General Almazov (Grishin-Almazov Alexey Nikolaevich): biography. Siberian army. White movement

Aleksey Nikolayevich Almazov was born on November 24, 1880 in the Tambov noble family. His father was an official (collegiate secretary). Contrary to this example, the son decided to devote his life to the army. He began studying at the Voronezh-Mikhailovsky Cadet Corps, then in 1902 he graduated from the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. All this time, still not held, General Almazov wore his real name Grishin.

The Russo-Japanese War

The young officer did not lose by the time he received the rank of officer. In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began. Alexei Grishin was in the service in Manchuria. The most serious in the Japanese campaign for him was the battle of Liaoyang (August 24 - September 3, 1904).

Russian troops tried to unblock Port Arthur, but after their failure took defensive positions. Near Liaoyang they were attacked by the Japanese army. Alexei Grishin was among more than 100,000 compatriots who stood on the enemy's path. A bloody battle led to great losses on both sides, but the Russians eventually had to retreat.

On the fronts of the First World War

After the end of the Russo-Japanese war, the future whiteguard general remained on the eastern borders of the country. For six years he served in the Amur Military District and supervised the training of the scout team, studying in detail the Amur Region and the Ussuri region.

The First World War, which began in 1914, forced Grishin to leave his native places. At first he provided communications in the 5th Siberian Army Corps and was the adjutant of the commander of this large unit. In April 1915, Grishin was made captain. It's time to command the battery and artillery battalion. The officer participated in both defensive and offensive operations. He received many orders and awards, including the St. George Cross, which was handed to the captain after the petition of his own soldiers.

1917th

By the revolution, Grishin-Almazov Alexei Nikolayevich was already a lieutenant colonel. During the existence of the Provisional Government, he maintained contact with the SRs (although he was not a member of the party) and openly opposed the Bolsheviks. After the October Revolution, the officer was reminded of his position - he was deported from the active army.

The White movement took into its ranks the expelled Grishin. At first he was in the Volunteer Army, while General Mikhail Alekseev did not send him to Siberia to organize an underground anti-Bolshevik activity. The officer ceased to be his surname - now he became known as Almazov.

Underground

In the spring of 1918, General Almazov was sent to the West Siberian Commissariat of the Provisional Government, where he became head of the military headquarters. In a matter of weeks, the underground organized many white cells in various cities from Kansk to Omsk. Along with Almazov, Siberia was traveled by the Socialist-Revolutionary Pavel Mikhailov, who had previously been elected to the dispersed Constituent Assembly.

Officer organizations, opposed to the Bolsheviks, were in an isolated and helpless state. General Almazov established communication and cooperation between them. The most difficult part of this work was the search for a compromise political and military point of view: who all together support the underground, which body to obey. Somewhere inferior, and somewhere suggesting, Almazov managed to rally the cells, which are sometimes opposite to each other. All this time the Bolsheviks hunted him, but how much they did not try to track down, it was not possible to catch the underground. Whenever the commissars came out on his trail, he escaped the Chekists.

At the head of the Siberian Army

In 1918, the entire White movement in Siberia was just waiting for a signal, when by joint efforts to launch an anti-Bolshevik speech? The impetus for him was the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps. Upon learning of his disobedience, General Grishin-Almazov ordered all underground organizations under his control to rebel against Soviet power. On May 28, 1918, the officer became the commander of the troops of the West Siberian Military District and expressed his support to the Belo-Peasants. The offensive began in all directions.

In June, the Provisional Siberian Government was created, and the commander of the Siberian Army became also a military minister. Almazov turned out to be a wonderful organizer. He introduced strict discipline into the army, made it a powerful force capable not only of repelling the attacks of the Red Army men, but also of going independently to the West.

Skillful organizer

By the summer of 1918 under the command of Almazov there were already 60 thousand people. Together with the Czechoslovak units, the army completely cleared Siberia from the Bolsheviks. Now White was preparing to go to the Volga region, and from there to speak on Moscow.

Trying to further increase the size of his army, A.N. Grishin-Almazov abandoned the former voluntary recruitment and began recruiting conscripts on an appeal, focusing on the peasant environment. Unlike the soldiers who fought on the fronts of the First World War, the villagers were not so much exposed to Bolshevik propaganda. Time has shown that Almazov took the most correct decision out of all possible. In the fall of 1918, the Siberian Army increased by another 175,000 people.

