Cossacks and Cossack units during the Great Patriotic War. Cossacks in the Great Patriotic War: For Faith and Fatherland

This article highlights the role of the Cossacks in the Great Patriotic War. The work is based on archival data from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

After October 1917, the Cossacks experienced the monstrous tragedy of the civil war and the decossackization policy pursued by the Bolshevik government. As a result of this policy, hundreds of thousands of Cossacks, including women and children, died. Tens of thousands of Cossacks ended up in exile. In the 20's early 30's. thousands of Cossack families were sent to the North. So, the inhabitants of 16 villages were completely evicted from the Kuban, 18 villages with a total number of about 60 thousand Cossacks were evicted from the Terek, the villages themselves were often renamed and settled by residents of other regions of the country.

Cossacks under Soviet rule were considered "non-proletarian elements" and were significantly limited in their rights. For example, the ban on service in the Red Army from the Cossacks was lifted only in 1936.

Revival of the military traditions of the Cossacks.
Due to the unfavorable foreign policy situation, it became clear that the USSR would have to prepare for war using only its internal reserves, and reserves, as you know, are both material (people, equipment, fuel) and intangible. The latter include culture and its achievements, as well as military traditions - the "military glory" of the army.

Under these conditions, the leadership of the Red Army threw all its efforts into the revival of the Cossack military formations, first removing all restrictions on joining the army from the Cossacks, and then starting to form Cossack cavalry and plastun formations.

The response to this act of the Soviet government was a letter from the Don Cossacks to the Kremlin, which contained the following lines: “Let our Marshals Voroshilov and Budyonny call the cry, we will flock like falcons to defend our Motherland ... Cossack horses in a good body, blades are sharp, Don collective-farm Cossacks are ready to fight with their breasts for the Soviet Motherland ... ". This letter shows that despite the obvious aggressive internal policy towards the “non-proletarian elements”, the Cossacks did not forget about their oath to come to the aid of the Motherland, and all, as one, were ready to defend it ...

By order of the People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov, a number of cavalry divisions received the name Cossack.

The old, traditional military uniform was also restored. It is interesting that later it, in fact, exactly sewn from a similar form of tsarist times, was abolished.

We must not forget and lose sight of the fact that the leadership of these units was taken over by prominent and hereditary Cossacks, who knew firsthand both the Cossack tactics and combat techniques, and the glorious fighting traditions of the Cossacks.

The leadership of the Red Army acted very wisely by appointing the commanders of these units of the Cossacks, 75 percent of whom, by the way, were participants in the Civil and First World Wars. In this regard, we can recall the words of Napoleon Bonaparte: "An army of lions led by a ram will always lose to an army of rams led by a lion"...

Cossacks in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War.

So, by 1940, five large Cossack formations were formed in the Red Army, as well as several separate plastun and cavalry brigades, in the ranks of which about 60 thousand fighters served. Considering the very approximate data of the TsAMO of the Russian Federation, as well as the “political peculiarity” of the conscription, we can assume that there were no more than 20-25 thousand hereditary Cossacks among them. However, the top military leadership noted that the soldiers of all Cossack formations without exception were impeccably trained in tactics, as well as equestrian and fire skills (remember the significance of the origin of the commanders of these units!).

From the beginning of 1940, the Cossack units began to disband again, but not for political, but for military reasons: analyzing the German offensive on Poland, and then on Belgium and France, the command of the Red Army came to the conclusion that the massive cavalry formations no longer met the requirements of combat operations .

In this regard, all Cossack formations began to hastily attach to the tank ones: cavalry-mechanized corps were created as part of tank, infantry and cavalry divisions. Among the latter, the overwhelming majority were precisely the Cossack divisions.

By June 22, 1941, the only large formation that consisted entirely of Cossack cavalry divisions was the 6th Cossack Cavalry Corps, stationed in the very heart of the Bialystok ledge ...

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War most of the Cossack divisions met on the western borders of the Soviet Union.

Cossack cavalry groups, using their maneuverability, made swift raids behind enemy lines, destroying communications, depleting the resource base and terrifying the enemy. At the same time, they themselves, armed only with sabers and rifles, suffered, of course, huge losses ...

Behind the front line, the Cossacks were among the first to respond to the calls of the leadership to stand up for the Motherland.

With the outbreak of war in the Cossack villages, the formation of voluntary hundreds began. Cossacks arrived at collection points on collective farm horses with their uniforms and edged weapons.

The newly formed volunteer units were poorly armed. They did not have divisional artillery, tanks, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, communications units and sappers. In battles with a well-armed enemy, they suffered heavy losses.

Feat L.M. Dovator and his Cossack cavalry corps.
In early August 1941, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko united the 50th and 53rd cavalry divisions concentrated on the right wing of the Western Front, which included up to 2.5 thousand Cossacks, and set them the task of striking at behind enemy lines, to tie down the enemy units operating in the Yartsevo area, and to prevent the fascist German command from reinforcing its Yelnin grouping against which our counterstrike was being prepared.

Colonel Lev Mikhailovich Dovator was appointed commander of the cavalry group, and Terek Cossack Issa Aleksandrovich and Kuban Cossack Melnik Kondrat Semyonovich were appointed commanders of the 50th and 53rd Cossack divisions.

Dovator, a native of Vitebsk, studied equestrian and military affairs with hereditary Cossacks.

The actions of the cavalry group under the command of Dovator behind enemy lines were distinguished by great thoughtfulness.
By the end of August, the Dovator group had worn out the nerves of the Nazis so much that they announced a reward for his murder or capture.
The strike of the cavalry group of Colonel Dovator was of great operational importance. The Cossacks destroyed over 2,500 enemy soldiers and officers, 9 tanks, over 200 vehicles, several military depots. Numerous trophies were captured, which were then used by partisan detachments.

On October 13, the cavalry group left the encirclement with heavy losses and concentrated in the forests east of Volokolamsk. Here the cavalry group entered the operational subordination of the 16th army under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky, then taking part in the defense of Moscow.

During this period, the Cossack cavalry was used as a kind of “rapid reaction force”: if a German breakthrough was planned on any sector of the front of the 16th Army, Dovator’s eagles were urgently sent there, who, with one kind of their cavalry attack, terrified the enemy.

On November 27, for the valor shown in battles with the invaders, the 3rd Cavalry Corps was renamed the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps, the 50th and 53rd Cavalry Divisions - the 2nd and 3rd Guards, respectively.

L.M. Dovator, tragically died on December 21, already during the counter-offensive operation: trying to raise the lying Cossacks by personal example, he was mortally wounded by a machine-gun fire ... He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Conclusion. The role of the Cossacks in the Great Patriotic War.

In connection with all of the above, I must say that the Cossack troops - in the form of large military formations - made the most valuable contribution to the victory over the Nazi troops precisely at the first stage of the Great Patriotic War. Here we can include, first of all, the actions of the 6th Cossack Cavalry Corps, which significantly spoiled the blood of the Germans in the "Bialystok Cauldron".

In October-November 1941, when the battle for the capital of our Motherland began to unfold, the Cossack units under the command of Generals Dovator, Pliev, and later Belov, fighting in complete encirclement, made a huge contribution to the defense of Moscow.

The exploits of the Dovator group, which consisted of 80% of hereditary Cossack warriors, forced the Germans to delay their attack on Moscow.
The Cossack formations demonstrated their greatest value not in frontal clashes, but in rear raids and raids on communications and supply of the Germans.

Large equestrian Cossack formations, due to their valor, military training and the effect of surprise, which had a considerable influence on the course of hostilities at the initial stage of the war, subsequently quite logically lost their significance and strength. In view of the subtleties of the strategy of modern combat, even at this very stage they were already considered an anachronism, a relic of history. The military leaders, who continued to look at the Cossack cavalry as a strategic unit in the old fashioned way, ensured huge losses among the Cossacks, often with sabers throwing themselves at tank wedges ...
The history of the war, thus, showed that the Cossacks, as a tool in the hands of the commanding headquarters, were remarkably suited for subversive operations behind enemy lines, but not for full-scale front-line operations.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, most of the Don Cossacks heroically fight the enemy. In the very first days of the war, the Cossacks of the 210th Motorized Division fought the aggressor. A huge number of Don Cossacks are enrolled in volunteer divisions.

