What was General Kornilov really like? "Revolutionary General"

Lavr Kornilov was born in 1870 into a rather poor large family. His father was an officer. There was never enough money to live, so we had to save on everything. At the age of 13, Lavra was assigned to study at the Omsk Cadet Corps. He studied diligently and always had the highest scores in all disciplines.

After completing his studies at the Cadet Corps, the young man continued to work on his education at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. Subsequently, Lavr Georgievich graduated with honors from the Academy of the General Staff. Being an exemplary cadet, Kornilov could apply for assignment to a good regiment and quickly make a career.

But Laurus chose the Turkestan Military District. During several years of service on the borders of the Russian Empire, Kornilov managed to visit Afghanistan, Persia, India and China. The officer spoke several languages. Carrying out intelligence operations, Kornilov easily posed as a traveler or merchant.

Kornilov met the beginning of the Russian-Japanese War in India. Having received the news that Russia had entered the war, he immediately asked to join the active army. The officer received a position in one of the headquarters of the rifle brigade. At the beginning of 1905, his unit was surrounded. Kornilov led the brigade's rearguard and broke through the enemy's defenses with a daring attack. Thanks to his ingenuity and determination, three regiments were able to escape from encirclement.

For his participation in the war with Japan, Lavr Kornilov was presented with the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and was also awarded the Arms of St. George. Kornilov was awarded the rank of colonel.

In the service of the Tsar and the Fatherland

At the end of the war, Kornilov served in China for several years, resolving diplomatic issues. In 1912 he became a major general. Kornilov showed his best side during the years of the imperialist war. The division commanded by the general was called "Steel".

Kornilov was a fairly tough leader; he did not spare either himself or his soldiers. However, his business qualities aroused respect among his subordinates.

In April 1915, Kornilov was wounded and ended up in Austrian captivity. He managed to escape. The general moved through Romania to Russia, where he was greeted with honor. Kornilov's merits were rewarded: he received the Order of St. George, 3rd degree.

Years of testing

Kornilov welcomed the February revolution, pinning hopes that the country would finally enter a period of renewal. In March 1917, he was appointed commander of the Petrograd Military District. Considered until that time to be a convinced monarchist, Kornilov took part in the arrest of the royal family, carried out by decision of the Provisional Government. Subsequently, the actions of the new government aroused indignation among the general: he criticized the order to introduce the principles of democracy into the army. He did not want to witness the disintegration of the troops, so he preferred to go to the front.

Before Kornilov’s eyes, the Russian army was losing its combat effectiveness. The provisional government also could not get out of the protracted political crisis. Under these conditions, Lavr Kornilov decides to lead the army units subordinate to him to Petrograd.

On August 26, 1917, Kornilov announced an ultimatum to the Provisional Government. The general demanded that all power in the country be transferred to him. The head of government, Kerensky, immediately declared Kornilov a traitor and accused him of organizing a coup. But the Bolsheviks played the main role in eliminating the famous “Kornilov rebellion”. Lenin's party managed to mobilize forces in a short time to counter the rebellious general. Participants in the failed coup were taken into custody.

After the October Revolution, Kornilov, along with his loyal subordinates, fled to the Don. In alliance with generals Denikin and Alekseev, he participated in the creation of the Volunteer Army, which marked the beginning of the White Guard movement.

General Kornilov was killed on April 13, 1918 during the assault on Krasnodar. One of the shells hit the house where the general was.

Coming from the lower classes, Kornilov welcomed the February Revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Provisional Government. He then said: “The old has collapsed! The people are building a new building of freedom, and the task of the people’s army is to fully support the new government in its difficult, creative work.” He also believed in Russia’s ability to bring the war to a victorious end.

Lavr Georgievich Kornilov 1870-1918. The path of General Kornilov reflected the fate of a Russian officer during a difficult and turning point period in Russian history. This path ended tragically for him, leaving in history a loud memory of the “Kornilov Rebellion” and the “Ice Campaign” of the Volunteer Army. Lavr Georgievich fully experienced the love and hatred of people: the courageous patriot general was selflessly loved by his comrades, reviled and hated by the revolutionaries. He himself did not strive for fame, acting as his conscience and convictions told him.

Kornilov had neither titled ancestors, nor a rich inheritance, nor estates. He was born in the provincial town of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk province. His father, a Siberian Cossack, had the rank of retired cornet and served as a collegiate assessor; the family had many children and had difficulty making ends meet. The eldest of the children, Lavr, at the age of 13, managed to enter the Omsk Cadet Corps, where he studied with zeal and upon graduation had the highest score among the cadets. He had a great desire for military education, and the young officer soon entered the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in St. Petersburg, and in 1892 he also graduated first. Then he served in one of the artillery brigades in Central Asia. He overcame the difficulties of Turkestan life relatively easily.

Three years later, Lieutenant Kornilov entered the Academy of the General Staff, again studied brilliantly, upon graduation he received a silver medal and the rank of captain ahead of schedule, his name was listed on the marble plaque of the academy. “A modest and shy artillery officer, thin, short in stature, with a Mongolian face, was little noticeable at the academy and only during exams he immediately stood out in all sciences,” recalled General A. Bogaevsky.

After graduating from the academy, you will have an advantage when choosing a future place of service. Lavr Georgievich chose... Turkestan Military District. The General Staff officer was entrusted with the mission of military intelligence on the Central Asian borders of Russia. For five years, from 1899 to 1904, he traveled thousands of kilometers, visited Persia, Afghanistan, China and India; Constantly risking his life, he changed his appearance, transformed himself into a Muslim, posed as a merchant, traveler, and played a complex game with rival English intelligence officers. The reviews of the countries of the Middle East that he prepared for the district headquarters and the general staff had not only military, but also scientific significance, some of them were published in magazines, and Kornilov’s work “Kashgaria and East Turkestan” was published as a book (1901). His name became famous.

In 1904 - 1905 Lavr Georgievich, as a headquarters officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade, participated in the Russian-Japanese War. Acting selflessly, he could have died more than once on foreign Chinese soil. In the unsuccessful Battle of Mukden, he fought through three infantry regiments from encirclement, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. During the war, he also received the rank of colonel, which gave him the right to hereditary nobility.

After the war, Kornilov was seconded to the Main Directorate of the General Staff, but the rebellious soul of the “son of the East” languished in the capital. In 1907 he left as a military attache to China. For four years he conducted diplomatic work there in the name of Russia's military interests, competing with diplomats from England, France, Germany, and Japan. Out of old habit, I traveled all over Mongolia and most of China. Returning to Russia, Lavr Georgievich accepted the position of commander of the 8th Estland Regiment in the Warsaw Military District, but soon left again for the East - to the Trans-Amur Border Guard District, where he became the head of the 2nd detachment. Since 1912 - brigade commander in the 9th East Siberian Rifle Division in Vladivostok.

In 1914, the First World War finally returned the veteran of the East to the West. Kornilov began the war as a brigade commander; from December 1914 he was assigned to lead the 48th Infantry Division, which was part of A. Brusilov’s 8th Army. The division consisted of regiments with glorious names: 189th Izmailsky, 190th Ochakovsky, 191st Largo-Kagulsky, 192nd Rymniksky. With them, Kornilov took part in the Galician and Carpathian operations of the troops of the Southwestern Front. His division burst into the territory of Hungary side by side with the 4th Infantry Brigade of General A. Denikin. Then the front troops had to retreat, and Kornilov more than once led battalions with bayonets, paving the way for those coming behind. For its valiant actions in battles and engagements, the 48th Division received the name "Steel". “It’s a strange thing,” Brusilov recalled, “General Kornilov never spared his division, and yet the officers and soldiers loved him and believed him. True, he did not spare himself.”

