Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich biography family. Return to the Naval General Staff

Alexander Kolchak is a Russian military and political figure, oceanographer, polar explorer, naval commander, who went down in history as the leader of the White movement during the Civil War in Russia. Supreme Ruler of Russia and Supreme Commander of the Russian Army.

Life of Admiral Kolchak full of glorious and dramatic moments, however, like Russia itself at the beginning of the 20th century. We will consider all this in this.

Biography of Kolchak

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born on November 4, 1874 in the village of Aleksandrovsky (). He grew up in a noble noble family. Many of Kolchak's ancestors carried out regular service and achieved success in the military field.

He began to hatch ideas on how to contribute to the revival of the Russian fleet.

In 1906, Alexander Kolchak led a commission investigating the causes of the defeat near Tsushima. In parallel with this, he repeatedly spoke in the State Duma with reports on this topic, and also asked officials to allocate funds from the treasury for the creation of the Russian fleet.

During the biography of 1906-1908. the admiral led the construction of 4 battleships and 2 icebreakers.

At the same time, he continues to engage in scientific activities. In 1909, his scientific work was published on the ice cover of the Siberian and Kara Seas.

When Russian oceanographers studied his work, they appreciated it very highly. Thanks to the research conducted by Kolchak, scientists managed to reach a new level in the study of the ice cover.

World War I

Henry of Prussia, who led the German fleet, developed an operation according to which St. Petersburg was to be defeated within a few days.

He planned to destroy strategically important objects and land soldiers in the occupied territories. Then, according to his calculations, the German infantrymen were to capture.

In his thoughts, he was like, who in his career was able to carry out many lightning-fast and successful attacks. However, these plans were not destined to come true.

Admiral Kolchak was well aware that the Russian fleet was inferior in strength and power to the German ships. In this regard, he developed the tactics of mine warfare.

He managed to place about 6,000 mines in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, which became a reliable defense for St. Petersburg.

Henry of Prussia did not expect such a development of events. Instead of easily entering the territory of the Russian Empire, he began to lose his ships daily.

For the skillful conduct of the war in 1915, Alexander Kolchak was appointed commander of the Mine Division.

Kolchak on the Chinese Eastern Railway in the form of the CER, 1917

At the end of the same year, Kolchak decided to transfer Russian troops to the shores of the Gulf of Riga to help the army of the Northern Front. He managed to plan the operation incredibly quickly and accurately, which confused all the cards for the German leadership.

Less than a year later, Kolchak was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

Admiral Kolchak

During the February Revolution of 1917, Kolchak remained loyal to the emperor, refusing to go over to the side of the Bolsheviks.

There is a case when, having heard a proposal from revolutionary sailors to give up his golden saber, the admiral threw it overboard. To the rebellious sailors, he said his famous phrase: “I didn’t get it from you, I won’t give it to you”.

Admiral Kolchak

Arriving in St. Petersburg, Kolchak accused the Provisional Government of the collapse of the army and navy. As a result, he was sent into political exile in America.

By that time, the famous October Revolution had taken place, after which power was in the hands of the Bolsheviks, led by.

In December 1917, Admiral Kolchak wrote a letter to the British government asking them to accept him for service. As a result, she willingly agreed to accept his proposal, since the name of Kolchak was known throughout Europe.

Despite the fact that by this time the Russian Empire was headed by the Bolsheviks, many volunteer armies remained on its territory, refusing to betray the emperor.

Having united in September 1918, they formed the Directory, which claimed the role of the "Provisional All-Russian Government". Kolchak was offered to lead it, to which he agreed.

Admiral Kolchak, his officers and Allied representatives, 1919

However, he warned that if the working conditions were contrary to his views, he would leave this post. As a result, Admiral Kolchak became the Supreme Ruler.

Kolchak government

First of all, Alexander Kolchak banned all extremist parties. After that, an economic reform was developed, according to which industrial plants were to be created in Siberia.

In 1919, Kolchak's army occupied the entire territory of the Urals, but soon began to succumb to the onslaught of the Reds. Military failures were preceded by many different miscalculations:

Admiral Kolchak's incompetence in regard to public administration;
Negligent attitude towards the settlement of the agrarian question;
Partisan and Socialist-Revolutionary resistance;
Political disagreements with allies.

A few months later, Alexander Kolchak was forced to leave Omsk and transfer his powers to Anton Denikin. Soon he was betrayed by the allied Czech Corps and handed over to the Bolsheviks.

Personal life

The wife of Admiral Kolchak was Sofia Omirova. When they began an affair, he had to go on another expedition.

The girl faithfully waited for her fiancé for several years, after which they got married in March 1904.

In this marriage, they had two girls and one boy. Both daughters died at an early age, and the son Rostislav lived until 1965. During World War II (1939-1945), he fought against the Germans on the side of the French.

In 1919, with the support of the British allies, Sophia emigrated to Paris, where she lived for the rest of her life. She died in 1956 and was buried in the cemetery of Russian Parisians.

In the last years of his life, Admiral Kolchak lived with Anna Timireva, who turned out to be his last love. He met her in 1915 in Helsingfors, where she arrived with her husband.

Divorcing her husband after 3 years, the girl followed Kolchak. As a result, she was arrested and spent the next thirty years in exile and prison. She was later rehabilitated.

Sofia Omirova (Kolchak's wife) and Anna Timireva

Anna Timireva passed away in 1975 in Moscow. Five years before her death, in 1970, she writes lines dedicated to the main love of her life - Alexander Kolchak:

Half a century I can not accept -
Nothing can help:
And you all leave again
On that fateful night.

And I'm condemned to go
Until the time expires
And the paths are confused
Well-worn roads…

But if I'm still alive
Against fate
Just like your love
And the memory of you.

Death of Admiral Kolchak

After his arrest, Kolchak was subjected to constant interrogations. For this, a special commission of inquiry was created. Some biographers believe that Lenin sought to get rid of the famous admiral as soon as possible, because he feared that large forces of the white movement could be thrown to his aid.

As a result, 45-year-old Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was sentenced to death, which was carried out on February 7, 1920 in Irkutsk.

The last photograph of Kolchak (taken after January 20, 1920)

Naturally, in the Soviet period of Russian history, Kolchak's personality was put in a negative light, since he fought on the side of the whites.

However, after the assessment and significance of the personality of Alexander Kolchak were revised. In his honor, they began to erect monuments and memorial plaques, as well as to shoot biographical films in which he is presented as a real hero and patriot of Russia.

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Annotation. The article is a chronicle of the last days of the "Supreme Ruler" of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, prepared using documents from the Russian State Military Archive.

Summary . The article is the chronicle of the latest days of the "Supreme Governor" of Russia Admiral A.V. Kolchak, prepared by using documents of the Russian State Military Archives.

Points of view. Judgments. Versions

SilaevAlexander Dmitrievich- chief specialist of the Russian State Military Archive, reserve lieutenant

(Moscow. E-mail: [email protected])

Where is the admiral's grave?

