22.11.2016
Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev is one of the legendary figures, which remain in the memory of people after many decades after their death. He was a fearless and very talented military leader - this can be evidenced not only by official sources covering history in the perspective that is now pleasing ruling elite, but also the memories of contemporaries, those people with whom Chapaev communicated, served, made friends. What genuine interesting facts from Chapaev's biography can they tell us?
- The future folk hero was born into a poor family. Vasily was the sixth child, after him there were three more. He was so small and weak (he was born seven months old) that, as his fellow villagers joked after, he warmed himself on the stove in his father's mitten.
- The surname "Chapaev" most likely came from the nickname "Chepai". That was the nickname of the famous divisional commander, who worked as a loader and picked up - “chased” - boxes and boxes.
- When the boy grew up a little, he was sent to study. But no one thought, did not guess that Vasya would become a military man. He was assigned to a parochial school and predicted for him the fate of a clergyman.
- Young Vasily married at the age of 18 a 16-year-old girl Pelageya. She bore him three children. Before Chapaev was taken to the front, the couple lived quite happily: the head of the family was a carpenter, his wife raised heirs.
- In World War I, Chapaev served for the "Tsar-Father". He distinguished himself even then: in the very first battles he received four "George" - for courage.
- When the young commander went over to the side of the Bolsheviks and returned home on one of his vacations, the most unpleasant news awaited him: his wife had gone to another. Vasily enthusiastically gave himself up to military service in order to forget the trouble, he did not try to take revenge on his unfaithful wife.
- It is believed that Chapaev had practically no education. This is not so: in 1918 he was sent to study at the Academy of the Red Army. It cannot be said that this delighted the young hero: he began to ask for the front, saying that there was no place for military commanders at the student's desk. And he even allegedly rude to one eminent professor who was trying to extract knowledge about the Neman River from a student. "What do you know about the Neman?" the teacher insisted. “What do you know about the Solyanka River?” - the negligent student retorted, alluding to the battle in which he took part and which he won.
- Love dramas directly pursued the military commander. When he learned about the death of his friend Kamishkertsev in battle, then, according to a long-standing agreement between them, he went to a distant village in order to take his children under his care. Friends agreed: if one dies, the second will take care of the family of the fallen in battle. The wife of Kamishkertsev (by the way, also Pelageya) asked Chapaev: “Take me with the children.” They began to live as one family - but one day the second Pelageya fell passionately in love with a colleague Chapaev and cheated on him. Once again, the red commander was left alone.
- The death of the legendary Chapai as a result of a combat wound is beyond doubt. But he did not drown while swimming across the Ural River: he was severely wounded in the head and stomach. Colleagues tried to ferry their commander to the other side, but he died from his wounds. They buried him on the bank, but then the course of the river changed a little, and Chapaev's grave was at the bottom. Still, the river swallowed the legendary Chapai...
The name of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev does not have a bright political connotation - for us he is a hero, an excellent commander who knew how to take care of his fighters and throw them thoughtlessly into the attack. No wonder there are so many stories, myths and even anecdotes about him - such popularity confirms the true nationality, the sincerity of the image of Vasily Chapaev. So he remained in the people's memory: honest, brave, generous and fearless.
Reds, whites and ex-wives wished the death of the commander
A schoolboy nephew tells a joke: “Petka and Ivan Vasilievich are coming ...” - “Vasily Ivanovich!” I correct. “You have it, and we have it!” - angry nephew. What to do - the youth of the red commander of the distant Civil War Vasily CHAPAEV and his orderly Petka do not know. They did not watch the black-and-white film of the VASILYEV brothers "Chapaev", dismantled by the older generation for quotes. But it is noteworthy that even in their jokes these legendary characters appear, albeit with inaccurate names. On the 130th anniversary of Chapai's birth, we decided to recall the most amazing facts from his life..