Cossack leaders cover themselves with eternal glory. Full St. George Cavalier K.I. Nedorubov in October 1941 forms a cavalry squadron of volunteers and becomes its commander. In October 1943 he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Konstantin Iosifovich Nedorubov

Don Cossack S.I. Gorshkov enters the fight against the enemy already in the border battle, participating in the defense of Kyiv, and goes through the entire war, ending it with the rank of lieutenant general, commander of the famous 5th Guards Cavalry Don Cossack Corps, which fought all over Europe.

Sergei Ilyich Gorshkov

The Cossacks also actively participated in the partisan movement. The partisan detachment "Don Cossack" showed itself brightly. Partisan of this detachment Ekaterina Miroshnikova organized in the German rear several underground groups that were actively reconnaissance and sabotage activities, carried out communication between them and the command of the partisan detachment. A young, small, blond girl acted boldly and decisively. Being a swimmer, she crossed the Don several times, plunging into the icy water.

Katya Miroshnikova (right) with her friends

During the execution of the next task, the Germans seized E. Miroshnikova. Katya was tortured for eight days - she turned gray. At dawn on September 30, she was led to her execution. She did not live two and a half months before her birthday - December 14, 1942 she would have turned 20 years old. Only in May 1943, after a long search, her body was found.
Katya didn’t say anything to the Germans, didn’t betray anything, and died a hero. We have heard her words from the prison. Responding to a German translator, she stated: "Than to live with you, with bastards, it is better to die. I will die for the Motherland, I will die for Stalin".

Monument to Katya Miroshnikova

Reporting to Moscow about the feat of the young partisan, the command of the Don Cossack detachment noted that “Katya is also Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. I really wanted the youth to learn about the feat of their countrywoman, a young Cossack-Komsomol member who gave her life for the Motherland and would fight the way Katya Miroshnikova fought and hated the enemy ".

Ordinary residents of the Cossack regions of the Don did not stand aside from helping the front. In the spring of 1943, they raised money for the construction of the Don Cossack tank column. The Cossacks asked to transfer it to the 5th Don Cossack Corps, indicating in the letter the name of the Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin that "This corps is especially close to the heart of our people, because in its ranks there are Don Cossacks, mostly volunteers."

Among the Cossack emigration there were also those who sided with the enemy. The main among them was P.N. Krasnov, who welcomed Hitler's attack on our country and prepared punitive detachments for the Nazi army. By September 1943, Krasnov "deserved" the post of head of the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops of the Imperial Ministry of the Eastern Occupied Territories of Germany. In May 1945 in the city of Lienz (Austria) he was extradited by the British command of the Soviet military administration. Hanged in 1947 in the Lefortovo prison by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

P.N. Krasnov in Nazi uniform instructing recruits

The majority showed an example of selfless service to the motherland and selfless heroism in its defense. In the future, the Cossacks were actively involved in the process of post-war reconstruction of the country.

Cossack heroes and military leaders in the Great Patriotic War July 31st, 2016

As part of the campaign dedicated to the collection of signatures for the dismantling of the monument to the fascist accomplice Krasnov , many materials are published that tell about the activities of the Cossack collaborators. But in no case should we forget that the bulk of the Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army and partisan detachments. Most of the Cossacks remained faithful to the centuries-old tradition of serving Russia and defended their homeland with weapons in their hands.

During the years of World War II, 262 Cossacks were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Cossacks fought not only in the Cossack cavalry formations. Hundreds of thousands served in the infantry, artillery, tank troops, and aviation. Many Cossacks gained fame in dashing and furious air battles - including twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Nikolayevich Efimov (future Marshal of Aviation), Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Andreevich Kuznetsov (later - Commander of Aviation of the Navy). During the years of the Great Patriotic War, Colonel General Vasily Stepanovich Popov, Hero of the Soviet Union, a Don Cossack, a native of the village of Preobrazhenskaya, glorified his people. Terek Cossacks made a worthy contribution to the great victory over Nazi Germany: permanent commanderNorthern Fleet during the Great Patriotic Waradmiral Arseny Grigorievich Golovko, Colonel General of Aviation Nikolai Fedorovich Naumenko, Lieutenant General Vasily Grigoryevich Terentyev, Rear Admiral Pantelei Konstantinovich Tsallagov, major generals Mikhail Andreevich Baituganov, Nikolai Matveevich Didenko, Pyotr Mikhailovich Kozlov and many others.

Crew of tank ace Dmitry Lavrinenko (far left)

Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko - tanker, senior lieutenant. Born on September 10, 1914 in the village of Besstrashnaya (now Otradnensky district of the Krasnodar Territory) in the family of a Kuban Cossack. Russian.The hero of the USSR.

On October 9, in the battle near the village of Sheino, Lavrinenko alone managed to repel the attack of 10 German tanks. Using the proven tactics of tank ambushes and constantly changing position, Lavrinenko's crew thwarted an enemy tank attack and in the process burned one German tank.

On October 19, 1941, one single Lavrinenko tank defended the city of Serpukhov from the invasion of the invaders. His thirty-four destroyed an enemy motorized column that was advancing along the highway from Maloyaroslavets to Serpukhov.

On November 18, 1941, one Lavrinenko tank, being in an ambush near the highway leading to the village of Shishkino, again entered into battle with a German tank column, consisting of 18 vehicles. In this battle, Lavrinenko destroyed 6 German tanks.

On November 19, 1941, 8 German tanks appeared on the highway near the village of Gusenevo. The crew of Lavrinenko immediately took their places in the car and the thirty-four rushed at maximum speed towards the German tanks. In front of the column itself, she turned sharply to the side and froze in place. Shots rang out immediately. Lavrinenko hit at close range. Loading Fedotov barely had time to feed the shells. The lead tank was destroyed by the first shot. The rest got up. This helped Lavrinenko shoot without a miss. With seven shells he destroyed seven tanks. On the eighth shot, the trigger mechanism of the gun jammed, and the last German tank managed to escape.

Lavrinenko had a chance to participate in 28 tank battles, burn three times in a tank, and as a result, 52 tanks were destroyed. Lavrinenko fought on T-34-76 tanks of the 1941 model, where the tank commander was at the same time the gunner.

Irinin Alexander Ivanovich - machine gun gunner, guard sergeant. Born on February 2, 1925 in the village of Markinskaya, Tsimlyansky District, Rostov Region, in the family of a Don Cossack. Russian. Member of the Komsomol. The hero of the USSR.

On January 31, 1944, during the battle for the village of Nadtochaevka, Shpolyansky district, Cherkasy region, the Nazis counterattacked our cavalrymen. The enemy group, trying to break out of the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky encirclement, brought reserves into battle. At the critical moment of the battle of the guard, Sergeant Irinin broke into the enemy chain on a machine-gun cart and smashed the Nazis with long bursts from a machine gun, destroying more than 100 Nazis. The enemy faltered and retreated, suffering heavy losses. Taking advantage of the daring sortie of the machine gunner, the cavalry squadron quickly captured the large settlement of Nadtochaevka.
On February 7, 1944, when the unit broke into the village of Valyava, occupied by the Germans, the Cossack Irinin successfully repelled fierce enemy attacks with his machine gun crew. He was wounded three times, but continued to mow down the machine-gun fire of the advancing Nazis. Enemies, having decided to destroy the machine gunner at all costs, got close to him and began to throw grenades at him. The daring Cossack did not flinch, did not lose his head. He quickly grabbed enemy grenades that did not have time to explode from the ground and threw them at the Nazis. So Irinin repulsed five furious attacks and did not leave the conquered frontier.

Rybnikov Alexander Ilyich - battalion commander of the 690th Infantry Regiment, captain. Born on March 9, 1919 in the village of Temnolesskaya, now the Shpakovsky district of the Stavropol Territory, in a Cossack family. Russian. The hero of the USSR.

In April1945 battalion of the 690th Infantry Regiment126th division 43rd Army as part of3rd Belorussian Front participated inKönigsberg operation . On April 8, 1945, the battalion under the command of Captain Rybnikov, in street battles for Koenigsberg, in the battle for the zoo, destroyed up to 200 Nazis and took more than a thousand prisoners. During the fighting, the battalion commander was always in the combat formations of the units, inspired the fighters with personal courage. Being wounded, he remained in the ranks until the combat mission was completed.