A good dozen books have been published about Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak in recent years, films have been made, dissertations and plays have been written. A cross was erected at the place of execution, and in Irkutsk itself a monument was made by Vyacheslav Klykov. It would seem that the topic has been exhausted, but do not rush to conclusions.

In the funds of the Russian State Military Archive (RGVA), several interesting documents about the last days of Admiral Kolchak were found that were not previously available to researchers, namely: the order of the head of the 30th Infantry Division2 A.Ya. Lapin3 dated January 23, 1920 on the execution of the admiral and its subsequent cancellation by the chairman of Sibrevkom4 I.N. Smirnov5; report of General S.N. Voitsekhovsky6 to Ataman G.M. Semenov7, in which he points out that, according to one of the participants in the execution, the bodies of A.V. Kolchak and V.N. Pepelyaeva8 were buried on the territory of the prison in Irkutsk.

This tragic finale in the fate of the "Supreme Ruler" of Russia was preceded by the following events.

By the beginning of November 1919, the army of the Kolchak government, having lost all ability for further resistance, actually ceased to exist.

On November 12, a new style, late in the evening, the admiral left the city of Omsk, which, a day later, after a short battle, was occupied by the troops of the Red Army.

From the operational radio report of the Field Headquarters9 of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic10 dated December 1, published in the radio bulletin ROSTA11: “The Siberian king runs without having time to defend himself. There are no fortified points before Irkutsk. Partisan detachments haunt the whites. Kolchak surrounded himself with guards [in] three thousand bayonets. The population of Siberia meets the "terrible" Bolsheviks with bread and salt. Defectors say that during the retreat from Verkhneuralsk, Kolchak’s doctors poisoned captured Red Army soldiers who were being treated [in] the hospital, [in] terrible agony several hundred Red soldiers died”12.

By the end of 1919, the front stretched along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Kolchak's train was moving rather slowly. At all major stations, the admiral conferred with the commanding staff of the army and with the local authorities. All this extremely slowed down the movement of the train. At st. Taiga Kolchak decided to separate from the army and reach Irkutsk as soon as possible in order to prevent the impending coup in the city.

But it was already too late. The lack of coal, steam locomotives and constant misunderstandings with the Czechs continued to slow down the movement, and only on the 20th of December Kolchak's train approached the Nizhneudinsk station. Troops of the Red Army were on the heels of the admiral, occupying city after city, and in front, on the way to Irkutsk, uprisings broke out against the Kolchak Siberian government, organized by the Political Center13. In Irkutsk, on December 24, the rebels occupied the railway station and the suburb of Glazkovo. However, the hopes of the leaders of the Political Center for mass support of the rebels did not come true, and the uprising stalled. Neither the Political Center nor the government of V.N. Pepelyaev failed to completely take the situation under his control. The representatives of the allies declared their neutrality, and the commander-in-chief of the allied forces in Western Siberia, General Maurice Janin,14 sent a telegram to Kolchak asking him to remain in Nizhneudinsk until the situation was clarified. There's a train A.V. Kolchak was detained by the Czechs for two weeks.

On January 2, 1920, the Minister of the Interior of the Kolchak government, who temporarily assumed the duties of Deputy Prime Minister A.A. Cherven-Vodali15, after a long meeting with General K.I. Sychev16 decided to start negotiations with the rebels through the allied commissars.

On January 3, Admiral Kolchak received a telegram signed by A.A. Cherven-Vodali, M.V. Khanzhina17 and A.M. Larionov18, which reported that an indispensable condition for the success of negotiations with the rebels was the transfer of supreme power to A.I. Denikin. Kolchak sent a telegram back to Irkutsk, saying that he agreed to transfer power to Denikin, but only after his arrival in Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude). However, there was nothing to transfer, and the “Supreme Ruler” himself was under the complete control of the Czechs.

By the morning of January 5, the whole of Irkutsk was occupied by the troops of the People's Revolutionary Army, which was joined by the 54th regiment and Cossack units, and power in the city completely passed into the hands of the Political Center. On the same day, the Political Center formed the Provisional Council of the Siberian People's Administration, which declared itself the authority in the territory from Irkutsk to Krasnoyarsk.

On the afternoon of January 15, a train from A.V. Kolchak and V.N. Pepelyaev arrived in Irkutsk, and at 21.00 local time they and their entourage were handed over by the allies to representatives of the Political Center.

From the Czech side, the act of transfer was signed by the authorized representatives of the government of the Czechoslovak Republic, Dr. Blagozh and the head of echelon No. 52, Major Kadlec, from the Russian side, by Deputy Commander of the Political Center A.G. Nesterov and members of the commission. Under escort led by A.G. Nesterov, the arrested were taken to the Irkutsk provincial prison. On the same day, or rather evening, the Political Center, which by that time already had its own punitive body - the Extraordinary Investigation Commission (ChSK), demanded from its chairman the Menshevik-internationalist K.A. Popova19 to conduct a judicial investigation within a week. Already this ridiculously short period indicated that the fate of the admiral was a foregone conclusion.

And what happened in the Soviet camp?

These days, a leaflet appeared, signed by Commissar Kolos20, with an appeal to the soldiers of the Red Army with the following content: “The black reaction in the person of Kolchak, Sychev and other counter-revolutionaries - enemies of the workers and peasants, is finally broken by a mighty explosion of your just indignation. With the blood of your comrades who rebelled in the city of Irkutsk and its environs, the red banner has been restored. The banner of the proletarian revolution is in your hands.”21

On January 8, in a telegram signed by the head of the 30th Rifle Division, A.Ya. Lapin, military commissar M.N. Nevelson22 and division chief of staff S.N. Bogomyagkov23 and sent to the acting commander of the 5th Army, I.N. Ustichev24, it was reported that “the defeat of Kolchak’s army was completed. Over 60,000 prisoners were taken. Among them are several thousand Poles25; huge war booty. The same was reported in ROSTA radio report No. 864 dated January 14, 1920: “[In] Krasnoyarsk the following message was received: on December 23 from Nizhneudinsk [via] a direct wire, the manager of affairs, Kravkov, reported that on December 27, a shock battalion of Czechs had arrested a train Admiral Kolchak, at the same time [in] Nizhneudinsk a coup took place.

Kolchak's train is under the protection of the Czechs: it contains a cargo of gold; ministers: [M.E.] Dyachevsky27, [V.N.] Pepelyaev, General [A.A.] Martynov28… [In] Irkutsk there is a battle [on] the streets… Part of the center is occupied by revolutionary troops operating [in] contact with Soviet partisan detachments.

