The first horse. First Horse Cavalry Bandits and Assassins, Mostly Ethnic Ukrainians

For many years, the First Cavalry Army was the sacred war cow of the Soviet regime. In the minds of an ordinary citizen of the USSR, the First Cavalry was the Red Army of the times civil war, that invincible force that defended the workers 'and peasants' Republic from the invasion of 14 powers, Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich and Wrangel. In the civil war, 17 field and 2 cavalry armies with a total number of 5 million people acted on the side of the Reds, but the 30-thousandth Cavalry was preserved in the people's memory first of all. Many books have been written about her, songs have been composed in her honor, her heroic struggle has served as the theme of films, plays, paintings and monumental sculpture.

Fighters of the 1st Cavalry

Throughout the twenties and thirties, cavalrymen dominated the leadership of the country's armed forces. The traces of this domination are very visible. For 58 years, from 1918 to 1976, 10 military ministers were replaced in the Soviet state - under various names. Three of them served in the Cavalry, they led the country's defense for 25 years: 1925-1940 K. E. Voroshilov, 1940-1941 S.K. Timoshenko, 1967 – 1976 A. A. Grechko... We must also remember that over the 19-year interval between the end of civil and the beginning Patriotic War only 3 years, and even then at the very beginning, at the helm of the Red Army there was no cavalry.

First Cavalry Army. Video

Staying in the First Cavalry served as a pass for the occupation of higher command posts. Such an unprecedented dictatorship of cavalry in the army of a great power was able to establish itself for the reason that the country was ruled by the godfather of the First Horse Cavalry - Stalin, and the armed forces - by its political mentor Voroshilov. Just as Emperor Caligula introduced his horse to the Senate, these two horse worshipers flooded the army with cavalry. Konarmeytsy S. M. Budyonny, G. I. Kulik, E. A. Shchadenko, A. A. Grechko, K. S. Moskalenko were deputy ministers (people's commissar) of defense, K. A. Meretskov - chief of the General Staff. With the introduction in 1935 of personal military ranks two of the first five marshals were cavalrymen, and the third, Egorov, commanded the front on which the First Horse was created. It is worth mentioning that both commander-in-chief of the civil war did not receive marshal titles, as well as Yakir and Uborevich... In total, 8 marshals came out of Budyonny's cavalry Soviet Union (including Georgy Zhukov), 9 generals of the army and marshals of the combat arms, as well as a significant number of other generals.

Before the war, the Budenovites played an exceptional role in the Red Army. They, of course, bear a huge share of responsibility for the catastrophe of 1937-1938. and the defeat of the first years of the war. Only with the outbreak of hostilities was the complete military failure of Voroshilov, Budyonny, Timoshenko, Shchadenko, Tyulenev, Apanasenko and Kulik revealed. The latter was twice demoted for his shameful behavior at the front and turned from a marshal into a major; Stalin still did not let one of his main advisers of the pre-war years finally roll down, and Kulik was allowed to die as a major general. In the mid-sixties, he was posthumously returned the marshal's baton.

All this makes us take a closer look at the First Horse. We do not set ourselves the goal of covering her story in full. We will only try to restore the truth about some facts and episodes.

Creation of the First Horse

In Soviet literature, it is considered indisputable that the First Horse is the first in recent history wars unification of strategic cavalry. This is not so simple. Indeed, equestrian armies did not exist before. At the same time, the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a strategic cavalry, performing independent decisive tasks in the deep rear of the enemy apart from the main forces, belongs to Anton Ivanovich Denikin... He not only put forward this bold idea, but also formed in August 1919 a union of cavalry from two corps. Further to this group under the command of General Mamontova the equestrian corps was attached Skin... Thus, Denikin had at his disposal a strategic cavalry group, equal in strength to the army. Mamontov's group broke through the Red Southern Front and within a month successfully operated in their rear, capturing Tambov, Kozlov, Voronezh. Counteroffensive soviet troops was ripped off. Moreover, Mamontov's actions allowed the general's army May-Mayevsky move far north. After the Whites captured Kursk and Orel, there was an immediate threat to Tula with its arms factories and Moscow itself.

In Volume III of the Soviet History of the Civil War (1930) we read: “The significance of the actions of large horse masses in the conditions of the civil war was correctly taken into account by the red command from the example of Mamontov's raid. This raid finally formalized the decision to create large masses of red cavalry ... ”(p. 261). This testimony of Denikin's priority is all the more valuable since it belongs to the top leaders of the Red Army of that time - the editors of the volume were S.S.Kamenev, Bubnov, Tukhachevsky, Eideman. Later, Soviet historians tried to completely forget this confession.

Dumenko and Budyonny

The second important and utterly confusing question: from what was the First Cavalry born? For a long time, we were informed that it arose on the basis of the Budenny Concorpus, which grew out of Budyonny's 4th Cavalry Division. In the 1960s, through the efforts of relatively honest historians (T. A. Ileritskaya, V. D. Polikarpov), the curtain of lies was temporarily lifted. This caused an extremely sharp reaction in the camp of the Budenovites, and further research was stopped.

What caused the violent anger of the elderly, but did not lose their influence? For example, the head of the Academy. Frunze, General of the Army AT Stuchenko even girded himself with a saber and in this form appeared in the editorial office of "Nedelya", which published an essay by Polikarpov. They were outraged, even offended by the attempt to restore the true circumstances of the death of one of the participants in the civil war - B. M. Dumenko, who in 1918 formed a cavalry detachment from the rebels of Salsk and other districts. In July, the First Cavalry Peasant Socialist Punitive Regiment was formed on its basis. Dumenko commanded the regiment, after a while Budyonny became his assistant. Later, this unit grew into the very 4th Petrograd Cavalry Division, from which the First Cavalry began. Dumenko commanded a division until May 1919 and was awarded the order Of the Red Banner. But then a severe wound until the fall puts Dumenko out of action. During his treatment, the First Concorpus was created as part of the 4th and 6th divisions. Budyonny was appointed to command him instead of the wounded Dumenko. On November 17, Budenny's corps, enlarged by the addition of other units, was renamed the 1st Cavalry Army. Dumenko, after his recovery, received a new appointment - the commander of the emerging Horse-Consolidated Corps. In January 1920, it was he who defeated Denikin's cavalry near Novocherkassk, which made it easier for the First Cavalry and the 8th Army to take Rostov-on-Don.

Boris Dumenko

However, in February 1920, two Budenovites - Divisional Commander SK Timoshenko, temporarily removed for drunkenness, and BS Gorbachev, commander of the Special Cavalry Brigade (Konarmeyskaya Cheka) - deceitfully arrested Dumenko. He was taken to the headquarters of the First Horse, at the origins of which he himself stood, and from there to Rostov. There he was tried by a tribunal on formal charges of organizing the murder of the commissar V. Mikeladze sent to him to the Equestrian Consolidated Corps. The latter died under unclear circumstances. The tribunal did not have any evidence, nevertheless, on May 11, 1920, Dumenko, a hero of the Red Army, whose merits far overshadowed the glory of Budyonny, was shot. More than forty years later, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR Blinov, who studied the materials of this case, was forced to state: "If this is a law, what then is flagrant lawlessness ?!" It was rumored that the true cause of Dumenko's death was his "Anti-Semitism"... Soviet newspapers, reporting on the verdict, wrote to him:

Corps Commander Dumenko, Chief of Staff Abramov, Intelligence Chief Kolpakov, Chief of the Operations Department Blehert ... conducted a systematic anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet policy, cursing the central Soviet government and calling the responsible leaders of the Red Army Jews in the form of an offensive curse, did not recognize political commissars, in every possible way slowing down political work in the corps ... To deprive the awards received from the Soviet power, including the Order of the Red Banner, the honorary title of Red commanders, and to apply the capital punishment to them - to shoot ... The verdict is final and not subject to appeal.

The name of Corps Commander Dumenko was deleted from the history of the Red Army, Budyonny ascribed his services to himself. In 1920, Dumenko was a serious competitor to Budyonny in his claims to the role of the first red cavalryman. There is reason to believe that Budyonny, together with Voroshilov, had a hand in eliminating the corps commander. This assumption is supported not only by the circumstances of Dumenko's arrest, but also by the presence of the cavalry officer E.A. Shchadenko in the tribunal, and the later years of malice about Dumenko, and the behavior of Budyonny towards his other rival - Philip Mironov... It is also worth noting that the command of the First Cavalry has repeatedly raised the issue of subordinating the Dumenko corps to it.

Semyon Budyonny

The role of the First Horse in the defeat of Denikin

After Uborevich's group inflicted Volunteer Army Denikin defeat at Eagle, Budyonny's cavalry became a trump card in the hands of the red command. In October 1919, Budyonny's concorpus, reinforced by a cavalry division and a rifle brigade, in Voronezh-Kastorno operation unleashed a fatal blow on the white strategic cavalry. In fact, under the command of Budyonny there was already a cavalry army, the creation of which was formally fixed in November. The result was expressed not only in the defeat of Mamontov's group, from which she never recovered, but also in a colossal moral impact: now Denikin's rear was under constant threat.

The White Front collapsed. The Soviet command quickly developed the success. In January 1920, the First Cavalry captured Rostov with a lightning throw. The success of the cavalry was consolidated by the 8th Army. The retreating Denikin troops created a defense line along the left bank of the Don with a key point in Bataisk. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe command of the Caucasian Front (V. I. Shorin), at whose disposal the First Horse, was to prevent the main forces of the Whites from withdrawing to Novorossiysk by bypassing or capturing Bataysk. Thus, Denikin lost the opportunity to cross over to the Crimean peninsula and form a new front there.

Denikin really hoped, if it would not be possible to gain a foothold in the Don, to retreat to the Crimea through Novorossiysk. However, the red break of the white front on the move failed. The First Cavalry and the 8th Army made several attempts to take Bataisk, but all of them were unsuccessful. There was a dangerous delay in the advance of the Red Army, which Denikin finally took advantage of. Shorin's plan was thwarted. 40 thousand whites crossed over to the Crimea.

"Batayskaya plug" gave rise to extremely sharp discord in the camp of the Reds. Shorin accused Budyonny and the commander of the 8th G. Ya. Sokolnikov in the absence of active actions. Budyonny complained about the "terrain completely unsuitable for cavalry operations", Sokolnikov reproached the Cavalry for displaying "extremely low combat stability." Without going into the essence of the dispute, we note that at Bataisk, for the first time, the inability of the strategic cavalry to overcome the dense prepared defense was revealed. Undoubtedly, the unfavorable conditions of the area played a role: a water barrier (Don) and swampiness of the left bank. But the psychological factor cannot be ruled out either. It was extremely difficult for Voroshilov and Budyonny to get their horsemen out of the warm and wealthy Rostov at the height of winter.

