"Great Purge": the fight against banditry
While the Civil War and the White movement in Russia are fairly well covered, little is known about the peasant war that began in 1917. In fact, until 1920, it was a hidden part of the general Civil War, when the most visible forces were red, white, and green.
But the peasant war began under the authority of the Provisional Government - when the peasants refused to obey the authorities and hundreds burned down landowners' estates, they divided the land. The war continued after the remnants of the White Army were evacuated from the Crimea. Thus, the suppression of insurrection and rebellion in 1921 - 1922. the best forces of the Red Army and the troops of the Cheka-OGPU were sent. Their total number only in the Tambov province reached 120 thousand people, in Ukraine - more than 56 thousand people, in Karelia - 12 thousand people. According to the Statistics Department of the Red Army, the fighting losses of the Red Army in 1921 a year exceeded 17 thousand people, and in 1922 of a city 21 thousand people. Here you should also add the loss of internal troops, deserts, as well as those people who died at the hands of the rebels.
Thus, officially, the Civil War ended in 1920 and peaceful socialist construction began, and the war, in fact, still continued. Until the end of 1922, martial law was maintained in 39 provinces, regions and autonomous republics of Soviet Russia. The main arena of military clashes of government forces and rebels were the territories of central Russia, the North Caucasus, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Far East. Thus, in the Volga region in 1918 - 1922. 34 peasant uprisings, in the Urals - 16, Central Black Earth - 56, Central Industrial - 42, etc.
Most people perceive such well-known episodes of the peasant war as the Antonov rebellion in Tambov region, the bloody riots in Siberia, the activities of the insurgent army of Nestor Makhno in Ukraine, etc., as scattered phenomena. However, in terms of the scale and threat to the security of the state, they can be compared with the peasant war of Emelyan Pugachev in the 18th century At the same time, the Pugachev uprising shocked Petersburg, but it didn’t matter much like the peasant war of 1917 - 1922. At this time, the peasant war created a real threat to the state. Russia was on the verge of a complete collapse and collapse of the civilization project. Peasants with their project of people's liberty could really take power into their own hands and change the course stories Russia.
The problem was that the Russian civilization and the Russian people in this case lost and disappeared from the historical arena. Russia ceased to exist as a single state, disintegrated into separate autonomous regions, not connected by a common power, strong armed forces and economy. In this case, inevitably, Western and Eastern invaders took the upper hand — the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, etc. Even the Finns were able to create “Great Finland” at the expense of the Russian fragments. And such plans were - Finnish radicals dreamed of a state right up to the Northern Urals and even more. Even with the preservation of the core of historical Russia - without the Baltic states, Finland, Transcaucasia, parts of Siberia and the Far East, in central Russia, then sovereignty could not be maintained.
A community of free bread-growers, an agrarian territory, without powerful armed forces and developed industry, including the military-industrial complex, without a developed education and science, simply could not survive in an aggressive Europe of the 1920-1930 model. At that time authoritarian, Nazi and fascist regimes were in power in Europe, which were distinguished by their aggressiveness and the desire to expand and expand their “living space” at the expense of others. And the peasant, agrarian Russia (with the power of the peasant Soviets), with the "army" consisting of carts and men with rifles, would not have survived even under the blows of the pan-Polish Poland, dreaming of reviving the state from the Black to the Baltic Sea at Russian expense or Nazi Finland. Not to mention the war with the western Entente (USA, Britain and France), militaristic Japan or the Third Reich. The collapse would have been very fast and crushing, accompanied by a new civil war, a surge of separatism and led to the complete solution of the “Russian question”, that is, the death of Russian civilization and the people. The remnants of rapidly growing Russian and other indigenous peoples of Russia would become slaves of the great powers of the West and the East, and then assimilated. The fate of the great Indian tribes and civilizations of America was waiting for the Russians - alcohol and tobacco genocide, economic genocide, the role of servants and indigenous exotics, apathy and decomposition, rapid extinction, death of the language, culture, up to complete loss of self-consciousness.
