“He made high demands on himself and did not humiliate others with condescension to human weaknesses. He did not exchange himself, and it was impossible to exchange small things with him - is this not respect for a person?

This is how Anna Vasilievna Timireva wrote about Kolchak - a woman who shared a terrible fate with him, but never regretted it.

Anna Timireva was the daughter of the director of the Moscow Conservatory, an outstanding Russian pianist, teacher and conductor Vasily Ilyich Safonov, who educated many famous pianists.

Until the age of 18, this romantic girl lived in the world of music and books. Then she married 43-year-old Admiral Timirev, the hero of Port Arthur, and gave birth to a son.

Before meeting Kolchak, her life was measured and prosperous, and he had a reliable family in which his son also grew up ...

“This is the Admiral-Polyarny, the same one,” Anna Vasilyevna whispered her husband, bowing to a sailor passing by. Thus began their acquaintance.

And the next day they accidentally met with friends and suddenly felt: this is fate.

- I've been looking for you for so long.

- Was it so difficult?

- It took my whole life.

But you still have so much ahead of you!

- We have.

- You're right: we have.

From that day on, they lived in anticipation of a meeting. After parting, they wrote to each other. Letters, short notes on scraps of paper have been preserved:

“When I approached Helsingfors and knew that I would see you, he seemed to me the best city in the world";

"I always think about you";

"I more than love you"...

Meanwhile, the situation in the country was heating up. It became dangerous for officers to appear on city streets. Sailors could tear off shoulder straps, or even just put them against the wall. Subordinates refused to follow orders.

After his resignation from the post of commander and farewell to the Black Sea, Admiral-Polyarny rushed around the wide world: he taught the Americans and the Japanese in minecraft, visited England, France, China, India, Singapore. But he refused the invitation to stay abroad.

During this troubled time, separation from Kolchak was especially difficult for Anna. She lived only waiting for letters, and when they came, she locked herself, read and cried ...

“You, dear, adored Anna Vasilievna, are so far from me that sometimes you seem to be some kind of dream. On such a disturbing night in a completely alien and completely unnecessary city, I am sitting in front of your portrait and writing these lines to you. Even the stars I look at when I think of you - the Southern Cross, Scorpio, Centaurus, Argo - are all alien. As long as I exist, I will think about my star - about you, Anna Vasilyevna.

When Anna Vasilievna's husband was seconded by the new government to Far East to liquidate the property of the Pacific Fleet, she sent her son to her mother, in Kislovodsk, and went with her husband.

She strove with all her heart to Vladivostok, knowing that Kolchak was in Harbin - white troops were concentrated there. As soon as she arrived in Vladivostok, she sent him a letter through the British embassy, ​​waited for an answer and, promising her husband to return, rushed to Harbin ...

- We haven't seen each other, in my opinion, for an eternity, Anna.

- I think more.

- Really in a day - two again for the whole eternity?

“Now every day is an eternity, dear.

- Don't you leave.

- Don't joke like that, Alexander Vasilyevich.

- I'm not kidding, Anna. Stay with me, I will be your slave, I will shine your shoes ...

Timireva wrote to her husband that she would not return. She burned bridges without looking back. The only thing that hurt my heart was about my son Volodya.

Meanwhile, the flames of civil war flared up in Siberia. Omsk was declared the capital of Siberia, where the Directory and the Council of Ministers were located.

The directory, which consisted for the most part of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, could not cope with the ever-increasing anarchy, with chaos. On November 18, 1918, the military carried out a coup, transferring full power to Admiral Kolchak.

Later he will be called a dictator, but is this fair? He did not strive for power, and his character was not despotic.

Kolchak was quick-tempered, but quick-witted, straightforward, but kind and simple-hearted, like most strong people. Outwardly severe, but trusting, sometimes even naive. And he did not deviate from the principles. This hindered him in the political struggle.

If Kolchak had announced that he was promising land to the peasants, as the Bolsheviks did, his army could have been saved. But he believed that he had no right to dispose of the land, that this issue could be decided only by the Constituent Assembly, elected by the people.

If Kolchak had promised the freedom of Finland - such a condition was put forward to him by Baron Mannerheim, he would have received military assistance. But the admiral refused, believing that only the Constituent Assembly could decide this issue.

He was a democrat, sacred to the rule of law, and in times of struggle for power and anarchy, such a position is doomed to failure.

After the defeat of the White Army in Siberia, Kolchak was offered to flee abroad under the guise of a soldier, but he refused and was arrested.

Anna suffered the same fate. They were in the same prison and sometimes saw each other for a walk. During interrogations, Kolchak never called Anna his wife, hoping to avert danger from his beloved woman, to save her. Just before the execution, he asked to see her, but was refused.

On the morning of February 7, 1920, Kolchak was taken to be shot. He rejected the offer to be blindfolded and commanded his execution himself. Kolchak's body was thrown into the hole.

And for Anna, from that time on, a continuous series of arrests, prisons, camps, exiles began: Butyrka, Karaganda, Transbaikalia, Yeniseisk ... In the intervals between arrests, she worked as a librarian, draftswoman, painter, kindergarten teacher.

In 1938, she learned about the arrest of her son, the young artist Vladimir Timirev. And ten years later, at the Karaganda camp, I heard a terrible story about the death of Vladimir. The criminals beat him to death in the camp bath. The body was thrown into a common pit outside the zone.

How to live after this? But Anna Timireva had some kind of inner core that did not allow her to break. This woman surprised everyone - from aristocrats to criminals.

The representative of the French military mission in Siberia, during the life of Kolchak, wrote about her:

“Rarely in my life have I seen such a combination of beauty, charm and dignity. It reflects the aristocratic breed developed by generations, even if, as they say, it is from a simple Cossacks.

I am convinced that aristocracy is not a social concept, but primarily a spiritual one. How many titled cretins I met on my way with the manners of provincial tavern-keepers and how many tavern-keepers with the soul of born grandees!..

I am a confirmed bachelor, but if I were ever attracted to family life, I would like to meet a woman like this.

As I know, she has been close to the Admiral since her marriage, but even now, when life itself has freed her from her previous obligations and brought them together, their connection is not evident to anyone, with such tact and delicacy they protect this connection from prying eyes.

It's rare to see them together. She tries to stay away from his affairs. More often it can be found in sewing workshops, where they sew uniforms for the army, or in an American hospital that performs the most unpresentable work to care for the wounded.

But even in these circumstances, her inherent graceful royalty does not leave her ... ".

Anna Vasilievna retained this graceful royalty until old age, despite the fact that she spent 37 years in prison.

The writer G.V. Egorov, who visited her in the early 70s in a Moscow communal apartment on Plyushchikha, was quite surprised to see an elegant, vigorous eighty-year-old woman in front of her, with a very sharp tongue.

“She spent half her life in Soviet camps, including among criminals. And yet, for 37 years, not a single camp word stuck to her - her speech is intelligent, in all manners one can feel a brilliant noble upbringing.

The only thing that overshadowed the overall impression was that she smoked cheap cigarettes. She smoked incessantly, through a very long, primitively made mouthpiece. And she was poorly dressed. Very poor. But she spoke on her own. And very bold.