In the spring of 1920, the First Horse in marching order was transferred from the Caucasus to the front of the just begun Soviet-Polish war. On May 18, she appears near Elizavetgrad. By this time, the Poles seized Kiev along the entire front went over to the defensive. The commissioning of the Cavalry creates a turning point in favor of the Soviet troops. On June 5, she broke through the enemy front near the village of Ozernaya and with all four divisions went into the Polish rear. It was a major operational success and the culmination of the First Horse's combat path. The threat of complete encirclement and destruction loomed over the 3rd Polish army of General Rydz-Smigla. But the operation "Kiev Cannes" was not destined to come true. Yakir and Golikov's groups were late in completing their tasks. The first Horse, in violation of the order, did not hit the rear of Rydz-Smigly, bypassed the fortified Kazatin and captured Berdichev and Zhitomir with rich warehouses. Major success Southwestern Front was incomplete. The Poles lost all the territory captured in Ukraine, but managed to save manpower.

During the Soviet offensive, the commander-in-chief S. S. Kamenev developed a plan for the further campaign, which received the approval of the Politburo. It was planned that after all the Red forces reached the Brest-Southern Bug line, the South-Western Front Directorate (commander Yegorov, members of the Revolutionary Military Council Stalin, Berzin) would transfer the First Cavalry, 12th and 14th Army to the command of Tukhachevsky's commander, and itself turns against Wrangel at that time to Northern Tavria. But Stalin did not at all smile at the prospect of refusing to participate in the seemingly close seizure of all of Poland. Tukhachevsky later wrote that "the existence of the capitalist world, not only Poland, but the whole of Europe, was at stake." Furious revolutionary Stalin wanted to personally attack world capitalism.

By mid-July 1920, Tukhachevsky's troops, having overturned the opposing front of General Sheptytsky, occupied Bobruisk, Minsk, Vilno and broke into Polish territory. The position of the Poles became desperate. There was a threat to Warsaw and the youngest Polish state. Western diplomacy rushed to the aid of Pilsudski. 12 July followed curzon note. English minister Foreign Affairs demanded an end to hostilities and establish between Poland and Soviet Russia the so-called. ethnographic border according to " curzon lines", Approximately corresponding to the current one. The ultimatum was rejected, but after a direct appeal from the Poles, negotiations began in Borisov. Meanwhile, the Red offensive continued on both fronts.

In early August, the commander-in-chief decides on a concentric strike of all forces on Warsaw. In this regard, he gives the order to transfer to the subordination of the Western Front (Tukhachevsky) first the 12th and First Cavalry Armies, and then the 14th Army. At this moment the ruler of Poland Y. Pilsudski assesses his situation as catastrophic. He believes that the Polish troops are not able to hold back the offensive from the east and south and asks the commandant of the Lvov fortified area to divert at least three Red divisions to himself.

Suddenly, Pilsudski had hope of salvation, because the command of the Southwestern Front threw the very armies that were intended to strike at Warsaw to storm Lvov. Thus, the original plan of the Reds was thwarted, and the enemy received an unforeseen opportunity to organize a retaliatory offensive. Part of the blame lies with Commander-in-Chief Kamenev, who was not persistent enough in carrying out his own directive, in addition, at the last second, he was frightened by the imaginary Romanian danger. But the main responsibility is borne by Stalin, who really wanted a noisy success in the form of the capture of Lvov. Amorphous Yegorov could not resist the pressure of the future leader. Meanwhile, the well-fortified Lviv was too tough for the First Cavalry and the 12th Army. Lenin categorically objected to the blow with the "spread fingers" and insisted on the capture of Warsaw. Stalin stood his ground. The fruitless exchange of telegrams continued for 10 days. Finally, under pressure from Lenin, the commander-in-chief on August 13 categorically demanded to fulfill the directive on the transfer of three armies to Tukhachevsky. Stalin remained true to himself and did not sign the order on the front prepared by Yegorov. It should be remembered that in those years the order of the commander was not legally binding without the signature of one of the members of the RVS. Until that time, Stalin, as the first member of the Revolutionary Military Council, held together all the operational orders of the commander. Another political commissar of the front, RI Berzin, stayed away from purely military affairs. On this basis, at first, he also did not want to put his signature and did this only after direct instructions from Trotsky.

Stalin's willfulness interrupted his military career for 20 years. He had sent a telegram to Moscow about his resignation, hoping that his plan of action would be adopted. However, the plenum of the Central Committee, which took place in those days, removed Stalin from the front and generally removed him from military work. He also did not get into the next composition of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

Only after the described telegraph battles did the First Horse move to the Warsaw direction. However, time was lost. The situation has changed dramatically. The Poles took advantage of the respite and launched a counteroffensive. The Polish command struck a blow at the weak Mozyr group of the Reds in the cut between the fronts and achieved a turning point in the course of the campaign. Now, a certain numerical superiority of the Poles and the better equipment of their army were supplemented by a solid operational advantage. The war also stirred up the national-patriotic feelings of the Polish people. The calculation of the Russian Bolsheviks and their Polish associates ( Dzerzhinsky, Markhlevsky, Unshlicht) to support the Polish proletariat turned out to be a fiction.

Red Army troops on both fronts rolled back, yielding to the Poles the western part of Ukraine and Belarus. The first Horse, advanced to Zamost, barely escaped destruction. Riga world, who ended the Soviet-Polish war in March 1921, established the border much east of the "Curzon line".

Tukhachevsky, who was deprived of the opportunity to successfully complete the operation by Stalin's self-serving calculations, never looked for specific culprits of the defeat (see his book "A Campaign for the Vistula"). Stalin and the Stalinists were not so delicate. Even before the arrest of Tukhachevsky, they were accused of mistakes on the Polish front. After the death of the marshal (see the article "The Process of the Military"), all textbooks and military works included the standard wording: the traitors Trotsky and Tukhachevsky thwarted the capture of Lvov and Warsaw.

The lessons of the Polish campaign make it possible to soberly assess the strengths and weaknesses of the First Cavalry, as well as strategic cavalry in general. Large cavalry masses were effective in breakthroughs, raids behind enemy lines and raids. The Civil War differed from the preceding World War by the absence of a continuous front line and a low density of fire. There were 135-180 rifles per mile of the front, which was even lower than the corresponding figure for the outpost in the world war. The number of guns and machine guns was negligible. Under these conditions, the breakthrough of the front, which, by the way, had a huge length, was greatly facilitated. Due to the lack of echeloned defense, movement behind enemy lines was almost unimpeded, which ensured a complete surprise attack on a concentration of troops. But in the case of overcoming the prepared defense, the cavalry lost its advantages: it suffered heavy losses and did not achieve success. This was the case with Bataysk, and repeated fruitless attempts to seize Lvov discovered this. The cavalry itself was ill-equipped to conduct defensive battles. Here she needed solid infantry support. But the strength of the cavalry was precisely in its ability to solve major tasks independently of the main forces. A contradiction arose that seemed insoluble. It turned out that large horse masses were needed only for a short period of the civil war, suitable only for its specific conditions. Armed with dialectics, Marxist military thought represented by Voroshilov, Budyonny, and Yegorov coped with this antinomy. They announced that all wars will henceforth be exceptionally maneuverable, and the Red Army will only advance - that means it cannot do without powerful cavalry ...

In all types of hostilities, the First Horse was easily vulnerable from the air. Air raids brought her heavy losses near Lvov and later in the fight against Wrangel. "Bombing from airplanes flying over horse masses is not paralyzed by anything on our side," Voroshilov complained to Frunze in November 1920.

First Horse on the Wrangel Front

But even earlier, on the way to the Wrangel front, the Cavalry had to go through the hardest trials. The First Horse of the Beginning, who has just learned the bitterness of defeat, pretty shabby decompose ... However, the motley personnel of the Budyonov army had never sinned with an addiction to military discipline before. The Revolutionary Military Council of the First Horse with difficulty restrained the passions of this freeman. Because of the need to engage in self-supply, acute excesses arose in relations with the civilian population. On this occasion, the army command had to make excuses to the high authorities on this occasion, up to Lenin and Trotsky. Back in Rostov, Voroshilov gave the city commandant for organizing the Jewish pogrom A. Ya. Parkhomenko under the tribunal, which sentenced him to death. Only the intervention of Stalin and Ordzhonikidze saved the life of the legendary divisional commander.

What happened during the transfer of the First Horse from the Polish front was much more serious. The customs of the cavalrymen, truthfully described Babel, horrified many readers. But these descriptions date back to the era of the war with Poland. Babel did not see the Cavalry on the way to the Crimea, when, according to Voroshilov, its "dark days" came. Unbridled robberies of the civilian population began. When trying to stop them, commissar of the 6th Cavalry Division Shepelev was killed. Voroshilov reacted decisively. According to his biographer Orlovsky, the former secretary of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Cavalry, Voroshilov realized that this outbreak of "partisanism" could destroy the army. The division was put on trial (an unprecedented case in the Red Army) and disbanded. At the gunpoint of the special officers, the division fighters laid down their banners and weapons and began to point out the marauders. There were 150 such people. 101 of them were shot. The personnel of the division were given the opportunity to wash away this shame with blood.

On the Wrangel front, the First Horse moved slowly and arrived there greatly weakened. Moreover, Voroshilov and Budyonny sought a special status for themselves and wanted to fight according to their own plan. For these reasons, Frunze used the First Horse as a curtain Crimean operationwhen the victorious outcome was no longer in doubt.

The last major outbreak of "partisanship" occurred in 1921 in the North Caucasus. Impressed by the grain requisitions, Maslakov's brigade, with the brigade commander at the head, broke away from the First Horse and turned into an anti-Soviet partisan detachment... In parallel with this, self-supply continued with inevitable robberies. The tribunals got down to business. A significant part of the Cavalry was shot. In May 1921, the First Horse was disbanded.

Later I. S. Kutyakov, commander of 25 "Chapaevskaya" rifle division on the Polish front, in collaboration with H. M. Khlebnikov, wrote the book "Kiev Cannes". It showed how the Third Army of the Poles managed to avoid encirclement and defeat. In 1937 Kutyakov handed over the manuscript to the People's Commissar Voroshilov, after which he was arrested and died.

