In the 1917 campaign, the service of the Tekinsky Cavalry Regiment was largely internal. A great connoisseur of the Teke people, General of Infantry L. G. Kornilov, entrusted them with guarding the headquarters of the 8th Army, and after taking the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief - Headquarters.
An eyewitness recalled: “Tall, monumental and at the same time slender … they stood like statues … They groped everyone who drove up or approached Headquarters … sentries, keeping up the due date, and sensitive guards and loyal servants … At the behest of their boyar, they were ready not only to kill anyone, but also to give their lives for him without hesitation ….
5. Tekinsky.
When, on August 10, 1917, accompanied by a reinforced Tekin squadron, L. G. Kornilov arrived in Petrograd, one unit scattered into a chain on the square in front of the palace, where the meeting was taking place, and the other with machine guns guarded the entrance and all exits. Without agreeing on anything with A. F. Kerensky, L. G. Kornilov was able to return to Mogilev - A. F. Kerensky and his entourage did not dare to arrest the general.
When the August Kornilov uprising failed, A. I. Denikin, a colleague of L. G. Kornilov, wondered why L. G. Kornilov with these two regiments would have decided the fate of Petrograd.
On September 6, 1917, L. G. Kornilov, A. S. Lukomsky and other participants in the performance were arrested and placed in the Metropol hotel. A. S. Lukomsky later recalled that the Tekinsky cavalry regiment carried the internal security of the "arrest" premises. L. G. Kornilov, who spoke Tekin, enjoyed immense popularity in the regiment, and the Tekins called him "our boyar." Moreover, initially they wanted to appoint the Georgievsky regiment to protect the prisoners, but the Tekins made a categorical demand that they be provided with internal protection - as a result, the protection from the Georgievsky regiment was exhibited only outside the premises.
In Bykhov, the generals were placed in the building of an old Catholic monastery. The Tekins, whose half-squadron was in the monastery building, were guarded inside the building, while the outside security was again entrusted to the Georgievites - and they were subordinate to the commandant - the assistant commander of the Tekinsky cavalry regiment. The delegation from Berdichev was not even allowed into the courtyard by the guards, and when one of them began to demand that they be allowed in, the "Tekinsians threatened with whips" and they were forced to leave. And when the next morning, during a walk, the delegates, who had approached the bars from the yard, began to make remarks to the arrested, the chief of the guard with two Tekins who came out drove them away and set up a guard in the street.
The indignant Berdichevites sent a telegram to the Petrograd Soviet, in which they wrote that the generals' guard consisted of 60 soldiers of the Georgievsk battalion and 300 soldiers of the Tekinsky regiment, and that the Tekinsky residents to this day remain loyal to Kornilov and completely alien to the interests of the revolution. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses who carried the outside guard to the Georgievites, the Turkmens said: "You are Kerensky, we are Kornilov, we will cut it." And given the fact that there were much more Tekins in the garrison, the Georgievites regularly served and behaved correctly.
In the fall of 1917from the Trans-Caspian region there were news that the crop failure befell the region threatens the families of the Turkmen with an unprecedented famine. At the same time, the regional Turkmen committee in Askhabad decided to announce an additional recruitment of horsemen for the division located in Keshi - but they did not manage to send him to the front. At the same time, a telegram was sent to Headquarters with a request to immediately send the Tekin Horse Regiment home.
L. G. Kornilov, having learned about the concern of the Turkmen with the economic and political situation in their homeland, out of 40 thousand rubles collected for the families of the prisoners, ordered to give Tekins 30 thousand rubles, and also wrote a letter to the leadership of the Don region with a request to provide assistance to the families of the Tekins with bread.
On November 17, 1917, revolutionary troops headed by the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ensign Krylenko were moved to liquidate the Headquarters on Mogilev. The headquarters began to prepare for the evacuation to Kiev, but the Mogilev Soviet thwarted their plans - all the officers were subjected to house arrest.
Acting Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant-General N. N. Dukhonin managed to give the order that all the units in the Headquarters go to the Don. He also managed to issue an order for the release of the Bykhov prisoners.
On November 20, 1917, the Tekinsky cavalry regiment (consisting of 24 officers and up to 400 lower ranks) set out for the Don. The regiment moved towards Zhlobin. He made reinforced transitions at night. The vozniki ran after the first crossing.
