Pepelyaev Anatoly Nikolaevich short biography. Russian liberation movement

Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev (July 3, 1891, Tomsk - January 14, 1938, Novosibirsk) - Russian military leader, lieutenant general, participant in the First World War and the Civil War on Eastern Front, an outstanding member of the White movement, commander of the 1st Siberian Army, Siberian regionalist. Brother of the Prime Minister of the Government.

encyclopedic reference

Graduated from the Omsk Cadet Corps and Pavlovsk military school in St. Petersburg.

He began his service in the 41st Siberian Rifle Regiment. Member of the First World War. Lieutenant Colonel, Battalion Commander. From February 1918 he was a member of an underground officer organization in Tomsk. After the overthrow of Soviet power in Tomsk on May 27, 1918, he was commander of the 1st Central Siberian Army Corps, promoted to colonel.

A.N. Pepelyaev fought in, on, for Verkhneudinsk and Chita. From September 10, 1918 - Major General, from January 31, 1919 - Lieutenant General. From April 1919 - Commander southern group Siberian Army, from July 14 - Commander of the 1st Army. However, parts of the army raised a series of rebellions and self-destructed as a military force. On December 9, 1919, at the Taiga station, the Pepelyaev brothers, in an attempt to overthrow Kolchak and organize a government of "public trust", arrested the front commander, disorganizing the administration.

Sick with typhus A.N. Pepelyaev left for the east. In 1920, in Harbin, he was engaged in the arrangement of those who arrived from Russia, organized the "Military Union". To support the anti-Bolshevik uprising, it was decided to send a detachment to Yakutia. By the end of August 1922 A.N. Pepelyaev, at the head of a detachment of 750 people, set off on steamboats from Vladivostok to Ayan. Until spring, there were fierce battles with the Reds under the command of I. Strod. June 17, 1923 A.N. Pepelyaev surrendered in Ayan. Sentenced to death, which the All-Russian Central Executive Committee replaced with 10 years in prison.

Released January 6, 1936. Worked as an assistant to the head of the horse depot in Voronezh. Arrested again on August 20, 1937, shot by a troika of the NKVD Novosibirsk region.

He was awarded the St. George weapon and 8 orders, including St. George IV degree.

Irkutsk. Dictionary of History and Local Lore, 2011

Biography

Origin

Born in the family of a hereditary nobleman and lieutenant general of the tsarist army Nikolai Pepelyaev and the daughter of a merchant Claudia Nekrasova. Nikolai Pepelyaev had six sons who later passed, with the exception of the eldest, military training, and two daughters.

In 1902, Pepelyaev entered the Omsk Cadet Corps, from which he successfully graduated in 1908. In the same year, Pepelyaev entered the Pavlovsk Military School (PVU) in St. Petersburg. In 1910, Pepelyaev graduated from it with the rank of second lieutenant.

Immediately after graduating from the PVU, Anatoly Nikolayevich was sent to serve in the machine gun team of the 42nd Siberian rifle regiment stationed in his native Tomsk. In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Pepelyaev was promoted to lieutenant.

In 1912, Pepelyaev married Nina Ivanovna Gavronskaya (1893-1979), originally from. Two sons were born from this marriage: Vsevolod - in 1913, who lived until 1946 in Harbin, in 1946-1947 - an employee military intelligence Transbaikal Military District, arrested in 1947. Lavr - 1922-1991, an employee of the emigration bureau, a graduate of the Japanese military mission courses, was repressed. Died in Tashkent.

World War I (before the February Revolution)

Pepelyaev went to the front as the commander of the cavalry reconnaissance of his regiment. In this position, he distinguished himself under Prasnysh and Soldau. In the summer of 1915, under his command, the trenches lost during the retreat were recaptured. In 1916, during a two-month vacation, Pepelyaev taught tactics at the front-line ensign school. In 1917, shortly before the February Revolution, Anatoly Nikolayevich was promoted to captain.

For military prowess, Pepelyaev was awarded the following awards:

1. Order of St. Anne 4th class with the inscription "For Bravery"
2. Order of St. Anne 3rd class
3. Order of St. Anne 2nd class
4. Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class
5. Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd class
6. Order of St. Vladimir 4th class with swords and bow
7. Order of St. George 4th degree (01/27/1917) and St. George's weapon (09/27/1916)

Revolutions of 1917

February Revolution found Pepelyaev at the front. Despite the gradual disintegration of the army, he kept his detachment in constant combat readiness and at the same time did not fall out of favor with his soldiers, as was the case in many other parts. Under Kerensky, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. After the October Revolution, the council of soldiers' deputies of the battalion, which by that time was commanded by Pepelyaev, elected him as the battalion commander. This fact speaks of the great popularity of Pepelyaev among the soldiers.

But even parts of Pepelyaev were decomposed - the Brest-Litovsk peace, which ended hostilities, was to blame. Realizing the aimlessness of his further stay at the front, Anatoly Nikolaevich left for Tomsk.

The beginning of the fight against the Bolsheviks

Pepelyaev arrived in Tomsk in early March 1918. There he met his longtime friend, Captain Dostovalov, who introduced Pepelyaev into a secret officer organization created on January 1, 1918 and headed by colonels Vishnevsky and Samarokov. Pepelyaev was chosen as the chief of staff of this organization, which planned the overthrow of the Bolsheviks who seized power in the city on December 6, 1917.

On May 26, 1918, an armed uprising against the Bolsheviks began in Novonikolaevsk. This gave an impetus to the Tomsk officers. On May 27, an armed uprising began in Tomsk. At the same time, the performance of the Czechoslovaks began. Lieutenant Colonel Pepelyaev commanded the Tomsk uprising. On May 31, the power of the "Siberian government" of Peter Vologda was established in Tomsk. Pepelyaev recognized this power and created on June 13, 1918, on her behalf, the 1st Central Siberian Corps, at the head of which he stood. With him, he moved east to liberate Siberia from the Bolsheviks. On June 18, Krasnoyarsk was taken, on July 11, Verkhneudinsk was liberated on August 20. West of Chita, Pepelyaev's troops joined up with the Trans-Baikal Cossacks of Semyonov. The meeting of the military leaders themselves took place in late August / early September at the Olovyannaya station. During this campaign, Pepelyaev was promoted to colonel.

Perm - Hike to Vyatka

By order of Avksentiev's Ufa directory, Pepelyaev's corps was transferred to the west of Siberia, and Anatoly Nikolayevich himself was promoted to major general (September 10, 1918), thanks to which he became the youngest general in Siberia (27 years old). From October 1918, his group was in the Urals. In November, Pepelyaev launched a Perm operation against the 3rd Red Army. During this operation, a coup took place in Omsk, which brought him to power. Pepelyaev immediately recognized supreme power Kolchak, since the power of the Socialist-Revolutionary Avksentiev was unpleasant to him.

On December 24, 1918, Pepelyaev’s troops occupied Perm abandoned by the Bolsheviks, capturing about 20,000 Red Army soldiers, who were all sent home on Pepelyaev’s orders. Due to the fact that the liberation of Perm fell on the 128th anniversary of the capture of the fortress by Izmail Suvorov, the soldiers nicknamed Anatoly Nikolaevich "Siberian Suvorov." On January 31, Pepelyaev was promoted to lieutenant general.

After the capture of Perm, Pepelyaev traveled about 45 km to the west, but severe frosts set in and the front froze. On March 4, 1919, a general offensive of Kolchak's troops began, and Pepelyaev moved his corps to the west. By the end of April, he was already standing on the Cheptsa River near the village of Balezino. On April 24, Kolchak's armies were reorganized and Pepelyaev became the commander of the Northern Group of the Siberian Army. Meanwhile, the front froze again, and only on May 30 Pepelyaev was able to launch an attack on Vyatka, to join Miller's troops. Pepelyaev was the only one who managed to advance in May - the rest of the White groups were repulsed by the Reds. On June 2, Pepelyaev took Glazov. But on June 4, the Pepelyaev group was stopped by the 29th Infantry Division of the 3rd Army in the area between Yar and Falenki. By June 20, he was recaptured approximately to the front line on March 3.

Great Siberian Ice Campaign

After the June retreat, Pepelyaev did not win major military victories. On July 21, 1919, he reorganized his units and officially formed the Eastern Front, which was divided into 4 armies (1st, 2nd, 3rd and Orenburg), a separate Steppe group and a separate Siberian Cossack Corps. Pepelyaev was appointed commander of the 1st Army. This reorganization did not make the conduct of hostilities more effective, and Kolchak's armies retreated to the east. For some time, the Whites managed to linger on Tobol and Pepelyaev was responsible for the defense of Tobolsk, but in October 1919 this line was broken through by the Reds. In November, Omsk was abandoned and a general flight began. Pepelyaev's army still held the Tomsk region, but there was no hope of success.

In December, a conflict broke out between Anatoly Nikolaevich and Kolchak. When the train of the Supreme Ruler of Russia arrived at the Taiga station, it was detained by Pepelyaev's troops. Pepelyaev sent Kolchak an ultimatum to convene the Siberian Zemsky Sobor, resign Commander-in-Chief Sakharov, whom Pepelyaev had already ordered arrested, and investigate the surrender of Omsk. In case of non-compliance, Pepelyaev threatened to arrest Kolchak. On the same day, Pepelyaev's brother, who was prime minister in the Kolchak government, arrived in Taiga. He "reconciled" the general with the admiral. As a result, on December 11, Sakharov was removed from the post of commander in chief.

On December 20, Pepelyaev was driven out of Tomsk and fled along the Trans-Siberian Railway. His wife, son and mother fled with him. But since Anatoly Nikolaevich fell ill with typhus and was placed in a sanvagon, he was separated from his family. In January 1920, Pepelyaev was taken to Verkhneudinsk, where he recovered.

On March 11, Pepelyaev created the Siberian Army from the remnants of the 1st Army. partisan detachment, with whom he went to Sretensk. But since he was subordinate to Ataman Semyonov, and he collaborated with the Japanese, Pepelyaev decided to leave Russia and on April 20, 1920, went to Harbin with his family.

Harbin and Primorye

In late April - early May 1920, Pepelyaev and his family settled in Harbin. There he organized artels of carpenters, cab drivers and loaders. He created the "Military Union", chaired by General Vishnevsky. First, the organization came to the Bolsheviks from Blagoveshchensk, hiding under the guise of the Far East. However, Pepelyaev realized their essence and interrupted negotiations on the merger of his organization with the NRA FER. In 1922, Pepelyaev was approached by the Socialist-Revolutionary Kulikovsky, who persuaded him to organize a campaign in Yakutia to help the rebels against the Bolsheviks. In the summer of 1922, Pepelyaev left for Vladivostok to form a military unit that was to sail across the Sea of ​​Okhotsk with the aim of landing in Okhotsk and Ayan. At that time, a change of power took place in Vladivostok, as a result of which the far-right General Diterikhs became the “ruler of Primorye”. He liked the idea of ​​​​a trip to Yakutia and he helped Pepelyaev with money. As a result, 720 people (493 from Primorye and 227 from Harbin) voluntarily joined the ranks of the "Militia of the Tatar Strait" (as the detachment was called for disguise). The detachment also included Major General Vishnevsky, Major General Rakitin and others. The detachment was also supplied with two machine guns, 175,000 rifle cartridges and 9,800 hand grenades. Two ships were chartered. They could not accommodate all the volunteers, so on August 31, 1922, only 553 people headed by Pepelyaev and Rakitin set sail on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Vishnevsky remained in Vladivostok. In addition to supervising the volunteers who remained with him, he also had to try to replenish the ranks of the Militia.

In early September, the "Militia of the Tatar Strait" helped with the landing of the Siberian flotilla, which was fighting the red partisans in the area of ​​​​the Terney River. On September 6, troops landed in Okhotsk. In Okhotsk, a base was created under the leadership of the commandant, Captain Mikhailovsky. A group of General Rakitin was also created, which was supposed to move deep into Yakutia, to connect with the main forces of Pepelyaev. The purpose of the separation - Rakitin was supposed to move along the Amgino-Okhotsk tract and gather White partisans into the ranks of the "Militia". Pepelyaev himself sailed on ships along the coast to the south and landed in Ayan on September 8. On the same day, a meeting was held at which Pepelyaev announced the renaming of the Tatar Strait Police to the Siberian Volunteer Squad (SDD). On September 12, the "People's Congress of the Tungus" took place, which handed over 300 deer to the SDD.

