Not much is said about the period of red terror in Crimea. It is known that in mid-November (the 14th day) in 1920 the last steamboat with the military of the Wrangel army set off from the Gulf of Feodosia. Only a few hours passed, and the ships met with other ships carrying Crimean refugees - people were urgently evacuated from Yalta, Kerch, and Simferopol. Having united, a group of ships headed towards Constantinople.
What is it about
The Red Terror in Crimea is punitive measures organized in this area in order to ensure the power of the Soviets. The start was laid to them in the 17th year, the period of terror ended at about 21st. It is historically customary to divide this long time period into two. At first chaos reigned after the revolution, and in the winter of 17-18 there was the first case of mass terror in a new country. The second began in November 20th and lasted a little over a year. At that time, all those whom Soviet power regarded as class enemies were massively killed on the lands of the peninsula. Those who could not evacuate with Wrangel suffered.
For the 1st stage of red terror in Crimea, numerous lynching is characteristic. They were largely due to the agitation of left radicals. The unjustified extremism of that time and the lack of real strict power in the Crimean lands turned out to be the starting conditions for the death of many innocent people. In the years 20-21, the events were a consequence of direct instructions from the ruling structures - the leaders of the Bolshevik party. Subsequent historical Soviet studies mainly circumvented the topic of what happened in Crimea, ignoring the period of the formation of Soviet power.
Theory and practice
For the revolutionaries of our country, terror has traditionally been considered a theoretically sound method that is absolutely acceptable for achieving great good goals. Not only were the Bolsheviks known for this attitude to this measure - the Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists also approved certain options and influences. The Bolshevik party was distinguished by the fact that in theory it denied the possibility of using individual terror. Which, however, did not prevent them from implementing such measures in practice. But the mass was justified in theory, and applicable in reality. The main documentation of the party contained provisions that allowed the application of such a measure at a time when the battle between classes escalated, that is, it seemed to fit perfectly, it would seem, into proletarian revolutionary events. For the predominant percentage of the Bolsheviks, terror became a tactic to achieve the desired - enemies were destroyed, and the undecided and weak were scared.
As one can conclude from the slogans under which the revolution began, initially the Bolshevik activists were ready for a large-scale civil clash, which could subsequently be inflated before the world revolution. Terror always accompanies civil wars - this is known from the history of different countries. However, when the Civil War ended, the idea of terror still seemed good to those in power - after all, certain political goals remained unattained.
17th year and the new government
By the end of this year, in the Crimean territories, political sentiment has changed greatly in favor of the left. If in the summer elections almost all the local people spoke out not in favor of the Bolshevik authorities and only in Sevastopol one representative of this party managed to break through, then the situation changed in the winter, the new authorities received the support of the inhabitants of almost all large settlements of Crimea. Toward the end of this year, there were three power centers in Crimea. The traditional authorities, unions, workers' councils, committees, city councils were active. They did not consider the October coup real; they called themselves the Tauride Council. He was first elected on 11/20/17. This assembly adhered to all-Russian positions, condemning the actions of the Bolshevik Party.
The second center of that time was Kurultay. Its representatives opposed the transfer of power to the Soviets. Kurultay supported the idea of Crimea becoming independent.
Finally, there was the Sevastopol Council. Then came the revolutionary of Crimea. These structures were controlled by the forces of the Bolsheviks, the Left Social Revolutionaries. They rejected two other centers of power. If the disagreements with the first were categorical, with the second revolt and the councils could still contact on individual points, issues, from time to time making short alliances.
Additional factor
To some extent, the Provisional Government pushed the Red Terror in Crimea to the Bolsheviks. In fact, it did not have a special power, but tried to prove its rights to such. Such an abundance of people who want to take control of the peninsula has caused chaos. Instead of some kind of power, absolute anarchy reigned. Politically, Crimea became the location of the struggle of nationalists and Bolsheviks. The officers, the socialist movements, who resisted both, almost eliminated the conflict issues. At the same time, there were also two forces that opposed violence, but both of them were distinguished by weakness and a small number of followers. We are talking about the Mensheviks, people's socialists. Others sought violence as the most effective means of achieving the desired, and the Bolsheviks were the first.
First events
The establishment of Soviet power in Crimea took place gradually. In the 17th of October 6-10 they organized a ship congress and decided to send sailors towards the Don, who would help establish themselves in the Soviet regime and suppress the movements opposing the revolution. Officers and command of the fleet spoke out against such an event; their position was assessed as counter-revolutionary. From the 15th of the same month, they began to arbitrarily arrest those who seemed insufficiently loyal to the Soviet regime. Soon the Black Sea people were defeated. The command was blamed for this; near Tikharetskaya one of the four officers was shot. On December 10, ten sailors who died in the fight against the Cossacks arrived in Sevastopol. A day later, the living arrived. The funeral turned into a demonstration, the participants of which demanded the killing of officers. On December 12, this happened - with an officer at Fidonisi. When the warrant officer made a remark to the stoker, who did his job poorly, he attacked him and killed him.
