Ivanov I. B. In loving memory of Maria Zakharchenko. Zakharchenko-Schultz Maria Vladislavovna Maria Zakharchenko Schultz

Not long ago in Russian Federation The Soviet serial film “Operation Trust” was once again shown on television. This picture, recognized as one of the classic films of Soviet cinema, was filmed in 1967 based on the well-known novel by Stalin Prize laureate L.V. Nikulin “Dead Swell”, who sang the “feats” of the Cheka - OGPU in the fight against the White emigration and the White underground in the USSR. We, of course, are not going to engage in criticism of the film “Operation Trust”, as well as criticism of the novel “Dead Swell” itself. Both works were “ideologically consistent” and, shamelessly distorting historical facts, pursued very specific propaganda goals. Naturally, all the security officers and their provocateurs were portrayed there as noble, intelligent, kind and fearless patriots; Kutepovites and other anti-communists are vicious and evil enemies, or even simply criminals and degenerates. But here’s a paradox: even in this KGB series, the sympathy and sympathy of the audience was somehow involuntarily evoked by the image of Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz, the leader of the Kutepov militants in sub-Soviet Russia. In "Operation Trust" the role of Maria Zakharchenko was played in her own talented way by the brilliant actress Lyudmila Kasatkina. But the point was not so much in the undeniable talent of the Soviet film actress, but in something else: the very image of a beautiful, charming and intelligent Russian woman, a patriot, with a tiny group of like-minded officers rushing into an incredibly risky battle against the huge army of the OGPU, simply could not leave the audience indifferent. Unfortunately, no one has yet written a somewhat complete and reliable biography of Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz). Meanwhile, the name of this amazing Russian woman still does not leave the pages of numerous books and articles dedicated to the history of the Great and Civil War, Russian White emigration and, especially, the history of the notorious Operation Trust. However, this situation is easily explained: neither the leaders of the EMRO (for some reasons), nor the leaders of the Soviet special services (for others) for a long time were not interested in the details of the biography of the legendary heroine of the White movement being made public. The first who spoke in the press about the unprecedented (really unprecedented!) life feat of Maria Zakharchenko was the talented Russian publicist Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tsurikov, well-known in emigration - a person very close to the work of the Russian General Military Union. We have serious reasons to believe that this article was written at the personal request of General A.P. himself. Kutepov (at that time the main leader of the “special work”), based on secret materials provided by the general at the disposal of the journalist. Alas, the publicist was not yet able to fully use them to write a biography of the Russian heroine. “Of what is contained in the material handed over to me,” wrote the first biographer of Maria Zakharchenko, “I can convey, perhaps, only half... Talk about the life of M.V. before the start of her combat, revolutionary work for one reason, and talk about details of how this work proceeded in Russia, according to others, it does not seem possible now...” Indeed, reading the brilliant article by N.A. Tsurikov 1927, you are convinced that the author deliberately keeps silent about many things, does not say anything, and, perhaps, sometimes deliberately “makes mistakes” (in order to confuse the OGPU workers, who, undoubtedly, also read and analyzed this material). Only later, when it became possible to lift the veil of secrecy, more detailed information about Maria Zakharchenko appeared in the emigrant press, but, unfortunately, it also left many “blank spots” in the biography of the Russian heroine. What do we really know about her?

SMOLYANKA

Masha Lysova (that was her maiden name) was born on December 9, 1893 in the family of active state councilor Vladislav Gerasimovich Lysov. According to N.A. Tsurikov, Masha lost her mother very early: she died shortly after the birth of her daughter. Masha spent the first years of her life in the city of Penza and the Penza province, on her parents’ estate. She received her initial education at home, and then was sent to study in St. Petersburg, at the famous Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens - the best educational institution in Russia for girls from noble families. Studying and life at the institute were always very strict. But the reputation of Smolensk women is well known: brilliant education, excellent upbringing; Upon graduation, the best students could be assigned to serve at the Court. The name of Maria Vladislavovna Lysova can be found in the list of Smolyans among forty-five graduates of the Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens of 1911 (79th edition). At the age of about twenty, she married an officer of the Life Guards. Semenovsky regiment of Ivan Sergeevich Mikhno. The young couple settled at 54 Zagorodny Prospekt, where most of the regiment’s married and single officers lived in government apartments.) But the relatively serene life of the regimental lady of one of the most privileged regiments of the Imperial Guard was very short-lived: the First World War soon broke out. World War. In August 1914, Staff Captain Mikhno went with the regiment to the front as head of a team of mounted reconnaissance officers.6) In the same year, seriously wounded, he died in the arms of his young wife. And now, she is already a grief-stricken widow with a tiny, just born child in her arms. This loss shocked the young twenty-two-year-old woman, but she did not lose heart: in response to the death of her loved one, she decided to voluntarily go to the front - to join the ranks, in order to replace her deceased husband with arms in hand. At that time, in the Russian Army, a woman in military ranks was an exceptional case, almost unprecedented since the time of the famous “cavalry maiden”, cornet N.A. Durova. This was only later, in 1917, during the time of the Kerensky regime, in the ranks of the decaying Russian Army will begin to form “exotic” women’s shock battalions and separate women’s communications teams. But in 1914, it was hard to even imagine a woman in regimental ranks! Any military commander would, of course, respond to such a request from a young lady with surprise and a categorical refusal. At best, one could count on the position of sister of mercy... And then the recent Smolensk woman decides to resort to the help of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (1895 - 1918) - the eldest August Daughter of Emperor Nicholas II. Back in 1909, the Tsar appointed Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna as chief of the 3rd Elisavetgrad Hussar Regiment. This was a great honor for the army regiment, and the residents of Elisavetgrad were proud of such patronage.

"...We are hussars not made of foil,
Each of us is cast damask steel,
We take care of Olga's name,
White mentic and standard.
In the field of battle, in the field of honor
Olga's name is our law..."

This is how it was sung in the “Regimental Song of the Elisavetgrad Hussars.” For her part, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna loved her regiment, was interested in its life and showed it every possible attention. During the war, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, like the other Most August Daughters of Emperor Nicholas II, was in Petrograd and selflessly cared for the wounded, but did not lose contact with her regiment. The young widow turned to Her, as well as to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, with an unusual request - to appoint her to the 3rd Hussars of Elisavetgrad E.I. High V. Princess Olga Nikolaevna's regiment volunteered. The Empress asked the Sovereign, and he, showing attention, ordered the Minister of War, Adjutant General, Cavalry General V.A. Sukhomlinov to make the appropriate order, which was carried out... Having overcome all the numerous obstacles and formalities, Maria Vladislavovna leaves the child in the care of close people and in 1915 she volunteered to join the 3rd Hussars of Elisavetgrad E.I. High V. Princess Olga Nikolaevna regiment.

IN THE RANKS OF THE ELISAVETGRAD HUSSARS

From the very beginning Great War Elisavetgrad hussars took part in battles in East Prussia, in the spring of 1915 - fought in Lithuania. Maria Vladislavovna Mikhno arrived in the regiment in early spring 1915. She was immediately enrolled in the fifth squadron of Captain P.P. Obukh under the name of volunteer Andrei Mikhno. Subsequently, already in exile, one of Marie Vladislavovna’s fellow soldiers, staff captain B.N. Arkhipov, speaking about her first steps at the front, will write: “Maria Vladislavovna was not bad at riding like a man, but, of course, she was never trained in the use of weapons and reconnaissance: this means that from a combat point of view she was useless. Moreover, constant daytime and at night, the presence of a young woman dressed as a hussar greatly embarrassed the officers and soldiers. The regiment commander would not have been averse to getting rid of such a volunteer, but they confirmed to him that everything was done according to the personal desire of the Sovereign Emperor. I had to come to terms with a fait accompli." But soon Maria Mikhno, who was initially so skeptically greeted in the regiment, managed to prove that her arrival at the front was not a whim of a young eccentric lady who received the patronage of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna and the Tsar himself. She really went to war. As one of her biographers testified, there was nothing fake, nothing masquerade, nothing from “theatrical dressing up” in this woman. Always modest, exceptionally tactful, she somehow knew how not to lose her femininity even in the atmosphere of the most terrible battle. But at the same time, she was given something else: she boldly went to meet any danger, and with this she captivated others, knew how to subjugate people and lead them with her. Not only the officers of the regiment, but also the soldiers, in whom female volunteers often aroused, if not direct hostility, then laughter, they were surprised at her, respected and seriously honored her." It should be mentioned, - Captain Arkhipov later noted, - that during the period, spent in the ranks of the regiment, being constantly in combat, M. V. Mikhno learned everything that was required of a combat hussar, and could compete on equal terms with men, distinguished by fearlessness, especially in reconnaissance. "One day, having volunteered as a guide to her reconnaissance team division (this happened in November), at night she led her detachment to the rear of the German company. The Germans were killed, the survivors were taken prisoner. During another reconnaissance, Maria Vladislavovna, who was accompanied by two soldiers, came close to a German outpost. The enemy opened fire. One of the soldiers was killed, the other was wounded. But Maria Vladislavovna, herself wounded, under terrible fire, managed to carry her bleeding comrade in her arms.

And here is another combat episode that happened with Maria Vladislavovna, who by that time had already been promoted to non-commissioned officer. In 1916, in Dobruja, the fifth squadron of the Elisavetgrd Hussars, under the command of Staff Captain von Baumgarten, occupied a Bulgarian village. Having ridden a horse into some courtyard, Maria Vladislavovna unexpectedly came across a Bulgarian infantry soldier and began shouting at him in such a frantic voice that the soldier became confused, threw down his rifle and raised his hands. Then he was very embarrassed when he learned that he had been captured by a woman... Two St. George Crosses and medals "For Bravery" adorned the chest of this small, outwardly very fragile woman during the Great War... In essence, only this one page of her biography - a feat on the front of the Great War - it would be enough for us today, in the year of the 75th anniversary of the death of Maria Zakharchenko, to respectfully remember the name of this Russian heroine. But the Lord determined for her to go the entire Path. Until the end... At the turn of 1916 - 1917, the 3rd Hussar Elisavetgradsky E.I. High V. Princess Olga Nikolaevna's regiment was withdrawn from the front to rest and at the end of January 1917 was stationed in Bessarabia. Here he was caught by the tragic events of February. “The revolution in the regiment was accepted with restraint,” testified one of the Elisavetgrad officers, Colonel A. Ryabinin, “the relationship between the officers and the hussars was quite good. Discipline was maintained.” The Elisavetgrad residents were one of the very few units of the Russian Army that maintained relative discipline in their ranks to the end, and generally did not succumb to revolutionary sentiments. Only at Christmas 1918, having put on their magnificent dress uniform and never recognizing Bolshevik power, the hussars began to leave the regiment in large groups. Then all the officers left the regiment. The regiment commander, Colonel Takaev, with several officers tried to get into the Volunteer Army, but on the way they were arrested and shot; other officers managed to get to the south of Russia and take part in the White Fight.

