Who was Admiral Kolchak by nationality & nbsp. Admiral Kolchak: biography, personal life, military career Harun Kolchak biography
Kolchak's regime was an ugly combination of outward Russian state paraphernalia with Socialist-Revolutionary ministers, semi-English uniforms and French advisers. Among these advisers was the brother of Yakov Sverdlov. Especially blasphemous is the title of Kolchak - "Supreme Ruler". It is known that such a title belonged to only one person in Russia - the Sovereign Emperor. Who and by what right awarded this title to Vice Admiral Kolchak?
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born on November 4, 1873. He came from a Turkish family, and his grandfather Ilias Kolchak Pasha was the commandant of the Turkish fortress of Khotyn, in the 1790s he was captured by the Russians and went to their service. Already Kolchak's father heroically distinguished himself in the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.
The future admiral received his primary education at home, and then studied at the 6th St. Petersburg classical gymnasium.
On September 15, 1894, Kolchak was promoted to the rank of midshipman and on August 6, 1894, he was assigned to the 1st-rank cruiser Rurik as an assistant watch officer.
Kolchak deserved the highest characteristics about himself. The commander of the cruiser G. F. Tsyvinsky later, becoming an admiral, wrote: “ Midshipman A.V. Kolchak was an unusually capable and talented officer, had a rare memory, spoke perfectly three European languages, knew the sailing directions of all seas well, knew the history of all almost European fleets and naval battles».
On the cruiser "Rurik" Kolchak departed for Far East. At the end of 1896, Kolchak was assigned to the cruiser of the 2nd rank "Cruiser" to the position of chief of the watch. On this ship, for several years he went on campaigns in the Pacific Ocean, in 1899 he returned to Kronstadt. On December 6, 1898, he was promoted to lieutenant. In the campaigns, Kolchak not only performed his official duties, but also actively engaged in self-education. He became interested in oceanography and hydrology. In 1899 he published an article "Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravity sea water produced on the cruisers "Rurik" and "Cruiser" from May 1897 to March 1898.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Kolchak participated in the polar expedition of Baron E. V. Toll to the Taimyr Peninsula. Throughout the expedition, Kolchak conducted active scientific work. In 1901, E. V. Toll immortalized the name of A. V. Kolchak - he named the island and cape discovered by the expedition after him.
Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, Kolchak reported to the Academy of Sciences on the work done, and also reported on the enterprise of Baron Toll, from whom no news had been received either by that time or later. In January 1903, it was decided to organize an expedition, the purpose of which was to clarify the fate of Toll's expedition. The expedition took place from May 5 to December 7, 1903. It consisted of 17 people on 12 sledges harnessed by 160 dogs. During Kolchak's expedition, it became clear that Toll's expedition had perished.
Then there was the Russo-Japanese War. Kolchak was wounded and captured by the Japanese. After four months in captivity, Kolchak returned to Russia through the United States of America. Upon his return from captivity, he was awarded the St. George weapon "for courage" and promoted to captain of the 2nd rank.
Then there was work at the Naval General Staff, then service at the headquarters Baltic Fleet. While working at the Naval Staff, Kolchak met Admiral L. A. Brusilov. At the same time, Kolchak takes part in the work of the Duma Committee on State Defense, which was chaired by the leader of the Octobrist Party and one of the worst enemies of the Sovereign, A. I. Guchkov. It must be said that Admiral L. A. Brusilov was also very critical of Emperor Nicholas II.
It was in the Baltic, in the rank of captain of the 1st rank, that Kolchak met the First World War. We will not expand here on Kolchak's activities as a naval commander. Suffice it to say that his activities were highly valued by the Russian naval command and the Sovereign himself. It was Nicholas II who promoted Kolchak to vice admiral and appointed him commander of the Black Sea Fleet. At the same time, those around him noted such negative qualities in Kolchak as excessive ambition and irritability. Sometimes Kolchak had nervous breakdowns, during which he retired from business and closed himself in. One of these disruptions was reflected in the memoirs of Rear Admiral A. D. Bubnov, who then held the post of head of the naval department at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. Bubnov recalled how the news of the fire on the battleship "Empress Maria", which occurred in 1916 and cost the lives of many people, affected Kolchak.
« The death of the "Empress Maria",- wrote Admiral Bubnov, - deeply shocked A. V. Kolchak. With his characteristic sublime understanding of his superior duty, he considered himself responsible for everything that happened in the fleet under his command [...]. He withdrew into himself, stopped eating, did not talk to anyone, so that those around him began to fear for his sanity. Upon learning of this, the Sovereign ordered me to immediately go to Sevastopol and hand over to A.V. Kolchak, that he does not see any guilt behind him in the death of the "Empress Maria", treats him with invariable goodwill and orders him to calmly continue his command. Arriving in Sevastopol, I found at the headquarters a depressed mood and anxiety about the state of the admiral, which now began to express itself in extreme irritation and anger. Although I was close to A. V. Kolchak, I confess that I went to his admiral's quarters not without fear; however, the merciful words of the Sovereign I conveyed to him had an effect, and after a long friendly conversation he completely came to his senses, so that in the future everything went into its own track.».
But it was not ambition and irritability that became the reason that the gendarmerie took Kolchak into a secret development. General Spiridovich writes in his memoirs about important meetings in St. Petersburg, in October 1916, under the chairmanship of M. M. Fedorov, in private apartments, including those of Maxim Gorky. These meetings took place at least twice a month. In 1916, at meetings in Gorky's apartment, a "sea plan" of a palace coup appeared, to which A. V. Kolchak, Kapnist allegedly agreed (the initials are unknown).
It is not known whether Spiridovich is right in his memoirs or not, but here are the memoirs of the murderer of G. E. Rasputin, Prince Felix Yusupov. Yusupov recalled that immediately after the February coup, he met with one of the main rebels, M. V. Rodzianko. Yusupov further writes:
« Seeing me, Rodzianko got up, walked over and asked straight away:
- Moscow wants to declare you emperor. What do you say?
It's not the first time I've heard this. We had already been in Petersburg for two months, and the most different people- politicians, officers, priests - told me the same thing. Soon Admiral Kolchak and Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich came to repeat:
- The Russian throne was not achieved by inheritance or election. He was captured. Take advantage of the opportunity. All the cards are in your hands. Russia is impossible without a tsar. But trust in the Romanov dynasty has been undermined. The people no longer want them».
So, according to Yusupov, Kolchak was among those who tried to replace Emperor Nicholas II on the throne with another person, in particular Felix Yusupov. This passage by Yusupov coincides with the information of Spiridovich. You can, again, not believe Yusupov, especially since the prince was a liar.
But here is some more information. In 1916, shortly before the February coup, the mayor of Tiflis A. I. Khatisov met in Tiflis with Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich and offered the latter to take the throne after the overthrow of the Emperor, which should happen in the very near future. At the same time, Khatisov assured the Grand Duke that Admiral Kolchak was completely on their side and was ready to provide the forces of his fleet for these purposes. At the same time, another Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich came to Tiflis to meet with Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich and also persuaded his relative to support the plot against the Tsar, again referring to the loyalty of the Black Sea Fleet. In this regard, it is interesting that in the memoirs of Yusupov, Kolchak and Nikolai Mikhailovich also act in the same bundle.
Immediately after February, it became known about the plan according to which the Black Sea Fleet was to go to Batum and there, and along the entire coast, make a demonstration in favor of Nikolai Nikolaevich, and deliver him through Odessa to the Romanian front and declare Emperor, and the Duke of Leuchtenberg - heir
Thus, there are so many references to Kolchak's involvement in the conspiracy against Emperor Nicholas II that they can hardly be considered mere coincidences.
Be that as it may, but Kolchak immediately and completely recognized both the February coup and the regime of the Provisional Government. On March 5, Kolchak ordered a prayer service and a parade on the occasion of the victory of the revolution; at a rally in Sevastopol, "he expressed his devotion to the Provisional Government."
The admiral spoke about the same devotion during interrogation by the Chekists in 1920. To the interrogator's question: What form of government seemed to you personally for you the most desirable? Kolchak frankly answered: “ I was the first to recognize the Provisional Government, I considered that as a temporary form it is desirable under the given conditions; it must be supported by all means; that any opposition to him would cause a collapse in the country, and I thought that the people themselves should establish a form of government in the constituent body, and whatever form they chose, I would submit. I thought that some sort of republican form of government would probably be established, and I considered this republican form of government to meet the needs of the country.
And here is another saying of Kolchak characterizing his "monarchism":
“I took an oath to our first Provisional Government. I took the oath in good conscience, considering this Government as the only Government that had to be recognized under those circumstances, and I was the first to take this oath. I considered myself completely free from any obligations in relation to the monarchy, and after the revolution took place, I took the point of view on which I always stood - that I, after all, did not serve this or that form of government, but I serve my homeland, which I place above all, and I consider it necessary to recognize the Government that then declared itself at the head of Russian authorities».
It is said very clearly, and completely dismisses all subsequent aspirations of Kolchak's fans "about the compulsion" of his service to the Provisional Government, about Kolchak's "secret monarchism". There was no monarchism, but there was great ambition and a desire for personal power. Throughout the spring of 1917, Kolchak communicated directly and by telegraph with Guchkov and Rodzianko. Guchkov repeatedly thanks Kolchak for his professionalism and devotion to the new government. At the same time, it is clear that certain forces saw Kolchak as a new dictator. When Kolchak arrived in Petrograd in June 1917, the so-called “right-wing” newspapers came out with huge headlines: “Admiral Kolchak is the savior of Russia”, “All power to Admiral Kolchak!”.
Interestingly, Admiral Kolchak arrived in Petrograd already in the new naval uniform of the Provisional Government. In the film "Admiral" this form is coquettishly presented in the form of either an American naval uniform, or in the form of a merchant marine uniform. In fact, the new naval uniform of the Provisional Government, introduced by order of the new Minister of War Guchkov, was deprived of shoulder straps, and the cockade was crowned with a five-pointed star. It is clearly visible in Kolchak's photograph of the summer of 1917. It is clear why the authors of the film betrayed the historical truth! How would they show the “fighter against Bolshevism”, who had a five-pointed star on his forehead!
Arriving in Petrograd, the Russian "monarchist" Kolchak hurries to meet with the worst enemies of the Russian monarchy and assure them of his full respect. Kolchak paid his first visit to the oldest Marxist G.V. Plekhanov. This is how Plekhanov himself recalled his meeting with Kolchak. " Today... I had Kolchak. I really liked him. It is evident that in his field well done. Brave, energetic, not stupid. In the very first days of the revolution, he took her side and managed to maintain order in the Black Sea Fleet and get along with the sailors. But in politics, he seems to be completely innocent. He led me straight into embarrassment with his cheeky carelessness. He entered cheerfully, in a military way, and suddenly said: - I considered it my duty to introduce myself to you, as the oldest representative of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
Enter my position! I am a socialist-revolutionary! I tried to amend: - Thank you, very glad. But let me tell you...
However, Kolchak, without stopping, minted: ... to the representative of the Socialist Revolutionaries. I am a sailor, I am not interested in party programs. I know that in our navy, among the sailors, there are two parties: the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats. I saw their proclamations. I don’t understand what the difference is, but I prefer the Socialist-Revolutionaries, since they are patriots. The Social-Democrats, on the other hand, do not love their fatherland, and besides, there are a lot of Jews among them...
I fell into complete bewilderment after such a greeting, and with the most gracious meekness tried to lead my interlocutor out of error. I told him that not only was I not a socialist-revolutionary, but I was even known as an opponent of this party, who had broken many spears in the ideological struggle against it... , - not a Jew, but a Russian nobleman, and I love my fatherland very much! Kolchak was not at all embarrassed. He looked at me with curiosity, muttered something like: well, it doesn’t matter, and began to talk vividly, interestingly and intelligently about the Black Sea Fleet, about its state and combat missions. He spoke very well. Probably a good admiral. Only very weak in politics ...».
From this passage, the whole cynicism of Kolchak is visible. He calls the Socialist-Revolutionaries, bloody murderers and terrorists, "patriots of Russia", with only one purpose: to please the "Socialist-Revolutionary", as he suggests, Plekhanov. Hearing from Plekhanov that he had nothing to do with the Socialist-Revolutionaries, but, on the contrary, was a "Social Democrat", Kolchak carelessly throws "it's not important" and continues the conversation. Plekhanov decided that this was a sign of a weak politician, but in fact it was Kolchak's complete moral promiscuity. In this he is very reminiscent of another tsarist officer - Tukhachevsky. We can safely put forward the assumption that if the situation had developed differently, then Kolchak would have joined the Red Army without hesitation.
In addition to Plekhanov, the "monarchist" Kolchak met another "patriot" of Russia, the Social Revolutionary Boris Savinkov, the organizer of the assassination of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and the organizer of the assassination attempts on Emperor Nicholas II. Close relations were established between the "monarchist" and the "patriot". Suffice it to say that Savinkov represented the Kolchak government and his Union Bureau abroad.
Kolchak's connection with Savinkov, a freemason and a secret agent of British intelligence, gave reason to some authors to believe that Kolchak himself was recruited by the British. However, it seems that these statements do not take into account the frenzied ambition of people like Kolchak. The assertion that Kolchak was an English spy is just as absurd as the assertion that Lenin was a German spy. Another thing is that such people were ready for the sake of their ambition to enter into a tactical alliance with anyone to achieve their personal goals.
Kolchak's relationship with Kerensky was also not as acrimonious as it is portrayed in the film. Of course, Kolchak did not say any proud words about Kerensky's responsibility for the collapse of the army and navy to the head of the Provisional Government. Moreover, he turned to him for help. Another thing is that by the summer of 1917, almost the same anarchy was already happening in the Black Sea Fleet as in the Baltic. Performances of sailors and riots were replaced one after another. June 6, 1917 Kolchak was removed from the post of commander of the Black Sea Fleet. Then the admiral, apparently, did not assume that he would never return to naval service again.
They are constantly trying to explain to us that the removal of Kolchak from the post of commander of the fleet was caused solely by Kerensky's fear of the popular personality of the admiral. But in fact, this is not entirely true. Even before the resignation of Kolchak, American Vice Admiral J. G. Glennon and the personal representative of the American president, Senator E. Ruth, arrived in Sevastopol. Apparently already then, in Sevastopol, they turned to Kolchak with a proposal to go to the United States to assist the Americans who had entered the war in organizing the mine business. What real goals this proposal had and when Kolchak agreed to them is not clear, but already in July 1917, in a letter to his mistress A.V. Timereva, Kolchak writes the following: “Now I can speak more or less definitely about my future future. Upon my arrival in Petrograd, I received an invitation from US Ambassador Root and from Admiral Glennon's Naval Mission to serve in the US Navy. Despite the severity of my position, I still did not dare to immediately irrevocably break with the Motherland, and then Ruth and Glennon rather ultimatum suggested that the Provisional Government send me as the head of a military mission to America to serve during the war in the U. S. Navy [US Navy]. Now this issue has been resolved by the government in a positive way, and I am waiting for the final formation of the mission.”
On July 27, 1917, Kolchak leaves for the USA, but on the way he stops in England, where he spends almost a month. Officially, the Russian admiral studied British military achievements. However, Kolchak was not going to leave an active political life. Just before leaving, he received a telegram from Petrograd with a proposal to put forward his candidacy for the Constituent Assembly from the Kadet Party. He agreed.
In early August, Kolchak arrives in the United States, where he is met in person. high level. He met with the US Secretary of the Navy, his assistant, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of War. On October 16, Kolchak was received by President V. Wilson.
Just two months later, Kolchak leaves the United States and heads to the island of Yokohama (Japan). The purpose of this trip is again unclear. One gets the impression that Kolchak is being deliberately brought to the future theater of operations. Here in Yokohama, Kolchak learns about the October Revolution.
Upon learning of the coup, Kolchak began to ask to serve in the British army "at least as a simple soldier." He turned with such a request to the British envoy in Tokyo, Sir Green. After some time, he received a positive response and was sent to Bombay, from where he was supposed to be transported to the British possessions in Mesopotamia. But halfway through, Kolchak received a telegram saying that he should not go to Mesopotamia, since the British crown did not need his services. Therefore, Kolchak moved to Beijing to the Russian Embassy. From here, his path to seizing power in the East of Russia will begin.
The circumstances under which Kolchak's star rose as the "supreme ruler" of Russia are full of ambiguities. It should be said that after the overthrow of the monarchy, France and England considered the territory of Russia as their prey. In the spring of 1918, the high command of the Allies in the Entente decided to overthrow the "pro-German" regime of the Bolsheviks, and establish their full control over Russia. All anti-Bolshevik forces were subordinate to the French general M. Janin. The French plans included the occupation of the Far East and Siberia, as well as the Crimea in the South, the British planned to capture Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, the Romanians - Bessarabia. Meanwhile, this situation did not suit the Americans, who seemed to be left with nothing. The United States urgently needed a man in Russia. And Admiral Kolchak became such a person. On November 18, 1918, Kolchak overthrew the pro-Anantov directory and proclaimed himself the "Supreme Ruler of Russia." It is noteworthy that the first of the foreign representatives who visited the admiral was the US Consul General in Irkutsk, Harris. He officially told Kolchak that the US government would give him full support. In 1918-1919, the Americans gave Kolchak 600 thousand rifles, more than 4.5 million rounds of ammunition, 220 thousand shells, a large number of guns and machine guns, 330 thousand pairs of army shoes. In February 1919, the American government sent a special military mission to the south of Russia. It was led by the former US military attache in Petrograd, Lieutenant Colonel Riggs. The task of the mission included organizing all kinds of assistance to the Kolchak armies.
Relying on American support, Kolchak was able to remove General Zhanin from the post of de facto commander in chief, for which the latter did not fail to subsequently take revenge on the admiral by handing him over to death. Kolchak's regime was an ugly combination of outward Russian state paraphernalia with Socialist-Revolutionary ministers, semi-English uniforms and French advisers. Among these advisers was the brother of Yakov Sverdlov, Zinovy Sverdlov, who then bore the surname Peshkov. The head of the Kolchak government was V.N. Pepelyaev, a cadet who enthusiastically greeted the February Revolution, a former commissar of the Provisional Government.
Especially blasphemous is the title of Kolchak - "Supreme Ruler". It is known that such a title belonged to only one person in Russia - the Sovereign Emperor. Who and by what right awarded this title to Vice Admiral Kolchak?
Kolchak was never free in his decisions. He spoke about this himself. Lieutenant General K. V. Sakharov, a close associate of Kolchak, gives the following conversation with him:
« - The Russian people cannot, continued the admiral, stop at anyone, nor be satisfied with anyone.