Stalin had to admit this ("On the question of the strategy and tactics of the Russian communists"). Despite this, until the Patriotic War, the thesis about the support of the Red Army by the proletariat of the countries at war with the USSR was an integral part of the Soviet military doctrine and deeply rooted in the people's consciousness.

One should not think that had it not been for a hitch with the First Horse, Warsaw would have certainly been taken, and Poland had been defeated. Our description only applies to operational setting. When analyzing from a higher point, one has to take into account that behind Poland's back was the military and especially the economic might of the entire Entente. Lenin openly called the failure of the Polish campaign a miscalculation in politics ... Regarding the purely military side of the matter, he once remarked in a conversation: "Well, who goes to Warsaw through Lvov ..."

In a popular Soviet song about the First Cavalry Army, it was sung: "The atamans-dogs remember. / Polish gentlemen remember. / Our cavalry blades." But there were no special words about Ukrainian self-styled people in it. This is despite the fact that the 6th rifle division of the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was in the summer of 1920 a constant enemy of Budyonny's army all the way from the Dnieper to San. Could it be because she eventually stopped the First Cavalry advance?

Petliurists in the Polish army

In 1919, the UPR army, led by Simon Petliura, had to fight on three fronts: against the Red Army, against the White Guard Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR) of General Denikin and against the Poles. With one of them she would have to enter into an alliance. The Ukrainians are divided. One part advocated an alliance with Poland at the cost of losing part of the territory of Ukraine. Another did not agree with this and in November 1919 went over to the side of Denikin. Finally, a whole brigade led by Colonel Yemelyan Volokh went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and joined the Red Army.

Petliura led a group advocating an alliance with the Poles. Preparing for the renewal of the war with Soviet Russia, Pilsudski, in turn, attracted Ukrainian and Belarusian bourgeois nationalists to his side. On April 21, 1920, in Warsaw, he and Petliura signed an agreement according to which Poland recognized the independence of Ukraine. In response, Poland received western territories inhabited by Ukrainians - not only those that were part of Austria-Hungary (Eastern Galicia with Lvov) before World War I, but also Kholmshchina and the entire Volyn region with the cities of Lutsk, Kovel and Rivne. The eastern border of Ukraine was to be determined by a future treaty with the RSFSR after the victory. Petliura received the right to form the Ukrainian army.

So in the same ranks with the Polish army against the Soviet Republic in 1920, the UPR army fought. The first was formed by the 6th Infantry Division under the command of General Mark Bezruchko. In the winter of 1919/20, on the instructions of Petliura, she made a raid on the rear of the Armed Forces and the Red Army, and in the spring of 1920 she took part in the offensive of the Polish troops in the Right-Bank Ukraine. In the summer of 1920, she participated in repelling the Soviet offensive there, was badly battered, but retained its combat effectiveness. Together with the Polish troops, she retreated west of the Bug River in Volyn.

To the rescue of the Western Front

In August 1920, many thought that the Soviet-Polish war would soon end with the triumphant entry of the Red Army into Warsaw. It seemed to most observers that the Red Army would not stop there. They already dreamed of the Reds in Berlin and other European capitals. However, the Soviet leadership itself shared these illusions. It planned to carry the banner of the proletarian revolution further, to Germany and Western Europe.

While the armies of the Soviet Western Front under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky were approaching Warsaw, the troops of the Southwestern Front (commander Alexander Yegorov, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council - Stalin, who had a great influence on Yegorov) were going to take Lvov. On August 11, the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic's troops, Sergei Kamenev, ordered Yegorov to reassign the 1st Cavalry and 12th Armies to the Western Front. They needed to be sent to Warsaw to build up the force of the strike. However, the command of the Southwestern Front ignored this directive, referring to the fact that the First Cavalry had already been drawn into the battles for Lvov, and its regrouping would have taken a long time.

Meanwhile, Pilsudski concentrated his forces to strike on the flanks of the Red Army group advancing on Warsaw and on August 16 launched a counteroffensive. The Soviet Western Front suffered a heavy defeat and rolled away from the Polish capital. Now the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic demanded that Yegorov and Stalin hand over the 1st Cavalry to the Western Front in order to save it from complete defeat. However, this order was carried out with a great delay.

The Red Command decided to reorient the First Cavalry to Lublin in order to create a threat on the right flank of the Warsaw group of enemy forces by taking this city and force it to halt its strike against the Western Front. Tukhachevsky gave the corresponding directive to Budyonny on August 24 by order of the RVS, although he himself did not believe in its feasibility.

The first cavalry continuously participated in offensive battles from June 1920, from the liberation of Kiev. In the last unsuccessful battles for Lvov, she suffered heavy losses and did not have time to make up for them. She began her raid on Lublin, having in her four cavalry divisions no more than 8 thousand fighters in the ranks.

Battles at Zamoć and Komarov

On August 27, the First Horse began moving out of the Sokal area. On the way lay the city of Zamosc (Polish. Zamosc), defended by the 6th Ukrainian division, numbering 4,000 bayonets. Interestingly, its neighbors in the front were also national and White Guard units that had entered into an alliance with the Poles: on the right - the Don brigade, on the left - the 2nd Ukrainian division, the Kuban brigade and the Belorussian brigade "Batka" Bulak-Balakhovich. The stubborn defense of the Petliurites of Zamoć, which was an important center of local communications, chained the forces of the First Cavalry.

On August 29, the forward detachments of Budyonny tried to capture Zamoостьć on the move, but met with a strong rebuff. The next day, the main forces of the Soviet 6th and 11th cavalry divisions approached the city. They managed to surround the city. The dismounted Red Horsemen launched several attacks. Zamosc was surrounded by a chain of separate rifle cells, only in some places covered with one or two rows of barbed wire. The Petliurites took up a perimeter defense.

Both sides acted bravely and accurately. So, the Budennovites managed to disable two of the three armored trains that supported the besieged. But they could not take the city. The Petliurites launched desperate counterattacks, including night ones, and held Zamosc. The Reds could not move further to Lublin, with Zamosc not taken in the rear. It was dangerous to stay put too. The first cavalry went too deep into the enemy rear, and the neighboring 12th Army, despite all Budenny's requests, could not support it. General Haller's group, consisting of the 13th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Polish Divisions, approached from the south, and the 2nd Legionnaire Division from the north. In fact, on August 31, the First Horse itself was surrounded. On the same day, Budyonny decided to retreat and make his way to the main forces of the Southwestern Front.

During the breakthrough of the Polish encirclement near Komarov, the First Cavalry suffered new heavy losses. From September 1 to September 6, under the continuous blows of the Polish troops, she retreated beyond the Bug to the Vladimir-Volynsky area. Soviet military historian Nikolai Kakurin pointed out that heavy rains, which washed out the roads in the wooded area, prevented Budyonny from fulfilling the original directive. It is obvious, however, that these same roads prevented the Poles from pursuing the retreating First Horse, which saved it from complete destruction. And an important role in its defeat was played by the defense of Zamoć by the Petliurites, who won two days to concentrate around the Polish troops.

Nonresident Ukrainians against everyone….

From the message of the military commissar of the 42nd division of the 13th army V. N. Cherny in December 1919: "There is not a single settlement, which was visited by the Budenovites, where the continuous groaning of residents would not have been heard. Mass robberies, robbery and violence of the Budenovites replaced the whites' bossing. The cavalrymen of the Concorpus units took from the population (indiscriminately from the kulaks and poor people) clothes, felt boots, fodder (sometimes they did not leave even a pound of oats), food, without paying a penny. Breaking open the chests, took away women's underwear, money, watches, tableware, etc. Allegations of rape and torture were received. " In January 1920, the First Cavalry Army occupied Rostov. RB Gul wrote: "The city suffocated in the murders and violence of the Budenovites who had caught the joy of the soldiers' marauding. Then Marx himself would have been hung upside down on a lamp post by this peasant, Pugachev cavalry." “In the early days,” recalls one of the robberies witnesses, SN Stavrovsky, “mostly liquor stores were destroyed, of which there were many in Rostov. Every now and then you could meet a Budenov Cossack or a Red Army soldier with a bunch of bottles in his bosom and in both pockets. The wine was taken away in buckets. The drunkenness and rampage were unimaginable. Several people, even from among the commanders of regiments and political committees, were shot. But the robberies and drunkenness did not subside until there was nothing left that could be robbed, and until the last one was drunk. a bottle of wine. " The commander of the troops of the Caucasian Front V.I.Shorin and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the front V.A.Trifonov emphasized that the command of the Cavalry Army not only did not fight against robberies, but also itself sought "to seize shops, factories, warehouses in the shortest possible time, all indiscriminately and the beginning of the export of items, sometimes completely unnecessary and of little value. "
The plenipotentiary representative of the Cheka in the North Caucasus, Ya.H. Peters, accused Budenny of megalomania and the fact that he kept women at the headquarters of the army "up to the street." The Cavalry Army was followed by a whole tail of wagons with looted property. There were about 120 such cars, according to I. N. Mironov, assistant to the chief of military communications of the front for political affairs. But the opinion of the commander of the army G. Ya. Sokolnikov: "... the partisan-Makhnovist formations of the Red Cavalry will present in the future an even greater military and political disadvantage than in the present, and will be, if not a direct instrument of political adventure, then at least a hotbed of banditry and corruption. " And here is an excerpt from a letter from Voroshilov himself dated March 4, 1920: “For a number of reasons, banditry, throat-grabbing and even robbery continue to flourish in our country. We need workers and much more to get rid of these nightmarish phenomena. lately the army, of course, has been unsuitable for spiritual revival. "
An entry in Babel's diary dated August 18, 1920: “We are driving along the line with the military commissar, we beg you not to chop prisoners, Apanasenko washes his hands. Sheko said,“ chop, it played a terrible role. one is undressed, the other is shot, groans, screams, wheezing ... Hell. How we carry freedom, terrible. They are looking in the farm, they pull out, Apanasenko - do not waste cartridges, cut them in. Apanasenko always says to kill your sister, kill the Poles ... Information about the defense of Lviv - professors, women, teenagers. Apanasenko will cut them, he hates the intelligentsia, it is deep, he wants an aristocratic in his own way, peasant, Cossack state. "

I.R.Apanasenko was drafted into the army in 1911. He participated in the First World War, was promoted to warrant officer for military services and at the end of the First World War was the commander of a machine-gun company.
At the end of 1917, I.R. Apanasenko was elected chairman of the Council and the Military Revolutionary Committee of the village of Mitrofanovskoye, Stavropol province. In May 1918, he organized a partisan detachment, which fought in the Stavropol Territory against the troops of the White Army. From October (according to other sources from August) 1918, he became the commander of a brigade of the 2nd Stavropol Infantry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Division of the Stavropol Partisans, which was later renamed the 6th Cavalry Division and became part of the Cavalry Corps S. M. Budyonny, and then into the 1st Cavalry Army of the Red Army.

