In the history of the Civil War, a prominent place is occupied by an active figure in the White Guard movement, General Kappel, whose photos are presented in the article. During the years of Soviet power, his image was either hushed up or presented in a distorted form. Only with the advent of perestroika did many episodes of Russian history receive their true coverage. The truth about the life of this amazing person has also become public.
The son and successor of the Kappel family
The outstanding Russian military commander General Kappel came from a family of an Russified Swede and a Russian noblewoman. He was born on April 16 (28), 1883 in Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg. The father of the future hero Oscar Pavlovich was a native of the Russified Swedes family (this explains his Scandinavian surname), was an officer and was very distinguished during the Skobelev expedition. Mother Elena Petrovna was also a noblewoman and came from the family of the hero of defense of Sevastopol ─ Lieutenant General P.I. Postolsky. Parents named their son Vladimir in honor of the holy prince ─ the baptist of Russia.
Having received primary education at home, Vladimir decided to continue in his father’s footsteps and, entering the 2nd Imperial Cadet Corps, graduated in 1901. After spending another two years in the Nikolaev cavalry, he was promoted to cornet and assigned to one of the capital's dragoon regiments.
Marriage of the Dashing Cornet
The first brilliant victory of the future general Kappel was the conquest of the heart of Olga Sergeevna Strolman ─ the daughter of a major tsarist official. However, the ambitious parents did not want to hear about the marriage of their beloved Olenka with a barely fledged young officer. Vladimir took this first fortress erected in front of him by storm ─ he simply abducted his bride (with her consent, of course) and, neglecting his parental blessing, secretly married her in a village church.
It is known that a half-wild highlander is capable of stealing a damsel, but a true nobleman, above all, is obliged to prove that he is worthy of her. To this end, the desperate Cornet Kappel, having no connections or patronage, manages to enter the Imperial Academy of the General Staff, whose doors were open only to representatives of the higher nobility.
With this, he secured a path to the heights of a military career. After such a feat, the wife’s parents discerned in him not just a dashing racket, but a man who, as they say, “will go far.” Having fundamentally changed their attitude towards what had happened, they, although belatedly, blessed the young.
The last years of the great empire
After graduating from the Academy in 1913, Vladimir Oskarovich was seconded to the Moscow Military District and met the First World War as headquarters captain, that is, with the rank of senior officer. In the biography of General Kappel it is always noted that even then he showed an extraordinary talent in organizing large-scale military operations, doing this as a senior adjutant to the commander of the Don Cossack Division. He met the October Revolution of 1917 already in the rank of lieutenant colonel and gentleman of several orders, which he received for the heroism shown at the front.
Being a convinced monarchist, Vladimir Oskarovich categorically rejected both the February revolution and the outcome of the October armed coup. From the posthumously published letters of General Kappel, it is known that he wholeheartedly mourned the collapse of the state and the army, as well as the humiliation that the Fatherland suffered in the face of the whole world.
Joining the White Guard Movement
The beginning of his active struggle with the Bolsheviks was the entry into the ranks of the People’s Army Komuch (Committee of the Constituent Assembly) ─ which became one of the first formations of the White Guard movement created in Samara after it was captured by parts of the rebel Czechoslovak corps. The army included many experienced officers who went through the First World War, but none of them wanted to take command of the hastily created units, since the numerical superiority of forces was on the side of the Reds, who were approaching in those days from all sides, and the case seemed hopeless. Only Lieutenant Colonel Kappel volunteered to take on this mission.
Achieving victory in Suvorov style, that is, not by number, but by skill, Kappel so successfully defeated the Bolshevik formations that very soon his fame spread not only throughout the Volga, but even reached the Urals and Siberia. It is important to note that, as a monarchist, he did not share the political convictions of many Social Revolutionaries who were the creators of the People’s Army, but, nevertheless, continued the struggle on their side, since he considered the main thing at that moment to be the overthrow of the Soviet power by any means.
Loud victories of the Kappel troops
If at first under the command of Kappel there were only 350 people, then soon their number increased significantly due to volunteers flocking from all over the district and joining its units. They were attracted to the rumor about the concomitant military luck. And these were not empty rumors. In early June 1918, after a hot but short battle, the Kappelites successfully drove the Reds out of Syzran, and at the end of the month Simbirsk was added to the cities they liberated.
