Family About the family life of Dmitry Mikhailovich, we know mainly that they keep the pedigrees and documents for the ownership of property. On April 7, 1632, the prince's mother, Euphrosyne-Maria, died, who, apparently, had taken tonsure for a long time under the name Evznikei; she was buried in

1. Family We would make a mistake if, taking into account only the strength of family ties and the reliability of support, we painted the inner life of the family in idyllic colors. Voluntary participation of relatives of one clan in a vendetta against another did not exclude the most severe

In order not to go to the benefit (3-4-year mandatory break in the service of a Cossack officer, caused by the need to deploy Cossack regiments of the 2nd and 3rd stage in case of war), which was supposed in the Orenburg Cossack army after three years of military officer service, Dutov decided transfer to the engineering troops, where there were no such breaks in the officer’s military service as in the Cossack troops. He probably wanted to quickly earn the next rank. So, in 1902, a young capable officer was first sent to Kyiv for a preliminary test at the headquarters of the 3rd sapper brigade to be transferred to the engineering troops, and after passing the tests, he went to St. Petersburg to take an exam at the Nikolaev Engineering School for the right to be seconded to the engineering troops. The preparation took four months, and then, having successfully passed the exam for the entire course of the school (according to the official biography, the first), Dutov entered the disposal of the Main Engineering Directorate and again ended up in Kyiv, in the 5th sapper battalion, for a test in service and subsequent translation.

Three months later, in the battalion, Dutov was appointed a teacher in a sapper, and since 1903, a telegraph school. In addition to this work, he was in charge of a battalion soldier's shop; October 1, 1903 received the rank of lieutenant. At this time, his marriage took place to Olga Viktorovna Petrovskaya, who came from hereditary nobles of the St. Petersburg province. Apparently, Petrovskaya was a cousin of K.V. Sakharov (1881-1941) - the future lieutenant general, commander-in-chief of the armies of the Eastern Front in 1919. He made another important decision - to enter the Nikolaev General Staff Academy. To get into the Academy, at the beginning of the twentieth century. the officer had to serve at least three years in the ranks and take part in at least two camp gatherings.

The dropout rate, even at the stage of preliminary tests, at the district headquarters, was quite high. Having successfully passed the preliminary written exams at the headquarters of the Kiev military district in the summer of 1904 (tactics, political history, geography, Russian language, horseback riding), the 25-year-old Dutov again went to the capital. As a rule, it took officers a year of hard work to prepare and pass the entrance exams to the Academy, they had to show knowledge of combat regulations, artillery, fortification, mathematics, military administration, political history, geography, topographic drawing, Russian and foreign languages). As a result of the exam, Dutov was enrolled in the junior year of the Academy.

As soon as classes began, he volunteered for the war with Japan. His sapper battalion as part of the 2nd Manchurian Army took part in the war at its final stage. Lieutenant Dutov was in Manchuria from March 11 to October 1, 1905, and for "excellent diligent service and special work" during the hostilities in January 1906 he was awarded the order St. Stanislaus 3rd degree. After the war, Dutov resumed his studies at the Academy. At about the same time, they studied at the Academy with him and, very likely, already in his academic years, his future comrades-in-arms in the struggle during the Civil War M.G. Serov, I.M. Zaitsev, N.T. Sukin and S.A. Shchepikhin.

On May 31, 1907, Dutov's daughter Olga was born. The future chieftain graduated from two classes of the Academy in the first category and an additional course "successfully", but "without the right to be promoted to the next rank for graduating from the academy and to be assigned to the General Staff", as he believed, due to the presence of a family. The failure gave him a feeling of inferiority, which he tried to overcome all his life. The dissatisfaction with his achievements that arose in Dutov after the Academy did not manifest itself in any way until 1917. But, having received in the spring of 1917 a chance to rehabilitate himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of those around him, Dutov seized on it and took full advantage of this chance.

Upon completion of the additional course, the graduates of the Academy were assigned to military districts to pass the staff qualification, and the first ten officers in the graduation had the right to be appointed to vacancies in the St. Petersburg Military District. For each year of training, it was supposed to serve a year and a half in the military department. To get acquainted with the service of the General Staff, Staff Captain Dutov was sent to the Kyiv Military District, to the headquarters of the X Army Corps, located in Kharkov. After three months of practice, in the autumn of 1908 he returned to his 5th engineer battalion, where he had not been since 1905.

At the beginning of 1909, Dutov went on a "temporary business trip" to his native Orenburg Cossack army and took up the post of teacher at the Orenburg Cossack cadet school. Why did he do this, what guided him in his desire to get into such a seemingly insignificant position for an Academy graduate?! There is no documentary evidence of this. But there are several possible reasons: firstly, Orenburg was Dutov's hometown, where his parents and numerous relatives lived, and secondly, Dutov could transfer to a school in order to get a calm, quiet place and live comfortably, devoting himself to his family, and finally, more one possible reason is Dutov's desire to realize his skills obtained at the Academy and in engineering troops. Such a step characterizes him in this period of his life by no means as a careerist.

Extending his "temporary business trip", Dutov in September 1909 first achieved a transfer to the school as an assistant class inspector with the renaming of the podesauly, and in March 1910 he was enlisted in the army. By this time, Dutov was already Yesaul. From 1909 to 1912 he served in the school in various positions, temporarily served as a class inspector. Among the wards of Dutov was the cadet G.M. Semenov (graduated from college in 1911), later ataman of the Transbaikal Cossack army. During this, probably the most peaceful period in Dutov's life, two more daughters Nadezhda were born in 1909 and Maria in 1912. The youngest daughter Elizabeth was also born in Orenburg, but already during the First World War - August 31, 1914. Dutov also had a son, Oleg, but documents about his birth were not found, it can only be argued that he was born in 1917-1918. Dutov obviously liked just such a calm, measured and predictable life of a provincial officer.

Through his activities at the school, Dutov earned the love and respect of the cadets, for whom he did a lot. In addition to the exemplary performance of his official duties, he organized performances, concerts and evenings at the school. In December 1910, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree, and on December 6, 1912, at the age of 33, he was promoted to military foreman (the corresponding army rank was lieutenant colonel); for comparison, his father received the same rank only at the age of 47.

In October 1912, Dutov was sent to the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment in Kharkov to acquire an annual qualification for command of a hundred. “In the service of this headquarters officer, there were no circumstances depriving him of the right to receive an insignia of impeccable service or postponing the term of service to it,” read the standard wording from the track record of the future ataman, compiled on January 24, 1913. During the qualifying command, Dutov earned several thanks from the head of the 10th Cavalry Division. At that time, thanks to Major General Count F.A. Keller meant a lot in the cavalry. The 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment was Keller's favorite regiment, and Dutov, during his stay in the division of this talented general, who most seriously prepared his units for a future war, probably learned a lot as a cavalry officer. After the expiration of his command term, Dutov passed a hundred in October 1913 and returned to the school, where he served until 1916. In 1914-1915, in addition to military service, he was a full member of the Orenburg Scientific Archival Commission, which had already published 30 volumes of its scientific works by 1914. Dutov, being a member of the commission, collected materials about A.S.'s stay in Orenburg. Pushkin. In general, history for Dutov was one of his favorite sciences.

Despite the attempts of the school authorities to leave Dutov at the school, on March 20, 1916, he went to the front. As they said, Dutov got ready in three days and left for the already familiar 1st Orenburg Cossacks of His Imperial Highness the Heir Tsarevich Regiment of the 10th Cavalry Division). The circumstances of the departure and the reason why he in 1914-1915. remained in Orenburg, are known from the memoirs of the chief ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, General M.S. Tyulina: the authorities, who did not have an academic education, did not want to let Dutov go to the front out of envy. Still, it is not entirely clear why he was never able to go to the front before. It is possible that he was expecting a suitable vacancy, but it is obvious that he was clearly not rushing to the front.

The regiment was considered one of the best in the Orenburg Cossack army. By December 1915, there were five cavaliers of the Order of St. George of the 4th degree, six cavaliers of the St. George weapons, 609 Cossacks of the regiment were awarded St. George's crosses, 131 were awarded St. George's medals. During this time, the regiment took 1,200 prisoners, 4 guns, 15 cartridge carts, about 200 guns, 42 camping pack kitchens, and a lot of wagon trains. At the time of Dutov's arrival, the regiment was fighting the Austrians as part of the 9th army of General P.A. Lechitsky. On March 29, the Cossacks were personally welcomed by Nicholas II, then they received rest and from April 6 they guarded the state border along the Prut River.

Lechitsky's army was located on the left flank Southwestern Front, its left flank was covered by Keller's III Cavalry Corps, and the left flank of the corps was covered by the 10th Cavalry Division. Thus, Dutov fought on the extreme left flank of the entire Eastern Front, near the Romanian border itself. 9th Army during the preparation by the commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front, General A.A. Brusilov offensive was assigned a supporting role. Lechitsky decided to first defeat the enemy in Bukovina, then advance towards the Carpathians, and then transfer the blow to Transnistria.

At the front, Dutov formed a rifle division, which from April 3 took part in the battles on the Prut River. The division was organized by Dutov from scratch and gradually acquired its own transports and workshops. At dawn on May 22, 1916, the troops of the 9th Army went on the offensive. According to the regiment's war diary, the crossing of the Prut on May 28 took place under heavy artillery fire. The Cossacks crossed the river ford (the bridges were blown up), with a strong current, and the water, according to the participants of the crossing, was above the waist as a result of the spring flood (probably they crossed on horseback). In a night battle while crossing the Prut, Dutov's rifle division took the line of trenches and held it for two days before the shift, losing 50% of the lower ranks and 60% of the officers. Despite the shell shock, Dutov remained in the ranks and in the chain until the end of the battle and left after the last shift.

The operation developed successfully. Enemy losses amounted to 95,000 killed, wounded and captured. The 9th Army lost 26,500 men. At its first stage, Keller's cavalry was assigned only the passive role of providing the left flank. After the occupation of Chernivtsi on June 5, the shock group of the army was stopped on the line of the Prut River to change the operational direction, and the III Cavalry and Consolidated Corps were allocated to pursue the retreating enemy. It was not possible to cut off the Austrians from the Carpathians, retreating, they organized a stubborn defense.

Dutov's division as part of the III Cavalry Corps took part in the pursuit of the Austrians from Chernivtsi through Bukovina to the Carpathian mountain passes near Kirlibab - Dorna Vatra. As noted on July 24 in the regiment's war diary, "the conditions in the position are very difficult - snow, cold, strong piercing wind at the heights." The division practically did not lag behind its cavalry regiment, having fought 450 miles on foot in 10 days. Dutov's reports were laconic: “Your order was executed by the village (Nei-Itskani in the Carpathians. - A.G.), thanks to the valor of the shooters, taken; I go further, to a height of 1227. Another report when attacking a fortified position near Runkul was no less brief and eloquent: “Having overcome seven rows of wire and taking four lines of trenches, the arrows and Cossacks of the sector entrusted to me pursue the enemy to Kirlibaba. I represent 250 prisoners and trophies. Losses are insignificant. Now with a chain I am at the Obchina height.

Subsequently, the 130,000-strong 7th Austro-Hungarian army in the interfluve of the Dniester and Prut was defeated. The 9th Russian Army threatened Hungary and the oil wells of Galicia. In July, Lechitsky's army acted in two directions: to Galich and to Transylvania. fighting on the front, the armies were distinguished by maneuverability, there were horse clashes, but the command could not properly use the cavalry. Of course, the cavalry was not intended for mountain warfare, however, for some reason, there was no other use for Keller's corps at that time. On July 28, Lechitsky's troops occupied Stanislav. The army was preparing to march through the Carpathians to Transylvania. On August 14, Romania entered the war against Austria-Hungary on the side of the Entente, largely due to the brilliant actions of Lechitsky's troops, which, however, did not lead to the strengthening of the Russian front, but rather, on the contrary, weakened it.

The offensive of the 9th Army to assist the Romanians was scheduled by Brusilov for 18 August. Lechitsky's army was supposed to advance in the direction of Kirlibaba-Sigot, and the consolidation of the Sigota region for the Russian troops, in the opinion of the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, in fact Commander-in-Chief General M.V. Alekseev, was supposed to provide Romanian operations in Transylvania. Keller's corps was part of the southern group of the 9th Army, operating in the sector from Kirlibaba to the Romanian border.

August and September at the army front were fought in fierce and extremely heavy battles, and already in September the troops in the Carpathians fought in deep snow. Lechitsky was still opposed by the 7th Austro-Hungarian Army. The Germans from the division transferred there, to reinforce, from the Western Front, the battles at Dorn-Vatra, Kirlibaba and Jacoben seemed harder than at Verdun. However, the Russian offensive developed extremely slowly. Until September 13, when Lechitsky was forced to suspend the operation due to significant losses (145 officers and 10 thousand soldiers), the fighting went on without interruption. The troops occupied the heights commanding the Kirlibaba-Dorna-Vatra highway.

