On the anti-popular nature of the Kolchak regime
The Entente immediately supported the Omsk Coup. The Menshevik-Socialist-Revolutionary governments, formed in the Volga region, Siberia, in the Urals and in the north, no longer satisfied either the Russian “whites” (large owners, capitalists and the military) or the West. During 1918, the Social Democratic governments not only failed to organize powerful armed forces and overthrow Soviet power, but they could not even fully gain a foothold in the territory that was conquered by the Czechoslovakians. In the area of their domination, they quickly caused discontent among the broad masses of the peasantry and workers, and could not ensure order in the rear. The workers' uprisings and the partisan uprisings of the peasantry in the regions dominated by the white governments became widespread. At the same time, during their administration, the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, as before them and the Provisional Government, showed their incapacity, when they had to act, they debated and argued.
Therefore, the military and the Entente decided to replace them with a “hard hand” - a dictatorship. In the hands of this military dictatorship it was supposed to concentrate all power within the territory seized by whites. The Entente, especially Britain and France, also demanded the creation of an All-Russian government in the form of a military dictatorship. The West needed to have a fully controlled government. He was headed by a mercenary of the West - Kolchak.
Vice-Admiral Alexander V. Kolchak
prehistory
Among the various white “governments” formed in the territories liberated from the Bolsheviks, two played a leading role: the so-called Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly in Samara (KOMUCH) and the Provisional Siberian Government Directoire in Omsk. Politically, these "governments" were dominated by social democrats - the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks (many were also masons). Each of them had their own armed forces: KOMUCHA - the People’s Army, the Siberian government - the Siberian Army. Negotiations on the formation of a unified government, which began between them in June 1918, led to a final agreement only at the September meeting in Ufa. It was a congress of representatives of all anti-Bolshevik governments that emerged in 1918 in the regions of the country, political parties, Cossack troops and local governments opposing the Bolsheviks.
September 23 State Meeting in Ufa is over. The participants managed to agree on the rejection of the sovereignty of regional anti-Bolshevik formations, but it was announced that the wide autonomy of the regions was inevitable, due to both the multinationality of Russia and the economic and geographical features of the regions. It was ordered to recreate a single, strong and efficient Russian army, separated from politics. The Ufa meeting as urgent tasks for restoring state unity and independence of Russia called the fight against the Soviet power, reunification with the regions alienated from Russia, non-recognition of the Brest peace and all other international treaties of the Bolsheviks, continuation of the war against Germany on the side of the Entente.
Prior to the new convocation of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, the Provisional All-Russian Government (Ufa Directory) was declared the sole bearer of power throughout Russia as the successor of the Provisional Government overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Eser Nikolai Avksentiev was elected chairman of the government. After the February Revolution, Avksentyev was elected a member of the Petrograd Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the All-Russia Council of Peasant Deputies, was Minister of the Interior as part of the Second Coalition Provisional Government, was elected Chairman of the All-Russian Council of the Russian Republic (the so-called “Pre-Parliament”). "). He was also a deputy of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. Besides him, the four other members of the Directorate were the Moscow cadet, the former mayor Nikolai Astrov (actually did not take part in it, as he was in the South of Russia, with the Volunteer Army), General Vasily Boldyrev (he became the commander of the Directorate), Chairman of the Siberian Government Peter Vologda, Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Government of the Northern Region Nikolay Tchaikovsky. In reality, the duties of Astrov and Tchaikovsky were performed by their deputies — the cadet Vladimir Vinogradov and the Social Revolutionary Party Vladimir Zenzinov.
From the very beginning, not all whites were satisfied with the results of the Ufa meeting. First of all, it was the military. The formed "left-liberal" Directory seemed to them weak, a repetition of "Kerenshchyna", which quickly fell under the onslaught of the Bolsheviks. It seemed to them that in such a difficult situation, only strong power could win a victory — military dictatorship.
Indeed, the leftist governments could not establish order in the rear and develop the first successes at the front. October 1 1918, the Red Army left the south to the railway between Samara and Syzran and cut it, by October 3 the whites were forced to leave Syzran. In the following days, the Red Army forced the Volga and began to advance towards Samara, on October 7, the whites were forced to surrender the city, retreating to Buguruslan. As a result, the entire course of the Volga was again in the hands of the Reds, which made it possible to transport bread and petroleum products to the center of the country. Another active offensive was led by the Reds in the Urals, with the aim of crushing the Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising. October 9 The Ufa Directory, due to the threat of losing Ufa, moved to Omsk.
