Petr Nikolaevich Wrangel - white general, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, and then the Russian Army. Wrangel was born on August 15, 1878 in Novoaleksandrovsk, Kovno province (now Zarasai, Lithuania), and died on April 25, 1928 in Brussels.

Peter Wrangel before the Civil War - in brief

Wrangel came from a family of Baltic Germans who had lived in Estonia since the thirteenth century and were possibly of Lower Saxon descent. Other branches of this family settled in the 16th-18th centuries in Sweden, Prussia and Russia, and after 1920 - in the USA, France and Belgium. Several representatives of the Wrangel family distinguished themselves in the service of the Swedish, Prussian kings and Russian tsars.

Wrangel first studied at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, where in 1901 he received an engineering degree. But he abandoned the engineering profession and in 1902 passed the exam at the Nikolaev Cavalry School (St. Petersburg), receiving the title of cornet. In 1904-1905, Wrangel took part in Russo-Japanese War.

In 1910 Pyotr Nikolaevich graduated from the Nikolaev Guards Academy. In 1914, at the beginning First World War, he was the captain of the Horse Guards and distinguished himself in the very first battles, capturing the German battery with a fierce attack on August 23 near Kaushen. October 12, 1914 Wrangel was promoted to colonel and one of the first officers received the Order of St. George 4 degrees.

In October 1915, Pyotr Nikolaevich was sent to the Southwestern Front. He took command of the 1st Nerchinsk Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossacks, with which he participated in Brusilov breakthrough 1916.

Petr Nikolaevich Wrangel

In 1917, Wrangel became the commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Ussuri Cossack Division. In March 1917, he was one of the few military leaders who advocated sending troops to Petrograd to restore the disturbed February revolution order. Wrangel rightly believed that abdication of NicholasII not only will not improve the situation in the country, but will worsen it.

But Wrangel did not belong to the high command of the army, and no one listened to him. Provisional government, who did not like the mood of Pyotr Nikolaevich, achieved his resignation. Wrangel went with his family to the Crimea.

Wrangel in the Civil War - in brief

At his dacha in Yalta, Wrangel was soon arrested by the Bolsheviks. For saving his life, Pyotr Nikolaevich was obliged to his wife, who begged the communists to spare him. After gaining freedom, Wrangel remained in Crimea until the arrival of German troops, who temporarily stopped the Bolshevik terror. Learning about the aspiration of the hetman Skoropadsky restore state power, Peter Nikolaevich went to Kiev to meet with him. Frustrated by the Ukrainian nationalists who surrounded Skoropadsky and his dependence on the Germans, Wrangel went to the Kuban, where in September 1918 he joined General Denikin. He instructed him to bring order to one Cossack division, which was on the verge of mutiny. Wrangel managed not only to calm down these Cossacks, but also to create a highly disciplined unit of them.

Wrangel. The path of the Russian general. The first film

In the winter of 1918-1919, at the head of the Caucasian army, he occupied the entire basin of the Kuban and Terek, Rostov-on-Don, and in June 1919 he took Tsaritsyn. Wrangel's quick victories confirmed his talent in conducting Civil war... He tried in every possible way to limit the violence inevitable in its conditions, severely punishing robbers and marauders in his units. Despite the severity, he was highly respected among the soldiers.

In March 1920, the White Army suffered new losses and barely managed to cross from the Kuban to the Crimea. Denikin was now loudly blamed for the defeat, and he had no choice but to resign. On April 4, Wrangel participated in Sevastopol in the council of white generals, which gave him the powers of the high command. White forces received a new name - "Russian Army". At its head, Wrangel continued to fight the Bolsheviks in southern Russia.

Wrangel tried to find a solution not only to the military, but also to the political problems of Russia. He believed in a republic with a strong executive branch and a competent ruling class. He created a provisional republican government in Crimea, trying to win over to his side the people of the whole country, disillusioned with the Bolshevik regime. Wrangel's political program included slogans of transferring land to those who cultivate it and providing job security for the poor.

White government of the south of Russia, 1920. In the center sits Pyotr Wrangel

Although the British stopped helping the White movement, Wrangel reorganized his army, which at this point numbered no more than 25,000 armed soldiers. The Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars entered the war with Pilsudski's Poland, and Pyotr Nikolaevich hoped that this distraction of the Red forces would help him gain a foothold in the Crimea and launch a counteroffensive.

On April 13, the first attack of the Reds on the Perekop Isthmus was easily repulsed by the Whites. Wrangel himself staged an attack, managed to reach Melitopol and capture Tavria (an area adjacent to the Crimea from the north).

Defeat of whites and evacuation from Crimea - in brief

In July 1920, Wrangel repelled a new Bolshevik offensive, but in September the end of active hostilities with Poland allowed the communists to move huge reinforcements to the Crimea. The Red troops numbered 100,000 infantry and 33,600 cavalry. The balance of forces became four to one in favor of the Bolsheviks, and Wrangel knew this well. The Whites left Tavria and retreated beyond the Isthmus of Perekop.

The first offensive of the Red Army was stopped on October 28, but Wrangel understood that it would soon resume with greater force. He began to prepare for the evacuation of troops and civilians who were ready to travel to a foreign land. On November 7, 1920, the red forces of Frunze broke into the Crimea. While the general's troops Alexandra Kutepova somehow restraining the enemy pressure, Wrangel began to board people on ships in five ports of the Black Sea. In three days, he managed to evacuate 146 thousand people, including 70 thousand soldiers, seated on 126 ships. The French Mediterranean Fleet dispatched the battleship Waldeck-Rousseau to aid the evacuation. The refugees went to Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. There were many public figures, intellectuals and scientists among the evacuees. Most of the soldiers found a temporary asylum in Turkish Gallipoli, and then in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Among those Russian emigrants who chose France, many settled in Boulogne-Billancourt. There they worked on the conveyors of the Renault plant and lived in barracks previously occupied by the Chinese.

Wrangel himself settled in Belgrade. At first, he remained at the head of the emigrated members of the white movement and organized them into Russian General Military Union (ROVS)... In November 1924, Wrangel abandoned the supreme leadership of the ROVS in favor of the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich.

Wrangel with his wife Olga, Russian spiritual, civil and military leaders in Yugoslavia, 1927

Death of Wrangel - in brief

In September 1927, Wrangel moved to Brussels, where he worked as an engineer. He died suddenly on April 25, 1928 due to a strange infection with tuberculosis. The family of Pyotr Nikolaevich believed that he was poisoned by the brother of his servant, who was an agent GPU.

At the urgent request of Russian emigrants in Serbia and Vojvodina, Wrangel was reburied in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity in Belgrade (October 6, 1929). He left a memoir.

Peter Nikolaevich Wrangel was married to Olga Mikhailovna Ivanenko (1886, St. Petersburg - 1968 New York). They had four children (Natalia, Elena, Peter Alexey).

The personality of this man is closely connected with the White movement and the island of Crimea - the last stronghold and fragment of the Russian Empire.

Biography and activities of Peter Wrangel

Baron Peter Nikolaevich Wrangel was born on August 15, 1878 in the city of Novoaleksandrovsk. Wrangel's ancestors were Swedes. For several centuries, the Wrangel family of many famous military leaders, seafarers and polar explorers. Peter's father became an exception, preferring to a military career as an entrepreneur. He saw the eldest son as such.

Peter Wrangel spent his childhood and adolescence in Rostov-on-Don. There he graduated from a real school. In 1900 - the gold medal of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. In 1901, mining engineer Wrangel was called up for compulsory one-year military service. He serves as a volunteer in the prestigious Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. However, Wrangel does not like serving in peacetime. He prefers to become an official for special assignments under the Irkutsk Governor-General and retires only with the rank of a cornet. This continues until.

Then Wrangel returns to the army, actively participates in hostilities, is awarded the Anninsky weapon for bravery. Wrangel's long letters home from the battlefields, after being revised by his mother, were published in the journal Historical Bulletin. In 1907, Wrangel was introduced to the emperor and transferred to his native regiment. He continues his education at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. In 1910 he completed his studies, but did not remain with the General Staff.

In August 1907, Olga Ivanenko, the daughter of a chamberlain and maid of honor of the Empress's court, became Wrangel's wife. By 1914, the family already had three children. Wrangel became the first knight of St. George in the outbreak of the world war. His wife accompanied Wrangel on the war fronts, worked as a sister of mercy. Wrangel often and for a long time talked with. The Baron commands the Cossack units. Wrangel rose through the ranks not quickly, but fully deservedly.

Unlike many liberal intellectuals and colleagues, including Denikin, Wrangel met with hostility the February Revolution and the decrees of the Provisional Government, which undermined the very foundation of the army. His then minor rank and position made him an outsider in the big political game among the highest ranks of the army. Wrangel, as best he could, actively resisted the elected soldiers' committees and fought to maintain discipline. Kerensky attempted to involve Wrangel in the defense of Petrograd against the Bolsheviks, but he demonstratively resigned.

After the October Revolution, Wrangel was reunited with his family in Crimea. In February 1918, the revolutionary sailors of the Black Sea Fleet arrested the baron, and only the intercession of his wife saves him from imminent execution. German troops occupy Ukraine. Wrangel meets with the Ukrainian hetman Skoropadsky, his former colleague. Commander-in-Chief Denikin in 1919 appoints Wrangel commander of the so-called. Volunteer army. However, their personal relationship is hopelessly ruined.

In April 1920, Denikin was deposed, and Wrangel was elected as the new commander. Wrangel was at the head - the last piece of Russian land, still free from the Bolsheviks, for only seven months. The defense of Perekop covered the evacuation of the civilian population. In November 1920, the remnants of the White Army left Russia forever through Kerch, Sevastopol, and Evpatoria. Wrangel died of transient consumption on April 25, 1928 in Brussels. According to one of the versions of modern historians, it was provoked by agents of the OGPU.

• The legendary white Circassian coat of Wrangel under the pen of Makovsky in the poem "Good!" turned black - for the sake of sonic expressiveness.

