Dybenko, Pavel Efimovich

Dybenko P. E.

(1889-1938;autobiography). - Born on February 16, 1889. A native of the village of Lyudkov, Novozybkovsky district, Chernigov province. (now Gomel). Comes from peasants. His relatives - mother, father, brother and sister - still live in the village of Lyudkov and are engaged in farming. The peasants of this village and district are land poor. Before the revolution, plots of land for peasants were cut exclusively on very sandy soil. All the more convenient and more fertile land belonged to the landowners, of whom there were 7 large and small, as they call pillar nobles, in the village of Lyudkovo alone, about 40 houses. Small-scale nobles had from 100 to 300 acres of arable land. The peasantry of this district and especially the village of Lyudkova was very poor and was constantly engaged in latrine farming, emigration to America and day labor for small-scale nobles. Among these poor peasants was the D. family, which, with 9 family members, had three acres of land, one horse and one cow. Father and mother constantly worked as day laborers. There were only two able-bodied people in the family - father and mother. The remaining family members are 6 children (the eldest sister was 13 years old in 1899) and a 102-year-old grandfather. Poverty, as an eternal companion in the D. family, forced young children to go to work as day laborers in the summer to earn pennies. D. has been working in the field with his father for seven years now - helping to harrow and transport fertilizer, and in his free time graze the livestock of small-scale landowners. The mother, burdened with a bunch of young children and working day after day, especially in spring and summer, in the evenings and early mornings at home, and during the day as a day laborer for pennies, treated the landowners with hatred, always cursing them as living at the expense of the peasants and not appreciating their labor. From an early age, under such difficult living conditions, hatred of the enslaving landowners arose among all family members.

Despite the very difficult living conditions of the family, D., as the eldest son, at the age of 6, was sent to study with the priest’s daughter, who taught him and four other peasant children in a cold kitchen, where calves and young sheep were simultaneously housed. Popovna the teacher used assault and beating with a ruler almost every day in her educational methods. This attitude, despite the desire to study at all costs, forced him to quit studying after 4 months, and only the next year he entered a public school. Being a good student at the public school, he enjoyed the love of the head of the school, M.K. Davydovich, who at that time was a member of the Social-Democratic Party. After graduating from public school, his mother and father refused to teach further, despite D.’s requests, and only thanks to the insistence of Davydovich, who studied with him all the time, they managed to overcome the stubbornness of their parents and in the fall of 1899 entered a 3-year city school. When he was a student at a public school, his relatives could not help him in any way, and therefore he had to work for small nobles during the holidays in order to have the means to buy textbooks and sew uniforms for himself. During the 4 years of studying at the city school, D. did not break ties with his former teacher, who to a certain extent influenced his upbringing. Being a student at the city school in 1905, not yet giving an exact account of what exactly was happening, D. takes part in the strike movement of students of the real, technical and city schools, for which in 1906, after the pacification of the peasant uprising of the Novozybkovsky district, Dubasov was involved to liability by the Starodub District Court. At the trial he was acquitted. At the age of 14 he graduated from a three-year city public school, after which his parents categorically refused to continue teaching him, citing their poverty and demanding that he enter the service and help them feed other children. By this time, the middle brother, Fyodor Efimovich (who in 1919 was killed during the civil war during the capture of Debaltsevo station, being a division commander), entered the city school in the same way and demanded to teach him too. I had to obey my relatives and go to serve in the treasury in the city. Novoaleksandrovsk, where one of the relatives was the treasurer. After a year and a half of service in the treasury, D. was dismissed from service at the insistence of the Novoaleksandrovsk police officer, as a member of an illegal organization. After being expelled from the treasury, he went to the mountains. Riga, where as a 17-year-old boy he went to work as a simple loader on ships, where he worked for two years. This job was seasonal, so I was unemployed in the winter. However, during the summer it was possible to save insignificant funds, and with these pennies it was possible to attend electrical engineering courses in the winter. In 1910 he went to work at the Riga refrigerator. While working on the refrigerator, he contacted a group of Latvian Bolsheviks, where he worked with them, not being a party member. For a strike on a refrigerator, he was fired and in July 1910 he worked on buildings, where a strike also broke out in August. During this strike, already under the surveillance of the police and being wanted by them, he left for Libau, where he lived illegally until the spring of 1911. In 1911 he returned to Riga and again worked as a loader on ships. For failure to appear at the recruiting station and evasion of military service in November 1911, he was arrested in Riga and transported by escort to the city. Novozybkov to the recruiting station. Upon arrival in Novozybkov, he was accepted for military service as a sailor in the Baltic Fleet. As a sailor in the Baltic Fleet in 1912, he officially joined the Bolshevik Party and worked together with Sladkov, who died in 1922 in Kronstadt. After graduating from mine school in 1913, he was decommissioned to the battleship "Emperor Pavel I", which after the February Revolution was renamed "Republic". On this ship, which was called a “sea prison” among sailors, he carried out active underground work and was the organizer of the uprising in 1915 during the uprising on the dreadnought Petropavlovsk. In 16, he went with the naval battalion to the Riga front in the area of ​​the Ikskul fortified positions. Before the offensive, the battalion of sailors, being sufficiently trained and revolutionary-minded, refused to advance and persuaded the 45th Siberian Rifle Regiment to do so. For starting an uprising, the battalion of sailors was urgently recalled to Riga, where it was disbanded and sent back to Helsingfors under escort. Along the way, many sailors were arrested. When the battalion was sent, D. remained in Riga under the guise of illness in the hospital, where he stayed for two months, and only after that he returned, for which he was subsequently sentenced to two months. In 1917, after the February Revolution, he was elected chairman of the central committee of the Baltic Fleet, where, being in the minority from the Tsentrobalt (all members of Tsentrobalt 33, Bolsheviks - 6 and sympathizers - 5), he nevertheless passed the charter of Tsentrobalt, which clearly stated that Tsentrobalt recognizes the Provisional Government, but all its orders are carried out only with the sanction of Tsentrobalt. In July, for the July Uprising, he was arrested, beaten by cadets and served in Kresty until September 4. Upon leaving "Kresty" he returned to Helsingfors again and took up the duties of Tsentrobalt, which after the July days was dispersed by Kerensky's commissar Onipko. In 1917, at the beginning of October, during the great offensive of the German fleet in Baltmore, as chairman of Centrobalt, he participated in the battles near the islands of Dago and Ezel. In October, he took an active part in the uprising and commanded troops near Tsarskoye and Gatchina. Having liquidated Kerensky’s adventure, he personally arrested Krasnov and took him to Smolny. In October, he was elected People's Commissar for Naval Affairs, which he remained until April 1918. In May 1918, he was tried for surrendering Narva to the Germans, but was acquitted in court. After the trial, he went to work illegally in Ukraine and Crimea. In Sevastopol in August 1918, he was arrested by the government of General Sulkevich and served until the end of September 1918. While trying to escape from the Sevastopol prison, he was handcuffed and shackled and transported to the Simferopol prison. He was released from prison according to negotiations between the Council of People's Commissars and the Germans for a replacement. In October, arriving in the neutral zone near the mountains. Rylsk, Kursk province, was first the military commissar of the regiment, then took command of the battalion and subsequently, during the capture of Kharkov and further advancement in the direction of Ekaterinoslav, he commanded a group in the Ekaterinoslav direction. In February 1919, he was appointed head of the Trans-Dnieper division, which, after the occupation of Crimea, was reorganized into the Crimean Army, which he commanded until July 1919, at the same time he was also the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the Crimean Republic. In September 1919, he entered the Academy of the Red Army, but was immediately sent to the south-eastern front, where he took command of the 37th Infantry Division, with which he participated on November 28 in the defeat of the White Corps of General. Toporkov in the village of Kachalinskaya and during the capture of Tsaritsyn. In February 1920, he took command of the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Wild Division and, during the liquidation of Denikinism, commanded a cavalry group in the Maikop direction. In July 1920 he commanded the 2nd Cavalry Division on the southern front. In September 1920 he returned to the Academy. In 1921, as a junior student at the Military Academy, he was sent to participate in the liquidation of the Kronstadt rebellion. Upon arrival in Oranienbaum, he took command of the consolidated division and on the day of the battle for the possession of Kronstadt he commanded the troops that participated near Kronstadt. After the liquidation of the Kronstadt uprising, he was appointed commandant of the Kronstadt fortress. A few days later he was recalled to assignment for action against Antonov's gangs. For reasons of the Red Army headquarters, he was appointed head of the western Black Sea coast and in June the commander of the 51st Perekop Division. While commanding the division, at the same time as an external student, for a year and a half, i.e., from June 1, 1921 to September 1, 1922, he passed the tests for the senior and additional courses of the Military Academy. Thus, in 1922 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Red Army. In July 1921, he was appointed commander of the 6th Rifle Corps. After graduating from the Academy, he was transferred to the position of commander and commissar of the 5th Rifle Corps. In April 1924 he was appointed commander of the 10th Corps. On May 6, 1925 he was appointed chief of the Artillery. Administration of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the 3rd Congress of Soviets of the Union of Soviets. Social Rep. elected member of the Center. Spanish Com. THE USSR.

For military distinctions he was awarded: three Orders of the Red Banner, a gold watch of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a silver watch of the Leningrad Council and a horse.

[Since 1928, commander of the troops of the Central Asian, Volga, and Leningrad military districts. Commander of the 2nd rank (1935). Unreasonably repressed, rehabilitated posthumously.]

Large biographical encyclopedia. 2009 .

See what “Dybenko, Pavel Efimovich” is in other dictionaries:

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko February 16 (28), 1889 July 29, 1938 Place of birth, village of Lyudkov, Chernigov province, Russian Empire Years of service 1911 ... Wikipedia

Dybenko Pavel Efimovich- (18891938), revolutionary and military leader, army commander of the 2nd rank (1935). Member of the Communist Party since 1912. In the revolutionary movement since 1907. Since 1911, a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, one of the leaders of the uprising on the battleship “Emperor Paul I”... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

- (1889 1938), revolutionary and military leader, commander of the 2nd rank (1935). Member of the Communist Party since 1912. In the revolutionary movement since 1907. Since 1911, a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, one of the leaders of the uprising on the battleship "Emperor Paul I" ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Soviet military leader, commander of the 2nd rank (1935). Member of the Communist Party since 1912. Born in the village. Lyudkov of the Chernigov province in a peasant family. In the revolutionary movement since 1907. Since 1911 in the Baltic Fleet,... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (1889 1938) commander of the 2nd rank (1935). In 1917 chairman of Tsentrobalt. During the October Revolution, he was a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, a member of the Committee for Military and Naval Affairs, and in 1918, the People's Commissar for Naval Affairs. During the Civil War, the commander of a group of troops,... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Dybenko. Pavel Efimovich Dybenko Date of birth February 16 (28), 1889 (1889 02 28) ... Wikipedia

- (1889 1938), commander of the 2nd rank (1935). In 1917 chairman of Tsentrobalt. During the October Revolution, he was a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, a member of the Committee for Military and Naval Affairs, and in 1918, the People's Commissar for Naval Affairs. During the Civil War, the commander of a group of troops,... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

The February Revolution of 1917 opened up great opportunities for the enterprising sailor Pavel Dybenko, who was known in the navy for his strength, tall stature, cynicism, and tendency to fight and drunken brawls.

