huge convoys are moving, driving herds and shoals, Kalmyks are traveling with their wagons, and here and there retreating units are trailing. The villagers have suffered greatly for the civil war and are calmly waiting for the Bolsheviks. The weather has turned bad, there is constant mud, and at the sight of this whole picture of retreat, everyone is in a disgusting mood.
February 20th. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment and the remnants of the reserve regiment, which was almost destroyed in the night battle, are in the village of Shkurinskaya. To the right, in Kushchevka, - the Kuban, to the left, in the village of Starominskaya, - the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment. By evening the enemy occupied Kushchevka.
February 21. In the sector of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, on the night of the 20th, the approaching Red infantry units launched an attack on the village and by 3 o’clock, having bypassed the left flank of the regiment, they approached the railroad bed, but the reserve battalions were thrown back across the Eya River. By evening, the enemy again occupied half of the village, but with a night attack the regiment drove him back and captured the commander of the red brigade. Ordered to retreat to the village of Novominskaya.
February 22. At one o'clock the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment left the village of Shkurinskaya and went not along the field road - there was terrible mud - but along the railroad bed through the village of Starominskaya, where it arrived at dawn. The enemy did not pursue.
24 February. The 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment was ordered to move to Art. Krylovskaya. which is occupied by the Kuban Cavalry Regiment. Upon approach, it was discovered that the Red infantry was already approaching the village of Krylovskaya, and their cavalry went to the farmsteads, which are east of the village. The offensive was stopped. The regiment settled down in the village, and the enemy settled on the other side of the Chelbasy River, in the continuation of the village. The entire village was shelled by rifle and machine-gun fire, and enemy artillery made it difficult to move in our rear.
25 February. Since morning there is a battle going on on the river with enemy infantry, and their cavalry is encircling our right flank from the southeast. By evening, the 2nd Regiment withdrew across the Srednie Chelbasy River to the Ugrya village, where it linked up with the division.
February 26. Bryukhovetskaya village. Kornilovskaya Shock Division in the reserve of the commander of the Volunteer Corps, General Kutepov. In the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, its reserve battalion was consolidated into a company and merged into an officer battalion.
March 1, 1920 Kornilovskaya Shock Division in the village of Starovelichkovskaya, consisting of the 1st and 2nd regiments with their artillery. The 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment continued as before in Yekaterinodar and its environs, where it was well replenished.
March 4th. The Kornilovites were ordered to occupy the village of Poltavskaya and let all the units and convoys of the corps pass by. The Kornilovites had just settled down to rest in the village when they were attacked by the Red cavalry of the 16th division. The battle was short: having filled the entire village, they unexpectedly met the destructive resistance of the Kornilovites everywhere and, unable to stand it, retreated with great damage to themselves. The 2nd battalion of the 1st regiment captured the banner of the 96th Kuban Soviet Cavalry Regiment. At 18 o'clock the division moved to the station. Slavic. Here and in the following pages one can feel a friendly attitude towards us and fuller repentance for their behavior towards us. Of course, this belated and naked sympathy did not erase in our hearts the bitterness of the betrayal of the Cossack independents, who abandoned us and their patriots at the most critical moment of the fighting on the Voronezh-Orel front. And not just those who left us, but at times I wanted to open fire on these traitors, when before our eyes several hundred of them with their old Standard, with trumpeters, songs and in a drunken state, stretched past us along their native Kuban fields towards Lenin’s red army, so that help her finish us off for the glory of the dictatorship of the world proletariat. All this was so hard to worry about that perhaps the now heartfelt repentance of the Cossacks of the last villages did not make us happy. It's late...
5th of March. At 6 p.m., in the village of Troitskaya, the Kornilovites crossed the Kuban River. The Kornilovites looked with heavy thoughts at the abundant and abundant waters historical river Kuban, on the banks of which we and her faithful sons shed so much blood in the name of our common Mother RUSSIA in the recent past, achieved glorious victories and now, by the grace of her traitors - independentists, we look at her mighty waters for the last time with deep faith in that that the times of betrayal and betrayal will pass, RUSSIA will throw off Bolshevism and free and free life will once again spread across the Kuban expanses.
The enemy is not pursuing.
