The Veshenskaya uprising is the uprising of the Don Cossacks, which took place in 1919. The goal was to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks. It began after the Tsaritsyn Front collapsed. Units of the Red Army, which entered the Upper Don region, began to organize repressions, took away bread. The immediate cause of the uprising was the executions of civilians and Cossacks, as well as the banal robbery that the Bolsheviks began to organize. The main slogan of the rebels was: "For advice without communists."
Background
There were several prerequisites for the Veshensky uprising. At the end of 1918, the Cossacks drove out parts of the Red Army outside the region, but they themselves were not going to move on. In November, mass desertion began. The first to leave were 200 Cossacks. They went to their native village of Veshenskaya. At that time there was the headquarters of the Northern Front, which was led by General Ivanov.
The rebels agreed with the rebels. They issued 12 officers, and returned to the front themselves. However, along the way, they learned about the execution of the instigators and decided to arrive at a strange section of the front called Kalachevsky.
In January 1919, the Cossacks of the Migulinsky and Kazan regiments began to rally. They joined the 28th regiment of the Oyster rebels. The Cossacks of the 28th Regiment decided to agree to a settlement with the Reds, for which they needed to defeat the cadet headquarters in Veshenskaya. As a result of the general meeting, the 28th Regiment elected Yakov Fomin as commander, and Ivan Melnikov became commissar. By January 14, the regiment had already significantly thinned out due to desertion of other stanits who entered Veshenskaya, but were in no hurry to attack the headquarters. The 32nd Veshensky regiment immediately left the front.
District Rebel Assembly
The events of the Veshensky uprising developed rapidly. The officers failed to call anyone from the front, so the punitive units never appeared. On January 17, generals fled from the village, and on 18 the district meeting of rebels took place. The rebels failed to come to a consensus, deciding to send negotiators to the Reds to make peace.
The very next day, Krasnov arrived in the village, who tried to raise the Cossacks on a campaign. But in the end, he had to leave for Novocherkassk. Having shown weakness, he only accelerated the development of events.
These events led to the arrest of the headquarters of the Northern Front. The delegation of the Kazan regiment decided to make peace with the Reds. On January 22, an order was issued by the new authorities to begin peace negotiations, getting rid of Krasnov.
The beginning of mass terror
The immediate reason for the start of the Veshensky uprising was the decision to start the mass terror of the Bolsheviks against the Cossacks. After that, the front crumbled completely.
Within a few days, the regiment of the Moscow working division settled in Veshenskaya. Attempts to prevent mass repression were made by Sokolnikov, who seriously feared an armed uprising. But Sverdlov did not listen to him, ordering the execution of all those who fought against the "red" units. On February 9, Fomina was replaced by Vasily Kalyuzhny, sent from Mogilev. The Cossacks were immediately ordered to surrender their weapons within 24 hours, threatening death.
Contributions and executions
Arriving "red" units began to impose multi-million dollar indemnities on the villages. The tribunals compiled death lists. Bread was taken into account, any money other than Soviet was banned. By the beginning of the Veshensky uprising, 300 Cossacks had already been shot. Moreover, there were rumors about the appearance of a large number of new death lists. This completely agitated the Verkhodonets.
The beginning of the uprising in Veshenskaya was facilitated by the creation of an underground network for the uprising. The newspapers of the Volunteer Army spoke of the imminent start of the uprising, arguing that Alferov played a key role.
Summary
The Veshensky uprising of 1919 ended with the complete defeat of the rebels. Mass repressions began, but even so, the Don Cossacks, with the support of units of the Don Army, managed to stop the advance of the expeditionary forces. This led to the fact that the armed forces of southern Russia, commanded by General Denikin, broke through to the Don region.
In fact, the uprising played a distracting role, pulling upon itself significant parts of the Red Army. Given the current situation, the command of the Don Army began to advance along the entire front. Already by June 1, Lugansk was occupied, parts of the Red Army were driven out in the Voronezh direction to the northeast.
Books
This historical event was examined in detail by Andrey Venkov. “Veshenskaya Uprising” - a book that the world saw in 2012, tells in detail and in detail about the most tragic episodes in the history of the Don Cossacks.
A. Venkov managed to restore the atmosphere of the pages that prevailed on the eve of the uprising. He tried to understand what was the true cause of the rebellion, did not disregard the fate of the rebels, and uncovered the problem of the choice of parties that arose before the simple Cossacks.
Mention in fiction
The Veshensky uprising was reflected in the history of Russian literature. The events of the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov "Quiet Don" are dedicated to him. The events of the uprising are described in detail in the works of the famous Soviet classic.
Moreover, because of them, Sholokhov had certain difficulties with the leadership of the Union of Writers of the USSR. In fact, he was accused of justifying the Veshensky uprising in The Quiet Don. For example, Maxim Gorky, after reading this work, noted obvious ideological flaws in it, but still recommended that the novel be printed without abbreviations. But even the position of such a mastodon as Gorky failed to have a significant impact on the position of the editorial board of the journal "October". The case got off the ground only after the direct intervention of Stalin, with whom Sholokhov met in 1931 at the Gorky dacha.
Sholokhov himself recalled that at the end of the conversation, Stalin noted that the third volume of The Quiet Don does work for the benefit of the revolution, and therefore it is allowed to print.