Anton Vasilyevich Turkul Drozdovites are on fire. Volunteer Army

Turkul Anton Vasilievich (1892-1957) - Major General. First world war began volunteering in the 75th Sevastopol Infantry Regiment. He earned two soldiers' St. George Crosses and was promoted to officer. Staff captain - at the end of the war. Sergeant major in an officer company - in the first campaign from Yassy to Novocherkassk under General Drozdovsky in 1918.

In 1919 - commander of the 1st and 2nd officer general of the Drozdovsky regiment in the Volunteer Army and in the All-Soviet Union of Socialists. In the Russian Army, General Wrangel was promoted to major general and appointed head of the Drozdov division. After the evacuation of Crimea, General Wrangel appointed commander of the consolidated Drozdovsky regiment. In exile in 1935, he founded the National Union of War Participants and became its head. During World War II he participated in the formation of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). Died on August 20, 1957 in Munich. He was buried on September 14, 1957 in the Russian cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois near Paris.

Materials used from the book: Nikolai Rutych Biographical reference book of the highest ranks of the Volunteer Army and the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Materials on the history of the White movement M., 2002

Major General Turkul A.V. 1920

Turkul Anton Vasilievich. Second half of the 40s.

TURKUL Anton Vasilievich (12/11/1892 - 08/20/1957), military and public figure. Born in Bendery into a noble family. In 1909 he graduated from the Odessa Richelieu Gymnasium. Valid military service served as a non-commissioned officer. During the First World War, he was promoted to officer for military distinction. Awarded 5 orders, including the Order of St. George 4th degree and St. George's weapon. With the rank of staff captain, he commanded a shock assault battalion, whose emblem was an image of a skull and crossbones as a sign of contempt for death.
After the Bolshevik coup, Turkul, as part of a volunteer detachment of Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky, made a 1200-kilometer hike from the Romanian city of Iasi to Novocherkassk. He ended the civil war as the head of the Drozdovskaya rifle division with the rank of major general. He was awarded the newly established White Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which only 338 people received.
In exile he headed the association of former Drozdovites, among whom he enjoyed great authority. He was a supporter of continuing the active struggle against Bolshevism. In 1933, his people prepared an assassination attempt on L. Trotsky-Bronstein, expelled from the USSR, which failed due to opposition from Soviet agents.
Wanting to “unite all those who in the difficult emigrant night... did not break away from their fatherland and people, who... fought and stood in battle fire for the Fatherland, were a white warrior of Russia and remained such a warrior,” Turkul formed on June 28, 1936 on the basis of the Drozdovsky association, the military-political organization Russian National Union of War Participants (RNSUV) with its center in Paris. Soon, RNSUV departments arose in Albania, Argentina, Belgium, Greece, China, Uruguay, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and other countries. The organization published the newspaper “Signal” and the magazines “Military Journalist” and “Always for Russia” (the latter words were also placed on the badge of Turkulov members).
The motto of the RNSUV was: “God - Nation - Social Justice.” The program documents of the Union stated: “The democratic fabrications and imitations of “European models” of Russian liberals are a pathetic parody of the sovereign course of Russian history, they are a grimace of history, a disease of the nation.
Undoubtedly, the revival of the Russian Empire is possible only through the revival of its historical, national core - the monarchy. If there is a Russian Empire, it will only be monarchical. But the 20-year domination of the USSR by non-Russian communist authorities could not pass without a trace. The realization of the need for a monarchy for the Russian Empire may not occur the next day after the overthrow of the communist authorities. The task of the national dictatorship is to help the Russian nation take its historical path. This task is not easy... Therefore, both the Russian nation will have to deserve its Emperor, and Russian Emperor- deserve Russia."
The “leading role of the Russian People” was especially stipulated: “The high lot” that fell to the lot of the Russian People (Great Russians, Ukrainians, Little Russians and Belarusians) imposes on it a special historical responsibility.” Therefore, he would have to occupy "the responsible position of the leading arbiter of the Empire."
In the financial and economic sphere, an unconditional limitation of the “autocracy of financial capital” was envisaged.
“A single government bank can perfectly fulfill the economic function of private banks, without their irresponsible politicking. This is especially important for Russia.
Allowing freedom of capitalist activity after the overthrow of the communist government means deliberately handing over the country to the flow and plunder of international predatory capital. But, of course, it is impossible to completely do without foreign capital in impoverished Russia. It is a matter of special control to establish how private foreign capital can be used” (“Signal” [Paris], 1939, No. 58).
Turkul himself stated: “We took fascism and national socialism as the basis for our political thinking, which have shown in practice their viability and defeated communism in their homeland. But, of course, we refract these doctrines in Russian history and apply them to Russian life, to the aspirations and needs of the Russian people... Our ideal is the fascists of all countries and peoples in which their national honor burns, in which their national truth is strong and who understand and pay tribute to both other people's honor and other people's truth. Not use and exploitation, but mutual respect and good neighborly peace and union - this is what we expect and what we see from the fascist idea” (Signal, 1938, No. 32).
Considering that “an explosion of effectiveness is needed to liberate Russia from the bloody clutches of Judeo-Marxism,” the leadership of the RNSUV in September. 1937 became part of the Russian National Front, which united a number of patriotic organizations in emigration.
In April 1938 Turkul, captain Larionov and several right-wing Russian emigrants were deported as “undesirable persons” to Germany by the decision of the pro-communist French government of M. Blum.
General Turkul lived first in Berlin, and after the signing of the Soviet-German Pact in August. 1939 moved to Rome.
On the eve of the Second World War, he wrote: “Any blow to the Comintern on the territory of the USSR will inevitably cause an explosion of anti-communist forces within the country. It will be our duty to join these forces. We will then strive to ensure that somewhere, even on a small piece of Russian land, the Russian tricolor banner rises” (“Signal”, 1939, No. 48).
Therefore, Turkul and his supporters joined the “Russian Liberation Army” - in the present day. In 1945 he formed a volunteer Cossack brigade, planning to deploy it into a separate corps. After the war, he collaborated in the magazines “Volunteer” and “Sentry”.
Turkul died in Munich. He was buried in the Russian cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois.

Naumov S.

Site materials used Great encyclopedia Russian people - http://www.rusinst.ru

Sitting from right to left are the generals - Shteifon, Kutepov, Vitkovsky.
Standing (behind Kutepov) are the generals - Skoblin, Turkul. Bulgaria, 1921.

TURKUL Anton Vasilievich (1892-08/20/1957) Staff Captain (1916). Colonel (1918). Major General (04.1920). He graduated from a real school, an accelerated course from a cadet school (1914) and was promoted to warrant officer. Participant of the First World War: officer in the 75th Sevastopol Infantry Regiment, commander of the shock battalion of the 19th Infantry Division; 1915 - 1917. Wounded three times. In the White movement: in the detachment of Colonel Drozdovsky, participant in the Yassy-Rostov campaign; 12.1917 - 05.1918. Company and battalion commander, received 4 wounds; 05.1918-09.1919. Commander of the 1st officer Drozdovsky regiment, 09.1919 - 06.1920. Commander of the 3rd Drozdovskaya Rifle Division in the Russian Army under General Wrangel, 06-10.1920. Evacuated from Crimea to Gallipoli (Türkiye). In exile since 11.1920: Türkiye, Bulgaria, France. In 1941 - 1945 collaborated with the Germans; in 1945 he took part in the formation of units of the ROA - Vlasov’s Russian Liberation Army in Austria; commander of the Volunteer Brigade. After 1945 - Chairman of the Committee of Russian Defectors. Died in Munich (Germany), 08/20/1957. He was buried (reburied) on September 14, 1957 at the Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris.

Materials used from the book: Valery Klaving, Civil War in Russia: White Armies. Military-historical library. M., 2003.

Officers of the Drozdovsky division. 1920 Galipoli.
Sitting in the center are General V.G. Kharzhevsky and General A.V. Turkul.
(to the left of the officer standing behind V.G. Kharzhevsky)

In 1937, the Parisian white emigrant newspaper "Vozrozhdenie" published a speech by General A.V. Turkul, the former commander of the Drozdovites (and the author of the famous book “Drozdovtsy on Fire”), spoken by him before the meeting of the RNSUV.

A.V. Turkul

"World events are approaching, wrote Turkul. - In all countries there is a unification of forces: some in the name of strengthening and flourishing of the nation, others - not organic, but revolutionary - in the name of establishing the Marxist doctrine and the communist terror of the “international”. The collision of these two forces is inevitable.

The Russian people, enslaved by the communist power of the “international”, will inevitably be drawn into this clash, but not in the name of Russia, but in the name of salvation Soviet power and its enslavement of other peoples. What should we, Russian soldiers, do in these menacing hours? It is impossible to wait for some order, to wait for someone to decide for us. Many people are now leaving this position of fruitless expectations. Previously, we waited for the word of order, but because our military leaders were with us. We will no longer hear such a word from those days when General Kutepov was torn from us...

You can’t wait indefinitely for someone or something to save Russia and do nothing yourself. It's time for us to start believing in our own strengths, it's time to organize and work. We do not believe in the evolution of Soviet power. Stalin is the same executioner of the Russian people as Trotsky or Dzerzhinsky was. The authorities of the Third International have already seized 710 thousand square meters from Russia. versts with 28 million inhabitants and what other “pieces” will the Soviet government give away, what other obscene contracts will she conclude just to save her own skin?

And the so-called “defencists,” accomplices of Soviet butchery, are shouting here about “defending Russia.” Their leaders and inspirers, when we, soldiers, stood on fire for Russia, were both against us and against Russia, and when the Russian empire collapsed in blood and turmoil, they helped its collapse... What kind of “defense” are they calling for now? ? They call for defense not of Russia, but of Soviet power. But we, Russian soldiers, are against Soviet power. Every extra year, month, day authorities III the international is ruining Russia Russian nation. The Bolsheviks have been corrupting and tormenting the Russian people for twenty years. That is why we, Russian soldiers, are irreconcilable enemies of the Bolsheviks and all their fellow travelers. We believe in Russia and the Russian people and are not afraid of upcoming events, no matter how menacing they may be" (end quote).

Frankly, when I first read this text, I almost threw the book away, so every word here evokes protest from a morally sane person. But interest in the White Movement in general and the Drozdovites in particular overpowered. However, it would be unfair to ignore this text and attribute it to the nature of the era and the general’s personal grievances. Especially when you consider that Russia’s enemies today are very actively trying to appeal to the authority of people like Turkul.

Without understanding this text, it will be difficult to understand the further behavior of Anton Vasilyevich, who by the end of the Second World War found himself in the ranks of Vlasov’s operetta “army”.

What catches your eye first? Before us is a classic false prophecy. Now it is difficult to judge whether in Turkul the old hatred of the Bolsheviks spoke for the three dead brothers or whether German money was jingling in his pocket (it is known that before the war Turkul communicated quite a lot with SS chief Himmler). One way or another, Turkul definitely states that in a future world war the Russian people will have to defend not the interests of Russia, but... exclusively Soviet power. Moreover, Turkul directly states that this very government will strive to “enslave other peoples.” Meanwhile, exactly Soviet Russia in the Second World War was the party that was subjected to aggression, and the Russian people were forced to defend not Soviet power, but their own existence, moreover, the Soviet government itself, by objective circumstances, was forced to defend the national interests of Russia (the same, One and Indivisible, for which Turkul fought in the Civil War).

