Why did the peasantry oppose Kolchak? Kolchak’s punitive actions against the population of Siberia: excesses or system? Blind Leaders of the Blind Documentary Film

"Top Secret", No.1/402 Sergey Balmasov.

In 1919, in the Suchansky district of Primorye, the local population, irritated by extortions and violence from whites, began to protest. But instead of dialogue, troops were sent against them, whose commanders, without delving deeply into the reasons for the rebellion, preferred to shoot the dissatisfied and burn the most “troubled” settlements.
However, this did not always happen. At least in three cases The punitive detachments that arrived at the scene of events, whose members were anticipating a bloody reprisal against the “Bolsheviks,” found themselves unable to do their job.
They stopped, amazed by the following sight: red flags fluttered over the rebel settlements, adjacent to the Stars and Stripes of the United States, under which the American interventionists from the expeditionary force of General Graves were positioned with machine guns.
To the timid attempts of the White Guards to find out what the Americans were doing here, they received a discouraging answer: “We have arrived to help the people of Primorye defend their democratic rights.” After standing in bewilderment for several hours waiting for the decision of their command, Kolchak’s executors left without fulfilling the instructions given to them.

And similar American interventions were repeated at least three times: in January, March-April and November 1919. In the latter case, the Americans protected the local rebel White Guard garrisons from reprisals by the Japanese.
These incidents caused the most serious friction between the American and White command. It got to the point that Ataman Semyonov openly accused General Graves of Bolshevism, opposing them to his Japanese intercessors.
Indeed, the comparison between American and Japanese losses in Russia clearly did not look in favor of the Japanese: the Yankees in the North and Far East lost only 48 people in battles, while the Japanese on the Far Eastern outskirts alone lost more than 5,000.
It must be understood that this behavior of Graves was not determined by “knightly” motives, but by the desire to prevent the strengthening of their Japanese competitors, who relied on local chieftains.
Nevertheless, the Americans, alien to the local population, turned out to be really closer to the peasants than “their” Kolchakites, who first brought the situation to a boiling point, and then tried to pacify those dissatisfied with force, committing such atrocities that could not leave indifferent the fighters of the American Expeditionary Force, many of whom were specially recruited from Russian-speaking emigrants.
For example, Lieutenant Walter Reming reported to his command that only on March 9, 1919, in the villages of Brovnichi and Gordeevka, he recorded the facts of the brutal murder after sophisticated torture of 23 people who were hiding from mobilization into the army or were relatives of such persons. And this was only one episode when the Americans kept the whites from brutal reprisals.

No less colorful in this regard is the “case of the Shcheglov police,” which began after, on the night of August 21-22, 1919, Czechoslovak lieutenant Kauril helped the head of the garrison of the city of Shcheglov, Tomsk province (today Kemerovo) to arrest almost the entire local Kolchak police during led by its chief Ozerkin.
This case was unique even for the dashing years of the Civil War, because, in fact, some Kolchakites opposed other Kolchakites, and even with the direct help of foreign interventionists!
To investigate the events, the Minister of the Kolchak Ministry of Internal Affairs, Viktor Pepelyaev, sent an official on special assignments, Shklyaev, to Shcheglov. Contrary to expectations, having familiarized himself with the case on the spot, he not only did not side with his colleagues, but also supported the actions of the “turnovers.”
As Shklyaev stated, “the policemen were arrested...for wrong actions their. Those arrested are charged with murder, torture, extortion, bribery and other crimes...” The investigation he began confirmed these accusations. Shcheglovsky policemen began their fight against “crime” with the massive extortion of money from the population.
Shklyaev wrote that “On May 5-7 of this year, in the village of Dideevo, the police arrested a village clerk and four citizens for the fact that the society imposed taxes on those not assigned to their village. During the arrest, the clothes were taken away, the secretary was flogged so much that "They splattered blood on the walls," after which the detainees were released for bribes in the amount of 1 - 1.3 thousand rubles."
At the same time, the police, under various pretexts, arrested the wealthiest local residents in order to force them out of more money. And, as it turned out, “the police themselves initiated the robberies under the guise of criminals and Red partisans.”