heroic man
A carpenter Vasily Chapaev, whom his parents dreamed of seeing as a priest, fought desperately in World War I. In August 1915, the Austrians broke through the front near the village of Snovidova. Chapaev went on reconnaissance and was slightly wounded in the head. One of the Austrians who went around the trenches even kicked him with the toe of his boot, but did not suspect anything. A post was placed next to the trench. Our daredevil waited patiently for eight hours for the enemy to lose his vigilance. After the two fell asleep, the “dead man” came to life, stunned the sentinel, disarmed the other two and led them to his company. Moreover, on the way he ordered to pick up our seriously wounded soldier. For this feat, by order of the 82nd Infantry Division, he was awarded the St. George Cross of the III degree. By the end of the war, sergeant major Chapaev had a St. George medal and three St. George crosses.
Vasily Ivanovich with his wife Pelageya METLINA. Photo: RIA Novosti
"Slutty Bitch"
First wife, 16-year-old priest's daughter Pelageya Metlin, Chapaev loved passionately. He was then 22 years old. Were married, as expected. Before the birth of their first child (they had three children in total), Pelageya worked at a confectionery factory, and Vasily was hired to build houses and restore icons. They lived together for six years.
After Chapaev went to the front, Metlina fled to a neighbor, a carriage driver. Makar worked in the city and received a large salary by local standards. Here is what his father wrote to Chapaev at the front: “Son, you must know that your wife, this lascivious bitch, cheated on you, ran away with the conductor. I dragged her by the braid twice, and she ran away again. She left us your Sanka, but took Klavka and Arkashka. The conductor left his wife. His children collect alms, and my Katya also takes care of their paralyzed mother Marusya. So it goes".
At the beginning of 1917, Chapaev returned, took away the children from the traitor. They didn't see each other again. Upon learning of the death of the division commander, Metlina, at that time pregnant again, decided to return her offspring. She went to her father-in-law across the frozen Volga, but fell into a hole. I didn’t drown, but I caught a bad cold. She gave birth to a dead boy and soon died.
Pelageya №2
Another lover was Pelageya Kamishkertseva. She was the widow of a comrade Chapai - Petra Kamishkertseva. Peter and Vasily swore to each other that if something happened to any of them, the survivor would take care of the family of the deceased.
In 1919, Chapaev settled Kamishkertseva with his and her children (daughters Olimpiada and Vera) in the village of Klintsovka at the division's artillery depot.
And then Pelageyushka gave up. She cheated on a friend and patron with the head of this warehouse Georgy Zhivolozhnov. Here is how Chapaev's daughter from Metlina, Claudia Vasilievna, spoke about this:
Dad comes home one day - looks, and the bedroom door is closed. He knocks and asks his wife to open the door. And she has George. The father screams, and then Zhivolozhnov starts shooting through the door. His fighters were with dad, they went around the house from the other side, broke the window and let's shoot from a machine gun. The lover jumped out of the room and began to shoot with a revolver. My father and I miraculously escaped.
After that, Chapaev immediately left for the division headquarters.
Seduced Furmanov's wife
No less remarkable was Chapai's affair with his commissar's wife. Dmitry Furmanov Nay ( Anna Stetsenko). Furmanov, in the spirit of revolutionary times, did not marry Anna, but concluded with ex sister Mercy "Project of love-free-marital relations".
Maybe the lady just lacked romance? And here - such a mustachioed hero-order-bearer.
All this could have ended very badly, if not for the intervention Kuibyshev and Frunze. The leaders sent Furmanov away from sin to Turkestan, and Naya left after her husband at the end of August 1919. And on September 5, Vasily Ivanovich died. Their acquaintance lasted only six months.
cheater
According to one version, the unfaithful wife Pelageya Kamishkertseva brought the 32-year-old commander to death. Here's what the great-granddaughter of the legend says Evgenia Chapaeva:
After the betrayal, Kamishkertseva went to Vasil Ivanovich to put up and took his younger Arkashka. He spent a little time with his son. And he didn’t even let the traitor on the threshold. Angry, she went to the headquarters of the enemy. Grandmother found out about this a few years after the death of Chapaev. One day I came home from school. And the stepmother swears with the roommate. Standing with her back to the door and to Claudia, she shouted: “Are you cheating on me with a young woman?! I betrayed Vasil Ivanovich because of you - I went to the whites! .. ”Clavdia rushed to her stepmother - and let's scratch her face with her nails! Beat, bit. Almost suffocated.
