Assistance was provided by the allies insofar as: on the one hand, measures were taken so that the Bolsheviks did not gain a decisive upper hand, but on the other, so that the whites could not overthrow them.
"We do not trade in Russia" the famous words of General Denikin. This is the answer to the question of the reasons for the defeat of the White movement. Reading the memoirs of the White Guards, one is involuntarily amazed at the spiritual nobility of these people. These are patriots, Russian people to the core. RISKING THE LIFE, THEY are trying with all their might to save their Motherland. The generals understand the struggle against Bolshevism as their duty, as a continuation of the service to the country, which whitened their whiskey gray, and showered orders on their chests. The leaders of the White movement, without exception, are making the same mistake, which will cost them defeat. They regard Russia's "allies" as noble people like themselves, and endow them with qualities that the gentlemen from London and Paris did not have at all.
If the generals Krasnov, Denikin and Wrangel had at least a general idea of who was involved in the destruction of Russia, they would not have expected any help from this side in rebuilding it. If the leaders of the White movement knew about the behind-the-scenes agreements of the Entente with the Bolsheviks, if they suddenly looked into the dark rooms of the Western missions in Moscow! If only they knew how much money the Socialist-Revolutionary and Bolshevik parties grew and strengthened!
If, if, if …
"For the Great, United and Indivisible Russia" - the White Guards who fought with the Bolsheviks raised toasts. And they did not think that for more than a hundred years the goals of British policy were completely different: "For a Weak, Fragmented and Divided Russia"! How could the Anglo-Saxons, pursuing diametrically opposed goals, help the Russian White Guards? Yes, and "helped", clearly adhering to their own interests. The leaders of the White movement did not want to notice, did not want to think about the reasons for the treacherous behavior of yesterday's "brothers in arms." Instead of the gradual implementation of the liquidation of Russia, Denikin, Kolchak and Wrangel saw only inexplicable things and the strange behavior of representatives of the Entente.
Now is the time to remember those myths of the Civil War that have developed over the past decades. The West, which sought to hide the ends in the water, and the Bolsheviks, who "miraculously" retained power, were interested in their creation. The first was to disguise their help to Lenin in the seizure of power and in its further retention. The second was extremely important to hide the foreign roots of the happened coup and exaggerate their own merits in the victory. So what are these myths? They can be divided according to the timing of their emergence: into the old "Soviet" and the new "anti-Soviet".
Soviet historiography left us a legacy of a whole bunch of clichés-myths about our "allies" in the Entente:
♦ the first myth: a foreign intervention was carried out aimed at overthrowing the Soviet regime;
♦ myth two: the "allied" governments in the Civil War supported the whites and provided them with tremendous assistance.
In the modern "anti-Soviet" presentation, the picture will turn out to be somewhat different:
♦ myth three: in the Civil War, the "allies" supported good whites;
♦ The fourth myth: the bad Reds were supported by the Germans.
Both "new" and "old" myths are equally far from reality. Take, for example, today's bulge in the thesis of German support for the Bolsheviks. If it is stupid to take it for granted, then an uncomplicated scheme emerges: the Germans are bad, and the British and French, who do not help the Reds, are good. Simple and clear. Actually, for this simple reasoning, all the lies about the Civil War were built. The Soviet scheme differed from the modern one in minor details. Open any of our textbooks before 1985, and you will read that in the Civil War both the "allies" and the Germans supported the bad whites, and the good Reds managed to defeat them all exclusively with advanced Marxist teachings under the leadership of the wise communist party. Well, let's figure it out.
Let's start with the first myth: there was a foreign intervention aimed at overthrowing the Soviet regime. To clarify the situation, let us turn to the primary sources: “For three years, there were English, French, and Japanese armies on the territory of Russia. There is no doubt that the most insignificant exertion of the forces of these three powers would have been quite enough to defeat us in a few months, if not a few weeks."
This is Lenin's formulation. It is difficult to argue with Ilyich - he is one hundred percent right. In a few weeks the British and French could have strangled the Bolshevik revolution. But then big Russia would appear on the world map again. Then there would be no Civil War. Factories have not collapsed, thousands of kilometers of railway tracks, hundreds of bridges would not have been destroyed. Millions of Russian people would have remained alive, millions of babies would have been born, and to this day the people of the great country would have been one and indivisible. The objectives of British intelligence were diametrically opposed …
It is hard to believe, but the foreign intervention that began in Russia, as official historians assure us, to overthrow the Soviet regime, started with the "call" and with the light hand of Lev Davydovich Trotsky. Our northern ports were the first to receive the honor of receiving British soldiers. As a matter of fact. The Murmansk port and the Murmansk railway were built in 1916 for the supply of military equipment and materials to Russia from Britain and France. By the time Russia left the war with Germany, millions of tons of military cargo had accumulated in the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. It was the presence of this military ammunition that gave the "allies" an excellent official reason for interfering in the affairs of Russia.
Lenin, maneuvering between the Entente and the Germans, chooses the second - the option of cooperation. To maintain external decency, the Bolshevik authorities staged the appearance of the "allied" troops on Russian soil as a spectacle. Everything had already been agreed at backstage negotiations, but Petrograd itself could not simply invite the interventionists - that would have been too much. In Murmansk at that time the Soviets ruled, the chairman of which was the former docker Alexei Yuryev. When Marshal Mannerheim, with the help of the Germans, defeated the Finnish Bolsheviks, the theoretical possibility of an attack by the Finns and Germans on Murmansk arose. On March 1, 1918, Yuryev telegraphed to Petrograd about the situation and said that British Admiral Kemp offered any assistance, including military forces, to repel a possible German attack on the port. Now the situation was different - local comrades were asking for support. In response, Comrade Trotsky instructs Yuryev to "accept any assistance from the allied missions."
