"In Eastern Siberia, terrible murders were committed, but they were committed
not Bolsheviks, as they usually thought. I'm not mistaken if I say that in
Eastern Siberia for each person killed by the Bolsheviks was accounted for
one hundred people killed by anti-Bolshevik elements "
This quote is very like to insert modern in historical discussions.
sadlsheviki. Typically, after that, comment follows: so wrote in his
memories "American Adventure in Siberia" American General
William Grevs who commanded American interventionians in the army of Kolchak.
After such a comment, everyone should be understood that the given data on
"Misces of Kolchaktsev" are objective and independent, since they proceed from the mouth
american (why should he lie?), Yes, and served at Kolchaka (those
i don't have enough to lie!).
Let's try to figure out who was the American General Grevs and whether he had a reason to lie.
William
Grevs was born in Mount Kalm in Texas. He graduated from the Military Academy
West Point in 1889. served in 7 and 6 infantry shelves. Improved to senior
lieutenant in November 1896, and captain in September 1899. In 1899-1902
participated in the Philippino-American War. Then the period is garrison
services and in 1904-1906 again service in the Philippines. In 1909 appointed
work at the General Staff in Washington. Produced in Majors in March
1911, lieutenant colonels in July 1916, Colonels in June 1917 and brigades
generals in February 1918. In May-July, 1917 made a secret trip to
Great Britain and France, preparing the US entry into the first world.
4
september 1918 he arrived in Vladivostok. Official task
Graves was the guard of Transsib and the evacuation of Czechoslovak Legions from
Russia - i.e. The US government did not assist him
army Kolchak, but only to promote the evacuation of the Czechoslovak Corps.
Graves
announced that he will pursue a policy of "non-interference in internal
the affairs of Russia "and" complete neutrotelite ", that is, the same attitude to
Kolchakov forces and red partisans. By intersuntic
railway Agreement Americans was appointed for the protection of land
Transsib from Vladivostok to Ussuriysk and in the region of Upneudinsk.
We read that on this occasion I wrote G.K. HINS (managing cases in
Siberian government, then the Chairman of the Economic Meeting and
the newly managers are already in the Government of A.V. Kolchak) B.
memories "Siberia, Allies and Kolchak":
America in the Far East.
"On the
D. East American expeditionary troops behaved so that
all the antibolevric circles strengthened the thought that the United
States wish not victory, but defeats the anti-Bolshevik government.
Here are some facts.
American
command on Sucean coal kits (near the mountains.
Vladivostok), not informing the administration of the enterprise,
allowed the working pen to convene a general meeting to discuss the issue of
refugees from the surrounding villages. The meeting was convened on April 24 ordinary
for Bolshevik rallies in the way - by hanging the red flag
on the building People's House. It happened in the presence of a representative
american command, officer of the Ame¬rikan army, which
guaranteed to speakers inviolability and unlimited freedom
the words.
As applied from the protocol of the meeting, the participants of the rally,
having heard the riotchical declaration, partisan detachments "(Bolsheviks)
and reports of persons in the area of \u200b\u200bthe actions of Russian detachments
government troops, resulted: "Contact US
command with the proposal to immediately eliminate the robbing gangs
kolchaktsev, otherwise, we are all like one person, throw work
and we turn to the aid to your brothers-peasants. "
On the second
a similar meeting of April 25 was elected delegation to send
Vladivostok with the aim of the report on the decisions of the US meeting
command, and captain Grevs, asking for the resolution of his
colonel, kindly agreed to go to Vladivostok together with
delegation.
While the Japanese conducted an energetic fight against
bolsheviks on D. East and carried victims by people, Americans not only
refused to help them, but also expressed sympathy to the partisans, as if
encouraging them for new performances.
Appearing in Verkhneudinsk to protect the road, the Americans stated that they could not accept any measures against popular uprisings.
It was impossible to explain all these
actions by Antiappon Mood of America. It was clear that in the United
States did not give a report in what the Bolsheviks are, and that
american General Grevs operates according to certain instructions. "
In his area of \u200b\u200bresponsibility, the Americans did not oppose the Red
partisans. As a result, under the protection of Americans in the Primor, there were soon
large red forces reaching several thousand people are formed.
This led to a conflict between Greivs and Ataman Semenov.
That's what I wrote about it in my memoirs "About myself" G.M. Semenov:
Chapter 3 Coup in Siberia
"IN
same time Americans have always introduced their ugly behavior
disorder, causing deep discontent of the population. With the exception of
some individuals, such as, for example, Major Borros, which is excellent
i understood our tasks and the mercy of communism and the soul was with us,
most Americans led by Major General Grevs, openly
supported the Bolsheviks, inclusive to the parcel of single people and
groups with information and various kinds of instructions for red. Them
the stranger with the situation existing in Russia was so
studently that they are absolutely sincerely amazed why the Russians are so
persistently resist the authorities of the "most advanced and progressive party",
preferring the horrors of the royal despoty of the enlightened board
communist International. I suppose the reason for this was
extremely low moral level of American soldiers sent to Siberia,
and insufficient discipline in the American army. Largely
the soldiers of the American units who carried out intervention were
deserters Great Warscored in concentration camps on
Philippines, and represented almost exclusively immigrants from Russia,
fled or from the persecution of the law, or from military service. Of
Russia they did not bring anything but hate to their former Fatherland
and its state device, so it is clear that all their sympathies
were on the side of the red. We are, Russian nationalists, they considered
supporters of the old regime and therefore treated us with the same
hate which they belong to both National Russia. I dont know,
who was Major General Grevs, but the image of his actions is undoubtedly
waitual - because it is difficult to allow the government to
instructed Grevs openly and constantly oppose everything
russian nationalists, - indicates that in its moral
he left the level from his soldiers. Undoubtedly one thing: that that
dislike, which remained from us, Russians in relation to Americans,
should be attributed by us not to the account of the American people, but on the personal
major General Grevs, a criminal image of whose actions
restored against the Americans the whole national thinking element
Siberia. "
A year after the arrival of Grevs to Russia
the American government has come to fall that the fall of the government
A.V. Kolchak may have more serious consequences than just
domestic business. For this, American was sent to Russia
ambassador.
West again G.K. Gins:
The arrival of the American ambassador.
"Another recipe for salvation put forward Sukin.
- We are the on the eve of recognition, it usually stated, with each report on the Council of Ministers.
The president
Wilson, he reported one day, commands Morris Ambassador to Omsk.
The president wants to find out what the Omsk government needs to
put the start of systematic assistance. We are on the eve of decisive
turn in the policies of the allies. After the arrival of Morris, they recognize us, and
help will take American sizes.
Morris arrived.
it
there was a completely different Morris, not the one we saw in Vladivostok
in the fall of 1918, the arrogant and applied. His proud shag
now it was not similar to an impenetrable mask. It smiled friendly
sympathized. But who knows, maybe this is a prejudice - me
it seemed that sometimes it hid the inner laugh.
Together with
Morris arrived General Grevs. That general of Vladivostok,
who encouraged the rosestrokers at the dryer and denied the Japanese to help
fighting the Bolsheviks.
Now General Grevs became different. It
expressed contempt for the Bolsheviks and such a hot desire for their speedy
the death of the French commissioner, the Count de Narter could not hold back
smiles and threw a spot: "MAIS QU` EST-CE QU`Il at Perisait A
SOUCHAN! "(Toad:" But what did he think of the Sukan? ")"
But as soon as it turned out, from the side of Grevs, it was all a game in the public.
When in the fall of 1919 in Vladivostok on American ships began
arrive rifles purchased by the Kolchak Government in the USA, Graves
refused to send them further by rail. ON.
justified the fact that the weapon can get into the hands of the parts of Ataman
Kalmykov, who, according to Greiva, in moral support
the Japanese was preparing to attack American parts.
Re-turn to the memoirs G.M. Semenova:
Chapter 4 Conflict with Omsk
"IN
Omsk, a number of top ranks of the Military Messaging was devoted to the court for
speculation of cars, and the court made the accused very harsh sentence,
softened by admiral. The Commission of Lieutenant Katanaeva opened
also that by order of the Irkutsk governor of Dunin-Yakovlev,
which, as I specified above, being a socialist revolutionary, was
in an irreconcilable opposition, the government and secret worker collaborated with
red partisans, part of weapons and equipment filmed at the station
Innokentiev's allegedly for the needs of the local Irkutsk garrison. For me,
however, there was no secret that all delayed property was not sent
in Irkutsk, and in the partisan detachments of Schtynkina, Kalashnikova, etc.
all weapons and uniforms, semored from America, not without knowledge
general Grevs, an old enemy of the Omsk government, was transmitted from
Irkutsk red partisans. The case was so ugly with
point of view of morality and elementary decency of the American
representatives in Siberia that Omsk Foreign Minister
the governments of Sukin, being a large American, could hardly
the scandal began to be flared up. "
Under pressure
other Allies Grevs still sent a weapon to Irkutsk. But on this he
did not finish his "allied help" Russian government A.V.
