Karpyuk Mikhail Gordeevich d Khmelevo where he is buried. Literary and historical notes of a young technician. March of the Drozdovites performed by Alexandra Bakhchevan

The person discussed in this article has gone through a very difficult path. He was destined to survive one of the most difficult and fatal periods for Russia. But, despite all the difficulties, he persevered, retained his views and honor. During the difficult times of the Civil War, this man managed not only to preserve the regiment entrusted to him, but also to maintain its combat effectiveness, discipline and lead soldiers from the front of the First World War to the front of the Civil War. His name is General Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky, a general devoted to duty and oath, a true knight of the Tsarist Army and the entire White Movement.

Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky was born on October 19, 1881 in Kyiv into a family of hereditary nobles. Mikhail Gordeevich’s father, Gordey Ivanovich Drozdovsky, took part in the defense of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, and in the 1890s he was the commander of the 168th Ostrog Infantry Reserve Regiment.

Mother - Nadezhda Nikolaevna. Little Mikhail lost his mother very early, and at the age of 12, his sister Yulia took upon herself all the responsibilities of raising him. She was his “second mother”; during the Russo-Japanese War she went to the front as a nurse, and during the Civil War, after the occupation of Chernigov by the Whites in October 1919, she was evacuated to the south; died in exile in Greece. According to his older sister, as a child Mikhail was distinguished by his independence, extraordinary curiosity, and impressionability.

In 1892, Mikhail Drozdovsky entered the Polotsk Cadet Corps, later transferred to the Vladimir Kiev Cadet Corps, which he graduated from in 1899. Teachers already in these years noted Mikhail’s courage and honesty. “He directly, without hesitation, confessed to his offenses, was never afraid of punishment and did not hide behind the backs of others. Therefore, despite his temper, ardor and sometimes harsh frankness, he enjoyed the respect and trust of his classmates. The love for military affairs disciplined the boy, who also excelled in his studies.” General Drozdovsky will undergo further training at the Pavlovsk Military School with the rank of cadet, and subsequently also graduate from the Nikolaev General Staff Academy in 1908. In 1901, Mikhail Gordeevich began his military service in the Volyn Regiment with the rank of second lieutenant (from 1904 - lieutenant). During the Russo-Japanese War he served in the 34th East Siberian Regiment as part of the 1st Siberian Corps of the 2nd Manchurian Army. He distinguished himself in battles with the Japanese from January 12 to 16, 1905 near the villages of Heigoutai and Bezymyannaya (Semapu), for which, by order of the troops of the 2nd Manchurian Army No. 87 and No. 91, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree with the inscription “For bravery.” . In a battle near the village of Semapu he was wounded in the thigh, but from March 18 he commanded a company. On October 30, 1905, for his participation in the war, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree with swords and bow, and later received the right to wear the medal “In memory of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905.”

In 1908, Drozdovsky graduated from the Academy of the General Staff and was promoted to the rank of staff captain. Mikhail Gordeevich successfully completed his military service; already in 1910 he was a captain, and in December 1911 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. Later, Mikhail Gordeevich will also receive the right to wear a light bronze medal “In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the House of Romanov.” Mikhail Gordeevich is one of the first Russian officers to take part in testing domestic aviation equipment. Made 12 flights each lasting at least 30 minutes; In total, he was in the air for 12 hours and 32 minutes. In addition, Drozdovsky participated in naval exercises, went to sea in a submarine and went underwater in a diving suit.

Mikhail Gordeevich met the First World War in the position of assistant to the head of the general department of the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front. He put into practice the experience gained during his stay at the flight school, while flying on an airplane and in a hot air balloon. In March 1915, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and in May of the same year he was appointed acting chief of staff of the 64th Infantry Division. The spring and summer of 1915 for the division were spent in battles and transitions. Drozdovsky more than once showed courage and bravery while under enemy fire on the front line. On July 1, 1915, for distinction in cases against the enemy, he was awarded the Order of the Holy Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir, 4th degree with swords and bow. From October 22 to November 10, 1915 - acting chief of staff of the 26th Army Corps. Since the summer of 1916 - Colonel of the General Staff. He spent 1916 on the Southwestern Front. I was especially remembered by my colleagues during the attack on Mount Kapul. In this battle, Mikhail Gordeevich again showed heroism, courage and perseverance, and the desire to fight to the end. When the attack of the Russian army fizzled out, the colonel moved his reserves forward and, being in front of the column, managed to bring the matter to victory, despite being wounded in his right hand. After this battle, Drozdovsky was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. In January 1917, he headed the headquarters of the 15th Infantry Division on the Romanian Front. His adjutant E. Messner described the colonel this way: demanding of himself, he was demanding of his subordinates, and of me, his closest assistant, in particular. Strict, uncommunicative, he did not inspire love for himself, but he did evoke respect: his entire stately figure, his thoroughbred, handsome face exuded nobility, directness and extraordinary willpower.

Despite the beginning of the disintegration of the army under the influence of revolutionary ideas, Colonel Drozdovsky managed to maintain the overall combat effectiveness and discipline of the units entrusted to him. The events of February 1917 deeply shocked the staunch monarchist Colonel Drozdovsky. Having applied the most drastic measures, including the execution of deserters and fugitives, Drozdovsky managed to partially restore discipline - here such traits of his character as determination and toughness, confidence in the correctness of the decisions made were fully revealed.

At the end of November - beginning of December 1917, against his will, he was appointed head of the 14th Infantry Division, but soon resigned his command, taking up the formation of volunteer anti-Soviet formations. After the Bolshevik coup, Mikhail Alekseev arrived on the Don and a connection was established between him and the Romanian Front. As a result, the idea arose on the Romanian front to create a Corps of Russian Volunteers for its subsequent dispatch to the Don. The organization of such a detachment and its further connection with the Volunteer Army became from that moment Drozdovsky’s main goal.

In March 1918, the Drozdovsky Volunteer Corps, consisting of a thousand people, most of whom were young officers, left the Romanian town of Iasi. The colonel’s 1,200-mile march from the Romanian Front to the theater of the Civil War in Novocherkassk is one of the brightest pages of the White Movement. This campaign is a vivid example of the determination of the Drozdov commander, sincere patriotism and devotion to his Fatherland, engulfed by Bolshevism. Drozdovsky maintained strict discipline in the detachment, suppressed requisitions and violence, and destroyed detachments of Bolsheviks and deserters encountered along the way. On May 4, the “Drozdovites” liberated Rostov, and by the evening of May 7, they occupied Novocherkassk. Thus ended the famous Yassy-Don campaign. The volunteer army received the necessary replenishment and another talented commander.

June 8, 1918 - after a vacation in Novocherkassk - a brigade of Russian volunteers consisting of already three thousand soldiers set out to join the Volunteer Army and arrived on June 9 in the village of Mechetinskaya, where they united with the main units of the Volunteer Army. The brigade (later the division) included all the units that came from the Romanian Front.
In the summer of 1918, the Second Kuban Campaign began. The headquarters set the same goal as in the First Kuban Campaign (Ice Campaign) - the capture of Yekaterinodar, strengthening the positions of the White Army in the Kuban. Drozdovsky's division also played a decisive role in the military campaign. With their overall success, the volunteers liberated Kuban, the North Caucasus, took Yekaterinodar in August, and Armavir in September. But it is worth saying that during the Armavir operation, Drozdovsky had a conflict with General Denikin. Drozdovsky's division was entrusted with a task that could not be accomplished by its forces alone and, in the opinion of its commander, the likelihood of failure of the entire operation due to the literal execution of the orders of the Volunteer Army headquarters, which overestimated the division's strength, was very high. On September 30, 1918, he actually ignored Denikin’s order. The commander sharply, moreover in the form of a public reprimand, expresses his dissatisfaction to Drozdovsky. In response, a few days later, on October 10, Drozdovsky sent his report to Denikin, which, at first glance, gave the impression of a bile-soaked rebuke to an undeserved insult. Mikhail Gordeevich had a tense relationship with the general, chief of staff I.P. Romanovsky.

General Denikin subsequently wrote that Drozdovsky’s report was written in such a tone that it demanded “new repression” against its author, which, in turn, according to the commander, would lead to Drozdovsky’s departure from the Volunteer Army. As a result, Denikin actually concedes to Drozdovsky, leaving the report without consequences: Denikin writes that “morally, his departure was unacceptable, being an injustice against a person with such truly great merits.” The commander-in-chief, in addition to the above, certainly realized that a repressive action against Drozdovsky could, as the division commander hinted at in his report, lead to at least a conflict with the 3rd division, and quite possibly even to its departure from the Volunteer Army .

In November 1918, Drozdovsky was promoted to major general. A talented military leader, commander of the Drozdovskaya division, was wounded in the foot during the battles for Stavropol in November 1918. Mikhail Gordeevich was transported to a hospital in Yekaterinodar, and then to Rostov. But the wound progressed: it festered and gangrene began. The general died on January 8, 1919. The general was buried in Yekaterinodar, later the ashes were transported to Sevastopol, and after the Great Patriotic War, traces of the grave were lost. A symbolic tombstone for the general was built at the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois in Paris.
General Drozdovsky...his name brought fear to the Red Army divisions. His services to the White Idea cannot be underestimated. A sincere patriot of his Fatherland, an officer devoted to the Sovereign-Emperor, he fought against the enemies of his country until his death. In the ranks of the White Army, he can be placed on a par with generals Kornilov, Denikin, Alekseev. Drozdovsky played a key role in the liberation of the South of Russia and left the theater of hostilities with dignity. After his death, General Denikin wrote: “... High selflessness, devotion to the idea, complete contempt for danger towards himself were combined in him with heartfelt concern for his subordinates, whose lives he always put above his own. Peace to your ashes, knight without fear or reproach.”

Yes, Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky can rightfully be called a crusader of the holy crucified Motherland, one of the last knights of the Russian Empire.

Anton Belov

Age restrictions 18+

On October 19 (October 7, old style), 1881, Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky was born - Russian military leader, Major General of the General Staff (1918). Participant in the Russo-Japanese, World War I and Civil Wars, one of the most prominent figures and leaders of the White movement in the South of Russia.

M.G. Drozdovsky became the first general in the history of the White movement who openly declared his allegiance to the monarchy at a time when the “democratic values” of February were still honored. General Drozdovsky is the only commander of the Russian Army who managed to form a volunteer detachment and lead it as an organized group from the front of the Great War to join the Don Army. Drozdovsky - organizer and leader of the 1200-verst march of a detachment of volunteers from Yassy to Novocherkassk in the spring of 1918. Commander of the 3rd Infantry Division in the Volunteer Army. Knight of the Order of St. George, 4th degree, Order of St. Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir, 4th degree with swords and bow, Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree with swords and bow, Order of St. Anne, 4th degree with the inscription “For bravery,” orders St. Stanislaus 3rd degree with swords and bow. Winner of the St. George's Arms, "Medal in memory of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905" with a bow, medal "In memory of the Patriotic War", light bronze medal "In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the House of Romanov".

