In recent years, many publications have appeared in which attempts are made to reveal little-known pages of history, to find new approaches to the study of the events of 1917 - 1923. But, at the same time, often one tendentiousness is replaced by another. There is a desire to change the existing assessments of foreign intervention and present it as a positive phenomenon. This trend is noticeable both outside Russia and within it. There is an inclination to justify the intervention on the grounds that during this event, its organizers and participants allegedly seriously sought to provide material and moral assistance to the local Russian population.
However, by exchanging one bias for another, it is impossible to objectively assess such a complex phenomenon as civil war and intervention. While rejecting the narrow approach in its coverage, one cannot at the same time take the point of view of the opposite side and reduce everything to blaming or condemning either side.
The situation in the Far East on the eve of intervention. Preparing the intervention
The Far East was one of the least developed regions of the Russian Empire. It was geographically remote from the main economic and political centers of the country. Being vast in territory, it had a poorly developed network of communications and was therefore poorly connected with other parts of the country. One of the few routes connecting the Far East with the rest of Russia was the Trans-Siberian Railway, the construction of which was completed shortly before the events described in the course work. The region's population density was very low. The number of settlements was small. The only major industrial center was Vladivostok. Far Eastern industry was poorly developed, so the number of workers, the main support of Soviet power, was significantly lower here than in the center. The bulk of the population was the peasantry, which was divided into the indigenous wealthy and representatives of the migrant elements - “new settlers”, whose financial situation was much worse. An important feature of the region was also the fact that here the privileged Cossacks fully retained their military organization, the wealthy part of which leased out most of their land. There was also a significant layer of the urban trading bourgeoisie, tsarist officials and officers of the imperial army. Wealthy peasants, the urban trading bourgeoisie, officers of the imperial army, tsarist officials and the leadership of the Cossacks later formed a significant part of the cadres of the anti-Bolshevik forces of the region.
Russia's military forces in this region were few in number, and the transfer of additional forces in the event of the outbreak of hostilities was difficult. Russo-Japanese War 1904 - 1905 clearly demonstrated the weakness of Russia's position in the Far East. On August 23 (September 5), 1905, an armistice was signed in Portsmouth (USA). Russia recognized Korea as Japan's sphere of influence, ceded to it South Sakhalin, rights to the Liaodong Peninsula with Port Arthur and Dalniy, and the South Manchurian Railway. The defeat forced Russia to reorient its foreign policy priorities from the Far East to the European vector.
But the confrontation did not end there. Japan was simply waiting for the right moment to seize the entire Far East from Russia. Although for a short time, there seemed to be some “thaw” in Russian-Japanese relations: during the First World War, Japan and Russia became formal allies. However, Japan entered the war on the side of the Entente with the only goal: to gain control of the German sphere of influence in China and its colonies in the Pacific Ocean. After their capture in the fall of 1914, Japan's active participation in the war ended. When asked by the Western allies to send a Japanese expeditionary force to Europe, the Japanese government responded that “its climate is not suitable for Japanese soldiers.”
On July 11, 1916, a secret agreement was concluded between Russia and Japan on the division of spheres of influence in China, which included a clause declaring a military alliance between the two countries: “If a third power declares war on one of the contracting parties, the other party will immediately the ally's demand must come to the rescue." The Japanese hinted that they were ready to do more if Northern Sakhalin was ceded to them, but the Russian delegation refused to even discuss such an option. As for the attitude of the public and the army towards the “ally,” it was quite definite: the memories of the Russian-Japanese War were still alive, and everyone understood that they would have to fight with Japan, and in the not too distant future. The temporary and unnatural nature of the alliance between Russia and Japan was obvious to Russian public consciousness, especially since the Japanese did not hide their territorial claims and were preparing to realize them at the first opportunity.
During the First World War, Russia's attention was completely diverted to the events taking place in Europe. Japan at that time was part of the Entente, that is, objectively it was an ally of Russia. Therefore, during this period, the Russian government did not maintain large military forces in the Far East. There were only small military detachments necessary to maintain communications. During the First World War, about 40 thousand soldiers, sailors and Cossacks accumulated in Vladivostok (even though the city’s population was 25 thousand), as well as a large amount of military equipment and weapons brought here by the Entente allies for transfer to the west along the Trans-Siberian Railway.
After the victory of the October Revolution, the governments of the USA, Japan, and the Entente countries began to develop plans to overthrow Soviet power. Great importance was attached to the seizure of Siberia and the Far East as a springboard for the fight against the Soviet Republic. In preparation for the intervention, the governments of the Entente countries and the United States not only sought to save Russia from the Bolsheviks, but also wanted to solve their own selfish interests. Thus, the United States for a long time persistently prepared to seize Russian territories in Siberia and the Far East, like Japan, waiting only for an opportunity to carry out its plans.
The revolutionary events of 1917 created chaos in power in the Far East. The leadership of Vladivostok was claimed by the Provisional Government, the Cossack atamans Semyonov and Kalmykov, the Soviets (Bolsheviks, Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries), the government of autonomous Siberia, and even the director of the CER, General Horvath.
Russian anti-Bolshevik forces contributed to the outbreak of foreign intervention, hoping to overthrow Soviet power with the help of foreign troops. Thus, the Black Hundred-Cadet newspaper "Voice of Primorye" published on March 20, 1918 a message in English about the beating of 10 thousand residents in Blagoveshchensk, about the mass executions of citizens of the Amur region by Soviet authorities. It is unknown how reliable this information was, but undoubtedly this message was designed to involve Japan in the conflict in the region. After all, it was precisely such evidence of “unrest and anarchy in Russia,” and moreover, coming from the “Russian figures” themselves, that gave Japan and other countries a reason to begin intervention.”
France supported the anti-Bolshevik resistance by all means, and was preparing for military intervention, France, which sought to create a “cordon sanitaire” around Soviet Russia, and then, through an economic blockade, achieve the overthrow of the Bolshevik power. The US and French governments were the direct organizers of the anti-Bolshevik rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps. It was the governments of these states that financed the resistance to the Bolsheviks.
Preparations for armed intervention in the Far East were completed in the early spring of 1918. By this time, the Allied powers had finally agreed to grant Japan the initiative, to use the Czechoslovak corps for a counter-revolutionary rebellion, and to supply the White Guards with everything necessary. And although there was strong “rivalry between Japan and America”, as well as between other states, fear of the Bolshevik government forced them to unite and conduct a joint armed intervention.
By agreement of the governments of the United States and Japan, the latter was given freedom of action in the Far East. Japanese troops were supposed to serve as the main striking force of the states participating in the intervention. The US government provoked Japan to act, in every possible way encouraged the Japanese military elite to engage in armed aggression and at the same time sought coordinated actions from its ally, which in reality meant US control. The anti-Soviet orientation of US policy was perfectly understood and fully taken into account by the Japanese militarists. They were quite happy with the American plan to recognize the need to use the Japanese army in the intervention. The Japanese government justified the need to fight against Russia on the Asian continent with its traditional policy, allegedly caused by the historical development of the country. The essence of the foreign policy concept of Japanese imperialism was that Japan should have a bridgehead on the mainland.
Beginning of the intervention
On April 4, 1918, two Japanese were killed in Vladivostok, and already on April 5, Japanese and English troops landed in the port of Vladivostok (the British landed 50 marines, the Japanese - 250 soldiers) under the pretext of protecting their citizens. However, the indignation at the unmotivated action turned out to be so great that after three weeks the interventionists finally left the streets of Vladivostok and boarded their ships.
For armed struggle in Siberia and the Far East, the interventionists decided to use the Czechoslovak corps, formed in the summer of 1917 with the permission of the Provisional Government from prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army. The Soviet government allowed the evacuation of the corps from the country. Initially, it was assumed that the Czechoslovaks would leave Russia for France through Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. But due to changes in the situation on the Western Front, it was decided to evacuate the corps through Vladivostok. The drama of the situation was that the first echelons arrived in Vladivostok on April 25, 1918, while the rest stretched along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway up to the Urals, the number of the corps exceeded 30 thousand people.
In June 1918, Allied landings in Vladivostok several times forcibly resisted Soviet attempts to remove strategic reserves from Vladivostok to western Russia: ammunition warehouses and copper. Therefore, on June 29, the commander of the Czechoslovak troops in Vladivostok, Russian Major General Dieterichs, presented an ultimatum to the Vladivostok council: to disarm their troops in half an hour. The ultimatum was caused by information that the exported property was being used to arm captured Magyars and Germans - several hundred of them were located near Vladivostok, as part of the Red Guard detachments. The Czechs, with shooting, quickly occupied the council building and began to forcibly disarm the units of the city Red Guard.
In May - June 1918, corps troops, with the support of underground anti-Bolshevik organizations, overthrew Soviet power in Siberia. On the night of June 29, there was a mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps in Vladivostok, almost the entire composition of the Vladivostok Council was arrested. After the capture of Vladivostok, the Czechs continued their attack on the “northern” detachments of the coastal Bolsheviks, and on July 5 they took Ussuriysk. According to the memoirs of the Bolshevik Uvarov, in total, during the coup, the Czechs killed 149 Red Guards in the region, 17 communists and 30 “red” Czechs were arrested and court-martialed. It was the June performance in Vladivostok of the Czechoslovak Corps that became the reason for the joint intervention of the Allies. At a meeting in the White House on July 6, 1918, it was decided that the United States and Japan should each land 7 thousand soldiers in the Russian Far East.
On July 16, 1918, numerous interventionist troops landed in the city, and the Allied command in Vladivostok declared the city “under international control.” The purpose of the intervention was declared to be to assist the Czechs in their struggle against German and Austrian prisoners in Russia, as well as to assist the Czechoslovak Corps in its advance from the Far East to France, and then to their homeland. On August 23, 1918, in the area of the Kraevsky crossing, a united detachment of interventionists set out against Soviet units. Soviet troops were forced, after stubborn fighting, to retreat to Khabarovsk.
The threat to Soviet power in the Far East loomed not only from Vladivostok. The western group of Czechoslovaks and White Guards fought their way east. On August 25-28, 1918, the 5th Congress of Soviets of the Far East took place in Khabarovsk. In connection with the breakthrough of the Ussuri Front, the issue of further tactics of struggle was discussed at the congress. By a majority vote, it was decided to stop the front-line struggle and disband the Red Guard detachments in order to then organize a partisan struggle. The Extraordinary V Congress of Soviets of the Far East decided to stop the fight on the Ussuri front and move on to partisan warfare. The functions of Soviet authorities began to be carried out by the headquarters of partisan detachments.
On September 12, 1918, Japanese and American troops entered Khabarovsk and transferred power to Ataman Kalmykov. Soviet power was overthrown in the Amur region, and Blagoveshchensk fell on September 18. General Horvath was appointed Supreme Commissioner of the Provisional Siberian Government for the Far East, with the rights of a governor; his military assistant was General Ivanov-Rinov, who was an active participant in secret military organizations that were preparing a counter-revolutionary coup in Siberia. In Blagoveshchensk on September 20, the so-called government of the Amur region was formed, headed by the Socialist Revolutionary Alekseevsky. One of the first actions of this government was to order the return, under pain of severe reprisals, of all nationalized mines to their former private owners.
But this government did not last long. In connection with the appointment of Horvath as Supreme Commissioner for the Far East, Alekseevsky’s Amur government abolished itself two months later and transferred power to the Amur Regional Zemstvo Government. In November 1918, the government of Admiral A.V. came to power in the region. Kolchak. General D.L. was appointed Kolchak's representative in the Far East. Croat.
By the end of 1918, the number of interventionists in the Far East reached 150 thousand people, including over 70 thousand Japanese, about 11 thousand Americans, 40 thousand Czechs (including Siberia), as well as small contingents of the British and French , Italians, Romanians, Poles, Serbs and Chinese. This figure does not include the numerous White Guard formations, which operated entirely thanks to the support of foreign states.
The main command of the occupation forces in the Far East, according to the agreement between the United States and Japan, was carried out by the Japanese General Otani and his staff, and then by General Ooi. The USA, Japan, England, France and Italy acted in concert when intervening in the Far East. But the joint actions of these powers against Soviet power did not at all mean that the contradictions between the United States and Japan had diminished. On the contrary, their mutual distrust and suspicion intensified. The United States made efforts to, using Japan, limit at the same time the aggressive appetites of its partner and seize as much as possible themselves. However, Japan persistently sought a dominant position in the Far East and tried to occupy all strategic points in the region.
Relying on the bayonets of the interventionists, the temporarily victorious anti-Bolshevik forces settled in the cities of the region. At first, the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who found themselves in power in some places, tried to play the role of democratic forces called upon to unite all segments of the population to fight Bolshevism. But as the forces of the interventionists grew, any appearance of even such “democracy” quickly disappeared. These parties, being under the control of the interventionists, became conductors of militant anti-Bolshevism.
In an effort to extend his power to the Far East, Kolchak, as mentioned above, appointed his officials there. However, Japan resisted this in every possible way and put forward its proteges. Having captured the Amur region, the Japanese interventionists imprisoned first Ataman Gamov in Blagoveshchensk, after him Colonel Shemelin, and then Ataman Kuznetsov. Ataman Kalmykov settled in Khabarovsk, with the help of American and Japanese troops, declaring himself the head of the garrison. He subjugated all the civil and military departments that were part of the Amur Military District. In Chita and Transbaikalia, the Japanese put Ataman Semenov in power. In the Sakhalin region, the Provisional Siberian Government appointed in October 1918 as its commissar the former vice-governor of Sakhalin von Bige, who was removed from office after the February Revolution.
The Japanese interventionists, carrying out their plan to gain dominance in Asia, despite the joint intervention with the Americans, themselves intended to seize the Far East and Siberia. The United States, in turn, did everything to gain positions in the Far East from which it could control Japan and subordinate its actions to American interests. Both the American and Japanese invaders, who sought to capture as much of the prey as possible, kept a close eye on each other with the wariness of predators.
The goals of the interventionists. Relations between interventionists and anti-Bolshevik governments
The first object of interest of all the invaders who invaded the Far Eastern region was railway communications. The United States of America, covering its plans with references to the need for economic assistance, even under Kerensky tried to acquire the Chinese Eastern and Siberian Railways. The Kerensky government, in the form of compensation for the loans provided to it, placed these railways under American control, which was essentially a hidden form of selling them to American companies. Already in the summer and autumn of 1917, a mission of American engineers consisting of 300 people, led by John Stevens, began its activities in the Far East and Siberia. The mission pursued two goals: an active struggle against the Soviets and strengthening the economic position of American capital in Russia.
The Soviet government annulled all agreements between Western countries and the imperial and Provisional governments, but the United States continued to maintain control of the railway lines. The American ruling circles considered the seizure of railroads as the surest means of ensuring their dominance in the Far East and Siberia. However, as a result of Japan's vigorous demands, they had to make forced concessions. After lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached on the organization of inter-allied control over the Chinese Eastern and Siberian Railways.
For this purpose, in March 1919, an inter-union committee and a union council on military transportation were created. Practical management of road operation and housekeeping was entrusted to the technical council, headed by Stevens. In April 1919, all railways were distributed among the interventionist troops as follows: America was to control part of the Ussuri railway (from Vladivostok to Nikolsk-Ussuri), the Suchan branch and part of the Trans-Baikal railway (from Verkhneudinsk to Baikal). Japan took control of the Amur Railway and part of the Ussuri Railway (from Nikolsk-Ussuriysk to Spassk and from Guberovo Station to Karymskaya Station), and part of the Trans-Baikal Railway (from Manchuria Station to Verkhneudinsk). China formally took control of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) and part of the Ussuri Railway (from Ussuri station to Guberovo station), but in fact the CER was controlled by a technical council headed by the American representative Stevens. Subsequently, the Americans occupied the Verkhneudinsk - station section. Mysovaya; Russian White Guards were allocated a section of the station. Mysovaya - Irkutsk; Czechoslovak rebels - Irkutsk - Novo-Nikolaevsk (Novosibirsk); further to the west, the Altai Railway was to be guarded by Polish legionnaires.
