Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchev. 1918
In the twenties, there was, perhaps, no more colorful figure at the commander’s courses at Vystrel, the main “military academy” in the USSR at that time, than “Professor Yasha.” Judge for yourself: a former guardsman, a graduate of the Nikolaev General Staff Academy, who went through the entire First World War in the trenches. During the Civil War he was the chief of staff of General Shkuro; in Denikin’s Volunteer Army and Wrangel’s Armed Forces of the South of Russia he commanded a brigade, division and corps, and wore lieutenant general’s shoulder straps.
And now he teaches wisdom to the Red commanders, whom he recently successfully defeated on the battlefields. He teaches, sarcastically picking apart all the mistakes and miscalculations of the authoritative army commanders and division commanders of the army of workers and peasants.
At one of these classes, Semyon Budyonny, who became a legend during his lifetime, unable to withstand caustic comments about the actions of his 1st Cavalry Army, discharged his weapon towards the former white general revolving drum. And he just spat on his fingers, stained with chalk, and calmly said towards the silent audience: “This is how you shoot, this is how you fight.”
The name of this extraordinary man was Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchev.
Slashchev was “lucky” during his lifetime. At home, in the white camp, and even more so in the red camp, he was awarded several different titles at once: “Slashchev - Crimean”, “Slashchev - hangman”, later, in exile, “General - Crimean traitor”
But the soldiers of the White Guard, loving him, called him simply, even familiarly: “General Yasha.” Slashchev was proud of this title. Yes, they talked about him with shudder. But what’s interesting is that he signed more than a hundred hanging sentences! More than half of them were not his enemies-opponents (underground Bolsheviks, Komsomol members), but their own whites, who committed vandalism, looting, robbery, theft, desertion, cowardice, and so on.
*By the way, the stripes on the left sleeve of Slashchev’s Circassian coat mean how many times he was wounded in the Great War, and a couple of times very seriously, plus shell shock.
Slashchev fought furiously against criminality in Crimea, and in particular in the White Army.
So, in a gambling house in Simferopol (on the corner of Pushkinskaya and Ekaterininskaya streets) Slashchev personally arrested three officers who had robbed a Jewish jeweler and ordered them to be hanged immediately. He even executed a soldier for a goose stolen from a peasant. He didn’t even take into account the colonel’s shoulder straps and pulled up the colonel, saying, “You can’t dishonor the shoulder straps,” who was patronized by Lieutenant General Wrangel himself.
Yakov Slashchev also became famous for his brilliant operation against the Crimean anarchists. In Simferopol, in Sobachya (now Petrovskaya) Balka in March 1920, General Slashchev’s corps counterintelligence managed to catch “the elusive international terrorists Witold Brzostek and his famous “field wife,” known simply as “Maruska.”
This far from “sweet couple” arrived in Simferopol for the sole purpose of executing General Slashchev on behalf of the Free Russia anarchist party. "Executed"! Both hung on poles near the Lithuanian barracks in Simferopol on March 19, 1919. Slashchev hated the Reds (how much did he know about them!), did not tolerate liberals (“They destroyed the army!”), spoke cynically about the white “elite,” and spat at the sight of “ rear skins,” knowing their value well.
But, strange as it may seem, the name of Slashchev in Crimea was pronounced more with respect than with fear.
“Despite the executions,” General P. I. Averianov wrote in his memoirs, “Yakov Aleksandrovich was popular among all classes of the population of the peninsula, not excluding workers. And how could it be otherwise if the general was everywhere in person: he himself entered the crowd of protesters without security, he himself sorted out the complaints of trade unions and industrialists, he himself raised the chains to attack. Yes, they were afraid of him, but at the same time they also hoped, knowing for sure: Slashchev would not betray him or sell him. He had an amazing and, for many, incomprehensible ability to inspire trust and devoted love among the troops.”
Slashchev's popularity among soldiers and trench officers was truly prohibitive. Both of them called him “our Yasha” behind his back, which Yakov Aleksandrovich was very proud of. As for the local population, many Crimeans seriously believed that Slashchev was actually none other than Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, brother of the murdered emperor and heir to the Russian throne!
But the general was truly desperately brave, despised death, and was prone to risky adventurism. Slashchev's bravery was the talk of the town. He was wounded at least seven times. Attacks were more than once led by him personally.
Discipline in the Slashchev corps, unlike other white corps, was ironclad. Therefore, it was his corps in the White Guard that was considered the most reliable. The general was a talented tactician and strategist. It is no coincidence that even during the Civil War, Slashchev’s operations against the Red Army were carefully studied at the Red headquarters at the highest level. 
General with principles
Back in the summer of 1919, people were in awe of Slashchev and fawned over him. After all, it was none other than him who defended Crimea at the end of 1919 during the first onslaught of the Reds. Crimea became a gift to General Wrangel from Slashchev.
General Wrangel personally proclaimed a toast in honor of “Slashchev-Krymsky” for the brilliant summer Crimean campaign in the Koktebel area. Slashchev's landing force of 5 thousand bayonets, then he pushed back the Reds and caused panic in the rear of the Crimean Soviet Republic.
But his constant scandals with “rear rats” in general’s uniforms, open bullying of local, democratically minded self-government represented by Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries, and Mensheviks greatly tarnished the general’s image. The leaders of local democracy who protested against terror had little joy from “General Yasha.”
And Slashchev didn’t let lovers of a “fun life” get away with it
Consider his orders, posted all over Crimea, with his characteristic exotic rhetoric: “...seal wine warehouses and shops. I will punish mercilessly... Throughout the entire territory of Crimea I prohibit gambling card games everywhere. I will punish the owners of all brothels not with fines, but as direct accomplices of Bolshevism... For now, beware, and if you don’t listen, don’t blame them for your premature death... General Slashchev" 
"Run". Vladislav Dvorzhetsky as Khludov
And from the front, the general sent out wall bulletins with his own specifics and with the same rhetoric: “... Disgrace! They dared to allow themselves to be attacked, they did not attack themselves... I order: not a step back, but attack forward! Wherever the situation requires, I will leave myself... I confirm: I will not leave Crimea! Of the two enemy armies, I defeated one, I’m taking on the second. I’m pleased with the brave work of the volunteers and Cossacks... The population is calm, but inert. We need some zest... General Slashchev.”
It should be noted that at the most dramatic moment of the battles, when the Reds were pressing, General Slashchev near Chongarskaya Gatya gave the order to his faithful cadets to form a column, the musicians to play a march and, under hurricane artillery fire from the Reds, under the unfurled Russian banner, he went on the attack on Gat. It was beautiful and scary...
“Dangerous. Obviously crazy..."
Gradually, the confrontation between the Denikin Headquarters and the rebellious general grew into an outright struggle. Concerned, General Denikin sends his representative, Colonel Nog, to Sevastopol, to the all-powerful Slashchev in Crimea, to help the general.
All of Noga’s help, however, consisted in the fact that he, without hesitation, followed all of Slashchev’s steps and reported them to General Headquarters personally to General Denikin. 
Slashchev's headquarters in Crimea. In the photo is Lieutenant General Slashchev (third from the right), to his right is the chief of staff - Major General Dubyago (a friend of Slashchev) and the head of the operations department - Colonel Orlov. To the left of Slashchev is his wife, orderly Nechvolodova (she was wounded twice in battle and personally saved Slashchev from death). Crimea, Sevastopol, 1920
Denikin leaves the stage, or rather, the Entente “left” him. Generals Wrangel and Slashchev, like roosters, ruffled their feathers in front of each other. Not by chance. Slashchev did not seek the “throne”. But a smart tactician, he decisively spoke out near Kakhovka, proposing his plan to defeat the Reds against Wrangel’s plan.
What was the essence of the conflict?
Wrangel was tied hand and foot by the Entente, which provided him, General Wrangel, with protection. Slashchev considered himself obliged not to the Entente, but to his own talent as a commander! “General Yasha” says in Russian: the Poles are attacking the Reds from the West, we need to strike from the south to meet them. But Wrangel receives direct instructions from Paris: to strike with all forces in the Donbass. It was there that, before the revolution, the French owned many mines and factories, and the interests of preserving and increasing their capital were more important to them than the needlessly shed Russian blood.
Wrangel was far from a fool. He was simply a realist and understood perfectly well: Slashchev was right! But it was impossible to quarrel with France. There was a flow of weapons and uniforms from France to Crimea. It was France, and not England (which at one time refused asylum to Nicholas II and his family), if something happened, that promised to shelter the whites.
Friction between the two generals began earlier, even before the election of the commander-in-chief of the White troops in the south after the resignation of General Denikin. The Allies put the final point: “Denikin has done his job - Denikin must leave!” It was decided in London and Paris that we, democrats, could not deal with Slashchev. He, they say, smells of Russian monarchism, from which a very small bridge is needed for the Russian colossus to be reborn.
A solemn ceremony follows for the return of General Wrangel from Constantinople to Sevastopol
Guard of honor. Heartfelt speeches. Bravura marches. Memorable, last celebrations of White Russia on the last piece of White Russian land. Seventy generals gather in the palace of the Fleet Commander in Sevastopol for a council and, in the spirit of democracy, vote for General Wrangel to the post of Commander-in-Chief. 
