Vasily Chapaev: short biography and interesting facts. Chapaev Vasily Ivanovich: interesting dates and information. Vasily Chapaev - biography, information, personal life

A native of Chuvashia, who became a symbol of the Great Russian Revolution

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev is known as one of the most notable heroes of the Civil War. The Red Army division commander left a bright mark on national history and to this day occupies a special position in popular culture. The name of the military leader is alive in the memory of his contemporaries - they tirelessly write books about him, make films, sing songs, and also make up jokes and fables. The biography of the Red Guard is full of contradictions and secrets.

Life lines
According to legend, the surname Chapaev comes from the word “chepay” (take, hook), which was used during various works. At first this word was the nickname of the hero’s grandfather, then it turned into a family surname.


Early years
Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev comes from a peasant family, the son of a carpenter. His parents lived in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Simbirsk province. This place was one of the Russian villages located around the city of Cheboksary. Here Vasily was born on January 28 (February 9), 1887.

Vasily grew up in large family and was the sixth child. Soon after his birth, the family moved to the Samara province - to the village of Balakovo, Nikolaev district. The Chapaev children were forced to leave the school they attended in Budaika and look for work. Vasily only managed to learn the alphabet. Parents wished for their child better life, therefore, to receive an education, Vasily was sent to a parochial school.


Metric record of 1887 about the birth of V. I. Chapaev

Father and mother hoped that their son would become a clergyman, but life decreed otherwise. In the fall of 1908, Vasily was drafted into the army - his military career dates back to this period. He began serving in Kyiv, although not for long. Already in the spring of 1909 he was transferred to the reserve - transferred to the first-class militia warriors.


V. I. Chapaev. 1909

Historians do not know the exact reason for this decision. According to one version, this was due to his political unreliability, but no evidence of this was found. Most likely, the dismissal is due to Chapaev’s illness.

Even in his youth, Vasily Chapaev received the nickname Ermak. It accompanied the hero all his life, becoming his underground nickname.

On the fronts of the First World War
In the battles of May 5-8, 1915 near the Prut River, Vasily Chapaev showed great personal courage and perseverance. A few months later, for his success in service, he immediately received the rank of junior non-commissioned officer, bypassing the rank of corporal.

On September 16, 1915, Chapaev was awarded the St. George Cross, IV degree. For the capture of two prisoners near the town of Snovidov, he was again awarded the St. George Cross, but this time of the 3rd degree.


V. I. Chapaev. 1916

Chapaev was a holder of three degrees of the St. George Cross. For each badge, a soldier or non-commissioned officer received a salary one third more than usual. The salary grew until it reached double the size. The additional salary was retained after retirement and was paid for life. The widows received the sum of money for a year after the death of the gentleman.

On September 27, 1915, in battles between the villages of Tsuman and Karpinevka, Chapaev was wounded. He was sent to the hospital. He soon learned that he had been promoted to senior non-commissioned officer.


V. I. Chapaev. 1917

Chapaev, having recovered his health, returned to the Belgorai regiment, with which he took part in battles near Kut on June 14-16, 1916. For these battles, Vasily was awarded the St. George Cross, II degree. According to some reports, that same summer, for the battles near the city of Delyatin, he was awarded the Cross of St. George, 1st degree. But no documents confirming the award of this award have been preserved.

At the end of the summer of 1916, Vasily became seriously ill. On August 20, he was sent to the dressing detachment of the 82nd Infantry Division. He returned to his company only on September 10 and the next day he was wounded by shrapnel in his left thigh, after which he again began treatment.

October Revolution and Civil War


V. I. Chapaev, commander of the 2nd Nikolaev Soviet Regiment I. Kutyakov, battalion commander I. Bubenets and Commissar A. Semennikov. 1918

In July 1917, Chapaev found himself in the city of Nikolaevsk, where he was appointed sergeant major of the 4th company of the 138th reserve infantry regiment. This military unit was famous for its revolutionary spirit. It was here that the future Red commander became close to the Bolsheviks. He was soon elected to the regimental committee, and in the fall of 1917 he joined the Council of Soldiers' Deputies.

On September 28, 1917, Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev joined the RSDLP (b) - the Bolshevik party. In December he became a Red Guard commissar and assumed the duties of commander of the Nikolaevsk garrison.

The winter-spring of 1918 was a difficult period for the new government. At this time, Chapaev suppressed peasant unrest and fought against the Cossacks and soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps.

In films, most often, Chapaev is depicted with a saber on a dashing horse. However, in life the commander preferred cars. At first he had a “Stevers” (a bright red confiscated car), then a “Packard” taken from the Kolchakites, and after a while a “Ford”, which developed a speed that was quite good for the beginning of the 20th century - up to 50 km/h.


Chapaev horsemen. 1918

In November, the talented military man went to study at the General Staff Academy, but could not stay away from the front for long and already in January 1919 he fought in battle against the army of Admiral Kolchak.


V.I. Chapaev visited his wounded comrades in the hospital. Left - I.K. Bubenets, commander of the battalion named after Stenka Razin regiment; on the right - I.S. Kutyakov, regiment commander. 1919

Circumstances of death
The legendary military leader died during a surprise attack by the White Guards on the headquarters of the 25th division. This happened on September 5, 1919 in the city of Lbischensk, West Kazakhstan region, which was located in the rear and was well guarded. The Chapaevites felt safe here.

Chapaev's division was separated from the main forces of the Red Army and suffered heavy losses. In addition to the 2,000 Chapaevites, there were almost as many mobilized peasants in the city who did not have any weapons. Chapaev could count on six hundred bayonets. The remaining forces of the division were removed 40-70 km from the city.


Wounded in the head V.I. Chapaev (in the center) and D.A. Furmanov (to his left) with the commanders of the 25th division. 1919

The combination of these factors led to the fact that the attack of the Cossack detachment in the early morning of September 5 turned out to be disastrous for the famous division. Most of the Chapaevites were shot or captured. Only a small part of the Red Guards were able to make their way to the banks of the Ural River, Chapaev was among them. He was able to resist the advancing forces, but was wounded in the stomach.

The eldest son Alexander witnessed the last hours of the hero’s life. He said that the wounded father was placed on a raft for crossing the river, made from half a gate. However, some time later, sad news came - the commander died from great blood loss.


Death of V.I. Chapaev in the Ural River in the film “Chapaev” (1934)

Chapaev was hastily buried in the coastal sand, covered with reeds so that the Cossacks would not find the grave and violate the body. Similar information was later confirmed by other participants in the events. But the legend embodied in books and on the silver screen that the division commander died in the stormy waves of the Ural River turned out to be more tenacious.

