In the summer of 1919, after the floundering offensive towards the Volga, there followed a reorganization of Kolchak’s armed forces and an attempt to strengthen the combat potential of the volunteer component. Among the innovations with which the white command sought to strengthen the front was military partisanship as a resource adequate to the situation of the Civil War.
The self-name “partisan” was widely used on both the red and white sides and was adopted by the rebels. It was not the narrow military meaning that prevailed in it, but the original French meaning. The partisan as an adherent is a conscious fighter, a volunteer 1.
A.P. Perkhurov, the head of the 13th Kazan Division, in mid-July 1919 became the head of the partisan detachments of the 3rd White Army. His division at this time was withdrawn to the Chelyabinsk region to the army reserve for rest and replenishment. In retrospect, he spoke about the newly minted partisans, not without bewilderment: “In fact, he had to operate at the front with only one detachment of about 400 sabers. Other detachments, which for some reason bore the name partisan, served field mail lines or were in their infancy.” . At the end of September, a hundred and a squadron remained in the detachment. An order followed to withdraw from the Kustanai area to Omsk for deployment 2.
Commanding the division, Perkhurov used partisan raids with the forces of the cavalry division of his division and, it seemed, successfully. The Kazan cavalry division, with the addition of a division of Orenburg Cossacks, became the basis of his partisan detachment 3. During the Chelyabinsk operation, July 26-27, Perkhurov undertook a not particularly effective partisan raid with a detachment from the 2nd Orenburg Cossack Brigade, the 9th Simbirsk Regiment and a detachment of mobilized Cossacks. Having destroyed a company of the Red 230th regiment, the detachment went to the rear to form, and the general himself asked to resign 4.
The Chelyabinsk partisan detachment of Colonel N.G. worked under the Ufa group of troops. Sorochinsky 5 - chief of counterintelligence of Chelyabinsk before the city surrendered to the Reds. Obviously, Sorochinsky’s subordinates from previous service made up the detachment that took part in the battles for the city 6 . Near Ishim, Sorochinsky's cavalry division, now under the command of another officer, acted extremely unsuccessfully 7 . It was clearly not possible to create an effective partisan unit.
On the eve of the last great White offensive, partisan denominations dominated the steppe flank of the 3rd Army. Formed on August 13, the combined Cossack detachment from Orenburg units on August 20 became the Partisan group of General L.N. Dozhirova. The group, having no artillery, fought valiantly, holding back the advance of the Red infantry 8. To the south was the Steppe Army Group, the basis of which was made up of units of the Annenkovites, united in the Partisan Division of General Z.F. Tsereteli is a regular connection. Finally, even further south, in the Kustanai region, the partisan detachments of Perkhurov (five hundred squadrons, 550 sabers) and General N.P. operated. Karnaukhov (Orenburg Cossack division and ranks of Kustanai institutions with a refugee convoy) 9.
In the summer of 1919, a plan was born for a deep cavalry raid behind Red lines with the prospect of large-scale partisan actions. According to one version, the plan belonged to General V.O. himself. Kappel, was brought to the attention of Headquarters, but was not accepted. According to another, the idea was submitted by the commander of the Volga Cavalry Division B.K. Fortunatov and his officers and warmly supported by the corps commander. In the first version, we were talking about a deep raid into the rear of the Reds with the aim of using sabotage actions to pull large enemy forces from the front. In the second - about leaving for the Volga in order to open a new anti-Bolshevik front. Another idea is to create a powerful cavalry unit capable of delivering a crushing blow and breaking through the red front. When this idea began to be embodied in the form of the Siberian Military Corps, the candidacy of V.O. Kappel, a career cavalryman, was considered for the post of corps commander along with P.P. Ivanov-Rinov. Only Kappel's illness resolved this issue.
In general terms, the epic of a brilliant partisan and an atypical Socialist-Revolutionary - Kappelite B.K. is known. Fortunatova 10. In 1918, as a member of the Military Staff of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, he fought in the ranks. The military path captivated Fortunatov. His Volga Cavalry Division was part of the Volga Cavalry Brigade of General K.P. Nechaev and represented a cohesive combat unit. In the summer, the division began to openly talk about the reactionary and anti-people course of the government of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. As a result, in early August, Fortunatov’s division voluntarily left the corps, and individual ranks of other units joined it. The core of the division was from the Samara province, and the talk was about continuing the fight in their native lands. In the defeated Orenburg army, Fortunatov’s unit looked like an island of discipline and order. Perkhurov led the partisan detachment, since he disagreed with the command of the corps and even earlier shared Fortunatov’s idea to break through to the Volga. On August 18, the detachments united and moved together for about three weeks. Thus, people capable of becoming military partisans ended up as rebels, in a “partisan position,” and not in the role of partisans.
General Karnaukhov tried to arrest the partisans for their unwillingness to retreat to the east. Commander of the IV Orenburg Army Corps, General A.S. Bakich did not want to let them pass through his formations, suspecting that the detachments were going to surrender to the Reds. The Volga partisans seemed to have the intention of taking with them the old volunteers from Bakich’s corps, to which they promptly responded 11 . Nevertheless, in the end, Perkhurov decided, according to the order, to move east with the army.
Fortunatov's division became the 1st Volga partisan detachment. It is believed that Kappel deliberately belatedly signed the order to detain the deserters, essentially giving them the opportunity to leave. An amnesty followed on September 30, subject to return 12. Two stray Votkinsk squadrons made several marches with the detachment, but, realizing the hopelessness of the undertaking, they returned to the east and joined the Izhevsk cavalry regiment.
Already in Siberia, while retreating along a country road, with General A.P. Perkhurov met the Horse-Jager Division M.M. Cuff. They moved east together for about a week and a half. Perkhurov’s division was nothing more than a “hint of a squadron,” and the general himself told how he “raised an uprising in Yaroslavl in 1918 and is now thinking of going back again. He really tried to persuade me to join, proving that with such a detachment as his we can be perfectly partisan. I proved the inconsistency of this idea,” recalled Manzhetny. According to his story, the general moved east reluctantly. “He didn’t give up the idea of going back and once told me that he was taking a day off, if I wanted to move on, he wouldn’t have anything against it.” The parts went separately 13.
In an earlier period, there were partisans in the Siberian Army. According to the orders of the I Siberian Corps, partisan detachments were known to its units 14. On January 23, 1919, the order to Corps N25 noted: “I order all former soldiers from the 1908 and 1909 service years to report to their volost and district administrations by January 30, 1919. From the soldiers who have appeared, I order to form partisan detachments under the regiments of the 1st Central Siberian Corps. The conscription is temporary for 8 months. Upon the formation of new detachments, I order these detachments to disband and send the partisans home. Each partisan must appear in full clothes for the winter war... Receive equipment and weapons from the regiment. From the moment of arrival in the regiment, a partisan is considered in military service, as a soldier, and receives all the allowance (except for clothing) according to his rank... I order a temporary conscription of former soldiers: from the left bank of the Kama in Solikamsk district, Perm and Kungur districts and from the right bank of the Kama River in Cherdynsky, Solikamsk and Okhansk districts provide full assistance and assistance to the military authorities to the head of the Perm local brigade. The provincial commissar, city and zemstvo self-governments" 15. We were talking about those areas where in 1918, even before the arrival of the whites, the partisan insurgent movement developed.
General A.N. Pepelyaev also created partisan detachments from experienced soldiers in favorable areas. A completely reasonable and productive decision. Known are the 1st Perm and Krasnoselsky detachments under the 6th Mariinsky Regiment, Lieutenant Kharitonov under the 3rd Barnaul Regiment, detachments on the northern flank of the corps, as part of the Northern detachment of Colonel A.V. Bordzilovsky. Presumably there were others. In the regiments they were listed as the fourth battalions, they fought actively, and it is known that their ranks were awarded the Cross of St. George 16.
Let's return to the partisans of the 3rd Army. Perkhurov's detachment ended with the surrender on the Lena in March 1920, 17 Fortunatov's detachment, after a dizzying campaign, only managed to take part in the disastrous retreat of the Ural Cossacks; there was no longer any talk of any front on the Volga.
Decisions in the spirit of military partisanship and cavalry raiding were knocking on the door. It was necessary to turn the situation around after a series of military failures in the face of the danger of a break in the front. At the same time, the partisans were seen as reliable mobile units adapted to the conditions of the Civil War. At the same time, another hypostasis of partisan activity immediately opened up: the partisan as a conscious fighter, not bound by subordination and ready to make independent decisions.
In reality, partisan units by name did not operate in the mode of military partisanship, being either combat units or random combined detachments. The white command was unable to organize truly partisan actions in a favorable landscape. At the same time, “partisan” plans of an adventurous nature apparently worried many officers. It is interesting that career officers nevertheless resisted temptations and remained within the framework of subordination and discipline, as can be seen in the examples of generals V.O. Kappel and A.P. Perkhurova. The young officers felt freer. The volunteer personnel were very sensitive to the idea of fighting in their native places. However, the epic of B.K. Fortunatova demonstrated that a good personnel and a bright commander only weakened the front, without bringing any benefits to the Whites through thousand-kilometer wanderings.
In the Civil War, military guerrilla warfare inevitably had to be coupled with political and ideological influence on the population and the enemy, and the organization of an insurgent movement in the enemy rear. Taking into account the experience of the Siberian Army in the spring-summer of 1919, it can be assumed that General A.N. Pepelyaev (during the First World War he led a regimental team of mounted reconnaissance officers, a combined detachment of Cossacks and mounted teams of the 11th Siberian Rifle Division) could become the organizer of military partisanship in the interests of the front. This would free him from the grotesque role of a “democrat”, create a field of activity for young officers from his circle who are inclined towards politics, and the front would have a chance to avoid catastrophic stabs in the back.
1 Kruchinin A.S. “Don Partisans” 1917-1919: on the question of terminology and essence of the phenomenon // Reports of the Academy of Military Sciences. Military history. 2009. N3(38). Guerrilla and insurgent struggle: experience and lessons of the twentieth century. Saratov, 2009. P. 75-84; Posadsky A.V. Guerrilla-insurgency - Russian experience in the twentieth century // Ibid. pp. 8-9.
2 Perkhurov A.P. Confession of a condemned man. Rybinsk, 1990. pp. 34-35. According to white sources, Perkhurov’s “special flying partisan” detachment consisted of 4 hundreds and several squads and was formed for raids and sabotage (Volkov E.V. Under the banner of the white admiral. Officer corps of armed formations of A.V. Kolchak during the Civil War. Irkutsk, 2005. P. 134).
3 The division was under the command of a certain “Ataman Svechnikov” and was an “author’s” combat unit made up of fellow countrymen, as one might assume.
4 Sanchuk P. Chelyabinsk operation in the summer of 1919 // War and revolution. 1930. N 11. P. 79-80.
5 Volkov E.V. Decree. op. P. 134.
6 http://east-front.narod.ru/memo/belyushin.htm.
