Andrei Grigorievich Shkuro - general, gruppenfiihrer SS. Biography

The future Cossack General Shkuro Andrei Grigoryevich was born in the Kuban village of Pashkovsky in the family of the captain Gregory Fedorovich Shkura and his wife Anastasia Andreyevna. The family on both lines had Zaporozhye roots. White's military commander changed Shkur's name to Shkuro during the Civil War.

early years

The head of the family was a prominent Cossack, who was well known in the Army and Yekaterinodar. Grigory Fedorovich participated in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. And had many awards. No wonder his son dreamed of a career in the army.

In a small homeland Andrew graduated from the Kuban Alexandrovskoe real school. Then his father sent him to the 3rd Moscow Cadet Corps, from which the boy was graduated in 1907. After this, the young man moved to the capital and entered the Higher Nikolayev Cavalry School. Becoming an officer, Shkuro transferred to the 1 st Ekaterinodar Horse Regiment, stationed in Ust-Labinsk.

World War I

In his youth Shkuro Andrey Grigorievich was characterized by an extravagant character. It was a restless disposition that made the Cossack join one of the expeditions of gold prospectors during one of the holidays and go to Eastern Siberia. In the Nerchinsk district he learned about the onset of the First World War. A hasty mobilization began, under which came the cadre military Shkuro. The generals were in a hurry as they could, so when the young centurion arrived in his native Ekaterinodar, his regiment had already left for the front.

Shkuro did not want to sit at home. After a brief persuasion Nakaznoy Ataman Babich enlisted him as a junior officer in the 3rd Khopersky Regiment. In the first battle with his new platoon, Shkuro demonstrated himself as an outstanding commander. In the battle at Seniava on the Galician front 50 people were taken prisoner. The first regular award - the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree - followed.

"The Wolf's Hundred"

For many months officer Shkuro Andrei Grigorievich (1886-1947) was continuously at the front. During another outing in intelligence in December 1915, he was wounded (a bullet hit his leg). In April 1916 he returned to the system. In the regiment Shkuro received a whole machine-gun crew. He was wounded again (this time in the stomach). Andrei Grigorievich went to be treated in his native Ekaterinodar. For bravery and numerous services, he became a captain.

Being in the rear, the officer decided to assemble his own partisan detachment. When the upstairs were given good, the Cossack with renewed energy started to organize a new connection. This squad quickly became famous and even received the informal name "Wolf's Hundred" (the reason for this was the banner with the image of a wolf's head). Only the most capable and desperate Cossacks went to the partisans to Shkuro. A hundred whirlwinds swept across the German and Austrian rear, prompting there horror and leading to serious destruction. Cossacks blew up bridges and artillery warehouses, spoiled roads, smashed carts. In the Russian army, a unique squad immediately became legendary. The main laurels of the dean was received by Shkuro Andrey Grigorievich. The "Wolf Hundred" would not have arisen without his energy and initiative.

1917

About the February Revolution and the abdication of the king, Andrei Shkuro learned near Chisinau. Like most Cossacks, he was far from politics, the Provisional Government was disgusted and did not recognize anything but an oath to the emperor. A stormy era forced him to make difficult decisions. Detachment Shkuro took Chisinau station and took the train went home.

After several weeks of rest, the famous partisan went to the Caucasus. Together with his faithful associates, he first came to Baku, and then stopped at Anzali. His detachment became part of the corps of General Nikolay Baratov. On the one hand, the Cossacks fought against the Turks and Kurds, and on the other they fought against the revolutionary movement among soldiers and sailors. In 1917, Shkuro managed to fight both in Persia and in the Caucasus. Confrontation with the Red Commissars cost him another injury. In autumn the Cossack returned to his native land, and in October he was elected to the Kuban Regional Council. Shkuro became a delegate from the front-line soldiers.

The Beginning of the Civil War

Andrei Shkuro received news of the arrival of the Bolsheviks in power in Petrograd. According to his convictions, the Cossack remained a monarchist. Ideological conflicts arose even with supporters of the republic. The officer despised and hated the Reds. Soon the south of Russia became a rallying point for the opponents of the Bolsheviks, among whom was the future general Shkuro. The family of the commander at this time lived in Kislovodsk, and there the well-known partisan again began to organize a loyal detachment.

July 7, 1918 Shkuro drove the Reds from Stavropol. For this he did not even have to use weapons. All that the Cossacks needed was to write an ultimatum with the threat of attacking the positions of opponents in the event that they did not leave the city. Those really left Stavropol. However, the whole struggle was still ahead. But already at the first stage of the Civil War Shkuro became one of the leaders of the White movement. His reputation he built with the help of uncompromising and adventurism in the fight against the revolution.

White General

In October 1918, thanks to the efforts of Andrei Shkuro, the 1st Officer's Kislovodsk Regiment was formed. Soon after that he went to Ekaterinodar, where he met with the Commander-in-Chief Anton Denikin. He was dissatisfied with the self-will of the Cossack. However, before the conflict between the two figures did not reach. The leaders of the White movement were united by a common danger. In the army Denikin Shkuro headed the Caucasian equestrian division. On November 30, he became Major-General.

While fighting in the Stavropol Territory, Andrei Shkuro organized the production of cartridges, shells, leather boots, cloth and other important things for the army of the White movement. Later, however, he had to move to the Kuban. In February 1919, Andrei Shkuro was appointed commander of the 1st Army Corps in the Caucasian Volunteer Army. With this formation he fought on the Don, helping the local Cossacks on the key front with the Bolsheviks. In one of the battles under the village of Illovayskaya, he managed to defeat the detachment of Nestor Makhno.

