«On the general background of military construction»: Soviet cavalry in Transbaikalia, 1924-1945

The article examines the organizational development of cavalry formations on the territory of Transbaikalia against the background of national processes. The development of cavalry as a branch of the armed forces at the regional level clearly reflected all the patterns of Soviet military construction. The cavalry acted as a forge of command personnel for tank and mechanized units, ensuring the development of the necessary outlook and psychology. An assessment of the historiographical situation is given, the achievements of individual authors are listed. The main milestones of the development of the military organization are listed. In 1924-1929 in the east of the USSR two corps directorates (the 18th and 19th Rifle Divisions), 7 rifle divisions and two cavalry brigades were stationed. On August 6, 1929, before the conflict on the China-Eastern Railway, the eastern grouping of troops of the Siberian District was allocated to the Special Far Eastern Army. On May 17, 1935, the Trans-Baikal Military District was formed with headquarters in Chita. It is shown as a district, and since September 15, 1941, the front has served as a reliable defense against the Japanese. The fate of cavalry formations is consistently considered: the transformation of the 5th Kuban Brigade into the 15th Cavalry Division, the 1st Collective Farm Cavalry Division into the 22nd Cavalry Division and their conversion in March 1941 to the formation of the 29th mechanized corps. The history of the Buryat-Mongolian cavalry formations for 1926-1938 is also briefly traced: squadron, division, regiment, brigade. It is noted that since 1938 there has been a radical reduction of the Soviet cavalry: from 7 corps and 32 divisions to 4 corps and 13 divisions by the spring of 1941. The defeat of tank formations in the border battles of the Great Patriotic War forced the formation of light cavalry divisions from the summer of 1941, including the 51st at the Dauria station. The material concludes with a detailed overview of the activities of the 59th Cavalry Division, formed in February-April 1943. Fragments of documents on the participation of cavalrymen in the construction of defensive structures are given as an appendix.

1. Baksheev A.I. (2020) NEP in Siberia. The atmosphere and logic of war: a monograph. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyarsk State Medical University. 145 p. (In Russ.).

2. Bezugol'nyi A.Yu. (2021)The national composition of the Red Army. 1918-1945. Historical and statistical research. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf. 511 p. (In Russ.).

3. Budennyi S.M. (1930) Cavalry as an operational factor in the Civil War. Red Cavalry. Collection of articles. MoscowLeningrad: Department of Military literature. P. 20-36. (In Russ.).

4. Budennyi S.M. (1938) Fundamentals of tactics of mounted formations. Moscow: State Military Publishing House of the USSR Peoples Commissariat of Defense. 44 p. (In Russ.).

5. Vnotchenko L.N. (1966) Victory in the Far East. Militaryhistorical essay on the fighting of the Soviet troops in AugustSeptember 1945. Moscow: Military Publishing House of the USSR Ministry of Defense. 328 p. (In Russ.).

6. Vorontsov V.N. (2018) "On peacetime states": The postwar fate of rifle corps and divisions formed on the TransBaikal Front in 1941-1943. Izvestiya Laboratorii drevnikh tekhnologii = Reports of the Laboratory of Ancient Technologies. Vol. 14. No. 4. P. 239-247. (In Russ.).

7. Vorontsov V.N. (2019) The 35th Rifle Division of the Red Army: formation and first battles. Dvenadtsatye Baikal'skie sotsial'no-gumanitarnye chteniya (Irkutsk, 1-30 aprelya 2018 g.) = The Twelfth Baikal Socio-Humanitarian Readings (Irkutsk, April, 1-30, 2018). Proceedings in 2 vol. Irkutsk: Publishing House of the ISU. Vol. 1. P. 12-17. (In Russ.).

8. Golovin N.N. (1926) Thoughts on the structure of the future Russian armed force. Voennyi sbornik obshchestva revnitelei voennykh znanii = Military Collection of the Society of Zealots of Military Knowledge. Belgrade. Book 8. 9th Essay. Pt. 2. The device of cavalry. 56 p. (In Russ.).

9. Drig E.F. (2005) Mechanized corps of the Red Army in battle: The history of the armored forces of the Red Army in 1940-1941. Moscow: AST. 832 p. (In Russ.).

10. Drig E.F. (2019) Troops of Semyon Mikhailovich. The history of the organizational construction of the strategic cavalry of the Red Army. Moscow: Russian Knights Foundation. 208 p. (In Russ.).

11. Karpeev V.I. (2007) Cavalry formations of the Russian Army. 1810-1917. Moscow: Reitar. 164 p. (In Russ.).

12. Kuznetsov I.I. (1961) Liberation by the Red Army of Eastern Siberia. Trudy Irkut. gos. University. Seriya istoricheskaya. K 300-letiyu goroda Irkutska = Proceedings of Irkutsk State University. Ser. historical. Irkutsk, 1961. To the 300th anniversary of the city of Irkutsk. Vol. 29. Iss. 2. Irkutsk. 44-72. (In Russ.).

13. Lenskii A.G. (2000) The land forces of the Red Army in the pre-war years. Directory. St. Petersburg, 2000. 193 p. (In Russ.).

14. Mel'tyukhov M.I. (2000) Stalin's missed chance. The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Europe: 1939-1941 (Documents and Materials). Moscow: Veche. 608 p. (In Russ.).

15. (1980) The Order of Lenin Zabaikalsky: The History of the Order of Lenin of the Trans-Baikal Military District. Moscow: Voenizdat. 374 p. (In Russ.).

16. Pavlovskii I.G. (1985) Land forces of the USSR: origin, development, modernity. Moscow: Voenizdat. 320 p. (In Russ.).

17. Pliev I.A. (1973) Roads of war. Ordzhonikidze: “Ir”. 552 p. (In Russ.).

18. Rostov N.D. (2007) We are going into a decisive battle… Preparation of reserves for the front in Siberia during the Great Patriotic War. Monograph. Barnaul: Publishing House of the Altai State Technical University named after I.I. Polzunov. 516 p. (In Russ.).

19. Fedorenko L.Z. (1926) Fundamentals of territorial construction of the Red Cavalry. Leningrad- Moscow: Military Publishing House of GURKKA. 119 p. (In Russ.).

20. Fedorenko L.Z. (1936) Features of cavalry fighting in the mountains, steppes and forests. Moscow: State Military Publishing House of the USSR Peoples Commissariat of Defense. 127 p. (In Russ.).

21. Fes'kov V.I., Kalashnikov K.A., Golikov V.I. (2004) The Red Army in victories and defeats 1941-1945. Tomsk: Tomsk State University. 620 p. (In Russ.).

22. Lomov V.M. (1985) An outpost in the east. Literaryartistic and historical-journalistic collection. Irkutsk: East Siberian Publishing House. 512 p. (In Russ.).

23. Shabanov N.A. (1941) Counter battle of the cavalry division. Moscow: Department of cavalry. 40 p. (In Russ.).

24. Shaposhnikov B.M. (1922) Cavalry: Cavalry essays. Moscow: Supreme Military Editorial Board. 266 p. (In Russ.).

25. Shil'nikov I.F. (1933) 1st Trans-Baikal Cossack Division in the Great European War of 1914-1918. Harbin. 189 p. (In Russ.).

26. Shishkin S.N. (1957) The Civil War in the Far East 1918- 1922. Moscow: Military Publishing House of the USSR Ministry of Defense. 268 p. (In Russ.).

27. Yanguzov Z.Sh. (1970) Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army on guard of peace and security of the USSR (1929- 1938). Blagoveshchensk: Khabarovsk Publishing House. 239 p. (In Russ.).