As follows from the documents, “flogging extended to arrested women, even pregnant women... 17 bandits were brought from the village of Buyapakskaya. Among them were 11 women. They brought them in and flogged everyone (we are talking about a sophisticated and brutal beating with whips and ramrods, after which the punished often became disabled or at least bedridden for several days).
Three women were pregnant. The women were accused of having their husbands go to the Reds; their property and homes were taken away from everyone, although previously they had publicly renounced all kinship with their husbands without any coercion. The treatment of those arrested was cruel. Policeman Ziganshin hit the arrested woman with the butt of his gun only because she began to give birth, which he was inclined to see as a simulation..."
Meanwhile, impunity gave rise to more and more new crimes, which became more and more sophisticated and provocative. Thus, police officers who arrested local residents for no reason other than money often demanded intimate intimacy from women they liked in order to free their relatives, and, according to the investigation, “this was usually carried out by intimidated women.”
Shklyaev testifies: “One arrested person was released for a bribe given to Ozerkin, and Berezovsky negotiated the right to spend the night with the Red’s wife... He asked her to give the money and agree to what was proposed due to the unbearable torture.”

Law enforcement officers did not hesitate to use direct violence. Thus, as a result of the investigation carried out by Shklyaev, it turned out that in May 1919, near the pier on the Tom River near the village of Shevelevo, Shcheglovsky district, “by order of the head of the 1st police station Kuzevanov, three peasant girls were delivered to the ship, one of whom, Anna Sheveleva, was raped by policeman Voronin, and the other two were released only because they were menstruating."
However, there were more serious matters on the lists of actions of local police representatives. In particular, there on the same day they shot "on suspicion of espionage on the orders of the drunken Kuzevanov, the peasant Smirnov, stripped him and threw him into the river. His brother was beaten half to death."
For this, they were almost torn to pieces by the soldiers of the local Kolchak garrison who witnessed this crime, and, according to the admission of its chief, Second Lieutenant Lugovsky, openly threatened the law enforcement officers to “raise them at bayonets.” According to him, this desire became stronger in them after “on June 23, peasant Alexander Dyukov was seriously wounded by a drunken policeman...”
Soon after this, “drunk passenger Anisimov, who was removed from the ship under the guise of a Bolshevik, was killed and robbed in front of the crowd by a policeman, although, according to Shklyaev’s investigation, it was established that this was a murder in order to conceal the robbery. In addition, a circus actress was killed by police after refusing intimacy with law enforcement officers.

Ozerkin himself, who committed the murder of the Shcheglovsky tradesman Novikov in May 1919, was not inferior to his subordinates. This happened under the following circumstances: policeman Anokhin entered his house for the purpose of robbery. Novikov, who was there, defended himself and disarmed him. The disgraced law enforcement officer complained to Ozerkin. He called Novikov and shot him through the front door.
It is interesting that the authorities standing above the police in the person of the governor of the Tomsk province B.M. Mikhailovsky came to the defense of such “guardians of order” as “ideological fighters against Bolshevism,” while simultaneously trying to prove Shklyaev’s “incompetence.”
So, speaking about the murder of Anisimov, the governor justified it by the fact that the deceased was “a Bolshevik agitator who campaigned on the ship for Soviet power and, being arrested, was killed on the way while trying to escape.”
In turn, in a letter to Pepelyaev about the murder of the worker Kolomiyets committed by the police, he tried to present the latter as a dangerous state criminal who “led the preparation of the uprising” and “was killed while trying to escape.” However, this version was not confirmed by the investigation, and Shklyaev was further able to establish that “Ozerkin screwed up the arrested Kolomiets to death.”

This behavior is quite understandable: while protecting his subordinates (under Kolchak, the governor was subordinate to the Minister of Internal Affairs, to whom, in turn, local police officers were accountable), Mikhailovsky tried to protect himself. After all, what happened directly cast a shadow on him.
As Shklyaev established, in his actions Ozerkin indicated that he was acting with the approval of Governor Mikhailovsky. Which, however, was already clear, given how he defended his police subordinates in front of Pepelyaev.
Mikhailovsky tried in every possible way to prevent Shklyaev from conducting the investigation, and when he realized that the “confidential conversations” with him had no effect, he complained about the inspector to his immediate superior, Pepelyaev.
He wrote to him that Shklyaev “exaggerated” the scale of violations committed by his subordinates, which arose during the “active struggle of Ozerkin and his colleagues against banditry and red partisans,” as a result of which they made numerous enemies.
Mikhailovsky also insisted that the people who fell at the hands of his bonebreakers were “notorious criminals.” In addition, those who died from accidents were also included in their number. As an example, Mikhailovsky cited the death of the aforementioned circus performer, who died as a result of “certainly established suicide,” while Shklyaev managed to prove that it was a deliberate murder.