Victory and defeat

At the peak of White's success, Andrei Shkuro took part in battles for Yekaterinoslav, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities. For the assistance of the Allied British troops on July 2, 1919, he was awarded the British Order of the Bath. That campaign was the prologue to the offensive against Moscow. September 17 in the march to the capital of the capital Cossacks Shkuro took Voronezh. White held the city for a month. Under the blow of the equestrian division Budyonny they had to retreat. The offensive on Moscow was drowned very close to the desired goal.

Shkuro along with his corps retreated to Novorossiysk. Evacuation from the Black Sea port was carried out hurriedly and with a poor organization. The general, like many comrades, did not have enough space on the ships. He went to Tuapse, and moved from Sochi to the Crimea.

In the emigration

In May 1920, Wrangel, who did not like Shkuro, fired an officer, after which he was in exile. Soon the remnants of the White movement were defeated by the Bolsheviks. Thousands of Cossacks were expelled from their native country. Someone has settled in the Balkan countries, someone in France.

As a home, Paris chose Shkuro. The general was still young, full of strength and enterprise. In exile, he assembled a Cossack troupe, performed at equestrian competitions, worked in the circus and even acted in a silent movie. The first performance of the Kuban at the stadium "Buffalo" in the suburbs of Paris attracted 20 thousand spectators. The French had no idea about dzhigitovke, so that the financial success of the troupe was assured.

Builder of roads

In 1931, Yugoslavia turned out to be a new country, in which the donkey Andrei Shkuro. The general, having healed in the Balkans, began to maintain contacts with the field military ataman Vyacheslav Naumenko. Shkuro throughout the interwar years was an active figure in the Cossack movement in exile. He regularly spoke, he tried to preserve the unity of the Kuban people who had lost their homes and were mired in political disputes.

The former general was also engaged in practical affairs. He concluded an agreement with the company Batignol and began work on the construction of a 90-kilometer earthen rampart that fenced the cities of Belgrade, Pancevo and Zemun from annoying Danube floods. The Serbs were delighted with the results and ordered the construction of a railway bridge in the south of their country from the Cossacks. Shkuro worked not only Kuban, but also Don, Astrakhan, Tertz, as well as other natives of the south of Russia. Next to the brigades of Andrei G. worked Cossacks another hero of the First World War, Viktor Zborovsky. Some of the roads and dams built then in Yugoslavia are still functioning.

Also Shkuro (like many other white emigrants) left behind a memoir in which he described his own impressions of the Civil War. Today his book "Notes of the White Partisan" is a curious evidence of the era, helping to understand how the struggle against the Bolsheviks in the South of Russia was organized and organized.

At the Crossroads

After the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, white emigrants faced a difficult choice. He tortured Andrei Shkuro. The general hated the USSR, wanted as soon as possible to rid Russia of the Bolsheviks and return to his native Kuban lands. 20 years have passed since the Civil War. Many of its participants were no longer young, but still full of energy. But even such ardent anti-Soviet writers like Denikin and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich refused to support the Germans. But the former ataman of the Don Army Petr Krasnov went to rapprochement with the Third Reich. After him, the same choice was made by General Shkuro. The biography of this commander because of this decision still rages today.

Despite the open support of Hitler, collaborators from among the Cossacks for a long time did not have their own army formations. The situation changed only in 1943. At that time, the Wehrmacht had already lost the Stalingrad War, and its final rout in the whole war was a matter of time. Having found himself in a desperate situation, the Führer changed his mind and gave his go-ahead to the creation of the Cossack troops, which were part of the SS.

In the service of the Germans

In 1944 the SS Gruppenfiihrer Andrei Shkuro for the first time in a long time led the army. It was the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps. The experienced general at the end of the sixth decade fought against the Yugoslav guerrillas. He never had to return to Russia with weapons in his hands. By that time, the fate of the Third Reich had already been sealed. Even before the Soviet troops took Berlin, Stalin at the Yalta Conference took care of the agreements with the allies about the future of collaborators.

On 2 May, the Cossacks went to Austrian East Tyrol in order to surrender to the British. Among them was General Shkuro. In World War II, he stood on the principle of anti-Soviet positions, and this meant that falling into the hands of the NKVD promised him an imminent death. According to various historians, in the Cossack camp there were about 36 thousand people (20 thousand combat-ready soldiers, the rest were peaceful refugees).

Extradition to Lienz

May 18, 1945, the British accepted the surrender of fugitives. The Cossacks had to surrender almost all their weapons. Special camps were prepared for them in the vicinity of the Austrian city of Lienz.

Out of the total, 1,500 officers were allocated. The entire command staff (including the generals), under false pretenses, was summoned to a meeting, and then isolated from their wards. Among them was Shkuro Andrey Grigorievich. Interesting facts of his biography are mixed with tragic ones. After many years of quiet life in exile, he set to work for a hopeless cause, and eventually with the reputation of Nazi accomplice was given to the NKVD.

Court and execution

After the issuance of officers, the British deported the rest of the Cossacks. Those were unarmed and defenseless and in the end could not resist. All of them were tried in the USSR.

Shkuro along with Peter Krasnov and several other leaders of collaborators received the highest penalty. The trial of the Cossacks was indicative. Accused of terrorist activities and armed struggle against the USSR were hanged. Andrei Shkuro was executed in Moscow on January 16, 1947. Before his death, he still managed to return to his homeland.