Alexander Kolchak role in the civil war. The role of Kolchak in the civil war

A few days before November 16, the day of the 142nd anniversary of Alexander Kolchak, a memorial plaque in his honor was opened on one of the houses on Bolshaya Zelenina Street in St. Petersburg. The board was installed on the building where the famous polar explorer and naval commander lived in 1906-1912. Literally a day after the opening, unknown people painted over the inscription with black paint. On Tuesday the board was washed. On Thursday, November 17, a preliminary hearing of the Smolninsky District Court against the installation of a memorial plaque is scheduled.

Until now, passions boil around this difficult historical figure. This is not surprising, given that in Soviet times, the personality of Kolchak was surrounded by a number of fictions, and many facts from his biography remained unknown to the general public.

Almost unknown scientist

The works of Kolchak as a scientist and polar explorer in the Soviet era were in every possible way belittled and hushed up.

Meanwhile, Alexander Vasilyevich was an outstanding oceanographer, hydrologist and geographer. He began to monitor the state of the oceans and seas while serving on warships as a young officer.

Kolchak's main scientific interest was the study of the Northern Sea Route, which was of strategic interest to Russia - it was the shortest route from the European part of the country to the Far East.

Kolchak took part in several expeditions, including together with the famous polar explorer Eduard Toll. He spoke of his young colleague as follows: "scientific work was carried out by him with great energy, despite the difficulties of combining the duties of a naval officer with the activities of a scientist." He named one of the open islands and a cape in the Taimyr Bay after Kolchak.

When Toll disappeared in 1902, Kolchak organized an expedition, and in the most difficult conditions Far North undertook many months of searching for his comrade, unfortunately, to no avail. At the same time, he described unknown lands, clarified the outlines of the coasts and clarified the nature of ice formation.

With scientific point The view of the raid was lauded as a geographical feat. In 1906, the Russian Geographical Society awarded Kolchak the Konstantinovsky medal. He became the first Russian to receive this honorary award. The materials of his polar expeditions were so extensive that a special commission of the Academy of Sciences worked on them until 1919. With his work, in particular, the book "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas", Kolchak laid the foundations for the doctrine of sea ice.

The fruits of his labors were used already in Soviet times, during the development of the Northern Sea Route, without mentioning, of course, the author of scientific developments.

Russo-Japanese War

A little the general reader knows about combat way Kolchak at the beginning of the 20th century. It was not customary to talk about him.
A naval officer learned about the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 during a polar expedition. He asked to be transferred from the Academy of Sciences to the fleet, expressing an ardent desire to go to Port Arthur, where the main naval events of the beginning of the war unfolded.

Kolchak commanded the destroyer "Angry", fired at the enemy, laid mines. On the night of December 13, 1904, on the mines set by him, he blew up and sank japanese cruiser Takasago, with which 280 enemy sailors died. It was a serious victory for the Russian fleet.

After the events around Port Arthur moved to the land front, Kolchak decommissioned to the shore, where he took command of batteries of various-caliber guns and, until the surrender of the fortress in January 1905 (according to the new style), was in battle, repulsing the attacks of the Japanese infantry. His merits were marked by numerous awards, including the St. George weapon with the inscription "For Courage".

Crushing the Germans at sea and on land

Before World War I, Kolchak initiated the creation of the Naval general staff, heading a commission in it to study the reasons that led the Russian fleet to defeat in the Tsushima battle of 1905, was an expert on the Duma defense commission, spoke with a number of scientific works, which have become theoretical justification modernization of military shipbuilding.

He met the year 1914 as a captain of the 1st rank in the position of chief of the operational department of the headquarters of the commander of the Baltic Fleet. Under his leadership, an operation was developed and carried out to block the German coast. This cost the German High Seas Fleet the cruisers Friedrich Karl, Augsburg and Gazelle.

In the summer of 1915, Germany launched an active offensive on the Russian front. The actions of the army were supported by the German fleet, which tried to break into the Gulf of Riga. Having lost several destroyers on the minefields set up earlier by the destroyers of Kolchak, the Germans were forced to abandon their aggressive plans. This led to the disruption of the offensive of the German infantry divisions on Riga.

Having become the head of the Mine Division, Kolchak began to resort to more active actions. In the autumn of 1915, under his personal leadership, a landing was carried out on five warships in the German rear. The Germans were forced to seriously strengthen coastline with the help of troops from the front, fearing uninvited guests from the east.

Kolchak's ships also provided serious assistance to their ground units. In the autumn of the same year, destroyers led by Kolchak, at the request of the army command, rescued Russian units cut off by the Germans from their troops at Cape Ragots in the Gulf of Riga. The fire of the Russian ships was so deadly that within an hour the German positions were defeated and the city of Kemmern (now Kemeri) was taken by our soldiers.

The losses of the Germans in the Baltic by the end of 1915 were many times higher than the Russian ones, which was a considerable merit of Kolchak.

The threat of the Turkish fleet

In April 1916, he was promoted to rear admiral, in June he became vice admiral and was appointed commander Black Sea Fleet. There, the energetic Kolchak quickly drove the Turkish fleet into the ports. The commander applied the same method as in the Baltic, mining the coast of Turkey, and thereby almost stopped the active actions of the enemy until 1917.

A daring plan was developed for the Bosphorus operation, during which in September 1916, fleet and army were to capture Constantinople with swift strikes from the sea and from land. Most likely, the city would have fallen, but the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Mikhail Alekseev, actively defended his version, which required 10 infantry divisions and three months of training. As a result, the operation was postponed until the spring of 1917, and then everyone was not up to it.

When the February Revolution broke out, Kolchak became one of the few generals and admirals who remained faithful to the oath to the end and did not support the abdication of Nicholas II. He sent a telegram to the Provisional Government with the following remark: "The command and the population asked me to send a greeting on behalf of the Black Sea Fleet to the new government, which I did."

Friend or foe of the Entente?

Kolchak is often accused of participating in civil war as a puppet of the Entente. In those years, the caustic song "English uniform, / French epaulette, / Japanese tobacco, / Omsk ruler" was popular in the Red Army.

But is it?

Brusilovsky breakthrough: how Russia saved the allies in the EntenteOleg Nazarov, a member of the Zinoviev Club of the MIA "Russia Today", recalls the history of the famous battle - Brusilov breakthrough Russian army - which largely determined the results of the First World War.

The November 1918 coup in Omsk, in which the "All-Russian" Council of Ministers dissolved the left-socialist Directory and elected Alexander Kolchak as the Supreme Ruler of Russia by secret ballot, assigning him the rank of full admiral, took the English establishment by surprise. They regarded what happened as a real catastrophe, which could interfere with the plans of Great Britain in Russia.

The French general Maurice Janin, appointed commander of the Entente forces in Russia (that is, the Czechoslovaks), did everything to prevent Kolchak and his troops. In December 1919, he supported an uprising against the white government in Irkutsk, and then ordered the extradition of the admiral to the Irkutsk military revolutionary committee, which shot Kolchak. The fate of France then hung in the balance, but with the help of Russian troops, the French managed to stop the German offensive. Sergei Varshavchik recalls the details of the Battle of Verdun.

The Entente was especially annoyed by the fact that Kolchak was not going to give them most of the gold reserves seized from the Bolsheviks. tsarist empire. Gold was spent by him carefully and prudently, and income from deposits in foreign banks returned to Russia.

Subsequently, the Czechoslovaks took gold from Kolchak, transferring over 400 million gold rubles to the Bolsheviks in exchange for guarantees of their unhindered exit from the country.

A look at terror

The main accusation brought against Kolchak by his opponents is that in the territory under his control there was terror against civilian population. Based on this, on January 26, 1999, the military court of the Trans-Baikal Military District recognized the admiral as not subject to rehabilitation.

