Admiral Kolchak. Interrogation protocols. Alexander Kolchak - Interrogation of Kolchak. Transcripts Memories of Kolchak, a naval officer

But Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak did not leave any memoirs. These transcripts of interrogations can serve as something like: the questions concerned almost the entire period of his life, the admiral answered the questions extensively and honestly, realizing that he most likely would not have another opportunity to sum up his life.

Preface

I had to participate in the interrogations of Kolchak, carried out by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in Irkutsk. Created by the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik “Political Center” (1), this commission was then, with the transfer of power to the Revolutionary Committee, reorganized into the Provincial Extraordinary Commission; the composition of the Commission that interrogated Kolchak remained unchanged until the very last interrogation. The Revolutionary Committee quite deliberately retained it, despite the fact that this composition included the Menshevik Denike and two right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries - Lukyanchikov and Alekseevsky. All these persons were useful for interrogation because they were closely familiar with the work of the Kolchak government and, moreover, directly or indirectly participated in the preparation of the Irkutsk uprising against him, in delivering the final blow to him, the results of which were already predetermined by the entry of the Red Army into Siberia and Kolchak’s capture of his capital, Omsk. With the presence of these persons in the Investigative Commission, Kolchak’s tongue loosened more: he did not see in them his decisive and consistent enemies. The very interrogation of Kolchak, who was arrested or, rather, handed over to the “Political Center” from hand to hand by the Czechoslovaks - if I’m not mistaken - on January 17, 1920, began on the eve of the transfer of power from the “Political Center” to the Revolutionary Committee, and, consequently, all interrogations, counting the second, were carried out on behalf of the Soviet, and not the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik government.

The commission conducted the interrogation according to a predetermined plan. She decided to give through this interrogation the history of not only the Kolchak movement itself in the testimony of its supreme leader, but also the autobiography of Kolchak himself, in order to more fully describe this “leader” of the counter-revolutionary attack on the young Soviet Republic. The idea was correct, but its implementation was not completed. Events on the Civil War Front that had not yet been liquidated, and the threat of a temporary seizure of the city hanging over Irkutsk for several days by the remnants of Kolchak’s gangs that had arrived in time, forced the Revkom to shoot Kolchak on the night of February 6-7 instead of his supposed sending after the investigation to trial in Moscow. The interrogation therefore ended where its most significant part began - Kolchakism in the proper sense, the period of the dictatorship of Kolchak as the “supreme ruler”. Thus, the circumstances were such that the historical and biographical nature of the interrogation, due to random circumstances, led to negative results. The interrogation, undoubtedly, gave a pretty good self-portrait of Kolchak, gave a self-history of the emergence of the Kolchak dictatorship, gave a number of the most characteristic features of the Kolchakism, but did not give a complete, exhaustive history and picture of the Kolchakism itself.

The last interrogation took place on February 6, the day when Kolchak’s execution, essentially speaking, had already been decided, although the final verdict had not yet been pronounced. Kolchak knew that the remnants of his gangs were near Irkutsk. Kolchak also knew that the command staff of these gangs presented an ultimatum to Irkutsk to hand over him, Kolchak, and his Prime Minister Pepelyaev (1.2), and he foresaw the inevitable consequences of this ultimatum for him. Just these days, during a search in the prison, his note to his wife Timireva, who was sitting there in the same solitary building with him, was seized. In response to Timireva’s question, how is Kolchak? refers to the ultimatum of his generals, Kolchak replied in his note that he “looks at this ultimatum with skepticism and thinks that this will only speed up the inevitable denouement.” Thus, Kolchak foresaw the possibility of his execution. This was reflected in the last interrogation. Kolchak was in a nervous mood; the usual calmness and restraint that distinguished his behavior during interrogations abandoned him. The interrogators themselves were somewhat nervous. They were nervous and in a hurry. It was necessary, on the one hand, to end a certain period in the history of the Kolchak movement, the establishment of the Kolchak dictatorship, and on the other hand, to give several bright manifestations of this dictatorship recorded by interrogation in its fight against its enemies not only of the revolutionary, but also of the right-wing socialist camp - the camp of those who created this dictatorship prepared. This, significantly jumping ahead from this stage of the issue, was possible to do, but it was possible in a very crumpled form. [V]

At this last interrogation Kolchak. being very nervous, he nevertheless showed great caution in his testimony; he was wary of the slightest possibility of providing material for the accusation of individuals who had already fallen or could still fall into the hands of the restored Soviet power, and of the slightest possibility of discovering that his power, aimed at fighting the fiend of hell - the Bolsheviks, breathing only violence and tyranny, she herself could act outside of any law, he was afraid that his interrogation would help pull off the veil from this power with which he tried to cover it throughout all his testimony - the veil of a steady desire for law and order.

V.I. Lenin, in his speech about deceiving the people with the slogans of freedom and equality, said:

From the editor

The minutes of the meetings of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in the Kolchak case published by the Central Archive are reproduced from a stenographic recording certified by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Commission, K.A. Popov, and stored in the Archives of the October Revolution (Fund LХХV, arch. No. 51). Some parts of the transcript and individual words that could not be read were omitted from the original and ellipses were placed in their place. There are few such omissions, and they do not have any significant significance. The protocols are reproduced by us with all the features of the original, and only some grammatical inaccuracies that interfered with the understanding of the meaning of what was being presented have been corrected by us.

Until now, only very incomplete excerpts from Kolchak’s testimony have appeared in the press; the complete text, verified according to the transcript, has not been published. Published in No. 10 of the Archives of the Russian Revolution, published by Hesse in Berlin, the text of Kolchak’s interrogation bears traces of extremely careless handling of the historical document. Reconciliation of the published text of the testimony in the “Archive of the Russian Revolution” with that stored in the Archive. Oct. Revolution with the original decipherment, convinces us that the editors of the Archive of the Russian Revolution had in their hands a carelessly retyped copy of the interrogation. The published text is replete with countless gross errors and typos that distort the meaning of Kolchak’s testimony.

Many of these errors can be attributed to the carelessness of those who copied the interrogation protocols. Every now and then there are omissions, or gross distortions of names and surnames; for example: Cape Dezhnev is repeatedly called Lezhnev; in one place, the name of General Andogsky, [X] who played a prominent role, is missing; Orlov appears instead of Zheleznyakov (p. 187); “Kotelny” island has been renamed everywhere to “Kotelnikov”; Vasilenko was converted into Vasilev; V. Chernov in one place was turned into Chernyshev, etc.

In addition to such errors and typos, there are obvious distortions of the text in a number of important places. Let's give a few examples: for example, on page 186 it is printed: “accept a position in the second magnetic expedition” - it should read: “accept the position of the second magnetologist of the expedition”; printed on page 94; “Voevodsky, predecessor of Dikov,” follows: “Voevodsky. His predecessor Dikov was rather indifferent to this and did not oppose this work.” Here, in addition to perversion, there is a gap. On page 295 the following phrase from Kolchak addressed to Lebedev, a participant in the coup, is printed: “You must tell me the names of those persons who participated in this...”, while the text followed: “You must not tell me the names,” etc. The correctness of this particular phrase with negation is not confirmed by further context. In one place, on page 228, the distortion of the text even caused surprise to the editors themselves, who accompanied the phrase with a question mark and an exclamation mark. Here is this phrase: “about some skins that should be handed over there to feed (?!) the Black Sea Fleet.” The verified text follows; “about some leathers that should be handed over there in order for these leathers to be tanned. These are skins from cattle that were killed to feed the Black Sea Fleet.” On page 223, somehow Kolchak substitutes himself in the place of General Manikovsky...

