Alexander Sotnikov - scientist, chieftain, rebel

Soviet historians did not forgive Sotnikov for his armed uprising against the new government. For many years he was portrayed as a reactionary, an adventurer, and even a coward. For example, the commander of the Minusinsk Red Guard, the Bolshevik E. A. Glukhikh, made up a story about Sotnikov escaping from the Reds in a woman's dress. Only at the end of the 20th century did researchers such as A. P. Sheksheyev and M. G. Tarasov appear who tried to objectively study those events and take an unbiased look at the personality of the first ataman of the Yenisei Cossack army. We should also get to know this extraordinary man better.
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Sotnikov was born in 1891 in the village of Potapovskoye in the Turukhansk region. Our hero's grandfather, Pyotr Mikhailovich, was a 2nd guild merchant and traded with the indigenous peoples of the north of the Yenisei province. He traded in bread, tobacco, salt and, of course, alcohol, which was very popular among the local population. His son Aleksandr continued the family business and earned great authority among the locals. The natives called him "landur" - a strong and evil bull-deer god.
But Pyotr Mikhailovich's grandson, Alexander Alexandrovich, did not want to continue the family business. The young man decided to study science. After graduating from the mining department of the Tomsk Secondary Polytechnic School in 1912, Alexander Alexandrovich continued his studies at the mining department of the Tomsk Technological Institute. He was eager to apply the knowledge he received at the university in practice. In 1915, Alexander Sotnikov, at his own expense, organized an expedition to the Norilsk Mountains to study deposits of coal, copper ore and graphite. The time for research was inopportune; World War I had been going on for a year. Upon returning from the expedition, Sotnikov was drafted into the army and sent to the Irkutsk Military School.
In the summer of 1916, Sotnikov, holding the rank of cornet (a Cossack rank, equivalent to a modern lieutenant), was transferred to the Krasnoyarsk Cossack division, which had been formed at the start of World War I and consisted of three companies. The division served in Krasnoyarsk and did not participate in combat, although some Cossacks volunteered for the front as part of the Transbaikal Cossack army.

Cossacks of the Krasnoyarsk hundred. 1890.
With the beginning of the revolutionary events of 1917, the Cossacks did not remain far from politics. Many of the division's employees supported the Socialist Revolutionary Party, or, as they were also called, the Socialist Revolutionaries. Some Cossacks, such as Sotnikov, even joined this party. Such popularity of the Socialist Revolutionaries is explained by their more moderate program compared to the Bolsheviks. Having large plots of land, the Cossacks often did not cultivate it themselves, but leased it. The peasants had long coveted these plots. The Cossacks in the Yenisei province were small in number (about 14 thousand people) and did not have their own military organization. Therefore, in order to protect their property, the Cossacks began to self-organize.
On May 25, 1917, at the First Congress of Yenisei Cossacks, a decision was made to create the Yenisei Cossack Host. The congress was chaired by Alexander Sotnikov. By that time, his career had taken off: he became a member of the Yenisei Provincial Executive Committee, was elected Chairman of the Krasnoyarsk Garrison Council, and by order of the commander of the Irkutsk Military District, was appointed commander of the Cossack division. In October 1917, Sotnikov was elected ataman of the Yenisei Cossack Host. In just six months, a simple ensign had become a significant political figure in the province.

Krasnoyarsk Cossack Hundred. 1916.
Sotnikov was given special weight by the Cossack division, the only unit of the Krasnoyarsk garrison that retained combat capability. Other military units, under the influence of revolutionary propaganda and the liberal policies of the Provisional Government, were more like gatherings of armed men, difficult for their commanders to control. An attempt to improve discipline in military units by transferring 15 front-line soldiers – Knights of St. George – to Krasnoyarsk was unsuccessful. The leader of the Krasnoyarsk Socialist Revolutionaries, E.E. Kolosov, described the situation in the city as follows:
Of course, Kolosov, being a political opponent of the Bolsheviks, exaggerated and blamed Lenin's supporters for everything. Nevertheless, the situation was indeed difficult. Therefore, it was the Cossacks who remained faithful to their oath who were responsible for maintaining order in the Yenisei province. As an example, we can cite the situation in Achinsk, where in September 1917, a Cossack hundred was called in to protect the Jewish population from the illegal actions of soldiers subordinate to the Soviet.
The October Revolution further aggravated the situation around the division. The Bolsheviks, having taken power in Krasnoyarsk, were unable to bring the division under their control. The Cossacks, for the most part, reacted negatively to the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, but they were not prepared for armed struggle. Therefore, in the resolution of their meeting, the Cossacks wrote the following:
This appeal failed to defuse the situation. The Bolsheviks intended to disarm and disband the division, and in case of resistance, to use force. The chairman of the soldiers' section of the Krasnoyarsk Soviet, Sergei Lazo, proposed:

