The future Cossack General Shkuro Andrei Grigoryevich was born in the Kuban village Pashkovskaya in the family of the substitute Grigory Fedorovich Shkura and his wife Anastasia Andreevna. The family on both lines had Zaporizhzhya roots. The White's commander changed the name Skur to Shkuro during the Civil War.
early years
The head of the family was a prominent Cossack, who was well known in the Army and Yekaterinodar. Grigory Fedorovich participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. and had many awards. Not surprisingly, from childhood, his son dreamed of a career in the army.
In his small homeland, Andrei graduated from the Kuban Alexandrovskoye Real School. Then his father sent him to the 3rd Moscow Cadet Corps, from which the young man graduated in 1907. Following this, the young man moved to the capital and entered the Higher Nikolaev Cavalry School. Having become an officer, Shkuro transferred to the 1st Catherine Regiment, stationed in Ust-Labinsk.
World War I
In his youth, Shkuro Andrei Grigoryevich was distinguished by an extravagant character. It was the restless temperament that caused the Cossack during one of the vacations to join the expedition of gold miners and go to Eastern Siberia. In the Nerchinsky district, he learned about the onset of the First World War. A hasty mobilization began, under which the personnel military Shkuro also fell. The generals were in a hurry as best they could, so when the young centurion arrived in his native Yekaterinodar, his regiment had already gone to the front.
Shkuro did not want to sit out at home. After brief persuasion of the Nakaznoy ataman, Babich enlisted him as a junior officer in the 3rd Khopersky regiment. In the first battle with his new platoon, Shkuro showed himself as an outstanding commander. In the battle of Seniava on the Galician Front, 50 people were captured. The first legitimate award followed - the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree.
The Wolf One
For many months, the officer Shkuro Andrey Grigorievich (1886-1947) was constantly at the front. During another outing in intelligence in December 1915, he was injured (a bullet hit his leg). In April 1916, he returned to duty. In the regiment, Shkuro received a whole machine-gun command. He was wounded again (this time in the stomach). Andrei Grigoryevich left for treatment in his native Yekaterinodar. For courage and numerous merits, he became Yesaul.
Being in the rear, the officer decided to assemble his own partisan detachment. When they gave the go-ahead, the Cossack with renewed vigor set about organizing a new formation. This detachment quickly became famous and even received the informal name “Wolf Hundred” (the reason for this was the banner with the image of a wolf’s head). Only the most capable and desperate Cossacks went to the partisans to Shkuro. A hundred whirlwinds swept across German and Austrian rear areas, terrifying them and causing serious destruction. Cossacks blew up bridges and artillery depots, spoiled roads, smashed carts. In the Russian army, a unique detachment instantly became legendary. The main laurels of the daredevil received Shkuro Andrei Grigorievich. The Wolf One would not have arisen without his energy and initiative.
1917 year
About the February Revolution and the abdication of the king, Andrei Shkuro learned near Chisinau. Like most Cossacks, he was far from politics, treated the Provisional Government with disdain and did not recognize anything but an oath to the emperor. The turbulent era forced him to make difficult decisions. Squad Shkuro occupied the Chisinau station and, taking possession of the train, headed home.
After several weeks of rest, the famous partisan set off for the Caucasus. Together with his faithful companions, he first arrived in Baku, and then stopped in Anzely. His detachment became part of the corps of General Nikolai Baratov. On the one hand, the Cossacks fought with the Turks and Kurds, and on the other, they fought against the revolutionary movement among soldiers and sailors. In 1917, Shkuro managed to fight in both Persia and the Caucasus. The confrontation with the red commissars cost him another wound. In autumn, the Cossack returned to his native land, and in October he was elected to the Kuban Regional Council. Shkuro became a delegate from the front-line soldiers.
The beginning of the Civil War
Andrei Shkuro hostile the news of the Bolsheviks coming to power in Petrograd. According to his convictions, the Cossack remained a monarchist. He had ideological conflicts even with supporters of the republic. The reds officer openly despised and hated. Soon, the south of Russia became a rallying point for the opponents of the Bolsheviks, among whom was the future general Shkuro. The family of the military leader at that time lived in Kislovodsk, and there the famous partisan again set about organizing a faithful detachment.
On July 7, 1918, Shkuro expelled the Reds from Stavropol. To do this, he did not even have to use a weapon. All that the Cossack needed was to write an ultimatum threatening to attack the positions of opponents if they did not leave the city. Those really left Stavropol. However, the whole struggle was yet to come. But already at the first stage of the Civil War, Skuro became one of the leaders of the White movement. He built his reputation with uncompromisingness and adventurism in the fight against the revolution.
White general
In October 1918, thanks to the efforts of Andrei Shkuro, the 1st Kislovodsky Officer Regiment was formed. Soon after, he went to Yekaterinodar, where he met with Commander-in-Chief Anton Denikin. He was dissatisfied with the self-righteousness of the Cossack. However, the conflict between the two figures did not reach. The leaders of the White movement were united by a common danger. In the army of Denikin, Shkuro headed the Caucasian cavalry division. On November 30, he became a major general.
Fighting in the Stavropol Territory, Andrei Shkuro organized the production of cartridges, shells, leather boots, cloth and other important things for the army of the White movement. Later, however, he had to move to the Kuban. In February 1919, Andrei Shkuro was appointed commander of the 1st Army Corps in the Caucasian Volunteer Army. With this formation, he fought in the Don, helping the Cossacks there on the key front of the fight against the Bolsheviks. In one of the battles under the village of Illovayskaya, he managed to defeat the detachment of Nestor Makhno.