Leaving a garrison of 40 people in Ayan, on September 14, Pepelyaev moved the main forces of the squad of 480 people along the Amgino-Ayansky tract through the Dzhugdzhur mountain range to the village of Nelkan. However, on the approaches to Nelkan, a day was given, during which three volunteers fled. They informed the red garrison of Nelkan about the approach of the SDD, in connection with which the commandant of Nelkan, Chekist Karpel, dispersed the local residents and sailed with the garrison down the Maya River. Pepelyaev occupied Nelkan on September 27, two hours before that, the city was abandoned. All that the SDD managed to find were 120 hard drives and 50,000 cartridges for them, which were buried by the Reds. Pepelyaev realized that the campaign was poorly prepared and in October he left with guards for Ayan, leaving the main forces in Nelkan. Returning November 5, 1922 to Ayan,

Pepelyaev was strengthened in his intention to go to Yakutsk, since a ship with Vishnevsky arrived in Ayan, who brought with him 187 volunteers and provisions. In mid-November, a detachment of Pepelyaev and Vishnevsky set off for Nelkan, arriving there in mid-December. At the same time, Rakitin set off from Okhotsk in the direction of Yakutsk. By December, residents returned to Nelkan - the Tungus, who at their meeting expressed support for the SDD and provided Pepelyaev with deer and provisions. In early January 1923, when all the White Guards had already been defeated, the SDD moved from Nelkan to Yakutsk. Soon a detachment of the White Partisans of Artemiev and the Okhotsk detachment of Rakitin joined it. On February 5, the Amga settlement was occupied, where Pepelyaev placed his headquarters. On February 13, Vishnevsky's detachment attacked the Red Army detachment of Strod in the Sasyl-Sysy alas. The attack was unsuccessful and Strod was able to fortify himself in Sasyl-Sysyy. The last siege in the history of the Civil War began. Pepelyaev refused to move on until Strode and his detachment were taken prisoner. On February 27, Rakitin was defeated by a detachment of Kurashov's red partisans and began a retreat to Sasyl-Sysyy.

A detachment of Baikalov left Yakutsk against Pepelyaev, which, having united with Kurashov, reached 760 people. From March 1 to March 2, there were battles near Amga and Pepelyaev was defeated. On March 3, the siege of Sasyl-Sysyy was lifted - the flight to Ayan began. Rakitin fled to Okhotsk. The Reds began to chase, but stopped halfway and returned. On May 1, Pepelyaev and Vishnevsky reached Ayan. Here they decided to build kungas and sail on them to Sakhalin. But their days were already numbered, for already on April 24, Vostretsov's detachment sailed from Vladivostok, the purpose of which was to eliminate the SDD. At the beginning of June 1923, Rakitin's detachment in Okhotsk was liquidated, and on June 17 Vostretsov occupied Ayan. To avoid bloodshed, Pepelyaev surrendered without resistance. On June 24, the captured SDD was sent to Vladivostok, where she arrived on June 30.

Trial and imprisonment

In Vladivostok, a military court sentenced Pepelyaev to death, but he wrote a letter to Kalinin asking for clemency. The request was considered, and in January 1924 a trial was held in Chita, which sentenced Pepelyaev to 10 years in prison. Pepelyaev was supposed to serve his term in the Yaroslavl political isolator. Pepelyaev spent the first two years in solitary confinement, in 1926 he was allowed to do work. He worked as a carpenter, glazier and joiner. Pepelyaev was even allowed to correspond with his wife in Harbin.

In 1933, Pepelyaev's term ended, but back in 1932, at the request of the OGPU board, they decided to extend it for three years. In January 1936, he was unexpectedly transferred from the political isolator in Yaroslavl to the Butyrka prison in Moscow. The next day, Pepelyaev was transferred to the inner prison of the NKVD. On the same day, he was summoned for interrogation to the head of the Special Department of the NKVD, Mark Guy. Then he was again placed in the Butyrka prison. On June 4, 1936, Pepelyaev was summoned again to Guy, who read him the release decree. On June 6, Anatoly Nikolaevich was released.

The NKVD settled Pepelyaev in Voronezh, where he got a job as a carpenter. It is believed that Pepelyaev was released in order to organize a front society, like the Industrial Party.

In August 1937, Pepelyaev was arrested a second time and taken to Novosibirsk, where he was charged with creating a counter-revolutionary organization. On January 14, 1938, the Troika of the NKVD in the Novosibirsk Region was sentenced to highest measure punishment. The sentence was carried out on January 14, 1938 in a prison in the city of Novosibirsk. Buried in the courtyard of the prison.

Wikipedia, Irkipedia

Appendix. General Pepelyaev: Admiral Kolchak took away his victory over the Bolsheviks

The fate of Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev reflected the tragedy of the Russian democratic officers, who enthusiastically accepted the February Revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy and rose against the Bolsheviks under the slogan of the Constituent Assembly. Under the conditions of the Civil War, Democratic officers were forced to choose the lesser of two evils and found themselves between two fires. A staunch monarchist and a very intelligent man, Vladimir Shulgin, with severe mental pain, said: "The White movement was started almost by saints, and it was almost finished by robbers." Pepelyaev believed in a white cause until he realized that the robbers from Kolchak's entourage took advantage of the fruits of his victories.

Hereditary officer

Anatoly Pepelyaev was born in Tomsk on August 15, 1891 in the family of an officer. At the age of nineteen, he graduated from the Pavlovsk military school in St. Petersburg and during the German war he commanded a battalion, for more than three years he did not crawl out of the trenches. After the collapse of the Russian army near Baranovichi, the brave Lieutenant Colonel Pepelyaev arrived in Siberia at the end of December 1917. Politically, he was close to the Social Revolutionaries - a party that expressed the interests of the peasantry. After the Bolsheviks dispersed the Constituent Assembly and concluded Brest Peace Pepelyaev created an underground officer organization in his native Tomsk and established contact with the local Social Revolutionaries. In the spring of 1918, the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps began, and the organization led by Pepelyaev, with the help of Czech legionnaires, overthrew the Tomsk Soviet. Pepelyaev, who was extremely brave and very popular among the troops, quickly formed a regiment from Tomsk and led it to Krasnoyarsk. After the capture of Krasnoyarsk, divisions from Barnaul, Novonikolaev and Krasnoyarsk joined Pepelyaev. In all Siberian cities there were officer organizations similar to Pepelyaev's, and they prepared in advance the overthrow of the Bolsheviks. The ideological leadership of the underground was carried out by the regional Social Revolutionaries, supporters of the creation of the Siberian Democratic Republic.

Battles for Irkutsk

After the liberation of many Siberian cities from Bolshevism, Pepelyaev's regiment turned into a corps that approached Irkutsk under the white and green banner of autonomous Siberia. In Irkutsk, there also existed a powerful SR-officer underground, headed by former political prisoners Nikolai Kalashnikov, Arkady Krakovetsky and Pavel Yakovlev. Before the revolution, two of them were prisoners of the famous Alexander Central. After the December battles in Irkutsk in 1917, Kalashnikov, who was assistant commander of the East Siberian Military District under the Provisional Government, took the surviving officers and cadets out of the city and created a fortified area in Pivovarikha, from which he constantly threatened the Bolsheviks for six months. In Irkutsk itself, Kalashnikov also created a numerous and a well-organized underground organization. It consisted of socialist-revolutionaries and non-party officers who sympathized with the populist ideology. It was divided into battalions, companies, platoons and fives. One company was stationed in the very center, the other - in Workers, the third - in Glazkovo, while the main forces were in Pivovarikha and along the Aleksandrovsky tract. In total, the underground formations numbered over a thousand people who were well armed and trained. The Kalashnikovs made their first attempt to capture Irkutsk on February 23, 1918, when the II Congress of Soviets of Siberia was held in the city. The Bolsheviks managed to prevent a coup attempt, but on June 14, the underground fighters broke into Irkutsk and captured almost the entire city. Irkutsk underground policemen, led by police chief V.A. Shchipachev, hit the rear of the Bolsheviks and inflicted big damage. The Reds were helped by the Trans-Baikal Cossacks, whose echelon unexpectedly approached the city. Right from the station on horseback they swept through the streets of Irkutsk, chopping down the underground fighters drunk from the near victory. Many officers died under the Cossack drafts, the rest retreated to Pivovarikha, having managed, however, to release their comrades from prison, including the former provincial commissar Pavel Yakovlev, the first Irkutsk governor after the fall of the monarchy.

Less than a month later, on July 10, the Kalashnikovs again broke into Irkutsk, captured the station and the railway bridge and ensured the approach of the vanguard of Pepelyaev's Siberian Corps. Having liberated the capital Eastern Siberia, Pepelyaev went to the Baikal Front. By that time, the corps, replenished by the Irkutsk people, had grown into the Siberian army, and Pepelyaev himself became a general, the liberator of Siberia from the Bolsheviks. The Siberian general was only twenty-seven years old.

The offensive of the Siberian army

By the time of the fall of Soviet power, the situation in the Siberian underground was not in favor of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. If in the Irkutsk organization there were no disagreements between the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the officers, then in other cities the leadership of the underground was seized by the reactionary monarchists, who had hated the Socialist-Revolutionaries since the seventeenth year, rightly considering them guilty of overthrowing the tsar. With the support of the emissaries of the Entente, the monarchists pushed back the Socialist-Revolutionaries and took advantage of the fruits of their labors. Already in the autumn of 1918, protest rallies were held in Pepelyaev’s army against the persecution of socialist revolutionaries by the Kolchak secret police. After the Kolchak coup, the Siberian army was transferred to Yekaterinburg, it became integral part admiral's troops. Thousands and thousands of Siberians willingly marched under the white-green banners of Pepelyaev, which could not but disturb the "supreme ruler" Kolchak. After the Pepeliaevs severe frost with bayonets at the ready, almost without shots, they drove the Bolsheviks out of Perm, opening the way to Moscow, the popularity of the "Siberian general" reached its climax. knew that the positions of the Socialist-Revolutionaries were very strong in Pepelyaev's army. Nikolai Kalashnikov, who became Pepelyaev’s deputy and head of counterintelligence in the Siberian Army, even created a secret anti-Kolchak organization that intended to overthrow the reactionary monarchists who had dug in at Kolchak’s headquarters and replace them with regional Social Revolutionaries. The mediocre Kolchak leadership was not able to defeat the Bolsheviks, and the Siberian army was strike force admiral. Kalashnikov began to conduct intelligence work against the Kolchak government, his efforts were aimed at clarifying the position of the "supreme ruler" in relation to the Social Revolutionaries and military units loyal to them.

After the Kolchak coup, many Socialist-Revolutionaries, including deputies of the Constituent Assembly, under the slogan of which Pepelyaev and his associates began the fight, were killed or thrown into dungeons, and those who remained free found refuge in the Siberian army and surrounded by Pavel Yakovlev, who again became Irkutsk governor and representing the opposition to Kolchak. At the head of the democratic opposition in Siberia were Pepelyaev himself and the former leaders of the Irkutsk underground Kalashnikov and the corps commander Ellerz-Usov. Kolchak at first did not interfere with the activities in Siberia of the zemstvos, city dumas, peasant and workers' unions led by the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but the alliance between the monarchists and the socialists could not be durable. Pepelyaev repeatedly submitted ultimatum reports to Kolchak and even threatened to move his army to Omsk, but the admiral was still afraid to touch the famous Siberian commander. When the Siberians took Perm and the road to red Moscow was open, the admiral unexpectedly ordered to stop the offensive. He sent Pepelyaev to take Kazan, but when it was one and a half hundred kilometers away, western army Kolchak went to cut across the Siberians and blocked their path. Kolchak was afraid that the Siberians themselves would go to Moscow or even make an alliance with the Red Army. The reason for these fears was the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) to change the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the Social Revolutionaries and readiness to cooperate with them. At the same time, anti-Kolchak peasant uprisings began throughout Siberia, the rear collapsed, paralyzed by corruption of officials and military departments. The polar admiral was more afraid of the Pepelyaev Siberians than the Reds, although he owed his victories to the white-green banner of the Siberian army and the red flags of the workers of the Izhevsk and Votkinsk regiments. Irony of history! The socialists fought in Kolchak's army against Bolshevism, and at that time, in the rear, the punitive detachments of the Cossacks massacred entire villages, and the obscurantist Black Hundreds created concentration camps for workers just because they were workers.