On October 1, near the village of Panichi in Romania, Dutov was secondarily shell-shocked and, in addition, wounded by a shell fragment, as a result of which he lost his sight and hearing for some time and received a cracked skull. It seemed that the young officer would be forced to leave the ranks forever, but after two months of treatment in Orenburg, he returned to the regiment. On October 16, Dutov was appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg His Imperial Highness the Heir to the Tsarevich Cossack regiment. The newly-made commander arrived at the regiment on November 18, and on December 15, due to the uncertainty of his status, he wrote to the chief of staff of the 10th cavalry division: “I arrived at the regiment on November 18, which I reported. Please do not refuse [tell] whether there was an order for the division about my position or not. Then, how to consider the rifle division surrendered, or else I need to surrender it. Troop[ova] Sergeant[ina] Dutov.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued near Kirlibaba. The losses were significant. As A.A. Kersnovsky, “the slopes of the mountains near Kirlibaba turned into vast Russian cemeteries ... All November there were heroic battles in the clouds and beyond the clouds ... Their history will someday be written. Our trophies in this mountain war were significant, losses were huge, heroism was boundless. On November 15, the 9th Army launched an offensive against the city of Dorna-Vatra, the fighting also took on a protracted character, and it was not possible to dislodge the Austrians from the Carpathian mountain passes. As A.G. Shkuro, “the mountains were terribly steep, the movement of convoys was impossible, the delivery of products had to be carried out in packs along mountain paths, and the removal of the wounded was difficult. In general, the work was terribly difficult.

On November 15, Brusilov ordered the III Cavalry Corps to march to the Rymnik area. In connection with the defeat of the Romanian army, Russian troops had to save both their new ally and the position on the left flank of their own Eastern Front. From the Prut, the troops followed the territory of Wallachia in marching order, the horses were extremely exhausted. Having overcome 500 miles from Bukovina to Bucharest, in December the corps became part of the 6th Army, which occupied the front from Firul Mare to the Black Sea coast.

Interesting are the attestations of Dutov, given in February 1917 by the head of the 10th Cavalry Division, General V.E. Markov and corps commander Count Keller. On February 11, Markov wrote: “The last battles in Romania, in which the regiment took part under the command of the troops [new] foreman] DUTOV, give the right to see in him a commander who is well versed in the situation and makes appropriate decisions energetically, which is why I consider him outstanding , but for the brevity of the time of command of the regiment, only quite appropriate for its purpose.

In his own certification dated February 24, it was noted: Dutov “is in good health. He does not complain about the severity of camp life - he is always cheerful. Morality is good. Mentally developed well. Lively interested in the service and loves it. Well read and well educated. He does not yet have combat experience, but strives to independently solve combat missions. In battle, he is somewhat impressionable and tends to give the battlefield the impression of the younger ones and is somewhat exaggerated. He likes to work for show, although in general he is tireless in his work. The economy knows. Caring about subordinates. Good [commander]. Corresponds to the position of the commander of the Cossack regiment. Keller got acquainted with both certifications and expressed his opinion: “I do not agree with the first certification of the division chief and completely join the second, since I always considered the military foreman DUTOV an excellent combat commander of the regiment. "Excellent" [,] is quite consistent with the position. Signed: General Graf KELLER. By February 1917, for military distinctions, Dutov was awarded swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class. and the Order of St. Anne 2nd class. The authors of Dutov's official biography argued that his merits in the war were evaluated very little by the former government, he has few orders - the reason for this was the independence of the ataman, unwillingness to flatter the higher authorities, defending Cossack interests and complete contempt for deliberately false reports in order to decorate their affairs and describe exploits. Judging by the above data, there are many exaggerations.

Dutov was in the position of commander of the regiment for only four months, the February Revolution changed him, quite ordinary until then, the life path of an obscure Cossack headquarters officer. In March 1917, Prime Minister G.E. Lvov gave permission to hold the first general Cossack congress in Petrograd “to ascertain the needs of the Cossacks,” and on March 16, military foreman Dutov arrived in the capital as a delegate from his regiment. His political career began.

As noted by A.V. Shmelev, "the role of the Cossacks in the events of 1917 has not yet been clarified in many respects." A serious study of this role is impossible without considering the activities of Dutov, one of the largest political figures put forward by the Cossack environment in 1917. By February 1917, he had not yet taken place as a political figure, he was only one of hundreds of regimental commanders, he was not a coward in the war ( he stayed at the front for about a year), but had it not been for the revolution, he would hardly have been able to show all his abilities.

In the spring of 1917, the fate of this man changed dramatically. Unfortunately, there is no completely reliable information about what threw him onto the crest of a revolutionary wave. The official biography of the Orenburg chieftain reports that Dutov was elected because he was "the commander of the regiment, loved by both officers and Cossacks." The only evidence that clarifies at least something belongs to the Orenburg Cossack general I.M. Zaitsev. Zaitsev wrote about Dutov: “At first it seemed strange why a commander was sent from the regiment, while the representatives of the divisions were, in most cases, chief officers. Subsequently, it turned out that the regiment was dissatisfied with its commander and, in order to get rid of him under a plausible pretext, he was delegated to Petrograd. The thing is this: in the first days of the revolution, the dashing Count Keller, the commander of the III Cavalry Corps, which was at that time in Bessarabia, urgently invited the commanders of the regiments and asked them: “Can they go on a campaign against Tsarskoye Selo with their regiments, free royal family". A.I. Dutov, as the commander of the chief regiment, on behalf of the regiment, declared that his regiment would willingly go to free his chief. It was this, as it were, that aroused the discontent of the entire regiment. Such conversations were then. Subsequently, as a result of all the events, it turned out that the main agitator against Dutov, who condemned his statement on behalf of the regiment about the readiness of the Cossacks to go to save the royal family, was the old officer of the regiment, Losev, who later remained with the Bolsheviks.

One way or another, in the spring of 1917, the Cossacks, together with the whole country, found themselves in new, largely incomprehensible conditions for them. The first general Cossack congress (later called preliminary) was held in Petrograd on March 23-30, but the telegrams were late and a number of Cossack troops did not have time to send their delegates from the field. Part of the Cossack troops was represented exclusively by front-line delegates. The congress was opened by a member of the State Duma from the Don Cossack army A.P. Savvateev. The congress was attended by the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General L.G. Kornilov. The idea immediately arose of creating a mass Cossack organization - the Union of Cossack Troops with its own permanent Council. The Council of the Union of Cossack Troops was supposed in the future to free the Cossack units from the corrupting influence of various committees and councils of soldiers' deputies. It was expected that this would preserve the combat effectiveness of the Cossack units and, in the face of the decay of the regular army, would make them an impressive force in the all-Russian political arena.

However, the congress participants themselves did not consider it authorized to resolve such issues, so it was decided to convene a more representative second all-Cossack congress in May (it was also called the First All-Russian Cossack congress, or circle). A commission was formed to work on the creation of the Union of Cossack Troops, called the "Provisional Council of the Union of Cossack Troops" chaired by Savvateev. Dutov became one of the comrades (assistants) of the chairman. As I.M. Zaitsev, in Petrograd, Dutov turned to him “with a request for assistance. He asked what he should do and whether he could find any use for him. I advised him to continue working in the Provisional Cossack Council, together with Savvateev, and to work in the spirit and direction of the directives given by A.I. Guchkov and that, under this condition, one can hope for his secondment to the General Staff. Indeed, they managed to arrange a secondment to the General Staff, and A.I. Dutov was entrusted with work on the Cossack issue together with Savvateev.

The composition of the Provisional Council from the delegates of the congress included 34 representatives of 13 Cossack troops. Dutov was a member of the economic, financial and economic, organizational and military affairs commissions of the Provisional Council. In April, he made a detour of the front-line Cossack units, agitating for the continuation of the war. In May, he and Council member A.N. Grekov obtained an audience with the military and naval minister A.F. Kerensky, the conversation lasted about an hour. Dutov reported on the purposes of convening and the work of the congress and the Provisional Council, official permission was received to hold the 2nd General Cossack Congress, and Kerensky asked to come to him and keep him informed of the work. A counterbalance to the Provisional Council also arose - the Cossack section of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers', Soldiers', Peasants' and Cossacks' Deputies, which sought to subordinate the Provisional Council to itself. As Dutov himself later wrote, “the work of this Council was extremely tense, nervous and difficult. The Cossacks in Petrograd were viewed from a biased point of view, and therefore it was difficult to carry out the idea of ​​the Cossacks. But labor and energy won, and the voice of the Cossacks became audible in Petrograd. Initially, the Provisional Council had absolutely no funds, but over time, work began to improve. The Cossacks were given the premises of the former Main Directorate of the Cossack troops. The 2nd congress opened its work on June 1. In addition to representatives from the places elected by the military circles, two elected delegates from each Cossack unit were to be present at the congress. (In Soviet historiography, it was unsubstantiated that the elections to the congress were falsified and that only the Cossack elite participated in its work.)

The congress opened in a large hall in the building of the Assembly of the Army and Navy in the presence of about 600 delegates. Dutov was unanimously elected chairman of the congress, which brought him all-Russian fame. Dutov was, however, in many respects an accidental person in this post - he had practically no experience in political and social activities. In the mornings, general meetings were held, in the evenings there were meetings on the Cossack troops. This way of working turned out to be very advantageous, since the political figures present at the congress had the impression of the complete unity of the entire Russian Cossacks. During the work of the congress, the meetings were attended by A.F. Kerensky, M.V. Rodzianko, A.I. Guchkov, P.N. Milyukov, N.V. Nekrasov and V.D. Nabokov, foreign ambassadors and military attaches; a large audience was present. The main slogan of the congress is "War to the bitter end", the delegates also actively supported the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. From the first days of work, contradictions were revealed between the front-line Cossack youth and representatives of the Cossack regions, mainly "old people". The final general resolution included such provisions as: united and indivisible Russia, broad local self-government, war until victory, honorable peace, all power to the Provisional Government until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly and the decision on the form of government. On June 13, the delegates elected the composition of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops - a permanent, representative and completely legitimate Cossack body, which was supposed to work during the break between congresses. 36 (according to other sources, 38) people were elected to the Council for a period of three years in proportion to the number of their Cossack troops, and many of the elected members had previously been members of the Provisional Council.

During this period, Dutov, apparently, successfully established contacts, joining the military and political elite of post-February Petrograd. He collaborated with the "Republican Center", and within this organization allegedly existed a "conspiratorial military department" that united various military alliances, including the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops. It is obvious that the Soviet authors, and somewhat earlier Kerensky, tried in this way to prove the existence of a carefully prepared military conspiracy of the Rights in the summer of 1917. An indication of Dutov's collaboration with some underground organization requires evidence, but they (in the form of references to sources) are absent; weighty evidence of the very existence of a large-scale conspiracy, and even more so of the participation of the Council of the Union of Cossack troops in it, has not yet been identified.

Dutov's role during the days of the congress appears to be purely technical - to lead meetings, put questions to a vote, and so on. At the same time, he happened to make the first political statements. On July 7, he claimed: “We (Cossacks. - A.G.) we will never part ways with all Russian democracy.” Dutov attended some meetings of the Provisional Government as a permanent representative of the All-Russian Cossacks, until October 1917 he was a member of the commissions under the Provisional Government to convene the Constituent Assembly, on Cossack affairs, and on interdepartmental work. On August 6, the Soviet issued a resolution in support of Kornilov. This statement of the Cossack representatives was a kind of ultimatum to Kerensky. The resolution quickly appeared in the press and received the full support of the Union of Officers and the Union of Knights of St. George.

By mid-August the center political life briefly moved to Moscow. At the Moscow State Conference, the Cossack Council was given 10 seats, and since many of its members participated in the meeting as representatives of their troops, it turned out that almost the entire composition of the Council took part in the meeting. The comrades of the chairman of the Cossack faction were Dutov and M.A. Karaulov. At the first meeting, two commissions were formed: on general issues (chairman - Karaulov) and on military issues (chairman - Dutov). During the work of the State Conference, the unity of views of the Cossack representatives was revealed, and by August 13 they developed a common resolution; its final version was prepared by Dutov and F.A. Shcherbina. The next day, on behalf of the entire Cossacks, it was read out by the Don Ataman A.M. Kaledin. According to V.I. Lenin, it was "the most significant political statement made at the Moscow Conference." What could be more convincing than such a confession made by a direct enemy!

