“Have you seen peacocks in the yard? I replaced them with... a uniform "
In "White Sun of the Desert" Vereshchagin's character turned out to be so successful and charismatic that some will even say that he is the main character of the film. What is really there, the main drama of the cinema is reduced to the death of Pavel Artemyevich, and the theme song "Your Honor, Madam Luck", written by Bulat Okudzhava, is performed by this character. At the time of his acquaintance with the viewer, the cinematic Vereshchagin is a man who has lost all meaning of life: his only son died, being very small, the border outpost was abolished after the Revolution, the region is a mess and anarchy, and the best years are far away behind. Therefore, Vereshchagin fills his grief and idleness with vodka.
At the same time, the fighting spirit of Pavel Artemyevich constantly breaks through, but each time the absence of a specific goals and a loving spouse keep him from some crazy plan, in the course of which “they will kill fool. " Ultimately, under the influence of his acquaintance with Sukhov and Petrukha, as well as after the news of the latter's death, Vereshchagin joins in the fight against Abdullah's gang and dies.
"I don't take a bribe"
The fate of the real Vereshchagin, Mikhail Dmitrievich Pospelov, was not so dramatic. However, Pospelov's story makes no less impression. Mikhail Dmitrievich was born on August 10, 1884 in Orel. In his youth, like many young men, he was imbued with the revolutionary spirit and ideas of democracy. For excessive freethinking, Dmitry Pospelov flew out of the first place of study, after which he entered the Tiflis Infantry School again. After completing his studies with honors, he entered the service in the Russian Imperial Army. In 1911, at his own request, he transferred to serve in the Caspian Sea, on the border. There he was sent to the 30th Transcaspian Border Brigade. Since 1913, he became its chief, receiving the rank of staff captain.
Under the leadership of Mikhail Dmitrievich, there were 5 border departments of land and sea protection: several detachments of cavalrymen, four boats and a whole destroyer "Sentinel". Pospelov's formation was supposed to control 100 versts of the border, fight offenders, smugglers and raiders from Kurdish tribes who attacked local villages with the aim of hijacking slaves. Mikhail Dmitrievich knew his service perfectly, for which all the bandits in the district called him "The Red Shaitan" with hatred. Pospelov received such a nickname for his red mustache. Colleagues spoke of the head of the border as an extremely reliable, honest, courageous person who did not take bribes. Together with Mikhail Dmitrievich on the border, his wife and his family: wife and two daughters.
"Here's what, guys: I won't give you a machine gun"
The revolution of 1917 in a natural way did not add peace on the border. When Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and the liberal Provisional Government took power in the country, the criminal element felt that his time had come. Mikhail Dmitrievich realized that big problems would begin soon. Pospelov went to Ashgabat, where through old acquaintances he got additional equipment for the outpost: a box of grenades, a stock mortar, a Lewis machine gun. Returning to the outpost, Pospelov turned it into a real fortress. The house was fortified with barricades. Our hero also taught his daughters and spouse to handle weapons, realizing that further the situation on the border would only get worse, and Pospelov was not mistaken.
Since there was a rare mess in the country, the already few border guards began to defect. Most simply feared for their lives: there were more and more bandits and smugglers. Any criminal element was not averse to getting even with the "regime's henchmen" in the person of customs officers. However, Mikhail Dmitrievich did not run from his duty station, remaining faithful to the oath and duty of the officer, despite the fact that the country in which he took this oath was no longer there. Several times the Basmachi came to Pospelov's house in a large detachment. Each time Mikhail Dmitrievich dug in and, bristling with machine guns and rifles in the hands of children and his wife, was ready to give battle. True, the Basmachi never dared to storm the fortified dwelling and get even for old insults with the tsarist customs officer.
A year passed, the October Revolution happened. Order in the country was not added, and soon the Civil War began altogether. All this time Pospelov remained to live on the border in his fortified house. Local residents went in all directions. Some went to the Reds, others to the Whites, and still others became bandits. The few former colleagues who remained in the region called Mikhail Dmitrievich to the Bolsheviks, then to the White movement, even Pospelov was called to the bandits, but the customs officer did not want to go anywhere.
"I am offended for the State"
The trouble came from where they did not expect: the bandits could not do anything with the brave border guard, but the former colleagues could do it. Taking advantage of the chaos of the civil war, a group of former border guards wanted to get even with Mikhail Dmitrievich for the fact that he himself did not take bribes and did not allow others. Pospelov was lured into a trap, beaten and put in a cellar. True, the former colleagues of the border guard could not kill outright, they began to drink vodka for courage and were too carried away. All this time the customs officer sat quietly in the basement. In the morning, the would-be avengers sober up and sank, the majority fled, and the few who remained with a sense of shame released Mikhail Dmitrievich.
Meanwhile, the situation on the border was getting worse and worse. Throughout the former empire, gangs ruled, reds and whites hacked each other, and the Entente powers began to intervene in the country of the Soviets. Then Mikhail Dmitrievich decided that the problem with gangs in conditions of anarchy can be treated in only one way - his own "gang"! Pospelov traveled around the entire district, gathered caring local residents and the remaining colleagues and put together a new border detachment, armed and trained him. Then he began to put things in order in the district: drive off the raiders, smugglers and Basmachi. Pospelov did not invent the bicycle, but simply formed several good old and time-tested cavalry border patrols.
After some time, the Civil War began to decline, the Bolsheviks were victorious: the white armies were defeated, and the interventionists were kicked out of the country, with Germany and Poland was peace is signed. It was then that the Reds came to the region. The 100 versts near the Caspian Sea, entrusted under the protection of the Tsar, made a strong impression on the commissars. Thanks to Pospelov's detachments, there was some kind of order and tranquility. Realizing that the anarchy is over and a new page in history begins in the history of the Fatherland, Mikhail Dmitrievich did not hesitate for a long time and went to serve the Reds in the Cheka. In 1921, the tsarist customs officer was appointed commander of the 1st border regiment in Ashgabat. In 1923, Pospelov was made head of the border training school, where he trained junior command officers. From 1925 to 1933, as part of the Cheka, the unyielding border guard took an active part in operations against the Basmachi in Central Asia.
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At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Mikhail Dmitrievich was 57 years old. The former tsarist customs officer was no longer subject to the call to the front. Instead, he was transferred to serve in the fire brigade of the city of Tashkent. There he served until his death. The real Vereshchagin died on August 10, 1962.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why did the tsarist generals join the ranks of the Red Army? and officers.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/290521/59141/
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