Source - Wikipedia
Date of birth August 5 (17), 1879
Place of birth Russian Empire, Syrdarya province, Kazalinsk
Date of death: February 7, 1921 (age 41)
Place of death ROC, Suidong
Affiliation Russian Empire Russian Republic White movement
Branch of the army cavalry
Years of service 1897 - 1921
Rank cornet (1899) staff captain (1908) military foreman (1912) colonel (1917) lieutenant general (1919) Commanded: Orenburg Separate Army (October 1918 - September 21, 1919)
Battles/wars Russo-Japanese War World War I: Brusilov's breakthrough Civil War in Russia: Offensive of Kolchak's army Famine March
Awards and prizes Order of St. Anne, 2nd class Order of St. Anne, 3rd class with swords and bow Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class
Alexander Ilyich Dutov (August 5 (17), 1879, Kazalinsk - February 7, 1921, Suidong, China) - from the family of a Cossack officer, ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks, colonel (1917), lieutenant general (1919).
The father of the future Cossack leader, Ilya Petrovich, a military officer from the era of the Turkestan campaigns, was promoted to the rank of major general in September 1907 upon his dismissal from service. Mother - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Uskova - the daughter of a police officer, a native of the Orenburg province. Alexander Ilyich himself was born during one of the campaigns in the city of Kazalinsk, Syrdarya region.
A. I. Dutov graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps in 1897, and then from the Nikolaev Cavalry School in 1899, was promoted to the rank of cornet and sent to the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment stationed in Kharkov. Then, in St. Petersburg, he completed courses at the Nikolaev Engineering School on October 1, 1903 and entered the Academy of the General Staff, but in 1905 Dutov volunteered for the Russian-Japanese War, fought as part of the 2nd Manchurian Army, where for “ “excellent, diligent service and special labors” during the hostilities he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree. Upon returning from the front, Dutov A.I. continued his studies at the Academy of the General Staff, which he graduated in 1908 (without promotion to the next rank and assignment to the General Staff). After graduating from the Academy, Staff Captain Dutov was sent to become familiar with the service of the General Staff in the Kiev Military District at the headquarters of the 10th Army Corps. From 1909 to 1912 he taught at the Orenburg Cossack Junker School. With his activities at the school, Dutov earned the love and respect of the cadets, for whom he did a lot. In addition to the exemplary performance of his official duties, he organized performances, concerts and evenings at the school. In December 1910, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree, and on December 6, 1912, at the age of 33, he was promoted to the rank of military foreman (the corresponding army rank is lieutenant colonel). In October 1912, Dutov was sent for a one-year qualification command of the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment to Kharkov. After the expiration of his command, Dutov passed the hundred in October 1913 and returned to school, where he served until 1916.
World War I
On March 20, 1916, Dutov volunteered to join the active army, to the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, which was part of the 10th Cavalry Division of the IIIrd Cavalry Corps of the 9th Army of the Southwestern Front. He took part in the offensive of the Southwestern Front under the command of Brusilov, during which the 9th Russian Army, where Dutov served, defeated the 7th Austro-Hungarian Army between the Dniester and Prut rivers. During this offensive, Dutov was wounded twice, the second time seriously. However, after two months of treatment in Orenburg, he returned to the regiment. On October 16, Dutov was appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment together with Prince Spiridon Vasilyevich Bartenev. The certification of Dutov, given to him by Count F.A. Keller, states: “The last battles in Romania, in which the regiment took part under the command of military foreman Dutov, give the right to see in him a commander who is well versed in the situation and makes appropriate decisions energetically, by virtue of which makes me consider him an outstanding and excellent combat commander of the regiment.” By February 1917, for military distinctions, Dutov was awarded swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class. and the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class.
After the February Revolution
After the February Revolution of 1917, he was elected in March 1917 as chairman of the All-Russian Union of Cossack Troops, in April of the same year he headed the congress of Russian Cossacks in Petrograd, in September he was elected ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks and head (chairman) of the military government. In his political views, Dutov stood on republican and democratic positions.
Anti-Bolshevik uprising of A. I. Dutov
October 1917 is another milestone in Dutov’s rapid rise. By October, 38-year-old Dutov had transformed from an ordinary staff officer into a major figure, known throughout Russia and popular among the Cossacks. On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began work at his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on the non-recognition of the Bolshevik power on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, who carried out a coup in Petrograd. Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communications with Turkestan and Siberia. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and army until its convocation. Dutov generally coped with this task. The Bolsheviks who arrived from the center were captured and put behind bars, and the decayed and pro-Bolshevik garrison (due to the anti-war position of the Bolsheviks) of Orenburg was disarmed and sent home. In November, Dutov was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly (from the Orenburg Cossack army). Opening the 2nd regular Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack Army on December 7, he said: “Now we are experiencing Bolshevik days. We see in the darkness the outlines of tsarism, Wilhelm and his supporters, and clearly and definitely standing before us is the provocateur figure of Vladimir Lenin and his supporters: Trotsky-Bronstein, Ryazanov-Goldenbach, Kamenev-Rosenfeld, Sukhanov-Himmer and Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. Russia is dying. We are present at her last breath. There was Great Rus' from the Baltic Sea to the ocean, from the White Sea to Persia, there was a whole, great, formidable, powerful, agricultural, labor Russia - it is not.” On December 16, the ataman sent out a call to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. To fight the Bolsheviks, people and weapons were needed; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight, only in some places village squads were formed. Due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers from officers and students, no more than 2 thousand people in total, including old people and youth. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to fight. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks began an attack on Orenburg. After heavy fighting, the Red Army detachments under the command of Blucher, many times superior to the Dutovites, approached Orenburg and on January 31, 1918, as a result of joint actions with the Bolsheviks settled in the city, captured it. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the Orenburg army and went to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, which was located far from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks. But in March, the Cossacks also surrendered Verkhneuralsk. After this, Dutov’s government settled in the village of Krasninskaya, where by mid-April it was surrounded. On April 17, having broken through the encirclement with the forces of four partisan detachments and an officer platoon, Dutov broke out of Krasninskaya and went to the Turgai steppes. But in the meantime, the Bolsheviks with their policies embittered the main part of the Orenburg Cossacks, who were previously neutral to the new government, and in the spring of 1918, without connection with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st Military District, led by a congress of delegates from 25 villages and a headquarters led by military foreman D. M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed the detachment of the chairman of the council of Iletsk Defense P.A. Persiyanov, on April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya - the punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee S.M. Tsviling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of Cossacks of military foreman N.V. Lukin and the detachment of S.V. Bartenev carried out a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for some time and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with brutal measures: they shot, burned the villages that resisted (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and imposed indemnities. As a result, by June, more than 6 thousand Cossacks took part in the insurgent struggle in the territory of the 1st Military District alone. At the end of May, the Cossacks of the 3rd Military District, supported by the rebel Czechoslovaks, joined the movement. The Red Guard detachments on the territory of the Orenburg army were defeated everywhere, and Orenburg was taken by the Cossacks on July 3. A delegation was sent from the Cossacks to Dutov, as the legally elected military chieftain. On July 7, Dutov arrived in Orenburg and led the Orenburg Cossack army, declaring the territory of the Orenburg Cossack Circle a special region of Russia. On September 28, the Cossacks took Orsk - the last of the cities on the territory of the army occupied by the Bolsheviks.
