The main programmatic provisions of Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak. The formation of the Kolchak government during the Civil War Kolchak interim government

100 years ago, in November 1918, Kolchak became the Supreme Ruler of Russia. The military overthrew the "left" Directory and transferred the supreme power to the "Supreme Ruler".

The Entente immediately supported the "Omsk coup". The Menshevik-Socialist-Revolutionary governments that formed in the Volga region, Siberia, the Urals and the north no longer satisfied either the Russian "whites" (large owners, capitalists and the military) or the West. During 1918, the Social Democratic governments not only failed to organize powerful armed forces and overthrow Soviet power, but they were not even able to fully gain a foothold in the territory that was conquered by the Czechoslovakians. In the area of \u200b\u200btheir domination, they quickly aroused the discontent of the broad masses of the peasantry and workers, and could not ensure order in the rear. Workers' uprisings and peasant guerrilla actions in areas dominated by white governments became widespread. At the same time, during their rule, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, like the Provisional Government before them, showed their incapacity, when it was necessary to act, they debated and argued.

Therefore, the military and the Entente decided to replace them with a "tough hand" - dictatorship. In the hands of this military dictatorship, it was supposed to concentrate all power within the territory captured by the whites. The Entente, especially England and France, also demanded the creation of an all-Russian government in the form of a military dictatorship. The West needed to have a fully controlled government. It was headed by the mercenary of the West - Kolchak.

Vice-Admiral Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak

Background

Among the various white "governments" formed in the territories liberated from the Bolsheviks, two played a leading role: the so-called Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly in Samara (KOMUCH) and the Provisional Siberian Government Directory) in Omsk. Politically, these "governments" were dominated by Social Democrats - Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks (many were also Masons). Each of them had their own armed forces: KOMUCH had the People's Army, the Siberian government had the Siberian Army. The negotiations on the formation of a unified government that began between them back in June 1918 led to a final agreement only at the September meeting in Ufa. It was a congress of representatives of all anti-Bolshevik governments that emerged in 1918 in the regions of the country, political parties opposed to the Bolsheviks, Cossack troops and local governments.

On September 23, the State Conference in Ufa ended. The participants managed to agree on the renunciation of the sovereignty of regional anti-Bolshevik formations, but it was announced that a wide autonomy of regions was inevitable, due to both the multinationality of Russia and the economic and geographical features of the regions. It was ordered to recreate a single, strong and efficient Russian army, separated from politics. The Ufa meeting called the struggle against Soviet power, reunification with the regions torn away from Russia, non-recognition of the Brest-Litovsk Peace and all other international treaties of the Bolsheviks, the continuation of the war against Germany on the side of the Entente as urgent tasks to restore the state unity and independence of Russia.

Until the new convocation of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, the Provisional All-Russian Government (Ufa Directory) was declared the only bearer of power throughout Russia, as the successor of the Provisional Government, overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Socialist-Revolutionary Nikolai Avksentyev was elected chairman of the government. After the February Revolution, Avksentiev was elected a member of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies, was the Minister of Internal Affairs as part of the second coalition Provisional Government, was the chairman of the All-Russian Democratic Conference and the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic elected at it (the so-called "Pre-Parliament "). He was also a deputy of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In addition to him, four other members of the Directory were the Moscow cadet, the former mayor Nikolai Astrov (actually did not take part in it, since he was in the South of Russia, with the Volunteer Army), General Vasily Boldyrev (he became the commander of the Directory), the chairman of the Siberian government Peter Vologda, Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Government of the Northern Region Nikolai Tchaikovsky. In reality, the duties of Astrov and Tchaikovsky were performed by their deputies - cadet Vladimir Vinogradov and Socialist-Revolutionary Vladimir Zenzinov.

From the very beginning, not all whites were happy with the results of the Ufa meeting. First of all, these were the military. The formed "left-liberal" Directory seemed to them weak, a repetition of the "Kerensky", which quickly fell under the onslaught of the Bolsheviks. It seemed to them that in such a difficult situation, only a strong government - a military dictatorship - could win.

Indeed, the left-wing governments were unable to establish order in the rear and build on the first successes at the front. On October 1, 1918, the Red Army went from the south to the railway between Samara and Syzran and cut it, by October 3, the whites were forced to leave Syzran. In the following days, the Red Army crossed the Volga and began to advance towards Samara, on October 7, the whites were forced to surrender the city, retreating to Buguruslan. As a result, the entire course of the Volga was again in the hands of the Reds, which made it possible to transport bread and oil products to the center of the country. Another active offensive was carried out by the Reds in the Urals - in order to suppress the Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising. On October 9, the Ufa Directory, due to the threat of losing Ufa, moved to Omsk.

On October 13, after long wanderings around the world, the former commander of the Black Sea Vice Admiral and agent of Western influence, Alexander Kolchak, arrived in Omsk. In England and the United States, he was chosen to be the dictator of Russia. On October 16, Boldyrev offered Kolchak the post of military and naval minister - instead of PP Ivanov-Rinov, who did not satisfy the Directory). From this post, not wanting to associate himself with the Directory (at first he thought to head to the South of Russia), Kolchak at first refused, but then agreed. On November 5, 1918, he was appointed Minister of War and Naval Minister of the Provisional All-Russian Government. With his first orders, he began to form the central bodies of the War Ministry and the General Staff.

Meanwhile, the Reds continued to develop their offensive. On October 16, the Reds, pushing the Whites to the east from Kazan and Samara, occupied the city of Bugulma, on October 23 - the city of Buguruslan, on October 30, the Reds - Buzuluk. On November 7 - 8 the Reds took Izhevsk, November 11 - Votkinsk. The Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising was suppressed.

Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government (Directory) Nikolay Dmitrievich Avksentyev

Omsk coup

On November 4, the Provisional All-Russian Government appealed to all regional governments with a demand to immediately dissolve "all Regional Governments and Regional Representative Institutions without exception" and transfer all management powers to the All-Russian Government. On the same day, on the basis of the ministries and central directorates of the Provisional Siberian Government, the executive body of the Directory was formed - the All-Russian Council of Ministers, headed by Peter Vologda. Such centralization of state power was due to the need, first of all, "to recreate the combat power of the homeland, which is so necessary in the time of the struggle for the revival of Great and United Russia", "to create the conditions necessary for supplying the army and organizing the rear on an all-Russian scale."

The predominantly center-right Council of Ministers was radically different in political overtones from the much more “leftist” Directory. The leader of the leaders of the Council of Ministers who resolutely defended the right-wing political course was Finance Minister I. A. Mikhailov, who enjoyed the support of G. K. Gins, N. I. Petrov, G. G. Telberg. It was this group that became the nucleus of a conspiracy aimed at establishing a strong and uniform power in the form of a sole military dictatorship. A conflict broke out between the Directory and the Council of Ministers. However, the Directory, suffering one defeat after another at the front, lost the confidence of the officers and the right circles, who wanted a strong power. Thus, the Directory had no authority, its power was weak and fragile. In addition, the Directory was constantly torn apart by internal contradictions, for which the press even ironically compared the "All-Russian Government" with the Krylov swan, crayfish and pike.

The immediate reason for the overthrow of the Directory was the circular letter-proclamation of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - "Appeal" - written personally by VM Chernov and circulated by telegraph on October 22, 1918 with the title "Everyone, everyone, everyone", traditional for revolutionary appeals of that time. The letter condemned the move of the Directory to Omsk, expressed distrust of the Provisional All-Russian Government, contained an appeal to arm all party members to fight the Provisional Siberian Government. The Address said: “In anticipation of possible political crises that may be caused by counterrevolutionary plans, all party forces at the moment must be mobilized, trained in military affairs and armed in order to be ready at any time to withstand the blows of counterrevolutionary civil organizers. wars in the rear of the anti-Bolshevik front. Work on armament, rallying, comprehensive political instruction and purely military mobilization of the party's forces should be the basis of the activity of the Central Committee ... ". In fact, it was a call for the formation of our own armed forces to repel the right. It was a scandal. General Boldyrev demanded an explanation from Avksentiev and Zenzinov. They tried to hush up the issue, but to no avail, and the opponents of the Directory were given a pretext for a coup, accusing the Socialist-Revolutionaries of preparing a conspiracy to seize power.

The core of the conspiracy was made up of the military, including almost all the officers of the Headquarters, headed by its Quartermaster General Colonel A. Syromyatnikov. The political role in the conspiracy was played by the cadet emissary V.N. Pepelyaev and the Minister of Finance of the Directory I.A.Mikhailov, close to the right-wing circles. Pepeliaev "recruited" ministers and public figures. Part of the ministers and leaders of bourgeois organizations were also involved in the conspiracy. An active role in organizing the overthrow of the Directory was also played by Colonel D. A. Lebedev, who arrived in Siberia from the Volunteer Army and was considered a representative of General A. I. Denikin. Unreliable military units were withdrawn from Omsk in advance under various pretexts. General R. Gaida was supposed to ensure the neutrality of the Czechs. The action was supported by the British mission of General Knox.

On the night of November 17, 1918, three high-ranking Cossack officers - the head of the Omsk garrison, Colonel of the Siberian Cossack army V. I. Volkov, military foremen A. V. Katanaev and I. N. Krasilnikov - made a provocation. At a city banquet in honor of the French general Janin, they demanded to sing the Russian national anthem "God Save the Tsar." The Social Revolutionaries demanded that Kolchak arrest the Cossacks for "inappropriate behavior." Without waiting for their own arrest, Volkov and Krasilnikov on November 18 themselves made a preemptive arrest of representatives of the left wing of the Provisional All-Russian Government - Socialist-Revolutionaries N.D. Avksentiev, V.M. Zenzinov, A.A.Argunov and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs E.F. Rogovsky ... The Socialist Revolutionary battalion of the Directory was disarmed. Not a single military unit of the Omsk garrison came out in support of the overthrown Directory. The public reacted to the accomplished coup either indifferently, or with hope, hoping for the establishment of solid power. The Entente countries supported Kolchak. The Czechoslovakians, subordinate to the Entente, limited themselves to a formal protest.

The Council of Ministers, which gathered the morning after the arrest of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, recognized the Directory as non-existent (its members were expelled abroad), announced the assumption of all the supreme power and declared the need for “the complete concentration of military and civilian power in the hands of one person with an authoritative name in the military and public circles ", which will lead on the principles of one-man management. It was decided "to transfer temporarily the exercise of supreme power to one person, relying on the assistance of the Council of Ministers, giving such a person the name of the Supreme Ruler." Was developed and adopted "Provisions on the temporary structure of state power in Russia" (the so-called "Constitution of November 18"). General VG Boldyrev, commander-in-chief of the Directorate's troops, General DL Horvat, head of the CER, and Vice-Admiral A. Kolchak, Minister of War and Naval Minister, were considered as candidates for "dictators". The Council of Ministers elected Kolchak by voting. Kolchak was promoted to full admiral, he was transferred to the exercise of supreme state power and was awarded the title of Supreme Ruler. All the armed forces of the state were subordinate to him. Denikin was considered his deputy in the south of Russia. The supreme ruler could take any measures, including emergency, to provide for the armed forces, as well as to establish civil order and legality.

