Admiral A.V. Kolchak - unknown pages of biography
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born in 1874. His father was a hero of the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. At the age of 18, the young man entered the Naval Cadet Corps, where he studied for six years.
Kolchak entered the Cadet Corps from an ordinary St. Petersburg gymnasium. He was interested in exact sciences and loved making things. Upon graduation from the cadet corps in 1894, he was promoted to midshipman.
In the period from 1895 to 1899, he traveled around the world three times, during which he was engaged in scientific work, studied oceanography, maps of currents and the coast of Korea, hydrology, tried to learn Chinese and prepared for a south polar expedition.
In 1900 he took part in the expedition of Baron E. Toll. In 1902, he went in search of the baron’s expedition that had remained to spend the winter in the north. Having examined the expected route of the expedition on the wooden whaler "Zarya", he managed to find the baron's last stop and determine that the expedition was lost. For participation in the search expedition, Kolchak received the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree.
Soon the Russo-Japanese War began. Alexander asked to be sent to the combat area. While the issue of transfer to the front was being decided, Kolchak managed to marry Sofya Fedorovna Omirova. Soon he is sent to the front, to Port Arthur, under the command of.
In Port Arthur, he served on the cruiser Askold, then transferred to the minelayer Amur, and eventually began to command the destroyer Angry. A Japanese cruiser was blown up by a mine set by Kolchak. Soon he became seriously ill and transferred to ground service. Alexander Vasilyevich commanded a battery of naval guns. After the surrender of the fortress, he was captured by the Japanese and returned to his homeland through America.
For the courage and bravery shown during the defense of the fortress, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne and the Order of St. Stanislaus. After returning to St. Petersburg, Kolchak was registered as disabled and sent to the Caucasus for treatment. Until mid-1906, he worked on his expedition materials, supplemented them, edited them, and put them in order. Compiled the book “Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas,” published in 1909. For his work he was awarded the highest award of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society - a large gold medal.
In January 1906, Kolchak became one of the founders of the officers' Naval Circle of St. Petersburg. The circle developed a program for the creation of the Naval General Staff. This body was supposed to prepare the fleet for war. As a result, such a body was created in April 1906. Kolchak became one of its members.
Alexander Vasilyevich showed himself excellently in the first years. Protected St. Petersburg from naval shelling and German landings, placing 6 thousand mines in the Gulf of Finland. In 1915 he personally developed an operation to mine enemy naval bases. Thanks to him, the losses of the German fleet were many times greater than ours. In 1916, he received the rank of Admiral, and became the youngest naval commander in the entire history of the Russian fleet. On June 26, Alexander Vasilyevich is appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet, conducts a number of successful military operations against Turkey, and completely dominates the Black Sea. He is developing a plan for the capture of Constantinople, everything is ready for execution, but a revolution breaks out...
Kolchak, like all officers, is dissatisfied with the order to “democratize the army” and actively expresses his opinion. The admiral is removed from command and returns to Petrograd. He goes to the USA as a mine expert, where he greatly helped the Americans, and they offered him to stay. Alexander Vasilyevich faces a difficult question: personal happiness or self-sacrifice and suffering in the name of Russia.
The Russian public has repeatedly approached him with an offer to lead the fight against the Bolsheviks, he makes a difficult choice in favor. The admiral arrives in Omsk, where the role of minister of war is prepared for him in the Socialist Revolutionary government. After some time, the officers carry out a coup, and Alexander Kolchak is proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
Kolchak's army numbered about 150 thousand people. The admiral restored laws in Siberia. To date, there are no documents confirming the fact of the “white terror” against workers and peasants, which Soviet historians and propagandists love to talk about. Things at the front went well at first. The front was advancing, and even a joint campaign against Moscow was planned. However, Kolchak, like the last Emperor of Russia, was faced with human vice and baseness. There was betrayal, cowardice and deceit all around.
Alexander Vasilyevich was not a puppet of the Entente, and the allies eventually betrayed the Admiral. He was repeatedly offered help “from outside”; the Finns wanted to send a 100,000-strong army into Russia in exchange for part of Karelia, but he said that “he doesn’t trade with Russia” and refused the deal. The position of the White armies in Siberia was deteriorating, the rear was falling apart, the Reds brought about 500 thousand people to the front. In addition to all this, a general epidemic of typhus began, and the white army became heavier and heavier.