Panov Stepan Ivanovich - platoon commander of the 1373rd rifle regiment, senior sergeant. Born on September 20, 1913 in the Sokolovka farm, now Chernyshkovsky district, Volgograd region, in a Cossack family. Russian. Member of the CPSU (b). The hero of the USSR.

From the award list: 03/28/1945 Comrade. Panov was appointed head of an assault group of 15 men to storm a heavily fortified enemy stronghold, which pinned down the flanks of two battalions. The stronghold consisted of 6 bunkers with a garrison of 60 German soldiers and officers armed with machine guns.

During the attack attack, when they approached the enemy at a distance of 50 meters, the enemy opened heavy fire from 6 machine guns and continuously threw faustpatrons.
From enemy fire, his group lost 11 people killed and wounded. With the remaining 4 fighters, he broke into the house, threw grenades at the Germans and, with the support of another assault group, completely cleared the enemy stronghold, destroying 4 machine-gun points and up to 30 German soldiers and officers in a short fight. In addition, he captured 15 German soldiers.

Having eliminated the stronghold, he made it possible for two battalions to launch a decisive attack.
During the period of offensive battles, it has 8 destroyed machine-gun points and up to 70 enemy soldiers and officers. In addition, he captured 35 German soldiers. “

Alexander Ivanovich Geraskin commander of the 30th Guards Cavalry Regiment,

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The revolution cost the Cossacks dearly. In the course of a cruel, fratricidal war, the Cossacks suffered enormous losses: human, material, spiritual and moral. Only on the Don, where by January 1, 1917, 4,428,846 people of different classes lived, as of January 1, 1921, 2,252,973 people remained. In fact, every second was "cut out". Of course, not everyone was “cut out” in the literal sense, many simply left their native Cossack regions, fleeing the terror and arbitrariness of local committees and committees. The same picture was in all other territories of the Cossack troops.

In February 1920, the 1st All-Russian Congress of Labor Cossacks took place. He adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Cossacks as a special class. Cossack ranks and titles were eliminated, awards and insignia were abolished. Separate Cossack troops were liquidated and the Cossacks merged with the entire people of Russia. In the resolution "On the construction of Soviet power in the Cossack regions", the congress "recognized as inexpedient the existence of separate Cossack authorities (voispolkoms)", provided for by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of June 1, 1918. In accordance with this decision, the Cossack regions were abolished, their territories were redistributed between the provinces, and the Cossack villages and farms were part of the provinces in which they were located. The Cossacks of Russia suffered a severe defeat. In a few years, the Cossack villages will be renamed into volosts, and the very word "Cossack" will begin to disappear from everyday life. Only in the Don and Kuban, Cossack traditions and orders continued to exist, and dashing and wild, sad and sincere Cossack songs were sung. Indications of Cossack affiliation disappeared from official documents. At best, the term "former estate" was used, and a biased and wary attitude towards the Cossacks is everywhere preserved. The Cossacks themselves answer the same and perceive the Soviet power as alien to them the power of non-residents. But with the introduction of the NEP, the open resistance of the peasant and Cossack masses to Soviet power gradually curtailed and ceased, and the Cossack regions were reconciled. Along with this, the twenties, the "NEP" years, this is also the time of the inevitable "erosion" of the Cossack mentality. Cossack customs and customs, religious, military and defense consciousness of the Cossacks, the traditions of the Cossack people's democracy were slighted and weakened by the communist and Komsomol cells, the Cossack labor ethics were undermined and destroyed by the committees. The Cossacks were also hard pressed by their social and political lack of rights. They said: "What they want, they do with the Cossack."

Decossackization was facilitated by the ongoing land management, in which political (land leveling) rather than economic and agronomic tasks came to the fore. Land management, conceived as a measure of streamlining land relations, in the Cossack regions became a form of peaceful decossackization through the "peasantry" of Cossack farms. The resistance to such land management on the part of the Cossacks was explained not only by the unwillingness to give land to non-residents, but also by the struggle against the squandering of land, the grinding of farms. And the last trend was threatening - so in the Kuban the number of farms increased from 1916 to 1926. by more than one third. Some of these "owners" did not even think of becoming a peasant and running an independent economy, because the majority of the poor simply did not know how to effectively run a peasant economy.
A special place in the policy of decossackization is occupied by the decisions of the April 1926 plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP(b). Some historians regarded the decisions of this plenum as a turn towards the revival of the Cossacks. In reality, things were different. Yes, among the party leadership there were people who understood the importance of changing the Cossack policy (N.I. Bukharin, G.Ya. Sokolnikov and others). They were among the initiators of raising the Cossack question in the framework of the new policy "face to the village". But this did not cancel the course towards decossackization, giving it only a “softer”, camouflaged form. At the 3rd plenum of the North Caucasian Regional Committee of the RCP(b), Secretary of the Regional Committee A.I. Mikoyan: “Our main task in relation to the Cossacks is to involve the Cossacks-poor and middle peasants in the Soviet public. Undoubtedly, this task is very difficult. We will have to deal with the specific everyday and psychological traits that have taken root over many decades and were artificially nurtured by tsarism. We need to overcome these traits and grow new ones, our Soviet ones. From the Cossack you need to make a Soviet public figure ... ". It was a two-faced line that, on the one hand, legalized the Cossack question, and on the other hand, strengthened the class line and the ideological struggle against the Cossacks. And two years later, party leaders reported on successes in this struggle. Secretary of the Kuban District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks V. Cherny concluded: "... Neutralism and passivity show the reconciliation of the main Cossack masses with the existing Soviet regime and give reason to believe that there is no force that would now raise the majority of the Cossacks to fight against this regime." First of all, the Cossack youth followed the Soviet government. She was the first to be torn away from the earth, family, service, church and traditions. The surviving representatives of the older generation came to terms with the new order. As a result of a system of measures in the economic and socio-political spheres, the Cossacks ceased to exist as a socio-economic group. Cultural and ethnic foundations were also greatly shaken.

Thus, we can say that the process of liquidation of the Cossacks took place in several stages. First, having abolished the estates, the Bolsheviks waged an open war with the Cossacks, and then, retreating in the New Economic Policy, they pursued a policy of turning the Cossacks into peasants - "Soviet Cossacks". But the peasants, as independent producers of goods, were perceived by the communist authorities as the last exploiting class, the petty bourgeoisie, generating "daily and hourly" capitalism. Therefore, at the turn of the 1930s, the Bolsheviks made a "great turning point" by "depeasantizing" peasant Russia. The "Great Break", in which the regions of the Don and Kuban became an experimental field, only completed the process of decossackization. Together with millions of peasants, the Cossacks who had already been decossacked died or became collective farmers. So, the path of the Cossacks from estate to non-estate, which ran through differentiation, stratacid, peasantization to the "socialist class" - collective farmers, and then to state farmers - state peasants - turned out to be truly a cross way.
The remnants of their ethnic culture, dear to every Cossack, they hid deep into the soul. Having built socialism in this way, the Bolsheviks, led by Stalin, returned some of the external attributes of Cossack culture, mainly those that could work for sovereignty. A similar reformatting took place with the church. Thus ended the process of decossackization, in which various factors intertwined, turning it into a complex socio-historical problem that requires careful study.

The situation was no better in the Cossack emigration. For the evacuated White Guard troops, a real ordeal began in Europe. Hunger, cold, disease, cynical indifference - ungrateful Europe responded to the suffering of tens of thousands of people to whom she owed a lot during the First World War. “In Gallipoli and Lemnos, 50 thousand Russians, left by everyone, were a living reproach before the eyes of the whole world to those who used their strength and blood when they were needed, and abandoned them when they fell into misfortune,” white emigrants angrily resented in the book "The Russian army in a foreign land". The island of Lemnos has been rightly called the "island of death". And in Gallipoli, life, according to its inhabitants, "seemed at times to be a hopeless horror." Since May 1921, emigrants began to move to the Slavic countries, but even there their life turned out to be bitter. In the masses of white émigrés there was an epiphany. The movement among the Cossack emigration for a break with the corrupt generals and for returning to their homeland received a truly massive character. The patriotic forces of this movement created their own organization in Bulgaria, the Union of Homecoming, and organized the publication of the newspapers Home and New Russia. Their campaign was a great success. For 10 years (from 1921 to 1931), almost 200 thousand Cossacks, soldiers and refugees returned from Bulgaria to their homeland. The desire to return to their homeland among the ordinary mass of the Cossacks and soldiers turned out to be so strong that it also captured some of the white generals and officers. A great resonance was caused by the appeal of a group of generals and officers "To the troops of the White armies", in which they announced the collapse of the aggressive plans of the Whites, the recognition of the Soviet government and their readiness to serve in the Red Army. The appeal was signed by Generals A.S. Secrets (former commander of the Don Corps, which broke through the blockade of the Veshensky uprising), Yu. Gravitsky, I. Klochkov, E. Zelenin, as well as 19 colonels, 12 military foremen and other officers. Their appeal read: “Soldiers, Cossacks and officers of the White armies! We, your old bosses and comrades in the former service in the White Army, call on you all to honestly and openly break with the leaders of the White ideology and, recognizing the Government of the USSR existing in your homeland, boldly go home ... Every extra day of our existence abroad tears us away from our homeland and gives rise to international adventurers to build their treacherous adventures on our heads. We must resolutely dissociate ourselves from this base and vile betrayal of our homeland, and everyone who has not lost the feeling of love for the fatherland must quickly join the working people of Russia ... ". Tens of thousands of Cossacks once again believed the Soviet government and returned. Nothing good came of it. Later, many of them were repressed.