Vice-Admiral A. V. Kolchak - Minister of War of the Provisional All-Russian Government with his closest circle. 1918 year

The anti-popular essence of the Kolchak regime

Kolchak defined the direction of work as the Supreme Ruler: “Having accepted the cross of this power in the extremely difficult conditions of the Civil War and the complete disruption of state affairs and life, I declare that I will not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. My main goal is to create an efficient army, to defeat the Bolsheviks and to establish law and order. "

The White Project was based on the idea that after the liquidation of tsarism, life could only be arranged according to Western standards. The Westerners planned full economic, social, cultural and ideological integration with Europe. They planned to introduce a parliamentary-type democracy, which would be based on a hierarchical system of secret power in order, Masonic and Paramason structures and clubs. The market economy led to the complete power of financial and industrial capital. Ideological pluralism ensured the manipulation of public consciousness and control over the people. We observe all this in modern Russia, in which a counter-revolution was carried out in the early 1990s.

The problem was that the European version of development was not for Russia. Russia is a separate distinctive civilization, it has its own path. The "Golden Calf" - materialism, can win in Russia only after the destruction of the Russian superethnos, the transformation of Russians into "ethnographic material." The image of a "sweet", prosperous, peaceful, well-equipped Europe is acceptable for a significant part of the Russian intelligentsia, struck by cosmopolitanism, Westernism, for large property owners, capitalists, the comprador bourgeoisie, which is building its future at the expense of selling off the Motherland. This group also includes people with "philistine", "kulak" psychology. However, powerful traditional cultural layers of the Russian civilization - its matrix-code, resist the processes of Westernization of Russia. Russians do not accept the European (Western) path of development. Thus, there is a gap between the interests of the westernized elite of society, the intelligentsia, and civilizational, national projects. And this gap always leads to disaster.

Kolchak's dictatorship had no chance of success. The white project is Western in nature. Anti-national. In the interests of the masters of the West and the pro-Western stratum of the population in Russia itself, which is extremely insignificant. The concentration in the hands of the dictator of military, political and economic power made it possible for the whites to recover from the defeats suffered in the Volga region in the fall of 1918 and go on a new offensive. But the successes were short-lived. The political, social base of the White movement has become even narrower. The leadership of the Czechoslovak Corps considered the admiral a "usurper," while the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks condemned the "Omsk coup".

Kolchak's regime immediately aroused powerful resistance. The Social Revolutionaries called for armed resistance. The members of the Constituent Assembly, who were in Ufa and Yekaterinburg, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary Chernov, declared that they did not recognize the authority of Admiral Kolchak and would oppose the new government with all their might. As a result, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party went underground, from where it began to fight the power of the new dictator. Kolchak introduced exceptional laws, the death penalty and martial law for the rear territories. The arbitrariness of the military authorities pushed away from Kolchak and moderate democracy, which initially supported him. At the same time, in Eastern Siberia, local counterrevolutionary forces headed by atamans Semyonov and Kalmykov were in opposition to Kolchak and almost obviously opposed him.

From the very first days of his coming to power, the admiral showed complete intolerance towards the labor movement, eradicating any traces of the recent domination of Soviet power. Communists and non-party advanced workers who had previously taken part in the work of Soviet organs were mercilessly destroyed. At the same time, the mass organizations of the proletariat were smashed, primarily the trade unions. All the actions of the workers were bloodily suppressed.

The establishment of "law and order" in fact led to the return to the capitalists and landowners of their rights to the property taken from them. On the question of land, the policy of the white government was to return to the landowners the lands, agricultural implements and livestock taken from them by the Soviet government. Part of the land was supposed to be transferred to the kulaks for payment. It is not surprising that the peasantry suffered the most from the Kolchak regime. The appearance of the white troops meant for the peasantry, according to one of the former ministers of the Kolchak government, Hins, the onset of an era of unlimited requisitions, all kinds of duties and complete arbitrariness of the military authorities. "The peasants were flogged," says Hins. "They were robbed, insulted, their civil dignity, and ruined." In turn, the peasantry waged a struggle against the whites through incessant uprisings. The whites responded with bloody punitive expeditions, which not only did not stop the uprisings, but even more expanded the areas affected by the peasant war. The peasant war, as well as the forced mobilization of the peasants, significantly reduced the fighting efficiency of Kolchak's army and became the main reason for the internal collapse.

In addition, Kolchak's policy contributed to the transformation of Russia into a semi-colony of the West. Representatives of the Entente, primarily England, the USA and France, were the actual masters of the White movement. They dictated their will to white. Despite the lack of grain and raw materials (ore, fuel, wool) in the white-occupied regions of Russia, all this was exported abroad on a large scale at the first demand of the allies. As retribution for the received military property, the largest enterprises passed into the hands of Western European and American capitalists. In the east, foreign capitalists received a number of concessions. Satisfying the demands of the allies, Kolchak turned Russia into China, plundered and torn apart by foreign predators.

Thus, Kolchak's regime was anti-popular, reactionary, in the interests of the West and the pro-Western White project in Russia itself. Its future collapse is natural.

Until October 1917, Russia was the greatest reserve of Western capital. England, France, Germany and other states invested large sums in the Russian economy. The total amount of foreign investment in Russia on the eve of 1917 amounted to 2.5 billion rubles, while the external debt exceeded 16 billion gold rubles.

The Bolsheviks, having come to power, declared all these loans invalid, which caused discontent among the members of the Entente. The conclusion of the Brest Peace marked the transition to open intervention by the Entente troops.

Following the landing in the north, the invasion of the Far East began.

An important milestone in the course of the civil war was the performance in May 1918. Czechoslovak Corps.

Even during the First World War, there were about two million prisoners of war in Russia. A large part of them were from the Slavic countries, then under the rule of Austria-Hungary. In the second half of 1916. on the initiative of the "Union of Czechoslovak Societies in Russia," the tsarist government decided to form a Czechoslovak Corps from prisoners of war Czechs and Slovaks, in order to use it against the Austro-German troops.

In connection with the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk, January 15, 1918. the corps was declared an autonomous part of the French army and accepted for the maintenance of the Entente. Another December 16, 1917. The French government recognized the Czech Legion in Russia as an independent part of the Czechoslovak Army, under the direct command of the French High Command. This command believed that it would be more expedient to evacuate the Czech Legion to France through the Far East. In April, it began to be transported along the Siberian railway, across the whole of Siberia, to Vladivostok with the aim of further shipment by sea to Europe.

The soldiers of the Czechoslovak corps were well armed with Russian and captured weapons. People's Commissariat for Military L. Trotsky decided to disarm the Czech units. Rumors of this reached the command and the corps soldiers before the official orders arrived. The Czechoslovakians feared that after disarmament they would be arrested and handed over to the Austro-Hungarian authorities, so they decided: "Don't hand over your weapons!" ...

• May 26, 1918 in Omsk the Czechs fired at a Red Army detachment, which had come to disarm them. On the same day, they arrested members of the Council in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk). Between Chelyabinsk and Omsk, the Czechs seized a train in which the People's Commissar for Food A.G. Schlichter, and they kept him for a whole day. On the night of May 26-27, the Czechoslovakians captured Chelyabinsk.
• On May 28, the performance of the Czechs who were in the Syzran region began.

The Soviet government tried to block the trains at the station. About five thousand Czechoslovakians launched an offensive on Penza and two days later occupied the city and launched an offensive with the aim of seizing the Samara-Ufa railway.

In a relatively short time, the Czechoslovakians captured Mariinsk, Chelyabinsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Nizhneudinsk, Kansk, Penza, Petropavlovsk, st. Taiga, Tomsk.

On June 8, 1918, after several days of stubborn fighting, the Czechoslovakians occupied Samara. Together with the Czechoslovakians in Samara, the right SRs I.M. Brushwit, B.K. Fortunatov, V.K. Volsky and I.P. Nesterov. They formed the "Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly" (Komuch), which declared itself the supreme power in Russia. This is how the anti-Bolshevik political force appeared, openly opposing itself to the Soviet government.

Samara Komuch immediately supported the All-Siberian Regional Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Komuch also appointed his own government from 16 heads of various departments. There were many prominent figures of all-Russian fame, for example, the chairman E.F. Rogovsky, P.G. Maslov, I.M. Maisky, V.K. Volsky, M. Ya. Hendelman. Komuch and his government tried in practice to implement much of the program developed by the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks (the restoration of basic democratic freedoms was declared, the activities of workers 'and peasants' congresses, factory committees were allowed, an 8-hour working day was established and a red state flag was adopted).

June 29, 1918 they carried out a counter-revolutionary coup in Vladivostok, arresting the entire composition of the city council. Capturing the city of 6 thousand. the detachment moved north along the Ussuriysk railway.

Thus, the Czechoslovakians captured almost the entire Trans-Siberian Railway. Soviet power in the occupied areas was overthrown. This was facilitated by the military and political weakness of the Soviet regime.

On the territory occupied by the Czechoslovakians, up to 30 predominantly Socialist-Revolutionary governments were created. As a result, an anti-Bolshevik front arose in the Volga region and Siberia, where Soviet power was overthrown.

Thus, for the first time since the Brest-Litovsk Peace, the Soviet government faced an organized struggle of anti-Bolshevik forces, having received the "Eastern Front". June 13, 1918 The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR created the Revolutionary Military Council of the Eastern Front to fight the Czechoslovak Corps - as a single command and control body.

July 2, 1918 The Supreme Council of the Entente, in order to support the Czechoslovakians and establish control over Siberia, decided to expand the intervention in Russia.

On July 6, representatives of the command of the interventionist troops in the Far East published a joint declaration on the seizure of Vladivostok and its environs under temporary authority. On the same day, the US government decided on the participation of its troops in the occupation of the Far Eastern Territory (initially, the American expeditionary force numbered about 9 thousand people). One of the reasons for this decision was the desire to limit Japanese expansion. In August, a large-scale intervention by the Entente troops began in the region. New contingents of Japanese, British and American troops arrived in Vladivostok, the number of which in Siberia and the Far East soon reached over 150 thousand people.

Foreign troops concentrated in Murmansk also launched an offensive. July 3, 1918 An English detachment captured Kem, on July 20 - the Solovetsky Islands, on July 31 - Onega.

On August 2, in Arkhangelsk, members of the Socialist Revolutionaries, People's Socialists and Cadets parties carried out an anti-Bolshevik coup. Power was taken by the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region, headed by the People's Socialist N.V. Tchaikovsky (on September 28, 1918, it would form the Provisional Government of the Northern Region, which in 1919 will be headed by General E.K. Miller).

On the same day, about one thousand British, French and American soldiers and sailors landed in the city. The number of interventionist troops in the North of Russia reached 16 thousand people, having doubled in a month. The offensive of the interventionist troops, operating in conjunction with the White Guard units (initially inferior in numbers to the Entente troops), developed in three directions: along the river. Northern Dvina in the direction of Kotlas and Vyatka for connection with the Czechoslovak corps and other troops operating in the east; along the Arkhangelsk - Vologda railway (capture of Shenkursk) and along the Murmansk - Petrograd railway.