Kolchak. Moreover, from now on, he not only began to provide
material and organizational support "Red Partizans", but also
entered the path of active actions against the Omsk government. IN
the critical moment of the autumn of 1919. He participated in the conspiracy of guides against
Kolchak in the Far East, communicating between the ECEROVSK Underground
and Czechoslovakov.
That's what he wrote about this. HINS:
Americans-friends of Serc.
"Chapter
peaceful delegation sent by Irkutsk revolutionaries to the Bolsheviks,
Akhmatov confirmed that if the collision of Soviet troops
with Japanese, the "political center would have done everything possible in order
to create against Japan, together with Soviet Russia, one
front ". Ahmatov added to this that in the summer of 1919 he led the conversation with
individual representatives of American diplomacy and brought conclusion
that "America is ready to allow the existence of a buffer state, with
including the representative of the Communist Forces representative in it in the authority
("New Life" No. 93).
"The largest representatives
american diplomas in Siberia, "added spikes," there were three persons:
consul General Harris, who lived in Omsk, definitely
supported Kolchak, Ambassador Morris, who was constantly in
Vladivostok, standing in the opposition, but, after a trip to Omsk, leaning
one time on his side, the third was General Grevs, determined
kolchakov opponent. Support for the Americans were calculated
rebels, participants of the uprising General Guide in Vladivostok, who had
reason to count on the aid of America, in the case of armed
interventions from Japan in the suppression of the uprising. "" Representatives
american diplomacy is repeatedly in different cases With their own
negotiations with representatives of Siberian democrats were expressed in
the sense that they find that only that "power in Siberia will be durable in
creating all the left democratic elements to be combined in
features Socialists revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. ""
Having left Russia, the Grevs nevertheless did not stop his statement activities.
In the spring - in the summer of 1922, in Vancouver and New York, under the oath gave
testimony against Semenov, saying that he allegedly was
enemy of Kolchak, gave orders to the executions of American soldiers
for Japan's baptism. Semenov proved with the help of General Noks false
Grevs and American officers demanded the removal of their former
commander from the army.
G.M. Semenov "About yourself":
Chapter 10 Initial Difficulties in Emigration
"Most
an active employee of Skvirsky in his intrigue was against me
general Grevs, who after termination civil process spoke S.
false testimony under oath as a criminal charge witness
i am a Senator Borok in the shooting in Transbaikalia American soldiers in
the period of allied intervention in Siberia.
<…>
This Commission
was appointed, and in it made with his testimony General Grace,
which, despite the fact that gave testimony under oath, allowed them
explicit and rude distortion of truth, surpassed in their depths even
fantastic fabrications of some New York newspapers.
Grevs.
stated that I was not only never I was an employee of Admiral Kolchak, but
opposed him armed force, holding the front in the rear of the territory,
subordinate to the Government of Admiral. Further, Grevs stated that the deceased
admiral Kolchak never passed me all the complete power in the territory
russian eastern outskirts and that American soldiers are executed in
Transbaikalia was produced repeatedly, and without any reason, but
issue the Japanese command.
I easily refuted all insinuations
Grevs and proved their falsehood, which caused a sharp performance of some
prominent officers of the American army, as fading false
oath. One of these officers who brought their protest to the logical
the end was a colonel of macro, which did not stop before leaving
resignation in the form of a protest against the further stay of General Grevs in
army rows.
After the scandalous speech of General Grevs, I
he appealed to the Commission with the request: as the Lord senators consider
soldier of the American army who deserted from their regiments and
attached to the Red Army in Siberia? Do they consider them
criminals and deserters or consider them as an army chip,
speakers with arms in hand against the National Russian Army. IN
first case - on the basis of what laws is imputed to me in the guilt
punishment on the court of criminals and deserters captured with weapons in
hands during the battle, among other prisoners of the Red Army, and in the second
case - than Lord senators explain the armed performance of the ranks
american army, sent to Siberia to support national
russia's forces, against these veryces on the side of the Red International. "
The case of Semenova Grevs lost and soon was forced to leave the army.
AND
of course, apotheosis recognition of the merit of "independent" American
general William Greevs before the young Soviet Republic on
kolchakov front became the following document:
Document number 48.
Letter
people's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR M.M. Litvinova
secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPP (b) I.V. Sverdly regarding publication in the USA
collection of documents on Soviet-Japanese relations
08.04.1934
Owls. Secretly charged:
Krestinsky
Sokolnikov
A significant strengthening of Japanese propaganda as in European countries,
so in particular, lately in the US, it is necessary
strengthening our counterparchand. The study of the American press shows
that even the part of the newspapers, which is configured to us
frequently, completely and nearby becomes a ruger of Japanese arguments
due to the lack of our materials and information. This applies to the whole
the aggregate of our relations with Japan (regime on the CERE, fishing
question, border business, nonsense pact, etc.).
IN
the quality of one of the most effective events of the NCID offers
edition in the United States One of the prominent American bourgeois publishers of the book -
collection of the most important documents of Soviet-Japanese relations during
occupation of Mukden1 and until the very last time (with some
excursions in the history of pre-russian-Japanese and post-revolutionary
soviet-Chinese relations). It's still can go exclusively about
documents already published in our press, and does not predetermine the question of
the late publishing of the collection of the type of diplomatic "red book",
which would contain and nonpatient correspondence. This collection
it would be necessary to prevent the preface written in our
instructions and under our control, any prominent American
"Independent" publicist, which is a reputation of the connoisseur
far Eastern affairs. As such might appear,
for example, Prof.] Schumann2, Major General GREVS3, Lyudvol Denis (author
the books "America conquers Europe"), Louis Fisher4, Roy Howard5
(co-owner of the newspaper truck Skripps - Howard, famous Antiappon
installation) and others. The main thoughts of the preface should be
sequence of Soviet Peace Policy, Note on Elements
generality of the interests of the USSR and the United States in relation to the Japanese expansion,
the possibility of distanceing military danger in case of unification of peaceful
the efforts of other countries.
The same book with the preface of a prominent European leader could be published in Europe, primarily in French.
The compilation of the documentary part of the collection can be made in Moscow.
Negotiations with possible authors Preface and editing
preface can be charged in Washington.
When
the proposal will be fundamentally accepted, the NCID will find out in the US
approximately sizes of worm and currency expenses, on the coating
which will require a special appreciation.
Litvinov
WHP RF. F. 05. OP. 14. P. 103. D. 117. L. 89-90. Copy.
1 on the night of September 19, 1931, Japan, accusing the Chinese in the destruction in
rh. Mukden (Shenyang) canvas of the South Manchu Railway introduced
troops on the territory of Northeast China.
2 Schuman Frederick
Lewis (1904-1981) - American historian and publicist, in 1920-1930.
he advocated the normalization of relations between the United States and the USSR.
3 GREVS
(Grevs) William Sydney (1865-1940) - in 1918-1920. commanding
uS expedition troops in Siberia and the Far East,
major General (1925), in 1926-1928. commanded the US troops in the zone
Panama Canal, since 1928 retired, advocated the establishment
diplomatic relations with the USSR.
4 Fisher Louis (1896-1970) -
american journalist, since 1922, the correspondent of the magazine "The Nation" in
Europe has repeatedly been to the USSR.
5 Howard Roy Wilson (1883-1964)
- American journalist and publisher. From 1912 President
information agency United by the press. Since 1922, the Publishing Partner
houses "Skipps". In 1936-1952 President of the publishing concern
Skipps - Howard.
Now, it seems to me, become obvious
"Objectivity" of the memories of the American general "who served
Kolchak "and the answer to the question:" Who are you, General Grevs? "
Recently, the network has a curious Russian translation of the memories of William Sydney Graves, in the rank of a brigade general who headed American occupation forces in Siberia and the Far East during the Civil War in 1918-1920.
The book "American Adventures in Siberia" he wrote, being retired, in 1931, and her little edition was even published in the USSR. As an objective view of a foreign military on the horrors of the civil war.
The expeditionary forces of the United States in the amount of almost 8 thousand people operated on the territory from Vladivostok to Verkhneudinsk, engaged in the Protection of Transsib and the delivery of former czech prisoners of war.
Greivs announced that he would pursue a policy of "non-interference in the internal affairs of Russia" and "complete neutrality", thus not oppose by any side of the conflict. Moreover, according to "White", the Americans actually contributed to the rapid growth of the "red" partisan detachments, which Graves accused the commander of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army of Grigory Semenov.
In addition to Semenov, the American General entered the conflict with Atama of the Ussuri Troops Ivan Kalmykov, who was suspected that he wants to seize American weapons sent by the United States to support the parts of Admiral Alexander Kolchak.
Graves describes those horrors that they were going to Siberia under the rule of the Belarusaks and the Japanese occupying forces. No one argues that the Bolsheviks were holy. But after the collapse of the USSR, we somehow began to throw from the extreme to the extreme, whining the "white" and out of the "red", then we present Lenin as a monster, then we are taking away tears on the film "Admiral".