Even if this is true, historians state that the population of Lbischensk and its environs, which consisted of Ural Cossacks, already sympathized with the whites. So they were aware of the situation in the city in detail.
Hated their
The commander of the 4th Army of the Eastern Front was interested in the death of Chapaev Tikhon Khvesin and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Leon Trotsky. Chapaev's popularity was like a bone in his throat. When Vasily Ivanovich asked the Revolutionary Military Council to send a patrol airplane, they sent him four. But, according to Claudia Vasilievna, traitors were sitting in them. They deliberately did not report the location of the enemy. Enemies from the headquarters of the Reds promised 15,000 gold for Chapaev's head, the whites - 25,000. There is something to take risks for ... Two were allegedly personally killed for treason by the envoy of the divisional commander Petr Isaev, Petka's prototype. But two still received their pieces of silver.
On the eve of the Lbischenskaya tragedy, Trotsky and Khvesin disbanded the Chapaev brigade, which had been united in battles, and he was entrusted with unprepared regiments of volunteers and ordered to advance in the direction of Uralsk. Near the village of Talovoe, the Chapaevs were surrounded. The enemy forces were five times larger. As it turned out, the commanders of the 4th Army deliberately stretched the front for 250 kilometers. Another fight was the last...
Man and ship
In 1894, the family moved to the Samara province, where Vasya entered the parochial school and was preparing to become a clergyman.
In the autumn of 1908 he was called up for military service.
In the spring of 1909 Chapaeva retired. Returning to the village of Balakovo, he married the 17-year-old daughter of a priest Pelageya Metlina. Moved to Dimitrovgrad (Ulyanovsk region), worked as a carpenter. They also had three children there: Alexander in 1910, Claudia in 1912 and Arkady in 1914.
On September 20, 1914, Chapaev was again called up for service and sent to the Atkar 159th Reserve Infantry Regiment.
In January 1915 he went to the front. He fought in the 326th Belgorai Infantry Regiment in Volhynia and Galicia, was wounded.
In July 1915 he graduated from the training team, received the rank of junior non-commissioned officer, and in October - senior. For bravery he was awarded the St. George medal and the soldiers' St. George's crosses of three degrees.
In 1916 and the end of the war he met with the rank of sergeant major (senior sergeant), undergoing treatment in a Saratov hospital.
September 28, 1917 joined the RSDLP (b). He was elected commander of the 138th infantry reserve regiment stationed in Nikolaevsk. There he got along with Pelageya Kamishkertseva, the widow of a friend.
December 18, 1917 was elected military commissar of the Nikolaevsky district. Participated in the campaign against the general Kaledina.
On May 25, 1918, he reorganized the Red Guard detachments into two regiments of the Red Army: them. Stepan Razin and them. Pugacheva united in the Pugachev brigade. Participated in battles with the Czechoslovaks.
In May 1919 he was appointed brigade commander of the Special Alexander-Gai Brigade. Experiencing a stormy romance with Tanya the Cossack, the daughter of a Cossack colonel.
From June 1919 - head of the 25th Infantry Division. Fighting against the army Kolchak. During the capture of Ufa, he was wounded in the head by a burst from an aircraft machine gun. Awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
seduces Anna Steshenko, the commissioner's wife Furmanova, which was the reason for Furmanov's withdrawal from the division.
1923 - Dmitry Furmanov's novel "Chapaev" is published.
