Chernetsov Vasily Mikhailovich born March 22, 1890 in the village of Kalitvenskaya. The son of a veterinary assistant. He received his education at the Kamensky real school, and in 1909 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack cadet school. He entered the Great War with the rank of centurion, as part of the 26th Don Cossack Regiment (4th Don Cossack Division). He stood out for his courage and fearlessness, was the best intelligence officer in the division, and was wounded three times in battle. In 1915, V. M. Chernetsov led the partisan detachment of the 4th Don Cossack Division. For military valor and military distinction, Chernetsov was promoted to podesaul and esaul, awarded many orders, received the St. George weapon, and was wounded three times.
Generals L.G. Kornilov, M.V. Alekseev and A.I. Denikin began the formation of the Volunteer Army on November 2 (15), 1917. However, the Don did not respond to the Ataman’s call and the cover of Novocherkassk fell on the partisan detachment of Yesaul Chernetsov, consisting of student youth, which became almost the only active force of Ataman A. M. Kaledin. The detachment worked in all directions and even received the nickname of the Don “ambulance”: the Chernetsovites were transferred from front to front, traveling throughout the entire Don Army Region, invariably fighting off the Reds who were rolling onto the Don: Success accompanies him everywhere, both their own and Soviet reports talk about it , legends will be born around his name, and the Bolsheviks value his head dearly.”
At the congress of front-line Cossacks held on January 10 (23), 1918, the Bolsheviks announced a transition to the revolutionary committee led by Podtyolkov. After the 10th regiment sent by Kaledin failed to disperse the congress and arrest the Bolshevik agitators, Chernetsov was sent against them. The detachment, in a desperate raid, captures the junction stations Zverevo and Likhaya, knocks out the Reds and attacks Kamenskaya. In the morning, the Chernetsovites occupied Kamenskaya, abandoned by the Reds, without a fight. The Cossack population greeted them very friendly, the youth enrolled in the detachment (the 4th hundred were formed from the students of the village of Kamenskaya).
Donrevkom members moved to Glubokaya. In those miles from Glubokaya, the opponents entered into a battle that ended in the defeat of Chernetsov’s detachment. The wounded Chernetsov galloped off to his native village, where he was betrayed by one of his fellow villagers and captured the next day by Podtyolkov. On the way, Podtyolkov mocked Chernetsov - Chernetsov remained silent. When Podtyolkov hit him with a whip, Chernetsov grabbed a small Browning gun from the inner pocket of his sheepskin coat and fired it point-blank at Podtyolkov; there was no cartridge in the barrel of the pistol - Chernetsov forgot about it, not feeding the cartridge from the clip. Podtelkov grabbed his saber, slashed him in the face, and five minutes later the Cossacks rode on, leaving Chernetsov’s chopped-up corpse in the steppe.
Some episodes of Chernetsov’s partisan activities are described in sufficient detail in Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”. Some differences from the events described above are interesting. For example, the scene of Chernetsov’s death is presented by the author as an unconditional murder of an unarmed prisoner. While Podtyolkov’s actions could be interpreted as possible self-defense (if the prisoner had a pistol).
Slave of Cossack honor, glory, truth,
The Don Vendee is an unsullied hero,
Crowned with unfading glory, the colonel,
He who has reason will not forget your feat.
In your native steppes you were ruined prematurely,
Saving Yuntsov you sacrificed yourself,
Unscrupulously hacked to death by the hand of a prisoner,
He who has memory sings of your deed.
Novocherkassk prison.
Sergey Belogvardeets 21.1.2015.
***
Born on March 22, 1890 in the village of Kalitvenskaya, Donetsk District of the Don Army Region, in a Cossack family. Chernetsov's father, Mikhail Iosifovich, was a veterinary paramedic. Mother Akilina Iosifovna. Godparents - Cossack Art. Kalitvenskaya Nikita Fedorovich Borodin and the Don Region Taganrogzh tradesman's daughter, maiden, Feodosia Mikhailovna Krems. The Sacrament of Baptism was administered by Priest Pavel Uspensky and the psalmist Deaconov on March 25, 1890 in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Kalitvenskaya.
In 1907 he graduated from the Kamensk real school.
In 1909 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Military (Junker) School, and was released as a cornet in the 9th Don Cossack Regiment.
In 1913 he was promoted to centurion and transferred to benefits.
In May 1914 (even before the war) he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree.
1st World War
Upon mobilization, he entered the 26th Don Cossack Regiment (4th Don Cossack Division).
Fought against the Austrians and Germans.
On November 20, 1914, he was wounded near the village of Lekhovo.
On February 27, 1915, he was wounded near the village of Aleksandrovo.
He was awarded the second Stanislav, two Annas, and for the village of Alexandrovo - Vladimir.
On August 30, 1915, he was appointed commander of the Partisan Hundred of the 4th Don Cossack Division. In conditions of positional warfare, partisan hundreds specially created under cavalry and Cossack divisions were the most active and effective combat units.
He was awarded the Arms of St. George for an attack with a hundred men on German positions near the village of Grivnek, during which a company of Germans was destroyed and 12 prisoners were taken.
In 1916, he received the rank of podesaul (seniority from 08/13/1915), and esaul (seniority from 02/20/1916).
On August 12, 1916, he was hospitalized due to injury, and never returned to the front.
After the hospital, he was appointed commander of the 39th Special Hundred, with which he served in the Makeevsky coal region, restraining clashes between miners and the mine administration. Commandant of the Makeevka mines (the settlement of Makeevka and the Makeevsky district are located on the territory of the Taganrog district near the very border of the Don Army Region, on the railway line from Taganrog to the north, currently on the territory of Ukraine).
In 1917 he became actively involved in politics. From his native village of Kamenskaya he was elected as a delegate to the Great Military Circle. At the Circle he took a more decisive position than most of the delegates. When the Circle recognized the power of the Provisional Government and passed a resolution that the Provisional Government should protect the country from anarchy and devastation, Chernetsov V.M. proposed to supplement this resolution with an indication that the All-Great Don Army is ready to provide real support to the Provisional Government. However, the amendment was not adopted because the Circle was unsympathetic to it.
Civil War
30.11. (13.12.) 1917 in Novocherkassk organized and led a small partisan detachment. The detachment was originally called the Partisan Hundred, and consisted of approximately 140 fighters, organizationally resembled a hundred on foot, and was divided into 4 platoons:
1st platoon “volunteer”;
The 2nd consisted of Cossacks and peasants, and was replenished with students;
3rd "cadet";
4th “waterproof”.
The senior officer of the detachment (hundreds) is Lieutenant Vasily Kurochkin, the junior officer of the detachment (hundreds) is cornet Grigory Sidorenkov.
Some of the fighters wore their uniforms - student, gymnasium; Some were dressed in soldiers' uniforms - greatcoats and hats captured from some Bolshevik echelon.
Those entering the detachment were tested on their knowledge of rifle techniques, which took no more than five minutes. The situation was made easier by the fact that during the First World War, students were taught the simplest combat and rifle techniques directly in educational institutions.
At the beginning of December 1917, immediately after its formation, the detachment moved north by rail and occupied the largest mining village in the Region, Aleksandrovsk-Grushevsky.
To the north, at Gornaya station, the detachment suffered its first losses - seminarian Fyodor Nikonov died. Then Chernetsov reached the border of the Don Army Region, and occupied the Shchetovo station on the Zverevo-Debaltsevo branch on Ukrainian territory.
For about three weeks, from the first days of December until Christmas, there were no major battles. The Bolsheviks pulled forces to the borders of the Region. From the north - from Voronezh to Chertkovo - a detachment of G. Petrov (one of the future 26 Baku commissars) advanced - approximately 3,000 bayonets with 40 machine guns and 12 guns. A detachment of R. Sivers advanced from Kharkov to Donetsk - approximately 1,200 bayonets, 100 sabers, 14 machine guns, 6 guns, which in Donetsk united with the local mining detachments of the Red Guard. Yu. Sablin’s detachment was located in Lugansk - approximately 1,900 bayonets, a battery, 8 machine guns.
Soldier regiments removed from the German front came to the aid of Sivers and Sablin. Along the way they decomposed, held rallies, drank, and ran away. The main goal for them was to get home, and they did not want to fight with the Cossacks.
At the end of December 1917, the commander of the Soviet troops, Antonov-Ovseenko, decided to deliver a decisive blow to the Don Army Region along the converging lines of railways.
Petrov’s detachment was supposed to advance along the railway from Voronezh through Chertkovo to Millerovo, but at Chertkovo it got bogged down in negotiations with the Don regular regiments.
Sablin's detachment from Lugansk was supposed to go by rail to the most important junction station of Likhaya in the very center of the Don Army Region. Sivers' detachment was supposed to move along a parallel branch of the railway from Nikitovka to Debaltsevo, Shchetovo, Zverevo. With these blows, the detachments of Sivers and Sablin would cut the Don Army Region in half.
However, Sivers's detachment, which received reinforcements from the German front, got involved in battles with the 46th Don Regiment, and carried away by these battles, moved not to the east, to Debaltsevo and Zverevo, but to the south, to Taganrog.
Taking advantage of the resulting gap, the Don command decided to strike at the junction between the Sivers and Sablin detachments, at the important junction station of Debaltsevo, located on the territory of the Yekaterinoslav province (Ukraine). The blow was struck on the very branch along which it was supposed to go, but Sivers did not go.