It seemed that after spending thirty-seven years, one could lose not only courage, but also personality. And she saved herself. She was aware of the cultural life of the country, if not the country, then at least the capital - that's for sure. Her head was bright ... ".

Indeed, at the end of her life, at 82, she was as young at heart as at thirty. She still loved those whom she lost, kept their love in herself and wrote poems about it.

On the morning of February 7, 1920, on the desert outskirts of Irkutsk, at the place where the Ushakovka river flows into the Angara, the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, was shot without trial or investigation. His body was thrown into the hole, and it disappeared without a trace in the dark waters of the great Siberian river. Thus ended an era in history. white movement. And so they wrote about her and the admiral quite recently.

Now few people remember that the fateful role in the fate of the admiral was played by the Czech legionnaires, who were once his closest allies and ensured several convincing victories for the Siberian army in the battles against the Bolsheviks. It was the Czechs who betrayed the Supreme Ruler in exchange for guarantees of their security. However, the corrupt Slavic brothers were driven not only by the desire to preserve their own skin. There were more weighty arguments...

By the end of 1919, Kolchak's position had become unenviable. The Reds advanced on all fronts and pushed the remnants of the Siberian army further east. The Allies practically stopped military aid. Once loyal to the admiral, the Czechs practically withdrew themselves from participating in hostilities and thought only of how to get out of chaos-ridden Russia as soon as possible. By and large, the power of the once omnipotent Supreme Ruler of Russia now extended only to his own staff car and to the echelon with a gold reserve Russian Empire, constantly following Kolchak's train.

The admiral met the New Year in Nizhneudinsk. It was impossible to go further. Railway fell into the hands of the insurgent workers. His train was driven onto a siding. In early January, Kolchak received from Irkutsk an appeal from his own cabinet of ministers demanding that he immediately resign the powers of the Supreme Ruler and transfer full power to General Anton Denikin. A day later, the commander of the allied forces, General Pierre-Charles Jeannin, sent a telegram to Kolchak, in which he assured that if the admiral abdicated, the train with gold would be transported to a safe place, and he himself would be delivered to the Far East under reliable guard. Jeannin thus assumed responsibility for the safety of the admiral as a private individual.

On January 4, 1920, Kolchak issued a decree on the transfer of power to General Denikin and agreed with the Czechs' demand for transfer to a separate carriage. This car was attached to the train of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Czech Regiment. American, English, French, Japanese and Czechoslovak flags were raised over the new residence of the admiral. A week later, Kolchak left Nizhneudinsk for the east. On the way, he was accompanied by Czechs, who, in fact, turned from a guard into an armed convoy.

Meanwhile, the situation continued to escalate. In Irkutsk in early January there was an uprising. Power passed into the hands of the so-called Political Center, which was very loyal to the Bolsheviks. The Czechoslovak legionnaires found themselves in a difficult position. Their trains stretched for several hundred kilometers from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk. Further progress was in doubt. The political center, in agreement with the Bolsheviks, put forward extremely stringent demands. The Czechs were asked to immediately hand over to the Political Center an admiral and an echelon with a gold reserve. Otherwise, the rebels threatened to blow up the Baikal coastal tunnels. The fulfillment of this threat meant that the way to the east would be cut off for the thousands of Czechs. This is now the train goes from Irkutsk to Slyudyanka at the southern tip of Lake Baikal in a couple of hours. In the 1920s, the only road was laid as a narrow edge along the shore of Lake Baikal through a complex system of tunnels. It was impossible to get past them. The admiral, without knowing it, turned into a profitable bargaining chip that could ensure the retreat of the Czechs and allies.

The deal took place at the headquarters of General Jannen in the presence of the commander-in-chief of the Czechoslovak corps, General Jan Syrovy. The Czechs, who at any cost want to ensure their passage through the dangerous Baikal region, did not hesitate to agree with the demands of the Bolsheviks. Faced with a fact, Jeannin considered it possible to refuse the guarantees given earlier and sanction the decision to extradite the admiral. On January 15, the train with Kolchak arrived in Irkutsk.

The well-known Russian historian Valery Krasnov describes the arrest of the admiral in this way: “The Czechs were in a hurry, they asked that the arrest be carried out as soon as possible. The deputy commander of the Political Center, Alexander Nesterov, immediately contacted the Central Headquarters of the worker-peasant squads and asked to prepare a reliable escort for Kolchak and those accompanying him. The headquarters replied that Nesterov was entrusted with the arrest of Kolchak, and people for this operation would be immediately sent to the station. When Nesterov arrived at the station, darkness had already enveloped everything around. The convoy waited for orders. At about eight o'clock in the evening a Czech officer and Nesterov left the station building. Slowly, they made their way to the illuminated wagons on the nearest tracks. The Czech officer was the first to get into the carriage. He was followed by Nesterov and several other armed men. In the compartment, Kolchak was sitting on a sofa, surrounded by a group of officers and several people in civilian clothes. A Czech officer in Russian, but with a strong accent, announced to Kolchak that he had received an order from General Jeannen to hand over the admiral and his headquarters to the local authorities. There was an oppressive silence in the compartment. The officers and civilians exchanged fearful glances, cautiously glancing at the Supreme Ruler. Kolchak continued to sit in silence. “Mr. Admiral,” the Czech officer broke the protracted silence, “prepare your things. Now your transfer to the local authorities will take place. With these words, Kolchak seemed to be struck by an electric shock. He jumped up with burning eyes and literally screamed with despair in his voice: “How! Are the staff giving me away? This is a betrayal! .. So this is the price of the guarantees given to me by Jeannen ... ". The Czech officer was silent. The admiral began to dress nervously and fussily. Only two people were asked to get out of the car - Kolchak himself and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pepelyaev.

The admiral was placed in solitary confinement in an Irkutsk prison. Events, meanwhile, went on as usual. On January 21, the Political Center ceased to exist. Power in the city completely passed into the hands of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee. The Czechs took the change of power calmly. Moreover, representatives of the Czech command were personally present at the meeting, where the Bolsheviks once again assured the legionnaires that they need not worry. Everything was agreed in advance.

At one o'clock on February 6, the chairman of the Siberian Revolutionary Committee, Smirnov, signed a peace agreement with the Czechs on the unhindered passage of Czech units to Lake Baikal. On the same day, the last interrogation of Admiral Kolchak took place in the Irkutsk prison. In the evening, a decision was made to execute him: “Searchs in the city found in many places warehouses of weapons, bombs, machine-gun belts and the mysterious movement of these items of military equipment around the city, portraits of Kolchak are scattered around the city. On the other hand, General Sergei Voitsekhovsky, responding to the offer to hand over his weapons, in one of the points of his “answer” mentions the extradition of Kolchak and his headquarters to him. All these data force us to admit that there is a secret organization in the city, whose goal is to free one of the worst criminals against the working people - Kolchak and his associates. This uprising, of course, is doomed to complete failure, however, it can entail a number of innocent victims and cause a spontaneous explosion of revenge on the part of the indignant masses who did not want to allow such an attempt to be repeated. Obliged to warn these aimless victims and prevent the city from the horrors of civil war, the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee decided: the former Supreme Ruler Admiral Kolchak and the former Chairman of the Council of Ministers Viktor Pepelyaev should be shot. Better to execute two criminals long worthy of death than hundreds of innocent victims.”