Let us also note frequently encountered omissions - there are so many of them, in large and small sizes, that there is no way to list them all; we will give only a few examples.

It took half a century to reach the addressee, his beloved woman.

Midday, August 12, 1967 “Mikeshkin” descends the Bykovskaya channel. We are marking time on the left side, already feeling with our nostrils the proximity of drifting ice. Mathisen and Kolchak, members of the Russian polar expedition of 1901-1902, once walked along this same channel.

Taking with him the boatswain from the Zarya and two sailors, Kolchak from the sloop-four took soundings of the depths in these places where we had now stopped progress. The maps compiled by Kolchak were printed by the Main Hydrographic Directorate of Russia. Most likely, they were also used in the sailing directions displayed on our table: “Pilot chart of the Lena River from the city of Yakutsk to the port of Tiksi. Scale 1:50. Fairway 1964. Yakutsk, 1963.”

Then it could not have occurred to me that in Moscow, on Plyushchikha, on this very day and hour, when we are talking about the admiral, the name of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak is repeated by Anna Vasilievna Timireva, the admiral’s beloved, who returned from exile. “How strange - here is an impenetrable forest, / here, ten steps away, there are plots, dachas, / people are walking, somewhere children are crying, / but here, in the forest, that world seems to have disappeared...” These diary lines of Anna Vasilievna are also dated August 12, 1967, when we, strangers to her, separated by 5 thousand kilometers, thought about the same person, but I will learn about the mystical coincidence of dates after fate deigns to bring me together with Anna Vasilievna.

In the early 1970s, collecting materials for the book “Siberia: where it came from and where it is going. Data. Reflections. Forecasts,” without any hope of success, I will turn to the Irkutsk KGB department with a request to request from Moscow the case of Kolchak and Timireva. They were arrested on January 15, 1920 at the Irkutsk railway station; the arrest was led by 23-year-old staff captain A.G. Nesterov, Deputy Commander of the Political Center troops.

Three or four months later, 19 volumes of “The Case against Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak and others” will arrive from the General Investigative Fund of the KGB Central Archive to Irkutsk. Among the protocols, receipts, certificates typed out on the Underwood of the 1900s, but often by hand, sometimes impossible to read, there was a piece of gray paper, hastily covered with a chemical pencil, folded many times until it became convenient for hiding.

I turned it around, and my vision went dark. This was Kolchak’s last note to Anna Vasilievna Timireva, which did not reach her; it was apparently taken away during a night search before the execution.

When publishing and reprinting the book, the censorship erased the text of the note unconditionally; I barely managed to defend only a fragment. The entire note shone with such love from 46-year-old Kolchak for 26-year-old Anna Timireva (Safonova), such a triumph of their defenseless mutual tenderness over the devastation that had engulfed the earth, that no trace remained of the image of the admiral as he was imagined in those days.

In the village of Zabitui near Irkutsk, I found staff captain Nesterov, a wizened old man, a local utility worker; he spent 40 years in camps and exile for his connection with the Socialist Revolutionary Political Center. From him I heard the details of Kolchak’s arrest.

The train stood without a locomotive, surrounded by two battalions of the 53rd Infantry Regiment, ready to blow up the rail track, but to prevent trains with the admiral and gold reserves from moving east. There were 39 people in Kolchak's carriage; a telegraph mechanic, a clerk, and officials on special assignments crowded in the vestibule and in the aisle, not understanding why they were being pushed out into the cold. Kolchak and Timireva were sitting next to each other in a separate compartment. The arrest of Anna Vasilievna was not envisaged. The staff captain didn't even know about its existence. But she held Alexander Vasilyevich’s hands in hers, insisting that they would go to prison together. They walked under escort along the ice of the Angara, sliding and supporting each other.

Sitting over the archive folders, I could not imagine that a year later I would meet Anna Vasilievna Timireva, who lived on Plyushchikha Street in Moscow under a different name, and, like a postman from oblivion, I would hand over the text of a letter that had been traveling to her for half a century, copied into my notebook.

Anna Timireva

But first, about other papers from the “Case on Charge...” On the second day of arrest, languishing in a separate cell, not knowing what happened to Alexander Vasilyevich and not yet figuring out who to petition for the admiral, Anna Vasilyevna writes in pencil: “I ask you to allow me a meeting with Admiral Kolchak. Anna Timireva. January 16, 1920."

They were allowed short walks together around the prison yard. She was horrified by the situation in which Alexander Vasilyevich found himself, she did not think about herself, her heart was torn from powerlessness to help him so that he would not be so cold in the cell.

She writes freely with the hope that kind people will pass the note to the carriage where their things remained. The warden, apparently, promised to help her, but, not deciding, gave the letter to the Investigative Commission:

“Please pass my note to Admiral Kolchak’s carriage. Please send the admiral - 1) boots, 2) changes of underwear, 3) a mug for tea, 4) a hand jug and basin, 5) cologne, 6) cigarettes, 7) tea and sugar, 8) some food, 9 ) second blanket, 10) pillow, 11) paper and envelopes, 12) pencil.

For me: 1) tea and sugar, 2) food, 3) a couple of sheets, 4) a gray dress, 5) cards, 6) papers and envelopes, 7) candles and matches.

Hello to all of you, my dear friends. Maybe there will be a free person who will bring me all this, one of the brave women.

Anna Timireva. We are sitting in prison separately.”

She emphasized the request for candles: she was afraid of the dark.

For the time being they did not disturb her, only the admiral was taken along the corridor for interrogations. What was unexpected for the Extraordinary Commission of Investigation was the dignity with which Kolchak behaved, how calmly he reread the protocols, correcting inaccuracies before signing. The investigators were not allowed to know that his thoughts were far from these papers, all his anxiety was about Anna, this alone now occupied him, and while answering questions he had to tell people who were strangers to him about his expeditions to the Arctic, the search for Baron Toll, a plan for the revival of the Russian Navy, defeated in the Russo-Japanese War.

He had nothing to renounce. K. Popov, who led the investigation, in the preface to the publication of the shorthand report “Interrogation of Kolchak” in 1925, found an explanation for the testimony that was strange to his ears: “He gave it not so much for the authorities who interrogated him, but for the bourgeois world...”

On the reverse side of the sheet with the stamp “Adjutant of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief” (apparently confiscated during the arrest of the adjutant and used for lack of other paper) there is also a document: “The Extraordinary Investigative Commission, having considered the issue of the further detention of Anna Vasilyevna Timireva, who voluntarily followed prison during the arrest of Admiral Kolchak, decided: in the interests of the investigation into the Kolchak case and in order to avoid the possibility of third parties influencing Timireva, leave A.V. Timirev in custody. Chairman S. Chudnovsky, comrade Chairman of the Investigative Commission K. Popov...”

On the fateful night, when the revolutionary committee’s decision on execution was read to Kolchak, when the ice hole to which the executed man would be dragged was already smoking on the Angarsk ice, Anna Vasilievna heard the clatter of boots in the corridor, saw his gray hat through the crack among the black people.

She was not immediately informed about the execution, they hesitated for a long time, but having learned about this and not suspecting that the Red Army soldiers had pushed the dead man into the water, Anna demanded the body from the prison commandant for burial.

The Irkutsk Provincial Revolutionary Committee sends a resolution to the Extraordinary Investigative Commission:

“In response to Anna Timireva’s petition for the release of Admiral Kolchak’s body to her, the Revolutionary Committee reports that the body is buried and will not be released to anyone.

Business Manager (signature).