And such crimes were not isolated cases, but reflected the general picture of the white terror unleashed against the population. Even when Mikhailovsky was pinned against the wall with evidence, he tried to justify his subordinates, pointing to “... the martyrdom that falls to the lot of police officers, who are persecuted by the Bolsheviks primarily with particular cruelty.
Under such conditions, they respond to the Red Terror with anti-Bolshevik terror. This is where these “liquidations”, “attempts to escape”, etc. follow.”
As a result, as Shklyaev reported, “... the villagers hid at the sight of the police no worse than from any bandit. The horror of the situation is that this mischief of the police was transferred to the head of the government” (Kolchak’s)
According to Shklyaev’s disappointing conclusions, it was precisely this behavior of law enforcement officers that ultimately led to the very spread of Bolshevism that Mikhailovsky complained about.
In October 1919, two months before the seizure of the Tomsk province by the Bolsheviks, Pepelyaev decided to “punish” Governor Mikhailovsky... by removing him from his post, offering to take it over to Shklyaev.
However, the latter refused, realizing that he did not have the necessary management skills for this, and was not particularly eager to indirectly take responsibility for the actions of the previous manager. As a result, Mikhailovsky held his post until the arrival of the Reds.

It should be noted that reports of such crimes committed by police officers and government officials in general were then widespread and came literally from everywhere where Kolchak’s followers stood, which caused mass uprisings against them.
For example, the same Shklyaev, sent in December 1919 for an audit to the Irkutsk province, reported in his report to the Minister of Internal Affairs that almost all local police chiefs had committed serious malfeasance or were suspected of committing them.
As a result, those same wealthy Siberian peasants, who until recently were alien to any politics, abandoned everything and joined the partisans. And this happened throughout almost the entire vast territory controlled by Kolchak.
Having fallen into the hands of the Bolsheviks in Irkutsk, the official on special assignments Shklyaev remained to serve the Reds in their internal affairs bodies. Governor Mikhailovsky managed to leave the rebel Tomsk province in January 1920 and took part in his brother’s Yakut campaign in 1923 former boss- General A.N. Pepelyaev, during which he was captured and got off with a ten-year prison sentence for his art and the “exploits” of his subordinates.
His boss, Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Viktor Pepelyaev, was less fortunate: in February 1920, he, already the head of the Kolchak government, was shot along with Admiral Kolchak in Irkutsk; before the execution, according to the testimonies of its participants, he humiliatedly lay at the feet of the Bolsheviks, begging for mercy.
It is significant that when he and the now former Supreme Ruler were brought to the ice hole on the Angara, the admiral asked in surprise why this was happening without trial, but he was immediately reminded that during his reign mass executions were also committed without any trial. So the boomerang is back.

"Red Gas" 1925. In the role of the Kolchak officer - former Kolchak officer Georgy Pozharnitsky.

Why did the Siberians rebel against Kolchak?

The history of Siberia of the 20th century is unthinkable without the history of the partisan movement during the Kolchak period. A lot of contradictory things have been said about the Red partisans. When dominating Communist Party popular uprisings against Kolchak were declared Bolshevik. Then, after the rehabilitation of the admiral (there are now monuments to him across Siberia), they became gangsters. Now, having cooled a little from momentary political interpretations of the past, we seem to be coming to a common denominator. But there is still no consensus on the partisan movement.

Below are the journalist’s subjective notes about historical truth, as he sees it after reading numerous sources and evidence.

The civil war in Kuzbass, and throughout Siberia, began with a mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps. The rebellion broke out throughout Siberia, from the Urals to Irkutsk.

A few words about the case. It was formed from prisoners. He took part in military operations against Austria-Hungary and Germany. After the fall of the monarchy in Russia, he was formally included in the French army. By agreement with the new Russian government (first with the bourgeois, and then with the Soviet), the corps was to be withdrawn from Russian territory along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, and then by military transport by sea to Europe. The personnel retained small arms.

The first echelon reached Vladik safely at the beginning of 1918. The rest are spread out throughout the Trans-Siberian Railway. Fifty thousand armed men. This is during a period when the old army practically ceased to exist, and the Red Army was just beginning to take shape.

The withdrawal of the corps coincided with the beginning of military intervention against Soviet Russia, including from the Entente. The central government ordered the disarmament of the corps. But it was almost impossible to carry out such an order. The rebel corps overthrew the still weak Soviet government.

In Kuzbass, the rebellion began in Mariinsk. There was a large Czechoslovak detachment stationed there. By the end of July 1918, the entire Kuzbass was in the hands of the rebels.

The Czechoslovaks brought to power the bourgeois intelligentsia, which held elections and created a coalition (without the Bolsheviks, however) government in Omsk, but not for long. Intellectuals and doctrinaires called (as it later turned out - at their own expense) into power Admiral Kolchak, first the Minister of War, and then, after the dispersal of the talkative but indecisive Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik government, which for some time proclaimed the Siberian Republic, the self-proclaimed sole dictator and “supreme ruler of Russia."

