Kolchak and Anna Timireva love story. Anna Timireva

A. V. Timireva - A. V. Kolchak (March 7, 1918) Dear Alexander Vasilyevich, my distant love ... I think about you all the time, as always, my friend, Alexander Vasilyevich, and for the thousandth time after your departure, I thank God that He did not allow you to be either an unwitting accomplice or

A. V. Timireva - A. V. Kolchak (March 21, 1918) ... Where are you, my joy, Alexander Vasilyevich? The heart is dark and anxious. I rarely worry about anyone, but now I’m definitely afraid for you and for everyone who is dear to me ... Lord, when I see you, dear, dear, my beloved Alexander

A. V. Timireva - A. V. Kolchak (September 17, 1918) ... Dear Alexander Vasilyevich, I will really wait for you to write to me that you can go, I hope that it will be soon. In the meantime, goodbye, dear, be healthy, do not forget me and do not be sad and do not fall into too much

A. V. Timireva - A. V. Kolchak But I’m alive and I don’t know how to live at all when all around is one continuous and impenetrable despondency. And therefore, my dear, native Alexander Vasilievich, I'm really waiting for you, and you come soon and be as nice as you know how to be, when you want, and as I

ALEXANDER VASILIEVICH KOLCHAK Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was from the breed of those people who can most difficult moment to take full responsibility for their Fatherland. His name today remains for us a symbol of honor for a sailor, captain of a sinking ship,

Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich Battles and victoriesMilitary and political figure, leader white movement in Russia - the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral (1918), Russian oceanographer, one of the largest polar explorers of the late XIX - early XX centuries, valid

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Alexander Kolchak and Anna Timiryova

♦ Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich (November 4 (16), 1874, St. Petersburg - February 7, 1920, Irkutsk) - admiral, traveler, oceanographer, one of the leaders of the Russian counter-revolution, the Supreme Ruler of Russia.

♦ Timiryova (née Safonova, in her second marriage Knipper) Anna Vasilievna (1893–1975) – wife of Rear Admiral Sergei Timiryov, beloved of Admiral Kolchak.

♦ He is cruel, uncompromising, principled, passionate, stubborn.

♦ She is emotional, impulsive, ready for self-sacrifice, for complete dissolution in a loved one.

♦ Lovers: although Anna Timiryova considered herself the common-law wife of Alexander Kolchak, at that time he was legally married to Sofya Omirova, and she herself was with Sergei Timiryov.

♦ They passionately loved each other, were ready for the sake of this love to sacrifice the well-being of loved ones, their own safety and even life.

♦ There were no common children.

♦ Not a single betrayal.

♦ They were separated by the death of Alexander Vasilyevich.

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It is difficult to find a more multifaceted, ambiguous image in the history of the Russian revolution than Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak: a brave commander, a famous traveler, an oceanographer who became the Supreme Ruler of Russia and led the most brutal military regime in history civil war. This man was such a complex and terrible nature that even Anna Timiryova called him a “chimera in an admiral's uniform”: a woman who loved him more than life and devoted her whole life to him without a trace ...

The surname Kolchak is of Turkish origin. And the love of the sea and the craving for a military career are simply in the blood of the Kolchaks. The first Kolchak, which is mentioned in history, is the outstanding Turkish military commander, commander of the fleet, Ilias Pasha Kolchak, who was captured in the battle of Stavucani and, together with his eldest son Mahmet Bey, was brought to St. Petersburg as an honorary hostage. Empress Anna Ioannovna treated the Turks mercifully, kindly treated them in every possible way and let them go. But Ilias Pasha did not return to his homeland. On the way, passing through Poland, he fell ill and died. His son returned to Russia and stayed here. There is evidence that Mahmet Bey received a letter from his relatives from Turkey, in which it was reported that he and his father were sentenced to death in absentia for a lost battle. Choosing between a stake, on which he would inevitably be imprisoned, and a foreign land, Mehmet chose a foreign land, where he converted to Orthodoxy and married a Russian. Under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, his offspring were already granted by the nobility.

Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak

The father and both uncles of the future admiral served in the Navy. Father, Vasily Ivanovich, even fought in the Crimean - a naval artilleryman, participated in the defense of Sevastopol, about which he later wrote memoirs. He was awarded the George Cross. After the war, Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak rose to the rank of major general of the fleet, retired, graduated from the Mining Institute and became a well-known specialist in the field of metallurgy and large-caliber artillery. He worked as an inspector of the Maritime Department at the Obukhov steel plant. On the territory of the plant, he lived with his wife, the very young Olga Ilinichnaya Possokhova, who was only eighteen years old when on November 4, 1873 she gave birth to her first child, Alexander. Two more girls followed - Ekaterina and Lyubov. But there was only one son, and the hopes of the whole family were pinned on him.