Since 1915, a British battleship, a cruiser and six minesweepers have been on the roadstead of Murmansk - they accompanied ships with military cargo supplied to Russia. The landing of the troops did not present any difficulties, in fact, the British simply had to get off the deck to the shore.
In other words, the minister of the Soviet government, Lenin's right hand, the only one who, besides Ilyich, was aware of all the secret agreements, gave the go-ahead for the landing of the British interventionists. A funny picture turns out, just a theater of absurdity: the soldiers of the Entente go to defend the "German spies" Lenin and Trotsky from the German troops …
World politics, for the sake of frowning, looked favorably upon the destruction of the Russian Empire by a handful of determined Bolsheviks. To understand this, it is enough to look at one very curious document. The Bolshevik Izvestia, following all world editions, publishes "Fourteen Points" by US President Wilson. These are his proposals to Germany and its partners to conclude peace. They were published in early January 1918, that is, in the midst of negotiations in Brest.
Let's agree that peace offers are always a blessing. It is even a small hope that millions of men will return to their wives and children, and millions of women will not wear black widow's headscarves. The impulse of a peacemaker is noble, but it is important to understand what exactly the American president is proposing. Previously, his appeals to Germany were like empty declarations. Now Wilson is specific and very detailed. Let's go straight through the document, setting out its essence. Let us give the translation in brackets: let's change the diplomatic language to human. So, the fourteen points of Wilson that so delighted the Bolsheviks.
1. It is necessary to start negotiations for peace (consider the terms of the surrender of Germany and her allies, they are indicated below).
2. Freedom of navigation (German submarines must break the blockade of England and stop sinking "allied" ships. The blockade of Germany itself may continue).
3. Freedom of trade (the American economy is full of goods, they have to be transported to destroyed Europe, the same German submarines interfere with this).
4. Guarantees of national disarmament to the minimum, compatible with state security (the opponents of the Entente must disarm).
5. Fair resolution of all colonial disputes (so that such disputes no longer exist, all colonies will be taken from Germany by the victors).
7. Belgium must be liberated and restored (at the expense of Germany, of course).
8. Liberate the territory of France (Germany must give Alsace and Lorraine to France).
9. Italy needs to fix its borders (that is, add pieces of Austrian territory to it, which the Serbs who provoked the war hoped for).
10. The peoples of Austria-Hungary should receive the broadest autonomy (that is, Austria-Hungary should disintegrate and actually cease to exist).
11. Occupied by the Germans and Austrians, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro must be liberated. Serbia is also given access to the sea (again at the expense of the poor Austrians).
12. The Turkish regions of the Ottoman Empire should receive sovereignty, other peoples of this empire too (the end of the Turkish Empire, its collapse); The Dardanelles must be open to free passage of ships and trade of all nations (full control over the straits by the "allies").
13. An independent Polish state with free access to the sea should be created (this can only be done from pieces of Russian and German territory, the German port of Danzig (Gdynia) will be transferred to Poland and East Prussia will be cut off from the rest of Germany).
14. A common union of nations must be created (the future League of Nations, the modern UN).
Everything is concrete and clear. But where are we talking about Russia? This is point number six. We deliberately missed it. There it is just about us. But reading this paragraph is best done last. At the end. So to speak, for a better understanding and assimilation.
6. The liberation of all Russian territories and a resolution of all issues affecting Russia, which guarantees her the fullest and most free assistance from other nations in obtaining a full and unhindered opportunity to make an independent decision regarding her own political development and her national policy and ensuring her a cordial welcome in the community of free nations with the form of government that she chooses for herself.
Like this. Do you understand anything in this six-syllable sentence? Reread it again. Again, nothing is clear? You can try again. Useless though. There is no thought in this mass of letters and words. Except for one thing - to keep yourself, loved ones, free hand. It turns out funny: to restore Belgium, liberate Romania, create Poland, Serbia access to the sea. And what about Russia? It is "the fullest and most free assistance from other nations in obtaining a full and unimpeded opportunity to make an independent decision." That is, nothing! Nothing but empty, non-binding words.
Wilson's statement in part of our country is the best illustration of Lntanta's clear focus on the elimination of Russian statehood. It is impossible to help any of the opposing sides in the Civil War - the expression of the will of the Russians must be free. The Reds have plenty of weapons - all the warehouses of the tsarist army, all the military factories on their territory. And giving rifles and machine guns to whites is an intervention. Money should not be given to the fighters for the integrity of Russia - this would also be a violation of "free expression of will." And Lenin has practically all the treasures of the State Bank.
In such a situation, the outcome of the struggle between White and Red can be predicted in advance. In fact, the Civil War has not really begun yet, and the fighters for the restoration of Russian statehood have already been betrayed. ' It is not for nothing that Soviet newspapers publish Wilson's message, and that is why the Bolsheviks rejoice - there will be no help for the whites. Such a declaration gives a free hand in committing any actions in relation to Russia. You can explain whatever your heart desires: they say, we tried and - further in the text, this is a six-story pile of empty words.
President of the United States Woodrow Wilson
After all, about of all participants in the war, about all the orphaned and the poor, about Poland and Belgium, Serbia and Romania, writes US President Woodrow Wilson directly and specifically. Only about Russia is abstract and vague to the limit. Why? Because if you write in essence, you should get something like the following: liberate the Russian territories, drive out the usurpers of power and hold new free elections under the control of some international commission, or even convene the old Constituent Assembly. Let him decide how to live in Russia. In such a Russia, there is no place for Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and any other government does not recognize the separation of the national borderlands, the falling away of Ukraine and Transcaucasia. Russia will again become Great, United and Indivisible. And it will demand its participation in reparations and indemnities of the victors in the First World War. The restoration of Russia will negate all the efforts and costs of its collapse. So it turns out that it is impossible to write specifically to the American president about Russia. And so it is possible to arrange colloquia and debates on the interpretation of the muddy text of Wilsonian's sixth paragraph, dedicated to Russia. Well, who understood what it means to "ensure her a warm welcome in the community of free nations with the form of government that she chooses for herself"?