Victories and defeats
At the peak of White’s successes, Andrey Shkuro participated in battles for Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov and other Ukrainian cities. For assistance to the allied British forces on July 2, 1919, he was awarded the English Order of the Bath. That campaign was the prologue of the attack on Moscow. On September 17, during a march to the throne capital, Cossacks Shkuro took Voronezh. White held the city for a month. Under the blow of Budenny’s cavalry division, they had to retreat. The attack on Moscow was drowned not far from the desired goal.
Shkuro with his corps retreated to Novorossiysk. Evacuation from the Black Sea port was carried out hastily and with poor organization. The general, like many comrades, did not have enough space on the ships. He went to Tuapse, and from Sochi he moved to the Crimea.
In exile
In May 1920, Wrangel, who did not like Shkuro, fired the officer, after which he ended up in exile. Soon, the remnants of the White movement were defeated by the Bolsheviks. Thousands of Cossacks were expelled from their native country. Someone donkey in the Balkan countries, someone in France.
As a house, Paris chose and Skuro. The general was still young, full of strength and enterprise. In exile, he assembled a Cossack troupe, performed in equestrian competitions, worked in a circus, and even starred in silent films. The first performance of the Kuban at the Buffalo stadium in the suburbs of Paris attracted 20 thousand spectators. The French had no idea about horse riding, so the financial success of the troupe was ensured.
Road builder
In 1931, Yugoslavia turned out to be a new country in which Andrei Shkuro settled. The general, having healed in the Balkans, began to maintain contacts with the military marching chieftain Vyacheslav Naumenko. Throughout the interwar years, Shkuro was an active figure in the Cossack movement in exile. He regularly spoke, tried to maintain the unity of the Kuban, who lost their homes and were mired in political disputes.
The former general was also engaged in practical matters. He entered into an agreement with the Batignolles company and set about organizing the construction of a 90-kilometer earthen wall that enclosed the cities of Belgrade, Pancevo and Zemun from the annoying Danube floods. The Serbs were delighted with the results and ordered the construction of a railway bridge in the south of their country from the Cossacks. Shkuro worked not only the Kuban, but also the Don, Astrakhan, Terts, and other natives of southern Russia. Next to the teams of Andrei Grigoryevich, Cossacks of another hero of World War I Viktor Zborovsky worked. Some of the roads and dams built then in Yugoslavia are still functioning.
Shkuro (like many other white emigres) left behind his memoirs, in which he described his own impressions of the Civil War. Today, his book Notes of the White Partisan is a curious evidence of the era that helps to understand how the struggle against the Bolsheviks in the south of Russia was organized and organized.
At the crossroads
After Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, white immigrants faced a difficult choice. He tortured and Andrei Shkuro. The general hated the USSR, he wanted to rid Russia of the Bolsheviks as soon as possible and return to their native Kuban lands. 20 years have passed since the days of the Civil War. Many of its participants were no longer young, but still full of energy. But even such ardent anti-Soviet leaders as Denikin and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich refused to support the Germans. But the former ataman of the Don Army, Peter Krasnov, went to rapprochement with the Third Reich. Following him, General Skuro made the same choice. The biography of this military leader because of this decision still causes fierce debate.
Despite the open support of Hitler, collaborators from among the Cossacks for a long time did not have their own army units. The situation changed only in 1943. At that time, the Wehrmacht had already lost the Stalingrad war, and its final defeat in the whole war was a matter of time. Finding himself in a hopeless situation, the Führer changed his mind and gave the green light to the creation of Cossack troops, which became part of the SS.
In the service of the Germans
In 1944, SS gruppenführer Andrei Shkuro led the army for the first time in a long time. It turned out to be the 15th Cossack cavalry corps. The experienced general at the end of the sixty ten fought with the Yugoslav partisans. He never had to return to Russia with weapons in his hands. By that time, the fate of the Third Reich was already a foregone conclusion. Even before the Soviet troops captured Berlin, Stalin at the Yalta Conference took care of agreements with the Allies about the future of collaborators.
On May 2, the Cossacks went to Austrian East Tyrol in order to surrender to the British. Among them was General Shkuro. In World War II, he stood on principled anti-Soviet positions, which meant that falling into the hands of the NKVD promised him imminent death. According to various estimates of historians, then there were about 36 thousand people in the Cossack camp (20 thousand combat-ready soldiers, the rest were peaceful refugees).
Extradition in Lienz
On May 18, 1945, the British accepted the surrender of the fugitives. Cossacks had to surrender almost all of their weapons. For them, special camps were prepared in the vicinity of the Austrian city of Lienz.
Out of the total mass, 1,500 officers stood out. The entire command staff (including generals), under a false pretext, was summoned to a meeting, and then isolated from their wards. Among them was Andrei Grigoryevich Shkuro. Interesting facts of his biography are mixed with tragic. After many years of quiet life in exile, he set to work on a hopeless cause, and as a result, with the reputation of an accomplice of the Nazis, he was given to the NKVD.
Court and execution
After the extradition of officers, the British deported the rest of the Cossacks. Those were unarmed and defenseless and as a result could not show resistance. All of them were tried in the USSR.
Shkuro, along with Peter Krasnov and several other leaders of collaborators, received capital punishment. The trial of the Cossacks was indicative. Charged with terrorist activities and armed struggle against the USSR hanged. Andrei Shkuro was executed in Moscow on January 16, 1947. Before his death, he still was able to return to his homeland.