Rise of the Left Social Revolutionaries and its weirdness
100 years ago, in July 1918 of the year, an uprising of the Left SRs against the Bolsheviks occurred, which became one of the main events of 1918 of the year and contributed to the growth of the Civil War in Russia. Soon, he was supported by activists from the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom, created in February-March 1918 by Boris Savinkov: they organized a series of uprisings in the cities of the Upper Volga Region.
The Left SRs were first allies of the Bolsheviks, together with the Communists they also formed the first Soviet government (Council of People's Commissars, SNK), their representatives entered other authorities of Soviet Russia. After the conclusion of the Brest Peace, the relations of the Allied parties deteriorated: the Left Social Revolutionaries were categorically against peace with Germany, they left the CPC and voted against the peace treaty at the IV Congress of Soviets in March. For a while, the Brest Treaty was supported only by one of the leaders of the Left Social Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova, but she soon changed her views. In addition, the revolutionary socialists opposed the growing bureaucratization and the nationalization of all aspects of life. Acting as a peasant party, they had serious contradictions with the Bolsheviks and on the peasant issue: they criticized the established practice of surplus in the village, the creation of poor committees (combines), who seized power from the village councils, where the Social Revolutionaries prevailed. At the same time, the left SRs still maintained their positions in the office of the people's commissariats, various committees, commissions, councils, served in the Cheka and the Red Army.
From 1 to 3 on July 1818, Moscow hosted the 3rd Congress of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, which adopted a resolution criticizing the Bolsheviks: “Increased centralization, crowning the system of bureaucratic bodies with dictatorship, the use of requisitioning units operating outside the control and guidance of local Soviets, the cultivation of poor committees the measures create a campaign against the Soviets of peasant deputies, disorganize the working Soviets, and confuse class relations in the countryside. ” The congress also decided to “break the Brest Treaty, which was disastrous for the Russian and world revolution, in a revolutionary way”.
On July 4, the 5th Congress of Soviets opened in Moscow, at which delegates from the Left SRs (30,3% of all delegates) continued to criticize their yesterday’s allies. Maria Spiridonova called the Bolsheviks "traitors to the revolution." Another leader, Boris Kamkov, demanded "to sweep away the detachments and combatants from the village." The Bolsheviks answered the same. So, Lenin’s speech was harsh: “they were not with us, but against us.” He called the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries completely dead, provocateurs, like-minded people of Kerensky and Savinkov. He unequivocally stated: "The previous speaker spoke about a quarrel with the Bolsheviks, and I will answer: no, comrades, this is not a quarrel, this is indeed an irrevocable break." The Social Revolutionaries voted to raise the question of denouncing the Brest Peace and resuming the war with Germany. When this proposal did not pass, the delegates of the Left Social Revolutionaries left the congress until July 6.
6 July left SRs organized a loud terrorist attack aimed at breaking the world with Germany. Two members of the party who served in the VChK (Jacob Blumkin and Nikolai Andreev), came to the German embassy and tried to blow up first, and then shot the German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach there. Maria Spiridonova, having learned about this, arrived at the Congress of Soviets and told the delegates that “the Russian people are free from Mirbach”. The chairman of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, in turn, arrived at the headquarters of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary detachment of the commission located in Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane, and demanded that Blumkin and Andreev be extradited, but he found the entire Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party there. As a result, the head of the Cheka himself was arrested by the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Chekists and remained with them as a hostage. Soon, the Social Revolutionaries seized the post office and the central telegraph, began to send out their appeals, in which they declared the power of the Bolsheviks deposed, demanded not to carry out the orders of Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov, and also reported the murder of the German ambassador. One of the proclamations said: “The dominant part of the Bolsheviks, fearing possible consequences, as before, execute the orders of the German executioners. Forward, workers, workers and Red Army men, in defense of the working people, against all executioners, against all spies and provocative imperialism. ”
In the institutions and on the streets of Moscow, the Social Revolutionaries seized major Bolshevik leaders 27, and the Red Army soldiers of the Moscow garrison partially also went over to the side of the Social Revolutionaries, but mostly declared their neutrality. The only parts that remained fully loyal to the Bolsheviks were the Latvian riflemen and the “Bolshevik” part of the Cheka, headed by the Vice-Chairman of the Cheka, Latvian Jacob Peters. Lenin ordered Peters to arrest all the delegates of the Congress from the left Social Revolutionaries, and Trotsky ordered another deputy chairman of the Cheka, Martyn Latsis, to arrest all the left Social Revolutionaries serving in the Cheka, and declare them hostages. But the left SRs themselves occupied the main building of the Cheka and arrested Latsis. It seemed that the uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries was close to victory and it remained only to take the Kremlin, to arrest Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. But then the rebels behaved strangely and passively, despite the preponderance of forces (by the evening of July 6 they had about 1900 soldiers, 4 armored vehicles and 8 guns against 700 soldiers, 4 armored cars and 12 guns from the Bolsheviks). They did not storm the Kremlin, taking advantage of the surprise, numerical superiority and confusion of the leadership of the Bolsheviks. Instead, the fighters of the left Social Revolutionaries "rebelled" in the barracks. But the leadership of the Left Social Revolutionaries, instead of leading the uprising and its spread, for some reason, quietly went to the congress and later made itself caught.
