Vasily Chapaev was born on February 9, 1887 in the small village of Budaika, in the territory of the Kazan province. Today this place is part of Cheboksary - the capital of Chuvashia. Chapaev was Russian by origin - he was the sixth child in a large peasant family. When it was time for Vasily to study, his parents moved to Balakovo (modern Saratov region, then - Samara province).
early years
The boy was sent to a school assigned to the church parish. Father wanted Vasily to become a priest. However, the subsequent life of his son had nothing to do with the church. In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army. He was sent to Ukraine, to Kiev. For some reason, the soldier was returned to the reserve ahead of the end of the service.
White spots in the biography of the famous revolutionary are associated with the banal lack of verified documents. In Soviet historiography, the official view was that Vasily Chapaev was actually ousted from the army because of his views. But there is still no documentary evidence of this theory.
World War I
In peacetime, Vasily Chapaev worked as a carpenter and lived with his family in the city of Melekess. In 1914, the First World War began, and the reserve soldier was again drafted into the tsarist army. Chapaev was in the 82nd Infantry Division, which fought with the Austrians and Germans in Galicia and Volyn. At the front, he received the St. George Cross, the wound and the rank of senior non-commissioned officer.
Because of failure, Chapaev was sent to the rear hospital in Saratov. There, the non-commissioned officer met the February Revolution. Having recovered, Vasily Ivanovich decided to join the Bolsheviks, which he did on September 28, 1917. His military talents and skills gave him the best recommendation in the context of the approaching Civil War.
In the Red Army
At the end of 1917, Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich was appointed commander of a reserve regiment located in Nikolaevsk. Today this city is called Pugachev. At first, the former officer of the tsarist army organized the local Red Guard, which the Bolsheviks established after being in power. At first, there were only 35 people in his squad. The poor, peasant flour mills, etc. joined the Bolsheviks. In January 1918, the Chapaevites fought with local fists who were unhappy with the October Revolution. Gradually, the detachment grew and grew thanks to effective agitation and military victories.
This military formation very soon left their native barracks and went to fight with the whites. Here in the lower Volga the offensive of General Kaledin developed. Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich took part in the campaign against this leader of the white movement. A key battle ensued near the city of Tsaritsyn, where at that time there was also a party organizer, Stalin.
Pugachev Brigade
After the Kaledin offensive was drowned, the biography of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was connected with the Eastern Front. By the spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks controlled only the European part of Russia (and even then not all). In the east, starting from the left bank of the Volga, white power remained.
Most of all, Chapaev fought with the KOMUCH People’s Army and the Czechoslovak Corps. On May 25, he decided to rename the Red Guard units subject to him into the Stepan Razin Regiment and the Pugachev Regiment. The new names became references to the famous leaders of popular uprisings in the Volga region in the 17th and 18th centuries. Thus, Chapaev eloquently stated that supporters of the Bolsheviks defend the rights of the lowest layers of the population of the warring country - the peasantry and workers. On August 21, 1918 his army drove out the Czechoslovak Corps from Nikolaevsk. A little later (in November), the head of the Pugachev brigade initiated the renaming of the city to Pugachev.
Fights with the Czechoslovak Corps
In the summer, the Chapaevites first appeared on the outskirts of Uralsk, occupied by white whales. Then the Red Guard had to retreat due to lack of food and weapons. But after success in Nikolaevsk, the division had ten captured machine guns and many other useful requisitioned property. With this good, the Chapaevites went to fight with the COMUCH People’s Army.
11 thousand armed supporters of the White movement broke through the Volga in order to unite with the army of the Cossack chieftain Krasnov. Reds were one and a half times less. The proportions in the comparison of weapons were approximately the same. However, this lag did not prevent the Pugachev brigade from defeating and scattering the enemy. During that risky operation, the biography of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev became known throughout the Volga region. And thanks to Soviet propaganda, his name was heard by a whole country. However, this happened after the death of the famous nachdiv.
In Moscow
In the fall of 1918, the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army received the first students. Among them was Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. A brief biography of this man was full of all kinds of battles. He was responsible for many subordinate people.
At the same time, he did not have any systematic education. Chapaev achieved his success in the Red Army thanks to his natural ingenuity and charisma. But now it was time for him to complete the course at the Academy of the General Staff.
