Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov is a rather rare and, it is worth noting, successful interweaving of strict discipline of character, expressed in a bright military career, and creative nature, which made it possible to become its carrier a famous writer. Devotion to military affairs, as he understood it, led him to emigration, where his literary talent blossomed.
Defining history
A brief biography of Peter Krasnov can be expressed in a few words - the nobility, military prowess and courage, clearly the “white movement” and emigration, the Nazis mistaken assessment and death. But between these bloody milestones of the 20th century, which carried human lives on different sides of the barricades, which redrawed entire states and peoples, each of their participants had a different life. And throughout the entire twentieth century, life urgently required a person to make a choice. Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov, having made this choice once, remained faithful to him until the end of his days.
Family tree
The nobleman Peter Krasnov, whose biography is full of bright events, was born in St. Petersburg in 1869, was a hereditary Don Cossack and belonged to the most famous Cossack family of the Vyoshenskaya village, which is located in the northern part of the Rostov region. In addition to hereditary talents for military training, literary talents also appeared in the family. In the family of St. Petersburg Krasnov, the first servant of the pen was the grandfather of Peter Nikolaevich - Ivan Ivanovich. He fought in the Caucasus and commanded the Cossack units of the Imperial Guard. Grandfather Krasnov wrote poetry, as well as historical and ethnographic works, for example, “Lower and High Cossacks”, “Little Russians on the Don”, “Donets in the Caucasus” and others.
Father Nikolai Ivanovich rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the Cossack troops. Representatives of the third generation were no less eminent. Both brothers Peter Nikolaevich went down in history. Andrei Nikolaevich was a famous scientist biologist, botanist, as well as a traveler. Platon Nikolayevich was engaged in writing, was in indirect kinship with Alexander Blok - he was married to the aunt of the famous poet Ekaterina Beketova-Krasnova, also a writer.
Years of study
At the age of 11, he was assigned to the First St. Petersburg Gymnasium. Having reached the fifth grade, he switched to military training in the Alexander Cadet Corps. He completed the first stage of military education with the rank of vice non-commissioned officer, at the age of 19 he successfully completed the First Military Pavlovsk School. The results he achieved were so brilliant that his name was written in gold letters on a marble plank.
It is known that he also entered the Academy of the General Staff, but due to poor performance, he was expelled after a year of study. And yet, at the age of 39, he graduated from the school of cavalry officers.
The beginning of a military career
Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov began his military service at the age of twenty with the rank of coroon, when he was seconded to the Ataman regiment of the heir to the Cesarevich. A year later, he was already enrolled in this regiment. In 1897, a Russian diplomatic mission was sent to Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia), whose convoy was headed by Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov, whose biography has since been replete with various exotic places on the planet and incredible twists of fate.
A year later, he made a difficult transition on a mule to a city in northeast Africa in order to deliver papers, then he went to St. Petersburg in an equally difficult way. This march-throw earned the officer considerable fame and brought several awards at once: the Order of Stanislav of the second degree, the officer cross of the Ethiopian star of the third degree and the Order of the Legion of Honor of France.
The first samples of the pen
Peter Nikolaevich Krasnov began to publish his first works at the age of 22 years. His fiction and materials on military theory began to appear regularly in newspapers and magazines. In particular, among his first works, one can distinguish such books as On the Lake, Ataman Platov, and others. Devoting his life to the military path, he invariably raised military themes in his works and talked about the life peculiarities of the Don Cossacks. And, of course, romanticized a lot.
His exploits during the African trip also took on a poetic art form. After returning, he wrote two books at once: “Cossacks in Africa: Diary of the chief of a convoy of the Russian imperial mission in Abyssinia in 1897 - 1898.” and "Love of the Abyssinians and Other Stories."
Returning from Africa, he married Lydia Fyodorovna Gruneisen, the daughter of a Russified, real state adviser.
