Essays on Russian Troubles

The book consists of 5 volumes ^[2] :

• Volume I. “The collapse of power and the army. (February-September 1917) ";
• Volume II “The struggle of General Kornilov. (August 1917 - April 1918) ";
• Volume III “White movement and struggle of the Volunteer Army”;
• Volume IV "Armed forces of the south of Russia." October 1918 - January 1919 ";
• Volume V. “Armed forces of the south of Russia. Campaign to Moscow. 1919-1920 ".

General Denikin, after abandoning the All-Union Socialist League, in the spring of 1920 and transferring the command of the White Movement remaining in the South to General Wrangel , left for England , where in August 1920 in the Times he refused the offer of Lord Curzon to conclude a truce with the Bolsheviks , and said that ^[3] :

As before, and now I consider the inevitable and necessary armed struggle with the Bolsheviks to be completely defeated. Otherwise, not only Russia, but all of Europe will turn into ruins.

Having left his military posts, Denikin limited his participation in the political struggle by the fall of 1920, transferring the main efforts of his implacable struggle against Bolshevism to the plane of journalism . In the fall of 1920, Denikin moved to Belgium , where he began writing his fundamental documentary study on the Civil War - "Essays on Russian Troubles." On Christmas Eve in December 1920, General Denikin wrote to his colleague, the former head of the British mission in the South of Russia, General Briggs ^[4] :

I completely retired from politics and went all the historical work. I finish the first volume of "Essays", covering the events of the Russian revolution from February 27 to August 27, 1917. In my work, I find some oblivion from difficult experiences.

In 1922, Denikin moved from Belgium to Hungary , where he lived and worked until 1926. During his three years in Hungary, he changed his place of residence three times. First, the general settled in Sopron , then spent several months in Budapest , and then again settled in a provincial town near Lake Balaton ^[4] .

Thus, the first two volumes of Essays on the Russian Troubles were written by Denikin in Belgium, and the next three by Hungary.

Difficulties in work

Dmitry Lekhovich writes that General Denikin has interesting information about how difficult it was for him to work on the compilation of Essays ^[4] :

The archive that he exported from Russia was far from complete. All the work related to the search for documents, their systematization, verification, drawing up drawings, etc., he had to perform personally. The chest with the affairs of the office of the Special Meeting (that is, the former government of the South of Russia), taken to Constantinople, was not available to the general until 1921. In addition to the journals of the Special Meeting, the chest contained genuine orders of the Commander-in-Chief, as well as relations with foreign powers and information on the situation in all new states on the outskirts of Russia. With the archive of the former General Headquarters of Denikin, the question was more complicated. Anton Ivanovich did not want to contact his successor as Commander-in-Chief. But this question was settled safely by itself. Knowing the work of Anton Ivanovich, General Kusonsky, deputy chief of staff of General Wrangel, suggested that Denikin use the archives of the Headquarters. Soon, General Wrangel himself (who had been in Yugoslavia after leaving Crimea) ordered that all the affairs of the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief during the management of the South of Russia by General Denikin should be transferred to the latter for storage. I had to keep a lot of correspondence with former employees and subordinates in order to get detailed information from them about what was happening.

General Denikin himself recalls an episode related to the writing of Essays: ^[4]

Filimonov, a former Kuban chieftain, offered me his cooperation, but before he did not wait for my description of the Kuban period in Essays on Russian Troubles, he published a pamphlet article in the Archive of the Russian Revolution in which he was biased about my work and told a lie, which was not difficult to refute by documents ... Having met (somehow) Colonel Uspensky (former adjutant General Romanovsky), Filimonov told him:

- Have you read? General Denikin will probably scold me in his Essays. So I, according to Cossack skill, ran ahead and scolded him myself. As long as his book comes out, but from my writing a trace will nevertheless remain.

Subsequently, having not found any attacks in my book at his address, which would have been unfair, Filimonov sent me a letter in which he expressed his readiness to cover me with the Kuban events. I did not take advantage of his offer, which I regret.