Thus, the peasants, after the collapse of the project of Russia of the Romanovs - “old Russia”, challenged the authorities and the state in general, and not just the Bolsheviks. They were against the Provisional Government, against the Soviet government and a number of different white governments of Russia. They did not want to follow the instructions of the authorities, serve in the army and give bread (feed the city). The peasants have put forward their utopian project of the future of Russia - the union of free farmers. As a result, the main cause of the conflict between the Soviet authorities and the peasants was the desire of the peasantry to live freely and engage in small private businesses. To grow a crop, or livestock - took it to the market and sold it at the maximum price, while not paying taxes to the state and not taking into account national and national interests. And because of the war and destruction, the city could offer nothing to the village. Therefore, the peasants began to store bread until better times (this process began under the tsarist government). The reaction of the authorities was obvious - to withdraw the bread. So there were prodotryad who were engaged in the seizure of surplus food. People were different, there were various bad excesses. Peasants resisted. And in the conditions of revolution, turmoil and complete collapse of the “old Russia”, peasant rebels could take power into their own hands and change the course of the history of Russia and humanity.
Death to the bandits! Oh, you bastards, we are building a farm, and you interfere
The fight against banditry
In early February, 1921, the high command reported to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic on the state of the fight against banditry. Among the especially dangerous rebel groups operating in the country were listed: Antonov's gang in the Tambov province; gang of Makhno; gangs in Right Bank Ukraine; uprisings in Siberia; Basmachist and uprisings in Turkestan (not only the Basmachi, but also the remnants of the White Guards and detachments of local peasants acted in the territory of Turkestan).
The main threat was the rebel peasants of the Tambov province and Siberia, as well as the Basmachis from Central Asia. Basmachi is, in fact, banditry concealed by ideology, jihadist bandits. The ideological basis of Basmachism was pan-Islamism. The goal of the movement was to separate Turkestan from Soviet Russia. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire exerted support for the Basmachi, who hoped to include Turkestan in its sphere of influence. Then the Basmacians were helped by Britain, which sought to tear Central Asia away from Russia.
The uprising of Antonov in the Tambov region, according to the command, "took on dimensions that threaten the vital interests of the republic." It was attended by 15 thousand people. The government had to attract large forces to suppress the uprising: more than 65 thousand infantry and cavalry, reinforced by armored trains, armored detachments and aviation. It is clear that with such a numerical and technical superiority, the rebels were doomed. Plus, the rich experience of the Soviet armed forces in the anti-partisan struggle gained during the Civil War.
Only by the summer of 1922, the situation in the country stabilized. So, according to the calculations of the Chekists, they fought against the Soviet authorities: in Ukraine, 70 gangs with a total of 1500; in the South-East of Russia and Transcaucasia - 1300 people; Only in Central Asia, the Soviet authorities were opposed by significant forces - 45 thousand people.
The leaders of the state security assessed the situation in the center of the country: “The gangster movement now observed on the territory of the RSFSR represents only a pitiful echo of that powerful and formidable stream that last spring seemed to threaten to flood the entire Republic ... peasant gangsterism not only numerically decreased , but also qualitatively degenerated ... Banditry lost leaders. Large people associated with political parties (like, for example, Antonov), and sometimes even with the present government (Makhno), were either killed or left the gangster movement, and at the head of it were, on the one hand, a purely criminal element, on the other - gangsters with professional long-term practice, which now, of course, cannot be attached to any other business. The composition of ordinary gangster cells also changed radically: due to the cancellation of the allocation (due to the transition from war communism to the NEP 21 in March 1921, the additional development was replaced by a tax in exchange - Author.) The insurrection completely died out; in connection with the end of the war and with the demobilization, the "green" army also dispersed. With the change in the social composition of the gangster detachments, of course, their political aspirations also changed and, most importantly, their relationship with the peasantry changed completely. Banditry, which had been a form of the peasant insurgency for many years, has now become anti-peasant in most areas, evoking a sense of acute hostility among the peasantry and often forcing the peasants to actively take on organizing self-defense.
Thus, the scale of banditry was constantly decreasing - the authorities and state security organs actively destroyed gangs, normal life was improving in the country and banditry ceased to be a form of a peasant movement.