Service in pre-revolutionary Russia
In addition to his direct participation in hostilities, Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov, a brief biography of which is set forth here, has repeatedly acted as a war correspondent. As such, he participated in the Ihethuan Uprising in China, better known as the Boxer Uprising, which took place from 1898 to 1901. Then he was sent to Manchuria, India, China and Japan to study the features of their life.
He also documented the events of the Russo-Japanese confrontation of 1904 - 1905. As a military man, he was awarded several insignia: the Order of St. Anne of the fourth degree and St. Vladimir of the fourth degree. In the diary of Emperor Nicholas II there is a record of him dated January 3, 1905, where the head of state describes how he talks about the war in a lot and interesting way. He worked with the magazines Military Disabled, Scout, and others.
After the war, he quickly began to grow in service. In 1906, he received the rank of commander of a hundred Ataman regiment, a year later - Yesaul, and later - Army foreman. In 1910 he received the rank of colonel. A year later, he was appointed to command the first Siberian, and then the Don Cossack Regiment.
In parallel, his literary field was quite actively developing. So, following the results of the Japanese war, he published the historical novel “Year of the war. 14 months in the war: Essays on the Russo-Japanese War ”and other works in the same style of patriotic literature. In addition, he writes and artistic things. It is worth noting that before the October Revolution, he released more than 600 different works, both journalistic, and artistic and historical.
World War I and Revolution
At the beginning of the war, he was sent as commander of a regiment in August 1914 to East Prussia. And three months later he was promoted to major general and placed at the head of the First Brigade of the Don Cossack, then the Caucasian Indigenous Horse Division. Then he was awarded the St. George's Arms. In May 1915, he was awarded the Order of St. George of the fourth degree for a successful military operation in the Dniester River, when they managed to push the Austrians back across the river. In 1916 he was seriously injured.
Spending all the time until the first February revolution of 1917 on the fronts of the war, the Cossack commander, General Krasnov Pyotr Nikolaevich reacted to the first coup ambiguously and negatively assessed the actions of the Provisional Government. He did not participate in politics. However, he was one of the few who supported Alexander Kerensky after the Bolshevik coup. Having fallen into the hands of the Bolsheviks, he fled to the Don, where he led the resistance of the Cossacks. As the ataman of the Great Don Army, he entered into an alliance with the Emperor of Germany, William II. However, the defeat of Germany forced him to abandon the idea of the Don Caucus Union. He agreed to go into full submission to Anton Denikin, joining his Volunteer Army. In 1919, Denikin forced Krasnov to resign due to ideological and political differences.
Realizing that he was already holding nothing in Russia, he left Russia and stayed in Estonia in the North-West Army of General Nikolai Yudenich. He became the head of the army newspaper Prinevsky Krai. Its editor was the famous Russian writer Alexander Kuprin.
Emigration
In 1920 he emigrated to Germany, three years later he moved to France. In those years, the first wave of emigration was just unfolding. In different circles, due to the large number of emigrating officers, she was called the “White Russia”, Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov began active political and social activities. He collaborated with various organizations related to Russian emigration, including the Russian All-Military Union. In addition, he was a member of the Supreme Monarchical Council. In particular, he was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth. This movement conducted active subversive activity in Soviet Russia. However, it later turned out that the structure was initially controlled by the State Political Administration (GPU) of the NKVD.
Krasnov Petr Nikolaevich was considered one of the leaders of the white movement , his books were quite popular and published in English, French, German, Russian and other European languages. For more than twenty years of life in exile, he has published about 40 books. Among them, one can especially single out a fantastic novel about the Russian Bolshevik future, “Beyond the Thistle.” In addition, he published a four-part autobiography entitled, From the Two-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner.
The Second World War
Ataman Peter Krasnov decided to take revenge during the Second World War and collaborated with the Nazis. In 1943 he was assigned to command the Main Directorate of Cossack Forces in Germany. At the end of the war, the British surrendered, but they issued it to the Soviet army leadership. The Supreme Court of Soviet Russia sentenced him to death by hanging. He was 77 years old.