Report of the head of the 8th Cavalry Division of the Chervonny Cossacks, V.M. Primakov, dated October 2, 1920: "I report that yesterday and today the 6th Division of the 1st Cavalry Army passed through the location of the division entrusted to me, which on the way makes massive robberies, murders Yesterday, over 30 people were killed in the Salnitsa borough, the chairman of the Revolutionary Committee and his family were killed, over 50 people were killed in the Lyubar borough. The command and commissioners are not taking any measures. Now, the Ulanov borough continues ... that the command staff is also taking part in the pogrom, the fight against the pogromists will obviously take the form of an armed clash between the Cossacks and the Budenovites. Yesterday I spoke with the division commander-6 (Apanasenko). The division commander told me that the commander of the division and several commanders were killed a few days ago his soldiers for shooting the bandits. The soldier masses do not listen to their commanders and, according to the division commander, no longer obey him. The 6th division goes to the rear with the slogans "beat the Jews, communists, commission ares and save Russia ", the name of Makhno is on the lips of the soldiers as the leader who gave this slogan." Budyonny appeared in the division only a week later. An Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry worked in the Cavalry. 387 people were arrested, 141 people, including 19 officers of the command staff, were sentenced to death. But these measures did not change the situation in the army. The opinion of P.Ya. Vitolin, an employee of the political inspectorate of the Southwestern Front, referring to December 1920: “The mood of the units, as one of the responsible party officials put it, is militant: beat the Jews and communists and save Russia. And, indeed, these two elements are intertwined. Army militant, but anti-communist ... Foolishness is flourishing. A number of responsible comrades appeared in the cells, followed by carts with fox fur coats and other junk. Smetanniki are a common phenomenon. I draw your attention to the fact that the First Cavalry Army was a combat-ready unit. Only this combat capability was the result of great combat experience, and not high discipline. The fighters wanted to survive, and for this they had to win in battle, and to win they needed courage and skill, which was what Budenovites possessed. They were also united by their faith in their chieftain.
He had the sad experience of commanding a gang of Budyonny and MV Frunze, when, during the defeat of Makhno, one of the divisions (4th) refused to carry out his orders. Prior to that, as part of the Southern Front, Budyonny's refusal to comply with the order led to the death of two divisions, and in the campaign against Warsaw, to the failure of the entire operation. There was also a unique case when the commander of the 1st brigade of the 4th cavalry division, G.S. Maslakov, took the personnel of the 19th cavalry regiment with him to the bandits.
Right there in the house, in the next room, a Red Army soldier, accompanied by a woman who called herself the sister of mercy of the 4th squadron of the 33rd regiment, continued to load the stolen property into bags. At the sight of us, they rushed out of the house. We shouted to those who had jumped out to stop, but when this was not done, the military commissar Comrade SHEPELEV killed the bandit at the crime scene with three shots from a revolver. The sister was arrested and, together with the horse of the executed, they led the way.
Driving further through the town, we now and then came across individuals along the street who continued to rob. Comrade SHEPELEV persuasively asked them to disperse in parts, many had bottles of moonshine in their hands, under the threat of being shot on the spot, it was taken from them and immediately poured out.
They stopped us and shouted "Here is a military commissar who wanted to shoot us in the town." About 10 Red Army men of the same squadrons ran up, and the others gradually began to join them, leaving all the ranks and demanding immediate reprisals against SHEPELEV.
At this time, comrade arrives. BOOK, together with the arrested sister, who managed to convey to the regiment that Comrade. SHEPELEV killed the soldier. Just then the noise of the whole regiment arose, with a shout at all costs to shoot the military commissar who was killing honest soldiers. Before we had time to drive off and 100 yards, about 100 Red Army men separated from the 31st regiment, caught up with us, jumped up to the military commissar and ripped off his weapon.
There was a shot from a revolver, which wounded Comrade. SHEPELEVA into the left shoulder right through. We are again surrounded by a crowd of Red Army men, pushing me and the BOOK from Comrade. SHEPELEVA, and a second shot fatally wounded him in the head. The corpse of the killed comrade SHEPELEVA was besieged by a crowd of Red Army soldiers for a long time, and with his last breath they shouted "bastard, still breathing, finish him with checkers." Some tried to pull off their boots, but the military commissar of the 31st regiment stopped them, but the wallet, along with the documents, which included a code, was pulled out from Comrade SHEPELEVA from his pocket. Only half an hour after his murder, we managed to put his corpse on a cart and take it to Poleshtadiv 6.
RSFSR In the political department of the 6th Cavalry Division. Military commander of the 33rd Cavalier. regiment 5th Kaval. Divisions. REPORT. October 2, 1920

On September 28, as soon as it got dark, the Red Army men of the 3rd squadron and part of the first and individual persons of the remaining squadrons went on foot in small groups to the place where the pogrom of the Jewish population began. Commissar of the squadron comrade Alekseev reported that the crowd was half drunk and in an agitated state and the patrol was unable to cope.
After that, the former commander of the 3rd squadron comrade GALKA is drunk and a crowd of 15-20 people is also in this state, everyone is armed, GALKA starts shouting at the regiment commanders and hitting the floor with a butt, threatening that I will kill everyone who dares to go against me and adding: I am no longer a soldier of the Red Army, but "BANDIT". The commander began to persuade him, but I did not consider it necessary to enter into explanations with the drunken crowd, which came deliberately to make a brawl, which found fault with every word. They were looking for the chairman of the cell of the 4th squadron comrade. KVITKA, who detained two robbers of the 3rd squadron and took the looted things from them, GALKA was definitely shouting: I will kill KVITKA.
We learned from Commander 34 that their situation was monotonous and the squadron did not come and the whole night there was a general robbery and murder.
By 12 o'clock, the 29th regiment was built on the eastern side of the N. A handful of throat-claws began to ask for the floor one after another. All their speeches boiled down to: immediate rest, expel all Jews from Soviet institutions, and some spoke in general from Russia, as well as expel all officers from Soviet institutions, for which they suggested sending representatives from themselves to the Revolutionary Council of the I Cavalry Army.
The leaders of the robberies and pogroms of the Jewish population are still in place, in the squadrons, and continue to do their job, and the former commander of GALKA, as if he will be the commander of his old squadron, this was told to me by the commander 33 that the Chief of the Division has nothing against such an appointment and Kombrig 2.
For now, the slogans "Beat the Jews and Communists" remain, and some glorify Makhno.
ORDER of the Revolutionary Military Council for the troops of the 1st Cavalry Red Army. No. 89. 1920 October 9, 24 hours, Art. Rakitno.

We, the Revolutionary Military Council of the I Red Cavalry Army, declare in the name of the Russian Socialist Soviet Workers 'and Peasants' Republic:

Listen, honest and red fighters, listen to the commanders and commissars devoted to the end of the laboring republic:
the cavalry army for almost a whole year on different fronts defeated the hordes of the most fierce enemies of the workers 'and peasants' power. Red banners fluttered proudly, sprinkled with the blood of the heroes who had fallen for the holy cause, stained with joyful tears of the liberated workers. And suddenly a dirty deed happened, and a whole series of crimes unheard of in the workers 'and peasants' army. These monstrous atrocities were committed by units of one of the divisions, once also fighting and victorious. Coming out of the battle, heading to the rear of the regiments of the 6th cavalry division, 31, 32 and 33, they committed a series of pogroms, robberies, violence and murders. These crimes appeared even before the departure. So on September 18, 2 bandit raids on the civilian population were committed; September 19 - 3 raids; September 20 - 9 raids; On the 21st - September 6 and 22 - 2 raids, and in all these days there were more than 30 robbery attacks.
In the town of Lyubar on 29 / IX, a robbery and pogrom of the civilian population was carried out, and 60 people were killed. In Priluki, on the night of 2 to 3 / X, there were also robberies, and 12 civilians were wounded, 21 were killed and many women were raped. Women shamelessly raped in front of everyone, and the girls, like slaves, were dragged away by the beasts by bandits to their wagons. In Vakhnovka 3 / X 20 people were killed, many were wounded, raped, and 18 houses were burned. During the robberies, the criminals did not stop at anything, and even stole children's underwear from the little children.
Where the criminal regiments of the recently glorious First Cavalry Army marched, the institutions of Soviet power were destroyed, honest workers abandon their jobs and scatter at the mere rumor of the approach of bandit units. The working population, which once greeted the I Cavalry Army with jubilation, now sends curses after it. "

ORAL REPORT TO THE CHAIRMAN OF VTSIK TOV. KALININ REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SPECIAL DEPARTMENT OF THE FIRST CABINET ARMY. October 15, 1920 m. Znamenka.

Now, after the disarmament of the 6th Cavalry Division, the dark element still remains in the division, and is campaigning for the release of the bandits issued by the division. We have very few forces, and if these remaining bandits want to, they will be able to recapture the arrested.
It should also be noted that it is necessary to enable our departments to deal with the bandits on the spot. We are just on the territory of Makhno. In Yekaterinoslavskaya province. were unloaded 2 prisons I horse. The bandits, knowing that their comrades were in prisons, ran ahead and whispered in the army that Budennovtsy were in such and such a prison. The Budennovites came and opened the prisons.

As a conclusion, it can be noted that the First Horse was the product of the dark peasant mass of the South of Russia, consisting mainly of ethnic Ukrainians. It was these people who, with savage cruelty worthy of the Middle Ages, committed acts of violence against women and children. It is interesting that the behavior of the same Bendera people in Volhynia at the end of the Second World War was distinguished by the same features. There are common features of national psychology.

1st Cavalry Army of Kadyrov, 1st Cavalry Army of Russia
Kharkov operation (December 1919)
Donbass operation (1919)
Rostov-Novocherkassk operation
North Caucasian operation (1920):

• Tikhoretsk operation (1920)
• Don-Manych operation (1920)
• Kuban-Novorossiysk operation

Soviet-Polish War (1919-1921):

• Kiev operation (1920)
• Novograd-Volyn operation (1920)
• Rivne operation (1920)
• Lvov operation (1920)

Perekop-Chongar operation (1920)

The commanders of the First Cavalry Army of the Red Army K. E. Voroshilov,?, S. M. Budyonny, photo of the period 1918-1920.