According to rumors, which were also leaked to the press, on August 28-29 a new action of the Bolsheviks was expected in Petrograd in connection with the six-month "anniversary" of the February events. To suppress a possible rebellion, the Provisional Government called in troops from the front, and the members of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops were aware from August 24 that the III Cavalry Corps of General A.M. Krymov, by order of Kornilov, moves to the capital. However, on August 26, Kerensky declared Kornilov a traitor and began to arm the Petrograd workers.

There is no definite information about the role of Dutov in those days, so it is difficult to talk about the reliability of the reports, according to which he was supposed to raise an uprising in Petrograd. In the future, Dutov worked closely with the Provisional Government, was promoted to the next rank and received a responsible appointment in the Orenburg province, which would have been impossible if his involvement in any conspiracy had been clarified. The Council of the Union of Cossack Troops organizationally did not participate in the Kornilov movement. Moreover, all the activities of Dutov and the Council of the Union of Cossack troops during the period of Kornilov's speech speaks of their neutrality, however, to a greater extent benevolent towards Kornilov. As Kerensky later testified, the leaders of the Soviet "belonged to that group of people, like Miliukov, who were convinced that victory would be on the side of Kornilov, and not on the side of the revolution." The position taken by Dutov did not suit either the right or the left.

On August 31, Dutov was summoned to the Winter Palace. He said he was ill and did not go, staying at the hotel. On behalf of Dutov, military foreman A.N. went to Kerensky. Greeks. Kerensky received him in the former imperial office and demanded decisive action against Kornilov and Kaledin: the Soviet was to declare Kornilov a traitor and Kaledin a rebel. Grekov refused to comply with his request, saying that he did not have the necessary authority. Then Kerensky demanded to himself the entire Presidium of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops, with whom he spoke in raised tones, seeking from the Council a decisive condemnation of Kornilov and Kaledin. Dutov answered, drawing Kerensky's attention to the fact that the Cossacks had already proposed a peaceful solution, but had been refused permission to go to Headquarters, and now Kerensky was faced with a refusal. Then he told the delegates that this was the decision of the Cossack officers, and not the labor Cossacks, and demanded a resolution of the entire Council. After this conversation, the members of the presidium got the impression that Kerensky would arrest them. To clarify the situation, Dutov, before leaving, asked him if the members of the Council present could consider themselves safe and if their refusal would cause reprisals. Kerensky replied to this: “You are not dangerous to me, I repeat to you, the labor Cossacks are on my side. You can be free; I expect from you today the resolution I need.” At 18:00 Dutov appointed an emergency meeting of the Council. At the meeting, Dutov stated his point of view, after the debate, together with Karaulov, who was present, he wrote a letter to Kerensky. The letter listed all the grievances inflicted by the government on the Cossacks. It was noted that Kaledin and Kornilov are Cossacks and the Council cannot condemn them without clarifying all the circumstances. In addition, it was pointed out that the Council could not work when threatened. It was decided to send the answer of the Council not with officers, but exclusively with ordinary Cossacks, in order to clearly demonstrate to Kerensky that this was the decision of the labor Cossacks. When the delegates were received by the Prime Minister, Kerensky asked them to take the paper back, but the Cossacks refused. "So much the worse for you, I can't vouch for the consequences," was Kerensky's last phrase. On the same day, Kornilov and Kaledin were declared traitors and rebels. The Council of the Union of Cossack Troops, in response, passed a resolution that Kerensky had no right to remove the elected Don ataman, which was Kaledin (Kerensky believed that since he approved Kaledin in office, he could recall him).

Kerensky's attitude towards the Soviet worsened after the suppression of Kornilov's speech. There is, however, information that, in relation to the case of Kaledin, Kerensky regretted "the misunderstanding that had arisen between him and the Cossacks." Perhaps, in order to come to terms with the Cossacks as his last support, he decided to appease its representatives, not only with words of apologies and regrets, but also with new appointments and ranks. Kerensky's populist steps towards the Cossacks were crowned with success - Lenin, right up to the 20th of October, seriously feared their coming out in defense of the Provisional Government.

On September 16, Dutov's program article "Position of the Cossacks" appeared in the press. From this article one can judge his political views, at least at the time of the Bolshevik coup. Even if we discard the probably forced bowing to the Provisional Government after the August conflict, Dutov stood for republican and democratic positions. Then he was called to Orenburg for the Extraordinary military circle, which became a continuous triumph for Dutov, who managed to fully reap the fruits of his work in Petrograd.

The first meeting on September 20 was opened with a welcoming speech by the first elected military ataman, General N.P. Maltsev, who, apparently, did not enjoy authority among the Cossacks. A.I. was elected Chairman of the Circle. Krivoshchekov. On the very first day, Dutov's welcoming speech was heard, and the speaker himself was elected honorary chairman of the Circle. On September 22, Dutov received the right to a decisive vote in the Circle. The next day, he spoke to the deputies of the Circle with a report on the political position of the Cossacks. According to reports, Dutov was extremely negative about the situation in the country, which seemed to him chaotic. The speech caused a great resonance among the listeners. On September 27, the work of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops, headed by Dutov, was highly appreciated by the deputies. On September 30, he was elected a candidate for deputy of the Constituent Assembly from the Orenburg Cossack army, and on October 1, by secret ballot, he was elected military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army and chairman of the military government. Dutov's powers were determined for a period of three years.

Dutov could triumph, but the autumn of 1917 was far from the most favorable time for the leaders of the Cossacks. On October 7, Dutov left for Petrograd to transfer his post as chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops and report to the Provisional Government on the state of affairs in the army. Soon he was approved in the ataman's position and promoted to colonel.

October 1917 - another milestone in the rapid rise of Dutov. By October, the 38-year-old Dutov had grown from a run-of-the-mill staff officer into a major figure known throughout Russia and popular among the Cossacks, albeit controversial. Of course, during 1917 he changed, developed in himself the will to fight, became both more demanding of himself and more ambitious. Perhaps not the last role in his rise was played by the feeling of dissatisfaction with himself that arose in him after the Academy, the desire to overcome the injustice committed against him under the old regime. And if by October he was already a very significant figure for Petrograd, then in the provincial Orenburg the scale of Dutov's personality seemed much larger. In addition, he was the only well-known Orenburg politician in the country. So, Dutov in 1917 is a figure created by the revolution. However, later, thanks to the scope that his activities acquired during the Civil War, Dutov public consciousness turned into a figure created by the counter-revolution.

In Petrograd, on October 15, Dutov resigned his positions as a member of commissions under the Provisional Government and was appointed chief food officer for the Orenburg Cossack army, Orenburg province and Turgai region with the powers of a minister. He held this position until January 1, 1918. It was Dutov, according to the testimony of General I.G. Akulinin, came up with the idea of ​​holding in Petrograd on October 22, 1917, the day of the Kazan Mother of God, a general demonstration of all Cossack units of the Petrograd garrison. Lenin feared that this demonstration would frustrate his plans to seize power, but the Provisional Government itself did not allow the procession to take place. On October 22-23, the leader of the Bolsheviks wrote to Ya.M. Sverdlov: “The cancellation of the demonstration of the Cossacks is a gigantic victory. Hooray! advance iso all the forces and we will win in a few days! Best regards! Your". With the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops ceased to play any significant role, and in early December it was crushed.

On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began to work in his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on non-recognition of the violent seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. Dutov's actions were approved by the Commissioner of the Provisional Government, Lieutenant N.V. Arkhangelsky, representatives of local organizations and even the Orenburg Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, who condemned the actions of the Bolsheviks and promised not to speak in Orenburg until they received instructions from the party leadership from Petrograd on this matter (the Bolsheviks did not constitute a majority in the Soviet). By order of Dutov, the Cossacks and cadets occupied the station, post office, telegraph, rallies, meetings and demonstrations were banned. Orenburg was declared under martial law. Nevertheless, rallies were held in the city. Due to the unwillingness of the local Bolsheviks to obey, on the orders of Dutov, the Orenburg Bolshevik Club was closed, the literature stored there was confiscated, the set of the 3rd issue was scattered on November 5 and the further publication of the Proletary newspaper was prohibited, the editor of the newspaper A.A. Korostelev was detained, but ten hours later, under pressure from the "public", he was released.

Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communication with Turkestan and Siberia, and this also affected the food supply of central Russia. Dutov's speech overnight made his name known throughout the country. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and the army until its convocation. On the whole, Dutov coped with this task. Personally, he could not take part in the work of the Constituent Assembly, although he was elected a deputy.

There were no military operations on the territory of the troops until the end of December, since the opposing sides did not have sufficient forces for this. At his disposal, Dutov had the Cossacks of the Orenburg Cossack reserve regiments and the cadets of the Orenburg Cossack School. In relation to the first period of the struggle, one can speak of Dutov's defensive strategy, which implied the exclusion of Bolshevik detachments from the province and the army.

On November 4, 27-year-old S.M. arrived in Orenburg from Petrograd. Zviling is a delegate to the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets, appointed by the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee as Extraordinary Commissar of the Orenburg Governorate. He was a determined man who distinguished himself even during the years of the first Russian revolution by participating in robberies in Omsk and Tomsk, and even the Social Democrats then preferred to dissociate themselves from his actions. In November 1917, Zwiling proposed to replace the former provincial commissar Arkhangelsky, but he handed power over to Dutov, whom it was not so easy for Zwiling to replace. During the week after his arrival, Zviling spoke daily at rallies in front of the troops of the Orenburg garrison with calls to overthrow Dutov.

On the night of November 7, the leaders of the Bolsheviks were arrested and sent to the villages of Verkhne-Ozernaya and Nezhinskaya. Among the reasons for the arrest were not only calls for an uprising against the Provisional Government, the distribution of appeals and oral agitation among the soldiers of the Orenburg garrison and workers, but also Zwiling's statement about the opening of hostilities by the Bolsheviks, information about the movement of Bolshevik troops from Tashkent to Orenburg and the discovery of a wagon at the Orenburg station with hand grenades from Kazan. However, intensive agitation did its job, and on November 7 the Orenburg Soviet of Soldiers' Deputies was re-elected, the Bolsheviks acquired the leading role (90% of the seats). They were preparing to seize power, counting on the 104th, 105th and 238th infantry reserve regiments, which were part of the local garrison (in addition to these units, the Orenburg garrison included reserve battalions of the 48th infantry division). Eliminating the threat of a local Bolshevik coup in Orenburg itself became the main task for Dutov, and he coped with it.

Meanwhile, rather significant groups of officers began to arrive in Orenburg, including those who had already taken part in the battles with the Bolsheviks in Moscow, which strengthened the position of supporters of active armed resistance to the Reds. In particular, on November 7 from Moscow to Orenburg with the assistance of the sister of mercy M.A. Nesterovich managed to get through 120 officers and cadets (in November - at least 188). For "self-defense and combating violence and pogroms, no matter what side they come from," on November 8, the Orenburg City Duma established the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, chaired by the mayor V.F. Baranovsky; The Committee included 34 representatives of the Cossacks, city and zemstvo self-government, political parties (except for the Bolsheviks and Cadets), public and national organizations. Socialists played the leading role in it.

In response to the arrest of the Bolshevik leaders, on November 9, a strike of workers at the main railway workshops and depots began, and railway traffic stopped. On November 11 or 12, the Extraordinary Commissioner of the Orenburg province and Turgai region P.A. secretly arrived in Orenburg to clarify the situation. Kobozev, it was he who was to lead the fight against Dutov. The Orenburg Bolsheviks drew up an ultimatum to Dutov, which was supposed to be presented to the ataman after receiving a telegram from Kobozev indicating that he had gathered troops for the offensive. Kobozev left for Buzuluk, and in his absence, the Orenburg Bolsheviks, perhaps because of Zwiling's ambitions, decided to force things.

On November 14, the executive committee of the Orenburg Soviet was re-elected. On the night of November 15, on the initiative of Zwiling, the Council held a meeting in the building of the Caravanserai, which was attended by 125 people. At about two o'clock in the morning, a decision was made to create a military revolutionary committee and an order was immediately issued to transfer all power in Orenburg to the Military Revolutionary Committee. Opponents of the Bolsheviks reacted immediately. At the insistence of Dutov, the Committee decided to arrest the conspirators. The caravanserai was cordoned off by Cossacks, junkers and police, after which all those gathered were detained. Up to 36 members of the Orenburg Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies from the Bolshevik Party were arrested, some were sent to the villages, and later returned to prison, where they were kept in a sparing regime (already on the night of December 13, those arrested managed to escape). The Military Revolutionary Committee, and with it the threat of the Bolsheviks seizing power in the city, were eliminated.