Kolchak was a creature of the Entente, or more precisely of Britain: his military units were equipped from British arsenals, soldier's overcoats and the officers' jackets were English. And their habits towards the local population are quite colonialist. The then British Minister of War Churchill, after the coup in Omsk, openly stated in parliament: “The British government called on Kolchak to exist with our help when necessity demanded it.”

The total number of interventionists in Siberia, in addition to the Czechoslovaks, amounted to over 200 thousand bayonets. These were: a 10,000-strong American corps under the command of General Grevs; three Japanese divisions with a total strength of 120 thousand people (according to official data), located beyond Lake Baikal; the Polish division under the command of Colonel Rumsha numbering 11,200 soldiers and officers; two English battalions, one of which, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ward, served as Kolchak’s guard; Canadian Brigade; French units (1,100 people), including aviation units; legion of Romanians (4,500 people); several thousand Italians under Colonel Comossi; a regiment of Croats, Slovenes and Serbs; battalion of Latvians (1300 people).

The Siberian peasantry, which made up the overwhelming majority of the population, was largely indifferent to the overthrow of the Bolshevik revolutionary committees. But tax collections under Kolchak increased more than four times compared to the tsarist ones. Discontent arose and, as a result, clashes with armed groups who collected those taxes. At the same time, Kolchak began mobilizing into the White Army. But no one wanted to fight against their own people in Kolchak’s tax punitive detachments.

In reality, only local Cossacks became Kolchak’s allies - as a reward, their land plots were increased by 100 acres each.

Kolchak's guardsmen willingly committed atrocities. The above-mentioned American General Grevs, who daily observed the actions of the Cossack atamans in Eastern Siberia, recalled: “The soldiers of Semenov and Kalmykov, being under the protection of Japanese troops, flooded the country like wild animals, beating and robbing the people.” And he made a very important addition: “Terrible murders were committed in Eastern Siberia, but they were not committed by the Bolsheviks, as was usually thought. I will not be mistaken if I say that in Eastern Siberia for every person killed by the Bolsheviks, there were 100 people killed by anti-Bolshevik elements ".

The Kolchak government adopted an emergency “rebellion law.” Anyone who was noticed in connection with the “Reds” (all non-monarchists, from ideological Bolsheviks, anarchists, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, to simply sympathizers and indifferents) were subject to repression. They were tried by military courts consisting of "troikas" (that's where it came from, not from the NKVD). The prisons were overcrowded. Created concentration camps(a practice taken from the British colonialists, who first mastered this know-how during the Boer War), by 1920 they simultaneously held more than a million people.

In comparison with the data of the Cheka, Kolchak repressed 24 times more people than the “evil” security officers in Soviet Russia during the entire period of the Civil War.

I note that there were camps in Kuzbass and in areas close to it. populated areas: Omsk, Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk, Barnaul, Biysk, Achinsk. The largest one was in Omsk (33 thousand people), quite large in Tomsk (11 thousand prisoners). In Kuzbass there were two prisons for “political”: in Mariinsk there were just over a thousand people, in Kuznetsk - 292 people.

The first Kuzbass and one of the first partisan detachments in Siberia were created by a peasant in the village of Svyatoslavka, Mariinsky district, Pyotr Lubkov. In the fall of 1918, the detachment struck a train of Czechs guarding the Mariinsk station, and then retreated to the Antibes station. In December 1918, a punitive detachment was sent to the village of Malopeschanka to defeat the Lubkovites. The commander of the punitive force, Lieutenant Kolesov, and two soldiers were killed in the battle. Later, in a battle near Svyatoslavka, the partisans destroyed a detachment of warrant officer Sokolovsky.

In June 1919, within the Prichernsky region (as the vast subtaiga territory on the border adjacent to Mountain Shoria and the Salair Ridge was then called), a detachment of Ivan Novoselov appeared. A little later, partisans arrive under the command of Grigory Rogov, who had previously operated within the Barnaul and Biysk districts. Having united, the detachments began to operate in the area along the Chumysh River. Rogov’s detachment grew in battles to five thousand people and by the fall of 1919 liberated a significant territory from Kolchak’s troops.

In parallel to these detachments, other people's armies were actively grinding down the Kolchakites. In general, partisan formations numbered up to 140 thousand fighters in Siberia at the end of 1919 - beginning of 1920.

The weapons were terrible. Peaks. Hunting rifles, up to capsule and even flintlock rifles. Museum fortress tools were used. And they even made wooden cannons. One of these is kept in the Barnaul Museum of Local Lore.

The guerrilla war in Kuzbass continued until the arrival of the heroic Fifth Red Army, which was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the liberation of Siberia from Kolchakism.

