Baron Wrangel biography civil war. Black Baron without a royal throne

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel

Nickname:	Black Baron
Place of birth:	Russian Empire, Kovno province, Novoaleksandrovsk
Place of death:	Belgium, Brussels
Affiliation:	Russian Empire White Guard
Type of troops:	Cavalry
Years of service:
	General Staff Lieutenant General (1918)
Commanded:	Cavalry Division; cavalry corps; Caucasian Volunteer Army; Volunteer Army; V.S.Y.R.; Russian Army
Battles/wars:	Russo-Japanese War First world war Civil war

Autograph:

Origin

Participation in the Civil War

Wrangel's policy in Crimea

Supervisor White movement

Fall of White Crimea

Sevastopol evacuation

Emigration

Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel(August 15 (27), 1878, Novoaleksandrovsk, Kovno province, Russian Empire - April 25, 1928, Brussels, Belgium) - Russian military leader, participant in the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars, one of the main leaders (1918?1920) of the White movement in the years Civil War. Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in Crimea and Poland (1920). General Staff Lieutenant General (1918). Knight of St. George.

He received the nickname “Black Baron” for his traditional (since September 1918) everyday uniform - a black Cossack Circassian coat with gazyrs.

Origin

Came from home Tolsburg-Ellistfer the Wrangel family is an old noble family that traces its ancestry back to the beginning of the 13th century. The motto of the Wrangel family was: “Frangas, non flectes” (You will break, but you will not bend). A native of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia.

The name of one of the ancestors of Pyotr Nikolaevich is listed among the wounded on the fifteenth wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, where the names of Russian officers who died and wounded during Patriotic War 1812. A distant relative of Peter Wrangel - Baron A.E. Wrangel - captured Shamil. The name of an even more distant relative of Pyotr Nikolaevich - the famous Russian navigator and polar explorer Admiral Baron F. P. Wrangel - is Wrangel Island in Severny Arctic Ocean, as well as others geographical features in the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

Father - Baron Nikolai Egorovich Wrangel (1847-1923) - art scientist, writer and famous collector of antiques. Mother - Maria Dmitrievna Dementieva-Maikova (1856-1944) - lived throughout the Civil War in Petrograd under her last name. After Pyotr Nikolaevich became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, her friends helped her move to a refugee hostel, where she registered as the “widow of Veronelli,” but continued to go to work in the Soviet museum under her real name. At the end of October 1920, with the help of the Savinkovites, her friends arranged her escape to Finland.

Second cousins of Peter Wrangel's grandfather, Yegor Ermolaevich (1803-1868), were Professor Yegor Vasilyevich and Admiral Vasily Vasilyevich.

Studies

He graduated from the Rostov Real School (1896) and the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg (1901). He was an engineer by training.

He entered the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment as a volunteer in 1901, and in 1902, having passed the exam at the Nikolaev Cavalry School, he was promoted to cornet of the guard and enlisted in the reserve. After this, he left the ranks of the army and went to Irkutsk as an official of special assignments under the governor general.

Participation in the Russo-Japanese War

After the start Russo-Japanese War enlists in military service again, this time for good. The Baron volunteered for active army and was assigned to the 2nd Verkhneudinsk Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. In December 1904, he was promoted to the rank of centurion - with the wording in the order “for distinction in cases against the Japanese” and awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree with the inscription on bladed weapons “For bravery” and St. Stanislaus with swords and a bow. On January 6, 1906, he was assigned to the 55th Finnish Dragoon Regiment and promoted to the rank of captain. On March 26, 1907, he was again appointed to the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment with the rank of lieutenant.

Participation in the First World War

He graduated from the Nicholas Imperial Academy of the General Staff in 1910, and from the Officer Cavalry School course in 1911. He met the First World War as a squadron commander with the rank of captain. On October 13, 1914, one of the first Russian officers was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. In December 1914 he received the rank of colonel. In June 1915 he was awarded the Golden Arms of St. George.

In October 1915, he was transferred to the Southwestern Front and on October 8, 1915, he was appointed commander of the 1st Nerchinsky Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. Upon transfer, he was given the following description by his former commander: “Outstanding courage. He understands the situation perfectly and quickly, and is very resourceful in difficult situations.” Commanding this regiment, Baron Wrangel fought against the Austrians in Galicia, participated in the famous Lutsk breakthrough of 1916, and then in defensive positional battles. He placed military valor, military discipline, honor and the intelligence of the commander at the forefront. If an officer gives an order, Wrangel said, and it is not carried out, “he is no longer an officer; officer's shoulder straps No". New steps in the military career of Pyotr Nikolaevich were the rank of major general, “for military distinction,” in January 1917 and his appointment as commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri Cavalry Division, then in July 1917 - commander of the 7th cavalry division, and after - Commander of the Combined Cavalry Corps.

For a successfully carried out operation on the Zbruch River in the summer of 1917, General Wrangel was awarded the soldier's St. George Cross, IV degree.

Participation in the Civil War

From the end of 1917 he lived at a dacha in Yalta, where he was soon arrested by the Bolsheviks. After a short imprisonment, the general, upon release, hid in Crimea until the German army entered it, after which he left for Kyiv, where he decided to cooperate with the hetman government of P. P. Skoropadsky. Convinced of the weakness of the new Ukrainian government, which rested solely on German bayonets, the baron leaves Ukraine and arrives in Yekaterinodar, occupied by the Volunteer Army, where he takes command of the 1st Cavalry Division. From this moment on, Baron Wrangel’s service in the White Army begins.

In August 1918 he entered the Volunteer Army, having by this time the rank of major general and being a Knight of St. George. During the 2nd Kuban campaign he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Corps. In November 1918 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

Pyotr Nikolaevich was opposed to the conduct of battles along the entire front by mounted units. General Wrangel sought to gather the cavalry into a fist and throw it into the breakthrough. It was the brilliant attacks of Wrangel’s cavalry that determined the final result of the battles in the Kuban and North Caucasus.

