In previous articles on the participation of the Cossacks in the Civil War, it was shown how dear the revolution cost the Cossacks. In the course of a cruel, fratricidal war, the Cossacks suffered enormous losses: human, material, spiritual and moral. Only on the Don, where by January 1, 1917, 4,428,846 people of different classes lived, as of January 1, 1921, 2,252,973 people remained. In fact, every second was "cut". Of course, not all were literally "cut out", many simply left their native Cossack regions, fleeing the terror and arbitrariness of local commissars and komyachek. The same picture was in all other territories of the Cossack troops.
In February 1920, the 1st All-Russian Congress of Labor Cossacks took place. He adopted a resolution to abolish the Cossacks as a special class. Cossack ranks and titles were eliminated, awards and distinctions were abolished. Individual Cossack troops were eliminated and the Cossacks merged with the entire people of Russia. In the resolution "On the construction of Soviet power in the Cossack regions," the congress "recognized the existence of separate Cossack authorities (military executive committees) as inexpedient," envisaged by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of June 1, 1918. In accordance with this decision, the Cossack regions were abolished, their territories were redistributed between the provinces, and the Cossack villages and farms were part of the provinces in which they were located. The Cossacks of Russia suffered a severe defeat. In a few years, the Cossack villages will be renamed into volosts, and the very word "Cossack" will begin to disappear from everyday life. Only in the Don and the Kuban were Cossack traditions and orders still prevalent, and dashing and loose, sad and sincere Cossack songs were sung. Indications of Cossack affiliation disappeared from official documents. In the best case, the term "former estate" was used; everywhere a prejudiced and wary attitude towards the Cossacks persists. The Cossacks themselves respond in the same way and perceive the Soviet power as alien to them the power of other cities. But with the introduction of NEP, the open resistance of the peasant and Cossack masses to Soviet power was gradually curtailed and stopped, and the Cossack regions were reconciled. Along with this, the twenties, "NEP" years, it is also the time of the inevitable "erosion" of the Cossack mentality. Cossack customs and customs, the religious, military and defense consciousness of the Cossacks, the traditions of the Cossack people's democracy, were undermined and destroyed by the communist and Komsomol cells, the Cossack labor ethics were undermined and destroyed by the communist and Komsomol cells. The Cossacks were also very worried about their social and political powerlessness. They said: "What they want, they do with the Cossack."
The land management was facilitated by the de-Cossackization, in which political (land leveling) rather than economic and agronomic tasks came to the fore. Land management, conceived as a measure of ordering land relations, in the Cossack regions has become a form of peaceful decossackization through the "neighborhood" of the Cossack farms. Resistance to such land management on the part of the Cossacks was explained not only by the reluctance to give land to nonresidents, but also by the struggle against the squandering of land and the crushing of farms. And the last trend was threatening - so in the Kuban the number of farms increased from 1916 to 1926. more than one third. Some of these "owners" did not even think of becoming a peasant and running an independent farm, because the majority of the poor simply did not know how to effectively run a peasant farm.
A special place in the policy of decossackization is occupied by the decisions of the April 1926 plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Some historians regarded the decisions of this plenum as a turn towards the revival of the Cossacks. In reality, the situation was different. Yes, there were people among the party leadership who understood the importance of changing the Cossack policy (N. I. Bukharin, G. Ya. Sokolnikov, etc.). They were among the initiators of raising the Cossack question within the framework of the new policy "facing the countryside." But this did not cancel the course of decossackization, giving it only a softer, camouflaged form. The secretary of the regional committee A. I. Mikoyan: "Our main task in relation to the Cossacks is to involve the Cossacks-poor and middle peasants in the Soviet public. Undoubtedly, this task is very difficult. We will have to deal with specific everyday and psychological traits that have been rooted in for many decades, artificially nurtured by tsarism. to overcome the traits and grow new ones, our Soviet ones. You need to make a Soviet social activist out of a Cossack … ". It was a two-faced line, on the one hand, legalizing the Cossack question, and on the other hand, strengthening the class line and the ideological struggle against the Cossacks. And two years later, the party leaders reported on the successes in this struggle. The secretary of the Kuban Okrug Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks V. Cherny came to the conclusion: "… Neutralism and passivity show the reconciliation of the main Cossack mass with the existing Soviet regime and give reason to believe that there is no force that would now raise the majority of the Cossacks to fight this regime." First of all, the Cossack youth followed the Soviet power. She was the first to be torn away from the land, family, service, church and traditions. The surviving representatives of the older generation have come to terms with the new order. As a result of the system of measures in the economic and socio-political spheres, the Cossacks ceased to exist as a socio-economic group. The cultural and ethnic foundations were also greatly shaken.
Thus, we can say that the process of liquidation of the Cossacks took place in several stages. First, having abolished the estates, the Bolsheviks waged an open war with the Cossacks, and then, retreating in the NEP, they pursued a policy of turning the Cossacks into peasants - "Soviet Cossacks". But the peasants, as independent commodity producers, were perceived by the communist government as the last exploiting class, the petty bourgeoisie, generating capitalism “daily and hourly”. Therefore, at the turn of the 1930s, the Bolsheviks brought about a "great turning point" by "making peasants" peasant Russia. The "Great Break", in which the regions of the Don and Kuban became an experimental field, only completed the process of decossackization. Along with millions of peasants, the already confessed Cossacks perished or became collective farmers. So, the path of the Cossacks from estates to non-estates, which ran through differentiation, stratacid, turning to the "socialist class" - the collective farmers, and then to the state farmers - the state peasants - turned out to be a truly cross path.
