West Siberian rebellion

Last updated
West Siberian rebellion
Date January 31, 1921 - December 1922
Location
West Siberia (Tyumen, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk), Northern Kazakhstan
Result

Green armies tactical victory

Uprising suppressed
Belligerents
Flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1918-1925).svg  Russian Soviet Socialist Republic Single Color Flag - 007500.svg Green armies
Commanders and leaders
Ivan Smirnov
Vasily Shorin
Ivan Pavlunovsky
Makar Vasiliev 		A. S. Korotkov †
Vasily Zheltovsky †
Stepan Danilov
Vladimir Rodin †
Strength
c. 100,000

The West Siberian rebellion was the largest of the Russian peasant uprisings against the nascent Bolshevik state. It began in early 1921 and was defeated at the end of 1922, due in part to the brutal repression of the militarily superior Red Army, and the famine that the region suffered.

Contents

Background

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian peasantry experienced two wars against the Russian state, both the product of revolutions and both ended with the imposition of state power: 1905–1907 and 1917–1922. [1]

Rebellions in Central and Eastern Siberia against whites

The rebellious peasants were always enemies of the whites. [2] The latter refused to accept land tenure reform and wanted revenge on the villagers for expropriating the land themselves in 1917. [3] Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak made the fatal mistake of winning the animosity of peasants, by restoring the rights of landowners. [4] Many Siberian villagers were descendants of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants who had fled from serfdom and had a strong love for their freedom. [5]

The guerrillas began shortly after the formation of their government, on August 31, 1918, in the rural areas near Slavgorod, Altai. But the problem worsened in early 1919. [6] The White Army began to carry out grain requisitions and a military draft, but most of their recruits deserted and numerous rear-guard revolts broke out (encouraged by Bolshevik activists, anarchists and left-wing SRs). [7] Taiga guerrillas were often led by deserters and sometimes joined scattered Red soldiers when the whites conquered the region in 1918, setting out to ambush units and cut off supply lines. [8] Kolchak resorted to terror to placate them. [9]

Last months of the Kolchak regime, with the withdrawal of his units, the revolts against him and the Soviet advance. KolchakInviernoDe19191920.svg
Last months of the Kolchak regime, with the withdrawal of his units, the revolts against him and the Soviet advance.

With its rear weakened by the wear and tear of the guerrillas [6] and being forced to distract its detachments in defending themselves against the peasantry, [10] the white regime could not stop the advance of 200,000 Bolsheviks, [11] who, on the other hand, knew how to add local partisans to their forces wherever they advanced. [12] [13] At the end of 1919, when the Siberian regime was totally defeated and disintegrated, [10] the autonomous bands from Central Siberia to Amur Oblast numbered more than 100,000 combatants. [6] [13] [10] [n. 1]

Fall of Kolchak and Bolshevik advance

When his forces withdrew in 1920, Kolchak faced numerous mutinies that joined the guerrillas, leaving his loyal few completely alone and condemned. [18] [19] The Eastern Front of the Red Army, under the command of Major General Vladimir Olderogge and formed by 70,000 soldiers, seized Tyumen and Kurgan and then attacked Petropavlovsk on August 25. In response, 58,000 targets commanded by General Mikhail Diterikhs fought back, seizing Tobolsk and driving the Bolsheviks across the Tobol River. On October 14 with 75,000 soldiers, Olderogge ordered a new offensive, forcing the 56,000 whites to withdraw from Petropavlovsk on October 29. Diterikhs suffered 5,000 dead and 8,000 prisoners. [12] After the defeat, the Bolshevik advance became unstoppable, as did the peasant guerrillas. Nearly 100,000 whites were killed, captured or deserted in the following months. Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk all fell into their hands. In early February 1920, after the Great Siberian Ice March 25,000 surviving white soldiers entered Irkutsk and soon fled to Chita. The withdrawal of the Japanese from Chitá, on October 21, 1920, and the consolidation of the Republic of the Far East made the guerrillas disappear from the region.

