White condottieri roam all over China with impunity and, using their high military qualifications, win victories (People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Georgy Chicherin to the head of the Foreign Department of the GPU Meer Trilisser on January 16, 1925).
The first Russian émigré detachment in the service of the ruler of Manchuria, Marshal Zhang Zuolin, appeared during his war with General Feng Yuxiang in 1923. The idea, apparently, belonged to Russian military advisers who served at the headquarters of the marshal. The detachment enrolled 300 Russian volunteers, but it was soon disbanded due to the signing of peace with Fyn. The idea of creating a Russian detachment was revived in 1924 in connection with the outbreak of the second war in September this year between Zhang Zuolin and the coalition of marshals of central China led by Wu Peifu. Zhang Zuolin's army was commanded by General (later Marshal) Zhang Zuchang, who during the Russo-Japanese War, as a Khunhuz sergeant major, collaborated with Russian intelligence and received the rank of captain of the Russian army, and later worked as a contractor in Vladivostok. In the headquarters of Zhang Zuchang, who spoke Russian well, a large number of Russian military and civilian specialists were concentrated.
The Russian detachment, soon renamed the 1st Brigade of the 1st Mukden Army, was originally formed by Colonel V. A. Chekhov, later promoted to general in the Chinese service. In the summer of 1924, the brigade was headed by General Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev, and Colonel Chekhov became its chief of staff. During the Civil War, Nechaev, with the rank of colonel, fought in the corps of General Kappel, with whom he participated in the Siberian Ice Campaign. In 1920, he was the head of the Chita garrison and the commander of the 1st Manchurian Cavalry Division. In 1921 he was promoted to lieutenant general, at the end of the same year he emigrated to Harbin, where he worked as a cabman. 1924 Nechaev received the rank of colonel in the Chinese service from Zhang Zuchang and was put in charge of the Russian brigade.
A brigade of 200 Russian volunteers (two companies and a machine-gun and bomb-throwing team) with two guns received their baptism of fire on September 28, 1924 in the valley of the Temin-khe river. Acting under the command of Nechaev on the right flank of the Mukden army, the brigade overturned the troops of Marshal U Peifu, which decided the outcome of the battle. According to the testimony of Colonel N. Nikolaev, "in the very first battle a handful of Russians defeated a large detachment from the U Peifu army, and after that the victorious march of the small Russian brigade began." After the battle, Nechaev received the rank of general from Zhang Zuchang.
Soon, the unit was replenished with a third company and an armored train. Having overcome the Great Wall of China, she took the city of Shanhaiguan, while the Russian brigade, less than a battalion, defeated several Chinese divisions. Overthrowing the U Peifu units, the brigade moved to Tianjin, which was taken at the end of December 1924. There, the former Minister of Primorye N. D. Merkulov received the post of senior political adviser to the tupan (governor) Zhang Zuchang. As part of the brigade, an equestrian division was formed from two squadrons.
The Russian military school ("Shandong Officer Instructor Detachment") was created after Zhang Zuchang's army occupied Shandong province and his residence was transferred to its capital, Qinanfu. In total, about 500 people of Russian youth passed through the school
At the beginning of 1925, it was decided to attack Nanjing and Shanghai. On January 16, the Russians embarked on ships and went down the Yellow River, going behind enemy lines. On January 18, they took the city of Chikiang. According to historian D. Stefan, Nechaev's detachment “sowed horror where it passed. The Russians fought desperately, knowing what fate awaits stateless prisoners. The successes of the White Guards excited the Bolsheviks so much that the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin was forced to turn to Trilisser, who was in charge of the KGB agents abroad, with a request to take action.
After a five-day assault, the Russians took the Kianing fortress on January 29. By that time, the detachment already numbered 800 people and, despite the losses, its number was constantly growing. The division of armored trains under the command of Colonel Kostrov was withdrawn from the brigade and directly subordinated to Zhang Zuchang, and all parts of the brigade were reorganized into two regiments - the 105th Separate Consolidated and Separate Equestrian. The brigade itself was renamed the Vanguard Group of Forces of Marshal Zhang Zuolin.