At the end of November, Dutov was elected a deputy of the Constituent Assembly from the Orenburg Cossack army. Dutov was subordinate to the centers of two military districts (the territory of the army in military and administrative terms was divided into 3 military districts - 1st (Orenburg), 2nd (Verkhneuralsky), 3rd (Troitsky), in the fall of 1918 was formed and 4 th (Chelyabinsk) military district) - Verkhneuralsk and Troitsk, as well as the cities of Orsk and (quite conditionally, only from November 2 to 20) Chelyabinsk. Thus, in November, Dutov formally placed the vast territory of the Southern Urals under his control. The demobilization of the Orenburg garrison was announced, which the soldiers had long dreamed of. The decaying garrison (about 20,000 men) was disarmed by the forces of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Cossack Reserve Regiment, which made it possible to provide the detachments formed in Orenburg with weapons (the headquarters of the reserve regiments continued to exist in December). Dutov also mobilized older Cossacks.

In order to liquidate the strike of the railroad workers, on November 11, the Food Committee stopped issuing bread to the strikers, on November 15, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution made a similar decision regarding the wages of the strikers. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks began to blockade Orenburg, not letting food into the city by rail. Also, soldiers returning from the front were not allowed into Orenburg, which is why about 10,000 soldiers soon accumulated in the area between the stations of Kinel and Novosergievka. On November 22, Orenburg workers and railroad workers turned to Lenin for help. November 24 L.D. Trotsky in a conversation with the Bolshevik commander-in-chief N.V. Krylenko declared: “We offer you, Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, to immediately move in the direction of Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Orenburg such forces that, without shaking our front line, would be powerful enough to wipe out counter-revolutionary rebellion of the Cossack generals and the Kadet bourgeoisie.

The leaders of the Bolsheviks quickly realized how dangerous the performance of the Orenburg Cossacks was for them. On November 25, an appeal by the Council of People's Commissars to the population about the fight against Kaledin and Dutov appeared. The Southern Urals were declared under a state of siege, negotiations with the enemy were prohibited, the leaders of the Whites were outlawed, support was guaranteed for all Cossacks who went over to the side of Soviet power. Commissioner Kobozev informed the Council of People's Commissars about the announcement of the Orenburg province in a state of siege on December 2.

On the military circle in December 1917, supporters of the Bolsheviks T.I. Sedelnikov and podesaul I.D. Kashirin demanded the resignation of Dutov and the recognition of Soviet power, but their proposal was not supported. Dutov was again elected ataman, and on December 11, by a decree of the military circle, the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, the Bashkir and Kyrgyz congresses, the Orenburg Military District was formed within the borders of the Orenburg province and Turgai region (commander - Dutov, chief of staff - Colonel I. G. Akulinin) . Ataman knew what processes were taking place on the outskirts of Russia and hoped that the autonomized Cossack and national outskirts would be able to become the embryos of the future unification of the country on the anti-Bolshevik platform. In the meantime, he temporarily allowed some isolation of the Orenburg Cossack army and the Orenburg province.

On December 16, the ataman sent out an appeal to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. One of Dutov's letters was intercepted by the Tashkent Bolsheviks, did not reach the addressee and was then published in order to discredit Dutov. People and weapons were needed to fight the Bolsheviks; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to the fight. Those volunteer detachments that were organized in 1917 in the Southern Urals by Dutov mainly consisted of officers and young students; village squads were formed. Dutov managed to induce the merchants and townspeople to raise funds to organize the struggle.

In November-December 1917, Dutov's opponents had no idea of ​​his weakness and were misinformed by information coming from Orenburg, in particular, information that Dutov had up to 7,000 Cossacks. In fact, due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers and students of military schools, no more than two thousand people in total, including old people and young people. Most of the combat-ready Cossacks had not yet returned from the front of the First World War, and those returning, as already mentioned, did not want to take up arms again, since the new government had not yet had time to prove itself, and there seemed to be nothing to fight for. It is interesting that in Soviet historiography there was a figure of "15,000 well-armed and trained fighters."

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks were building up their forces. Already in December, the Reds gathered at least 5,000 people against Dutov from Samara, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Perm, Ivashchenkov, Ufa, Buzuluk, Chelyabinsk, Moscow, Petrograd and other cities, as well as from Arkhangelsk, Asha-Balashovsky, Beloretsky, Bogoyavlensky, Katav- Ivanovsky, Minyarsky, Simsky, Tirlyansky and Yuryuzansky factories, however, the detachments that came out to fight Dutov were motley. However, it was far from a random rabble. For example, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, who were part of the combined Northern flying detachment of midshipman S.D. Pavlov, were recruited from the teams of the battleships "Andrew the First-Called" and "Petropavlovsk". The crews of these ships tore to pieces their own officers in Helsingfors in March 1917. In addition to the sailors, the veterans of the revolutionary underground, who were in the militant units back in the years of the first Russian revolution, participated in the fight against Dutov at its initial stage. By the beginning of 1918, over 10,000 people were drawn to the fight against Dutov by the Reds.

On December 20, the Extraordinary Commissar Kobozev, who led the fight against Dutov, sent him an ultimatum. There was no answer. On December 23, the Reds went on the offensive. Their echelons reached the Platovka station, but it was possible to move further only with battles. The first battle with the use of artillery took place near the Syrt station. At the entrance to the Kargala station near Orenburg, the Reds discovered an officer detachment posted by Dutov and fled in a panic to Platovka, pursued by the Whites. On the stretch between Kargala and Perevolotsk, telegraph poles were sawn down, which was enough for the Reds to flee, who decided that the army had risen against them.

The offensive began almost simultaneously from the northwest and northeast - from Buzuluk and from Chelyabinsk. At the same time, the Reds tried to act by advancing from Turkestan from the direction of Tashkent. The overall leadership and coordination of actions was at a very low level, which the Reds themselves recognized. The first serious offensive of Kobozev's formations on Orenburg completely failed. At the same time, the offensive of the Bolsheviks in the Chelyabinsk region was crowned with success. On December 24, the Reds occupied the villages of Yemanzhelinsky and Nizhne-Uvelskaya, and on the night of December 25, Troitsk, the center of the 3rd military district of the Orenburg Cossack army (the Cossacks in Troitsk were carried away by the celebration of Christmas, which the Bolsheviks took advantage of.).

With the approval of the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution and the small military circle, on December 31, Dutov ordered an end to the pursuit of the enemy to occupy the Novosergievka station, since the territory subject to him would thus be cleared of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, it was supposed to put up a barrier on Novosergievka from officers, junkers and Cossack volunteers numbering 100-150 people with a machine gun and conduct nearby horse and undercover reconnaissance, the reserve (200 Cossacks with a machine gun) was supposed to be at Platovka station. These parts had to be replaced periodically. The remaining forces were planned to be withdrawn to Orenburg.

During the second offensive of Kobozev on Orenburg on January 7, 1918, a strong battle took place east of Novosergievka, but the battles for the Syrt station, occupied by the Reds on January 13, were the most fierce. The Reds estimated the strength of Dutov's supporters, who retreated after that to Orenburg, at only 300 people.

Finally, on January 16, in the decisive battle near the Kargala station, the Reds could not be repulsed. On January 18, as a result of the retreat of the Cossacks and the uprising of the workers in the city itself, Orenburg was surrendered, the volunteer detachments were declared disbanded. Those who did not want to lay down their arms retreated in two directions: to Uralsk and Verkhneuralsk, or temporarily took refuge in the villages. The ataman himself had to hastily leave the military capital, accompanied by six officers, with whom he took military regalia out of the city. On January 19, the Reds entered the city. On the occupation of Orenburg, on January 22, Lenin sent a radiogram to “Everyone, everyone”: “Orenburg has been taken by the Soviet authorities, and the leader of the Cossacks, Dutov, has been defeated and fled.” Despite the demands of the Bolsheviks to detain Dutov, the promise of a reward for his capture and the almost complete absence of his guards, not one of the villages betrayed the army chieftain. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the army and went to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, which was far from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks without losing control of the army.

The basis of the new formation was the partisan detachments of military foremen G.V. Enborisov and Yu.I. Mamaeva, podesaulov V.A. Borodin and K.N. Mikhailov. On the territory of the district, Dutov's detachments held out until mid-April. In March, the Cossacks also surrendered Verkhneuralsk. After that, the Dutov government settled in the village of Krasninskaya, where by mid-April it was surrounded. At the military council, it was decided to break through to the south and, if it was not possible to stay on military land, to leave along the Ural River to the Kyrgyz steppes. There they thought to stay until the opportunity to resume the fight against the Bolsheviks opens up (there are obvious parallels with the Steppe campaign of the Don Cossacks). Dutov himself subsequently claimed that the Cossacks went on a campaign in order to get cartridges from the warehouses in Turgay, and also to rest after a tense struggle, that is, he denied the forced nature of the withdrawal, which was not true.

April 17, breaking through the encirclement by four partisan detachments, as well as an officer platoon, Dutov escaped from Krasninskaya. This date can be considered the beginning of the 600-verst Turgai campaign. “The spring thaw did not allow them to be pursued (Cossacks. - A.G.), and they (the Cossacks - A.G.), having broken up into small groups in the Turgai region, dispersed in different directions, ”wrote V.K. Blucher. It is not clear whether the thaw was the decisive reason for their salvation. Probably, the intensification of rebel actions on the territory of the army also played a certain role. Blucher's instruction on the division of the Cossacks into "groups" does not correspond to reality either. On the way to Turgay, the Cossacks, on the contrary, united in one detachment. In Turgay, the partisans got significant warehouses of food and ammunition, which remained after the departure of the detachment of General A.D. Lavrentiev, who pacified the Kyrgyz unrest in 1916. In addition, the Cossacks got 2.5 million Romanov rubles. During their stay in the city (until June 12), the Cossacks had a rest, replenished the horse staff, updated the materiel.

The conflict between the old men and front-line soldiers that took place in the Orenburg Cossack army, as well as in other troops, prevented Dutov from uniting significant masses of Cossacks around him at the initial stage of the struggle. However, the new government, disregarding the Cossack traditions and way of life, spoke to the Cossacks mainly from a position of strength, which caused acute discontent among them, which quickly grew into an armed confrontation. For the majority of the Cossacks, the struggle against the Bolsheviks took on the character of a struggle for their rights and the very possibility of a free existence.

Thus, in the spring of 1918, out of touch with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st military district, led by a congress of delegates from 25 villages and a headquarters headed by military foreman D.M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed the detachment of the chairman of the council of the Iletsk Protection P.A. Persianov, April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya - a punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee S.M. Zviling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of military foreman N.V. Lukin made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for a while and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with cruel measures: they shot, burned the resisting villages (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and they imposed indemnities. As a result, by June, over 6,000 Cossacks took part in the insurrectionary struggle on the territory of the 1st Military District alone. At the end of May, the Cossacks of the 3rd military district, supported by the rebel Czechoslovaks, joined the movement.

In the 20th of May, a delegation of the Congress of the United Villages arrived in Turgay - a member of the military government G.G. Bogdanov and podesaul I.N. Pivovarov, who conveyed to Dutov the request of the chairman of the Congress, Krasnoyartsev, to come to the army and lead the fight against the Bolsheviks there. Krasnoyartsev, addressing Dutov, wrote: “Batko Ataman. I and the congress of 25 united villages ... having heard your proximity, we ask you to come to the village of Vetlyanskaya together with the government. You are needed, your name is on the lips of everyone, you will inhale even more unity, cheerfulness and uplift with your presence. The struggle has been going on for five months, 11 machine guns, four good cannons have been beaten off and on hand ... The spirit is cheerful, there is hope, the Bolsheviks from Russia are chasing: Samara, Syzran, Penza, Kuznetsk, Saratov, Tsaritsyn, Kamyshin are overthrown, the life of the Bolsheviks in them ends. The Urals are in league with us. Go help, there's a lot of work." Probably, with a similar proposal a little later, two Cossacks from Chelyabinsk, liberated from the Bolsheviks on May 26, 1918, arrived at Dutov, they reported on the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps and the uprising of the Cossacks of the 3rd district.

As a popular Cossack leader, Dutov could unite large masses of Cossacks around him. He was legally elected even under the Provisional Government, a military ataman, one of the most authoritative Cossack leaders. Among the commanders of the rebel detachments and even fronts, junior officers, unknown to the bulk of the Cossacks, prevailed, while several staff officers (including those with an academic education) and members of the military government went on the campaign along with Dutov.

In view of the news of major anti-Bolshevik uprisings, the detachment returned to Orenburg, liberated from the Bolsheviks on July 3 by detachments under the command of military foremen Krasnoyartsev and N.P. Karnaukhov. Solemnly met Dutov and the military government of the Cossack capital. July 7, 1918, the day the partisan detachment of the Orenburg Cossack army entered Orenburg, should be considered the end date of the Turgai campaign. For the anti-Bolshevik movement in the Orenburg Cossack army, the importance of the Turgai campaign can hardly be overestimated. Having gone to the Turgai steppes, the Cossacks managed to preserve both their administration (ataman, military government) and the core of the ideological supporters of the anti-Bolshevik movement, around which the Orenburg Cossacks were able to unite later to further fight the Bolsheviks.