Family, childhood

Mikhail Gordeevich came from hereditary nobles of the Poltava province. Father - Major General Gordey Ivanovich Drozdovsky (1835-1908) was a participant in the Defense of Sevastopol in 1855, in the 1890s he commanded the 168th Ostrog Infantry Reserve Regiment. Recipient of many orders and medals. Mother - Nadezhda Nikolaevna (1844-1893). Sisters - Julia (1866-1922); Ulyana (1869-1921), Evgenia (1873 - not earlier than 1916).

Mikhail Drozdovsky was born in Kyiv, two months later he was baptized in the Kiev-Pechora Spassky Church. At the age of 12 he was left without a mother and was raised by his older sister Yulia. Julia actually replaced Mikhail Gordeevich's mother. During the Russo-Japanese War, she was a sister of mercy, took part in campaigns, and was awarded a silver medal. After the occupation of Chernigov by the Whites in October 1919, Yulia was evacuated to the south, accompanied by a nurse of the Drozdovsky regiment, and died in exile in Greece. Mikhail Gordeevich's wife is Olga Vladimirovna, née Evdokimova (1883-?), daughter of a hereditary nobleman. She had been married to Drozdovsky since 1907, but her desire to become an actress, incompatible with her position as the wife of an officer in the Russian Imperial Army, led to conflict and then to divorce.

On October 31, 1892, Mikhail Drozdovsky was assigned to the Polotsk Cadet Corps, then transferred to the Vladimir Kiev Cadet Corps, which he graduated in 1899.

The teachers noted Mikhail's courage, his honesty and scrupulousness. “He directly, without hesitation, confessed to his offenses, was never afraid of punishment and did not hide behind the backs of others. Therefore, despite his temper, ardor and sometimes harsh frankness, he enjoyed the respect and trust of his classmates. The love for military affairs disciplined the boy, who also excelled in his studies.”

On August 31, 1899, Mikhail entered service as a cadet of private rank at the Pavlovsk Military School in St. Petersburg, famous for its particularly strict discipline and considered exemplary in the training of officers of the Russian Imperial Army. He graduated from college in 1901, in the first category of the first category; was the first of the cadets to graduate. Since 1901, Mikhail Gordeevich served in the Volyn Life Guards Regiment in Warsaw with the rank of second lieutenant. Since 1904 - lieutenant. In 1904 he entered the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, but without starting his studies, he went to the front of the Russo-Japanese War.

Participation in the Russo-Japanese War

In 1904-1905, Drozdovsky served in the 34th East Siberian Regiment as part of the 1st Siberian Corps of the 2nd Manchurian Army. He distinguished himself in battles with the Japanese from January 12 to 16, 1905 near the villages of Heigoutai and Bezymyannaya (Semapu), for which, by order of the troops of the 2nd Manchurian Army Nos. 87 and 91, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree with the inscription “For bravery.” . In a battle near the village of Semapu he was wounded in the thigh, but from March 18 he commanded a company. On October 30, 1905, for participation in the war, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd degree with swords and a bow, and on the basis of orders No. 41 and 139 by the Military Department he received the right to wear a light bronze medal with a bow “In memory of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905".

1905-1914

After graduating from the Academy on May 2, 1908, “for excellent achievements in science,” M.G. Drozdovsky was promoted to staff captain. For two years he passed the qualification command of a company in the Life Guards Volyn Regiment. Since 1910 - captain, chief officer for assignments at the headquarters of the Amur Military District in Harbin, since November 1911 - assistant to the senior adjutant of the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District. On December 6, 1911 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. Received the right to wear a light bronze medal “In memory of the 100th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812.” Later, Mikhail Gordeevich will also receive the right to wear a light bronze medal “In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the House of Romanov.”

With the outbreak of the 1st Balkan War in October 1912, Mikhail Gordeevich applied for a secondment to the war, but was refused. In 1913, he graduated from the Sevastopol Aviation School, where he studied aerial observation (he made 12 flights each lasting at least 30 minutes; in total he was in the air for 12 hours 32 minutes). The officer went to sea on a battleship for live firing, walked in a submarine and went underwater in a diving suit. Upon returning from aviation school, Drozdovsky again served at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District.

World War I

At the beginning of the First World War, Drozdovsky was appointed... d. assistant to the head of the general department of the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front. Since September 1914 - chief officer for assignments from the headquarters of the 27th Army Corps. He put into practice the experience gained during his stay at the flight school, while flying on an airplane and in a hot air balloon. Since March 22, 1915 - Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff, confirmed in his position. On May 16, 1915, he was appointed acting chief of staff of the 64th Infantry Division. Having headed the headquarters, Mikhail Gordeevich was constantly on the front line, under fire - the spring and summer of 1915 for the 64th division passed in endless battles and transitions. On July 1, 1915, for distinction in cases against the enemy, Drozdovsky was awarded the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, 4th degree with swords and bow. On November 2, 1915 he was awarded the Arms of St. George. From October 22 to November 10, 1915, he served as chief of staff of the 26th Army Corps on the Southwestern Front. On August 31, 1916, Lieutenant Colonel Drozdovsky personally led the attack on Mount Kapul. One of Mikhail Gordeevich’s colleagues recalled these events as follows:

“The attack had the character of a rapid, uncontrollable onslaught. But when the advanced chains, under the influence of deadly point-blank fire, lay choking in front of the wire, Lieutenant Colonel Drozdovsky, ordering a new reserve to be sent to the aid, raised the lying chains, and, shouting “Forward, brothers!”, with his head naked, rushed in front of the attackers.”

In the battle on Mount Kapul, Drozdovsky was wounded in the right hand. At the end of 1916, for the courage shown in this battle, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and promoted to colonel.

After spending several months in the hospital, Drozdovsky was appointed acting chief of staff of the 15th Infantry Division on the Romanian Front. As Mikhail Gordeevich’s closest assistant in his service at the headquarters of the 15th division, the later famous Kornilovite Colonel E. E. Messner, wrote:

“...not having fully recovered from his serious wound, he came to us and became the chief of staff of the 15th Infantry Division. It was not easy for me to serve as a senior adjutant under him: demanding of himself, he was demanding of his subordinates, and of me, his closest assistant, in particular. Strict, uncommunicative, he did not inspire love for himself, but he did evoke respect: his entire stately figure, his thoroughbred, handsome face exuded nobility, directness and extraordinary willpower.”

Mikhail Gordeevich showed this willpower, according to Colonel E. E. Messner, by transferring the division headquarters to him and taking command of the 60th Zamosc Infantry Regiment of the same division on April 6, 1917. General revolutionary instability did not prevent Drozdovsky from being an imperious regiment commander both in battle and in a positional situation.

Revolution of 1917

Soon events took place in Petrograd that turned the tide of the war: the February Revolution marked the beginning of the collapse of the army and the state, ultimately leading the country to the October events.

The abdication of Sovereign Nicholas II made a very difficult impression on Mikhail Gordeevich, a staunch monarchist. He opposed the interference of soldiers' committees in the operational orders of command staff. The reprisals of unruly soldiers against officers, which took place even on the most prosperous Romanian front, also made a depressing impression. At the end of April 1917, Mikhail Gordeevich wrote in his diary:

“My situation in the regiment is becoming very acute. You can live well only as long as you indulge everyone in everything, but I can’t. Of course, it would be easier to leave everything, simpler, but dishonest. Yesterday I spoke several bitter truths to one of the mouths, they were indignant and angry. They told me that they wanted to “tear me to shreds,” when it would be enough to cut me into two equal parts, after all, and perhaps I would have to experience unsweetened moments. All around you observe how the best element gives up in this useless struggle. The image of death is all deliverance, the desired exit.”

However, by using the most drastic measures, including the execution of deserters and fugitives, Drozdovsky managed to partially restore discipline in the regiment entrusted to him. Here such character traits of Mikhail Gordeevich as determination, toughness, and confidence in the correctness of the decisions made were fully revealed.

The regiment distinguished itself in heavy battles at the end of June - beginning of August 1917. For the battle on July 11, when Drozdovsky and his regiment participated in breaking through the German position, Mikhail Gordeevich was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree; for the battles of July 30 - August 4, he was nominated by the front command to be awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd degree (the proposal was not implemented due to the collapse of the front). Mikhail Gordeevich received the Order of St. George, 4th degree, only on November 20, 1917 - after the Bolshevik revolution.

After the October events in Petrograd - the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and their signing on behalf of Russia of the shameful and ruinous Brest Peace Treaty - the complete collapse of the Russian army began. Mikhail Gordeevich, seeing the impossibility of continuing to serve in such conditions, began to be inclined to continue the struggle in a different form.

Volunteering

At the end of November - beginning of December 1917, against his will, Colonel Drozdovsky was appointed head of the 14th Infantry Division. After the arrival of Infantry General M.V. Alekseev to the Don in November 1917 and the creation of the Alekseev organization (soon transformed into the Dobrarmia), communication was established between him and the headquarters of the Romanian Front. As a result, the idea arose on the Romanian front to create a Corps of Russian Volunteers for its subsequent dispatch to the Don. The organization of such a detachment and its further connection with the Volunteer Army became from that moment the main goal of Mikhail Gordeevich.

On March 11, 1918, the campaign of a detachment of volunteers began under the leadership of M.G. Drozdovsky on the Don. This campaign went down in the history of the White movement under the name “Drozdovskaya campaign.” It was also called the Romanian campaign or the “Yassy-Don campaign.”

It lasted 61 days and ended with the capture of Novocherkassk by the Drozdovites. While in Novocherkassk, Mikhail Gordeevich dealt with the issues of attracting reinforcements to the detachment, as well as the problem of its financial support. Drozdovsky sent people to different cities to organize the registration of volunteers: so he sent Lieutenant Colonel G. D. Leslie to Kyiv. The work of the Drozdov recruiting bureaus was organized so effectively that 80% of the replenishment of the entire Dobrarmia at first went through them. Eyewitnesses also point to certain costs of this method of recruitment: recruiters from several armies sometimes met in the same cities, incl. and independent agents of the Drozdovsky brigade, which led to unwanted competition. The results of Mikhail Gordeevich’s work in Novocherkassk and Rostov also include the organization of warehouses for the needs of the army in these cities. An infirmary was organized for the wounded Drozdovites in Novocherkassk, and in Rostov - with the support of Professor N.I. Napalkov - the White Cross Hospital, which remained the best hospital for the Whites until the end of the Civil War. Drozdovsky gave lectures and distributed appeals about the tasks of the White movement, and in Rostov, through his efforts, even the newspaper “Bulletin of the Volunteer Army” began to be published - the first White printed organ in the South of Russia.

Mikhail Gordeevich has already brought almost 3,000 well-uniformed and armed, battle-hardened fighters to the Don. And the entire Volunteer Army led by General Denikin, pretty battered in the battles of the 1st Kuban (Ice) Campaign, numbered in those days a little more than 6,000 bayonets and sabers.