In the spring of 1915, German-Austrian troops in the Gorlitsa-Gromnik sector dealt a terrible blow to the troops of the Southwestern Front and split them in two. Ensuring the exit of his division from encirclement, the seriously wounded Kornilov with the remnants of the detachment was captured and sent to Austria-Hungary, to the city of Kessige. A year and three months later, he managed to escape from the prison hospital and make his way through Hungary and Romania to Russia. The concepts of military honor in the Russian army were different then, and the general who returned from captivity was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree, for his courage. In September 1916, Lavr Georgievich returned to the Southwestern Front, took command of the 25th Army Corps, and earned the rank of lieutenant general.

Coming from the lower classes, Kornilov welcomed the February Revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Provisional Government. He then said: “The old has collapsed! The people are building a new building of freedom, and the task of the people’s army is to fully support the new government in its difficult, creative work.” He also believed in Russia’s ability to bring the war to a victorious end. On March 2, the general, popular in the country and in the army, was appointed to the post of commander of the Petrograd Military District. On March 8, by order of War Minister Guchkov, he arrested the family of the dethroned tsar in Tsarskoye Selo (Nicholas II himself was arrested on the same day at Army Headquarters in Mogilev). The district commander was tasked with establishing order in the capital's garrison, excited by the revolution, but the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies prevented this in every possible way. Wounded and tired of the Petrograd nonsense, Kornilov, with a report dated April 23, demanded that he be returned to the active army.

At the beginning of May 1917, he received command of the 8th Army, which gave great names to Brusilov, Kaledin, Denikin and himself. In the June offensive of the troops of the Southwestern Front, the 8th Army acted most successfully; it managed to break through the enemy’s defenses, capture about 36 thousand people in 12 days, and occupy the cities of Kalush and Galich. But the other armies of the front did not support it, the front became feverish, soldiers’ rallies and anti-war resolutions of soldiers’ committees began. The offensive was disrupted, and on July 6 German troops launched a counteroffensive.

On the night of July 8, Kornilov was urgently appointed commander of the Southwestern Front, and on the 11th he sent a telegram to the Provisional Government in which he stated that the army propagated by the Bolsheviks was fleeing and demanded the introduction of courts-martial and the death penalty for deserters and looters. The next day his demand was granted. A week later, the withdrawal of troops stopped.

On July 19, Kornilov received an offer from Kerensky to become Supreme Commander-in-Chief and accepted it, stipulating as a condition complete non-interference in his operational orders. In the confrontation with the Bolsheviks, Kerensky needed the support of a firm and decisive general, although he feared that he would eventually want to remove the Provisional Government from power. Lavr Georgievich, judging by various evidence, really did not exclude such a scenario and his coming to power, but not individually, but at the head of a new national government. However, as subsequent events showed, Kornilov did not develop any specific plans in this regard. In August, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief came from Mogilev to Petrograd several times to participate in meetings, and each time at the station the general was warmly greeted by masses of people, he was showered with flowers and carried in their arms. At the State Meeting on August 14, Kornilov reported on the alarming situation at the front, especially near Riga, and called on the Provisional Government to take urgent, severe measures against the growing revolution.

The end was close. In connection with the threat of a Bolshevik coup in Petrograd, Kornilov, in agreement with Kerensky, on August 25 moved the cavalry corps of General A. Krymov and other troops to the capital. But here Kerensky, who received conflicting information through intermediaries about the intentions of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, wavered, fearing for his power. On the morning of the 27th, he sent a telegram to Headquarters about the removal of Kornilov from his post and gave instructions to stop the troops moving towards Petrograd. In response, Kornilov made a radio statement about the treacherous policy of the Provisional Government and called on “all Russian people to save their dying Motherland.” For two days, he tried to gather forces around himself to fight against the Provisional Government, but the unexpectedness of what happened, a violent outburst of rumors and propaganda discrediting the “Kornilov mutiny,” broke his will. Like General Krymov, who was shocked by what happened and shot himself on August 31. Lavr Georgievich was in despair; only the support of his closest associates, his wife and the thought of thousands of officers who believed in him kept Kornilov from committing suicide.

On September 2, the newly appointed chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General M. Alekseev, who fully sympathized with the “rebels,” was forced to announce Kornilov’s arrest. He sent him and other prisoners to the Bykhov prison, where he ensured their safety. Together with the former Supreme Commander-in-Chief, generals Denikin, Lukomsky, Romanovsky, Erdeli, Vannovsky, and Markov ended up in Bykhov. In less than two months, the Provisional Government, which had betrayed its military leaders, would be overthrown by the Bolsheviks and would itself find itself under arrest.

One of the Bykhov prisoners - General Romanovsky - said: “They can shoot Kornilov, send his accomplices to hard labor, but “Kornilovism” will not die in Russia, since “Kornilovism” is love for the Motherland, the desire to save Russia, and these high motives do not to throw any dirt at, not to trample under any haters of Russia."

After the Bolsheviks came to power, the threat of reprisals against the arrested generals grew every day. On the eve of the arrival of the Red Guard detachments in Bykhov, the acting commander-in-chief, General N. Dukhonin, ordered the release of Kornilov and his associates. On the night of November 19, they left Bykhov and moved to the Don. The next day, the revolutionary sailors who arrived in Mogilev, in the presence of the new commander-in-chief Krylenko, tore Dukhonin to pieces and violated his body.

At the beginning of December 1917, Kornilov came to the Don and, together with generals Alekseev, Denikin, and Ataman Kaledin, led the resistance to the Bolsheviks. On December 27, he took command of the White Volunteer Army, which then numbered about three thousand people. The development of events on the Don, which entailed the victory of the Soviets and the death of Ataman Kaledin, forced the Volunteer Army to move to the Kuban region in February 1918. In this “Ice March,” which took place in incredibly difficult weather conditions and in continuous skirmishes with Red Army detachments, Kornilov remained the idol of volunteers. “In it, as if in a focus,” Denikin wrote, “everything was concentrated: the idea of ​​struggle, faith in victory, hope of salvation.” In difficult moments of the battle, with complete disregard for danger, Kornilov appeared on the front line with his convoy and the tricolor national flag. When he led the battle under severe enemy fire, no one dared to ask him to leave the dangerous place. Lavr Georgievich was ready for death.

When approaching Ekaterinodar (Krasnodar), it turned out that it was occupied by the Reds, who had organized a strong defense. The first attack of the city by the small Volunteer Army was unsuccessful for her. Kornilov was adamant and on April 12 ordered a second attack. The next morning, he was killed by an explosion of an enemy shell: the shell pierced the wall in the house where the general was sitting at the table, and hit him with a shrapnel in the temple.

In the village of Elizavetpolskaya, a priest served a memorial service for the slain warrior Lavra. On April 15, in the German colony of Gnachbau, where the retreating army stopped, the coffin with Kornilov’s body was buried. The next day, the Bolsheviks, who occupied the village, dug a grave and took the general’s body to Yekaterinodar, where, after mockery, it was burned. The civil war in Russia flared up.

, as part of the “Historical Calendar” section, we have started a new project dedicated to the upcoming 100th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution. The project, which we called “Gravediggers of the Russian Kingdom,” is dedicated to those responsible for the collapse of the autocratic monarchy in Russia - professional revolutionaries, confrontational aristocrats, liberal politicians; generals, officers and soldiers who have forgotten about their duty, as well as other active figures of the so-called. “liberation movement”, voluntarily or unwittingly, contributed to the triumph of the revolution - first the February, and then the October. The column continues with an essay dedicated to L.G. Kornilov, a famous military general who in 1917 became one of the key figures of the February Revolution.

Lavr Georgievich Kornilov born on August 18, 1870 in Ust-Kamenogorsk in a large family of a Siberian Cossack, who later became an official, and an Orthodox Kazakh woman (according to another version, a Cossack woman of Kalmyk blood). Having graduated from the Omsk Siberian Cadet Corps as one of the best students, Lavr Kornilov continued his studies at the prestigious Mikhailovsky Artillery School. Having received the rank of second lieutenant in 1892, he returned to his small homeland, choosing the Turkestan Military District as his place of service, and then, after two years of service, he entered the Academy of the General Staff. Having graduated from the academy with a silver medal, Kornilov, who received the rank of captain ahead of schedule, continued to serve in the Turkestan Military District, holding various staff positions.