The "black baron" of the white movement belonged to a noble and ancient noble family of the Eastsee Germans, which was very famous in Russia. Unlike other representatives of the Wrangel family, his father was not a military man, but an industrialist and financier. Peter Nikolaevich was born near present-day Kaunas in Lithuania on August 15, 1878, but his childhood was spent in Rostov-on-Don. There he graduated from the Rostov Real School, after which he entered the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. Having received the specialty of a mining engineer (with a gold medal), Wrangel in 1902 passed the exams at the Nikolaev Cavalry School and was promoted to cornet. Then, after leaving the army, he left for Irkutsk, where he worked as an official under the governor. When the war with Japan began, Wrangel volunteered for the 2nd Verkhneudinsk regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. In December 1904, cornet Wrangel received the title of centurion "for excellence in matters against the Japanese" and was awarded the Orders of St. Anna, 4th degree, and St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree with swords and bow. After the war, with the rank of staff captain, he was transferred to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment. From there he was immediately assigned to the Northern Detachment of the Retinue of Major General Orlov, in which he took part in the suppression of revolutionary uprisings in the Baltic States. For this, in 1906 Nicholas II personally bestowed upon Wrangel the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class. In 1907, under the patronage of the Emperor, he entered the service in the Life Guards Horse Regiment with the rank of lieutenant, and in 1910 he graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. After her, she studied at the Officer Cavalry School, and in 1912 Wrangel became the commander of His Majesty's squadron.

With the outbreak of the First World War, he was with his regiment from the first day at the front. On August 6, 1914, commanding his squadron, Wrangel swiftly seized the artillery positions near Kausheny in East Prussia. For this feat he was awarded the Order of St. George of the 4th degree and became one of the first knights awarded in this campaign. In September 1914, Captain Wrangel became chief of staff of the Consolidated Cavalry Division, commanded by General Pavel Skoropadsky. And two months later he received the rank of colonel and became an aide-de-camp of His Majesty's retinue, which testified to his special closeness to the Emperor. In June 1915, he was awarded the St. George's weapon for bravery. In October 1915, Wrangel became the commander of the 1st Nerchinsk regiment of the Ussuri division of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. Under his leadership, the well-known leaders of the White movement in the east, Baron von Ungern and Ataman Semyonov, fought. In 1916, the Ussuri division was transferred to the Southwestern Front, where it took part in the Brusilov breakthrough. Loyal to the idea of ​​monarchy, Wrangel met the February revolution sharply negatively, so the Provisional Government had no authority in his eyes. In the summer of 1917, already being a major general, he was awarded the soldier's St.George Cross of the 4th degree with a laurel branch for military merits. During the August speech of General Kornilov, Wrangel, being his supporter, could not send his cavalry corps to support him, after which he resigned.

Baron Wrangel during the Civil War

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Wrangel left with his family to Yalta, where he lived as a private person until the spring of 1918. He was arrested by the Sevastopol Cheka, but was soon released and hid in Tatar villages until the arrival of the Germans. After the expulsion of the Bolsheviks, he decided to re-enter military service and went to Kiev, where his former boss, Pavel Skoropadsky, was proclaimed the Hetman of Ukraine. But Wrangel did not stay in Kiev for long. Convinced of the weakness of the political position of the Getman, in August 1918 he left for Yekaterinodar, where he joined the Volunteer Army. Since Wrangel had an excellent reputation in military circles, Denikin gave the 1st Cavalry Division under his command. As one of the volunteers later recalled, “The services that Wrangel provided to the army met expectations. From the very beginning he showed himself to be an outstanding cavalry commander. " In October, battles began for Armavir and Stavropol, and by the end of 1918 the entire North Caucasus was controlled by the Volunteer Army. The 11th Soviet army was defeated, and its remnants went to Astrakhan. For his skilful command, Wrangel received the rank of lieutenant general and received the 1st Cavalry Corps under his command.

In January 1919, after the reorganization of the Dobrarmia, Wrangel became the commander of the Caucasian Volunteer Army, and in February the Kuban Rada awarded him the Order of the Salvation of the Kuban 1st degree. At the same time, Wrangel almost died of typhus, but soon recovered and in May took command of the Kuban army. Thanks to his skilful leadership, the heavily fortified Tsaritsyn was taken by storm in June. Denikin, who arrived there, in a state of euphoria publishes the "Moscow Directive", in which he designated Moscow as the main direction of the strike. According to Wrangel, this order "was a death sentence for the troops of the South of Russia", since before the march on Moscow, one should first strengthen on the Yekaterinoslav-Tsaritsyn line and create a large cavalry group in the Kharkov region as a reserve for the offensive. And most importantly, to direct the main attack in the Volga region, to connect with Kolchak, after which the combined white armies could strike with a vengeance on the Reds. Denikin did not heed Wrangel's arguments, which caused an open confrontation between them, which was aggravated by the belonging of each of them to different social groups. The son of a serf peasant and a representative of the baronial family harbored deep enmity towards each other. After the defeat of the Dobrarmia, Wrangel was dismissed in February 1920 and left for Istanbul, but in April, after the resignation of Denikin, he returned to Crimea and assumed the post of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia. For the next six months, he struggled to find allies for the White cause. An agreement was signed on the autonomy of the Don, Kuban, Terek and Astrakhan, and the independence of the mountain federation of the North Caucasus was recognized. A military alliance was concluded with the army of the Directory of the UPR and unsuccessful attempts were made to win over the Makhnovists. To create a new social base, land reform was carried out in the interests of the wealthy and middle peasantry. But all these measures were taken too late, and Wrangel's forces in the fight against Bolshevism were unequal.

After the Red Army broke through the Perekop line, an evacuation order was issued on October 29, 1920. On November 3, a squadron of 126 ships entered the open sea and headed for the Turkish coast, and in total about 145 thousand people left the Crimea. For more than two years, the remnants of the White Army were in a military camp in Galipolli, after which they settled in Bulgaria and Serbia, which agreed to accept them. Wrangel himself with his family and headquarters moved to Belgrade, where he created the Russian General Military Union, which united the participants of the White movement in exile. In 1927, he moved to Brussels, where he got a job as an engineer in one of the firms, but on April 25, 1928, he suddenly died of tuberculosis. There is an assumption that he was poisoned by an NKVD agent. On October 6, 1929, Wrangel's ashes were reburied in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity in Belgrade. On September 14, 2007, in the Serbian town of Sremski Karlovtsi, where Wrangel lived, a monument in the form of a bronze bust on a granite pedestal was solemnly unveiled. Also in 2012, a memorial plaque was installed on the wall of the house where he was born in the Zarasai region of Lithuania.

The name of Baron Wrangel is naturally associated with the events of the last, victorious for the Soviet regime, the period of the civil war - Perekop, Sivash, "the island of Crimea" - "the last inch of the Russian land." The uniqueness of Wrangel's personality, the richness of his biography with stormy dramatic events have repeatedly attracted the attention of historians, publicists, and writers, who sometimes gave directly opposite assessments of his role and place in these events. The controversy surrounding this person continues to this day.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel was born on August 28, 1878 (all dates according to the old style) in the city of Novo-Aleksandrovsk, Kovno province, into a family of old Ostsee nobles, tracing their lineage from the 13th century. The Wrangeli barons (baronial dignity since 1653) owned lands in Livonia and Estonia, granted by the masters of the Livonian Order and Swedish monarchs. Military service was the main occupation, the goal of life for most of the representatives of this family. In the army of Charles XII, 79 Wrangel barons served, of which 13 were killed in the Battle of Poltava and 7 died in Russian captivity. In the Russian service, the Wrangels reached the highest military ranks during the reign of Nicholas I and Alexander II. But his father, Nikolai Georgievich (who left very interesting memories and a remarkable essay about the gardening art of Russian estates) did not choose a military career, but became the director of the Equitable insurance company in Rostov-on-Don. Peter spent his childhood and youth in this city. The family of N.G. Wrangel was not distinguished by wealth and family ties, acquaintances that could provide children with a quick promotion in the service. The future general had to "make a career" relying only on his own strengths and abilities. Unlike many officers of that time, Peter Wrangel did not graduate from the cadet corps or military school. Having initial education at home, he continued his studies at the Rostov real school, and then at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. Having received the profession of a mining engineer in 1900, young Wrangel was very far from a military career. After graduation, he underwent compulsory military service as a volunteer 1st category in the Life Guards Horse Regiment. Having reached the standard junker and passed the test for the rank of cornet, he was enlisted in the reserve of the guards cavalry in 1902. Receiving the first officer's rank and serving in one of the oldest regiments of the guard gradually changed his attitude towards a military career. General A.A. Ignatiev, a colleague of Wrangel in the Guard, described in his memoirs this period in the life of Pyotr Nikolaevich: “At high society balls, he stood out for the jacket of a student of a mining institute; he was, it seems, the only student of a technical institute accepted in high society. Then I met him already A dashing standard-junker of the Horse Guards ... Wrangel, after several months of military service, was transformed into an arrogant guardsman.I advised the young engineer to leave the regiment and go to work in Eastern Siberia, which I have known since childhood. Oddly enough, but my arguments worked, and Wrangel went to make a career in Irkutsk. "

The indefinite position of an official for assignments under the Irkutsk Governor-General, received by the young Wrangel, could hardly satisfy his ambitious and active nature. Therefore, immediately after the start of the war with Japan, he voluntarily entered the army. As for A.I. Denikin, S.L. Markov, V.Z. May-Maevsky, A.P. Kutepov and other future generals of the White Army, the Russo-Japanese War was Wrangel's first real combat experience. Participation in reconnaissance, bold raids and military sorties as part of the detachment of General P.K. Rennenkampfs strengthened will, self-confidence, courage and determination. According to his closest associate, General P.N. Shatilova "at the Manchu war, Wrangel instinctively felt that struggle was his element, and combat work was his vocation." These character traits distinguished Wrangel at all subsequent stages of his military career. Another trait of his character, which manifested itself in the first years of military service, is mental uneasiness, a constant striving for more and more success in life, and a desire to "make a career", not to stop at what has already been achieved. The Russo-Japanese War brought P.N. The first awards to Wrangel were the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree and St. Stanislav, 3rd degree with swords and a bow.