Between the late 1920s and early 1921, with the foreseeable defeat of the White Movement, the Red Army was in charge of subduing the unruly rural world. The latter was disunited in various movements led by its own atamans. [1]

Rebellion

On January 31, 1921, a small revolt broke out in the village of Chelnokovskom, in the Ishim province, which soon spread to the neighboring regions of Tyumen, Akmola , Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Tobolsk, Tomsk and Yekaterinburg, causing the Bolsheviks to lose control of Western Siberia, [20] from Kurgan to Irkutsk. [21] It was the largest green uprising, both by the number of rebels and their geographic extension, [22] and perhaps the least studied. [20] They dominated a population of three million four hundred thousand people. [23] Its causes were the aggressive searches carried out by the 35,000 soldiers of the "prodotriady" installed in Siberia after the defeat of Kolchak [24] and the violation of peasant democracy, since the Bolsheviks falsified the elections in the regional volost. [25] The main leaders of these bands were Semyon Serkov, Václav Puzhevsky, Vasily Zheltovsky, Timoféi Sitnikov, Stepan Danilov, Vladimir Rodin, Piotr Dolin, Grégory Atamanov, Afanasi Afanasiev and Petr Shevchenko. In charge of the Red revolutionary military council of the region was Ivan Smirnov, Vasili Shorin, Checkist Ivan Pavlunovsky and Makar Vasiliev.

Although sources vary the total number of peasants in arms from 30,000 to 150,000. [22] [21] Historian Vladimir Shulpyakov gives the figure of 70,000 or 100,000 men, [23] but the most likely figure is 55,000 to 60,000 rebels. [26] [27] [20] [28] [29] [30] [31] Many Cossacks from the region joined. [28] They controlled a total of twelve districts [27] [31] and occupied the cities of Ishim, Beryozovo, Obdorsk, Barabinsk, Kainsk, Tobolsk and Petropavlovsk, and seized the Trans-Siberian railway between February and March 1921. [32] [29] [30]

The desperate courage of these rebels led to a terrible campaign of repression by the Cheka. [26] The President of the Party in Siberia, Ivan Smirnov, estimated that up to March 12, 1921, 7,000 peasants had been murdered in the Petropavl region alone and another 15,000 in Ishim. [33] In the town of Aromashevo, between April 28 and May 1, the Red troops faced 10,000 peasants; 700 Greens died in combat, many drowned in rivers when they fled, and 5,700 were captured with many weapons and loot. For another two days the greens were endlessly hunted. The victory allowed the Reds to regain control of the north of Ishim. [34] Indeed, with these actions, together with the establishment of permanent garrisons, revolutionary committees and an espionage network, the capture of several leaders - granting amnesties in exchange for handing over former comrades, mass executions, taking hostages of family members, and artillery bombardments of entire villages, the major operations ended and the rebels turned to guerrilla warfare. In December 1922 reports stated that "banditry" had all but disappeared. [35]

End

The abandonment of the Prodrazvyorstka and the adoption of the New Economic Policy (NEP) was key to its submission. [21] The last insurgent foci were crushed at the end of 1922 in Ishim, after a ferocious repression [36] and a devastating famine that wiped out the farmers. [37] [38] New anti-communist guerrillas would only emerge with the invasion of Nazi Germany. [n. 2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Civil War</span> Multi-party war in the former Russian Empire (1917–1923)

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the overthrowing of the social-democratic 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petropavl</span> City in North Kazakhstan Region, Kazakhstan

Petropavl ; Russian: Петропавловск, romanized: Petropavlovsk) is a city on the Ishim River in northern Kazakhstan close to the border with Russia. It is the capital of the North Kazakhstan Region. Population: 218,956. The city is also known colloquially in Kazakh as Qyzyljar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Siberia</span> Aspect of Russian history

The early history of Siberia was greatly influenced by the sophisticated nomadic civilizations of the Scythians (Pazyryk) on the west of the Ural Mountains and Xiongnu (Noin-Ula) on the east of the Urals, both flourishing before the common era. The steppes of Siberia were occupied by a succession of nomadic peoples, including the Khitan people, various Turkic peoples, and the Mongol Empire. In the Late Middle Ages, Tibetan Buddhism spread into the areas south of Lake Baikal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irakli Tsereteli</span> Georgian politician (1881–1959)

Irakli Tsereteli was a Georgian politician and a leading spokesman of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia and later Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) during the era of the Russian Revolutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far Eastern Republic</span> 1920–1922 buffer state in the Russian Far East

The Far Eastern Republic, sometimes called the Chita Republic, was a nominally independent state that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the Russian Far East. Although nominally independent, it largely came under the control of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which envisaged it as a buffer state between the RSFSR and the territories occupied by Japan during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. Its first president was Alexander Krasnoshchyokov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White movement</span> Anti-Bolshevik movement during the Russian Civil War

The White movement, also known as the Whites, was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the communist Bolsheviks, also known as the Reds, in the Russian Civil War (1917–1923) and that to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations of rebels both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945). The movement's military arm was the White Army, also known as the White Guard or White Guardsmen.