[In] the city the junkers fortified themselves. The Czechs [and] the Japanese are neutral... [The] Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, the Peasants' Union, the Political Zemstvo Bureau, who concluded the agreement, had the original plan to overthrow Kolchak [and] form an independent Siberian Republic from the Ob to Vladivostok. Now the situation is as follows: [in] Irkutsk a government of the named groups [Polittsentr] has been formed; the Semyonovites, who were trying to capture Irkutsk, were defeated, and the Czechs took three armored trains, one and a half thousand prisoners; The Circum-Baikal Road is intact [and] is [in] the hands of the Irkutsk government [Polittsentr]. Between Kansk [and] Irkutsk are echelons of Poles, Czechs, who do not hand over their weapons. [In] Kansk Soviet partisans, Czechs”29.<…>

Read the full version of the article in the paper version of the "Military History Journal" and on the website of the Scientific Electronic Libraryhttp: www. elibrary. en

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NOTES

1 See, for example: Plotnikov I.F. A.V. Kolchak: explorer, admiral, supreme ruler of Russia. M., 2002; The Supreme Ruler of Russia: documents and materials of the investigative case of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. M., 2003; Melgunov S.P. The tragedy of Admiral Kolchak: from the history of the civil war on the Volga, the Urals and Siberia: In 2 books. T. 2. Part 3. M., 2004; Historical portraits: A.V. Kolchak, N.N. Yudenich, G.M. Semyonov [collection] / Comp. A.S. Kruchinin. M., 2004; Novikov P.A. Civil war in Eastern Siberia. M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2005; Fleming Peter. The fate of Admiral Kolchak: 1917-1920. M., 2006; Zyryanov P.N. Admiral Kolchak, Supreme Ruler of Russia. M.: Young guard, 2006; Cherkashin N.A. Admiral. The tragic fate of Kolchak. Moscow: Veche, 2009.

2 30th Rifle Division (SD) was part of the 3rd (July 1918 - November 1919) and 5th (November 1919 - October 1920) armies of the Eastern Front, 4th Army of the Southern front (October 1920 - April 1921). Participated in a number of operations against the troops of Kolchak, in March 1920 entered Irkutsk, went to the eastern shore of Lake Baikal. December 13, 1920 she was given the name Irkutsk. In April 1921, the division became part of the Ukrainian Military District.

3 Lapin (real name Lapin or Lapinsh) Albert Yanovich(1899-1937) commanded a regiment, brigade, 30th rifle division, 27th division of internal service, led the defense and protection troops of the railways of the Far Eastern Republic (FER). In May-June 1921, he served as Commander-in-Chief of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far East. In September-December 1921, the commander of the Amur military districts, in December 1921 - May 1922 - the Trans-Baikal military districts. Since 1922, the chief of staff of the Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army (OKDVA). Since 1927, the commander of the 19th Primorsky Rifle Corps, the head of the department of the Headquarters of the Red Army, the head of the Combat Training Department of the Ground Forces. Since 1932, assistant commander for the Air Force of the Belarusian Military District and OKDVA. May 17, 1937 as a member of the "Latvian fascist organization" was arrested by the Special Department of the NKVD. He committed suicide in prison.

4 Siberian Revolutionary Committee (Sibrevkom) - the highest body of state power in the eastern regions of the RSFSR in 1919-1925. It was created in accordance with the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of August 27, 1919, consisting of three people: I.N. Smirnov (Chairman), V.M. Kosarev and M.I. Frumkin (members).

5 Smirnov Ivan Nikitich(1881-1936) during the Civil War he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Republic, the Eastern Front and the 5th Army; as a member of the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) led the Bolshevik underground in the Urals and Siberia, was considered the organizer of the defeat of Kolchak. From August 1919 to September 1921 - Chairman of the Sibrevkom. In January-March 1920, he participated in negotiations with the SR-Menshevik Political Center, first on the surrender of power to the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, and then on the formation of a buffer state in Eastern Siberia. Since October 1921, at party work in Petrograd. In 1923-1927. - People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs. For belonging to the Trotskyist opposition in 1927 he was expelled from the CPSU (b), then reinstated. In January 1933 he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison. In August 1936, at the trial of the so-called anti-Soviet united Trotskyist-Zinoviev center, he was sentenced to death. Rehabilitated 13 July 1988

6 Voitsekhovsky Sergey Nikolaevich(1883-1951), Commander-in-Chief of the White Eastern Front, led the White Army's offensive against Irkutsk. Having learned about the execution of Kolchak, he did not storm the city, he led the remnants of Kolchak's troops into Transbaikalia. February 20, 1920 G.M. Semyonov appointed him commander of the troops of the Russian Eastern Outskirts, but already in May Voitsekhovsky was sent to the Crimea to communicate with the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, was in the reserve of the army of General P.N. Wrangel. In November 1920, together with the army, he was evacuated to Constantinople, then moved to Czechoslovakia. May 1, 1921 was enlisted in the Czechoslovak army. During the Munich crisis of 1938, he took an active anti-capitulation position, for which he was dismissed in April 1939. In 1939, after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he created and headed the underground organization Obrana národa (“Protection of the People”), was under the supervision of the Gestapo, was a member of the underground Czechoslovak government, where he served as Minister of War. Until May 1945 he lived in Prague. On May 12, 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence "Smersh" and from May 30, 1945 was kept in Moscow, in the Butyrka prison. On September 15, 1945, by a special meeting at the NKVD of the USSR, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Until March 1946, he was kept in the Butyrka prison, since 1946 - in the Unzhensky camp, since May 25, 1949 - in the Special Camp No. 7 of the Ozerlag of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Died in the camp on April 7, 1951.

7 Semyonov Grigory Mikhailovich(1890-1946) - in December 1919 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops of the Irkutsk, Trans-Baikal and Amur military districts as commander-in-chief of the armies with promotion to lieutenant general. Decree A.V. Kolchak on January 4, 1920 led all the armed forces of the Whites in the Far East. After the execution of Kolchak, Transbaikalia remained the last stronghold of the White movement in Siberia. At the beginning of 1920, Lieutenant General G.M. Semyonov headed the Chita government of the Russian Eastern outskirts, from April to October 1920, his troops fought fierce battles with the army of the Far Eastern Republic (FER). In September 1921 he left Russia, emigrated to China, lived in the USA, Canada, Japan, then in Dairen (Manchukuo). He was associated with Japanese intelligence, headed the white emigrants of the Far East. In September 1945, he was captured by Soviet troops in Manchuria and hanged by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

8 Pepelyaev Viktor Nikolaevich(1885-1920) - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kolchak government. Shot on February 7, 1920, together with Kolchak.

9 The field headquarters of the Red Army - the highest operational body for command and control of the troops of the army, was formed in November 1918 as the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic with subordination to the Commander-in-Chief and the RVSR. In order to create a unified command and control body for the Armed Forces, by order of the RVSR in February 1921, the Field Headquarters and the All-Russian Main Headquarters were merged into a single Headquarters of the Red Army.

10 The Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) was formed in September 1918 and was the highest military authority in the country. After the formation of the USSR, it was transformed into the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR (September 1923) and acted as a board of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. In 1934 it was abolished.

11 The Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) - the central information agency of the Soviet state, after the creation of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) in 1925, functioned as an information agency of the RSFSR. In March 1935, ROSTA was liquidated, and its functions were transferred to TASS.

