The future Cossack general Shkuro Andrey Grigoryevich was born in the Kuban village of Pashkovskaya in the family of the lieutenant Grigory Fedorovich Shkura and his wife Anastasia Andreevna. The family on both lines had Zaporozhye roots. The White commander changed his surname Shkura to Shkuro during the Civil War.
Early years
The head of the family was a prominent Cossack, who was well known in the Army and Yekaterinodar. Grigory Fedorovich participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. and received many awards. No wonder his son dreamed of a career in the military since childhood.
In his small homeland, Andrey graduated from the Kuban Alexander Real School. Then his father sent him to the 3rd Moscow Cadet Corps, from which the young man graduated in 1907. Following this, the young man moved to the capital and entered the Higher Nikolaev Cavalry School. Having become an officer, Shkuro transferred to the 1st Yekaterinodar Cavalry Regiment stationed in Ust-Labinsk.
World War Iwar
In his youth, Shkuro Andrey Grigorievich was distinguished by an extravagant character. It was the restless temper that made the Cossack, during one of his holidays, join the expedition of gold prospectors and go to Eastern Siberia. In the Nerchinsk district, he learned about the onset of the First World War. A hasty mobilization began, under which the regular military Shkuro also fell. The generals were in a hurry, so when the young centurion arrived in his native Yekaterinodar, his regiment had already gone to the front.
Shkuro did not want to sit at home. After some persuasion, the Nakazny Ataman Babych enrolled him as a junior officer in the 3rd Khopersky Regiment. In the very first battle with his new platoon, Shkuro showed himself as an outstanding commander. In the battle near Senyava on the Galician front, 50 people were taken prisoner. The first logical award followed - the Order of St. Anne, 4th degree.
Wolf Hundred
For many months, officer Shkuro Andrey Grigoryevich (1886-1947) was continuously at the front. During another reconnaissance sortie in December 1915, he was wounded (a bullet hit his leg). In April 1916, he returned to duty again. In the regiment, Shkuro received a whole machine-gun team. He was wounded again (this time in the stomach). Andrei Grigoryevich left for treatment in his native Yekaterinodar. For courage and numerous merits, he became a Yesaul.
Being in the rear, the officer decided to assemble his own partisan detachment. When the go-ahead was given at the top, the Cossack, with redoubled energy, set about organizing a new formation. This detachment quickly became famous and evenreceived the informal name "Wolf Hundred" (the reason for this was the banner with the image of a wolf's head). Only the most capable and desperate Cossacks went to partisans to Shkuro. A hundred swept through the German and Austrian rear areas in a whirlwind, terrifying there and causing serious destruction. The Cossacks blew up bridges and artillery depots, spoiled roads, smashed carts. In the Russian army, a unique detachment instantly became legendary. Shkuro Andrei Grigorievich received the main laurels of the daring man. The Wolf Hundred would not have come into being without his energy and initiative.
1917
Andrey Shkuro learned about the February Revolution and the abdication of the tsar near Chisinau. Like most Cossacks, he was far from politics, he was squeamish about the Provisional Government and did not recognize anything other than an oath to the emperor. The turbulent era forced him to make difficult decisions. Shkuro's detachment occupied the Chisinau railway station and, having taken possession of the train, went home.
After several weeks of rest, the already famous partisan went to the Caucasus. Together with his faithful companions, he first arrived in Baku, and then stopped in Anzali. His detachment became part of the corps of General Nikolai Baratov. On the one hand, the Cossacks fought the Turks and Kurds, and on the other hand, they fought the revolutionary movement among the soldiers and sailors. In 1917, Shkuro managed to fight both in Persia and in the Caucasus. The confrontation with the red commissars cost him another wound. In autumn, the Cossack returned to his native land, and in October he was elected to the Kuban regional Rada. Shkuro became a delegate from the front-line soldiers.
StartCivil War
Andrey Shkuro reacted with hostility to the news about the coming of the Bolsheviks to power in Petrograd. According to his convictions, the Cossack remained a monarchist. Ideological conflicts arose even with the supporters of the republic. The officer openly despised and hated the Reds. Soon, the south of Russia became a rallying point for opponents of the Bolsheviks, among whom was the future General Shkuro. The military leader's family at that time lived in Kislovodsk, and there the famous partisan again set about organizing a loyal detachment.
July 7, 1918 Shkuro drove the Reds out of Stavropol. To do this, he did not even have to use a weapon. All the Cossack needed was to write an ultimatum threatening to attack the enemy positions if they did not leave the city. They really left Stavropol. However, the whole struggle was still ahead. But already at the first stage of the Civil War, Shkuro became one of the leaders of the White movement. He built his reputation by being uncompromising and adventurous in the fight against the revolution.
White General
In October 1918, thanks to the efforts of Andrey Shkuro, the 1st Kislovodsk Officer Regiment was formed. Shortly thereafter, he went to Yekaterinodar, where he met with Commander-in-Chief Anton Denikin. He was dissatisfied with the self-will of the Cossack. However, the conflict between these two figures did not reach. The leaders of the White movement were united by a common danger. In the army of Denikin, Shkuro led the Caucasian Cavalry Division. On November 30, he became a major general.
Fighting in the Stavropol Territory, Andrey Shkuroorganized the production of cartridges, shells, leather boots, cloth and other important things for the army of the White movement. Later, however, he had to move to the Kuban. In February 1919, Andrei Shkuro was appointed commander of the 1st Army Corps in the Caucasian Volunteer Army. With this formation, he fought on the Don, helping the local Cossacks on a key front in the fight against the Bolsheviks. In one of the battles near the village of Illovayskaya, he managed to defeat the detachment of Nestor Makhno.