Pavel Dybenko first becomes a deputy of the Helsingfors Council of Workers, Sailors and Soldiers. In May 1917, on the Viola transport in Helsingfors (Helsinki), he was elected chairman of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet - the highest elected body of sailor groups of the Baltic Fleet.

A group of sailors on the deck of the battleship "Pavel I", from left to right: V.N. Zakharov, A.N. Gorbunov, P.E. Dybenko, an Estonian miner and I.F. Shpilevsky. 1916

At that time, there were only six Bolsheviks out of 33 members of the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet. Bolshevik Dybenko then announced the recognition of the supremacy of the Provisional Government over the fleet and the implementation of all government decisions. However, already in June 1917, Dybenko became one of the “secret organizers” of the revolt of the Bolsheviks and anarchists, which the Provisional Government managed to suppress in early July.

Tsentrobalt was dispersed by Kerensky. Beaten by the cadets, Dybenko spent forty-five days after that, until the beginning of September, in the Petrograd prison “Kresty”. At this time, the government of A. Kerensky temporarily brought the Baltic Fleet into obedience.

The events of late August 1917, associated with the rebellion of General Lavr Kornilov, culminate in the release of Bolshevik prisoners. In September, Dybenko returned to the fleet and actively revived Tsentrobalt as the “army of the new revolution.”

The most eventful and fateful month in the life of Pavel Efimovich was October of the Seventeenth.

In early October, Dybenko, apparently, had to fight at sea for the first and last time in his life - to take part in battles with the German fleet near Dago Island.

In October, the sailor “army” became the vanguard of the rebellion, the “Praetorian Guard” of the Bolsheviks, which largely determined the outcome of the October Revolution. Dybenko also played a significant role in the victory as a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet (headquarters of the revolution) and commander of the sailor “army”. It was on Dybenko’s orders that the Aurora’s shots were fired.

But it was not only special merits during the storming of the Winter Palace that predetermined the lightning-fast career of Pavel Efimovich.

The “sailor” Alexandra Mikhailovna Domantovich-Kollontai, the daughter of a tsarist general, an aristocrat and a Ukrainian landowner, who was among the Bolshevik leaders and Lenin’s emigration friends in Paris, was introduced into the circle of the party elite. Already on October 26, 1917, Dybenko was appointed a member of the Collegium for Naval Affairs, and on November 21, V.I. Lenin signs an order appointing him People's Commissar for Maritime Affairs.

Pavel Dybenko - Chairman of Tsentrobalt, commander of the fleet during the October Revolution

Lenin could not help but know that Dybenko had neither the ability, nor the education, nor the experience for a ministerial or admiral position. But in those conditions of sailor bacchanalia and “all sorts of outrages,” the sailors, brutalized by permissiveness and “wine pogroms,” could listen to his voice. Dybenko was one of the “brothers”, he knew how to get along with them and could calm the sailor’s “fuss” with his fists and bullets.

And then the sailors walked selflessly. Wine fumes from looted imperial warehouses and class hatred gave rise to terrible crimes. Sailors from the "Emperor Paul the First" used sledgehammers to kill lieutenants and midshipmen, and after beating the senior officer was "put under the ice." Dybenko rode on trotters along the parade ground in Helsinki, littered with officer corpses. He ordered to “cut the counter.”

The “brothers” even found deputies of the Constituent Assembly, former ministers of the Provisional Government A. Shingarev and F. Kokoshkin in the hospital... and bayoneted them. Residents of St. Petersburg, going out into the streets, prayed to God to save them from meeting the drunken sailor who was terrorizing the city.

In October - December 1917 alone, sailors killed and tortured about 300 naval officers and the same number of army officers and “bourgeois” in Petrograd and at the bases of the Baltic Fleet.

At the end of February 1918, luck seemed to have turned away from Dybenko. Soviet historians and party propagandists called this event “the first victories of the Red Army”, “the military birth of the Red Army”.

They knew how to turn defeat into victory. February 23 became a holiday of the Red Army and was celebrated for 73 years. But in fact, all these years they celebrated the shameful defeat and flight from the positions of Soviet units...

On February 18–20, 1918, despite the ongoing peace negotiations in Brest, the German command launched an offensive against the Soviet Republic along the entire front - from the Carpathians to the Baltic. German politicians wanted to intimidate the intractable Bolsheviks and speed up the signing of a separate peace. They did not at all want to overthrow Lenin, who had not yet returned the German money spent on the revolution.

A combined sailor detachment of a thousand bayonets under the command of People's Commissar Dybenko was sent against the German troops sluggishly advancing near Narva. He immediately rejected the advice of the head of the defense section, former Lieutenant General D. Parsky, and declared that “we will fight on our own.”

In the battle near Yamburg, Dybenko’s detachment was defeated and fled in panic from its positions, forgetting about the Narva fortress, which covered the capital from the west.

On March 3, Dybenko and his sailors abandoned their joint counterattack on Narva with the soldiers. They left their positions and “ran” to the rear of Gatchina, which was 120 kilometers from the front line. To add insult to injury, the “brothers” seized several tanks of alcohol on the railroad tracks and celebrated their “victory.” Already on March 6, the detachment of sailors was disarmed and recalled.

Contemporaries of these events did not at all consider the flight of Dybenko’s detachment a “victory” or a “holiday.” But twenty years after these events, in February 1938, the first Soviet medal “XX Years of the Red Army” was established in honor of the anniversary. Many civilian heroes were awarded, but Dybenko, the culprit of those events, did not receive this medal.

Lenin, in his editorial in Pravda on February 25, 1918, regarding the surrender of Narva, noted: “This week is a bitter, offensive, difficult, but necessary, useful, beneficial lesson for the party and the entire Soviet people.” Lenin wrote about the “painfully shameful report about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to carry out the order to destroy everything and everyone during the retreat; not to mention flight, chaos, short-sightedness, helplessness, sloppiness.”

For the surrender of Narva, flight from positions, refusal to obey the command of the combat sector, for the collapse of discipline and encouragement of drunkenness in a combat situation and for crimes in office, Dybenko was removed from command of the fleet and expelled from the party.

The tradition of the “pacifist” Dybenko - to flee from the battlefield - failed this time. His patron Kollontai in March 1918, for speaking out against the Brest-Litovsk Peace, lost her post as People's Commissar, was removed from the Party Central Committee, temporarily deprived of all influence in the leadership and, therefore, could not help Dybenko.

On March 12, 1918, the government, the Central Committee of the party, and state institutions moved from Petrograd to Moscow, which became the capital of the state. This was explained by the threat of an attack by the Germans, Entente troops on St. Petersburg and the turbulent situation in the city due to “sailor outrages.” Together with the statesmen and wives, Dybenko and Kollontai, who have already been removed from their posts, are moving to Moscow in the hope of rehabilitation and reinstatement in their positions.

At first they found themselves in the mansions of the government and hoped that they would be “forgiven”... But two days later they were expelled from the party paradise, and they found themselves in the third-rate “Patchwork” hotel. In the same hotel, Dybenko settles his “brothers” - a sailor detachment of 47 people, personally devoted to the former People's Commissar. These were the “heroes of October” - drinking buddies, friends in robberies and “buze”. For Moscow on March 18, they represented a serious armed force - uncontrollable, violent and intoxicated.

The newspaper “New Life” wrote on March 16, 1918 that Dybenko opposed the Brest Peace Treaty, calling for the organization of partisan detachments to fight the Germans.

On March 16, at the Fourth Congress of Soviets (which decided the fate of the world with the Germans), Kollontai finally lost all her posts. At the same time, the issue of “Dybenko’s crimes” was examined. He announced the surrender of the post of People's Commissar, but the congress did not stop there. There were demands for a revolutionary trial of the “sailor” and even execution. Leon Trotsky demanded a show trial, execution for desertion and for criminal frivolity, bordering on betrayal. Dybenko's case was then considered five times at meetings of the Council of People's Commissars.

After a stormy meeting of the congress on March 16, Dybenko met with his “brothers” and called on them to oppose the decision of the congress and to protest against the appointment of Trotsky as People’s Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. In Moscow there was a smell of sailor rebellion, which could be supported by other sailor and anarchist detachments. There were plenty of them in the capital.

On March 17, the head of the Cheka, F. Dzerzhinsky, orders the arrest of Dybenko for his past “sins” and inciting a rebellion among sailors.

The investigation was entrusted to Nikolai Krylenko, a former member of the Collegium for Naval Affairs and the future Stalinist prosecutor, who sent thousands of Old Bolsheviks to their deaths. Krylenko was then a member of the investigative commission at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets and was a very influential person. Dybenko was taken to the Kremlin basements, where he was threatened with execution and was not given food for several days.

On March 25, Dybenko was released on bail. The sailors greeted his release as their victory, celebrating it with a grandiose revelry. After walking around Moscow for two days, Dybenko and his squad disappear from the capital to surface in front-line Kursk, where his brother Fedor worked. Soon, realizing that he would not be forgiven for fleeing, Dybenko rushes to the Volga, Penza and Samara, hoping to hide in the provincial chaos.

Newspapers at the end of March - beginning of April 1918 were full of sensational reports about the flight of the removed people's commissars and their transition to opposition to the regime. Details were reported about the theft of 700 thousand government money by “Dybenka” and about the riots of his troops at railway stations.

They ignored the government’s calls for Dybenko and Kollontai to return and voluntarily surrender to the authorities. Then an order was signed to search for and arrest retired people's commissars. When Krylenko managed to contact Dybenko by telegraph, the fugitive threatened: “... it is not yet known who will arrest whom”.