Having mastered the German, English, French, Persian, Kazakh, Mongolian and Kalmyk languages ​​well, Kornilov proved himself to be an excellent intelligence officer. Disguised as a Turkmen, he made a series of reconnaissance expeditions in East Turkestan (Kashgaria), Afghanistan and Persia, as a result of which he wrote the book “Kashgaria, or East Turkestan,” which made a significant contribution to geography, ethnography and military science. Then, in 1903‒1904, a reconnaissance mission to India followed, during which Kornilov studied the condition of the British colonial troops.

With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Lavr Kornilov found himself in the active army, taking part in the battles of Sandepu, Mukden and others, establishing himself as an excellent officer, whose military merits were noted by many orders, including the highest military awards - the Order of St. George, 4th degree and St. George's weapon. Having finished the war with the rank of colonel, Kornilov continued to serve as a military agent in China.

When the First World War began, L.G. Kornilov was appointed head of the 48th Infantry Division (later called "Steel"), which fought under his command in Galicia and the Carpathians as part of the army of General A.A. Brusilova. As Brusilov later noted, Kornilov “he was always ahead and thereby attracted the hearts of the soldiers who loved him”. But at the same time, Brusilov continued, “General Kornilov never spared his division: in all the battles in which it participated under his command, it suffered horrific losses”. Once Brusilov almost put Kornilov on trial for violating an order, which led to great human losses. However, Brusilov, Kornilov made an important note “and he didn’t feel sorry for himself, he was personally brave and climbed forward headlong”. “...This is the head of a dashing partisan detachment - and nothing more...”, - this was the conclusion about the military leadership talents of Kornilov, his immediate superior. According to General A.I., who was more favorable to Kornilov. Denikina, “from a second-rate part of the Kazan district, he made an excellent combat division in a few weeks; determination and extreme perseverance in conducting the most difficult, seemingly doomed operation; extraordinary personal courage, which terribly impressed the troops and created great popularity among them.”. Almost all his contemporaries, regardless of their personal attitude towards Kornilov, paid tribute to him - he was a brave military general who distinguished himself more than once in the most difficult sectors of the front.

In April 1915, while covering the retreat of General Brusilov’s army (later Emperor Nicholas II would award him the Order of St. George, 3rd degree, for this battle), Kornilov, twice wounded in the arm and leg, was taken prisoner by Austria. On the third attempt in the summer of 1916, Kornilov managed to escape and reach his own people. The daring escape from enemy captivity brought the general enormous popularity. His name never left the pages of newspapers and magazines; the Emperor personally received Kornilov, presenting him with a previously deserved order.

The February Revolution found Lavr Kornilov commander of the 25th Army Corps. By this time, the general, who had established close relations with one of the leaders of the liberal opposition, Octobrist A.I. Guchkov, was already on the list of people trusted by the Duma members. On the day of Emperor Nicholas II's abdication from the throne, March 2, 1917, Kornilov accepted the appointment to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd Military District. This choice was not accidental, because as Denikin noted, “everyone who knew Kornilov even a little felt that he had to play a big role against the background of the Russian revolution.” Having replaced the arrested General S.S. in this key post. Khabalov, Kornilov from the very first days of the revolution declared himself as its staunch supporter. Arriving in Petrograd on March 5, the general told reporters: “I believe that the coup that took place in Russia is a sure guarantee of our victory over the enemy. Only a free Russia, having thrown off the yoke of the old regime, can emerge victorious from a real world war.”.

And soon, by order of the Provisional Government, he personally announced the arrest to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and her children, who were in Tsarskoe Selo. An eyewitness to this event, Guard Lieutenant K.N. Kologrivov recalled: “When I entered the illuminated lobby, I saw in it the Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd Military District, General Kornilov, the Minister of War of the Provisional Government, Guchkov, and a group of those who had arrived with them. Kornilov and Guchkov were with huge red bows on their chests... Kornilov was in front of the whole group, and Guchkov all the time stayed somewhat behind Kornilov, as if pushing him. I entered the lobby just at the time when Kornilov, in a loud voice and in a rude manner, demanded to see the “former Tsarina.” These were his real words. To this he was told that Her Majesty was probably already asleep at such a late hour, and that all the children were sick. “Now is not the time to sleep,” answered Kornilov, “wake Her up.” (...) Approaching Kornilov and not shaking hands with him, the Empressasked: “What do you need, general?” At this, Kornilov stood up and then, in an extremely respectful tone, which sharply contradicted his entire previous demeanor, said in a broken voice: “Your Imperial Majesty... You don’t know what’s happening in Petrograd and in Tsarskoe... it’s very difficult and unpleasant for me To report to you... but for your safety I am forced to..." and hesitated. To this, the Empress, interrupting him, said: “I know everything very well. Have you come to arrest me?” He became even more confused and finally stammered: “That’s right.” "Nothing else?" - the Empress asked him. “Nothing,” said Kornilov. The Empress, without shaking hands with him, turned and retired to her chambers. This scene made an inexpressibly painful impression on all of us present - the officers, the palace servants and the soldiers (the internal sentries and the Cossacks of His Majesty’s convoy.".

According to the testimony of the Empress's secretary, Count P.N. Apraksina, Alexandra Fedorovna responded to Kornilov’s announcement of arrest with the following words: “I am glad that it was you, general, who announced my arrest, (...) since you yourself experienced all the horror of imprisonment.”. Supporters of General Kornilov interpret this episode as Kornilov’s attempt to protect the Royal Family from violence by the revolutionary mob, but most monarchists were sure of something else, never forgiving the “revolutionary general” for the arrest of the Empress.

Be that as it may, the fact of Kornilov’s support for the February Revolution and his active contribution to its triumph remains obvious. Working together with Minister of War A.I. Guchkov, the general did not show the slightest counter-revolutionary attitude. While actively opposing the influence of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in the army, Kornilov at the same time fully supported the actions of the new government. And it was Kornilov who had to be awarded the St. George Cross for the fact that he “On February 27, having become the head of the battalion’s training team, he was the first to begin the fight for the freedom of the people and the creation of a New System.”.

Unable to cope with the radical revolutionary sentiments that gripped the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, General Kornilov already at the end of April 1917 resigned from the post of commander-in-chief of the district troops and, in connection with the preparation of the summer offensive at the front, was transferred to the Southwestern Front as commander of the shock 8th army. As General A.I. recalled. Denikin, “his gloomy figure, dry speech, occasionally only warmed by sincere feeling, and most importantly, its content - so far from the dizzying slogans thrown out by the revolution (...) - could neither ignite nor inspire the Petrograd soldiers.”

At the front, Kornilov showed himself well during the June offensive of the Russian army, which generally ended in failure. He managed to break through the Austrian front and take up to 10 thousand prisoners, but the subsequent German breakthrough on the front of the 11th Army neutralized the initial successes of the Russian armies. Promoted to infantry general, on July 7 Kornilov was appointed commander-in-chief of the armies of the Southwestern Front by Kerensky. And on July 19, Kornilov was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief, replacing General Brusilov in this post. The Provisional Government expected decisive measures to restore order from the brave military general, but Kornilov was unable to cope with the situation. Admiral A.D. Bubnov noted: “In addition to his outstanding military qualities, General Kornilov had neither the foresight nor the “elasticity” of thought of a skilled politician and was not aware of the difficulties and even dangers associated with the position of Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”. And soon the Provisional Government considered Kornilov’s popularity in officer circles too dangerous for the revolution.