12/25/1917, on the first day of Christmas, the partisan detachment of Chernetsov V.M. occupied Kolpakovo station. On December 26, 1917, a mounted reconnaissance was sent from Kolpakovo to Debaltsevo. On December 27, 1917, a detachment as part of an echelon moved from Kolpakovo to Debaltsevo. In control rooms at passing stations, partisans left guards, blocking communications.
The train stopped at the Debaltsevo semaphore, where the partisans disarmed the sentry and the shift going to him. Having turned into a chain, the detachment moved to the station. The Bolsheviks, taken by surprise, opened fire when the Chernetsovites were already two hundred steps from the station buildings. The firefight lasted about 20 minutes, then the partisan artillery, which had time to unload, knocked down a Bolshevik machine gun from the station roof with its first salvo, and the Chernetsovites went on the attack.
The station was captured, the Red detachments located on it were completely defeated and fled. After this, two hundred of the 10th, one hundred of the 58th Don regiments, a machine gun team of the 17th Don regiment, and an artillery platoon landed in Debaltsevo, which secured the captured territory.
In the battle, the Chernetsovites lost 2 killed - cadet 7th grade Polkovnikov, and student of the higher command school Pyatibratov. 5 machine guns, a carload of rifles, and a large amount of ammunition were captured. The offensive planned by the Bolshevik leadership was thwarted. The Bolshevik detachments, who did not really want to fight, began to hold meetings and disintegrate.
Due to the failure of the open seizure of the territory of the Don Army Region with the help of armed force, the Bolsheviks changed tactics and began to act on the principle of “divide and conquer”.
To achieve this, the Bolshevik provocateurs operating among the Cossacks began to pit ordinary Cossacks against the Cossack officer class.
With the help of this policy, the Bolsheviks hoped to behead the Cossacks with the hands of ordinary Cossacks, forcing them to liquidate the Don officer class with their own hands, i.e. people capable of organizing the Cossacks to fight the Bolshevik occupation.
Under the slogans of “freedom, equality and brotherhood,” ideas began to be introduced into the Cossack environment that power in the Don Army Region should belong to “ordinary Cossacks,” and not to the Cossack officer class; that “ordinary Cossacks” should take power in the region into their own hands; that the Bolsheviks are allegedly not fighting against all Cossacks, but only against officers; that if “ordinary Cossacks” overthrow the Military Government and create a “Cossack” revolutionary committee, then the war will end.
Due to the success of this policy, on January 10, 1918, on the initiative of the division committee of the 5th Don Division, a “congress of front-line Cossacks” gathered in the village of Kamenskaya, which declared itself the power on the Don, abolished the Military Government, and organized the Don RVK (Donrevkom) headed by its chairman Podtyolkov.
On behalf of the Don Revkom, the 8th and 43rd Cossack regiments captured the most important railway section in the Region between the junction stations of Zverevo and Likhaya.
On January 11, 1918, the Chernetsov detachment (about 200 soldiers), alerted, and the 4th company of the Officer Battalion attached to it under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Morozov, moved to Zverevo station. On the same day, Aleksandrovsk-Grushevsky, Sulin, Gornaya were occupied without a fight, the lead group occupied the Cherevkovo station.
At the Zverevo junction station there were echelons of the 8th and 43rd regiments, as well as a hundred of the 2nd Don Reserve Regiment, the most loyal to the Don Revkom.
Assuming the possibility of a collision with them, Chernetsov returned to Novocherkassk for artillery. On the evening of January 12, 1918, he arrived at the Mionchinsky cadet battery and asked for 2 guns.
The battery was already short-staffed, and Mionchinsky sent Chernetsov to the headquarters of the Volunteer Army. Chernetsov replied: “If we are divided into Cossacks and volunteers, then in two days there will be Reds here, and there will be neither one nor the other left,” after which he went to General Alekseev.
General Kornilov L.G. ordered the transfer of the 1st platoon of the cadet Mikhailovsko-Konstantinovsky battery to Chernetsov (the 2nd platoon was sent to the Taganrog direction to Kutepov).
On January 13, 1918, loading was scheduled, but a message was received that the Don reserve artillery division, protesting against the removal of their guns, was going to destroy the Ataman Palace. Chernetsov led the cadets to the palace. Having come to their senses, the Cossacks sent a delegation to confess, after which the cadets and guns again headed for loading.
The echelon was composed as follows: ahead was a cargo platform with a gun; then the locomotive, tender forward, with machine guns on the tender; then class cars with people and freight cars with horses, followed by a steam locomotive with machine guns on a tender; bringing up the rear was the platform with the second gun.
On January 14, 1918, the train arrived at the Kamenolomni station, where two hundred partisans were stationed. All day on January 14, 1918, the partisans talked by telegraph with the Cossacks stationed in Zverevo. At dusk, the Chernetsov train approached the station. Chernetsov warned his partisans: “Don’t smoke! Keep silence! Cossacks are in front of us. Let’s try to settle things peacefully.”
The Cossacks began to gather in anticipation of the rally, but the Chernetsovites suddenly opened machine-gun fire over the heads of the protesters. The 8th and 43rd regiments fled to their homes, and a hundred of the 2nd reserve regiment surrendered their weapons.
Passing the junction stations of Zverevo and Likhaya, and moving forward to Kamenskaya, the partisan detachment exposed its left flank and rear to the attack of Bolshevik echelons from the Ukrainian side.
Therefore, the captured stations had to be secured, leaving garrisons on them. This role was assigned to the officers of the Volunteer Army, since their appearance in the forward chain could embitter and provoke the Cossacks of the Don Revkom who did not want to fight.
In Zverevo, with half a company (56 officers), the captain Lazarev remained. The rest of the squad moved on by train. At the Zamchalovo station, the Reds, let forward by Podtyolkov’s Cossacks, fled without a fight. At the station, the partisans caught two Bolshevik commissars, one of whom turned out to be Dybenko’s namesake.
We approached Likhaya and again began negotiations with the Cossacks. They gave me 15 minutes to think, but the time was up. After two shrapnel shots and a weak firefight, we entered Likhaya. The enemy retreated to Kamenskaya.
The 5th hundred of the Ataman Regiment, which declared neutrality, remained in Likhaya and was disarmed. In the clash for Likhaya, the detachment lost one killed - centurion A.N. Turoverov. from an officer company.
We spent the night in Likhaya. It was planned to leave an officer company here to cover the branch to Ukraine. On the morning of January 15, 1918, an ultimatum was sent to Kamenskaya to surrender the village; its deadline expired at 12 o’clock on January 16, 1918.
At 6 o’clock in the evening on January 15, 1918, a Bolshevik column with an armored train arrived at the Zverevo station from the Ukrainian side. The Chernetsovites and a platoon of the 1st Officer Battalion, which came to their aid from Novocherkassk, repelled the attacks with machine-gun fire. At 10 o’clock in the evening, when the machine gun jammed, the officers, having lost 1 killed (centurion V.V. Alifanov), and took 5 wounded, broke through the Bolshevik chains that had engulfed Zverevo and went to Cherevkovo station, to Novocherkassk.
Fearing an attack from two sides - from Cherevkovo and from Likhaya, the Bolsheviks left Zverevo for the night. The station proudly declared itself neutral.
On January 16, 1918, the battle for Zverevo resumed. Chernetsov with the 4th officer company and the gun of Staff Captain Shperling returned from Likhaya. From the south, from Cherevkovo, the entire 1st Officer Battalion, urgently expelled from Novocherkassk, was advancing. Having lost 1 killed and 7 wounded, Chernetsov restored the situation, securing Zverevo.
At this time, the ultimatum sent to Kamenskaya expired. A telegram was intercepted: “Tell me that today at 12 noon a battle is expected near Kamenskaya Chernetsov is approaching, so it may be necessary to close the kantru prapasta. Got it? The beginning of the Revolutionary Committee, having robbed the treasury, seemed to have disappeared, and the commissar says that he is at the station, but I was at the committee headquarters and there are people sitting there, the headquarters is dealing with government invaders...”
Traitor to the Cossacks F. G. Podtyolkov
Without waiting for the outcome of the battle at Zverevo, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on January 16, 1918, a train of partisans under the command of Mionchinsky went to Kamenskaya, but at the Severo-Donetskaya station it was met by enemy chains.
The Chernetsovites disembarked from the carriages, the cadets lowered a gun from the platform, and their observer, without any cover, climbed onto a telegraph pole. The chain moved forward.
From 15:00 to 20:00 on January 16, 1918 there was a battle. They were led by Lieutenant Vasily Kurochkin. On the enemy’s right flank there were chains of Reds, on the left – chains of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment. The Life Cossacks hardly fired. A parliamentarian galloped up from their chain and warned that the Life Cossacks did not want to fight and would go to Kamenskaya.
The Life Cossacks really left, they were replaced by the Reds. Until dark, the Bolshevik battery fired at the partisans, but did not cause them much harm. At about 20 o'clock, when Chernetsov returned from Zverevo, the partisan chains rose with a bang, shot down the enemy and captured Severo-Donetskoye.
The partisan losses were negligible, since the Reds concentrated all their fire on the train and guns. 2 cadets were killed, 2 more cadets and a machine gunner officer were wounded.
The advanced units of the partisan detachment spent the night from January 16 to January 17, 1918 at the Severo-Donetskoye stop.
Traitor to the Cossacks N.M. Golubov
On the morning of January 17, 1918, units of the Don Revkom (Don Guards Regiments, 6th and 30th Don Batteries), reinforced by Voronezh Red Guards who arrived on January 16, 1918, moved from Kamenskaya to the offensive.
Chernetsov at this time in Likhaya met with the Podtyolkov delegation, which was returning from negotiations from Novocherkassk. Having ordered the arrest and lock up of the Podtyolkov delegation, Chernetsov left for Severo-Donetskoye.
The enemy batteries did not even have time to turn around. With a swift counterattack by the partisans, the revolutionary troops were overturned and fled to Kamenskaya. Donrevkom fled in panic to the north - to the Glubokaya station, having managed to contact Kharkov by telegraph, and officially recognize the power of the Council of People's Commissars (Council of People's Commissars) headed by Lenin.
Pursuing the revolutionary troops, the Chernetsovites passed Kamenskaya, crossed the Donets River and on the evening of January 17, 1918 occupied Glubokaya, pushing the enemy further to the north. Before the capture, there were approximately 1,500 Reds in Glubokaya, not counting the Cossack regiments, 4 batteries, 20 machine guns. 10 machine guns became trophies of the partisans.
In the confusion of the battle, the Podtyolkov delegation was forgotten, and it managed to escape by a roundabout route to Millerovo.
At night, the main forces of the Chernetsovites were withdrawn to Kamenskaya, and the command of the detachment also moved there. In Kamenskaya, the formation of another hundred detachment from local realists (commander Yesaul Dynsky) and an officer squad from officers of the Ataman and other Cossack regiments began.
Chernetsov V.M. Hero of the Cossack People
On January 17, 1918, Chernetsov received a report that military foreman Golubov N.M. from the most revolutionary-minded Cossacks of the 27th, 44th, Guards, and 2nd reserve Cossack regiments, he put together a combat cavalry group, which in a few days, with the support of the red infantry that had already arrived from Lugansk and Voronezh, would move through Glubokaya to Novocherkassk. The Red infantry will advance along the railroad bed to Kamenskaya and will tie up Chernetsov’s detachment, while the Golubov cavalry group will bypass the partisans from the rear.
On the evening of January 17, 1918, the Red column moved on the offensive from the west - from Duvannaya station to Likhaya station, going to the rear of the Chernetsov detachment. About a hundred garrison officers entered the battle with the first echelon of the attackers - about 400 people advanced in three chains, supported by a battery of three-inch guns and a platoon of heavy artillery. Having lost 4 killed and 10 wounded, the officers retreated from Likhaya and moved along the tracks north, to Kamenskaya.
The Bolsheviks, having occupied Likhaya, turned south, and on the morning of January 18, 1918 they attacked Zverevo. Podesaul Lazarev, who was staying in Zverevo with 50 officers and cadets, twice raised his people to counterattack.
On January 18, 1918, partisans launched an attack from the north, from Kamenskaya, towards Likhaya. Chernetsov himself remained in Kamenskaya for now, preparing an operation in the northern direction. He sent a detachment consisting of “old” partisans and 2 guns to the Dashing 1st Hundred. At the Severo-Donetskoe stop, the Chernetsovites met the officers who had left Likhaya.
The chain of partisans (distance 15 steps) deployed to the right of the railway track, the chain of the officer company to the left. Two gun crews under the command of Staff Captain Sperling fired directly from the echelon platforms. In total, about 200 people went into battle.
At the Likhaya station and on the approaches to Zverevo there were approximately 2.5 thousand Reds. Their core consisted of the 275th reserve infantry regiment, Latvians and a company of captured Germans.
The battle began at 8 a.m. on January 18, 1918. The very first partisan shell removed the red observers from the roof of the station. The Chernetsovites launched the decisive attack after 12 noon. Due to the abundance of trains filled with looted goods, the Bolshevik guns could not be moved, and they fired at their own people.
The chains of Tsernetsovites moved toward the station without firing a shot, supported by the fire of two guns and two machine guns. Two hundred paces from the enemy, the chain tightened, and with a cry of “Hurray” it rushed with bayonets. The fight was hot, but after 20 minutes it was all over.
The commander of the Bolshevik detachment Makarov was killed. Having lost 12 machine guns and more than a hundred killed, disorderly crowds of Reds poured along the road to Shmitovskaya, barely managing to save their guns. At the station, a train with textiles, smoked fish, dried apricots, raisins, and almonds was seized. During the Red retreat, more than 1,000 shells were thrown.
Chernetsov’s detachment lost 11 people killed (5 officers and 6 partisans) and 20 wounded in the battle for Likhaya. Lieutenant Vasily Kurochkin, who led the battle, was wounded in the head.
Kornilov, alarmed by the appearance of the Bolsheviks in Zverevo and Likhoi, sent the remaining companies of the 1st Officer Battalion from Novocherkassk north to Zverevo, after which Sablin’s column advancing on Zverevo withdrew with significant losses.
On January 19, 1918, the partisans, taking with them the wounded and dead, returned from Likhaya to Kamenskaya. The 4th officer company also arrived there. On the afternoon of January 19, 1918, local dead partisans were buried in Kamenskaya, the bodies of the rest were sent to Novocherkassk.
Memorial bas-relief to Colonel Chernetsov at the museum-memorial complex in the village. Elanskaya.
In the evening 01/19/1918 and a message came from Novocherkassk that Chernetsov V.M. for the battles near Severo-Donetsk and Likhaya he was promoted to colonel, and the entire 1st hundred of his detachment were awarded St. George medals.
On January 19, 1918, the 2nd company of the Officer Battalion set out to the west in a snowstorm to knock out the Reds from the Gukovo station, but was ambushed - 27 people did not return from the battle.
In the northern direction, taking advantage of the transfer of part of the partisan detachment and its participation in the battle for Likhaya, the Bolsheviks captured Glubokaya. In the afternoon of January 19, 1918, even during the funeral of the dead partisans, Bolshevik trains appeared in the north and fired at Kamenskaya from guns. The Chernetsovites, who did not have time to bring up their guns from Likhaya, responded with machine-gun fire.
On the evening of January 19, 1918, Chernetsov began to plan in detail the attack on Glubokaya. It was assumed that there were approximately 1,000-1,500 Red Guards at the station. The presence of combat Cossack units was not envisaged at all.
The “revolutionary” Cossacks have so far avoided battle. There was a split among their leadership. Golubov suddenly began to play one of the main roles, and Podtyolkov and his entourage did not like it. The formation (knitting together) of special units from the Cossacks of different regiments showed that the regiments themselves were not combat-ready, and “knitting together” took time.
There were no large Cossack units stationed at Glubokaya station itself. The regiments were scattered throughout the villages and villages along the Donets River and along the border of the Region. If you don't touch them, then they won't be touched either.
And if the partisans were opposed by one Red Guard, it was decided to bypass the Glubokaya station, blow up the tracks north of it, and attack from both sides, completely destroying the Bolsheviks. The obvious inequality of power did not bother Chernetsov. All this time, any battle, even surrounded, invariably ended in his favor. The officers and partisans showed great resilience. A big role was played by the fact that the Red Guards did not yet know how, and the Cossacks did not want to fight, and each time avoided a serious battle.
Therefore, the following was planned:
A detachment with a gun and two machine guns on a car and carts was supposed to set out from Kamenskaya early in the morning of January 20, 1918 (Cossacks and dray drivers had to drive the carts by 4 a.m.), and bypass Glubokaya along dirt roads from the northeast - through the lands of their native villages of Chernetsov - Kalitvenskaya. This was the first time it was separated from the railway.
The remaining part of the partisans with the second gun on the platform, with the support of the local officer squad, was supposed to attack Glubokaya by rail from the south. The general attack was scheduled for 12 o'clock.
However, the drivers were late, and the carts were delivered only at 7 o'clock in the morning. Therefore, Chernetsov spoke late. For those remaining in Kamenskaya, the task was clarified: move to the Pogorelovo junction and, at the signal - a high shrapnel explosion - attack Glubokaya from the south.
The 1st hundred, the backbone of the Chernetsov detachment, did not go around. The week-long battles that exhausted the squad took their toll. Therefore, Chernetsov took with him the remnants of the 4th officer company, artillery cadets, as well as a hundred partisans formed in Kamenskaya and consisting of local partisans who knew the area well.
Chernetsov took with him the 2nd gun of the battery (model 1900), several scouts and telephone operators, and 2 light machine guns from the battery. This team was headed by Mionchinsky himself.
One platoon remained in Kamenskaya, since part of the detachment was in Zverevo, part was advanced to the west of Likhaya on the Likhaya-Kharkov branch, and part to the east on the Likhaya-Tsaritsyn branch.
At about 10 o'clock on January 20, 1918, Upornikov arrived, equipped two empty freight trains, and seated seven cadets on locomotives and set off for Glubokaya.
This was only a demonstration, since the weapon with which it was supposed to attack Glubokaya had not yet arrived from Likhaya.
At the Pogorelovo stop, Upornikov was met with artillery fire. The 6th Guards Battery fired. The impression was created that the Cossack batteries were simply playing, deliberately not firing to kill, and the train returned out of harm’s way to Kamenskaya.
Left at the very beginning of the operation without support from the south, Chernetsov’s own detachment lost its way several times and reached the initial line of attack - the heights northeast of Glubokaya, only at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
The Bolsheviks at the station already knew at 2 o’clock in the afternoon from a defector that Chernetsov had taken a detour, and were preparing for the meeting.
Chernetsov released the drivers with the carts, then ordered the railway tracks to be dismantled, and opened gun fire on Glubokaya. In response to the shots of the Chernetsov gun, the guns of the 4th Transbaikal battery, which came to Glubokaya along with Petrov’s Bolshevik detachment, fired from the station. The battery fired directly from the train platforms, and with the third shot it knocked out the Chernetsov gun. Two artillery cadets (Ikishev and Polevoy) were wounded.
