Romanovsky, Ivan Pavlovich

Early years

He was born in the family of an artillery officer in Lugansk, where his father worked at a cartridge factory. He graduated from the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps (1897), the Konstantinovsky Artillery School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1903).

General Staff Officer

He served in the Life Guards of the 2nd Artillery Brigade . After graduating from the General Staff Academy, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War . Since September 1904 - chief officer for special assignments at the headquarters of the 18th Army Corps . In 1906-1909 - Chief officer for assignments at the headquarters of the Turkestan military district , in January - October 1909 - senior adjutant of the headquarters of the same district. I traveled to Bukhara and the Pamirs , to the borders of Afghanistan , to remove plans for the area. The result of this work was a detailed map of the Pamirs.

Since October 1909 he served in the General Directorate of the General Staff as an assistant clerk of the mobilization department. Since 1910 - assistant to the head of the department in the department of the general on duty of the General Staff . Since 1912 - colonel and head of the same department, who was in charge of appointments in the army.

World War One Member

With the outbreak of World War I , on September 9, 1914, he was appointed chief of staff of the 25th Infantry Division . Was granted by St. George's Weapon

On August 6, 1915 he was appointed commander of the 206th Infantry Salyan Regiment . In one of the official documents - a presentation to the rank of general - his activity as a regiment commander was described as follows:

June 24 - The Salyan regiment brilliantly stormed the strongest enemy position ... Colonel Romanovsky, along with his headquarters, rushed to the front chains of the regiment when they were under the most cruel enemy fire. Some of those accompanying him were injured, one was killed and the commander himself ... was bombarded with earth from an exploding shell ... The Salyanians gave equally brilliant work on July 22 . And this attack was led by the regiment commander at a distance of only 250 steps from the attacked area under the defensive fire of the Germans ... The outstanding organizational abilities of Colonel Romanovsky, his ability to educate the military unit, his personal courage, combined with wise prudence when it comes to his unit, the charm of his personality not only at the ranks of the regiment, but also at all those with whom he had to touch, his wide education and loyal eye - give him the right to occupy a higher position.

In June - October 1916 - Chief of Staff of the 13th Army Corps . Since October - Quartermaster General of the Headquarters of the 10th Army . In the same year, promoted to major general . In March - July 1917 - Chief of Staff of the 8th Army under the Army Commander General Lavra Kornilov . Soon after the appointment of General Kornilov as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (July 18, 1917), General Romanovsky was appointed quartermaster general of his headquarters. Active participant in the speech of General Kornilov in August 1917. Together with Kornilov, A. I. Denikin and some other generals, he was arrested by the Provisional Government in early September 1917 and imprisoned in Bykhov prison .

One of the leaders of the Volunteer Army and All-Union

After escaping from Bykhov prison, he moved to the Don in November 1917 and took a direct part in the formation of the Volunteer Army , and since December 1917 he was the head of the combat department of the army headquarters. In connection with the appointment of General A. S. Lukomsky as a representative at the Don Ataman, on February 2, 1918 he was appointed in his place the chief of staff of the Volunteer Army. Member of the 1st Kuban "Ice" campaign . After the death of General Kornilov (March 31, 1918 during the assault on Yekaterinodar ), he was left chief of staff at the command of the army, General Denikin .

He consisted of the chief of staff of the Volunteer Army, then the chief of staff of the All-Union Socialist League . Since 1919 - lieutenant general . He had a great influence on General Denikin, who in his will made him his successor in the event of death. He was unpopular in the army, where he was considered the culprit of the defeats. Monarchist circles accused Romanovsky of sympathizing with the liberals and even of " Freemasonry ." There were rumors about his guilt in the death of M. G. Drozdovsky , who in the last months of his life was in sharp conflict with Romanovsky.