Hoping to put an end to the Soviets, L.G. Kornilov decided to transfer General Krymov’s 3rd Cavalry Corps and the “Wild Division”, loyal to him, to Petrograd. A.F. Kerensky initially did not object to these measures, but he soon became suspicious that Kornilov was claiming a leading role in a personal or collective dictatorship after the final defeat of the Bolsheviks and the restoration of order in the capital. After Kornilov refused to surrender his position as commander-in-chief and immediately arrive in Petrograd, he was declared a rebel. At the same time, Kornilov was absolutely alien to the idea of ​​a counter-revolutionary coup and restoration of the Romanov dynasty. Despite such proposals, the general, according to Denikin, stated that “He will not agree to any adventure with the Romanovs”. “I, General Kornilov, the son of a Cossack peasant, declare to one and all that I personally do not need anything except the preservation of Great Russia, and I swear to bring the people - through victory over the enemy - to the Constituent Assembly, at which they themselves will decide their destinies and will choose the way of the new state life"“,” he stated.

The struggle between the head of government and the commander-in-chief finally undermined the already shaky foundations of the Provisional Government, thereby making it easier to carry out the October Revolution. After General Krymov’s unsuccessful campaign against Petrograd, Kornilov was arrested and sent to the Bykhov prison.

He managed to be released after the October Revolution, thanks to General N.N. Dukhonin. Having reached Novocherkassk, Kornilov, together with generals M.V. Alekseev and A.I. Denikin formed the Volunteer Army and took an active part in the White movement. At the same time, the general remained in the republican positions. It is characteristic that the original version of the Kornilov march contained the following lines: “We do not regret the past, / The Tsar is not our idol. / We cherish one dream: To give Russia peace.”. According to Denikin, in his views and beliefs, General Kornilov was close "broad layers of liberal democracy". And the revolutionary sailor Fyodor Batkin served as an agitator under Kornilov, about whom one of the participants in the “Ice March” recalled: "..."Sailor" Batkin was never a sailor. A Jew or Karaite by origin, he came to the Black Sea coast in the very first days of the revolution and got a job in the navy as a “staff speaker,” for which position he wore a sailor’s uniform. He took the same role with Kornilov, who for some unknown reason tolerated the shady rogue, who was far from alien to the Bolshevik government spheres.” Therefore, it was not without reason that he who remained loyal to the Emperor spoke about Kornilov in this way, refusing to support his struggle: “Kornilov is a revolutionary general... let him try to save Russian democracy... I can lead an army only with God in my heart and with the Tsar in my soul. Only faith in God and the power of the Tsar can save us, only the old army and popular repentance can save Russia, and not a democratic army and a “free” people. We see what freedom has led us to: shame and unprecedented humiliation.”.

On February 9/22, 1918, Kornilov, at the head of the Volunteer Army, set out on the First Kuban Campaign to create a base in the Kuban for further struggle against the Bolsheviks. He successfully led the Volunteer Army to join the detachment of the Kuban government, but already on March 1 / April 13, 1918, the general was killed during the assault on Ekaterinodar. "Enemy grenade" Denikin recalled , - only one got into the house, only into Kornilov’s room when he was in it, and killed only him alone. The mystical veil of the eternal mystery covered the paths and accomplishments of an unknown will.”

Thus, the decisive Russian military general, who did not understand the intricacies of politics at all, but sought to play an important political role in the tragic days for the country, found himself in the ranks of the creators of the February Revolution of 1917, making his contribution to the destruction of the “old system.” Summing up the general’s activities in 1917, Count Tatishchev wrote: “Kornilov openly expressed his sympathy for the revolution, he participated in it, he used the authority of his name not to serve his Sovereign, but against Him, he went against those who remained faithful to the Sovereign and for Him, for their loyalty to Him, they gave their lives in minutes struggle against treason, he covered himself with shame, deciding to take upon himself the arrest of the Royal Family, he sanctioned in the face of the entire Russian Army the criminal gesture of a soldier who killed his valiant officer for his loyalty to the oath to the Tsar.” The same thing was said, but in different words, in the obituary written by an anonymous author on the 10th anniversary of Kornilov’s death: “...Perhaps, of all the Russian generals, Kornilov was the leader who had all the data to lead the revolution. Not in the sense of floating obediently along its spontaneous flow, but in bringing it into the mainstream of statehood and weakening its destructive course. Boundless courage, wide popularity in the army, the ability to influence the masses, selflessness, deep love for the native people, the absence of party blinders - all this seemed to predetermine the role of Kornilov as a leader, the role of Kornilov as an organizer of state forces, as a counterweight to revolutionary chaos.. .. Many leftists, not excluding state-minded socialists, were waiting for Kornilov’s speech, seeing in him not at all a representative of the coming reaction, but the leader of democracy...”

However, like almost all the heroes of February, Kornilov was soon swept away by the revolutionary wave and began to be perceived by many as a counter-revolutionary. But the “counter-revolutionary” nature of General Kornilov consisted only in the fact that, being a patriot and sincerely desiring greatness and glory for his Fatherland, he frantically tried to cope with the disintegrating processes caused by the revolution, without denying it itself. This was his fatal mistake and tragedy, which he never had time to realize.

Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

On April 13, 1918, exactly 100 years ago, infantry general Lavr Georgievich Kornilov, one of the most notable Russian military leaders of the early 20th century, died in a battle near Ekaterinodar (now Krasnodar). The role of Lavr Kornilov in Russian history is still assessed ambiguously and causes debate.

Lavr Georgievich Kornilov was an extraordinary, iconic personality. The ending of his life - participation in the Civil War as commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army - led to the fact that all of Lavr Georgievich’s past merits were forgotten. Meanwhile, General Kornilov was not only a military leader, but also a talented military diplomat, intelligence officer, traveler and researcher. All these details of his biography were forgotten in Soviet times, and Kornilov himself was viewed solely as an enemy of the working people. Something similar happened with Admiral Kolchak, but if Kolchak really collaborated with the interventionists, his subordinates committed atrocities in Siberia, then General Kornilov was not noted in such matters. Perhaps it was precisely his early death that saved the military leader from actions that in the future would have received a completely unambiguous interpretation.

Despite the fact that Lavr Kornilov was a general in the Russian army, a renowned military leader and hero of the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars, his biography is full of mysteries. So, there are still disputes regarding the origin of the general. It is clear that he was a Cossack, but the oriental type of face does not leave historians indifferent - what kind of blood did the general have? Some researchers claim that the general’s mother was a Kazakh from the Argyn-Karakesek clan, others that his mother had Kalmyk ancestors, from whom the general got his Asian type of face. The most exotic version was voiced in 1992 in the newspaper Izvestia of Kalmykia. According to this version, Lavr Kornilov’s father was allegedly an ethnic Kalmyk, and the future general himself was born in the Don village of Semikarakorskaya and at birth received the name Lavga Gildzhirovich Deldinov. But then Lavr’s parents separated and he was adopted by his uncle Georgy Kornilov.

Be that as it may, the official biography of the general says that he was born on August 18 (30), 1870 in Ust-Kamenogorsk (now the administrative center of the East Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan) in the family of Georgy Nikolaevich Kornilov, the former cornet of the 7th Siberian Cossack regiment, who by the time of his son’s birth had already left the Cossack class, received the rank of collegiate registrar and served as a clerk for the city police.

Lavr Kornilov’s military career began, as is known, in his early teens. In 1883, thirteen-year-old Laurus was enrolled in the Siberian Cadet Corps in Omsk, and after graduating with honors in 1889, he entered the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in St. Petersburg. Demonstrating excellent abilities in mathematics and the exact sciences and a zeal for study, Kornilov also studied excellently at the artillery school and already in 1890 he became a non-commissioned officer in a cadet unit. When Laurus graduated from college in 1892, broad prospects opened up for him - service in the guard or, at least, in parts of the capital's military district. But the young officer chose the distant Turkestan Military District, close to his homeland.