General Slashchev in Crimea
Only one General Slashchev spat on the floor and, thundering towards the exit in his boots, left for his home in Dzhankoy. In Dzhankoy, the general came to his senses. He sends congratulations to Wrangel on his election to such a high post and even comes to command a parade of troops on this occasion. Wrangel, just in case, curtsies and... assigns Slashchev the rank of lieutenant general with his saying for a narrow circle: “He’s popular, you bastard, among the soldiers!”
.
Wrangel, as far as he could, tried to look democratic. They did a lot to make the last Russian piece of land look presentable, in the best European spirit. Nowhere in the White camp was there any smell of democracy, only in Crimea! Even the external European civilized gloss of General Yudenich faded before Wrangel. But Slashchev openly laughs at Wrangel’s efforts to “democratize a piece of Russian land in Crimea.”
Wrangel's patience is running out. He demanded that incriminating evidence be collected against Slashchev. The following description of “General Yasha” is placed on the table of the Commander-in-Chief: “Dangerous, clearly crazy. Capable of anything: blowing up Crimea, going over to the side of Makhno and even the Bolsheviks...” 
"Run". Vladislav Dvorzhetsky as Khludov 
General Slashchev in Constantinople
After the defeat in Crimea, together with the remnants of the White Army, Lieutenant General Yakov Slashchev and his faithful wife, twenty-year-old Nina Nechvolodova, find themselves on the outskirts of Constantinople, in a hut made of boards, plywood and tin.
The general began to live by his own labor: he grows vegetables and sells them in the city markets. In rare hours of rest, he reads the press. He is remembered. They write about him. Both Reds and Whites curse him, and his “allies” shun him. Only a few officers remained loyal to him. And then his supporters bring the general the text of Wrangel’s secret agreement with the Entente.
It turns out that he promised so much to Paris and London that from the “great, indivisible Russia”, in the event of a White victory, only horns and legs would remain. And, here, Slashev openly expresses his opinion:
“The Reds are my enemies, but they did the main thing - my job: they revived great Russia!” And then he snapped in his own spirit: “...what they called it - I don’t care!”
Slashchev’s statement immediately becomes famous in Moscow. Dzerzhinsky makes a shocking move to the Bolshevik Center. At a meeting of the Politburo, he puts on the agenda the issue of “inviting former general Slashchev (though already demoted to the rank and file by Wrangel) to serve... in the Red Army.”
Opinion in the Politburo was divided. Against: Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov and some others. For: Kamenev, Stalin, Voroshilov. Abstained - Lenin. And yet Dzerzhinsky insists on his proposal.
In November 1921, on the Italian steamer "Jean" Slashchev, Major General Milkovsky, Major General Sekretov, former division chief General Gravitsky, Colonels Gilbikh, Mezernetsky, Slashchev's wife Nina Nechvolodova (already with a child), her cousin, Prince Trubetskoy arrive in Sevastopol.
Slashchev saw a tormented Russia, the collapse of which was marked by the February revolution. It is no coincidence that while still in Crimea, he intensively re-read the Bible, given to him by the Archbishop of Simferopol and Karasubazar. Slashchev’s hand in the Gospel of Luke (chapter 11, vv. 17-18) highlights: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be desolate, and a house that has fallen apart within itself will fall...”. Alas, when the Bible is poorly read, history repeats itself...
The homeland highly appreciated the patriotic act of the general. She perceived him not as a soldier, but as a general. A little later, former white generals I. Klochkov, E. Zelenin, colonels D. Zhitkevich, V. Orzhanevsky, N. Klimovich, M. Lyalin and others joined Slashchev’s group. All of them received high command and teaching positions in the Red Army and freely performed in history discussions Civil War. In general, the reconciliation of the Reds with the Whites, who stopped resisting, to a certain extent, took place back in the 20s.
*In 1918, Slashchev met the handsome cadet Nechvolodov, who was one of his orderlies. Suddenly it turned out that under this name was hiding 18-year-old Nina Nechvolodova, ironically the niece of the chief of artillery of the Red Army. But love is stronger than related feelings. For three years of the Civil War, Ninochka did not leave her colonel (and then general), she was wounded several times, and only in 1920 did they formalize their relationship. It was Nina who later played a certain role in the fate of her husband... 
Yakov Aleksandrovich’s wife, Nina Nechvolodova, also contributed to the education of painters.
She organized an amateur theater at the Shot course, where she staged several classical plays with the participation of the wives and children of the students. In 1925, the film company "Proletarskoye Kino" filmed Feature Film about Baron Wrangel and the capture of Crimea. In this film, Slashchev himself starred in the role of General Slashchev, and in the role of “Junker N.” - his wife!
Of course, Slashchev's position was far from ideal. He periodically submitted reports with a request to be transferred to a command position in the troops, which he was naturally denied. His lectures increasingly began to be booed by “politically conscious” listeners. Incomprehensible and unpleasant personalities began to swirl around Yakov Alexandrovich. And “Professor Yasha” seriously got ready to go to Europe, intending to spend the rest of his days as a private citizen...
In 1922, Slashchev wrote in his own hand an appeal to the officers and generals of the former White Guard who were in exile - to follow his example and return from white emigration to their homeland. By the end of 1922, 223 thousand former emigrants returned to Russia. Abroad, at white headquarters, among the “irreconcilables,” General Slashchev is sentenced to death in absentia. The step, in general, is understandable for the white side.
On January 11, 1929, the former general who became the Red commander Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchev was shot at point-blank range by a Trotskyist who assured at the trial that he was avenging his brother, who was hanged by General Slashchev. He could not prove the fact of revenge, but, nevertheless, he was soon released...
Lieutenant General of the White Guard, “red professor” of the Red Army, brilliant tactician and strategist of Russian military thought, Yakov Slashchev, went down in history as a patriot of Russia, who fought for its greatness, unity and glory!
One of the most “twisted” destinies of the early twentieth century ended tragically. She also interested such a master of the pen as Mikhail Bulgakov. It was from Slashchev that he copied General Roman Khludov in the play “Running”...
*Since June 1922 - teacher of tactics at the Shot command school.
Slashchev taught brilliantly, the lectures were full of people, and the tension in the audience was sometimes like in battle. Many commanders-listeners themselves fought with Wrangel’s troops, including on the approaches to the Crimea, and the former White Guard general did not spare either causticity or ridicule when analyzing this or that operation of our troops.
***
He became the prototype of General Roman Khludov in M. A. Bulgakov’s play “Running”.
One of the main characters of the third and fourth books of the tetralogy by I. Bolgarin, G. Seversky and V. Smirnov “Adjutant of His Excellency”
The central character of a number of chapters of the book “Wrangel in Crimea”
One of the minor characters in Andrey Valentinov’s novel “Phlegethon,” which tells about the White movement in Crimea.
Several episodes from Svetlana Sheshunova’s novel “The Birdcatcher’s Easter” tell about Slashchev’s activities in the North Caucasus and Crimea.
Igor Voevodin was awarded the Crown of Thorns Badge for his book “Unforgiven” about General Slashchev.
The image of Slashchev is embodied in the feature film “Big and Small War” (Moldova-film, 1980) by Sergei Desnitsky.
A. Samarin. www.ruscrimea.ru/rm/62/page_5.htm
His fate was surrounded by a veil of secrecy for many years in the USSR
Among the works of cinema about the Civil War, there are few films as popular as the film “Running,” based on the play of the same name by Mikhail Bulgakov. General Khludov is especially memorable - a contradictory and tragic image. Meanwhile, few people realize that the writer created it with a very real prototype before his eyes.
Long before the end of the play “Running”, in 1925, this man starred in the Crimea in the film “Wrangel” (unfortunately, never saw the light of day), which was produced by the joint-stock company “Proletarskoe Kino”, in the role of... himself! Namely, Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchov-Krymsky, lieutenant general, commander of the 3rd Army Corps, who stubbornly defended the last citadel of the white movement in the south of Russia and inflicted a number of sensitive defeats on the Red Army...
“Who would hang you, Your Excellency?”
Meeting at railway station commander of the Crimean front Khludov with the white commander-in-chief (one can immediately recognize in him Lieutenant General Baron P.N. Wrangel, who led the Russian army in 1920) - one of the key ones in Bulgakov’s drama. Remember how, in response to the good-natured complaints of the top boss that Khludov was unwell, and it was a pity that he did not listen to the advice to go abroad for treatment, he burst into an angry tirade: “Oh, that’s how it is! And who, Your Excellency, would your barefoot soldiers on Perekop, without dugouts, without canopies, without concrete, hold the rampart? And who would Charnot go with music from Chongar to Karpova Balka that night? Who would hang it? Who would hang you, Your Excellency?
It should be immediately noted that in reality such a conversation on the eve of the collapse of the White Crimea in November 1920 could not have happened by definition, because on August 19, Yakov Aleksandrovich was removed from command of the corps by special order No. 3505. The formal reason was the failure of his troops in the battles near Kakhovka, after which the corps commander himself wrote a letter of resignation. According to the famous historian A.G. Kavtaradze, P.N. Wrangel so willingly granted this request because he saw Slashchov as a dangerous rival and envied his military glory.
But in order to calm down public circles dissatisfied with the removal of the popular general, Pyotr Nikolaevich did not skimp on praise.
The same order stated that the name of General Slashchov “will take an honorable place in the history of the liberation of Russia from the red yoke.”