Thus, American troops, having taken control of the most important sections of the Siberian Railway, could control the transportation of the Japanese both from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk and the Amur, and from Transbaikalia to Siberia. At the same time, the American interventionists settled in the most important strategic points. A brigade under the command of Colonel Moore was stationed in Khabarovsk; in Verkhneudinsk and Transbaikalia - a detachment of American troops under the command of Colonel Morrow; in Vladivostok - the main base of all interventionists - there was a headquarters headed by General Grevs. An American naval squadron under the command of Admiral Knight blocked the Far Eastern coast. The American interventionists, not content with the Far East, wanted to extend their influence throughout Siberia and pave the way to the central regions of the Soviet Republic. To this end, the American Ambassador to Japan Morris, who was also the US “High Commissioner” in Siberia, General Graves and Admiral Knight in September 1918 developed a plan for further expansion of American intervention.
Under the pretext of helping the Czechoslovak rebels who were defeated by the Red Army on the Volga, it was planned to transfer a significant part of the American troops to Omsk. Here it was planned to create a base for the US occupation forces, based on which the American interventionists, together with the Japanese and British interventionists and Czechoslovak rebels, intended to launch operations against the Red Army beyond the Urals. The implementation of this plan, as conceived by its drafters, was supposed to not only ensure that the Volga border was kept in the hands of Czechoslovak troops and White Guards, but also to place the Siberian Railway under firmer American control. The plan was approved by US President Wilson, but infighting between the interventionists prevented its implementation. None of the participants in the intervention wanted, for the sake of their partner, to suffer the fate of the Czechoslovak rebels who were defeated on the Eastern Front.
After the defeat of Germany, the ruling circles of the Entente began to organize a general campaign against the Soviet Republic. They then made their main bet on the Siberian dictator Kolchak, whom they put forward as an “all-Russian ruler” who was supposed to unite all internal anti-Bolshevik forces to fight Soviet power. Japan believed that America would benefit primarily from Kolchak’s support in the Far East, which had already actually taken control of the Chinese Eastern and Siberian Railways.
The Japanese interventionists opposed the desire of the American imperialists to establish their economic dominance with the military occupation of the region, striving, with the help of armed force, which they could more easily deliver than the United States, to occupy a dominant position in the Far East. Refusing military assistance to Kolchak, they nominated their proteges - atamans Semenov, Kalmykov and others.
In November 1918, a few days after the establishment of the Kolchak dictatorship in Siberia, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs telegraphed Semenov: “Japanese public opinion does not approve of Kolchak. You protest against him.” Following Japanese instructions, Semenov refused to recognize Kolchak as the supreme ruler and put forward his candidacies for this post - Horvat, Denikin, Ataman Dutov; Semenov declared himself the “marching chieftain” of the entire Far Eastern Cossack army. In every possible way opposing the spread of Kolchak’s power to the east of Irkutsk, the Semenovites served as a kind of barrier with which the Japanese imperialists wanted to fence off and isolate the Far Eastern region from Kolchak’s, i.e. American, influence.
As for the further relationship between Kolchak and Semyonov, it should be said that Kolchak, thoroughly battered by the Red Army, despite the help of America, England and France, eventually had to compromise with Semyonov. After the defeat in the spring of 1919 in the Ufa-Samara direction, Kolchak began to seek help from Japan. To do this, he had to appoint Semenov as assistant commander of the Amur Military District, although Semenov actually continued to disobey the Omsk government and remained in Chita. After this, Japan provided assistance to Kolchak, although not with manpower, which Kolchak sought, but with weapons and uniforms.
On July 17, 1919, Ambassador to Japan Krupensky telegraphed the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kolchak government, Sukin, that the Japanese government had agreed to the supply of 10 million cartridges and 50 thousand rifles, but asked to be informed “in what time frame, if possible.” as soon as possible, payment will be made." What kind of payment the Japanese were talking about is quite eloquently evidenced by the report of General Romanovsky, who was specially sent to Japan to negotiate assistance, to the chief of Kolchak’s headquarters, General Lebedev. General Romanovsky reported that Japan intended to present the following demands as compensation for the assistance provided:
1) Vladivostok is a free port;
2) free trade and navigation on the Sungari and Amur;
3) control over the Siberian Railway and transfer of the Changchun-Harbin section to Japan;
4) the right to fish throughout the Far East;
5) sale of northern Sakhalin to Japan.
The policy of the American and Japanese interventionists was also clear to the White Guards. Admiral Kolchak, even before he was declared supreme ruler, assessing the policies of Western states in the Russian Far East, noted in a conversation with General Boldyrev (at that time the commander-in-chief of the White Guard Siberian Army): "America's claims are very large, and Japan does not disdain anything ". In a letter to Denikin dated October 1, 1918, Kolchak also expressed a very pessimistic view of the situation in the Far East: “I believe,” he wrote, “it (the Far East) is lost to us, if not forever, then for a certain period of time.”
The American interventionists, not wanting to get too involved in the civil war, usually entrusted punitive work to the White Guards and Japanese troops. But sometimes they themselves took part in reprisals against civilians. In Primorye they still remember the atrocities committed by the American invaders during the years of intervention. One of the participants in the partisan struggle in the Far East, A.Ya. Yatsenko in his memoirs talks about the massacre of the residents of the village of Stepanovka by American and Japanese invaders. As soon as the partisans left the village, American and Japanese soldiers burst into it.
“Forbidding anyone to go outside, they closed the doors of all the houses from the outside, propping them up with stakes and boards. Then they set fire to six houses in such a way that the wind would spread the flames to all the other huts. Frightened residents began to jump out of the windows, but here the interventionists took them with bayonets. American and Japanese soldiers scoured the entire village, in smoke and flames, trying not to let anyone out alive. A terrible picture of the defeat appeared before our eyes in Stepanovka when we returned to it: all that was left of the huts were heaps of charred wood , and everywhere on the streets and in the gardens lay the corpses of stabbed and shot old men, women and children.”
Another participant in the partisan struggle, the commander of the partisan detachment A.D. Borisov talks about how the American interventionists fired at the village of Annenki from an armored train. “Approaching the excavation (railroad - S.Sh.), they opened gun fire on the village. They fired at peasant houses for a long time and methodically, causing great damage to the residents. Many innocent peasants were wounded.”
The consequence of the atrocities committed by the interventionists and the White Guards was the growth of the partisan movement.
Victory of the partisan movement in the Far East
By January 1920, the partisan insurgent movement throughout the Far East had acquired enormous scope. The power of the interventionists and the White Guards actually extended only to the large cities of the region and a narrow strip along the railway line, a significant part of which was completely paralyzed. The partisans disorganized the enemy's rear, distracted and pinned down a significant part of his forces. All foreign troops were tied up guarding communications and could not be moved to the front to assist Kolchak. In turn, the victories of the Red Army created favorable conditions for an even wider deployment of the partisan movement.
Thanks to the crushing blows of the partisans and the work of underground communist organizations, the enemy's manpower quickly melted and lost its combat effectiveness. The soldiers of the White Guard units, a significant part of which were forcibly mobilized, not only avoided participating in punitive expeditions and being sent to the front in every possible way, but they themselves rebelled and took arms in their hands and went over to the side of the partisans. The revolutionary ferment also affected foreign troops. First of all, it affected the Czechoslovak troops, who at the beginning of the intervention were the main striking force of America, England and France.
On November 20, 1919, Czech plenipotentiaries Pavel and Girsa wrote to representatives of the Allied powers “about the morally tragic situation in which the Czechoslovak army found itself” and asked for advice “how it could ensure its own safety and free return to its homeland,” and Czechoslovak Minister Stefanik directly stated in Paris that Czechoslovak troops must be immediately evacuated from Russia, otherwise Siberian political conditions could very soon turn them into Bolsheviks.
The anti-Kolchak sentiments of the Czechs were expressed in an open attempt to carry out a coup. On November 17-18, 1919, the former commander of Kolchak’s 1st Siberian Army, the Czech General Gaida, together with a group of Socialist Revolutionaries who called themselves the “regional Siberian government,” raised an uprising in Vladivostok under the slogans “democratization of the regime” and “convening the All-Siberian Constituent Assembly ". In the area of the station, fierce battles broke out between Kolchak's supporters - the troops of General Rozanov and the rebels, among whom there were many former white soldiers and loader workers.
Although Rozanov, with the assistance of other interventionists, mainly the Japanese and Americans, managed to suppress this uprising, it was no longer possible to stop the collapse that had begun. The mood of the Czech soldiers became so threatening that General Janin was forced to order their evacuation first. Moving along the Siberian Railway to the east, the Czechs did not allow Kolchak’s units fleeing under the onslaught of the Soviet Army to reach it, and detained the White government echelons, including the train of the “supreme ruler” himself.
Semyonov, trying to shield himself from the advancing units of the Red Army, turned to the Czechs with an appeal for help and tried to slow down their evacuation. At the direction of the Japanese interventionists, he interrupted communications with the Far East. General Janin and members of the foreign military missions under Kolchak, realizing the loss of the last opportunity to retreat, ordered the Czechs to disarm the Semyonovites who had advanced to the Lake Baikal area and open the way to the east. To top it all off, the Czechs, in order to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the working masses, on January 14 extradited Kolchak, with the sanction of General Janen, to the Irkutsk “Political Center”. On February 7, 1920, by order of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, which took power into its own hands, Kolchak, along with his Prime Minister, General Pepelyaev, was shot. Only the remnants of the 2nd and 3rd Kolchak armies, with a total number of up to 20 thousand bayonets and sabers, led by General Kappel, and after his death by General Voitsekhovsky, managed to retreat east to Verkhneudinsk and further to Chita. They were pursued on the heels of units of the 5th Red Banner Army and detachments of East Siberian and Baikal partisans.
Various anti-Bolshevik forces hastily began constructing a new political structure in the Far East. The idea of creating a buffer state was actively discussed among the circles of the American President Wilson, Japanese ruling circles, and right-wing socialists. The most active activities during this period were carried out by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. They tried with all their might to find allies and bring the retreating white armies under their control. Right-wing socialists took upon themselves the task of creating a buffer in the Far East. In accordance with the decision made in November 1919 by the All-Siberian Regional Committee of the AKP, the Socialist Revolutionaries called for the creation of a “homogeneous socialist government” with the participation of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. They declared the primary task of their party to be “the restoration of the political and economic unity of the country,” which could only be realized as a result of the restoration of Russia as a federal democratic republic, through the efforts of the working people themselves. The Mensheviks stood in solidarity with the Socialist Revolutionaries.
Counting on the support of the American, Anglo-French, and Czech allies, the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks began to create a leadership center for “organizing social forces on the anti-Kolchak platform.” The Americans were clearly impressed by the Socialist Revolutionary program, which was a mixture of right-wing socialist and liberal views. In November 1919, the All-Siberian Conference of Zemstvos and Cities secretly met in Irkutsk. There, the Political Center was created from representatives of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Zemstvos and Cooperators. It included the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, non-party cooperators and Zemstvo members. The political center covered with its influence the provinces of Tomsk, Yenisei, Irkutsk, as well as Yakutia, Transbaikalia, and Primorye. In January 1920, a branch of the Political Center was created in Vladivostok.
The successes of the Red Army and the partisans managed to change the international situation. On December 10, 1919, English Prime Minister Lloyd George was forced to make a statement at a parliamentary meeting that the “Russian question” would be reconsidered. On December 16, a meeting of the five allied states participating in the intervention decided to cease further assistance to the anti-Bolshevik Russian governments, leaving the United States and Japan to act in accordance with their interests. In January 1920, England, France and Italy decided to end the blockade of Soviet Russia. On December 23, 1919, US Secretary of State Lansing, in a letter to President Wilson, asked to speed up the withdrawal of American troops from Siberia. An open clash with the Red Army was not in the interests of the United States. On January 5, the government of the United States of America was forced to make a decision to withdraw its troops from the territory of the Russian Far East, and ordered General Greves to begin concentrating them in Vladivostok, to be sent to America no later than April 1, 1920. In a note sent on January 10 Japan, the US government stated "that it regrets having to make this decision, because this decision... spells the end... of the joint efforts of Japan and the United States to help the Russian people."
Since the American calculations on Kolchak did not come true, but the United States was not going to give up its interests, in the Russian Far East, calculations were made for the continuation of the intervention by Japanese troops. At the beginning of 1920, in San Francisco, a decision was made to organize an American-Japanese syndicate for the exploitation of natural resources in the Russian Far East. The draft charter of this organization stated that the syndicate intended to take charge of the extraction of mineral resources both in Central Siberia and in coastal areas, the construction of railways in Siberia and Manchuria, the equipment of power plants, etc. American monopolies hoped to subordinate Japan to their economic influence in order to more easily reap the benefits of Japanese expansion. The ruling circles of America also acted in the same direction, encouraging the Japanese militarists to continue the intervention. On January 30, 1920, the US government announced that “it does not intend to oppose measures that the Japanese government finds necessary to achieve the goals for which the American and Japanese governments began to cooperate in Siberia.”
On the same day, at a secret meeting of the heads of missions and representatives of the military command of the interventionists who were in Vladivostok, a decision was made: in connection with the departure of American, British, French and Czechoslovak troops, to entrust Japan with the representation and protection of the interests of the allies in the Russian Far East.
Uprising against the White Guards and interventionists in Primorye
Meanwhile, the underground organizations of the Bolsheviks, relying on the success of the partisan insurgent movement that swept the entire region, began active preparations for the overthrow of the White Guard authorities. An underground party conference held in December 1919 in Vladivostok decided to begin extensive preparatory work for an armed uprising against Kolchak’s power in the Primorsky region. For this purpose, the military department of the regional party committee was reorganized into the military revolutionary headquarters of the communists, headed by Sergei Lazo. The headquarters was tasked with developing a plan for the uprising, creating combat detachments, establishing strong connections with the partisans, and also attracting Kolchak’s propagandized units to the uprising.
Despite the difficulties associated with the fact that Vladivostok was occupied by the interventionists, the military-revolutionary headquarters successfully completed the task. He managed to establish contact with several Kolchak units and create combat groups of pro-Bolshevik soldiers in them. The headquarters enlisted the support of sailors and even some military schools on Russian Island. Due to difficult international conditions, the uprising had to take place not under Soviet slogans, but under the slogan of a temporary transfer of power to the regional zemstvo government.
In January, the Joint Operational Revolutionary Headquarters was created, which included representatives of military revolutionary organizations. The leading role in it remained with the communists. The uprising was scheduled by the regional party committee for January 31. On the same day, a general strike of Vladivostok workers began. According to the plan, “the military units of the Russian Island that joined the uprising were supposed to cross the ice of the Amur Bay and, reaching Egersheld, knock out the Kolchakites from the headquarters of the fortress and Vladivostok station. The detachments advancing from the Rotten Corner area were supposed to surround the People's House and disarm Rozanov's personal guard, occupy this room and, moving further, occupy the telegraph, bank and other government institutions. From the side of the First River, it was proposed that the motorized units and the Latvian national regiment advance in the direction of the fortress headquarters. Sailors from the Military Port were also supposed to approach here." . At the same time, partisan detachments converged on the city. Thus, the plan provided for the delivery of concentrated attacks on the most important objects - the headquarters of the fortress and the residence of Kolchak's Governor-General Rozanov, the capture of which immediately gave the rebels a dominant position.