Enemy of Admiral Kolchak

In the end, General Pepelyaev openly accused Kolchak of being unable to command the army and demanded his resignation from the post of commander in chief. Kolchak, in response, removed Lieutenant General Pepelyaev from command of the Siberian Army. Pepelyaev and Kalashnikov wanted to start new stage fight under the SR banners against Lenin and Kolchak, and on June 21, 1919, Anatoly Pepelyaev turned to his army with a protest against the admiral, describing in detail how he constantly held back the advance of the Siberians, left them without reserves, how they fought heroically and died at the front, and Kolchak officers sat in the rear. Following his army commander, Kalashnikov made a report, revealing the reasons for the anti-Kolchak uprisings in the army and in the rear. He openly proclaimed the slogan of creating a free Siberia without Lenin and Kolchak, the glorified army of Pepelyaev should become the main armed force.

Soon Kalashnikov, in the Czech echelon of General Gaida, left the front and went to Vladivostok to organize an armed uprising against the Kolchak regime. Many Pepelyaev officers traveled with him, who settled in their cities in order to prepare the overthrow of Kolchakism. Pepelyaev at that time withdrew his army to Tomsk, along the way arresting Kolchak generals K.V. Sakharov and S.N. Voitsekhovsky. From Tomsk, the commander with part of his army went to Manchuria, intending to start a fight against Kolchak from Harbin. In Harbin, many Pepelyaevs came into contact with the Reds and took part in the fight against the gangs of Ataman Semenov and the expulsion of the Japanese from Far East, fighting in the People's Revolutionary Army of Primorye.

In Irkutsk, Kalashnikov was enthusiastically greeted by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Pepelyaevs from the corps of General Grivin, who shortly before that had been personally shot by Voitsekhovsky for betraying Kolchak. In November 1919, the Social Revolutionaries created a coalition body and representatives of the Zemstvo, the Irkutsk City Duma and cooperation - the Political Center. It also included the Siberian Mensheviks. Kalashnikov became the commander of the Political Center, and a month later his detachments began fighting against the Kolchak garrison, creating two fronts - Glazkovsky and Znamensky. As a result, on January 5, 1920, power in Irkutsk passed to the Provisional Council of the Siberian people's government, the Kolchak regime fell. Kalashnikov became the commander of the People's Revolutionary Army, at the same time he led the work to identify the punishers known to him, Kolchak counterintelligence officers, embezzlers generals, rear corrupt officials. On January 15, Kalashnikov's people received from the Czechs a train with a gold reserve and personally the "supreme ruler" Kolchak. Thus, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and not the Bolsheviks, who had the honor only to shoot the prisoner, put an end to his career.

General's last campaign

When power in Irkutsk passed to the Bolsheviks, Kalashnikov, fearing reprisals from the Cheka, quickly reorganized the People's Revolutionary Army into a division and took it to Transbaikalia. In March 1920, the Pepelyaevites drove out the Cossacks of Ataman Semenov from Verkhneudinsk and left in full force for Manchuria. The revolutionary who went through hard labor, an experienced underground worker and a talented military leader Nikolai Kalashnikov said goodbye to Pepelyaev in Harbin, boarded a steamer and sailed across the ocean. In America, he took up science, and the date of his death is unknown. And Lieutenant General Anatoly Pepelyaev lived quietly in Harbin until 1922. The unlucky "supreme ruler" had already been shot in Irkutsk, and Pepelyaev's older brother Victor, a former deputy of the State Duma and Minister of Internal Affairs in the government of the admiral, died with him on the ice of Ushakovka.

The Siberian general could not sit idle for a long time and in September 1922 he created the Siberian volunteer squad of seven hundred Tomsk officers, which landed on the Okhotsk coast and moved deep into Yakutia. They wanted to separate this region rich in furs and gold from Soviet Russia and establish a democratic system in it.

The Soviet government sent units from Irkutsk and other cities special purpose, the commander of one of which was the illustrious red commander, a former anarchist from the detachment of Nestor Ivan Strod, who fought with Pepelyaev back in 1918. The Strod detachment met the rebels near the Sasyl-Sasyy camp and took up a circular defense. The siege of the ice fortress continued for eighteen days, and on March 3, 1923, the expedition of the Siberian general ended. The approaching units of the Red Army defeated his squad, the remnants of which retreated to Okhotsk. On June 17, 1923, Pepelyaev, with the surviving officers, surrendered in the port of Ayan to the commander expeditionary corps S.S. Vostretsov, was taken to Vladivostok, from there to Chita, where he appeared before the court.

All the defendants were sentenced to death, but the All-Russian Central Executive Committee commuted their death to ten years in prison. At the trial, Pepelyaev, as a professional military man, expressed admiration for the courage of the fighters of the Ivan Strod detachment.

Siberian general Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev died in the Lefortovo dungeon on January 14, 1938. Together with him, Ivan Yakovlevich Strod, a holder of four orders of the Red Banner, who fought with him in the Baikal region and in Yakutia, was shot. It's time to pay tribute to the memory of both heroes of Siberia.

. Irkipedia

Literature

1. Privalikhin V. Pepelyaevs // East Siberian Truth. - 2003. - March 29.
2. Pepelyaev, Anatoly Nikolaevich on the website of the Russian Army in the Great War
3. Privalikhin V.I. From the Pepelyaev family. - Tomsk, 2004. - 112 p. - ISBN 5-9528-0015-7.
4. Shambarov V. E. White Guard. - M.: Eksmo-Press, 2002
5. Valery Klaving Russian Civil War: White armies. - M.: Ast, 2003.
6. Mityurin D.V. Civil War: Whites and Reds. - M.: Ast, 2004 (photo documents).
7. Timofeev E. D. Stepan Vostretsov. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1981.
8. Grachev G.P. The Yakut campaign of General Pepelyaev (edited by P.K. Konkin).

On January 14, 1938, a participant in the civil war, the famous White Guard Anatoly Pepelyaev, was shot in Novosibirsk. He is one of the few military leaders of the White movement, who, albeit posthumously, was rehabilitated by the Soviet government. However, the life of General Pepelyaev is rich in not such stories. "RG" collected Interesting Facts from the biography of the legendary officer.

1. Anatoly Pepelyaev was born on July 15, 1891 in Tomsk, in the family of a hereditary nobleman and lieutenant general of the tsarist army Nikolai Pepelyaev and the daughter of a merchant Claudia Nekrasova. The famous White Guard had two sisters and five brothers, two of whom also left their mark on history. So Arkady Pepelyaev, during the First World War, led the ambulance train of the Southwestern Front, and had four orders - two of St. Stanislav and two of St. Anna. After the Civil War, Arkady Nikolaevich continued to practice as an otolaryngologist. The glory of him as an excellent doctor was in Omsk, both ardent supporters and equally ardent opponents of Soviet power went to him for treatment. However, on January 23, 1941, he was arrested and died on May 24, 1946 in a camp in the city of Mariinsk. Another brother - Viktor Pepelyaev during the civil war politician and an associate of Kolchak, was arrested with him and shot on February 7, 1920.

2. Anatoly Pepelyaev went to the front of the First World War as a lieutenant of the 42nd Siberian Rifle Regiment, and met the revolution as a lieutenant colonel. For military prowess, he was awarded six orders, including George of the 4th degree and St. George's weapons. Pepelyaev's popularity among lower ranks was huge. After the October Revolution, the council of soldiers' deputies of the battalion, which by that time was commanded by Pepelyaev, elected him as their commander. However, the officer did not accept the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and left for Tomsk, where he led the fight against the Bolsheviks.

3. The White Guards under the command of Pepelyaev took Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Krasnoyarsk, Verkhneudinsk and Chita. During this campaign, Pepelyaev was promoted to major general, and becomes the youngest general in Siberia - he is 27 years old. On December 24, 1918, Pepelyaev’s troops occupied Perm abandoned by the Bolsheviks, capturing about 20 thousand Red Army soldiers, who were all sent home on Pepelyaev’s orders. Due to the fact that the liberation of Perm fell on the 128th anniversary of the capture of the fortress by Izmail Suvorov, the soldiers nicknamed Anatoly Nikolaevich "Siberian Suvorov".

4. During the Civil War, Pepelyaev's fame was enormous. In the regiments and divisions of Kolchak's Northern Group of Forces, it thundered: "We will make a path for our beloved leader to Vyatka, we will turn the enemy hordes into corpses. We are a mighty army, and the enemy cannot hold back the Pepelyaev Northern Group." However, it was not possible to take Vyatka and connect with the troops of General Miller. The retreat of all Kolchak's troops began, which turned into a flight. The First Siberian Army of General Pepelyaev perished entirely in the sector between Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, covering the retreat to Irkutsk and further, beyond Lake Baikal, of two other armies - Kappel and Voitsekhovsky. General Pepelyaev, who fell into typhus, escaped captivity and recovered.

6. In Vladivostok, a military court sentenced Pepelyaev to death penalty, but he wrote a letter to Kalinin asking for pardon. The request was considered, and in January 1924, a trial was held in Chita, which sentenced Pepelyaev to ten years in prison. The first two years the White Guard general spent in solitary confinement in the Yaroslavl political isolator. Then he was allowed to work as a carpenter, glazier and joiner, and even correspond with his wife in Harbin. In 1933, Pepelyaev's term ended, but back in 1932 he was extended for three years. After the release of Anatoly Nikolaevich, they settled in Voronezh, where he got a job as a carpenter. In August 1937, Pepelyaev was arrested a second time and taken to Novosibirsk, where he was charged with creating a counter-revolutionary organization, and on January 14, 1938 he was shot. It is curious that after 20 days, the winner of Pepelyaev in the Yakut taiga, the Vitebsk Latvian Jan Strod, was shot. He, like his opponent, was a participant in the First World War, a Knight of St. George, who was also awarded four Orders of the Red Banner.

7. On October 20, 1989, the prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk region rehabilitated the White Guard general Anatoly Pepelyaev. July 15, 2011 in Tomsk at the city cemetery "Baktin" the grand opening of the monument to Lieutenant General Nikolai Pepelyaev and his son General Anatoly Pepelyaev took place.

February 3rd, 2015

At the end of the Civil War, when the whites were already firmly pressed to the ocean, a group of several hundred desperate people went on an adventure in an attempt to turn the tide of history to its knees. They failed, but the duel between the Reds and the Whites in the wastelands of Yakutia, unthinkably huge even by Russian standards, remained one of the brightest plots in Russian history.

In 1922, the Reds gradually cleared the Far East, Uborevich was preparing for the last push to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. By this time, the bulk of whites in the Far East had already been squeezed out into China, leaving either those who were the most unlucky or persistent on an especially large scale. At that moment, General Dieterikhs, who represented the remnants of the White Guard on DalVas, and his assistant Kulikovsky came up with the idea to light northeastern Siberia. The plan envisaged a landing on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk east of Yakutsk, the rapid capture of the city and the creation of a center of a new uprising against the Reds there. Fortunately, envoys from the local population have already appeared from there, reporting a desire to rebel against the Reds. It was supposed to march 800 km into the depths of the continent on impassable roads. For such an enterprise, volunteers were needed, volunteers needed a commander. "Commandos" were found quickly, the commander was also gone.

Among other emigrants in northeastern China, in Harbin, lived General Anatoly Pepelyaev, the protagonist our play. He was a young man, but with considerable combat experience. Pepelyaev was a regular military man, by the beginning of the First World War he was already the head of intelligence of the regiment, and he waved the whole war with honor. "Anna" for courage, an honorary weapon, an officer's "George", "Vladimir" with swords - even by those standards, an impressive iconostasis. At the end of the war, when the commanders were made elected, the soldiers matched him to the battalion commanders. He graduated from World War I as a lieutenant colonel, and during the Civil War he joined Kolchak's army, and, as was the custom of that time, quickly rose in rank. In general, Civil - the time of generals under 30 years old. Turkul, Manstein, Buzun ... Here is the 27-year-old Pepelyaev. In 1920, due to a conflict with Ataman Semenov, to whom he was subordinate, Pepelyaev left with his wife and children for Harbin, where he lived for the second year. Dieterikhs' people easily found him and offered to take part in the "special operation".

Reference: Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev (1891-1938) - Russian military leader. Member of the First World War and the Civil War on the Eastern Front. Whiteguard. He distinguished himself by the capture of Perm on 12/25/1918 and the campaign against Yakutsk in 1922-1923. Siberian regionalist. Brother of the Kolchak Prime Minister Russian government Viktor Nikolaevich Pepelyaev.