12 Russian State Military Archive (RGVA). F. 39515. Op. 1. D. 143. L. 2, 2v.

13 Political Center, Political Center - a short-lived government that operated in Irkutsk in November 1919 - January 1920. The Political Center included representatives of several organizations: the All-Siberian Regional Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Bureau of Siberian Menshevik Organizations, the Zemsky Political Bureau (formed by the left wing of the Siberian regionalists) , Siberian Central Committee "Associations of the working peasantry". The Chairman of the Political Center was F.F. Fedorovich, comrades of the chairman - I.I. Akhmatov and B.A. Kosminsky. On January 21, 1920, the Political Center transferred power to the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee of the Bolsheviks.

14 Maurice Janin(1862-1946), who had a personal dislike for Kolchak, who was against his appointment as commander in chief, supported the uprising against the Kolchak government in Irkutsk and authorized the extradition of Kolchak to the Socialist-Revolutionary Menshevik Political Center. In 1920 Janin returned to France.

15 Cherven-Vodali Alexander Alexandrovich(1872-1920) - Deputy Minister of the Interior with the assignment of temporary management of the ministry to him. Temporarily assumed the duties of Deputy Prime Minister. On December 28, 1919, he became part of the operational body of state administration, formed in Irkutsk, the so-called trojectory (together with the Minister of War M.V. Khanzhin and the interim manager of the Ministry of Railways A.M. Larionov). He negotiated with the leaders of the uprising. He was arrested and put on trial by the Extraordinary Revolutionary Tribunal under the Siberian Revolutionary Committee, on May 30, 1920, sentenced to death. On June 10, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee rejected the request for pardon, and on the night of June 23, the sentence was carried out.

16 Sychev Konstantin Ivanovich(1870-1935) in November 1918 he was sent to Siberia as a representative of the government of the Great Don Army. From 1919 to January 1920 commandant and head of the Irkutsk garrison. In 1920, a representative of the Don Cossacks at the headquarters of the marching ataman of the armed forces of the Russian Eastern outskirts. In August 1920 he returned to the South of Russia. He lived in exile in France.

17 Khanzhin Mikhail Vasilievich(1871-1961), General of Artillery (1919), Minister of War of the government A.V. Kolchak. In this post, he was mainly engaged in the mobilization of the civilian population for military service and issues of supplying troops. He emigrated to China, where for some time he headed the 9th Far Eastern Department of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). Arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence "Smersh" in 1945 in Dairen, sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 1954 he was released under an amnesty. He died and was buried in Dzhambul (Kazakhstan). Rehabilitated in 1992

18 Larionov Alexey Mikhailovich(1872-1920) - temporary manager of the Ministry of Railways in the government of Kolchak. From December 28, 1919 he was a member of the "trojectory". In early January 1920, the "trojectory" ceased to exist, and Larionov, like Cherven-Vodali, was arrested. In May 1920, he was one of the main defendants at the trial of former members of the Kolchak government in Omsk. On May 30, by the Extraordinary Revolutionary Tribunal, he was sentenced to death, and on June 23 he was shot.

19 The composition of the ChSK is interesting, where, in addition to K.A. Popov, a representative from the Political Center entered - a member of the Constituent Assembly, Socialist-Revolutionary L.Ya. Gerstein; from the executive committee of the Council of Trade Unions of Siberia - Social Revolutionary G.I. Lukyanchikov; from the Zemsky Politburo - a member of the Constituent Assembly, former chairman of the Amur government, secretary of the state economic conference of the Kolchak government, Socialist-Revolutionary A.N. Alekseevsky; Chairman of the Irkutsk district zemstvo council, Socialist-Revolutionary I.I. Golovko; M.G. Gordin; instructor of the Union of Cooperative Associations "Centrosibir", social democrat, Menshevik-internationalist V.P. Denike. Konstantin Andreevich Popov himself (1876-1949) in 1920-1922. worked as a deputy, and then - the chairman of the Omsk provincial executive committee, a member of the provincial committee of the RCP (b). Since the summer of 1922 in Moscow: first in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the party, and in the late 1920s. switched to academic work.

20 The author could not find any information about the political commissar Kolos.

21 RGVA. F. 207. Op. 1. D. 64. L. 8.

22 Nevelson M.N.(1896-1937) - Bolshevik, participant in the February and October revolutions. During the Civil War, he was the military commissar of a regiment, division, head of the political department of the army. He was married to one of the daughters of L.D. Trotsky.

23 Bogomyagkov Stepan Nikolaevich(1890-1966) - chief of staff of the 30th division; from December 28, 1920, chief of staff of the 3rd cavalry corps; in 1920 - as part of the same division on the Southern Front; from September 28, 1921 - chief of staff of the 18th division; in 1921 - in continuous battles with the Makhno gangs in Ukraine as part of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. Graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army, commander of a rifle division, head of the combat training department of the Air Force Directorate of the Red Army. 1936-1937 - Chief of Staff of the OKDVA, 1937 - Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army - Head of the Combat Training Department. Repressed, 10 years in labor camp.

24 Ustichev Ivan Nikitich(? -1920) - temporarily acting commander of the 5th Army until his death in the 20th of January 1920

25 Without limiting himself to the command of the Czechoslovak troops, General Zhanen began to form troops of other nationalities in the rear: Polish, Serbian, Ukrainian, Romanian, etc. The total number of the corps by the end of his stay in Siberia reached 92 thousand people, replenished by captured Poles and Romanians. There were Czechs at the stations along the railway. In Krasnoyarsk and its environs, a few Serbian detachments were stationed. The most exotic foreign unit was the Italian Expeditionary Force of Colonel Fassini-Comossi of 900 officers and soldiers // Internet resources: http://hrono.ru; http://krsgz.narod.ru (January 6, 2012).

26 RGVA. F. 1346. Op. 2. D. 396. L. 96.

27 Dyachevsky (aka Yachevsky) M.E., Minister of the Interior of the Kolchak government.

28 Apparently, this refers to General A.A. Martyanov, in 1919 director of the office of the Supreme Commander. Later he emigrated.

29 RGVA. F. 185. Op. 1. D. 134. L. 370, 370 rev. Typewritten original.

Russian politician, Vice Admiral of the Russian Imperial Fleet (1916) and Admiral of the Siberian Flotilla (1918). Polar explorer and oceanographer, member of the expeditions of 1900-1903 (awarded the Great Konstantinovsky medal by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society). Member of the Russian-Japanese, World War I and Civil Wars. Leader and leader of the White movement in the East of Russia. The Supreme Ruler of Russia (1918-1920) was recognized in this post by the leadership of all white regions, "de jure" - by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, "de facto" - by the Entente states.

The first well-known representative of the Kolchak family was the Crimean Tatar commander Ilias Kolchak Pasha, commandant of the Khotyn fortress, who was taken prisoner by Field Marshal Kh. A. Minikh. After the end of the war, Kolchak Pasha settled in Poland, and in 1794 his descendants moved to Russia.

Alexander Vasilyevich was born into the family of a representative of this family, Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak (1837-1913), a staff captain of naval artillery, later a major general in the Admiralty. V. I. Kolchak served his first officer rank with a severe wound during the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1853-1856: he turned out to be one of the seven surviving defenders of the Stone Tower on Malakhov Kurgan, whom the French found among the corpses after the assault. After the war, he graduated from the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg and, until his retirement, served as an acceptance officer for the Naval Ministry at the Obukhov Plant, having a reputation as a straightforward and extremely scrupulous person.

