Siberia during the revolution of 1917. Valery Tsys: “How the Reds rocked the war in Siberia. Krasnoyarsk Territory was formed in
THE REVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF 1917. In Siberia and the Far East, after receiving news of the overthrow of the autocracy, the creation of various structures began. kind of societies. committees, as well as councils of workers and soldiers. and cross. deputies. As a rule, committees were formed under the active. participation city councils and at their own meetings they were formally approved, since due to the absence of mountain zemstvos in the region. self-government was the only one. a legitimate (albeit qualified) state body. control The driving force in the organization of these associations were military-industrial committees, departments All-Russian Union of Cities, watered exiles. The committees included mainly: non-partisan. Of the representatives of the political parties were dominated by the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, and the people. socialists, in smaller numbers they included cadets and Bolsheviks. Public Safety Committees (PSC) acted as government bodies in cities. A grassroots structure of government in the village to replace the previous villages. and ox. boards began to be numerous. committees of “security”, “public order and tranquility”, “people’s power”, etc., which were called temporary committees.
Simultaneous and in parallel with the KOB, councils of workers and soldiers were created. deputies. In total, in March 1917, approx. 70, and at the end of June - 116. They arose either on their own initiative, or under the influence of watering. exiles and social democrats who emerged from underground. Social composition of the councils, as well as temp. committees was extremely varied, although they lacked any qualification elements. Location the councils recognized the leadership role of the interim. committees in the organizational bodies of state bodies. management, practical activities in March–April. They limited 1917 to the struggle for the establishment of an 8-hour workday. day. In Siberia and the Far East in 1917, it was more appropriate to talk not about dual power, but about multiple powers. formally state and amateurs. structures and organizations (commissars of the Provisional Government, KOB, councils, trade unions, factory committees, city dumas, party and national committees, cooperatives, etc.), which acted in a concrete historical context. conditions of a particular locality and had authority there. The formation of the new authorities ended with the appointment of a district. and lips (region) commissioners of the Temporary Prospect from among intellectuals, officials, former. watered exiles.
Original in my everyday life In practice, the commissioners actively interacted with the COB that “gave birth” to them. As their positions strengthened, they began to act, regardless of the opinion of the time. committees. By the summer of 1917, under the leadership of governments. The commissioners resume their work. (region) boards, treasury. and control chambers, excise tax. and migrants control, destinies. structures and bodies of the prosecutor. supervision. Throughout the region, excl. Krasnoyarsk, the commissars subjugated the “people's militia”.
Feb. The revolution gave a powerful impetus to the parties. building In current only in 1917 the creation of the primary took place. org-tions, their internal disengagement and integration. In about 120 cities, towns and villages, politians played a prominent role in this process. exiles. Acceleration org. were formed at a pace structures in radical socialist parties. orientation (RSDLP, Socialist Revolutionary Party(PSR)). March–April 30 units were formed in Siberia. social democrat organizations (workers, railway workers, miners, soldiers, office workers) and 60 AKP units of various levels (intellectuals, junior officers, employees, cooperators, peasants). The creation of structures among moderates and liberals proceeded more slowly. parties. In current summer in Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tobolsk, Tyumen, Barnaul organizations have taken shape Labor People's Socialist Party(TNSP). Total number of associations People's Freedom Party(PNS, or cadets) amounted to 16 in July, compared to November. reached 23. In the program. and tactful. regarding sib. and Far East. The Cadets evolved from constitutionalists to republicans. Original they claimed a leading role in politics. process, putting forward the slogan: “Workers to the machines, soldiers to the trenches, teachers to the people!” In March–May in Omsk, Tomsk, Novonikolayevsk, Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Verkhneudinsk, Kabansk, Chita Bund organizations arose in Irkutsk, Tomsk, Cheremkhovo, Chita - several. amorphous formations anarchists.
Primary desk organizations begin to hold their meetings, conf. and conventions on a scale counties, provinces (regions) and region, then create the corresponding. party committees. The formation of provincial committees is different. watered parties contributed to the campaign to nominate candidates for the Establishment. meeting, since it was held on the scale of provinces and regions. For deployment of practical activities are watered. formations among the masses, their publication was of great importance. base – periodical publications (newspapers, magazines) and leaflets. The number of newspapers increased in Siberia from 72 in March to 95 in July and 100 in November.
In addition to the desks. org-tions, in politics. the process in the spring of 1917 was actively involved in various. society formations and national groups. The most massive of them - trade unions - took upon themselves the protection of the economy. interests of employees. At the level of military units, company and regimental committees were created that were in charge of internal affairs. life. As the influence of the Bolsheviks increased, the soldiers. The Soviets established their monopoly on the leadership of units and garrisons. Simultaneous criminogen was developing. the situation in military camps. The hostility of soldiers towards officers intensified. Rev. events also drew officers, especially young ones, into their whirlpool. The military sympathized not only with the Bolsheviks, but also with the Mensheviks, Cadets and especially the Socialist Revolutionaries. intelligentsia. The revolution split the Cossacks Siberian, Zabaikalsky, Amursky And Ussuri Cossack troops on conservatives who advocated the preservation of the Cossacks and their estates. isolation, democrats who advocated the abolition of the estate, and liberals who were close to the harmonious combination of Cossacks and state. interests. Sib. and Far East. the village liquidated the institute without permission peasant leaders, drove out the forest. guards, seized the forest and cut it down without permission, refused to pay taxes, pay off loan debts, and demanded that the allotments of old-timers, new settlers and Cossacks be equalized.
For polit. processes of 1917 in the east of Russia are characterized by an escalation of national. movements. Already in March, many At rallies and meetings of representatives of national minorities, resolutions are adopted in support of the Provisional Government and wishes are formulated that do not go further than the establishment of complete autonomy for all peoples of the former. empire and the introduction of the mother tongue in schools, meetings and institutions. Simultaneous the creation of a national begins. formations. It is primarily the exterritorial region that is active. (dispersed dispersed in a foreign language environment) Western minorities. origin (Jews, Germans, Balts, Poles, Ukrainians). Muslims emerge after them. (Tatar.) bureau, Buryat. and Yakut. org-tions. Later, extraterritorials consistently spoke out in favor of transforming Russia into a federal-democratic state. republic with the provision of cultural-national autonomy for ethnic groups that do not have a common territory. National Aboriginal associations ethnic groups demanded national territory. autonomy, and Altaians at the congress in Biysk elected in early July Altai Mining Duma headed by G.I. Gurkin. Feb. the revolution revived the slogans of the Sib. regionalists about the autonomy of Siberia within the framework of a single democratic. Ross. state, about convening Siberian Regional Duma, endowed with legislator. rights, etc. In a number of cities in the region (Tomsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Verneudinsk, Chita, Blagoveshchensk etc.) are issued by regional. associations located on the right flank of the petty bourgeoisie. democracy.
Active in politics The process was turned on by the Orthodox. believers and clergy of Sib. and Far East. dioceses. At diocesan congresses of clergy and laity, statements were made in support of the Provisional Government and the possibility of participation of the clergy in politics was recognized. life of the country. At the same time, the authorities in Russia, where the majority of the population are Orthodox, adhere to the confessions. pluralism, was obliged to satisfy the needs of the Orthodox Church. Christian. churches - provide salaries for the clergy, help in religious morals. education of the people, legal protection of the Orthodox Church. churches from unbelievers.
In the first days of the revolution, almost everything was watered. associations of the region supported the Provisional Government, for the continuation of the war in the spirit of the roar. defencism, for the speedy convening of the Establishment. meetings. Gradually there is a demarcation of approaches. Since Apr. in places organizations of the RSDLP are formalized as Bolsheviks. a direction that supports a special Lenin. course towards a socialist. revolution. At the same time watered. parties openly enter into the struggle for leadership and control over power structures. Municipal elections held in the summer. bodies on the principles of universal elect. rights led to a predominance among vocal socialists, primarily Bolsheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks.
2nd half 1917 in Siberia and the Far East is characterized by various struggles. parties for power with the aim of subordinating the influence of councils, trade unions, mountains. Duma and created zemstvo bodies. Are carried out region. (region) congresses of councils, the process of parties continues. p-va. In particular, the number of Bolshevik organizations increased in October compared to July. from 2 to 29. But even then they did not dominate politics. life of the region. At the 1st General Sib. At the Congress of Soviets in Irkutsk (Oct.), out of 184 Bolshevik delegates, there were 64. The power of the Soviets was established by them in a coalition with representatives of other socialists. parties and non-partisans. After the July events, disengagement began in the AKP. By the fall, disagreements between their right and left groups appeared almost everywhere, but the org. the formation of the left occurred only in the very end. 1917 – beginning 1918. Among their leaders V.P. Burenin, N.E. Ishmaev, P.P. Petrov, D.G. Sulima, B.P. Clark, S.G. Lazo, A.P. Lebedev, R.P. Eideman. The activities of the organizations of right-wing parties - TNSP and PNS - ceased. In the fall of 1917 in the region among the political. associations max. The Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries enjoyed influence, but the latter clearly dominated in terms of numbers, number of organizations and structures controlled by them. While inferior in these parameters, the Bolsheviks were superior to their competitors in terms of organization and subordination to the decisions of the Central Committee.
acc. from the desk alternatives continued to operate with predilections in eastern Russia. authorities – councils and local authorities. self-government represented by the mountains. Dumas and zemstvo institutions. If the councils were primarily class associations and were formed by elected representatives from labor. collectives (workers and lower categories of employees), military units (soldiers) and the cross. population, then the municipality. Education formed its governing structures through elections based on universal elect. rights from the entire population of the city, volosts, district, province (region), i.e. they functioned in a more democratic way. basis. Since Aug. A campaign to create zemstvo self-government bodies begins in the region. The campaign took place in conditions of acute watering. struggle against the backdrop of low voter turnout. In the party political The zemstvos were dominated by the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, who sharply condemned the seizure of power in Petrograd by the Bolsheviks.
