Letter to the Don ataman, General of cavalry Popov P. H.

Letter to the Don ataman, General of cavalry Popov P. H.
1951. Size 13,5 x 21.5 cm.

P. H. Popov was born in the family of the famous Don public figure, archaeologist, historian, cooperator, journalist, the first director of the Novocherkassk Museum of the History of the Don Cossacks, H. I. Popov, in Novocherkassk on January 10, 1867. His mother was the daughter of a Cossack priest of the Migulinsky village. P. H. Popov had three brothers and four sisters. All the brothers became priests and two sisters were also married to priests.

Pyotr Kharitonovich Popov graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack Cadet School. He was released as a cornet in the 12th Don Cossack Regiment, then graduated from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. He was a captain of the General Staff, a teacher of tactics. From 1910 to 1918, he was the head of the Novocherkassk Cossack Cadet School. He wrote works on the history of the Cossacks. P. H. Popov's finest hour was 1918, when he would lead a Steppe campaign.

January 30, 1918 — The newly elected Don ataman, General Nazarov, appointed General Popov as a Marching ataman to continue the fight against the Bolsheviks.

February 1-10, 1918 — Marching ataman Popov gathered together scattered partisan detachments (junkers of the Novocherkassk Cossack cadet school, Colonel Mamantov's detachment, Semiletovtsy, Yakovlevtsy and Kalmyks; remnants of the 2nd and 9th cadre regiments - a total of 1,500 bayonets and checkers with 10 guns and 28 machine guns / according to other sources - with 5 guns with 500 shells and 40 machine guns /).

February 12, 1918 — With the approach of the Reds to Novocherkassk, the Marching ataman Popov went on a Steppe campaign, trying to preserve the personnel of the Don army.

February 13, 1918 — At a meeting in the village of Olginskaya, Popov tried to convince General Kornilov to leave with his detachment beyond the Don, to the Salsk steppes, there to wait for the General Don uprising, but General Alekseev resolutely opposed this plan, and the Volunteer Army went on an Icy march to the Kuban. The detachment of the Marching ataman moved to the Eastern Don Winter Gardens.

April 4, 1918 — The detachment of the Marching ataman crossed back across the Don and moved to liberate the right-bank villages and Novocherkassk.

April 15, 1918 — Popov was proclaimed commander of the Don Army.

April 23, 1918 — Occupied Novocherkassk and, after a stubborn battle, held the Don capital, with the help of a detachment of Colonel M. G. Drozdovsky who approached.

May 3, 1918 — In connection with the disbandment of partisan detachments, Popov was left at the Don ataman Krasnov for assignments.

May 5, 1918 — Lieutenant General. Popov was offered the post of representative of the Don Army in Constantinople.

May 6, 1918 — Resigned, which was accepted.

February 7 — October 19, 1919 — Chairman of the Don Government and Minister of Foreign Affairs under Ataman A. P. Bogaevsky.

February 12, 1919 — General of the cavalry. A lifelong Marching chieftain.

April 1919 — Chairman of the Union of Steppe Partisans created by Bogaevsky.

March 15, 1920 — Representative of the Don ataman in Constantinople.

April 1920 — Was in the reserve of the Don Corps in the Russian Army of General Wrangel.

1920 — Created the first Don village abroad in Gabrovo (Bulgaria).

1924 — Resigned and moved to France.

1924-28 — Worked in a repair shop, unsuccessfully tried to organize a Cossack cooperative garage.

1928 — Left for the USA. Worked on a farm, then as a cook.

August 9, 1930 — At the gathering of the Lyon Cossack Village, G. Lenivov took the initiative to collect documents and memoirs about the Partisan Steppe Campaign of Ataman Popov.

1934 — Popov put up his candidacy for the election of the Don ataman, but was not elected.

1938 — Elected Don ataman, but General Graf Grabbe, elected in 1934, protested Popov's election and continued to consider himself Don ataman.

1938 — Popov moved to Prague.

January 1939 — Held talks with one of the leaders of the Glinka Slovak People's Party, Karol Sidor, on a joint strategy for the anti-communist struggle.

Late 1939 — Arrested by the German authorities for refusing to participate in the formation of Cossack units in the German Army, but soon released with a prohibition to engage in any public activity.

1946 — Popov moved to America, where he was twice re-elected Don ataman. Unsuccessfully tried to create a Foreign Don government.

He has lived in the Tolstoy Center nursing home for the last years. He died from the effects of a stroke on October 6, 1960 in New York (the cause of the stroke was the burning of two manuscripts of Ataman Popov by the administration of the nursing home). He was buried at St. Vladimir's Cemetery in Casville, New Jersey.