IN THE FIRE OF CIVIL WAR

After the Bolshevik coup and the collapse of the front, Maria Vladislavovna returned to her homeland - to her parents’ estate in the Penza province. The Penza land presented a terrible picture at that time: in the city of Penza, crowds maddened by “freedom” robbed shops, in the villages they burned landowners’ estates. And they killed everywhere - senselessly, mercilessly and with impunity. So, in those very days, on the station square, some captain passing through Penza was killed by lynching because he had not yet taken off his shoulder straps. After that, having stripped the officer naked, with whoops and laughter, the “revolutionaries” dragged his corpse through the snow of Moscow Street - up and down. The old Penza landowner Lukina, together with her daughter, was decided by the Bolshevik peasants at a village gathering to be killed and... beaten to death with stakes. At the same time, they killed the landowner Skripkin in his own estate, and then “for fun” they pushed his naked corpse into a barrel of sauerkraut. And all this with laughter - “now our power! The people’s!” And how many other such episodes did the Penza land and all of Russia see in those “damned days”?.. The famous emigrant writer R.B. Gul, a fellow countryman of Maria Vladislavovna, wrote in his chronicle “The Red Horse”: “On these same days, with a detachment of some desperate youth, the girl Maria Vladislavovna Lysova, who had returned from the front, rode on horseback through the Penza district, the future famous white terrorist Zakharchenko-Schultz, setting fire to villages taking revenge on the peasants for the murders of landowners and the destruction of estates." Something similar, and even with the addition of “details,” can be read in the article of the already mentioned above captain-captain Arkhipov, and after him in the works of other authors who wrote about Maria Zakharchenko. But some clarification is needed here. Indeed, having returned from the front to her homeland, and finding there a picture of general collapse and robbery, Maria Vladislavovna, at her own peril and risk, began to create a partisan detachment, attracting student youth to its ranks. There was not a single officer in this detachment. According to some knowledgeable sources, there were no “arsons of villages,” as well as horse raids on rebel villages. The fact is that Maria Mikhno’s detachment never left the formation stage, and therefore it simply could not take part in any military affairs or punitive operations against pogromists. Her biographers speak very sparingly about this period of Maria Vladislavovna’s life. It is only clear that the attempt to form a partisan detachment, in all likelihood, was unsuccessful, and Maria Vladislavovna left Penza. And then, finding herself deep in the rear of the Red Army, she learns that somewhere the White Army is fighting the Bolsheviks. This news gives her strength. And again on his own initiative, “with the help of only the old maid,” N.A. clarifies. Tsurikov, - Maria Vladislavovna is organizing a serious and extremely risky business. She shelters volunteer officers and secretly helps them get into the ranks of the White troops. In fact, this was her first serious experience of underground work behind Bolshevik lines. According to N.A. Tsurikov, Maria Vladislavovna stopped this work, which had great results, only after being discovered... At this time, she meets her former friend - officer of the 15th Uhlan Tatar Regiment Zakharchenko and in the spring of 1918 marries him. Soon the Zakharchenko couple makes their way to Kuban and joins the Volunteer Army. However, it seems that before the Zakharchenko spouses made their way into the area of ​​operation of the Volunteer Army, they had to visit Persia and experience many dangerous adventures on the way to the south of Russia. Some biographers specify their route: Moscow - Tehran, then through Kurdistan to Mesopotamia to the British, then through the Persian Gulf, Suez and Bosphorus - to Armenia. Other biographers describe the path of the Zakharchenko spouses to the White Army differently: “from Persia through India on an English steamer.” One way or another, Maria Vladislavovna again finds herself in the cavalry saddle, again at the front. Here new military exploits awaited her, a new severe wound in the chest, typhus, frostbitten hands and feet, and a new heavy loss: near the Monastery (near Kakhovka), her second husband, the commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Colonel Zakharchenko, died of blood poisoning...After evacuation of the Russian Army by Lieutenant General, Baron P.N. Wrangel from Crimea, Maria Vladislavovna ended up in Gallipoli. Wanderings began in foreign countries. But even in a foreign land she did not lose heart: she had to new stage her life - Combat organization General Kutepov.

AT THE KUTEPOV ORGANIZATION

The combat organization of General Kutepov (or the Kutepov organization) originated in emigration in the early 1920s. It was a small, strictly clandestine structure, consisting of selfless Russian patriots, those who, having gone to a foreign land, did not lay down their arms and voluntarily chose for themselves the dangerous path of underground and combat work in the USSR. The Kutepov organization was entrusted with the task of establishing and maintaining connections between the White emigration and domestic Russian anti-communist groups, committing terrorist acts against the leaders of the Bolshevik Party, the Cheka - OGPU, etc. The main goal The Kutepovites were preparing an armed anti-Bolshevik uprising in Russia. White officers and volunteers, seasoned in the battles of the Civil War, joined the ranks of the Kutepovo militants, but there were also quite a few desperate Russian patriotic youth - yesterday's high school students and cadets. And at the head of one of the militant groups is a fragile woman. Maria Zakharchenko joined the ranks of General Kutepov’s organization, probably one of the first. In October 1923, on the instructions of General Kutepov, she illegally crossed the Soviet-Estonian border at great risk and returned to her homeland. Together with her, her closest comrade-in-arms in the Kutepov organization, a former life huntsman, captain Georgy Nikolaevich Radkovich (1898 - 1928), who became her third husband, went to the USSR. With documents addressed to the spouses, Shultz, Maria Vladislavovna and Georgy Nikolaevich had to make their way to Petrograd, and then to Moscow to carry out a special task for General Kutepov. This last and probably the most dangerous and heroic period of Maria Vladislavovna’s life is eloquently evidenced by the few records left by her comrades - Kutepovo officers. One of them, V.I. Volkov, in his notebook, dedicated the following lines to Maria Zakharchenko: “It’s still amazing: at the head of the combat groups is a small, fragile woman! And she, like no one else, knew how to choose and select people for work, and her "school" was the only and never again, of course, unique training in conditions of incredibly and insurmountably difficult, inhuman difficulties. She is even a legend for us! A terrible and beautiful Russian fairy tale! In her fate is the fate of a Russian woman and a Russian anti-Bolshevik." Another Kutepovo officer, Alexander Alexandrovich Anisimov, said with admiration: “When we, her two companions, asked to rest, Maria Vladislavovna told us: “How you men get tired soon”... And this was the third day of continuous walking through the swamps...” But here is the testimony left by the famous political figure V.V. Shulgin, who “secretly” visited the USSR in 1926 and met Maria Vladislavovna there: “According to her cards taken in her youth, she was a pretty woman, not to say beautiful. I recognized her already at the age of fading, but still somehow -what was preserved in her features. She was slightly above average height, with delicate features. She experienced a lot, and her face, of course, bore the mark of all trials, but the woman was resilient and had absolutely exceptional energy... I had to have frank conversations with Maria Vladislavovna . One day she told me: “I’m getting old. I feel like this is my last strength. I’ve invested everything in Trust, if it ends, I won’t live.” , probably unnecessary. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of books and articles have been written about this notorious provocation of the INO VChK - OGPU. Let us make only one significant remark here. The Chekists have always tried to present the "Trust" as their most successful operation, as a result which they allegedly achieved complete success in the fight against the activism of the White emigration. According to the KGB officers, Operation Trust was subsequently “always studied in closed educational institutions NKVD - NKGB - MGB as a classic one." In reality, the "Trust" ended not in success, but in a serious failure of the security officers! Yes, the "Trust" brought a lot of evil to the Russian National cause. But in April 1927, unexpectedly for the leadership of the OGPU, the provocation was exposed, and all the Russian intelligence officers who were in the USSR at that moment safely slipped away from under the very nose of the enemy, and then intensified terrorist activities - this is what the Kremlin was most afraid of management. For the failure of the "Trust", its main organizer - security officer A. Artuzov - received a punishment instead of a reward, and then was demoted. Subsequently, trying to somehow camouflage their major failure, the security officers began to claim (and are still doing this) that the collapse of the Trust was supposedly... beneficial to the Soviet side! In fact, the bloody office of V. Menzhinsky was in a panic, since since April 1927 it had lost any opportunity to restrain the work of the Kutepovsky military organization, and the intelligence of the EMRO, having drawn the appropriate conclusions from the story with "Trust", radically changed the methods of its work in the sub-Soviet Russia - instead of relying on dubious domestic Russian organizations and groups, the EMRO began to rely only on its own agents.

"TYRANKILLING SHOTS"

Today, when terrorism has become one of the terrible scourges modern world, someone may have a question: how justified were the terrorist methods of the Kutepovites’ struggle against Soviet power? Wouldn't it be right to put General Kutepov and the members of his military organization on a par with some modern Baaders, Raduevs and Barayevs? It seems to us that the Russian writer Gul answered this question very accurately - a person very far from sympathizing with the EMRO or any active White organizations. Gul, as he himself later stated, could not stand the bloodshed of the Civil War, in which “Russian people had to kill Russian people.” This position of his led to the fact that he left the ranks of the Volunteer Army at the very beginning of the Civil War, and then, in exile, he wrote an “anti-war book”, highly appreciated by the patriarch Soviet literature M. Gorky and repeatedly republished in the USSR. So, Gul, being a hater of fratricidal bloodshed, writes: “I sympathize with the shots in the Kremlin, at the Borovitsky Gate, at the limousines of the Tyrants. I fully understood the murder of the dirty-bloody security officer Uritsky by L. Kannegiesser, as well as the murder of the former New York tailor by the worker Sergeev V. Volodarsky, who became a nobleman-terrorist of Bolshevik Petrograd. I fully understood the murders of Voikov by Boris Koverda and Vorovsky Conradi. I sympathized with Fanny Kaplan’s attempt on the “brilliant gorilla” Lenin with all my heart, and I regret that she did not kill him, which saved him not only Russia, but all of humanity. How could Count Stauffenberg save Germany by killing Hitler. All these Russian shots were not like the shots of some half-mad German terrorist Baader. No, the Russian shots were not terror, but resistance to terror... They were tyrannicide shots." The bullets of Kutepov’s militants were not aimed at “workers and peasants,” as Soviet propaganda claimed, not at “random victims,” but at communists and security officers - the direct tormentors of the Russian people, the organizers and conductors of the Red Terror. For the comrades-in-arms of General Kutepov fought not against their people, but together with the people - here and there, raising the banners of anti-communist uprisings within the country - for the liberation of Russia!

"FOR RUSSIA!"