Alexander Vasilyevich himself was born on November 4, 1874 in the village of Aleksandrovskoe near St. Petersburg. The birth document of their first-born son testifies:

“... in the metric book of 1874 of the Trinity Church of the village of Aleksandrovsky, St. Petersburg district, under No. 50, it is shown: Naval artillery at the staff captain Vasily Ivanov Kolchak and his legal wife Olga Ilyina, both Orthodox and first-married, son Alexander was born on November 4, and baptized December 15, 1874. His successors were: the naval captain Alexander Ivanov Kolchak and the widow of the collegiate secretary Daria Filippovna Ivanova ”[source not specified 35 days].

Studies

The future admiral received his primary education at home, and then studied at the 6th St. Petersburg classical gymnasium.

In 1894, Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps, and on August 6, 1894 he was assigned to the cruiser of the 1st rank "Rurik" as an assistant to the chief of the watch, and on November 15, 1894 he was promoted to the rank of midshipman. On this cruiser he departed for the Far East. At the end of 1896, Kolchak was assigned to the cruiser of the 2nd rank "Cruiser" to the position of watch commander. On this ship, for several years he went on campaigns in the Pacific Ocean, in 1899 he returned to Kronstadt. On December 6, 1898, he was promoted to lieutenant. In the campaigns, Kolchak not only performed his official duties, but also actively engaged in self-education. He also became interested in oceanography and hydrology. In 1899, he published an article "Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravity of sea water, made on the cruisers" Rurik "and" Cruiser "from May 1897 to March 1898."

Toll's expedition

Upon arrival in Kronstadt, Kolchak went to Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov, who was preparing to sail on the Ermak icebreaker in the Arctic Ocean. Alexander Vasilievich asked to be accepted into the expedition, but was refused "due to official circumstances." After that, for some time entering the personnel of the vessel "Prince Pozharsky", Kolchak in September 1899 switched to the squadron battleship "Petropavlovsk" and went to the Far East on it. However, while staying in the Greek port of Piraeus, he received an invitation from the Academy of Sciences from Baron E. V. Toll to take part in the mentioned expedition. From Greece through Odessa in January 1900, Kolchak arrived in St. Petersburg. The head of the expedition suggested that Alexander Vasilievich be in charge of hydrological work, and besides, be the second magnetologist. Throughout the winter and spring of 1900, Kolchak prepared for the expedition.

On July 21, 1901, the expedition on the schooner "Zarya" moved along the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula, where the first wintering was coming. In October 1900, Kolchak participated in Toll's trip to the Gafner fjord, and in April-May 1901, the two of them traveled around Taimyr. Throughout the expedition, the future admiral carried out active scientific work. In 1901, E. V. Toll immortalized the name of A. V. Kolchak, naming the island in the Kara Sea and the cape discovered by the expedition after him. As a result of the expedition in 1906, he was elected a full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.

In the spring of 1902, Toll decided to go on foot north of the New Siberian Islands, together with the magnetologist F. G. Seberg and two mushers. The rest of the expedition, due to a lack of food supplies, had to go from Bennett Island to the south, to the mainland, and later return to St. Petersburg. Kolchak and his companions went to the mouth of the Lena and arrived in the capital through Yakutsk and Irkutsk.

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Alexander Vasilievich reported to the Academy on the work done, and also informed about the enterprise of Baron Toll, from whom no news had been received either by that time or later. In January 1903, it was decided to organize an expedition, the purpose of which was to clarify the fate of Toll's expedition. The expedition took place from May 5 to December 7, 1903. It consisted of 17 people on 12 sledges harnessed by 160 dogs. The journey to Bennett Island took three months and was extremely difficult. On August 4, 1903, having reached Bennett Island, the expedition discovered traces of Toll and his companions: expedition documents, collections, geodetic instruments and a diary were found. It turned out that Toll arrived on the island in the summer of 1902 and headed south with only 2-3 weeks of provisions. It became clear that Toll's expedition had perished.

Wife (Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak)

Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak (1876-1956) - wife of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. Sofya Fedorovna was born in 1876 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Podolsk province of the Russian Empire (now the Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine).

Kolchak's parents

Father - real Privy Councilor V.I. Kolchak. Mother Olga Ilyinichna Kolchak, nee Kamenskaya, was the daughter of Major General, Director of the Forestry Institute F. A. Kamensky, sister of the sculptor F. F. Kamensky. Among the distant ancestors were Baron Munnich (brother of the field marshal, an Elizabethan nobleman) and general-in-chief M. V. Berg (who defeated Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War).

Upbringing

A hereditary noblewoman of the Podolsk province, Sofya Fedorovna was brought up at the Smolny Institute and was a very educated girl (she knew seven languages, she knew French and German perfectly). She was beautiful, strong-willed and independent by nature.

Marriage

By agreement with Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, they were supposed to get married after his first expedition. In honor of Sophia (at that time the bride) a small island in the Litke archipelago and a cape on Bennett Island were named. The wait dragged on for several years. They got married on March 5, 1904 in the St. Harlampi Church in Irkutsk.

Children

Sofia Fedorovna gave birth to three children from Kolchak:

the first girl (c. 1905) did not live even a month;

daughter Margarita (1912-1914) caught a cold while fleeing from the Germans from Libava and died.

Emigration

During the Civil War, Sofya Fedorovna waited for her husband to the last in Sevastopol. In 1919, she managed to emigrate from there: the British allies provided her with money and provided her with the opportunity to travel by ship from Sevastopol to Constanta. Then she moved to Bucharest, and then went to Paris. Rostislav was brought there too.

Despite the difficult financial situation, Sofya Fedorovna managed to give her son a good education. Rostislav Alexandrovich Kolchak graduated from the Higher School of Diplomatic and Commercial Sciences in Paris, served in an Algerian bank. He married Ekaterina Razvozova, the daughter of Admiral A.V. Razvozov, who was killed by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd.

Sofia Fedorovna survived the German occupation of Paris and the captivity of her son, an officer in the French army.

demise

Sofia Fedorovna died in the Lunjumo hospital in Italy in 1956. She was buried in the main cemetery of the Russian diaspora - Saint-Genevieve de Bois.

Russo-Japanese War

In December 1903, the 29-year-old Lieutenant Kolchak, exhausted by the polar expedition, set off on his way back to St. Petersburg, where he was going to marry his bride Sofya Omirova. Not far from Irkutsk, he was caught by the news of the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. He summoned his father and bride by telegram to Siberia, and immediately after the wedding he left for Port Arthur.