In the east of the country, both Komuch and the Siberian government claimed the all-Russian power. They did not have agreement on political issues either. The essence of the discrepancies was formulated at one time by the cadet L. Krol: "Samara wanted to keep the revolution at the level of the Socialist-Revolutionary demands, and Omsk strove back from the revolution, somewhat flaunting even a return to the old external forms."

The programs of the Socialist-Revolutionary governments, which included the Mensheviks, included demands for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, restoration of political rights, denationalization and freedom of trade, and social partnership. Evolution of all governments towards the tightening of the political regime and the elimination of the initially proclaimed democratic freedoms was characteristic.

Under the leadership of Komuch, the "People's Army" was created, which, together with detachments of the Czechoslovaks, in the summer of 1918 organized a successful offensive against the Reds and dealt serious blows to the Bolshevik forces. On July 5, the Volga group of the Czechoslovaks occupied Ufa. On July 8, the Volga group merged with the Chelyabinsk one. The Cossacks of Ataman Dutov also achieved success, who, taking advantage of the actions of the Czechoslovakians, again began to attack Orenburg (the number of Orenburg and Ural Cossacks at the end of June was 12-15 thousand people). On July 3, parts of Dutov captured the city.

On July 22, the Volga group of Chechek and the "People's Army" Komuch took Simbirsk, and on July 25, the Chelyabinsk group and the Yekaterinburg White Guard army took Yekaterinburg. July 18, 1918 In connection with the threat of the capture of the city by the White Guards, the Bolsheviks shot the former Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family.

June - August 1918 Komuch's power extended to Samara, part of Saratov, Simbirsk, Orenburg, Kazan and Ufa provinces. Kazan was taken on August 7. They got the state gold reserve located in the city (651.5 million rubles in gold and 100 million rubles in banknotes). It remained to force the Volga - then the way to Moscow was opened. The Red Army troops suffered defeats in other regions as well. An attempt by the troops of the Eastern Front in August to go over to the offensive ended in failure.

The Soviet government is taking emergency measures.

September 2, 1918 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee declares the Soviet Republic a "military camp". The Revolutionary Military Council of the republic headed by L. Trotsky was created from the military party workers. The commander of the Eastern Front I. Vatsetis is appointed commander in chief of the Red Army. Mass terror against the "enemies of the revolution" begins.

The strengthening of repressive measures by the Soviet government has become a trend since the summer of 1918. Rigid centralization of control, tougher punitive measures, regulated terror were opposed to the anarchy of the rear.

The uprisings of the peasants and those mobilized into the army were ruthlessly suppressed. The autumn of 1918, in Soviet Russia, became the period of the red terror, introduced in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the Red Terror" on September 5, 1918. The resolution required to provide the rear through terror, shoot all persons involved in White Guard organizations, conspiracies and insurgencies, isolate all class enemies in concentration camps.

Tough measures at the front and in the rear, the reorganization of the Red Army and mass mobilization into its ranks yielded results. Already at the beginning of September 1918. In bloody and stubborn battles, the troops of the Eastern Front (under the command of I.I.Vatsetis and S.S.Kamenev) stopped the enemy and on 5 September launched a counteroffensive. On September 10, Kazan was taken, then on September 12 - Simbirsk (the operation was led by M.N. Tukhachevsky). With the fall of Syzran on October 3, the fate of Samara was predetermined, into which the Reds entered on October 7. The Bolsheviks successfully advanced from the middle Volga to the Urals. The results of the campaign on the Eastern Front in 1918. meant for the whites the loss of the Volga region and the retreat to the Urals. The fate of the Socialist-Revolutionary Menshevik governments was a foregone conclusion. None of them managed to create a combat-ready army, resolve land and labor issues, create a statehood comparable in efficiency with the Bolsheviks.

The massive mobilizations carried out by Komuch did not have a tangible effect. Faced with resistance to army mobilization and requisitions, as well as a growing labor movement, Komuch turned to harsh punitive practices.

September 23, 1918 at the Ufa state meeting (September 8-23, 1918), anti-Bolshevik parties and organizations, the main participants of which were Komuch and the Siberian government, the All-Russian Provisional Government was formed. However, the created Directory actually represented only the members of the various groupings included in it, and not the all-Russian parties and movements. Among the officers of the armies, the idea was openly expressed about the need to replace the "rotten democracy", unable to organize the struggle against the Reds, and the establishment of a solid power of the military dictatorship.

On the night of November 17-18, 1918. in Omsk, where the "All-Russian Provisional Government" moved from Ufa from the advancing Bolsheviks, a coup was carried out. Members of the Directory of the SRs Avksentiev and Zenzinov were arrested, and Admiral A.V. Kolchak (formerly Minister of War of the Directory), who had recently returned from abroad, came to power.

As a result of the complete coup, all the fullness of state power in Siberia passed to Alexander Kolchak, who was awarded the title of Supreme Ruler and the rank of Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Full Admiral. As a politician, the admiral fully corresponded to the mood of the officers. His government could count on the full support of the military. Soon, other leaders of the anti-Bolshevik struggle recognized him as the Supreme Ruler: A. Denikin in the South, E. Miller in the North, N. Yudenich in the North-West. He had unlimited rights in the military field, for the solution of civil affairs, a Council was established under him, consisting of five prominent public figures of cadet orientation (P. Vologodsky, A. Gattenberg, Yu. Klyuchnikov, G. Telberg and M. Mikhailov).

The Cadets put forward the slogan "dictatorship in the name of democracy" and managed to unite around Kolchak representatives of various political parties, groups and organizations from right-wing socialists to monarchists.

Kolchak claimed to be the expression of a nationwide state idea and stressed that he would not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. "My main goal," he declared, "I put the creation of a combat-ready army, the victory over Bolshevism and the establishment of law and order, so that the people can freely choose for themselves the form of government that they wish ...".

Thus, the core of the official ideology of the Kolchak regime was the idea of \u200b\u200bthe revival of the great statehood, the slogan "United and indivisible Russia." Relying on the help of the Entente, Kolchak intended to achieve a turning point in favor of his troops on the approaches to the Urals. To this end, he decided to conduct new mobilizations and accelerate the reorganization of the Yekaterinburg and Prikamsk white groups into the Siberian army.

1.2 The program, goals and objectives of the Kolchak movement

In November 1918, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, in order to centralize management in wartime, abolished the Directory and assumed the title of Supreme Ruler.

In this regard, his address to the population said: “On November 18, 1918, the All-Russian Provisional Government collapsed. The Council of Ministers took full power and handed it over to me, the admiral of the Russian fleet, Alexander Kolchak. Having accepted the cross of this power in the extremely difficult conditions of the civil war and the complete disorder of state life, I declare:

I will not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. My main goal is to create a combat-ready army, to defeat the Bolsheviks and to establish law and order, so that the people can freely choose the way of government they wish and implement the great ideas of freedom, now proclaimed throughout the world. "

Explaining his political program to representatives of the press on November 28 of the same year, Kolchak, in particular, noted that after the liquidation of the Bolshevik power in Russia, a National Assembly should be convened "for the rule of law and order in the country."

In the Order of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Admiral A.V. Kolchak on July 28, 1919, it was confirmed: “We are fighting for the Russian national cause of the restoration of the Motherland as a free, united and independent state. We are fighting for the right of the people themselves through free elections and voting in the Constituent National Assembly to determine their fate in the structure of state power ... ”.

The requirement of constitutional reforms stipulated the help of the Entente to the White movement. In particular, in the Note of the Supreme Council of the Entente, Admiral A.V. Kolchak on the conditions on the basis of which the allies will provide assistance to the anti-Bolshevik forces, dated May 26, 1919. It was noted:

“At present, the powers of the allied coalition wish to formally declare that the goal of their policy is to restore peace within Russia by enabling the Russian people to gain control over their own affairs with the help of a freely elected Constituent Assembly ... To this end, they ask Admiral Kolchak and his allies answer whether they agree to the following conditions of the allied coalition powers:

First, the government of Admiral Kolchak must ensure that, as soon as Kolchak's troops occupy Moscow, a Constituent Assembly is convened, elected on the basis of universal, secret and democratic suffrage, as the supreme legislative body in Russia, to which the Russian government must be accountable. ... If by this time order in the country has not yet been finally restored, then the Kolchak government must convene the Constituent Assembly, elected in 1917, and leave it in power until the day when the opportunity to organize new elections appears.

Secondly, in order for the Kolchak government to allow free elections to all freely and legally organized assemblies, such as city governments, zemstvos, and so on, throughout the space that is currently under his control.

Thirdly, that the Kolchak government will not support any attempt to restore the special privileges of certain classes or estates in Russia. "

1.3 Headquarters of the Supreme Command of the Kolchak Movement

The headquarters of the Supreme High Command (the governing body of the Kolchak government) was formed by the Supreme Ruler of the Russian State - Admiral Kolchak A.V., under whose leadership she coordinated all the combat operations of the Siberian white armies from 12/24/1918 to 01/04/1920. The posts of Chief of Staff of the Headquarters were occupied by generals: Lebedev D.A. (21.12.1918 - 09.08.1919), Dieterikhs M.K. (09.08-17.11.1919), Zankevich M.I. (11/17/1918-04.01.1920). Kolchak's War Ministry was headed by generals: V.I. Surin. (12.21.1918 - 01.01.1920), Stepanov N.A. (03.01-23.05.1919), Lebedev D.A. (23.05-12.08.1919), Budberg A.P. (12-25.08.1919), Dieterichs M.K. (25.08-06.10.1919, Khanzhin M.V. (06.10.1919-04.01.1920).

The headquarters of the Supreme High Command was disbanded on 11/14/1919. The leadership of military operations passed to the headquarters under the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (Admiral Kolchak), which was headed by General Zankevich M.I. (11/17/1919 - 01/04/1920). The headquarters was located in one of the carriages of a special train, in which Admiral Kolchak left Omsk. At the same time, he ordered General Lokhvitsky N.A. prepare and ensure the reception and accommodation of their headquarters in Irkutsk by the governments, including the selection of premises both for the admiral himself and for the members of the government and the headquarters of the High Command accompanying him. At the same time, General Lokhvitsky was ordered to preliminarily prepare the move of Admiral Kolchak, his government and headquarters to Chita, to Transbaikalia, under the protection of the troops of Ataman Semyonov, if the troops of the Russian (Siberian) army did not stop the rolling shaft of the Red Army offensive and they (the troops) would also have to seek refuge in Transbaikalia.

Directly under the operational subordination of the Headquarters during 1919 were:

The Siberian Army (Lieutenant General Gaida R., 12.24.1918--10.07.1919; Lieutenant General Dieterikhs M.K., July 10-22, 1919, 07.22.1919 was transformed into the 1st and 2nd armies of the Eastern Front.

Western Army (Lieutenant General Khanzhin M.V., 01.01 - 06.20.1919; Lieutenant General Sakharov K.V., 06.21-22.07.1919). 07/22/1919 transformed into the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front.