However, in 2000, the Constitutional Court of Russia ruled that the court of the Trans-Baikal District had no right to issue its verdict in the absence of Kolchak's defenders, and, therefore, the case should be considered again.

It is curious that the Bolsheviks themselves, under whom mass terror became a system of state administration, they were sympathetic to the actions of the administration of the Supreme Ruler. In particular, Vladimir Lenin wrote: "It is rather unwise to blame Kolchak for having raped the workers. This is a vulgar defense of democracy, these are Kolchak's stupid accusations. Kolchak acts in the ways that he finds."

When a country has commemorative signs not only in red, but also in white, this means that the civil war is over.

On November 18, 1918, in Omsk, a group of Cossacks arrested the Socialist-Revolutionary ministers of the All-Russian Provisional Government, which a few months ago raised an uprising against Soviet power. After that, Vice Admiral Alexander Kolchak, the former military and naval minister of this government, was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Kolchak's power extended over vast territories, many times larger than in the European part of Russia, where the Bolsheviks had power. However, these vast expanses were sparsely populated, and their industry and infrastructure were not as developed as in the western and central regions.

For more than a year, Kolchak remained the Supreme Ruler, recognized in this role by most leaders. white movement. However, the unsuccessful outcome of the military confrontation with the Bolsheviks, intrigues and disorder in the rear sealed the fate of Kolchak. Nevertheless, he forever went down in history as one of the most significant political and military figures of the Civil War period. What was Admiral Kolchak, whose personality, even a hundred years after his death, arouses admiration from some and indignation from others.

polar explorer

It is unlikely that anyone could have imagined that the young watch officer Alexander Kolchak, who had barely entered the service, would become a famous polar explorer in a few years. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries between the leading world powers, the race for the Northern and South Pole. All countries equipped their expeditions both for the purpose of glory (to be the first to reach the Pole) and for scientific purposes. Young Kolchak became seriously interested in hydrology and, of course, dreamed of being on one of the polar expeditions.

Having learned about the campaign of the icebreaker "Ermak" in the Arctic Ocean, he immediately applied with a report about his enrollment in the team. However, Kolchak was late: the team was already completed and he did not get a place.

Nevertheless, he managed to get acquainted with Baron Toll, who was planning an expedition to the Northern sea route in search of the legendary Sannikov Land. This land was popularized by a merchant named Sannikov a hundred years before. The merchant knew the northern regions well, saw the mountains in the north, and was convinced that there was land uncovered with snow with a normal climate. Some circumstantial facts spoke in favor of Sannikov's statements: northern birds flew even further north every spring, and returned in autumn. It made me think, because birds cannot live in permafrost and if they fly north to breed, then there is land suitable for this.

Baron Toll was sincerely convinced of the existence of this land and he managed to organize an expedition. Kolchak enlisted in the group as a specialist in hydrology and was engaged in research in this direction on the expedition.

The expedition lasted two years. The researchers made a thorough map of the northern coasts of Russia, explored Taimyr and Bennett Island, discovered several small islands, one of which was named after Kolchak, but the main problem was not solved - Sannikov's land was not found. In addition, the leader of the expedition, Baron Toll, along with several companions, died. They went to Bennett Island, and the schooner Zarya, on which Kolchak also remained, had to wait for them until a certain moment. Toll issued strict instructions to the sailors: to leave the parking lot when the coal was running out, even if Toll himself did not return by that time.

As a result, the schooner left without waiting for Toll. All attempts by sailors to approach Bennett Island ended in failure due to too strong ice; it was also not possible to walk to the island on foot.

Nevertheless, after returning home, Kolchak immediately organized a search expedition, for which he even postponed his own wedding. The expedition, which he became the leader of, was incredibly risky, since it was supposed to get to the island in boats. Everyone considered this expedition madness, doomed to death. Incredibly, they managed to complete it without loss. Once Kolchak himself fell into ice water, but Begichev pulled him out already in an unconscious state. After this incident, Kolchak suffered from rheumatism until the end of his life.

The expedition discovered Toll's diaries and notes, their campsites, but the group itself, despite intensive searches, could not be found. Kolchak returned home as a celebrity, the Russian Geographical Society awarded him with its highest award - the Konstantinovsky medal.

Almost a decade later, Kolchak again went north. He was the developer of the hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean. Kolchak himself commanded one of the icebreaking ships involved in the expedition.

This expedition made one of the last significant geographical discoveries in history, having discovered the Land of Nicholas II (now Severnaya Zemlya). True, Kolchak himself had already been recalled to the Naval General Staff by the time of the opening.

Military service

First of all, Kolchak was a military man, and polar exploration was more of a hobby. In the Navy, he was considered a mine specialist. Participated in Russo-Japanese War engaged in mining waters. On the mines he set, one of the Japanese cruisers was blown up.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Kolchak served in the headquarters, but then transferred to the mine division, which he led. Developed mining operations. Serious battles in the Baltic Sea during the war were rare. In 1916 Kolchak was in for a pleasant surprise. First, he is promoted to rear admiral, and then a few months later to vice admiral and is appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

This appointment came as a surprise to everyone, including Kolchak. With all his undoubted talents, he had not yet had the opportunity to command even a battleship, not to mention such large formations.

As commander of the fleet, Kolchak was to carry out an incredibly daring operation to capture Constantinople by landing amphibious assault. The war with the Turks was developing successfully, the Russian troops were advancing from the Caucasus in a westerly direction and had great successes, especially by the standards of positional warfare in the west.

The plan was to create a special Black Sea Naval Division, into which St. George Knights and other experienced soldiers who distinguished themselves on the battlefield. This division, on the special training of which huge efforts were spent, was supposed to land on the coast and create a bridgehead for the subsequent landing of troops. After that, it was planned to capture Constantinople with one blow and withdraw the Ottoman Empire from the war.

This daring and ambitious operation was supposed to begin in the spring of 1917, but the February Revolution that took place a little earlier thwarted the plans and the operation was never implemented.

Political views

Like the vast majority of pre-revolutionary officers, Kolchak did not have a well-formed political views. The pre-revolutionary army, unlike the Soviet one, was not subjected to massive political indoctrination, and politicized officers who had clear views could be counted on the fingers of one hand. More or less, you can find out Kolchak's political position from interrogations on the eve of the execution: under the monarchy, he was a monarchist, under the republic - a republican. There was no political program that would have evoked sympathy from him. And those officers did not think in such categories.

Kolchak supported the February coup, although he was not an active participant in it. He retained his position as commander of the fleet, but in a matter of months after the revolution, the army and navy began to disintegrate, Kolchak found it increasingly difficult to keep his sailors in obedience, and in the end in the summer of 1917 he left the fleet.

By that time, the centrists and the right had already begun to prepare public thought for the need for a strong military power in order to save the country. The press wrote about this especially often in the summer of 1917, when the Provisional Government moved significantly to the left, and chaos and disorder in the country only intensified. Kolchak was one of two candidates "from the public" for the role of dictator, along with the commander-in-chief of the army, Lavr Kornilov. Kolchak was famous, had an unblemished reputation, but that was where all his virtues ended, since, unlike Kornilov, he did not have military power. All his popularity was limited to the fact that the Cadets nominated him as their candidate in the future elections to the Constituent Assembly.

Nevertheless, Kerensky, who feared a military coup, under a far-fetched pretext, sent Kolchak to the United States for several months. In the fall, Kolchak went home, but while he was returning, a new revolution took place in Russia. Serve the Bolsheviks, who were going to conclude a "obscene" (according to their own own definition) peace with the Germans, Kolchak did not want to and wrote a request for enrollment in the British fleet to continue the war.