The only hope for salvation was, but due to certain circumstances, Vladimir Oskarovich did not perform a miracle. Soon the Reds were already not far from Omsk, the headquarters was evacuated to Irkutsk. The admiral was stopped at one of the stations; he was betrayed by the Czechoslovak corps, which, in exchange for free passage to Vladivostok, handed the admiral over to the Bolsheviks. Kolchak was arrested and on February 7, 1920 he was shot along with his minister Pepelyaev.
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak is a worthy son of his Fatherland. His fate is as tragic as the fate of other figures of the white movement. He died for an idea, for the Russian people. The main tragedy in life is love. Kolchak was a family man, but he met Anna Vasilievna Timeryaeva, for whom he was inflamed with great love, and who was with him until the very end. He divorced his first wife. Kolchak’s son from his first marriage fought in the French Navy during World War II.
Midshipman Kolchak
During interrogation before execution, Kolchak said about himself: “I grew up in a purely military family. My father, Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak, served in the naval artillery and was a receiver for the Naval Department at the Obukhov plant. When he retired with the rank of major general, he remained at this plant as an engineer... That’s where I was born.” This event occurred on November 4 (16), 1874.
The Kolchak family owed its unusual surname to a Turk of South Slavic origin, Ilias Kolchak Pasha, commandant of the Khotyn fortress, captured by Russian troops in 1739.
Many men from the Kolchak family chose the military path for themselves, and Alexander was no exception. He graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and was promoted to midshipman. His classmate wrote: “Kolchak, by the seriousness of his thoughts and actions, inspired us boys with deep respect for himself. We felt in him a moral force that was impossible to disobey; We felt that this was the person we should follow unquestioningly. Not a single officer-educator, not a single corps teacher instilled in us such a sense of superiority as midshipman Kolchak.”
At the end of the corps, Kolchak went on voyages on the cruisers “Rurik” and “Cruiser”, while, in addition to his service, he was engaged in research in the field of oceanography and hydrology.
In December 1898, Kolchak was promoted to lieutenant. He established himself as a brilliant officer and thoughtful scientist, and in 1900 he received an invitation from the Academy of Sciences from Baron E. V. Toll to take part in his expedition.
On July 21, 1900, the schooner “Zarya” set sail across the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula. Kolchak patiently endured all the hardships of a difficult expedition and wintering in harsh conditions. Baron Toll wrote: “Our hydrograph Kolchak is not only the best officer, but he is also lovingly devoted to his hydrology. He carried out this scientific work with great energy, despite the difficulty of combining the duties of a naval officer with the activities of a scientist.” The island and cape discovered by Toll were named in honor of Kolchak.
But Zarya was crushed by ice. It was decided to split up - Tol and magnetologist Zeberg set off on foot north of the New Siberian Islands, and the remaining members of the polar expedition followed to the mouth of the Lena and returned to St. Petersburg through Yakutsk and Irkutsk.
Upon arrival in the capital, Kolchak reported on Toll’s decision and his disappearance. In 1903, an expedition led by Kolchak was organized to rescue the polar explorer, during which it turned out that the baron and his companions had died...
Supreme ruler
When Kolchak was returning from a tragic polar expedition, the Russian-Japanese War began. He was assigned to the destroyer "Angry" and took part in the siege of Port Arthur. Kolchak was wounded and spent 4 months in captivity.
After the war, Kolchak actively served in the Naval General Staff, and also designed the icebreakers Taimyr and Vaygach. Kolchak commanded the latter during a cartographic expedition to the Bering Strait and Cape Dezhnev.
When the First World War began, Kolchak developed and took part in brilliant operations that brought him fame, orders and the rank of admiral.
The February Revolution made its own adjustments to the admiral's career, and in 1917 Kolchak was removed from command. He received an invitation from the American mission, and as a military adviser he went first to England and then to the USA.
In 1918, he arrived in Russia, where the Council of Ministers of the “Directory”, a united anti-Bolshevik government, insisted on his proclamation as Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. He became the leader of the White movement, fought against Bolshevism, launched an offensive throughout the Urals, but failed - for many reasons, which historians are still arguing about. But, one way or another, the reality is that Kolchak lost and paid for it with his life - his own and that of many people - both the Bolsheviks and the White Guards...
Kolchak transferred power to Denikin and found himself under the protection of the Czech allies. But they betrayed the admiral and handed him over to the Bolsheviks - in exchange for free passage through Russian territory...