After the end of the civil war in the USSR, restrictions were imposed on the Cossacks for military service in the Red Army, although many Cossacks served in the command cadres of the Red Army, primarily the “red” participants in the civil war. However, after the fascists, militarists and revanchists came to power in a number of countries, the world smelled heavily of a new war, and positive developments began to occur in the USSR in the Cossack issue. On April 20, 1936, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution on the abolition of restrictions on the service of the Cossacks in the Red Army. This decision received great support in Cossack circles. In accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov N 061 dated April 21, 1936, 5 cavalry divisions (4,6,10,12,13) ​​received the status of Cossack. Territorial Cossack cavalry divisions were created in the Don and the North Caucasus. Among others, in February 1937, the Consolidated Cavalry Division was formed in the North Caucasian Military District, consisting of the Don, Kuban, Terek-Stavropol Cossack regiments and a regiment of highlanders. This division participated in the military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 1, 1937. By a special act, the wearing of the previously prohibited Cossack uniform was restored in everyday life, and for regular Cossack units, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 67 of 04/23/1936, a special everyday and dress uniform was introduced, which largely coincided with the historical one, but without shoulder straps. The everyday uniform for the Don Cossacks consisted of a hat, cap or cap, overcoat, gray hood, khaki beshmet, dark blue trousers with red stripes, general army boots and general cavalry equipment. The everyday uniform for the Terek and Kuban Cossacks consisted of a kubanka, a cap or cap, an overcoat, a colored hood, a khaki beshmet, blue general army trousers with piping, light blue for the Terts and red for the Kuban. General army boots, general cavalry equipment. The full dress uniform of the Don Cossacks consisted of a hat or cap, an overcoat, a gray hood, a Cossack, a scarf with stripes, general army boots, general cavalry equipment, and a saber. The parade uniform of the Terek and Kuban Cossacks consisted of a kubanka, a colored beshmet (the Kubans have red, the Terts have light blue), the Circassians (the Kubans have dark blue, the Terts have steel-gray), cloaks, Caucasian boots, Caucasian equipment, colored hood ( red for Kuban, light blue for Terts) and Caucasian drafts. The cap at the bottoms had a red band, a crown and a dark blue bottom, piping along the top of the band and a crown red. The cap for the Terek and Kuban Cossacks had a blue band, a tulle and a khaki bottom, black piping. The hat for the bottoms is black, the bottom is red, a black soutache is sewn on top crosswise in two rows, and for command personnel a yellow gold soutache or galloon. In this dress uniform, the Cossacks walked at the military parade on May 1, 1937, and after the war at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 on Red Square. All those present at the parade on May 1, 1937 were amazed at the high level of skill of the Cossacks, who galloped twice along the wet paving stones of the square. The Cossacks showed that they were ready, as before, to defend the Motherland with their breasts.

Rice. 2. Cossacks in the Red Army

It seemed to the enemies that the decossackization in the Bolshevik way took place abruptly, finally and irrevocably, and the Cossacks could never forget and forgive this. However, they miscalculated. Despite all the grievances and atrocities of the Bolsheviks, the vast majority of the Cossacks during the Great Patriotic War held out on patriotic positions and took part in the war on the side of the Red Army in hard times. During the Great Patriotic War, millions of Soviet people stood up to defend their homeland, and Cossacks were in the forefront of these patriots. By June 1941, as a result of the reforms carried out following the results of the Soviet-Finnish and the first period of the Second World War, the Red Army was left with 4 cavalry corps of 2-3 cavalry divisions each, a total of 13 cavalry divisions (including 4 mountain cavalry ). According to the state, the corps had over 19 thousand people, 16 thousand horses, 128 light tanks, 44 armored vehicles, 64 field, 32 anti-tank and 40 anti-aircraft guns, 128 mortars, although the actual combat strength was less than the regular one. Most of the personnel of the cavalry formations were recruited from the Cossack regions of the country and the republics of the Caucasus. In the very first hours of the war, the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossacks of the 6th Cossack Cavalry Corps, the 2nd and 5th Cavalry Corps and a separate cavalry division, located in the border districts, entered into battle with the enemy. The 6th Cavalry Corps was considered one of the most well-trained formations of the Red Army. G.K. wrote about the level of training of the corps in his memoirs. Zhukov, who commanded it until 1938: “The 6th Cavalry Corps was much better than other units in terms of its combat readiness. In addition to the 4th Don, the 6th Chongar Kuban-Terek Cossack division stood out, which was well prepared, especially in the field of tactics, equestrian and fire business.

With the declaration of war in the Cossack regions, the formation of new cavalry divisions began at a rapid pace. The main burden for the formation of cavalry divisions in the North Caucasian military district fell on the Kuban. In July 1941, five Cossacks of military age were formed there, and in August four more Kuban cavalry divisions. The system of training cavalry units in territorial formations in the pre-war period, especially in regions densely populated by the Cossack population, made it possible, without additional training, in a short time and with minimal expenditure of manpower and resources, to put well-prepared units in combat relation to the front. The North Caucasus turned out to be a leader in this matter. In a short period of time (July-August 1941), seventeen cavalry divisions were sent to the active armies, which amounted to more than 60% of the number of caval formations formed in the Cossack regions of the entire Soviet Union. However, the mobile resources of the Kuban for persons of military age suitable for combat missions in the cavalry were almost completely exhausted in the summer of 1941. As part of the cavalry formations, about 27 thousand people were sent to the front, who had been trained in the Cossack territorial cavalry formations in the pre-war period. In the entire North Caucasus, in July-August, seventeen cavalry divisions were formed and sent to the active army, this is more than 50 thousand people of military age. At the same time, the Kuban sent more of its sons to the ranks of the defenders of the Fatherland during this period of hardest fighting than all the other administrative units of the North Caucasus combined. Since the end of July, they have been fighting on the Western and Southern fronts. Since September, in the Krasnodar Territory, it has remained possible to form only volunteer divisions, through the selection of soldiers suitable for service in the cavalry, mainly from persons of non-conscription age. Already in October, the formation of three such volunteer Kuban cavalry divisions began, which then formed the basis of the 17th Cavalry Corps. In total, by the end of 1941, about 30 new cavalry divisions were formed on the Don, Kuban, Terek and Stavropol. Also, a large number of Cossacks volunteered for the national parts of the North Caucasus. Such units were created in the fall of 1941 following the example of the experience of the First World War. These cavalry units were also popularly called the "Wild Divisions".

In the Urals military district, more than 10 cavalry divisions were formed, the backbone of which was the Ural and Orenburg Cossacks. In the Cossack regions of Siberia, Transbaikalia, Amur and Ussuri, 7 new cavalry divisions were created from local Cossacks. Of these, a (later the 6th Guards Order of Suvorov) cavalry corps was formed, which fought over 7 thousand km. Its units and formations were awarded 39 orders, received the honorary title of Rivne and Debrecen. 15 Cossacks and officers of the corps were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The corps has established close patronage ties with the workers of the Orenburg region and the Urals, the Terek and Kuban, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Replenishment, letters, gifts came from these Cossack regions. All this allowed the corps commander S.V. Sokolov to address May 31, 1943 to Marshal of the Soviet Union S.M. Budyonny with a petition to name the cavalry divisions of the corps Cossack. In particular, the 8th Far East was supposed to be called the cavalry division of the Ussuri Cossacks. Unfortunately, this petition was not granted, as were the petitions of many other corps commanders. Only the 4th Kuban and 5th Donskoy Guards Cavalry Corps received the official name of the Cossacks. However, the absence of the name "Cossack" does not change the main thing. The Cossacks made their heroic contribution to the glorious victory of the Red Army over fascism.