Participation in the war finally convinced Wrangel that only military service should become his life's work. In March 1907 he returned to the ranks of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment with the rank of lieutenant. The resulting "military qualification" and combat experience made it possible to hope for an advantage when entering the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff - the cherished dream of many officers. In 1909, Wrangel successfully graduated from the academy, and in 1910 - from the officer's cavalry school, and upon returning to his native regiment in 1912 became the commander of His Majesty's squadron. After that, his future was quite clear - gradual advancement from rank to rank up the career ladder, measured regimental life, secular balls, meetings, military parades. Now no longer a lanky student in a jacket of the Mining Institute, but a brilliant officer - a horse guard attracted attention in the high-society salons of St. Petersburg, Gatchina and Krasnoe Selo. An excellent dancer and conductor at balls, an indispensable participant in officers' meetings, witty, easy-going, interesting companion - this is how his friends remembered Wrangel. True, at the same time, according to Shatilov, he "usually did not refrain from expressing his opinions frankly", gave "apt" assessments to the people around him, his fellow soldiers, because of which he "already had ill-wishers". His marriage with the maid of honor, daughter of the Chamberlain of the Highest Court, Olga Mikhailovna Ivanenko, was also successful. The family soon had two daughters - Elena and Natalya and a son Peter (the second son - Alexey, was born already in exile). At the first stages of married life, there were some complications associated with the continued guards entertainment of Pyotr Nikolaevich, and Olga Mikhailovna took a lot of mental strength and tact in order to direct family life back to normal, make it calm and solid. Mutual love and fidelity accompanied the spouses throughout their subsequent life together.

The officers of the Horse Guards were distinguished by their unconditional loyalty to the monarchy. The commander of the "patron squadron" Captain Baron Wrangel fully shared these beliefs. "Army outside politics", "Guard on guard of the monarchy" - these commandments became the basis of his worldview.

August 1914 changed his fate: the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment went to the front and during the battles in East Prussia acted as part of the army of General Rennenkampf. On August 6, 1914, a battle took place near the village of Kaushen, which became for Wrangel one of the most striking episodes of his military biography. The dismounted guards cuirassier regiments attacked the German artillery batteries in full height, shooting them point-blank. The losses were enormous. Captain Wrangel's squadron, the last reserve of the cuirassier division, with a sudden and swift horse attack captured the German guns, and the commander himself was the first to break into the enemy's position. At the same time, all the officers in the squadron were killed, 20 soldiers were killed and wounded, but the battle was won.

For Kaushen, Wrangel was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. His photograph appeared on the pages of the Chronicle of War, the most popular illustrated military magazine. And although Wrangel did not have many opportunities to distinguish himself in major battles during the war - in the conditions of the "trench war" the horse units were used mainly in reconnaissance, the career of Captain Wrangel began to move up rapidly. In December 1914 he received the rank of colonel and became an aide-de-camp of His Majesty's retinue, and from October 1915 he commanded the 1st Nerchinsk regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. In December 1916, Wrangel was appointed commander of a brigade of the Ussuriysk Cossack division, and in January 1917, at the age of 39, he was promoted to major general for "military distinction".

The provisional government in the eyes of Wrangel did not have authority, especially after the publication of the well-known Order No. 1, which introduced control of the army committees over the command staff. Undisciplined, dissolute soldiers, endless rallies annoyed the former Horse Guardsman. In relations with his subordinates, and even more so with the “lower ranks,” even under the conditions of the “democratization” of the army in 1917, he continued to support exclusively the statutory requirements, neglecting the newly introduced forms of addressing soldiers to “you,” “citizens, soldiers,” “citizens Cossacks ", etc. He believed that only firm, decisive measures could stop the "collapse of the front and rear." However, during the August speech of General L.G. Kornilov, Wrangel could not send his cavalry corps to support him. Having gone into conflict with the "committee members", Wrangel submitted a letter of resignation. It was not necessary to count on the continuation of a military career. "Democratic" Minister of War, General A.I. Verkhovsky considered it impossible to appoint Wrangel to any positions "under the conditions of a political moment and in view of a political figure."

According to Wrangel, after August 1917, the Provisional Government demonstrated "complete impotence", "the daily increasing collapse in the army can no longer be stopped," therefore the events of October 1917 seemed to him a natural result of "eight months of deepening the revolution." "More than one weak-willed and incompetent government was to blame for this shame. Senior military leaders and the entire Russian people shared responsibility with it. This people replaced the great word" freedom "with arbitrariness and turned the resulting liberty into riot, robbery and murder ..."

Wrangel did not participate in the formation of the White movement. At a time when, on the cold, gloomy days of November 1917 in Rostov-on-Don, the first detachments of the future Volunteer Army (then still the "organization of General M.V. Alekseev") were being formed, when Generals Kornilov, Denikin , Markov, Romanovsky, after being arrested for participating in the "Kornilov rebellion", Wrangel left for the Crimea. Here in Yalta, at the dacha, he lived with his family as a private person. Since he did not receive either a pension or a salary at that time, he lived on the income from the estate of his wife's parents in the Melitopol district and bank interest.

In Crimea, he survived both the Crimean Tatar government and the Tauride Soviet Republic and the German occupation. During the Soviet regime in Crimea, Wrangel almost died from the tyranny of the Sevastopol Cheka, but by the happy support of his wife (the chairman of the revolutionary tribunal "Comrade Vakula" was amazed at the marital fidelity of Olga Mikhailovna, who wished to share the fate of captivity with her husband) was released and hid, until the arrival Germans, in Tatar villages.

After the beginning of the German occupation and the coming to power of Hetman Skoropadsky, Wrangel decides to return to military service and first tries to enter the ranks of the newly formed army of "independent Ukraine", and then travels to the Kuban, where by this time (summer 1918) fierce battles of the Volunteer Army unfolded. which took part in its 2nd Kuban campaign. By this time, a kind of hierarchy had developed in the White Army. It did not take into account past military services, ranks, awards and titles. Participation in the struggle against the Bolsheviks from the first days of the emergence of the White movement in southern Russia became the main thing. Generals, officers, participants of the 1st Kuban ("Ice") campaign - "pioneers", albeit in small ranks, as a rule, always enjoyed advantages when appointing to certain positions. In this situation, Wrangel could not count on receiving any significant rank. His fame as a cavalry commander helped. Due to his "past glory" Wrangel was appointed commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, composed mainly of the Kuban and Terek Cossacks. But in this position, the general faced serious problems.

The fact is that the Cossack units during the years of the civil war were very picky about their commanders. Cossack generals such as A.G. Shkuro, K.K. Mamantov, A.K. Guselshchikov, V.L. Pokrovsky were the first comrades among equals for the Cossacks. The Cossacks did not accept the relations between commanders and subordinates determined by the traditional charter. Obviously, Wrangel, who considered it necessary to restore statutory discipline in the Cossack regiments, caused alienation by his actions among some of his subordinates. And although later alienation was replaced by recognition by most of the ranks of the 1st Cavalry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Corps, of which Wrangel became commander from mid-November 1918, relations with the Cossacks did not bore the character of "fraternal" trust. The white cavalry gradually learned to make flank strikes, regroup, to attack swiftly under enemy fire, to act independently, even without the support of infantry and artillery. This, of course, was the merit of Wrangel. His authority as a cavalry commander was confirmed during the October battles near Armavir, and in the battle for Stavropol, and during raids in the cold Stavropol and Nogai steppes.

By the end of 1918, the entire North Caucasus was controlled by the Volunteer Army. The 11th Soviet army was defeated, its remnants retreated to Astrakhan. The White army also suffered heavy losses, but victory was behind it, there was hope for future military successes. The military career of Pyotr Nikolaevich also continued. On November 22, 1918, for the battles near Stavropol, he was promoted to lieutenant general and began to command the Caucasian Volunteer Army. Now the former brilliant Horse Guardsman was distinguished by a black Circassian coat with the Order of St. George on gazyry, a black hat and a burka. This is exactly how he remained in numerous photographs of the period of the civil war and emigration. The name of the young commander becomes famous. A number of the villages of the Kuban, Tersk and Astrakhan troops accepted Wrangel as "honorary Cossacks". On February 13, 1919, the Kuban Rada awarded him the Order of the Salvation of the Kuban, 1st degree.

But in January 1919, Pyotr Nikolaevich suddenly fell ill with typhus in a very severe form. On the fifteenth day of illness, the doctors considered the situation hopeless. Denikin in "Sketches of Russian Troubles" noted that Wrangel experienced his illness as "a punishment for his ambition." However, his biographers write that immediately after arrival miraculous icon The Mother of God is getting better. Wrangel owes his recovery, of course, to the caring care of his wife, who shared military service with him - she was in charge of the hospital in Yekaterinodar. A serious illness, nevertheless, seriously undermined the health of Pyotr Nikolaevich, who had already suffered two wounds and a contusion by that time.

In the spring of 1919, Wrangel's first disagreements with the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the Supreme Soviet of Yugoslavia also belonged. In a report addressed to Denikin, he argued the need to concentrate the main attack of the AFSR on Tsaritsyn, after the capture of which it would be possible to join up with the armies of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. Such an operation made it possible, according to Wrangel, to create a unified anti-Bolshevik front in southern Russia, and the united white armies could strike with redoubled force on "Red Moscow". Of course, according to this plan, the main blow to the connection with Kolchak was to be inflicted by Wrangel's Caucasian army. This report, according to Denikin, testified to the "ambitious plans" of the baron, who sought to "stand out" during the upcoming operation. Wrangel, in turn, condemned Denikin's desire to attack Moscow, "so as not to share the laurels of victory with Kolchak." Wrangel saw the main reason for the rejection of his plan in the personal antipathy to himself on the part of the Commander-in-Chief. According to him, "the son of an army officer, who himself spent most of his service in the army, he (Denikin - V. Ts.), Having appeared at its top, retained many specific traits their environment - provincial, petty-bourgeois, with a liberal tinge. From this environment, he retained an unconscious prejudiced attitude towards the "aristocracy", "court", "guards", a painfully developed scrupulousness, an involuntary desire to protect his dignity from ghostly encroachments. Fate unexpectedly dumped on his shoulders his huge, alien state work, threw him into the whirlpool of political passions and intrigues. In this work, alien to him, he, apparently, was lost, fearing to make a mistake, did not trust anyone and at the same time did not find in himself sufficient strength to lead the state ship across the stormy political sea with a firm and confident hand ... "

Denikin really did not have the graceful polish of the guards, secular manners and subtle political "instinct". In comparison with him, a tall, drawn in a black Circassian coat, with a loud voice, confident, decisive and quick in character and deeds, Pyotr Nikolaevich, of course, won. Wrangel's characterization of Glavkoy clearly shows the aristocratic guardsman's dislike for the "army man" - Denikin, of low, in his opinion, origin and upbringing.