The liberation of the territory of the troops from the Bolsheviks was undertaken from two sides: in the south - by the forces of the rebel detachments of the Orenburg Cossacks, in the north - by the combined forces of the Cossacks and units of the Separate Czechoslovak Rifle Corps that rebelled against the Bolsheviks, and the Orenburg Cossack units in the north operated as part of the Siberian Army and subordinated to Provisional Siberian government. The delicacy of Dutov's position was that, as a result, the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army was divided between the Samara Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) and the Provisional Siberian government. Meanwhile, Dutov immediately upon his return to the army recognized Komuch and, as a deputy of the Constituent Assembly, became a member of it. On July 13, he left for Samara, from where he returned on July 19 in the new position of Komuch's chief commissioner in the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, the Orenburg province and the Turgai region.

Shortly after his return from Samara, he went to Omsk to establish contacts with Siberian politicians. This trip should not be considered a manifestation of a double game. The Orenburg ataman adhered to his own political line, kept an eye on the political forces that surrounded him, and sometimes flirted with both, trying to achieve maximum benefits for his army. Considering that the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army was divided between the Samara and Omsk governments, Dutov, as the ataman of the entire army, had to maintain relations with both. In terms of its political orientation, the coalition (from the Socialist-Revolutionaries to the monarchists, with a predominance of representatives of the right wing) the Provisional Siberian Government that existed in Omsk was much more to the right of the Socialist-Revolutionary Komuch, which was one of the reasons for the sharp disagreements between them. In this situation, Dutov's visit to Siberia was considered by the Socialist-Revolutionaries almost as a betrayal of Komuch's interests. Meanwhile, according to some reports, on July 24-25, 1918, an attempt was made on Dutov in Chelyabinsk, but the ataman was not injured.

On July 25, Dutov was promoted to major general by Komuch, but it seems that after a few days the leaders of the Committee regretted this. Dutov arrived in Omsk on July 26 and was received in the Council of Ministers in the evening of the same day; his first meeting with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Provisional Siberian Government P.V. Vologda. The Omsk visit caused an extremely negative reaction in Samara.

Following Dutov, Comrade Chairman Komuch and Head of the Department of Finance I.M. arrived in Omsk. Brushvit. Upon his return to Samara, Brushvit made the following report at the Committee meeting on August 9: “Having arrived in Siberia, I intended to speak with the Minister-Chairman of Vologda, but I did not manage to talk with him. I was denied admission. At this time, a meeting of the Siberian government was taking place together with Dutov. Dutov at first behaved rather modestly. But later he said: there is nothing serious in Samara. The army is led by Soviets. For these reasons, they allocated an active part of the Cossacks to liquidate the Samara Committee. He asks for the inclusion of the Cossacks in the Siberian Republic. Dutov's report was received unfavorably. However, he had several confidential conversations with Grishin-Almazov."

On August 4, Dutov returned from Omsk and took up operations at the front, and in addition, he was forced to explain himself to Samara. The fighting in August-September was characterized by attempts by the Orenburgers to take Orsk, the last center not controlled by the whites on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army. With varying success, there were battles in the Tashkent direction. After the capture of Orsk, Dutov planned to develop an offensive against Aktyubinsk and eliminate the entire southern front. However, this could only be achieved if all of Turkestan was completely liberated from the Reds, for which, given its colossal territory, very significant forces were needed. Such a task was unbearable for the Orenburgers; they could not count on any third-party assistance, with the exception of supplies. Attempts to take Orsk dragged on until the end of September, and already in early October, in connection with the collapse of the Volga front, the Buzuluk front was formed in the north, which became the main one for the Orenburgers.

According to his political sympathies in the summer of 1918, Dutov belonged to the liberal camp, most likely to the supporters of the Kadet party. The Orenburg ataman spoke very kindly about Komuch, which makes it possible to lay the blame for the further conflict on the representatives of Samara. The imaginary hostility up to a certain point was exclusively a figment of the fantasy of Komuch's figures. On August 12, against the background of the developing conflict with Komuch, Dutov took an unprecedented step - the autonomy of the territory of the army, which significantly strengthened his position as chieftain. The autonomization of the army was formally a manifestation of separatism, but Dutov himself was a statesman, not a separatist, it’s just that at that moment in Russia there was no supreme state authority authoritative enough for the Cossacks, and by decree of August 12, the leaders of the Cossacks sought to protect the army from external dangers and ill-conceived decisions of this or that or other government (Samara or Omsk). Autonomization made Dutov more independent in conflict and negotiations with Komuch. Nevertheless, dependence on Samara for the supply of ammunition and food did not allow Dutov to completely break with Komuch.

As a result of Brushvit's report, apparently, already on August 13, a telegram from Samara was sent to Orenburg depriving Dutov of all the powers of Komuch. A member of Komuch V.V. was also sent to Orenburg. Podvitsky, who was considered a right SR, with the aim of subordinating the recalcitrant region to the Samara government. “These actions of the Committee,” Dutov wrote, “are clearly offensive, defiant, and yet there is no need to raise a sharp question, because just at that time the Bolsheviks went on the offensive, and again cartridges and shells were needed. These are the conditions under which you have to work.” The regime established by Dutov in the Southern Urals was relatively mild and tolerant of various political currents, up to the Menshevik. Obviously, in order to strengthen his position, Dutov sought to enlist the support of the widest possible spectrum of political forces.

Meanwhile, Dutov's position, not only on the political stage of the White East of Russia, but even in the Orenburg Cossack army itself, upon returning from Turgay, became precarious: political opponents appeared in the Cossack leadership, an opposition began to form, which most clearly manifested itself in the second half of 1918 .

In order to eliminate partisanship in the armed formations of the Orenburg Cossacks as soon as possible, and at the same time to weaken the opposition of the former rebels, Dutov made a successful attempt to unify the Cossack units in order to create in the future his own Cossack army, on which one could rely entirely (decree of the military government No. August 31, 1918). A month and a half after this reorganization, the South-Western Army was created, the basis of which was the Orenburg Cossack units.

The schedule of Dutov's daily work has been preserved. His working day began at 8 am and lasted at least 12 hours with virtually no break. Dutov was completely accessible to ordinary people- any person could come to the ataman with their questions or problems.

At the September State Conference in Ufa, the purpose of which was to create a unified state power in the territory not controlled by the Bolsheviks, Dutov was elected a member of the Council of Elders of the Conference and chairman of the Cossack faction. Dutov spoke at the Conference only once, on September 12, with a secret report on the difficult situation at the front, and in this report he emphasized the need to create a unified command and central authority. The main outcome of the work of the State Conference was the creation of the Provisional All-Russian Government (Directorate). In its orientation, the government of the white east of Russia turned out to be Kadet-Socialist-Revolutionary and did not receive recognition from either the left or the right. That is why the fall of the Directory and the coming to power of Admiral A.V. Kolchak were relatively painless.

On September 28, the Cossacks took Orsk, the last of the cities on the territory of the troops occupied by the Bolsheviks. Thus, the territory of the army was completely cleared of the Reds for some time. This success was largely ensured by Ataman Dutov himself, who, despite the strong opposition to his power from the Social Revolutionaries from the military intelligentsia and part of the rebel leaders, managed to retain sole power and subjugate the previously independent rebel partisan detachments, bringing them to the traditional form of the Cossack units. For the capture of Orsk, Dutov, by decision of the Military Circle, was promoted to lieutenant general on October 1, officially the production was carried out "for services to the Motherland and the Army" and approved by the Supreme Commander of all land and naval armed forces of Russia, General V.G. Boldyrev.

Upon the liberation of the territory of the troops, most of the Cossacks, considering their task completed, sought to disperse to the villages and take care of the household. This, of course, played into the hands of the Bolsheviks. The retreat of the Whites from the Volga region turned the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army into a front line.

At Headquarters, it was decided to transform the Cossack and army formations in the area into a separate army, called the South-Western. The name of the army was explained by the fact that this association included in its composition all the anti-Bolshevik forces of the southwestern direction in relation to the Headquarters in Ufa. The Southwestern Army was formed on October 17, mainly from units of the Orenburg Cossack army; however, it also included the Ural and Astrakhan Cossack units, however, along with the South-Western army, there was also the Ural army (orders for the army for 1918 are known), which, apparently, had tactical independence. Naturally, Dutov was appointed commander of the army. Headquarters South Western army belonged only to the general management of the operations of the Urals, which is reflected in the orders for the army. Their subordination to Dutov was purely formal (however, the same as their subordination to Kolchak and Denikin), since long time the Urals fought separately from their allies in the anti-Bolshevik struggle. As of December 28, 1918, Dutov's army consisted of 23 battalions and 230 hundreds, or 10,892 bayonets and 22,449 sabers, of which 2,158 bayonets and 631 sabers were in the reserve of the Supreme Commander. The number of hundreds in the army was 10 times the number of battalions!

In the second half of 1918 - the first half of 1919, the fate of Russia was decided in the fierce struggle in the Urals. The situation on the front of the Southwestern Army developed as follows. The Buzuluk group of Colonel F.E. was included in the army. Makhina. Makhin himself was appointed commander of the troops of the Tashkent group and commander of the Orenburg Cossack Plastun division, and on October 20 he left for Ak-Bulak, and the head of the 2nd Syzran rifle division, Colonel A.S., took command of the troops of the Buzuluk group. Bakich. In addition to the Buzuluk and Tashkent groups, the Ural group under the command of General V.I. Akutina. The task of the army was to hold back the advance of the Reds, and in the Buzuluk direction it was supposed to keep the defense on allegedly fortified positions - until the formation of the Orenburg Cossack consolidated division, after which the offensive was probably supposed. The Ural group was supposed to defend in the Saratov direction and cover the Ural region, as well as get in touch with the Astrakhan Cossack army and the troops of Colonel L.F. Bicherakhov, operating on the western coast of the Caspian Sea. Only the Tashkent group of Makhin, after the regrouping, was supposed to go on a decisive offensive and take Aktyubinsk, preparing "for a non-stop advance on Tashkent." However, fighting happiness changed Dutov. On October 29, Buzuluk fell, and from the second half of November, the Reds launched an offensive against Orenburg.

On November 18, as a result of a coup in Omsk, Kolchak came to power, who became the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander of all the land and sea armed forces of Russia. The reaction of political and military figures in the East of Russia to the Omsk events was far from unequivocal. On November 20, 1918, one of the first among them recognized Kolchak's supreme power and Ataman Dutov entered his operational subordination, which largely influenced the choice of other leaders. There were also dissatisfied with the coup. In particular, after the fall of the Directory of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, he declared Kolchak an "enemy of the people" and sentenced him to death in absentia.

On November 23, the military ataman of the Transbaikal Cossack army, Colonel G.M. Semenov sent Prime Minister P.V. Vologda, Supreme Commissioner of the Directory in the Far East, General D.L. A telegram to the Croat and Ataman Dutov, in which he indicated that he was protesting against the candidacy of Kolchak, and that he would accept only Denikin, Horvat or Dutov as the Supreme Ruler. The nomination of Dutov's candidacy was the initiative of Semenov himself, Dutov did not know about this, however, such an initiative compromised him to some extent before the supreme power, although he did not claim it, probably not wanting to take responsibility and not considering himself for this capable enough. On December 1, Dutov sent a letter to Semyonov, one of his former pupils, urging him to recognize Kolchak.

With the advent of Kolchak to power, the socialists made a number of unsuccessful attempts at revenge. One of the most dangerous for the White movement can be called an attempt to seize power as a result of a conspiracy against Ataman Dutov in Orenburg. The danger of the Orenburg conspiracy for the whites was that among its organizers were representatives of several diverse and influential political forces: V.A. Chaikin, Bashkir leader A.-Z. Validov, the Kazakh leader M. Chokaev, the Social Revolutionary, the commander of the Aktobe group of the Orenburg Cossack army Makhin and the ataman of the 1st military district, Colonel K.L. Kargin. Having seized power, the conspirators could split the anti-Bolshevik camp in eastern Russia and thereby lead to the fall of the entire Eastern Front, the defeat of Kolchak.

Validov, judging by his memoirs, hated Kolchak more than many Social Revolutionaries, and was constantly negotiating by direct wire with members of the Constituent Assembly in Ufa. To coordinate the underground work, a member of the Central Committee, the leader of the Turkestan Social Revolutionaries and a politician of the extreme left, V.A., arrived in Orenburg. Chaikin is an old friend of Validov; they easily found a common language.

