Mamontov, Sergey Ivanovich (military)

Representative of the Mamontov family . The famous philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov was the brother of his grandfather. Sergei Ivanovich recalled how they together caught frogs at the Butyrskaya outpost and how Savva taught him clay modeling.

Mamontov grew up in his father’s estate in Kireevo (Khimki district). He graduated from high school in 1916 and, according to the memoirs of the philologist Rene Guerre who knew him in exile, "was afraid that the war would end without him." These fears turned out to be groundless.

Sergei graduated from the crash course of the Konstantinovsky artillery school and was released with the rank of ensign in the army. He ended up in the 64th artillery brigade, an army unit of the second stage, deployed in 1914. The brigade fought on the Southwestern Front , and this already largely determined the future of the young ensign: most of those who joined the Volunteer Army in 1917-1918 served in parts of the Southwestern Front during the Great War. The front was really special, because it was there that “the counter-revolution was born”, it was there that Kornilov , Denikin , Erdeli , Miller and others served.

In 1917 he graduated. Participated in the WWI : Warrant Officer of the 64th Artillery Brigade.

Entered the White Dobrarmia in August 1918 . He fought in the First Horse Mountain Battery; from April 1919 - in the 2nd mounted battery of the Drozdovskaya artillery brigade .

He ended the war as a lieutenant in the Gallipoli camp .

After Gallipoli, he first went to Paris , then moved to Berlin , where he studied at the Higher Technical School of Architecture. He worked as an architect . Just before the arrival of Soviet troops, he managed to escape to Tyrol . From there he wrote off with his old comrade in arms and he wrote him off to Central Africa, where he lived for the next 15 years. He worked in a sisal company, then created his own coffee plantation. In 1962, by order of President Daco was arrested and thrown into prison. The reason was a humorous article published in America. Daco himself was soon deposed by the future emperor Bokassa. Three days later, thanks to the French consul, he was released, but expelled from the country. Mamontov’s memories of Central Africa were published in the New York newspaper New Russian Word from 1973 to 1975. Later he moved to live in the south of France, where he wrote Campaigns and Horses, which won the 1979 Dal Literary Prize in Paris. In the city of Valence and later in Cannes, he worked as an architect. He was a wonderful sculptor. One of his works is in the collection of Rene Guerra.

In exile he was friends with the biologist N. Timofeev-Resovsky , the artist O. Zinger, the French philologist-Slavist and the famous collector Rene Guerra.

He was buried in a country cemetery in the vicinity of Cannes , in a common grave.

What you need to know about the personality of Sergei Ivanovich Mamontov (1898–1987)? Firstly, he is a representative of the very merchant family Mamontov, to which Savva Mamontov belonged (Savva was the brother of his grandfather Sergey). Secondly, he was born in a very turbulent time, which determined the fate for him.

- Roman Grishin , “Anthology of the White Guard Memories,” part 3

Mamontov fought on the Southwestern Front until October, then participated in the Moscow battles and for some time lived in Moscow under the Bolsheviks. In mid-1918, when life became unbearable for officers in the new capital, he and his brother left for the Volunteer Army. In August 1918, Mamontov was credited to the equestrian mountain battery. The main composition of the battery came with a detachment of Mikhail Drozdovsky from Iasi, which automatically included the "1st General Drozdovsky equestrian mountain battery" in the number of privileged volunteer groups.

With Drozdovites Mamontov fought until the Crimean evacuation. He left Russia from Yalta. Then there were Gallipoli, Paris, Berlin. Sergey studied as an architect at the Higher Technical School, worked in his specialty. After World War II, Mamontov worked for some time in Africa, where he created his own coffee plantation and became an involuntary participant in Central African conflicts. Under the dictator Daco, he even spent some time in prison, but was released as a French citizen.

Until the 70s, Mamontov’s life developed in an adventure, but quite familiar with the Russian military emigration channel. Strictly speaking, his desire to write memoirs was not something outstanding. But the result exceeded all expectations.

Memoirs are divided into two large categories that can be easily traced in our anthology: memoirs written for contemporaries and memoirs written for posterity. “Campaigns and horses” undoubtedly belong to the latter category. Such books written “from the heights of experience” by wise people are usually less biased. Their main drawback is the memory, which often brings the authors years later, but Mamontov had a diary from the time of the war:

I was lucky - I kept a diary, and I survived. Therefore, I consider it my duty to portray everything that I saw ...

