After the storming of Maykop, most of the townspeople hid, because they had heard about the atrocities of the troops associated with the Kuban Rada on the territory of the region. Only a few bourgeois decided, so to speak, to hand over "credentials" to General Viktor Pokrovsky. For this, a gala dinner was arranged. Thus, the bourgeoisie tried to bargain for security and immunity. But even they did not know that Pokrovsky under the guise of "legitimate power" had already begun to prepare the ground for mass executions and robberies.
Legislative cynicism of Pokrovsky
Following the order No. 1 of the "commandant" Esaul Razderishin, discouraging by his illiteracy, was followed by "Order No. 2" already signed by "the chief of the 1st Kuban division, Major General Pokrovsky." Terrifying in its calculating cynicism, the order read:
“For the fact that the population of the outskirts of the city of Maikop (Nikolaevskaya, Pokrovskaya and Troitskaya) fired at Major General Gaiman's troops retreating from it on September 5 and Colonel Malevanov's regiment that entered on September 7th, I impose an indemnity of one million on the aforementioned outskirts of the city (1,000,000) rubles.
The contribution must be paid within a three-day period and by no means by promissory notes.
In case of non-fulfillment of my demand, the aforementioned outskirts of the city will be burned to the ground.
Collecting contributions I lay on the commandant of the city, Esaul Razderishin."
The cynicism of this order was not even that the indemnity was imposed on everyone indiscriminately in the city, which was allegedly "liberated from the Bolsheviks." A sophisticated cynicism was that the inhabitants of the outskirts (suburbs) were mainly workers and poor employees who, with all their desire, could not collect such a colossal amount in either three or ten days.
At the same time, Order No. 3 was issued. This order introduced martial law in the city, in the aforementioned settlements, any movement from seven in the evening to six in the morning was prohibited, the lighting had to be turned off at this time, including in houses, and anyone who violated this order was awaited by a court-martial and, most likely a shooting. At the same time, Pokrovsky did not forget about his hedonistic manners, therefore, in the center of Maikop, the owners of cafes, restaurants and other entertainment establishments were not only asked to open their enterprises, but demanded their immediate opening without limiting the opening hours.
Order No. 4, signed by General Pokrovsky, demanded that the population surrender all weapons in their hands, as well as all items of equipment and uniforms, including greatcoats and flasks. And daggers also fell under the concept of "weapon". What exactly refers to melee weapons was not indicated. Anyone who could have found prohibited items during a search was ordered to be shot on the spot.
Three days and three nights of executions
Early in the morning of September 21, while Pokrovsky was taking part in the next solemn event on the occasion of the capture of Maikop (a prayer service in the Assumption Cathedral), on his order, the Cossacks broke into the workers' settlements. Then few people knew that even at night the White Cossacks hacked hundreds of people, and during the day they intended to completely clean up the working areas of the city. Slobodki were never able to pay the indemnity, which was what the general expected, and therefore, as he threatened, the outskirts were set on fire and plundered. Using order No. 4, Pokrovsky's punishers simply robbed the civilian population. Guided by Order No. 2, they concealed their crimes by burning down the plundered houses.
One of the witnesses of the Maykop massacre was the former hieromonk Sergei Trufanov (Iliodor), a Black Hundred man, once a friend of Rasputin and a fairly knowledgeable and at the same time odious person with an open touch of adventurism. Despite his specific views, there is no reason to doubt Trufanov's objectivity. First, he could not find a clear common language with the Bolsheviks. And secondly, he himself was detained in Maikop by Pokrovsky's Cossacks, so he found himself in the center of events.
What happened truly shocked even the well-worn Trufanov:
“The general came and gave the order. Soviet city workers and "comrades" soldiers there, there, there!.. This order meant to take everyone and lead them to the station square, hang and chop off their heads. Before the execution, they mocked the unfortunates, tore off their dresses. Chairman of the Maykop Executive Committee, comrade Savateev was stripped naked and hanged.
And these horrific testimonies were just the beginning:
“On the morning of September 21, when I was leaving the barn, I saw a mass of hacked corpses near the station from the side of the fields. Then they explained to me that 1600 Bolsheviks, captured in the city forest and surrendered, had been slaughtered in one night. On the station square from the city side, I saw the gallows. 29 citizens were hanged on them, some of them were in underwear, and many were in complete nudity. On the way to the garden, I saw a mass of Bolshevik corpses in the fields of the city, the heads of these corpses were chopped into several parts, so it was difficult to make out who, what person belonged to the remains of the Bolsheviks, so that the relatives of the murdered person could not identify the corpse."
They were exterminated not only on the basis of ideological and class criteria, but also according to the age qualification. For example, draft-age men who managed to stay in their families and avoid conscription were executed without trial or investigation in their own homes in front of their mothers, wives and children. Severed body parts were strewn almost all over the city. The starving dogs took away the bodies, turning into aggressive cannibals to match people.
But back to Trufanov's memories:
“I saw such a terrible picture, it is enough to describe which I am unable to. Exactly. I saw how 33 young, blooming, healthy young Bolsheviks were led from the tannery. They were led only because they worked in a nationalized factory. All the young men were barefoot, in the same underwear. They all walked in a row, being tied hand to hand. Officers and Cossacks walked behind, beat the young men with whips, forced them to sing: "Get up, branded with a curse, the whole world of the hungry and slaves." Along the streets along which the martyrs were led, people stood in crowds: women wept and fainted. When the procession found itself in the square, three young men were hanged from trees, and thirty were tied in pairs and ordered to kneel. The executioners-Cossacks, including four people, began the execution. One of the pair was ordered by the executioners to throw his head back, and the other from the pair was ordered to tilt his head forward. When the young men did this, the Cossacks chopped off their necks and faces with sabers, saying:
- Keep your head better! Tilt your head down! Pull your face higher!..