Alienation towards Wrangel, in turn, manifested itself on the part of Denikin. Therefore, for example, the preference for the appointment in the spring of 1919 to the post of commander of the Volunteer Army was given not to Wrangel, but to Mai-Mayevsky, who, although he was not a "pioneer", was absolutely loyal to the Headquarters and the Chief Commander himself.

Although the Stavka rejected the plan to strike the Volga, the capture of Tsaritsyn was necessary for the White army. They could not have attacked the Ukraine with the red Tsaritsyn in the rear. The headquarters decided to break through the Red positions with a concentrated blow of all cavalry regiments, united in a group under the command of Wrangel. The Tsaritsyno operation, which ended victoriously on June 18, 1919, made the name of the Caucasian Commander-in-Chief one of the most famous and authoritative in the generals of the White Army. "Hero of Tsaritsyn", as the newspapers of General Wrangel were now called, became famous and popular in the white south. Helpful officials of the Propaganda Department hung everywhere his photographs, lurid, in a popular print style, in which the general was portrayed in the pose of the "Bronze Horseman" - with a hand pointing to Moscow (a clear allusion to the emergence of a new leader - "Peter IV"). The Caucasian commander was presented with the General Wrangel march, composed by one of the officers. Such inept and, possibly, deliberate propaganda was perceived by Pyotr Nikolayevich himself without proper understanding - he was convinced of his popularity, considering it well deserved. The representatives of the allies also drew attention to the young general. For the capture of Tsaritsyn, he was awarded the English Order of St. Michael and George.

On June 20, 1919, in busy Tsaritsyn, Denikin signed the "Moscow Directive" proclaiming the beginning of the campaign for "the liberation of the capital from the Bolsheviks." But while the Volunteer Army was approaching Kiev, Kursk, Voronezh, the Caucasian army was able to advance only to the city of Kamyshin (60 versts from Saratov). And after the thousand-kilometer front of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, curved in the direction of Orel, Tula and Moscow, was broken in October 1919 and the troops began to retreat, Wrangel was appointed to command the Volunteer Army (instead of May-Mayevsky). Denikin himself explained this appointment by the need for a change in tactics at the front. The created cavalry group under the command of Wrangel was supposed to stop the advance of the Red Army and defeat Budyonny's corps. The politicians of the center-right Council of the State Unification of Russia (headed by the former Tsarist Minister A.V. Krivoshein, P.B. Struve, N.V. Savich, S.D. Tverskoy), who supported the general, were also interested in such an appointment, because the post of Volunteer could become the last step to the post of Commander-in-Chief, and in this case the above-named politicians could get into the formed government.

This appointment was preceded by the events in the Kuban, in which Wrangel was a direct participant. Since the beginning of 1919, the Kuban parliament, the Rada, sought to establish the Kuban Army as an independent, separate state, with its own borders, a separate Kuban army, subordinate only to Cossack generals and officers. Speaking on behalf of the "independent Kuban" at the Paris Peace Conference, the Rada delegation entered into an alliance with the government of the Mountain Republic. This act became a pretext for "pacifying" the rebellious Rada, which was entrusted to Wrangel. On November 6, he ordered the arrest and transfer to the military-field court of 12 Rada deputies, and on November 7 one of them - A.I. Kalabukhov was publicly executed in Yekaterinodar. The "Kuban action" carried out with the direct participation of Wrangel, of course, did not add to his sympathy on the part of the Cossacks. In addition, the opposition in the Rada received a pretext for accusing the Denikin government of "suppressing the interests of the Cossacks."

However, the change of command by itself could not immediately improve the situation at the front; the new army commander needed time to orient himself in an unfamiliar theater of operations. Given the weakness of military units, the absence of normal supplies and communications, and the absence of fortifications in the rear, conducting a large offensive operation turned out to be impossible. At the end of 1919, units of the Volunteer Army were dismembered, the "white capitals" Novocherkassk and Rostov-on-Don were hastily evacuated, and the volunteer regiments, which had decreased by more than 10 times, retreated beyond the Don. The remnants of the Dobrarmia were consolidated into a corps under the command of General Kutepov, and Wrangel "was put at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief due to the disbandment of the Army."

In the winter of 1919/20 Wrangel's conflict with the Headquarters and the Commander-in-Chief himself turned into open confrontation. In the southern Russian White movement, after the impressive successes of the summer and autumn of 1919, a sharp change in combat happiness and the subsequent abandonment of a vast territory in just two months was perceived very painfully. To the question "Who is to blame?" it would seem that the orders for the army and Wrangel's reports to Headquarters were clearly responding. His correspondence with the Commander-in-Chief very soon became known at the front and in the rear.
The greatest discontent of Wrangel was caused by the "vices" of the white south, sharply outlined in the report of December 9, 1919. Written in a clearly non-statutory language, the report gave an eloquent assessment of the reasons for the defeat of the "campaign against Moscow": grew immeasurably ... The war turned into a means of profit, and the local contentment turned into robbery and speculation ... The population, who greeted the army during its advance with sincere enthusiasm, exhausted from the Bolsheviks and longing for peace, soon began to experience the horrors of robbery, violence And as a result - the collapse of the front and the uprising in the rear ... The army, as a fighting force, no. "

In January 1920, Wrangel left for the Crimea. The personification of the "criminal rear" for Wrangel and his entourage is now General N.N. Shilling. The officers of the Black Sea Fleet, the chairman of the Special Meeting, General Lukomsky, telegraphed to Headquarters: "There is great excitement against Schilling. There is only one way out - this is the immediate appointment of Wrangel to Schilling's place." Finally, the "public figures" of Crimea turned to Headquarters with a demand to put "at the head of power in Crimea ... a person who has earned the trust of both the army and the population by his personal qualities and military merit" (that is, Wrangel - V.Ts.). The appeal was signed by A.I. Guchkov, Prince B.V. Gagarin, N.V. Savich, the future head of the Wrangel Agriculture Administration G.V. Glinka and others. The pressure on the Headquarters went in several directions, and Denikin had to get the impression that the front and rear fully supported Wrangel. It is noteworthy that in this "campaign to power", the main role was no longer played by Wrangel, but by those political groups and circles (primarily the aforementioned Council of the State Unification of Russia) that supported him, based on purely practical calculations - having replaced the Commander-in-Chief, to power. Of course, it was supposed to carry out not only a change of leadership, but also a change in the political course of the South Russian White movement.

Wrangel was sincerely convinced that both the army and the rear wanted a change in the leadership of the white movement, only proceeding from the need for a more effective fight against Soviet power. General B.A. Shteyfon: “Denikin and Wrangel were completely different people in their mindset, character and in their worldviews. the fact that their differences ... are explained not by ideological considerations, but exclusively by personal motives. This tragic, but completely conscientious delusion entailed many sad and grave consequences ... "

The final act of this conflict was the dismissal of Wrangel by order of the Commander-in-Chief of February 8, 1920.

In the last days of February, the Wrangel family left Crimea, going to Constantinople with the intention of going further to Serbia. Together with them, Krivoshein, Struve, Savich left the White South. They saw the armed struggle in the Crimea and the North Caucasus as hopelessly lost, and Denikin's position doomed. Suddenly, news came from Sevastopol about the upcoming Military Council, at which it was supposed to decide the issue of appointing a new Commander-in-Chief.

The outcome of the Military Council, which took place on March 21-22, 1920, was essentially a foregone conclusion. And on March 22, 1920, Denikin issued the last order transferring the powers of the Commander-in-Chief to Lieutenant-General Baron Wrangel. Thus ended the "Denikin period" in the history of the white movement in southern Russia. The new Commander-in-Chief had to solve the problems inherited from the past tense.

Many in the white Crimea were oppressed by the consciousness of the futility of the struggle against the Soviet regime. If the "campaign against Moscow" ended in defeat, can one hope for the possibility of a successful defense of Crimea? From Wrangel, a clear, definite word was required of what awaits the white Crimea further. And this "word" was pronounced on March 25, 1920 during a solemn parade and prayer service on Nakhimovskaya Square in Sevastopol. “I believe,” said the last Commander-in-Chief of the White South, “that the Lord will not allow the death of a just cause, that He will give me the mind and strength to bring the army out of a difficult situation. Knowing the immense valor of the troops, I firmly believe that they will help me fulfill my duty to homeland and I believe that we will wait for the bright day of the resurrection of Russia. " Wrangel said that only the continuation of the armed struggle against the Soviet regime is the only possible one for the white movement. But this required the restoration of the white front and rear, now on the territory of only one "island of Crimea".

The principle of a one-man military dictatorship, which had been established in the White South since the time of the first Kuban campaigns, was rigorously observed by Wrangel in 1920. Not a single significant law or order could be put into effect without his sanction. “We are in a besieged fortress,” Wrangel argued, “and only a single firm power can save the situation. First of all, we must defeat the enemy, now there is no place for a party struggle ... all parties must unite into one, doing non-party business work. my government is built not from the people of any party, but from people of action. For me there are neither monarchists nor republicans, but there are only people of knowledge and labor. "

Wrangel defined the main task of his government's activities as follows: the red yoke of the people. " This proclaimed the rejection of the main goal of the southern Russian White movement - the occupation of Moscow, an attempt was made to create a kind of springboard from Crimea, on which a new political program could be implemented, to create a "model of White Russia" alternative to "Bolshevik Russia."

Similar considerations were expressed by Wrangel in a conversation with V.V. Shulgin: "The policy of conquering Russia must be abandoned ... I am striving to make life possible in Crimea, although on this scrap, ... to show the rest of Russia ...; there you have communism, hunger and emergency, and here land reform is underway, order and possible freedom will be established ... Then it will be possible to move forward, slowly, not like we walked under Denikin, slowly, securing what we captured. Then the provinces taken from the Bolsheviks will be the source of our strength, not weakness, as it was before ... "But it turned out to be impossible to create an" experimental field "from Crimea for the future Russia. Nevertheless, the experience of state building in 1920 is very indicative from the point of view of the evolution of the White movement in the south of Russia.

