The civil war in the Far East, which began against the backdrop of the coup that took place in St. Petersburg in the 17th year, was mainly aimed at confronting the new system of government. As soon as the revolutionaries seized the metropolitan areas, the opposing counter-revolution movement raised its head all over the country, but it had particular strength in the Siberian regions and further east. Consider the main historical milestones of the event.
How it all began
Soviet authorities seized rule in the 17th, and at the end of this year, the Civil War in the Far East was already gaining momentum. In the December cold, the junkers began a rebellion in Omsk lands and Irkutsk, and in Orenburg, the Dutov led the opposing forces - so the Cossacks also joined the battle. From the Cossacks of Transbaikalia, the troops advanced under the leadership of Semenov, from the Amur side they chose Gamow as the main, from Ussuriysk - Horvat. Soon they gathered the Siberian Congress. Then they took the first measures to combat the Bolsheviks at the regional level. The congress was held in an emergency format. Geographically, Tomsk was the most suitable for him, where the opposition leaders gathered. The event was held on December 6-15.
An important step of the Civil War in the Far East was the adoption of a decision on the new government within the framework of the agreed congress. The participants decided that the region does not recognize the Bolsheviks and the new structure, cannot entrust them with the management of the regions. Based on this, an interim council was formed, in which Potanin took the lead. Mostly the Socialist Revolutionaries formed a council. It was planned to give his powers to the Duma of Siberia in the future, but so far it was yet to be convened. The second half of the next month was chosen as the formation time.
Structures and authorities
The Duma of Siberia, organized as part of the resistance and the Civil War in the Far East, was initially supposed to be responsible for creating a government that would be entrusted with executive powers. On a frosty January night from 25 to 26, the council decided to dissolve the Duma, and its participants, who were not subject to instant arrest, organized a conspiratorial meeting. Here they determined who will enter the Provisional Government of the new autonomous region of the country. Dominance went to Derber. As Minister of War, Krakovecki joined the government. He was entrusted with measures to ensure armed resistance to the Bolshevik authorities. At this moment, the Social Revolutionary had the rank of lieutenant colonel. As commissioners, they chose Friesel in the west, Kalashnikov in the east.
Along with the designated department, independent organizations of officers were formed. They were not based on any party and strongly influenced the underground work of the Siberian resistance. The events of the Civil War in the Far East in 1918-1922 were largely due to just such a division, since the Social Revolutionaries soon ceased to dominate in the military sphere. They were driven out by officers who did not belong to any particular party. In the West, responsibility for resistance was blamed on Grishin-Almazov, in the eastern regions - on Ellerts-Usova. From sources that have survived to this day, it is known that secret underground resistance points existed in at least 38 settlements between the Ural region and Transbaikalia. The work brought together about six thousand people, among whom about 2.2 thousand were in the east, others worked in the western part of the region. To effectively coordinate the workflow, a headquarters was formed in Novonikolaevsk by the end of spring 1918. Management entrusted to them Grishin-Almazov.
Spring: what happened?
The civil war in the Far East in 1918-1922, according to historians, was a serious problem for the Bolshevik authorities, and the figures who captured the central regions were well aware of this. In the spring of the 18th, the Special Detachment led by Semenov was regarded as the main threat. An experienced chieftain successfully chose a base area - an exclusion zone on Chinese lands. In April, he began military operations in the direction of Chita. Presumably, further the military could advance along the Trans-Siberian Railway, capture the western zones, establish a strong connection with the Cossacks of Orenburg and Siberia. The center, aware of such prospects, sent the Red Army, Red Guard to resist the Cossacks. The forces that supported the Bolsheviks, tightened throughout the spring, especially actively gathered in April and May. Since Semenov diverted all the attention of the authorities to himself, the pro-Soviet garrisons of many Siberian settlements weakened, which gave the underground great opportunities for action.
In short, the Civil War in the Far East is largely due to the activity of the Czechoslovak corps. This military unit literally turned what is happening upside down. The echelons stationed in the Transsib opposed the Bolshevik government. In total, the personnel at that time totaled 35 thousand people, formed in four teams.