This mistake of Turkul cannot be explained as a tribute to the ideological cliches of the Civil War: the general knew about the plans of the Nazi Reich first-hand, moreover, after June 22, 1941, he quite consciously agreed to promote these plans. Echoes of this future collaborationism of his can already be heard in his 1937 speech. Turkul calls his listeners to... "a crusade against the Bolsheviks", just like Goebbels in 1941. I don’t know who stole the idea from whom, but a coincidence is excluded - it’s too complete a coincidence. The conclusion suggests itself that even then, in 1937, Turkul knew about plans for a German attack on the USSRand worked energetically on their ideological justification. That doesn’t stop him from proclaiming with all his might that it is the Russian people “in the name of the interests of Soviet power” who will bring enslavement to other peoples. Conscious deceit is evident.

Further. Turkul recalls the “obscene” Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, talks about lost by Russia territories, and immediately prophesies new similar agreements. And I just spoke about the “enslavement of other peoples.” So, on the eve of the global confrontation, did the Soviet government intend to enslave Europe or continue to squander Russian lands? Where is the logic?

This illogicality becomes clearer when you come into contact with other fabrications of the former commander of the Drozdovites. " We will then strive to ensure that somewhere, even on a small piece of Russian land, the Russian tricolor banner rises,” he writes in 1939. Let’s think about what this means. In fact, Turkul calls for nothing other than dismemberment Russia, in the name of establishing an anti-communist government in at least some small piece of it. How small will this patch be, what resources will it exist on, and most importantly, how is this anti-communist government going to survive in the very aggressive environment of the great European powers? And this is Anton, Vasilich seems not to be interested in the world. Little things.

However, no. He does talk about some guarantees.“Our ideal is the fascists of all countries and peoples in which their national honor burns, in which their national truth is strong and who understand and pay tribute to both the honor of others and the truth of others. Not use and exploitation, but mutual respect and good neighborly peace and alliance - this is what we expect and what we see from the fascist idea." Question: where did he see that the fascists, obsessed with the idea of ​​racial superiority, “paid tribute to someone else’s honor and someone else’s truth?” What makes him think that they will suddenly give anti-communist Russia “mutual respect and good neighborly peace”? Russia at the beginning of 1917 was a completely anti-communist state, so what? German imperialism, with the help of its paid agents, tore it to pieces and did not wince. And he didn’t bother at all with any “good neighborliness” when he sent Lenin to Russia in a sealed carriage. Europe has always and everywhere solved exclusively its own geopolitical problems, and the Russian White Guards had to fully experience this on their own skin during the Civil War. That is why the emigrant historian Anton Kersnovsky (no less a monarchist than Turkul himself) sharply criticized fascism and Nazism, and therefore called on the emigration not to interfere in the Civil War in Spain, to save their strength and their lives until the day when they Russia will need it. By the way, in Spain, Russian volunteers, among whom there were many honored generals and senior officers, were accepted into Franco’s army exclusively as ordinary soldiers - and only after the end of the war, some (!!!) of them were honored to receive junior officer ranks from the caudillo. Is this “giving credit to someone else’s honor”?

Many in emigrant circles saw glaring inconsistencies in the constructions of Turkul and his associates. Not only Kersnovsky. Well, Turkul had a hefty slap in the face for them: "And the so-called “defencists,” accomplices of Soviet butchery, are shouting here about “defending Russia.” Their leaders and inspirers, when we, soldiers, stood on fire for Russia, were both against us and against Russia, and when the Russian empire collapsed in blood and turmoil, they helped its collapse."

A.I. Denikin is one of the main ideologists of “defencism” in emigration.
It was he who “destroyed” Russian Empire"?

So, let's name them. Who are these “leaders” whom Turkul accuses of all mortal sins? The most famous of them is... Anton Ivanovich Denikin, former commander-in-chief of the AFSR (and personally Turkula). Was it he who “destroyed the Russian Empire”? When? Was it not when he turned to Kerensky with his last desperate appeal: “You trampled our banners into the mud. The time has come - raise them and bow before them!” Or maybe when he agreed to support the Kornilov speech in the summer of 1917? Denikin, it turns out, was... against the Drozdovites when they stood on fire for Russia! But how then does Turkul himself write in his book “Drozdovtsy on Fire”:"If it weren't for faith in Drozdovsky and to the leader of the White Cause, General Denikin“If it weren’t for the understanding that we are fighting for human Russia against all inhuman darkness, we would fall apart”? Isn’t it Turkul himself who writes: “Another leader of the white movement, General Denikin, who recently died in America, wrote: “If at this moment of greatest collapse there had not been people ready to die for the sake of the desecrated homeland, they would not have been a people, but manure, suitable only for fertilizing the fields of the Western continent. Fortunately, we belong, albeit tormented, but to the great Russian people."At that time, we all believed so much with our instinct and our hearts? Why does he refer to the “enemy” and “destroyer” who “helped the collapse of the empire”, why does he quote him with such reverence?

Turkul’s words about the defencists could have been perceived as a slap at them by many of his fellow Drozdov soldiers, who professed a completely different view of the Nazis and the coming World War than their former commander. Maurice Conradie, "tied" with Turkul by one song in which their names are mentioned together. Ivan Prokopov, a young hero of the Civil War, is one of the “eggplants” to whom the most touching chapter of “Drozdovtsy on Fire” is dedicated. Pyotr Koltyshev. Nikolay Zhukov. Vladimir Kharzhevsky. Here we can add the Kornilovite Platon Kopetsky - Turkul also writes a lot about the military brotherhood with the Kornilovites in “Drozdovtsy on Fire.” Is it any wonder that when Anton Vasilyevich visited Prague, trying to recruit his former fellow soldiers into the ROA, only a few eventually followed him?

Drozdovites - Mikhail Polzikov and Anton Turkul.
Polzikov did not live to see the Great Patriotic War, died in 1938.
I would like to believe that these two were not like-minded people after 1937.

The white “defencists” led by Denikin were not concerned about protecting Soviet power - Denikin exhaustively this is after the war. And about the defense of Russia, which could at any moment be subject to aggression with subsequent dismemberment and mass genocide of the population. And which Turkul was calmly ready to give up to be torn to pieces. Denikin confessed during the Civil War that he was not fighting for “forms of government,” but only and exclusively for Russia. He remained true to these declarations. Turkul has a lot of words about the “three-color Russian banner” - but, alas, he does not feel any readiness to fight for Russia. On the contrary, one feels a strange readiness to slander one’s own people, who are under Bolshevik enslavement. And neglect his vital interests for the sake of... "form of government."

However, one can agree with Turkul on some points. One can only join his assessment of Stalin - here is the former white general fair And it is worth noting that Turkul calls on emigration not to serve the Germans (they are not mentioned at all in the 1937 text), but to independently fight for Russia, albeit using external circumstances in the form of a new World War. The idea that the liberation of Russia from the tyranny of the atheists should be accomplished by Russian hands, and not by the forces of any foreign allies with the passive observation of emigration, is deeply correct. It’s just that Turkul chose the most inappropriate time for its implementation. It seems that he seriously believed that he could become a real “third force” between the European invaders and the Russian Bolsheviks in the impending world massacre. Believed contrary to common sense, completely disregarding the power Hitler's Germany, neither the power of the Red Army opposing it, nor the lack of such power among small and practically unarmed emigrant organizations. The desire to become a third force between Hitler and Stalin is certainly commendable, but, alas, it is outside of time and outside of space. "Defenseman" Denikin, as an older and more experienced military leader, Turkula.

________________________________

Notes
RNSUV is Russian National Union Participants in the War is an organization created by Turkul as part of the EMRO, as a result of which Turkul himself was excluded from the EMRO. RNSUV stood on far-right positions, being strongly influenced by Nazi ideas.
See the preface by O.G. Goncharenko to Turkul’s book “Drozdovtsy on Fire” orhttp://www.belrussia.ru/page-id-2265.html
But Turkul was a direct witness and an active participant in the events, and talking about the White Movement in the South of Russia without familiarizing himself with “Drozdovites on Fire” is as absurd as presenting political economy without referring to Karl Marx.
[ 4] See: http://www.belrussia.ru/page-id-4196.html
Right there.
By the way, the unexpected and completely illogical in this context mention of the “obscene Brest Peace” can be safely considered as another indirect evidence that Turkul knew very well: in the new World War the roles would not change. Germany will again act as an aggressor, and Russia will be forced to defend its territorial integrity.
"Signal", 1939, No. 48. Quoted. By:http://www.belrussia.ru/page-id-4196.html
"Signal", 1938, No. 32. Quote By: http://www.belrussia.ru/page-id-4196.html
And especially the Nazis, under the influence of whose ideas the views of the RSNUV were largely shaped.

For the 30th anniversary of the White struggle, I decided to republish my notes. I do this not without hesitation.

Thirty years separate us from the time when we took up arms to fight the Bolshevik wave that was then sweeping Russia. We have the bitterness and honor of being the first to begin this struggle. We started it when many were still unclear about the contours of the all-consuming slavery and extinguishing of the spirit that the godless, materialistic communist teaching carried with it not only to Russia, but to the whole world.

This struggle lasted three years, waged with inhuman tension and costing countless victims. At one time, it created a ditch between the parties leading it, between “us” and “them.” By “them” I do not mean the communist power, which even now continues to rule over the enslaved peoples of Russia - this ditch is insurmountable, and no amount of time can fill it. By “them” I mean those who, besotted and deceived by this power, followed it during the years of struggle and gave it victory with the steadfastness and sacrifice that have always been characteristic of the Russian soldier.

This victory did not bring “them” anything. The people paid a terrible price for their support of Soviet power. The entire history of Russia after 1920, that is, after the end of the White struggle, is a chain of continuous efforts of the people in uprisings, conspiracies, or through passive resistance to overthrow the power that enslaved them. This struggle cost him more than the bloodiest wars.

The Soviet government itself took care to fill up the ditch between “us” and “them”; many of our former opponents, participants in the struggle on the red side, were destroyed by the red hand; many, like us, also found themselves in exile. And it was not the old ditch between “us” and “them” that I wanted to deepen with my memories; We, the former whites and the former reds, now simply Russians, need unity for the common struggle against communism that still lies ahead of us.

In addition, the bloody wave of the Second World War passed over the old battlefields of the “whites” and “reds”. New Russian blood was shed on the same fields where they sleep in anticipation of the Eternal Judge former enemies, white and red. On the grand scale of events last war The battles of the Civil War, which took place at a different level of technology, are fading. Some readers may ask if they might be interested in a description of the battles of the war before last. But my memories do not pursue this goal.

The purpose of this book is to resurrect the true image of ordinary white fighters, unknown Russian officers and soldiers, and to make one feel the truth and the breath of life that inspired them in the fight for Russia. Two generations of Russian people grew up after the end of the White struggle; for thirty years Soviet propaganda deliberately distorted their understanding of the people and affairs of the “white” side - my memories will help them get a more objective idea.

There is no doubt that the final deadline is approaching: the “last and decisive battle” for the liberation of Russia awaits. In the struggle ahead, may the images of our comrades who fell in the first battles with Bolshevism be an example of the spirit that will inspire us to selfless and selfless service to the Motherland.

This book is not the history of the Drozdovsky rifle division, which carried its banners in the fire of more than six hundred and fifty battles of the Civil War and shed the sacrificial blood of its 15,000 killed and 35,000 wounded soldiers.

I didn’t have time to write history then. Combat documents and diaries fit in one bag. I lost her in the fire. All archives were also lost. In the winter of 1933, I began to tell the writer I. S. Lukash, also a participant in the White movement, everything that was vividly imprinted in my memory about the glorious Drozdov division. These were not memories, but impressions of combat fire, alive for me forever.

