Not so long ago, on the pages of VO, the material “Why are monuments to be erected to Czechoslovak murderers and marauders in Russia” appeared on the pages of VO, which dealt with the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps in the spring of 1918. Judging by the comments, the topic is still of interest to many, and why this is so is understandable.
The topic of the Civil War in Russia was also very interesting to me, because it also affected my family to a certain extent: my grandfather was a food officer, he signed up for the party in 1918, but his sister was “for whites,” so I tried to present my whole vision of this problem … in a novel! Moreover, the novel is purely historical. This is when the adventures of individual heroes can be invented, but the actual historical outline of their adventures is not. And, by the way, this question - about the limits of admissibility of one's own opinion in the work of a historian and a “non-historian” at VO was also recently discussed. So to some extent this novel, and I gave it the name "Pareto's Law", turned out to be something like a textbook on history and cultural studies, although it is full of adventures. It is interesting that in the publishing houses in which I represented him, from Rosmen to AST, no one said that he was “bad”. On the contrary, they noted that it is interesting, contains a lot of interesting information and even somewhat resembles an encyclopedia. But … "very fat". 800 pages of the first volume - no one reads this now, especially young people, and it is she who is his target audience. In another publishing house, they criticized that there was little brutality and no sex! Well, the last time is, quite recently, that I was 10 years late with him, that even now we have both “white” and “red”, but they don’t buy books. In Germany, however, they did not ask me about anything like that and they just took the novel and published it. In three books, six volumes. The first book is "The Iron Horse", the second is "Freedom Volunteers" and the third is "PRM from the Province." In terms of content, this is an anagram of "red devils", since the heroes in the novel are not red, but "white devils". And now, taking advantage of the interest of VO readers to the topic of the Czechoslovak rebellion, I would like to give as material on this topic, firstly, a description of the rebellion itself from the novel before the capture of Penza by the Czechoslovakians, and secondly, to tell, just about “how Czechoslovakians took Penza”, but not in the words of a historian, but of a writer, author of a work of art. But, alas, I have no moral right to recommend it for purchase: ordering it is not a problem, but it is very expensive in euros. Not at all according to our salaries! So, here is what is reported there about the reasons that caused the revolt of the Czechoslovakians who were previously loyal to the Soviet regime:
“There was a very real threat of confrontation between the Soviet regime and the corps of Czechs and Slovaks, who had previously fought against the Austrians and Germans as part of the Russian army. It all started with the fact that during the war between the Entente and the Triple Alliance, many of them began to surrender en masse to the Russians. Soon in Russia, from these captured Czechs and Slovaks, the Czechoslovak Legion began to form, later growing into a whole corps, by October 9, 1917, which consisted of about 40 thousand soldiers and officers. The Czechoslovakians considered themselves part of the Entente forces and fought against the German and Austrian forces in the Ukraine. On the eve of the Bolshevik revolution, this corps was among the few reliable units and formations that saved the front from final collapse.
Armored car "Grozny", a participant in the assault on Penza. Rice. A. Sheps.
The beginning of the revolution found him near Zhitomir, from where he went first to Kiev, and then to Bakhmach. And then … then the Bolsheviks signed their notorious Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany, according to which the presence of the Entente troops on its territory was no longer allowed. In addition to the Czechs and Slovaks, these were the English and Belgian armored divisions, French aviation detachments and a number of other foreign units, which after that had to urgently leave Russia.
In the end, the corps command signed with the People's Commissar for Nationalities I. V. Stalin's treaty, according to which the Czechoslovak units were able to leave Russia through Vladivostok, from where it planned to transfer it to France, while the Bolsheviks had to surrender most of their weapons. Disarmament was organized in the city of Penza, where the Czechoslovakians were loaded onto trains and followed the Trans-Siberian Railway to the east. Those who did not want to go to fight on the Western Front right there in Penza enrolled in the Czechoslovak regiment of the Red Army. Everything went according to the plan, but at the end of April 1918, the departure of trains with the Czechoslovakians was suspended at the request of the German side. At the same time, echelons with German and Austrian prisoners of war, who were now urgently transferred from the depths of Russia to the west, received the green light: the armies fighting against the Entente needed replenishment.