1924 - the first museum of V. I. Chapaev was opened in Lbischensk, now the village of Chapaev.
1932 - the first monument to Chapaev was opened in Samara.
1934 - the film "Chapaev" by the brothers appears on the screen Vasiliev. Starring - Boris Babochkin.
1935 - the first jokes are told about Vasily Ivanovich, his orderly Petka and machine gunner Anka. At the same time, the game of checkers "Chapaev" appeared.
1964 - a river cruise ship "Vasily Chapaev" is built in Hungary. By this time, in honor legendary commander several settlements, written dozens of songs, filmed cartoons.
1997 - cult novel is released Victor Pelevin Chapaev and Void.
2012 - the television series "Passion for Chapay" is successfully demonstrated. Starring - Sergey Strelnikov.
2015 - Bandera destroyed a monument to Chapaev near the plant of mine No. 2 named after. V. I. Chapaev in the village of Gornyak, Luhansk region, and the monument to Chapaev in the city of Volnovakha, Donetsk region, was renamed the Kozak monument.
We remember Chapaev from books and films, we tell jokes about him. But real life the red divisional commander was no less interesting. He loved cars, argued with the teachers of the military academy. And Chapaev is not a real surname.
Hard childhood
Vasily Ivanovich was born into a poor family of peasants. The only wealth of his parents is nine eternally hungry children, of which the famous divisional commander was the sixth.
As the legend says, he was born prematurely and kept warm in his father's fur mitten on the stove. When the son grew up a little, his father assigned him to the seminary, in the hope that he would become a priest. But when once guilty Vasya was put in a wooden punishment cell in a severe frost in one shirt, he escaped.
He tried to become a merchant, but he couldn’t - the main trading commandment was too disgusting for him: “If you don’t deceive, you won’t sell, you won’t cheat, you won’t make money.” “My childhood was dark and difficult. I had to humiliate myself and starve a lot. From an early age, he roamed around strangers, ”the divisional commander later recalled.
"Chapaev"
It is believed that the family of Vasily Ivanovich bore the name of Gavrilov. "Chapaev" or "Chepai" was the nickname that the grandfather of the divisional commander, Stepan Gavrilovich, received. Either in 1882, or in 1883, they loaded logs with their comrades, and Stepan, as the eldest, constantly commanded - “Chop, scoop!”, Which meant: “take it, take it”. So it stuck to him - Chepai, and the nickname later turned into a surname.
They say that the original "Chepai" became "Chapaev" with light hand Dmitry Furmanov, the author of the famous novel, who decided that “it sounds better this way.” But in the surviving documents from the time of the civil war, Vasily appears under both options.
Perhaps the name "Chapaev" appeared as a result of a typo.
Academy student
Chapaev's education, contrary to popular belief, was not limited to two years of parochial school. In 1918 he was enrolled in military academy The Red Army, where many fighters were "driven" to improve their general literacy and strategy training. According to the memoirs of his classmate, the peaceful student life weighed heavily on Chapaev: “Damn it! I'm leaving! To come up with such nonsense - fighting people at a desk! Two months later, he filed a report with a request to release him from this "prison" to the front.
Several stories have been preserved about Vasily Ivanovich's stay at the academy. The first one says that at the geography exam, in response to the question of the old general about the significance of the Neman River, Chapaev asked the professor if he knew about the significance of the Solyanka River, where he fought with the Cossacks. According to the second, in a discussion of the battle at Cannae, he called the Romans "blind kittens", telling the teacher - military theorist Sechenov: "We have already shown generals like you how to fight!"
Motorist
We all imagine Chapaev as a courageous fighter with a fluffy mustache, a naked saber and galloping on a dashing horse. This image was created by the national actor Boris Babochkin. In life, Vasily Ivanovich preferred cars to horses.
Even on the fronts of the First World War, he received a serious wound in the thigh, so riding became a problem. So Chapaev became one of the first red commanders who moved to the car.