Thus, the territory of the army was completely cleared of the Reds for some time. Dutov's units became part of the Russian Army under Admiral Kolchak in November. The Orenburg Cossacks fought the Bolsheviks with varying success, but in September 1919, Dutov’s Orenburg army was defeated by the Red Army near Aktobe. The ataman with the remnants of the army retreated to Semirechye, where he joined the Semirechensk army of Ataman Annenkov. Due to the lack of food, the crossing of the steppes became known as the “Hunger March”. Upon arrival in Semirechye, Dutov was appointed by Ataman Annenkov as governor-general of the Semirechensk region. In May 1920 he moved to China along with the Semirechensk army of Ataman Annenkov.
Death
On February 7, 1921, Ataman Dutov was killed in Suidun by agents of the Cheka under the leadership of Kasymkhan Chanyshev. The group of security officers consisted of 9 people (all were Uyghurs). During the first meeting, Chanyshev noted Dutov’s tired appearance and a certain skepticism towards his messages and excellent awareness of affairs in Semirechye, which indicated the excellent work of counterintelligence. During the second meeting, Dutov was shot at point-blank range in his office by group member Mahmud Khadzhamirov (Khodzhamyarov), along with two sentries and a centurion. Dutov and the guards killed with him during the battle were buried with military honors in Ghulja. The security officers returned back to Dzharkent. Members of the terrorist group (according to the terminology that already existed at that time, Cheka killers) became victims of the political processes of the 1930s. The last participant in the operation lived on the territory of the Orenburg region, where he was exiled, until his death in 1968. On February 11, a telegram was sent from Tashkent about the execution of the task to the chairman of the Turkestan Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front G. Ya. Sokolnikov, and a copy of the telegram was sent to the Central Committee of the RCP(b).
Awards Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree.
Order of St. Anne, 3rd class, swords and bow for the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class
Order of St. Anne, 2nd class
Literature
Ganin A.V. Ataman A.I. Dutov (Forgotten and unknown Russia. At a great turning point). - M.: “Tsentrpoligraf”, 2006. - 623 p. - ISBN 5-9524-2447-3
Konstantin Artemyev - Ataman Dutov's last refuge
A. V. Ganin. Alexander Ilyich Dutov “Questions of History” 2005 No. 9. - P. 56-84
Andrey Ganin Alexander Ilyich Dutov. Biography
Ganin A.V., Semenov V.G. Officer corps of the Orenburg Cossack army. 1891-1945: Biographical reference book. M., 2007 http://militera.lib.ru/bio/ganin_semyonov01/index.html
Akulinin I. G. Orenburg Cossack army in the fight against the Bolsheviks
Links:
1. Alekseev Mikhail Vasilievich (1857-1918)
2. Constituent Assembly
3. Blucher Vasily Konstantinovich (1890-1938)
4. Semenov Grigory Mikhailovich ataman (1890-1946)
5. Guy (Gaya Dmitrievich Ezhishkyan) (1887-1937)
6. Akhmedov Ismail: At the Academy of the General Staff in Moscow. Purges.
7.
Defeated by the Red Army and finding themselves outside of Russia, the leaders of the White movement did not at all consider their struggle to be over and did not tire of making loud statements about the imminent new liberation campaign.
The Bolsheviks decided not to wait for life itself to answer how real these dreams were and began to erase their enemies from political life one by one. They were deceived into entering the territory of Soviet Russia, where they were arrested and tried, persuaded to return to the USSR, and kidnapped. But most often they were liquidated right on the spot. The first such operation of the Cheka, which ended in success, was the murder of Ataman Dutov.
Irreconcilable fighter against the Bolsheviks
Ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks Alexander Ilyich Dutov was not one of the ordinary Cossacks. Born in 1879 in the family of a Cossack general, he graduated from the Orenburg Cadet Corps, then the Nikolaev Cavalry School, and in 1908, the Academy of the General Staff.
By November 1917, Colonel Dutov had two wars behind him (Russian-Japanese and German), orders, wounds, and shell shock. He was very popular among the Cossacks, who elected him as a delegate to the II All-Cossack Congress in Petrograd, and then as chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops.
The Orenburg Cossack ataman Dutov began to fight the Bolsheviks from the very first day. On November 8, 1917, he signed an order to non-recognize the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd in the Orenburg province and assumed full state executive power.
The vast territory of the Orenburg province was cleared of the Bolsheviks, and the owner here was the Cossack ataman Dutov and his Orenburg army. In November 1918, he unconditionally recognized Kolchak’s power, believing that personal ambitions must be sacrificed in the name of common victory.
In September 1919, Kolchak’s army finally ran out of steam. One military defeat followed another. The Orenburg army was also defeated. On April 2, 1920, Dutov and the remnants of his troops (about 500 people) crossed the Russian-Chinese border. The ataman himself settled in the border fortress of Suidun, most of the Cossacks settled in the nearby city of Gulja.
Not accepting defeat
Dutov immediately declared that he was not going to give up: “The fight is not over. Defeat is not defeat yet” and issued an order to unite all anti-Bolshevik forces into the Orenburg Separate Army. His words “I will go out to die on Russian soil and will not return back to China” became the banner under which soldiers and officers who found themselves in China gathered.
For Turkestan security officers, Dutov became problem No. 1. White underground cells were discovered in the Semirechensk region, in the cities of Omsk, Semipalatinsk, Orenburg, and Tyumen. In the cities, Dutov’s appeals were found: “What is Ataman Dutov striving for?”, “Appeal to the Bolshevik,” “A word from Ataman Dutov to the Red Army soldiers,” “Appeal to the population of Semirechye,” “To the peoples of Turkestan,” etc.
In June 1920, the garrison of the city of Verny (Alma-Ata) rebelled against Soviet power. In November, the 1st battalion of the 5th border regiment rebelled and the city of Naryn was captured. And the threads from all these defeated underground organizations and suppressed rebellions led to the border fortress of Suidun to Ataman Dutov.
In the fall, security officers intercepted Dutov’s emissary to Fergana. It turned out that the ataman was conducting very successful negotiations with the Basmachi about a simultaneous attack on Soviet Russia. In the event of the first successes of the joint offensive of the Orenburg Separate Army and the “warriors of Allah,” Afghanistan could join the game. And at the center of all this stood Ataman Dutov.
In the depths of the Cheka, a daring idea arose to kidnap the formidable chieftain and try him in an open proletarian court. But who will undertake it and, most importantly, will be able to get close to the chieftain and complete the task? They began to look for such a person. And they found him.