Drozdovsky's brigade, in addition to small arms and 1,000,000 (!) cartridges, had three artillery batteries, several armored cars and airplanes, its own convoy of trucks and radiotelegraph units.

It is clear that Ataman Pyotr Krasnov, who headed the All-Great Don Army in the same May days of 1918, wished to see the Drozdovites under his command, inviting Mikhail Gordeevich and his people to become the “Don Foot Guard.” But for Drozdovsky, the political views of the ataman, who was trying to create an independent state on the Don and for this purpose did not disdain an alliance with the Germans, were unacceptable. Drozdovsky, a statist and monarchist by conviction, considered his brigade to be part of the Russian army, which continued to be at war with Germany. He did not want to participate in the dismantling of the country into destinies and therefore led his people to the area of the villages of Mechetinskaya and Yegorlykskaya, where the Volunteer Army, which had emerged from brutal battles, was gaining strength.

It is important to note that Drozdovsky, after his Detachment completed the Romanian campaign and arrived on the Don, was in a position where he could choose his own future path: join the Volunteer Army of Denikin and Romanovsky, accept the offer of the Don Ataman Krasnov, or become a completely independent and independent force . Mikhail Gordeevich later, directly during his conflict with the Chief of Staff of the Volunteer Army, General Romanovsky, directly wrote about this to the Commander-in-Chief General Denikin:

“By the time my detachment joined the Volunteer Army, its condition was infinitely difficult - this is well known to everyone. I brought with me about 2½ thousand people, perfectly armed and equipped... Taking into account not only the number, but also the technical equipment and supplies of the detachment, we can safely say that it was equal in strength to the army, and its spirit was very high and faith in success lived... I was not a subordinate executor of someone else’s will, the Volunteer Army owes such a major strengthening to me alone... From various people... I received offers not to join the army, which was considered dying, but to replace it. My agents in the south of Russia were so well established that if I had remained an independent commander, the Volunteer Army would not have received even a fifth of the personnel that later poured into the Don... But, considering it a crime to separate forces... I categorically refused to enter into any whatever the combination, which would not be headed by you... The joining of my detachment made it possible to launch an offensive that opened a victorious era for the army.”

Ruslan Gagkuev writes that Drozdovsky could successfully lay claim to an independent military-political role, given the size of the human and material resources available to his brigade immediately after the completion of the Yassy-Don Campaign, the effective work of his recruiting bureaus and the rapid growth in the size of his detachment.

On May 26 (June 8), 1918, the Detachment (Brigade of Russian Volunteers), consisting of about three thousand soldiers, set out to join the Volunteer Army. On May 27 (June 9), 1918, he arrived in the village of Mechetinskaya. After the ceremonial parade, which was attended by the leadership of the Volunteer Army (generals Alekseev, Denikin, headquarters and units of the Volunteer Army), by order No. 288, the Brigade of Russian Volunteers of the General Staff of Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky was included in the Volunteer Army. The leaders of the Dobrarmiya could hardly overestimate the significance of the addition of the Drozdovsky brigade - their army almost doubled in size, and it had not seen such a material part as the Drozdovites contributed to the army since its organization at the end of 1917.

The brigade (later the division) included all the units that came from the Romanian Front: the 2nd Officer Rifle Regiment, the 2nd Officer Cavalry Regiment, the 3rd Engineer Company, a light artillery battery, a platoon of howitzers consisting of 10 light and 2 heavy guns

When the Volunteer Army was reorganized in June 1918, Colonel Drozdovsky's detachment formed the 3rd Infantry Division and participated in all the battles of the Second Kuban Campaign, as a result of which Kuban and the entire North Caucasus were occupied by white troops. M. G. Drozdovsky became its chief, and one of the conditions for his Detachment to join the Army was the guarantee of his personal irremovability as commander of the Drozdov division.

However, by this time, Mikhail Gordeevich was already ready to fulfill an independent role - the six months that had passed since the collapse of the Romanian Front had taught him to rely only on himself, as well as on his own, proven and reliable personnel. Drozdovsky already had quite a solid, and more importantly, very successful experience in organizational and combat work. The colonel knew his worth and rated himself very highly. He enjoyed the full support of his subordinates, united by the monarchical spirit, for whom he became a legend during his lifetime. Therefore, Drozdovsky had his own personal view on many things and often questioned the appropriateness of some orders of the Dobrarmiya headquarters.

Drozdovsky's contemporaries and associates expressed the opinion that it made sense for the leadership of the Volunteer Army to use the organizational abilities of Mikhail Gordeevich and entrust him with organizing the rear, allowing him to organize supplies for the army, or appoint him Minister of War of the White South. He could be entrusted with organizing new regular divisions for the front. However, the leaders of the Volunteer Army, perhaps fearing competition from the young, energetic, intelligent colonel, preferred to assign him the modest role of division chief.

Conflict with the leadership of the Volunteer Army

In July-August 1918, Drozdovsky's 3rd Infantry Division took part in the battles that led to the capture of Yekaterinodar. In September, the Drozdovites took Armavir, but under the pressure of superior Red forces they were forced to leave it.

During this period, Drozdovsky’s tense relations with the headquarters of the Dobrarmiya entered the phase of conflict. During the Armavir operation, the 3rd Infantry Division was entrusted with a task that could not be accomplished by its forces alone. According to division commander Drozdovsky, it was necessary to postpone the operation for several days in order to strengthen the strike group using existing reserves. The colonel repeatedly brought his opinion to the attention of army headquarters, but did not receive a positive response from Denikin. Seeing the ineffectiveness of these reports, on September 17 (30), 1918, Drozdovsky actually ignored the order of the Commander-in-Chief to attack Armavir.

Denikin sharply, in the form of a public reprimand, expresses his dissatisfaction to Drozdovsky. In response, Mikhail Gordeevich sent his report to the commander, which, at first glance, gave the impression of a bile-soaked rebuke to an undeserved insult:

“...Despite the exceptional role that fate gave me to play in the revival of the Volunteer Army, and perhaps saving it from dying, despite my services to it, who came to you not as a modest petitioner for a place or protection, but who brought with him a faithful me a large fighting force, you did not hesitate to publicly reprimand me, without even investigating the reasons for the decision I made, you did not think about insulting a person who gave all his strength, all his energy and knowledge to the cause of saving the Motherland, and in particular, the army entrusted to you. I won’t have to blush for this reprimand, because the whole army knows what I did for its victory. For Colonel Drozdovsky there is a place of honor wherever they fight for the good of Russia.”

This fragment was preceded by Drozdovsky’s detailed analysis of the actions of his division during the Armavir operation and the Second Kuban campaign. Mikhail Gordeevich emphasized that he never complained to the command about the severity of the situation and did not take into account the superiority of the Red forces, however, “in the Armavir operation things were completely different...”. Drozdovsky draws Denikin's attention to the biased attitude of the headquarters, headed by Romanovsky, towards his division, and the unsatisfactory work of the medical and logistics services. In fact, Drozdovsky used his report to remind Denikin of his merits and substantiate his claim to independently solve combat missions.

General Denikin subsequently noted that Drozdovsky’s report was written in such a defiant tone that he demanded “new repression” against its author. “Repression” would only lead to the departure of Drozdovsky and his division from the Volunteer Army. As a result, Denikin actually concedes to Drozdovsky, leaving the report without consequences. According to Denikin, it was I.P. Romanovsky did everything in his power to “smooth out” the conflict between the ambitious colonel and the Commander-in-Chief. It was he who advised Denikin to “forgive” Drozdovsky for his scandalous report. The departure of an entire division at such a difficult moment for the Dobrarmia was completely unacceptable, and the public scandal that Drozdovsky sought could only lead to a decline in the authority of the commander and a split in the entire White movement in southern Russia.

Injury and death

In October 1918, Drozdovsky personally led a counterattack of the 3rd Infantry Division during heavy fighting near Stavropol. On October 31 (November 13) he was slightly wounded in the foot and sent to the hospital. In November 1918, Colonel Drozdovsky was promoted to major general. During treatment in Yekaterinodar, his wound festered and gangrene began. On December 26, 1918 (January 8, 1919), in a semi-conscious state, Drozdovsky was transferred to a clinic in the city of Rostov-on-Don, where he died.

After the death of Major General Drozdovsky A.I. Denikin issued an order informing the army about the death of Mikhail Gordeevich, ending with the following words:

“... High selflessness, devotion to the idea, complete contempt for danger in relation to himself were combined in him with heartfelt concern for his subordinates, whose lives he always put above his own. Peace to your ashes, knight without fear or reproach."

Initially, Drozdovsky was buried in Yekaterinodar in the Kuban Military Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky. After the Red troops attacked Kuban in 1920, the Drozdovites, knowing how the Reds treated the graves of white leaders, broke into the already abandoned city and took out the remains of General Drozdovsky and Colonel Tutsevich. The remains were transported to Sevastopol, where they were secretly reburied on the Malakhov Kurgan. For the purpose of secrecy, wooden crosses with the inscriptions “Colonel M.I. Gordeev” and “Captain Tutsevich” were placed on the graves. Only five Drozdov hikers knew the burial place. Drozdovsky's symbolic grave exists in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery near Paris, where a memorial sign has been erected.

After the death of General Drozdovsky, the 2nd Officer Regiment (one of the “colored regiments” of the Volunteer Army) was named after him, which was later deployed into the four-regiment Drozdovsky (General Drozdovsky Rifle) division, the Drozdovsky artillery brigade, the Drozdovsky engineering company and (operating separately from the division) 2nd Officer's Cavalry Regiment of General Drozdovsky.

Versions about the death of Drozdovsky

There are two versions of the general’s death as a result of a seemingly minor wound.

According to the first of them, Drozdovsky was deliberately brought to death. It is known that Mikhail Gordeevich, almost from the moment he joined the army in May 1918, had a conflict with the chief of staff of the army, General I.P. Romanovsky. The conflict, apparently, was based on personal hostility and ambition of both officers, which was superimposed on a number of external factors. An important factor was also Romanovsky’s fears regarding the spread of Drozdovsky’s influence over the entire army with all the ensuing consequences. The confrontation was fueled and inflamed by the entourage of both Drozdovsky and Romanovsky and soon developed into a personal conflict, when their reconciliation became extremely unlikely.

The version is that Romanovsky allegedly ordered the attending physician to treat the military leader incorrectly. The perpetrator of the crime was named Professor Plotkin, a Jew who treated Mikhail Gordeevich in Yekaterinodar. After Drozovsky’s death, no one asked Plotkin about the cause of infection or asked about his medical history. Soon after Drozdovsky's death, the doctor received a large sum of money and disappeared abroad, from where, according to some information, he returned to Russia under the Bolsheviks. This version is not confirmed by any of the published documents and can only be associated with the general hostility of many Volunteer Army officers towards General Romanovsky. I.P. Romanovsky, being the chief of staff and personal friend of A.I. Denikin, acted exclusively in the interests of the Commander-in-Chief. Perhaps the chief of staff was afraid of Drozdovsky’s growing influence in the army, feared that he would “eclipse” Denikin with his merits and authority, but the physical elimination of the talented military leader in the winter of 1918-1919 was neither in the interests of Denikin nor in the interests of the AFSR. Subsequently, Romanovsky was accused of his hypothetical connections with world Zionism, and the replacement of Drozdovsky by the alcoholic May-Maevsky, and the “malicious” influence on the actions of the Commander-in-Chief himself in the summer-autumn of 1919. It is possible that the popular version of the involvement of a general close to Denikin in the death of Drozdovsky became one of the reasons for his murder in Constantinople on April 5 (18), 1920.