Denikin wrote about the reasons for the unpopularity of General Romanovsky:

This “ Barclay de Tolly ” of the volunteer epic took on all the anger and irritation that accumulated in the atmosphere of fierce struggle. Unfortunately, the character of Ivan Pavlovich contributed to the strengthening of hostile relations. He expressed his views bluntly and sharply, not clothed them in the accepted forms of diplomatic craftiness. Strings of former and unnecessary people came to me with all kinds of projects and offers of their services: I did not accept them; I had to pass on my refusal to Romanovsky, who did it dryly, more than once with motivation, although fair, but offensive to the petitioners. They carried away their resentment and increased the number of its enemies.

Opinion about Romanovsky in the Volunteer Army :

Joyful and vigorous went to Mechetinskaya Mikhail Gordeevich, and returned from there in a depressed mood, having learned that the gene consists of the Chief of Staff of Denikin. Romanovsky. To the questions of others, Drozdovsky answered: "There Romanovsky, there will be no happiness." ^[2]

In particular [for the 1919 White Army] for some reason they hated General Romanovsky. I did not know the deceased at all, I had never met him, but I was not surprised at his murder in Constantinople. According to the army, he was that evil genius whose influence explained all the failures of the volunteer movement. ^[3]

March 16, 1920, after arriving in Feodosia, resigned as chief of staff. The order of Denikin on the dismissal of Romanovsky from office stated:

An impartial story will appreciate the selfless work of this brave warrior, a knight of duty and honor and a soldier and citizen infinitely loving the Motherland. History stigmatizes those who self-servingly weaved a web of vile slander about his honest and pure name.

The assassination of General Romanovsky

March 22, 1920, after the appointment of General Peter Wrangel as Commander-in-Chief, Romanovsky, together with General Denikin, left Feodosia in Constantinople on the English battleship Emperor of India. He was killed on March 23 ( April 5 ) 1920 in the building of the Russian Embassy in Constantinople, Lieutenant Mstislav Kharuzin , a former employee of the counterintelligence of the Denikin army.

Kharuzin, in conversation with two other officers, insisted on the murder of Romanovsky, saying that "... Denikin is responsible, but there are no dark spots on his conscience; General Romanovsky stained himself with a connection, although not proven, but in his personal opinion and on the basis of documents that existed, even if only indirectly, between General Romanovsky and the Bank of Constantinople offices, supplying money and documents to Bolshevik agents who were going to work in the Volunteer Army. ^[4]

In an article by General Vladimir Agapeev, a former Russian military representative in Constantinople, the assassination of General Romanovsky is described as follows:

At about 5 pm on March 23 , a few minutes after his arrival at the embassy, ​​General Romanovsky went out into the courtyard in front of the embassy, ​​apparently wishing to give an order for the folder with important papers left on the boat and having in mind to do so through the driver. At the moment when General Romanovsky, returning to the ambassador’s apartment, went out of the lobby into the billiard room, an unknown man, dressed in an officer coat of a peacetime model, with gold epaulets, quickly walked behind General Romanovsky, who turned to the murderer, apparently the sound of the last steps, and fired three shots at a point-blank range from a Colt revolver. General Romanovsky fell and two minutes later, without regaining consciousness, he died.

General Agapeev dates the murder according to the Julian calendar adopted in the white army. According to other sources, the offender shot General Romanovsky twice with a parabellum system pistol . The killer managed to escape and hid for some time in Constantinople. According to the writer Roman Gul , a month later Kharuzin went to Ankara to establish contacts with the Turkish national movement, but was killed during this trip.

Since 1903, he was married to a graduate of the Catherine Institute of Noble Maidens Elena Mikhailovna Bakeeva (1885-1967), the daughter of the Kursk landowner Mikhail Alekseevich Bakeev. Their children ^[5] :

• Michael (1904-1919 / 1920).
• Irina (1906-1992), married to Lieutenant Yevgeny Mikhailovich Malin.
• Olga (1910-1989), married to Captain J. A. Reingardt .

• Romanovsky, Ivan Pavlovich (neopr.) . // Project "Russian Army in the Great War".
• Biography on the CHRONOS website
• From "Essays on Russian Troubles"
• From the book of D. V. Lekhovich “White vs. Red”
• Romanovsky I.P. Letters to his wife 1917-1920. Moscow - Brussels: St. Catherine’s Monastery, 2011.