Kornilov - rebellious commander-in-chief
The real concern of the "allies" was caused by completely different facts. To destroy the Russian economy, to turn the country into ruins, a Civil War is needed and someone must start it. However, the courageous resistance of the Cossacks to the Don troops and the noble impulse of the first volunteers were soon to end. No matter how good the Cossacks were, they could not resist the whole of Russia. There was dissatisfaction with the Bolshevik government, but it did not translate into open armed struggle in other parts of the Russian land. The Cossacks will be smashed, the Bolsheviks will smash the tiny Volunteer Army of General Kornilov, and everything will end. There will be no civil war, destructive and merciless. And then the death knell for the "union" plan will sound the words of Lenin from the article "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Power": "But, in the main, the task of suppressing the resistance of the exploiters has already been solved."
It is of little use that the British and French secret services succeeded in bringing extremists and experimenters to power in Russia. The simple logic of state administration will quickly force Lenin and his associates not to destroy, but to create. Imagine how much earlier Russia (albeit a red one) would have regained its strength if the Civil War had ended without really starting. Or maybe she didn't exist at all …
The fuel for the Civil War was presented to us by the “allies”. The role of the spark in the barrel of gunpowder was played by our brothers-Slavs: Czechs and Slovaks. Now they are citizens of two different states, and then they were subjects of the same Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the World War, the soldiers and officers of the Slavs felt sympathy for Russia and preferred to surrender rather than fight "for the Kaiser and the monarchy." The surrender of soldiers of Czech nationality became widespread. Once more than two thousand soldiers and officers of the 28th Prague Regiment, along with all the weapons and ammunition, went over to the side of Russia in an organized manner. It was from these gallant warriors that a corps was formed, which, like a can of gasoline thrown into a smoldering fire, caused an explosion and a full-scale war on the territory of Russia.
After October, Russia was written off the political map of the world, no one is going to reckon with it anymore. Including the brothers, the Slavs, are changing their orientation. The Czechoslovak leadership is petitioning the French government and President Poincaré to recognize all Czechoslovak military formations as part of the French army. Consent was obtained, and from December 1917, the Czechoslovak corps in Russia was formally subordinate to the French command. The Bolsheviks did not mind: what if two superbly armed divisions, trained and equipped at the expense of the Russian treasury, were declared part of the French army! the fate of the family of Nicholas II. Then their leisurely pace becomes understandable and explainable.)
Then intrigues began. It was announced that the Czechs would go to the Western Front, but for some reason not via Murmansk, as previously planned, but by the farthest route - via Vladivostok. Thanks to such a winding path, the echelons of the Czechoslovakians stretched over a large area - along the Volga, the Urals and all of Siberia. Why did they decide to get involved in the Russian civil strife and start a mutiny instead of leaving Russia as soon as possible? The answer is simple - the "allied" representatives gave them money. Of course, not to every ordinary soldier, but to their leadership. On March 3, 1918, the organization of Czechs "National Council" received the first contribution from the French consul in the amount of 1 million rubles. March 7 - 3 million replenish the treasury of the Czechoslovak divisions, March 9 - another 2 million, March 25 - 1 million, March 26 - 1 million. In total, the French consul transferred 8 million rubles in less than a month. There were other payments as well. The newspaper "Frukopnik Svoboda" provides the total number of assets received: 11,118 thousand rubles. And this is only from the "grateful" France. The British also threw 80 thousand pounds.
In order for a heavy cart to roll towards the cliff, someone has to push it. The revolt of the Czechoslovakians began in Chelyabinsk - several officers of the corps were arrested by the local Chekists "for communication with counter-revolutionary elements." In response, the Czechs seized the station and demanded the release of their fellow countrymen. On May 25, 1918, signed by Trotsky, an order was issued to disarm the Czechoslovak units, which were to send weapons, but it was too late. The disciplined troops of the 40,000th Czech corps quickly captured a vast territory. National anti-Bolshevik forces will also be grouped around them. As a matter of fact, a large-scale war on mutual extermination of Russians began precisely with the Czechoslovak rebellion. Later, the merits of the Czechs and Slovaks will not be forgotten, the grateful Entente will hasten to carve out an independent Czechoslovakia for the saws.
The fire of the Russian civil strife was ignited. The main thing now for the "allies" is not to let it fade away. Velye are needed as a means of maximum weakening of the Red Army. Therefore, we need to encourage and support them. For the war to last as long as possible, for Russia to weaken as much as possible …
Understanding the logic of the behavior of the British and French, we can easily understand the whole absurdity of the second myth: the "allied" governments in the Civil War supported the whites and provided them with tremendous assistance. In order not to be unfounded, let's start to understand thoroughly. First, in terms. What is help? “Assistance in anything, in any activity; support”- the dictionary tells us. Let's figure out whether there was "support", whether "assistance" was provided to the White Guards.
Let's start with diplomatic and government support. This is an extremely interesting topic. There is a little confusion in the head of the layman. Since the historian calls the Bolsheviks "usurpers" and "invaders" of power, the inexperienced reader gets the impression that the Reds seized Russia from the legitimate government. Hence, they were rebels. In fact, the process of taking power by the Bolsheviks was so well prepared by Kerensky that it was not the Reds, but the Whites, who had to seize the country and repulse it! They were the rebels against the central Leninist government. In such a situation, it was incredibly important for the fighters against Bolshevism to legitimize their actions. It was necessary to show that it was they who were the legitimate power in Russia, and that the Leninists who had seized Russia were occupiers and criminals. In such a situation, only foreign recognition of the white government could give it such a "legal" status.