Orenburg army (Lieutenant General Dutov A.I., 16.10.1918-03.05.1919). 05/23/18/09/1919 acted as the Southern Army (Lieutenant-General Belov G.A.); 09/18/1919-06.01.1920 (Lieutenant General Dutov A.I.). 01/06/1920 became part of the Semirechensk army (Major General BV Annenkov) as an Orenburg detachment, having made a "Hungry campaign" through the Turkestan steppes.

Semirechensk army (Major General Annenkov B.V., 08/25/1919-03/04/1920). Formed on the basis of the Steppe Group of the Eastern Front and the 2nd Steppe Siberian Corps, interned in China after the transition of the Turkestan-Chinese border on 03/04/1920.

Ural Army (Lieutenant General Saveliev N.A., 11/15/1918-08.04.1919; Lieutenant General Tolstov B.C., 04/08/1919-20.05.1920). 07/22/1919 transferred to the operational subordination of the AFYUR (Lieutenant General Denikin A.I.).

Southern Army (Lieutenant General Belov G.A., 05/23/1919 - 12/01/1920). Reformed 05/23/1919 from the Southern Group of the Western and Orenburg armies. 07/22/1919 became part of the Eastern Front, and from 10/10/1919 - as part of the Moscow group of the Eastern Front.

07/22/1919 Siberian and Western armies, reorganized into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd armies, as well as the Southern Army and the Steppe Group of General B.V. Annenkov. were transferred and merged into the newly created Eastern Front (Lieutenant General Dieterichs M.K.). After the withdrawal of the 1st Army to the rear, to the Tomsk region (for replenishment, reorganization and protection of the Siberian Railway), as well as the defeat of the Southern Army (General Belov G.A.), 10/10/1919 the rest of the Eastern Front was transformed into the Moscow Group of Forces (Lieutenant-Generals Kappel V.O., 10.10.1919-21.01.1920; Voitsekhovsky S.N., 21.01-27.04.1920) and continued to resist the Red Army, having made the "Great Siberian Ice Campaign" (10.14.1919 - 03/03/1920) during the retreat of the Kolchak army from Siberia to Transbaikalia.

In addition, their subordination to the Headquarters of the Supreme Command of the Supreme Ruler of the Russian State was legally recognized and / or included in the Russian army:

Armed Forces of the South of Russia - AFYUR, under the command of the Commander-in-Chief Lieutenant-General A.I. Denikin (he announced his submission to the Supreme Ruler, Admiral Kolchak on 12.06.1919).

Troops of the North-Western Region (Infantry General Yudenich N.N., 07/10/1919-22/01/1920). By the decree of the Supreme Ruler Admiral Kolchak on July 10, 1919, Infantry-General Yudenich was appointed commander of all the troops of the North-West, including the North-West Army (Major General Rodzianko A.P., 06.07--02.10.1919; Infantry General Yudenich N.N., 02.10 - 28.11.1919) and the Western Volunteer Army (Major General Bermondt-Avalov P.R., 09-11.1919).

Northern Army - Troops of the Northern Region, Northern Front (Lieutenant General Marushevsky V.V., 11/19/1918-13.01.1919; Lieutenant General Miller E.K., 01/13/1919-02.1920). Lieutenant General Miller E.K. 06/10/1919 was appointed by Admiral Kolchak as commander of all the troops of the Northern Region, including the Northern Army, which was simultaneously under the operational control of the command of the Northern Front and the Expeditionary Corps of British Forces (General Ironside).

Murmansk Volunteer Army - Troops of the Murmansk region (Major General Zvegintsev N.I., 01.06 - 03.10.1918; Colonel Kostandi L.V., 11.1918-06.1919); was in the operational subordination of the Northern Army, as well as the commander of the British Expeditionary Force in Arkhangelsk - General Ironside (and directly in Murmansk - General Pul). 06.1919 The Murmansk Volunteer Army was renamed the Troops of the Murmansk Region and was soon united with the troops of the Olonets Volunteer Army under the general command of Lieutenant General B.C. Skobeltsyn.

Olonets Volunteer Army (Lieutenant General Skobeltsyn B.C., 02.1919-02.1920). After the defeat of the Red Army in Karelia on 07.1919, the Olonets Army was united with the Murmansk Volunteer Army. The composition and combat operations of the Siberian armies of Admiral Kolchak are given in the chapters "Eastern Front", "Moscow Group of Forces", as well as in separate information about these armies.

By order of the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Kolchak on 03/01/1919, the new Russian army was supposed to have the same structure and composition as the former Russian army under Emperor Nicholas II. That is, the structure of the Russian army provided for the creation of companies (150 bayonets in each), battalions (4 companies each), regiments (4100 bayonets, in 4 battalions or 16 companies), divisions (16,500 bayonets in 4 regiments) , corps (37,000 in 2 divisions in each). By 01/05/1919, the number of Russian army was 680,000 bayonets and sabers, of which 8 corps had been formed in the active armies of Siberia by that time. During 1919, it was planned to increase the number of troops to 2,000,000 soldiers and officers.

Thus, in the East of Russia, a one-man dictatorship was established as a result of a coup d'état committed on November 18, 1918 by the Council of Ministers of the All-Russian Provisional Government (Directory) with the active participation of the military. Before the coup, the bearer of supreme power was a collegial body in the amount of five people. Most of the members of the Directory - four out of five - were civilians, prominent politicians. The Council of Ministers, headed by the chairman (he was a member of the Directory), carried out executive and administrative functions. The transfer of supreme power to one person - the Minister of War, Admiral A.V. Kolchak (he accepted the title of the Supreme Ruler and Supreme Commander-in-Chief) - did not mean, however, the establishment, as in the South of Russia, of a military dictatorship. The Council of Ministers, its head, as before, was the Prime Minister, being the source of the power of the Supreme Ruler, not only retained its powers, but also significantly expanded them. Together with the Supreme Ruler, he began to exercise legislative power. Formally, the entirety of state power in the territory from the Volga to the Pacific Ocean belonged to the Russian government as part of the Supreme Ruler and the Council of Ministers.

Siberian government

The idea of \u200b\u200bSiberian autonomy, which gave birth to the Siberian Regional Duma, has long been a hidden thought of the best sons of Siberia. It is flesh of flesh and blood of the blood of that socio-political trend of social thought at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, which is called "regionalism" in history. The regional tendencies of these first citizens of Siberia were at first an indefinite striving for a better structure of Siberia in general: to educate it, to develop its productive forces, to emancipate the Siberian personality from the administrative oppression that gravitated over the country, to improve the situation of the natives of Siberia, who were in economic bondage to predatory elements and under heavy administrative pressure.

The Cossacks played a prominent role in the history of Siberian regionalism.

The case of "Siberian separatism"

Among the persons involved in the so-called case of "Siberian separatism" in 1865, there were many Cossacks: a retired cornet of the Siberian Cossack army Grigory Nikolaevich Potanin, a captain of the same army Usov, cornet Shaitanov, etc. They, along with N.M. Yadrintsev, S.S. Shashkov, D.L. Kuznetsov and others compiled the "Society for the Independence of Siberia" in Siberian cities, they also issued an appeal to the "Siberian patriots", which argued the necessity and possibility of creating an economically independent country from Siberia. “We, Siberians, fraternally lend a hand to Russian patriots for the joint struggle against our enemy. At the end of it, Siberia will have to convene its assembly of the people, it is her inalienable right to define her future relations with Russia ", - says, among other things, in this appeal to "Siberian patriots". It ended with the following appeal: "Long live free Siberia ... from the Ural mountains to the shores of the Eastern Ocean".

In 1864, the named proclamations were found in the city of Omsk, of which one was brought into the cadet corps, not realizing that this was an unacceptable political thing. The corps authorities found the proclamation from the cadet and handed it over to the gendarmes. An investigation was ordered, followed by a series of searches in the apartment of the Cossack officer Usov and his friends in Tomsk; then followers of the arrests of persons whose names were found in the captured correspondence, also in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk. During a search in one apartment in Irkutsk, another proclamation was found. More than a dozen young people were arrested and taken to Omsk, where a commission of inquiry was formed. Loudly, the news spread through the Siberian cities of the case, which was exaggeratedly titled: "The case of malefactors who had the intention of separating Siberia from Russia and establishing a republic in it in the manner of the North American States."

As a result, the best citizens of Siberia suffered. The first martyr of the idea of \u200b\u200bSiberian independence and the first author of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Siberian Regional Duma was Grigory Nikolaevich Potanin.

The general epoch of reaction that soon arrived did not favor a new awakening of the idea of \u200b\u200bSiberian autonomy. Only groups of ideologists of this socio-political trend, who remained faithful to it until their very last days, got used to the idea of \u200b\u200bregionalism. For a long time this idea did not find a wide response among the Siberian population. But the idea of \u200b\u200bregionalism, as an idea of \u200b\u200bundoubtedly democratic origin, also met with sympathy among the occasional guests of Siberia, democratically inclined, albeit following different paths to the happiness of the people, to the establishment of the foundations of people's rule. The defenders of the idea of \u200b\u200bregionalism, Siberian autonomy, were such persons from the old Narodnaya Volya as F.V. Volkhovsky, S.L. Chudnovsky, S.P. Shvetsov and others.

In 1917, after the revolution, the ideas of regionalism began to enjoy great success and found support in moderate socialists, who saw in the transition to a federal structure of regions an opportunity to increase their influence, in contrast to the Bolsheviks.

The idea of \u200b\u200borganizing the Siberian Government grew gradually. First, in August 1917, representatives of the revolutionary democratic organizations of Siberia convened a conference in Tomsk to discuss the issue of creating in Siberia the true foundations of popular rule, and here for the first time the question of the need to construct Siberian power on special grounds came to light on real ground. Further, in October, an All-Siberian congress of representatives of the same organizations is convened, which already decides to convene in December of the same year an extraordinary Siberian regional congress from representatives of the same organizations; at this congress the question of the urgent need to organize a special Siberian power for the administration of autonomous Siberia was already directly raised. This extraordinary congress announced the convocation Siberian Regional Duma, worked out the Regulations on the temporary governing bodies of Siberia and elected the Provisional Siberian Regional Council - the executive body of the congress.

Convening of the Siberian Regional Duma

In the conditions of Bolshevism, the hope for the feasibility of convening the Duma could be based on the successful use of those organizations that developed during the Soviet regime. The drafters of the law adjusted to the moment. Therefore, the Statute on the Siberian Regional Duma turned out to be extremely imperfect. Almost half of the composition was elected by Soviet organizations: the councils of peasant, Cossack, and Kyrgyz deputies. Representatives of the front-line organizations of Siberian soldiers were included, representatives of unions of a semi-professional, semi-political nature (post-telegraph, railway, teacher and even student) were included. Much space was allotted to cooperation, trade unions and national organizations.

Representation of the bourgeoisie was completely excluded, as well as in the tips. The Statute granted the supreme power, modeled on the Soviet system, to the Duma, so that the executive body (of the ministry) had to be completely subordinate to it (the system of the convention of the French revolution).

Attitude of public circles to the Duma

The artificiality of the selection of representatives in the Siberian Regional Duma armed a significant part of the intelligentsia against it, especially from the party of "people's freedom". The very idea of \u200b\u200bSiberian autonomy, which seemed to be a manifestation of separatism, also raised doubts. The Bolsheviks also armed themselves against the Duma.