One of the most dangerous uprisings in 1923 - 1924's. became white insurgents on the Amur. The White Guards who fled to China after the end of the Civil War took an active part in the preparation of the peasant uprising. They led the uprising and tried to turn the unorganized peasant groups into a kind of army units. Preparations for the uprising in the Zazey district of the Amur province began in the autumn of 1923. Whites spent exploring, saving up weapon and products. In each village, an underground organization of 4 numbers was created - 10 people. In December, the first gangs appeared in the Blagoveshchensk district of 1923. The uprising itself began on January 10, 1924, in the parish of Gilshin. The rebels destroyed the line of communication. Simultaneously, a Cossack detachment from 200 fighters arrived from abroad. He was to form the "Amur Army". In a short time, the number of rebels rose to 2 thousand people.
Soon the uprising covered 20 villages of the Blagoveshchensk region. The number of rebels rose to 7 thousand people, while sympathizing with the rebels up to 70 thousand people (a third of the district's population). The riot spread rapidly. The village of Tambovka became the center of the rebellion, there was a permanent garrison in 600 people, armed with rifles and machine guns. The province was divided into districts. Each consisted of several parishes and counties with its headquarters. It had a special military department, which was responsible for mobilizing and maintaining discipline in the Amur Army.
By 24 January 1924, a rebellion swept the 24 volost of the Amur province, it was the maximum success of the rebels. Then the uprising began to fade: Red Army units and OGPU troops began to operate in the region. By early February 1924, the insurgency rebellion suppressed. According to official figures, during the operation to suppress the rebellion, the rebels lost their dead and executed - 300 people taken prisoner - to 1200. The loss of the Red Army - more than 100 people killed, wounded, frostbitten and missing. The amount of damage to the economy of Blagoveshchensk district - 2 million rubles in gold.
True, the rebellion did not end there. Part of the rebels managed to escape to China, where a squad of 500 sabers was formed. On the night of 9 on 10 in March 1924, the gangsters captured the village of Volkovsky, killed two people, took away all the good and horses. After that, the KGB prevented another uprising - 19 rebel cells were identified and eliminated, 200 active participants in the conspiracy were arrested with the aim of overthrowing Soviet power.
Thus, many of the “innocent victims” of the Stalinist regime were in fact gangsters, murderers, robbers, or political gangsters, that is, criminals who covered their dirty deeds with “politics”, “high ideas”. Like the Petliurists in Ukraine or the White Guards who make raids into Russia from the territory of China.
But the peasant war began under the authority of the Provisional Government - when the peasants refused to obey the authorities and hundreds burned down landowners' estates, they divided the land. The war continued after the remnants of the White Army were evacuated from the Crimea. Thus, the suppression of insurrection and rebellion in 1921 - 1922. the best forces of the Red Army and the troops of the Cheka-OGPU were sent. Their total number only in the Tambov province reached 120 thousand people, in Ukraine - more than 56 thousand people, in Karelia - 12 thousand people. According to the Statistics Department of the Red Army, the fighting losses of the Red Army in 1921 a year exceeded 17 thousand people, and in 1922 of a city 21 thousand people. Here you should also add the loss of internal troops, deserts, as well as those people who died at the hands of the rebels.
Thus, officially, the Civil War ended in 1920 and peaceful socialist construction began, and the war, in fact, still continued. Until the end of 1922, martial law was maintained in 39 provinces, regions and autonomous republics of Soviet Russia. The main arena of military clashes of government forces and rebels were the territories of central Russia, the North Caucasus, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Far East. Thus, in the Volga region in 1918 - 1922. 34 peasant uprisings, in the Urals - 16, Central Black Earth - 56, Central Industrial - 42, etc.
Most people perceive such well-known episodes of the peasant war as the Antonov rebellion in Tambov region, the bloody riots in Siberia, the activities of the insurgent army of Nestor Makhno in Ukraine, etc., as scattered phenomena. However, in terms of the scale and threat to the security of the state, they can be compared with the peasant war of Emelyan Pugachev in the 18th century At the same time, the Pugachev uprising shocked Petersburg, but it didn’t matter much like the peasant war of 1917 - 1922. At this time, the peasant war created a real threat to the state. Russia was on the verge of a complete collapse and collapse of the civilization project. Peasants with their project of people's liberty could really take power into their own hands and change the course stories Russia.