And on May 14, at the station in Chelyabinsk, former Austro-Hungarian prisoners seriously wounded a Czech soldier. In response, the Czechoslovakians stopped their train, and then found and shot the culprit. The local council summoned the corps officers to "clarify the circumstances of the incident," but when they arrived, they were all unexpectedly arrested there. Then on May 17, the 3rd and 6th Czechoslovak regiments captured Chelyabinsk and liberated their own.
The conflict with the Soviet government was initially settled, but on May 21 a telegram from the People's Commissar for Military Affairs L. D. Trotsky, in which it was ordered to immediately disband the Czechoslovak units or turn them into a labor army. Then the corps command decided to go to Vladivostok independently, without the consent of the Council of People's Commissars. In turn, in response to this on May 25, Trotsky issued an order: by any means to stop the Czechoslovak echelons, and immediately shoot every Czechoslovakian caught with a weapon in his hands on the highway line."
Now about the main characters of the novel, acting in the next passage. This is 17-year-old Vladimir Zaslavsky, the son of a naval officer-shipbuilder who was killed by drunken sailors in Petrograd during the mass beating of officers that took place, and thirsty for revenge; 17-year-old Anastasia Snezhko - the daughter of an officer who died in the Mazury swamps, who fled from her family estate to the city after it was burned by local men; and a 16-year-old schoolboy Boris Ostroumov, whose father was taken to the Cheka on a denunciation by a cloakroom attendant. Naturally, a love triangle arises between them - how can it be without it ?! But there is no sex! Well, no, that's all, the environment was like that! Moreover, they get to know each other by chance: Vladimir saves the two of them from the Red Guard patrol and hides in the house of his semi-paralyzed grandfather, General Savva Yevgrafovich Zaslavsky, who seems to be on good terms with the new government, but in fact leads the White Guard underground in the city of Ensk, where the matter is taking place. He prepares the guys for a life-and-death struggle, and realizing that they cannot be kept at home, he equips them with submachine guns of his own design, chambered for the Naganov cartridge. Upon learning of the Czechoslovak action in Penza, he sends them to Penza with important letters, which they must personally hand over to the corps command at any cost … But it is clear that, having reached Penza, young people do not confine themselves to sending letters, but go to fight the Bolsheviks.
“However, the streets in Penza were by no means teeming with people. Despite the sunny morning, the city seemed extinct, and some oncoming and passers-by looked wary and frightened.
Turning into a spring-like muddy alley leading to the river, they saw an old man standing on the heap of his house, sealed the glass with paper in it and, in addition, closed them with shutters.
- Why are you doing this, grandfather? - Boris turned to him, being very curious by nature. - Are you afraid that the glass will be broken? So the shutters would be enough for that …
- How many shutters will be enough here! - he answered with malice in his voice. - As soon as they start firing from the guns, the shutters won't help here either. Just right you have to run to the cellar to hide. But so, with paper at least the glasses will survive. How much do you know about glasses now?
“Tell me, grandfather,” Boris continued to ask, since it was evident that the old man was talkative and now he would be able to tell them everything. - Why is it that you have to shoot from guns? We just arrived, we do not know the situation in the city, but something is wrong with you … No one is on the streets …
- You bet, - said the old man, getting down from the heap. He was clearly impressed by the respectful attention of these three well-dressed young people, and he immediately hastened to spill on them the balm of his own wisdom and awareness. - The Czechs have revolted, that's what!
- Yes you? - Boris widened his eyes.