On the night of February 7, 1920, the admiral went under the steep bank of the Angara, calmly smoked a cigarette, buttoned all the buttons of his uniform and took a stand at attention. He refused the offer to blindfold. He preferred to meet death with dignity, looking into her face. After the first volley, two more burst out - to be sure. There is a legend that the admiral himself commanded his executioners: "Blow!". The lifeless body of the Supreme Ruler of Russia was brought on a sleigh to a huge opening opposite the Irkutsk Znamensky Monastery and thrown into the water ...

At dawn on the same day, in strict accordance with the agreements, the Czech echelons began to leave Irkutsk to the east. Together with them they took away a considerable part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire, which the Bolsheviks generously allowed them to take with them as a reward for the head of the admiral. According to some reports, the gold seized by the Czechs was estimated at 63 million royal rubles, which in today's money would amount to about a billion dollars. Such was the price paid for the head of a man about whom Ivan Bunin wrote: “The time will come when, in golden letters, on eternal glory and memory, His name will be inscribed in the annals of the Russian land.

Grave of Kolchak. Until recently, it was believed that the body of the executed admiral was lowered into the hole and disappeared without a trace in the waters of the Angara. Meanwhile, unknown documents concerning the execution and subsequent burial of Alexander Kolchak were recently discovered in the Irkutsk region. Documents classified as "secret" were found during work on the play "Admiral's Star" based on the play by former state security officer Sergei Ostroumov. According to the documents found, in the spring of 1920, local residents found the corpse of Kolchak, which was washed ashore by the Angara, 20 km from the place of execution. Arriving representatives of the investigating authorities conducted an inquiry, identified the body of the executed admiral and secretly buried him. Kolchak's grave was marked with a cross on a map compiled by investigators. Currently, all found documents are under examination. Ostroumov himself did not doubt their authenticity.

Admiral Kolchak's cell in SIZO No. 1 in Irkutsk.
Photo by Maria Olennikova, IA IrkutskMedia.
Monument to Kolchak in Irkutsk. Installed in 2004 on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the admiral's birthday.
Located near the Znamensky Monastery at the site of the alleged execution.

The death of any person is a tragedy. It is especially sad when an outstanding person passes away. The years of the Civil War deprived Russia of many great military leaders. But it is one thing to die on the battlefield and quite another to be shot without trial or investigation, as, for example, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who was not even read the sentence before his death.

Sailor, polar explorer, admiral

History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. Nevertheless, if we assume that the October Revolution did not happen in Russia, we would learn about Admiral Kolchak from the encyclopedia of the great polar explorers. Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was born in 1874. After graduating from the Marine cadet corps in 1894, he was sent to the Pacific Fleet. Not for long. Four years later, at the invitation of the famous conqueror of the Arctic, E.V. Tolya Kolchak goes on an Arctic expedition with him. The future admiral was given the role of hydrologist and meteorologist. During the expedition, it was supposed to discover the famous Sannikov land. The fact that it actually exists, polar explorers did not even doubt. During the expedition, new lands were discovered. One of the islands was named after Kolchak. But, unfortunately, Toll did not return from this trip. Subsequently, Kolchak commanded a destroyer during the Battle of Port Arthur. He was in Japanese captivity, upon his return from which he continued polar research. During the First World War, Kolchak distinguished himself in clearing minefields in the Baltic and was promoted to the rank of vice admiral. Soon he was appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet.

Supreme Ruler of Russia

When the upheavals of 1917 began, the country was waiting for leadership instead of the Provisional Government. strong man, which, according to many, Kolchak should have become. Frightened by a competitor, Alexander Kerensky sent Kolchak to the United States for two months as a marine specialist for consultations. When the admiral, after the Bolsheviks came to power, was returning through the Far East to Russia, he learned about the peace negotiations between the new government and Germany and regarded this step as a betrayal. Kolchak leaves service in Russia and goes to the English fleet. However, the British felt it would be better for him to lead the anti-Bolshevik forces and sent him to Russia. At this time, the Bolsheviks suffered defeat after defeat. The Provisional Siberian Government was created in Omsk. Kolchak becomes his minister of war. But on November 18, 1918, this government was overthrown by the military, who wanted to establish a military dictatorship in the country and put A.V. Kolchak. Soon the admiral was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. As the successes of Kolchak's army, which, having liberated the Urals, moved to the Volga, the rest of the leaders of the White movement recognized his power.

Execution

By the autumn of 1919, luck had changed Kolchak. He had to fight a war on two fronts, which inevitably led to defeat. On the one hand, the Reds pressed on him, and on the other hand, partisans from among the Socialist-Revolutionaries and various gangs got under their feet. During the retreat to Irkutsk, the White Czechs, who formed the backbone of Kolchak's army, saving their lives, betrayed the Supreme Ruler of Russia, handing him over to the Bolsheviks.

Alexander Kolchak was arrested on January 15, 1920 in Irkutsk. However, the city was soon surrounded by units of General Sergei Voitsekhovsky loyal to the admiral, who demanded that Kolchak be handed over to them. The Irkutsk Provisional Revolutionary Committee asked Moscow what to do. Answer V.I. Lenin was unambiguous: do not distribute any information about Kolchak, and when the Red Army units occupy the city, telegraph that the admiral was treated in such and such a way because of the danger of a White Guard rebellion. In fact, this meant murder without trial or investigation. Wasting no time, the chairman of the gubchek, Chudnovsky, handed the resolution on the massacre of the admiral to the military commandant of Irkutsk, Bursak, and ordered that a firing squad of communists be prepared. When A.V. Kolchak was read the decision to be shot, he took this news calmly, only indignant that he was not betrayed by an official court. To this, Chudnovsky said that he would be treated in the same way as Kolchak's assistants treated the Red commanders. At four o'clock in the morning on February 7, 1920, Kolchak was taken to the banks of the Ushanovka River, a tributary of the Angara. Without a verdict and no charges being brought, the Supreme Ruler of Russia was shot, and his corpse was thrown into the hole.

Who more or less carefully studied the biography of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, knows this version.

