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Biography, life story of Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich
Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich - a participant in the First World War, a participant in the Civil War, the head of a division of the Red Army.Childhood and youth
Vasily Chapaev was born on January 28 (February 9 according to the new style), 1887 in the village of Budaika (Cheboksary district, Kazan province). His parents were simple peasants. Father Ivan Stepanovich was Erzei by nationality, mother Ekaterina Semyonovna was of Russian-Chuvash origin. The family had many children. Vasily became the sixth child.
When Vasily was still small, the Chapaev family moved to Balakovo (Samara province). There the boy was sent to a parochial school. Ivan Stepanovich dreamed that his son would become a priest, but Vasily did not live up to his father's hopes. In 1908, the young man was drafted into the army. According to the distribution, he ended up in Kyiv. However, a year later, Vasily was returned to the reserve. According to the official version, this happened due to his ill health, but many historians are inclined to believe that Chapaev was expelled from the ranks of the soldiers in connection with his political views, objectionable to the leadership.
In peacetime, Vasily Chapaev worked as a simple carpenter in Melekesse (today this city is called Dimitrovgrad).
Military service
In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Vasily Chapaev was called to military service. He ended up in a reserve infantry regiment in Atkarsk. At the beginning of 1915, Chapaev was at the front, in the very center of hostilities. He fought in Volhynia and Galicia, was seriously wounded. In the summer of 1915, Vasily graduated from the training team, he was awarded the rank of junior non-commissioned officer. A few months later he was promoted to senior. By the end of the war, Vasily was a sergeant major. For the courage and courage shown during the battles, he was awarded the St. George's crosses and the St. George medal.
The revolution of 1917 found Vasily Chapaev in a hospital in Saratov. After some time, Chapaev became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Later he became the military commissar of the Nikolaev district (before that he commanded an infantry reserve regiment in Nikolaevsk). Vasily Chapaev created the district Red Guard, consisting of 14 detachments, participated in the campaign against General Alexei Kaledin, an adherent of the White movement. He was the initiator of the reorganization of the Red Guard detachments into two regiments of the Red Army, united under his command in the Pugachev brigade. Chapaev also participated in battles with the People's Army, from which he recaptured Nikolaevsk and renamed it Pugachev in honor of his victory.
CONTINUED BELOW
In 1918, Vasily Ivanovich was appointed to the post of commander of the 2nd Nikolaev division, then he worked at the Academy of the General Staff. He was the commissioner of internal affairs of the Nikolaevsky district. In 1919 he became a brigade commander of the Special Alexander-Gai Brigade. In the same year, he took the post of head of the 25th rifle division, which participated in the Bugulma and Belebeev operations against the leader of the White movement. During one of the battles during the capture of Ufa, Chapaev was wounded in the head.
Doom
Vasily Chapaev was killed on September 5, 1919 during a surprise attack on his division by white Cossacks. This happened in Lbischensk (Ural region). The organizer of the deep raid was General Nikolai Borodin. The main target of the attack was precisely Vasily Chapaev, who was a huge hindrance for the White movement.
According to another version, Vasily Ivanovich died in captivity.
Family
On July 5, 1909, Vasily Chapaev married Pelageya Metlina, the 17-year-old daughter of a priest. The couple lived together for 6 years, during which time Pelageya managed to give birth to Vasily three children - sons Alexander and Arkady and daughter Claudia. When Chapaev was called to the front, Metlina lived for some time in the house of his parents, but then, having taken the children, she went to the neighbor conductor.
In 1917, Vasily came home with the aim of divorcing his unfaithful wife, but in the end he limited himself only to taking the children from her and settling them with their grandparents. Soon, Chapaev began a relationship with Pelageya Kamishkertseva, the wife of his late friend Pyotr Kamishkertsev (before that, the friends agreed that if one of them was killed, the second would certainly take care of the family of the deceased). In 1919, Vasily Chapaev settled Pelageya together with his and her children from Peter in the village of Klintsovka. Shortly before his death, Vasily found out that his beloved had cheated on him with Georgy Zhivolozhnov, head of the artillery depot.
IN last years life, Vasily Chapaev maintained relations with Tatyana, the daughter of a Cossack colonel, and Anna, the wife of Commissar Furmanov.
Chapaev, Vasily Ivanovich
Chapaev V.I.
(1887-1919) - Carpenter by profession (from the city of Balakovo), was drafted into the army during the World War. The October Revolution found him in the army, in the 138th reserve. regiment, and Ch. was chosen as regiment commander; on demobilization, he formed Red Guard detachments and with them suppressed the uprising in Balakovo and the village of Berezov. In 1918, at the head of a detachment, Ch. went to repulse the Cossacks who invaded the Nikolaevsky (now Pugachevsky) district, successfully carried out the assignment and drove the Cossacks almost to Uralsk. The activities of Ch.'s partisan detachment made him legendary. During the attack of the Czechoslovaks on Samara and Pugachevsk, Ch. successfully fought against their detachments, after which he was appointed commander of the 22nd Nikolaev division. From here he is transferred to the Ural front and wages a vigorous struggle against the Cossacks. After spending some time in Gener. Academy, Ch. returned to Pugachevsk again and took command of a special group, then he was transferred against Kolchak and took Ufa. In the spring of 1919, Ch. was again sent to the Ural front, liberated Uralsk, and forced the Cossacks to retreat to Guryev. Lbischensk Ch. was taken by surprise by a Cossack detachment and drowned in the Urals during the battle (see " Memory boron The novel "Chapaev" was written about Ch. by D. Furmanov, who at one time was a political commissar in Ch.
Chapaev, Vasily Ivanovich
(Chepaev; 1887-1919) - a communist, a major organizer of the red units and a hero of the civil war. Ch. was born in the city of Balakovo on the Volga in the family of a multi-family carpenter. As a carpenter, Chepaev worked in the cities and numerous villages of the steppe Trans-Volga region before being called up for military service (1909). In the war of 1914–18, Ch. was awarded four St. George crosses for military distinction. After being wounded, Ch. ends up in the city of Nikolaevsk (now Pugachevsk), where he was caught by the October Revolution.
Ch. joined the party in July 1917. In August, Ch. was elected commander of the 138th reserve regiment. At the county congress of workers, peasants and soldiers' deputies, Ch. was on the presidium and spoke on behalf of the Bolshevik faction, being elected to the military commissariat. In Nikolaevsk, under the leadership of the party organization, Ch. deploys military work. From the soldiers who remained in the city after the demobilization, the workers of flour mills and the rural poor, Ch. forms the first Red Guard detachments. At the head of the first detachment Ch. in January 1918 suppressed kulak uprisings in Balakovo, then in Berezov and other villages. Returning to Nikolaevsk, Ch. participates in the work of the county council. In April 1918, White Cossacks from the Urals attacked the soviets of the Nikolaevsky Uyezd, and Ch. was sent with a detachment to protect them. The poor of many Trans-Volga villages knew Ch. as a carpenter, and when he began to create the first partisan detachments, hundreds of volunteers from Semyonovka, Klintsovka, Sulak, and other steppe villages came to Ch. The crowding of the White Cossacks, in early June 1918, Ch. with detachments approached the city of Uralsk, but the impossibility of transporting food and artillery supplies due to the destruction of the Ryazan-Ural Railway. D. delays his occupation. In the meantime, capitalist mercenaries - Czechoslovak legionnaires - captured Nikolaevsk on July 20, and Ch. with detachments remained in a bag between the White Cossack and White Czech forces. At this time, Ch. makes his heroic raid, passing over 70 km into the night, and frees Nikolaevsk. This blow broke the junction between the two counter-revolutionary forces, and the detachments of Ch., joining the forces of the Red Army, turned into regiments, brigades, and a division (later called the 25th). In the division, Ch. received command of a brigade, which consisted of detachments organized by him directly. In the second half of August 1918, the 25th division set off to liberate the city of Samara, and Ch. was appointed commander of the 22nd division, which he formed until November, while simultaneously pushing the White Cossacks to Uralsk.