On January 31, partisan detachments of the Nikolsk-Ussuriysky region, under the command of Andreev, occupied the Nikolsk-Ussuriysky station with the assistance of the rebel garrison. The garrison of the station also rebelled. Okeanskaya, which renamed itself the 3rd Partisan Regiment. In Vladivostok, the uprising began at 3 o'clock on January 31. Careful preparations for the uprising yielded positive results. By 12 o'clock the city was already in the hands of the rebels and partisans. The interventionists, bound by forced neutrality, and afraid to openly come out on the side of the White Guards, nevertheless helped Rozanov escape and take refuge in Japan. After the coup, the interim government of the Primorsky Regional Zemstvo Council came to power, which announced a list of its immediate tasks, including taking measures to end the intervention.
The overthrow of the White Guards in Vladivostok greatly contributed to the success of the movement in other cities of the region. In the tenth of February, partisan detachments of the Amur region surrounded Khabarovsk. Kalmykov, seeing the inevitability of the loss of the city, shot over 40 people suspected of Bolshevism, captured more than 36 pounds of gold and fled with his detachment to Chinese territory on February 13. On February 16, the partisans, together with an expeditionary detachment sent from Vladivostok, occupied Khabarovsk. Power in Khabarovsk passed into the hands of the city zemstvo government.
In the lower reaches of the Amur, partisan detachments, at the end of January, approached the Chnyrrakh fortress, which covered the approaches to Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, and sent envoys to the Japanese command with a proposal to begin peace negotiations on the transfer of the city without a fight. This proposal arose in connection with the statement of the commander of Japanese troops in the Amur region, General Shiroodzu, on February 4, about neutrality. The Japanese invaders killed the envoys. Then the partisans launched an offensive. Under the cover of a snowstorm, on February 10, skiers from the 1st Sakhalin Rebel Regiment broke into the fortress and captured its forts. Japanese attempts to push back the partisans were unsuccessful. On February 12, the fortress finally passed into the hands of the partisans. The partisans began to besiege the city. After repeated proposals for a truce, in response to which the Japanese opened fire, guerrilla artillery was brought into action. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, the Japanese command accepted the terms of the truce. On February 28, partisan detachments entered Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. In the Amur region, the White Guards and interventionists by the end of January 1920 found themselves pushed back to the railway and stayed only in cities and at the largest stations.
Seeing that defeat was inevitable, the commander of the Japanese forces, General Shiroodzu (commander of the 14th Japanese Infantry Division), asked the main headquarters of the occupation forces in Vladivostok to send help or permission to evacuate. But the Japanese commander-in-chief, General Ooi, could not help Shiroodzu. The only way out of this situation was to declare neutrality, which Shiroodzu did on February 4, 1920.
A different situation has developed in the Transbaikal region. Having suffered defeat in Primorye and the Amur, the Japanese invaders made every effort to maintain their positions in Transbaikalia. They wanted to create a strong barrier here against the Red Army moving from Siberia, and for this purpose, despite the declared neutrality, they continued to provide Semenov with the most active support.
In addition to the 5th Infantry Division, whose headquarters was transferred to Verkhneudinsk, in the Chita region, at the beginning of 1920 new Japanese units began to appear. A significant part of the 14th Infantry Division was also transferred here from the Amur Region. Semenov's troops were reorganized according to the Japanese model, and reinforced by new Buryat-Mongol formations. Using Kolchak’s decree granting the authority to “form government bodies within the scope of his full power,” Semenov on January 16, 1920 constructed his “government of the Russian eastern outskirts” headed by cadet Taskin.
In this regard, the commander of the Japanese occupation forces in Transbaikalia, the commander of the Japanese 5th Infantry Division, Lieutenant General Suzuki, issued a special order: “Now that the authoritative government of General Semenov has been formed in Chita, Japanese and Russian troops will wage a more decisive fight against "Bolsheviks. I ask peaceful citizens of villages and cities not to believe harmful rumors about a change in the policy of the Japanese imperial government, and about the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the Transbaikal region." Despite all his efforts, Semenov failed to strengthen his position. But militarily, due to the strengthening of Japanese troops in Transbaikalia, he received a certain support. An important role was also played by the remnants of Kappel’s units, which reached Chita in the second half of February 1920. From them, Semenov formed two corps. Already in mid-March, one corps was advanced to the Sretensk region, against the East Transbaikal partisans. The Eastern Front was even formed here, led by General Voitsekhovsky, to whom Semenov transferred a total of up to 15 thousand bayonets and sabers and set the task of defeating the partisans and clearing them from the areas east of Chita. These measures gave a temporary effect. The red partisan regiments tried to capture Sretensk three times, but were forced to retreat, suffering heavy losses; Many representatives of the partisan command staff died. This was explained by the competent actions of the Semyonov units, the convenience of their position and, more importantly, the support of the Kappel and Japanese units that came to the aid of the Semyonovites.
Partisan offensive on Verkhneudinsk
In other sectors of the front, the partisans were more successful. At the end of February 1920, the Baikal partisans captured Troitskosavsk and, having established contact with the Transbaikal group of troops of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, began preparations for an attack on Verkhneudinsk. In Verkhneudinsk and its suburbs there were located a cavalry regiment, a Special Brigade, Rossianov's detachment, a local battalion of White Guards, as well as one regiment of the 5th Japanese Infantry Division. Czechoslovak trains were stationed at the station.
On February 24, the Transbaikal group of troops approached the city. The offensive plan called for a simultaneous attack from the north and west. The Baikal partisans were supposed to attack from the south across the Selenga River. After the first clashes, the Semenovites retreated to the city and to the railway, under the cover of Japanese troops. But the Japanese command, due to the unfavorable situation for it and the hostile position taken by the Czechs, did not dare to openly engage in battle. In an effort to gain time, it turned to the command of the Transbaikal group with a request to delay the entry of partisan units into Verkhneudinsk.
On the night of March 2, fierce street battles took place, in which the White Guards were completely defeated. Leaving behind a large amount of weapons and prisoners, they were forced to hastily retreat to the east. Some of them took refuge in the Japanese garrison. As it turned out later, Japanese troops, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, tried to help the Semyonovtsy. Japanese machine gunners fired at the partisan chains advancing from the Selenga River, but they were unable to prevent the defeat of the White Guards. On March 2, 1920, Verkhneudinsk was completely occupied by partisans, and three days later, on March 5, a Provisional Zemstvo Government was created here, which included communists.
From the very first days of its existence, the government categorically demanded that the Japanese command withdraw its troops from Transbaikalia. But only on March 9, in view of the approach of units of the 5th Red Banner Army and the 1st Irkutsk Division created by the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, Japanese troops began to leave Verkhneudinsk towards Chita. The partisan detachments of Western Transbaikalia immediately followed them.
The armed forces of the Soviet government in the Far East consisted of partisan detachments that were in the process of reorganization and former Kolchak garrisons. The communists from the Military Council of Primorye, under the leadership of Sergei Lazo, worked actively to bring these forces into a single, coherent military organization. They established contact through the Dalburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) with the command of the Red Army in Siberia. In March 1920, the Far Eastern Regional Party Committee adopted, according to Lazo’s report, a number of important decisions on issues of military development. All armed forces were united into three armies: the Far Eastern, Amur and Transbaikal. Lazo was appointed commander-in-chief. The partisan detachments were reorganized into nine divisions and two separate brigades.
The Far Eastern Army was to include the 1st Primorskaya Division with a deployment in the area of Vladivostok, Shkotovo, Suchan, the 2nd Nikolsko-Ussuriysk, 3rd Iman, 4th Khabarovsk divisions, the Shevchenko brigade with a location in Grodekovo and the Tryapitsyn partisan brigade, stationed in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur.
The Amur Army consisted of the 5th and 6th Amur Divisions, the Transbaikal Army - the 7th, 8th and 9th Transbaikal Divisions. The division commanders were supposed to be at the same time the commanders of the military areas in which these divisions were located. The headquarters of the commander-in-chief and the Military Council were supposed to be transferred from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk by April 10.
This number of formations was deployed because there were also about nine divisions of Japanese troops in the Far East. In addition, the Japanese had an advantage in the quality and quantity of military equipment, and their warships were stationed in the Vladivostok roadstead. But ultimately, the partisan troops had the advantage that they were supported by the majority of the population and that they were fighting for their native land. The main difficulty in carrying out military activities was that they had to be carried out in front of the Japanese interventionists, who not only did not intend to leave Soviet territory, but also continued to increase their military presence in the Far East.
Far Eastern newspapers of the time reported that an agreement had been reached between the governments of the United States and Japan, according to which Japan should strengthen its troops in Siberia in order to resist the advance of the Soviet Army into the Far East. Taking into account the complexity of the situation, the 4th regional Far Eastern Party Conference, held in Nikolsk-Ussuriysky from March 16 to 19, 1920, adopted a special resolution on the organization of military affairs. The resolution stated: “Every soldier, every partisan must remember that there is no victory yet, that a terrible danger hangs over us all. Not a single soldier, not a single partisan of our Far Eastern Red Army can leave the ranks of the troops, not a single rifle should be laid down until the intervention is stopped and the Far East is reunited with Soviet Russia. Soldiers and partisans must avoid any conflicts, any aggravation of relations with the Japanese. Maintain restraint and calm, do not give rise to clashes. Do not be the first to engage in a clash, even if you are called upon to do so. Everyone must remember what will come of it if we are the first to cause war."
Along with the creation of a regular army, the Far Eastern organizations of the Bolshevik Party faced an equally urgent task - the unification of all regions liberated from the White Guards and interventionists. Several pro-Bolshevik governments were formed in the Far Eastern region. Soviet power was restored in the Amur region. Executive committees of the Soviets were also created in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur and Aleksandrovsk-on-Sakhalin. In Primorye, the Provisional Government of the regional zemstvo government was in power. In Western Transbaikalia, power belonged to the Provisional Verkhneudinsk Zemstvo Government. The 4th Far Eastern Party Conference decided to consider it necessary to quickly unify the entire Far East under the authority of a single Soviet body.
It seemed that one more blow and the entire Far East would be under Soviet control. However, subsequent events dramatically changed the situation
Nikolaev incident and its consequences
Observing how quickly the armed forces of the Far East were growing and strengthening, the Japanese interventionists prepared a new attack. Acting in accordance with the plans of the organizers of the third campaign of the Entente, they simultaneously wanted to use the attack on the Soviet Republic of Poland and Wrangel to deliver a surprise blow to the vital centers of the Far Eastern region and establish their full control over it. The Japanese militarists have been preparing for this for a long time. Under the pretext of replacing “tired units,” they brought in new formations. In general, to seize the Soviet Far Eastern lands, Japan sent 11 infantry divisions in 1920, numbering about 175 thousand people from among the 21 divisions that Japan had at that time, as well as large warships and marines. Japanese troops occupied the most operationally and tactically advantageous points and conducted military maneuvers. In order to lull the vigilance of the Military Council of Primorye and the revolutionary troops, all these events were covered up by external loyalty. But at the same time, the Japanese command was preparing a major provocation. Such a provocation was the performance of the Japanese interventionists in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur on March 12 - 15, 1920. Before this, the local command of the Japanese troops assured the partisans of their sympathies for Soviet Russia. Japanese officers visited the partisan headquarters as “guests” and started conversations with the partisans. They managed to gain the trust of the partisan command and achieve the right to perform guard duty at the location of their troops and institutions (a right that the Japanese were deprived of under the armistice agreement).
On March 12, the regional Congress of Soviets opened in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. After the opening, a solemn funeral for the victims of the intervention and White Guard terror was to take place. On the night of March 12, significant detachments of Japanese troops unexpectedly appeared in front of the partisan headquarters, in front of the building where revolutionary units and artillery were located. The headquarters immediately found itself surrounded by three chains. The sentries were killed. Japanese troops opened machine-gun fire, began throwing hand grenades through the windows, and set the building on fire. At the same time, other premises occupied by partisan units were shelled and set on fire. Almost all Japanese subjects were also armed and fired from the windows of their houses. The plan of the Japanese command was to destroy the entire command staff of the partisan units with a surprise attack.
But the Japanese calculations did not come true. The partisans, despite the surprise of the attack and significant losses, entered the battle. Gradually they managed to unite into groups and establish contact. By mid-day on March 12, the partisan resistance had become organized. Street fighting broke out. Under the pressure of the partisans, the enemy began to lose one point after another. By the end of the day, the main forces were grouped in the premises of the Japanese consulate, in the stone barracks and in the building of the garrison assembly. The fighting, which was extremely fierce, lasted two days. The partisans stormed not only the streets, but also the private houses of Japanese residents. By the evening of March 14, the Japanese were defeated. Only one enemy group, holed up in a stone barracks, continued to resist. At this time, the commander of the Japanese troops of the Khabarovsk region, General Yamada, frightened by the defeat of his troops, ordered the head of the Japanese garrison in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur to stop hostilities and conclude a truce. On March 15, at 12 o'clock, the last group of Japanese in the barracks hung a white flag and surrendered their weapons. Thus, the provocative attack of the Japanese interventionists was eliminated thanks to the courage and tenacity of the partisans. Japanese troops suffered heavy losses in street fighting.
The interventionists tried to use this incident to their advantage. They reported “the Reds’ attack on Japanese civilians and the bloody atrocities of the Bolsheviks” in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. In Japan, there was even a special “day of mourning in memory of the victims of Bolshevik terror,” and Japanese newspapers demanded that Japanese troops remain in the Far East, allegedly in order to “protect civilians from wholesale extermination.” American anti-Soviet propaganda also spread versions of a “disappeared city” burned by Bolshevik partisans. On March 18, 1920, the Japanese government, which had previously left all requests regarding the evacuation of Japanese troops unanswered, announced that Japan did not recognize the possibility of recalling its expeditionary forces at this time and would leave them until “a solid calm situation has been established and the threat to Manchuria and Korea will disappear when the lives and property of Japanese subjects in Siberia are secure and freedom of movement and communication is ensured."
In early April, newly arrived Japanese units began to occupy a number of advantageous heights and objects in the vicinity of Vladivostok, and in the city itself. The Japanese flag appears on Tiger Mountain dominating the station area; machine guns are installed in the attics of buildings. On April 3, Japanese troops occupied the radio station of the naval department on Russian Island. At the same time, the Japanese command is conducting maneuvers in order to train troops in actions to capture the city. In Vladivostok itself and its region, collection points are planned for the Japanese civilian population in case of alarm.
The preparations of the Japanese interventionists did not go unnoticed by the Military Council of Primorye. On April 1, 1920, Lazo wrote to the command of the 5th Red Banner Army in Irkutsk that the Japanese were preparing to present an ultimatum with a number of demands. The report went on to say that even if the Japanese do not agree to open conflict, they are ready to create incidents and occupy a number of points in order to gain more from concluding peace. At the same time, the possibility of open action by Japanese troops was not excluded. Regarding the assessment of the actions of the United States of America, the 4th Far Eastern Conference of the RCP (b) in its resolution on the current moment noted that “America’s policy can be defined as a wait-and-see policy, as giving Japan freedom of action without committing itself to any obligations.” As for Japan’s policy, the resolution stated about it: “Japanese imperialism strives for territorial conquests in the Far East. We are facing the danger of Japanese occupation.”
