The fate of our country is amazing. At the beginning of the century, liberals and Bolsheviks foaming at the mouth argued that “the country is heading into the abyss,” “the people are starving,” but … the data of the commissions unambiguously showed that the height, weight and muscle mass of recruits are growing from year to year. But on the other hand, one in five received criminal experience, and there was also a high percentage of syphilis and juvenile prostitutes. That is, there were … a lot of problems in the social sphere. On the other hand, Russia had the world's largest fleet of motor ships, although it lagged behind in the field of technology in many other ways. Then there was a "revolutionary zigzag" well, just according to George Orwell: the tops decayed, lost their grip and could not hold where they were. And then the representatives of the middle class went to the representatives of the lower class, who worked hard, had no knowledge, but in which naive hopes for justice and dreams of "a better lot" were roaming, and told them: "We know how to make your dreams come true!" Well, they themselves became the highest, some of the lower ones made their way to the “red professors”, “red engineers” and “Stalin's commissars”, but in general, the improvement of their lives remained in the hands of … scientific and technological progress. Otherwise, a completely different flag would fly over the Kremlin today, and the parties in our country would also be completely different … By the way, about parties. The leader among them (I don’t know for better or for worse) is the United Russia party. But … this was the name of the famous armored train of the White Guards. So … we can say that, at least in years, and even if they won purely nominally! Well, the fate of this armored train is also interesting in its own way, and it is worth getting to know it in more detail.
United Russia near Tsaritsyn, June 1919.
And it so happened that after stubborn battles on July 1, 1918, the White Guards took the Tikhoretskaya station, which was a large railway junction, where property was evacuated from Ukraine, which was transferred to the Germans and Austrians. The first heavy armored train of the Volunteer Army was built on the basis of the captured trophies, and among them there were wagons, steam locomotives, sheet metal, and armor, which was first named "Ranged Battle Battery". Then she was given the name "5th Armored Train", but it somehow "did not sound", and at the end of 1918 it was called "United Russia". With a clear allusion to the theory of "non-determination", zealously supported by General Denikin. Its essence was that it was necessary first to restore Russia in its original form, and only then decide what and how. He was a fool, God forgive me, speaking with this slogan after Lenin gave independence to Poland and Finland, and the slogan of the rights of nations was declared everywhere by the Bolsheviks. Well, who after that would want to start all over again? Nobody supported Denikin then: neither the mountaineers, nor the Cossacks, nor the Finns, nor the Poles!
And here is the flag of the armored train. And where do we see him now? So, sooner or later, a higher social organization overcomes a lower one. Did the Chingizids last, it seems, for two centuries in China? And here there are only 74 years, four years longer than the life of two generations, because sociologists consider a century to be a conditional period of life for three generations. And now this flag flies over the Kremlin …
The armored train turned out to be just cool! Wikipedia reports that he was armed with two 105mm guns, one 120mm and one 47mm cannon, which represented a significant fighting force. However, it should be borne in mind that in Russia there were no 105-mm guns as such, there were 107-mm, re-sharpened from 105-mm Japanese and "four-inch" guns from destroyers, which had a caliber of 102-mm. So, most likely, these were precisely these guns taken from the Novik-class destroyers. As for the 120-mm, there were guns of this caliber from the Obukhov plant and the Vickers company. In any case, judging by the photo, these were long-barreled pedestal guns, which means they were sea or coastal. That is, the armored train was armed very well, the guns were long-range, so it is not surprising that the whites used it as a firing ram in the directions of the main attack.
Usually, an armored train of this type had as many armored platforms as there were heavy guns on it. And a carriage sheathed with bulletproof armor for the team was also attached to it. United Russia also had a combat armored car with two machine-gun turrets on the roof and six onboard machine-gun mountings. That is, on board, he could fire from five machine guns at once!
"United Russia" twice took part in the capture of Armavir, and also participated in the attack on the city of Stavropol. It is interesting that so many armored trains, both white and red, met here in a hot battle, railway tracks were blown up here so often that this section was never restored at the end of the Civil War. In August, the armored train was damaged, and its mechanic was killed and the commander, Colonel Skopin, was wounded.
And here is the inside of one machine-gun armored car operating in Ukraine in the Dnepropetrovsk region in 1918. A bit cramped, of course, but how many “maxims” and even one “Colt”!
After the repair, the armored train had two armored platforms with even more powerful 152-mm naval guns of the Kane system. The installations, as before, were column-based. The cannon is in the center of the platform, and in front and behind there are U-shaped armored enclosures for ammunition and crew. True, because of the strong recoil, the armored train could not shoot at the traverse. That is, he had, of course, supports on which the platform could lean when shooting. But installing them was a troublesome business, depriving the armored train of mobility. Therefore, they tried not to use them. That is, to shoot so that the guns would have only a small "heading angle" in relation to the railway track, otherwise there could be "troubles". The ideal was shooting from the radial branch, along which the "armored car" plyed back and forth, but this did not happen often.