Due to “terrible overwork,” Wrangel wrote, Yakov Alexandrovich is forced to “retire for a while,” but the commander-in-chief orders “the dear heart of Russian soldiers, General Slashchov, to henceforth be called Slashchov-Crimean.” By another order issued on the same day, Wrangel “exempted from general rules"enlists the dismissed hero of the defense of Crimea at his disposal "while maintaining his salary as corps commander."
With the exception of this detail, all other details of those events were reproduced by Bulgakov very reliably. Indeed, as the main source when composing the play, Mikhail Afanasyevich used Slashchov’s book, which exposed Wrangel, first published in the USSR in 1924 (and before that in Constantinople in January 1921) and which became perhaps the main reason for the fantastic turn in his fate.
How did it develop?
Yakov Slashchov was born on December 29, 1885 (January 10, 1886 according to the new style) in St. Petersburg in the family of a retired lieutenant colonel of the guard (by the way, his grandfather, who died in 1875, also only rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel). After graduating from real school, the representative of the officer dynasty entered Pavlovskoe military school and was released in 1905 as a second lieutenant in the Finnish Life Guards Regiment. In 1911, Slashchov completed his education at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, after which he taught tactics in the elite Corps of Pages. In January 1915, he returned to the Finnish regiment fighting on the Austro-German front and commanded a company and battalion. He earned all military officer awards, including the most honorable Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, 4th degree. He was wounded five times... Having started his career as a guards captain, in November 1916 he was promoted to colonel. In July 1917, he was appointed commander of the Moscow Guard Regiment.
As a representative of career officers brought up in the monarchical spirit, Slashchov, by his own admission, “was not interested in politics, did not understand anything about it and was not even familiar with the programs of individual parties.”
However, in 1917, with the Bolsheviks coming to power, Yakov Alexandrovich immediately joined the ranks of their irreconcilable opponents. Declared unfit for medical treatment in December by a medical board military service, on January 18, 1918, he arrived in Novocherkassk, where about 2 thousand cadets and officers gathered. These people, as Slashchov writes, “partly for ideological reasons, partly because there was nowhere to go,” signed up for the Volunteer Army created by the former chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General Mikhail Alekseev.
The chief Russian strategist of the First World War, Alekseev, immediately singled out Yakov Alexandrovich, whom he knew from operations on the Austro-German front, among other comrades. He became one of the emissaries sent to form new detachments of the anti-Bolshevik army. “The fate of these emissaries was no better than the fate of the Volunteer Army itself,” Slashchov later wrote, referring to the first half of 1918. - The masses did not follow them. The Cossacks were satisfied with the Soviet government, which took away the land from the landowners... no matter how much I wandered through the mountains, nothing succeeded: the organized uprisings were thwarted. I had to hide and not enter any house.”
But by June 1918, the situation changed dramatically: the Bolshevik revolutionary committees closed the bazaars and began to confiscate “surplus” products, following Moscow’s instructions.
In addition, the so-called non-residents who returned from the front after demobilization, who had previously worked for the Cossacks or rented land from them, began to demand social justice and to carry out the redistribution of land without permission. As a result, the wealthy Cossacks, without any agitation, began to join entire villages in the detachments created by volunteer emissaries. One such detachment of five thousand people, formed from the Kuban Cossacks of the village of Batalpashinskaya and the surrounding area, was led by a local captain A.G. Shkuro, and Slashchov accepted the position of chief of staff of this formation. In July, the expanded detachment was transformed into the 2nd Kuban Cossack Division, whose headquarters was still headed by Yakov Aleksandrovich.
From the following April, 1919, he, promoted to major general, commanded infantry divisions, and in November became commander of the 3rd Army Corps, which operated on the left flank of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia (AFSR) against the Makhnovists and Petliurists. And, probably, he would have remained in the history of the Civil War as just one of the corps commanders of the White Army (of which there were several dozen in total), if not for the extremely difficult strategic situation created as a result of the counteroffensive Southern Front Red Army by the end of 1919.
Slashchov's corps was hastily rushed to defend Northern Tavria and Crimea. The commander-in-chief of the AFSR, Lieutenant General Anton Denikin, believed that the peninsula could not be held by such weak forces that Slashchov had at his disposal (2,200 bayonets and 1,300 sabers, 32 guns). However, Slashchov, who skillfully maneuvered his reserves and “saddled” the isthmuses, repelled all attempts of the Red 13th Army to break into the Crimea during the winter and spring of 1920. The successful actions of his corps, which received the name “Crimean” from Denikin for its steadfastness, made it possible to transport the main forces of the defeated White Guard troops from the North Caucasus to the peninsula and create from them the Russian Army of Baron Wrangel (who replaced Denikin as commander-in-chief in April 1920).
Who Lieutenant General Slashchov is (this rank, equal to his own, was already awarded to him by Wrangel), and how he defends the White Cause, the Crimeans learned from his orders, which were not only published in newspapers, but also posted on leaflets for public information. “At the front, the blood of fighters for Holy Rus' is shed, and in the rear there is an orgy,” said, for example, an order dated December 31, 1919. “I am obliged to hold Crimea and for this I am vested with the appropriate power... I ask all citizens who have not lost their conscience and have not forgotten their duty to help me... I declare to the rest that I will not stop at extreme measures...”
Slashchov envisaged the following measures: “Seal all wine warehouses and shops... Mercilessly punish military personnel and civilians who appear drunk... Speculators and those causing drunken brawls should be immediately escorted to the Dzhankoy station for their cases to be examined by a military court located directly under me, whose sentences I will approve personally.”
Of course, the general’s punishing hand fell not only on hucksters and brawlers. No wonder the port workers in Sevastopol sang a ditty: “Smoke comes from the executions, then Slashchov saves Crimea!”
It was just right to compose such slogans in Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa, where Yakov Aleksandrovich also left a bloody trail, mercilessly destroying everyone suspected of sabotage or Bolshevik agitation...
The proletarian writer Dmitry Furmanov, who composed a story about Chapaev and undertook to write a preface to Slashchov’s book, which he found “fresh, frank and instructive,” began his commentary with the words: “Slashchov the hangman, Slashchov the executioner: history has stamped his name with these black stamps...”
“I demand public justice and transparency!”
From about the middle of Bulgakov's play, namely from the stage in Sevastopol before loading onto the ship (act two, dream four), Khludov is relentlessly haunted by a terrible vision: a soldier hanged on his orders in Dzhankoy, who dared to say the word of truth about the atrocities he was committing. He talks to the ghost as if he were alive, trying to explain his actions to him...
Did his prototype Slashchov experience such painful, on the verge of insanity, remorse of conscience? Probably yes. Here is the portrait of Yakov Alexandrovich after his resignation that Baron Wrangel left in his memoirs: “General Slashchov, due to a penchant for alcohol and drugs, became completely insane and was a terrible sight. The face was pale and twitched in a nervous tic, tears flowed from the eyes. He addressed me with a speech, which was eloquent proof that I was dealing with a person with a disturbed psyche...” The medical commission found an acute form of neurasthenia in Slashchov, which also testifies to his difficult experiences.
But despite mental disorder, his name was still surrounded by an aura of glory.
The Yalta City Duma awarded Slashchov the title of honorary citizen, placed his portrait in the city administration building and placed at his disposal a luxurious dacha in Livadia, which previously belonged to the minister imperial court Count V.B. Fredericks.
Yakov Aleksandrovich lived there for about three months, working on a future book about the defense of Crimea.
In November, when the Red cavalry was already entering the outskirts of Sevastopol, he was among the last to be evacuated to Constantinople, sailing on the icebreaker Ilya Muromets with the remnants of the Finnish regiment. Most of his luggage was occupied by... the regimental St. George's Banner, under the shadow of which he began his officer service and fought in the First World War.
The emigrant life of Slashchov was close to the terrible existence of Khludov and his fellow unfortunates recreated by Bulgakov. Yakov Aleksandrovich, according to the testimony of the political figure A.N., who met with him. Vertsinsky, also settled in “a small, dirty house somewhere in the middle of nowhere (the Constantinople slum district of Galata. - A. P. )… with a small group of people who stayed with him until the end ( we're talking about, in particular, about Slashchov’s common-law wife Nina Nikolaevna Nechvolodova, who accompanied him into the Civil War under the name of “junker Nechvolodov”, and then entered into a legal marriage with him. - A. P. )… He turned even whiter and haggard. His face was tired. The temperament has disappeared somewhere..."
Mental fatigue did not prevent Slashchov from writing a sharp letter of protest to the chairman of the meeting of Russian public figures, P.P., on December 14, 1920. Yurenev regarding the resolution he passed, which called on all emigrants to support Wrangel in his further struggle against Soviet Russia.
A week after this decisive step, on the orders of Wrangel, a court of general honor convened, recognizing Slashchov’s act as “unworthy of a Russian person, and especially a general” and sentencing Yakov Alexandrovich “to dismissal from service without the right to wear a uniform.” In response, Slashchov in January 1921 published the book “I Demand the Court of Society and Glasnost!” in Constantinople. It contained such impartial assessments of Wrangel’s activities during the Crimean period that if a copy of it was discovered in the Gallipoli camp, where the arriving units of the Russian army were kept, this fact was regarded by counterintelligence as treason, with all the ensuing consequences for the perpetrator...
“I, Slashchov-Krymsky, call you, officers and soldiers, to submit to Soviet power and return to your homeland!”