About the case more
Since the participation of this bloc has become one of the important features of the Civil War in the Far East, it is worthwhile to carefully consider its features. Among the four blocks, Chechek was the first to lead. This group was responsible for the Volga region, totaled eight thousand military. Wojciechowski was engaged in the Chelyabinsk team. Under his command there were 8,800 military. Gaida, who was entrusted with the Siberian group, had about 4.5 thousand people. Finally, the last block is controlled by Dieterichs. It included about 14 thousand soldiers.
On May 20, the 18th, a special meeting was organized to assess the need to fight the Soviet regime. He was held in Chelyabinsk. The event brought together the heads of all blocs, political officers of the corps. Chek was appointed responsible for directing real actions at the front. Gaida, Wojciechowski did the same. Clandestine leaders opposing the Bolshevik movement were not invited to attend the meeting. They learned about its results either on the eve of military operations, or already at the moment when the uprising began.
Dates and Numbers
In any lists of events that briefly describe the Civil War in the Far East, it is mentioned on May 25, 1918. It was on this day that the rebels defeated the Bolsheviks in Mariinsk. The next day, Novonikolaevsk won, followed by the adherents of the Soviets in Chelyabinsk. The last May day brought victory in Tomsk, and by the seventh of June the corps was able to capture Omsk. A few days later, the councils left Semipalatinsk. By June 15, rebels captured Barnaul.
On the penultimate day of May, a special council was organized in Novonikolayevka, which was entrusted with the obligations of the interim government of Siberia. By the first decree, the new body ordered the organization of a commissariat, which would include control departments of various industries. The Commissariat was planned as an interim management structure, whose functionality should be transferred to the Provisional Government of the region, chosen by the local Duma, in a short time. In 1918, the Civil War in the Far East led to the relocation of the council to Omsk lands. Officially, this happened on June 15, and two weeks later the powers were transferred to the provisional board of the region. The Ministerial Council included five figures selected by the Siberian Duma.
New forces and updated means
The civil war that swept over Siberia and the Far East was largely explained by a strong underground. It became the foundation of the formation of government armed forces. The process took quite a bit of time. So the Siberian army appeared. Her command was entrusted to Grishin-Almazov. In total, the army included three corps, in August brought together more than forty thousand people. Autumn government decree decided to call on new age 19-20 years. So the population is up to 200 thousand. In the whole country, this formation, opposing the Bolsheviks, was the largest. The operations carried out in the summer of the 18th had two fronts - in the east and west of the region.
The military went east from Tomsk and Novonikolaevsk. Responsibility for these military operations was assigned to the Central Siberian Corps, which was active during the Civil War in the Far East. He teamed up with the seventh regiment of Czechoslovak, thanks to which on June 16 the pro-Soviet soldiers near Mariinsk were defeated. Two days later, victory was won over Krasnoyarsk, by July 11, Irkutsk was captured. In the second half of August, the military approached Chita, where they won on the 25th. On the last August day, I managed to connect with the detachment of Semenov. The event occurred near the station Olovyannaya.
Tense atmosphere
The main reason for the Civil War in the Far East was the formation of the Bolshevik power and the organization of the Soviet state, and it was against this that the dissent, who had substantial fighting forces, opposed. The local committee, which supported the central regions, did not have the resources to resist, and therefore independently abolished. On August 28, a meeting of activists was organized. The venue of the event was the Urulga station. The event brought together party leaders, military and workers who supported Soviet sentiment. The official outcome of the meeting was the decision to eliminate the fight against opponents in an organized format.
It is believed that the Far East during the Civil War was completely liberated from the power of the Soviets in the early fall of the 18th. On June 29, the corps controlled by Diterichs arrived in Vladivostok, where the offensive along the railway towards Khabarovsk began. The event attracted the military from Japan, America. Largely thanks to them, the Soviet troops were defeated. Khabarovsk took control on September 5, on the 17th - Blagoveshchensk. True, the political situation was still unstable, since in Vladivostok they formed their own government under the control of Lavrov. As early as June 9, Horvath called himself the Provisional Government personally, creating a business cabinet. In the first autumn month, Vologda persuaded the Far Eastern regions to accept the VSP and dissolve their own management structures, but in reality by this time the region was completely controlled by the expeditionary Japanese and American corps.
