White Terror Gave Rise to Red Terror
Admiral Kolchak was executed on February 7, 1920, by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.
His appointed commander of the Separate Semirechye Army, Ataman Annenkov, was sentenced seven years later in Semipalatinsk by a military tribunal: after fleeing to China in May 1920, he returned to the USSR.
The son of a naval officer - an artilleryman from St. Petersburg, Alexander Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps and commanded a destroyer and a battery in Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. The son of a nobleman from the Kiev province, Boris Annenkov graduated from the Alexandrov Military School.
Officers of the tsar and the throne, they fought for the honor of Russia in World War I: the head of the operational department of the Baltic Fleet, commander of the mine division, commander of the Black Sea Fleet Kolchak, and the head of the partisan detachment of the Siberian Cossack division Annenkov.
The honor of the Fatherland was above all.
The struggle against the Bolsheviks became merciless.
The response to the white terror was the red terror.
Both whites and reds loved Russia and therefore tore it apart, destroying each other, destroying themselves.
Who among us can know the truth about the events and people of the Civil War? Impartial, objective studies on this, as well as on many other topics, were practically absent in Soviet historical science. There are not many even today.
Let us not idealize the "phenomenon of domestic history" known as the "White Guard," but let us not simplify it either.
The circumstances and characters, written by an eyewitness in the heat of the moment and published in 1924, were pondered even by those who, it would seem, were not at all subject to the torturous reflections of oscillations, ambiguities of judgments in the assessments of people: their fates, their actions.
But there was: fifteen times in the passage of the Art Theater in Moscow, right at the entrance to the MKhAT, an impenetrable black "ZIS" would stop at the same hour, and a short man in a protective trench coat would quietly appear in the audience's box during the performance - precisely on those days when "The Days of the Turbins" were being staged, a dramatization of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard."
In 1932, Comrade Stalin would allow the resumption of the performance, which had previously been removed from the repertoire, which would not prevent him, however, a few years later, from quite unequivocally, bypassing the torments of the necessity of psychological evaluations, to decide the fate of thousands of known and unknown former officers of the tsarist army.
Vladimir Barudkin was arrested on January 16, and Pavel Lvov on March 10, 1938.
For their service with the whites, they had already served time - after returning from China, where Captain Barudkin fled with Annenkov's detachment, and Staff Captain Lvov after the defeat of Admiral Kolchak.
Captain Barudkin was sentenced by the revolutionary tribunal in 1922 in Almaty to five years.
The senior adjutant for the economic part, and later the commandant's adjutant of the 2nd Steppe Corps, Pavel Lvov was sentenced in 1921 by the Special Department of the Turkfront to two years in concentration camps.
Sergei Kashevarov was arrested on March 9.
On the eve of the revolution, he graduated from a military school, served two years with the whites, and then two years with the reds. After two months of retraining courses in Moscow, the former sub-lieutenant of the mortar battery of the 2nd Ufa Division became "middle command staff" in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.
Four years after arriving in Frunze, in the summer of 1932, at military exercises, he would take a photo with four comrades and write on the back of the picture: Stalin's camps of TurkVO.
Eleven years later, in 1943, the Frunze boy who became a Red Army soldier would write to his mother and sister: they will place us in Stalin's camps, 35 kilometers from the Chirchik station,
His cherished dream would become an artillery school: Comrade Stalin called artillery the god of war, and the main event of life - officer's epaulettes on the shoulders.
He would die three months later, on the banks of the Bug, during the advance of the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, never knowing that back in 1938, a sergeant from the NKVD would forever leave his name and the thirteen years he lived in the investigation file of his father - arrested Lvov.
Sergeant Vitaly Kubersky, head of the 4th section of the 3rd department of the state security management of the NKVD of the Kyrgyz SSR, turned thirty: he was younger than those he had to work with: the prisoner Kashevarov - by twelve years, the prisoner Lvov - by fifteen.
But this could not prevent the sergeant from constantly experiencing class hatred towards the former "gold-epaulettes."
A year later, he would be arrested "for willful distortion of Soviet laws, falsification of investigation cases, application of distorted methods of investigation." In October, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR would replace the death sentence, to which Kubersky was sentenced by the military tribunal of the NKVD troops of the Central Asian Military District, with ten years in correctional labor camps. The former investigator would serve three years: the sentence would be postponed until the end of military operations, and the prisoner would be sent to the front in June 1942.
But in 1938, investigator Kubersky still loved his job. So much so that on February 29, 1939, on the eve of his own arrest, he would explain in a report to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs: "They say that I beat the arrested. I really did have this with two arrested - the first was Tilkeev, a terrorist, and the second was someone from the White Guards. But they were obvious enemies..."