During this pause, the Bolsheviks managed to pull back to Moscow another 3300 Latvian riflemen stationed in the nearest suburbs, to raise troops of the Red Guard. On early July 7, the Latvians, armed with machine guns, guns and armored cars, began to assault the positions of the Left Social Revolutionaries. The Social Revolutionaries did not offer much resistance. During the storming of the headquarters in Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane, even artillery was used, despite the fact that the building was occupied not only by the Left Esser security officers, but also by their hostages. 450 delegates to the Congress of Soviets - Left Social Revolutionaries and Left Social Revolutionary Chekists were arrested. The very next day, 13 employees of the Cheka, including another former deputy Dzerzhinsky, left Socialist-Revolutionary Vyacheslav Alexandrovich, were shot, but with most of the Left Social Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks did relatively mildly, from several months to three years in prison (many were soon amnestied). So, Maria Spiridonova was sentenced only to a year in prison, and many prominent left-wing Social Revolutionaries managed to escape from arrest and escape from Moscow. And the murderer of Mirbach Blumkin was not even arrested! And he continued to serve in the Cheka. He was only temporarily sent on a business trip to the south. In all, only 600 Left SRs were arrested in Russia, while serious clashes with the Bolsheviks were observed only in Petrograd, where 10 people were killed during the assault on the Left Socialist-Revolutionary headquarters.
On July 9, the Congress of Soviets, which already consisted of some Bolsheviks, unanimously decided to expel the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries from the Soviets. But at the lowest level, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and even the Mensheviks, without much advertisements, although not hiding their views, continued to work in the soviets until the beginning of the 1920-s.
Thus, after the suppression of the uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Russia, a one-party authoritarian regime is established. The Left SRs were defeated and could not resume the war of Soviet Russia with Germany. The German government, after the apologies already made on July 6 by July, forgive the murder of its ambassador.
Latvian arrows and delegates to the V Congress of Soviets in front of the Bolshoi Theater
Uprising in Yaroslavl
July 6 also began a rebellion in Yaroslavl. He was headed by Colonel Alexander Perkhurov, an activist of the underground "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom," Social Revolutionary Boris Savinkov. The uprising in Yaroslavl had been preparing for a long time: before this, the anti-Bolshevik underground had been formed in the city for several months from among the former members of the Union of Officers, the Union of Frontline Soldiers and the Union of St. George Knights. By the beginning of the uprising in the city, it was possible to legally quarter up to 300 officers, who, according to legend, came to re-register for service in the Red Army. On the night of July 6, rebels led by Perkhurov (first around 100 people) attacked a large warehouse weapons and captured it. A militia squad sent by the signal of the incident also went over to the side of the insurgents, and in the morning the whole city police headed by the provincial commissioner. When advancing into the city on the side of the rebels, the armored division (2 armored car and 5 large-caliber machine guns) also switched, and another regiment declared neutrality. On the side of the red there was only a small so-called. "Special communist detachment", which after a short battle laid down arms.
The insurgents occupied all the administrative buildings, the post office, the telegraph, the radio station and the treasury. The Commissioner of the Yaroslavl Military District, David Zakheim, and the chairman of the executive committee of the city council, Semyon Nakhimson, were captured in the apartments and killed the same day. 200 other Bolsheviks and Soviet workers were arrested and imprisoned in the hold of the "death barge" standing in the middle of the Volga - from stuffiness in the hold, lack of water and food, unsanitary captives began to die en masse from the very first day, and when trying to leave the barge they were shot ( As a result, more than a hundred of those arrested died, others were able to escape). Perkhurov proclaimed himself commander-in-chief of the Yaroslavl province and commander of the so-called Northern Volunteer Army, subordinate to the supreme command of General MV Alekseev. About 6 thousand people enrolled in the ranks of the "Northern Army" (actively participated in the battles around 1600 - 2000 people). Among them were in considerable numbers not only former officers of the tsarist army, junker and students, but also soldiers, local workers and peasants. There were not enough weapons, especially guns and machine guns (there were only 2 three-inch guns and 15 machine guns at the disposal of the rebels). Therefore, Perkhurov resorted to defensive tactics, expecting help from weapons and people from Rybinsk.
The leader of the uprising in Yaroslavl, Alexander Petrovich Perkhurov
On July 8, in Yaroslavl, the activity of the city government was restored according to the laws of the Provisional Government of 1917. On July 13, by its resolution of the Perkhurov, to “re-establish law and order and public peace” abolished all Soviet authorities and abolished all its decrees and decrees, “authorities and officials that existed under the laws in force before the October 1917 coup of the year” were restored. Factory settlements outside the Kotorosl River, where the 1-th Soviet regiment was located, the rebels failed to capture. Soon the Reds with the Tugovoi Mountain that dominated the city began shelling Yaroslavl. The rebel calculation that the very fact of the uprising would raise the Yaroslavl and neighboring provinces proved to be untenable - the initial success of the uprising could not be developed. Meanwhile, the Soviet military command hastily hurried to Yaroslavl troops. In the suppression of the uprising, not only the local regiment of the Red Army and the workers' detachments took part, but also the Red Guard detachments from Tver, Kineshma, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kostroma and other cities.