March 7-10. Krymskaya village. Messages arrived about the abandonment of Yekaterinodar and the death of our 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment at the Elizavetinskaya crossing across the Kuban. His regiment commander himself, Captain Shcheglov, arrived and confirmed everything previously reported. The first time this regiment bled to death was in long and bloody battles from Orel to the Donetsk basin. From Bataysk he was sent to the Yekaterinodar region for replenishment, thus avoiding all the heavy battles for Rostov and the retreat to the Krymskaya village. It was known for sure that the regiment was well replenished and suddenly - some incomprehensible and inglorious death of the regiment? In connection with the general disaster, Captain Shcheglov was not put on trial and was not even removed from command of the regiment, having again revived it in the Crimea. The calendar of military operations of the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment briefly covers this tragic episode: by order of the command of the Don Army, the regiment set out from Yekaterinodar on March 3 at 20:00 to cross to the other side of the Kuban River at the village of Elizavetinskaya. On the way, the regiment had a halt at the place of death of General Kornilov and then went to apartments in Elizavetinskaya. There were no means of crossing in the village. At 8 o'clock on March 4, the regiment moved to the village of Maryinskaya, where it arrived at 12 o'clock. After standing there for two hours and not finding a crossing there either, the regiment turned back to the village of Elizavetinskaya. Just outside the village, the regiment was fired upon by sparse rifle fire from the forest to the north-west of the village. In the village itself there were already Red lodgers whom we had taken prisoner. Under the cover of the 2nd battalion, the crossing to the left bank of the Kuban on the the only boat, accommodating 7 people. By morning, 201 people had been transported. At sunrise, the remnants of the regiment that had crossed moved to the village of Panakhes, where they had several hours of rest. At 13 o'clock on March 5 we moved to the Severskaya station, where we arrived at 10 o'clock on March 5 and, having boarded the train, on March 8 we arrived at the village of Krymskaya, where we united with our division (from the compiler of the notes: I, as a pioneer and then crossing at the village Elizavetinskaya from the left bank to the right on a small ferry, now about the crossing of our 3rd regiment here, but in a different situation, to the left bank, I hold a different opinion. If there was an order from the head of the crossing from the Don Army, relating only to the crossing of the regiment, and not defense such as “sacrificing oneself”, then it was not a combat order, and therefore it was possible to use various kinds of techniques in its execution and, first of all, use the telephone and horse reconnaissance to determine the presence of a crossing, and then hold it until the regiment approaches Without this data, it would have been better to wait in line to cross the railway bridge, where there was hope of saving personnel, since everything else still had to be abandoned during the evacuation. It is undeniable that in order to carry out a combat order we must sacrifice ourselves, but in order to carry out simple transfers of units we must conserve our strength.
To complete the picture of what happened with the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment, I present the testimony of Colonel Rumyantsev, Nikolai Kuzmich, which he sent to me in 1970 from the USA. After recovery from seriously injured, received by him in the ranks of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment during the attack on Kursk, he is appointed to the 3rd Kornilov Shock Regiment to the position of assistant regiment commander for combat units. “At the time of my arrival, the regiment was stationed about 30 versts from Yekaterinodar, and here I first met Colonel Shcheglov. He is a career officer, but almost the entire first Great War spent in non-combatant positions. I had never fought with him before. The regiment has just been replenished. There were very few old officers familiar from the 1st Regiment, and thus the entire composition of the 3rd Regiment was unfamiliar to me. Then the regiment was transferred to Ekaterinodar, where it was inspected by General Denikin, and at the end of February 1920, the regiment set out at 20 o’clock for the village of Elizavetinskaya. I remember the date well, since the tragic crossing was from March 3 to 4. Here I have my first disagreement with the regiment commander, as well as some of the senior officers of the regiment, because of the decision to cross the Kuban. We insisted on making the crossing in Yekaterinodar, but he gave the order to go along the bank of the Kuban to the Elizavetinskaya village. Colonel Shcheglov was stubborn and had little regard for the opinions of his assistants. I'll try to be objective. So, the regiment set out from Ekaterinodar to Elizavetinskaya in full force, with two guns. When approaching Elizavetinskaya, it was discovered that there was neither a crossing nor means for crossing. The commander walked at the head of the regiment, and I was ordered to be in the rearguard. Not finding a crossing, the regiment moved on. The villagers treated us, I won’t say hostile, but very, very cautious, wary. Information about our further movement was contradictory, some spoke of a crossing 10-15 miles away, others denied it. I suggested that Colonel Shcheglov leave the regiment at the village and send a horse patrol to look for a crossing, while we ourselves, on the spot, start looking for transportation means. I was allowed to leave several horsemen and half a company, while I myself led the regiment further. Remaining, I sent horsemen to illuminate the surrounding area and the village. One boat was found in good condition, for 15 people, and a yawl, for 5-4 people. About four hours later a message was received that the regiment was returning. By this time the boat and skiff had been brought to our shore. As the regiment approached, the crossing began. She walked intensely. Colonel Shcheglov himself crossed on one of the first boats to receive those crossing. First, nurses, sick and disabled people were transported. Everyone boarded the boat lightly, taking only rifles, ammunition and medicine. Unfortunately, I also had to throw away the box with my documents and photographs from the time of my childhood and the First World War. Some of the horsemen were sent to search for means of crossing. It was approaching dawn when I received a report from the outpost that the Reds were approaching the village. Some of the people, seeing that there was no hope of crossing, began to move along the river from the village, and some moved towards the village. Now it’s hard for me to remember, I’m writing and I’m nervous. As far as memory serves, there were 800-900 people in the regiment, but 300-400 crossed. They also transported three light machine guns because the machine gunners did not want to part with them. Guns, machine guns and everything else were abandoned. The last boats were already being fired upon by the Reds. I personally crossed with the treasurer, Lieutenant Serebryakov, holding on to the horse’s tail. The artillerymen, having damaged their guns, crossed also holding on to their horses. Fortunately, the morning was foggy, which saved us from the aimed fire of the Reds. They said that there were also those who drowned at the last minute. Having got ashore, we were met by Colonel Shcheglov, who distributed us in the village to houses, where we dried off and were fed. Then we set off to Tonelnaya station. On the way, we were joined by several ranks of the regiment who had crossed at other places on the river. There were no battles along the way, only skirmishes with the greens. At the Tonelnaya station, the regiment was ordered to remain in the rearguard until orders were received. The regiment commander sent to Novorossiysk to clarify the situation and receive further orders. I don’t remember how long we stood in Tonelnaya, but we stood calmly, and only our outposts exchanged fire with the Greens. Having received the order, the regiment set off for Novorossiysk, where it arrived safely. We were one of the last to arrive, so some had to be loaded onto other transports. Finally we set off. There is no need to describe what was happening in Novorossiysk. Some, together with other Kornilov stragglers, under the command of Colonel Grudino, went along the coast and then joined the regiment already in Kurman-Kemelchi. All this remains in my memory about this period of my stay in the regiment. This period was unlucky for him...”