The remnants of their ethnic culture, dear to every Cossack, they hid deeper into the soul. Having thus built socialism, the Bolsheviks, led by Stalin, returned some of the external attributes of the Cossack culture, mainly those that could work for the statehood. A similar reformatting happened with the church. So the process of decossackization ended, in which various factors intertwined, turning it into a complex socio-historical problem that requires careful study.
The situation was no better in the Cossack emigration. For the evacuated White Guard troops, a genuine ordeal in Europe began. Hunger, cold, disease, cynical indifference - all this was the answer of ungrateful Europe to the suffering of tens of thousands of people to whom it owed much during the First World War. "In Gallipoli and Lemnos, 50 thousand Russians, abandoned by everyone, appeared before the eyes of the whole world as a living reproach to those who used their strength and blood when they were needed, and abandoned them when they fell into misfortune," the white emigrants angrily indignant in the book "The Russian Army in a Foreign Land". The island of Lemnos has been rightfully called the "island of death". And life in Gallipoli, according to the opinions of its inhabitants, "seemed at times a hopeless horror." In May 1921, emigrants began to move to the Slavic countries, but even there their life turned out to be bitter. The enlightenment began among the masses of the White emigrants. The movement among the Cossack emigration for a break with the corrupt general's elite and for returning to their homeland acquired a truly massive character. The patriotic forces of this movement created their own organization "Union of Return to the Motherland" in Bulgaria, started publishing the newspapers "Home" and "New Russia". Their campaigning was a great success. For 10 years (from 1921 to 1931) almost 200 thousand Cossacks, soldiers and refugees returned to their homeland from Bulgaria. The desire to return to their homeland among the rank and file of the Cossacks and soldiers turned out to be so strong that it also captured some of the white generals and officers. The appeal of a group of generals and officers "To the troops of the white armies" caused a great resonance, in which they declared the collapse of the aggressive plans of the White Guards, about the recognition of the Soviet government and about their readiness to serve in the Red Army. The appeal was signed by generals A. S. Sekretev (the former commander of the Don corps, which broke through the blockade of the Veshensky uprising), Yu. Gravitsky, I. Klochkov, E. Zelenin, as well as 19 colonels, 12 military foremen and other officers. Their address said: "Soldiers, Cossacks and officers of the White Armies! We, your old chiefs and comrades in your former service in the White Army, call on you all to honestly and openly break with the leaders of the White ideology and, recognizing the existing Government of the USSR in your homeland, boldly go to our homeland … Every extra day of our vegetation abroad tears us away from our homeland and gives international adventurers a reason to build their treacherous adventures on our heads., quickly join the working people of Russia … ". Tens of thousands of Cossacks once again believed in Soviet power and returned. Nothing good came of it. Later, many of them were repressed.
After the end of the civil war in the USSR, restrictions on the passage of military service in the Red Army were imposed on the Cossacks, although many Cossacks served in the command personnel of the Red Army, primarily "red" participants in the civil war. However, after the fascists, militarists and revanchists came to power in a number of countries, the world was thickly smelling of a new war, and positive shifts in the Cossack issue began to occur in the USSR. On April 20, 1936, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution on the abolition of restrictions on the service of the Cossacks in the Red Army. This decision received great support in Cossack circles. In accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Defense K. E. Voroshilov N 061 dated April 21, 1936, 5 cavalry divisions (4, 6, 10, 12, 13) received the status of the Cossack. On the Don and the North Caucasus, territorial Cossack cavalry divisions were created. Among others, in February 1937 in the North Caucasus Military District, a Consolidated Cavalry Division was formed as part of the Don, Kuban, Terek-Stavropol Cossack regiments and a regiment of mountaineers. This division took part in a military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 1, 1937. A special act restored the wearing of a previously banned Cossack uniform in everyday life, and for regular Cossack units, by order of the USSR People's Commissar of Defense No. 67 of 1936-23-04, a special everyday and ceremonial uniform was introduced, which largely coincided with the historical one, but without shoulder straps. The everyday uniform for the Don Cossacks consisted of a hat, a cap or cap, an overcoat, a gray head, a khaki beshmet, dark blue trousers with red stripes, general army boots and general cavalry equipment. The daily uniform for the Terek and Kuban Cossacks consisted of a Kubanka, a cap or cap, an overcoat, a colored headwear, a khaki beshmet, blue general army trousers with edging, light blue for the Tertsy and red for the Kuban. General army boots, general cavalry equipment. The parade uniform of the Don Cossacks consisted of a hat or cap, an overcoat, a gray head, a Kazakin, a sharovar with stripes, general army boots, general cavalry equipment, a checker. The parade uniform of the Terek and Kuban Cossacks consisted of a Kubanka, a colored beshmet (red for the Kuban, light blue for the Tertsi), Circassian (for the Kubans, dark blue, for the Tertsi, steel gray), cloaks, Caucasian boots, Caucasian equipment, and a colored hood (among the Kubans it is red, among the Tertsi it is light blue) and the Caucasian checkers. The cap at the bottom had a red band, the crown and bottom were dark blue, the edges along the top of the band and the crown were red. The cap for the Terek and Kuban Cossacks had a blue band, a khaki crown and bottom, and black edging. The hat for the bottoms is black, the bottom is red, a black soutache is sewn on top of it crosswise in two rows, and for the command staff a yellow gold soutache or braid. In such a full dress, the Cossacks walked at the military parade on May 1, 1937, and after the war, at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 along Red Square. All those present at the parade on May 1, 1937 were amazed at the high training of the Cossacks, who twice galloped at a gallop across the wet cobblestones of the square. The Cossacks showed that they are ready, as before, to defend the Motherland with their chest.