Together with another future conspirator, a deputy from the Ferghana region, Chokaev, Chaikin fled Chelyabinsk on November 22, 1918. It was then, according to Chokaev's memoirs, that they came up with a plan to liberate Turkestan from the Reds, for which it was necessary to remove Dutov. On November 6 and 25, Validov inspected units loyal to him at the front, where he met with future conspirators: Makhin and Kargin (Kargin came from the same village of Buranna as Makhin's father), agreeing with them on measures against Dutov. Makhin and Kargin differed in their left-wing views, and the first was a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party almost from 1906, and the second before the revolution was under covert police surveillance for some time.

On the night of December 2, the conspirators held their only meeting in Orenburg, in the building of Caravanserai, the seat of the Bashkir government. The meeting, according to Chokaev's memoirs, was attended by Validov, Chokaev, Makhin, Kargin and Chaikin. The conspirators approved the composition of the future united government of the three countries (Kazakhstan, Bashkurdistan, the Cossack state). Makhin was to become the commander-in-chief, Kargin - the military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army (instead of Dutov), ​​Validov was scheduled to be the ruler of Bashkurdistan, S. Kadirbaev of Kazakhstan (representative of Alash-Orda in Orenburg), Chokaev was to become the minister of foreign relations; Chaikin also received a position in the future government. At that time, four Bashkir soldiers were quartered in Orenburg. infantry regiment, Ataman division of the Orenburg Cossack army, 1st Orenburg Cossack spare regiment, escort hundred and guard company, as well as artillery and technical units. The conspirators, relying on the Bashkir units, had every reason to count on success.

However, Lieutenant A.-A. Veliyev (Akhmetgali), a Tatar merchant from Chelyabinsk, informed the commandant of Orenburg, Captain A. Zavaruev, about the secret meeting. He, in turn, warned the head of the Orenburg military district, General Akulinin, about this. The Ataman division and the reserve regiment were immediately put on alert, the Caravanserai and the barracks of the Bashkir units were monitored, Russian officers who served in the Bashkir regiments were called to the commandant of the city. During the night, the conspirators tried to gather units loyal to them at the Orenburg station, which was in their hands. However, realizing that the initiative had passed to Dutov's supporters, Validov left the city at noon on December 2, seizing all the wagons available. The conspiracy against Dutov and Kolchak failed. Dutov managed to keep the troops under his control, destroying the plans of the socialists.

Dutov fought hard not only with real opposition, but in general with any threats to his power. This was most clearly manifested in the case of a member of the military government, Colonel V.G. Rudakov, whom Dutov simply betrayed in order to prove his loyalty to the Supreme Ruler Kolchak. No less harshly, using intrigues, Dutov fought with his potential competitor for the post of military ataman, General N.T. Sukin. Such reprehensible methods of one of the largest Cossack leaders of the period of the Civil War could not but affect the overall outcome of the White Struggle in the East of Russia.

By order of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander No. 92 of December 28, 1918, the Southwestern Army was divided into separate Orenburg and Ural armies under the command of Generals Dutov and N.A. Saveliev. On January 21, 1919, the whites left Orenburg, which had an extremely unfavorable effect on the mood of the Cossacks. The very next day, units of the 24th Simbirsk Iron Rifle Division and the cavalry of the Red Turkestan Army, which had broken through from the south, entered Orenburg. Soon after leaving Orenburg, the military government and the ataman moved first to Orsk, and then to Troitsk.

Considering the main task to prevent the Reds from establishing a regular railway connection with Turkestan, Dutov fought for every piece of the railway track in the section between the Iletsk Protection and Aktyubinsk that was still under the control of the Cossacks. Preventing the connection of Turkestan with Soviet Russia was one of the main strategic tasks, and, to the credit of the Southwestern, Separate Orenburg and Southern armies, which are sometimes considered almost worthless associations, this task was successfully solved until the end of hostilities in the Southern Urals in the fall of 1919 Mr. Dutov himself, recalling this difficult period, said: “One of the best units of the Bolshevik army acted against us ... the so-called“ iron division ”under the command of Guy ... They had excellent weapons, there was excellent discipline at first. Our position was sometimes very difficult. But... I never despaired!”.

In January 1919, units of the Separate Orenburg Army, having lost contact with the Separate Ural Army, retreated to the east, deep into the territory of the army. The Reds developed their success by advancing along the line of the Orskaya railway. A separate Orenburg army retreated with heavy fighting. On February 13, the Council of Ministers in Omsk decided to establish the position of the chief head of the Orenburg Territory with the Orenburg province subordinate to him (excluding the Trinity and Chelyabinsk districts), as well as the Kustanai and Aktobe districts of the Turgai region. The decision on the inclusion of the Trinity and Chelyabinsk districts in the region was left to the discretion of the command. Dutov was appointed head of the region with the rights of a governor-general. As a result of the retreat of Dutov's troops, the territory of the Orenburg province subordinate to him was minimal (in fact, only part of the Orsk and Verkhneuralsk districts). Too many responsibilities were already entrusted to Dutov, in connection with which he could not start working in his new post for a month.

Dutov's activities in his new capacity focused primarily on the complications associated with the national question: the betrayal of a part of the Bashkirs, headed by the head of the Bashkir military department, Validov, was ripe. After almost three months of secret negotiations, on February 18, the Bashkirs went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and opened the front to them. Already in December-February, before the actual transition to the side of the Reds, the Bashkirs showed disobedience to the command of the South-Western and Separate Orenburg armies, acted independently, and the Bashkir leadership transferred secret information about the White troops to the Reds. The main reason for the betrayal was, obviously, the political predilections and ambitions of the Bashkir leadership, in particular, Validov himself, a supporter of the Social Revolutionaries, who considered Kolchak and Dutov to be his worst enemies. It should also be noted that the white command lacked the necessary flexibility in resolving the extremely painful national issue. The Bolsheviks, despite initial hesitations, hastened to satisfy all the demands of the Bashkirs (broad autonomy), if only the latter would come over to their side.

As a result of the betrayal of the Bashkirs, a gap formed at the junction of the Western and Separate Orenburg armies, which the Reds were not slow to take advantage of, and an urgent need arose to restore communication between the two White armies. For this, the left flank of the Western Army was supposed to be stretched to the village of Kizilskaya, the II Orenburg Cossack Corps was formed, and the IV Orenburg Army Corps was to provide the right flank of the Separate Orenburg Army and communication with the Western Army. Subsequently, to cover the gap, the Western Army formed the Southern Group on its left flank under the command of General P.A. Belova (G.A. Wittekopf).

Failures led to the fact that the morale of the troops dropped sharply, the Cossacks began to arbitrarily go home and run over to the Reds. The significant overwork of the troops and the shortcomings of the militia staffing of the units also had an effect. To increase the morale of the troops, Dutov had to disband unreliable units, take measures to strengthen discipline, and reform the command staff of the army.

In early March, the Western Army of General M.V. Khanzhina went on the offensive, the ultimate goal of which was to be the occupation of Moscow. On March 13, Ufa was taken by parts. Successes on the front of Khanzhin's army from the second half of March strengthened the position of the entire left flank of the white Eastern Front. On March 18, the simultaneous offensive of the units of the Southern Group of the Western Army and the Separate Orenburg Army began.

From the first days of April, Dutov no longer actually commanded the Separate Orenburg Army, but left for Omsk and was engaged in political activities there. From April 7 until the very disbandment of the army, Dutov was replaced (with a break from April 18 to April 25) by his chief of staff, General A.N. Vagin. Thus, it is hardly appropriate to blame Ataman Dutov for any military failures of this period - he no longer had anything to do with them.

On April 9, Dutov arrived in Omsk. In an official interview, he named some of the purposes of his visit: 1) military issues; 2) the question of the new borders of the Orenburg Territory; 3) the national question - relations with the Bashkirs and Kirghiz; 4) the question of the seeding of fields due to crop failure in 1918.

The Omsk period of Dutov's life was far from cloudless. His active participation in Omsk political life gave rise to General Baron A.P. Budberg (assistant to the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief) to speak of him as a person "poking his nose everywhere." According to the correspondent of the newspaper Sibirskaya Rech, who spoke with Dutov for the first time in the summer of 1918, over the past months “the general has changed noticeably. Fatigue, exhaustion are poured into his features. The wrinkles around the lips became deeper and sharper. Only the eyes - black and shiny, still burn with iron will and prowess.

May 23 Separate Orenburg Army was reorganized into the South. The Stavka, apparently, realized the impossibility of the independent struggle of the Cossack cavalry without the support of the army infantry (the cavalry could not storm the fortified areas in the railroad strip, and military operations were tied specifically to it) and created a mixed army with a significant proportion of the Orenburg Cossacks (over 45%). Kolchak appointed Dutov as a marching ataman of all Cossack troops and inspector general of the cavalry, while also retaining the post of military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack troops.

On May 27, Dutov took up his new duties. Initially, its headquarters was located in Yekaterinburg, later moved to Omsk. The position of a marching chieftain and cavalry inspector was considered almost an honorable resignation (this is also indicated by the initial location of the headquarters of the marching chieftain in Yekaterinburg), however, most likely, Kolchak sought to strengthen the status of Dutov, incomprehensible after the disbandment of the Separate Orenburg Army, who had long been in Omsk.

Not only Dutov enjoyed the support of Kolchak, but the Supreme Ruler himself benefited from the support of such an authoritative and energetic figure as Dutov was. There is information that on May 29 Dutov left for Yekaterinburg and further to Perm to clarify the situation on the eve of Kolchak's visit to the city to resolve the conflict with the commander of the Siberian Army, General R. Gaida. On the eve of his arrival in Perm, Kolchak considered a variety of options for resolving this conflict, up to a forceful one, for which he took his convoy with him on a trip and ordered the Headquarters security battalion located in Yekaterinburg to be put on high alert. Apparently, in order to resolve the issue peacefully and preserve the prestige of the supreme power, Kolchak needed Dutov's assistance in negotiations with Gaida. Kolchak visited Perm on the night of June 1, apparently immediately after Dutov's arrival. The Orenburg ataman took part in negotiations with Gaida, even asked Kolchak for rebel general which contributed to a compromise resolution of the situation. And in the future, Dutov, for reasons that are still unclear, supported Gaida in various issues.

June 2 Kolchak, Dutov, Gaida and V.N. Pepelyaev left Perm for Yekaterinburg, where they were joined by General M.K. Dieterichs; On June 4, Kolchak, Gaida, Diterikhs and Dutov returned to Omsk. Then Dutov went on an inspection trip to the Cossack troops of the Far East, where he led the fight against the partisan movement, and also established relations between the supreme state power and local chieftains G.M. Semenov, I.P. Kalmykov and I.M. Gamow, who oriented their policy towards Japan. The main result of Dutov's trip was the reorientation of Omsk towards cooperation with local chieftains in the fight against the partisan movement. The chosen course strengthened the significance of the Cossacks in Kolchak's policy. The chieftains themselves tried to demonstrate their complete loyalty to the Supreme Ruler, but they did not give a single unit to the Eastern Front. Dutov returned to Omsk only on August 12.

On September 18, 1919, the Southern Army was renamed the Orenburg Army, and on September 21, Dutov took command of it (in fact, he was forced to stay in Omsk to participate in the work of the Cossack conference). Dutov and his chief of staff, General Zaitsev, arrived at the troops when they were in the area of ​​the cities of Atbasar and Kokchetav. Dutov took on a difficult economy - the army collapsed and relentlessly retreated across the bare, deserted steppe, lacking food. Typhus raged, which by mid-October mowed down half personnel. October 14 5th Soviet army crossed the Tobol and went on the offensive. The Whites retreated to the next line - the Ishim River. On the evening of October 23, the Reds (Kokchetav group of the 5th Army) began to develop the offensive and on October 29, having occupied Petropavlovsk, they began an almost non-stop pursuit of the Whites along the Trans-Siberian Railway. On the left flank of the white Eastern Front, Dutov's troops retreated to Ishim in order to take up defense along this river, covering the concentration of the main forces of the army. From the Atbasar-Kokchetav region, it was convenient to launch a flank attack on the 5th Army, which was advancing along the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, due to a significant increase in the typhus epidemic and the onslaught of the Reds, it was not possible to gain a foothold on Ishim. Dutov ordered to continue moving towards Atbasar with a forced march. Retreating, the troops lost contact with the enemy. On November 6, news was received about the renaming of the Orenburg Army into a Separate Orenburg Army. On the same day, the concentration of the army was suspended. Parts took up defensive positions in the Atbasar-Kokchetav region. Until the news of the surrender of Omsk, left by the Whites on November 14, was received on November 19, the army stood still, on the front of the still most combat-ready IV Orenburg Army Corps, General Bakich, it was calm. Only after receiving news of the fall of the capital of white Siberia, the retreat was continued, at the same time, the Reds reactivated.