Then I began to receive notes, war diaries, memos and documents from my former comrades. After processing, all this was collected into a book about the Drozdovites. I am warmly grateful for this help to all my comrades and my tireless colleague, the now deceased, Ivan Sozontovich Lukash.

“Drozdovtsy on Fire” is not a memoir or a history - it is a living book about the living, the military truth about what Russian white soldiers were like in the fire, what they should be and will inevitably be.

I dedicate the book to Russian youth.

A. TURKUL

April 1948

Our dawn

...I run up the steps of the wooden staircase to our cadet’s room, on the top floor of our Tiraspol house, and look: my brother Nikolai’s jacket with a white officer’s George is thrown over the back of the chair. Nikolai, a Siberian rifleman, arrived from the front before me, and I did not know about his third wound or about the Order of St. George. For the third time, Nikolai was seriously wounded, in the chest.

I also came from the front after being wounded for the third time: during the big war, I was wounded in the arm, leg and shoulder. We were glad for the unexpected and short-lived meeting: the doctors insisted on my brother’s departure to Yalta - the shot through his chest threatened consumption. This was at the end of 1916. Soon I went to the front again. And then 1917 caught me at the front.

I imagine myself at that time, staff captain of the 75th Sevastopol Infantry Regiment, young officer, who was shocked by the national disaster of the revolution, like thousands of others among the Russian military youth.

My life and fate are inseparable from the fate of the Russian army, captured by a national catastrophe, and in what I will tell, I would only like to restore those army affairs in which I had the honor to participate, and those army people with whom I had the honor to stand on fire at the same time.

At the height of 1917, when our regiment also held a rally, I began to form a shock battalion in our division.

I must say that almost from the beginning of the war, Corporal Kuritsyn, a curious soldier, served as my orderly. He was about forty years old. Red-haired, with a waxed mustache, he was a bitter drunkard and a cheerful man. His name was Ivan Filimonovich. Before the war, he was a roofer; he left behind a wife and four children in the Vladimir province. Kuritsyn became very attached to me.

In 1917 I sent him on leave and in the chaos of the army I forgot about my Sancho Panza. And then suddenly he appeared to me, but in what form: ragged, in rags, bruised and without boots.

“What are you doing,” I told him, “aren’t you an idiot, brother?” I drank away my uniform...

- No, I didn’t drink it. My comrades undressed me.

And Kuritsyn told me how he came from vacation to our regiment, but I was not in the regiment, and the committee members were angry that I was selecting shock troops. Ivan Filimonovich did not want to stay in the collapsed regiment and submitted a report on command so that he would be sent from the regiment to me.

This is where the tests of Corporal Kuritsyn began. The committee members insulted him in every possible way, scolded him as a “toady” for “eating a lot of dirt on his orderlies,” even going so far as to slap him on the wrist, and then at the meeting they voted to take away all his uniform, boots, government underpants, even foot wraps, and give him the very rags. That’s why Ivan Filimonovich came to me almost naked.

He stands in front of me, and I remember the Carpathians, night, snow. In a night attack in the Carpathians, I was wounded in the leg. The attack was repulsed, our men retreated. I was left lying in the deep snow, I could not get up, my bones were unbearably crushed; I was burning and swallowing snow. I remember the dry shudders of machine-gun fire, and how the stars swarmed above me in the frosty darkness.

Ivan Filimonovich then came up to me and dragged me under his arms through the snow. I moaned involuntarily. He whispered to me angrily to keep quiet. So he carried me out of the fire. He himself was wounded in the chest; on his chest his overcoat was black with blood and billowing with steam.

I remember him in the Carpathians, as well as another corporal, Goryachiy, Private Rozum and Private Zasunko and thousands of thousands of other Russian soldiers, faithful to their oath and duty, now sleeping side by side in mass graves until the trumpet of the Archangel.

His indomitable spirit, courageous appearance, hardy body seemed to indicate that his life could have been preserved for a longer period, perhaps until more difficult times, but inexorable fate decided otherwise and death, which constantly hovered over him in the heat of battle - he was wounded 4 times in the First World War and 5 times in the White Army - she extended her hand to him now and so suddenly.

In the summer of this year, the general, who at times suffered from liver disease, began to feel other ailments, lost weight, and developed nausea. In this regard, he went to a clinic in Munich, where he had been living recently, for research. The professor pointed out the need for an early operation, to which the patient immediately agreed. After the operation, performed on August 16 and lasting three and a half hours, there was some relief for a short time. The general, both before and after her, maintained a cheerful mood and joked from time to time, although according to doctors, the first six days after surgery in such a serious form were considered very life-threatening.

His loving wife Alexandra Fedorovna was constantly at his bedside in the clinic, and in his last days, hieromonk Fr. Kornily, a former white officer, and later in exile, a mining engineer in the Czech Republic. From the hands of Archbishop Alexander the sick man received St. participle. On Sunday, August 18, the general suddenly, after noon, stopped recognizing those around him and fell into oblivion. Consciousness never returned to him, and ten minutes past twelve on the night from Monday, August 19 to Tuesday, August 20 of the same month, he was gone.

Ancient Christians taught that God does his work when a person's strength comes to an end. That strain of physical and mental strength, those continuous efforts that the deceased had to show during the formidable years of the existence of our homeland during the struggle for it on the battlefields, could not help but have an effect; they undermined his strength with age, which came to an end when the body I had to deal with the disease and the consequences of the operation.

On August 23, a solemn funeral service took place at the Westfriedhof cemetery in Munich with a large number of Russian emigrants who left their homeland at different times, as well as representatives of various organizations and unions, who came to pay their last respects to the deceased. The newest emigrants also served as an honor guard at the coffin. The parting words dedicated to the memory of the deceased were spoken by Archbishop Alexander and Hieromonk Fr. Cornelius. The coffin, on the lid of which were a crimson Drozdov cap and a general's saber, along with wreaths and a large number of flowers laid on it, was temporarily placed in a crypt until the body was transported to France and interred in the Drozdov section of the S. Genevieve de Bois cemetery in the vicinity of Paris .

The body of the deceased, accompanied by two riflemen of the 1st battalion of the 1st Drozdovsky regiment, arrived from Germany to Paris on Thursday, September 12 and, with military honors, was installed in a coffin on a hearse in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the same day in the evening. On September 14, a solemn funeral liturgy was served in the cathedral and after it a memorial service with a large number of people praying and coming to honor the memory of the last chief of the Drozdov division. Wreaths and flowers filled the entire pulpit, some of them remaining in the vestibule. Of these, four white and crimson wreaths from all four regiments of the Drozdovsky division, a wreath from units of the 1st Army Corps and a wreath from the Galipoli Society stood out. On the lid of the coffin, covered with the Russian national tricolor flag, were the St. George's weapon, a pillow with the orders of the late general and the Drozdov cap.

During the liturgy, the honor guard at the coffin was carried out in shifts: the head of the Russian General Military Union, Gen. von Lampe, gen. Pisarev, who commanded the 1st Army during the last period of the armed struggle in Crimea. body, gen. Oprits, gen. Don Troops Pozdnyshev, Colonel Protasovich, Gorbach, Boyarintsev, Nilov, Shchavinsky, Koltyshev, Captain Turoverov and Drozdov officers. In addition to representatives of the four main, so-called “colored” divisions of the Volunteer Corps - Markovskaya, Kornilovskaya, Drozdovskaya and Alekseevskaya - came to pay their last respects to the deceased, as well as ranks of cavalry regiments, Cossacks of all troops, representatives of organizations and simply Russian people who wished to honor the deceased The volunteer army, one of whose valiant divisions was led into battle during the White Fight by General. Turkul.

The rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Fr. G. Lomako, who performed the funeral service co-served by five priests and two deacons, described the gene. Turkul as a fearless hero and a true Christian and recalled that he had to bury the first chief of our division, General. Drozdovsky. After the Liturgy, a solemn memorial service was served, during which the banner of the 1st Drozdovsky Regiment was brought to the coffin, bowing while singing “eternal memory” over the remains of the last division commander. After saying goodbye to the deceased at the cemetery of S. Genevieve de Bois, where the body was interred, more than 200 people who saw off the general on his last journey left the cathedral.

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There, at the Drozdovsky site, the regiment's banner bowed again for the last time over the coffin lowered into the grave. The widow of General Turkul, Alexandra Fedorovna, who came from Munich and was present at this solemn funeral, contributed to the fulfillment of the will of the deceased, who bequeathed to find his final rest among his fellow Drozdovites.

The ashes of General Drozdovsky were transported at one time when our troops left the Kuban in March 1920 from Ekaterinodar, where he was first buried in Sevastopol along with the coffin of the commander of the 1st battery, Captain Tutsevich, and there again he was buried, and this was done secretly so that Soviet troops could not desecrate their graves after we left Crimea; an attempt to find their resting place on the basis of the stored diagram ended in failure during the Second World War due to the fact that this entire area and cemetery were completely destroyed during the battles near Sevastopol in 1941-1942 and all the landmark points marked on the diagram were destroyed. In this regard, it was decided to erect a monument to Gen. in the fenced Drozdovsky section of the cemetery in S. Genevieve de Bois. Drozdovsky and all the soldiers of our division who fell on the battlefield during the civil war in Russia, whose graves remained forever unknown.

During the consecration of this monument, Lieutenant Drozdovets Genkin read his poems dedicated to the celebration, and touched upon our comrades who fell in battle with the following stanza:

..."But only there, in the harsh darkness,

Under the wind, blizzard and snow

They lie in the damp earth,

Not covered with crosses...”

This monument makes a majestic impression, it has the inscription “To General Drozdovsky and his Drozdovites”, it is almost five meters high. It is made of granite, but it does not seem heavy and does not press. It seems as if he only lightly touches the ground, breaks away from it, goes up into the heights. The Drozdovsky section of the cemetery is fenced off with large-caliber shells standing on its sides, connected by chains. Under the shadow of this monument, the last chief of our division, General Turkul, found his final resting place.

The earth has taken its toll; it is not giving back what is earthly. Our general left us without returning, but his memory will remain. She should remind us all that it is not enough to love only our homeland, but we need to fight for Russia.

In the Volunteer Army in the south of Russia and in other White armies of the era of unrest and civil war in our homeland there were quite a few real people, people strong in spirit, firm and fearless in battle, who seemed to be stronger than death itself. But even under these conditions, the name gene. Turkul, who has already distinguished himself quite a bit at the fronts Great War, became part of the history of not only the Drozdov division, but also the Armed Forces of southern Russia. It is not possible to list all the stages of his brilliant military path on the external Austro-German and internal fronts, against communism for the national existence of our country - it remains to confine ourselves to only individual strokes that characterize his extraordinary military career.

Anton Vasilyevich Turkul was born on December 11, 1892 in Odessa, where he was educated at the Richelieu gymnasium. On September 1, 1911, he was enlisted as a volunteer in the 56th Zhitomir Regiment, in which he graduated from the training team and received the rank of mln. non-commissioned officer. On August 2, 1914, he went to the front of the Great War as part of the 19th Infantry. divisions in the ranks of the 75th Infantry. Sevastopol Regiment. After being awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th and 3rd degrees, he was promoted to ensign on September 23 of the same year for military distinction. In the regiment, after his promotion, he held the positions of junior officer, company commander and battalion commander, reaching the rank of staff captain on March 23, 1916. On January 8, 1917, he was transferred along with the battalion, remaining its commander, to the newly formed 654th infantry. Rohatynsky regiment. During the specified time, Captain Turkul received military awards: St. Anne of the 4th degree with the inscription “For bravery”, St. Stanislaus 3rd degree with swords and bow, St. Anne 3rd degree with swords and bow, St. Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir with swords and bow, St. George's weapon. For taking captive the headquarters of the Austrian brigade along with its commander at the head of a team of reconnaissance officers, he received the Order of St. Great Martyr and Victorious George, 4th degree, thus decorating his chest with all the military awards available to the chief officer.

