And Samsonov is an important matter. Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov - biography, information, personal life

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Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov
Date of birth November 2 (14), 1859
Place of birth: Andreevka village, Yakimovskaya volost, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province
Date of death August 17 (30), 1914 (54 years old)
Place of death Willenberg, East Prussia, German Empire
Affiliation Russian Empire
Branch of the army cavalry
Years of service 1877-1914
Rank of cavalry general
Commanded
Don Cossack Army
Semirechensk Cossack Army
Turkestan Military District
2nd Army of the North-Western Front
Battles/wars
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878)
Russo-Japanese War
Mukden
World War I
Tannenberg

Alexander Vasilyevich Samsonov (November 2 (14), 1859, Andreevka village, Yakimovskaya volost, Elisavetgrad district, Kherson province - August 17 (30), 1914, Willenberg, East Prussia, German Empire) - Russian statesman and military figure, cavalry general (1910 ).

General Samsonov.
He graduated from the Vladimir Kiev Cadet Corps (1875), the Nikolaev Cavalry School (1877), and was released as a cornet into the 12th Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment.
Participant in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. In 1884 he graduated from the Academy of the General Staff. From November 8, 1884, senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 20th Infantry Division, from July 10, 1885 to February 4, 1889 - senior adjutant of the headquarters of the Caucasian Grenadier Division. In 1887-88, squadron commander of the 24th Lubny Dragoon Regiment. From February 4, 1889 onwards - chief of the Main Directorate of the Kazan Military District, from March 11, 1890 - staff officer for assignments at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District. From February 1, 1893 - staff officer for special assignments under the commander of the Warsaw Military District. Since July 25, 1896 - head of the Elisavetgrad cavalry cadet school. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War, commanded the Ussuri Cavalry Brigade and the Siberian Cossack Division. Since 1906, chief of staff of the Warsaw Military District, since 1907 - ataman of the Don Army, since 1909 - Turkestan Governor-General and commander of the Turkestan Military District. Also, from March 1909, he was the appointed ataman of the Semirechensk Cossack army.
At first First World War commanded the 2nd Army. During the East Prussian operation of 1914, the 2nd Army suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Tannenberg, part of it (13 and 15 army corps, more precisely 17 infantry regiments of three corps) was surrounded. When leaving the encirclement near the city of Willenberg (now Wielbark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland), Alexander Vasilyevich Samsonov died. According to the most common version, it is believed that he shot himself.
In this battle, the Russians defeated the 6th and 70th Landwehr Brigades at Gross-Bessau and Mühlen, the Landwehr Division of Goltz, the 3rd Reserve Division at Hohenstein, the 41st Infantry Division at Wplitz, the 37th Infantry Division at Lana, Orlau , Frankenau; Finally, they defeated the 2nd Infantry Division at Uzdau, but individual Russian successes were not linked to an overall victory. A chain of victorious battles of individual Russian regiments and divisions resulted in the defeat of six divisions. The Germans suffered a number of brutal defeats in individual battles, but won the operation in East Prussia. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich in the book “My Memoirs” wrote, in particular: “What the world community called “Joffre’s victory on the Marne” was in fact a victim of the 150,000-strong Russian army of General Samsonov, deliberately thrown into the trap set by Ludendorff.”
He was buried in the family estate in the village of Yegorovka. The burial took place in the Samsonov family crypt near the Church of Saints Joachim and Anna in the village of Yakimovka, which is located across the river from the village of Yegorovka.

Awards

Order of St. Anne, IV class (1877)
Order of St. Stanislaus, III degree (1880)
Order of St. Anne, 3rd class (1885)
Order of St. Stanislaus, 2nd class (1889)
Order of St. Anne, 2nd class (1892)
Order of St. Vladimir, IV degree (1896)
Order of St. Vladimir, III degree (1900)
Order of St. Stanislaus, 1st class with swords (1904)
Order of St. Anne, 1st class with swords (1905)
Golden Arms (1906)
Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class (1906)
Order of St. George, IV class (1907)
Order of the White Eagle (06.12.1909)
Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (December 6, 1913)