"Prince" Chanyshev
Kasymkhan Chanyshev was born in the border city of Dzharkent (29 km from the border) into a wealthy Tatar family. He was considered a descendant of a prince or even a khan. For decades, the Chanyshev merchants carried out smuggling trade with China in opium and deer antlers, knew secret paths across the border, and had a network of suppliers and informants. Kasimkhan was desperately brave and himself repeatedly walked across the border with a group of horsemen personally devoted to him.
In addition to his native Tatar, he knew Russian and Chinese. He was a devout Muslim, respected Sharia law, and even before the revolution he made the Hajj to Mecca. No one would be surprised if Kasimkhan became one of the leaders of the Basmachi movement during the revolution. But life sometimes throws out amazing twists.
In 1917, Kasimkhan joined the Bolsheviks, and in 1918 he formed a Red Guard detachment from his horsemen, captured Jankert, established Soviet Power in it and took on the troublesome position of chief of the district police.
At the same time, Chanyshev had an uncle (a highly respected wealthy merchant) living in China in the city of Gulja; Kasimkhan’s father’s gardens were confiscated, and numerous relatives suffered from dispossession. According to the security officers, Chanyshev could well play the role of someone offended by the Soviet Government, and his position as chief of police was supposed to be the bait that Ataman Dutov would fall for.
The operation has begun
In September 1920, Chanyshev and several horsemen made his first trip to Gulja. It was assumed that in the city Chanyshev would meet with Milovsky, who lived there, the former mayor of Dzhankert (he and Chanyshev were once connected by “trade affairs”), and then “act according to the circumstances,” as a representative of the Cheka told Chanyshev. A few days later Chanyshev returned.
His report delighted the security officers immensely. Kasymkhan managed not only to meet with Milovsky, but also made contact with Colonel Ablaykhanov, who served as a translator under Dutov, and he promised Chanyshev to organize a meeting with the ataman.
Chanyshev walked across the border five more times, met with Dutov twice, managed to convince him of his dislike for the Soviet Power, of the existence of an underground organization in Dzhankert, transferred a certain amount of weapons and “arranged” a man ataman - a certain Nekhoroshko - to work in the police.
One of Chanyshev’s horsemen, Makhmud Khojamiarov, regularly delivered messages from Nehoroshko to Suidun: the spy reported that everything was ready in Dzhankert and they were just waiting for the ataman to start the uprising. As soon as the Dutovites cross the border, Chanyshev’s policemen will capture the city, surrender it and themselves will join Dutov.
In turn, the security officers received information about the forces that Dutov had at his disposal. And this information was alarming.
The situation becomes more complicated, plans change
According to Chanyshev, the ataman had 5-6 thousand bayonets, two guns, and four machine guns at his disposal. In Gulja, Dutov organized a factory for the production of rifle cartridges. The Orenburg Separate Army was not at all a myth, as some had hoped. In addition, Dutov had connections with underground organizations in Przhevalsk, Talgar, Verny, Bishkek, Omsk, Semipalatinsk, ready to rebel at his signal.
At the beginning of January 1921, in the Peganovskaya volost of the Ishim district, several clashes between peasants and soldiers of food detachments took place. Within a few days, unrest engulfed the entire district and spread to neighboring Yalutorovsky. This was the beginning of the West Siberian uprising, which would soon cover the Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg provinces and in which about 100,000 people would take part.
The Cheka decided that there could be no further delay. They gave up on the plan to lure Dutov for reconnaissance and negotiations with the “leaders of the underground movement” to the territory of Soviet Russia, capture him and try him in a “merciless proletarian court”, and decided to limit himself to liquidation.
On January 31, a group of six people crossed the Soviet-Chinese border. The eldest in the group was Chanyshev, who had orders to eliminate Dutov as soon as possible. To prevent Kasimkhan from being tempted to stay in China without completing the task, 9 of his relatives were arrested in Jankert.
For several days, Chanyshev and his horsemen circled around Suidun, hoping to watch for Dutov outside the fortress, until a messenger from Dzhankert arrived and conveyed that if Chanyshev did not carry out the liquidation by February 10, the hostages would be shot. For Chanyshev there was no other choice but to hold an action in the fortress itself.
Death of the Ataman
On the evening of February 6, a group of horsemen rode through the open gate into Suidong. Here they separated. One remained at the gate. His task was to prevent the guards from closing the gate so that the liquidators could leave unhindered. The two dismounted and took up positions near Dutov’s house - they would come to the aid of the main group if anything went wrong or a chase began. The three drove up to the chieftain's house. The sentry asked: "Who?" - “A letter from the Prince to Ataman Dutov.”
Mahmukh Khadzhamiarov and Kudduk Baismakov had already delivered reports from Dzhankert to Dutov more than once; they knew them by sight. The sentry unlocked the gate. The trio dismounted. One remained with the horses in front of the gate, two went into the yard. Baismakov started a conversation with the guard, and Khadzhamiarov, accompanied by an orderly, entered the house. "From the Prince!" - He handed Dutov a letter.
The chieftain sat down at the table, unfolded the note and began to read: “Mr. chieftain, we’ve had enough of waiting, it’s time to start, everything is done. We’re ready. We’re just waiting for the first shot, then we won’t sleep.” Dutov finished reading and raised his eyes: “Why didn’t the Prince come himself?”
Instead of answering, Khadzhamiarov pulled out a revolver from his bosom and shot at the chieftain at point-blank range. Dutov fell. The second bullet hit the orderly in the forehead. The third - into the chieftain lying on the floor. The sentry standing at the gate turned towards the shots and at that moment Baismakov stabbed him in the back with a knife. The liquidators ran out into the street, jumped on their horses and galloped through the streets of Suidong.
The last point in the operation
The Cossacks rushed to look for the killers of their ataman and found no one. And it is not surprising, since the Dutovites rushed towards the Soviet-Chinese border, and Chanyshev and the horsemen rode in the completely opposite direction - to Gulja, where Kasimkhan’s uncle lived and where they intended to sit out for several days. They believed that it was too early for them to return to Soviet Russia, because they did not even know whether they had killed Dutov or only wounded him?
Ataman Dutov died on the morning of February 7 at 7 a.m. from internal hemorrhage as a result of a liver injury. He and two Cossacks who died with him - sentry Maslov and orderly Lopatin - were buried on the outskirts of Suidun in a Catholic cemetery. The orchestra played, the Cossacks who saw off their ataman on his last journey cried and swore revenge.
A few days after the funeral, the ataman’s grave was desecrated: unknown people dug up the coffin, and the corpse was beheaded. On February 11, Chanyshev returned to Dzhankert with 100% proof of the completion of the task - Dutov’s head. The hostages were released, and a telegram was sent to Moscow about the liquidation of one of the most dangerous enemies of Soviet Power.
Reward
Khodzhamyarov received from the hands of Dzerzhinsky a gold watch and a Mauser with the engraving “For the personally carried out terrorist act against Ataman Dutov to Comrade Khodzhamyarov.” Chanyshev as the immediate leader of the operation - a gold watch, a personalized carbine and a “safe conduct letter” signed by the country’s security officer No. 2 Peters: “The bearer of this, comrade Chanyshev Kasymkhan, on February 6, 1921, committed an act of national significance, which saved several thousand lives of the working masses from a gang attack, and therefore the named comrade requires attentive attention from the Soviet authorities and the said comrade is not subject to arrest without the knowledge of the Plenipotentiary Representation.”
