A kind of symbolic act took place that drew a line under the First World War - the FRG transferred the last tranche of $ 70 million towards repayment of reparations established by the Versailles agreements. And in this regard, it makes sense, as it seems, to recall this war - rightly or not, but called in pre-revolutionary Russia - the Second Patriotic War.
THE FIGHT UNDER THE MOSHAN
The defense attaché of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Ukraine, Colonel Juraj Beskid, in a telephone conversation with the author of this essay, will note that he does not know anything about the last battle in July 1917 of the Russian guards regiments - allies of the Czechoslovak brigade. But in July the allies fought literally side by side. The colonel often visits the magnificent memorial to the fallen Czechoslovak legionnaires, opened in 1927 in the Ternopil region. Legionnaires fought for the liberation of their native land from the Austro-Hungarian enslavement. And the diplomat did not know about the hundreds of Russian guardsmen who died and were buried almost next to this memorial. Therefore, he listened to me very carefully and sincerely thanked me for the valuable information. He promised to coordinate with the attaché of the Czech Republic the question of possible joint commemorative events at the burial place of the Russian guards. I recalled that Russian graves are abandoned and unnamed. I hope that on their next visit to the memorial, the Czechs and Slovaks will also visit the village of Mshana.
On July 2/15, 1917, an infantry brigade of Czechoslovak legionnaires (3,500) heroically fought near the Ukrainian village of Kalinovka, Zboriv district of Ternopil region, in an unequal battle with the enemy (12,500) With an unexpected counterattack, the brigade threw off the enemy and captured about 4 thousands of soldiers and officers. In the battle, 190 legionnaires were killed and 800 were wounded. This event is popularly celebrated in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And not far from Kalinovka is the village of Mshana. This is the place of the last and heroic battle of the Russian guard before its disappearance, as well as of the entire Russian army. Two months later, the Bolsheviks seized power. Why don't Russian representatives visit the village of Mshana? Why don't the Russians install there a memorial sign of the last heroic battle of the Petrovskaya brigade? It is quite possible that something else is also possible. On behalf of the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a memorial sign will be installed at the burial site of the Russian guards.
In this village, five days after the battle of the Czechoslovak brigade, there was another battle. The Russian Petrovskaya brigade, consisting of the Preobrazhensky Life Guards and Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiments, the first regiments of the regular Russian army, courageously repelled the attacks of superior enemy forces for two days. During the First World War, hundreds of thousands of our soldiers and officers were killed in Galicia. Their graves have hardly survived. During the battle near the village of Mshana, 1,300 Russian soldiers and officers were killed. The difficult circumstances of this battle did not allow the guardsmen to bury all their killed comrades themselves. The enemy does it for them. After the battle, dozens of Orthodox crosses fill the surrounding land. On the banner of the Preobrazhensky regiment there is an inscription “Kulm 1813”. The name of the German city where the Russians and their allies, the Prussians, won a brilliant victory over the Napoleonic troops. Out of respect for the courage of the Russian guards in the battle near Mshany and in memory of the victory at Kulm, the German command ordered to equip the burial places of Russian soldiers. Crosses and graves have not survived to this day. In some places, you can see some hillocks overgrown with weeds at the burial place of our compatriots. Not far from the church, in the village cemetery, you can find a mass grave, where in 2008 a memorial plate was installed with information about the five officers of the Preobrazhensky regiment buried here. Through the efforts of members of the Ukrainian society "The Last Soldier" and with the help of their Moscow associates, names were established from archival and other sources. dead officers:
captain A. R. Kondratenko, staff captain Viskovsky P. A., Second Lieutenant Mitrofanov, O. P.
second lieutenant Artsimovich M. V.
second lieutenant Navrotsky I. S.
(According to one and convincing version, Captain Andrei Kondratenko is the son of General Kondratenko Roman Isidorovich, the hero of the defense of Port Arthur.)
And two days after the installation of the slab on the grave in the Lviv edition of the nationalist party "Svoboda" there was a message that in the village of Mshana "an unheard-of story happened, the grave of the Sich archers was defiled by" Great Russian "chauvinism." The nationalists were outraged by the fact that when the plate was installed, on which there were "imperial symbols", there was a Russian consul from Lvov and "some type in the uniform of the tsarist army, and another with a St. George ribbon on his chest, and the orchestra of the local artillery unit played the march of the Preobrazhensky regiment ". The text of the march contains words that are especially hated by the nationalists-Russophobes, it mentions the Battle of Poltava and Catherine the Great.