- How do you imagine, Your Excellency, the future?
—Just like every honest Russian. /.../ All sections of the Russian people, starting with the peasants, think only about the restoration of the monarchy, about calling their people's Leader to the throne - the legitimate Tsar. Only this is successful.
- So why not announce now that the Omsk government understands the people's desires and will follow them this way?
The admiral laughed sarcastically.
- And what will our foreigners, allies say? What will our ministers say?
The most frankly democratic nature of the Kolchak regime was revealed by the head of the "Arkhangelsk government" Socialist-Revolutionary N.V. Tchaikovsky. In 1919 he was summoned to Versailles for a conference of the victorious powers, where on May 9 he had a conversation with US President Wilson and British Prime Minister Lloyd George. It was about Kolchak. Tchaikovsky assured high-ranking interlocutors that "Kolchak is supported by democratic forces" and that the admiral would follow a "democratic policy."
In this regard, I would like to say a few words about the role of Kolchak in the investigation of the Yekaterinburg atrocity. There is an order from Kolchak to assist the investigation of N. A. Sokolov to investigate the murder of the Royal Family. On the margins of this document is the following resolution of General Dieterichs, apparently made by him later: “ The Supreme Ruler really did not want to give me this order, since he is under the strong influence of the German-Jewish Party and any establishment of the truth in this matter is extremely undesirable to him.»
Kolchak's regime could not fail to collapse. At its basis, as well as the Bolshevik basis, there was a big lie. But unlike the Bolshevik lie, Kolchak's lie was spiritually more dangerous, because it was covered by national banners, golden shoulder straps, Russian state symbols. Kolchak usurped the sacred rights and prerogatives of the Russian Tsar, and the pathetic propaganda of the "Constituent Assembly" emphasized this usurpation even more.
General Sakharov wrote in his memoirs: The version was widely spread among the people that the white army was marching with priests in full vestments, with banners and singing “Christ is Risen!” This legend spread deep into Russia; two months later we were told by those who made their way through the red front to our side from the Volga region: the people there joyfully crossed themselves, sighed and looked with enlightened eyes to the east, from where their native, close Russia was already coming in their dreams. Five weeks later, when I arrived at the front, they conveyed their thoughts to me when I went around our combat units west of Ufa:
- You see, Your Excellency, what happened, bad luck. And then, after all, the people were completely dreaming, the end of the torment, they thought. We hear that Mikhail Lyaksandrych himself is walking with the white army, he has declared himself Tsar again, he has mercy on everyone, he gives land. Well, the Orthodox people came to life, grew bolder, which means they even began to beat the commissars. Everyone was waiting, ours will come, there is little left to endure. And in fact, it didn’t turn out that way.”
It is precisely this feeling that “it didn’t work out that way” that explains the main reason for the people’s passivity. And although at the beginning the people gladly went with the admiral against the Reds, more than 150 thousand Ural workers fought in the ranks of the Kolchak army, then as the fighting continued, popular support left Kolchak. The people intuitively felt that Kolchak was not the legitimate leader of Russia, that he was the same impostor as the commissars were.
At the end of the Kolchak epic, under the blows of the Red armies, everyone turned away from Kolchak. The allies betrayed him first. General Zhanin, following a secret order from Paris, handed over the admiral and the head of his government, V.N. Pepelyaev, to the Reds. On February 7, 1920, by personal order of Lenin, Kolchak and Pepelyaev were shot. Kolchak met death courageously, as befits an officer. What can not be said about Pepelyaev. Contrary to the film, Pepelyaev, according to eyewitnesses, lost his presence of mind and begged for mercy. The bodies of Kolchak and Pepelyaev were thrown into the Angara.
They say that Kolchak liked to repeat the phrase: "Nothing is given for free, you have to pay for everything and not evade payment." His life and death were the best proof of the truth of this saying.
The White Army gave many examples of brave and courageous, disinterested Russian officers and soldiers. General Kappel, General Markov, General Mamontov, Lieutenant Nezhentsov. The same examples were given by the Red Army: Chapaev, Budyonny, Mironov. These people, each in their own way, thought that they were fighting for Russia, for her better lot. You can talk about these people with respect and give them their due. But you can never make heroes out of them. For there can be no heroes in a fratricidal war.
Moreover, it is impossible to glorify and exalt the leaders of the fratricidal war: Kolchak, Denikin, Frunze, Kamenev, Vatsetis, Wrangel. And no matter how different Kolchak and Lenin were from each other, they were united by one thing: the readiness to shed fraternal blood in the name of foreign political goals, in the name of an ephemeral “bright future”. He wrote about it openly Brest Peace Admiral Kolchak: The war is lost. Will wait new war, as the only bright future, but for now it is necessary to finish the present, and then take up the new one.
The victory of Kolchak, Denikin or Wrangel would mean the economic occupation of Russia by the British, French and Americans. Let's not forget that the governments of Kolchak and Wrangel had clear obligations on this issue to the allies. The same thing would have happened, only outwardly in milder forms, which happened under the Bolsheviks. But if the robbery of Russia by the Bolsheviks was perceived precisely as a robbery, then the robbery of Russia under the rule of the whites would be perceived as legitimate actions of the national Russian government.
They will tell us, but why shouldn't we have fought Bolshevism at all? Why was it necessary to give the country to desecration without any resistance? No, we say. Of course, it was necessary to fight the Bolshevik monster. But this should have been done by people with a clear conscience and clean hands. These were supposed to be new Minins and Pozharskys, new Ivan Susanins, and not politicians-generals who forgot their duty to the Tsar and the Fatherland and dreamed of the laurels of "supreme rulers." But the whole paradox lies in the fact that if in the Russian army and Russian society there were Pozharskys and Susanins, faithful to their duty and oath, no fight against Bolshevism would be needed, since it simply would never have happened.
Of course, the real Kolchak and Kolchak performed by Khabensky are two completely different people. But still the hero of the film is Kolchak. Millions of people who today do not know history at all will perceive Kolchak precisely through the talented play of Khabensky, which means that the very controversial figure of the admiral, one of the organizers civil war will firmly enter the consciousness of generations as a positive figure. Such a person wants to imitate. What to imitate? Kolchak's participation in the First World War is shown little and sparingly. But Kolchak's love story is painted in all colors. Abstracting from the real Kolchak and not at all wanting to delve into his personal life, I would still like to note that the story of an officer who stole his lawful wife from his comrade-in-arms and left his wife and child for arbitrariness of fate.
Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak. Born on November 4 (November 16), 1874 in St. Petersburg - shot on February 7, 1920 in Irkutsk. Russian military and political figure, oceanographer, polar explorer, naval commander. Admiral (1918). Supreme Ruler of Russia and Supreme Commander Russian army (November 1918 - January 1920).
Father - Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak (1837, Odessa - April 4, 1913, St. Petersburg), Russian general, participant in the Crimean War, a major specialist in the field of artillery.
Mother - Olga Ilyinichna Kolchak (nee Posokhova; 1855-1894), from an Odessa merchant family, her father Ilya Mikhailovich was a hereditary honorary citizen and long-term vowel of the Odessa City Duma.
Admiral Kolchak was baptized on December 15, 1874 in the Trinity Church with. Aleksandrovsky St. Petersburg district. The recipients were naval staff captain Alexander Ivanovich Kolchak (his uncle, younger brother father) and the widow of the collegiate secretary Daria Filippovna Ivanova.
His family belonged to the service nobility Russian Empire and was quite extensive, in different generations Kolchaks often turned out to be associated with military affairs. According to one version, Kolchak's ancestor was a Turkish commander who converted to Islam, the Bosnian Serb Ilias Kolchak Pasha, commandant of the Khotyn fortress on the Dniester, captured by Field Marshal H. A. Minich in 1739.
Before entering school, he received family education under the guidance of his father and mother. Alexander received religious education from his mother, who took the children to church near the Obukhov plant.
In 1885-1888, Alexander studied at the 6th St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium, where he completed three classes out of eight. Representatives of all major classes and estates studied in the same class with Alexander. Alexander did not study well and when he was transferred to the 3rd grade, having received a deuce in Russian, a triple with a minus in Latin, a triple in mathematics, a triple with a minus in German and a deuce in French, he was almost left "for the second year." At repeated oral exams in Russian and French I corrected my grades by three with a minus and was transferred to the 3rd grade.
In 1888, "of his own free will and at the request of his father," Alexander entered the Naval School. There he studied diligently. In 1890, Kolchak went to sea for the first time. On May 12, upon arrival in Kronstadt, Alexander, along with other junior cadets, was assigned to the armored frigate Prince Pozharsky. On this ship, the flag of Rear Admiral F. A. Gerken, commander of the training squadron, was also raised. The squadron under his command, during the training voyage, called at Bjerko, Helsingfors, Revel, and on August 6 returned to Kronstadt. During the voyage, Kolchak, along with other younger students, was engaged in boats. By the end of the exercises, general rowing and sailing races took place, and then a landing exercise took place.
The English inventor and cannon king W. J. Armstrong suggested that Alexander go to England, study the business at his factories and become an engineer. However, the desire to "swim and serve at sea" in the desires and dreams of young Kolchak prevailed.
In 1892, Alexander was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer. With the transition to the cadet class, he was promoted to sergeant major as the best in science and behavior, among the few on the course, and was appointed mentor to a junior company.
In 1894, at the end of the graduation academic year, the midshipmen went through a difficult month-long voyage on the Skobelev corvette and began to pass the final exams. At the maritime exam, Kolchak was the only one from the class who answered all fifteen questions asked. As for the rest of the exams, Kolchak also passed all of them with excellent marks, except for the mine case. By order of September 15, 1894, Kolchak, among all issued midshipmen, was promoted to midshipman.
Leaving the Naval Corps in the 7th Naval Crew, in March 1895 Kolchak was assigned to practice navigation at the Kronstadt Naval Observatory, and soon he was assigned as a watch officer for a new armored cruiser 1st rank "Rurik", departing from Kronstadt to the Far East. Even then, he became interested in oceanography and hydrology of the Pacific Ocean, he was especially interested in its northern part - the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. In the future, he hoped to explore the southern polar seas, thought about a breakthrough to the South Pole and about the continuation of Russian research work in those latitudes, suspended after the expedition of F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev.
Independent scientific work and research of sea currents, which the young officer began to do, did not, however, correspond to the situation of the flagship warship, on which the squadron commander, Admiral E. I. Alekseev, was also located.
In 1897, Kolchak filed a report with a request to transfer him to the gunboat "Koreets", which was heading to the Commander Islands at that time, where the young officer planned to do research work, but instead he was sent as a watch teacher to the sail-propeller clipper "Cruiser ", which was used to train boatswains and non-commissioned officers. The Korean port of Gensan was chosen as the anchorage of the Cruiser, where Kolchak continued his hydrological research. The ship spent the winter of 1897/98 in Nagasaki.
On December 5, 1898, the Cruiser left Port Arthur at the disposal of the Baltic Fleet; on December 6, Kolchak was promoted to lieutenant.
While sailing in the Pacific Ocean, Kolchak learned that the ship Bakan was preparing for a trip to Svalbard as part of a Russian-Swedish expedition, and the newest powerful icebreaker Yermak was preparing to sail on a journey to the depths of the Arctic under the leadership of Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov . The young officer was familiar with Makarov's famous lecture "To the North Pole ahead", read by the admiral in 1897 in the Russian Geographical Society. Kolchak sought to get into one of these expeditions. But the icebreaker's crew was already completed, and it was impossible to switch from one ship to another without the sanction of the ministry.
In 1899, Kolchak brought together and processed the results of his own observations of the currents of the Japan and Yellow Seas and published his first scientific article, “Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravity of sea water, made on cruisers” in “Notes on Hydrography Published by the Main Hydrographic Department” Rurik" and "Cruiser" from May 1897 to March 1899".
Kolchak knew that the Academy of Sciences was preparing a project for the Russian Polar Expedition with the task of going through the Northern Sea Route from Kronstadt to Vladivostok, exploring the area of the Arctic Ocean north of the New Siberian Islands and trying to find the legendary Sannikov Land. The well-known polar explorer E. V. Toll, whom Kolchak met in September 1899, was appointed to lead the expedition. Toll did not give a definite answer, and meanwhile Kolchak was assigned to the battleship Petropavlovsk and went on it to the Far East.
Service on the newest battleship captivated young officer, however, he soon saw that here "there is a service, but no practice, no opportunity to swim and live." Kolchak decided to take part in the Anglo-Boer War that began in the fall of 1899. He was driven to this not only by a romantic desire to help the Boers, but also by the desire to gain experience in modern warfare, to improve in his profession. But soon, when the ship was in the Greek port of Piraeus, Kolchak received a telegram from the Academy of Sciences from E. V. Toll with a proposal to take part in the expedition on the Zarya schooner - the very one that he was so eager to get into in St. Petersburg. Toll was interested in the scientific work of the young lieutenant in the journal "Sea Collection". Kolchak announced his consent and was temporarily transferred from military service to the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Alexander Kolchak and the Russian polar expedition (1900-1902)
In early January 1900, Kolchak arrived in St. Petersburg. The head of the expedition offered him to supervise the hydrological work, as well as to act as an assistant to the magnetologist. On June 8, 1900, the travelers set off. Having passed the Baltic Sea, rounded the Scandinavian Peninsula and loaded with coal in the Ekaterininskaya harbor (Kola Bay), on August 5, the sailors were already heading towards the Taimyr Peninsula.
On September 22, 1900, the expedition stopped for the winter on the western coast of Taimyr, in the area of Colin Archer Bay.
Lieutenant Kolchak was in full charge of hydrological research, and was also engaged in hydrochemical research and observations on terrestrial magnetism, topographic work, conducted route surveys and barometric leveling, and during nights with clear skies determined the latitudes and longitudes of various geographical objects. Throughout the expedition, Kolchak compiled a detailed description of the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean, studied the state and development of sea ice.
Kolchak accompanied Toll on his two sledge trips to the little-explored eastern part of the Taimyr Peninsula, to the Chelyuskin Peninsula (October 15-19, 1900 and April 6 - May 18, 1901). During the first trip, which took place in 30-degree frosts, Kolchak, who made astronomical clarifications of a number of points along the way, managed to make significant clarifications and corrections to the old map made as a result of the Nansen expedition of 1893-1896.
In the spring, in 41 days, Toll and Kolchak covered 500 miles of the way, doing route surveys and geological surveys. Due to the lack of dogs, it was often necessary to harness the dog teams themselves.
The role of Kolchak in the expedition is best evidenced by the certification given to him by Baron Toll himself in a report to the President of the Academy of Sciences, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. The expedition leader noted his energy and dedication to the cause of science and called the young lieutenant the "best officer" of the expedition.
In 1901, Toll immortalized the name of A. V. Kolchak, naming one of the islands discovered by the expedition in the Taimyr Bay and a cape in the same area after him. At the same time, Kolchak himself, during his polar campaigns, named another island and cape after his bride - Sofya Fedorovna Omirova - who was waiting for him in the capital. Cape Sofia retained its name to our time.
The navigation of 1901 lasted exactly 25 days, during which the yacht covered 1350 miles. On August 19, Zarya crossed the longitude of Cape Chelyuskin, becoming the 4th ship after Nordenskiold's Vega with its auxiliary ship Lena and Fram Nansen, which rounded the northern point of Eurasia.
On September 10, 1901, the second wintering of the expedition began off the western coast of Kotelny Island (Novosibirsk Islands). Kolchak, as during the first wintering in Taimyr, tried not to waste time and, at any opportunity, with his comrades or on his own, went to explore Kotelny Island, and in the spring - also Belkovsky.
Desperate to find Sannikov Land, Toll decided to at least explore the unexplored Bennett Island. On May 23, 1902, with three companions, he set off from the wintering place towards the island. After the completion of the work of the polar explorers (the Toll group and the Byalynitsky-Biruli group, which left on April 29 for the island of New Siberia), Zarya was supposed to pick up. On August 8, the remaining members of the expedition were able, freed from ice captivity, to go on the Zarya in the direction of the Bennett Islands and New Siberia, but in two weeks they could not break through the ice and were forced to turn south to the mainland, because otherwise the coal would have to return would not be enough.
On August 25, the Zarya, crippled by ice, barely crawled to the mouth of the Lena and approached the shore in Tiksi Bay - to the eternal parking lot. All the most valuable collections and equipment were reloaded on board the Lena steamer, on which the travelers reached Yakutsk. Leaving, Lieutenant Matisen, to whom Toll handed over the leadership of the expedition during his absence, ordered to prepare deer for Toll's group, and if he did not appear before February 1, to go to the island of New Siberia and wait for him there.
In early December 1902, Kolchak and other members of the expedition reached the capital.
For the Russian polar expedition, Lieutenant Kolchak was awarded the order St. Vladimir 4th degree. On February 1, 1906, following the results of the expedition, he was also elected a full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. On the materials of the expedition, Kolchak performed fundamental research, dedicated to ice Kara and East Siberian Seas, which was a new step in the development of polar oceanography. In his monograph "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas", which occupies more than 170 pages with 11 tables and 24 photographs of different forms of ice, the author, among other things, not only formulated the main directions of the movement of ice under the influence of winds and currents in the area of the New Siberian Islands, but also proposed a scheme for the movement of the Arctic pack for the entire polar basin.
Alexander Kolchak and the Rescue Expedition of 1903
Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, F. A. Matisen and A. V. Kolchak, having reported to the Academy of Sciences on the work done, reported on the hiking trip to Bennett Island undertaken by E. V. Toll. Considering the absence of any news about the fate of the two groups of researchers who could not be taken away at the end of the expedition (the second was the group of Byalynitsky-Biruli), their fate was extremely worried by the Academy of Sciences, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and the returning members of the expedition themselves.
A sense of responsibility and comradely duty pushed A.V. Kolchak to take quick and decisive action. Ready to personally lead the rescue expedition, he outlined his plan on paper and submitted the paper to Academician F. B. Schmidt, Chairman of the Commission for Equipping the Russian Polar Expedition.
On December 9, 1902, the Commission adopted the plan proposed by Kolchak for a sledge-boat trip to Bennett.
In the meantime, news came that Biruli's party had safely returned to the mainland from New Siberia, but he could not say anything about Toll's fate.