Remembering the events of 1905, the 12th, they did not pull too much with reprisals against the commanding staff. If previously the rebellious sailors were shot, now they decided to kill all those who were then involved in the case from the opposite side. Both maritime and land personnel were affected. Only on the 15th number of the executed there were 32 people. The bodies were thrown into the water. In total, 128 people from among the commanding personnel lost their lives in Sevastopol during that time. On the 16th, the Soviets criticized the murder, while contemporaries noted that the Bolsheviks suggested such a development.
Early 18th
The end of December of the previous year was marked by elections, during which the main positions passed into the hands of the Social Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. Revolutionary committees began to appear throughout the peninsula, which were given the authority of the councils. From that moment on, the establishment of Soviet power in the Crimea and Bolshevik superiority did not raise any doubts. At the beginning of the 18th, the Executive Committee turned to the councils, proposing to begin work on the creation of a guard that would protect the area from opponents of the revolution, regardless of their flag. On the 12th, they opened a headquarters, where participants were sent from the revolutionary committees, councils, factory committees. However, the participants were so disagreeing with each other that the idea was a failure. Another weakness was the lack of technical capabilities, a strict management system.
This period of the history of Crimea is known for its severity for the population, who suffered most from the chaos caused by the many rushing to power. In fact, the only one who could control someone at the moment was Centroflot. This body received command from the congress of the navy of the entire state at the beginning of the same 18th. Centroflot was like advice in its organizational structure. In fact, he became a political organ, a command agency, had an administrative apparatus and subjugated the managers of the Black Sea fleet, which meant communications, infrastructure. They tried to take control of the sailor’s freemen, to define the framework, but the forcible flow was too powerful, the Bolsheviks were not one of those who could control it.
Fights and control
Influencing the further history of Crimea, the Civil War on the territory of the peninsula unfolded at the end of the 17th, when representatives of the SOR fought with groups that held to Bolshevik ideas. Fights affected Yalta, were noted in Evpatoria. Other settlements suffered. By the middle of the first month of the 18th, military national operations swept the entire peninsula, the Russians fought with the Tatars. The former predominantly favored advice, while the latter advocated the need for a regional government. At the same time, councils were introduced in coastal cities in the same way: first, those who were faithful to the regional authorities were introduced into the city, the councils were dissolved, garrisons set up in favor of the Bolsheviks lost their weapons. This provoked the issuance of orders to the fleet, so ships approached the city. Sometimes the initiators were local Bolsheviks who sent personal requests. Landing from the ships, supported by the Bolsheviks and lovers of robbery, burst into the city, the resistance of the regional government broke in a matter of hours. The reprisal began on all who came under the arm.
Evpatoria: new authorities
The Red Terror in Yevpatoria is explained by active local resistance - officers, the Crimean Tatars opposed the Soviets. They began to disarm the local units in favor of the Bolsheviks. In January 18th, unidentified individuals brutally killed Karaev. Two ships and one and a half thousand sailors and other military men came out in support of the Bolshevik regime. At first, the city was fired from cruising guns, only after that the soldiers were landed on the ground. The repression in the city turned out to be very large. 46 officer combatants seized and drowned relatives in front of the eyes. About eight hundred people were arrested as opponents of the revolution, the bourgeois. A commission was made on the spot that determined the degree of guilt. The prisoners were placed in the hold. In the first three days, about 300 people were brutally killed, and their bodies dropped into the sea. Further executions continued by local activists - in the city, in landfills, in the streets, near houses. Yevpatoria is the only city on the peninsula where the destruction of imaginary opponents took place with the participation of the Soviet leadership, and not only with the efforts of the lumpen and nameless sailors.
Theodosius under control
The Red Terror in Feodosia began with the arrival of the ship Fidonisi, on board of which there were sailors controlled by a follower of anarchism Mokrousov, determined to create a revolution by all means. They landed the landing. The sailors found sailors and immediately killed those who were found - it is still unknown how many people died so much, but some historians believe that at least 63. However, there was no further extermination of the inhabitants, since the local council was under the control of the doctor Constance, who spoke in alliance with the commandant Barsov. Both of them spoke out in the sense that all the local enemies of the revolution are their own, therefore no visiting revolutionaries have the right to fight them.
