Sometimes the story allows itself quite unusual things. For example, it gives the commander immortality not for a brilliant victory, but for the defeat and death suffered, although it was a model of the true manifestation of officer honor, but it did little to defeat the enemy. One of these heroes of the past was General Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov, whose brief biography formed the basis of this article.
Firstborn in the family of a retired lieutenant
After resigning, Lieutenant Vasily Vasilievich Samsonov settled with his wife Nadezhda Egorovna in the Kherson province, where they had their own estate. On November 14, 1859, a son was born in their family, who was given the name Alexander in holy baptism. Samsonov dreamed of a military career for his first child, and therefore, when he reached the required age, he placed him at the Kiev Vladimir Military Gymnasium, and at the end of it at the St. Petersburg Nikolaev Cavalry School. From Kiev chestnuts the young man went to the banks of the Neva.
Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov, whose birth date came at a time when Russia, having been defeated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1853-1856, was rapidly building up its military power and sought to regain its former glory, it was not by chance that he chose his own path in life. In those years, officers enjoyed special honor in society, and serving in the army was a matter of honor for every nobleman.
The first battles and career growth
He was barely eighteen when, after graduating from college and gaining the title of cornet, Samsonov first came under the fire of the battles of the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878). It was as a result of the heroism that he showed during this military campaign, and not because of class privileges, that the young officer Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov received the right to enter the General Staff Academy.
The years following the graduation from the academy became the steps of the rapid career growth of an honest and executive officer. Cities were changing, military districts were changing, where Samsonov had the chance to serve, but invariably he was among the most valuable and, accordingly, promoted commanders.
Battles in the Far East
The Russo-Japanese War was already met with the rank of Major General Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov. Photos of the officer began to appear on the pages of newspapers. He, as an experienced commander, was instructed to lead the Ussuri cavalry brigade, which on May 17, 1905, in a bloody battle near Yujatun destroyed the squadron of Japanese troops. In the next major battle of this war, which soon took place near Wafangou, the Samsonov Cossacks managed to get around the Japanese division and, having hit from the rear, decided the outcome of the operation.
Subsequently, the general happened to become a participant in almost all of the most significant episodes of the war unfolding on land. Under his command, the Cossacks attacked the enemy near Gaizhou, Tashichao and Liaoyang. When, during the war, a turning point came and the Russian troops were forced to retreat, the Cossack regiments subordinate to the general, together with the horse-drawn battery, covered their withdrawal, restraining the enemy with all their might. For his services during this campaign, Alexander Samsonov was awarded three military orders, a golden saber and promoted to lieutenant general.
Between two wars
In the first post-war years, General Alexander Samsonov, who by that time had already become one of the most prominent Russian military leaders, occupies a number of command posts in the leadership of the Warsaw Military District and is then appointed ataman of the Don Army. Everywhere he carries out the duties assigned to him with his inherent energy and conscientiousness. In May 1909, the sovereign ordered him to leave for Turkestan to assume the post of governor-general of the region, and in addition, the commander of the Turkestan military district and the chieftain of the Semirechensky Cossack army.
In administrative work, Alexander Vasilievich managed to show the same outstanding abilities as in the military business. He was able to largely stop the conflicts that arose on ethnic grounds between the local population and the Russians, most of whom were military.
In addition, he launched a wide educational activity among the residents of Turkestan, the vast majority of whom were illiterate. And a special merit can be called an initiative to create irrigation systems that allowed to establish cotton cultivation. His works were appreciated by the sovereign. Samsonov was promoted to general from the cavalry.
The beginning of a new war
World War I found Samsonov in the Caucasus, where he was resting with his family. Along with the announcement of Russia's entry into the new massacre, Alexander Vasilievich received an order to urgently arrive in Warsaw, where he was waiting for the post of commander of the Second Army. The general command of the North-Western Front was carried out by General Zhilinsky.
According to his plan, the Second Samsonov Army and the First Army, led by General P. Rannenkampf, were to go on the offensive, which is part of the general East Prussian operation. Despite the fact that the commanders of both armies pointed out the need for thorough preparation of such a large-scale military operation, orders were issued from Stavka and personally from the commander of the troops, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, to act immediately.
The reason for such a rush was the difficult situation in which France was allied with Russia, and the personal appeal of Ambassador M. Paleolog to Nicholas I, in which he literally begged the Russian monarch to immediately order the attack and prevent the defeat of their army. As a result, Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov, a cavalry general and an experienced commander, was forced to launch an offensive, the failure of which he was sure in advance.
Fatal March
At that time, forces of the Eighth German Army were concentrated in East Prussia , and it was precisely on its destruction, according to the disposition, that two Russian armies advanced. The first to enter the battle with the enemy were the troops under the command of P. Rannenkampf. Starting the attack at dawn on August 4, they forced the Germans to retreat. At the same time, Samsonov’s army made a powerful march, breaking eighty kilometers in three days and entering East Prussia.
Such a rapid maneuver, dictated by tactical considerations, was extremely dangerous for the Russian army. In the territory devastated by the war, the advanced units significantly broke away from the rear convoys with food and ammunition. As a result of this, people have been starving for several days, and the ammunition and shells were running out. Horses were left without feed. But, despite repeated reports of the catastrophic situation, the high command demanded not to slow down the pace of the offensive.
On the eve of the environment
Suddenly, another danger became apparent. On the way, the Second Army did not meet any serious resistance, and it seemed that the enemy specially created the conditions for them to move freely. An experienced commander Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov, whose biography is from an early age connected with the army, intuitively sensed a preparing trap.
He shared his concerns with the commander of the North-Western Front ilinski. However, due to incompetence, having not sufficiently realized the seriousness of the situation, he gave a number of orders that exacerbated the already difficult situation in which Samsonov’s troops found themselves.
Premonition did not deceive the experienced commander. The German command, using the extensive network of railways created in the prewar years, transferred a significant military contingent to the area of the Second Army. On August 13, the Sixth Corps was attacked and defeated, located on the right flank, and the next day on the left flank of the First.
The defeat of the Second Army
In this critical situation, Alexander Samsonov personally comes to the front line, wanting to raise the morale of the troops, but, having studied the situation, he understands all the hopelessness of the situation. The last hope was the support of the army of P. Rannenkampf. Joint actions aimed at connecting with her could save the units entrusted to Samsonov from complete encirclement and death, but the commander of the First Army, having shown criminal slowness, did not fulfill his task.
As a result, three Russian corps, with a total number of one hundred thousand people, were surrounded. Participants in those events recalled that the vast majority of soldiers and officers were demoralized. It also affected the awareness of powerlessness to influence the situation, and the extreme exhaustion caused by the multi-day march along enemy territory, and physical weakness from prolonged starvation. Most of them subsequently died, and only a small part was able to escape from the enemy ring.
Court of conscience
Consciousness of personal responsibility for the failure of the operation assigned to him and the death of people who wholeheartedly believed in him, caused the most serious mental trauma, which Samsonov could not cope with. On August 30, 1914, that is, just a month after the outbreak of war, he committed suicide. Eyewitnesses said that on that day, the general unexpectedly for all retired to the forest, from where a shot soon rang out.
By the irony of fate, which so unfavorably disposed of the end of this worthy person’s life, an honest Russian officer Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov, the photo of the last months of his life completes the article, remained in the memory of his descendants not as a victor who scolded himself in obscene glory, but as an example of how a person commits a verdict the highest court - of one’s own conscience.