After long wanderings around the world, the former commander of the Black Sea arrived in Omsk on October 13. fleet Vice Admiral and Western Influence Agent Alexander Kolchak. In England and the USA, he was chosen to be the dictator of Russia. On October 16, Boldyrev offered Kolchak the post of military and naval minister - instead of P.P. Ivanov-Rinov, who did not satisfy the Directory). This post, not wanting to connect himself with the Directory (at first he thought to head to the South of Russia), Kolchak at first refused, but then agreed. On November 5, 1918 he was appointed Minister of War and Navy of the Provisional All-Russian Government. With his first orders, he began the formation of the central organs of the War Ministry and the General Staff.
Meanwhile, the Reds continued to develop the offensive. October 16 red, pushing whites to the east from Kazan and Samara, occupied the city of Bugulma, October 23 - the city of Buguruslan, October October 30 red - Buzuluk. 7 - 8 November Reds took Izhevsk, November 11 - Votkinsk. Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising was suppressed.
Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government (Directory) Nikolay Dmitrievich Avksentyev
Omsk coup
On November 4, the Provisional All-Russian Government appealed to all regional governments with a demand to immediately dissolve “all without exception Regional Governments and Regional Representative Institutions” and to transfer all the powers to manage the All-Russian Government. On the same day, on the basis of the ministries and central administrations of the Provisional Siberian Government, the executive body of the Directory was formed - the All-Russian Council of Ministers, headed by Peter Vologda. Such centralization of state power was due to the need, first of all, to “recreate the combat power of the motherland, so necessary in the struggle for the revival of Great and United Russia”, “to create the conditions necessary for supplying the army and organizing the rear on an All-Russia scale”.
The predominantly center-right Council of Ministers was radically different in political coloring from a much more “left” Directory. The leader of the Council of Ministers figures who resolutely defended the right-wing political course was Finance Minister I. A. Mikhailov, who enjoyed the support of G. K. Hins, N. I. Petrov, G. G. Telberg. It was this group that became the core of the conspiracy, which aimed to establish a strong and homogeneous power in the form of a sole military dictatorship. A conflict began between the Directory and the Council of Ministers. However, the Directory, suffering one after another defeat at the front, lost the confidence of the officers and right-wing circles, who wanted strong power. Thus, the Directory had no authority, its power was weak and fragile. In addition, the Directory has been constantly torn by internal contradictions, for which the press even ironically compared the “All-Russian Government” with the Krylov's swan, cancer and pike.
The direct reason for the overthrow of the Directory was the circular letter of the Central Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party - “Appeal” - written personally by V. Chernov and distributed by the 22 telegraph in October 1918 with the traditional revolutionary appeal of that time called “Everything, everything, everything”. The letter condemned the relocation of the Directory to Omsk, expressed distrust in the Provisional All-Russian Government, called upon all members of the Party to arm themselves to fight the Provisional Siberian Government. The Appeal reported: “In anticipation of possible political crises that may be caused by counterrevolutionary plans, all party forces at the moment must be mobilized, trained in military affairs and armed, so that at any moment be ready to withstand the blows of the counterrevolutionary organizers of civil wars in the rear of the anti-Bolshevik front. The work on armament, rallying, comprehensive political instruction and purely military mobilization of party forces should be the basis of the activities of the Central Committee ... ”. In fact, it was a call for the formation of its own armed forces to fight back the right. It was a scandal. General Boldyrev demanded explanations from Avksentiev and Zenzinov. The question was attempted to be hushed up, but to no avail, and the opponents of the Directory were given a pretext for a coup, accusing the Social Revolutionaries of plotting a plot to seize power.