Samsonov Alexander Vasilyevich (1859, Ekaterinoslav province - 1914, near Willenberg, Poland) - military leader. Genus. in a poor noble family. After graduating from the Vladimir Gymnasium in Kyiv in 1875, he entered the Nikolaev Cavalry School in St. Petersburg. In 1877, released under the first category, he participated in the Russian-Turkish War and earned a personalized weapon with the inscription “For Bravery.” From 1884, after graduating from the Academy of the General Staff, he served in the Caucasus, then headed the Elisavetgrad School. In 1904 - 1905 he participated in the Russian-Japanese War, commanding the Ussuri Cavalry Brigade and the Siberian Cossack Division, graduating with the rank of lieutenant general. In 1906 he was chief of staff of the Warsaw Military District. In 1907 he became the appointed ataman of the Don Cossack army. From 1909 he served as the Turkestan Governor-General and commanded the troops of the Turkestan Military District, receiving the rank of cavalry general in 1910. From the beginning of the First World War, he was placed at the head of the 2nd Army, with which he was surrounded during the East Prussian operation of 1914 due to the incompetent actions of the commander of the North-West. front Ya.G. Zhilinsky and your own mistakes. Not wanting to survive the shame of defeat, he shot himself. Despite the failure of the operation, the actions of S.'s army forced the transfer of German units to the East. front and contributed to the Allied victory over Germany at the Battle of the Marne.

Book materials used: Shikman A.P. Figures of Russian history. Biographical reference book. Moscow, 1997

General of the Cavalry

Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov 1859-1914. The tragic fate of General Samsonov, commander of the 2nd Army, is one of the most dramatic pages of the First World War. Carrying out his military duty with his army, doomed to severe defeat, he chose to commit suicide. His associate Colonel A. Krymov wrote about Alexander Vasilyevich: “He was a noble man, of which there are few. A purely Russian, fatherland-loving officer... Alexander Vasilyevich with a fatal shot took upon himself the courage to be responsible for everyone. The Fatherland and the highest leadership remained unsullied...”

Alexander Samsonov came from a middle-income family. He received his military education at the Kiev Military Gymnasium and at the Nikolaev Cavalry School, from which he graduated in 1877. As an 18-year-old cornet, he was sent to the 12th Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment and with it participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877 - 1878. Having received combat training, through honest and zealous service he achieved the right to enter the Academy of the General Staff and in 1884 he successfully graduated from it. Upon graduation, he served in various military headquarters. From 1896 to 1904 he was the head of the cadet cavalry school in Elizavetgrad (Kirovograd) in southern Ukraine. Colonel Samsonov's service record contradicts the question: "Does he, his parents, or, when married, his wife have real estate, ancestral or acquired?" - it read: “It doesn’t have.” At the age of 45, Alexander Vasilyevich married the daughter of a landowner from the village of Akimovka, Ekaterina Alexandrovna Pisareva.

As a cavalry commander, Major General Samsonov took part in the Russian-Japanese War of 1904 - 1905, first leading the Ussuri Cavalry Brigade, then the 1st Siberian Cossack Division. Near Wafangou and Liaoyang, near the Shahe River and near Mukden, he led his horsemen into hot battles, and experienced both the joy of victory and the bitterness of heavy defeats. For military merits, Alexander Vasilyevich was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree and other orders, a golden saber with the inscription: “For bravery,” and received the rank of lieutenant general.

After the war, Samsonov served as chief of staff of the Warsaw Military District, then ataman of the Don Army, and in 1909 he was appointed governor-general of Turkestan and military ataman of the Semirechensk Cossack army. Russian Turkestan then included the Transcaspian, Semirechensk, Samarkand and Fergana regions, as well as the vassal Khiva and Bukhara khanates. Since the time of M. Skobelev, major military battles have ceased here, but the management of a vast territory inhabited by diverse Turkic peoples totaling up to three million people required a lot of effort and administrative skill from Alexander Vasilyevich. In 1910 he was promoted to cavalry general.

While life was relatively calm in Central Asia, war was brewing latently on the western borders of the empire. In the summer of 1914, straight from the Caucasus, where Samsonov and his family were on vacation, he headed to Warsaw to take command of the 2nd Army. On July 19 (August 1, New Style) the First World War began.