In January 1919, for some time he commanded the Volunteer Army, and from January 1919 - the Caucasian Volunteer Army. He was in strained relations with the Commander-in-Chief of the AFSR, General A.I. Denikin, as he demanded a speedy offensive in the Tsaritsyn direction to join the army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak (Denikin insisted on a speedy attack on Moscow). The baron's major military victory was the capture of Tsaritsyn on June 30, 1919, which had previously been unsuccessfully stormed three times by the troops of Ataman P.N. Krasnov during 1918. It was in Tsaritsyn that Denikin, who soon arrived there, signed his famous “Moscow Directive,” which, according to Wrangel, “was a death sentence for the troops of the South of Russia.” In November 1919, he was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army operating in the Moscow direction. On December 20, 1919, due to disagreements and conflict with the commander-in-chief of V.S.Yu.R., he was removed from command of the troops, and on February 8, 1920, he was dismissed and left for Constantinople.

On March 20, the Commander-in-Chief of the AFSR, General Denikin, decided to resign from his post. On March 21, a military council was convened in Sevastopol under the chairmanship of General Dragomirov, at which Wrangel was elected commander-in-chief. According to the recollections of P. S. Makhrov, at the council, the first to name Wrangel was the chief of staff of the fleet, captain 1st rank Ryabinin. On March 22, Wrangel arrived in Sevastopol on the English ship Emperor of India and took command.

Wrangel's policy in Crimea

For six months of 1920, P. N. Wrangel, Ruler of the South of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, tried to take into account the mistakes of his predecessors, boldly made previously unthinkable compromises, tried to win over various segments of the population to his side, but by the time he came to power The white struggle was actually already lost both in the international and domestic aspects.

advocated federal structure future Russia. He was inclined to recognize the political independence of Ukraine (in particular, according to a special decree adopted in the fall of 1920, Ukrainian recognized as national on a par with Russian). However, all these actions were aimed only at concluding a military alliance with the army of the UPR Directory, headed by Symon Petliura, who by that time had almost lost control over the territory of Ukraine.

Recognized the independence of the mountain federation North Caucasus. He tried to establish contacts with the leaders of the rebel formations of Ukraine, including Makhno, but was unsuccessful, and Wrangel’s parliamentarians were shot by the Makhnovists. However, the commanders of smaller “green” formations willingly entered into an alliance with the baron.

With the support of the head of the Government of the South of Russia, a prominent economist and reformer A.V. Krivoshein, developed a number of legislative acts on agrarian reform, among which the main one is the “Land Law”, adopted by the government on May 25, 1920.

The basis of his land policy was the provision that most of the land belonged to peasants. He recognized the legal seizure of landowners' lands by peasants in the first years after the revolution (albeit for a certain monetary or in-kind contribution to the state). Spent a series administrative reforms in Crimea, as well as the reform of local self-government (“Law on volost zemstvos and rural communities”). He sought to win over the Cossacks by promulgating a number of decrees on regional autonomy of Cossack lands. He patronized workers by adopting a number of provisions on labor legislation. Despite all the progressive measures, the whites in the person of the commander-in-chief did not gain the trust of the population, and the material and human resources of Crimea were depleted. In addition, Great Britain actually refused further support for the whites, proposing to turn “to the Soviet government, with a view to achieving an amnesty,” and saying that the British government would refuse any support and assistance if the white leadership again refused negotiations It is clear that the very proposal for negotiations with the Bolsheviks was absolutely unacceptable and even offensive to the White command, therefore the actions of Britain, regarded as blackmail, did not affect decision made continue the fight until the end.

Leader of the White Movement

When taking office as Commander-in-Chief V.S.Yu.R. Wrangel saw his main task not as fighting the Reds, but as the task of “ lead the army out of a difficult situation with honor" At this moment, few of the white military leaders could imagine the very possibility of active military action, and the combat effectiveness of the troops after a streak of disasters was called into question. The British ultimatum about “ termination unequal struggle " This message from the British became the first international document received by Wrangel as the leader of the White movement. General Baron Wrangel would write later in his memoirs:

In this regard, it is not surprising that General Baron Wrangel, upon assuming the post of Commander-in-Chief of V.S.Yu.R., realizing the full extent of the vulnerability of Crimea, immediately took a number of preparatory measures in case of evacuation of the army - in order to avoid a repetition of the disasters of the Novorossiysk and Odessa evacuations . The Baron also understood perfectly well that economic resources Crimea is insignificant and incomparable with the resources of the Kuban, Don, Siberia, which served as bases for the emergence of the White movement, and keeping the region isolated can lead to famine.

A few days after Baron Wrangel took office, he received information about the Reds preparing a new assault on the Crimea, for which the Bolshevik command brought here a significant amount of artillery, aviation, 4 rifle and cavalry division. Among these forces were also selected Bolshevik troops - the Latvian Division, 3rd rifle division, consisting of internationalists - Latvians, Hungarians, etc.

On April 13, 1920, the Latvians attacked and overthrew the advanced units of General Ya. A. Slashchev on Perekop and had already begun to move south from Perekop to the Crimea. Slashchev counterattacked and drove the enemy back, but the Latvians, receiving reinforcements after reinforcements from the rear, managed to cling to the Turkish Wall. The approaching Volunteer Corps decided the outcome of the battle, as a result of which the Reds were driven out of Perekop and were soon partially cut down and partially driven away by the cavalry of General Morozov near Tyup-Dzhankoy.

On April 14, General Baron Wrangel launched a Red counterattack, having previously grouped the Kornilovites, Markovites and Slashchevites and reinforced them with a detachment of cavalry and armored cars. The Reds were crushed, but the approaching 8th Red Cavalry Division, knocked out the day before by Wrangel's troops from Chongar, as a result of their attack restored the situation, and the Red infantry again launched an attack on Perekop - however, this time the Red assault was no longer successful, and their advance was stopped at approaches to Perekop. In an effort to consolidate the success, General Wrangel decided to inflict flank attacks on the Bolsheviks, landing two troops (the Alekseevites on ships were sent to the Kirillovka area, and the Drozdovskaya division was sent to the village of Khorly, 20 km west of Perekop). Both landings were noticed by Red aviation even before the landing, so 800 Alekseevites after a difficult unequal battle with the entire 46th Estonian Red Division arrived with big losses broke through to Genichesk and were evacuated under the cover of naval artillery. The Drozdovites, despite the fact that their landing also did not come as a surprise to the enemy, were able to carry out the initial plan of the operation (Landing Operation Perekop - Khorly): they landed in the rear of the Reds, in Khorly, from where they walked behind enemy lines more than 60 miles with battles to Perekop, diverting the forces of the pressing Bolsheviks from him. For Khorly, the commander of the First (of two Drozdovsky) regiments, Colonel A.V. Turkul, was promoted to major general by the Commander-in-Chief. As a result, the assault on Perekop by the Reds was generally thwarted, and the Bolshevik command was forced to postpone the next attempt to assault Perekop to May in order to transfer more troops here. great forces and then act for sure. In the meantime, the Red command decided to lock V.S.Yu.R. in the Crimea, for which they began to actively construct barriers and concentrated large forces of artillery (including heavy) and armored vehicles.