In view of the looming threat, the Military Council outlined a number of measures for the relocation of units, warships and warehouses to the Khabarovsk area. Lazo attached particular importance to preparations for repelling the Japanese from the Amur region, which was supposed to be the main base of the revolutionary troops. In one of the telegrams to the head of the Khabarovsk region, dating back to March 20, 1920, he insisted on the immediate supply of medicines, cartridges, and shells to Khabarovsk and pointed to the decision of the Military Council to create a cartridge factory in Blagoveshchensk. At the same time, the Military Council sent more than 300 wagons with cargo from the military warehouses of Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, and also evacuated gold reserves to the Amur region. However, not all of the planned activities were implemented.
At the beginning of April 1920, the commander of the Japanese expeditionary forces, General Ooi, presented an ultimatum to the Provisional Government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Government with the demand to “provide the Japanese troops with apartments, food, communications, recognize all previous deals concluded between the Japanese command and the Russian authorities (i.e., the White Guard ), do not restrict the freedom of those Russians who serve the Japanese command, stop all hostile actions, no matter who they come from, that threaten the safety of Japanese troops, as well as peace and tranquility in Korea and Manchuria. make every effort to unconditionally ensure life, property and other rights of Japanese nationals living in the Far Eastern Territory."
The provisional government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Council sent a special delegation to negotiate the ultimatum, which protested against the Japanese demands. At the same time, the Military Council gave a secret order to put the units on combat readiness. But the balance of forces was clearly not in our favor. The number of partisan troops was no more than 19 thousand people, while the Japanese by this time had up to 70 thousand people and a military squadron. Moreover, their strength continued to increase continuously.
Actions of Japanese troops in April - May 1920
To avoid armed conflict, the Soviet delegation made concessions. On April 4, an agreement was reached. All that remained was to formalize it on April 5 with the appropriate signatures. But, as it turned out, “accommodation” was just another distracting maneuver of the Japanese interventionists. The entire negotiation ceremony was carried out by them according to a pre-developed plan. This was later reported by Major General Nishikawa in his notes “History of the Siberian Expedition”. Describing the actions of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Russian Far East, he revealed the true meaning of the negotiations. From his notes it is clear that the headquarters of the Japanese expeditionary forces at the end of March 1920 gave a secret order to disarm the revolutionary units of Primorye.
“It was decided,” writes Nishikawa, “to carry out this disarmament in two terms: to begin peace negotiations on this issue in early April and, depending on the circumstances, the second - in early May. Since at the very first negotiations it was obvious that it would be difficult to avoid clashes with the Bolsheviks, it was necessary to take all preparatory measures in time, and I immediately went to the area where the Japanese troops were located to familiarize myself with the position of the Bolshevik troops and draw up an operational plan for the actions of the Japanese security forces." Further citing the notification of the commander of the expeditionary forces, General Ooi, about the likelihood of complications and about preparations for them, Nishikawa reveals the tactics of the Japanese command: “If the Bolsheviks accept our proposal, then the troops should not insist on the demands being made. If they do not agree to our demands, take appropriate measures against political groups. However, it is difficult to imagine that the existing situation can be maintained without anything arising. In this case, it is necessary that orders and instructions are delivered in a timely manner, and each unit develops a plan of action accordingly, agreed with the general leadership in avoiding making mistakes at the right time."
Thus, the Japanese troops had instructions in advance to move, and the negotiations were conducted in order to lull the vigilance of the command of the Soviet troops. On the night of April 5, when it seemed that the conflict had already been resolved, the Japanese suddenly opened artillery and machine-gun fire in Vladivostok, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Khabarovsk, Shkotov and other cities of Primorye. They fired at Soviet garrisons, government and public buildings, destroyed and looted property. The Soviet units, taken by surprise, were unable to provide organized resistance; in addition, they had instructions to avoid armed clashes with the Japanese. Japanese troops captured the Vladivostok station and telegraph office, the ships stationed at the roadstead, captured the fortress and destroyed the premises of the Central Bureau of Trade Unions, the Zemstvo Administration, the Party Committee and headquarters.
The Japanese interventionists dealt the main blow to the governing bodies in order to immediately eliminate the possibility of organizing counteraction. They had special instructions on this matter. First of all, members of the Military Council were captured - S. Lazo, A. Lutsky and V. Sibirtsev, whom they then handed over to the White Guard armed formation of Yesaul Bochkarev, operating in the Iman region. The White Guards, on the instructions of the interventionists, dealt with the leaders of the revolutionary army of Primorye. They burned their bodies in the locomotive furnace at the station. Muravyevo-Amurskaya Ussuri Railway (now Lazo station).
In Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Japanese troops arrested almost all the participants in the congress of workers of the Primorsky region, which met in early April. Here the 33rd Regiment suffered especially hard, being subjected to concentrated artillery and machine gun fire as it retreated across the Suifun River. More than a thousand unarmed soldiers of the Nikolsky garrison were captured. The garrison in Shkotov also suffered significant losses, with more than 300 people killed and up to 100 people wounded. In Khbarovsk, on April 3, a representative of the Japanese command announced the upcoming evacuation of Japanese troops. At the same time, an announcement appeared in the local newspaper that on April 5 at 9 a.m. Japanese units would conduct “practical artillery training.” In this regard, the Japanese command asked residents not to worry.
On the morning of April 5, Japanese artillery actually opened fire, but not at targets, but at government institutions, the headquarters of the revolutionary troops, military barracks, public buildings and civilians. Following this, machine-gun and rifle fire began, under the cover of which the Japanese infantry surrounded the barracks. Specially designated groups of Japanese torch-bearers doused houses with fuel and set them on fire. Soon the whole of Khabarovsk was shrouded in thick smoke from the fires. All day on April 5, gun and machine gun fire did not stop. Most of the 35th regiment died under the fire of the Japanese interventionists in Khabarovsk. Only the detachments of Shevchuk and Kochnev managed to fight through the Japanese chains and retreat to the left bank of the Amur with heavy losses. Some partisan units and the remnants of the Khabarovsk garrison retreated to the Krasnaya Rechka crossing area. In Khabarovsk, the Japanese occupiers killed and wounded about 2,500 soldiers and civilians.
The performance of Japanese troops was accompanied everywhere by reprisals against civilians. Along with the Russians, the Koreans suffered greatly, being treated as slaves by Japanese soldiers. As a result of the action of the Japanese troops, several thousand civilians were killed, many party and Soviet workers, soldiers and commanders of the revolutionary army were shot. Through mass murder and the destruction of state, party, trade union and military organizations in Primorye, the Japanese imperialists wanted to wipe out the “Red Danger” from the face of the earth and establish their own order in the Far East. For this purpose, they intended to install the Semyonov administration in Primorye.
In their actions, the Japanese militarists relied on the support of other states participating in the intervention, and primarily the United States. On the eve of the Japanese troops' appearance, a meeting was held between the American, English, French and other consuls. It is not without reason that the diplomatic representative of Japan in Vladivostok, Matsudaira, the very next day after the events of April 4-5, said in a special interview that “Japan acted in accordance with the agreement with all allies.” American circles, justifying the atrocities of Japanese troops, stated that all this happened “due to fear of an uprising that could threaten the base of Japanese troops.”
Individual detachments and units put up stubborn resistance to Japanese troops. In Khabarovsk, a unit of the Special Detachment of the Amur Military Flotilla under the command of the communist N. Khoroshev fought heroically. In some places, such as Spassk, fighting continued until April 12. The Japanese lost up to 500 people here. The 8th Congress of Workers of the Amur Region, which was working in Blagoveshchensk, at the first news of the appearance of Japanese troops, elected a military revolutionary committee, to which it transferred full civil and military power and made a decision on the organization of the Red Army in the Amur Region.
The Amur Revolutionary Committee decided to create a front on the left bank of the Amur to repel the Japanese invaders. S.M. was appointed commander of the front. Seryshev, and commissioner P.P. Postyshev. Detachments of Amur partisans concentrated here and units of the Primorsky Army that had withdrawn from Khabarovsk organized a defense. They blocked the Japanese invaders from entering the Amur region. On May 18, when the Amur was cleared of ice, the Japanese prepared a landing operation through the so-called “Mad Channel”, but received a crushing rebuff. The entire Japanese landing force was destroyed by artillery and machine gun fire. Under pressure from public opinion, the Japanese command, having not found support in any of the political groups, was forced to again allow the Provisional Government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Administration to govern and negotiate with it. A Russian-Japanese conciliation commission was created, which on April 29, 1920 developed 29-point terms on the cessation of hostilities and “On maintaining order in the Primorsky region.” According to these conditions, Russian troops could not be present simultaneously with Japanese troops within the limits limited by a line running 30 km from the final point occupied by Japanese troops along the Ussuri Railway, on the one hand, and the line of the Russian-Chinese-Korean border on the west and south - on the other, as well as in the strip along the Suchan railway line from Suchan to its end at a distance of 30 km in each direction.
The provisional government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Council undertook to withdraw its units from these areas. It could only keep here a people's militia of up to 4,500 people. On September 24, 1920, an additional agreement was concluded according to which, after the Japanese troops had cleared Khabarovsk, Russian armed forces could not go south of the Iman River. Thus, a “neutral zone” was created, which the interventionists widely used to concentrate and form White Guard detachments there, as well as as a springboard for subsequent attacks on the Far Eastern Republic. The Japanese militarists managed to carry out their occupation plans in the spring of 1920 only in relation to the northern part of the Sakhalin Peninsula and the lower reaches of the Amur. In April - May, they landed large troops in Aleksandrovsk-on-Sakhalin and at the mouth of the Amur and established a military occupation regime here, installing their administration.
Formation of the Far Eastern Republic and the creation of the People's Revolutionary Army
The performance of the Japanese interventionists and their defeat of revolutionary organizations interrupted the state and military construction that had begun in Primorye. The center of gravity of the fight against invaders in the Far East has moved to Western Transbaikalia.
The government of the new state formation was formed on a coalition basis. Representatives from the Communists, Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, as well as from the regional zemstvo were introduced into it. But the overall political leadership, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, remained with the Dalburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). IN AND. Lenin, speaking at the communist faction of the VIII Congress of Soviets of the RSFSR in December 1920, called the main reason for the creation of the Far Eastern Republic the desire to avoid an open military clash with Japan.
The government of the Far Eastern Region was faced with the task of uniting all regions of the Far Eastern Territory into a single state. To do this, first of all, it was necessary to eliminate the “Chita traffic jam” created by the Japanese interventionists from Semyonov’s and Kappel’s troops. This problem had to be solved in difficult conditions. It was possible to eliminate Semyonov’s military formations only through the complete destruction of their manpower, while at the same time avoiding a war with Japan, which stood behind them.
Together with the organization of the Far Eastern Republic, and even somewhat earlier, its armed forces began to be created - the People's Revolutionary Army. At first, the cadres of this army were East Siberian and Baikal partisans, as well as some Kolchak units who went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. The formation of units and formations of the People's Revolutionary Army was carried out by two centers. This work was started by the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, which formed the 1st Irkutsk Rifle Division back in February 1920, and was continued by its main operational headquarters, created in Verkhneudinsk, after the arrival of Red Army units here in the tenth of March. The headquarters issued an order to subordinate all partisan detachments operating in the Baikal region to it, and began to reorganize the detachments and the Trans-Baikal group of forces into the Trans-Baikal rifle division and the Trans-Baikal cavalry brigade.
The rapid liberation of Verkhneudinsk was largely due to the fact that Semenov, despite the support of the Japanese interventionists, was unable to strengthen the white garrison defending there. The active actions of the Eastern Transbaikal partisans, who created a serious threat to Sretensk and the last communication linking the Ataman “capital” with the outside world, the Chita-Manchuria railway, forced Semenov to keep a significant part of his troops east of Chita. Here, in the areas of Sretensk and Nerchinsk, the Transbaikal Cossack Division (up to 3 thousand bayonets and sabers) and the Separate Transbaikal Cossack Brigade (2 thousand sabers) were concentrated. To guard the Chita-Manchuria railway, the Asian cavalry division of Baron Ungern (1 thousand sabers) was grouped at its largest stations - Borzya, Olovyannaya and Dauria.
The first and second offensive of the People's Revolutionary Army on Chita
The formation in March 1920 of a common front of Amur and East Trans-Baikal partisans and the expected even more decisive actions of the partisan army in this regard forced Semenov to begin transferring to the east an additional Combined Manchurian Brigade and the 2nd Kappel Corps, reformed from the remnants of the 2nd Kolchak Army. The situation that created in Eastern Transbaikalia in mid-March forced the Japanese and Semyonov command to form the Eastern Front in order to defeat the partisan detachments in the areas of eastern Chita. The Japanese interventionists and Semyonovites believed that the solution to this, in their opinion, easily achievable task, would make it possible to provide the rear, free up forces and give a free hand for the subsequent effective struggle against the People's Revolutionary Army.
As for the Western Transbaikal Front, here the Semenov command decided to carry out an active defense for now, firmly securing the main directions leading to Chita, where the White Guards were counting on the support of Japanese troops. In accordance with this plan, the White Guard and Japanese units, having taken a bridgehead along the western bank of the Chita and Ingoda rivers on the line of the settlements of Smolenskoye, Kenon, Tataurovo, concentrated in main groups in three areas.
The White Guards to the west of Chita and in the city itself had up to 6 thousand bayonets, about 2,600 sabers, 225 machine guns, 31 guns, and the Japanese interventionists had up to 5,200 bayonets and sabers with 18 guns. The total number of all Semyonov and Kappel troops by March 25, 1920 was: officers - 2337, bayonets - 8383, sabers - 9041, machine guns - 496, guns - 78.
In the second half of March and the first half of April 1920, during the first offensive on Chita, the People's Revolutionary Army had the only regular formation that had completed its formation - the 1st Irkutsk Rifle Division. This division and the partisan detachments operating on the passes of the Yablonovy Ridge and in the valley of the Ingoda River bore the brunt of the fight against the Semyonovites and Japanese troops. The remaining connections were still in the process of formation.
After the liberation of Verkhneudinsk and the clearing of the White Guards from the Baikal region, the 1st Irkutsk Rifle Division moved east in railway trains. On March 13, the 3rd brigade of this division, which followed ahead, reached the station. Khilok. The main forces of the division - the 1st and 2nd brigades were approaching the station at that time. Petrovsky plant.
To the demand of the brigade commander to let units of the People's Revolutionary Army through to Chita, the Japanese command refused, citing the need to protect the railway from partisans, along which the trains with the Czechoslovaks were supposed to travel. This was an obvious lie, since the Irkutsk division, still from Irkutsk, moved after the last echelon of the Czechoslovaks. The division commander, who was entrusted with the negotiations, presented the Japanese command with a copy of the note from the Czechoslovak ambassador dated March 11, which indicated that the evacuation of Czechoslovak troops would not encounter any difficulties. However, this did not change the position of the Japanese command.
In order not to enter into a direct armed conflict with Japanese troops, and not to give Japan a pretext for war against the Far Eastern Republic, the advance by rail had to be stopped. It was necessary to make a decision, the implementation of which would force the Japanese to clear the railway themselves. The latter could be achieved by concentrating one’s forces in such a way as to threaten the rear of the Japanese troops, i.e. withdraw units of the 1st Irkutsk Rifle Division either to the north of the railway to the area of Vershino-Udinskaya, Beklemishevo, Lake Telemba or to the south - along the Yamarovsky tract to the area of Tataurovo, Cheremkhovo.
Under these conditions, it was advisable to wait until the formation of reserve formations was completed in order to be able to create more powerful groups. In addition, units of the 1st Irkutsk Rifle Division, which made a long march along the road destroyed by the retreating white units, needed rest. It was necessary to bring up the lagging artillery and convoys. However, the command of the People's Revolutionary Army decided to launch an offensive immediately. Of primary importance for making such a decision was the information received from Art. Zilovo from the commander of the East Transbaikal Front partisans D.S. Shilova. In this information it was reported that the Kappelevites and Semyonovites were thrown into the Nerchinsk station, Art. Kuenga, Sretensk most of their combat-ready forces. In addition, the situation of the Amur partisans was complicated by the appearance of Japanese invaders in Primorye. The command of the partisan front asked to speed up the attack on Chita and pointed out that the entire population of the Far East was ready for a decisive and merciless fight against the Japanese invaders.