The core of the conspiracy consisted of the military, including almost all the officers of the Stavka led by its quartermaster general Colonel A. Syromyatnikov. The political role in the conspiracy was played by the cadet emissary V. N. Pepelyaev and the Minister of Finance of the Directory IA Mikhailov, who was close to the right-wing circles. Pepelyaev "recruited" ministers and public figures. Part of the ministers and bourgeois organizations were also involved in the plot. Colonel D. A. Lebedev, who arrived in Siberia from the Volunteer Army and was considered the representative of General A. I. Denikin, also played an active role in organizing the overthrow of the Directory. Unreliable military units were withdrawn from Omsk in advance under various pretexts. General R. Gaida was to ensure the neutrality of the Czechs. The action was supported by the British mission of General Knox.
On the night of November 17, 1918, three Cossack high-ranking officers — the head of the Omsk garrison, Colonel of the Siberian Cossack Troops, V. I. Volkov, military foremen, A. V. Katanaev, and I. N. Krasilnikov, made a provocation. They were at a city banquet in honor of the French General Zhanin demanded to perform the Russian national anthem "God Save the Tsar." The Social Revolutionaries demanded that Kolchak arrest the Cossacks for "inappropriate behavior." Not having to wait for their own arrest, Volkov and Krasilnikov on November 18 themselves made a preemptive arrest of the representatives of the left wing of the Provisional All-Russian Government - the Social Revolutionaries N. D. Avksentyev, V. M. Zenzinov, A. A. Argunov and Deputy Minister of the Interior EF Rogovsky . The Directory Guard Battalion, which was composed of the Social Revolutionaries, was disarmed. Not a single military unit of the Omsk garrison came out in support of the overthrown Directory. The public reacted to the accomplished coup either indifferently or hopefully, hoping for the establishment of firm power. Entente countries supported Kolchak. Czechoslovakia, subordinate to the Entente, limited themselves to a formal protest.
The Council of Ministers, which met the next morning after the arrest of the Socialist Revolutionaries, recognized the Directory as non-existent (its members were driven abroad), announced that they would assume the full authority and declared the need for “complete concentration of military and civilian power in the hands of one person with an authoritative name in the military public circles ", which will lead on the principles of unity of command. It was decided “to transfer temporarily the exercise of supreme power to one person relying on the assistance of the Council of Ministers, assigning the name of the Supreme Ruler to such a person”. It was developed and adopted the "Provision on the temporary structure of state power in Russia" (the so-called "Constitution of 18 November"). The candidates for “dictators” were considered by the commander-in-chief of the troops of the Directory, General V. G. Boldyrev, director of the CER, General D. L. Horvath, and the Minister of War and Navy Vice-Admiral A. V. Kolchak. The Council of Ministers elected Kolchak by vote. Kolchak was promoted to full admirals, he was given the exercise of supreme state power and was given the title of supreme ruler. In his subordination included all the armed forces of the state. Denikin was considered his deputy in the south of Russia. The supreme ruler could take any measures, including emergency measures, to ensure the armed forces, as well as to establish civil order and law.
Vice-Admiral A.V. Kolchak - War Minister of the Provisional All-Russian Government with his closest entourage. 1918 year
Antinational essence of the Kolchak regime
Kolchak defined the direction of work in the post of Supreme Ruler: “Having accepted the cross of this power in the extremely difficult conditions of the Civil War and complete disorder of state affairs and life, I declare that I will not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. The main goal I put is the creation of an efficient army, a victory over the Bolsheviks and the establishment of law and order. ”
The military dictatorship in military conditions was an obvious step by the White movement and the Entente. The Bolsheviks also established a "dictatorship of the proletariat" and began to pursue a policy of "war communism", mobilizing all forces to fight the enemy and the creation of Soviet statehood. But the Russian Communists acted in the interests of the majority of the people, fought for the new development project, for social justice against the exploiters, predators and parasites - their own and the western ones. The Soviet project embodied the ideals of Russian civilization. The White project (which continued the work of February) was a liberal-democratic project, which was promoted by the Westernizers, the Freemasons, the Liberals and the Social Democrats. This project was supported at the first stage by the West, interested in fomenting a fratricidal war, disintegration and destruction of Russia-Russia.
The white project was on the idea that after the liquidation of tsarism, life could be arranged only according to Western models. Westerners planned full economic, social, cultural and ideological integration with Europe. They planned to introduce a parliamentary-type democracy that would rely on the hierarchical system of secret power in the order, masonic and paramason structures and clubs. The market economy led to the full power of financial and industrial capital. Ideological pluralism provided the manipulation of public consciousness and control over the people. We see all this in modern Russia, in which at the beginning of the 1990s a counter-revolution was carried out.