V. E. Shambarov writes on the pages of his research about how the first battles under the command of General Wrangel affected the morale of the army:

General Wrangel quickly and decisively reorganized the army and renamed it on April 28, 1920 “Russian”. Cavalry regiments are replenished with horses. He is trying to strengthen discipline with harsh measures. Equipment is also starting to arrive. The coal delivered on April 12 allows the White Guard ships, which had previously been standing without fuel, to come to life. And Wrangel, in his orders for the army, already speaks of a way out of the difficult situation “ not only with honor, but also with victory».

The offensive of the “Russian Army” in Northern Tavria

Having defeated several red divisions that tried to counterattack to prevent the white advance, the “Russian Army” managed to escape from Crimea and occupy the fertile territories of Novorossiya, vital for replenishing the Army’s food supplies.

In September 1920, the Wrangelites were defeated by the Reds near Kakhovka. On the night of November 8, the Red Army launched a general offensive, the goal of which was to capture Perekop and Chongar and break through to Crimea. The offensive involved units of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies, as well as the 51st division of Blucher and the army of N. Makhno.

Fall of White Crimea

In November 1920, General A.P. Kutepov, who commanded the defense of Crimea, was unable to hold back the offensive, and units of the Red Army under the overall command of M.V. Frunze broke into the territory of Crimea.

The remnants of the white units (approximately 100 thousand people) were evacuated in an organized manner to Constantinople with the support of the Entente.

Sevastopol evacuation

Having accepted the Volunteer Army in a situation where the entire White Cause had already been lost by his predecessors, General Baron Wrangel, nevertheless, did everything possible to save the situation, and in the end was forced to take out the remnants of the Army and civilian population who did not want to remain under Bolshevik rule. And he did it flawlessly: the evacuation of the Russian Army from Crimea, much more difficult than the Novorossiysk evacuation, went almost perfectly - order reigned in all ports and everyone could board a ship and, although going into complete uncertainty, save themselves from Red violence . Pyotr Nikolayevich personally went out on a destroyer of the Russian Fleet, but before leaving the shores of Russia himself, he toured all Russian ports and made sure that the ships carrying refugees were ready to set sail for the open sea.

Emigration

Since November 1920 - in exile. After arriving in Constantinople, Wrangel lived on the yacht Lucullus. On October 15, 1921, near the Galata embankment, the yacht was rammed by the Italian steamer Adria, coming from the Soviet Batum, and it sank instantly. Wrangel and his family members were not on board at that moment. Most of the crew members managed to escape; the ship's watch commander, midshipman P.P. Sapunov, who refused to leave the yacht, the ship's cook Krasa, and sailor Efim Arshinov were killed. The strange circumstances of the death of the Lucullus aroused suspicion among many contemporaries of a deliberate ramming of the yacht, which is confirmed by modern researchers of the Soviet special services. The Red Army Intelligence Service agent Olga Golubovskaya, known in the Russian emigration of the early 1920s as the poetess Elena Ferrari, took part in the Luculla ram.

In 1922, he moved with his headquarters from Constantinople to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, to Sremski Karlovtsi.

In 1924, Wrangel created the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which united most of the participants in the White movement in exile. In November 1924, Wrangel recognized the supreme leadership of the EMRO as Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (formerly the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army in the First World War).

In September 1927, Wrangel moved with his family to Brussels. He worked as an engineer in one of the Brussels companies.

He died suddenly in Brussels after an unexpected illness in 1928. According to his family, he was poisoned by his servant's brother, who was a Bolshevik agent.

He was buried in Brussels. Subsequently, Wrangel's ashes were transferred to Belgrade, where they were solemnly reburied on October 6, 1929 in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity.

Awards

Order of St. Anne, 4th class “For bravery” (07/04/1904)
Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class with swords and bow (6.01.1906)
Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree (05/09/1906)
Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class (12/6/1912)
Order of St. George, 4th degree. (13.10.1914)
Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class with swords and bow (24.10.1914)
Golden weapon “For bravery” (06/10/1915)
Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class with swords (12/8/1915)
Soldier's Cross of St. George 4th degree (07/24/1917)
Order of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, 2nd degree

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel - white general, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, and then the Russian Army. Wrangel was born on August 15, 1878 in Novoaleksandrovsk, Kovno province (now Zarasai, Lithuania), and died on April 25, 1928 in Brussels.

Peter Wrangel before the Civil War - briefly

Wrangel came from a family of Baltic Germans who had lived in Estonia since the thirteenth century and were possibly of Low Saxon origin. Other branches of this family settled in the 16th-18th centuries in Sweden, Prussia and Russia, and after 1920 in the USA, France and Belgium. Several representatives of the Wrangel family distinguished themselves in the service of the Swedish, Prussian kings and Russian tsars.

Wrangel first studied at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, where in 1901 he received an engineering degree. But he abandoned the engineering profession and in 1902 passed the exam at the Nicholas Cavalry School (St. Petersburg), receiving the rank of cornet. In 1904-1905, Wrangel took part in Russian-Japanese war.

In 1910, Pyotr Nikolaevich graduated from the Nikolaev Guards Academy. In 1914, at the beginning First World War, he was a captain of the Horse Guards and distinguished himself in the very first battles, capturing a German battery near Kaushen with a fierce attack on August 23. On October 12, 1914, Wrangel was promoted to colonel and one of the first officers to receive the Order of St. George, 4th degree.

In October 1915, Pyotr Nikolaevich was sent to the Southwestern Front. He took command of the 1st Nerchinsky Regiment of Transbaikal Cossacks, with whom he participated in Brusilov breakthrough 1916.

Petr Nikolaevich Wrangel

In 1917, Wrangel became commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri Cossack division. In March 1917, he was one of the few military leaders who advocated sending troops to Petrograd to restore the damaged February revolution order. Wrangel rightly believed that Nicholas's abdicationII will not only not improve the situation in the country, but will worsen it.