Anna Timiryova

The fact that Sasha Kolchak should become a military man and connect his fate with the sea, like all his ancestors, no one even doubted. Fortunately for himself, Sasha simply raved about the sea. True, he was interested in the northern seas, and most of all - the poles, North and South. He dreamed of visiting both. For some reason, he was very attracted to ice, even as a gymnasium student, Sasha in the winter all the time set up experiments, freezing something: he studied the properties of ice.

Vasil Kolchak, Alexander's father

In 1888, at the age of fourteen, Alexander Kolchak entered the Naval Cadet Corps, where he soon became one of the most notable students. Both teachers and comrades paid attention to him. His classmate recalled: “Kolchak, a young man of short stature with a concentrated look of lively and expressive eyes ... inspired us, boys, with deep respect for himself by the seriousness of his thoughts and actions. We sensed in him a moral force which it was impossible to disobey; felt that this is the person who must be unquestioningly followed. Not a single educator officer, not a single corps teacher instilled in us such a sense of superiority as midshipman Kolchak.

Alexander from year to year was the best in his class - both in subjects and in discipline. He was fond of military history, artillery and mines. When released in 1894, he was awarded the first prize. But he abandoned it in favor of Dmitry Filippov, whom he considered better than himself - and whom the authorities did not favor for bad behavior. Kolchak achieved his goal: midshipman Filippov was recognized as the best in the issue - who, by the way, just a few years later retired and got a job as an engineer at the Baltic Shipyard. But still, it was Alexander Kolchak who was awarded the Admiral P.I. Ricard Prize - a traditional award for the best graduates.

Soon Alexander Kolchak was assigned to the armored cruiser "Rurik" and went on a foreign voyage. In addition to performing his official duties as a naval officer, he was engaged in scientific research throughout the journey, wrote several works on the hydrology of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas and, returning to Kronstadt, published them.

Around the same time, Kolchak met Sophia Fedorovna Omirova. The hereditary nobles of the Podolsk province, the Omirovs, were noble, but not rich, moreover, they had many children: Sophia was the eleventh child out of twelve! However, her origin allowed her to get a place at the Smolny Institute, she studied well, knew seven languages, was serious, intelligent, was interested in the sciences - including history and geography, which were so dear to Alexander's heart. Sophia was only three years younger than Alexander. She became his friend before he became his lover. Kolchak and Omirova got engaged, but the wedding was postponed indefinitely.

The scientific work of Alexander Kolchak attracted the attention of the polar explorer Eduard Vasilievich Toll. In the fall of 1899, Kolchak received an offer from Toll to take part in the First Russian Polar Expedition. His dream came true! Of course he agreed. And Sophia promised to wait.

Then there was a two-year voyage on the Zarya ship, wintering and sledge trips ... Eduard Toll wrote down various observations about all the satellites in his diaries. For example: “Our hydrograph Kolchak is not only the best officer, but he is also lovingly devoted to his hydrology. This scientific work carried out by him with great energy, despite the difficulty of combining the duties of a naval officer with the activities of a scientist. And further, already during a long sledge journey: “Kolchak is in labor ecstasy. The hydrologist is more alert and has retained enough energy to get here, while I was ready to make a halt anywhere.”

They were engaged in the study of new northern islands, the study of Taimyr and the compilation of geographical maps. One of the islands discovered in the Taimyr Bay of the Kara Sea, at the suggestion of Eduard Toll, was named after Kolchak. And the cape on Bennett Island, at the request of Alexander, was named after his bride: Cape Sophia.

But Toll was looking for the mythical Sannikov Land, which since the beginning of the 19th century has been marked on maps to the north of the New Siberian Islands, but which no one has ever seen because of the fog. In the spring of 1902, Toll, accompanied by only four companions, went to Bennett Island, hoping to see the Sannikov Land from the height of the ice domes. And did not return.

The rescue expedition was organized by Alexander Kolchak, having reached Bennett Island on a simple rowing whaleboat, and then on dog sleds and skis. fed on hunting and fishing. They took several coast-dwellers as guides - only single ones, because the path through the ice in winter was more than risky. Alexander wrote to the bride that the wedding would again have to be postponed: “Do not be angry, Sonechka. I'll be back…”

He really hoped to return. Although everyone around considered Kolchak and his comrades to be suicides, dooming themselves to a terrible death among the ice. Indeed, there was a case when Alexander fell into a rift between the ice and was miraculously saved. He caught a severe cold, his joints became inflamed, but Kolchak insisted on continuing his journey. Rheumatic pains then tormented him all his life.

The search expedition was not undertaken in vain: Kolchak and his companions found traces of Toll's expedition. True, neither the traveler nor his companions were found: all five disappeared without a trace.

Schooner "Zarya" during the winter. 1903

After all these adventures in the ice, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak began to be called "Kolchak-Polyarny". In general, there were quite a lot of Kolchaks in Russia, a mighty family and many children. But there was only one Kolchak-Polyarny.