In January-March 1925, the Nechais won a number of victories in the Nanjing-Shanghai region. In the summary of the Information Department of the Red Army it was reported: "When the Russians attacked, the Chinese troops of Chi-Tsi-Huang, despite the huge numerical superiority, literally melted and fled, so that, for example, 600 Chinese soldiers defending the railway station retreated in front of three Russians." At the end of January, Kostrov's armored division occupied Shanghai, landing troops there. The city with a population of three million surrendered to two Russian armored trains. U Peifu's last ally, General Chi-bi-wen, fled to Japan.
Within six months, a handful of White Guards turned the tide of the Chinese civil war, defeating the hitherto invincible Wu Peifu and making Zhang Zuolin the main candidate for the rulers of China. This was followed by a lull at the front, the Russians were withdrawn to Changzhou for reorganization and replenishment, including at the expense of General Glebov's Cossacks who arrived from Shanghai. The armistice, which lasted from March to October 1925, was held by the Nechaevs in the town of Tayanfa, where the 2nd Russian battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Gurulev was created, which also included the Junker company.
In October 1925, the troops of Marshal Song Chuanfang, an ally of Wu Peifu, attacked the Mukdenians. On October 21, Zhang Zuchang opposed them. On October 22, he conferred the rank of lieutenant general on Nechaev, and major generals on Chekhov and Kostrov. By that time, there were 1200 people in the Russian brigade.
In November 1925, Nechaev's detachment, located 400 kilometers south of Beijing, almost died due to the betrayal of Zhang Zuolin's troops, bribed by Wu Peifu and the communists. Zhang's 5th Division mutinied and opened fire on the Russian rear. On November 2, at Kuchen station, 3 Russian armored trains and about fifty Russian soldiers, including Major General Kostrov, were killed. According to officer Zubets, “Kostrov, Meyer, Bukas - all the old officers of the armored trains remained on the battlefield. The wounded Kostrov was carried by his comrades-in-arms for a long time under heavy fire. He was wounded in both legs at once. The porters were knocked out one by one. The bullet that hit the head was finally finished off by Kostrov himself. They laid him on the ground, covering his face with a jacket. After the battle, the enemy did not leave a single person alive on the battlefield. Embittered by stubborn resistance, the Chinese stabbed, shot, cut everyone who was still alive and who did not guess or could not put a bullet in the forehead in advance, one by one.
The Soviet press presented the disaster of Kostrov's detachment as the defeat of the entire Nechaev brigade, but in fact the Russians already launched a counteroffensive on November 5 and fought fierce battles for two days. Their outcome was decided by the flight of the Chinese units of Zhang Zolin, after which the Russians had to retreat to the city of Tayanf to avoid being surrounded. To replace the dead armored trains, Russian engineers at the beginning of 1926 at the plant in Jiangnan built four new armored trains - "Shandong", "Yunchui", "Honan" and "Taishan".
In the same November 1925 g.in Manchuria, General Guo Songling raised a mutiny, which almost ended with the fall of Zhang Zuolin. The mutiny was attended by at least 600 agents (instructors, agitators, etc.) who penetrated into Manchuria from the USSR. Guo Songling and a number of generals were bribed by the communists who acted in alliance with Wu Peifu and Feng. According to the communist plan, after the destruction of Zhang Zolin's main force - the Nechaev brigade - Wu Peifu and Feng were to finish off Zhang's Chinese troops and come to the aid of the rebels in Manchuria. It was expected that Soviet employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway would block the railway and prevent troops loyal to Zhang Zolin from approaching Mukden. However, the Nechais in stubborn battles thwarted the plans of the conspirators and saved the Northern Coalition. Tianjin was taken from Peifu and Feng, but they could not advance further, and the conspirators in Manchuria were defeated without external support.