Let us imagine what was going on in the investigator's soul when he saw the written testimony of the arrested: "From December 1919 to May 1921, my brothers, who emigrated to China after the defeat of Kolchak, lived with me: Lvov Andrei Konstantinovich - head of communications of the 2nd Cossack Regiment and Lvov Innokentiy Konstantinovich, head of the POW camp. After returning to the Soviet Union, they were also sentenced for serving with the whites for various terms. Currently, both of them have died."
Accountant Lvov, a teacher by education, always tried to be precise in everything.
However, investigator Kubersky not only loved his difficult and responsible job, but also managed to notice some shortcomings of his colleagues, individual minor roughnesses in their daily activities.
- In general, most employees applied physical pressure, but always tried to do it discreetly, but some, I don’t know for what reasons, found pleasure in it and literally engaged in perversion-sadism, - shared his observations the investigator - the accused.
A sheet of paper is divided by a line: listened - decided.
The familiar gibberish of our endless meetings and gatherings.
What did we not listen to, what did we not decide!
Always and everywhere we unanimously raised our hands, and perhaps that is why more and more often lately we extend it forward - palm up.
From birth to death, the life of a Soviet person depended on the "listened-decided" of countless "comms": "rev," "party-," "ob-," "gor-," "ray-," "prof-," large and small councils and commissions, unimaginable groups and cliques. From a place in the nursery to admission to the party, from a voucher to a rest house to natural payment for labor days. Comrades, and thus - the collective, the collective, and thus - the party, the party, and therefore - the state were not indifferent to what a person had on his mind and with whom he slept.
Everything in the world was connected with the irreconcilable, uncompromising, revolutionary "listened-decided": a piece of bread, a roof over one's head, family.
The rest was a matter of time. And it appeared: outside of normal psyche and sound judgment, "listened-decided" on which - in the literal sense of the word - human life depended.
- Having familiarized myself with the organization of work on preparing cases for the troika, - wrote investigator-sergeant Kubersky after the accusation was brought against him, - I encountered terrible abuses, it was impossible to understand which case was reported to the troika and which was not, some cases were reported without accusatory conclusions...
In general, cases with poorly conducted investigations were reported to the troika.
On October 14, cases with well - comrade Kubersky, conducted investigations were reported to the troika.
Listened: N 66 - Kashevarov. Since 1933, an agent of Japanese intelligence, collected and transmitted espionage information of a political-economic nature, participant in the counter-revolutionary organization "Brotherhood of Russian Truth."
Expressed terrorist intentions against the leaders of the VKP(b).
Decided: Kashevarov to be shot. Property to be confiscated.
Listened: N 84 - Lvov. Since 1934 - participant in the counter-revolutionary organization "Brotherhood of Russian Truth," created by Japanese intelligence, collected and transmitted espionage information of a political-economic nature. Participant in illegal gatherings, expressed terrorist intentions against the leaders of the party.
Decided: Lvov to be shot. Property to be confiscated.
The secretary of the troika was clearly in a hurry: to write the words fully - and in protocol N 26, there was no time. There was too much work.
But the NKVD of the Kyrgyz SSR's action against the "Brotherhood of Russian Truth" was successfully and perhaps even prematurely completed. A report was submitted to the archive: the 3rd department of the UGB uncovered and liquidated a counter-revolutionary espionage-insurrectionary group, created mainly from former officers of the white and old tsarist army, created by the resident of Japanese-British intelligence agencies Barudkin, is involved in the current case, arrested, confessed. Worked through the agent of Japanese-British intelligence Talizin Alexander, who is abroad.
"Agent Talizin Alexander," judging by the materials of the case, was not sought in 1938. The surname recorded in the interrogation protocol of whoever happened to be on hand was enough.
In twilight - no longer day, not yet night, a knock sounded at the window of house No. 22 on Sadovaya (which until 1941 was called Panfilov Street) in Frunze and house No. 37 on Pionerskaya (which until 1954 was called Moscow Street).
NOTE
... He is a competent and zealous firefighter, he is such a businesslike shock worker, he is ready to extinguish all fires, but he does not want to extinguish only mine, - sang the daughter in a thin voice, while the father this time only conducted his wonderful jazz orchestra, known throughout the country.
The black record spun slowly, the needle was getting closer to its center. The needle had not been changed for a long time, the record was slightly hissing: we are so close that no words are needed to repeat to each other again that our tenderness and our friendship are stronger than passion, more than love...
Izabella Yuryevna, like Ruslanova and Lya Chornaya, was an idol. The phonograph was called a Victrola and stood in the hostess's room in the most honorable place. She sheltered the wife and son of the enemy of the people, Lvov, and settled them in a dim little room: either a former bath or a kitchen.
They feared and waited for a knock at the window - all night long Anna Lvova on Sadovaya and Alexandra Ksu-Erbo - Kashevarova on Pionerskaya.