At the end of May - beginning of June 1927, several groups of Kutepovo militants crossed the Soviet-Finnish border and headed deep into the USSR. One of them, heading to the then “Leningrad”, was headed by Captain Viktor Aleksandrovich Larionov of the Markov artillery brigade. The other group was commanded by Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz. Her goal was Moscow. Two more militants went on this mission with Maria Zakharchenko: twenty-two-year-old Yuri Sergeevich Peters and Alexander (Eduard) Ottovich Opperput. No one from this last group returned back... What happened to the members of the “Moscow group”? It is known from open Soviet sources that a trio of militants managed to arrive in Moscow and plant a melinite bomb weighing four kilograms in house No. 3/6 on Malaya Lubyanka. Not many people knew that this house housed a dormitory for security officers, and that Moscow insurgents lived there, including employees of the OGPU INO, which organized the “Trust” provocation. It was assumed that, if successful, a serious blow would be dealt to the OGPU: it was supposed to be a “tyrannicide explosion” that would be heard by the whole of Russia under yoke. On the night of June 3, an explosive device was installed in the OGPU building, and, as all Soviet sources claim, the security officers were not blown up only due to pure chance: the bomb was discovered just before the explosion. Supposedly only one melinite bomb managed to explode, which caused a fire, but the Kutepovites failed to blow up the entire building of the OGPU dormitory. From the same Soviet sources, the reliability of which, however, is always largely doubtful, is also known further fate members of the "Moscow group". The militants tried to escape beyond the cordon across the western border. The group split up: Zakharchenko and Peters made their way to the border together, Opperput went in the same direction separately from them. The OGPU had already raised the alarm at this time. Along the border and in the adjacent areas, not only units of the NKVD and the Red Army were alerted, but also mobilized civilian population for combing forests. Their forces blocked all roads and organized raids. According to the latest version of the security officers and the materials they recently published, Opperput was almost captured on June 18, 1927 near the Yanovsky distillery, but, after wounding three pursuers, he managed to escape. The next day, escaping from pursuit, he was caught in a raid organized by employees of the Special Department of the Belarusian Military District (BVO), police, Red Army soldiers and mobilized peasants, and was killed on a farm near the village of Altukhovka, Smolensk province. As for Zakharchenko and Peters, near the district town of Rudnya, Smolensk province, they allegedly managed to seize a car that belonged to the headquarters of the BVO, and one of the Red Army soldiers in it was shot, but the other, already wounded, managed to disable the car. After this, the Kutepovoites could not use the car seized from the Reds. However, somehow they still covered about one hundred and fifty kilometers towards the border, and were overtaken only in the area railway station Dretun in Belarus. Station Dretun, Moscow-Belarus-Baltic railway is located on the Nevel - Polotsk stretch, in the Polotsk district of the Vitebsk province, twenty-five kilometers from the city of Polotsk. Near the Dretun station, in a coniferous forest, there was the village of Sitno, where there were training grounds and military camps of the Red Army. This is also where the reserves served their primary training camp in the summer. That's about where they accepted their last Stand with the Reds Maria Zakharchenko and Yuri Peters. Some sources report that they died in a shootout. But more reliable are the allegations that both of them committed suicide, not wanting to surrender. One of the Red Army soldiers who witnessed the death of the Kutepovo soldiers, I. Repin, left detailed description the last minutes of their lives. According to him, the Kutepovo men came out of the forest straight into the shooting range, where at that time some company was conducting target practice. There is an assumption that the OGPU deliberately pushed the militants towards the location of the Red Army camps. “On the opposite edge of the forest,” an eyewitness to the tragedy testifies, “in the interval between the targets, a man and a woman are standing next to each other, holding a revolver in their hands. They raise their revolvers up. The woman turns to us, shouts: “For Russia!” - and shoots herself in the temple. The man also shoots, but in the mouth. Both fall. ...I saw this heroine again about two hours later. In a modest gray dress, she was lying right on the ground at the headquarters of our regiment. Below average height. Middle aged. Brown-haired. Deathly pale face, pointed nose, closed eyes. Barely noticeable breathing. In an unconscious state.
...A crowd of curious Red Army soldiers stood around. One of them came close to the lying woman and, apparently with the intention of showing his prowess, pushed her with the toe of his boot into her seemingly swollen stomach and cursed vilely. The woman’s body remained completely impassive and didn’t even flinch. ...Still, the “well done” calculation of the effect turned out to be wrong. The gloomy, stern faces of the overwhelming majority of the Red Army soldiers showed a clearly negative assessment of the ridiculous vile trick. Later I heard that the “spy” on the same day and in the same unconscious state was “loaded” into an ice car and sent to Leningrad." For some reason, open Soviet sources do not indicate the date of death of Zakharchenko and Peters. Still nothing The place of their burial is also not known. If you believe the reports of correspondents of the Daily Express and The Times, who hot on the heels published information about the death of the “Moscow group” of Kutepovoites, then the life of Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko was cut short on June 23, 1927...

AFTERWORD

Even today, more than seventy-five years later, some of the participants in the tragic confrontation between General Kutepov’s militants and the OGPU that unfolded in 1927 are alive. August 19, 2002 central funds mass media The Russian Federation obsequiously told television viewers and readers about the centenary anniversary of KGB Colonel Boris Gudz, one of the Soviet provocateurs who participated in Operation Trust. Moreover, the federal media named the main merits of the security officer as his participation in the “Trust” and “Syndicate-2” operations. Russian television broadcast the speech of a hundred-year-old GPE officer to the whole world. And the next day, August 20, in Moscow, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR - former First The Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR) organized an official ceremonial honoring of the retired “trust official”: the leaders of the SVR appeased their veteran and “educated” the younger generation of “Russian intelligence officers” (!) using his example... Well, the Russian authorities have their own heroes, Russia has its own . And, bye federal authorities and their intelligence services are loudly celebrated throughout the country Soviet spies and provocateurs, Russia will quietly remember its Heroes with prayer. Let these lines of gratitude become a symbolic, modest bouquet of white roses placed on the unknown graves of our National Heroes - Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko and her military comrades-in-arms.

"Bulletin of the EMRO" No. 6-7 2003.

Yes, Wrangel suspected “Trust” of provocation and in letters of confidence he sharply condemned Kutepov for his connection with “Trust members”. After Yakushev’s visit to the Grand Duke of the GPU, it became clear that it was necessary to “cooperate” first of all with Kutepov’s organization: it was this group of militants who were ready for active, including terrorist, actions against the USSR. She should have been the main focus. Of the “big generals” close to the Grand Duke and the Supreme Monarchical Council, none went to the Soviet Union. But in October 1923, Kutepov’s emissaries arrived in Moscow (across the Estonian border): the spouses M. Zakharchenko and G. Radkevich.

Of the two envoys of General Kutepov, the first violin was played, of course, by Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko. She was an extraordinary woman. Masha Lysova grew up as a sophisticated young lady. She was born into a landowner family, graduated from the Smolny Institute, and a completely prosperous and beautiful life opened up before her. Her life was turned upside down by the World War. The husband, lieutenant of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment Mikhno, died from severe wounds received in battle. Then Maria Vladislavovna achieved the highest permission to enlist in the Uhlan regiment. She fought bravely, desperately, and received military awards. After the February Revolution she returned to family estate and began to mercilessly fight the revolutionary-minded peasants who were looting and setting fire to the houses of the landowners. She personally shot those caught. Second marriage - to captain Zakharchenko. Together with him she fought in Denikin’s troops, in the Crimea near Wrangel. In the battle near Kakhovka, Zakharchenko was wounded and died from blood poisoning. Maria Vladislavovna went to Turkey with Wrangel’s army and was in the Gallipoli camp. It seems that the connection between Maria Zakharchenko and Radkevich and General Kutepov began precisely there, in Gallipoli. Many authors who wrote about the “Trust” called and call Maria Zakharchenko Kutepov’s niece, but this is incorrect. “Niece” was her code name in correspondence with Kutepov and other persons collaborating with the Trust. This, apparently, has caused confusion in some memoirs and literature. Maria Zakharchenko’s relationship with Kutepov was much stronger than family relations. They were based on hatred of the “Council of Deputies” and the Bolsheviks, on joint combat work, which threatened, in case of failure, with death.

Wrangel was not a supporter of so-called “activism,” the immediate use of White forces for subversive and terrorist work against Soviet Russia. Apparently, he believed that this could lead to the scattering of the most valuable combat officer personnel or, even worse, their fruitless sacrifice to the GPU. During the years of struggle and emigration, Wrangel acquired considerable political experience, which could not but make his decisions balanced. Kutepov was not like that. He didn't want to wait. Relations between Wrangel and Kutepov, already damaged for a long time, only worsened. Political and tactical differences were exacerbated by personal hostility. It seemed to Wrangel, not without reason, that with the support of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Kutepov was clearly laying claim to a leading role in the White military emigration. Yakushev and N. Potapov, who visited Wrangel in Sremski Karlovtsi, understood this well, and “Trust” launched a subtle intrigue aimed at creating a split between the two most authoritative generals of the emigrant White movement.

Even before the formal formation of the Russian All-Military Union (EMRO) by Wrangel in September - December 1924, Kutepov, on the initiative of the Grand Duke, headed a special organization entrusted with the “work special purpose in connection with Russia.” She was supposed to secretly send White Guard militants to Russian territory to carry out subversive activities and terror there. Wrangel, who did not approve of such tactics, had no relation to this organization. Kutepov reigned supreme in it. It is clear that such a person as Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko could not stay away.

In Gallipoli or a little later, already in Paris, she met a friend of her youth, Georgy Nikolaevich Radkevich, whom she soon married. Radkevich was a military officer. According to some recollections, back at the end of 1917 and the spring of 1918, he was part of an officer group that tried to free the Tsar and his family, exiled to Tobolsk. Radkevich fought in the Volunteer Army and in Crimea.

At the end of September 1923, with passports in the name of their spouses, Shultz Zakharchenko and Radkevich crossed the Soviet-Estonian border. Another person walked with them - midshipman Burkanovsky, but he could not withstand the severity of the journey and separated from the group. They walked all night through swampy swamps, risking death in them. We reached Luga, and from there to Petrograd and, finally, to the goal - Moscow. They had a meeting with one of the leaders of the Trust, E. Staunitz, who lived on Maroseyka. Then their documents were changed. From the Schultz spouses they turned into the Krasnoshtanov spouses. Staunitz became Kasatkin. So, Upelins-Opperput-Selyaninov-Staunits-Kasatkin... The Krasnoshtanovs’ task included checking the “Trust” as a monarchical organization and establishing contacts with Kutepov’s militants sent to Russia.

From the apartment on Maroseyka, Opperput transported Zakharchenko and Radkevich to Malakhovka, where they stayed for about two weeks. Kutepov, through Colonel A. Zaitsev, who was in charge of his office, was informed that “the impressions from this group of people (i.e., the people of the “Trust” - G.I.) are the most favorable: there is a sense of great cohesion, strength and self-confidence. There is no doubt that they have great opportunities, connections with foreigners, courage in work and ability to hold on.” Zakharchenko and Radkevich also reported from what sources, in their opinion, the “Trust” is financed. They believed that large sums came from the counterintelligence services of Poland, Estonia, Finland and, probably, France. To a certain extent this was true. By a special decision of the Revolutionary Military Council and the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, a special bureau was created that was engaged in the production of misleading documents, which were transmitted through the “Trust” to foreign headquarters. There they were very interested in these “documents” and paid well for them. “Foreign missions,” wrote Zakharchenko and Radkevich, “are currying favor with the ‘trust members’: apparently, their people are everywhere, especially in the Red Army.”

It is clear that the main source of funding for the Trust was an organization that had nothing to do with foreign intelligence services. In a letter to Kutepov, Zakharchenko called “VIKO” (All-Russian Invalid Committee), allegedly founded by Yakushev. 19

Speaking about the political intentions of the Trust, Zakharchenko and Radkevich indicated: “Their slogan is Grand Duke N.N. and the authority from him to give a Manifesto on his behalf at the moment when they find it possible.” And in other messages, Maria Vladislavovna especially warned “against premature action under pressure from frivolous people acting for personal gain.” 20

To legalize the Krasnoshtanovs’ spouses, the “Trust” assigned them to “work.” A tent selling small consumer goods was opened at the Central Market, and the Krasnoshtanovs became real traders in it. “Curator” Kasatkin often visited the Krasnoshtanovs here. To strengthen the trust of Kutepov’s envoys in the “Trust,” Maria Vladislavovna was offered secretarial and cryptographic work: mail sent by the “Trust members” now often went through her. Several times Maria Vladislavovna herself crossed the border through the “window” and was in Finland, Poland, and Paris. I met with Kutepov. To some (for example, Shulgin) she seemed beautiful woman with a decisive character. Others, on the contrary, are unattractive in appearance, with a weathered, rough face. She dressed simply: a men's cut jacket and boots. Also through the “window” Zakharchenko returned to Moscow and became Krasnoshtanova, a saleswoman at the Central Market.

Although at the time of its creation several tasks were assigned to the “Trust” (disinformation from foreign intelligence services, monitoring the political situation of the right-wing circles of emigration, splitting and disintegrating them, etc.), the situation developed in such a way that the fight against the terrorist activities of the Kutepov Military Forces came to the fore. organizations. One of Kutepov’s agents recalled that Kutepov’s belief in the omnipotence of terror came, oddly enough, from... revolutionary practice. He said that the terror of the revolutionaries ultimately led to the collapse of the monarchy. So the anti-Soviet, anti-Bolshevik terror will end with the fall of Bolshevism.