He chose iron horses very meticulously. The first - the American "Stever", he rejected due to strong shaking, the red "Packard", which replaced him, also had to be abandoned - he was not suitable for military operations in the steppe. But Ford, who then squeezed 70 miles off-road, liked the red commander. Chapaev also selected the best drivers. One of them, Nikolai Ivanov, was taken to Moscow almost by force and put as the personal driver of Lenin's sister, Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova.
Women's deceit
The famous commander Chapaev was the eternal loser on the personal front. His first wife, the petty-bourgeois Pelageya Metlina, whom Chapaev's parents disapproved of, calling her the "urban white hand", gave birth to three children for him, but she did not wait for her husband from the front - she went to a neighbor. Vasily Ivanovich was very upset by her act - he loved his wife. Chapaev often repeated to his daughter Claudia: “Oh, you are beautiful. Looks like a mother."
The second companion of Chapaev, however, already a civilian, was also called Pelageya. She was the widow of Vasily's comrade-in-arms, Pyotr Kamishkertsev, to whom the division commander promised to take care of his family. At first he sent her benefits, then they decided to move in together. But history repeated itself - during the absence of her husband, Pelageya had an affair with a certain Georgy Zhivolozhinov. Once Chapaev found them together and almost sent the unfortunate lover to the next world.
When the passions subsided, Kamishkertseva decided to go to the world, took the children and went to her husband's headquarters. The children were allowed to visit their father, but she was not. They say that after that she took revenge on Chapaev, giving the Whites the location of the Red Army troops and data on their numbers.
fatal water
The death of Vasily Ivanovich is shrouded in mystery. On September 4, 1919, Borodin's detachments approached the city of Lbischensk, where the headquarters of Chapaev's division was located with a small number of fighters. During the defense, Chapaev was severely wounded in the stomach, his soldiers put the commander on a raft and ferried across the Urals, but he died from loss of blood. The body was buried in the coastal sand, and the traces were hidden so that the Cossacks would not find it. Searching for the grave subsequently became useless, as the river changed its course. This story was confirmed by a participant in the events. According to another version, being wounded in the arm, Chapaev drowned, unable to cope with the current.
“Maybe he floated out?”
Despite a long search, neither the body nor the grave of Chapaev could be found. This gave rise to a completely logical version of the surviving hero. Someone said that due to a severe wound, he lost his memory and lived somewhere under a different name.
Some claimed that he was safely transported to the other side, from where he went to Frunze, to be responsible for the surrendered city. In Samara, he was put under arrest, and then they decided to officially “kill the hero”, ending his military career with a beautiful end.
This story was told by a certain Onyanov from the Tomsk region, who allegedly met his aged commander many years later. The story looks doubtful, because in the difficult conditions of the civil war it was inappropriate to “scatter” experienced military leaders, who were highly respected by the soldiers.
Most likely, this is a myth generated by the hope that the hero was saved.
