Sorrowful date of the Cossack genocide
The second period of the Cossack genocide occurred in the years of the general collectivization of 1929-1933. from which of all the rural inhabitants of the country, the Cossacks suffered the most.
The spiritual destruction of the Cossacks was carried out during the entire period of existence of the anti-people regime, right up to the revival of the Cossacks that began in 1989. Part of the genocide of the Russian Cossacks was the systematic and systematic destruction of the Semirechensk Cossacks. All the horrors that fell upon the Cossacks had to be fully endured by the Semirechensky Cossacks - physical extermination, rasskazachivanie, forced mobilization, the destruction of the original Cossack way of life, self-government, dispossession, forced relocation from the lands of their ancestors.
The beginning of that terrible tragedy was laid by the events of the spring of 1918. But its prerequisites developed even earlier, from the time of the destruction of the Russian in February 1917. historical statehood. The February coup logically ended with the October coup, as a result of which the Bolshevik leadership came to power in the country. If the February coup, after some time the majority of the Semirechye Cossacks still recognized, the October coup, with the exception of a small handful of renegades, was not recognized.
After the October Revolution, in the Semirechensk region, the Semirechensk Cossacks represented the Troop Government in November 1 created by him, taking the path of Bolshevism in the Semirechensk region 1917. However, in the fight against the enemies of legitimate power, the Army Government was guided more by a wait-and-see policy and half-measures. This was used by the Bolshevik elements who launched against the government of the Semirechensky Cossack army, their activities intensified every day. The sad result of all this was the tragic outcome, pulling a chain of bloody events.
At the end of January, 1918, the city of Verny, the capital of the Semirechensky Cossack army (now Alma-Ata), came from Iran. The 2 Semirechensky Cossack regiment promoted at the front. Being already in the regional city of the Cossacks of the second regiment, they finally fell under the influence of the Bolsheviks. The young Cossacks, who had not yet had enough life experience, easily believed in the generous promises of the Bolsheviks, who promised the inviolability of the Cossack lands, the preservation of the Cossack way of life, representation in new bodies, authorities, etc. 2 March 1918 The Cossacks of the 2 Regiment, led by the Bolsheviks, revolted, made a coup in the city of Verniy, overthrowing the power of the Army government2. As a result of this, in the Semirechensk region, as well as throughout Russia, the power of the Bolsheviks was established.
The Cossacks, themselves still not understanding, brought their future executioners to power. Major disasters that erupted shortly after the coup of the Civil War in Semirechie fell on the Lepsy and Kopal uyezds located in the Northern Semirechye, where the main hostilities took place for two years. The 2 Semirechensky Cossack regiment was located in the villages of these two counties, the Cossacks for the most part died in the fire of the civil war, paying with their blood for the fatal mistake made in March of 1918. Having seized power, the Bolsheviks immediately declared that they would not persecute anyone for their past opposition to them. But it was just a common for the new government sneaky deception, which she everywhere and constantly used.
The Reds made any promises to anyone and made any concessions that they forgot about as soon as they were no longer necessary. This loud statement was made with only one purpose, to gain time and strengthen its power in the Seven Rivers, defeat the Cossacks. In turn, the majority of the Cossacks had no illusions about the closest intentions of the authorities, and was preparing to resist. The war in the region began with the uprising of the Semirechensky Cossacks that broke out on April 16 in Vernensky district. The following events served as a push to that terrible tragedy. In Verny at this time there was a shortage of bread caused by a crop failure in Semirechye in 1917.
The Bolshevik government decided to get out of the situation, taking bread from those who produced it. After the March coup, power in the Semirechensk region in the absence of workers in it passed into the hands of the peasants. The peasants naturally did not intend to rob themselves. Therefore, a way out of the food crisis was found simple (in their opinion) - to take away the bread from the Cossacks. To fulfill this decision, a food detachment was formed in Verny and sent to the village of Sophia, from whose Cossacks the robbers were required to hand over 1000 pounds of bread and everything they had weapon. After that, for intimidation, they bombarded the village of two guns. The attempt of requisitions caused an explosion of indignation among the Cossacks of the stanitsa, which later grew into an uprising. The Cossacks of the next five villages joined the rebels. Together, they defeated the foodstuffs and laid siege to the city of Verny, which was the beginning of the April uprising of 3.