Yu. S. Guzarsky was appointed commander of the forces on the southern coast of Kotorosl, and A.J. Hecker arrived on July 14 from Vologda on the both banks of the Volga near Yaroslavl. The ring of red troops was rapidly shrinking. Red Guard detachments and units of internationalists (Latvians, Poles, Chinese, German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war) launched an offensive against Yaroslavl. The city was heavily shelled and bombed from the air. Because of Kotorosl and from the side of the Vspolye station, the city was continuously bombarded with artillery and armored trains. Red squads bombed the city and suburbs with airplanes. So, as a result of airstrikes Demidov Lyceum was destroyed. The rebels did not surrender, and the shelling was intensified, they were beaten on the squares, as a result of which streets and whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Fires broke out in the city and up to 80% of all buildings were destroyed in the part of the city that was in revolt.
76-mm gun obr. 1902, which participated in the shelling of Yaroslavl. The gun was disabled by a projectile exploded in the barrel.
Seeing the hopelessness of the position of Perkhurov on the military council, he proposed to break out of the city and leave either to Vologda or Kazan to meet the People’s Army. However, most of the commanders and fighters, being local residents, led by General Peter Karpov, refused to leave the city and decided to continue the struggle while they could. As a result, a detachment of 50 people headed by Perkhurov fled from Yaroslavl on a steamer on the night of 15 on July 16 of 1918. Later, Perkhurov entered Komuch's People's Army, served Kolchak, was captured in 1920, and 1922 was convicted in Yaroslavl by an indicative court and executed. Commander in the city remained General Karpov. Having exhausted their forces and ammunition, the rebels laid down their arms on July 21. Some fled into the woods or along the river, and the other part of the officers went to the trick in order to save their lives. They came to the premises of the German Commission of Prisoners of War No. 4 located in the city theater, engaged in their return to their homeland, declared that they did not recognize the Peace of Brest, consider themselves at war with Germany and surrendered to the Germans as a prisoner, handing them their weapons. The Germans promised to protect them from the Bolsheviks, but the next day they issued officers for reprisals.
The number of Red Army soldiers who died during the suppression of the uprising is unknown. During the fighting, about 600 rebels died. After the capture of Yaroslavl, mass terror began in the city: on the first day after the end of the uprising, 428 people were shot (including the entire headquarters of the rebels - 57 people). As a result, almost all the participants in the uprising died. In addition, during the fighting, shelling and air strikes, the city suffered significant material damage. In particular, 2147 houses were destroyed (28 thousand inhabitants were left homeless) and destroyed: Demidov Juridical Lyceum with its famous library, 20 factories and factories, part of shopping malls, dozens of churches and churches, 67 buildings of government, medical, cultural purposes. Also, the collections of the Petrograd Artillery Historical Museum (AIM), the largest museum of the Russian army, exported to Yaroslavl, which contained military and artistic values related to history all kinds of land forces of Russia. So, 55 crates full of flags and weapons burned: around 2000 banners in total (including Streltsy), all trophies collected during the First World War, instances of valuable weapons and other firearms, etc.
On July 8, supporters of the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom also made an unsuccessful attempt to revolt in another city in the northern Volga region, Rybinsk. In spite of the fact that Boris Savinkov and Alexander Dikgoff-Derental personally led the uprising here, they did not succeed in capturing even parts of the city and after a few hours of stubborn fighting with the Red Army survivors had to flee. In addition, on July 8, the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom launched an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Murom. Late in the evening, the rebels attacked the local military enlistment office and seized weapons. By night, under the control of the rebels were all the main administrative buildings of the city. However, here, unlike Yaroslavl, the rebels failed to win over large masses of the population and form a large armed detachment. On July 10, the rebels had to flee from the city to the east in the direction of Ardatov. The Reds chased them for two days and scattered them.
Boris Savinkov (center)
Muraveva mutiny
10 July 1918 began the so-called “Muravyov mutiny” - left Social Revolutionary Mikhail Muravyov, appointed 13 on June 16 as commander of the Eastern Front of the Red Army (the front turned against the insurgent Czechoslovak Corps and the Whites). Interestingly, 6 and 7 July, in the days of the uprising of the Left SRs in Moscow, Muravyov did not take any action and assured Lenin of the loyalty of the Soviet government. Apparently, Muravyov started a rebellion on his own, receiving news from Moscow and fearing arrest because of suspicions of disloyalty (he was distinguished by an adventurous temper, he dreamed of becoming “red Napoleon”). On the night from 9 to 10 July, the commander unexpectedly left the front headquarters in Kazan. Together with two faithful regiments, he moved to the ships and sailed in the direction of Simbirsk.
July 11 squad Muravyova landed in Simbirsk and occupied the city. Almost all Soviet leaders in the city were arrested (including the commander of the 1 army, Mikhail Tukhachevsky). From Simbirsk, Muravyov sent telegrams about the non-recognition of the Brest peace, the resumption of war with Germany and an alliance with the Czechoslovak Corps, and declared himself the commander-in-chief of the army that would fight the Germans. The troops of the front and the Czechoslovak Corps were ordered to move to the Volga and further west. Muravyov also proposed the creation of a separate Soviet republic in the Volga region, headed by left Social Revolutionaries Maria Spiridonova, Boris Kamkov and Vladimir Karelin. On the side of Muravyov, left Social Revolutionaries crossed over: the commander of the Simbirsk group of forces and the Simbirsk fortified area Klim Ivanov and the head of the Kazan fortified area Trofimovsky.