First Horse Army (Konarmia), 1 CA - the highest operational formation (cavalry army) of the cavalry of the Red Army, created during the Civil War in Russia in 1918-1920. It was the main powerful and maneuverable weapon in the hands of the front and High Command for solving operational and strategic tasks.

• 1 Creation
• 2 Combat path
• 3 Command staff of the 1st Cavalry Army
  • 3.1 Commander
  • 3.2 Members of the RVS
  • 3.3 Chiefs of staff
  • 3.4 Prominent military leaders
• 4 Memory of the First Cavalry Army
  • 4.1 The first cavalry army in art
  • 4.2 The first cavalry army in painting
  • 4.3 First Cavalry Army in Philately
• 5 Notable facts
• 6 See also
• 7 Notes
• 8 Literature
• 9 References

Creature

At the suggestion of a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, I. V. Stalin, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic on November 17, 1919, decided to create the First Cavalry Army under the command of S. M. Budyonny. The army was formed on the basis of three divisions (4th, 6th and 11th) of the 1st Cavalry Corps of Budyonny by order of the RVS of the Southern Front on November 19, 1919. April 1920 they were joined by the 14th and 2nd named after Blinov Caucasian divisions, a separate Caucasian special-purpose brigade, an armored detachment named after Ya. M. Sverdlov, four armored trains - "Red cavalryman", "Kommunar", "Death of the Directory", " Worker ", an aviation group (air group) and other units, totaling 16-17 thousand personnel. In a number of operations, two or three rifle divisions were subordinated to the First Cavalry Army.

The 1st Cavalry Army included: 1st Caucasian Cavalry Division (April 1920), 2nd Stavropol Cavalry Division named after M.F. Blinov (Apr. - May 1920), 4th Petrograd Cavalry Division (Nov.1919 - Aug 1923), 6th Cavalry Division (USSR) (Nov.1919 - Oct.1923), 8th Cavalry Division Chervonny Cossacks (Aug. 1920), 9th Cavalry Division (Apr. - May 1920), 11th Gomel Cavalry Division (Nov.1919 - May 1921), 14th Maykop Cavalry Division (Jan. 1920 - Oct. 1923 ), 19th Cavalry Division (Jan. - Apr. 1921), Cavalry Division named after Yekimov (Apr. - May 1920), the 2nd Kon corps (March 1920), 9th Rifle Division (Dec.1919 - Jan 1920), 12th rifle division (Dec. 1919 - Feb. 1920), 20th rifle division (Feb. - March 1920), 24th rifle division (July - Aug 1920), 34th rifle division ( February - March 1920), 45th rifle division (June - August 1920), 47th rifle division (Aug 1920), 50th rifle division (February - March 1920).

Combat path

Combat path in the 1st Cavalry Corps

• May 6, 1919 in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Kurmoyarsky farm, by the decision of the commander of the 10th army Yegorov, the 1st Cavalry Corps was formed. the structure of the corps included the 4th Cavalry Division of Budyonny and the 1st Stavropol Cavalry Division of Apanasenko, which was soon renamed the 6th Cavalry Division. Budyonny was appointed commander of the corps, V.A.Pogrebov was appointed chief of staff, and S.A. Zotov headed the operational department of the corps headquarters. OI Gorodovikov was approved as the 4th Chief Divisional Officer.
• may 13, covering the retreat to Tsaritsyn of the 10th army, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Grabbevskaya the Cavalry Corps with an unexpected blow defeated two divisions of the 2nd Kuban Cavalry Corps of General Ulagai. During the pursuit, some of the whites were driven back beyond the Manych.

Commanders of the First Cavalry Army at the Field Headquarters of the Red Army.
Sitting: Commander-in-Chief S. S. Kamenev, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic S. I. Gusev, Commander of the South-Western Front A. I. Egorov, member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 1st Cavalry Army K. E. Voroshilov,
standing: Chief of the Field Headquarters of the RVS of the Republic P.P. Lebedev, Chief of Staff of the South-Western Front N.N. Petin, Commander of the 1st Cavalry Army S.M.Budyonny, Head of the Operations Directorate of the Field Headquarters of the RVS of the Republic B.M.Shaposhnikov

• In November 1919 g. The cavalry corps of Budyonny, together with the 9th and 12th rifle divisions of the 8th army of the commander G. Ya. Sokolnikov and the chief of staff GS Gorchakov, formed one of the shock groups of the Southern Front. during the Voronezh-Kastorno operation, he inflicted heavy defeats on the White Guard cavalry, and then played a decisive role in the Donbass operation.

Army formation. Her participation in the Kharkov operation

• December 6 in the village of Velikomikhailovka (now the Museum of the First Cavalry is located there), as a result of a joint meeting of the members of the RVS of the Southern Front, Yegorov, Stalin, Shchadenko and Voroshilov, with the corps command, order No. 1 was signed on the creation of the First Cavalry Army. The Revolutionary Military Council, composed of the Commander of the Cavalry Budenny and members of the Revolutionary Military Council Voroshilov and Shchadenko, was put at the head of the army administration. The Cavalry became a powerful operational-strategic mobile group of forces, which was entrusted with the main task of defeating Denikin's armies by rapidly dividing the White front into two isolated groupings along the Novy Oskol-Taganrog line, followed by their destruction separately.
• 7 december The 4th division of Gorodovikov and the 6th division of Timoshenko defeated the cavalry corps of General Mamontov near Volokonovka.
• To the end 8 december after a fierce battle, the army captured Valuyki. Echelons with food and ammunition, many military convoys and horses were captured at the railway junction and in the city. The Cavalry formations proceeded to pursue the enemy retreating in the southern and southeastern directions.
• To the end December 15th Gorodovikov's shock group (4th and 11th Cavalry Divisions), defeating the Mariupol 4th White Hussar Regiment in the Pokrovsky area, reached the approaches to Svatovo.
• By the morning December 16After breaking the stubborn resistance of the whites, who repeatedly launched counterattacks with the support of armored trains, the 4th division took possession of the Svatovo station, capturing large trophies, including the Ataman Kaledin armored train (according to other sources, it was shot down at Rakovka station).
• December 19th The 4th Division, with the support of armored trains, defeated the combined equestrian group of General Ulagai. In pursuit of the fleeing enemy, she captured the stations Melovatka, Kabanye and Kremennaya.
• 21 December The 6th Division occupied the Rubezhnoye and Nasvetevich stations. in the Rubezhnaya area, where the 2nd cavalry brigade operated, the whites lost up to five hundred people hacked to death, including the commander of the combined Uhlan division, Major General Chesnokov, and three regimental commanders. The 1st cavalry brigade of the 6th division with a surprise raid took possession of the Nasvetevich station, capturing the railway bridge across the Seversky Donets.

For three days of battles of the First Horse, 17 guns were taken as trophies, of which two were mountain ones, the rest were field 3-inch guns, 80 machine guns, carts with military equipment, 300 prisoners of cavalry, 1000 horses with saddles, and up to 1000 people were hacked to death.

• On the night December 23rd The cavalry crossed the Seversky Donets and firmly entrenched on its right bank, capturing the Lisichansk.

Participation in the Donbass operation

• TO December 27th units of the Cavalry, together with the 9th and 12th rifle divisions, firmly seized the Bakhmut-Popasnaya line. In the course of fierce three-day battles, a large group of White forces was defeated and thrown back to the south as part of the cavalry group of General Ulagai, the 2nd Infantry Division, the Markov Officer Infantry Division, the Cavalry Corps of General Shkuro, the 4th Don Cavalry Corps of General Mamontov, as well as the Kuban equestrian corps.
• December 29th the actions of the 9th and 12th rifle divisions from the front and the enveloping maneuver of the 6th cavalry division, parts of the whites were driven out of Debaltseve. Building on this success, the 11th Cavalry, together with the 9th Rifle Division December 30th captured Gorlovka and Nikitovka.
• December, 31st The 6th Cavalry Division, entering the Alekseevo-Leonovo area, completely defeated three regiments of the Markov Infantry Officer Division.
• January 1, 1920 The 11th cavalry and 9th rifle divisions, with the support of armored trains, captured the Ilovaiskaya station and the Amvrosievka area, defeating the Cherkassk division of the whites.

Participation in the Rostov-Novocherkassk operation

• January 6 the forces of the 9th rifle and 11th cavalry divisions with the assistance of the local Bolshevik underground occupied Taganrog.
• January 7-8 units of the Cavalry as part of the 6th and 4th cavalry, as well as the 12th rifle division, in cooperation with the 33rd rifle division of Lewandovsky as a result of a 12-hour oncoming battle in the area of \u200b\u200bthe villages of Generalsky Most, Bolshiye Saly, Sultan-Saly and Nesvetay defeated a large grouping of white troops consisting of the cavalry corps of Mamontov, Naumenko, Toporkov and Barbovich, as well as the Kornilov and Drozdovskaya infantry divisions, supported by tanks and armored vehicles.
• In the evening January 8 Gorodovikov's 4th division occupied Nakhichevan. At the same time, Tymoshenko's 6th division, marching along the rear of the fleeing enemy, suddenly burst into Rostov-on-Don, taking by surprise the headquarters and rear services of the whites celebrating Christmas.
• During January 9 units of the Cavalry fought street battles in the city with the White Guard units retreating beyond the Don. By January 10 with the support of the approaching 33rd division, the city completely passed into the hands of the red troops.

In a report sent to Lenin and the RVS of the Southern Front, it was noted that during the battles near Rostov Cavalry more than 10,000 White Guards were taken prisoner, 9 tanks, 32 guns, about 200 machine guns, many rifles and a huge baggage were captured. the city itself, the Red Army captured a large number of warehouses with various property.

• January 18, 1920carrying out the categorical directive of the commander of Shorin's front to seize a bridgehead in a thaw on the southern, swampy, well-fortified bank of the Don in the Bataysk region suffered heavy losses from the cavalry corps of Generals Pavlov and Toporkov. After several days of unsuccessful bloody battles for the village of Olginskaya, having in front of their front the main forces of the Whites, who, taking advantage of the passivity of the neighboring 8th Army, concentrated a significant amount of cavalry, artillery and machine guns here, was forced, keeping order, to retreat beyond the Don January 22.

Mitrofan Grekov.
"Battle of Yegorlykskaya". 1928-1929. Participation in the North Caucasian operation

• In February 1920 g. Together with three rifle divisions attached to it, she participated in the largest cavalry battle of Yegorlyk in the entire Civil War, during which the 1st Kuban Infantry Corps of White General Kryzhanovsky, the cavalry group of General Pavlov and the cavalry group of General Denisov were defeated, which led to the defeat of the main forces of the group whites in the North Caucasus and their widespread departure. However, the pursuit of the white units was suspended due to the beginning of a strong spring thaw.
• From March 13 continued the offensive on Ust-Labinskaya, where the Cavalry units defeated the cavalry corps of Sultan-Girey, after which they forced the Kuban and, overcoming the resistance of the scattered enemy units, March 22 entered Maykop, already liberated by the Red Partisan detachments.