But Wrangel did not belong to the high army command, and no one listened to him. Provisional Government, who did not like Pyotr Nikolaevich’s mood, achieved his resignation. Wrangel left with his family for Crimea.

Wrangel in the Civil War - briefly

At his dacha in Yalta, Wrangel was soon arrested by the Bolsheviks. Pyotr Nikolaevich owed his life to his wife, who begged the communists to spare him. Having received freedom, Wrangel remained in Crimea until the arrival of German troops, who temporarily stopped the Bolshevik terror. Having learned about the hetman's desire Skoropadsky restore state power, Pyotr Nikolaevich went to Kyiv to meet with him. Disappointed with those around Skoropadsky Ukrainian nationalists and his dependence on the Germans, Wrangel went to Kuban, where in September 1918 he joined General Denikin. He instructed him to bring to order one Cossack division that was on the verge of mutiny. Wrangel managed not only to calm these Cossacks, but also to create a highly disciplined unit out of them.

Wrangel. The path of the Russian general. Movie one

In the winter of 1918-1919, at the head of the Caucasian Army, he occupied the entire basin of the Kuban and Terek, Rostov-on-Don, and in June 1919 he took Tsaritsyn. Wrangel's quick victories confirmed his talents in waging the Civil War. He tried in every possible way to limit the violence inevitable in its conditions, severely punishing robbers and looters in his units. Despite his harshness, he was highly respected among the soldiers.

In March 1920, the White Army suffered new losses and barely managed to cross from the Kuban to the Crimea. Denikin was now loudly blamed for the defeat, and he was left with no choice but to resign. On April 4, Wrangel participated in Sevastopol in the council of white generals, which handed him the powers of the high command. The white forces received a new name - the “Russian Army”. At its head, Wrangel continued the fight against the Bolsheviks in southern Russia.

Wrangel, tried to find a solution not only to the military, but also to the political problems of Russia. He believed in a republic with a strong executive and a competent ruling class. He created a temporary republican government in Crimea, trying to win over the people of the entire country, disappointed with the Bolshevik regime, to his side. IN political program Wrangel included slogans of transferring land to those who cultivate it and providing job guarantees for the poor.

White government of southern Russia, 1920. Peter Wrangel sits in the center

Although the British stopped helping the white movement, Wrangel reorganized his army, which at this moment numbered no more than 25,000 armed soldiers. The Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars entered the war with Pilsudski's Poland, and Pyotr Nikolaevich hoped that this diversion of the Red forces would help him gain a foothold in Crimea and launch a counteroffensive.

On April 13, the first Red attack on the Perekop Isthmus was easily repulsed by the Whites. Wrangel himself organized the attack, managed to reach Melitopol and capture Tavria (the region adjacent to the Crimea from the north).

The defeat of the Whites and the evacuation from Crimea - briefly

In July 1920, Wrangel repelled a new Bolshevik offensive, but in September the end of active hostilities with Poland allowed the Communists to move huge reinforcements to the Crimea. The number of red troops was 100,000 infantry and 33,600 cavalry. The balance of forces became four to one in favor of the Bolsheviks, and Wrangel knew this well. The Whites left Tavria and moved beyond the Perekop Isthmus.

The first offensive of the Red Army was stopped on October 28, but Wrangel understood that it would soon resume with greater force. He began to prepare for the evacuation of troops and civilians who were ready to go to a foreign land. On November 7, 1920, Frunze's red forces broke into Crimea. While the general's troops Alexandra Kutepova somehow restrained the enemy pressure, Wrangel began boarding people on ships in five ports of the Black Sea. In three days, he managed to evacuate 146 thousand people, including 70 thousand soldiers, seated on 126 ships. The French Mediterranean Fleet sent the battleship Waldeck-Rousseau to assist in the evacuation. Refugees went to Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. Among the evacuees there were many public figures, intellectuals, scientists. Most of the soldiers found temporary refuge in Turkish Gallipoli, and then in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Among those Russian emigrants who chose France, many settled in Boulogne-Billancourt. There they worked on the assembly lines of the Renault plant and lived in barracks previously occupied by the Chinese.

Wrangel himself settled in Belgrade. At first he remained at the head of the emigrated members of the white movement and organized them into Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). In November 1924, Wrangel abandoned the supreme leadership of the EMRO in favor of the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich.

Wrangel with his wife Olga, Russian spiritual, civil and military leaders in Yugoslavia, 1927

Death of Wrangel - briefly

In September 1927, Wrangel moved to Brussels, where he worked as an engineer. He died suddenly on April 25, 1928 due to a strange infection with tuberculosis. The family of Pyotr Nikolaevich believed that he was poisoned by the brother of his servant, who was an agent GPU.

At the urgent request of Russian emigrants in Serbia and Vojvodina, Wrangel was reburied in the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity in Belgrade (October 6, 1929). He left memoirs.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel was married to Olga Mikhailovna Ivanenko (1886, St. Petersburg - 1968 New York). They had four children (Natalia, Elena, Peter Alexey).

Death was on his heels. But he was brave, successful and courageous, he endlessly loved his homeland and served it honestly. It is no coincidence that he bore the title “The Last Knight of the Russian Empire.”

"Black Baron"

This nickname was given to the person we want to talk about. This is Wrangel Petr Nikolaevich. Brief biography it will be presented in the article.

He is actually a baron by birth. Born in the Kovno province of Russia, in the city of Novoaleksandrovsk (now Kaunas). The family is from the nobility, very ancient family. It is from the 13th century. From Henrikus de Wrangel - a knight of the Teutonic Order - he traces his genealogy.

And the general was nicknamed “black” because since 1918 he constantly wore a Cossack Circassian coat of this color. And even decorated with gazirs. These are small cylinders made of bone or silver, where they were placed powder charges. Gazyrs were usually attached to breast pockets.

Pyotr Nikolaevich was a very popular figure. Mayakovsky, for example, wrote: “He walked with a sharp step in a black Circassian coat.”

Descendant of glorious military men

He is an engineer by training. Graduated from the Mining Institute. His father, Nikolai Yegorovich Wrangel, was an art critic and also a writer. Also a big collector of antiques.