Rice. 1. Cossacks at the parade on May 1, 1937
Rice. 2. Cossacks in the Red Army
It seemed to the enemies that the Bolshevik-style decossackization had taken place abruptly, finally and irrevocably, and the Cossacks could never forget and forgive this. However, they miscalculated. Despite all the insults and atrocities of the Bolsheviks, the overwhelming majority of the Cossacks during the Great Patriotic War resisted their patriotic positions and took part in the war on the side of the Red Army in a hard time. Millions of Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War stood up to defend their Motherland and Cossacks were in the forefront of these patriots. By June 1941, as a result of the reforms carried out following the results of the Soviet-Finnish and the first period of the Second World War, 4 cavalry corps remained in the Red Army, with 2-3 cavalry divisions in each, a total of 13 cavalry divisions (including 4 mountain cavalry). According to the state, the corps had over 19 thousand people, 16 thousand horses, 128 light tanks, 44 armored vehicles, 64 field, 32 anti-tank and 40 anti-aircraft guns, 128 mortars, although the actual combat strength was less than the regular one. Most of the personnel of the cavalry formations were recruited from the Cossack regions of the country and the republics of the Caucasus. In the very first hours of the war, the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossacks of the 6th Cossack Cavalry Corps, the 2nd and 5th Cavalry Corps and a separate cavalry division, located in the border districts, entered into battle with the enemy. The 6th Cavalry Corps was considered one of the most prepared formations of the Red Army. G. K. Zhukov, who commanded it until 1938: "The 6th Cavalry Corps was much better than other units in its combat readiness. In addition to the 4th Don, the 6th Chongarskaya Kuban-Tersk Cossack Division stood out, which was excellently trained, especially in the field of tactics, equestrian and fire business ".
With the declaration of war in the Cossack regions, the formation of new cavalry divisions began at a rapid pace. The main burden on the formation of cavalry divisions in the North Caucasian military district fell on the Kuban. In July 1941, five Cossacks of military age were formed there, and in August four more Kuban cavalry divisions were formed. The system of training cavalry units in territorial formations in the pre-war period, especially in regions of compact residence of the Cossack population, made it possible, without additional training, in a short time and with minimal expenditure of forces and resources, to deliver to the front well-trained formations in terms of combat. The North Caucasus turned out to be the leader in this matter. In a short period of time (July-August 1941), seventeen cavalry divisions were sent to the active armies, which amounted to more than 60% of the number of cavalry formations formed in the Cossack regions of the entire Soviet Union. However, the mobility resources of the Kuban for persons of draft age, suitable for performing combat missions in the cavalry, were almost completely exhausted in the summer of 1941. As part of the cavalry units, about 27 thousand people were sent to the front, who underwent training in the pre-war period in the Cossack territorial cavalry units. In the entire North Caucasus in July-August, seventeen cavalry divisions were formed and sent to the active army, this is more than 50 thousand people of military age. At the same time, Kuban sent more of its sons to the ranks of the defenders of the Fatherland during this period of difficult battles than all other administrative units of the North Caucasus combined. From the end of July they fought on the Western and Southern Fronts. Since September, in the Krasnodar Territory, it has been possible to form only volunteer divisions, selecting soldiers suitable for service in the cavalry, mainly from persons of non-conscription age. Already in October, the formation of three such volunteer Kuban cavalry divisions began, which then formed the basis of the 17th Cavalry Corps. In total, by the end of 1941, about 30 new cavalry divisions were formed on the Don, Kuban, Terek and Stavropol Territories. Also, a large number of Cossacks volunteered for the national parts of the North Caucasus. Such units were created in the fall of 1941, following the example of the experience of the First World War. These cavalry units were also popularly called "Wild Divisions".
In the Ural Military District, more than 10 cavalry divisions were formed, the backbone of which was the Ural and Orenburg Cossacks. In the Cossack regions of Siberia, Transbaikalia, Amur and Ussuri, 7 new cavalry divisions were created from local Cossacks. Of these, a cavalry corps (later the 6th Guards of the Order of Suvorov) was formed, which marched over 7 thousand km in battles. Its units and formations were awarded 39 orders, received the honorary title of Rivne and Debrecen. 15 Cossacks and corps officers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The corps has established close patronage ties with the workers of the Orenburg region and the Urals, Terek and Kuban, Transbaikalia and the Far East. Replenishment, letters, gifts came from these Cossack regions. All this allowed the corps commander S. V. Sokolov to address May 31, 1943 to Marshal of the Soviet Union S. M. Budyonny with a petition to name the cavalry divisions of the corps Cossack. In particular, the 8th Far Eastern was supposed to be called a cavalry division of the Ussuri Cossacks. Unfortunately, this petition was not granted, as were the petitions of many other corps commanders. Only the 4th Kuban and 5th Don Guards Cavalry Corps received the official name of the Cossack. However, the absence of the name "Cossack" does not change the main thing. The Cossacks made their heroic contribution to the glorious victory of the Red Army over fascism.