- What am I going to lie? - the old man took offense at him. - I tell the truth, here are the true holy cross for the church. It all started yesterday. Three armored cars were sent to our Bolsheviks from Moscow. To strengthen, therefore, our Council, and the Czechs took them, and captured them! Why, how could they not have been captured, when they were brought so straight to the Penza-III station to them, and their whole team was from the Chinese. Well, the Czechs, of course, were frightened at first, and let's shoot at them, but those hands raised them and immediately surrendered all three armored cars to them. Well, and our advisers give them an ultimatum, turn all armored cars back, and besides, hand over all other weapons as they should. Today, in the morning, the term expires, but it doesn't look like something that the Czechs would agree to disarm. Therefore, it means that they will be forced to do this, they will shoot from cannons. But the Czechs also have cannons, and they will fire among themselves right in the center of the city, and for us, the inhabitants, one fear, but complete ruin. Especially if the shell hits the hut …
- Let's go quickly, - Boris heard Volodya's voice and, nodding his head to the talkative grandfather, hurried after him and Stasey.
After walking just a little more, and finding themselves not far from the bridge over the Sura River, they saw the Red Army men erecting a fortification of sandbags in front of him to keep him under fire from a machine gun that was standing there. Behind the bridge was the island of Peski, and even further away were the buildings of the Penza III railway station, where the rebellious Czechs were located.
“It’s not easy to get through here,” Volodya remarked, peering around the corner of the house.
- Maybe by swimming? - suggested Boris, but then he himself realized the inappropriateness of his proposal.
“We’ll have, apparently, to break through with a fight,” Volodya remarked, rummaged in the sack and took out a Russian bottle grenade. - I will throw, and you, if anything, will cover me with your machine guns.
In response, Boris and Stasya took their weapons at the ready.
- Let's start! - followed by a quiet command, and Volodya pulled the ring off the handle, released the safety lever and, counting to himself to three, threw a grenade, aiming at the soldiers who were busy with bags.
The explosion crashed immediately, as soon as the grenade touched the ground. Glasses clinked loudly overhead, the blast wave hit them in the face with dust and rolled through the streets.
- Forward! - Volodya shouted and ran to the machine gun, hoping that if there was someone ahead and survived, then from surprise he would not be able to resist them. And so it happened. Two wounded, one machine gun with a shield, killed and cut by shrapnel - that was all that awaited them near the fortification, and the shrapnel had broken through many sandbags, and now it was pouring from them onto the paving stones in cheerful, bright yellow trickles.
They immediately grabbed the machine gun and quickly rolled it across the bridge, and Stasya took two boxes of ribbons and ran after them.
They had safely passed the bridge and had almost reached the nearest alley leading towards the station when loud shouts were heard behind them: “Stop! Stop! and at once several Red Army men with rifles at the ready jumped out onto the bridge and rushed after them. Boris, utterly delighted with the opportunity to finally shoot, immediately turned around and fired a long burst at his pursuers from his submachine gun. One of the Red Army soldiers fell, but the others, crouching behind the railing, began to fire at the guys with rifles.
- Get down! - Volodya shouted to Boris, seeing that he was going to shoot further, and turned his head to Stas. - Tape, tape come on!
Then he directed the barrel of the machine gun towards the bridge, pulled the cartridge belt through the receiver, pulled the bolt handle towards himself and smoothly, as Savva Evgrafovich taught them, pressed the trigger, trying to guide the barrel without jerking. The ensuing burst seemed to them frighteningly deafening, but lay slightly higher than the target, knocking out only a few chips from the railing.
- Come on below! - Boris shouted to Volodya, and he, lowering his sight, gave another, the same turn. Now the chips flew from the chiseled balusters, from which the Red Army men immediately moved back and ran away right under the shots, not even trying to shoot back.
The guys rolled the machine gun further and suddenly found themselves face to face with two Czechs armed with Mannlicher rifles with blade bayonets attached to them. One of them, interfering with Czech and Russian words, asked them about some kilomet, but they still could not understand what they were talking about. Then Volodya said that they had a letter to their commander and asked them to take them to him.