Colonel Rumyantsev.
In the Russian Army of General Wrangel, the regiment grew stronger, received the Nicholas Banner for its battles, and in the last battle at the Yushun positions, on Sivash, General Kutepov thanked him for the excellent reflection of the Reds. The very next day, during the transition of the 3rd regiment to the counterattack before my eyes, Colonel Shcheglov was wounded. Colonel Levitov).
10th of March. There are rumors about an order for our division to move to Temryuk, where to hold Taman Peninsula and then be loaded there for transfer to Crimea. But... at the same time, half a company of the officer battalion of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment is assigned to the assistant division chief, Colonel Peshny, to perform commandant service in Novorossiysk. The remnants of the Caucasian Rifle Regiment with a hundred cavalry were poured into the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment.
11th of March. By 20 o'clock the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment arrived at the station. Tonelnaya (village Verkhne-Bakanskaya).
March 12. Enemy patrols and small groups launched an offensive in the morning, but were easily repulsed. By evening, a large column of Reds was seen descending from the mountains opposite the right combat sector of the regiment. With the onset of darkness, a battalion with a hundred cavalry was sent to strengthen the guard, with the assistant regiment commander, Lieutenant Levitov, to unite the actions. When the detachment approached the outpost, it became clear that no reconnaissance had been carried out. The cavalry hundred were ordered to illuminate the area in front of the front of the sector, and two companies and all the machine guns of the approaching battalion - about 20 machine guns in total - to strengthen the defense sector. The companies barely had time to take their places, and the cavalry hundred had advanced 300 steps, when the Reds began to shoot it at point-blank range and rushed to attack it. It turned out that a hundred ran into a chain of Reds lying down and preparing to attack, who had one regiment to attack our flank. Our infantry was positioned along the very outskirts of the village, along fences and rubble. The Reds advanced as a brigade and, when approaching the outskirts of the village, they met with their outflanking column, and at that moment our cavalry hundred dashingly attacked them according to the order of Lieutenant Levitov and forced them to reveal themselves prematurely. Having rushed to the attack, the red units came together even more, having in front of them only a hundred cavalry, which in no time turned and disappeared into the streets of the village, and the red, by inertia, rushed after it in a crowd, intoxicated by such an easy victory. The terrain in front of the village was as flat as a table, approaching our position in a not very wide strip, with almost impassable cliffs at the edges. The Reds were pushed within 250 steps and met with murderous machine gun, rifle and artillery fire. Of course, their “hurray” immediately stopped and they rushed back. Two companies were sent to pursue them under the command of Captain Pomerantsev. On the way down the cliff, they caught up with the delayed Red battalion, which they threw down with bayonets. The enemy suffered heavy losses in killed and wounded; prisoners and defectors were taken from among the Markovtsy and Drozdovtsy previously captured by the Reds. Our losses were 4 killed and 8 wounded. The successful outcome of this battle made it possible for numerous cavalry and our division with all the convoys with which the streets were clogged to calmly get out of the village. It is difficult to even imagine a different outcome of this battle, since the exit from the village was crossed by many ravines and cliffs.
March 15th. From 3 o'clock the 1st and 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiments began to gather at the assembly point, to the station. At dawn the regiments were already marching along the steep mountain road to the Novorossiysk pass. The enemy did not pursue, and his cavalry units walked almost parallel to our movement: we walked across the ridge to the southeast of the railway, and the Reds - to the northwest of it. When both sides descended from the passes into the valley of the Tsemes River, near the village of Mefodievka, a battle broke out. From the beginning, all units with convoys rushed to Novorossiysk, and there was such an avalanche of them that there was no point in thinking about proper evacuation. Our division had to remain in the rearguard. The enemy began to descend into the valley, and his artillery fired at us from the heights quite heavily. Several of our armored trains, our artillery and fleet quickly eliminated the Reds' advance, dispersing all their cavalry and batteries with one artillery fire.