In Warsaw, Samsonov met with the commander of the Northwestern Front, Ya. Zhilinsky, who briefed him on the plan for upcoming actions. The 2nd Army was entrusted with the task, in cooperation with the 1st Army of General P. Rannenkampf, to carry out the offensive East Prussian operation. There was practically no time for its preparation: its urgency was dictated by the request for help from France, which had suffered a powerful blow from the German army. Four days after the start of the war, the French ambassador to Russia M. Paleologue appealed to Nicholas II: “I beg Your Majesty to order your troops an immediate offensive, otherwise the French army risks being crushed.” Understanding the complexity and danger of the planned operation in East Prussia, Samsonov still considered it his duty to try to carry it out. On July 23, he assumed the post of commander of the 2nd Army.

According to the plan of the operation, developed at Headquarters under the leadership of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, the 1st and 2nd Armies were to defeat the German 8th Army, concentrated in East Prussia. Samsonov was ordered to move from the Narew River (in Poland) bypassing the Masurian lakes to the north, Rannenkampf - from the Neman to the west. The army of Rannenkampf was the first to come into contact with the enemy; on August 4, it defeated the advanced German corps at Stallupenen; on the 7th, in the oncoming battle at Gumbinnen-Goldap, it forced the main forces of the 8th German Army to retreat. On the same day, Samsonov’s army, after an accelerated march, having covered more than 80 kilometers along sandy roads in three days, crossed the border of East Prussia. Samsonov reported to front commander Zhilinsky: “It is necessary to organize the rear, which has not yet received organization. The country is devastated. Horses have been without oats for a long time. There is no bread. Delivery from Ostroleka is impossible.” But the front commander, despite the lagging rear and scanty information about the enemy’s plans, every day demanded that Samsonov speed up the movement. Without encountering serious enemy resistance, the 2nd Army occupied intermediate settlements, and Samsonov, sensing a trap, asked the higher command for permission to deploy army ledge to the northwest. After three days of negotiations with the front headquarters, he finally received such permission, but was obliged, on the instructions of Zhilinsky, to send the right-flank 6th Corps to the north. This led to the separation of the corps from the main forces of the army. In addition, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the left flank 1st Corps was stopped at Soldau and also broke away from the 13th, 15th and 23rd Corps operating in the center. The situation was aggravated by weak enemy intelligence and a breakdown in communications in the army, since the Germans, while retreating, disabled the telephone and telegraph network. The transmission of radio messages was regularly monitored by the enemy, who thus knew about the Russian plans of action. -

Having left a barrier of two divisions against the 1st Army, the command of the German 8th Army, using the railways, transferred its main forces and received reserves against Samsonov’s army. On August 13, the 2nd Army encountered unexpectedly strong German opposition. On this day, the right-flank 6th Corps was defeated near Bischofsburg and began to retreat. The next day, the left flank 1st Corps retreated south of Soldau almost without a fight; Having learned about this, Samsonov was beside himself with indignation and removed the corps commander Artamonov from his post. The position of the 13th, 15th and 23rd Corps, fighting the Germans in the center and experiencing severe enemy pressure, became threatening.

Worried about their fate, Alexander Vasilyevich arrived on the front line on August 15 - at the headquarters of the 15th Corps of General Martos. He still had hopes for a successful breakthrough of the corps to the north, towards Rannenkampf, and that the 1st Army had already begun active operations in the rear of the advancing Germans, but they were not destined to come true (then Rannenkampf would long be haunted by rumors about his criminal slowness). Having arrived at the front line and making sure that the enemy’s advance could no longer be stopped, Samsonov had the opportunity to go back, but did not do so. A sense of duty and the old traditions of the Russian army - Zorndorf, Smolensk, Sevastopol, Port Arthur, and the need to die with bones did not allow him to abandon those who fought.