Sergei Lazo (1894-1920)
Two young officers, Sotnikov and Lazo, who stood on opposite sides of the barricades, had much in common. Both received a "technical education," but the war forced them to don a uniform and become officers; both joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and supported the February Revolution, after which they "rose to the top." Nevertheless, politics made them enemies: Lazo became disillusioned with the Socialist Revolutionary Party and joined the more radical Bolsheviks.
On December 18, the Yenisei Provincial Executive Committee decided to demobilize the Cossacks and disband the military organization. On December 29, Red Guard units were called from Tomsk to Krasnoyarsk, and from January 1, the payment of salaries to Cossack officers was stopped. Having received an ultimatum from the Bolsheviks on January 17 to recognize the power of the Soviets and agree to the liquidation of the Cossacks, the small military circle decided not to recognize the Soviet power as not expressing the will of the entire people. In order to avoid an armed conflict, the circle decided to withdraw the division from Krasnoyarsk and propose that the executive committee not interfere in the life of the Cossacks and disband the Red Guard units. In response, the provincial executive committee declared Krasnoyarsk under siege.
Having left the city and crossed to the right bank of the Yenisei, the division settled in the village of Torgashino. By that time, only a third of the personnel remained in the unit, and the rest, having abandoned service, went home. Sotnikov had 177 Cossacks, 67 officers and 44 high school and seminary students at his disposal. Soon, four hundred more young people arrived from Krasnoyarsk, ready to oppose the Soviet power. Most of them had to return home soon, since the division did not have enough weapons and ammunition.

Village of Bazaikha, Krasnoyarsk District. 1903.
Many servicemen, despite their dissatisfaction with the new government, did not dare to oppose it. In this situation, the ataman decided to retreat to the Minusinsk district, hoping to find support among the Cossacks living in the south of the province. It was mainly young Cossacks and officers who went on the campaign: 120 Cossacks and 25 officers.
Having received news of the Cossacks' uprising, the Minusinsk Soviet declared martial law in the city. At that time, there were only 80-100 Red Guards in the city. In order to gain time, the Bolsheviks entered into negotiations with the Cossacks. The negotiations, of course, were unsuccessful, but reinforcements arrived in Minusinsk. Now the city's garrison numbered 900-1000 Red Guards with guns and machine guns delivered from Krasnoyarsk.
On March 7, 1918, the VRK (military revolutionary committee) was created in Minusinsk, headed by Kuzma Yegorovich Tregubenkov. He was tasked with suppressing the rebellion. Red Guard detachments advanced to the Cossack villages and demanded that the servicemen surrender their weapons and arrest the officers. Otherwise, the Reds threatened to wipe off the face of the earth the villages "supporting the rebellion of the counter-revolutionary Sotnikov and his officers' gang." The Cossacks, previously unprepared for open armed struggle, now, in the face of a numerically superior enemy, backed down and turned away from their ataman. Aleksandr Sotnikov, betrayed by his comrades, was forced to flee Tashtyp into the taiga with two officers on March 18.
On March 22, 1918, at a meeting of the Provincial Council, G.S. Weinbaum reported on the liquidation of the mutiny. In total, the Soviet authorities arrested about 300 "mutineers", and several more officers shot themselves. Cossack villages were forced to pay a contribution.
Studying history "Sotnikovsky rebellion", we must give credit to the Bolsheviks. Although initially weak in military terms, they managed to quickly gather the necessary forces and show the enemy their firmness and determination. But still, the main reason for the defeat lies elsewhere - in the unpreparedness of the Cossacks for armed struggle. Historian Alexander Sheksheev wrote about this:

Sheksheev Alexander Petrovich
How did the further fate of the first ataman of the Yenisei Cossack army develop? Making his way through the taiga, he reached Barnaul, and from there went to Tomsk. At that time, the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps began, and power in Siberia began to pass to the Whites. By order of the Tomsk garrison, Sotnikov was instructed to form a hussar division. Then he was sent to Krasnoyarsk to mobilize the Yenisei Cossacks.
Having completed the task, Alexander Alexandrovich asked the Cossacks to resign from their powers as the military ataman. Colonel Kargapolov headed the army instead. At the same time, Sotnikov remained popular among the Cossacks. This is evidenced by the fact that at the IV Congress of the Yenisei Cossacks, Alexander Sotnikov was elected as a field ataman and one of the candidates for membership in the Constituent Assembly. The Cossacks petitioned the command of the Siberian Army for Sotnikov's return, but despite this, he no longer performed the functions of ataman.
Alexander Sotnikov went to the front, where he commanded a cavalry division, and then the 1st Tomsk Hussar Regiment. However, he did not stay there for long. After Admiral Kolchak came to power, Sotnikov left military service. He also gave up politics, breaking with the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The young man returned to his calling – science.
In the summer of 1919, at the height of the civil war, Sotnikov went on an expedition to the Norilsk Mountains. Sotnikov's detachment included the young geologist Nikolai Nikolaevich Urvantsev and several "political" supporters of the Soviet government, whom the former ataman had taken on bail and rescued from the Krasnoyarsk prison, where they were held as hostages.

Urvantsev Nikolay Nikolaevich
Returning to Tomsk in the autumn of 1919, Sotnikov, together with another member of the expedition, Kotelnikov, was summoned to Irkutsk to report. While they were getting to the city, the Bolsheviks came to power in Irkutsk. The report on the results of the expedition was highly appreciated by the Council of the National Economy, and it was decided to send the scientists to Moscow. This story was close to a "happy ending", but at the last moment everything turned out differently. Sotnikov and Kotelnikov were arrested by the Irkutsk Cheka. Four months later, the arrested men were transferred to the Krasnoyarsk Provincial Cheka, where Sotnikov was charged with "counter-revolutionary activity", which he carried out while being an ataman.
The Red partisan N.A. Ivanov spoke in support of the arrested man, testifying that his brother, a Red Guardsman who was in prison, was saved by Sotnikov, who included him in the expedition. However, these efforts were in vain; on May 11, 1920, Sotnikov's case was transferred to the board of the Krasnoyarsk Provincial Cheka.
The indictment accused Alexander Sotnikov of not only disobeying the Soviet government's order to disarm the Cossack division, but also of being a member of a secret organization that fought the Tomsk Bolsheviks in 1919. The charge was simply delusional. After all, at that time, the Whites were in power in Tomsk, and it was the Reds, not the counterrevolutionaries, who were engaged in underground activity. On May 23, the board of the provincial Cheka decided to shoot Sotnikov and confiscate his property.
The date of the execution of the sentence is unknown. Apparently, on July 19, 1920, Alexander Sotnikov was still alive. On that day, K.A. Sotnikov, head of the judicial and investigative subdepartment of the justice department of the Yenisei provincial revolutionary committee, wrote a letter in which he drew the attention of the security officers to the possibility of involving his brother as a valuable specialist in the geological expedition being prepared. Unfortunately, neither his scientific merits nor the intercession of his brother, who occupied a leadership position, could stop the punitive machine.
As for another scientist, Kotelnikov, his case was transferred from the provincial Cheka to the special department of the 5th Army, where he not only avoided execution, but was also taken into service as a military hydrographer for the Red Army Navy.
Alexander Sotnikov could also have served his country in the scientific field, if his life had not been cut short at the age of 29. A member of Sotnikov's expedition, N. N. Urvantsev, continued his work and in 1921 found the richest deposit of copper-nickel ores, for the development of which the Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant was built.

The first house of Norilsk
The glory of the discoverer of the deposit went to Urvantsev, and Sotnikov, who was the first to begin research in that area, was forgotten. This is quite natural, because it was not safe to write anything positive about the rebellious ataman. In his memoirs, Nikolai Nikolaevich Urvantsev, describing the first expedition, called Sotnikov not an organizer, but a simple topographer. Well, it is understandable, because Urvantsev himself was arrested in 1938 under the infamous Article 58 and served his sentence in Norillag at the deposit that he himself had once discovered.

Monument to N.N. Urvantsev in Norilsk
Historian Alexander Petrovich Sheksheev wrote in one of his works dedicated to A. A. Sotnikov:
"The rehabilitation that came to Sotnikov in the 1990s was a belated and modest act of the country's law enforcement system. Only a narrow circle of interested people knows about it. The silence has already been broken, but the name of the Cossack ataman and polar explorer Alexander Sotnikov should become widely known to the public..."
Novoselov, M.Yu. He was the first Yenisei ataman / M.Yu. Novoselov // Krasnoyarsk newspaper. - 2019. - No. 35-36 (2614). - P.4.
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