7 Egorov A.A. Unsuccessful crossing. Episode from the Civil War in Siberia // Ray of Asia. 1940. N 67/3.
8 M.N. Tukhachevskoy writes that in the September battles of 1919, the enemy “with the skillful maneuver of the partisan group of General Dozhirov constantly bypassed the area of our strike group in further battles, inflicting heavy defeats on it.” Tukhachevsky M.N. Kurgan - Omsk // Tukhachevsky M.N. Selected works. M., 1964. T. 1. P. 264, 262, 265.
9 Vinokurov O. 1919 on the Gorky Line. Electronic manuscript. P. 54. Karnaukhov in July-August 1919 commanded a detachment in the Partisan group of General Dozhirov, and was the head of the Kustanai garrison. This officer is one of the first Orenburg partisan commanders in 1918.
10 Leontiev Y. Fortunatov’s lucky cornet // Rodina. 2006. N 7; Balmasov S.S. The fate of Fortunatov’s Separate Volga Horse-Jager Division // Kappel and Kappelevtsy. M., 2003. P.505-528.
11 Ganin A.V. Montenegrin in Russian service: General Bakich. M., 2004. P. 91.
12 Ibid. P. 93.
13 Memoirs of Colonel M.M. Cuff. Unpublished manuscript.
14 At the same time, upon the arrival of parts of the corps, local partisan detachments were disbanded, and those of conscription age were subject to enrollment in the ranks of the corps.
15 Perm State Archive of Contemporary History. F. 90. Op. 4. D. 895. L. 135.
16 The 1st Perm detachment was removed from the front at the end of April and was used in punitive operations. A significant part of the ranks were demobilized or disbanded during the retreat or even earlier, with the start of field work. The author expresses gratitude to M.G. Sitnikov (Perm) for the materials provided.
17 Listvin G. Chronicle of the Siberian Ice Campaign of the White Armies of Admiral Kolchak in the Krasnoyarsk and Kansk districts of the Yenisei province. Essay (http://www.promegalit.ru/publics.php?id=1155).
18 On the red side, numerous peasant partisan detachments were organized into a regular formation - the Steppe Brigade.
Latin America is a revolutionary continent. For decades, revolutionary guerrilla organizations have been fighting in some Latin American countries, proclaiming their main goal to be the fight against American imperialism, and the most radical ones also to build a “bright communist society.” In some places, the struggle of left-wing guerrillas back in the 20th century ended in success (Cuba, Nicaragua), somewhere the left came to power without winning a guerrilla war (Venezuela, Bolivia), but in a number of Latin American countries gunshots and entire massifs are still heard mountain and forest areas are not controlled by the central government. Peru is one of these states.
Peru is the third largest country in South America by area. It was here that the legendary Inca Empire originated and developed until it was colonized by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro. In 1544, the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru was established, but despite this, until the end of the 18th century, mass uprisings of the Indian population broke out here, led by the scions of the ancient Inca dynasty. When wars of independence raged throughout Latin America, Peru remained loyal to the Spanish crown for a long time. Despite the fact that on July 28, 1821, General San Martin, who invaded from Chile, proclaimed the independence of Peru, the Spaniards managed to regain power over the colony already in 1823 and hold out until the arrival in 1824 of the troops of General Sucre, an ally of the famous Simon Bolivar. It is Bolivar who can rightfully be considered the father of independent Peruvian statehood. Peru, second half of the 19th - 20th centuries. - this is the history of a typical Latin American country with all the accompanying “charms” - a series of military coups, colossal social polarization of the population, complete control of the country by American and British capital, repressions against representatives of the left and national liberation movements.
Mariátegui - the harbinger of the Shining Path
The country's socio-economic problems, the plight of the majority of the population and the existing division between the “white” elite, mestizos and the Indian peasantry, who make up the majority of the population, contributed to the growth of social protests in the country. Most often, the actions of the Indian peasantry were spontaneous and unorganized. The situation began to change when communist ideas spread to Peru, initially adopted by a small part of the urban intelligentsia and industrial workers. The origins of the Peruvian Communist Party, founded in 1928, were José Carlos Mariategui (1894-1930). Coming from the family of a small employee who left his family, Mariategui was raised by his mother. As a child, he suffered an injury to his left leg, but despite his disability, he was forced to start working at the age of 14 - first as a laborer in a printing house, and then as a journalist in a number of Peruvian newspapers. In his early youth, he became an active participant in the Peruvian labor movement, was expelled from the country and lived in Italy, where he became acquainted with the ideas of Marxism and created a small communist circle of Peruvian emigrants. Returning to his homeland, Mariátegui soon became very ill, and his leg, injured in childhood, had to be amputated. Nevertheless, he continued active work to create a communist party in the country. In 1927, Mariátegui was arrested and placed as an invalid in a military hospital, then was under house arrest. However, in 1928, he and several other comrades created the Peruvian Socialist Party, which in 1930 was renamed the Communist Party. In the same 1930, José Mariategui died before reaching thirty-six years of age. But, despite such a short life, his ideas had a huge influence on the formation of the communist movement in Peru, and in some other countries of Latin America. Mariategui's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism boiled down to the fact that he advocated the need to develop a revolutionary movement in Peru and Latin America as a whole, relying on local traditions, without blindly copying Russian and European experience. In principle, Mariategui’s ideas were adopted by many Latin American revolutionary organizations, which were able to combine Marxist doctrine with left-wing Indian nationalism and proclaim reliance on the peasantry, which made up the overwhelming majority of the population in almost all countries of the continent.
Throughout its history, the Peruvian Communist Party has repeatedly experienced bans from the country's government, and sometimes brutal repression against activists. After all, for most of the twentieth century, reactionary pro-American regimes existed in the country, persecuting everyone who opposed American imperialism, foreign companies and local latifundist oligarchs. However, in the history of 20th century Peru there was also a short period when the left was in power. Moreover, the military began to implement revolutionary ideas - the government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1910-1977), which was in power from 1968 to 1975. In terms of the depth and quality of the revolutionary transformations carried out in Peru during these years, the Alvarado regime is on a par with the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutionaries.
Revolutionary Junta of Alvarado
Juan Velasco Alvarado came from a poor family of a minor official. There were 11 children in his father's family. Naturally, the family lived in poverty, but, as Alvarado later noted, this poverty was worthy. In 1929, nineteen-year-old Alvarado enlisted as a private in the armed forces. In those years, and even now, military service was sometimes the only way not only to make some kind of career, but also simply to receive guaranteed employment and salary. 
For his demonstrated military abilities, Private Alvarado was selected to study at the Chorrillos Military School. By the way, he was also one of the best in graduating from the school. In 1944, Alvarado graduated from the Higher Military School, where since 1946 he taught tactics. In 1952, he was the head of the military school, then the chief of staff of the 4th Military Training Center of Peru. In 1959, forty-nine-year-old Alvarado was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. From 1962 to 1968, he was Peru's military attaché to France, and in January 1968, he took over as commander of the ground forces and chairman of the Unified Command of the Armed Forces of Peru. On October 3, 1968, a military coup took place in Peru. Units of the armored division surrounded the presidential palace. Officers led by Colonel Gallego Venero arrested the current president of Belaunde. Power in the country passed to the military junta - the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces. The military elected General Juan Velasco Alvarado, who enjoys great authority in the army, as president. The chief inspector of the Peruvian armed forces, General Ernesto Montagne Sanchez (1916-1993), became the prime minister of the military government.
The military government began serious political and socio-economic changes. Politically, all power in the country was transferred to the military - it is obvious that the revolutionary junta did not trust civilian politicians. Measures were taken to improve the position of the Indians - the indigenous population of Peru. Thus, the Quechua language, spoken by most of the Peruvian Indians, was adopted as the second official language of the country (the first is Spanish). Free ninth-grade education was introduced. In December 1970, Velasco Alvarado signed a decree on amnesty for participants in the rebel and guerrilla movements of Peruvian peasants, in January 1971 the General Confederation of Labor of Peru was officially recognized, the persecution of communists was stopped and all court cases brought against communist party activists before were closed. In foreign policy Peru set a course for cooperation with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Diplomatic relations were established with the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Cuba, which were absent under previous pro-American governments.
The changes in the economy were even more profound. The Alvarado government proclaimed a course to eliminate the dominance of oligarchs and latifundists in agriculture and to improve the standard of living of the population. The nationalization of a number of sectors of the economy began, including the oil, mining, fishing industries, railways, and air transport. Most banking organizations and the media were also taken under state control. Moreover, right-wing and pro-American media were censored, a number of publications were closed, and their leadership was expelled from the country for anti-national policies. Industrial communities were created at enterprises, whose tasks included ensuring the gradual transition of 50% of enterprises into the ownership of labor collectives. Similar communities were created in the fishing and mining industries. Enormous reforms were also carried out in agriculture. 90% of agricultural land, which previously belonged to 2% of the population, who made up the class of latifundists - landowners, was nationalized. Peasants united into cooperatives created on the site of nationalized latifundia. The right of peasants to own land as part of cooperatives was emphasized. At the same time, the property of the latifundists in water resources was liquidated, all the country's water resources became the property of the Peruvian state.
Naturally, the policy pursued by the Alvarado government, which actually turned Peru into a state of socialist orientation, greatly worried the United States of America. The United States was terrified of the growth of Soviet influence in Latin America and did not want the emergence of another, besides Cuba, center of socialism in the New World. Moreover, the American oligarchy did not want to see Peru, large and rich in natural resources, as a socialist country. Therefore, the American leadership switched to its proven methods - preparing to overthrow the progressive government of Peru with the help of “popular protests” (in the 21st century this is called the “Orange Revolution” or “Maidan”). The US CIA collaborated with a number of senior officers and officials of Peru who came from strata of the oligarchy and latifundists and were dissatisfied with socialist transformations. On August 29, 1975, a military coup took place, as a result of which the Alvarado government was overthrown. The general himself retired and died two years later. Francisco Morales Bermudez, who took the helm of the Peruvian state, curtailed progressive reforms and returned the country to the path of capitalist development, that is, again under the de facto power of the American and pro-American oligarchy.
Alvarado's reign contributed to the flourishing of legally operating left and radical left political organizations. By the 1960s The Communist Party of Peru - Red Flag - was active in Peru. It was a radical breakaway from the Peruvian Communist Party, oriented towards Maoist ideas. At the end of the 1960s. Maoism became increasingly widespread among Peruvian students. It seemed to be a doctrine more suitable for peasant Peru than the Soviet interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, aimed at the industrial proletariat. Moreover, in Maoism the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial pathos and the desire for the liberation of the peoples of the “third world” were more clearly visible. Mao’s ideas echoed the concept of the Peruvian communist Jose Carlos Mariategui, who, as we wrote above, discussed in his works the need for a unique Latin American path for the development of the revolution, different from European scenarios.