In total, there were 730 people in the detachment, including as many as two generals and 11 colonels, all volunteers from the regions of the Far East and the Russian colonies of China that remained under white control. The Whites experienced a great shortage of weapons, so there were only two machine guns. There were plenty of rifles, but more than half of them were single-shot Berdanks, thanks for not being the fuzei of Peter the Great. Ammunition was by the standards of the Civil not so little, 250 rounds and a half dozen grenades per brother. The matter was complicated by the fact that it was a "one-time" ammunition load, no supply was provided. Artillery was not available, and was not required, from the place of the proposed landing to Yakutsk it was necessary to travel more than 800 km through the wild wastelands on foot (the expedition diary mentions, for example, a swamp 8 km wide), guns simply would not be pulled.

This plan looks somewhat out of touch with reality. Fight Yakutsk with a detachment of 700 kopecks. But the Reds had the same trouble, armies of several hundred soldiers, often with rather sonorous names, rushed across the vast expanses. Pepelyaev's group, for example, was called the "Police of the Tatar Strait" for disguise.

There was little time and transport. They landed in Okhotsk and Ayan at the end of August. Ayan is a village on the seashore, a dozen and a half houses, several warehouses and a couple of "suburbs" of the same merits. By the way, in the brochure of Vishnevsky, one of the participants in the campaign, there is such an intriguing remark about this expedition: “The rain in Ayan is especially dangerous: it is extremely plentiful and, thanks to the force of the wind, breaks through the walls of buildings.” It is difficult to say what is meant by “breaking through the walls”, but nature really did not favor hiking. In Ayan, white partisans and local residents were waiting, about a hundred people. The detachment was divided in two in order to collect white partisan units along the way. In Ayan, a people's gathering of the surrounding Tungus and local Russians was gathered, who motorized our partisans, allocating three hundred deer. At this time, the second batch of troops was just about to start from Vladivostok. Pepelyaev was already moving into the depths of the continent, but because of the lack of roads, he walked slowly, with difficulty overcoming swamps and rivers. The rendezvous point of the white detachments was the village of Nelkan. Those who got there before the others suffered from starvation, eating horses. Steamers with the second wave of landing arrived only in November. At the same time, the population gathered transport, those very mentioned deer. By this time in Vladivostok, the Whites had already been completely defeated. Pepelyaev, from the commander of either a partisan or sabotage detachment, turned into the leader of the main White military force. There was no one else behind.

Along the way, detachments of white partisans operating in these areas were attached. Colonel Reinhardt (one of the two battalion commanders) estimated their total strength at about 800 people. The partisans pretty much set the local population against themselves, they ate from the same Yakuts and Tungus, in general, the population, according to the Whites, belonged to the Reds and Whites in the style of the unforgettable phrase “the Reds will come - they rob, the whites will come - they rob” and did not particularly adore either those or others. Although a certain division of sympathies was noted: who is poorer - for the Reds, who is more prosperous - rather for the Whites. The forces of the Reds were estimated at about 3 thousand fighters in total.

We must pay tribute, the discipline was close to exemplary, there were no frostbite and stragglers, although the last detachment came to Nelkan already in winter under the snow, making marches and at minus thirty.

On December 20, the detachment set out for the village of Amga, the next stop before Yakutsk, 160 miles from the city. We went on foot and on reindeer. I note that these regions are the coldest of all that are in Russia. They approached Amga on a cold night on February 2, 1923 and attacked her from the march. During this final rush to Amga ... I almost wrote “the thermometers showed”, the thermometers did not show a damn thing, because at minus forty-five standing in the yard, mercury freezes. It was cold to read about it. The White Walkers stormed the Amga with a bayonet, killing a small garrison.

The Reds formally had a certain numerical advantage at that time. But they were not gathered together, but acted in three separate detachments. Pepelyaev decided to first destroy the medium-sized detachment of Strod. It was a red partisan group of 400 people, with machine guns, but without cannons, weighed down by a convoy. Strode seemed like a good target.

Actually who it was. Ivan Strod is actually Janis Strods, the son of a Latvian and a Polish woman, the protagonist of the red side of our story. He, like Pepelyaev, fought in the First World War. Only not as a regular officer, but as a "mobilization" ensign. Ensign, I must say, was dashing, four "George". In Civil, he was an anarchist, later joined the Bolsheviks, led a partisan detachment, with whom he went to meet Pepelyaev.

The white leader devised a plan for a surprise attack against Strode. Leaving one and a half hundred bayonets of Colonel Peters in Amga, he moved forward to meet, preparing to inadvertently fall on the Reds. This plan had thirty-four advantages and one disadvantage. His virtues were that he was flawless, and his disadvantage was that he went head over heels.

Pepelyaev got hooked on the human factor. Two soldiers, rabid from the cold, went to the village to warm themselves. The Reds were already there, these two, exhausted in a warm yurt, were seized. The plan was immediately revealed to Strode, and he feverishly began to prepare for battle. Pepelyaev, realizing that surprise did not work out, hit with brute force and beat off the convoy. But the brave Krasnopribalt was not at a loss and did not lose heart. Strod settled in a winter hut under the poetic name Sasyl-Sysyy. This, so to speak, the village consisted of several houses, surrounded by a fence, as Vishnevsky writes, made of dung. There, the Reds dug in and prepared for all-round defense. It was February 13th. Until the 27th, Pepelyaev desperately stormed these three yurts. Strode bristled with machine guns and fought back. By the way, it looks like frozen manure was really widely used in field fortification. The Soviet newspaper writes that the Pepelyaevites tried to use something like a Wagenburg from a sleigh with frozen dung. So most likely a fortress made of dubious material really took place. In the meantime, two other red detachments, Baikalova and Kurasheva, joined up and amounted to 760 people with guns. Together they attacked Amga again. A detachment of 150 fighters, left there by Pepelyaev, lost more than half of the people under cannon fire and was forced to retreat. Baikalov's brother died in battle, and this predetermined the sad fate of the captured officers. True, it must be said that information about the death of prisoners comes from whites, so it is difficult to verify its authenticity.

It was the end. On March 3 the siege was lifted. It is difficult to say what it is like in the sense of personal glory to be called the winner of the battle of Sasyl-Sysy, but this success brought the Order of the Red Banner and the laurels of the victor of the last siege of the Civil War to Strod.

The remnants of Pepelyaev's detachment began to retreat to Ayan. The Yakuts, who at first cheerfully participated in the expedition, went to run home. As a result, Pepelyaev gathered everyone and ordered those who wished to leave openly. Another two hundred people left the detachment, three-quarters - Yakuts. Meanwhile, General Rakitin, the commander of the detachment retreating to Okhotsk, was about to break through to the south by land. In this he was promised to be helped by the remnants of the white partisans, who had been here before Pepelyaev's raid group and knew the area. Off-road also affected the Reds, in every shed it was necessary to leave a garrison, because they also did not move rapidly. In addition, Pepelyaev fought rearguard battles, not allowing him to push too hard. At the same time, a small outpost of the Whites in Kamchatka was destroyed, fifty people with an indispensable general at the head died, the noose around the White detachments was compressed. It must be said that the Kamchatka outpost ruined itself, the Yakuts, angry with robberies, helped the Reds. Kamchatka, according to the Whites, fell quickly and without much pressure from the Reds, if it had held out longer, perhaps Pepelyaev’s detachment would have been saved at least with the remnants.

At the beginning of June, Rakitin was preparing for the siege of Okhotsk, but the city fell due to an uprising of workers inside. Rakitin shot himself with a hunting rifle. The partisans retired back to the taiga.

In mid-June 1923, after long ordeals, the remnants of Pepelyaev's squad, 640 people, gathered in Ayan. A smaller part were paratroopers who landed here at the end of last summer, the larger part were Yakuts, partisans and the like. The Whites decided to leave by sea, for which it was necessary to build boats. However, the Reds were not going to give them time.

The Reds had an agent in Ayan, and a very valuable one, a radiotelegrapher. For this reason, they were aware of the preparations of the whites, and were not going to allow a retreat. On June 15, a landing force landed 40 km from Ayan. Kraskomandir Vostretsov secretly concentrated near the town. On the night of the 17th, hiding behind the fog, he sneaked into Ayan like Freddy Krueger in the dream of an eighth grader and captured the headquarters. Pepelyaev, wanting to prevent bloodshed, which had already become redundant, gave the order to the subordinates who had not yet been captured to lay down their arms.

Needless to say, not everyone followed through. Since Ayan was very small, some of the officers were in the villages in the neighborhood. Colonel Stepanov gathered about a hundred fighters, prepared for the campaign in a few hours and went into the forests, his end is unknown. Another colonel, Leonov, at the head of a group of a dozen people, went along the coast to the north, and succeeded, he managed to contact Japanese fishermen, through them to find a steamer and go to the country of anime. Colonel Anders, who had previously defended Amga, also tried to break through, but in the end he and his people were starving and decided that it was better to surrender than eat belts and boots. A total of 356 people were taken prisoner. Thus ended the Civil War in the Far East.

Pepelyaev and the fighters of his detachment were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Initially, the general was going to be shot, but at the suggestion of Kalinin they were pardoned. Apparently, in the camp of the Reds, they believed that there was time to scatter stones and there was time to collect them, they tried to return the Whites to the USSR as military experts, and it was unnecessary to frighten them with executions. Interesting, by the way, is the characterization that Vostretsov, who captivated him, gave Pepelyaev.

“Dear comrade Solts.
In 1923, I liquidated the gang of General Pepelyaev in the Okhotsk - port of Ayan region, and more than 400 people were captured, of which 2/3 were officers.
They were tried in 1923 in the mountains. Read and sentenced to different terms, and they all sit in different houses of detention.
Having received a letter from one of the convicts, I decided to write to you briefly what General Pepelyaev is like.
1. His idea is petty-bourgeois, or rather, Menshevik, although he considered himself a non-party.
2. Very religious. Well studied the literature on religion, especially Renan.
3. Personal qualities: very honest, disinterested; lived on a par with the rest of the warriors of the battles (soldiers); their slogan is all brothers: brother general, brother soldier, etc. I was told by his colleagues since 1911 that Pepelyaev does not know the taste of wine (I think that this can be believed).
4. He had great authority among his subordinates: what Pepelyaev said - there was a law for subordinates. Even in such difficult moments, as his defeat near the city of Yakutsk and captivity in Ayan, his authority did not weaken. Example: a detachment of about 150 people was in 8 ver. from the port of Ayan, and when he learned that the port of Ayan had been captured by the Reds, he decided to attack the port of Ayan, and when they were met halfway by a messenger with an order from General Pepelyaev to surrender, they, having read this order, said: “Since the general orders, we must fulfill”, which they did, that is, they surrendered without a fight into captivity.
I have this thought: isn't it time to let him out of prison. I think that he can do absolutely nothing for us now, and he can be used as a military specialist (and he, in my opinion, is not bad). If we have such former enemies as General Slashchev, who outweighed our brother more than one hundred, and now works as a teacher in tactics at Shot.
These are the thoughts that I had and presented to you as the person who is in charge of this.
With communist greetings.
Commander of the 27th Omsk Str. Division S. Vostretsov. (13.4.1928)"

Nevertheless, Pepelyaev spent 13 years in prison, although he was allowed some liberties, such as correspondence with his wife. And in 1938, he fell under the rink of repression and was shot. Even earlier, in 1937, Strod was arrested and shot. Vostretsov, who finished off the Pepelyaev detachment with paint, also did not end his life very happily, in 1929 he participated in the conflict on the CER in one of the leading roles, and in 1932 he already committed suicide.

Actually, in Vladivostok, a military court sentenced Pepelyaev to death, but he wrote a letter to Kalinin asking for pardon. The request was considered, and in January 1924 a trial was held in Chita, which sentenced Pepelyaev to 10 years in prison. Pepelyaev was supposed to serve his term in the Yaroslavl political isolator. Pepelyaev spent the first two years in solitary confinement, in 1926 he was allowed to do work. He worked as a carpenter, glazier and joiner. Pepelyaev was even allowed to correspond with his wife in Harbin.

In 1933, Pepelyaev's term ended, but back in 1932, at the request of the OGPU board, they decided to extend it for three years. In January 1936, he was unexpectedly transferred from the political isolator in Yaroslavl to the Butyrka prison in Moscow. The next day, Pepelyaev was transferred to the inner prison of the NKVD. On the same day, he was summoned for interrogation to the head of the Special Department of the NKVD, Mark Guy. Then he was again placed in the Butyrka prison. On June 4, 1936, Pepelyaev was summoned again to Guy, who read him the release decree. On June 6, Anatoly Nikolaevich was released.