On February 9, 1903, Kolchak went to Irkutsk, and by March 8, all participants in Kolchak's enterprise gathered in Yakutsk. Passing along the Aldan River and its tributary the Nera, the travelers reached Verkhoyansk, crossing the Verkhoyansk Range and passing along the mouth of the Sartangu River. Further, the expedition members crossed the Kular ridge and on April 10 were already in the village of Kazachiy on the Yana. Simultaneously with the advance of the rescue party to the Novosibirsk Islands, one of the Zarya whaleboats was sent along with equipment and food for the rescuers.
On May 5, 1903, Kolchak set out from the mainland in the direction of the New Siberian Islands, with Bennett Island as his ultimate goal. The total number of the expedition was 17 people, including seven people of the so-called whaleboat team (the head of the expedition, two sailors and four Mezen Pomors). The expedition was accompanied by 10 sleds with food, clothing, ammunition, each of which was dragged by 13 dogs. The whaleboat itself was loaded onto 2 sledges, which were dragged by 30 dogs. Snow and ice became loose, the dogs pulled with difficulty, although the whole expedition walked in straps and harnessed along with the dogs. We walked only at night, when it was freezing, but all the same, the dogs refused to pull for more than six hours, and it was possible to pass only a few miles a day. On May 23, the travelers reached Kotelny Island.
On July 18, when the wind drove the ice away from the shore, seven people continued their journey on a whaleboat across the sea towards Faddeevsky Island. In this passage, travelers were accompanied by constant solid snow, which turned into streams of water and soaked people stronger than rain. At Cape Vysokiy on the island of New Siberia, according to the agreement, the head of the auxiliary group, Brusnev, was waiting for them. Back in March, he managed to find here Toll's first note (dated July 11, 1902), where the baron reported about being sent to Bennett Island. After resting for a day at Brusnev, the whaleboat team continued on their way to Bennett Island.
On the open sea they went either by oars or by sail. It was snowing incessantly, covering the whaleboat with a damp soft cover, which, melting, soaked people worse than rain and made them feel colder than on a frosty winter day. On August 4, they landed on Bennett Island and began searching for traces of Toll's group. At Cape Emma, Kolchak found a bottle with a note and a plan of the island, which Toll left here, as agreed before parting for the winter.
The transition through the glacier almost ended tragically for Kolchak: having miscalculated the jump through the crack, he fell into the icy water and lost consciousness from the temperature shock. This bathing in icy water affected Kolchak's health for the rest of his life.
On the eastern coast of the island, in Toll's kitchen, Toll's last note was found, addressed to the president of the Academy of Sciences and containing a brief report on the work done on the island. The note ended with the words: “Let's go south today. We have provisions for 14-20 days. Everyone is healthy. October 26, 1902".
Kolchak spent three days on the island, visiting all three of its ends. Kolchak called the northeastern tip of the island Cape Emmeline Toll, the southeastern tip - the Chernyshev Peninsula, and Kolchak named the cape on this peninsula Sofia in honor of his bride Sofia Fedorovna. The highest mountain was named De Long, the other became known as Mount Toll. Two glaciers on the tops of these mountains have been named after Seeberg.
Having found out everything that it was possible to find out about the fate of Toll, on August 7 Kolchak and his people set off on the return journey. They took with them documents and a small part of the geological collections abandoned by Baron Toll when leaving the island. In early January 1904, Kolchak and his companions reached Verkhoyansk. On January 26, having arrived in Yakutsk, Kolchak gave a telegram to the president of the Academy of Sciences, in which he said that Toll's party left Bennett Island in the autumn of 1902 and disappeared without a trace. This telegram from Kolchak was published by many newspapers.
Kolchak's expedition reached its goal and returned without losses in its composition, which its leader could be proud of. In addition to searching for Toll's group, Kolchak's expedition also solved important research problems. Kolchak discovered and described unknown before him geographic features, clarified the outlines of the coastline, clarified the characteristics of ice formation.
The famous traveler P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky assessed Kolchak's expedition as "an important geographical feat." In 1906, the Russian Geographical Society awarded Kolchak its highest award, the Konstantinovsky Medal. Kolchak was the fourth of the polar travelers who received this honorary award; before him, only three famous polar explorers were awarded this medal: F. Nansen, N. Nordenskiöld and N. D. Yurgens.
Alexander Kolchak and the Russo-Japanese War
Upon arrival in Yakutsk, Kolchak learned about the attack of the Japanese fleet on the Russian squadron on the Port Arthur roadstead and about the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. On January 28, 1904, he contacted Konstantin Konstantinovich by telegraph and asked for his transfer from the Academy of Sciences to the Naval Department. Having received permission, Kolchak petitioned for a direction to Port Arthur. Having handed over the affairs of the expedition, on March 9 he went to the Far East.
Kolchak arrived in Port Arthur on March 18. The next day, the lieutenant met with the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral S. O. Makarov, and asked for an assignment to a combat position. However, Makarov appointed him as a watch officer on the cruiser of the 1st rank "Askold". Two weeks later, Admiral Makarov, whom Kolchak considered his teacher, died on board squadron battleship"Petropavlovsk", blown up by a Japanese mine.
Kolchak, who most of all disliked monotonous and routine work, achieved his transfer to the Amur mine layer. The transfer took place on 17 April. Four days later, he was appointed commander of the destroyer "Angry". The ship belonged to the second detachment of destroyers, inferior to the best ships of the first detachment and therefore employed in guarding the entrance to the harbor or escorting minesweepers. Appointment to such a job was another disappointment for the young officer eager to fight. Nevertheless, Kolchak did an excellent job with his duties and was of great benefit to the cause of protecting Port Arthur.
On May 1, for the first time since the outbreak of hostilities in the east, Kolchak had a chance to take part in a serious and dangerous mission. On this day, the operation began, developed by the commander of the Amur mine layer, Captain 2nd Rank F.N. Ivanov. While the "Amur" was engaged in the installation of a mine can, "Angry" under the command of Kolchak, together with the "Ambulance" walked with trawls ahead of the "Amur", clearing the way for him. The next day, the Japanese battleships Hatsuse and Yashima were blown up by mines, which was the loudest success of the First Pacific Squadron in the entire campaign.
Kolchak's first independent command of a warship continued until October 18, with an almost month-long break for treatment in the hospital from pneumonia. Kolchak on his destroyer daily trawled the outer raid, was on duty at the passage to the bay, fired at the enemy, laid mines. He chose a place to install the can, but on the night of August 24 he was prevented by three Japanese destroyers. The officer showed perseverance - on the night of August 25, "Angry" again went to sea, and Kolchak set 16 mines in the place he had chosen, 20½ miles (38 km) from the harbor. There is an assumption that it was on these mines that the Japanese cruiser Takasago blew up and sank. Kolchak was proud of this success, mentioned it in his 1918 autobiography and during interrogation in Irkutsk in 1920.
From September 19, destroyers and gunboats were transferred to permanent duty near the entrance to the outer roadstead. Mines were laid periodically. However, the service on the destroyer was becoming more and more monotonous by this time, and Kolchak regretted that he was not in the thick of things, where the fate of Port Arthur was being decided.
On October 18, Kolchak, at his own request, due to his state of health, was transferred to the land front, where by that time the main events of the military campaign had moved. Here he commanded a battery of different-caliber guns at the artillery position "Armed Sector of the Rocky Mountains", the general command of which was carried out by Captain 2nd Rank A. A. Khomenko. Kolchak's battery consisted of two small batteries of 47 mm guns, a 120 mm gun firing at distant targets, a battery of two 47 mm and two 37 mm guns. Later, Kolchak's economy was reinforced with two more old guns from the light cruiser Razboinik.
During the siege of Port Arthur, Lieutenant Kolchak kept records in which he systematized the experience of artillery firing and collected evidence of an unsuccessful July attempt to break through the ships of the Port Arthur squadron to Vladivostok, showing himself again as a scientist - artilleryman and strategist.
By the time of the capitulation of Port Arthur, Kolchak became seriously ill: a wound was added to the articular rheumatism. On December 22, he was admitted to the hospital. In April, the hospital was evacuated by the Japanese to Nagasaki, and the sick officers were asked to be treated in Japan or return to Russia. All Russian officers preferred their Motherland. On June 4, 1905, Kolchak arrived in St. Petersburg, but after another exacerbation, he again ended up in the hospital.
For "guard service and guarding the passage to Port Arthur, shelling of enemy positions" carried out during the command of "Angry", on November 15, 1904, A.V. Kolchak was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree with the inscription "For Courage". On December 12, 1905, "for distinction in cases against the enemy near Port Arthur", the lieutenant was awarded the St. George weapon with the inscription "For courage". To the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree, which Kolchak was awarded for the Russian polar expedition, in 1906 he was granted swords. In the same year, he was awarded a silver medal in memory of the Russo-Japanese War. Later, in 1914, Kolchak was awarded the badge of a participant in the defense of Port Arthur.
Then he took up the processing of materials from polar expeditions, which turned out to be so rich that a special commission of the Academy of Sciences was created to study them, which worked until 1919. Work on the report on the rescue expedition led by Kolchak was completed on November 12, 1905, the report was published in the Izvestiya of the Russian Geographical Society, and on January 10, 1906, Kolchak, based on this report, made a brief report at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society. Kolchak's article "The last expedition to Bennett Island, equipped by the Academy of Sciences to search for Baron Toll" was published in Izvestia of the Academy of Sciences. In 1906, the Main Hydrographic Department of the Naval Ministry published three maps prepared by Kolchak.
In 1907, a translation into Russian of the work of M. Knudsen "Tables of freezing points of sea water", prepared by Kolchak, was published.
In 1909, Kolchak published his largest study - a monograph summarizing his glaciological research in the Arctic - "Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas", but did not have time to publish another monograph dedicated to the cartographic work of Toll's expedition.
Alexander Kolchak and the St. Petersburg Naval Circle
Like most Russian officers, Kolchak was very upset by the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the actual death of the fleet. In the capital, on the initiative of young officers, a Petersburg Naval Circle, which was subsequently chaired by A. V. Kolchak. On the initiative of the members of the circle, in April - June 1906, the Naval General Staff was created, which, as stated in the decree, "has the subject of its activities to draw up a war plan at sea and measures to organize the combat readiness of the naval armed forces of the Empire." Kolchak was one of the authors of the note on the organization of the MGSH and on May 1, 1906, he took up a responsible post in the new institution - he became the head of the department of Russian statistics.
The "naval qualification" was soon abolished, which made it difficult for young naval officers to advance in the service. Because of this qualification, Kolchak served as a lieutenant for almost 10 years, during which time he took part in two polar expeditions and the defense of Port Arthur. On June 11, 1907, Kolchak was awarded the rank of captain-lieutenant restored in the fleet. In the same year, he was granted "swords" and "bows" to the Order of St. Vladimir, received for the feat of the rescue expedition of 1903.
As a generator of ideas and organizer, Kolchak had a great influence on young officers. In the Naval General Staff, Kolchak headed a commission to study the military reasons that led to the defeat in the battle of Tsushima. The historian Khandorin noted that Kolchak considered it a serious mistake of the Russian command not to take measures to disrupt the radio communications of the Japanese, which played a tremendous role in the battle.
Kolchak was an expert on the state defense commission of the State Duma, he made presentations in it and in other public meetings. On December 21, 1907, in his circle, transferred to the Naval General Staff, Kolchak delivered a report prepared on the basis of his theoretical work “What kind of fleet does Russia need”. The report was subsequently repeated in the Club of Public Figures in the capital, in the Kronstadt Society of Navy Officers and in the Society of Advocates of Military Knowledge. In 1908, Kolchak's work was published in the 6th and 7th issues of the Marine Collection. The article, distinguished by realism and adherence to principles, became the theoretical justification for the entire Russian military shipbuilding in the years preceding the outbreak of the First World War. The principles outlined in his lectures were further developed already in Soviet times.
Alexander Kolchak and Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean
While serving in the Naval General Staff, Kolchak did not cease to be interested in the North, was a member of the commission of the Northern Sea Route and continued scientific research. In 1906, a commission headed by Admiral V.P. Verkhovsky was created to study the issue of the Northern Sea Route. The Commission instructed Kolchak to draw up a report for the Minister of Marine on the conditions of navigation along the Arctic coast of Russia. The note was prepared by Kolchak in September 1906.
Major-General A. I. Vilkitsky, who headed the Main Hydrographic Department of the Naval Ministry, cherished the dream of opening the Great Northern Route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Vilkitsky enlisted the support of the government and decided to organize an expedition. He turned to Kolchak with a proposal to resume research work in the Arctic Ocean, get involved in the preparation of the expedition and be one of its leaders. Kolchak accepted this offer.
According to the plan developed by the Verkhovsky commission, it was supposed to send three detachments of two ships each to the complex expedition, to build 16 geophysical stations on the Arctic coast and islands. Kolchak, in collaboration with F. A. Mathisen, developed an expedition project using icebreaker-type steel ships. The project was presented to Vilkitsky and received approval. On May 29, 1908, even before the construction of the Vaigach and Taimyr icebreakers was completed, Kolchak was appointed commander of the Vaigach icebreaker. On September 30, he was enrolled in the 2nd Baltic naval crew and left the Naval General Staff.
The ships were considered military, the degree of their reliability and unsinkability was very high for their time. Icebreakers served researchers and rescuers for a long time and made it possible to make the largest geographical discoveries, including opening the archipelago of Emperor Nicholas II Land (now Severnaya Zemlya) and laying the Northern Sea Route. As in the creation of these icebreakers built on Nevsky shipyard in St. Petersburg, and in general in the development of the icebreaker fleet, Kolchak's merits were great. However, in Soviet literature and historiography they were hushed up.
October 28, 1909 "Vaigach" and "Taimyr" went to sea, with four naval officers and 38-40 crew members on board. Having passed the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, Red Seas and the Indian Ocean, on June 3, 1910, the expedition arrived in Vladivostok. Vessels were repaired here, the head of the expedition, Colonel of the Corps of Naval Navigators I.S. Sergeev, a well-known hydrograph, arrived at the Vaigach.
Kolchak was burning with the idea of opening the Northern Sea Route and infected his companions with this idea, the enthusiasm of the expedition members was high.
For navigation in 1910, the Main Hydrographic Directorate set the task of passing into the Bering Strait and surveying this area. Cape Dezhnev was chosen as the main point for surveying and astronomical work. The main part of the work of the expedition was planned for the spring of 1911. Part of the work related to the plan of 1910 was completed by the expedition, all research work on the cape, in which Kolchak also took part, was done.
On August 17, 1910, the ships left the Golden Horn Bay and approached Kamchatka, after which they crossed the Avacha Bay and reached Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Having passed Cape Dezhnev, the expedition entered the Arctic Ocean. After standing for a week near the village of Uelen, the expedition moved west. On September 20, the icebreakers set off back to Vladivostok. On the way in the Gulf of Natalia, they described the bays of Peter and Paul, making adjustments to the available maps.
October 20 returned to Vladivostok. Kolchak, however, was called to St. Petersburg to continue his service in the Naval General Staff. And although he was annoyed to refuse further participation in the expedition, which was given so much effort and which had good prospects, Kolchak agreed to the proposal to continue working in the General Staff.
Returning to the Naval General Staff as chief of the 1st operational unit (planning fleet operations in the Baltic), in 1911-1912 Kolchak was engaged in bringing the shipbuilding program and preparing the fleet for war. According to the program, one of the authors of which was Kolchak, high-speed, maneuverable, well-armed ships were built in Russia.
At the same time, Kolchak taught in officer classes, as well as in the courses of the naval department of the Nikolaev Naval Academy. Kolchak wrote the theoretical works "On the battle formations of the fleet", "On the battle". In 1912, Kolchak's book "Service of the General Staff" was published with the stamp "not subject to disclosure" - an overview of the activities of the naval general staffs of the leading world powers.
April 15, 1912 Kolchak was appointed commander of the destroyer "Ussuriets" and went to the base of the mine division in Libau.
In May 1913, Kolchak was appointed to command the destroyer Border Guard, which was used as a messenger ship for Admiral Essen. On June 25, after demonstration demonstrations of mine laying in Finnish skerries, Minister I. K. Grigorovich gathered on board the Border Guard , Essen. The sovereign was pleased with the state of the teams and ships, Kolchak and other commanders of the ships were declared "nominal royal favor." At the headquarters of the commander of the fleet, they began to prepare papers for the production of Kolchak in the next rank.
On December 6, 1913, “for distinction in service,” Kolchak was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, and after 3 days he was already appointed acting head of the operational department of the headquarters of the commander of the naval forces of the Baltic Fleet.
On July 14, 1914, Kolchak began to fulfill the duties of the flag-captain for the operational part at the headquarters of Essen. On this day, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor - the French president came to visit Russia.
As one of the closest assistants to the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Kolchak focused on preparatory measures for the rapidly approaching big war. Kolchak's duties included inspecting detachments of the fleet, naval bases, developing protective measures, and mining.
Alexander Kolchak during World War I
On the evening of July 16, 1914, the headquarters of Admiral Essen received a cipher from the General Staff about the mobilization of the Baltic Fleet from midnight on July 17. All night long, a group of officers led by Kolchak was engaged in drawing up instructions for the battle. To protect the capital from the attack of the German fleet, the Mine Division set up minefields in the waters of the Gulf of Finland. The first two months of the war, Kolchak fought as a flag captain, developing operational tasks and plans, while always striving to take part in the battle itself.
In August, near the island of Odensholm, the German cruiser Magdeburg, which had run aground, was captured. A German signal book was found among the trophies. From it, the Essen headquarters learned that the Baltic Fleet was opposed by rather small forces of the German fleet. As a result, the question was raised about the transition of the Baltic Fleet from silent defense to active operations.
In early September, the active operations plan was approved, Kolchak went to defend him at the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief, however Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich recognized the active operations of the Baltic Fleet as premature. In the autumn of 1914, the Essen headquarters decided to take advantage of the weakened vigilance on the part of the Germans, confident in the passive tactics of the Russian naval forces, and "fill up the entire German coast with mines." Kolchak developed a mine blockade of German naval bases. The first mines were laid in October 1914 near Memel, and already on November 4, the German cruiser Friedrich Karl sank in the area of \u200b\u200bthis mine bank. In November, a mine bank was placed near the island of Bornholm.
At the end of December 1914, near the island of Rügen and the Stolpe Bank, on the routes by which German ships sailed from Kiel, minefields were laid, in which Kolchak took an active part. Subsequently, the small cruisers Augsburg and Gazelle were blown up by mines.