A page from a Czech magazine about the participation of the "Garford-Putilov" armored car "Grozny" in the assault on Penza.
The soldiers immediately nodded and, picking up a machine gun, briskly walked to the station. We crossed another wooden footbridge and found ourselves on the right bank of the river, along which here and there rifle cells opened by the Czechs could be seen. On the cobblestone square in front of the one-story building of the railway station, there were two armored cars: one gray, two-turret with the name "Hellish" written in red letters and the other, for some reason green, with one turret behind the cockpit, but still armed with two machine guns, and the second was located behind armored shield to the left of the driver. The third armored car, huge and also painted green, with a yellow inscription: "Terrible" on the side armor and the base of the rear armored tower, for some reason stood on a railway platform near the platform. His armored cannon looked out over the city. A small steam locomotive, a "sheep", was attached to the platform.
The Czechs practically did not use the "Garford" as an armored car, but left it on the platform and turned it into an improvised armored train …
The guys were immediately taken to the building, where they were met by a smart and still quite young officer in the station master's room.
- Lieutenant Jiri Shvets, - he introduced himself. - And who are you, why and where? He asked, speaking Russian very clearly, albeit with a noticeable accent.
“We have a letter for General Sarov,” Volodya rapped out, stretching out in front of the Czech officer. - General Zaslavsky sent us to Penza and Samara to convey several important letters regarding your speech. We had just arrived and had to defend ourselves against the Reds who tried to detain us. Two of your soldiers helped us and brought us here. Letter - here …
The lieutenant took the letter from Volodya, turned it over in his hands and put it on the table. - General Sarova is not here. But if you do not mind, then we will pass this letter on to him through our channels, our people. It's too far for you to go. You can consider your task completed.
- But we still have a few letters to Penza and Samara. Therefore, we ask you to allow us to follow with you, because there is no other way to get there now. And before that, allow us to participate in the battle with the Bolsheviks on an equal basis with your soldiers.
- Do you hate them so much that you are ready to go into battle, not paying attention to the flag that will fly over your head? - asked the lieutenant, carefully examining all three.
“You, too, seemed to be going to fight in France,” Volodya remarked cautiously.
- Oh, oh! - the Czech laughed, - you have to shoot me on the fly. I amazed you, how is it? in the eyebrow, and you in my eye! Of course, of course, soldiers, when they are courageous, are always required. But … you, in my opinion, are a girl, - he turned to Stas, - and girls should not do the work of men.
“If you don’t let me in the chain,” Stasya said in an agitated voice, “let me help your wounded as a nurse. This is also necessary and also very important. Besides, I am excellent at shooting.
- Yes, I have already noticed a carbine hanging over your shoulders and I do not doubt for a moment that you are perfectly able to use it, - said the lieutenant and quickly spoke about something in Czech with two other officers, who were attentively listening to their conversation.
- We are here as many as three regiments - the first rifleman named after Jan Hus, the fourth rifleman Prokop Gologo, the first Husitsky and several more batteries of the artillery brigade of Jan Zizka from Trotsnov. Yesterday, May 28, the Bolsheviks presented us with an ultimatum demanding that we disarm, but we, of course, will not listen to them. Most likely, we will now have to storm the city, since there are rich warehouses with weapons and, especially, with ammunition, which we have a great need for. It is clear that since we do not know the streets, our fighters will have a very difficult time, but if there are those among you who could help us by showing us the way, it would be very useful. The map is one thing, but on the ground it is completely different.
- I have been to Penza many times, - said Boris. - Almost every summer I came here to visit my relatives.
- And me too, - Stasya nodded her head. - We stayed here at the estate of friends of the Pope and many times walked in the city park.
- True, I have never been to Penza, - said Volodya, - but I drive the engine, I can shoot a machine gun - in a word, I will be useful to you not only as a guide.
- This is just good, - said the lieutenant, - otherwise our corps is armed with our own weapons and some do not know your weapons as well as they know theirs.