When Pavel Lvov and Sergei Kashevarov were taken away, the snow lay on the ground. And now the bright colors of Sadovaya are being replaced by rusty yellowness. And with each night, the noise in the yard of the house where the Kashevarovs rented a room grew louder: more and more water was accumulating in the ditch, it was getting colder.
They learned: the husbands are not in Frunze. From the NKVD investigative prison, they were transferred to a colony.
On August 29 and 30, the authorized representative of the 3rd department of the OMZ and TP of the NKVD of the Kyrgyz SSR, Ivanov, interrogated three prisoners of the Moldovan colony as witnesses. A native of the Vilna province, a Belarusian, married, an economist-planner, forty-one years old, a native of Czechoslovakia, a Czech, married, a technician-mechanic, forty-seven years old, and a native of Kazakhstan, a Russian, married, a hydrologist, thirty-six years old, answered the questions posed thoroughly, trying to present the essence of the case as detailed as possible.
Thank you, Comrade Ivanov.
Thanks to his official zeal, strict adherence to the norms of spelling mastered by that time (I keep them) and "cultural presentation on paper of other people's words," one sees what is hidden from human eyes, forgotten by both God and the Law correctional labor institution, hears the muffled, confidential voices of the "storytellers."
As if an old film shot in August 1938 is spinning.
... I have known Lvov since the end of June. He systematically conducted subversive work among the prisoners, in small disputes the prisoners would inevitably try to provoke the dispute into a fight with his instigation. He deliberately disobeyed the internal regulations: on July 19, during my inspection of the camp population, instead of sitting in a row neatly with the others, he pretended to be ill, as immediately after the inspection he turned out to be completely healthy, took his bag, and went to the stall for vegetables for himself.
... Since the day of arrival in the special corps, prisoner Lvov deliberately incited antagonism and undermined discipline among the prisoners. The following examples serve as facts: Lvov still calls members of the VKP(b) "Soviet nobles." He is supported in this by prisoners Barudkin and Altunin. These three individuals conduct anti-Soviet agitation among the camp population. Any administrative measures aimed at improving the living conditions of the prisoners are ridiculed and they try to use these measures for anti-Soviet purposes. In conversation with me and other prisoners, Lvov tries to portray the former tsarist regime as the most ideal regime and at the same time discredits the existing Soviet regime in every way. There have been repeated conversations about preparing for an escape: on August 18, inside the cell, Lvov stated that it was necessary to buy a headdress from the old man guarding the special corps, on which there is an inscription "guard," and wear this headdress. One could freely leave the camp without being noticed.
... I was in the same cell with Lvov for about two months. At the beginning of August, he stated: one cannot live in the USSR without the MKD. With this phrase, Lvov expressed a desire to compromise the authorities of the Soviet power, to be more precise, it was said in relation to the NKVD. I clearly remember this happened on August 19-20. I was talking about someone among the prisoners intending to escape. At that time, Lvov approached me and stated, "What do you care whether I want to escape or not? Let everyone think for themselves." A prisoner present at this (the surname mentioned - R. X.) said, "And if you are thinking about escaping, I will report you." To this, Lvov replied: "And I will beat you up in the evening." Moreover, one evening Lvov stated that if I were given 10 years, then I certainly would not be able to serve the entire term. Clearly hinting that in that case he would escape from custody.
Comrade Ivanov knew well how and with whom to work. (Eighteen years later, during a review related to the reconsideration of case No. 1319, "registered by the address bureau of Frunze," a citizen B., born in 1897, who had been sitting in line neatly with everyone in the Moldovan colony, and apparently everywhere and always, will turn up).
And he worked well, as we see.
But how did "the organizer of the counter-revolutionary espionage-insurrectionary group, resident of Japanese-British intelligence agencies" Vladimir Barudkin end up in the Moldovan colony? He was doomed back on March 27, when the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lotsmanov and the Prosecutor of the Kyrgyz SSR Gutsev signed his indictment: classified, category I.
On January 31, 1938, Stalin signed the Politburo's decision "On Anti-Soviet Elements" - at the proposal of the NKVD, "additional limits for repression of former kulaks, criminals, and active anti-Soviet elements" were approved.
The additional limit for category II meant camps and prisons.
The additional limit for category I - execution.
Was Barudkin sentenced, by which judicial body, when?
There is no information about this in the investigation file. It was not possible to find them in the archives either.
Every word, every movement of the "White Guards" became known. Lvov was clearly tempting fate. Was it a calling, frivolity? Or evidence of what he accepted in life, and what - the accountant of "Skotsyrya," a modest civil servant, could not? He apparently shunned politics, was not passionate about public work: in the protocol of the first interrogation, in the column "information about public-political activity," it is recorded: did not participate and do not participate.
It is evident: Pavel Lvov did not want to sit in line neatly. Did he understand that he had nothing to lose? And that which had accumulated, had been hidden for years, decades, finally took over? Or, conversely, from the confidence that everything would unravel, untangle, form?