Yalta: a bloody nightmare
In this resort city, by tradition, there were many officers who underwent rehabilitation due to earlier injuries. For this reason, the red terror in Yalta turned out to be bloody, terrifying. The sailors , determined to support the revolution, entered into battles with the Crimean Tatars. The fighting began on the 9th, ended by the 17th of the first month of the 18th year. The forces of water aviation were used, they used artillery guns mounted on ships. Having seized the city, the Red Guard, the sailors, began to prey on the locals - first for officers, then for all in a row. People were killed on the streets. According to later researchers of those events, often the only purpose of the murder was robbery. There were at least 80 casualties of those days. If we take into account the deaths in the following days in nearby settlements, at least two hundred.
Simferopol
The Red Terror in Simferopol was due to the fact that it was in this city that the headquarters of the military structures, the main units of the SNP and Kurultai, opposed the Bolshevik authorities. Sailors, the Red Guard, who supported the Soviets, came out of Sevastopol. Soon after this news, a pro-Soviet uprising began. By January 14, all authorities opposed to the Bolsheviks had been liquidated; detachments from Sevastopol entered the city. They began to arrest and kill people - primarily officers and rather wealthy, well-known local residents. In the first few days without trial, at least two hundred people were killed.
Historical Event Analysis
Since the mass terror in Crimea is significant for the history of the country, it was studied by certain researchers who had access to this information, which was closed during the Soviet period. During the formation of the Soviets, what was happening on the peninsula was comparable in scale to the war. The terror was mainly realized by the hands of sailors who were like criminals, as well as by lumpen from the local population. Although they considered themselves Bolsheviks, there was no talk of any ideology, and these people had no relation to the party. The proletariat, adequate naval commands did not participate in the red terror in Kerch and other settlements. Moreover, sometimes they opposed, protecting the locals.
In those days, anyone could put on a uniform and start killing and robbing people. The criminals sought to kill the propertied people in order to share their wealth. This happened with xenophobia, castes, poverty, as well as the general cruelty characteristic of wartime. In addition, the terrorists were afraid of the opponents, so they took the first step so that no one could oppose.
Explanation of facts
When in Soviet times the questions of red terror were raised (in Sevastopol, Simferopol and other settlements), mainly scientists proposed to consider what happened as a spontaneous activity of the people, provoked by the bourgeois layer, hiding behind organizational backs before that. The masses, as Soviet historians said, were exhausted from the yoke of hatred and cruelty and opposed. Of course, there were disagreements with such calculations, but their number was insignificant, their voices did not interest anyone.
As the situation progresses, terror converges with the local politics of the Bolsheviks. In February there was a new outbreak provoked by SNK decree. In total, over a thousand people and more were injured during that time, of which the main percentage were naval officers. It was because of the terror that many survivors turned to the white movement. The corps of officers suffered heavy losses. The survivors left the fleet and left the Crimea, so the combat effectiveness decreased to zero. Demobilized sailors became extremists. These were mainly people from Novorossiysk villages, and in their native places they actively arranged everything in accordance with the new government, organizing semi-robber detachments. It is believed that it was because of this that the fighting here was especially fierce.
20-21 years
When the Polish conflict ended in a ceasefire, the Soviets regrouped their troops in order to fight the Wrangel army in the Crimean territories. 09.21.20 created the Southern Front. By November 7, the offensive began. Three days later, White retreated from Sivash, the next day - from the positions of Yinshun. Wrangel decided to evacuate the military. By about the 17th, most of the inhabited cities were under the fifth of Soviet power. The surrenders were promised amnesty. It was first proposed back in April of that year, and in mid-September, an appeal was written through newspapers. In December of the same year, the Crimean emergency commission was established. To organize the process, they attracted Bela Kun, Zemlyachka, Pyatakova. It is these three leaders who are considered the main ones responsible for the Red Terror, the scale of which to this day horrifies historians who believe that there have simply been no such moments before - in no country in the entire period of civilization's existence.
The total red terror in Crimea in 1920-1921, from November to March, was the time when 1360 people arrived to lead the process. They were all sent, declaring the local leadership "soft-bodied" in order to "put things in order." They created several independent bodies whose work was not coordinated.
KrymChK: features
This commission, created to carry out the Red Terror in Crimea in 1920-1921, the commission began to work on the 9th of the last month of the 20th year. It was a territorial unit of the emergency of the all-state level. The chairmanship was given to Kaminsky. On the 21st of the same month they gathered a college. Kaminsky's position soon passed to Redens. His representatives were sent to the counties of the peninsula. Redes worked at the Cheka in Simferopol. In April of the 21st, they decided to abandon special departments and reorganize the Cheka run by him. The Crimean Cheka had its own warriors.
This structure especially appreciated the denunciation and promoted it among the local population, urging the citizen to fulfill his duty. The calls were not in vain; many arrests and tribunals were organized. It is known that a huge number of executions happened precisely because of neighboring denunciations, information from colleagues who simply settled accounts with private people. The total number of victims is estimated at 120-150 thousand people.