Hundreds of streets and almost two dozen settlements, one river, a light cruiser and a large anti-submarine ship are named after Chapaev.

Personal life


Sergeant Major Chapaev with his wife Pelageya Nikanorovna. 1916

In his personal life, the Red Army division commander was not as successful as in military service.

Even before being sent to the army, Vasily met young Pelageya Metlina, the daughter of a priest. After he was decommissioned in the summer of 1909, they got married. During 6 years of marriage, they had three children - two sons and a daughter.

Chapaev's life before the outbreak of the First World War was peaceful. He, like his father, worked as a carpenter. In 1912, together with his wife and children, he moved to the city of Melekess (today it is Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region), where he settled on Chuvashskaya Street. Here his youngest son Arkady was born.

The beginning of the war radically changed the life of Vasily Ivanovich. He began fighting as part of the 82nd Infantry Division against the Germans and Austrians.

At this time, his wife Pelageya and her children went to a neighbor. Having learned about this, Chapaev rushed to his home to divorce his wife. True, he limited himself to taking the children from his wife and moving them to their parents’ house.

From an interview with the Gordon Boulevard newspaper (September 2012):

“And a few years later, Pelageya left the children and ran away from the hero, the red commander. Why?

“She fled before Chapaev became a commander, back in the imperialist era.” She ran not from Vasily, but from her father-in-law, who was strict and tough. But she loved Vasily, gave birth to three children from him, but she rarely saw her husband at home - he was always at war. And she went to the carriage driver who drove the horse-drawn carriages in Saratov. He abandoned his nine children and his paralyzed wife for her sake.

When Vasily Ivanovich died, Pelageya was pregnant with her second child from her lover. She rushed to the Chapaevs’ house to pick up the rest of the children, but her partner locked her in. Pelageya finally got out of the house and ran away in a light dress (and it was in November). On the way, she fell into a wormwood, she was miraculously saved by a peasant passing by on a cart, and brought to the Chapaevs - there she died of pneumonia.

Chapaev then entered into a close relationship with Pelageya Kamishkertseva, the widow of his friend Pyotr Kamishkertsev, who had previously died in the battles of the Carpathians. Before the war, friends promised each other that the survivor would take care of the family dead friend. Chapaev kept his promise.

In 1919, the commander settled Kamishkertseva with all the children (Chapaev and a deceased friend) in the village of Klintsovka near an artillery depot.


Pelageya Kamishkertseva with all the children

However, shortly before his death, he learned about his second wife’s betrayal with the head of the artillery depot, which led him into severe moral shock.

Chapaev's children


Alexander, Claudia and Arkady Chapaevs

The eldest son, Alexander, followed in his father’s footsteps - he became a military man and went through the entire Great Patriotic War. Recognized with three orders of the Red Banner, Suvorov III degree, Alexander Nevsky, Patriotic War I degree, Red Star and many medals.

Alexander finished his service with the rank of major general. Died in 1985. Youngest son, Arkady, became a pilot and died during a training flight on a fighter in 1939.

The only daughter, Claudia, was a party worker and spent her entire life collecting materials about her father. She passed away in 1999.

From an interview information portal"Today" (September 2012):

— Is it true that you named your daughter in honor of Vasily Ivanovich?

- Yes. I couldn’t give birth for a very long time and only became pregnant when I was 30 years old. Then my grandmother came up with the idea for me to go to Chapaev’s homeland. We asked the authorities of the Republic of Chuvashia to help me give birth to a division commander in my homeland. They agreed, but with one condition: if there is a son, then we call him Vasily, and if there is a daughter, then Vasilisa. I remember that I had not yet left the maternity hospital, and the first secretary of Chuvashia had already solemnly issued me a birth certificate for my daughter Vasilisa. Later, we put the baby in a cradle in the Chapaev house-museum so that the energy of the family would be transferred to the great-great-granddaughter.

Evgenia Chapaeva, great-granddaughter of Vasily Chapaev, descendant of Claudia Chapaeva, author of the book “My Unknown Chapaev”


Great-granddaughter of Chapaev Evgenia and her daughter Vasilisa. 2013

Chapaev in cinema - a new look at history
In 1923, writer Dmitry Furmanov created a novel about Vasily Ivanovich - “Chapaev”. The author served as a commissar in Chapaev's division and was personally acquainted with the commander. In 1934, a feature film of the same name was made based on the book's materials.

A year after the premiere, the film’s creators, Georgy and Sergei Vasiliev, received an award for it at the First Moscow Film Festival. The chairman of the jury was Sergei Eisenstein, one of the most talented Soviet directors.

There was such a buzz around the film that one of the cinemas showed it every day for two years. "Chapaev" gained enormous popularity in the USSR, and its plot formed the basis folk art. People began to invent stories, create legends and jokes about the characters in the film. The film also impressed the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam. In 1935, he wrote 2 poems that contain references to episodes of the film.

When on February 9 (January 28), 1887, in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Kazan province, the sixth child was born into the family of Russian peasant Ivan Chapaev, neither mother nor father could even think about the glory that awaited their son.

Chapai's childhood.

Rather, they were thinking about the upcoming funeral - the baby, named Vasenka, was born at seven months old, was very weak and, it seemed, could not survive. However, the will to live turned out to be stronger than death– the boy survived and began to grow up to the delight of his parents.
Vasya Chapaev did not even think about any military career - in poor Budaika there was a problem of everyday survival, there was no time for heavenly pretzels.
Interesting origin family surname. Chapaev’s grandfather, Stepan Gavrilovich, was unloading timber and other things rafted down the Volga heavy loads on the Cheboksary pier. And he often shouted “chap”, “chap”, “chap”, that is, “catch” or “catch”. Over time, the word “chepai” stuck with him as a street nickname, and then became his official surname.
It is curious that the Red commander himself subsequently wrote his last name exactly as “Chepaev”, and not “Chapaev”.
The poverty of the Chapaev family drove them in search of a better life to the Samara province, to the village of Balakovo. Here Father Vasily had a cousin who lived as a patron of the parish school. The boy was assigned to study, hoping that over time he would become a priest.

War gives birth to heroes.