This is probably why my son never thought of becoming a professional soldier. But the genes apparently did their job. But the fact is that General P.N. Wrangel is a direct branch from Herman the Elder. There was such a field marshal in Sweden (XVII century). And his great-grandson named George Gustav served as a colonel under Charles XII himself. And already the son of the latter, whose name was Georg Hans, became a major, only in the Russian army. Not only grandfathers and fathers, but also uncles and nephews were military men and fought in those battles that Russia often waged. Their family gave Europe seven field marshals, the same number of admirals, and more than thirty generals.

Therefore, young Peter knew all this, understood, and could follow the example of his ancestors. The same Russian officer, whose name is inscribed not just anywhere, but on the wall of one famous temple in Moscow. He is listed among those who suffered in the war of 1812. Another brave relative captured Shamil, the elusive leader of the highlanders. The Arctic explorer and also an admiral are also famous. The island is named after him. And Pushkin is a relative of the “black baron” through his grandfather Hannibal, an arap

An interesting, voluminous topic dedicated to such outstanding personality, like Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich, it is very difficult to briefly summarize. It contains many facts that most fully convey the image of this exceptional person. Take just one motto of this kind - “I’m dying, but I’m not giving up!” But the hero of our essay followed him all his life.

War with Japan

So, the newly minted engineer Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel did not see any connection between himself and the army in the future. True, I studied for another year in the Horse Regiment. But the new cornet was recorded... as a reserve. And he went far away to work - to Irkutsk. And not at all a military man, but a civilian official.

All the cards were mixed up by the outbreak of war. Wrangel volunteered for it. And at the front he showed his innate military qualities for the first time. This became his real calling.

By the end of 1904 he was promoted to centurion. Two orders were awarded: St. Anne and St. Stanislav. They became the first “examples” in his large collection of awards.

When the end of the war came, the engineer could no longer imagine himself without the army. He even graduated from the Imperial Academy of the General Staff in 1910.

Cavalry squadron

Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich met the First World War with the rank of captain. Commanded a unit

He already had a wife and 3 children. I might not have gone to the front. But I didn’t allow myself to do that. And in reports from the front, the authorities again wrote about the outstanding courage of Captain Wrangel.

Only three weeks have passed since the beginning of this massacre, and his detachment managed to distinguish itself. The cavalrymen dashed forward. The enemy battery was captured. And Wrangel was noted for such a feat (among the first). Received the Order of St. George. Soon he rose to the rank of colonel. In January 1917, he became a major general. He is valued as a very promising military man. In the description they wrote that Wrangel had “outstanding courage.” He deals with any situation quickly, especially in a serious one. And also extremely resourceful.

In the summer of the same year - the next step. Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich is now the commander of a large cavalry corps. But again it dramatically changed the trajectory of his life.

Gather into a fist

Her hereditary baron and important general could not accept her for obvious reasons. Left the army. He moved to Yalta and lived with his family at his dacha. Here he was arrested by local Bolsheviks. But what could they show him? Noble origins? Military merits? Therefore, he was soon released, but hid until german army did not enter Crimea.

He left for Kyiv. I decided to enter the service of Hetman Pavel Skoropadsky. However, he was soon disappointed. The Ukrainian government (new) turned out to be weak. It held out only thanks to the German bayonets.

Wrangel goes to the city of Ekaterinodar. As a commander (1st Cavalry Division) he joins the volunteer army. Thus began the baron’s new service in the White Army.

Experts still say that its successes are largely the merit of Wrangel and his cavalry. After all, he always has his own tactics. For example, he was against fighting along the entire front. He preferred to gather cavalrymen into a “fist” and throw them into breaking through one sector. The blow was always so powerful that the enemy simply ran away. These brilliant operations, which were developed and carried out by the “black baron”, ensured the victories of the army both in the Kuban and in the North Caucasus.

Out of favor with Denikin

The city of Tsaritsyn was captured by Wrangel’s cavalry in June 1919. And just like that, it happens! After such success, the baron fell into disgrace. Anton Denikin, commander in chief of the volunteer army, was angry with him. Why? The fact is that both of them - major military men - had opposing views on further measures. Denikin aimed to go to Moscow, while Wrangel - to unite with Kolchak (in the east).

The biography of Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel shows that he was one hundred percent right. For the campaign against the capital was a failure. But the rightness of his opponent infuriated Denikin even more. And he removed the general from business.

Wrangel retired (February 1920). Left for Constantinople.

New hope

So, is a brilliant career over? No, heaven decreed otherwise. A few months later Denikin left. He himself resigned. A military council was convened in Sevastopol. Wrangel was elected commander in chief.

But what did he hope for? After all, the situation of the “whites” - and this is very clear - was simply sad. The army kept retreating. Complete destruction was already looming on the horizon.

However, having nevertheless accepted the army, Wrangel performed an incredible miracle. He stopped the advance of the “red” fighters. The White Guards settled firmly in Crimea.

King for a day

During these six months, the last Russian knight did a lot. Given the mistakes, he made incredible compromises. I wanted to make my supporters people from all walks of life. He developed a plan for agrarian reform, which involved allocating land to peasants. Also adopted draft socio-economic measures. They had to “defeat” Russia, but not with weapons at all, but with their successes.

The baron also envisioned countries, proposed recognizing the independence of both the highlanders and also of Ukraine.

But by the time he came to power, the White Guard movement had been lost - both internationally (the West refused to help them) and domestically. The Bolsheviks controlled most of Russia with far greater resources.

In the spring of 1920, Wrangel again had to raise troops to repel the attack of the “Reds”. This was possible in the summer. The "Whites" entered the territory of Northern Tavria. They needed to stock up on food. However, then there were no more successes.

The main thing is that we wasted time. IN Soviet Russia people have not even heard about Wrangel’s proposed reforms. For them, he is always just a “black baron” who strives to return the “royal throne.”

Yes, the general did not hide his sympathies. Being politically flexible and smart, he did not focus on this in his program. And he definitely didn’t insist at all, which, unfortunately, no longer mattered.

Emigration

It is impossible to tell everything about the life of Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel in one article. Volumes could be devoted to the period of his stay abroad alone.

In November 1920, the Red Army broke into Crimea. And in this situation, General Wrangel again showed himself perfectly. He managed to organize the evacuation of the White Army and civilians abroad in such a way that there was no confusion or chaos. Everyone who wanted to left left. Wrangel personally controlled this when he toured the ports on a destroyer.