The special instructions spoke about the attitude towards the Japanese. In the event of a transition of Japanese troops to hostilities against the People's Revolutionary Army, it was ordered to expel envoys and demand compliance with neutrality. In the event that the Japanese nevertheless begin military operations, it was proposed to suspend the further offensive of the units of the People's Revolutionary Army and, having taken convenient positions, move on to a stubborn defense. The start of the offensive was scheduled for April 9, 1920. However, the powerful counterattack of Semyonov and Japanese troops that followed on April 8 led to a change in the plans of the partisan command and ultimately to the failure of the first offensive of the People's Revolutionary Army on Chita.
After the first unsuccessful offensive of the People's Revolutionary Army on Chita, the Japanese invaders sought to gain a foothold in the Transbaikal region. They left unanswered the Verkhneudinsk government's proposal of April 21, 1920 for a truce. The Japanese military not only actually, but also formally took Semyonov’s and Kappel’s units under their command. At the same time, Japanese planes made long-distance reconnaissance flights, scattering leaflets calling on the partisans to lay down their arms and threatening that otherwise “there will be no mercy, that Japanese troops are always ready.” But the Japanese invaders failed to achieve their goals.
Semenov’s attempts to untie his hands on the East Transbaikal Front were also unsuccessful, although large forces were sent there. In the tenth of April, when the fate of Chita was being decided, General Voitsekhovsky launched a major offensive, moving his forces simultaneously from Sretensk, Nerchinsk and from the station. Tin. On April 12, he managed to encircle the partisan regiments grouped in the area of the village of Kopun in a wide semi-circle. Having occupied the settlements of Udychi, Nalgachi, the villages of Zhidka and Shelopugino, the Whites planned to launch a concentric attack on the village of Kopun on April 13.
On the night of April 13, a partisan strike group consisting of five regiments (two of them infantry and three cavalry), covered by part of the forces from the north, launched a surprise attack on Kuprekovo, Shelopugino and defeated General Sakharov’s division here. The White Guards lost up to 200 people killed, a lot wounded and 300 surrendered. The rest fled into the forests. After this, the partisans turned their regiments to the village of Zhidka and, approaching it under the cover of a snowstorm, defeated the second division of the Kappelites here. However, the lack of ammunition did not allow the partisans to develop their success further along the Amur Railway, as well as to reach the Chita-Manchuria railway. At the same time, their active actions forced Semenov to abandon the idea of releasing at least part of his forces for the Chita Front.
Despite the fact that the second attack on Chita, launched by the People's Revolutionary Army at the end of April 1920, failed, the political and strategic position of the Japanese interventionists and Semyonovites did not improve.
An attempt to create a buffer in opposition to the Far Eastern Republic by establishing contact between the Provisional Government of the Primorye Zemstvo Council and Semyonov also failed, although the Japanese command promised the evacuation of its troops from Primorye for this. In the same month, the Japanese occupied Northern Sakhalin. In May 1920, the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Utsida, followed by the commander of Japanese troops in the Far East, General Ooi, issued a declaration in the press “on the Siberian issue,” which announced the cessation of hostilities.
In June 1920, the Japanese command, taking advantage of the lull that had occurred on the front west of Chita, launched a new campaign against the East Transbaikal partisans in order to defeat them and deal with the Amur partisans. However, this time too the Japanese met such resistance that they were forced to abandon their idea and enter into peace negotiations. As a result of negotiations, a truce was concluded on July 2 for the areas of the right bank of the Shilka River, and on July 10 for the left bank.
On July 5, the Japanese command signed an agreement to cease hostilities and establish a neutral zone west of Chita between the troops of the People's Revolutionary Army and the Japanese-White Guards. Somewhat earlier, on July 3, 1920, the Japanese government published a declaration in which it announced the decision to evacuate its troops from Transbaikalia. The evacuation of Japanese invaders from Chita and Sretensk began on July 25, but was carried out with great reluctance, with various delays, and actually dragged on until October 15. Semyonov wrote a letter to Japan asking to delay the evacuation of Japanese troops for at least another 4 months. In response, he received a dry telegram from the War Ministry with a refusal.
Despite the negative response from Tokyo, Semenov continued to strenuously push for the retention of Japanese troops in the Chita area. To this end, the Semenovites began to violate the neutral zone established by the Gongot Agreement. However, all attempts by the Semyonovites to extend the stay of Japanese troops in Eastern Transbaikalia ended unsuccessfully. The command of the People's Revolutionary Army began preparing the next attack on Chita. Now the balance of power was in favor of the Reds. The offensive was prepared very carefully. All previous errors were taken into account.
Completion of the intervention in the Far East
Leaving Transbaikalia, the Japanese concentrated in Primorye. The fighting continued for another two years. The interventionists provided support to local anti-Bolshevik forces. In mid-April 1921, a meeting of representatives of the White Guard detachments (Semyonov, Verzhbitsky, Ungern, Annenkov, Bakich, Savelyev, etc.), organized by Japanese militarists, took place in Beijing. The meeting had the goal of uniting the White Guard detachments under the overall command of Ataman Semenov and outlined a specific plan for the performance. According to this plan, Verzhbitsky and Savelyev were supposed to act in Primorye against the Primorsky zemstvo regional government; Glebov - lead an offensive from Sakhalyan (from Chinese territory) to the Amur region; Ungern - advance through Manchuria and Mongolia to Verkhneudinsk; Kazantsev - to Minusinsk and Krasnoyarsk; Kaygorodov - to Biysk and Barnaul; Bakich - to Semipalatinsk and Omsk. All these performances by the White Guards did not find any support among the population and were quickly liquidated.
Only in Primorye, where the People's Revolutionary Army did not have the right of access under the terms of the agreement of April 29, 1920 on the “neutral zone,” was the performance of the Semenovites and Kappelites, relying on Japanese bayonets, successful. On May 26, 1921, the White Guards overthrew the Primorsky Zemstvo government and established the power of representatives of the so-called “bureau of non-socialist organizations” led by speculators - the Merkulov brothers. In preparing the coup, along with the Japanese interventionists, the American Consul McGown and special representatives of the US government - Smith and Clark - took an active part. Thus, the Japanese and American imperialists, with the help of the White Guards, created the notorious “black buffer” in Primorye, as a counterweight to the Far Eastern Republic.
The Japanese interventionists initially hoped to put Ataman Semenov in power and brought him to Vladivostok. But even the consular corps, who feared popular outrage, spoke out against this executioner and Japanese mercenary. The Kappelites were also against Semenov coming to power. The latter, having received about half a million rubles in gold “compensation” from the Merkulovs, left for Japan. After that, he left the political arena, but gangs formed from the remnants of his troops terrorized the Transbaikal population for almost a decade.
The Merkulov government began to carry out terror against all revolutionary and public organizations that existed in Primorye under the zemstvo regional government. The terror was accompanied by the massive looting of Russian property. An example of such robbery was the so-called “sale” of seven Russian destroyers to the Japanese for 40 thousand yen. The answer was the expansion of the partisan struggle of the local population against the White Guards and interventionists.
Having landed troops on November 5 in the Vostok and America bays, the Whites, with the support of naval artillery, pushed the partisans up the Suchan River. To strengthen the Suchansky detachment, the command of the partisan detachments withdrew its forces from Yakovlevka and Anuchino. Taking advantage of this, on November 10 the Whites launched an offensive from Nikolsk-Ussuriysky and Spassk to Anuchino and Yakovlevka, cutting off the partisans’ escape routes to the north from the rear to join the People’s Revolutionary Army. The partisans, covered from the sea and the northwest, were forced to disperse along the hills of the Sikhote-Alin ridge. Having pushed the partisans into the mountains, the White Guards, under the cover of Japanese garrisons, began to concentrate to the southern border of the “neutral zone” in the area of Art. Shmakovka, with the goal of launching an attack on Khabarovsk.
As a result of the three-year rule of interventionists and White Guards in the Far Eastern Territory, the Far Eastern People's Republic received a completely destroyed economy in the liberated regions. Suffice it to say that by 1921, the cultivated area in Transbaikalia, the Amur region and the Amur region decreased by 20% compared to 1916. Coal production, even compared to 1917, fell by 70 - 80%. The railways (Transbaikal and Amur) were completely destroyed. Their carrying capacity barely reached 1 - 2 pairs of trains per day. Of the 470 steam locomotives available, 55% required major repairs and of the 12 thousand freight cars, 25% were unsuitable for operation.
The enormous depletion of the region's economic resources forced the government of the Far Eastern Republic to sharply reduce the size of the People's Revolutionary Army, which reached 90 thousand people by the summer of 1921, and reorganize it. The reorganization of the units of the People's Revolutionary Army was not yet completely completed at the beginning of the offensive of the "White Rebel Army". In addition, the White offensive coincided with a period when older People's Army soldiers had been demobilized and new recruits had not yet arrived.
Therefore, at the first stage of hostilities, the People's Revolutionary Army was forced to leave Khabarovsk. This happened on December 22, 1921. However, in the battles near Art. The White Guards were defeated and began to retreat. They gained a foothold in the Volochaev bridgehead. Meanwhile, the government of the Far Eastern Republic took measures to increase the combat capability of the People's Revolutionary Army. In January 1922, hostilities resumed. The White Guards again suffered a series of defeats. In February 1922, the Reds launched a counter-offensive. As a result of stubborn battles, they managed to occupy the Volochaev positions and Khabarovsk. The White Guards tried to gain a foothold in positions near the station. Bikin, but to no avail. As a result, they retreated to the northern border of the “neutral zone” in the area of Iman. However, the Reds continued to pursue the enemy within the “neutral zone”, while avoiding clashes with Japanese troops.
On April 2, the Chita brigade occupied the village. Aleksandrovskaya, Annenskaya, Konstantinovka, with the task of continuing the offensive to the south. To avoid an armed clash with the Japanese, the Military Council of the Eastern Front sent its representative to Spassk, who was supposed to coordinate with the Japanese command the issue of allowing units of the People's Revolutionary Army to liquidate the rebels calling themselves "White rebels." During the negotiations that began, Japanese troops on April 2 suddenly opened fire from 52 guns concentrated in the Spassk area on the Chita brigade and launched an offensive in two columns from Spassk and Khvalynka, trying to encircle parts of the People's Revolutionary Army.
Retaliatory military action by the People's Revolutionary Army would mean open war with Japan. This is precisely what the American leadership sought by encouraging the Japanese command to carry out provocative attacks on the Far Eastern Republic. In order not to succumb to provocation and avoid war, the command of the Eastern Front gave the order to the Chita brigade to retreat beyond the Iman River and take up defensive positions in the area of the station in case of a Japanese attack on Khabarovsk. Gondatievka. The combined brigade, which by that time had reached level. Anuchino, was also recalled to the northern border of the “neutral zone”.
The defeat of the White Guards near Volochaevka greatly shook the position of the Japanese interventionists in Primorye. Now there was not even a formal pretext left for leaving Japanese troops there. The US government, trying to soften the impression of the failure of its own military adventure in the Far East and convinced of the unreality of its policy of continuing military intervention at the hands of Japanese militarists, began to put pressure on Japan in order to force it to withdraw its troops from Primorye.
In Japan itself, the political situation in the summer of 1922 was also unfavorable for the militant clique and supporters of intervention. The economic crisis, the huge but fruitless expenditure of funds on the intervention, reaching one and a half billion yen, the large losses of people - all this aroused dissatisfaction with the ongoing intervention not only on the part of broad sections of the population, but also on the part of the local bourgeoisie of Japan. There has been a change in the ruling cabinet in Japan. The new cabinet headed by Admiral Kato, a representative of maritime circles who were inclined to shift the center of gravity of expansion from the shores of the Far East to the Pacific Ocean, issued a statement on ending the war in the Far East. Under such conditions, the Japanese government was forced to recognize the need to evacuate troops from Primorye and resume the diplomatic negotiations interrupted in Dairen.
In September 1922, a conference opened in Changchun, which was attended by a joint delegation of the RSFSR and the Far Eastern Republic on the one hand, and a delegation of Japan on the other.
Representatives of the Soviet Republic and the Far East presented to the Japanese, as a necessary condition for further negotiations, the main demand - to immediately clear all areas of the Far East from Japanese troops. The Japanese representative, Matsudaira, avoided answering this demand directly. And only after the Soviet delegation, seeing the futility of further negotiations, threatened to leave the conference, he announced that the evacuation of Japanese troops from Primorye was a resolved issue. But, agreeing to the evacuation of its troops from Primorye, the Japanese delegation stated that Japanese troops would continue to occupy Northern Sakhalin as compensation for the “Nikolaev Incident.” This demand was rejected by the RSFSR delegation. Negotiations reached a dead end and were broken off on September 19.
After the resumption of negotiations, the Japanese delegation continued to insist on its statement about the continuation of the occupation of northern Sakhalin. Then the delegation of the Far Eastern Republic proposed to investigate the “Nikolaev events” and discuss them on their merits. Finding himself in a difficult situation, the head of the Japanese delegation could not think of anything else but to declare that “Japan cannot go into the details of the “Nikolaev events”: the fact is that the governments of the RSFSR and the Far Eastern Republic are not recognized by Japan.” Due to the obvious inconsistency of this statement, negotiations were stopped again on September 26.
On October 12, 1922, the People's Revolutionary Army launched the Primorye Operation. It developed successfully and continued until October 25. As a result, units of the People's Revolutionary Army occupied the last major city in the Far East - Vladivostok.
The coastal operation, which was the last major operation of the People's Revolutionary Army, ended in a brilliant victory over the enemy. Only a small part of the White Guards managed to escape from Vladivostok on Japanese ships. The defeat of the "Zemstvo army" dealt the final and decisive blow to the interventionists. After this, they had no choice but to evacuate their troops from Southern Primorye.
In November 1922, the American cruiser Sacramento with a detachment of Americans located on Russian Island was forced to leave the port of Vladivostok. Seven months after the completion of the Primorsky operation, on June 2, 1923, the last Japanese ship, the battleship Nissin, left the Golden Horn Bay.
Losses suffered by Japan during the intervention of 1918 - 1923. contributed to the fact that it never again decided on a large-scale invasion of the region.
§ 7. Final liberation of the Far East
Finally, in the Far East, units of the Red Army, or more precisely the People's Revolutionary Army, DDA, together with numerous partisan detachments created and led by the party during 1922, liquidated the remnants of the White Guard troops and pushed the last detachments of Japanese interventionists to the sea.
The liquidation of these forces hostile to the revolution took place in an extremely difficult situation and was replete with heroic episodes.
Leaders of the struggle in the Far East: P. P. Postyshev, V. K. Blyukher and S. M. Seryshev.
Strengthening the Far Eastern Republic and strengthening Bolshevik influence in it did not at all meet the interests of the Japanese government. The Japanese did not dare to come out openly against the Far East, because this would have caused immediate intervention by the United States, which was already clearly unfriendly to the protracted Japanese rule in the Far East.
In contrast to the DDA - the red buffer - the Japanese are organizing their own, White Guard buffer. At the beginning of March 1921, in Port Arthur, a meeting of representatives of the Japanese and French headquarters with Ataman Semenov took place on the issue of organizing a new campaign “to Moscow.” On May 26, the Japanese organize a coup in Vladivostok and put Merkulov and Semyonov in power. The primary task of the latter is to put together a white army and move it west against the People's Revolutionary Army. Having gone on the offensive at the end of November, the Whites, with the help of the Japanese, occupied Khabarovsk on December 22. But this is the culmination of their successes. A few days later, the NRA, under the general command of Comrade Blucher, launched a counteroffensive.