The problem was that the Russian civilization and the Russian people in this case lost and disappeared from the historical arena. Russia ceased to exist as a single state, disintegrated into separate autonomous regions, not connected by a common power, strong armed forces and economy. In this case, inevitably, Western and Eastern invaders took the upper hand — the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, etc. Even the Finns were able to create “Great Finland” at the expense of the Russian fragments. And such plans were - Finnish radicals dreamed of a state right up to the Northern Urals and even more. Even with the preservation of the core of historical Russia - without the Baltic states, Finland, Transcaucasia, parts of Siberia and the Far East, in central Russia, then sovereignty could not be maintained.
A community of free bread-growers, an agrarian territory, without powerful armed forces and developed industry, including the military-industrial complex, without a developed education and science, simply could not survive in an aggressive Europe of the 1920-1930 model. At that time authoritarian, Nazi and fascist regimes were in power in Europe, which were distinguished by their aggressiveness and the desire to expand and expand their “living space” at the expense of others. And the peasant, agrarian Russia (with the power of the peasant Soviets), with the "army" consisting of carts and men with rifles, would not have survived even under the blows of the pan-Polish Poland, dreaming of reviving the state from the Black to the Baltic Sea at Russian expense or Nazi Finland. Not to mention the war with the western Entente (USA, Britain and France), militaristic Japan or the Third Reich. The collapse would have been very fast and crushing, accompanied by a new civil war, a surge of separatism and led to the complete solution of the “Russian question”, that is, the death of Russian civilization and the people. The remnants of rapidly growing Russian and other indigenous peoples of Russia would become slaves of the great powers of the West and the East, and then assimilated. The fate of the great Indian tribes and civilizations of America was waiting for the Russians - alcohol and tobacco genocide, economic genocide, the role of servants and indigenous exotics, apathy and decomposition, rapid extinction, death of the language, culture, up to complete loss of self-consciousness.
Thus, the peasants, after the collapse of the project of Russia of the Romanovs - “old Russia”, challenged the authorities and the state in general, and not just the Bolsheviks. They were against the Provisional Government, against the Soviet government and a number of different white governments of Russia. They did not want to follow the instructions of the authorities, serve in the army and give bread (feed the city). The peasants have put forward their utopian project of the future of Russia - the union of free farmers. As a result, the main cause of the conflict between the Soviet authorities and the peasants was the desire of the peasantry to live freely and engage in small private businesses. To grow a crop, or livestock - took it to the market and sold it at the maximum price, while not paying taxes to the state and not taking into account national and national interests. And because of the war and destruction, the city could offer nothing to the village. Therefore, the peasants began to store bread until better times (this process began under the tsarist government). The reaction of the authorities was obvious - to withdraw the bread. So there were prodotryad who were engaged in the seizure of surplus food. People were different, there were various bad excesses. Peasants resisted. And in the conditions of revolution, turmoil and complete collapse of the “old Russia”, peasant rebels could take power into their own hands and change the course of the history of Russia and humanity.
Death to the bandits! Oh, you bastards, we are building a farm, and you interfere
The fight against banditry
In early February, 1921, the high command reported to the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic on the state of the fight against banditry. Among the especially dangerous rebel groups operating in the country were listed: Antonov's gang in the Tambov province; gang of Makhno; gangs in Right Bank Ukraine; uprisings in Siberia; Basmachist and uprisings in Turkestan (not only the Basmachi, but also the remnants of the White Guards and detachments of local peasants acted in the territory of Turkestan).
The main threat was the rebel peasants of the Tambov province and Siberia, as well as the Basmachis from Central Asia. Basmachi is, in fact, banditry concealed by ideology, jihadist bandits. The ideological basis of Basmachism was pan-Islamism. The goal of the movement was to separate Turkestan from Soviet Russia. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire exerted support for the Basmachi, who hoped to include Turkestan in its sphere of influence. Then the Basmacians were helped by Britain, which sought to tear Central Asia away from Russia.
The uprising of Antonov in the Tambov region, according to the command, "took on dimensions that threaten the vital interests of the republic." It was attended by 15 thousand people. The government had to attract large forces to suppress the uprising: more than 65 thousand infantry and cavalry, reinforced by armored trains, armored detachments and aviation. It is clear that with such a numerical and technical superiority, the rebels were doomed. Plus, the rich experience of the Soviet armed forces in the anti-partisan struggle gained during the Civil War.