Thus, at the beginning of the war, dozens of Cossack cavalry divisions fought on the side of the Red Army, they had 40 Cossack cavalry regiments, 5 tank regiments, 8 mortar regiments and divisions, 2 anti-aircraft regiments and a number of other units, fully equipped with Cossacks of various troops. By February 1, 1942, 17 cavalry corps were operating at the front. However, due to the great vulnerability of the cavalry from artillery fire, air strikes and tanks, their number was reduced to 8 by September 1, 1943. The combat strength of the remaining cavalry corps was significantly strengthened, it included: 3 cavalry divisions, self-propelled artillery, anti-tank artillery and anti-aircraft artillery regiments, guards mortar regiment of rocket artillery, mortar and separate anti-tank battalions.
In addition, among the famous people during the Great Patriotic War there were many Cossacks who fought not in the "branded" Cossack cavalry or plastun units, but in other parts of the Red Army or distinguished themselves in military production. Among them:

Tank ace No. 1, Hero of the Soviet Union D.F. Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless;
- Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D.M. Karbyshev - a natural Cossack-Kryashen, a native of Omsk;
- Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral A.A. Golovko - Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Prokhladnaya;
- designer-gunsmith F.V. Tokarev - a Don Cossack, a native of the village of the Yegorlyk Region of the Don Army;
- Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Fronts, General of the Army, Hero of the Soviet Union M.M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of the Ust-Medveditskaya Region of the Don Cossack Army.

At the initial stage of the war, the Cossack cavalry units participated in difficult border and Smolensk battles, in battles in Ukraine, in the Crimea and in the Moscow battle. In the Battle of Moscow, the 2nd Cavalry (Major General P.A. Belov) and the 3rd Cavalry (Colonel, then Major General L.M. Dovator) Corps distinguished themselves. The Cossacks of these formations successfully used the traditional Cossack tactics: ambush, venter, raid, bypass, envelopment and infiltration. The 50th and 53rd cavalry divisions, from the 3rd cavalry corps of Colonel Dovator, from November 18 to 26, 1941, raided the rear of the 9th German army, having fought 300 km. During the week, the cavalry group destroyed over 2,500 enemy soldiers and officers, knocked out 9 tanks and more than 20 vehicles, and defeated dozens of military garrisons. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated November 26, 1941, the 3rd Cavalry Corps was transformed into the 2nd Guards, and the 50th and 53rd Cavalry Divisions, for the courage and military merits of their personnel, were among the first to be transformed into the 3rd and 4th Guards Cavalry Divisions respectively. The 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps, in which the Cossacks of the Kuban and Stavropol Territory fought, fought as part of the 5th Army. Here is how the German military historian Paul Karel recalled the actions of this corps: “The Russians in this wooded area acted bravely, with great skill and cunning. Which is not surprising: the units were part of the elite Soviet 20th Cavalry Division, an assault formation of the famous Cossack Corps, Major General Dovator. Having made a breakthrough, the Cossack regiments concentrated at various key points, formed into battle groups and began to attack headquarters and warehouses in the German rear. They blocked roads, destroyed lines of communication, blew up bridges, and now and then attacked logistics columns, destroying them mercilessly. So, on December 13, squadrons of the 22nd Cossack regiment defeated the artillery group of the 78th Infantry Division 20 kilometers behind the front line. They threatened Lokotna, an important supply base and transport hub. Other squadrons carried out a throw to the north between the 78th and 87th divisions. As a result, the entire front of the 9th Corps literally hung in the air. The forward positions of the divisions remained intact, but the lines of communication, the lines of communication with the rear, were cut. Ammunition and food stopped coming in. There was nowhere to put a few thousand wounded who had accumulated on the front line.

Rice. 3. General Dovator and his Cossacks

During the border battles, our troops suffered significant losses. The capabilities of rifle divisions in combat terms decreased by 1.5 times. Due to heavy losses and a lack of tanks, the mechanized corps were already disbanded in July 1941. For the same reason, individual tank divisions were also disbanded. Losses in manpower, horse composition and equipment led to the fact that the brigade became the main tactical formation of the armored forces, and the cavalry division. In this regard, on July 5, 1941, the Headquarters of the High Command approved a resolution on the formation of 100 light cavalry divisions of 3,000 people each. In total, 82 light cavalry divisions were formed in 1941. The combat composition of all light cavalry divisions was the same: three cavalry regiments and a chemical defense squadron. The events of 1941 make it possible to draw a conclusion about the great significance of this decision, since cavalry formations had an active influence on the course and outcome of major operations in the first period of the war, if they were assigned combat missions inherent in cavalry. They were able to unexpectedly attack the enemy at a given time and in the right place and, with their quick and accurate exits to the flanks and rear of the German troops, restrain the advance of their motorized infantry and tank divisions. In off-road conditions, mudslides and heavy snow, the cavalry remained the most effective mobile fighting force, especially with a shortage of mechanized cross-country vehicles. For the right to possess it in 1941, one might say, there was a struggle between the commanders of the fronts. The record of negotiations between the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General A.M. Vasilevsky and Chief of Staff of the Southwestern Front, General P.I. Vodin on the night of October 27-28. The first of them outlined the decision of the Headquarters to transfer the cavalry to the troops defending the capital. The second one tried to evade the execution of the order, he said that the 2nd Cavalry Corps of Belov, which is at the disposal of the South-Western Front, has been conducting continuous battles for 17 days and needs to replenish its combat strength, that the Commander-in-Chief of the South-Western Direction, Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Tymoshenko does not consider it possible to lose this corps. Supreme Commander I.V. Stalin first correctly demanded through A.M. Vasilevsky to agree with the proposal of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, and then simply ordered to inform the front command that the trains for the transfer of the 2nd Cavalry Corps had already been submitted, and reminded him of the need to give a command to load it. Commander of the 43rd Army, Major General K.D. Golubev in the report of I.V. Stalin of November 8, 1941, among other requests, indicated the following: “... We need cavalry, at least one regiment. They formed only a squadron on their own." The struggle between the commanders for the Cossack cavalry was not in vain. Belov's 2nd Cavalry Corps, deployed near Moscow from the Southwestern Front, reinforced by other units and the Tula militia, defeated Guderian's tank army near Tula. This phenomenal case (the defeat of a tank army by a cavalry corps) was the first in history and recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. For this defeat, Hitler wanted to shoot Guderian, but his comrades in arms interceded and saved him from the wall. Thus, not having sufficiently powerful tank and mechanized formations in the Moscow direction, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command effectively and successfully used cavalry to repel enemy attacks.

In 1942, the Cossack cavalry units fought heroically in the bloody Rzhev-Vyazemsky and Kharkov offensive operations. In the Battle for the Caucasus, during tense defensive battles in the Kuban and Stavropol Territory, the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant General N.Ya. Kirichenko) and the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps (Major General A .G. Selivanov). These corps were composed mainly of volunteer Cossacks. As early as July 19, 1941, the Krasnodar Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Regional Executive Committee decided to organize cavalry Cossack hundreds in order to assist the fighter battalions in combating possible enemy paratroopers. Collective farmers without age restrictions were enrolled in the cavalry Cossack hundreds, who knew how to drive a horse and wield firearms and edged weapons. Horse equipment was content with them at the expense of collective farms and state farms, the Cossack uniform at the expense of each fighter. In agreement with the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, on October 22, the formation of three Cossack cavalry divisions began on a voluntary basis from among the Cossacks and Adyghes without age restrictions. Each district of the Kuban formed a hundred volunteers, 75% of the Cossacks and commanders were participants in the civil war. In November 1941, hundreds were brought into regiments, and from the regiments they made up the Kuban Cossack cavalry divisions, which formed the basis of the 17th cavalry corps, which was included in the personnel of the Red Army on January 4, 1942. The newly created formations became known as the 10th, 12th and 13th cavalry divisions. 04/30/1942 the corps became subordinate to the Commander of the North Caucasian Front. In May 1942, by order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, 15 (Colonel S.I. Gorshkov) and 116 (Ya.S. Sharaburno) Don Cossack divisions were poured into the 17th Cavalry Corps. In July 1942, Lieutenant General Kirichenko Nikolai Yakovlevich was appointed commander of the corps. The basis of all cavalry formations of the corps were volunteer Cossacks, whose age ranged from fourteen to sixty-four years. Cossacks sometimes came in families with their children.

