Baklanov Cossack general. Bashny.Net

"Mountaineers! If you are afraid of Allah
as Baklanov, a time
It would be saints. But do not be the same
cowards. Persist in the struggle and
fights with enemies more than you
We did it until now ».
Shamil.

In 1845, an army sergeant Baklanov was appointed commander of the 20th Regiment of the Don. It should be noted that the regiment at this point has a very low combat capability: the Don Cossacks, unaccustomed to the conditions of mountain warfare, inferior linear Cossacks, and the Cossacks in general was on ancillary works ...

Baklanov could not accept such a situation. In the first place, he returned to build his regiment of Cossacks. Has established strict control over the content of the horses (could screw up for drunken oats) and weapons. Also introduced the Cossacks sapper training and artelleriyskomu business and intelligence agencies. The regiment was organized seventh hundred, where under the supervision of Baklanov trained junior commanders and their bellies for the team especially dangerous cases - a kind of "special forces".





Yes, and in many other Yakov Petrovich find unexpected and unusual solutions. So, he ordered to hide the statutory form until better times, and the regiment moved to the uniforms and weapons captured only property. Thus, after some time the 20th Regiment was dressed in a Circassian, and the Cossacks paraded each other expensive daggers, sabers and excellent Circassian rifled muskets.

In combat, Baklanov was terrible. In the difficult moments of the combat situation he is with his sword in the hands of the first rushed on his horse forward. His famous "Baklanovsky blow" cut through the enemy from the crown to the saddle. Baklanov was uncompromisingly stern and merciless to the underpants and said generally blundered Cossack, showing a huge fist "chickened out again, you see that my fist? I'll thereby fist and smash! "But for the courage and encouraged in every way possible the shore of his subordinates, teaching at the same time: -" Show enemies that are not your Dumka about life, and about the glory and honor of the Don Cossacks. " For a strict character, courage and powerful health (Baklanov was wounded more than ten times), it was called "Ermak Timofeyevich." Cossacks loved, cherished and proud of their commander. In one battle, Yakov Petrovich unsuccessfully necks in aimed fire mountain shooters. Without thinking, with his body covered the famous scout-Skopin Plastun, who had by that time three crosses of St. George. The bullet shattered his shoulder, but Baklanov was saved. For this feat Skopin was promoted to officer rank cornet.

Baklanov's regiment did not miss the slightest opportunity to battle with the mountaineers, as well as cause them damage as a punitive expedition, ambushes, burned the village, trampled crops or stolen herd. In general, Yakov Petrovich mountaineers repay them in kind, and its 20th Regiment soon became a model partisan connections. With an extensive network of agents among the Highlanders, where he spent almost all his salary, Baklanov could outpace their predatory raids.

In this situation, the attacking side of the mountaineers had to be defensive. Now it already was not an attack on the Russian Cossack villages and settlements, and on how to avoid becoming victims themselves baklanovtsev raids. In his declining years, the conqueror of the Caucasus has calculated that under his leadership, the Cossacks commandeered the Chechens 12 thousand heads of cattle and 40 thousand sheep - striking imagination scale.

The bosses were delighted with the results achieved, and paid no attention to his guerilla warfare. For achievements in the war against the Highlanders Yakov Petrovich was awarded the Order of St. Anne 2 nd degree and golden arms.

People and horses in the Baklanov lack of provisions have not experienced, and the commander, a staunch supporter of the idea of ​​self-sufficiency of troops could easily outwit the most cunning mountaineers, who tried unsuccessfully to hide their flocks of voracious armies of the 20th Regiment. On the eve of Easter in 1849, Yakov Petrovich gave his Cossacks great gift. Break the fast like it was nothing - the old stock had been eaten lamb, and their herds Chechens hid from prying eyes. Rastoropny Baklanov during Lent personally scouted all the secret trails and on the eve of Easter Week has made a successful raid cattle.
Legend of the Caucasus - Baklanov Hero! ..
Distractedly Aborigines had no choice but to suspect Cossack commander in friendship with the devil himself. Highlanders and called his sworn enemy - Dajjal (Satan), and considered him a spell of death. Only one kind of "Shaitan-Buckle (Lion) brings to their mystical and superstitious horror - two meters of growth, Herculean Addition, pock-marked face, a huge nose, bushy eyebrows, thick long mustache, turning into sideburns that ominous fluttering in the wind, in a cotton shirt - he was the living embodiment of their eyes, and the messenger of hell. Even his countrymen could not Hanadiv on invoice Yakov Petrovich. The author of the memoirs of the famous Alexander Nikitenko described his appearance as follows: "... in the face Baklanov like printed such a program, if it is at least a quarter of its performed, it should hang ten times & quot ;.

His demonic reputation Yakov Petrovich strongly supported. One look at the Cossack commander came Chechen elders - they could not wait to make sure that they are fighting a true helper of the devil. One Baklanovskaya kind enough to correct the impression, and only when our hero met Turned guests in a sheepskin coat, stained with soot face and ceaselessly rotating eyes, no further evidence was required.

Highlanders were convinced that the "devil-Buckle" can only be killed with a silver bullet, shot him, and such, but they did not take the Cossack.
Notable among mountaineers arrows Gianni, specially sent Shamil swore on the Koran laid the hated "Buckle" with the first shot, and boasted that at fifty paces breaks an egg, it heard about the two-meter Cossack Highlanders quietly answered that cormorants and a fly hit the steps with one hundred and fifty. The fight took place on a hill near the river Michiko. Yakov Petrovich appeared before Dzhanemom horse. At the crucial moment the Chechen sniper hesitated and made two inaccurate shot. Baklanov, without dismounting, calmly took aim and put a bullet between the eyes opponent. When Baklanov, turning the horse began to descend the hill, the Russian troops thundered cheers! .. Chechens, waving his cap, ran out into the rubble, wounded in the hand and the air resounded violent "Yaksha, Buckle! .. Malodets, Buckle! .."
Since then, Chechnya has become a walk adage applied to a hopeless braggart: "Would you like to kill Baklanov?»

No less horror induce the Highlanders and the black flag of the 20th Regiment. On a black silk cloth with embroidered on it Adam's dead head (skull) and two crossed bones beneath burned gilded inscription of "creed" - "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world. Amen. "The banner was Baklanovskaya icon of the 20th Regiment was the hallmark of a desperate soldier. Yakov Petrovich until his death did not part with this military camp relic. One eyewitness wrote: & quot; Wherever the enemy did not saw this terrible banner fluttering in the hands of highly stately stems, shadow follows his commander - there was a terrible and ugly mug Baklanov, and inseparable from her inevitable defeat and the death of everyone who got in the way. & Quot;



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