In November 1918, Ch. was sent to the Military Academy, where he dug through only until January 1919. By order of the RVSR, Ch. was again transferred to the Ural Front. The commander of the 4th Army, M.V. Frunze, appoints Ch. the head of the special Alexander-Gai group and entrusts him with the most important sector of the front - the right flank. At this time, Chepaev successfully carried out the exceptionally daring battle of Slomikhinsky, vividly described in D. Furmanov's story "Chapaev". With the advance of Kolchak to the Volga region, Ch. was transferred at the head of the 25th division to the Samara region. Successful battles at Buzuluk and Buguruslan give Ch. the opportunity to proceed to the pursuit of the enemy, which ended with the capture of Ufa on June 9. Having received a crushing blow, Kolchak retreats to Siberia, and Ch. is transferred again to Uralsk to free the 22nd division besieged there. Having made the transition at a distance of more than 200 km, The 25th division under the command of Ch. performs this task and drives the White Cossacks further south to Guryev. On the night of September 5, 1919, halfway from the final goal in the city of Lbischensk, Ch. and his headquarters were surrounded by White Cossacks and, after a long battle, wounded, rushed into the Ural River, where he died along with other soldiers. - The 25th division, awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and Lenin, was named after Ch. Named after him: city b. Ivashchenkovo (Trotsk), plant, state farms, collective farms. From his associates, a society was created in the Middle Volga Territory, numbering up to 5 thousand members. - On the 15th anniversary of the October Revolution, a monument to Chepaev was unveiled in Samara.
Lit.: Furmanov D., Chapaev, vol. 1-2, M., 1925; Kutyakov I., With Chapaev across the Ural steppes, M.-L., 1928; Streltsov I., Red Way of the 22nd Division (Memoirs of a Chapaev), Samara, 1930; 10 years on the war [Journal of the Poltava district committee of the CP (b) U that Politich. Viddilu of the 25th Chapaevsky ... division, 1918-28], [Poltava], 1928.
H. Streltsov.
Big biographical encyclopedia. 2009 .
See what "Chapaev, Vasily Ivanovich" is in other dictionaries:
Hero of the Civil War 1918-20. Member of the CPSU since September 1917. Born in the family of a poor peasant ... Big soviet encyclopedia
- (1887 1919) hero of the Civil War. From 1918 he commanded a detachment, a brigade and the 25th rifle division, which played a significant role in the defeat of the troops of A. V. Kolchak in the summer of 1919. He died in battle. The image of Chapaev is captured in the story of D. A. Furmanov Chapaev and ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
"Vasily Chapaev" redirects here; see also other meanings. This article should be wikified. Please format it according to the rules for formatting articles ... Wikipedia
- (1887 1919), participant in the Civil War. Since 1918 he commanded a detachment, a brigade and the 25th rifle division of the Red Army, which played a significant role in the defeat of the troops of A. V. Kolchak in the summer of 1919. He died in battle. The image of Chapaev is captured in the novel ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Chapaev, Vasily Ivanovich- (28.01 (09.02.) 1887, the village of Budaiki (Cheboksary) 05.09.1919, approx. Lbischensk) a prominent site. civil war. From the cross. He served in a merchant's shop (1901), a carpenter's apprentice (1903), a carpenter. Drafted into the army (1908). Demobilized due to illness. Since 1910, a carpenter in ... ... Ural Historical Encyclopedia
Vasily Ivanovich: Vasily Ivanovich (1479 1533) Grand Duke Moscow Vasily III. Vasily Ivanovich Prince of Bryansk, son of Ivan Alexandrovich Smolensky. Vasily Ivanovich Shemyachich (d. 1529) Prince Novgorod Seversky and ... ... Wikipedia
Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev January 28 (February 9) 1887 (18870209) September 5, 1919 Place of birth ... Wikipedia
CHAPEEV Vasily Ivanovich- Vasily Ivanovich (1887–1919), member of the Civil. war. From 1918 he commanded a detachment, a brigade and the 25th rifleman. division, which played means. role in the defeat of the troops of A. V. Kolchak in the summer of 1919. Killed in battle. The image of Ch. is captured in the story of D.A. Furmanova ... ... Biographical Dictionary
Books
- Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. Essay on life, revolutionary and military activity, A. V. Chapaev, K. V. Chapaeva, Ya. A. Volodikhin. The book, on a strictly documentary basis, shows in its entirety the labor, military, and socio-political activities of the hero of the Civil War, the illustrious commander V. I. Chapaev. Book…
Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. Hero of the Civil War and Soviet mythology. He was a thunderstorm for white generals and a headache for red commanders. Self-taught commander. The hero of numerous jokes that have nothing to do with real life, and a cult film on which more than one generation of boys grew up.
Biography and activities of Vasily Chapaev
He was born on February 9, 1887 in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Kazan province, into a large peasant family. Of the nine children, four died at an early age. Two more died as adults. Of the three remaining brothers, Vasily was middle, he studied at the parochial school. His great-uncle was in charge of the parish.
Vasily had a marvelous voice. He was predicted a career as a singer or a priest. but violent temper opposed. The boy ran home. Nevertheless, religiosity remained in him, and it was surprisingly combined later with the position of a red commander, who, it seems, was obliged to be an ardent atheist.
His formation as a military man began in the years. He went from private to sergeant major. Chapaev was awarded three St. George's crosses and one St. George's medal. In 1917, Chapaev joined the Bolshevik Party. In October of the same year, he was appointed commander of the Nikolaev Red Guard detachment.
Without a professional military education, Chapaev quickly moved into the forefront of a new generation of military leaders. He was helped in this by natural intelligence, intelligence, cunning, and organizational talent. The mere presence of Chapaev at the front contributed to the fact that the White Guards began to pull additional units to the front. He was either loved or hated.
Chapaev on horseback or with a saber, on a cart - a stable image of Soviet mythology. In fact, due to a severe wound, he simply physically could not ride. He rode a motorcycle or a tarantass. Repeatedly made requests to the leadership for the allocation of several vehicles for the needs of the entire army. Chapaev often had to act at his own peril and risk, over the head of the command. Often, the Chapaevites did not receive reinforcements and provisions, were surrounded and broke out of it with bloody battles.
Chapaev was sent to take an accelerated course at the Academy of the General Staff. From there, he rushed with all his might back to the front, not seeing any use for himself in the subjects taught. After staying at the Academy for only 2-3 months, Vasily Ivanovich returns to the Fourth Army. He is assigned to the Alexander-Gaevsky group on the Eastern Front. Frunze favored him. Chapaev is determined to be the commander of the 25th division, with which he went through the remaining roads of the civil war until his death in September 1919.
The recognized and almost the only biographer of Chapaev is the writer D. Furmanov, who was sent to the Chapaev division as a commissar. It was from Furmanov's novel that Soviet schoolchildren learned both about Chapaev himself and about his role in the civil war. However, the main creator of the Chapaev legend was still Stalin personally, who gave the order to make the film that became famous.
In fact, personal relations between Chapaev and Furmanov did not work out initially. Chapaev was unhappy that the commissar had brought his wife with him, and, perhaps, he also had certain feelings for her. Furmanov's complaint to the army headquarters about Chapaev's tyranny remained without movement - the headquarters supported Chapaev. The commissioner received another appointment.
Chapaev's personal life is a different story. The first wife of Pelageya left him with three children and ran away with her lover-conductor. The second was also called Pelageya, she was the widow of a late friend of Chapaev. She subsequently also left Chapaev. In the battles for the village of Lbischenskaya, Chapaev died. The White Guards failed to take him alive. He was transported to the other side of the Urals already dead. He was buried in the coastal sand.