Notes Empowering Blumber Bulochnikov:
What happiness is that our revolutionary great-grandfalance has not surrendered and won, did not allow White Victory in the Civil War in general and the notorious admiral in particular. Happiness for everyone; Even for those that now is deeply broadcasting about the victory of "Krasnopuz Khamov" and "Jewish Commissars", longing for the crunch of the French beer.
So, what did General Graves wrote about? If anything is not a worker, and a combat officer who had a campaign against Spain and the Philippines.
Admiral Kolchak surrounded himself with former royal officials, and since the peasants did not want to take the weapons in their hands and sacrificed their lives for the return of these people to power, they were beaten, the knuts were killed and coldly, after which the world also called them "Bolsheviks". In Siberia, the word "Bolshevik" means a man who does not support the return of self-adjusting representatives to power in Russia.
Semenova's soldiers and Kalmykova under the protection of Japanese troops wandered around the country as wild animals, killing and robbing people; If you wish Japan, these murders could stop the day. If questions about these brutal murders arose, in response it was said that the killed were the Bolsheviks, and this explanation was obviously quite satisfied with the world. Conditions in Eastern Siberia were terrible, and there was nothing more than human life. There were terrible murders, but were not accomplished by the Bolsheviks, as the world thinks. I will be distant from any exaggeration, if I say, that of each killed by the Bolsheviks in Eastern Siberia accounts for a hundred killed by anti-bolsheviks.
Ataman Semenov and General Graves.
It is difficult to submit existing in the modern civilization of a person like Kalmykov; It was hardly happening a day without messages about the terrible atrocities committed by him and his troops.
Kalmykov remained in Khabarovsk and installed his terror regime, violence and bloodshed, which eventually forced his own troops to rebel and seek protection from the American army. Under the pretext of the struggle against Bolshevism, he unreasonably arrested any wealthy people, torture, won their money and executed many on charges of Bolshevia. These arrests were so frequent that they fought all the classes of the population; According to estimates, Kalmykova's troops executed several hundred people in the vicinity of Khabarovsk.
Ataman Ivan Kalmykov (center) and American officers.
It is surprising that the officers of the Russian Tsarist Army did not realize the need to change in the practice used by the army during royal mode. The atrocities committed to the east of Lake Baikal were so amazing that they did not leave an uncompressed person of doubts in the truthfulness of many reports about the excesses.
Opinions of Russian monarchists about ethical methods of searching for financing are characterized by the following: Colonel Corf, Russian Officer of Relations with the American Command, told US intelligence officer to Colonel Aikelberger (Eichelberger), that General Ivanov-Rinovi and General Romanovsky have enough power to stop the wave of criticism as me Both all Americans and American politics, and if I finance the Russian army by the United States in the amount of twenty thousand dollars a month, propaganda against the Americans will be discontinued.
American officer and Cossacks.
In March, a young woman came to the headquarters of American troops, rural teacher. He asked to provide security to himself and his brothers so that they could return to their village, Gordiyevka, and bury their father killed by Ivanov-Rinov's troops. The woman said that the Russian troops came to Gordiyevka in the search for young men for a compulsory call, but the youth escaped, and then the troops detained in the village of ten men, whose age was the above called, tortured and killed them, and put security at the bodies to not give relatives to bury them. It sounded so cruel and unnaturally that I ordered one officer with a small detachment to go to Gordiyevka and to investigate, and notified the woman about his intentions. The officer reported to investigate the following:
Upon arrival at the building of the Gordiyev school, I was met by a crowd of 70 or 80 men, everyone was armed with rifles, mostly by Russian army rifles, as well as a certain amount of older single-charge rifles of 45-70. All information collected by me was obtained in the presence of these 70 or 80 armed selenics and about 25 or 30 women. Most information was received from the wives of the victims, these women lost their feelings many times during this heavy test for them. The first questioned said that her husband went to school with his rifle so that in accordance with the order to pass it with the Russian military. He was captured on the street, beat him with a rifle on the head and torso, and then took to the house near the school, where he was tied to the neck to the pin in the rafters and terribly beat on the body and head, while the blood spattered even the walls of the room .
White Guard punishers and their victims.
Footprints on his body showed me that he was also suspended for her feet. It was put in a row with eight other men and shot at 14:00. In the rank there were ten men, everything was killed. In addition to one, whom Ivanov Rinov's soldiers left to die. I questioned the next woman, in the house of which everyone was beaten, and then shot behind her gum. She stated that in the morning of March 9, 1919, around 11:00, several officers of Ivanov-Rinov came to her house and forced her to lead her husband to another house, but at 11:30 pushed her husband back and beat him together with the rest; He broke his hand, cut off her nails and knocked all the front teeth. Her husband was disabled and crippled.
I discovered that the floor of the room in which these men beaten was covered with blood, and all his walls were spattered with blood. Wire and rope loops, which tied their necks, were still hanging from the ceiling and were covered with blood. I also found that some of the men were poured with boiling water and migrated hot iron heated in a small oven, which I found in the room. I visited the place where these men were shot. They were built in a row and shot, in each body at least three bullet holes, in some six or more. Obviously, at first they were started in the feet, and then above in the body.
The young officer who conducted an investigation received and included much more readings in his report, and those testimony that I do not quote, in all details coincide with the quoted. This case seemed so disgusting to me that I ordered an officer to report to me personally. He was not personnel, he was called on the time of war. I will never forget the words of this officer, which he told me after I finished pollaria. He declared:-
The general, for God's sake, do not send me more into such expeditions. I barely resist not to disrupt the form, join this unfortunate and help them all that was in my power.
* * *
Turning to those fellow citizens who believe that it is necessary to fight with Bolshevism regardless of the US policy, I note that I could never determine who was the Bolshevik and why he was. According to the Japanese representatives and their paid puppets in Siberia, the Bolsheviks were all Russians who did not want to take into the hands of the weapon and fight for Semenov, Kalmykova, Rosanov, Ivanov-Rinov; But in the criminal archives of the United States do not find the characters worse. According to the British and French representatives, the Bolsheviks were all who did not want to take over the weapons and fight for Kolchak.
The military form of a mobilized Russian most part provided the British. General Knox (KNOX) said that Britain put a hundred thousand sets of form. This is partly confirmed by the number of soldiers of the Red Army, wearing a British form. The fact that the Reds are worn by the British form, caused such a disgust with General Noks, that, as reported, later he said that Britain should not supply anything to Kohl, for everything supplied by the Bolsheviks. Generally speaking, the soldiers of the Red Army in British form were the same soldiers who were given this form while they were in the Kolchakov army. A significant part of these soldiers was not inclined to fight for Kolchak. Methods used by Kolchkovtsy to mobilize Sibiryakov, caused rage that hard to calm down. They went to the service, embittered fear, but not before the enemy, and before their own troops. As a result, after issuing weapons and uniforms, they deserted to the Bolsheviks shelves, battalions and one. April 19, 1919 I reported:
The number of so-called Bolshevik gangs in Eastern Siberia increased as a result of the order of mobilization and emergency methods used in its conduct. The peasants and the working class do not want to fight for the Kolchak government.
The harsh measures used by the royal regime to prevent the shoots of prisoners did not disappear and by the time I drove through Irkutsk. I saw about twenty prisoners who had healthy chains to the ankles were chained, by the end of which large balls were attached; So that the prisoner was able to go, he needed to carry a ball in his hand.
In Krasnoyarsk, I learned something about General Rosanov, with whom I tried to work in Vladivostok. He was the very person who ordered his troops on March 27, 1919:
1. When classing villages, previously engaged in gangsters (partisans), demand the issuance of movement managers; Where you can not capture managers, but have sufficient evidence of their presence, shoot every tenth inhabitant. If you move the troops through the city of the population, having the opportunity, will not report the presence of the enemy, the money compensation is required without limitation, where the population is required meets our troops with a weapon, you should burn down the dot, all adult men shoot; Property, houses, carts should be requisitioned for the use of the army.
We learned that Rozanov held hostages, and for each of his supporter who met death, he killed ten hostages. He spoke about these methods used in Krasnoyarsk, as working with the situation in gloves, but declared his intention to remove gloves after arriving in Vladivostok to work with the situation without the restraint that he demonstrated to Krasnoyarsh ... Rozanov was the third of the character of those Who I knew in Siberia, although the level of Kalmykova and Semenov was unattainable for him.
To designate the combat capability of the Kolchakov troops in August 1919, I will try to analyze the arrivals to me official messages. One of the reports read:
According to estimates, with the exception of officials and military, the Omsk government supports no more than 5% of the population. According to the evaluation, the red maintains about 45%, the socialist revolutionaries about 40%, about 10% divided between other parties, and 5% remain on military, officials and supporters of Kolchak.
From this time until the fall of the Omsk government, the army of Kolchak was a retreating gang.
American soldiers on the streets of Vladivostok.
