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 a church parish. Father wanted Vasily to become a priest. However, the subsequent life of his son had nothing to do with the church. In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army. He was sent to Ukraine, to Kyiv. For some unknown reason, the soldier was returned to the reserve before the end of his service.
Blank 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.
World War I
In peacetime, Vasily Chapaev workedcarpenter 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.
Due to 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 the 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 with 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 thatparty organizer Stalin was also at the time.
Pugachev brigade
After the Kaledin offensive bogged down, the biography of Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich 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 People's Army of Komuch 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.
Fights with the Czechoslovak Corps
In the summer, the Chapaevites 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 People's Army of Komuch.
11 thousand armed supporters of the White movement broke throughalong 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 divisional 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 didn't have any formal education. Chapaev achieved his success in the Red Army thanks to his natural ingenuity and charisma. But now it's time for him to complete his course at the General Staff Academy.
Chapaev's image
In an educational institution, the head of the division amazed others, on the one hand, with the quickness of his mind, and on the other, with 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 wasa typical representative of the lower classes, which, however, only benefited his image among his associates.
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.
At the front again
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 later praised in Soviet literature.
Vasily Chapaev, whose biography spoke of him as a typical native of the masses, was remembered by his descendant for his unbreakable connection with this very people in the person of ordinary Red Army soldiers who fought in the Volga region and the Ural steppes.
Tactical
As a tactician, Chapaev mastered several tricks that he successfully used during the division's march to the east. A 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 boldness drove opponents into a stupor.
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, duringduring 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 River 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 the White Czechs.
By the beginning of autumn, Chapaev found himself 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 division commander died.
For Soviet culture and propaganda, Chapaev has become a uniquely popular character. A great contribution to the creation of this image was made by the film of the brothersVasiliev, beloved including Stalin. In 1974, the house where Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich was born was turned into his museum. Numerous settlements are named after the commander.