Rise to power

However, while he was getting to his place of duty (in Mesopotamia), circumstances changed. In Russia, anti-Bolshevik movements began to emerge in the south and east, and the British strongly recommended Kolchak not to go to the front, but to Manchuria. There was a large Russian colony serving the strategically important CER, and besides, there was no Bolshevik power, which could make it one of the centers for uniting anti-Bolshevik forces. Kolchak, who had a good reputation, was to become one of the centers of attraction for the opponents of the Reds. After the death of Generals Alekseev and Kornilov, Kolchak became the main candidate for military dictators and saviors of Russia.

While Kolchak was in Asia, in the Volga region and Siberia there were anti-Soviet uprisings. In the Volga region - by the forces of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. The Czechoslovak legion revolted in Siberia. White governments appeared here and there, however, they can rather be called pink, since the main driving force both the Volga Komuch and the Siberian Provisional Government played the Socialist-Revolutionaries, who in their views were leftist, but slightly more moderate than the Bolsheviks.

In September 1918, both governments merged into the Directory, which became the unification of all anti-Bolshevik forces: from the left Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries to the right-wing Cadets and almost monarchists. However, a coalition with such a complex composition experienced understandable problems: the left did not trust the right, the right did not trust the left. In this situation, Kolchak arrived in Omsk, where the capital of the Directory was located, and became the military and naval minister of the government.

After a series of military setbacks, the coalition finally disintegrated and turned to open hostility. The leftists made an attempt to create their own armed detachments, which the rightists assessed as an attempted coup. On the night of November 18, 1918, a group of Cossacks arrested all the left ministers of the Directory. According to the results of a secret ballot of the remaining ministers, a new position was established - the Supreme Ruler of Russia, which was transferred to Kolchak, who on this occasion was promoted from vice admirals to admirals.

Supreme ruler

At first, Kolchak was successful. The establishment of a sole government instead of a coalition torn apart by contradictions had a favorable effect on the situation in Siberia. The army was strengthened and became more organized. Some economic measures were taken to stabilize the economic situation (in particular, the introduction of living wages in Siberia). The pre-revolutionary awards and charters were restored in the army.

The spring offensive of Kolchak made it possible to occupy vast territories, the Russian army of Kolchak stopped on the outskirts of Kazan. Kolchak's successes inspired the rest of the white commanders operating in other regions. A significant part of them swore allegiance to Kolchak and recognized him as the Supreme Ruler.

In the hands of the admiral was a gold reserve, which was spent only on the purchase of uniforms and weapons for the army. The help of foreign allies to Kolchak is in fact extremely exaggerated by the military propaganda of the Bolsheviks. In fact, he really did not receive any help, with the exception of the occasional supply of weapons for gold. The Allies did not even recognize the state of Kolchak, the only country that did this was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Moreover, relations with the allies were extremely strained, and at times openly hostile. So, the head of the French military mission, Janin, frankly despised both the Russians in general and Kolchak in particular, which he frankly told in his memoirs. Janen saw his main task as helping the Czechoslovaks, who, in his opinion, should have left Russia as soon as possible.

Slightly better was the attitude of the British, who, however, vigilantly followed those who are stronger in order to focus on him. At the turn of 1918-1919, Kolchak looked like a promising figure, but by the middle of 1919 it became obvious that the Bolsheviks were winning and any, even purely nominal, support for the Whites had ceased, and the British government refocused on establishing trade relations with the Reds.

Defeat

The initial successes of Kolchak were due to the fact that the main front at the time of his offensive was the southern one, where the Bolsheviks fought with Denikin. However, Kolchak's performance created a threat for them also from the east. In early 1919, they significantly strengthened the eastern front, achieving a significant numerical superiority. Kolchak initially controlled vast, but sparsely populated territories with poorly developed transport communications. Even taking into account the mobilizations, with all his desire, he could not recruit an army that was at least twice as numerically inferior to the Bolsheviks, who controlled the most densely populated regions of the country. In addition, transport communications were much better developed in the European part of Russia, which allowed the Bolsheviks to easily and quickly transfer huge reserves to strengthen one or another front.

one more an important factor, who contributed to the final defeat of Kolchak, were the Czechs. At the end of 1918, the First World War, Czechoslovakia gained independence from Austria-Hungary and the Czechoslovak Legion, which was a very significant militarily force, hurried home. The Czechs did not want to think about anything else but returning home. Numerous echelons of fleeing Czechs completely paralyzed the main transport artery of Siberia - the Trans-Siberian Railway and brought chaos and disorganization to the rear of Kolchak's army, which began strategic retreat after the advance of the vastly superior Red forces.

In fact, the Czechs simply broke Kolchak's entire organization. His relations with the Czechs were not ideal before, but now it has come to open hostility. Small skirmishes between whites and Czechs began, the parties threatened each other with arrests, etc. The British withdrew, handing over all the affairs of the French mission under the command of Janin, who became the commander of all allied forces in Russia. The main task he considered all-round support for the "noble Czechs" in flight from Russia (in any case, this is how he explained his actions in his memoirs).

In the end, it came to a revolution. Kolchak, to whom his own business of fighting the Bolsheviks was much more important than the dreams of the Czechs to get home as soon as possible, tried by command methods to somehow resist the transport collapse created by the Czechs. They, in agreement with Janin, made a quiet coup in one day, putting the admiral under escort and taking possession of the gold reserves.

The Czechs and the French mission made an alliance with the Bolsheviks. In Irkutsk, it was supposed to transfer Kolchak to the Political Center (SR organization), after which no one would have prevented the Czechs from quietly leaving Russia along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In January 1920, Kolchak was transferred to the Political Center in Irkutsk. At that time, not far from the city, there was a detachment of Skipetrov, who planned to attack Irkutsk and suppress the uprising of the Political Center, but the Czechs by that time had already gone over to the side of the Reds, the detachment of Skipetrov was disarmed and taken prisoner. In addition, Zhanen announced that anyone who tried to suppress the uprising of the Political Center and capture Irkutsk would have to deal with the allies.

The admiral was interrogated for several days, after which he was shot without trial, by order of the military revolutionary committee.

Who was Kolchak?

The military propaganda of the Bolsheviks painted Kolchak as a puppet of the allies, but this, of course, was not so. If he were a puppet, his fate would have been much better. He would have been calmly taken out with the Czechs, they would have allocated a house in Cornwall, where he would write memoirs about the dashing past. However, Kolchak tried to insist on his rights, allowed himself to yell at his allies, argue with them, and was generally extremely intractable (which is why his government never received official international recognition). He considered the intervention deeply offensive: “It offended me. I could not treat it kindly. The very purpose and nature of the intervention was deeply offensive: it was not Russia’s help, this made everything deeply offensive and deeply painful for the Russians.

Was Kolchak a bloody dictator? Undoubtedly, he was a dictator and never denied it. His reign is the only case in Russian history of the establishment of a military dictatorship.

Was Kolchak bloody? There is no doubt that repressions against the Bolsheviks were carried out under him (though most often they ended in arrests), but it is also certain that he is by no means the most bloody figure in the Civil War. Both the Reds and the Whites had figures much more cruel and bloody. By the way, Kolchak himself in everyday life was generally a rather impressionable and even sentimental person. Perhaps that is why in perestroika times, Kolchak was even credited with the authorship of the famous romance "Burn, burn, my star", but this is nothing more than a popular myth. The song was written before the birth of the admiral.

It should also be taken into account that in Siberia at that time there were detachments of all kinds of autonomous and not subordinate to anyone Batek-atamans of the Kalmykov type. They robbed whomever they wanted, they were their own power, they obeyed only the chieftains, and they, in turn, wanted to spit on Kolchak and his orders. Despite the fact that most often they acted on their own, they formally belonged to the whites, as they fought against the reds, and all their atrocities in the framework of the propaganda war were recorded on all the whites in general and Kolchak in particular.