From the end Aug. The election campaign for the Establishment begins. meeting. In all sib. and Far East. provinces and regions stated dep. lists of Cadets, Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. By elect. districts were nominated from 4 lists of candidates ( Yakut region) to 44 ( Akmola region). Founded by members. collections from Siberia became approx. 50 people, including those elected in the active army and in Chinese-Eastern Railway d.(CER). In addition to 2 Bolsheviks from Yenisei province. (A.I. Okulov and A.G. Rogov), 3 representatives of national org-tions (M.N. Bogdanov, B.V. Vampilon, G.V. Ksenofontov), Menshevik N.A. Strelkov (CER), cadet S.A. Taskina ( Transbaikal region), everyone else represented the AKP ( B.D. Markov, P.Ya. Mikhailov, M.Ya. Lindbergh, V.G. Arkhangelsk, EAT. Timofeev, M.A. Crawl, N.V. Fomin, HER. Kolosov, A.A. Devizorov, etc.). Convince. The victory of the Social Revolutionaries is explained by the support of the peasants, the Crimea impressed the agrarians. RPS program.
An alternative to Temporary Prospect, its places. bodies, and then the Establishment. Councils of workers and soldiers spoke to the meeting. deputies, to the con. years, significantly strengthening their positions. The influence of the Bolsheviks was constantly increasing in them. The radicalization of the mood of the masses was facilitated by the deterioration of the economy. situation in the region and, accordingly, mat. the situation of the vast majority of the population. Despite the rich harvest of 1917, increased purchases. prices in Aug. for bread 2 times and bread. monopoly, the situation is not consuming. the market deteriorated catastrophically. Answer. the reaction was massive demands for the introduction card system, establishing control over bargaining. firms and fixed prices. Anarcho-rebellious sentiments began to clearly appear, which resulted in the continuation. and alcohol. riots that swept from Omsk to Vladivostok in October-November.
1st General Sib. Congress of Soviets, workers, soldiers. and cross. deputies (Irkutsk, Oct.) and the 3rd regional congress of workers' councils. and a soldier. deputies of D. East ( Khabarovsk, Dec.) adopt resolutions on the transfer of power to the soviets and form accordingly. Central Executive Committee of the Councils of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies of Siberia(Centrosiberia) and Far East. regional committee of councils workers, soldiers. and cross. deputies and self-government. Under their influence, the position of the grassroots councils changed towards radicalization. Creatures Local soldiers influenced the process of Sovietization in the region. garrisons, which became the striking force of the Bolsheviks. The demobilization and liquidation of the officer began. corps predetermined the transition to antisov. positions def. some of the officers found themselves without work. Another powerful factor in the consolidation of small towns. (socialist) groups into anti-Bolsheviks. basis becomes Siberian regionalism. In the fall of 1917, under the regional government. slogans brought about the consolidation of the Socialist Revolutionaries, the people. socialists, part of the Mensheviks, cooperators, Zemstvo members, part of the regionalists and nationalists under the leadership. the role of the Social Revolutionaries.
On public service conf. society org-tions (Aug., Tomsk) and region. Congress (Oct., Tomsk) discusses and approves the “Regional structure of Siberia,” which represents a set of standards. provisions defining the status of Siberia and the Far East within Russia. states as autonomy with the region. will introduce. organ - Sib. region Duma. The boundaries of autonomy were determined along the watershed to the east of the Urals, with the inclusion of the entire Kyrgyz territory, with the free expression of the will of the population occupying these borders. Standard. The act combined both approaches to federalism - national. and territory. In addition, he guaranteed the preservation of ethnicity. national identity minorities in areas of mixed residence and for extraterritorial areas. The document laid down the possibility of further improvement of the national-state. structures within the region due to their gradual transformation into a union of regions and nationalities.
From the 2nd half. Nov. anti-Bolshevik. groups in Siberia go on the offensive, using regionalism. slogans. Emergency Sib. region congress (Dec., Tomsk) decides that to Establish. Assembly of Siberia controller and legislator. the body should consist exclusively of representatives of democracy without the participation of qualifying elements (the bourgeoisie), as for the executive power, it should be socialist, and the body should include executives. All socialists can enter the authorities. parties - from the people. socialists up to and including the Bolsheviks, with representation of nationalities, if the parties accept the present platform. congress, i.e. the unconditional struggle for what was elected by universal, equal and secret vote of the All-Russian Federation. Establishes meeting and for the region. democracy of Siberia, because only this platform can prevent a complete state. collapse At the last meeting on December 15. The congress decided to create a general sib in the name of saving Siberia. socialist, from the people. socialists to the Bolsheviks incl., with representation of nationalities, power in the person of Sib. region Duma and Region council responsible to the Regional Duma. On 8 Jan. 1918 The opening of the 1st session of the Duma in Tomsk is scheduled. In Time Siberian region the council is elected without sharing portfolios G.N. Potanin, P.Ya. Derber, A.E. Novoselov, M.B. Shatilov, G.B. Patushinsky.
In this situation, the authorities in the department. the cities of Siberia and the Far East began to take the slave councils into their own hands. and a soldier. deputies. This was expressed in the adoption by the councils of respectively. declarations, and sometimes in the creation of military-revolutionary. and just roar. committees.
The first steps of owls. authorities (November 1917 - 1st half of January 1918) were expressed in the introduction of slaves. control over the production and distribution of goods, creation revolutionary tribunals, demobilization of military personnel places. garrisons. In parallel with the Soviets, anti-Bolsheviks are becoming more active. forces under the leadership of the Social Revolutionaries, the focus of which becomes Vr. Siberian region advice. Dispersal by the Bolsheviks will establish. The meeting finally destroyed the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the issue of power by creating a coalition of socialists, including for the region. level. Under the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionaries, the formation of anti-Bolsheviks begins. armed underground. Armed Cossack detachments of esauls were the first to begin the fight B.V. Annenkova, G.M. Semenov, A.A. Sotnikova, I.N. Krasilnikova. The country and region were sliding into a state Civil War.
Lit.: Story Far East of Russia . The Russian Far East during the revolutions of 1917 and the civil war. Vladivostok, 2003. T. 3, book. 1; Shilovsky M.V. Political processes in Siberia during the period of social cataclysms of 1917–1920. Novosibirsk, 2003; Kuzmin V.L., Tsipkin Yu.N. Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks in the Far East during the civil war of 1917–1922. Khabarovsk, 2005.
M.V. Shilovsky
Plan
Revolutionary year 1917 in Siberia.
Civil war in Siberia (1918 – 1922).
Siberia during the years of the new economic policy (1921 – 1927).
Siberia in the era of accelerated construction of “state socialism” (1928 – 1941).
Siberia during the Great Patriotic War (1941 – 1945).
Siberia during the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945.
Administrative-territorial structure of Siberia.
Cultural life of Siberia after the end of the civil war.
Tasks for independent work
Message topics
Control questions
February revolution of 1917 in Siberia.
Siberia from February to October 1917
The establishment of Soviet power in Siberia and the first steps of socialist measures.
Reds and Whites in Siberia, the Kolchak regime and its defeat.
Partisan movement in Siberia.
Far Eastern Republic (1920 – 1922).
The collapse of the policy of "war communism".
The transition to a new economic policy and the restoration of the national economy.
Changes in the administrative-territorial division of Siberia.
Industrialization of Siberia.
Complete collectivization of agriculture and mass dispossession of peasants.
The implementation of the cultural revolution in the 1920s. Cultural construction during the first five-year plans.
Political repressions in the 1930s.
Continuation of political repressions during the war years.
The camp system and forced labor in Siberia (autumn 1929–1945).
Siberians in battles for their homeland.
The economy of Siberia during the Great Patriotic War, reception of evacuated enterprises and institutions.
Science, culture, education during the Great Patriotic War.
Siberian rear to the front.
The defeat of the Japanese armed forces. The end of World War II in the Far East.
How did the events of the February Revolution of 1917 develop in Siberia?
How did the formation of Soviet power in Siberia proceed?
What are the main features of the domestic policy of the government of A.V. Kolchak in Siberia?
What are the main reasons for the defeat of the Whites in Siberia?
What contributed to the rapid recovery of the Siberian economy during the NEP period?