Ambassador and I went from Omsk to Vladivostok around August 10. We stayed in Novonikolaevsk, Irkutsk, Verkhneudinsk and Harbin. While we did not find yourself in Semenov, nothing interesting happened. By this time, it was well known that Semenov organized what was known as the "Murder Stations", and was openly jammed that he could not sleep well if at least someone did not kill for the day. We stopped on a small station, and on Our train rose two Americans from the service building of Russian railways. They told us about the murder of Semenov's soldiers in two or three days before our arrival of the whole echelon of the Russians, in which there were 350 people. I do not remember, there were only men, or more women. The Americans reported the following:
Echelon prisoners passed the station, and everyone knew at the station that they would be killed. Employees of the corps headed for the place of execution, but were stopped by Semenov's soldiers. After one hour, fifty minutes, the empty train returned to the station. The next day, these two went to the place of murder and saw evidence of a mass execution. According to the sleeves on Earth, it was clear that the prisoners were shot from the machine guns: the shooting sleeves lay heaps in places where the machine guns were thrown away. Bodies were in two recently dilated Rips. In one rally, the body was completely covered with land, there was a lot of hands and legs in the other.
I doubt that in the history of the last half a century there will be at least one country in the world, where the murders would be made even calmer and with a smaller fear of punishment than it was in Siberia during the adjuster mode of Kolchak. One example of cruelty and lawlessness in Siberia is a typical case in Omsk, the Kolchakov residence, which occurred on December 22, 1918, in just a month and four days after Kolchak adopted the authority of the "Supreme Ruler". On this day, the workers against the Kolchakovsky government occurred in Omsk. Revolutionaries partially achieved success, discovered the prison and allowed to run to the two hundreds arrested. They were among them 134 were political prisoners, including several members of the Constituent Assembly.
On the day, when it happened, the Omsk commander-in-chief Kolchak issued an order, requiring all the issued to return to prison, and stated that they did not return during the day in place. All members of the Constituent Assembly and a number of other famous political prisoners returned to prison. The same night, several Kolchakov officers brought members of the Constituent Assembly from prison, stating them that they would bring them to the court's venue over them in crimes in which they were accused of, and everyone was shot. For this, the cruel and defenseless killing officers were nothing. Conditions in Siberia were such that such cruelty could be easily hidden from the world. The possession of the press constantly claimed that it was the Bolsheviks who were the Russians who committed these terrible excesses, and propaganda was to such an extent that no one could think that no one could think that These atrocities were committed against the Bolsheviks.
Colonel Morrow (Morrow), commanded American troops in the Trans-Baikal sector, reported on the most cruel, heartless and almost incredible murder of the whole village Semenov. When his troops approached the village, the inhabitants, apparently, tried to escape from their homes, but Semenov's soldiers shot them in them - men, women and children, - as if hunted to rabbits, and threw their bodies at the murder. They shot no one, but everyone in this village. Morrow forced the Japanese and the Frenchman to go with an American officer to investigate this mass murder, and told by me contained in the report signed by American, French and Japanese. In addition to the described officers, the officers reported that they found the bodies of four or five men who were obviously burned alive. Louds, naturally, wondered that it could be the goal of such terrible killings. The goal is similar to which the guards of the camps hold dog dogs and use other means of intimidation of prisoners; To prevent the escape attempts. In Siberia, the same persecuted people were not prisoners, but those responsible for these horrors were convinced that all Russians should at least act as if they were sincerely supported by Kolchak. Such an appeal sometimes succeeded in the fact that for a while made people hide their authentic moods. That was what was in Siberia, and I am convinced that Americans do not know anything about these terrible conditions.
When the Americans first got to Siberia, most of us, naturally, expected the experience of war and the revolution changed the thinking of the government from the former ruling class, but when this ruling class began to perform terrible atrocities in Siberia, to allow them and indulge to them, it became clear that They did not have learned anything.
In Vladivostok, they knew well that from November 18, 1919 to January 31, 1920, Rozanov killed from five hundred to six hundred men, in no way commented on his murders. At first, the decision was made about execution, then the military tribunal was collected for the legalization of the conceived murder; That was the method used by Rozanov. This procedure was well known in Vladivostok; In one of the cases, I personally checked the accuracy of the information at the request of the Russian woman who lived at one time in New York.
General Knox served in Russia by the military attache during royal mode. He could speak Russian and undoubtedly thought that he understood the Russians. He probably understood the character and features of those Russians, with whom he was connected in Petrograd, but I can't believe that he understood the aspirations of the huge mass of the Russian people. If he understood these people, he probably would not think - and he, obviously, thought it was exactly that, - that the Russian peasants and workers would take care of the weapons and began to fight for making supporters of Kolchak who committed such atrocities Against those people who have been looking for military support. General Knox shared his thought with me: "The poor Russians were just pigs."
Personally, I never thought that Kolchaka had at least some chance to establish the government in Siberia, but Vera Knox and the fact that the people's masses were pigs, and could have handed them like a pig, he accelerated the fall of Kolchak.
Grevs.. American adventure in Siberia, translation from English, Voirgiz, 1932.
I. Atamanishchina in Siberia and the Far East
... Semenov appeared to me, which was subsequently a murderer, robber and most disturbing scoundrel. Semenov was funded by Japan and did not have any convictions, besides the consciousness of the need to do in the pointer of Japan. He always remained a field of view of the Japanese troops. He did so because he could not hold out in Siberia and the week, if it did not relieve support for Japan. Semenov always led to the conversation about the "revival of the Motherland".
In Khabarovsk, I first met this famous killer, robber and thug Kalmykov. Kalmykov was the most revealed scoundrel, which I had ever met, and I seriously think that if you carefully ship the encyclopedic dictionary and see all the words defining various kinds of crimes, it is hardly possible to find such a crime that Kalmykov did not commit. Japan in his efforts to "help the Russian people" supplied Kalmykov weapons and financed it. I intentionally talk about it, as I possess the evidence that you should satisfy every sensible person. Where Semenov ordered to kill others, Kalmykov killed his own hand, and in This is the difference between Kalmykov and Semenov. Kalmykov was - using russian expression "Liquidated" (killed) by the Chinese, when after expulsing him from Siberia he tried to find shelter in China. As for Semenov, he also later ran out of Siberia and found her shelter in Japan, where he lives to the present.
In 1919, Semenov sent the captain of his headquarters to Washington. This captain not only did not meet any difficulties at the entrance to the United States, but I read in newspapers that some of the outstanding American workers arranged an interview for him about events in Siberia, while he was on the road from San Francisco to Washington. I am unworn to me the purpose of this visit of the Semenov agent, but he himself brazenly stated that one of America's visit to him was to make me remove me from the post of commander by American troops. When this captain returned to Vladivostok, he stated that the Military Department was very attentive to him, set him as a spent colonel chronicle and helped him meet some outstanding figures. He also stated that when he left Washington, Colonel Cronin assured him that I would be removed from my post before he arrives in Vladivostok. This person represented Semenov in America, and there is every reason to believe that he possessed the same criminal features as his boss. In Washington, they knew perfectly well, which represented Semenov; Therefore, it should be assumed that in solving the question, whether the Russians should allow the entry into the United States, on this kind of data did not pay attention, and were considered only with political considerations.
I received decent confidence of the report, which said that one of the Japanese officers tried to encourage Semenov to declare himself a dictator of the Trans-Baikal region and seize railways and tunnels, November 28, i.e. ten days later, after Admiral Kolchak became a dictator in Siberia, I received a faithful message that seemed to me that Semenov from Tokyo was given to ITTI directives against Kolchak and Japanese representatives in Siberia followed this policy. As far as we knew, Japan supported the troops and money Semenov in Chita and Kalmykov in Khabarovsk; In addition, it was known - at least in Siberia, - that Japan does not want the situation in Siberia to be resolved and a strong and stable government came to power. In March 1918, Japan appealed to the Allies with a request to allow it to take the Chinese-Eastern and Amur Railways to take it, as well as Vladivostok, if the allies consider it necessary to occupy East Siberia. Despite the fact that the proposal is due to the position of the United States failed, Japan did not hope to achieve this goal when the Allies sent their troops to Siberia.
Semenov's soldiers and Kalmykov, being under the protection of Japanese troops, flooded the country like wild animals, killed and robbed people, while the Japanese could, if desired, could stop these murders at any time. If at that time they asked what all these cruel murders were, they usually received the answer that the bolsheviks were killed, and such an explanation was obviously satisfied. Events in Eastern Siberia were usually presented in the most gloomy paints, and human life was not worth a penny there.