Bulgakovsky's Khludov in the final scene (which the playwright, under pressure from agitprop censors, repeatedly redid) is tormented by grave doubts about whether he should return to his homeland in order to appear before Soviet justice. Serafima Korzukhina, privat-docent Golubkov and General Charnota unanimously dissuade him from this, as it seems to them, crazy idea. “I say in a friendly way, stop it! - Charnot dissuades. - Everything is over. You lost the Russian Empire, and in your rear you have lanterns!” In the end, left alone, Khludov shoots himself in the head. This is the ending of the drama...
In life, however, the “lanterns” (meaning Slashchov’s crimes - those hanged and shot on his orders) turned out to be not such an insurmountable obstacle to returning to Soviet Russia. When urgent need arose, the Bolshevik leaders became pragmatists and sacrificed principles without much hesitation...
Cheka agents in Constantinople immediately informed the Lubyanka and the Kremlin about the acute conflict between the popular general and the White émigré elite. At the direction of the Chairman of the Cheka F.E. Dzerzhinsky, Yakov Petrovich Elsky, specially authorized by the Cheka and the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army, hiding under the name Tenenbaum, was sent to Turkey. He had the task of finding out about Slashchov’s further intentions and making him understand that the Soviet government, in case of repentance and coming over to its side, would forgive all sins, even the bloodiest... The political gain if this, from a moral point of view, far from impeccable combination, was successful would be huge.
Slashchov's public break with the White movement and his return to Soviet Russia made it possible to use the authoritative general to disintegrate the almost 100,000-strong military emigration.
But it was in her that Moscow then saw the main threat to the Bolshevik regime. In addition, the very fact of such a major figure from the hostile camp coming over to the side of Soviet power would have had a great political resonance...
The issue of forgiving Slashchov was discussed in Moscow at the highest level - in the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The only one who abstained from voting was V.I. Lenin. The remaining members of the Bolshevik headquarters considered the idea put forward by Dzerzhinsky to be worthwhile and supported it. Through Tenenbaum, the general was told that the Soviet government would allow him to return to his homeland, where he would be amnestied and provided with work in his specialty - teaching at a military educational institution.
It should be noted that Yakov Aleksandrovich had every reason to doubt the sincerity of this proposal. The fact is that on the eve of the assault on Perekop by the troops of M.V. Frunze in 1920, emissaries of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks E.M. Sklyansky and I.F. Medyntsev, on behalf of General A.A., famous in the First World War and now serving in the Red Army. Brusilov, unaware of the double game, had already approached the Wrangelites with an essentially similar promise of amnesty. Many officers believed this appeal and remained on the Crimean coast. “They fell into the hands not of me, but of the raging Bela Kun (the Hungarian internationalist who headed the Special Department of the Southern Front. - A. P. )… who shot them in masses,” Brusilov, who found himself in an absurd, treacherous role, recalled with bitterness those terrible days. “God and Russia judge me!” According to the calculations of modern historians, at least 12 thousand officers, soldiers and Cossacks who laid down their arms were then shot and drowned in the Black Sea without trial or investigation...
And yet, after some hesitation, Slashchov, accompanied by Tenenbaum-Yelsky and his associates who followed him: N.N.’s wife. Nechvolodova, her brother Captain Prince Trubetskoy, Major General A.S. Milkovsky, Colonel E.P. Gilbikh and another White Guard officer A.I. Batkin, whose brother served in the Cheka, left Constantinople on the Italian steamer “Zhanin” on November 20, 1921. By the way, Slashchov did not know then that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee had already adopted a decree on his amnesty, which was still kept secret...
In Sevastopol, Yakov Aleksandrovich was already waiting for F.E., who had deliberately interrupted his vacation. Dzerzhinsky. On the eve of leaving the emigration, the military leader who left its ranks sent a letter to the largest foreign newspapers explaining his action.
“If they ask me how I, the defender of Crimea from the Reds, have now gone over to them, I will answer: I did not defend Crimea, but the honor of Russia...” he wrote. “I am going to fulfill my duty, believing that all Russians, especially the military, should be in Russia at the moment.”
Immediately upon arrival on his native land, in Dzerzhinsky’s special carriage, Slashchov also wrote an appeal to the soldiers of Wrangel’s army, which said: “The White government turned out to be insolvent and not supported by the people... Soviet power is the only power representing Russia and its people. I, Slashchov-Krymsky, call you, officers and soldiers, to submit to Soviet power and return to your homeland!” The general’s companions joined his appeal, calling on his compatriots “without any hesitation” to follow their example.
The effect of Slashchov’s departure to Soviet Russia, which Lubyanka now counts in the golden fund of special operations carried out by it, turned out to be amazing. According to the writer A. Slobodsky, he “stirred up, literally from top to bottom, the entire Russian emigration.” It was followed by the return to their homeland of a number of national cultural figures, for example, Alexei Tolstoy (1923). But the military-political gain turned out to be even stronger. According to French intelligence, “Slashchov’s transition to the side of the Red Army dealt a heavy blow to the morale of Russian officers... This unexpected change on the part of a military general... whose authority had great prestige... brought great confusion to the spirit of intransigence that had hitherto dominated among the officers and soldier of the white army."
Following Slashchov, generals S. Dobrorolsky, A. Sekretev, Yu. Gravitsky, I. Klochkov, E. Zelenin returned to Soviet Russia, a large number of officers. Of course, they did not know that the nightmare era of the Great Terror still awaited them in their homeland, when inquisitors with blue buttonholes would mercilessly remind them of their sins against Soviet power, both committed and imagined...
As for Slashchov, he was not destined to live to see this test. Since 1922, he was a teacher (and since 1924, the main leader) of tactics at the Higher Tactical Rifle School of Command Staff of the Red Army (now the Higher Officer Courses "Vystrel"), proving himself to be a brilliant lecturer and a talented scientist. Judging by the headlines and contents of his articles in periodicals (“Slogans of Russian patriotism in the service of France,” “Wrangelism,” etc.), he was completely disillusioned with the White idea and with all his soul was eager to serve his newly found Motherland. “A lot of blood has been shed... Many grave mistakes have been made. “My historical guilt before workers’ and peasants’ Russia is immeasurably great,” wrote Yakov Aleksandrovich. “But if in times of difficult trials I have to draw my sword again, I swear that I will prove with my blood that my new thoughts and views are not a toy, but a firm, deep conviction.”
Unfortunately, Slashchov did not have such an opportunity.
On January 11, 1929, he was killed by a revolver shot in his room in the outbuilding of house No. 3 on Krasnokazarmennaya Street in the Lefortovo district of Moscow, where the teachers of the Vystrel school lived.
The killer detained at the crime scene gave his last name - Kolenberg, and stated that he committed the murder to avenge the death of his brother, a worker, allegedly executed by order of Slashchov in 1920 in the Crimea. The newspaper "Red Star" the next day published a message about the death of Yakov Aleksandrovich, adding that his "unexpected murder is a completely aimless, unnecessary and politically unjustified act of personal revenge." On January 15, the same publication reported the cremation of the body of the former white general in the Donskoy Monastery.
Modern researchers question the version of “personal revenge”. After all, it was in 1929 that a wave of mass repressions began in the Red Army against former generals and officers, who again began to be called “bourgeois specialists.” At the same time, the moloch of total destruction, growing stronger year after year, fell precisely on those who returned from emigration, served in the Life Guards, fought for the whites... Even before 1937, about fourteen such career military personnel were sacrificed on the altar of ideological dogmas and a half thousand.
The assumptions about the contract killing of General Slashchov are also supported by the fact that the investigative file against the killer, L. Kolenberg, has not yet been declassified and, moreover, has not even been discovered in Central Archives FSB! So it's destroyed? This was done by KGB archivists only in the most extreme cases, on special orders from the top leadership of Lubyanka...
But whatever they are real reasons the premature death of Yakov Slashchov, he is interesting to us regardless of them. It is no coincidence that Mikhail Bulgakov admitted that he wanted to show in the image of Khludov, whom he drew, so to speak, according to Slashchov’s “pattern,” not an ordinary general, but “a sharply expressed human individuality.” AND literary hero, and its prototype has the same best qualities: courage, courage, nobility, decency, love for Russia and the desire to defend its greatness... And it is not the fault of such people, but their misfortune that at a sharp turn in history they had to show their human essence in a senseless, fratricidal war where there are no winners.
Special for the Centenary
Many people remember the scene from Mikhail Bulgakov’s “Run”, where General Khludov commands his orderly: “Present a working deputation to Mr. Minister!” He takes the minister out into the courtyard, where corpses swing on gallows...
The prototype of General Khludov was General Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchev. He actually hanged and shot in batches those who violated military order and discipline, not to mention the enemies. But, besides this, he was a brave combat commander.
Slashchev was extremely popular among his soldiers, who lovingly called him “General Yasha.” And he was hated by those who, under the cover of the White Guard uniform, sat in the rear, speculated, and profited.
Battle path
First world war Slashchev rose to the rank of colonel, was wounded five times, and was awarded the Order of St. George and the St. George's weapon for personally leading the troops into the attack. The pain from many wounds (several more were added during the Civil War) contributed to the formation of his addiction to drugs, which his personal enemies used against him.