“Trust” in its relations with the Kutepovites pursued tactics that, it would seem, should have alerted Kutepov and which actually alarmed some emigrants of the right-wing, monarchist camp (for example, N. Chebyshev, Klimovich, and Wrangel himself). “Trust members” constantly and persistently proved that the terror carried out inside Soviet Union, will only hinder the organization of anti-Soviet forces, in particular those grouped around the “Trust”. The most important thing is to refrain from terrorist actions, at least until the time indicated by the Trust. In his letters to Kutepov, Yakushev directly appealed: do not disturb us with your scattered speeches, we know the situation better than some “manufacturers” (as emigrants were called in correspondence).

However, the “Trust” could not help but understand that opposition to the Kutepov Combat Organization would ultimately arouse suspicion. Therefore, Yakushev continued to assure Kutepov that the “Trust” was heading mainly for him and the Grand Duke. Yakushev wrote to the emigre “trust member” S. Voitsekhovsky: “In relation to Borodin (Kutepov - G.I.), in particular, you can say that we trust him and do not intend to exchange him for Sergeev” (Wrangel - G.I.). And Kutepov trusted “Trust”. Things got to the point that in the summer of 1925 he agreed to Yakushev’s offer for him to become a nominal member of the board of the MOCR (“Trust”). Of course, this was a symbolic unification of Kutepov’s Combat Organization with the “Trust,” but it testified to “mutual trust.”

On the other hand, the GPU decided to introduce a “split” into the Trust on the issue of terror. Actually, a split actually existed, but now it had to be “demonstrated,” creating the impression that there were forces in the “Trust” that defended terror, that is, they completely agreed with Kutepov. An ardent supporter of terror was, of course, Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko. Opperput and other “trust members” rebuffed her. It must be said that “Trust” outplayed its emigrant charges. Throughout his entire career (1922-1927), there were no terrorist attacks on the territory of the Soviet Union. In 1923, the Soviet diplomat A. Vorovsky was killed and his assistants were wounded, but this happened in Lausanne, and the terrorists Drozdovite M. Conradi and A. Polunin, who helped him, were not connected with the Kutepov organization. The defense of terrorists was secretly organized by A. Guchkov. In the summer of 1927, terrorist B. Coverd shot and killed Soviet ambassador Voykov in revenge for his participation in the murder royal family in Yekaterinburg in 1918 and hiding the bodies of those killed. But Koverda, like Conradi, seems to have acted alone, and the terrorist attack took place in Warsaw. The Kutepov Combat Organization and its envoys in the “Trust” intended to conduct terrorist activities in the USSR. Most likely, under the strong influence of “Trust” we had to wait...

For the Kutepov emissaries Krasnoshtanovs, who settled in the Central Market, this expectation caused increased nervousness. When one day Staunitz (Kasatkin) was summoned to the police, a commotion arose in the Trust. They racked their brains as to what could have caused it, began to destroy some letters and documents, and prepared for the worst. It was relieved when it turned out that Staunitz had been called in on a tax issue. Maria Vladislavovna, who was always eager to fight, was especially painfully worried about the “inaction.” And only the authority of Yakushev, before whom she bowed, restrained her for a while. But at the beginning of 1925 a ray of hope flashed. It came not from the Kutepov organization, but from the British intelligence ace Sidney Reilly.

IN BLIGHT MEMORY
MARIA ZAKHARCHENKO
(1893-1927)

Russia! Don't forget the heroes
With their names you are strong,
And their own sacrificial blood
Your land is irrigated.

Not long ago in Russian Federationtions on televisiononce again monstered with Vetsky serialnew film "Opera tion "Trust" . Thispainting recognizedone of the classicssome Soviet tapes cinema, was withdrawn in 1967 year not based onunknown person mana laureate Sta Lin Prize L.V. Nikulina "Dead swell" , who sang"feats" VChK- OGPU in the fight againstWhite emigration And White underground in the USSR.

Now engaged in film criticism "Operation Trust" , as well as criticism of the novel itself "Dead swell" , of course we are not going to. Both producedthe days were "ideologically consistent" and, shamelesscleverly distorting historical facts, persecutedwell-defined propaganda goals. EUNaturally, all security officers and their provocateurs portrayedhuddled there noble, smart, kind andfearless patriots; Kutepovo people and aboutwhose anti-communists are vicious and evil enemies, or even just criminals and degenerates.

But here’s the paradox: even in this KGB series, the sympathy and sympathy of the audiencesomehow involuntarily evoked the image Maria Vladisla Vovny Zakharchenko-Schultz- heads of kuTep militants in sub-Soviet Russia. IN "Ope radios "Trest" role Maria Zakharchenko in my own waytalentedly played by a brilliant actress Lyudmila Kasatkina. But it was not so much a matter of certaintynom talent of the Soviet film actress, how many otherhomo: the very image of a beautiful, charming and smart Russiangood woman, patRiotki, with a tinya group of officers like-minded people throwing herself into probably riskynew fight against huge army OGPU, just nocould have left the sightlei indifferent. How much complete and reliable biography Ma Riya Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz, unfortunately, for now don't write to anyone yet sana(1) . Meanwhile the name of this amazing Russian womanwe are still on the pages numerousbooks and articles devoted to the history of the Greatand the Civil War, Russian White emigration And,especially, the history of the infamous operation"Trust". However, this situation can be explainedeasy: no leaders ROWS(for one reasonus), nor the leaders of the Soviet special services (according to others) were for a long time interested inthat the details of the biography of the legendaryheroines White movement were made public tee.

The first who spoke in print about the unprecedented (really unprecedented!) lifefeat Maria Zakharchenko, was famous in emigwalkie-talkie talented Russian publicist Nikolay Alexandrovich Tsurikov (2) - a very close personto work Russian General Military Union. We havethere are serious reasons to believe that one hundredThis was written at the personal request of himselfgeneral A. P. Kutepova(at that time - the mainhead of “special work”), based onclassified materials provided by the generalscrap at the disposal of the journalist. Alas, completelyuse them then to write a biographyThe publicist could not yet write a Russian heroine.

"From what is contained in what was conveyed to me material, - wrote the first biographer of Maria ZaKarchenko , - I can convey, perhaps, only to half... Talk about M.V.’s life before the start la her combat, revolutionary work one by one considerations, and talk about details how this work proceeded in Russia, according to others- it doesn't seem possible right now possible..."

Indeed, reading the brilliant article by N.A. Tsurikova 1927, you are convinced that the author deliberately keeps silent about many things, does not say anything, and, perhaps, sometimes deliberately “doesmistakes" (to confuse workers OGPU, who undoubtedly also read this materialwhether and analyzed). Only later, whenit became possible to lift the veil of secrecy, inemigrant press appeared more detailedinformation about Maria Zakharchenko, but unfortunately,also leaving a lot of “blank spots” inbiography of the Russian heroine. What are we really doing?Do we really know about her?

SMOLYANKA
Masha Lysova(that was her maiden nameLiya) was born December 9, 1893 in the dey familynoble state councilor(3) VladislavGerasimovich Lysov. According to N. A. Tsuri cove, Masha lost her mother very early: she died shortly after the birth of her daughter. Firstyears of life Masha spent in the city of Penza and PenZena province, on the parental estate. FirstShe received her primary education at home, andthose were sent to study in St. Petersburg, in the banner ty Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens - the best educational institution for girls in Russia from noble families. Study and life at the institute They were always very strict. But the reputation is tarrynok is well known: brilliant education, excellentred education; the best pupils in windowsat the institute could be assigned to serveboo to the Court. Name Maria Vladislavovna Lysova can be found in the list of Smolyankas among forty-fivegraduates Imperial educational general qualities of noble maidens 1911 (79th issue)(4) .

At the age of about twenty she marriedhusband for an officer L.-Guards. Ivan's Semenovsky Regiment Sergeevich Mikhno. The young couple settled at 54 Zagorodny Prospekt, where on state-owned apartmentsmost of the regiment's married and single officers lived in the shooting ranges (5 ) . But the relatively serene life of a regimental lady of one of the most privilegedalloyed regiments Imperial Guard wasvery short-lived: soon it struckIWorld War. In August 1914 staff captain Mikhno sendingjoins the regiment to the front as a commanderka teams of mounted scouts (6) . Same yearseriously wounded, he died in his arms young wife. And now, she is already a grief-stricken widow with a tiny, just born child in her arms.

This loss shocked the young twenty-twoyear old woman, but she did not lose heart: the answerthe death of a loved one was decidedvoluntarily go to the front - into formation, so that they can shoutwith life in hand to replace the deceased husband. At that timeme in Russian Army woman in military ranks -was an exceptional case, almost unprecedentedsince the time of the famous “cavalry maiden”, cornope N. A. Durova. It's only later in 1917, intimes of Kerenskyism, in the ranks of the decaying Ros Siysk Army will begin to form “exotic”"women's shock battalions and separatewomen's communications teams. But in 1914 womanin regimental formation it was even difficult to imagineBut! Any military commander to such a requeston the part of a young lady would answer, of course,surprise and categorical refusal. At its bestcase, one could count on a positionsisters of mercy... And then the recent Smolyankadecides to get help Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918)- eldest Aughueldest daughters Emperor Nicholas II.

More in 1909 Sovereign appointed Great Princess Olga Nikolaevna with the boss 3rd Hussars Elisavetgrad Regiment. It was a big dealTew for the army regiment, and the people of Elisavetgradenjoyed such patronage.

“...We are hussars not made of foil,
Each of us is cast damask steel,
We take care of Olga's name.
White mentic and standard.
In the field of battle, in the field of honor
Olga’s name is our law..." (7)

That's how it was sung in “Regimental song Elisavetgrads what a hussar". From my side, Grand DuchessOlga Nikolaevna loved my regiment, interestshared his life and gave him every attention (8) . During the war Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, like the other August DaughtersEmperor Nicholas II, was in Petrogradand selflessly cared for the wounded, butZi did not lose with her regiment. To Her, and also to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna , and reversea young widow came with an unusual request - formean it in 3rd Hussar Elisavetgradsky E.I. High V. Princess Olga Nikolaevna regiment volunteer. The Empress asked the Emperor, and he,Having shown attention, he ordered the Minister of War,adjutant general, cavalry general V.A. Sukhomlinov make the appropriate arrangementsthe wish, which was fulfilled...(9)

Having overcome all the numerous obstacles andformalities, Maria Vladislavovna leaveschild into the care of loved ones and in 1915 enters as a volunteer 3rd Hussar Elisavetgradsky E.I. Vys. V. Princess Olga Nikolaevna regiment.

IN THE RANKS OF THE ELISAVETGRAD HUSSARS
From the very beginning of the Great War, ElisavetgradRussian hussars took part in the battles in Eastern Prussian these, spring 1915- fought in Lithuania. Maria Vladislavovna Mikhpo arrived in the regiment early weight Nov 1915. She was immediately enrolled in fiveth squadron Captain P. P. Obukh under the namevolunteer Andrey Mikhno (10) . Vpos subsequently, already in exile, one of his fellow soldiersMaria Vladislavovna, Staff Captain B.N. Arkhipo in, speaking about her first steps at the front, on writes:

“Maria Vladislavovna was not bad at riding like a man, but, of course, she would never wear concerned with the possession of weapons and reconnaissance: this means from a combat point of view it was useless. Few Moreover, constant presence day and night of a young woman dressed as a hussar, veryembarrassed officers and soldiers. Regimental commanderand would not mind getting rid of such an extrarovoltsa, but they confirmed to him that everything was donebut at the personal request of the Sovereign Imperatora. I had to come to terms with what had happened fact" (10) .