This statement was a challenge to the regime. Zinaida Gippius, with feminine malice, wrote in her diary in those days: “Yes, right there Krylenko went to Dybenka, and Dybenko to Krylenka, they want to arrest each other, and Dybenka’s wife, Kollontai, is also retired and is confused somewhere here.”

In April 1918, Dybenko found himself in Samara. Why there? The Samara provincial executive committee was then headed by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who had quarreled with the Bolsheviks over the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. They were glad to accept and save the oppositionist. In Samara, the positions of the left Socialist Revolutionaries, maximalists, and anarchists were especially strong.

In 1918, Dybenko betrayed Soviet power for the first time by defecting to the Socialist Revolutionaries

Anarchists and maximalists from Ukraine captured by the Germans were evacuated there. Some of the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet ended up there after the loss of Sevastopol and Odessa. These were anarchist “brothers” dissatisfied with the government and the sinking of the fleet. The forces of the Samara Fronde united around the rejection of peace with the Germans, the dictatorship and terror of the Bolsheviks.

At a general meeting of the “left” parties, which were joined by the “left” communists, a decision was made that Dybenko was not subject to jurisdiction. It was stated that the Samara authorities would not hand him over to the punitive authorities.

For some time, Dybenko becomes the leader of the “Samara Republic” and the Samara opposition to the Bolshevik power. Kollontai soon moved to Samara. Two former members of the government oppose Lenin and peace with the Germans. Only a small article by G. Lelevich in the magazine “Proletarian Revolution” for 1922 has been preserved in the annals of history about these events. The article is called “Anarcho-maximalist revolution in Samara.”

The TsGAVMF stores telegrams that Dybenko sent to all military fleets and squadrons of Soviet Russia, in which he reported that his arrest was caused by the government’s fear of the revelations that the suspended People’s Commissar was supposed to make at the Fourth Congress of Soviets. These revelations concerned the history of “German money” and the abuses of the new government in spending the funds it received from the Provisional Government. Dybenko became the first exposer of Bolshevik corruption and the first owner of a “suitcase with compromising evidence.”

Dybenko called for demanding a financial and business report from the Council of People's Commissars from Lenin. He may have had information about Lenin's transfer of 90 tons of gold to Germany in March 1918.

The anarchist newspaper “Anarchy” (organization of the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups) on May 22, 1918 publishes a letter from Dybenko “To the left comrades workers”, in which he openly accuses Lenin of conciliation, of a “deal” with the Germans, of an inability to cope with chaos and devastation in the country. He opposes the “government Bolshevik-compromisers... surrendering October gains day by day” and denounces the “new course” of the Leninist government. Calling on the workers to “decide their own fate,” the disgraced People’s Commissar pushed them to revolt.

Soon a new joint letter from Dybenko and Kollontai appeared in the press (gaz. “The Path to Anarchy.” Sarapul, July 3, 1918), which was distributed throughout Russia. In it, former fans of revolutionary terror opposed the “Red Terror” and the restoration of the death penalty, which Lenin initiated. They called “the March government communists... the gravediggers of the revolution.”

However, finding himself persecuted in the spring of 1918, Dybenko began to be indignant at the execution of Captain Shchasny, the favorite of the Baltic sailors. Pavel Efimovich already bled officers in the winter of 1917–1918! And then he was outraged by the execution by the verdict of the revolutionary court. Dybenko was then very afraid that the fate of Shchasny awaited him too.

A little about Alexander Mikhailovich Shchasiom. In January 1918, Captain First Rank Shchasny saved the remnants of the Baltic Fleet (about 200 ships) from being handed over to the Germans. He withdrew ships from Finnish ports besieged by the Germans and brought them to Kronstadt. Moreover, he was not prevented by either the opposition of the “Leninists”, who intended to give the fleet to the Germans, or the frozen Gulf of Finland, or the pursuit and shelling of the German squadron.

At the All-Russian Congress of Sailors, Shchasny was promoted to “people's admiral”, and on April 5, 1918, he was appointed head of the naval forces in the Baltic. 12 days after this appointment, Shchasny was arrested, tried and soon shot. Trotsky, at the first revolutionary trial, accused Shchasny of blowing up the military fortress of Ino, which the Germans were supposed to capture, and of not establishing a demarcation line with the Germans at sea. But Shchasny’s ​​main crime was that he knew about Lenin’s decision to destroy the Baltic Fleet (this was demanded by the leader’s German patrons) and “spread rumors about it.”

The Left Socialist Revolutionaries, members of the presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets, demanded that the verdict to execute Shchasny be cancelled, but this demand was rejected. Shchasny was also accused of “popularity” (!), which could be used to speak out against the authorities. Dybenko, in response to the sentence against the sailor admiral, said that the Bolsheviks were becoming “our guillotines and executioners.”

He wrote:

“Is there really not a single honest Bolshevik who would publicly protest against the restoration of the death penalty? Pathetic cowards! They are afraid to openly voice their voice - the voice of protest. But if there is at least one honest socialist, he is obliged to protest before the world proletariat... We are not guilty of this shameful act and in protest we leave the ranks of government parties! Let the government communists, after our statement of protest, lead us to the scaffold..."

But Dybenko did not go to the chopping block, and he was not going to die “for ideas”... Moscow reported that he could be acquitted and promised immunity in exchange for silence and “rest” from political life. Lenin personally promised Kollontai that she and Dybenko had nothing to fear from arrest, and that Dybenko, instead of a harsh military revolutionary tribunal, would be tried by an ordinary “people's court.”

The “brave” oppositionist leaves Samara just at the moment when “the mess was already brewed”, when the sailors, together with anarchists, maximalists, and left Socialist Revolutionaries, prepared an uprising. Dybenko's departure deprived them of an authoritative leader. In fact, the price of Dybenko’s legalization was betrayal.

On May 18, 1918, the uprising of the “leftists” of Samara against Lenin’s dictatorship and the Brest-Litovsk Peace was suppressed.. Several weeks after these events, security officers still shot oppositionists who stood for the power of free Soviets and believed Dybenko...

A week before the uprising in Samara, Dybenko arrived in Moscow and appeared in the Kremlin to be judged by the party “gods”. He promised to remain silent regarding “German money” and other secrets of the Kremlin, promised not to engage in politics and never again strive for public tribunes.

In exchange for this, Dybenko was given life: a people's court held in provincial Gatchina acquitted him, but he was never reinstated in the party.

Dybenko’s speech at the trial was distinguished by revolutionary pathos and narcissism. The ghost of the Great French Revolution hovered under the arches of the Gatchina Palace, where the trial took place. The speech to his “eagle” was written by the best pen of the party - the pen of the writer Alexandra Kollontai:

“I am not afraid of the verdict over me, I am afraid of the verdict over the October Revolution, over those gains that were won at the dear price of proletarian blood.

Remember, Robespierre's terror did not save the revolution in France and did not protect Robespierre himself; personal scores cannot be allowed to be settled and an official who does not agree with the policy of the majority in the government cannot be allowed to be eliminated...

The People's Commissar should be spared from settling scores with him through denunciations and slander... During the revolution there are no established norms. We all violated something... The sailors went to die when panic and confusion reigned in Smolny..."

These passages from the defendant's speech shed light on the squabbles in the first Soviet government and its uncertainty about the future.

The sailors carried Dybenko out of the courtroom in their arms, and the days of endless revelry began again for Pavel. Lenin then joked: they say that execution for Dybenko and Kollontai would not be enough punishment, and proposed “sentencing them to be faithful to each other for five years.”

Lenin was racking his brains over what to do with the drunken “eagle” holed up in Orel. To atone for his sins, it was decided to send Dybenko to work underground in Ukraine occupied by German troops.

Under the pseudonym Alexey Voronov, Dybenko found himself in Odessa in July 1918. However, after being there for two weeks and not contacting the underground, Dybenko leaves for Crimea. There, after ten days of “underground,” he was arrested as a “Bolshevik leader.”

He is kept in shackles because he tried to escape from prison. For the massacres of officers in 1917, he was threatened with execution. But a month later, at the end of August 1918, the Soviet government exchanged Dybenko for several captured German officers. But even four months before this liberation, the Bolshevik government wanted to deal with him.

Pavel Dybenko (left) and Ivan Fedko (right), then they were both on the rise, and in 1938 they both went to trial in the same case

In September 1918, Dybenko returned to Moscow. Ten days later he is given a new assignment. It was important to keep the “eagle” away from the capital and the Baltic Fleet. He was sent to the “neutral zone” that existed on the border between the RSFSR and the Ukrainian state, to organize the forces that were to be used to capture Ukraine. He received the “tiny” position of battalion commander, and was even temporarily regimental commissar... although, as you know, he was expelled from the party. At the same time, Dybenko is constantly in conflict with the commissars who tried to limit his autocracy. At that time, Kollontai would write in his diary: “Sverdlov does not hide his antipathy towards such a “type” as Pavel, and, in my opinion, Lenin, too.”

However, at the beginning of 1919, he suddenly received the general position of commander of a group of troops in the Yekaterinoslav direction, which invaded the territory of the independent Ukrainian People's Republic and started fighting with the “Petliura” units. Dybenko’s sudden “rise” is obviously connected with his Ukrainian origin and surname. It was important for Lenin’s government to cover up the intervention with arguments about “the uprising of the Ukrainian proletariat against the bourgeois government of the Directory,” and here the Ukrainian surname Dybenko was extremely useful. He was his “red Ukrainian general” who led the troops of the Russian Republic into Ukraine.

At the end of December 1918, one of the first cities in Ukraine to be captured by Soviet troops were Kutshnsk and Volchansk, on the very border with Soviet Russia (Kharkov province). While sorting through documents in the Russian State Military Archive relating to the first battles of the Red Army against Ukrainian troops, I came across an unknown document about the “rebellion of the left Socialist Revolutionaries in Ukraine.” Actually, was there a rebellion itself?

Or were the Bolsheviks simply trying with all their might to recreate their dictatorship in Ukraine? But what luck! It turned out that here, too, in the dark “suburb” history, the omnipresent Dybenko labored, only six months ago he was severely punished for “politics” and promised not to get involved in it, dear one, anymore

Leon Trotsky then wrote that

“Sablin, Sakharov and the “suspicious “maximalists” of the Valuysky district ... are the worst enemies,” and in case of disobedience, “the heavy hand of repression will immediately fall on the heads of the maximalists, anarchists, left Socialist Revolutionaries and simply adventurers.”

This was also a warning to Dybenko, who took an active part in the story with the Left Socialist Revolutionary Committee. He again could not resist interfering in the political adventure.