Second Lieutenant Kornilov was assigned to the 5th artillery battery of the Turkestan Artillery Brigade, where his army service began. The very choice of place of service testifies to Lavr Kornilov’s extraordinary approach to his own life path - he chose one of the most interesting and, at the same time, difficult directions. In 1895, Kornilov entered the Academy of the General Staff and in 1898, having graduated ahead of schedule, received the rank of captain for academic success. And again the officer refuses service in the capital and goes to Turkestan. He served as assistant to the senior adjutant of the headquarters of the Turkestan Military District, then as a staff officer for assignments at the district headquarters, engaged in intelligence activities.

His oriental appearance and excellent knowledge of Turkic languages ​​greatly helped Kornilov in conducting reconnaissance in the endless steppes and deserts of Central Asia. For example, he, disguised as a Turkmen, explored the surroundings of the British fortress of Deidadi in Afghanistan. During his Turkestan service, Kornilov managed to visit expeditions in Afghanistan, Persia, and Kashgaria (modern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). In the book “Kashgaria, or Eastern Turkestan,” Lavr Georgievich summarized the results of his journey - he was not only a scout, but also an observant traveler who described the geographical and ethnographic features of the regions of Central Asia. A detachment of reconnaissance officers led by Captain Kornilov undertook an unprecedented campaign across Eastern Persia, exploring areas previously considered a real “blank spot” for European and Russian geography. Several small expeditions were made by Kornilov to the Pamirs, and then he visited the territory of modern Pakistan - in Balochistan, under the guise of a traveler studying the life of the Baluchis. The real purpose of the trip was to reconnoiter British positions in the region.

Kornilov spoke a number of eastern languages ​​- Kazakh, Kalmyk, Mongolian, Urdu, Farsi - and this is in addition to English, French and German, mastered at the school and the Academy of the General Staff. When in 1904, 34-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Kornilov was appointed chief of the General Staff in St. Petersburg, he did not like administrative work. He transferred to the active army, becoming a staff officer and then chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Brigade. Kornilov took part in the Russo-Japanese War, proving himself to be a brave and talented military leader. In the area of ​​​​the village of Vazye, Lieutenant Colonel Lavr Kornilov led the soldiers in a bayonet attack and was able to lead the brigade out of the Japanese encirclement. For the courage shown in the battles near Mukden, the officer received the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and was promoted to colonel.

The period between the Russo-Japanese and the First World Wars revealed Colonel Kornilov's talents as a military diplomat. In 1907-1911 he served as a military attache in China, during which time he managed to study the Chinese language, the way of life and way of life of the Chinese. The colonel sent reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire and the General Staff of the Imperial Army, telling about various aspects of life in China, the organization of the Chinese police, telegraph, and imperial guard.

After spending four years in the military diplomatic service in China, Colonel Kornilov returned to combat service. In February - June 1911, he commanded the 8th Estland Infantry Regiment, then a detachment in the Zaamursky District of a separate border guard corps, a brigade as part of the 9th Siberian Rifle Division. In December 1911, 41-year-old Lavr Kornilov received the rank of major general in the Russian imperial army.

On August 19, 1914, Kornilov was appointed commander of the 48th Infantry Division, which later went down in history as the “Steel Division.” He commanded a division during the battles in Galicia and the Carpathians. Contemporaries, including General Brusilov, remembered Kornilov as a brave man who did not spare either his subordinates or himself. He was kind to the lower ranks, striving to live up to the role of the commander - the father of the soldiers, but demanded from his subordinates the unconditional and precise execution of orders. General Denikin recalled that in a few weeks, from a second-rate division of the Kazan Military District, Kornilov managed to make one of the best divisions of the Russian Imperial Army.

The division commander himself went into battle, behind enemy lines. For example, in November 1914, he led a night attack in the battle of Takosani and, breaking through enemy positions, captured 1,200 prisoners, including the Austrian General Raft. Subsequently, Raft described Kornilov as “not a man, but an element.” True, there was also a black episode during the war - Kornilov’s division was surrounded on the Hungarian Plain and lost thousands of people killed and captured. Then Kornilov barely escaped the tribunal, to which General Brusilov, who treated Lavr Georgievich rather coolly, was going to hand him over.

In April 1915, Kornilov's division, which covered the retreat of Russian troops, was severely defeated by superior enemy forces. The general personally led one of the battalions of the division and, having received two wounds in the arm and leg, after a bayonet battle he was captured by the Austro-Hungarians. In July 1916, Kornilov, who was kept in a prison camp for senior officers near Vienna, managed to escape. He managed to escape through Romania and, having recovered a little at home from the consequences of captivity, already in September 1916 he was appointed commander of the XXV Army Corps of the Special Army, commanded by cavalry general Vasily Gurko. At the beginning of 1917, Kornilov was appointed commander of the troops of the Petrograd Military District. Emperor Nicholas II approved the general for this position, and Kornilov took command after the overthrow of the monarchy, in early March 1917. It was Lavr Kornilov who led the arrest of the royal family, but subsequently he himself was very upset that such an order from the Provisional Government fell to his lot.

Having orientated himself in the changed political situation, General Kornilov tried to save the army from collapse and ensure the protection of the Russian capital from the advancing German troops. However, the military general could no longer hinder the influence of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. For all his military valor, Kornilov had little understanding of politics; if he understood the need for changes in the country, it was based on his own ideas. In April 1917, not wanting to participate in revolutionary changes, he refused the post of commander of the Petrograd Military District and was transferred to the commander of the 8th Army to the front. Under the command of Kornilov, the army achieved impressive successes.

On July 19, 1917, Infantry General Lavr Kornilov was appointed the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, replacing General Alexei Brusilov in this post. This appointment immediately inspired the right-wing circles of officers with hope for the salvation of “old Russia.” Indeed, Kornilov tried to restore a strict management system, but was faced with the inaction of the Provisional Government and its structures. Believing that a catastrophic situation had developed in the country, Kornilov organized an attack by loyal units on Petrograd in August 1917, after which he was declared a rebel by the head of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky. From September 1 to November 1917, General Kornilov and his closest associates were under arrest in Mogilev and Bykhov, and after the October Revolution he was released by order of General Dukhonin and, at the head of the Tekinsky regiment guarding him, departed for the Don.

It was Lavr Kornilov who became one of the organizers and the first commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army on the Don. However, the lack of support for the Don Cossacks and the suicide of Ataman Kaledin forced the Kornilovites to move south to Kuban. On February 9 (22), 1918, the First Kuban Campaign of the Volunteer Army began, which went down in history under the name “Ice Campaign”. The ice campaign brought death to General Kornilov. On March 31 (April 13), 1918, during the assault on Yekaterinodar, an enemy grenade flew into the house where General Kornilov’s headquarters was located. By a coincidence of circumstances, which General Denikin later called nothing less than mystical, only one grenade hit the house, it hit the room where General Kornilov was, and only Kornilov alone died from its explosion. The adjutants who rushed to the general could no longer do anything - Lavr Georgievich Kornilov died. The body of the deceased commander was buried in the area of ​​the German settlement of Gnachbau, and the grave was razed to the ground during the retreat - the general’s comrades understood perfectly well that they would try to find the remains of the deceased in order to mock them. The Red Army soldiers, having burst into Gnachbau, began to look for a hidden cash register, which supposedly could be buried in the village, and accidentally stumbled upon the coffin of General Kornilov. The body of the deceased general was taken out and taken to Yekaterinodar, where they mocked him in one of the squares, and then burned him. The widow of Lavr Georgievich Taisiya Vladimirovna accused generals Denikin and Alekseev of failing to take Kornilov’s body out of Kuban for a proper burial. However, a number of researchers refutes the version that the Bolsheviks mocked the general’s body, and this circumstance, when speaking about his death, must also be taken into account.