In a joint statement, Lenin and Trotsky called the former commander-in-chief a traitor and an enemy of the people, demanding that “every honest citizen” shoot him on the spot. But Muravyov was killed even before the public announcement of this appeal, when on the same day, July 11, after sending telegrams, he appeared in the Simbirsk council and demanded that he transfer power. There he landed in an ambush arranged by the chairman of the provincial party committee of the CPSU (b) Joseph Vareikis and the Latvian arrows. During the meeting, the Red Guards and the Chekists left the ambush and announced their arrest. Muravyov had armed resistance and was killed (according to other sources - he shot himself). On July 12, the official newspaper of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “Izvestia” posted a government message “On the Treason of Muravyov”, which stated that “seeing the complete collapse of his plan, Muravyov committed suicide by a shot to the temple”.
Thus, Muravyev’s rebellion proved short-lived and unsuccessful. Yet he did serious damage to the Red Army. The command and control of the Eastern Front was disorganized, first by telegrams from Commander-in-Chief Muravyov about peace with the Czechoslovakians and the war with Germany, and then about Muravyev’s treason. Red troops were demoralized by this. As a result, the whites (the People’s Army Komuch) soon succeeded in seriously pressing the Reds and knocking them out of Simbirsk, Kazan and other cities of the Volga region, which further worsened the position of Soviet Russia. So, July 21 shock combined detachment of the People's Army and the Czechoslovak Corps under the command of Vladimir Kappel took Simbirsk. July 25 Czechoslovak Corps troops entered Yekaterinburg. On the same day, the People’s Army Komuch occupied Hvalynsk. In addition, the Reds suffered heavy defeats in the east of Siberia in the middle of July. The Red Army left Irkutsk, where Siberian whites and Czechoslovakians entered. Red detachments retreated to Baikal.
July 17 The Provisional Siberian Government, located in Omsk, under the leadership of Peter Vologodsky, adopted the “Declaration of State Independence of Siberia”. The declaration proclaimed the international legal personality of Siberia, whose borders stretched from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, and the independence of the government of the Provisional Siberian Government. At the same time, the leaders of Siberia immediately declared their readiness to return to democratic Russia, if the will of the newly assembled All-Russian Constituent Assembly was expressed. It is clear that these were only words. In fact, all the “independent” and “democratic” governments appearing on the ruins of old Russia automatically became colonies of the West and partially of the East (Japan).
Soldiers of the regiments of Mikhail Muravyov and the Czechoslovak Corps
About the strangeness of the rebellion
As noted above, the rebels were extremely passive, did not use a favorable moment to take up. The leadership of the Bolsheviks was partly arrested, others hesitated. In particular, Lenin doubted the loyalty of the commander of the main shock unit - the Latvian riflemen, Vatsetisa and the head of the Cheka - Dzerzhinsky. The rebels had the opportunity to arrest the delegates of the congress and members of the Soviet government, but did not. A detachment of the Cheka under the command of Popov did not take any active actions and until his defeat he sat in the barracks. Even in the appeal that was sent around the country, there were no calls to overthrow the Bolsheviks, or to go to the aid of the rebels in Moscow.
It is also interesting that the punishment of the Left Social Revolutionaries was mild, especially in the context of the Civil War and the gravity of the crime - the attempted coup d'état. Only deputy chairman of the Cheka Aleksandrovich Alexandrovich, and 12 people from the Popov Cheka squad were shot. Others received a short time, and soon were released. The direct participants in the attempt on the German ambassador, Blumkin and Andreev, were not actually punished. But Blumkin generally became the closest employee of Dzerzhinsky and Trotsky. This eventually led some researchers to the idea that there was no rebellion. The uprising was a dramatization of the Bolsheviks themselves. This version was proposed by Yu. G. Felshtinsky. The uprising was a provocation that led to the establishment of a one-party system. The Bolsheviks received a reason to eliminate competitors.
According to another version, the uprising was initiated by part of the Bolshevik leadership, which wanted to overthrow Lenin. So, in December 1923, Zinoviev and Stalin reported that the head of the “Left Communists” Bukharin received a proposal from the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries to overthrow Lenin by force, establishing a new composition of the SNK. We must not forget that the so-called. “Left Communists”, including Dzerzhinsky (head of the Cheka), N. Bukharin (the main ideologue of the party) and other prominent representatives of the Bolshevik Party, advocated a revolutionary war with Germany. Only the threat of Lenin to leave the Central Committee and turn directly to the masses made them give up on this issue. Dzerzhinsky’s behavior, which came to the rebel headquarters and actually “surrendered”, also raises questions. With this he violated the management of the Cheka and at the same time created an alibi for himself, in case of failure of the plan. Yes, and the instigator of the rebellion - Blumkin later became the favorite of Dzerzhinsky in the Cheka. In addition, it is precisely in the environment of the "iron Felix" that the Anglo-French trace is clearly visible, and the Entente was interested in continuing the war between Russia and Germany.
It is also worth noting that in Vatsetis in 1935, he called the Left Socialist-Revolutionary insurrection a "dramatization" of Trotsky. We should not forget about the special role of Trotsky in the revolution in Russia and his connection with the "financial international" (the masters of the West). During the controversy over peace with Germany, Trotsky took a frankly provocative position - speaking against peace and against war. At the same time, Trotsky had close contacts with representatives of the Entente. It is not surprising that he tried to break the world with Germany and strengthen his position in the Bolshevik leadership. Thus, the Left SRs used more serious "players" for solving their tasks. Hence the lack of common sense in the behavior of the leadership of the socialist revolutionaries.