That is why the “allies” did not officially recognize a single White regime until the very end of the Civil War. They did not recognize the Reds either, and this gave London and Paris complete freedom of maneuver. All the breakaway pieces of the Russian Empire received recognition from Great Britain and France in a matter of din.
The head of the British government, Lloyd George, was also frank: “The expediency of assisting Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin is all the more controversial because they are fighting for a united Russia. It is not for me to point out whether this slogan is in line with British policy. One of our great people, Lord Beaconsfield, saw in huge, mighty and great Russia, rolling like a glacier towards Persia, Afghanistan and India, the most formidable danger for the British Empire."
And the white leaders were waiting for the leaders of the Western world to wake up conscience and they will publicly declare who is the legitimate government of Russia. This was extremely important, because official recognition entailed many consequences:
♦ Whites got the opportunity to use the financial assets belonging to the Tsarist and Provisional governments, which remained in the West;
♦ embassies in the territory occupied by the Bolsheviks were to be closed;
♦ the contacts of the "deputy" ambassadors with Lenin and Trotsky could no longer be maintained officially;
♦ The population of Russia received a clear and understandable signal who the victorious powers favored (even the most inveterate communists could not hope to win in a real struggle with the whole world).
All this created serious preconditions for the defeat of the Reds and the victory of the Whites. But this was precisely what had to be avoided. Especially when the stubborn persistence of the Russian generals and their unwillingness to trade in the interests of their country became clear. After all, the creation of a "sanitary" cordon between Russia and Germany was one of the indispensable strands of British policy. For this, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland and Finland were created. Other tasty morsels should have been cut off from Russia: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Central Asia. If the supreme ruler of Russia, Admiral Kolchak, had recognized the separation from her of everything that the British wanted to separate, he would have become dearer to them than Lenin, which so often demonstrated the dangerous talent of an organizer.
So, we made sure that the White movement did not receive political support. With military assistance, the situation was even worse. In early June 1918, Trotsky said to one of the employees of the German diplomatic mission: “We are already in fact dead; now it's up to the undertaker."
The only way to defeat the Bolsheviks is to quickly organize the Russian army. We must hurry - Trotsky and his assistants are filling the command staff of the Red Army with executions and persuasion. Soon, undisciplined gangs threaten to become a disciplined force. But while she's gone, the march to Moscow promises to be easy. The Red Army men will surrender, go over to the side of the whites. The main thing is to show that the Entente supports the White movement, to give some more weapons and money - and victory is already in your pocket. And Krasnov and Denikin are waiting for help. And she's still not there. Because the "allies" do not need a quick end to the Civil War. They do not need an easy victory for the White Guards. For them, the ideal option: a painful long struggle, in a whirlwind of which the fleet, the economy and the royal family will disappear. Russia itself will disappear …
For almost nine months, the most difficult first months, the "allies" left the White movement alone with their destiny! At a time when Lenin and Trotsky did not yet have real fighting strength, the "allies" did not give the Whites their troops, weapons, or money. General Denikin says about it this way: "The main source of supply until February 1919 was the Bolshevik reserves we were seizing." Baron Wrangel echoed him: "The supply of the army was purely accidental, mainly at the expense of the enemy." And poorly organized (so far) Soviet troops have everything in abundance. To best understand the armament of the parties at the beginning of the Civil War, one must imagine that the Reds had the weapons of the entire multimillion-strong tsarist army, and the Whites only had what they captured from the Reds! “The lack of cartridges sometimes assumed catastrophic proportions,” Denikin writes. - Outfit - only rags …
The sanitary supply can be considered non-existent. There are no medicines, no dressings, no linen. There are only doctors who are powerless to fight diseases. This is such a White Army: lousy, barefoot and without cartridges. Only when the Red Army grew up on the other side of the barricades did the supply of weapons and ammunition go. Otherwise, the Reds would quickly defeat the Whites …
But maybe the British and French gave the fighters for Russia money instead of weapons? They can't send troops - but they can give money ?! “Contrary to the established opinion, we did not receive a dime from the allies,” General Denikin denies the myth.
Further, in his memoirs, Denikin paints a sad picture. In addition to rations, a soldier of the Volunteer Army received a monetary allowance in 1918 - 30 rubles a month, officers from warrant officer to commander-in-chief from 270 to 1000 rubles. The living wage for one worker at that time was 660-780 rubles! But officers and soldiers have families, wives and children. A miserable, hungry existence awaits them. And - not a penny from the British and French …
Let's return to the Russian North. After the Red Guards and British soldiers fought together with the White Finns, the situation changed slightly. The White Guards staged a coup, and a government appeared in Arkhangelsk under the chairmanship of the former People's Will, Tchaikovsky. It was soon replaced by the military dictatorship of General Miller. But the essence of the matter does not change. Power in the Russian North belongs not to the Russians, but to the British. And they are in no hurry to attack red Petrograd. They have completely different tasks. The main one is control over the planned liquidation of Russia. All other current actions are dictated by the fulfillment of this main goal.
By August 1918, there were already more than 10 thousand Entente soldiers in the North. And they are moving to Petrograd. At least that's how history textbooks write. But there will be no limit to our surprise when in the same books we read that in haste to "strangle" the young Soviet Republic, the British troops are developing amazing agility. In two months, they advanced deep into Russian territory by as much as 40 km! They move at a snail's speed, despite the lack of resistance from the Reds. Then they stopped altogether. General Marushevsky, the last chief of staff of the Russian army under the Provisional Government, one of the leaders of the White Guards in the North, explained this situation as follows: “The Russian military command was deprived of independence and carried out the plans of the allied headquarters. The weight of my instructions on the need for an offensive, especially on the Dvina and Murmansk fronts, were rejected by the allies on the grounds of insufficient troops and the unreliability of the population sympathizing with the Bolsheviks."