As the archives show, the rebels relied on Dybenko and his battalion, and even had an agreement with him on a joint performance. But he sensed the doom of the undertaking in time and “went into the bushes,” leaving the conspirators in the dark about their position. Perhaps he “signaled” to the Center regarding the arbitrariness of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries.

Soon Dybenko becomes the brigade commander, and after some time - the commander of the 1st Trans-Dnieper Division, numbering ten thousand soldiers. The formation included the brigades of Makhno and Grigoriev

Pogroms, robberies, violence, and drunken brawls were commonplace in the division. In the State Archive of the Russian Federation (f. 2, op. 1, d. 126) there is a unique letter from the Nikolaev Bolsheviks to the government of Soviet Ukraine, in which they demanded

"to hold Dybenko accountable for the 'Kupyansk events', the 'February riot in Lugansk' (after which an investigative commission was created), for the dispersal of the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee, unjustified executions..."

Already in February, Dybenko begins to “correct.” He becomes a fierce fighter against sedition, dissent, a conductor of the “red terror”, which he so boldly opposed ten months ago. Dybenko unleashes terror not only against the landowners and bourgeoisie, who were doomed to destruction back in the Seventeenth, but also against his recent comrades, to whom he turned for protection.

In Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) he arrested more than 50 activists from anarchists and left Socialist Revolutionaries, closed the left Socialist Revolutionary newspaper Borba, and banned lectures by anarchists. By order of Dybenko, participants in the district Aleksandrovsky (Zaporozhye) Congress of Soviets were also arrested.

Kollontai sits to the right of Lenin. Behind her is Stalin on the left, Dybenko on the right.

Dybenko’s unpunished robberies were accompanied by the patronage of Kolontai, who had influence on Lenin

When Dybenko was advancing on Yekaterinoslav, Makhnovist troops helped him capture the Sinelnikovo station. But on the orders of Dybenko, 20 Makhnovists were shot for “train robbery,” although the Makhnovists tried to take back their war spoils. These executions led to the first conflict between the division commander and the father.

However, in February 1919, Makhno’s troops entered Dybenko’s division as a separate, special brigade with elected command, a black flag and anarchist ideology. At first, a semblance of friendship arose between Makhno and Dybenko. Dybenko provided weapons to the “brigade named after Father Makhno,” and Makhno presented the division commander with his best trophy horse and declared Dybenko the father-in-law at his wedding.

The fact of Dybenko’s visit to the “Makhnovsky district” was preserved for us by yellowed photographs and film. Then the dad and the division commander were photographed side by side at the Pologi station. Dybenko would later write: “...Makhn has cunning but piercing eyes... big curly hair... he wears a hussar suit.”

But as soon as Makhno, two weeks after signing an alliance with the “Reds,” began to criticize the Bolshevik dictatorship, Dybenko began writing denunciations against the old man and discrediting him in all available ways. He developed a plan to kill Makhno.

By order of the division commander, he had to report to division headquarters for a report. There it was planned to arrest and immediately shoot Makhno. However, the old man felt that a trap was being prepared for him, and decided to communicate with Dybenko only by telegraph. He began to call his immediate commander “the damned sailor.”

Meanwhile, Dybenko’s relationship with front commander Antonov-Ovseyenko became increasingly strained due to the division commander’s reluctance to obey. Dybenko dreamed of greater independence and lack of control. A blow to his pride was the transfer of the Grigoriev brigade to the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Army and the transfer of the Makhno brigade to the Southern Front.

Moscow soon learned about the atrocities committed by Dybenko’s army on the ground. Lev Kamenev's inspection reported that "Dybenko's army feeds itself" - plundering peasant farms, and also seizing trains with coal and textiles, fodder and bread, which were sent from the south of Ukraine to Soviet Russia. On this basis, Dybenko had a conflict with the local Bolsheviks and Proddonbass. At the end of April 1919, it was decided to create a commission of inquiry for

"investigation of the facts of delay and plunder of trains by Dybenko's units."

The threat of severe punishment once again loomed over Dybenko. This time for robbery of government property. But a dark cloud passed by. The month of May turned out to be very hot for the Bolsheviks. More formidable and important events flashed by with kaleidoscopic speed, and Dybenko’s “art” was forgotten.

In April 1919, two brigades remaining under the command of Dybenko broke through Perekop into Crimea and quickly captured the entire peninsula, except for the Kerch region.

The division commander’s “Crimean operation” was a violation of the order of the commander of the Ukrainian Front, according to which Dybenko’s units were to go to Donbass to protect this area from the “white” offensive and in no case “go deeper” into Crimea, not to stretch the front. Even Lenin intervened in strategic issues and on April 18 telegraphed to X. Rakovsky : “Isn’t it wiser to replace Makhno with his forces (Dybenko) and strike at Taganrog and Rostov.”

But Dybenko decided not to carry out the orders of the command and did not listen to Lenin’s advice in the hope that the winners would not be judged.

He often took risks, especially with other people's lives. In the end, everything happened as the front commander foresaw: a month after Dybenko’s refusal to defend Donbass, the “whites” broke into the mining region and, taking advantage of the small number of troops opposing them, reached the rear of the Soviet front. This breakthrough led to the occupation of Soviet Ukraine by the "Whites" in August - December 1919.

But in April 1919, Dybenko felt like a triumphant and “a Crimean appanage, a prince.” At the beginning of May, he proclaimed the creation of the Crimean Soviet Army (9 thousand soldiers), which was not subordinate to the Ukrainian Front.

Dybenko’s “kingdom” did not last long. Already in mid-June 1919, it became clear that Crimea could not be held. The advancing White Guards, having captured Melitopol, could at any moment cut off Crimea from Soviet territory.

The “white” landing under the command of General Slashchov that landed in Koktebel crushed the defensive formations of the Soviet troops on the Kerch Isthmus, opening the way for Denikin’s troops to Sevastopol and Simferopol.

On June 20, 1919, a panicked flight of Soviet authorities and the “Red” army from Crimea began in the direction of Perekop - Kherson. Dybenko's units retreating to Kherson were halved due to desertion.

Those who remained were so demoralized that they fled from the battlefield in front of one Cossack regiment, surrendering Kherson to the “whites.” Dybenko lost everything - Crimea and his army, which, by order of June 21, was reorganized into the Crimean Rifle Division.

In July, Dybenko’s units try to return Ekaterinoslav captured by the “whites”.

The commander manages to raise the remnants of his “army” on a counteroffensive. But these units were no longer able to take the city and hold it. Forgetting old grievances, Makhno then turned to Dybenko, asking him to send cartridges and establish a common front with the “Reds”. Outlawed by the Bolsheviks, Old Man Makhno with his three thousand-strong detachment continued to hold back the advance of the “whites” on the right bank of the Dnieper, near Ekaterinoslav.

Agents of the Soviet information department of the 14th Army reported that even the Azov-Black Sea flotilla, located along the Dnieper, “was under the control of Makhno,” and in the units there was an “ideological pull towards Father Makhno.” Several thousand soldiers from Dybenko’s division and the crews of two armored trains then went over to Makhno’s side.

Dybenko's division, which soon began to be called the 58th instead of the Crimean one, having fled from near Kherson, dug in in Nikolaev. In this city, Dybenko decides to establish a personal dictatorship. According to reports from the local executive committee of the Soviets, Dybenko and his headquarters are “at war” with the authorities, with the communists and are trying to plunder the city.

But this time the communists contrived and arrested the rowdy divisional commander. He spent four days in prison, again awaiting execution for his atrocities. Some parts of his division join the Rebel Army of Father Makhno and fight not only with the “whites”, but also with the “reds”.

However, Dybenko was a “man of the Center” and a “historical-revolutionary personality”; he was not easy to punish, especially by the district authorities. By order from the Center, he was released, although removed from all posts.

New life

In September 1919, Dybenko was already in Moscow. He finds strong patrons and enters the Red Army Academy, where a new military elite is being trained. Perhaps someone in the government felt that a former sailor with extensive revolutionary experience simply lacked education and culture.

He studied at the Dybenko Academy for only a month, and then was sent to the post of commander of the 37th division. The White Guards were rushing to Moscow, and in October 1919 a real threat of collapse loomed over the Bolshevik leadership. The last reserves rushed into battle. Dybenko's division then fought near Tula and Tsaritsyn (Volgograd).

And again he is brought to justice by the investigative commission of the tribunal, this time in the case of the unlawful execution of seven Red Army soldiers. He manages to get out again...

From left to right – Grigoriev, Dybenko, Kosior “future head of the Ukrainian SSR and member of the Politburo) and an unknown

In March 1920, Dybenko received a new appointment - commander of the 1st Caucasian Cavalry "wild" division (part of the 1st Cavalry Army). The sailor began to command the cavalry! However, he did not last long in this position.

Two months later, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division of the Southern Front, which fought against the troops of Wrangel and Makhno.

But even in this position, the “sailor-cavalryman” could not hold on for long due to his eccentric character and lack of any experience and knowledge in managing cavalry. Nineteen days of Dybenkov’s command cost the formation dearly: it was defeated by the White Guard cavalry of General Barbovich, which broke through the “red” front. After this, the command considered it inappropriate to trust Dybenko with the cavalry divisions and recalled him to complete his studies at the academy.

The year is 1921. The year of general crisis and chaos in the country, peasant uprisings against the Bolsheviks for Dybenko turned out to be a step in his career.

This year he “earns” two Orders of the Red Banner for eliminating the uprisings: of the “brother” sailors in his native Kronstadt and of the peasants of the Tambov province. Dybenko’s “merit” during the assault on Kronstadt was the use of “barrage detachments” that fired at “friendly” units that retreated or refused the assault (units of the 561st regiment were subjected to such shelling from the rear).

Photos of Dybenko’s “triumph” in Kronstadt, which he drowned in blood, have been preserved for history:

“Dybenko at the head of the investigative commission”, “Dybenko at a rally on the defeated mutinous battleship “Petropavlovsk”.

Everywhere he is in the center and with a demonic sparkle in his eyes. In his Address “To the Comrade Old Sailors of Kronstadt,” Dybenko called: “Save the honor of the glorious revolutionary name of the Baltic people, now disgraced by traitors. Save the Red Baltic Fleet!

During the assault on the rebel fortress on March 17, 1921, Dybenko led the combined punitive division and the troops involved in the general assault. It was beneficial for Lenin that rebel sailors should be punished by a sailor, a “former rebel.” Moreover, the rebels were led by sailor Stepan Petrechenko from the Poltava region, who had served in the navy since 1914, a participant in the October Revolution and a friend of Dybenko.