- The surname of the legendary commander was written in the first syllable through the letter "e" - "Chepaev" and later transformed into "a".
130 years ago, on January 28 (February 9, New Style), 1887, a hero of the Civil War was born. No, probably in national history more unique person than Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. His real life was short - he died at the age of 32, but posthumous fame surpassed all conceivable and inconceivable boundaries.
Among the real historical figures of the past, one cannot find another who would become an integral part of Russian folklore. What to talk about if one of the varieties of checkers games is called "chapaevka".
Chapai's childhood
When on January 28 (February 9), 1887, in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Kazan province, the sixth child was born in the family of the Russian peasant Ivan Chapaev, neither mother nor father could even think about the glory that awaits their son.
Rather, they thought about the upcoming funeral - the baby, named Vasenka, was born seven months old, was very weak and, it seemed, could not survive.
However, the will to live turned out to be stronger than death - the boy survived and began to grow to the delight of his parents.
Vasya Chapaev did not even think about any military career - in poor Budaika there was a problem of everyday survival, there was no time for heavenly pretzels.
The origin of the family name is interesting. Chapaev's grandfather, Stepan Gavrilovich, was engaged in unloading timber and other heavy cargo floating down the Volga at the Cheboksary pier. And he often shouted “chap”, “chain”, “chap”, that is, “cling” or “hooking”. Over time, the word "chepay" stuck to him as a street nickname, and then became the official surname.
It is curious that the red commander himself subsequently wrote his last name precisely as “Chepaev”, and not “Chapaev”.
The poverty of the Chapaev family drove them in search of a better life to the Samara province, to the village of Balakovo. Here, Father Vasily had a cousin who acted as a patron of the parish school. The boy was assigned to study, hoping that over time he would become a priest.
Heroes are born of war
In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army, but a year later he was dismissed due to illness. Even before leaving for the army, Vasily started a family by marrying the 16-year-old daughter of a priest, Pelageya Metlina. Returning from the army, Chapaev began to engage in a purely peaceful carpentry trade. In 1912, while continuing to work as a carpenter, Vasily moved to Melekess with his family. Until 1914, three children were born in the family of Pelageya and Vasily - two sons and a daughter.
The whole life of Chapaev and his family was turned upside down by the First World War. Called up in September 1914, Vasily went to the front in January 1915. He fought in Volhynia in Galicia and proved himself to be a skilled warrior. Chapaev finished the First World War with the rank of sergeant major, being awarded the soldier's St. George's crosses of three degrees and the St. George medal.
In the autumn of 1917, the brave soldier Chapaev joined the Bolsheviks and unexpectedly showed himself to be a brilliant organizer. In the Nikolaevsky district of the Saratov province, he created 14 detachments of the Red Guard, which took part in the campaign against the troops of General Kaledin. On the basis of these detachments, in May 1918, the Pugachev brigade was created under the command of Chapaev. Together with this brigade, the self-taught commander recaptured the city of Nikolaevsk from the Czechoslovaks.
The fame and popularity of the young commander grew before our eyes. In September 1918, Chapaev led the 2nd Nikolaev division, which instilled fear in the enemy. Nevertheless, the steep temper of Chapaev, his inability to obey unquestioningly led to the fact that the command considered it a good thing to send him from the front to study at the Academy of the General Staff.
Already in the 1970s, another legendary red commander Semyon Budyonny, listening to jokes about Chapaev, shook his head: “I told Vaska: study, you fool, otherwise they will laugh at you! So you didn’t listen!”
Ural, Ural River, his grave is deep...
Chapaev really did not stay long at the academy, again going to the front. In the summer of 1919, he led the 25th Rifle Division, which quickly became legendary, as part of which he carried out brilliant operations against Kolchak's troops. On June 9, 1919, the Chapaevs liberated Ufa, on July 11 - Uralsk.
During the summer of 1919, Divisional Commander Chapaev managed to surprise the regular white generals with his talent as a commander. Both comrades-in-arms and enemies saw in him a real military nugget. Alas, Chapaev did not have time to really open up.
The tragedy, which is called Chapaev's only military mistake, occurred on September 5, 1919. Chapaev's division was rapidly advancing, breaking away from the rear. Parts of the division stopped to rest, and the headquarters was located in the village of Lbischensk.
On September 5, whites numbering up to 2000 bayonets under the command of General Borodin, having made a raid, suddenly attacked the headquarters of the 25th division. The main forces of the Chapayevites were 40 km from Lbischensk and could not come to the rescue.
The real forces that could resist the whites were 600 bayonets, and they entered into battle, which lasted six hours. Chapaev himself was hunted by a special detachment, which, however, did not succeed. Vasily Ivanovich managed to get out of the house where he lodged, gather about a hundred fighters who were retreating in disorder, and organize defense.
On the circumstances of the death of Chapaev long time went conflicting information until in 1962 the daughter of division commander Claudius received a letter from Hungary, in which two Chapaev veterans, Hungarians by nationality, who were personally present at the last minutes of the division commander's life, told what really happened.
During the battle with the whites, Chapaev was wounded in the head and stomach, after which four Red Army soldiers, having built a raft from the boards, managed to transport the commander to the other side of the Urals. However, Chapaev died of his wounds during the crossing.
The Red Army soldiers, fearing the mockery of the body by the enemies, buried Chapaev in the coastal sand, throwing branches at this place.
There was no active search for the grave of the divisional commander immediately after the Civil War, because the version set forth by the commissar of the 25th division Dmitry Furmanov in his book “Chapaev” became canonical - as if the wounded divisional commander drowned trying to swim across the river.
In the 1960s, Chapaev's daughter tried to search for her father's grave, but it turned out that this was impossible - the channel of the Urals changed its course, and the bottom of the river became the final resting place of the red hero.
Birth of a legend
Not everyone believed in Chapaev's death. Historians involved in the biography of Chapaev noted that among the Chapaev veterans there was a story that their Chapai swam out, was rescued by the Kazakhs, had typhoid fever, lost his memory and now works as a carpenter in Kazakhstan, remembering nothing about his heroic past.
Fans of the white movement love to give the Lbischensky raid great importance, calling it a major victory, but it is not. Even the defeat of the headquarters of the 25th division and the death of its commander did not affect the overall course of the war - the Chapaev division continued to successfully destroy enemy units.
Not everyone knows that the Chapayevites avenged their commander on the same day, September 5th. General Borodin, commander of the white raid, who was victoriously passing through Lbischensk after the defeat of Chapaev's headquarters, was shot by a Red Army soldier Volkov.
Historians still cannot agree on what was actually the role of Chapaev as a commander in the Civil War. Some believe that he really played a prominent role, others believe that his image is exaggerated due to art.
Studying the life of Chapaev, you are surprised to find how closely connected legendary hero with other historical figures.
For example, the fighter of the Chapaev division was the writer Yaroslav Gashek, the author of The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik.
The head of the trophy team of the Chapaev division was Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak. In the Great Patriotic War, the mere name of this commander of a partisan unit will terrify the Nazis.
Major General Ivan Panfilov, whose division's resilience helped defend Moscow in 1941, began his military career as a platoon commander in an infantry company of the Chapaev division.
And the last. Water is fatally connected not only with the fate of division commander Chapaev, but also with the fate of the division.
The 25th Rifle Division existed in the ranks of the Red Army until the Great Patriotic War, took part in the defense of Sevastopol. It was the fighters of the 25th Chapaev division who fought to the last in the most tragic, last days city defense. The division was completely destroyed, and so that the enemy did not get its banners, the last surviving soldiers drowned them in the Black Sea.