On January 15, 1920, Kolchak was arrested in Irkutsk. The admiral's interrogations continued until February 6, and on February 7, Kolchak was shot on the bank of the Ushakovka River, and his body was thrown into an ice hole...
In Soviet times, Kolchak became a purely negative figure, all his services to the fatherland were forgotten.
Nowadays, the name of Kolchak is being actively rehabilitated. The Duma of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug decided to return Kolchak’s name to the island in the Kara Sea, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building of the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg, and a monument to the admiral was unveiled in Irkutsk.
"My dear dove"...
Many people are of particular interest in Kolchak’s difficult personal life. In 1904, after a polar expedition, Alexander Vasilyevich got married in Irkutsk to Sofia Fedorovna Omirova. The wedding was postponed several times due to Kolchak's expeditions, but Sophia patiently waited for the groom, whom she loved very much. They had two daughters, who died in infancy, and a son, Rostislav. Sofya Vladimirovna resignedly endured all the hardships of life, moving, and constant separation from her husband.
But fate dealt her a heavy blow - in 1915, Kolchak met Anna Timireva, whom he fell in love with deeply. After the revolution, Sophia and her son ended up in Paris, and Anna Timireva spent the last months of his life with Kolchak and voluntarily went under arrest with him. And it was to her that the last lines of the admiral were addressed: “My dear dove, I received your note, thank you for your affection and concern for me... Don’t worry about me. I think only about you and your fate... I don’t worry about myself - everything is known in advance. My every move is being watched, and it is very difficult for me to write... Write to me. Your notes are the only joy I can have. I pray for you and bow to your sacrifice. My dear, my beloved, don’t worry about me and take care of yourself... Goodbye, I kiss your hands.”
After Kolchak's death, Anna Timireva brutally paid for her love. She spent many years in prisons and exile. In the short intervals between imprisonment, she worked odd jobs - she was a librarian, a painter, and a draftsman. She was rehabilitated in 1960. Consulted Sergei Bondarchuk during the filming of the film “War and Peace”.
She died in 1975. And all these years she continued to love Alexander Kolchak and wrote him poems:
And every year on the seventh of February
One with my stubborn memory
I celebrate your anniversary again.
And those who knew you are long gone,
And those who are alive have long forgotten everything.
And this is the most difficult day for me -
For them, he is the same as everyone else -
A torn calendar sheet.
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak - the famous leader of the White Movement in Siberia, Supreme Commander-in-Chief, admiral, polar explorer and hydrograph scientist was born in the village of Aleksandrovskoye near St. Petersburg on November 16, 1874 in a family of a hereditary military man. Father - Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak, nobleman and major general of naval artillery, mother - Olga Ilyinichna Posokhova, Don Cossack. In 1888, after graduating from the St. Petersburg Classical Men's Gymnasium, Kolchak entered the Naval Cadet Corps, from which he graduated in 1894 with the rank of midshipman. After graduation, Kolchak in 1895, as a watch officer on the cruiser Rurik, went to Vladivostok through the southern seas. During the transition, he became interested in hydrology and hydrography, and then he developed a desire to independently engage in scientific research.
Two years later, already as a lieutenant, Kolchak returned to the location of the Baltic Fleet on the cruiser clipper. Upon returning to Kronstadt, he tries to join the polar expedition on the icebreaker Ermak under the leadership of Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, but the icebreaker’s crew was already complete. Kolchak decided not to give up and, having learned that the Imperial Academy of Sciences was preparing a project to study the Arctic Ocean in the area of the New Siberian Islands, he made efforts to become one of the participants in the expedition. Fortunately for Kolchak, the leader of the expedition, Baron Toll, was familiar with his scientific publications on hydrology and needed naval officers, so he agreed.
Polar explorer - Lieutenant Kolchak
Under the patronage of the President of the Academy of Sciences, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich, Kolchak was temporarily dismissed from military service, placed at the disposal of the Academy and received the position of head of the hydrological work of the expedition. The researchers' plans were to go around Eurasia from the north, around Cape Dezhnev and return to Vladivostok. This was Russia's first academic voyage in the Arctic Ocean, completed on its own ship. On June 8, 1900, the expeditionary schooner “Zarya” left St. Petersburg and headed for Arctic waters, but already in September, having encountered impassable ice, it began to spend the winter in the Taimyr Strait. On August 10, 1901, ice began to move and the Zarya’s voyage continued, but less than a month later it had to go to its second winter quarters near Kotelny Island. During the second wintering, Kolchak takes part in the study of the New Siberian Islands, conducting magnetic and astronomical observations. At the end of August, the expedition ended in Tiksi at the mouth of the Lena, and through Yakutsk and Irkutsk by December 1902, Kolchak returned to St. Petersburg.