The retreat of the flanking corps of the 2nd Army allowed the Germans to cut off the three Russian corps' path back, and they were soon surrounded. The army headquarters, led by Samsonov, breaking out of the encirclement, moved in the direction of Yanov. Alexander Vasilyevich was in a difficult moral state. According to the testimony of the chief of staff, General Postovsky, Samsonov said more than once on the 15th and 16th that his life as a military leader was over. After a short night halt in the forest on August 17, when the headquarters officers moved on on foot, Alexander Vasilyevich quietly went deep into the forest, and his shot was heard there... Despite the search, his body was never found, and besides, it was necessary to get away from persecution.

However, there is another version of Samsonov’s death. According to one of the officers leaving the encirclement, he last saw his commander at the edge of the forest, bending over a map. “Suddenly a huge column of smoke enveloped our headquarters. One of the shells hit a tree trunk, exploded and killed the general on the spot...”

The fate of Samsonov’s army was tragic; a few units and groups managed to escape from encirclement; losses amounted to tens of thousands of killed, wounded and prisoners. One of the culprits of the incident, front commander Zhilinsky, reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: “If the behavior and orders of General Samsonov, as a commander, deserve severe condemnation, then his behavior as a warrior was worthy; he personally led the battle under fire and, not wanting to survive the defeat, committed suicide." Two weeks later, the high command that planned the East Prussian operation removed Zhilinsky from his post. However, a strategic result was achieved: the Germans transferred part of their forces to East Prussia, weakening their onslaught on France. The sacrificial fate of General Samsonov and the salvation of France turned out to be closely linked.

The widow of the deceased general, left with a 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, was allocated by the tsar a pension in the amount of 10,645 rubles per year. In the fall of 1915, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Samsonova, as a sister of mercy, participated in the inspection of camps for Russian prisoners of war in East Germany, and she managed to find the burial place of her husband. She identified him by the locket in which he kept tiny photographs of herself and her children. She transported his remains to Russia, to her native village of Akimovka, where she first met Alexander Vasilyevich, and buried him in the graveyard of the Akimov Church.

An unfortunate fate awaited the second main participant in the East Prussian operation - General Rannenkampf. After October 1917, the already old general lived in Taganrog under a different name. Representatives of the Soviet government identified him and, recalling his participation in the massacre of Siberian peasants in 1905, shot him.

Book materials used: Kovalevsky N.F. History of Russian Goverment. Biographies of famous military figures of the 18th - early 20th centuries. M. 1997