(At this historical moment, under the thunder of a real cannonade, something happened to me that seemed completely unnecessary to me, a volunteer of the Great War and the Volunteer Army from the very beginning of its inception: I was immediately promoted to staff captain, captain and lieutenant colonel. Junior officer I was never in the Great War. Upon arrival at the front, in the 178th Wenden Infantry Regiment, at the end of 1914, I immediately received a company with the rank of ensign and then for more than a year I commanded the battalion “temporarily” or “for” with the rank of lieutenant since the end of 1915. Many injuries and the revolution brought me as a lieutenant to the position of an ordinary officer in the officer battalion of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, then I was a sergeant major of the officer company named after General Kornilov, I had the honor of being from the regiment in the convoy of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna ; behind this, I am the battalion commander of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, for a short time I was temporarily the regiment commander in two regiments, and then I spent almost the entire retreat, from the city of Fatezh to Novorossiysk, as an assistant regiment commander for combat units with an outstanding regiment commander Colonel Pashkevich, Yakov Antonovich, in the regiment, where the officer battalion remained until the end. I was considered an old lieutenant, and this saved my position among my many subordinates, senior to me in rank, and I never experienced any damage to my pride from this. And now, under the salute of artillery cannonade, up to the naval 12-inch artillery, inclusive, the chief of staff of our division of the General Staff, Colonel Kapnin, drove up to me and handed me, with congratulations, the order for my production and the shoulder straps of a lieutenant colonel. I was so amazed by what seemed to me inappropriate at this moment production, although I had served it for a long time, that I was even embarrassed. The now living captain Doyun, my junior officer during the Great War, now transferred to the cavalry of General Barbovich. This exceptionally joyful coincidence shook me, and I came to my senses. Therefore, in the following narrative I will legally call myself Lieutenant Colonel Levitov).
After defeating the Reds with such artillery fire, the division safely passed Methodievka and approached Novorossiysk. Here we were informed that the Voluntary Fleet transport “Kornilov” had been assigned to us, which we barely managed to load with coal and wrest from the hands of speculators who were trying to load it with tobacco.
From here, Lieutenant Colonel Levitov is assigned from the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment with a patrol to inspect the road to his transport. There was still a day when I set off, having received all the instructions from the regiment commander, Colonel Pashkevich. Before this, the battle and other events distracted attention from the situation in Novorossiysk, but now it appeared before us in all its tragic beauty. Armored trains, derailed, blown up, mutilated by the collision, presented a terrible picture, understandable only field troops. The entire space, as far as the eye could see, was filled mainly with abandoned convoys, artillery and a mass of cavalry leaving along the seashore towards Sochi. Clouds of smoke from fires and powerful explosions created the background of the unfolding tragedy - the defeat of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia. The city is “crammed full” of abandoned convoys and passing cavalry, and it hurts the eyes when hundreds after hundreds of healthy young men pass by, here having exchanged all their shabby uniforms for new ones, and with additional goods strapped on, but... without weapons. It seemed to me that on the faces of everyone who did not lose self-control at the sight of this terrible picture, some kind of mournful expression was written, saying: “When you have lost your head, you don’t cry over your hair!” They didn’t listen to General Kornilov, they left General Kaledin alone, they couldn’t rouse the Russian people to fight, which means carry your cross to the end.”
The question is: are they in the wrong direction, since without weapons they are going only to surrender, but they seem to be getting out on the Sochi road of salvation? Are these unfortunate people really having thoughts in their heads that someone will save them?! Yes, we had the misfortune to encounter this phenomenon throughout Russia in the very first days of the birth of the struggle for Her honor, and now, at the end, we see the same thing... And this, a decline in morality that has repeatedly disgraced our Motherland, is noted under our the gloomy name of the “time of troubles,” that is, the situation when the government of the country falls into the hands of international crooks, and the distraught people, destroying each other, follow the slogan: “Rob the loot!”
I managed to overcome the distance of about three miles separating the regiment from the pier only in the evening. At the pier I received confirmation that the 2nd Kornilovsky Shock Regiment remained in the rearguard, where it was currently stationed, the battalion of the 1st Kornilovsky Shock Regiment was also on the outskirts of the city, the division was loading, and the rearguards were ordered to retreat. Here the division chief emphasized that during loading, the 1st Regiment would become trellises, let everyone through, and then load itself. Having sent the report, I waited for the order to withdraw from the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment and, having received it at about 21:00, went to the regiment. By this time, the main mass of those retreating had already left the city, and I, having ridden my “faithful war horse” for the last time, quickly reached the regiment. The unprecedented procession of the regiment began: having removed the saddles and bridles, we set our faithful horse comrades free. Explosions of dynamite crackled at our artillery positions, with rifles on their shoulders and light machine guns and with heavy ones on their shoulder straps, there was a living, mighty force, battle-hardened and faithful in the old way to the precepts of its Leader and Chief of the regiment, General Kornilov. Along with the regiment comes the Kuban Plastun battalion attached to it. It was especially difficult to part with the weapon, knowing that it would still be useful, but the situation inexorably demanded it. They only took what they could carry.
As the regiment approached its Kornilov transport, we were told that there was no room for us. Then Colonel Pashkevich demanded the chief of staff of the division and directly told him: “Mr. Colonel, we have machine guns and rifles with us, and therefore the ship will not leave without us!” After the report to the division chief, loading began.
The Plastun battalion assigned to us was also completely immersed. Indeed, there was almost no space, and there was no order during loading. There was a lot of some kind of rear audience, but there was no specific place for the front part. Among the outsiders, the ship's administration refused to embark 10 officers and 60 Cossacks, who, almost without a word of reproach, went into the mountains, and some, upon leaving the pier, shot themselves. The transport was so overcrowded that it was impossible to sit in the lower holds without air, and some committed suicide in the most primitive way. And only at dawn the Kornilov transport set out to sea.