The beginning of the Shining Path. Chairman Gonzalo
The University of Huamanga in Ayacucho was opened after a break of almost half a century. The spirit of freethinking reigned here, especially increasing during the reign of the leftist regime of Velasco Alvarado. University students were interested in Marxism and other modern left-wing radical theories. It was at the University of Huamanga that an organization called the Shining Path (Shining Path), or more precisely the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso, appeared. This name was taken from the slogan of the founder of the Peruvian Communist Party, José Carlos Mariategui - “Marxism-Leninism opens a shining path to revolution.” At the origins of the “Shining Path” stood a modest university teacher, who after some time was destined to become the permanent leader of one of the largest and most active armed Maoist organizations in Latin America and forever remain in the history of the Latin American revolutionary movement.
Manuel Ruben Abimael Guzman Reynoso, better known as “Chairman Gonzalo,” was born on December 3, 1934 in the port city of Mollendo, in the province of Islay. He was the illegitimate son of a wealthy businessman and from the age of 13 was raised in his father's family (his mother died when the boy was five years old). After completing secondary education at a private Catholic school, Guzman entered the National University of St. Augustine in Arequipa - the Faculty of Social Sciences. At the university, Guzman studied both philosophy and law, receiving a bachelor's degree in philosophy and jurisprudence and defending two works - “The Kantian Theory of Space” and “The Bourgeois Democratic State.” From his youth, Guzman was interested in the ideas of Marxism and gradually evolved towards Maoism. Here he was influenced by the books of José Carlos Mariategui and communication with the rector of the university, Efren Morote Besta. At the University of Huamanga in Ayacucho, Guzman taught philosophy and soon became the leader of the Maoist student group, on the basis of which the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path was created. In 1973-1975 The Shining Path brought student councils at the universities of Huancayo and La Cantuta under control and strengthened positions in the council National University San Marcos and the National University of Engineers in Lima. However, the removal of Alvarado's government, which dealt a serious blow to the positions of the Peruvian left, also contributed to the weakening of the Maoists' position in Peruvian universities. Therefore, Shining Path activists decided to gradually move their activities beyond university classrooms and move on to agitating the working population, primarily the Peruvian peasantry.
As the political regime of Peru “corrected” and the country’s government returned to pro-American policies, the dissatisfaction of the popular masses with the socio-economic conditions of life in the country grew. The Peruvian Maoists skillfully took advantage of this and undertook a “walk among the people.” From March 17, 1980, the Shining Path organized several underground meetings in Ayacucho, which became known as the Second Central Plenary Committee. At these meetings, a revolutionary directorate was formed as the political and military leadership of the party, after which groups of militants were created to be deployed into the countryside and launch a “people's war”. The first military school was founded, in which the militants of the Shining Path had to master the basics of military tactics, handling, and methods of guerrilla warfare. Also in 1980, the Shining Path took a final and uncompromising course towards carrying out a communist revolution in Peru and refused to participate in the elections. On May 17, 1980, on the eve of the presidential elections, Shining Path militants burned ballot boxes at a polling station in the town of Chuschi in Ayacucho. This seemingly harmless event became the first extremist action of the sendero luminoso, whose fame resounded throughout Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. This time the police managed to quickly arrest the arsonists, and the media paid virtually no attention to the minor incident. However, after the burning of the ballot boxes, other attacks by the radical Maoist organization began.
Guerilla in the Andes
During the 1980s. The Shining Path grew into one of the largest guerrilla organizations in Latin America, taking control of large areas, especially in the Andean region. Here in the Andes lived an undereducated and oppressed Indian peasant population. Since the central government was practically not involved in solving the daily problems of the Indian population, and some mountainous areas were not actually controlled by the authorities, the Maoists of the Shining Path quickly acquired the authority of the local population, acting as their organizers and intercessors. In Peruvian villages, peasants formed popular self-government, and the Maoists defended their interests, resorting to extremist methods - they killed farmers, traders, and managers. By the way, the latter were hated by the majority of peasants. It should be noted here that the indecisive policy of the Peruvian leadership also played a significant role in strengthening the position of the Shining Path in the Peruvian mountains. For a long time, the leaders of the Peruvian security forces underestimated the scale of the threat to political stability from the Maoist guerrillas, being confident that the senderistas could be easily suppressed using ordinary police measures.
Only on December 29, 1981, three Andean mountain regions - Ayacucho, Apurimac and Huancaveliki - were declared a state of emergency. Police and military units were deployed there. The servicemen acted in black masks and therefore felt unpunished. The local population was beaten and tortured, peasant houses were robbed by soldiers, which in total did not contribute to the growth of the government's popularity among the Andean Indians and played into the hands of the senderists. On the other hand, the government began a proven anti-guerrilla tactic - the formation of counter-guerrilla detachments from among the peasants themselves, who for some reason were dissatisfied with the activities of the Maoists, or who agreed to perform punitive functions for certain remuneration and privileges. This is how “rondas” appeared. Despite poor training and poor weapons, the Rondas inflicted significant losses on the Maoists. In particular, in January 1983, the Rondas killed 13 Shining Path militants, and in March 1983, they killed Olegario Kuritomey, the leader of the Shining Path group in the city of Lucanamarca. Olegario was stoned to death, stabbed, thrown alive into the fire and then shot. The Shining Path could not help but respond to the brutal murder of one of its leaders. Armed forces of the Shining Path broke into the cities of Lucanamarca, Atacara, Yanacolpa, Llacchua, Maylacruz and killed 69 people. At the same time, it was the peasants who became the main victims of the Maoists - after all, the peasant community was directly responsible for the murder of Kuritomei. In the province of La Mar, the Maoists killed 47 peasants, including 14 children aged between four and fifteen years. 
In the early 1980s. The Shining Path also switched to the tactics of urban guerrilla warfare, which included carrying out terrorist attacks and sabotage in cities, organizing the murders of government officials and political opponents. In 1983, Shining Path militants blew up power lines in Lima, cutting off power to the Peruvian capital, and burned the Bayer plant to the ground. That same year, a bomb exploded in the office of the ruling People's Action Party, and then power transmission towers were blown up again. Bombs exploded near the government palace and the palace of justice. July 16, 1992 The Shining Path detonated a bomb on Tarama Street. During the terrorist attack, 25 people died, 155 citizens were injured of varying degrees of severity. There were a number of murders of activists of political parties and trade unions, primarily representatives of Marxist parties and groups who disapproved of the policies of the Shining Path and its methods of resistance to power. On April 24, 1984, an assassination attempt was made on the President of the National Electoral Commission, Domingo García Rada, as a result of which he was seriously wounded and his driver was killed. In 1988, the Senderists killed the American Constantin Gregory from the Agency for International Development, in the same year - two French workers, in August 1991 - an Italian and two Polish priests of the Catholic Church in the department of Ancash. In February 1992, Maria Elena Moyano, a community leader in the slum area of the Peruvian capital Lima Villa el Salvador, became the victim of a political murder committed by the senderistas.
In 1991, the Shining Path controlled much of the countryside in southern and central Peru and enjoyed the sympathy of the population in the shantytowns around Lima. The organization's ideology during this period was Maoism adapted to local Peruvian realities. All socialist states that existed in the world were considered by the senderists as revisionist states that should be fought against. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism was proclaimed to be the only true ideology. As the power of the Senderista leader, Chairman Gonzalo (Abimael Guzmán), grew in power, the organization’s ideology received the official name “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonsalism.” Gradually, the Shining Path turned into a virtually sectarian organization, deprived of the support of the majority of the working population and breaking off relations with all other left-wing groups and organizations in Peru. The Shining Path managed to enter into an armed confrontation not only with the pro-government peasant formations "rondas", but also with the Revolutionary Movement of Tupac Amaru - the second most important left-wing organization of Guevarist orientation in the country (followers of Castro and Che Guevara).
The cruelty of the Senderistas undermined their popularity
The loss of popularity among the peasant population was also due to the excessive cruelty and sectarian habits of the Maoist guerrillas. Firstly, for the slightest offense, the Senderists were sentenced in “people’s courts” to stoning, burning, hanging, strangulation, and having their throats cut. At the same time, they demonstrated disrespect for the customs and morals of the Indian population. Secondly, the Maoists strictly regulated the private life of the peasant population, including moving to such unpopular campaigns among Indians as the fight against alcohol and the ban on parties and dancing. But even more important for the loss of popularity among the peasantry was the attempt to practically implement the Maoist thesis “the village surrounds the city.” As is known, Mao Zedong assumed that in the “Third World” the revolution would take the form of a peasant guerrilla war, which the “village” would wage against the “city” as the center of exploitation and capitalism. In an effort to organize a starvation blockade of cities, the Shining Path militants prohibited peasants from supplying food to the markets of Lima and other Peruvian cities. But for the peasant population, trading agricultural products in markets was the only means of earning money. Therefore, the Maoist bans turned into attacks on the material well-being of the peasant population, which prompted many peasants who had previously sympathized with the insurgency to turn away from it. Adult peasants practically did not join the combat units of the senderists, so the Maoist leadership recruited militants from among young men, or even even teenagers.
At the same time, the measures taken by the Peruvian government to combat the rebels looked excessively cruel and criminal in the eyes of the population. In 1991, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori legalized the activities of "rondas", called "self-defense committees", weapons and the opportunity to undergo training in Peruvian training camps ground forces. In the central region of Peru by the mid-2000s. About 4 thousand self-defense committees were deployed, and their total number in the country reached 7226. Military personnel, police and “rondas” destroyed entire villages suspected of supporting the Shining Path, not to mention the murders of individual peasants and members of their families. In La Cantuta and Barrios Altos, a unit of the National Intelligence Service carried out a real massacre of the peasant population, leading to numerous casualties. However, the brutal methods of government troops led to certain results.
Arrest of Chairman Gonzalo and decline of the organization
Peruvian intelligence services established surveillance of an apartment above a dance studio in Surguillo, one of the districts of the Peruvian capital Lima. The police leadership had information that these apartments were visited by a number of people suspected of involvement in the Shining Path military formations. The police diligently studied any information about the apartments and their guests, including analyzing the composition of the garbage thrown out of the apartment by the cleaning lady. Empty tubes of skin cream used to treat psoriasis were found among the trash. It is known that none other than “Chairman Gonzalo” himself suffered from this disease. The police established close surveillance of the apartments. On September 12, 1992, police special forces burst into the apartment - the GEIN special reconnaissance group, which managed to capture several Shining Path militants. Among those arrested was 58-year-old citizen Abimael Guzman Reynoso, the leader of the Shining Path, Chairman Gonzalo. In exchange for guarantees of life, Guzman appealed to his followers to stop armed resistance. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which the leader of the Peruvian guerrillas is serving at a naval base on the island of San Lorenzo near Lima. In 2007, 72-year-old Abimael Guzman, serving a life sentence, married his long-time military girlfriend and party comrade, 67-year-old Elena Iparraguirre.