As for the "whipping of Siberia", this is nothing more than military propaganda from the time of the Civil War. At the interrogation before the execution, he was asked only about one such incident (probably, the other interrogators were not aware of) - about flogging during the suppression of the uprising in the village of Kulomzino. However, Kolchak stubbornly denied that he had ever given such orders, since he is a staunch opponent. corporal punishment. The admiral had no particular reason to lie on the eve of his death, which in the preface to the published protocols of interrogation was also reported by the members of the military revolutionary committee who interrogated him, who agreed that Kolchak's testimony was true. If something like this happened, then most likely it was the result of arbitrariness on the ground, which was almost impossible to avoid in such a war.

Kolchak was a typical product of his time, that is, the Civil War. And all the claims that can be made against him can be addressed in the same way to all other participants in this war, and this will be fair.

Kolchak persecuted his political opponents? But all the other forces were doing the same: from green to red. Kolchak collaborated with foreigners? But everyone else did the same. Lenin arrived in a sealed carriage with the assistance of the German government and calmly answered all questions that he did not know why the Germans helped him and he was not even interested in it, he was only interested in his political program. Kolchak, purely theoretically, could well answer in much the same way.

White Czechs fought on the side of Kolchak? It's true. But even the Bolsheviks in the Red Army had about 200 thousand Germans, Hungarians and Austrians who were captured during the First World War and released from prisoner of war camps in exchange for agreeing to fight in the Red Army.

Kolchak did not have a well-thought-out political and economic program? But no one had it, not even the Bolsheviks. Lenin, a few days before the revolution, remembered that the party "instead of an economic program - an empty place," and, having taken power, the Bolsheviks had to improvise on the go.

Kolchak lost his main war and accepted defeat with dignity. The members of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee who interrogated him even imbued the admiral with some respect, which was reported in the preface to the published interrogation materials. Kolchak was not a monster, but he was not a saint either. You can’t call him a genius, but you can’t call him mediocrity or mediocrity either. He did not strive for power, but he was able to easily get it, but he did not have enough political experience and political arrogance so as not to lose it.

On October 9, the film "Admiral" is released on Russian cinema screens. The picture tells about the last years of the life of one of the most striking figures in the history of the early twentieth century - the legendary Admiral Alexander Kolchak.

The disgraced White Guard admiral, who devoted his whole life to serving the fatherland, could in fact become the pride of Russia, but the revolution made him forget his name for almost a century.

"Don't spread any news about Kolchak, don't publish absolutely nothing..." Lenin wrote on the eve of the execution of the admiral. His order was carried out throughout almost the entire twentieth century - the country forgot about the outstanding naval commander of the First World War, about the polar explorer, who determined the science of the sea for almost half a century.

The name of Alexander Kolchak was rehabilitated relatively recently. Biographers and documentarians again became interested in his personality. However, it was necessary to collect information about the commander of the Black Sea Fleet literally bit by bit: from a few archival documents, transcripts of interrogation and letters, of which several dozen in the period 1916-1920 were sent to Anna Timireva, who became the common-law wife of Alexander Kolchak in 1918.

Before the revolution

Kolchak grew up in a military family, his father was a naval artillery officer. At the age of fourteen he entered the naval cadet corps, where he immediately attracted attention. “Kolchak, a young man of short stature with a concentrated look of lively and expressive eyes ... with the seriousness of his thoughts and actions inspired us boys with deep respect for himself,” his corps comrade said. When in 1894 Kolchak was awarded the first prize, he refused it in favor of his comrade, whom he considered more capable than himself.

After graduating, Alexander Vasilievich spent four years on the ships of the Pacific Fleet. Eduard Toll, a well-known geographer and geologist, spotted him at a parking lot in the Greek Piraeus. He enrolled Kolchak in the upcoming expedition to search for the legendary Sannikov Land. In May 1901, during the wintering of the Zarya schooner, Tol and Kolchak completed a 500-kilometer dog sled route in 41 days. The restrained Tol then called Kolchak "the best officer of the expedition", and one of the islands discovered in the Taimyr Bay of the Kara Sea was named after Kolchak. Later, in Soviet times, this island was renamed.

After a two-year expedition on the wooden whaler "Zarya", two winterings in the ice, returning and a new journey in the footsteps of the missing Baron Tolya, Kolchak will go to the Russo-Japanese War.

In Port Arthur, he commanded a destroyer, wounded and seriously ill, was taken prisoner by the Japanese. And at the end of April 1905, together with a group of officers through America, he went to Russia.

Since then, Kolchak has done a lot to restore the fleet, working in Maritime Academy and the Naval General Staff. At the same time, he published works based on the results of polar expeditions, in which he foresaw a global picture of ice drift in the Northern Arctic Ocean. Half a century later, his hypothesis was confirmed by the trajectories of Soviet and American drifting stations. A century later, Kolchak's Arctic research will acquire particular relevance due to the fact that an active struggle for the territories of the Arctic Ocean will be waged on the international arena.

When the World War began, Kolchak proved himself to be an outstanding mine specialist. It was his system of minefields that helped to reliably protect naval bases and warships. With the direct participation of Alexander Kolchak, enemy convoys and warships were destroyed. He did not leave the bridge for weeks, amazing with his endurance and infecting everyone with energy - from ship commanders to the lower ranks.

Even before the end of the war, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet with promotion to vice admiral. This news found Kolchak in Revel. He immediately hurried to Helsingfors for further instructions.

Fateful meeting

Coincidentally, the heyday of Alexander Kolchak's career fell on troubled pre-revolutionary times. At the same time, he met with Anna Vasilievna Timireva, the daughter of the director of the Moscow Conservatory, Vasily Safonov.

Kolchak and Timireva met in the house of Lieutenant Podgursky in Helsingfors. Both were not free: Alexander Vasilyevich had a wife and son, Anna Vasilyevna had a husband - captain of the 1st rank Sergey Timirev.

Then they did not yet know that they were destined to stay together for five years, and most of this time they would have to live apart. For months they kept in touch by letters, writing as often as possible. In these messages - declarations of love and fear of losing each other.

“Two months have passed since I left you, my infinitely dear, and the picture of our meeting is still alive in front of me, just as painful and painful as if it were yesterday, in my soul. I spent so many sleepless nights in my cabin, stepping from corner to corner, so many thoughts, bitter, bleak... I don't know what happened, but with all my being I feel that you left my life, left in such a way that I don't know if I have so much strength and skill to bring you back. And without you, my life has neither that meaning, nor that purpose, nor that joy. You were more in my life than life itself, and it is impossible for me to continue it without you, "the admiral wrote to Anna Vasilievna.

She confessed her love to him first. "I told him I love him." And he, who had long been and, as it seemed to him, hopelessly in love, replied: "I did not tell you that I love you." - "No, I'm saying this: I always want to see you, I always think about you, it's such a joy for me to see you." And he, embarrassed to a spasm in his throat: "I love you more than" ...

Alexander Vasilyevich took her glove with him everywhere, and in his cabin hung a photo of Anna Vasilyevna in a Russian costume. "... I spend hours looking at your photograph, which is in front of me. On it is your sweet smile, with which I have ideas about the morning dawn, happiness and joy of life. Maybe that's why, my guardian angel, things are going well," wrote Admiral Anna Vasilievna.

"You know better than me"

When the monarchy in Russia fell in early March 1917, Kolchak wrote to Timireva: “In the event of events that you know in detail, undoubtedly better than me, I set the first task to keep the armed force, fortress and port intact, especially since I received reason to expect the appearance of the enemy at sea after eight months of his stay in the Bosphorus.