It was simply a feat. Only Wrangel can do it. After all, the general took out from Crimea (in November 1920), no less than 132 ships, loaded to the very limit! Refugees sailed on them - 145 thousand 693 people, as well as ship crews.

The organizer himself also left. There, far from his homeland, he founded the Russian All-Military Union (1924), which was ready at any moment to enter into an armed struggle against Bolshevism. And he was able to do it. The entire backbone was former officers. It was the largest and most powerful organization of white emigrants. There were more than one hundred thousand members registered.

The Bolsheviks treated them with great caution. It is no coincidence that many leaders were either kidnapped or killed by the Soviet secret services.

In the fall of 1927, the baron, who really dreamed of revenge, had to remember what he had in his hands big family. Need to feed. From Constantinople he moved with his family to Brussels. How an engineer got a job at a company.

On the battlefield

Every day of military everyday life, of which the military general turned out to be a lot, he was very brave. The story alone, which happened back in the First World War, is worth it. The commander of the cavalry squadron was, as always, brave and impetuous. In one place today Kaliningrad region Captain Wrangel, having obtained permission to attack the enemy battery, carried out the attack with lightning speed. And captured two guns. Moreover, they managed to fire the last shot from one of them. He killed the horse on which the commander was sitting...

While in Constantinople, Wrangel Pyotr Nikolaevich lived on a yacht. One day it was rammed. It was an Italian ship, but it came from our Batumi. The yacht sank before our eyes. None of the Wrangel family was on board at the time. And three crew members died. The strange circumstances of this incident raised suspicions of a deliberate collision with the yacht. They have been confirmed today by researchers of the work of the Soviet special services. Olga Golubovskaya, an emigrant and agent of the Soviet authorities, is involved in this.

And one more fact. Just six months after arriving in Brussels, Pyotr Nikolaevich unexpectedly died (from tuberculosis infection). However, his relatives suggested that he was poisoned by the brother of a servant who was assigned to the baron. He was also an NKVD agent. This version is confirmed today by other sources.

Stormy life! Interesting fate. There is a book, the preface to which was written by the prose writer Nikolai Starikov, “Memoirs of Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel.” It's worth reading. Provokes deep thought.

The personality of this person is strongly connected with the White movement and the island of Crimea - the last stronghold and fragment of the Russian Empire.

Biography and activities of Peter Wrangel

Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel, born on August 15, 1878 in the city of Novoaleksandrovsk. Wrangel's ancestors were Swedes. Over several centuries, the Wrangel family has produced many famous military leaders, navigators and polar explorers. Peter's father was an exception, choosing a career as an entrepreneur over a military career. He saw his eldest son the same way.

Children's and teenage years Peter Wrangel was held in Rostov-on-Don. There he graduated from a real school. In 1900 - gold medal of the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. In 1901, mining engineer Wrangel was called up to undergo a mandatory one-year military service. He serves as a volunteer in the prestigious Life Guards cavalry regiment. However, Wrangel does not like serving in peacetime. He prefers to become an official of special assignments under the Irkutsk Governor-General and retires with only the rank of cornet. This continues until .

Then Wrangel returns to the army, actively participates in hostilities, and is awarded the Annin weapon for bravery. Wrangel's long letters home from the battlefields, revised by his mother, were published in the Historical Bulletin magazine. In 1907, Wrangel was presented to the emperor and transferred to his native regiment. He continues his education at the Nikolaev General Staff Academy. In 1910 he completed his studies, but did not remain with the General Staff.

In August 1907, Olga Ivanenko, the daughter of a chamberlain and maid of honor of the Empress's court, became Wrangel's wife. By 1914, the family already had three children. Wrangel became the first Knight of St. George in the outbreak of the World War. His wife accompanied Wrangel on the war fronts and worked as a nurse. Wrangel often and for a long time talked with. Baron commands Cossack units. Wrangel did not climb the career ladder quickly, but it was completely deserved.

Unlike many liberal intellectuals and colleagues - and Denikin, Wrangel met with hostility February revolution and decrees of the Provisional Government, undermining the very foundation of the army. His then insignificant rank and position made him an outsider to the big political game among senior officials army. Wrangel, as best he could, actively opposed the elected soldiers' committees and fought to maintain discipline. Kerensky made an attempt to involve Wrangel in the defense of Petrograd from the Bolsheviks, but he pointedly resigned.

After the October Revolution, Wrangel reunited with his family who were in Crimea. In February 1918, revolutionary sailors of the Black Sea Fleet arrested the baron, and only the intercession of his wife saved him from imminent execution. German troops occupy Ukraine. Wrangel meets with the Ukrainian Hetman Skoropadsky, his former colleague. In 1919, Commander-in-Chief Denikin appointed Wrangel commander of the so-called. Volunteer Army. However, their personal relationship is hopelessly damaged.

In April 1920, Denikin was deposed and Wrangel was elected as the new commander. Wrangel was in charge of the last piece of Russian land still free from the Bolsheviks for only seven months. The defense of Perekop covered the evacuation of the civilian population. In November 1920, the remnants of the White Army left Russia forever through Kerch, Sevastopol, and Evpatoria. Wrangel died of transient consumption on April 25, 1928 in Brussels. According to one version of modern historians, it was provoked by OGPU agents.

The legendary white Circassian woman of Wrangel from the pen of Makovsky in the poem “Good!” turned into black - for the sake of sound expressiveness.

, Russian Empire

Death April 25(1928-04-25 ) (49 years old)
Brussels, Belgium Burial place in Brussels, Belgium
reburied in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia Genus Tolsburg-Ellistfer from the Wrangel family Party

White movement

Education ,
Nikolaev Cavalry School,
Nikolaev Military Academy Profession engineer Activity Russian military leader, one of the leaders of the White Movement. Autograph Awards Military service Years of service 1901-1922 Affiliation Russian Empire Russian Empire
White movement White movement Branch of the military cavalry Rank lieutenant general Commanded cavalry division;
cavalry corps;
Caucasian Volunteer Army;
Volunteer Army;
Armed forces of the South of Russia;
Russian army Battles Russo-Japanese War
First World War
Civil war Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel at Wikimedia Commons

He received the nickname “black baron” for his traditional (since September 1918) everyday uniform - a black Cossack Circassian coat with gazyrs.

Origin and family

Came from home Tolsburg-Ellistfer the Wrangel family is an old noble family that traces its ancestry back to the beginning of the 13th century. The motto of the Wrangel family was: “Frangas, non flectes” (with lat. - “You will break, but you will not bend”).