Following the arrest and conviction of Chairman Gonzalo, Shining Path activities in Peru began to decline. The size and number of Maoist armed formations has decreased, and the scale of the territories they control in the mountainous regions of the country has shrunk. However, the Shining Path organization continues its armed struggle to this day. In 1992-1999 The Shining Path was led by commander Oscar Ramirez, who was later captured by government forces. In April 2000, Shining Path commanders José Arcela Chiroque, nicknamed "Ormeño", and Florentino Cerrón Cardozo, nicknamed "Cirillo" or "Dalton", were captured.
By the beginning of the 2000s. Shining Path consisted of three companies - Pangoa Company - "North", Pucuta Company - "Center" and Vizcatan Company - "South". According to the leadership of Peruvian law enforcement agencies, these units focused their attention not so much on revolutionary activities, but on controlling the production and export of the drug coca. Nevertheless, even in the 21st century in Peru, terrorist attacks occur every now and then, behind which the senderists are. On March 21, 2002, a car was bombed in front of the US Embassy in Lima. 9 people were killed, 30 were injured. The explosion was timed to coincide with the upcoming visit of George W. Bush to the country. On June 9, 2003, Shining Path militants attacked a camp of workers constructing a gas pipeline from Cusco to Lima. The Maoists took 68 employees of the Argentine company and three policemen guarding the camp hostage. Two days later, the Maoists released the hostages without receiving a ransom. At the end of 2003 alone, 96 terrorist attacks occurred in Peru, killing 89 people. The police managed to arrest 209 militants and leaders of Shining Path cells. 
In January 2004, the new leader of the Shining Path, Florindo Flores, nicknamed “Comrade Artemio” (pictured), appealed to the Peruvian leadership demanding the release of all imprisoned senior leaders of Sendero Luminoso within 60 days. Otherwise, the partisan commander threatened to resume terrorist attacks in the country. October 20, 2005 The Shining Path attacked a police patrol in Guanuco, killing eight police officers. In response, on February 19, 2006, the Peruvian police killed one of the most dangerous rebel leaders, Hector Aponte, who was responsible for the ambush on a police patrol.
In September 2008, Comrade Artemio recorded a message again, declaring that the Shining Path would continue to resist despite the Peruvian government's repression and police measures. In October 2008, there was a major clash between rebels and government forces in Vizcatan, followed by a battle between rebels and soldiers in Huancavelica, where 12 Peruvian army soldiers were killed. In 2007-2009 Senderist attacks continued on police and military patrols and military cargo convoys. As a result of rebel attacks, police and military personnel were regularly killed, and the rebels periodically killed local peasants - members of the self-defense committee and suspected of collaborating with the police and government forces. On June 14, 2007, two policemen and the prosecutor of Tokache were killed during a Maoist attack. In 2010, a sexist threw a bomb in Corvina, injuring a police officer. On February 12, 2012, Peruvian intelligence services managed to get on the trail and arrest Florindo Flores, “Comrade Artemio,” the leader of the Shining Path in last years. When the rebel leader was detained by government special forces in the province of Alto Huallaga, considered the center of cocaine production in Peru, Comrade Artemio offered armed resistance and lost his arm. After receiving assistance, he was taken to the prison hospital. Walter Diaz Vega, who replaced comrade Artemio as head of the organization, managed to remain the Maoist chairman for less than a month - at the beginning of March 2012, he was also arrested. In mid-June 2013, a Peruvian court found Florindo Flores guilty of terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, ordering him to pay $180 million in compensation to the Peruvian government and victims.
But even after the arrest of Flores and Diaz Vega, rebel groups continued armed resistance. August 2013 was particularly bad for the rebels. In a clash with government troops in the south of the country, rebel commanders Alejandro Borda Casafranca, nicknamed “Alipio,” and Marco Quispe Palomino, better known under the pseudonym “Gabriel,” were killed. The third person killed turned out to be the closest assistant of “Comrade Alipio.” In August 2014, Operation Esperanza 2014 by government forces was carried out in the department of Junin, during which nine people were released - hostages held captive by the Sendero Luminoso. There were three children among the hostages. The territory of maximum influence of the rebels is the province of Vizcatan, where the coca fields extend. From time to time, rebel bases in Vizcatan come under fire from government helicopters, but to this day the Peruvian government, despite all its efforts, has not been able to completely suppress the guerrilla movement in the country. Currently, the center of rebel activity remains the so-called “Sector V”, which operates a militant training camp and a logistics base. The ranks of the Shining Path are rapidly growing younger - the Maoists are recruiting children and teenagers from Indian peasant families to serve in combat units. There is an increasingly close connection between communist rebels and drug cartels operating in the mountainous regions of Peru. In fact, as in Colombia, after the weakening of their political influence over the peasant masses, the communist guerrillas found no other way out than to seek their livelihood in the drug business, carrying out tasks to protect coca plantations and ensure its transportation outside Peru. The drug trade provides significant funds for the rebels and allows them to supply armed guerrilla forces with weapons and ammunition. Food is taken from local peasants, whose self-defense units are not able to resist the well-armed fighters of the “Bright Path”.
According to official data, 69,280 people died during the Peruvian civil war, which peaked between 1980 and 2000. Shining Path militants were blamed for 54% of the deaths of Peruvian citizens. At the same time, one third of the announced figure died as a result of the actions of government troops, police and Rondas units. The remaining victims are distributed between small partisan groups of the left and right. The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was responsible for 1.5% of deaths, according to the investigation. However, it is premature to talk about the end of the Maoist “people's war” in Peru. It is known that the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path is part of the Maoist international "International Revolutionary Movement". The political practice of the Senderists influenced the formation of the ideology and practical actions of Maoist rebels fighting in other regions of the planet, including South and Southeast Asia.
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Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov was born in 1890, came from the Cossacks of the village of Ust-Belokalitvenskaya Region of the Don Army. The son of a veterinary assistant. He received his education at the Kamensky real school, and in 1909 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack school. He entered the Great War with the rank of centurion, as part of the 26th Don Cossack Regiment (4th Don Cossack Division). He stood out for his courage and fearlessness, was the best intelligence officer in the division, and was wounded three times in battle. In 1915 V.M. Chernetsov led the partisan detachment of the 4th Don Cossack Division. And this detachment covered itself and its young commander with unfading glory with a series of brilliant deeds. For military valor and military distinction, Chernetsov was promoted to podesaul and esaul, awarded many orders, received the St. George weapon, and was wounded three times. However, the main work of the life of “Ivan Tsarevich of the Don” was still ahead...
To resist the Bolsheviks who seized power, Don Ataman A.M. Kaledin, who did not recognize the power of the Soviets, counted on the Don Cossack divisions, from which it was planned to select a healthy core; before their arrival, the main burden of the struggle was to fall on improvised detachments, formed mainly from student youth. “Idealistically minded, active, studying youth - students, gymnasium students, cadets, realists, seminarians - left school and took up arms - often against the will of their parents and secretly from them - to save the dying Don, its freedom, its “liberty.” The most active organizer of the partisans was Captain V.M. Chernetsov. The detachment was formed on November 30, 1918. Quite soon, the partisan detachment of Yesaul V.M. Chernetsov received the nickname of the Don “ambulance carriage”: the Chernetsovites were transferred from front to front, traveling throughout the entire Don Army Region, invariably repelling the Bolshevik hordes rolling onto the Don. The detachment of V.M. Chernetsov was perhaps the only active force of Ataman A.M. Kaledin.
At the end of November, at a meeting of officers in Novocherkassk, the young captain addressed them with the following words:
“I’ll go fight the Bolsheviks, and if my ‘comrades’ kill me or hang me, I’ll know why; but why will they hang you up when they come?” But most of the listeners remained deaf to this call: of those present, about 800 officers signed up immediately... 27. V.M. Chernetsov was indignant: “I would bend all of you into a ram’s horn, and the first thing I would do is deprive you of your salary. Shame!” This passionate speech found a response - another 115 people signed up. However, the next day, only 30 people went to the front to the Likhaya station, the rest “scattered.” The small partisan detachment of V.M. Chernetsov consisted mainly of students of secondary educational institutions: cadets, high school students, realists and seminarians. On November 30, 1917, the Chernetsov detachment left Novocherkassk in a northerly direction.
For a month and a half, Chernetsov’s partisans have been operating in the Voronezh direction, while at the same time devoting forces to maintaining order within the Don region.
Even then, his partisans, who adored their commander, began to write poems and legends about him.
“At the Debaltsevo station, on the way to Makeevka, the locomotive and five cars of the Chernetsov detachment were detained by the Bolsheviks. Esaul Chernetsov, leaving the carriage, met face to face with a member of the military revolutionary committee. A soldier's overcoat, a lambskin cap, a rifle behind his back - bayonet down.
“Esaul Chernetsov?”
“Yes, and who are you?”
“I am a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I ask you not to point at me.”
"Soldier?"
"Yes".
“Hands at your sides! Be quiet when you talk to the captain!”
The member of the Military Revolutionary Committee stretched out his arms at his sides and looked at the captain in fear. His two companions - dejected gray figures - stretched back, away from the captain...
“Did you delay my train?”
"I…"
“So that in a quarter of an hour the train will move on!”
“I obey!”
Not a quarter of an hour later, but five minutes later, the train left the station.”
Speaking about the composition of V.M. Chernetsov’s detachment, a participant in those events noted: “... I will not be mistaken in identifying three common features in Chernetsov’s young comrades: an absolute absence of politics, a great thirst for achievement and a very developed consciousness that they, just yesterday, were sitting on the school bench , today stood up to defend their suddenly helpless older brothers, fathers and teachers. And how many tears, requests and threats the partisans had to overcome in their families before setting out on the path of heroism that attracted them under the windows of their home!”
And yet these were children and young men, students, the vast majority of them unfamiliar with military craft and not drawn into the difficult “camp” life. In practice, it was a sharp transition from the pages of Main-Read into real cold, dirt and under enemy bullets. In many ways, it was youthful enthusiasm and lack of understanding of danger that contributed to the recklessness of the Chernetsov partisans, although when the inevitable elements of “real” and “adult” military service sometimes led to comical stories.
One of the Chernetsov partisans, who was then 16 years old, recalls:
“...My group of 24 people was sent to the suburb of Novocherkassk - Khotunok. We were placed in barracks, from where Bolshevik-minded soldiers (272nd and 273rd reserve infantry regiments - A.M.) had been sent “home” the day before. The night turned out to be very dark, and there was no lighting in the barracks area. My friend and I were assigned as sentries to guard the sleep of our soldiers.
Around midnight, a suspicious noise attracted our attention. It then died down, then rang out again. We could hear the heavy breathing of the hidden enemy; his fuss was already very close to the barracks. Our nerves could not stand it, and for courage we shot. Our fighting friends jumped out of the barracks with rifles, ready to immediately take up defensive positions. "What's happened?" - they asked us. After our explanation, the search for the “enemy” began. And then the light of numerous flashlights illuminated a cow peacefully grazing not far from the barracks.”