And yet, the honors that were given by the command of the Volunteer Army to Mikhail Gordeevich shortly before his death suggest that its headquarters could have known in advance about Drozdovsky’s incurability. On the day of his angel, November 8 (21), Drozdovsky was promoted to major general; On November 25 (December 8), a special order was issued to install a commemorative medal for the Iasi-Don Campaign, perpetuating the memory of the transition. It was the serious condition of Mikhail Gordeevich that prompted the hiking officers to take this action.

The second version of Drozdovsky’s death looks more prosaic and closer to reality. In the winter of 1918-1919 in Ekaterinodar there were almost no antiseptics, not even iodine. The management of medical treatment in the hospitals of the white armies also left much to be desired.

Eyewitnesses of the events give conflicting opinions about what happened, so it is impossible to make an unambiguous conclusion about whether the death of Mikhail Gordeevich was the result of a conspiracy or an accident in the conditions of unsanitary conditions that reigned in the White South.

The army commander, General Denikin, who visited Drozdovsky in the hospital shortly before his death, sincerely grieved over his death: “I saw how he languished in his forced peace, how he devoted himself entirely to the interests of the army and his division and was eager for it... The struggle lasted for two months between life and death... Fate did not promise him to lead his regiments into battle again..."

And a prominent Drozdovite, General A.V. Turkul, later wrote: “Various rumors circulated about the death of General Drozdovsky. His wound was light and not dangerous. At first there were no signs of infection. The infection was discovered after a doctor in Yekaterinodar began treating Drozdovsky, who then went into hiding. But it is also true that at that time in Ekaterinodar, they say, there were almost no antiseptics, not even iodine...”

March of the Drozdovsky Regiment

From Romania by hike
The glorious Drozdovsky regiment was marching,
For the salvation of the people,
Fulfilling a difficult duty.

He has many sleepless nights
And endured hardships,
But hardened heroes
The long path was not scary!

General Drozdovsky boldly
He walked forward with his regiment.
Like a hero, he firmly believed
That he will save the Motherland!

He saw that Rus' was Holy
Dies under the yoke
And like a wax candle,
It fades away every day.

He believed: the time would come
And the people will come to their senses - They will throw off the barbaric burden
And he will follow us into battle.

The Drozdovites walked with a firm step,
The enemy fled under pressure.
And with the tricolor Russian Flag
The regiment has gained glory for itself!

Let us return gray
From bloody labor
Russia will rise above you,
The sun is new then!

In 1929, the song “Across the Valleys and Along the Hills” was written to the music of the “March of the Drozdovsky Regiment,” although there is reason to believe that there was no plagiarism in this case and both songs were written based on the melody of the ancient song of Far Eastern hunters “Across the Valleys, Along Zagorye."

Family, childhood

On October 31, 1892, Mikhail Drozdovsky was assigned to the Polotsk Cadet Corps, then transferred to the Vladimir Kiev Cadet Corps, which he graduated in 1899.

Participation in the Russo-Japanese War

1905-1914

World War I

Revolution of 1917

Volunteering

March of the Drozdovsky Regiment The glorious Drozdovsky regiment marched from Romania, for the salvation of the people, fulfilling a difficult duty. He endured many sleepless nights and endured hardships, but the hardened heroes were not afraid of the distant path! General Drozdovsky boldly walked forward with his regiment. As a hero, he firmly believed that he would save his homeland! He saw that Holy Rus' was dying under the yoke and, like a wax candle, fading away every day. He believed: the time would come And the people would come to their senses - Throw off the barbaric burden And follow us into battle. The Drozdovites walked with a firm step, The enemy fled under pressure. And with the tricolor Russian Flag the regiment gained Glory! May we return gray-haired from bloody labor, A new sun will rise above you, Russia then!

In 1929, the song “Across the Valleys and Along the Hills” was written to the music of the “March of the Drozdov Regiment,” although there is reason to believe that there was no plagiarism in this case and both songs were written based on the melody of the ancient song of Far Eastern hunters “Across the Valleys, Along Zagoriya".

Mikhail Gordeevich had already brought almost 3,000 well-uniformed and armed, battle-hardened fighters to the Don. And the entire Volunteer Army led by General Denikin, pretty battered in the battles of the 1st Kuban (Ice) Campaign, numbered in those days a little more than 6,000 bayonets and sabers.

Drozdovsky's brigade, in addition to small arms and 1,000,000 (!) cartridges, had three artillery batteries, several armored cars and airplanes, its own convoy of trucks and radiotelegraph units.

Conflict with the leadership of the Volunteer Army

Injury and death

After the death of Major General Drozdovsky A.I. Denikin issued an order informing the army about the death of Mikhail Gordeevich, ending with the following words:

Versions about the death of Drozdovsky

There are two versions of the general’s death as a result of a seemingly minor wound.

“Only courage and strong will accomplish great things. Only an unyielding decision brings success and victory. Let us continue, in the coming struggle, to boldly set high goals for ourselves and strive to achieve them with iron tenacity, preferring glorious death to shameful refusal to fight.”

“Russia has perished, the time of yoke has come. It is unknown for how long. This yoke is worse than the Tatar one.”

“As long as the commissars reign, there is no and cannot be Russia, and only when Bolshevism collapses can we start a new life, revive our fatherland. This is a symbol of our faith."

“Through the death of Bolshevism to the revival of Russia. This is our only path, and we will not turn away from it.”

“I'm all about the fight. And let the war be without end, but the war is until victory. And it seems to me that in the distance I see the faint flickering of the sun's rays. And now I’m doomed and doomed.”

M.G. Drozdovsky. Quotes

On January 1st (14th Art.), 1919, one of the founders of the White struggle, Major General Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky, died of wounds, who was one of the first to not only respond to the call of General Alekseev, but the only one of the commanders of all ranks and degrees of the Russian Army formed in Romania and brought to the Don a detachment almost equal in number to the Volunteer Army.

M.G. Drozdovsky, the son of a general, a participant in the Sevastopol defense, was born on October 7, 1881 in Kiev. After graduating from the Kiev Cadet Corps and the Pavlovsk Military School, M. G. was promoted to second lieutenant in 1901 and joined the Volyn Life Guards Regiment. In 1904, he entered the Academy of the General Staff, but upon the declaration of the Japanese War, he immediately left the Academy and was seconded to the 34th East Siberian Rifle Regiment, in whose ranks he spent the entire war, received several military awards and was wounded in the leg near Liaoyang . At the end of the war, M. G. returned to the Academy, from which he graduated in 1908. Having served the qualifications for commanding a company in his native regiment, M. G. occupied a number of staff positions, first at the district headquarters in Harbin, and then in Warsaw.

But his real nature could not come to terms with purely clerical staff work, with the inability to take initiative. In 1912, he tried to send him to the Balkan War, but his efforts remained fruitless; in 1913, he entered the Sevastopol Aviation School, where he studied observation from airplanes.

Captain Drozdovsky had to spend the beginning of the First World War at the headquarters of the North-Western Front, which was very painful for him. After much trouble, he manages to get into the headquarters of the 27th Army Corps and in the fall of 1915, with promotion to lieutenant colonel, M.G. is appointed chief of staff of the 64th Infantry Division. Finally, he was able to show his initiative on a larger scale. Unlike other chiefs of staff who tried to control from afar using a map, Colonel Drozdovsky spends whole days in position, organizes, controls and, when necessary, personally leads units into attack. So on September 5, 1916, he, at the head of the 254th Nikolaevsky Regiment, took the heavily fortified Mount Kapul, protecting the Kirlibab Pass, and was seriously wounded in the right hand.

In January 1917, having not fully recovered from his wounds, Lieutenant Colonel Drozdovsky returned to duty and was promoted to colonel and appointed chief of staff of the 15th Infantry Division. There he was caught by a revolution, which, according to Drozdovsky, led to the death of Russia.

“You relied on the army,” he wrote in the first “ecstatic days of the great and bloodless one,” “and not today, tomorrow it will begin to decay, poisoned by the poison of politics and anarchy...”

Colonel Drozdowski's long-awaited dream of receiving a regiment finally came true: on April 6, he was appointed commander of the 60th Zamosc Infantry Regiment. But, in revolutionary conditions, this command did not bring joy, did not provide a field for creative work. Drozdovsky's position in the regiment became very acute from the very first days of command - he did not give anyone any favors, told the soldiers bitter truths and expressed all his disdain for the notorious advice.

“It makes me sick to my stomach,” he wrote, observing, “how yesterday those who submitted the most loyal addresses are today groveling before the mob. There is no doubt that it would not be difficult to go with the flow and fish in the troubled waters of the revolution, but my back is not as flexible and I am not as cowardly as most of our people. Of course, it would be easier to leave everything and leave, easier, but dishonest. I have never retreated before danger, I have never bowed my head before it, and therefore I will remain at my post until the last hour.”

And Drozdovsky tried to the end to preserve the glorious name of the regiment and force his soldiers to fight. Even on July 11, his regiment took 10 guns from Mareshesti, but soon the demoralized, cowardly mass, uncontrollable, left the trenches at the slightest opportunity.

On August 1, with little pressure from the Germans, Colonel Drozdovsky saw the complete flight of his regiment. Then he decided to put an end to freedoms and ordered the fugitives to be beaten and shot. The most drastic measures were taken: officers watched the chains with revolvers in their hands, scouts and machine guns were placed behind them, and any attempt to escape was met with fire. Thanks to this, the position was held and the Germans, having met resistance, did not dare to launch a new attack. Then Drozdovsky organized a trial and reprisal and began to take the regiment into his hands. At this time, he received, according to a long-standing idea, the Order of St. George, 4th degree.

The Bolshevik revolution has arrived. In addition to his desire, Drozdovsky was appointed head of the 14th Infantry Division. But at the front, the collapse had reached its final limit and it became completely useless to fight it.

“Russia has perished, the time has come for a yoke, no one knows for how long - this yoke is worse than the Tatar one,” writes Colonel Drozdovsky, December 11, in his diary. He relinquishes his title as commander of the 14th Infantry Division and leaves for Iasi. Here he navigates political affairs, sees representatives of the Moscow Center and foreign military agents, with Colonel Trotsky, who arrived from General Alekseev. Drozdovsky knocks on the doors of the headquarters of the Romanian Front, persuading, persuading, begging to create volunteer units to fight the Bolsheviks, to help General Alekseev. But the front headquarters remains deaf to Drozdovsky’s alarm.