On the fifth day, the regiment was discovered.
When, for some unclear reason, the detachment sent to the city of Surazh did not return from the reconnaissance, the Bolshevik scout hired as a guide led the regiment into an ambush. The regiment set out from the village. Krasnovichi (south of the city of Surazh) and, intending to go to Mglin, approached the village. Pisarevka. Crossing the railway, the Tekinsky regiment was shot almost point-blank by machine-gun and rifle fire. Having suffered heavy losses, the horsemen withdrew to Krasnovichi and, deciding to bypass the station. Unecha, on the other hand, by 2 o'clock in the afternoon approached the Moscow-Brest railway. But an armored train appeared from behind the bend, and the regiment was again met with fire.
The first squadron turned to the side and disappeared - it passed to the west and did not join the regiment any more. Behind Klintsy, the squadron was disarmed by the Bolsheviks and everyone was sent to prison.
The regiment dispersed - only 125 of the 600 horsemen gathered.
On November 27, there were 3 officers and 264 horsemen in the Bryansk prison.
On November 27, the Tekinsky cavalry regiment left the swamps and, bypassing the villages, took a direction to the southeast. On this day, L. G. Kornilov decided to part with the Tekins, believing that it would be safer for them to move to the Don. The regiment (or rather its remnants), led by a commander and seven officers, was to advance to Trubchevsk, and L. G. Kornilov with a group of officers and 32 riders on the best horses set off in the direction of Novgorod-Seversky. But, surrounded on all sides, after the battle, this detachment was forced to withdraw on November 30 to join the main forces of the regiment, and L. G. Kornilov, dressed in civilian clothes, left the location of the regiment and went to the Don.
In the future, the Tekinsky cavalry regiment near Novgorod-Seversky took part in the battle on the side of the troops of the Ukrainian Rada against the Bolsheviks. With the consent of the Ukrainian authorities, the remnants of the regiment arrived in Kiev by rail, where they stayed until the Soviet troops entered the city. On January 26, 1918, the regiment was disbanded.
But 40 Teke residents reached Novocherkassk, where they were met by L. G. Kornilov. They have already participated in the Russian Civil War.
July 30, 1914 - July 7, 1915 The Turkmen cavalry regiment was commanded by Colonel (from February 23, 1915, Major General) S. I. Drozdovsky, who headed the division on August 19, 1911. Participant of the Russian-Japanese War, holder of the Orders of St. Stanislav (including 1st degree with swords), St. Anne, St. Vladimir (including 4th and 3rd degrees with swords), St. George 4th degree, as well as the Golden Weapon. It was under the command of SI Drozdovsky that the Tekins showed themselves in the Lodz and Transnistrian operations.
July 9, 1915- On April 18, 1917, Colonel S. P. Zykov commanded the Tekins (during the Civil War, in June-August 1919, commanded the Astrakhan Cossack Division). Chevalier of the Orders of St. Stanislaus (including 3rd degree with swords and bow and 2nd degree with swords), St. Anne (including 3rd degree with swords and bow, as well as 2nd degree with swords), St. Vladimir (including 3rd degree with swords), St. George 4th and 3rd degrees and the Golden Weapon. In the Imperial order for his submission to the Order of St. George, 3rd degree for the battle on May 28, 1916, it is noted that he, at the head of the regiment, setting an example of courage and bravery, attacked under enemy fire in horse formation and with daring and the force of the blow completed the glorious deed 12th Infantry Division.
The commander of the 3rd squadron of the regiment, staff captain M. G. Bek-Uzarov, for the case near Yurkouts became a knight of the Order of St. George of the 4th degree. He participated in all the battles of the 1916 campaign in Galicia, and in the summer of the next year in horse battles near Kalush. In November 1917, at the head of his squadron, he set out on a campaign from Bykhov together with L. G. Kornilov, and distinguished himself when the Tekins fought against the Bolsheviks on the railway at the Unecha station and in December on the Desna, 40 miles from Voronezh. In the Volunteer Army, Captain M. G. Bek-Uzarov commanded the Akhal-Tekinsky cavalry regiment formed in the Trans-Caspian region, and in November 1919 he was sent to the Convoy of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia. Terets by birth, since that time Mikhail Georgievich linked his service, like the life of the emigration, with the Cossacks of the Life Guards of the Kuban and Terek hundreds. He lived with his brother Nikolai in Yugoslavia until World War II.