Excerpts from Mamontov’s memoirs have been published in exile periodically since 1970. These were the magazines Russian Thought and New Russian Word. Irina Ilovayskaya, editor-in-chief of Russian Thought, was a member of the jury of the Dahl Prize in Paris. Perhaps this fact somehow contributed to the fact that in 1979 Mamontov became a prize winner. Soon (1981), the first full edition of Campaigns and Horses, published in the YMCA-Press, saw the light of day. From this time began the triumphal procession of the book on the expatriate world. Mamontov’s memories were very warmly received by both readers and critics, as Rene Guerra wrote: “Mamontov introduced living pages into an endless novel called émigré literature.”

After the fall of the USSR, Mamontov’s memoirs became one of the first white books to return to Russian space. The memoirs were printed in 1992 in periodicals, and then published independently and in collections more than a dozen times (comparable to Essays and Drozdovites on Fire).

• Sergey Mamontov

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Campaigns and Horses is one of the most popular memoirs on the history of the Civil War. Why?

Firstly, the book is written by a literally gifted person, which is uncharacteristic of military memoirs. The work is so talented that it remains surprising why Mamontov took up the pen so late.

Secondly, Mamontov did not belong to any party and went to war "without any idea of ​​politics, but simply going to save a dying Russia." This position of his very suitable "wide audience of readers." Mammoths are acceptable. The author lived a long and eventful life, while he “stood the mark”, as was customary to say (he was not a returnee, a Soviet patriot, etc.). This evenness and self-confidence was reflected in the story - saturated and at the same time calm.

Mamontov died in France in 1987, a venerable eighty-year-old man. After the sensational “Campaigns and Horses”, he published the book “The Legend”, and also left a rather extensive literary heritage in the expat periodicals. In particular, he wrote essays about his hectic life in Central Africa, not inferior to “Campaigns” in the quality of presentation and the intensity of passions. All this material in Russia is unknown and awaits its researcher and publisher, but for now, Campaigns and Horses remain one of the main memoirs of the Russian Diaspora.

The Red Cavalry was not far away, she switched to a gallop. We started to panic. I rushed to the gun. We fired two shots with buckshot and scattered the cavalry in front of us, but both flanks swept over us. We hitched the gun to the front, but did not have time to put on a low axis. Riders (Larionov and Ranzhiev) were immediately touched by a large trot. For some reason, in our guns there were only two offsets (4 horses) instead of three. Horse breeders filed horses. I was still not fully aware of the danger and was surprised by the hysterical cry of the breeder:

- Take the horses ... Yes, take the horses, otherwise I will dissolve them!

... Shots, screams, around the silhouettes of riders jumping with sabers. Ours have disappeared. Then I was so scared that I almost lost consciousness from fear.

Consciousness returned somehow at once. I rode between the two red horsemen, touching both knees. Their faces were bloodshot, they screamed and waved their sabers, but they were obviously in a state of stupefaction, as I had before, because they did not notice me. I tried to squeeze between them, but I did not succeed. Then I held back Vanka, missed them and took the direction at an angle. My heart was beating like on an anvil. By all means, I tried to keep my mind. You become too easy a prey if you go out. Nevertheless, I transferred Vanka to a lynx in order to save his strength, if necessary. He removed a carbine from behind and removed the fuse. I knew that it had five rounds. Cartridges at that time were rare. The presence of a carbine reassured me somewhat. I searched with my eyes among our galloping ones. Finally, I recognized one officer. We were glad to each other, as relatives. Soon they found other officers. We have gone a step. The red attack has stopped.

We scattered into a chain and opened fire on red. My carbine flicked faintly. I opened the shutter - there were no cartridges, they were stolen from me ... "

• Mamontov S. I. Campaigns and horses ^[1] . Paris, YMCA-Press, 1981.
• Reprinted with abbreviations: Voronezh, ed. The Ascend, The Ascend Magazine, 5/6 for 1992 , ISSN 0130-8165 .
• Reprint: Campaigns and Horses (Notes of the Lieutenant) - M. , Veche, 2007 .-- 448 p. (White Guard novel) Circulation 10000 copies. ISBN 978-5-9533-2384-0
• S. Mamontov. Hiking and horses. // Armed forces in the south of Russia. January-June 1919. . - M: Centerpolygraph, 2003 .-- S. 258-342. - 672 p. - ("Russia Forgotten and Unknown. The White Movement in Russia", Volume 17). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-95-24-0666-1 .
• S. Mamontov. The Tale, Paris, 1986, Albatross, shooting gallery. 500 copies afterword Rene Guerra.
• S. Mamontov. "Three Stories." Publishing house "Russian inheritance", 1983.
• S. Mamontov. "Tea". Publishing house "Russian inheritance", France, 1984.

• Sergey Mamontov. Hiking and horses.