Member of the First World War

Samsonov Alexander Vasilievich (2.11.1859 -17.8.1914), Russian. cavalry general (12/6/1910). From the nobles of the Ekaterinoslav province. He received his education in the Nikolaev Cavalry. school (1877) and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1884). Released to the 12th Hussar Akhtyrsky Regiment, with which he participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, from November 8, 1884, senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 20th Infantry, 7/10/1885-2/4/1889 - Caucasian Grenadier Division. In 1887-88, squadron commander of the 24th Dragoons. Lubny Regiment, From 4.2.1889 etc. chief of the Main Directorate of the Kazan Military District (for the mobilization part), from 11.3.1890 staff officer for assignments at the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District. From 1.2.1893, staff officer for special assignments under the commander of the Warsaw Military District. Since July 25, 1896, the head of the Elisavetgrad Cavalry. cadet school. During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05, S. 15.3.1904 headed the Ussuri Cavalry Brigade, September 2. -Siberian Cossack division. In the battle of Wafangou, the S. division carried out a flanking movement of the 4th Japanese division, which decided the fate of the battle. During the retreat from Liaoyang, S., commanding a strong side detachment, took a position at Tumynazy and repelled the attack of the Japanese guards brigade (3 battalions, 4 guns, 3/4 squadrons). In the Battle of Shahei, being with his cavalry and an infantry battalion on the left bank of the Taizihe, S. during the advance of the cavalry. Prince Kanyana's brigade retreated back without resistance, exposing the flank and rear of the infantry of the general. PC. Rennenkampf , which had dire consequences. For his distinctions, in 1906 he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and a golden weapon. From September 24, 1905, Chief of Staff of the Warsaw Military District, from April 3, 1907, military ataman of the Don Army. Since March 17, 1909, Turkestan Governor-General, commander of the troops of the Turkestan Military District and military ataman of the Semirechensk Cossack army. During the mobilization, on July 19, 1914, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Army of the North-Western Front. The army (under the chief of staff, Major General P.I. Postovsky) included II AK (General S.M. Sheideman), VI AK (General A.A. Blagoveshchensky; 4th and 16th Infantry Divisions ), XIII AK (gen. N.A. Klyuev), XV AK (gen. N.N. Martos) and XX1P AK (gen. K.A. Kondratovich; 3rd Guards and 2nd Infantry Divisions), as well as the 4th, 6th and 15th cavalry. divisions - a total of 13 divisions with 702 guns. It was deployed on the Grodno-Osovets-Ostrolenka front (approx. 200 km). On the flank of the army and forward they were moved to cover the cavalry. units and separate detachments. S.'s army had to advance along difficult sandy roads, in areas poor in food, which necessitated the preliminary arrangement of the rear, and meanwhile the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and the Commander-in-Chief of the front armies, General. Ya.G. Zhilinsky was always in a hurry S. 9(22) Aug. 11 AK were transferred to the 1st Army, in exchange for this the army was given 1 AK (General L.K. Artamonov; 22nd and 24th Infantry Divisions), but with a ban on moving beyond the Soldau region. 10(23) Aug. XV AK entered into battle with XX German. corps at Orlau-Frankenau and threw it back. Obeying Zhilinsky's order, he began moving in a northerly direction. 13(26) Aug. 8th German The army began an operation against the army of S. 1 AK under Soldau was driven back by units of 1 and XX Germans. buildings; on the right flank by units of 1st Reserve and XVII German. corps, the 4th infantry was defeated. division VI AK, general. Blagoveshchensky left the corps troops, and the corps retreated to the south, thereby putting the rear of the XIII AK under attack. 14(27) Aug. 1st AK retreated again, and 2nd infantry. The division (attacking from the XV AK) was defeated. Aug 15 S. left his main apartment and went to the troops, losing the opportunity to lead the entire army. On the same day, the central corps of the army - XIII and XV - were captured in the area east of Tannenberg. Aug 16 German troops gen. O. von Francois defeated the XV AK, capturing Gen. Mortos. S. and his staff tried to get out of the encirclement, but fell behind the others and, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, shot himself. Gene. Klyuev began to retreat in 3 columns, which in the battles of August 17-18. near Kaletnborn, Wallendorf, in the Napivod forest they were practically destroyed; Klyuev gave the order to surrender. S.'s army lost approx. 6.7 thousand killed, St. 20 thousand, wounded, 92 thousand people. prisoners (including 15 generals), 350 guns. Subsequently, S.'s wife, having gone to Germany as a nurse, found his body buried in a common grave. On April 18, 1915, S.’s body was delivered to Petrograd and then transported for burial to an estate in the Kherson province.

Material used from the book: Zalessky K.A. Who was who in the First World War. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. M., 2003

Literature:

Vatsetis I.I. Tannenberg. The defeat of the 2nd Russian army of General Samsonov / Military. acad. Red Army named after. M.V. Frunze. - M., 1932. - 51 p.: diagrams.

East Prussian operation: Sat. documents. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1939. -612 p.: appendix.

Cavalry General A.V. Samsonov // Portuguese R.M., Alekseev P.D., Runov V.A. The First World War in the biographies of Russian military leaders / Under the general. ed. V.P. Mayatsky. - M.: Elakos, 1994. - P. 315-334.

Report of the government commission appointed in 1914 to investigate the conditions and causes of the death of the 2nd Army of General Samsonov in the East Prussian operation in the fall of 1914 // Military History. General's newsletter headquarters of the Red Army. - 1936. -No. 2,3.

General Samsonov's gold: Memory of the second Grunwald, the second Tannenberg: [About Russian. gene. first world. war A.V. Samsonov] // New time.-1994.-No. 30.-S. 10-11.

Isserson G. Cannes of the World War: [The Death of Samsonov’s Army] / Headquarters of the Red Army, etc. - M.: Gosvoenizdat, 1926. - 135 p.: diagrams.

Pikul B.C. But Paris was saved // Pikul B.C. Selected works: In XII volume. T. XII: Historical miniatures. - M.: Golos, 1994.-S. 231-241.