A copy of this message should be announced to Timireva.”

The authorities did not know what to do with a woman guilty only of loving a man named Kolchak.

She separated from her husband Timirev, her second cousin, a naval officer, the hero of Port Arthur, in 1918; traces of him were lost in the Russian emigration that poured from the Far East into Manchuria.

In 1922, while temporarily free, she met railway engineer V.K. Knipper, got married, took his last name. This did not prevent new arrests. When they took her away for the fifth time, she asked the investigator what she was accused of. The investigator was surprised: “But the Soviet government has already caused you so many insults...” That is, you should already potentially be an enemy.

When she was free, she looked for Volodya, her son from her first marriage; he was arrested and shot in 1938, when he, a talented artist, was 23 years old. Engineer Knieper patiently waited for Anna Vasilievna’s next release; he died in 1942.

Anna Vasilyevna went through prisons in Irkutsk, Yaroslavl, camps in Transbaikalia and Karaganda, exile in cities and villages of Russia; she developed tuberculosis. At the end of the 50s, completely exhausted, I forced myself to write to the Prosecutor General of the USSR:

“On January 15, 1920, I was arrested in Irkutsk on Kolchak’s train. I was 26 years old then. I loved this man and could not leave him in the last days of his life. This is essentially all my fault... Currently I am 67 years old, I am a completely sick person, this work has long been beyond my strength, it requires great physical endurance, but I cannot quit it, since I have nothing else to live with. I have been working since I was 22, but due to continuous arrests and exiles, I have no work experience for a total of 25 years. “I again ask for my complete rehabilitation, without which it is impossible to exist in the future.”

...We will meet in April 1972 on Plyushchikha, in her old apartment, where her sister and nephew now lived.

A small gray-haired woman will be wrapped in a knitted scarf draped over a white blouse with a lace collar.

We talked about Siberia, went over places in our memories that were familiar to both of us, and for a long time I didn’t have the courage to say what I had come with.

She brought from the next room a letter addressed to the Minister of Culture of the USSR, signed by Shostakovich, Sveshnikov, Gnessina, Khachaturian, Oistrakh, Kozlovsky...

“We kindly ask you to provide assistance in obtaining A.V.’s personal pension. Kniper, nee Safonova, daughter of the outstanding Russian musician V.I. Safonov, who died in February 1918 in Kislovodsk. Anna Vasilievna is 67 years old and is in poor health. Having no means of subsistence, she is forced to work as a prop man at the Rybinsk Drama Theater, which is beyond her strength. Currently, Anna Vasilievna, who was undeservedly in camps and administrative exile for many years, has been completely rehabilitated and is registered in Moscow. But she has nothing to live on...” And the answer: citizen A.V. Timireva’s personal pension is set at 45 rubles.

“How do you live?!” — I couldn’t resist. “Mosfilm” put it on the register: when “noble old women” are needed in crowd scenes, they call me, I get on the tram and rush off. She starred in “The Diamond Arm” and “War and Peace”. Remember Natasha Rostova's ball? Close-up of the princess with a lorgnette - that’s me!” - “And all the income?” - “For a shooting day, 3 rubles... Enough for Taganka, a volume of Okudzhava, sometimes for the Conservatory.”

Time to talk about the note.

And I, hesitatingly, tell how I was looking for documents on the history of Siberia, how the “Case on the Charge...” came to Irkutsk, and among the papers was the last note of Alexander Vasilyevich, taken from him, which did not reach her then. Here's my notebook...

Anna Vasilievna got up and went into another room. Where did the glasses go? Not finding them, she sat down on a chair and in a weak voice, with pauses unusual for her, asked me to read it out loud. Such anticipation tensed in her pupils that I felt uneasy with confusion.

“My dear dove, I received your note, thank you for your affection and concern for me. I don’t know how to react to Woitsekhovsky’s ultimatum; I rather think that nothing will come of it or that the inevitable end will be accelerated. I don’t understand what it means “our walks are completely impossible on Saturday”? Do not worry about me. I feel better, my colds are going away. I think that transfer to another cell is impossible. I only think about you and your fate, the only thing that worries me. I don’t worry about myself - because everything is known in advance. My every move is being watched and it is very difficult for me to write. Write to me. Your notes are the only joy I can have..."

I had difficulty controlling myself.

“Continue,” said Anna Vasilievna.

“I pray for you and bow to your sacrifice. My dear, my beloved, do not worry about me and take care of yourself. I forgave Gaida.
Goodbye, I kiss your hands."

(General G. Gaida in the spring of 1919 commanded the Siberian Army, which was part of the Russian Army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak, for failure to comply with the order of the commander-in-chief, he was deprived of the rank of general and awards; in Vladivostok he led the Socialist Revolutionary rebellion against the Kolchak government, was arrested and left Russia. )

Anna Vasilievna sat motionless, under a scarf wrapped around her shoulders, her thoughts in a distant, terrible time, when the state collapsed, peoples were exterminated, anger and hatred spread across the scorched earth. A train was going through frozen Siberia, snowdrifts and pine trees were swirling in the frosty window, and two people were sitting next to each other, drawn into terrible events and doomed to become their victims; both preserved in their souls the feeling of love, the only value, forgotten by many, trampled by others, and preserved by them, despite everything they had experienced.

Then Anna Vasilievna told me: “I don’t think that in my lifetime the truth will be written about Alexander Vasilyevich; fewer and fewer people who knew him, experienced the charm of his unique mind and high spiritual attitude. The diary entries that I keep in fits and starts, tired, after work, I myself feel, are a bit dry, unable to convey the greatness of this loving and beloved person. He came in - and everything around was made like a holiday. In all my years, if you woke me up and asked me what I want more than anything in the world, I would answer: to see him. I’m trying to write about him in poetry, but my pen is weak.”

Yevtushenko asked me to help him meet with Anna Vasilyevna. I sent Anna Vasilyevna a postcard from Irkutsk. I give the answer in full:

“Dear Leonid Iosifovich, I received your postcard at the hospital, where they are trying to repair me. I am at home now. I regret that we didn’t visit Moscow in winter as we wanted. As for your friend, if he really wants to see me, let him call.

Although it’s summer now and, of course, he’s not in Moscow. I still don’t know what I will do in the future. At 80, things get difficult. So, goodbye, problematic. Anna Kniper. 27.V.73".

It took a long time for Evgeniy Aleksandrovich to get to Plyushchikha. And in January 1978, Anna Vasilievna died. At her grave on Vagankovsky, I remember a half-empty room, a grey-haired, lean woman with piercing eyes wrapped in a scarf, I hear her calm voice tearing through the crazy times - the beloved of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. The bustle raging behind the fence, which seemed to be the meaning of life, had no power over him:

“I can’t accept it for half a century, nothing can help, and you still leave again on that fateful night. But I am condemned to walk until my time passes, and the paths of well-trodden roads are confused. But if I am still alive in spite of fate, then only as your love and memory of you.”

In 2008, Yevtushenko will include poems by Anna Timireva in the anthology “Ten Centuries of Russian Poetry.” It is a pity that Anna Vasilievna did not hear the poet’s poems dedicated to her during her lifetime. She would look for the glasses again and, embarrassed, would ask to read them.

Evgeniy Aleksandrovich was in the circle of “refined old women” who had gone through wars and camps, famous “for being loved by those who were famous,” and, hearing their high style, he seemed to himself “ridiculous, like the Mytishchi Cahors in the Clicquot company.” and "Montillado".