Participation in the Soviet-Polish War. Kiev operation

• April - May 1920 in connection with the outbreak of the Soviet-Polish war, the First Cavalry Army was transferred from the North Caucasus to the Ukraine and included in the South-Western Front. During an intense 1200-kilometer march from Maikop to Uman, which lasted 52 days, along the way she fought with units of the UPR army, moving along a wide front across Ukraine.
• After concentrating in the Uman region, she took part in the Kiev operation against the Polish troops. According to the initial plan of the RVS of the South-Western Front, the First Cavalry was tasked with: occupying an open sector of the front between the Fastov group of I.E. Yakir and the 14th army of I.P. Uborevich, strike at Kazatin and Berdichev, wedging into the junction of the Kiev and Odessa groupings enemy troops advancing in diverging operational directions. Thus, with access to the right flank and rear of the 3rd Polish Army, conditions were created for the defeat of the most powerful Kiev group of Polish troops.

Due to the lack of information about the enemy, at the first stage of the operation, the Cavalry had to come into contact with the enemy units, establish its strength, the deployment of troops, the configuration and nature of the defense, and also clear the frontline zone of bands and sabotage detachments. "Join the red cavalry!" USSR poster, 1920.

• May 27 The Cavalry went on the offensive. During the first two days, several different armed formations with a total of about 15,000 people were defeated and scattered, including a large detachment of the ataman Kurovsky, who had close ties with the Polish command. The reconnaissance units of the Cavalry came into contact with the advanced units of the enemy, taking prisoners and feeling for the line of his defense.
• May 29 Cavalry units launched an attack on the Poles' defenses along the entire front, engaging in fierce battles, which, however, did not bring significant results. Success was only achieved by parts of the 6th division of Timoshenko, which captured the strongly fortified point of Zhivotov and took significant trophies and prisoners there, but suffered heavy losses in personnel and horses. Leading the attack, Commissar Pisschulin, the chief of intelligence of the 2nd brigade Ivan Ziberov were killed, the commanders of the regiments Selivanov and Yefim Verbin were seriously wounded.
• June 5th broke through the front of the Poles in the Samgorodok, Snezhna sector.
• June 7 The 4th division of Korotchaev, having made a rapid 50-kilometer passage, captured Zhitomir, defeating a small garrison of the Poles. However, the headquarters of the Polish troops located there managed to leave the city. The cavalrymen disabled all means of technical communication with Berdichev, Kiev, Novograd-Volynsky, destroyed the railway bridge, tracks and arrows at the station, blew up artillery depots left on the tracks of 10 cars with shells and guns english sample, 2 carriages with machine guns. A train with horses and warehouses with food was captured. About 2,000 prisoners were released from the city prison, mainly Red Army soldiers and political workers. Outside the city, a column of Red Army prisoners of up to 5,000 people was overtaken and freed.

On the same day, after a stubborn street battle, Morozov's 11th division burst into Berdichev. Destroying the wire connection with Kazatin, Zhitomir and Shepetovka, blowing up artillery depots with a reserve of up to a million shells and incapacitating railways, the division withdrew from the city.

• June 8-11 characterized by the actions of units of the Cavalry and its sabotage detachments on the rear communications and the right flag of the 3rd Polish Army (Polish.) Russian .. communication lines, which contributed to the offensive of the Soviet troops, the enemy abandoned Kiev and its transition to a retreat in the north-western direction.

11 july The sabotage detachment of A.M. Osadchey, breaking into Teterev station, disarmed the 6th stage battalion of the enemy, blew up a railway bridge and derailed two military echelons.

• 12 JuneHaving broken the resistance of the one and a half thousandth garrison, units of the First Cavalry entered Zhitomir.
• 27th of June occupied Novograd-Volynsky, and July 10 - Exactly.

Participation in the Lvov operation

• Late July - early August fought near Lvov. 12th of August The 1st Cavalry and 12th Army, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kamenev, were withdrawn from the South-Western Front and transferred to the subordination of the Western Front in order to use them in the Warsaw operation in connection with the difficult situation that was developing there for the Soviet troops.
• 16 august The 6th division, having crossed the Western Bug by swimming, captured and held a bridgehead in the Pobuzhany area, being 15 km from Lvov. According to the testimony of the prisoners, a panic arose in the city, the evacuation of the administration and the families of the officers began. An order from Tukhachevsky was received to relocate to the Ustilug - Vladimir-Volynsky area. However, in view of the obvious lack of forces of the neighboring advancing armies, scheduled for occupying the liberated sector of the front, a decision was made to continue the offensive until the defeat of the Lvov group of Poles.
• August 19 bloody battles continued on the approaches to Lvov. The advancement of army units was strongly opposed by armored trains and aircraft. in the center of the front, the 6th and 4th divisions threw the enemy back 2-3 kilometers. On the right flank, the 11th division advanced to the southwestern outskirts of the city, although the left-flank units of the 14th division were slightly pressed by the enemy cavalry. In general, the Cavalry was located 5-7 kilometers from Lviv and covered it from three sides. The fighting was extremely fierce on both sides. The commander of the 4th division Fyodor Litunov and the deputy head of the political department of the army, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Red cavalry" ID Perelson were killed. The command of the 4th division was temporarily assigned to I. V. Tyulenev.

The events of the day were reflected in the well-known work of socialist realism - the novel by the former cavalry officer Nikolai Ostrovsky "How the Steel Was Tempered". The army headquarters established contact and agreed on joint actions with the Lviv pro-Bolshevik underground, which was preparing an armed uprising in the city the next day. However, in the evening, Tukhachevsky's directive was received on the immediate advance to the designated area of \u200b\u200bthe counterstrike in the Lublin direction.

• August 21-25 the army, leaving in the defense the 45th and 47th rifle divisions assigned to it earlier, made a transition to the concentration area, partly fighting rearguard battles with the enemy who had gone over to the offensive.

Raid in Zamoć Main article: Defense of Zamosc

• 25-th of August - the beginning of the raid in Zamoć. The army went into the rear of the enemy with the task of capturing Krasnostav within four days and then conducting an offensive in the Lublin direction. The operational formation of troops, in conditions of operations with open flanks, was carried out in the form of a diamond: the 4th cavalry division advanced in the vanguard, behind it, a ledge behind the right and left flanks of the 14th and 6th cavalry divisions, the 11th cavalry was in the rearguard, constituting an army reserve. For the first two days, the army advanced without encountering resistance, in difficult conditions that began pouring rains, which continued until the end of the raid.
• August 27 the first clashes with parts of the Polish troops took place. The 14th division captured and held the crossing of the Khuchva river in the Terebin area, the 4th captured Tyshovtse, the 6th and 11th, pushing the enemy back to the south, reached the Telyatin - Novoselki - Gulcha line. Parts of the 4th division defeated the Cossack brigade of the captain Vadim Yakovlev, numbering about 750 sabers, used by the Polish army for reconnaissance. About 100 prisoners were taken, 3 guns, machine guns and about 200 horses.

Large enemy groups began to concentrate on the flanks of the army: from the south - the group of General Haller, and from the north - the 2nd Infantry Division of Legionnaires (Polish) Russian. Colonel Zhimersky. To facilitate the actions of the Cavalry, Tukhachevsky was ordered to the 12th Army to bind the enemy forces with the transition to an active offensive.

• August 28 the battles were fought in the offensive zone of the 14th, 6th and 4th divisions with units of the 2nd division of legionnaires. The advance units of the 4th division with a sudden raid captured an enemy outpost in the Pereela farm, and then defeated up to three companies of legionnaires. By the evening, the division captured the Chesniki. The 6th division, in the course of a stubborn battle with the infantry and cavalry of the Poles, captured Komarov. Units of Morozov's 11th division occupied Rahane - Semerzh without a fight. During the day, the army advanced 25-30 kilometers, entering the deep rear of the enemy, losing contact with units of the 12th Army.
• August 29 stubborn battles began in the offensive zone of Tyulenev's 4th division on the outskirts of Zamost. Heavy battles were fought by the 6th and 14th divisions, attacked from the side of Grabovets by the 2nd division of legionnaires with the support of two armored trains. By order of Budyonny, the 4th division, partly covering itself with a screen from the Zamoć side, with three regiments secretly deployed to Zavalyuv, delivered a sudden blow to the flank of the legionnaires. The enemy, having abandoned their fortifications, began to retreat to the north. Taking advantage of this success, the 14th Cavalry Division launched a counterattack. However, they failed to take Grabovets.

In the town of Shevnya, the advance units of the 6th division patted the remnants of Yakovlev's Cossack brigade, took prisoners, and recaptured many horses and guns from the enemy. Tomaszuve, the headquarters of the Petliura unit was destroyed. About 200 prisoners were taken. By the end of the day, only the 6th and 11th divisions completed the task, reaching the Zamoć area. According to updated data, from the north, from the Grabovets area, a large, well-armed 2nd division of legionnaires and some units of the 6th Sich Division of the Ukrainian People's Republic were hanging over the right flank of the Cavalry. Haller's group advanced from the south and southeast. The 9th Brigade of the 5th Infantry Division was also located here.

• August 30 in the south and southeast, General Haller's group occupied Tyshovets, Komarov, Vulka Labinska, cutting off the Cavalry's communications with its rear and the 12th Army. In the north, the 2nd Legionnaire Division and units of the 6th Petliura Division held Grabovets. The 10th Infantry Division firmly occupied Zamosc.

At a meeting of the army headquarters in Nevirkov, a decision was made: to defeat the most dangerous group of Haller's troops, thus freeing their hands for an offensive on Krasnostav, for which two divisions - the 14th and 11th - cover themselves from the side of Grabovets and Zamosty, and to the south, against Haller, turn the 4th and 6th, which were assigned the main tasks. The more experienced Semyon Timoshenko, who was in reserve after the battles near Brody, was appointed chief of the 4th cavalry, and the 4th IV Tyulenev was again transferred to the 2nd brigade.

