{"id":849,"date":"2018-10-22T10:41:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T14:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=849"},"modified":"2018-10-22T10:41:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T14:41:51","slug":"who-is-kolchak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2018\/10\/22\/who-is-kolchak\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Kolchak?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Zinaida Osipova<\/p>\n

It was Konstantin Khabensky\u2019s part in the 2008 film Admiral<\/em> that revived Alexander Kolchak\u2019s name among the wider Russian population almost a century after he had lived. The movie portrayed Kolchak, who was an Imperial admiral and one of the leaders of the White army during the Civil War (1917-1922) in Russia, as a man of honor and stamina, faithful to the cause of saving Russia from the evils of the Bolsheviks. When I came across a 1919 pamphlet titled \u201cWho is Kolchak\u201d (Kto Takoi Kolchak<\/em>), I was curious to see how he was portrayed by his contemporaries. Since the series of which the pamphlet was part was named \u201cChiefs and Heroes of Russia\u201d, I knew I was looking at the writing of a White movement sympathizer. The pamphlet does not provide a coherent biography of the admiral; rather, it is a short narrative portraying Kolchak\u2019s most noble qualities and juxtaposing them with the evil nature of the Bolsheviks. A piece of Civil War propaganda, \u201cWho is Kolchak\u201d demonstrates that the Whites wanted their leader to be perceived as a brave man trying to save<\/em> his motherland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is Kolchak\u201d was published by the \u201cPeople\u2019s Library\u201d (Narodnaya Biblioteka<\/em>) in Rostov-on-Don, a Southern Russian city that was out of the Bolshevik control in 1919. The author, N. Morskoi, must have been a participant in the anti-Bolshevik movement familiar with Kolchak\u2019s biography. According to Andr\u00e9 Savine\u2019s index card to the pamphlet, it served as an appeal to men of the Red Army in order to draw them to the Whites\u2019 side.[1]<\/a> Interestingly, though, the front page has a price for the pamphlet: \u201c50 K [kopecks]\u201d, meaning the pamphlet was not meant to be distributed for free. Therefore, the publisher must have aimed to reach a wider range of audience than only soldiers of the Red Army. The simple language of the pamphlet, combined with its clear agenda and emotional narrative intended to secure quickly or reaffirm the readers\u2019 alignment in the cause of fighting Bolshevism.<\/p>\n

The very first paragraph of Morskoy\u2019s pamphlet sets the tone for the whole text, where he juxtaposes the righteous leader to the evil revolutionaries: \u201cDo you know who Kolchak is \u2013 that invincible chief, whose army is irrepressibly moving to Moscow from Siberia, at whose name shake with impotent rage the Bolshevik kinglets \u2013 Lenin and Trotsky.\u201d The author promises to tell us two stories from Kolchak\u2019s life so that we can judge for ourselves who the Supreme Ruler of Russia is.[2]<\/a> The first story concerns Kolchak\u2019s early career: at the age of 25, he was on board of the ship that went to the Arctic Ocean to \u201cdiscover new lands\u201d. The crew was supposed to fetch their colleagues from an island surrounded by ice in the summer. However, as they failed to do so, Kolchak aspired to find the lost crewmembers in the following spring and went through the ocean by boat. Their 42-day voyage to save \u201cdying friends\u201d bore no fruit, but Morskoi stressed that by this act, Kolchak showed that \u201che does not leave friends in difficult times\u2026 and does not stop at the risk of losing his life for achieving set goals.\u201d Of course, there is no comment as to why the fearless leader waited for almost a year before saving his friends. Curiously enough, as we learn later from the pamphlet, Kolchak would wait a year before returning from the United States to save his ravaged motherland. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

The second story concerns Kolchak\u2019s participation the World War I: in a somewhat unsubstantiated account, Morskoi gives accolades to the admiral, praising his order and leadership. Of course, according to the author, Kolchak was leading his fleet to victory when the Revolution came about. Continuing in the same style, Morskoi contrasts Kolchak\u2019s honest sailors with the \u201csailors bought on German money\u201d who were slaughtering officers.[4]<\/a> In describing Kolchak\u2019s appointment as the Supreme Ruler, the author gave Kolchak all the credit for turning the tide in provisioning the White army and securing allies. Interestingly, when mentioning \u201cSoviet intruders\u201d, Morskoi names Lenin only by his alias, while he uses both the alias and the real name of Trotsky-Bronstein.[5]<\/a> Most likely, Morskoi meant to denounce Trotsky even further by bringing out his Jewish roots (at that time in Russia, antisemitism was prevalent).<\/p>\n

Morskoi ends the pamphlet by saying that Kolchak\u2019s name is used to intimidate the public \u201cbut he is only intimidating to evil and wicked people, such as Bolshevik commissars whom he is attacking because he knows well, having experienced himself, how much grief and evil they have done to the motherland.\u201d Having portrayed Kolchak as a noble leader at Russia\u2019s service, Morskoi reiterates who Kolchak is facing \u2013 the abominable enemies not just of the White army, but of the whole country. Thus, by the end of the pamphlet, it should be clear to the reader that it is not a war between the Reds and the Whites; it is a war between atrocious usurpers and virtuous patriots.<\/p>\n

The pamphlet follows two strategies: praising Kolchak, describing him as an able ruler and a brave patriotic man with a high sense of duty and contrasting the positive hero with vilified Bolsheviks. The language of the pamphlet aspires to show that Russia needs to and can<\/em> be rescued, stressing the Bolsheviks\u2019 malign nature and their dangers to the country. The text, written in the midst of the Civil War, expresses certitude that Kolchak\u2019s leadership supported by the great White army generals, will liberate Russia, hoping to instill the same feeling in the readers. \u201cWho is Kolchak\u201d contains little factual information but plenty of one-sided rhetoric and plays on patriotic feelings of its readers, which would be interesting to contrast with a Bolshevik Civil War propaganda piece.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/p>\n

Morskoy, N. “Who Is Kolchak.” Rostov-on-Don: Narodnaya Biblioteka, 1919.<\/p>\n

Savine, Andr\u00e9. “Who Is Kolchak.” 1986. https:\/\/dc.lib.unc.edu\/cdm\/item\/collection\/rbr\/?id=15354<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Andr\u00e9 Savine, “Who Is Kolchak”, 1986. https:\/\/dc.lib.unc.edu\/cdm\/item\/collection\/rbr\/?id=15354<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> N. Morskoy, “Who Is Kolchak,” (Rostov-on-Don: Narodnaya Biblioteka, 1919), p. 3<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, p. 3-5, 10.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, p. 6-8<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Morskoy, 10-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Zinaida Osipova It was Konstantin Khabensky\u2019s part in the 2008 film Admiral that revived Alexander Kolchak\u2019s name among the wider Russian population almost a century after he had lived. The movie portrayed Kolchak, who was an Imperial admiral and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}