(From the book “Old Rynda”. See “Novaya Gazeta”, No. 127 of November 12, No. 131 of November 21, No. 140 of December 12)

Interrogation of Kolchak
Transcripts
(1)References to notes are indicated. Notes after the text.
From the editor: The minutes of the meetings of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in the Kolchak case published by the Central Archive are reproduced from a stenographic recording certified by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Commission, K.A. Popov, and stored in the Archives of the October Revolution (Fund LХХV, arch. No. 51). Some parts of the transcript and individual words that could not be read were omitted from the original and ellipses were placed in their place. There are few such omissions, and they do not have any significant significance. The protocols are reproduced by us with all the features of the original, and only some grammatical inaccuracies that interfered with the understanding of the meaning of what was being presented have been corrected by us.
Hoaxer: Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak did not leave any memoirs. These transcripts of interrogations can serve as something like: the questions concerned almost the entire period of his life, the admiral answered the questions extensively and honestly, realizing that he most likely would not have another opportunity to sum up his life.
Content
Preface by K. A. Popov
From the editor
Minutes of meetings of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission
Meeting on January 21st
Meeting on January 23
Meeting on January 24
Meeting on January 26
Meeting on January 27
Meeting on January 28
Meeting on January 30th
Meeting on February 4th
Meeting on February 6th
Notes
Index of names
Preface
I had to participate in the interrogations of Kolchak, carried out by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in Irkutsk. Created by the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik Political Center (1), this commission was then, with the transfer of power to the Revolutionary Committee, reorganized into the Provincial Extraordinary Commission; The composition of the Commission that interrogated Kolchak remained unchanged until the very last interrogation. The Revolutionary Committee quite deliberately retained it, despite the fact that this composition included the Menshevik Denike and two right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries - Lukyanchikov and Alekseevsky. All these persons were useful for interrogation because they were closely familiar with the work of the Kolchak government and, moreover, directly or indirectly participated in the preparation of the Irkutsk uprising against him, in delivering the final blow to him, the results of which were already predetermined by the entry of the Red Army into Siberia and Kolchak's capture of his capital - Omsk. With the presence of these persons in the Investigative Commission, Kolchak’s tongue loosened more: he did not see in them his decisive and consistent enemies. The very interrogation of Kolchak, who was arrested or, rather, handed over to the Political Center from hand to hand by the Czecho-Slovaks - if I’m not mistaken - on January 17, 1920, began on the eve of the transfer of power from the Political Center to the Revkom, and, therefore, all interrogations, starting from the second, were already carried out on behalf of the Soviet, and not the SR-Menshevik government.
The commission conducted the interrogation according to a predetermined plan. She decided to give through this interrogation the history of not only the Kolchak movement itself in the testimony of its supreme leader, but also the autobiography of Kolchak himself in order to more fully describe this leader of the counter-revolutionary offensive against the young Soviet Republic. The idea was correct, but its implementation was not completed. Events on the Civil War Front that had not yet been liquidated, and the threat of a temporary seizure of the city hanging over Irkutsk for several days by the remnants of Kolchak’s gangs that had arrived in time, forced the Revkom to shoot Kolchak on the night of February 6-7 instead of his supposed sending after the investigation to trial in Moscow. The interrogation therefore ended where its most significant part began - Kolchakism in the proper sense, the period of the dictatorship of Kolchak as the supreme ruler. Thus, the circumstances were such that the historical and biographical nature of the interrogation, due to random circumstances, led to negative results. The interrogation, undoubtedly, gave a pretty good self-portrait of Kolchak, gave a self-history of the emergence of the Kolchak dictatorship, gave a number of the most characteristic features of the Kolchakism, but did not give a complete, exhaustive history and picture of the Kolchakism itself.
The last interrogation took place on February 6, the day when Kolchak’s execution, essentially speaking, had already been decided, although the final verdict had not yet been pronounced. Kolchak knew that the remnants of his gangs were near Irkutsk. Kolchak also knew that the command staff of these gangs presented an ultimatum to Irkutsk to hand over him, Kolchak, and his Prime Minister Pepelyaev (1.2), and he foresaw the inevitable consequences of this ultimatum for him. Just these days, during a search in the prison, his note to his wife Timireva, who was sitting there in the same solitary building with him, was seized. In response to Timireva’s question, how is Kolchak? refers to the ultimatum of his generals, Kolchak replied in his note that he looks at this ultimatum with skepticism and thinks that this will only speed up the inevitable denouement. Thus, Kolchak foresaw the possibility of his execution. This was reflected in the last interrogation. Kolchak was in a nervous mood; the usual calmness and restraint that distinguished his behavior during interrogations abandoned him. The interrogators themselves were somewhat nervous. They were nervous and in a hurry. It was necessary, on the one hand, to end a certain period in the history of the Kolchak movement, the establishment of the Kolchak dictatorship, and on the other hand, to give several bright manifestations of this dictatorship recorded by interrogation in its fight against its enemies not only of the revolutionary, but also of the right-wing socialist camp - the camp of those who created this dictatorship prepared. This, significantly jumping ahead from this stage of the issue, was possible to do, but it was possible in a very crumpled form. [V]
At this last interrogation Kolchak. being very nervous, he nevertheless showed great caution in his testimony; he was wary of the slightest possibility of providing material for the accusation of individuals who had already fallen or could still fall into the hands of the restored Soviet power, and of the slightest possibility of discovering that his power, aimed at fighting the fiend of hell - the Bolsheviks, breathing only violence and tyranny, she herself could act outside of any law, he was afraid that his interrogation would help pull off the veil from this power with which he tried to cover it throughout all his testimony - the veil of a steady desire for law and order.
V.I. Lenin, in his speech about deceiving the people with the slogans of freedom and equality, said:
It is rather foolish to blame Kolchak just because he committed violence against workers and even flogged teachers because they sympathized with the Bolsheviks. This is a vulgar defense of democracy, these are Kolchak’s stupid accusations. Kolchak acts in the ways that he finds.
The commission, finding out some striking facts from the field of violence carried out by Kolchak and the Kolchak military, undoubtedly, to some extent, fell into the tone of such a rather stupid censure of Kolchak. But this violence and persecution was felt too vividly in Siberia at that time for it to be possible to talk about them with Kolchak, maintaining the attitude towards him that V.I. Lenin recommends to us. What is important, however, is not this feature of the interrogations, but what is important is the attitude that the bearer of the military, typically fascist counter-revolutionary dictatorship himself shows towards acts of violence. If the commission was inclined to rather foolishly blame Kolchak for them, then Kolchak himself constantly reveals a desire to either gloss over these acts, or blame them on the excesses of individual lindens and groups against the will of the dictator and his government, or find a legal justification for them. Quite frankly, portraying himself as an unconditional supporter and promoter of the idea of opposing the White Guard military dictatorship to the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks, he does not want, does not have the courage to accept full responsibility for all the consequences of this dictatorship, for those methods of its implementation that were both inevitable and unique for it. possible.
The White Guard military dictatorship (this is clearly evident from Kolchak’s testimony) turned from a centralized dictatorship into a dictatorship of individual generals and Cossack atamans, from violence firmly directed from a single center into violence over Siberia by individual gangs that escaped subordination to the supreme ruler and his government. But it was still a single dictatorship, from top to bottom, built on the same model, operating with the same methods. And there was only one difference between the top and the bottom of this dictatorship: the top tried to bashfully cover up in the eyes of its leaders - the imperialist powers of the Entente - what the bottom with their counter-intelligence and counter-intelligence and guard detachments; with their Volkovs, Krasilnikovs and Annenkovs.
This difference was reflected in Kolchak’s testimony. He gave them not so much for the authorities who interrogated him, but for the bourgeois world. He knew what awaited him. He did not need to hide anything to save himself. He did not expect salvation, could not wait, and did not try to grasp at any straws for its sake. But he needed to show himself, in the face of the bourgeois world, to act against the enemies of this world, against the proletarian revolution, firmly, decisively, but at the same time within the framework of bourgeois legality. He had little knowledge of the bourgeois world that the Anglo-French imperialists had put forward to defend. He did not know that the dictatorship that he headed in Siberia and which he so unsuccessfully sought to extend to the entire country was a model and similarity of Western European fascism, a fascist dictatorship put forward by the bourgeois world itself, before which he wants to show himself as a bearer of the rule of law and order, smugly and stupidly blaming the Semenovs, Kalmykovs, etc., etc. because they, without any legality and without any order, raped the workers, shot, flogged, etc.