"Siberian speech" called the Siberian Regional Duma "a new socialist venture." Other influential newspapers, such as the Far East newspaper Golos Priamurya, a supporter of even greater decentralization, called the idea of \u200b\u200buniting the whole of Siberia and the Steppe Territory into a single whole, linking in one centralistic institution, the Siberian Regional Duma, almost a sixth of the earth sushi.

The Soviets, supported by Moscow and Petrograd, took an irreconcilable position towards the Siberian Duma. The Achinsk Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, agreeing with the Krasnoyarsk Executive Committee, “recognizes an attempt to counterrevolution under the guise of Siberia's autonomy and the convocation of the Siberian Constituent Assembly as unacceptable” and asks the Tomsk Soviet of Deputies to take all measures, starting with dispersal and arrest, without stopping to use armed force “for in order to defend the power of the Soviets ”.

It is not surprising after that that such a mood of public opinion in Siberia was reflected in the members of the Duma themselves. Representatives of the Siberian Regional Duma moved slowly to their destination.

Activities of the Regional Council

The Provisional Regional Council included Potanin, who left at the end of December, Derber, Patushinsky, Shatilov, Novoselov and Zakharov.

The regional council was given a very narrow and limited task by the congress: to convene the Regional Duma by January 10 on the grounds worked out by the congress. By force of things, however, the Regional Council began to carry out some functions of management, mainly, he was forced to enter into negotiations on the formation of power. At one time, he communicated with certain entities, such as the Trans-Baikal Regional Council, which temporarily exercised supreme power in the Trans-Baikal region, and with the ataman Semyonov, then the esaul, who greeted the Regional Council, and then the Regional Duma, indicating that he was also fighting the Bolsheviks under the slogan "Constituent Assembly". There were also relations with foreigners in the person of random representatives who were then in Tomsk, with China, through Ambassador Kudashev, regarding the periodic closure of the border for the transport of goods to the station. Manchuria, etc.

However, the Regional Council was deprived of the opportunity to do anything other than correspondence and negotiations. He had neither finance nor administrative apparatus; his entire office consisted of five people. The Regional Council consisted of financial and military councils, which were engaged in the development of issues for the Regional Duma.

G.N. Potanin

The chairman of the Regional Council, Potanin, was the most popular and respected person in Siberia. Potanin, who devoted his whole life to the service of his native Siberia, carefully researched both it and its neighboring countries, in particular Mongolia, had exceptional honesty and disinterestedness; his clear mind, alien to the fanaticism inherent in the Russian party intelligentsia, involuntarily attracted everyone. Potanin was keenly interested in and took an active part in the Siberian Congresses that took place at the end of 1917, and was elected chairman of the Regional Council at the last December extraordinary Siberian Congress. However, deep old age (Potanin was born in 1835) and physical weakness did not allow him to have a noticeable influence on the course of events in 1917-1918. Potanin retained his clear mind, but in a turbulent time, when temperament and energy took precedence over reason and knowledge, he was powerless to carry out his task - to reconcile extremes, to bring sobriety into the actions of party politicians.

A fierce struggle was going on around Potanin. Each pulled him in his direction. He, as chairman of the Regional Council, was forced to sign an act that boiled down to the recognition of the councils, albeit with a number of reservations. This was the reason for Potanin's withdrawal from the Regional Council. He felt that he could not fulfill the role he had assumed. Energetic youth prevailed. It was not possible to reconcile anyone. Members of the Regional Council, like Derber, who was alien to Siberia and a typical politician of the new formation, were unpleasant for Potanin.

Having left the Regional Council, Potanin continued to listen to what was happening, blessed the actions of some, and gave advice to others. He was elected the honorary chairman of the Duma and then was the first to be awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Siberia by the Siberian Government.

P. Ya. Derber

The most energetic and influential member of the Regional Council was Derber. A man of remarkable abilities, a good speaker, he also possessed great energy and perseverance, which somehow did not harmonize with his unusually miniature, almost dwarf figure and funny childish face. Long before the revolution, Derber worked in the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was its professional leader and lived at its expense. This is a special type of purely political figure in Russia, unloved by wide circles of Russian society.

Despite the liveliness of character and the ability to soberly assess the situation, Derber was still a typical party man in politics. His moral qualities were given unfavorable reviews even among people close to his party.

January meetings of the Duma

Meanwhile, the quorum of the Regional Duma was not recruited. This was partly due to the vast distances of Siberia, partly because almost all workers' organizations boycotted the Duma. By January 7, the Duma could not be opened. By January 20 alone, about a hundred people had gathered, and the opening of the Duma was scheduled for February 1. Until then, meetings of the Duma factions and private meetings of Duma members took place. The most powerful groups in the Duma were: the Socialist Revolutionary faction and the faction of representatives of various ethnic groups in Siberia (it was called the "faction of nationalities"). This faction was more moderate than the Socialist-Revolutionary. In addition to the natives - Kyrgyz, Buryats, Yakuts - it included Poles, Ukrainians and Germans-colonists.

The main attention in the factions was focused on the questions of replenishing the composition of the Regional Duma with representatives of "qualified" elements and on the development of an electoral law for the Siberian Constituent Assembly, which, according to the December emergency congress, was to be convened in March 1918. The Provisional Government, which was supposed it was necessary to elect in the Duma; in essence, it should have been concerned only with holding elections to the Siberian Constituent Assembly. This partly explained the fact that the question of candidates for the Provisional Siberian Government was the least discussed in the factions, and only the Regional Council and the leaders of the factions dwelt on it somewhat. And meanwhile, while the Regional Council and the Siberian Duma sought to gather Siberia and begin, together with other parts of Russia, the struggle against the Bolsheviks, Bolshevism had already begun to strengthen in Siberia not as a political party, but as a government. In mid-December, Omsk passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks. But the Socialist Revolutionary Party expected that the All-Russian Constituent Assembly would overcome Bolshevism and that in the event of an encroachment on the Constituent Assembly, a civil war with the Bolsheviks would break out throughout Russia. In January, the Bolsheviks began to extend their influence to Tomsk, not daring, however, to oppose decisively the Regional Council and the Duma. On the night of January twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth, the Bolsheviks, obviously wanting to prevent the opening of the Duma, unexpectedly for the Regional Council arrested its members: Patushinsky, Shatilov and several members of the Duma, including Yakushev, who had been designated by the factions as chairmen. Of the rest of the members of the Regional Council, Derber was in Tomsk, who managed to avoid arrest. Derber and the representatives of the factions, meeting in secret, decided to arrange secretly from the Bolsheviks a meeting of the Regional Duma, at which the Provisional Siberian Government would be elected.

Election of the government

The Socialist Revolutionary faction has long objected to the election of a government. She considered it impossible to make an election in such an abnormal environment. “We can only re-elect the Council and instruct it to convene a more complete Regional Duma in the Far East,” said the socialist revolutionaries. Only Derber insisted on the election of a plenipotentiary government, which, having moved to the Far East, could act and decide. Members of the "faction of nationalities" also spoke out against the election of the government. In the end, the factions yielded to Derber's insistence. They demanded only the inclusion of socialist-revolutionaries in the government in the number guaranteeing the majority. In the absence of a sufficient number of "suitable" candidates, they nominated members of the Regional Council, Shatilov and Zakharov, for the ministers, whom they initially did not intend to include in the government due to their insufficient preparation for ministerial posts, as well as the even less prepared local socialist-revolutionary Kudryavtsev.

The "national" faction demanded the creation, in addition to the ministry of indigenous peoples for the affairs of the Kirghiz, Buryats and other nationalities occupying a certain territory, also a ministry of "extraterritorial" peoples, i.e. foreigners scattered throughout Siberia, such as Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, etc. These two ministries were to be replaced by the candidates of the faction. In addition, the faction demanded that its candidate also be granted the post of Minister of Public Education.

As a result of these negotiations, the Regional Duma elected a Provisional Government in a secret meeting.

Do I need to describe this meeting?

In a private apartment, a small group of members of the Duma, about twenty out of a hundred and fifty, gathered on the sly, "elected" sixteen ministers with portfolios and four without portfolios. Six people present self-elected themselves to the Council of Ministers.

Constantly listening to whether the Bolsheviks were coming, the brave conspirators quickly shouted out the names of the candidates, barely managing to stop at their assessment, electing even random strangers, such as I. Mikhailov, who was, for example, proposed as finance minister by one random participant from the "apparatus." Nobody even thought about whether the electorate would agree, whether they would be satisfied with the “company” of Derber and others. So Vologodsky, Ustrugov, Serebrennikov, Krutovsky, who were not asked for their consent by anyone, got into the ministers.

There was no election procedure. The system "par acclamation" was applied (no voting. - Ed.).

As a result, the Duma elected Derber as chairman and temporarily minister of agriculture (the faction of socialist revolutionaries demanded that the post of minister of agriculture be given to its candidate); Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vologda; Minister of Health Krutovsky; Minister of War Krakowiecki; Minister of Internal Affairs Novoselov; Finance Minister Yves. Mikhailova; Minister of Supply and Food Serebrennikov; Minister of Justice Patushinsky; Minister of Public Education Rinchino; Minister of Trade and Industry Kolobov; Minister of Railways Ustrugov; Minister of Labor Yudin; Minister of Native Affairs Tiber-Petrov; the Minister of Extraterritorial Nationalities of the Ukrainian Sulim; state controller Zhernakov; Secretary of State of the Moravian; ministers without portfolios: Shatilova, Kudryavtseva, Zakharova, Neometullova. Yakushev was elected Chairman of the Duma.

It must be said that consent to join the Siberian Government was obtained only from Derber, Moravsky, Kolobov, Tiber-Petrov, Yudin, Neometullov, who were in Tomsk.

Negotiations were never conducted with many of the chosen ones, in particular with Vologda, Serebrennikov, Krutovsky, Mikhailov and others; some learned about their election as ministers only on the eve of the anti-Bolshevik coup in Siberia.

The Duma could not elect a government only from among its own members due to the extremely low level of political preparedness of its members.

The result of the "election"

The conditions for electing a government were generally extremely abnormal. The need to hold elections in the shortest possible time, the impossibility of communicating openly because of the fear of the Bolsheviks, and finally, the lack of preparation for this by the members of the Duma made the elections, in essence, were held by Derber, people around him who did not belong to the Duma, and several of the most influential members of the Duma. In any case, since the Duma exerted its influence, the government was chosen unsuccessfully. The election of Derber as chairman of the government, a man completely unknown to Siberia and alien to it, the elections of Shatilov, Tiber-Petrov, Zakharov, Kudryavtsev, Neometullov, Yudin were made under pressure from the Duma and were very unsuccessful. Tiber-Petrov interfered with the work of the Siberian Government in the Far East. Kudryavtsev, Zakharov, Neometullov, Yudin quietly left the stage. Shatilov was the punishment of the Siberian Government for its original sin - the fiction of being elected.