Only by the summer of 1922, the situation in the country stabilized. So, according to the calculations of the Chekists, they fought against the Soviet authorities: in Ukraine, 70 gangs with a total of 1500; in the South-East of Russia and Transcaucasia - 1300 people; Only in Central Asia, the Soviet authorities were opposed by significant forces - 45 thousand people.
The leaders of the state security assessed the situation in the center of the country: “The gangster movement now observed on the territory of the RSFSR represents only a pitiful echo of that powerful and formidable stream that last spring seemed to threaten to flood the entire Republic ... peasant gangsterism not only numerically decreased , but also qualitatively degenerated ... Banditry lost leaders. Large people associated with political parties (like, for example, Antonov), and sometimes even with the present government (Makhno), were either killed or left the gangster movement, and at the head of it were, on the one hand, a purely criminal element, on the other - gangsters with professional long-term practice, which now, of course, cannot be attached to any other business. The composition of ordinary gangster cells also changed radically: due to the cancellation of the allocation (due to the transition from war communism to the NEP 21 in March 1921, the additional development was replaced by a tax in exchange - Author.) The insurrection completely died out; in connection with the end of the war and with the demobilization, the "green" army also dispersed. With the change in the social composition of the gangster detachments, of course, their political aspirations also changed and, most importantly, their relationship with the peasantry changed completely. Banditry, which had been a form of the peasant insurgency for many years, has now become anti-peasant in most areas, evoking a sense of acute hostility among the peasantry and often forcing the peasants to actively take on organizing self-defense.
Thus, the scale of banditry was constantly decreasing - the authorities and state security organs actively destroyed gangs, normal life was improving in the country and banditry ceased to be a form of a peasant movement.
One of the most dangerous uprisings in 1923 - 1924's. became white insurgents on the Amur. The White Guards who fled to China after the end of the Civil War took an active part in the preparation of the peasant uprising. They led the uprising and tried to turn the unorganized peasant groups into a kind of army units. Preparations for the uprising in the Zazey district of the Amur province began in the autumn of 1923. Whites spent exploring, saving up weapon and products. In each village, an underground organization of 4 numbers was created - 10 people. In December, the first gangs appeared in the Blagoveshchensk district of 1923. The uprising itself began on January 10, 1924, in the parish of Gilshin. The rebels destroyed the line of communication. Simultaneously, a Cossack detachment from 200 fighters arrived from abroad. He was to form the "Amur Army". In a short time, the number of rebels rose to 2 thousand people.
Soon the uprising covered 20 villages of the Blagoveshchensk region. The number of rebels rose to 7 thousand people, while sympathizing with the rebels up to 70 thousand people (a third of the district's population). The riot spread rapidly. The village of Tambovka became the center of the rebellion, there was a permanent garrison in 600 people, armed with rifles and machine guns. The province was divided into districts. Each consisted of several parishes and counties with its headquarters. It had a special military department, which was responsible for mobilizing and maintaining discipline in the Amur Army.
By 24 January 1924, a rebellion swept the 24 volost of the Amur province, it was the maximum success of the rebels. Then the uprising began to fade: Red Army units and OGPU troops began to operate in the region. By early February 1924, the insurgency rebellion suppressed. According to official figures, during the operation to suppress the rebellion, the rebels lost their dead and executed - 300 people taken prisoner - to 1200. The loss of the Red Army - more than 100 people killed, wounded, frostbitten and missing. The amount of damage to the economy of Blagoveshchensk district - 2 million rubles in gold.
True, the rebellion did not end there. Part of the rebels managed to escape to China, where a squad of 500 sabers was formed. On the night of 9 on 10 in March 1924, the gangsters captured the village of Volkovsky, killed two people, took away all the good and horses. After that, the KGB prevented another uprising - 19 rebel cells were identified and eliminated, 200 active participants in the conspiracy were arrested with the aim of overthrowing Soviet power.
Thus, many of the “innocent victims” of the Stalinist regime were in fact gangsters, murderers, robbers, or political gangsters, that is, criminals who covered their dirty deeds with “politics”, “high ideas”. Like the Petliurists in Ukraine or the White Guards who make raids into Russia from the territory of China.
Source: http://propagandahistory.ru
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