In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army, but a year later he was discharged due to illness. Even before joining the army, Vasily started a family, marrying the 16-year-old daughter of a priest, Pelageya Metlina. Returning from the army, Chapaev began to engage in purely peaceful carpentry. In 1912, while continuing to work as a carpenter, Vasily and his family moved to Melekess. Until 1914, three children were born into the family of Pelageya and Vasily - two sons and a daughter.
The whole life of Chapaev and his family was turned upside down by the First world war. Called up in September 1914, Vasily went to the front in January 1915. He fought in Volhynia in Galicia and proved himself to be a skilled warrior. Chapaev ended the First World War with the rank of sergeant major, being awarded the soldier's St. George Cross of three degrees and the St. George Medal.

In the fall of 1917, the brave soldier Chapaev joined the Bolsheviks and unexpectedly showed himself to be a brilliant organizer. In the Nikolaev district of the Saratov province, he created 14 detachments of the Red Guard, which took part in the campaign against the troops of General Kaledin. On the basis of these detachments, the Pugachev brigade was created in May 1918 under the command of Chapaev. Together with this brigade, the self-taught commander recaptured the city of Nikolaevsk from the Czechoslovaks.
The fame and popularity of the young commander grew before our eyes. In September 1918, Chapaev led the 2nd Nikolaev Division, which instilled fear in the enemy. Nevertheless, Chapaev’s tough temperament and his inability to obey unquestioningly led to the fact that the command considered it best to send him from the front to study at the General Staff Academy.
...Already in the 1970s, another legendary Red commander Semyon Budyonny, listening to jokes about Chapaev, shook his head: “I told Vaska: learn, you fool, otherwise they will laugh at you! Well, I didn’t listen!”

The Ural, the Ural River, its grave is deep...

Chapaev really did not stay long at the academy, once again going to the front. In the summer of 1919, he headed the 25th Rifle Division, which quickly became legendary, as part of which he carried out brilliant operations against Kolchak’s troops. On June 9, 1919, the Chapaevites liberated Ufa, and on July 11, Uralsk.
During the summer of 1919, Divisional Commander Chapaev managed to surprise the career white generals with his leadership talent. Both comrades and enemies saw in him a real military nugget. Alas, Chapaev did not have time to truly open up.
The tragedy, which is called Chapaev’s only military mistake, occurred on September 5, 1919. Chapaev's division was rapidly advancing, breaking away from the rear. Units of the division stopped to rest, and the headquarters was located in the village of Lbischensk.

On September 5, the Whites, numbering up to 2,000 bayonets under the command of General Borodin, carried out a raid and suddenly attacked the headquarters of the 25th division. The main forces of the Chapaevites were 40 km from Lbischensk and could not come to the rescue.
The real forces that could resist the Whites were 600 bayonets, and they entered into a battle that lasted six hours. Chapaev himself was hunted by a special detachment, which, however, was not successful. Vasily Ivanovich managed to get out of the house where he was quartered, gather about a hundred fighters who were retreating in disarray, and organize a defense.
About the circumstances of Chapaev's death for a long time There were conflicting information until in 1962, the division commander’s daughter Claudia received a letter from Hungary, in which two Chapaev veterans, Hungarians by nationality, who were personally present at the last minutes of the division commander’s life, told what really happened.
During the battle with the Whites, Chapaev was wounded in the head and stomach, after which four Red Army soldiers, having built a raft from boards, managed to transport the commander to the other side of the Urals. However, Chapaev died from his wounds during the crossing.

The Red Army soldiers, fearing that their enemies would mock his body, buried Chapaev in the coastal sand, throwing branches over the place.
There were no active searches for the division commander’s grave immediately after the Civil War, because the version outlined by the commissar of the 25th division Dmitry Furmanov in his book “Chapaev” became canonical - that the wounded division commander drowned while trying to swim across the river.
In the 1960s, Chapaev’s daughter tried to search for her father’s grave, but it turned out that this was impossible - the course of the Urals changed its course, and the river bottom became the final resting place of the red hero.

The birth of a legend.

Not everyone believed in Chapaev’s death. Historians who studied the biography of Chapaev noted that there was a story among Chapaev veterans that their Chapai swam out, was rescued by the Kazakhs, suffered from typhoid fever, lost his memory and now works as a carpenter in Kazakhstan, remembering nothing about his heroic past.
Fans of the white movement like to attach importance to the Lbishchensky raid great value calling him major victory, however this is not the case. Even the destruction of the headquarters of the 25th division and the death of its commander did not affect the general course of the war - the Chapaev division continued to successfully destroy enemy units.
Not everyone knows that the Chapaevites avenged their commander on the same day, September 5th. The commander of the White raid, General Borodin, who was victoriously driving through Lbischensk after the defeat of Chapaev’s headquarters, was shot by the Red Army soldier Volkov.
Historians still cannot agree on what Chapaev’s role as a commander actually was in Civil War. Some believe that he actually played a significant role, others believe that his image has been exaggerated by art.

Indeed, Chapaev gained widespread popularity from a book written by the former commissar of the 25th division, Dmitry Furmanov.
During their lifetime, the relationship between Chapaev and Furmanov could not be called simple, which, by the way, is best reflected later in anecdotes. Chapaev's affair with Furmanov's wife Anna Steshenko led to the fact that the commissioner had to leave the division. However, Furmanov's writing talent smoothed out personal contradictions.
But the real, boundless glory of Chapaev, and Furmanov, and others now folk heroes overtook in 1934, when the Vasiliev brothers made the film “Chapaev,” which was based on Furmanov’s book and the memories of the Chapaevites.
Furmanov himself was no longer alive by that time - he died suddenly in 1926 from meningitis. And the author of the film’s script was Anna Furmanova, the commissar’s wife and the division commander’s mistress.

It is to her that we owe the appearance of Anka the Machine Gunner in the history of Chapaev. The fact is that in reality there was no such character. Its prototype was the nurse of the 25th division, Maria Popova. In one of the battles, a nurse crawled up to a wounded elderly machine gunner and wanted to bandage him, but the soldier, heated by the battle, pointed a revolver at the nurse and literally forced Maria to take a place behind the machine gun.
The directors, having learned about this story and having an assignment from Stalin to show in the film the image of a woman during the Civil War, came up with a machine gunner. But Anna Furmanova insisted that her name would be Anka.
After the release of the film, Chapaev, Furmanov, Anka the machine gunner, and orderly Petka (in real life, Pyotr Isaev, who actually died in the same battle with Chapaev) went into the people forever, becoming their integral part.


Name: Vasiliy Chapaev

Age: 32 years old

Place of birth: Budaika village, Chuvashia

Place of death: Lbischensk, Ural region

Activity: Chief of the Red Army

Marital status: Was married

Vasily Chapaev - biography

September 5 marks the 97th anniversary of his death Vasily Chapaeva- the most famous and at the same time the most unknown hero civil war. His true identity is hidden under a layer of legends created both by official propaganda and the popular imagination.