The civil war is a historical past in which the people openly and sharply expressed their interests, likes and dislikes, and made their choice. The civil war is a historical past in which the people openly and sharply expressed their interests, likes and dislikes, and made their choice. Why did the population of Siberia not support the Kolchak regime? Why did the population of Siberia not support the Kolchak regime? A.V. Kolchak

Having come to power, Kolchak tried to continue the Stolypin reform, turning peasants from actual users into land tenants. The Kolchak government was unable to oppose the Decree on Land with real agricultural policy. Having come to power, Kolchak tried to continue the Stolypin reform, turning peasants from actual users into land tenants. The Kolchak government was unable to oppose the Decree on Land with real agricultural policy.

The economic policy of the Supreme Ruler was based on the restoration of the tax system, collection of arrears, and massive requisitions. This aggravated the economic crisis and worsened the lives of the population. The economic policy of the Supreme Ruler was based on the restoration of the tax system, collection of arrears, and massive requisitions. This aggravated the economic crisis and worsened the lives of the population. Retail food prices increased 10-fold in 1919. Retail food prices increased 10-fold in 1919. The living wage was: The living wage was: In October 1918 - 193 rubles In October 1918 - 193 rubles In February 1919 - 326 rubles. In February 1919 - 326 rubles.

Forced mobilization caused protest from the peasantry and city residents. The units formed in this way, under the influence of Bolshevik propaganda, went over to the side of the Reds. Forced mobilization caused protest from the peasantry and city residents. The units formed in this way, under the influence of Bolshevik propaganda, went over to the side of the Reds. Punitive expeditions committed atrocities in the villages of Omsk and other regions of Siberia. Peasants were flogged, subjected to brutal torture, and shot. Punitive expeditions committed atrocities in the villages of Omsk and other regions of Siberia. Peasants were flogged, subjected to brutal torture, and shot.

The command of the Czechoslovak corps in a memorandum to the allies stated: “Under the protection of Czechoslovak bayonets, Russian military authorities allow themselves to do things that horrify the entire civilized world. The burning of villages, the murder of Russian civilians by entire families, execution without trial is a common occurrence.” The command of the Czechoslovak corps in a memorandum to the allies stated: “Under the protection of Czechoslovak bayonets, Russian military authorities allow themselves to do things that horrify the entire civilized world. The burning of villages, the murder of Russian civilians by entire families, execution without trial is a common occurrence.” By the summer of 1919, the Kolchak dictatorship found itself in a state of confrontation with the peasantry. It started partisan movement throughout Siberia. By the summer of 1919, the Kolchak dictatorship found itself in a state of confrontation with the peasantry. The partisan movement began throughout Siberia. Mid-1919 – 19.6 – 19.7 thousand partisans Mid-1919 – 19.6 – 19.7 thousand partisans End of 1919 – thousand partisans End of 1919 – thousand partisans Urban uprisings occurred everywhere. Urban uprisings occurred everywhere.

Thus, ill-conceived economic policy, constant mobilizations, requisitions, taxes, arbitrariness and terrorism became the reasons for the people's rejection of the Kolchak dictatorship. Thus, ill-conceived economic policies, constant mobilizations, requisitions, taxes, arbitrariness and terrorism became the reasons for the people’s rejection of the Kolchak dictatorship.

It is planned to erect a monument to Kolchak in Omsk. His bronze figure is imagined standing at the railing of the captain's bridge of the destroyer. There will be an inscription on the pedestal: “Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak.” It is planned to erect a monument to Kolchak in Omsk. His bronze figure is imagined standing at the railing of the captain's bridge of the destroyer. There will be an inscription on the pedestal: “Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak.” Is this monument necessary? Is this monument necessary? After all, Kolchak covered up his previous merits as a naval commander and polar explorer with “glory” bloody dictator. After all, Kolchak covered up his previous merits as a naval commander and polar explorer with the “glory” of a bloody dictator.

Victims of Kolchak in Novosibirsk, 1919

Excavation of the grave in which victims of the Kolchak repressions of March 1919 were buried, Tomsk, 1920.

Tomsk residents carry the bodies of spread out participants in the anti-Kolchak uprising

Funeral of a Red Guard soldier brutally murdered by Kolchak's troops

Novosobornaya Square on the day of the reburial of the Kolchak victims on January 22, 1920.

One young American officer sent to investigate the atrocities of Ivanov-Rynov was so shocked that, having finished his report to Grevs, he exclaimed:

“For God’s sake, general, don’t send me on such errands again! Just a little more - and I would tear off my uniform and begin to save these unfortunate people.”