Rice. 4 Kuban Cossack volunteers at the front

In the history of the first period of the Great Patriotic War, the process of formation of volunteer Cossack cavalry formations occupies a special place. Tens of thousands of Cossacks, including those who were released from service due to age or health reasons, voluntarily went to the formed Cossack regiments of the people's militia and other units. So, the Cossack of the Don village of Morozovskaya I.A. Khoshutov, being at a very advanced age, volunteered for the Cossack militia regiment along with his two sons - sixteen-year-old Andrei and fourteen-year-old Alexander. There were many such examples. It was from these volunteer Cossacks that the 116th Don Cossack Volunteer Division, the 15th Don Volunteer Cavalry Division, the 11th Separate Orenburg Cavalry Division, and the 17th Kuban Cavalry Corps were formed.

From the very first battles in June-July 1942, the press and radio reported on the heroic deeds of the Cossacks of the 17th Cavalry Corps. In reports from the fronts, their actions were set as an example to others. During the battles with the Nazi invaders, the Cossack formations of the corps retreated from their positions only by order. In August 1942, in order to break through our defenses in the area of ​​​​the village of Kushchevskaya, the German command concentrated: one mountain infantry division, two SS groups, a large number of tanks, artillery and mortars. Parts of the corps in equestrian formation attacked the concentration of enemy troops on the approaches and in Kushchevskaya itself. As a result of a swift cavalry attack, up to 1,800 German soldiers and officers were hacked to death, 300 were taken prisoner, and great damage was inflicted on materiel and military equipment. For this and for subsequent active defensive battles in the North Caucasus, the corps was transformed into the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps (NGO order No. 259 of 27.8.42). On August 2, 1942, in the area of ​​​​Kushchevskaya, the Cossacks of the 13th Cavalry Division (2 saber regiments, 1 artillery division) launched an unprecedented psychic attack in the equestrian formation up to 2.5 kilometers along the front on the 101st Infantry Division "Green Rose" and two SS regiments. On 08/03/42, the 12th Cavalry Division in the area of ​​​​the village of Shkurinskaya repeated a similar attack and inflicted heavy losses on the German 4th Mountain Division and the White Lily SS regiment.

Rice. 5. Saber attack of the Cossacks near Kushchevskaya

In the battles near Kushchevskaya, the Don Cossack hundred from the village of Berezovskaya under the command of Senior Lieutenant K.I. Nedorubov. On August 2, 1942, in hand-to-hand combat, a hundred destroyed over 200 enemy soldiers, of which 70 were personally destroyed by Nedorubov, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the First World War, the Cossack Nedorubov fought on the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. During the war he became a full Knight of St. George. During the Civil War, he first fought on the side of the Whites in the 18th Don Cossack Regiment of the Don Army. In 1918 he was taken prisoner and went over to the side of the Reds. On July 7, 1933, he was sentenced under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to 10 years in labor camp for “abuse of power or official position” (he allowed collective farmers to use the grain left after sowing for food). For three years he worked in Volgolag on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal, for shock work he was released ahead of schedule and awarded the Soviet order. During the Great Patriotic War, a 52-year-old Cossack, senior lieutenant K.I. Nedorubov, in October 1941, formed a Don Cossack hundred of volunteers in the village of Berezovskaya (now the Volgograd region) and became its commander. Together with him, his son Nikolai also served in the hundred. At the front since July 1942. His squadron (hundred) as part of the 41st Guards Cavalry Regiment, during raids on the enemy on July 28 and 29, 1942 in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Pobeda and Biryuchy farms, on August 2, 1942 near the village of Kushchevskaya, on September 5, 1942 in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe village of Kurinskaya and 16 October 1942, near the village of Maratuki, destroyed a large number of enemy manpower and equipment. Until the end of his life, this unbending warrior openly and proudly wore Soviet orders and St. George's crosses.

Rice. 6. Cossack Nedorubov K.I.

August and September 1942 were held in heavy defensive battles on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory. In the second half of September, two Kuban divisions of the corps, by order of the higher command, were transferred from the Tuapse region by rail through Georgia and Azerbaijan to the Gudermes-Shelkovskaya region in order to prevent the advance of the Germans in the Transcaucasus. As a result of heavy defensive battles, this task was completed. Here, not only the Germans, but also the Arabs inherited from the Cossacks. Hoping to break through the Caucasus to the Middle East, the Germans in early October 1942 introduced the Arab Volunteer Corps "F" into the Army Group "A" under the command of the 1st Panzer Army. Already on October 15, Corps "F" in the area of ​​​​the village of Achikulak in the Nogai steppe (Stavropol) attacked the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Kirichenko. Until the end of November, Cossack cavalrymen successfully resisted the Nazi Arab mercenaries. At the end of January 1943 Corps "F" was placed at the disposal of Army Group "Don" Field Marshal Manstein. During the fighting in the Caucasus, this German-Arab corps lost more than half of its composition, among which a significant part were Arabs. After that, the Arabs, beaten by the Cossacks, were transferred to northern Africa and did not appear again on the Russian-German front.

Cossacks from various formations also fought heroically in the Battle of Stalingrad. The 3rd Guards (Major General I.A. Pliev, from the end of December 1942 Major General N.S. Oslikovsky), 8th (from February 1943 7th Guards; Major General M.D. Borisov) and the 4th (Lieutenant General T.T. Shapkin) cavalry corps. Horses were used to a greater extent for organizing fast movement; in battle, the Cossacks were involved as infantry, although there were also attacks on horseback. In November 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the last cases of combat use of cavalry on horseback took place. The 4th cavalry corps of the Red Army, formed in Central Asia and until September 1942, carried out occupational service in Iran, became a participant in this event. The corps was commanded by the Don Cossack Lieutenant General Timofei Timofeevich Shapkin.

Rice. 7. Lieutenant General Shapkin T.T. on the Stalingrad front

During the civil war, Shapkin fought on the side of the Whites and, commanding a Cossack hundred, participated in Mamantov's raid on the red rear. After the defeat of the Don Army and the Bolsheviks conquering the region of the Don Cossacks, in March 1920, Shapkin with his hundred Cossacks transferred to the Red Army to participate in the Soviet-Polish war. During this war, he rose from the commander of a hundred to the commander of a brigade and earned two Orders of the Red Banner. In 1921, after the death of the famous commander of the 14th Cavalry Division Alexander Parkhomenko in a battle with the Makhnovists, he took command of his division. Shapkin received the third Order of the Red Banner for battles with the Basmachi. Shapkin, who wore a twisted mustache, was mistaken by the ancestors of the current guest workers for Budyonny, and his mere appearance in some village caused panic among the Basmachi of the entire district. For the elimination of the last Basmachi gang and the capture of the organizer of the Basmachi movement, Imbrahim-Bek, Shapkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Tajik SSR. Despite his white officer past, Shapkin was admitted to the ranks of the CPSU (b) in 1938, and in 1940 commander Shapkin was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. The 4th Cavalry Corps was supposed to participate in the breakthrough of the Romanian defense south of Stalingrad. Initially, it was assumed that the horsemen, as usual, would take the horses to cover, and the cavalrymen on foot would attack the Romanian trenches. However, the artillery preparation had such an impact on the Romanians that immediately after it ended, the Romanians got out of the dugouts and ran to the rear in a panic. It was then that it was decided to pursue the fleeing Romanians on horseback. The Romanians managed not only to catch up, but also to overtake, capturing a huge number of prisoners. Encountering no resistance, the cavalry took the Abganerovo station, where large trophies were captured: more than 100 guns, warehouses with food, fuel and ammunition.