Rare rifle fire was heard in the city, and near Gelendzhik there was quite a lively rifle and machine-gun firefight. I will not talk about the experiences of front-line soldiers at the time of departure, since only a front-line soldier can understand them. One thing can be said: the retreat revealed to us all the vileness, flabbiness and corruption of our rear. Novorossiysk, with its colossal warehouses and with the numerous personnel of various institutions who climbed onto our transport, polished the terrible picture and gave it a finished look.
There was only one thing left, the last inch of our native land at our disposal - this is Crimea. Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, so for most of us hope clung to this small piece of land, and each of us, rocking on the waves of the Black Sea, seemed to sum up the way of the cross we had passed and thought about possible resistance and about our own and general healing in methods of fighting. The highest had the same thought command staff. Looking at this mixed mass, our commanders were looking for a way to bring it into proper form to continue the fight. Even the inexperienced eye of a civilian could see that the composition of the rear institutions was colossal and required decisive measures to reduce it. The decision was made and implementation began.
There were conversations about the reasons for the defeat of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, and everyone saw them in the absence of unified power in the hands of General Denikin, while our enemy had not only unity of power and purpose, but also the bestial CHEK of the Polish nobleman Dzerzhinsky, who saved with his measures his fellow Russian nobleman Lenin. The union of two nobles, supported by the American Jew Trotsky, created a devilish force for the death and shame of national Russia. The complete exhaustion of physical and moral strength was such that the experience of the Novorossiysk disaster and their own were presented in the usual cruel military expressions: “Today you, and tomorrow me.” These are the laws of war.
March 15th. Transport "Kornilov" arrived in Feodosia. It was necessary to disinfect and unload a little. It was decided to use the transition from transport to shore to filter out all those who had boarded and to transport the division's regiments hanging out for replenishment. For this purpose, not far from the pier, a huge courtyard with high “fortress” walls was chosen, the road to it was guarded by trellises of the officer battalion of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, and then unloading began. The shelves in this courtyard were placed in their own sections, and the rest of the public began to be filtered. The majority did not expect such a measure, but expected to calmly unload somewhere in the area of Constantinople, and here - on you! Feodosia and an offer to join such and such a company of the Kornilov Shock Regiment! This whole crowd of dubious people immediately bristled and tried to “slither out” to freedom. Everyone began to bombard the controllers scary phrases, pointing to the high positions they held and their connections with Headquarters, but this number did not work for many and they had to be welcomed into some regiment for now. As soon as their first onslaught failed, everything immediately began to bustle and began to determine the height of the walls surrounding the courtyard. The picture that I witnessed gave us a complete description of all these gentlemen and their role in the Army. Five staff officers and several chief officers, due to the uncertainty of their position in the Army and their lack of proper documents, were assigned to the officer battalion of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment. Some of them appeared to the battalion commander, and some began to study the height of the walls. After some time, this whole warm company united, animatedly and mysteriously discussing something. Then they began to quickly rearrange something in their suitcases, throwing out everything unnecessary, after which, taking advantage of the lack of proper supervision, they began to try to take the barrier - the wall - and escape. A group of our officers watched this and laughed. The most zealous athlete turned out to be one old man who tried to overcome the wall at least five times and failed each time. Finally they were stopped, and the elder could not stand it and, waving his hand, said: “Damn it, I wish I didn’t actually have to serve!” The next night they all ran away.
So, the first good initiative met with resistance. The subsequent struggle became easier, since this kind of gentlemen actually had solid connections and they were gradually helped out.
At the feeding station, the division received hot food and in the evening began loading onto old transport.
March 16.At about 3 o'clock we set sail and headed to Sevastopol. Our artillery brigade remained in Feodosia. Everyone admired Livadia - the residence of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas 2nd, Kharaks, Ai-Todor, Dulber, Koreiz, Simeiz, etc. Monuments of art were still preserved and shone with their beauty. I had the opportunity to remember my stay here in the protection of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Maria Feodorovna from the Kornilov Shock Regiment. It was a good day, the orchestra was playing and everyone was somehow cheered up. At 13:00 the Kornilov transport arrived in Sevastopol. When passing by the cruiser General Kornilov, its crew and orchestra were lined up to meet on the deck. The Kornilov strikers and the Kornilov sailors greeted each other and a loud “hurray” echoed far across the bay. Our former Commander of the Volunteer Army, General Mai-Maevsky, came to meet us at the pier. It was hard for me to see him after the Battle of Eagle, and therefore I avoided participating in the meeting. Behind us is the tragedy of the failed struggle for two years for Russia. Now all our feelings and thoughts were directed to how the further struggle would develop on this last piece of native land?
In 1917, the capitalist world was shocked by a gigantic event - the Great October Revolution socialist revolution in Russia, which laid the foundation new era in world history- 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 Communist Party and the great Lenin eliminated oppression, violence and exploitation of man by man and proclaimed the Soviet socialist state. On fire Civil War imposed by the overthrown classes and international imperialism, Soviet people created an army of a new type, which defended the great October conquests, covering its battle banners 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 threshing machine 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 in the 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 in first place in the tests.