Thus, at the beginning of the war, dozens of Cossack cavalry divisions fought on the side of the Red Army, they had 40 Cossack cavalry regiments, 5 tank regiments, 8 mortar regiments and divisions, 2 anti-aircraft regiments and a number of other units, fully equipped with Cossacks from various troops. By February 1, 1942, 17 cavalry corps were operating at the front. However, due to the great vulnerability of cavalry from artillery fire, air strikes and tanks, their number by September 1, 1943 was reduced to 8. The combat strength of the remaining cavalry corps was significantly strengthened, it included: 3 cavalry divisions, self-propelled artillery, anti-tank destroyer artillery and anti-aircraft artillery regiments, guards mortar regiment of rocket artillery, mortar and separate anti-tank destroyer divisions.
In addition, among famous people during the Great Patriotic War, there were many Cossacks who fought not in "branded" Cossack cavalry or Plastun units, but in other parts of the Red Army or distinguished themselves in military production. Among them:
- tank ace number 1, Hero of the Soviet Union D. F. Lavrinenko - Kuban Cossack, a native of the village of Fearless;
- Lieutenant General of Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union D. M. Karbyshev - natural Cossack-Kryashen, a native of Omsk;
- Commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral A. A. Golovko is a Terek Cossack, a native of the village of Prokhladnaya;
- designer-gunsmith F. V. Tokarev - Don Cossack, a native of the village of Yegorlyk Region of the Don Cossack;
- Commander of the Bryansk and 2nd Baltic Front, General of the Army, Hero of the Soviet Union M. M. Popov is a Don Cossack, a native of the village of Ust-Medveditskaya Oblast of the Don Cossack.
At the initial stage of the war, Cossack cavalry units took part in heavy border and Smolensk battles, in battles in the Ukraine, in the Crimea and in the Moscow battle. In the Moscow battle, the 2nd Cavalry (Major General P. A. Belov) and the 3rd Cavalry (Colonel, then Major General L. M. Dovator) corps distinguished themselves. The Cossacks of these formations successfully used traditional Cossack tactics: ambush, ventilation, raid, detour, coverage and infiltration. The 50th and 53rd Cavalry Divisions, from the 3rd Cavalry Corps of Colonel Dovator, from 18 to 26 November 1941 raided the rear of the 9th German Army, having fought 300 km. Within a week, the cavalry group destroyed over 2,500 enemy soldiers and officers, knocked out 9 tanks and more than 20 vehicles, and crushed dozens of military garrisons. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR of November 26, 1941, the 3rd Cavalry Corps was transformed into the 2nd Guards, and the 50th and 53rd Cavalry Divisions for the displayed courage and military merits of their personnel were among the first to be transformed into the 3rd and the 4th Guards Cavalry Divisions, respectively. The 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps, in which the Cossacks of the Kuban and Stavropol Territories fought, fought as part of the 5th Army. Here is how the German military historian Paul Karel recalled the actions of this corps: "The Russians acted bravely in this wooded area, with great skill and cunning. Which is not surprising: the units were part of the elite Soviet 20th cavalry division, the assault formation of the famous Cossack corps, General Having made a breakthrough, the Cossack regiments concentrated in different key points, formed into battle groups and began to attack the headquarters and warehouses in the German rear. For example, on 13 December squadrons of the 22nd Cossack Regiment routed an artillery group of the 78th Infantry Division 20 kilometers behind the front line, threatening Lokotna, an important supply base and transport hub, and other squadrons rushing north between 78 and 87 As a result, the entire front of the 9th corps literally hovered in the air. The forward positions of the divisions remained intact, but the lines of communication, routes of communication with the rear were cut. The supply of ammunition and food stopped. There is nowhere to put the several thousand wounded who had accumulated on the front line."
