Anton Ivanovich Denikin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anton Ivanovich Denikin

Anton Ivanovich Denikin ( Russian Антон Иванович Деникин ; * December 4, July 16  / December 16, 1872 greg. In Szpetal Dolny, a suburb of Włocławek , Congress Poland , Russian Empire ; † August 18, 1947 in Ann Arbor , Michigan , USA ) Lieutenant General in the Imperial Russian Army and one of the most important commanders of the White Army , which fought against the rule of the Bolsheviks and Makhovshchina in the civil war .

Life

Denikin was born as the son of Major Iwan Jefimowitsch Denikin (1807-1885) and Elżbieta Wrzesińska, the mother came from a Polish family of impoverished smallholders. He graduated from the Academy of the General Staff in 1899 and served in the Russo-Japanese War . In June 1910 he was appointed commander of the No. 17 Infantry Regiment in Arkhangelsk, a position he held until March 1914. On March 23, 1914, he was assigned to the Commander of the Kiev Military District, where he served as Deputy Chief of Staff.

In the world war

During the First World War , in August 1914, he was Quartermaster General of the 8th Army under Brusilov in Galicia . The 8th Army Chief of Staff was Denikin's classmate at the Academy, Lieutenant General Pyotr Lomnovsky. In order to get away from his desk work, he was transferred and on September 6, 1914 took over the leadership of the 4th Infantry Brigade , which was immediately used in the Battle of Grodek and Rawa Ruska . Then his troops took part in the battle of the 4th Army against the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army , which was pushed back to Radom in the Battle of the Vistula . In November 1914, his brigade fought again with the 8th Army, initially in the first phase of the Carpathian Battle on the Humene and Mezőlaborc plains . Then in February 1915 Denikin's brigade of the Combined Division of General Kaledin near Uzhgorod came to the aid and in early March his troops were involved in the battle for the besieged Przemysl fortress . After the Great Withdrawal , he commanded a division in the XXX area. Army Corps (General of the Infantry Sajontschkowski ) and was able to retake Lutsk in September 1915 , for which he was promoted to Lieutenant General. He took part in the Battle of Czartorysk in October 1915 and in June 1916 in the Association of XXXX. Army Corps participated in the Brusilov Offensive , where he succeeded in retaking the lost Lutsk for the second time. In autumn 1916 he took over the leadership of the 8th Army Corps, which had left the Romanian theater of war , in the Association of the 4th Army . In April / May 1917 he was Chief of the General Staff , later Commander-in-Chief of the Western and Southwest Fronts.

Russian civil war

In August 1917 he was instrumental in the military coup led by Kornilov . After the October Revolution of 1917, Denikin joined the white volunteer army set up by Kornilov and Alexejew on Don to fight the Bolsheviks in the civil war . After Kornilov's death he became the commander of this formation, which temporarily controlled large parts of southern Russia . In the summer and autumn of 1919 Denikin tried to advance to Moscow from the North Caucasus . He had parts of his army under Wrangel line up in the direction of Tsaritsyn so that they could unite with Kolchak's troops . By the time Tsaritsyn was conquered, Kolchak's association had suffered heavy defeats and was repulsed by the Red Army . Denikin's decision to split his forces was later seen by many Western observers as the crucial mistake of the White Troops. His subordinate and competitor Wrangel even saw it as the death knell for the white movement. His opponent Yegorov , who was then the front-line commander of the Red Army, exonerated him after the war and reaffirmed the logic of his decision. The question of whether Denikin made a mistake is still controversial in history today. Near Oryol , Denikin was defeated by the Red Army at the end of 1919 and withdrew to the Crimea with the rest of his army in 1920 .

exile

There he transferred the command of the remaining troops to General Wrangel and went into exile . In the first years of exile Denikin changed his place of residence several times and lived in various European countries. So he left his first country of exile, Great Britain, to protest against the signing of the peace treaty between the British government and Soviet Russia in August 1920 and went to Belgium . In June 1922 he emigrated to Hungary and lived there until 1925. In spring 1928 he settled in Paris and devoted himself to literary activities and public relations.

During the Second World War, the National Socialists proposed Denikin cooperation against the Soviet Union. However, this refused any cooperation. Denikin's motto was: "Defend Russia and overthrow Bolshevism". Although he remained a bitter opponent of Soviet power, at the same time he called on all Russian emigrants living in Europe not to support Nazi Germany in the fight against the Soviet Union .

1945 Denikin emigrated to the United States and died in 1947 in Ann Arbor in the US state of Michigan .

On October 3, 2005, at the request of his daughter Marina Antonovna Denikina and with the permission of the Russian government, his remains were transferred to Russia and buried in Moscow in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery .

Fonts

  • The career of a Tsarist officer: Memoirs, 1872-1916 . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1975, ISBN 0-8166-0698-6
  • The Russian turmoil, memoirs, military, social and political . Hutchinson, London 1920
  • The White Army . Cape, London 1930
  • World events and the Russian problem . Imprimerie rapide CT, Paris 1939
  • The Russian problem . o. O. 1940

literature

  • Richard Luckett: The White generals: An account of the White movement and the Russian Civil War . Viking Press, New York n.d. [1971]
  • Dimitry V. Lehovich: White against Red: The life of General Anton Denikin . Norton, New York 1974
  • William G Rosenberg: AI Denikin and the anti-Bolshevik movement in south Russia . Amherst College Press, Amherst, Mass. 1961
  • Petr Michajlovic Volkonsky: The Volunteer Army of Alexeiev and Denikin; A short historical sketch of the army from its origin to November 1/14, 1918 . Avenue Press, London 1918
  • Carl Eric Bechhofer: In Denikin's Russia and the Caucasus, 1919-1920 . Collins, London 1921
  • John Ernest Hodgson: With Denikin's armies; Being a description of the Cossack counter-revolution in South Russia, 1918-20 . Lincoln Williams, London 1932
  • Marina Gray: Mon père, le général Dénikine . Perrin, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-262-00347-5
  • Facts about General Anton I. Denikin: Anti-semite and pro-fascist . Trade Union Committee for Jewish Unity, New York n.d. [1945?]
  • Nancy Harrison Watson: British assistance to General AI Denikin in South Russia, 1917-1920 . Dissertation, manuscript 1970

Web links

Commons : Anton Denikin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Лехович Д .: Деникин. Жизнь русского офицера. М .: Евразия, 2004, ISBN 5-93494-071-6 , p. 888 .
  2. Гордеев Ю.Н: Генерал Деникин . Аркаюр, 1993, ISBN 5-89954-001-X , p. 149 .
  3. Рутыч Николай: Биографический справочник высших чинов Добровольческой армии и Вооруженных сил Юга России . Материалы к истории Белого движения . Астрель, 2002, ISBN 5-17-014831-3 , p. 377 f .
  4. Гордеев Ю.Н: Генерал Деникин . Аркаюр, 1993, ISBN 5-89954-001-X , p. 154 .