On June 6, 1917, Staff Captain Turkul was appointed commander of the assault battalion. With the same determination and inflexibility, he continued to fulfill his military duty, although he was shocked, like thousands of other officers who fought at the front, by the direction in which, after the change of historical power in Russia, events in the country “deepened the revolution” through efforts that remained unpunished. the Bolsheviks with the connivance of the Provisional Government, which was losing power from its hands. The collapse of the front intensified and after the October revolution it was no longer possible to even assume a further continuation of the war, although the conclusion Soviet government The truce with the Central Powers was not recognized for some time either on the Southwestern or Romanian fronts, on which the deceased was at that time, or on the Caucasian fronts. On December 24, 1917, Captain Turkul received leave due to the complete collapse of the active army, left the 3rd Special Division, which included his assault battalion after the collapse of the 12th Army, and went to his mother in Tiraspol, intending to make his way from there further to the Don to generals Alekseev and Kornilov, about whose appearances there were vague, vague rumors. But already on January 4, 1918, he, having learned that at the Skintea station, General. headquarters Colonel Drozdovsky, who had previously commanded the 14th infantry. division, began the formation of the 3rd brigade of Russian volunteers in order to set out with it on a campaign to join the general. Kornilov, immediately responded to the call that reached him, joined the newly formed detachment and was first enrolled as a private in the 2nd officer company, commanded by Captain P.I. Andreevsky, and then soon became an assistant company commander. February 26 Art. Art. 1918 pcs. Captain Turkul, in the position of sergeant major of the 2nd company, set out on a campaign from Yassy to the Don as part of a detachment that, having knocked out the Reds from Novocherkassk on April 25, joined the Volunteer Army and formed the core of the division, which received after the death of its chief, General. Drozdovsky name Drozdovskaya. The 2nd officer company, both during the formation of the detachment and until the end of the fighting in 1920, in November in Crimea, was considered exemplary and from its chapter. In the image of the environment, the future command staff of the division emerged: commanders of battalions, regiments, and including the last chief of the division, General. Turkul, who began his service there with the Order of St. George as a private.

After connecting with the Volunteer Army, which then occupied the area of ​​the villages of Mechetinskaya and Egorlytskaya after the end of the 1st Kuban campaign, the Drozdovites suffered their first losses as part of it, knocking out the Reds from the Gryaznushkin farm. On the night of June 9/22 to June 10/23, 1918, the volunteer army set out from Yegorlytskaya to Torgovaya. The 2nd Kuban campaign began, in which the deceased commanded the 2nd officer. Rota. After volunteer training on June 12/25 Art. They successively captured the villages of Velikoknyazheskaya, Nikolaevskaya, and Peschanokopskaya with fighting - “death, our constant guest, was already easily walking between the ranks of the Drozdovites.” - General Turkul writes in his book “Drozdovtsy on Fire”.

Near Belaya Glina, the Drozdovites collided on June 22-23/July 5-6 with the 39th infantry. division, which joined the Bolsheviks and was transferred in trains to the Kuban from the Caucasian Front, and suffered heavy losses, and the commander was killed rifle regiment Colonel Zhebrak-Rusakevich along with his entire staff. With the help of the Kornilovites, who were advancing on the flank and Belaya Glina, it was captured by the Drozdovites and 39 owls. division, having lost several thousand prisoners and big number machine guns were thrown back. After the occupation of Tikhoretskaya station on July 1/14, the headquarters of the commander of the Volunteer Army, General Denikin, moved into it.

During the period from July 15/20 to July 25/August 7, 1918, heavy stubborn battles took place, mainly in the area of ​​the station. Korenovskaya and Vyselok. The attack by the commander of the North Caucasus Soviet Army, Sorokin, on Korenovskaya brought the Red forces to the rear of the main group of the Volunteer Osmia in the Ekaterinodar direction and cut it off from the headquarters of the general. Denikin in Tikhoretskaya. Simultaneously with Sorokin's strike, the Reds' pressure from the side was also revealed. Ekaterinodar, which put the white troops between Tsinskaya and Korenovskaya in a very difficult situation. The village of Tsinskaya was occupied by the Drozdovites on July 14/27 during their advance on Ekaterinodar along railway and was located just one passage from the Kuban capital, which was defended by 12,000 Reds under the command of a former officer from the Kuban out-of-town Kovtyukh, while the column of the regiment. Drozdovsky had only about 3,000 fighters in its ranks. Advancing from Timashevskaya to the flank of the Ekaterinodar group of whites, Sorokin attacked it at the station. Korenovskaya and wedged between the infantry advancing along the railway and the cavalry of the general. Erdeli, advancing from Novo-Korsunskaya. The Whites were able to get out of the difficult situation created in connection with this double blow by the Reds only after a series of stubborn, intense battles that lasted 10 days, thanks to the valor of the troops shown in them. During these bloody battles, the commander of the officer company, Staff Captain Turkul, was seriously wounded on July 16/29 with damage to a bone in his leg. This was his first wound on the front of the Russian Civil War.

With the assistance of part of the forces of Gen. Borovsky from the Caucasian side, with a concentric offensive along all three railways leading to Yekaterinodar, the Whites captured the city on August 3/16, 1918. Here it is not possible to dwell even on the largest operations and stages of the struggle of the Drozdovites, regarding the losses of which the gene. Turkul wrote in his book that “the roll call of our dead became longer and longer...” But it is still necessary to at least give the name of those places with which stubborn battles for the Drozdovites and their heavy bloody losses are associated. This is Armavir and especially Stavropol, about the battles of which the gene. Denikin in “Essays on the Russian Time of Troubles” wrote that “the main parts of the Volunteer Army for the second time / first in the 1st Kuban campaign/ seemed to be dying.”

Near Stavropol, near the St. John-Martin Monastery, Colonel Drozdovsky was wounded in the leg on October 31/November 13, which resulted in his death on January 1/14, 1919 after surgery and amputation of his leg.

In January 1919, the North Caucasus Red Army, once formidable in numbers and resources, was finally defeated, and in February of the same year, the entire North Caucasus was completely liberated from the Bolsheviks. Back in December 1918, the transfer of volunteer units to the north began: to the Donetsk basin and to the aid of the Donets who were shaken at the front. More than four months of continuous fighting began during a period of absolutely exceptional active defense of the coal region. These operations of white troops with relatively limited forces and incommensurate with the Soviet numerical superiority in a continuous grid of railways, along which red armored trains ran on each branch, after the end of the civil war were studied at the red military academy and in courses command staff in the Soviet Union, as an example of active defense on a long front line. The intensity of these battles was further complicated by the strong spread of a typhus epidemic among the troops, which reduced the already insufficient white forces. In the report dated March 30 / April 12 / 1919 No. 4472 addressed to the Commander-in-Chief General. Denikin Chief of Staff Gen. Wrangel, who commanded the Volunteer Army at that time, Gen. Yuzefovich spoke about the situation of volunteers at the fronts in the Donetsk basin: “We need to replenish them, give them a rest, preserve these great passion-bearers... on our shoulders, laying down the future of our homeland with their sweat and blood - preserve for the future. There is a limit to everything. And these immortals can become mortal."

Returning after healing his wound again at the beginning of 1919 to the front in the Donetsk basin, Captain Turkul was soon appointed commander of the 1st battalion of the 2nd Officer General. Drozdovsky regiment. In all the battles that took on large proportions, his name, associated with the position of chief of defense of the Nikitov Uzbek, began to become famous in wider circles of the army, due to his tenacity, tactical techniques in an ever-changing military situation and the manifestation of maneuverability of the companies and the use of the so-called mobile reserve , who was in full combat readiness all the time in the cars at the station. Nikitovka, at the same time, replenishment of shells was sent, given the general lack of them in the army, to our units, holding back the onslaught of the Reds in the threatened area, which were manifested for such a significant time while defending a battalion that was quite large in length.

On May 14, 1919, the deceased was promoted to captain. During these days, the 10th Soviet Army, which threatened Rostov and the rear of the Volunteer Army, was defeated at the Grand Duchy, after which the general offensive of the white troops began, which opened an era of victories for the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Under the command of Cap. Turkula 1st battalion of Drozdovites, overcoming enemy resistance, moved uncontrollably to the north. Aware of the importance of the railway junction at the station. Lozovoy, the Reds concentrated large forces in this area, which complicated the general offensive in the direction of Kharkov. A few days before the fall of Lozova, Trotsky came to it and, considering in addition that its occupation would greatly complicate the position of the group of Red troops that were still holding out in the Crimea, he categorically ordered the Reds to launch a decisive offensive and occupy the Slavyansk station within 24 hours. Our offensive developed in two groups: on the left battalion cap. Turkula with two batteries, three tanks and part of the 8th Plastun battalion of the brigade general. Gaiman with the support of an armored train - directly to Lozovaya; and on the right the main forces of the Plastun battalion along with the 3rd Drozdovskaya battery (in the ranks of which the author of these lines was also located) in the direction of the station. Panyutino on the Lozovaya-Kharkov railway line, one stage from the first. Having defeated the Reds at the station. Gavrilovka, Drozdovites led by Cap. Turkul moved uncontrollably towards Lozovaya, passing partly behind enemy lines in two days up to 100 versts and capturing station 3/16. The offensive developed so rapidly that the Reds did not have time to blow up any bridges on the railway line, nor switches and access roads at stations: in Lozovaya more than 700 wagons loaded with various military equipment were captured, including a three-gun battery with boxes that did not have time to unload from the wagons, shells, horses and teams, many steam locomotives, an armored train in good working order, three guns when pursuing the enemy north from the stations, prisoners and other booty. The right group covered about 70 versts in 2 days, cutting the line of the Lozovaya-Kharkov railway, and the 3rd battery of the regiment was destroyed by shrapnel. Yagubov, the commander of the 12th Soviet Moscow Regiment, former lieutenant Prince Kikodze, was killed. In this battle on June 3/16, 1919 near Lozovaya, the commander of the 1st Officer Drozdovskaya Battery, Captain V. Tutsevich, who was standing on the railway embankment while a shell from a cap gun was killed by an accidental shell of his own. Dumbadze, caught on the cup of a telegraph pole, exploded above his head.

After the defeat of the Reds at Lozovaya, Trotsky declared Kharkov “a red fortress that cannot be surrendered and will not be surrendered,” as stated in his order. Captain Turkul and his 1st battalion were given assistance upon their return to the station located at the station. The Raisin Regiment was a solemn meeting ordered from above: a guard of honor consisting of an entire company of officers was posted on the station platform, the regimental orchestra played a march, and in front of them was the regimental commander, Colonel Rummel.

Trotsky’s categorical order did not correct the situation and did not delay the advance of our troops in the Kharkov direction and on June 11/24, 1919, a swift attack by the 1st battalion cap. Turkula city was busy. On July 4, 1919, the deceased was promoted to colonel for military distinction. His further military journey passed with constant success and constant military trophies through Bogodukhov, Vorozhba, Sevsk, Dmitriev, Dmitrovsk.