Rice. 3. General Dovator and his Cossacks
During the border battles, our troops suffered significant losses. The combat capabilities of rifle divisions decreased by 1.5 times. Due to heavy losses and a lack of tanks, the mechanized corps were disbanded in July 1941. For the same reason, separate tank divisions were disbanded. Losses in manpower, horse strength and equipment led to the fact that the brigade became the main tactical formation of the armored forces, and the cavalry division. In this regard, the Headquarters of the High Command on July 5, 1941, approved a decree on the formation of 100 light cavalry divisions of 3,000 people each. In 1941, 82 light cavalry divisions were formed. The combat composition of all light cavalry divisions was the same: three cavalry regiments and a chemical protection squadron. The events of 1941 make it possible to draw a conclusion about the great importance of this decision, since the cavalry formations had an active influence on the course and outcome of major operations in the first period of the war, if they were assigned combat missions inherent in cavalry. They were capable of unexpectedly attacking the enemy at a given time and in the right place, and with their quick and precise exits to the flanks and rear of the German troops, to restrain the advance of their motorized infantry and tank divisions. In off-road conditions, muddy roads and heavy snow, the cavalry remained the most effective mobile combat force, especially when there was a shortage of mechanized means of high cross-country ability. For the right to possess it in 1941, there was, one might say, a struggle between the commanders of the fronts. The place of the cavalry assigned to the Supreme Command Headquarters in the defense of Moscow is evidenced by the recording of negotiations between the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General A. M. Vasilevsky and the chief of staff of the Southwestern Front, General P. I. Vodin on the night of October 27-28. The first of them set out the decision of the Headquarters on the transfer of cavalry to the troops defending the capital. The second tried to evade the order, saying that Belov's 2nd Cavalry Corps, which was at the disposal of the Southwestern Front, had been in continuous battles for 17 days and needed to be replenished, that the commander in chief of the Southwestern direction, Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Tymoshenko does not consider it possible to lose this corps. Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin first correctly demanded through A. M. Vasilevsky to agree with the proposal of the Supreme Command Headquarters, and then simply ordered to inform the front command that the convoys for the transfer of the 2nd cavalry corps had already been submitted, and recalled the need to give the command to load it. Commander of the 43rd Army, Major General K. D. Golubev in the report of I. V. To Stalin on November 8, 1941, among other requests, he indicated the following: "… We need cavalry, at least one regiment. Only a squadron was formed on our own." The struggle between the commanders for the Cossack cavalry was not in vain. Belov's 2nd Cavalry Corps, transferred to Moscow from the Southwestern Front, reinforced by other units and the Tula militia, defeated Guderian's tank army near Tula. This phenomenal case (the defeat of a tank army by a cavalry corps) was the first in history and was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. For this defeat, Hitler wanted to shoot Guderian, but his comrades-in-arms stood up and saved him from the wall. Thus, not having sufficiently powerful tank and mechanized formations in the Moscow direction, the Supreme Command Headquarters effectively and successfully used cavalry to repel enemy attacks.
In 1942, the Cossack cavalry units fought heroically in the bloody Rzhev-Vyazemsk and Kharkov offensive operations. The 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant General N. Ya. Kirichenko) and the 5th Guards Don Cossack Cavalry Corps (Major General A G. Selivanov). These corps were composed mainly of volunteer Cossacks. As early as July 19, 1941, the Krasnodar Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the regional executive committee decided to organize hundreds of cavalry Cossack troops in order to assist the destroyer battalions in the fight against possible enemy parachute landing. Collective farmers with no age limit, who knew how to drive a horse and wield firearms and melee weapons, were enrolled in the cavalry Cossack hundreds. They were content with horse equipment at the expense of collective and state farms, the Cossack uniform at the expense of each soldier. In agreement with the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, on October 22, the formation of three Cossack cavalry divisions began on a voluntary basis from among the Cossacks and Adyghes without age restrictions. Each region of the Kuban formed a hundred volunteers, 75% of the Cossacks and commanders were participants in the civil war. In November 1941, hundreds were brought into regiments, and from the regiments they made up the Kuban Cossack cavalry divisions, which formed the basis of the 17th Cavalry Corps, which was included in the personnel of the Red Army on January 4, 1942. The newly created formations became known as the 10th, 12th and 13th Cavalry Division. On April 30, 1942, the corps became subordinate to the Commander of the North Caucasian Front. In May 1942, by order of the Supreme Command Headquarters, 15 (Colonel S. I. Gorshkov) and 116 (Y. S. Sharaburno) Don Cossack divisions were poured into the 17th Cavalry Corps. In July 1942, Lieutenant General Nikolai Yakovlevich Kirichenko was appointed the corps commander. The basis of all the cavalry units of the corps were volunteer Cossacks, whose age ranged from fourteen to sixty-four years. Cossacks sometimes came as families with their children.
Rice. 4 Kuban Cossack volunteers at the front
In the history of the first period of the Great Patriotic War, the formation of volunteer Cossack cavalry units occupies a special place. Tens of thousands of Cossacks, including those who were released from service due to age or health reasons, voluntarily went to the formed Cossack militia regiments and other units. So, the Cossack of the Don village of Morozovskaya I. A. Khoshutov, being at a very old age, volunteered to join the militia Cossack regiment together with two sons - sixteen-year-old Andrey and fourteen-year-old Alexander. There were many such examples. It was from such volunteer Cossacks that the 116th Don Cossack Volunteer Division, the 15th Don Volunteer Cavalry Division, the 11th Separate Orenburg Cavalry Division, and the 17th Kuban Cavalry Corps were formed.