What industries received priority development in Siberia during the first five-year plans?
How has life changed in a Siberian village as a result of collectivization and dispossession?
What peoples were deported to Siberia during the war years?
What role did forced prison labor play in the Siberian economy?
What is the role of Siberia in mobilizing the country's resources to repel Nazi aggression?
Name the Siberians - Heroes of the Soviet Union. What feats did they accomplish?
Tests
Terminology
Nationalization:
a policy aimed at developing the sphere of circulation and achieving the predominance of the export of goods abroad over their import into the country;
transfer of private enterprises and sectors of the economy into state ownership;
a policy of encouraging foreign investment in the manufacturing sector of a country.
Plenum:
a meeting of the full membership of the elected governing body of any organization;
grassroots party group, party organization;
a collegium under the party control committee, which deals with the consideration of personal affairs of communists.
Prodrazverstka (food appropriation):
one of the types of distribution of food products using food cards;
a set of measures aimed at boosting agriculture;
a method of state procurement of agricultural products in 1919 - 1921, which consisted in confiscating from peasants at fixed prices all surplus bread and fodder in excess of established norms.
Workday:
a unit for recording the labor of workers and employees at industrial enterprises during the first five-year plans;
a unit of labor accounting on collective farms, which determines the collective farmer’s share of income (used in 1930–1966);
a unit for recording labor in youth groups that worked somewhere during the holidays in the late 1920s - early 1930s.
Dates and facts
Administrative center of the Siberian Territory in 1925 – 1930:
Tobolsk;
Novosibirsk
Krasnoyarsk Territory was formed in:
Which Siberian became a Hero of the Soviet Union three times during the Great Patriotic War:
S.I. Kretov;
P.A. Plotnikov;
A.I. Pokryshkin.
The Siberian region was formed in:
Abstracts
Mass dispossession in Siberia (early 1930s).
Bulletin of Omsk University. Series "Historical Sciences". 2016. No. 4 (12). pp. 31-41. UDC 316.423.3(571) "1917.03.02/10"
V. I. Shishkin
During the first ten days of spring 1917, the political landscape of Siberia changed radically. With a lag of only a few days, compared to Petrograd, the old state power was swept away in its cities. She was eliminated without violence, excesses or blood. Siberians, on their own, established new institutions and orders similar to those in the capital, thereby supporting the revolutionary coup in Petrograd. The Siberian province was able to reach the same level politically as European Russia.
Key words: Siberia; Provisional Government; revolution; power; public; Committee; Commissioner.
During the first ten spring days of 1917 the political landscape in Siberia has changed radically. With a lag of few days, compared with Petrograd, in Siberian cities the old state power was swept away. It was eliminated without any violence, excesses and blood. Siberians approved new institutions and practices, that were similar to capital ones. This way, they supported the revolution in Petrograd. Siberian province was able to achieve the political level of European Russia.
Keywords: Siberia; Provisional government; revolution; power; committee; commissar.
The February Revolution, during which the socio-political system that had existed in Russia for more than three centuries was liquidated within a few days, is one of the largest events of the 20th century. A description of how it happened is contained in numerous memoirs of its participants and contemporaries. The February Revolution has become the subject of study by several generations of professional historians. Nevertheless, what happened at the end of February - beginning of March 1917 in the vastness of the Russian Empire continues to amaze and excite minds, raises puzzling questions and the desire to find adequate answers to them that would allow us to understand this mysterious phenomenon.
One of these questions is why such a rapid victory of the revolution became possible not only in the capitals and large cities of the European part of Russia, where there was an organized opposition public
© Shishkin V. I., 2016
ity in the person of zemstvos and city governments, associations of industrialists and traders, university teaching corps, corporations of journalists and lawyers, but also in “convict” Siberia, where all these signs of civilization existed in their infancy?
An attempt to come closer to the answer to this question, by giving a general outline of the events of the first ten days of March 1917 in the largest cities of Siberia, is made in this article. It was assumed that the main attention in it would be focused on the behavior of people, which would reveal not only their reaction to what is happening, but also understand the motives of their actions. Unfortunately, due to the need to pay a lot of attention to the general historical context, this problem has so far been solved only in the very first approximation. However, the study of the factual material contained in the local periodical press of those days, in the surviving
memoirs and documentary publications are encouraging. Based on its results, it can be argued that the formulated problem is completely solvable, and the results obtained can contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon
revolution in Siberia.
On February 23, 1917, anti-government protests by citizens and garrison troops began in Petrograd, which a week later led to the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a new government. But for several days the Siberians knew nothing about these revolutionary events, since the publication in newspapers of telegrams from the Petrograd Telegraph Agency (PTA), containing information about the capital's news, was banned by local authorities.
Apparently, until the beginning of March 1917, even the governors general and governors of Siberia had a poor understanding of the real situation in Petrograd. In any case, on March 1, Irkutsk Governor-General A.I. Pilts asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to “report the situation by urgent telegram.” The tsarist government, however, informed them sparingly and vaguely about the developments of events, since it hoped to normalize the situation. At the same time, it persistently demanded that the provincial authorities take preventive measures to prevent the emergence of anti-government protests in the territory under their control.
Following the instructions of the capital's authorities, the heads of several provincial and regional administrations organized meetings and conferences with individual representatives of the public, at which they probed their mood and called for loyalty to the authorities in order to maintain order. A. I. Piltz behaved most decisively, who even issued a decree on March 1 introducing martial law in the territory under his control and prohibiting the holding of any public events.
Despite the information blockade of Siberia, already from February 28, 1917, in Achinsk, Barnaul, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Semipalatinsk and Yakutsk,
There were rumors about major changes in the life of the capital. The sources of their appearance were private telegrams and telegraph employees.
The first official information that a revolution had taken place in Petrograd and power had passed to the Executive Committee of the State Duma, Siberians, like residents of other regions and provinces of Russia, received by railway telegraph. This was a telegram that was sent on the night of February 28 to March 1, 1917 by State Duma deputy of the fourth convocation A. A. Bublikov, appointed commissioner of the Ministry of Railways. True, the contents of this telegram did not entirely correspond to reality, since formally Nicholas II still retained his power prerogatives.
In Siberia, this telegram and the first official reports of the coup that followed it became known at different times. In most cities that were the administrative centers of provinces, regions and districts, as well as in settlements located along the railway line, they learned about this in the first three days of spring. Official information about the events in Petrograd reached workers' villages, mines and most rural settlements much later.
On March 2, “Omsky Vestnik” and “Sibirsky Listok”, published in Tobolsk, were the first provincial newspapers in eastern Russia to report the revolution that had taken place in Petrograd. In the evening of the same day, three special issues of the “Bulletin” of the Novonikolaevsk newspaper “Altai Delo” and three issues of a special imprint of the Tomsk newspaper “Sibirskaya Zhizn” were published, in which key PTA telegrams were published. They contained messages signed on February 27 by the Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko about the creation and composition of the Executive Committee, the taking of power into their own hands, as well as the names of commissioners appointed to ministries and departments. The authorities of the Irkutsk and Steppe General Governments stopped the information blockade on March 2-3.
information that confirmed the initial information about the coup d'état and left no doubt about the victory of the revolution in the capital. From it, Siberians learned about the creation and composition of the Provisional Government, about the organization of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies, about the abdication of Nicholas II and Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
At the same time, newspapers widely published materials that shed light on the driving forces and nature of the coup d'etat. It followed from them that the instigators of the revolutionary events were the Petrograd workers, who were supported by the troops of the capital's garrison who went over to the side of the State Duma; that former tsarist ministers and major dignitaries were arrested, and the gendarmerie and police were destroyed; that Allied diplomats entered into contacts with the Provisional Government. The newspapers also reported on the first steps of the new government, including the declaration of the Provisional Government of March 3, which contained the program of its activities.
In Siberia, the first day of the revolution was actually March 2. In large and most of the medium-sized cities of the region, official information about the victory of the revolution in the capital instantly and radically changed the political situation. Their residents, who were interested in politics, besieged newspaper editorial offices and printing houses in the hope of obtaining reliable information about the events in Petrograd.
Under the influence of new information, flying rallies and meetings of citizens began to spontaneously appear in squares and street intersections, in clubs and theaters, in institutions and enterprises, at which they fearlessly read and discussed agent telegrams about the revolution in the capital, and openly rejoiced over the coup d'etat. The streets and squares were filled with crowds of people with red bows and flags. The population enthusiastically began to dismantle royal portraits and other symbols of the previous regime. Democratic freedoms of speech, assembly, association and the press were firmly established in the life of urban society in Siberia. Local authorities, who were better informed than the population about the political situation in Petrograd,
no measures were taken to suppress unauthorized public events
and definitely did not interfere with events.
However, it would be wrong to call their position indifferent and even more so counter-revolutionary. Perhaps, A. I. Piltz behaved most actively and competently, whose position in the memoirs and publications of researchers is presented, if not tendentiously, then at least clearly one-sided. Meanwhile, on March 2, A.I. Piltz convened a special meeting of representatives of law enforcement agencies, at which he clearly predicted that “unwanted complications should be expected.” At this meeting, the Governor-General expressed the idea of convening representatives of public circles and, if necessary, creating a special committee from them “to assist representatives of the authorities.”