The main divisions of the Volunteer Army: Drozdovskaya, Kornilovskaya and Markovskaya / along the front - the first of them on the left flank of the corps, the second in the direction of Orel, the third to the right / advanced on the Central section of the front along the shortest route to Moscow. At the end of September 1919, the military situation of the Red armed forces, who fought on several white fronts, as well as on the Polish fronts, things developed critically, evidence of which could be found in a number of more serious later studies of Soviet military writers, whose works were withdrawn from circulation in the USSR. The Soviet command no longer had enough strength to delay the advance of our and also the Polish armies; At the junction of the White and Polish fronts, the 12th Soviet Army found itself in a pocket, which was not difficult to tighten provided the Poles continued to advance, because at that time the last reserves of the Reds were rushing to the front against the Whites. But the Poles entered into a secret agreement with the Bolsheviks on a temporary suspension of hostilities, which made it possible for the 12th Soviet army turn our backs on the enemy in the west and get out of the bag of battles that complicated the position of our troops in the Kiev region, and part of the city was, albeit for a very short time, occupied by the Reds. As a result of this, the right flank Soviet front against the Whites was again restored, avoiding defeat. Thus, the chance that was given at this culminating moment of the successes of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia for military victory over the Bolsheviks' position on the White and Polish fronts of the struggle, was not used thanks to Pilsudski's stratagem.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Poles did not resume military operations on their front until our withdrawal to the Don River line, the Red command launched a decisive offensive against the White forces in the south. Eight Soviet armies launched an offensive against the Volunteer and Don armies, along the front from left to right: the 12th and 14th in the Kiev direction, the 13th and 1st Cavalry in the main direction near Orel, the 8th and 9th against the Donets , 10th to Tsaritsyn and 2nd Soviet Army near Astrakhan. In the first half of October 1919 according to Art. The general battle of Orel began, with the 13th Soviet Army of Uborevich and the 1st Cavalry of Budyonny taking the Volunteer Corps in a pincer movement, pressing on its left flank (Drozdov Division) and at the junction of the Volunteer and Don armies.

The turning point in our sector of the front was not easy for the Reds and did not happen right away - for almost two weeks we left some settlements, then the situation was restored again. At the end of September, Colonel Turkul was appointed commander of the 2nd Drozdovsky Regiment, but at the same time received orders to take temporary command of the 1st Regiment, which was advancing on Komarichi, after the occupation of which the regiment commander returned to the front. Rummel, and the regiment. Turkul received an order to march with a special detachment, which included the 1st battalion of the 1st regiment with two additional companies, as well as the 1st battery from the 1st artillery. division regiment Protasovich and the 7th battery from the 4th howitzer division of the regiment. Medvedev, and go through the rear of the Reds who were pressing on the division. These operations are north of the Dmitrovsk - Kromy highway in the Oryol province. behind enemy lines, and sometimes Soviet units were taken under cross artillery fire. fire from the south /i.e. us from the front / and from the west or north / i.e. detachment of the regiment Turkul/, were accompanied by large losses for the Reds and left them so upset that for some time the outcome of the general battle might even seem undecided. But the advance of Budyonny’s Cavalry Army in the Dontsov sector exposed the right flank of our corps, and therefore a general retreat became inevitable. But even this militarily difficult flank march to Rostov was made easier by heavy fighting in the Dmitriev-Sevsk-Komarichi triangle, which the regiment waged. Turkul with his special detachment, as a result of which he was appointed commander of the 1st Drozdovsky regiment.

During long, tedious withdrawals with intense battles, when the collapse of the front occurs, as was the case later during the period of the withdrawal of the white forces from Orel to Rostov and beyond the Don, situations are often created that are very difficult for individual units, especially for those who, delaying the enemy with stubborn battles, retreat more slowly. This happened with the Drozdovites when they were almost surrounded by the Reds or were subjected to their unexpected night attacks. In such cases, shooting and shouting suddenly arose from different sides, so that it was not easy to immediately determine where exactly the main attack was being carried out, and where only a demonstration was taking place to distract the defense forces; There is no time given in order to navigate and reason in such cases with the course of events; everything must be decided at once, because the enemy has already broken into the village or city where the military unit is camped for the night. This happened especially during the intermittent front of the civil war, and this happened during the general retreat and with the Drozdovites. But the regiment In such cases, Turkula had a special ability to immediately determine where the threat was coming from and where the main danger was brewing and to personally lead the Drozdov shooters in that direction to attack in the chaos of what was happening on the street, which decided the matter.

This happened in November 1919 in Lgov, when I jumped out of bed under the sounds of frequent gunfire, screams, roars and some kind of vague ringing, as if in a fire, and rushed out onto the city street in my underwear, over which I had only an overcoat, although There was already snow everywhere, he led his riflemen precisely in the most threatened direction, captured a group of prisoners, occupied the station and, before dawn, completely cleared the city of the Reds who had broken through.

When leaving Murfa during a further retreat, the path and bridge at Rakitny were intercepted by two Soviet brigades - foot and Latvian, which complicated the situation of the Drozdovsky and Samursky regiments moving towards this crossing, as well as the cavalry of the general. Barbovich. A swift attack by the 1st Drozdovsky Regiment led by Regiment. The Reds were driven back by Turkul, movement across the bridge resumed, and the regiment commander himself. Turkul was wounded: the bullet pierced his arm, the butt of the rifle, broke the binoculars and, slipping off the silver icon on his body, went under the skin in the area of ​​the heart.

Protracted stubborn rearguard battles continued until the withdrawal to the line of the Don River, where our front stabilized again for a while. Drozdovites occupied a site in the mountain area. Azov, where the 1st regiment of the regiment. Turkula inflicted sensitive defeats on the Reds who were advancing on the division and crossing the frozen Don, invariably throwing them back to their original position.

In connection with the breakthrough of the red cavalry in the area of ​​Olginskaya and Khomutovskaya in the general direction to Tikhoretskaya, our corps had to leave this line without a fight on the night of February 17/March 1, 1920 - a general retreat of the entire front to Novorossiysk began. During the movement of the Drozdovskaya division on March 4/17 from the village of Staronizhnestibievskaya to Slavyanskaya, our retreat route was cut off by the Reds; The enemy was driven back as a result of a stubborn battle, but the 1st regiment of Colonel Turkul, who was in the rearguard, was attacked and encircled by the red cavalry. Fighting back with volleys, the regiment continued its movement to the music until the approaching armored trains, which were pressing on it, were scattered with their fire. This episode ends like this in the book of the deceased: “The first Drozdovsky regiment was saved. Our dying ones, those who were already grasping the frozen ground with their hands, for whom the Jaeger March rang further and further, looked and looked at the passing columns, and their eyes closed. This is how our eyes will close. The columns of the living will also leave us, but the memory of us will still come to life in the Russian columns, and they will also sing a song about the white soldiers, and they will also tell a legend.”

Our commander’s eyes also closed, but his memory will live on and it will pass into legend.

On Saturday, March 14/27, 1920, Novorossiysk was abandoned by our troops. The Drozdovites were transported to Sevastopol. None of the evacuated military units could be loaded with guns, horses, machine-gun carts and convoys due to insufficient tonnage. March 30/April 12 1st and 2nd Drozdovsky regiments, who managed to receive only 5 different systems light guns and, in addition to the guns, only 18 for the entire detachment of horses, were loaded onto ships and sent a day later under the command of the general. Vitkovsky in the landing operation.

On April 2/15, under enemy fire, they managed to land on a narrow sandy peninsula in Khorly, where there was a straight line about a mile away, an artificial canal through which it was only possible to land on the shore, because. there was a shallow all around. By dawn, the isthmus was occupied by the 1st battalion of the 1st regiment, which pushed back the Reds. At night, having brought up reserves, they went on the offensive. Their attacks were repulsed with heavy losses to the sounds of the regimental march of the orchestra, after which the Drozdovites went on the offensive. The next day, moving along the rear of the Reds with heavy fighting, the landing force approached Adamani, being surrounded on three sides and having the sea on the fourth. Having thus traveled more than 60 versts in complete encirclement by the enemy and on April 4/17 breaking through the front of the Red troops north of the Perekop Wall, our regiments joined the Whites defending the Crimea, completing their assigned task. In the “Notes of General Wrangel” regarding this operation it is said that “the Drozdov division fought brilliantly, having the enemy on all sides and lacking shells.”

The day after the end of the landing operation, April 5/18, General arrived in the village of Armenian Bazaar to review the division. Wrangel and promoted the commander of the 1st Drozdovsky regiment, Colonel Turkul, to major general.

When our army advanced from Crimea to Northern Tavria on May 25/June 7, the fortified positions of the Reds north of Perekop were stormed by the Kornilovites and Markovites. They managed to push back the enemy and occupy Preobrazhenka and Pervokonstantinovka, but the reinforcements brought into the battle by the latter again pushed back our advancing units. The summary regarding these battles said that “the invariably valiant Drozdovites, withdrawn from the reserve, defeated this group as well.”

On July 15/28, 1920, the Drozdovites, who moved forward according to the operation plan in comparison with the general location of the front and entered the strike group, occupied the 1st Regiment of General. Turkula, the city of Orekhov, the 2nd regiment of Colonel Kharzhevsky adjacent to the city was the large village of Preobrazhenskoye, while the 3rd regiment of General. Manstein together with the 2nd Cavalry Division of General. Morozov was held in the Kamyshuvakha region, remote from Orekhov. Using the location of our two regiments near Orekhov, which gave them the opportunity to attack us from the north, east and southeast, the Reds set themselves the goal of encircling this area and destroying the Drozdovites who occupied it. In this regard, the 3rd and 46th Sov. The divisions, with their main forces, supported by armored vehicles and fire from armored trains, carried out an energetic attack on Orekhov and Preobrazhenskoye for the whole day until darkness with the intention of exhausting our troops in battle, and with the onset of night they launched an attack on the city, bringing in the “Petrograd Brigade of Cadets” , which counted in its ranks 500 bayonets from five red military schools.

During the night, fierce battles broke out three times inside the city, mainly in the areas of the station, market square and city park, attacks were replaced by counterattacks, illuminated by volley, machine-gun and cannon fire and accompanied first by the singing of the Internationale cadets, and then by Drozdovskaya, drowning out the song of the crossover. with bayonets of the 1st regiment. This selected brigade of cadets, consisting of six battalions of 250 bayonets, which was seen off with music, flowers and speeches in Petrograd and, when passing through Moscow, was given farewell by Trotsky and whose fighters, as was established by the letters written on the bodies that day, but not yet sent killed, were confident of the success of the upcoming battle with the Drozdovites, was defeated in Orekhov in its first offensive - of its entire composition, only no more than four hundred managed to retreat to Malaya Tokmachka. The night battle in Orekhov was personally led by General. Turkul, who was always in the front line of fire and gave direct orders for its opening and conduct. The former staff captain Okolo-Kulak, who commanded the cadets, was killed later in a battle also with the Drozdovites on August 17/30 near Mikhailovka.

The next day after this battle with the cadets, both of our regiments were attacked in Orekhov by Mironov’s 2nd Cavalry Army from the north-west, but the threat from the south-east had already been eliminated, which allowed us to easily push back the enemy’s cavalry, which only managed to penetrate outskirts of the city.