When in the early morning of February 7, 1920, on the outskirts of Irkutsk, on the banks of the Ushakovka and Angara rivers, a volley was heard at their confluence, the Admiral and the Prime Minister in his government, Viktor Nikolayevich Pepelyaev, fell dead and, having put their bodies on a sled, were taken to the ice hole, lowered into the Angara : "Sail, they say, Admiral, on your last voyage," the bodies did not sail far from the place of execution. The clothes of the executed were caught under the water on the ice, stuck to the ice, and the bodies remained under the ice, froze to it. A little over two months later, in the spring, when the snow began to melt, local boys, running on the melted ice of the Angara, noticed bodies under the ice and told their parents about it. Adults came, like they were Cossacks, or wealthy peasants, in any case, not fans of the new government. The bodies were recovered from under the ice. By the clothes, by the faces, they recognized the Admiral and the presovmin in the dead (the admiral was certainly identified in the first place). The adults told the boys to strictly keep their tongues shut. Under the cover of night, Kolchak and Pepelyaev were buried near the church on the territory of the Znamensky Monastery ... And Admiral's admirers secretly came to the grave for many years later ... What else is unknown. Either those who visited the grave of the leaders of the White movement in Siberia were tracked down and taken, or ... In a word, there was a burial and was lost ... Such is the legend. She lived for a long time. This was written about in the first years of Soviet power. They wrote both in Russia and abroad. I read about it in Irkutsk periodicals, in emigrant publications by R. Gul, S. Melgunov…
Most likely, nothing of the kind still happened. If the grave really existed, many of the Irkutsk people, and, of course, the Chekists, would have learned about it. And if the grave had been liquidated, it would have remained in memory as liquidated, its exact location would now be known.
But what really happened? What is the truth?
I heard this legend about ten or twelve years ago in the retelling of a simple hunter-fisherman in a taiga village near Irkutsk. Somehow I didn’t really think about its meaning and essence, because I didn’t believe it. He also knew the legend about the gold (silver) cigarette case, which Admiral Kolchak allegedly had. The admiral, allegedly taking a cigarette from a cigarette case to smoke before his death, presented the cigarette case to one of the members of the firing squad. And one of the leaders of the execution, the chairman of the emergency investigative commission Samuil Chudnovsky, seemed to have handed over his handkerchief, in which the poison was hidden. The admiral preferred to die like a warrior, from a bullet, and not from a reserved poison. I also knew that along with Kolchak and Pepelyaev, on the night of February 7, they shot some Chinese executioner who served with the Whites. I heard and read that Kolchak behaved well before the execution, with dignity, but his associate, Prime Minister Viktor Pepelyaev, was completely limp, was frightened, begged for mercy, wallowing at the feet of the commandant of Irkutsk Ivan Bursak (real name - Blatinder. - V.P.). And then, all the way from prison to the place of execution, he trembled, fell into prostration, muttered the words of prayers ... In the cowardly behavior of Viktor Pepelyaev, hereditary nobleman, the general's son, I did not believe in his pleas for leniency. First of all, there were no cowards in the Pepelyaev family. On the contrary, all male Pepelyaevs had bouquets of orders on their chests for bravery and courage. Viktor Pepelyaev himself, heading the police department for almost a year in the Kolchak government, then the Ministry of the Interior, understood that it was unthinkable for him to count on any slightest indulgence of the executors of orders. There is no need to be humiliated. I understood, I knew from my work that orders are signed from above, and the performers act impeccably clearly, you can’t pity them in any way. Then, if he were a coward, afraid of death, he would have the opportunity to take care of himself and his family in advance, to hide abroad.
So what's the deal? Why was Kolchak declared a brave man, who listened to the verdict calmly and with dignity, who also met death with dignity, and Viktor Pepelyaev was called a miserable coward?
For some reason, someone really needed it, it was important. As well as dragging a nameless Chinese executioner to the high-ranking two being shot. There was no coincidence in this! Like there was absolutely no truth. And if the stories about a gold (silver - according to the commander-in-chief of the Supreme Ruler General K.V. Sakharov) cigarette case, about poison in a handkerchief, and that after the first volley Kolchak did not fall dead, they did not want to aim at him, he he himself ordered to shoot accurately in a military way. If all this can be considered legends composed by people who did not want to believe in his ordinary instant death, then the stories about the Chinese executioner and Viktor Pepelyaev, who trembled from the moment the sentence was read in prison to the volley, came from the direct leaders of the execution.
Trying to get to the bottom of the truth, what lies behind all this, I drew attention to one, it seems, an insignificant detail. During the execution at Ushakovka/Angara on February 7, the Bolshevik doctor Fyodor Gusarov was present. His role was to witness the death of Kolchak and Pepelyaev after a rifle salvo. A 45-year-old Bolshevik doctor, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy, an ally of Lenin, at the beginning of 1920 worked as a doctor in the Znamensky military hospital. In the book of the Irkutsk journalist G.T. Kilesso "Street named after ..." (Irkutsk, Vost. - Siberian book ed., 3rd edition, 1989) on page 268 I read: "As a doctor F.V. Gusarov witnessed Kolchak's death after being shot. Fedor Gusarov's life was interrupted a few months after that. No, no one attempted on Gusarov, he was already incurably hopelessly ill in February. He was transferred from Irkutsk to Omsk, appointed head of the Siberian Health Department, and on August 27, 1920, he died of tuberculosis and was buried in Omsk on Red Heroes Square ... There is not a word in other memoirs that doctor Fyodor Gusarov was present during the execution at Ushakovka. About this to the Irkutsk journalist G.T. Kilesso was told in 1954 by the former chairman of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee A.A. Shiryamov. A quarter of a century has passed since the night execution, I.V. Stalin and the Khrushchev “thaw” came, Alexander Shiryamov was at an age, a year before his death he could afford to be more frank. It seems, well, what is special that a doctor was present? On the other hand, the question is: why was the doctor present, was he really needed there, on Ushakovka, on the February night of 1920? Moreover, there were only 47 doctors for the entire hundred thousandth city, typhus and other infectious deadly diseases were rampant, there were a lot of frostbitten, wounded. What to take away from the affairs of a busy person? True, what a need and a good impulse to comply with some formalities? When it is enough to approach the fallen after a volley and, saying modern language, do control shot. And - all here is the fixation of death for you ...
I will return to the doctor Fyodor Vasilyevich Gusarov, but first I will try to determine how many were among the participants in the execution, in addition to the squad of seven or eight people who carried out the sentence, those who led them?
Indeed, how many were there?
According to the memoirs of the commandant of the city of Irkutsk, Ivan Bursak, two people “conducted” the execution. He personally and the chairman of the emergency commission of inquiry Samuil Chudnovsky. Bursak, in his official memoirs (there are also unofficial ones), also names a third one. Commandant of the local prison. Bursak does not name his last name, but the prison commandant was second lieutenant (or lieutenant?) V.I. Ishaev.
We read from Bursak:
“By 4 o'clock in the morning we arrived at the bank of the Ushakovka River, a tributary of the Angara. Kolchak behaved calmly all the time, and Pepelyaev - this huge carcass - was in a fever.
Full moon, bright frosty night. Kolchak and Pepelyaev are standing on a hillock. Kolchak refuses my offer to blindfold. The platoon is lined up, rifles at the ready. Chudnovsky whispers to me:
- It's time.
I give the command:
- Platoon, on the enemies of the revolution - pli!
Both fall. We put the corpses on a sledge-sledge, bring them to the river and lower them into the hole. So the "supreme ruler of all Rus'" Admiral Kolchak leaves for his last voyage. We return to the prison. On the back of the original decision of the Revolutionary Committee on the execution of Kolchak and Pepelyaev, I write by hand in ink (Bursak wrote in red ink. - V.P.):
“Decree of the Military Revolutionary Committee of February 6, 1920, No. 27, was carried out on February 7 at 5 o’clock in the morning in the presence of the chairman of the extraordinary investigative commission, the commandant of the city of Irkutsk and the commandant of the Irkutsk provincial prison, which is evidenced by the undersigned:
Chairman of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry S. Chudnovsky.
Commandant of the city of Irkutsk I. Bursak.
Only two signatures. Neither the commandant of the prison, nor the doctor Gusarov have autographs.
Now let's look at the publication of A.A. Shiryamova. Shiryamov, in his memoirs published in 1926 in Novosibirsk, claims that he shot Kolchak and Pepelyaev at the outfit of the Left Social Revolutionaries in the presence of the chairman of the investigative commission S. Chudnovsky and a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee Comrade. M. Levenson. There he also reports about the third person shot - a Chinese, Kolchak's executioner. Bursak is not mentioned at all.
Samuil Chudnovsky, recalling the execution, also names ... a priest. Well, it’s hard to believe in this at all - that the notorious atheists of the Bolsheviks would also be looking for a priest for their sworn enemies. But not one of the leaders of the execution had a word about the doctor Fyodor Gusarov. Not weird? How strange too. Fyodor Gusarov seemed to be diligently wanted to be removed from the circle of those present at the execution. All! And Shiryamov, and Bursak, and Chudnovsky.
Another significant oddity. Encryption of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin from the Kremlin, with instructions to shoot Kolchak, goes through the deputy. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic Ephraim Sklyansky Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council - 5 (Fifth Army. - V.P.) Ivan Smirnov:
“Do not spread any news about Kolchak. Do not print anything. And after we occupy Irkutsk, send a strictly official telegram explaining that the local authorities, before our arrival, acted in this way under the influence of Kappel's threat and the danger of White Guard conspiracies in Irkutsk. Lenin. Do you undertake to do archaic reliability?
Having received such an encryption from the Kremlin, Ivan Smirnov instructs Alexander Shiryamov:
“In view of the movement of the Kappel detachments to Irkutsk and the unstable position of Soviet power in Irkutsk, I hereby order you, who are imprisoned by you, Admiral Kolchak, Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pepelyaev, upon receipt of this, immediately shoot. Report performance."
Ivan Nikitich Smirnov was a super-significant figure in the Bolshevik hierarchy at that time. Lenin and Trotsky are on an equal footing, Smirnov is Trotsky's right hand. Having received Smirnov's order to destroy Kolchak, Shiryamov, it seems, would have to personally control the "archa-reliable" execution of the order. He knows what party discipline is. I'm not new to the party. He is responsible for this head. And, therefore, he must personally make sure, see with his own eyes that everything has been done as it should. Arch-reliable. Why didn't he personally bother to come to the shore of Ushakovka/Angara then? Irkutsk in the 1920s is not very Big City, it doesn’t take long to get from the center to any outlying point, at least one car, at worst, a horse cart will be found for the trip of the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee to the scene. For S. Chudnovsky found. In I. Bursak's official memoirs we read: “After some time there (to prison. - V.P.) and Chudnovsky drove up. Or maybe, after all, Alexander Shiryamov bothered, arrived, was present at the execution? But if yes, if he was personally, then why later neither himself nor anyone else said a word about it? Or maybe because on the banks of the Ushakovka, when it flows into the Angara further, after a volley, something happened that the chairman of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee later wanted only one thing for the rest of his life: to forget, not to remember about it? Not to mention it was a state secret...