However, such high awards did not protect them from purges during the era of the Great Terror. Khodzhdamiarov was shot in 1938, several years earlier he fell under the deadly rink of repressions of Chanyshev. The “safe conduct letter” did not help him either - Peters, who signed it, turned out to be an “enemy of the people” and was shot.
The operation to eliminate Dutov cannot be considered an exemplary operation. Its successful completion was the result of a lucky coincidence and desperate improvisation on the spot. But the security officers learned quickly. Then followed actions against Kutepov and Miller, Savinkov and Konovalets, Bandera and many others who could no longer be called amateurish.
But more about that next time.
from the nobles of the Orenburg village of the 1st military department of the Orenburg Cossack army, born into the family of a Cossack officer in the city of Kazalinsk, Syrdarya region. He graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps (1889-1897), the Nikolaev Cavalry School in the 1st category (1897-1899), a course of science in the 3rd Sapper Brigade in the category “outstanding” (1901), passed the exam at the Nikolaev Engineering School (1902 ), graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in the 1st category, but without the right to be assigned to the General Staff (1904-1908). In service since 08/31/1897. Khorunzhiy (from 08/09/1899, from 08/08/1898). Second lieutenant (from 02/12/1903). Lieutenant (from 01.10.1903 from seniority from 08.08.1902). Staff captain (from 10/01/1906, with seniority from 08/10/1906). Esaul (from 12/06/1909 from the same date). Military foreman (from 12/06/1912). Colonel (Order to the army and navy 10/16/1917 from 09/25/1917). Major General (from 07/25/1918). Lieutenant General (from 10/04/1918). Service: in the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment (from 08/15/1899-1902), junior officer of the 6th hundred. Seconded to the engineering troops (1902). In the 5th Engineer Battalion (1902-1909). Participant in the Russian-Japanese War (11.03-01.10.1905). On a temporary assignment at the Orenburg Cossack Junker School (from 01/13/1909). Transferred to school (09/24/1909). In service at the school (1909-1916), assistant class inspector, class inspector. Annual qualification command of the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment (10/16/1912-10/16/1913). Full member of the Orenburg Scientific Archival Commission (1914-1915). Went to the front (03/20/1916). Commander of the rifle division of the 10th Cavalry Division (from 04/03/1916), participated in the battles in the Carpathians and Romania. Wounded and shell-shocked near the village of Panici in Romania, temporarily lost his sight and hearing, and received a fractured skull (10/01/1916). Appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment (10/16/1916, took command 11/18/1916). Arrived in Petrograd as a regiment delegate to the All-Cossack Congress (03/16/1917). Took part in the 1st General Cossack Congress (03/23-29/1917). Member of the Provisional Council of the Union of Cossack Troops (since 04/05/1917). In the reserve of ranks at the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District (1917). He took part in the 2nd All-Cossack Congress (06/01-13/1917), and was unanimously elected chairman of the congress. Elected member (then chairman) of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops (06/13/1917). Trip to Orenburg (07.1917). Took part in the Moscow State Conference (12-15.08.1917). Elected Troop Ataman by the Extraordinary Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack Army (01. 10.1917). Appointed chief commissioner of the Provisional Government for food for the Orenburg Cossack army, Orenburg province and Turgai region (10/15/1917). Issued an order not to recognize the Bolshevik coup (10/26/1917). Member of the Orenburg Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution (since 11/08/1917). Elected as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly from the army (11.1917). Commander of the Orenburg Military District (since 12.1917). Participant of the Turgai campaign (04/17-07/07/1918). Chief Commissioner of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack Army, Orenburg Province and Turgai Region (07/10-08/05/1918). Chief of Defense of the Orenburg Cossack Army (1918). Trip to Samara (07/13-19/1918). Trip to Omsk (07/22-08/03/1918). Komuch was deprived of all powers (08/13/1918). Member of the Ufa State Conference, member of the Council of Elders of the meeting and chairman of the Cossack faction (09.1918). White troops under the leadership of Dutov captured the city of Orsk (09/28/1918). Commander of the Southwestern Army (10.17-12.28.1918). Commander of the Separate Orenburg Army (12/28/1918-05/23/1919). Chief commander of the Orenburg region (from 02/13/1919). Trip to Omsk (04/07-18/1919). Assigned to the General Staff (04/11/1919). Marching ataman of all Cossack troops and inspector general of the cavalry of the Russian army (since 05/23/1919). Trip to Perm (05.29-06.04.1919). Trip to the Far East (06/08-08/12/1919). Commander of all Russian troops located in the cities of Khabarovsk, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Grodekovo and in the railway zone between them (from 07/07/1919). Commander of the Orenburg Army with dismissal from the post of Inspector General of Cavalry (09/18/1919). Commander of the Separate Orenburg Army (since 11.1919). Participant of the Hunger March (11/22–12/31/1919). Chief Head of the Semirechensk Territory (from 01/06/1920). Crossed the Chinese border (04/02/1920). Prepared a campaign against Soviet Russia (1920-1921). Mortally wounded by Soviet agent M. Khodzhamiarov during an assassination attempt (02/06/1921 at about 6 p.m.) and died the next morning (at about 7 a.m.). Buried in Suiding (Western China). By order of the naval department of the Amur Provisional Government (12/10/1921), the school of sub-sorrels of the separate Orenburg Cossack brigade was named after Ataman Dutov. Awards: St. Stanislaus 3rd class. (01/23/1906, approved by the Highest order 01/17/1907), St. Anna 3rd Art. (06.12.1910), St. Anna 2nd Art. (1915), swords and bow for the Order of St. Anna 3rd Art. (1916-1917), dark bronze medal in memory of the Russian-Japanese War, “Ribbon of Distinction” of the Orenburg Cossack Army (1918). Honorary old man of the village of Grodekovskaya of the Ussuri Cossack army (from June 24, 1919), the village of Travnikovskaya of the Orenburg Cossack army. Listed among the villages of Krasnogorskaya (since 07.1918) and Berdskaya. Wife Olga Viktorovna Petrovskaya, from the hereditary nobles of the St. Petersburg province. Children: Olga (05/31/1907), Nadezhda (09/12/1909), Maria (05/22/1912), Elizaveta (08/31/1914), Oleg (ca. 1917-1918?). Common-law wife of Alexandra Afanasyevna Vasilyeva, Ostrolenskaya village of the 2nd military department of the Orenburg Cossack army. Daughter Vera.