During the period of fierce July-August battles on the Eristovka-Grinthal-Andreburg-Heidelberg-Muntal line, the Drozdovites, launching a short offensive, attacked the German colony of Heidelberg, located in the ravine, on July 31/August 13. The 1st regiment was advancing in the vanguard, with the 3rd battalion of Colonel Bix at the head of the column, which, turning around, pushed back the Reds in battle. They resisted and retreated. At this time, the remaining battalions and regiments in columns, combat convoys and carts with shells on ordinary horses, which had to be used due to the large shortage of horses in the army, arrived at the colony. Everyone was already preparing to move forward, to pass through the colony immediately after it had been cleared of the Reds by the 3rd battalion, so that upon further movement the entire division would deploy for an attack on a wider front. But suddenly the shooting inside the colony suddenly intensified, and it became clear that, having brought up reinforcements, the Reds began to put more pressure on the advancing battalion and regiment. Bix, but what exactly was happening inside the colony could not immediately become clear; Moreover, at dawn, which was not quite yet full, suddenly an impressive chain of men with shoulder straps and white bands and bandages on their caps appeared on the right. Rifle fire was immediately opened on it from our side, because in that direction during the course of the battle there could not have been Drozdov’s riflemen, but immediately after shouts from the chain “ours, ours” and from the ranks of our column “cease fire, these are ours - white bands and bandages are visible,” he was stopped. Meanwhile, the chain was quickly approaching, descending into the Heidelberg ravine, and suddenly opened fire at close range on a column closely standing in many ranks. In an instant, the guides from local residents near the carts with shells fled, the guns were jammed between them, it was not possible to open fire from them under these conditions, the officer company that came closest to the fire, without having time to turn around, moved back in surprise, everywhere The dead and wounded began to fall in the column, and a number of headquarters officials were also injured. The Reds, having developed intense fire, went on the attack. The position of the column, shot from such a distance, could have been very critical. Commander of the 1st Drozdovsky artillery division, regiment. Protasovich, who had great courage in battle, later said in the presence of the writer of these lines that at that moment he felt no little concern for the fate of the guns, which were unable, due to a number of carts standing in front of them, to withdraw them from the line of fire in the absence of escaped drivers there was no longer even time to defend ourselves with grapeshot.

But at this threatening moment for the division, Gen. Turkul, having pulled the team of foot scouts located closer to him, personally led 200 of its bayonets along with its commander, Cap. Baitodorov attacked under terrifying rifle and machine gun fire. The officer company, also immediately recovered, moved forward. A few more minutes and the Reds were overthrown. At such a close distance, the enemy, unable to withstand the collision, no longer has the opportunity to retreat - this entire Red chain was broken or chipped. Heidelberg was busy with us. But immediately after this, all the regiments had to turn around and join the battle, because... In addition, we were attacked from the north by the 1st Soviet division, which included selected troops from the garrison of Red Moscow; it was also supported during the offensive by the red cavalry. The battle took on wide dimensions that day and, in terms of the intensity of the fire, was reminiscent of the battles of the Great War. The Reds still suffered defeat and were driven back, but our losses were also great. Subsequently, fighting on this line of the mobile front and for the colony continued.

Residents of Heidelberg said that by urgent order of the Red military authorities, the women of the colony had to sew shoulder straps, white bands on caps and white armbands all night, immediately before the Soviet troops used the unacceptable technique described here, for which their chain paid dearly.

In his book, Gen. Turkul ends the description of individual moments of the episode given here and the battle that followed on July 31/August 13 with the following words: “Heidelberg is an extinct and sun-scorched steppe colony. Around in the dusty field, where the hot steppe wind still rustles today, white and red fighters sleep together until the Last Judgment. And above all of them walks, sways, shining in the sun, the grass of oblivion, the steppe feather grass”...

In the preface to the 2nd edition of the book, the general indicated that the struggle, waged for three years with inhuman tension and costing countless victims, at one time created a ditch between “us” and “them.” By “them” he means, of course, not the communist power - this ditch is insurmountable and no amount of time can fill it, but those who, being besotted and deceived by this power, followed it during the years of struggle and gave it victory... “To them” this the victory did not bring anything, because the people paid a terrible price for their support of Soviet power..."

On August 6/12, 1920, after a series of successful battles with the 2nd Cavalry Army and fresh Soviet divisions that arrived at our front, General. Turkul was appointed head of the Drozdovskaya division, replacing Lieutenant General Vitkovsky in this post, who took command of the 2nd Corps after the dismissal of General. Slashcheva. Touring the troops at the front, accompanied by Assistant Commander-in-Chief for Civil Affairs A.V. Krivoshein, commander of the 1st Army, General. Kutepov, commander of our 1st Corps, General. Pisarev, military representatives of the American, English, French, Serbian, Japanese and Polish services, as well as correspondents of the most widespread foreign newspapers and representatives of the Russian press in Crimea and abroad, Gen. Wrangel inspected our Drozdov division in a combat situation in the area of ​​the Friedrichsfeld colony; he thanked the “most valiant Drozdovites” riflemen and artillerymen for the glorious military service"and pinned the gene on his chest with his own hands. Turkula Order of St. Nicholas, 2nd degree, which he was awarded.

On the day of the review of the division, which took place on September 1/14, an offensive began in the Polog direction near Dontsy, which on September 4/17 turned into a general advance to the north of our forces in Northern Tavria along the entire front. As a result of this, the Drozdovsky division moved to the Slavgorod region, north of the mountains. Alexandrovsk. Gene. Turkul concentrated the entire division in the large village of Novo-Gupolovka, south of Slavgorod, guarding its entire sector only with horse patrols and not being embarrassed by the fact that this made it possible for the enemy at times to penetrate certain places on our front without a fight, or to begin to concentrate there until that moment when, in his opinion, the operation is “already ripe.” From the “Zaporozhye Sich,” as the three-week stop on the battle front line of the Drozdovsky division in Novo-Gupolovka was nicknamed, operations were constantly undertaken deep behind enemy lines, in particular even with the capture of the Sinelnikovo junction station twice, where, in joint actions with the Kuban division, General . Babiev, the headquarters of the Soviet group of forces was destroyed, and the commander of it, Comrade Nesterovich, his chief of staff, the chief of artillery and the latter’s assistant were captured, while during two battles on the days of September 9/22 and September 19/October 2 in the Sinelnikovsky operations The Reds, having suffered heavy losses, were completely disheveled, so much so that for several days the presence of their troops at the front of the division was not detected at all.

If the Drozdovsky regiments, headed by proven combat commanders, were distinguished by the speed of their attacks and the power of their strikes, then the 1st Regiment of General. Turkula stood out among them for its numerical strength, strength and combat capabilities. Even the best red troops were unable to offer him longer resistance: a short time after the start of the attack on a populated area, sometimes occupied even by large enemy forces, the battlefield almost always presented an unchanged picture - uncontrollably moving forward under heavy fire and moving on to a swift attack Drozdovsky riflemen, which overcame the last resistance of the Reds, immediately with the beginning of their retreat in all directions from a village, hamlet or colony, often in the Crimea located in a wide ravine, which made it possible to observe its gentle slope, towering above the village, jumped out in disarray batteries, machine-gun carts, combat convoys, and sometimes armored vehicles came under fire from our artillery.

In the last period of the armed struggle in Crimea, after such a successful and brilliant command of one of the best regiments of the White Army in southern Russia, the position of chief of the Drozdovskaya division was given to General. Turkul the opportunity to discover his military talents on a larger scale. In a whole series of decisive operations, not content with, and, one might even say, not recognizing, only pushing back the enemy, he showed his abilities in successfully conducting maneuver battles, using the mobility and fighting qualities of the division, he entered the rear of the Reds, covered their flanks, night movements and battles crushed the Soviet troops in front of us, often “licking” them completely from the front, as our soldiers put it, and each of such operations almost always ended with the capture of several thousand prisoners, guns, dozens of machine guns, numerous convoys with military equipment, and in in some cases, armored trains, as happened, for example, in the battle of September 19/October 2, when at the Ivkovka crossing, north of Slavgorod, which at that moment was still in the hands of the enemy, 2 armored trains were cut off and in good order when they were eliminated in battle : heavy “Ataman Churkin” and light “Ermak Timofeevich” /with minimal losses on our part/.

In such maneuverable operations, almost the entire division or two of its three regiments usually took part, if, due to the situation, it was necessary to leave one of them for the defense of the Novo-Gupolovka division’s parking area; movements were made during the night in order to attack the enemy at dawn at the target location. Turkul was the point of concentration of the Reds, who were thrown back, breaking through their front, by a battalion moving at the head of the column. Simultaneously with his attack, 2-3 squadrons of the 2nd Drozdovsky cavalry regiment of Colonel Kabarov were concentrated on one of his flanks in the dark, some of which, despite the large lack of horse personnel, were nevertheless mounted in the fall, and after the enemy, trembling , began to retreat hastily, and often in disarray, our cavalry, enveloping his flank, took the fleeing checkers and captured guns, durable booty and almost everything that still managed to escape from the swift blow of the foot attack. The division column that followed the head part of the division poured into the resulting breakthrough, expanded it and, spreading along the nearest, and in some cases even deeper, rear of the Reds, with the speed possible for the movement of riflemen partially mounted on philistine carts, cut off both in such a rear area and on the front in front of him were Red troops and spoils of war. Division Chief Gen. Turkul was during such operations not only in the lead battalion, from where he gave further orders during the course of action, but directly in the most advanced line of fire, directing the assault unit, and sometimes, if at any moment the situation did not require concentrating his attention on issuing orders , he even took part in horse attacks. No amount of persuasion, requests and even demands from his subordinates to take care of themselves helped - then fate on the battlefields, despite a number of wounds, was favorable to him.

On September 22/October 5, 1920, the miraculous icon of the Kursk Horse Mother of God arrived at the front of the Drozdov division, accompanied by the protopresbyter of the military and naval department, Bishop Veniamin, and military priests. A solemn prayer service was served, in the sermon that followed and after it, the arriving clergy said a lot of flattering things about the division and its chief, General. Turkula.

On September 23/October 6 at 18:00 he arrived at the division’s location, accompanied by the commander of the 1st Corps, General. Pisarev, commander of the 1st Army, Gen. Kutepov. On the vast square in Novo-Gupolovka in front of the church, a parade took place with a perfectly executed ceremonial march with the cheerful appearance of lined up foot and horse ranks and artillery of the division. Gene. Kutepov thanked the commanders-officers and soldiers of the Drozdovites for their “dashing military service” and proclaimed “hurray” in front of the lined up troops in honor of our chief, General. Turkula.

In the last decisive battles in Northern Tavria, Budyonny’s Cavalry Army, which broke through from the area of ​​the fortified position of the Reds near Kakhovka in the sector of the 2nd Corps of our army to our rear and, together with the 6th Soviet Army of Cork, interrupted the communications of the White troops located at the front north of the isthmuses with the Crimea , also crashed against the resistance of the strike group of the gene. Kutepov, the main core of which was the Drozdovskaya division. It is not possible here to even touch upon the course of that operation, which, according to Frunze’s plan, should have ended with the encirclement and complete destruction of the white forces in Northern Tavria, cutting off their escape routes. For this purpose, the Red command concentrated against the army of General Wrangel, which, after stubborn autumn battles accompanied by losses by that time, numbered no more than 30,000 bayonets and sabers, five Soviet armies with a total number of 103,500 bayonets and 32,700 sabers. The Reds managed, as already said, to intercept our communications with the Crimea, but they were unable to block our path during our retreat beyond the isthmuses.