The detachment had a variable, “floating” number and structure. On his last campaign from Novocherkassk, V.M. Chernetsov set out with “his” artillery: on January 12, 1918, from the Volunteer Army he was given an artillery platoon (two guns), a machine gun team and a reconnaissance team of the Junker battery, under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel D .T.Mionchinsky. On January 15, 1918, V.M. Chernetsov moved north. His detachment occupies Zverevo station, then Likhaya. According to received information, the Reds are capturing Zverevo, cutting off the detachment from Novocherkassk; fortunately, it was only a raid and the Reds did not linger there. Having transferred the defense of Zverevo to an officer company, V. M. Chernetsov concentrated his detachment for the defense of Likhaya, which was an important railway junction at the crossing of two lines: Millerovo - Novocherkassk and Tsaritsyn - Pervozvanovka. By this time, there were 3 hundred in the detachment of the 27-year-old captain: the first - under the command of Lieutenant Vasily Kurochkin, the second - captain Brylkin (was in the department, guarding the Zverevo - Novocherkassk line and the third - headquarters captain Inozemtsev. Capable only of advancing V.M. Chernetsov decides to capture the station and the village of Kamenskaya, which follows the route north from Likhaya. At the Severo-Donetsk junction, the Chernetsovites met with the enemy. The fighting still alternates with negotiations and the envoys from the red side propose to disperse. An unpleasant surprise here was that against the partisans along with The Cossacks also act as Red Guards, however, the villagers who formed the left flank of the enemy said that they would not shoot. Chernetsov, who personally arrived at the place of negotiations, ordered to open fire. There was no particular bitterness: when the partisans approached 800 steps, the Reds began to retreat, the Cossacks actually did not participate in the battle , and the 12th Don Cossack battery, although it fired at the partisans, but the shrapnel was specially placed at a high gap and caused practically no harm.
In the morning, the Chernetsovites occupied Kamenskaya, abandoned by the Reds, without a fight. The Cossack population greeted them very friendly, the youth enrolled in the detachment (the 4th hundred were formed from the students of the village of Kamenskaya), the officers who were in the village formed a squad, and a nutrition center was set up by a women's circle at the station.
Three hours later, the partisans rushed back with two guns: the officer company was knocked out from Likha, the path to Novocherkassk was cut off, the enemy was in the rear. Instead of going to Glubaya, we had to turn back again. The battle was successful: a carriage with shells and 12 machine guns were captured, the enemy lost more than a hundred people only killed. But the losses of the partisans were also great; Chernetsov’s “right hand”, Lieutenant Kurochkin, was wounded.
On January 20, from the village of Kamenskaya, where the partisans returned, the last campaign of Colonel Chernetsov began (for the capture of Likhaya he was promoted “through the rank” of Ataman A.M. Kaledin). According to the plan, V.M. Chernetsov with a hundred of his partisans, an officer platoon and one gun was supposed to bypass Glubokaya, and two hundred with the remaining gun of Staff Captain Shperling under the general command of Roman Lazarev were supposed to strike head-on. A simultaneous attack from the front and rear was planned, and the bypass column was supposed to dismantle the railway track, thus cutting off the escape route.
The young commander overestimated the strength of himself and his partisans: instead of reaching the attack site at noon, the partisans, lost in the steppe, reached the attack line only in the evening. The first experience of detachment from the railway was lumpy. However, Chernetsov, not accustomed to stopping, decided, without waiting for the morning, to attack immediately. “The partisans, as always, were on the rise,” recalled one of the Chernetsovites, “they reached a bayonet strike, broke into the station, but there were few of them - from the south, from the Kamenskaya side, no one supported them, the attack floundered; all three machine guns jammed, a reaction set in - the partisans became yesterday’s children.” The gun also failed. In the darkness, about 60 partisans out of one and a half hundred who attacked Glubokaya gathered around V.M. Chernetsov.
After spending the night on the outskirts of the village and fixing the gun, the Chernetsovites, hungry and almost out of ammunition, began to retreat to Kamenskaya. Here Vasily Mikhailovich made a fatal mistake: wanting to try out the corrected gun, he ordered several shots fired at the outskirts of Glubokaya, where the Red Guards were gathering. Lieutenant Colonel Mionchinsky, who commanded the artillerymen, warned that by doing so he would declassify the presence of the partisans and it would be difficult to escape from the Cossack cavalry. But... the shells landed well and, to the joyful cries of the partisans, the gun fired a dozen more shells, after which the detachment moved back.
After some time, the retreat route was cut off by a mass of cavalry. These were the Cossacks of the military foreman Golubov. Chernetsov decided to take the fight. Three dozen partisans with one gun took the fight against five hundred cavalry; the guns of the former Life Guards of the 6th Don Cossack Battery opened fire. The battery firing without officers showed excellent guards training.
In his last, dying call on January 28, 1918, Ataman A.M. Kaledin noted: “... our Cossack regiments located in the Donetsk district (10th, 27th, 44th Don Cossacks and L. Guards 6- I Don Cossack Battery - A.M.), rebelled and, in alliance with the Red Guard bands and soldiers who had invaded the Donetsk district, attacked the detachment of Colonel Chernetsov, directed against the Red Guards, and destroyed part of it, after which most of the regiments participating in this vile and vile deed - they scattered among the farmsteads, abandoning their artillery and plundering the regimental sums of money, horses and property.”
The Chernetsovites damaged the weapon, which had turned into a heavy burden, and threw it into a ravine; its commander, his riders and some of the troops who mounted on Chernetsov’s orders rode on horseback to Kamenskaya.
The partisans and artillery cadets gathered around Colonel V.M. Chernetsov repelled the attacks of the Cossack cavalry with volleys. “Colonel Chernetsov loudly congratulated everyone on their promotion to ensign. The answer was a few but loud “Hurray!” But the Cossacks, having recovered, not abandoning the thought of crushing us and dealing with the partisans for their impudence, launched a second attack. The same thing happened again. Colonel Chernetsov again congratulated us on our production, but as second lieutenants. “Hurray!” followed again.
The Cossacks went for the third time, apparently deciding to complete the attack, Colonel Chernetsov let the attackers come so close that it seemed that it was too late to shoot and that the moment had been lost, when at that moment a loud and clear “Fire!” was heard. A friendly volley rang out, then another, a third, and the Cossacks, unable to bear it, turned back in confusion, leaving behind the wounded and dead. Colonel Chernetsov congratulated everyone on their promotion to lieutenant, and “Hurray!” rang out again! and the partisans, to whom many of the stragglers had managed to approach, began to cross to the other side of the ravine to retreat further.”
And at that moment V.M. Chernetsov was wounded in the leg. Unable to save their beloved leader, the young partisans decided to die with him and lay down in a circle with a radius of 20-30 steps, with the wounded V.M. Chernetsov in the center. Then came a proposal... for a truce. The partisans laid down their arms, the leading Cossacks too, but the masses that surged behind them quickly turned the Chernetsovites from “brothers” into prisoners. Calls were heard: “Beat them, machine gun them all…” The partisans were stripped and driven in their underwear towards Glubokaya.
Former military foreman Nikolai Golubov, who aimed to become the Don atamans, the head of the revolutionary Cossack force, wanted to appear before the defeated enemy in the best light, “so that Chernetsov and we would see not unbridledness, but combat units. He turned back and loudly shouted: “Regiment commanders - come to me!” Two police officers, whipping the horses, and the partisans along the way, flew forward. Golubov strictly ordered them: “Go in a column of six. People should not dare leave the line. The commanders of hundreds should go to their places!”
News arrived that the Chernetsovites from Kamenskaya were continuing their offensive. Threatening all prisoners with death, Golubov forced Chernetsov to write an order to stop the offensive. And he turned his regiments towards the attackers, leaving a small convoy with the prisoners.
Taking advantage of the moment (the approach of three horsemen), Chernetsov hit the chairman of the Donrevkom Podtelkov in the chest and shouted: “Hurray! These are ours! With a shout of “Hurray! General Chernetsov! The partisans scattered, the confused convoy gave some the opportunity to escape.
The wounded Chernetsov rode off to his native village, where he was betrayed by one of his fellow villagers and captured the next day by Podtelkov.
“On the way, Podtelkov mocked Chernetsov - Chernetsov was silent. When Podtelkov hit him with a whip, Chernetsov grabbed a small Browning gun from the inner pocket of his sheepskin coat and pointedly... clicked at Podtelkov, there was no cartridge in the barrel of the pistol - Chernetsov forgot about it, without feeding the cartridge from the clip. Podtelkov grabbed his saber, slashed him in the face, and five minutes later the Cossacks rode on, leaving Chernetsov’s chopped-up corpse in the steppe.
Golubov allegedly, having learned about Chernetsov’s death, attacked Podtelkov with curses and even began to cry...”
And the remnants of the Chernetsov detachment left on February 9, 1918 with the Volunteer Army for the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign, joining the ranks of the Partisan Regiment.
To fan the flames of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines more widely, to destroy enemy communications, to blow up railway bridges, to disrupt the transfer of enemy troops, the supply of weapons and ammunition, to blow up and set fire to military warehouses, to attack enemy garrisons, to prevent the retreating enemy from burning our villages and cities, to help with all forces, all means of the advancing Red Army. (From the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. Stalin)
Brutal massacre of SS men in the village of Malinovka
For sixteen months our village of Malinovka, Chuguevsky district, Kharkov region, was under the heel of the German scoundrels. We experienced a lot of grief and horror during the occupation. The Nazis robbed the entire population and ruined our collective farm. All collective farm livestock and the entire harvest of 1942, as well as the remains of the harvest of 1941, were removed from Malinovka. Our public buildings - schools, dormitories, churches, many residential buildings - were turned into stables, destroyed and desecrated.
Our fellow villagers were subjected to bullying and terror. 14 Soviet Activists were captured by German gendarmes and taken first to Chuguev, and then to the Kharkov prison, where they were kept for two and a half months in inhumane conditions. During the period from November 15, 1941 to May 10, 1942, the Germans forcibly evacuated the entire male population from Malinovka beyond the Donets. Young people from 16 years of age were forcibly mobilized to work in Germany. Many young men and women escaped mobilization by hiding in other villages. A group of 50 young people hid for a long time in the village of Ivanovka, but in the end they were all caught and escorted to Malinovka, and from here to Germany. In total, more than 800 girls and boys were taken to Germany from Malinovka, numbering 1,800 households. Letters arriving from there testify to the terrible fate of our children in fascist captivity - they are beaten there, starved and exhausted by backbreaking work in enterprises and on the lands of German kulaks and landowners.
The German invaders mocked civilians. On May 1, 1942, they harnessed a group of Soviet citizens to a two-horse passage and forced them to drag a cart, heavily loaded with sand, like cattle. Citizen Tkachenkova was hanged in the village square only because she delivered food to her husband, who was kidnapped beyond the Donets. Here the sick Fyodor Protsenko was hanged on a pole, allegedly for possession of weapons. The corpses were not allowed to be removed for 5 days.