The operations for the return of Khabarovsk were directly led by the commander and commissar of the Amur Front, comrade. Seryshev and Postyshev.
Millions of workers excitedly sing the words from “Far Eastern Partisan”:
"And they will remain, as in a fairy tale,
Like alluring lights
Assault nights of Spassk,
Volochaev days."
The battles near Volochaevka and Spassk showed the whole world what workers and peasants fighting for their cause are capable of.
Volochaevka - the main barrier of the Whites on the approaches to Khabarovsk - was turned by them into a real fortress. Trenches camouflaged with snow, wire barriers in some places up to 12 rows long, machine-gun nests in enclosed spaces, advantageous positions for shelling the attackers - everything was in favor of the whites. In terms of the number of troops, the Whites also had an advantage: 3,380 bayonets, 1,280 sabers, 15 guns versus 2,400 bayonets, 563 sabers and 8 guns for the Reds. Finally, an equally serious advantage: the whites defended themselves in good living conditions, being warmly dressed and well fed. And against them had to be attacked by half-starved (they ate frozen fish and bread), half-frozen fighters who spent the night in 40° frosts in the open air.
But the homeland imperiously demanded that Volochaevka be taken. On February 10, at dawn, the red soldiers rushed through the deep snow towards the enemy’s fortifications. Chain after chain broke through the wire barriers with their bare hands and their own bodies. They covered themselves with the corpses of their comrades, walked over the bodies of their dead friends, hung on a wire, cut down by a bullet, but the survivors kept walking and walking. The battle continued for almost two days. At noon on February 12, Volochaevka was taken. The path to Khabarovsk was open, and within a day it was occupied.
The Red Army moved towards the sea, pushing back the enemy, in the rear of which partisan actions did not stop for a single day. By the beginning of October, the troops approached Spassk, a stronghold of the same importance for the Whites as Volochaevka. And just like Volochaevka earlier, so now in two-day battles (October 8–9), our troops defeated the Whites and captured Spassk. The agony of the Far Eastern White Guard began.
The services of the Amur and Transbaikal partisans in the liberation of the Far East are innumerable and immeasurable.
Comrade P. P. Postyshev (now Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) U), the favorite leader of workers and peasants in the Far East, who led the partisan struggle there, says in his memoirs: “The partisan struggle for the power of the soviets in the Far East was of exceptional importance. Almost all the workers from the cities went to the partisan detachments of the Amur region. The workers in the detachments were the main core. Subsequently, the partisan movement embraced the entire peasant mass. This general unification of workers into partisan detachments was greatly facilitated not only by the most vile reprisals of the whites against the toiling peasants and workers, but also by the danger of the country being captured by foreigners - the Japanese, Americans, Czechs, whose landing forces were in the Far East at that time, supporting the whites with ammunition and weapons, supplies, and active participation in the armed struggle against the Reds... Guerrilla detachments were not created spontaneously. Their fight was not a fight of self-defense. The partisan detachments were organized by the Bolsheviks. And those detachments that arose without the Bolsheviks were then formed by the Bolsheviks and were certainly politically led by them. The struggle was under the slogan “for the power of the soviets.” Guerrilla warfare in the Far East is not partisanship in the literal sense of the word. It was an organized struggle, and it was organized by the Communist Party and took place under the leadership of its representatives.”
This Bolshevik leadership was the main basis for the victories of the Red Army units and partisan detachments organized by the party, not only in the Far East, but in all regions and regions of our great, vast homeland.
So, after the defeat of the main armed forces of the Entente, the Red Army during 1921–1922. eliminated kulak uprisings and banditry, eliminated all raids from abroad, forced the last remnants of the interventionist troops - the Japanese troops in the Far East - to leave. On October 25, 1922, the People's Revolutionary Army under the command of T. I. P. Uborevich (he replaced V. K. Blucher as Commander-in-Chief of the NRA in August) occupied Vladivostok, the last stronghold of the imperialists on Soviet soil.
Heroic Red Troops
"They defeated the atamans,
The governor dispersed
And on the Pacific
We've finished our hike!"
“The last forces of the White Guards were thrown into the sea,” Vladimir Ilyich said in connection with the occupation of Vladivostok. “I think that our Red Army saved us for a long time from any possible repetition of the White Guards’ attack on Russia or on any of the republics directly or indirectly, closely or more or less distantly connected with us.” (Lenin, vol. XXVII, p. 317).
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I have long wanted to introduce you to a colorful series of photographs Vladivostok during the Second Time of Troubles, or interventions (1918-1920). About seven dozen high-resolution photographs came to me in the fall of 2008 on one of the forums where I was looking for Trans-Sibov materials. And a little later, this archive was published by the “Retro Photo” website on nnm.ru (the link to it is at the end of the post). Here I will show only some pictures, less than half, most of which are fragments of full photos. Fragments - because it is more convenient for the LJ viewing format: you can look at smaller details and talk about them.
And the pictures there are different: Entente troops on the streets of Vladivostok - for example, an allied parade at the American consulate; There are everyday photographs, sea views, and just street views, mainly on Svetlanskaya. There are also railway photos, although there were fewer of them in the series than I expected. And very remarkable personalities - such as Ataman Semyonov or the Czechoslovak figure Gaida. In general, the topics are diverse. I was unable to explain or comment on some of the details - therefore, experts and knowledgeable in narrow topics, for example, experts on the fleets of the Entente powers, are invited to comment. If there are inaccuracies in the comments, correct them, but be sure to give reasons. I think with our joint efforts we can decipher a lot :)
Allied parade on Svetlanskaya in honor of the victory in the First World War. 11/15/1918
2. To begin with, a general view of the Golden Horn Bay, on the banks of which the city historically arose. Warships of the Entente stand in the same place where, 60 years later, the ships of the USSR Pacific Fleet stood, say, the aircraft-carrying cruiser Minsk or the large landing ship Alexander Nikolaev. There, near the shore, they later built a high-rise building for the KTOF Headquarters. On the left side there is a pier with a small 2-pipe ship, and to the right there is a floating crane: there, if my memory serves me correctly, in late Soviet times there was a hospital ship "Irtysh". And closer to us is a commercial port. To the right of the frame, below (doesn't fit) is Vladivostok Station. In the distance is the Lugovoy district, but it’s difficult to say whether Dalzavod was already there at that time.
3. The photographer turns the camera to the right. The narrow neck of the curved Golden Horn, opposite the station. The railway station itself (still existing) is clearly visible on the right side of the frame. The end of the Trans-Siberian Railway runs along it, and on the site of the current sea terminal there is some kind of permanent building that looks like a warehouse or depot. However, judging by the frame, now they have added a little sushi there: the sea is already further from the railway line. Vessels are maneuvering in the water area, some of them are military. In the background is a peninsula, almost uninhabited; in Soviet times, a large fishing district, Cape Churkin, would grow there.
4. Unloading of an American supply vessel. It is moored not to a pier, but to a dinghy that serves as a “lining.” A railway line runs along the edge of the pier, on which a paired railway crane stands. Those. in 1918, interestingly, such equipment was already on the CER.
5. The Entente warship standing at the pier is the Japanese Hizen. A very remarkable ship is the former Russian squadron battleship "Retvizan", which took part in the Russo-Japanese War, and after the war was raised by the Japanese in the harbor of Port Arthur and restored by them to service, but under the Japanese flag. [addition glorfindeil]
6. A whole brood of cars on Svetlanskaya Street, at the porch of the largest Russian store “Churin and Co.” As you can see, by 1918 there were already quite a few cars in Vladik.
7. Section of Svetlanskaya street. On the firewall of one of the buildings there is a monumental advertisement - "Nestlé. Swiss M [possibly milk]."
8. Perhaps also Svetlanskaya, judging by the tram line, but I’m not entirely sure - by 1918 there was already a second line, to Pervaya Rechka. [the addition khathi is Chinese, or Ocean Avenue]
9. St. Svetlanskaya, the tram line to Lugovaya was also included in the frame. The tram in Vladik was built under a concession by the Belgians, the first cars entered the line in 1912. The structure of the paving stone pavement is clearly visible.
10. Chinese peddler (coolie) on the street. But it’s hard to say what’s in his baskets. Possibly dried fish, but maybe dried carrots :)
11. Chic everyday scene: baths on the Amur Bay. Closer to us is the women's department with its own water area; you can see naked young ladies sunbathing behind a fence. And in the far part of the frame there is the “diving” and the general part. Judging by the photo, there is already a mixed population - both men and women.
12. Funeral procession on Svetlanskaya.
13. Passage of a column of Entente troops (Canadians) along Svetlanskaya, December 15, 1918. In the distance is the same building with Nestlé on the firewall. It is interesting that the column is walking along the pavement, while citizens are calmly walking along the sidewalk about their business, not staring or ogling too much at the foreign warriors, and cab drivers and carriages are walking along the roadway. Apparently, this was a common thing for them by that time. But the street is very crowded.
14. American soldiers on Svetlanskaya (19.8.1918).
15. The sons of the Japanese Empire walk along the paving stones; these cannot be confused with anyone (19.8.1918).
16. American soldiers with Russian officers - commanders of the troops of the Russian Eastern Outskirts. In the center is a man who will appear in frames 17, 18, 19. This is Major General William Sidney Graves, commander of the 8th Infantry Division, which was the basis of the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia. [Addition glorfindeil]
However, the most remarkable person in this frame is the mustachioed officer with George 4th degree, sitting on the left.
17. Let's take a closer look at him: in this shot he is smiling and looking to the side. This is none other than the legendary white ataman Grigory Semyonov, a cross between a Buryat and an Old Believer, who terrified the Trans-Baikal, Chita, Harbin, Primorsky Revolutionary Committee members, Bolsheviks, and partisans. Judging by the fact that he is in Vladivostok at this parade, this is most likely 1920. Here he seems like a seasoned, middle-aged warrior - but in fact he is about 29-30 years old here. True, by this time his military biography was exceptionally rich - a topographical team in Mongolia with participation in the coup in Urga, participation in the First World War - Poland, the Caucasus, Persian Kurdistan, Manchurian, Harbin, Chita raids, etc.
Then, after the defeat and expulsion of the invaders and whites from the Far East, the Japanese will give Semenov a villa in Dairen [formerly. Dalny] and a pension from the government. Apparently, he helped the Japanese a lot in their affairs. However, in August 1945, during an operation against the Kwantung Army, the chieftain fell into the hands of Soviet troops, was arrested and put on trial. One version says that the ataman came to the arrest himself, arriving at the railway platform with all the awards and George, in full dress uniform. However, it is possible that this is just a beautiful legend.
Ataman Semenov was personally known to my maternal great-grandfather E.M. Kisel. At the beginning of the Second Time of Troubles (1917) he was the commander of the Verkhneudinsk branch of the railway guard of the Siberian Railway. with the rank of staff captain (translated into the current language - the head of the transport police department for a 600 km long railway section, from Tankhoy to Khilk). The February Revolution came - and it is clear that the bad reactionary gendarmes were driven out of St. Petersburg from everywhere, thereby creating the preconditions for the future revelry of the daring atamanism and general chaos from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. In general, the Buryat-Mongolian fellow Semyonov was sent just there, to Verkhneudinsk [ now Ulan-Ude], on the formation of the ethnic part. Moreover, what is absolutely surprising, Semenov arrived with a double mandate - both from the Provisional Government and from the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (!!!). There was such chaos and uncertainty. Great-grandfather Emelyan then handed over the affairs to unknown individuals, going nowhere, and Semenov sharply went uphill (in 2 years he would become a “lieutenant general”). He became famous in Transbaikalia for his exceptional audacity, ingenuity, indiscriminateness in achieving goals and cruelty - from Olovyannaya and Sretensk to the Petrovsky Factory and Kizhinga, I met the graves of the Reds tortured by the Semyonovites (and showed some - for example, in the post). In principle, the fall of Transbaikalia from Kolchak is largely the result of Semyonov’s activities. He was too inflexible and embittered the population. On the other hand, of course, he cannot be denied personal courage and audacity.
And here’s another interesting moment from the family chronicle. I didn’t find Emelyan’s great-grandfather himself - he died 10 years before my birth, in February 1955. But I managed to ask his older daughters, grandmother’s sisters, in the late 1990s. So, one of them remembered that in September 1945 he read in “Zabaikalsky Rabochiy” a message that Ataman Semenov had been caught, arrested and would be tried. He became very excited, stood up with a newspaper in his hands and edifyingly said to his daughters: “You see, right? There is justice in the world, there is! He lived to see the trial! Now he will get it for everything!” I then asked again, how did he react to the news of Semyonov’s execution in 1946 (this was reported in the newspapers)? But they didn’t remember it, it wasn’t left behind.
18. And this is the same American W.S. Graves (center), but with other officers. The officer on the left (with a cigarette in hand) is also very colorful - this is the Czechoslovak figure Radola Gaida, a native of Austria-Hungary, who entered the service of Kolchak and then rebelled against him. He is also very young - he is 28 years old in the photo.
19. In this photo, it seems, there are only Americans, led by Graves (see photo 16). At the back is the typical symbolism of buildings belonging to the railway department.
20. A fragment of a large photo depicting soldiers of all powers who arrived in Vladivostok on a “peacekeeping mission.”
21. American field kitchen and hearty lunch in the fresh air. Moreover, they dine right in the snow :-)
22. The British are walking along Aleutskaya, with a military band ahead. There is a British flag on the building on the left.
23. Parade of Entente troops 11/15/1918. The British are coming.
24. And these are the sons of the Japanese Empire again (and the flag cannot be confused).
25. White Guard units are marching under the Russian tricolor.
26. This shot most likely dates back not to 1919-20, but to 1918: a very crowded demonstration with slogans of the RSFSR and rudiments of the old spelling. Frame from 1922, the time when the DDA “buffer” expired. The street near the station, in my opinion, is Aleutskaya. I was amazed by the poster with an anchor ( There is strength in unity), which is hugged by two hands, on both sides. What is this, does anyone know? :)
27. At the railway station there is an armored train in pairs, driven by an old steam locomotive (most likely, series A or H). Photo 11/19/1919 [Armored train - "Kalmykovets" by Ataman Kalmykov, addition eurgen12]
28. And this is a steam locomotive 2-3-0 series G, or, as the railway workers of that time called it, “Iron Manchu.” A charismatic steam locomotive - built in Kharkov in 1902-1903, it was built only for two roads - Vladikavkaz and Chinese-East. It had a drawback - it was too heavy with an axle load, and therefore could only run on main lines with a powerful ballast base and heavy rails. But it developed enormous speed for that time: modification for the Chinese Eastern Railway - up to 115 km/h! And therefore, he drove mainly high-speed trains, in particular the courier “number one” (Irkutsk - Harbin - Vladivostok). Here he is also standing under some kind of mixed train. The arrow (on the left of the frame) is also interesting. Vladivostok Station is visible in the distance.
29. Americans against the background of Russian carriages (service markings - Pervaya Rechka depot). On the left is Colonel Lantry of the US Corps of Railway Engineers.
30. Tail platform of an armored train (see photo 27). Marking of the Pervaya Rechka depot. To the right of the main line of the Trans-Siberian Railway the branch to the naval piers deviates (see photo 2).