Shortly before the October Revolution, Slashchev retired, seeing how the army was falling apart. But he was going to fight the Bolsheviks and went to the Don, where he took part in the creation of the Volunteer Army. In 1918 he helped the Kuban partisan Colonel Shkuro. Their dashing Cossack detachment smashed the rear of the Reds, liberated the city of Stavropol and united with the army of General Denikin.
IN Armed Forces South of Russia Slashchev received the rank of general for successful landing operation in the spring of 1919 in the Koktebel area, after which the whites liberated Crimea from the reds. His finest hour came in January 1920, when his prefabricated, poorly armed units repelled the attacks of the Reds on the Perekop Isthmus.
One day, Slashchev’s troops wavered and retreated. The general ordered the banners to be unfurled, the orchestra to start playing a march, and personally led the troops in a “psychic attack” on the Reds. At this point the enemy could no longer stand it and ran.
Crimea became the last refuge of the White Army for almost a year. And Slashchev gained the glory of the savior of Crimea.
Enmity with Wrangel
General Wrangel in his memoirs paints a portrait of General Slashchev as a rapidly degraded personality. “His addiction to wine and drugs was well known...,” he wrote. - I saw him last time near Stavropol, he struck me then with his youth and freshness. Now it was difficult to recognize him... His fantastic suit, loud nervous laughter and random, abrupt conversation made a painful impression.”
Wrangel wrote his “Notes” after Slashchev betrayed the White Cause and returned to Soviet Russia. Those who saw Slashchev later, in “red” Moscow, speak of him as adequate and interesting person. Wrangel clearly went too far in trying to paint a repulsive image of his popular rival. Everyone knew that back in White Crimea, irreconcilable differences arose between the two military leaders.
And no wonder. Slashchev, in his own way, cruelly but effectively, fought against the disintegration of the troops and the rear. Moreover, he constantly interfered in politics, annoying the commander-in-chief with reports about the need for repression, and gained a reputation as an ardent monarchist. Wrangel believed that Slashchev would discredit the White movement in relations with the Entente.
Slashchev-Krymsky
Slashchev was a master of landing troops. In June 1920, thanks to his successful operations, the White Army emerged from the Crimea into operational space. But on political reasons Wrangel in August 1920 entrusted the execution of the landing in the Kuban to the Cossack general Ulagai. The landing failed.
Slashchev at this time was thrown into an unprepared assault on the fortified Red bridgehead at Kakhovka. The assault also failed. Wrangel accused Slashchev of disintegrating the troops and removed him from command. The dismissal was given the appearance of an honorable resignation, and Wrangel allowed Slashchev to add the name Krymsky to his surname.
In November 1920, when leaving Crimea, Wrangel tried to detain Slashchev at the front under the pretext of organizing partisan detachments. But Slashchev-Krymsky made his way to evacuation together with his fighting friend and common-law wife, Nina Nechvolodova, who wore two St. George Crosses (however, the circumstances of their receipt are unknown).
To Moscow in Dzerzhinsky's carriage
In Constantinople, Slashchev sharply opposed Wrangel, blaming him for the Crimean failure. In response, Wrangel initiated a “court of honor” that expelled Slashchev from the Russian army.
At this time, it was important for the Bolsheviks to find a popular White Guard military leader who could split the emigration from within. Cheka agents made contact with Slashchev in advance, using his hatred of Wrangel. It is unknown when exactly this happened, but there is information that the issue of Slashchev’s return to Soviet Russia was personally raised by Dzerzhinsky himself at a Politburo meeting. A slight majority supported Dzerzhinsky, although Lenin himself abstained.
In November 1921, after a year-long exile, Slashchev and his wife and with them several military and civilian emigrants returned to Sevastopol. The White General arrived in Moscow in the personal carriage of the Chairman of the Cheka.
In January 1922, the Soviet press distributed Slashchev's appeal to all white emigrants calling on them to return to Soviet Russia. “Otherwise you will find yourself mercenaries of foreign capital...,” he inspired them Crimean hero. “Don’t you dare sell yourself out to go to war with Russia.”
Slashchev's appeal influenced a significant part of the white officers and soldiers interned in Turkey and Poland. Many thousands repatriated in the first months of 1922.
"The way you shoot is the way you fight"
Slashchev repeatedly wrote reports asking to be sent to a combat unit, but he was left to teach at the “Vystrel” course for Red Army commanders. The future Soviet army general Batov recalled that Slashchev’s lectures on tactics invariably aroused great interest among listeners.
Before the revolution, Slashchev was not very successful in the sciences - he graduated from the General Staff Academy one of the last in academic performance. But the disadvantage theoretical knowledge The former general made up for it with rich combat practice. He had something to tell his former enemies.
Conflicts often arose on this basis. It was said that once, in the presence of Budyonny, Slashchev sharply criticized the actions of the Red Command in the Polish campaign. Budyonny pulled out a revolver and began to shoot, but due to his drunkenness he missed. Slashchev calmly told the commander of the First Cavalry: “The way you shoot is the way you fight.”
The bloody trail that the general left behind him in the Civil War boomeranged back for him. In January 1929, Slashchev-Krymsky was shot dead in his room by a certain Lazar Kolenberg. The killer motivated his act with revenge for his brother, who was allegedly hanged on the orders of Slashchev in 1919 in Nikolaev. The killer was declared insane and released from punishment.
Yaroslav Butakov
Slashchev Yakov Aleksandrovich (1885-1929) - Lieutenant General of the Russian Army. Born on December 29 (according to another version - December 12), 1885 in St. Petersburg. Father - Colonel Alexander Yakovlevich Slashchev, a hereditary military man. Mother - Vera Aleksandrovna Slashcheva. He graduated from the Pavlovsk Military School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff in the 2nd category (the latter was assigned to the General Staff in 1911 due to a low average score). He left the school for the Finnish Life Guards Regiment in 1905, in which he continued to serve as a company commander, then as a battalion commander and as an assistant regiment commander by 1917. He took part in almost all the battles of his regiment on the front of the First World War. He was wounded five times and shell-shocked twice. In 1915 he was awarded the Arms of St. George, and in 1916 - the Order of St. Victorious George, 4th class. In 1916 he received the rank of colonel. Since July 1917 - commander of the Moscow Guards Regiment.
At the very beginning of the civil war, Yakov Slashchev ended up in the Volunteer Army (December 1917). At the beginning of January 1918, he was sent by General M.V. Alekseev to North Caucasus as an emissary of the Volunteer Army to create officer organizations in the Caucasian Mineral Waters region. In May 1918 - chief of staff of the partisan detachment of Colonel A. G. Shkuro, and then chief of staff of the 2nd Kuban Cossack Division. From September 6, 1918 - commander of the Kuban Plastun brigade as part of the 2nd division of the Volunteer Army. November 15, 1918 - head of the 1st separate Kuban Plastun brigade. On February 18, 1919, he was appointed brigade commander in the 5th division, and on June 8 of the same year - brigade commander of the 4th division. On May 14, 1919, he was promoted to major general - for military distinction and on August 2, he was appointed head of the 4th division. On December 6, 1919, he was appointed commander of the 3rd Army Corps. It was under the leadership of Slashchev in the winter of 1919-1920 that the 3rd Army Corps successfully defended the Crimean isthmus from the Red Army. After General Wrangel took over the Main Command of the AFSR, General Slashchev was promoted to lieutenant general on March 25, 1920 - for military distinction and was appointed commander of the 2nd Army Corps. After the unsuccessful battles of the corps in July 1920 near Kakhovka and the loss of the latter, General Slashchev submitted his resignation, which was accepted by General Wrangel. From August 1920 it was at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief.
He was fearless, constantly leading his troops to attack by personal example. He had nine wounds, the last of which, a concussion to the head, was received at the Kakhovsky bridgehead in early August 1920. He suffered many wounds practically on his feet. To relieve the unbearable pain from a wound in the stomach in 1919, which did not heal for more than six months, he began injecting himself with the painkiller morphine, then became addicted to cocaine.
General Wrangel wrote about him: “General Slashchev, the former sovereign ruler of the Crimea, with the transfer of headquarters to Feodosia, remained at the head of his corps. General Schilling was placed at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief. A good combat officer, General Slashchev, having assembled random troops, did an excellent job with his task. With a handful of people, amid general collapse, he defended Crimea. However, complete independence, beyond any control, the consciousness of impunity finally turned his head. Unbalanced by nature, weak-willed, easily susceptible to the most base flattery, poor understanding of people, Moreover, subject to a morbid addiction to drugs and wine, he was completely confused in the atmosphere of general collapse. No longer content with the role of a combat commander, he sought to influence the general political work, bombarded the headquarters with all sorts of projects and assumptions, each more chaotic than the other, insisted on replacing a number of others bosses, demanded the involvement of outstanding persons who seemed to him to be involved in the work."