In 1904, having learned about the outbreak of war with Japan, Kolchak was transferred back to the Naval Department and headed to Port Arthur. There he commanded the destroyer "Angry" for some time; later, due to health reasons, he was transferred to land and appointed commander of an artillery battery. After the surrender of the garrison of Port Arthur, having been in Japanese captivity, in the summer of 1905 he returned to St. Petersburg. For participation in hostilities he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree, and St. Stanislav, 2nd degree. After the war, Kolchak was engaged in scientific activities, several of his studies on the hydrology of the northern seas were published. In 1908 he was awarded the rank of captain 2nd rank. In 1909-10 participates in the study of the marine area near Cape Dezhnev on the icebreakers “Vaigach” and “Taimyr”. Since the beginning of the First World War, he has been developing defensive operations at the headquarters of the Baltic Fleet and is engaged in the installation of minefields, taking into account the experience of Port Arthur. In June 1916, Kolchak was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet, thus becoming the youngest admiral among all the warring powers. At the same time he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 1st degree. Being a convinced monarchist, Kolchak received the news of Nicholas 2’s abdication of the throne with great grief. Thanks to his leadership and skillful neutralization of Bolshevik agitators, the Black Sea Fleet managed to avoid anarchy and maintain combat effectiveness for a long time. In June 1917, Kolchak was removed from office and recalled to Petrograd. As a result of intrigues in the Provisional Government, he was forced to leave Russia, traveling to the United States as part of the Russian naval mission.
Admiral Kolchak during the Civil War
In November 1917, Kolchak arrived in Japan, where he received news of the Bolsheviks coming to power. In May 1918, with the support of England and Japan, he began to form anti-Bolshevik forces around himself in Harbin, China. In September, Kolchak arrived in Vladivostok, where he negotiated joint actions against the Bolsheviks with the leaders of the Czechoslovak corps. In October he arrives in Omsk, where he was appointed Minister of War in the Government of the Directory. On November 18, 1918, as a result of a military coup, Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. His power was recognized by the entire white movement in Russia, including Denikin. Having received military-technical assistance from the United States and the Entente countries and taking advantage of the country's gold reserves, Kolchak formed an army of more than 400 thousand people and began an offensive in the West. In December, as a result of the Perm operation, Perm was captured, and by the spring of 1919, Ufa, Sterlitamak, Naberezhnye Chelny, Izhevsk. Kolchak’s troops reached the approaches to Kazan, Samara and Simbirsk, this was the peak of success. But already in June, the front, under the pressure of the Red Army, inevitably rolled to the east, and in November Omsk was abandoned. The surrender of the capital set in motion all the forces hostile to Kolchak in the rear, chaos and disorganization began. At the Nizhneudinsk station he was arrested by his Czechoslovak allies, and in January 1920 he was handed over to the Bolsheviks in exchange for a free return home. After his arrest, interrogations began, during which he outlined his biography in detail. The interrogation protocols of Kolchak in the 20s were published as a separate book. On February 7, 1920, Alexander Kolchak, together with his comrade-in-arms, Minister Viktor Pepelyaev, was shot on the banks of the Angara by decision of the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Repeated attempts at legal rehabilitation of Kolchak in post-Soviet times were rejected by the court. In the waiting room of the Irkutsk railway station there is a memorial plaque in memory of the fact that at this place in January 1920 Kolchak was betrayed by his Czechoslovak allies and handed over to the Bolsheviks. And at the site of Kolchak’s alleged execution on the banks of the Angara near the Irkutsk Znamensky Monastery in 2004, a monument was erected to him by the people’s sculptor of Russia Vyacheslav Klykov. The figure of the admiral, 4.5 meters high, made of forged copper, stands on a pedestal made of concrete blocks, on which there are reliefs of a Red Army soldier and a White Guard, standing opposite each other with their weapons crossed. The Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore conducts excursions “Kolchak in Irkutsk”, including to the “Museum of the History of the Irkutsk Prison Castle named after A.V. Kolchak”, which houses an exhibition of his former cell.