At school I was awarded the rank of 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 began World War. 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.
Creation
At the suggestion of I.V. Stalin, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic on November 17, 1919 decided to create the First Cavalry Army under the command of S.M. Budyonny. The army was formed on the basis of three divisions (4th, 6th and 11th) of Budyonny's 1st Cavalry Corps by order of the RVS of the Southern Front on November 19, 1919. In April 1920, they were joined by the 14th and 2nd Blinov Caucasian Divisions, the Separate Caucasian Special Purpose Brigade, the Ya. M. Sverdlov armored vehicle squad, four armored trains - “Red Cavalryman”, “Kommunar”, “Death of the Directory”, "Worker", aviation group (air group) and other units, total number 16-17 thousand people. In a number of operations, 2-3 rifle divisions came under the First Cavalry Army.
Battle path
Participation of the First Cavalry in the war on the Denikin Front- In November Budyonny's cavalry corps, together with the 9th and 12th rifle divisions of the 8th Army under Army Commander G. Ya. Sokolnikov, Chief of Staff G. S. Gorchakov, formed one of the strike groups of the Southern Front. During the Voronezh-Kastornensky operation, he inflicted heavy defeats on the White Guard cavalry, and then played a decisive role in the Donbass operation.
- After the capture of the Cavalry Corps of Novy Oskol, an armored train with members of the RVS of the Southern Front, Egorov, Stalin, Shchadenko and Voroshilov, arrived in Velikomikhailovka (now the Museum of the First Cavalry is located there). December 6, during a joint meeting with the corps command, order No. 1 was signed on the creation of the First Cavalry Army. The Revolutionary Military Council, consisting of the Commander of the Cavalry Budyonny and members of the Revolutionary Military Council Voroshilov and Shchadenko, was placed at the head of the army administration. The cavalry became a powerful operational-strategic mobile group of troops, which was entrusted with the main task of defeating Denikin’s armies, by rapidly cutting the White front into two isolated groups along the Novy Oskol - Taganrog line, followed by their destruction separately.
- December 7 Gorodovikov's 4th Division and Timoshenko's 6th Division defeated General Mamontov's mounted corps at Volokonovka.
- Toward the end December 8, after a fierce battle, the army captured Valuiki. At the railway junction and in the city, trains with food and ammunition, a lot of military convoys and horses were captured. Cavalry units began pursuing the enemy, retreating in the southern and southeastern directions.
- Toward the end December 15 Gorodovikov's strike group (4th and 11th cavalry divisions), having defeated the 4th White Hussar Regiment in the Pokrovsky Mariupol region, reached the approaches to Svatovo.
- By the morning December 16 Having broken the stubborn resistance of the Whites, who repeatedly launched counterattacks with the support of armored trains, the 4th Division captured the Svatovo station, capturing large trophies, including the armored train "Ataman Kaledin" (according to other sources, it was shot down at the Rakovka station).
- December 19th The 4th Division, with the support of armored trains, defeated the combined cavalry group of General Ulagai. Pursuing the fleeing enemy, she captured the Melovatka, Kabanye and Kremennaya stations.
- 21 December The 6th Division occupied Rubezhnoye and Nasvetevich stations. In the Rubezhnaya area, where the 2nd Cavalry Brigade operated, the Whites lost up to five hundred people hacked to death, including the commander of the combined Ulan division, Major General Chesnokov, and three regiment commanders. The 1st Cavalry Brigade of the 6th Division captured the Nasvetevich station in a surprise raid, capturing the railway bridge across the Seversky Donets.
- On the night of December 23 The cavalry crossed the Seversky Donets and firmly entrenched itself on its right bank, capturing Lisichansky.
- TO 27th of December units of the Cavalry, together with the 9th and 12th rifle divisions, firmly captured the Bakhmut - Popasnaya line. During fierce three-day battles, a large group of white troops was defeated and thrown back to the south as part of the cavalry group of General Ulagai, the 2nd Infantry Division, the Markov Officer Infantry Division, the cavalry corps of General Shkuro, the 4th Don Cavalry Corps of General Mamontov, as well as Kuban Cavalry Corps.
- December 29th Due to the actions of the 9th and 12th rifle divisions from the front and the enveloping maneuver of the 6th cavalry division, White units were driven out of Debaltsevo. Building on this success, the 11th Cavalry, together with the 9th Infantry Division, December 30th captured Gorlovka and Nikitovka.
- 31th of December The 6th Cavalry Division, having reached the Alekseevo-Leonovo area, completely defeated three regiments of the Markov officer infantry division.
- January 1, 1920 The 11th Cavalry and 9th Rifle Divisions, with the support of armored trains, captured the Ilovayskaya station and the Amvrosievka area, defeating the Cherkasy White Division.
- 6th January Taganrog was occupied by the forces of the 9th Infantry and 11th Cavalry Divisions, with the assistance of the local Bolshevik underground.
- January 7-8 units of the Cavalry, consisting of the 6th and 4th Cavalry, as well as the 12th Infantry Division, in cooperation with the 33rd Separate Infantry Division Levandovsky, as a result of a 12-hour oncoming battle in the area of Generalsky Most, Bolshie Saly, Sultan -Saly, Nesvetai, defeated a large group of white troops consisting of the cavalry corps of Mamontov, Naumenko, Toporkov, Barbovich, as well as the Kornilov and Drozdov infantry divisions, supported by tanks and armored vehicles.
