In some kingdom, in no state, but precisely in the one in which you and I live, there lived a peasant, his name was Ivan.
He had three children. The eldest was also called Ivan, the middle one was Peter, and the youngest was Vasily. Vasily Ivanovich, nicknamed Chapaev.
They lived very poorly, so they did not have their own traps, and they also did not have their own vessels in which they had to go fishing.
And so this peasant lived a little and died. The widow was left alone with the children.
When the children grew up, the war happened at that time. The eldest sons were taken to the war, only the youngest, Vasily, remained, and it was also his turn to go to war, because they took everyone who was able to work for military action, they did not take into account either the old or the small.
And when it was the turn of the youngest son, of course, he also had to go to war. He said goodbye to his mother and went to the conscription. He is walking through the village, but he should have passed by his aunt.
His aunt, his mother’s sister, lived nearby, he thinks to himself. “Come on,” he thinks, “I’ll go to my aunt, say goodbye, maybe I won’t return from the war.”
And he went in.
- Hello, aunt.
- Hello, hello, nephew, where are you going?
“Yes, well, auntie, we have to go to war, our older brothers are already fighting, and so I have to.”
She tells him:
“Listen, nephew, I’m giving you a ring, and I still have this ring from my husband: I brought it from the Turkish war.” And this ring has such magical power that no bullet can take you, and no sword can cut you. Well, the ring will only act on land, and it won’t have such power on water; so beware of the water.
And so he moved on.
So he comes to the call, and they began to train them in military action.
When he learned to act in war, he began to participate in battles. And so he learned quickly, and was so strong that he was promoted to officer. And no bullet can take him.
So he served in the war for three years, and this war was destroyed.
Vasily Chapaev arrives home, and he only has one mother, his brothers were killed in the war.
He had to get married. Mother, of course, did not interfere. He also took the daughter of a peasant from his village. They had a wedding, and Vasily Ivanovich began to live with his wife.
They lived there for a year or two and had two children.
Yes, a little time passed, and Vasily Ivanovich heard that power had passed to Kolchak and Denikin, and white power had come.
They began to oppress the free Bolshevik government and drive it away from the force of the gun. Here Vasily Ivanovich became very upset that all the working people would perish and white power would pass. Vasily thought and thought for himself: “No, I’d rather go to war again, rather than let my homeland perish. But the bullet won’t kill me anyway.”
Yes, and says to his mother:
- Well, dear mother, I will still go to war to save the working people, to defend Soviet power. His mother says to him with tears:
- Eh, you, my son, you were my last support in old age. I had three sons, only one of you returned, but you want to go again. Everyone laid their heads there, and you’ll have to lay your hands since you’re going there a second time.
“Well, mother, I’ll go anyway, don’t leave my little children if I die in the war.”
He said goodbye to his mother and wife, saddled his raven horse and rode off to the Red Army.
He comes to the Soviet troops, to the red commanders, bows and says:
- Hello, Red Soviet commanders, I want to serve in the Red Army, I want to help my homeland. I will drive out Kolchak and Denikin to free the working people.
The commanders say:
- Great, well done! Who are you? There are a lot of people, they’ll talk their tongues out, and then you look – and remember what their name was.
- No, commanders, I want to prove it in practice, but I don’t want to wag my tongue. And there I am from such and such a village, named Vasily Ivanovich, nicknamed Chapaev.
- Well done, Vasily Ivanovich. Well, we’ll take you into the Red Army, just help us.
And then came the bloody battle.
Then Chapai jumped on his horse and charged at the enemy. And he began to beat, like mowing grass, the Kolchakovichs and Denikinites.
And so he beat them hard, and chopped them with a sword, and stabbed them with a spear, and he had to hit them with a revolver. He did not stop beating them for a minute.
And not even six hours had passed before the entire field was dotted with troops.
And this Kolchak could not resist and ran away with the rest of his army.
Then the entire Red Army believed, and the commanders actually saw everything.
So the soldiers say:
“Chapai and I will go anywhere, even to battle, and we will never die with him.”
Not even a week had passed before Kolchak gathered troops again, even twice as many as before. And he went again to the Red Army.