The detachment was advancing on the station from the north: the remnants of the 4th officer company were advancing on the right of the railway, and the partisan hundred on the left. At Glubokaya they met a chain of Reds and exchanged fire with them until dark. The Reds fired indiscriminately and inaccurately, and reinforcements came to their aid from the station.
In the darkness, the Chernetsovites attacked, overthrew the Reds and burst into the station, but were met with brutal fire from the trains. Both machine guns jammed, and the squad was forced to retreat.
No one from the south supported the attack. At this time, in Kamenskaya, the adjutant of the detachment, Lieutenant Lichko, suggested that the officer squad move to Glubokaya, but there were no volunteers.
After the partisans retreated from Glubokaya, the Reds, in the darkness, due to the confusion that arose, randomly fired at each other for some time.
During the battle, the remnants of the 4th officer company of Lieutenant Colonel Morozov, attacking to the right of the railway embankment, broke through the Bolshevik positions and broke away from the detachment. By the morning of January 21, 1918, Morozov and his men returned to Kamenskaya, where he stated that after the battle for Glubokaya he had lost contact with Chernetsov, and therefore was forced to return.
Chernetsov was left with less than a hundred hungry, cold and tired partisans who retreated to a hillock northeast of Glubokaya, the initial line of attack, where the knocked-out gun was located.
We spent the night in the Pikhovkin farmstead, located a mile northwest of Glubokaya. The partisans settled in the church guardhouse and in the barns. Chernetsov stayed at the priest's house. Mionchinsky and the gun commander, Lieutenant Kazanli, spent the entire night repairing the gun breech (the firing pin was knocked off in it), and by morning they had repaired it. The weapon stood in the church fence.
On the night of January 20-21, 1918, the Officer Battalion located in Zverevo attacked the Gukovo station, where fresh Bolshevik forces arrived, about 2,000 people. At about 10 p.m. on January 20, 1918, the battalion with a machine gun on a handcar moved along the railroad. At 3 a.m. on January 21, 1918, he suddenly burst into Gukovo station and started a bayonet fight there. Of the three echelons of the Reds, two were completely defeated, the third broke through and left, since the Don officer squad sent around was unable to properly mine the bridge. The officer battalion lost 7 killed and 20 wounded. The Bolsheviks lost about 500 killed, 300 prisoners, and 13 machine guns. In Gukovo, the corpses of officers of the 2nd officer company were found, who were tortured before death, which decided the fate of the prisoners.
By noon on January 21, 1918, having transferred the Gukovo station to the Don officer squad (200 people), the Officer Battalion departed for Zverevo and further to Novocherkassk and Rostov.
On the dark morning of January 21, 1918, the Chernetsovites (86 people in total) lined up near the church. The detachment in a column crossed the railway and climbed the hillocks from which it had begun the attack yesterday. Here the partisans found a machine gun abandoned yesterday.
Chernetsov ordered several shots fired at the station from the corrected gun. A total of 10 shots were fired. In response, the Reds moved a chain from Glubokaya, but Chernetsov did not get involved in the battle and led the detachment along the same route to Kamenskaya.
During the battle in Glubokaya, the famous adventurer military foreman Golubov, who took the side of the Don Revkom, rode off to the village of Mityakinskaya, where the 27th Cossack regiment was stationed, in which Golubov served on the Austro-German front. Golubov alerted the regiment and announced that Kornilov officers were slaughtering Cossacks in Glubokaya.
Two hundred of the 27th regiment, unfurling the regimental banner, together with the regiment commander, followed Golubov to repel the “adversaries.” Golubov also managed to enlist part of the Cossacks of the 44th Regiment, the Atamans, and the 6th Guards Battery.
The partisans, having passed a quarter of the way to Kamenskaya, noticed Cossack patrols. Several skirmishes occurred between the Cossack patrols and the mounted artillery reconnaissance units of the detachment, during which one Cossack of the 44th regiment was killed.
Having risen to a hill, the partisans saw in front of them a Cossack regiment of about 500 checkers, a machine gun team, and a 6-gun battery that were preparing for an attack. Attempts to start negotiations failed, as Golubov’s Cossacks fired at the envoys. The battery opened artillery fire.
A direct hit from a grenade knocked out the front horses of the partisan artillery team. Mionchinsky turned the gun around and fired back three shots, damaging two enemy guns with the third shot.
The forces were clearly unequal, and Chernetsov ordered a retreat to the west - to the railroad bed, counting on help from Kamenskaya. However, the partisans, retreating, deviated from the direction they had taken, since the enemy’s cavalry, not allowing the detachment to linger, forced it to move in an undesirable direction - to the northwest towards Glubokaya, where large Bolshevik forces were located. Therefore, the partisans were forced to turn east - to the Gusev farm.
At a deep ravine through which the gun could not cross, Chernetsov ordered it to be thrown down. The gun was thrown into a ravine, the lock, the sight, and the goniometric circle was drowned in a stream at the bottom of the ravine.
After this, Chernetsov ordered Mionchinsky and horse artillerymen to break through to Kamenskaya. Mionchinsky, waving a white scarf, with about 20 cadets jumped out of the ravine and galloped past the puzzled Cossacks, who stopped shooting. This detachment wandered across the steppe all night, and in the morning arrived in Kamenskaya.
Chernetsov, and about 40 people remaining with him began to leave along the bottom of the ravine to the Gusev farm. Deciding to finish the job with one blow, Golubov threw the Cossacks into a mounted attack. Chernetsov raised the partisans to the edge of the ravine, allowing the cavalry to approach 100 fathoms (200 meters), and opened fire in volleys. The attackers galloped back. Chernetsov congratulated the partisans on their promotion to warrant officers.
After the second attack, which was also repulsed, Chernetsov congratulated the partisans on their promotion to second lieutenant, and after the third - to lieutenant. In the last attack, the partisans captured the 27th Regiment's sub-soror, who feigned indignation and shouted that it was a misunderstanding. He was released because he promised to negotiate that the partisans would be allowed through.
At this time, the Cossack cavalry appeared on the other side of the ravine, coming from the rear, and Chernetsov led the partisans to the other side. Climbing to the edge of the ravine, he was wounded by a bullet in the leg. The partisans lay down around him, forming a circle with a radius of 20-30 steps.
Seeing that it was not possible to destroy the partisans, Golubov began negotiations with Chernetsov, to whom he gave the Cossack officer his word that he would release the remnants of the detachment if the partisans laid down their arms. At this time, a partisan echelon left Kamenskaya twice - first under the command of upornikov, and then under the command of Lazarev, and tried to attack Glubokaya. The partisans demonstrating from Kamenskaya with their fire instilled uncertainty in the “revolutionary” Cossacks, and therefore the latter began to hesitate.
Wanting to preserve the remnants of the partisan detachment, and playing on Golubov’s desire to bargain with the Military Government, Chernetsov influenced the latter, as well as the Cossacks who surrounded them, which was also facilitated by the partisan echelons demonstrating from Kamenskaya. As a result, Golubov sent parliamentarians to Kamenskaya with a note: “1918, January 21, I, Chernetsov, along with a detachment were captured. To avoid completely unnecessary bloodshed, I ask you not to attack. We are guaranteed against lynching by the word of the entire detachment and military foreman Golubov. Colonel Chernetsov. Military foreman N. Golubov. 1918 January 21.”
However, the chairman of the Don Revkom, Podtelkov, who arrived at the scene, stopped the negotiations, after which a large crowd of armed Cossacks attacked the partisans and drove them to Glubokaya. Meanwhile it got dark. Taking advantage of the firefight that began nearby, Chernetsov shouted, “These are ours - Hurray!”, after which the partisans, taking advantage of the confusion that arose among the convoy, rushed at the Podtelkovites guarding them.
During the battle, Chernetsov himself and most of his detachment were cut down by the guards; only 15 young men managed to escape and return. The Podtyolkovites brought only five people to the Glubokaya station - a soldier from the Romanian front, two artillery cadets from the Konstantinovsky School, a student from the Kamensky Real School, and an assistant mechanic from Glubokaya who joined the Chernetsovites. Their fate was sad.
After a collision with the Chernetsov detachment, on January 22, 1918, the Red Guard left Glubokaya for the Millerovo station, since its commander G. Petrov was wounded in the leg and the entire command staff was out of action.
In fact, all the combat units of the Don Revkom fled to their homes. Podtyolkov’s attempts to mobilize on January 22, 1918 were unsuccessful. In Millerovo, only 1,600 people arrived at the gathering place, but only 80 showed up to be loaded into the wagons, the rest fled. For the Military Government, the danger from the north had lost its urgency.
On January 22, 1918, Lazarev arrived with 62 partisans and the 4th officer company, raided Glubokaya and nearby farms, and picked up the corpses of 9 partisans hacked to death along with Chernetsov, after which he returned to Kamenskaya.
On January 23, 1918, on the Astakhov farm, partisans and cadets led by Mionchinsky picked up 6 abandoned guns and 16 charging boxes from the Life Guards of the 6th Don Battery. In Novocherkassk, Captain Upornikov, who served in this battery, assembled 4 combat-ready ones from his former guns.
With the death of Chernetsov, the struggle under the Bolshevik occupation did not end. After his death, Chernetsov became a legend for young people who joined partisan detachments and continued the fight against Bolshevism. After the seizure of the territory of the Don Army Region by the Bolsheviks, all these detachments became the basis around which the entire Great Don Army rallied to fight Bolshevism, and became the combat core of the Don Army.
