Sturm Izhevsk
100 years ago, in November 1918, the Red Army took Izhevsk and Votkinsk by storm. Izhevtsy and votkintsy retreat for Kama. Later they will fight with the Bolsheviks as part of the army of Kolchak.
Sturm Izhevsk
In the second half of October, 1918, the situation of the Izhevsk rebels became hopeless. They did not receive any assistance from the Samara Komuch, and then the Ufa Directory. Moreover, the White Army retreated. The internal reserves of the Izhevsk-Votkinsk army came to an end and there was no longer any hope for outside help. The Red Army, taking Samara and Kazan, pressed on all sides to the insurgent region. Izhevsk was cut off from possible allies and surrounded by large Red forces. During the fighting 23 - 28 of October, the Reds captured the pier of the Minnows, completely surrounding the area of the uprising.
Attempts to counterattack 17 and October 18 were unsuccessful. In the current critical situation of October 20, at a joint meeting of senior army officials and the commander of the Prikamsky army, DI Fedichkin raised the question of the possibility of abandoning factories and the need for advance preparation for evacuation for Kama. He noted that it was necessary as long as it was possible to evacuate women and children and valuable property in the next few days. In a week, Izhevsk residents will not have a single cartridge and projectile and "we will have to run from Izhevsk naked on the ice across the Kama River." As subsequent events showed, from a military point of view, this was the right decision. In response to strong objections from the civilian government, he defiantly resigned. This led to a serious crisis of power - up to the flight of the civilian government to Votkinsk for fear of a military coup in Izhevsk. In order not to bring further discord to the troops, Fedichkin departed for Ufa on the same day. A socialist, commander of the Votkinsk army, G. N. Yuriev, was appointed in his place. The command of the Izhevsk units was transferred to the captain Zhuravlev. After a few days, having calmed down, the members of the Prikamsky KOMUCHA returned to Izhevsk. They even held a rally with hot calls to save the plants from being captured by the Reds and even about the readiness of a campaign against Moscow. True, how to do it without shells and cartridges, not reported.
Group picture of members of Izhevsk Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Council and deputies. In the center, in uniform - the commander of the People's Army, Colonel Fedichkin
On November 3, 1918, the commander of the 2nd Army Shorin signed an order to advance on Izhevsk. According to the plan, the Special Vyatka Division was to launch a demonstrative offensive on Votkinsk in order to hold down the forces of the Votkinsk enemy group. The task of hindering the attempts of the Votkinsk army to come to the aid of Izhevsk was also assigned to the Poltava regiment, which blocked the Golyansk tract and the Votkinsk-Izhevsk railway. Volga’s ships supported him from Kama. flotilla. Actually, the capture of Izhevsk was assigned to the 2nd Combined Division of Azin, which was supposed to advance in a southerly direction.
Map source: http://izhlife.ru/
The Azin division's attack on Izhevsk began on November 5. The next day, the units of the 2 Division approached Zavyalovo and Pirogovo and began artillery preparation. In this case, the guns fired only on the outskirts, so as not to destroy the plant and the dam. Fights 5 - November 7 for Izhevsk were extremely stubborn. Both sides suffered heavy losses. The lack of ammunition became fatal for the rebels, it was necessary to save ammunition in case of emergency, and more and more often to go in bayonet attacks. All the workers, according to the established order, wherever they were, were armed. Due to the alarm roar of the factory horn, everyone immediately ran to the assembly points of their mouths. Orders came from headquarters, and companies quickly went to the attacked points. Thousands of workers participated in repelling strong attacks. Izhevtsy, due to a lack of cartridges, used the so-called. mental attacks. Chains of fighters went on the attack step with rifles at the ready, but without shots. Along with the attackers, several harmonists were walking, a factory whistle roared, and the bells of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral were beaten. Approaching the positions of the Reds, the rebels entered hand-to-hand combat using bayonets and knives. 2 th Muslim regiment fled from the battlefield, leaving the position, leaving the enemy battery, machine guns and other material part. During the flight, the soldiers looted the regimental train (for the disgraceful and criminal behavior of the regiment disbanded). Only the personal intervention of the division commander Azin, who led the counterattack, returned the soldiers to the position.