The fact is that the Commander-in-Chief of the Romanian Front, General Shcherbachev, under known pressure from the allied missions that had great influence in Romania, accepted the proposal of the Ukrainian Central Rada to form a special Ukrainian army from the troops of the Romanian and Southwestern Fronts to fight the Central Powers. The enterprise was clearly fantastic: the Rada did not have any means to force soldiers to fight, who did not want to fight at all for the alien idea of some kind of independent Ukraine.

But our allies were grasping at every straw - they needed to somehow stop the flow of German divisions, which, after the Bolshevik coup, rushed from the Russian Front to the Western Front. This, of course, was the main and only reason for their intervention in 1918. The direct or indirect influence of the world war runs like a red thread through the entire civil war. Intervention in it by both our allies and our enemies took place when it was dictated by the interests of the world war and its elimination. Apart from this, the intervention, from their point of view, did not justify the sacrifices inevitably associated with it. And as soon as the world war ended, the importance of Russia, for our allies and for our enemies, immediately dropped to almost zero. Romance in politics in the 20th century was undoubtedly an anachronism and it was not and is not necessary to base calculations on it.

Unfortunately, this romance, this notorious “loyalty to our allies” infected the top, and not only the top, of our army, including the headquarters of the Romanian Front. Colonel Drozdovsky, one of the few, looked at things soberly and realized that when it was profitable for them, our allies would sell and betray us. Your shirt is closer to your body - Russia comes first and on the path to its salvation it is necessary and must use both allies and enemies.

Having failed in his attempt to push the headquarters of the Romanian Front to form anti-Bolshevik units, Drozdovsky decides to take on this difficult task. On December 16, 1917, he begins the formation of his detachment in Iasi. Recruitment begins among officers passing from the front through Iasi; recruiters are sent to Chisinau, Odessa, Kyiv and other southern cities. Colonel Drozdovsky himself goes to Odessa and speaks there at a meeting of officers.

“First of all,” says Colonel Drozdovsky, “I love my Motherland and would like greatness for it. Her humiliation is humiliation for me too, I have no control over these feelings and as long as I have at least some dreams, I must try to do something; do not leave the one you love in a moment of misfortune, humiliation and despair. Another feeling guides me - this is the fight for culture, for our Russian culture.”

Of course, Colonel Drozdovsky is forming his detachment with the consent of the headquarters of the Romanian Front, but the latter pretends that he knows nothing about this and in any case does not provide assistance. Colonel Drozdovsky was unable to get any weapons, no bread, not a single can of canned food from the bursting warehouses of the Romanian Front; the front headquarters tried to maintain innocence before the Ukrainian Rada, which was very hostile to all non-Ukrainian formations.

The volunteers armed themselves and supplied themselves, stopping trains and small units that went without permission to the rear and taking away their weapons and food. At the same time, they acted decisively, boldly and suppressed any attempt at resistance. January 12, 1918 The Central Rada proclaims the independence of the People's Republic and enters into negotiations with the Central Powers to conclude peace. Left with nothing, the allied missions and General Shcherbachev sharply change their attitude towards volunteer formations - quartermaster warehouses are widely opened and sums of money are released.

On January 24, General Shcherbachev decides to expand the formation of Volunteer units begun by Drozdovsky. But, unfortunately, Lieutenant General Kelchevsky is appointed inspector of volunteer formations, and Colonel Drozdovsky, the initiator and creator of everything, is assigned the modest role of commander of the 1st brigade. The formation of the 2nd brigade begins in Chisinau, the 3rd is planned in Belgrade. General Kelchevsky and his chief of staff, Major General Alekseev, begin vigorous clerical activity, not taking into account the ever-changing political situation: staffing is being developed, all kinds of headquarters are being created and swelled. Replenishment of combat units is progressing poorly. In Romania, as well as on the Don, gentlemen officers avoid volunteering under various pretexts. Colonel Drozdovsky always insisted that General Shcherbachev give an order at the front, ordering all officers, with reliable soldiers, to report to Iasi to join volunteer units. The rank and file officers did not understand the political situation, were accustomed to obey and waited for orders. General Shcherbachev did not dare to give this order, although it should have been given in early November.

January 27, the Central Ukrainian Rada makes peace with the Germans and the latter begin to occupy Ukraine; Romanians occupy Bessarabia. Colonel Drozdovsky insists on the immediate withdrawal of volunteer units beyond the Dniester, but the headquarters of General Kelchevsky prevents this in every possible way. This continues until mid-February, when General Shcherbachev and Kelchevsky decide that given the current political situation, the further existence of the volunteer organization is pointless. An order is given to disband the brigades. General Belozor disbands the 2nd Chisinau Brigade, but Drozdovsky categorically refuses to carry out the order. He concentrates his units in Sokoli, the suburb of Iasi, and demands echelons to transport the brigade to Chisinau. The Romanians, supported by the Ukrainian ambassador Galib, have been trying by all means to delay the exit for a week. Now they have to play a German violin.

Twice they pull up their infantry units to Sokoly to disarm the brigade - and each time Colonel Drozdovsky turns his chains against them. The headquarters of General Kelchevsky also operates in tandem with the Romanians. His chief of staff, General Alekseev, conducts propaganda among the brigade officers, urging them not to listen to the “adventurer” Drozdovsky. The time will come and other pathetic people, without courage and daring, will call the great Russian patriot, founder of the Volunteer Army, General Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseev, behind whose senile back they saved their lives, an adventurer and a traitor.

Despite the threats of the Romanians and the persuasion of the front headquarters, Drozdovsky firmly decided to fight his way with arms in hand. He stated that if disarmament was attempted, he would open fire on Iasi and the Royal Palace with his guns. And if things did not come to an armed conflict, it was only because the Romanian authorities realized that in the person of Colonel Drozdovsky they had come across a truly decisive person, ready to go to the end. They gave the brigade shells, gasoline and provided trains.

On February 28th, Colonel Drozdovsky with a convoy and armored vehicles crossed the old Russian border to Ungheni. The 2-month DROZDOV campaign has begun. In Chisinau, Drozdovsky made a last attempt to entice the 2nd Brigade into the campaign, ready to submit to General Belozor, just to quickly help General Alekseev. But Belozor, fearing responsibility and risk, referred to the dissolution order, called the campaign against the Don a crazy adventure and kept the officers of his brigade.

In Dubossary, on the left bank of the Dniester, the organization of the detachment was finally established. Its composition: rifle regiment - 3 companies, cavalry division - 2 squadrons, light 4-gun battery, cavalry mountain - 4-gun battery, mortar platoon - 2 howitzers, 3 armored vehicles, technical unit and infirmary. In total - about 1,050 people.

On March 7, the detachment departs from Dubossary. There is only one goal - to unite with the Volunteer Army of General Alekseev, which, according to rumors, is somewhere on the Don. There is uncertainty and 1,000 miles of travel ahead. Drozdovsky is most worried about the Austro-Germans; their trains are already moving through Razdelnaya to Odessa and from Kyiv to Ekaterinoslav and Lozovaya. It was necessary to perform at least two weeks earlier.

“But the die is cast,” writes Colonel Drozdovsky.

“We have a long journey ahead of us, and on this journey we will temporarily avoid clashes with the Germans, conduct politics left and right, snap at some, fight with others, and through the streams of our own and others’ blood we will go fearlessly and stubbornly towards our cherished goal.”

The Razdelnaya-Odessa railway passed unhindered. With the Austrians, and then with the Germans, relations of armed neutrality and wariness, but not devoid of mutual respect, were established. The Austro-German officers understood and sympathized with the difficult situation in which the Russian officers found themselves fulfilling their duty to their Motherland. In all the clashes between the Volunteers and the Ukrainians, the Germans did not hesitate to express their contempt for their unwitting allies. In Melitopol, the chief of staff of the 15th German reserve division, in a private conversation with Colonel Drozdovsky, advised him to leave quickly, since the Ukrainian Rada insisted on the disarmament of his detachment. The volunteers appreciated the gentlemanly attitude of the Germans and their willingness to always help wounded volunteers.

The attitude of the population towards the detachment was, in most cases, favorable. The peasant masses, especially the farmers, groaned from the violence and robberies of gangs who called themselves either Bolsheviks or Petliurists. Therefore, the arrival of the detachment, which paid punctually for everything, was greeted with joy and relief. They asked to stay, restore order, and punish the perpetrators. Even the Jewish population of numerous towns, who were fundamentally unkind to the detachment, only because it was an officer detachment, spreading all sorts of absurdities about the volunteers and engaging in denunciations to the Austrians, began to see the detachment as their only protection and turn to it for help.

But there were villages that finally became Bolsheviks with their soviets and Red Guards. They tortured and killed officers who fell into their hands, and attacked farmsteads and other villages. So in the village of Dolgorukovo, near the town of New Bug, peasants killed a group of officers and soldiers of the 84th Shirvan Regiment, who were returning with the banner of the regiment to the Caucasus. In such cases, reprisals were always quick and cruel.

Thanks to Drozdovsky’s decisive actions, a formidable glory surrounded the detachment and instilled panic in the Red Guards. His forces were not otherwise counted as tens of thousands. Even the Germans were sure that there were at least 5,000 in the detachment with strong artillery.

The detachment quickly moved forward. The weather changed - early spring, then another shock or frost and, finally, a thaw. It was with difficulty that they pulled out the guns and carts from the black earth mud; they had to abandon the cars. People, exhausted, asked for rest, but Colonel Drozdovsky adamantly walked forward - he was in a hurry, before the Germans, to seize the crossing of the Dnieper.

Always ahead of the detachment, on a gray Rossinante, with an infantry rifle over his shoulders, in a wind-blown overcoat, rode Colonel Drozdovsky. Thin and nervous, he looked like a medieval monk leading the crusaders to liberate the Holy Sepulcher. Closed to himself, always alone with his thoughts and with the heavy responsibility that lay on his shoulders, he thought about everything, delved into everything.

Gradually, little by little, he pulled on the reins and forced the gentlemen officers to remember the discipline and officer relations they had forgotten. He stopped his self-will with harsh measures, forced, by the court of honor, to fight a duel for a slap in the face, and the culprit was killed and, by the court of honor, expelled from the detachment an officer who himself saved himself by not supporting his comrade lieutenant Prince Shakhovsky, who was killed in a neighboring village by committee members .

And all the way, the search for money, this main nerve of any business, money, which the headquarters of the Romanian Front allocated so little to; concerns about attracting volunteers, training and arming them; speeches in front of tens of hundreds of officers from all these Berdyansk, Mariupol, Taganrog, fervent appeals that were given only by dozens of volunteers. And endless negotiations with all kinds of public figures.