Rice. 8. Captured Romanians near Stalingrad

A very curious incident occurred in August 1943 during the Taganrog operation. The 38th Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel I.K. Minakov. Rushing forward, he met one on one with a German infantry division and, dismounting, entered into battle with it. This division was at one time thoroughly battered in the Caucasus by the 38th Don Cavalry Division, and just before the meeting with the Minakov regiment, it came under a strong blow from our aircraft. However, even in this state, she represented even greater strength. It is difficult to say how this unequal battle would have ended if Minakov's regiment had a different number. Mistakenly mistaking the 38th Cavalry Regiment for the 38th Don Division, the Germans were horrified. And Minakov, having learned about this, immediately sent parliamentarians to the enemy with a brief but categorical message: “I propose to surrender. Commander of the 38th Cossack Division. The Nazis conferred all night and nevertheless decided to accept the ultimatum. In the morning, two German officers arrived at Minakov with an answer. And at 12 noon, the division commander himself, accompanied by 44 officers, granted. And what an embarrassment the Nazi general experienced when he found out that, together with his division, he had surrendered to the Soviet cavalry regiment! In the notebook of the German officer Alfred Kurz, picked up then on the battlefield, the following entry was found: “Everything that I heard about the Cossacks, during the war of 1914, pales before the horrors that we experience when we meet with them now. One memory of a Cossack attack horrifies me, and I tremble ... Even at night, in my sleep, the Cossacks pursue me. This is some kind of black whirlwind, sweeping away everything in its path. We are afraid of the Cossacks, as the retribution of the Almighty ... Yesterday my company lost all officers, 92 soldiers, three tanks and all machine guns.

Since 1943, the Cossack cavalry divisions began to merge with mechanized and tank units, in connection with which cavalry-mechanized groups and shock armies were formed. The horse-mechanized group of the 1st Belorussian Front initially consisted of the 4th Guards Cavalry and 1st Mechanized Corps. Later, the 9th Tank Corps was included in the association. The group was attached to the 299th Assault Aviation Division, and its operations at different times were supported by one to two air corps. In terms of the number of troops, the group was superior to the conventional army, its strike force was large. The shock armies, which consisted of cavalry, mechanized and tank corps, had a similar structure and tasks. Front commanders used them at the cutting edge.

Usually Pliev's cavalry-mechanized group entered the battle after breaking through the enemy defenses. The task of the cavalry-mechanized group was to, after breaking through the enemy defenses, join the battle through the gap they created. Entering the gap and breaking out into the operational space, developing a swift offensive at a large distance from the main forces of the front, with sudden and daring strikes, KMG destroyed the enemy’s manpower and equipment, smashed his deep reserves, and disrupted communications. The Nazis threw operational reserves against KMG from different directions. Fierce battles ensued. The enemy sometimes managed to encircle our formation of troops, and gradually the encirclement ring was greatly compressed. Since the main forces of the front were far behind, it was not necessary to count on their help before the start of the general offensive of the front. Nevertheless, the KMG managed to form a mobile external front even at a considerable distance from the main forces and bind all enemy reserves to itself. Such deep raids by the KMG and shock armies were usually carried out several days before the general offensive of the front. After the release of the blockade, the commanders of the fronts threw the remnants of the cavalry-mechanized group or shock armies from one direction to another. And they had time everywhere where it was hot.

In addition to the cavalry Cossack units during the war, the so-called "plastun" formations were formed from the Kuban and Terek Cossacks. Plastun is a Cossack infantryman. Initially, scouts were called the best Cossacks from those who performed a number of specific functions in battle (reconnaissance, sniper fire, assault actions), not typical for use in the cavalry. Cossacks-plastuns, as a rule, were transferred to the battlefield on two-horse carts, which ensured high mobility of foot units. In addition, certain military traditions, as well as the solidarity of the Cossack formations, provided the latter with the best combat and moral and psychological training. On the initiative of I.V. Stalin, the formation of the Plastun Cossack division began. The 9th mountain rifle division, previously formed from the Kuban Cossacks, was transformed into a Cossack division.

The division was now so saturated with traction equipment that it could independently perform combined marches of 100-150 kilometers a day. The number of personnel increased by more than one and a half times and reached 14.5 thousand people. It should be emphasized that the division was reorganized according to special states and with a special purpose. This was also emphasized by the new name, which, as stated in the order of the Supreme Commander of September 3, she received "for the defeat of the Nazi invaders in the Kuban, the liberation of the Kuban and its regional center - the city of Krasnodar." The division was now fully named as follows: 9th Plastunskaya Krasnodar Red Banner Order of the Red Star Division. Kuban took care of supplying the Cossack divisions with food and uniforms. Workshops were urgently created everywhere in Krasnodar and the surrounding villages, in which Cossack women sewed thousands of sets of Cossack and plastun uniforms - kubankas, Circassians, beshmets, and hoods. They sewed for their husbands, fathers, sons.

Since 1943, the Cossack cavalry divisions took part in the liberation of Ukraine. In 1944, they successfully operated in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky and Iasi-Kishinev offensive operations. Cossacks of the 4th Kuban, 2nd, 3rd and 7th Guards Cavalry Corps liberated Belarus. Ural, Orenburg and Transbaikal Cossacks of the 6th Guards Cavalry Corps advanced along the Right-Bank Ukraine and across Poland. The 5th Don Guards Cossack Corps successfully fought in Romania. The 1st Guards Cavalry Corps entered the territory of Czechoslovakia, and the 4th and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps entered Hungary. Later, units of the Guards 5th Don and 4th Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps especially distinguished themselves here in the important Debrecen operation. Then these corps, together with the 6th Guards Cavalry Corps, fought valiantly in the Budapest area and near Lake Balaton.

Rice. 9. Cossack unit on the march

In the spring of 1945, the 4th and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps liberated Czechoslovakia and smashed the enemy's Prague grouping. The 5th Don Cavalry Corps entered Austria and reached Vienna. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th Cavalry Corps participated in the Berlin operation. At the end of the war, the Red Army had 7 guards cavalry corps and 1 "simple" cavalry corps. Two of them were purely "Cossack": the 4th Guards Cavalry Kuban Cossack Corps and the 5th Guards Cavalry Don Cossack Corps. Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks fought heroically not only in the cavalry, but also in many infantry, artillery and tank units, in partisan detachments. All of them contributed to the Victory. During the war, tens of thousands of Cossacks died a heroic death on the battlefields. For the accomplished feats and heroism shown in battles with the enemy, many thousands of Cossacks were awarded military orders and medals, and 262 Cossacks became Heroes of the Soviet Union, 7 cavalry corps and 17 cavalry divisions received guards ranks. Only in the 5th Don Guards Cavalry Corps, more than 32 thousand soldiers and commanders were awarded high government awards.

Rice. 10. Meeting of the Cossacks with the allies

The peaceful Cossack population selflessly worked in the rear. On the labor savings of the Cossacks, voluntarily transferred to the Defense Fund, tanks and aircraft were built. With the money of the Don Cossacks, several tank columns were built - "Cooperator of the Don", "Don Cossack" and "Osoaviakhimovets of the Don", and with the funds of the Kuban - the tank column "Soviet Kuban".

In August 1945, the Trans-Baikal Cossacks of the 59th Cavalry Division, operating as part of the Soviet-Mongolian cavalry-mechanized group of General Pliev, participated in the lightning defeat of the Kwantung Japanese Army.
As we can see, during the Great Patriotic War, Stalin was forced to remember the Cossacks, their fearlessness, love for the Motherland and the ability to fight. In the Red Army there were Cossack cavalry and plastun units and formations that made a heroic journey from the Volga and the Caucasus to Berlin and Prague, deserved many military awards and names of Heroes. Admittedly, the cavalry corps and cavalry-mechanized groups showed themselves excellently during the war against German fascism, but already on June 24, 1945, immediately after the Victory Parade, I.V. Stalin ordered Marshal S.M. Budyonny to proceed with the disbandment of cavalry formations, tk. The cavalry as a branch of the Armed Forces was abolished.

The main reason for this, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief called the urgent need for the national economy in draft power. In the summer of 1946, only the best cavalry corps were reorganized into cavalry divisions with the same numbers, and the following remained in the cavalry: the 4th Guards Cavalry Kuban Cossack Order of Lenin, the Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Division (Stavropol) and the 5th Guards Cavalry Don Cossack Budapest Red Banner Division (Novocherkassk). But they, as cavalry, did not live long. In October 1954, the 5th Guards Cossack Cavalry Division was reorganized into the 18th Guards Heavy Tank Division by the Directive of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. By order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR of January 11, 1965, the 18th Guards. ttd was renamed the 5th Guards. etc. In September 1955, the 4th Guards. Kd SKVO was disbanded. On the territory of the military camps of the disbanded 4th Guards Cavalry Division, the Stavropol Radio Engineering School of the Air Defense Forces of the country was formed. Thus, despite the merits, shortly after the war, the Cossack formations were disbanded. The Cossacks were offered to live out their lives in the form of folklore ensembles (with a strictly defined theme), and in films like "Kuban Cossacks". But that's a completely different story.