At each blow, the crowd swayed with terror, and there was a staccato moan. When all the vapors were chopped up, the crowd was dispersed with whips."
There are also known cases that are completely paradoxical in their fierce cruelty. So, one of Pokrovsky's Cossacks hacked to death the wife of his own brother, who went to the Reds, and almost all his nephews, who caught his eye.
Even the bloodiness of the Civil War, in which there were no saints either from the Whites or from the Reds, could not soften what Pokrovsky had done. They learned about the massacre at the headquarters of the Volunteer Army from an agent report to the Special Counterintelligence Department of the General Staff Department under the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia for November 1918 (abbreviated):
“The basis for imposing on residents of the outskirts of the cityMaikop indemnity and brutal reprisals against them for the gene. Pokrovsky was served by rumors about the shooting of residents at the retreating troops of General Gaiman on September 20 during the return of the Bolsheviks to the city of Maikop …
Thus, in this case, it is very difficult to establish the direct participation of the inhabitants of the Nikolaevsky area in the shooting at the troops of General Gaiman. The Pokrovsky region is so far from the path of retreat of the troops that physically, due to its location, it could not take part in the shelling of the troops, not excluding, of course, the possibility of cases of single shooting during the start of the offensive on the streets of the city.
From the Troitsk Territory, or rather the so-called Niza, from the islands of the river and the banks, there were cases of shooting at the fleeing residents of the city of Maikop crossing the river, but there were no killed or wounded. This indicates to some extent that the shooting was not intense and was of a random nature …
All this indicates that the population of the outskirts, as such, could not have weapons and such could only be in the possession of certain individuals. In addition, both the Bolsheviks and General Gaiman suggested that the population surrender the available weapons, which were demolished in significant quantities.
Meanwhile, when occupying the mountains. In Maikop, in the first days, directly after the lesson, 2,500 Maikop inhabitants were cut down, which figure was named by General Pokrovsky himself at a public dinner …
Many cases of executions of persons who were completely innocent of the Bolshevik movement are pointed out. In some cases, even the certificate and application of the institution did not help. So, for example, the petition of the teachers' council of the technical school for one worker and teacher's institute for the student Sivokon …
The worst thing is that the searches were accompanied by universal violence against women and girls. Even the old women were not spared. The violence was accompanied by bullying and beatings. By chance, the interviewed residents living at the end of Gogolevskaya Street, about two blocks down the street, testified about the rape of 17 persons, including girls, one old woman and one pregnant (testimony of Yezerskaya).
Violence was usually carried out "collectively" by several people one. Two hold the legs, and the rest use it. A survey of people living on Polevaya Street confirms the massive nature of the violence. The number of victims in the city is counted in the hundreds.
It is interesting to note that the Cossacks, committing robberies and violence, were convinced of their righteousness and impunity and said that "everything is allowed to them."
As soon as the news of Pokrovsky's atrocities spread throughout the south, literally everyone began to despise him - both white and red. In many memoirs of the participants of the White movement, Pokrovsky is listed exclusively as a bloodthirsty bastard. At the same time, the command did not make the necessary conclusions, although both Denikin and Wrangel Pokrovsky disdained, at least, personal communication with this general. It was clear to everyone that the Maykop massacre was not just a crime, but a huge blow to the entire White movement. Even the bourgeoisie pulled away from the city, which was completely red before Pokrovsky. The massacre lasted three days and three nights. The southern "valley of apple trees" turned into a huge block.
Now even people loyal to whites have become supporters of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Pokrovsky continued to surround himself with ingratiating illiterate executioners like Esaul Razderishin, the commandant of Maikop and the author of some Jesuit orders, and did not accept any criticism of his actions. On the contrary, the general considered his "policy of intimidation" to be the only correct one. Pokrovsky did not even notice how his troops, who had once carried out a brilliant attack on the Red positions near the Enem farm with a small number of 300 Cossacks, turned into a gang of rapists, marauders and thugs.
However, Pokrovsky himself was engaged in robbery - both in Maikop and in other cities. So, in his "Sketches" Lieutenant General, hero of the First World War and career officer Yevgeny Isaakovich Dostovalov recalled:
“General Pokrovsky, who was killed in Bulgaria, stole a huge amount of stones and gold things and kept them in the room of the Kista hotel in Sevastopol, where he lived during the time of Wrangel. Once General Postovsky came to him, spent the night, and the suitcase with diamonds disappeared. Counterintelligence reported to the chief of staff of the Don Army, General Kelchevsky, that all traces indicate that Postovsky carried the suitcase away. The case, however, was dropped at the request of Pokrovsky, who could not remember all the things that were in the suitcase, and most importantly, he could not and did not want to explain where and how he got these things."
Since there is a lot of evidence of the Maykop massacre, the data on the victims are extremely different. They range from 1,000 to 7,000 killed. At the same time, the number of the crippled, raped, robbed and homeless was not counted by anyone at all.