“Now in the very center of the struggle,” writes Colonel Drozdovsky, “I fully understood how insignificant, mediocre and powerless our public figures and politicians, our names and authorities are. They don’t understand anything, just as they didn’t understand until now, and they haven’t learned anything. You are negotiating with someone and you don’t understand who he is - a leader or an empty place. I am incredibly tired, exhausted from this eternal struggle with human stupidity and cowardice, but I repeat: as a sentry, I still will not leave my post.”

Outside Melitopol, information was confirmed that the entire Don was occupied by the Bolsheviks, that General Kornilov was killed and that the Volunteer Army was bleeding in continuous battles, somewhere in the Kuban. The goal of the campaign was lost, all the labors and hardships were in vain. There is something to be disheartened about. “And yet, go ahead,” Colonel Drozdovsky decides, “I will not leave my post.” His post was replaced only by death...

A difficult, unequal battle near Rostov, where more than 100 volunteers were knocked out of action and the chief of staff of the detachment, Colonel Mikhail Kuzmich Boynalovich, the only person, according to Drozdovsky, who could replace him, died a heroic death. But this battle played a big role - it pulled the main forces of the Reds away from Novocherkassk and gave the Don people the opportunity to occupy their capital. Retreat to Chaltyr and an immediate rush to help the besieged Novocherkassk and the ceremonial entry into the liberated city on April 25th.

On April 26th, Colonel Drozdovsky issued his historic order, in this order all of Drozdovsky, his entire creed.

ORDER

On April 26, parts of the Detachment entrusted to me entered the city of Novocherkassk, entered the city, which from the first days of the Detachment’s emergence was our cherished goal, the goal of all our hopes and aspirations, the promised land.

You have traveled more than 1,000 miles, valiant Volunteers; You endured many hardships and hardships, you met many dangers face to face, but true to your word and duty, true to discipline, resignedly, without idle talk, you stubbornly walked forward along the intended path, and complete success crowned your labors and your will; and now I urge you all to look back, remember everything that happened in Iasi and Chisinau, remember all the hesitations and doubts of the first days of the journey, predictions of various misfortunes, all the whisperings and intimidations of the cowardly people around us.

Let this serve as an example to us that only COURAGE and STRONG WILL accomplish great things and that only an unyielding decision brings success and victory. Let us continue to set boldly high goals for ourselves in the coming struggle, strive to achieve them with iron tenacity, preferring a glorious death to a shameful refusal to fight. We will provide another road to all those who are faint-hearted and who are saving their own skins.

Many, many more trials, hardships and struggles lie ahead of you, but in the consciousness of having already completed a great task, with great joy in my heart, I greet you, valiant Volunteers, with the end of your historic Campaign.

Colonel DROZDOVSKY

Immediately upon arrival in Novocherkassk, Drozdovsky reported to the commander of the Volunteer Army: “The detachment has arrived at your disposal. I'm awaiting orders."

The detachment stayed in Novocherkassk for exactly a month. As in distant Scinthea, the way of life of its units was adjusted to the norms of military schools. Classes were conducted daily and strict discipline was maintained. The commander of the Rifle Regiment, Colonel Zhebrak, was especially relentless in this regard. But for Colonel Drozdovsky himself there was no rest. His main concern was attracting the largest number of Volunteers - he gave lectures on the goals of the Volunteer Army, wrote numerous appeals, founded the first newspaper “Bulletin of the Volunteer Army” and established recruiting bureaus in the South of Russia so well that 4/5 of the replenishment of the Volunteer Army came through the first time his agents.

Although very skeptical of “public figures,” he still knew how to talk to them and squeeze out of them what he could for the common cause. With the help of his friend, Professor Napalkov, he organized the White Cross hospital in Rostov, which remained the best in the Army until the end. Now, upon arrival in Novocherkassk, he arranged for his Volunteers wounded near Rostov a wonderful infirmary in the Krasnokutskaya Grove and, as soon as time allowed, he visited the wounded, took an interest in the health of everyone and tried to do something pleasant for everyone. Not accepting alcoholic beverages, he still brought wine and cognac to the infirmary.

“He had no personal life,” General Denikin would later write about him, “he gave all his thoughts and concerns to his division, spoke about it, about his brainchild with youthful fervor and love.”

His Volunteers paid him in the same coin. COLONEL Drozdovsky managed to establish such excellent relations with the Donets that General Krasnov strongly suggested that he stay on the Don and form an independent army. But, having received General Denikin’s order to join, Colonel Drozdovsky immediately set out from Novocherkassk.

On May 26, on a bright sunny day in the village of Mechetinskaya, a meeting of the Volunteer Army with the detachment of Colonel Drozdovsky took place. The old leader, General Alekseev, baring his gray head, bowed deeply to the “knights of the spirit”: “We were alone,” he said, “but far in Romania the Russian heart of Colonel Drozdovsky beat, the hearts of those who came with him to our aid beat. You have poured new strength into us."

Drozdovsky brought with him about 3,000 people, well armed and equipped, with three batteries, 2 armored cars, airplanes, and a radiotelegraph; gave the army 1,000 rifles, 200,000 cartridges and 8,000 shells. The army has almost doubled in size.

Having settled in the village of Yegorlykskaya, the detachment was renamed the 3rd Division of the Volunteer Army, as part of a rifle regiment, called the 2nd Officer Rifle Regiment, the 2nd Cavalry Officer Regiment, light and howitzer batteries. The horse-mountain battery of captain Kolzakov was transferred to the 1st Cavalry Division and forever left the Drozdovsky units.

The addition of the detachment made it possible to launch an offensive, opening a victorious era for the Army. The offensive began on June 10.

Colonel Drozdovsky's 3rd Infantry Division always operated from Torgovaya to Yekaterinodar in the center, advancing head-on along the railway and therefore always suffered heavy losses, especially from red armored trains. This honor, to always attack head-on, was given to her by the command probably because, in comparison with other divisions, she had 2 more howitzers. At Belaya Glina, the 2nd officer regiment came across the entire 39th Red Division. In the night attack, the 2nd and 3rd battalions lost more than 400 people, of which 100 were killed. Many, like the commander Colonel Zhebrak himself, were brutally tortured. Having taken Belaya Glina and several thousand prisoners, Colonel Drozdovsky made his first experiment: from prisoners and mobilized he formed the 1st Soldiers' Regiment, later renamed Samursky. This regiment, starting from Tikhoretskaya, took a valiant part in all the battles of the Volunteer Army.

Back in Iasi, Colonel Drozdovsky asked General Shcherbachev to give the order to the officers to appear to form anti-Bolshevik units. He did not particularly believe in volunteerism, in the good will of people to die, even for an idea. Life showed that he was right. And while the Bolsheviks resorted to mobilization and switched to a regular army, the Command of the Volunteer Army found the experience of Colonel Drozdovsky not yet timely.

On July 1, the village of Tikhoretskaya fell. The 3rd division, again along the railway, moved to Yekaterinodar and on the 14th occupied the village of Dinskaya, but on the morning of the 15th, the Soviet commander-in-chief Sorokin captured the village of Korenovskaya in the rear. The 1st and 3rd divisions of the Volunteer Army were cut off and surrounded. There were stubborn, bloody battles for 10 days - the 3rd division lost 30 % of its composition. And only on July 25 did the denouement come: for 5 hours the 3rd Division fought a two-way hot battle, Drozdovsky personally led “soldier companies” into the attack. The Bolsheviks were completely defeated.

On August 2, Ekaterinodar was taken and the 3rd Division was stretched along the river. Kuban from the village of Pashkovskaya to the village of Grigopoliyskaya for 180 versts, on the 14th the Reds crossed the river in many places, but Drozdovsky repelled all attacks and at the village of Kavkazskaya, cutting off the Bolsheviks from the crossing, drowned them in the river. He managed to first transfer the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, and then the entire division to the left bank of the Kuban River and contact the 1st Cavalry Division.

In the Armavir area - st. Mikhailovskaya, bloody battles began. On September 6, Colonel Drozdovsky captured the city of Armavir, but on the 13th he was forced to leave it; he counterattacked on the 14th, but suffered heavy losses and was unsuccessful. Transferred to the area of the village of Mikhailovskaya, he, together with the 1st Cavalry Division of General Wrangel, waged stubborn battles with the Reds from September 17 to October 1.

In a month and a half since August 15, the 3rd Division lost 1,800 people killed and wounded - 75 % of its original composition. The division, transferred to the right bank of the Kuban, together with the plastuns assigned to it, occupied the front from Armavir to the station on October 2. Temnolesskaya. Here the Nevinomyssk group of Reds fell on her, stretched out in a chain, and went on the offensive to the north. This was the beginning of the 28-day decisive battle for the Army near Stavropol. Drozdovsky had to do everything he could to delay the Bolsheviks until the 2nd Infantry Division and the 2nd Kuban arrived.

On October 14, despite the approach of the Kornilovsky regiment, it was necessary to surrender Stavropol and retreat to Pelagiada. On the 23rd, General Borovsky's group (2nd and 3rd infantry divisions) went on the offensive. With a swift attack, the 2nd Officer Regiment occupied the monastery of St. John and the outskirts of the city. The volunteer ring was shrinking on all sides around Stavropol and the Red command decided to break the blockade.

On October 29, the forces of the Taman Bolshevik Army attacked the 3rd Division, which suffered huge losses and captured the monastery. Here the valiant Commander of the Samur Regiment, Colonel Chabert, was seriously wounded.

On the 31st, at dawn, in thick fog, the Reds repeated the attack, going on the offensive with all their might against the group of General Borovsky. This time, the completely confused regiments of the 2nd and 3rd divisions could not stand it and retreated to Pelagiada. In the very chains of the 2nd Officer Regiment, Colonel Drozdovsky was wounded in the foot and was with difficulty carried from the battlefield. The commander of the Kornilov Shock Regiment, Colonel Indeikin, was also killed. There are -150 people left in the 2nd Officer Regiment. People died, but the tradition remained, the idea of struggle remained, which was passed on to the new arrivals, and after a month and a half in the Donetsk basin, Drozdovsky’s regiments would again stand unshakably in battle.

But Colonel Drozdovsky himself, transported to Yekaterinodar, will fight death for two months. It seemed like a slight bullet wound, which for some reason required 8 operations. I can’t help but remember that in his report to General Denikin on September 27, Drozdovsky drew his attention to the terrible state of the sanitary unit, the lack of care, the negligence of doctors, bad food, dirt and disorder in hospitals; a large number of amputations after minor injuries are the result of blood poisoning.

And General Denikin himself in “Essays on the Russian Troubles” complains that D-A. I couldn't handle my rear. Is it because it was not possible to find a real organizer of the rear, or because the staggering poverty of the army treasury and general moral depravity posed insurmountable difficulties.

And the real organizer was at hand - Colonel Drozdovsky. He should have been given not the modest role of division chief, but appointed Minister of War of the Volunteer Army, dictator of its rear. His superhuman energy, his organizational and administrative talents, which he showed in Iasi and on the campaign and in Novocherkassk, testify to this. Colonel Drozdovsky would organize supplies for the army and its very primitive medical and sanitary unit.