31. Some Napoleons are walking along Svetlanskaya. I apologize, I didn’t exactly recognize the nation, but maybe they are the French :) 
A. Archive with full versions of photos -
On October 4, 1922, the Primorsky offensive operation of the troops of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic (Commander-in-Chief V.K. Blucher), carried out jointly with the partisans, began. During it, the liberation from the interventionists and White Guards of the Far East was completed. This was the last stage of the cruel and tragic epic of the civil war in the Far East. A war in many ways still little known, which had its forgotten heroes.
Iron Officer
Grigory Afanasyevich Verzhbitsky. Born on January 25, 1875, by origin from the burghers of the city of Letichev, Podolsk province. Without graduating from the Kamenets-Podolsk gymnasium, in 1893 he entered military service as a private as a volunteer in the 45th Azov Infantry Regiment, and a year later he became a junior non-commissioned officer. In 1897, Verzhbitsky graduated second class from the Odessa Infantry Junker School and was released into the 30th Poltava Infantry Regiment.
Verzhbitsky with officers.
He successively passed through all stages of the career of a career officer: he held the positions of regimental adjutant, head of regimental mobilization, head of a team of foot reconnaissance, company commander, head of a training team, head of a regimental school for ensigns. With the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, many officers of regiments stationed in European Russia wrote applications to be sent to the front. On November 25, 1904, Lieutenant Verzhbitsky was transferred to the 11th Semipalatinsk Siberian Infantry Regiment to the theater of operations in Manchuria. He commanded a company, received the Order of St. Anne, 4th class, with the inscription “For bravery,” and St. Stanislav, 3rd class, with swords and a bow, and was promoted to staff captain. On November 14, 1910, Verzhbitsky was transferred by the Highest Order to the 44th Siberian Rifle Regiment. In his unit, he “was considered one of the most efficient officers... Cautious, intelligent, well-mannered, with restraint and great knowledge in the field of literature and history, he was respected in the regiment...”. For several years, Verzhbitsky was elected as a member of the court of the society of officers. Occupying the position of chief of the regiment's training team, on March 15, 1913, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In the same year, the measured course of service was disrupted: Verzhbitsky, of his own free will, became part of the expeditionary detachment sent on July 12 to Mongolia to protect communications during unrest. Commanding a detachment, on August 31, 1913, he occupied the Chinese fortress of Sharasume. Eight years later, the Russian flag will again fly over this fortress, captured by the troops of the white general S. Bakich...
With the outbreak of the First World War, Verzhbitsky repeatedly submitted reports with a request to be sent to the German front, but his request was granted only on March 15, 1915. For valor, he was awarded the Arms of St. George and the Order of St. George 4th degree, as well as the Order of St. Vladimir -ra 4th step, with swords and bow and St. Anna 2nd step, with swords. For the battles near Smorgon-Krevo in 1917, he was awarded the soldier's St. George's Cross with a palm branch by the soldiers of the regiment. G.A. Verzhbitsky led the actions of a detachment of 536 Efremovsky and 534 Novokievsky (commander - Colonel B.M. Zinevich) infantry regiments and units of the 54th infantry division. On September 1, 1917, he took command of the brigade of the 134th Infantry Division. By this time, the front had already collapsed: the agitation for an end to the war had done its job. The units lost all combat effectiveness.
After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and the transfer of actual command to the military committees, not wanting to obey the elective authorities in the army, G.A. Verzhbitsky refused the position of chief of the 134th infantry division offered to him. He could not serve those whom he considered enemies of the Motherland and destroyers of Russia. For this, the colonel was tried by a general meeting of corps committees and sentenced to death for disobedience to Soviet power, but, saved by soldiers of the regiments loyal to him, he fled. On December 8, he managed to leave for Omsk. Then he hid in Ust-Kamenogorsk and was engaged in beekeeping for some time. After October 1917, in his city, Colonel G.A. Verzhbitsky organized the Ust-Kamenogorsk officer detachment. On June 20, 1918, Verzhbitsky agreed to the proposal of the Corps Commander P.P. Stepny. Ivanova-Rinova and took command of the 1st Steppe Siberian Division, the next day Verzhbitsky with a detachment of 348 people went to the front towards Ishim. The division, strengthened by the influx of volunteers, gave its first battle to the Reds near the village of Golyshmanovo and won.
On July 27, 1918, by order No. 84 of the Steppe Siberian Corps, almost all of Siberia was declared under martial law. The sphere of activity of General Verzhbitsky was the territory of military operations, i.e. to the west and north from the Tobol and Iset rivers. His order stated: “Any active protests must be put an end to, and I will with merciless severity suppress all, both revolutionary and counter-revolutionary protests, no matter where they come from and no matter how they are carried out, i.e. . whether through active speech, appeal in words or the printed word. Neither revolution nor counter-revolution!” .
On August 26, 1918, Verzhbitsky's division was renamed the 4th Siberian Rifle Division. In the fall, commanding the West Siberian detachment, the general drove the Bolsheviks out of the Tavda River basin, Alapaevsk, Nizhny Tagil and Verkhoturye, and cleared the Gornozavodsky region. “Small, all nerve,” the detachment commander stood with his headquarters at the most advanced units. He proved himself to be a very energetic commander and a good organizer. “Our quartermasters are red,” Verzhbitsky told visiting officers. “What we take from them in battles is what we have; we haven’t received anything from the rear yet.” On January 1, 1919, Grigory Afanasyevich was appointed commander of the newly created 3rd Steppe Siberian Army Corps (4th Siberian Colonel I.S. Smolin and 7th Siberian Colonel Cherkasov Rifle Division) of the newly formed Siberian Army. In February, for military distinction in the capture of the Ural ridge, the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Admiral A.V. Kolchak promoted Verzhbitsky to lieutenant general.
By order of July 4, 1919, the commander of the 3rd Steppe Siberian Army Corps was awarded the Order of St. George, 3rd step, “for the fact that during the Kungur operation on January 22 - March 7, 1919, personally leading the troops of the group entrusted to him, he decided to defeat with an energetic blow a strong 23,000-strong Red group threatening the city of Kungur and the left flank of the army. Having brilliantly carried out this attack with forces almost half as large, Lieutenant General Verzhbitsky, with his operation, cleared a 200-verst area from the enemy, captured a number of fortified positions with the city of Osa, 3,500 Reds, 9 guns and many other trophies.”
After leaving the Urals at the end of July 1919. General Verzhbitsky’s group became known as the Southern Group of Forces of the 2nd Army of the Eastern Front. At this time it included the 4th and 18th Siberian Rifle Divisions and the Assault Brigade of the 3rd Steppe Corps. A number of compounds were removed from the group.
The White armies of the Eastern Front continued to retreat. During the Great Siberian Campaign at the end of 1919, G.A. Verzhbitsky was appointed head of the column, as an army commander, as part of the Southern and Tobolsk groups. The treks through the snowy taiga were very difficult. Almost all the artillery was abandoned. Typhus decimated the exhausted people in droves. After Krasnoyarsk the army became volunteer again; those who did not want to continue the fight and go into the unknown surrendered. Among the prisoners was the chief of staff of the group, Major General Kruse. At a meeting of senior commanders in Nizhneudinsk on January 23, 1920, the front commander-in-chief, General V.O. Kappel, entrusted the command of the 2nd Army to General Verzhbitsky. Somewhat earlier, the remains of units of the First Army were also poured into its column.
Grigory Afanasyevich finished the Siberian Ice Campaign in Chita on March 11, 1920. On August 22, General G.A. Vezhbitsky temporarily took over the Far Eastern Army from Lieutenant General N.A. Lokhvitsky, who had retired from a business trip, and on October 23 he was confirmed as commander. The day before, the army left Chita. The battles in Transbaikalia ended in failure. The Whites retreated to Manchuria. In Qiqihar, Lieutenant General Verzhbitsky gave Prika No. 251, in which he declared the fight against Bolshevism over, and transferred the army to a labor position, although he retained a clear military structure. Apparently this was done under the influence of the recent defeat. The Chinese authorities took away the weapons and most of the property. At the beginning of 1921, under an agreement with representatives of the Primorsky regional administration, units were located in Grodekovo, Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, Razdolny and Vladivostok.
Civil war in the Far East
The terrible year for Russia in 1917 led the Russian Far East into a state of chaos. Those who claimed power in the region were: the Provisional Government, the Cossack atamans Semyonov and Kalmykov, the Soviets (Bolsheviks, Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries), the government of autonomous Siberia, and even the director of the CER, General Horvath, and the interventionists (primarily the Japanese).
On January 12, 1918, Allied cruisers entered the Golden Horn: the Japanese Iwami (the Russian Eagle raised after the Battle of Tsushima) and the British Suffolk. On March 1, 1918, the American cruiser Brooklyn anchored in the roadstead in Vladivostok. Later, a Chinese warship arrived at the port.
General view of the Golden Horn Bay. Allied ships are visible in the roadstead.
On April 4, 1918, two Japanese were killed in Vladivostok, and already on April 5, Japanese and English troops landed in the port of Vladivostok (the British landed 50 marines, the Japanese - 250 soldiers) under the pretext of protecting their citizens.
In June 1918, an open conflict arose between the local Soviets and representatives of the Entente; foreign troops forcibly resisted the attempts of the local council to remove strategic reserves from Vladivostok to the west of Russia. During the First World War, a large amount of military equipment and weapons, brought here by the Entente allies for transfer, accumulated in Vladivostok to the west along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Therefore, on June 29, the commander of the Czechoslovak troops in Vladivostok, Russian Major General Diterichs, presented an ultimatum to the Vladivostok council: to disarm their troops within half an hour. The ultimatum was caused by information that the exported property was being used to arm captured Magyars and Germans - several hundred of them were located near Vladivostok as part of the Red Guard detachments. The Czechs quickly occupied the council building with gunfire and began to forcibly disarm the units of the city's Red Guard.
After the capture of Vladivostok, the Czechs continued their attack on the “northern” detachments of the coastal Bolsheviks and took Ussuriysk on July 5.
It was the June performance of the Czechoslovaks in Vladivostok that gave the Allies a reason for open and large-scale intervention. At a meeting in the White House on July 6, 1918, it was decided that the United States and Japan should each land 7 thousand soldiers in the Russian Far East. However, Japan acted according to its plan: by the end of 1918, it already had 80 thousand soldiers in the Far East. In general, the Japanese call those events the “Siberian War” and especially did not hide their true goals (to gnaw off as much land as possible from their northern neighbor, plunged into turmoil).
Japanese cavalry captures Khabarovsk in the face of enemy gunboats, in the form of enemies - Russians in tsarist uniform. These are the allies.
On July 6, 1918, numerous intervention forces landed in the city, and the Allied command in Vladivostok declared the city “under international control.” The purpose of the intervention was declared to be to assist the Czechs in their struggle against German and Austrian prisoners in Russia, as well as to assist the Czechoslovak Corps in its advance from the Far East to France, and then to their homeland.
The Extraordinary V Congress of Soviets of the Far East decided to stop the fight on the Ussuri front and move on to partisan warfare. The functions of Soviet authorities began to be carried out by the headquarters of partisan detachments.
In November 1918, the government of Admiral A.V. came to power in the region. Kolchak. Kolchak’s representative in the Far East was General D.L. Croat. In July 1919, General S.N. became the military dictator of the Primorsky region. Rozanov. All regional governments and foreign powers recognized A.V. Kolchak "supreme ruler of Russia".
By the end of 1918, the number of interventionists in the Far East reached 150 thousand people, including over 70 thousand Japanese, approx. Americans. 11 thousand, Czechs - 40 thousand (including Siberia), as well as small contingents of the British, French, Italians, Romanians, Poles, Serbs and Chinese.
Influenced by the successes of the Red Army, the participants in the intervention at the meeting on December 16. In 1919, a decision was made to stop aid to the White Guards on Russian territory. USA, fearing the spread of Bolshevik influence on American soldiers and counting on a clash between Japan and Soviet Russia, January 5. 1920 decided to evacuate their troops from the Far East. Japan formally declared its "neutrality."
At the beginning of 1920, power in Vladivostok passed to the Provisional Government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Council, which consisted of representatives of various political forces from communists to cadets.
On the night of April 4-5, 1920, Japanese troops attacked the revolutionary troops and organizations of Primorye. To stop the further spread of Japanese aggression in Transbaikalia, on April 6, 1920, the buffer Far Eastern Republic (FER) was created. Under international pressure, the Japanese were forced to return to control the Provisional Government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Council.
Soviet Russia officially recognized the Far Eastern Republic on May 14, 1920, providing it with financial, diplomatic, personnel, economic and military assistance from the very beginning. This allowed Moscow to control the domestic and foreign policy of the Far Eastern Republic and create the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic (NRA) on the basis of the Red divisions.
The proclamation of the Far Eastern Republic contributed to the prevention of a direct military conflict between Soviet Russia and Japan and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the territory of the Far Eastern Territory, and created the opportunity for Soviet Russia, with the help of the NRA, to defeat the non-Soviet republics of Transbaikalia, Amur Region and Green Wedge.
In January 1921, elections to the Constituent Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic took place. The number of elected deputies included generals G.A. Verzhbitsky and V.M. Molchanov, and not only army ranks, but also part of the population of Transbaikalia voted for them. But there was no opportunity to take a real part in the work of the parliament: the Kappelites did not go to Chita. The majority in the Constituent Assembly was received by the Bolsheviks in alliance with representatives of peasant partisan detachments. During its activity (February 12-April 27, 1921), the Constituent Assembly adopted the constitution of the Far East, according to which the republic was an independent democratic state, the supreme state power in which belongs exclusively to the people of the Far East.
On May 26, 1921, with the help of the Kappelites, a coup took place in Vladivostok, which brought to power the Provisional Amur Government of S.N. Merkulov. In journalism during the Civil War, this state entity was called the “Black Buffer.” On May 31, G.A. Verzhbitsky became commander of the government forces. During the Khabarovsk campaign, operational leadership of the army was transferred to General V.M. Molchanov. Grigory Afanasyevich dealt with issues of organization and logistics, working in contact with the government, the People's Assembly and the Japanese command, with the help of which it was finally possible to obtain weapons. On October 12, by decree of the Provisional Amur Government No. 47, Verzhbitsky was appointed manager of the Naval Department with the rights of the Minister of War of the Russian Empire.
Verzhbitsky from the time of the Far Eastern epic, far right.
After the coup in May 1921, a widespread partisan movement under the control of the Bolsheviks resumed in Primorye. In a crisis of power and the split of the army into warring factions, the authority of the commander was no longer enough. On June 4, 1922, the Merkulov brothers tried to change the situation by appointing Rear Admiral G.K. Stark as the new commander of all armed forces. But he also failed to cope with the situation. Finally, at the convened Zemsky Sobor, supreme power in Primorye was transferred to Lieutenant General M.K. Diterichs, who combined the posts of head of government and commander-in-chief and was proclaimed on July 23, 1922 the Ruler of the Amur state formation. By his decree No. 1, Diterichs renamed the Amur state formation into the Amur Zemsky Territory, and the army into the Zemsky Army. In the summer and autumn, General G.A. Verzhbitsky did not hold official positions in the army.
On February 10-12, 1922, the People's Revolutionary Army under the command of V.K. Blucher defeated the Whites in the Battle of Volochaev. On February 14, Khabarovsk was captured. Under international pressure from England and the United States, who were not interested in excessively strengthening Japan, the cabinet of Admiral Kato, a supporter of transferring expansion to the Pacific Ocean, came to power. On June 24, he announced the decision to evacuate Japanese troops from Primorye by November 1, 1922.
The Zemstvo army launched an offensive operation against the NRA of the Far Eastern Republic on September 1, but was almost completely defeated in October.