The same stupid modesty in front of the bourgeois world forces Kolchak to be modest in another respect: he in no way, even in relation to the distant past, does not want to admit that he is a monarchist. And he covers up his monarchism, the monarchical goals of his entire struggle against Bolshevism with a veil of democratic aspirations - again for the sake of the bourgeois world and thanks to his poor understanding of this world.
If we exclude these characteristic features of Kolchak’s testimony and remember our already noted fear of him providing material for the accusation of his employees, assistants and servants, then we must admit that Kolchak’s testimony, in general, is quite frank.
How did he behave during interrogations? He behaved like a prisoner of war commander of an army that had lost the campaign, and from this point of view he behaved with complete dignity. In this he differed sharply from most of his ministers with whom I had to deal as an investigator in the case of the Kolchak government. There was, with rare exceptions, cowardice, a desire to present themselves as unwitting participants in a dirty story started by someone else, even to portray themselves as almost fighters against these others, a transformation from yesterday’s rulers into today’s slaves before the victorious enemy. There was nothing of this in Kolchak’s behavior.
But in one thing he comes close to his civilian comrades, who shared his stay in the solitary ward of the Irkutsk prison. All of them, as if by choice, were complete political nonentities. Their leader, Kolchak, was also a nonentity in political terms. His testimony reveals this with sufficient clarity. He is a politically impersonal figure. He is a mere toy in the hands of the Entente powers. He, with his naked idea of a military dictatorship and the hidden thought of restoring the monarchy, has no policy other than that which is dictated to him by the contradictory influences of these powers, and the groups and groups of military and commercial and industrial circles surrounding him, with their political leaders of dubious quality . In these contradictory influences, he becomes hopelessly confused and becomes more entangled, the stronger the pressure of the advancing Red Army becomes, until, finally, he is betrayed by his own yesterday's allies - the Czechoslovaks, of course, with the knowledge of the same Entente powers, who put him at the head of the counter-influence. revolution.
I limit myself to these brief remarks.
No matter how one evaluates the organization of Kolchak’s interrogation and his testimony, their publication will undoubtedly provide quite a bit of value for anyone who wants to study the history of the counter-revolution, and, of course, for any historian of it.
K. Popov.
From the editor
The minutes of the meetings of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in the Kolchak case published by the Central Archive are reproduced from a stenographic recording certified by the Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Commission, K.A. Popov, and stored in the Archives of the October Revolution (Fund LXXV, arch. No. 51). Some parts of the transcript and individual words that could not be read were omitted from the original and ellipses were placed in their place. There are few such omissions, and they do not have any significant significance. The protocols are reproduced by us with all the features of the original, and only some grammatical inaccuracies that interfered with the understanding of the meaning of what was being presented have been corrected by us.
Until now, only very incomplete excerpts from Kolchak’s testimony have appeared in the press; the complete text, verified according to the transcript, has not been published. Published in No. 10 of the Archives of the Russian Revolution, published by Hesse in Berlin, the text of Kolchak’s interrogation bears traces of extremely careless handling of the historical document. Reconciliation of the published text of the testimony in the Archive of the Russian Revolution with that stored in the Archive. Oct. Revolution with the original decipherment, convinces us that the editors of the Archive of the Russian Revolution had in their hands a carelessly retyped copy of the interrogation. The published text is replete with countless gross errors and typos that distort the meaning of Kolchak’s testimony.
Many of these errors can be attributed to the carelessness of those who copied the interrogation protocols. Every now and then there are omissions, or gross distortions of names and surnames; for example: Cape Dezhnev is repeatedly called Lezhnev; in one place, the name of General Andogsky, [X] who played a prominent role, is missing; Orlov appears instead of Zheleznyakov (p. 187); Kotelny Island has been renamed everywhere to Kotelnikov; Vasilenko was converted into Vasilev; V. Chernov in one place was turned into Chernyshev, etc.
In addition to such errors and typos, there are obvious distortions of the text in a number of important places. Let's give a few examples: for example, on page 186 it is printed: accept a position in the second magnetic expedition - it should read: accept the position of the second magnetologist of the expedition; printed on page 94; Voevodsky, predecessor of Dikov, follows: Voevodsky. His predecessor Dikov was rather indifferent to this and did not oppose this work. Here, in addition to perversion, there is a gap. On page 295 the following phrase from Kolchak addressed to Lebedev, a participant in the coup, is printed: You must tell me the names of those persons who participated in this..., whereas the text should have been: You must not tell me the names, etc. The correctness is precisely This negative phrase is not confirmed by further context. In one place, on page 228, the distortion of the text even caused surprise to the editors themselves, who accompanied the phrase with a question mark and an exclamation mark. Here is this phrase: regarding some skins that should be handed over there to feed (?!) the Black Sea Fleet. The verified text follows; regarding some leathers that should be handed over there in order for these leathers to be tanned. These are skins from cattle that were killed to feed the Black Sea Fleet. On page 223, somehow Kolchak substitutes himself in the place of General Manikovsky...
Let us also note frequently encountered omissions - there are so many of them, in large and small sizes, that there is no way to list them all; we will give only a few examples.
On page 242 the dialogue is missing: Alekseevsky. If the government ordered your return, would you return? (We are talking about Kolchak’s attitude to the order of the Kerensky government to return to command of the Black Sea Fleet after the well-known events there.) Kolchak. Without a doubt.
On page 319 the words are missing: Popov. - I say - in counter-intelligence at headquarters. I return to the issue of the military court proceedings in Kulomzin.
In the message about the Czech demand regarding the composition of the government, the following was omitted: Mikhailov and several other persons, I don’t remember exactly who, and that they insist that these persons not be included in the Siberian government. For me, as a new person, the question of the candidacy of Mikhailov or anyone else was completely open.
A very important detail was released in Boldyrev’s behavior before the Kolchak coup: This question worried him extremely, and therefore he left without waiting for my arrival.
Numerous omissions, distortions of the text, replacement of phrases, etc. completely devalue the printed text. The editors' attempts to correct obvious nonsense in some cases by inserting supposed words, enclosing them in brackets, not only did not improve the situation, but introduced even greater confusion. Here is a striking example: in the place where we are talking about mobilization in the five-verst stretch of the railway, the typist made a typo 5 ver(s)t; the editors of the Archive of the Russian Revolution deciphered it this way: 5 ages. And there are quite a few such cases. The text printed in the Archive of the Russian Revolution is not provided with any notes.
Thus, the text of the testimony we publish is the only accurate and reliable reproduction of the original protocols of Kolchak’s interrogation.
Minutes of meetings of the emergency investigative commission
in the Kolchak case
(Transcript report)
Meeting of the emergency investigative commission
January 21st, 1920
Popov. You are present before the Investigative Commission, consisting of its chairman: K. A. Popov, deputy chairman V. P. Denike, commission members: G. G. Lukyanchikov and N. A. Alekseevsky, for questioning about your detention. Are you Admiral Kolchak?
Kolchak. Yes, I am Admiral Kolchak.
Popov. We warn you that you have the right, like every person interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission, not to give answers to certain questions and not to give answers at all. How old are you?
Kolchak. I was born in 1873, I am now 46 years old. I was born in Petrograd, at the Obukhov plant. I am legally married and have one son aged 9 years.
Popov. Were you the Supreme Ruler?
Kolchak. I was the Supreme Ruler of the Russian Government in Omsk, he was called All-Russian, but I personally did not use this term. My wife Sofya Fedorovna used to be in Sevastopol, and is now in France. I corresponded with her through the embassy. My son Rostislav is with her.
Popov. Here Ms. Timireva was voluntarily arrested. What does she have to do with you?
Kolchak. She is my old good friend; She was in Omsk, where she worked in my workshop sewing linen and distributing it to military ranks of the sick and wounded. She remained in Omsk until the last days, and then, when I had to leave due to military circumstances, she went with me on the train. She arrived here on this train until the time when I was detained by the Czechs. When I came here, she wanted to share the fate with me.
Popov. Tell me, Admiral, is she not your common-law wife? We don't have the right to record this?
Kolchak. No.
Alekseevsky. Tell us your wife's last name.