Portuguese R.M., Alekseev P.D., Runov V.A. The First World War in the biographies of Russian military leaders. M., 1994.

Rostunov I.I. Russian front of the First World War. - M.: Nauka, 1976.-S. 117-129.

Rybas S.Yu. Sacrifice: A Novel about General Samsonov. - M-: Mol. Guard, 1990.-240 p.

Read further:

World War I(chronological table).

Participants of the First World War(biographical index).

On this day, exactly 100 years ago, August 17/30, 1914, at the age of 56, the life of the commander of the 2nd Army, an outstanding Russian officer, cavalry general, was tragically cut short Alexander Vasilievich Samsonov.

The future general was born on November 2, 1859 in the family of a retired lieutenant, graduated from a military gymnasium in Kyiv, then from the Nikolaev Cavalry School, after which he entered service as a cornet in one of the hussar regiments. Having gone through the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, during which he earned a personalized weapon with the inscription “For Bravery,” Samsonov entered the Academy of the General Staff, after which he held various staff positions until in 1896 he was appointed head of the Elisavetgrad Cavalry Junker Corps. schools.

Samsonov's star rose during the Russo-Japanese War, of which he soon became one of the heroes. Having led first the Ussuri Cavalry Brigade and then the Siberian Cossack Division, Samsonov proved himself to be a talented military leader. Near Wafangou and Liaoyang, near the Shahe River and near Mukden, he led his horsemen into hot battles, and experienced both the joy of victory and the bitterness of defeat. “Who does not remember the brilliant actions of the cavalry led by General Samsonov in the battles of Sandepu? - asked the monarchist newspaper Zemshchina. - Personifying the steady movement forward, Alexander Vasilyevich Samsonov knew no barriers. Who doesn’t remember examples, rare in military history, of attacks on horseback against villages fortified by the Japanese, against which this brilliant cavalry general, without a moment’s hesitation, threw his division?” And V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko even stated: “He had something of Skobelev, only Samsonov was cold in battle and knew how to control his passion. From Skobelev he learned the ability to instill in a soldier’s soul faith in himself and good luck where he fights.”.

For his military services, Samsonov was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and a golden weapon. After finishing the Russo-Japanese War with the rank of lieutenant general, A.V. Samsonov was appointed chief of staff of the Warsaw Military District, and in 1907 he was appointed ataman of the Don Army. This was followed by appointments as Governor-General of Turkestan (1909) and military ataman of the Semirechensk Cossack Army.

In the summer of 1914, straight from the Caucasus, where Samsonov was vacationing with his family, he went to Warsaw to take command of the 2nd Army, called upon, together with the 1st Army of General P.F. Rennenkampf, to pull back the German forces from the Western Front, defeating them in East Prussia. There was very little time to prepare for the East Prussian operation, but France cried out for help and the Russian command decided to take a risk.

One of Samsonov’s subordinates recalled that, having received a directive on a hasty offensive, the general was depressed: “A courageous man, he clearly realized that, together with his army, he was destined for the role of victim. Slowly he sank down onto a chair and sat there for a minute, covering his face with his hands. Then, overcoming gloomy forebodings and the heavy consciousness of possible death, he stood up, crossed himself and went to his Calvary.”.

The army of General Samsonov, having made a rapid rush into East Prussia, was in dire need of providing rear support, but the front commander demanded that the 2nd Army only speed up its movement and move forward. And the offensive of the Russian armies, which began successfully, due to the mediocre actions of the commander of the North-Western Front, General Ya.G. Zhilinsky, ultimately turned into a disaster.