Dmitry Lekhovich writes that his wife was the closest assistant to the general. She reprinted the manuscripts and was, as Anton Ivanovich recalled, his “first reader and censor,” making her remarks, often very thorough, in particular from the point of view, as she said, of the average man in the street ^[4] .

The first volume of Essays on Russian Troubles, entitled The Collapse of Power and the Army (February-September 1917), was published in two issues in Paris ^{[5] [6]} , and was completely published by October 1921 . The second volume, entitled “The Struggle of General Kornilov,” was devoted to the events of the second half of 1917 - the beginning of 1918. and also published in Paris at the publishing house of Povolotsky in November 1922 ^[7] . The third volume, entitled “The White Movement and Struggle of the Volunteer Army,” covering the description of the events of spring and fall of 1918, was first published in Berlin in March 1924 by Slovo Publishing House. The fourth and fifth volumes are devoted to the events of 1919-1920. in Russia, engulfed in the flames of the Civil War, were also published for the first time in Berlin: the fourth volume in September 1925 by the Slovo publishing house, and the fifth in October 1926 by the Bronze Horseman publishing house ^{[2] [4]} .

According to historian S.V. Karpenko, the release of the last volume of "Essays" prompted Wrangel to publish his "Notes", which were written back in 1921-1923, but the gene was published. A. A. Lampe in the collections “White Cause” in 1928, shortly after the death of Wrangel. At the same time, although Wrangel himself did not want his Notes to be perceived as an answer to Denikin's Essays on the Russian Troubles, they were perceived by many emigrants in this way. ^[8]

Sketchy Publications in the 1920s

The stereotype that Denikin was not published in the Soviet state until the end of the 1980s is not entirely true. In the mid-1920s, during the NEP period in the USSR, fragments of Denikin's Essays on Russian Troubles fell into the official press. Several cases of publication of fragments of Denikin’s book by the Soviet State Publishing House are known. For example, a fragment of the second volume of “Essays on Russian Troubles” on 25 pages entitled “Bolshevik Revolution” was published in the USSR in 1926 in the collection “October Revolution” of the series “Revolution and Civil War in the Descriptions of the White Guards” ^[1] . In 1927, various fragments of Denikin's Essays were published along with excerpts from memoirs of other participants in the civil war ^[9] . The State Publishing House also published in 1928 a separate book fragment of the second volume of Denikin's Essays on 106 pages entitled “The Campaign and Death of General Kornilov” with a circulation of 5 thousand copies ^[10] .

In addition, the Soviet publishing house Federation, published in 1928 a book with a volume of 313 pages with a circulation of 10 thousand copies entitled “Campaign to Moscow” with selections from the fourth and fifth volumes of “Sketches of Russian Troubles”. “We tried to extract from Denikin,” the introduction said, “all the most interesting pages.” Denikin’s biographer, writer Dmitry Lekhovich writes that, “in accordance with the task of the book, these“ curious pages ”were just a juggling of facts, with deliberately one-sided coverage of events” ^{[4] [11]} .

Since the late 1920s through the 1980s Denikin’s books were not published in the USSR.

First editions during the perestroika period

During the years of perestroika in the Soviet Union, interest in documentary, journalistic and memoirs of White movement activists increased significantly. For the first time the full version of the book "Essays on Russian Troubles" in the USSR was published in 1989 (publishing house " Military Publishing House") and 1990 (publishing house " Science ").

After 1991

But a truly wide reader in the space of the CIS countries Denikin’s book "Essays on Russian Troubles" became available only after 1991 . For the 1990s and 2000s the book has withstood a lot of reprints.

In 2013, “Sketches of Russian Troubles” were included by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation among the 100 books recommended for reading by Russian students ^[12] .