The NKVD settled Pepelyaev in Voronezh, where he got a job as a carpenter. It is believed that Pepelyaev was released in order to organize a front society, like the Industrial Party.

In August 1937, Pepelyaev was arrested a second time and taken to Novosibirsk, where he was charged with creating a counter-revolutionary organization. On January 14, 1938, the Troika of the NKVD in the Novosibirsk Region was sentenced to capital punishment. The sentence was carried out on January 14, 1938 in a prison in the city of Novosibirsk. Buried in the courtyard of the prison.

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

The biography of General Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev still attracts the attention of researchers and enthusiasts studying national history. One of the many, but bright episodes in a string of nightmare that any Civil War, is the famous Yakut campaign of General Pepelyaev. The rebellion showed the courage and tragedy of the people of the former Great Russian Empire, becoming a formidable reminder to posterity of what the collapse and split of society lead to for the sake of various political forces, ready to prove their right to power even with weapons in their hands.

Youth and formation of the Russian officer Pepelyaev

The personality and biography of General Pepelyaev, unfortunately, are little known to a wide range of people. He was undeservedly forgotten and tried not to be mentioned in Soviet times. But history also exists in order not only to remember, but also to learn lessons.

Born into the family of a Russian officer, the boy knew from childhood that he would devote his life to serving the Fatherland. He was born in Tomsk on July 15, 1891. The family was large: two sisters and five brothers. Father, Lieutenant General Nikolai Pepelyaev, sent his son to study. Teachers found Anatoly kind, quick-tempered, proud, stubborn, but truthful. There were cases of insolence towards teachers. But from everything it was clear that the boy liked the Kadets. However, all the sons, except for the eldest, received an excellent military education.

The year 1908 came and Anatoly entered the Pavlovsk military school in St. Petersburg. He was completely absorbed in studies: tactics, military history, foreign languages, chemistry, military topography - this is not the whole list of disciplines studied. At the school, he became more serious about learning, but discipline was still lame.

The future general managed to receive 16 penalties in two years. Judging by the description that the teachers left, it turns out that the cadet Pepelyaev very easily fell under the influence of comrades who were notorious. At the same time, the young man handled small arms well and was physically developed and strong, and his nature required vigorous activity.

Even having flaws in discipline, he managed to graduate from college with the rank of second lieutenant. That is, he was a graduate of the 1st category. And for this necessary condition was to score at least 8 points out of 10 possible in military disciplines, and in the knowledge of combat service to get at least 10 points. Training at the school took 2 years and the young lieutenant Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev returned to his native Tomsk in triumph in 1910.

The beginning of a military career

He was sent to serve in the machine gun team. This company-level unit in the tsarist army consisted of 99 people, there was a commander, 3 chief officers. And one of them was older, and two younger. It was one of these junior chief officers that Lieutenant Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev began his career.

Such a unit was armed with 9 machine guns and fully or partially belonged to companies or battalions. Therefore, great importance was given to the issues of interaction. Two years after the start of his service in the 42nd Siberian Rifle Regiment, Lieutenant Pepelyaev married Nina Ivanovna Gavronskaya. But happiness was interrupted by the impending First World War.

Shortly before the start of this monstrous tragedy, Pepelyaev received a promotion to the rank of lieutenant and a new position - the head of the regiment's intelligence team. Three weeks after the declaration of war, his regiment was sent to the North-Western Front.

Pepeliaev in the First World War

Scouts under the command of Lieutenant Pepelyaev proved themselves already in the first months of their arrival at the front. Several successful raids were carried out in the area of ​​​​the town of Graevo, the town of Markrabovo. For this he was awarded 4, 3 and 2 degrees, 3 degrees. The scouts were lucky, and they were proud of their commander. But 1915 was rich in events that tested the strength, power and fortitude of the Russian tsarist army. It's about about the six-day battle of Prasnysh.

On July 30, 1915, the German troops advanced, having almost twofold superiority in the sector of the front, which was defended by the Siberians. The 11th Siberian Rifle Division, in which Lieutenant Pepelyaev served, consisted of 14,500 bayonets. By evening, no more than 5,000 combat-ready fighters remained.

The fighters, showing miracles of courage, felt the force of the main blow of the Germans, but did not flinch and remained faithful to the oath and military duty to the end. They had to retreat, but the plan of the fascist command was thwarted: to surround Russian group they failed in Poland.

Fate kept the future Major General Pepelyaev from a bayonet and a bullet, but did not save him from a fragment. After the operation, he was eager to fight. Pepelyaev categorically rejected all persuasions about evacuation. He felt how his soldiers and comrades needed him. And to leave everyone because of a “light”, in his opinion, injury is not possible for the honor of a Russian officer.

The hardships and deprivations of the First World War. The beginning of the collapse of the army

Not having time to properly move away from the wound, the lieutenant again rushes into battle, and the command promotes him in the rank to staff captain. He continues to command his Siberian scouts and show miracles of heroism.

On September 18, 1915, a dangerous situation arose in the battle near the village of Borovaya. Pepelyaev's detachment guarded the right flank and conducted reconnaissance of the combat sector of the 11th Siberian rifle division. The Germans, having a fourfold superiority, almost came close to the positions of our troops, and if they had captured them, they would have created extremely unpleasant conditions for the defense of an entire division. There was no time to think. The captain personally led the counterattack of his scouts, and the Siberians did not blunder. They not only threw back the intruding enemy back, but also returned their positions. In this battle, more than a hundred Germans were destroyed, they themselves lost two soldiers.

You can continue to list no less glorious episodes in the biography of General Pepelyaev, but alarming trends have already been outlined in Russian army. People began to slowly but surely get tired of the military confusion and the senselessness of what was happening. Only the Pepelyaev reconnaissance detachment did not have time for sadness and general despondency. The sequence of events in that terrible meat grinder was too bright. But the command appreciated the rich combat experience of the brave officer, and sent him to a front-line school.

The losses of the Russian army were colossal. Society increasingly asked questions about the advisability of continuing such a war. To this we can add the agitation that the Bolsheviks successfully launched at the fronts. All these and many other reasons caused confusion and vacillation, giving rise to the question in the soul of a simple Russian soldier: “What should I die for?”

Brest-Litovsk peace - a slap in the face for a Russian soldier

According to the memoirs of Major General Pepelyaev, he met the revolution at the front. Many factors influenced the collapse of the army and the loss of its combat capability. Along with this, everything old was destroyed, something new appeared - incomprehensible. For example, the election of commanders, democratization in the armed forces. How this affected the power of the army is not worth explaining. In the military environment, not without reason, the mediocre Nicholas II and his government were considered guilty of what was happening, so many met the February Revolution and the tsar's abdication from the throne absolutely calmly.

Russian patriots still hoped for victory, but every day this hope was fading away. The October Revolution and the signed separate Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - the ground was slipping from under our feet. Everything that the Russian patriots believed in was crumbling before our eyes. Pepelyaev could not change the situation, but he was also not going to put up with it. He needed time to think carefully about everything. And he went to his native Tomsk.

The fight against the Bolsheviks as a remedy for depression

Returning from the war, Pepelyaev did not forgive the Bolsheviks for their treacherous stab in the back. He, like many whites, dreamed of revenge. Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev, a general of the White Army, considered himself, judging by his recollections, a "populist". Those contradictions that arose in the society of the former Russian Empire could not be resolved peacefully.

A bloody fratricidal war loomed ahead, eclipsing even the First World War in its cruelty and stupidity. Western states condemned separate peace and with pleasure were ready to support the recalcitrant white movement for the sake of fat profits.

May 31, 1918 hometown was cleared of the Bolsheviks. Now Pepelyaev and his associates could leave the underground and form their own corps to repel the "red plague", which this group did. The Central Siberian Corps was formed, and the results were not long in coming. The liberation of Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Verkhneudinsk came in turn. The military career continued its dizzying rise. He is promoted to the rank of Major General.

Anatoly Pepelyaev, general of the "white" movement, received his rank at the age of 27. But with all the talents and phenomenal luck, he had some peculiarities in behavior that alarmed the experienced military. On principle he refused to wear shoulder straps, believing that power should pass to the peasantry and the countryside. He not only despised the old regime, but also fiercely hated it, ready even with weapons in his hands to prevent its return.

His views and some actions testify, rather, to the exaltation and immaturity of the personality. He was proud of the fact that he never gave the order to be shot. But this did not mean that terror was not gaining momentum on both sides. Being in his illusory world, he refused to understand that a civil war is a qualitatively new level of confrontation. Young General A.N. Pepelyaev firmly believed in his ideals, and this would later play a cruel joke on him and on those who went with him on the famous Yakut campaign. As a soldier, he was never able to accept and come to terms with the barbaric inhuman cruelty that war brings.

Capture of Perm

General Pepelyaev and his troops arrived in the Urals. They rushed to Perm, but ahead of them was opposed by the 3rd Army of the Red Army. It cannot be said that the “red” situation was stable. There were problems with the supply and morale of the fighters. In addition, a significant number of people who sympathized with the "white" movement served in the ranks of the Bolsheviks. Another significant factor influencing the course of the overall battle was that the planning of operations was spontaneous, and the level of training of officers left much to be desired.

The "White" General Pepelyaev and his troops favorably differed from their opponents: they were better prepared and had excellent combat experience. In addition, they had agents at the headquarters of the 3rd Army. General Pepelyaev recognized the primacy of Kolchak and acted in obedience to his orders.

The assault on the city began on December 24, 1918 in 30-degree frost. The resistance of the "Reds" was suppressed during the day. The remaining Red Army soldiers in a hurry crossed the Kama River. The film recounts the events of those troubled years. It describes the Civil War, the capture of Perm and General Pepelyaev. The film in film distribution is known under the name "Contribution".

Unsuccessful trip to Vyatka

Perm was taken, but it was necessary to continue the offensive, and General Pepelyaev continued his march to the west. The frosts intensified, and the advance stalled. The offensive continued only in March. He stubbornly advanced towards Vyatka.

All the other commanders of the "white" movement were much less lucky: their offensive attempts were repulsed by the Red Army, and even a situation developed that threatened the entire Kolchak group. Their retreat was not organized and more like a flight.

The army of Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev covered the retreat of Kapel and Voitsekhovsky. Despite heroic efforts, the end was inevitable. His army was completely destroyed, and the general himself fell ill with typhus. But fate wanted him to survive. It was already a different person: he was disappointed in the "white" movement, and with the "red" he was clearly not on the way, so he decided to emigrate.

Harbin. Life in exile

Former General Anatoly Pepelyaev courageously met all the hardships and hardships in a foreign land. He mastered the profession of a carpenter, a fisherman. Survived by other odd jobs. It was necessary to learn to live without war and become a breadwinner. And he did it. He was an active person and therefore soon founded artels of loaders and carpenters.

But the past did not want to let him go. The unsubdued from Kolchak's defeated army constantly turned to him for help. Everyone dreamed of returning to their native Russia. General Anatoly Pepelyaev himself dreamed about this, otherwise, how to explain that he allowed himself to be persuaded again into an obvious adventure.

There was a trip to Yakutia to support the rebels. How to explain such a decision is an excellent topic for numerous disputes and disputes. And funding for this obviously crazy idea was found. The businessmen quickly realized that it would be possible to organize a clearly uncontrolled fur trade there and, having compared all the risks, reluctantly allocated funds. General A.N. Pepelyaev was ready to support 750 people. With 2 machine guns and about 10,000 light machine guns, the detachment was ready to move into the inhospitable wastelands of Yakutia.

Yakut campaign of General Pepelyaev

In early September 1922, soldiers of the Siberian Volunteer Squad landed in Okhotsk and Ayan. The Tungus warmly welcomed them, considering them their deliverers, and handed over about 300 deer - the main draft force in those places. Despite this, it became obvious to the SDD participants that the campaign was poorly prepared, however, they soon received reinforcements with people and provisions.

By the beginning of 1923, the Red Army had successfully smashed all movements, and therefore the fateful decision was made to advance to Yakutsk. Winter road General A.N. Pepelyaeva became a serious test for the soldiers of the Russian people. But also were worse fighting under those conditions.