Until now, we do not know the exact numbers of Baltic sailors killed, executed, or sentenced to slow extermination in the Solovki concentration camp. Historians call from 7 to 15 thousand victims of Kronstadt. Only 2,103 death sentences sanctioned by Dybenko were imposed.

Even those who were promised freedom for surrender were sent to a concentration camp, from which no one came out.

Pavel Dybenko (third from right) and members of his staff behind the map during the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising

The rebels were promised life in exchange for captivity, but they were all executed, and their families were repressed. this is one of the most terrible pages in the history of Russia

The former Tsar's second lieutenant Tukhachevsky, together with Dybenko, will drown the uprisings in Kronstadt and Tambov in blood, which will help him rehabilitate himself for the shameful defeat in Poland

In 1937, Dybenko would be one of those who would issue a death sentence to Tukhachevsky himself.

Vladimir Lenin positively assessed the massacre in Kronstadt and the Tambov region, the red commanders were rehabilitated before the authorities

Dybenko became the master of the life and death of his “brothers” as the commandant of the rebellious fortress. Soon he will “create” a memoir called “Mutiny”, in which he will describe his “exploits”. He will dedicate this book to the “fighter for justice” - Shurochka Kollontai. Most likely Kollontai was the actual author of the book.

After all, the sailor-commander was illiterate. Although he “wrote” (or had people write to him) many books glorifying Dybenko’s person: “October in the Baltic”, “In the Bowels of the Tsarist Fleet”, “From the Bowels of the Tsarist Fleet to the Great October Revolution”, “Revolutionary Baltics”...

In April 1921, Dybenko, as a specialist in suppressing uprisings, was sent to pacify the peasants of the Tambov region, led by the Socialist Revolutionary Ataman Antonov.

Soviet military leaders. 1. In the first row: far left - M. N. Tukhachevsky; in the center - S. M. Budyonny; far right - P. E. Dybenko

In 1922, Dybenko graduated from the Military Academy as an external student “as a particularly talented one” (!), having studied there for no more than a year.

In 1922, Dybenko was appointed commander of the 5th Corps of the Red Army and was reinstated in the Communist Party with credit for party experience since 1912. A new leap to the heights of power in 1925 brought Dybenko to the key and prestigious posts of head of the artillery department of the Red Army and head of the supply department of the Red Army.

In 1928 he became commander of the Central Asian Military District. His cruelty in the fight against Basmachism and “Asian nationalism” embittered the indigenous population. In military development, he adhered to old views and hated innovation. He replaced the lack of military knowledge with a “strong hand.” “The Master of Asia,” as Dybenko liked to call himself, was also the master of the 500-kilometer border, where, on his orders, a border guard was created and the fight against smuggling was carried out.

In December 1930, Dybenko, together with a large group of representatives of the military elite, went on a business trip to Germany.

During their five-month stay at the German Military Academy and parts of the Bundeswehr, at military factories and training grounds, the “Red Commanders” had to familiarize themselves with the achievements of European military science and technology.

For many, including Dybenko, this trip turned out to be fatal, since in the late 30s it became one of the main arguments in the system of evidence of “cooperation with German intelligence” by a group of senior Soviet military leaders.

.

Dybenko Pavel Efimovich (with a beard) - commander of the troops of the Central Asian Military District in 1928-1934.

In 1933, Dybenko took over the Volga Military District, which he commanded until 1936. These years were for him years of constant conflict with corps commander Ivan Kutyakov, the hot-tempered and wayward “hero of the civil war”, who started with Chapaev.

Two “heroes” who deserved three Orders of the Red Banner each could not sit in the same military district. Kutyakov, being Dybenko’s deputy, tried to “catch” him and constantly sent denunciations to Moscow against his commander. He, in essence, wrote the truth - about Dybenko’s rudeness, drunkenness, and mediocrity.

But criticism did not change anything in Dybenko’s career. He reported in writing to the People's Commissar of Defense, writing about all the vicissitudes of his life, and received absolution. In the 30s, he became a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, commander of the 2nd rank, commander of the second most strategically important military district - Leningrad.

In 1937, when the arrests of military commanders began, Dybenko’s denunciations against Kutyakov brought him to the chopping block.

1937-38

In May 1937, Tukhachevsky came to take over the Volga Military District from Dybenko. Dybenko delayed the surrender of the district and soon participated in the arrest of Tukhachevsky.

Dybenko, in the spirit of the times, slanderes his colleagues, taking revenge on the offenders and saving himself. He gives false testimony and acts as a prosecutor at the trial, where the military, led by Tukhachevsky, appeared before the court.

For a short time, Dybenko became one of the seven members of the Special Judicial Presence, which delivered a guilty verdict in the “military case.” On June 11, 1937, eight senior military commanders were sentenced to death.

Commander of the Leningrad Military District Pavel Efimovich Dybenko in his office. 1937

But after a few months, Pavel Efimovich finds himself at a meeting of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee, where they demand from him

"open up to the party and admit that he is a German and American spy."

At this meeting, Stalin also reminded him of a fact from the distant past, when in the Seventeenth, the Kerensky government declared Dybenko a German spy, keeping silent, however, about the fact that these accusations were directed against Lenin in the first place.

Surprisingly, after such accusations at a meeting of the Politburo, Dybenko was released to his place of duty. In desperation, he sends a letter to Stalin, trying to deny accusations of his participation in espionage for the United States.

In his defense, he writes to Stalin:

“...I haven’t been alone for a single minute with Americans. After all, I don’t speak the American language...”

Dybenko not only did not know the non-existent American language, but also had poor command of Russian, Ukrainian, as well as “university sciences.”

On January 25, 1938, Stalin and Molotov signed a special resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR regarding the “betrayal of Dybenko.”

It was rightly noted that Dybenko

“He decayed morally and in everyday life... gave a very bad example to his subordinates.”

But the main accusation against him was “ contacts with American representatives" - accusation of espionage.

The investigation was able to establish that Dybenko asked the “Americans” to financially help his sister, who lived in the United States. After these “secret” requests, the sister of the “strangler of democracy” began to receive benefits in the “most democratic country.”

If this benefit really existed, then it would be interesting to ask for what merits did his sister Dybenko receive?

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was not only a fiery revolutionary, looter, executioner, but also a thrice traitor

On February 19, he was called to Moscow, where, having been dismissed from the army, he was appointed deputy people's commissar of the forest industry. Dybenko went to the Urals to inspect camps for political prisoners, not yet knowing that in five days he himself would be behind bars...

Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was arrested as a participant in a “military-fascist conspiracy”, as a Trotskyist and as a spy for Germany and the USA recruited back in 1915.

The investigation report stated this:

"" DYBENKO P.I., former commander of the LVO. Interrogated by: YAMNITS-

Additionally, he showed that in 1915, while in military service in

In the Baltic Fleet, on the battleship "Emperor Paul I", he was recruited for provocative activities by the officer of this ship, Art. Lieutenant LANGE.

LANGE was a naval gendarmerie officer.

DYBENKO testified that in May 1915, when he was working in the machine shop

compartment of the ship "Emperor Paul I", illegal literature was found in his possession and he was arrested. During interrogations, Officer LANGE made him an offer to cooperate in the security department. LANGE warned that otherwise DYBENKO would be court-martialed for preparing an uprising on a warship.

DYBENKO agreed to the proposal of the gendarmerie officer, in

As a result, before the February revolution, he was associated with the specified officer LANGE and carried out secret police tasks to cover revolutionary sailors on the ships of the Baltic Fleet. In particular, on the instructions of the secret police

he conducted observations of the revolutionary sailors of the ship "Emperor"

Paul I" KHOVRINS and MARUSINS.

In November 1915, DYBENKO gave the secret police plans for organizing the Bolsheviks in the fleet to prepare an uprising on the battleship Sevastopol, and he also gave out the organizers of this uprising, POLUKHIN, KHOVRIN and SLADKOV.

DYBENKO admitted that in 1918, having been sent by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

to work illegally in Ukraine with an appearance in Odessa, he went to Crimea and was arrested by German intelligence in Simferopol.

While in Simferopol prison, DYBENKO was recruited by German intelligence - officer KREUTZIN - for espionage work, after which he was released from prison. "

DYBENKO, former commander of the LVO. Interrogated: YAMNITS-

KIY, KAZAKEVICH.

In development of his testimony about his provocateur-espionage activities, DYBENKO testified that he managed to avoid exposure as a provocateur of the tsarist guard in 1918 only because the gendarmerie department in Helsingfors was destroyed and burned by sailors, and the officer LANGE who recruited him was killed in February 1917 .

In 1918, having been sent by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to work illegally in Crimea,

when leaving the ship he was arrested by the gendarmerie department at

the government of General SULKEVICH.

Dybenko claims that his arrest in Sevastopol was allegedly the result of the provocative activities of a member of the underground Bolshevik committee of Odessa, Elena SOKOLOVSKAYA, since only she knew about his trip to Sevastopol.

During a search at the gendarme department in Sevastopol, DYBENKO’s “appearance” to the underground Bolshevik Sevastopol Committee was confiscated.

DYBENKO agreed to the gendarmerie officer’s proposal to cooperate with him and received instructions to convene the activists of the Bolshevik organization in Sevastopol. After this, he was released from custody and, based on the “appearance” returned to him, he established contact with the Bolsheviks GULEV and BERGMAN. However, after some time he was again arrested by the gendarme department together with GULEV and BERTMAN and after a month and a half in the Sevastopol prison he was sent to Simferopol at the disposal of German counterintelligence.

In prison, DYBENKO was recruited to do espionage work for

Germans by the German intelligence officer KREUTZIN. From this time until his

arrest in 1938, DYBENKO intermittently maintained contact with German intelligence.

After being recruited by the Germans in 1918, he was exchanged and sent to

territory of Soviet Russia. Until 1921, he had no meetings with the Germans, and only in the second half of April 1921 did he call at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, and then meet a German intelligence officer who had arrived on behalf of KREUTZIN. To the latter, DYBENKO handed over a model of a map of the Kronstadt fortress and weapons.

In 1926, DYBENKO, being at that time the head of the artillery department

Red Army, met with representatives of German intelligence who headed in 1926-27. the German commission, through which negotiations were conducted on orders in Germany for armaments of the Red Army and established a spy connection with General KUHLMAN, who reminded him of KREUTZIN.

