Signed Postogram to General Boris Egorovich Hartmann

One typewritten sheet, signed in ink by General Pyotr Wrangel. 13.5 × 21.5 cm. Signed message from General Wrangel to General Boris Hartmann, head of the Belgian department of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), thanking him and its members for their congratulations and good wishes. A signed communication from General Pyotr Wrangel to General Hartmann, one of the senior figures of the White Russian military emigration in Belgium and head of the local department of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). With the typed designation "General" followed by Wrangel's autograph signature, the document is dated 12 July 1927 at Brussels, where Wrangel had settled the previous year. Addressed simply to "General Hartmann," the document reads: "?? ???? ???? ????????? ??? ? ????? ? ?????? ...? ?? ???????????? ? ?????? ????????? ??? ????????? ?????? ? ????????? ????????." ("I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and the members of the ROVS department, for your congratulations and good wishes. I send my warmest greetings and best wishes.") The date, 12 July, was the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in the Russian Orthodox calendar (29 June Old Style) and thus Wrangel's name day; the message appears to have been sent in response to congratulations from Hartmann and his department for the occasion. Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (1878-1928) was one of the principal commanders of the White movement and the last commander-in-chief of its forces in southern Russia. In April 1920 he succeeded Anton Denikin and reorganized the remaining Armed Forces of South Russia as the Russian Army, which he commanded from Crimea until its defeat by the Red Army that November. Wrangel then organized the evacuation of the army and tens of thousands of civilians from Crimea. Unwilling to regard military defeat as the end of the struggle against Bolshevism, he sought in exile to preserve the Russian Army as an organized force and to maintain the political and military cohesion of the White emigration, establishing the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) in 1924. Wrangel consequently became one of the principal symbols of organized anti-Bolshevik resistance outside Soviet Russia. In 1926 he settled in Brussels, from where he continued to direct the organization until his death in April 1928. The recipient, Boris Egorovich (also Georgievich) Hartmann (1878-1950), was an Imperial Russian major general, former commander of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, and a veteran of the White movement. After representing the Armed Forces of South Russia in Great Britain from 1919 to 1924, he settled in Belgium and was appointed by Wrangel to head the V Department of the ROVS, responsible for Belgium and Luxembourg. He became one of the principal organizers of the Russian military emigration in Belgium and remained closely associated with the ROVS throughout his subsequent life. The present message thus documents a direct exchange between Wrangel, as founder and head of the ROVS, and the general responsible for its organization in Belgium, at a time when both men were based in Brussels. Hartmann remained a senior figure in the ROVS after Wrangel's death, later assisting its chairman General Alexei Arkhangelsky. In 1944, following Soviet demands for the extradition of ROVS leaders, Hartmann and Arkhangelsky were arrested by the Belgian authorities but subsequently released after an investigation found no evidence of collaboration between the organization's leadership and the Germans. Hartmann died in Menton in 1950. Provenance: General Boris Egorovich Hartmann, as recipient; later Andrei Vladimirovich Balashov; by descent; Cazo, Paris, Art Russe: Archives Andreï Balashov, 26 October 2021. Reference: Nikolaeva-Tendil, E. O. (2024, November 4). «???????? ??????», ??? ??????? ?? ???????: ?????????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ?????? ["Brotherly heart," or half a century in an attic: A unique history of the archives of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth]. ???????????? ?????????.…