In November 1920, as part of the Russian army, General Slashchev was evacuated from Crimea to Constantinople. In Constantinople, in a number of letters and speeches, both oral and in print, he sharply condemned the Commander-in-Chief and his staff. As a result, by the verdict of the court of honor, General Slashchev was dismissed from service without the right to wear a uniform. In response to the court's decision, General Slashchev published a book in January 1921: “I demand the trial of society and openness. Defense and surrender of Crimea. (Memoirs and documents)” (Constantinople, 1921). At the same time, he entered into secret negotiations with Soviet authorities and on November 21, 1921 returned to Sevastopol. Here I went to Moscow in Dzerzhinsky's carriage. He appealed to the soldiers and officers of the Russian army to return. In 1924 ode. published a book: “Crimea in 1920. Excerpts from memories.” Since June 1922, he was listed as a teacher of tactics at the Shot command school. They say that during analysis in class Soviet-Polish war In the presence of Soviet military leaders, he spoke about the stupidity of our command during the military conflict with Poland. Budyonny, who was present in the audience, jumped up, pulled out a pistol and fired several times in the direction of the teacher, but missed. Slashchev approached the red commander and edifyingly said: “The way you shoot is the way you fought.”
On January 11, 1929, Yakov Slashchev was killed on the school premises in very strange circumstances - allegedly out of personal revenge. But the timing of this murder coincides with the wave of repression that hit former officers of the White Army in 1929 - 1930.
The newspaper “For Freedom” Warsaw on January 18, 1929 wrote: “It will subsequently become clear whether he was killed by a hand that was truly guided by a feeling of vengeance, or that was guided by the requirement of expediency and safety. After all, it is strange that the “avenger” could not put an end to his life for more than four years a man who did not hide behind the thickness of the Kremlin walls and in the labyrinth of the Kremlin palaces, but lived peacefully, without security, in his private apartment. And at the same time, it is understandable that in the hours of noticeable shaking of the ground under one’s feet, it is necessary to eliminate a person known for his determination and mercilessness "Here it was necessary to really hurry up and quickly use both some kind of murder weapon and the oven of the Moscow crematorium, which could quickly destroy traces of the crime."
In the twenties, there was, perhaps, no more colorful figure at the commander’s courses at Vystrel, the main “military academy” in the USSR at that time, than “Professor Yasha.” Judge for yourself: a former guardsman, a graduate of the Nikolaev General Staff Academy, who went through the entire First World War in the trenches. During the Civil War he was the chief of staff of General Shkuro; in Denikin’s Volunteer Army and Wrangel’s Armed Forces of the South of Russia he commanded a brigade, division and corps, and wore lieutenant general’s shoulder straps.
And now he teaches wisdom to the Red commanders, whom he recently successfully defeated on the battlefields. He teaches, sarcastically picking apart all the mistakes and miscalculations of the authoritative army commanders and division commanders of the army of workers and peasants.
At one of these classes, Semyon Budyonny, who became a legend during his lifetime, unable to withstand caustic comments about the actions of his 1st Cavalry Army, discharged a revolver drum towards the former white general. And he just spat on his fingers, stained with chalk, and calmly said towards the silent audience: “This is how you shoot, this is how you fight.”
The name of this extraordinary man was Yakov Aleksandrovich Slashchev.
Fight, fight like that
HE WAS BORN on December 12, 1885 in a family of hereditary military men. His grandfather fought the Turks in the Balkans, and a little later, in burning Warsaw, he pacified the arrogant nobles. My father rose to the rank of colonel and retired with honor. In 1903, Yakov graduated from one of the most prestigious secondary schools educational institutions northern capital - the St. Petersburg Gurevich Real School, after which he was admitted to the Pavlovsk Military School and, upon graduation, was assigned to the Finnish Life Guards Regiment.
The twenty-year-old second lieutenant did not have time to attend the Russian-Japanese mission. And, either out of frustration, or on the advice of his elders, he submitted documents to the Academy of the General Staff. There, the young man, who did not belong to the brilliant youth of the capital, was not received very kindly: Slashchev was smart, but at the same time he was quick-tempered, painfully proud and very often unrestrained.
Not finding loyal friends among his classmates, Yakov did not put much effort into his studies, preferring the joys of noisy St. Petersburg life to the silence of academic classrooms and libraries. But it was then that Slashchev, who was bored with maps and diagrams of classical campaigns and battles, first began to “dabble” in the development of night operations unusual for his time - a kind of mixture of the actions of partisan detachments and flying sabotage groups.
Having completed his studies in the “second category,” Lieutenant Slashchev was not assigned to the General Staff and returned to his native regiment, taking command of a company. Realizing that he would not be able to make a career through education, Yakov Aleksandrovich, using all the knowledge and skills of the capital’s womanizer, married the daughter of the regiment commander, General Vladimir Kozlov. His career advancement would have proceeded so quietly and peacefully if the First World War had not broken out.
The general's son-in-law met the news of the start of the war at a friendly party at a café table. Having put out a cigarette in a glass of champagne and poured out the entire contents of his wallet onto a tray, Slashchev said: “Well, gentlemen, fight, fight. Otherwise, I began to forget how it’s done,” and left for my unit, which had already received an order to go to the front line.
On August 18, 1914, the Finnish Life Guards Regiment moved to the front with all four battalions. Together with the rest of the guard, he was enlisted in the reserve of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Headquarters. Let the word “reserve” not mislead anyone. Until July 1917, when almost all of them died in battles near Tarnopol and on the Zbruch River, the Finns were used as a striking force in offensives, and in defense and during retreats - to plug holes in particularly dangerous areas.
What is a company commander, and then a battalion commander of a fighting regiment for three years? It is unlikely that additional explanations are required for this line in Slashchev’s job description. Let’s just say that Yakov Aleksandrovich and his guardsmen participated in bayonet attacks in the Kozenice forests, and led the battalion in all the oncoming battles of the Battle of Krasnostav. In 1916, near Kovel, when the Russian infantry offensive was about to collapse, it was he who raised the Finnish chains in a suicidal attack. And, having passed through the swamps, killing two-thirds of the personnel, he achieved victory with bayonets in the division’s breakthrough area, paying for it with two of his own wounds.
In total, Slashchev ended up in hospitals five times. He suffered two concussions on his feet without leaving the battalion location. February revolution met as colonel and deputy regiment commander, holder of the Order of St. George, 4th degree and holder of the St. George.
In the summer of 1917, soldiers from reserve companies rebelled in Petrograd, not wanting to go to the front. In order to prevent a repetition of a similar incident in other cities, the Provisional Government recalled several energetic and strong-willed officers from the front and put them in charge of the garrisons and guards regiments that remained in the capitals. Slashchev was among them: on July 14, he took over the Moscow guards regiment and commanded it until December of the seventeenth year.
And then he suddenly disappeared...
In the Dobrarmiya
ON A COLD December morning in 1917, a tall officer with a pale face, on which all the muscles twitched nervously, walked into the headquarters of the Volunteer Army in Novocherkassk. Pushing open the door where the sign “Personnel Commission” hung, he clicked his heels and, putting the documents on the table, dryly said to those sitting in the room: “Colonel Slashchev. I’m ready to take command of any unit.” He was told to wait.
Going out into the street, Yakov Aleksandrovich decided to while away the time in one of the city cafes. And there he came face to face with a fellow student at the academy, Staff Captain Sukharev. He was an envoy for General Kornilov, one of the leaders of the Dobrarmiya. After a short exchange of everyday news, the far middle-aged staff captain looked carefully at the thirty-two-year-old colonel. “Do you remember, dear friend, your academic interests in partisan warfare? This could be very useful now.”…
At that time, the cavalry detachments of the Cossack Colonel Andrei Shkuro were in full swing in Kuban, Laba and Zelenchuk. Their spontaneous semi-partisan actions needed to be given, according to the plans of the command of the Volunteer Army, an organized character in order to jointly clear the south of Russia from the Bolsheviks. It would have been difficult to find a more suitable candidate for this mission than Colonel Slashchev. And, obeying the order, Yakov Alexandrovich went to the Kuban people.
They quickly found Shkuro mutual language. Andrei Grigorievich, an excellent cavalry commander, did not organically digest any staff work, preferring dashing saber clashes to “crawling on maps” and careful planning of operations. It’s no wonder that Slashchev took the position of chief of staff from him.
A few months later, Shkuro’s Cossack “army,” which had seriously battered the Reds, already numbered about five thousand sabers. With these experienced fighters who had gone through the fire of the World War, Andrei Grigorievich, without much difficulty, occupied Stavropol on July 12, 1918, presenting it on a silver platter to the Volunteer Army approaching the city. For this, Denikin, who became the head of the “volunteers” after the death of Lavr Kornilov, awarded Shkuro and Slashchev the rank of major general. Soon Slashchev took command infantry division, carrying out successful raids on Nikolaev and Odessa with it, which allowed the White Guards to take control of almost all of Right Bank Ukraine.
Looking ahead, let's say that in the same 1918, Slashchev met a young man of desperate courage, the St. George Cavalier, Junker Nechvolodov, who became his orderly. Very soon it became clear that under this name was hiding... Nina Nechvolodova. For three years of the Civil War, Ninochka practically did not leave Yakov Alexandrovich, several times she carried him wounded from the battlefield. In 1920 they became husband and wife.
Ironically, the uncle of “junker Nechvolodov” all these years was... the chief of artillery of the Red Army! In the twentieth, pregnant Nina, due to circumstances, remained in the territory occupied by the Reds, was arrested by security officers and transported to Moscow, where she appeared before the menacing eyes of Iron Felix. Dzerzhinsky acted more than nobly towards the wife of the white general: after several confidential conversations, Nechvolodova-Slashcheva was transported across the front line to her husband. These meetings of the wife with the head of the Cheka subsequently played a huge role in the fate of Yakov Alexandrovich...