A well-armed Tashkent expeditionary punitive detachment, under the command of A. Murayev, was sent against the rebels from Tashkent. Despite the heroic, stubborn resistance, the rebellious Cossacks could not resist a stronger opponent, and were forced to go to China and the Northern Semirechye4. Having taken the upper hand, the punitive detachment began to repair in the stanitsa of Vernensky district untold atrocities. Cossack population was subjected to indiscriminate looting, violence and murder. The houses of many rebel Cossacks, bandits of the Murayev detachment, were burned down. The Cossacks were even forbidden to call themselves Cossacks. From now on, they were supposed to be called only citizens. Those who dared to call themselves Cossacks were shot on the spot. All Cossacks whose punitives found weapons were also subject to execution.
Capturing after a stubborn battle of the Malo-Almaty village, Murayev’s detachment took prisoner more than a hundred Cossacks, who were then all shot. Then the punitive forces expelled the remaining population after the departure of the Cossacks to its outskirts in the Razvilka district (now the Alma-Ata district), after which they were put on their knees and machine guns were put on, thus keeping them for several hours. Driving around horses, Muraev, showered with dirty swearing, threatened to shoot them all, if the Cossack rebels, who had avoided being captured, would not come to him and would not surrender. However, the commissioner, sent by the new regional authorities, prevented him from carrying out this atrocity, after a conversation with whom Muraev canceled the planned bloody act.
In honor of the capture ”of the Malo-Almaty stanitsa, Murayev staged a grand feast for the detachment, during which the stanitsa was subjected to indiscriminate robbery, violence and murder. Several Cossacks of the stanitsa, who supported the Bolshevik power, Muraev, in order to avoid their death during the pogrom, put a guardhouse for a day. Punishers killed Cossacks, despite their belonging to the Bolsheviks, just because they were Cossacks5 by origin.
In the village of Nadezhdinskaya, Murayevtsy, in front of the residents in the central square, executed several dozen Cossacks captured. They were put on their knees, after which they chopped off the head with a sword. Execute the execution put a teenager who, because of his physical weakness, chopped off his head only after a few blows, exposing the doomed Cossacks to terrible torment. Requests sentenced Cossacks to appoint for the execution of an adult executioner were ignored. The wives and children of the Cossacks who participated in the uprising, the Murai men, put the stone cellars of the houses, nailing the way out and condemning people to a long and painful death from thirst and hunger. As a result, mainly women, old people and children suffered, because the Cossacks themselves left the county.
Many Cossacks, anticipating what was waiting for their families, going to China, took them with them. The number of Cossacks who died at the hands of Murayev fanatics still remains unknown. One can get an idea about this one by one reliably known fact. The same violence as in the villages, the Murayev gang created in the Uigur villages, avenging their inhabitants for supporting the April uprising of the Cossacks. According to Uighur historians, the punishers killed about seven thousand Uigurs. The number of the dead Cossack population, no one thought.
The April uprising was defeated, but in the struggle of the Semirechensk Cossacks against Bolshevism it was of great importance. Its main result was the cessation of the split of the Semirechensk Cossacks into whites and reds. The Cossacks, who after the October revolution took the path of supporting the Bolshevik regime, or showed hesitation after the brutal suppression of the April uprising, seeing the true essence of the new government, joined the ranks of the whites. The April Uprising was the beginning of the second stage of the White movement in Semirechye. If its first stage in the Semirechensk region was passive-defensive, a reaction to the Bolsheviks forcibly seized power in the center of the country, a desire to preserve what was possible from the former Russia, then the second stage of the White movement became an active, insurgent response to the anti-people policy.