The civil war is a terrible tragedy for the country. Brother killed brother, the best people of the country died, and from all sides involved. The memory of General Kornilov as a war hero and defender of his homeland has been carefully erased for many decades. Now, a century after those tragic events, it would be reasonable for modern supporters of the “reds” and “whites” to abandon the further reproduction of hatred towards each other, the epidemics of renaming streets and the demolition of some monuments to replace them with others. Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin, Kornilov and Chapaev, Denikin and Budyonny - this is all the history of our country, significant people for it, each of whom wished good for Russia, although he understood this good based on his own worldview, experience, and values.

In the early morning of March 31, 1918, General Kornilov’s Volunteer Army fought heavy battles on the outskirts of Yekaterinodar. The capture of this southern city was to be a key moment in the fight against the revolution that had swept all of Russia.
THE EVE, the “volunteers” attacked the positions of the Red Guards throughout the day, killing some of the best officers of the White Army - Colonel Nezhintsev, commander of the Kornilov regiment, and Captain Kurochkin, who led the partisan regiment.
Lavr Georgievich Kornilov was very upset about the death of his comrades. From the moment he said goodbye to Nezhintsev’s body, no one around him saw a smile on his face.
At night a council of war was held. In a cramped room gathered people who would have to wage a difficult struggle against the Bolsheviks for several years - generals Alekseev, Romanovsky, Markov, Bogaevsky, Denikin. They had to decide whether to continue the assault on Yekaterinodar or go back to the steppes, fighting off the advancing Red Guard detachments. The situation was extremely difficult: the Volunteer Army had already lost over a thousand people killed and wounded, people were exhausted physically and mentally, ammunition was running out. The Cossack detachments, on which such hopes were pinned, are melting before our eyes - the Cossacks, dissatisfied with the heavy fighting, simply go home.
Kornilov looked around at his comrades with a tired look and said in a dull voice:
- The situation is really difficult, and I see no other way out than the capture of Ekaterinodar. Therefore, I decided to attack along the entire front at dawn.
All those present understood perfectly well that the “volunteers” were fighting at the limit of human strength - it was the fourth day of a difficult battle. Kornilov himself understood this clearly, because he said:
- Of course, we can all die in this case. But, in my opinion, it is better to die with honor. Retreat is now tantamount to death: without shells and ammunition it will be a slow agony.
General Alekseev proposed postponing the assault on the city for at least a day to give the exhausted soldiers a break. Kornilov was forced to agree.
But fate decreed otherwise. At half past seven in the morning, the red battery, which had long been shelling the lonely farm where the commander’s headquarters was located, finally took its target: a grenade pierced the roof of the house and exploded under the table at which Kornilov was sitting. A few minutes later the general was gone...

LAVR Georgievich Kornilov was born on August 18, 1870 in the family of a retired cornet of the Siberian Cossack army in the village of Karakalinskaya. The family was large and not rich, so the boy had to help his parents run the peasant farm from an early age. And from childhood, Laurus showed a strong interest in learning - first he went to the local parish school, and then with great difficulty his father enrolled him in the Omsk Cadet Corps.
The Cossack boy quickly realized: if he wants to achieve something in life, then he will have to rely only on himself, and if so, then he needs to be the best in everything. He graduated from the Cadet Corps with the highest score and in 1889 he was enrolled as a cadet in the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. Three years later, having received the rank of second lieutenant, Lavr Kornilov was sent to serve in the Turkestan artillery brigade.
Hard service in a distant garrison broke the destinies and souls of many young officers. But Kornilov was never a cowardly person: having served the required qualifications and received the rank of lieutenant, he passed the most difficult entrance exams and became a student at the Academy of the General Staff, where he immediately stood out for his brilliant successes in all academic disciplines.
Phenomenal efficiency, passion for learning and interest in science distinguished Kornilov all his life - suffice it to say that by the age of thirty he independently learned English, German, French, Tatar and Persian.
According to the results of the final exams at the academy, Lavr Georgievich was again among the first, receiving a small silver medal and the rank of captain ahead of schedule. His name was engraved on the honorary marble plaque of the academy.
As one of the best graduates, the young captain had the right to choose his future place of service. Brilliant military careers have always been made in capitals, but Kornilov amazed everyone by choosing... Turkestan, and the most remote region - the border with Afghanistan.
Here fate connected the officer with military intelligence. Over the course of five years, he managed to make business trips to Persia, Afghanistan, India and China. For seven months, with seven Cossacks, he wandered through the waterless deserts of Eastern Persia, changing his appearance, disguised as a merchant, then a dervish. The military-scientific reviews compiled by Lavr Georgievich based on the materials of these trips aroused envy and respect even among the vaunted British intelligence. Later, the headquarters of the Turkestan Military District published Kornilov’s works “Kashgaria, or Eastern Turkestan” and “Information concerning the countries adjacent to Turkestan”; these books became a serious scientific contribution to the ethnography and geography of Turkestan.