The greatest success of that period was the capture of Kazan, carried out at the end of August of that year by units under the command of V.O. Kappel, with the assistance of the forces of the Volga River Flotilla. This victory brought with it innumerable trophies. Leaving the city, the red units retreated so hastily that they left to their fate a significant part of Russia's gold reserves, which passed from that moment into the hands of the leaders of the White movement.
All who personally knew General Vladimir Kappel and left their memories of him emphasized that he was always not only a skilled commander, but a man who was distinguished by personal courage. There is a lot of evidence of how, at the head of a handful of associates, he made impudent raids on the Red Army formations superior to them and invariably emerged victorious, while being able to save the lives of his fighters.
Hostage family
This period includes the tragedy that left its mark on the whole subsequent life of General Kappel. The fact is that the Reds, unable to cope with him in open battle, took his wife and two children who were then in Ufa hostage. It is hard to imagine what kind of mental strength it cost Vladimir Oskarovich to reject, the ultimatum presented to him by the Bolsheviks and despite the threat hanging over the lives of his dear people, continue the struggle.
Looking ahead, we say that the Bolsheviks did not fulfill their threat, but, in order to save the lives of children, they forced Olga Sergeyevna to officially renounce her husband. After the end of the civil war, she refused to leave Russia, although she had such an opportunity and, having regained her maiden name (Strolman), settled in Leningrad.
In March 1940, the NKVD leadership remembered her, and by a court decision the widow of the White Guard General Kappel was sentenced to 5 years in the camps as a “socially dangerous element." Having returned from prison, Olga Sergeyevna again lived in Leningrad, where she died on April 7, 1960.
Bitterness of defeat
After the capture of Kazan, Kappel suggested that the leadership of the People’s Army, developing success, strike at Nizhny Novgorod, and then begin a campaign against Moscow, but the Socialist-Revolutionaries, showing obvious cowardice, were delayed with the adoption of such an important decision. As a result, the moment was missed, and the Reds transferred to the Volga the formation of the 1st army of Tukhachevsky.
This forced Kappel to abandon his plans and make a 150-kilometer march with his units to protect Simbirsk from the advancing enemy forces. The battles were protracted and were fought with varying success. As a result, the preponderance turned out to be on the side of the Reds, who had an advantage both in the size of their troops and in their supply of food and ammunition.
Under the banner of Kolchak
After a coup took place in November 1918 in the east of Russia and Admiral A.V. Kolchak came to power (his portrait is given below), Kappel, along with his associates, hastened to join the ranks of his troops. It is known that at the early stage of joint actions between these two leaders of the White Guard movement a certain alienation emerged, but then their relationship entered the proper track. At the beginning of 1919, A.V. Kolchak, awarded Kappel the rank of lieutenant general, and ordered him to command the 1st Volga Corps.
Despite the fact that, being a skilled and experienced military leader, General Kappel made every effort to fulfill his tasks, his corps, as well as the entire Kolchak army, could not avoid major defeats. However, even after the loss of Chelyabinsk and Omsk, the supreme commander saw him as the only commander capable of influencing the course of events, and gave all the remaining units to his subordination. Nevertheless, the situation on the Eastern Front became increasingly hopeless and forced the Kolchak army to retreat, leaving the Bolsheviks city by city.
3,000 mile crossing
By November 1919, one of the most striking, but at the same time dramatic episodes related to the activities of General Kappel in Eastern Siberia. He entered the history of the White movement as the "Great Siberian Ice Camp". It was a 3000 mile crossing, unprecedented in its heroism, from Omsk to Transbaikalia, carried out at a temperature that dropped to -50 °.
In those days, Vladimir Oskarovich commanded the units of the 3rd Army of Kolchak, formed mainly from among the captured Red Army soldiers who deserted at every opportunity. Leaving Omsk, General Kappel, continuously attacked by the enemy, managed to draw his units along the Trans-Siberian Railway, which connected Miass with Vladivostok in 1916. For this feat, Kolchak intended to make him full generals, but rapidly developing events prevented him from fulfilling his promise.