- #1
the villain (Montag, 19 December 2016 20:47)
“You don’t choose times - you live and die in them!”
It is not surprising that there is no monument to this Hero in Novocherkassk!!! - #2
Georgiy (Mittwoch, 08 Feb 2017 23:46)
Wonderful article!
And where was HERO Chernetsov buried? Do you know anything? - #3
Russian (Freitag, 15 December 2017 21:14)
Cossacks are the creators of Russia!
- #4
And in general, the century since the beginning of the Civil War in Russia forces me to again turn to the tragic events on the Don in January - early February 1918. And remember one more participant in these events, a person who did everything in his power to turn the situation around, but he did not have enough strength to do this. The death of this man at the hands of Podtyolkov’s Red Cossacks was the last straw, after which Ataman Kaledin had no choice but to shoot himself in the heart. Anton Ivanovich Denikin wrote about this man that with his death his soul left the entire cause of defending the Don, and everything completely fell apart. Who is this man?
Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov
His name was Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov. He was born on March 22 (old style) 1890 in the village of Kalitvenskaya, in the family of Don Cossack Mikhail Iosifovich Chernetsov, who served as a veterinary paramedic. As we see, the man is not noble or rich, but intelligent. There were no special “wealths” or “privileges” for which Vasily Mikhailovich could fight against his fellow Cossacks from the red detachments of Podtyolkov and Golubov. He received his secondary education at a real school - which also characterizes the family’s modest financial resources; the rich tried to place their children in gymnasiums or cadet corps, while education at a real school was not highly valued, since it did not give the right to enter universities. However, Chernetsov did not need universities; as a hereditary Cossack, he aspired to military service. In 1909, Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack Junker School and became an officer in his native Don Cossack army.
Officer and cadet of the Novocherkassk Cossack school at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Chernetsov met the First World War with the rank of centurion of the 26th Don Cossack Regiment. Very soon the young officer (he was 24 years old at that moment) stood out with his courage and became the best intelligence officer of his 4th Don Cossack Division. When in 1915, the commander-in-chief Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, following the example of 1812, decided to create partisan detachments, the partisan detachment of the 4th Don Division was ordered to be led by Chernetsova. In general, the idea of army partisan detachments in conditions of a continuous front and positional war did not justify itself - it was not so easy for the partisans to penetrate behind enemy lines - but Chernetsov’s detachment acted successfully, which is confirmed by Chernetsov’s rapid promotion to podesaul and esaul and awarding the St. George weapon for bravery.
And then the revolution broke out. Chernetsov, like many officers of that time, initially tried not to interfere in politics - just to bring the war to victory. In the summer, however, he agreed to become a deputy of the Makeevsky Council from the Cossacks. But judging by the fact that practically nothing is known about this period of his life, he did not show himself in any way in this capacity. Chernetsov's finest hour struck later - when the Bolshevik revolution took place in Petrograd and then in Moscow. The most “frostbitten” revolutionaries came to power, and throughout the Great War they actively campaigned for the “defeat of their government.”
On the Don at that time Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin was the ataman. Taking a consistently counter-revolutionary position, being a staunch opponent of the democratization of the army, Kaledin logically declared that he did not recognize the power of the Bolsheviks. By building an alternative, as they would now say, “center of power” on the Don, relying on which it would be possible to begin the liberation of Russia from the usurpers, Kaledin hoped to rely on the Cossack divisions returning home from the front. However, the atmosphere of general decay that reigned on the fronts of the First World War after the February coup eventually affected the Cossack regiments. The Cossacks, having fought and lost all their bearings, scattered to their homes, not forgetting to take their weapons with them. The defense of the Don fell on improvised detachments, mainly from student youth. Junkers of the Novocherkassk School (the same one that Chernetsov graduated from), high school students, seminarians - plus white volunteers arriving from the north. And the first Don partisan detachment was formed by Yesaul Chernetsov.
Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov captain
Chernetsov's detachment, like most partisan formations, had a floating structure and strength. However, eyewitnesses note that the characteristic feature of all the fighters of his squad was invariably the absence of politics, an enormous thirst for achievement and a clear awareness of what and whom they were protecting. It was later, at the end of 1918 and in subsequent years, that cases of transition from Red to White and back became more frequent. And the first white volunteers were ideological and well-motivated people.
The situation was such that this detachment had to be immediately thrown into battle. And from that moment on, the Chernetsovites did not get out of the battles. They were sent to where danger threatened - and Red Guard detachments were drawn to the Don from almost all sides. The speed with which Chernetsov arrived at the scene and organized the defense very quickly earned him the fame of a hero, and his detachment began to be called an “ambulance”: he was practically the only serious military force in the hands of Kaledin.
At the end of November 1917, a meeting of officers met in Novocherkassk. Quite impressive in number. Addressing them, Chernetsov stated: “I’ll go fight the Bolsheviks, and if my ‘comrades’ kill me or hang me, I’ll know why; but why will they hang you up when they come?” However, the majority of those gathered were not moved by this desperate call. Out of 800 officers, only 30 people went with Chernetsov the next day (even though more than a hundred signed up).
For a month and a half, Chernetsov’s small detachment cruised between Donbass and Voronezh, repelling the advance of Red Guard gangs on the Don. There were also funny cases. For example, at one of the stations between Debaltsevo and Makeevka, the train of the Chernetsov detachment was stopped by the Bolsheviks. Coming out of the carriage to find out what happened, Chernetsov came face to face with a member of the local Military Revolutionary Committee. And the following dialogue took place between them:“Esaul Chernetsov?”- “Yes, and who are you?” - “I am a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I ask you not to point at me.”- "Soldier?" - "Yes". - “Hands at your sides! Be quiet when you talk to the captain!” The habit of obedience, developed over the years and brought to the point of automatism, worked in the soldier. And Chernetsov’s assertiveness played a role: the Red Guards at that time were impudent only with those who did not resist them.The member of the Military Revolutionary Committee stood at attention. “So that in a quarter of an hour my train will leave!” - Chernetsov barked. "I obey!" - the “hero of the revolution” mumbled in confusion. Five minutes later, Chernetsov’s train continued its journey.
V.M. Chernetsov. Colorized photo
However, thunderclouds were gathering over the Don Army. On January 23, 1918, Donrevkom arose in person in the village of Kamenskaya. Among the Cossacks there were many who joined the Bolsheviks. In the hands of the chairman of the Don Revkom, Fyodor Podtyolkov, a force that was impressive at that time was concentrated. The 10th Don Regiment sent against the Revolutionary Committee by Kaledin failed to cope with its task - the Cossacks, accustomed to fraternal relations among themselves, did not understand why they had to fight against the same Cossacks. And then Kaledin turned to Chernetsov. Chernetsov by this time had significantly strengthened his detachment. He even had his own artillery - two guns were placed at his disposal by the Volunteer Army - and his own machine-gun team. With this composition, Chernetsov’s detachment, unexpectedly for the Bolsheviks, attacked Zverevo Station, and then Likhaya. On the morning of January 30 (17th century), the Chernetsovites occupied Kamenskaya, abandoned by the Reds, without a fight. Local Cossacks greeted them cordially, young people and officers en masse began to enroll in the detachment... For this success, Kaledin promoted Chernetsov to colonel through the rank. But at this time, Red Guards led by Yuri Sablin came to the rear of Chernetsov’s detachment. This Social Revolutionary, who participated in the Bolshevik uprising in Moscow, formed a revolutionary detachment in December 1917, with which he marched to the Don against Kaledin. By the time he came into contact with Chernetsov’s detachment, Sablin had two regiments at his disposal, with which he attacked the officer’s outpost guarding the Likhaya station. The station was captured by the Reds, as a result of which Chernetsov was cut off from Novocherkassk. And instead of pursuing the retreating Red Cossacks, he had to eliminate this sudden threat. Chernetsov deployed the detachment and attacked Likhaya on horseback. As a result, the Moscow Bolshevik regiment was defeated, and the Kharkov regiment was thoroughly battered and forced to retreat. The Cossacks' loot was a wagon with ammunition and 12 machine guns.
Social Revolutionary Yuri Sablin, member of the Red Movement
on the Don in 1918.
And the Reds who fled from Kamenskaya concentrated near the village of Glubokaya, from where they sent a telegram to Moscow, expressing full support for the Bolshevik power and asking for help. In the meantime, military foreman Golubov became the commander of the Red Cossacks - not so much a revolutionary as an adventurer, who showed himself at his worst during the elections of the ataman. Rejected by the majority of the Cossacks, Golubov harbored a grudge - and was preparing to come to power with the help of a new force - the Bolsheviks who had appeared in the Don.
On the basis of the 27th Don Regiment, Golubov managed to form a completely combat-ready formation. If he had enough time, he probably could have attacked and defeated Chernetsov in Kamenskaya. But Chernetsov was ahead of him. Having bypassed Glubokaya, Chernetsov and his detachment attacked it not from the railway line, as the Bolsheviks had hoped, but from the steppe. This time his prey was the guns and convoys of the Reds. After this, Chernetsov returned to Kamenskaya with trophies, and Golubov united with the Voronezh regiment that had come to his aid and again occupied Glubokaya.
Military foreman Golubov is one of the leaders
Red Movement on the Don in 1918.