Diorama from Izhevsk city museum, where the Reds are preparing to repel the insurgent psychic attack
Izhevtsy suffered heavy losses (up to one and a half thousand people were killed) and in the evening of November 6, leaving the leading positions, retreated to the rear positions, right at the plant. The Votkinsk army tried to help Izhevsk, but the votkintsy, who were fighting for the city, were drawn into battles with the 1 Soviet regiment that occupied the Minnows, and did not have time to go, the Red Army was given the order to take Izhevsk on November NN at any cost. In the morning, the artillery preparation began and the device passes into the wire obstacles. By 7 hours, the red troops went to the assault. In the evening, the southern front was broken, an armored train “Free Russia” broke into the station Izhevsk and with its fire brought a strong disorder into the ranks of the whites. Red cavalry followed the infantry into the city. However, the upland part of the city remained in the hands of the rebels, while the one on the river bank was occupied by Azin's cavalry. In the evening of November 12, Azin sent a telegram about the capture of Izhevsk to Moscow. At night, the fighting was suspended.
Further resistance was meaningless and led to great sacrifices among the population of the city; an order was given to leave the plant. Izhevsk citizens, both fighters and most of their families, left their places of origin. The supply was small, most went on foot - the city left thousands of people to 15, including 10 thousands of men (according to other sources, thousands of people to 40). Izhevsk garrison retreated to Votkinsk. November 8 Reds occupied the whole city. 2-I army began to move to Votkinsk. Immediately after the capture of the city by the Reds, a significant number of participants in the uprising were shot. Different numbers are called - from several tens to several hundred rebels. Later, executions were carried out in Votkinsk.
Izhevsk Council Newspaper, published during the uprising
Defeat uprising
The meeting of the civil and military authorities on November 8 concluded that the battle had been lost. Beat off Izhevsk no forces; there will be no outside help; and the further defense of Votkinsk in the northern and eastern approaches to the city, in conditions of complete exhaustion of the possibilities for resistance in the south, becomes unpromising. That it is necessary to retreat to the other side of the Kama (that is, the correctness of the former Commander of the Kama Region Army Fedichkin was recognized). As a result, an order was issued on the construction of a pontoon bridge under the leadership of the captain 2 of the Vologdin rank and the beginning of an emergency evacuation of the army and the population on the left bank of the Kama. However, this decision was clearly delayed, which did not allow everyone to evacuate.
The Votkinsk army was given the task of conducting stubborn defense in order to carry out a systematic evacuation of hospitals, to enable the population of Votkinsk and its environs, who do not want to stay with the Bolsheviks, leave for Kama and give Izhevsk people time to approach the crossing. Izhevsk, retreating along the railroad to Votkinsk, was ordered to go to the crossing by the shortest route, having a strong barrier in the direction of the pier Golyany. The red troops that had occupied Izhevsk were so exhausted by the battles that initially only the forward detachments followed the retreating Izhevsk. This hitch of red allowed the rebels to evacuate the combat-ready core of the army.
The Reds, having discovered preparations for the evacuation of the city, increased the onslaught. 11 - 12 November took place in heavy fighting. In the night from 12 to 13 in November, the rebel barriers put forward along the railroad and the Izhevsk-Votkinsk road were brought down. Their rearguards retreated through the eastern part of the city to the crossing. After a short assault, Votkinsk fell. The systematic withdrawal turned into an indiscriminate flight: according to various sources, by November 14 people were able to cross the river from 16 to 30 thousand Izhevsk residents (of which about 10 thousands of combat-ready men) and from 30 to 45 thousands of Votkintsians (of which up to 15 thousand). fighters). To prevent the 15 from crossing the ferry in red, the bridge over the Kama River was burned in November. Part of Izhevsk, who did not have time to break through to the bridge, was destroyed or captured. Separate rebel groups (mostly retreating from Izhevsk) did not have time to cross over and continued to resist at the turn of the Siva River for another two weeks. Their remains crossed the Kama after the ice cover was established on the river at the end of November. Izhevtsy took with them several thousand rifles. Votkintsy, along with hospitals and families, evacuated the plant’s management and took away some electric cars, which made the plant inoperative for a long time.
The crew of the red armored train "Free Russia"
Results
The white movement has lost the opportunity to use the potential of the Izhevsk plant, which produced up to one third of all small weaponsproduced in Russia. These plants went into the hands of red. However, since most of the workers left the city, the production of rifles at the Izhevsk plant was sharply reduced. Only by January, 1919 managed to bring it to 1000 units per day, which was more than twice less than the previous production volume.
Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising (August 7-14 November 1918) ended in defeat. It was initially doomed to defeat (like the entire White movement). Izhevsk and Votkinsk people created a “state within a state” - with their territory and population, with their industry (Izhevsk and Votkinsk plants) and the agrarian base, with their government (Prikamsky KOMUchem) and local governments (Soviets), with their quite efficient armed forces (Izhevsk and Votkinsk Folk armies). However, the Kama Region Republic was not supported by the white governments of Samara and Ufa. Having recovered from the first setbacks, the Red Army regrouped and re-established the 2 Army, launched an offensive and defeated the rebels.
At the same time, the uprising distracted the large forces of the Reds (2 and 3 armies), which provided significant assistance to the White Army. If the white governments in Samara and Ufa established interaction with the Izhevsk people, supported them with troops and ammunition, the rebels could have held out longer and expanded the area of the uprising. However, the White and Czechoslovakians, bound by the interests of the Entente, chose an erroneous strategy, trying to break through in the Permian-Vyatka direction, not paying attention to other promising directions.
After retreat for r. Kama votkintsy and Izhevtsy took up positions along the left bank. Then the commander of Izhevsk Zhuravlev led his subordinate brigade to the Ufa Corps area. With the departure of the people of Izhevsk to the Ufa Corps, their struggle with the Reds, together with the Votkinskians, temporarily broke up: the first fought in the ranks of the Western (later 3) army, and the second in the Siberian (later 2) Siberian army. Only in Transbaikalia, the rows of Izhevsk and Votkinskians, thinned out in regiments, thinned out in heavy marches, met again at the end of 1920. The remnants of the division retreated to Manchuria, then moved to Primorye. By the spring of 1921 Izhevtsy and Votkinsk there were 1506 people, including 231 officer. Izhevsk-Votkinsk brigade in November - December 1921 of the year fought in the area of Spassk, Khabarovsk, in December - February fought at the station. Volochaevka. 27-28 February 1922, the Izhevsk-Votkinsk brigade took the last battle at st. Bikin, then went to Primorye under the protection of the Japanese. The remains of Izhevsk and Votkinsk residents remained in Primorye until October 1922. Having suffered a final defeat at Spassk, they crossed the Chinese border and were interned by local authorities. Some of them returned to Soviet Russia, some went to California, some remained in China and participated in the White Guard raids.
Votkinsk battery of the 2 Infantry Artillery Division. Primorye, 1922 year
Sturm Izhevsk
In the second half of October, 1918, the situation of the Izhevsk rebels became hopeless. They did not receive any assistance from the Samara Komuch, and then the Ufa Directory. Moreover, the White Army retreated. The internal reserves of the Izhevsk-Votkinsk army came to an end and there was no longer any hope for outside help. The Red Army, taking Samara and Kazan, pressed on all sides to the insurgent region. Izhevsk was cut off from possible allies and surrounded by large Red forces. During the fighting 23 - 28 of October, the Reds captured the pier of the Minnows, completely surrounding the area of the uprising.
Attempts to counterattack 17 and October 18 were unsuccessful. In the current critical situation of October 20, at a joint meeting of senior army officials and the commander of the Prikamsky army, DI Fedichkin raised the question of the possibility of abandoning factories and the need for advance preparation for evacuation for Kama. He noted that it was necessary as long as it was possible to evacuate women and children and valuable property in the next few days. In a week, Izhevsk residents will not have a single cartridge and projectile and "we will have to run from Izhevsk naked on the ice across the Kama River." As subsequent events showed, from a military point of view, this was the right decision. In response to strong objections from the civilian government, he defiantly resigned. This led to a serious crisis of power - up to the flight of the civilian government to Votkinsk for fear of a military coup in Izhevsk. In order not to bring further discord to the troops, Fedichkin departed for Ufa on the same day. A socialist, commander of the Votkinsk army, G. N. Yuriev, was appointed in his place. The command of the Izhevsk units was transferred to the captain Zhuravlev. After a few days, having calmed down, the members of the Prikamsky KOMUCHA returned to Izhevsk. They even held a rally with hot calls to save the plants from being captured by the Reds and even about the readiness of a campaign against Moscow. True, how to do it without shells and cartridges, not reported.