- Yes, I noticed that you have all the soldiers with malikherovki, - Volodya nodded his head.
- This is the result of your government's policy. After all, when our corps began to be created on Russian soil, many of ours surrendered to you directly with their weapons, plus the numerous trophies of your army. So it turned out that our own weapons were enough for everyone. There were also enough cartridges and shells, besides, we could achieve their replenishment in battle. But … the commissars signed an agreement with the Germans and now everyone, for the same reason, is striving to disarm us: our weapons are necessary for the Austrian prisoners of war, whom they pledged to return to them from the depths of Siberia. And since we may have to retreat across the whole of Russia with battles, it will be very important to have your weapons and ammunition at hand so that these damned commissars cannot disarm us, and …
Before he could finish, something thundered over the very roof of the station, and glass rattled loudly in the wide-open windows. It was as if someone had sprinkled peas on the roof. Shouts were heard in the square. Then there was another bang and another, but at some distance.
Several Czechs rushed into the room at once and, saluting the officer, began to report one by one. Jiri Shvets nodded his head, gave several orders and immediately turned to the guys.
“I am in command here, even though I’m the lieutenant,” he said. - So to speak, I enter the role of Napoleon. The Soviet Department's artillery has just begun shelling our positions with shrapnel at high gaps. Yes, you can see it yourself … So now we are going to attack them a little. You - and he pointed at Boris and Stasya - will go with our first and fourth regiments and obey their commanders. And you,”he turned to Volodya,“go over to that Austin and take the machine-gunner's place next to the driver. He knows Russian and he just lacks a shooter. “Brother, lieutenant,” he turned to another Czech who was attentively listening to their conversation, “I ask you to take these young warriors to your place. They know the city and are ready to help us, but … so that there is no special madness, otherwise they still have their whole life ahead of them.
The "Infernal" armored car, on which Vladimir Zaslavsky fights in the novel. Rice. A. Sheps.
The officer immediately saluted and beckoned the guys to follow him, while Volodya ran across the square to get into the armored car. He only had time to wave his hand to Stasa and Boris when a shell exploded again nearby in the square, and he ducked behind her body like a mouse.
- I'm a machine gunner to you! - He shouted and with all his might hammered into the door of the green armored car. It opened and he, without hesitation, climbed into its half-dark depths, which smelled of the smells of engine oil and gasoline on him. “Well, sit down, otherwise we’re just performing,” he heard a voice to his right, immediately began to get comfortable and almost broke his nose on the machine gun trigger when they started to move.
“Well, my military life has begun,” he thought with a strange alienation in his soul, as if everything that happened had nothing to do with him. - If only Stasya would not be killed and wounded. And Boris … - after which he no longer thought about anything like that, but focused exclusively on the road, since the view through the embrasure of his machine gun in the direction of travel was simply disgusting.
Then he hardly recalled the whole day on May 29, 1918, which went down in the history of the Civil War in Russia, as the day of the beginning of the "White Bohemian mutiny", but he remembered well the rhythmic hum of their armored car engine. Then, looking at the semi-darkness, he also saw the Czech driver turning the steering wheel and shifting the clutch.
But at the shooter in the tower, he, looking around, examined only the legs and so it was until the end of the battle, until he leaned into his cockpit and patted him on the shoulder - they say, he shot well, well done!
Meanwhile, along the road quickly slid various-sized wooden houses, only a few of which were on stone foundations, closed shops and shops, with tightly closed windows and doors, billboards, with torn sheets of appeals and orders. Then bullets snapped abruptly on the armor of their car, and in front of them, here and there, the figures of the Red Army soldiers - the defenders of the city - and yellowish flashes of shots flashed.
He heard a machine gun from the top of the armored tower, and the shell casings flying out of the cartridge case hit the armor above his head, and he also began to shoot. Then stone two- and even three-story houses appeared ahead, and he realized that they had finally reached the city center.