When Ivanov-Rynov faced the threat of popular indignation, the English commissioner Sir Charles Elliot hastened to Greves to express his concern for the fate of the Kolchak general.

“For me,” General Grevs answered him fiercely, “let them bring this Ivanov-Rynov here and hang him on that telephone pole in front of my headquarters - not a single American will lift a finger to save him!”

Ask yourself why, during the Civil War, the Red Army was able to defeat the well-armed and sponsored Western powers White Army and troops 14!! states that invaded Soviet Russia during the intervention?

But because the MAJORITY of the Russian people, seeing the cruelty, baseness and corruption of such “Kolchaks”, supported the Red Army.

victims of Kolchak and Kolchak’s thugs

Such a touching series was filmed with public money about one of the main executioners of the Russian people during the civil war of the last century that it just brings tears to your eyes. And just as touchingly, heartfeltly they tell us about this guardian for the Russian land. And memorial trips and prayer services are held on trips through Baikal. Well, just grace descends on the soul.

But for some reason, residents of the territories of Russia, where Kolchak and his comrades were heroes, have a different opinion. They remember how entire villages of Kolchak’s people threw people who were still alive into mines, and not only that.

By the way, why is it that the Tsar’s father is honored on an equal basis with priests and white officers? Weren't they the ones who blackmailed the king from the throne? Didn’t they plunge our country into bloodshed, betraying their people, their king? Wasn’t it the priests who joyfully restored the patriarchy immediately after their betrayal of the sovereign? Was it not the landowners and generals who wanted power without the control of the emperor? Didn’t they begin to organize a civil war after the successful February coup, organized by them? Weren't they the ones who hanged Russian peasants and shot them all over the country? It was only Wrangel, horrified by the death of the Russian people, who left Crimea himself; all the others preferred to slaughter the Russian peasant until they themselves were calmed down forever.

Yes, and remembering the Polovtsian princes with the last names Gzak and Konchak, cited in the Tale of Igor’s Regiment, the conclusion involuntarily arises that Kolchak is related to them. Maybe that’s why we shouldn’t be surprised by the following?

By the way, there is no point in judging the dead, neither white nor red. But mistakes cannot be repeated. Only the living can make mistakes. Therefore, the lessons of history need to be known by heart.

In the spring of 1919, the first campaign of the Entente countries and the United States of America against the Soviet Republic began. The campaign was combined: it was carried out by the combined forces of internal counter-revolution and interventionists. The imperialists did not rely on their own troops - their soldiers did not want to fight against the workers and toiling peasants of Soviet Russia. Therefore, they relied on the unification of all the forces of internal counter-revolution, recognizing the main ruler of all affairs in Russia, Tsarist Admiral A.V. Kolchak.

American, English and French millionaires took on the bulk of Kolchak's supplies of weapons, ammunition, and uniforms. In the first half of 1919 alone, the United States sent Kolchak more than 250 thousand rifles and millions of cartridges. In total, in 1919, Kolchak received from the USA, England, France and Japan 700 thousand rifles, 3650 machine guns, 530 guns, 30 aircraft, 2 million pairs of boots, thousands of sets of uniforms, equipment and linen.

With the help of his foreign masters, by the spring of 1919, Kolchak managed to arm, clothe and shoe an army of almost 400,000.

Kolchak's offensive was supported by North Caucasus and the south of Denikin’s army, intending to unite with Kolchak’s army in the Saratov region in order to jointly move towards Moscow.

The White Poles were advancing from the west together with Petliura and White Guard troops. In the north and Turkestan, mixed detachments of Anglo-American and French interventionists and the army of the White Guard General Miller operated. Yudenich was advancing from the north-west, supported by the White Finns and the English fleet. Thus, all the forces of counter-revolution and interventionists went on the offensive. Soviet Russia again found itself surrounded by advancing enemy hordes. Several fronts were created in the country. The main one was the Eastern Front. Here the fate of the Soviet Union was decided.

On March 4, 1919, Kolchak launched an offensive against the Red Army along the entire Eastern Front over 2 thousand kilometers. He fielded 145 thousand bayonets and sabers. The backbone of his army was the Siberian kulaks, the urban bourgeoisie and the wealthy Cossacks. There were about 150 thousand intervention troops in Kolchak’s rear. They were guarding railways, helped deal with the population.

The Entente kept Kolchak's army under its direct control. Military missions of the Entente powers were constantly located at the headquarters of the White Guards. French General Janin was appointed commander-in-chief of all intervention forces operating in Eastern Russia and Siberia. The English General Knox was in charge of supplying Kolchak’s army and forming new units for it.

The interventionists helped Kolchak develop an operational plan of attack and determined the main direction of the attack.