Vasily Chapaev: short biography and interesting facts. Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich: interesting dates and information Vasily Chapaev was born on February 9, 1887 in the small village of Budaika, on 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 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 Kyiv. For some unknown reason, the soldier was returned to the reserve ahead of time end of service. White spots in the biography of the famous revolutionary are associated with the banal lack of verified documents. In Soviet historiography, the official point of view was that Vasily Chapaev was actually expelled from the army because of his views. But there is still no documentary evidence of this theory. First World War In peacetime, Vasily Chapaev worked as a carpenter and lived with his family in the town of Melekesse. In 1914, the First World War began, and the soldier who was in the reserve was again drafted into the tsarist army. Chapaev ended up in the 82nd Infantry Division, which fought against the Austrians and Germans in Galicia and Volhynia. At the front, he received the St. George Cross, a wound and the rank of senior non-commissioned officer. Because of the failure of 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 best recommendation in the face 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 they came to power. At first, there were only 35 people in his detachment. The Bolsheviks were joined by the poor, flour milling peasants, etc. In January 1918, the Chapaevs fought with local kulaks who were dissatisfied 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 the whites. Here, in the lower reaches of the Volga, the offensive of the forces of General Kaledin developed. Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich took part in the campaign against this leader of the white movement. The key battle began near the city of Tsaritsyn, where at that time the party organizer Stalin was also located. The Pugachev Brigade After the Kaledin offensive bogged down, the biography of Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev turned out to be connected with the Eastern Front. By the spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks controlled only the European part of Russia (and even then not all of it). In the east, starting from the left bank of the Volga, the power of the whites 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 detachments under his control 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 the supporters of the Bolsheviks defend the rights of the lowest strata of the population of the warring country - the peasantry and workers. On August 21, 1918, his army expelled the Czechoslovak Corps from Nikolaevsk. A little later (in November), the head of the Pugachev brigade initiated the renaming of the city to Pugachev. Battles with the Czechoslovak Corps In the summer, the Chapaevs for the first time found themselves on the outskirts of Uralsk, occupied by the White Czechs. Then the Red Guard had to retreat due to lack of food and weapons. But after the success in Nikolaevsk, the division ended up with ten captured machine guns and many other useful requisitioned property. With this good, the Chapaevs went to fight the Komuch People's Army. 11 thousand armed supporters of the White movement broke through down the Volga in order to unite with the army of the Cossack ataman Krasnov. Reds were one and a half times less. Approximately the same were the proportions in the comparison of weapons. However, this lag did not prevent the Pugachev brigade from defeating and dispersing the enemy. During that risky operation, the biography of Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich became known throughout the Volga region. And thanks to Soviet propaganda, his name was heard by the whole country. However, this happened after the death of the famous commander. In Moscow In the autumn of 1918, the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army received its first students. Among them was Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich. The brief biography of this man was full of all sorts of battles. He was responsible for many subordinate people. At the same time, he did not have any formal education. Chapaev achieved his success in the Red Army thanks to his natural ingenuity and charisma. But now the time has come for him to finish his course at the General Staff Academy. The image of Chapaev educational institution the division chief amazed those around him, on the one hand, with the quickness of his mind, and on the other, with his ignorance of the simplest general educational facts. For example, there is a well-known historical anecdote saying that Chapaev could not show on the map where London and the Seine River are located, since he simply had no idea of their existence. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, like everything connected with the myth of one of the most legendary characters of the Civil War, but it is difficult to deny that the head of the Pugachev division was a typical representative lower ranks of the people, which, however, only benefited his image among his comrades-in-arms. Of course, in the rear peace 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 a commander's place was only at the front. Several times he wrote to the headquarters with requests to recall him to the thick of things. Meanwhile, in February 1919, another aggravation 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 six months, this formation, which consisted mainly of proletarian conscripts, conducted dozens of tactical operations against the whites. It was here that Chapaev revealed himself as a military leader to the maximum. In the 25th division, he became known throughout the country thanks to his fiery speeches to the soldiers. The division chief was always inseparable from his subordinates. This feature manifested the