So in national policy, relations with the Cossacks, the Government of the South of Russia defined its actions as a rejection of the principles of "a single, indivisible Russia." On July 22, in Sevastopol, an agreement was solemnly concluded with representatives of the Don, Kuban, Terek and Astrakhan (generals Bogaevsky, Vdovenko and Lyakhov), according to which the Cossack troops were guaranteed "complete independence in their internal structure and management." In September - October, attempts were made to conclude an alliance with representatives of the Union of Highlanders of the North Caucasus, with the sanction of Wrangel, contacts were established with the grandson of Imam Shamil, an officer of the French service, Said-bek, on the basis of recognition of the mountain federation. The attempt to establish an alliance with Makhno was also indicative. Emphasizing the "democratism" of its policy, the Wrangel government proposed to Makhno's army to join the White Army. And although the "batko" himself demonstratively refused any contacts with the "counter-revolutionaries", a number of smaller insurgent detachments (atamans Khmara, Chaly, Savchenko) supported Wrangel, publishing appeals calling for an alliance with the Whites, and ataman Volodin even formed a "special partisan detachment ". All such actions were dictated by the expectation of creating a common front with everyone who, to one degree or another, expressed dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime. Thus, the state policy of the white Crimea embodied the slogan proclaimed by Wrangel "with whoever you want - but for Russia", that is, "against the Bolsheviks."

But the main part of the entire inner life of the white Crimea in 1920 was the land reform, designed to create a new social base for the White movement, the prosperous and middle peasantry, capable of supplying the army and the rear, supporting the white power. This "reliance on the peasants" would ensure, in Wrangel's opinion, "victory over Bolshevism." On May 25, 1920, on the eve of the White Army's offensive in Northern Tavria, the Land Order was promulgated. "The army must carry the land on bayonets" - this was the main meaning of the agrarian policy of the white Crimea. All the land, including the one "seized" by the peasants from the landowners during the "black redistribution" of 1917-1918. remained with the peasants. Nobody had the right to deprive them of her. But, unlike the demagogy of the Bolshevik "decrees", the "Land Order" secured the land to the peasants in ownership, albeit for a small ransom, guaranteed them freedom of local self-government (the creation of volost and county land councils - here Wrangel was not afraid to use even the "revolutionary "the term is soviets), and the former landowners did not even have the right to return to their estates.

The last pages of the history of the civil war in the south of Russia became in Wrangel's life the time of the highest exertion of forces, energy in organizing the struggle to retain the "last inch of the Russian land" - the white Crimea. Eyewitnesses noted in the Commander-in-Chief a constant state of enormous inner excitement. Shulgin recalled that “a high voltage current was felt in this man. His psychic energy saturating the environment, ... faith in his work and the ease with which he bore the burden of power, power that did not crush him, but, on the contrary, gave wings, - it was they who did this deed of keeping Taurida, a deed bordering on miraculous. " Conscientiously trying to understand all the circumstances of the issues under discussion, Wrangel did not consider himself entitled to leave any case or petition without consideration. Lacking sufficient knowledge in many civil matters, he entrusted their consideration to his assistants. He himself said about this: "The trouble is that they turn to me with different questions about the state structure, on all kinds of economic and trade issues - what can I tell them? I have to believe those who tell me. I do not like this. Give me the cavalry corps and I will show you! "

Wrangel personally conducted military reviews, awarded distinguished soldiers and officers, presented banners. One of the participants in the last review of the Kornilov shock division (September 1, 1920) recalled: "The arrival of the Commander-in-Chief, his fiery speech and his inimitable cry (you cannot express it otherwise) -" Eagles-s-s Kornilovtsy-s-s! " me with a continuous nervous tremor and internal sobbing almost to the point of an explosion ... The powerful hoarse voice of the Commander-in-Chief seemed strained and seemed to express the overwhelmed Volunteer Army. "
The army was gradually imbued with confidence that the Commander-in-Chief would be able to get it out of any difficult situation.

His wife in Crimea continued to engage in charitable activities. At her expense, a hospital was organized in Sevastopol, charitable evenings and concerts were held several times, the funds from which went to help wounded soldiers and civilian refugees.

The continuation of the armed struggle in White Tavria in 1920 was impossible without a well-organized, disciplined army. During April - May, about 50 different headquarters and directorates, "regiments", "divisions" and "detachments" were eliminated, the entire composition of which did not exceed several dozen fighters. The Armed Forces of the South of Russia were renamed the Russian Army, thus emphasizing the continuity from the regular army of Russia until 1917. The reward system has been revived. Now, for military distinctions, they were not promoted to the next rank, as was done under Denikin (25-year-old generals had already served in the army), but were awarded the Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, whose status developed by Wrangel was close to the status of the Order of St. George.

By the beginning of the offensive in Northern Tavria, the Russian army was fully prepared, the units replenished their ranks, received new uniforms and weapons. The battles that unfolded on the expanses of the Tauride steppes were distinguished by great persistence and fierceness. In June, as a result of an operation prepared by Wrangel's headquarters, one of the best red cavalry corps under the command of D.P. Goons. At the same time, the red troops managed to cross the Dnieper and in the Kakhovka area seize a bridgehead, which, over the next months, until October, will constantly threaten the rear of the white army with a blow in the direction of Perekop and its encirclement in Northern Tavria. July and August passed in continuous battles, during which the composition of the army was reduced by more than half, and the reinforcements that arrived from the Russian units of internees in Poland, mobilized Taurians, in their fighting qualities were lower than those experienced in battles of the first volunteer cadres. Even Red Army prisoners of war, who often surrendered in the very first battle, were even put into the ranks of the white regiments. In September, during the offensive on Donbass, the Russian army achieved its greatest successes. The Don Corps Cossacks seized one of the centers of Donbass - Yuzovka from a raid, and Soviet institutions were hastily evacuated from Yekaterinoslav. But here the same failure awaited Wrangel, which had nullified all the successes of Denikin's armies a year earlier. The front was stretched out again, and the few regiments of the Russian army were unable to hold it.

The counter-offensive of the Red Army, which began in mid-October, was so strong and swift that the weakened units of the Russian army could not hold the front. Budenny's corps broke through to Perekop, threatening to cut off the escape route to the Crimea. Only the fortitude and courage of the regiments of the 1st corps of General Kutepov and the Don Cossacks saved the position of the White army, and most of it went to the Crimea. The defeat in Northern Tavria became apparent. After the withdrawal to the Crimea, there remained the last hope for the possibility of a successful defense on the "impregnable", as it was constantly announced in the white press, fortifications at Perekop and Chongar. All official statements spoke about the possibility of "wintering" in the Crimea, that by the spring of 1921 Soviet power would be undermined by the discontent of the peasants and workers, and a new "exit from the Crimea" would be much more successful than in 1920.

But the Soviet command was not going to wait for spring. On the third anniversary of October 1917, the storming of the Perekop fortifications began. The regrouping of troops undertaken at the initiative of Wrangel was not completed by the time of the assault and the white regiments had to go into counterattacks without necessary training and rest. By the evening of October 28, on the third day of the assault, General Kutepov telegraphed to Headquarters that the Perekop fortifications had been broken through. The unexpectedly rapid fall of Perekop required Wrangel to make immediate decisions that could save the army and the rear. "The storm was approaching, our fate hung in the balance, it was necessary to exert all mental and mental strength. The slightest hesitation or oversight could ruin everything." In this situation, Wrangel was able to quickly implement the developed evacuation plan.

On October 29, the Ruler of the South of Russia and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army issued an order to leave Crimea. Noting the heroism of the troops and calling for restraint on the civilian population, the order, at the same time, warned those who were going to share its future fate with the White Army: “To fulfill our duty to the army and the population, everything has been done that is within the limits of human forces. Our further paths are full of We don't have any other land besides Crimea. There is no state treasury either. Frankly, as always, I warn everyone about what awaits them. " The government of the South of Russia "advised all those who were not in immediate danger from enemy violence - to stay in Crimea." According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, everyone who decided to leave Crimea could do it without hindrance. In all ports, with the exception of Feodosia, the loading took place in an orderly and calm manner. The troops broke away from the pursuit of the Reds for several transitions and embarked on ships without much difficulty. Wrangel was one of the last to leave the port of Sevastopol. Having made a speech in front of the guard of cadets, the Commander-in-Chief in the afternoon of November 1, 1920, boarded the cruiser General Kornilov. On November 3, the cruiser approached Feodosia, where Wrangel controlled the loading of the Cossacks. After that, a squadron of 126 ships (most of the warships and transports of the Black Sea Fleet) went out to sea. The last period of the "white struggle" in the south of Russia ended, along with it the peak of the military and state activities of General Wrangel went down in history.

More than 145 thousand people left the White Crimea. Almost half of them were military. Now Wrangel was faced with the task of arranging for a huge number of military and civilian refugees, doomed to a half-starved existence. The commander-in-chief was convinced of the need to use the army to continue the "struggle against Bolshevism" in the near future. On March 22, 1921, on the anniversary of taking command of the White Army, Wrangel turned to his comrades-in-arms with an order in which he wrote: “With unshakable faith, as a year ago, I promise you to come out of new trials with honor. I give it to the army. Officers and soldiers, army and Cossack corps are equally dear to me ... As a year ago, I call on you to rally around me, remembering that our strength is in unity. " Back on February 15, 1921, during the review, Wrangel said: "as the sun burst through the dark clouds, so it will illuminate our Russia ... in less than three months ... and I will lead you forward to Russia."

In Gallipoli, where the units of the former Volunteer Army were brought together in regiments, the position of the troops was especially difficult. The camp was built literally on bare ground. Unfortunately, the army rarely saw its commander-in-chief. The French command, which controlled the presence of the white army in Turkey, was vigilant to ensure that the commander-in-chief's communication with his army was as rare as possible. But even in isolated cases (Wrangel visited Gallipoli on December 18, 1920 and February 15, 1921), military reviews and parades, the army felt the former strength and authority of its last commander. For most of the fighters, Wrangel remained the leader, or rather, the symbol of the white movement for the revival of Russia. One of the officers described the reason for this admiration for the Commander-in-Chief as follows: “We believed General Wrangel. Arrivals of the Commander-in-Chief acquired a very special significance - holidays for the entire mass, striving ... to express their deep faith in him ... The army lived and realized itself ..., a close cohesion appeared again, the personal began to dissolve in the powerful consciousness of a single collective, and this collective again was embodied in one dear and beloved person ... ".