It is noteworthy that after the establishment of Soviet power, A. Shiryamov, the most popular in Siberia along with N. Yakovlev, P. Postyshev, D. Zverev, held rather modest posts until his death in 1955. In 1921-1923 he was secretary of the Omsk Provincial Committee, since 1923 he worked at the People's Commissariat of Education, heading the bureau of Soviet local history there. For the 40-year-old honored, re-deserved militant revolutionary, who, on the instructions of the Kremlin, led the return of the golden echelon to the center of Russia, after all, undeservedly insignificant. Maybe the reason is not that he was not given higher posts because he fell out of favor, but simply could not be trusted with these high posts? Maybe the reason is the same as that of Fedor Lukoyanov? (Let me remind you that Lukoyanov was the chairman of the Perm Provincial Cheka in 1918. According to his rank, he was supposed to be present at the execution of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, but he was not present. Shortly before the bloody tragedy in the Ipatiev House, he drove off to Perm. And after the Yekaterinburg massacre with Lukoyanov, a nervous breakdown occurred, and he then thirty recent years was also in the shadows, in an insignificant position.) Didn't the same thing happen with Shiryamov? And if so, why?
But still, however, how many people were present on the night of the execution of the sentence of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee at Ushakovka? Maybe the list is as follows: A. Shiryamov, M. Levenson, S. Chudnovsky - for sure. Bursak and the commandant of the prison, Ishaev, are questionable. (I. Bursak could write lines about the execution of the sentence later, without being present at the execution, under the dictation of A. Shiryamov. - V.P.). And the Bolshevik doctor Fyodor Gusarov was sure to be at the execution. Alexander Shiryamov let slip about his presence (or maybe he groaned for years and decades in his soul, wanted to speak out, was burdened by the fact that he would take the secret with him?) Alexander Shiryamov in 1954 to journalist G.T. Kilesso.
Why, after all, was doctor Fyodor Gusarov involved in the execution? What was his role in this? Patience. More on this a little later.
In the meantime, let's turn to the unofficial memoirs of Ivan Bursak. (In 1969, then on the anniversary of the defeat of the white troops on Eastern Front, the capture of Irkutsk and the execution of Kolchak, the collection “The Defeat of Kolchak” was being prepared. 74-year-old Bursak remained, perhaps, the only living participant in the world-famous execution in the Irkutsk Znamensky suburb on the river. Ushakovka. Bursak, too, for some reason, after the Civil War, was not in big business, in some kind of economic work.)
“Before the execution, Kolchak calmly smoked a cigarette, buttoned up all the buttons and stood at attention. After the first volley, they fired two more on the recumbent - to be sure. Opposite the Znamensky Monastery there was a large ice-hole. There the nuns took water. It was into this hole that they first pushed Pepelyaev, and then Kolchak head first. They didn’t bury it, because the Socialist-Revolutionaries could talk, and the people would be thrown to the grave. And so the ends are in the water.
Let's pay attention to the number of volleys called Bursak: the first - to defeat, two more - for fidelity. Was it necessary to doubt something, to certify something (are you alive or dead?) After such a plentiful firing on the enemies of the revolution, doctor Fyodor Gusarov? Moreover, the corpses of the executed Kolchak and Pepelyaev were pushed into a large hole. Well, let's say, there is no need to push the executed into a large hole. According to Bursak, it turns out that in preparing the execution, they did not even bother to gouge their hole in the ice ahead of time. In order to "end in the water." They used the ice-hole of the nuns of the Znamensky Monastery for their work. Yes, no. Well, probably, if they were preparing for liquidation, and then for the "ends in the water", then they made a thorough fuss for such a case. Prepared your hole. And not quite next to the ice hole of the nuns should have been this special ice hole of its own. Let's just say, an emergency hole. After all, if the nuns came in the morning for water to the usual hole, what picture would they see at the place of execution? Snow is trampled down, blown up, blood, shell casings. And is it only? Some kind of sledge-sledge brought from no one knows where (who harnessed them - horses, people? - where did they disappear later ?!), on which the executed were brought to the ice-hole. True, but where did the sleigh go, on which the corpses were brought to the Angarsk hole? Silence about it.
In September 1993, September 9, I look at the inscription on the G.T. Kilesso at the meeting in Irkutsk book. Georgy Timofeevich recounted to me what he had heard from A.A. Shiryamova about the hole in the Angara so. This hole, of course, was prepared in advance. Wide enough. Not in one square meter area. With the release from prison to the place of execution, they hesitated. It seems like because of the lack of a car. Of course, there were cars in Irkutsk. Not such a huge park as it is now, but they were all the same. But for some reason, the Bolsheviks, who became the owners of the city, could not find them. So, while they were looking for cars, then, not finding them, they set off from the prison along Ushakovka to the Angara on foot, the ice hole was covered in ice in the cold. Walking from the prison to the bank of the Angara is at most 20-25 minutes. It is not clear what was waiting for the car, what to look for her? Something or someone else, maybe they were waiting, looking for? When the shots rang out and it was possible and necessary to hide the “ends in the water”, the ice that had newly formed in the bitter cold had to be hollowed out. When the fresh crust of ice was opened, the bodies were thrown into the hole... Isn't it strange that the chairman of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee, Alexander Alexandrovich Shiryamov, who was not present at the execution, had such detailed knowledge? Heard in the retelling of Bursak or Chudnovsky, such minute details are difficult to keep in memory for a third of a century. Here, perhaps, you need to be an eyewitness, participant, organizer.
Let's return now to two details. Moreover, together with the Supreme Ruler and the presiding minister V.N. Pepelyaev also shot the Chinese executioner, and to the fact that after reading the decree of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee V.N. Pepelyaev behaved unworthily.
Why is a detail about some nameless executioner so insistently, obtrusively given? Why is so much said about Pepelyaev, who is constantly trembling before his near death, muttering prayers, to whom they say: “Get up, be ashamed, you cannot die with dignity.” And why, against his background, is Admiral Kolchak very prominently presented as a model of worthy behavior in the face of death? After all, not a shadow, we note, is not cast on the reputation of the Admiral. Reputation, on the contrary, is carefully presented as impeccable.
And in this, I think, there is a deep thoughtfulness. These "insignificant" details (the story about a certain petty executioner, about the trembling Pepelyaev) are intended to distract. The rest, the rest of the details - for the bitter, but the satisfaction of all those who in Russia and abroad are admirers of the Admiral. The admiral lived with dignity and accepted death with dignity. As befits the leader of the White movement. This, as the main thing, also crashes into memory. And the details. They should be, of course, they are even remembered. They are also important for those who knew the Admiral. But they are significant insofar as they are. Although it is the details that are designed to highlight, set off the greatness of the Admiral, his contempt for the executioners in the face of his own death. One detail (Pepelyaev begged for mercy) is not enough, two (in addition - a Chinese executioner) is already something, it even seems to be enough for greater reliability of the events. After that, it seems quite natural that, following the execution of Kolchak and Pepelyaev, their bodies were lowered into the hole. "Sail, Admiral, on your last voyage!" What else seems to fit into this smooth, better to say natural, course of events?
And here, right after the shooting volley, it seems that it could and should have come and the time has come for the actions of the Bolshevik doctor Fyodor Gusarov, whom I have already mentioned more than once.
I began my story about the execution of Kolchak and Pepelyaev with the fact that after they were executed and their bodies were lowered into the hole, their bodies did not float far, they were soon seen by Irkutsk boys, the children told the adults, the adults secretly buried the bodies in the ground.
Siberians were instructed to kill Kolchak and Pepelyaev "archically reliably". They knew the local conditions very well, they knew that simply throwing the corpses of the executed into the water does not mean hiding the ends in the water. There are bodies floating around somewhere. The temperature of the water in the icy Angara is such that faces and clothes will be completely intact during the spring opening of the river. By their faces and clothes they will determine who they carried out, washed ashore the Angara. They will betray the bodies to the ground, people will be drawn to the graves. And before the execution, the Irkutsk Chekists and the Revolutionary Committee, presumably, thought hard so that absolutely no traces would remain. What do I need to do? And it is necessary to make sure that neither by their faces, nor by their clothes, corpses emerge somewhere, no one in them could in any way identify the Supreme Ruler and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Viktor Pepelyaev. How to do it? Just. Disfigure faces, bodies, clothes beyond recognition! That's why, rather - and not to witness the death of Kolchak, the presence of a doctor with a long pre-revolutionary experience of party work, Fyodor Gusarov, was required. As a doctor, he, of course, knew well which acid poisons were needed for this, which ones were most effective; as a doctor practicing in the hospital, had unlimited access to them. The Hippocratic oath is one thing, revolutionary expediency and iron party discipline is another ... It is also believed that there were several volleys. Only ... Just not to be sure that the victims did not survive, if some signs of life are still glimmering in the victims, they will choke in the water under the ice - but in order to shoot strictly in the face, rifle, or maybe in addition, with point-blank revolver bullets, grind, disfigure the faces of those shot beyond recognition, then, to be sure, treat them with acid-poisons. And then, so as not to be recognized by clothes, by bodies, douse with a combustible mixture and set fire to it. In the sledge-sledge. And only then, when neither faces, nor clothes, nor bodies can be recognized, then “Sail, Admiral, on your last voyage!”. By no means new. Ekaterinburg developments a year and a half ago with royal family after the execution in the Ipatiev House were. Only then, out of stupidity, they almost openly collected bottles of acids from all the pharmacies of Yekaterinburg. In Irkutsk, they acted smarter, taught by experience. Or, perhaps, an order from the Center: “And no traces! Never and nowhere! That is why, I think, the icy Angara then never betrayed either Admiral Kolchak or his associate Pepelyaev ... That is why the freshly prepared hole in the cold was covered with a thick ice film and for so long, almost until dawn, almost until 5 in the morning, the night execution on Ushakovka dragged on ... Or cannibalistic coven, I don’t know what to call it.
Just a version. Nothing to support it after 86 years is impossible. And I don’t want to think at all that the picture I painted was exactly the way it was in reality. But I think that the real picture was very, very similar to the one I painted ...