Kolchak enjoyed unquestioned authority in the navy. His skillful actions for quite a long time made it possible to keep the fleet from revolutionary collapse. However, he could not stop this process alone.

In rare moments, Kolchak shared his doubts with Timireva: “It is unpleasant when this feeling (of command) is absent or weakens, and when doubt arises, turning at times into some sleepless night, into ridiculous nonsense about his complete insolvency, mistakes, failures.

“Our worries over two wars and two revolutions will make us disabled by the time of a possible order ... On the basis of savagery and semi-literacy, the fruits turned out to be truly amazing ... However, this is everywhere, and you yourself know this no worse than me ...”, - Alexander Kolchak wrote to Timireva.

Supreme ruler Russian state

In October 1918, the admiral was appointed military and naval minister of the "Siberian government", and on November 18, with the support of the cadets, White Guard officers and interventionists, he carried out a coup and established a military dictatorship, taking the title of "supreme ruler of the Russian state" and the title of supreme commander in chief.

By this time, Kolchak's wife Sophia had been living in exile for several years. Here is how Alexander Vasilyevich describes his situation to her: "I serve my Motherland Great Russia just as I served her all the time, commanding a ship, a division, or a fleet. I am by no means a representative of hereditary or elective power. I look at my rank as a position of a purely official nature. Essentially, I Supreme Commander who assumed the functions of the Supreme Civil Power, since for a successful struggle it is impossible to separate the latter from the functions of the former. My first and main goal is to erase Bolshevism and everything connected with it from the face of Russia.

The last years of the admiral's life

In 1918, Timireva announced to her husband her intention to "always be close to Alexander Vasilyevich" and was soon officially divorced. After that, Anna Vasilievna considered herself Kolchak's wife. Together they stayed less than two years - until January 1920, when Kolchak was transferred to the Revolutionary Committee.

Almost until the very end, Kolchak and Timireva addressed each other with "You" and by name and patronymic: "Anna Vasilievna", "Alexander Vasilyevich". In Anna's letters only once does the phrase "Sashenka" come out.

A few hours before the execution, Kolchak wrote her a note that never reached the addressee: "My dear dove, I received your note, thank you for your kindness and care for me ... Don't worry about me. I feel better, my colds pass. I think that transfer to another cell is impossible. I only think about you and your fate... I don’t worry about myself - everything is known in advance. My every step is being watched, and it’s very difficult for me to write... Write to me. Yours notes are the only joy I can have. I pray for you and bow before your self-sacrifice. My dear, my adored, do not worry about me and save yourself ... Goodbye, I kiss your hands. "

Kolchak was shot near the Znamensky Monastery in Irkutsk on February 7, 1920, in accordance with Lenin's order, following the verdict of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee. Before his death, according to legend, the admiral sang his favorite romance "Burn, burn my star."

After the execution, Kolchak's body was taken to Ushakovka (a tributary of the Angara) and thrown into the hole.

Later, the memoirs of Samuil Chudnovsky, chairman of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission, were published: “Early on the morning of February 5, I went to prison to carry out the will of the revolutionary committee. Kolchak's cell. The admiral was awake and dressed in a fur coat and hat. I read him the decision of the revolutionary committee and ordered my men to put on his hand shackles." When they came for the admiral and announced that he would be shot, he asked, it seems, not at all surprised: "Like this? Without trial?" ... ".

After the death of Kolchak, Anna Vasilievna lived for another 55 years. She spent the first forty years of this term in prisons and camps, from which she was occasionally released for short periods. Until the last years of her life, Anna Vasilievna wrote poems, among which there is this:

Half a century I can not accept -

Nothing can help

And you all leave again

On that fateful night

But if I'm still alive

Against fate

Just like your love

And the memory of you.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti, open sources and the Imars communication group

Defeat Kolchak, the white groups would not be able to create a strong unified government. For their political incapacity, Russia would pay off large territories with the Western powers

Admiral Kolchak until 1917 was incredibly popular in Russia due to his polar expeditions and activities in the fleet before and during the First World War. It was thanks to such popularity (whether it corresponded to real merits or not is a separate question) that Kolchak fell to play a significant role in the White movement.

Kolchak met the February Revolution as vice admiral as commander of the Black Sea Fleet. One of the first he swore allegiance to the Provisional Government. “Since the emperor has abdicated, by doing so he releases from all obligations that existed in relation to him ... I ... served not this or that form of government, but serve the motherland”, - he will say later during the interrogation of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in Irkutsk.

Unlike Baltic Fleet, the first days of the revolution in Sevastopol passed without massacres of sailors over officers. Sometimes this is presented as a brilliant merit of Kolchak, who managed to maintain order. In fact, however, even he himself named other reasons for calm. In winter, ice is in the Baltic, and the Black Sea Fleet went on combat missions all year round, and did not stand in ports for months. And because coastal agitation was subjected to less.

Commander-in-Chief Kolchak quickly began to adapt to the revolutionary innovations - the sailors' committees. He asserted that the committees "brought a certain calm and order." Been to meetings. Set the time for the election. Approved nominations.

The directors of the sweet film "Admiral" ignored the pages of the transcript of Kolchak's interrogation, which described given period, depicting only the infinite contempt of the commander for the rebellious "sailor mob".

“The revolution will bring enthusiasm ... to the masses and will make it possible to end this war victoriously ...”, “The monarchy is not able to bring this war to an end ...” - Kolchak later told the Irkutsk investigators about his then mentality. Many thought the same, for example, Denikin. Generals and admirals hoped for revolutionary power, but quickly became disillusioned with the Provisional Government of Kerensky, which had shown complete impotence. The socialist revolution, which is understandable, they did not accept.

However, in his rejection of October and the truce with the Germans, Kolchak went further than others - to the British Embassy. He asked to serve in the British army. He explained such an act, so original for a Russian officer during interrogation, with fears that the German Kaiser would not prevail over the Entente, who “then will dictate his will to us”: "The only thing I can be of any use is to fight the Germans and their allies, whenever and as anyone."

And, we add, anywhere, even in the Far East. Kolchak went to fight there against the Bolsheviks under the British command, and he never hid this.

In July 1918, the British War Office even had to ask him to be more restrained: military intelligence chief George Mansfield Smith-Cumming ordered his agent in Manchuria, Captain L. Steveni, to immediately "explain to the admiral that it would be highly desirable that he remain silent about his connections with us" .

At that time, the power of the Bolsheviks beyond the Volga was almost universally overthrown in May-June 1918 with the help of the Czechoslovak corps traveling to Vladivostok, stretching in echelons along the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. And with the help of the “real Russian naval commander” Kolchak, Great Britain could more effectively defend its interests in Russia.

After the overthrow of Soviet power in the Far East, political passions broke out. Among the contenders for power, the left-wing Samara Komuch stood out - socialists, members of the dispersed Constituent Assembly - and the right-wing Omsk Provisional Siberian Government (not to be confused with the Provisional Government of Kerensky). Only the presence of the Bolsheviks in power in Moscow prevented them from really grabbing each other's throats: being in an alliance, albeit a shaky one, the Whites were still able to hold the front line. The Entente did not want to supply small armies and the governments that were interrupted by them, because of their weakness they were not able to control even the already occupied territory. And so, in September 1918, a united center of white power was created in Ufa, called the Directory, which included most of former members of Komuch and the Provisional Siberian Government.

Under pressure from the Red Army, the Directory soon had to hastily evacuate from Ufa to Omsk. And I must say that the right elite of Omsk hated the left anti-Bolsheviks from Komuch almost as much as the Bolsheviks. The Omsk right did not believe in the "democratic freedoms" supposedly confessed by Komuch. They dreamed of a dictatorship. The Komuchevites from the Directory realized that a rebellion was being prepared against them in Omsk. They could hardly hope only for the help of the Czechoslovak bayonets and for the popularity of their slogans among the population.