Wrangel's intransigence hindered many. October 15, 1921 the floating headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief - the yacht "Lucullus", anchored in the roadstead of the Bosphorus, was rammed by the Italian transport "Adria" and sank a few minutes later. The blow fell just in that part of the ship where the commander-in-chief's cabin was located. Wrangel and his family were saved by an accident - at that time they were on the shore. The investigation into the accident was never brought to an end, however, it was quite possible to assume the deliberate nature of the incident at that time.

No longer counting on the support of France, Wrangel began to negotiate with the Balkan countries on granting asylum to parts of the Russian army. Passing with great difficulty, they were successfully completed at the end of April 1921. Bulgaria agreed to deploy 9 thousand troops on its territory, and Serbia 7 thousand. At the end of 1921, the bulk of the army was taken to these countries, and on May 5, 1923, the last soldier left Gallipoli.
A new stage began in the life of the White Army and the last one in the life of its Commander-in-Chief. After the evacuation from Gallipoli, Wrangel moved to Belgrade with his family. Here, in Yugoslavia, he found himself at the center of the political passions that tore apart the Russian emigration. Former representatives of the left-wing parties continued to demand that Wrangel stop supporting the army as an organized military force, while the right-wing monarchists intended to liberate Russia only on condition that the army openly accept the slogan of reviving the monarchy. It largely depended on Pyotr Nikolayevich whether this slogan would be openly proclaimed in the military environment, or whether it would remain true to the traditional principle of "army outside politics."

Wrangel replied to this by issuing Order No. 82 on September 8, 1923. It clearly stated: "Now, after three and a half years of exile, the Army is alive; it has retained its independence, it is not bound by treaties or obligations either with states or parties ..." The order forbade army officers to join the ranks of any political organizations, to deal with any political activities... Moreover, an officer who prefers politics to the army had to leave its ranks. The attitude of Wrangel himself to the idea of ​​restoring the monarchy is very well characterized by his words: "The Tsar must appear only when the more people are finished ... when the bloody struggle that lies ahead during their overthrow subsides. The Tsar must not only enter Moscow." white horse ", it itself should not have the blood of civil war - and it should be a symbol of reconciliation and the highest mercy." The appearance of the "Tsar" in emigration, without strength and power, was absurd for Wrangel.

After the army ceased to exist as a separate military structure, it was necessary to preserve its unity. The established and existing military alliances, regimental cells were to become the basis for the organization of the Russian General Military Union (ROVS). On September 1, 1924, an order was issued for its creation. Its first chairman was Wrangel, who subjugated all military alliances from South America to Asia.

But while formally continuing to retain the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Wrangel has actually already moved away from its everyday problems. Last years Wrangel's lives were spent in Brussels. According to General Shatilov's recollections, “he was no longer attracted by society, he avoided it in every way. it was replaced by tolerance and condescension ... When you remember this time of his life, it involuntarily seems that although he seemed to be still completely healthy, he already had a presentiment of the nearness of his death. " Petr Nikolaevich again returned to the specialty with which he began his life - the profession of a mining engineer. He paid much attention to the preparation for the publication of his memoirs. However, both volumes were able to see the light after his death. In February 1928, two months before his death, materials, an important role in the preparation of which for publication was played by his personal secretary N.M. Kotlyarevsky, were transferred to A.A. von Lampe - editor of the multivolume edition "Beloe Delo". Refusing any fee for the publication, Wrangel set a condition "that parts of the army, military unions and their individual ranks would enjoy the greatest possible discount when buying books."

The last days of Pyotr Nikolaevich's life were spent surrounded only by relatives and people close to him. His mother Maria Dmitrievna, wife Olga Mikhailovna and children were with him until the last minute. Wrangel's disease was difficult, with painful exacerbations and seizures. His once mighty body was weakened by previous wounds and contusion, typhoid, constant nervous tension... Finally, his health was undermined by the flu, which turned into a severe form of tuberculosis and an intensified nervous breakdown. The rapid, terrible development of the disease became the basis for a later version of the poisoning. Professor of Medicine I.P. Aleksinsky recalled that General Wrangel complained of strong nervous excitement, which terribly tormented him: “My brain torments me ... I cannot rest from obsessive vivid thoughts ... The brain works feverishly against my desire, my head is all the time busy with calculations, calculations , drawing up dispositions ... Pictures of the war are in front of me all the time and I write all the time orders, orders, orders ... ". Even during some improvement (ten days before his death), he "had a severe nervous seizure. From some terrible internal excitement, he screamed for forty minutes ..., no efforts of those around him could calm him down."

On April 12, 1928, at the age of 50, Lieutenant General Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel died in Brussels. "God save the army ..." - such, according to eyewitnesses, were his last words. Later, his body was transported to Belgrade, and here on October 6, 1928, he was buried in a Russian Orthodox church, in a sarcophagus, under the shade of the bowed banners of Russian regiments. The burial of the last Commander-in-Chief became a kind of demonstration of the army's loyalty to its leader. The funeral ceremony was held in a solemn atmosphere. On an artillery carriage, the general's body was carried along the soldiers and officers of the White Army lined up in a guard of honor.

General Wrangel, his personality and his entire military biography became for the White Army the personification of an irreconcilable struggle, in the name of which it was impossible to yield, to deviate from the original traditions of the White movement. Despite the fact that the civil war had already ended, for those who shared their fate with the white army, finding themselves far from their homeland, Wrangel seemed like a leader, a leader, under whose leadership one could hope for the success of the white struggle, for an early return to Russia. It is because of this that the personality of the last white Commander-in-Chief for a long time remained among the military emigration "outside criticism" The mistakes he made during the civil war were forgotten and forgiven, in particular, his conflict with Denikin, failures, miscalculations during the struggle in White Tavria in 1920 ... Wrangel became an indisputable authority, and such an assessment of his activities became prevalent in most of the works of the authors of the military emigration who wrote about the events of the civil war in southern Russia.

And for the former allies, Wrangel remained the leader of the White movement, an outstanding personality; after his death, his wax figure was in the Gervin Museum in Paris, and at his funeral, along with the Russians, the last honors were given to him by the Serbian troops.

Materials from his personal archive are kept at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace (USA). Many of these documents were collected, systematized and preserved by Wrangel's daughters, Elena and Natalia, and their son Peter. It is also noteworthy that his youngest son Alexei became a historian and devoted his scientific work to the study of his father's activities, as well as to the study of the past of the Russian cavalry.

Leading the White movement in southern Russia at the last stage of the armed struggle, Wrangel showed himself as a military leader and statesman, thanks to which the political and ideological program of the White Cause was finally formed. "White ideology" seemed to him not a simple antipode of communist ideology, but an ideology necessary for the future "National Russia", in which the interests of all classes and estates of Russian society should be united. In his opinion, the white business, which had deep political foundations, could not develop its social base only because of the lack of sufficient time during the civil war.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel(August 15 (August 27) 1878, Novoaleksandrovsk, Kovno province, Russian Empire - April 25, 1928, Brussels, Belgium) - baron, Russian military leader, participant in the Russo-Japanese and World War I, one of the main leaders of the White movement during the Civil war. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in Crimea and Poland (1920). General Staff Lieutenant General (1918).

Received the nickname "Black Baron" for his traditional (since September 1918) everyday uniform - a black Cossack Circassian coat with gazyry.

Origin and family

Came from home Tolsburg-Ellistfer clan Wrangel - an old noble family, which traces its ancestry from the beginning of the XIII century. The motto of the Wrangel clan was: "Frangas, non flectes" (from Lat. - "You will break, but you will not bend").

The name of one of the ancestors of Peter Nikolaevich is listed among the wounded on the fifteenth wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, where the names of Russian officers who died and wounded during the Patriotic War of 1812 are inscribed. A distant relative of Peter Wrangel, Baron Alexander Wrangel, captured Shamil. The name of an even more distant relative of Pyotr Nikolaevich - the famous Russian navigator and polar explorer Admiral Baron Ferdinand Wrangel - bears the Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, as well as other geographical features in the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

Father - Baron Nikolai Yegorovich Wrangel (1847-1923) - a former military man, entrepreneur, public figure, writer and famous collector of antiques. Mother - Maria Dmitrievna Dementyeva-Maikova (1856-1944) - lived in Petrograd under her last name throughout the Civil War. After Pyotr Nikolayevich became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, friends helped her move to a refugee hostel, where she registered as “Veronelli's widow,” but continued to go to work in the Soviet museum under her real name. At the end of October 1920, with the help of Savinkovites, friends arranged for her to escape to Finland.

The younger brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich Wrangel, is an art historian, an employee of the Hermitage, editor of the Old Years magazine.

Second cousins ​​of Pyotr Wrangel's grandfather - Yegor Ermolaevich (1803-1868) - were Professor Yegor Vasilievich and Admiral Vasily Vasilievich.

In August 1907, Pyotr Wrangel married a lady-in-waiting, the daughter of a chamberlain of the Imperial Court, Olga Mikhailovna Ivanenko, who later bore him four children: Elena (1909-1999), Peter (1911-1999), Natalia (1913-2013) and Alexei (1922- 2005).

Education

In 1896, Pyotr Nikolaevich graduated from the Rostov Real School, where he studied in the same class with the future architect Mikhail Kondratyev. In 1901 he graduated from the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. He was an engineer by training.

Enrolled as a volunteer in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment in 1901, and in 1902, having passed the exam at the Nikolaev Cavalry School, he was promoted to the cornet of the Guard with enrollment in the reserve. After that, he left the ranks of the army and went to Irkutsk as an official on special assignments under the governor-general.

Participation in the Russo-Japanese War

After the start Russo-Japanese War again enters military service, this time - already forever. The baron volunteered for the active army and was assigned to the 2nd Verkhneudinsk regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. In December 1904 he was promoted to centurion " for difference in cases against the Japanese"And was awarded the Orders of St. Anne of the 4th degree with the inscription" for bravery "and St. Stanislaus of the 3rd degree with swords and a bow. On January 6, 1906, he was assigned to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment and promoted to the rank of staff captain. On March 26, 1907, he was again assigned to the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment with the rank of lieutenant.

Participation in the First World War

He graduated from the Nikolaev Military Academy in 1910, in 1911 - the course of the Officer Cavalry School. He met the First World War as a squadron commander of the Cavalry Regiment with the rank of captain. Was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree

For the fact that in the battle on August 6 near Kraupischken, having begged permission to rush with a squadron against the enemy's battery, he swiftly made a horse attack and, despite significant losses, captured two guns, and last shot one of the guns killed a horse under it.

