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Kolchak Coup | |||||||
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Part of the Russian Civil War | |||||||
Admiral Kolchak at the center of his inner circle, 1918. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
| Provisional All-Russian Government
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Alexander Kolchak Vyacheslav Volkov | Nikolai Avksentiev | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 killed battalion surrendered |
The Kolchak Coup or Omsk Coup [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] refers to the events of 18 November 1918, when members associated with the left wing of the Directory (Provisional All-Russian Government) were arrested by members of the White Army in Omsk and the subsequent decision of the All-Russian Council of Ministers to transfer sole supreme power to Alexander Kolchak, the Minister of Military and Naval Affairs.
According to Russian historian Valentina Dmitrievna Zimina , the events that took place in Omsk on 18 November 1918 were generally the result of the struggle between two systems of government that unfolded after the overthrow of Soviet power in the Volga region and Siberia: the Omsk non-party “right” principle, personified by the Provisional Siberian Government, and the Samara narrow-party “left” principle represented by KOMUCH. [6] [7]
On the night of 17 November, an incident occurred that seemed insignificant to eyewitnesses: at a city banquet in honor of the French General Janin, three high-ranking Cossack officers - the head of the Omsk garrison, Colonel of the Siberian Cossack Army Vyacheslav Ivanovich Volkov. The Directory, several of whom were members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was irritated as Russian military sergeants demanded the Russian Imperial Anthem "God Save the Tsar!" to be performed. The Directory ordered the arrest of the military sergeants for “inappropriate behavior”.
Without waiting for their own arrest, Volkov then carried out the arrest of the left wing of the Provisional All-Russian Government instead.
Not a single military unit came out in support of the Directory. The Directory security battalion, consisting of Socialist Revolutionaries, was proactively disarmed by military members as part of the coup. Kolchak did not personally participate in the coup, but was informed by the conspirators. [8]
The next morning, the Council of Ministers met after the arrest of the Social Revolutionaries, the ministers decided on the need to assume full supreme power and then transfer it to an elected person who would lead on the principles of unity of command. The election was held on a secret ballot using closed notes and Admiral Alexander Kolchak was chosen. [9]
Kolchak was promoted to full admiral, the exercise of supreme state power was transferred to him and he was awarded the title of Supreme Ruler. All the armed forces of the state were subordinate to him. The Supreme Ruler was given the authority to take any measures, even emergency ones, to ensure the armed forces, as well as to establish civil order and legality.
Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov was a Russian military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I. He served as Supreme Commander of the Russian Army and as the military leader of the Whites in the Russian Civil War. He is particularly remembered for the Kornilov affair, an unsuccessful coup d’etat against the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. The event became a significant turning point in the Russian Revolution, strengthening the Bolsheviks' position and influence.
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. It resulted in the formation of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and later the Soviet Union in most of its territory. Its finale marked the end of the Russian Revolution, which was one of the key events of the 20th century.
Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov, or Semenov, was a Japanese-supported leader of the White movement in Transbaikal and beyond from December 1917 to November 1920, a lieutenant general, and the ataman of Baikal Cossacks (1919). He was the commander of the Far Eastern Army during the Russian Civil War. He was also a prominent figure in the White Terror. U.S. Army intelligence estimated that he was responsible for executing 30,000 people in one year.
The White Army or White Guard, also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. They fought against the Red Army of Soviet Russia.
The Russian Civil War spread to the east in May 1918, with a series of revolts along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the part of the Czechoslovak Legion and officers of the Russian Army. Provisional anti-Bolshevik local governments were formed in many parts of Siberia and the Russian Far East during that summer in the wake of the Czechoslovak Legion uprising, including in Samara, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok.
The Provisional All-Russian Government, informally known as the Directory, the Ufa Directory, or the Omsk Directory, was a short-lived government of the Russian State during the Russian Civil War, formed on 23 September 1918 at the State Conference in Ufa as a result of a forced and extremely unstable compromise of various anti-Communist forces in eastern Russia. It was dissolved two months later after the coup, which had brought Admiral Alexander Kolchak to power in Communist-free areas of eastern Russia. It was meant to be a continuation of the original Russian Provisional Government that was overthrown during the October Revolution in 1917.
Viktor Nikolayevich Pepelyayev was a Russian politician, a supporter of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, a key perpetrator of the White Terror, and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the State of Russia.
The White movement in Transbaikal was a period of the confrontation between the Soviets and the Whites over dominance in Transbaikal from December 1917 to November 1920.
Nikolai Dimitrovich Avksentyev was a leading member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). He was one of the 'Heidelberg SRs', like Vladimir Zenzinov. These SRs were influenced by neo-Kantian philosophy and Marxism. As Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government, he headed the Russian state from September 23 to November 18, 1918. He was overthrown and arrested by the Minister of War, Alexander Kolchak, who proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
The Siberian Army was an anti-Bolshevik army during the Russian Civil War, which fought from June 1918 – July 1919 in Siberia – Ural Region.
The Provisional Siberian Government was a short-lived government in Siberia created by political Whites in 1918.
Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was a Russian navy officer and polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia in 1918, he headed a military dictatorship, which ruled over the territory of the former Russian Empire controlled by the Whites. He was a proponent of Russian nationalism and militarism, while he opposed democracy as a principle which he believed to be tied to pacifism, internationalism and socialism. As the principal leader of the White movement, he was one of the key architects of the White Terror.
The 5th Pri-Amur Corps was a formation of the Siberian Army, part of the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Russian Civil War. It primarily operated in the Transbaikal region and was headquartered in the city of Chita. The 5th Corps was formed from the Transbaikal Cossacks and various other volunteer forces fighting under Ataman (chief) Grigory Semyonov, as part of his Special Manchurian Unit.
Leonid Aleksandrovich Ustrugov was a Russian railway engineer who served as the Minister of Railways in the White government of Admiral Alexander Kolchak during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920. He later became a victim of Stalin's Great Purge.
The Russian State was a White Army anti-Bolshevik state proclaimed by the Act of the Ufa State Conference of September 23, 1918, “On the formation of the all-Russian supreme power” in the name of “restoring state unity and independence of Russia” affected by the revolutionary events of 1917, the October Revolution and the signing of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany.
The Supreme Ruler of Russia, also referred to as the Supreme Leader of Russia, was the head of state and supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian State, an anti-Bolshevik government established by the White Movement during the Russian Civil War. For nearly two years from November 1918 until April 1920, the armies of the White Movement were nominally united under the administration of the Russian State, during which the Russian State claimed to be the sole legal government of Russia. The office's sole holder for most of its existence, and the only one to officially adopt the titles and functions of the Supreme Ruler, was Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who was elected to the position by the All-Russian Council of Ministers following the November 18 coup which overthrew the Directory.
The Bashkir Government was the supreme executive authority of Bashkiria.
Pyotr Vasilievich Vologodsky was a Russian statesman, public figure, and mason. He was the first chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian state and the second and last chairman of the Provisional Siberian government.
Sergei Nikolaevich Rozanov was a lieutenant general, a leader of the White movement.
The Russian Government was the highest executive body in White-controlled parts of Russia during the Russian Civil War, formed as a result of the coup of 18 November 1918 in Omsk headed by Alexander Kolchak.