In the curious book "The Civil War of 1918-1921" one can easily find the facts of interest to us: "… After a long lull in November 1918, the enemy (the British) tried to advance along the Arkhangelsk railway." And further: "The slowness of the initial actions of the British command allowed the Soviet command to gather sufficient forces to defend the Soviet Northern Theater."2… Slowly probing the ground, the "allies" moved forward, however, having met minimal resistance from the Red Army, they immediately stopped. The motivation for such a strange "speed" of movement of the British is extraordinarily interesting. It turns out that for the offensive to succeed, the British commander General Poole needs at least five more battalions. You will compare the value of these two values:
♦ five battalions (several thousand soldiers);
♦ saving Russia.
If you give Bullet these five battalions, then he will take Petrograd, the Bolsheviks will be defeated, the Civil unrest will end and exhausted Russia will breathe freely. The quantities are incomparable. However, you probably will not be surprised to learn that neither the British nor the French command was able to provide these necessary troops. The Soviet military leaders who wrote the book "Civil War 1918-1921" tell in detail about the "campaign" of the British against Petrograd, but their story quickly begins to resemble a bad anecdote:
“We turned to the highest military authority of the allies - Marshal Foch. The latter considered it appropriate for the United States to send these five battalions from America directly to Arkhangelsk. However, the US government rejected this request. Thus, the question of sending five new battalions to Arkhangelsk grew to an international event … Pul stood and waited."
The behind-the-scenes agreements of the "allies" with the Bolsheviks lead to surprising difficulties. Not the British nor the French have no free five battalions. Their armies are several million people, it is November 1918. The world war is over, but for some reason the entire Entente has no free troops. Whether or not to send five battalions is not up to anyone, but US President Wilson himself.
♦ The same one that signed the Federal Reserve Act in December 1913.
♦ The one that formed the Federal Reserve System, which created the world monopoly of the dollar.
It is impossible to build while the gold ruble and the gold German mark existed …
Will President Wilson agree to send troops to crush the very Bolsheviks who are helping to liquidate the vast continental empire, backed by gold ruble? They, fighting for the "world revolution", eliminate the rivals of the Anglo-Saxons. It is easy to guess that Wilson does not give his consent. Five battalions are missing. The Bolsheviks need not worry about their Northern Front …
Another year passes. In the second half of September 1919, the "allies" were quickly evacuated from the Russian North. What do you think the British will do with the numerous military supplies accumulated on the piers of the northern ports, for which they allegedly landed in Russia? Knowing the true goals of the British, you can easily guess.
Before leaving Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, the "allies", instead of transferring supplies and shells to the Russians, drowned all the equipment. "Cars, airplanes, shells, cartridges, fuel and a large amount of all kinds of uniforms, that is, everything that the Russian troops needed so badly, were burned or thrown into the water."
“This was done in broad daylight, in front of numerous spectators, leaving a funeral impression,” an eyewitness writes. After the departure of the British, the supply was carried out in the literal sense of the word from the bottom of the sea. Recently the program "Vremya" showed a reportage from Arkhangelsk. In the port, began the extraction and elimination of many shells and ammunition lying at the bottom of the bay. Risking their lives, divers get all this rusted good from the water. So, these are the stocks drowned by the British in the fall of 1919, and not at all an "echo" of the Great Patriotic War.
So where did the Western democracies help the White Guards? What is the support that the leaders of England have been constantly talking about. France and the United States, and now they say modern historians? Reading the memoirs of white generals, you are convinced of the opposite: the Anglo-Saxons do not help. The First World War is over. The "allies" have a lot of ammunition and various military trivia, useful only during hostilities. Denikin asks to transfer this unnecessary property to him. The answer is negative: "The French did not want to provide us with huge reserves, their own and the American ones, which remained after the war and constituted embarrassing trash that did not cover the cost of its storage and was subject to urgent liquidation."
They did not give money, weapons were not sent free of charge. So what do the history books say, how did the "allies" help the whites? The answer is as simple as a sentence: nothing. “Were we not logical enough, or the French were too inert, but economic relations with France also did not improve … It was no longer help, but simply commodity exchange and trade,” notes General Denikin.
All "allied aid" is not aid in the usual human sense, but an ACQUISITION! All supplies are bought for money or exchanged for raw materials, which Russia is rich in. Gold also appeared in the White Army: in the summer of 1918, in Kazan, the White Guards intercepted half of Russia's gold reserves. Then the gold was sent to Kolchak - hundreds of tons of gold, platinum, silver, jewelry worth a fantastic amount of 1 billion 300 million gold rubles (in 1914 prices). But even for this money it was extremely difficult to buy something from the “allies”.
And the whole horror of the situation was that Kolchak and Denikin had nowhere to buy weapons and equipment, except from them. The trade was not mutually beneficial. One side always cheats on the other. It's not about overpriced and low-quality goods. We are talking about the system, about outright betrayal; when one side by its pre-planned actions harms the other. Here's just one example. After sending one or two transports with an insignificant amount of supplies, the French government issued an ultimatum, says General Denikin, that "it is forced to stop the dispatch of ammunition" if we "do not take the obligation to supply wheat for the corresponding amount." This is in the midst of hostilities. Until you pay, I won't give you any bullets. This is what the "allied" French government says to the Russians. This is pure betrayal. But the mild general Denikin will just as gently write in his memoirs, speaking of France: "As a result, we did not receive any real help from her: neither firm diplomatic support … nor credit, nor supplies."