Derber gave assurances to representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary faction that Vologodsky, Krutovsky, Mikhailov were orthodox socialist revolutionaries, although he was not sure of this himself. He was mistaken, and yet it was these figures who later played the most prominent role.

Dispersal of the Duma

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks declared the Duma dissolved.

“On the basis of the decree of the Central Committee of the Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies of All Siberia, the West Siberian Regional Committee, the Tomsk Provincial Committee of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the West Siberian and Akmola Committees of the Council of Peasants' Deputies and a number of resolutions of the local Soviets of Deputies, the Presidium of the Council of Workers' and The dissolved Regional Duma, members of the provisional Siberian Regional Council, subject to arrest and trial by a revolutionary tribunal on charges of organizing power hostile to workers 'and peasants' councils. All local councils must immediately take measures to detain the following persons: Alexander Yefimovich Novoselov, Dmitry Grigorievich Sulim, Alexander Alexandrovich Sotnikov, Yusuf Raadovich Saiev, Yevgeny Vasilyevich Zakharov, Sergei Andreyevich Kudryavtsev and Ivan Stepanovich Yudin. All members of the Regional Duma, in the event of disobeying the resolution on dissolution, are declared enemies of the people and are brought to trial by the revolutionary tribunal. Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Tomsk Soviet. January 26, 1918 Tomsk ".

All that remained was to disperse and prepare for the fight. On January 27, Derber drew up a declaration on behalf of the Duma.

Declaration of the Siberian Duma

The declaration begins with words of indignation against the Bolsheviks.

“The hope of all the regions and nationalities that make up the great revolutionary Russia - the National Constituent Assembly - was criminally dispersed by the Bolsheviks and the so-called 'Left Socialist-Revolutionaries'.

That which was the dream and goal of many revolutionary generations in the hard struggle against tsarism; what was the only anchor for the salvation of the great revolution; that true, complete rule of the people, which alone could consolidate and deepen the gains of the revolution, was defeated and betrayed by the Bolsheviks.

The Council of People's Commissars, which has infringed upon the power of the Constituent Assembly, is an enemy of the people. The traitors to the revolution are the Bolsheviks, who oppose the Soviets of Peasant, Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies to the Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly, called upon to establish the basic laws of the economic, social and political life of the entire country, is by no means not against advice as class organizations; on the contrary, in its legislative work it relies on councils, as well as on all democratic labor organizations in the country. "

The Duma is thus flirting with the Soviets of Workers' Deputies, not daring to put an end to them.

"one. The Duma devotes all its forces and means to protect and promptly resume the work of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, which has recognized the autonomy of Siberia and other parts of the state by the law on the federal structure of the Russian Democratic Republic.

2. Until the convocation of the All-Siberian Constituent Assembly, all power within Siberia belongs to the provisional Siberian Regional Duma.

3. The Duma will take all measures for the immediate convocation of the Siberian Constituent Assembly, which will be the support of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and will be the builder of a new life for the working classes and peoples of Siberia.

4. The Duma expresses its resolute protest against a separate peace, and if the Bolsheviks conclude it, it does not take on itself either moral or material responsibility for this criminal step.

5. Before the conclusion of peace, the Duma considers it necessary to take urgent measures:

a) to the systematic recall of tired Siberian soldiers from the front and the nearest rear to their homeland;

b) to the dissolution of the garrisons located in Siberia, and

c) to the creation of a volunteer Siberian army, with the aim of protecting the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, autonomous Siberia and the Siberian Constituent Assembly.

6. Peoples living on their territory, at different times annexed to the Russian state, decide by freely expressed will, through congresses and referendums, whether they are separated from the Russian federal republic and form independent states or are included as autonomous-federal units in the Russian republic.

7. In the field of land relations, the Duma considers it necessary to implement the law adopted by the All-Russian Constituent Assembly on the redemption of all landlord lands, as well as all private, state and other, with waters, forests and bowels, into the public domain, establishing the inviolable right of every worker to land. Within the limits and on the basis of the basic law on land, the Siberian Constituent Assembly issues a law on land in Siberia, taking into account the climatic, ethnographic, natural-historical and cultural-economic conditions of the latter.

8. In the field of extractive and manufacturing industries - the beginning of the nationalization of mines, mines, etc. and the organization of public control and regulation. "

These are the main provisions of the declaration of the Siberian Regional Duma.

Her final words are:

“With faith in the people's labor forces, with a sense of great responsibility, with a selfless desire to save the dying Siberia, the Duma is embarking on the path of supreme legislative power in a free autonomous Siberian republic».

It is clear from this declaration that the Siberian Regional Duma has built its program on Chernov's principles.

The transfer of land without redemption into the national property (the meaning of this stereotyped provision in Siberia will always remain incomprehensible, if you do not look at the declaration as a demagogic speech), nationalization of the extractive and manufacturing industries (without specifying any limits for it), preservation of Soviet organizations, the declaration of Siberia autonomous republic (according to the principle of federation) and at the same time, the predetermination of the subordination of the Siberian Constituent Assembly to the supreme power of the All-Russian - all this was not a real program, but only a political game of rivalry with the Bolsheviks. As soon as the Siberian Government began the practical exercise of power, it had to move away from all these program provisions.

Moving of the Siberian Government to the Far East

Having elected a government, accepting the foundations of the declaration, entrusting the development of it to the presidium of the Duma, the members of the Duma decided to disperse in order to make their way alone to the Far East, where the presidium of the Duma and the government was to immediately go.

However, the members of the Derber and Moravsky government who were in Tobolsk stayed in Tomsk to organize the Commissariat, which would unite in its hands the preparations for the struggle against the Bolsheviks in Western Siberia. This task was entrusted to members P. Mikhailov and Lindberg, who had recently returned from Petrograd after the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly.

Military anti-Bolshevik organizations were formed, contacts were established with the already existing secret officer organizations. Similar organizations were then established in Eastern Siberia, in particular in Irkutsk and Chita.

The situation in the East was constantly changing. The Bolsheviks that appeared in Transbaikalia were eliminated by the 1st Transbaikal Cossack Regiment, which returned from the front, but by the time the Presidium of the Duma and some members of the government moved to Chita (late February), Soviet power was restored there, thanks to the arrival of the Bolshevik-minded 2nd Transbaikal Regiment from the front.

The Presidium of the Duma, some of its members and members of the government, including Derber, Moravsky, Tiber-Petrov, Yudin, Kolobov, Zhernakov, had to travel further to the East, to Harbin. Later, Krakovetsky, Novoselov, Kudryavtsev, Neometullov came to Vladivostok. Zakharov had been there earlier. Other members of the government did not come to Vladivostok, alone because they did not know that they were elected (Vologodsky, Krutovsky, Serebrennikov, Mikhailov) - they lived quietly in Siberia, since the Bolsheviks did not know about their election as ministers. Rinchino refused to join the government - he was busy exclusively with Buryat affairs; Sulima joined the Bolshevik Council of Deputies in Barnaul, where he was killed during the anti-Bolshevik uprising and the victory of the Siberian Government. He fought the Bolsheviks against the very government of which he was a member. Finally, Ustrugov joined another grouping that was hostile to the Siberian Government - the grouping of General Horvath.

Far Eastern political centers

The Soviet authorities closely followed the Far East, seeing the counter-revolution that was brewing there. No. 102 of Soviet Izvestia for 1918 gives the following description of the Far Eastern centers, accompanied by the usual epithets - "swindlers", "crooks", "bandits", etc.

“The Far East is now living a lively political life. Harbin became the center where all the anti-Soviet elements of Siberia, partly Russia, gathered. One of the centers around which, in essence, there is no circulation, is the so-called Siberian Government, in other words, the group of Potanin and Derber. In the first moments after October this group enjoyed quite a lot of influence in Siberia, but then the development of Bolshevism swept it out of the arena of political life. Nevertheless, the so-called Siberian Government, until very recently, claimed the leading role of the opposition against Soviet power and conducted very important negotiations both with representatives of the great powers and with various social groups. Another center around which Siberian, Russian and foreign political and financial swindlers and adventurers revolve is the "Far Eastern Committee for the Active Defense of the Motherland and the Constituent Assembly." The political physiognomy of this committee is very unclear. It includes individuals whose liberalism and democracy are beyond question, but, on the other hand, a group of financial businessmen has a decisive influence on the direction of its policy.

Finally, the third center is the so-called "Beijing government". This is already the association of the largest financial swindler, headed by the well-known Putilov and V. Lvov, the brother of the former prime minister (such a government did not really exist. - Auth.).

General Horvath plays an important role in Harbin. General Horvat in recent years was the permanent head of the East China Railway (Chinese Eastern Railway. - Ed.) and as such acquired great international connections and gained popularity in the financial circles of the Far East. General Horvath is somewhat aloof, but, in essence, between him, the Peking group and the Far East committee, a complete identity in views was established and a general plan of activities was developed.

As for the activities of Admiral Kolchak, he did not participate directly in the development of the initial plan of activities, but, obviously, he was aware of and at the decisive moment agreed to give his name to the movement, the first sign of which is Semyonov's offensive.

At first, negotiations were held between the bourgeois groups of the Far East and the group of Potanin and Derber on the formation of a single center and a general plan of action. Foreigners also insisted on such an agreement. These negotiations, however, did not lead to anything, and the group of Potanin and Derber, of a definitely Socialist-Revolutionary character, remained behind the flag. "

Allies

Further, the newspaper characterizes the attitude towards the "Far Eastern issue" on the part of England, Japan and America. "The agreement between them, - the newspaper says, - has already been achieved. One of the conditions for foreign intervention is the creation of such a political center in the Far East, which would wear not only local character, but also general Russian, and who would be able to win the confidence of "wide circles of the Russian people" ".

Semyonovshchina

“The movement, headed by Esaul Semyonov, in itself does not pose a threat to Soviet power. The people behind him set themselves the goal of proving to their patrons that active interference in the affairs of the Far East not only will not cause resentment, but will meet with widespread sympathy among the population. But Semyonov's gangs soon began to show the skills of the pre-revolutionary period. Executions, whipping with whips almost without exception of all the soldiers passing through Manchuria, and they were robbed to the skin, created an unkind reputation for the detachment in the lower ranks of the population. In addition, it became known that the detachment is being supplied with weapons by Japan. "

As can be seen from this note in the official Soviet organ, the colorful language of which has been fully preserved, the Bolsheviks were quite well aware of what was happening in the Far East, but they underestimated the seriousness of the opposing forces.

Semyonov is a representative of the Cossack officer family, influential in the east of Transbaikalia. His mother is a Buryat. He speaks Mongolian and Buryat dialects, and this provides him with great influence among these nationalities. Under Kerensky, he undertook to recruit a cavalry regiment from the Buryats and Mongols. After the October Revolution, Semyonov settled at st. Manchuria, on the border of Transbaikalia and China. Gradually, his detachment changed in its composition and received the name "Special Manchurian detachment". Semyonov, the ataman of the detachment, announced that he was setting himself the task of protecting the Constituent Assembly, self-government bodies and a merciless struggle against the Bolsheviks. At this time, riots were taking place in Outer Mongolia, and Semyonov drew the disaffected to his side. Since Semyonov's position was anti-Chinese - for he supported the Mongolian separatists - he stopped before the possibility of opposing the Chinese, but on the other hand, wider opportunities were opened up in relation to Japanese assistance.