But it's coming soon Maria Mikhno, at first somet with skepticism in the regiment, managed to provethat her arrival at the front is not a young whimeccentric lady who received patronage Veli which Princess Olga Nikolaevna and the State itselfrya. She really went to war. How to dieone of her biographers testified, nothing buTaforsky, nothing masquerade, nothing from "those atral dressing » was not in this woman.Always modest, extremely tactful, shesomehow managed not to lose her femininity evenin the midst of the most terrible battlefield. Butat the same time, she was given something else: she boldly went tofacing any danger, and this attracted the othergih, knew how to subjugate people and lead them.Not only the officers of the regiment, but also the soldiers whofemale volunteers often called ifnot direct hostility, then laughter, surpriseloved her, respected her and seriously honored her(11) .

"It should be mentioned - noted laterStaff Captain Arkhipov,- that during the period spent in the ranks of the regiment, being constantly in military affairs, M. V. Mikhno learned everything that required from a combat hussar, and could compete on equal terms with men, differing fearlessness, especially in reconnaissance » (12) .

One day, having volunteered to conductcom to the reconnaissance team of his division (casehappened in November), at night she took out herdetachment to the rear of the German company. The Germans were killedyou, the survivors, are taken prisoner. Duringother intelligence Maria Vladislavovna, former inaccompanied by two soldiers, came across closelyto the German outpost. The enemy opened fire.One of the soldiers was killed, the other was wounded. But Maria Vladislavovna, herself wounded, under terrible firehim, managed to carry her expiringwith the blood of a comrade(11) .

And here is another combat episode that happened withMaria Vladislavovno y, by then producealready promoted to non-commissioned officer. In 1916, in Ext. ruje, fifth squadron of Elisavetgrd hussars underteam Staff Captain von Baumgarten occupied one Bulgarian village. Riding a horse intosome kind of yard Maria Vladislavovna but unexpectedlycame across a Bulgarian infantry soldier andbegan to shout at him in such a frantic voice that the soldier became confused, threw down his rifle and raisedhands. Then he was very embarrassed when he found outthat he was captured by a woman...(13)

Two St. George Crosses And medals "For Bravery" grow" decorated the chest of this during the Great Wara small, outwardly very fragile woman... In essence, only this page of her biografii - feat on the front of the Great War - already happenedit would be enough for us today, in the year of our 75th anniversarydeath Maria Zakharchenko, respectfully rememberwhat is the name of this Russian heroine? But the Lord will determinewanted her to go the whole way. To end...

At the turn of 1916-1917 3rd Hussar Elisavetgradsky E.I. Vys. V. Princess Olga Niko Laevny regiment was withdrawn from the front to rest and V late January 1917 stood in Bessarabia. Here he was caught by tragic events February.

"Rethe revolution in the regiment was received with restraint, - one of the Elisavet officers testifiedRadtsev Colonel A. Ryabinin, - relations betweenthey were quite good officers and hussars mi. Discipline was maintained" (14) .

Elisavetgradtsy were one of the very few parts Russian Army, who maintained relative discipline in their ranks to the end and generally did not succumb torevolutionary sentiments. Only At Christmas 1917/18, putting on his magnificent dressform and never recognizing the Bolshevik power,Hussars began to leave the regiment in large groups (14) Then all the officers left the regiment. Commandershelf, Colonel Takaev with several officerswe tried to get in Volunteer AR miyu, but on the way they were arrested and shot; other officers managed to get through South Russia and take part in White fight e(7) .

ON FIRE civil war
After the Bolshevik coup and collapsefront Maria Vladislavovna returned homeWell - to the parental estate in the Penza province research institute.

It was a terrible picture at the timePenza land: people in the city of Penza are distraughtfrom “freedom” crowds robbed shops, in the villagenyakh - they burned the landowners' estates. And they killed everywhere - senselessly, mercilessly and with impunity. So,in those very days on the station square by lynchingkilled some guy passing through PenzaTan for not taking off his shoulder straps yet. After that,having stripped the officer naked, with whoops and laughter the “revolutionaries” dragged his corpse through the snow Moscow street- now up, now down. Penza old landowner Lukin, at the same time with her daughter painchurning peasants at a village gatheringthey started killing me and... they beat me to death with stakes. At the same time killed in the landowner's own estate Violins on, and then “for fun” they stuffed his naked corpsein a barrel with sauerkraut. And all this with laughter - « now our power! People's! (15) . How much Penza land and the whole have seen such episodesRussia in those “damned days”?..

Famous emigrant writer R. B. Gul - countryman Maria Vladislavovna, in his chronicle"Red horse" wrote:

“On these same days, with a detachment of some desperate youth in Penza returned from the front galloped on horseback to the district girl Maria Vladislavovna Lysova, future famous white terrorist Zakharcheiko- Schultz, set fire to villages in revenge for the peasants murders of landowners and destruction of estates."

Something similar, and even with the addition of “underdetails" can be read in the article already mentionedmentioned above Staff Captain Arkhipov (9) , and already following him in the works of other authors, writingshih about Maria Zakharchenko. But here it is necessaryexplanation. Indeed, having returned from the front to his homeland, and finding there a picture of universal destructionla and robbery, Maria Vladislavovna at your own risk andrisk began to create a partisan detachmentyes, by attracting young students into its ranks. There was not a single officer in this detachment. As statedsome knowledgeable sources are waiting, notthere were no “arsons of villages”, as well as horse yardsDovs in rebellious villages. The point is that fromrow Maria Mikhno never left the hundreddi formation, and therefore in no combatcases or punitive operations against pogromshe simply could not take part(16) .

About this period of life Maria Vladislavovna her biographers speak very sparingly. It is only clear thatan attempt to form a partisan detachment throughoutprobably was not successful, and Maria Vla dislavovna left Penza. And then, beingdeep behind the lines of the Red Army, she learns thatsomewhere he is fighting the Bolsheviks White Army. This news gives her strength. And again according tonational initiative,"with the help of only one roofing felt to the old maid" , - clarifies N. A. Tsurikov, - Maria Vladislavovna organizes a serious and extremely risky business. She hidesvolunteer officers and secret ways to helptelling them to get into the ranks White troops. FactiThis was her first serious underground experiencenew work in the rear of the Bolsheviks. According to N. A. Tsurikov, this work, which had great resultsresults, Maria Vladislavovna just stoppedupon being discovered...(11)

During this time she meets her ex friend - officer of the 15th Uhlan Tatar regiment ka(9) Zakharchenko And spring 1918 marries himmarried Soon the Zakharchenko couple sneaks onto Kuban and enters Volunteer Army (16) . However, it seems that before spouses Zakhar Chenko got into the action area Dobrovolches Coy Army, they had to visit Persia andjourney to the south of Russia to survive many dangerouskeys. Some biographers specify their marroute: Moscow - Tehran, then through Kurdistan toMesopotamia to the British, then through Persiathe Gulf of Suez and the Bosphorus - to Armenia. Otherbiographers describe the path of the Zakharchenko spouses inWhite Army otherwise:"from Persia via India on an English steamer" .

One way or another Maria Vladislavovna again finds himself in a cavalry saddle, again on the frontthose. Here new military exploits awaited her, newsevere chest wound, typhus, frostbitten handsand legs, and a new bereavement: under the Monastery(near Kakhovka) her second husband died of blood poisoning- commander of the 2nd cavalry regiment, Colonel Zakharchenko...

After the evacuation of the Russian Army, General Leitenant, Baron P. N. Wrangel from Crimea Maria Vladislavovna ended up in Gallipoli. Beganwandering around foreign countries. But even in a foreign land shedid not lose heart: a new stage of her life was ahead -.

AT THE KUTEPOV ORGANIZATION
Combat organization of General Kutepov (orKutepov organization) originated in emigrationin the early 1920s. It wassmall, strict highly conspiratorial structure consistingof selfless Russian patriots, those who,having gone to a foreign land, he did not lay down his arms and voluntarilychose for himself the dangerous path of underground and combathowl work in USSR. On Kutepov organization entrusted with the task of establishing and maintainingcommunications White emigration with domestic Russian ananti-communist groups, committing terrorist actsterrorist acts against leaders of painShevitsky party, VChK-OGPU etc. Main pageLew Kutepovo residents were preparing armedanti-Bolshevik uprising in Russia.

Seasoned people joined the ranks of Kutepov’s militantsin the battles of the Civil War White officers and ext.rovoltsy, but there was also a lot of desperate Russian in herpatriotic youth - yesterday's gymsNazis and cadets. And at the head of one of the fighting groupsKov is a fragile woman...

Maria Zakharchenko joined the organizationtions of the general Kutepova probably one of the first.In October 1923 on the instructions of the general Kutepov and she, at great risk, illegally crossed fromthe Soviet-Estonian border and returned to theDinu. Together with her, her closest comrade in the Kutepov organization, the formerlife huntsman. captain Georgy Nikolaevich Radkovich (1898-1928), who became her third husband. From todocuments in the name spouses Schultz Maria Vladis Lavovna And Georgy Nikolaevich should have talked aboutgo to Petrograd and then to Moscow for you completing a special assignment from General Kutepov.

About this last and probably most dangerousnom and heroic period of the life of Maria VladisLavons eloquently testify a littlenumerical records left by her companions -Kutepovo officers. One of them, V.I. Volkov dedicated it in his notebook to Maria ZaKharchenko these lines:

“It’s still amazing: at the head of combat groups - small, fragile woman! And she, like no one else, knew how to knock out work and select people for work, and its “school” la" was the only one and she never had, of course but, unique training in conditions without truly and irresistibly heavy, inhuman no difficulties. She is even a legend for us! A scary and beautiful Russian fairy tale! In her destiny - the fate of the Russian woman and the Russian anti-Bolshevik" (17) .

Another Kutepovo officer, Alexander Alexan Drovich Anisimov, said with admiration:

“When we, her two companions, asked for restWell, Maria Vladislavovna told us: “How you men get tired soon"...And this was the third day of continuous walking through the swamps...”(17) .

And here is the evidence left by the famouspolitician V.V. Shulgin, "secretly"visited in 1926 in the USSR and met there with Maria Vladislavovna:

"According to her cards Cam, taken in her youth, she was a pretty woman, not to say beautiful. I'm her found out already at the age of withering, but still something what is preserved in the features. She was a little above average height, with delicate features.She experienced a lot, and her face, of course, butthe seal of all trials was strong, but the woman wasendurance and energy are completely excludedprivate... I had to conduct frankconversations with Maria Vladislavovna. OnceYes, she told me: “I’m getting old. Feel that This is my last strength. I invested in Trust That’s it, if this ends, I won’t live.” (18) .

About what it was "Operation Trust" , racesIt’s probably unnecessary to say. It's sad about thisknown provocation INO VChK-OGPU writingwe have dozens, maybe even hundreds of books and a hundredtey. Let us allow ourselves to make only one souimportant note.

The security officers always tried to imagine "Trust" , as your most successful operation, as a resultthose which they supposedly achieved complete success inthe fight against the activism of the White emigration. By recognitionKGB research, operation "Trust" subsequently“always studied in closed educational institutions yakh NKVD - NKGB - MGB as a classic » (19) . IN in reality "Trust" didn't end
mustache on foot, but a serious failure of the security officers!

Yes, "Trust" brought a lot of evil to the Russian Nazional business. But in April 1927 , unexpectedbut for guidance OGPU, there was a provocationexposed, and all the Russian intelligence officers who were in the USSR at that moment would safely escaperight from under the very nose of the enemy, and then activatedstop terrorist activities - that's itWhat the Kremlin leadership feared most was this.For failure "Trust “and” its main organizer is a security officer A. Artuzov- received instead of a rewardreprimanded and then demoted(20) .