Immediately upon his return from the polar expedition, Kolchak learned that the Russo-Japanese War had begun. The duty of a military officer called him to the active army ... However, his father, Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak, who no longer expected to wait for his grandchildren, resolutely demanded that Alexander marry his patient bride before being sent to the battlefield.

Alexander did not have time to go to St. Petersburg for the wedding: he called Vasily Ivanovich and Sophia to Irkutsk. The wedding was swift, like everything in Kolchak's life. On March 2, 1903, he read a brilliant report on hydrology at the Irkutsk Geographical Society, and the very next day he met his father and bride at the station. Preparations for the wedding took only two days. On March 5, 1903, an entry appears in the registration book of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Church: “Today, lieutenant of the fleet Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, Orthodox, first marriage, 29 years old, daughter of a real state councilor, hereditary noblewoman of the Podolsk province Sofia Fedorovna Omirova, Orthodox, first marriage, married 27 years…"

After the wedding, Alexander Kolchak spent only three nights with Sophia - and left her, going to defend Port Arthur ... Where, of course, he proved himself a hero: otherwise he simply could not do it, because he was used to doing everything “perfectly well”. For participation in the Russo-Japanese War, Alexander Kolchak was awarded two orders and a golden St. George dagger with the inscription "For Courage".

... If Kolchak married, already suffering from rheumatism, then after Port Arthur, his wife received him shell-shocked, seriously wounded, had pneumonia, lost half of his teeth due to illness, extremely weakened, but still active and interested in everything in the world, and First of all, science. Politics at that time did not attract him at all.

The family settled in St. Petersburg. In 1905, Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak gave birth to a daughter, but the birth was so difficult that the mother herself was dying, and the weak baby lived only a few days: they barely had time to christen Tatyana. Sofya Fedorovna recovered from this shock for a long time. Only in 1910 did she become pregnant again. This time everything went well, a healthy son, Rostislav, was born. And two years later - another girl, Margarita.

Following the results of polar expeditions, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak wrote the book "The Ice of the Kara and Siberian Seas": in fact, this was the first scientific monograph on the hydrology of the Arctic Ocean! And to this day, scientists recognize it as one of the best books about polar waters and ice.

In 1906, the Naval General Staff was established in St. Petersburg. Alexander Vasilyevich became one of its organizers and worked as the head of the tactical department: he participated in the development of shipbuilding programs. In parallel, Kolchak was engaged in the reorganization Navy, taught at the Naval Academy and was an expert of the State Duma on naval issues. His energy was enough for everything.

And for his mistress, who was twenty-two years younger, his energy was also enough ...

They met on the platform - just like Karenina and Vronsky! - and her name was also Anna, and she also had a husband and a son ... True, her husband is not a boring official, but a brilliant naval officer Sergei Nikolaevich Timirev: the hero of Port Arthur, a graduate of the Naval Corps in St. Petersburg, who completed the course a year later than Alexander Kolchak . Anna was married for three years, just a few months ago she gave birth to a son, Volodya. The family was considered very happy.

Sergei Nikolaevich had just received an appointment to the headquarters of the commander of the Baltic Fleet. Anna accompanied him to the station. Timiryov pointed out to her a gloomy thin officer who was passing by them on the platform and said with unconcealed respect: “Do you know who this is? This is Kolchak-Polyarny ... ”The husband told Anna about the expeditions and exploits of Kolchak. And we can say that he himself pushed the impressionable young woman into the arms of an opponent!

Anna was really very impressionable: sensitive, talented, she played music, sang, drew, wrote poetry and dreamed a lot "of valor, of exploits, of glory." Her husband-hero aroused in her more admiration than love. But Kolchak gave her more reasons to be enthusiastic. Anna Timiryova began to read everything that was written about Kolchak-Polyarny, and decided that she had fallen in love at first sight even there, at the station.

Anna was born in 1893 in Kislovodsk, in a family famous musician Vasily Ilyich Safonov, son of the Cossack general I. I. Safonov. In 1906 the family moved to Petersburg. In 1911, Anna Vasilievna graduated from the gymnasium of Princess Obolenskaya, then she studied drawing and painting in the private studio of S. M. Seidenberg. She was fluent in French and German - which, however, did not surprise anyone in a young lady from a noble family: Kolchak's wife received a much better education than Anna.

But Timiryova was a truly poetic nature. In addition, she was not even twenty-two years old, and Alexander Vasilyevich was forty when they were introduced to each other at a costume ball. Anna, who considered herself in love with Kolchak, was not just flirting - she was all dissolved in him, she beamed towards him, she did not hide her boundless delight. Alexander Vasilievich was surprised, touched and fascinated. At the end of the ball, she gave him (and several other acquaintances, so that it did not look too intrusive) her photo in Russian costume.

After the ball they met several times. The love of a lovely young woman seemed to Kolchak an unexpected gift of fate, and he simply could not bring himself to refuse this gift. He himself soon fell in love. And if with Sofya Fedorovna he was initially connected by friendship, trust, kinship of souls, then Anna Timiryova gave him an intoxicating passion and romance, which Alexander Vasilyevich, who devoted his whole life to serving science and the Motherland, had not yet had time to know. And I learned now - under her guidance.