The Orlik armored train of the White Czechs, which fought in Siberia. It had two turret mounts with 76, 2-mm guns and 10 machine guns on each armored car.
Already at the beginning of 1919, the repaired United Russia took part in heavy positional battles, and then supported the rapid advance of the Denikin army in the Donetsk basin with its fire.
Then United Russia was sent to support the part of General Wrangel in the Tsaritsyn direction in order to join up with the troops of Admiral Kolchak. It was here, near Tsaritsyn, that the armored trains of the whites were especially active. Moreover, in interaction with tanks and armored vehicles, and the Reds used them together with the armed steamers of the Volga Flotilla. Later, Wrangel recalled that his regiments were dressed in new English khaki uniforms and metal helmets … The heavy artillery of armored trains was used very actively, as were the tanks … also British. And in 1919 the Whites managed to take Tsaritsyn, which they could not do a year earlier, and among the trophies they even captured two Red armored trains with the unoriginal names "Lenin" and "Trotsky". And United Russia was transferred to a new direction, to Moscow.
The "Officer" armored train was a "light type" armored train, as it was armed with 76, 2-mm guns.
General Denikin, commander-in-chief of the White Armed Forces of the South of Russia, who issued the so-called "Moscow Directive" on the campaign against Moscow, already considered himself "the savior of Russia and the second Minin."But … he forgot that success lies in striking from different directions. He turned to the Poles and … they did not support him, on the contrary, they assured the Bolsheviks that they should not worry. The Finns were also inactive, so his blow turned out to be much easier than it could have been …
White Guard recruiting poster.
On the night of September 20, 1919, the United Russia armored train and the Officer light armored train rushed straight into the Kursk city station and captured it, after which the Reds left the city. The days of the Bolsheviks, it seemed, were already numbered, but then in the rear of the White armies peasant uprisings began under the leadership of Batka Makhno, whose 100,000-strong army emerged in October 1919 in just two weeks. Just at this time, White took Orel and approached Moscow at a minimum distance. However, it was unthinkable to advance further, with a massive uprising in the rear, and the Whites threw all their strategic reserves against Makhno, including the United Russia armored train. On November 8, 1919, near the city of Aleksandrovsk (the current name of Zaporozhye), a battle took place on the left bank of the Dnieper, which greatly influenced the outcome of the civil war and, of course, Soviet historians prudently did not mention it later. Then two cavalry and two white infantry divisions, instead of attacking Moscow, together with three heavy armored trains (United Russia, Ivan Kalita and Dmitry Donskoy) went on the offensive against Batka Makhno's “peasant army”.
During the Civil War in Russia, armored trains very often changed their owners.
And he had a 26-year-old Viktor Belash as chief of staff, a professional railroad worker with all the ensuing consequences. He understood that the father's two homemade armored trains would not be able to withstand the long-range naval guns of the whites, and showed ingenuity and ingenuity.
Meanwhile, "United Russia" was fighting at the Sofievka station, supporting with its fire the 1st Indigenous Division of the Cavalry Corps of General Shkuro of the Chechens, which had just raided the rear of the Reds near Tambov and Voronezh. Unable to withstand the destructive fire from the armored train and the attacks of the Chechens, the 3rd Crimean regiment, commanded by the Bolshevik Polonsky, began to retreat. And it was here, by order of Belash, towards the United Russia party, the Makhnovists sent a steam locomotive, dispersed!
Another heavy armored train VSYUR.
The blow of a steam locomotive rushing under the steam was of such force that it immediately put the armored train out of action, and it had to be urgently sent for repairs to the rear. And then the whole matter was decided by the attack of a whole regiment of famous Makhnovist carts (700 machine guns!) With an inscription in tar on the front - "Fuck you go!", And at the back - "Fuck you, catch up!"
But the Makhnovists did not forgive the Bolshevik Polonsky for the retreat. Although he was a fellow countryman and an old friend of Makhno himself, he was accused of trying … a "Bolshevik coup" in the army at the daddy's and was quickly shot. His beautiful wife, beaten by Polonsky in the Crimea from some white colonel, was given to the Makhnovist commanders. Well, the result of all these Shakespearean passions was the departure of the Chechen cavalry to the Caucasus. True, the Makhnovists also got it from General Slashchev, but … "got it" late, when the front near Orel and Tula had already collapsed!
At the Yenakiyevo station, the armored train could not be repaired for some reason, and on December 10, United Russia was sent to be repaired in Novorossiysk to the Sudostal plant. But they did not manage to fix it before the flight of the whites from Novorossiysk, and the armored train, or, let's say, what was left to him, fell into the hands of the Reds.
The gun platform of the Grozny armored train.
However, this armored train was then "revived" in the Crimea. It is possible that the whites were able to transport the weapons of the old armored train there, or maybe they found the guns on the spot. Whatever it was, but he continued to fight until the very end of October 1920. And on November 1, before leaving Crimea, United Russia was destroyed by a head-on collision with an armored train "George the Victorious". This is where the story of one of the most powerful armored trains of Denikin's army ended.