Academy student
Chapaev's education, contrary to popular belief, was not limited to two years of parochial school. In 1918, he was enrolled in the military academy of the Red Army, where many fighters were "driven" to improve their general literacy and strategy training. According to the memoirs of his classmate, the peaceful student life weighed heavily on Chapaev: “Damn it! I'm leaving! To come up with such nonsense - fighting people at a desk! Two months later, he filed a report with a request to release him from this "prison" to the front. Several stories have been preserved about Vasily Ivanovich's stay at the academy. The first says that in a geography exam, in response to a question from an old general about the significance of the Neman River, Chapaev asked the professor if he knew about the significance of the Solyanka River, where he fought with the Cossacks. According to the second, in a discussion of the battle of Cannae, he called the Romans "blind kittens", telling the teacher, a prominent military theorist Sechenov: "We have already shown generals like you how to fight!"
Motorist
We all imagine Chapaev as a courageous fighter with a fluffy mustache, a naked saber and galloping on a dashing horse. This image was created by the national actor Boris Babochkin. In life, Vasily Ivanovich preferred cars to horses. Even on the fronts of the First World War, he received a serious wound in the thigh, so riding became a problem. So Chapaev became one of the first red commanders who moved to the car. He chose iron horses very meticulously. The first - the American "Stever", he rejected due to strong shaking, the red "Packard", which replaced him, also had to be abandoned - he was not suitable for military operations in the steppe. But the "Ford", which squeezed 70 miles off-road, the red commander liked. Chapaev also selected the best drivers. One of them, Nikolai Ivanov, was practically taken to Moscow by force and put as the personal driver of Lenin's sister, Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova.
"... It is curious that the red commander himself subsequently wrote his last name exactly as "Chepaev", and not "Chapaev".
I wonder how he was supposed to write his last name if he was Chepaev? Chapaev was made by Furmanov and the Vasiliev brothers. Before the release of the film on the screens of the country, on the monument to the commander in Samara it was written - Chepaev, the street was called Chepaevskaya, the city of Trotsk - Chepaevsk, and even the river Mocha was renamed Chepaevka. In order not to embarrass the minds of Soviet citizens in all these toponyms, "CHE" was changed to "CHA".
Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich (January 28, 1887, the village of Budaika, Kazan Province - September 5, 1919, Lbischensk) - a hero of the civil war. Born in the family of a peasant carpenter in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Kazan province. In 1913 the family moved to the village of Balakovo in the Nikolaevsky district of the Samara province. There he studied at a parochial school for a little less than three years. After training in it, he worked as a carpenter with his father. The Chapaev family artel built cowsheds, bathhouses, houses and even churches.
Once, when installing a cross on a church, Vasily Chapaev fell off, but did not receive a single fracture upon landing. Because of this incident, his comrades and relatives called him Yermak. This nickname remained with him for the rest of his life.
In 1908 he was called up for military service, in 1909 he was fired - formally due to an eyesore, in fact - because his brother Andrei was executed for inciting against the tsar, and Chapaev was considered unreliable for this reason. In 1909 he married Pelageya Metlina. His father Ivan was against this marriage, because. the marriage was unequal - Pelageya was a priest's daughter.
Pelageya arranged for him to work with her father to restore icons. At first, everything went well, but then Chapaev and his wife were forced to urgently leave Balakovo because of a disgruntled customer who threatened to sue him for "blasphemy". Initially, in the spring of 1913, they arrived in Simbirsk, but due to the lack of work there, they moved to Melekess.
In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Chapaev was called up for military service.
For courage and great stamina shown in the battles on May 5-8, 1915 near the Prut River, he was awarded the St. George medal. By order of the regiment dated July 10, 1915, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Dzvinyach, Vasily Chapaev, a private of the first company, was promoted to junior non-commissioned officer, bypassing the rank of corporal. For courage and bravery, non-commissioned officer Chapaev was awarded the St. George Cross of the 4th degree on September 16, 1915.
Later, for the capture of two prisoners near the town of Snovidov, by order of the 82nd Infantry Division, Sergeant Major Vasily Chapaev was awarded the St. George Cross of the 3rd degree. In the battles between the points of Tsuman and Karpinevka on September 27, 1915, Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was wounded and sent to the hospital. While he was being treated, an order was issued to promote him to senior non-commissioned officers. Thus, from the time of his arrival at the front, Chapaev was awarded three times in just six months and became a senior non-commissioned officer.
For the battles of June 14-16, 1916 near the city of Kuta, in which the Belgorai regiment took part, where Chapaev served, he received the St. George Cross of the 2nd degree. In the summer of the same year
for the battles near the city of Delyatyn he was awarded the St. George Cross of the 1st degree.
At the end of the summer of 1916, Vasily Chapaev fell seriously ill. On August 20, he was sent to the dressing detachment of the 82nd Infantry Division. He returned to the company only on September 10. But he was destined to fight only one day. Already on September 11, he again received a shrapnel wound in his left thigh and was sent for treatment to the 81st detachment of the Red Cross.
Arriving in July 1917 in Nikolaevsk, V.I. Chapaev, was appointed sergeant major in the 4th company of the revolutionary-minded 138th reserve infantry regiment. There he met with the Bolsheviks. He was elected to the regimental committee, and in October 1917 - to the council of soldiers' deputies. September 28, 1917 joined the Bolshevik Party.
In November 1917, the Revolutionary Committee of Nikolaevsk appointed Chapaev commander of the 138th regiment.
He was a member of the Kazan Congress of Soldiers' Soviets, held in November 1917.
Then Pelageya Kamishkertseva became his common-law wife (the first wife cheated on Chapaeva).
In the future, relations with his new wife also did not work out for him.
On December 18, 1917, he became the commissar of the Red Guard and the head of the Nikolaevsk garrison.
In the winter-spring of 1918, Chapaev suppressed a number of peasant uprisings. He fought against the Cossacks and the Czechoslovak Corps. In November 1918 he began to study at the Academy of the General Staff, but already in January 1919, at his personal request, he was sent to the Eastern Front against A. V. Kolchak. Chapaev commanded the 25th Infantry Division. In June 1919, his division liberated Ufa from Kolchak's troops. In July 1919, Chapaev took part in the battles to unblock Uralsk.
On September 5, 1919, during a sudden attack by the White Guards on the headquarters of the 25th division in Lbischensk, Chapaev died. The exact circumstances of his death are unknown.
From the site: http://chapaev.ru/
Chapaev to liquidate.
From July 15 to July 25, in the Usikha region, fierce battles were fought between the Chapaev units and the Beloural army. Having overcome all obstacles in their path, suffering thirst and deprivation, feeling a lack of ammunition, the Chapayevites occupied not only Lbischensk (now the city of Chapaev in the West Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan, the regional center of the Akzhaik region. It is located 130 km south of Uralsk, on the right bank of the river . Ural.), but also the village of Sakharnaya, having traveled over 200 kilometers.
The Beloural Cossack army began to retreat south, stopping in every farm. The White generals created plans for "massive cavalry attacks", and then launched an energetic preparation for a raid on Lbischensk, where Chapaev's base and headquarters were located.
According to the version set out in the book of Evgenia Chapaeva (great-granddaughter of Vasily Chapaev) in the book “My Unknown Chapaev”, in early September, the security of Lbischensk was not sufficiently reinforced, as aerial reconnaissance reported that there were no whites nearby.
To quote from chapter 16 of this book:
“Late in the evening, part of the wagon officers who traveled to the steppe for hay returned there. They reported that the Cossacks had attacked them and hijacked the carts. This was reported to Chapaev and Baturin, who arrived. Slomikhinskaya and Kazil-Ubimskaya.The chief of staff Novikov reported that neither cavalry reconnaissance nor reconnaissance flights of the air squadron, carried out in the morning and evening, for several days, found the enemy.And the appearance of relatively small Cossack detachments and patrols was no longer a rarity.