Group picture of members of Izhevsk Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Council and deputies. In the center, in uniform - the commander of the People's Army, Colonel Fedichkin
On November 3, 1918, the commander of the 2nd Army Shorin signed an order to advance on Izhevsk. According to the plan, the Special Vyatka Division was to launch a demonstrative offensive on Votkinsk in order to hold down the forces of the Votkinsk enemy group. The task of hindering the attempts of the Votkinsk army to come to the aid of Izhevsk was also assigned to the Poltava regiment, which blocked the Golyansk tract and the Votkinsk-Izhevsk railway. Volga’s ships supported him from Kama. flotilla. Actually, the capture of Izhevsk was assigned to the 2nd Combined Division of Azin, which was supposed to advance in a southerly direction.
Map source: http://izhlife.ru/
The Azin division's attack on Izhevsk began on November 5. The next day, the units of the 2 Division approached Zavyalovo and Pirogovo and began artillery preparation. In this case, the guns fired only on the outskirts, so as not to destroy the plant and the dam. Fights 5 - November 7 for Izhevsk were extremely stubborn. Both sides suffered heavy losses. The lack of ammunition became fatal for the rebels, it was necessary to save ammunition in case of emergency, and more and more often to go in bayonet attacks. All the workers, according to the established order, wherever they were, were armed. Due to the alarm roar of the factory horn, everyone immediately ran to the assembly points of their mouths. Orders came from headquarters, and companies quickly went to the attacked points. Thousands of workers participated in repelling strong attacks. Izhevtsy, due to a lack of cartridges, used the so-called. mental attacks. Chains of fighters went on the attack step with rifles at the ready, but without shots. Along with the attackers, several harmonists were walking, a factory whistle roared, and the bells of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral were beaten. Approaching the positions of the Reds, the rebels entered hand-to-hand combat using bayonets and knives. 2 th Muslim regiment fled from the battlefield, leaving the position, leaving the enemy battery, machine guns and other material part. During the flight, the soldiers looted the regimental train (for the disgraceful and criminal behavior of the regiment disbanded). Only the personal intervention of the division commander Azin, who led the counterattack, returned the soldiers to the position.
Diorama from Izhevsk city museum, where the Reds are preparing to repel the insurgent psychic attack
Izhevtsy suffered heavy losses (up to one and a half thousand people were killed) and in the evening of November 6, leaving the leading positions, retreated to the rear positions, right at the plant. The Votkinsk army tried to help Izhevsk, but the votkintsy, who were fighting for the city, were drawn into battles with the 1 Soviet regiment that occupied the Minnows, and did not have time to go, the Red Army was given the order to take Izhevsk on November NN at any cost. In the morning, the artillery preparation began and the device passes into the wire obstacles. By 7 hours, the red troops went to the assault. In the evening, the southern front was broken, an armored train “Free Russia” broke into the station Izhevsk and with its fire brought a strong disorder into the ranks of the whites. Red cavalry followed the infantry into the city. However, the upland part of the city remained in the hands of the rebels, while the one on the river bank was occupied by Azin's cavalry. In the evening of November 12, Azin sent a telegram about the capture of Izhevsk to Moscow. At night, the fighting was suspended.
Further resistance was meaningless and led to great sacrifices among the population of the city; an order was given to leave the plant. Izhevsk citizens, both fighters and most of their families, left their places of origin. The supply was small, most went on foot - the city left thousands of people to 15, including 10 thousands of men (according to other sources, thousands of people to 40). Izhevsk garrison retreated to Votkinsk. November 8 Reds occupied the whole city. 2-I army began to move to Votkinsk. Immediately after the capture of the city by the Reds, a significant number of participants in the uprising were shot. Different numbers are called - from several tens to several hundred rebels. Later, executions were carried out in Votkinsk.
Izhevsk Council Newspaper, published during the uprising
Defeat uprising
The meeting of the civil and military authorities on November 8 concluded that the battle had been lost. Beat off Izhevsk no forces; there will be no outside help; and the further defense of Votkinsk in the northern and eastern approaches to the city, in conditions of complete exhaustion of the possibilities for resistance in the south, becomes unpromising. That it is necessary to retreat to the other side of the Kama (that is, the correctness of the former Commander of the Kama Region Army Fedichkin was recognized). As a result, an order was issued on the construction of a pontoon bridge under the leadership of the captain 2 of the Vologdin rank and the beginning of an emergency evacuation of the army and the population on the left bank of the Kama. However, this decision was clearly delayed, which did not allow everyone to evacuate.