Legends begin with the very birth of the future division commander. Everywhere they write that he was born on January 28 (old style) 1887 in the family of a Russian peasant Ivan Chapaev. However, his surname does not seem Russian, especially in the “Chepaev” version, as Vasily Ivanovich himself wrote it. In his native village of Budaika, the majority of Chuvash people lived, and today the residents of Chuvashia confidently consider Chapaev-Chepaev as one of their own. True, neighbors argue with them, finding Mordovian or Mari roots in the surname. The hero’s descendants have a different version - his grandfather, while working on a timber rafting site, kept shouting to his comrades “chapay”, that is, “catch on” in the local dialect.

But no matter who Chapaev’s ancestors were, by the time of his birth they had long been Russified, and his uncle even served as a priest. They wanted to direct young Vasya to the spiritual path - he was small in stature, weak and unsuitable for hard peasant labor. Church service provided at least some opportunity to escape from the poverty in which the family lived. Although Ivan Stepanovich was a skilled carpenter, his loved ones constantly subsisted on bread and kvass; out of six children, only three survived.

When Vasya was eight years old, the family moved to the village - now the city - Balakovo, where his father found work in a carpentry artel. An uncle-priest also lived there, to whom Vasya was sent to study. Their relationship did not work out - the nephew did not want to study and, moreover, was not obedient. One winter, in severe frost, his uncle locked him in a cold barn for the night for some other offense. To avoid freezing, the boy somehow got out of the barn and ran home. This is where his spiritual biography ended before it even began.

Chapaev recalled the early years of his biography without any nostalgia: “My childhood was gloomy and difficult. I had to humiliate myself and starve a lot. From an early age I hung around strangers.” He helped his father do carpentry, worked as a sex worker in a tavern, and even walked around with a barrel organ, like Seryozha from Kuprin’s “White Poodle.” Although this may be fiction - Vasily Ivanovich loved to invent all sorts of stories about himself.

For example, he once joked that it stems from a passionate romance between a gypsy tramp and the daughter of the Kazan governor. And since there is little reliable information about Chapaev’s life before the Red Army - he did not have time to tell his children anything, there were no other relatives left, this fiction ended up in his biography, written by Chapaev’s commissar Dmitry Furmanov.

At the age of twenty, Vasily fell in love with the beautiful Pelageya Metlina. By that time, the Chapaev family had gotten out of poverty, Vasya dressed up and easily charmed the girl, who had just turned sixteen. The wedding had barely taken place when, in the fall of 1908, the newlywed joined the army. He liked military science, but he didn’t like marching in formation and punching officers. Chapaev, with his proud and independent disposition, did not wait until the end of his service and was demobilized due to illness. Peace began family life- he worked as a carpenter, and his wife gave birth to children one after another: Alexander, Claudia, Arkady.

As soon as the last one was born in 1914, Vasily Ivanovich was again recruited as a soldier - the world war began. During two years of fighting in Galicia, he rose from private to sergeant major and was awarded the St. George Medal and four soldiers' Crosses of St. George, which spoke of extreme bravery. By the way, he served in the infantry, was never a dashing rider - unlike Chapaev from the film of the same name - and after being wounded he could not ride a horse at all. In Galicia, Chapaev was wounded three times, in last time so hard that after a long treatment he was sent to serve in the rear, in his native Volga region.

The return home was not joyful. While Chapaev was fighting, Pelageya got along with the conductor and left with him, leaving her husband and three children. According to legend, Vasily ran for a long time after her cart, begged to stay, even cried, but the beauty firmly decided that an important railway rank suited her more than the heroic, but poor and also wounded Chapaev. Pelageya, however, did not live long with her new husband - she died of typhus. And Vasily Ivanovich married again, keeping his word to his fallen comrade Pyotr Kameshkertsev. His widow, also Pelageya, but middle-aged and ugly, became the hero’s new companion and took his children into the house in addition to her three.

After the revolution of 1917 in the city of Nikolaevsk, where Chapaev was transferred to serve, the soldiers of the 138th reserve regiment chose him as regimental commander. Thanks to his efforts, the regiment did not go home, like many others, but almost in full force joined the Red Army.

The Chapaevsky regiment found a job in May 1918, when civil war broke out in Russia. The rebel Czechoslovaks, in alliance with local White Guards, captured the entire east of the country and sought to cut the Volga artery, through which grain was delivered to the center. In the cities of the Volga region, the whites staged riots: one of them took the life of Chapaev’s brother, Grigory, the Balakovo military commissar. Chapaev took all the money from another brother, Mikhail, who owned a shop and accumulated considerable capital, using it to equip his regiment.

Having distinguished himself in heavy battles with the Ural Cossacks, who sided with the whites, Chapaev was chosen by the fighters as commander of the Nikolaev division. By that time, such elections were prohibited in the Red Army, and an angry telegram was sent down from above: Chapaev could not command the division because “he does not have the appropriate training, is infected with a delusion of autocracy, and does not carry out military orders exactly.”

However, the removal of a popular commander could turn into a riot. And then the staff strategists sent Chapaev with his division against the three times superior forces of the Samara “constituent unit” - it seemed to certain death. However, the division commander came up with a cunning plan to lure the enemy into a trap, and completely defeated him. Samara was soon taken, and the Whites retreated to the steppes between the Volga and the Urals, where Chapaev chased them until November.

This month, the capable commander was sent to study in Moscow, at the General Staff Academy. Upon admission, he filled out the following form:

“Are you an active party member? What was your activity like?

I belong. Formed 7 regiments of the Red Army.

What awards do you have?

Knight of St. George 4 degrees. The watch was handed over.

Which general education got it?

Self-Taught."

Having recognized Chapaev as “almost illiterate,” he was nevertheless accepted as “having revolutionary combat experience.” The questionnaire data is supplemented by an anonymous description of the division commander, preserved in the Cheboksary Memorial Museum: “He was not brought up and did not have self-control in dealing with people. He was often rude and cruel... He was a weak politician, but he was a real revolutionary, an excellent communard in life and a noble, selfless fighter for communism... There were times when he could seem frivolous...”

In principle. Chapaev was the same partisan commander as Father Makhno, and he was uncomfortable at the academy. When some military expert in a military history class sarcastically asked if he knew the Rhine River. Chapaev, who fought in Europe during the German War, nevertheless answered boldly: “Why the hell do I need your Rhine? It’s on Solyanka that I have to know every bump, because we’re fighting the Cossacks there.”

