When it comes to Russia, many people may think of the word "belligerent", but when it comes to fighting, I am afraid that people will think of a special group of people, who are the famous Cossack cavalry. In the 18th century, Empress Catherine expanded into the Black Sea, and in the process, Cossack territory was incorporated into Tsarist territory. In the ensuing struggle against the Germans, this group of debauched, well-dressed, and ruthless steppe bandits left a deep impression on the whole of Europe.
Napoleon once said of the Cossack cavalry: "If I had Cossacks in my army, then I would use them to conquer the whole world." "After the annexation of the territory, the Cossacks were nominally loyal to the Tsar, but in fact they were not very loyal. No, after the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, the Cossacks did not hesitate to join the White Guard camp, and they inflicted great casualties on the young Soviet army. However, the days of cossack rampage did not last long, and soon their natural enemies appeared in the Soviet army, another group of top predators on the battlefield, the Kalmyks.
Throughout history, although the Russians bullied others mostly, they did not suffer less, and the biggest psychological shadow left on the Russians was the Mongols, who even coined a word called "Tatar shackles" to place their jealousy of the Mongolian iron horse. Immediately after the russian Empire turned around, it imposed a repressive policy on the Mongols, which directly led to the decline of the Mongol community. At the end of the "October Revolution", there were about seven or eight million Mongols in Soviet Russia, and the larger tribes included Kalmyks and Yakutia. The Kalmyks had always wanted to get rid of Tsarist rule, and immediately after the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, they immediately sided with the Soviet regime and naturally became opponents with the Cossacks.
The Kalmyks were all sincere, but in the first period of time, the Soviets did not take them very seriously, and even some Soviet generals were suspicious of them. At Tsaritsyn, General Snesarev, commander of the North Caucasus Theater, also bluntly said that the Kalmyks were unreliable and wanted to kick them out of the team, and at this juncture, it was Voroshilov who stood up and spoke harshly.
At that time, the situation in Tsaritsin was very chaotic, don't look at this place as the front line of resistance against the White Army, but the struggle of the real power bosses did not slow down at all. Trotsky was anxious to install manpower to embarrass Stalin, who had only nominal power, no soldiers under his hands, no stiff waist, and said that nothing counted. At the critical moment, Voroshilov passed by with the crippled 5th Army, and Voroshilov immediately became close allies, and Voroshilov gained considerable say. Therefore, when Snesarev tried to exclude the Kalmyks, Voroshilov relentlessly confronted him: "These Mongols are more useful than your guns!" "Don't look at Voroshilov's overall military talent is relatively mediocre, but he is really unique in his use of Kalmyk cavalry.
In August 1918, Kalmyk cavalry was placed in the Soviet army's ironclad train, the train patrolled the battlefield in a circle, and after a round of heavy machine gun and artillery fire, the cavalry in the carriage then poured out, and the lethality was amazing. This strange method of warfare broke through people's traditional understanding of cavalry and achieved miraculous results in one fell swoop. In October, a company of Mongol cavalry took the "Lenin" train to raid the White Army station, snatching two armored trains, and soon the Soviet army rushed to produce 6 more trains, which was bound to carry forward the "train cavalry" tactics. The ambitious Voroshilov excitedly told Stalin: "If I can have 100,000 Mongol cavalry, not only Tsarits, but also the entire Black Sea and the Caucasus will be at my fingertips!" The Kalmyks thus became the natural enemies of the Cossack cavalry, who held their breath but could not fight at all. They were sent to the most dangerous front lines to deal with the fierce enemy, and even many Cossack cavalry units were annihilated in formation.
The Kalmyks were instrumental in the Russian Civil War, after which the Russian government rewarded them with Cossack territory and in 1935 established the Autonomous Republic of Kalmykia. The once oppressed peoples became national heroes, and after the outbreak of World War II, the Kalmyks were planning to show their skills again, who expected that the German army's single-handed operation almost wiped them out.
It turned out that on August 12, 1942, after capturing Estana, the capital of the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic, the German army not only destroyed the collective farms carefully established by the Soviet Union, but also "generously" returned the land to the locals. For nomads, there is no freedom without land, and without freedom it is quite painful. Therefore, under the temptation of german hypocrisy, a considerable number of Kalmyks really surrendered, and they also contributed to help the German army establish a number of cavalry units, such as the German 103rd Mongol Battalion. When the news reached Moscow, Stalin was furious and immediately characterized the Kalmyks as "traitors" and ordered all the other ethnic groups to be exiled except the Kalmyks, who were now serving in the Soviet army.
At a critical moment of life and death, cavalry general Gorodovikov risked his life to make a military order, pleading with Stalin to open his eyes and express his willingness to pull up a team to serve the Soviet regime, saying that they would do whatever they wanted, without hesitation. The author believes that Stalin at this time is just a moment of irritation and says angry words, the good of the Kalmyk cavalry, he knows it in his heart. In the case of the Siege of Kiev, it was the Kalmyk cavalry that charged at the Germans in formation, using flesh and blood against the tanks, which forced a gap in the encirclement, allowing some important personnel to withdraw completely, and more than 10,000 Kalmyks died in this battle.
During the defense of Moscow, a limited number of Kalmyk cavalry troops launched more than a dozen charges against the Germans, completely flesh and blood, with heavy damage, and the former never showed a hint of timidity. Therefore, when General Gorodovikov made a statement, Stalin approved his request and stipulated that the number should be controlled to less than 2,000 people—a cavalry general in the hall, and the entire World War II had barely one regiment under his command.
On the battlefield, the Kalmyk cavalry encountered their old rival, the Cossacks. At that time, the Cossacks could be described as "many people", often with brigades and divisions as the organization. To boost morale, the Kalmyks hung genghis Khan's spiritual flag, shouted "For Stalin," and fought against an enemy force several times larger than themselves. Once again, the cossacks were inferior, and they even had to retreat to the rear. At the end of World War II, they came to Berlin with a large army, and it is worth mentioning that in order not to compete with the Soviet generals who were "rooted in the red seedlings" and not to arouse high-level suspicion, when the Soviet officers and soldiers shared the joy of victory in the city of Berlin, the Kalmyk regiment watched from a distance on the outskirts of the city; even if they later entered the city in a low-key manner, they did not share their apartments with the Soviet officers and men, but carefully found a place to live on the outskirts of the city.
With no troops to replenish, after the end of World War II, only about 700 men were left in the 2,000-strong force. The heroism of the Kalmyks only relieved Stalin, and after the war, the Soviet side did not carry out further liquidation, but also did not completely restore the reputation of the other side. It was not until after 1958, under the "investigation" of many parties, that the grievances of the Kalmyks in World War II were washed away, and on November 7 of that year, the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic was finally restored.