In Eastern Siberia, terrible murders were committed, but they were not accomplished by the Bolsheviks, as they usually thought. I am not mistaken if I say that in Eastern Siberia for every person killed by the Bolsheviks, accounted for 100 people killed by anti-Bolshevik elements. At the time when I was in Siberia, I thought - and now I think the same thing - that, encouraging all these murders, Japan hoped that the United States will be bored with all this situation, they will call their troops and ask Japan to clarify the created position of things,
Kalmykov received power in the spring of 1918, after the Ataman of Ussuri Cossacks was elected. These latter authorized him to get it from the allies of the loan to help the Cossacks to produce spring crops. Japan, provided them with such a loan with the condition that the Ussuri Cossacks will not join the Bolsheviks. The money paid by Japan was given Kalmykov. The opportunity to go to the Border Station and to gain a Division there, in which the Japanese Major consisted as an adviser on the organization of troops. This information was communicated to Kalmykov agents in Vladivostok.
During the Ussuri campaign, from July to September 1918, Cossacks Kalmykova participated in hostilities and entered Khabarovsk together with Japanese troops on September 5 - 6. Kalmykov remained in Khabarovsk and installed there mode of terror, extortion and bloodshed; It may have been the reason for the fact that his troops rebelled and turned for help from American troops. Under the pretext of the eradication of Bolshevism Kalmykov, resorted to the world's arrests of wealthy people, tortured them to make them give him money and values, and executed some of them on charges of Bolshevia. These arrests became so everyday phenomenon that they terrorized all classes of the population: there were many hundreds of people who were shot by the troops of Kalmykov in the vicinity of Khabarovsk. We established the facts of committing murders in the stories of peasants and according to the testimony under the oath of local authorities. Finally, Kalmykova's troops began to smoke and beat their own own commanders, and on December 6, one of the officers of the exploration 27 of the infantry regiment, which the situation becomes serious. Of course, the fact that on December 28, part of Kalmykov's troops came to the main apartment of 27 regiment and requested permission to enter into the ranks of the United States Army, and many of them asked to help them get out of Khabarovsk.
The Japanese first turned to me with a request to return the Kalmykov horses, weapons and equipment issued by His soldiers to the Colonel Shthereuye, but I rejected this request. I was stated that all this property belongs to Japan. I answered the head of the Japanese headquarters that if Japan informs me in writing that she armed this killer that all this property Kalmykov had never been paid anything, and if Japan could prove the identity of this property and gives a receipt in obtaining it, That I will give this property. All this was done, and the receipt was sent by me in military Ministry Together with the report.
In my reports and telegrams, I always pointed out not only for Excesses Semenov and Kalmykova, but also on the behavior of Kolchakov Russian troops who operated under the direct leadership of Ivanov-Rinov. The behavior of these troops, since it is about various kinds of attacks and robbery, almost approaching its scale to the inconsistencies of Semenov's troops and Kalmykova, although all the same troops of Ivanov-Rinov and Croata killed fewer people than Kalmykov did.
The Japanese, holding Semenov under their control in Chita, Kalmykov in Khabarovsk and providing a decisive influence on Ivanov-Rinov in Vladivostok, actually kept all the eastern Siberia under their control. If they managed to conclude a business agreement with Kolchak, they could at least completely destroy the causes of the friction between them, on the one hand, and the British and the French on the other. These friction arose from the moment that power in Siberia moved to the hands of Admiral Kolchak.
II. The relationship between allies - Japan, England and France in the Far East and Siberia
England, France and Japan acted at the same time, because the case was 96 by the eradication of Bolshevism; However, England and France believed that the main task is the equally intensive struggle against the threat of Bolshevism in all parts of Siberia and the use of Kolchak to combat this danger. Japan spent large sums of money in Eastern Siberia, and its main goal was to fight the Bolshevism here, in the Far East, and the use, if the possibility of any provision may be created; As for the fight against Bolshevism to the West of Baikal, then compared with its interests in Eastern Siberia it was only a secondary task for Japan.
"Regiment. Morrowly notified Semenov so that he brought his blond car from the American section; Otherwise, he will withdraw him himself. Japanese General Ioshela stated Morrow that "the Japanese are oppressed by the power of the withdrawal by American troops from the Semenovsky blond Wagon site." Slotter telegraphs that Sukin (Omsk Foreign Minister) told him that he considers this incident to be an indicative of the Japanese desire to cause a collision between the Americans and Russians. Even before receiving this message from Slotter Smith (the American representative in the Inter-Union Rail Committee) said that the regiment. Robertson, the current British High Commissioner, informed him yesterday very confidentially, which, in his opinion, this clash of Semenov with the Americans is inspired by the Japanese
It is indisputable that all serious speeches Semenov were inspired by the Japanese. I have already reported to the Military Department that when considering the Far Eastern Questions, the Cossacks and the Japanese should be regarded as a single force. I do not have reason to change this opinion.
Some Japanese would be glad to see the collision of American troops with the Russians, but others were more careful, as they knew that I had enough information to prove the connection of Japan with any hostile speech of Semenov or Kalmykov against the Americans.
Around 20 August, the ambassador and I left Omsk and went on Vladivostok. We stayed in Novonikolaevsk, Irkutsk, Verkhneudinsk and Harbin. Nothing interesting thing happened until we reached the Semenov territory.
At that time it was widely known that Semenov established something called "death stations", and openly boasted that he could not sleep at night, if he would not kill someone during the day. We stopped on a small station, and we went to the car Two Americans from the Detachment for Russian Railways. They told us about the murder of Russians produced by Semenovsky soldiers in two or three days before our arrival in the commercial car, in which there were 350 people, I do not remember whether only men were on the train or men and women.
The most essential of the story of these two Americans as follows: "The trade train with the arrested passed by the station to the place, where, as widely known, executed executions. Employees of the squad went to the place of execution, but were stopped by Semenov soldiers. After 1 hour 50 minutes, the empty train returned to the station. The next day, two employees went to the murder's place and saw evidence of mass execution. According to the cartridges scattered on Earth, it was seen that the arrested were killed from machine guns, as the empty cartridges were fell in a pile, as it happens with machine-gun shooting. The bodies were folded into two pits that were covered with fresh land, in one hole of the body were covered with absolutely, in the other - a lot of hands and legs remained. "
September 13 regiment. Sarjent who served the obligations of the commander for the time of my departure to Omsk, telegraphed the Military Department as follows:
"Today, Semenov and Kalmykov went from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk."
These two Japanese stories went together in Khabarovsk with a special purpose. This. The goal was to create a plan of attack on American soldiers.
Gene. Croat, who was an opponent of my non-interference policy in the internal affairs, visited me and warned that Kalmykov arrived in order to destroy American soldiers, and that if I did not concentrate small detachments guarding the railway, I would lose some of them. He stated that Japan authorized it and provided Kalmykov 30 thousand yen; Further, he said that he was cooked to send the telegram "All, All" with an indication that it will be underway with all the Bolsheviks.
Head of the Fortress Regiment. Butenko had access to all telegrams going through Vladivostok. By visiting me at about the same time, when the gene. Croat, he confirmed the message of the latter and rolled that Semenov telegraph suggested Kalmykov to go ahead and attack American troops, and if he would need support, then Semenov will send him to help his troops. The Japanese telegraphed Kalmykov that they would not actively help him, but would provide moral support.
In this regard, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Omsk Government Sukin told the Major Slotter in Omsk the following:
"I can also tell you too if you do not know about it that in the Far East there is not enough American troops to overcome difficulties that will be created if you have friction with Semenov and Kalmykov. The fact is that the Japanese supports Semenov by all measures, up to the parcel of troops, if it seems necessary. "
"As a result of the ongoing attacks of the casting cars of Semenov on the railway, the capture of cars, threats by rail employees, attacks on workers, continuing threats at the address of my guard, shelling and arrests of Russian troops going to the front - yesterday, June 8, at 5 pm I had a conversation with the general of the Japanese army Iosh, the Military Governor of the gene. Major and commander of Russian troops in Berezovka gene. PERSINKO. Based on the above, "I demanded that they would be ensured by the removal of blond cars from the American site, and at the same time I brought to their information that if my requirement was not executed within 24 hours, then I would destroy these cars."
Gene. Iosh in the presence of the regiment. Morrow agreed to remain neutral, but later sent him the following message:
"The Japanese declare that they will resist by the power to remove Semenov's blond cars by American troops, they will take blown cars under Japanese guard in Berezovka and will protect them there from American troops."
III. Japanese atmosphere in the Far East
After my return from Omsk in my office, the report was a report about the brutal and disgusting murder, perfect by the Japanese.
In this report, it was indicated that on July 27, 1919, the detachment of Japanese soldiers under the team of the Japanese Major arrested nine Russians in the city of Sviyagino, which was located on the railway site, entrusted to American security. The Japanese stated the American officer that these people are suspected of Bolshevism.
Russians were indicated that if they would give information about the Bolsheviks, they will be released.
Four of the nine were released. The remaining five were brutally beaten, but refused to speak.
Again, the Japanese were not responsible for the swiyagino.
The Japanese began to behave as if they intended to execute the Russians who did not give them testimony, and as soon as this intention of the Japanese became clear, the American officer said protest, but unsuccessfully.