St. George's Knights of World War 1:
It is a terrible state to order without having any real power to ensure that the order is carried out, other than your own authority. (A.V. Kolchak, March 11, 1917)
Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak born November 4, 1874. In 1888-1894 he studied at the Naval Cadet Corps, where he transferred from the 6th St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium. He was promoted to midshipman. In addition to military affairs, he was interested in exact sciences and factory work: he learned mechanics in the workshops of the Obukhov plant, and mastered navigation at the Kronstadt Naval Observatory. V.I. Kolchak received his first officer rank after being seriously wounded during the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War of 1853-1856: he was one of the seven surviving defenders of the Stone Tower on Malakhov Kurgan, whom the French found among the corpses after the assault. After the war, he graduated from the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg and, until his retirement, served as a receptionist for the Maritime Ministry at the Obukhov plant, having a reputation as a straightforward and extremely scrupulous person.
At the end of 1896, Kolchak was assigned to the 2nd rank cruiser "Cruiser" as a watch commander. On this ship he went on campaigns in the Pacific Ocean for several years, and in 1899 he returned to Kronstadt. On December 6, 1898, he was promoted to lieutenant. During the campaigns, Kolchak not only fulfilled his official duties, but also actively engaged in self-education. He also became interested in oceanography and hydrology. In 1899, he published the article “Observations on surface temperatures and specific gravities of sea water made on the cruisers Rurik and Cruiser from May 1897 to March 1898.” July 21, 1900 A. V. Kolchak went on an expedition on the schooner “Zarya” along the Baltic, North and Norwegian seas to the shores of the Taimyr Peninsula, where he spent his first winter. In October 1900, Kolchak took part in Toll’s trip to the Gafner fjord, and in April-May 1901 the two of them traveled around Taimyr. Throughout the expedition, the future admiral conducted active scientific work. In 1901, E.V. Toll immortalized the name of A.V. Kolchak, naming an island in the Kara Sea and a cape discovered by the expedition after him. Based on the results of the expedition in 1906, he was elected a full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.
Schooner “Zarya”
His son's long polar expeditions, his scientific and military activities delighted the aging General Vasily Kolchak. And they caused alarm: his only son was almost thirty years old, and the prospects of seeing grandchildren, heirs of the famous family in the male line were very vague. And then, having received news from his son that he would soon read a report at the Irkutsk Geographical Society, the general takes decisive measures. By that time, Alexander Kolchak had already been engaged to a hereditary Podolsk noblewoman for several years Sofia Omirova.
But, apparently, he was in no hurry to become a loving husband and father of a family. Long polar expeditions, in which he voluntarily took part, followed one after another. Sophia has been waiting for her fiancé for four years. And the old general decided: the wedding should take place in Irkutsk. The chronicle of further events is rapid: on March 2, Alexander reads a brilliant report at the Irkutsk Geographical Society, and the next day he meets his father and bride at the Irkutsk station. Preparations for the wedding take two days. Fifth of March Sofia Omirova And Alexander Kolchak getting married. Three days later, the young husband leaves his wife and voluntarily goes into the active army to defend Port Arthur. The Russo-Japanese War began. The long journey of the last, perhaps the most outstanding representative of the Kolchak dynasty of Russian warriors to the ice hole on the Angara began. And to great Russian glory.
The war with Japan became the young lieutenant's first combat test. His rapid career growth - from watch commander to destroyer commander and, later, commander of coastal guns - corresponded to the volume of work done in the most difficult conditions. Combat raids, minefields of the approaches to Port Arthur, the destruction of one of the leading enemy cruisers "Takasago" - Alexander Kolchak served his fatherland conscientiously. Although he could very well resign for health reasons. For his participation in the Russo-Japanese War, Alexander Kolchak was awarded two orders and a gold dagger of St. George with the inscription “For Bravery.”
