Kazan operation

The defeat near Kazan put the Soviet government in a difficult position. It was lost the Volga region - the old granary of the country, cut off Central Asia and Siberia . The Soviet leadership set the task for the Eastern Front to recapture the city at all costs.

Using the replenishment, the command of the Eastern Front formed in the region west of Kazan the Right-Bank (com. P. A. Slaven) and the Left-Bank (com. Ya. A. Yudin ) groups.

On August 12–13, the troops of the groups went on the offensive and entered the approaches to Kazan, but as a result of counterattacks they were thrown back to their original positions.

On August 16, the Left-Bank and Right-Bank groups were combined into the 5th Army (com. Slaven) ^[1] .

A general plan for the capture of Kazan was developed. According to the plan, the troops of the 5th army delivered the main blow, which were to attack the city from the west on both banks of the Volga. The right-bank group was tasked with capturing the right bank of the Volga in the Kazan region. The left-bank group, as the most numerous, was supposed to strike along the railroad track and actually capture Kazan. An auxiliary strike from the north was dealt by the Arsk Group of the 2nd Army.

During the next week, reinforcements arrived near Kazan: the 1st Moscow, 2nd and 6th Petrograd, Orshansky, Starorussky, 4th Latvian regiments and two companies of the united socialist detachments at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee .

Also, the Volga Military Flotilla arrived under Kazan (2 floating batteries and 12 other ships and vessels ^[2] ), reinforced by three destroyers of the “Durable” type from the Baltic and 16 aircraft ^[3] . Later, the Free Russia and Stenka Razin armored trains were handed over to the Revolutionary Military Council of the 5th Army.

The main headquarters of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, located in Sviyazhsk , arrived People's Commissar for Naval Affairs L. D. Trotsky . Trotsky “strengthens discipline” by mass executions, even arranging demonstrative “decimation” even in the 2nd Petrograd regiment: shooting every tenth ^[4] (for more details see Trotsky in Sviyazhsk (1918) ).

On August 23, 1918, two aircraft of the Red Army, controlled by pilots I.U. Pavlov and F.A. Ingaunis, dropped bombs from a height of 600 m onto the white villages of Upper Uslon and Lower Uslon ^[5] .

The concentration of the red forces forced the command of the People’s Army to deliver a preventive strike.

On August 27, 1918, a detachment of V.O. Kappel (4 thousand bayonets and sabers) was deployed near Kazan, which had just repelled the advance of the 1st Army of Tukhachevsky in Simbirsk . Kappel planned to land deep behind enemy lines, capture Sviyazhsk and the railway bridge across the Volga in order to cut the communications of the Reds and force them to withdraw from Kazan ^[1] . The units of the People’s Army defending Kazan were to strike from the front.

On the night of August 28-29, the White Guards landed near Nizhny Uslon, discarded the Red Army units and reached Sviyazhsk. Here the battles were of the most fierce nature. The Reds pulled up reserves and launched a counterattack on the Kappel detachment with the forces of the 1st and 6th Latvian Rifle Regiments and the Rzhev Detachment with the support of an armored train ^[6] . The numerical superiority of the Reds and the weak support from the front forced Kappel to abandon the original plan and begin to retreat to Kazan at the rear of the enemy. During this raid, confusion was made in the rear of the Reds, the railway was destroyed, trophies were captured, the Tyurlema ​​station was taken, where Trotsky was almost captured, but the Bolsheviks failed to disrupt the attack.

At this time, the situation near Simbirsk was again complicated and Kappel's detachment was sent for his defense.

On the night of August 31, 1918, the Volga flotilla, headed by the "Strong", on which were the flotilla commander F. F. Raskolnikov and L. D. Trotsky, quietly passed batteries behind Verkhny Uslon and unexpectedly fired at the white base, causing a fire to steamboats and barges standing there and causing a panic among the enemy units. In the ensuing gunfight, the Red Flotilla suffered losses: 1 gunboat sank, 2 others and 1 destroyer were abandoned for long-term repairs, and another destroyer that remained in service was seriously damaged ^[7] .