In February 1915, Captain 1st Rank A.V. Kolchak took command of a special-purpose semi-division of four destroyers"Border Guard" type. During the minefield operation in the Danzig Bay, Kolchak had to apply his experience of sailing in the Arctic - there was already a lot of ice in the sea. All the destroyers successfully reached the place where the minefield was laid, but the Rurik cover cruiser ran into the stones and got a hole. Kolchak led his ships further without cover. On February 1, 1915, Kolchak, in the most difficult weather conditions, set up to 200 mines in the bay, brilliantly solving the task of the campaign, and successfully returned his ships to the base.
In August 1915, the German fleet, turning to active operations, attempted to break into the Gulf of Riga. It was minefields that stopped him: having lost several destroyers on Russian mines and damaging some cruisers, the Germans soon canceled their plans due to the threat of new losses. This then led to the disruption of their offensive ground forces to Riga, since it was not supported from the sea by the fleet.
In early September 1915, due to the injury of Rear Admiral P. L. Trukhachev, the post of head of the Mine Division was temporarily vacated, and Kolchak was entrusted with it. Having accepted the division on September 10, Kolchak began to establish ties with the ground command. With the commander of the 12th Army, General R. D. Radko-Dmitriev, they agreed to jointly prevent the German offensive along the coast. Kolchak's division had to repel the large-scale outbreak that had begun. German advance both on water and on land. In autumn, the Germans landed troops on the southern coast of the Gulf of Riga and launched an offensive against the army of Radko-Dmitriev.
Kolchak began to develop a landing operation in the German rear. Despite the opposition of the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet, Alexander Vasilyevich managed to insist on his own, although he had to reduce the scale of his operation to a minimum. On October 6, a detachment of 22 officers and 514 lower ranks on two gunboats under the cover of 15 destroyers, the battleship Slava and the Orlitsa air transport set off on a campaign. A. V. Kolchak personally supervised the operation. On October 9, secretly from the Germans, the detachment landed on the shore, removed the guard post near the lighthouse and defeated the infantry company sent by the Germans. Seaplanes and destroyers helped the paratroopers from the sea. As a result of the landing, an enemy observation post was liquidated, prisoners and trophies were captured. The ratio of losses was 40 people killed on the German side against 4 wounded on the Russian side. The demonstration conducted by Kolchak became a clear proof of the possibility of similar operations by forces of more than large connections. The Germans were forced to take troops from the front to protect the coastline and anxiously await Russian maneuvers from the Gulf of Riga.
Serious assistance to the army units was provided by Kolchak's ships in the future, supporting them in the most difficult situation with massive shelling of enemy units. On November 2, 1915, Nicholas II, according to the report of Radko-Dmitriev, awarded Kolchak the Order of St. George, 4th degree. This award was presented to Alexander Vasilievich for commanding the Mine Division.
On December 19, Kolchak, bypassing the post of chief of the primary tactical formation of destroyers, was already again accepting the Mine Division, and this time already as its current commander, on a permanent basis. However, even for a short time at the headquarters, Captain Kolchak managed to do a very important thing: he developed a plan for the operation to mine Vindava, which was successfully implemented later. For the Germans, Kolchak's surprise in this area was so unexpected that a cruiser and a number of destroyers of the German fleet were immediately blown up here.
In addition to laying minefields, Kolchak often led groups of ships under personal command into the sea to hunt for various enemy ships, guard service. One of these exits ended in failure, when patrol ship"Vindava". However, failures were the exception. The fame that Kolchak won for himself was well-deserved: by the end of 1915, the losses of the German fleet in terms of warships exceeded similar Russian ones by 3.4 times; in terms of merchant ships - 5.2 times.
In the spring campaign of 1916, when the Germans launched an offensive against Riga, the role of the Kolchak cruisers Slava, Admiral Makarov and Diana was to shell and impede the advance of the enemy. To exclude the possibility of moving along the part of the coast under the control of the Germans, enemy submarines and transports, Kolchak began to mine these sections of the coast with the help of shallow-draft minelayers.
The war allowed Kolchak to show new facets of his talent, after polar voyages, scientific works and staff reform creativity, Alexander Vasilyevich revealed himself as a naval commander and a miner. With the adoption on August 23, 1915, by Nicholas II of the rank of Supreme Commander in Headquarters, the attitude towards the fleet began to change for the better. Kolchak also felt this. Soon, his introduction to the next military rank began to move.
In the rank of rear admiral, Kolchak took part in the raiding actions of the light forces of the Baltic Fleet on German communications, in particular, in attempts to interrupt the transportation of iron ore from Sweden to Germany. The first transport attack was unsuccessful. The second campaign - May 31, 1916 - was planned to the smallest detail, and the meeting with the German convoy took place in Norrköping Bay. Having discovered the caravan, Kolchak attacked it at night, dispersed it, and sank the escort ship.
The last task that Kolchak was engaged in in the Baltic Fleet was to develop a major landing operation in the German rear in the Gulf of Riga.
On June 28, 1916, by decree of the emperor, in violation of the rights of seniority, Kolchak was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet, thus becoming the youngest of the fleet commanders of the warring powers. At the same time, as modern historians note, the command of the belligerent fleet was entrusted to the admiral, who neither in peacetime nor in wartime commanded a ship of the 1st rank, not to mention the command of the "backbone" of the military fleets of that time - a connection of heavy ships. Kolchak was assigned a salary of 22 thousand rubles a year and an additional sea allowance, 2 thousand rubles were allocated for moving to Sevastopol.
Alexander Kolchak - Commander of the Black Sea Fleet
In early September 1916, Alexander Vasilyevich was in Sevastopol, having visited Headquarters on the way and receiving secret instructions from the Sovereign and his chief of staff. Kolchak's meeting with Nicholas II at Headquarters was the third and last. Kolchak spent one day at Headquarters on July 4, 1916. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief told the new commander of the Black Sea Fleet about the situation on the fronts, conveyed the content of the military-political agreements with the allies on the imminent entry into the war of Romania. At Headquarters, Kolchak was acquainted with the decree on awarding him the Order of St. Stanislav, 1st degree.
The arrival of Kolchak became an occasion for revival for the Black Sea Fleet. The first task set by Kolchak to the fleet was to clear the sea of enemy warships and stop enemy shipping in general.
Taking advantage of the experience of his service in the Baltic, Kolchak continued the mining of the Bosphorus begun by his predecessor, Admiral Eberhard, and also mined the coast of Turkey, which almost deprived the enemy of the opportunity to act actively. But Kolchak had nothing to do with the tactically most successful part of the minefields at the mouth of the Bosphorus, since they were put up before he took office as commander of the fleet.
At the end of July, the operation to mine the Bosphorus began. The submarine "Crab" began the operation, setting 60 minutes in the very throat of the strait. Then, on the orders of Kolchak, the entrance to the strait was mined from coast to coast. After that, Kolchak mined the exits from the Bulgarian ports of Varna, Zonguldak, which hit the Turkish economy hard. To maintain minefields in combat readiness at a distance of 50-100 miles from the Bosphorus, a detachment of ships consisting of a dreadnought, a cruiser and several destroyers was always on duty, and a submarine was constantly on duty near the Bosphorus.
For a long time, enemy ships disappeared from the Black Sea altogether. At the end of October 1916, the German submarine B-45 was blown up by mines near Varna, and at the end of November another B-46 near the Bosphorus. By the end of 1916, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet accomplished his task by firmly locking the German-Turkish fleet, including the Goeben and Breslau, in the Bosphorus, and easing the tension of the transport service of the Russian fleet.
All-Russian fame came to Kolchak. Central newspapers began to publish articles about him, to place his portraits on their pages. The first article about the commander of the Black Sea Fleet - "The New Admiral" - was published on August 13, 1916 by the capital's edition "New Time". A month later, the first literary portrait of Kolchak was published in the same newspaper - "With the commander on the high seas." On September 29, a photograph of Kolchak was published in the Evening Time newspaper.
At the same time, Kolchak's service in the Black Sea Fleet was marked by a number of failures and losses, which might not have happened. The biggest loss was the death on October 7, 1916 of the flagship of the fleet, the battleship Empress Maria. 15 minutes after the first explosion, the commander on the boat approached the side of the sinking ship. Kolchak's first order was to take Catherine the Great away from Maria, after which, despite the ongoing explosions, the admiral boarded the battleship and personally supervised the flooding of the cellars and the localization of the fire. With these measures, the commander saved the city and the raid. However, attempts to put out the fire were unsuccessful.
The naval department of the Headquarters and the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet developed a simple and daring plan for the Bosphorus operation. According to this plan of the sailors, which was developed with the direct participation of Kolchak, it was decided to deliver an unexpected and swift blow to the center of the entire fortified area - Constantinople. The operation was planned by the sailors for September 1916.
It was supposed to combine the actions of the ground forces on the southern edge of the Romanian front with the actions of the fleet. The English fleet could also take part in the operation, advancing along the Aegean Sea.
Nicholas II fully supported the sailors' operation plan, but General Alekseev tried to defend his own plan, which required the unrealistic withdrawal of ten infantry divisions from the front. At the same time, it took three to four months to form and train an airborne detachment, in connection with which the operation was postponed until April - May 1917. Alekseev, who was counting on a victorious conclusion to the war as a result of the upcoming spring offensive in Galicia, did not object to the preparation of the landing force.
Since the end of 1916, comprehensive practical preparations for the Bosphorus operation began: they carried out training in landing, firing from ships, reconnaissance campaigns of destroyer detachments to the Bosphorus, comprehensively studied the coast, and carried out aerial photography. A special landing division of the Black Sea Marine Corps was formed, headed by Major General A. A. Svechin and Chief of Staff Colonel A. I. Verkhovsky, which was personally supervised by Kolchak.
On December 31, 1916, Kolchak ordered the formation of the Black Sea Air Division, the detachments of which were supposed to be deployed in accordance with the arrival of naval aircraft. On this day, Kolchak, at the head of a detachment of three battleships and two air transports, undertook a campaign to the coast of Turkey, however, due to increased excitement, the bombardment of the enemy’s coast from seaplanes had to be postponed.
When evaluating the combat work of the Black Sea Fleet during the period of A. V. Kolchak's command, modern historians note that the fleet has achieved great success during this time. Enemy submarines were driven to bases, the enemy suffered very significant losses, and his fleet lost the opportunity to enter the Black Sea, attacks on the Russian coast were suppressed.
Alexander Kolchak and the February Revolution
It is known that in August 1916, Kolchak was visited by a member of the Progressive Bloc of the State Duma M. V. Chelnokov, who was a member of the group of conspirators. The chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General M.V. Alekseev, who had been in the Crimea since the autumn of 1916 for treatment, twice summoned Kolchak and his chief of staff to report on the situation in the Black Sea. In addition to these two official meetings, there were also other private conversations. According to Kolchak, he often had to communicate with Alekseev on state themes. Kolchak was informed about political events in the country from both official and unofficial sources. He did not remain an outside observer, trying with all his might to prevent the growth of revolutionary sentiment and to protect the fleet entrusted to him from impending upheavals.
The events of February 1917 in the capital found Vice Admiral Kolchak in Batum, where he went to meet with the commander of the Caucasian Front, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich to discuss the schedule of shipping and the construction of a port in Trebizond. On February 28, the admiral received a telegram from the Naval General Staff about a riot in Petrograd and the capture of the city by the rebels.
On February 28, Kolchak sailed from Batum and arrived in Sevastopol on March 1. Even from Batum, he ordered to interrupt the telegraph and postal communications of the Crimea with the rest of the territories of Russia - in order to prevent panic and the spread of unverified rumors. It was ordered to send all incoming telegrams to the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.
In Sevastopol, Kolchak got acquainted with several telegrams addressed to him. M. V. Rodzianko reported on the uprising in the capital and the transfer of power to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. Naval Minister I.K. Grigorovich informed that "The Committee of the State Duma is gradually restoring order," and spoke about the order of Admiral A.I. Nepenin, which announced the events in Petrograd to the Baltic Fleet. The telegram of M. V. Alekseev informed in detail about the events from February 25 to 28 in the capital. The head of the naval headquarters of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Admiral A. I. Rusin, informed about the rebellion in Petrograd, the unrest in Kronstadt and ordered "to take all measures to maintain calm in the fleet." At a meeting of senior commanders, convened by the admiral, it was decided to inform the crews of the ships about the uprising in the capital of Russia. Kolchak simultaneously disavowed his order on the information blockade of the Crimea, which no longer made sense due to the acceptance of German telegrams in the fleet with messages about the revolution in Petrograd, and decided to take the initiative in his own hands, informing the fleet about the events through his own orders.
Meanwhile, in Pskov on the evening of March 1, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front, General Ruzsky, negotiated on behalf of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma with Nicholas II, who had arrived from Headquarters, inducing him to decide on the establishment of a government responsible to the Duma. His position was supported by the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev. After several hours of difficult negotiations, Nicholas II gave in and agreed to the formation of a responsible ministry. The next day, however, in a conversation over a direct wire between Duma Chairman Rodzianko and General Ruzsky, the question was already raised about the abdication of Nicholas II. On the evening of March 2, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet received a telegram from Alekseev, in which, for information, the texts of telegrams from the commanders of the fronts to Nicholas II with requests for renunciation were cited. The informing telegram did not require a response, but the commanders of the Baltic and Black Sea fleets behaved differently in the same situation: on March 2, Nepenin sent a telegram to the Sovereign in which he joined the requests to abdicate, and Kolchak decided not to participate in the telephone meeting that took place on March 2 at all.
As for the political views of Alexander Vasilyevich, until March 1917, his monarchism was completely indisputable. After the revolution, for obvious reasons, Kolchak did not advertise his views and considered it untimely to advertise his own monarchism.
Despite all the efforts of the commander, it was not possible to completely eliminate unrest in the fleet. On March 3, midshipman Fok committed suicide on the Catherine the Great, against the backdrop of spy mania among the sailors and demands for the removal of officers with German surnames. On March 4, the sailors demanded the arrival of the fleet commander on the ship. Kolchak visited the ship, but only after the report of his commander, and not under pressure from the team. Outraged by the behavior of the sailors, the admiral spoke sharply and impartially to the crew lined up on the deck. He rejected suspicions of treason among officers with German surnames and refused to write them off to shore.
On March 4, by order of Kolchak, the Krymsky Vestnik newspaper reported on the abdication of Nicholas II and the formation of the Provisional Government. The fleet took the news calmly, but on the same day rallies began in Sevastopol, and Kolchak held a review of units on March 5 to defuse the situation. After the show, rallies began again. On one of them they began to demand the arrival of the admiral. Kolchak at first did not want to go, but, in order not to inflame passions, he agreed. He ordered those gathered to disperse, but the sailors locked the gates and demanded that the Black Sea Fleet speak and send a welcoming telegram to the Provisional Government. Kolchak made a short speech and promised to send a telegram. After that, he was released. In telegrams sent to G. E. Lvov, the Provisional Government, A. I. Guchkov, M. V. Rodzianko, on behalf of the Black Sea Fleet and the inhabitants of Sevastopol, Kolchak welcomed the government and expressed the hope that it would bring the war to victory.
On March 10, in order to interrupt a series of rallies and demonstrations, Kolchak took the fleet to sea, believing that combat work will be the best counter to the "deepening of the revolution". Another reason for Kolchak's success in maintaining the combat effectiveness of the fleet was the ability to compromise in a difficult situation, to show flexibility, strong-willed effort and endurance to cope with his own unbalanced and quick-tempered character.
Kolchak, by pre-emptive orders, was able to prevent extreme manifestations in the fleet associated with the movement for the abolition of shoulder straps and saluting. The commander did not interfere with the sailors' ideas about renaming warships, which was also reflected in his orders. By his order, the Sevastopol police and gendarme corps were disbanded, and political prisoners were released from prisons. On March 19, the admiral approved the project, which introduced new naval organizations - committees - into the legal channel and subordinated to the commander.
After the plans of the masses under the influence of the revolutionary frenzy to dig up the ashes of the “counter-revolutionary admirals” participating in the Defense of Sevastopol, who died during the Crimean War and rested in the Vladimir Cathedral of Sevastopol, became known, and in their place to rebury Lieutenant Schmidt and his comrades who were shot In the November 1905 Sevastopol uprising - the remains of Schmidt and the sailors shot with him, by order of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral A. V. Kolchak, were expedited transported to Sevastopol, where they were temporarily buried in the Intercession Cathedral. This order of Kolchak allowed to bring down the intensity of passions.
On April 15, 2017, the admiral arrived in Petrograd at the call of Minister of War Guchkov. The latter hoped to use Kolchak as the head of a military coup to eliminate dual power and establish a military dictatorship and suggested that Alexander Vasilyevich take command of the Baltic Fleet. The alleged appointment of Kolchak to the Baltic was linked to the creation of a separate army "for the defense of Petrograd." Given that the Germans did not pose any threat to the capital at that time, the goals of creating such an army lay in the plane of Guchkov's attempts to restore order in Petrograd. Kolchak's appointment to the Baltic did not take place.
In Petrograd, the admiral witnessed armed demonstrations by soldiers and believed that they must be suppressed by force. Kolchak considered the refusal of the Provisional Government to Kornilov, the commander of the capital's military district, to suppress an armed demonstration a mistake, along with the refusal to act in the same way if necessary in the fleet.
On April 25, 1917, Kolchak spoke at a meeting of officers with a report "The situation of our armed forces and relations with the allies." Kolchak demanded an end to reforms based on the "conceit of ignorance" and to accept the forms of discipline and organization of internal life already adopted by the allies. Kolchak's report made a great impression on the listeners and inspired them. The commander left the podium to applause. The Moscow City Duma printed Kolchak's speech in a circulation of several million copies.
In May, there was a sharp conflict between Kolchak and TsVIK because of the arrest by the latter of the assistant to the chief commander of the port, Major General N.P. Petrov, who was convicted by the Soviet of allegedly stealing state property and speculating on it. Kolchak did not approve the arrest order and drove out the delegation that came to him. Then the TsVIK arrested Petrov on his own initiative without the sanction of the fleet commander. On May 12, Admiral Kolchak, accustomed to the unconditional execution of his orders, sent a telegram to the Provisional Government describing the confrontation and asking him to replace him with another person. Arriving on May 17 in Sevastopol, he settled for some time the conflict between the TsVIK and Kolchak.
After the departure of Kerensky, confusion and anarchy in the Black Sea Fleet began to intensify. The distrust of the sailors towards the officers and personally the commander was aggravated by a military failure - on the night of May 13, when trying to lay mines almost at the mouth of the Bosphorus from self-propelled longboats launched from Russian battleships remaining 10 miles (16 km) from the coast, an unauthorized mine explosion occurred, causing chain reaction of explosions of other mines. Two boats out of four sank, 15 sailors and officers died, 29 people were injured. After this incident, the teams began to refuse to go to sea on risky missions.