On December 7, 1925, the Russians took the city of Tayanfa, and on December 10, Tavenko. At this time, the Feng People's Army launched a counteroffensive against the troops of Zhang Zuolin, who were advancing on Beijing. The main brunt of the blow fell on the Russian armored train, which tried to break into the Chinese capital, but, having received great damage, was forced to return. By the end of 1925, the position of the Northern Coalition had stabilized. From mid-December 1925 to the end of January 1926, an armistice was in force, which the Russians held in Vuzun.
In mid-February 1926, the Russians were transferred to the Northern Front to Lingchen against the Feng People's Army. On February 21, they took the city of Changzhou with a battle. At the end of February, the Machan station was taken. Fyn's troops in this battle were led by the Soviet instructor Primakov, according to whom “the chains of whites, dressed in Chinese uniforms, advanced to their full height, only occasionally firing. This dashing offensive showed great disrespect for the enemy and the habit of being victorious."
In early March, heavy fighting began for Tianjin, the capital of Zhili province. On the night of March 15, the enemy made an attempt to destroy the Russian detachment by penetrating into its rear. When the column of enemies was discovered, Nechaev personally went on the attack in front of his chains with one stack in hand. As a result of a fierce battle that raged all day, out of several hundred Chinese who broke into the Russian rear, only about fifty survived. However, in the evening, during one of the attacks in both legs, Nechaev was seriously wounded. One of his legs was amputated, and he was forced to spend the next six months chained to a hospital bed.
By the end of March, Tianjin had been taken, but in just a month the Russians had lost 256 people. In early April 1926, the Northern Coalition launched an offensive against Beijing, during which Feng's army was defeated. At the end of April, Russian units triumphantly entered the Chinese capital - for the second time in a quarter century. Peifu finally lost his influence. An armistice was signed in May.
At the beginning of October, Zhang Zuchang inspected the Nechais. According to the report of the Russian newspaper Vozrozhdenie published in Paris, “In a speech addressed to the cadets, Zhang Zuchang emphasized that the struggle against the Bolsheviks did not end with the occupation of Tianjin, Peking and Kalgan, and that he considered it his duty to fight the hated enemy, wherever he did not appear until its complete destruction. In the same way, Zhang Zuchang noted the sacrificial service of "a handful of Russian brave men" who continue to actively fight the Bolsheviks with weapons in their hands along with his troops."
On December 9, 1926, by decree of the general meeting of the Knights of St. George of the Russian Brigade, Zhang Zuchang was awarded the 4th degree of the Order of St. George the Victorious “for his personal courage and selfless bravery in battles with the Bolsheviks and their allies. The White Marshal was extremely moved and thanked the Russians for the honor shown to him. The next day, he, in turn, awarded the Russian officers the Order of the Fat Ear, as well as his lowest degree - all Russian soldiers and Cossacks.
Meanwhile, the situation in the south of China became more complicated. Back in May 1925the Kuomintang party, led by Chiang Kai-shek, with the support of the USSR, began a war against the marshals. The main military adviser under Chiang Kai-shek under the pseudonym "Zoi Galin" was Vasily Blucher. In addition to military advisers, the USSR provided assistance to the Kuomintang and Communists with intelligence information and abundant supplies of weapons. On December 3, 1926, the headquarters of the Russian group received a secret message from the headquarters of Zhang Zuchang that "a difficult and stubborn war with Red Canton is ahead." In February 1927, the Russian units were transferred to the south and defeated the units of U Peifu in Honan, who then concluded peace with the northerners and an alliance against Chiang Kai-shek.
At the end of February, the Russians advanced to Nanking and Shanghai, where they took up positions against the Kuomintang troops. However, near Shanghai, the troops of the northerners were put to flight by the Kuomintang. On March 20, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek's troops cut the Shanghai-Nanjing railway. At the North Station in Shanghai, the Russian armored train "Chang-Chzhen" was cut off from its own people, the team of which consisted of 64 people, headed by Colonel Kostrov. Maneuvering on the remaining free section of the rail, the armored train fired back from the advancing Kuomintang from all guns, so that soon the area surrounding the station turned into a sea of fire. The armored train was armed with large-caliber naval guns, which inflicted terrible losses on Chiang Kai-shek's troops. From time to time, the Russians let the enemy's chains come close to close, after which they methodically shot them with machine guns and mortars. The hopes of the Kuomintang that the Russians would soon run out of ammunition were not justified, because the armored train was packed to the brim with them. "Chang-Zhen" fought a continuous battle for two days. On the night of March 24, part of his team managed to break through the Kuomintang barriers and take refuge in the European settlement, the remaining half of the day fought until almost all were killed or captured by the Chinese, who cut off their heads.
From Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek's forces continued their Northern campaign to Nanking, where Nechaev's units were deployed, stationed in the center of the Northern Coalition troops near the lakes on the Yangtze River. Under the pressure of the Kuomintang, the northerners fled almost without a fight, abandoning the Russian infantry, which was supported by only one armored train. The Russians, as always, fought excellently, but they had to retreat under the pressure of an outnumbered and better armed enemy, led by Soviet military experts. Nevertheless, the Nechais managed to escape to the other side of the Yangtze, repelling an attempt by Chiang Kai-shek's troops to force it.
In June 1927, Nechaev resigned, citing the fact that, due to a severe injury, he could not command his detachment as before. Merkulov's intrigues also played a role in his departure. As a reward for his service, Nechaev received from Zhang Zuchang two houses in Qingdao.
In early July 1927, the Russians defeated the Kuomintang and occupied the city of Lingcheng. In the same month, they participated in a successful march to Qingtao and Qians, and at the end of August they again took the city of Suzhou. Following this, parts of Chiang Kai-shek and Feng launched a counteroffensive. Throughout October, battles went on with them with varying success. However, Nechaev's resignation and the loss of general command of the Russian forces soon made themselves felt.
In November 1927, at the Suzhoufu station, the Fynovites captured 4 Russian armored trains. The total number of Russians performing a combat mission in this area on the Lunghai Railway was 900 people, of which 240 were on armored trains, the rest were an infantry brigade. The combined forces were commanded by the chief of the armored division, Major General Chekhov, and the infantry, by Major General Sidamonidze. During the retreat, the Honan, Peking, Taishan and Shandong armored trains were surrounded. The teams were forced to abandon them and make their way to their own, during which the Russians lost about a hundred people killed.
To the setbacks at the front were added months of salary delays and rivalry between commanders. Desertion from the Russian brigade became widespread. Events in the south of China had an even more significant impact on her condition. At the end of 1927, Chiang Kai-shek drowned an uprising against him in Canton by the Chinese Communist Party in blood, killing about 5,000 Communists. Now that Chiang Kai-shek had become an enemy of the Communists, the Russians saw no point in fighting against him. In the Russian brigade, calls began to be heard to leave for Manchuria in order to fight the Bolsheviks there, or to go into the service of the Kuomintang.
Meanwhile, hostilities continued, taking an increasingly unfavorable turn for the northerners. In April 1928 they approached the capital of Shandong - Tsinanfu, where the headquarters of the Russian brigade was located. Panic began in the city. Zhang Zuchang fled, leaving everyone behind, including the White Guards, to whom he owed his former military glory. The evacuation had to be taken over by Major General Mrachkovsky, the military commandant of the city. He managed to take out of the city all the civilian Russians and the most valuable property, after which the Russian units left the city, into which Chiang Kai-shek's troops entered on May 2. The Russians withdrew in two columns, one of which included the armored division, the other - Semyonov's cavalry detachment.
Fortunately for the northerners, the Japanese intervened in the war, not wanting to over-strengthen the Kuomintang. Accusing them of injuring several Japanese in the capture of Tsinanfu, they attacked and defeated their troops. In response, Chiang Kai-shek withdrew his army from Shandong.
At the end of May, Zhang Zuchang launched his last counteroffensive against the troops of Chiang Kai-shek and Feng, in which the Russian brigade also took part. After the northerners took several cities, they again rolled back. By June, Zhang Zuchang's army had almost completely lost its combat capability, many units went over to the enemy. At the end of June, the Chinese, who served in the armored division, revolted and captured the Hubei armored train, killing almost all of its Russian team. At the same time, the Manchu dictator Zhang Zuolin died as a result of an explosion, staged either by the communists or by the Japanese. His son Zhang Xueliang, who succeeded him at the head of Manchuria, came into conflict with Zhang Zuchang.