The report followed the execution as follows:
"Five Russians were given to the graves dug in the vicinity of the railway station; They were tied with eyes and ordered to kneel at the edge of the graves with his arms connected back. Two Japanese officers, removing the upper clothes and exposing the sabers, began to chop victims, directing the rear of the neck, and, while each of the victims fell into the grave, from three to five Japanese soldiers finished her bayonets, the emitting shouts of joy.
Two were immediately beheaded by saber blows; The rest were an emerging alive, since the Earth thrown on them was moved. "
I bitterly recognize that there were several soldiers and officers of the American army with witnesses of this massacre.
This murder was committed by the Japanese not because the victims committed some crime, but only because they were suspected of Bolshevia.
I was so embedded by this atrocity, which summoned the head of the American team from Sviyagin to the main American apartment in Vladivostok and in the presence of the Japanese headquarters stated him that he would have to apply strength and prevent this murder. I also stated the Japanese headquarters headquarters that if such things would ever occur at the American areas of the railway, it will cause a conflict between Japanese and American troops. He replied that he would like to collect certificates regarding the content of the report.
I noticed that I did not find obstacles to the guide, and expressed the hope that he would tell me about the results. He promised to do it. About five weeks later, he visited my office and stated that he was forced to recognize the truthfulness of the report.
In Krasnoyarsk, I learned something about the gene. Rozanov, with whom I tried to tie relations in Vladivostok.
"one. Occupying villages that were previously occupied by bandits (partisans), demand the issuance of movements of movement; In those villages, where it will be impossible to find them, but there will be sufficient reason to assume their presence - to shoot every tenth of the population.
2. If, with the passage of troops through the city, the population will not be aware of (if possible, to do this) about the presence of an opponent, at all, no exception must be accomplished.
3. Selion whose residents will meet our troops with weapons in their hands should be burned down, and all adult male population is shot; Property, houses, carts, etc., must be used for the needs of the army. "
We learned that Rozanov had hostages and for each killed his supporter killed ten of them. He spoke about these practical methods practiced in Krasnoyarsk as necessary, in order to keep the population in Held Mittens, but he announced his intention to reset the mittens when he goes to Vladivostok, and introduce other methods of management than those that he applied in relation to to the Krasnoyarsk population.
Such were the acts of supporters of Kolchak at the time when foreign troops were supported.
The text has been reproduced by publication: Japanese intervention 1918-1922. in documents. - M., 1934. P. 175 - 183.
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William Graves
American intervention in Siberia. 1918-1920. Memories of the Commander of the Expeditionary Corps
© CJSC CenterPolygraf, 2018
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Preface
In early 1918, President Wilson told me that he was inclined to ensure that American troops together with the forces of the Allies took an expedition to the north of Russia and to Siberia, and asked me to think that he should answer the French and British. As an argument in favor of this enterprise, the fact that in the vicinity of Arkhangelsk is located very large military warehouses, which can get into the hands of the Germans, if they are not protected by allied forces. In addition, a significant part of people living in the north of Russia remains faithful to allied obligations and is ready to join the forces of the Allies to organize the Eastern Front again or to at least pull into the east of the essential part of the German troops. As for Siberia, one of the reasons was that a significant contingent of Czech soldiers broke off from the Austrian army who fought on the Eastern Front, and is now sent through Siberia to Vladivostok in order to move from this port by the sea to France and again enter the war on the allies again . It was reported that these Czechs are not well armed well armed and besides the lack of food to do such a transition, and they must be protected from the detachments of the German and Austrian prisoners who after October revolution In Russia, they were released from camps for prisoners of war and now under the command of German officers turned into well-organized and combat-ready detachments aimed at, capturing Russian military warehouses, to provide them with the disposal of Germany and Austria, as well as to pursue Russians that promote allies. In addition, it was said that the victims brought by Russia during the war give her people the right to any possible assistance that the allies could have to maintain the order and the formation of new public institutions. This consideration has already led to sending to Siberia the so-called Stevens Commission, designed to promote the work of vital for this territory of railways.
A few days later, the president and I discussed this question in all its completeness. I expressed the point of view of my army colleagues that the war on the Western Front should be won and that for achieving the most quick success it is necessary to take all possible efforts to concentrate the maximum number of troops, ensuring numerical superiority, while the distribution of them in several host theaters will lead , at best, to the deferment of the final victory, not allowing the ability to achieve essential results on any directions. My arguments made a strong impression on the president that he was sent for the head of the headquarters and discussed with him the possibility of successful restoration of the Eastern Front and the influence of the proposed expedition to the combat capability of the Allied armies on the Western Front. During our third conversation, the president told me that he was satisfied with the unanimity of the military department, but for reasons other than the purely military feels obliged to take some participation in both expeditions. Circumstances that made the president to such a decision were diplomatic, and I abstained from their discussion. At that time I thought - and did not change the opinions later - that the situation, as she was presented to him, justified such a decision, but the subsequent events in both cases fully confirmed the justice of the opinion of the General Staff.
The Siberian Expedition described by Major General Will Yam Graves, who commanded the American Expeditionary Corps, was the most important of these two enterprises and almost daily generated situations as delicate, how dangerous. Until a certain extent - although, I must confess, far from all - we have foreseen, and the head of the headquarters by General March, the appointment of General Graves as the commander of the American contingent, met my immediate and complete approval. When I was appointed by the Military Minister, General Graves served as secretary of the General Staff, so I was in constant contact. Thanks to this, I knew him as confident in myself, educated and perfectly trained military who had common sense, modesty and devotion - qualities most in demand in those numerous difficult situations that I could foresee. After completing this amazing enterprise, I more than satisfied with the choice of the American commander. The rash, inconsistent officer as a commander of the American forces in Siberia could easily create situations requiring disproportionate military efforts by the Allies, and especially from the United States, and could deliver the most unwanted difficulties in our country. The possibilities of their occurrence are perhaps almost on each page of the following narration.
General Graves leads, for example, the so-called Aide Memoire, written by President Wilson, who, as the general confirms, I personally handed it at Kansas City Railway Station. Since I was well aware of the restrictions that the president imposed on the participation of American forces in the Siberian operation, as well as the reasons for which our government decided to participate in it, I did not want General Graves to offer from the country before met by me personally. During this meeting, I wanted to turn his special attention to some difficulties with which he could face, and on a special hardness that the President expected from him on the issue of following the above-mentioned political line. In this regard, I took an inspection trip to the Levenworth Military Prison and sent to General Graves an order to meet with me in Kansas City, which allowed him to avoid delays in the preparations for departure, which would certainly arise if he had to come to me in Washington. Unfortunately, his train was late, and our meeting turned out to be shorter than I planned, however, and this time was enough. From that day and before the return of the Siberian expedition back to the United States, General Graves strictly followed the policies of the government, despite difficult and often outrageous circumstances. In Washington, I often had to hear from the military attache allies, and sometimes from the State Department of Critical Notes against General Graves and accusations of reluctance to cooperate. However, when I asked to provide me with detailed information, I invariably convinced that the failure ascribed to the general was nothing but his refusal to retreat from the letter and spirit of the data to him the prescriptions. In June 1919, I met with President Wilson in Paris, and he told me about the ideas made by him from France and Britain, in which they complained about the stubbornness of General Graves, his hard character and inability to cooperate. However, when I reminded the president to the political line set out in his Aide Memoire, and dedicated to the details of similar complaints to me in Washington, I managed to convince him that General Greivs is fully faithful to his politics in the face of the desire of the part of the Union Command to turn the Siberian Expedition In military intervention and interference in the internal affairs of Russia, against which the president objected from the very beginning. At the end of our meeting, the President smiled and said: "I suppose it is an old story, Baker. People often get reputation of stubbornmas only because they are constantly right. " One way or another, but at that time, and then the president completely approved the behavior of General Graves. And if the Siberian expedition turned out to be unjustified if, as a result, it was not possible to achieve essential results - as it was in reality, it is explained by the conditions at that time. She did not turn into a military adventure and, holding the others from such an adventure, created the conditions that made the necessary conclusion of the allied forces from the territory of Siberia, thereby not allowing the conquest and assigning Russian land to other countries whose interests in the Far East could easily lead to a violation in the Far East The truce and, ultimately, to establish a permanent colonial administration in the vast territory of the Russian Far East.