The Left SRs were first allies of the Bolsheviks, together with the Communists they also formed the first Soviet government (Council of People's Commissars, SNK), their representatives entered other authorities of Soviet Russia. After the conclusion of the Brest Peace, the relations of the Allied parties deteriorated: the Left Social Revolutionaries were categorically against peace with Germany, they left the CPC and voted against the peace treaty at the IV Congress of Soviets in March. For a while, the Brest Treaty was supported only by one of the leaders of the Left Social Revolutionaries, Maria Spiridonova, but she soon changed her views. In addition, the revolutionary socialists opposed the growing bureaucratization and the nationalization of all aspects of life. Acting as a peasant party, they had serious contradictions with the Bolsheviks and on the peasant issue: they criticized the established practice of surplus in the village, the creation of poor committees (combines), who seized power from the village councils, where the Social Revolutionaries prevailed. At the same time, the left SRs still maintained their positions in the office of the people's commissariats, various committees, commissions, councils, served in the Cheka and the Red Army.
From 1 to 3 on July 1818, Moscow hosted the 3rd Congress of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, which adopted a resolution criticizing the Bolsheviks: “Increased centralization, crowning the system of bureaucratic bodies with dictatorship, the use of requisitioning units operating outside the control and guidance of local Soviets, the cultivation of poor committees the measures create a campaign against the Soviets of peasant deputies, disorganize the working Soviets, and confuse class relations in the countryside. ” The congress also decided to “break the Brest Treaty, which was disastrous for the Russian and world revolution, in a revolutionary way”.
On July 4, the 5th Congress of Soviets opened in Moscow, at which delegates from the Left SRs (30,3% of all delegates) continued to criticize their yesterday’s allies. Maria Spiridonova called the Bolsheviks "traitors to the revolution." Another leader, Boris Kamkov, demanded "to sweep away the detachments and combatants from the village." The Bolsheviks answered the same. So, Lenin’s speech was harsh: “they were not with us, but against us.” He called the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries completely dead, provocateurs, like-minded people of Kerensky and Savinkov. He unequivocally stated: "The previous speaker spoke about a quarrel with the Bolsheviks, and I will answer: no, comrades, this is not a quarrel, this is indeed an irrevocable break." The Social Revolutionaries voted to raise the question of denouncing the Brest Peace and resuming the war with Germany. When this proposal did not pass, the delegates of the Left Social Revolutionaries left the congress until July 6.
6 July left SRs organized a loud terrorist attack aimed at breaking the world with Germany. Two members of the party who served in the VChK (Jacob Blumkin and Nikolai Andreev), came to the German embassy and tried to blow up first, and then shot the German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach there. Maria Spiridonova, having learned about this, arrived at the Congress of Soviets and told the delegates that “the Russian people are free from Mirbach”. The chairman of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, in turn, arrived at the headquarters of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary detachment of the commission located in Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane, and demanded that Blumkin and Andreev be extradited, but he found the entire Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party there. As a result, the head of the Cheka himself was arrested by the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Chekists and remained with them as a hostage. Soon, the Social Revolutionaries seized the post office and the central telegraph, began to send out their appeals, in which they declared the power of the Bolsheviks deposed, demanded not to carry out the orders of Vladimir Lenin and Yakov Sverdlov, and also reported the murder of the German ambassador. One of the proclamations said: “The dominant part of the Bolsheviks, fearing possible consequences, as before, execute the orders of the German executioners. Forward, workers, workers and Red Army men, in defense of the working people, against all executioners, against all spies and provocative imperialism. ”
In the institutions and on the streets of Moscow, the Social Revolutionaries seized major Bolshevik leaders 27, and the Red Army soldiers of the Moscow garrison partially also went over to the side of the Social Revolutionaries, but mostly declared their neutrality. The only parts that remained fully loyal to the Bolsheviks were the Latvian riflemen and the “Bolshevik” part of the Cheka, headed by the Vice-Chairman of the Cheka, Latvian Jacob Peters. Lenin ordered Peters to arrest all the delegates of the Congress from the left Social Revolutionaries, and Trotsky ordered another deputy chairman of the Cheka, Martyn Latsis, to arrest all the left Social Revolutionaries serving in the Cheka, and declare them hostages. But the left SRs themselves occupied the main building of the Cheka and arrested Latsis. It seemed that the uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries was close to victory and it remained only to take the Kremlin, to arrest Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. But then the rebels behaved strangely and passively, despite the preponderance of forces (by the evening of July 6 they had about 1900 soldiers, 4 armored vehicles and 8 guns against 700 soldiers, 4 armored cars and 12 guns from the Bolsheviks). They did not storm the Kremlin, taking advantage of the surprise, numerical superiority and confusion of the leadership of the Bolsheviks. Instead, the fighters of the left Social Revolutionaries "rebelled" in the barracks. But the leadership of the Left Social Revolutionaries, instead of leading the uprising and its spread, for some reason, quietly went to the congress and later made itself caught.