But Hitler’s scoundrels committed their most terrible crimes before retreating from Malinovka. We saw the SS men stocking up on hooks and hooks. Knowing that the Red Army was approaching, we guessed that these hooks were intended to catch people on the streets. And in fact, on the night of February 9-10, the Germans began going around houses and calling men from each house, supposedly for work. Many did not open the doors and did not answer the knock. Those who came out were finished off by German soldiers right there in the courtyard with shots to the head. This is how the citizens of our village who lived in the second, third, first and seventh hundred were shot: Chepel Ilya Anisimovich 60 years old, Zagrebelny Nikolai Petrovich 58 years old, Yudin Ivan Mikhailovich 35 years old, Perepilitsa Egor Romanovich 65 years old, Shuga Fedor Zakharovich 85 years old, Tishchenko Ivan 32 years old years old, Nazarko Vladimir Semenovich 24 years old, Novitsky Nikolay 24 years old, Kasyanov Grigory 55 years old, Kucherko 64 years old, Ishchenko Ivan Ivanovich 24 years old, Kucherko 65 years old, Starusev Victor 12 years old, Kusharev Kirill 45 years old, Slavgorod Ivan Dmitrievich 36 years old, Shevtsov Timofey 46 years old, Alexey Logvinovich Serdyukov 58 years old, Ivan Vasilievich Shcherbina 85 years old, Lithuanian Abram Romanovich 58 years old.
The corpse of the shot Shevtsov, lying on the road, was crushed by the Germans under the wheels of their cars. The SS men threw grenades into some houses where the owners did not open the doors. Citizen Poltavsky Alexey Semenovich refused to leave his house for a long time. The Germans brought the boy Viktor Starusev to the house and forced him to call Poltavsky. Poltavsky disappeared into the attic. Then grenades were thrown at his house. The Germans immediately shot the boy.
In addition, on the eve of the retreat, the Germans exterminated all Soviet prisoners of war held in the village of Malinovka - about 160 people. Red Army soldiers were shot in the premises of the former hospital and on the road to Chuguev.
These monstrous crimes are the work of soldiers and officers of the SS division “Adolf Hitler,” as we learned from the inscriptions on the sleeves of the fascist murderers.
We, residents of the village of Malinovka, call for merciless revenge. On behalf of the citizens of our village, we swear to take arms in our hands to beat the hated fascist invaders until they are completely defeated and destroyed.
Residents of the village Malinovka: Vasily Burikov, Ivan Goncharov, Fedor Bondar, Ivan Nedredo.
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("Red Star", USSR)
I. Ehrenburg: * ("Red Star", USSR)
IN THE DEMYANSK AREA. 1. Large cemetery of German soldiers and officers in the village of Cherny Ruchey. 2. Destroyed enemy equipment on Demyansk street.
Photo of Captain P. Bernstein. 
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Von Kessel was confused
Captain Eberhardt von Kessel from the 168th artillery regiment of the German army, an aristocrat and connoisseur of fine wines, in his spiritual world was not much different from a banal Fritz. The pages of his diary are devoted preferably to digestion:
7-9 . Liver, wonderfully cooked, and mulled wine. Have a nice evening.
30-9 . Soup, chicken, pudding, champagne, vodka. In the evening there are two bottles of cognac at the headquarters.
8-10 . Amazingly roasted hare, white wine, kummel. Three bottles of red wine, two bottles of sweet Italian. A real holiday.
11-11 . Everything was wonderful - soup, roast, vegetables, soufflé. Four bottles of wine.
18-11 . They ate everything. Broth, game, a wonderful sweet from whipped milk, all this in a fair amount. Coffee, lots of booze. What an evening!
3-12 . Lamb with Indian pepper and Burgundy wine.
17-12 . We ate well and drank a lot. The evening was very successful. I don’t remember what happened next.
31-12 . Mosel wine was mixed with rum and softened greatly.
So this German animal grazed in all the taverns of Europe. In December, Eberhardt von Kessel traveled to Belgium and Paris. In Antwerp he complains: “The girls just swindle you out of money, and you come home disappointed.” This brute obviously wanted to find Margarita's heart from the Antwerp prostitutes. However, he quickly consoled himself: there was still something to rob: “In Paris, I profitably exchanged my Kassenshein (bonds) for francs. I bought a nice brown suit of real English material and a suit for Liselotte. The suitcases are overfilled and impossible to lift.”
Of course, Eberhardt von Kessel, like every German cattle, is between two drinks. For example, he writes: “Paris is indeed indescribably beautiful, and I understand that the Fuhrer wants to rebuild Berlin.” The German idiot does not understand that Hitler is capable of polluting Paris, but not decorating Berlin.
Soon the brave German captain forgets about aesthetics: he is sent to Russia. He leaves France with heavy suitcases, a weary stomach and some melancholy. However, he continues to believe in Germany's victory. On December 22, he arrives in Frankfurt on the Oder and visits an acquaintance of the general there. Eberhardt von Kessel writes: “The general has not changed. Only he sharply criticizes our high command. I hope he's wrong." A slight bitterness crept into the captain's heart. On January 1, he sighs: “What will 1943 bring us? The end of the war is not in sight. If only we could hold the front during the winter and if in the spring we had enough strength to attack...”
On January 21, Eberhardt von Kessel took off from Berlin. On the 23rd he writes: “In Uman we saw a map showing the front line. This created an even more difficult mood. I met General von Gablenz. He is retired. He arrived here from Stalingrad. His answer is terrible: “There is hardly any hope...”. My dear Alfred! But we must not lose hope. Low clouds. We barely. We cannot find the southern airfield. We fly over the city twice, even though it is a restricted area. Finally landed at the northern airfield.”
So, until January 23, after Stalingrad, Kotelnikov, Kantemirovka, the captain had no idea about retreat. The map at headquarters told him something. The Krauts told him even more. On January 24, he wrote: “We are waiting in Lozovaya. They say that the next train will leave on the 25th at 16:00. Due to the transfer of troops, all movement has been suspended. Finally the train. At about 16:00 we arrive in Merefa. The train has been disbanded. I found a nice station master from Württemberg. He told me that the train would leave for Kharkov in the evening. There were a lot of soldiers. They are all from the Don and want to go to Kharkov. Their stories are not very pleasant: it reminds me of last winter. Who knows how many of them have their documents in order? We couldn't check anything in the dark. There was not a single officer with them. At 18 o'clock the train arrived for Kharkov. Unheated freight cars. We're going for a long time. There are many Italians in the carriage. They bear a large share of the blame for our failures. In Kharkov I went to the casino. Beer and vodka. Two officers are sitting at my table, they are telling terrible things about the retreat. There is also terrifying news from Stalingrad. It seems to me that the sixth army. Sadly. Poor Alfred!
On January 25, the captain was still philosophizing - this time he was not interested in the architecture of Paris, but in the fate of the German army: “Kharkov is a big, lively city. There are more cars here than in Berlin. The streets are dominated by soldiers. Here we could do without them. They are much more needed at the forefront. So many cars are also unnecessary here. Mess. With difficulty I achieved the direction:...”
This is where Eberhardt von Kessel's diary ends: instead of liver and mulled wine, he received a Russian bullet. I wouldn't talk about his diary if it didn't have the last page. We have long been disgusted with the psyche of the Krauts. Does it matter what costumes they steal and what whores they have fun with? But there is something new in the diary of the German captain: the air of defeat. Do you see the disgraced General von Gablenz telling the first officer he meets the bitter truth? Do you see German deserters filling Merefa station? Do you see German officers dug in in Kharkov for? Do you see the careless Juir Eberhardt von Kessel, who suddenly begins to understand that his almighty Fuhrer is a pathetic clown and that the old German general in Frankfurt on the Oder was right when he mocked the fitful corporal?
Leafing through Eberhardt von Kessel's diary, we see how confused the Germans were when the Red Army struck them at Stalingrad and the Middle Don. Hitler had to bring up fresh units that did not survive the defeat. The enemy is broken. The enemy is not broken. He has not yet given up his dream of victory. But the Red Army will force the “new” Germans from the reserve units to endure the disillusionment of Eberhardt von Kessel. // . KURSK.
RIBBENTROP IN ROME.
Combing Italian reserves. Rice. B.Efimova
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From the Soviet Information Bureau
*
West of Rostov-on-Don, fighters of the N-unit attacked the Germans, who had fortified themselves at one important height. As a result of hand-to-hand combat, our units captured this height and captured 3 guns, 4 machine guns, 146 rifles and machine guns. There were 180 enemy corpses left on the battlefield.
South-west of Voroshilovgrad, our reconnaissance detachment penetrated the enemy’s location at night and blew up 3 large ammunition depots. During this operation, 70 Nazis were killed. In another sector, soldiers of the N-unit repelled an enemy attack and destroyed up to a company of German infantry.
West of Kharkov, our troops continued their offensive. Units of the N-sky formation occupied several settlements and destroyed over 300 Nazis. 9 guns, 15 machine guns, and many shells and cartridges were captured. In another area, a group of Soviet machine gunners went behind enemy lines, fortified in a populated area, and suddenly attacked him. The Germans retreated, abandoning 4 guns, many rifles and an ammunition depot.
Our pilots shot down 7 German planes in air combat.
West of Kursk, our troops fought offensive battles. As a result of a stubborn battle, the soldiers of the N-unit knocked out and burned 10 German tanks, captured 3 guns and other trophies. Prisoners were taken. Our artillery fire destroyed 2 enemy mortar batteries.
In Kuban, our pilots shot down 11 German planes in air battles. All Soviet aircraft returned to their bases.
A group of partisans from a detachment operating in the Leningrad region raided a railway crossing at night. Soviet patriots killed the German guards, blew up the entrance switches and the railway track. Returning from a combat mission, the partisans blew up a railway bridge. Train traffic on this section has been stopped.
Lieutenant of the 10th Romanian Infantry Division Nicolae Stan was captured in Kuban. The prisoner said: “In recent days we have suffered huge losses from Russian aviation and artillery raids. When the Germans received the order to launch a counterattack, the German captain called me and ordered me to put my unit at his disposal. I objected, saying that I had orders to defend, not to attack. At this time, a German non-commissioned officer, frightened to death, came running and said: “The Russians are advancing.” This was a complete surprise to everyone. In an instant, not one of the Germans was gone, they all fled. Hostile relations between Romanians and Germans are growing every day. It often comes down to personal insults, which, "
Below is an act about the atrocities of the Nazi scoundrels in the village of Rogatoye, Kursk region: “The German invaders occupied our village in October 1941. From then on, it was as if we were in hard labor or in a prison dungeon. The Nazis forced peasants to work day and night and treated collective farmers like slaves. The damned invaders harnessed two or three people to carts and forced them to carry heavy loads. Those who were exhausted and fell from fatigue were flogged. Our ancestors did not experience such shame, such humiliation and bullying to which we were subjected, even during the times of serfdom. The fascist monsters beat many collective farm women half to death and robbed the residents of the village completely.” The act was signed by residents of the village Klavdiya Mozharova, Anastasia Kononova, Maria Kononova and others.