How Kolchak was killed (several options for interpreting events)

“We entered the cell to Kolchak and found him dressed - in a fur coat and a hat,” writes I.N. Bursak (Ivan Nikolaevich Bursak, participant in the February and October Revolution in Petrograd, in the Red Army was from the beginning of 1918. In 1920, he was the commandant of the city of Irkutsk and describes the events in this way. On February 3, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry submitted to the Revolutionary Committee a list of 18 people held in prison. That list included A. Kolchak, V. Pepelyaev and other leaders of the White Guard who most distinguished themselves by atrocities against the workers and peasants. The chairman of the Extraordinary Investigative Commission S. Chudnovsky and the commandant of Irkutsk I. Bursak insisted on the execution of all 18 white bandits. However, the military revolutionary committee did not agree with them and sentenced only Kolchak and Pepelyaev to be shot. ("News of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee". February 8, 1920).
- It was as if he was expecting something. Chudnovsky read out to him the decision of the Revolutionary Committee. Kolchak exclaimed:
- How! Without trial?
Chudnovsky replied:
- Yes, Admiral, just like you and your henchmen shot thousands of our comrades.
Having risen to the second floor, we entered the cell to Pepelyaev. This one was also dressed. When Chudnovsky read out to him the decision of the revolutionary committee, Pepelyaev fell to his knees and, wallowing at his feet, begged not to be shot. He assured that, together with his brother, General Pepelyaev, he had long decided to rebel against Kolchak and go over to the side of the Red Army. I ordered him to get up and said: - You can't die with dignity...
They again went down to Kolchak's cell, took him away and went to the office. The formalities are over.
By 4 o'clock in the morning we arrived at the bank of the Ushakovka River, a tributary of the Angara. Kolchak behaved calmly all the time, and Pepelyaev - this huge carcass - as if in a fever.
Full moon, bright frosty night. Kolchak and Pepelyaev are standing on a hillock. Kolchak refuses my offer to blindfold. The platoon is lined up, rifles at the ready. Chudnovsky whispers to me:
- It's time.
I give the command:
- Platoon, on the enemies of the revolution - pli!
Both fall. We put the corpses on the sledge-sledge, bring them to the river and lower them into the hole. So the "supreme ruler of all Rus'" Admiral Kolchak leaves for his last voyage ... ".
("The defeat of Kolchak", military publishing house of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, M., 1969, pp. 279-280, circulation 50,000 copies).