- In the evening January 8 Gorodovikov's 4th Division occupied Nakhichevan. At the same time, Timoshenko’s 6th division, having marched along the rear of the enemy who had fled, suddenly burst into Rostov-on-Don, taking the headquarters and rear services whites celebrating Christmas.
- During January 9 Cavalry units fought street battles in the city with White Guard units retreating beyond the Don. By January 10, with the support of the approaching 33rd Division, the city completely fell into the hands of the Red troops.
- January 18, 1920, fulfilling the categorical directive of Shorin's front commander to seize a bridgehead during a thaw on the southern, swampy, well-fortified bank of the Don in the Bataysk region, suffered heavy losses from the cavalry corps of generals Pavlov and Toporkov. After several days of unsuccessful bloody battles for the village of Olginskaya, having in front of its front the main forces of the Whites, who, taking advantage of the passivity of the neighboring 8th Army, concentrated a significant amount of cavalry, artillery and machine guns here, was forced, while maintaining order, to retreat beyond the Don January 22.
- In February 1920 together with the three rifle divisions attached to it, it participated in the largest cavalry battle of Yegorlyk in the entire Civil War, during which the 1st Kuban Infantry Corps of the white General Kryzhanovsky, the cavalry group of General Pavlov and the cavalry group of General Denisov were defeated, which led to the defeat of the main forces of the group whites in the North Caucasus and their widespread departure. However, the pursuit of the white units was suspended due to the onset of a strong spring thaw.
- From March 13 The offensive on Ust-Labinskaya was continued, where units of the Cavalry defeated the cavalry corps of Sultan-Girey, after which they crossed the Kuban, and, overcoming the resistance of scattered enemy units, on March 22 entered Maikop, already liberated by Red partisan detachments.
- May 27 The cavalry went on the offensive. In the first two days, several different armed formations totaling about 15,000 people were defeated and scattered, including a large detachment of Ataman Kurovsky, who had close ties with the Polish command. The reconnaissance units of the Cavalry came into contact with the advanced units of the enemy, taking prisoners and groping their line of defense.
- May 29 Cavalry units launched an attack on the Polish defenses along the entire front, starting fierce battles that, however, did not bring significant results. Success was achieved only by units of the 6th Timoshenko Division, which captured the strongly fortified point of Zhivotov and took significant trophies and prisoners there, but suffered heavy losses in personnel and horses. Leading the attack, Commissar Pischulin and the head of intelligence of the 2nd brigade, Ivan Ziberov, were killed, and regiment commanders Selivanov and Efim Verbin were seriously wounded.
- June 5 broke through the Polish front in the Samgorodok, Snezhna sector.
- June 7 Korotchaev's 4th division, having made a rapid 50-kilometer march, captured Zhitomir, defeating the small garrison of Poles. However, the headquarters of the Polish troops stationed there managed to leave the city. The cavalrymen disabled all means of technical communication with Berdichev, Kiev, Novograd-Volynsky, destroyed the railway bridge, tracks and switches at the station, blew up artillery warehouses, leaving 10 cars with shells and guns of the English model, 2 cars with machine guns on the tracks. A train with horses and warehouses with food were captured. About 2,000 prisoners, mainly Red Army soldiers and political workers, were released from the city prison. Outside the city, a column of captured Red Army soldiers numbering up to 5,000 people was overtaken and freed.
- 27th of June occupied Novograd-Volynsky, and July 10- Exactly.
- August 21-25 The army, leaving the 45th and 47th rifle divisions previously assigned to it on the defensive, made the transition to the concentration area, part of its forces conducting rearguard battles with the enemy who had gone on the offensive.
- 25-th of August– the beginning of the raid in Zamość. The army went behind enemy lines with the task of capturing Krasnostav within four days and then conducting an offensive in the Lublin direction. The operational formation of troops, in conditions of operations with open flanks, was carried out in the form of a rhombus: the 4th Cavalry Division advanced in the vanguard, behind it, in a ledge behind the right and left flanks, the 14th and 6th Cavalry Divisions, the 11th Cavalry Division marched in the rearguard, forming an army reserve. The first two days the army advanced without encountering resistance, in difficult conditions, heavy rains began, which continued until the end of the raid.
- August 27 The first clashes occurred with units of Polish troops. The 14th division captured and held the crossing over the Khuchva River in the Terebin region, the 4th captured Tyszowce, the 6th and 11th, having thrown the enemy to the south, reached the line Telyatin - Novoselki - Gulcha. Units of the 4th Division defeated the Cossack brigade of Yesaul Vadim Yakovlev, numbering about 750 sabers, used by the Polish army for reconnaissance. About 100 prisoners, 3 guns, machine guns and about 200 horses were taken.
- August 28 The battles were fought in the offensive zone of the 14th, 6th and 4th divisions with units of the 2nd Legionnaire Division. In a surprise raid, the advanced units of the 4th Division captured an enemy outpost in the village of Pereel, and then defeated up to three companies of legionnaires. By evening the division captured Chesniki. The 6th Division, during a stubborn battle with the infantry and cavalry of the Poles, captured Komarov. Units of Morozov's 11th Division occupied Rakhane-Semerzh without a fight. During the day, the army advanced 25-30 kilometers, entering deep behind enemy lines, losing contact with units of the 12th Army.