After several similar skirmishes, Vasily Ivanovich asked to be sent back to the front. The army authorities complied with the request, but in a strange way - Chapaev had to create a new division literally from scratch. In a dispatch to Trotsky, he was indignant: “I bring to your attention, I am exhausted... You appointed me head of the division, but instead of the division you gave me a disheveled brigade with only 1000 bayonets... They don’t give me rifles, there are no overcoats, people are undressed " And yet, in a short time, he managed to create a division of 14 thousand bayonets and inflict a heavy defeat on Kolchak’s army, defeating its most combat-ready units, consisting of Izhevsk workers.

It was at this time, in March 1919, that a new commissar appeared in the 25th Chapaev Division - Dmitry Furmanov. This dropout student was four years younger than Chapaev and dreamed of a literary career. This is how he describes their meeting:

“Early in March morning, at about 5-6 o’clock, they knocked on my door. I go out:

I am Chapaev, hello!

stood in front of me ordinary person, lean, of average height, apparently of little strength, with thin, almost feminine hands. Thin dark brown hair stuck to his forehead; short nervous thin nose, thin eyebrows in a chain, thin lips, shiny clean teeth, shaved chin, lush sergeant-major mustache. Eyes... light blue, almost green. The face is matte-clean and fresh.”

In the novel “Chapaev,” which Furmanov published in 1923, Chapaev generally appears at first as an unattractive character and, moreover, a real savage in ideological sense- spoke “for the Bolsheviks, but against the communists.” However, under the influence of Furmanov, by the end of the novel he becomes a convinced party member. In reality, the division commander never joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), not trusting the party leadership too much, and it seems that these feelings were mutual - the same Trotsky saw in Chapaev a stubborn supporter of the “partisanism” he hated and, if necessary, could well have shot him, as commander of the Second Cavalry Army of Mironov.

Chapaev’s relationship with Furmanov was also not as warm as the latter tried to show. The reason for this is the lyrical story at the headquarters of the 25th, which became known from Furman’s diaries, which were recently declassified. It turned out that the division commander began to quite openly court the commissar’s wife, Anna Steshenko, a young and pretty failed actress. By that time, Vasily Chapaev’s second wife had also left him: she cheated on the division commander with a supply officer. Having once arrived home on leave, Vasily Ivanovich found the lovers in bed and, according to one version, drove them both under the bed with shots over their heads.

On the other hand, he simply turned around and went back to the front. After this, he flatly refused to see the traitor, although later she came to his regiment to make peace, taking with her Chapaev’s youngest son, Arkady. I thought I would pacify my husband’s anger with this - he adored children, during a short rest he played tag with them and made toys. As a result, Chapaev took the children, giving them to be raised by some widow, and divorced his treacherous wife. Later, a rumor spread that she was the culprit in Chapaev’s death, since she had betrayed him to the Cossacks. Under the weight of suspicion, Pelageya Kameshkertseva went crazy and died in a hospital.

Having become a bachelor, Chapaev turned his feelings to Furmanov’s wife. Having seen his letters with the signature “Chapaev, who loves you,” the commissioner, in turn, wrote an angry letter to the division commander, in which he called him “a dirty, depraved little man”: “There is nothing to be jealous of a low person, and I, of course, was not jealous of her, but I was I am deeply outraged by the impudent courtship and constant pestering that Anna Nikitichna repeatedly told me about.”

Chapaev’s reaction is unknown, but soon Furmanov sent a complaint to the front commander Frunze about the “offensive actions” of the division commander, “reaching assault.” As a result, Frunze allowed him and his wife to leave the division, which saved Furmanov’s life - a month later Chapaev, along with his entire staff and the new commissar Baturin, died.

In June 1919, the Chapaevites took Ufa, and the division commander himself was wounded in the head while crossing the high-water Belaya River. The Kolchak garrison of thousands fled, abandoning ammunition warehouses. The secret of Chapaev’s victories was speed, pressure and “little tricks” people's war. For example, near Ufa, he is said to have driven a herd of cattle towards the enemy, raising clouds of dust.

Deciding that Chapaev had a huge army, the whites began to flee. It is possible, however, that this is a myth - the same as those from time immemorial that have been told about Alexander the Great or. It’s not without reason that even before the popular cult in the Volga region, fairy tales were written about Chapaev - “Chapai flies into battle in a black cloak, they shoot at him, but he doesn’t care. After the battle, he shakes his cloak - and from there all the bullets come out intact.”

Another tale is that Chapaev invented the cart. In fact, this innovation first appeared in the peasant army, from which it was borrowed by the Reds. Vasily Ivanovich quickly realized the advantages of a cart with a machine gun, although he himself preferred cars. Chapaev had a scarlet Stever confiscated from some bourgeois, a blue Packard and a miracle of technology - a yellow high-speed Ford that reached speeds of up to 50 km per hour. Having installed the same machine gun on it as on the cart, the division commander would almost single-handedly knock out the enemy from captured villages.

After the capture of Ufa, Chapaev's division headed south, trying to break through to the Caspian Sea. The division headquarters with a small garrison (up to 2000 soldiers) remained in the town of Lbischensk; the remaining units went forward. On the night of September 5, 1919, a Cossack detachment under the command of General Borodin quietly crept up to the city and surrounded it. The Cossacks not only knew that the hated Chapai was in Lbischensk, but also had a good idea of ​​the balance of power of the Reds. Moreover, the horse patrols that usually guarded the headquarters were for some reason removed, and the division's airplanes, conducting aerial reconnaissance, turned out to be faulty. This suggests a betrayal that was not the work of the ill-fated Pelageya, but of one of the staff members - former officers.

It seems that Chapaev still did not overcome all his “frivolous” qualities - in a sober state, he and his assistants would hardly have missed the approach of the enemy. Waking up from the shooting, they rushed to the river in their underwear, shooting back as they went. The Cossacks fired after. Chapaev was wounded in the arm (according to another version, in the stomach). Three fighters took him down a sandy cliff to the river. Furmanov briefly described what happened next, according to eyewitness accounts: “All four rushed in and swam. Two were killed at the same moment, as soon as they touched the water. The two were swimming, they were already close to the shore - and at that moment a predatory bullet hit Chapaev in the head. When the companion, who had crawled into the sedge, looked back, there was no one behind: Chapaev drowned in the waves of the Urals...”