What happened in the west?
In parallel with the previously described history of the civil war in the Far East on the western front, it differed in its features. From Omsk and Ishim, as well as from Petropavlovsk, the military advanced in the direction of Yekaterinburg and Tyumen. The event was entrusted to the Steppe Corps. From Chelyabinsk, the Ural movement began. The opponents of the military were pro-Soviet soldiers of the front, uniting the Urals and Siberia in the northern sections. In July, a third army was created on the basis of this front. July 20 defeated Tyumen, five days later - in Yekaterinburg. The corps of the Urals and Stepnoy went to Kungur. The main goal of the rebels was Perm.
On July 6, Chechek connected with Wojciechowski, Komuch tried to take power over the country and began to build the People’s Army. Her fighters acted in the middle Volga lands. Under their authority were Ufa, Kazan and several other significant settlements. In order to count on success in the Civil War in Russia in the Far East, it was necessary to achieve greater coordination of the actions of Czechoslovakians and Russians. To do this, they organized a Chelyabinsk meeting, recruited Komuch, VSP and chose Shokorov as responsible for the army until a general commander of all the military of the country was appointed. The Czechoslovak headquarters was chosen as the base for the management of the actions, and they also proposed combining Komuch, the VSP, so that all-Russian state authorities appeared in the eastern lands.
Ufa: new actions
An important event of the Civil War in the Far East was the meeting begun on September 8 in Ufa, which was only possible to close by the 23rd day of the same month. They decided to create a Directory that would temporarily control the whole country. The management of the authority was entrusted to Avksentiev, and Omsk was determined by localization. From that moment on, all eastern local government organizations had to relinquish their powers and liquidate. On November 4, a ministerial council was assembled under the command of Vologodsky, Boldyrev was entrusted with the position of commander in chief, dealing with Czechoslovakians, Russians. Since October, all the military forces opposing the Bolsheviks have been divided into two blocks - the southwestern and western fronts.
The civil war and intervention in the Far East were not as successful as the leaders against the power of the Soviets would like. Already at the time of the Ufa meeting, the front-line situation worsened greatly, since the Soviets defeated Kazan and Simbirsk, and from October 4 they took control of Samara. Komuch was losing land, the Socialist Revolutionary Party had reduced political influence, right-wing groups became stronger. The directory found opponents among the military, convinced that victory is possible only with the establishment of a dictatorship. November 18 organized a coup, overthrew the Directory, entrusted the management of Kolchak. He officially abandoned the reactionary or party path and set as his key goal the formation of a successful army that would help defeat Bolshevism and establish the rule of law in the country. Kolchak outlined the task of ensuring the rule of law, promised the people the opportunity to determine the best option for government. He guaranteed the audience freedom in accordance with what is in other powers. Kolchak was recognized by many eastern figures. Only Kalmykov and Semenov became an exception, but by the end of the spring of the 19th they managed to regulate relations with these figures.
19th year
At the beginning of this year, the power of the Soviets actively came, showing good results, and soon took control of Ufa, Uralsk, Orenburg. Gaida attacked Perm, Kolchak engaged in the reorganization of troops, forming three armies. They entered into battle with the Eastern Front of the Soviets. It was possible to subdue Osa, Okhansk. The Soviet military left Votkinsk, Izhevsk. Khanzhin bypassed the Fifth Red Army and attacked Birsk. The battle of Ufa was held on March 14th. In early April, the military came to Iku, where it was planned to wait out the bad road conditions. However, the command mistakenly believed that the Soviet military had already been defeated, on the basis of which they determined the need to go towards the Volga. By the 15th, Buguruslan was captured.
Although at first it seemed that the end of the Civil War in the Far East was not far off, so great were the army's successes, they were replaced by numerous defeats. Khanzhin did not notice the southern pro-Soviet military group under the command of Frunze, which led to an attack from the rear and flank at the same time. The Soviets again captured Ufa, and a week and a half later they headed towards the Urals. The left flank of the opponents of the Bolsheviks was in an unreliable state, so soon the army was defeated. The Sarapulo-Votkinsk operation gave the Soviet government an excellent foundation for the capture of Osa, Okhansk. In the second half of June, measures began to completely defeat Kolchak in order to capture Siberia and the Urals completely. The scale and preparedness of the Red Army was greater, the difference in the number of machine guns became especially noticeable - the opponents of Bolshevism had half their number. The Siberian army was divided into two blocks, pushed aside for the Ural Mountains. The rebels suffered another defeat in Zlatoust, captured as a result of a detour of the Red Army.