The name of one of Pyotr Nikolaevich's ancestors is listed among the wounded on the fifteenth wall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, where the names of Russian officers killed and wounded during the Patriotic War of 1812 are inscribed. A distant relative of Peter Wrangel - Baron Alexander Wrangel - captured Shamil. The name of an even more distant relative of Pyotr Nikolaevich - the famous Russian navigator and polar explorer Admiral Baron Ferdinand Wrangel - is named after Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, as well as other geographical objects in the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

Second cousins of Peter Wrangel's grandfather, Yegor Ermolaevich (1803-1868), were Professor Yegor Vasilyevich and Admiral Vasily Vasilyevich.

In October 1908, Peter Wrangel married a maid of honor, the daughter of the chamberlain of the Supreme Court, Olga Mikhailovna Ivanenko, who subsequently bore him four children: Elena (1909-1999), Peter (1911-1999), Natalya (1913-2013) and Alexei (1922- 2005).

Education

Participation in the Russo-Japanese War

Participation in the First World War

Because on February 20, 1915, when the brigade was moving around the defile near the village. Daukshe from the north, was sent with a division to capture the crossing over the river. Dovin near the village of Danelishki, which he completed successfully, delivering valuable information about the enemy. Then, with the approach of the brigade, he crossed the river. Dovinu and moved into the cut between two enemy groups near the village. Daukshe and M. Lyudvinov, overthrew two companies of Germans covering their retreat from the village from three consecutive positions. Dauksha, having captured 12 prisoners, 4 charging boxes and a convoy during the pursuit.

In October 1915, he was transferred to the Southwestern Front and on October 8, 1915, he was appointed commander of the 1st Nerchinsky Regiment of the Transbaikal Cossack Army. Upon transfer, he was given the following description by his former commander: “Outstanding courage. He understands the situation perfectly and quickly, and is very resourceful in difficult situations.” Commanding this regiment, Baron Wrangel fought against the Austrians in Galicia, participated in the famous Lutsk breakthrough of 1916, and then in defensive positional battles. He placed military valor, military discipline, honor and the intelligence of the commander at the forefront. If an officer gives an order, Wrangel said, and it is not carried out, “he is no longer an officer, he does not have officer’s shoulder straps.” New steps in Pyotr Nikolaevich’s military career were the rank of major general, “for military distinction,” in January 1917 and his appointment as commander of the 2nd brigade of the Ussuri Cavalry Division, then in July 1917 as commander of the 7th cavalry division, and after - Commander of the Consolidated Cavalry Corps.

For a successfully carried out operation on the Zbruch River in the summer of 1917, General Wrangel was awarded the soldier's St. George Cross, IV degree with a laurel branch (No. 973657).

For the distinctions he showed as the commander of the consolidated cavalry corps, which covered the retreat of our infantry to the line of the Sbruch River in the period from July 10 to July 20, 1917.
- “Service record of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army
Lieutenant General Baron Wrangel" (formed on December 29, 1921)

Participation in the Civil War

In August 1918 he entered the Volunteer Army, having by this time the rank of major general and being a Knight of St. George. During the 2nd Kuban campaign he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division, and then the 1st Cavalry Corps. November 28, 1918, for successful fighting in the area of the village of Petrovskoye (where he was located at that time), he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

The baron's major military victory was the capture of Tsaritsyn on June 30, 1919, which had previously been unsuccessfully stormed three times by the troops of Ataman P. N. Krasnov during 1918. It was in Tsaritsyn that Denikin, who soon arrived there, signed his famous “Moscow Directive,” which, according to Wrangel, “was a death sentence for the troops of the South of Russia.” In November 1919, he was appointed commander of the Volunteer Army operating in the Moscow direction. On December 20, 1919, due to disagreements and conflict with the commander-in-chief of the AFSR, he was removed from command of the troops, and on February 8, 1920, he was dismissed and left for Constantinople.

On April 2, 1920, the commander-in-chief of the AFSR, General Denikin, decided to resign from his post. The next day, a military council was convened in Sevastopol, chaired by General Dragomirov, at which Wrangel was chosen as commander-in-chief. According to the memoirs of P. S. Makhrov, at the council, the first to name Wrangel was the chief of the fleet staff, captain 1st rank Ryabinin. On April 4, Wrangel arrived in Sevastopol on the English battleship Emperor of India and took command.

Wrangel's policy in Crimea

For six months of 1920, P. N. Wrangel, Ruler of the South of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, tried to take into account the mistakes of his predecessors, boldly made previously unthinkable compromises, tried to attract various segments of the population to his side, but by the time he came to power, White the fight was actually already lost both in the international and domestic aspects.

General Wrangel, upon assuming the post of Commander-in-Chief of the AFSR, realizing the full extent of the vulnerability of Crimea, immediately took a number of preparatory measures in case of evacuation of the army - in order to avoid a repetition of the disasters of the Novorossiysk and Odessa evacuation. The baron also understood that the economic resources of Crimea were negligible and incomparable with the resources of the Kuban, Don, and Siberia, which served as bases for the emergence of the White movement, and the region’s isolation could lead to famine.

A few days after Baron Wrangel took office, he received information about the Reds preparing a new assault on the Crimea, for which the Bolshevik command brought here a significant amount of artillery, aviation, 4 rifle and cavalry divisions. Among these forces were also selected Bolshevik troops - the Latvian Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, which consisted of internationalists - Latvians, Hungarians, etc.

On April 13, 1920, the Latvians attacked and overturned the advanced units of General Ya. A. Slashchev on Perekop and had already begun to move south from Perekop to the Crimea. Slashchev counterattacked and drove the enemy back, but the Latvians, receiving reinforcements after reinforcements from the rear, managed to cling to the Perekop Wall. The approaching Volunteer Corps decided the outcome of the battle, as a result of which the Reds were driven out of Perekop and were soon partially cut down and partially driven away by the cavalry of General Morozov near Tyup-Dzhankoy.