The last weeks of his command of the fleet, Kolchak no longer expected and did not receive any help from the government, trying to solve all problems on his own. However, his attempts to restore discipline met with opposition from the rank and file of the army and navy. On June 3, a half-crew meeting demanded the removal of Kolchak, Chief of Staff M.I. Smirnov and a number of other officers from their posts. On June 4, the commander telegraphed to Kerensky that the agitation of the Baltic delegation had become "very widespread" and that the local forces were not coping with it.
On June 6, Kolchak sent a telegram to the Provisional Government informing him that the rebellion had taken place and that in the current situation he could no longer remain in command. Without waiting for an answer, he transferred command to Rear Admiral V.K. Lukin, thus committing a disciplinary offense, because he had no right to leave his post without an order from the Provisional Government.
Kolchak's report to the Provisional Government on the Sevastopol events was scheduled for June 13. Until that day, journalists from the capital managed to interview the admiral, in which Alexander Vasilyevich spoke about the reasons that forced him to leave the Black Sea Fleet. The article dealt with the inability of G. E. Lvov to govern the country. The question of dictatorship was also touched upon. In the context of the article, Admiral Kolchak acted as the dictator chosen by the people.
On June 17, Kolchak met with American Admiral J. G. Glennon at the Winter Palace. The head of the American delegation, E. Ruth, was also present at the talks. Kolchak was invited to take part in the Dardanelles operation of the American fleet. In essence, it was about his direct participation in the hostilities of the American fleet. The admiral understood this and agreed. The Russian naval mission consisting of A. V. Kolchak, M. I. Smirnov, D. B. Kolechitsky, V. V. Bezuar, I. E. Vuich, A. M. Mezentsev left the capital on July 27, 1917. Alexander Vasilyevich got to the Norwegian city of Bergen under a false name - in order to hide his traces from German intelligence. From Bergen the mission proceeded to England.
In England, Kolchak spent two weeks: he got acquainted with naval aviation, submarines, anti-submarine warfare tactics, and visited factories. Alexander Vasilyevich developed good relations with the English admirals, the allies confidentially initiated Kolchak into military plans. In London, Kolchak was introduced to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Admiral John Jellicoe. They discussed mining, talked about naval aviation. Kolchak asked permission to take part in one of her operations. The reconnaissance flight in a twin-engine aircraft made a great impression on the Russian admiral. In England, Alexander Vasilyevich also met several times with the Chief of the English Naval General Staff, General Hall.
On August 16, the Russian mission on the cruiser Gloncester left Glasgow for the shores of the United States, where it arrived on August 28, 1917. It turned out that the American fleet had never planned any Dardanelles operation. The main reason for Kolchak's trip to America disappeared, and from that moment on his mission was of a military-diplomatic nature. Kolchak stayed in the USA for about two months. On October 16, Kolchak was received by American President V. Wilson.
Kolchak, at the request of his fellow allies, worked at the American Naval Academy, where he advised students of the academy on minecraft, of which he was a recognized master. At the invitation of the Minister of the Navy, he got acquainted with the American fleet and took part in naval maneuvers on the flagship Pennsylvania for more than 10 days.
Kolchak believed that the mission to America had failed. It was decided to return to Russia. In San Francisco, already on the west coast of the United States, Kolchak received a telegram from Russia with a proposal to put forward his candidacy for the Constituent Assembly from the Cadet Party in the Black Sea Fleet District, to which he agreed, but his response telegram was late. On October 12 (25), Kolchak and officers set off from San Francisco to Vladivostok on the Japanese ship Karyo-Maru.
Two weeks later, the ship arrived in the Japanese port of Yokohama. Here Kolchak learned about the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, about the beginning of negotiations between the government and the German authorities in Brest about a separate peace, more shameful and enslaving than which Kolchak could not imagine.
He decided, as a representative of the former Russian government, which was bound by certain obligations with the Entente, to continue the war. He gave his officers complete freedom to remain abroad or go home, but in the current situation he considered his return to Russia impossible and announced his non-recognition of a separate peace to the allied British government. He also asked to be accepted into the service "however and wherever" to continue the war with Germany. Kolchak explained the choice of England by the best relations that he had with representatives of this country during his trip abroad.
Soon Kolchak was summoned to the British embassy and informed that Great Britain willingly accepted his offer. On December 30, 1917, Kolchak received a message about his appointment to the Mesopotamian Front. In the first half of January 1918, Kolchak left Japan via Shanghai for Singapore.
In March 1918, having arrived in Singapore, Kolchak received a secret order to urgently return to China to work in Manchuria and Siberia. The change in the decision of the British was due to the persistent petitions of Russian diplomats and other political circles, who saw in the admiral a candidate for the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik movement.
With the arrival of Kolchak in China, the period of his foreign wanderings ended. Now the admiral faced a political and military struggle against the Bolshevik regime inside Russia. The place of organization of forces was supposed to be the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). In Beijing, Kolchak met with the head of the CER, General D. L. Horvat, who told Kolchak about the need to register an admiral in the states of the CER to manage the protection of the railway and the entire military-strategic side of the matter related to saving the CER as Russian property.
On May 10, 1918, at a meeting of the shareholders of the CER, Kolchak was introduced to the board and appointed chief inspector of the security guards of the CER with simultaneous leadership of all Russian armed forces in its right-of-way.
On June 30, Kolchak, having transferred command to General B.R. Khreschatitsky, left for Japan. The purpose of the trip, in addition to clarifying relations with the Japanese, was the desire to establish contacts with representatives of other countries, to receive support from them in military development. Ambassador V.N. Krupensky organized a meeting between Kolchak and the Chief of the Japanese General Staff, General Ihara, and his assistant, General G. Tanaka. The meeting did not bring results. On September 16, Alexander Vasilyevich left Japan. Realizing that the Japanese would interfere with his work in the Far East, he intended to make his way to the South of Russia.
Alexander Kolchak in the Civil War
Kolchak arrived in Vladivostok on September 19-20, 1918. In Vladivostok, Kolchak studied the situation on the eastern outskirts of the country, learned about the meeting of representatives of various democratic forces held in Ufa and about the formation of the Directory, which claimed the role of the "Provisional All-Russian Government" - a united anti-Bolshevik government on the territory from the Volga to Siberia. Upon learning of Kolchak's arrival, many naval officers wanted to meet with him. At a private meeting with them, the admiral said that of the competing governments, he would support the Siberian one, since it appeared without external influence and was able to mobilize the population, which meant significant support for the government by citizens.
Kolchak traveled through Siberia as a private citizen in civilian clothes. On October 13, 1918, in his movement to the Don, he arrived in Omsk, planning to spend only a few days here. First of all, Alexander Vasilyevich established contact with representatives of the Volunteer Army. In Omsk, a meeting took place between Kolchak and the commander-in-chief of the troops of the Directory, General V. G. Boldyrev. After this meeting, Kolchak sent a letter to General Alekseev about his desire to serve under him.
By the time he arrived in Omsk, Kolchak had firmly established himself in the idea that the only way to defeat Bolshevism could be only a military dictatorship. At the same time, on the instructions of the underground anti-Bolshevik organization National Center, a prominent Siberian cadet, a former deputy of the IV State Duma, V.N. Pepelyaev, left Moscow for Siberia and Manchuria. From the National Center, he had a special task and significant powers - in favor of establishing a one-man dictatorship. With the death of Alekseev, the admiral's candidacy for dictatorship became indisputable.
November 5, 1918 Kolchak was appointed military and naval minister of the Provisional All-Russian Government. On November 7, Alexander Vasilievich began to fulfill his new duties, with his first orders starting the formation of the central bodies of the Military Ministry and the General Staff. The next day, Kolchak went to the front for a personal acquaintance with the position of the army and its command staff.
Admiral Kolchak - Supreme Ruler of Russia
After a series of military defeats and the loss of Izhevsk (November 7), the authority of the Directory fell in the eyes of the army. The provisional All-Russian government did not have real power, and with the failures at the front, the mood of the officers became more and more conservative. The Social Democratic Directory found itself isolated from the military - the only real anti-Bolshevik force. A government crisis has matured, caused by the dissatisfaction of the military environment.
Kolchak's arrival in Omsk coincided with the conflict between the Directory and the Council of Ministers. Kolchak, a hardliner, was involved in this struggle on the side of the Council of Ministers.
The military formed the striking force of the conspiracy against the Directory. On November 18, Cossack officers arrested the Social Revolutionaries - representatives of the left wing of the Provisional All-Russian Government. The battalion of the protection of the Directory, which consisted of the Social Revolutionaries, was disarmed.
After the arrest of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the Council of Ministers recognized the Directory as non-existent, announced that it had taken over the entire supreme power and declared the need for "complete concentration of military and civilian power in the hands of one person with an authoritative name in military and public circles," who will lead on the principles of one-man command. It was decided "to temporarily transfer the exercise of supreme power to one person, relying on the assistance of the Council of Ministers, giving such a person the name of the Supreme Ruler." The “Regulations on the temporary structure of state power in Russia” (the so-called “Constitution of November 18”) was developed and adopted, which established, in particular, the order of relations between the Supreme Ruler and the Council of Ministers. The commander-in-chief of the troops of the Directory, General V. G. Boldyrev, the head of the CER, General D. L. Horvat, and the Minister of War and Navy, Vice Admiral A. V. Kolchak, were considered as candidates for "dictators". The Council of Ministers voted to elect Kolchak.
Kolchak was promoted to full admiral, he was transferred to the exercise of supreme state power and awarded the title of Supreme Ruler. All the armed forces of the state were under his command. The supreme ruler could take any measures, up to emergency ones, to provide for the armed forces, as well as to establish civil order and legality.
Kolchak announced his consent to the election and, by the first order in the army, announced the adoption of the title of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all land and sea forces. The Entente countries supported Kolchak. The supreme ruler proclaimed the first, most important task to strengthen and increase the combat capability of the army, the second - "victory over Bolshevism", the third task, the solution of which was recognized as possible only if victory was proclaimed "the revival and resurrection of the perishing state".
The activities of the new government were declared aimed at ensuring that “the temporary supreme power of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief could transfer the fate of the state into the hands of the people, leaving them to arrange state administration of their own free will.”
After coming to the supreme power, Kolchak canceled the order that Jews, as potential spies, were to be evicted from the 100-verst front-line zone.
The most important ideological constant of Kolchak's rule was the formula-slogan of "restoring the rule of law." On November 28, at a meeting with representatives of the press, Kolchak declared: "Order and law in my eyes are constant companions, inextricably linked with each other." "Legality" was planned to be ensured by restoring the succession of Russian power - as stated, the new Russian government (Kolchak's government) acted, "accepting the power of the former Provisional Government, which was formed in March 1917, and setting it as its task to strengthen its authority as a single power, successor to historical power of the Russian State.
Kolchak's coming to power, the concentration of military, political and economic power in his hands made it possible for the Whites to recover from the defeats they suffered in the Volga region in the autumn of 1918. Thus, as a result of the events of November 18, 1918, the anti-Bolshevik movement was transformed into the White movement.
Kolchak hoped that under the banner of the fight against the Reds he would be able to unite the most diverse political forces and create a new state power. At first, the situation on the fronts favored these plans. In December 1918, the Siberian Army occupied Perm, which was of great strategic importance and had substantial stocks of military equipment.
Kolchak organized an investigation into the case of the massacre of the Bolsheviks with the family of Emperor Nicholas II, entrusted this to investigator N. A. Sokolov, who, on the basis of excavations, collection and analysis of documents, search and interrogation of witnesses, established the time, place and circumstances of the tragedy, although the remains of those killed before the retreat of the Russian army from Yekaterinburg in July 1919 did not have time to find.
Russia's gold reserves
With most of Russia's gold reserves at his disposal, Kolchak did not allow his government to spend gold, even to stabilize the financial system and fight inflation (fueled by the runaway issue of Kerenok and tsarist rubles by the Bolsheviks). Kolchak spent 68 million rubles on the purchase of weapons and uniforms for his army. On the security of 128 million rubles, loans were received from foreign banks: the proceeds from the placement were returned to Russia. On October 31, 1919, the gold reserve under heavy guard was loaded into 40 wagons, and accompanying personnel were in 12 wagons.
The Trans-Siberian Railway, stretching from Novonikolaevsk to Irkutsk, was controlled by the Czechs, whose main task was their own evacuation from Russia. Only on December 27, 1919, the headquarters train and the train with gold arrived at the Nizhneudinsk station, where representatives of the Entente forced Admiral Kolchak to sign an order to renounce the rights of the Supreme Ruler of Russia and transfer the echelon with gold reserves under the control of the Czechoslovak Corps. On January 15, 1920, the Czech command handed over Kolchak to the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center, which a few days later handed over the admiral to the Bolsheviks. On February 7, the Czechoslovaks handed over 409 million gold rubles to the Bolsheviks in exchange for guarantees of the unhindered evacuation of the corps from Russia. The People's Commissariat for Finance of the RSFSR in June 1921 compiled a certificate from which it follows that during the reign of Admiral Kolchak, Russia's gold reserves decreased by 235.6 million rubles, or 182 tons. Another 35 million rubles from the gold reserves disappeared after it was handed over to the Bolsheviks, while being transported from Irkutsk to Kazan.
Spring offensive of Kolchak's army (1919)
On December 20, the 7th Ural division of General V.V. Golitsyn and the 2nd Czechoslovak division broke into Kungur from different sides, knocking out the 30th division of V.K. Blucher from there. Having suffered significant losses, the Soviet troops retreated to Perm, surrounded by several rows of trenches and barbed wire, which the Red Command hoped to hold. Kolchak's troops, having cut the railway, did not allow units of Blucher's division to reinforce the garrison of the city, which fell on December 24. More than 30,000 Red Army soldiers, 120 guns, over 1,000 machine guns, 9 armored trains, 180 trains, a river flotilla and the entire convoy of the defeated 3rd Red Army, which lost half of its strength as a result of the December battles, were taken prisoner. In some directions, the Reds surrendered in whole regiments, for example, the 4th Kama Regiment. Success was achieved by the white units without the help of the Czechs who had left the front.
The announcement of the capture of Perm caused an enthusiastic reaction in Omsk. The Council of Ministers decided to award Kolchak, who was and acted throughout the operation in a combat situation, with the Order of St. George 3rd degree for his great contribution to the preparation of the operation. In connection with the capture of Perm, the Prime Minister of France sent a personal congratulation to the Supreme Ruler.
At the beginning of 1919, Kolchak reorganized the troops. The former Yekaterinburg Group of Forces was transformed into the Siberian Army, headed by General Gaida. The Western Army was commanded by General M.V. Khanzhin, who was operationally subordinated to the Southern Army Group of General P.A. Belov adjoining his left flank.
Eastern front The Red Army had strong flanks and a weak center, which made it possible for the Eastern Front of the Russian Army to strike at the center Soviet Russia. According to strategic plan Kolchak's rates, in the first phase of the operation, an offensive was to take place in the Perm-Vyatka and Samara-Saratov directions. If successful, the offensive was to continue with two main attacks in both directions and develop into an offensive against Moscow from the north, south and east. The general offensive was planned by the Stavka for April 1919.
In early March, having forestalled the offensive of the Red Army, Kolchak's armies hit the joint between the left flank of the 5th and the right 2nd Soviet armies, which largely determined the success of White's further actions. Going on the offensive, the troops of the Russian army began to quickly approach the Volga. The right-flank Siberian army launched an offensive in the Vyatka direction and united with the troops of the Arkhangelsk government. Parts of the Western Army of General Khanzhin in March took Birsk, Ufa, Sterlitamak, in April - Menzelinsk, Belebey, Buguruslan, Bugulma, Naberezhnye Chelny. The Siberian army in April took the Votkinsk plant, Sarapul, Izhevsk plant.
At the end of April, Kolchak's armies reached the approaches to Kazan, Samara, Simbirsk, occupying large territories with important industrial and agricultural resources. The population of these regions exceeded 5 million people. The occupation of these areas opened the direct road to Moscow for Kolchak's armies.
"Flight to the Volga", as the spring offensive of 1919 began to be called, made a strong impression on contemporaries. In the bourgeois and public circles of Russia, there was an upsurge associated with the hope of an early victory over the Bolsheviks. Kolchak was congratulated on the success of the offensive, in particular, by French Prime Minister J. Clemenceau, British Minister of War and French Foreign Minister S. Pichon. The Bolsheviks also reacted to the successes of the White movement in the East of Russia. declared Kolchak the main enemy of the Soviet Republic and called for "strain all forces in the fight against him." Summer 1919 Soviet government appointed a bonus of $ 7 million for the head of Kolchak.
Significantly increased the authority of Kolchak. Allied help began to arrive. On May 30, 1919, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Russia, the general, recognized the authority of Admiral Kolchak as the Supreme Ruler of the Russian state and submitted to him as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. Around Kolchak, unified armed forces were created and the Russian state was formed, although it consisted of three separate parts.
Retreat of Kolchak's army (1919)
By the beginning of May, the general offensive of Kolchak's armies bogged down. By mid-1919, the size of the Red Army reached 1.5 million people. The Bolsheviks restored their numerical superiority on the Eastern Front, concentrating a 33,000-strong grouping in the main direction. "Everything on Kolchak!" - read the slogan of the Bolshevik government these days. On April 7, 1919, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) declared the Eastern Front to be the main one. received at his disposal four armies, whose total number was 80 thousand people and twice the number of fighters in the Western army of General Khanzhin.
However, the offensive of the Reds, which began on April 28, 1919, ran into stubborn resistance from the Whites. The threatening situation in which the Whites found themselves intensified the uprising of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Kuren, which was joined by four more regiments and a Jaeger battalion, which became the main factor that determined the breakthrough of the front by the Reds. Many white commanders subsequently spoke in the vein that it was these events that became the root cause of the defeat of the Western and other armies of the Eastern Front. The Western army had to retreat. In other directions, the whites continued their offensive.
On June 9, the red units took Ufa. After the retreat from the Volga region, Kolchak lost his strategic initiative. The fighting capacity of the army has decreased.
In June, Kolchak rejected the proposal of K. G. Mannerheim to move the 100,000-strong Finnish army to Petrograd in exchange for recognition of Finland's independence, saying that he would "never give up for any momentary benefits" "the idea of a great indivisible Russia."
On June 20, personnel changes were made. Kolchak secured the post of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Russian State, Dieterichs took over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front vacated by Kolchak. Instead of Khanzhin, General K. V. Sakharov became the commander of the Western Army.