Kolchak. Sofya Fedorovna Omirova. I got married in 1904 here in Irkutsk, in the month of March. My wife is a native of Kamenets-Podolsk province. Her father was a judicial investigator or a member of the Kamenets-Podolsk court. He died a long time ago; I didn’t see him and didn’t know him. My father, Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak. served in the naval artillery. Like all naval gunners, he took a course at the Mining Institute, then he was at the Ural Zlatoust plant, after which he was a receiver for the naval department at the Obukhov plant. When he retired with the rank of major general, he remained at this plant as an engineer or mining technician. That's where I was born. My mother is Olga Ilyinichna, nee Posokhova. Her father comes from the nobles of the Kherson province. My mother is a native of Odessa and also from a noble family. Both my parents died. They had no fortune. My father was a serving officer. After the Sevastopol War, he was captured by the French and upon returning from captivity, he married, and then served in the artillery and at the Mining Institute. My father’s entire family was supported solely by his earnings. I am Orthodox; Before entering school, he received a family education under the guidance of his father and mother. I have one sister - Ekaterina; There was another little sister - Lyubov, but she died in childhood. My sister Ekaterina is married. Her last name is Kryzhanovskaya. She remained in Russia; where she is currently, I don't know. She lived in Petrograd, but I have not had any information about her since I left Russia.
I began my education at the 6th Petrograd classical gymnasium, where I stayed until the 3rd grade; then in 1888 I entered the naval corps and completed my education there in 1894. I transferred to the naval corps both at my own request and at the request of my father. I was a sergeant major, I was always first or second in my graduation, changing with my comrade with whom I entered the corps. He left the corps second and received the Admiral Ricord Award. I was 19 years old then. The corps established a whole series of bonuses for the first five or six first to leave, and they were received according to seniority.
Upon leaving the corps in 1894, I joined the Petrograd 7th naval crew; stayed there for several months, until the spring of 1895, when he was appointed assistant watch chief on the armored cruiser Rurik, which had just completed construction and was preparing to depart abroad. Then I went on my first overseas voyage. The cruiser Rurik went east, and here, in Vladivostok, I went to another cruiser Cruiser, as a watch commander, at the end of 1896. I sailed on it in the waters of the Pacific Ocean until 1899, when this cruiser returned back to Kronstadt. This was my first big voyage. In 1900 I was promoted to lieutenant and returned from this voyage as a watch commander. During my first voyage, the main task was often combat on the ship, but in addition, I specifically worked on oceanography and hydrology. From that time on, I began to engage in scientific work. I was preparing for a south polar expedition, but I did it in my free time; wrote notes, studied the south polar countries. I had a dream of finding the south pole; but I never got to sail the southern ocean.
Alekseevsky. How was your service upon your return? Have you entered the Academy?
Kolchak. No, I couldn't do that. When I returned to Petrograd in May 1899, I then went east again in December, already on a battleship, the battleship Petropavlovsk. Prince Pozharsky spent the summer in the naval cadet corps on the cruiser and went to the Far East.
When I returned to Kronstadt in 1899, I met there with Admiral Makarov, who sailed on Ermak on his first polar expedition. I asked to take me with him, but due to official circumstances he could not do this and Ermak left without me. Then I decided to go to the Far East again, believing that maybe I would be able to get on some kind of expedition - I was very interested in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean from a hydrological point of view. I wanted to get on some ship that goes to protect the seal fishery on the Commander Islands, the Bering Sea, and Kamchatka. I got to know Admiral Makarov very closely these days, since he himself worked a lot on oceanography.
But then there were big changes in my plans. In September I left Petropavlovsk for the Mediterranean Sea in order to pass through Suez to the Far East, and in September I arrived in Piraeus. Here, quite unexpectedly for myself, I received an offer from Baron Toll (2) to take part in the northern polar expedition organized by the Academy of Sciences under his command, as a hydrologist for this expedition. My works and some printed works attracted the attention of Baron Toll. He needed three naval officers, and among the naval officers he chose me. I received an offer through the Academy of Sciences to participate in this expedition. I accepted this offer immediately, since it met my wishes, and in December the Naval Ministry seconded me to the disposal of the Academy of Sciences.
From Piraeus I left for Odessa, then to Petrograd, and in January I came to Baron Toll and entered his disposal. In addition to hydrology, I was asked to take on the position of second magnetologist of the expedition. There was a specialist in magnetology - Seeberg, and I was asked to do this as his assistant. In order to prepare me for this task, I was assigned to. the main physical observatory in Petrograd and then to the Pavlovsk Magnetic Observatory. There I spent three months intensively doing practical work on magnetism to study magnetism. This was in 1900. From the very beginning I worked at the Petrograd Physical Observatory, and I worked in detail in Pavlovsk. Finally, the expedition was equipped and left Petrograd in July on the ship Zarya, which was equipped in Norway for polar navigation by the builder Fram. I went to Norway, where I studied in Christiania with Nansen, who was a friend of Baron Toll. He taught me to work using new methods.
Alekseevsky. Can you tell me which members of this expedition are currently alive and in contact with you?
Kolchak. Now all relations with everyone are broken. Baron Toll died along with Seeberg, Dr. Walter died, I was constantly in touch with the zoologist Birulya before the war; Where is Birulya now, I don’t know. Then there was another great friend, a fellow expedition member, Volosovich (3), who later became a geologist; I don’t know where he is now either. One of the officers there was Kolomiytsev, he seems to be here in Irkutsk. I saw him when in 1917 he again went to the mouth of the Lena. The expedition left in 1900 and stayed until 1902. I was on this expedition all the time. We wintered in Taimyr, two wintered on the New Siberian Islands, on Kotelny Island; then, in the 3rd year, Baron Toll, seeing that we were still unable to get north from the New Siberian Islands, undertook this expedition. Together with Seeberg and two mushers, he went to the north of the Siberian Islands. He had his own ideas about the large continent he wanted to find, but this year the condition of the ice was such that we could only penetrate to the land of Bepetta. Then he decided that he couldn’t get there on the ship, so he left. In view of the fact that our Supplies were running out, he ordered us to make our way to the land of Bennett and explore it, and if this fails, then go to the mouth of the Lena and return through Siberia to Petrograd, bring all the collections and begin working on a new expedition. He himself expected to return to the New Siberian Islands on his own, where we left warehouses for him. In 1902, in the spring, Baron Toll left us about Seeberg so that he would never return: he died during the transition back from the land of Bennett. We used the summer to try to get north to Benett's land, but we were unsuccessful. The ice condition was even worse. When we passed the northern parallel of the Siberian Islands, we encountered large ice that did not allow us to penetrate further. With the end of navigation, we came to the mouth of the Lena, and then the old steamer Lena came to us and took the entire expedition off the mouth of Tiksti. The collections were transferred to Lena, and we returned to Yakutsk, then to Irkutsk, and in December 1902 we arrived in Petrograd. At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, the general state of the expedition’s work and the position of Baron Toll were reported. His fate greatly alarmed the Academy. Indeed, his enterprise was extremely risky. There were very few chances, but Baron Toll was a man who believed in his star, and that he could get away with anything, and went on this venture. The Academy was extremely alarmed, and then at the meeting I raised the question that it was necessary now, immediately, without delaying a single day, to equip a new expedition to the land of Bennett to assist Baron Toll and his companions, and since at Dawn this was to be done impossible (it was December, and in the spring it was necessary to be on the New Siberian Islands in order to make use of the summer), Zarya was completely broken - then it was necessary to provide quick and decisive help. Then, after thinking and weighing everything that could be done, I proposed to make our way to Benett’s land and, if necessary, even to search for Baron Toll in boats. This pre-fifth was of the same order as the enterprise of Baron Toll; there was no other way out, in my opinion. When I proposed this plan, my companions were extremely skeptical about it and said that it was as crazy as Baron Toll’s tag. But when I offered to take on this undertaking myself, the Academy of Sciences gave me the means and agreed to give me the opportunity to carry out this task as I see fit. The Academy gave me complete freedom and provided me with the means and opportunity to do this. Then in the month of January I left for Arkhangelsk, where I chose four companions from the Mezen tulip-pro-myshlshshshki. Two more of my sailors from the expedition agreed with me - Belichev and Zheleznyakov. When I came to the congress of seal industry workers, they became interested in this matter, “they chose four hunters for me who were accustomed to swimming in ice, and I was with them, two sailors and four seal industry workers,” and in December I went back to Irkutsk to prepare here in the north there is everything necessary to immediately leave for the New Siberian Islands, which I chose as a base.
I contacted a political exile in Yakutsk by telegraph, O.V. Olenin4), whom I met. He studied the Yakut region. I turned to him so that during my absence he would go north to prepare things and dogs for the passage to the New Siberian Islands. He agreed to this and did everything. Then from Irkutsk I went to Yakutsk, without wasting a single day anywhere. As soon as possible, I went from Yakutsk to Verkhoyansk, then to Ustyansk, where Olenin, who had purchased the dogs, was waiting for me; then on dogs I went to the mouth of Tikti, took one of the good whaling whaleboats from Zarya, dragged it back to Ustyansk on dogs and at the beginning of May, together with my six companions, Olenin and a party of local Yakuts and Tungus, who were like mushers, with transport 160 dogs, left Ustyansk for Kotelny Island.