The commander of the Pacific squadron, Admiral S. O. Makarov, offered him to serve on the battleship Petropavlovsk, which was the flagship of the squadron from January to April 1904. Kolchak refused and asked for an assignment to the fast cruiser Askold, which soon saved his life. A few days later, Petropavlovsk hit a mine and sank rapidly, taking to the bottom more than 600 sailors and officers, including Makarov himself and the famous battle painter V.V. Vereshchagin. Shortly thereafter, Kolchak achieved a transfer to the destroyer "Angry". Commanded a destroyer. By the end of the siege of Port Arthur, he had to command a coastal artillery battery, as severe rheumatism - a consequence of two polar expeditions - forced him to leave the warship. This was followed by a wound, the surrender of Port Arthur and Japanese captivity, in which Kolchak spent 4 months. Upon his return, he was awarded the St. George weapon - the Golden Saber with the inscription "For Courage".

Revival of the Russian fleet

Freed from captivity, Kolchak received the rank of captain of the second rank. The main task of the group of naval officers and admirals, which included Kolchak, was to develop plans for the further development of the Russian navy.

In 1906, the Naval General Staff was created (including on the initiative of Kolchak), which took over the direct combat training of the fleet. Alexander Vasilyevich was the head of his department, was engaged in developments on the reorganization of the navy, spoke in the State Duma as an expert on naval issues. Then the shipbuilding program was drawn up. To receive additional appropriations, officers and admirals actively lobbied for their program in the Duma. The construction of new ships progressed slowly - 6 (out of 8) battleships, about 10 cruisers and several dozen destroyers and submarines entered service only in 1915-1916, at the height of the First World War, and some of the ships laid down at that time were already being completed in the 1930s.

Taking into account the significant numerical superiority of the potential enemy, the Naval General Staff developed a new plan for the defense of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland - in case of a threat of attack, all ships of the Baltic Fleet, at the agreed signal, were to go to sea and put up 8 lines of minefields at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, covered by coastal batteries.

Captain Kolchak took part in the design of the special icebreakers "Taimyr" and "Vaigach", launched in 1909. In the spring of 1910, these ships arrived in Vladivostok, then went on a cartographic expedition to the Bering Strait and Cape Dezhnev, returning to autumn back to Vladivostok. Kolchak in this expedition commanded the icebreaker "Vaigach". In 1908 he went to work at the Naval Academy. In 1909, Kolchak published his largest study - a monograph summarizing his glaciological research in the Arctic - "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas" (Notes of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Ser. 8. Phys.-Math. Department. St. Petersburg, 1909. T.26, No. 1.).

Participated in the development of an expedition project to explore the Northern Sea Route. In 1909-1910. the expedition, in which Kolchak commanded the ship, made the transition from the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok, and then sailed towards Cape Dezhnev.

Since 1910, at the Naval General Staff, he was involved in the development of a shipbuilding program in Russia.

In 1912, Kolchak transferred to serve in the Baltic Fleet as a flag captain for the operational part of the headquarters of the fleet commander. In December 1913 he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank.

World War I

To protect the capital from a possible attack by the German fleet, the Mine Division, on the personal order of Admiral Essen, on the night of July 18, 1914, set up minefields in the waters of the Gulf of Finland, without waiting for the permission of the Minister of the Navy and Nicholas II.

In the autumn of 1914, with the personal participation of Kolchak, an operation was developed to mine the blockade of German naval bases. In 1914-1915. destroyers and cruisers, including those under the command of Kolchak, laid mines near Kiel, Danzig (Gdansk), Pillau (modern Baltiysk), Vindava, and even near the island of Bornholm. As a result, 4 German cruisers were blown up in these minefields (2 of them sank - Friedrich Karl and Bremen (according to other sources, the submarine E-9 was sunk), 8 destroyers and 11 transports.

At the same time, an attempt to intercept a German convoy carrying ore from Sweden, in which Kolchak was directly involved, ended in failure.

In addition to the successful setting of mines, he organized attacks on the caravans of German merchant ships. From September 1915 he commanded a mine division, then naval forces in the Gulf of Riga.

In April 1916 he was promoted to Rear Admiral.

In July 1916, by order of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Alexander Vasilyevich was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

After the oath to the provisional government

After the February Revolution of 1917, Kolchak was the first in the Black Sea Fleet to swear allegiance to the Provisional Government. In the spring of 1917, the Stavka began preparations for a landing operation to capture Constantinople, but due to the disintegration of the army and navy, this idea had to be abandoned (largely due to active Bolshevik agitation). He received gratitude from the Minister of War Guchkov for his quick reasonable actions, with which he contributed to the preservation of order in the Black Sea Fleet.

However, due to the defeatist propaganda and agitation that penetrated into the army and navy after February 1917 under the guise and cover of freedom of speech, both the army and the navy began to move towards their collapse. On April 25, 1917, Alexander Vasilievich spoke at a meeting of officers with a report “The situation of our armed forces and relations with the allies.” Among other things, Kolchak noted: We are facing the disintegration and destruction of our armed forces, [because] the old forms of discipline have collapsed, and new ones have not been created.

Kolchak demanded an end to homegrown reforms based on the "conceit of ignorance" and to accept the forms of discipline and organization of internal life already adopted by the allies. On April 29, 1917, with the authorization of Kolchak, a delegation of about 300 sailors and Sevastopol workers left Sevastopol in order to influence the Baltic Fleet and the armies of the front, "to wage war actively with full exertion of forces."

In June 1917, the Sevastopol Council decided to disarm the officers suspected of counter-revolution, including taking away his St. George weapon from Kolchak - the golden saber handed to him for Port Arthur. The admiral preferred to throw the blade overboard with the words: "The newspapers do not want us to have weapons, so let him go to sea." On the same day, Alexander Vasilievich handed over the case to Rear Admiral V.K. Lukin. Three weeks later, the divers raised the saber from the bottom and handed it to Kolchak, engraving the inscription on the blade: "To the Knight of Honor Admiral Kolchak from the Union of Army and Navy Officers." At this time, Kolchak, along with the General Staff General of Infantry L. G. Kornilov, was considered as a potential candidate for military dictators. It was for this reason that in August A.F. Kerensky summoned the admiral to Petrograd, where he forced him to resign, after which, at the invitation of the command of the American fleet, he went to the United States to advise American specialists on the experience of using mine weapons by Russian sailors in the Baltic and Black Seas into the First World War.

In San Francisco, Kolchak was offered to stay in the United States, promising him a minecraft department at the best naval college and a rich life in a cottage on the ocean. Kolchak refused and went back to Russia.

Defeat and death

On January 4, 1920, in Nizhneudinsk, Admiral A. V. Kolchak signed his last Decree, in which he announced his intention to transfer the powers of the “Supreme All-Russian Power” to A. I. Denikin. Until the receipt of instructions from A.I. Denikin, "the fullness of military and civil power throughout the entire territory of the Russian Eastern Outskirts" was provided to Lieutenant General G.M. Semyonov.

On January 5, 1920, a coup took place in Irkutsk, the city was captured by the SR-Menshevik Political Center. On January 15, A. V. Kolchak, who left Nizhneudinsk in the Czechoslovak echelon, in a carriage flying the flags of Great Britain, France, the USA, Japan and Czechoslovakia, arrived in the suburbs of Irkutsk. The Czechoslovak command, at the request of the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center, with the sanction of the French General Janin, handed over Kolchak to his representatives. On January 21, the Political Center transferred power in Irkutsk to the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. From January 21 to February 6, 1920, Kolchak was interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission.