But there is another version: in the 60s, Chapaev’s daughter received a letter from Hungarian soldiers who fought in the 25th division. The letter said that the Hungarians transported the wounded Chapaev across the river on a raft, but on the shore he died from loss of blood and was buried there. Attempts to find the grave led nowhere - the Urals had changed its course by that time, and the bank opposite Lbischensk was flooded.

Recently an even more sensational version appeared - Chapaev was captured, went over to the side of the whites and died in exile. There is no confirmation of this version, although the division commander really could have been captured. In any case, the newspaper “Krasnoyarsk Worker” reported on March 9, 1926 that “Kolchak’s officer Trofimov-Mirsky was arrested in Penza, who admitted that he killed in 1919 a prisoner who was captured and used legendary fame division chief Chapaev."

Vasily Ivanovich died at 32 years old. Without a doubt, he could have become one of the prominent commanders of the Red Army - and, most likely, would have died in 1937, like his comrade-in-arms and first biographer Ivan Kutyakov, like many other Chapaevites. But it turned out differently - Chapaev, who fell at the hands of his enemies, took a prominent place in the pantheon of Soviet heroes, from where many more significant figures were erased. The heroic legend began with Furmanov's novel. "Chapaev" became the first big thing commissar who went into literature. It was followed by the novel “Mutiny” about the anti-Soviet uprising in Semirechye - Furmanov also observed it personally. In March 1926, the writer's career was cut short by sudden death from meningitis.

The writer's widow, Anna Steshenko-Furmanova, fulfilled her dream by becoming the director of the theater (in the Chapaev division she headed the cultural and educational part). Out of love either for her husband or for Chapaev, she decided to bring the story to life legendary division commander on stage, but in the end the play she conceived turned into a film script, published in 1933 in the magazine Literary Contemporary.

Soon, the young filmmakers with the same names, Georgy and Sergey Vasiliev, decided to film a film based on the script. Already at the initial stage of work on the film, Stalin intervened in the process, always keeping film production under his personal control. Through the film bosses, he conveyed a wish to the directors of “Chapaev”: to complement the picture with a love line, introducing into it a young fighter and a girl from the people - “a kind of pretty machine gunner.”

The desired fighter became a glimpse of Petka Furmanov - "Little thin Black Mazik." There was also a “machine gunner” - Maria Popova, who actually served as a nurse in the Chapaev division. In one of the battles, a wounded machine gunner forced her to lie down behind the Maxim trigger: “Press it, otherwise I’ll shoot you!” The lines stopped the Whites' attack, and after the battle the girl received a gold watch from the division commander's hands. True, Maria’s combat experience was limited to this. Anna Furmanova didn’t have this either, but she gave the heroine of the film her name - and that’s how Anka the Machine Gunner appeared.

This saved Anna Nikitichna in 1937, when her second husband, the red commander Lajos Gavro, the “Hungarian Chapaev,” was shot. Maria Popova was also lucky - after seeing Anka in the cinema, a pleased Stalin helped her prototype make a career. Maria Andreevna became a diplomat, worked in Europe for a long time, and along the way wrote a famous song:

Chapaev the hero was walking around the Urals.

He was eager to fight with his enemies like a falcon...

Go ahead, comrades, don’t dare retreat.

Chapaevites bravely got used to dying!

They say that shortly before Maria Popova's death in 1981, a whole delegation of nurses came to her hospital to ask if she loved Petka. “Of course,” she answered, although in reality it was unlikely that anything connected her with Pyotr Isaev. After all, he was not a boy-guarantor, but a regiment commander, an employee of the Chapaev headquarters. And he died, as they say, not while crossing the Urals with his commander, but a year later. They say that on the anniversary of Chapaev’s death, he got drunk half to death, wandered to the shore of the Urals, and exclaimed: “I didn’t save Chapai!” - and shot himself in the temple. Of course, this is also a legend - it seems that literally everything that surrounded Vasily Ivanovich became legendary.

In the film, Petka was played by Leonid Kmit, who remained “an actor of one role,” like Boris Blinov - Furmanov. And Boris Babochkin, who played a lot in the theater, was first and foremost Chapaev for everyone. Participants in the Civil War, including Vasily Ivanovich’s friends, noted his 100% fit into the image. By the way, at first Vasily Vanin was appointed to the role of Chapaev, and 30-year-old Babochkin was to play Petka. They say that it was the same Anna Furmanova who insisted on the “castling”, who decided that Babochkin was more like her hero.

The directors agreed and generally hedged their bets as best they could. In case of accusations of excessive tragedy, there was another, optimistic ending - in a beautiful apple orchard, Anka plays with the children, Petka, already the division commander, approaches them. Chapaev’s voice is heard behind the scenes: “Get married, you’ll work together. The war will end, life will be wonderful. Do you know what life will be like? There’s no need to die!”

As a result, this suspense was avoided, and the film by the Vasilyev brothers, released in November 1934, became the first Soviet blockbuster - huge queues lined up at the Udarnik cinema, where it was shown. Entire factories marched there in columns, carrying the slogans “We are going to see Chapaev.” The film received high awards not only at the First Moscow Film Festival in 1935, but also in Paris and New York. The directors and Babochkin received the Stalin Prize, the actress Varvara Myasnikova, who played Anna, received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Stalin himself watched the film thirty times, not much different from the boys of the 30s - they entered the cinema halls over and over again, hoping that someday Chapai would emerge. Interestingly, this is what ultimately happened - in 1941, in one of the propaganda film collections, Boris Babochkin, famous for his role as Chapaev, emerged unharmed from the waves of the Urals and set off, calling soldiers behind him, to beat the Nazis. Few people saw this movie, but the rumor about the miraculous resurrection finally cemented the myth about the hero.

Chapaev's popularity was great even before the film, but after it it turned into a real cult. The city was named after the division commander. Samara region, dozens of collective farms, hundreds of streets. His memorial museums appeared in Pugachev (formerly Nikolaevsk). Lbischensk, the village of Krasny Yar, and later in Cheboksary, within the city limits of which was the village of Budaika. As for the 25th division, it received the name Chapaev immediately after the death of its commander and still bears it.

The nationwide popularity also affected Chapaev’s children. His senior commander, Alexander, became an artillery officer, went through the war, and rose to the rank of major general. The younger one, Arkady, went into aviation, was a friend of Chkalov and, like him, died before the war while testing a new fighter. The faithful keeper of her father’s memory was her daughter Claudia, who, after the death of her parents, almost died of hunger and wandered around orphanages, but the title of daughter of a hero helped her make a party career. By the way, neither Klavdia Vasilyevna nor her descendants tried to fight the anecdotes about Chapaev that passed from mouth to mouth (and now published many times). And this is understandable: in most jokes Chapai appears as a rude, simple-minded, but very likeable person. The same as the hero of the novel, film and all official myth.