• The review of V. Rudnev on the first volume of “Essays on the Russian Troubles”, which was published in the literary journal of the Russian emigration “ Modern Notes ” in 1922 , noted the following ^[13] :

Conceived "Essays" is very wide. They include not only the personal memories of the author, but also an attempt to illuminate the events of the revolution from a somewhat more general point of view. Both of these tasks have been resolved far from with equal success. Where the author personally conveys to them personally experienced and directly known to him, "Essays" are of exceptional interest; vast knowledge of the environment along with sincerity and directness of judgment, lively exposition, vivid and imaginative characteristics constitute the indisputable merits of those chapters that are devoted to the course of the revolution in the army, at the front. On the contrary, Denikin's superficial, unoriginal, and unconvincing critical excursions in the field of political and social relations of the revolutionary era; giving out second-hand awareness, revealing bias and lack of historical perspective, they are of interest only to characterize the author himself.

Of course, the whole book of Denikin is a harsh indictment against the so-called. "Revolutionary democracy." She and she alone is responsible for the collapse of the state, for the "corruption and destruction" of the army. The relatively restrained tone, which, incidentally, Denikin’s work compares favorably with the books of Nazhivin and other accusers of the revolution, does not weaken, but only strengthens the serious nature of the accusation.

• According to the writer Dmitry Lekhovich, the appearance of "Sketches of Russian Troubles" was a major event in Russian memoirs ^[4] .
• P. A. Kusonsky, in a letter to A. A. von Lampe dated 04/10/1924, spoke of 3 volumes of essays ^[14] :

I also read the third volume of Anton Ivanovich [Denikin], and in awe of this most thorough and impartial, truthful work, little things have not yet struck me , like attacks against Lisovy ; as for the feud with P.N. and the writer , he couldn’t pass them around in silence, and I must admit that A.I. evidently worked hard on himself in this regard over the past 4-5 years, for he writes calmly about the writer, giving him his due, while at the time he could not talk about him without irritation.

• According to General A. A. von Lampe, the first four volumes of Essays on the Russian Troubles, published in 1923-1925, were "very objective." However, in the 5th volume of Essays, Denikin, according to von Lampe, “forced to mention the name and exploits of General Wrangel, immediately lost his balance and tried in every way to discredit his former subordinate and deputy” ^{[15] [8]}
• In a private letter to P. N. Wrangel dated February 22, 1927, I. A. Ilyin criticized the fifth volume of the Essays he had read, calling Denikin “a man who did not make out because of his petty and imaginary“ rightness ”of his non-small and invisible weaknesses ”And comparing the fifth volume of Essays with Kerensky’s book about his conflict with L. G. Kornilov ^[16] .
• On May 24, 2009, during the opening of the memorial to white soldiers in the Donskoy Monastery, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recommended that everyone ^{[17] [18] [19] [20]} read Denikin’s book, Essays on Russian Troubles.

• Literary activity of Anton Denikin

• Khodakov I. M. "Essays on the Russian Troubles" by A. I. Denikin as a source for the study of the civil war in southern Russia . - the dissertation for the competition. Degrees of Doctor of Historical Sciences in the specialty 07.00.09 - historiography, source study and methods of historical research. - Moscow, 2006.
• Antonova L. A. Political views of A. I. Denikin in Russia and emigration: formation and evolution . - dis. for the competition Step Cand. East. Sciences 07.00.02. - Rostov-on-Don, 2011 .-- 210 p.

• "Essays on Russian Troubles" on the site militera.ru. Full version
• Rudnev V.V. Army and Revolution: (Review of the book: Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles. Paris: Povolozky, 1921. T. 1. Issue 1-2) / V. Rudnev. // Modern notes. 1922. Book. IX. Culture and life. S. 315-329.
• Khodakov Igor Mikhailovich. “Essays on Russian Troubles” by A. I. Denikin as a Source for the Study of the Civil War in the South of Russia: Dis. ... cand. East. Sciences: 07.00.09. Moscow, 2006 .-- 508 p. RSL OD, 61: 07-7 / 89.