Works: About the lecture by T.I. Sedelnikova // Orenburg Cossack Herald (Orenburg). 1917. No. 8. 16.07. S. 4; All-Russian Cossack circle // Orenburg Cossack Bulletin. 1917. No. 10. 21.07. pp. 1-2; German espionage // Orenburg Cossack Herald. 1917. No. 67. 01.11. pp. 1-2; Alarm // People's Affairs. 1918. No. 116. 30.11. S. 1; Essays on the history of the Cossacks // Orenburg Cossack Bulletin. 1919. No. 62. 09.04; My observations about the Japanese // Vladivostok News. 1919. 26.07; My observations about a Russian woman // Vladivostok News (Vladivostok). 1919. No. 23. 28.07; “The people themselves are dark and easy to agitate.” Note from Ataman A.I. Dutov about the internal political situation in Bashkiria and north-west Kazakhstan. Publ. YES. Amanzholova // Source. 2001. No. 3. P. 46-51.
Ataman Dutov, who loved to repeat: “I don’t play with my views and opinions like gloves”
The father of the future Cossack leader, Ilya Petrovich, a military officer from the era of the Turkestan campaigns, was promoted to the rank of major general in September 1907 upon his dismissal from service. Mother - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Uskova - the daughter of a police officer, a native of the Orenburg province. Alexander Ilyich himself was born during one of the campaigns in the city of Kazalinsk, Syrdarya region.
Alexander Ilyich Dutov graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps in 1897, and then from the Nikolaev Cavalry School in 1899, was promoted to the rank of cornet and sent to the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment stationed in Kharkov.
Then, in St. Petersburg, he graduated from courses at the Nikolaev Engineering School on October 1, 1903, now the Military Engineering and Technical University and entered the Academy of the General Staff, but in 1905 Dutov volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War, fought as part of the 2nd oh Munchhur Army, where for “excellent, diligent service and special labors” during hostilities he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree. Upon returning from the front, Dutov A.I. continued his studies at the Academy of the General Staff, which he graduated in 1908 (without promotion to the next rank and assignment to the General Staff). After graduating from the Academy, Staff Captain Dutov was sent to become familiar with the service of the General Staff in the Kiev Military District at the headquarters of the 10th Army Corps. From 1909 to 1912 he taught at the Orenburg Cossack Junker School. With his activities at the school, Dutov earned the love and respect of the cadets, for whom he did a lot. In addition to the exemplary performance of his official duties, he organized performances, concerts and evenings at the school. In December 1910, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree, and on December 6, 1912, at the age of 33, he was promoted to the rank of military foreman (the corresponding army rank is lieutenant colonel).
In October 1912, Dutov was sent for a one-year qualification command of the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment to Kharkov. After the expiration of his command, Dutov passed the hundred in October 1913 and returned to school, where he served until 1916.
On March 20, 1916, Dutov volunteered to join the active army, to the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, which was part of the 10th Cavalry Division of the IIIrd Cavalry Corps of the 9th Army of the Southwestern Front. He took part in the offensive of the Southwestern Front under the command of Brusilov, during which the 9th Russian Army, where Dutov served, defeated the 7th Austro-Hungarian Army between the Dniester and Prut rivers. During this offensive, Dutov was wounded twice, the second time seriously. However, after two months of treatment in Orenburg, he returned to the regiment. On October 16, Dutov was appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment together with Prince Spiridon Vasilyevich Bartenev.
The certification of Dutov, given to him by Count F.A. Keller, says: “The latest battles in Romania, in which the regiment took part under the command of Sergeant Major Dutov, give us the right to see in him a commander who is well versed in the situation and who makes the appropriate decisions energetically, which is why I consider him an outstanding and excellent combat commander of the regiment.”. By February 1917, for military distinctions, Dutov was awarded swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anne, 3rd class. and the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class.
Dutov became known throughout Russia in August 1917, during the Kornilov Rebellion. Kerensky then demanded that Dutov sign a government decree in which Lavr Georgievich was accused of treason. The chieftain of the Orenburg Cossack army left the office, contemptuously throwing: “You can send me to the gallows, but I won’t sign such a paper. If necessary, I am ready to die for them.". From words, Dutov immediately got down to business. It was his regiment that defended General Denikin’s headquarters, pacified Bolshevik agitators in Smolensk and guarded the last commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Dukhonin. Alexander Ilyich Dutov, a graduate of the General Staff Academy and Chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops of Russia, openly called the Bolsheviks German spies and demanded that they be tried according to wartime laws.
On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began work at his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on the non-recognition of the Bolshevik power on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, who carried out a coup in Petrograd.
“Pending the restoration of the powers of the Provisional Government and telegraph communications, I assume full executive state power”. The city and province were declared under martial law. The created Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland, which included representatives of all parties with the exception of the Bolsheviks and Cadets, appointed Dutov as head of the region’s armed forces. Exercising his powers, he initiated the arrest of some members of the Orenburg Council of Workers' Deputies who were preparing an uprising. To accusations of wanting to usurp power, Dutov answered with grief: “You always have to be under the threat of the Bolsheviks, receive death sentences from them, live at headquarters without seeing your family for weeks. Good power!
Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communications with Turkestan and Siberia. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and army until its convocation. Dutov generally coped with this task. The Bolsheviks who arrived from the center were captured and put behind bars, and the decayed and pro-Bolshevik garrison (due to the anti-war position of the Bolsheviks) of Orenburg was disarmed and sent home.
In November, Dutov was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly (from the Orenburg Cossack army). Opening the 2nd regular Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack Army on December 7, he said:
“Now we are living through the Bolshevik days. We see in the darkness the outlines of tsarism, Wilhelm and his supporters, and clearly and definitely standing before us is the provocateur figure of Vladimir Lenin and his supporters: Trotsky-Bronstein, Ryazanov-Goldenbach, Kamenev-Rosenfeld, Sukhanov-Himmer and Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. Russia is dying. We are present at her last breath. There was Great Rus' from the Baltic Sea to the ocean, from the White Sea to Persia, there was a whole, great, formidable, powerful, agricultural, laboring Russia - there is no such thing.
Among the world fire, among the flames of hometowns,
Among the whistling of bullets and shrapnel,
So willingly released by soldiers inside the country against unarmed residents,
In the midst of complete calm at the front, where fraternization is taking place,
Among the horrific executions of women, the rape of students,
Among the mass, brutal murder of cadets and officers,
Among drunkenness, robbery and pogroms,
Our great Mother Russia,
In your red sundress,
She lay on her deathbed,
With dirty hands they pull off
You've got your last valuables,
German marks are ringing by your bedside,
You, my love, giving your last breath,
Open your heavy eyelids for a second,
Proud of my soul and my freedom,
Orenburg army...
Orenburg army, be strong,
The hour of the great holiday of All Rus' is not far off,
All the Kremlin bells will ring freely,
And they will proclaim to the world about the integrity of Orthodox Rus'!”
The Bolshevik leaders quickly realized the danger the Orenburg Cossacks posed to them. On November 25, the Council of People's Commissars addressed the population about the fight against Ataman Dutov. The Southern Urals found themselves in a state of siege. Alexander Ilyich was declared an outlaw.
On December 16, the ataman sent out a call to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. To fight the Bolsheviks, people and weapons were needed; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight, only in some places village squads were formed. Due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers from officers and students, no more than 2 thousand people in total, including old people and youth. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to fight.
Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks began an attack on Orenburg. After heavy fighting, the Red Army detachments, many times superior to the Dutovites, under the command of Blucher, approached Orenburg and on January 31, 1918, as a result of joint actions with the Bolsheviks who had settled in the city, captured it. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the Orenburg army and went to the center of the 2nd Military District - Verkhneuralsk, which was located far from major roads, hoping there to continue the fight and form new forces against the Bolsheviks.
An emergency Cossack circle was convened in Verkhneuralsk. Speaking at it, Alexander Ilyich refused his post three times, citing the fact that his re-election would cause embitterment among the Bolsheviks. Previous wounds also made themselves felt. “My neck is broken, my skull is cracked, and my shoulder and arm are no good,”- said Dutov. But the circle did not accept the resignation and instructed the ataman to form partisan detachments to continue the armed struggle. In his address to the Cossacks, Alexander Ilyich wrote:
“Great Rus', do you hear the alarm? Wake up, dear, and ring all the bells in your old Creme-les-Moscow, and your alarm will be heard everywhere. Throw off, great people, the foreign, German yoke. And the sounds of the veche Cossack bells will merge with your Kremlin chimes, and Orthodox Rus' will be whole and indivisible.”
But in March, the Cossacks also surrendered Verkhneuralsk. After this, Dutov’s government settled in the village of Krasninskaya, where by mid-April it was surrounded. On April 17, having broken through the encirclement with the forces of four partisan detachments and an officer platoon, Dutov broke out of Krasninskaya and went to the Turgai steppes.
But in the meantime, the Bolsheviks with their policies embittered the main part of the Orenburg Cossacks, who were previously neutral to the new government, and in the spring of 1918, without connection with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st Military District, led by a congress of delegates from 25 villages and a headquarters led by military foreman D. M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed the detachment of the chairman of the council of Iletsk Defense P.A. Persiyanov, on April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya - the punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee S.M. Tsviling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of Cossacks of military foreman N.V. Lukin and the detachment of S.V. Bartenev made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for some time and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with brutal measures: they shot, burned the villages that resisted (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and imposed indemnities.
As a result, by June, more than 6 thousand Cossacks took part in the insurgent struggle in the territory of the 1st Military District alone. At the end of May, the Cossacks of the 3rd Military District, supported by the rebel Czechoslovaks, joined the movement. The Red Guard detachments on the territory of the Orenburg army were defeated everywhere, and Orenburg was taken by the Cossacks on July 3. A delegation was sent from the Cossacks to Dutov, as the legally elected military chieftain. On July 7, Dutov arrived in Orenburg and led the Orenburg Cossack army, declaring the territory of the army a special region of Russia.
Analyzing the internal political situation, Dutov later wrote and spoke more than once about the need for a firm government that would lead the country out of the crisis. He called for rallying around the party that would save the homeland and which all other political forces would follow.
“I don’t know who we are: revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, where we are going - left or right. One thing I know is that we are following an honest path to save the Motherland. Life is not dear to me, and I will not spare it as long as there are Bolsheviks in Russia. The whole evil lay in the fact that we did not have a nationwide firm power, and this led us to ruin.”
On September 28, Dutov’s Cossacks took Orsk, the last of the cities in the army’s territory occupied by the Bolsheviks. Thus, the territory of the army was completely cleared of the Reds for some time.
On November 18, 1918, as a result of a coup in Omsk, Kolchak came to power, becoming the Supreme Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of all Russian armed forces. Ataman Dutov was one of the first to come under his command. He wanted to show by example what every honest officer should do. Dutov's units became part of the Russian army of Admiral Kolchak in November. Dutov played a positive role in resolving the conflict between Ataman Semyonov and Kolchak, calling on the former to submit to the latter, since the nominated candidates for the post of Supreme Ruler submitted to Kolchak, and called on the “Cossack brother” Semyonov to pass military cargo for the Orenburg Cossack army. 
- Ataman A.I.Dutov, A.V.Kolchak,General I.G. Akulingin and Archbishop Methodius (Gerasimov). The photograph was taken in the city of Troitsk in February 1919.
The chieftain was accessible to ordinary people - anyone could come to him with their questions or problems. Independence, directness, a sober lifestyle, constant concern for the rank and file, suppression of rude treatment of lower ranks - all this ensured Dutov’s strong authority among the Cossacks.
The autumn of 1919 is considered the most terrible period in the history of the Civil War in Russia. Bitterness gripped the entire country and could not but affect the actions of the ataman. According to a contemporary, Dutov explained his own cruelty this way: “When the existence of an entire huge state is at stake, I will not stop at executions. This is not revenge, but only a last resort, and here everyone is equal for me.”
- Kolchak and Dutov bypass the line of volunteers
Typhus was rampant in the army, which by mid-October had wiped out almost half of the personnel. According to the most approximate estimates, more than 10 thousand people died during the “hunger campaign.” In his last order for the army, Dutov wrote:
“All the difficulties, hardships and various hardships that the troops endured cannot be described. Only impartial history and grateful posterity will truly appreciate the military service, labor and hardships of truly Russian people, devoted sons of their Motherland, who selflessly face all kinds of torment and torment for the sake of saving their Fatherland.”
Upon arrival in Semirechye, Dutov was appointed by Ataman Annenkov as governor-general of the Semirechensk region. In March 1920, Dutov's units had to leave their homeland and retreat to China through a glacial pass located at an altitude of 5800 meters. Exhausted people and horses walked without a supply of food and fodder, following along the mountain cornices, it happened that they fell into the abyss. The ataman himself was lowered on a rope from a steep cliff before the border, almost unconscious. The detachment was interned in Suidin, and settled in the barracks of the Russian consulate. Dutov did not lose hope of resuming the fight against the Bolsheviks and tried to unite all the former white soldiers under his leadership. The general's activities were followed with alarm in Moscow. The leaders of the Third International were frightened by the presence of significant anti-Bolshevik forces, organized and hardened by years of struggle, near the borders of Soviet Russia. It was decided to eliminate Dutov. The implementation of this delicate mission was entrusted to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front.
On February 7, 1921, Ataman Dutov was killed in Suidun by agents of the Cheka under the leadership of Kasymkhan Chanyshev. The group of security officers consisted of 9 people. Dutov was shot at point-blank range in his office by group member Makhmud Khadzhamirov (Khodzhamyarov) along with 2 sentries and a centurion. Dutov and the guards killed with him during the battle were buried with military honors in Ghulja. The security officers returned back to Dzharkent. On February 11, a telegram was sent from Tashkent about the execution of the task to the chairman of the Turkestan Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front G. Ya. Sokolnikov, and a copy of the telegram was sent to the Central Committee of the RCP (b).
“If you are destined to be killed, then no guards will help”, - the chieftain liked to repeat. And so it happened... A few days later, the former white warrior Andrei Pridannikov published in one of the emigrant newspapers the poem “In a Foreign Land,” dedicated to the deceased ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army:
The days passed, the weeks crawled by as if reluctantly.