Chapaev calmed down, but gave the order to strengthen the guard. Novikov, a former officer who worked as an assistant chief of staff of the division, and shortly before that, headed the headquarters, was beyond suspicion. And the information he reported about the enemy did not correspond to reality: the enemy was not far away with large cavalry forces and aimed at Lbischensk.
As they say, the enemy does not sleep ... This is exactly what some people from the arriving air squadron and the division headquarters did. Technical capabilities aircraft of that time and the lack of anti-aircraft means of combating them allowed flights at low altitudes. The pilots, taking off into the air twice a day, could not fail to notice the cavalry of several thousand horsemen ... Moreover, the reeds of the dried up Kushum River are not a forest to hide such a mass of the enemy.
SO, PILOT...
About them, it is about them that it is necessary to say special. The fact that they were traitors became clear even then, on September 4, 1919. But few people could have imagined what guided them ... Do you think it was an incredible love for the abdicated Tsar Nicholas? Or a fierce hatred for the Bolsheviks? WRONG!!!
Everything is much more prosaic - MONEY, MONEY and again MONEY ... And very large ones. 25 thousand in gold ... Yes, for the head of Chapaev, alive or dead, they gave exactly that much ...
There were four pilots. I will allow myself to name only those who died, like Chapaev, on September 5, 1919. These are Sladkovsky and Sadovsky. And the survivors, that is, 2 pilots, shared the resulting profit and settled down perfectly in a bright future.
And yet, man is incomprehensible. Very little time will pass, the powder forties will come, and two traitors in civilian life will become heroes Soviet Union in the Patriotic War...But that's not all. They will take responsible positions in the government and all their lives will "cover up" the topic of the civil war, and especially of Chapaev. They must have been embarrassed..."
Information about traitor pilots is also available in the book of I.S. Kutyakov "Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev", published in 1935. Kutyakov Ivan Semenovich - commander of the 73rd brigade of the 25th division, after the death of V.I. shot in 1938.
However, there is an opinion that the pilots nevertheless reported information about the whites. On the Chronograph website, in the article "The Secret of Chapaev's Death," it is written that the air reconnaissance of the Reds, flying over the steppe, discovered a Cossack corps in the reeds. A message about this immediately arrived at the army headquarters, but never went beyond its walls. A version is put forward that, perhaps, traitors acted at the headquarters, probably from among the military experts of the tsarist army, attracted by Lenin and Trotsky to cooperate. In addition, military experts were not among those killed during the assault on Lbischensk.
However, the version of the betrayal of the pilots is refuted by the article "Chapaev - destroy!", On the part of the Whites, which tells about the attack of the White Cossacks on Lbishensk.
"It was a very exhausting campaign: on September 1, the detachment stood all day in the steppe in the heat, being in a swampy lowland, the exit from which could not go unnoticed by the enemy. At the same time, the location of the special detachment was almost noticed by the red pilots - they flew very close. When in the sky airplanes appeared, General Borodin ordered the horses to be driven into the reeds, carts and cannons to be thrown with branches and armfuls of grass, and we ourselves to lie down next to each other. fast march to get away from dangerous place. By evening, on the 3rd day of the journey, Borodin's detachment cut the Lbishensk-Slomikhinsk road, approaching Lbischensk by 12 versts.
The same article talks about the betrayal of the Reds, but different:
“In order not to be discovered by the Reds, the Cossacks occupied a depression not far from the village itself and sent patrols in all directions to reconnaissance and capture “tongues”. Ensign Portnov’s patrol attacked the Red grain convoy, partially capturing it. and found out that Chapaev is in Lbischensk. At the same time, one Red Army soldier volunteered to show his apartment. "
Another version is connected with the pilots. Mikhail Dmitruk, in his article “What Chapaev Prayed For,” concludes that the commander died as a result of Trotsky’s intrigues:
"It seems that he began to strive for another, better world, where he could enter only by performing great feats, defending the Faith and the Fatherland. Hence - the amazing, simply fantastic courage and heroism of Vasily Chapaev. But "the bullet is afraid of the brave, the bayonet does not take the brave" - he had to fight a lot, terrifying opponents before reaching the desired goal ... When Vasily Ivanovich realized that the Soviet government was engaged in the extermination of the Russian people, he began to actively interfere with this. Chapaev ceased to carry out the orders of Leon Davydovich Trotsky, as erroneous, and led the division away from unnecessary losses, which were demanded by the commander in chief. Since then, Vasily Ivanovich has become a danger to the Bolshevik leadership, because he thwarted his secret plan to drown all of Russia in blood. As a result, the commander began to hunt ... his superiors.
One betrayal followed another. The headquarters of the division was continually cut off from the main forces - so that it would be attacked by an enemy dozens of times superior to a handful of Chapaevs. But each time he miraculously managed to outwit and defeat the enemy.
Finally, Leon Trotsky presented Vasily Chapaev with the last "gift": four airplanes, ostensibly for reconnaissance of enemy forces, but in fact - for informing the belyaks. The pilots cheerfully reported to the divisional commander that everything was calm around, while huge forces of the White Guards were gathering from all sides. Here his headquarters was again, as it were, accidentally cut off from the main forces. They cut it off when several fighters of the training company remained with the division commander. They were doomed, but bravely took the fight and died heroes."
This version, of course, is delusional, if only for the reason that Trotsky, although he was one of the founders of the Red Army and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the RSFSR, was not Chapaev's immediate superior. Secondly, there is no evidence that Chapaev suddenly became an opponent of the Bolsheviks' power. Chapaev did have a conflict with the commander of the 4th Army, Khvesin, who did not send reinforcements to Chapaev when he and his division were surrounded. You can read more about this in Chapter 10 of the book "My Unknown Chapaev".
Here is what he wrote in his report to the commander of the 4th Army:
"I am waiting for two days. If reinforcements do not come, I will make my way to the rear. The headquarters of the 4th Army, which received two telegrams daily demanding help, brought the division to such a position, and to this day there is not a single soldier. I doubt whether there is one STEADY at the headquarters of the 4th army in connection with BURENYN FOR TWO MILLIONS (meaning the uncovered conspiracy at the headquarters of the 4th army.)
I ask you to pay attention to all the heads of the division and the revolutionary councils, if you value comradely blood, DO NOT SPILL IT IN vain. I HAVE BEEN DECEIVED BY THE BITCH KhVESINY, COMMANDER OF THE 4th ARMY, who told me that reinforcements were coming towards me - all the cavalry of the Ural division and an armored car and the 4th Malouzensky regiment, with which I was given the order to advance on p. Perelyub on October 23, but I not only could not complete the task with the Malouzensky regiment, but now (I don’t know where it is).
As a result, Khvesin was removed from command of the 4th Army on November 4, 1918 - long before Chapaev's death. In this telegram, it is noteworthy that it is addressed to the commander of the 4th Army, that is, Khvesin, and Chapaev calls Khvesin in the third person a scoundrel.
There is also another version. The second common-law wife of Chapaev was Pelageya Kamishkertseva. It is also written about her in the book in chapter 4. However, Chapaev’s relationship with her did not work out - Chapaev was looking for any convenient excuse to appear at home less often. As a result, Pelageya started an affair with the head of the artillery warehouse, Georgy Zhivolozhinov. All the women in the area went crazy for him: he seemed to hypnotize them. Kamishkertseva also could not resist his charms. Once Vasily Ivanovich returned home ... And then - everything is like in a joke about a deceived husband and an unfaithful wife. The moment was the most intimate, and one of the fighters of the division, accompanying Chapaev, broke the window and began to scribble from a machine gun.