On October 25, 1922, Vladivostok was taken by units of the NRA, the Far Eastern Republic regained control over the entire territory of Primorye and the “Black Buffer” ceased to exist. On the same day, the evacuation of Japanese troops ended. Only Northern Sakhalin remained occupied by the Japanese, from where the Japanese left only on May 14, 1925.
After the defeat at Spassk, the Zemskaya Rat (the former Far Eastern Army) part of its forces crossed the Chinese border at Hunchun on November 1. The Chinese placed soldiers and officers in camps in Girin. Internal order in refugee groups was maintained by the former authorities, who at first did not separate from the soldiers. Only in May 1923 were generals Dieterichs, Verzhbitsky, and Molchanov removed from the camps.
The People's Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic of the 2nd convocation, elections to which were held in the summer, at its session from November 4 to 15, 1922, adopted a resolution on its dissolution and the restoration of Soviet power in the Far East. Later, late in the evening of November 14, 1922, the commanders of the NRA units of the Far Eastern Republic, on behalf of the People's Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic, turned to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee with a request to include the Far Eastern Republic in the RSFSR, which a few hours later on November 15, 1922 included the republic in the RSFSR as the Far Eastern Region.
Emigration
In exile, G.A. Verzhbitsky lived in Harbin, where he made his living as the owner of a ladies' hat shop. But the general’s main activity was to unite the ranks of the former White armies - officers, soldiers, Cossacks. The border with the USSR was nearby, and behind it was a hated and alien power.
After his appointment in 1930 to the post of head of the Far Eastern department of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), General M.K. Dieterichs called on the emigration in China to unite in the fight against Soviet power. Considering his unpopularity among some military organizations, he nominated General G.A. Verzhbitsky as an assistant. The latter managed to achieve a partial unification of the emigration, gathering around the EMRO separate groups that had previously kept aloof. Many regimental and cadet associations responded. Particular attention was paid to youth organizations, as for the education of shifts and reserves. Verzhbitsky “met their superiors, attended holidays and their parades and, if they wished, sent his instructors who organized courses for civil servants or non-commissioned officers at these organizations. This approach eventually helped him create the Military Training Detachment, and even later the Military School Courses of the EMRO. where all those who successfully completed courses at organizations could enter... They all had a common platform - National Russia and the hope of saving it with arms in hand.”
After the Japanese occupied Manchuria created the puppet state of Manchukuo, Russian emigrants were asked to form a division. But both Diterikhs and Verzhbitsky showed independence by setting conditions that were unacceptable to the occupiers. Even the necessary negotiations with the head of the Japanese military mission, General Komatsubara, were conducted not personally by Verzhbitsky, but through his assistant, Colonel Grinevsky. In response, the Japanese command invited Verzhbitsky to leave the borders of Manchukuo in a short time.
The EMRO was closed and then renamed the Far Eastern Military Union. In 1934, Grigory Afanasyevich was exiled to Tianjin, where he lived in the English Concession. For some time, G. Verzhbitsky served as chairman of the committee of elders of the Russian National Club and headed the local branch of the EMRO. As the general’s associate Khorunzhy A.N. Knyazev wrote, “with the occupation of Northern China by the Japanese and the formation of the so-called “Russian House” in Tianjin, which carried out the forced mobilization of Russian emigrants, the general’s position again became serious, and only his death, perhaps she saved him from further persecution.”
The newspaper “Renaissance of Asia” reported how this happened: “On Sunday, December 20, 1942, at 9 o’clock in the morning, Georgievsky Cavalier, Lieutenant General Grigory Afanasyevich Verzhbitsky, died suddenly in his apartment. Without a groan, a military officer who devoted his entire life to serving the Motherland, a sympathetic man, respected and loved by both his friends and subordinates, passed away quietly and peacefully into eternity. A few minutes before his death, the deceased was on his feet with his family and was preparing to go to church. He complained of chest pain, but believed that this was a random phenomenon and would soon go away...” After the funeral service in the Holy Protection Church, the veteran of three wars, a holder of many military orders, who served in the officer ranks for 45 years, was buried in the Russian part international cemetery of Tianjin. Accompanied by an orchestra and a guard of honor, the officers carried the coffin in their arms all the way. Among the many mourners were representatives of various emigrant organizations, including the chairman of the Anti-Communist Committee E.N. Pastukhin. In the memory of those who knew him, the general remained modest and approachable for everyone, a person always ready to help with advice, in finding a job, to provide urgent financial assistance. After some time, a monument with the initials ROVS was erected on the grave. The fate of the monument is unknown, but there is little reason for optimism. This is how the Russian general ended his life.
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The purpose of the lesson:
- Educational: characterize the events of the Civil War in the Far East and Primorsky Territory, create a holistic idea of the Civil War as a national tragedy of the people.
- Developmental: develop the ability to independently work with factual material, develop the ability to express one’s point of view, justifying one’s judgments.
- Educational: Cultivate a sense of empathy for the tragic events of Russian history. Strengthen in the minds of students the rejection of war and forceful methods of solving problems in society. Education of patriotism and civic position using the example of the activities of historical figures.
Forms of student work: frontal, individual, independent work.
Lesson type: lesson of learning new material.
Required technical equipment: computer, projector, presentation in MS Power Point, handouts with historical information, map “The Civil War and Foreign Intervention in Russia.”
Plan:
1. Provocations of the Japanese interventionists.
2. The need to form a DDA.
3. Liberation of Primorye from invaders and whites.
During the classes
“For this Russian land on which I am now
I stand, we will die, but we will not give it to anyone.”
Sergey Lazo
Studying the Civil War in our country, we identified its stages:
Main stages of the Civil War in Russia:
- Stage I (January-November 1918): the beginning of a full-scale Civil War;
- Stage II (November 1918 - March 1919): intensification of the military confrontation between the Reds and Whites, intensification of intervention;
- Stage III (March 1919 - March 1920) defeat of the main forces of the Whites, evacuation of the main forces of foreign troops;
- Stage IV (April - November 1920): war with Poland, defeat of the army of General P.N. Wrangel
- Stage V (1921-1922): the end of the Civil War on the outskirts of Russia. (Slides 1- 4)
We know that the Civil War affected both our Primorsky Territory and our native Chuguevsky district. Today we will try to understand the events that took place in our region and region, determine which stages of the Civil War they belong to, and get acquainted with the names of the heroes whom we know by the geographical names of the Primorsky Territory and the Chuguevsky region.
1. Provocations of the Japanese interventionists.(Slides 5-6)
At the end of May 1918 Soviet power was overthrown in Western Siberia, the Far East and Primorye were cut off from Soviet Russia. The power of Admiral A.V. Kolchak was established, who collaborated with foreign powers.
Partisan detachments began to form, numbering more than 3 thousand people. It was the partisans who were the main military force that carried out the war on January 31, 1920. anti-Kolchak coup in Vladivostok. (Slides 7-8)
The most important posts in the regional zemstvo government ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks. The formation of the Primorsky government - the regional zemstvo government - deprived the interventionists of a formal reason for active military action. And with the withdrawal of Entente troops and the Czechoslovak corps from the Far East, it became increasingly difficult for Japan to prove the need for its military presence in Primorye. The Japanese provoked a series of incidents.
You will now learn from the additional material which incidents we are talking about.
Handout:
On the night of March 12, 1920, the Japanese attacked the partisans in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. After several days of fighting, the interventionists were defeated and the prisoners were shot. In response, the Japanese government occupied Northern Sakhalin and the lower reaches of the Amur.
By April 9, 1920 The Russian-Japanese conciliation commission developed a draft agreement on the principles of relations between the Primorsky government and the Japanese military command. But the Japanese used this only to lull the vigilance of the local authorities. On the night of April 5, blaming the revolutionary troops for the shootout that arose in Vladivostok, they defeated the city garrison, captured the ships of the Siberian military flotilla, and fired a cannon at the building of the Primorsky government. In this situation, the government's Military Council was unable to properly navigate and organize a response.
The Japanese arrested and then killed members of the Military Council S.G. Lazo, A.N. Lutsky and V.M. Sibirtsev, commander of the Nikolsk-Ussuri troops A.V. Andreev, commanders of detachments in Razdolny and many others.
The battles unfolded from Nikolsk-Ussuriysk to Khabarovsk. Pressed by the interventionists, the revolutionary troops retreated to the north of the region. About 7 thousand soldiers and civilians died in the battles, many were arrested.
Discussion of answers.
Sample entries:(Slides 10-11)
- On March 11-12, 1920, the Japanese attacked the partisans in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, but were defeated. Japan occupied Northern Sakhalin and the lower reaches of the Amur.
- By April 9, 1920 a draft agreement was developed on the principles of relations between the Primorsky government and the Japanese military command.
- On April 4-5, the Japanese defeated the Vladivostok garrison, captured the ships of the Siberian military flotilla, and fired at the Primorsky government building.
The Japanese killed members of the Military Council S.G. Lazo, A.N. Lutsky and V.M. Sibirtsev, commander of the Nikolsk-Ussuri troops A.V. Andreev, commanders of detachments in Razdolny...
In battles from Nikolsk-Ussuriysk to Khabarovsk, the interventionists pushed the revolutionary troops to the north.
Question for students: Which of the following names are familiar to us? Where did we hear them from? (Answers from the guys)
In the Primorsky Territory there is the Lazovsky district, as well as in the Khabarovsk Territory. Settlements are called Lazo in the Amur region, Ulan-Ude, Moldova. Streets, squares, and schools are named after this hero. (Slide 12)
In the village of Chuguevka there is also Lazo Street and at its beginning there is a monument to Sergei Lazo. Also in Chuguevka there are Vsevolod Sibirtsev and Lutsky streets.
In the spring of 1919, the partisan movement intensified. Sergei Lazo, who was then 25 years old, was elected commander of all partisan detachments. After the overthrow of the White Guard power in the region, S. G. Lazo heads the Military Council of the Provisional Government of the Primorsky Zemstvo Council and is a member of the Far Eastern Regional Committee of the RCP (b). His enemies hated and feared him and shot him several times, trying to intimidate him. (Slides 13-14)
On the night of April 5, Japanese troops began the defeat of all garrisons of the revolutionary troops in Primorye. They captured members of the Military Council of Primorye S. G. Lazo, A. N. Lutsky, V. M. Sibirtsev, and then handed them over to the White Guard gang of Yesaul Bochkarev. (Slides 15-16)
At the end of May 1920, bandits brought the Red commanders to the Muravyevo-Amurskaya station (now Lazo station) and, after torture, burned them in the locomotive furnace.
There is also another version about the death of Sergei Lazo: his death was first reported by the Japanese newspaper Japan Chronicle - in April 1920, he was shot in Vladivostok and his corpse was burned.
Which version to follow can be decided by those who become familiar with the facts and information about the life and death of S. Lazo and his comrades. Search the Internet, go to the library, read the literature from our history class and we will discuss this in the next lesson.
As for Japanese influence in Primorye, it was significant, Vladivostok was in a semi-occupied position, and Russia’s outlets to the Pacific Ocean in the south of Primorye and in the lower reaches of the Amur were in Japanese hands. (Slide 17)
Fastening:(Slide 18)
How did the Japanese invaders establish influence in the Primorsky Territory?
2. The need to form a DDA.
War-weary Soviet Russia could not fight on two fronts: in the west of the country, where Baron Wrangel had not yet been defeated, and a war with Poland was brewing, and in the Far East and Transbaikalia, where the intervention continued and there were whites.
According to the directive of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the Bolsheviks of the Far East and the Baikal region began to build a buffer state formation, formally of a bourgeois-democratic type. It was believed that this would help end the Japanese intervention peacefully. (Slide 19)
April 6, 1920 The creation of the Far Eastern Republic was proclaimed, its power extended to the entire Transbaikalia and the Far East.
Working with a wall map: Let's look at the map of the borders of this buffer state. The capital is Verkhneudinsk.
The first chairman of the Government of the Far Eastern Republic was A.M. Krasnoshchekov, and the Primorsky regional administration was headed by V.G. Antonov.
In April 1921, the Constitution of the Far Eastern Republic was adopted. They proclaimed: a democratic form of state, a multi-party system under the leadership of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), broad rights for all classes of society, in the economy: market relations, state capitalism and a variety of forms of ownership. (Slide 20)
May 26-27, 1921 a counter-revolutionary coup took place. A Provisional Government was formed, headed by manufacturer S.D. Merkulov, which intended to replace the “red buffer” with a “white” one with the support of Japan. (Slide 21)
Moscow organized assistance to the Far Eastern Republic (armored trains, funds, army command staff). V.K.Blyukher was appointed Commander-in-Chief, he was replaced by I.P.Uborevich. (Slides 22-23)
February 12, 1922 A decisive battle took place in the Volochaevka area, in which the Whites were defeated and retreated. The white movement discredited itself by its connection with the interventionists. (Slide 24)
Fastening:(Slide 25)
When and why was the Far Eastern Republic formed?
3. Liberation of Primorye from invaders and whites.
Diplomatic contacts between the Far Eastern Republic and the RSFSR with Japan during international conferences in Dairen and Changchun, Washington and Genoa led to Japan announcing the withdrawal of its troops from Primorye. The withdrawal began at the end of August 1922. The defensive fortifications left by the Japanese in Spassk were occupied by the Whites, but on October 9 they too were defeated. October 25, 1922 The troops of the People's Revolutionary Army led by Uborevich entered Vladivostok; the whites and interventionists were no longer here. (Slide 26)
On November 14, the People's Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic asked the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to accept the Far East into Russia. (Slide 27)
With the capture of Vladivostok, the Civil War and intervention ended in the Far East. About 80 thousand people died in the battles on both sides, as well as from wounds, hunger, and deprivation.
What do you know about the partisans in our area? (Slide 28)
In 1919, during the civil war, a partisan detachment and self-defense headquarters were formed (led by M. Shpariychuk), the detachment commander was Naum Baybur. For three years (1919-1922), the peasants of the Ulakhinskaya Valley supplied food to almost all partisan detachments of Primorye.
In the park near the district Administration building there is a monument over the mass grave of partisans who died during the Civil War.
On October 25, 1955, the remains of partisans tortured by interventionists and White Guards in 1919 and 1924 were reburied at the House of Soviets; a monument was erected over the mass grave. (Slide 29)
Fastening:(Slide 30)
What contributed to the liberation of Primorye from interventionists and White Guards?
Why was the DDA liquidated?
Summarizing. So, today we have traced the main events of the Civil War in Primorye and the Far East in 1918 -1922. What stages of the Civil War do these events belong to? (Slide 31-32)
Final words from the teacher.(Slide 33)
The Civil War is a tragic page in our history, the greatest national tragedy. What is her main lesson? What can she teach her descendants? The main lesson is that society should give up violence, intolerance, arbitrariness in solving important problems, since behind any social events there are real people with their feelings, experiences, desire to live...
We honor the names of those who stepped into immortality.
Not many were brought back by the war.
(from the poem “Heroic and Legendary”, edited by Natalya Kushnir Zhuravlev oh)
Homework: repeat the notes in the notebooks, find facts about the death of Sergei Lazo.
Bibliography.
- History: New complete reference book for preparing for the OGE: 9th grade / P.A. Baranov. – Moscow: AST: Astrel, 2016. pp. 245-250
- History of Russian Primorye: Textbook for grades 8-9 of educational institutions of all types. Vladivostok: Dalnauka, 1998. Pp. 113-114
- https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BE,_
%D0%A1%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%
93%D0%B5%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 - S. Cheremnykh Lazo, as I remember him//Sergey Lazo: Memoirs and documents/Compiled by: G.E. Reichberg, A.P. Shurygin, A.S. Lazo. – 2nd ed. – M: Politizdat, 1985. P. 158