In the Barents Sea, our ships sank an enemy transport with a displacement of 8,000 tons and a patrol ship with a displacement of 800 tons.
On March 1, units of our aviation in various sectors of the front destroyed or damaged up to 100 vehicles with troops and cargo, suppressed the fire of 18 artillery batteries and blew up an enemy ammunition depot.
West of Rostov-on-Don, units of the N-formation continued offensive battles. Our soldiers, overcoming stubborn resistance and repelling enemy counterattacks, are fighting inside the German defense. 8 enemy tanks, 18 guns, 24 machine guns, 20 vehicles were destroyed and up to 600 Nazis were exterminated. 4 German planes shot down.
South-west of Voroshilovgrad, soldiers of the N-unit, repelling an enemy counterattack, knocked out 2 tanks and destroyed up to a company of German infantry. In the area of a large populated area, an enemy reconnaissance detachment consisting of two infantry platoons was completely destroyed.
West of Kharkov, our troops continued offensive battles. The enemy pulled up reserves and launched several unsuccessful counterattacks. The 167th German Infantry Division, which had just arrived from Holland, was established in this sector by force. The soldiers of the N-unit, having broken the resistance of the Nazis, moved forward and occupied a large settlement. In the battle for this settlement, the enemy lost up to 400 soldiers and officers killed and wounded. 3 German tanks, 7 guns and 6 vehicles were destroyed. In another section of the unit under the command of Comrade. Ulitin surrounded the settlement and, after five days of fighting, captured it. The enemy garrison was destroyed. Warehouses with ammunition, food and other trophies were captured.
West of Kursk, the fighters of the N-unit, as a result of a decisive attack, captured the enemy’s fortified positions. Our artillery fire destroyed a number of German bunkers and suppressed the fire of a mortar and two enemy artillery batteries.
In Kuban, our troops fought offensive battles and occupied several settlements. Units of the N unit in one of these settlements captured 5 guns, a clothing warehouse, an ammunition warehouse and many different infantry weapons.
A partisan detachment operating in one of the districts of the Minsk region, from February 1 to 20, destroyed over 100 Nazis and captured 6 machine guns, 44 rifles and 4 revolvers. During the same time, the partisans derailed 7 enemy military echelons. 52 carriages containing German soldiers and weapons were destroyed.
Minsk partisans from the Zheleznyak detachment recently suddenly attacked a large railway station. The battle for the station lasted several hours. Most of the German guards were destroyed, and the rest fled. Having captured the station, the partisans blew up the railway structures.
The captured chief corporal of the 1st company of the 28th regiment of the 8th German Jaeger Division, Leopold Bischof, said: “In 1942, I served in a security battalion in the city of Baranovichi. This battalion carried out external security duties in prisons, concentration camps and prisoner of war camps. In the spring, a transport of Polish hostages arrived at the Baranovichi prison. They all were. In early May, 70 priests, 18 women and 11 former officers of the Polish army were shot in just one day. The execution took place outside the prisoner of war camp.”
In three days of fierce battles in the Gornji Lapac area, Yugoslav partisans killed 470 Italians and destroyed a tank, 16 vehicles, 8 tons of gasoline and a convoy of the 152nd Italian regiment. The partisans captured 2 tanks, 3 guns, 5 mortars, 13 machine guns, 100 thousand cartridges, 6 radio stations and other military property. In the Prozor area, the partisans continue to pursue the defeated Italian units. // .
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("Red Star", USSR)**
("Red Star", USSR)
(Izvestia, USSR)
“THE DEATH OF CHERNETSOV (IN MEMORY OF THE WHITE PARTISANS)” (Memoirs of the Chernetsov partisan N.N. Turoverov) (CONTINUED) Only about four o’clock the detachment reached the dominant hill, three miles northeast of Glubokaya. Chernetsov climbed the hill; the car had to move forward on the railway. d. the path where the cadet sappers, having spoiled it, would have deprived the enemy echelons of the opportunity to retreat to the north, to the Tarasovka station; but, having barely moved before, our car finally refused to serve. Having unloaded my machine gun from it, I joined the detachment. Our gun was moving into position; Chernetsov quickly taught 25-30 new partisans how to use a rifle. In the beginning gray twilight, windmills, houses and gardens of Glubokaya were visible right in front of us, and behind them the smoke of steam locomotives at the station. To the right, below, the embankment was dark. d. the way to Tarasovka. There was a silence that only happens in winter twilight. Did our partisans advance at 12 noon from Kamenskaya to Glubokaya, as agreed, or, having taken their starting position, were they expecting our belated attack? Nobody knew this. Chernetsov ordered the chilled partisans to be given half a bottle of vodka for four, and they, scattering the chain, quickly began to descend to the windmills. The dray drivers were released and, lashing their horses with whips, rushed back to Kamenskaya. The gun was installed, Col. Mionchinsky commanded - fire! But before our first grenade had time to explode in the blue Glubokinsky cherries, four short flashes flashed from there, and shrapnel exploded low over our gun. Two artillery cadets fell. The enemy battery (it was the 6th Don Guards), although without officers, fired fluently and successfully. We did not count on such an enemy. I went up to Chernetsov and reported on the abandoned car, but had barely finished when I was hit on the head with a blow. I sat down. Blood flowed down my cheek and down the back of my head - my hat saved me: the shrapnel casually tore off only the skin on my head. Chernetsov leaned over me: “Are you wounded?” he asked, “...I hope it’s easy. Bandage yourself and try to walk to the road and ruin the path. What to do! The porridge here is brewing more abruptly than I thought...” There were red circles in my eyes, but, wrapping my head in a bandage, I, with a crowbar in my hand, accompanied by two sapper cadets, began to descend to the right to the canvas. Already from behind we heard Mionchinsky’s voice: “Our gun can’t fire - the firing pin is damaged...” - and in response - a strong word from Chernetsov. To the left, towards Glubokaya, machine-gun and rifle fire flared up, the lights at the station were burning and flashes of gun shots were still blazing - the 6th battery was now hitting our chain. We approached the embankment. There was no one on the canvas. But as soon as we managed to unscrew one nut at the junction of the rails, we saw a train coming towards us from the direction of Glubokaya. Throwing two or three sleepers lying nearby onto the rails, we lay down in the plowing about 50 fathoms from the track. The train, having stumbled upon the sleepers, stopped; There was swearing and random shooting in our direction from the carriages. It was getting completely dark. Having cleared the way, the train advanced half a mile and stopped again. From the noise and screams coming from there, it was clear that the Red Guards were unloading from the cars and scattering the chain to hit us in the rear. We hurried back to the hillock in order to inform Chernetsov about the enemy’s new movement, but, having walked a little, we came across a chain of Red Guards coming from the direction of Glubokaya, facing those who had just unloaded from the train. It was difficult to understand anything. In the darkness they took us for their own, we were not dissuaded and were only in a hurry to get out of this narrowing corridor of chains going towards each other. The partisans, as always, advanced, reached a bayonet strike, broke into the station, but there were few of them - from the south, from Kamenskaya, no one supported them, the attack was overwhelmed; all three machine guns jammed, a reaction set in - the partisans became yesterday's children. Some of them, led by Roman Lazarev, who led the attack, accelerated their way through Glubokaya towards Kamenskaya; the rest, one by one, were now returning to their starting point - our hillock. It was difficult to take into account our losses: instead of one and a half hundred bayonets, there were barely 60 hungry, cold and tired partisans with three inoperative machine guns and a damaged cannon. The supply of cartridges was small, there was almost no bread and canned food - everything was designed to occupy Glubokaya, whose secondary attack was out of the question. The night was cold and a northeast wind blew. The partisans were trembling, huddled together on an icy hillock. At ten o'clock Chernetsov ordered to rise - we shouldn't freeze here! He led us straight to Glubokaya, that is, to the enemy. He was confident in the careless security of the enemy and was not mistaken: the Red Guards all gathered at the station, and we settled down for the night in the last house of the village - the enemies spent the night two hundred fathoms from one another. In three rooms, having divided the last ten cans of canned food, sleeping partisans lay on the floor, under tables and benches; The artillery cadets were fiddling with the gun lock. At the only bed, the doctor and nurses were bandaging the lightly wounded; the seriously wounded did not return and remained on the battlefield. I had a headache and couldn’t get up. Chernetsov constantly walked around the sentries in the courtyard, encouraging people: he kept hoping that ours would go on the offensive from Kamenskaya. The dawn was cold, clear, and windy. We moved along the road to Kamenskaya. To the right, below, lay Glubokaya. The smoke of the locomotives rose pink above the station. My Colt rode with other machine guns on the cart, and I, two cadets and a doctor on horseback walked half a mile ahead of the detachment, like an advance guard. No one thought about any pursuit of us, much less a meeting with the enemy in the steppe: at that time the enemy was chained to the rails. Ahead lay the black icy road to Kamenskaya. The steppe was almost without snow - yesterday's fog had eaten it up - with whitish thin ice in the puddles. They walked slowly. In front on horseback are Chernetsov and Mionchinsky, behind them are a gun, horse-drawn cadets, machine guns on a cart, gigs with sisters and the wounded who could not walk, and behind, in threes, partisans. About 12 o'clock we had already passed half the road; in front of us lay a gentle rise, behind it there should be the Gusev farm. Suddenly, on the right, from behind three mounds, two shots popped, and bullets flew over our heads. My companions and I galloped toward the shots, trying to go deeper around the mounds from the rear. Behind them we saw two dismounted people, hurrying to mount their horses. We caught up with them, close, shooting from revolvers - one fell off his horse, the other ran away. The dead man turned out to be a Cossack: trousers with stripes, the number 44 on the shoulder straps of his overcoat, a large red forelock from under a bloody hat. One of the cadets galloped to Chernetsov with a report. We moved forward, but as soon as we climbed the pass, we stopped, amazed. On the opposite slope of the lowland, about two versts away, cutting off our road, a dark mass of cavalry stood facing us. A thin chain of mounted patrols was spread out in a semicircle, enveloping us. I touched my horse, went down to the lowland and, going up to the unknown cavalry, began to wave a white handkerchief. I already clearly saw that these were Cossacks. But they started shooting at me, first from rifles, then from a machine gun, and several horsemen galloped up, trying to cut me off from our detachment. I turned my horse. At this time, four gun shots were heard from the Cossacks and grenades ripped up the frozen ground in the place where I left Chernetsov and where our cannon, fixed during the night, now stood, and the partisans scattered the chain. To the left and ahead we could see the village of Gusev; we were separated from it by a thinly forested, steeply sloping gully. The battle has begun. Our cannon barely had time to fire once before it was hit: two grenades hit the gig at once, and I saw the sisters’ skirts flash in the smoke of the explosion. The battery (it was again the 6th Don Guards) fired directly, sparing no shells, and after ten minutes it was difficult to make out our pathetic chain in the black smoke of explosions. The Cossacks did not shoot, but shot us like targets in a shooting practice. A horse was killed under me, severely concussing my right leg, but I was lucky enough to jump onto the other, from under the cadet who had just been killed. The Cossacks, with thick lava - there were about 500 checkers - first at a trot, then at a gallop, attacked us. They were obviously sure that it was all over with us; but when from two hundred steps they were met by volleys of partisans under the ringing command of Chernetsov, they just as quickly galloped back and, passing forward their four machine guns on gigs, began to knock us out. Our chain rushed into the gulley, led by Chernetsov, who dismounted from his horse. The partisans fell in the killing fire of machine guns and guns. I urged my horse on, trying to get into the farmstead before the Cossack patrol galloped across me. The enemy was galloping after me, bending over his bow. Gusev was about two versts from us, the Cossacks were galloping to the right, shouting and shooting as they went. It was clear: they would not have time to intercept us. Our horses were in the soap, but walked with a strong and wide stroke. We flew into the farm. There was a crowd on its outskirts. But as soon as we approached it, holding back our heavily breathing horses, the crowd rushed towards us, surrounded us, grabbing our horses by the bridles. “Beat them! Get down on the ground! - screams rang out, and ten hands grabbed me. Some burly old man with a long iron rod shouted: “Stop, brothers, I’ll take him now!” He swung and hit me on the head, knocking off my hat. The doctor had already been pulled off the horse and, swinging by his arms and legs, was beaten on the ground. They shoved a stick between my leg and the saddle, the old man hit me on the head with the rod again and I fell, hiding my head in my bent arm. They beat me with sticks, whips, and those who had empty hands kicked me. The scene of lynching of a gypsy horse thief, seen in childhood, flashed in my head, and I desperately wanted one thing: to lose consciousness as soon as possible, to end soon! At this time, shouts were heard: “Stop! You couldn't finish it off! Give them here! We need to introduce Golubov, then we’ll settle things with them!” “It was the Cossacks who had galloped up, those who were chasing us, who were shouting. Reluctantly the crowd, already drunk with blood, flowed away from us. The doctor could barely stand; I was bleeding from my ears, nose, and mouth. There were nine Cossacks in pursuit. The one in front was large, long-haired and pockmarked, catching his breath after the gallop, ordered us to mount our horses and, swinging his whip, hit the doctor closest to him over the head.