The meeting with the Red Army detachment of I. Strod interfered with the plans of the Siberian Volunteer Squad. General Pepelyaev suddenly decided to break this division of the Red Army at all costs. But his wards were doomed. They fought back to Ayan, where they surrendered.

Court. Life in prison

Pepelyaev and Strod were noble people, without meanness in their souls. Strode defended him in every possible way in court. The testimony indicated that his recent opponent, General Pepelyaev, did not use atrocities and executions. The former "white" general stopped them and Strode considers him a humane person. But the court was relentless.

General Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev was sent to serve his sentence in the Yaroslavl political isolator. Years in solitary confinement, and then he was graciously allowed to write letters to his wife. On July 6, 1936, Pepelyaev was released. But it wasn't for long. The terrible year of 1937 was approaching, and already in August he was again returned to prison. In Novosibirsk, in January 1938, the death sentence was read to him. This is the answer to the question of how General Pepelyaev died.

However, he repeated the fate of millions in Russia. Historians and researchers will return to tragic fate this great Russian officer. He knew the ups and downs, but continued to love Russia and tried to help her by virtue of his strength and understanding. General Pepelyaev is a fragment of the past and a symbol of a real Russian officer.

Reading some excerpts from his diary, you are involuntarily horrified by the suicidal longing that settled in his soul during the famous Yakut campaign. And one can only be amazed at how he found the strength in himself to continue the struggle with people and with himself.

By all indications, he was in the deepest depression. Pepelyaev tossed between the desire to shoot himself or run wherever his eyes looked. What is it? The onset of a serious illness as a result of living in stress for the past few years? Or the realization came that the Russia he knew had changed completely and irrevocably, and Pepelyaev could not save her. It remains only to guess. But surrender without a fight to the Red Army leaves a disgusting sense of shame and confirms the rule: war is not a place for romantics. This is a work that incinerates the soul, cruel and bloody, where there is no place for sentimentality and chivalrous bowing.

Pepelyaevs

Now this surname - the Pepelyaevs - is almost forgotten in Tomsk, where the Pepelyaevs were born and spent their childhood at the end of the nineteenth century, and in Siberia, and in Russia. It is forgotten because the Pepelyaevs were banned during all the years of Soviet power, de jure and de facto this ban has not been lifted to this day. And during the years of the civil war, the glory of the Pepelyaevs was enormous, thundered throughout Siberia, was replicated in the White Guard troops in millions of propaganda leaflets.
In the regiments and divisions, it thundered menacingly to a well-known motive in many thousands of throats, for example, this is not the only one:

For the beloved leader
We will break the way to Vyatka,
Let's turn the enemy hordes into corpses.
We are a mighty army
And the enemy can not hold back
Pepelyaevskaya Northern Group...

And the Kremlin red leaders Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky were not at all sure that a few months or even weeks - and not they, but Kolchak and the Pepelyaevs would be the masters of the Kremlin, the Mother See and the whole of Russia ...

I will tell about the Pepelyaevs, about their life and fate, mainly about the most famous of their kind - the brothers Viktor Nikolaevich, Anatoly Nikolaevich, Arkady Nikolaevich. And I will begin the story with a story about their parents, who also deserve to be known and remembered.

Parents
On July 12, 1881, in the Grado-Tomsk Annunciation Church (the old Cathedral of the Annunciation Cathedral was demolished in the 1930s, now there is Batenkov Square of the Decembrist), a 23-year-old hereditary nobleman, son of a state councilor, a native of the St. Petersburg province, lieutenant of the Tomsk infantry battalion Nikolai Mikhailovich Pepelyaev was married for the first time to the daughter of a Tomsk merchant of the 2nd guild Nekrasov, a 19-year-old graduate of a women's gymnasium, Claudia Georgievna.
It would be possible not to disturb the metric book about the spouses, if not for two circumstances. Brought to Tomsk by the will of fate and by order of the military authorities in the summer of 1879, Lieutenant N.M. Pepelyaev settled down after his marriage in Tomsk firmly, forever. Here, occasionally leaving on business trips to Narym, Kansk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Nerchinsk, speaking during Russo-Japanese War in an annual campaign, first to protect the Siberian railway in the region of Krasnoyarsk, then to Manchuria, he successively overcame all the service steps military career- from junior officer rank to lieutenant general. Received orders: St. Stanislav 1st, 2nd and 3rd degrees, St. Vladimir 4th degree, St. Anna 2nd and 3rd degrees, many medals, including "For work on the first population census"... He was the commandant of Tomsk, the head of the garrison, commanded a battalion, regiment, brigade. At one time, though for a very short period of time, during the period of the first Russian revolution, he temporarily served as Governor-General of Tomsk for 14 days. In Tomsk, Nikolai Mikhailovich Pepelyaev died on November 21, 1916 and was buried in the military quarter of the Preobrazhensky cemetery.

The name of the general would not have been preserved, not such names were lost, sunk into oblivion in the eventful past century. If not for his children. It was not by chance that I began the story with the marriage of N.M. Pepelyaev. In marriage, Nikolai Mikhailovich and Claudia Georgievna Pepelyaev had eight children. Six sons and two daughters. The most famous, who made the Pepelyaev family famous, were the sons Viktor and Anatoly - the first and fifth children in the family. Victor forever went down in history as one of the most prominent leaders of the white movement in Siberia during the civil war, the prime minister in the government of Admiral A.V. Kolchak, Anatoly - as a hero of the First World War, the most talented Kolchak commander, general, commander of one of the three Kolchak armies - the 1st Siberian Army.
But all this will be later, after the death of the head of a large family. And during his lifetime, Nikolai Mikhailovich could be proud of his family and children. They lived on his salary, though not richly, but very friendly.

The children studied easily, well, they received the right upbringing, a good education, music, books, theater were in high esteem in the family (one of the daughters, Catherine, became a dramatic actress, Vera became a teacher), foreign languages, showed interest in military affairs. Of the six sons, five followed the example of their father, some went to St. Petersburg, some to Omsk in closed military schools. Only the first-born, Victor, went down the civil line, enrolling in the law faculty of Tomsk Imperial University.
When the civil war begins, all the Pepelyaevs-sons of the Bolshevik government will not accept it as hostile to the Russian people, inhumane, they will actively and fiercely fight it. Only one, the youngest, hussar Loggin, will die in battle in early January 1919, the rest will either be shot or end up in Soviet prisons and concentration camps where everyone will perish.

The widow of Lieutenant General N.M. Pepelyaeva Claudia Georgievna, who lived after the death of her husband on the street. Spasskaya, 6 (now Sovetskaya St.) in Tomsk, will leave the city with the retreating white troops in December 1919, together with his daughter Vera Nikolaevna Pepelyaeva-Popova, will be abroad, in the city of Harbin, will spend a century there until the end of his days until 1938. The family of Anatoly Pepelyaev will also be in Harbin emigration: his wife Nina Ivanovna, along with two sons - Vsevolod and Lavr. But the Soviet authorities would not leave them alone either. Just because they are the children of Kolchak's general, in the fall of 1945, when the Red Army forces Japan to capitulate and enter the territory of Manchuria, Vsevolod and Lavr will be sentenced to 25 years in prison each. To the rest of the Pepelyaevs, and only women will survive, the Soviet authorities will be more lenient, that is, they simply will not persecute them for belonging to the Pepelyaev family ...

Medical Lieutenant Colonel

Arkady was third in big family Pepelyaev as a child. His childhood years in Tomsk were short-lived. Having chosen the path of his father, deciding to become a military man, he went to Omsk, entered the Omsk Cadet Corps. At the end of the corps, his path was to St. Petersburg, where he graduated with honors in December 1912 military medical academy and in a brand new uniform of a military doctor, sparkling with gold officer shoulder straps, he returned to his native Siberia. First, he served in Tyumen as a junior intern of a military infirmary, then soon he was transferred to Omsk, to a military hospital.

Probably, I will not be mistaken in saying that the period of life from 1910 to 1914 was the happiest in the life of Arkady Pepelyaev. The events that fell during these years were full of simple human happiness. studying in cadet corps, he met the beautiful daughter of one of his teachers, Colonel G.P. Yakubinsky Anna Georgievna. While still a student of the academy, he married her mutual love, they had two daughters - Tatyana, followed by Nina. He lived a family life surrounded by family and friends. During the day - not a burdensome service, in the evenings - either they are visiting, or guests are visiting them. And also - theater, books, music. He played the violin not badly and sometimes allowed himself to indulge in this occupation for hours.
Everything in this almost civilian way of life was drastically changed by the war with Germany declared on Ilyin's Day in 1914. As a doctor of military medical transport, Pepelyaev was primarily to be sent to the front. Having formed a military hospital train by order of his superiors, A. N. Pepelyaev was already at the theater of operations at the end of August 1914, at the forefront of the X Army of the Southwestern Front. Together with his wife, who graduated from the courses of sisters of mercy.
The fact that Arkady Pepelyaev was a warrior and doctor in the army is evidenced by four orders received in less than two years of fighting - two of St. Stanislav and two of St. Anna. Not many doctors could boast of this. To do this, it was necessary to take out the wounded from under fire to the rear, and operate literally a few kilometers, or even hundreds of meters from the front line in the mobile field hospital N 525, where he was the chief doctor.
But irreversible political changes were already underway in the country. In March 1918 with military service Arkady Nikolaevich resigned, entered the city hospital as an epidemiologist. In this capacity, the civil war found him. The provisional Siberian government mobilized the captain of the medical service, Pepelyaev.
And again military everyday life, front-line life flowed. Only now the enemy was not the German, but his own, the Russians. Red. However, his business was to treat the soldiers wounded in this fratricide.
... After brilliant victories in the first half of 1919, the army of Admiral Kolchak began to surrender by autumn, the retreat began. Omsk was left under the blows of the Red Army on November 14, and Novonikolaevsk on December 14. Lieutenant colonel of the medical service Arkady Pepelyaev retreated in the camp of the whites as a doctor, accompanying the wounded. The retreat turned into a flight that stopped for Arkady Nikolaevich in Irkutsk. Here he was first arrested by the Bolsheviks and stayed in custody for two months. For storage of brother Victor's papers relating to the execution in Yekaterinburg royal family. According to one information, these papers were handed over to him in Omsk with a request to hide personally by his brother Viktor Nikolayevich, who, as the Minister of Internal Affairs, supervised the course of the investigation into the events in Ipatiev house, according to others, these important papers of the investigator N. Sokolov were given to Arkady Nikolayevich by the wife of his brother-premier Evstoliya Vasilievna. In Irkutsk, right after the execution of her husband.
Returning to Omsk, Arkady Nikolaevich continued to practice as an otolaryngologist. The glory of him as an excellent doctor was in Omsk, both ardent supporters and equally ardent opponents of Soviet power went to him for treatment. In a word, everyone who needed a qualified medical care. He raised his daughters, one of whom (the youngest, Nina) graduated from a music school and began working in the drama theater, and the other (the eldest, Tatyana) studied to be a doctor. It was stupid to hide your past, your relatives, everyone knew about it, where necessary.
He was called to the authorities, it seems, almost the only time. And that is not in the case of the brothers and not in the case of his personal past. They called him with a demand to hand over the gold he had. For some reason, it was believed that he had a lot of gold things. He didn't. But, obeying the demand, he went, taking with him wedding rings and some kind of chain of his wife Anna Georgievna. According to the recollections of Nina Arkadyevna's daughter, they looked at the wedding rings and the gold chain and said: "Hide and go. We had a better opinion of you, Dr. Pepelyaev." He returned home embarrassed and embarrassed.
They came for him the next day after the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. June 23, 1941 All break in the house, not finding anything seditious, they took away. And - for two years there was not a sound from him. His wife and daughters thought that he was not even alive. However, he was alive, was in a camp in the city of Mariinsk, sent a message from there. Then more and more. He asked me not to worry, everything is fine, he works in his specialty in camps.
At the end of May 1946, a telegram arrived from Mariinsk to Omsk: "Omsk Rabinovich 136 Petyaeva Mariinsk Tepelyaev's state of health is hopelessly decoupled by the days of the beginning of the hospital." It was strictly forbidden to send telegrams about prisoners, and even more so about enemies. Apparently, Arkady Nikolayevich Pepelyaev was respected and loved in the camp. That's why they took the risk. And this is "Tepelyaev", "Petyaev", it seems to me, it was written that way on purpose. As about the unfamiliar and indifferent.
Anna Georgievna left for Mariinsk. On May 26, a telegram to her daughters came from her: "Dad died on the twenty-fourth morning, she did not find him alive."
The funeral looked ridiculous, bitter, tragic. On the cart, which was harnessed to the horse, there was a coffin with a body. On the way from the hospital to the cemetery, two guards with rifles walked behind the funeral wagon: it is not known who they were protecting from whom. And side by side, on the sidewalk, walked, stumbling on the go, swallowing bitter tears, Anna Georgievna.
That's all. Thus ended his days the last of the surviving men from the glorious noble family Pepelyaevs.

commander

On December 9, 1937, the former Kolchak general Anatoly Nikolaevich Pepelyaev was interrogated in the Novosibirsk UNKVD. This interrogation was almost the last for Pepelyaev: on January 14, 1938, he was shot. General Pepelyaev had been imprisoned in Soviet prisons since June 1923.
Anatoly was the fifth child in the family. Before entering the Omsk Cadet Corps in 1901, he was educated at home and studied at a private school.
At the Pavlovsk School, after a year of study, he received the rank of non-commissioned officer, was awarded the title of the best rifle shooter, and a little later also the best revolver shooter. In the language of the Soviet time, which is closer to us, Junker Anatoly Pepelyaev was a Voroshilov shooter.
After graduating from the Pavlovsk Military School in August 1910, with the rank of second lieutenant, he arrived on September 19 at his duty station in Tomsk, was enrolled in the 42nd Siberian Rifle Regiment, commanded by his father N.M. Pepelyaev. He remained in this regiment until the beginning of the First World War.
A few days after the declaration of war, he left as part of the 42nd Siberian Rifle Regiment in the army on the North-Western Front.