With a firm and cruel hand, he would decisively suppress any arbitrariness, any disorder in the rear. And most importantly, he would be able to organize new divisions on a regular basis, carrying out a wholesale mobilization, first of all, of the officers themselves. With the occupation of Yekaterinodar, the rear of the Volunteer Army began to swell incredibly quickly, but not its combat units. 2/3 of the officers preferred only to be listed in the D.A., and not to fight with arms in hand for the honor and salvation of the Motherland. And the command of D.A. unwittingly contributed to this, allowing the creation of all kinds of regimental cells, security companies, reserve armored divisions, automobile and artillery schools, in which there were several hundred people. One such school was enough to provide personnel for an entire division.

On November 8, 1918, Colonel Drozdovsky was promoted to major general under the Statute of the Order of St. George the Victorious.

On November 25, General Denikin, by order No. 191, ordered to perpetuate the memory of Colonel Drozdovsky’s Yassy-Don Campaign by establishing a special medal to award the participants of the campaign.

Volunteer Army soldiers near the General Drozdovsky tank

In the month of December, the position of the gene. Drozdovsky's condition worsened sharply; he had to have his foot amputated, although he was always against such an operation. On December 26, he was transported to Rostov, to the clinic of his friend Professor Napalkov, where he should have been sent immediately after being wounded. The professor performed another operation on him, but it was too late.

On January 1, 1919, General Mikhail Gordeevich DROZDOVSKY died. He died on the Don land, which was the goal of his Campaign. And together with the Officer Company of his 2nd Officer Rifle Regiment, which arrived from Nikitovka, the Cossack Regiment gave the last military honor to him and the Life Guards. General Drozdovsky, who was barely 37 years old, was buried in Yekaterinodar.

On the occasion of Drozdovsky’s death, Commander-in-Chief General Denikin issued an order that listed all the stages of his glorious military activity and ended with the words: “Peace be to Thy ashes, knight without fear or reproach.”

In memory of the deceased, General Denikin ordered the 2nd Officer Rifle Regiment to henceforth be called the “2nd Officer Rifle Regiment of General DROZDOVSKY.” Subsequently, in the fall of 1919, the entire 3rd Infantry Division received the name DROZDOVSKAYA.

In February 1920, leaving Kuban, the Drozdovites took from Yekaterinodar the coffins of General Drozdovsky and the commander of his battery, Captain Tutsevich. Upon arrival in Sevastopol, at dawn, they were secretly buried in the Malakhov Kurgan cemetery, under fictitious names. General Turkul, a resident of Drozdovsky, who was sent to Sevastopol during the German occupation, did not even find traces of the cemetery itself. (Through the efforts of the heirs of the Red Satanists, Sevastopol still does not even have a memorial plaque to General Drozdovsky; the city administration is doing its best to prevent the installation.)

But the memory of General Drozdovsky continues to live in the hearts of his last surviving Drozdovites and his glorious name entered the legend of History. On the 50th anniversary of the death of our beloved Chief, let us bow down and prayerfully remember his blessed memory and all his Drozdovites who fell in countless battles.

“Sentry” No. 2 (512) / 1969

Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky (October 7 (October 19) 1881, Kyiv - January 14, 1919, Rostov-on-Don) - Russian military leader, Major General of the General Staff (1918). Participant in the Russian-Japanese, World War I and Civil Wars.
The only commander of the Russian Army who managed to form a volunteer detachment and lead it as an organized group from the front of the First World War to join the Volunteer Army - the organizer and leader of the 1200-mile transition of a volunteer detachment from Yassy to Novocherkassk in March - May (new century) 1918 of the year. Commander of the 3rd Infantry Division in the Volunteer Army.
During childhood. Kyiv. 80s of the XIX century

M.G. Drozdovsky. Warsaw, 1903.

During the First World War

Photos from different years

In June 1918 - after a vacation in Novocherkassk - a detachment (Brigade of Russian Volunteers) consisting of about three thousand soldiers set out to join the Volunteer Army and arrived on June 9 in the village of Mechetinskaya, where, after a solemn parade, which was attended by the leadership of the Volunteer Army - generals Alekseev, Denikin, headquarters and units of the Volunteer Army, by order No. 288 of May 25, 1918 of the Commander-in-Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin, the Brigade of Russian Volunteers, Colonel M.G. Drozdovsky, was included in the Volunteer Army. The leaders of the Dobrarmiya could hardly overestimate the significance of the addition of the Drozdovsky brigade - their army almost doubled in size, and it had not seen such a material part as the Drozdovites contributed to the army since its organization at the end of 1917.
In November, Drozdovsky led his division during stubborn battles near Stavropol, where, having led a counterattack of division units, he was wounded in the foot on November 13, 1918 and sent to a hospital in Yekaterinodar. There his wound festered and gangrene began. In November 1918 he was promoted to major general. On January 8, 1919, in a semi-conscious state, he was transferred to a clinic in Rostov-on-Don, where he died.
Portrait

Drozdovtsy, drozdy - the name of the military units of the Volunteer Army (later the Armed Forces of the South of Russia and the Russian Army), which received the personal patronage of one of the founders of the White movement in the South of Russia - Major General M. G. Drozdovsky. Initially, Drozdovites were the name given to the fighters of the First Separate Brigade of Russian Volunteers, which made a 1,200-verst march on February 26 (March 11), 1918 - April 24 (May 7), 1918, under the command of then Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky.
After the death of General Drozdovsky on January 1 (14), 1919, on January 4 (17) the following were named after him:
the 2nd Officer Regiment created by him, renamed the 2nd Officer General Drozdovsky Rifle Regiment (later the 1st Regiment, deployed into a division),

2nd Officer Cavalry Regiment, October 10 (23) renamed into the 2nd General Drozdovsky Regiment,

Drozdov artillery brigade,

Armored train "General Drozdovsky".

On July 29 (August 11), 1919, by order of the 1st Army Corps of the Volunteer Army No. 215, on the basis of the 3rd battalion of the 1st regiment, mobilized and captured, the 4th (later 2nd) Officer Rifle Regiment of General Drozdovsky was formed , and also the Officer Rifle Brigade of General Drozdovsky was created as part of the 3rd Infantry Division.
On August 25 (September 7), 1919, the 2nd and 4th Drozdov regiments were renamed the 1st and 2nd, respectively.
On September 21 (October 4), 1919, the 3rd Officer Rifle Regiment of General Drozdovsky was formed from the soldiers of the 3rd battalion of the 1st regiment.
In June-July 1919, the patronage regiments of V.S.Yu.R. began to form the second and third “registered” regiments based on volunteers and captured Red Army soldiers. In August-September 1919, the Drozdovites were deployed into a division of four regiments.
On October 14 (27), 1919, by order of the Commander-in-Chief V.S.Yu.R., on the basis of the 3rd Infantry Division, the Officer General Drozdovsky Infantry Division was formed, consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd regiments, a reserve battalion, Drozdovskaya engineering company and Drozdovskaya artillery brigade (former 3rd artillery brigade). Later, reserve battalions of the Drozdov regiments were organized.
On April 28 (May 11), 1920, already as part of the Russian Army, the division was renamed the Rifle Division of General Drozdovsky (Drozdovskaya) as part of the 1st Army Corps; and its regiments - in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd General Drozdovsky (Drozdovsky) regiments.
The reserve battalion of the Russian Army, which took part in the Trans-Dnieper operation and consisted 100% of captured Red Army soldiers, was renamed the 4th Drozdovsky Rifle Regiment for its distinction in battle by order of the Commander-in-Chief.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Konstantinovich Vitkovsky (April 21, 1885, Pskov - January 18, 1978, Paolo Alto, San Francisco) - Lieutenant General (1920). Participant of the First World War and the White movement in the South of Russia. St. George Knight, Drozdovets, commander of the Drozdovskaya division. During World War II he served with the Germans in the Russian Corps

Ceremonial uniform of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment of General Vitkovsky

White emigration in Bulgaria. Sitting from right to left are the generals - Shteifon, Kutepov, Vitkovsky. Standing (behind Kutepov) are the generals - Skoblin, Turkul. Bulgaria, 1921

Commander of the Volunteer Army Mai-Maevsky inspects the horse-mountain battery of the 3rd division of General Vladimir Konstantinovich Vitkovsky at the South Station of Kharkov

Lieutenant General Nikolai Dmitrievich Nevadovsky
Born 1878. From the nobility, son of a general. 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps, Konstantinovsky Artillery School. In 1909, staff captain of the Life Guards. 1st artillery brigade in St. Petersburg, junior officer Konstantinovsk. artillery school in St. Petersburg. During the Great War he commanded the 4th battery of the 15th artillery brigade. Major General, commander of the 64th Artillery Brigade, artillery inspector of the 12th Army Corps. Knight of St. George (for the battle near the village of Sukhovolya in August 1914). Wounded twice. In February 1918 he left the service and arrived in the 1st separate brigade of Russian volunteers under Colonel Drozdovsky. Participant of the Yassy-Don campaign, private, then chief of artillery of Colonel Drozdovsky’s detachment. In the Volunteer Army: from May 31, 1918, inspector of horse artillery, artillery inspector of the 1st Army Corps, artillery inspector of the Crimean-Azov Volunteer Army; from June September-October 1919, inspector of artillery of the North Caucasus, head of the artillery department of the All-Soviet Union of Socialist Republics, from March 13, 1920, head of the Vladikavkaz detachment, in March 1920 retreated to Georgia; from May 4, 1920 artillery inspector of the Consolidated Corps of the Russian Army. Lieutenant General (February 19, 1919). In exile in France, founder and chairman of the Union of Volunteers, editor of the newspaper “Volunteer”. In Paris he worked as a simple worker, later as a salesman in a wine store. Unemployed. He died in October 1939 in Quency near Paris in a car accident (his bicycle was pinched on the street between a truck and a car). He was buried on October 21, 1939 in Quincy-sous-Senard. Wife Olga Iosifovna, daughter Lyubov (bar. Schwachheim, in England), son - in the summer of 1920 on the Princes' Islands.

Poems by Nevadovsky
M. G. Drozdovsky

The eagle can no longer fly in the blue skies,
Don't fight a gray cloud in a thunderstorm,
Do not swim in the crystal waves of light,
Do not strive for the mighty Kuban.

You fell asleep forever, our eagle,
You are struck down by the Bolshevik hand.
And the funeral peal sounds sadly
Over the Don and Kuban lands.

And your iron squad stands gloomily
And the tears are round in the eyes,
And hearts burn with terrible vengeance on the villains,
Hidden in distant villages.

And your family is a poor, weak Rus'
Crying hopelessly over a corpse,
And a crown of thorns for your life's journey
He places it on your remains.