Anna Timiryova confessed her love to Kolchak first. “I just said I loved him,” she later recalled. He, shocked, said in response what a less in love woman could not forgive: "I did not tell you that I love you." But Anna calmly explained: “No, I’m saying this: I always want to see you, I always think about you, it’s such a joy for me to see you.” To which she finally received the coveted recognition - more than recognition! - because Alexander Vasilyevich, choking with embarrassment, whispered: "I love you more than."

"- I love you.

“I didn't tell you that I love you.

- No, I’m saying this: I always want to see you, I always think about you, it’s such a joy for me to see you.

“I love you more than anything.”

Anna, nervous during the confession, fiddled with her gloves and dropped one. Alexander Vasilyevich, having picked up her glove, did not give it away: he kept it for himself as a precious souvenir.

For the next three years, Anna Timiryova was the mistress of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. They met in fits and starts: either several times a week, or at intervals of several months ... Either secretly, then - having lost their minds from passion - in front of witnesses ... who did not fail to convey everything to Sofya Fedorovna Kolchak.

Sofya Fedorovna turned out to be too noble to fight for her husband or make scandals to him over this insulting relationship for her. Moreover, she did not close her eyes to the truth and immediately realized how much Kolchak was in love. And she said to her friend: "You'll see, he will divorce me and marry Anna Vasilievna."

Anna in Russian costume

It was a very difficult time for Sophia Fedorovna. In 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, while fleeing from the dacha town of Libava, her two-year-old daughter Margarita died: apparently, she caught a cold, and it was impossible to get medical care in this turmoil, the mother and nanny could not get out on their own.

Sofya Fedorovna had to mourn her daughter alone: ​​Alexander Vasilyevich was too passionate about the war - where he again showed resourcefulness and heroism! - and new love. Thanks to minefields and successful actions marines enemy ships could not even approach Russian shores. For the skillful organization of hostilities against German ships in 1916, Kolchak was promoted to admiral and awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. In his cabin, he carried a photograph of Anna Timiryova - the same one from the costume ball. Under his uniform near his heart he wore her glove. And Sofya Fedorovna in St. Petersburg raised her only child left with her - and she didn’t even know if she was the wife of the admiral or already his past.

... Did Alexander Vasilyevich suffer because of his betrayal of the faithful, reliable, patient Sofya Fedorovna, who shared with him all the difficulties of his career? He must have suffered. He still adhered to some old-fashioned principles, and cheating on his wife and cohabiting with another man's wife violated these principles. But the happiness that Anna Timiryova gave him was too great.

Just a few years later, during the last meeting with Anna in the Irkutsk prison, on the eve of his own death, Kolchak will say: “I think, why am I paying such a terrible price? I knew the struggle, but did not know the happiness of victory. I cry for you - I did nothing to deserve such happiness ... "

Shortly before February Revolution Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was appointed commander Black Sea Fleet and simultaneously promoted to vice admiral. Together with his wife and son, he moved to Sevastopol. And around the same time, Rear Admiral Sergei Nikolaevich Timirev was dismissed and seconded to the Far East along with his wife Anna Vasilievna. Kolchak and Timiryova could no longer meet. Sofya Feodorovna has hope for recovery family life. True, she did not know about the flow of tender and passionate letters that flowed from Sevastopol to the Far East - and back. Kolchak greeted the abdication of the Tsar no less enthusiastically than the majority of the military and the intelligentsia. The vice admiral even ordered a prayer service and a solemn parade and swore the fleet to the Provisional Government. “I welcomed the revolution as an opportunity to end victoriously this war, which I considered the most important thing, standing above everything - both the form of government and political considerations,” he would say much later, during interrogation at the Irkutsk Cheka.

Soviet propaganda poster. 1918

In May 1917, Alexander Vasilievich embraced his wife and son for the last time. Kolchak was leaving for Petrograd, wanting to sort out what was happening on the spot. Sofya Fedorovna and Rostislav were going to board an English ship to leave for Europe. For her, the main thing was to save the child - and she was far-sighted enough to see that a very large political fire was flaring up in Russia, which was unlikely to be extinguished quickly and easily.

Returning from Petrograd, Alexander Vasilyevich was faced with the fact that the new class consciousness does not recognize military discipline. In early June 1917, at a meeting of fleet delegates, it was decided to "remove Admiral Kolchak, his chief of staff and assistant commander of the Sevastopol port from office, take away weapons from officers and take control of military depots." Kolchak did not give up the weapon, but threw the St. George dagger into the sea. Later, the officers caught him and returned him to Alexander Vasilievich with the inscription engraved on the handle: "To the Knight of Honor Admiral Kolchak from the Union of Army and Navy Officers."