In the Perm-Glazov sector, Kolchak’s strongest Siberian Army operated under the command of General Gaida. The same army was supposed to develop an offensive in the direction of Vyatka, Sarapul and connect with the interventionist troops operating in the North.

victims of the Kolchak atrocities in Siberia. 1919

peasant hanged by Kolchak's men

From everywhere, from the territory of Udmurtia liberated from the enemy, information was received about the atrocities and tyranny of the White Guards. For example, at the Peskovsky plant, 45 Soviet workers, poor peasant workers, were tortured. They were subjected to the most brutal torture: their ears, noses, lips were cut out, their bodies were pierced in many places with bayonets (doc. Nos. 33, 36).

Women, old people and children were subjected to violence, flogging and torture. Property, livestock, and harness were confiscated. The horses that the Soviet government gave to the poor to support their farms were taken away by the Kolchakites and given to their former owners (Doc. No. 47).

The young teacher of the village of Zura, Pyotr Smirnov, was brutally hacked to pieces with a White Guard saber because he walked towards a White Guard in good clothes (Doc. No. 56).

In the village of Syam-Mozhga, Kolchak’s men dealt with a 70-year-old old woman because she sympathized with Soviet power (Doc. No. 66).

In the village of N. Multan, Malmyzh district, on the square in front people's house The corpse of the young communist Vlasov was buried in 1918. Kolchak’s men herded the working peasants to the square, forced them to dig up the corpse and publicly mocked him: they beat him on the head with a log, crushed his chest, and finally, putting a noose around his neck, tied him to the front of the tarantass and in this form dragged him along the village street for a long time (Doc. No. 66 ).

In workers' settlements and cities, in the huts of the poor peasants of Udmurtia, a terrible groan arose from the atrocities and execution of Kolchak's men. For example, during the two months of the bandits’ stay in Votkinsk, 800 corpses were discovered in Ustinov Log alone, not counting those isolated victims in private apartments that were taken to an unknown location. The Kolchakites robbed and ruined the national economy of Udmurtia. From the Sarapul district it was reported that “after Kolchak, there was literally nothing left anywhere... After Kolchak’s robberies in the district, the availability of horses decreased by 47 percent and cows by 85 percent... In the Malmyzh district, in the Vikharevo volost alone, Kolchak’s men took 1,100 horses and 500 cows from the peasants , 2000 carts, 1300 sets of harness, thousands of pounds of grain and dozens of farms were completely plundered.”

“After the capture of Yalutorovsk by the Whites (June 18, 1918), the previous authorities were restored there. A brutal persecution of everyone who collaborated with the Soviets began. Arrests and executions became a widespread phenomenon. The Whites killed Demushkin, a member of the Soviet of Deputies, and shot ten former prisoners of war (Czechs and Hungarians) who refused to serve them. According to the memoirs of Fyodor Plotnikov, a participant in the Civil War and a prisoner of Kolchak’s dungeons from April to July 1919, in basement prison, a table with chains and various torture devices was installed. Tortured people were taken outside the Jewish cemetery (now the territory of the sanatorium orphanage), where they were shot. All this happened since June 1918. In May 1919, the Eastern Front of the Red Army went on the offensive. On August 7, 1919, Tyumen was liberated. Sensing the approach of the Reds, Kolchak’s men committed brutal reprisals against their prisoners. One day in August 1919, two large groups of prisoners were taken out of the prison. One group - 96 people - was shot in a birch forest (now the territory of a furniture factory), another, 197 people, were hacked to death with sabers across the Tobol River near Lake Ginger...".

From a certificate from the deputy director of the Yalutorovsky museum complex N.M. Shestakova:

“I consider myself obliged to say that my grandfather Yakov Alekseevich Ushakov, a front-line soldier of the First World War, Knight of St. George, was also hacked to death by Kolchak’s sabers beyond Tobol. My grandmother was left with three young sons. My father was only 6 years old at that time... And how many women throughout Russia did Kolchak’s men make widows, and children orphans, how many old people were left without filial care?”

Therefore, the logical result (please note that there was no torture, no bullying, just execution):

“We entered Kolchak’s cell and found him dressed - in a fur coat and hat,” writes I.N. Bursak. “It seemed like he was expecting something.” Chudnovsky read him the resolution of the Revolutionary Committee. Kolchak exclaimed:

- How! Without trial?

Chudnovsky replied:

- Yes, admiral, just like you and your henchmen shot thousands of our comrades.