In July, the adventurous plan of Lebedev and Sakharov failed to lure the 5th Red Army into Chelyabinsk, and then surround it and defeat it. The Western and Siberian armies retreated into the Trans-Urals.
Kolchak made efforts to strengthen the centralization of power: by his decree of August 7, the Council of the Supreme Ruler, which consisted of close ministers, was given additional powers to organize defense. The bureaucracy was drastically reduced. Kolchak stepped up propaganda among the troops, appealed to the peasants and soldiers. His order of July 28 obliged the officers to explain to the soldiers the goals of the war: the unity and integrity of Russia, the solution of vital issues for the people through the National Constituent Assembly, the protection of the Orthodox faith and national shrines. Liberal newspapers came out with calls to strengthen the defense of the state. White airplanes began to drop proclamations on the positions of the Bolsheviks. To compromise the Bolsheviks, false decrees of Soviet power and issues of the Pravda newspaper were printed. Courses for military informers were opened, which trained professional agitators in the troops.
The main task of the Eastern Front of the Whites was to assist the forces of Denikin in their attack on Moscow, to divert parts of the Bolsheviks. The Whites won their last offensive battle on the Eastern Front - the September Tobolsk operation. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Kolchak, personally planned the landing operations of the last offensive of his three armies and the actions of the Ob-Irtysh flotilla, hoping to sail to Tyumen. The Reds were thrown back from the Tobol River by 100 km. The September victories, after long setbacks, were seen as a turning point in the civil war. Kolchak decided to take a step that he did not want to take during the period of retreat, so that this could not be interpreted as a manifestation of the weakness of power - the transformation of the State Economic Conference into a body elected by the population.
After the September battles on the Tobol, a lull followed. In mid-October, the Reds launched an offensive with fresh forces. The Whites surrendered their strongholds. The retreat of the white units began. The Reds were unable to break through the front, but captured bridgeheads on the left bank of the Tobol. Realizing that further struggle for positions near Tobol would lead to the final exhaustion of the troops, the commander of the Eastern Front, General Dieterikhs, decided to start a strategic retreat with the cession to the enemy of a significant territory of White Siberia, including, possibly, Omsk itself, and then striking the enemy from the depths of his positions . However, this plan did not take into account that the surrender of the capital would set in motion all the forces hostile to Kolchak in the rear of the army.
Diterikhs was summoned to Kolchak, while General K. V. Sakharov, with feigned indignation, supported the Supreme Ruler and spoke in defense of the Omsk defense plan. Diterichs was recalled to the rear to form volunteer units, and Sakharov was appointed in his place. After the abandonment of Petropavlovsk, Omsk was under attack from two sides: along the converging lines of the railway from Petropavlovsk and Ishim. At the same time, Sakharov was unable to organize either a defensive line, or the defense of Omsk, or an organized retreat. As a result, the Whites were late with the evacuation of the capital, which was carried out only on November 10th. The Supreme Ruler himself decided to retreat with the army, betting that his presence in the ranks of the active troops would help raise their spirits.
With the abandonment of Omsk, the armies of the Eastern Front began their "Great Siberian ice hike» . The command of the Eastern Front planned to delay the advance of the Reds at the turn of the Ob River. The army was supposed to be replenished at the expense of rear formations, and the front to be restored at the turn of Tomsk - Novonikolaevsk - Barnaul - Biysk. However, the troops by this time controlled only large settlements, in many of which rebellions were raised. Despite stubborn rearguard battles, it was not possible to organize the defense, and Barnaul was abandoned on December 11, Biysk on December 13, and Novonikolaevsk on December 14.
In November 1919, the conflict between the government of the Russian state and the command of the Russian army, on the one hand, and the Czechoslovak political and military leadership, on the other, turned into a clash. On November 13, the leaders of the Czechoslovaks in Russia published a political memorandum in the newspapers of Siberia, filled with complaints and attacks against the Russian authorities. Enraged by the actions of Czechoslovak politicians, Kolchak on November 25 demanded that the Council of Ministers stop relations with the Czechoslovak leadership.
The Trans-Siberian Railway at that time was controlled by the Czechoslovak Corps, which received an order not to let the Russian military echelons east of the Taiga station pass until all the Czechoslovaks with "acquired property" had passed. The actions of the Allies turned the military failures of the Eastern Front of the Whites into a catastrophe for the entire White movement in the East of Russia: the army was cut off from the rear, deprived of the opportunity to receive ammunition in time and evacuate the wounded.
On December 11, Kolchak deposed and brought General K. V. Sakharov under investigation for the criminal abandonment of Omsk. General V. O. Kappel was appointed the new Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front, who planned to restore the front along the Yenisei and establish contact with the Trans-Baikal troops of Ataman G. M. Semenov. The admiral hurried to the new capital - Irkutsk, since the garrison of the city was weak, and N. Kalandarishvili's partisan detachment was approaching him.
General Zhanen, with the hope of seizing the gold reserves of Russia, ordered not to let Kolchak's letter train go further than Nizhneudinsk. On December 25, the echelons of the Supreme Ruler of Russia were stopped by the Czechoslovaks on the way to the Nizhneudinsk station. The Czech officer said that by order of the headquarters allied forces Kolchak's trains are delayed "until further notice" and made an attempt to disarm the convoy of the Supreme Ruler. The Czechoslovaks forcibly took away and stole two steam locomotives pulling the "golden echelon" and the train of the Supreme Ruler. Russian echelons were cordoned off by Czech troops, communication with the outside world could now only be carried out through them. Under the guise of protection from attack, the Czechoslovaks actually took the Supreme Ruler of Russia under arrest. The Nizhneudinsk sitting lasted about two weeks.
On December 21, an uprising broke out in Cheremkhovo. Three days later, the uprising, which was prepared by the Bolshevik underground committees of the RCP (b) and the Political Center of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, began in Glazkov, a suburb of Irkutsk, and by the evening of December 27, in Irkutsk itself. Kolchak made an attempt to recapture the city with the help of Ataman Semenov's troops, but they failed to break into the city.
On January 3, 1920, in Nizhneudinsk, Kolchak received a telegram from the Council of Ministers signed by A. A. Cherven-Vodali, Khanzhin and Larionov demanding that he renounce power and transfer it to A. I. Denikin as the new Supreme Ruler. The telegram of the Council of Ministers contained a forgery: allegedly, S. D. Sazonov had already telegraphed about the need to transfer power to Denikin, who in fact did not speak about the immediate transfer of power to the commander-in-chief of the All-Russian Union of Youth Leagues, but only about the appointment of the latter as the successor to the Supreme Ruler, so that in the event Kolchak leaves with political arena or from life not to lose "the achieved unification of all the forces fighting the Bolsheviks under one authority." The forgery was made so that Kolchak would not resist. Kolchak replied by telegram to the Council of Ministers that he agreed to transfer power to Denikin, but only upon arrival in Verkhneudinsk, simultaneously issuing his last decree on January 4 - on the prejudice of the transfer of power.
Kolchak and his assistants considered options for further action. A plan was put forward to withdraw to Mongolia, to the border with which an old tract 250 versts long led from Nizhneudinsk. Of course, the admiral should have been pursued. But he had a convoy of more than 500 fighters, with whom one could not be afraid of persecution. Kolchak caught fire with this plan, reminiscent of the campaigns of his youth. The admiral hoped for the loyalty of his soldiers and officers. Having collected the convoy, he announced that he was not going to Irkutsk, but was temporarily staying in Nizhneudinsk, offered to stay with him to all those who were ready to share his fate and believed in him, giving the rest freedom of action. By morning, out of 500 people, only ten remained with him. In one night, realizing that he was betrayed and there was no salvation, Kolchak turned gray.
Execution of Admiral Kolchak
Kolchak had little confidence in the allies, feeling from their behavior that he would be betrayed by them, but after long hesitation, he nevertheless decided to rely on them. He took a compartment in a second-class passenger car decorated with the flags of Great Britain, the United States, France, Japan and Czechoslovakia. General Janin received written instructions from the high commissars to ensure, if possible, Kolchak's safe passage to wherever he wanted. The phrase "if possible" was included in the instructions at Janin's insistence.
Kolchak's carriage was followed by the "golden echelon", transferred under Czech protection.
On January 10, the train left Nizhneudinsk and on January 15 arrived in Irkutsk. Upon arrival, Kolchak's carriage was cordoned off by a tight guard ring. The admiral learned that all the allied missions had left the city the day before. With the onset of dusk, the Czechoslovaks announced to Alexander Vasilyevich that they were handing him over to the local authorities. The arrest of the admiral and his transfer to the SR-Menshevik Political Center were agreed by the Czechs with representatives of the allies, became a measure "necessary for the security of the Czech army", were made to ensure the free movement of their echelons to the East.
Despite earlier assurances and guarantees of safety and protection, Janin and the Czechoslovaks betrayed the admiral. At about 9 pm, the Political Center announced to Kolchak and Pepelyaev that they had been arrested, after which they were placed in the building of the provincial prison. Kolchak, being a man of his word, wondered for a long time how General Zhanin (who later received the nickname “general without honor” for violating the officer’s word) could betray him. The act of transfer was drawn up at 21:55. The commander of the Japanese troops of Irkutsk, Colonel Fukuda, having learned about the arrival of the Supreme Ruler in the city, turned to Yan Syrovy with a request to transfer Alexander Vasilyevich under the protection of the Japanese battalion, to which he received the answer that Kolchak had already been extradited to the rebels.
The tragic outcome was accelerated by Kolchak's telegraph order to Vladivostok, which became known to the Czechoslovak command, to check all valuables and property taken out by Czech legionnaires.
On January 21, interrogations of Kolchak by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission began, which were of particular importance to the admiral. During the interrogations, the admiral behaved calmly and with great dignity, thus causing involuntary respect from the investigators, talking in detail about his life and willingly answering questions. At the same time, Kolchak tried not to name names, and, without shifting responsibility for certain events to others, took it upon himself. Realizing that these interrogations were a kind of "memoirs" and his last word for posterity, Kolchak was frank and open, sought to leave for history both his own biographical data and information about important historical events which he happened to be a part of. Kolchak described the Arctic epic in detail, without dropping a word either about the hardships of the path, or about the island named after him. Having seized power in Irkutsk, the Bolsheviks replaced the chairman of the commission of inquiry with their protege Samuil Chudnovsky, who from the first day in this position began to infringe and sting the interrogated.
Loyal to Kolchak, General Kappel, at the head of the remnants of the Eastern Front that still remained combat-ready, hurried to his rescue - despite the severe cold and deep snow. As a result, when crossing the Can Kappel river, he fell through the ice with his horse, frostbitten his legs, and already on January 26 he died of pneumonia.
Nevertheless, the White troops under the command of General Wojciechowski continued to move forward. There were only 4-5 thousand fighters left. Voitsekhovsky planned to storm Irkutsk and save the Supreme Ruler and all the officers languishing in the prisons of the city. Sick, frostbitten, on January 30 they went to the railway line and defeated the Soviet troops sent against them at the Zima station. After a short rest, on February 3, the Kappelites moved to Irkutsk. They immediately took Cheremkhovo, 140 km from Irkutsk, dispersing the miners' squads and shooting the local Revolutionary Committee. General Voitsekhovsky could count on the implementation of his plan to save Kolchak no more than 5 thousand fighters, who were stretched along the road so that it would take at least a day to get them to the battlefield. The army had four operational and seven dismantled guns with limited ammunition. In most divisions, there were no more than two or three machine guns with a small number of cartridges.
In response to the ultimatum of the commander of the Soviet troops Zverev on surrender, Voitsekhovsky sent a counter ultimatum to the Reds demanding the release of Admiral Kolchak and the persons arrested with him, the provision of fodder and the payment of an indemnity in the amount of 200 million rubles, promising to bypass Irkutsk in this case. The Bolsheviks did not comply with the demands of the Whites, and Voitsekhovsky went on the attack: the Kappelites broke through to Innokentievskaya, 7 km from Irkutsk. The Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee declared the city under a state of siege, and the approaches to it were turned into continuous lines of defense. The battle for Irkutsk began - according to a number of estimates, it had no equal in the entire Civil War in terms of the fierceness and fury of the attacks. No prisoners were taken. The Kappelites took Innokentievskaya and were able to break through the Reds' urban defense lines.
The storming of the city was scheduled for 12 noon. At that moment, the Czechoslovaks intervened in the events, concluding an agreement with the Reds, which was aimed at ensuring their own unhindered evacuation. Signed by the head of the 2nd Czechoslovak division, Kreichy, a demand was sent to the Whites not to occupy the Glazkovsky suburb under the threat of the Czechs coming out on the side of the Reds. Wojciechowski would no longer have the strength to fight a fresh, well-armed Czech army. At the same time, news came of the death of Admiral Kolchak. Under the circumstances, General Voitsekhovsky ordered the offensive to be cancelled. Kappelevtsy began to retreat to Transbaikalia with battles.
On the night of February 6-7, 1920, Admiral Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Russian government Viktor Pepelyaev was shot without trial - by decree No. 27 of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee, signed by Alexander Shiryamov (chairman), as well as Snoskarev, Levenson (members of the committee) and the committee manager Oborin.
According to a number of modern historians, the liquidation of the leader of the White Guard movement in Siberia and the Russian Far East, Admiral Kolchak, was carried out on the direct order of Lenin.
The text of the decree on their execution was first published in an article by the former chairman of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee, Shiryamov.
According to a widespread version, the execution took place on the banks of the Ushakovka River near the Znamensky Convent. Chudnovsky supervised the execution. The bodies of the dead were thrown into the hole. Participants in the execution noted that the admiral met death with soldierly courage, maintaining his dignity even in the face of death.
February 7 - on the day of the execution of the Supreme Ruler - in the course of negotiations with representatives of the 5th Red Army, the Czechs signed an agreement with the Bolsheviks to leave the admiral "at the disposal Soviet power under the protection of Soviet troops.
The symbolic grave of Kolchak is located at the place of his "rest in the waters of the Angara" not far from the Irkutsk Znamensky Monastery, where the cross is installed.
An attempt at legal rehabilitation of Kolchak
In the early 1990s, Academician D.S. Likhachev, Vice-Admiral V.N. Shcherbakov announced the need to assess the legality of the sentence handed down to the admiral by the Bolshevik Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee. In the late 1990s, Yu. I. Skuratov, who held the post of Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation at that time, and A. V. Kvashnin, Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, spoke out for the rehabilitation of Kolchak.
In 1998, S. Zuev, head of the Public Foundation for the creation of a temple-museum in memory of the victims of political repression, sent an application to the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office for the rehabilitation of Kolchak, which reached the court. On January 26, 1999, the military court of the Trans-Baikal Military District (ZabVO) recognized Kolchak as not subject to rehabilitation, since, from the point of view of military lawyers, despite his broad powers, the admiral did not stop the terror carried out by his counterintelligence against the civilian population.
Admiral's defenders disagreed with these arguments. Hieromonk Nikon (Belavenets), head of the organization "For Faith and Fatherland", appealed to the Supreme Court Russian Federation(VS) with a request to make a protest against the refusal to rehabilitate Kolchak. The protest was submitted to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court, which, having considered the case in September 2001, decided not to challenge the decision of the Military Court of the ZabVO. The members of the Military Collegium decided that the admiral's merits in the pre-revolutionary period could not serve as a basis for his rehabilitation: the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee sentenced the admiral to death for organizing military operations against Soviet Russia and mass repressions against civilians and Red Army soldiers and, therefore, was right .
Admiral's defenders decided to appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation (CC), which in 2000 ruled that the ZabVO court had no right to consider the case "without notifying the convicted person or his defense lawyers of the time and place of the trial." Since the court of the ZabVO in 1999 considered the case on the rehabilitation of Kolchak in the absence of defenders, then, according to the decision of the Constitutional Court, the case should be considered again, already with the direct participation of the defense. In 2004, the Constitutional Court noted that the case for the rehabilitation of Kolchak was not closed, as the Supreme Court had previously decided. The members of the Constitutional Court saw that the court of first instance, where the question of the rehabilitation of the admiral was first raised, violated the legal procedure.
In March 2019, the FSB removed the classification from Kolchak's criminal case. At the same time, access to the materials remains limited, since Kolchak was not rehabilitated.
Admiral Kolchak
Personal life of Alexander Kolchak:
Wife - Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak (nee Omirova), was born in 1876 in Kamenets-Podolsky, Podolsk province (now Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine). Her father was a real Privy Councilor Fyodor Vasilyevich Omirov. Mother Daria Fedorovna, nee Kamenskaya, was the daughter of Major General, Director of the Forestry Institute F. A. Kamensky, sister of the sculptor F. F. Kamensky. A hereditary noblewoman, Sofya Fedorovna was brought up at the Smolny Institute and was educated (she knew seven languages, she knew French and German perfectly), beautiful, strong-willed and independent in character, which in many ways later affected her relationship with her husband.
By agreement with Kolchak, they were supposed to get married after his first expedition. In honor of Sophia (at that time the bride) a small island in the Litke archipelago and a cape on Bennett Island were named. The wait dragged on for several years.
Three children were born in the marriage. The first girl was born in January 1908 and did not live even a year. Son Rostislav was born on March 9, 1910. Daughter Margarita (1912-1914) caught a cold while fleeing from the Germans from Libava and died.
Sofya Fedorovna lived in Gatchina, then in Libau. After the shelling of Libava by the Germans at the beginning of the war (August 2, 1914), she fled, leaving everything except a few suitcases (Kolchak's state-owned apartment was then looted, and his property perished). From Helsingfors she moved to her husband in Sevastopol, where during the Civil War she waited for her husband to the last. In 1919, she managed to emigrate from there: the British allies provided her with money and provided her with the opportunity to travel by ship from Sevastopol to Constanta.
Then she moved to Bucharest, and then went to Paris. She died in the Longjumeau hospital in Paris in 1956 and was buried in the main cemetery of the Russian diaspora - Sainte-Genevieve de Bois. The last request of Admiral Kolchak before the execution was: "I ask you to inform my wife, who lives in Paris, that I bless my son." “I'll let you know,” answered S. G. Chudnovsky, an employee of the Cheka, who was in charge of the execution.
Son Rostislav in 1919 left Russia with his mother and went first to Romania, and then to France, where he graduated higher school diplomatic and commercial sciences and in 1931 joined the Algiers Bank. The wife of Rostislav Kolchak was Ekaterina Razvozova, daughter of Admiral A.V. Razvozov. In 1939, Rostislav Aleksandrovich was mobilized into the French army, fought on the Belgian border and was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940, after the war he returned to Paris. In poor health, he died on June 28, 1965, and was buried next to his mother in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, where his wife was later buried. Their son Alexander Rostislavovich (1933-2019) lived in Paris.