Kolchak handed over command of the fleet to Rear Admiral Lukin and departed first for Petrograd and then for the United States to help the Allies prepare military operations. News of peace between Germany and Soviet Russia shocked and stung him. The British government offered him to start the fight against the Bolsheviks from the Far East, where the Reds had not yet settled. Kolchak agreed. He formed his main forces in Harbin and in the fall of 1918 marched towards Omsk.

Admirers of the White movement idolize Kolchak, almost offering to canonize him. Meanwhile, many historians - especially those who come from Siberia, from Irkutsk, where the headquarters of the "Supreme Ruler of Russia" was located, believe that it was Kolchak, with his unreasonable management and unmotivated cruelties, that led to the defeat of the Whites and to the fact that Siberia accepted the Reds completely. favorably.

A new round of his career, crossing out the glorious past of a naval officer and scientist, began on November 18, 1918, when Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak carried out an anti-democratic coup in Omsk and established a military dictatorship.

The famous sailor Zheleznyak remained in history due to the fact that, having declared “The guard is tired”, he dispersed the Constituent Assembly.

"Knight of honor" Kolchak shot the Irkutsk Constituent Assembly. Those who were not shot were ordered to leave the territory subject to Kolchak in 24 hours.

Kolchak formed a new government, which recognized him as the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Under the control of Kolchak were Siberia, the Urals and the Far East. On April 30, 1919, the Provisional Government of the Northern Region recognized his authority, on June 10 - the leader of the "White Cause" in the North-West of Russia Yudenich, and on June 12 - the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia Denikin. On May 26, the Entente countries established diplomatic relations with the Kolchak government.

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was a supporter of the idea of ​​a "united, indivisible Russia." He deprived the autonomy of Bashkiria and was very proud of how sharply he refused the Finnish General Mannerheim when he offered to liberate Petrograd from the Reds in exchange for the independence of Finland. True, Kolchak accepted help from the Entente. Now they often say that the Bolsheviks organized the revolution at the expense of German "sponsors", forgetting that the White movement was also very abundantly sponsored by the Entente countries, who hoped after the victory over the Bolsheviks for economic and political control over Russia.

Not being a supporter of the monarchy, Kolchak hated democracy passionately. In a letter to Anna Timiryova, he speaks unambiguously: “What is democracy? It's depraved populace wanting power. Power cannot belong to the masses by virtue of the law of the stupidity of numbers: every practical politician, if he is not a charlatan, knows that the decision of two people is always worse than one, and finally, already 20-30 people cannot make any reasonable decisions, except for stupidities.

He also did not recognize the ideas of internationalism, that is, the equality of different nationalities, and he sincerely considered the military regime the only reasonable form of government: cowardice… “Comrade” is a synonym for a coward above all.”

Alexander Vasilievich did not recognize himself as a coward and did not tolerate cowards next to him, therefore he established in Siberia, perhaps, the most severe military regime in the entire history of the Civil War. Unlike, say, General Krasnov or the same Kornilov, who, long before the beginning of the Red Terror, proclaimed "More terror - and we will win!" - Kolchak was hardly a cruel person by nature. He did not revel in the lawlessness that was happening around him. He personally did not lead punitive expeditions. But he did not stop his chieftains either ... In particular, General Rozanov, who poured blood over the Yenisei province. And he did not try in any way to influence the regimes of ataman Semenov in Transbaikalia and ataman Kalmykov in Primorye, where there were no laws at all, except for the will of the ataman. Kolchak's quartermaster, General Alexei Budberg, in "Memoirs of a White Guard" recalls that Kolchak was repeatedly recommended to limit the activities of atamans who undermine confidence in the White Army, but he did nothing. He did not listen to the pleas of the victims.

Siberian peasants did not know serfdom. By average Russian standards, they were very prosperous. And freedom-loving. With Kolchak, Russian officers from among the nobility came to them, who habitually treated the peasants as “serf cattle”, moreover, mortally offended by the looted houses and burned estates. They took out their resentment on the local peasants. They robbed the way the Reds never dreamed of. If the peasants tried to resist, the villages were burned. Men were shot or buried to death. When the news of the reprisals spread across Siberia and the peasants began to run into the forest at the approach of the Kolchak detachments, their wives and mothers were flogged for their absence. And the first thing, entering the village, the Kolchakites arrested and executed the village teacher ... And more often the teacher, because in Siberia, for the most part, women taught. After all, these intellectuals, who went to the people, symbolized for the offended officers the entire intelligentsia, guilty, in their opinion, of both the revolutionary events and all subsequent troubles.

General Sakharov, who served in Kolchak's army, recalled: “When the remnants of our army went east, we had to see villages burned to the ground as punishment for not capturing the Bolsheviks. Huge, stretching for several versts of the village were solid ruins. The peasant population dispersed and was doomed to poverty, hunger and death.”

On December 22, 1918, soldiers of the former people's army rebelled in Omsk. In response, Kolchak and his atamans Krasilnikov and Annenkov staged a real meat grinder. Socialist-Revolutionary Dmitry Rakov, who spent half a year in prison under the Kolchak regime, escaped, managed to survive and get to Paris, wrote in his memoirs that “there were many killed, no less than 1,500 people. Entire cartloads of corpses were transported through the city, as sheep and pig carcasses are transported in winter. It was mainly the soldiers of the local garrison and the workers who suffered the most... The death penalty was sentenced to death in packs of 30–50 people, shot 5–10 a day. The robber Kolchak regime caused uprisings in the Tobolsk and Tomsk provinces, in the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions, not to mention the Amur and Amur regions. And the peasant population, in itself far from Bolshevism, will now greet the Red troops with enthusiasm. There is nothing to say about the workers. The worker did not dare to move for fear of being shot for the slightest trifle.

Admiral Kolchak presents military awards. 1919

General Budberg bitterly testified: “The headquarters are overflowing with legal and illegal wives, about whom the chiefs care more than about the units under their jurisdiction. During the evacuation of Ufa, the wounded were thrown into red flour, and the headquarters left, taking away the furnishings, furniture, carpets. The robbery of the population has become a custom and arouses the deaf hatred of the most calm circles of the population.

Alexander Vasilievich could not protest against the presence of their legal and illegal wives next to his officers, because Anna Timiryova came to him in Siberia.

In 1918, the Timirevs separated. It is not known whether a divorce took place, but Sergei Nikolaevich went to Shanghai, to emigrate, while Anna Vasilievna went to Omsk, to Kolchak. Their son Volodya stayed in Moscow with relatives. Sergei Nikolaevich planned to eventually take Volodya to him, but so far it was dangerous to take the child through war-torn Russia. Anna Vasilievna did not think about the child: she had only one goal - to finally connect with her beloved.

Anna so wanted to live with Alexander Vasilyevich as a wife! Do not meet snatches, but just live together! Last months their loves were the happiest. The feeling of doom gave every moment spent with each other, a shade of some piercing tenderness.

... Once - a long time ago, back in Petrograd! - Anna called Alexander Vasilyevich "a chimera in an admiral's uniform." She hinted at his mystery and versatility, and also at the fact that for her he had been a pipe dream for a long time. In the poetry of the Silver Age, a "chimera" was indeed called a dream. True, Kolchak for Anna Timiryova became a dream come true.

But for Russia, Kolchak was a true chimera. Indeed, in Greek mythology, a chimera is a vile monster with the head and neck of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a dragon, spewing fire and lava, burning everything in its path. The woman in love did not even realize how accurate the comparison she had picked up. And how complex person she loved.

Anna Timiryova did not notice the smell of blood and decay in the air. She did not notice anything at all, except for the proximity of her adored Alexander Vasilyevich. And of course, she considered all his actions fair and the only correct one. And how could it be otherwise? She was madly in love with her "chimera in the admiral's uniform." She was ready to die and kill for him. And everyone who expressed dissatisfaction with Kolchak's policy, for Anna Timiryova, was obviously wrong and subject to condemnation.

The peasants who fled into the forest formed partisan detachments. Everyone had a weapon - for the most part hunting, but it was. And there were hunting skills. And the ability to survive in the forest. By the fall of 1919, the partisan army numbered 140 thousand people. They were led not by the Bolsheviks, but by anarchists and Socialist-Revolutionaries. But the moment came when these partisan detachments united with each other and began to oust the Kolchakites from their territory - and at the same time, even without having the goal of linking up with the Red Army, they nevertheless went towards it. And when the skirmish occurred, the Reds were initially accepted in Siberia as deliverers. When, in 1921, Siberia already rebelled against the Bolsheviks, the main slogan was: "Neither Lenin, nor Kolchak!"

And yet Kolchak was arrested and handed over to the Reds not by the Siberians, but by the Czechs who served with him. They wanted to return home, and the Reds made such a condition for them to return.

It must be admitted that Alexander Vasilyevich was impeccably honest to the end. When in Kazan Kolchak's troops seized 500 tons of gold from the royal treasury, he ordered to protect it - as the treasury of Russia. When he was arrested, he transferred the powers and the right to manage the treasury to Denikin ... But for this gold he could redeem himself and Timirev, he could run away! But he was not able to appropriate someone else's. As a result, the gold ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks and was sent to Moscow, to Lenin. The Bolsheviks in those harsh times were also honest: all 500 tons reached Moscow.

Alexander Vasilyevich in 1919

Anna Timiryova demanded that she be arrested along with her beloved. “Self-arrested,” as they wrote in a report sent to the Kremlin. In prison, they corresponded, they were allowed visits.

In the last note that Anna received from Alexander Vasilievich, he wrote: “They will kill me, but if this had not happened, if only we would not part ...”

But Kolchak’s latest note, written the night before the execution, never reached Anna - it became a document in the case of the execution of the former Supreme Ruler of Russia: “My dear dove, I received your note, thank you for your kindness and care for me ... Do not worry about me. I feel better, my colds are gone. I think that transfer to another cell is impossible. I only think about you and your fate... I don't worry about myself - everything is known in advance. My every step is being watched, and it is very difficult for me to write... Write to me. Your notes are the only joy I can have. I pray for you and bow before your self-sacrifice. My dear, my adored, do not worry about me and save yourself ... Goodbye, I kiss your hands.

Anna saw Kolchak for the last time through the peephole of her cell - when he was taken away to be executed.

On February 7, 1920, Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was shot by the verdict of the Revolutionary Military Council. When they came for him and announced where they were taking him, he asked in surprise: “Like this? Without trial? - as if forgetting that his chieftains did not often bother to judge those whom they killed.

The winter was cold even by Siberian standards. The earth turned to stone, it was impossible to dig it, so they broke a hole in the ice on the Ushakovka river, which flows into the Angara, and the corpses were lowered there. The fact that the water would be contaminated with decaying corpses, the Siberians were not afraid, they knew that in the spring the ice melts late, but the under-ice living creatures wake up in March and eat the drowned people to the bone.

There are many legends about the admiral's death. Allegedly, they shot him at the very opening, putting him on his knees and putting seven revolvers to the back of his head at once. Allegedly, when they were being led to the place of execution, he sang "Burn, burn, my star ..." - and then lit a last time and threw a golden cigarette case to the firing squad with the words: "Use it, guys!"

But in fact, they shot him, having previously stripped to underwear, in the prison yard. And Anna Timiryova heard these shots from her cell. Then the corpses of Kolchak and the chairman of his government, Pepelyaev, who was executed at the same time, were loaded onto a cart (the truck would not start) and taken to the shore of Ushakovka. And then - polynya ... It seems like a smirk of fate that the dead body of the admiral was lowered under the ice, the properties of which Alexander Vasilyevich was so interested in in his youth.

Anna Timiryova sent a request: “I ask the Extraordinary Investigation Commission to tell me where and by virtue of what sentence Admiral Kolchak was shot and whether I will be like him close person his body was handed over for burial to the earth according to the rites Orthodox Church". The resolution on the letter read: "Answer that Kolchak's body is buried and will not be given to anyone."

After the execution of Kolchak, his beloved was released from prison. But already in June 1920, she was arrested again and sent "for a period of two years without the right to apply amnesty to her in the Omsk concentration camp for forced labor." After her release, she married for the third time. For the railway engineer Vsevolod Konstantinovich Knipper. Not for love. In general, little is known about her marriage. But apparently, it was unbearable to live alone. She left a double surname: Timiryova-Knipper. Found the son of Vladimir. For some time they lived quietly ...

Kolchak is the supreme ruler of Russia. 1919

In 1925, a new arrest: “For counter-revolutionary activity, expressed in the manifestation of malicious and hostile attacks against the Soviet government among her entourage, the OO UGB NKVD arrested a former courtesan - Kolchak's wife, Anna Vasilyeva Knipper-Timiryova. She is accused of being hostile to Soviet power, in the past she was Kolchak's wife, spent the entire period of Kolchak's active struggle against Soviet power under the latter ... until his execution ... For this period, Knipper, not sharing the policy of the Soviet power on certain issues, showed her hostility and anger towards the existing system, i.e. in a crime under Art. 58 p. 10 of the Criminal Code. Knipper pleaded guilty." Sentence - camp and exile for five years. Indeed, released ahead of time... But they were arrested again in 1935.

A consolation for Anna Vasilievna was the relatively prosperous fate of her son, who lived freely in Moscow, studied at the Architectural and Design Institute, at the same time studied watercolors, even his exhibition was a great success. But in 1938, Vladimir Sergeevich Timirev was arrested for correspondence with his father, who was abroad, which was equated with espionage. The fact that Sergei Nikolayevich Timiryov died in Shanghai back in 1932 did not matter. Vladimir was shot.

For some reason, Anna Vasilievna was left alive. Released and arrested again. Since 1949 - in exile. In 1942, her third husband, Vsevolod Konstantinovich Knipper, died in Moscow. Anna Vasilievna found out about this a few years later. Then I thought - I just stopped writing to her, tired of waiting.

She was amnestied in 1954, but before rehabilitation in 1960, Anna Timiryova was deprived of the right to reside in 15 major cities of the USSR. In the intervals between arrests, she worked as a librarian, archivist, painter, props in the theater, draftsman ... And all these years she devotedly, passionately loved Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, noted all the important dates for the two of them and wrote him - dead - letters and poems.

Half a century I can not accept -

Nothing can help

And you all leave again

On that fateful night

But if I'm still alive

Against fate

Just like your love

And the memory of you.

Supreme Ruler Admiral Kolchak, officers of his entourage and representatives of the allies. 1919

Anna Vasilievna Timiryova-Knipper died in 1975, outliving her beloved by 55 years.