Having gone up to the second floor, we entered Pepelyaev’s cell. This one was also dressed. When Chudnovsky read him the resolution of the revolutionary committee, Pepelyaev fell to his knees and, lying at his feet, begged not to be shot. He assured that, together with his brother, General Pepelyaev, he had long decided to rebel against Kolchak and go over to the side of the Red Army. I ordered him to stand up and said: “You can’t die with dignity...

They went down to Kolchak’s cell again, took him and went to the office. The formalities are completed.

By 4 o'clock in the morning we arrived on the bank of the Ushakovka River, a tributary of the Angara. Kolchak behaved calmly all the time, and Pepelyaev - this huge carcass - seemed to be in a fever.

Full moon, bright frosty night. Kolchak and Pepelyaev stand on the hillock. Kolchak refuses my offer to blindfold him. The platoon is formed, rifles at the ready. Chudnovsky whispers to me:

- It's time.

I give the command:

- Platoon, attack the enemies of the revolution!

Both fall. We put the corpses on the sled-sledge, bring them to the river and lower them into the hole. So the “supreme ruler of all Rus'” Admiral Kolchak leaves for his last voyage...”

(“The Defeat of Kolchak”, military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense, M., 1969, pp. 279-280, circulation 50,000 copies).

In the Yekaterinburg province, one of the 12 provinces under Kolchak’s control, at least 25 thousand people were shot under Kolchak, and about 10% of the two million population were flogged. They flogged both men, women and children.

M. G. Alexandrov, commissar of the Red Guard detachment in Tomsk. He was arrested by the Kolchakites and imprisoned in Tomsk prison. In mid-June 1919, he recalled, 11 workers were taken from their cell at night. Nobody was sleeping.

“The silence was broken by faint groans coming from the prison yard, prayers and curses were heard... but after a while everything died down. In the morning, the criminals told us that the Cossacks hacked the prisoners with sabers and bayonets in the back exercise yard, and then loaded the carts and took them away somewhere.”

Aleksandrov reported that he was then sent to the Aleksandrovsky Central Station near Irkutsk, and out of more than a thousand prisoners there, the Red Army soldiers released only 368 people in January 1920. In 1921-1923 Alexandrov worked in the district Cheka of the Tomsk region. RGASPI, f. 71, op. 15, d. 71, l. 83-102.

American General W. Graves recalled:

“The soldiers of Semenov and Kalmykov, being under the protection of Japanese troops, flooded the country like wild animals, killing and robbing the people, while the Japanese, if they wished, could have stopped these killings at any time. If at that time they asked what all these brutal murders were about, they usually received the answer that those killed were Bolsheviks, and this explanation, obviously, satisfied everyone. Events in Eastern Siberia were usually presented in the darkest colors and human life there was not worth a penny.

Horrible murders were committed in Eastern Siberia, but they were not carried out by the Bolsheviks, as was usually thought. I will not be mistaken if I say that in Eastern Siberia for every person killed by the Bolsheviks, there were a hundred people killed by anti-Bolshevik elements."

Graves doubted whether it was possible to point out any country in the world during the last fifty years where murder could be committed with such ease and with the least fear of responsibility as in Siberia during the reign of Admiral Kolchak. Concluding his memoirs, Graves noted that the interventionists and White Guards were doomed to defeat, since “the number of Bolsheviks in Siberia by the time of Kolchak had increased many times in comparison with their number at the time of our arrival.”

There is a plaque for Mannerheim in St. Petersburg, now there will be one for Kolchak... Next is Hitler?

Opening of a memorial plaque to Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who led the White movement in Civil War, will take place on September 24... The memorial plaque will be installed on the bay window of the building where Kolchak lived... The text of the inscription has been approved:

“The outstanding Russian officer, scientist and researcher Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak lived in this house from 1906 to 1912.”

I won't argue about his outstanding scientific merits. But I read in the memoirs of General Denikin that Kolchak demanded (under pressure from Mackinder) that Denikin enter into an agreement with Petliura (giving him Ukraine) in order to defeat the Bolsheviks. For Denikin, his homeland turned out to be more important.

Kolchak was recruited by British intelligence while he was a captain of the 1st rank and commander of a mine division in the Baltic Fleet. This happened at the turn of 1915-1916. This was already a betrayal of the Tsar and the Fatherland, to which he swore allegiance and kissed the cross!

Have you ever wondered why the Entente fleets calmly entered the Russian sector of the Baltic Sea in 1918?! After all, he was mined! Moreover, in the confusion of two revolutions in 1917, no one removed the minefields. Yes, because Kolchak’s ticket to joining the British intelligence service was to hand over all the information about the location of minefields and obstacles in the Russian sector of the Baltic Sea! After all, it was he who carried out this mining and had all the maps of minefields and obstacles in his hands!