The unfortunate doctor, gathering his last strength, fell onto the saddle under a hail of new blows. Mounted Cossacks surrounded us and, amid the hooting of the crowd, we, barely able to stay in the saddle, moved back to the gulley, where machine guns could still be heard. A pockmarked Cossack rode next to me, hitting the doctor with his whip. Like the others, he swore incessantly and threatened us with a drawn saber. The doctor and I got off our horses and began to undress; Hunters immediately found my trousers and boots, but the doctor’s cotton coat was thrown aside. They put us near a clay cliff and began to aim a machine gun. At that moment, from around a bend in the gulley, the heavy-set equestrian figure of Golubov, in a protective sheepskin coat and hare cape, appeared - it was all over, the remnants of our detachment surrendered... “Who ordered? What are you doing?" - Golubov shouted to the Cossacks when he saw us. “Join them with the rest of the prisoners!” Our end was again delayed. Chernetsov rode next to Golubov on a nag, putting aside his wounded leg. The wound was bandaged with an undershirt taken from the dead partisan. Behind them in a crowd, dragging their damaged machine guns, walked about thirty partisans - all that was left of the detachment. The partisans were bloodied from beatings; they walked in their underwear, only socks and barefoot. The doctor and I joined them. It is difficult to find out what guided military sergeant Golubov in his strange and dark role in those days on the Don. A student at Tomsk University, who did not hide his reactionary obscurantism, Golubov showed miracles of courage during the Great War and in the spring of 1917, in rebellious Tsaritsyn, he seriously considered himself the first candidate for the post of Don Ataman. Having later arrived in Novocherkassk as a prisoner of Ataman Kaledin, Golubov swore allegiance to him and was released. Now he rode like a winner, next to Chernetsov. His fleshy face with whitish eyebrows exuded triumph. We were driven to Glubokaya. The revolutionary Cossack force followed us without formation: units of the 27th and 44th regiments with the 6th Don Guards Battery. But Golubov, apparently, wanted Chernetsov and us to see not unbridled behavior, but combat units. He turned around and loudly shouted: “Regiment commanders - come to me!” Two police officers, whipping the horses, and the partisans along the way, flew forward. Golubov strictly ordered them: “Go in a column of six. People should not dare leave the line. The commanders of hundreds should go to their places!” We were being driven. If any of the wounded and beaten partisans lagged behind even a step, they beat him, urging him on with rifle butts and whips. We knew that we were being driven to Glubokaya to be handed over to the Red Guards. We knew what awaited us. Some of the youngest partisans, unable to bear it, fell to the ground and screamed hysterically, asking the Cossacks to kill them now. They were raised with blows and again driven, and beaten again. It was a terrible, bloody, crazy-eyed crowd of children in underpants, walking barefoot across the January steppe... At this time, from the side of the train, riding a magnificent red stallion, in black leather jacket , with binoculars on his chest - broad-shouldered, big-faced - Podtyolkov himself, the head of the revolutionary Cossack Committee, drove up to us. Ours continued to advance. Golubov, leaving about thirty people in the convoy, handed us over to Podtyolkov, and he himself, with all his Cossacks and battery, turned towards the ongoing offensive. Podtyolkov grabbed a saber and, twirling it over Chernetsov’s head, shouted: “I’ll whip all of you into cabbages if your puppies don’t stop the advance!” The Cossacks, having stopped beating us (apparently they had already become boring), began beating us again. They knocked out my tooth with a rifle butt. The echelon slowly, parallel to us, retreated to nearby Glubokaya, firing from its cannon. We approached the Glubochka River; its banks were steep and covered with ice. The convoy with Podtyolkov drove across the bridge; They drove us into the ford. The ice on the river was thin and broke under us. We crossed Glubochka in waist-deep water, but could not climb up its steep, icy shore. The convoy started shooting at us. He killed three, the rest somehow, tearing off their nails, climbed out onto the steep slope. As soon as Podtyolkov was about to appoint a guide, three horsemen appeared towards us from the direction of Glubokaya. These were, of course, Golubov’s Cossacks. None of us, I'm sure, paid any attention to them. At this moment, Chernetsov, without waiting for the Cossacks’ response, struck Podtyolkov with his fist in the face with lightning speed and shouted: “Hurray! These are ours! The bloodied partisans, who until that time had barely moved their legs, took up this cry with strength and faith, which can only be found in doomed suicide bombers who suddenly sensed freedom. It is difficult to give a correct description of this moment!... I saw how Podtyolkov, with his arms outstretched, fell from the saddle, how the convoy rushed galloping away from us in all directions, how some partisan, pulling a Cossack by the leg, jumped onto his horse and galloped off shouting: “Hurray! General Chernetsov! Chernetsov himself, turning sharply back, urged his nag forward. The partisans fled in all directions. I ran to the railroad bed, feeling neither pain in my wounds nor fatigue. I was filled with wild joy, the consciousness that I was alive, that I was free... On the other side of the canvas, above the soft outline of the hills stretching all the way to Kamenskaya, a yellow sunset barely smoldered. Dusk was deepening. I knew: behind the canvas, under the hills, there are farmsteads with dense cherry orchards, and through these gardens you can secretly make your way to Kamenskaya. Just to get behind the canvas! Suddenly, in the Red Guard train standing to my right, a “hurray” flashed, shots rang out, and the locomotive rushed the train towards Glubokaya. These were several of our partisans, having decided for some reason that the train was ours, jumped onto its platform, where the machine guns stood, and, seeing the mistake, rushed with their bare hands at the Red Guards. The next day, the corpses of partisans and Red Guards who had fallen in the struggle under the wheels of the train were found. We had already passed the battlefield, cut the road and walked straight across the steppe to Glubokaya, approaching the railway station. d. canvas. At this time, three Cossacks approached Golubov from the direction of the canvas and reported something to him. Having crossed Glubochka, I followed the levadas, cherries and thorns of the farmsteads to Kamenskaya. There was a whiff of smoke from the nearby kurens. Sometimes the dogs barked - then I stopped and waited for them to stop talking. The nervous high passed, I felt cold; I was shivering and desperately wanted to sleep. But I knew: if I give in and lie down, I won’t get up again. And, straining my last strength, I walked through familiar, but now so difficult to guess, terrain. Hallucinations began: chains were coming at me, Cossack lava was jumping, I heard the noise of footsteps and the snorting of horses. I stopped, raised my hands and surrendered... The enemy passed by like smoke, without touching me, and new crowds came to replace me... I felt that I was close to insanity, but I continued to walk mechanically: to live, to live no matter what it has become! On the bridge I was met by an officer's outpost of my native atamans. I was asked about Chernetsov. But what could I answer? Afterwards I lay in the Regional Hospital in Novocherkassk with my head bandaged. Quite unexpectedly for me, Ataman Kaledin entered the room and approached me. He was alone. He asked me which Turoverovs I was (red or black). In April 1918, when, having returned from the Steppe Campaign, we, the rebel Melekhovitsy and Razdortsy, tried three times to take the Paramonovsky mines and three times could not do this, when after each failure the women used their grips to drive the Cossacks out of the kurens back to the position, then delivering kaymak across the green mounds and dumplings to the dear warriors who lazily shot at the miners and slept in the April sun - during Holy Week I learned about Chernetsov’s death. I answered. I asked about the drama near Gluboka. I reported what I knew. Ataman was silent for a long time. He rose from his chair, crossed himself, kissed his forehead and walked away with a very tired gait. Chernetsov rode not to Kamenskaya, but to his native village of Kalitvenskaya, where he spent the night in his father’s house. One of the village residents immediately let Glubokaya know about this. At dawn, Podtyolkov and several Cossacks captured Chernetsov in Kalitvenskaya and took him to Glubokaya. On the way, Podtyolkov mocked Chernetsov - Chernetsov remained silent. When Podtyolkov hit him with a whip, Chernetsov grabbed a small Browning gun from the inner pocket of his sheepskin coat and pointedly. .. clicked on Podtyolkov: there was no cartridge in the barrel of the pistol - Chernetsov forgot about it, without feeding a cartridge from the clip. Podtelkov, snatching his saber, slashed him in the face, and five minutes later the Cossacks rode on, leaving Chernetsov’s chopped-up corpse in the steppe. Golubov, allegedly, having learned about the death of Chernetsov, attacked Podtyolkov with curses and even began to cry... This is what the Cossack told, and I listened and thought that the most sublime feat is crowned by death. But life seemed wonderful - I was eighteen years old.