At the forefront, he immediately showed himself to be a brave and competent regimental intelligence commander. The name Pepelyaev flashed in the lists of those who especially distinguished themselves and were awarded. For three years of participation in the war with Germany on the territory of Russia, East Prussia, Poland, he advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel, battalion commander, received 8 orders. There were two wounds and a concussion.
What exactly did Anatoly Pepelyaev receive high awards for? For example, in the presentation to the St. George's weapon it says: "On September 26, 1915, near the village of Osov, commanding four cavalry and one foot team of scouts, ambushed part of the forces in the said village, and with the rest he swiftly attacked from the flank of the Germans who ambushed and, despite to the strongest fire, by personal example brought them to a bayonet strike, and most of the Germans were killed, and one officer and 26 lower ranks were taken prisoner.
And here is from the submission to the Order of St. George of the 4th degree:
"... Captain Pepelyaev, having received permission to withdraw from the village of Kletishche, own initiative decided to hold on to his position, repulsed all the attacks of the Germans and, after waiting for a favorable moment, went on the offensive himself, repelling the enemy and threatening the left flank of the Germans who occupied the village of Borovaya with his offensive, forced them to abandon their position and retreat behind the river. Neman".
In January 1918, Lieutenant Colonel Pepelyaev went home to Siberia. He later wrote of his decision:
"My banner on German war was - the victory and greatness of Russia. For this, I did not spare my life, but the reality turned out to be different: combat regiments They died stupidly, new replenishments melted away, the army did not receive cartridges, shells ... The question arose: who is to blame? There is only one answer: a mediocre government, unable to organize the defense of the country. Therefore, I, like most officers, calmly met the February Revolution and the abdication of Nikolai Romanov from the throne. But the government of Prince Lvov and Kerensky, which came to power, was unable to stop the collapse of the state and the army. My former commanders Brusilov, Kornilov, Alekseev issued orders that no one followed. The troops left their positions. In this, I saw the death of Russia and was looking for some kind of force capable of changing the catastrophic situation, but did not find it. With such feelings of longing and hopelessness, I returned to Tomsk ... ".
The energetic young officer could not sit idly by, watching how events would develop further in the city, where power was in the hands of the Bolsheviks, who had ruined the Russian army. He always preferred to be a participant, not a spectator, and as soon as he arrived in Tomsk, he immediately entered the circle of events. Having met a friend at the Pavlovsk School, also a front-line soldier Dostovalov, he contacted artillery colonel N.N. Sumarokov. Sumarokov invited him to participate in the anti-Bolshevik movement. And intensive work began on the creation and strengthening of an underground organization, establishing ties with similar organizations in other Siberian cities. By the end of May 1918, the underground organization already numbered up to six hundred people.
The performance with the aim of taking power into their own hands on May 29 was unsuccessful, however, and the losses are small - four people were killed. But on May 31, the Czechoslovak corps revolted. The leadership of the Bolsheviks, hastily boarding two steamboats that stood ready on the banks of the Tom, fled the city. Anatoly Pepelyaev, who led the uprising along with the Sumarokov, moved with his headquarters from the building of the Teachers' Institute on the outskirts of Tomsk to the center, to the Europe Hotel. After the coup in the city, he took the post of head of the Tomsk garrison. On the instructions of the Minister of War of the newly formed Provisional Siberian Government A.N. Grishina-Almazova took up the formation of a military corps.

Soon, Pepelyaev, at the head of the Central Siberian Corps he himself created, received an order to proceed to the east. Smashing on the way the resisting Red troops, he made a journey of almost two thousand miles in three months, to Transbaikalia. There, at st. Tin, there was a meeting of his corps with the army of Ataman Semenov. Bolshevik power throughout the Urals to the Far East was overthrown. Lieutenant Colonel Pepelyaev, who proved himself a skilled military leader during the campaign, was first promoted to colonel, and soon, in early autumn, to major general ...
In October, his corps, already numbering 15 thousand bayonets, was transferred to the Urals. The troops of the Red Army had already been driven out of the Eastern Urals, from Yekaterinburg. Stayed red administrative center Ural - Perm. The Whites launched an offensive against Perm. And on December 23-24, 1918, just before Christmas, red Perm fell. Not one building A.N. Pepelyaev prepared and carried out a brilliant operation to capture the capital of the red Urals, Perm, and the troops of the army of General Voitsekhovsky were also involved in this. However, the first, forcing the Red Army to throw on railway tracks thousands of wagons loaded with weapons, food, equipment, things confiscated from the population, the corps of General Pepelyaev broke into the city. He became the main hero of the battle for the city, deservedly received full set glory and honors, the goodwill of the authorities and the love of his subordinates, the new epaulettes of the lieutenant general.
After a short respite, after repulsing the attacks of the Reds, who were trying to take revenge, the offensive to the west was continued. Pepelyaev was already the commander of the Northern Group of the First Siberian Army. At the beginning of June followed new success: the city of Glazov was taken. The way to Vyatka was opened, then to Arkhangelsk or Yaroslavl. It was then, apparently, that the song lines that I have already cited were born.

A.N. Pepelyaev in Prison (at the beginning of his arrest and before being shot)

Prime Minister

Next to great people, whose names and deeds are interesting, attractive to contemporaries, attract attention to themselves and to whom fate itself is destined to belong to history during their lifetime, the unforgettable memory of future generations - and so, next to such people, outstanding, significant, bright personalities inevitably will be in the shadows. Really existing in history, they are fatally, as it were, withdrawn from its circulation. Nobody disputes the fact of their presence, but they may not even be remembered later. And if they suddenly remember, then again, mainly in connection with those who stood a step higher. An example of how much more capacious and a better example, - The Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers in his government, Viktor Nikolayevich Pepelyaev. I said "much more capacious and more revealing", because in the final segment of their earthly life their destinies were inextricably linked, one might say, merged together. At some points, V.N. Pepelyaev even acted in a more significant role than Admiral A.V. Kolchak, they were even sentenced to death by one decision for two, stood side by side before being shot, shoulder to shoulder, looking into the muzzles of rifles aimed at them, and fell under the bullets of one volley. And all the same, history and human memory separated them, demarcated them. One gave immortality, the other - nothing. Or almost nothing. This is fine. The human memory is so arranged: to save selectively. And yet - without pretensions to put a half-forgotten big name on a par with a great name - it is worth remembering and talking about such people who are in the shadows. What I do when talking about Viktor Nikolayevich Pepelyaev.
* * *
Victor early, at the age of twenty, while still a student, married a noble daughter, who belonged to the noble Obolensky family. After graduating from the university, already being the father of a three-year-old daughter, he left for the provincial county town of Biysk, before which even Railway at that time it had not yet been held to teach history and geography to high school students. In Biysk, he developed a vigorous activity. In addition to teaching at the gymnasium, he "grabbed" the position of a librarian; actively began to scribble articles in local newspapers, published a book on the anniversary of the abolition of serfdom, lectured on legal topics for biychans and residents of the county, entered the county society for the care of primary education. He organized regular theatrical and musical entertainment in the city, conducted a number of scientific excursions to the Teletskaya taiga, close to Biysk. For three incomplete years of life in Biysk, he became perhaps the most famous person there.
In the summer of 1912, Viktor Pepelyaev was nominated as a candidate for deputy to the IV State Duma in the Biysk district of the Altai district of the Tomsk province. And ... out of 1602 voters, 1341 voted for him. An absolute majority. Clear victory! In October 1912, when it started to rain and on the outskirts of the merchant Biysk the carts were sinking up to their hubs in the bad roads muddy with mud, a recent teacher of geography and history in the county gymnasium, a 26-year-old deputy of the IV State Duma of Russia, had already left with his family on the banks of the Neva, in the capital . To appear already in December at the first Duma meeting under the vaults of the Tauride Palace...
Whom did he see himself in perspective in State Duma young Siberian? And what plans did you make for the future? It's impossible to tell for him. In any case, he was not going to get lost among the other deputies, and he came into big politics in earnest, with his far-reaching plans, with a thirst for active work to promote these plans. His political attachments were determined from the student's bench: he gravitated towards the Cadets Party, saw it in the near future as the party of power. Well, and myself in this party of power, probably, not in the last roles.

Immediately agreed in the Duma with the Cadet faction, with its leaders P.N. Milyukov, V.D. Nabokov, A.I. Shingarev, quickly became a necessary person in the faction, attracted everyone's attention. He was quickly talked about among the deputies, they took him seriously, he became "known as a person who is cautious in decisions, but resolute in actions." In the Duma, he, as a person knowledgeable in matters of education, was given a job in the committee on public education and culture. His speeches from the podium of the Tauride Palace sounded often.
“It must be remembered,” his voice sounded from the high rostrum of the Duma, “that only cultured peoples will emerge intact from the European catastrophe if history is destined to go through it.
History was destined. The First World War broke out. It may seem that deputy Pepelyaev was prophesying, predicting a future European catastrophe. No. Far-sighted politicians, the military foresaw it.
The State Duma continued to work. Deputy Pepelyaev took part in the organization of the advanced West Siberian sanitary detachment, together with this detachment he often went to the front. February revolution, abdication of the tsar for V.N. Pepelyaev was not a surprise. It went to that.
His party formed the Provisional Government. It seems that his chances of becoming a politician of a very high rank have even increased greatly. But I was worried about the ever-increasing chaos in society, the ever-increasing collapse of the army, to which the Bolsheviks made powerful efforts with their cynical principle "The worse, the better." Pepelyaev especially acutely felt their corrupting influence on the Russian army and people in Kronstadt, where he was sent by the Provisional Government as a commissar to restore order, but he only achieved that he landed in a casemate under arrest for two weeks. He had previously been of the opinion that persuasion was not enough to restore order, but he returned to St. Petersburg on June 17 with the conviction that dictatorship was at the moment the only good for Russia.