On the night of February 6-7, 1920, Admiral A. V. Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian government V. N. Pepelyaev were shot on the banks of the Ushakovka River, by order of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee. The resolution of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee on the execution of the Supreme Ruler Admiral Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pepelyaev was signed by Shiryamov, the chairman of the committee and its members A. Svoskarev, M. Levenson and Otradny.

According to the official version, this was done out of fear that the units of General Kappel, breaking through to Irkutsk, had the goal of freeing Kolchak. According to the most common version, the execution took place on the banks of the Ushakovka River near the Znamensky Convent. According to legend, sitting on the ice in anticipation of execution, the admiral sang the song "Burn, burn, my star ...". There is a version that Kolchak himself commanded his execution. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were thrown into the hole.

Kolchak's grave

Recently, previously unknown documents concerning the execution and subsequent burial of Admiral Kolchak were discovered in the Irkutsk region. Documents classified as “secret” were found while working on the performance of the Irkutsk city theater “Admiral’s Star” based on the play by former state security officer Sergei Ostroumov. According to the documents found, in the spring of 1920, not far from the Innokentievskaya station (on the banks of the Angara, 20 km below Irkutsk), local residents discovered a corpse in an admiral's uniform, carried by the current to the banks of the Angara. Arriving representatives of the investigating authorities conducted an inquiry and identified the body of the executed Admiral Kolchak. Subsequently, investigators and local residents secretly buried the admiral according to Christian custom. The investigators drew up a map on which Kolchak's grave was marked with a cross. Currently, all found documents are under examination.

Based on these documents, the Irkutsk historian I.I. Kozlov established the alleged location of Kolchak's grave.

It is a terrible state to give orders without having real power to ensure the execution of the order, except for one's own authority. (A. V. Kolchak, March 11, 1917)

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak was born on November 4, 1874. In 1888-1894 he studied at the Naval Cadet Corps, where he transferred from the 6th St. Petersburg classical gymnasium. He was promoted to midshipman. In addition to military affairs, he was fond of exact sciences and factory business: he learned to fitter in the workshops of the Obukhov plant, he mastered the navigational business at the Kronstadt Naval Observatory. V. I. Kolchak served his first officer rank with a severe wound during the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1853-1856: he turned out to be one of the seven surviving defenders of the Stone Tower on Malakhov Kurgan, whom the French found among the corpses after the assault. After the war, he graduated from the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg and, until his retirement, served as an acceptance officer for the Naval Ministry at the Obukhov Plant, having a reputation as a straightforward and extremely scrupulous person.

At the end of 1896, Kolchak was assigned to the cruiser of the 2nd rank "Cruiser" to the position of chief of the watch. On this ship, for several years he went on campaigns in the Pacific Ocean, in 1899 he returned to Kronstadt. On December 6, 1898, he was promoted to lieutenant. In the campaigns, Kolchak not only performed his official duties, but also actively engaged in self-education. He also became interested in oceanography and hydrology. In 1899, he published an article "Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravity of sea water, made on the cruisers" Rurik "and" Cruiser "from May 1897 to March 1898." July 21, 1900 A. V. Kolchak went on an expedition on the schooner "Zarya" along the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula, where the first wintering. In October 1900, Kolchak participated in Toll's trip to the Gafner fjord, and in April-May 1901, the two of them traveled around Taimyr. Throughout the expedition, the future admiral carried out active scientific work. In 1901, E. V. Toll immortalized the name of A. V. Kolchak, naming the island in the Kara Sea and the cape discovered by the expedition after him. As a result of the expedition in 1906, he was elected a full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.

Schooner Zarya

The long polar expeditions of his son, his scientific and military activities pleased the aging General Vasily Kolchak. And they were alarming: his only son was almost thirty years old, and the prospect of seeing grandchildren, heirs of the famous family in the male line was very vague. And then, having received news from his son that he would soon read a report in the Irkutsk Geographical Society, the general takes decisive measures. By that time, Alexander Kolchak had been engaged for several years to a hereditary Podolsk noblewoman. Sofia Omirova.

But, apparently, he was in no hurry to become a loving husband and father of the family. Long polar expeditions, in which he voluntarily took part, followed one after another. Sophia has been waiting for her fiancé for the fourth year. And the old general decided: the wedding should take place in Irkutsk. The chronicle of further events is swift: on March 2, Alexander reads a brilliant report at the Irkutsk Geographical Society, and the next day he meets his father and bride at the Irkutsk railway station. Preparations for the wedding take two days. March fifth Sofia Omirova and Alexander Kolchak get married. Three days later, the young husband leaves his wife and voluntarily goes to the army to defend Port Arthur. The Russo-Japanese War began. The long journey of the last, perhaps the most prominent representative of the Kolchak dynasty of Russian warriors, to the ice hole on the Angara began. And to great Russian glory.

The war with Japan was the first combat test of the young lieutenant. His rapid career growth - from watch officer to commander of a destroyer and, later, commander of coastal guns, corresponded to the amount of work done in the most difficult conditions. Combat raids, minefields approaches to Port Arthur, the destruction of one of the leading enemy cruisers "Takasago" - Alexander Kolchak served the fatherland in good faith. Although he could well retire for health reasons. For participation in the Russo-Japanese War, Alexander Kolchak was awarded two orders and a golden St. George dagger with the inscription "For Courage".

In 1912, Kolchak was appointed head of the First Operational Department of the Naval General Staff, in charge of all the preparation of the fleet for the expected war. During this period, Kolchak participates in the maneuvers of the Baltic Fleet, becomes a specialist in the field of combat firing and, in particular, mine work: since the spring of 1912 he has been in the Baltic Fleet near Essen, then he served in Libau, where the Mine Division was based. Before the start of the war, his family also remained in Libau: wife, son, daughter. Since December 1913, Kolchak has been a captain of the 1st rank; after the start of the war - the flag-captain for the operational part. He developed the first combat mission for the fleet - to close the entrance to the Gulf of Finland with a strong minefield (the same mine-artillery position Porkkala-udd-island Nargen, which was completely successfully, but not so quickly repeated by the sailors of the Red Navy in 1941). Having taken a group of four destroyers into temporary command, at the end of February 1915 Kolchak closes the Danzig Bay with two hundred mines. This was the most difficult operation - not only for military reasons, but also for the conditions of navigation of ships with a weak hull in the ice: here Kolchak's polar experience came in handy again. In September 1915, Kolchak took command, at first temporary, of the Mine Division; at the same time, all naval forces in the Gulf of Riga come under his control. In November 1915, Kolchak received the highest Russian military award - the Order of St. George IV degree. On Easter 1916, in April, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was awarded the first admiral's rank. In April 1916 he was promoted to Rear Admiral. In July 1916, by order of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Alexander Vasilyevich was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

After the February Revolution of 1917, the Sevastopol Soviet removed Kolchak from command, and the admiral returned to Petrograd. After the February Revolution of 1917, Kolchak was the first in the Black Sea Fleet to swear allegiance to the Provisional Government. In the spring of 1917, the Headquarters began preparations for a landing operation to capture Constantinople, but due to the disintegration of the army and navy, this idea had to be abandoned. He received gratitude from the Minister of War Guchkov for his quick reasonable actions, with which he contributed to the preservation of order in the Black Sea Fleet. However, due to the defeatist propaganda and agitation that penetrated into the army and navy after February 1917 under the guise and cover of freedom of speech, both the army and the navy began to move towards their collapse. On April 25, 1917, Alexander Vasilievich spoke at a meeting of officers with a report “The situation of our armed forces and relations with the allies.” Among other things, Kolchak noted: “We are facing the disintegration and destruction of our armed forces, [because] the old forms of discipline have collapsed, and new ones have not been created.”