The ancient antagonism in Transbaikalia of the Buryats and Cossacks, on the one hand, and old-time peasants, on the other, - the antagonism based on disputes over land, was also in Semyonov's hands.

Bolshevism in Transbaikalia appeared only with the arrival of some of the Cossack units corrupted and decomposed at the front. He captured the old-timers, who, like in many other parts of Siberia, understood him in a peculiar way. My colleague in the cabinet, Serebrennikov, talked about a peasant verdict in Transbaikalia, in which it was declared: the land is nobody's, national, therefore it should belong to the people, not the Buryats.

Naturally, such an original nationalization of the land repelled the Buryats from Bolshevism. Many Cossacks were outraged by him. Semyonov could count on acquiring the support of a solid part of the region's population.

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In the spring of 1918, the Czechoslovak corps rebelled. He moved to the Volga, cutting off central Russia from Siberia. In June, the White Czechs took Samara. Anti-Bolshevik parties (Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks) created a provisional government in Samara. In July 1918, the Siberian government was created in Omsk, which ruled over Western Siberia. The anti-Bolshevik camp in the East was weakened by the confrontation between the Samara and Omsk governments. Unlike the one-party Komuch, the Provisional Siberian Government was a coalition government. It was headed by P.V. Vologda. The left wing in the government was made up of the Social Revolutionaries B.M. Shatilov, G.B. Patushinskii, V.M. Krutovsky. The right side of the government - I.A. Mikhailov, I.N. Serebrennikov, N.N. Petrov - held cadet and pro-monarchist positions.

The government's program was formed under significant pressure from its right wing. Already at the beginning of July 1918, the government announced the abolition of all decrees issued by the Council of People's Commissars, and the liquidation of the Soviets, the return to the owners of their estates with all the inventory. The Siberian government pursued a policy of repression against dissidents, the press, meetings, etc. Komuch protested against this policy.

Despite sharp contradictions, the two rival governments had to negotiate. At the Ufa state meeting, a "temporary all-Russian government" was created. The meeting concluded its work with the election of the Directory. N.D. Avksentiev, N.I. Astrov, V.G. Boldyrev, P.V. Vologodsky, N.V. Tchaikovsky.

In its political program, the Directory declared the struggle for the overthrow of the Bolsheviks' power, the annulment of the Brest-Litovsk Peace and the continuation of the war with Germany as the main tasks. The short-term nature of the new government was emphasized by the clause that the Constituent Assembly was to meet in the near future - on January 1 or February 1, 1919, after which the Directory would resign.

The Directory, having abolished the Siberian government, could now, it seemed, implement an alternative program to the Bolshevik. However, the balance between democracy and dictatorship was upset. Samara Komuch, representing democracy, was disbanded. The Social Revolutionaries' attempt to restore the Constituent Assembly failed.

Established in Siberia in 1918-1919. the political regime led by the Directory, headed by the Supreme Ruler of Russia, was more liberal than in the South of Russia. The political bloc on which the Siberian government relied (with the capital in Omsk) included a wide range of parties - from monarchists to socialists (Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks). On the territory of the Siberian government, a Constituent Assembly was convened, discussing the issues raised by it back in January 1918. Zemstvo and city self-government bodies, magistrates' courts, trade unions and public organizations were restored, as well as the effect of statutes and regulations adopted before October 1917.

In September 1918, at the Ufa meeting, an attempt was made to unite all these territories under a single leadership. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Omsk, Samara governments, national (Kazakh, Turkic-Tatar, Bashkir) and Cossack military governments. They signed an act establishing the All-Russian Provisional Government. Power was concentrated in the hands of the Directory with its center in Omsk. On the night of November 17-18, 1918, the leaders of the Directory were arrested. The directory was replaced by the dictatorship of A.V. Kolchak. It seemed that with the nomination for the role of dictator A.V. Kolchak, the Whites had a leader who would lead the entire anti-Bolshevik movement. In the provision on the temporary structure of state power, approved on the day of the coup, the Council of Ministers, the supreme state power was temporarily transferred to the Supreme Ruler, and all the Armed Forces of the Russian state were subordinate to him. A.V. Kolchak was soon recognized as the Supreme Ruler by the leaders of other white fronts, and the Western allies recognized him de facto.

The political and ideological ideas of the leaders and ordinary members of the white movement were as diverse as the socially heterogeneous movement itself. Of course, some part strove for the restoration of the monarchy, the old, pre-revolutionary regime in general. But the leaders of the white movement refused to raise the monarchist banner and put forward a monarchist program. This also applies to A.V. Kolchak.

To a direct question from the chairman of the commission whether he was a monarchist, Kolchak frankly and honestly answered: “I was a monarchist and I do not shy away from this at all ... I ... could not consider myself a republican, because then this did not exist in nature. Before the 1917 revolution, I considered myself a monarchist. " Then the admiral said that, nevertheless, he welcomed the change of government as a result of the February Revolution, voluntarily took the oath of allegiance to the Provisional Government and the perfect revolution "conscientiously" and from that moment began to consider himself "completely free from any obligations in relation to the monarchy »Quoted from: Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich - the last days of life / Compiled by G.V. Egorov. - M., 2005. - S. 135 ..

As for the question of the future state structure of the country, the former head of the all-Russian white movement believed that only "the people themselves should establish a form of government in the constituent body" and whatever they chose, Kolchak would have obeyed. “I thought that the monarchy would probably be completely destroyed,” the admiral concluded further, “it was clear to me that it was absolutely impossible to restore the old monarchy, and nowadays they no longer choose a new dynasty, I thought that with this question already finished, and thought that, probably, some republican form of government would be established, and I considered this republican form of government to meet the needs of the country "Quote from: Kolchak Alexander Vasilievich - the last days of life / Compiled by G.V. Egorov. - M., 2005. - P. 136 ..

Kolchak agreed to convene a new Constituent Assembly after the restoration of order. He assured Western governments that there could be no "return to the regime that existed in Russia before February 1917." Kolchak A.V. "... Having accepted the cross of this power ...". Appeal to the population // Reader on the history of Russia 1917 - 1940 / Edited by prof. M.E. Glavatsky - M., 1995. - P.134., The broad masses of the population will be allotted with land, differences on religious and national grounds will be eliminated. Confirming the complete independence of Poland and the limited independence of Finland, Kolchak agreed to "prepare decisions" on the fate of the Baltic states, the Caucasian and Trans-Caspian peoples. The Supreme Ruler outlined his program as follows: after the "cleansing" of European Russia of the Bolsheviks, a firm military power should be introduced with the task of preventing anarchy and establishing order, and then immediately "proceed to elections to the Constituent Assembly, which will establish the mode of government in the state." At the opening of the meeting, he and the government headed by him would declare their resignation. The most difficult issue for the anti-Bolshevik movement was the agrarian question. Kolchak did not manage to solve it. The war with the Bolsheviks, while Kolchak was waging it, could not guarantee the peasants the transfer of the landlord's land to them. The national policy of the Kolchak government is also marked by the same deep internal contradiction. Acting under the slogan of "one and indivisible" Russia, it did not reject "self-determination of peoples" as an ideal.

The demands of the delegations of Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, the North Caucasus, Belarus and Ukraine put forward at the Versailles conference, Kolchak actually rejected. Refusing to create an anti-Bolshevik conference in the regions liberated from the Bolsheviks, Kolchak pursued a policy doomed to failure.

From the middle of 1919, military success turned away from the admiral and the time of bitter defeats and betrayals came, which ended in the winter of 1919/20. the rapid fall of Kolchak and his personal tragedy. On February 7, 1920 A. Kolchak and his prime minister V. Pepelyaev were shot.

Buchko N.P., Tsipkin Yu.N.

POLITICAL VIEWS AND ACTIVITIES A.V. Kolchak

In 1917 - 1920

One of the most controversial and controversial figures of the Civil War in Russia is Admiral A.V. Kolchak. Leaving aside his merits as a researcher of the North and a naval commander during the Russian-Japanese and World War I, I would like to dwell on his political views and activities during the years of the Revolution and the Civil War.

A.V. Kolchak reflected back in 1912 in his work "Service of the General Staff", where he noted: "If we have defined politics as the doctrine of struggle as applied to state life, then a priori we can be sure that the principles of war, as such, are fully applicable and to politics ..., the essence of state policy rests on the same principles as military affairs, since politics is only a form of the basic idea of \u200b\u200bstruggle, common in application to the solution of state tasks, the achievement of strategic or tactical goals. " Such were the political views of many members of the military elite, who put war over politics. Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V. Kolchak accepted the tsar's abdication as a fact. He wrote about the changes that were taking place: "For ten days I was engaged in politics and I feel deep disgust for it, for my politics is the command of the authorities that can command me."

In the summer of 1917, right-wing circles were actively looking for a candidate for the post of military dictator. Even then, representatives of the US American mission in Russia E. Ruth and J. Glennon suggested to the Provisional Government that A.V. Kolchak as chief of a military mission to the US Navy. In America, the admiral learned about the events of October 1917 in Russia. In March 1918 A.V. Kolchak, who enlisted in the British Armed Forces and en route to Mesopotamia from Japan via Shanghai and Singapore, was sent through Beijing to Manchuria in order to lead the anti-Bolshevik forces along with Semyonov. “The British government. found that I needed to be used in Siberia in the form of allies and Russia. ", - wrote A.V. Kolchak to his common-law wife A.V. Timireva in

march 1918 from Singapore. At a meeting of anti-Bolshevik forces in Beijing, held from April 18 to May 3, 1918, its participants announced that the admiral could unite anti-Soviet forces in the region. On May 10, Kolchak was appointed commander of the troops being formed in the exclusion zone of the CER. But the attempt to form an efficient military force failed because of the separatism of the Cossack atamans G.M. Semenov and I.P. Kalmykov, various officer detachments operating on the CER with the open support of the Japanese. This made Kolchak give up his command and membership in the board of the CER and leave for Japan to "heal his nerves."

On September 29, 1918, at the Ufa State Conference, the Directory was created, which declared itself the Provisional All-Russian Government. It was a temporary and very unstable compromise between right-wing socialists and cadets. Admiral A.V., who had arrived from Japan together with the British General A. Knox, was invited to the post of Minister of War of the Directory. Kolchak. The directory did not last long. On the night of November 18, 1918, officers and Cossacks, with the support of Colonel Ward's British battalion, staged a coup in Omsk. Neither the British, nor the cadets, nor the officers could put up with the right-wing socialist parties any longer and relied on a military dictatorship.

Admiral Kolchak, close in his political preferences to the Cadets, agreed to the persuasion of the head of the Eastern Department of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party (KDP) V.N. Pepeliaev and the right-wing officers and took over the post of military dictator. The Omsk government formed after Kolchak came to power included representatives of the KDP, among whom were G.K. Gins, G.G. Telberg, V.N. Pepeliaev and others. For some time, the right Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks remained in the government. Later, in March 1919, V.N. Pepeliaev wrote to the leadership of the National Center cadet organization about the purpose of his mission in Siberia: The National Center sent me eastward to work in favor of the sole dictatorship and to negotiate with Admiral Kolchak in order to prevent a rivalry between the names of Alekseev and Kolchak. With the death of Alekseev, the admiral's candidacy became indisputable ... ". A.V. Kolchak became the Supreme Ruler of Russia and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the White Guards, and other leaders

The White movement recognized these titles for him. Kolchak received the rank of full admiral.

