46. Day, February 3, 2021
In several photos, our veteran wears a medal that does not match the others at all - the ribbon shows the Russian tricolor and the cross shape clearly stands out from the round medal monotony on his hero’s breast ...:
Reason enough for me to go back to work - and sculpt the thing.
It's about this medal here - and he CANNOT have acquired it as a soldier, because then he would have to be around 120 years old ...:
It is the
"Cross in memory of General Bredov's campaign" (Russian: Крест похода генерала Бредова) - and is an award of the "whites" from the Russian civil war!
The story of this award is quite interesting - and almost completely unknown in the West - so I'll tell you quickly:
We flash back to 1920, the final phase of the fighting between "Reds" and "Whites" during the civil war:
The “white” armies against the Bolsheviks are almost defeated on all fronts, and a large part of the surviving “white” armed forces have rallied in the Crimea.
The previous Commander in Chief General Anton Ivanovich Denikin ...
... has resigned or was sent into the desert (both as well as!), Lieutenant General Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel is in command in the Crimea ...
… übernommen.
He is the only one of the “white” leaders who not only thought in military terms but also had something like a political vision.
While trying to consolidate the broken up remnants of the “white” armed forces in the Crimea, he simultaneously introduced democratic principles of local self-government and initiated a land reform that largely expropriated large landowners in favor of the peasants.
He used an irrefutable argument to the landowners, who of course didn't like that at all: "It is better to lose a lot than to lose EVERYTHING!"
As a clear sign that a new wind was blowing, the banned the previous name of the "white" troops - "Volunteer Army", and replaced it with "Russian Army"!
The name "volunteer army" was completely discredited by excesses of violence (especially against Jews and workers) of the troops and the scandalous behavior of their officers in the rear - and drove the Bolsheviks to masses of new supporters (and fighters).
While Lieutenant General Wrangel was still trying to save what could not be saved in the Crimea shortly before the end of the day, the “Reds” calmly rolled up the Black Sea coast of Ukraine and took one port after the other.
When the "red" units under the command of the later Soviet Marshal Alexander Ilyich Yegorov ...
... approaching the most important port city, Odessa, Wrangel entrusted one of his best commanders, Lieutenant General Nikolaj Emiljewitsch Bredow ...
... with the order for the remnants of the "white" associations that are still there.
Bredow took command on January 11, 1920, came, saw - and quickly realized that Odessa...
... cannot be defended, but that the fall of the port city
"by the Bolsheviks is a matter of several days".
While in Odessa frightened civilians and demoralized soldiers stormed the port and sometimes bloody fights in the far too few places from evacuation ships delivered ...
... Bredow collected the remaining combat-ready and willing "white" associations. Not quite 20,000 bayonets came together!
When the troops marched out of Odessa, they were joined by thousands of civilians, including a large group of German colonists, a department "Rescue of the Motherland", parts of the garrison of Odessa and the surrounding area, departments of border and police officers and up to 3,000 civilians.
In the dead of winter, the column marched off to the northwest - a few days later, Odessa fell to the "Reds" ...
... and the Cheka established a regiment of terror.
Bredow had no intention of giving up, but wanted to continue the fight against the "Reds"!
Since the way to the Crimea was blocked for him, he decided to first switch to the relative security of the nearby territory of the Kingdom of Romania.
But when the column reached the then border town of Tiraspol, the Romanians refused Bredow's column to cross the border!
Since Bredow decided to disarm his troops (he wanted to continue the fight), crossing the border for Romania would have inevitably meant being drawn into the Russian civil war!
The Romanians blew up the ice of the border river Dniester, deployed artillery on their banks and threatened to shoot at the Russians should they invade their country ...:
In this situation, with the Romanian cannons in front of him, the "Reds" behind him, Bredow decided to join the Polish troops of Marshal Józef Klemens Piłsudski, who were also fighting the Bolsheviks ...
... to search - only: Poland was far!
On the night of January 30th, General Bredov gave the order to move north along the Dniester - to break through to Poland or Galicia. An unprecedented 700 werst winter forced march began under constant pressure from the Red Army ...:
Big cities had to bypass, they were occupied by the "Reds" - and Bredow did not have artillery - the draft animals had to serve as food!
In addition, a typhus epidemic was rampant in the column, over 2,000 sick people had to be dragged along!
But Bredow got his column through - almost 30,000 people, soldiers and civilians, reached Polish territory!
Lieutenant General Wrangel was so impressed with the performance of the troops that on February 25, 1922, with Order No. 206, he donated an award to those taking part in the campaign -
"as a reward for duty and hard work and privation by the ranks of the Department of General NE Bredov, who fought their way from Tiraspol to Poland in the cold winter season. "
This is the award our hero wears.
The devil knows how he got there.
Addendum:
General Bredow actually managed to return to the Crimea with 7,000 soldiers and to join Wrangel's army on August 11, 1920. The new 6th and 7th infantry divisions of the "Russian Army" were formed from these troops.
When Wrangel's rule in the Crimea collapsed, Bredow was evacuated by ship to Turkey and then lived in Bulgaria, during the Second World War he headed the hospital there for the crippled and sick soldiers of the Russian Red Cross Society in the city of Shipka ..:
In October 1944, Bredow was arrested by the NKVD in Bulgaria. After interrogation, he was handed over to the Yugoslav counterintelligence agency OZN. His further fate is unknown.
Cheers