Fall of 1919
According to Soviet leaders, the end of the Civil War in the Far East is just around the corner - on November 14, Omsk surrendered under their rule, and the rebel management system collapsed. It seemed that the resistors no longer had moral potential. Commanders, privates showed his absence equally. The military did not have drugs, so an epidemic began. Typhoid fever alone caused the loss of combat capability by 150 thousand fighters. The predominant percentage of patients died before the end of the winter of 19-20.
Rear army instability further worsened the position of the opposition. Partisans began their activity in the summer, by winter there were about 150 thousand in their ranks. The provinces of Irkutsk, Altai, Yenisei for the whites were uncontrollable. By the end of the year, Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk were ruled by the Social Revolutionaries who wanted to end the war and go to a truce with the Bolsheviks. , , . , . , . 7 20- .
Opponents of Bolshevism retreated to the eastern Siberian regions, fought with the Red Army, partisans. Almost 25 thousand people organized the Great Siberian ice campaign. Another hero of the Civil War in the Far East, Kappel, participated and died. The survivors chose the name "Kappelites" in order to preserve the memory of the leader. By February 20th, they managed to get to Transbaikalia, to unite with Semenov, who had received all the authority from Kolchak in early January. However, the power of the chieftain concerned exclusively Transbaikalia.
Not so simple
Although the Bolsheviks promoted themselves as a party whose main idea was people's happiness, the advent of the red power was not really pleasant for the Siberian peasantry. Unrest began over food policies, a mass movement against the central government. By 1922 he was defeated. However, the period of peasant protest was not forgotten.
The victory over Kolchak seemed to be promising for the Soviet regime, as the Far Eastern population sympathized with the new government. The Soviets found support in the person of local Cossacks, but part of the territory was under the rule of the Japanese military, and the central apparatus did not want to conflict with a neighboring power. The Far Eastern Republic was formed as a compromise. The country existed since April 6, 20th, included several areas. The Soviets officially recognized the republic on May 14 of the same year, helped create a local army. On July 17, the Japanese agreed to remove their military from Khabarovsk and Transbaikalia. Soon, the Krasnoshchekov, supporting the Soviet regime, became the chairman of the new country.
Situation development
After some time, Merkulov came to power, but he could not find sufficient support, and since the summer of 1922, Diterichs, who assembled the Zemsky Cathedral, was chosen as the main one. The potential of statehood was severely limited, so consolidating the situation did not seem realistic. The Japanese were evacuated, which led to the final fall of the last territories that resisted the Bolsheviks. On November 14, the Far Eastern Russian lands proclaimed themselves controlled by the Bolsheviks. The next day, the FER became part of the RSFSR.
Why did it happen so?
Historians believe that the main reason for the defeat of the Bolshevik opposition is the lack of material support, equipment that allowed fighting in full force. The troops had poor supply routes, did not receive the necessary weapons, and therefore could not withstand the aggression of the Bolsheviks, who had all the resources of the central regions. Oppositionists counted on foreign support, but here they found themselves in a weak position. At the same time, such requests provoked a loss of public confidence. However, the monuments of the Civil War in the Far East are still important and significant for our society. In honor of the heroes who died on both sides, many monuments were erected. In the Soviet period, such were built only in honor of Soviet leaders, later they began to appreciate the heroism of their opponents. Annually in memory of military operations of that time in the Far Eastern regions a memory day is held. For his organization identified on October 25.
As considered committed by the Bolshevik regime, victory in the Far Eastern regions is largely the result of negotiations, and not just just battles. The fate of these lands was decided at conferences in Washington, Genoa. The Western powers opposed the strengthening of the Japanese position on the mainland, so they went towards the red authorities, while the Japanese had no other option besides consent.