No, no, yes, a snowstorm came and raged.
Suddenly the news flew through the detachment like thunder, -
Dutov, the chieftain, was killed in Suydin.
Using trust, under the guise of an assignment
The villains came to Dutov. And smitten
Another leader of the White movement,
Died in a foreign country, not avenged by anyone...
Ataman Dutov was buried in a small cemetery. But a few days later, shocking news spread around the emigration: at night, the general’s grave was dug up and his body was beheaded. As the newspapers wrote, the killers had to provide evidence of the execution of the order.
Alexander Ilyich Dutov was born on August 5, 1879 in the family of a Cossack officer. He graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps, the Nikolaev Cavalry School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. Participated in the Russian-Japanese and First World Wars. At the front he was shell-shocked and wounded. He met the February Revolution of 1917 as a military foreman and commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment.
Cossack politician
In March 1917, the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, Prince G. E. Lvov, gave permission to hold the first All-Cossack Congress in Petrograd “to clarify the needs of the Cossacks.” Alexander Dutov arrived in the capital as a delegate from the regiment. This is where his political career began. An unknown military foreman became one of the comrades (assistants) of the chairman of the Provisional Council of the Union of Cossack Troops A.P. Savateev. The Cossack delegates who remained in the capital after the congress prepared the opening of the second, more representative congress. There were no popular Cossack politicians in the country at that time, so Dutov, who was preparing its convocation, was unanimously elected chairman of the second congress. Soon he became chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops.
During the period of confrontation between the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky and General L.G. Kornilov in August - September 1917, Dutov took a neutral position, but was inclined to support the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Even then, Dutov formulated his political program: he firmly stood on republican and democratic positions. The Orenburg officer, who acquired political capital in the capital and by chance headed the representative body of the entire Cossacks, became famous among his fellow countrymen in the Urals. On October 1, 1917, the military circle in Orenburg elected him military chieftain. In Petrograd, Dutov was appointed chief commissioner of the Provisional Government for Food for the Orenburg Cossack Army, Orenburg Province and Turgai Region with the powers of a minister, as well as the rank of colonel.
Dutov came up with the idea of holding in the capital on October 22, 1917, the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, a general demonstration of all Cossack units of the Petrograd garrison. The Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin (Ulyanov) feared that this demonstration would disrupt his plans to seize power, but did not allow the procession to take place. Lenin wrote about this on October 22-23, 1917 to Ya. M. Sverdlov: “The cancellation of the Cossack demonstration is a gigantic victory. Hooray! Advance with all our might, and we will win in a few days!”
“For the good of the Motherland and maintaining order...”
On October 26, 1917, Dutov returned to Orenburg and on the same day signed order No. 816 for the army on non-recognition of the violent seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. It said: “The military government considers... the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks to be criminal and completely unacceptable.<…>Due to the cessation of communications and communications with the central government and taking into account emergency circumstances, the Military Government, for the good of the Motherland and maintaining order, temporarily, until the restoration of the power of the Provisional Government and telegraph communications, took over from 20:00 on October 26th the full extent of executive state power in the army. Military Ataman, Colonel Dutov."
The decisive actions of the ataman were approved by the commissioner of the Provisional Government, representatives of local organizations and even the Council of Workers, Soldiers and Cossack Deputies. By order of Dutov, the Cossacks and cadets occupied the station, post office, and telegraph office in Orenburg; rallies, meetings and demonstrations were prohibited. Martial law was introduced, the Orenburg Bolshevik Club was closed, the literature stored there was confiscated, and the publication of the Proletary newspaper was banned.
A.I. Dutov took control of a strategically significant region that blocked communications with Turkestan and Siberia, which was important not only militarily, but also in the issue of food supply to central Russia. Dutov's performance overnight made his name known throughout the country. The Ataman had to organize elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintain order in the province and army until the convening of this body.
On the night of November 7, 1917, the leaders of the Orenburg Bolsheviks were arrested. Among the reasons for the detention: calls for an uprising against the Provisional Government, agitation among soldiers of the Orenburg garrison and workers, as well as the discovery of a carriage with hand grenades at the Orenburg station. In response to the arrests, a strike began in railway workshops and depots.
Ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks A.I. Dutov. Samara, 1918. Photo by E. T. Vladimirov
Meanwhile, groups of officers began to arrive in Orenburg, including those who had already taken part in the battles with the Bolsheviks in Moscow: this strengthened the position of supporters of armed resistance to the Reds. So, on November 7, 120 officers and cadets managed to get out of Moscow at once. For “self-defense and the fight against violence and pogroms, from whatever side they may come,” on November 8, 1917, the Orenburg City Duma created a special body - the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, chaired by the mayor V.F. Baranovsky. It included 34 people: representatives of the Cossacks, city and zemstvo self-government, political parties (except for the Bolsheviks and Cadets), public and national organizations. Socialists played the leading role in the committee.
The Bolsheviks' attempts to seize power in the city did not stop. On the night of November 15, having gained control of the Orenburg Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Cossacks' Deputies, the Bolsheviks announced the creation of a military revolutionary committee and the transfer of full power to it. Dutov’s supporters reacted immediately: the venue for the meeting was cordoned off by Cossacks, cadets and police, after which all those gathered were detained. The threat of the Bolsheviks seizing power in the city was temporarily eliminated.
At the end of November 1917, Dutov was elected as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly from the Orenburg army. Not counting on seizing power from within, the Bolsheviks began an external blockade of the city. Food was not allowed to pass through the railway to Orenburg, and the passage of passengers, including soldiers returning from the front, was also blocked, which led to their accumulation at stations and an increase in discontent. On November 25, an appeal from the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars to the population was published calling for a fight against the atamans A. M. Kaledin and A. I. Dutov. The Southern Urals were declared under a state of siege, and the white leaders were outlawed. All Cossacks who went over to the side of the Soviet regime were guaranteed support.
Dutov also took his own measures. In Orenburg, instead of demobilizing the decayed garrison, older Cossacks were called up. In addition, the ataman had at his disposal the Cossacks of the reserve regiments and the cadets of the Orenburg Cossack School. On December 11, 1917, by a resolution of the military circle, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, the Bashkir and Kyrgyz congresses, the Orenburg Military District was formed within the borders of the Orenburg province and the Turgai region. On December 16, the ataman wrote a letter to the commanders of the Cossack units and called on them to send Cossacks with weapons to the army.
Dutov needed people and weapons. And if he could still count on weapons, then the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to raise and lead any significant number of supporters. Dutov could field no more than two thousand people against the Reds. The volunteer detachments organized at the end of 1917 in the Southern Urals consisted mainly of officers and students; village squads were also formed. With the assistance of the merchants and townspeople, it was possible to raise funds to organize the struggle.
Fight for Orenburg
By the beginning of 1918, over 10 thousand people had already been recruited to fight A.I. Dutov. On December 20, 1917, the Extraordinary Commissioner of the Orenburg province and Turgai region P. A. Kobozev sent an ultimatum to the ataman demanding that he stop resistance. There was no answer. Then, on December 23, the Reds launched an attack on Orenburg along the railway.