Anton Ivanovich Denikin
Already, it seems, we have gone over all kinds of "help" and "support". But they forgot one. Could the "allies" help the White Army with ideas and thoughts. A civil war is a struggle of ideas in its purest form. Whoever has better propaganda will quickly disintegrate the enemy, and those who hesitate and doubt will follow. To understand the reasons for the defeat of the White Guards, you just need to read their documents, get acquainted with the slogans and ideology with which the Russian White Guards went into battle. What was offered to Russian zeros instead of Bolshevism? Let's read. Here is the first political appeal of the Volunteer Army to the Russian people, which came from the pen of General Denikin:
“The Volunteer Army set itself the goal of saving Russia by creating a strong, patriotic and disciplined army and a merciless struggle against Bolshevism, relying on all state-minded circles of the population. The leaders of the army (Generals Kornilov, Alekseev) did not prejudge the future forms of the state system, making them dependent on the will of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, convened to establish a legal order in the country."
Let's fight the Bolsheviks, risk our lives. For what? Unclear. But in Omsk, the military dictatorship of Admiral Kolchak was established, who declared himself the supreme ruler of Russia. He dispersed the local chatterboxes "constituents" and immediately after the seizure of power, in November 1918, publishes a manifesto:
“The All-Russian Provisional Government has disintegrated. The Council of Ministers took full power and handed it over to me, Alexander Kolchak. Having accepted the cross of this power in the extremely difficult conditions of the civil war and the complete disruption of state life, I declare that I will not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. My main goal is to create a combat-ready army, victory over Bolshevism and the establishment of law and order, so that the people can freely choose the way of government they want and implement the great ideas of freedom, now proclaimed all over the world."
What do we see? Go and die again for "the great ideas of freedom, proclaimed throughout the snow," "so that the people can freely choose for themselves the form of government they wish." Someone here and there in our country sometimes this line from the Soviet "police" song best of all characterizes the program documents of all white leaders. They seem to be afraid to utter burning words, from which the hearts of patriots will light up and the eyes of tired and demoralized people will light up. As if something prevents them from uttering such words. Or is someone interfering?
"The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!" - say the Bolsheviks, rallying workers to fight Denikin, Kolchak and Yudenich. "For the great ideas of freedom!" - Kolchak answers them. What is he talking about? When did the Russian people feel with all their breasts this air of freedom, for which they now have to die? In February, when police and gendarmes with broken skulls were lying on the streets of St. Petersburg? During the reign of Kerensky, when chaos and anarchy spilled into the streets? This has never happened in Russia. The Russian people did not breathe the air of freedom, and therefore the slogans of the whites were suitable for the USA, for France, but not for Russia. It was for this reason that the "allies" imposed them. Therefore, there was no "triumphal march" of the White Guards across the country, but there was a triumphal march of Soviet power!
“If the white armies had put forward the idea of a peasant tsar, we would not have held out for a week,” Trotsky would later say. This is the whole point of the "allied" policy - to lead the struggle of the Russians against the Bolsheviks. To condition its assistance on the absence of monarchist slogans, to prevent the emergence of ideas for its restoration, but not to provide any assistance. Lead the struggle of Russian patriots in order to direct it in the right direction for yourself. Lead to eliminate this struggle.
As a result, in many memoirs of the White Guards, there is perplexity: the educated officers find it difficult to give an answer to the simple questions of the peasants, what they are fighting for and what the white power bears to the common man. Because no one knows this answer. All whites are against the Bolsheviks. It is clear. But no one knows what they are for …
Historians have been singing to us all the time that "the white army, the" black baron "are again preparing the royal throne for us." They lied! Not a single White Army set itself the official goal of restoring the monarchy.
Because then she would not have received anything from the "allies". At the first suspicion of being "reactionary," Western newspapers raised a howl, and leaders of the "democratic" opposition were outraged in unison with them. After all, abroad, Russian fighters against Bolshevism are represented by the same persons who, in six months of rampant democracy under Kerensky, managed to quickly and effectively destroy the country. One of the brightest representatives of this cohort is Boris Alexandrovich Bakhmetyev.
Cadet, professor at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, in whose crematorium Rasputin's corpse was burned. During the years of the Provisional Government - Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, since April 1917 - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the United States. Since neither the Bolshevik nor any other white government of Russia was recognized by the United States, an interesting diplomatic situation emerged. Mr. Bakhmetyev represented Russia and the government that never existed and never will. And he not only represented, but solely (!) Disposed of the assets of the Provisional Government, which were sent to the United States at one time to purchase weapons there. Bakhmetyev had a hefty amount - about $ 50 million. To understand the magnitude of this amount, you can compare it with the gold reserves of Spain, taken out by the NKVD during the Spanish Civil War in the USSR: $ 500 million.
The humble Mr. Bakhmetyev was in charge of huge money. For the good of the Motherland, of course. Of this amount, he:
♦ paid interest on loans taken by Russia to the United States;
♦ helped white governments.
The most interesting thing is that from the same money Bakhmetyev financed the American expeditionary force in Russia. Thus, the American soldiers, who did so little to fight the Bolsheviks and helped so much to organize the correct export of Russian valuables abroad, were again at Russian expense. US President Wilson was very grateful to Bakhmetyev for such care, and the subsequent leaders of the country gave Bakhmetyev American citizenship. In his second homeland, the "temporary" ambassador quickly became a very rich man.
So rich that the interest on his capital still contains an interesting archive. Its full name: Bakhmetyevsky archive of Russian, East European history and culture. In fact, it is the archive of the White movement. This is more than 200 boxes with documents related to Wrangel. These are almost 500 boxes from the archive of the Russian embassy in Washington. These are the personal archives of Denikin, Yudenich, Miller. The whole history of the struggle for the restoration and salvation of our country. All these treasures are contained only in the interest of the founder's capital. Like Alfred Nobel, his Nobel Prizes. How did Bakhmetyev earn huge amounts of money, being in the USA a simple professor at Columbia University?