On instructions from KUHL-MAN in the period 1927-28. DYBENKO purchased weapons from Germany at excessive prices and of poor quality, informing the Germans in advance about the needs of the Red Army and about planned concessions in prices. At the request of the Germans, he achieved the curtailment of the production of weapons by Soviet inventors DEGTYAREV and KOLESNIKOV.

After DYBENKO’s appointment as a military commander in SAVO, he met with a representative of German intelligence, PAUL. During his visit to Moscow, DYBENKO gave PAUL detailed information about the attitude of the army leadership towards rapprochement with Germany, about measures to strengthen the Red Army and the situation in SAVO.

In 1930, DYBENKO went to Berlin to study and from that time on

as a representative of the right-wing organization, together with EGOROV, he maintained continuous contact with the Germans. "

During the investigation, which lasted five months, he admitted conspiracy and espionage, testified...

On July 29, 1938, he was executed along with the commander of the USSR Naval Forces V. Orlov and five army commanders.

"The revolution devours its children." In France, the organizer of terror, Robespierre, within a year becomes a victim of his brainchild. It was he who the Russian revolutionaries looked up to.

..................

So who was Army Commander Dybenko?

• A naval officer.
• A provocateur for the Tsarist secret police since 1915.
• One of the creators of the victory of the revolution, the main rebel sailor.
• German spy since 1918.
• Alcoholic.
• A looter, he was twice prosecuted for robbery, but things were put on hold.
• He carried out mass and unjustified executions.
• A deserter who left his position near Narva.
• In Samara, he actually betrayed Soviet power, siding with the Socialist Revolutionaries.
• He betrayed the Socialist Revolutionaries for the sake of “forgiveness” from the Soviet government.
• His mediocrity or treason accompanied the seizure of Ukraine by the Whites
• Friend and enemy of Father Makhno.
• An executioner who drowned sailors who surrendered in blood and repressed their families.
• The executioner who suppressed peasant revolts in Tambov.
• Member of the “right” block, i.e. "Bukharinets"
• Participant in the military tribunal that convicted Tukhachevsky.
• Unmasked German spy.

This is who the legendary People's Commissar Dybenko was. Most of all, he was a child of the revolution, shrouded in a halo, but which devoured him, like all its children.

Connections Retired

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Autograph

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Pavel Efimovich Dybenko(February 16 (28) - July 29) - Russian revolutionary, Soviet political and military leader, 1st People's Commissar for Naval Affairs of the RSFSR, commander of the 2nd rank ().

early years

He received his primary education at a public school, then in 1899 he was admitted to special classes at the Novozybkovsky three-year city school, the full course of which he completed in 1903. I was not able to continue my studies due to my family’s social status and financial situation.

In 1906, 17-year-old Pavel Dybenko entered the treasury service in Novoaleksandrovsk, where his relatives lived, but was fired from there “for unreliability” - in 1907 he took part in the work of the Bolshevik circle, for this reason falling under the secret supervision of the police.

In April 1919, Ukrainian Soviet troops under the command of Pavel Dybenko captured the Perekop Isthmus, then the entire Crimea (with the exception of Kerch). Since May 1919, P. Dybenko has been the commander of the 9,000-strong Crimean Soviet Army, formed from units of the 1st Trans-Dnieper Division and local detachments, and at the same time the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the proclaimed Crimean Soviet Republic. In May-June 1919 he commanded Soviet troops in Crimea, retreating under the onslaught of the White Guards, from June to September 1919 - in Northern Tavria; takes part in the suppression of “Grigorievshchina” and “Makhnovshchina”.

In September 1919 he was recalled to Moscow, in October he was enrolled as a student at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army, but a month later he was appointed head of the 37th Infantry Division. At the end of December 1919, commanding formations, he distinguished himself during the liberation of Tsaritsyn. Participant in the defeat of General Denikin's army in the North Caucasus in the spring of 1920. From March 3 to May 11, 1920 - commander of the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Division.

In the summer of 1920 he commanded formations in Northern Tavria fighting the Russian army of General Wrangel and the Makhnovists. From June 28 to July 17, 1920 - commander of the 2nd Stavropol Cavalry Division named after M.F. Blinov.

From September 1920 to May 1921 - junior student at the Military Academy of the Red Army.

In March 1921, under the overall command of M. N. Tukhachevsky, Dybenko, at the head of the Consolidated Division, was one of the leaders of the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. After the liquidation of the uprising - commandant of the Kronstadt Fortress. The deputy head of the special department, Yudin, reported on Dybenko’s activities during the storming of the fortress:

“The 561st Regiment, having retreated a mile and a half to Kronstadt, refused to go on the offensive further. The reason is unknown. Comrade Dybenko ordered the second chain to be deployed and fire at those returning. Regiment 561 is taking repressive measures against its Red Army soldiers in order to further force them to go on the offensive.”

In April 1921 he participated in the suppression of a peasant uprising in the Tambov province.

Post-war career

• May-June 1921 - chief of troops of the Western Black Sea sector (Tiraspol-Odessa-Nikolaev-Kherson region);
• June-October 1921 - head of the 51st Infantry Division;
• October 1921 - June 1922 - senior student at the Military Academy of the Red Army;
• 1922 - graduated from the Military Academy (General Staff Academy) of the Red Army as an external student;
• 1922 - reinstated in the RCP (b) with the credit for party experience since 1912.
• 05.1922 - 10.1922 - commander of the 6th Rifle Corps;
• 10.1922 - 05.1924 - commander of the 5th Rifle Corps;
• May 1924-1925 - commander of the 10th Rifle Corps;
• May 1925 - November 1926 - head of the Artillery Supply Directorate of the Red Army;
• November 1926 - October 1928 - chief of supplies of the Red Army;
• October 1928 - December 1933 - commander of the troops of the Central Asian Military District;
• December 1933 - May 1937 - commander of the Volga Military District;
• in 1937 - commander of the troops of the Siberian Military District (did not take office);
• June 5, 1937 - September 10, 1937 - commander of the Leningrad Military District;

Arrest and death

Family

Awards

see also

• List of three-time holders of the Order of the Red Banner until 1930

Essays

• Dybenko P. In the depths of the royal fleet. - M.-Pg., 1919
• Dybenko P. Military doctrine and the evolution of the army. (Research experience). - Odessa, 1922. - 63 p.
• Dybenko P. Rebels: (from memories of the revolution). - M.: “Krasnaya Nov”, Glavpolitprosvet, 1923. - 111 p. - 20,000 copies. - Region Rodchenko.
• Dybenko P. From the bowels of the royal fleet to the great October Revolution. From memories of the revolution. 1917-7.XI-1927. - M., Military Bulletin, 1928. 237 p. - 7000 copies.
• Dybenko P. October in the Baltic. - Tashkent, 1934.

Memory

• The name of Pavel Efimovich Dybenko is immortalized in the names of the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Samara and Kharkov, as well as in his small homeland in Novozybkov, where there is a monument in his honor.
• A memorial stele with a high relief of P. E. Dybenko, the first People's Commissar of Military Affairs of the Russian Soviet Republic, was installed in Simferopol in 1968 where the headquarters of the Crimean Red Army was located in 1919 (corner of Kirov Avenue and Sovnarkomovsky Lane, Dybenko Square). Sculptor - N. P. Petrova.
• A memorial plaque dedicated to Pavel Efimovich was installed on the square in front of the Great Gatchina Palace.
• The image of Dybenko, as a famous participant in the Revolution and Civil War, was actively used in Soviet cinema. He was played by: Ivan Dmitriev (Aurora Salvo (film), 1965), Vladimir Dyukov (December 20, 1981), Sergei Garmash (Moonzund (film), 1987), Sergei Burunov (Tukhachevsky: Marshal's Conspiracy, 2010), Sergei Gavrilyuk (Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno, 2007); as well as Slobodan Kustic in the Yugoslav film “Mistress Kollontai”, 1996.

• In 1989, USSR postage stamps dedicated to Dybenko were issued.

Gatchina Palace - Memorial tablet (big).jpg

Memorial plaque in Gatchina

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Notes

Sources

• V. Antonov-Ovseenko. Notes on the Civil War. - M.:, - L.: 1933.
• Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. : Soviet encyclopedia, 1969-1978.

Literature

• Grigoryan A. M., Milbakh V. S., Chernavsky A. N. Political repressions of the command staff, 1937-1938. Leningrad Military District. - St. Petersburg. : St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2013. - 423 p. - ISBN 978-5-288-05282-8.
• Zhigalov I. M. Dybenko.- M.: Young Guard, 1983.
• Zhigalov I. M. The story of a Baltic sailor. - M.: Politizdat, 1973.
• Kirshner L. A. Thunder strike bell. - L.: Lenizdat, 1985.
• Lazarev S. E. Sociocultural composition of the Soviet military elite 1931-1938. and its assessments in the Russian press abroad. - Voronezh: Voronezh CSTI - branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "REA" of the Ministry of Energy of Russia, 2012. - 312 p. - 100 copies. - ISBN 978-5-4218-0102-3.
• J. Levy. Pavel Dybenko and the myth of February 23, 1918 (, ,), Pole of the World, 2012.
• Suvorov V. Cleansing. - M., AST, 2002.
• Yakupov N. M. The tragedy of the commanders. - M.: Mysl, 1992. - P. 66-97. - 349 p. - 20,000 copies. - ISBN 5-244-00525-1.
• Mlechin L. M. The commanders are revolutionaries. - St. Petersburg, 2015, ed. LLC Trade and Publishing House "Amphora".

Journalism

• Dormidontov V. S.
• Savchenko V. A.. - M., 2000. - ISBN 966-03-0845-0, 5-17-002710-9

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Excerpt characterizing Dybenko, Pavel Efimovich

But at about five o’clock in the morning a very pleasant young midwife came to my mother and, much to my mother’s surprise, cheerfully said:
- Well, let’s get ready, now we’ll give birth!
When the frightened mother asked - what about the doctor? The woman, calmly looking into her eyes, affectionately replied that, in her opinion, it was high time for her mother to give birth to live (!) children... And she began to gently and carefully massage her mother’s belly, as if little by little preparing her for a “soon and happy” childbirth ... And so, with the light hand of this wonderful unknown midwife, at about six o’clock in the morning, my mother easily and quickly gave birth to her first living child, who, fortunately, turned out to be me.
- Well, look at this doll, mom! – the midwife cheerfully exclaimed, bringing mother the already washed and clean, small, screaming bundle. And my mother, seeing her little daughter alive and healthy for the first time... fainted with joy...