• On the night of August 31having anticipated the regrouping of Budyonny's troops, by order of General Sikorsky, the Polish army went on the offensive. With a counter strike from the south and north, General Haller's group and the 2nd Legionnaire Division united and seized the crossing on the Huchva River at Verbkowice, finally cutting off the Cavalry's retreat. At the same time, Zheligovsky's 10th division launched an offensive from Zamoć to Grubeshiv in order to cut the Cavalry into two parts. In official Polish historiography, this operation is called the Battle of Komarov (Polish) Russian.

During the day, the forces of the 6th, 11th and 14th divisions and the Special Brigade of K.I. Stepnoy-Spizharny fought off attacks by superior enemy forces from his Grabovets and Komarov groups, as well as the Zamoć garrison. Parts polish forces managed to carry out a strong penetration from the north and south, where the Polish infantry and lancers captured Chesniki, Nevyrkov, Kotlice. Two brigades of the 6th division operating west of Zamosc were cut off for several hours. Despite the achievement of these particular successes, the enemy, however, failed to fulfill the main task of dissecting and destroying the Cavalry. In view of the created conditions, the army command decided to break through to the east to join the forces of the Western Front beyond the Bug. Parts of Parkhomenko's 14th division held the Nevirkov-Grubieszow corridor. In the afternoon, units of the 6th division drove out the Polish infantry and lancers from Nevirkov and Kotlice. Tymoshenko's 4th division was tasked with pushing back the Polish units that had entered the rear and clearing the way for the army to the east. In the battle for Khoryshov-Russkiy, one of the brigades of the 4th division attacked the superior forces of the Polish infantry in horse formation. Encouraging the fighters by personal example, the attack was led by Budyonny, Voroshilov and Timoshenko, during which the cavalrymen drove the enemy out of the village. The brigade captured several dozen prisoners, machine guns, field kitchens and wagons with food. As a result of the daily battles, Budyonny's divisions were sandwiched between two groupings of Polish forces in a corridor 12-15 kilometers wide in the area of \u200b\u200bSvidniki - Khoryshov-Polsky - Chesniki - Nevirkov - Khoryshov-Russian. In the east, having seized the crossings on the Khuchva River, the Poles cut off the army from the troops of the Western Front. Fierce battles on 30 and 31 August brought heavy losses and exhausted the army. People were exhausted, the horses were exhausted. The wagons were overflowing with wounded, the ammunition, medicines and dressings were running out. The Revolutionary Military Council of the army gave the order from the morning of September 1 to begin a retreat in the general direction to Grubeshov. The operational formation was again selected in the shape of a diamond, with the location in the center of the convoys and polestars. the vanguard was to attack the 4th division, with the task of capturing the Terebin - Grubeshov area and capturing the crossing over Khuchva. The 6th division without one brigade and the 14th, and in the rearguard - the 11th division and the 6th brigade, were supposed to move along the ledges on the right and left. A special brigade of Stepnoye-Spizharny remained in reserve and followed with a polestarm.

• September 1 The Cavalry broke through the encirclement, establishing contact with units of the 12th Army. In the morning, the brigades of the 4th division captured the crossings on the Khuchva river. Tyulenev's 2nd brigade, breaking through a narrow dam in horse formation under heavy machine-gun fire, swiftly attacked the village of Lotov and took possession of the crossing.

The 3rd brigade of Gorbachev, knocking the enemy out of Khostin, captured the bridge at Verbkowice, ensuring the crossing of the convoys and the Poleshtarma. Having completed the task, the Tymoshenko division with two brigades immediately attacked the location of the Polish troops in the Grubieszow area, supporting the 132nd rifle brigade of the 44th division of the 12th army, which was conducting heavy battles there. The enemy fled. Developing the pursuit, the cavalry took up to 1,000 prisoners, a large number of machine guns, rifles and three heavy guns. In just a day in battles, the enemy lost about 700 people killed and wounded, as well as over 2,000 prisoners. The 14th division, having firmly secured the right flank of the army from the side of Grabovets, withdrew to the Podgortsy - Volkovy line. The forward units of the left-flank 6th division, retreating to the south, drove the Polish infantry back from the crossings over Khuchva at Konopne and Voronovitsa and established contact with the 44th rifle division in Tyshovtsy. The rearguard of the Cavalry - the 11th division, in a battle with the enemy approaching Khoryshov-Russian, captured about two hundred prisoners and occupied the Zabortsy - Gdeshin - Khostin line. Chief division officer Morozov was ordered in the evening to go on the offensive and drive the enemy westward, and in the morning of the next day to cross Khuchva to Verbkovitsa.

• September 2bringing up fresh forces, with the support of a large number of artillery and aviation, Polish troops launched an offensive, trying to cover the flanks. during three days of fierce fighting, the cavalrymen not only held back the onslaught, but also threw back the Polish troops, capturing a number settlements on the western bank of the Khuchva.

In the following days, the formations of the 12th Army, exhausted by long battles, under pressure from the enemy, retreated beyond the Bug, endangering the flanks of the 1st Cavalry. To the north of it, the Poles captured the crossing at Gorodilo and developed an offensive to the southeast, and to the south, the Polish cavalry moved towards Krylov. In danger of being cut off from the crossings and sandwiched between the rivers Khuchva and Bug, units of the Cavalry under the cover of strong barriers by dawn 8 September crossed the Bug and took up defenses along its right bank. At a meeting of the commanding staff of divisions and brigades, the general difficult position of the army was stated. The 11th Division, for example, had only 1,180 active fighters, and 718 of them lost their horses. The largest - the 6th division - numbered 4,000 sabers, but almost all the regimental commanders were out of action in it and only four squadron commanders survived. Out of 150 machine guns, only 60 were suitable. Artillery, machine-gun carts, vehicles, weapons were worn out to the limit, the horse train was exhausted. On the Wrangel front

• From September 26 By order of the commander-in-chief of the Republic S.S.Kamenev, the army was withdrawn to the reserve, and then sent to the Southern Front for operations against the White Guard forces of General Wrangel.
• At the end of September In parts of the 6th Cavalry Division, Divisional Commander Apanasenko, who was moving to the area of \u200b\u200bconcentration in the rearguard of the main forces, riots began. Cases of disobedience to orders of the command under the pretext of fatigue and poor material support, a sharp drop in discipline became more frequent. There were cases of looting, Jewish pogroms, murder of civilians, desertion. September 28 was killed by the military commissar of the division Georgy Shepelev. Lenin and Commander-in-Chief Kamenev learned about what had happened in the division. October, at an emergency meeting of the Revolutionary Military Council of the army, an order was issued stating that the regiments marked in these crimes should be disarmed, disbanded, deprived of all awards, banners and forever deleted from the lists of the 1st Cavalry. However, on the initiative of Budyonny, these measures were relaxed, the weapons were returned to the soldiers. The persons convicted of the pogroms were tried by the military revolutionary tribunal and were shot, but some of the instigators managed to escape. The same measures were originally awarded to the commanders who caused the riots. However, executions and prison sentences, due to their personal merits, as well as on the occasion of the third anniversary of the October Revolution, were commuted to lighter sentences. All of them were distributed with a significant demotion to other cavalry units, Apanasenko was removed from office. However, as a result of subsequent hostilities on the Wrangel front, many of them regained their ranks.
• In autumn 1920 in cooperation with other troops of the Southern Front, she conducted a successful offensive from the Kakhovsky bridgehead in the direction of Askania-Nova, Gromovka. During the operation in Northern Tavria, together with the 2nd Cavalry Army under the command of F. Mironov, the group of Wrangel's troops was inflicted a major defeat, after which the remnants of this group, at the cost of heavy losses in manpower and equipment, broke through into the Crimea.

After the end of the Civil War

• In the winter of 1920-1921. fought with the detachments of Makhno in the Left-Bank Ukraine, and then destroyed the White Guard rebel army of General Przhevalsky in the North Caucasus.
• 1920 year... By order of the Chairman of the RVSR No. 2660/532 of December 3, 1920, the Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Crimea (hereinafter referred to as the ARMS) was created. The Armed Forces consisted of the Kiev Military District, the Office of the Ukrainian Reserve Army and the Kharkov Military District. The directorate was created on the basis of the field directorate of the Southern Front. The 1st Cavalry Army was excluded from the composition of the troops of the Southern Front and included in the troops of the AFUK.
• In May 1921 g. was disbanded, but the army headquarters remained until October 1923.
• June 1938 A.I. Eremenko became the commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps, formed from parts of the First Cavalry Army and stationed in the Belarusian Military District

Command staff of the 1st Cavalry Army

Commanding

• Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny - from November 17, 1919 to October 26, 1923

RVS members

• Voroshilov Kliment Efremovich - from November 17, 1919 to May 7, 1921
• Shchadenko Efim Afanasyevich - from November 17, 1919 to July 5, 1920
• Minin Sergei Konstantinovich - from July 14, 1920 to May 6, 1921
• Gorbunov Pavel Petrovich - from October 10, 1920 to May 27, 1921
• Bubnov Andrey Sergeevich - from April 29, 1921 to May 27, 1921
• RVS Secretary - Sergei Nikolaevich Orlovsky

Chiefs of staff

• Pogrebov Viktor Andreevich, vried - from November 17, 1919 to January 1, 1920
• Shchelokov Nikolai Kononovich - from January 1, 1920 to June 19, 1920, from February 16, 1921 to October 26, 1923
• Klyuev Leonid Lavrovich - from June 20, 1920 to February 16, 1921

Outstanding military leaders

Many commanders who later became prominent Soviet military leaders served in the ranks of the First Cavalry Army: S.M.Budyonny, K.E. Voroshilov, S.K. Timoshenko, G.I.Kulik, A.V. Khrulev, I.V. Tyulenev , O. I. Gorodovikov, K. S. Moskalenko, P. S. Rybalko, P. L. Romanenko D. D. Lelyushenko, I. R. Apanasenko, K. A. Meretskov, A. I. Eremenko, A. I. Lopatin D. I. Ryabyshev, P. Ya. Strepukhov, A. P. Zhukov, F. V. Kamkov, A. A. Grechko, S. M. Krivoshein, P. F. Zhigarev, A. I. Leonov , Ya. N. Fedorenko, A. S. Zhadov, P. A. Belov, V. V. Kryukov, T. T. Shapkin, V. I. Kniga, P. V. Gnedin and others.

After the army was disbanded, G.K. Zhukov, L.G. Petrovsky, I.N.Muzychenko, F.K.Korzhenevich, I.A.Pliev, S.I. Gorshkov, M.P. Konstantinov, A. T. Stuchenko and other famous military leaders.