On December 12, 1914, he received the rank of colonel with seniority from December 6, 1914. On June 10, 1915, he was awarded the St.George weapon:

For the fact that on February 20, 1915, when the brigade moved around the defile near the village. Daukshe from the north, was sent with a battalion to capture the crossing over the river. Dovin near the village of Danelishki, which he did successfully, delivering valuable information about the enemy. Then, with the approach of the brigade, I crossed the river. Dovinu and moved into the cut between the two enemy groups at the village. Daukshe and M. Lyudvinov, overturned from three consecutive positions two companies of the Germans covering their withdrawal from the village. Daukshe, capturing 12 prisoners during the pursuit, 4 charging boxes and a baggage train.

In October 1915 he was transferred to the South-Western Front and on October 8, 1915 he was appointed commander of the 1st Nerchinsk regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army. When translated, he was given the following description by his former commander: “Outstanding courage. He understands the situation perfectly and quickly, he is very resourceful in a difficult situation. " Commanding this regiment, Baron Wrangel fought against the Austrians in Galicia, participated in the famous Lutsk breakthrough in 1916, then in defensive positional battles. At the forefront, he put military valor, military discipline, honor and intelligence of the commander. If an officer gave an order, Wrangel said, and it is not fulfilled, "he is no longer an officer, there are no officer's shoulder straps on him." New steps in the military career of Pyotr Nikolaevich were the rank of major general, "for military distinction", in January 1917 and his appointment as commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri cavalry division, then in July 1917 - the commander of the 7th cavalry division, and after - Commander of the Consolidated Cavalry Corps.

For the successful operation on the Zbruch River in the summer of 1917, General Wrangel was awarded the soldier's St. George Cross of the IV degree with a laurel branch (No. 973657).

For the distinctions shown by him as the commander of the combined cavalry corps, which covered the withdrawal of our infantry to the line of the Sbruch River in the period from 10 to 20 July 1917.

- "The record of the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army
Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel "(compiled December 29, 1921)

Participation in the Civil War

From the end of 1917 he lived in a dacha in Yalta, where he was soon arrested by the Bolsheviks. After a short imprisonment, the general, having been released, hid in the Crimea until the German army entered it, after which he left for Kiev, where he decided to cooperate with the hetman government of P. P. Skoropadsky. Convinced of the weakness of the new Ukrainian government, which was based exclusively on German bayonets, the baron leaves Ukraine and arrives at Yekaterinodar, occupied by the Volunteer Army, where he takes command of the 1st Cavalry Division. From this moment, Baron Wrangel's service in the White Army begins.

In August 1918, he entered the Volunteer Army, having by this time the rank of Major General and being the Knight of St. George. During the 2nd Kuban campaign, he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Corps. On November 28, 1918, for successful military operations in the area of ​​the village of Petrovsky (where he was at that time), he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

Pyotr Nikolaevich was opposed to the conduct of battles by equestrian units along the entire front. General Wrangel strove to collect the cavalry into a fist and throw it into the breakthrough. It was the brilliant attacks of the Wrangel cavalry that determined the final result of the battles in the Kuban and the North Caucasus.

In January 1919 he commanded the Volunteer Army for some time, from January 1919 - the Caucasian Volunteer Army. He was in tense relations with the commander-in-chief of the AFSR, General A.I. Denikin, since he demanded an early offensive in the Tsaritsyn direction to join the army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak (Denikin insisted on an early attack on Moscow).

A major military victory of the baron was the capture of Tsaritsyn on June 30, 1919, which had been stormed three times unsuccessfully by the troops of Ataman P.N. Krasnov during 1918. It was in Tsaritsyn that Denikin, who arrived there soon after, signed his famous "Moscow directive", which, according to Wrangel, "was a death sentence for the troops of the South of Russia." In November 1919, he was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army operating in the Moscow direction. On December 20, 1919, due to disagreements and conflict with the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, he was removed from the command of the troops, and on February 8, 1920, he was dismissed and left for Constantinople.

On April 2, 1920, the commander-in-chief of the AFSR, General Denikin, decided to resign from his post. The next day, a military council was convened in Sevastopol under the chairmanship of General Dragomirov, at which Wrangel was elected commander-in-chief. According to the memoirs of PS Makhrov, at the council, the first name of Wrangel was named by the chief of staff of the fleet, captain of the 1st rank Ryabinin. On April 4, Wrangel arrived in Sevastopol on the British battleship "Emperor of India" and took command.

On April 4, 1920, Denikin handed over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia to P.N. Wrangel and on the same day departed for England. Wrangel accepted the appointment and issued an order to take office. On April 6, the Governing Senate, which was sitting in Yalta, issued a decree in which it stated that the "new people's leader" henceforth "belongs to all power, military and civil, without any restrictions." On April 11, P. N. Wrangel took the title of "Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia."

Wrangel's policy in Crimea

Commander-in-Chief's Order Armed Forces General P. N. Wrangel in the South of Russia on the entry into force of the "Law on Land" on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and Northern Tavria, adopted by the Government on May 25, 1920.

During six months of 1920, P.N. Wrangel, Ruler of the South of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, tried to take into account the mistakes of his predecessors, boldly made compromises unthinkable before, tried to win various strata of the population over to his side, but by the time he came to power, Belaya the fight was actually already lost, both internationally and domestically.

From left to right: Head of the Government of the South of Russia A. V. Krivoshein, Commander-in-Chief P. N. Wrangel, chief of his staff P. N. Shatilov. Crimea. Sevastopol. 1920 year.

He advocated the federal structure of the future Russia. Inclined to recognize the political independence of Ukraine (in particular, according to a special decree adopted in the fall of 1920, the Ukrainian language was recognized as the state language on a par with Russian). However, all these actions were aimed only at concluding a military alliance with the army of the UNR Directory, headed by Simon Petliura, who by that time had almost lost control over the territory of Ukraine.

Recognized the independence of the Mountain Federation of the North Caucasus. He tried to establish contacts with the leaders of the insurgent formations of Ukraine, including Makhno, but he did not achieve success, and the Wrangel parliamentarians were shot by the Makhnovists. However, the commanders of the smaller formations of the "green" willingly entered into an alliance with the baron.

With the support of the head of the Government of the South of Russia, a prominent economist and reformer A. V. Krivoshein, he developed a number of legislative acts on agrarian reform, among which the main one is the "Law on Land", adopted by the government on May 25, 1920.

At the heart of his land policy was the provision on the ownership of most of the land to the peasants. He recognized the seizure of the landlords' land by the peasants in the first years after the revolution as legal (albeit for a certain monetary or in-kind contribution to the state). He carried out a number of administrative reforms in Crimea, as well as a reform of local self-government ("The Law on Volost Zemstvos and Rural Communities"). He strove to attract the Cossacks to his side, promulgating a number of decrees on the regional autonomy of the Cossack lands. Patronized the workers by adopting a number of provisions on working legislation. But despite all the measures taken, the material and human resources of the Crimea were depleted. In addition, Great Britain actually refused to further support the whites, proposing to appeal "to the Soviet government, with the intention of obtaining an amnesty," and saying that the British government would refuse any support and assistance in the event that the white leadership again abandoned negotiations. These actions of Britain, regarded as blackmail, did not affect the decision to continue the fight to the end.

Leader of the White Movement

When he took office as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, Wrangel saw as his main task not the fight against the Reds, but the task “ lead the army out of a difficult situation with honor". At this moment, few of the white commanders could assume the very possibility of active hostilities, and the combat effectiveness of the troops after a streak of disasters was called into question. The British ultimatum about “ ending the unequal struggle". This message from the British was the first international document received by Wrangel in the rank of leader of the White movement. General Baron Wrangel would later write in his memoirs:

The refusal of the British to further help us took away their last hopes. The position of the army was becoming desperate. But I have already made a decision.

When General Wrangel assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, realizing the entire degree of vulnerability of Crimea, he immediately took a number of preparatory measures in the event of an army evacuation - in order to avoid a repetition of the disasters of the Novorossiysk and Odessa evacuations. The Baron also understood that the economic resources of the Crimea are negligible and incomparable with the resources of the Kuban, Don, Siberia, which served as bases for the emergence of the White movement and the stay of the region in isolation could lead to famine.

A few days after Baron Wrangel took office, he received information about the preparation of the Reds for a new assault on Crimea, for which the Bolshevik command brought together a significant amount of artillery, aviation, 4 rifle and cavalry divisions. Among these forces were also the elite troops of the Bolsheviks - the Latvian Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, which consisted of internationalists - Latvians, Hungarians, etc.

On April 13, 1920, the Latvians attacked and overturned the advanced units of General Ya. A. Slashchev at Perekop and already began to advance southward from Perekop to the Crimea. Slashchev counterattacked and drove the enemy back, but the Latvians, who received reinforcements for reinforcements from the rear, managed to catch hold of the Perekop shaft. The approaching Volunteer Corps decided the outcome of the battle, as a result of which the Reds were driven out of Perekop and were soon partially chopped up, partially driven away by the cavalry of General Morozov at Tyup-Dzhankoy.

On April 14, General Baron Wrangel inflicted a red counterblow, having previously grouped the Kornilovites, Markovites and Slashchevites and reinforced them with a detachment of cavalry and armored cars. The Reds were crushed, however, the approaching 8th Red Cavalry Division, knocked out the day before by the Wrangelites from Chongar, as a result of their attack restored the position, and the red infantry again launched an offensive on Perekop - but this time the assault by the Reds failed, and their offensive was stopped at approaches to Perekop. In an effort to consolidate the success, General Wrangel decided to inflict flank attacks on the Bolsheviks, landing two troops (the Alekseevites were sent on ships to the Kirillovka area, and the Drozdovskaya division to the village of Khorly, 20 km west of Perekop). Both landings were noticed by the red aviation even before the landing, so 800 people of the Alekseevites, after a difficult unequal battle with the entire 46th Estonian Red Division that approached, broke through to Genichesk with heavy losses and were evacuated under the cover of naval artillery. The Drozdovites, despite the fact that their landing also did not become unexpected for the enemy, were able to fulfill the original plan of the operation (Airborne operation Perekop - Khorly): they landed in the rear of the Reds, in Khorly, from where, along the rear of the enemy, having passed more than 60 miles with battles to Digging, diverting from him the forces of the pressing Bolsheviks. For Khorly, the commander of the First (of the two Drozdov) regiments, Colonel A. V. Turkul, was promoted to Commander-in-Chief to Major General. As a result, the assault on Perekop by the Reds was generally thwarted and the Bolshevik command was forced to postpone another attempt to assault Perekop until May in order to transfer even more forces here and then act for sure. In the meantime, the red command decided to lock the ARSUR in Crimea, for which they began to actively build obstacle lines, concentrated large forces of artillery (including heavy) and armored vehicles.

V. E. Shambarov writes on the pages of his research about how the first battles under the command of General Wrangel affected the morale of the army:

Reflecting the assault was of great importance for the whites. Despite the losses incurred, it raised the general spirit - of the army, the rear, and the population. Showed that Crimea is at least able to defend itself. Faith in themselves returned to the troops ...

General Wrangel quickly and decisively reorganized the army and renamed it on April 28, 1920, "Russian". The cavalry regiments are replenished with horses. He is trying to strengthen discipline with tough measures. Equipment is beginning to arrive. The coal delivered on April 12 allows the White Guard ships to come to life, which had previously stood without fuel. And Wrangel in the orders for the army already speaks of a way out of a difficult situation " not only with honor, but also victory».

The offensive of the Russian army in Northern Tavria

Having defeated several red divisions that were trying to counter the offensive of the whites with a counterattack, the Russian army managed to break out of the Crimea and occupy the fertile territories of Northern Tavria, vital for replenishing the army's food supplies.

The fall of the white Crimea

Having accepted the Volunteer Army in a situation where the entire White Cause had already been lost by his predecessors, General Baron Wrangel, nevertheless, did everything possible to save the situation, but in the end, under the influence of military failures, he was forced to take out the remnants of the Army and the civilian population, which were not wanted to remain under the rule of the Bolsheviks.

By September 1920, the Russian army was never able to eliminate the left-bank bridgeheads of the Red Army near Kakhovka. On the night of November 8, the Southern Front of the Red Army under the general command of MV Frunze launched a general offensive, the purpose of which was to capture Perekop and Chongar and break through to the Crimea. Units of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies, as well as the 51st division of Blucher and the army of N. Makhno were involved in the offensive. General A.P. Kutepov, who commanded the defense of the Crimea, could not hold back the offensive, and the attackers with heavy losses broke through into the territory of the Crimea.

On November 11, 1920, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front on the radio turned to P.N. Wrangel with a proposal "Stop fighting immediately and put down your weapons" With "Guarantees" amnesties "... for all misdemeanors related to civil strife." PN Wrangel did not give an answer to MV Frunze, moreover, he concealed the contents of this radio message from the personnel of his army, ordering to close all radio stations, except for one operated by officers. The lack of a response later allowed the Soviet side to assert that the amnesty proposal was formally canceled.

The remnants of the white units (about 100 thousand people) were evacuated in an organized manner to Constantinople with the support of the transport and naval ships of the Entente.

The evacuation of the Russian army from the Crimea, much more complicated than the Novorossiysk evacuation, according to contemporaries and historians, was successful - order reigned in all ports and the bulk of those wishing were able to get on the ships. Before leaving Russia himself, Wrangel personally went around all Russian ports on a torpedo boat to make sure that the ships carrying refugees were ready to go out to sea.

After the seizure of the Crimean peninsula by the Bolsheviks, the arrests and executions of the Wrangelites who remained in the Crimea began. According to historians, from November 1920 to March 1921, from 60 to 120 thousand people were shot, according to official Soviet data, from 52 to 56 thousand.

Emigration

Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) - First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, General P.N. Wrangel with his wife Olga Mikhailovna, Russian clergy and army in Yugoslavia. April 1927

Since November 1920 - in exile. After arriving in Constantinople occupied by the Entente, he lived on the yacht "Lucullus".

On October 15, 1921, near the Galata embankment, the yacht was rammed by the Italian steamer "Adria", sailing from Soviet Batum, and she instantly sank. Wrangel and his family members were absent at that moment. Most of the crew members managed to escape, the chief of watch, midshipman P.P.Sapunov, who refused to leave the yacht, the ship's chef Krasa and the sailor Yefim Arshinov, were killed. The strange circumstances of the sinking of "Lucullus" aroused suspicions among many contemporaries of a deliberate ram of the yacht, which is confirmed by modern researchers of the Soviet special services. Olga Golubovskaya, an agent of the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army, who was known in the Russian emigration of the early 1920s as the poet Elena Ferrari, took part in the Luculla ram.

P.N. Wrangel (center) at Zeon Castle. Standing from left to right: 2nd from left - N. M. Kotlyarevsky (Wrangel's secretary); N. N Ilyina, S. A. Sokolov-Krechetov, philosopher I. A. Ilyin

In 1922, with his headquarters, he moved from Constantinople to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in Sremski Karlovci.

In 1924, Wrangel created the Russian General Military Union (ROVS), which united most of the members of the White movement in exile. In November 1924, Wrangel recognized the supreme leadership of the ROVS for the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (in the past, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army in the First World War).

Wrangel was involved in Vasily Shulgin's illegal travel across the USSR in 1925-1926.

In September 1927, Wrangel moved with his family to Brussels. He worked as an engineer in one of the Brussels firms.

On April 25, 1928, he died suddenly in Brussels, after a sudden infection with tuberculosis. According to the assumptions of his family, he was poisoned by the brother of his servant, who was a Bolshevik agent. The version of the poisoning of Wrangel by an NKVD agent is also expressed by Alexander Yakovlev in his book "Twilight".

He was buried in Brussels. Subsequently, Wrangel's ashes were transferred to Belgrade, where they were solemnly reburied on October 6, 1929 in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity in the Serbian capital.

The main part of the archive of P.N. Wrangel, according to his personal order, was deposited in the Hoover Institute of Stanford University in 1929. Some of the documents sank during the sinking of the yacht "Lucullus", some were destroyed by Wrangel. After the death of Wrangel's widow in 1968, her archive, where her husband's personal documents remained, was also transferred by the heirs to the Hoover Institute.

Awards

• Order of St. Anne, 4th degree "For Bravery" (4.07.1904)
• Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class with swords and bow (6.01.1906)
• Order of St. Anne 3rd degree (9.05.1906)
• Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd degree (6/12/1912)
• Medal "In commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty" (1913)
• Order of St. George, 4th degree. (VP 13.10.1914)
• Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree with swords and bow (VP 24.10.1914)
• St. George weapon (VP 06/10/1915)
• Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree with swords (VP ​​12/8/1915)
• St. George cross, 4th degree with a laurel branch (07.24.1917)
• Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd degree (11/15/1921)
• Papal Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem (1920)

Memory

In 2007, the Serbian town of Sremski Karlovtsy erected a monument to P.N. Wrangel by the Russian sculptor Vasily Azemsha.

In 2009, a monument to Wrangel was opened in the Zarasai region of Lithuania.

The Wrangel House in Rostov-on-Don is an object of cultural heritage of regional importance, in 2011 it was planned to create a museum of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, the exposition of which would be devoted to an era consonant with both figures. However, in 2013, the anniversary year of Wrangel, the building was in a dilapidated state and needed restoration.

In 2013, to the 135th anniversary of the birth and 85th anniversary of the death of P.N. Wrangel, round table"The last Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army P. N. Wrangel."

In 2014, the Baltic Union of Cossacks of the Union of Cossacks of Russia in the village of Ulyanovo, Kaliningrad region (near the former Kaushen of East Prussia), installed a memorial plaque to Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel and the horse guards who saved the situation in the Kaushen battle.

On April 4, 2017, a literary and artistic Prize named after V.I. Lieutenant General, Baron P.N. Wrangel (Wrangel Prize)

In works of art

• P. Wrangel is referred to as the "black baron" in the famous Red Army song of the Civil War times "The Red Army is Strongest of All."

• The chapter of M. Tsvetaeva's poem "Perekop" and I. Savin's story "Portrait" are dedicated to Wrangel.

• In V. Mayakovsky's poem "Good!" (Chapter 16: "A quiet Jew told me ..."):

... Looking at the legs,

step
sharp
walked
Wrangel

in a black Circassian coat ...

• The 16th chapter of V. Mayakovsky's poem is also used by G. Sviridov in his "Pathetic Oratorio" (II. The story of the flight of General Wrangel).

• The name of the general also appears in the poem by V. Mayakovsky "The Story of How the Godfather spoke about Wrangel without any mind."

• Wrangel is one of the characters in the cycle of science fiction novels "Odysseus Leaves Ithaca" by V. Zvyagintsev.

• In V. Aksyonov's novel "The Island of Crimea", Baron Wrangel is the founder of the state "Temporary Evacuation Base", in which the main events of the novel take place.

• Wrangel is present in Mikhail Bulgakov's play "The Run" (Second Dream).

Film incarnations

• Mikhail Pogorzhelsky - "Operation" Trust "" (1967)
• Bruno Freundlich - Running (1970)
• Nikolay Grinko - "Republic of Rudobel" (1971)
• Emmanuel Vitorgan - "Emissary of the Foreign Center" (1979)
• Anatoly Romashin - "Marshal of the Revolution" (1978)
• Nikolay Olyalin - "Shores in the Fog" (1985)
• Alexey Vertinsky - "Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno" (2007)

Literature

• Wrangel, P.N. Notes.
• Service record of lieutenant general baron Wrangel
• Trotsky, L. To the officers of the army of Baron Wrangel (Proclamation)
• Wrangel, P.N. Southern Front (November 1916 - November 1920). Part I // Memories. - M .: TERRA, 1992 .-- 544 p.
• Krasnov, V. G. Wrangel. The Baron's Tragic Triumph: Documents. Opinions. Reflections. - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2006 .-- 654 p. - (Riddles of history).
• Sokolov, B.V. Wrangel. - M .: Mol. Guard, 2009 .-- 502 p. (series "Life of Remarkable People")
• Shambarov, V.E. White Guard. - M .: EKSMO; Algorithm, 2007. - (History of Russia. Modern view).
• Turkul, A.V. Drozdovites on fire / Roman. - [Repr. ed. 1948]. - L .: Ingria, 1991 .-- 288 p.
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