Then the street, along which they had to go, suddenly went uphill very abruptly and turned out to be so steep that their engine immediately stalled and the armored car began to slide down. Volodya even thought that they were about to turn over. But then outside the Czech infantrymen grabbed him and began to push the car up the mountain with all their strength. Then, finally, the engine started up, and they, watering the street with both machine guns, more or less safely managed to drive upstairs. Here the tower of the armored car got entangled in the telegraph wires hanging between the poles to the very ground, but jerking back and forth a couple of times, the driver overcame this obstacle and entered the square in front of the large and high cathedral.
Here bullets rattled on the armor so often that Volodya realized that several machine guns were firing at them at once and, noticing one of them on the cathedral bell tower, fired at him until he fell silent. In the meantime, the tower gunner was hitting the building of the Bolshevik Council, from where machine guns were also fired and which at all costs had to be suppressed.
The water in both casings was already boiling with might and main, but before Volodya had time to think about changing it, loud voices were heard outside, and he saw Czech soldiers waving their arms and shouting "Victory!" The prisoners of the Red Guards and "Red Czechs" from the "Czechoslovak Communist Regiment", which numbered about two hundred people, were taken out, from which someone was caught, and someone threw down their weapons and fled. The council was crushed and papers flew out of its windows, and the corpses of killed machine gunners were dumped from the bell tower. Even before noon, the whole city was already in the hands of the Czechs, but the friends managed to meet only in the evening, when the victors finished looking for communists and their sympathizers, and everyone who was possible was detained and shot.
Volodya saw Stasya and Boris marching with the soldiers of the Czech regiment, and he immediately felt relieved.
- Do you know where we were ?! - Boris immediately shouted from afar, and Stasya smiled contentedly.
- So where? - Volodya asked without listening to his exclamations and looking only at Stasya. - Go, the whole battle lay in some ditch, firing into the white light, like a pretty penny ?!
- Well, are you not ashamed to say that? - Boris was offended. “You don’t believe me, so ask Stacy. After all, we, together with the ninth company, walked right behind your armored car and saw how you shoot from it, and then your unit went up the Moskovskaya, and we turned around and went to the rear of the Bolsheviks near the city park itself. They went out, and there was a machine gun on the mountain - ta-ta-ta! - Well, we lay down, we can't raise our heads. And after all, they figured out how to go upstairs and get around them. We climb up the hill, but it's hot, sweat is flowing, thirsty - just awful. Well, on the other hand, as soon as they got in, they gave them a red line. Both machine gunners were shot and went further through the park, and then everything was over, and we asked the "brother-commander" to take the letters off. And now they've found you.
- Yes, Borik shot very well, - said Stasya. - One of the machine gunners ran for cartridges, and he cut him off right on the run, so you shouldn't be talking about the ditch and about the white light. Boris is great!
“You are a fine fellow too, a cavalry girl,” said Boris, flattered by her praise. - I took a bag from their paramedic and let him bandage the wounded together with him, one by one, but so dexterously. And when we ran into this machine gun near the mountain, she also fired at him, so I'm not the only good fellow.
- Yes, your friends excelled today! - said Volodya a Czech non-commissioned officer who happened to be next to them. - We bravely went in the first rows, showed us the way and helped us to go behind the Bolsheviks' lines. And I myself would not refuse such a gun as they have. It looks like so-so, and shoots better than your "Maxim". I heard about something similar among Italians. But now I see that you already have it, right?
- Yes, only this is our local, from Ensk, - Volodya smiled at him in response and led his friends to his armored car. - I think we will all settle down with the crew of this armored car. So it will be more reliable. It has been said - "under the formidable armor you know no wounds," so you look, under the armor we will really be more whole. And, of course, now the most important thing. I congratulate you both on your baptism of fire and, as they say, may God help us!"
P. S. This form of presentation, for all its literary character, however, is all based on well-known facts from the archives of the Prague Diffrological Society, as well as articles published in the magazines Tankomaster and White Guard.