“...General Samsonov - a cavalry commander of brilliant personal courage - held responsible staff (in the Warsaw Military District) and administrative (Don Ataman) positions, but did not command either a corps or even an infantry division - wrote the famous military historian A.A. Kersnovsky. - His closest employees - the ranks of the army headquarters - were random and inexperienced in their field, which is the fault of General Zhilinsky, who selected all the best elements of the headquarters of the Warsaw Military District to his front headquarters. There was absolutely no communication. Its only type was radiotelegraph. The dispatches, however, were sent unencrypted and in this form were intercepted by the enemy. XIII Corps did not carry a code. The insistence of the French became more and more nervous every day. Headquarters and the front headquarters were in a hurry and lost their heads. (...) The corps advanced non-stop through the shifting sands, without convoys, without receiving bread for several days. General Samsonov tried to move in a north-western direction, along the railway - the only nutrient artery, and this caused great irritation in General Zhilinsky, a clerical figure who was completely unfamiliar with the troops, who did not understand that the troops needed to eat. His urgings became more and more harsh every day: having frivolously promised the allies an offensive on the 15th day, he took it out on his subordinates.”.

Knowing from his service in Warsaw about the German “war games,” General Samsonov began to fear the trap into which the Germans were luring his army. “The concerned glances of the Russian military leaders turned to the left - to the west, where something wrong was happening, from where the enemy was spontaneously felt. But General Zhilinsky did not heed these concerns. For him the situation was clear. After Gumbinnen, the Germans retreated, of course, to Königsberg (it is marked on the map with an asterisk!). Others are running towards the Vistula, and we must quickly intercept their retreat. Samsonov is unacceptably slow and procrastinating, and he, Zhilinsky, will no longer tolerate this. And to the ideas of the commander of the 2nd Army about strengthening the enemy in front of his front, the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Front responded with a terrible, unheard of, unthinkable insult for an officer: “Seeing the enemy where there is none is cowardice, and I will not allow General Samsonov to be a coward! " This phrase was said by an officer who only heard shooting during maneuvers, about another, who was still a cadet of the soldier George and earned the 4th and 3rd degrees in Manchuria. General Zhilinsky had a very unique idea of military ethics. General Samsonov's peace of mind was lost, and he ordered his army to immediately move north. (...) Scattered like a fan along a front of 120 miles, General Samsonov’s corps walked towards their fate, knowing nothing about each other and the enemy.”, - Kersnovsky wrote about these tragic events in his “History of the Russian Army”.

And then came the heavy defeat of the Russian troops at the Battle of Tannenberg, where a significant part of the 2nd Army was surrounded. While trying to get out of the enemy ring near the city of Willenberg, Alexander Vasilyevich Samsonov died tragically.

The circumstances of the general's death were not reported for a long time, which led to the birth of all kinds of rumors. Initially, with reference to the words of one of the officers, newspapers reported that the famous general was the victim of a shell that exploded near him, then a version appeared that Samsonov was captured, and later the opinion that the military leader committed suicide became the main version. Historians are still arguing about what actually happened to the general.

Here is what General V.I. Gurko says about this in his memoirs: “Samsonov, accompanied by five officers from his headquarters, was looking for a way to the Russian border in a dense forest. They abandoned their cars because using the roads was too risky. A small cavalry detachment leaving the forest, despite the darkness, was discovered by a German infantry outpost armed with a machine gun. Under a hail of bullets, the detachment dismounted and continued to move deeper into the next forest line. They were surrounded by complete darkness. The sounds of battle died down, and only heavy footsteps were heard in the bushes and, from time to time, the voices of members of a small group who called to each other so as not to lose each other in the darkness. From time to time they made a stop; then everyone would get together to see if there were any stragglers. General Samsonov, suffering from heart disease and breathing with increasing difficulty, was the last to walk. At some point during the roll call, everyone responded except him. His chief of staff, General Postovsky, immediately ordered a halt and, in the thick darkness, led the search for the missing commander. They were unsuccessful. Obviously, Samsonov stopped long ago, since careful systematic searches in the inky darkness and repeated calls to his name did not yield any results. Knowing of Samsonov's heart disease, General Postovsky assumed that he had sat down to rest, and decided that it would be better for the small detachment to continue moving forward, leaving him to make his way alone. (...) It was never possible to find out with certainty what happened to Samsonov in the end, although it is difficult to doubt that he died alone after a hopeless flight in the forest darkness. Much later, some artilleryman said that he saw General Samsonov sitting all alone in the forest. He turned to the general, and they moved on together. However, Samsonov grew weaker every minute. The day came, and the unfortunate general, feeling that he could not take another step, sat down on a hummock and ordered the soldier to continue to save himself alone. (...) No one will ever know what terrifying darkness reigned in the soul of General Samsonov when he sat on the ground, unable to simply move his legs. The heart was full of the bitterness of defeat, and not even a faint ray of hope shone ahead. Who knows, perhaps his weak heart refused to bear the weight of the terrible misfortune any longer, and General Samsonov, in the most literal sense, died because his heart broke - from grief?