On January 20 (February 2), 1918, Chernetsov set out on his last campaign against Golubov. According to his plan, one hundred with an officer platoon and one gun were to bypass Gluboka, and the other two hundred with a second gun under the general command of Roman Lazarev were to strike head-on. Thus, a simultaneous attack from the front and rear was obtained. But Chernetsov overestimated his strength. He was a talented combat commander, but not a staff officer. And, apparently, he was poorly oriented on the terrain. The Cossacks who had gone around (they, among other things, were tasked with dismantling the railway tracks in order to cut off the Reds’ route to retreat) simply got lost and reached their initial positions for the attack not at noon, but only in the evening. However, Chernetsov, who had no contact with the other part of his detachment, did not dare to postpone the attack until the morning. On the move, the partisans advanced to attack Glubokaya. They burst into the station and... then it turned out that no one supported them. In addition, all three machine guns jammed at once. The partisans, most of whom were yesterday's children, were confused. Out of one and a half hundred, Chernetsov managed to gather only 60 people around him after an unsuccessful attack. And here Chernetsov made a mistake. Instead of retreating as quickly as possible, he ordered that the failed gun be repaired and tested on the outskirts of Glubokaya, where the Red Guards had gathered. Lieutenant Colonel Mionchinsky, who commanded the artillerymen, warned that artillery fire would declassify the location of the partisans, and Golubov had good cavalry at his disposal, escaping from which would be problematic. However, the first shells landed successfully, and amid the approving hubbub of the partisans, the cannon of the Chernetsov detachment fired a dozen more shots at the Red Guards. This time was enough for Golubov to get Chernetsov to the rear. Chernetsov’s small detachment with one gun had to repel the attacks of five hundred Red Cossacks. The artillery cadets from the Chernetsov detachment showed excellent training. Here's how one of the participants recalled this fight: "The partisans and artillery cadets gathered around Colonel V.M. Chernetsov repelled the attacks of the Cossack cavalry with volleys. “Colonel Chernetsov loudly congratulated everyone on their promotion to ensign. The answer was a few but loud “Hurray!” But the Cossacks, having recovered, not abandoning the thought of crushing us and dealing with the partisans for their impudence, launched a second attack. The same thing happened again. Colonel Chernetsov again congratulated us on our production, but as second lieutenants. “Hurray!” followed again.
The Cossacks went for the third time, apparently deciding to complete the attack, Colonel Chernetsov let the attackers come so close that it seemed that it was too late to shoot and that the moment had been lost, when at that moment a loud and clear “Fire!” was heard. A friendly volley rang out, then another, a third, and the Cossacks, unable to bear it, turned back in confusion, leaving behind the wounded and dead. Colonel Chernetsov congratulated everyone on their promotion to lieutenant, “Hurray!” rang out again, and the partisans, to whom many of the stragglers had managed to approach, began to cross to the other side of the ravine to retreat further"(end quote).
During this battle, Chernetsov was wounded in the leg. Unable to carry their wounded commander from the battlefield, the partisans surrounded him and prepared to die with him. The whites sat in a circle, in the center of which was their wounded commander. But the Red Cossacks, seeing their determination and realizing that a new attack would cost them considerable losses, started talking about a truce. An agreement was reached, the Chernetsovites laid down their arms, but at that time fresh masses of Reds rushed in from behind (probably from those who fled the fastest, having run into effective artillery fire) quickly ended the established truce, turning the resting partisans into prisoners. It took Golubov a lot of work to prevent immediate lynching: the Red Guards were in a hurry to settle scores with those who made them seriously fear for their own skin. As a result, the captured partisans were stripped and driven to Glubokaya in their shirts.
And only at this time the second part of Chernetsov’s detachment, led by Lazarev, attacked the Reds from Kamenskaya. Golubov, threatening Chernetsov with immediate reprisals against all prisoners, demanded that he write an order to stop this attack. He himself set out with the main forces to meet Lazarev, leaving a small convoy with the prisoners. Chernetsov decided to take advantage of this. After waiting a moment, he noticed that three horsemen were approaching the convoy, shouting: “Hurray! These are ours!” hit the convoy commander, Chairman of the Donrevkom Podtyolkov, in the chest. The captured partisans scattered. Chernetsov himself managed to jump into the saddle and gallop away. Vasily Mikhailovich tried to hide in his native village to regain his strength, but was handed over to Podtyolkov by one of his neighbors. The Red Cossacks drove him to Glubokaya. Along the way, Podtyolkov began to mock Chernetsov, and in the end he pulled him out with a whip. The honored colonel could not tolerate such treatment. A hidden Browning flashed in his hand, Chernetsov pressed the trigger... but no shot was fired. Vasily Mikhailovich forgot that he had shot all the cartridges he had. Podtyolkov, seeing a weapon in the hands of his captive, attacked him with a saber and slashed him in the face. Chernetsov fell. This blow, received from his fellow Cossack, cost him his life.
Colonel Chernetsov was buried according to the Orthodox rite. It was the metrical record in the church where he was buried that allowed historians to establish the exact date of the death of the Don hero - January 23 (February 5), 1918. It is noteworthy that Golubov, having learned about the death of Chernetsov, attacked Podtyolkov with abuse: the vain military foreman, aiming at atamans, did not at all want to discredit himself before the Cossacks with extrajudicial reprisals; on the contrary, he dreamed of appearing before them as the personification of a new, revolutionary order. He needed a show trial of Chernetsov - and not a cowardly murder in the steppe. Nevertheless, in the minds of the majority of Cossacks, it was Golubov who remained the main culprit in the death of Vasily Mikhailovich.
Breastplate of the Chernetsov partisans
After Chernetsov's death, his detachment disintegrated. Some of the former Chernetsov partisans formed the backbone of the Partisan Regiment of the Volunteer Army, going with it on the Ice Campaign to Kuban. This partisan regiment later became famous under the name of Alekseevsky and in 1919 was deployed into a division. The other part of the partisans left along with the marching chieftain P.Kh. Popov on the Steppe Campaign. Nevertheless, the exploits of the Chernetsovites were remembered in the White Army. A special memorial sign was installed for former soldiers and officers of the Chernetsov detachment.
Today, when in the South of Russia the good memory of the White Struggle has been restored, when a monument to General S.L. appeared in Salsk. Markov, and in the former Ekaterinodar - L.G. Kornilov, I would like to believe that a monument to Vasily Chernetsov will eventually appear in Novocherkassk, Glubokaya or Kamenskaya.
White movement
Cossack cavalry units
Cossack hundred,
Commandant of the Makeevka mines,
Cossack partisan detachment
Sign of Chernetsiv residents
Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov(March 22, 1890, Kalitvenskaya village, Donetsk district of the Don Army Region - January 23, 1918, near the Ivankov Glubokiy farm of the Don Army Region) - Cossack colonel.
Biography
He was baptized according to the Orthodox canon on March 25, 1890 in the Assumption Church in the village of Kalitvenskaya. Parents are Cossacks from the village of Kalitvenskaya, Mikhail Iosifovich Chernetsov and Akilina Iosifova (nee Borodina). Son of a veterinary assistant.
Education
He received his education at the Kamensky real school (Kamenskaya village), and in 1909 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack cadet school (Novocherkassk city).
Participation in the First World War
Participation in the Civil War on the Don
However, the Don did not respond to the Ataman’s call and the cover of Novocherkassk fell on the partisan detachment of Yesaul Chernetsov, consisting of student youth, which became almost the only active force of Ataman A. M. Kaledin.
The detachment worked in all directions and even received the nickname of the Don “ambulance”: the Chernetsovites were transferred from front to front, traveling throughout the entire Don Army Region, invariably fighting off the Reds who were rolling onto the Don:
| The personality of this brave officer seemed to concentrate the entire fading spirit of the Don Cossacks. His name is repeated with pride and hope. Chernetsov works in all directions: he disperses the council in Aleksandrovsk-Grushevsky, he pacifies the Makeevsky mining district, he captures the Debaltsevo station, defeating several echelons of Red Guards and capturing all the commissars. Success accompanies him everywhere, both his own and Soviet reports talk about him, legends will be born around his name, and the Bolsheviks value his head dearly. |
At the congress of the front-line Cossacks, the Bolsheviks held in the village of Kamenskaya on January 10 (23) announced the transition to the revolutionary committee led by Podtyolkov. After the 10th regiment sent by Kaledin failed to cope with the task of dispersing the congress and arresting the Bolshevik agitators, Chernetsov was sent against them. The detachment, in a desperate raid, captures the junction stations Zverevo and Likhaya, knocks out the Reds and attacks Kamenskaya. The entire mass of revolutionary regiments, batteries, and individual units were defeated and fled in panic on the morning of January 17th Art. style, the Chernetsovites occupied Kamenskaya, abandoned by the Reds, without a fight. The Cossack population greeted them very friendly, the youth enrolled in the detachment (the 4th hundred was formed from the students of the village of Kamenskaya), the officers who were in the village formed a squad, and a nutrition center was set up at the station by a women's circle.
For the capture of Likhaya, the commander of the partisan detachment V. M. Chernetsov was promoted “through the rank” by Ataman A. M. Kaledin to colonel.
However, Sablin’s Red Guard detachments immediately go to the rear of Chernetsov’s tiny detachment, having previously cut the railway and knocked down one company of the white barrier. Chernetsov deploys his detachment and attacks the superior forces of the Bolsheviks: the 3rd Moscow Red Regiment was defeated by the white partisans, and the Kharkov Regiment was thoroughly battered. Sablin was forced to retreat. As a result of the battle, the white partisans captured a wagon with shells and 12 machine guns; the enemy lost more than a hundred people killed alone. But the losses of the partisans were also great; Chernetsov’s “right hand”, Lieutenant Kurochkin, was wounded.