During this period, Dutov developed a plan for partisan actions. This plan was set out in detail by him in a telegram to Kolchak and Sakharov, but it hardly found any application. On November 22, it became known that the Reds were bypassing Atbasar from the north and north-west and entering the rear of Dutov's army. On November 25-26, the enemy attacked at the front, and in addition, skillfully maneuvering, on the night of November 26, he bypassed Akmolinsk from the north and captured it. Later, the Reds continued to operate in the rear of the Separate Orenburg Army and advanced in the direction of Karkaralinsk, where the army headquarters was located.

The hardships that fell to the lot of the retreating units of Dutov can, perhaps, be compared only with those experienced by the troops of the Separate Ural Army, which almost completely died in Turkestan in early 1920. In the full sense of the word, for the Orenburgers, it was a “Hunger Campaign” - just that the name already in exile was received by the campaign of army units along the practically lifeless northern Hungry steppe in Semirechye in late November-December 1919. Truly, this was the way of the cross of the Separate Orenburg Army, whose troops retreated through a sparsely populated, hungry area, spending the night in the open. They slaughtered and ate horses and camels. Everything was taken away from the local population - food, fodder, clothes, sledges, but even this was not enough for the many thousands of people. For everything requisitioned, as a rule, money was paid, although not always in the proper amount. Mortality from cold and exhaustion increased, rivaling that from typhus. Seriously ill people were left to die in settlements, the dead did not have time to bury and the local residents were burdened with this sad rite. The troops moved in large transitions, breaking away from the enemy. The lagging behind single soldiers and Cossacks were often attacked by the Kirghiz, and it was impossible even to find out where the person had disappeared.

On December 1, the Reds captured Semipalatinsk, and on December 10 they took Barnaul, leaving Dutov's troops no chance to connect with the main forces of the White Eastern Front. The only way of further withdrawal was possible - in Semirechye, where units of General B.V. Annenkov. On December 13, Karkaralinsk was occupied by the Reds. Until the end of December, Dutov's troops retreated to Sergiopol. This segment of the journey (550 versts) was one of the most difficult. Data on the number and losses of Dutov's army during the Hunger March vary greatly. The closest to reality should be considered the option according to which out of the 20,000-strong army in the Kokchetav region, about half of the composition reached Sergiopol.

The arrival in Semirechye of emaciated, exhausted Dutovites, 90% of whom were sick with various forms of typhus, was met with hostility by the Annenkovites, who were relatively prosperous here, there were even cases of armed clashes. One of the members of the White movement on Eastern Front, who described himself as “a simple Russian intellectual ... by the will of fate who put on the uniform of the army of Admiral Kolchak”, noted that “having listened to all the stories of local residents, eyewitnesses, and judging by Annenkov’s attitude towards the Orenburgers, it became clear to us that we were in the most - after the Bolsheviks - a place without rights, and if anything to the ataman (Annenkov. - A.G.) gets into his head, then he will do with us.

By order of Dutov on the Separate Orenburg Army No. 3 of January 6, 1920, all units, institutions and establishments of the army were reduced to a separate "Ataman Dutov Detachment" under the command of General Bakich. Dutov himself became the civil governor of the Semirechensk Territory and settled in Lepsinsk. Perhaps Annenkov was afraid of competition from his more famous rival and sought to remove Dutov from the army. Dutov's detachment was included in Annenkov's Separate Semirechensk Army and subordinated to the latter in all respects. Dutov's last order to the army said: “The heavy cross fell to the lot of the Separate Orenburg Army. By the will of fate, the troops had to make very long, almost continuous for six months, movements - first from the region of the Orenburg province to the Aral Sea, then through the Irgiz, Turgai and Atbasar to the Kokchetav-Petropavlovsk region. From here through Akmolinsk and Karkaralinsk to the area of ​​Sergiopol. All those difficulties, hardships and various hardships that the troops of the Orenburg army endured during this long march through the desert-steppe regions defy description. Only impartial history and grateful posterity will truly appreciate the military service, work and hardships of truly Russian people, devoted sons of their Motherland, who selflessly meet all kinds of torment and torment for the sake of saving their Fatherland.

In March 1920, Dutov and his supporters had to leave their homeland and retreat to China through the Kara Saryk glacial pass (at an altitude of 5800 m). Exhausted people and horses walked without a supply of food and fodder, following the mountain ledges, it happened that they fell into the abyss. The ataman himself, in front of the Chinese border, was lowered on a rope from a sheer cliff, almost unconscious. In China, Dutov's detachment was interned in the city of Suiding, settling in the barracks of the Russian consulate. Dutov did not lose hope of resuming the fight against the Bolsheviks. It was with his activities in Soviet historiography that the preparation of the uprising in the Naryn district in November 1920 was associated. He maintained contact with the leaders of the Basmachi, made attempts to organize an anti-Bolshevik underground in the ranks of the Red Army.

To unite all the anti-Bolshevik forces of Western China for a campaign against Soviet Russia, Dutov was not up to the task. Nevertheless, on August 12 (July 30), 1920, Dutov issued Order No. 141 on the unification of anti-Bolshevik forces in Western China into the Orenburg Separate Army. In fact, Dutov's order was necessary, but the Orenburg ataman exceeded his capabilities and did not take into account the changed circumstances in which the commanders of the white detachments that had gone over to China actually turned out to be independent bosses.

The concern of the Soviet leadership about the presence of significant organized and hardened anti-Bolshevik forces near the borders of Soviet Russia is understandable, especially since the Whites themselves did not lose hope of overthrowing the Bolshevik regime. Dutov's anti-Bolshevik activities and his unquestioned authority among the Cossacks prompted Moscow to take drastic measures. A special operation was prepared, initially to kidnap, and later to eliminate Dutov. Under the guise of a like-minded person from Russia, a Soviet agent K.G. penetrated to the ataman. Chanyshev. On February 6, 1921, Dutov was killed in his apartment by one of Chanyshev's subordinates, M. Khodzhamiarov, two guards were mortally wounded, who tried to resist. The killers managed to escape. This murder was, apparently, the first in a series of similar foreign liquidations carried out by the Soviet special services.

So tragically ended the life of the ataman - General A.I. Dutov, who laid the foundation for the White movement in the East of Russia. Ataman Dutov and the Cossacks who died with him were buried in a small cemetery near Suidin. According to some reports, a few days later, Dutov's grave was dug up at night, and the body was beheaded: the killers had to provide proof of the execution of the order. Apparently, this cemetery, like many other Russian cemeteries in China, was destroyed during the "cultural revolution".

The elimination of such a major political and military figure as Dutov dealt a severe blow to the Orenburg Cossacks. Of course, Dutov was not an ideal person, he did not stand out for his abilities, he had numerous weaknesses inherent in ordinary people, but at the same time he nevertheless showed qualities that allowed him in troubled times to stand at the head of one of the largest Cossack troops in Russia, to create his own quite combat-ready practically out of nothing. army and lead a merciless fight against the Bolsheviks; he became the spokesman of hopes, and sometimes even the idol of hundreds of thousands of people who believed him.

To the main

The father of the future Cossack leader, Ilya Petrovich, a military officer of the era of the Turkestan campaigns, was promoted to the rank of major general in September when he was dismissed from service. Mother - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Uskova - the daughter of a constable, a native of the Orenburg province.

A. I. Dutov graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps, and then the Nikolaev Cavalry School in the city, was promoted to cornet and sent to the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, stationed in Kharkov.

Then he completed courses at the Nikolaev Engineering School on October 1, and volunteered for the Russo-Japanese War at the Academy of the General Staff in Dutov, where he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 3- th degree.

World War I

On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began to work in his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on the non-recognition of the power of the Bolsheviks, who had carried out a coup in Petrograd, on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army.

Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communication with Turkestan and Siberia. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and the army until its convocation. On the whole, Dutov coped with this task. The Bolsheviks who arrived from the center were seized and put behind bars, and the Orenburg garrison, which had decomposed and set up the pro-Bolsheviks (due to the anti-war position of the Bolsheviks), was disarmed and sent home.

In November, Dutov was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly (from the Orenburg Cossack army). Opening on December 7 the 2nd regular Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack army, he said:

“Today we are living through the Bolshevik days. We see in the twilight the outlines of tsarism, Wilhelm and his supporters, and the provocative figure of Vladimir Lenin and his supporters clearly and definitely stands before us: Trotsky-Bronstein, Ryazanov-Goldenbach, Kamenev-Rosenfeld, Sukhanov-Gimmer and Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. Russia is dying. We are present at her last breath. There was Great Russia from the Baltic Sea to the ocean, from the White Sea to Persia, there was a whole, great, formidable, powerful, agricultural, labor Russia - it does not exist.

On December 16, the ataman sent out an appeal to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. People and weapons were needed to fight the Bolsheviks; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight, only in some places stanitsa squads were formed. Due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers from officers and student youth, no more than 2 thousand people in total, including old people and youth. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to the fight.

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks launched an offensive against Orenburg. After heavy fighting, the detachments of the Red Army under the command of Blucher, many times superior to the Dutovites, approached Orenburg and on January 31, 1918, as a result of joint actions with the Bolsheviks who had settled in the city, captured it. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the Orenburg army and went to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, located far from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks.

But in the meantime, the Bolsheviks, with their policy, embittered the main part of the Orenburg Cossacks, which had been neutral to the new government, and in the spring of 1918, out of touch with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st military district, led by a congress of delegates of 25 villages and a headquarters headed by military foreman D. M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed a detachment of the chairman of the council of the Iletsk Defense P. A. Persiyanov, on April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya, the punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee, S. M. Tsviling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of Cossacks of the military foreman N. V. Lukin made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for some time and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with cruel measures: they shot, burned the resisting villages (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and they imposed indemnities.

Awards

• Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class.
• Order of St. Anne 3rd class
• swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anne 3rd degree
• Order of St. Anne 2nd class

Literature

• Ganin A.V. Ataman A. I. Dutov.(Forgotten and unknown Russia. At a great turning point) M. "Tsentrpoligraf" 623 from 2006 ISBN 5-9524-2447-3
• * Kolpakidi A.I. KGB liquidators. - M.: Yauza Eksmo, 2009. - S. 264-270. - 768 p. - (Encyclopedia of special services). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-33667-8

see also

Links

• A. V. Ganin. Alexander Ilyich Dutov "Questions of History" No. 9 S. 56-84
• Andrey Ganin Alexander Ilyich Dutov. Biography

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See what "Dutov Alexander Ilyich" is in other dictionaries:

Alexander Ilyich Dutov in 1919 Date of birth 5 (17) August 1879 (1879 08 17) Place of birth the Russian Empire, Syrdarya province ... Wikipedia

- (1879 1921) Russian lieutenant general (1919). Since September 1917, the ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks, in November 1917, led an armed uprising against the Soviet regime in Orenburg, which was liquidated by the revolutionary troops. In 1918 19 he commanded ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

One of the leaders of the Cossack counter-revolution in the Urals, lieutenant general (1919). From the nobles of the Orenburg Cossack army. He graduated from the Nikolaev Cavalry ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Dutov, Alexander Ilyich- DUTOV Alexander Ilyich (1879 1921), lieutenant general (1919), military ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army (since October 1917). On October 27, he led an armed uprising in Orenburg, which was suppressed by revolutionary troops. In 1918 19 the commander ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Ataman Dutov, who liked to repeat: “With my views and opinions, like gloves, I do not play”

The father of the future Cossack leader, Ilya Petrovich, a military officer of the era of the Turkestan campaigns, in September 1907, upon dismissal from service, was promoted to the rank of major general. Mother - Elizaveta Nikolaevna Uskova - the daughter of a constable, a native of the Orenburg province. Alexander Ilyich himself was born during one of the campaigns in the city of Kazalinsk, Syrdarya region.

Alexander Ilyich Dutov graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps in 1897, and then the Nikolaev Cavalry School in 1899, was promoted to the rank of cornet and sent to the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, stationed in Kharkov.

Then, in St. Petersburg, he completed courses at the Nikolaev Engineering School on October 1, 1903, now the Military Engineering and Technical University and entered the Academy of the General Staff, but in 1905 Dutov volunteered for Russo-Japanese War, fought as part of the 2nd Munchzhur army, where he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav 3rd degree for "excellent diligent service and special labors" during the hostilities. Upon returning from the front, AI Dutov continued his studies at the Academy of the General Staff, which he graduated in 1908 (without being promoted to the next rank and being assigned to the General Staff). After graduating from the Academy, Staff Captain Dutov was sent to the Kyiv Military District to the headquarters of the 10th Army Corps to get acquainted with the service of the General Staff. From 1909 to 1912 he taught at the Orenburg Cossack cadet school. Through his activities at the school, Dutov earned the love and respect of the cadets, for whom he did a lot. In addition to the exemplary performance of his official duties, he organized performances, concerts and evenings at the school. In December 1910, Dutov was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree, and on December 6, 1912, at the age of 33, he was promoted to the rank of military foreman (the corresponding army rank was lieutenant colonel).