White managed to repel the first blow. With the approval of the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution and the small military circle, Dutov ordered to stop the pursuit of the enemy on the border of the province. At the Novosergievka border station it was planned to set up a barrier of officers, cadets and volunteer Cossacks numbering 100-150 people with a machine gun and conduct close-in mounted and human intelligence, having a reserve of 200 Cossacks with a machine gun at the Platovka station. These parts had to be replaced periodically. The remaining forces were planned to be withdrawn to Orenburg.
However, already on January 7, 1918, the Reds attacked again. Serious battles broke out in the area of Novosergievka and Syrt stations. On January 16, a decisive clash took place near the Kargala station, in which even 14-year-old Orenburg cadets took part, responding to Dutov’s call. However, the whites' position was hopeless.
On January 18, 1918, the Dutovites left their capital, the volunteer detachments were disbanded to their homes. Those who did not want to lay down their arms retreated to Uralsk and Verkhneuralsk or temporarily took refuge in the villages. Ataman had to quickly leave Orenburg, accompanied by only six officers, with whom he took out military regalia and some weapons.
Turgai campaign
Despite the demand to detain Dutov, the promise of a reward for his capture and the almost complete lack of security for him, the village did not hand over the ataman. He decided not to leave the territory of the army and went to the center of the 2nd Military District - the city of Verkhneuralsk, which lay far from major roads and made it possible to continue the fight without losing control.
In March 1918, the Cossacks had to leave Verkhneuralsk under attacks from the Reds. The military government led by Dutov moved to the village of Krasninskaya and there in mid-April it was surrounded. It was decided to break through and go along the Ural River into the Kyrgyz steppes. On April 17, 1918, a detachment of 240 people, led by an ataman, broke out of Krasninskaya. A 600-verst trek to the Turgai steppe began. In Turgai, Dutov's partisans received significant warehouses of food and ammunition left after the pacification of the Kazakh rebellion in 1916. During their stay in the city (until June 12), the Cossacks rested, updated their equipment and replenished their horsepower.
The new Soviet government did not take into account the Cossack traditions and way of life, and spoke with the Cossacks mainly from a position of strength, which caused their acute discontent. Soon it grew into an armed confrontation and became their form of struggle for their rights and the possibility of free existence. In the spring of 1918, in the Orenburg region, without connection with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement arose. It achieved significant success, and then the Czechoslovak Corps (a military unit of the Russian army, formed over the years from captured Czechs and Slovaks who wished to participate in the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary) rebelled against the Reds. Soviet power in the Southern Urals fell. At the end of May, the rebels sent a delegation to Turgai to Dutov with a request to return to the army and lead the fight: a popular Cossack leader, Dutov could unite significant masses of Cossacks around himself. In addition, among the commanders of the rebel detachments and even the fronts, junior officers, unknown to the bulk of the Cossacks, predominated, while several staff officers (including those with academic education) and members of the Military Government went on the campaign with Dutov.
Between Samara and Omsk
News of the uprisings became the reason for the return of Dutov’s detachment to the army. Orenburg, which was occupied by rebels in early July 1918, solemnly honored the ataman. However, the difficulty at that time was that the territory of the army was administratively divided between two anti-Bolshevik governments: the Samara Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) and the Provisional Siberian Government in Omsk. The relationship between them was not easy, and Dutov was forced to maneuver.
At first, the ataman recognized Komuch and entered it as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly. On July 13, he left for Samara, from where he returned to the post of chief commissioner of Komuch in the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, Orenburg province and Turgai region, after which he went to negotiate in Omsk.
On July 25, 1918, Dutov was promoted to major general by Komuch. On August 4 he returned from Omsk and took up operations at the front. Meanwhile, he had to explain himself to Samara, since the leaders of Komuch regarded the ataman’s visit to Siberia as almost a betrayal. On August 12, against the backdrop of the developing conflict with Komuch, the ataman took an unprecedented step - the autonomy of the territory of the army, announcing the creation of the Orenburg Army Region.
In one of his speeches, Dutov stated his political course: “We are called reactionaries. I don’t know who we are: revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, where we are going - left or right. One thing I know is that we are following an honest path to save the Motherland.” Dutov himself was a supporter of the Cadet Party program. His power in the Southern Urals was distinguished by democracy and tolerance of various political movements, including the Menshevik.
The ataman's daily work schedule has been preserved. His working day began at 8 a.m. and lasted at least 12 hours with virtually no breaks. Anyone could come to the ataman with their questions or problems.
In September 1918, A.I. Dutov took part in the work of the State Conference in Ufa, the purpose of which was to create a unified state power in the territory not controlled by the Bolsheviks. Ataman was elected a member of the Council of Elders and chairman of the Cossack faction. In his speech, Dutov emphasized the need to create a unified command and central authority. And his actions confirmed his commitment to these principles. When on November 18, 1918, as a result of a coup in Omsk, Admiral A.V. Kolchak came to power and became the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Dutov was one of the first to recognize him. By this time, Alexander Ilyich already had the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the Southwestern Army, which was based on formations of Orenburg and Ural Cossacks.
Under Kolchak's rule
At the beginning of 1919, the Whites again left Orenburg, lost contact with the Urals, but continued to block the railway communication between the Soviet center and Turkestan. Despite the setbacks, in March Dutov’s army (now called the Separate Orenburg Army) was able to take part in the general offensive of Kolchak’s troops.
Dutov, who was appointed marching ataman of all Cossack troops and inspector general of the cavalry of the Russian Army, spent the late spring and summer of 1919 mainly in Omsk and the Far East. In the fall of 1919, he again led the Orenburg army. Its units at the end of November - December 1919 made the most difficult Hunger March and went to Semirechye (Cossack region, now its territory is in the eastern part of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), where the army was brought together into a detachment under the command of General A. S. Bakich. Dutov himself became the civil governor of the Semirechensky region. In March 1920, under pressure from the Red troops, A.I. Dutov and his supporters had to leave their homeland and retreat to China through the Kara-Saryk glacial pass. In China, Dutov’s detachment was interned in the city of Suiding (now Shuiding, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China) and located in the barracks of the Russian consulate. Dutov did not lose hope of resuming the fight against the Bolsheviks and was active in this direction, trying to organize an anti-Bolshevik underground in the Red Army.
On February 6, 1921, Alexander Ilyich Dutov was mortally wounded by Soviet agents during an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap and transport him to the territory of the RSFSR. The next morning he died. The chieftain and the Cossacks who died with him were buried in a small cemetery near Suydin. According to some reports, a few days later, Dutov’s grave was dug up at night, and his body was beheaded: the killers had to provide proof of the ataman’s death. Apparently, this cemetery, like many other Russian cemeteries in China, was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
Photo (header): All-Russian Congress of Cossack units. The Presidium of the Congress headed by Ataman A.I. Dutov. Petrograd, July 7, 1917
Text: Andrey Ganin, Doctor of Historical Sciences