When the Russo-Japanese War began, Lieutenant Colonel Kornilov was assigned to the headquarters of the 1st Infantry Brigade and participated in the battles of Sandepu and Mukden. During the Battle of Mukden, he managed to remove three rifle regiments that were in danger of encirclement from Japanese attack, for which he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
Almost simultaneously with the award, Lavr Georgievich received the rank of colonel, which gave the rights of hereditary nobility. It was already a brilliant career for a native of a poor Cossack family, but Kornilov’s star was still just rising.
After the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the war with Japan, Kornilov served in the General Staff for about a year, and then spent four years as a military agent (attaché) in China, continuing to work in the interests of Russian military intelligence.
...On the very first day of the World War, July 19, 1914, Major General Kornilov left for the Southwestern Front, taking command of the 2nd Brigade of the 49th Infantry Division, and soon became commander of the 48th Infantry Division. This unit is known throughout Russia for its military affairs, receiving the name “steel”. It included the 189th Izmail, 190th Ochakovsky, 191st Largo-Kagulsky and 192nd Rymniksky regiments, covered with the glory of Suvorov and Rumyantsev.
Newspapers of that time called Kornilov “the new Suvorov”: his tactics were the main commandments of the “science of winning” - strength, speed and onslaught. A.I. Denikin recalled that what made Kornilov a true national hero were his traits such as “his ability to train troops, his personal courage, which terribly impressed the troops and created him great popularity among them, and finally, his high observance of military ethics towards his comrades.”
During the withdrawal from the Carpathians in 1915, Kornilov's division was surrounded. The Austrians sent a truce with a proposal to surrender. Lavr Georgievich replied that he personally could not surrender, resigned his command of the division and, together with his headquarters, disappeared into the forest. However, a few days later, after fruitless attempts to cross the front line, this group of Russian officers was captured.
The Austrians placed the captured Russian general in Neugenbach Castle near Vienna, then transferred to Hungary, to the castle of Prince Esterhazy. A characteristic feature of that time: Kornilov, if desired, could be released to Russia - it was enough to give a receipt for non-participation in further hostilities. And although Lavr Georgievich refused, the conditions of his captivity were quite tolerable: good food, medical care (during the last battle the general received two wounds - in the leg and in the arm), the opportunity to shop in the nearest town and even the services of a person left with him orderly
Another sign of the era: while in captivity, General Kornilov was awarded by the highest decree the Order of St. George, 3rd degree - for courage and skillful leadership of troops; all lower ranks of the division received crosses, and worthy officers received the Order of St. George, 4th degree. When the new Great War began three decades later, Russia was already completely different - a completely different “reward” awaited the soldiers for surrendering into enemy captivity...
...Kornilov would not have been Kornilov if he had calmly waited for the end of the war in captivity. Having barely recovered from his wounds, he began to prepare his escape. The first attempt failed - the captured officers tried to bribe the castellan of the castle to supply them with civilian clothes and passes, but he reported everything to his superiors. But a second one followed, which turned out to be successful: a Czech paramedic, for a lot of money, supplied the general with documents and a soldier’s uniform and took him out of the protected area. After wandering through the Romanian forests for almost a month, Lavr Georgievich was still able to reach the Danube and cross to the other side, finding himself at the disposal of the Russian army.
Escape from captivity made the name of General Kornilov famous. The fact is that by the fall of 1916, out of 60 Russian generals who were in captivity, only one escaped - Kornilov. Portraits of the national hero were published in all illustrated magazines in Russia, and when he arrived in Petrograd, the Mikhailovsky Artillery School arranged a solemn celebration for its graduate.
In September 1916, the general left for the front again: he was appointed commander of the 25th Army Corps of the Special Army of the Southwestern Front.
But Lavra Georgievich did not have to fight there for long. In February 1917, the revolution broke out, and already in early March, by decree of the Minister of War of the Provisional Government, he was appointed commander of the Petrograd Military District. However, the district as such no longer existed - the Russian army was crumbling before our eyes and losing its combat effectiveness, and in the city itself the Petrosoviet shared power with the Provisional Government.
On April 23, Kornilov sent a report to the Minister of War with a request to return him to the active army and in early May he was appointed to the post of commander of the 8th Army of the Southwestern Front. The authority of the new commander among the officers was unusually high; they hoped for him and believed in him.
A few days after taking office, Lavr Georgievich received a memo from Captain M. Nezhintsev, which outlined considerations about the reasons for the disintegration of the army and measures to counteract it. The ideas of the young officer turned out to be in tune with the thoughts of the general himself and therefore received his full approval and support. In May 1917, Nezhintsev began the formation of the 1st Kornilov Shock Regiment. In theory, this unit was supposed to change the mood at the front by its example. In fact, the Kornilovites became the “Praetorian Guard” of the commander. Steel helmets, black and red shoulder straps, chevrons with a skull and crossbones, as well as iron discipline distinguished these fighters from the decayed mass of soldiers. Shock units began to form in other sectors of the Southwestern Front. They included officers, cadets and volunteer soldiers. The Kornilovites launched surprise attacks on the almost unhindered advancing enemy, stopped propagandized regiments fleeing from their positions, and destroyed bands of deserters in the rear.
Nevertheless, Lavr Georgievich himself well understood that strike units alone would no longer be able to have a significant impact on the combat effectiveness of the entire army. The front spontaneously collapsed. The report from the Military Council of the Southwestern Front to the Provisional Government said: “Most of the units are in a state of increasing disintegration. There can be no talk of power and obedience, persuasion and persuasion have lost power - they are responded to with threats, and sometimes with execution. There have been cases , that the given order to rush to support was discussed for hours, so the support was late for a day. Some units left their positions without permission, without even waiting for the enemy to approach...”
The situation was becoming catastrophic. In his area, Kornilov fought as best he could against the collapse of the Russian army. In particular, he stated that only by shooting a few scoundrels can thousands of innocents be saved, and he ordered murderers and marauders to be shot, and their corpses to be displayed at crossroads with inscriptions. All revolutionary rallies at front-line positions were prohibited under threat of the use of weapons.
Such decisive actions against the backdrop of a general empty talk shop under revolutionary slogans gained the general even greater popularity, and they began to talk about him as a possible “savior of Russia.” When, on July 18, 1917, Kornilov was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief, many officers began to hope that the Russian army could still be saved from shame. As soon as he took office, Lavr Georgievich immediately began sketching out draft laws that could return the army to combat effectiveness and mobilize the entire country to support military operations. It was supposed to reintroduce the death penalty (it was abolished by decree of the Provisional Government) for agitators, instigators, and distributors of panic rumors and subversive literature.
However, Kornilov almost immediately began to have strong friction with the head of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky, for whom the extraordinary popularity of the new commander-in-chief suggested thoughts of a possible coup and military dictatorship. However, Alexander Fedorovich was not so wrong in his suspicions. Having lost faith in the empty chatter of the Provisional Government, Kornilov really began to lean towards the idea that at the moment when the country was dying, one should not speak, but act. He proposed introducing General Krymov’s 3rd Cavalry Corps into Petrograd “to restore order.” Still obviously unaware of anything, Kerensky approved the proposal - and only when the troops were already on the way did it suddenly dawn on the minister-chairman... The very next day, all the capital's newspapers called Kornilov a state traitor. In response, Lavr Georgievich published his statement, which said: “I, General Kornilov, the son of a Cossack peasant, declare to everyone and everyone that I personally do not need anything except the preservation of Great Russia, and I swear to bring the people through victory over the enemy to the Founding meeting at which he himself will decide his destinies and choose the way of his new state life. I am not able to betray Russia into the hands of its original enemy - the German tribe and make the Russian people slaves of the Germans and prefer to die on the field of honor and battle, so as not to see shame and disgrace of the Russian land..." With this, Kornilov ignored Kerensky's order to remove him from office. Then Kerensky declared General Kornilov a rebel and appealed to the Bolsheviks to “stand up for the defense of the revolution.” As you know, they responded immediately, as they saw opening opportunities to achieve their goals. Subsequent events showed that the Bolsheviks made a successful bet in this political game.
Hundreds of Bolshevik agitators were sent to meet Krymov’s corps, who played the main role in disrupting the Kornilov uprising. General Krymov himself shot himself.
Convinced that further resistance was useless and even criminal in relation to the people who trusted him, Kornilov surrendered and was arrested. However, the emergency commission of inquiry did not find any corpus delicti in the general’s actions.
The arrested generals and officers were placed in Bykhov, 50 kilometers from Mogilev. True, the security of the improvised prison was provided by three hundred Tekinsky cavalry regiment, completely devoted to Kornilov.
Having barely seized power, the Bolsheviks tried to quickly take military power into their own hands and at the same time destroy their most dangerous political enemy. For this purpose, former warrant officer N. Krylenko was sent to Mogilev Headquarters with a detachment of revolutionary sailors. But on the eve of their arrival, General Dukhonin, who had recently been appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief, ordered the release of all those arrested.