Such a meeting, chaired by a member of the Irkutsk city government, K. P. Turitsyn, was urgently convened. At this meeting, an agreement was reached to prepare an appeal on behalf of the public to the population of the city in order to calm them down. On the morning of March 3, A.I. Piltz agreed to the creation of committees of public organizations to maintain order and resolve urgent economic issues.
At the same time, A.I. Pilz explained by telegraph to his subordinate governors that, due to the transfer of power and troops to the side of the State Duma, active actions of the local administration were useless. “The next task of the authorities before the publication of the will of the Sovereign,” he formulated his position, “should be the prevention of anarchy.”
The Siberian public was well aware that the success of the revolution in the capital needed support and organizational consolidation at the provincial level. The same idea sounded like a refrain in telegrams sent by the Provisional Government to the localities and published in newspapers. But due to the lack of specific instructions from the new authorities about who should do this and how, further events in different settlements of Siberia developed according to different scenarios, determined by local specifics.
In the cities of Siberia, four main forces emerged, the correlation, interaction and struggle between which determined one or another scenario: the executive bodies of city government, the leadership of public organizations, former political exiles and ordinary citizens. In most cases, the initiative to carry out local “revolutions” came from public figures and former political exiles. On their initiative, extraordinary or emergency meetings of city dumas or councils, meetings of representatives of public organizations, rallies and meetings of citizens were convened to discuss the Petrograd events and attitudes towards them. Based on the results of many hours of discussions that took place in an atmosphere of revolutionary euphoria, resolutions were passed on solidarity with the new government, corresponding telegrams were sent to the State Duma and the Provisional Government, and priority practical measures were developed aimed at supporting them. The most important result of these events was the creation of local bodies of a new, revolutionary government.
Under different, but very similar names - public safety committees, public organization committees, public safety and security committees, public order committees, public peace committees, executive committees, coalition committees, etc. - such bodies were established in the largest cities Siberia. This happened on March 2 in Irkutsk and Tyumen, on March 3 - in Biysk, Yeniseisk, Ishim, Kainsk, Krasnoyarsk, Minusinsk, Nizhneudinsk, Novonikolaevsk, Omsk, Petropavlovsk, Tatarsk, Tomsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Cheremkhovo, on March 4 - in Achinsk, Balagansk, Barnaul, Kuznetsk, Petropavlovsk and Yakutsk, March 5 - in Kirensk, Kurgan, Semipalatinsk, Tobolsk and Chita, March 6 - in Verkhneudinsk, March 7 - in Vilyuysk and Turinsk. Thus, in the shortest possible time, not exceeding a week, the task of creating new government bodies was successfully completed in all provincial, regional and largest district centers of Siberia. The latter means that the local public,
which was in the position of counter-elite under the previous regime, was ready to replace the tsarist bureaucrats.
Most often, the created authorities were called temporary public security committees (CPS). As a rule, members of city councils, representatives from stock exchanges, military-industrial and food committees, cooperatives, educational institutions, and sometimes from military units were elected to the first composition of KOBs. Among them were many former political exiles, lawyers, journalists, teachers, and office workers. Subsequently, the KOBs were replenished by representatives of the newly established various kinds of public and political organizations, who sought to have their representatives in them. As a result, after a few days, the number of the Krasnoyarsk Committee amounted to 80 people, the Tomsk and Tyumen Committee exceeded 100, the Kurgan Committee approached 200, and the Irkutsk Committee reached almost 300 people.
In most KOBs in Siberia, all social strata and groups of citizens were represented, except for the local elite of former figures of the tsarist regime, gendarmerie and police officers. Politically, members of the KOBs professed different views. Among them were non-partisans and liberals, democrats and socialists, anarchists and nationalists. They were united not only by the past - the struggle against tsarism, but also by the present, as well as the near future: support for the program of the Provisional Government and a stake in the Constituent Assembly as the owner of the Russian land. In fact, the KOBs of Siberia became the embodiment of a broad coalition of liberal-democratic and socialist forces on the ground, in which in most cases moderate socialists set the tone.
Convincing evidence of the coalition nature and political pluralism of the KOBs was the corps of their first chairmen, who formed the highest stratum of the new administrative and political elite of Siberia. In Tobolsk, the committee was headed by a former political exile, attorney at law V.N. Pignatti, who was a people's socialist; in Tyumen - member of the City Duma, member of the Tyumen Committee
Union of Cities, chairman of the local military-industrial committee and director of a private commercial school V.I. Kolokolnikov; in Omsk - the chairman of the exchange committee, non-partisan N.D. Buyanovsky, who sympathized with the socialists, who a few days later was replaced in this post by the chairman of the Omsk Committee of the Union of Cities, a member of the bureau of the Omsk Regional Military-Industrial Committee, people's socialist N.A. Filashev (A.I. Novikov); in Semipalatinsk - Chairman of the Semipalatinsk Union of Cooperatives, Social Democrat K. P. Lyashkevich; in Barnaul - entrepreneur and chairman of the Council of the Altai Union of Cooperatives, people's socialist A. M. Okorokov; in Tomsk - member of the city duma, attorney at law B. M. Gan (non-party, but with “left” views); in Novonikolaevsk - Socialist Revolutionary bank employee N. E. Zhernakov; in Krasnoyarsk - doctor, prominent public figure, former Narodnaya Volya member V. M. Krutovsky, who considered himself a non-party socialist and sympathized with the Socialist Revolutionaries; in Irkutsk - political exile, former deputy of the State Duma of the 2nd convocation, Menshevik I. G. Tsereteli; in Chita - a veterinarian close to the cadets, non-partisan A. A. Dudukalov; in Verkhneudinsk - Menshevik-internationalist E. A. Petrov; in Yakutsk - political exile, deputy of the State Duma of the 4th convocation, Bolshevik G.I. Petrovsky.
Equally diverse in party-political and other respects was the composition of deputy chairmen, secretaries and other members of the governing bodies of the KOBs: presidiums, executive committees, bureaus, etc. Thus, popular local public figures V. S. Lanitin (secretary of the Tobolsk Provincial Museum) and A. N. Chebotarev (veterinarian, non-party), and the secretaries were E. L. Pisarevsky (Menshevik internationalist) and M. D. Kholzakov (director of the Tobolsk Teachers' Seminary).
The writer and publicist Socialist-Revolutionary V.I. Anuchin became a companion of the chairman of the Tomsk Committee of Public Order and Security, and the secretary was an assistant juror.
loyal Socialist Revolutionary E.V. Zakharov, members of the committee from the city duma - non-partisan attorney S.V. Aleksandrovsky (“left”), N.V. Patrushev (“left center”), technician N.V. Sokolov (“left center ") and businessman K.R. Eman (“right-wing”), and from public organizations - Bolsheviks A.V. Danilov (illegal nickname of A.V. Shotman) and A.F. Ivanov and Menshevik V.P. Denisov .
The comrades of the chairman of the Krasnoyarsk Committee of Public Safety were the former political exiles, attorney V. Ya. Gurevich (Socialist-Revolutionary) and A. G. Shlikhter (Bolshevik), the secretaries were local public figures, cooperators
A. V. Baikalov (Menshevik), forest scientist S. D. Rosing (non-party), co-operator and journalist A. R. Schneider (sympathizer with the Social Democrats).
The members of the presidium of the executive committee of public organizations of the city of Irkutsk included the Socialist-Revolutionaries M. G. Bocharnikov, A. R. Gots and S. N. Saltykov, the Menshevik S. L. Vanshtein, the Social Democrat V. S. Voitinsky, most of whom were not known only in revolutionary circles, but also among the general Russian public, as well as local public figure N.N. Karmazinsky (before the February Revolution he was a cadet, then a Socialist Revolutionary). After I. G. Tsereteli left for Petrograd on March 13,
V. S. Voitinsky and A. R. Gots instead of them, the Socialist Revolutionaries A. A. Nikolsky and E. M. Timofeev were elected members of the presidium, and A. P. Kruglikov was elected chairman of the committee.
At the same time, on the initiative of the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, the organization of councils began. The Council of Workers' Deputies was created in Tyumen on March 2, March 3 - in Achinsk, Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, March 4 - in Bodaibo, Novonikolaevsk and Chita, March 5 - in Barnaul and Kirensk, March 6 - in Cheremkhovo, March 7 - in Tobolsk, March 8 - in Kurgan. The Council of Soldiers' (Military) Deputies was formed on March 4 in Irkutsk, Novonikola-evsk, Tomsk and Chita, on March 5 - in Achinsk and Kansk, on March 6 - in Kurgan, on March 7 - in Barnaul. The Council of Workers' and Soldiers' (Military) Deputies was elected in Omsk on March 3, on March 5 - in Chita, on March 6 - in Verkhneudinsk and Nizhneudinsk; formed on March 9
Council of Officers' Deputies of the Tomsk Garrison.