The Green armies, also known as the Green Army or Greens (Зелёные), were armed peasant groups which fought against all governments in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922. The Green armies were semi-organized local militias that opposed the Bolsheviks, Whites, and foreign interventionists, and fought to protect their communities from requisitions or reprisals carried out by third parties. The Green armies were politically and ideologically neutral, but at times associated with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. The Green armies had at least tacit support throughout much of Russia. However, their primary base, the peasantry, were largely reluctant to wage an active campaign during the Russian Civil War and eventually dissolved following Bolshevik victory in 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tambov Rebellion</span> 1920–1921 peasant revolt in the Russian Civil War

The Tambov Rebellion of 1920–1922 was one of the largest and best-organized peasant rebellions challenging the Bolshevik government during the Russian Civil War. The uprising took place in the territories of the modern Tambov Oblast and part of the Voronezh Oblast, less than 500 kilometres (300 mi) southeast of Moscow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Terror</span> Campaign of political repression and executions in Russia by the Bolsheviks (1918–1922)

The Red Terror was a campaign of political repression and executions in Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine, as well as occupied territories in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland, which was carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It officially started in early September 1918 and lasted until 1922. Arising after assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin and Trotsky along with the successful assassinations of Petrograd Cheka leader Moisei Uritsky and party editor V. Volodarsky in alleged retaliation for Bolshevik mass repressions, the Red Terror was modeled on the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, and sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power. The decision to enact the Red Terror was also driven by the initial 'massacre of their "Red" prisoners by the office-cadres during the Moscow insurrection of October 1917', allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the large-scale massacres of Reds during the Finnish Civil War in which 10,000 to 20,000 revolutionaries had been killed by the Finnish Whites.

Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. It culminated during the Stalin era, then declined, but it continued to exist during the "Khrushchev Thaw", followed by increased persecution of Soviet dissidents during the Brezhnev era, and it did not cease to exist until late in Mikhail Gorbachev's rule when it was ended in keeping with his policies of glasnost and perestroika.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Army</span> Army/faction in the Russian Civil War

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.

Anarchism in Russia developed out of the populist and nihilist movements' dissatisfaction with the government reforms of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Terror (Russia)</span> Persecution by the White Army during the Russian Civil War

The White Terror in Russia refers to the violence and mass killings carried out by the White Army during the Russian Civil War (1917–23). It began after the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917, and continued until the defeat of the White Army at the hands of the Red Army. The Red Terror started a year after the initial White Terror in early September 1918 in response to several planned assassinations of Bolshevik leaders and the initial massacres of Red prisoners in Moscow and during the Finnish Civil War. According to some Russian historians, the White Terror was a series of premeditated actions directed by their leaders. although this is contested by most Russian historians who view it as spontaneous and disorganized. Estimates for those killed in the White Terror vary between 20,000 and 100,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion</span> 1918–1920 Russian Civil War campaign

The revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion comprised the armed actions of the Czechoslovak Legion in the Russian Civil War against Bolshevik authorities, beginning in May 1918 and persisting through evacuation of the Legion from Siberia to Europe in 1920. The revolt, occurring in Volga, Ural, and Siberia regions along the Trans-Siberian Railway, was a reaction to a threat initiated by the Bolsheviks partly as a consequence of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. One major secondary consequence of victories by the Legion over the Bolsheviks was to catalyze anti-Bolshevik activity in Siberia, particularly of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, and to provide a major boost for the anti-Bolshevik or White forces, likely protracting the Russian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Constituent Assembly</span> Constituent Assembly of the Russian Republic

The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., 18–19 January [O.S. 5–6 January] 1918, whereupon it was dissolved by the Bolshevik-led All-Russian Central Executive Committee, proclaiming the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets the new governing body of Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Kolchak</span> Russian admiral and polar explorer (1874–1920)

Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was a Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer who held the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia from 1918 to 1920 during the Russian Civil War, though his actual control over Russian territory was limited. Previously, he served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kronstadt rebellion</span> 1921 anti-Bolshevik revolt in Russia

The Kronstadt rebellion was a 1921 insurrection of Soviet sailors, naval infantry, and civilians against the Bolshevik government in the Russian port city of Kronstadt. Located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, Kronstadt defended the former capital city, Petrograd, as the base of the Baltic Fleet. For sixteen days in March 1921, rebels in Kronstadt's naval fortress rose in opposition to the Soviet government they had helped to consolidate. Led by Stepan Petrichenko, it was the last major revolt against Bolshevik rule on Russian territory during the Russian Civil War.