Sofia Fedorovna - wife of Alexander Kolchak
Admiral Kolchak is an outstanding domestic statesman, military leader, one of the most well-known representatives White movement that participated in the Civil War. During this period he was one of its leaders. The assessment of his personality is still one of the most controversial and debatable issues in national history XX century.
Childhood and youth
Admiral Kolchak was born on November 16, 1874. He was born in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, in the village of Aleksandrovskoe. He was a hereditary nobleman. Rod Kolchakov won fame for many years in the royal service, especially showing himself in the military field. For example, the father of Alexander Vasilievich was a hero of the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean campaign.
Until the age of 11, Alexander was educated exclusively at home. In 1885 he entered the sixth gymnasium of the Russian capital, where he graduated from three classes. After that, the boy was transferred to the Naval Cadet Corps. At the family council, it was decided that he would follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and become a military man, a defender of his homeland. In his studies, he showed diligence, having time in almost all subjects.
As the best student in his class, the future Admiral Kolchak was enrolled in the class of midshipmen, and eventually appointed sergeant major. He graduated from the cadet corps in 1894, having received the rank of midshipman.
Early career
The first place of his service was the Baltic and Pacific Fleets. At that time he was known as an explorer of the Arctic, he made three round-the-world voyages. He explored the features of the Pacific Ocean, he was most interested in the northern territories.
In 1900, the young lieutenant, who showed great promise, was transferred to the Academy of Sciences. By this time, his first scientific works date, in particular, an article on observations of sea currents. At the same time, it should be noted that the ultimate goal of an officer has always been not theoretical, but practical research. He dreams of organizing a polar expedition.
Baron Eduard Toll, an Arctic explorer, soon became interested in his publications and ideas. He invites the hero of our article to go in search of the legendary Sannikov Land. This is a ghost island, which, according to legend, is located in the Arctic Ocean. Allegedly, it was observed by several researchers in the 19th century. Including the Russian merchant from Yakutsk Yakov Sannikov, who studied the New Siberian Islands. According to modern scientists, there is no Sannikov Land. Apparently, it, like many Arctic islands, did not consist of rocks, but of permafrost, fossil ice, on top of which a layer of soil was applied. When the ice melted, Sannikov Land disappeared, as did some other islands in those places.
Kolchak went in search of Toll's missing expedition. First, he sailed on the schooner Zarya, then on a dog sled made a risky crossing, discovering the remains of the dead researchers. Kolchak himself fell seriously ill during this campaign, he caught a cold and barely survived. Toll is dead.
Participation in the Russo-Japanese War
In the spring of 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out in the Far East. Kolchak, despite the fact that he could not fully recover from his illness after returning from a polar expedition, achieved an appointment in Port Arthur, which at that time was already besieged by Japanese troops. On the destroyer "Angry" he took part in the placement of barrage mines in the immediate vicinity of the route along which the Japanese ships were supposed to pass. Thanks to this successful operation, he managed to undermine several enemy ships.
Throughout the siege of Port Arthur, he remained in the vicinity of the city. He commanded coastal artillery units, which inflicted significant damage on the enemy. During one of the battles he was wounded, after the fortress was captured, he was taken prisoner. The Japanese command highly appreciated his fighting spirit and courage. Therefore, Kolchak was released from captivity, he was even returned to his weapons.
For the heroism shown in the Russo-Japanese War, the hero of our article was awarded the orders of St. Stanislav and St. Anna, as well as the St. George weapon.
Having restored his strength in the hospital, Kolchak received a six-month vacation. But he couldn't get enough rest. He was very worried about the fact that Russia had actually lost its entire fleet in the Far East due to the war with Japan. He began to carry out active work aimed at its revival.
Already in the summer of 1906, he headed a commission at the naval General Staff, which took up the clarification and analysis of the reasons for which the defeat near Tsushima took place. It was one of the most sensitive and painful pages in the history of the Russian fleet. Kolchak acted in the State Duma as a military expert. At the hearings, he convinced the deputies of the need to allocate the necessary additional funding for the support and development of domestic warships.
The hero of our article developed a project that was dedicated to the revival domestic fleet. In fact, it became the theoretical basis for the entire Russian military shipbuilding of that time. As part of its implementation, from 1906 to 1908, Kolchak personally supervised the construction of two icebreakers and four battleships.
The government and the emperor highly appreciated his contribution to the exploration of the Arctic. As a result, Lieutenant Kolchak was even elected to permanent staff Russian Geographical Society. At that time, he even received the nickname Kolchak-polar.
In parallel, at the same time, he continues to work on systematizing the materials of his past expeditions. In 1909, he published a scientific work on the ice cover of the Siberian and Kara Seas. This work was recognized as successful, science managed to make a significant step forward in the study of ice sheets.
World War I
From the very beginning of the war, the Russian capital was under threat, at that time it was St. Petersburg. The fact is that the command of the German army and navy was preparing to conduct a blitzkrieg. To do this, Henry of Prussia was going in the first days after the start of the military campaign to go across the Gulf of Finland, get to St. Petersburg and bombard the city with powerful guns, forcing him to surrender.
According to the plan of the Germans, key objects in the city were to be destroyed in a few hours of artillery preparation. Then it was supposed to land troops and capture the Russian capital. The implementation of this operation was prevented solely by the experience and courageous actions of Russian naval officers.
Realizing that the German fleet significantly outnumbers the Russian one, it was initially decided to conduct mine warfare tactics. Already in the first days of the war, the division of Kolchak placed about six thousand mines in the waters of the Gulf of Finland. They became a reliable shield for the defense of the capital, frustrating the plans of the German fleet to capture Russia.
Having achieved the first successes, Kolchak insisted on the need to move on to aggressive actions. Soon an operation was undertaken to mine the Danzig Bay, located directly off the coast of the enemy. This action turned out to be very successful, because as a result of it it was possible to undermine 35 enemy ships at once.
Kolchak's successes did not go unnoticed. In the autumn of 1915 he was appointed commander of the Mine Division. In October, he had already taken a bold and risky maneuver when he landed troops on the coast of the Gulf of Riga to help the armies of the Northern Fleet. The operation was so successful that the Germans did not even guess about the presence of the Russians and the true reasons for their failures.
In the summer of 1916, Kolchak was appointed commander in chief of the Black Sea Fleet.
Revolution in Russia
When the revolution took place in February 1917, Kolchak remained faithful Russian emperor until the very end. He categorically refused to hand over his weapons to the sailors, throwing his award saber overboard.
He urgently arrives in Petrograd, where he blames the Provisional Government for the collapse of the entire country and his own army. At this point, he turned out to be objectionable to everyone. Even when the abdication of the emperor from the throne was actively discussed at the top, he remained faithful to Nicholas II. As a result, it was decided to remove it. In fact, Kolchak was sent into political exile. At the head of an allied military mission, he left for America.
While the fate of Russia was being decided, he could not spend much time away from his homeland. Already in December 1917, Kolchak turned to the Provisional Government with a request to enroll him in military service. This happened after he learned about the plans of the Bolsheviks to make peace with Germany. By this time, influential politicians are already appearing, for whom the hero of our article becomes an influential leader with authority in order to be able to lead the fight against Bolshevism.
From April to September 1918, he tries to form a joint military force on the Chinese Eastern Railway in order to throw them to fight the Germans and the Bolsheviks, but he encounters active resistance from the Japanese. As a result, he decides to leave the Far East and join the Volunteer Army, which at that time is being formed in southern Russia. In addition, several disparate governments at once, which did not recognize each other, acted in the East and Siberia.
By September 1918, they managed to unite in the Directory, which at the same time acted in an extremely inconsistent manner, which caused mistrust in business and military circles. It was Kolchak who was entrusted with the mission of becoming a kind of "strong hand", which would be able to carry out a "white coup". In November, in Omsk, the hero of our article was appointed naval and military minister in the government of the Directory. However, already on November 18, the Directory was abolished as a result of a military coup. Left Cadets and Right Socialist-Revolutionaries, who were part of its leadership, were removed. Power passed to the Council of Ministers. At the next meeting, Kolchak was promoted to full admiral, and he was also asked to accept the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia.
The key goal of the policy of Admiral Kolchak, whose photo is presented below, was the complete restoration of the foundations that existed in the Russian Empire.
With his first decrees, he banned all extremist parties. The government of Siberia, headed by Admiral Kolchak, stated that it was striving to achieve reconciliation between all groups and sections of the population without the participation of both right-wing and left-wing radicals. To overcome the political crisis, an economic reform was developed. In particular, it envisaged the creation of a powerful and extensive industrial base in Siberia.
The supreme ruler of Russia, Admiral Kolchak, proclaimed his most important task to increase the combat capability of the army, and put the victory over the Bolsheviks in second place. The activities of his government were aimed at ensuring that the temporary power of the Supreme Ruler would allow the fate of the state to be transferred into the hands of the people. At least that's how it was declared.
The coming to power of Admiral Kolchak, which took place in Omsk on November 18, 1918, was associated with the arrest of all representatives of the Social Democratic wing of the Directory. One of his first orders, he canceled the decree that Jews were to be evicted from the frontline zone as potential spies.
As the Supreme Ruler, Admiral Kolchak, whose biography is described in this article, helped the Whites recover from the defeats inflicted on them in the autumn in the Volga region by the Red Army. At the same time, his political platform noticeably narrowed, finally turning from an anti-Bolshevik to a White movement.
Civil War
A photo of Admiral Kolchak at that time appeared in many domestic and foreign publications. He hoped to unite disparate political forces in order to create a fundamentally new state power. At first, military successes contributed to this.
In December 1918, Admiral Kolchak, whose biography you can learn from this article, managed to occupy Perm, which was of great strategic importance throughout the Civil War, since large stocks of military equipment were concentrated in the city.
At the same time, in Omsk itself, where Kolchak's headquarters was located, on the night of December 23, an uprising of the Bolsheviks took place. The admiral himself was seriously ill at that moment, but the performance was severely suppressed.
Having suppressed the coups, Kolchak built a strong vertical of power. Even the Bolsheviks themselves reported to Lenin that in Siberia the counter-revolution had taken shape in an organized state with a powerful army and an extensive state apparatus.
In the hands of Kolchak was most of the gold reserves of Russia. It was captured from the Bolsheviks in Kazan by the people's army of Komuch, commanded by General Kappel. From there it was sent to Samara, and then to Ufa and Omsk. At the same time, the admiral forbade spending gold to stabilize the financial system and fight inflation. Part of the money was spent on the purchase of uniforms and weapons, loans secured by foreign banks were received.
Perm operation
The fate of Admiral Kolchak today is of great interest to historians and anyone interested in the Civil War in Russia. The plans of the Supreme Ruler were to abandon the attack on Moscow, sending troops to Vologda in order to connect with the white units based in the north and receive help from the allies through the ports in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.
At first, the army of the White Admiral Kolchak advanced successfully. Soviet troops constantly had to retreat. About 30,000 Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner near Perm. In some areas, entire regiments of the Red Army refused to resist. The capture of Perm was highly appreciated by foreign allies. Personal congratulations to Admiral Kolchak, whose life is described in this article, were sent by the French Prime Minister Clemenceau.
general offensive
As conceived by Kolchak, it was supposed to launch an offensive in the Samara-Saratov and Perm-Vyatka directions. After continuing to move, and as a result, go to Moscow from three sides at once - from the south, north and east. According to history, Admiral Kolchak planned a general offensive for April 1919.
At first everything went well. The Siberian army united with the troops of the Arkhangelsk government. Ufa, Sterlitamak, Naberezhnye Chelny, Bugulma were taken. By the end of April, the troops of the white movement approached Samara, Kazan and Simbirsk. Having occupied these territories, Kolchak would have received carte blanche for an attack on Moscow.
The advance of the White Army was even called the "Flight to the Volga", which aroused enthusiasm in public and bourgeois circles.
In the middle of 1919, the Bolsheviks sent the main forces to the Eastern Front, realizing that it was from there that the biggest threat was moving. The White armies resisted fiercely at first, but then were forced to retreat. On June 9, Ufa passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, the strategic initiative was lost by Kolchak's army. The emerging personnel shortage led to the final defeat of the white army.
After the Bolsheviks occupied Omsk, Kolchak was forced to launch the Great Siberian Ice Campaign. This was the name given to the retreat in the winter of 1920 to the east. Kolchak tried to get to Irkutsk, but was blocked in Nizhneudinsk. The echelons of the admiral were stopped by the Czechoslovaks. In fact, the Supreme Ruler was under arrest, although this was not officially announced. There was a plan to leave for Mongolia, with him there was a personal convoy of more than 500 fighters. The admiral informed his supporters that he was refusing to go to Irkutsk, offering to stay with him to everyone who believed in him. The next morning, out of 500 people, 10 remained. Realizing that he was betrayed, he turned gray overnight.
As a result, the admiral's echelon was sent to Irkutsk with the support of allies whom he did not trust. Immediately after the admiral's carriage followed the "golden echelon", which guarded Czechoslovak Corps. Arriving in Irkutsk, the Czechoslovaks announced to Kolchak that he had been arrested and would be handed over to the local authorities.
On January 21, 1920, interrogations of Kolchak began by a specially created Extraordinary Investigative Commission. The admiral turned out to be very frank, realizing that in fact they become a kind of memoir, his last word, which he can address to his descendants. Now you can check them out. Historian Nikolai Starikov published the book "Admiral Kolchak. Interrogation protocols".
On the night of February 7, Kolchak, together with the Chairman of the Council, the Minister of the Russian Government, Viktor Pepelyaev, were shot without trial by order of the military revolutionary committee. According to a widespread version, the bodies of those killed were thrown into the hole. The fate of the hero of our article is described in detail in the book by Vladimir Maksimov "The Star of Admiral Kolchak".
Historians believe that the order for the secret murder of Kolchak without trial was personally given by Lenin in a telegram to Ephraim Sklyansky.
Personal life
Biography, personal life of Admiral Kolchak are of interest not only to his contemporaries, but also to current historians. His wife was a hereditary noblewoman Sophia Omirova. It is known that the wife of Admiral Kolchak had been waiting for him for several years from a protracted polar expedition. Therefore, officially their wedding took place only in the spring of 1904 in a church in Irkutsk.
In the biography of Admiral Kolchak, personal life played a big role. He had three children. True, the first daughter, who was born in 1905, died in infancy. In 1910, the son Rostislav was born. In 1912 - another daughter, Margarita, but she died when she was two years old. So the admiral raised only one child.
In 1919, Sophia emigrated with her son to Constanta, and then to Paris. In this she was helped by the British allies. She died in 1956 and is buried in a Parisian cemetery.
Rostislav Kolchak was an employee in the Algiers Bank, participated in World War II on the side of the French army. He died in 1965. He left behind a son, Alexander, who was born in 1933. Now he lives in Paris.
In the last years of his life, significant changes took place in the personal life of Admiral Kolchak. His last love was Anna Timireva, whom he met in 1915 in Helsingfors, where she was vacationing with her husband, a naval officer. In 1918, she divorced her husband and followed the admiral to the east of the country. After his execution, she was arrested, spent about 30 years in prisons and exile. It was finally rehabilitated only in 1960. After that, she settled in Moscow, worked as a consultant at Mosfilm, starred in a cameo role in Sergei Bondarchuk's film War and Peace.
She died in 1975 at the age of 81 and was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
memory of the admiral
Biography of Admiral Kolchak, personal life often became the reason for creating works of art. In 2008, Andrey Kravchuk's military-historical film "Admiral" was released. It tells in detail the biography of a white officer, the story of his love.
The monument to Admiral Kolchak was erected in Irkutsk in 2004. Also at the site of his alleged death is a cross on the Angara River. The name of the admiral is carved in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois on the monument to the heroes of the White movement.
February 7, 2010 marks 90 years since the day Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, a Russian admiral, one of the organizers of the White movement in Russia during the Civil War, was shot by the sentence of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee.
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born on November 4, 1874 in the village of Aleksandrovskoye, Petersburg district, Petersburg province, in the family of Major General, military engineer Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak.
In 1984, Alexander Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and was promoted to midshipman. From 1894 to 1900 he served on warships in the Baltic, then in the Pacific Ocean, while independently studying hydrology and oceanography. Then he began to publish in the scientific press. In 1900, he was seconded to the Academy of Sciences, and he became a member of the Russian polar expedition of Baron Eduard Toll. One of the islands in the Kara Sea was named after Kolchak (currently called Rastorguev Island).
In 1903, Kolchak led the search for Toll, who had not returned from Bennet Island, on dogs, then on a whaleboat he made a risky transition from Tiksi Bay to Bennet Island, found traces of Toll's stay and scientific materials, but was convinced of his death. Following the results of the expedition, he published a number of special works, the main of which is "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas".
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, despite chronic pneumonia and articular rheumatism resulting from polar expeditions, Kolchak achieved a return to the Naval Department and a direction to Port Arthur and was appointed to command a destroyer. Under the leadership of Kolchak, minefields were placed at the entrance to Port Arthur Bay. Alexander Kolchak also commanded a coastal artillery battery, where he was wounded during the battle.
After the surrender of the fortress, he was captured, but in April 1905 he returned through America to St. Petersburg. Upon his return, Kolchak was awarded the St. George weapon, the Order of St. Anna 4th degree and St. Stanislav 2nd degree with swords.
In 1905-1906, Kolchak put in order the materials of the Russian Polar Expedition - the work was so informative that it was published until the end of the 1920s.
In 1906, Kolchak was elected a full member of the Russian Geographical Society and was awarded the large gold Konstantinovsky medal for "an outstanding geographical feat that was associated with labor and danger."
Kolchak became one of the founders and chairman of the semi-official Naval Officers' Circle in St. Petersburg, which set itself the task of recreating and reorganizing the Russian fleet on a scientific basis. With the formation of the Naval General Staff in 1906, Kolchak became one of its first employees, was involved in the development of operational and strategic plans for the main Baltic theater of alleged military operations, was engaged in developments for the reorganization of the navy, acted in the State Duma as an expert on naval questions. In 1908 he moved to the Naval Academy.
In 1907-1910, Kolchak was preparing the Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean, one of the tasks of which was to explore the Northern Sea Route. In 1909-1910, the expedition, in which Kolchak commanded the Vaigach icebreaking transport, made the transition from the Baltic Sea through the Indian Ocean to Vladivostok, and then towards Cape Dezhnev. This voyage was Kolchak's last expedition to arctic seas. Since 1910, Kolchak headed the Baltic operational department of the Naval General Staff and also worked on the development of the Russian shipbuilding program, combining this with teaching at the Naval Academy.