The search for a strong sovereign hand led Pepelyaev to the Commander-in-Chief Lavr Kornilov. They had something to talk about, it was easy to understand each other, despite the difference in age: both were Siberians, Kornilov was from Ust-Kamenogorsk, studied at the cadet corps in Omsk, both hated Bolshevism and loved Russia, everything they achieved was through their own work mind, then...
Having staked on Kornilov, the young politician took part in his campaign against Petrograd. Kornilov rebellion. It is appropriate, I think, to explain what it is. A unique, I think, in world history case, when the transfer of Russian troops to defend the Russian capital on the orders of the Russian Supreme Commander was declared a rebellion, and the commander-in-chief himself was declared a rebel! It was like this. On August 20, 1917, the Germans broke through the Russian front near Riga and rushed to the Russian capital, where there was almost no army. August 25, i.e. five days later, the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops gives the order to transfer the Russian troops from Mogilev to the Russian capital to protect it from an external enemy. The smartest command! No rebellion. Why are the Bolsheviks against, immediately shouted about the rebellion, about the dictator Kornilov? Yes, because with the quartering of the army in St. Petersburg and nearby, martial law will be declared in the city and its environs. Martial law in any country automatically excludes the free activity of any parties, is punishable by death. And for the Bolsheviks, striving for power, to remain inactive for even a month, even half a month, is like political death. Hence the screeching about a far-fetched rebellion, and agitation in millions of copies, and incitement not to allow the army, to impede its progress, hence the arrest of the legitimate Commander-in-Chief, his most vile slander ...
After the failure of the Kornilov campaign, in which Pepelyaev took part, he put on a soldier's overcoat and went to the front. He left, of course, not to shoot, as one might think, but to try to understand how much more a word can influence the army. Conclusion: the front is uncontrollable, "the Bolsheviks have already done everything that traitors can do."
But something needs to be done to counter it. At the end of 1917, Viktor Pepelyaev headed the Petrograd Union of Siberians-regionals, at the beginning next year joined the leadership of the underground organizations "National Center" and "Renaissance Union" in Moscow, he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Cadets Party. After that, on the instructions of the Central Committee of the Kadet Party, he went to Siberia. He had clear plans and tasks: it was necessary to establish a military dictatorship. His, Pepelyaev, as a politician, was to convince local organizations of constitutional democrats and members of other non-Bolshevik parties of the urgent need at the moment to establish a dictatorship as opposed to the Bolshevik dictatorship, to find a person capable of acting as a military dictator, to lead a campaign against the Bolsheviks. Those who were represented by Pepelyaev already had specific candidates for the role of a person capable of leading the movement. They called, as the most real, the names of General Alekseev and Admiral Kolchak. First shaped volunteer army in Yekaterinodar, the second was not yet out of work.
Having left Moscow in July 1918, having crossed the front line, on October 4, Viktor Pepelyaev was already in Vladivostok. Prior to that, he visited Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Manchuria. Taking into account the complexity of movement at that difficult time, the vast distances and the fact that it was necessary not only to “check in” in the Siberian and Far Eastern cities, but to prepare, persuade local leaders to think about the inevitable and necessary imminent dictatorship, he did a tremendous job, did not spend not a minute for nothing. His name, as a politician, was well known locally, his opinion was taken into account, he knew how to convince.
The meeting between Admiral Kolchak and Pepelyaev took place in Omsk on 4 November. Pepelyaev said that he was fulfilling the wish of the National Center, which had pinned its hopes on either Kolchak or the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, General Alekseev, as a leader. But now, when General Alekseev died on October 8 in Yekaterinodar, for one Kolchak. They also talked about the fact that the Directory is a repetition of Kerensky, its leader Avksentiev is the same Kerensky and will inevitably lead, if nothing is done, to the surrender of power to the Bolsheviks, therefore the Directory is not needed. Kolchak agreed with this.
On the evening of November 15, the opening of the Siberian Cadet Conference took place. They formed a new, eastern department of the Central Committee of the Cadets Party, whose chairman was V.N. Pepelyaev. He called the military dictatorship the decisive means of struggle for the revival of Russia, and expressed demands to put an end to the experiments of the revolution. There were no objections. On November 18, 1918, the Directory was dispersed, and Kolchak was declared the Supreme Ruler of Russia. “We became the party of the coup d'état. We had only to express our opinion the day before, and the next day what was supposed to happen happened,” Pepelyaev wrote in his diary.
You should not think that only the efforts of V.N. Pepelyaev and played a decisive role in the fact that A.V. Kolchak was in power. Everything is much more complicated. A strong hand, a well-known, legendary personality capable of bringing order to the country, was sought, wanted to be seen by both allies and Russian officers, and the Siberian and Russian bourgeoisie, and the prosperous peasantry, and various parties. But the fact that Viktor Pepelyaev put great effort into this is undeniable. He fully fulfilled the task assigned to him by the Moscow National Center.
Error V.N. Pepelyaev, and not only him, I think, was in what he believed: the main thing was to find a tough, smart military man who would make a quick, as an arrow flight, throw to Moscow. And he did not allow the thought, he was not ready for the fact that fierce resistance, a positional war, was possible.
The fact that V.N. Pepelyaev thought exactly that, confirms the fact that as soon as Kolchak’s armies began to fail in the fall of 1919, he set off, involving his brother, the commander of one of Kolchak’s armies, to weave a conspiracy against the Supreme Ruler, seriously think about his removal, replacing him with another commander. From November 22 (the day before Viktor Pepelyaev received an offer from Kolchak to take the post of prime minister) to November 26, Anatoly Pepelyaev, who was in Tomsk, and Viktor Pepelyaev, who was in Irkutsk, had conversations between themselves in which there was clear secrecy. On December 8, 1919, at the Taiga station of the current Kemerovo region, the Pepelyaev brothers - the presiding minister Pepelyaev and the genleit Anatoly Pepelyaev (as K.V. Sakharov called the brothers - V.P.) in an ultimatum demanded from Kolchak to remove the commander-in-chief of the troops, General Sakharov and replace him with a general Diterichs. After the departure of the admiral from Taiga, Sakharov was arrested and sent a telegram to the Supreme Ruler, in which they demanded the convocation of the Siberian Zemsky Sobor and the formation of a government, otherwise, if the demand by Admiral Kolchak is not satisfied before 24:00 on December 9, the brothers decided on everything in the name of the Motherland. God and the people will judge them. However, Viktor Pepelyaev, after thinking, did not dare to do anything. It was too late. The defeat was complete, the army was defeated, it was impossible to fix something. And on December 12, Viktor Pepelyaev apologized to the admiral, said that the end of the telegram could be misunderstood, he was not going to do anything against the supreme power ...
It remains a mystery why Viktor Pepelyaev, knowing what lies ahead when he gets to his sworn enemies the Bolsheviks, did not try to flee abroad, did not worry about sending his family to a safe place, nor about her financial situation. For such trifles as the arrangement of personal affairs, he had even more than enough power. It is not clear why, having rebelled in the Taiga, he then overtook the admiral, in Irkutsk he was arrested with him on January 15, 1920 and shot on February 7, 1920. Probably, after all, because, in spite of everything, fanatically, in his own way, he loved Russia, knew how to lose, was brought up, like all Pepelyaevs, not to take someone else's and even preferred an inglorious death in his homeland to a good life in a foreign land ...

P.S. Wife and daughter V.N. Pepelyaeva, Evstoliya Vasilievna and Galina were in Irkutsk when their husband and father were shot. They were not subjected to persecution in Irkutsk; after February 7, 1920, they left for Omsk, from where they later moved to Moscow. Afraid to bear her husband's surname, Evstoliya Vasilievna entered into a fictitious marriage with her uncle, her mother's brother Alexander Vasilyevich Obolensky. Soon this marriage was annulled. Evstoliya Vasilievna lived in Moscow on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, died in 1960. Daughter Galina Nikolaevna graduated from the institute foreign languages, worked as a translator at the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, married an American engineer Arland. They lived in Voronezh, then in Moscow. Engineer Arland left for the United States, Galina could not leave with him, fearing that during checks her origin would come up if she began to draw up documents for leaving abroad. Arland kept in touch with her, letters and parcels came from the States, until it became completely dangerous in 1937. Galina Nikolaevna lived until 1991. Until the end of her days, she kept a note from Father V.N. Pepelyaev, handed over to his wife from a prison in Irkutsk. Nothing special in the note, just a few words. That he loves his wife and daughter. This note has not survived. Before her death, Galina Nikolaevna asked to burn the note or put it in the coffin with her, which was done. Arkady Pepelyaev kept in touch with his older brother's wife, visited her when he was passing through Moscow in the 30s. Mikhail Pepelyaev, in the civilian headquarters captain, in the 20s-30s. lived in Tomsk, on the street. St.-Achinskaya, 13, worked as an artist in the House of the Red Army, was a member of the local branch of the Academy of Arts. He was repressed, shot on the same day as his brother Anatoly in Novosibirsk on January 14, 1938. It is known about Ekaterina Nikolaevna that she was an actress, played on the stage of the theaters of Yakutsk and Chita, in the 30s her traces are lost. Vera Nikolaevna Pepelyaeva-Popova lived in Harbin in the 1920s and 1940s with her two children and mother Claudia Georgievna. In 1946, she left for residence in Ukraine. The family of General Anatoly Pepelyaev also lived in Harbin. His sons Vsevolod and Lavr were sentenced to 25 years each by a Soviet court after the Red Army entered Manchuria in 1945. Both daughters of Arkady Pepelyaev are still in good health, they live in the city of Omsk. The youngest daughter, Nina Arkadyevna, is now 89 years old, the eldest, Tatyana Arkadyevna, is 91. Both have children and grandchildren ...

P.P.S. In the autumn of 1993, I met in Irkutsk with one of the oldest local journalists, G.T. Kilesso. Georgy Timofeevich was the author of the book of historical essays "The Street of the Name ...", which told who some streets of Irkutsk were named after. He also wrote in this book about Alexander Shiryamov, who in 1920 was the chairman of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee. In 1954, shortly before the death of a prominent Bolshevik, G.T. Kilesso saw him. A.A. Shiryamov had something to tell. He was one of those who were instructed by the Kremlin leadership to decide the fate of Russia's gold reserves stuck in Irkutsk, its return from Siberia to Central Russia, he signed the resolution of the local Revolutionary Committee on the execution of the Supreme Ruler Admiral A.V. Kolchak and Prime Minister in his government V.N. Pepelyaev. After Stalin died, he spoke about it more relaxedly and openly, frankly. G.T. Kilesso was interested in the smallest details of Shiryamov last hours the lives of high-ranking residents of the Irkutsk prison, their execution at the mouth of the Ushakovka river on the night of February 6-7, 1920. He was interested in such details, which had not been read anywhere else in the literature. I carefully remembered, wrote down the memoirs of a Bolshevik veteran.
I was also very interested in this. I wrote ten years ago about the world-famous night shooting in the Znamensky (after the name of the monastery located there) suburb. G.T. Kilesso at one time also meticulously asked A.A. about this. Shiryamova details. The execution was supposed to take place at two in the morning, but it happened at five in the morning. It was explained like this. From the prison, located on the right bank of the Ushakovka river, to its confluence with the Angara, it takes about half an hour to walk. At first they wanted to deliver the condemned to the place of execution by car. They called for a long time, looking for a car, they promised to send it, but somehow the car did not appear. Realizing that you can wait until light, we decided to go on foot. There were seven or eight Socialist-Revolutionaries in the firing squad. In addition to the chairman of the emergency commission of inquiry, the commandant of Irkutsk and the head of the prison, the doctor of the Znamensky hospital, the Bolshevik Fyodor Gusarov, was also at the scene of the upcoming event, whose task was to certify the death of A.V. Kolchak and V.N. Pepelyaev, before dumping their bodies into a wide hole prepared in advance.
I asked G.T. Kilesso, is it true that Prime Minister V.N. Pepelyaev, when the decision of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee on execution was read to him in prison, behaved cowardly: he rolled at his feet, begged for mercy on him, swore that he and his brother-general wanted to go over to the side of the Red Army, as was later described in some memoirs. Such behavior of V.N. Pepelyaev did not fit at least with his positions - before being appointed head of government, he was the head of the police department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the minister of internal affairs. G.T. Quilesso also asked such a question to Shiryamov, a veteran of the Siberian Bolshevik movement, and received the answer: "There was not. They would have reported to me."
It is easy to understand why the rumor was started. Bright, legendary personalities - the admiral and the prime minister in his government - completed their earthly journey too casually. They listened to the verdict, obeyed the command to follow where ordered, stood on the hillock under the muzzle of the rifles aimed at them, and after the executed command "Pli!" fell under the bullets. A death sentence, like thousands executed in civilian life. No flowery pictures for you, unusual details. With full desire, there was nothing to say. Only those who were present at the execution of far from ordinary personalities. And I wanted to say so! And be sure to screw something amazing imagination. Hence the legends about a handkerchief in which the admiral hid poison, about a golden cigarette case, which he supposedly, having taken from him the last cigarette in his life, presented to one of the soldiers. And that he was faint-hearted, Pepelyaev asked for mercy before the execution. And also that they shot not two - Kolchak and Pepelyaev, but that there was still a third one, along with them: a certain Chinese executioner ...
There was nothing like that. No gold cigarette case, no poison handkerchief, no pleas for mercy. No details, embarrassing for the firing squad. There was one volley. And a calm look into the face of death before this volley ...

V. Privalikhin