Let us not suspect the distinguished ambassador of dishonesty. Without a doubt, he did not embezzle for himself a single cent of the 50 million that he was distributing at his own discretion. When the Social Revolutionaries Aksentyev and Chernov ruled in Siberia, the cadet Bakhmetyev gave them money. When Kolchak came to power, he stopped. General Denikin also received nothing when he waged a mortal struggle with the Bolsheviks. But Baron Wrangel, who replaced him, received assistance in the evacuation of the army from the Crimea. Bakhmetyev did not allocate funds for the struggle, he gave it to the end. And he built himself a small modest match factory, which made him a millionaire. Where does the money for the construction of the enterprise come from? Probably took out a loan. Interest-free and irrevocable …
Modern myths about the Civil War are even more distant from reality than their "Soviet" counterparts. Let us recall these simple inventions:
♦ in the Civil War "allies" supported good whites;
♦ the bad Reds were supported by the Germans.
While thick volumes can be devoted to debunking the first thesis, we touched on the second question only in passing. Germany practically did not provide military assistance and assistance with weapons to the Bolsheviks. And the sympathies of the German officers are clearly not on the side of the Reds. Colonel Drozdovsky, one of the most prominent heroes of the White movement, at the beginning of 1918, in the midst of the peace negotiations between the Bolsheviks and Germany, formed a detachment and went to General Kornilov on the Don. We had to walk in parallel with the German troops, and sometimes right through the territory they occupied: “We have strange relations with the Germans: precisely recognized allies, assistance, strict correctness, in clashes with the Ukrainians - always on our side, unconditional respect … - he will write in his diary Drozdovsky. "We pay with strict correctness."
Drozdovsky Mikhail Gordeevich
Gradually, the sympathies of ordinary officers turn into politics. Germans support anti-Bolshevik Georgia and Ukraine. They begin to improve relations with the insurgent Cossacks of Krasnov. It is from the "allies" that the chieftain will not receive a single rifle, not a single cartridge. Germany behaves differently. But, however, a word to the chieftain Krasnov himself: “Everything lay in the Don army in ruins and desolation. The ataman palace itself was so dirty by the Bolsheviks that it was impossible to settle in it immediately without repairs. Churches were outraged, many villages were destroyed."
The Bolsheviks are advancing on the Cossack villages, advancing to the South of Russia and German units. In Russian, the state of the Cossack affairs is called a strong swear word, sounding very similar to the name of one fur-bearing animal. The red wave prepares to flood the villages. Something must be done urgently. And then Ataman Krasnov decided to take an unprecedented step: immediately after his election, on May 5, 1918, he wrote a letter … to Kaiser Wilhelm! The ataman decides to make contact with the head of the hostile power. For that time, the step was phenomenally bold.
Pay attention to the date. The Brest Peace Treaty was signed long ago. And here Krasnov offers the Germans an alliance against the "advantageous" for Germany Soviet power. Germany's response was lightning fast. And positively - three days later, on May 8 in the evening, a German delegation came to the chieftain. The Germans stated that they were not pursuing any goals of conquest and were interested in the restoration of complete order on the Don as soon as possible. Krasnov himself in one of his speeches before the Cossacks said bluntly: “Yesterday's external enemy, the Austro-Germans, entered the Army to fight in alliance with us with the bands of the Red Army and to establish complete order on the Don. Knowing the strict discipline of the German army, I am confident that we will be able to maintain good relations as long as the Germans have to stay with us to maintain order and until we create our own army that can itself protect the personal safety and immunity of every citizen without the help of foreign units. ".
Whose allies were the Germans, Reds or Whites? On June 5, 1918, the German authorities announced the official recognition of the ataman as a state power. Please note: "allies" up to before 1920, that is, almost three of the year, did not recognize either one white government. Germany did it in one month!
Atman Petr Nikolaevich Krasnov
Then “interstate” relations began. Germany does not rob the Cossacks, does not try to rob them like sticky, taking advantage of the moment. Germany starts the right trade. “To begin with, we figured out the exchange rate. For the German stamp they gave 75 "Don" kopecks, "writes Ataman Krasnov. In Rostov, freed from the Bolsheviks, a mixed Don-German Export Commission was formed to regulate trade issues. Don began to receive sugar from Ukraine, and then had to start receiving other scarce goods from Germany itself.
The head of the Don Cossacks followed the path of Lenin and was able to negotiate with Germany. Behind her broad back, he managed to rebuild and equip his Cossack army. Weapons and ammunition were also purchased from the Germans. In German-occupied Ukraine, there were truly inexhaustible reserves of Russian weapons. The Germans sold it, or rather changed it according to the established rate: one Russian rifle with 30 rounds - for one pood of wheat or rye. The offer was not limited to small arms - Krasnov signed a contract for the supply of airplanes, guns, and shells. In the first month and a half, the Germans transferred 11,651 three-line rifles, 46 guns, 88 machine guns, 109,104 artillery shells and 11,594,721 rifle cartridges to the Don, the Kubans and the Volunteer Army. Even heavy weapons were sent to the Don army, which the Germans had previously refused to send. In addition, Krasnov's arsenals were replenished with 100 machine guns, 9 airplanes, 500 thousand rifle cartridges and 10 thousand shells.