Where was Admiral Kolchak killed?
and where did the gold reserves of Russia go

There is an established version that Kolchak was shot on the banks of the Ushakovka, not far from the Znamensky Monastery. It is there that the cross erected by the Irkutsk Cossacks now stands.
However, the facts preserved in the special funds of the KGB indicate that the Supreme Ruler was killed right in prison, on the outskirts of Rabochy.
Gennady Belousov, a veteran of the State Security Service, studied the history of this issue and found archival materials.
In 1920, a security service was created under the Provisional Management Council of the Baikal region, headed by a certain Kalashnikov.
The service began its activities with measures to detain Kolchak and Sychov punishers who participated in the brutal massacre of 31 prisoners on Lake Baikal, on the icebreaker Angara.
She also organized the observation of the movement of the echelon in which Kolchak was. The Czechs accompanying him upon arrival in Irkutsk (January 15, 1920) handed over the admiral, the leaders of the Kolchak Council of Ministers and the generals to the Kalashnikov counterintelligence officers. Divisional Commander Nesterov and Commissar Merkhalev delivered him with his retinue to the city prison on Ushakovka.
On February 6, 1920, in connection with the approach of the division of the retreating Kolchak army to Irkutsk and the fear of capturing the city and liberating Kolchak, the escort team of the security service shot Kolchak and part of his government and generals right in prison.
Gennady Belousov personally heard from the relatives of the members of the punitive team (in particular, from Maria Vaganova) that Kolchak and his generals were not taken to the shore of Ushakovka - they were afraid of being captured. The admiral and his retinue were shot in the basement of the prison, and then the corpses were lowered under the ice.
There is a legend that before his death, having smoked his last cigarette, the admiral threw his golden cigarette case to the Red Army soldiers who shot him: "Use it, guys!"
Despite the fact that Kolchak owned a 500-ton gold reserve of Russia, and could well buy himself both life and freedom, he did not use the money of the Motherland because of exceptional honesty.
The admiral carried the gold reserves in a special train of 18 wagons in 5143 boxes and 1678 bags. All these treasures, together with the supreme ruler, were removed from the train in Irkutsk, and then, under heavy guard by employees of the special decoration of the 5th Army, they were transported to Moscow, where Lenin received him.

Telegram: Lenin - Sklyansky:
"Send Smirnov (RVS-5) a code: "Do not spread any news about Kolchak. Do not print anything. And after we occupy Irkutsk, send a strictly official telegram explaining that the local authorities, before our arrival, acted in this way under the influence of Kappel's threat and the danger of White Guard conspiracies in Irkutsk.
Signature: "Lenin" (cipher). "Are you going to make it extremely reliable?"

The execution of A.V. Kolchak

On February 7, at about 5 o'clock in the morning, Admiral Kolchak and Prime Minister Pepelyaev were taken out of prison to the outskirts of the city and shot. There are various stories about the last minutes of Admiral Kolchak; they all testify that he died as boldly and honestly as he had always lived.

The decision on extrajudicial execution was made by the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee. The chairman of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee at that time was Yankel Shumyatsky. In addition to the murder of A. V. Kolchak, the commandant of Irkutsk Ivan Bursak and a member of the Military Commissar Lazar Levinson sanctioned. Samuil Chudnovsky acted as the executioner. The newspaper "Soviet Siberia" published the following story of the executioner who led the murder of A.V. Kolchak:

“In early February 1920, when Irkutsk was threatened with an offensive by the White Guards, I informed the chairman of the revolutionary committee, Shirenkov, that, in my opinion, it was necessary to kill Kolchak and twenty other white leaders who had fallen into our hands without trial. My proposal was accepted, and early in the morning of February 5 I went to the prison to carry out the will of the revolutionary committee. Having made sure that the guard consisted of faithful and reliable comrades, I entered the prison and was led to Kolchak's cell. The admiral did not sleep and was dressed in a fur coat and hat. I read the decision of the revolutionary committee to him and ordered my men to put hand shackles on him. “Thus, there will be no trial for me?” Kolchak asked. I must confess that this question took me by surprise, but I did not answer and ordered my people to withdraw Kolchak. When asked if he had any last request, he replied: "Tell my wife, who lives in Paris, that, as I die, I bless my son." I (Chudnovsky) replied: “If I don’t forget, I will try to fulfill your request.”

As soon as I left Kolchak, one of the sentries called me back and asked if he could let the prisoner smoke his last cigarette. I allowed it, a few minutes later a pale, excited sentry ran out into the corridor and told me that Kolchak had tried to poison himself by taking a capsule that he had tied in a handkerchief.

Kolchak and Pepelyaev were taken to a hill on the outskirts of the city, they were accompanied by a priest, they prayed loudly.

I put them both on top of the hill. Kolchak, slender, clean-shaven, looked like an Englishman. Pepelyaev, short, stout, very pale, with his eyes closed, looked like a corpse.

Our comrades fired the first volley and then, to be sure, the second - it was all over.

Rear Admiral M.I. Smirnov. Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak (short biographical sketch). Edition of the Naval Union (From the Naval Union). Published: Paris, 1930. Cited here from the book: Around Kolchak: Documents and Materials. Compiled by Dr. historical sciences, Professor A.V. Kvakin. M., 2007. S. 175-176.

The execution of Kolchak: an eyewitness account
Vladimir Zenchenko, who for a long time lived next door to one of the participants in the execution of the admiral, turned to the editorial office.
After a series of publications about the monument to Admiral Kolchak, the journalists of SM Number One lost their peace. The editors receive several letters every day in which readers express their opinion about the admiral. Readers are constantly calling and sharing their thoughts on the monument project. A few days ago, Vladimir Petrovich Zenchenko addressed us. It turned out that he was personally acquainted with one of the seven railway locksmiths who shot Alexander Vasilyevich. As a little boy, he heard the story of how the admiral was executed no less than ten times.