Kamishkertseva quickly realized what treason threatened her with, grabbed Chapaev's children and began to hide behind them. Vasily Ivanovich reacted more calmly to the incident and simply stopped talking to Kamishkertseva. Pelageya was very tormented and one day, taking Chapaev's youngest son, Arkady, she went to Vasily Ivanovich's headquarters.
He didn't even let her in. And Kamishkertseva, out of anger, drove into the headquarters of the whites and said that Chapaev’s fighters had training rifles, and the headquarters had no cover. This version is also told by Evgenia Chapaeva, but it is not voiced in her book.
So, let's move on to the version of Chapaev's death. The canonical, shown in the film - he, wounded, drowns, swimming across the Urals, fleeing the whites. There is another option, also associated with the Ural River.
In the newspaper Bolshevik Smena (April 22, 1938), Chapaev's youngest son, Arkady, wrote an article about his father's death. Surely he was guided by the story of one of the participants in those tragic events:
“Three assault groups gradually moved towards the center of the village, disarming the resisting Chapaevs. The Cossacks could not cordon off the house where Chapaev was. himself a hundred fighters with machine guns and rushed to this special platoon.
He was wounded in the stomach. They laid him on a hastily put together raft made from half a gate. Two Hungarians (and many internationalists fought in the Chapaev division - Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs ...) helped him cross the Urals. When they reached the shore, it turned out that the commander had died from blood loss. The Hungarians buried the body with their hands right on the shore in the sand and covered the grave with reeds so that the enemies would not find and desecrate the deceased."
The version with the Hungarians finds another confirmation. Here is what Klavdia Chapaeva, daughter of Vasily Chapaev, recalls:
"... In 1962, I received a letter from Hungary. The former Chapaevites, who now lived in Budapest, wrote to me. They watched the film "Chapaev" and were indignant at its content; according to their story, everything turned out completely different ...
From a letter: “... When Vasily Ivanovich was wounded, Commissar Baturin ordered us (two Hungarians) and two more Russians to make a raft from the gate and fence and, by hook or by crook, be able to transport Chapaev to the other side of the Urals. We made a raft, but we ourselves were also bleeding. And Vasily Ivanovich was nevertheless transported to the other side. When rowing, he was alive, groaning ... But as soon as they reached the shore, he was gone. And so that his body would not be mocked, we buried him in the coastal sand. Buried and covered with reeds. Then they themselves lost consciousness from loss of blood ... "".
There is another option, also associated with the Ural River. Viktor Senin recalls:
“In 1982, I, then a correspondent for the newspaper Pravda, had, together with Viktor Ivanovich Molchanov (deputy editor of the information department of Pravda), visit the Ural River, where the story of Chapaev happened.
So, as local old-timers said, Chapaev swam across the river with the fighters and hid in nearby houses. The local Cossacks gave the divisional commander to the whites. Chapaev's last fight ensued. In that saber battle, Chapaev hacked to death 16 soldiers. There were no equals to him in saber fights. They shot the division commander in the back ... They wrote an essay " Last Stand Chapaev", but, of course, it was not published ... ".
In the already cited article "Chapaev - destroy" the death of Chapaev is also associated with the crossing through the Urals.
"The special platoon allocated to capture Chapaev broke through to his apartment - headquarters. The captured Red Army soldier did not deceive the Cossacks. At this time, the following happened near Chapaev's headquarters. The commander of the special platoon, Belonozhkin, immediately made a mistake: he did not cordon off the whole house, but immediately led his people into the courtyard headquarters. There, the Cossacks saw a saddled horse at the entrance to the house, which someone was holding inside by the reins pushed through the closed door. Belonozhkin’s order to those in the house to go out was answered by silence. Then he shot into the house through the dormer window. The frightened horse shied into side and dragged out from behind the door of the Red Army soldier holding him. Apparently, it was Chapaev's personal orderly Pyotr Isaev. Everyone rushed to him, thinking that this was Chapaev. At this time, the second man ran out of the house to the gate. Belonozhkin shot at him with a rifle and wounded him in the arm. It was Chapaev. In the ensuing confusion, while almost the entire platoon was occupied by a Red Army soldier, he managed to escape through the gate. In the house, except for wow typists, no one was found. According to the testimonies of the prisoners, the following happened: when the Red Army soldiers rushed to the Urals in a panic, they were stopped by Chapaev, who rallied about a hundred fighters with machine guns around him, and led a counterattack on Belonozhkin’s special platoon, who had no machine guns and was forced to retreat. Having knocked out the special platoon from the headquarters, the Reds sat down behind its walls and began to shoot back. According to the prisoners, during a short battle with a special platoon, Chapaev was wounded for the second time in the stomach. The wound turned out to be so severe that he could no longer direct the battle and was transported across the Urals on the boards. Sotnik V. Novikov, who was watching the Urals, saw how someone was transported across the Urals against the center of Lbischensk before the very end of the battle. According to eyewitnesses, on the Asian side of the Ural River, Chapaev died from a wound in the stomach.
In addition to the conspiracy version with Trotsky, there is another conspiracy around Chapaev. According to her letter to the Hungarians, Claudia Chapaeva was organized by the KGB. Here is what Yuri Moskalenko writes on the portal shkolazhizni.ru:
“Are you not embarrassed by the fact that the letter definitely found the addressee? Even if Vasily Ivanovich had named his daughter’s name to his rescuers, and they remembered the name, which was not so simple for the Hungarians, could they hope that three decades later, in the terrible crucible war, the daughter will survive and will be at the same address?
According to her, the legendary commander did not at all perish in the cold waters of the Urals, but safely moved to the other side, sat out in the reeds until dark, and then went to the headquarters of the 4th Army to Commander Frunze "to atone for sins" for the defeat of the division.
There are two pieces of evidence for this. The first belongs to a certain Vasily Sityaev, who mentioned his meeting in 1941 with a colleague of the division commander, who sacredly guarded the cloak and saber of the missing Chapaev. The former Chapayevite said that a platoon of Hungarians successfully ferried him across the river, and the division commander let go of the guards to “beat the whites” and himself went to Samara to Frunze.
The second evidence is much “fresh” and began to “walk” immediately after the crisis of 1998, when one of the veterans of the division “sold” to journalists a “sensational” fact, they say, he met Vasily Ivanovich already gray-haired and blind, but with a different surname. The head of the division told that, having released the Hungarians, he wandered to Samara, but on the way he became seriously ill and spent three weeks in bed in one of the farms in the steppe. And then he spent a certain amount of time under arrest at Frunze. By that time, the division commander was already on the list of heroically dead, and the party leadership found it more useful to use Chapaev as a legend than to announce a miraculous "resurrection". There was a reason for this - if the Red Army found out that the legendary commander killed the personnel, and he himself fled from the whites - this would have been a shameful stain on the entire "worker-peasant".
In a word, the divisional commander was declared an “information” blockade, and when he “blabbed” in 1934, they were hidden in one of the Stalinist camps. And only after the death of the leader of the peoples, he was released and placed in a home for the disabled. By that time, he was already harmless: who would have believed the old man's nonsense? Yes, in any madhouse you can find not only Chapaev, but two or three Napoleons and Marat with Robespierre. And even more so, he would hardly have lived until 1998 - at that time he should have already turned 111 years old!
And this “version” looks very much like the story of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, who allegedly did not die in March 1968, but was securely hidden in the basements of the KGB because he seemed to have seen a cloud with angels next to the Moon ... ".
Well, the author of this text himself denied this conspiracy version. As you can see, Chapaev, like any legendary person, is overgrown with legends regarding the circumstances of his death. Moreover, the soil for legends is nutritious - after all, Chapaev's body was never found.