Until now, I have never seen a single mention of the joint military operations of the Germans and the Bolsheviks against the White Guards. But it has been reliably established that in the battles near the city of Nataysk, the Red Army soldiers were jointly beaten by German troops, Don Cossacks and a battalion of the Volunteer Army. The Germans smashed the Bolsheviks on their own. Krasnov writes: “The Germans, with significant losses for themselves, repulsed the insane attempt of the Bolsheviks to land on the Taganrog Spit and occupy Taganrog. The Germans were not particularly willing to engage in battles with the Bolsheviks, but when the combat situation demanded this, they acted quite decisively, and the Don people could be completely calm about the zone that was occupied by the German troops. The entire western border with Ukraine from Kantemirovka to the Sea of Azov, more than 500 miles long, was completely safe, and the Don government did not keep a single soldier here."
Is it possible to say that the Germans supported the Bolsheviks? The facts force us to admit that the Germans were not allies of Lenin and his comrades, but of their opponents, the Cossacks. And where were the French, the British, the Americans? Rumors of their landing were constantly circulating. Not only white officers and Cossacks talked about this, but also the Red Army. Krasnov writes about this: “The Bolsheviks knew, of course, about the events in the West and immediately launched a widespread propaganda that the allies would never help either Denikin or the Don chieftain, because the democracy of Western Europe and the Bolsheviks at the same time would not allow its soldiers went against the Bolsheviks."
The Germans helped mainly the Cossacks. Only because the Cossacks did not interfere with this and did not show hostility to the German army. Help would have been rendered to Denikin's Volunteer Army. If … not for the resistance and refusal of General Denikin himself. Cossack Colonel Polyakov, who fought in the ranks of the Don army, assesses the missed opportunities as follows: “Both then and now, I have no doubt that if the leaders of the Volunteer Army had taken a different course towards the Germans, we would have, through joint efforts, with the help of the Germans, quickly managed to use the richest reserves Ukraine and the Romanian front, in a short time to create real armies, which, moved into the depths of Russia, could easily have coped with the Bolsheviks, who then, as you know, did not have any organized reliable force."
But the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik forces, who determined the policy of whites like blind kittens, remained loyal to their "allies" and patiently waited for their help. They were good people, but very bad politicians. There was a chance for the salvation of Russia, but in order to use it, it was necessary to have Lenin's flexibility. And to understand that it is precisely Russia's “allies” who are interested in its liquidation, and its “enemy” Germany can provide real assistance. But they didn't understand, they didn't realize …
And then came November 1918 - and Germany was gone. From this period, support and weapons could only be obtained from the Entente. It was here that the "allies" showed their true colors. They keep a close eye on the parity of forces, making sure that whites do not suddenly become stronger than reds. The British and French all the way behave unpredictably: they sell, then they do not sell. Regulating a thin trickle of supplies.
Once Kolchak comes, help will go to Denikin, when Denikin drowns, they will help Kolchak. The help of the "allies" will not go where it is needed at the moment. Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel testifies: “The broad assistance promised by foreigners was already beginning to show itself. Steamships loaded with artillery and engineering equipment, uniforms and medicines were continuously arriving in Novorossiysk. A large number of airplanes and tanks were expected to arrive in the near future. This is exactly when the Kolchakites fled, having an acute shortage of ammunition. Because all the equipment sailed to Denikin, and not to Kolchak!
The supply tap opens, but the flow is rather meager. "Military supplies continued to flow, albeit in amounts insufficient for the normal supply of our armies, but nevertheless it was the main source of life for them" - this is Denikin about the same period, the second half of 1919, when the British "generously" supply him instead of the dying Kolchak. Adjusting the supply stream was easy enough. You need to reduce it - you drag out negotiations, talk about objective difficulties. It is necessary to speed up the delivery - you do not say anything, but you quickly carry the necessary weapons. Many tens of tons of gold were sent abroad by Kolchak, but the return deliveries were delayed. Already in 1919, he said: "My opinion is that they are not interested in creating a strong Russia … They do not need it." But for deliveries all went to the same scoundrels "allies". After all, there are no other suppliers …
You try to plan a major offensive with such a factor in mind as an incomprehensible weapons delivery schedule. Maybe in September the "allied" steamers will bring weapons, maybe in October, and not even one o'clock - and they won't bring them at all. Or they will deliver it not to you, but to Denikin That is, not to SIBERIA, but to the VOLGA. In response to your bewilderment, they will smile and say something about "chaos on the Trans-Siberian Railway". And your soldiers still need to shoot. Bandage the wounded and change worn-out weapons. On the other side of the trenches - red. They have all the warehouses of the tsarist army. There are enough weapons, food detachments were taken away from the peasants, the peasants themselves were driven into the trenches. The Red Army men, albeit poorly, are fed and dressed. Their number is many times greater than yours. In order to fight well, the commissars sit in the units; whoever runs will shoot them. Try to defeat such an adversary without regular military supplies, using enthusiasm alone.
But the Reds also have gold. After all, the opponents divided the gold reserve among themselves almost in half. And there are supplies of weapons to the Bolsheviks. Only secretly, within the framework of backstage agreements. Direct evidence is difficult to find, indirect evidence comes across often. Professor Sutton writes that “there is State Department evidence that the Bolsheviks were supplied with weapons and equipment. And in 1919, when Trotsky publicly made anti-American speeches, he simultaneously asked Ambassador Francis to send American military inspection teams to train the new Soviet army."
It was not for nothing that Ilyich appointed Trotsky to lead the Red Army, it seems that he was just a magician and an illusionist. In the middle of 1919, there were 1.5 million soldiers in the Red Army; at the end of 1918 - less than 400 thousand. The hungry, devastated country in eight months clothed, shod, armed and fed more than a MILLION NEW SOLDIERS. Where did all this equipment come from? It was purchased and supplied by the British, Americans and French. There is simply nowhere else to take it: there is no one else to take and expropriate it, and you can only buy it from the victors in the world war.
How "allies" helped whites (part 2)