A notable figure who stood out for his courage in the regiment was S. Ovezbaev. In May 1915, Lieutenant Ovezbayev was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav III degree with swords and a bow, and in February 1916 - the Order of St. Anna, III degree with swords. Three months later, Seidmurad Ovezbayev was promoted from lieutenant to headquarters captain.
The brilliant military officer corps of the regiment was also characterized by a special bond with subordinates.
The Russian government, on the basis of almost two hundred years of experience in observing the Turkmen tribes, quite rightly considered them to be excellent material for manning the cavalry.
The Turkmen equestrian division (regiment) was a national volunteer military unit of the Russian army. Its entire 32-year history is the history of Tekin volunteers who served Russia with faith and truth. The regiment never switched to a mobilization recruiting system - which is not surprising, since there were always an abundance of volunteers, which made it possible to deploy the division into a regiment. Moreover, the formation of a division in the city of Kashi in the fall of 1917 was a clear precondition for the appearance of the Tekin Horse Brigade, which could become the nucleus of the national Turkmen army.
The Tekinsky Cavalry Regiment was also a forge of personnel for the entire Turkestan - personnel on which both the regional and central Russian governments could fully rely.
Moreover, the regiment was a multifunctional military unit - it acted in the role of both military cavalry and strategic cavalry.
The charter noted: “The cavalry contributes to the offensive and defense by energetic actions on the flanks and rear of the enemy, especially when the infantry is conducting a decisive attack, operating in horse and foot form. If the enemy is overturned, the cavalry relentlessly pursues. In case of failure, the cavalry acts decisively, with the aim of stopping or at least delaying the enemy, in order to give time for their infantry to settle down”[Charter of the field service. SPb., 1912. S. 188]. It was these most important tasks that the Tekinsky cavalry regiment was able to solve during the campaigns of 1914, 1915 and 1916.
The Tekin Horse Regiment's pursuit of the defeated Austrian infantry in the Dobronouc battle of the 9th Army in 1916 is a classic example of the use of corps cavalry.
As a military cavalry, the Tekins conducted reconnaissance, guarded prisoners, headquarters, and provided communications. In different periods, the regiment was attached to the 1st Turkestan Army, the 11th and 32nd Army Corps, and the headquarters of the 8th Army.
But the Tekinsky cavalry regiment also performed the tasks of strategic cavalry, including when it was a military cavalry. Striking examples are the ód operation and the Dobronouc battle.
On the account of the Tekins, several brilliant horse attacks - moreover, in a new type of war, with a high saturation of advanced artillery and machine guns.
The equestrian attack in the era of firefighting is a risky weapon and requires decisive commanders and seasoned fighters. But the world war proved that the fire of artillery, rifles and machine guns would not stop the Russian cavalry attack. The actions of the Tekinsky regiment are another vivid example of this. Attacks at Duplice-Duzhe, Toporouts, Chernivtsi, at Pohorlouts and Yurkovtsy have demonstrated - and the impossible is possible. Moreover, in an atmosphere of trench warfare, in labyrinths of barbed wire, when the machine gun dominated the battlefield, and the infantry was the queen of the fields, the role of cavalry has not been lost. A cavalry attack was not only possible, but, given the appropriate operational and tactical prerequisites and high-quality command, led to great success.
For 3 years of the war, the Turkmen soldiers have shown themselves to be unsurpassed cavalrymen. They fought bravely and more than once saved the situation at the front - this was the case at the final stage of the ód operation and during the May breakthrough of the 9th Army - in the Battle of Dobronouc. And the Tekinsky cavalry regiment won the glory of the invincible.
Tekins considered it a great honor to fight for the Emperor and the Fatherland. It may sound paradoxical, but the Turkmen mentality, born of the way of life of nomads, formed from them magnificent soldiers of the Russian imperial army. Indeed, in the character of the steppe dweller, the public always prevailed over the personal - and the interests of the clan were higher than their own life. The Turkmens perceived the empire as a gigantic tribe of which they became a part - and shed their blood for the glory of Russian weapons.
6. Tekinsky cavalry regiment.