On the centrasia.ru website, Gulmira Kenzhegaliyeva sets out a version according to which Chapaev was captured:
“Academician Aleksey Cherekaev cites the story of the death of the Chapaev division, which he heard from the lips of old-timers: “The Chapaevs, who were in the village of Lbischenskoye, were driven by the Cossacks with whoops, whistles and shots into the air to the Urals. Many threw themselves into the river and immediately drowned. September was already standing, the water was cold. It is difficult to cross it even for an experienced Cossack, and here are the men, and even in clothes. "Almost every year, the village boys on September 5, on the day of memory folk hero, tried to swim across the Urals from Krasny Yar, working with both one hand and two hands. Even from Moscow, a team of special swimmers came at one time. But no one has yet been able to swim across the river in this particular place.
Local old-timers also told Cherekaev about what actually happened to Chapaev: “He was caught, interrogated. Then, together with the headquarters chests, they were loaded into carts, ferried across the Urals and sent under escort towards Guryev. Ataman Tolstov was there.” Further traces of Chapaev are lost. It was said that the protocols of his interrogations were in Australia, where General Tolstov had moved. Academician Cherekaev, who at one time worked as an adviser to the Soviet embassy in Australia, tried to get hold of these documents. But the descendants of the White Guard Tolstov did not even want to show them. So it is not known whether they really exist or if this is another legend about Chapaev."
And, finally, there is another version of the circumstances of Chapaev's death, also associated with captivity. It seems to be the most convincing and is stated in the article by Leonid Tokar in the newspaper "Your Privy Councilor" No. 13 (29) dated November 5, 2001. According to this version, Chapaev, along with the headquarters, was captured by the Whites and killed. I suggest you read it in its entirety.
Leonid Tokar. Could Chapaev have reached the river?
Recently, while working at the National Library of Russia and looking through a binder of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper for 1926, I caught my eye on the headline of one of the articles "The Arrest of the Murderer of Comrade Chapaev." The article said that according to a message from Penza dated February 5, 1926, the local GPU arrested the former Kolchak officer Trofimov-Mirsky, who in 1919 killed the captured Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. After the Civil War, Trofimov-Mirsky settled in Penza and served as an accountant in the artel of the disabled (1).
The Penza newspaper "Trudovaya Pravda" dated February 5, 1926 also published an article "The Man-Beast" about Trofimov-Mirsky arrested in Penza. In 1919, Trofimov-Mirsky commanded a combined detachment consisting of four Cossack regiments and operating in the zone of the Fourth Army of the Soviet Republic. Trofimov-Mirsky was known for his ruthlessness and bloodthirstiness, especially towards captured Red Army soldiers. They were instructed in their detachment "not to take prisoners", and if he found out that there were prisoners who had survived in any way, he personally destroyed them.
The same article says that Comrade Chapaev and his staff were captured by Trofimov-Mirsky's detachment. The Chapaevites were captured by negligence. By order of Trofimov-Mirsky, everyone was brutally killed (2).
The articles interested me because they contradicted the generally accepted version of the death of Chapaev while crossing the Ural River. Moreover, one of them appeared in the central newspaper almost a month before the death of the author of the novel "Chapaev" D.A. Furmanov.
So, the novel "Chapaev" was written by Furmanov in 1923. It would seem that everything that is written in the novel is an axiom. However, the existing ambiguities and inconsistencies in the history of the death of V.I. Chapaev allow us to conclude that the commander of the 25th division died on the territory of Lbischensk, and not crossing the Urals.
To clarify the facts stated in the articles, I turned to official sources.
First of all, if a legendary or well-known person dies, then the central newspapers must invariably report on his death. However, when studying the central press for September-October 1919, no mention of the death of Chapaev was found. Newspapers wrote about the death of commanders, commissars of regiments and divisions, but not a single line about Chapaev. This is all the more strange because, according to the "Soviet Military Encyclopedia" (3), by the decree of the Turkestan Front of September 10, 1919, the twenty-fifth rifle division was named after V.I. Chapaev. Everything is explained quite simply. Vasily Ivanovich - the only commander of the 25th division died in the civil war. The earliest publication of the novel "Chapaev", which I found, dates back to 1931, and all the memories of eyewitnesses date back to 1935 at the earliest, that is, after the release of the film "Chapaev". Few of these eyewitnesses were identified. Another fact is interesting. The further from the events of those years, the more eyewitnesses to Chapaev's death appear, the more textbook these memories become.
There are contradictions in official sources. So, in the Soviet military encyclopedia (Voenizdat, 1980, vol. 8) it is said: “At dawn on September 5, 1919, the White Guards attacked the headquarters of the 25th division in Lbischensk. The Chapaevites, led by their commander, courageously, to the last bullet, fought against superior forces enemy. Chapaev, wounded in battle, tried to swim across the Ural River, but died under enemy fire. " The place of death is indicated as near the city of Lbischensk. In the encyclopedia" Civil War and military intervention in the USSR "(4) it is said that the White Guards attacked the headquarters of the division suddenly, and Chapaev already entered the battle with the guards of the headquarters; wounded, he tried to swim across the Urals, but died. The place of death is not indicated. It also says, that the name of Chapaev was assigned to the division on October 4, 1919.
Encyclopedias did not clarify the picture, therefore, to clarify the events of September 1919, the following literature was used as additional literature:
-Kutyakov I.S. Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. Lenoblgiz, 1935, (Kutyakov Ivan Semenovich - commander of the 73rd brigade of the 25th division, after the death of V.I. Chapaev led the division, later commanded divisions until 1920, was awarded three orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of the Khorezm Republic , an honorary revolutionary weapon, was arrested and shot in 1938);
-Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. Historical and biographical essay. Moscow, Military Publishing House, 1938;
- I.S. Kutyakov. Battle Path of Chapaev (Microphone materials of the Local Radio Broadcasting Department of the All-Union Radio Committee). Compiled by P. Berezov, Moscow, 1936.
- Chapai. (Collection of folk songs, fairy tales, tales and memories of V.I. Chapaev). Compiled by V. Paymen, Moscow, 1938;
- Chapaevtsy about Chapaev, Saratov, 1936.
The choice of this literature is not accidental. The fact is that these are the earliest publications about Chapaev. The more time passed since the death of the division commander, the smoother the memories became, more and more like Furmanov's book. Suffice it to say that already a year later, in the book "Chapaevtsy about Chapaev" in the memoirs of I.S. Kutyakov, some sharper assessments of V.I. Chapaev's activities are already missing.
Based on the available sources, we will try to model the events of that time.
So, by the end of August 1919, the position of the division of V.I. Chapaev was many times worse than the situation in which the army of General Tolstov was located.
Firstly, the division was cut off from the base in the city of Uralsk by more than 200 kilometers. The complete absence of transport put the division in a catastrophic situation not only with ammunition, but also with bread.
Secondly, the strategic situation of the Ural army of General Tolstov was more favorable, due to the fact that his cavalry detachments could freely make deep marches and maneuvers in the vast expanses of the steppe. Chapaev, however, could not counteract this, since the huge waterless steppes were insurmountable for the infantry. In addition, to assist the group under the command of one of their commanders Aksenov (six rifle regiments and two cavalry divisions), the last reserve was given, consisting of two rifle regiments, a cavalry regiment and a cavalry division. "Chapaev was left without a reserve, and a commander without a reserve is no longer able to control the battle. On the contrary, then events control him. In the struggle, this leads to defeat, disaster, death." (5)
Thirdly, Chapaev's troops suffered huge losses, especially during the capture of the villages of Mergenevskaya and Sakharnaya during frontal attacks, when chains of six rifle regiments took these points with bayonet strikes. Killed and wounded here were lost up to three thousand people. In addition, it was necessary to meet the urgent need for ammunition.