From the very first battles in June-July 1942, the press and radio reported about the heroic deeds of the Cossacks of the 17th Cavalry Corps. In the reports from the fronts, their actions were set as an example to others. During the battles with the Nazi invaders, the Cossack units of the corps withdrew from their positions only by order. In August 1942, the German command, in order to break through our defenses in the area of the village of Kushchevskaya, concentrated: one mountain infantry division, two SS groups, a large number of tanks, artillery and mortars. Units of the corps in equestrian formation attacked the concentration of enemy troops on the approaches and in Kushchevskaya itself. As a result of a swift equestrian attack, up to 1,800 German soldiers and officers were hacked, 300 were taken prisoner, and great damage was inflicted in materiel and military equipment. During this and subsequent active defensive battles in the North Caucasus, the corps was transformed into the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps (NKO order No. 259 of 27.8.42).08/02/42 in the Kushchevskaya area, the Cossacks of the 13th Cavalry Division (2 saber regiments, 1 artillery battalion) undertook an unprecedented psychic attack in horse formation up to 2.5 kilometers along the front on the 101st Infantry Division "Green Rose" and two SS regiments. 08/03/42 12th Cavalry Division in the area of the village of Shkurinskaya repeated a similar attack and inflicted heavy damage on the 4th German Mountain Rifle Division and the SS Belaya Lilia regiment.
Rice. 5. Saber attack of the Cossacks at Kushchevskaya
In the battles near Kushchevskaya, the Don Cossack hundred from the village of Berezovskaya under the command of Senior Lieutenant K. I. Nedorubova. On August 2, 1942, in hand-to-hand combat, a hundred destroyed over 200 enemy soldiers, of which 70 were personally destroyed by Nedorubov, who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the First World War, the Cossack Nedorubov fought on the Southwestern and Romanian fronts. During the war he became a full Knight of St. George. During the Civil War, he first fought on the side of the Whites in the 18th Don Cossack Regiment of the Don Army. In 1918 he was captured and went over to the side of the Reds. On July 7, 1933, he was sentenced under Article 109 of the RSFSR Criminal Code to 10 years in a labor camp for "abuse of power or official position" (he allowed collective farmers to use grain left over after sowing for food). For three years he worked in Volgolag on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal, for shock work he was released ahead of schedule and awarded a Soviet order. During the Great Patriotic War, a 52-year-old Cossack, senior lieutenant K. I. Nedorubov, in October 1941 formed a Don Cossack hundred of volunteers in the village of Berezovskaya (now the Volgograd region) and became its commander. Together with him, his son Nikolai served in a hundred. At the front since July 1942. His squadron (one hundred) as part of the 41st Guards Cavalry Regiment, during the raids on the enemy on July 28 and 29, 1942 in the area of the Pobeda and Biryuchiy farms, on August 2, 1942 near the village of Kushchevskaya, on September 5, 1942 in the area of the village of Kurinskaya and 16 October 1942 near the village of Maratuki, destroyed a large number of enemy personnel and equipment. Until the end of his life, this unyielding warrior openly and proudly wore Soviet orders and St. George's crosses.
Rice. 6. Cossack Nedorubov K. I.
August and September 1942 took place in heavy defensive battles on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory. In the second half of September, two Kuban divisions of the corps, by order of the higher command, from the Tuapse region by rail through Georgia and Azerbaijan, were transferred to the Gudermes-Shelkovskaya region in order to prevent the advance of the Germans in the Transcaucasus. As a result of heavy defensive battles, this task was completed. Here, not only the Germans, but also the Arabs got from the Cossacks. Hoping to break through the Caucasus to the Middle East, the Germans in early October 1942 entered the Arab Volunteer Corps "F" into the Army Group "A" subordinate to the 1st Panzer Army. Already on October 15, corps "F" in the area of the village of Achikulak in the Nogai steppe (Stavropol Territory) attacked the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Kirichenko. Until the end of November, the Cossack cavalrymen successfully resisted the Arab mercenaries of the Nazis. At the end of January 1943, Corps "F" was transferred to the disposal of Army Group Don, Field Marshal Manstein. During the fighting in the Caucasus, this German-Arab corps lost more than half of its strength, among which a significant part were Arabs. After that, the Arabs beaten by the Cossacks were transferred to North Africa and did not appear on the Russian-German front again.
Cossacks from various formations fought heroically in the Battle of Stalingrad. The 3rd Guards (Major General I. A. Pliev, from the end of December 1942, Major General N. S. Oslikovsky), the 8th (from February 1943 7th Guards; Major General M. D. Borisov) and the 4th (Lieutenant General TT Shapkin) cavalry corps. Horses were used to a greater extent for organizing fast movement, in the battle the Cossacks were involved as infantry, although there were also attacks in horse formation. In November 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the last cases of the combat use of cavalry in a mounted formation took place. A participant in this event was the 4th Cavalry Corps of the Red Army, formed in Central Asia and until September 1942 carried out occupation service in Iran. The Don Cossack corps was commanded by Lieutenant General Timofei Timofeevich Shapkin.