What was Pavel Lvov really like?
Round, small letters - one after another, even lines: the handwriting of a taciturn and conscientious person. The folds of the sheet have faded, but deciphering the text, written by a hand that has already decayed today, is not difficult.
August 15, 1938. Moldovan colony, s. Moldovanovka, p/o No. 25.
I am very grateful for the transfer, unless you tore these 200 rubles from your bread. I will have enough money now for 5 months. I do not need things. Traveling here is also a torment, but in order not to lose contact, send me newspapers once a week for the week (by parcel post) and 2 rubles, and on the coupon (written message) briefly write how you live, how your health is. Transfers will arrive the next day. Do not send more than two rubles...
Of course, we are interested in why I am sitting - I do not know myself. The accusation is espionage. There are more than 5000 like me. They beat me like a dog, made the protocol themselves and offered to sign or repeat the session, and since after the second session many have broken ribs and cracked heads, it is obvious that I am a "confessing spy," of which there are 5000. I am now only deaf in one ear, and otherwise healthy. What will happen next is unknown, rumors vary: cleaning the rear and so on. All this is nonsense. It will grind - there will be flour. I would very much like to see Galochka. Let her go with a statement to the head of the OMZ (in the house of the People's Commissariat of Justice) and ask him for permission to meet. Do not make such transfers to me anymore: two tomatoes and a piece of soap, and a note - and everything is in order. You can find out about me from the storekeeper who found us an apartment and fed us delicious herring. Write letters, but do not harbor any special hope that they will reach. Kisses to everyone. Goga is now the eldest, he must help mom.
Folder L. V. Lvova, who works in the correspondence sector of the pedagogical institute (corner of D. Bedny and Dzerzhinsky).
The note is still kept as it was handed over fifty-five years ago: in a flat tin box from under phonograph needles.
Apparently, Lvov was in a good mood: he managed to achieve his goal on July 27, 1937, to deceive the guards, was confident (or already knew) that the note was in the hands of his relatives, and therefore three days later "inside the cell," "setting up" the snitching neighbors, developed an escape plan? In any case - in the desire to overcome circumstances, to subordinate them to himself, it is hard to deny Lvov.
Apparently, investigator Kubersky told the investigation the truth: there was indeed little order in the department.
The department stood on the brink of yet another "new" reforms.
Ten months had passed since the day the members of the Politburo read the text of the telegram sent by Stalin and Zhdanov from Sochi, where they were resting: "We consider it absolutely necessary and urgent to appoint Comrade Yezhov to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs" - and on July 27, 1937, Chairman of the CEC of the USSR Kalinin was already presenting the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, the General Commissioner of State Security with the Order of Lenin.
Comrade Yezhov delivered a speech.
- There is not a single state in the world where the state security agencies, intelligence agencies are so closely connected with the people... Our Soviet intelligence agencies, state security agencies stand guard over the interests of the Soviet people. Therefore, they enjoy the deserved respect, the deserved love of the entire Soviet people, - said the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs - the order bearer. And another order bearer, the people's singer of Kazakhstan, Dzhambul, composed a Song about the faithful and devoted Stalinist friend, enemies before whom tremble in fear, a hero who sees and hears how the enemy, crawling towards us in the dark, breathes, who stood, threatening the unbroken enemies, guarding the country and its harvest...
The country and its harvest were guarded vigilantly and watchfully.
Using the deserved love and the same respect of the people, numerous enemies were shot without trial, without investigation, and other unnecessary formalities.
Did they not waste time on the zek-limiter Barudkin either?
Only in March 1956, during the review of the case of the "participants of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth," a certificate will appear: the sentence against Barudkin was carried out on October 4, 1938.
The security agencies stood guard over the interests of the people. The people's singer was right: the glory of the batyr and his deeds indeed "became worldwide," spreading around the world.
... Memory is strangely arranged.
The new surname - the niece of Kashevarov's wife - on the next page of the archival volume did not attract attention.
Numerous family branches - intertwining are not uncommon in investigative cases. (This was already the 56th, relatives were inquiring about the progress of the review of the cases).
A few days passed. A note from the colony had already been read, photographs from the family archive of the Lvovs were already lying in the editorial office.
I only knew about Kashevarov what was in the hastily cobbled together "materials" of the investigation file. The scant, fragmentary information did not add up to a character, the image was blurred. The trace of Sergei Afanasyevich Kashevarov reappeared. Already forever.
And strange memory suddenly suggested what had not been recorded: Rutkovskaya, fifty-sixth year, Institute of Pedagogy.
Excerpt from the book "The Secret of Chon-Tash." Published with the author's permission, Regina Khelimskaya.
The Secret of Chon-Tash. The Daughter Seeks Her Father