The councils were dominated by moderate socialists - Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. They, as a rule, were also elected leaders of the councils. Thus, the Omsk Council was headed by the Menshevik-internationalist K. A. Popov, Tomsk - by the social democrat V. V. Khudo-kormov, Novonikolaevsky - by the Menshevik V. I. German-Kamensky, Krasnoyarsk - by the Menshevik-internationalist Ya. F. Dubrovinsky , Barnaul Council of Workers' Deputies - Menshevik “Novozhiznist” I. I. Pankratov. In Irkutsk, the Socialist-Revolutionary lieutenant A. A. Krakovetsky was elected chairman of the Council of Military Deputies, the Menshevik L. I. Goldman was elected chairman of the Council of Workers' Deputies, the Menshevik I. N. Vorontsov was elected chairman of the Chita Council of Workers' Deputies, and the Menshevik A. I. Gusev was elected chairman of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies . The chairman of the executive committee of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of Kurgan was the former political exile, secretary of the Kurgan branch of the Moscow Society of Agriculture, Socialist Revolutionary I. A. Mikhailov. The Verkhneudinsk Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was headed by the Bolshevik V. M. Serov, and the Chitinsky Council was headed by the Bolshevik E. A. Preobrazhensky.
The composition of the governing bodies of the KOBs and councils of Siberia allows us to conclude that former political exiles played the “first fiddle” in it. V. M. Krutovsky, well aware of what and how happened during the February Revolution in Siberia, correctly explained the reasons why in most cases the “political” ones set the tone in the KOBs and councils: “... local people were all- they were still cautious, they hesitated and waited, but the “politicians” had no hesitations. They had nothing to risk. They boldly went to the forum and took first places in the revolutionary movement.”
All councils of Siberia recognized the KOBs as local authorities and submitted to them. In many ways, this position of the leadership of the soviets was explained by the fact that it, like the leadership of most KOBs, consisted of moderate socialists who considered the February Revolution to be bourgeois and did not seek to take state power into the hands of revolutionary democratic organizations.
gans. The only exception was a small group of revolutionary radicals in Krasnoyarsk from among the Bolsheviks, who refused to support the Provisional Government. Even after the overthrow of the autocracy, she remained on V.I. Lenin’s old position on the need to transform the imperialist war into a civil war.
Apparently, projecting the situation that arose in Petrograd onto Siberia, this group of Bolsheviks initially tried to justify the need to establish dual power in Krasnoyarsk. Through an appeal from the Temporary Bureau of United Public Organizations of Krasnoyarsk to the population, published in a local newspaper, supporters of V.I. Lenin introduced the idea that the KOB and the Council of Workers' Deputies, “relying on the conscious will of Krasnoyarsk citizens and the Krasnoyarsk garrison, will have to take into their own the hands of power are in place.” But the Krasnoyarsk KOB immediately declared itself the only representative of the new government, although a few days later it compromised and agreed to create the United Executive Bureau of the KOB and the Council of Workers, Soldiers and Cossack Deputies. True, the powers and functions of this body were not defined, and in reality it played a modest role as a channel for the exchange of information.
Initially, COBs were created to assist the Provisional Government and prevent a vacuum that could arise in the process of transfer of power from one hand to another, as well as to ensure order in the territory under their jurisdiction and the safety of the population. “We had a great idea,” later recalled one of the leaders of the Irkutsk Committee of Public Organizations, Social Democrat V.S. Voitinsky, “what an orgy of murders, robberies, and violence would threaten in Siberia, saturated with criminal elements, if the region, even for a short time, will remain without power or if the authority of the central government among the population is shaken by the careless steps of local leaders.”
But the leadership of the revolutionary organs did not at first dare to independently remove the former commanders from office and take upon themselves the full responsibility
authorities. So, on March 3, V.M. Krutovsky, on behalf of the Krasnoyarsk COB, sent a telegram to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, in which he said that “the authority of local representatives of the old government has been shaken, the population does not trust them,” and at the same time asked to “indicate the limits of authority [and ] area of action of the committee." On March 4, the leadership of the Committee of Public Organizations of Irkutsk sent a largely similar telegram to the Chairman of the State Duma M.V. Rodzianko, Duma members A.F. Kerensky and N.S. Chkheidze. It announced the creation of a committee, its assumption of leadership of local affairs, and at the same time asked for the immediate removal
A.I. Piltz and appoint government representatives to govern the region.
The objective situation immediately forced the COBs, without waiting for instructions from the new central authorities from the capital, to dramatically expand the list of their tasks and take full responsibility for the situation in the cities and surrounding areas. They officially announced to the population that they were the highest local government bodies, subordinate to the Provisional Government. Having emerged as urban ones, KOBs immediately extended their competence to nearby counties, and sometimes to provinces (regions) as a whole. Due to the lack of a legal framework that would regulate the activities of KOBs, they were forced to independently determine their rights, functions, structure and areas of work, to act at their own discretion, taking into account local conditions, but with an eye on the Center.
The main task that the KOBs immediately had to solve was the development and implementation of a competent policy in relation to the state structures of the overthrown tsarist government. Almost all employees of the old administration, from governors and gendarmerie colonels to police officers and prison guards, reacting to the change in the supreme power in the country, declared their readiness to serve the Provisional Government. Moreover, the Transbaikal military governor
the decision to organize a COB in Chita, and Tomsk Governor V.N. Dudinsky on the same day issued an announcement in which, in fact, he recognized the Committee for Public Order and Security as the highest local authority. He called the committee’s resolutions unconditionally binding for all residents of Tomsk, and demanded that officials of the civil department provide “rigorous assistance” to the committee.
Nevertheless, the loyalty of major tsarist officials did not guarantee their retention not only in service, but even in freedom. By orders of the KOBs, after two or three days, arrests were made of governors-general, governors, vice-governors, heads of gendarmerie departments, police chiefs and some district police officers. The reasons why the COBs ordered these arrests varied. High dignitaries, as a rule, were arrested on instructions from the supreme authorities in Petrograd or at the request of local workers and soldiers. The arrests of employees of the tsarist administration became not only an act of vengeance on the part of the social lower classes, but also a demonstration that the “local revolution” had taken place.
Thus, by order of the Omsk Coalition Committee, on March 4, the governor-general of the Steppe Territory, cavalry general N.A. Sukhomlinov, assistant ataman of the Siberian Cossack army, Major General P.Ya. Yagodkin, commander of the 3rd Siberian reserve rifle stationed in Omsk, were arrested brigade Lieutenant General A.V. Romashov, Governor A.V. Kolobov and Vice-Governor N.I. Knyazev, senior chairman of the judicial chamber V.V. Ed-lichko, prosecutor of the chamber A.K. Viskovatov and other heads of the previous administration .
Instead of the abolished imperial authorities, the KOBs created other structures and appointed new chiefs. Thus, to govern the Akmola region, the Omsk Coalition Committee on March 4 assigned the temporary duties of governor to the member of the district court I.P. Zakonov, and the vice chairman of the mechanical department of the regional military-industrial committee, civil engineer N.I. Lepko.
Moreover, soon the Omsk coalition committee even “encroached” on the rights of the former governor-general. By order of the committee, on March 14, I. P. Zakonov assumed temporary duties as Commissioner for the Steppe General Government, while N. I. Lepko replaced him as acting governor.
On March 4, the Executive Committee of public organizations of Irkutsk introduced the post of regional commissar with the functions of the governor-general, whose powers extended to the Yenisei and Irkutsk provinces, Transbaikal and Yakutsk regions. The executive committee appointed a former official of the office of the Governor General of the Social Revolutionary S.N. Saltykov, a former political exile, as the regional commissar. On the same day, the executive committee appointed non-partisan A.I. Lavrov, who had previously served as the manager of the local treasury chamber, to the post of governor. A week later, the executive committee of Irkutsk introduced the post of commissioner for judicial affairs, appointing to it a former attorney at law, political exile Socialist Revolutionary S.S. Starynkevich, giving him the rights of a prosecutor of the judicial chamber. Then, on March 14, with the consent of A.I. Lavrov, the appointment of the former official P.P. Agapev as assistant to the provincial commissioner and N.N. Karmazinsky as manager of the treasury chamber followed.
Events in Tomsk developed in the same direction. Satisfying the request of Governor V.N. Dudinsky, the Committee of Public Order and Security decided to remove him from governing the province. Considering the situation that arose to require emergency measures, the committee decided to establish a commissariat of three persons for the temporary management of the province. By closed voting on March 5, he elected prominent public figures of democratic orientation to the provincial commissariat: an indispensable member for peasant affairs of the Tomsk provincial administration, non-partisan A. A. Barok, an employee of the resettlement department, an assistant to the head of resettlement in the Tomsk region, the non-partisan M. A. Voiskoboynikov, and a juror.
renowned P.V. Vologodsky, close in his views to the Socialist Revolutionaries. The committee immediately notified the Minister of Internal Affairs about its “personnel” decisions, ending the telegram with the words: “We urgently ask for authority and instructions.” Three days later, the Provisional Government approved the Tomsk Provincial Commissariat.