In October 1912, Dutov was sent to Kharkov for a year of qualified command of the 5th hundred of the 1st Orenburg Cossack regiment. After the expiration of his command term, Dutov passed a hundred in October 1913 and returned to the school, where he served until 1916.

On March 20, 1916, Dutov volunteered for the active army, in the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, which was part of the 10th Cavalry Division of the III Cavalry Corps of the 9 Army of the Southwestern Front. He took part in the offensive of the Southwestern Front under the command of Brusilov, during which the 9th Russian army, where Dutov served, defeated the 7th Austro-Hungarian army between the rivers Dniester and Prut. During this offensive, Dutov was wounded twice, the second time seriously. However, after two months of treatment in Orenburg, he returned to the regiment. On October 16, Dutov was appointed commander of the 1st Orenburg Cossack Regiment, together with Prince Spiridon Vasilyevich Bartenev.

Dutov's attestation, given to him by Count F. A. Keller, says: “The recent battles in Romania, in which the regiment took part under the command of the military foreman Dutov, give the right to see in him a commander who is well versed in the situation and makes appropriate decisions energetically, which is why I consider him an outstanding and excellent combat commander of the regiment”. By February 1917, for military distinctions, Dutov was awarded swords and a bow to the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class. and the Order of St. Anne 2nd class.

Dutov became known throughout Russia in August 1917, during the Kornilov rebellion. Kerensky then demanded that Dutov sign a government decree in which Lavr Georgievich was accused of treason. The ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army left the office, contemptuously throwing: “You can send me to the gallows, but I won’t sign such a paper. If need be, I'm ready to die for them.". Dutov immediately went from words to deeds. It was his regiment that defended the headquarters of General Denikin, pacified the Bolshevik agitators in Smolensk and guarded the last commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Dukhonin. Academy graduate general staff, Chairman of the Council of the Union of Cossack Troops of Russia Alexander Ilyich Dutov openly called the Bolsheviks German spies and demanded that they be judged according to the laws of war.

On October 26 (November 8), Dutov returned to Orenburg and began to work in his posts. On the same day, he signed an order for army No. 816 on non-recognition on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army, the power of the Bolsheviks, who carried out a coup in Petrograd.

“Until the restoration of the powers of the Provisional Government and telegraph communications, I take upon myself the fullness of the executive state power”. The city and province were declared under martial law. The created committee for the salvation of the motherland, which included representatives of all parties except for the Bolsheviks and the Cadets, appointed Dutov as the head of the armed forces of the region. Fulfilling his powers, he initiated the arrest of some members of the Orenburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies who were preparing an uprising. To accusations of striving to usurp power, Dutov answered with sorrow: “All the time you have to be under the threat of the Bolsheviks, receive death sentences from them, live in headquarters, not seeing your family for weeks. Good power!

Dutov took control of a strategically important region that blocked communication with Turkestan and Siberia. The ataman was faced with the task of holding elections to the Constituent Assembly and maintaining stability in the province and the army until its convocation. On the whole, Dutov coped with this task. The Bolsheviks who arrived from the center were seized and put behind bars, and the decomposed and pro-Bolshevik garrison (due to the anti-war position of the Bolsheviks) of Orenburg was disarmed and sent home.

In November, Dutov was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly (from the Orenburg Cossack army). Opening on December 7 the 2nd regular Military Circle of the Orenburg Cossack army, he said:

“Today we are living through the Bolshevik days. We see in the twilight the outlines of tsarism, Wilhelm and his supporters, and the provocative figure of Vladimir Lenin and his supporters clearly and definitely stands before us: Trotsky-Bronstein, Ryazanov-Goldenbach, Kamenev-Rosenfeld, Sukhanov-Gimmer and Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. Russia is dying. We are present at her last breath. There was Great Russia from the Baltic Sea to the ocean, from the White Sea to Persia, there was a whole, great, formidable, powerful, agricultural, laboring Russia - it does not exist.

Among the world fire, among the flames of native cities,

Among the whistle of bullets and shrapnel,

So willingly released by soldiers inside the country on unarmed inhabitants,

In the midst of complete calm at the front, where there is fraternization,

Among the horrific executions of women, the rape of schoolgirls,

Among the mass, brutal murder of junkers and officers,

Among drunkenness, robbery and pogroms,

Our great Mother Russia,

In your red dress

Laid down on her deathbed

Dirty hands are pulled off

With you the last values

German marks are ringing at your bedside,

You, beloved, giving your last breath,

Open your heavy eyelids for a second,

Proud of my soul and my freedom,

Army of Orenburg ...

Orenburg army, be strong,

Not far away is the hour of the great holiday of All Russia,

All the Kremlin bells will give a free chime,

And they will proclaim to the world about the integrity of Orthodox Russia!

The leaders of the Bolsheviks quickly realized what a danger the Orenburg Cossacks posed to them. On November 25, an appeal by the Council of People's Commissars to the population about the fight against ataman Dutov appeared. The Southern Urals found itself in a state of siege. Alexander Ilyich was outlawed.

On December 16, the ataman sent out an appeal to the commanders of the Cossack units to send Cossacks with weapons to the army. People and weapons were needed to fight the Bolsheviks; he could still count on weapons, but the bulk of the Cossacks returning from the front did not want to fight, only in some places stanitsa squads were formed. Due to the failure of the Cossack mobilization, Dutov could only count on volunteers from officers and student youth, no more than 2 thousand people in total, including old people and youth. Therefore, at the first stage of the struggle, the Orenburg ataman, like other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik resistance, was unable to rouse and lead any significant number of supporters to the fight.

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks launched an offensive against Orenburg. After heavy fighting, the detachments of the Red Army under the command of Blucher, many times superior to the Dutovites, approached Orenburg and on January 31, 1918, as a result of joint actions with the Bolsheviks who settled in the city, captured it. Dutov decided not to leave the territory of the Orenburg army and went to the center of the 2nd military district - Verkhneuralsk, located far from major roads, hoping to continue the fight there and form new forces against the Bolsheviks.

An emergency Cossack circle was convened in Verkhneuralsk. Speaking at it, Alexander Ilyich refused his post three times, referring to the fact that his re-election would anger the Bolsheviks. The previous wounds also made themselves known. “My neck is broken, my skull is cracked, and my shoulder and arm are useless,” Dutov said. But the circle did not accept the resignation and instructed the ataman to form partisan detachments to continue the armed struggle. In his address to the Cossacks, Alexander Ilyich wrote:

“Great Russia, do you hear the alarm? Wake up dear, and strike in your old Creme-le-Moscow, all the bells, and your alarm will be heard everywhere. reset great people a foreign, German yoke. And the sounds of Veche Cossack bells will merge with your Kremlin chimes, and Orthodox Russia will be whole and indivisible.

But in March, the Cossacks also surrendered Verkhneuralsk. After that, the Dutov government settled in the village of Krasninskaya, where by mid-April it was surrounded. On April 17, having broken through the encirclement with the forces of four partisan detachments and an officer platoon, Dutov escaped from Krasninskaya and went to the Turgai steppes.

But in the meantime, the Bolsheviks, with their policy, embittered the main part of the Orenburg Cossacks, which had been neutral to the new government, and in the spring of 1918, out of touch with Dutov, a powerful insurrectionary movement began on the territory of the 1st military district, led by a congress of delegates of 25 villages and a headquarters headed by military foreman D. M. Krasnoyartsev. On March 28, in the village of Vetlyanskaya, the Cossacks destroyed a detachment of the chairman of the council of the Iletsk Defense P. A. Persiyanov, on April 2 in the village of Izobilnaya, the punitive detachment of the chairman of the Orenburg Military Revolutionary Committee, S. M. Tsviling, and on the night of April 4, a detachment of Cossacks of the military foreman N. V. Lukin and a detachment of S. V. Bartenev made a daring raid on Orenburg, occupying the city for a while and inflicting significant losses on the Reds. The Reds responded with cruel measures: they shot, burned the resisting villages (in the spring of 1918, 11 villages were burned), and they imposed indemnities.

As a result, by June, more than 6,000 Cossacks took part in the insurrectionary struggle on the territory of the 1st military district alone. At the end of May, the Cossacks of the 3rd military district, supported by the rebel Czechoslovaks, joined the movement. The Red Guard detachments on the territory of the Orenburg army were defeated everywhere, and on July 3 Orenburg was taken by the Cossacks. A delegation was sent from the Cossacks to Dutov, as the legally elected military chieftain. On July 7, Dutov arrived in Orenburg and headed the Orenburg Cossack army, declaring the territory of the army a special region of Russia.

Analyzing the internal political situation, Dutov wrote and spoke more than once about the need for a firm government that would lead the country out of the crisis. He called for rallying around the party that would save the motherland, and which all other political forces would follow.

“I don’t know who we are: revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, where we are going - to the left or to the right. One thing I know is that we are following an honest path to the salvation of the Motherland. Life is not dear to me, and I will not spare it as long as there are Bolsheviks in Russia. All the evil lay in the fact that we did not have a nationwide firm power, and this led us to ruin.

On September 28, Dutov's Cossacks took Orsk, the last of the cities on the territory of the army occupied by the Bolsheviks. Thus, the territory of the army was completely cleared of the Reds for some time.
On November 18, 1918, as a result of a coup in Omsk, Kolchak came to power, becoming the Supreme Ruler and Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces of Russia. One of the first to enter his subordination was Ataman Dutov. He wanted to show by example what every honest officer should do. Parts of Dutov in November became part of the Russian army of Admiral Kolchak. Dutov played a positive role in resolving the conflict between Ataman Semenov and Kolchak, urging the first to submit to the second, since the candidates for the post of Supreme Ruler obeyed Kolchak, called on the "Cossack brother" Semenov to let military supplies pass for the Orenburg Cossack army.

• Ataman A.I. Dutov, A.V. Kolchak,General I.G. Akulingin and Archbishop Methodius (Gerasimov). The photo was taken in the city of Troitsk in February 1919.

• Kolchak and Dutov bypass the line of volunteers

Typhus was rampant in the army, which by mid-October had wiped out almost half of the personnel. According to the most rough estimates, over 10 thousand people died during the “hunger campaign”. In his last order for the army, Dutov wrote:

“All those difficulties, hardships and various hardships that the troops endured are beyond description. Only an impartial history and grateful posterity will truly appreciate the military service, work and hardships of truly Russian people, devoted sons of their Motherland, who selflessly meet all kinds of torment and torment for the sake of saving their Fatherland.

Upon arrival in Semirechie, Dutov was appointed by Ataman Annenkov as the Governor-General of the Semirechensk Region. In March 1920, units of Dutov had to leave their homeland and retreat to China through a glacial pass located at an altitude of 5800 meters. Exhausted people and horses walked without a supply of food and fodder, following the mountain ledges, it happened that they fell into the abyss. The ataman himself was lowered on a rope from a steep cliff in front of the border, almost unconscious. The detachment was interned in Suydin, and settled in the barracks of the Russian consulate. Dutov did not lose hope of resuming the fight against the Bolsheviks and tried to unite under his command all the former white soldiers. The activities of the general were followed with alarm in Moscow. The leaders of the Third International were frightened by the presence of significant anti-Bolshevik forces, organized and hardened by years of struggle, near the borders of Soviet Russia. It was decided to liquidate Dutov. This delicate mission was entrusted to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front.

On February 7, 1921, Ataman Dutov was killed in Suidun by agents of the Cheka under the leadership of Kasymkhan Chanyshev. The Chekist group consisted of 9 people. Dutov was shot at point-blank range in his office by a member of the group, Makhmud Khadzhamirov (Khodzhamyarov), along with 2 sentries and a centurion. Dutov and the guards killed with him during the battle were buried with military honors in Ghulja. Chekists returned back to Dzharkent. On February 11, a telegram was sent from Tashkent on the fulfillment of the assignment to the chairman of the Turkestan Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Front, G. Ya. Sokolnikov, and a copy of the telegram was sent to the Central Committee of the RCP (b).

“If you are destined to be killed, then no guards will help”, - the ataman liked to repeat. And so it happened ... The former white warrior Andrey Pridannikov, a few days later, published in one of the emigrant newspapers the poem "In a foreign land", dedicated to the deceased ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army:

Days passed, weeks crept, as if reluctantly.

No, no, yes, a blizzard swooped in and raged.

Suddenly the news in the detachment flew like thunder, -

Killed in Suydin Dutov - ataman.

Using trust, under the guise of instructions

Villains came to Dutov. And smitten

Another leader of the White movement,

He died in a foreign country, no one avenged ...

Ataman Dutov was buried in a small cemetery. But a few days later, shocking news spread around the emigration: at night the general's grave was dug up, and the body was beheaded. As the newspapers wrote, the killers had to provide evidence of the execution of the order.