On November 19, General Kornilov, at the head of the Tekinsky regiment, went to the Don in marching order. And the very next day N. Dukhonin was torn to pieces by the red sailors.
Kornilov and his loyal Tekins covered about 400 km in seven days; on November 26, the detachment came across an ambush, retreated, but a day later, while crossing the railroad, they came under fire from an armored train. It became clear that they were already looking for the fugitives. Therefore, not wanting to further endanger the people loyal to him, Lavr Georgievich changed into civilian clothes and went on alone. Only a week later he reached Novocherkassk. Ironically, a little earlier, also disguised and made up, Kerensky also arrived in Rostov - this is how their struggle for power ended.
In Novocherkassk, Kornilov, together with General Alekseev, began active work to form an army capable of resisting the new government. By mid-January 1918, a small army was created - about 5,000 people, which included the officer regiment of General Markov, the Kornilov shock regiment of Colonel Nezhintsev, the partisan regiment of General Bogaevsky, the cadet battalion of General Borovsky, the Czechoslovak engineer battalion, 3 cavalry divisions and 4 artillery batteries (8 guns).
For a number of reasons, the army headquarters moved to Rostov, where the final formation of the Volunteer Army units was carried out. Kornilov spent all his time in continuous work. The general's enormous authority and personal charm greatly contributed to the influx of volunteers into parts of the new army. The writer Roman Gul, a participant in the first campaign of the Dobrarmiya, recalled later: “What pleasantly amazed everyone when meeting Kornilov was his extraordinary simplicity. In Kornilov there was neither a shadow nor a hint of bourbonism, so often found in the army. It was not felt in Kornilov.” His Excellency", "General of the Infantry". Simplicity, sincerity, gullibility merged in him with an iron will, and this produced a charming impression.
There was something “heroic” about Kornilov. Everyone felt this and therefore followed him blindly, with delight, through fire and water.”
The ring of red troops around Rostov was steadily narrowing, and Kornilov decided to go on a campaign. On the night of February 9, 3,700 volunteers entered the Don steppe - the last soldiers of the Russian Empire. Of these, 2,350 people were officers, among whom were 36 generals and 242 staff officers; 1,848 people became officers on the fronts of the World War - 351 staff captains, 394 lieutenants, 535 second lieutenants and 668 warrant officers.
On February 13, the commander convened a meeting that was supposed to decide what to do next - go to Yekaterinodar, where there were volunteer formations, or go to the area of ​​​​winter camps, camps of Don herds, away from the Bolshevik areas. Generals Lukomsky and Popov spoke in favor of the second option, since at the winter quarters, located away from the railway and covered from the north by the Don, it was possible to replenish the convoy, change the horse train and rest a little. However, the steppe region presented many difficulties for the small but monolithic Dobrarmiya: it was impossible to split it up; it would only be necessary to settle in winter huts in small detachments. As a result, Lavr Georgievich decided: we are going to Ekaterinodar.
By this time, the Volunteer Army had already covered 250 miles, easily knocking down weak Red Guard barriers. But the Kuban Military Revolutionary Committee and the commander of the Red troops, Avtonomov, had already managed to gather large enough forces to fight the White Guards. Now it was almost impossible to avoid a major battle with the Red Guards.
On March 2, the Whites occupied the village of Zhuravskaya with a fight, and the next day the real battle for Korenovskaya began. Here Kornilov put everything on the line - the last supply of ammunition was issued from the convoy, and at the decisive moment the last reserve went into battle. At the cost of incredible efforts and great sacrifices, Korenovskaya was taken, the way to Ekaterinodar was opened, and the supply of ammunition was replenished. But here, in Korenovskaya, Lavr Georgievich received the news that on March 1, Pokrovsky’s Kuban volunteers left Ekaterinodar and went beyond the Kuban. It was a heavy blow - the operation lost all meaning.
Kornilov decided to leave Kuban. But for this it was necessary to break through the advancing Red detachments and at the same time be able to preserve the bridge across the Kuban, which the Reds would try to destroy at the first opportunity. While Bogaevsky's regiment with great difficulty repelled the attacks of the Red Guards, the cadets and the Kornilov regiment captured the bridge. The volunteer army miraculously escaped from the encirclement.
However, things didn’t get any easier on the left bank either. In one day, the army fought about forty miles - the regiments were melting, the convoy with the wounded was increasing before our eyes, there was very little ammunition left, and the resistance of the Red troops was increasing.
The most difficult path was to Novodmitrovskaya: freezing rain poured down, all the roads turned into a mess of mud and snow. On the approaches to the village we had to ford a stormy river. By evening, frost unexpectedly struck, people and horses were covered with an ice crust - subsequently not only this transition, but the entire campaign from February 9 to April 30, 1918 was called “Ice.”
The village was supposed to be stormed from several sides, but it turned out that the officer regiment of General Markov, who was the first to cross, found himself alone in front of enemy positions. Markov decided: “That’s it, gentlemen officers, on a night like this we will all rest here in the field. We must go to the village!” The regiment struck with bayonets and with one attack drove the Red Guards out of Novodmitrovskaya.
For several days preparations were underway for the attack on Yekaterinodar. The Kuban Cossacks began to arrive, increasing the number of the Dobrarmiya to 6 thousand people. A number of regiments were able to be deployed into brigades.
Kornilov's plan was to defeat the red detachments south of Yekaterinodar, thereby ensuring the army a crossing, and increase the supply of ammunition due to captured warehouses, and then with a sudden attack take the village of Elizavetinskaya - there was a ferry crossing there. After this, the Volunteer Army was supposed to cross the Kuban and attack Ekaterinodar.
Kornilov was preparing a springboard for an attack on the city: Bogaevsky’s brigade, after a heavy battle, captured the surrounding villages of Grigorievskaya and Smolenskaya, Erdeli’s cavalry captured Elizavetinskaya, and a little later, the Markov and Bogaevsky brigades occupied Georgie-Afipskaya, capturing a convoy with precious shells.
But fate had already turned its back on the White Guards. First of all, the headquarters of the Volunteer Army underestimated the enemy's strength. Kornilov was also mistaken, leaving almost a third of his best forces to cover the convoy with the wounded and civilians: according to General Denikin, in this case, “over the tactical principles that required the rapid concentration of all forces for a decisive blow, the sense of humanity triumphed - the enormous moral strength of the leader, attracting the hearts of warriors to him and at the same time sometimes constraining the scope of strategy and tactics."
One way or another, within three days the Volunteer Army crossed to the left bank of the Kuban, and on March 27 the battle for Yekaterinodar began. Bogaevsky’s brigade went on the offensive, and by noon the next day had driven the Red units back to a line of farmsteads three miles from the city. On March 28 and 29, the battle became even more fierce. Having lost more than 1,000 people, the White Guards managed to clear the outskirts and even cling to the city outskirts. The mood at the commander's headquarters rose, and people began to hope to capture the city. Kornilov was in a hurry to attack the city, realizing that the volunteer forces were running out. Denikin later wrote: “In war, decisions are often made that seem reckless and simply risky. The first sometimes end successfully, the second often. Success in this case creates an aura of insight and genius for the commander, failure reveals only one negative side of the decision.
Kornilov took a risk and... died before the Ekaterinodar drama ended. Rock suddenly lowered the curtain, and no one will know what her epilogue would have been like."
By March 30, it became clear that the white troops were exhausted. But there was no longer a choice: the city had to be taken - or perish. However, the decisive assault was no longer destined to begin: at 7.30 in the morning, General Lavr Georgievich Kornilov was killed.
Anton Ivanovich Denikin took over command of the Volunteer Army. His order was immediately announced, which contained the following words: “At 7:30 a.m. on March 31, General Kornilov was killed by an enemy shell that hit the army headquarters. A man who loved Russia more than himself and could not bear its shame died the death of a brave man. ... Our loss is great, but may our hearts not be troubled by anxiety and may the will to continue the struggle not weaken. Each one should continue to fulfill his duty, remembering that we all bear our mite on the altar of the Fatherland." The volunteer army left Ekaterinodar, its soldiers had to drink to the bottom the bitter cup of a fratricidal war: ahead were four years of heavy fighting in the south of Russia, the result of which was defeat and a hasty evacuation from Crimea, and then a mournful, impoverished life in a foreign land. But that's a completely different story.
The bodies of Kornilov and Nezhintsev were buried at night in a vacant lot behind the German colony of Gnachbau, 50 versts from Ekaterinodar. No crosses were erected, the graves themselves were razed to the ground, but still, the very next day the Reds discovered the burials. The corpses were dug up, taken to the city, later the bodies were burned and the ashes were scattered in the steppe.
Thus ended the earthly journey of the “last soldier of the empire,” the Russian officer Lavr Georgievich Kornilov.

ATTITUDES towards the personality of General Kornilov changed several times over the seven decades of Soviet power - from “enemy of the people” to “worthy adversary” and back. In fairness, it should be noted that even the worst enemies of the white movement spoke about it with a touch of respect - given the character of the Bolsheviks, this says a lot. For example, in Alexei Tolstoy’s textbook novel “Walking Through Torment” you can see the following passage: “The Kornilov campaign was a failure. The main leaders and half of its participants died. It seemed that the future historian would need only a few words to mention it.
In fact, Kornilov’s “Ice March” was of extreme importance. The Whites found in it for the first time their language, their legend, received military terminology - everything, right down to the newly established White Order, depicting a sword and a crown of thorns on the St. George Ribbon."
Today, when Russia is once again recovering with great difficulty after tremendous upheavals, the image of the fighting general Kornilov, a brave soldier who selflessly served his country all his life and did not hide behind the soldiers’ backs, cannot be forgotten. Lavr Georgievich was poorly versed in politics, so he was mistaken in many ways, but he was a man of flesh and blood. And an honest soldier’s death on the battlefield justifies a lot.