As a result, even before receiving orders from the Provisional Government in the former Steppe Territory and the Irkutsk General Government, in the Akmola region, Irkutsk and Tomsk provinces, KOBs established leading administrative positions and made appointments to them.
At the same time, the KOBs everywhere abolished gendarmerie departments and points, and their employees were arrested. A few days later, most of the lower ranks were released, and the officers and non-commissioned officers were placed at the disposal of district military commanders for subsequent dispatch to the front. During the liquidation of the gendarmerie departments, the KOBs received at their disposal rich archives with card indexes and reports of secret employees who worked in a revolutionary environment and betrayed opponents of tsarism. This made it possible to identify and expose hundreds of provocateurs, some of whom had already managed to infiltrate new power structures, especially the police.
Police departments in most provincial, regional and district cities of Siberia were also liquidated, and their employees were fired. Instead of the liquidated police, the new government urgently began to create a temporary people's militia, consisting of volunteers, among whom were many students and former soldiers.
Thanks to the liquidation of the gendarmerie and the police, the two main pillars on which the tsarist regime rested locally were destroyed. The KOB also carried out a fairly serious purge of personnel in the judiciary. But the main part of the provincial, regional and district executive apparatus, which did not perform repressive functions, was preserved unchanged. In the conditions of Siberia, which experienced a shortage of qualified specialists and even simply literate people, the destruction of everything old
state apparatus could result in a simple loss of control.
With great anxiety, the new local authorities awaited the reaction of the command staff and soldiers of the local garrisons to the events that were taking place. However, among the generals and officers who served in Siberia, there were only a few dozen people who remembered that they had once sworn allegiance to the Russian emperor. Both commanders of military districts, most of the garrison commanders and command staff of military units stationed in Siberia almost immediately declared themselves as supporters of the Provisional Government. Chiefs of garrisons and unit commanders publicly demonstrated their loyalty by leading their subordinate officers and soldiers into the streets and squares of cities under red banners. Regimental orchestras, instead of the usual “God Save the Tsar,” tirelessly played the anthem of a foreign country, which turned into the anthem of all revolutionaries, the French Marseillaise.
The oath of allegiance to the new government did not save most senior commanders from removal from office. Instead of the arrested cavalry general N.A. Sukhomlinov, on the same day at a meeting of the command staff of the Omsk garrison troops, Major General G.V. Grigoriev, who allegedly “suffered” from the former governor-general even before the World War, was almost unanimously elected as the new commander of the troops. E. O. Shmit and therefore had a reputation as a “liberal”; The general meeting of officers elected Major General V. G. Vladimirov to the post of chief of staff of the district, and the Socialist Revolutionary Warrant Officer S. M. Nemchinov as assistant commander and commandant of the city. The coalition committee confirmed the elected commanders in office. But nevertheless, he showed revolutionary vigilance, appointing two of his commissars to the commander of the district troops: the already mentioned N.D. Buyanovsky and the former sworn attorney, comrade of the chairman of the Omsk Military-Industrial Committee, cadet D.S. Kargalov.
Commander of the Irkutsk Military District, Infantry General Ya. F. Shkinsky and Head of the 2nd Siberian Reserve
The rifle brigade, Lieutenant General N.A. Lashkevich, also recognized the new government. But they could not find a common language with the leadership of the Council of Military Deputies, which considered that the named generals “do not enjoy sufficient trust from the army” and, moreover, “do not show that ardent faith in the new army and free Russia, which should be shown commanders of the army." The Irkutsk Committee of Public Organizations, together with the leadership of the Council of Military Deputies, on March 6, “having carefully and carefully discussed the issue,” decided to remove generals Y. F. Shkinsky and N. A. Lashkevich from office, and temporarily commander, until he is confirmed in the position by the military Minister, appoint the commander of the 10th regiment, Colonel P. G. Felitsyn, and the commander of the brigade, the commander of the 11th regiment, Colonel N. G. Gusarevich. The Committee turned to the Minister of War with a request to approve his resolution and filed a petition with the Minister to promote P. G. Felitsyn to general. The Minister of War immediately granted the first part of the Irkutsk Committee's request, ordering Colonel P. G. Felitsyn to take temporary command of the troops of the Irkutsk Military District.
All activities of the KOBs were initially absolutely transparent. Some committee meetings were held with the participation of representatives of other public organizations, including Councils. KOB meetings, as a rule, were open to the public and the press. Reporting information on the issues discussed at their meetings or at meetings of the governing bodies they created, as well as on the decisions made, was regularly published in local newspapers, which added to their authority and support from the townspeople. At the same time, the KOBs did not cling to power. Their leadership understood that the hastily created committees must be replaced by new bodies created, in accordance with democratic norms, on the basis of universal, equal, direct elections by secret ballot. Moreover, it did not wait for appropriate instructions from Petrograd, but independently took measures in this direction.
True, when the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies took the initiative to organize a holiday on March 10, 1917 to mark the overthrow of the monarchy in Russia, many Siberian KOBs responded to this proposal, renaming it “Freedom Holiday.”
In Irkutsk, factories, plants, workshops and shops did not work on this day; in Tomsk, employees of government, public and private institutions were released from work, and classes in educational institutions were canceled.
In the morning, services were held in churches and temples of all religions in Irkutsk. Then, in the main squares of the city, decorated with red flags and other revolutionary symbols, ceremonial prayer services were held with the participation of thousands of citizens and military personnel, as well as a parade of garrison troops. Meetings and rallies were held in theaters, public meetings, large auditoriums and halls, at which speeches were made in honor of a free Russia, in support of the Provisional Government and the revolutionary order, for a democratic republic and the Constituent Assembly.
The holiday in Omsk followed approximately the same scenario. It began in the morning with a solemn liturgy in the Orthodox Cathedral and then continued in the main square of the city. Here a ceremony was held for military personnel to renounce their oath to tsarist power, in which clergy of heterodox faiths took part. This was followed by a parade of garrison troops and a demonstration by the civilian population. The holiday ended with a ceremonial meeting of the City Duma with the participation of representatives of the coalition committee and the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
On the holiday, the central streets and squares of Tomsk were crowded with thousands of citizens, peasants from neighboring villages and military personnel, decorated with red bows and ribbons, with flags and banners. At ten o'clock in the morning a grand procession of townspeople and garrison troops began, which lasted about six hours and was accompanied by speeches from speakers from the KOB, political parties and public organizations.
In Barnaul, the center of the celebration was the largest square in the city - NovoBazarnaya, renamed on the same day to Freedom Square. At nine o'clock in the morning, units of the Barnaul garrison arrived here, and then organized groups of citizens: workers, employees, students. First, a memorial service was played for those who fell in the struggle for freedom, then several orchestras performed a funeral march; After the sermon, the orchestras burst into the hymn “How Glorious!”, and after the prayer service was served, they performed the Marseillaise. For several hours, speeches from speakers were heard from four stands located at the edges of the square, interspersed with the playing of orchestras.
“The success of the coup, the success of the holiday, the external discipline of the crowd, the unanimous recognition of what had happened on all sides - everything inspired, everything inspired the brightest hopes,” one of the active participants in the described events in Barnaul recalled two years later about the mood of those days. According to numerous evidence from periodicals and memoirs of later years, similar sentiments reigned then among the broad masses of residents of Siberian cities.
The “Festival of Freedom” showed that in the first ten days of the spring of 1917, the political landscape of Siberia changed radically. With a lag of only a few days, compared to Petrograd, in its cities, which were administrative, political and cultural centers that determined the situation in the region, the old state power was swept away. She was eliminated without violence, excesses or blood. Siberians, on their own, established new institutions and orders similar to those in the capital, thereby supporting the revolutionary coup in Petrograd. The Siberian province was able to reach the same level politically as European Russia, and the holiday that took place on March 10 clearly demonstrated the unity of the capital and the Siberian province, the new government, the people and the army.
For more than three hundred years of its stay as part of Russia, Siberia has never known such a radical renewal of its administrative apparatus and such high
the pace of both downward and upward vertical mobility of the administrative and political elite of the region. During the first decade of March 1917, there was a sharp break in the continuity of its development. The tsarist bureaucracy was replaced by a new generation of administrators, recruited from the former counter-elite.
The fact that the post-February administrative and political elite of Siberia was formed as a coalition of liberal-democratic and socialist elements with some dominance of moderate socialists was not a reflection of the specifics of the social structure of Siberia. This balance of power was explained mainly by the presence of political exile and was a transient phenomenon. But the emergence of such a coalition made it possible to quickly and in extremely “soft” forms replace the upper echelon of administrative power in Siberia, and to prevent rampant anarchy and revolutionary extremism in such an extremely dangerous situation in the region.
LITERATURE
1. GA RF. F. R-1778. Op. 1. D. 419. L. 1, 4.
2. Sidorenko S. A. The February bourgeois-democratic revolution and the beginning of the transition to the socialist revolution in Siberia (March-April 1917). - Chelyabinsk, 1970. -S. 77, 85.