When exactly at six o'clock in the morning Dr. Ingelevichius entered the room, a wonderful picture appeared before his eyes - a very happy couple was lying on the bed - it was my mother and I, her living newborn daughter... But instead of being happy for such an unexpected happy In the end, for some reason the doctor went into a real rage and, without saying a word, jumped out of the room...
We never found out what really happened with all the “tragically unusual” births of my poor, suffering mother. But one thing was clear for sure - someone really didn’t want at least one mother’s child to be born into this world alive. But apparently the one who so carefully and reliably protected me throughout my entire life, this time decided to prevent the death of the Seryogins’ child, somehow knowing that he would probably be the last in this family...
This is how, “with obstacles,” my amazing and unusual life once began, the appearance of which, even before my birth, fate, already quite complex and unpredictable, had in store for me....
Or maybe it was someone who already knew then that someone would need my life for something, and someone tried very hard so that I would still be born on this earth, despite all the “difficulties” created obstacles"...

Gloomy "knights of the revolution"

One of the streets of Simferopol bears his name. Until recently, he was for us one of the “knights of the revolution”... But we knew exactly as much about the revolutionary sailor Dybenko as was determined for us to know by the all-powerful departments that carefully cleaned up history and “protected” our peace of mind...

Born on February 16, 1889 in the village of Lyudkovo, Novozybkovsky district (now Bryansk region). In his official biographies, he emphasized that he was born into a farm laborer’s family, but Dybenko’s father had a horse, two cows and about five hectares of land. So Efim Dybenko, according to Polesie standards, was most likely a middle peasant. In 1911, Dybenko was arrested for failure to appear at the recruiting station and forcibly placed in the Baltic Navy. There he joined an underground Bolshevik cell.

In the navy he was considered a giant, because he was two arshins, seven and four-eighths of height - almost 175 centimeters. For the fleet, this was a lot. In addition, a thick bass voice, a blue-black beard and incredible hand strength - he bent horseshoes and tied a poker in a knot.

"Politically harmful"

Naturally, the peasant son had no education. Due to his heightened sense of justice and his “politically harmful nature,” he was repeatedly imprisoned and in a punishment cell. The February Revolution of 1917 opened up great opportunities for the enterprising sailor, who was known in the navy for his strength, tall stature, cynicism, and tendency to fight and drunken brawls. Dybenko's authority in the Baltic was such that in the revolutionary days of 1917 he was unanimously elected chairman of Tsentrobalt. It was he who received a telegram from Antonov-Ovseenko on October 24, 1917: “Send the charter. Antonov." Following this encrypted order, warships carrying a Baltic landing force rushed to Petrograd.

Almost all key moments of the October Revolution are associated with the name of Pavel Dybenko. When General Krasnov moved with his troops to Petrograd, Dybenko rushed to Gatchina, where he “had a heart-to-heart talk” with his Cossack brothers. After such a conversation, they immediately arrested General Krasnov and handed him over to Dybenko, who delivered the “white man” to Petrograd. And a day later, Dybenko stepped onto the tracks and stood in the way of a train filled with “shock troops” heading to Petrograd to save Russia.

In February 1918, during the offensive of German troops, Dybenko, at the head of a sailor regiment, was sent to Narva with the task of stopping the enemy. The combat area was commanded by Lieutenant General Parsky, and the representative from the Bolshevik Party was Bonch-Bruevich. Naturally, the sailor Dybenko did not want to obey the tsar’s general, promising that “the brothers themselves will deal with the bad things.” We figured it out. Shattered to smithereens, the sailors fled in panic and shouting “half-hearted” from the regular German units.

It was with such an episode that the birth of the Red Army began, and the defeat of Dybenko’s detachment on February 23 became a holiday that is celebrated to this day. February 25, 1818 V.I. Lenin writes in Pravda: “... painfully shameful reports about the refusal of the regiments to maintain positions, about the refusal to defend even the Narva line, about the failure to comply with the order to destroy everything and everyone during the retreat; not to mention flight, chaos, short-sightedness, helplessness, sloppiness.”

Dybenko was immediately arrested and tried by a revolutionary tribunal. The sailors sent Lenin and Trotsky ultimatum: “If Dybenko is not released within 48 hours, we will open artillery fire on the Kremlin and begin reprisals against individuals.” The frightened leaders of the revolution “recommended” that the revolutionary tribunal acquit Dybenko. He was punished along the party line - he was expelled from the party.

In April 1918, Dybenko was already in Samara. The Samara provincial executive committee was then headed by the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who had quarreled with the Bolsheviks over the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. They were glad to receive the oppositionist. In Samara, the positions of the left Socialist Revolutionaries, maximalists, and anarchists were especially strong. Anarchists and maximalists from Ukraine captured by the Germans were evacuated there. Some of the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet ended up there after the loss of Sevastopol and Odessa. These were anarchist “brothers” dissatisfied with the government and the sinking of the fleet. At a general meeting of left parties, which were joined by left communists, a decision was made that Dybenko was not subject to jurisdiction. For some time, Dybenko becomes the leader of the Samara Republic and the Samara opposition to the Bolshevik power. Kollontai soon moved to Samara. During this period, a stormy romance flared up between a former sailor and the future ambassador of Soviet Russia to Sweden.

Military dictator of Crimea

And again Lenin forgives the dashing sailor for his sins before the revolution. Dybenko is sent to underground work in Ukraine occupied by German troops. Under the pseudonym Alexey Voronov, he arrived in Odessa in July 1918. However, after being there for two weeks and not contacting the underground, he moved to Crimea. There, after ten days of “underground,” he is arrested as a “Bolshevik leader,” and after attempting to escape from prison, he is shackled. For the massacres of officers in 1917, he was threatened with execution. But a month later, at the end of August 1918, the Soviet government exchanged Dybenko for several captured German officers.

In April 1919, two brigades remaining under the command of Dybenko broke through Perekop into Crimea and quickly captured the entire peninsula, except for the Kerch region. The division commander’s “Crimean operation” was a violation of the order of the commander of the Ukrainian Front, according to which Dybenko’s units were to go to the Donbass to protect this area from the White offensive and in no case go deeper into Crimea, not to stretch the front.

But Dybenko decided not to carry out the command’s order. He loved to take risks, especially with other people's lives. As a result, a month after Dybenko’s refusal to defend Donbass, the Whites broke into the mining region and, taking advantage of the small number of troops opposing them, reached the rear of the Soviet front. This breakthrough led to the occupation of Soviet Ukraine by Denikin's forces in August - December 1919.

But in April 1919, Dybenko felt like a triumphant and a “Crimean appanage prince.” At the beginning of May, he proclaimed the creation of the Crimean Soviet Army (9 thousand soldiers), which was not subordinate to the Ukrainian Front. Having become the military dictator of Crimea and settling in his capital Simferopol, Dybenko creates “for himself” the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the RSFSR and invites the head of the government of Crimea (SNK KSSR), Lenin’s brother, Dmitry Ulyanov, to play the role of “wedding general”. He believed that this appointment would provide him with the protection of Ilyich himself and the justification of arbitrariness. Dybenko proclaimed himself People's Commissar of the Military and Naval Forces of Crimea, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of Crimea, and Commander of the Crimean Army.

Alexandra Kollontai, who returned to the “winner,” was appointed head of the political department of the Crimean Army, but in fact became the “Crimean Queen” and oversaw all ideological and political issues. The military dictatorship of Dybenko in Crimea was called “Dybenkoism” and gained bad fame. The functions of the Soviets and even the leading party bodies were reduced to nothing. L.D. Trotsky, declaring that the Red Army units in Crimea were “infected with Dybenkovism,” stopped supplying them.

The stigma of “Dybenkovism” characterized the regime of half-tyranny, half-anarchy, half-banditry in the Soviet Crimea in 1919. Dybenko knew only one method of persuasion - execution. He ordered employees to be shot for leaving their place of work, and shot “rumor mongers” and “alarmists.”

Kollontai commented on these events in her diary: “Pasha appeared as an undisciplined, proud, hot-tempered type.” But her strict conclusions were made not only on the basis of an analysis of her husband’s business qualities. The amorous Dybenko seduced the young secretary who was with Kollontai and was her confidante. Kollontai, beside himself with jealousy, again decides to break up with Dybenko “forever.” She leaves for Kharkov, to join her “old comrades” who assigned her to the post of People’s Commissar of Propaganda of Soviet Ukraine.

Dybenko’s “Crimean Kingdom” did not last long. The landing in Koktebel under the command of General Slashchev crushed the defensive formations of the Soviet troops on the Kerch Isthmus, opening the way for troops Denikin to Sevastopol and Simferopol. On June 20, 1919, a panicked flight of Soviet authorities and the Red Army began from Crimea in the direction of Perekop - Kherson. Dybenko's units retreating to Kherson were halved due to desertion. Those who remained were so demoralized that they fled from the battlefield from one Cossack regiment, surrendering Kherson to the whites. Dybenko lost everything - Crimea and his army, which, by order of June 21, was reorganized into the Crimean Rifle Division.

Kronstadt "exploits"

In September 1919, Dybenko was in Moscow. He finds strong patrons and enters the Red Army Academy. Perhaps someone in the government felt that a former sailor with extensive revolutionary experience simply lacked education and culture. But Dybenko studied for only a month, and then was appointed to the post of commander of the 37th division. The White Guards were rushing to Moscow, and in October 1919 a real threat of collapse loomed over the Bolshevik leadership. The last reserves rushed into battle. Dybenko's division fights near Tula and Tsaritsyn.

And again he is brought to justice by the investigative commission of the tribunal, this time in the case of the unlawful execution of seven Red Army soldiers. He manages to get out again... And soon he is already the commander of the 1st Caucasian Cavalry. The sailor began to command the cavalry! True, he did not last long in this position. Two months later he was appointed commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division of the Southern Front, which fought against Wrangel’s troops and Makhno. Nineteen days of Dybenkov’s command cost the formation dearly: it was defeated by the White Guard cavalry of General Barbovich, which broke through the Red Front. After this, the command considered it inappropriate to trust Dybenko with the cavalry divisions and recalled him to complete his studies at the academy.

1921, a time of general crisis and chaos in the country, peasant uprisings against the Bolsheviks, turned out to be successful for Dybenko’s career. This year he “earns” two Orders of the Red Banner for eliminating uprisings: sailors in his native Kronstadt and peasants in the Tambov province. Dybenko’s “merit” during the assault on Kronstadt was the use of “barrage detachments” that fired at their units retreating or refusing to storm from the rear.