Rice. 7. Lieutenant General Shapkin T. T. on the Stalingrad front
During the civil war, Shapkin podvesaul fought on the side of the whites and, commanding a Cossack hundred, participated in Mamantov's raid on the red rear. After the defeat of the Don Army and the conquest of the Don Cossack region by the Bolsheviks, in March 1920, Shapkin with his hundreds of Cossacks transferred to the Red Army to participate in the Soviet-Polish war. During this war, he grew from a commander of a hundred to a brigade commander and earned two Orders of the Red Banner. In 1921, after the death of the famous commander of the 14th cavalry division Alexander Parkhomenko in a battle with the Makhnovists, he took command of his division. Shapkin received the third Order of the Red Banner for battles with the Basmachi. Shapkin, who wore a curled mustache, was mistaken for Budyonny by the ancestors of today's migrant workers, and his mere appearance in a village caused panic among the Basmachi of the entire district. For the elimination of the last Basmach gang and the capture of the organizer of the Basmach movement Imbragim-Bek Shapkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Tajik SSR. Despite his white-officer past, Shapkin was admitted to the ranks of the CPSU (b) in 1938, and in 1940, the corps commander Shapkin was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. The 4th Cavalry Corps was supposed to participate in the breakthrough of the Romanian defense south of Stalingrad. Initially, it was assumed that the horse breeders, as usual, would lead the horses to cover, and the cavalrymen on foot would attack the Romanian trenches. However, the artillery barrage had such an impact on the Romanians that immediately after it was over, the Romanians got out of the dugouts and ran to the rear in panic. It was then that it was decided to pursue the fleeing Romanians on horseback. The Romanians managed not only to catch up, but also to overtake, capturing a huge number of prisoners. Not meeting resistance, the cavalrymen took the Abganerovo station, where large trophies were captured: more than 100 guns, warehouses with food, fuel and ammunition.
Rice. 8. Captive Romanians at Stalingrad
A very curious incident occurred in August 1943 during the Taganrog operation. There, the 38th Cavalry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel I. K. Minakov. Having pulled ahead, he met one on one with the German infantry division and, dismounted, entered into battle with it. This division was at one time thoroughly battered in the Caucasus by the 38th Don Cavalry Division, and just before the meeting with Minakov's regiment came under a strong blow from our aviation. However, even in this state, she represented even greater strength. It is difficult to say how this unequal battle would have ended if Minakov's regiment had had a different number. Mistakenly mistaking the 38th Cavalry Regiment for the 38th Don Division, the Germans were horrified. And Minakov, having found out about this, immediately sent envoys to the enemy with a short but categorical message: "I propose to surrender. Commander of the 38th Cossack Division." The Nazis conferred all night and nevertheless decided to accept the ultimatum. In the morning, two German officers arrived at Minakov with an answer. And at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the division commander himself came, accompanied by 44 officers. And what an embarrassment the Hitlerite general experienced when he learned that, together with his division, he surrendered to the Soviet cavalry regiment! In the notebook of the German officer Alfred Kurz, which was then picked up on the battlefield, the following entry was found: “Everything that I have heard about the Cossacks during the war of 1914 pales before the horrors that we experience when we meet them now. terrifies me, and I tremble … Even at night, in my sleep, the Cossacks are chasing me. It's some kind of black whirlwind sweeping away everything in its path. We are afraid of the Cossacks, as the retribution of the Almighty … Yesterday my company lost all officers, 92 soldiers, three tanks and all machine guns."
Since 1943, the Cossack cavalry divisions began to unite with mechanized and tank units, in connection with which mechanized cavalry groups and shock armies were formed. The mechanized cavalry group of the 1st Belorussian Front initially consisted of the 4th Guards Cavalry and the 1st Mechanized Corps. Subsequently, the 9th Panzer Corps was included in the association. The group was attached to the 299th Assault Aviation Division, and its actions in different periods supported from one to two air corps. In terms of the number of troops, the group was superior to the conventional army, and its striking force was large. The shock armies, which consisted of cavalry, mechanized and tank corps, had a similar structure and tasks. The front commanders used them to spearhead the blow.
Usually, Pliev's cavalry-mechanized group entered the battle after breaking through the enemy defenses. The task of the mechanized cavalry group was to enter the battle through the gap created by them after breaking through the enemy defenses. Entering a breakthrough and breaking free into the operational space, developing a swift offensive far away from the main forces of the front, with sudden and daring strikes, the KMG destroyed the enemy's manpower and equipment, crushed its deep reserves, and disrupted communications. The Nazis from different directions threw operational reserves against the KMG. Fierce battles ensued. The enemy sometimes succeeded in encircling our grouping of troops, and gradually the encirclement ring was greatly compressed. Since the main forces of the front were far behind, it was not necessary to count on their help before the start of the front's general offensive. Nevertheless, KMG managed to form a mobile external front even at a considerable distance from the main forces and to tie up all the enemy's reserves. Such deep raids by the KMG and shock armies were usually carried out several days before the general offensive of the front. After the unblocking, the front commanders threw the remnants of the mechanized cavalry group or shock armies from one direction to another. And they did it wherever it was hot.
In addition to the cavalry Cossack units during the war, the so-called "Plastun" formations were formed from the Kuban and Terek Cossacks. Plastun is a Cossack infantryman. Initially, the best Cossacks were called Plastuns among those who performed a number of specific functions in battle (reconnaissance, sniper fire, assault actions), which were not typical for use in horse ranks. Cossacks-scouts, as a rule, were thrown to the place of battles in parokon carts, which ensured the high mobility of the foot units. In addition, certain military traditions, as well as the cohesion of the Cossack formations, provided the latter with the best combat, moral and psychological training. On the initiative of I. V. Stalin, the formation of the Plastun Cossack division began. The 9th Mountain Rifle Division, formed earlier from the Kuban Cossacks, was transformed into a Cossack one.