Having staged the bloody pogrom of the southern villages, the Bolsheviks proceeded to the systematic implementation of the policy of the genocide of the Semirechensky Cossacks. The next act of genocide was the beginning of the storytelling. In June 1918, two relevant decisions were taken. On June 3, the commander of the Red forces of the Semirechensk region issued an order to liquidate the Semirechensky Cossack troops: “The troop rule and all the village authorities of the Semirechensky Cossack troops will be abolished. I order all the property, files and sums of money of the former Military Government, immediately to hand over mine with the military board. To disband and liquidate the entire Cossack administration, I set up a special department at the headquarters of the troops. ”6. 6 June Semirechensky regional executive committee issued a resolution on confiscation of Cossack land officers and agricultural inventory, as well as requisition of grain and cattle from the Cossacks of 7.
Soon after that, the renaming of villages, settlements and their transformation into volosts and villages began to be carried out. Beginning in Vernensky district, the Civil War soon spread to the Kopalsky and Lepsinsky districts located in the Northern Semirechye, where it lasted for two full years. The main reason for the war was the sharp rejection by the Cossacks of the power established on their land, which brought people only suffering and death. In this bloody confrontation, the Semirechensk Cossacks fought for the right to arrange their lives according to the customs of their ancestors, for their freedom, against cruel violence, for order, against arbitrariness and anarchy. The beginning of the Civil War in the north of the region was a sharp aggravation in the spring of 1918 of land conflicts of the Cossacks with the peasants who had recently moved there. Indignation of the Cossacks was caused by claims of the peasants on their lands, in relation to which they wanted to redistribute in their favor. Not having achieved from the Cossacks consent to such a redistribution, the peasants began to forcibly seize their land plots8.
Peasants of Lepsinsky and Kopalsky counties (now the territory of Taldy-Kurgan oblast of Kazakhstan), using the support of county councils, where the power entirely belonged to them, began to arrange mass coercion against Cossacks, expressed in addition to the seizure of their lands, in the damage of their crops, mowing Cossack meadows , stealing horses, attacks on the Cossacks, etc., which forced the Cossacks to take retaliatory actionsNUMX. The result of arbitrariness was the beginning of bloody clashes between the Cossacks and the peasants, which later grew into a civil confrontation. In June, 9, immediately after the suppression of the April uprising, in order to defeat the insurgent villages, a large punitive detachment of I. Mamontov was sent out of Verny in the north of Semirechye. Upon arrival, a large number of local peasants joined the Wernens punishers. Soon two more large punitive detachments were sent from the city of Verny to the Northern Semirechye. The poorly armed Cossacks, whose stanitsas were at a great distance from each other, unable to resist the more numerous and well-armed detachments of the Reds, were forced to cease resistance. Active participants in the uprising were forced to take refuge in the mountains of the Dzungarian Alatau or to go to the territory of China.
Only the strong in spirit and strong unity of the Cossacks of the Cossack village of Sarkand managed to give a fitting rebuff to the number of times their number in red. After the suppression of the uprisings, a wave of repression swept through the northern villages of Semirechye. Of the three Red units operating in the north of Semirechye, the I. Mamontov detachment especially distinguished itself in the violence against the peaceful Cossack population. In addition, the Mammoths everywhere carried out the universal destruction of the stanitsa priests for the fact that they blessed the Cossacks for the feat and sacrifice in the name of victory over the satanic power. They also 16 September 1918 g. Behind the city of Faithful in the grove of Baum for sermons directed against the new government, without trial or trial, the holy martyr Bishop of Vernensky and Semirechensky Pimen, now reckoned among the venerable saints, was brutally murdered.