romantic nature of the Civil War, which was then 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 unbreakable 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 tactician, Chapaev mastered several tricks that he successfully applied during the march of the division to the east. characteristic feature was that she acted in isolation from the allied units. The Chapaevites have always been at the forefront. It was they who launched the offensive, and often finished off the enemies on their own. It is known about Vasily Chapaev that he often resorted to maneuvering tactics. His division was distinguished by efficiency and mobility. White often failed to keep up with her movements, even if they wanted to organize a counterattack. Chapaev always kept a specially trained group on one of the flanks, which was supposed to deliver a decisive blow during the battle. With the help of such a maneuver, the Red Army brought chaos into the ranks of the enemy and surrounded their enemies. Since the battles were fought mainly in the steppe zone, the soldiers always had room for the most maneuvers. Sometimes they took on a reckless nature, but the Chapaevs were invariably lucky. In addition, their courage introduced opponents into a stupor. The Ufa operation Chapaev never acted in a stereotyped way. In the midst of a battle, he could give the most unexpected order, which turned the course of events upside down. For example, in May 1919, during clashes near Bugulma, the commander initiated an attack on a wide front, despite the riskiness of such a maneuver. Vasily Chapaev moved east tirelessly. 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 Chapaevs were at the forefront of the attack, having crossed the Belaya first, they actually found themselves surrounded. The division commander himself was wounded in the head, but continued to command, being directly among his soldiers. Next to him was Mikhail Frunze. In a stubborn battle, the Red Army fought back street after street. It is believed that it was then that White decided to break his 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 the 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. The division chief became one of the first Bolsheviks who ended up in Samara. With his direct participation, this strategically important city was finally taken and cleared of white Czechs. By the beginning of autumn, Chapaev was on the banks of the Ural River. On September 5, while in Lbischensk with his headquarters, he and his division were subjected to an unexpected attack by the White Cossacks. It was a bold deep enemy raid, organized by General Nikolai Borodin. Chapaev himself became the target of the attack in many ways, which turned into a painful headache for White. In the ensuing battle, the commander died. For Soviet culture and propaganda, Chapaev became a character unique in popularity. A great contribution to the creation of this image was made by the film of the Vasiliev brothers, beloved by Stalin as well. In 1974, the house where Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich was born was turned into his museum. Numerous settlements are named after the commander.
Few of the leaders Russian history In the 20th century, such nationwide fame and love fell like the red commander Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. The beginning of this was laid by the novel by the commissar of the Chapaev division Dmitry Furmanov and the film based on the same book. But their hero has little in common with the real Chapaev.
Chapaev almost never rode
In Furmanov's novel, Chapaev repeatedly appears on a dashing horse, galloping across the battlefield from one unit to another, and leading the fighters behind him into the attack. The same Chapaev, galloping ahead of the cavalry lava on a white horse, is depicted in the painting by the artist Pyotr Vasiliev "Chapaev in battle." But there was nothing like that. Chapaev very rarely sat in the saddle and never so skillfully owned a horse to command at a gallop.
First, Chapaev was an infantry fighter. During the First World War, he rose to the rank of sergeant major in the 326th Belgorai Infantry Regiment. Secondly, his way of life before the revolution - work in a carpenter's artel - also did not imply the skills of a horseman. Thirdly, and most importantly, during the World War, Chapaev was wounded three times, and the first time the bullet shattered the tendon of the arm, the third time shrapnel hit the right leg(the second wound was light). And during the civil war, Chapaev did not saddle without special need, preferring to move in a car or cart.
There was no psychic attack
One of the most memorable episodes of the film "Chapaev" was the psychic attack of the Whites. The "attack of officers" in black uniforms on June 9, 1919 at the position of Chapaev's division was described not only by Furmanov, but also by other participants in the battle. In fact, recent students of real schools in Ufa, Omsk and other cities, yesterday's schoolchildren who joined the white army as volunteers, who had not yet changed their black student uniforms to military ones and were thrown into battle, were taken for the "officer unit".
Did Chapaev drown?
The last minutes of Chapaev's life, when he, wounded, drowns in the Ural River, have become an integral part of the canonical myth about him. However, there is other evidence of his death. So, according to one of them, the wounded Chapaev was transported across the river by two Hungarian Red Army soldiers on an impromptu raft, but during the crossing Vasily Ivanovich died from blood loss. The divisional commander was buried in the river sand, and the signs of the grave were destroyed so that the White Cossacks would not desecrate it. Since the Ural River often changes its course, Chapaev's grave could then end up at the bottom of the river. According to another testimony, the wounded Chapaev was captured by the Cossacks and shot.