If you distract from its consequences for the whole world, the Siberian Expedition remains a mysterious enterprise. In fact, even General Graves himself "... I could never come to any satisfactory conclusion about why the United States at all was attended by this intervention." However, if you look at the situation in the world, you can find an adequate, although a difficult explanation. War was in the world. The most terrible military clashes were focused on the West Front from La Mans to the Swiss border, but the echo of this conflict touched upon the whole world, and everywhere, in one, in another place, strange side adventures were covered elsewhere. All these "side effects" were in one degree or another peripheral echoes of the deepest shocks of the Central nervous system planets. Some of them were carefully planned to distract the enemy's strength or undermine its resources. Some were undertaken to maintain the spirit of allies against the background of a prolonged waters on the Western Front and carried a shade of romance, as, for example, the capture of Jerusalem by Field Marshal Allenby and the expulsion of the infidel from the Saints of Palestine. Some were a consequence of the ejection of the suppressed moods of backward peoples against the background of weakening their colonial authorities, all the efforts of which focused on battles in Europe and who did not have time or the strength to maintain their power in remote territories. The success of revolutions in Russia led to the loss of Moscow real power in the Far East and untied the hands of the predatory ambitions of such Cossack Atamans as Semenov and Kalmykov. Siberian's expanses for a long time were the arena of commercial and military adventures and conflicts between the Germans, the British, French and the Japanese. Siberia itself was inhabited by partially by half-sized peoples, partially political with reference, which was now added a large number of liberated prisoners of war. The changing power in Moscow changed its attitude to the world war and participating in Russia in Europe, and these opposite opinions, with difficulty understood in distant Siberia, talked and without that vague understanding of the national interests of Russia. On the Western Front, the nation was committed to one dominant aspirations, but in such places as Siberia, there was no understanding and voltage. Siberia was in the same position as Sergeant Grisha, who had no idea why all this, but understood that the old world came to some incomprehensible universal mess.
In the conditions that are described above, the Allied military intervention no longer seems so unnatural, given the complexity inherent in such situations. The concerned nations easily found that the changing day of circumstances from the day suggests, if they do not require changes in their policies. Most of the nations that had troops in Siberia were too busy with the fact that they had at home to pay a lot of attention to what was happening around Baikal. It is not surprising that, as a result, their military commanders got great freedom in solving political issues, and General Yui or General Noks had a feeling that, using a new turn of events, they will be able to make a big leap in achieving the goals of the allies and in parallel to satisfy the commercial And the territorial wishes of their governments as they understood them. In the book of General Graves, proofs are given that from time to time, similar ideas have launched roots in the minds of some officials and in the United States. I can not guess how to explain the obvious conflict that has arisen between the Military Ministry and the US Department of State for the Siberian Operation, as I can not understand why the State Department made attempts - and at times succeeded in this - to inspire its ideas regarding politics in Siberia directly to General Gravsu. Perhaps the State Department was produced more than at me, the impression of certain views of allies regarding the expansion of cooperation beyond what was specified in the Aide Memoire. Perhaps some of these judgments were simply a reflection of the dissatisfaction of the allies by what they could count on. However, they were not preliminarily represented by the Secretary-General and were not considered as something that could affect a clearly defined line of behavior of the United States in the Siberian Expedition. Undoubtedly, one day, all this will be carefully studied, and a tortured researcher will find documents, notes and reports on conversations in which it was proposed to change the course based on some new facts, but even when they will all be open, Siberia will remain sergeant Grisha. The situation that pretended in Siberia will forever remain an illustration of the oddities generated on the periphery of those madness that dominated the center of the warring world.
Nevertheless, I can not finish this preface, not expressing, in the best of my opportunity, thanks on behalf of our entire country, those soldiers who courageously and badly carried in that far and mysterious edge of the country entrusted to them. Even the warriors of democracy can not always understand the reasons behind the back of certain strategic decisions. Political and military decisions are accepted in cabinets and general staffs, and soldiers perform orders. Therefore, those who found themselves on the shores of the White and Yellow Seas carried their service in the same way as those who were on Marne and in Maus. And if it turns out that someone will need a detail that justify the Siberian expedition from the point of view of national interests, they can, at least partly find satisfaction with the consciousness that American troops in Siberia behaved their brave and humano. What they performed orders of the commander who acted, guided by the high desire for their country to provide a stabilizing and beneficial effect on a huge territory, populated with a sense, but friendly people. I also believe, they can be sure that the story will find its advantages in what can be regarded as an unsuccessful outcome of the American intervention in Siberia, because if it were not for the presence of American soldiers in allied forces, things could have happened that would even complicate the situation In Russia and seriously influenced the future of the whole world.
Newton D. Baker.
From the author
It is difficult to write and even talk about Russia, so as not to be accused of sympathy soviet power. However, during my service in Siberia, the Russian Far East was completely cut off from the rest of Russia, controlled by the Soviet government. Thus, I had no affairs with the Soviet government, nor with any persons who call himself by his representatives.
The only power with which I contacted for all the time of service in Siberia is the Kolchak government, if it can be called the government. I doubt that without the support of the foreign troops, Kolchak and his government could have enough strength to act as sovereign power. In a contract known as an inter-union railway agreement concerning the service and operation of railways in Siberia, all the nations that had their troops there recognized Kolchak by the representative of Russia, and this is the highest degree of recognition that has ever managed to achieve its government. No state has ever recognized Kolchak for the head of any existing de facto or de jure of the Russian government.
The main reason that I decided to remember the facts and circumstances related to the intervention is confident that not only in the United States, but also everywhere there is an erroneous impression on the prescriptions, on the basis of which American troops acted in Siberia. Another reason was the fact that the English Colonel John Word wrote a book that creates - and, in my opinion, makes it intentionally - an incorrect impression on behavior and loyalty to his debt of the American troops who were in Siberia. This book can be found in American libraries, and I do not think that it will be right in relation to those Americans who I had the honor to command if these unfair conclusions will remain descendant without refutation.
When writing this book, I did not put the goals to justify anyone actions or actions of the American troops in Siberia, since the Military Minister, Honorable Newton D. Baker and Head of the General Staff, General Peyton S. March, who held his posts all the time when American troops were in Siberia, as shown below, made any excuse to excessive, giving the actions of American troops their generous and comprehensive approval. From the military minister I received the following personal letter, dated August 31, 1920:
"I just finished reading your detailed report of May 26, regarding the operations of American expeditionary forces in Siberia from July 1, 1919 to March 31, 1920. The Siberian Expedition is fully completed, and now that its last act has become the subject of the report, I am pleased to congratulate you on the fact that the Commander of the expedition was invariably managed to act with such clock, energy and success.
These prescriptions corresponded to the goals set forth in the Aide Memoire issued by the State Department to declare the task and conditions for the use of American troops in Siberia. In the current ambiguous situation, your duties were often very complex and delicate, and due to the remoteness of your field of activity from the United States, you could only calculate on our own resources and initiatives. If you consider complexity with communications, providing publicity and especially biased by interpretation of the situation in Siberia and the actions of your team, the situation has become even more complicated.
You will be pleased to know that the military ministry from the very beginning with full confidence was supposed to be your estimates, and I am happy to assure you that now your actions are approved by the ministry throughout the time of the expedition. "
In his report, the military minister for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, the head of the headquarters wrote in relation to the Siberian Expedition: "The situation with which the commander faced, his officers and soldiers were surprisingly difficult and risky. The way he fulfilled his difficult task is worthy of the very best traditions of our army. "
William S. Graves
Military intervention goals in Siberia
April 6, 1917, a day when the United States entered into world WarI served in a military ministry as secretary of the General Staff. I was a lieutenant colonel of the General Staff and his secretary since August 1914. Before that, I was secretary from January 1911 to July 1912.
Just like all the other officers of the military ministry, I was hoping that I was released from current duties and would be sent to serve in France, but the head of the General Staff General Major General New L. Scott rejected my request. On September 22, 1917, General Scott achieved the age when the law was to resign, and his place was taken by General Tasker H. Bliss, who before that served as Deputy Head of the General Staff. General Bliss resigned on December 31, 1917, and soon the head of Major Peyton S. March became the boss. He learned about his appointment, being in France, and began to fulfill his new duties on March 1, 1918.
Upon arrival in the United States, General March told me what he wants me to continue to fulfill his current responsibilities for about four months, after which he intends to allow me to go to France. However, in May 1918, he said: "If someone has to go to Russia, so it's you." This remark was very surprised me, but because it was expressed as an assumption, I did not comment on it, realizing that General March is well aware of my desire to serve in Europe and that every opportunity that current official duties gave me, I Dedicated to the study of conditions and military operations in France. I did not even think about the fact that American troops can be sent to Siberia, and the remark of General Marcha did not give muchbecause it did not assume that someone really would have to go there.
At the end of June 1918, General March reported that I was intended to make Major General of the National Army, after which it would be appointed by a commander of one of the divisions in the United States and the remaining without a permanent commander. This instilled in me the confidence that the idea of \u200b\u200bsending troops to Siberia was refused or that I would definitely not send me there. The next morning I told the general that I would like to command the 8th division, quartered in Camp Fremont, Polo Alto, California. He agreed, and soon my candidacy was presented to the Senate for approval in the Nine Major General of the National Army. On July 9, 1918, I was approved, after which I immediately told General Markch that I want to leave in my division, and on July 13, I left Washington. On July 18, 1918, I joined the post of commander of the 8th Division and began to fulfill his new duties. I was very pleased and happy when I learned that in October the 8th division was decided to send to France.