Chapaev briefly about personality

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev short biography for children

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev was born in a small village in the Kazan province called Budaika on January 9 (28), 1887. He was a peasant by origin. As a child, he and his family moved to the village of Balakovo, Nikolaev district, Samara province, where he later distinguished himself as a revolutionary and an intelligent military leader. Being a carpenter, Chapaev knew well the residents of nearby villages and hamlets. Handsome, hardworking, brave and courageous, Chapaev, in short, was liked by many peasants. This largely determined his success in the formation of voluntary military revolutionary detachments, and in the establishment of Soviet power in this region.

Vasily Chapaev went through the First World War. He was called up in 1914, at first he was in the reserve, but a year later he was transferred to the front line. V. Chapaev proved himself to be a brave and fearless soldier. During his first year of service on the front line, he was awarded three St. George's Crosses of varying degrees, and was promoted to the rank of junior, and then to senior non-commissioned officer. During the war he was repeatedly awarded, became seriously ill, and was wounded. After being seriously wounded and hospitalized, he returned to the Samara province, to Nikolaevsk in the 138th reserve regiment. Here Vasily Ivanovich became friends with the Bolshevik party organization, and began active political and military activities. In the fall of 1917, by decision of the Revolutionary Committee of Nikolaevsk, Chapaev was placed at the head of the 138th revolutionary regiment. At the same time, Vasily Ivanovich is engaged in administrative work and communist propaganda. After the activation of the White Guard detachments in the Nikolaevsky district, Chapaev organizes partisan detachments to protect Soviet power.

As a result of long and intense military clashes with the White Cossacks and the Czechoslovak corps, Chapaev briefly decided on a risky march into the night, and, having walked 70 km without a single stop, liberated Nikolaevsk. This episode can be called decisive in his fate. The Chapaevites, having broken through the White Guard army, join the ranks of the Red Army. From the personnel of these detachments, the 25th division is formed, with Chapaev directly placed at the head of the command. Commanding the 25th Division, and then the newly formed 22nd Division, Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev played a vital role in the victory of the Red revolutionary forces in the Eastern direction against Kolchak’s army. Particularly interesting in this regard is the Slomikha battle, which was vividly described in Furmanov’s story “Chapaev.”

Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev - to put it briefly, he is a strong man both morally and physically, who knows military affairs from the inside, capable of strategic planning and decisive action. As a man of his time, he was sincerely devoted to the revolutionary struggle, determined to win and maintained his presence of mind in any situation. Thanks to his managerial and military-strategic talent, the 22nd and 25th divisions successfully defended the Ural front and more than once emerged victorious from seemingly hopeless situations. But on the night of September 5, 1919, his headquarters was surrounded by White Guards, and after a long and fierce battle, Chapaev threw himself into the Ural River, where he drowned. The 25th division, which was headed by Vasily Ivanovich for a long time, was named in his honor. His name will forever remain in history Soviet Union and, of course, Russia.

130 years ago, on January 28 (February 9, new style), 1887, a hero of the Civil War was born. There is probably no more unique person in Russian history than Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev. His real life It was short - he died at the age of 32, but his posthumous fame surpassed all conceivable and inconceivable boundaries.

Among the real historical figures of the past, you cannot find another one who would become an integral part of Russian folklore. What can we talk about if one of the varieties of checkers games is called “Chapaevka”.

Chapai's childhood

When on January 28 (February 9), 1887, in the village of Budaika, Cheboksary district, Kazan province, the sixth child was born into the family of Russian peasant Ivan Chapaev, neither mother nor father could even think about the glory that awaited their son.

Rather, they were thinking about the upcoming funeral - the baby, named Vasenka, was born at seven months old, was very weak and, it seemed, could not survive.

However, the will to live turned out to be stronger than death - the boy survived and began to grow up to the delight of his parents.

Vasya Chapaev did not even think about any military career - in poor Budaika there was a problem of everyday survival, there was no time for heavenly pretzels.

The origin of the family surname is interesting. Chapaev’s grandfather, Stepan Gavrilovich, was unloading timber and other heavy cargoes rafted down the Volga at the Cheboksary pier. And he often shouted “chap”, “chap”, “chap”, that is, “catch” or “catch”. Over time, the word “chepai” stuck with him as a street nickname, and then became his official surname.

It is curious that the Red commander himself subsequently wrote his last name exactly as “Chepaev”, and not “Chapaev”.

The poverty of the Chapaev family drove them in search of a better life to the Samara province, to the village of Balakovo. Here Father Vasily had a cousin who lived as a patron of the parish school. The boy was assigned to study, hoping that over time he would become a priest.

War gives birth to heroes

In 1908, Vasily Chapaev was drafted into the army, but a year later he was discharged due to illness. Even before joining the army, Vasily started a family, marrying the 16-year-old daughter of a priest, Pelageya Metlina. Returning from the army, Chapaev began to engage in purely peaceful carpentry. In 1912, while continuing to work as a carpenter, Vasily and his family moved to Melekess. Until 1914, three children were born into the family of Pelageya and Vasily - two sons and a daughter.

The whole life of Chapaev and his family was turned upside down by the First World War. Called up in September 1914, Vasily went to the front in January 1915. He fought in Volhynia in Galicia and proved himself to be a skilled warrior. Chapaev ended the First World War with the rank of sergeant major, being awarded the soldier's St. George Cross of three degrees and the St. George Medal.

In the fall of 1917, the brave soldier Chapaev joined the Bolsheviks and unexpectedly showed himself to be a brilliant organizer. In the Nikolaev district of the Saratov province, he created 14 detachments of the Red Guard, which took part in the campaign against the troops of General Kaledin. On the basis of these detachments, the Pugachev brigade was created in May 1918 under the command of Chapaev. Together with this brigade, the self-taught commander recaptured the city of Nikolaevsk from the Czechoslovaks.

The fame and popularity of the young commander grew before our eyes. In September 1918, Chapaev led the 2nd Nikolaev Division, which instilled fear in the enemy. Nevertheless, Chapaev’s tough temperament and his inability to obey unquestioningly led to the fact that the command considered it best to send him from the front to study at the General Staff Academy.