During this pause, the Bolsheviks managed to pull back to Moscow another 3300 Latvian riflemen stationed in the nearest suburbs, to raise troops of the Red Guard. On early July 7, the Latvians, armed with machine guns, guns and armored cars, began to assault the positions of the Left Social Revolutionaries. The Social Revolutionaries did not offer much resistance. During the storming of the headquarters in Bolshoy Trekhsvyatitelsky Lane, even artillery was used, despite the fact that the building was occupied not only by the Left Esser security officers, but also by their hostages. 450 delegates to the Congress of Soviets - Left Social Revolutionaries and Left Social Revolutionary Chekists were arrested. The very next day, 13 employees of the Cheka, including another former deputy Dzerzhinsky, left Socialist-Revolutionary Vyacheslav Alexandrovich, were shot, but with most of the Left Social Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks did relatively mildly, from several months to three years in prison (many were soon amnestied). So, Maria Spiridonova was sentenced only to a year in prison, and many prominent left-wing Social Revolutionaries managed to escape from arrest and escape from Moscow. And the murderer of Mirbach Blumkin was not even arrested! And he continued to serve in the Cheka. He was only temporarily sent on a business trip to the south. In all, only 600 Left SRs were arrested in Russia, while serious clashes with the Bolsheviks were observed only in Petrograd, where 10 people were killed during the assault on the Left Socialist-Revolutionary headquarters.
On July 9, the Congress of Soviets, which already consisted of some Bolsheviks, unanimously decided to expel the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries from the Soviets. But at the lowest level, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and even the Mensheviks, without much advertisements, although not hiding their views, continued to work in the soviets until the beginning of the 1920-s.
Thus, after the suppression of the uprising of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in Russia, a one-party authoritarian regime is established. The Left SRs were defeated and could not resume the war of Soviet Russia with Germany. The German government, after the apologies already made on July 6 by July, forgive the murder of its ambassador.
Latvian arrows and delegates to the V Congress of Soviets in front of the Bolshoi Theater
Uprising in Yaroslavl
July 6 also began a rebellion in Yaroslavl. He was headed by Colonel Alexander Perkhurov, an activist of the underground "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom," Social Revolutionary Boris Savinkov. The uprising in Yaroslavl had been preparing for a long time: before this, the anti-Bolshevik underground had been formed in the city for several months from among the former members of the Union of Officers, the Union of Frontline Soldiers and the Union of St. George Knights. By the beginning of the uprising in the city, it was possible to legally quarter up to 300 officers, who, according to legend, came to re-register for service in the Red Army. On the night of July 6, rebels led by Perkhurov (first around 100 people) attacked a large warehouse weapons and captured it. A militia squad sent by the signal of the incident also went over to the side of the insurgents, and in the morning the whole city police headed by the provincial commissioner. When advancing into the city on the side of the rebels, the armored division (2 armored car and 5 large-caliber machine guns) also switched, and another regiment declared neutrality. On the side of the red there was only a small so-called. "Special communist detachment", which after a short battle laid down arms.
The insurgents occupied all the administrative buildings, the post office, the telegraph, the radio station and the treasury. The Commissioner of the Yaroslavl Military District, David Zakheim, and the chairman of the executive committee of the city council, Semyon Nakhimson, were captured in the apartments and killed the same day. 200 other Bolsheviks and Soviet workers were arrested and imprisoned in the hold of the "death barge" standing in the middle of the Volga - from stuffiness in the hold, lack of water and food, unsanitary captives began to die en masse from the very first day, and when trying to leave the barge they were shot ( As a result, more than a hundred of those arrested died, others were able to escape). Perkhurov proclaimed himself commander-in-chief of the Yaroslavl province and commander of the so-called Northern Volunteer Army, subordinate to the supreme command of General MV Alekseev. About 6 thousand people enrolled in the ranks of the "Northern Army" (actively participated in the battles around 1600 - 2000 people). Among them were in considerable numbers not only former officers of the tsarist army, junker and students, but also soldiers, local workers and peasants. There were not enough weapons, especially guns and machine guns (there were only 2 three-inch guns and 15 machine guns at the disposal of the rebels). Therefore, Perkhurov resorted to defensive tactics, expecting help from weapons and people from Rybinsk.
The leader of the uprising in Yaroslavl, Alexander Petrovich Perkhurov
On July 8, in Yaroslavl, the activity of the city government was restored according to the laws of the Provisional Government of 1917. On July 13, by its resolution of the Perkhurov, to “re-establish law and order and public peace” abolished all Soviet authorities and abolished all its decrees and decrees, “authorities and officials that existed under the laws in force before the October 1917 coup of the year” were restored. Factory settlements outside the Kotorosl River, where the 1-th Soviet regiment was located, the rebels failed to capture. Soon the Reds with the Tugovoi Mountain that dominated the city began shelling Yaroslavl. The rebel calculation that the very fact of the uprising would raise the Yaroslavl and neighboring provinces proved to be untenable - the initial success of the uprising could not be developed. Meanwhile, the Soviet military command hastily hurried to Yaroslavl troops. In the suppression of the uprising, not only the local regiment of the Red Army and the workers' detachments took part, but also the Red Guard detachments from Tver, Kineshma, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kostroma and other cities.