3. GA RF. F. R-1778. Op. 1. D. 419. L. 9.
4. Ibid. L. 21, 22, 24, 25.
9. News of the Executive Committee of Public Organizations of the City of Irkutsk. -1917. - 10th of March.
11. K[rutovsky] V. Regional Review // Siberian Notes. - 1917. - No. 4-5. - S. 103104.
13. Bulletin of the United Executive Bureau of the Committee of Public Security and the Council of Workers, Soldiers and Cossack Deputies (Krasnoyarsk). - 1917. - March 7.
14. Voitinsky V. S. 1917. A year of victories and defeats. - [B. m.]: SIAIS^e RibIsa^opB, 1990. -P. 15-16.
16. GA RF. F. R-1788. Op. 2. D. 74. L. 14.
18. Sokolov V. February “coup” in Chita // Northern Asia. - 1927. - No. 1. - P. 36.
19. Congresses, conferences and meetings of social-class, political, religious, national organizations in the Trans-Baikal region (March 1917 - November 1918). -Tomsk, 1991. - P. 8.
24. News of the Executive Committee of Public Organizations of the City of Irkutsk. -1917. - March 12.
26. Lavrov I. A. At the turn. - Harbin: Publishing house M.V. Zaitsev, . - P. 11.
29. Essays on the history of the city of Omsk: in 2 volumes - T. 2: Omsk. XX century - Omsk, 2005. - P. 252.
31. News of the Executive Committee of Public Organizations of the City of Irkutsk. -1917. - 11th of March. Slightly different versions of this “case” are presented in the memoirs of V. S. Voitinsky and I. A. Lavrov (see: Lavrov I. A. At the turn. - P. 36-38; Voitinsky V. S. 1917 A year of victories and defeats. - pp. 18-19).
32. News of the Executive Committee of Public Organizations of the City of Irkutsk. -1917. - 11th of March.
34. Kazansky P. March days in Barnaul // Siberian dawn. - 1919. - No. 5. - P. 128.
The media project “Table” and the Lecture Hall “1917” present a summary of the lecture by Valery Valentinovich Tsys, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Russian History at NVGU on the topic “North of Western Siberia during the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia,” which was read in the Central City library named after M.K. Anisimkova of the city of Nizhnevartovsk. We are sure that all our readers from various regions of Russia will find it interesting and instructive to learn how the Bolsheviks seized power in one of the most violent corners of the country
It is known that the idea of the revolutionary events of 1917 among the majority of Russians - especially somewhere on the periphery of the country - is still based on old Soviet stereotypes. But the residents of the country are completely unaware of what was happening on the periphery in those years, justifying this by the fact that the fate of the country was decided not on the outskirts - in our Tobolsk, but in the center, in the capital.
Of course, this is true, but only partly. However, the turbulent events in the center of the country also reached the residents of Ugra and Yamal - the territories of the then Tobolsk province, where Nicholas II and his family were exiled in August 1917. Then it was believed that Tobolsk was the quietest and most peaceful place in the empire, where it was possible to wait out any cataclysm. There was neither landownership, nor developed industry, nor a large proletariat, nor any reasons for mass discontent.
The royal family in Tobolsk
But gradually the stormy revolutionary waters flooded the most remote corners of the country. No one managed to sit on the sidelines.
So, in February 1917, in just a few days, the tsarist autocracy collapsed. However, no attempts were made to protect it, either in the center or locally, which reminds us of the collapse of the USSR in 1991. And the main reason for such indifference of the people is the discrediting of the authorities in the eyes of the people. And as a result, Russia finds itself at a crossroads. Various political forces proposed four main options for the path along which they believed Russia should move forward.
The first is the bourgeois-democratic, liberal model. This path was personified by the Provisional Government and its leaders. The most famous personalities are the late Kerensky and Miliukov.
The third is moderate socialist. Supported by the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, famous representatives - Chernov, Martov.
And finally, the fourth is the radical left. This position was defended by the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin.
Each of these options has been tested to one degree or another in practice throughout the country or in individual regions. But for a number of reasons, the last – left-radical – option became the most viable on the scale of Russia.
Although initially, it would seem, the liberals, the first model, had a better chance, because when they came to power in February 1917, they were followed by the intelligentsia, the most educated segments of the population, and they had the money of the bourgeoisie. However, all attempts to implement the liberal model failed.
Prime Minister Kerensky in a group of generals and officers
Why? Obviously, this is reflected in the inconsistency of the utopian ideas of the Russian liberal intelligentsia about the essence and nature of democracy. Democracy was perceived as some kind of objective reality, which the autocracy prevents from being realized. Therefore, let us remove the autocracy, and the people themselves will choose the form of self-government, and then everything will work out on its own. But in reality, of course, democracy could not establish itself in Russia overnight, as if by magic, because in Western countries the democratic system was created over the course of centuries.
And as an example of the disastrous decisions of the Provisional Government, one should point out the abolition of the law enforcement system - liberals then seriously believed that a decentralized elected police should have taken the place of a centralized, streamlined police mechanism. In fact, then anyone could sign up to become a police officer. There is no need to study anywhere, the main thing is revolutionary self-awareness. But in Nizhnevartovsk, which was actually a village at that time, the police were abolished altogether and it was decided to send the selected police chief to the front.
Using the same principle, local authorities began to replace elected committees, which consisted of representatives of the democratic public - from political parties to the beekeepers' society. Of course, for the most part these were honest and decent people, but they had neither political nor administrative experience.
For example, lawyer Vasily Nikolaevich Pignatti, a famous scientist who was engaged in archaeological excavations in his free time from legal practice, was appointed head of the Tobolsk province. The Surgut district was headed by local teacher Nikolai Zamyatin.
As a result, it turned out that the provisional government did not have any tools to govern the country, since the old state apparatus was destroyed and they were unable to create a new one. The soft policy, designed for the revolutionary consciousness of the population, also did not justify itself. As a result, the growing economic crisis engulfed the state. During the eight months during which the liberals tried to rule the country, prices rose fivefold, industrial production and labor productivity fell by 25 percent. The supply of bread to the cities in the fall of 1917 was only half of what was needed. All this was accompanied by failures at the front. As a result, left-wing radicals came to power in October 1917, telling the people what they wanted to hear, promising “mountains of gold, rivers of milk and banks of jelly.”
With the beginning of the Civil War, the position of the Tobolsk province also changed.
While the main battles of the Civil War in Siberia unfolded along the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Tobolsk province began to serve as a link between Western Europe and the Eastern Asian part of Russia, which increasingly experienced an urgent need for industrial goods. It was through the north of Tobolsk that supplies of bread and food products from Siberia to Europe were organized, and weapons, ammunition, and industrial goods were transported in the opposite direction. To make the northern route more convenient, at the direction of Admiral Kolchak, the construction of a port on Yamal and two powerful radio stations began - in Yamal and in Surgut, through which it was planned to establish contact with the Arkhangelsk government and coordinate military and political plans to fight the Bolsheviks. Already in the fall of 1919, caravans of ships from Arkhangelsk and Omsk met in Yamal to exchange goods.
But let's think about what a civil war in Russia is?
Academician Polyakov gave a brilliant definition of this war in the early 90s: “An armed struggle lasted about 6 years between different groups of the population, which was based on deep social, national, political contradictions, which took place with the active intervention of foreign forces, taking various forms.” This definition is classically accepted. That is, the civil war is understood as a complex multifaceted phenomenon that cannot be reduced to class struggle and the war of red and white. This is the struggle between the center and the national outskirts, the struggle between various political parties, between workers and the bourgeoisie, between various groups of the peasantry, between the peasantry and the central government, and so on.
And the catalyst for the civil war was the socio-economic policy of the Bolsheviks, which did not extinguish, but, on the contrary, inflamed all the contradictions, involving more and more people in the confrontation. Calm Tobolsk did not escape this fate, where the dividing line between “Reds” and “Whites” was drawn in the most bizarre way.
For example, the hero of the civil war, Tikhon Danilovich Senkin, a native of the Oryol province, took part in the establishment of Soviet power in Berezovo and Obdorsk. In our area he ended up as an exile - he was imprisoned for assault as a bailiff. In the spring of 1921, he was killed by peasants - during a peasant uprising, his detachment was ambushed.
Or here is Abbot Irinarch, in the world Ivan Shemanovsky, rector of the Obdorsk mission, a man who has done a lot to enlighten our region. In 1918, he joined the Communist Party and became an active promoter of socialist ideas. By the will of the party, he was sent to Turkestan to organize a commune, where the Basmachi killed him.
But his former church boss, Bishop Hermogenes of Tobolsk and Siberia, was arrested by the Bolsheviks in 1918 as a participant in a mythical monarchist conspiracy. During the Reds' retreat from Tobolsk, he was drowned in Tours. That is, the Bolsheviks tied a stone to his feet and drowned him.
It is appropriate to remember Alexander Anatolyevich Loparev - he was a prominent scientist, a specialist in the history and culture of Byzantium, an employee of the Imperial Public Library (now the Russian National Library). When his brother Ilya died, he took his son Plato, a student at the Omsk Technical School, for support. The nephew came to Petrograd to visit his uncle, where he became a member of the Bolshevik Party. And in the fall of 1918, Alexander Loparev died of hunger in Petrograd, and Platon Loparev became an active participant in the establishment of Soviet power in the northern Tobolsk territory, and a participant in the suppression of the peasant uprising. The central street of Starovartovsk is named after him.