In 1912, Kolchak was appointed head of the First Operations Department of the Naval General Staff, in charge of all preparations of the fleet for the expected war. During this period, Kolchak participated in the maneuvers of the Baltic Fleet, becoming an expert in the field of combat shooting and especially mine warfare: from the spring of 1912 he was in the Baltic Fleet - near Essen, then served in Libau, where the Mine Division was based. His family remained in Libau before the start of the war: wife, son, daughter. Since December 1913, Kolchak has been a captain of the 1st rank; after the start of the war - flag captain for the operational part. He developed the first combat mission for the fleet - to close the entrance to the Gulf of Finland with a strong minefield (the same mine-artillery position of Porkkala-udd-Nargen Island, which the Red Navy sailors repeated with complete success, but not so quickly, in 1941). Having taken temporary command of a group of four destroyers, at the end of February 1915 Kolchak closed Danzig Bay with two hundred mines. This was the most difficult operation - not only due to military circumstances, but also due to the conditions of sailing ships with a weak hull in the ice: here Kolchak’s polar experience again came in handy. In September 1915, Kolchak took command, initially temporary, of the Mine Division; at the same time, all naval forces in the Gulf of Riga come under his control. In November 1915, Kolchak received the highest Russian military award - the Order of St. George, IV degree. On Easter 1916, in April, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was awarded the first admiral rank. In April 1916 he was promoted to rear admiral. In July 1916, by order of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Alexander Vasilyevich was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
After the February Revolution of 1917, the Sevastopol Council removed Kolchak from command, and the admiral returned to Petrograd. After the February Revolution of 1917, Kolchak was the first in the Black Sea Fleet to swear allegiance to the Provisional Government. In the spring of 1917, Headquarters began preparing an amphibious operation to capture Constantinople, but due to the disintegration of the army and navy, this idea had to be abandoned. He received gratitude from the Minister of War Guchkov for his quick and reasonable actions, with which he contributed to maintaining order in the Black Sea Fleet. However, due to the defeatist propaganda and agitation that penetrated the army and navy after February 1917 under the guise and cover of freedom of speech, both the army and navy began to move towards their collapse. On April 25, 1917, Alexander Vasilyevich spoke at a meeting of officers with a report “The situation of our armed forces and relations with the allies.” Among other things, Kolchak noted: “We are facing the collapse and destruction of our armed force, [for] the old forms of discipline have collapsed, and new ones have not been created.”
Kolchak receives an invitation from the American mission, which officially appealed to the Provisional Government with a request to send Admiral Kolchak to the United States to provide information on mine affairs and anti-submarine warfare. July 4 A.F. Kerensky gave permission for Kolchak’s mission to be carried out and, as a military adviser, he leaves for England, and then to the USA.
Kolchak returns to Russia, but the October coup detains him in Japan until September 1918. On the night of November 18, a military coup took place in Omsk, promoting Kolchak to the pinnacle of power. The Council of Ministers insisted on his proclamation as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and promotion to full admiral. In 1919, Kolchak moved Headquarters from Omsk to the government echelon - Irkutsk was appointed the new capital. The admiral stops in Nizhneudinsk.
On January 5, 1920, he agreed to transfer supreme power to General Denikin, and control of the Eastern outskirts to Semenov, and transferred to the Czech carriage, under the auspices of the Allies. On January 14, the final betrayal occurs: in exchange for free passage, the Czechs hand over the admiral. On January 15, 1920, at 9:50 pm local, Irkutsk, time, Kolchak was arrested. At eleven o'clock at night, under heavy escort, the arrested were led along the hummocky ice of the Angara, and then Kolchak and his officers were transported in cars to the Alexander Central. The Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee intended to make an open trial of the former Supreme Ruler of Russia and the ministers of his Russian government. On January 22, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry began interrogations that lasted until February 6, when the remnants of Kolchak’s army came close to Irkutsk. The Revolutionary Committee issued a resolution to shoot Kolchak without trial. February 7, 1920 at 4 o’clock in the morning Kolchak together with Prime Minister V.N. Pepelyaev was shot on the bank of the Ushakovka River and thrown into an ice hole.
Last photo Admiral
Monument to Kolchak. Irkutsk
Harsh. Arrogant. Proudly
Sparkling bronze eyes,
Kolchak looks silently
To the place of his death.
Brave hero of Port Arthur,
Fighter, geographer, admiral -
Raised by a silent sculpture
It's on a granite pedestal.
Perfect without any optics
Now he sees everything around:
River; the slope where the execution place is
Marked by a wooden cross.
He lived. Was bold and free
And even for a short time
He will become the only Supreme
I could become the ruler of Russia!
Execution preceded freedom,
And in the red stars there are rebels
Found the grave of a patriot
In the icy depths of the Angara.
There is a persistent rumor among the people:
He was saved. He is still alive;
He goes to that very temple to pray,
Where I stood under the aisle with my wife...
Now terror has no power over him.
