Oρθοδοξία, Κομμουνισμός και Στρατοκρατία
Brusilov’s funeral in March 1926 revealed the attempts of the Soviet military establishment to co-opt certain aspects of his military glory. In the death announcement in Pravda on March 18, 1926, Kliment Voroshilov wrote the following:
The workers and peasants of the Soviet Union will not forget A. A. Brusilov. In their memory, his image will be surrounded by a bright halo, as a commander of the old army who was able to understand the significance of the social transformation that was occurring, and to elevate comprehension of the enthusiasm for the revolutionary defense of the Republic of Workers and Peasants.
Voroshilov argued that Brusilov would “live on” in the memory of workers and peasants, and in this way gain immortality in a Soviet civic context. The article also noted that the Revvoensovet would arrange for a personal pension for the Brusilov family and would pay funeral expenses. Brusilov was thus embraced as a member of the Soviet establishment who would be buried with official Soviet military honors.
Brusilov’s obituary recalled his connection to the Tsarist past. He was described as “one of the most outstanding commanders of the Russian army,” and it was noted that, “the name of Brusilov is connected to the summer offensive of 1916 that led to the breakthrough at Lutsk.”
The official state funeral of Brusilov accommodated his status as a World War I hero and a Tsarist officer as well as his position as a Soviet military official. The funeral was to take place in an Orthodox cemetery, yet Voroshilov had suggested that participating in the “revolutionary defense” of the nation was the best way to commemorate Brusilov’s memory.
On the day of the funeral, a military honor guard, including a company of infantry, a
squadron of cavalry, and a half-battery of artillery, arrived at Brusilov’s home to accompany the funeral procession to Novodevichii Cemetery. The delegation from Revvoensovet laid a wreath on the coffin that was inscribed: “To an honest representative of the old generation, who placed his battle experience at the service of the USSR and the Red Army. To A.A. Brusilov from the Revvoensovet.”
Yet Revvoensovet’s wreath was not the only decoration on Brusilov’s coffin. The casket was also covered with “wreaths of white flowers with ribbons of the order of St. George.” An article in a Russian émigré newspaper noted with satisfaction: “This was very likely the first time after the October Revolution that St. George ribbons appeared openly on the streets of Moscow."
Brusilov’s military successes in the Tsarist period were publicly acknowledged, and the procession was allowed to display both his Tsarist and Soviet honors. He was buried in 1926 explicitly as a military hero of both the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary eras.
The Soviet troops accompanied Brusilov’s coffin to the gates of the Novodevichii
Cemetery. There, the procession halted and three Soviet military officials Aleksandr Egorov, (representing Revvoensovet), Semion Budennyi, (representing the People’s Commissariat of Military and Naval Affairs) and G. Gai (representing the Frunze Military Academy) gave formal speeches about Brusilov’s contribution to the Soviet military. Although the Soviet government organized a state funeral, Voroshilov did not attend; Brusilov was valued by the Soviet state, but was not honored by the top Soviet military official.
G. Gai said, “Sleep peacefully outstanding general. Your victorious saber, covered with laurels, is now in trustworthy hands.” Gai thus publicly identified the Red Army as the legitimate heir to the Tsarist army. Brusilov’s success in World War I would be followed by the heroism and victory of the Red Army.
The coffin was then taken inside Novodevichii monastery, but Egorov, Budennyi and the Soviet troops remained standing at attention outside the gates. Gai, along with Brusilov’s relatives and friends accompanied the coffin to the grave. At the graveside, relatives and friends gave speeches that were not for Soviet public consumption; one speech expressed gratitude to Brusilov “in the name of the Slavonic peoples, for his battle against the Austro-Hungarian army." Another funeral oration celebrated Brusilov’s relationship with rank and file Russian soldiers. “The simple Russian soldier remembered his father-commander and forgetting himself, through a truly noble awakening, brought his labor to his father-commander.”
Both of these speeches demonstrate the persistence of unofficial and non-Soviet
remembrances of World War I. Soviet ideology explicitly rejected the notion that the
significance of the war was national liberation for Slavs; likewise the official narratives of the war almost unanimously condemned the Tsarist officer corps for its brutality towards the “simple Russian soldier.” The memory of Brusilov as a paternalistic and benevolent father-commander who could awaken the soldiers to loyalty and noble labor was a subversive reading of Brusilov’s life in the Soviet context. While Soviet officials took great care to prevent these ideas from being expressed in print as part of the official report of Brusilov’s funeral, they nonetheless gave Brusilov’s friends and relatives the time and space to remember him and the war in this most unofficial way.
After the speeches, the priest completed short prayers and the funeral service ended with the singing of the words “eternal memory” three times as Brusilov’s coffin was lowered into the grave. Outside the cemetery, Budennyi gave a signal and soldiers fired off a three shot salvo after each repetition of “eternal memory.” Brusilov’s widow noted that this ritual took place “exactly as in old times.” The Soviet army thus actively participated in a religious-military tradition from pre-revolutionary times in honor of Brusilov.
The remarkably hybrid nature of this ceremony and the active cooperation between
Soviet officials and the church reveals the complicated relationship of the Soviet government toward Brusilov’s military achievements as a Tsarist general. Because Brusilov supported the Soviet state, his glorious military career could be celebrated both as a Soviet career but also on its own terms as a reflection of an honorable Tsarist career. Because Brusilov passed his “laurel covered saber” to the Soviet state, in fact, he had to be recognized as an outstanding Tsarist general who had brought honor to the Tsarist military in an otherwise disastrous war. Brusilov’s legacy of Tsarist military success was so valued by the Soviet military establishment that it
allowed Brusilov to be buried as a Tsarist general, with the ribbons of the order of St. George in full sight, and in an Orthodox cemetery in accordance with full Orthodox rites. They even participated in the Tsarist military tradition of a gun salvo at the moment of interment at the end of the Orthodox funeral service. Like the World War I exhibit in the Military History Museum, the Brusilov funeral demonstrates the persistence of notions of Tsarist military valor in Soviet discourse of the 1920s.