Already in the 1970s, another legendary Red commander Semyon Budyonny, listening to jokes about Chapaev, shook his head: “I told Vaska: study, fool, otherwise they will laugh at you! Well, I didn’t listen!”

The Ural, the Ural River, its grave is deep...

Chapaev really did not stay long at the academy, once again going to the front. In the summer of 1919, he headed the 25th Rifle Division, which quickly became legendary, as part of which he carried out brilliant operations against Kolchak’s troops. On June 9, 1919, the Chapaevites liberated Ufa, and on July 11, Uralsk.

During the summer of 1919, Divisional Commander Chapaev managed to surprise the career white generals with his leadership talent. Both comrades and enemies saw in him a real military nugget. Alas, Chapaev did not have time to truly open up.

The tragedy, which is called Chapaev’s only military mistake, occurred on September 5, 1919. Chapaev's division was rapidly advancing, breaking away from the rear. Units of the division stopped to rest, and the headquarters was located in the village of Lbischensk.

On September 5, the Whites, numbering up to 2,000 bayonets under the command of General Borodin, carried out a raid and suddenly attacked the headquarters of the 25th division. The main forces of the Chapaevites were 40 km from Lbischensk and could not come to the rescue.

The real forces that could resist the Whites were 600 bayonets, and they entered into a battle that lasted six hours. Chapaev himself was hunted by a special detachment, which, however, was not successful. Vasily Ivanovich managed to get out of the house where he was quartered, gather about a hundred fighters who were retreating in disarray, and organize a defense.

There was conflicting information about the circumstances of Chapaev's death for a long time, until in 1962, the division commander's daughter Claudia received a letter from Hungary, in which two Chapayev veterans, Hungarians by nationality, who were personally present at the last minutes of the division commander's life, told what really happened.

During the battle with the Whites, Chapaev was wounded in the head and stomach, after which four Red Army soldiers, having built a raft from boards, managed to transport the commander to the other side of the Urals. However, Chapaev died from his wounds during the crossing.

The Red Army soldiers, fearing that their enemies would mock his body, buried Chapaev in the coastal sand, throwing branches over the place.

There were no active searches for the division commander’s grave immediately after the Civil War, because the version outlined by the commissar of the 25th division Dmitry Furmanov in his book “Chapaev” became canonical - that the wounded division commander drowned while trying to swim across the river.

In the 1960s, Chapaev’s daughter tried to search for her father’s grave, but it turned out that this was impossible - the course of the Urals changed its course, and the river bottom became the final resting place of the red hero.

Birth of a legend

Not everyone believed in Chapaev’s death. Historians who studied the biography of Chapaev noted that there was a story among Chapaev veterans that their Chapai swam out, was rescued by the Kazakhs, suffered from typhoid fever, lost his memory and now works as a carpenter in Kazakhstan, remembering nothing about his heroic past.

Fans of the white movement like to attach great importance to the Lbishchensky raid, calling it a major victory, but this is not so. Even the destruction of the headquarters of the 25th division and the death of its commander did not affect the general course of the war - the Chapaev division continued to successfully destroy enemy units.

Not everyone knows that the Chapaevites avenged their commander on the same day, September 5th. The commander of the White raid, General Borodin, who was victoriously driving through Lbischensk after the defeat of Chapaev’s headquarters, was shot by the Red Army soldier Volkov.

Historians still cannot agree on what Chapaev’s role as a commander in the Civil War actually was. Some believe that he actually played a significant role, others believe that his image has been exaggerated by art.

Studying the life of Chapaev, you are surprised to discover how closely connected legendary hero with other historical figures.

For example, a fighter in the Chapaev division was the writer Yaroslav Hasek, the author of “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik.”

The head of the trophy team of the Chapaev division was Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak. During the Great Patriotic War, one name of this partisan commander would terrify the Nazis.

Major General Ivan Panfilov, whose tenacity of the division helped defend Moscow in 1941, began his military career as a platoon commander of an infantry company of the Chapaev division.

And one last thing. Water is fatally connected not only with the fate of division commander Chapaev, but also with the fate of the division.

The 25th Rifle Division existed in the ranks of the Red Army until the Great Patriotic War and took part in the defense of Sevastopol. It was the fighters of the 25th Chapaev Division who stood to the last in the most tragic, last days city ​​defense. The division was completely destroyed, and so that its banners would not fall to the enemy, the last surviving soldiers drowned them in the Black Sea.

Academy student

Chapaev's education, contrary to popular opinion, was not limited to two years of parish school. In 1918, he was enrolled in the military academy of the Red Army, where many soldiers were “herded” to improve their general literacy and strategy training. According to the recollections of his classmate, the peaceful student life weighed on Chapaev: “The hell with it! I'll leave! To come up with such an absurdity - fighting people at their desks! Two months later, he submitted a report asking to be released from this “prison” to the front. Several stories have been preserved about Vasily Ivanovich’s stay at the academy. The first says that during a geography exam, in response to an old general’s question about the significance of the Neman River, Chapaev asked the professor if he knew about the significance of the Solyanka River, where he fought with the Cossacks. According to the second, in a discussion of the Battle of Cannes, he called the Romans “blind kittens,” telling the teacher, the prominent military theorist Sechenov: “We have already shown generals like you how to fight!”

Motorist

We all imagine Chapaev as a courageous fighter with a fluffy mustache, a naked sword and galloping on a dashing horse. Created this image folk actor Boris Babochkin. In life, Vasily Ivanovich preferred cars to horses. Back on the fronts of the First World War, he was seriously wounded in the thigh, so riding became a problem. So Chapaev became one of the first Red commanders to use a car. He chose his iron horses very meticulously. The first, the American Stever, was rejected due to strong shaking; the red Packard that replaced it also had to be abandoned - it was not suitable for military operations in the steppe. But the red commander liked the Ford, which pushed 70 miles off-road. Chapaev also selected the best drivers. One of them, Nikolai Ivanov, was practically taken by force to Moscow and made the personal driver of Lenin’s sister, Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova.

"...It is curious that the Red commander himself subsequently wrote his last name exactly as “Chepaev”, and not “Chapaev”.”

I wonder how he should have written his last name if he was Chepaev? Chapaev was made by Furmanov and the Vasilyev brothers. Before the release of the film on the screens of the country, on the monument to the division commander in Samara it was written - Chepaev, the street was called Chepaevskaya, the city of Trotsk - Chepaevsk, and even the Mocha River was renamed Chepaevka. In order not to bring confusion into the minds of Soviet citizens, in all these toponyms “CHE” was changed to “CHA”.