On August 2, 1918, after a day, the head of my headquarters said that the encrypted message was obtained from Washington and his first phrase reads: "You should not transmit anyone from your employees or someone else's content of this message." I asked the headquarters head, who signed a message, and he replied Marshall. Then I said that Marshall has nothing to do with me, nor to him, and ordered the deputy head of the headquarters to decipher the message. I was ordered to "sit on the nearest and fastest train to San Francisco and go to Kansas City, where to go to the Baltimore Hotel and ask the Military Minister. If it does not turn out there, then expect his arrival. " This telegram seemed to me one of the strangest depstras who ever sent a military ministry, and if only Marshall's signature was not mistakenly instead of March, then I would have been put in the doubtful position of the officer, who either will not submit to the orders, or leave part, Without saying anyone about who gave him this right and where he goes.
In the telegram, it was not reported. Neither why they call me in Kansas City, no time I will be absent, and in general I will return back. At the same time, such information could significantly affect how I prepare for departure. I did not know what I should take from the clothes, and doubted whether this order does not mean an irrevocable change in my position. After seeing the schedule, I saw that the train to Santa Fe leaves from San Francisco after two hours, so, having folded a few things in the road bag and something else in a small suitcase, went to San Francisco. I managed to train, but I could not buy a ticket to a sleeping car. On the way to Kansas City, I was broadcast by the military minister Mr. Beiker at the Baltimore Hotel, reporting with what train arrived. In the way, I tried to imagine what a secret mission could talk about, and with fear I thought it concerns Siberia, although I didn't see anything about the fact that the United States intends to send troops to Russia.
At 10 am, when I arrived in Kansas City, I was met by an employee who said that Mr. Baker awaits me in the station station. Since it remained quite a bit of time before sending his train, Mr. Baker immediately reported that, unfortunately, he had to send me to Siberia. With a generosity inherent to him, he expressed his regrets and said that he knew about my unwillingness to go and what could ever tell you why I should do it. In addition, he wanted me to know that General March was trying to save me from sending to Siberia and wanted to send to France. He said: "If in the future you will want to curse the one who sent you to Siberia, know what I did." Then he handed me a sealed envelope with the words: "There is a line of behavior of the United States in Russia, which you must follow. Weigh every step because you will have to walk through a minefield. Goodbye, and keep you the Lord. "
As soon as I got to the hotel, I revealed the envelope and saw inside seven pages entitled "Aide Memoire" without an indication of the authorship, but at the end meant "State Department, Washington, July 17, 1918". After I carefully studied the document and felt that I understood the prescribed line of behavior, I went to bed, but could not fall asleep, continuing to reflect on how other nations act and why they did not inform me about what was happening in Siberia. The next day, I read the document several times to analyze and understand the value of each phrase. I felt that no discrepancies in the understanding of the line of behavior of the United States could not be that I did not need any further clarifications. The behavior, prescribed to me, looked as follows:
The people of the United States want to win this war with all their hearts. The leading principle of the United States government is to do everything you need and effective to win it. It wishes any possible ways to cooperate with the governments of the Allies and will be willing to do this, because it does not pursue some kind of goals and believes that the war can be won only together and with the close agreement of the principles of actions. It is ready to explore all possible strategies and actions in which the Allies would like to embody the spirit of this cooperation, and with confidence it came to the conclusion that if it deems itself to refuse to participate in some enterprises or actions, it should be understood that it should be done Just because it considers it necessary to prevent these plans and actions. "
In early 1918, President Wilson told me that he was inclined to ensure that American troops together with the forces of the Allies took an expedition to the north of Russia and to Siberia, and asked me to think that he should answer the French and British. As an argument in favor of this enterprise, the fact that in the vicinity of Arkhangelsk is located very large military warehouses, which can get into the hands of the Germans, if they are not protected by allied forces. In addition, a significant part of people living in the north of Russia remains faithful to allied obligations and is ready to join the forces of the Allies to organize the Eastern Front again or to at least pull into the east of the essential part of the German troops. As for Siberia, one of the reasons was that a significant contingent of Czech soldiers broke off from the Austrian army who fought on the Eastern Front, and is now sent through Siberia to Vladivostok in order to move from this port by the sea to France and again enter the war on the allies again . It has been reported that these Czechs are not well armed enough and besides the lack of food to do such a transition, and they need to be protected from the detachments of the German and Austrian prisoners who, after the October Revolution in Russia, were released from camp for prisoners of war and now under the command of German officers They turned into well-organized and combat-ready detachments aimed at, capturing Russian military warehouses, provide them with the disposal of Germany and Austria, as well as to pursue Russians that promote allies. In addition, it was said that the victims brought by Russia during the war give her people the right to any possible assistance that the allies could have to maintain the order and the formation of new public institutions. This consideration has already led to sending to Siberia the so-called Stevens Commission, designed to promote the work of vital for this territory of railways.
A few days later, the president and I discussed this question in all its completeness. I expressed the point of view of my army colleagues that the war on the Western Front should be won and that for achieving the most quick success it is necessary to take all possible efforts to concentrate the maximum number of troops, ensuring numerical superiority, while the distribution of them in several host theaters will lead , at best, to the deferment of the final victory, not allowing the ability to achieve essential results on any directions. My arguments made a strong impression on the president that he was sent for the head of the headquarters and discussed with him the possibility of successful restoration of the Eastern Front and the influence of the proposed expedition to the combat capability of the Allied armies on the Western Front. During our third conversation, the president told me that he was satisfied with the unanimity of the military department, but for reasons other than the purely military feels obliged to take some participation in both expeditions. Circumstances that made the president to such a decision were diplomatic, and I abstained from their discussion. At that time I thought - and did not change the opinions later - that the situation, as she was presented to him, justified such a decision, but the subsequent events in both cases fully confirmed the justice of the opinion of the General Staff.
The Siberian Expedition described by Major General Will Yam Graves, who commanded the American Expeditionary Corps, was the most important of these two enterprises and almost daily generated situations as delicate, how dangerous. Until a certain extent - although, I must confess, far from all - we have foreseen, and the head of the headquarters by General March, the appointment of General Graves as the commander of the American contingent, met my immediate and complete approval. When I was appointed by the Military Minister, General Graves served as secretary of the General Staff, so I was in constant contact. Thanks to this, I knew him as confident in myself, educated and perfectly trained military who had common sense, modesty and devotion - qualities most in demand in those numerous difficult situations that I could foresee. After completing this amazing enterprise, I more than satisfied with the choice of the American commander. The rash, inconsistent officer as a commander of the American forces in Siberia could easily create situations requiring disproportionate military efforts by the Allies, and especially from the United States, and could deliver the most unwanted difficulties in our country. The possibilities of their occurrence are perhaps almost on each page of the following narration.
General Graves leads, for example, the so-called Aide Memoire, written by President Wilson, who, as the general confirms, I personally handed it at Kansas City Railway Station. Since I was well aware of the restrictions that the president imposed on the participation of American forces in the Siberian operation, as well as the reasons for which our government decided to participate in it, I did not want General Graves to offer from the country before met by me personally. During this meeting, I wanted to turn his special attention to some difficulties with which he could face, and on a special hardness that the President expected from him on the issue of following the above-mentioned political line. In this regard, I took an inspection trip to the Levenworth Military Prison and sent to General Graves an order to meet with me in Kansas City, which allowed him to avoid delays in the preparations for departure, which would certainly arise if he had to come to me in Washington. Unfortunately, his train was late, and our meeting turned out to be shorter than I planned, however, and this time was enough. From that day and before the return of the Siberian expedition back to the United States, General Graves strictly followed the policies of the government, despite difficult and often outrageous circumstances. In Washington, I often had to hear from the military attache allies, and sometimes from the State Department of Critical Notes against General Graves and accusations of reluctance to cooperate. However, when I asked to provide me with detailed information, I invariably convinced that the failure ascribed to the general was nothing but his refusal to retreat from the letter and spirit of the data to him the prescriptions. In June 1919, I met with President Wilson in Paris, and he told me about the ideas made by him from France and Britain, in which they complained about the stubbornness of General Graves, his hard character and inability to cooperate. However, when I reminded the president to the political line set out in his Aide Memoire, and dedicated to the details of similar complaints to me in Washington, I managed to convince him that General Greivs is fully faithful to his politics in the face of the desire of the part of the Union Command to turn the Siberian Expedition In military intervention and interference in the internal affairs of Russia, against which the president objected from the very beginning. At the end of our meeting, the President smiled and said: "I suppose it is an old story, Baker. People often get reputation of stubbornmas only because they are constantly right. " One way or another, but at that time, and then the president completely approved the behavior of General Graves. And if the Siberian expedition turned out to be unjustified if, as a result, it was not possible to achieve essential results - as it was in reality, it is explained by the conditions at that time. She did not turn into a military adventure and, holding the others from such an adventure, created the conditions that made the necessary conclusion of the allied forces from the territory of Siberia, thereby not allowing the conquest and assigning Russian land to other countries whose interests in the Far East could easily lead to a violation in the Far East The truce and, ultimately, to establish a permanent colonial administration in the vast territory of the Russian Far East.