Oleko Dundich is a hero of the Civil War, a red cavalryman, a man of selfless courage and courage, who died far from his homeland for the ideals of the revolution. He was and remains one of the most mysterious characters in our history. In the Soviet Union, this name was known to everyone, but new times give birth to other heroes. Now most of the young have not even heard such a name, not to mention his exploits. But an educated person should know everything about the history of his country.
Mystery Man
During the Civil War, he was known as Oleko Dundich, but after his death it turned out that only fragmentary information about him was preserved. He, the brave cavalryman, the commander of the detachment, was called the Red Dundich, but the time of fighting had passed and the time had come when all events were summed up and recorded for history. And then it turned out that nothing is known about this person. No real name, no date, no place of birth. All that is truly knownabout him, these are two years, from the spring of 1918 to July 8, 1920, spent in the ranks of the Red Army.
It shouldn't be like this. This issue was taken up by caring people in the USSR and Yugoslavia, who sat in the archives, interviewed witnesses and his fellow soldiers. So who is he - Milutin Colic, Ivan, Alexa or Oleko Dundich?
The work of researchers
The first official biography of Oleko Dundich was published immediately after his death, in June 1920. It contained his bibliographic data, obtained, as they say, in hot pursuit, that is, talking with his brother-soldiers and fellow Serbs. But with further study of them, contradictory data appeared, which concerned not only individual episodes of life, but also his name. A lot of work has been done - this is the study of archival documents, and the search for people who knew Oleko.
Researchers even got to the bottom of the newspaper "Voronezh Commune", which was published in 1919. A number of her articles were devoted to the 1st Cavalry Army of Budyonny, which fought in these places. Several articles were devoted to Krasny Dundich, who, after being wounded, was in the Voronezh hospital. One of them, published in the newspaper No. 22 of November 18, 1919, provides a biography of the hero. The facts cited in it were told to the correspondent by Oleko Dudnich himself.
Birth and family
Oleko Dundich was born in 1896. The place of his birth was the village of Grobovo, which is located near the city of Imacki, located in Dalmatia, which in those years was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The territory of modern Dalmatia is part of Croatia (most) and Montenegro. His parents were peasants. Dalmatia, located in the fertile places of the Adriatic coast, was a poor and backward province of the empire. Therefore, a large number of immigrants to America left this area at the end of the 19th century.
After Oleko turned 12, he was sent to live with his uncle, who had previously emigrated to South America. Here the boy earned his living by working as a rider driving cattle. He traveled to Brazil, Argentina and even North America. After four years of wandering, he returns to Croatia at the request of his father. Oleko Dundich worked for two years in the vineyards owned by his family, plowed the land and looked after the cattle.
World War I
Europe was restless, the First World War was brewing, the epicenter of which was in the Balkans. Its beginning coincided with the time when Dudnich was 18 years old. He is drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, which fought against Russia and Serbia, where he was a non-commissioned officer. He did not manage to escape the fate of most of the representatives of the Slavic peoples, whom the war divided into two warring halves. After being transferred to the Russian front, he was sent to Lutsk.
Captivity
During the fighting near Lutsk, he was wounded in the leg. The injury was severe. He could not move and lay in the forest for two days until he was discovered by enemy soldiers who transported him to the Odessa POW camp. After the leg has healed, he enters the First Serbian Volunteer Division, formed inRussia, and receives a referral to the Odessa School of Ensigns, which he successfully graduates with the rank of second lieutenant.
Red Army
Unlike his fellow countrymen, who after the February Revolution were loyal to monarchist Russia, Oleko Dundich takes the side of the Bolsheviks and becomes a member of the RSDLP (b). He enters the battalion under the command of Sievers, formed from foreigners. Fights in the south-west of Russia. From March 1918, he led a partisan detachment that fought near Bakhmut (Artemovsk). He was an instructor in the formation and training in the Kryuchkovsky brigade, which joined the Voroshilov detachment. Together with him, he retreats to Tsaritsyn, where he takes part in the formation of units of the Red Army from foreigners.
In September of the same year, he received the post of commander of a battalion, part of the brigade named after the 3rd Comintern of the 10th Red Army. From the beginning of 1919, he fought in the Don Caucasian Division under the command of S. Budyonny, in the cavalry corps of the First Cavalry Army. Here he served as assistant regiment commander, then became Budyonny's assistant for special assignments. Semyon Mikhailovich was very fond of Oleko Dundich for his bravery and courage. He could engage in battle with superior enemy forces and defeat them. He was respected by his comrades and commanders.
Death of the Red Dundich
His further service was connected with the legendary 1st Cavalry, the stages of development of which were the liberation of Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, the North Caucasus. In April 1920, as part of the Cavalryparticipated in the battles on the Polish front. 1920-08-07 Dundich was shot in the battle of the White Poles with the Don Cossacks of the 24th Cavalry Regiment. At the same time, Dundich himself was an assistant commander of the 36th regiment of the 6th division. This happened in front of Voroshilov, Budyonny. How Oleko Dundich, whose memory is alive today, could have ended up there, remained a mystery to his commanders. There is only an assumption that he personally jumped into contact with the Chebotarev brigade and ran into the White Poles.
He was solemnly buried in Rovno. Thousands of people came to say goodbye to him, among whom were his colleagues, friends and countrymen. After the war, legends were made about him. Budyonny wrote about him in his memoirs. His incredible courage is captured in the book Cavalry by Isaac Babel and Alexei Tolstoy's trilogy The Path Through the Torments.