Victory and defeat
At the peak of White's success, Andriy Shkuro took part in the battles for Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov and other Ukrainian cities. For assistance to allied British troops on July 2, 1919, he was awarded the English Order of the Bath. That campaign was the prologue to the attack on Moscow. On September 17, during the march to the capital, Shkuro Cossacks took Voronezh. The Whites held the city for a month. Under the blow of Budyonny's cavalry division, they had to retreat. The attack on Moscow bogged down not far from the desired goal.
Shkuro, together with his corps, retreated to Novorossiysk. The evacuation from the Black Sea port was carried out hastily and with poor organization. The general, like many comrades, did not have enough space on the ships. He went to Tuapse, and from Sochi he moved to the Crimea.
In exile
In May 1920, Wrangel, who did not like Shkuro, fired the officer, after which he ended up in exile. Soon the remnants of the White movement were defeatedBolsheviks. Thousands of Cossacks were expelled from their native country. Someone settled in the Balkan countries, someone in France.
Shkuro also chose Paris as his home. The general was still young, full of energy and enterprise. In exile, he gathered a Cossack troupe, performed at equestrian competitions, worked in a circus and even acted in silent films. The first performance of the Kuban at the stadium "Buffalo" on the outskirts of Paris gathered 20,000 spectators. The French had no idea about horse riding, so the financial success of the troupe was guaranteed.
Road builder
In 1931, Yugoslavia turned out to be a new country in which Andrei Shkuro settled. The general, having lived in the Balkans, began to maintain contacts with the military chieftain Vyacheslav Naumenko. Shkuro throughout the interwar years was an active figure in the Cossack movement in exile. He spoke regularly, tried to maintain the unity of the Kuban, who lost their homes and were mired in political disputes.
The former general was also engaged in practical matters. He entered into an agreement with the Batignolles company and set about organizing work on the construction of a 90-kilometer earthen rampart that fenced off the cities of Belgrade, Pancevo and Zemun from annoying Danube floods. The Serbs were delighted with the results and ordered the construction of a railway bridge in the south of their country from the Cossacks. Not only Kuban people worked for Shkuro, but also people from the Don, Astrakhan, Terts, and other natives of southern Russia. Next to the brigades of Andrei Grigoryevich, the Cossacks of another hero of the First World War, Viktor Zborovsky, worked. Some of the roads built at that time in Yugoslavia anddams are still functioning.
Also, Shkuro (like many other white emigrants) left memoirs in which he described his own impressions of the Civil War. Today, his book "Notes of a White Partisan" is a curious piece of evidence of the era, helping to understand how the struggle against the Bolsheviks in the South of Russia was arranged and organized.
At the crossroads
After the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, white emigrants faced a difficult choice. He also tormented Andrei Shkuro. The general hated the USSR, wanted to rid Russia of the Bolsheviks as soon as possible and return to his native Kuban lands. It's been 20 years since the Civil War. Many of its participants were no longer young, but still full of energy. But even such ardent anti-Sovietists as Denikin and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich refused to support the Germans. But the former chieftain of the Don Cossacks Peter Krasnov went for rapprochement with the Third Reich. Following him, General Shkuro made the same choice. The biography of this military leader, because of this decision, still causes fierce controversy today.
Despite the open support of Hitler, collaborators from among the Cossacks for a long time did not have their own army formations. The situation changed only in 1943. At that time, the Wehrmacht had already lost the Stalingrad war, and its final defeat in the entire war was a matter of time. Caught in a hopeless situation, the Fuhrer changed his mind and gave the green light to the creation of the Cossack troops, which became part of the SS.
In the service of the Germans
In 1944, SS Gruppenfuehrer Andrei Shkuro for the first timefor a long time led the army. It turned out to be the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps. An experienced general at the end of his sixties fought against the Yugoslav partisans. He never had to return to Russia with weapons in his hands. By that time, the fate of the Third Reich was already a foregone conclusion. Even before the Soviet troops took Berlin, Stalin at the Y alta Conference took care of agreements with the allies about the future of the collaborators.
On May 2, the Cossacks went to the Austrian East Tyrol in order to surrender to the British. Among them was General Shkuro. In the 2nd World War, he stood on principled anti-Soviet positions, which meant that falling into the hands of the NKVD promised him inevitable death. According to various estimates of historians, there were about 36 thousand people in the Cossack camp at that time (20 thousand combat-ready soldiers, the rest were peaceful refugees).
Issue in Lienz
On May 18, 1945, the British accepted the surrender of the fugitives. The Cossacks had to surrender almost all their weapons. Special camps were prepared for them in the vicinity of the Austrian city of Lienz.
1500 officers stood out from the total mass. The entire command staff (including the generals) was summoned to a meeting under false pretenses, and then isolated from their wards. Andrey Grigoryevich Shkuro was among them. Interesting facts of his biography are mixed with tragic ones. After many years of a quiet life in exile, he set about a hopeless business, and as a result, with a reputation as an accomplice of the Nazis, he was handed over to the NKVD.
Trial and execution
After the extradition of officers, the British deported the rest of the Cossacks. They were unarmed and defenseless and in the end could not resist. All of them were tried in the USSR.
Shkuro, along with Peter Krasnov and several other leaders of the collaborators, received capital punishment. The trial of the Cossacks was indicative. Those accused of terrorist activities and armed struggle against the USSR were hanged. Andrei Shkuro was executed in Moscow on January 16, 1947. Before his death, he still managed to return to his homeland.