And in such a situation, Vice Admiral Kolchak arrives in Omsk, ready to explode. He is popular in Russia. Great Britain believes him. It is he who looks like a compromise figure for the British and French, as well as the Czechs who were under the influence of the British.

The leftists from Komuch, hoping that London would support them as "more progressive forces", began, together with the rightists, to invite Kolchak to the post of naval minister of the Directory. He agreed.

And two weeks later, on November 18, 1918, a Bonapartist coup took place in Omsk. The directorate was removed from power. Its ministers transferred all powers to the new dictator, Kolchak. On that day, he became the "Supreme Ruler" of Russia. And it was then, by the way, that he was promoted to the rank of full admiral.

England fully supported Kolchak's coup. Seeing the inability of the left to create a strong government, the British preferred "more progressive forces" moderate right-wing representatives of the Omsk elite.

Kolchak's opponents on the right - ataman Semyonov and others - were forced to come to terms with the personality of the new dictator.
At the same time, one should not think that Kolchak was a democrat, as they often try to present him today.

The "democratic" language of negotiations between the Kolchak government and the West was an obvious convention. Both sides were well aware of the illusory nature of the words about the upcoming convocation of a new Constituent Assembly, which would supposedly consider the issues of the sovereignty of the national outskirts and the democratization of the new Russia. The admiral himself was by no means embarrassed by the name "dictator". From the very first days, he promised that he would overcome the “post-revolutionary collapse” in Siberia and the Urals and defeat the Bolsheviks, concentrating all civil and military power in the country in his hands.

In fact, however, it was not easy to concentrate power in your hands at that time.

By 1918, there were already about two dozen anti-Bolshevik governments in Russia. Some of them advocated "independence". Others are for the right to gather around themselves “one and indivisible Russia.” All this, by the way, contributed to the collapse of Russia and the control of the allies over it.

There were far fewer political divisions within the Bolshevik Party. At the same time, the territory of the RSFSR controlled by the Bolsheviks occupied the center of the country with almost all industrial and military enterprises and a wide transport network.

In such a situation, the isolated centers of whites could hardly help each other. Transport and telegraph worked through abroad. Thus, couriers from Kolchak to Denikin traveled by steamboats across two oceans and by several trains for months. The transfer of manpower and equipment, which was promptly carried out by the Bolsheviks, was out of the question.

Kolchak's political task was to ensure a balance between socialists, cadets and monarchists. Part of the left turned out to be outside the law, but it was vital to come to an agreement with the rest, preventing them from reorienting themselves to the Bolsheviks. However, if Kolchak had yielded to the left, he would have quickly lost the vital support of the right, who were already dissatisfied with the “leftism” of the course of power.

The right and the left pulled the ruler each in their own direction, it was not possible to reach a compromise between them. And soon Kolchak began to rush between them. Increasingly, the explosions of his emotions alternated with depression, apathy. This could not be overlooked by others. “It would be better if he were the most cruel dictator than that dreamer rushing about in search of the common good ... It’s a pity to look at the unfortunate admiral being pushed around by various advisers and speakers,” wrote the right-minded General A. P. Budberg, one of the leaders of Kolchakovsky military ministry. He was echoed by Kolchak's consistent political opponent, Socialist-Revolutionary Founding Member E. E. Kolosov: “He was positively the same Kerensky ... (the same hysterical and weak-willed creature ...), only, having all his shortcomings, he did not have a single of his merits. Instead of rapprochement between left and right groups, a gulf widened between them.

On December 22, 1918, an anti-Kolchak uprising broke out in Omsk. Monarchist military circles, having suppressed it, at the same time dealt with 9 of the former Komuchevites who were in prison. The Komuchevites waited in prison for a court decision for their opposition to the admiral's authority.

D. F. Rakov, a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, “founder” D.F. Rakov, who survived in the Omsk dungeons, recalled the bloody suppression of the uprising: “... No less than 1,500 people. Entire cartloads of corpses were transported around the city, as they carry sheep and pig carcasses in winter ... the city froze in horror. They were afraid to go outside, to meet each other.”

And the Socialist-Revolutionary Kolosov commented on this massacre in the following way: “It was possible, taking advantage of the turmoil, to get all the actual power into your own hands to suppress the rebellion and, having suppressed the rebellion, direct the tip of the same weapon ... against Kolchak’s “upstart” ... It turned out to cope with Kolchak not as easy as, for example, with the Directory. During these days, his house was heavily guarded ... by English soldiers, who rolled out all their machine guns right into the street.

Kolchak held on to the English bayonets. And, having ensured, with the help of the English guards, the rest of the “constituent members” who had miraculously escaped execution from Siberia, was forced to hush up the case.

Ordinary performers were allowed to escape. Their leaders were not punished. The admiral did not have enough strength to break with the right-wing radicals. The same Kolosov wrote: “Ivanov-Rinov, who intensely competed with Kolchak, deliberately threw the corpses of the “founders” in his face ... in the expectation that he would not dare to refuse solidarity with them, and all this would bind him with a mutual bloody guarantee with the vicious of the reactionary circles.”

All Kolchak's reforms failed.

The ruler did not solve the land issue. The law he issued was reactionary for the left (restoration of private property) and insufficient for the right (lack of restoration of landownership). In the countryside, wealthy peasants were deprived of part of their land for monetary compensation that was unacceptable to them. And the Siberian poor, resettled by Stolypin on land unsuitable for farming and seizing suitable land from wealthy peasants during the revolution, was all the more dissatisfied. The poor were offered either to return what they had seized, or to pay dearly to the state for land use.

Yes and white army, liberating territories from the Bolsheviks, often arbitrarily, disregarding the law, took away land from the peasants and returned it to the former owners. The poor, seeing the return of the bar, took up arms.

The White Terror in Siberia under Kolchak, through which food was confiscated from the population for the front and mobilization was carried out, was terrible. Only a few months of Kolchak's rule would pass, and at the headquarters the maps of Siberia would be painted with centers of peasant uprisings.

Enormous forces will have to be thrown into the fight against the peasants. And it will no longer be possible to understand in which cases the incredible cruelty of the punishers took place with the blessing of Kolchak, and in which - contrary to his direct instructions. However, there was no big difference: the ruler, who called himself a dictator, is responsible for everything that his government does.

Kolosov recalled how the rebellious villages were drowned in the hole:

“They threw a peasant woman there, suspected of Bolshevism, with a child in her arms. So they threw the child under the ice. It was called to deduce treason "with the root" ... "

The evidence for this is endless. The uprisings were drowned in blood, but they flared up again and again with even greater force. The numbers of the rebels exceeded hundreds of thousands. Peasant uprisings will be a verdict on a regime that has decided to conquer the people by force.

As for the workers, they did not experience such lack of rights as under Kolchak either under Nicholas II or under Kerensky. Workers were forced to work for meager wages. The 8-hour day and sickness funds were forgotten. The local authorities, who supported the manufacturers, closed the trade unions under the pretext of fighting Bolshevism. Minister of Labor Kolchak sounded the alarm in letters to the government, but the government was inactive. The workers of non-industrial Siberia were few in number and resisted weaker than the peasants. But they were also dissatisfied and joined the underground struggle.

As for the financial reform of Kolchak, as the Socialist-Revolutionary Kolosov accurately put it, of his unsuccessful reforms, one should give “the palm of primacy to the financial measures of Mikhailov and von Goyer, who killed the Siberian monetary unit ... (depreciated 25 times - M.M.) and enriched ... speculators" associated with the reformers themselves.