According to the chief of staff of the 2nd Army, P.I. Postovsky, General Samsonov, on the eve of his death, said more than once that his life as a military leader was over. And after a short night halt in the forest on August 17, when the headquarters officers moved on, Alexander Vasilyevich quietly went deep into the forest and shot himself there... Colonel A. Krymov, who shared this version of Samsonov’s death, wrote about this decision of the general: “He was a noble man, like few. A purely Russian, fatherland-loving officer... Alexander Vasilyevich with a fatal shot took upon himself the courage to answer for everyone. The fatherland and the top leadership remained unsullied..." And if this is exactly how it was, then, in addition to the Christian attitude towards the sin of suicide, one cannot help but point out that, having committed suicide, General Samsonov left the encircled army without leadership and, instead of trying to gather all available forces into a fist and break through the enemy ring, his actions only contributed to the further demoralization of the troops. “Even if they were in a sack, 100 thousand people could have squeezed together for a powerful blow, but this, alas, did not happen,” noted General N.N. Golovin . “The parts did not feel each other’s elbow, the spring burst, and the enormous force was cut into fragments.”. The fate of General Samsonov’s 2nd Army was tragic; a few units and groups managed to escape from encirclement; losses amounted to tens of thousands of killed, wounded and prisoners.

But despite the failure of the operation, the actions of Samsonov’s army forced the transfer of German units to the Eastern Front and contributed to the Allied victory in the Battle of the Marne. As Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich rightly noted in his memoirs, “what the world community called “Joffre’s victory on the Marne” was in fact a victim of the 150,000-strong Russian army of General Samsonov, deliberately thrown into the trap set by Ludendorff”.

Contemporaries assessed General A.V. Samsonov differently. Some admired his personal courage and moral qualities, others condemned him for indecisiveness and cowardice. But be that as it may, they all agreed that Samsonov was an extraordinary military leader worthy of respect and memory of his descendants.

A.V. Samsonov, noted General V.I. Gurko, to the First World War "has earned himself an excellent reputation", and in “in matters of morality he was impeccable, which aroused love and respect for him among the troops”. But at the same time, the general continued, “despite the fact that he was endowed with a brilliant mind, supported by a good military education, he never had the opportunity to show strength of character or determination”.

Calling A.V. Samsonov "one of our most outstanding generals", the monarchical “Zemshchina” wrote: “The loss of such a valiant leader as the late Alexander Vasilyevich Samsonov was difficult - a true Russian hero in spirit and a magnificent military leader, possessing the invaluable gift of inspiring the masses. The deceased belonged to that glorious galaxy of wonderful military generals who, even in the darkness of the past, the sad memory of the Japanese War, were able, thanks to their valor and invaluable gift to quickly grasp and understand the situation, to advance from the ranks of previously unnoticed and unknown modest combat workers and achieve in a short period of time to the highest levels of the military hierarchy."

The general's widow, Ekaterina Alexandrovna, left with a 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter, in the fall of 1915, as a sister of mercy, participated in the inspection of camps for Russian prisoners of war in East Prussia and was able to find the burial place of her husband. She identified him by the locket in which he kept photographs of his wife and children. The remains of General Samsonov were transported to Russia and buried in the family crypt in the graveyard of the Church of Saints Joachim and Anna in the village of Akimovka, Kherson province.

Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences

Book materials used: Shikman A.P. Figures of Russian history. Biographical reference book. Moscow, 1997

General of the Cavalry

Book materials used: Kovalevsky N.F. History of Russian Goverment. Biographies of famous military figures of the 18th - early 20th centuries. M. 1997

Member of the First World War

Material used from the book: Zalessky K.A. Who was who in the First World War. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. M., 2003