29 July 1918, the Bolsheviks issued a decree on the confiscation of agricultural implements from the families of the Cossacks-insurgents, which doomed them to poverty and hunger10. In November 1919, the new government conducted the first violent mobilization of the Semirechensk Cossacks. The reason for this was the catastrophic situation of the Bolsheviks in Semirechye in connection with the defeat of the revolt of peasant villages with the center in the village of Cherkassy, as well as the arrival of the 33-thousandth Separate Orenburg Army A.I. Dutov. There was a real opportunity for White to free the whole Semirechie from the Bolsheviks. In this situation, the Reds, fearing the uprising of the Semirechensky Cossacks in their rear, urgently conducted a mass mobilization of Cossacks in the territory of Vernensky Uezd. The mobilized were immediately sent far away from Semirechye to Chernyayev (now Chimkent), where from them the 1 Semirechensky Cossack Regiment was formed, sent further away from its native lands, to the Fergana Valley to fight the Basmachis. Reinforcements were urgently sent from Tashkent to Semirechye.
All the red parts of Semirechye were consolidated into the 3 Turkestan Rifle Division. In this situation, the Soviet government decided to temporarily change its policy of genocide against the Semirechensk Cossacks. For two years, while the Bolsheviks unleashed the Civil War in the Northern Semirechye, the main activities of the red units there were not so much military actions as general drinking, looting and killing unarmed residents of the villages. The facts of looting, drunkenness and ill-treatment of a peaceful Cossack population were so blatant and massive that even those who fought in the Seven Rivers in the ranks of the Reds were forced to admit to their memories. A striking confirmation of this fact is the characteristic of the Red Semirechye troops given in the spring of 1920 by the representative of the front of Turkestan D. Furmanov. In his report, the RVS of Turkfront Furmanov reported the following: “The troops of Semirechye, consisting of local residents of the middle peasants and partly of Cossacks, are a very cowardly gang, which has proven itself extremely vicious in battles.
The Red Army of Semirechye is not a defender of the Soviet government, but a threat to Islam and the Cossacks. ”11. Here it is necessary to take into account that this characteristic was given in 1920 year, when the Reds in the Northern Seven Rivers were already consolidated into a single military unit - the 3-th Infantry Division, with some discipline. Now, based on all of the above, it is easy to make a picture of what the red gangs were like in the 1918-19 year, when there was not even a faint hint of discipline in their ranks. The departure from the genocide policy of the Semirechensky Cossacks began when the 1919 Turkestan Rifle Division commanded 3 in December, when Belov arrived from Tashkent, who had been the commander of the Turkestan before. He categorically banned the execution of captured Semirechensk Cossacks.
Following this, Belov issued another order prohibiting violence, robbery and murder in the villages: "... Everything depends on you or help finish the front or push the Cossacks to further struggle ... Do not rape, do not mock, do not mock .. . "12. Shortly thereafter, on March 4 of 1920, the commander of the Turkfront Frunze issued an appeal “To the Semirechensky Cossacks and the Taranchin People”, in which it was noted that all those who participated in the hostilities against the Soviet authorities in the Semirechye, if they voluntarily lay down their arms, amnesty is declared : “A fierce civil war on the territory of Semirechye has lasted for two years. Burned villages, villages and auls, the ruin and impoverishment of the population, turned into a cemetery, first blooming land - all this was its result. Now is the time to end this senseless war. In the interests of a speedy and painless resolution of the bloody dispute on the margins of Seven Rivers, in the interests of complete reconciliation of all the working people of the region without distinction of faith, language and nationality, the Revolutionary Military Council decided that all Cossacks, taranchis, Kirghiz and others fighting now against the Red Army are guaranteed complete personal security, oblivion all crimes committed against workers 'and peasants' Russia, subject to the immediate expression of submissiveness to Soviet power, unconditional recognition, surrender of all stocks of weapons and military equipment xnumx.