Each of the four White Leaders made a strong impression on people in their own way. Kornilov, a spring-like man, captivated people with his indomitable energy and indestructible will. Denikin attracted people with the simplicity, kindness and openness of the nature of a real Russian person. Wrangel (like a dashing cavalry general straight out of a picture) attracted everyone with his calm courage, intelligence and management. But perhaps no one made such a deep impression on others as Kolchak.

A few excerpts about Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak from the memoirs of his comrades and contemporaries:

1. Prime Minister P.V. Vologodsky: “The Admiral captivates with his nobility and sincerity” (Vologodsky P.V. In power and in exile. - Ryazan, 2006. - P. 120).

2. Manager of the Council of Ministers G.K. Gins: “As a person, the admiral captivated with his sincerity, honesty and directness... An intelligent, educated man, he shone in intimate conversations with his wit and varied knowledge and could, without at all trying to, charm his interlocutor... His immaculate reputation served as a guarantee of the integrity of the movement, and all opponents of Bolshevism stood under his banner” (Gins G.K. Siberia, allies and Kolchak. - M., 2008. - P. 10, 12).
The same Gins recalled him this way during the most critical, dramatic days on the eve of the evacuation of Omsk: “The admiral was completely lost in his own eyes. His eyes looked past his interlocutors, large, burning, bottomless, and were directed towards the front” (Ibid. - p. 495).

3. Manager of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I.I. Sukin: “He did not suffer from vanity, grandeur, or pathos; on the contrary, he had the gift of concentration and confident treatment of employees, firm and clear orders to subordinates and full of dignity in conversation with foreigners. The entire appearance, corresponding to the title of Supreme Ruler, was perceived by him with instinctive ease and sensitivity" (Notes of I.I. Sukin about the Kolchak government. - In the book: Behind Kolchak / Edited by A.V. Kvakin. - M. , 2005. - P. 349). “His political worldview boiled down to very few, but sharply defined convictions, in which he firmly believed to the end... No considerations or arguments of political expediency could force him, for example, to agree to the separation of one or another of its outskirts from Russia” (ibid. , p. 451).

4. Minister of War General Baron A.V. Budberg “There is hardly another person in Rus' who so disinterestedly, sincerely, confidently, soulfully and chivalrously serves the idea of restoring the United Great and Indivisible Russia” (Budberg A.V. Diary of a White Guard. - In the book: Gul R. Ice March Denikin A. The campaign and death of General Kornilov. Budberg A. Diary. - M., 1990.. - P. 305).

5. Minister of the Navy Admiral M.I. Smirnov: “An excellent military speaker, with a short, figurative speech he penetrated the hearts of his listeners... His rule, as an active military sailor, was to attack the enemy, but he always knew how to weigh the chances of success... If the revolution had not happened, Kolchak would have hoisted the Russian flag on the Bosphorus... Bely color is a sign of purity of intentions, honesty of life, sincerity of the soul. The name White Leader suits no one else as well as Admiral Kolchak” (Smirnov M.I. Admiral A.V. Kolchak. - Paris, 1930. - P. 60).

6. Minister of Labor Menshevik L.I. Shumilovsky, who was subsequently arrested and shot by the Bolsheviks, even at his trial had the courage to say: “I considered him an impeccably honest man. And during the entire subsequent period I was not able to find out a single fact that would have shattered my faith in him” (Trial of Kolchak’s ministers. May 1920: Collection of documents. - M., 2003. - P. 113).

7. Minister of Supply, one of the leaders of the Siberian regionalists I.I. Serebrennikov: “The admiral could at times speak well and forcefully, influencing the listeners with the conviction and sincerity of his words” (Serebrennikov I.I. Civil War in Russia. The Great Departure. T. 1. - M., 2003. - P. 432). “The most honest and sincere Russian patriot in the best sense of the word and a man of crystal spiritual purity” (Ibid., p. 451). “In the most terrible, last minute of his life, A.V. Kolchak did not give his enemies a malicious triumph... He died the same way he lived, preserving his pride and honest courage, which distinguished his entire glorious life path” (Ibid., p. 66).

8. The head of the British military mission, General A. Knox: “He has two qualities unusual for a Russian: a temper that instills awe in his subordinates, and a reluctance to talk just for the sake of chatting” (Quoted from the book: Fleming P. The fate of Admiral Kolchak. Translated from English - M., 2006. - P. 100).