Subsequently, trying to somehow camouflagetheir major failure, the security officers began to assert(and they still do it) that collapse "Trest" allegedly was... beneficial to the Soviet side! In factbloody office V. Menzhinsky I was in a panicbecause since April 1927 she lost everythingability to hold back work Kutepovskaya bo eva organization, and intelligence ROWS, having done withrelevant conclusions from the history of "Trust" , radically changed its working methodsyou are in sub-Soviet Russia - instead of relying onsuspicious domestic Russian organizations and groupspy EMRO began to rely only on his own agents.

« TYRANKILLING SHOTS »
Today, when terrorism has become one of the horrorsny scourges of the modern world, some maythe question arises: how justified were they?terrorist methods of struggle of the Kutepovites abouttive of Soviet power? Wouldn't it be legal?install a general Kutepova and members of his militaryorganizations on a par with some modernny Baaders, Raduevs and Barayevs?

Quite accurately, it seems to us, the answerRussian writer answered this question Gul- brow century is very far from sympathy for ROSU and ka whoever was active in the White organization yam. Gul, as he himself later stated, could notendure bloodshed Civil War, V which"Russian people had to kill Russian person". This position led tothat he left the ranks Volunteer AR mii at the very beginning Civil War, Athen, in exile, he wrote "anti-war book" (21 ) , highly appreciated by the Patriarch of Soviet literaturetours M. Gorky and reprinted several timesTHE USSR. So, Gul being a bra hater murderous bloodshed, writes:

"I sympathize I appreciate the shots in the Kremlin, near the Borovitskys mouth on the limousines of Tyrants (22) . Murder of L. Kann egisser of the dirty and bloody security officer Uritsko I completely understood it, too. like killing ra Bochim Sergeev of the former New York noble V. Volodarsky, who became a nobleman terrorist of Bolshevik Petrograd. AND murder of Voikov by Boris Koverda, and Vorov I completely understood Kopradi’s man. Assassination attemptFanny Kaplap on the "genius gorilla" - LeI sympathized with Nina with all my heart and regret it,that she didn’t kill him, which would have saved him not onlyRussia, but all of humanity. How could I saveGermany Count Stauffenberg assassination Hitler. All these Russian shots were not aimed at like the shots of some half-mad manGerman terrorist Baader (23) . No, Russians the shots were not terror, but resistance to terror... These were tyrannicide shots.” (24) .

Not in “workers and peasants”, as claimed by theVet propaganda, bullets were aimed atPov militants, not as “random victims”, but ascommunists and security officers - direct muteachers of the Russian people, organizers and conductornicknames of the red terror. Because I don’t mind my ownthe comrades-in-arms of General Kutepov fought in kind, and together with the people, here and there raising we raise anti-communist banners within the countrymany uprisings - for the liberation of Russia!

"FOR RUSSIA!"

At the end of May - beginning of June 1927 somegroups of Kutepovo militants crossed the Soviet-Finnish border and headed deep into the USSR.One of them, heading to the then “Leningrad", headed the Markov artillerybrigade captain Viktor Alexandrovich Lario new (25). The other group was commanded Maria Vladis Lavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz. Her target was Moskwa. Two more militants went on this mission with Maria Zakharchenko: twenty-two Yuri Serge evich Peters And Alexander (Eduard) Ottovich Op perput. None of the members of this last groupnever went back...

What happened to the members of the “Moscow group”py"? From open Soviet sources it is knownbut that three militants managed to arrive in Moscow and plant a melinite bomb weighing four kilograms in house No. 3/6 on Malaya Lubyanka. ABOUTthat there was a dormitory in this house security officers, and Moscow Gepeush lived in itnicknames, including employees INO OGPU, orgawho caused the provocation "Trust" , knew a littlegie. It was assumed that if the OGPU was successfula serious blow would be dealt: it had to be"tyrannicide explosion" which I heardwould be the whole of Russia under the jugular.

On the night of June 3 explosive device in the building knowledge of the OGPU was established, and, as all Soviet sources claim, the security officers did not take offair only due to pure chance: bombba was discovered just before the explosion.Supposedly only one melinito managed to explodeyour saber that caused the fire, but blew everything upbuilding OGPU dormitory The Kutepovoites failed.

From the same Soviet sources, reliabilitywhich, however, are always to a large extentis doubtful, the further fate of the member is also knownnew to the “Moscow group”. The militants tried to leavebeyond the cordon across the western border. Group sectionflowed: Zakharchenko And Peters made their way to the border together, Opperput went in the same direction separately from them.

OGPU At this time the alarm was already raised. Alongborders and in the adjacent areas were underNot only units are on alert NKVD and the Red Army, but also the civilian population was mobilizedfor combing forests. Their forces were reAll roads are covered, raids are organized.

According to the latest version of the security officers and recentlymaterials they published, Opperput 18 June 1927 was almost caught nearby Yanovs whom distillery, but, wounding threeinvestigators, managed to escape. On the nextday, escaping from pursuit, he was caught in a raid, organizedstaff bathroom Special Department of Belarusian th military district (BVO), police, red armyts and mobilized peasants, and was killedon a farm near villages of Altukhovka Smo Lena province (26) .

As for Zakharchenko and Peters, neardistrict town of Rutspya, Smolensk province named afteras if it was possible to seize a car belonging tolying to the headquarters of the BVI, and one of them was foundThe Red Army soldiers in it were shot, butthe other, already wounded, managed to disable the car(26) "After this, the Kutepovoites could not use the car captured from the Reds.whether. However, somehow they still covered about another hundred and fifty kilometers in one hundredron border and were overtaken only in the areaDretun railway station in Belarus.

Dretun station, Moskovsko-Belorussko-Bal Tiya railway is located stage Nevel-Polotsk, in the Polotsk district of Vitebskprovinces, twenty-five kilometers from the cityPolotsk. Near Dretun station, in a coniferous forestlocated village of Sitno. where were the landfills andmilitary camps of the red army. Here's the stocknals served their primary training camps in the summer(27) . It was approximately there that they took their last battle with red Maria Zakharchenko And Yuri Peters. Notwhich sources report that they died in shootout. But they look more reliable claims that both of them committed suicidesuicide, not wanting to surrender.

One of the Red Army soldiers who witnesseddeath of the Kutepovoites, I. Repin left detaileddescription of the last minutes of their lives. According to himyou, the Kutepovites came out of the forest straight to the shootingwhere at that time some kind of training fire was being conductedthen a company. There is an assumption that OGPU deliberately pushed the militants towards the locationof the Red Army camps.

On the opposite edge of the forest, - svi An eyewitness to the tragedy speaks out, - in the intervalbetween targets, a man and a woman holding a revolver in their hands. They're under raise the revolvers up. The woman turns to us and shouts:

- For Russia! - and shoots himself in the temple.

The man also shoots, but in the mouth. Both fall.

...I saw this heroine again an hour later two. In a modest gray dress she lay straight mo on the ground at our regiment headquarters. Below Wednesdays his height. Middle-aged. Brown haired. Dead but a pale face, a pointed nose, closed eyes.

Barely noticeable breathing. Into the unconscious nom condition.

...A crowd of curious Red Army soldiers stood around. One of them approached the lying close to the woman and apparently with the intention niya to show off his prowess, pushed her with his toe Poga in what seemed to be a swollen belly and cursed vilely.

The woman's body was completely destroyed passionate, did not flinch further.

...Still, the “well done” is calculating the effect of the eye turned out to be wrong. The gloomy, stern faces of the overwhelming majority of the Red Army soldiersshowed a clearly negative assessment of the ridiculousvile trick. Later I heard that "spy onka” on the same day and in the same unconscious was “immersed” in an ice carnickname and sent to Leningrad" (16) .

For some reason, open Soviet sources do not give the date of death Zakharchenko And Peters. Until now, nothing is known about the place of their burial.I. If you believe correspondents' reports"Daily Express" And "Times" , in hot pursuitwho published information about the death of "Moscowwhich group of Kutepovites, then life Maria Vladis Lavovny Zakharchenko broke off June 23, 1927 A...

AFTERWORD

Even today, after more than seventy-fiveyears, some of the participants are still alivegosya in 1927 tragic confrontationEvikov of General Kutepov with the OGPU.

August 19, 2002 central fundsmass media of the Russian Federation with servility of racestold TV viewers and readers about the centenaryanniversary KGB Colonel Boris Gudz- one ofSoviet provocateurs who participated in theduring the operation "Trust". And the main meritFederal media called the security officer the bastardparticipation in operations "Trust" And "Syndicate-2" (28) . Russian television broadcast the speech to the whole worldhundred-year-old GPE officer. And the next day, August 20, in Moscow foreign intelligence service (SVR) - former First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR) organized an official celebrationretired "trust official": managers SVR decscrewed up their veteran and “educated” the young generation " Russian intelligence officers" (!) on his at least...

Well, the Russian authorities have their own heroes, Russia- their. And while the federal authorities and their intelligence agenciesthe Soviets would be celebrated loudly throughout the countrysome spies and provocateurs. Russia will quietly rememberby the prayer of our Heroes(29) .

Let these lines of gratitude become symbolica voluptuous modest bouquet of white roses, polomarried to the unknown graves of our Nazis nal Heroes - Maria Vladislavovna Zakhar Chenko and her military comrades.

Banner bearer.

NOTES:

1 There are a number of biographical sketches dedicated topublished by various authors M.V. Zakharchenko and published in Russian emigrant publications, and most recentlytime - and in the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, they all contain extremelycontradictory information, have many errors that migrate from one article to another. Poeto the facts contained in them require serious verification ki.

2 Tsurikov N. For Russia. Marya Vladislavovna ForKharchenko-Schultz. - “Russia” (weekly newspaper; Paris, France), 1927, 12.11.

3 Civil rank IV class corresponding to the rank of major general in military service.

4 Cherepnin N. Imperial educational generalthe quality of noble maidens. Historical sketch. 1764- 1914. Pg.. 1915, vol. 3, p. 675.

5 All Petersburg g on 1913 year. St. Petersburg, 1913. This housestill preserved. It houses the Main Directorate tion of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg.

6 Zaitsev A. Semyonovtsy in 1914. Helsingfors, 1936, p. 9.

7 “The Sentry”, 1932, No. 74, p. 10.

8 Ryabinin A. Olgin headquarters. - “Our News”, 1962, No. 187.

9 Arkhipov B. In memory of a female hero. - “Vladimirsky Herald” (Sao Paulo, Brazil). 1955, Jan. This article by Captain Arkhipov, although it contains veryan interesting characteristic of M.V. Zakharchenko, referringdating back to the period of her service in the 3rd Hussars ElisavetgRadsky E.I. Vys. V. Princess Olga Nikolaevna regiment, but it hardly helps shed light on her true bio graphics. Quite the contrary, this article is too replete big amount errors, inaccuracies and obvious fantasies, sometimes very picturesque, but contrary to realityreal facts from the heroine’s life. Moreover, the author himself, according toApparently, M.V. Zakharchenko could personally know verylittle: he arrived in the regiment much later, and then for a long timewas absent from the regiment, being a service commander kah.

10 Voronov A.V. Olga's hussars. M., 1999, p. 43.

11 Tsurikov N. Decree, op., p. 2.

12 Quote by: Voronov A.V. Decree, op., p. 52.

13 Right there.

14 Ryabinin A. Elisavetgrad Hussars. - “The Sentry”, 1964, No. 456, p. eleven.

15 Gul R. I took Russia away. Apology for emigration. N.Y.,1984, vol. 1, p. 23.

16 Russian heroine.(In memory of Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz). - “The Sentry”, 1952, No. 320, p. 5.