The fall of the Kolchak government
In early January 1920, Supreme Commander A.V. Kolchak surrendered power, and a few days later was arrested in Irkutsk. After a month spent in the dungeons of the Cheka, on February 7, 1920, he was shot along with the former minister of the government he created ─ V.N. Pepelyov.
In view of the current situation, the White Army General Kappel Vladimir Oskarovich was personally forced to lead the fight against Bolshevism in Siberia. But the forces were extremely unequal, and in mid-January 1920, near Krasnoyarsk, the threat of complete defeat and destruction hung over Kappelevetsi. However, even in such an almost hopeless situation, he managed to withdraw his troops from the encirclement, but paid for it with his own life.
The end of legendary life
Since all roads were controlled by the Bolsheviks, General Kappel was forced to lead his units directly through the taiga, using frozen rivers to advance the channel. Once, in severe frost, he fell into the wormwood. The result was frostbite on both legs and bilateral pneumonia. He went the further way tied to the saddle, as he constantly lost consciousness.
Shortly before his death, General Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel dictated an appeal directed to the inhabitants of Siberia. In it, he predicted that the red troops moving after him would inevitably bring persecution against faith and destroy peasant property. The village drunks and loafers, having become members of the committees of the poor, will have the right to take away with impunity from genuine workers everything that they wish. As you know, his words were truly prophetic.
A prominent Russian military leader, General Kappel Vladimir Oskarovich, passed away on January 26, 1920. Death overtook him at the Utai junction, located near the city of Nizhneudinsk in the Irkutsk region. After the death of their commander in chief, the white units made their way to Irkutsk, but they failed to take the city, which was protected by numerous red formations.
The attempt made to free Admiral Kolchak, who was in the hands of local Chekists in those days, was also unsuccessful. As mentioned above, on February 7, 1920, he was shot. Seeing no other way out of this situation, the Kappel people went around Irkutsk and retired to Transbaikalia, and from there they proceeded to China.
Secret funeral and desecrated monument
The history of the burial of the remains of the White Guard general is very curious. Companions with good reason believed that he could not be buried at the place of death, since the grave could be subjected to scolding by the Reds, who followed them on the heels. The body was laid in a coffin and accompanied the troops for almost a month, until they reached Chita. There, in an atmosphere of complete secrecy, General Kappel was buried in the city cathedral, but after a while his ashes were transferred to the cemetery of the local convent.
However, in the autumn of that year, units of the Red Army came close to Chita, and when it became obvious that the city had to be surrendered, the surviving officers removed his remains from the earth and went abroad with them. The final resting place of General Kappel's ashes was a small piece of land near the altar of the Orthodox Church, erected in the Chinese city of Harbin and consecrated in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. Thus ended the life path of General Kappel, whose brief biography formed the basis of this article.
A little later, at the end of the civil war, white emigrants erected a monument on the grave of the famous fighter against Bolshevism, but in 1955 it was destroyed by Chinese Communists. There is reason to believe that this act of vandalism was committed on the basis of a secret KGB directive.
The memory revived on the movie screen
Nowadays, when the events of the civil war, deliberately distorted by Soviet propaganda, received new coverage, interest in the most significant historical figures of that time increased. In 2008, the director Andrei Kirisenko shot a film, the hero of which was Kappel. The general, a documentary about which was shown on many federal television channels, was presented in its entirety to its outstanding personality.
Previously, Soviet moviegoers had an idea of the troops of General Kappel only in the film "Chapaev", shot by Sergei Eisenstein in 1934. In one of his episodes, the celebrated Soviet filmmaker showed a scene of a psychic attack undertaken by the Kappel people. Despite all the power of its impact on the audience, historians note in it obvious historical inconsistencies.
Firstly, the uniform of the officers in the film is significantly different from the one worn by the Kappel men, and secondly, the banner under which they go into battle does not belong to them, but to the Kornilovites. But the main thing is the absence of any documentary evidence that parts of General Kappel ever entered into battle with the Chapaev’s division. So Eisenstein, apparently, used the Kappel people to create a generalized image of the enemies of the proletariat.