Minister of Finance I. A. Mikhailov was also criticized by the right wing in the person of General Budberg: “He does not understand anything in finance, he showed it on the idiotic reform of withdrawing the Kerenok from circulation ...”, “Reform ... on such a scale that Vyshnegradsky, Witte and Kokovtsev stayed, was carried out in a few days.

Products went up in price. Household goods - soap, matches, kerosene, etc. - became scarce. Speculators got rich. Theft flourished.

The capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway by itself did not allow delivering enough cargo from distant Vladivostok to supply Siberia and the Urals. Difficult situation on the overloaded railroad, guerrilla sabotage was aggravated, as well as constant “misunderstandings” between the whites and the Czechs guarding the highway. Corruption wreaked havoc. So, the Prime Minister of Kolchak, P.V. Vologodsky, recalled the Minister of Railways, L.A. Ustrugov, who gave bribes at the stations so that his train was allowed to go ahead.

Due to the chaos on the lines of communication, the front was supplied intermittently. Cartridge, gunpowder, cloth factories and warehouses of the Volga and Urals were cut off from the white army.

And foreigners brought weapons from different manufacturers to Vladivostok. Cartridges from one did not always fit the other. There was confusion in deliveries to the front, sometimes tragically reflected in combat capability.

The clothes for the front bought by Kolchak for Russian gold were often of poor quality and sometimes spread out after three weeks of wear. But even these clothes were delivered for a long time. Kolchakovets G.K. Gins writes: "The outfit ... rolled along the rails, as the continuous retreat did not make it possible to turn around."

But even the supply that reached the troops was poorly distributed. General M.K. Diterikhs, who inspected the troops, wrote: "The inaction of the authorities ... a criminal bureaucratic attitude to their duties" . For example, out of 45,000 sets of clothes received by the quartermasters of the Siberian Army, 12,000 went to the front, the rest, as the inspection established, were gathering dust in warehouses.

The malnourished soldiers on the front line did not receive food from the warehouses.

Theft of the rear, the desire to cash in on the war was observed everywhere. So, French general Jeannin wrote: “Knox (English General - M.M.) tells me sad facts about the Russians. The 200,000 uniforms he supplied them with were sold for next to nothing and some of them ended up with the Reds.

As a result, General of the Allied Army Knox, according to the memoirs of Budberg, was nicknamed by Omsk newspapermen "Quartermaster of the Red Army". A mocking " thank you letter» Knox on behalf of Trotsky for good supplies.

Kolchak failed to achieve competent campaigning. Siberian newspapers have become a tool information wars among whites.

Strife grew within the white camp. Generals, politicians - everyone sorted out relations with each other. They fought for influence in the liberated territories, for supplies, for positions. They framed each other, denounced, slandered. Minister of the Interior V.N. Pepelyaev wrote: "We were assured that western army... stopped retreating. Today we see that she ... leaned back a lot ... Out of a desire to end (General - M.M.) Gaid here, they distort the meaning of what is happening. There must be a limit to this."

The memoirs of the Whites clearly show that in Siberia there were not enough competent commanders. Available, in conditions of poor supply and weak interaction between the troops, by May 1919 began to suffer successive defeats.

The fate of the Consolidated Shock Siberian Corps, completely unprepared for battle, but abandoned by the Whites to cover the junction between the Western and Siberian armies, is indicative. On May 27, the whites advanced without communications, field kitchens, wagon trains and partially unarmed. Company and battalion commanders were appointed only at the moment the corps advanced to the positions. Divisional commanders were generally appointed on May 30, during the rout. As a result, in two days of fighting, the corps lost half of its fighters, either killed or voluntarily surrendered.

By autumn, the Whites had lost the Urals. Omsk was surrendered by them practically without a fight. Kolchak appointed Irkutsk as his new capital.

The surrender of Omsk exacerbated the political crisis within the Kolchak government. The leftists demanded from the admiral democratization, rapprochement with the Social Revolutionaries and reconciliation with the Entente. The rightists, on the other hand, supported the tightening of the regime and rapprochement with Japan, which was unacceptable to the Entente.

Kolchak leaned towards the right. The Soviet historian G. Z. Ioffe, quoting telegrams from the admiral to his prime minister in November 1919, proves Kolchak's shift from London to Tokyo. Kolchak writes that “instead of rapprochement with the Czechs, I would raise the question of rapprochement with Japan, which alone is able to help us real power for the protection of the railroad.

Eser Kolosov gloatingly wrote about this: “The history of Kolchak's international policy is the history of a gradually deepening rupture with the Czechs and growing ties with the Japanese. But he followed this path ... with the hesitant steps of a typical hysteric, and, already on the verge of death, took a decisive ... course towards Japan, it turned out that it was already too late. This step ruined him and led to his arrest, in fact, by the same Czechs.

The White Army marched from Omsk on foot and was still far away. The Red Army advanced quickly, and the foreign allies feared a serious clash with the Bolsheviks. That is why the British, already so disappointed in Kolchak, decided not to suppress the uprisings. The Japanese also did not help Kolchak.

Ataman Semenov, sent by Kolchak to Irkutsk, with whom he urgently had to put up with, failed to suppress the uprising alone.

In the end, the Czechs surrendered Kolchak and the gold reserves of Russia that were with him to the Irkutsk authorities in exchange for unhindered passage to Vladivostok.

Some members of the Kolchak government fled to the Japanese. It is characteristic that many of them—Gins, the financial "genius" Mikhailov, and others—will soon join the ranks of the Nazis.

In Irkutsk, during interrogations arranged by the government, Kolchak gave detailed testimony, the transcripts of which were published.

And on February 7, 1920, the Whites came close to Irkutsk, retreating from the Red Army. There was a threat of the capture of the city and the release of the admiral. It was decided to shoot Kolchak.

All perestroika and post-perestroika attempts to rehabilitate Kolchak were unsuccessful. He was recognized as a war criminal who did not resist the terror of his own power in relation to civilians.

Obviously, if Kolchak had won, the white groups, even at critical moments on the fronts, sorting out relations with each other and rejoicing at each other's defeat, would not have been able to create a strong unified power. For their political incapacity, Russia would have paid off large territories with the Western powers.

Fortunately, the Bolsheviks turned out to be stronger than Kolchak at the front, more talented and flexible than him in state building. It was the Bolsheviks who defended the interests of Russia in the Far East, where the Japanese were already in charge under Kolchak. The Allies were escorted out of Vladivostok in October 1922. And two months later, the Soviet Union was created.

based on the materials of M. Maksimov

P.S. Here it is, this "polar explorer" and "oceanographer" was, first of all, he was the executioner of the Russian people, whose hands were stained with blood, and the military who worked for the English crown, that's who he was not, but a patriot of his country , that's for sure, but we recent times trying to pretend it's the other way around.

Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich - a prominent military leader and statesman of Russia, a polar explorer. During the civil war, he entered the historical chronicles as the leader of the White movement. The assessment of Kolchak's personality is one of the most controversial and tragic pages of Russian history of the 20th century.

Obzorfoto

Alexander Kolchak was born on November 16, 1874 in the village of Aleksandrovskoe in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, in a family of hereditary nobles. Rod Kolchakov gained fame in the military field, serving the Russian Empire for many centuries. His father was a hero of the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean campaign.

Education

Until the age of 11 received home education. In 1885-88. Alexander studied at the 6th gymnasium of St. Petersburg, where he graduated from three classes. Then he entered the Naval Cadet Corps, where he showed excellent success in all subjects. as the best student scientific knowledge and behavior was enrolled in the class of midshipmen and appointed sergeant major. He graduated from the Cadet Corps in 1894 with the rank of midshipman.