That is, in Siberia, people from the same strata found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades.
A characteristic feature of the Tobolsk province is the relative isolation of the region, its distance from political and economic centers. This led to the fact that the entire development of the military-political confrontation in the region took place in a general direction, characteristic of other regions of the Urals and western Siberia, but with a slight lag. If in the south of Western Siberia Soviet power was established at the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918, then in the north only in March - beginning of May 1918. Then came the stage of the overthrow of Soviet power, the short-lived power of the “whites” and the victory of the Bolsheviks. But if the defeat of Kolchak’s troops occurred in the fall of 1919, then the fall of Tobolsk occurred on October 22, and in the north of the province the city of Saranpaul - the last stronghold of the Whites - capitulated only at the end of January 1920.
The West Siberian Peasant Uprising of 1921, which reached its peak in February–March 1921, also developed with a slight delay. But the rebels occupied the city of Obdorsk, now Salekhard, only at the beginning of April 1921 - that is, at a time when the main centers of resistance in the south had already been suppressed.
Another characteristic specific feature of our region is the presence of a large number of indigenous people: Khanty, Mansi, Nenets. It is known that in 1917 there was a rise in national movements on all the outskirts of the empire - in Ukraine, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, and Transcaucasia. In Siberia, national political organizations arise only in the south: among the Buryats, Altaians and Siberian Tatars. And the peoples of the north, who led a traditional way of life, were very little involved in the political struggle. Moreover, before the revolution, indigenous people were not subject to conscription into the army, did not participate in elections to the State Duma, that is, they, in general, were outside the political life of Russia. That is why the indigenous population sympathized more with the opponents of the Bolsheviks, because the Bolsheviks planned to deprive them of the traditional lands that they owned as owners and force them into public labor. Therefore, the participation of the indigenous population in the revolution was limited to several episodes of armed struggle against the Bolsheviks. The first episode is an attempt by Berezovsky industrialists in March 1918 to recruit Khanty to fight supporters of Soviet power. The second is the Khanty’s participation in the anti-Bolshevik uprising in 1921. Both times ended in complete failure, and the Khanty troops showed their complete incapacity for combat.
For these reasons, the armed struggle in our region grew extremely slowly and gradually. In 1917, no cases of violence were recorded in our north at all. In 1918, when overthrowing the authorities of the provisional government, only the threat of using force was enough; the parties resorted to weapons extremely reluctantly.
Commander of the Armed Forces of the Yakut Governorate and Northern Territory
But the gradual increase in the scale of the civil conflict and the involvement of an increasing number of local residents inevitably led to the fact that the participants in the struggle became increasingly bitter.
In 1919–1920, the sides had to engage in military clashes with relatively small losses on both sides.
For example, at the beginning of January 1920, the Whites left Berezov and Obdorsk and all their forces, and this was the signal detachment of the Tenth Pechora Regiment transferred from Arkhangelsk, and were replenished with the local mobilized population. They concentrated in Saranpaul, which they decided to defend to the last possible opportunity. Saranpaul covered the Sibiryakovsky highway, connecting Siberia with Pechora, which was under the rule of the “white” government of Arkhangelsk.
And so, the English military engineer Sachs arrived in Saranpaul with sappers and began setting up defensive positions. Trenches were made from manure and sand, it was all filled with water, frozen, and the forest was cut down on the southern side. Strong points were built along the perimeter - redoubts with earthen trenches, dugouts, a wire fence was installed, machine-gun nests were equipped, telephone and telegraph communications were laid. Saranpaul turned into a real fortress, capable of withstanding assault and siege. The garrison did not lack weapons and ammunition, which were received from the British through Arkhangelsk: 200 rifles, 11 machine guns, grenade launchers, 60 thousand rounds of ammunition. There were huge reserves of bread - 224 tons of grain, and this made it possible not to worry about the food supply of military personnel and the local population. However, the fortress surrendered without a fight.
The “Reds” arrested the families of influential merchants from Berezovo, took the families hostage, and sent the merchants themselves to Saranpaul as envoys with an official offer of surrender and a promise to save the lives of the officers. The merchants, who knew the area well, were able to freely travel around the village, bypassing the outposts, and before they were detained and taken to headquarters, they completed their main task, for which they were actually sent - that is, they delivered letters from relatives and loved ones who were in the territory occupied by the “reds”. And, as you understand, in these letters it was said that life was normal under the new government, that it was necessary to stop resistance, return to their families, to peaceful work, etc. The merchants also informed the “whites” about the situation at the fronts: that Tomsk and Surgut have already been taken by the Reds, that Kolchak’s forces have been defeated, that organized white resistance in Siberia has ceased. And all these events caused a split among the “whites”, a split among those who were from European Russia - the so-called “Pechora residents”, and the locals - the “Berezovites”. As a result, the “Berezovites” arrested the “Pechora residents”, took away their weapons and sent the “Pechora residents” along the Sibiryakovsky tract to the west. And then they surrendered to the “reds”.
Red Army soldiers of the Northern Front, 1919
But in 1921, the scope of hostilities increased, the number of deaths increased significantly, bitterness towards the enemy intensified, phenomena such as executions of hostages, robberies, murders, and extrajudicial executions were observed.
Beginning with political confrontation and local clashes, the Civil War gradually turned into a bloody meat grinder during the 1921 uprising, which became one of the most striking episodes in the history of Northwestern Siberia.
This was an event in which most of the region's population directly or indirectly participated, and which affected the daily life of Siberians much more deeply than the 1917 Revolution or the war of the “Reds” and “Whites”. The total number of victims of the uprising is estimated at 600 people, including 200 people killed in battle, which is a very large figure for our sparsely populated region.
It is worth noting that arbitrariness and violence, both on the one hand and on the other, were aggravated by a period of defeats and retreats, when the control of the center over the activities of civilian military authorities weakened, and at the same time, embitterment, discontent, despair for the failures that had befallen, and the desire to take out anger on prisoners, suspects or those who simply came to hand.
The British in Arkhangelsk 18-19.
A typical example occurred in the Nizhnevartovsk region, when the Bolsheviks tried to prevent anti-Bolshevik protests. In Surgut, Obdorsk, Berezovo, and Samarovo, hostages were taken from families of the so-called “exploiting class.” A military revolutionary committee was created, but since there were few weapons, the Bolsheviks decided to leave Surgut and retreat along the Ob towards Narym and Tomsk. About 200 horses were mobilized from the population, and on the night of March 9, communists and employees of Soviet institutions and members of their families left the city. The retreaters were divided into several groups of about 700 people - that is, the convoy stretched for dozens of miles along the Ob. The rebels sent a detachment under the command of Tretyakov with about 120 fighters in pursuit. Tellingly, Tretyakov himself, the commander of the rebels, was a member of the Communist Party and an active participant in the battles with Kolchak, and before the uprising he held the position of inspector of the Surgut financial department.
And so his detachment overtook a column of fugitives near the village of Nizhnevartovsk on the left bank of the Ob. The retreating communists knew about their pursuers, and a detachment of Commissar Zyryanov was sent to meet Tretyakov’s detachment, who were given the order to stop the enemy. A battle ensued, in which Zyryanov himself and other communists died - a total of 19 people, another five “Reds” were captured - they later went over to the side of the rebels and took part in the uprising against the Bolsheviks.
In Nizhnevartovsk, after the battle, martial law was declared and an armed guard was posted. Soon the village was occupied by red troops. And the Cheka-OGPU detachment caught the rebels hiding in the forests for several more years. Even one security officer married the sister of one of the hiding rebel leaders only to later catch him.
In this situation, councils of workers' and soldiers' deputies began to take power in individual cities of Siberia and the Far East. This was expressed in the adoption by the councils of relevant declarations, and sometimes in the creation of military-revolutionary and simply revolutionary committees.
The first steps of Soviet power (November 1917 - the first half of January 1918) were expressed in the introduction of workers' control over the production and distribution of goods, the creation revolutionary tribunals , demobilization of military personnel from local garrisons. In parallel with the soviets, anti-Bolshevik forces under the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionaries became more active, the center of which became the Provisional Siberian Regional Council. The Bolsheviks' dispersal of the Constituent Assembly finally destroyed the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the issue of power through the creation of a coalition of socialists, including at the regional level. Under the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionaries, the formation of an anti-Bolshevik armed underground begins. The Cossack detachments of esauls were the first to begin the armed struggle B.V. Annenkova , G.M. Semenov , A.A. Sotnikova, I.N. Krasilnikova. The country and region were sliding into a state .
Lit.: History of the Russian Far East. The Russian Far East during the revolutions of 1917 and the civil war. Vladivostok, 2003. T. 3, book. 1; Shilovsky M.V. Political processes in Siberia during the period of social cataclysms of 1917-1920. Novosibirsk, 2003; Kuzmin V.L., Tsipkin Yu.N. Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks in the Far East during the civil war of 1917-1922. Khabarovsk, 2005.