Donrevkom recognizes the power of the Bolsheviks without any reservations and urgently asks Moscow for help. The Red regiments that fled from Kamenskaya were appointed to command the military foreman Golubov, who put together from this mass a combat-ready formation based on the 27th regiment. However, Chernetsov, after a military council, where it was decided, at the suggestion of centurion Linkov, to take Glubokaya, making a roundabout movement, bypassed Glubokaya and attacking it from the steppe, and not along the railway line, as Golubov expected, again wins. This time the trophies of the Don partisans were the guns and convoys of the Reds.
In response to Donrevkom's request for help, the Bolsheviks send Petrov's Voronezh regiment. Colonel Chernetsov’s last campaign began against their forces united with Golubov on January 20, from the village of Kamenskaya, where the white partisans had returned. According to the plan, the commander with a hundred of his partisans, an officer platoon and one gun was supposed to bypass Gluboka, and two hundred with the remaining gun of Staff Captain Shperling under the general command of Roman Lazarev were supposed to strike head-on.
The young commander overestimated the strength of himself and his partisans: instead of reaching the attack site at noon, the partisans, lost in the steppe, reached the attack line only in the evening. The first experience of detachment from the railway was lumpy. However, Chernetsov, not accustomed to stopping, decided, without waiting for the morning, to attack on the move. “The partisans, as always, were on the rise,” recalled one of the Chernetsovites, “they reached a bayonet strike, broke into the station, but there were few of them - from the south, from Kamenskaya, no one supported them, the attack floundered; all three machine guns jammed, a reaction set in - the partisans became yesterday’s children.” The gun also failed. In the darkness, about 60 partisans out of the one and a half hundred who attacked Glubokaya gathered around V.M. Chernetsov. Having corrected their gun, the Chernetsovites began to retreat to Kamenskaya. Chernetsov made a mistake by imprudently ordering the gun to be checked on the outskirts of Glubokaya, despite warnings from the commander of his artillerymen, Lieutenant Colonel Mionchinsky, that it would be very difficult to escape from the red cavalry... Soon the retreat route was cut off by a mass of cavalry - the Cossacks of military foreman Golubov. Three dozen partisans of Colonel Chernetsov, with one gun, took the battle against five hundred cavalry, the guns of the former Life Guards of the 6th Don Cossack battery opened fire and the battery, which fired without officers, showed excellent guards training.
| The partisans and artillery cadets gathered around Colonel V.M. Chernetsov repelled the attacks of the Cossack cavalry with volleys. “Colonel Chernetsov loudly congratulated everyone on their promotion to ensign. The answer was a few but loud “Hurray!” But the Cossacks, having recovered, not abandoning the thought of crushing us and dealing with the partisans for their impudence, launched a second attack. The same thing happened again. Colonel Chernetsov again congratulated us on our production, but as second lieutenants. “Hurray!” followed again.
The Cossacks went for the third time, apparently deciding to complete the attack, Colonel Chernetsov let the attackers come so close that it seemed that it was too late to shoot and that the moment had been lost, when at that moment a loud and clear “Fire!” was heard. A friendly volley rang out, then another, a third, and the Cossacks, unable to bear it, turned back in confusion, leaving behind the wounded and dead. Colonel Chernetsov congratulated everyone on their promotion to lieutenant, “Hurray!” rang out again, and the partisans, to whom many of the stragglers had managed to approach, began to cross to the other side of the ravine to retreat further.” |
V. M. Chernetsov was wounded during the battle and, among about 40 officers, was captured by Golubov. Soon after the battle, Golubov received news that the Chernetsovites from Kamenskaya were continuing their offensive. Threatening all prisoners with death, Golubov forced Chernetsov to write an order to stop the offensive. Golubov turned his regiments towards the attackers, leaving a small convoy with the prisoners.
Taking advantage of the moment (the approach of three horsemen), Chernetsov hit the chairman of the Donrevkom Podtyolkov in the chest and shouted: “Hurray! These are ours! With a shout of “Hurray! General Chernetsov! The partisans scattered, the confused convoy gave some the opportunity to escape.
The wounded Chernetsov rode off to his native village, where he was betrayed by one of his fellow villagers and captured the next day by Podtyolkov, at whose hands he died. “On the way, Podtyolkov mocked Chernetsov - Chernetsov was silent. When Podtyolkov hit him with a whip, Chernetsov grabbed a small Browning gun from the inner pocket of his sheepskin coat and pointedly... clicked at Podtyolkov, there was no cartridge in the barrel of the pistol - Chernetsov forgot about it, without feeding the cartridge from the clip. Podtelkov grabbed his saber, slashed him in the face, and five minutes later the Cossacks rode on, leaving Chernetsov’s chopped-up corpse in the steppe. Golubov, having learned about the death of Chernetsov, attacked Podtyolkov with curses and even began to cry...”
There was a burial service according to the Orthodox canon on January 31, 1918 in the Panteleimon Church of the Ivankov farmstead of the village of Kamenskaya by priest Alexander Smirnov and psalm-reader Vasily Baizdrenkov. In the column “From what he died” it is written - “Killed in the civil war.”
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The son of a veterinary assistant. He received his education at the Kamensky real school, and in 1909 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack school. He entered the Great War with the rank of centurion, as part of the 26th Don Cossack Regiment (4th Don Cossack Division). He stood out for his courage and fearlessness, was the best intelligence officer in the division, and was wounded three times in battle. In 1915 V.M. Chernetsov led the partisan detachment of the 4th Don Cossack Division. And this detachment covered itself and its young commander with unfading glory with a series of brilliant deeds. For military valor and military distinction, Chernetsov was promoted to podesaul and esaul, awarded many orders, received the St. George weapon, and was wounded three times. However, the main work of the life of “Ivan Tsarevich of the Don” was still ahead...
To resist the Bolsheviks who seized power, Don Ataman A.M. Kaledin, who did not recognize the power of the Soviets, counted on the Don Cossack divisions, from which it was planned to select a healthy core; before their arrival, the main burden of the struggle was to fall on improvised detachments, formed mainly from student youth. “Idealistically minded, active, studying youth - students, gymnasium students, cadets, realists, seminarians - left school and took up arms - often against the will of their parents and secretly from them - to save the dying Don, his freedom, his “liberty.” The most active organizer of the partisans was Captain V.M. Chernetsov. The detachment was formed on November 30, 1918. Quite soon, the partisan detachment of Yesaul V.M. Chernetsov received the nickname of the Don “ambulance carriage”: the Chernetsovites were transferred from front to front, traveling throughout the entire Don Army Region, invariably repelling the Bolshevik hordes rolling onto the Don. The detachment of V.M. Chernetsov was perhaps the only active force of Ataman A.M. Kaledin.
At the end of November, at a meeting of officers in Novocherkassk, the young captain addressed them with the following words:
“I’ll go fight the Bolsheviks, and if my ‘comrades’ kill me or hang me, I’ll know why; but why will they hang you up when they come?” But most of the listeners remained deaf to this call: of those present, about 800 officers signed up immediately... 27. V.M. Chernetsov was indignant: “I would bend all of you into a ram’s horn, and the first thing I would do is deprive you of your salary. Shame!” This passionate speech found a response - another 115 people signed up. However, the next day, only 30 people went to the front to the Likhaya station, the rest “scattered.” The small partisan detachment of V.M. Chernetsov consisted mainly of students of secondary educational institutions: cadets, high school students, realists and seminarians. On November 30, 1917, the Chernetsov detachment left Novocherkassk in a northern direction.
For a month and a half, Chernetsov’s partisans have been operating in the Voronezh direction, while at the same time devoting forces to maintaining order within the Don region.
Even then, his partisans, who adored their commander, began to write poems and legends about him.
“At the Debaltsevo station, on the way to Makeevka, the locomotive and five cars of the Chernetsov detachment were detained by the Bolsheviks. Esaul Chernetsov, leaving the carriage, met face to face with a member of the military revolutionary committee. A soldier's overcoat, a lambskin cap, a rifle behind his back - bayonet down.
“Esaul Chernetsov?”
Best of the day
“Yes, and who are you?”
“I am a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I ask you not to point at me.”
"Soldier?"
“Hands at your sides! Be quiet when you talk to the captain!”
The member of the Military Revolutionary Committee stretched out his arms at his sides and looked at the captain in fear. His two companions - dejected gray figures - stretched back, away from the captain...
“Did you delay my train?”
“I obey!”
Not a quarter of an hour later, but five minutes later, the train left the station.”
Speaking about the composition of V.M. Chernetsov’s detachment, a participant in those events noted: “... I will not be mistaken in identifying three common features in Chernetsov’s young comrades: an absolute absence of politics, a great thirst for achievement and a very developed consciousness that they, just yesterday, were sitting on the school bench , today stood up to defend their suddenly helpless older brothers, fathers and teachers. And how many tears, requests and threats the partisans had to overcome in their families before setting out on the path of heroism that attracted them under the windows of their home!”
And yet these were children and young men, students, the vast majority of them unfamiliar with military craft and not drawn into the difficult “camp” life. In practice, it was a sharp transition from the pages of Main-Read into real cold, dirt and under enemy bullets. In many ways, it was youthful enthusiasm and lack of understanding of danger that contributed to the recklessness of the Chernetsov partisans, although when the inevitable elements of “real” and “adult” military service sometimes led to comical stories.
One of the Chernetsov partisans, who was then 16 years old, recalls:
“...My group of 24 people was sent to the suburb of Novocherkassk - Khotunok. We were placed in barracks, from where Bolshevik-minded soldiers (272nd and 273rd reserve infantry regiments - A.M.) had been sent “home” the day before. The night turned out to be very dark, and there was no lighting in the barracks area. My friend and I were assigned as sentries to guard the sleep of our soldiers.