17 TO history of the military organization of the general. A. P. Kutepova. - “The Sentry”, 1951, No. 313, p.11.

18 Quote By: Gladkov T. The reward for loyalty is execution.M., 2000. p. 140.

19 There, p. 568.

20 There, p. 270-271.

21 Gul R. Ice campaign (with Kornilov). Berlin, b.g. /(M.),1991.

22 In 1969, officer Soviet army Ilyin shotinto a government limousine, attempting to kill Gene Ral Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L. Brezhnev

23 Baader Anders(1943-1977) - one of the leaders of the so-called."Factions of the Red Army" (Rоte ArmherFraktiop -R.A.F) - a left-wing terrorist organization associated with whomby the Munist secret services, for more thanthirty years, until the early 90sXXcentury, terrorized West Germany and all Western Europe numerous murders, explosions and arson.

24 Gul R. I took away Russia, p. 32.

25 Captain Larionov's group successfully completed the task assigned to it. On June 7, 1927 she organized triggered an explosion in the building of the Leningrad Centralclub of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and, having safely crossed the Soviet-Finnish border, on June 9 the full force returned to its base.

26 Gladkov T. Decree, op., p. 268.

27 “The Sentry”, 1952, No. 324, p. 23.

28 Operation Syndicate-2 was carried out by security officers in parallel with Operation Trust. Its goal was to neutralize the anti-Bolshevik activities of B.V. Savinkov and his organization.

29 The issue of church commemoration of Orthodox people people who committed suicide due to the threat of extraditionBolshevik executioners, was with the inherent wisdom of times decided by the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church(z), Metropolitan Anastasi eat (Gribanovsky) (1965) in 1946. When on the day of "Cro"of your Epiphany" January 6/19, 1946, Russian people, concentrated in the Dachau camp near Munich (Ameri Kan zone of occupation of Germany), committed an act of massfirst suicide to avoid violentdachas for American advisers, Vl. Anastasysewed the unforbidden performance of their funeral service and servicea memorial service for them, saying: "Their actions are closer to feat of Saint Pelagia of Antioch (| approx. 303, pamint October 8/21), thrown from a high tower, to avoid defilement rather than the crime of Judas s" (Nathanael, Archbishop. Conversations about the Holy Scriptures and about faith and about the Church.N. -Y., 1995, vol. 5, p. 14- 15).

________________________________________

Nationality:

Russian empire

Date of death: Father:

V. G. Lysov

Spouse:

I. S. Mikhno;
G. A. Zakharchenko

Awards and prizes:

Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz(nee Lysova, in first marriage Mikhno) - political activist of the white movement. From the nobles. Participant in the First World War, Civil War, White Movement, Gallipoli resident, one of the leaders of the Military Organization of the EMRO, terrorist, intelligence officer.

Biography

Personality formation

Masha Lysova was born into the family of active state councilor V. G. Lysov. Masha's mother died shortly after giving birth. Masha spent the first years of her life in the Penza province, on her parents’ estate, and in the city of Penza, where she received a good home education. WITH youth horses were her passion. She continued her studies at, from which she graduated in 1911 with a gold medal. After graduating from Smolny, she spent a year studying in Lausanne. Returning to her native estate, she put the farm in order and created a small exemplary stud farm. In 1913, she married a participant in the Japanese war, captain of the Semenovsky Life Guards regiment I. S. Mikhno. The young people settled in St. Petersburg on Zagorodny Prospekt, house 54 - in this house there were government apartments for the officers of the regiment.

Participation in the First World War

With the outbreak of the First World War, Mikhno went to the front with his regiment, where he was soon seriously wounded and died in the arms of his wife. Three days after her husband's death, Maria gave birth to a daughter. She decided to take the place of her deceased husband at the front. By the Highest permission, obtained with the help of the Empress and her eldest daughter, Maria, under the name of her first husband, Mikhno, leaving her daughter in the care of her relatives, at the beginning of 1915 she volunteered in the 3rd Elizavetgrad Hussar Regiment of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna - a regiment of the Russian Imperial Army, whose chief was Grand Duchess Olga. She was immediately enrolled in the fifth squadron of captain P.P. Obukh. Subsequently, one of Maria’s fellow soldiers, staff captain B. N. Arkhipov, recalled her first time in the regiment:

Maria Vladislavovna was not bad at riding like a man, but, of course, she was never trained in the use of weapons and reconnaissance: this means that from a combat point of view she was useless. Moreover, the constant presence of a young woman, dressed as a hussar, day and night, greatly embarrassed the officers and soldiers. The regiment commander would not have been averse to getting rid of such a volunteer, but he was confirmed that everything was done at the personal request of the Sovereign Emperor. I had to come to terms with a fait accompli

However, soon such a skeptical attitude towards the woman changed. As the same Arkhipov recalled: “It should be mentioned that during the period spent in the ranks of the regiment, being constantly in combat, M. V. Mikhno learned everything that was required of a combat hussar, and could compete on equal terms with men, distinguished by fearlessness, especially in intelligence." Maria received her St. George Crosses like this: in November 1915, having volunteered as a guide to the reconnaissance team of her division, at night she led her detachment to the rear of the German company. The enemy was cut down and captured. During another reconnaissance, Maria, accompanied by two soldiers, went to a German outpost, which opened fire on the hussars. One of the soldiers was killed, the other was wounded. Maria, herself wounded, under enemy fire, managed to carry her wounded colleague out of the fire. The next incident that happened to Maria, by that time already a non-commissioned officer, occurred in 1916 in Dobruja, when a squadron of hussars under the command of Captain von Baumgarten occupied a Bulgarian village. Riding a horse into a courtyard, Maria came across a Bulgarian infantryman. Undeterred, she began to shout at him in such a frantic voice that the soldier became confused, threw down his rifle and surrendered. Subsequently, he was embarrassed to learn that he had been captivated by a young woman.

At the end of 1916, the regiment was withdrawn from the front for rest and at the end of January 1917 was stationed in Bessarabia. The February Revolution found him there.

Revolution and Civil War

The Elizavetgrad regiment remained one of the few units of the Russian army that was not affected by decomposition. The hussars maintained discipline, relations between officers and privates remained within the framework of the regulations. However, by the end of 1917, after the Bolshevik coup, the regiment's employees left its location, going home.

Arriving in her native land, Maria was faced with terrible pictures of the revolution - her estate and stud farm were ruined, in the city of Penza crowds robbed shops, in the villages they burned landowners' estates. And they killed everywhere - mercilessly, senselessly, with impunity. Maria organized the Self-Defense Union and a partisan detachment of Penza student youth to protect private property in the Penza district. Memoirists Roman Gul and staff captain Arkhipov reported that Maria’s detachment cruelly took revenge on the peasants whose villages took part in the destruction of landowners’ estates, burning peasant huts, but later researchers are inclined to believe that Maria’s detachments never completed the formation stage and did not take part in real affairs.

Maria’s real business was the transfer of officers from Penza to the White armies. No one helped her - she alone, with the help of an old maid, sheltered former officers and, providing them with documents, sent them to the whites. This was her first experience of underground work behind Bolshevik lines. Then she met her old acquaintance, an officer of the 15th Uhlan Regiment, who in the spring of 1918 became her second husband, under whose name she gained subsequent fame - G. A. Zakharchenko - wounded, he ended up in Maria’s house, while he was recovering - they got closer. When Maria’s activities nevertheless came to the attention of the Bolsheviks, they both had to make their way to the whites themselves. The path to the Volunteer Army was roundabout and very long - G. A. Zakharchenko managed to get documents of Persian subjects. So, under the guise of “Persians,” the Zakharchenko couple traveled from Moscow through Astrakhan to the Middle East - according to one version, through Mesopotamia, occupied by the British, they ended up in Armenia, making a sea voyage through the Persian Gulf and the Suez Canal, according to another version, their path ran via India.

In 1919-1920 - volunteering in the All-Russian Socialist Republic, in the 15th Uhlan Regiment, commanded by her husband, Colonel Zakharchenko. She was distinguished by her fearlessness in battles and cruelty towards prisoners, whom she preferred not to take, for which she received the nickname “Mad Maria”. In the fall of 1920, having buried her husband, who died of blood poisoning after being seriously wounded, she was seriously wounded near Kakhovka - early frosts set in, and frostbite in the extremities was added to the gunshot wound. After the Crimean evacuation, Maria ended up in the Gallipoli camp.

Emigration. In the Combat Organization of General Kutepov

After the Gallipoli camp, it first came to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then to Western Europe. Probably, Maria Zakharchenko became one of the first participants in the Combat Organization of General Kutepov, which set as its task the continuation of the armed struggle against Bolshevism, including by committing terrorist acts on the territory of the USSR.

In October 1923, she, together with her colleague - Captain G.N. Radkovich, a former life huntsman, who became her third, civilian husband, with whom she got along while still in the Gallipoli camp - under the guise of a married couple named Schultz, illegally crossed the Soviet-Estonian border and visited Petrograd and Moscow on a secret mission for General Kutepov. This was her first underground illegal visit to Soviet Russia. In subsequent years there will be many more such illegal visits and long stays in the USSR.

Zakharchenko-Schultz became one of key figures in Operation Trust, carried out by security officers, a provocation designed to discredit and destroy the EMRO and reduce the “activism” of the White emigration. Using the Schultz spouses blindly, the security officers for a long time managed to control and even direct the activities of the EMRO. Zakharchenko-Schultz was used to lure English intelligence officer Sidney Reilly to Soviet territory.

However, it became more and more difficult over time to restrain the “activism” of Kutepov’s militants and Zakharchenko-Schultz personally. Despite the calls of the NKVD agents who were in the leadership of the Trust to abandon terrorist attacks and “accumulate strength,” Zakharchenko-Schultz sought to change the policy of the EMRO and personally of Kutepov, whom she knew well, towards carrying out active sabotage and terrorist actions against the Bolshevik leadership. She proposed creating the Union of National Terrorists (SNT) - an organization that would engage in terror on the territory of the USSR.

I was given to Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz and her husband under special protection. Her husband was an officer... According to her cards taken in her youth, she was a pretty woman, not to say beautiful. I recognized her already at the age of fading, but still something remained in her features. She was slightly above average height, with delicate features. She experienced a lot, and her face, of course, bore the mark of all the trials, but the woman was resilient and had absolutely exceptional energy... she worked “on chemistry,” that is, she developed and retyped secret correspondence that was written with chemical ink... I had to have frank conversations with Maria Vladislavovna. One day she told me: “I’m getting old. I feel like this is my last strength. I invested everything in Trust, if it ends, I won’t live.”

On the opposite edge of the forest, in the interval between the targets, a man and a woman stand next to each other, each holding a revolver. They raise their revolvers up. A woman turns to us and shouts: “For Russia!” - and shoots himself in the temple. The man also shoots, but in the mouth. Both fall.
...I saw this heroine again two hours later. In a modest gray dress, she was lying right on the ground at the headquarters of our regiment. Below average height. Middle-aged. Brown haired. Deathly pale face, pointed nose, closed eyes. Barely noticeable breathing. Unconscious.

Relatives

In the research literature, Maria Vladislavovna is mentioned as the niece of A.P. Kutepov. Researcher A. S. Gasparyan, however, rejected this relationship, pointing out that although Kutepov himself called Maria Dmitrievna and her husband Radkovich “nephews,” this was nothing more than a nickname.

First husband Ivan Sergeevich Mikhno (??-1914) - guard officer, participant in the Russian Japanese war. He died in the first months of the Great War, while serving as the head of a team of mounted reconnaissance officers.

Second husband Grigory Aleksandrovich Zakharchenko (1875-1920), headquarters captain. Served in the Persian Brigade. Colonel of the 15th Lancer Regiment. In the Volunteer Army from June 1919 in the division of the 15th Uhlan Regiment. He was wounded near Kakhovka and died of his wounds in the summer of 1920.