Little Known Facts
Many facts from the life of Chapaev were not covered in the Soviet myth about him. Some of these facts do not contain anything amazing, but it was not customary to mention them. So, although it is well known that Chapaev was born in Chuvashia, it was almost never said that his maternal ancestors were Chuvash, and Chapaev's father was, most likely, a Mordvin (Erzyan) by nationality.
Now sometimes you can find statements that the real name of Chapaev was Chepaev. The fact is that in the signature of Vasily Ivanovich, the second letter is more like an “e”. However, studies of documents do not confirm this version.
Difficult relationship with the church
As a child, Vasya Chapaev discovered a beautiful voice, and his parents predicted for him a career as a singer in the church choir, and then as a priest. In old Russia, this was one of the ways for the son of a poor man to break out "into the people." But in the third grade of the parochial school (which was headed by a relative of the Chapaevs), Vasya was punished for some kind of prank by being placed in a punishment cell. The punishment cell was located on the fire tower. And Vasya decided to run away from there. He jumped from a height into a snowdrift, which, although it softened the fall, Vasya after that treated bruises for a long time. He never returned to school.
Despite such a bad memory of the church, 21-year-old Vasily Chapaev burned with love for the priest's daughter. His passion was not left without reciprocity. Despite the resistance of the parents of both the groom and the bride, the young people got married in 1909. Before the outbreak of World War I, they had three children.
St. George Cavalier, unfit for service
Back in 1908, Vasily Chapaev was, as expected, drafted into the army, but there he was almost immediately diagnosed with an eye disease and written off to the reserve. However, with the outbreak of the First World War, he was drafted into a reserve infantry regiment, and then enrolled in a training team that trained non-commissioned officers. At the front, Chapaev, as already mentioned, was wounded three times and was awarded three St. George Crosses for bravery. There is a version that he became a full Knight of St. George, however, does not find documentary evidence. Either it was a myth of that turbulent time to add an even greater heroic halo to the commander, or the papers got lost.
The betrayal of the wife and the widow of the deceased comrade
While in the hospital after the first wound, Chapaev learned from his father's letter that his wife had abandoned him and fled, leaving her young children with her father-in-law, with some kind of railway conductor. Vasily Ivanovich was very upset by this news, climbed under the bullets, was wounded a second time. Having received a vacation and went home, he ... found his wife there - her “going to the left” had already ended. Outwardly, the family was reunited, but there was no previous agreement.
In the summer of 1916, during the Brusilov breakthrough, a fellow countryman and friend of Chapaev died. Before his death, Chapaev swore to him to take care of his children. When he drove to his house on his second vacation (after the third injury), events began to unfold according to an unforeseen scenario - the friend's widow began to live with Chapaev. By the way, she, like her legal wife, was also called Pelageya.
SR-drummer
After the February Revolution, Chapaev joined the Social Revolutionaries for a short time and even joined a shock volunteer battalion. Such shock units were created by the Provisional Government in the hope that by their example and strict discipline they would be able to stop the collapse of the army. So what if Chapaev survived civil war, then it is not known whether this “counter-revolution” in 1937 would have been remembered to him.
Who is Anka
The romantic plot about Anka the machine-gunner was included in the film on the personal instructions of Stalin. But there really was a real Anna in Chapaev's life. And this is none other than the wife of Commissar Furmanov, nurse Anna Steshenko.
Chapaev was unable to restore relations with his lawful traitor wife, and he did not have deep feelings for the widow of his deceased friend who had imposed on him. On the other hand, he immediately fell in love with the commissar's wife and did not hesitate to explain this to her. What exactly happened there - history is silent, however, it is likely that the signs of attention that Vasily Ivanovich showed to Anna did not remain without an encouraging response from her. Otherwise, Chapaev would hardly have demanded the commissar's departure so harshly.
On Chapaev's recommendation to the army headquarters, Furmanov was recalled from his division. But… Anna left with him.