For many years this mass grave was called the grave of the "five unknown", although in the publications of Russian emigrants they wrote that this was the grave of the officers of the Preobrazhensky regiment. In 1920, soldiers (Sicheviks) of the army of the so-called "Western Ukrainian People's Republic", which fought with the Poles, were buried in this cemetery. Two militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought against the Soviet regime, were also secretly buried near the church. Representatives of the Svoboda party, which won the local elections, demand the removal of the memorial plaque. So, after 90 years, a new battle continues here. This time for preserving the memory of the dead Russian guards. There is not a single temple of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the region. Therefore, one does not hear a funeral service over the grave with a mention of the Russian land here.
The foundation of the Czech and Slovak armies was actually laid near the village of Kalinovka. “We bow our heads before their feat and their memory, because they fought for a better life for all Slavic peoples, and the pantheon of Slovak and Czech warriors in the village of Kalinovka is a symbol of the unity of the Slavic peoples” - this can be heard more than once from the official representatives of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “Despite the fact that the fight was of local importance, it was a key moment for the Czech people. Thanks to this battle, the world learned about the Czechoslovak unit fighting with Austria-Hungary for an independent Czechoslovak state. This is what the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomas Masaryk, will say. “Kalinovka is the Rubicon of our foreign liberation movement,” the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic said when laying wreaths at the monument on the 90th anniversary of the battle of Kalinovka.
FIGHT OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK BRIGADE
In the battle of Kalinovka, Karel Vashatko (1882-1919), a non-commissioned officer who became an officer, fought bravely. Karel was the record holder in receiving military awards. He became a full Knight of St. George (4 soldier's crosses), received the officer's St. George 4th degree, the Order of Stanislav with swords, St. George's weapon and two St. George medals. The regimental clerk Jaroslav Hasek, a future writer, fought here. In battle, he, the staff clerk, had to become a machine gunner. The future General Ludwig Svoboda also fought here. Saving their families in the Czech Republic and Slovakia from repression, many legionnaires placed grenades under their heads so that the corpses could not be identified. On the shoulder straps of Jan Hus's regiment, they sewed a "Hussite red cup" - a symbol of the liberation struggle. Russian soldiers called this sign "a glass". In this battle, a massive transition of the soldiers of the Austrian army - the Czechs - to the side of the Russian army was noticed. They saw on the banner of the brigade the image of the "bowl of the Hussites" familiar to every Czech. In one defector, the legionnaire recognized his son. The legionnaires did not attack in loose formation, but in separate maneuvering groups, hiding in the uneven terrain. The enemy called this tactic "feline". And it brought success….
THE FIGHT OF THE PETROVSKAYA BRIGADE
At the end of June 1917, the offensive of the troops of the Russian South-Western Front began in the area of the city of Ternopil. In the beginning there was success and progress. They took two cities, many prisoners and trophies. This was facilitated by the tangible advantage of the Russian troops in numerical strength and in artillery. Our artillery already responded to one enemy gun shot with 2-3 shots, including those from heavy guns. However, the offensive soon ceased. And the enemy skillfully counterattacked in the place where the completely ineffective units turned out to be.
HEROIC AND TRAGIC FINAL
“… On the Southwestern Front, at the slightest artillery shelling, our troops, forgetting their duty and oath to their homeland, leave their positions. On the entire front, only in the Ternopil region are the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments performing their duty, "so the Supreme High Command of the Russian army reported with cold despair. As a result, the summer offensive of 1917 in Galicia ended in a heavy defeat and retreat. The main reason is Kerensky's transformation of the Russian army into "the freest in the world." When officers and even generals entered, the lower ranks often did not get up and called the commanders "bourgeois". And here is a specific historical fact. The "revolutionary" soldiers of the neighboring regiments, handing over the front to the Czechs and Slovaks, tried to render the machine guns unusable, and they simply buried the cartridges and grenades. And when the Czechoslovak brigade went on the attack, the duffel bags left by the Czechs and Slovaks in the trenches were stolen."
With the general collapse of the front, the Czechoslovak and Petrovsk brigades became one of the monolithic and combat-ready formations of the Russian army. To stop the breakthrough of the Austro-German forces near Ternopil and prevent the capture of front-line heavy artillery and huge stocks of military equipment and ammunition, the command sent here the Petrovsky and Czechoslovak brigades. Kerensky sent a telegram with the following words: "Let the Petrovsky brigade again cover itself with glory and crown its gray banners with new victorious laurels." The officers of the brigade were outraged by the telegram from the main destroyer of the Russian army, but they fulfilled their duty to the homeland. The Petrovsky brigade held the defense for 48 hours … Historical justice requires that a memorial obelisk in honor of our courageous compatriots - the guardsmen of the Petrovsky brigade be erected on the site of their last battle!