The image of Chapaev
In an educational institution, he started to amaze people around him, on the one hand, by the quickness of his mind, and on the other, by his ignorance of the simplest general educational facts. For example, a historical joke is known, which says that Chapaev could not show on the map where London and the River Seine are, since he simply had no idea about their existence. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, as well as everything related to the myth of one of the most legendary characters of the civil war, but it is hard to deny that the head of the Pugachev Division was a typical representative of the lower classes, which, however, only benefited his image among his comrades-in-arms.
Of course, in the rear calm of Moscow languished such an energetic person who did not like to sit still, like Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich. A brief liquidation of tactical illiteracy could not deprive him of the feeling that I would fill up a place only at the front. Several times he wrote to the headquarters with a request to recall him in the thick of things. Meanwhile, in February 1919, another exacerbation occurred on the Eastern Front, associated with Kolchak's counteroffensive. At the end of winter, Chapaev finally went back to his native army.
Again at the front
The commander of the 4th Army, Mikhail Frunze, appointed Chapaev the head of the 25th division, which he commanded until his death. For half a year this formation, consisting mainly of proletarian conscripts, has carried out dozens of tactical operations against the whites. It was here that Chapaev maximally revealed himself as a military leader. In the 25th division, he became known throughout the country thanks to his fiery speeches before the soldiers. Having started in general, he was always inseparable from his subordinates. The romantic character of the Civil War manifested itself in this feature, which was later praised in Soviet literature.
Vasily Chapaev, whose biography spoke of him as a typical native of the masses, was remembered by his descendant for his indestructible connection with this very people in the person of ordinary Red Army soldiers who fought in the Volga region and the Ural steppes.
Tactician
As a tactic, Chapaev mastered several techniques that he successfully applied during the march of the division to the east. A characteristic feature was that it acted in isolation from the allied units. Chapaevtsy were always at the forefront. It was they who started the offensive, and often independently finished off the enemies. About Vasily Chapaev it is known that he often resorted to maneuverable tactics. His division was distinguished by efficiency and mobility. White often did not keep up with her movements, even if they wanted to organize a counterattack.
Chapaev always kept on one of the flanks a specially prepared group, which was to deliver a decisive blow during the battle. With the help of such a maneuver, the Red Army men brought chaos into the ranks of the enemy and surrounded their enemies. Since the battles were conducted mainly in the steppe zone, the soldiers always had room for the most maneuvers. Sometimes they assumed a reckless character, but the Chapaevites were always lucky. In addition, their courage introduced opponents into a stupor.
Ufa operation
Chapaev never acted stereotyped. In the midst of the battle, he could give the most unexpected order, which turned the course of events upside down. For example, in May 1919, during the clashes near Bugulma, he started initiating an attack on a wide front, despite the riskiness of such a maneuver.
Without tiredness, Vasily Chapaev moved east. A brief biography of this commander also contains information about the successful Ufa operation, during which the future capital of Bashkiria was captured. On the night of June 8, 1919, the Belaya River was forced. Now Ufa has become a springboard for the further advance of the Reds to the east.
Since the Chapaevites were at the forefront of the attack, the first to cross Belaya, they were actually surrounded. He himself was wounded in the head, but continued to command, being directly among his soldiers. Mikhail Frunze was next to him. In a stubborn battle, the Red Army beat off street after street. It is believed that it was then that White decided to break opponents with the so-called psychic attack. This episode formed the basis of one of the most famous scenes of the cult film "Chapaev."
Death
For victory in Ufa, Vasily Chapaev received the Order of the Red Banner. In the summer, he and his division defended the approaches to the Volga. Nachdiv became one of the first Bolsheviks to find themselves in Samara. With his direct participation, this strategically important city was finally taken and cleared of whites.
By the beginning of autumn, Chapaev was on the banks of the Ural River. September 5, while in Lbischensk with his headquarters, he and his division were unexpectedly attacked by white Cossacks. It was a bold deep raid of the enemy, organized by General Nikolai Borodin. The main goal of the attack was Chapaev himself, who turned into a sensitive headache for whites. In the ensuing battle, he began to die.
For Soviet culture and propaganda, Chapaev became a unique character in popularity. A great contribution to the creation of this image was made by the film of the Vasilyev brothers, beloved including Stalin. In 1974, the house where Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was born was turned into his museum. Numerous settlements are named after the nachdiva.