He was able to be reborn in bronze,
And tramples on indifferently
Heavy forged boot
Red Guard and sailor,
What, having hungered for dictatorship again,
Having crossed bayonets with a silent threat,
Unable to overthrow Kolchak
Recently, previously unknown documents relating to the execution and subsequent burial of Admiral Kolchak were discovered in the Irkutsk region. Documents marked “secret” were found during work on the Irkutsk City Theater’s play “The Admiral’s Star,” based on the play by former state security officer Sergei Ostroumov. According to the documents found, in the spring of 1920, not far from the Innokentyevskaya station (on the bank of the Angara, 20 km below Irkutsk), local residents discovered a corpse in an admiral's uniform, carried by the current to the shore of the Angara. Representatives of the investigative authorities arrived and conducted an inquiry and identified the body of the executed Admiral Kolchak. Subsequently, investigators and local residents secretly buried the admiral according to Christian custom. Investigators compiled a map on which Kolchak’s grave was marked with a cross. Currently, all found documents are being examined.
The mere command to play Beethoven's symphonies is sometimes not enough for them to be played well.
A. V. Kolchak, February 1917
Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born on November 1, 1874. In 1894, he graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps, and then, continuing the tradition of his ancestors, chose a military career. During 1895-1899 Kolchak went on several long voyages on the cruisers Rurik and Cruiser. In 1900 he was promoted to lieutenant, at the invitation of E.V. Tolya participated in the Russian polar expedition as a hydrologist and magnetologist.
In Irkutsk on March 5, 1904, he married Sofia Omirova, but after a few days the young couple separated. Kolchak was sent to the active army, where he was appointed watch commander on the cruiser Askold. Later, he was entrusted with the leadership of the destroyer "Angry". His naval career was interrupted by severe pneumonia. Kolchak was forced to ask for a transfer to the ground forces, where he then began to command a battery of naval guns.
For his courage, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was awarded the Order of St. Anna 4th degree. But soon after that he again found himself in the hospital due to rheumatism received during the northern expedition. For his bravery in the Battle of Port Arthur he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 2nd degree with swords and a golden saber with the engraving “For Bravery”. For some time after this, he restored his shaky health on the waters.
He actively participated in the activities of the hydrographic department of the Moscow department. In 1912, he became the head of the First Operations Department of the Moscow General Staff and began preparing the fleet for the approaching war. His first task was to block the Gulf of Finland with a powerful minefield. The most difficult task was to block the entrance to the Danzig Bay with minefields. It was carried out brilliantly, despite extremely difficult weather conditions.
In 1915, all naval forces concentrated in the Gulf of Riga came under the command of Kolchak. He received the highest award - the Order of St. George 4th degree, and in the spring of 1916 he was awarded the rank of admiral. In the same year, Kolchak met Anna Timireva, who became his last lover. Since 1920, Anna Timireva and Kolchak lived as husband and wife. Anna did not leave him until the day of the execution. Soon after receiving a new title and meeting Timireva, a sharp turn occurred in the biography of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak.
Removed from command after the February Revolution, Admiral Kolchak left for Petrograd, and from there (with the sanction of Kerensky) he went to England and the USA as a military adviser. He ran for the Cadet Party as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly. But due to the October events, he remained in Japan until the fall of 1918.
During the armed coup in Omsk, Kolchak became the Minister of War and Navy of the “Council of Five,” or “Directory,” headed by Kerensky, and after its fall, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Supreme Ruler of Russia. But Kolchak’s successes in Siberia gave way to defeats.
At this time, the first information about Kolchak’s gold appeared. The leaders of the white movement, one of the leaders and founders of which was Kolchak, decided to transport the gold to a more reliable place. There are many assumptions about where exactly Kolchak’s treasure is hidden. Both during the Soviet period and later, serious search attempts were made, but the valuables have still not been found. However, the version that Russian valuables have long been in the accounts of foreign banks also has a right to exist.
Having taken control of Siberia, Kolchak made its capital Irkutsk, and moved the headquarters from Omsk to the government echelon, which soon, as a result of the defeats inflicted by the Bolsheviks on Kolchak’s army, was blocked by the Czechs in Nizhneudinsk. Although Kolchak was given a guarantee of personal safety, he was handed over to the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who took power in Irkutsk. Later the admiral ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks. Kolchak was shot by order of Lenin on February 7, 1920, not far from the river. Ushakova. His body was thrown into the water.