Yu. S. Guzarsky was appointed commander of the forces on the southern coast of Kotorosl, and A.J. Hecker arrived on July 14 from Vologda on the both banks of the Volga near Yaroslavl. The ring of red troops was rapidly shrinking. Red Guard detachments and units of internationalists (Latvians, Poles, Chinese, German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war) launched an offensive against Yaroslavl. The city was heavily shelled and bombed from the air. Because of Kotorosl and from the side of the Vspolye station, the city was continuously bombarded with artillery and armored trains. Red squads bombed the city and suburbs with airplanes. So, as a result of airstrikes Demidov Lyceum was destroyed. The rebels did not surrender, and the shelling was intensified, they were beaten on the squares, as a result of which streets and whole neighborhoods were destroyed. Fires broke out in the city and up to 80% of all buildings were destroyed in the part of the city that was in revolt.
76-mm gun obr. 1902, which participated in the shelling of Yaroslavl. The gun was disabled by a projectile exploded in the barrel.
Seeing the hopelessness of the position of Perkhurov on the military council, he proposed to break out of the city and leave either to Vologda or Kazan to meet the People’s Army. However, most of the commanders and fighters, being local residents, led by General Peter Karpov, refused to leave the city and decided to continue the struggle while they could. As a result, a detachment of 50 people headed by Perkhurov fled from Yaroslavl on a steamer on the night of 15 on July 16 of 1918. Later, Perkhurov entered Komuch's People's Army, served Kolchak, was captured in 1920, and 1922 was convicted in Yaroslavl by an indicative court and executed. Commander in the city remained General Karpov. Having exhausted their forces and ammunition, the rebels laid down their arms on July 21. Some fled into the woods or along the river, and the other part of the officers went to the trick in order to save their lives. They came to the premises of the German Commission of Prisoners of War No. 4 located in the city theater, engaged in their return to their homeland, declared that they did not recognize the Peace of Brest, consider themselves at war with Germany and surrendered to the Germans as a prisoner, handing them their weapons. The Germans promised to protect them from the Bolsheviks, but the next day they issued officers for reprisals.
The number of Red Army soldiers who died during the suppression of the uprising is unknown. During the fighting, about 600 rebels died. After the capture of Yaroslavl, mass terror began in the city: on the first day after the end of the uprising, 428 people were shot (including the entire headquarters of the rebels - 57 people). As a result, almost all the participants in the uprising died. In addition, during the fighting, shelling and air strikes, the city suffered significant material damage. In particular, 2147 houses were destroyed (28 thousand inhabitants were left homeless) and destroyed: Demidov Juridical Lyceum with its famous library, 20 factories and factories, part of shopping malls, dozens of churches and churches, 67 buildings of government, medical, cultural purposes. Also, the collections of the Petrograd Artillery Historical Museum (AIM), the largest museum of the Russian army, exported to Yaroslavl, which contained military and artistic values related to history all kinds of land forces of Russia. So, 55 crates full of flags and weapons burned: around 2000 banners in total (including Streltsy), all trophies collected during the First World War, instances of valuable weapons and other firearms, etc.
On July 8, supporters of the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom also made an unsuccessful attempt to revolt in another city in the northern Volga region, Rybinsk. In spite of the fact that Boris Savinkov and Alexander Dikgoff-Derental personally led the uprising here, they did not succeed in capturing even parts of the city and after a few hours of stubborn fighting with the Red Army survivors had to flee. In addition, on July 8, the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom launched an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Murom. Late in the evening, the rebels attacked the local military enlistment office and seized weapons. By night, under the control of the rebels were all the main administrative buildings of the city. However, here, unlike Yaroslavl, the rebels failed to win over large masses of the population and form a large armed detachment. On July 10, the rebels had to flee from the city to the east in the direction of Ardatov. The Reds chased them for two days and scattered them.
Boris Savinkov (center)
Muraveva mutiny
10 July 1918 began the so-called “Muravyov mutiny” - left Social Revolutionary Mikhail Muravyov, appointed 13 on June 16 as commander of the Eastern Front of the Red Army (the front turned against the insurgent Czechoslovak Corps and the Whites). Interestingly, 6 and 7 July, in the days of the uprising of the Left SRs in Moscow, Muravyov did not take any action and assured Lenin of the loyalty of the Soviet government. Apparently, Muravyov started a rebellion on his own, receiving news from Moscow and fearing arrest because of suspicions of disloyalty (he was distinguished by an adventurous temper, he dreamed of becoming “red Napoleon”). On the night from 9 to 10 July, the commander unexpectedly left the front headquarters in Kazan. Together with two faithful regiments, he moved to the ships and sailed in the direction of Simbirsk.
July 11 squad Muravyova landed in Simbirsk and occupied the city. Almost all Soviet leaders in the city were arrested (including the commander of the 1 army, Mikhail Tukhachevsky). From Simbirsk, Muravyov sent telegrams about the non-recognition of the Brest peace, the resumption of war with Germany and an alliance with the Czechoslovak Corps, and declared himself the commander-in-chief of the army that would fight the Germans. The troops of the front and the Czechoslovak Corps were ordered to move to the Volga and further west. Muravyov also proposed the creation of a separate Soviet republic in the Volga region, headed by left Social Revolutionaries Maria Spiridonova, Boris Kamkov and Vladimir Karelin. On the side of Muravyov, left Social Revolutionaries crossed over: the commander of the Simbirsk group of forces and the Simbirsk fortified area Klim Ivanov and the head of the Kazan fortified area Trofimovsky.