Cadets and white generals covered themselves with slogans of non-partisanship and apoliticality of the army, although they purposefully pursued their policy. All the socialist parties and the Constituent Assembly, "which sang the International under the leadership of Chernov," evoked a negative attitude in the admiral. He credited the Bolsheviks with only one thing — the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly.

The admiral was a supporter of the use of armed violence as a possible means of political struggle, and he defined war as an invariable manifestation of public life. All these militaristic ideas were reflected in the further political activities of Kolchak. Kolchak saw the main reason for Russia's disunity in the denial of national interests by society in favor of party interests. It was here that Kolchak's misunderstanding of public life and the reasons for the social split in Russia manifested itself, which found expression in the inter-party struggle.

The reaction of the population to the coming to power of Kolchak was the fear that "the former tsarist admiral wants to return the tsar and restore the monarchy in Russia." True, A.V. Kolchak and his administration publicly declared the impossibility of restoring the monarchy.

In the opinion of Kolchak's supporters, his appearance as the Supreme Ruler was supposed to become a unifying principle for all anti-Bolshevik forces in Siberia and the Far East. Kolchak was supported by the "Russian Political Conference", created at the end of 1918 in Paris and designed to unite and represent anti-Bolshevik forces abroad. Kolchak also enjoyed the full support of a number of foreign governments. He was recognized as the new leader of the anti-Bolshevik forces by Russian military missions abroad.

However, not all anti-Soviet forces supported Kolchak's rise to power. These included, in particular, the command of the Czechoslovak Corps and the Czechoslovak National Council, close to the right-wing socialists. True, their hesitation was short-lived. The most noticeable expression of dissatisfaction with the arrival of Kolchak to power was the demarche of Ataman of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army and the head of the Far Eastern Union of Cossack Troops G.M. Semenov. He even

threatened to declare the autonomy of Eastern Siberia and create the Chingizid empire.

In the initial period of the anti-Bolshevik struggle, the admiral praised the work of the zemstvo in organizing power in the East, noted the business nature of the activities of these structures in the field. But later, such an assessment did not prevent Kolchak from ignoring the zemstvo. When solving internal political tasks facing the authorities, he gave priority to his military protégés. It was the military component of power, according to the admiral, that was the guarantee of its existence. Only the crisis of the policy pursued by the Supreme Ruler forced him to establish the State Zemsky Council, which was thought by some leaders of the regime as a representative body. Such an assessment of the Meeting aroused the admiral's indignation; he called him "Sovdep" and almost dispersed him.

The most important factor that influenced the formation of the policy of the Kolchak government was the influence of foreign states, which were solving their main task - opposing Bolshevism. However, all the help of A.V. The interventionists rendered Kolchak only in direct connection with the successes of the white armies and only for currency (with 100% prepayment) and compensation in the form of concessions and trade on favorable terms. The embezzlement of part of the gold reserves of Russia, seized by anti-Bolshevik forces in 1918 in Kazan, amounted to 242 million gold. rub. out of 651, 5 evils. rub. (in 1914 prices). The invaders imposed on the white governments in Siberia and the Far East a number of unequal agreements on mining, mining and export of minerals. So, in particular A.V. Kolchak in 1919 extended the Russian-Japanese agreement on fishing in 1907, which was unequal and damaging the marine reserves of the Far Eastern seas. A.V. himself Kolchak complained about the dominance of the Japanese in the Far East and the humiliation of the Russian authorities by the Japanese interventionists. When the white armies began to suffer defeat, the "Russian patriot" A.V. Kolchak sent General Romanovsky to Japan with a request for a new dispatch of troops to Russia. In return, Omsk promised the Japanese new concessions and a section of the CER from Changchun to Harbin. The Japanese promised Kolchak to maintain order in the Far East, to settle the misunderstandings of Omsk with the Far Eastern atamans. July 22, 1919 Japan finally refused to send Kolchak

2 divisions west of Irkutsk, and in October Tokyo confirmed the refusal. Japan, as before, was guided by the seizure of the Russian Far East, and was not going to go west beyond Baikal.

The allies tried, by imposing conditions of assistance to the whites, to reproduce the basic principles of Western democracy, to export to Russia the "matrix" of American and European economic, political and social institutions. On May 26, 1919, the allies presented Kolchak with a note outlining the conditions under which assistance would be provided to the White regime. After the capture of Moscow, Kolchak was advised to convene a Constituent Assembly, to organize the free election of local self-government bodies, to ensure civil liberties and freedom of religion, not to restore class privileges, not to revive landlord ownership, to recognize the independence of Poland and Finland, etc. Thus, it was not only about giving the Kolchak regime a democratic look, but also about the Entente's desire to put the leaders of the White movement under their control.

Within the framework of administrative management, a system was built with governors, the police apparatus and the judiciary, similar to the bodies of pre-revolutionary Russia. All these attributes of the new, based on the temporal and personal component, power (but old in content) found expression in the emerging public opinion about a possible return to the old-regime Russia after Kolchak's victory. The inability of the created system of administrative bodies was also confirmed by the actions of the military authorities, various punitive detachments, which often ignored the orders of civilian officials. The existing system of power-dictatorial relations presupposed strict subordination of all structures to higher leadership and the closure of the power pyramid on the control of one person - a dictator. However, the formed structures could not withstand the pressure on them from the military leaders themselves. The weakness of the created system was due to both the lack of practical experience in administrative activities among most of the military involved in it, and the absence in the region of those who had experience in administrative work. The established judicial system is a typical example of this situation. Along with the existing civil jury trials and other formal attributes of legal consideration of controversial issues, the Kolchak regime for maintaining public order

resorted to the use of purely military force. Kolchak endowed the commanders of military units with special powers, which resulted in reprisals against the local population. Unable to ensure widespread observance of the rule of law, the local authorities and internal affairs bodies asked the military structures to send detachments to the territories under their control to maintain public order. Moreover, the measures taken by the military concerned both the issues of combating crimes of a criminal-administrative nature, and the elimination of political opponents of the regime. He practiced the regime and recruiting the heads of city and district structures of law enforcement agencies (militia), special forces, military officers, without having a proper legal education.

Kolchak's regime did not correspond to either parliamentary democracy or presidential republic. He relied on military force and limited the functions of civilian power to purely nominal functions. It was an authoritarian military regime. So, in particular, in order to suppress the partisan movement in the Yenisei and Irkutsk provinces, Kolchak, by order of March 31, 1919, granted the commander of the Irkutsk military district, General Artemyev, the rights of an army commander, and the commander of troops in the areas covered by the partisan movement, General Rozanov, the rights of general - the governor. Rozanov ordered the burning of several villages, the inhabitants of which were helping the partisans. Later, during interrogation in Irkutsk, Kolchak said that his order did not concern the burning of villages, but "during the fighting and suppression of the uprising, such a measure is inevitable." According to the memoirs of the Chief Executive Officer of the Supreme Ruler and the Council of Ministers G.K. Ginsa, A.V. Kolchak frankly told him that “the civil war must be merciless. I order the chiefs of the units to shoot all the captured communists. Either we will shoot them, or they will shoot us. If I lift martial law, you will immediately be arrested by the Bolsheviks, or the Socialist-Revolutionaries, or your members of the Economic Conference, like Alekseevsky, or your governors, like Yakovlev. "

The Kolchak government did not actually manage the territory. The army commanders did whatever they pleased. They were completely independent in their military and civil policy and actions. Siberia under Kolchak, in fact, turned into a conglomerate

military principalities, only nominally subordinate to the government. The arbitrariness of the white military on the ground only testified to the weakness of the vertical of power, the arbitrariness of the executors of all structural divisions, and the ineffectiveness of the judicial and legal system. In addition, the government was struck by the internecine strife. Kolchak's orders to stop mutual accusations of departments and specific strife under pain of punishment, to work together and not to ruin the state were ignored.

In a direct conversation with Prime Minister Pepeliaev, Kolchak described the political situation as follows: “The activities of the chiefs of district militia, special forces, all kinds of commandants, chiefs of individual detachments is a continuous crime. All this is aggravated by the activities of military units: Polish and Czech, who do not recognize anything and stand outside any law. We have to deal with a deeply depraved contingent of self-serving employees who ignore all notions of call of duty and discipline. This is the environment in which you have to work. " ... But A.V. Kolchak, at the mercy of his military clique, does not relieve him of guilt for the White Terror.

In the autumn of 1919, in connection with the successes of the Red Army, opposition forces: the Bolsheviks, right-wing socialists (Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and People's Socialists) in Siberia and the Far East intensified their activities. On November 12, 1919, at a secret "All-Siberian meeting of zemstvos and cities", a "Political Center" (Political Center) was created to prepare an uprising against Kolchak and create a buffer state on the territory of Siberia. The Bolsheviks decided to take part in the action in order to establish Soviet power in Siberia under favorable conditions. The uprising of the Political Center began in Cheremkhovo on December 21, 1919. The uprising was supported by partisan detachments and workers' squads, mostly subordinate to the Bolsheviks. On December 27, 1919, in Nizhneudinsk, the Czechs took "under protection" Kolchak, his prime minister V.N. Pepeliaeva and gold reserves. On the same day, the uprising of the Political Center engulfed Irkutsk. The Czechoslovak command sided with the rebels in order to push their echelons through Irkutsk to the East at any cost. The road to salvation lay through the deep Siberian taiga during the severe Siberian frost and the Circum-Baikal railway with its many tunnels and other artificial structures. Only the opposition of the Czechoslovak

armored trains and the superiority of the Czechs' forces helped the Political Center to repel the attacks of the Semenovites from the east.

January 4, 1920 A.V. Kolchak, being in a hopeless situation, transferred the powers of the Supreme Ruler of Russia to A.I. Denikin, and G.M. Semenov received full power in the East of the country. On February 7, 1920, the former Supreme Ruler was shot by order of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee in connection with the danger of an offensive by the White troops (according to other sources, at the secret request of V.I.Lenin and the chairman of the Sibrevkom I.N.Smirnov). Together with A.V. Kolchak shot his last Prime Minister V.N. Pepeliaev.

Recently, attempts have been made to rehabilitate the “heroes of the White Cause”. On January 26, 1999, the military court of the Trans-Baikal Military District rejected the request for the rehabilitation of Admiral Kolchak. In January 2001, this decision was confirmed by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. On 4 May 2005 the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office for the fifth time refused to rehabilitate A.V. Kolchak as a person who committed crimes against peace and humanity, the culprit of mass terror against supporters of Soviet power. In 2007, the refusal was confirmed by the prosecutor's office of the Omsk region.

A.V. Kolchak today remains one of the most controversial political and military figures of such a tragic period in the history of our country as the Civil War.

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