The problem was that the European version of development is not for Russia. Russia is a separate original civilization, it has its own way. “The Golden Calf” - materialism, can win in Russia only after the destruction of the Russian super-ethnos, the transformation of the Russians into “ethnographic material”. The image of a “nice”, prosperous, peaceful, equipped Europe is acceptable for a large part of the Russian intelligentsia, impressed by cosmopolitanism, westernism, for large owners, capitalists, comprador bourgeoisie, who build their future by selling off their homeland. This group includes people with a “philistine”, “kulak” psychology. However, the powerful traditional cultural strata of the Russian civilization - its matrix-code, resist the processes of westernization of Russia. Russians do not accept the European (Western) way of development. Thus, there is a gap in the interests of the westernized elite of society, the intelligentsia, and civilizational, national projects. And this gap always leads to catastrophe.
Kolchak's dictatorship had no chance of success. The white project is Western in its essence. Anti-people. In the interests of the owners of the West and the pro-Western stratum of the population in Russia itself, extremely insignificant. Concentration in the hands of the dictator of military, political and economic power gave White the opportunity to recover from the defeats suffered in the Volga region in the fall of 1918 and move to a new offensive. But successes were short-lived. The political, social base of the White movement has already become. The leadership of the Czechoslovak Corps considered the admiral a "usurper", the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks condemned the "Omsk coup".
Kolchak's regime immediately provoked powerful resistance. The Social Revolutionaries called for armed resistance. Members of the Constituent Assembly, headed by Social Revolutionary Chernov, who were in Ufa and Yekaterinburg, said that they did not recognize the authority of Admiral Kolchak, and they would oppose the new government with all their might. As a result, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party went underground, from which it began the struggle with the power of the new dictator. Kolchak introduced exceptional laws, the death penalty and martial law for the rear areas. The arbitrariness of the military authorities pushed away from Kolchak and moderate democracy, which initially supported him. At the same time, local counterrevolutionary forces headed by atamans Semenov and Kalmykov opposed Kolchak in Eastern Siberia and almost clearly opposed him.
From the very first days of his coming to power, the admiral showed complete intolerance towards the labor movement, eradicating any traces of the recent domination of Soviet power. Communists and non-partisan progressive workers who had previously taken part in the work of the Soviet organs were mercilessly destroyed. At the same time, the mass organizations of the proletariat, first of all the trade unions, were routed. All the performances of the workers were bloodshed.
The establishment of "law and order" in fact led to the return to the capitalists and landowners of their rights to the property taken from them. On the land question, the white government’s policy was reduced to returning land, agricultural implements and livestock to the landowners of the landowners. Part of the land for a fee was supposed to transfer to the fists. Not surprisingly, the peasantry suffered the most from the Kolchak regime. The appearance of white troops meant for the peasantry, according to the testimony of one of the former ministers of the Kolchak government of Hins, the onset of an era of unlimited requisition, all sorts of duties and complete arbitrariness of the military authorities. "The peasants were slaughtered," says Hins, "they were robbing, insulting their civic dignity, ruining them." In turn, the peasantry fought against whites through incessant uprisings. The Whites responded with bloody punitive expeditions, which not only did not stop the uprisings, but further expanded the areas covered by the peasant war. The peasant war, as well as the forced mobilization of the peasants, significantly reduced the fighting capacity of Kolchak's army and became the main cause of internal collapse.
In addition, Kolchak’s policy helped turn Russia into a semi-colony of the West. Representatives of the Entente, primarily England, the USA and France, were the actual owners of the White movement. They dictated their will to white. Despite the lack of bread and raw materials (ore, fuel, wool) in the occupied white regions of Russia, all this was exported abroad in significant amounts upon the first demand of the allies. To pay for the military property received, the largest enterprises passed into the hands of Western European and American capitalists. In the east, foreign capitalists received a series of concessions. Meeting the demands of the allies, Kolchak turned Russia into China, plundered and torn by foreign predators.
Thus, Kolchak's regime was anti-popular, reactionary, in the interests of the West and the pro-Western, White project in Russia itself. His future collapse is logical.
Caricature of Admiral Kolchak during the Civil War
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