The 29th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army.

Red Partisans is a 1924 Soviet silent war film directed by Vyacheslav Viskovsky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapan rebellion</span> Peasant Rebellion (1919)

The Chapan rebellion was one of the largest peasant uprising against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Taking place in March-April 1919, the uprising covered the territory of Syzran, Sengileevsky, Karsunsky districts of Simbirsk and the Stavropol and Melekessky districts of Samara. It got its name from the clothes of the rebels: the chapan - a winter coat, made of sheepskin, a special robe belted with a sash, a popular clothing among the peasants of the region during cold weather. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and its participants, mostly peasants, were subjected to terror and mass repression.

References

  1. 1 2 Safonov 1998.
  2. ↑ Figes 1996, pp. 742, 823.
  3. ↑ Figes 1996, pp. 620, 628, 780.
  4. ↑ Werth 1999, p. 100.
  5. ↑ Figes 1996, p. 716.
  6. 1 2 3 Bullock 2012, p. 33.
  7. ↑ Figes 1996, p. 717.
  8. ↑ Figes 1996, p. 718.
  9. ↑ Figes 1996, pp. 717, 719.
  10. 1 2 3 Poliakov 1987, p. 161.
  11. ↑ McGuire Mohr 2012, p. 162.
  12. 1 2 Naumov 2006, p. 174.
  13. 1 2 Nenarokov 1968, p. 138.
  14. ↑ Heaton 2008, p. 244.
  15. ↑ Levine 2010, p. xxi.
  16. ↑ Stackelberg 2002, p. 211.
  17. ↑ Adams 2008, p. 23.
  18. ↑ Figes 1996, p. 719.
  19. ↑ Naumov 2006, p. 173.
  20. 1 2 3 Figes 1996, p. 819.
  21. 1 2 3 Naumov 2006, p. 176.
  22. 1 2 Shishkin 2001, p. 137.
  23. 1 2 Shulpyakov 2004, p. 224.
  24. ↑ Naumov 2006, pp. 174–175.
  25. ↑ Naumov 2006, p. 175.
  26. 1 2 Avrich 2014, p. 15.
  27. 1 2 Conquest 1987, p. 51.
  28. 1 2 Forsyth 1994, p. 235.
  29. 1 2 Hosking 1993, p. 77.
  30. 1 2 Phillips 2000, p. 56.
  31. 1 2 Roberts & LaFollette 1990, p. 78.
  32. ↑ Brovkin 2015, p. 380.
  33. ↑ Klimin 2004, p. 333.
  34. ↑ Bouchard 2003, p. 38.
  35. ↑ Heath, Nick (October 4, 2011). "The West Siberian uprising, 1921-1922". Libcom.org. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
  36. ↑ Figes 1996, p. 835.
  37. ↑ Figes 1996, pp. 835–836.
  38. ↑ Werth 1999, p. 118.
  39. ↑ Smith 2002, p. 24.
  40. ↑ Misiunas & Taagepera 1983, p. 84.
  41. ↑ Werth 1999, p. 263.

Notes

  1. ↑ The USSR did not use as many guerrillas again until the "Great Patriotic War". Between 1941 and 1943, they went from 30,000 to 200,000, [14] and in 1944 at least 200,000 to 250,000 and perhaps up to 350,000 partisans fought in the west of the USSR and the east of Poland against Nazi Germany. These partisans included 20,000 to 25,000 Jews, apart from 10,000 family members who had lived with them in the camps and survived the Holocaust. [15]
    Similar movements were experienced in other countries under German occupation: 200,000 in France, [16] 200,000 in Italy and 300,000 in Yugoslavia. [17]
  2. ↑ During the occupation of the Baltic Republics in 1940 the Soviets sent 25,000 soldiers to Estonia, 30,000 to Latvia and 20,000 to Lithuania. [39] Guerrilla fighting in the Baltics lasted from 1945 until 1952 and had 100,000 Lithuanian, 40,000 Latvian and 30,000 Estonian partisans hidden in the forests. [40] There was also the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, active until 1949. [41]

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.