Resignation

From a political point of view, Almazov remained a monarchist and a supporter of solid centralized power. There are cases when, according to his order, the anthem "God Save the Tsar!" Was performed in the army, although such initiatives were mauvais. The government was basically leftist, while the general believed that the slogans of the Socialist Revolutionaries about utopian democracy in the conditions of the raging Civil War were simply impracticable. This point of view was strongly disliked by the ministers and Samara KOMCHU.

General Almazov was in that part of the White movement, which did not like the interference of foreign allies in the Civil War in Russia. He did not hesitate to argue with the British consul, demonstrating that he does not need the help of the British. Aleksei Nikolaevich was very different from his colleagues in the government. His contradictions with other ministers led to the resignation of the general, which occurred on September 5, 1918.

Alexey Almazov's wife

The distrust of the Socialist-Revolutionaries forced Almazov to leave Siberia and join the Volunteer Army of Anton Denikin, acting in the south of Russia. Leaving, the general left in Omsk his wife Maria Alexandrovna (nee Zakharov). She became friends with the beloved Kolchak Anna Timireva and entered the inner circle of the Supreme Ruler of Russia.

The wife of Almazov remained in Omsk until the evacuation of whites from the city. Maria Alexandrovna left for the East on the Kolchak train. In early 1920, she was arrested by the pro-Soviet political center operating in Irkutsk. Almazova was in prison and witnessed the last days of Kolchak's life. The girl was lucky - she was amnestied and was able to move to China, where she published her own memoirs. I did not see my husband with Almazov.

On South

In Ekaterinodar, where Denikin was, Aleksey Almazov was sent to the Romanian city of Iasi. There was a conference with representatives of the Entente countries and the delegates of the White Movement. At this event, the general read out a large report on the state of affairs in the Siberian region.

At the end of 1918 Alexei Nikolaevich became the military governor of Odessa. The period of his stay in the city is well known due to the many memories of his contemporaries, including the memoirs "Cursed Days" by Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin. The General once again managed to organize a new military force, which, on the one hand, opposed the Bolsheviks, and on the other, knocked out Ukrainian nationalists from the city.

Odessa military governor

Odessa Alexei Almazov was remembered as a tough leader, who immediately dealt with any threat to his power. For this and among the Bolsheviks, and among the white, he was known as a dictator. He was called an adventurer and compared with an ambitious Napoleon. At the same time, Almazov himself demonstrated his loyalty to the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army Denikin.

Serious headache of the military governor was not only the Bolsheviks, but also criminals, who in Odessa port was especially large. The leader of the Odessa criminals at that time was the famous raider Mishka Yaponchik. His confrontation with Almazov led to several unsuccessful attempts on the general. Struggling against criminals, the military governor did not hesitate to resort to extrajudicial killings and real terror. The same fate fell to the Bolsheviks, for which Almazov became one of the most odious figures in the entire White movement.

The last mission

In Odessa, the figure of Almazov did not suit many. In March 1919, he was removed from his post and on the same day left the city. On the removal of the uncontrolled general from power insisted the French, who at that time actually held the city in their hands. Just a couple of weeks, the foreigners were hastily evacuated from Odessa, leaving it unarmed before the Red Army and Ukrainian rebels. Soon the city was captured by a small detachment of ataman Nikifor Grigoriev.

Meanwhile, General Almazov returned to the Volunteer Army. Anton Denikin sent him at the head of the delegation to Alexander Kolchak, who several months ago declared himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. In the south, Almazov had an ambiguous reputation. Siberia, where the military was torn, was associated with the success of the initial period of the Civil War. In addition, the general was impatient to return to his wife.

The path of the detachment of 41 people ran through the Caspian Sea. White without adventure sailed on the ship "Leila", while their ship was not intercepted near Fort Alexandrovsky (modern Fort-Shevchenko, Kazakhstan). A small ship was one on one with a well-trained destroyer Karl Liebknecht, on which the Red Army men who were superior to Denikin's men were preparing to attack.

Alexei Almazov, realizing the hopelessness of his situation and not wanting to be captured by the enemy, shot himself with his own revolver. Thus ended the life of one of the brightest military leaders of the White movement. In the Soviet Union, Almazov became a vivid example of a cruel tyrant-general and a negative character in many works of art.