On April 14, General Baron Wrangel launched a counterattack against the Reds, having previously grouped the Kornilovites, Markovites and Slashchevites and reinforced them with a detachment of cavalry and armored cars. The Reds were crushed, but the approaching 8th Red Cavalry Division, knocked out the day before by Wrangel's troops from Chongar, as a result of their attack restored the situation, and the Red infantry again launched an attack on Perekop - however, this time the Red assault was no longer successful, and their advance was stopped at approaches to Perekop. In an effort to consolidate the success, General Wrangel decided to inflict flank attacks on the Bolsheviks, landing two troops (the Alekseevites on ships were sent to the Kirillovka area, and the Drozdovskaya division was sent to the village of Khorly, 20 km west of Perekop). Both landings were noticed by Red aviation even before the landing, so 800 Alekseevites, after a difficult unequal battle with the entire 46th Estonian Red Division that had arrived, broke through to Genichesk with heavy losses and were evacuated under the cover of naval artillery. The Drozdovites, despite the fact that their landing also did not come as a surprise to the enemy, were able to carry out the initial plan of the operation (Landing Operation Perekop - Khorly): they landed in the rear of the Reds, in Khorly, from where they walked behind enemy lines more than 60 miles with battles to Perekop, diverting the forces of the pressing Bolsheviks from him. For Khorly, the commander of the First (of two Drozdovsky) regiments, Colonel A.V. Turkul, was promoted to major general by the Commander-in-Chief. As a result, the assault on Perekop by the Reds was generally thwarted and the Bolshevik command was forced to postpone the next attempt to assault Perekop to May in order to transfer even larger forces here and then act for sure. In the meantime, the Red command decided to lock the AFSR in the Crimea, for which they began to actively construct barriers and concentrated large forces of artillery (including heavy) and armored vehicles.

V. E. Shambarov writes on the pages of his research about how the first battles under the command of General Wrangel affected the morale of the army:

The offensive of the Russian army in Northern Tavria

Having defeated several Red divisions, which tried to counterattack to prevent the White advance, the Russian Army managed to escape from Crimea and occupy the fertile territories of Northern Taurida, vital for replenishing the Army's food supplies.

Fall of White Crimea

Having accepted the Volunteer Army in a situation where the entire White Cause had already been lost by his predecessors, General Baron Wrangel, nevertheless, did everything possible to save the situation, but in the end, under the influence of military failures, he was forced to take out the remnants of the Army and the civilian population who were not wanted to remain under Bolshevik rule.

By September 1920, the Russian army was still unable to liquidate the left bank bridgeheads of the Red Army near Kakhovka. On the night of November 8, the Southern Front of the Red Army under the overall command of M. V. Frunze launched a general offensive, the goal of which was to capture Perekop and Chongar and break through to the Crimea. The offensive involved units of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies, as well as the 51st division of Blucher and the army of N. Makhno. General A.P. Kutepov, who commanded the defense of Crimea, was unable to hold back the offensive, and the attackers broke into the territory of Crimea with heavy losses.

On November 11, 1920, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front addressed P. N. Wrangel on the radio with a proposal “immediately stop fighting and put down your weapons” With "guarantees" amnesty “...for all offenses related to the civil struggle.” P. N. Wrangel did not give an answer to M. V. Frunze; moreover, he hid the contents of this radio message from the personnel of his army, ordering the closure of all radio stations except one served by officers. The lack of response allowed the Soviet side to subsequently claim that the amnesty proposal had been formally annulled.

The remnants of the white units (approximately 100 thousand people) were evacuated in an organized manner to Constantinople with the support of transport and naval ships of the Entente.

The evacuation of the Russian army from Crimea, much more complex than the Novorossiysk evacuation, according to contemporaries and historians, was successful - order reigned in all ports and the bulk of those wishing to get on board the ships. Before leaving Russia himself, Wrangel personally visited all Russian ports on a destroyer to make sure that the ships carrying refugees were ready to go to the open sea.

After the capture of the Crimean peninsula by the Bolsheviks, arrests and executions of the Wrangelites remaining in Crimea began. According to historians, from November 1920 to March 1921, from 60 to 120 thousand people were shot, according to official Soviet data from 52 to 56 thousand.

Emigration and death

In 1922, he moved with his headquarters from Constantinople to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, to Sremski Karlovtsi.

Wrangel was related to Vasily Shulgin’s illegal travel across the USSR in 1925-1926.

In September 1927, Wrangel moved with his family to Brussels. He worked as an engineer in one of the Brussels companies.

On April 25, 1928, he died suddenly in Brussels after suddenly contracting tuberculosis. According to his family, he was poisoned by his servant's brother, who was a Bolshevik agent. The version about the poisoning of Wrangel by an NKVD agent is also expressed by Alexander Yakovlev in his book “Twilight”.

The main part of the archive of P. N. Wrangel, according to his personal order, was transferred for storage to Stanford University in 1929. Some of the documents sank when the yacht Lucullus sank, some were destroyed by Wrangel. After the death of Wrangel’s widow in 1968, her archive, where her husband’s personal documents remained, was also transferred by the heirs to the Hoover Institution.

Awards

Memory

In 2009, a monument to Wrangel was unveiled in the Zarasai region of Lithuania.

In 2013, on the occasion of the 135th anniversary of the birth and the 85th anniversary of the death of P. N. Wrangel, a round table “The Last Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army P. N. Wrangel” was held at the A. Solzhenitsyn House of Russian Abroad.

In 2014, the Baltic Union of Cossacks of the Union of Cossacks of Russia in the village of Ulyanovo, Kaliningrad Region (near the former Kaushen of East Prussia) installed a memorial plaque to Baron Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel and the Horse Guards soldiers who saved the situation in the Battle of Kaushen.

On April 4, 2017, the Literary and Artistic Prize named after. Lieutenant General, Baron P. N. Wrangel (Wrangel Prize)

In works of art

Film incarnations

Literature

Wrangel P. N. Notes
Trotsky L. To the officers of Baron Wrangel's army (Appeal)
Wrangel P. N. Southern Front (November 1916 - November 1920). Part I// Memories. - M.: Terra, 1992. - 544 p. - ISBN 5-85255-138-4.
Krasnov V. G. Wrangel. The tragic triumph of the baron: Documents. Opinions. Reflections. - M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2006. - 654 p. - (Riddles of history). - ISBN 5-224-04690-4.
Sokolov B.V. Wrangel. - M.: Young Guard, 2009. - 502 p. - (“Life of Remarkable People”) - ISBN 978-5-235-03294-1
Shambarov V. E. White Guardism. - M.: EKSMO; Algorithm, 2007. - (History of Russia. Modern look). -