Kolchak was dropped off the train, transferred across the ice through the Angara. On the right bank of the river, near the Kurbatov baths, a truck was waiting for the admiral. On it, the arrested person was taken to the prison, near which they were shot. Under the ice, the body was carried to the Angara, and there is no information that someone found it. With rectangles with dots, Vladimir Zinchenko marked the places where, in his opinion, the monument should stand.

The killer of Kolchak spoke about the execution only to high-ranking communists
“For me, Kolchak is a model of a highly moral person,” says Vladimir Petrovich. - What he did for Russia is hard to overestimate. People should know about him, they should remember people like him. I am a real communist and still a member of the party, so it is difficult to suspect me of bias.

My father was a locksmith. He worked at the Innokentievskaya station of the locomotive depot in Irkutsk II. He always supported the same workers as himself. When my father was appointed head of a factory in Usolye-Sibirsky, where they made plywood for aircraft, he allowed Soluyanov, a laborer, to live in one of the houses in the yard. Unfortunately, I don't remember his name anymore. But I remember well the names of his three sons, we played with them. So it turned out that this Soluyanov was one of the seven who shot Kolchak in 1920.

High party workers from Irkutsk and Moscow constantly came to our house. They always had one request to their father - to call Soluyanov to tell him how Kolchak was actually shot. I was just a boy, I sat on the sofa and listened with a little breath to the same story of Soluyanov. Party workers sat at a large table, drinking tea. Soluyanov was placed a stool near the door. For some reason, every time he sat on the threshold.

Before his death, Kolchak looked at the North Star for a long time.

According to him, the guards in the prison where Kolchak was imprisoned were changed the day before his execution. It was early in the morning. They came to Kolchak's cell at exactly four o'clock and said that there was a decision of the local revolutionary committee to shoot him. He calmly asked: "What, without trial?" He was told that without a trial. Then they left the admiral in the cell, and they themselves went to the chairman of his government, Pepelyaev. When he found out about the execution, he immediately threw himself on his knees and began to ask for forgiveness, beg for mercy.

First, Pepelyaev was taken out of the cell, then Kolchak was taken out and taken to Ushakovka. Fifty meters from the prison there was an ice-hole, where they usually rinsed clothes. Of the seven accompanying Kolchak, only one was with a carbine. He cleared the hole of ice. Kolchak remained calm all the time, did not say a single word. He was led to the hole and asked to kneel.

According to Soluyanov, the admiral silently threw his overcoat on the fur near the hole and complied with the requirement. All this time he looked at the sky in the direction of the north, where the star burned brightly. It seems to me that Kolchak looked at the polar star and thought about something of his own. The verdict, of course, was not read to anyone. The chief of them said: "Let's slap like that - what's the ceremony to breed?"

First they shot Kolchak. All seven men put revolvers to the back of his head. Soluyanov was so frightened that when he pulled the trigger, he closed his eyes. When, after the shots, he opened them, he saw how the overcoat went under water. The second was shot a little later. Then everyone returned to the prison and already there they drew up a protocol, signing the execution every minute.

The protocol was drawn up at five o'clock. It says that Kolchak was shot at Ushakovka. The specific location is not described. Judging by the time, after the execution was announced to Kolchak and the protocol was drawn up, one hour passed, the execution was not far from the prison. In addition, later the civil wife of the admiral wrote in her diaries that the shots were not far from the prison.

Where and when Soluyanov died, I do not know. He liked to drink. Perhaps he died from this addiction. Those who ordered the execution of Kolchak were shot in 1937-1938. Now one can only guess about the reasons for the quick reprisal against Kolchak. The archives say nothing about it. The decision to execute the admiral was issued by the Irkutsk political center, which consisted of Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. In February, the 30th division of the Red Army was rapidly advancing towards the city. Perhaps, in order to save their lives and show that they are not with Kolchak, the members of the political center made their decision. Perhaps they were afraid that Kolchak would be freed by the remnants of Kappel's division, who fought near Irkutsk.

Kolchak valued the life of every person

And why do you consider Kolchak a highly moral person?

This is what his whole life is about. And the way he behaved in the last days of his life. Kolchak's train, along with Russia's gold reserves, was accompanied by the Czechs, who were striving for the Far East in order to get to their homeland by sea. They were met by a detachment of Cheremkhovo workers. They warned that if the Czechs did not give up Kolchak, three bridges would be blown up. And this meant that they would never get home again. After that, no one prevented the Bolsheviks from arresting the admiral. How would you behave a common person? Probably would have run away. And Kolchak by order transferred power to Denikin and ordered all the gold to be given safe and sound to the Bolsheviks. The gold reserves of Russia came to Kolchak when his troops occupied Kazan. The gold was being prepared for loading onto barges for shipment to Astrakhan. Where the invaders and marauders operated. Most likely, the gold would have been taken away from Russia. And so it was described, an exact list was compiled - a total of 28 cars. So, all these 28 wagons were handed over to the Bolsheviks in Irkutsk, about which there are relevant documents.

And what did he do for Russia as a scientist? In fact, it was he who opened the Northern Sea Route to the world. In search of Toll's expedition, he lost half of his teeth and was frostbite. For his steadfastness he was awarded the Great Konstantinovsky medal, the highest medal for polar exploration. Even the Japanese themselves spoke about the heroic valor of Kolchak in the Russo-Japanese War. Already after the surrender of Port Arthur, Kolchak continued to shoot back from his batteries and was captured only when he was wounded. The Japanese, to show their respect for his courage, built two lines of samurai and carried Kolchak through them on a stretcher.

During World War I in the Baltic Sea, his ship sank five German ships without losing a single sailor. In the Black Sea, five German submarines were sunk under him, and again, not a single sailor died. He treated people very carefully, appreciated each person. When his officers shot three deputies of the Constituent Assembly and Kolchak found out about this, he ordered that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

The monument should stand near the Eternal Flame
- Now the most important thing is why I called you. Now there is a search for a place for the monument to Kolchak. I studied historical documents, looked through all the places in Irkutsk that are associated with Kolchak, and came to the conclusion that the most good place for the monument is the embankment near the Eternal Flame. After all, it was here that a car was waiting for him - he walked from the station through the Angara with an escort when he was transferred to prison. Here, one might say, Kolchak took his last steps. From the embankment near the Eternal Flame, you can see the Znamensky Monastery, near which stands the cross of Kolchak; the station where the admiral was brought; the place where the composition with gold stood. I want the city authorities to think about my proposal.

Dossier
Vladimir Petrovich Zenchenko was born on October 30, 1931 in Usolye-Sibirsky. He finished school there. In 1948 he entered the Mining Institute (now the Polytechnic University). From 1955 to 1992, he was engaged in the search for uranium deposits. In 1970 he was awarded the Lenin Prize for his contribution to science. It was he who discovered and then gave the name to the Krasnokamensk uranium deposit in the Chita region. Today, the Krasnokamenskoye field is the largest in the world and the only one in Russia. Now Vladimir Petrovich is retired, married twice, raised three sons who followed in his father's footsteps and became engineers.