In the midst of the Civil War, when the scales tipped in one direction or another almost every month, Slashchev and his division, finding themselves in his native element, smashed the Reds, the Greens, the Makhnovists, the Petliurists, as well as all the other fathers and atamans with equal success , against whom Denikin threw him. None of them could find an effective antidote against Slashchev’s tactics of rapid raids, night assaults and daring raids, which became business card and the signature handwriting of a desperate general.
All this time, Yakov Aleksandrovich literally lived on the front line, behaved extremely withdrawn, practically not appearing at Headquarters, communicating only with his officers and soldiers. They literally idolized “General Yasha.” And he, who added to the five wounds of the First World War another seven received in the Civil War, literally doused himself with alcohol in the evenings in the headquarters carriage to drown out the unbearable pain throughout his body and the longing for a dying Russia. When alcohol stopped helping, Slashchev switched to cocaine...
And the flywheel of the Civil War continued to gain momentum. Yakov Alexandrovich, who was already at the head of the corps, reached the Podolsk province without a single defeat. It was here that an event little known even to military historians happened: almost the entire Galician army of Simon Petliura surrendered to Slashchev without a fight, whose officers declared that they were no longer going to fight for an independent Ukraine and agreed to fight for a great and indivisible Russia.
But then Denikin received an order to immediately transfer Slashchev to Tavria, where the uprising of Nestor Makhno took place, under whose black banners almost one hundred thousand peasants stood. The rear of the Dobramiya found itself under serious threat.
By November 16, 1919, Slashchev concentrated the main forces of his corps near Yekaterinoslav and launched a surprise attack in the dead of night. The armored trains, with the fire of their cannons, paved the way for the cavalry of the “mad general.” Nestor Ivanovich, surrounded by his closest associates, barely had time to leave the city, the streets of which the Slashchevites “decorated” for three days with the bodies of hanged Makhnovists. Cruel, of course, but Yakov Aleksandrovich’s subordinates knew very well how the same Makhnovists mocked the captured officers...
After this terrible defeat, Makhno’s army still continued to wage fighting, but was never able to regain its former strength.
Alas, this victory could not change the general course of the war: near Voronezh, the cavalry corps of Shkuro and Mamontov were defeated by the Reds, and Denikin’s army inexorably began to roll back to the south. Last hope The volunteer army remained in Crimea, which received the remnants of the White Guards. It was there that General Slashchev’s star lit up.
Slashchev-Krymsky
AS A MILITARY specialist, Yakov Aleksandrovich encountered Crimea not for the first time. Back in the summer of 1919, when the peninsula was completely Bolshevik, a small detachment of whites tightly clung to a tiny bridgehead near Kerch. The Red Army soldiers tried to take their positions in a swoop, but were repulsed and calmed down, thinking that the enemy was in a mousetrap and had nowhere to go. And he unexpectedly organized a landing near Koktebel, received reinforcements, attacked Feodosia and threw the Reds out of Crimea. So, Yakov Slashchev was in charge of all this.
In December of the nineteenth, on the way of two Red armies, numbering more than 40 thousand bayonets and sabers, only 4 thousand Slashchev fighters stood on Perekop. Therefore, the general had to rely only on the use of non-standard tactics, capable of somehow compensating for the tenfold (!) superiority of the enemy. And Slashchev found such a tactical method, although many considered his plan for the defense of the Chongar Peninsula and the Perekop Isthmus to be absurd. But he insisted on his own and began to “rock the Crimean swing”...
Soon after the general was appointed responsible for the defense of the peninsula, the Reds took Perekop. But the next day they were thrown back to their original positions. Another two weeks later a new assault followed - and with the same result. Twenty days later, the Red Army soldiers were again in Crimea, some of the Red brigade commanders and division commanders even managed to receive the Order of the Red Banner for the capture of Tyup-Dzhankoy. And two days later the Bolsheviks were defeated again!
The whole point is that Slashchev completely abandoned positional defense. It was an unusually severe winter in Crimea for those places; there was no housing at all on the Crimean isthmuses. Therefore, Yakov Alexandrovich placed parts of his corps in populated areas inside the peninsula. The Reds crossed the isthmuses with impunity, reported on the “capture of Crimea,” but were forced to spend the night in the windswept steppe. The general, meanwhile, raised his squadrons, hundreds and battalions, rested in the warmth, threw them into an attack on the numb enemy and threw him out.
Later, already in exile, Slashchev would write: “It was I who dragged out the Civil War for fourteen long months, which caused additional casualties. I repent."
If after the successful landing on Koktebel and the liberation of Feodosia, Yakov Aleksandrovich officially received the right to write his surname with the prefix “Crimean”, then for military-administrative activities on the peninsula in 1920 he was awarded the unofficial nickname “Hangman”.
From Slashchev, who essentially became the military dictator of Crimea, everyone got it - the Bolshevik underground, anarchist raiders, unprincipled bandits, selfish speculators, and unruly officers of the White Army. Moreover, the sentence for everyone was the same - gallows. And Yakov Aleksandrovich did not delay in carrying it out. Once, right next to his staff car, he even strung up one of Baron Wrangel’s favorites, who was caught stealing jewelry, while saying: “You can’t dishonor anyone’s shoulder straps.”
But, strange as it may seem, the name of Slashchev in Crimea was pronounced more with respect than with fear.
“Despite the executions,” General P. I. Averianov wrote in his memoirs, “Yakov Aleksandrovich was popular among all classes of the population of the peninsula, not excluding workers. And how could it be otherwise if the general was everywhere in person: he himself entered the crowd of protesters without security, he himself sorted out the complaints of trade unions and industrialists, he himself raised the chains to attack. Yes, they were afraid of him, but at the same time they also hoped, knowing for sure: Slashchev would not betray him or sell him. He had an amazing and, for many, incomprehensible ability to inspire trust and devoted love among the troops.”
Slashchev's popularity among soldiers and trench officers was truly prohibitive. Both of them called him “our Yasha” behind his back, which Yakov Aleksandrovich was very proud of. As for the local population, many Crimeans seriously believed that Slashchev was in fact none other than Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, brother of the murdered emperor and heir to the Russian throne!
When Denikin left the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, there were two candidates for the vacant seat - Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel and Major General Slashchev. But Yakov Aleksandrovich, who shunned all politics all his life, abandoned any fight for the highest military position, retiring from Sevastopol to Dzhankoy, where the headquarters of his corps was located. Wrangel, realizing the full scale of Slashchev’s personality and, most importantly, his importance for the continuation of the armed struggle, called Yakov Alexandrovich back, instructed him to command a parade of troops in honor of his appointment as commander-in-chief and even awarded him the rank of lieutenant general - equal to his own.
It seemed that all decency was observed. But relations between the two most influential generals in Crimea deteriorated day by day. The stumbling block was relations with the allies: England, and later France, exerted extreme pressure on Wrangel, and all recent military operations were planned by the baron and developed by his headquarters, taking into account the interests of these countries. Slashchev fought exclusively for Russia...
When in the summer of 1920 the armies of Tukhachevsky and Budyonny were beaten near Warsaw and rolled back, Yakov Aleksandrovich proposed to strike from the Crimea to the northwest, towards the advancing regiments of Pilsudsky, in order to jointly finish off the demoralized enemy. But Wrangel moved the units that had escaped from the peninsula into operational space, including Slashchev’s corps, to the northeast, to the Donbass, where until 1917 most of the mines belonged to the French.
The Poles did not go further than their borders. And the Reds brought up fresh infantry and cavalry divisions from the central provinces. A famous battle took place near Kakhovka, which ended in a terrible defeat for the Whites, who had no strategic reserves. The Wrangelites began to be methodically “driven” back into Crimea.
In the second half of August 1920, the baron dismissed Slashchev, who never stopped pointing out his mistakes in strategy, and offered to leave the peninsula. Yakov Aleksandrovich wrote on the telegram “Krymsky will not leave Crimea” and fell into a terrible binge.
On October 30, Frunze’s regiments stormed Perekop, desperately defended by the Whites. Wrangel announced evacuation. In the general chaos and confusion that reigned in Sevastopol, a clean-shaven, ironed and absolutely sober Slashchev unexpectedly appeared to the baron. He proposed to transfer the military units loaded onto the ships not to Turkey, but to the Odessa region and expressed his readiness to lead the landing operation, the plan of which had already been developed by the restless general, who always stood out among his colleagues for his healthy adventurism and unconventional thinking.
Wrangel refused. And this day became the last day of the Civil War in the European part of Russia.
Outcast
HAVING PLACED his wife and little daughter on the cruiser Almaz, Slashchev spent several days gathering officers of his native Finnish Life Guards Regiment in Crimea, inexplicably found a regimental banner somewhere in the convoys, and in this encirclement literally left the burning peninsula on the last ship.
Having set foot on Turkish soil, the general disbanded all the Finns. And he settled with his family on the outskirts of Constantinople in a shack made of boards, plywood and tin. He did not interfere in the political squabbles that tore apart the emigrant camp; he lived by his own labor: he grew vegetables and sold them in markets, raised turkeys and other animals. In rare hours of rest I read the press. He was remembered, they wrote about him, about his military operations with anger, but also spoke with respect, both red and white.
Analyzing what was happening in his homeland, Slashchev once spoke with his characteristic directness: “The Bolsheviks are my mortal enemies, but they did what I dreamed of - they revived the country. I don’t care what they call it!”