Third husband Georgy Nikolaevich Radkovich (1898-1928) (underground pseudonym Shultz), participant in the Kutepov Combat Organization and Operation Trust.

In culture

Zakharchenko-Schultz was one of the characters in the novel “Dead Swell” by the Soviet writer L.V. Nikulin, which tells about the Chekist operation “Trust”. The role of Maria Vladislavovna in the film “Operation Trust”, staged in 1967 based on this novel, was played by Soviet theater actress Lyudmila Kasatkina.

see also

Notes

1. Zakharchenko-Schultz Maria Vladislavovna (Russian) // Bulletin of the EMRO: Magazine. - 2003. - No. 6-7.

Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz(nee Lysova, in first marriage Mikhno; 1893-1927) - political activist of the white movement. From the nobles. Participant in the First World War, Civil War, White Movement, Gallipoli resident, one of the leaders of the Military Organization of the Russian Armed Forces, terrorist, intelligence officer.

Biography

Personality formation

Masha Lysova was born in the family of active state councilor V. G. Lysov. Masha's mother died shortly after giving birth. Masha spent the first years of her life in the Penza province, on her parents’ estate, and in the city of Penza, where she received a good home education. From a young age, horses were her passion. She continued her studies at, from which she graduated in 1911 with a gold medal. After graduating from Smolny, she spent a year studying in Lausanne. Returning to her native estate, she put the farm in order and created a small exemplary stud farm. In 1913, she married a participant in the Japanese war, captain of the Semenovsky Life Guards regiment Ivan Sergeevich Mikhno. The young people settled in St. Petersburg on Zagorodny Prospekt, house 54 - in this house there were government apartments for the officers of the regiment.

Participation in the First World War

With the outbreak of the First World War, Mikhno went to the front with his regiment, where he was soon seriously wounded and died in the arms of his wife. Three days after her husband's death, Maria gave birth to a daughter. She decided to take the place of her deceased husband at the front. By the Highest permission, obtained with the help of the Empress and her eldest daughter, Maria, under the name of her first husband, Mikhno, leaving her daughter in the care of her relatives, at the beginning of 1915, entered the 3rd Elizavetgrad Hussars of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Regiment - a regiment of the Russian Imperial Army, whose chief was Grand Duchess Olga. She was immediately enrolled in the fifth squadron of captain P.P. Obukh. Subsequently, one of Maria’s fellow soldiers, staff captain B. N. Arkhipov, recalled her first time in the regiment:

Maria Vladislavovna was not bad at riding like a man, but, of course, she was never trained in the use of weapons and reconnaissance: this means that from a combat point of view she was useless. Moreover, the constant presence of a young woman, dressed as a hussar, day and night, greatly embarrassed the officers and soldiers. The regiment commander would not have been averse to getting rid of such a volunteer, but he was confirmed that everything was done at the personal request of the Sovereign Emperor. I had to come to terms with a fait accompli

However, soon such a skeptical attitude towards the woman changed. As the same Arkhipov recalled: “It should be mentioned that during the period spent in the ranks of the regiment, being constantly in combat, M. V. Mikhno learned everything that was required of a combat hussar, and could compete on equal terms with men, distinguished by fearlessness, especially in intelligence." Maria received her St. George Crosses like this: in November 1915, having volunteered as a guide to the reconnaissance team of her division, at night she led her detachment to the rear of the German company. The enemy was cut down and captured. During another reconnaissance, Maria, accompanied by two soldiers, went to a German outpost, which opened fire on the hussars. One of the soldiers was killed, the other was wounded. Maria, herself wounded, under enemy fire, managed to carry her wounded colleague out of the fire. The next incident that happened to Maria, by that time already a non-commissioned officer, occurred in 1916 in Dobruja, when a squadron of hussars under the command of Captain von Baumgarten occupied a Bulgarian village. Riding a horse into a courtyard, Maria came across a Bulgarian infantryman. Undeterred, she began to shout at him in such a frantic voice that the soldier became confused, threw down his rifle and surrendered. Subsequently, he was embarrassed to learn that he had been captivated by a young woman.

At the end of 1916, the regiment was withdrawn from the front for rest and at the end of January 1917 was stationed in Bessarabia. The February Revolution found him there.

Revolution and Civil War

The Elizavetgrad regiment remained one of the few units of the Russian army that was not affected by decomposition. The hussars maintained discipline, relations between officers and privates remained within the framework of the regulations. However, by the end of 1917, after the October Revolution, the regiment's employees left its location, going home.

Arriving in her native land, Maria was faced with terrible pictures of the revolution - her estate and stud farm were ruined, in the city of Penza crowds robbed shops, in the villages they burned landowners' estates. And they killed everywhere - mercilessly, senselessly, with impunity. Maria organized the Self-Defense Union and a partisan detachment of Penza student youth to protect private property in the Penza district. Memoirists Roman Gul and staff captain Arkhipov reported that Maria’s detachment cruelly took revenge on the peasants whose villages took part in the destruction of landowners’ estates, burning peasant huts, but later researchers are inclined to believe that Maria’s detachments never completed the formation stage and did not take part in real affairs.

Maria’s real business was the transfer of officers from Penza to the White armies. No one helped her - she alone, with the help of an old maid, sheltered former officers and, providing them with documents, sent them to the whites. This was her first experience of underground work behind Bolshevik lines. Then she met her old acquaintance, an officer of the 15th Ulan Regiment, who in the spring of 1918 became her second husband, under whose name she gained subsequent fame - G. A. Zakharchenko - wounded, he ended up in Maria’s house, while he was recovering - they got closer. When Maria’s activities nevertheless came to the attention of the Bolsheviks, they both had to make their way to the whites themselves. The path to the Volunteer Army was roundabout and very long - G. A. Zakharchenko managed to get documents of Persian subjects. So, under the guise of “Persians,” the Zakharchenko couple traveled from Moscow through Astrakhan to the Middle East - according to one version, through Mesopotamia, occupied by the British, they ended up in Armenia, making a sea voyage through the Persian Gulf and the Suez Canal, according to another version, their path ran via India.

In 1919-1920 - volunteering in the All-Russian Socialist Republic, in the 15th Uhlan Regiment, commanded by her husband, Colonel Zakharchenko. She was distinguished by her fearlessness in battles and cruelty towards prisoners, whom she preferred not to take, for which she received the nickname “Mad Maria”. In the fall of 1920, having buried her husband, who died of blood poisoning after being seriously wounded, she was seriously wounded near Kakhovka - early frosts set in, and frostbite in the extremities was added to the gunshot wound. After the Crimean evacuation, Maria ended up in the Gallipoli camp.

Emigration. In the Combat Organization of General Kutepov

After the Gallipoli camp, she first came to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then to Western Europe. Probably, Maria Zakharchenko became one of the first participants in the Combat Organization of General Kutepov, which set as its task the continuation of the armed struggle against Bolshevism, including by committing terrorist acts on the territory of the USSR.

In October 1923, she, together with her comrade-in-arms - Captain G.N. Radkovich, a former life huntsman, who became her third, civilian husband, with whom she got along while still in the Gallipoli camp - under the guise of a married couple named Schultz, illegally crossed the Soviet-Estonian border and visited Petrograd and Moscow on a secret mission for General Kutepov. This was her first underground illegal visit to Soviet Russia. In subsequent years there will be many more such illegal visits and long stays in the USSR.

Zakharchenko-Schultz became one of the key figures in the “Trust” operation carried out by the security officers - a provocation designed to discredit and destroy the EMRO and reduce the “activism” of the White emigration. Using the Schultz spouses blindly, the security officers for a long time managed to control and even direct the activities of the EMRO. Zakharchenko-Schultz was used to lure the English intelligence officer Sidney Reilly to Soviet territory.

However, it became more and more difficult over time to restrain the “activism” of Kutepov’s militants and Zakharchenko-Schultz personally. Despite the calls of the NKVD agents who were in the leadership of the Trust to abandon terrorist attacks and “accumulate strength,” Zakharchenko-Schultz sought to change the policy of the EMRO and personally of Kutepov, whom she knew well, towards carrying out active sabotage and terrorist actions against the Bolshevik leadership. She proposed creating the Union of National Terrorists (SNT) - an organization that would engage in terror on the territory of the USSR.

I was given to Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schultz and her husband under special protection. Her husband was an officer... According to her cards taken in her youth, she was a pretty woman, not to say beautiful. I recognized her already at the age of fading, but still something remained in her features. She was slightly above average height, with delicate features. She experienced a lot, and her face, of course, bore the mark of all the trials, but the woman was resilient and had absolutely exceptional energy... she worked “on chemistry,” that is, she developed and retyped secret correspondence that was written with chemical ink... I had to have frank conversations with Maria Vladislavovna. One day she told me: “I’m getting old. I feel like this is my last strength. I invested everything in Trust, if it ends, I won’t live.”

On the opposite edge of the forest, in the interval between the targets, a man and a woman stand next to each other, each holding a revolver. They raise their revolvers up. A woman turns to us and shouts: “For Russia!” - and shoots himself in the temple. The man also shoots, but in the mouth. Both fall.
...I saw this heroine again two hours later. In a modest gray dress, she was lying right on the ground at the headquarters of our regiment. Below average height. Middle-aged. Brown haired. Deathly pale face, pointed nose, closed eyes. Barely noticeable breathing. Unconscious.

Relatives

In research and popular literature, Maria Vladislavovna is mentioned as the niece of A.P. Kutepov. Although Kutepov himself called Maria Dmitrievna and her husband Radkovich “nephews,” historians and researchers agree that in fact this was just an agent pseudonym, a nickname.

First husband Ivan Sergeevich Mikhno (??-1914) - guard officer, participant Russo-Japanese War. He died in the first months of the First World War, while serving as the head of a team of mounted reconnaissance officers.

Second husband Grigory Aleksandrovich Zakharchenko (1875-1920), headquarters captain. Served in the Persian Brigade. Colonel of the 15th Lancer Regiment. In the Volunteer Army from June 1919 in the division of the 15th Uhlan Regiment. He was wounded near Kakhovka and died of his wounds in the summer of 1920.

Third husband Georgy Nikolaevich Radkovich (1898-1928) (underground pseudonym Shultz), participant in the Kutepov Combat Organization and Operation Trust.

In culture

Zakharchenko-Schultz was one of the characters in the novel “Dead Swell” by the Soviet writer L.V. Nikulin, which tells about the Chekist operation “Trust”. The role of Maria Vladislavovna in the film “Operation Trust”, staged in 1967 based on this novel, was played by Soviet theater actress Lyudmila Kasatkina.

see also

Notes

1. Zakharchenko-Schultz Maria Vladislavovna (Russian) // Bulletin of the All-Russian Military Union: Journal. - 2003. - No. 6-7.
2. Damaskin I. A. Maria Zakharchenko-Schultz (1893-1927)// 100 great scouts. - Moscow: Veche, 2002. - (100 great ones). - ISBN 5-7838-0961-6.
3. Egorova O. Mad Maria. (Operation Trust) (Russian). Website "Russian General Military Union". Retrieved May 23, 2012. Archived September 22, 2012.
4. About the Soviet-British conflict of 1927 on the website “CHRONOS.RU”
5. Khlobustov O. M.: State security of Russia from Alexander I to Putin. Popular science publication. 2nd edition, revised and expanded. - M., publishing house In-Folio, 2008
6. Gasparyan A. S. Appendix 2. List of all known today ranks of the Kutepov Combat organization// Operation “Trust”. Soviet intelligence against Russian emigration. 1921-1937 gg. - M.: Veche, 2008. - 465 p.
7. Gagkuev R. G., Tsvetkov V. Zh., Golitsyn V. V. General Kutepov. - M.: Posev, 2009. - 590 p. - ISBN 978-5-85824-190-4, p. 316