As a result of the battles of our strike group on October 17/30 and 18/31, the main forces of Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army, which together with the 6th Soviet Army of Cork and Mironov’s 2nd Cavalry Army were to encircle and defeat the strike group of General. Kutepov in the Agaiman-Seragoza region and closing the escape route for almost all the forces of our army to the Crimea, were thrown out of the path of movement of the strike group, and control of the red cavalry was often disrupted, and some of its units were badly battered. So, during the attack by the 2nd Drozdovsky Cavalry Regiment of Colonel Kabarov and the 2nd Infantry Regiment of General. Kharzhevsk about the village of Otrada, engaged in a special cavalry. Kolpakov’s brigade, which housed the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Army along with Budyonny and the commissar of this army at that time, Voroshilov, almost ended the careers of both of these “marshals.” According to several Soviet descriptions, it was possible to establish that Voroshilov “was saved by a cloak, in which the pike of a white cavalryman was entangled,” and Budyonny “had to gallop through the outskirts of the village to gather squadrons” - so quickly the battle was decided not in favor of the red cavalry, which was in disarray under concentrated artillery fire from our batteries rebounded into Novo-Troitskoye. At the same time, the 1st Drozdovsky Regiment, under the command of Colonel Chesnokov, repelled the attack of the 14th Cavalry with songs. div. Parkhomenko from the same Budyonny Cavalry Army, rushing to the rescue of the army headquarters and Kolpakov’s brigade and trying to capture the one who had flown in from the Crimea to contact the general. Wrangel and the military apparatus that descended on the battlefield - our group, which included the commander of the 1st Army, General. Kutepov, had previously had no contact for more than two days with either the headquarters of the commander-in-chief or the commander of the 2nd Army, General. Abramov. In Otrada, in this battle, the entire choir of trumpeters of Budyonny’s army with trumpets entwined with red ribbons and one of the ranks of the headquarters were captured.

Analyzing the actions of our strike group as it moved from Agaiman to the isthmuses, Soviet military researcher V. Triandafilov pointed out that “the firing line that the whites managed to create during this retreat turned out to be insurmountable for the red cavalry.” According to the same author, by the end of October 18/31, the Whites had already “cleared their way to the Crimea, defeating and throwing back all units of the 1st Cavalry to the Novo-Troitskoye area.”

The next day, October 19/November 1, our group was ordered to detain the 1st Cavalry Army, concentrated in this area, in the Aleksandrovka-Otrada-Rozhdestvenskoye area, and thereby allow the remaining white units to calmly make their further withdrawal according to the order to the Crimea through the Chongar Peninsula and a narrow dam with a bridge across the Sivash at the station of the same name. The first two villages were defended by the Drozdovskaya division, and Rozhdestvenskoye by the cavalry corps of General. Barbovich and the Kornilovites.

At dawn, attacks by the red cavalry began along the entire length of the indicated front: the entire cavalry mass of Budyonny was on the move, trying to envelop us from all sides and close the encirclement ring. The Drozdovsky division had to fight back from the north, south and west; only the eastern direction remained protected, where the cavalry corps of the general fought valiantly. Barbovich and the Kornilovites. In our sector, attacks occurred almost continuously at intervals of an hour and a half. One of the first and most powerful attacks on the northern outskirts of Otrada was taken by units of the 1st and 3rd regiments, in the front ranks of which was the head of the division, General. Turkul. By his order, this attack was met at first with complete silence, and only when the red cavalry approached did he himself give the command “fire”. This first wave of attackers retreated with huge losses. There was, however, a moment when the red cavalry, at about 11 o’clock in the afternoon, burst through the cemetery into Aleksandrovka, which was defended by part of the 2nd and 4th Drozdovsky regiments, which already threatened Otrada from the rear. For this attempt, the commander of the special cavalry. The Kolpakov brigade, galloping at the head of the squadrons already along the street of the village, paid with his life, and the lava of his cavalry were thrown back.

The enemy's horse attacks continued until the evening, accompanied by intensive artillery preparation, but Budyonny failed to achieve success - after each attack, killed and wounded people and horses remained lying on the ground, horses wandered and rushed across the field, having lost their riders. The Aleksandrovka-Otrada-Rozhdestvenskoye front remained firmly in the hands of our group; Thanks to this, our other troops and rear units retreating to the Crimea could be drawn into the defile on the Chongar Peninsula without interference from the enemy.

From a copy of Budyonny’s report captured from a red orderly already in the dark, it turned out that he asked the command of the Southern Soviet Front for rest - a day on October 20/November 2 to put his units in order and referred to the fact that they were directly suppressed, fire and the tenacity of the white resistance, while suffering enormous losses in general and especially in the senior command. Indeed, for last fights were killed in the 1st Cavalry Army: commander of the 11th Cavalry. division, Comrade Morozov, commissar of the same division, Comrade Bakhturov, was seriously wounded and the commander of the 4th Cavalry was difficult to carry out from the battlefield. division of Comrade Timoshenko /the current “marshal”/, the commander of the special cavalry was killed. Comrade Kolpakov's brigade and many other ranks of command staff. Commander of the Southern Sov. front Frunze reported after the end of the fighting in the North. Tavria to Commander-in-Chief Kamenev the following: “I am amazed at the greatest energy of resistance that the enemy showed. He fought so fiercely and so tenaciously as surely no other army could have fought.”

Plan for the encirclement and destruction of our army in the North. The red command failed to implement Tavria, but the white troops could not hold out north of the isthmuses and were forced to retreat to the Crimea, and the overall losses of the army were significant. During the day of the described battle, the Drozdovsky division lost only 46 people and up to 100 horses, as was written in the diary of the writer of these lines, which is explained by the fact that we were attacked exclusively by cavalry, which never managed to jump into our ranks.

On October 26/November 8, 1920, the Reds began to storm fortified positions on the Turkish Val near Perekop and on the Chongar Peninsula. At the same time, their attack was directed through the shallow and, due to unprecedentedly severe frosts for those regions, frozen Sivash onto the Chuvash / otherwise Lithuanian / peninsula, bypassing and flanking our defensive line. This strike group Reds, numbering 21,000 bayonets and sabers with 350 machine guns and 36 guns, crushed the units of the Kuban brigade of General. Fostikova and began to spread across the peninsula. To eliminate this breakthrough, the 2nd and 3rd Drozdovsky regiments were sent, the 1st regiment was repelling the assaulting columns of the Reds on the right flank of the Turkish Wall at that time.

In order to be able to restore the situation there, our forces were clearly not enough, which led to the tragic death of almost the entire two battalions of the 2nd regiment: in the Karajanai area, only individual ranks of the 2nd battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Ryazatsev managed to get out of the battle, also The fate of the 3rd battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Potapov, which was seriously wounded and with difficulty carried out of the fire near the Timokhin farm, was also difficult.

To our right, the 3rd Drozdovsky Regiment also found itself in a difficult situation and was forced to quickly retreat, while its commander, Colonel Dron, fell mortally wounded and remained lying between our and the red chains. At this very moment, Gen Turkul, who had already fallen ill with typhus, arrived at our battle site from the front of the 1st regiment on the Turkish Val, and having learned that the wounded commander of the 3rd regiment had not been taken out of the fire, without hesitation he directed his passenger car between in chains and took the already dying Colonel Vladimir Stepanovich Dron from the battlefield. The general's driver was wounded, the windows and tires in the car were broken and the body was drilled by bullets - this is how the Drozdovites saw their commander, who showed a special example of mutual assistance in the fire in his last battle on his native land. The 3rd Regiment lost all its battalion and company commanders that day. At night, our troops defending Perekop were ordered to withdraw without a fight to the last line of fortifications at Yushuni. Mild from typhus gene. Turkul was taken to the infirmary, and the general took command of the division. Kharzhevsky.

At dawn on October 29/November 11, the Drozdovsky division, transferred from Yushuni to the area south of Karpovaya Balka, together with the units of the general assigned to it. Andguladze was moved under the command of Gen. Kharzhevsky in his last counterattack, it was supposed to break through the front of the Reds in order to throw our cavalry into the rear of the entire enemy group advancing on Yushun. The order, which seemed almost impossible for our already broken forces, was carried out. Impact of a hardened gen. Turkulom in the battles of the 1st regiment was still so strong and swift that the red chains, knocking each other down, rushed back, leaving guns and over 1,000 prisoners in the hands of the attackers. The front was broken through and the 3rd battalion of the 1st regiment, which was commanded Gen., wounded in that battle. Chesnakov was already approaching Karpova Balka. But the resulting breakthrough did not include those of our cavalry units that should have been thrown into the rear of the 6th Soviet Army of Cork, which attacked Yushun, because by that time the issue of evacuating Crimea had already been decided.

Describing this battle, Soviet military researchers V. Triandafilov and division commander Golubev ordered that “at about 11 o’clock the situation became so critical that there was a fear that the cavalry of the general. Barbovich will break through to Armyansk to the rear of the entire 6th Army. The situation here was saved by introducing the last reserves into the matter.”

This last blow, delivered to the Drozdovsky division on October 29/November 11, 1920 at Karpovaya Balka by the advancing Reds, without changing the general position of our entire army, delayed the enemy’s advance, disrupted his ranks and did not make it possible to begin immediate pursuit, to which he was ready to move after capturing the fortified position of Yushuni; this significantly increased the gap between our retreating units and the Soviet troops. If it weren’t for this, the mounted units of the Reds could have appeared in the ports even when the loading of the civilian population of Crimea began, and then, in conditions when the tragedy of the situation was determined literally in hours, the fate of many of the Russians in given time abroad, things could have turned out completely differently.

The scope of this article does not allow us to touch even in the most general form on the period of life and activity of the gene. Turkula abroad after our army left Crimea. One can only point out that in Gallipoli and Bulgaria, while our contingents maintained their military organization, he stood at the head of the Drozdovsky military units; then, after moving to Paris, at one time he was the chairman of the Main Board of the Gallipoli Society; later, in 1935, he headed the newly created National Union of War Participants, which set itself political program goals and existed until the outbreak of World War II. This national-military organization published the Signal newspaper; Her publishing house published a valuable book in military literature by Prof. gene. Golovin “The Science of War”, which treats the sociological study of war.

At the beginning of the war, in connection with the conclusion of a non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR, Gen. Turkul, who was living in Berlin at that time, was asked by the German authorities to leave Germany, which led to his move to Rome. In the final period of the last war, he entered the emerging gene on February 21, 1944. Vlasov Russian Liberation Army and was appointed by him on March 25, 1945 as the commander of a separate corps of the ROA and the head of all volunteer formations in Austria, but at that time, in connection with the approaching catastrophe of Germany, it was already difficult to achieve anything in the Russian question.

After the end of the war, he took part in the organization of the United Vlasov Committee and headed the cadres of the ROA, in addition taking an active part in the socio-political life of the Russian emigrant colony in Munich and being a member of the National Representative Office of the Russian Emigration in Germany. Maintaining contact with his military comrades - the Drozdovites, scattered throughout different countries, as well as Vlasovites, gene. Turkul edited and published the military-political magazine “Volunteer”, published since the end of 1952, which was the communication organ of the ROA cadres. The consequences, which were considered urgently necessary in the opinion of doctors who did not immediately establish the cause of the illness, and the operation performed on August 15th, predetermined the tragic outcome and broke the thread of his bright life ten minutes past twelve on the night of August 20th.