Major General Anton Vasilievich Turkul. (December 24, 1892, near Tiraspol, Bessarabia province - September 14, 1957, Munich) - Russian officer, major general. Participant in the First World War and Civil War. Participant of the Campaign of the Drozdovites Yassy - Don. White emigrant. In exile - publisher and editor of the magazine "Volunteer". Since 1935, he was the organizer and head of the Russian National Union of War Participants (RNSUV), which published its own newspaper, Signal. For his (according to contemporaries, pro-fascist) activities, on the orders of General Miller, Turkul was expelled from the EMRO. Then in April 1938 he was expelled from France. In 1941-1943, A.V. Turkul tried to restore the activities of the RNSUV, but was unsuccessful. He collaborated with the Nazi authorities, in 1945 - head of the formation department of the ROA units and commander of a volunteer brigade in Austria. After 1945 in Germany, chairman of the Committee of Russian Defectors. Died on August 20 (September 14), 1957 in Munich.

Drozdovites meet A.V. Turkula, Sevlievo, Bulgaria

Major General Barbovich Ivan Gavrilovich (January 27, 1874 - March 21, 1947, Munich) - Russian cavalry commander. Lieutenant General (1920). Activist of the White movement in Russia. One of the most famous white cavalry commanders in the South of Russia. In February 1918 he was demobilized and lived in Kharkov, refusing to serve in the Ukrainian army. He organized a cavalry detachment from his former fellow soldiers (66 hussars and 9 officers), at the head of which he set out on October 26, 1918 from Chuguev to join the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin, increasing his numbers along the way and fighting with his pursuers (mainly with detachments of Makhnovists). In Tavria he joined the troops of Denikin's army. On January 19, 1919 he enlisted in the Volunteer Army and was in the reserve until March 1919. From March 1, 1919 - commander of the 2nd cavalry (General Drozdovsky) regiment in the Crimean-Azov Army. During the battles at Perekop on March 23, 1919, he was wounded in the head with a bayonet, but remained in service. In April - May 1919 - commander of a separate cavalry brigade of the 3rd Army Corps of General Slashchev. In May - October 1919 - commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade of the 2nd Cavalry Division of the 5th Cavalry Corps of General Ya. D. Yuzefovich. From October to December 18, 1919 - commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division. From December 10, 1919 - Major General. On December 18, 1919, during the retreat of the White Army, he took command of the 5th Cavalry Corps, which, due to losses, was transformed into a cavalry brigade and then deployed into the 5th Cavalry Division (he commanded it until March 1920). At the head of the consolidated division he fought with the First Cavalry Army near Bataysk, Olginskaya and Yegorlytskaya. In March 1920 he covered the retreat of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia to Novorossiysk. In exile from September 1921 he lived in Belgrade, where he served as a military-technical official in the War Ministry of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, remaining the chief of personnel of the 1st Cavalry Division. When the Russian All-Military Union (EMRO) was created in September 1924, he was appointed by General Wrangel as assistant chief of the 4th department of the EMRO. From January 21, 1933 - head of this department

Sremski Karlovci, March 22, 1925. In the center is Baron P.N. Wrangel, second to his right is I.G. Barbovich

Ivan Gavrilovich Barbovich is on the far left in the second row.

Vladimir Vladimirovich von Manstein (January 3, 1894, Poltava province - September 19, 1928, Sofia, Bulgaria) - major general, participant in the First World War and the White movement in the South of Russia, also known after 1919 as the “one-armed devil”, “fighter commissioners." Since 1920 emigrant.
In the fall of 1917, Staff Captain Manstein enlisted in the detachment of General M. G. Drozdovsky as an ordinary soldier and was enlisted in the 2nd officer rifle regiment. On April 4, 1918, Colonel Drozdovsky appointed him commander of the 4th company of the 2nd officer rifle regiment. As part of his regiment, he took part in campaigns from Yassy to Novocherkassk and the Second Kuban Campaign. During the Second Kuban Campaign, Manstein was appointed battalion commander. In the fall of 1918, he was seriously wounded. After the entry of the Volunteer Army into Kharkov, Manstein was appointed commander of the 3rd Drozdovsky Rifle Regiment. Commanding the regiment, he took part in the summer-autumn “campaign against Moscow”
It was very difficult for the one-armed General Manstein to settle into a peaceful life. He had no other profession other than the military. The pension that his old father received was not enough for the three of them. His daughter died at Gallipoli. Now the wife began to demand a divorce. This load turned out to be too heavy. On the morning of September 19, 1928, Manstein came with his wife to the Sofia city park Borisova Gradina. There he shot her with a revolver, and then shot himself. Despite the fact that Manstein committed suicide, he was buried on the initiative of the Orthodox clergy in the city cemetery

On the occasion of the departure of General Turkul and Manstein to Serbia from the city of Sevlievo on December 3, 1922.

Major General Vladimir Grigorievich Kharzhevsky (May 6, 1892, Litin, Podolsk province - June 4, 1981, Lakewood, USA)
Participant of the First World War and the White movement in the South of Russia. Drozdovets, participant in the Drozdov campaign, the last commander of the Drozdov division. Emigrant, Gallipoli resident. Head of the EMRO (1967). Died in Lakewood, USA on June 4, 1981.
While at the beginning of 1918 on the Romanian front, he joined the detachment of General Drozdovsky. Participant of the Drozdovsky campaign February 26 - May 27, 1918. From June 1918 to October 1919 - officer (captain, colonel), and then commander of the Drozdovsky regiment (successor of General Turkul). For his military services, at the age of 28, Kharzhevsky received the rank of major general. From October 1919 to November 1920 - commander of the Drozdovsky division. He showed personal heroism during the battles in Tavria and Perekop in the fall of 1920. He was evacuated with Wrangel’s Russian Army to Gallipoli in November 1920. As part of the 1st Army Corps in 1920-1921. took part in the Gallipoli sitting. From 1921 in Bulgaria, and then in Prague, where he graduated from the Mining Institute. From 1944 he lived in Germany, from 1945 in Morocco, where he served as an accountant at Renault, then from 1956 he worked as a construction designer in the USA. He retired in 1964 and settled in Lakewood, New Jersey. On May 19, 1967, he was appointed head of the EMRO, as the successor to the deceased General von Lampe. Died in Lakewood, USA on June 4, 1981. Buried in the cemetery in Novo-Diveevo, New York.

Drozdovites in Bulgaria: Turkul, Kharzhevsky, Manstein. 1920s

Officers of the Drozdovsky division. 1920 Galipoli. Sitting in the center are General V.G. Kharzhevsky and General A.V. Turkul. (to the left of the officer standing behind V.G. Kharzhevsky)

Major General Polzikov Mikhail Nikolaevich (1876-1938)
Graduated from the Oryol Cadet Corps and Pavlovsk Military School. Member of the First World War. Battery and division commander. Colonel. He volunteered to join the detachment of Colonel Drozdovsky at the end of December 1917. As commander of a light battery, he made the Yassy-Novocherkassk campaign at the beginning of 1918. Before the evacuation from Crimea in November 1920, he participated in all the battles of the Drozdovsky division. He was successively appointed commander of an artillery division and a brigade of the Drozdovskaya division. In the Russian Army under General Wrangel - Major General. After staying in the Gallipoli camp and in Bulgaria, he moved to live in Luxembourg. Died in Wasserbilig on June 6, 1938.

Major General Fok Anatoly Vladimirovich (1879-1937)
Graduated from the Konstantinovsky Artillery School. He served in the artillery brigade of the Grenadier Division, with which he went to the front of the First World War. He commanded a battery and a division. Awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. Member of the White movement, in the Volunteer Army since the summer of 1918. Chief of Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division, Army Corps, Inspector of Artillery, 1st Army Corps. After the evacuation of the Russian army from Crimea, Anatoly Vladimirovich Fock lived in Gallipoli, Bulgaria, and France. Worked at a factory. Graduated from the Higher Military Scientific Courses of General N.N. Golovin. In 1936, he volunteered for General Franco's army and died in battle.

Major General Chekatovsky Ignatius Ignatievich (1875, Little Russia - December 25, 1941, Paris, France)
He graduated from the Elisavetgrad Cavalry School in 1875. During the First World War, he was a colonel and commanded the Starodubovsky 12th Dragoon Regiment. On July 24, 1918, he enlisted in the Volunteer Army and was enrolled in the second cavalry regiment. On July 11 (13), 1918, for brilliant successes, he was appointed commander of this regiment. In October 1918 - promoted to major general and took command of a brigade (2nd Cavalry Regiment and 1st Black Sea Kuban Cossack Army Regiment). From November 28, 1918 to December 4, 1919 - acting commander of the 5th Cavalry Corps. In the Russian Army - at the disposal of the commander-in-chief until the evacuation of Crimea.
Since 1921 - commandant of the Russian embassy in Constantinople. In 1924 he moved to Yugoslavia. In 1924-1926. - Head of the Nikolaev Cavalry School. Since 1926 in France. In 1927-1931, chairman of the Paris department of the Union of Invalids. Since 1934 - Chairman of the Society of Friends of the Sentinel. Died in Paris on December 25, 1941.

Colonel Ambrazantsev Vladimir Alexandrovich (1881-1925+)
From the nobility, son of a major general. Colonel of the 8th Lancers Regiment. In the AFSR and the Russian Army in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, February 1920, commander of the same regiment until June 1920, then in the Training Cavalry Division until the evacuation of Crimea. Evacuated on the ship "Kronstadt". On December 28, 1920 in the 2nd Squadron of the Division at Gallipoli. Wife Cleopatra Grigorievna. Brother Sergei Alexandrovich fought in the troops of the Northern Front.

Colonel Mikhail Antonovich Zhebrak-Rusakevich
(September 29, 1875, Grodno province - June 23, 1918, near the village of Belaya Glina, now Krasnodar Territory) - Russian military leader, colonel, participant in the White movement, regiment commander in the Volunteer Army.
During the 2nd Kuban campaign, his regiment took the villages of Torgovaya and Velikoknyazheskaya. On the night of June 23, 1918, Colonel Zhebrak-Rustanovich personally led the attack of two battalions on the Belaya Glina station, where large forces of the Red Army were concentrated. During this attack, the Whites came across a Red machine-gun battery, from the fire of which the regiment commander died along with his entire staff. Colonel Zhebrak-Rustanovich was buried in a mass grave in Belaya Glina after it was occupied by General Drozdovsky’s brigade on June 24, 1918.

A song of the same name to the tune of “Varyag”, written in 1918, is dedicated to the memory of Colonel Zhebrak. The author of the words is officer Ivan Vinogradov (later Archimandrite Isaac)
Hovering over our squad
White St. Andrew's banner.
He took out his broadsword before the parade
Dear Colonel Zhebrak.

Here he is walking along the front
Our family goes around.
He himself has a noticeable limp.
He was wounded in battle.

The cross adorns his chest
That cross is a symbol of brave men.
Our gaze follows him
We believe him without words.

He went into battle with us
He did not bow to bullets.
In the riskiest place
He appeared on foot.

His courage ruined him
That courage was daring.
The enemy has been deprived of power
We are the regiment commander.

His body was violated
Evil scoundrels hand.
But they got it dearly
Death of the brave Zhebrak.

(All material taken from respected