Around the same time, Wrangel’s appeal was made about a new agreement with the Entente and preparations for an invasion of Soviet Russia. This was more than realistic, since at that time there were more than one hundred thousand people evacuated from Crimea near Constantinople alone. Disarmed, but completely preserved organizational structure military units settled in camps, maintaining strict discipline. The soldiers and officers were constantly instilled with confidence that the struggle was not over and that they would still play their role in overthrowing the Bolsheviks.
Slashchev, having abandoned his principles, publicly declared the baron a traitor to national interests and demanded a public trial of him. Wrangel immediately issued an order to convene a court of honor for the generals. By his decision, Yakov Alexandrovich was dismissed from service without the right to wear a uniform and excluded from the army lists. This deprived Slashchev of any financial support and doomed him to a miserable existence. Among other things, he was deprived of all awards, including those received on the fields of the First World War. The confrontation between former comrades has reached its peak. And this did not go unnoticed by the Soviet intelligence services.
It must be said that by 1921, the Foreign Department of the Cheka and the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army already had foreign residencies that were actively operating among the emigration. Security officers and military intelligence officers also worked in Constantinople. The All-Ukrainian Cheka, as well as the reconnaissance of the troops of Ukraine and Crimea, subordinate to M. V. Frunze, had great operational capabilities in Turkey.
In general, on one of the dark Constantinople nights there was a knock on Slashchev’s door... 
Yakov Aleksandrovich, with all the understanding of the doom of the White movement and personal hostility towards many of its leaders, experienced serious hesitations in making the decision to return to Soviet Russia. Emigrant newspapers were full of reports of mass executions of former officers, policemen and priests in Crimea. Echoes of the Civil War were the Kronstadt rebellion, continued fierce battles with the Makhnovists, and peasant uprisings in the Tambov region and Siberia. Slashchev knew about all this and was clearly aware that in such a situation his life would not be worth a penny. But he no longer saw himself outside Russia, even Bolshevik.
The final decision to return to his homeland came to him in the early summer of 1921. An agent who was in touch with the general reported this to Moscow. On October 7, after much deliberation, the Chairman of the Cheka brought to a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) the question of organizing the return of Slashchev and his further use in the interests of Soviet power.
Opinions were divided. Zinoviev, Bukharin and Rykov spoke out against, while Kamenev, Stalin and Voroshilov voted in favor. Lenin abstained. Everything was determined by the voice of Dzerzhinsky, who insisted on his proposal. Thus, the issue was resolved at the highest level. Deputy Chairman of the Cheka Unshlikht was assigned to think through the details and directly manage the operation.
Meanwhile, Slashchev, together with his wife and several officers personally devoted to him, rented a dacha on the shores of the Bosphorus and organized a partnership for the cultivation of orchards. Soviet intelligence agents spread a rumor throughout Constantinople about the general's intention to leave for Russia, allegedly with the aim of uniting the rebel movement and leading it in the fight against the Bolsheviks. This information, as planned, reached the Wrangel, French and British counterintelligence services, lulling their vigilance.
Yakov Aleksandroich and his like-minded people managed to leave their home unnoticed, get to the port, and then board the ship “Jean”. They were missed only a day later, when the ship was already halfway to Sevastopol. A detachment of Turkish police, led by the head of the Wrangevlev counterintelligence, combed through the abandoned house, but, naturally, found no one and nothing there. And the next day, Slashchev’s prepared statement was published in Constantinople newspapers: “At the moment I am on my way to Crimea. Suggestions and conjectures that I am going to organize conspiracies or organize rebels are meaningless. The revolution within Russia is over. The only way to fight for our ideas is evolution. They will ask me: how did I, the defender of Crimea, go over to the side of the Bolsheviks? I answer: I did not defend Crimea, but the honor of Russia. Now I am also called to defend the honor of Russia. And I will defend it, believing that all Russians, especially the military, should be in their homeland at the moment.” This was Slashchev’s personal statement, not edited by any of the Bolshevik leaders!
Together with Yakov Aleksandrovich, the former assistant to the minister of war of the Crimean government, Major General Milkovsky, the last commandant of Simferopol, Colonel Gilbikh, the chief of staff of the Slashchev corps, Colonel Mezernitsky, and the head of his personal convoy, Captain Voinakhovsky, returned to Russia. And, naturally, the general’s wife Nina Nechvolodova with her young daughter.
“What have you done to us, Motherland?!”
The emigration was shocked: the bloodiest and most implacable enemy of the Soviet of Deputies returned to the enemy’s camp! Panic also began among the middle-level Bolshevik leadership: in Sevastopol, Slashchev was personally met by the Chairman of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, and in his carriage the “hanging general” arrived in Moscow.
Yakov Aleksandrovich’s career path was destined at the same October meeting of the party leadership: no command positions, writing memoirs with a detailed analysis of the actions of both warring parties, appealing to former colleagues in the White Army. And - as the peak of the loyalty of the new owners - the provision of a teaching position with full support, which was due to the highest command staff of the Red Army.
And Slashchev began to serve Russia as passionately and selflessly as he had done before. At the beginning of 1922, he wrote in his own hand an appeal to Russian officers and generals abroad, urging them to follow his example, since their military knowledge and combat experience were needed by their homeland.
The authority of Yakov Aleksandrovich among trench officers was so great that almost immediately after the publication of this appeal, Generals Klochkov and Zelenin, Colonels Zhitkevich, Orzhanevsky, Klimovich, Lyalin and a dozen others came to Russia. All of them received teaching positions in the Red Army, gave lectures freely and published many works on the Civil War. In total, by the end of 1922, 223 thousand former officers returned to their homeland. The emigration was split, for which the leaders of the Russian All-Military Union sentenced Yakov Alexandrovich to death in absentia.
Having become a teacher at the “Vystrel” courses, located in Lefortovo, Slashchev teaches students how to combat landing forces and conduct maneuver operations. The magazine “Military Affairs” regularly publishes his articles, the titles of which speak for themselves: “Actions of the vanguard in an oncoming battle,” “Breakthrough and coverage of a fortified area,” “The significance of fortified zones in modern warfare and overcoming them.”
His students in those years were future Marshals Soviet Union Budyonny, Vasilevsky, Tolbukhin, Malinovsky. General Batov, hero of the Great Patriotic War, recalled Slashchev: “He taught brilliantly, his lectures were always full of people, and the tension in the audience was sometimes like in battle. Many listeners themselves recently fought with Wrangel’s troops, including on the outskirts of the Crimea, and the former White Guard general, sparing no causticity, examined the shortcomings in his and our actions. They ground their teeth in anger, but they learned!”
Cabinet battles were now flaring up between yesterday's mortal enemies; disputes about tactical techniques often moved from classrooms to command staff dormitory rooms and dragged on long after midnight, turning into friendly tea drinking. Of course, when they got into a frenzy, they also drank stronger drinks...
Yakov Aleksandrovich’s wife, Nina Nechvolodova, also contributed to the education of painters. She organized an amateur theater at the Shot course, where she staged several classical plays with the participation of the wives and children of the students. In 1925, the Proletarskoe Kino film company made a feature film about Baron Wrangel and the capture of Crimea. In this film, Slashchev himself starred in the role of General Slashchev, and in the role of “Junker N.” - his wife!
Of course, Slashchev's position was far from ideal. He periodically submitted reports with a request to be transferred to a command position in the troops, which he was naturally denied. His lectures increasingly began to be booed by “politically conscious” listeners. Incomprehensible and unpleasant personalities began to swirl around Yakov Alexandrovich. And “Professor Yasha” seriously got ready to go to Europe, intending to spend the rest of his days as a private citizen...
On January 11, 1929, he did not show up for lectures. Before lunch, no one attached much importance to this fact: they decided that Yakov Aleksandrovich “fell ill” after regular gatherings. Although, on the other hand, he was always a disciplined person and even in a state of heavy drinking did not forget to warn his superiors about any temporary delays in his work.
The winter day was rolling towards sunset, and Slashchev still did not make himself known. A group of fellow teachers who arrived at his dormitory found the former general dead. As an immediate examination determined, he was shot with several shots from a pistol, fired into the back of the head and back almost point-blank.
Soon the killer was captured. He turned out to be a certain Kolenberg, a former White Guard, who stated that he had taken revenge on Slashchev for his brother hanged in the Crimea. The investigation considered this an exculpatory reason, and a week later the killer was released.
And the general’s body, three days after the murder, was cremated on the territory of the Donskoy Monastery in the presence of relatives and close friends. There was no official funeral; where the ashes were laid to rest remains unknown. Yakov Alexandrovich simply sunk into oblivion!
The true reasons for the mysterious murder of Slashchev have never received a clear explanation from historians. Perhaps, the former officer of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment, I. N. Sergeev, said the most accurate thing about them: “The alarming situation in Russia at the end of the 20s forced its rulers to deal with the most active internal opponents and those who could lead the anti-Bolshevik resistance in the future " And Yakov Aleksandrovich could easily be among them...
Be that as it may, Lieutenant General of the White Army and “Red Professor”, brilliant tactician and strategist Yakov Slashchev went down in history as a patriot of Russia, who fought all his life for its greatness and glory, and became one of the symbols of his times - a bright, cruel, mistaken, but not broken.
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