The division was now so saturated with propulsion means that it could independently perform combined marches of 100-150 kilometers per day. The number of personnel increased by more than one and a half times and reached 14, 5 thousand people. It should be emphasized that the division was reorganized according to special states and with a special purpose. This emphasized the new name, which, as stated in the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of September 3, she received "for the defeat of the Nazi invaders in the Kuban, the liberation of the Kuban and its regional center - the city of Krasnodar." The entire division was now called the 9th Plastun Krasnodar Red Banner Order of the Red Star Division. The Kuban took charge of supplying the Cossack divisions with food and uniforms. Everywhere in Krasnodar and the surrounding villages, workshops were urgently created, in which Cossack women sewed thousands of sets of Cossack and Plastun uniforms - Kubanka, Circassian, beshmets, bashlyks. They sewed for their husbands, fathers, sons.
Since 1943, the Cossack Cavalry Divisions took part in the liberation of Ukraine. In 1944, they successfully operated in the Korsun-Shevchenko and Yassy-Kishinev offensive operations. The Cossacks of the 4th Kuban, 2nd, 3rd and 7th Guards Cavalry Corps liberated Belarus. The Ural, Orenburg and Trans-Baikal Cossacks of the 6th Guards Cavalry Corps advanced along the Right-Bank Ukraine and across Poland. The 5th Don Guards Cossack Corps fought successfully in Romania. The 1st Guards Cavalry Corps entered the territory of Czechoslovakia, and the 4th and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps entered Hungary. Later, in the important Debrecen operation, units of the 5th Don and 4th Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps distinguished themselves here. Then these corps, together with the 6th Guards Cavalry Corps, fought valiantly in the region of Budapest and near Lake Balaton.
Rice. 9. Cossack unit on the march
In the spring of 1945, the 4th and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps liberated Czechoslovakia and smashed the enemy's Prague grouping. The 5th Don Cavalry Corps entered Austria and reached Vienna. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th Cavalry Corps participated in the Berlin operation. At the end of the war, the Red Army had 7 guards cavalry corps and 1 "simple" cavalry corps. Two of them were purely "Cossack": the 4th Guards Cavalry Kuban Cossack Corps and the 5th Guards Cavalry Don Cossack Corps. Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks fought heroically not only in cavalry, but also in many infantry, artillery and tank units, in partisan detachments. They all contributed to the Victory. During the war, tens of thousands of Cossacks died a heroic death on the battlefield. For the feats and heroism shown in battles with the enemy, many thousands of Cossacks were awarded military orders and medals, and 262 Cossacks became Heroes of the Soviet Union, 7 cavalry corps and 17 cavalry divisions received guards ranks. In the 5th Don Guards Cavalry Corps alone, more than 32 thousand soldiers and commanders were awarded high government awards.
Rice. 10. Meeting of the Cossacks with the allies
The peaceful Cossack population selflessly worked in the rear. The labor savings of the Cossacks, who were voluntarily transferred to the Defense Fund, were used to build tanks and airplanes. With the money of the Don Cossacks, several tank columns were built - "Kooperator Don", "Don Cossack" and "Osoaviakhimovets Don", and with the funds of the Kubans - the tank column "Soviet Kuban".
In August 1945, the Transbaikal Cossacks of the 59th Cavalry Division, operating as part of the Soviet-Mongolian mechanized cavalry group of General Pliev, took part in the lightning defeat of the Kwantung Japanese Army.
As we can see, during the Great Patriotic War, Stalin was forced to remember the Cossacks, their fearlessness, love for the Motherland and ability to fight. In the Red Army, there were Cossack cavalry and Plastun units and formations that made a heroic journey from the Volga and the Caucasus to Berlin and Prague, earned many military awards and the names of Heroes. Admittedly, cavalry corps and mechanized cavalry groups showed themselves excellently during the war against German fascism, but on June 24, 1945, immediately after the Victory Day parade, I. V. Stalin ordered Marshal S. M. Budyonny to start disbanding the cavalry formations, tk. cavalry as a branch of the Armed Forces was abolished.
Rice. 11. Cossacks at the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief called the main reason for this the urgent need for the national economy in draft power. In the summer of 1946, only the best cavalry corps were reorganized into the cavalry division with the same numbers, and the cavalry remained: 4th Guards Cavalry Kuban Cossack Order of Lenin Red Banner Orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Division (g. Stavropol) and the 5th Guards Cavalry Don Cossack Budapest Red Banner Division (Novocherkassk). But they, as cavalry, did not live long. In October 1954, the 5th Guards Cossack Cavalry Division was reorganized into the 18th Guards Heavy Tank Division by the Directive of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. By order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR dated January 11, 1965, the 18th Guards. ttd was renamed 5th Guards. etc. In September 1955, the 4th Guards. Kd SKVO was disbanded. On the territory of the military camps of the disbanded 4th Guards Cavalry Division, the Stavropol Radio Engineering School of the country's Air Defense Forces was formed. Thus, despite the merits, soon after the war, the Cossack units were disbanded. The Cossacks were invited to live out their days in the form of folklore ensembles (with a strictly defined theme), and in films such as "Kuban Cossacks". But that's a completely different story.