The deputy head of the special department, Yudin, reported on these exploits of Dybenko: “The regiment, having retreated a mile and a half to Kronstadt, refused to go on the offensive further. The reason is unknown. Comrade Dybenko ordered the second chain to be deployed and fire at those returning. Regiment 561 is taking repressive measures against its Red Army soldiers in order to further force them to go on the offensive.”

In 1933, Dybenko took over the Volga Military District, which he commanded until 1936. These years were for him years of constant conflict with Corps Commander Kutyakov.

In 1938, the legendary Baltic sailor, Army Commander Pavel Dybenko, awarded three Orders of the Red Banner, a gold watch of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, a silver watch of the Leningrad City Council and a horse, was arrested. Investigator Senior Lieutenant Kazakevich “found out” that Dybenko was recruited by the Tsarist secret police in 1915 for provocative work among Baltic sailors. On July 29, 1938, Dybenko was shot. And in 1956, he was rehabilitated among the first victims of Stalin’s terror.

SERGEY CHENNYK
First Crimean N 81, JULY 8/JULY 14, 2005

Commander of the second rank Pavel Efimovich Dybenko. Bryansk region.

Revolutionary, politician and red army commander P.E. Dybenko is an extremely controversial personality, known from different sides - both bright and heroic, and very negative and scary. And there is no unambiguous assessment of the events themselves, in which he took an active part throughout his life, and probably cannot be. However, one way or another, this is our famous fellow countryman, which means whether it is good or dark, it is a significant piece of our Bryansk history and the history of our country, and without this page history will be incomplete.

Pavel was born on February 16 (28), 1889 in a large family of a strong middle peasant (the family owned two cows, a horse and five hectares of land) in the village of Lyudkovo, Chernigov province (now within the city of Novozybkov, Bryansk region). He learned to read and write at a public school. In 1899 he entered and in 1903 graduated from a three-year city school in Novozybkov. He served in the treasury, but was fired for unreliability and went to Riga, where he became a port loader, while simultaneously studying electrical engineering courses. In Riga since 1907, he participated in the work of the Bolshevik circle and naturally came under the secret surveillance of the police.

As a Bolshevik revolutionary, Dybenko tried to evade military service, but in 1911 he was arrested by the police and sent to a recruiting station by convoy. So, in 1911, he became a sailor of the Baltic Fleet on the penal training ship Dvina. In 1913, sailor Dybenko graduated from mine school and entered service on the battleship (squadron battleship) "Emperor Paul I" as a non-commissioned officer, where he again entered the Bolshevik underground. On this warship, Dybenko took part in the campaign to Portland and Brest.

In 1915, Pavel Efimovich became one of the organizers and leaders of the anti-war demonstration of sailors on the battleship. He was arrested and, after a tribunal and six-month imprisonment, in 1916 he was sent as part of a naval battalion to the front near Riga. For refusal to carry out the order to attack, the battalion was disbanded, and P.E. Dybenko was sentenced to two months in prison for anti-war agitation. Then, from the summer of 1916, he continued to serve on a transport ship in Helsingfors.

After February 1917, he was elected by the sailors who trusted him as a member of the Helsingfors Council, and from April as chairman of the Tsentrobalt (Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet). He spent two summer months in custody in the Kresty prison, but in early September, under pressure from Tsentrobalt sailors, he was released. During the Battle of Moonsund on September 29 - October 6 with the German fleet P.E. Dybenko took part in the battles near the islands of Dago and Ezel.

In the whirlwind of revolutionary events of 1917, a companion appears in his life - Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (nee Princess Domontovich) - a member of the central committee of the Bolshevik party and friend of V.I. Lenin. The famous revolutionary became the common-law wife of Pavel Efimovich; in many ways she contributed to the further military-political career of her husband. Years later, after the Civil War, Pavel and Alexandra came together to Lyudkovo to visit the Dybenko family.

Since the end of September, Dybenko has been a member of the Finnish Regional Bureau of the RSDLP(b), then a delegate to the Congress of Soviets of the Northern Region (October 11-13), where he was elected to the regional executive committee. Having joined the Petrograd Provisional Revolutionary Committee, he was elected as a delegate to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, but was unable to arrive in Petrograd, since he headed the “troika” in preparing an armed uprising.

During the October armed uprising of 1917, Dybenko supervised the formation and dispatch of detachments of revolutionary sailors and warships from Helsingfors and Kronstadt to Petrograd. From October 28, he personally commanded the red detachments in Gatchina and Krasnoe Selo, arrested General P.N. Krasnova. He became part of the first Bolshevik government - the Council of People's Commissars. From November 21, 1917 to March 1918, former sailor P.E. Dybenko, by Lenin’s personal order, occupies the admiral’s position - he is the first people’s commissar for maritime affairs in history. Under his leadership, the wholesale extermination of military personnel in the Russian fleet began. In Petrograd and at the Baltic Fleet bases alone, several hundred officers and midshipmen were tortured and brutally killed. P.E. Dybenko tirelessly called on the “brothers” - as he called the revolutionary sailors - to “cut the opposition.”

He also participated in the dispersal of the only surviving legitimate body of power in revolutionary Petrograd - the Constituent Assembly, bringing over five thousand sailors into the city. Before this, at a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on January 5, 1918, he spoke on behalf of the sailors of the Baltic Fleet: “We recognize only Soviet power; Our bayonets, our weapons are for Soviet power, and everything else is us against them. Down with them! When about 60 thousand people took to the streets of Petrograd in support of the popularly elected Constituent Assembly, on the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Prospekts, sailors stationed on the roofs at Dybenko’s command met the peaceful demonstration with machine-gun fire. This is how the Bolsheviks consolidated their power.

In February 1918, the German offensive against Petrograd began. P.E. Dybenko, at the head of a detachment of sailors, was sent to Narva with the task of stopping the Germans. The area was defended by soldiers under the leadership of former General Parsky and Commissar Bonch-Bruevich. Dybenko refused to obey them, declaring that “the brothers themselves will deal with the nonsense.” From the surviving documents it follows that in February 1918, a group of sailors led by Pavel Dybenko, after giving a short battle, fled from the front. The Germans advanced hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory. About what happened, the leader of the Bolsheviks V.I. Lenin wrote about it as a “bitter, offensive, difficult lesson.” The commander of the flight was expelled from the party (he was reinstated there only in 1922, after the Civil War); on March 16, at the IV Congress of Soviets, he was deprived of all posts and arrested. Soon, on March 25, however, the former People's Commissar, as “one of our own,” was released on bail with the condition of staying in Moscow until the trial. Dybenko did not wait for trial and fled to Samara, from where in May he was returned to Moscow and finally appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal. Leon Trotsky angrily demanded execution, but Dybenko was acquitted due to repentance: “I am to blame for the fact that the sailors reached Gatchina,” said the defendant.

After the trial, the Bolsheviks send Dybenko to underground work in Sevastopol. Here he and the city underground began propaganda activities among German soldiers. However, the enemy’s counterintelligence worked clearly: a month later, Dybenko was arrested and, after an unsuccessful escape from prison, sentenced to death. He was again incredibly lucky: in October, at the request of his wife Alexandra Kollontai, the Soviet government was able to exchange Dybenko for a group of captured officers.

P.E. Dybenko and N.I. Makhno. 1918

Since November 1918, Dybenko was already the commander of a regiment, brigade, and group of troops. He headed the 1st Trans-Dnieper Ukrainian Soviet Division, which included thousands of detachments of the most famous partisan atamans in Ukraine - Nikifor Grigoriev and the “father” Nestor Makhno. At Makhno’s wedding, he was even the “planted father.” From the spring of 1919, he commanded units of the Red Army that participated in the assault on the Perekop and Chongar positions and soon after the victory, he became the People's Commissar of Military Affairs of the Crimean Soviet Republic. After the fall of the Republic in July 1919, he was sent to new fronts, where he participated in leading the capture of Tsaritsyn. From March 3 to May 11, 1920, he commanded the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Division; June 28 - July 17, commanding the 2nd Stavropol Cavalry Division named after M.F. Blinova.

Under the general command of M.N. Tukhachevsky P.E. Dybenko, at the head of the Combined Division, was one of the main leaders of the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising (March 1921), organizing a massacre of his recent comrades in the Baltic Fleet.

The further military career of Pavel Efimovich is as follows:

October 1928 - December 1933 commander of the troops of the Central Asian Military District, during this period he was on an internship in Berlin for six months, where German military experts-teachers certified him briefly and succinctly: “From a military point of view, he is an absolute zero, but from a political point of view, he is considered especially reliable.”

Member of the RVS, commander P.E. Dybenko in his office. Photo from the Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents

In September 1937, Dybenko was unexpectedly removed from his post as commander of the Leningrad Military District, and in early January 1938 he was completely dismissed from the Red Army and appointed deputy people's commissar of the forest industry and manager of the Kamlesosplav trust, closely associated with the Gulag.

On February 26, 1938, Dybenko was arrested in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). During the investigation, he was subjected to severe beatings and torture, under which he pleaded guilty to participating in an anti-Soviet Trotskyist military-fascist conspiracy. He was declared a US spy, although he swore that he “did not know the American language.” Dybenko was also accused of having connections with M.N. Tukhachevsky, whom he himself recently sent to be shot. On July 29, 1938, the former member of the RVS was sentenced to death and executed on the day of sentencing. The burial place of Dybenko’s remains is the Kommunarka training ground. Rehabilitated posthumously in 1956 by N.S. Khrushchev.

The name of Pavel Efimovich Dybenko was glorified and immortalized many times during the years of Soviet power. A memorial stele with a high relief of the People's Commissar of Military Affairs was installed in Simferopol in 1968, where the headquarters of the Crimean Red Army was located in 1919. The memorial plaque is installed on the square in front of the Great Gatchina Palace. The image of the famous participant in the revolution and the Civil War, Dybenko, was repeatedly captured in cinema (the films “Aurora Salvo” (1965), “December 20” (1981), “Moonzund” (1987), “Mrs. Kollontai” (1996), “ Nine lives of Nestor Makhno" (2007)). There is a portrait of him on a Soviet postage stamp, and a biography of Dybenko was published in the series “The Life of Remarkable People.” Currently, there are more than 130 streets in Russian cities that perpetuate the name of Dybenko. Among them is the longest street in his homeland - in the city of Novozybkov. For the most part it runs through the territory of the former volost village of Lyudkovo, which has been included within the city since the 1930s. And in the city center, on Lenin Street, there is a monument to P.E. Dybenko, on the territory of school No. 6 there is his bust.

Postage stamp and book dedicated to P.E. Dybenko and his monument in Novozybkov