The Votkinsk army was given the task of conducting stubborn defense in order to carry out a systematic evacuation of hospitals, to enable the population of Votkinsk and its environs, who do not want to stay with the Bolsheviks, leave for Kama and give Izhevsk people time to approach the crossing. Izhevsk, retreating along the railroad to Votkinsk, was ordered to go to the crossing by the shortest route, having a strong barrier in the direction of the pier Golyany. The red troops that had occupied Izhevsk were so exhausted by the battles that initially only the forward detachments followed the retreating Izhevsk. This hitch of red allowed the rebels to evacuate the combat-ready core of the army.
The Reds, having discovered preparations for the evacuation of the city, increased the onslaught. 11 - 12 November took place in heavy fighting. In the night from 12 to 13 in November, the rebel barriers put forward along the railroad and the Izhevsk-Votkinsk road were brought down. Their rearguards retreated through the eastern part of the city to the crossing. After a short assault, Votkinsk fell. The systematic withdrawal turned into an indiscriminate flight: according to various sources, by November 14 people were able to cross the river from 16 to 30 thousand Izhevsk residents (of which about 10 thousands of combat-ready men) and from 30 to 45 thousands of Votkintsians (of which up to 15 thousand). fighters). To prevent the 15 from crossing the ferry in red, the bridge over the Kama River was burned in November. Part of Izhevsk, who did not have time to break through to the bridge, was destroyed or captured. Separate rebel groups (mostly retreating from Izhevsk) did not have time to cross over and continued to resist at the turn of the Siva River for another two weeks. Their remains crossed the Kama after the ice cover was established on the river at the end of November. Izhevtsy took with them several thousand rifles. Votkintsy, along with hospitals and families, evacuated the plant’s management and took away some electric cars, which made the plant inoperative for a long time.
The crew of the red armored train "Free Russia"
Results
The white movement has lost the opportunity to use the potential of the Izhevsk plant, which produced up to one third of all small weaponsproduced in Russia. These plants went into the hands of red. However, since most of the workers left the city, the production of rifles at the Izhevsk plant was sharply reduced. Only by January, 1919 managed to bring it to 1000 units per day, which was more than twice less than the previous production volume.
Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising (August 7-14 November 1918) ended in defeat. It was initially doomed to defeat (like the entire White movement). Izhevsk and Votkinsk people created a “state within a state” - with their territory and population, with their industry (Izhevsk and Votkinsk plants) and the agrarian base, with their government (Prikamsky KOMUchem) and local governments (Soviets), with their quite efficient armed forces (Izhevsk and Votkinsk Folk armies). However, the Kama Region Republic was not supported by the white governments of Samara and Ufa. Having recovered from the first setbacks, the Red Army regrouped and re-established the 2 Army, launched an offensive and defeated the rebels.
At the same time, the uprising distracted the large forces of the Reds (2 and 3 armies), which provided significant assistance to the White Army. If the white governments in Samara and Ufa established interaction with the Izhevsk people, supported them with troops and ammunition, the rebels could have held out longer and expanded the area of the uprising. However, the White and Czechoslovakians, bound by the interests of the Entente, chose an erroneous strategy, trying to break through in the Permian-Vyatka direction, not paying attention to other promising directions.
After retreat for r. Kama votkintsy and Izhevtsy took up positions along the left bank. Then the commander of Izhevsk Zhuravlev led his subordinate brigade to the Ufa Corps area. With the departure of the people of Izhevsk to the Ufa Corps, their struggle with the Reds, together with the Votkinskians, temporarily broke up: the first fought in the ranks of the Western (later 3) army, and the second in the Siberian (later 2) Siberian army. Only in Transbaikalia, the rows of Izhevsk and Votkinskians, thinned out in regiments, thinned out in heavy marches, met again at the end of 1920. The remnants of the division retreated to Manchuria, then moved to Primorye. By the spring of 1921 Izhevtsy and Votkinsk there were 1506 people, including 231 officer. Izhevsk-Votkinsk brigade in November - December 1921 of the year fought in the area of Spassk, Khabarovsk, in December - February fought at the station. Volochaevka. 27-28 February 1922, the Izhevsk-Votkinsk brigade took the last battle at st. Bikin, then went to Primorye under the protection of the Japanese. The remains of Izhevsk and Votkinsk residents remained in Primorye until October 1922. Having suffered a final defeat at Spassk, they crossed the Chinese border and were interned by local authorities. Some of them returned to Soviet Russia, some went to California, some remained in China and participated in the White Guard raids.
Votkinsk battery of the 2 Infantry Artillery Division. Primorye, 1922 year
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