- August 29 Stubborn fighting broke out in the offensive zone of Tyulenev's 4th Division on the approaches to Zamosc. Heavy fighting was fought by the 6th and 14th divisions, attacked from Grabovets by the 2nd division of legionnaires with the support of two armored trains. By order of Budyonny, the 4th Division, partly covered by a barrier from Zamosc, with three regiments secretly transferred to Zawalyuv, dealt a sudden blow to the legionnaires in the flank. The enemy, abandoning their fortifications, began to retreat to the north. Using this success, the 14th Cavalry Division launched a counterattack. However, it was not possible to take Grabovets.
- August 30 in the south and southeast, General Haller’s group occupied Tyszowce, Komarov, Wolka Labinska, cutting off the Cavalry’s routes of communication with its rear and the 12th Army. In the north, the 2nd Legionnaire Division and parts of the 6th Petliura Division held Grabovets. The 10th Infantry Division firmly occupied Zamość.
- On the night of August 31 Having forestalled the regrouping of Budyonny's troops, on the orders of General Sikorsky, the Polish army went on the offensive. With a counter attack from the south and north, General Haller’s group and the 2nd Division of Legionnaires united and captured the crossing on the Huchva River at Werbkowice, finally cutting off the Cavalry’s retreat routes. At the same time, Żeligowski's 10th Division went on the offensive from Zamość to Grubeszow in order to cut the Cavalry into two parts. In official Polish historiography this operation is called the Battle of Komarow (Polish) Russian .
- September 1 The cavalry broke through the encirclement ring, establishing contact with units of the 12th Army. In the morning, brigades of the 4th division captured crossings on the Khuchva River. Tyulenev's 2nd brigade, having broken through a narrow dam in horse formation under heavy machine-gun fire, quickly attacked the village of Lotov and captured the crossing.
- September 2 Having brought up fresh forces, with the support of a large amount of artillery and aviation, Polish troops began an offensive, trying to cover the flanks. During three days of fierce fighting, the cavalrymen not only held back the onslaught, but also drove back the Polish troops, capturing a number of settlements on west bank Khuchvy.
Command staff of the 1st Cavalry Army
Commanding
RVS members
Chiefs of Staff
Prominent military leaders
Many commanders who later became prominent Soviet military leaders served in the ranks of the First Cavalry Army: S. M. Budyonny, K. E. Voroshilov, S. K. Timoshenko, G. I. Kulik, A. V. Khrulev, I. V. Tyulenev , O. I. Gorodovikov, K. S. Moskalenko, P. S. Rybalko, P. L. Romanenko D. D. Lelyushenko, I. R. Apanasenko, K. A. Meretskov, A. I. Eremenko, A. I. Lopatin D. I. Ryabyshev, P. Ya. Strepukhov, F. V. Kamkov, A. A. Grechko, S. M. Krivoshein, P. F. Zhigarev, A. I. Leonov, Ya. N. Fedorenko , A. S. Zhadov, P. A. Belov, V. V. Kryukov, T. T. Shapkin, V. I. Book and others.
After the disbandment of the army, G. K. Zhukov, L. G. Petrovsky, I. N. Muzychenko, F. K. Korzhenevich, I. A. Pliev, S. I. Gorshkov, M. P. Konstantinov, A T. Stuchenko and other famous military leaders.
Memory of the First Cavalry Army
- At the homeland of the First Cavalry Army, in the village of Velikomikhailovka Belgorod region, there is a Memorial Museum of the “First Cavalry Army”.
- In Simferopol and Stary Oskol, streets are named in honor of the First Cavalry Army.
- On the third anniversary of the existence of the First Cavalry Army in the Red Army, a special leaflet was issued with the text of the order itself.
- In the Lviv region, above the Lviv-Kiev highway near the village of Khvatov near the village of Olesko, Bussky district of the Lviv region, 23 km from the regional center of the city of Busk and 70 km from the city of Lviv, a Monument to the soldiers of the First Cavalry Army was erected, who defeated the Polish troops and They reached the approaches to Lublin and Lvov, but were unable to capture Lvov and in August 1920 were forced to retreat. The monument is currently being destroyed.
The first cavalry army in art
- In 1926, Isaac Babel published a collection of stories “Cavalry” about Budyonny’s First Cavalry Army.
- Films called The First Horse of different years of release.
The first cavalry army in painting
The first horse army in philately
Notable Facts
see also
Notes
Links
- Budyonny Semyon Mikhailovich. “The Path Traveled” in 3 volumes
- Shambarov Valery Evgenievich White Guard. 82. Denikin’s last victories.
- Denikin Anton Ivanovich Essays on Russian Troubles. Chapter XX. Operations of the southern armies at the beginning of 1920: from Rostov to Ekaterinodar. Discord between volunteers and Don people.
- Red Banner Kyiv. Essays on the history of the Red Banner Kyiv Military District (1919-1979). Second edition, corrected and expanded. Kyiv, publishing house political literature Ukraine. 1979.
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