In addition, the Bolshevik authorities promised that the formerly normal, violence carried out against the Semirechensky Cossacks would never happen again. Believing the promises of Frunze, as well as realizing that they alone after the defeat of the main part of the army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak not to stand, parts of the Separate Semirechensk army B.V. Annenkov at the end of March 1920. Laid down their arms. A part of the southern grouping of this army, consisting mainly of the Semirechensk Cossacks under the command of military sergeant Boyko, was surrounded by Kopalskaya stanitsa, surpassing it in numbers by the Red forces. The Semirechye Cossacks, having food only for a few days, and ammunition for only one battle, in view of the hopelessness of the situation 29 March 1920, laid down their arms. After that, the Cossacks who had surrendered were imprisoned in a camp in Verniy. Already in the camp, part of the Cossacks was arrested by the Cheka, there were cases of robbery of the Cossacks by the camp guard14.
The first phase of the Civil War in Semirechye, distinguished by the wide scale of military operations, was over. The sad result of it was the deserted, ruined and burned stanitsa. Thousands of Semirechensk Cossacks were killed in the fields of fratricidal war or became cripples. Many, having abandoned property, were forced to emigrate to China, where they had to stay for many decades. Part of the Cossacks never returned from exile. Thousands were subjected to mass mobilization and sent to shed their blood for the alien case of the hated regime. With the defeat of the Annenkov Separate Semirechensk Army, the civil confrontation in the province did not end. From the summer of 1920 to the end of 1922 in Semirechye, the second stage of the Civil War took place. Unlike the first, it was not accompanied by such large-scale military operations, but it was no less bloody and fierce. By the nature of the hostilities, the second phase of the Civil War in the Semirechensk region resembled its initial rebel period in the first half of 1918. The result of the tragic events of spring 1920 in Semirechye was the complete and final capture of the land by the Bolsheviks.
Despite the extremely unfavorable situation that had developed here for resistance, not all whites laid down their arms. A part of the Semirechensky Cossacks, led by the acting Ataman, Major General Shcherbakov, determined to continue the fight against the Bolshevik regime, went to the western Chinese province of Xinjiang and located in the city of Kuldzha located near the border. Atamans Annenkov and Dutov went to Xinjiang with their troops. In total, there were about 10 thousands of former whites, mostly Cossacks, in Western China. Once in emigration, the Semirechensk Cossacks immediately resumed an active armed struggle against the power of the Bolsheviks. The Cossacks made rapid raids on the territory of Soviet Russia, smashing the authorities and destroying the Reds. After that, they also suddenly disappeared, as they appeared.
In this raid war, the detachment under the command of Colonel Sidorov especially distinguished himself, who actively used these tactics back in the 1918-1920 years. The border between the Semirechensk region and Western China at that time resembled the front line. In turn, the Reds, trying to prevent the threat to their domination from the Cossacks who left behind the cordon of Cossacks, used all available means to fight them. The Cheka widely deployed an agent network among the Cossacks, significantly complicating their struggle with the Bolshevik regime. In addition, among the emigrated Cossacks, a propaganda campaign was actively pursued for their return. The cossacks tried in every way to persuade them to return home, promising to forget their participation in the white resistance and not to allow arbitrariness and violence against the Cossacks of 15. This campaign had only private success, and even then, only in the spring and summer of 1920. Some of the departed Cossacks could not endure the numerous hardships that had befallen them in a foreign land, their hunger, their homesickness and their loved ones, and, believing the promises, returned to Seven Rivers But all assurances and this time turned out to be a hoax - most of the returned Cossacks, after some time, were shot. Then only a small part of semi-Jews returned from emigration. When news of repression against Cossack repatriates reached the Cossacks in Xinjiang, the flow of returning quickly dried up. In the confrontation with the Cossacks who had taken refuge in Xinjiang, the new regime made extensive use of the power of this Chinese province. The Bolsheviks used the bribery of the corrupt Xinjiang authorities, and in the case of intransigence, they presented ultimatum demands, backed up by threats of military invasion of the territory of this provinceNNUMX. Using similar methods of influence, the Bolsheviks repeatedly sought permission to enter into the province of large punitive detachments that committed in the period from 16 to 1921. several raids on the Cossack settlements there 1924.