Along the Berlin bridge
The horses went to the watering place.
They walked, shaking their mane,
Don horses.

The rider sings -
Hey guys, not the first time
We water the Cossack horses
From a foreign river

Numerous Internet publications emphasize that the transition of the Cossacks to the side of the enemy was massive, and the number of Cossacks who fought on the side of the Wehrmacht significantly exceeded the number of Cossacks, in the Red Army - pseudoscientific works are actively replicated both mechanically and deliberately, in pursuit of "sensations" and "revelations".

The official Soviet historiography also contributed to the possibility of distorting the facts related to the participation of the Cossacks in the Great Patriotic War, assigning the Cossacks a worthy place only in the pre-revolutionary history of Russia and never recognizing the mistakes made by the Soviet authorities in connection with decossackization.

The statement about the massive nature of the transition of the Cossacks to the side of the German army in World War II is a lie! In reality, only a few chieftains went over to the side of the enemy, 6 regiments and 25 squadrons were formed from Cossacks, Kalmyks and others. This is less than 10 thousand sabers. And as part of the Red Army, the Nazis fought several purely Cossack cavalry divisions, 40 Cossack cavalry regiments, 5 tank regiments, 8 mortar regiments and divisions, 2 anti-aircraft regiments and a number of other units, fully equipped with Cossacks of all troops. With the money of the Cossacks, several tank columns were built - "Cooperator of the Don", "Don Cossack" and "Osoaviakhimovets of the Don". And this is not counting several hundred thousand Cossacks who fought on a common basis as part of ordinary (non-Cossack) units.

The first Cossacks who entered the battle with the German units on the Western Front were the Cossacks of the 94th Beloglinsky Regiment. The fighters of this unit fought with the enemy, advancing in the direction of Lomza already in the early morning of June 22, 1941.

On June 24, 1941, a large detachment of Cossacks was seen off in the village of Veshenskaya. The writer Mikhail Sholokhov addressed the Cossacks with parting words: “We are sure that you will continue the glorious fighting traditions and will beat the enemy, as your ancestors beat Napoleon, as your fathers were the German Kaiser troops.”

Volunteer hundreds were actively formed in the villages. The Cossacks came to the collection points with their families with their own uniforms. For example, Cossack P.S. Kurkin led a Donets detachment of forty people into the militia. Along with the cavalry, the Plastun Cossack divisions were formed from the Kuban and Terts.

In the summer of 1941, the formation of the Don Cossack Cavalry Division under the command of N.V. Mikhailov-Berezovsky began in the Rostov Region. The militias formed the Azov Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment (later the 257th Don Cossack Cavalry Regiment). The 116th Don Cavalry Division, commanded by a hereditary Don Cossack, a veteran of the First Cavalry Army, Colonel Pyotr Yakovlevich Strepukhov, included the 258th and 259th Don Cossack Cavalry Regiments.

Photo - admission to the party. And it is not even approximately known how many Cossacks fought in the partisans and the underground.

By the beginning of autumn 1941, the 89th (later renamed the 11th cavalry division named after F. Morozov) and the 91st cavalry Cossack divisions were formed from the Orenburg Cossacks of the Chkalov region. By the beginning of the winter of 1941, the 15th Special Don Cossack Cavalry Division was formed.

Even these units, formed at the very beginning of the war, many times outnumbered all the Nazis who had ever fought on the side of the Nazis. It is worth mentioning, at least in passing, that the number of white émigrés who fought against Hitler was much larger than Shkuro and traitors like him. Parts of "Free France" de Gaulle 10% consisted of Russians. But this is a topic for a separate study.

A battle near Moscow of a squadron (100 sabers) of the 37th regiment from the Caucasian group of L. M. Dovator, led by Lieutenant Vladimir Krasilnikov, is known. In two hours, the Cossacks repulsed three enemy attacks, destroyed 5 tanks and about 100 fascist infantrymen. Only seven Cossacks survived that battle.

At the beginning of 1942, the Cossack volunteer divisions were enrolled in the personnel of the Soviet armed forces and put on full state support. In March 1942, as a result of the unification of two Don and two Kuban divisions, the 17th Cossack Cavalry Corps was formed, under the command of an experienced military leader, a veteran of World War I and the Civil War, Major General N. Ya. Kirichenko. On August 2, 1942, near the village of Kushchevskaya, the fighters of this Cossack unit, which was part of the 12th Terek-Kuban, 13th Kuban and 116th Don Cossack divisions, stopped the German attack on Krasnodar from Rostov. The Cossacks destroyed about 1800 Nazis, took 300 prisoners, captured 18 guns and 25 mortars.

By the way, all the commanders of the 5th Guards Cossack Cavalry Corps were natives of the Don: S.I. Gorshkov was a native of the Uryupinskaya village, Maleev (deputy commander of the corps) - Martynovskaya, and the head of the political department of the corps N.I. Privalov - was a native of the village of Zotovskaya . For these Cossacks there was no greater honor than to be the father-commanders of the Don Cossacks, these
the bravest of the bravest Russian people. The corps commanders understood all the responsibility to Russia in this Great War. But being Cossacks by blood, they also felt the greatest responsibility to all the Don Cossacks, including their valiant ancestors. About the courage and heroism shown by volunteer Cossacks in a very difficult period of summer
retreat in 1942 testify to the multitude of facts known from scientific, historical and journalistic literature. The courage and military skill of the Cossacks of the 5th Guards Don and 4th Guards Kuban Corps were well known and brought them well-deserved military glory.

Witnessing the heroism and courage of the Cossacks of the volunteer Cossack corps, the fighters and commanders of other cavalry corps wanted their units to be called "Cossack". So, in June 1943, the command of the 2nd and 6th cavalry corps, in which many Cossacks also fought, petitioned the country's leadership to assign the name "Cossack" to their units. Later, the command of other cavalry corps also made similar requests.
However, they were not satisfied. In accordance with the decision taken, only those cavalry corps that were formed from Cossack volunteers had the right to be called "Cossack"; only 4th Guards Kuban and 5th Guards Donskoy.

In 1943, the formation of cavalry-mechanized groups began. The groups had excellent mobility, because the horse was still used for transitions, and during the battle, in order not to be an easy target for the enemy’s small arms and artillery weapons, the cavalrymen dismounted and acted like ordinary infantry. The Cossacks skillfully used their traditional skills in the changed conditions of warfare.

With the transition of the strategic initiative to the Red Army and the beginning of its offensive to the west, the role of the Cossacks continued to increase. As part of the 1st Belorussian Front, the Cossacks of the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General Konstantinov and the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General Oslikovsky, drove the enemy to the West. After fighting 250 kilometers, defeating the famous fascist division "Hermann Goering" and three more Nazi divisions and capturing more than 14,000 enemy soldiers and officers, the Cossack 3rd Guards Cossack Corps captured the German city of Wittenberg and the Lenzen region, and was the first to reach the river Elba, where Soviet troops first established direct contact with the troops of the Anglo-American allies.

The 7th Guards Cavalry Corps was tasked with capturing the Sandhausen and Oranienburg area and thereby preparing a Soviet attack on Berlin from the north. By April 22, the combat mission assigned to the corps was completed, and about 35 thousand prisoners were released from concentration camps in the occupied territories.

For the accomplished feats and heroism shown in battles with the enemy, thousands of Cossacks were awarded military orders and medals, and 262 Cossacks became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Cossack guards dance in short moments of rest between battles

Photos from open sources,
http://kazakwow.ru
http://kuraev.ru/smf/index.php?topic=537504.0
Vasily Ivanov-Ordynsky - http://vk.com/topic-17792454_24735812
http://www.kazakirossii.ru/ Veniamin Klyuch
Trut V.P. The originality of the formation and recruitment of the Cossack regular and volunteer
connections during the Great Patriotic War. The article was published in the journal:
"Problems of National Strategy". No. 1, 2011 (pp. 160 - 167).