Kolchak receives an invitation from the American mission, which officially turned to the Provisional Government with a request to send Admiral Kolchak to the United States to provide information on mines and anti-submarine warfare. July 4 A.F. Kerensky authorized the implementation of Kolchak's mission and, as a military adviser, he is serving in England, and then in the USA.

Kolchak returns to Russia, but the October coup delays him in Japan until September 1918. On the night of November 18, a military coup took place in Omsk, which pushed Kolchak to the top of power. The Council of Ministers insisted on proclaiming him the Supreme Ruler of Russia, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and making him a full admiral. In 1919, Kolchak transferred Headquarters from Omsk to the government echelon, and Irkutsk was appointed the new capital. The Admiral stops at Nizhneudinsk.

On January 5, 1920, he agrees to transfer supreme power to General Denikin, and control of the Eastern Outskirts to Semenov, and goes into the Czech carriage, under the protection of the Allies. On January 14, the last betrayal takes place: in exchange for free passage, the Czechs give up the admiral. On January 15, 1920, at 9:50 pm local time, Irkutsk time, Kolchak was arrested. At eleven o'clock in the morning, under a reinforced escort, the arrested were led across the hummocky ice of the Angara, and then Kolchak and his officers were transported in cars to the Alexander Central. The Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee intended to make an open trial of the former Supreme Ruler of Russia and the ministers of his Russian government. On January 22, the Extraordinary Investigative Commission began interrogations, which continued until February 6, when the remnants of Kolchak's army came close to Irkutsk. The Revolutionary Committee issued a decree on the execution of Kolchak without trial. February 7, 1920 at 4 o'clock in the morning Kolchak, together with Prime Minister V.N. Pepelyaev was shot on the banks of the Ushakovka River and thrown into the hole.

Last picture Admiral

Monument to Kolchak. Irkutsk

Severe. Haughty. Proudly
Sparkling bronze eyes
Kolchak looks silently
To the place of his death.

The brave hero of Port Arthur,
Wrestler, geographer, admiral -
Carried up by a silent sculpture
He is on a granite pedestal.

Great without any optics
He sees everything around now:
River; slope where the place of execution
Marked wooden cross.

He lived. Was bold and free
And even for a short time
He become the only Supreme
The ruler of Russia could!

Execution ahead of freedom,
And in the red stars of the rebels
Found the grave of a patriot
In the cold bowels of the Angara.

Among the people, a stubborn rumor roams:
He was saved. He is still alive;
He goes to the same temple to pray,
Where he stood under the crown with his wife ...

Now terror has no power over him.
He was able to be reborn in bronze,
And tramples indifferently
Heavy forged boot

Red Guard and sailor,
What, dictatorships again hungry,
Bayonets crossed with a mute threat,
Unable to overthrow Kolchak

One command to play Beethoven's symphonies is sometimes not enough to play them well.

A. V. Kolchak, February 1917

The sensational film directed by A. Kravchuk "Admiral" in 2008 contains an apologetic interpretation of the image of the famous leader of the White movement, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, while historians, far from canonizing this historical character, insist that this is a pseudo-historical melodrama, and a screen hero too far from reality. What is the share of truth and fiction in the film version of historical events?

Frame from the film *Admiral*, 2008

Estimates of the film "Admiral" range from "a shift in emphasis" to "rape of history in a sophisticated form", but critics unanimously agree on one thing - there are too many deviations from historical truth, omissions and outright lies.

This can be seen both at the level of details (inaccuracies in officer uniforms, in the image of ships - a destroyer instead of a destroyer), and in larger forms (the filmmakers "forgot" that Anna Timireva had a son from her lawful husband, whom she abandoned from -for the love of Kolchak).

Admiral Kolchak and Anna Timireva

Anna Timireva really divorced her husband in order to become Kolchak's common-law wife, and when he was arrested, she voluntarily went to prison after him. After the death of the admiral, she spent 30 years in prisons, camps and exile.

But excessive attention to the love storyline - the story of Kolchak's relationship with Anna Timireva - led to the fact that significant facts of his biography were not paid attention at all.

So, for example, there is no mention of how the admiral proved himself in the Russo-Japanese War, or his participation in polar expeditions.

Kolchak's civil wife Anna Timireva

It also remained behind the scenes that Kolchak was a rather cruel military leader and became famous for merciless terror - his troops burned entire settlements, tens of thousands of them were killed.

Only in the Yekaterinburg province, Kolchak soldiers shot over 25,000 people. His personality receives extremely ambiguous assessments of historians, he was too controversial for such a flat and "cardboard" image on the screen.

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak

Admiral Kolchak

Historian Andrei Sinelnikov claims that the events of 1916-1917. in the film are completely fictional: no German armored cruiser in April 1916 was lured by Kolchak to mines and did not shoot at him from a cannon.

The Friedrich Karl cruiser did exist, but it exploded on Russian minefields back in 1914, without Kolchak's participation.

Alexander Kolchak in life and in cinema. In the role of admiral - Konstantin Khabensky

When in the film Kolchak is presented as the commander of the Slava cruiser, this is also an obvious inconsistency: the admiral never commanded warships over 750 tons with a displacement, usually they were destroyers, but not cruisers and battleships.

Sofya Fedorovna Omirova-Kolchak, the legal wife of the admiral, in life and in cinema

Many legends and conjectures about the life of Kolchak were born from interrogations of the admiral in Irkutsk, during which, according to historians, the naval commander exaggerated his merits.

In addition, in less than a year of Kolchak's command of the Black Sea Fleet, Russian naval forces suffered the largest losses in the entire war.

During the year of his reign, the admiral, with mass executions, raised against himself the peasants of Siberia, who joined the partisans. He was called a puppet in the hands of the Entente.

Anna Kovalchuk as Sofia Kolchak and Elizaveta Boyarskaya as Anna Timireva

In November 1918, Kolchak was elected the Supreme Ruler of Russia, by the spring of 1919 he managed to assemble an army of 400 thousand people.

But already in the autumn of 1919, his troops were suffering one defeat after another. In January 1920 he was arrested, and on February 7 he was shot without trial or investigation. Due to severe frosts, his body was not interred - he was thrown into the hole on the Angara.

Admiral Kolchak

Feature films are often too loose with historical facts.