Before the start of the offensive on Kazan, the Red Army forces included:

• The right-bank group of the 5th Army of the Red Army (3.5 thousand people, 16 guns and 55 machine guns) - in accordance with the plan of operation, together with the left-bank group, delivered the main blow to the city from the west along the right bank of the Volga ^[3] ;
• The left-bank group of the 5th army of the Red Army (4 thousand people, 19 guns, 58 machine guns) - in accordance with the plan of operation, together with the right-bank group, delivered the main blow to the city from the west along the left bank of the Volga ^[3] ;
• An arsk group from the 2nd Army of the Red Army (commander V. M. Azin, 3,500 men, 6 guns and 30 machine guns) was dealt an auxiliary blow from the northeast along the Kazanka River ^[3] .
• the actions of the troops were supported by 9 ships of the Volga military flotilla and 12 aircraft ^[2] .

In total: 11 thousand bayonets and sabers, 41 guns, 143 machine guns.

The Kazan group of the People’s Army (commander P.A. Stepanov) initially numbered about 6 thousand bayonets and sabers, but after the Kappel detachment left for Simbirsk its number was 2.5 thousand bayonets and sabers, 33 guns, 85 machine guns.

On the morning of September 5, 1918, after artillery preparation, a general offensive of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front on Kazan began ^[3] . The ships of the Volga river flotilla went down the river, supporting the advancing units with fire and entering into a skirmish with enemy artillery batteries. In the artillery duel with three white artillery batteries, the armed steamboats “Dolphin” and “Tashkent” died (while the Tashkent commandos continued to fire from the stern gun until the ship sank) ^[8] .

By September 7, 1918, the right-bank group of the Red Army reached the Volga, the left-bank group of the Red Army occupied Krasnaya Gorka and reached the border of the Kazanka River, and the Arsk group occupied the villages of Kinder and Malye Fangs ^[3] .

Also, on September 7, 1918, two aircraft of the Red Army, controlled by the pilots Stolyarsky and Svinaryov, dropped bombs at enemy positions in Kazan from a height of 500 m under machine-gun fire ^[5]

September 9, 1918 parts of the Red Army were occupied by the villages of Upper and Lower Uslon and the height prevailing over the city. From here, 15 guns started firing at White’s positions. Under the cover of artillery fire, four gunboats of the Volga flotilla (Olga, Deer, Konovod and Mercury) crushed machine-gun battery calculations by white machine guns and landed 60 people on the landing under the command of flotilla commissar N. G. Markin ^{[ 3]} , which threw the enemy’s forces into the city, held the marina for an hour ^[9] , but after strong artillery fire was fired from the city’s Kremlin on landing and ships, the paratroopers returned to the ships, taking with them locks from six out of eight enemy their guns. The losses of the landing were insignificant ^[7] .

At the same time, part of the Red Army went on the offensive from the Green Dol. They were supported by fire destroyers, armored train and aircraft. Especially fierce battles went beyond the railway junction. He changed hands several times.

On the night of September 9–10, 1918, the destroyers Prytky and Retivy landed another, larger landing force — the combined battalion of soldiers and sailors ^{[3] [10]} .

Having repulsed the attacks of the Reds, on the morning of September 10, Stepanov announced the evacuation of Kazan. The forces of the People’s Army, numerically inferior to the enemy four times, were clearly not enough for the defense of the city. Their units organizedly left Kazan. Together with them several tens of thousands of people left the city, mainly representatives of the intelligentsia, employees, and clergy. By two o’clock on September 10, the empty city was taken in red.

As M. Ya. Latsis noted in a telegram to G.I. Petrovsky , “ Kazan is empty, not a single priest, not a monk, not a bourgeois ” ^[11]

After the fighting in Kazan, the trophies of the Red Army were 2 armored trains, 12 guns, machine guns and warehouses with property ^[1] . For courage and heroism in battles, the 5th Latvian Rifle Regiment was awarded the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Red Banner of Honor , the Freedom Fighter commander - the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Red Banner, and the Vanya Communist gunboat crew - the Red Banner ^[12] .

In the following days, the Volga flotilla continued to pursue the White flotilla that was retreating to the mouth of the Kama, while at the same time supporting the offensive of the Red Army ^[7] . As a result, White retreated to the Laishev – Chistopol – Simbirsk line ^[1] .

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• E. V. Baryakina "Argentinean", M: Ripol, 2011