Since 1912, Kolchak was in the active fleet, commanded a destroyer in the Baltic, and in December 1913 he was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, appointed flag captain of the operational unit of the headquarters of the fleet commander. During the First World War, Kolchak led the mining of the entrance to the Gulf of Finland and the Bay of Danzig, the landing amphibious assault on the Riga coast in the German rear and other military operations. Since September 1915, he commanded the Mine Division and led the defense of the Gulf of Riga. In the same year, Kolchak was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree. In April 1916, Kolchak was promoted to rear admiral, in June he was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet and at the same time promoted to vice admiral - "for distinction in service."
After February Revolution Kolchak himself informed the sailors about the course of events in Petrograd. On March 5, 1917, he ordered a parade and prayer service on the occasion of the victory and took the fleet out to sea to demonstrate combat readiness to the enemy. However, under the influence of the agitation of the envoys of the "Kronstadt Republic" and the general development of events in the country, the delegate assembly of Sevastopol sailors, soldiers and workers on June 6 decided to disarm the officers and remove Kolchak from office. Kolchak defiantly threw his dagger into the sea, announced his resignation, and on June 8 left for Petrograd. In Petrograd, at a meeting of the Provisional Government, Kolchak delivered a speech on the reasons for the collapse of the army and navy. Even then, he began to be considered by the liberal-conservative circles of society as a possible candidate for dictators.
In August, Kolchak left at the head of the Russian naval mission, with stops in England and the United States, where he stayed until mid-October, sharing his combat experience with the Americans and getting acquainted with their military technical training. In November, he arrived in Yokohama (Japan), where he learned about the intention of the Bolsheviks to make peace with Germany. In December, he applied for admission into the English military service. At the beginning of 1918, Kolchak went to the Mesopotamian front, but on the way he was returned from Singapore and went to Beijing, where he was elected to the board of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). In April-September 1918, he tried to form a united armed force on the Chinese Eastern Railway to fight the "German-Bolsheviks", but ran into resistance from the Japanese and their protege, Ataman Georgy Semenov.
Having resigned from his duties as a member of the board of the CER, Kolchak decided to make his way to the south and join the Volunteer Army. In mid-October, he arrived in Omsk and on November 4 was appointed military and naval minister of the Directory government. On November 18, as a result of a military coup, the Directory, which was a bloc of right SRs and left Cadets, was abolished, and power passed into the hands of the Council of Ministers. At the next meeting of this Council, Kolchak was elected the Supreme Ruler of Russia with the production of full admirals.
The power of Kolchak was recognized by the leaders of the main formations of the Whites in other regions of Russia, including Anton Denikin. In the hands of Kolchak was the gold reserves of Russia, he received military technical assistance from the United States and the Entente countries. By the spring of 1919, he managed to create an army with a total strength of up to 400 thousand people.
The successes of Kolchak's armies came in March-April 1919, when they occupied the Urals. However, this was followed by defeat. Kolchak was not prepared for the role of a dictator in a civil war: he was poorly versed in political issues, in problems government controlled and was dependent on the conscientiousness of his advisors. In November 1919, under the onslaught of the Red Army, Kolchak left Omsk, and in December, his train was blocked in Nizhneudinsk by the Czechoslovaks.
On January 4, 1920, Kolchak transferred power to Denikin, and command of the armed forces in the East to Ataman Semenov. Kolchak was guaranteed safety by the allied command, however, at the request of the rebellious workers of Irkutsk, on January 15, the Czechoslovaks handed over Kolchak to the Socialist-Revolutionary Menshevik Political Center formed in Irkutsk, which undertook to extradite him and transfer the gold reserve to the Soviet command.
February 7, 1920 Kolchak was shot by the Revolutionary Committee. The remnants of Kolchak's troops left for Transbaikalia.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
One of the most interesting and controversial figures in the history of Russia in the twentieth century is A. V. Kolchak. Admiral, naval commander, traveler, oceanographer and writer. Until now, this historical figure is of interest to historians, writers and directors. Admiral Kolchak, whose biography is shrouded interesting facts and events, is of great interest to contemporaries. Based on his biographical data, books are created, scripts are written for the theater stage. Admiral Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich - the hero of documentaries and feature films. It is impossible to fully appreciate the significance of this person in the history of the Russian people.
The first steps of a young cadet
A. V. Kolchak, admiral of the Russian Empire, was born on November 4, 1874 in St. Petersburg. The Kolchak family comes from an ancient noble family. Father - Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak, Major General of Naval Artillery, mother - Olga Ilyinichna Posokhova, Don Cossack. The family of the future admiral of the Russian Empire was deeply religious. In his childhood memoirs, Admiral Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich noted: “I am Orthodox, until the time I entered primary school I received under the guidance of my parents. After studying for three years (1885-1888) at the St. Petersburg Classical Men's Gymnasium, young Alexander Kolchak enters the Naval School. It was there that A. V. Kolchak, Admiral Russian fleet, for the first time learns naval sciences, which will later become his life's work. Studying at the Naval School revealed A.V. Kolchak's outstanding abilities and talent for maritime affairs.
Future Admiral Kolchak, short biography which indicates that travel and sea adventures became his main passion. It was in 1890 that, as a sixteen-year-old teenager, a young cadet first went to sea. It happened on board the armored frigate "Prince Pozharsky". Training swimming lasted about three months. During this time, junior cadet Alexander Kolchak received the first skills and practical knowledge of maritime affairs. In the future, during my studies at the Marine cadet corps, A. V. Kolchak repeatedly went on campaigns. His training ships were Rurik and Cruiser. Thanks to study trips, A. V. Kolchak began to study oceanography and hydrology, as well as navigational charts of underwater currents off the coast of Korea.
polar research
At the end Maritime School young lieutenant Alexander Kolchak submits a report to the naval service in the Pacific Ocean. The request was approved, and he was sent to one of the naval garrisons of the Pacific Fleet. In 1900, Admiral Kolchak, whose biography is closely connected with scientific research Arctic Ocean, goes on the first polar expedition. On October 10, 1900, at the invitation of the famous traveler Baron Eduard Toll, the scientific group set off. The aim of the expedition was to find geographical coordinates the mysterious island of Sannikov Land. In February 1901, Kolchak made a big report about the Great Northern Expedition.
In 1902, on the wooden whaling schooner Zarya, Kolchak and Toll again set off for the northern voyage. In the summer of the same year, four polar explorers, led by the head of the expedition, Eduard Toll, left the schooner and set off on dog sleds to explore the coast of the Arctic. Nobody came back. A long search for the missing expedition did not bring any results. The entire crew of the schooner Zarya was forced to return to big land. After some time, A. V. Kolchak submits a petition to Russian academy Sciences about the repeated expedition to the Northern Islands. The main goal of the campaign was to find the members of E. Toll's team. As a result of the search, traces of the missing group were found. However, the living members of the team were no longer there. For participation in the rescue expedition, A. V. Kolchak was awarded the Imperial Order of the 4th degree. According to the results of the work of the research polar group, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was elected a full member of the Russian Geographical Society.
Military conflict with Japan (1904-1905)
With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, A.V. Kolchak asks to be transferred from the scientific academy to the Naval War Department. Having received approval, he goes to serve in Port Arthur to Admiral S. O. Makarov, A. V. Kolchak is appointed commander of the destroyer "Angry". For six months, the future admiral fought valiantly for Port Arthur. However, despite the heroic confrontation, the fortress fell. The soldiers of the Russian army capitulated. In one of the battles, Kolchak is wounded and ends up in a Japanese hospital. Thanks to American military intermediaries, Alexander Kolchak and other officers of the Russian army were returned to their homeland. For his heroism and courage, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was awarded a nominal gold saber and a silver medal "In memory of the Russian-Japanese war."
Continuation of scientific activity
After a six-month vacation, Kolchak again starts research work. The main theme of his scientific works was the processing of materials from polar expeditions. Scientific works on oceanology and the history of polar research helped the young scientist to win honor and respect in the scientific community. In 1907, his translation of Martin Knudsen's "Tables of Freezing Points of Sea Water" was published. In 1909, the author's monograph "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas" was published. The significance of the works of A. V. Kolchak was that he first laid the doctrine of sea ice. The Russian Geographical Society highly appreciated scientific activity scientist, presenting him with the highest award "Gold Konstantinovsky medal". A. V. Kolchak became the youngest of the polar explorers who were awarded this high award. All predecessors were foreigners, and only he became the first Russian owner of a high distinction.
Revival of the Russian fleet
The loss in the Russo-Japanese War was very hard for the Russian officers. A.V. was no exception. Kolchak, an admiral in spirit and a researcher by vocation. Continuing to study the reasons for the defeat of the Russian army, Kolchak is developing a plan to create a Naval General Staff. In his scientific report, he expresses his thoughts about the reasons for the military defeat in the war, about what kind of fleet Russia needs, and also points out shortcomings in the defensive ability of naval vessels. The speech of the speaker in the State Duma does not find due approval, and A. V. Kolchak (admiral) leaves the service in the Naval General Staff. Biography and photos of that time confirm his transition to teaching at the Naval Academy. Despite the lack of an academic education, the leadership of the academy invited him to lecture on the joint actions of the army and navy. In April 1908, A. V. Kolchak was awarded military rank captain of the 2nd rank. Five years later, in 1913, he was promoted to the rank of captain of the 1st rank.
Participation of A. V. Kolchak in the First World War
Since September 1915, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak has been in charge of the Mine Division of the Baltic Fleet. The place of deployment was the port of the city of Revel (now Tallinn). The main task of the division was the development of minefields and their installation. In addition, the commander personally conducted sea raids to eliminate enemy ships. This was admired by ordinary sailors, as well as by officers divisions. The courage and resourcefulness of the commander received wide appreciation in the fleet, and this reached the capital. April 10, 1916 A.V. Kolchak was promoted to the rank of rear admiral of the Russian fleet. And in June 1916, by decree of Emperor Nicholas II, Kolchak was awarded the rank of vice admiral, and he was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet. Thus, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, admiral of the Russian fleet, becomes the youngest of the naval commanders.
The arrival of an energetic and competent commander was received with great respect. From the first days of work, Kolchak established strict discipline and changed the command leadership of the fleet. Main strategic objective- clear the sea from enemy warships. To accomplish this task, it was proposed to block the ports of Bulgaria and the waters of the Bosphorus Strait. An operation began to mine enemy coastlines. Admiral Kolchak's ship could often be seen performing combat and tactical missions. The commander of the fleet personally controlled the situation at sea. The special operation to mine the Bosphorus Strait with a swift blow to Constantinople was approved by Nicholas II. However, daring military operation did not happen, all plans were violated by the February Revolution.
Revolutionary uprising of 1917
The events of the February coup of 1917 found Kolchak in Batumi. It was in this Georgian city that the admiral held a meeting with Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, commander of the Caucasian Front. The agenda was to discuss the shipping schedule and the construction seaport in Trebizond (Turkey). Having received a secret dispatch from the General Staff about a military coup in Petrograd, the admiral urgently returns to Sevastopol. Upon returning to the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V. Kolchak orders the termination of the telegraph and postal communications of the Crimea with other regions of the Russian Empire. This prevents the spread of rumors and panic in the fleet. All telegrams were sent only to the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.
Unlike the situation in the Baltic Fleet, the situation in the Black Sea was under the control of the admiral. A. V. Kolchak kept the Black Sea flotilla from revolutionary collapse for a long time. However, political events did not pass by. In June 1917, by decision of the Sevastopol Soviet, Admiral Kolchak was removed from the leadership of the Black Sea Fleet. During the disarmament, Kolchak, before the formation of his subordinates, breaks the award golden saber and says: “The sea rewarded me, I return the award to the sea.”
Russian admiral
Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak (Omirova), the wife of the great naval commander, was a hereditary noblewoman. Sophia was born in 1876 in Kamenetz-Podolsk. Father - Fedor Vasilyevich Omirov, Privy Councilor of His Imperial Majesty, mother - Daria Fedorovna Kamenskaya, came from the family of Major General V.F. Kamensky. Sofya Fedorovna was educated at the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens. A beautiful, strong-willed woman who knew several foreign languages, she was very independent in character.
The wedding with Alexander Vasilievich took place in the St. Kharlampievskaya Church in Irkutsk on March 5, 1904. After the wedding, the young spouse leaves his wife and goes to the army to defend Port Arthur. S.F. Kolchak, together with his father-in-law, goes to St. Petersburg. All her life, Sofya Fedorovna kept loyalty and devotion to her lawful spouse. She invariably began her letters to him with the words: "My dear and beloved, Sashenka." And she finished: “Sonia, who loves you.” Admiral Kolchak kept the touching letters of his wife until the last days. Constant separation did not allow the spouses to see each other often. Military service obligated to fulfill the debt.
And yet, rare moments of joyful meetings did not bypass loving spouses. Sofia Fedorovna gave birth to three children. The first daughter, Tatyana, was born in 1908, however, without having lived even a month, the child died. Son Rostislav was born on March 9, 1910 (died in 1965). The third child in the family was Margarita (1912-1914). When escaping from the Germans from Libava (Liepaja, Latvia), the girl caught a cold and soon died. Kolchak's wife lived for some time in Gatchina, then in Libau. During the shelling of the city, the Kolchak family was forced to leave their refuge. Having collected her things, Sophia moves to her husband in Helsingfors, where at that time the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet was located.
It was in this city that Sophia met Anna Timireva, the last love of the admiral. Then there was a move to Sevastopol. Throughout the Civil War, she waited for her husband. In 1919, Sophia Kolchak emigrated with her son. British allies help them get to Constanta, then there was Bucharest and Paris. Experiencing a difficult financial situation in exile, Sofya Kolchak was able to give a decent education to her son. Rostislav Aleksandrovich Kolchak graduated from the Higher Diplomatic School and worked for some time in the Algerian banking system. In 1939, Kolchak's son entered the service of the French army and soon fell into German captivity.
Sofia Kolchak will survive the German occupation of Paris. The death of the admiral's wife will occur in the Lunjumo hospital (France) in 1956. S.F. Kolchak was buried at the cemetery of Russian emigrants in Paris. In 1965, Rostislav Alexandrovich Kolchak died. The last refuge of the wife and son of the admiral will be the French tomb in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.
The last love of the Russian admiral
Anna Vasilievna Timireva is the daughter of the outstanding Russian conductor and musician V. I. Safonov. Anna was born in Kislovodsk in 1893. Admiral Kolchak and Anna Timireva met in 1915 in Helsingfors. Her first husband is Sergey Nikolaevich Timirev. The love story with Admiral Kolchak still inspires admiration and respect for this Russian woman. Love and devotion made her go to a voluntary arrest after her lover. Endless arrests and exile could not destroy tender feelings, she loved her admiral until the end of her life. Having survived the execution of Admiral Kolchak in 1920, Anna Timireva was in exile for many years. Only in 1960 she was rehabilitated and lived in the capital. Anna Vasilievna died on January 31, 1975.
Foreign trips
Upon his return to Petrograd in 1917, Admiral Kolchak (his photo is presented in our article) receives an official invitation from the American diplomatic mission. Foreign partners, knowing his extensive experience in the mine business, ask the Provisional Government to send A. V. Kolchak as a military expert in the fight against submarines. A.F. Kerensky gives his consent to his departure. Soon, Admiral Kolchak went to England, and then to America. There he held military consultations and also took an active part in training maneuvers for the US Navy.
Nevertheless, Kolchak believed that his foreign voyage had failed, and a decision was made to return to Russia. While in San Francisco, the admiral receives a government telegram proposing to run for the Constituent Assembly. It burst out and violated all Kolchak's plans. The news of the revolutionary uprising finds him in the Japanese port of Yokohama. The temporary stop lasted until the autumn of 1918.
Events of the Civil War in the fate of A. V. Kolchak
After long wanderings abroad, A.V. Kolchak on September 20, 1918 returns to Russian soil in Vladivostok. In this city, Kolchak studied the state of military affairs and the revolutionary mood of the inhabitants of the eastern outskirts of the country. At this time, the Russian public more than once turned to him with a proposal to lead the fight against the Bolsheviks. October 13, 1918 Kolchak arrives in Omsk to establish a common command volunteer armies in the east of the country. After some time, a military seizure of power takes place in the city. A. V. Kolchak - Admiral, Supreme Ruler of Russia. It was this position that the Russian officers entrusted to Alexander Vasilyevich.
Kolchak's army numbered more than 150 thousand people. The coming to power of Admiral Kolchak inspired the entire eastern region of the country, hoping for the establishment of a tough dictatorship and order. A strong administrative vertical and the correct organization of the state were established. The main goal of the new military formation was to unite with the army of A.I. Denikin and march on Moscow. During the reign of Kolchak, a number of orders, decrees and appointments were issued. A. V. Kolchak was one of the first in Russia to begin an investigation into the death royal family. The reward system has been restored tsarist Russia. At the disposal of Kolchak's army was a huge gold reserve of the country, which was taken from Moscow to Kazan with the aim of further moving to England and Canada. With this money, Admiral Kolchak (whose photo can be seen above) provided his army with weapons and uniforms.
Battle path and the arrest of the admiral
During the entire existence of the eastern front, Kolchak and his comrades-in-arms carried out several successful military attacks (Perm, Kazan and Simbirsk operations). However, the numerical superiority of the Red Army prevented a grandiose capture of the western borders of Russia. An important factor was the betrayal of the allies.
On January 15, 1920, Kolchak was arrested and sent to the Irkutsk prison. A few days later, the Extraordinary Commission began the procedure for investigative measures to interrogate the admiral. A. V. Kolchak, admiral (the protocols of interrogation testify to this), during the conduct of investigative measures, he behaved very worthily. Cheka investigators noted that the admiral answered all questions willingly and clearly, while not giving out a single name of his colleagues. The arrest of Kolchak lasted until February 6, until the remnants of his army came close to Irkutsk. In 1920, on the banks of the Ushakovka River, the admiral was shot and thrown into the hole. This is how the great son of his Motherland ended his journey.
Based on the events of hostilities in eastern Russia from the autumn of 1918 to the end of 1919, the book “Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak” was written, the author is S. V. Volkov.
Truth and fiction
To this day, the fate of this man is not fully understood. A. V. Kolchak - Admiral, unknown facts from whose life and death are still of interest to historians and people who are not indifferent to this person. One thing can be said quite definitely: the life of the admiral is a vivid example of courage, heroism and high responsibility to their homeland.