Having received a demand from the Mukdenites to immediately disarm the Shandong troops, Zhang Zuchang ordered to open hostilities against them. The Russian brigade was placed in an extremely difficult position. On the one hand, the four-year service to the tupan demanded to remain faithful to him, on the other hand, waging a war on two fronts simultaneously was tantamount to suicide. At a meeting of senior Russian commanders at the Shimen station, it was decided to surrender to the Mukdenites. However, only two armored trains under the command of General Makarenko and Semyonov's cavalry regiment managed to do this. The surrendered Russians were transported by the Mukdens to Manchuria and disbanded there.
The rest of the Russian units were surrounded by the Shandongs and forced to engage in battle with the troops of Zhang Xuelyang. After several days of fighting, the Mukdenians were defeated, after which Zhang Zuchang concluded a truce with Zhang Xueliang, but soon decided to go to Chiang Kai-shek. At the last moment, he changed his mind about surrendering and disappeared, having received the news that Chiang Kai-shek was going to kill him. However, the remnants of his Russian troops still surrendered to the Kuomintang. The latter, to the surprise of the Russians, received them very well and invited them to serve in their ranks. In total, about 230 former Nechais were in the service of the southerners. Most of them, however, were soon disbanded as a result of the peace between Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang.
Thus ended the four-year Chinese epic of the Nechaev brigade, during which Russian soldiers, fighting in incredibly difficult conditions, in a real Asian hell among the yellow devils, managed to defend the honor of the white Russian weapon.
After his resignation, Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev settled in Dalny, where he was engaged in political and social activities. He was a member of the Russian General Military Union and the Russian Fascist Party, headed the department of the Bureau for Russian Emigrants. In September 1945, Nechaev was captured by the Soviet troops invading Manchuria and transported to Chita, where he was shot by a military tribunal.
Note that Marshal Vasily Blucher, Nechaev's opponent in the war of 1925-1927, was arrested by the Chekists back in 1938 and died in prison after eighteen days of torture. Four months later, he was posthumously sentenced to death for "participation in an anti-Soviet organization of the right and a military conspiracy and espionage in favor of Japan" (Soviet punitive organs cannot be denied a kind of black humor). Blucher's first two wives were shot (the third wife went to a concentration camp), his brother and his brother's wife.
It is estimated that in just four years of fighting, more than 2,000 Russians died - almost half of the Russian composition of the Nechaev brigade. In 1926, a monument was erected at the Russian cemetery in Tsinanfu, which was a high granite rock topped with an eight-pointed cross. The inscription in Russian, English and Chinese languages was carved on the monument: "To the blessed memory of Russian soldiers who died in the ranks of the Shandong army in the fight against the Bolsheviks." The monument and cemetery were later destroyed by the communists.
“It's no exaggeration to say that a handful of Russians have really made a huge impact on Chinese history. So, in the early 1920s. there was almost no doubt that China was destined to be unified according to the scenario of Wu Peifu, who beat all his opponents without any problems before the appearance of the Russians. The appearance of a small Russian detachment made the wheel of Chinese history spin in a different way. Thanks to a handful of almost unarmed Russians, “in five minutes the Chinese ruler” Wu Peifu was defeated and left the political scene. If the Russian mercenaries had not joined Zhang Zuchang's army, he, like Zhang Zuchang, would have been finished off by Wu Peifu. At the same time, in late 1925 - early 1926, it was the Russian mercenaries who thwarted the communists' plans to destroy the entire Northern coalition during the Guo Songling rebellion and prevented the collapse of Zhang Zuolin … According to foreign experts, a handful of Russian mercenaries postponed the victory of the communists in China by twenty five years, which directly affected the course of world history (SS Balmasov. White emigrants in military service in China).