The writer of these lines had the honor of being in the combat ranks of the Drozdovsky division from August 1918 and participating in almost all the battles of the 3rd battery, inclusive of the abandonment of the Crimea and the evacuation of Sevastopol on the night of November 2/15, 1920, where our The division arrived after the aforementioned battle at Karpova Balka for loading. During the war, I kept a war diary that I kept and saw the gene. Turkula in battles, which allowed me to touch on several battle episodes with exact dates and places.

Not only exceptional, undisputed courage, not only good luck in battle and happiness, which consisted in the fact that, having often participated in the front line of fire in so many battles, fate turned out to be, despite numerous wounds, still favorable to him, but also undoubted , military talents distinguished the gene. Turkula. In the battle near Rakitny, as already mentioned, he was saved by a silver icon, which was hit by a bullet, in a clash with the 1st Soviet division at Nizhny. Kurkulak on July 29/August 11, 1920, his life was saved by a massive lighter in the pocket of his tunic on his chest; It would be possible to cite other cases of this kind, but it will be enough to point out that during the battle he was constantly in the actual sphere of close fire, regardless of the post he occupied. In a number of cases, he could, with his personal participation and orders, rectify the difficult situation into which the military units subordinate to him found themselves.

In Gallipoli, I was a member of the historical commission of the Drozdovskaya art. brigades. When reconstructing its history, I had to constantly hear from the division's staff and combat officers how well the general. Turkul understood the general situation of the front, the situation in the sector of the division and its neighbors, as well as emphasizing the fact that he himself usually sketched out and outlined the plan for the upcoming operation. And they brought constant success to the division. Mentions of Drozdovites in the last period of our struggle in the Crimea did not leave the columns of official reports, victory reports and newspapers, and in the latter, along with an analysis of military operations, the name of our general was often cited, and separate articles were dedicated to him. Officers from the white ranks who were engaged military science, noted the undoubted presence of the gene. Turkul is militarily “the spark of God,” as the valiant commander of our 3rd Drozdovskaya battery, Colonel A.G., put it. Yagubov, who died in 1955 in Paris. Well-known in the military world, General M.I. Dragomirov pointed out at one time that “a clear understanding of the entire situation during a battle is given to a rare few.” Gene. Turkul possessed this quality.

But even under such conditions, there were still military men at one time who, either out of a sense of competition between military units, or out of personal envy, and not only military commanders were distinguished by this, tried to reduce the successes of the general. Turkula only to his personal courage, success and happiness - such is our light and such are the people. Even Suvorov could not avoid such an attitude in his time, who in such cases said: “Today is happiness, tomorrow is happiness - for mercy’s sake, someday you need skill.”

All last years I was in regular correspondence with General Turkul. He was always distinguished by a cheerful mood and the hope that “we will still be able to serve Russia,” as he wrote, and at the same time emphasized that for emigration it is important “not to extinguish the spirit and will to further fight for the homeland” even in the current unfavorable political situation . These same general international conditions sometimes led him to the fact that, in order to at least a little escape from modernity, he re-read his own book “Drozdovtsy on Fire”, published in two editions, and at the same time recalled the previous difficult, but more definite in the sense of the fight against Bolshevism, the time and those battles with which for him “the roar of attacks, the brilliance of deadly lightning, the vision of heroic Russian youth uncontrollably moving forward were forever associated.”

This book, according to the general, “is not a memoir or a history - it is a living book about the living, the military truth about what Russian white soldiers were like in the fire, what they should be and will inevitably be.” In one of his letters to me, Gen. Turkul pointed out at one time that it “is a monument to Drozdov’s valor and glory; it pays more attention to the description of individual beautiful moments than to the course of the battle.” It depicts simple wars and fighters from that great group of nameless heroes, against the background of whose sacrificial service to duty, not always successful political actors play their dramatic operatic and often operetta roles.

In order to show how the gene was treated. Turkul to the struggle for freedom and national existence of our homeland against communist tyranny, several excerpts from his book should be cited here.

“650 Drozdov battles over three years of the civil war, more than 15,000 Drozdovites who died for Russian liberation / with 35,000 wounded /, as well as the battles and sacrifices of all our comrades were the realization in feat and blood of the truth that is sacred to us. If we did not have faith in the rightness of our military cause, we could not live now. The service of a true soldier continues everywhere and always. It is unlimited, and now we are just as ready to fight for truth and for the freedom of Russia, as in 1919. The fullness of faith in our cause transformed each of us. She elevated us, cleansed us. Everyone seemed to become a bearer of the general truth. All the new additions that came to us were filled with inspiration.

General Turkul: “We fought for the Russian people, for their freedom and soul, so that they, deceived, would not become a Soviet slave”

IN Soviet literature his name was usually accompanied by the epithets “punisher”, “executioner” and “bastard”. And in the Russian diaspora, one of the youngest generals of the White Army, Anton Vasilyevich Turkul, was described as a knight who devoted his entire life to the fight against Bolshevism. During the First World War he was wounded three times, awarded the order St. George IV degree and the golden weapon of St. George, received the rank of staff captain. After February revolution Anton Turkul, without hesitation, joined the shock battalion. At that time, the front was supported exclusively by these “suicide squads”, which only volunteers joined. Their distinctive sign became a chevron with a skull and crossbones on the left shoulder - a symbol of readiness to give one’s life for the Motherland without hesitation.

Anton Vasilyevich Turkul was born in 1892 in Tiraspol into the family of a Russian employee. He graduated from a real school and served in the civil department. In 1910, he voluntarily entered military service as a private as a volunteer II category in the 56th Zhitomir Infantry Regiment of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, stationed in Tiraspol. In January 1913, Turkul was transferred to the reserve with the rank of junior non-commissioned officer. With the outbreak of World War I, he completed an accelerated military school course and was released as an ensign into the 75th Sevastopol Infantry Regiment. By the end of the war, Turkul was wounded three times, promoted to staff captain, awarded the Arms of St. George, the Order of St. George 4th degree and other military orders.
After the February revolution, Turkul became the organizer and commander of the shock battalion of his division. In conditions of the disintegration of the army, the front was supported exclusively by the so-called “suicide squads”. After the October coup and the dissolution of the shock units, Anton Vasilyevich and a group of his comrades enlisted in the detachment of the general staff of Colonel Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky. At the end of the Yassy-Don campaign, in Novocherkassk he took command of an officer company. Since January 1919, Turkul commanded the 1st battalion of the 2nd officer general Drozdovsky regiment. On October 24, 1919, with the rank of colonel, he took command of the 1st officer rifle regiment of the Drozdovsky division.

The Drozdovites loved their commander and called him “sam” behind his back. Often in the attacking chains one heard: “I arrived. Well, now let’s give the reds life.” Turkul was truly an unbending fighter, as Alexei Tolstoy would say, “a distinct fighter.” During the civil war he lost three brothers. One was raised at bayonet by revolutionary sailors who burst into the hospital where he was being treated. The second was burned alive for the brand new crimson shoulder straps of the Drozdovsky division. It is not known exactly how the third brother died. Anton Vasilyevich himself, repeatedly wounded in attacks, always repeated: “My life and fate are inseparable from the fate of the Russian army, captured by a national catastrophe.”

Most of the generals of the white movement did not declare political slogans, but fought for their homeland out of a sense of patriotism, instilled in them from childhood. And they fought to the end, sparing neither themselves nor others. The writer Ivan Lukash, well-known in Russian diaspora, former member volunteer army, wrote about the last commander of the Drozdovsky officer division, General Turkul: “He is the most terrible soldier of the most terrible civil war. He is a wild madness of attacks without a single shot, a chin cut by the blued handle of a revolver, the fumes of furious fires, a whirlwind of madness, death and victories.” A man whom his officers and soldiers idolized, whom they tried to imitate in everything, whose name they tried not to tarnish with cowardice and betrayal. This case is very indicative: one day the infirmary of the Drozdovsky division fell into the hands of the Red Army. In this recovery team, most of the soldiers were former Red Army soldiers. But there were also forty officers in this team. Real White Guards, gold chasers. But for them the Bolsheviks have one thing: execution.
Turkul himself wrote in his memoirs with undisguised pride: “Among the Drozdovites, none of the captured Red Army soldiers became a traitor, not one reported that an “officer” was hiding among them. The fact that not a single white officer was handed over to death in Bolshevik captivity was a victory for man in the most inhuman and merciless times of utter Russian darkness.”

In exile, General Turkul was active and sought to continue the fight against Bolshevism. After the Crimean evacuation and the famous “Galliopoli seat” he moved to Bulgaria, and in the early 30s he moved to France. Turkul headed the Drozdovsky units, which were part of the Russian General Military Union. However, the apolitical nature of the EMRO, which was completely inconsistent with the current situation, the controversial selection of personnel, as well as a noticeable decline in activity, prompted Turkul in 1936 to create the Russian National Union of Participants in the War (RNSUV). RNSUV stood entirely on the monarchical platform. “Our ideal is the Orthodox Kingdom-Empire,” said the publications of the Union. “Our ideal is a fascist monarchy” is the famous cry of the gene. Turkula. The motto of RNSUV is “God, Fatherland, Social Justice.” The newspaper “Signal” became the print organ of the Union, published twice a month from 1937 to 1940. After in April 1938, by decree of the government of L. Blum, the general was included in the list of “undesirable persons” and expelled from France without explanation , he settled in Germany.

During World War II, Anton Vasilyevich commanded a separate Cossack brigade (approximately 5,200 people), which fought against international Bolshevism; at the very end of the war, it became part of the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (AF KONR). After the war, in Germany, Turkul spent several months in prison after denunciation to the occupation authorities.
General Turkul in 1948 wrote memoirs about Civil War− “Drozdovtsy on Fire” (another name is “For Holy Rus'”). This work is recognized as one of the most emotional, living books telling about the Civil War: “My book is dedicated to them, these future white fighters. In the images of their predecessors, the fallen white soldiers, whose souls continue to live in their souls, may they draw that impulse and that sacrifice that will help them complete the struggle for the liberation of Russia.”

Officers of the Drozdovsky division. 1920 Gallipoli.

In 1950, in Munich, under the leadership of the general, the Committee of the United Vlasovites (KOV) was formed, which published the magazine “Volunteer” - the internal communication organ of the ROA cadres. KOV united a small, but ideologically most healthy part of the Vlasovites.
General Anton Vasilyevich Turkul died on August 19, 1957 in Munich. He was buried on the outskirts of Paris in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve des Bois next to the monument to “General Drozdovsky and the Drozdovites.”

Sitting from right to left: generals Shteifon, Kutepov, Vitkovsky.
Standing (behind Kutepov): generals Skoblin, Turkul. Bulgaria, 1921

March of the 2nd officer general Drozdovsky regiment

Oh, Right God, he's languishing
Rus' is under yoke - save Her!
Your people are calling you
Show us your miracle.
Be brave, daring Drozdovites!
Forward without fear! God is with us! God is with us!
Will help us like in the days of yore
Helped with miraculous power. Yes, God himself!
Fulfilling the sacred covenant,
The one whose voice has long been silent,
He goes, saving Russia,
Forward the glorious Drozdovsky regiment.
The Lord sent us trials
And the burden of toil
But despite all the suffering,
We will never give up.
Let us hear the order again:
“Forward, Drozdovites, have a good journey!”
And our combat mission -
Return freedom to the Motherland.
The crimson icon will rise
In front of our regiment.
And your heart will beat joyfully
There is an arrow in everyone's chest.
Glorious Turkul will gallop forward,
Behind him is Conradi and the convoy.
We will hear again our cry of abuse,
Our Drozdov battle cry.