Carier start

From 1895 to 1899, Kolchak served in the military Baltic and Pacific fleets, made three trip around the world. Conducted independent research Pacific Ocean, most of all interested in its northern territories. In 1900, a capable young lieutenant was transferred to the Academy of Sciences. At this time, the first scientific works, in particular, an article about his observations of sea currents is published. But the goal of the young officer is not only theoretical, but also practical research - he dreams of going on one of the polar expeditions.

Blogger

Interested in his publications, the well-known Arctic explorer Baron E. V. Toll invites Kolchak to take part in the search for the legendary Sannikov Land. Having set off in search of the missing Toll, he makes a risky journey on a whaleboat from the schooner Zarya, and then on a dog sled and finds the remains of the lost expedition. During this dangerous campaign, Kolchak caught a bad cold and miraculously survived after severe pneumonia.

Russo-Japanese War

In March 1904, immediately after the outbreak of the war, not having fully recovered from his illness, Kolchak was sent to the besieged Port Arthur. The destroyer "Angry" under his command took part in the installation of barrage mines dangerously close to the Japanese raid. Thanks to these hostilities, several enemy ships were blown up.

Letanovosti

In the last months of the siege, he commanded coastal artillery, which inflicted significant damage on the enemy. During the fighting he was wounded, after the capture of the fortress he was taken prisoner. In recognition of his fighting spirit, the command of the Japanese army left Kolchak weapons and freed him from captivity. For his heroism, he was awarded:

St. George's weapons;
Orders of St. Anna and St. Stanislav.

The struggle to recreate the fleet

After treatment in the hospital, Kolchak receives a six-month vacation. Sincerely experiencing the almost complete loss of his native fleet in the war with Japan, he is actively involved in the work of its revival.

Gossip

In June 1906, Kolchak headed a commission at the Naval General Staff to find out the reasons that led to the defeat near Tsushima. As a military expert, he often spoke at State Duma hearings with justification for allocating the necessary funding.

His project, dedicated to the realities of the Russian fleet, became the theoretical basis for the entire Russian military shipbuilding in the pre-war period. As part of its implementation, Kolchak in 1906-1908. personally supervises the construction of four battleships and two icebreakers.

For his invaluable contribution to the study of the Russian North, Lieutenant Kolchak was elected a member of the Russian geographical society. The nickname "Kolchak-Polar" stuck behind him.

At the same time, Kolchak continues to work on systematizing the materials of past expeditions. His work on the ice cover of the Kara and Siberian Seas, published by him in 1909, was recognized as a new step in the development of polar oceanography for the study of ice cover.

World War I

The Kaiser command was preparing for the blitzkrieg of St. Petersburg. Henry of Prussia, Commander German Navy, expected already in the first days of the war to pass through the Gulf of Finland to the capital and subject it to hurricane fire from powerful guns.

Destroying important objects, he intended to land troops, capture Petersburg and put an end to the military claims of Russia. The implementation of Napoleonic projects was hindered by the strategic experience and brilliant actions of Russian naval officers.

Gossip

Considering the significant superiority of the number of German ships, the tactics of combating the enemy was recognized as the initial strategy. mine warfare. During the first days of the war, the Kolchak division laid 6,000 mines in the waters of the Gulf of Finland. Skillfully placed mines became a reliable shield for the defense of the capital and thwarted the plans of the German fleet to capture Russia.

In the future, Kolchak persistently defended plans for the transition to more aggressive actions. Already at the end of 1914, the brave operation for mining the Danzig Bay directly off the coast of the enemy. As a result of this operation, 35 enemy warships were blown up. Successful Actions naval commander determined his subsequent promotion.

Sanmati

In September 1915, he was appointed commander of the Mine Division. In early October, he made a bold maneuver to land troops on the shores of the Gulf of Riga to help the armies. northern front. The operation was carried out so successfully that the enemy did not even guess about the presence of the Russians.

In June 1916, A. V. Kolchak was promoted by the Sovereign to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Black Sea Fleet. In the photo, a talented naval commander is captured in dress uniform with all battle regalia.

revolutionary time

After February Revolution Kolchak was faithful to the emperor to the end. Hearing the proposal of the revolutionary sailors to hand over their weapons, he threw the award saber overboard, arguing his act with the words: “Even the Japanese did not take away my weapon, I will not give it to you either!”

Arriving in Petrograd, Kolchak laid the blame on the ministers of the Provisional Government for the collapse of his own army and country. After that, the dangerous admiral was actually removed into political exile at the head of an allied military mission to America.

In December 1917, he asked the British government for admission to military service. However, certain circles are already counting on Kolchak as an authoritative leader capable of rallying the liberation struggle against Bolshevism.

The Volunteer Army operated in the South of Russia, in Siberia and in the East there were many disparate governments. Having united in September 1918, they created the Directory, the inconsistency of which inspired distrust in broad officer and business circles. They needed a "strong hand" and, having made a white coup, invited Kolchak to accept the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia.

Goals of the Kolchak government

Kolchak's policy was to restore the foundations Russian Empire. All extremist parties were banned by his decrees. The government of Siberia wanted to achieve reconciliation of all groups of the population and parties, without the participation of left and right radicals. An economic reform was prepared, involving the creation of an industrial base in Siberia.

The highest victories of Kolchak's army were achieved in the spring of 1919, when it occupied the territory of the Urals. However, following the successes, a series of failures began, caused by a number of miscalculations:

Kolchak's incompetence in the problems of state administration;
refusal to settle the agrarian question;
partisan and socialist-revolutionary resistance;
political disagreements with allies.

In November 1919, Kolchak was forced to leave Omsk; in January 1920, he gave his powers to Denikin. As a result of the betrayal of the allied Czech Corps, he was handed over to the revolutionary committee of the Bolsheviks, who seized power in Irkutsk.

Death of Admiral Kolchak

Fate legendary person ended tragically. The cause of death, some historians call a personal secret instruction, who feared his release by the troops of Kappel rushing to the rescue. A. V. Kolchak was shot on February 7, 1920 in Irkutsk.

In the 21st century, the negative assessment of Kolchak's personality has been revised. His name is immortalized on memorial plaques, monuments, in feature films.

Personal life

Kolchak's wife, Sophia Omirova, hereditary noblewoman. Due to the protracted expedition, she waited for her fiancé for several years. Their wedding took place in March 1904 in the Irkutsk church.

Three children were born in the marriage:

The first daughter, born in 1905, died in infancy.
Son Rostislav, born March 9, 1910
Daughter Margarita, born in 1912, died at the age of two.

Sofia Omirova in 1919, with the help of the British allies, emigrated with her son to Constanta, and later to Paris. She died in 1956 and was buried in the cemetery of Russian Parisians.

Son Rostislav - an employee of the Algiers Bank, participated in battles with the Germans on the side French army. Died in 1965. Kolchak's grandson - Alexander, born in 1933, lives in Paris.

The last years of his life, Kolchak's actual wife became his last love. Acquaintance with the admiral took place in 1915 in Helsingfors, where she arrived with her husband, a naval officer. After a divorce in 1918, she followed the admiral. She was arrested along with Kolchak, and after his execution she spent almost 30 years in various exiles and prisons. She was rehabilitated and died in 1975 in Moscow.

Alexander Kolchak was baptized in the Trinity Church, which is known today as Kulich and Easter.
During one of the polar campaigns, Kolchak named the island after the name of his bride, who was waiting for him in the capital. Cape Sofya retains the name given by him to our time.
A. V. Kolchak became the fourth polar navigator in history to receive the highest award of the Geographical Society - the Konstantinovsky Medal. Before him, this honor was awarded to the great F. Nansen, N. Nordenskiöld, N. Jurgens.
The maps compiled by Kolchak were used by Soviet sailors until the end of the 1950s.
Before his death, Kolchak did not accept the offer to blindfold. He presented his cigarette case to the commander of the execution, an employee of the Cheka.