9. One of the leaders of the cadets, later the ideologist of the “Smenovekhovites”, Professor N.V. Ustryalov: “A sober, nervous mind, sensitive, complicated. Nobility, the greatest simplicity, the absence of any pose” (Ustryalov N.V. In the struggle for Russia. - In the book: Ustryalov N.V. National Bolshevism. - M., 2003. - P. 120).

10. One of the leaders of the cadets L.A. Krol: “Kolchak was undoubtedly a sincere person... an undoubted patriot, a wonderful person and an excellent sailor” (Krol L.A. For three years (memories, impressions and meetings). - Vladivostok, 1921. - P. 167).

11. Commander of the 3rd (Western) Army, General K.V. Sakharov: “The personality of the Supreme Ruler emerges as exceptionally bright, knightly pure and direct; he was a great Russian patriot, a man of great intelligence and education, a scientist-traveler and an outstanding sailor-naval commander... The direct, deeply penetrating gaze of burning eyes knew how to subjugate the will of others, as if hypnotizing them with the power of a multifaceted soul" (Sakharov K.V. White Siberia . - Munich, 1923. - P. 34).

12. General D.V. Filatiev: “A knight without fear or reproach, who never sought anything for himself personally and gave himself all to serving the Motherland... Until the end of his days, he remained a pure idealist and a convinced slave of duty and service to Great Russia” (D.V. Filatiev, Bely’s Catastrophe movements in Siberia. - Paris, 1985. - P. 13).

Interrogation of Kolchak

Transcripts

Preface

I had to participate in the interrogations of Kolchak, carried out by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission in Irkutsk. Created by the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik “Political Center”, this commission was then, with the transfer of power to the Revolutionary Committee, reorganized into the Provincial Extraordinary Commission; the composition of the Commission that interrogated Kolchak remained unchanged until the very last day of the interrogation... The Revolutionary Committee quite deliberately retained it, despite the fact that this composition included the Menshevik Denike and two right-wing Socialist-Revolutionaries - Lukyanchikov and Alekseevsky. All these persons were useful for interrogation because they were closely familiar with the work of the Kolchak government and, moreover, directly or indirectly participated in the preparation of the Irkutsk uprising against him, in delivering the final blow to him, the results of which were already predetermined by the entry of the Red Army into Siberia and Kolchak's capture of his capital - Omsk. With the presence of these persons in the Investigative Commission, Kolchak’s tongue loosened more: he did not see in them his decisive and consistent enemies. The very interrogation of Kolchak, who was arrested or, rather, handed over to the “Political Center” from hand to hand by the Czecho-Slovaks - if I’m not mistaken - on January 17, 1920, began on the eve of the transfer of power from the “Political Center” to the Revolutionary Committee, and, consequently, all interrogations, counting the second, were carried out on behalf of the Soviet, and not the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik government.

The last interrogation took place on February 6, the day when Kolchak’s execution, essentially speaking, had already been decided, although the final verdict had not yet been pronounced. Kolchak knew that the remnants of his gangs were near Irkutsk. Kolchak also knew that the command staff of these gangs presented an ultimatum to Irkutsk to hand over him, Kolchak, and his Prime Minister Pepelyaev, and he foresaw the inevitable consequences of this ultimatum for him. Just these days, during a search in the prison, his note to his wife Timireva, who was sitting there in the same solitary building with him, was seized. In response to Timireva’s question, how is Kolchak? refers to the ultimatum of his generals, Kolchak replied in his note that he “looks at this ultimatum with skepticism and thinks that this will only speed up the inevitable denouement.” Thus, Kolchak foresaw the possibility of his execution. This was reflected in the last interrogation. Kolchak was in a nervous mood; the usual calmness and restraint that distinguished his behavior during interrogations abandoned him. The interrogators themselves were somewhat nervous. They were nervous and in a hurry. It was necessary, on the one hand, to end a certain period in the history of the Kolchak movement, the establishment of the Kolchak dictatorship, and on the other hand, to give several bright manifestations of this dictatorship recorded by interrogation in its fight against its enemies not only of the revolutionary, but also of the right-wing socialist camp - the camp of those who created this dictatorship prepared. This, significantly jumping ahead from this stage of the issue, was possible to do, but it was possible in a very crumpled form. [V]

V.I. Lenin, in his speech about deceiving the people with the slogans of freedom and equality, said:

“It is rather foolish to blame Kolchak just because he committed violence against workers and even flogged teachers because they sympathized with the Bolsheviks. This is a vulgar defense of democracy, these are Kolchak’s stupid accusations. Kolchak acts in the ways that he finds.”

The commission, finding out some striking facts from the field of violence carried out by Kolchak and the Kolchak military, undoubtedly, to some extent, fell into the tone of such a “rather stupid censure of Kolchak.” But this violence and persecution was felt too vividly in Siberia at that time for it to be possible to talk about them with Kolchak, maintaining the attitude towards him that V.I. Lenin recommends to us. What is important, however, is not this feature of the interrogations, but what is important is the attitude that the bearer of the military, typically fascist counter-revolutionary dictatorship himself shows towards acts of violence. If the commission was inclined to “rather foolishly blame Kolchak for them,” then Kolchak himself constantly reveals a desire to either gloss over these acts, or blame them on the excesses of individual lindens and groups against the will of the dictator and his government, or find a legal justification for them. Quite frankly, portraying himself as an unconditional supporter and promoter of the idea of opposing the White Guard military dictatorship to the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks, he does not want, does not have the courage to accept full responsibility for all the consequences of this dictatorship, for those methods of its implementation that were both inevitable and unique for it. possible.

The White Guard military dictatorship (this is clearly evident from Kolchak’s testimony) turned from a centralized dictatorship into a dictatorship of individual generals and Cossack atamans, from violence firmly directed from a single center into violence over Siberia by individual gangs that escaped subordination to the “supreme ruler” and his government . But it was still a single dictatorship, from top to bottom, built on the same model, operating with the same methods. And there was only one difference between the top and the bottom of this dictatorship: the top tried to bashfully cover up in the eyes of its leaders - the imperialist powers of the Entente - what the bottom and their counter-powers were developing in their “work” completely freely, openly, without any hint of modesty. reconnaissance and guard detachments; with their Volkovs, Krasilnikovs and Annenkovs.

This difference was reflected in Kolchak’s testimony. He gave them not so much for the authorities who interrogated him, but for the bourgeois world. He knew what awaited him. He did not need to hide anything to save himself. He did not expect salvation, could not wait, and did not try to grasp at any straws for its sake. But he needed to show himself, in the face of the bourgeois world, to act against the enemies of this world, against the proletarian revolution, firmly, decisively, but at the same time within the framework of bourgeois legality. He had little knowledge of the bourgeois world that the Anglo-French imperialists had put forward to defend. He did not know that the dictatorship that he headed in Siberia and which he so unsuccessfully sought to spread throughout the country was a model and similarity of Western European fascism, a fascist dictatorship put forward by the bourgeois world itself, before which he “wants to show himself as a bearer of the rule of law.” and order, smugly and stupidly blaming the Semenovs, Kalmykovs, etc., etc. because they, without any legality and without any order, raped the workers, shot, flogged, etc.

The same stupid modesty in front of the bourgeois world forces Kolchak to be modest in another respect: he in no way, even in relation to the distant past, does not want to admit that he is a monarchist. And he covers up his monarchism, the monarchical goals of his entire struggle against Bolshevism with a veil of democratic aspirations - again for the sake of the bourgeois world and thanks to his poor understanding of this world.