In a joint statement, Lenin and Trotsky called the former commander-in-chief a traitor and an enemy of the people, demanding that “every honest citizen” shoot him on the spot. But Muravyov was killed even before the public announcement of this appeal, when on the same day, July 11, after sending telegrams, he appeared in the Simbirsk council and demanded that he transfer power. There he landed in an ambush arranged by the chairman of the provincial party committee of the CPSU (b) Joseph Vareikis and the Latvian arrows. During the meeting, the Red Guards and the Chekists left the ambush and announced their arrest. Muravyov had armed resistance and was killed (according to other sources - he shot himself). On July 12, the official newspaper of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “Izvestia” posted a government message “On the Treason of Muravyov”, which stated that “seeing the complete collapse of his plan, Muravyov committed suicide by a shot to the temple”.
Thus, Muravyev’s rebellion proved short-lived and unsuccessful. Yet he did serious damage to the Red Army. The command and control of the Eastern Front was disorganized, first by telegrams from Commander-in-Chief Muravyov about peace with the Czechoslovakians and the war with Germany, and then about Muravyev’s treason. Red troops were demoralized by this. As a result, the whites (the People’s Army Komuch) soon succeeded in seriously pressing the Reds and knocking them out of Simbirsk, Kazan and other cities of the Volga region, which further worsened the position of Soviet Russia. So, July 21 shock combined detachment of the People's Army and the Czechoslovak Corps under the command of Vladimir Kappel took Simbirsk. July 25 Czechoslovak Corps troops entered Yekaterinburg. On the same day, the People’s Army Komuch occupied Hvalynsk. In addition, the Reds suffered heavy defeats in the east of Siberia in the middle of July. The Red Army left Irkutsk, where Siberian whites and Czechoslovakians entered. Red detachments retreated to Baikal.
July 17 The Provisional Siberian Government, located in Omsk, under the leadership of Peter Vologodsky, adopted the “Declaration of State Independence of Siberia”. The declaration proclaimed the international legal personality of Siberia, whose borders stretched from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, and the independence of the government of the Provisional Siberian Government. At the same time, the leaders of Siberia immediately declared their readiness to return to democratic Russia, if the will of the newly assembled All-Russian Constituent Assembly was expressed. It is clear that these were only words. In fact, all the “independent” and “democratic” governments appearing on the ruins of old Russia automatically became colonies of the West and partially of the East (Japan).
Soldiers of the regiments of Mikhail Muravyov and the Czechoslovak Corps
About the strangeness of the rebellion
As noted above, the rebels were extremely passive, did not use a favorable moment to take up. The leadership of the Bolsheviks was partly arrested, others hesitated. In particular, Lenin doubted the loyalty of the commander of the main shock unit - the Latvian riflemen, Vatsetisa and the head of the Cheka - Dzerzhinsky. The rebels had the opportunity to arrest the delegates of the congress and members of the Soviet government, but did not. A detachment of the Cheka under the command of Popov did not take any active actions and until his defeat he sat in the barracks. Even in the appeal that was sent around the country, there were no calls to overthrow the Bolsheviks, or to go to the aid of the rebels in Moscow.
It is also interesting that the punishment of the Left Social Revolutionaries was mild, especially in the context of the Civil War and the gravity of the crime - the attempted coup d'état. Only deputy chairman of the Cheka Aleksandrovich Alexandrovich, and 12 people from the Popov Cheka squad were shot. Others received a short time, and soon were released. The direct participants in the attempt on the German ambassador, Blumkin and Andreev, were not actually punished. But Blumkin generally became the closest employee of Dzerzhinsky and Trotsky. This eventually led some researchers to the idea that there was no rebellion. The uprising was a dramatization of the Bolsheviks themselves. This version was proposed by Yu. G. Felshtinsky. The uprising was a provocation that led to the establishment of a one-party system. The Bolsheviks received a reason to eliminate competitors.
According to another version, the uprising was initiated by part of the Bolshevik leadership, which wanted to overthrow Lenin. So, in December 1923, Zinoviev and Stalin reported that the head of the “Left Communists” Bukharin received a proposal from the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries to overthrow Lenin by force, establishing a new composition of the SNK. We must not forget that the so-called. “Left Communists”, including Dzerzhinsky (head of the Cheka), N. Bukharin (the main ideologue of the party) and other prominent representatives of the Bolshevik Party, advocated a revolutionary war with Germany. Only the threat of Lenin to leave the Central Committee and turn directly to the masses made them give up on this issue. Dzerzhinsky’s behavior, which came to the rebel headquarters and actually “surrendered”, also raises questions. With this he violated the management of the Cheka and at the same time created an alibi for himself, in case of failure of the plan. Yes, and the instigator of the rebellion - Blumkin later became the favorite of Dzerzhinsky in the Cheka. In addition, it is precisely in the environment of the "iron Felix" that the Anglo-French trace is clearly visible, and the Entente was interested in continuing the war between Russia and Germany.
It is also worth noting that in Vatsetis in 1935, he called the Left Socialist-Revolutionary insurrection a "dramatization" of Trotsky. We should not forget about the special role of Trotsky in the revolution in Russia and his connection with the "financial international" (the masters of the West). During the controversy over peace with Germany, Trotsky took a frankly provocative position - speaking against peace and against war. At the same time, Trotsky had close contacts with representatives of the Entente. It is not surprising that he tried to break the world with Germany and strengthen his position in the Bolshevik leadership. Thus, the Left SRs used more serious "players" for solving their tasks. Hence the lack of common sense in the behavior of the leadership of the socialist revolutionaries.
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