Vagin, Alexander Nikolaevich

Early years. World War I

Alexander Vagin was born on 13 ( 25 ) August 1884 in Kiev in the family of a centurion of the Orenburg Cossacks. Alexander graduated from the Second Orenburg Cadet Corps in 1902, after which he entered the Konstantinovsky Artillery School , from which he graduated in 1904. In addition, in 1910 he graduated from the two classes of the Nikolaev Military Academy (second class) ^{[1] [2] [3 ]} .

Vagin began to serve on the first day of the fall of 1902. He was credited to the 2nd Orenburg Cossack battery, then to the 5th and 6th Cossack regiments, where he had been the commander of hundreds since 1911. He received the rank of subaul in the same year. From mid-1912 to March 1913, Alexander Nikolaevich commanded an escort at the Russian consulate in Kashgar ^{[1] [4]} .

Subsequently, Alexander Vagin was on a privilege for health reasons. In July 1914 he was mobilized in the 13th Orenburg Cossack Regiment. In August he took command of the hundred Orenburg 18th Cossack Regiment - he became a member of the First World War . In the same year, Vagin was assigned to the General Staff : he became a senior adjutant to the headquarters of the 49th Infantry Division . After that, he again served in the 18th regiment ^{[1] [5]} .

On April 5 ( 18 ), 1915 , Alexander Nikolaevich received the title of Yesaul ( with seniority since 1914), and was temporarily expelled from the regiment due to illness. Upon his return, he was seconded to the headquarters of the XXIV army corps , where he served as chief officer for errands. Since December 1915 he was a senior adjutant of the headquarters of the Siberian Cossack Division ^{[1] [4]} .

In March 1916, Vagin was transferred to the corps of officers of the General Staff "with renaming as captains " (with seniority since 1913). He became an assistant to the senior adjutant in the 3rd Army , then - since 1917 - the chief officer for assignments at the headquarters of the 20th Army Corps . In July, he was appointed head of the counterintelligence department of the headquarters of the 3rd Army ^[1] . In August 1917, Alexander Vagin became a lieutenant colonel and soon received the post of senior adjutant of the Quartermaster General of the 3rd Army headquarters. He was dismissed from the army by the new, Bolshevik authorities ^[1] . Despite the dismissal, on December 11, A. N. Vagin was sent to Brest-Litovsk as part of a delegation for conducting peace negotiations ^[6] .

Civil War and Emigration

With the deployment of the Civil War , Vagin became the chief of staff of the Orenburg Military District (from the end of June 1918), and from October - the Southwest Army (later - the Orenburg Separate ). On October 4, 1918, by a decree of the military government of the Orenburg Cossacks “for skillfully drawing up a plan for the occupation of the city of Orsk and for personal reconnaissance of approaches to it”, he was made to colonels ^{[1] [7]} . He was also enlisted in the Cossack army ^[8] . On the first day of 1919, by order of Admiral Kolchak “for the difference in cases against the enemy,” Alexander Nikolaevich became major general of the White Movement ^[9] . In April, he temporarily commanded the Orenburg Army ^{[10] [11]} , and in June - the Orenburg Army Group of the Southern Army (up to the moment of its disbandment) ^{[1] [3]} .

Subsequently, from July 1919, A. N. Vagin served as chief of staff of the Irkutsk military district ^[3] . He found himself in exile in China , lived in Harbin . Already after the fall of the white Primorye, he participated in the rebel movement led by Major General I.F. Shilnikov . After Shilnikov’s arrest by the Chinese authorities, Vagin returned to Harbin, from where, having received information about his upcoming arrest, he emigrated with his family to the United States , via Japan ^[1] . In San Francisco, Alexander Nikolayevich joined the Society of Russian Veterans of the Great War (1924-1936), as well as in the EMRO ^[4] . In 1932, he became the head of non-commissioned officer courses, and since 1935 - the chairman of the Joint Committee of Russian National Organizations in San Francisco. He was also the first chairman of the Russian Center: from 1940 to 1947 ^{[1] [2]} . Alexander Nikolaevich Vagin died on April 18, 1953 and was buried in the Serbian cemetery in the town of Colma near San Francisco ^[4] .

• Order of St. Anne 4 degrees (1914): "for courage"
• Order of St. Anne 3 degrees (1906) - swords and bow (1915)
• Order of St. Stanislav 2 degrees with swords (1915)
• Order of St. Vladimir 4 degrees with swords and bow (1915)
• Order of St. Anne 2 degrees with swords (1915, approved in 1916)
• Order of St. Stanislav 3 degrees with swords and bow (1916)
• Light bronze medal “In memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty” (1913)
• Gratitude of Colonel I. G. Akulinin (1918) ^[4]

• Vagin A. Reflections on the dictatorship // Bulletin of the Association of Officers of the General Staff. - San Francisco, 1932. - No. 2 .
• Vagin A. The Big Road: An Essay on the Leading Forces of Russian Culture and Civilization // Bulletin of the Association of Officers of the General Staff. - San Francisco, 1940.
• Manuscripts “Aristocracy” and “ M. D. Skobelev ” ^[4] .

Alexander Vagin was married to a native of the Orenburg province Nadezhda Petrovna Gren; their family had two children: Nikolai (born 1916) and Irina (born 1919) ^[4] .

• Ganin A.V. , Semenov V.G. Vagin Alexander Nikolaevich // Officer corps of the Orenburg Cossack army. 1891-1945: Biographical reference book . - M .: Russian way ; Library Fund “Russian Abroad” , 2007. - 676 ​​p. - ISBN 978-5-85887-259-7 .
• Vagin, Alexander Nikolaevich // White Generals of the Eastern Front of the Civil War: Biographical Reference / E.V. Volkov, N.D. Egorov, I.V. Kuptsov. - M .: Russian Way , 2003 .-- 239 p. - ISBN 5-85887-169-0 .
• Ganin A.V. Sunset of the Nikolaev Military Academy 1914-1922. - M .: Knizhnitsa, 2014 .-- 808 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-903081-24-0 .
• Kholodov-Vorontsov A.V. Three Elms / Andrey Kholodov-Vorontsov. - Orenburg: Dimur, 2011 .-- 363 p. - ISBN 978-5-7689-0239-1 .
• Ganin A.V. The Big Game of Major General I.M. Zaitsev // White Guard: Almanac. - M .: "Sowing", 2005. - No. 8. Cossacks of Russia in the White movement . - S. 193-207 .
• Ganin A.V. The fate of the white general: Alexander Nikolaevich Vagin // Irkutsk Land. - Irkutsk, 2007. - No. 1 . - S. 97-100 .
• Ganin A.V. Alexander Ilyich Dutov // Questions of history. - 2005. - No. 9 . - S. 56-84 .
• Decree of the Military Government of the Orenburg Cossack Army. - 1918. - October 5 ( No. 259 ).
• Decree of the Military Government of the Orenburg Cossack Army. - 1918. - October 4 ( No. 258 ).
• Order of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all Russian land and naval armed forces. - Omsk, 1919. - March 1.
• Order of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all Russian land and naval armed forces. - Omsk, 1919. - March 17.