Memory of the First Cavalry Army

Mass grave of soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Army, Rivne, Ukraine

• In the homeland of the First Cavalry Army, in the village of Velikomikhailovka, Belgorod Region, there is a Memorial Museum of the First Cavalry Army.
• In Simferopol and Stary Oskol, streets are named in honor of the First Cavalry Army.
• In the Lviv region, above the Lviv-Kiev highway near the village of Khvatov, near the village of Olesko, Busk district of the Lviv region, 23 km from the regional center of Busk and 70 km from Lviv, a Monument to the soldiers of the First Cavalry Army, who defeated the Polish troops and reached the approaches to Lublin and Lvov, but could not capture Lvov and in August 1920 were forced to retreat. the monument is currently being destroyed.
• In the Rostov region (Zernogradsky district) there is a stud farm named after the First Cavalry Army, which breeds horses of the famous Budennovsk breed

The first cavalry army in art

• In 1926 Isaac Babel published a collection of stories "Cavalry" about the First Cavalry Army of Budyonny.
• The first horse (film, 1941) - dir. Efim Dzigan and Georgy Berezko
• The first horse (film, 1984) - dir. Vladimir Lyubomudrov

The first cavalry army in painting

Grekov, painting "Banner and Trumpeter", 1934.

Grekov, painting "Trumpeters of the First Horse"

The first cavalry army in philately

“Comrade Stalin to the 1st Cavalry Army. " Left Stalin, right Budyonny

USSR postage stamp,
1929 year

USSR postage stamp,
1929 year

USSR postage stamp,
1929 year

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1929:
10 years 1st cavalry

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1959:
40 years of the First Cavalry Army

Postage stamp of the USSR, 1969:
50 years of the First Cavalry

Notable facts

• The future Generalissimo of the USSR I.V. Stalin was an honorary Red Army soldier of the 1st Cavalry Army.
• The future academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, therapist, hematologist Kassirsky IA served as the regimental doctor in the brigade of S.M. Patolichev. / His memoirs "Horsemen from the Legend" were published in the journal "Znamya" in 1968.

see also

• Battle of the Backyard
• March of Budyonny
• Defense of Zamoć
• Monument to the soldiers of the First Cavalry Army (Olesko)

Notes

1. First konnaya army / Russian spelling dictionary: about 180,000 words / OE Ivanova, VV Lopatin (editor-in-chief), IV Nechaeva, LK Cheltsova. - 2nd ed., Rev. and add. - M .: Russian academy sciences. Institute of the Russian language named after V.V. Vinogradov, 2004 .-- 960 p. - ISBN 5-88744-052-X.
2. TSB
3. Con'rmia... Lopatin V.V., Nechaeva I.V., Cheltsova L.K. Uppercase or lowercase? Orthographic dictionary. - M .: Eksmo, 2009 .-- S. 223 .-- 512 p.
4. 1 2 Speech at a ceremonial meeting at the military academy
5. Tavria (from ancient Greek. Ταῦρος) - the old name of the steppe region of the Dnieper-Molochansk interfluve within the modern Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The North Tauride steppes through the isthmus and the Sivash pass into the steppes of Taurida (the Crimean Peninsula). With regard to the territory of Crimea, Tavria and Tavrida are synonyms. modern Ukraine has a tendency to call Tavria exactly Northern Tavria (and more often only its western part - the former Dnieper district of the Tavricheskaya province).
6. Red Banner Kiev. 1979.
7. Military encyclopedic Dictionary. 1984.
8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 rkka.ru. cavalry. Cavalry of the Civil War. Command staff of cavalry formations and formations
9. OJSC Horse Factory named after the First Cavalry Army - official site.

Literature

• L. L. Klyuev. First Cavalry Army. M .; L .: Gosizdat. Dept. military. lit., 1928.
• Budyonny S. M. Red cavalry. Sat. Art. M .; L .: Gosizdat. Dept. military. lit., 1930.
• L. L. Klyuev. The Combat Path of the First Cavalry Army. M .; L .: Gosizdat. Dept. military. lit., 1930.
• Orlovsky S. N. Great year: Diary of a cavalry soldier. M .; L .: Gosizdat. Dept. military. lit., 1930.
• Rakitin N. Memories of the Konarmeytsa. - M .: Ogonek, 1930.
• Rakitin N. Notes of the cavalry officer. - M .: Federation, 1931.
• L. L. Klyuev. The First Cavalry Red Army on the Polish Front in 1920. Moscow: Military Publishing, 1932.

Links

• Budyonny Semyon Mikhailovich. "Traveled way" in 3 volumes
• S. Vitoshnev. "WITH. M. Budyonny. Chronicle. " (Biography)
• Site about S.M.Budyonny
• Shambarov Valery Evgenievich White Guard. 82. The last victories of Denikin.
• Denikin Anton Ivanovich Essays on the Russian Troubles. Chapter XX. Operations of the southern armies at the beginning of 1920: from Rostov to Yekaterinodar. Discord between volunteers and donors.
• Red Banner Kiev. Essays on the history of the Red Banner Kiev Military District (1919-1979). Second edition, revised and enlarged. Kiev, publishing house of political literature of Ukraine. 1979.
• Central State Archives of the Soviet Army. two volumes. Volume 1. Guide. TsGASA, 1991.

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1st Cavalry Army Information

During the Civil War, three super-powerful cavalry formations appeared: the 1st Cavalry Army; 2nd Cavalry Army; red Cossacks.
Accordingly, three groups of cavalry commanders were formed.
The grouping of the 2nd Cavalry Army was kicked out of the game by common efforts, its leaders were declared enemies and eliminated. Its commander F.K. Mironov protested against the Bolshevik terror on the Don, was arrested and shot without trial in 1921, Rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court in 1960 "for lack of corpus delicti."
According to some historians, a number of victories of the 2nd Cavalry Army were attributed to the 1st Cavalry.
The 1st Cavalry was not only victorious, but also defeated by the cavalry corps of Generals Pavlov and Toporkov. There were also accusations of the participation of its units in Jewish pogroms.
It so happened that in the Civil War, Comrade Stalin was where the 1st Cavalry was operating. They fought with Budyonny together in 1918 in Tsaritsyn, the future Stalingrad, and Stalin knew Voroshilov even before the October Revolution. The people of the 1st Cavalry Army were not only familiar to Stalin, but for the most part they were selected, supported and promoted.
In 1922, Stalin took over a post with such a strange name - Secretary General... Lenin quickly realized that, "having become General Secretary, Comrade Stalin concentrated immense power in his hands." In his hands was the "Department of accounting and distribution of leading personnel." Very soon, the veterans of Stalin's beloved 1st Cavalry Army occupied the highest levels of military power.
The leaders of the Red Cossacks were, for the most part, elected, supported and appointed by Comrade Trotsky. Among them were Tukhachevsky and Yakir. They were pushed back from the leading roles, and they did great stupid things in powerless rage.

Budyonny became an obedient weapon of Stalin during the defeat of the leading cadres of the Red Army in the late 1930s.
At the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) (Feb.-March 1937), when discussing the issue of N.I. Bukharina and A.I. Rykov spoke out "for expulsion, prosecution and execution", in May 1937 when questioned about the expulsion from the party of M.N. Tukhachevsky and Ya.E. Rudzutaka wrote: "Of course, for. We need to execute these scoundrels."
In 1926, Budyonny accused Babel of falsifying the history of the 1st Cavalry after the latter published the collection of short stories "Cavalry".
(IE Babel (1894-1940) - writer. During the civil war - Chekist, cavalryman of the 1st Cavalry. Arrested, accused of belonging to a spy-Trotskyist group and of "organizational" ties with the wife of "enemy of the people" Yezhov . Shot. Rehabilitated posthumously.)
After the massive purges in the army in 1926-35 and the repressions of 1930-38, a situation arose in the army when the highest posts were held by people from the 1st Cavalry Army, and Budyonny and Voroshilov were turned into almost the only heroes of the Civil War by Stalin's propaganda. In 1943, Budyonny even joined the Central Committee of the party. True, it was the Central Committee of the Stalinist call, and if Stalin had the feeling
humor, at the same time, following the example of Caligula, he could introduce the Budyonnovsky horse into the Central Committee. But Stalin did not have a sense of humor.
During the Soviet-German war, the insignificance of both Voroshilov and Budyonny after the very first operations became so obvious that Stalin had to send them to the Urals to prepare reserves.
Nevertheless Budyonny Thrice Hero of Owls. Union (1958, 1963, 1968).
Budyonny was married three times. Almost nothing is known about the first wife. Sovietologist A. Avtorkhanov claims that she was an illiterate peasant from the Kuban, but when he became a marshal, he abandoned her and sent his children to an orphanage.
The second wife is Olga Stefanovna Mikhailova, a singer in the troupe of the Bolshoi Theater. She was arrested in 1937 and released in 1956.
Third wife - Maria Vasilievna (b. 1916), second wife's cousin. About children from the first two wives, nothing is known, and from the third wife there were three children: Sergei (b. 1938), Nina (b. 1939), Mikhail (b. 1944). The daughter of the Marshal was for some time the wife of the artist Mikhail Derzhavin.
Budyonny died in 1973. He left a false and odious memoir "The Path Traveled". He was buried in Red Square near the Kremlin wall.

Voroshilov after the death of M.V. Frunze headed the military department of the USSR. He had a reputation as a devoted supporter of Stalin, supporting him in the struggle against Trotsky and then in the establishment of Stalin's absolute power in the late 1920s. Author of the book "Stalin and the Red Army", exalting the role of Stalin in the Civil War.
Voroshilov's critics are raising the question of declaring him a criminal along with Stalin, regardless of any merits in the past. Voroshilov's signature stands for execution on 186 lists of 18,474 people. In total, under the leadership of the People's Commissar of Defense in the Red Army, about 40 thousand commanders were "purged".
After Stalin's death in March 1953, he was appointed to the honorary, but not influential post of chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. He is twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1956, 1968), Hero of Socialist Labor (1960).
In 1956-1957, on the basis of rejection of the political course of NS Khrushchev to de-Stalinization of society and the country, he became close to the "anti-party group" of GM Malenkov, LM Kaganovich and VM Molotov. After the defeat of the "group", Khrushchev and his entourage decided not to touch Voroshilov as a popular hero of the Civil War.
Voroshilov's wife - Golda Davidovna Gorbman (1887-1959), a Jew by nationality. Before marrying Voroshilov, she converted to Orthodoxy, changed her name and became Ekaterina Davidovna. They did not have children of their own, they raised the son and daughter of M.V. Frunze - Timur (1923-1942) and Tatyana (b. 1920), as well as their adopted son Peter (1914-1969).
Voroshilov died in 1969. He was buried in Red Square.