After the totalitarian regime was established throughout the territory of the Semirechensk region in the spring of 1920, the unrest of immigrant peasants began, caused by the proliferation of the surplus in the resettlement villages of Semirechye. The discontent was reinforced by the order issued by the commander of Turkfront to be sent to war with the Basmachis in the Fergana Valley, who did not want to leave the Seven Rivers 3 of the Turkestan rifle division, which consisted mainly of these same peasants-immigrants. The discontent resulted in the uprising of the five-thousandth garrison of Verny 1920 that took place in June 18. Shortly before the uprising, the Bolshevik authorities of the region, seeing that the control over the situation in the city was leaving their hands and, fearing the possible participation of Cossack prisoners in the imminent armed uprising, released them from the camp in early May.
Of the liberated Semirechensky Cossacks, whose age was not older than 30 years, cavalry units were formed and sent to fight Basmachi in the Fergana Valley. Cossacks, whose age was older than 30 years, bloomed through the villages. However, many older Cossacks were enrolled as volunteers in the cavalry units being formed, for fear of reprisals from the Bolshevik regime.
Sending Semirechensky Cossacks to the Ferghana front was made in order to weaken them, sending as many Cossacks of the most combat-able ages as possible away from their native places. Forced mobilization and sending of Semirechensky Cossacks to Fergana were carried out and subsequently during the entire period of active war with the Basmachis in Central Asia, until the liquidation of the Fergana Front in the summer of 1926. In an effort to take to the front as much of the Semerek as possible, the authorities sent even 16-year-old Cossacks to fight.
In the spring of 1920, it seemed to many seven years that the new government would finally leave the Cossacks alone. However, with the end of the fratricidal war, new troubles fell upon the Cossacks. The genocide conducted against them not only did not stop, but even intensified. Having disarmed Semirechensky Cossacks and weakened them with mass mobilizations, the new government conducted the next stage of revealing the Semireks.
Due to the fact that in the Northern Semirechye the Cossack resistance was defeated by the Reds only at the end of March 1920, in April of that same year another decree was issued on the liquidation of the Semirechensky Cossack army, identical to the order on the destruction of the army from June 2 1918 June 19 Renaming of villages and settlements was continued, and monuments related to the history and culture of the Semirechye Cossacks were destroyed everywhere.
1 Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan (TsGA RK). F. P-9. Op. 1. D. 5. L. 78.
2 TsGA RK. F. 1363. Op. 1. D. 32. L. 8-10.
3 TsGA RK. F. 1363. Op. 1. D. 11. L. 50-52.
4 Kazakhstan in the flames of civil war. Alma-Ata, 1960. C. 206.
5 TsGA RK. F. 1363. Op. 1. D. 41. L.5.
6 TsGA RK. F. 180. Op. 1. D. 4. L. 1.
7 State Archive of the Almaty Region. F. 489. Op. 1. D. 40. L. 23-24.
8 TsGA RK. F. 1363. Op. 1. D. 20. L. 8.
9 Kharchenko G.T. 399 days and nights in a ring of fire. Alma-Ata, 1984. C. 23.
10 Bulletin of the Semirechensky working people. 1918. 09.08.
11 Shambarov V. Belogvardeyschina. M., 1999. C. 136.
12 Furmanov D.A. Mutiny Alma-Ata, 1982. C. 250.
13 True (True). 1920. 09.03.
14 Furmanov D.A. Decree. cit. C. 275. 15. Ibid. C. 275-276.
15 And I can't disbelieve him. M., 1987. C. 200.
16 We are from the Cheka. Alma-Ata, 1974. C. 5.
17 Civil War in Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata, 1974. C. 323-326.
18 Alma-Ata. Encyclopedia. Alma-Ata, 1983. C. 477.
Y. Shustov. The Genocide of the Semirechensky Cossacks // White Guard Almanac, No. XXUMX. Cossacks of Russia in the White movement. M., “Sowing”, 8, p. 2005-236.
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