The descendants of the Siberians tortured by Kolchak - and there were at least 200 thousand dead during the regime! - protested furiously against the idea of ​​erecting a monument to Kolchak, whether in Omsk, from where he ruled, or in Irkutsk, where he was executed. If we recognize the merits of the admiral, then as a traveler and scientist. This means that the place for the monument is on an island in the middle of the Kara Sea, which was once named in honor of Kolchak, then was Rastorguev Island and to which the name of the stern admiral was again returned ... However, in 2004, on the birthday of Alexander Vasilyevich in Irkutsk, the monument was nevertheless opened, explaining this is because the admiral was too ambiguous a figure and one cannot reduce all his activities to atrocities during the period of military dictatorship.

Faktrum publishes an essay in the online magazine "Culturology" about this extraordinary woman and her strange fate.

Anna Timiryova and Alexander Kolchak

Anna Vasilievna Safonova from the nobility. She was born in Kislovodsk in 1893. When she was 13, the family moved to St. Petersburg. There Anna studied at the gymnasium of Princess Obolenskaya and graduated successfully in 1911.

Anna was a highly educated lady, fluent in German and French. At the age of 18, she married a naval officer and 3 years later gave birth to his son Vladimir. But this marriage is happy only until the moment when Timiryova met in Kolchak.

They first met in 1915 in Helsingfors. Anna's husband, a captain of the first rank, served there. It was a real passion! Anna Vasilievna and Alexander Vasilyevich were not even stopped by the fact that both of them were not free. Meetings became frequent, and passion eventually turned into love. Timiryova simply idolized the then vice-admiral, and he often wrote touching letters to her.

In 1917, almost immediately after the revolution, Timiryova's husband emigrated, Kolchak's wife and son remained in Paris. As soon as Kolchak returned from England, Anna Vasilievna came to him. In 1918–1919, Timiryova worked in Omsk as a translator in the Press Department under the Administration of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Ruler (as Kolchak was now called). Often she was seen in the hospital near the wounded and in the workshop for tailoring clothes for soldiers.

Anna Vasilyevna remained with Kolchak under any circumstances: both when his army was defeated by the Reds, and when the leadership of the Czechoslovak corps, with the tacit consent of the French General Janin, agreed to extradite Kolchak to the Military Revolutionary Committee. When the Cheka interrogated the white admiral for two weeks, Anna not only voluntarily went under arrest herself, but also managed to break through to him three times on a date - she supported her lover as much as she could before her inevitable death.

After the execution of Kolchak, Anna Timiryova was released from prison, but it was from that time that her real way of the cross began. Already in June 1920, she was sent to two years of forced labor in the Omsk concentration camp. After her release from prison, she submitted a petition to the authorities to leave the country for Harbin, where her first husband lived. But in response came a resolution - "Refuse" and another year in prison. In 1922, she was arrested for the third time, and in 1925 she was sent to prison for another three years "for association with foreigners and former white officers."

After her release, Anna Vasilievna married a railway engineer Vladimir Kniper. But the spring of 1935 brought a new arrest "for hiding his past." True, the camp was replaced after some time with supervised living in Vyshny Volochek, where she worked as a janitor and a seamstress. In 1938, the sixth arrest took place. But Anna came out of freedom only after the end of the war. By that time, she had no family left. 24-year-old son Volodya was shot on May 17, 1938. Vladimir Kniper could not stand the persecution of his wife and in 1942 died of a heart attack. Anna was not allowed to live in Moscow, and she moved to Rybinsk (then Shcherbakov), getting a job as a props at the local drama theater.

In December 1949, Anna Vasilievna was arrested again. This time for anti-Soviet propaganda based on a slanderous denunciation of colleagues in the shop. Again ten months of the Yaroslavl prison and a stage to Yeniseisk. Again return to Rybinsk and again work in the drama theater.

By that time, she already looked like an intelligent, neat old woman with bright, lively eyes. In the theater, no one knew the history of Anna Vasilievna, connected with Kolchak. But everyone was surprised why the director of the theater (it was rumored that he was from the nobility) whenever he saw Anna Vasilievna, came up and kissed her hand.

Anna Vasilievna was rehabilitated only in 1960. She immediately moved to Moscow and settled in a communal apartment on Plyushchikha. Oistrakh and Shostakovich secured a pension of 45 rubles for her. Sometimes she was invited to the extras at Mosfilm - in the "Diamond Arm" Gaidai flashed as a cleaning lady, and in Bondarchuk's "War and Peace" - at the first ball of Natasha Rostova in the image of a noble elderly lady.

Five years before her death, in 1970, she writes lines dedicated to the main love of her life - Alexander Kolchak:

Half a century I can not accept -
Nothing can help:
And you all leave again
On that fateful night.
And I'm condemned to go
Until the time expires
And the paths are confused
Well-worn roads…
But if I'm still alive
Against fate
Just like your love
And the memory of you.