Around midnight, a suspicious noise attracted our attention. It then died down, then rang out again. We could hear the heavy breathing of the hidden enemy; his fuss was already very close to the barracks. Our nerves could not stand it, and for courage we shot. Our fighting friends jumped out of the barracks with rifles, ready to immediately take up defensive positions. "What's happened?" - they asked us. After our explanation, the search for the “enemy” began. And then the light of numerous flashlights illuminated a cow peacefully grazing not far from the barracks.”
The detachment had a variable, “floating” number and structure. On his last campaign from Novocherkassk, V.M. Chernetsov set out with “his” artillery: on January 12, 1918, from the Volunteer Army he was given an artillery platoon (two guns), a machine gun team and a reconnaissance team of the Junker battery, under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel D .T.Mionchinsky. On January 15, 1918, V.M. Chernetsov moved north. His detachment occupies Zverevo station, then Likhaya. According to received information, the Reds are capturing Zverevo, cutting off the detachment from Novocherkassk; fortunately, it was only a raid and the Reds did not linger there. Having transferred the defense of Zverevo to an officer company, V.M. Chernetsov concentrated his detachment for the defense of Likhaya, which was an important railway junction at the crossing of two lines: Millerovo - Novocherkassk and Tsaritsyn - Pervozvanovka. By this time, there were 3 hundreds in the detachment of the 27-year-old captain: the first - under the command of Lieutenant Vasily Kurochkin, the second - captain Brylkin (was in the department, guarding the Zverevo - Novocherkassk line and the third - headquarters captain Inozemtsev. Capable only of advancing V.M. Chernetsov decides to capture the station and the village of Kamenskaya, which follows the route north from Likhaya. At the Severo-Donetsk junction, the Chernetsovites met with the enemy. The fighting still alternates with negotiations and the envoys from the red side propose to disperse. An unpleasant surprise here was that against the partisans along with The Cossacks also act as Red Guards, however, the villagers who formed the left flank of the enemy said that they would not shoot. Chernetsov, who personally arrived at the place of negotiations, ordered to open fire. There was no particular bitterness: when the partisans approached 800 steps, the Reds began to retreat, the Cossacks actually did not participate in the battle , and the 12th Don Cossack battery, although it fired at the partisans, but the shrapnel was specially placed at a high gap and caused practically no harm.
In the morning, the Chernetsovites occupied Kamenskaya, abandoned by the Reds, without a fight. The Cossack population greeted them very friendly, the youth enrolled in the detachment (the 4th hundred were formed from the students of the village of Kamenskaya), the officers who were in the village formed a squad, and a nutrition center was set up by a women's circle at the station.
Three hours later, the partisans rushed back with two guns: the officer company was knocked out from Likha, the path to Novocherkassk was cut off, the enemy was in the rear. Instead of going to Glubaya, we had to turn back again. The battle was successful: a carriage with shells and 12 machine guns were captured, the enemy lost more than a hundred people only killed. But the losses of the partisans were also great; Chernetsov’s “right hand”, Lieutenant Kurochkin, was wounded.
On January 20, from the village of Kamenskaya, where the partisans returned, the last campaign of Colonel Chernetsov began (for the capture of Likhaya he was promoted “through the rank” of Ataman A.M. Kaledin). According to the plan, V.M. Chernetsov with a hundred of his partisans, an officer platoon and one gun was supposed to bypass Glubokaya, and two hundred with the remaining gun of Staff Captain Shperling under the general command of Roman Lazarev were supposed to strike head-on. A simultaneous attack from the front and rear was planned, and the bypass column was supposed to dismantle the railway track, thus cutting off the escape route.
The young commander overestimated the strength of himself and his partisans: instead of reaching the attack site at noon, the partisans, lost in the steppe, reached the attack line only in the evening. The first experience of detachment from the railway was lumpy. However, Chernetsov, not accustomed to stopping, decided, without waiting for the morning, to attack immediately. “The partisans, as always, were on the rise,” recalled one of the Chernetsovites, “they reached a bayonet strike, broke into the station, but there were few of them - from the south, from Kamenskaya, no one supported them, the attack floundered; all three machine guns jammed, a reaction set in - the partisans became yesterday’s children.” The gun also failed. In the darkness, about 60 partisans out of one and a half hundred who attacked Glubokaya gathered around V.M. Chernetsov.
After spending the night on the outskirts of the village and fixing the gun, the Chernetsovites, hungry and almost out of ammunition, began to retreat to Kamenskaya. Here Vasily Mikhailovich made a fatal mistake: wanting to try out the corrected gun, he ordered several shots fired at the outskirts of Glubokaya, where the Red Guards were gathering. Lieutenant Colonel Mionchinsky, who commanded the artillerymen, warned that by doing so he would declassify the presence of the partisans and it would be difficult to escape from the Cossack cavalry. But... the shells landed well and, to the joyful cries of the partisans, the gun fired a dozen more shells, after which the detachment moved back.
After some time, the retreat route was cut off by a mass of cavalry. These were the Cossacks of the military foreman Golubov. Chernetsov decided to take the fight. Three dozen partisans with one gun took the fight against five hundred cavalry; the guns of the former Life Guards of the 6th Don Cossack Battery opened fire. The battery firing without officers showed excellent guards training.
In his last, dying call on January 28, 1918, Ataman A.M. Kaledin noted: “... our Cossack regiments located in the Donetsk district (10th, 27th, 44th Don Cossacks and L. Guards 6- I Don Cossack Battery - A.M.), rebelled and, in alliance with the Red Guard bands and soldiers who had invaded the Donetsk district, attacked the detachment of Colonel Chernetsov, directed against the Red Guards, and destroyed part of it, after which most of the regiments participating in this vile and vile deed - they scattered among the villages, abandoning their artillery and plundering the regimental sums of money, horses and property.”
The Chernetsovites damaged the weapon, which had turned into a heavy burden, and threw it into a ravine; its commander, his riders and some of the troops who mounted on Chernetsov’s orders rode on horseback to Kamenskaya.
The partisans and artillery cadets gathered around Colonel V.M. Chernetsov repelled the attacks of the Cossack cavalry with volleys. “Colonel Chernetsov loudly congratulated everyone on their promotion to ensign. The answer was a few but loud “Hurray!” But the Cossacks, having recovered, not abandoning the thought of crushing us and dealing with the partisans for their impudence, launched a second attack. The same thing happened again. Colonel Chernetsov again congratulated us on our production, but as second lieutenants. “Hurray!” followed again.
The Cossacks went for the third time, apparently deciding to complete the attack, Colonel Chernetsov let the attackers come so close that it seemed that it was too late to shoot and that the moment had been lost, when at that moment a loud and clear “Fire!” was heard. A friendly volley rang out, then another, a third, and the Cossacks, unable to bear it, turned back in confusion, leaving behind the wounded and dead. Colonel Chernetsov congratulated everyone on their promotion to lieutenant, and “Hurray!” rang out again! and the partisans, to whom many of the stragglers had managed to approach, began to cross to the other side of the ravine to retreat further.”
And at that moment V.M. Chernetsov was wounded in the leg. Unable to save their beloved leader, the young partisans decided to die with him and lay down in a circle with a radius of 20-30 steps, with the wounded V.M. Chernetsov in the center. Then came a proposal... for a truce. The partisans laid down their arms, the leading Cossacks too, but the masses that surged behind them quickly turned the Chernetsovites from “brothers” into prisoners. Calls were heard: “Beat them, machine gun them all…” The partisans were stripped and driven in their underwear towards Glubokaya.
Former military foreman Nikolai Golubov, who aimed to become the Don atamans, the head of the revolutionary Cossack force, wanted to appear before the defeated enemy in the best light, “so that Chernetsov and we would see not unbridledness, but combat units. He turned back and loudly shouted: “Regiment commanders - come to me!” Two police officers, whipping the horses, and the partisans along the way, flew forward. Golubov strictly ordered them: “Go in a column of six. People should not dare leave the line. The commanders of hundreds should go to their places!”
News arrived that the Chernetsovites from Kamenskaya were continuing their offensive. Threatening all prisoners with death, Golubov forced Chernetsov to write an order to stop the offensive. And he turned his regiments towards the attackers, leaving a small convoy with the prisoners.
Taking advantage of the moment (the approach of three horsemen), Chernetsov hit the chairman of the Donrevkom Podtelkov in the chest and shouted: “Hurray! These are ours! With a shout of “Hurray! General Chernetsov! The partisans scattered, the confused convoy gave some the opportunity to escape.
The wounded Chernetsov rode off to his native village, where he was betrayed by one of his fellow villagers and captured the next day by Podtelkov.
“On the way, Podtelkov mocked Chernetsov - Chernetsov was silent. When Podtelkov hit him with a whip, Chernetsov grabbed a small Browning gun from the inner pocket of his sheepskin coat and pointedly... clicked at Podtelkov, there was no cartridge in the barrel of the pistol - Chernetsov forgot about it, without feeding the cartridge from the clip. Podtelkov grabbed his saber, slashed him in the face, and five minutes later the Cossacks rode on, leaving Chernetsov’s chopped-up corpse in the steppe.
Golubov allegedly, having learned about Chernetsov’s death, attacked Podtelkov with curses and even began to cry...”
And the remnants of the Chernetsov detachment left on February 9, 1918 with the Volunteer Army for the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign, joining the ranks of the Partisan Regiment.