For these reasons, instead of advancing on the Kaleny outpost, Chapaev ordered to stop at a place to rest.
The headquarters of the division, the supply department, the tribunal, the Revolutionary Committee and other divisional institutions with a total number of almost two thousand people were located in Lbischensk. In addition, in the city there were about two thousand mobilized peasant wagon trains who did not have any weapons. The protection of the city was carried out by a divisional school in the amount of 600 people. The main forces of the division were at a distance of 40-70 kilometers from the city.
Lbischensk was attacked by the 2nd Cavalry Corps of the Cossacks under the command of General Sladkov, consisting of two Cossack divisions.
The Cossacks moved towards Lbischensk at night and on the morning of September 4 stopped in the Kuzda-Gora tract (25 kilometers west of Lbischensk), hiding in dense thickets of reeds.
On the morning and evening of September 4, four airplanes of the 25th division took off for reconnaissance, however, they did not find anyone.
It is obvious that the pilots simply did not report to Chapaev about the movement of the White troops.
Kutyakov’s book directly states this: “Many of us were convinced that the pilots serving Chapaev were strangers in the Red Army. For six days, making morning and evening flights. Even if we assume that ?, how could they not to notice the enemy, the 2nd cavalry corps of the Cossacks could not be found on the march, since it moved exclusively at night, then during the day it stood still 25 kilometers from our airfield! "Myopia" of the pilots was therefore very suspicious. The personnel of the squadron was certainly counter-revolutionary. And so it turned out. On September 5, at 10 o'clock in the morning, all four airplanes flew to the enemies in Kalmykov to report the destruction of the base and headquarters by the Whites Chapaev" (6). On the evening of September 4, Chapaev was informed about the attacks of Cossack patrols on the division's transports, but, having air reconnaissance data, the division commander did not attach any serious importance to this.
Here is what I.S. Kutyakov writes about the organization of the defense of Lbischensk.
"Lbischensk was guarded by a divisional school. There was no well-thought-out defense plan. The head of the school set up outposts on the outskirts of the city, usually with an infantry platoon each; the outposts were located at a distance of two kilometers from each other and did not even have a telephone connection between them. or the outpost opened fire, messenger cadets were sent to clarify the incident.Inside the city at night, foot patrols were guarded.In case of an alarm, the cadets scattered throughout the city in private apartments gathered on Cathedral Square ... There were many armed people at the headquarters, but they were not consolidated into detachments, were not distributed by sectors and combat areas.
That is why, when the battle began, our fighters did not know what to do. The most active ran to the headquarters on Cathedral Square. Shooting in the streets forced them to run into the first houses they came across, shooting back on the go. The darkness of the night made it impossible to navigate in a street fight. Both the fighters and their commanders could not understand where the enemy was delivering the main blow from. It was impossible to establish a battle formation under these conditions. Chaos and confusion quickly turned into panic" (7).
Under the cover of night, the Cossacks penetrated through a weak guard into the city they knew. The city was especially well known to the First Lbischensky Cossack Regiment, which consisted mainly of natives of the city.
Furmanov in his novel is surprised about this: “There is no doubt that the Cossacks had a connection with the villagers. At least in some huts, ambushes were immediately discovered; rifles and machine guns fired from there; divisional warehouses and institutions were indicated extremely quickly - everything was prepared and was considered in advance" (8).
Simultaneously with the attack on the outposts, at about one in the morning, the Cossacks opened rifle and machine-gun fire on the convoy, bombarding the apartments of the commanders with grenades. The battle immediately took on a chaotic character.
Chapaev, along with his small convoy, part of the cadets of the divisional school and employees of the political department, defended on Cathedral Square in the city center. The area was blocked by the 2nd Cavalry Division of the Cossacks. The memoirs cite only the names of the corps commander, General Sladkov, and the commander of the 6th Chizhinsky Cossack Division, Colonel Borodin. It is quite possible that the 2nd division was commanded by Trofimov-Mirsky.
After four hours of battle, at dawn, the whites set in motion artillery, an hour later the shells finally broke the resistance of the Red Army. Lbischensk was in the hands of the Cossacks.
By six o'clock in the morning, individual groups of Chapaevs began to make their way to the Ural River in order to escape by swimming. The Cossacks took this opportunity into account and pulled up not only machine guns but also artillery to the river. The Whites mercilessly shot the fighters who threw themselves into the water.
It should be noted that the Ural River was located one and a half to two kilometers from the city.
By this time, Chapaev was still on the square, and the second Cossack division surrounded Cathedral Square from all sides, cutting off the red way to the river.
It is not clear how Chapaev and a group of his orderlies could get through to the river under these conditions. Moreover, all the commanders who were on the square died, with the exception of Vasily Ivanovich, who allegedly was able to go to the river.
In the historical and biographical essay "Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev" (9), it is indicated that the decision to retreat to the Urals was made by the Chapaevs in the second half of the bottom on September 5, but at dawn all exits from the square were cut off.
If you look at the recollections of eyewitnesses, it becomes clear that you can only trust the recollections of I.S. Kutyakov, who writes about everything from the words of the only surviving commander - the chief of staff of the division Novikov. Kutyakov at that moment was the head of the 25th division and directly restored the course of events that took place in Lbischensk. In September 1919, D. A. Furmanov was in the political department of the 4th Army and could write his novel only from the words of Kutyakov and Novikov. The memoirs of the rest of the fighters of the division should be approached with a huge amount of skepticism. So, having read the memoirs of the head of the organization of the supply of flour to the division Kadnikov and the fighter of the division Maksimov - the only ones who were interviewed as a witness to the death of Chapaev in 1938 (10), one gets the impression that Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev moved around the city as he wanted and was simultaneously in many places . Well, how can you trust the words of a person who says: "The shooting was carried out at random, in the direction from which explosive bullets" dum-dum "flyed in thick rain" (11).
Colonel Motornov, chief of staff of the Ural White Army, describes the events in Lbishensk as follows: “Lbishensk was taken on September 5 with a stubborn battle that lasted 6 hours. As a result, the headquarters of the 25th division, the instructor school, and divisional institutions were destroyed and captured. airplane, five cars and other military booty" (12).
After the capture of the city, the whites committed massacre over captured soldiers and commanders of the 25th division. The Cossacks shot in batches of 100-200 people. At the places of executions, many suicide notes were found on scraps of newsprint and smoking paper. On September 6, the 73rd brigade of the 25th division liberated the city from the whites. The Reds were in the cities for only a few hours. At this time, the search for Chapaev's body was organized, but they did not bring any results. In the bathhouse under the floor they found Chief of Staff Novikov, seriously wounded in the leg. He reported everything that happened in Lbischensk. The fact of the search proves that Chapaev died in the city, and not while crossing the river. Otherwise, why would his body need to be searched among the dead in the city. Moreover, in total, up to five thousand people died in the Lbischensk region. In his novel, D.A. Furmanov writes that there are three huge pits behind the village (read - Lbischensky) - they are littered to the top with the corpses of the executed.
The fact that even according to eyewitnesses there are several versions of his death speaks in favor of the capture and subsequent death of Chapaev. Whether Chapaev went to the Urals, only those Chapaevs who were on the square could say, but they all died. The only surviving chief of staff, Novikov, saw Chapaev there all the time while he was on the square. Novikov simply could not see the death of Chapaev while crossing the Urals, as he hid under the floor of the bathhouse so as not to be destroyed by the whites.
Additional information can be provided by the materials of the investigation file of Trofimov-Mirsky, which should be kept in the archives of the Penza FSB.
Based on the foregoing, it can be confidently asserted that the unidentified body of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was buried in one of the mass graves in the city of Lbischensk (now Chapaev).
From the site: http://chapaev.ru/47/Gibel-CHapaeva--Versii-/
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