So Chapai went again for the second fight. He jumped on his horse and rode into the very middle of the enemy army, where Kolchak himself stood on the front line.
And he began to beat me as brutally as the first time. And he chopped with a sword, and stabbed with a spear, and rushed around like a whirlwind. And he beat them all day long.
And his troops, of course, also helped. The entire field was covered with bodies, but there were few losses of our own troops.
More than half of the Kolchakovichs were killed and some were taken prisoner; Kolchak himself barely managed to escape.
After the battle we rested, of course, ate and drank, and Chapai went to see Frunze.
Frunze says to him:
- Well, Chapai, young hero, I’m giving you an army, now go as a commander to another front. Kolchak is already recruiting troops again.
Chapai went with his army to the Belaya River. And he stationed his troops near one village; and he doesn’t know where the whites are.
Well, we must find out at all costs where Kolchak’s headquarters is located. So Chapai says to his troops:
- Well, guys, whoever goes on a sortie with me, we’ll find out where General Kolchak is standing, and then we’ll lead the whole army with us.
And so, of course, a lot of people volunteered to go with him, well, he selected about fifty or a hundred people, and off we went. And it was already evening. And he meets a woman on the way.
- Hey, auntie, where are you going?
- Yes, I’m going, commander, to visit my husband in the Red Army, but I’ve lost my way, I’m hungry, I’ve been walking for two days now, I don’t know where I’m ending up.
- Well, go, aunt, we will feed you.
And Chapaev ordered to take her with him and feed her. So she goes with them. And this woman, she was Polish, deceived Chapai, she was sent by Kolchak as a spy.
Well, he didn't know any of that.
And then we arrived at one village, just the village stood on the banks of the Belaya River.
And there the men told them where those Kolchakovichs were standing, not far from the forest, about a dozen miles away.
Vasily Ivanovich says to his troops:
- So, guys, we’ll spend the night here, night has already caught up with us, and the next morning we’ll go for our troops.
Chapai positioned his troops and posts, and they themselves began to rest, to rest before the battle.
Everyone fell asleep, and Vasily Ivanovich was sleeping, only one guard remained to stand. And this Polish girl is not sleeping, she is waiting.
She waited until Chapai fell asleep, and quickly ran to Kolchak and told him where Chapaev’s army was standing, and that the main army was not with him.
Kolchak, of course, was delighted and now gives the order to his generals to catch Chapai, alive or dead.
The generals gathered their troops and surrounded Chapai on three sides.
They removed their posts and attacked them at night, when Vasily Ivanovich was fast asleep.
When the whites approached their headquarters, Chapai jumped up from his sleep, saw himself surrounded and shouted:
- Get up, guys, treason!
The Chapaevites jumped up and grabbed their weapons. Well, maybe there were a hundred of them, but the Kolchakovichs were overtaken by darkness. Well, the Reds are in the huts, they hold on, they shoot, but they don’t let us get close to them.
And there are very few cartridges left. So Chapai gives the following order:
- Run, guys, to the river, we won’t be able to break through from the land, but beyond the river our troops are close, we’ll go against Kolchak again!
The Chapaevs rushed to swim across the river to break through the whites.
Kolchak saw that Vasily Ivanovich and his army rushed into the river. Shouts to his generals:
- Shoot at the river, and if they swim across the Belaya River and gather their strength, then we will all not be alive!
Now the Kolchakovichs have turned the machine gun and let’s fire.
Vasily Ivanovich swam for a long time, and then he was wounded in the arm (the ring didn’t work on the water, duh!). Well, he still didn't stop swimming.
They were shooting all around, and they killed a lot of Reds. And Kolchak keeps shouting:
- Finish off Chapai as best you can so that he doesn’t get over, shoot at him one at a time!
That's the second time the bullet hit and water covered his head.
Here Vasily Chapaev died. It was not far from the shore. Yes, and they sent their own troops to help. They gathered reinforcements and attacked the Kolchakovichs and Denikinschi, defeated Kolchak completely and drove him out of Soviet soil.
Vasily Svet Ivanovich, nicknamed Chapaev, became famous. And he is revered throughout our land. And his family and mother were given an allowance and were not left in harm’s way.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru