In modern historiography, the flight of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (ARSUR) from Novorossiysk is presented as a highly spiritual, so to speak, tragedy from the category of those that knock out a mean male tear. In this scenario, the White Guards are credited with the role of knights without fear and reproach, leaving their homeland with unbearable pain. In Novorossiysk, they even erected a monument called "Exodus" in the form of a White Guard pulling a faithful horse away from Russia.
However, soon some changes had to be made to the monument. On the slabs at the base were inscribed various sayings describing those events. They also put on the slabs "five kopecks" of General Drozdovsky regiment Anton Vasilyevich Turkul. When attentive townspeople reasonably asked the question of what the hell the words “Vlasovite”, Hitler’s henchman and collaborationist were doing on the monument, the authorities decided not to stir up the scandal and cut off the general’s name, but Turkul’s “five kopecks” remained. In response to this, the Novorossiys call the monument simply "horse", and the most witty comrades bring flowers with the signature "Vladimir Vysotsky", tk. the plot of the monument itself is taken from the film "Two Comrades Served".
But let us return to the image drawn by some citizens, precisely the image of those events. At best, they describe the alignment of forces, actions of troops, etc. But little is written about the very atmosphere of Novorossiysk of that time, which for some reason makes its own adjustments to the created image of Shakespeare's drama. At best, they cite as an example the memories of Princess Zinaida Shakhovskoy, whose parents, like the entire high society, fled without looking back with the most valuable property. Here is what Zinaida, inclined to acting words, wrote:
“All the sirens in the port howled - those on the steamers in the roadstead, and those on the factories in the suburbs. These death cries seemed like a bad omen to us. The darkness ran after us and was preparing to swallow."
In this case, a small detail is usually omitted. These were the words of an impressionable, cutesy young lady from the highest, as they would say now, packed, light, who at that time was 14 years old. By the way, later Zinaida, together with her parents, safely left Novorossiysk on the English ship "Hanover". Well, how can such a mannered girl explain who is to blame for this "darkness" and that this "darkness" consists of your own compatriots? Later, Zina will find a good job in a foreign land, become a French-speaking writer, a member of various Pen-clubs, scribble as many as four volumes of memoirs in Russian, although it is not clear why, because from childhood, she had nothing to do with either Russia or the Russian language. She will even be awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, although, as Mark Twain wrote, few people managed to escape such an honor.
While Zinaida was suffering at the window, waiting for a cruise on the Black and Mediterranean Seas, among the Cossacks who flooded Novorossiysk and Tuapse, there was a sad satirical song:
Loaded all the sisters
They gave a place to orderlies, Officers, Cossacks
They threw it to the commissars.
Confusion and vacillation reigned among the troops. A horde of provocateurs, burning with the most paranoid ideological doctrines, made a significant contribution to the chaos that swept this region. For example, the Kuban Rada, organized by the Cossacks, from the first days had in its ranks a faction of outspoken Ukrainophiles, descendants of the Cossacks, gravitating towards Simon Petlyura, such as Nikolai Ryabovol. Later this "self-styled" will be shot in a drunken brawl under strange circumstances. By the way, this is where Kiev's intimate dreams of the Kuban come from.
But this faction with its propaganda only divided the Cossacks. Linear Cossacks (the opposite of the “samostiyniki” faction and historically close to the Don Cossacks) looked at many “independents” with bewilderment, they were not going to leave Russia in principle (for them the question was only to delegate some administrative rights by the center to local structures), but after looking at ingratiating Skoropadsky, the "ally" of the Ukrainophiles in the Rada, before the Germans, began to go over to the side of the Red Army. As a result, the "self-styled", of course, lost everything - they could not gather an army, they were simply unable to manage the entire region (many of these "first guys in the villages" had the most mediocre education), but endlessly they split the troops with their propaganda.
Once in Novorossiysk, the Cossacks often did not understand who to obey. The Kuban Rada kept repeating a mantra like “the Cossack family is dumb in translation”, “to fight only for our native Kuban”, etc. But the Cossacks themselves were in the army of General Denikin, who did not suffer from peasant populism and disdained the Rada. Therefore, the Cossacks deserted en masse. Some of them went over to the side of the Reds, some replenished the gangs of the “greens” who were prowling in the Novorossiysk suburbs.
Later, Vladimir Kokkinaki, the famous Major General of Aviation, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, and in those dashing times a simple Novorossiysk boy, recalled that horror. Once on the street he saw two armed men talking in "balachka" or "surzhik". It immediately became clear that people were newcomers. in the Black Sea Novorossiysk, this dialect was not in circulation at all. A man in good clothes and fine chrome boots passed by. The "soldiers" without any fancy put the poor fellow "against the wall", took off the boots from the corpse, turned out the pockets and calmly left. What ideological nonsense was in the skulls of these villagers is the mystery of psychiatrists.
A lot of headaches were brought to the local authorities by the ARSUR and Vladimir Purishkevich - a Black Hundred, a monarchist and a prominent eccentric orator, who even had to be removed from the State Duma sessions by force. As soon as he arrived in Novorossiysk, he took up active agitation among the troops. His rhetoric was imbued with such radicalism that it was easier for Denikin's officers to shoot Purishkevich than to debate with him. And, perhaps, it would have happened if he had not died of typhus in January 1920. His grave in Novorossiysk has not survived.
Typhus was rampant in the city, crowded with refugees and wounded, and claimed the lives of many people. Gangs of the "greens" who plundered the suburbs and hid in the mountains were also a disaster for all sides. Shooting took place every day in the mountains and farmsteads of the city.
In March 20th the situation became critical. Denikin already could not really control anything. The evacuation, the issue of which was finally decided on March 20 by Anton Ivanovich, actually failed. There were simply no sufficient transports, so people began to even board the warships of the fleet, which was not envisaged by the original plan at all. The already mentioned Turkul recalled loading his people onto ships:
“Windless transparent night. End of March 1920. Novorossiysk pier We are loading the ship "Yekaterinodar". The officer company rolled out machine guns for order (!). Officers and volunteers are loaded. Hour of the night. The black wall of people standing at the back of the head moves almost silently. The pier has thousands of abandoned horses. From deck to hold, everything is packed with people, they stand shoulder to shoulder, and so on to the Crimea. No guns were loaded in Novorossiysk, everything was abandoned. The rest of the people huddled on a pier near the cement plants and begged to take them, stretching out their hands in the dark …"
The image of chivalry is somewhat lost. Colonel of the Don Combined Partisan Division Yatsevich reported to the commander: “The hasty shameful loading was not caused by the real situation at the front, which was obvious to me, as the last one to withdraw. No significant forces were advancing."
It is difficult to argue with the opinion of the colonel. With all the reeling of the troops, at the disposal of Denikin, divisions, cavalry, artillery, several armored trains and British tanks (Mark V) remained loyal to his orders. This is not counting the whole squadron of warships in the bay. On the roadstead of the Tsemesskaya Bay in March 1920, there were the Captain Saken destroyer with 120-mm main guns, the Kotka destroyer, the Bespokoiny Novik-class destroyer, etc. In addition, do not forget the ships of European countries, such as the English dreadnought "Emperor of India", the light cruiser "Calypso", the Italian cruiser "Etna", the Greek destroyer "Ierax", the French cruiser "Jules Michelet" and many other ships. In addition, the American cruiser Galveston flashed like a small jackal on the horizon.
The aforementioned dreadnought "Emperor of India" even fired defensive fire from its 343-mm guns at the advancing units of the Red Army. In general, this entire squadron of Denikin's "allies" did not just enjoy the sea breeze and the view of the Caucasus Mountains. There were English, Italian, Greek servicemen in the city, who are happy to parade in front of Denikin, but they did not burn with the desire to fight the "Reds". In addition, these parades, during which Anton Ivanovich saluted the allies, did not add to the popularity of the general, and many officers were embittered against the command.
Soon, the Cossack troops ceased to obey Denikin. Infected with the idea of the autonomy of the Kuban, and some with the disease of "independence", the Cossacks refused to obey the orders of the command and to evacuate. But these were Cossack units already in Novorossiysk. When the retreating troops of the Don army poured into the city by the end of March, ironically, they refused to evacuate them altogether. The Don Cossacks were ordered to follow along the Black Sea coast to Gelendzhik or Tuapse, which they perceived simply as a mockery. This, incidentally, was reflected in the immortal "Quiet Don", when Melekhov and his comrades tried to dive into ships.
The most real grotesque and chaos was created with a touch of evil black humor and irony. Artillery pieces and tanks were scattered on the embankment, on the eastern side of the bay the Don Cossacks and Kalmyks wandered mournfully, who, on the orders of the Don government, were retreating with their families. Against the background of mountains covered with snow, herds of horses and … camels looked phantasmagorically. Warehouses were burning in the port. And the gangs of the “greens”, seeing that the whites were already indifferent to the city, and the reds had not yet entered the city, began a massive robbery. Smoke covered Novorossiysk. The locals, immersed in the chaos of the Civil War and the outright carelessness of the white authorities, greeted the Reds partly loyally, partly with hope.
