The uprising of the Czechoslovak corps. Belochekhi - "saviors of Russia" or ordinary invaders? Belochekhi in the civil war briefly

In the twenties of May 1918, the so-called "White Bohemian rebellion" broke out in the country, as a result of which in the vast areas of the Volga region, Siberia and the Urals. The formation of anti-Soviet regimes there made war almost inevitable, and also pushed the Bolsheviks to sharply tighten their, and so rather tough, policy.

But before that, the anti-Bolshevik formations did not represent some kind of real strength... So, poorly armed and deprived of at least some normal supply, the Volunteer Army consisted of only 1 thousand officers and about 5-7 thousand soldiers and Cossacks. At that time, everyone was completely indifferent to the "whites" in the south of Russia. General AI Denikin recalled those days: “Rostov amazed me with his abnormal life. On the main street, Sadovaya, is full of a fluttering public, among which there is a mass of combat officers of all kinds and guards, in full dress uniforms and sabers, but ... without the distinctive national chevrons on the sleeves for volunteers! ... and the "gentlemen officers" did not pay any attention, no matter how we were here! " However, after the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, the situation changed dramatically, the anti-Soviet forces received the necessary resource.

In addition, it must be borne in mind that in the spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks, despite all their leftist bends, were ready for some kind of compromise in the field of domestic policy. If in 1917 Lenin acted as a "radical", then in 1918 he already argued with the "left communists" (A. S. Bubnov, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, N. I. Bukharin, etc.). This faction acted from a leftist position, demanding to speed up the socialist reorganization of Russia in every possible way. So, they insisted on the complete liquidation of banks and the immediate abolition of money. The "Lefts" categorically objected to any use of "bourgeois" specialists. At the same time, they advocated a complete decentralization of economic life.

In March, Lenin was in a relatively "complacent" mood, believing that the main difficulties had already been overcome, and now the main thing is the rational organization of the economy. Strange as it may seem, the Bolsheviks at that time (and even later) were not at all supporters of the immediate "expropriation of the expropriators." In March, Lenin begins to write his programmatic article "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Power," in which he called for the suspension of the "attack on capital" and some compromise with capital: In the interests of the success of the further offensive, it is necessary to "suspend" the offensive now. "

Lenin puts the following in the foreground: “The decisive factor is the organization of the strictest and nationwide accounting and control over the production and distribution of products. Meanwhile, in those enterprises, in those sectors and aspects of the economy that we have taken away from the bourgeoisie, we have not yet achieved accounting and control, and without this there can be no question of a second, equally essential, material condition for the introduction of socialism, namely: on increasing, on a national scale, labor productivity ".

At the same time, he pays special attention to the involvement of "bourgeois specialists". This question, by the way, was quite acute. Left-wing communists opposed the involvement of bourgeois specialists. And it is very significant that on this issue we are at the same time with the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who seem to have taken more “moderate positions than the Bolsheviks. But no, moderate socialists for some reason were against the attraction of specialists, the strengthening of discipline in production and in the troops.

The "leftists" criticized Lenin in every possible way for "state capitalism." At the same time, Vladimir Ilyich himself sarcastically: "If, about six months later, state capitalism was established in our country, it would be a tremendous success." ("On the" left "childishness and on the petty-bourgeois nature"). In general, in terms of relations with the urban bourgeoisie, many Bolsheviks expressed their readiness to make a significant compromise. There have always been trends in the leadership that suggested abandoning immediate socialization and using private initiative. A typical representative of such trends was the deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, V.P. Milyutin, who called for building socialism in alliance with capitalist monopolies (it was assumed the gradual socialization of the latter). He advocated corporatising already nationalized enterprises, leaving 50% in the hands of the state, and returning the rest to the capitalists. (At the end of 1918, the communist faction of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets began to play the role of a kind of opposition to the regime, which developed a project for the complete restoration of free trade.)

Lenin himself did not approve of this plan, but at the same time he did not intend to abandon the idea of ​​an agreement with the bourgeoisie. Ilyich put forward his own version of the compromise. He believed that industrial enterprises should be under workers' control, and they should be directly managed by the former owners and their specialists. (It is indicative that the left communists and the left Socialist-Revolutionaries immediately came into opposition to this plan, who started talking about the economic Brest of Bolshevism.) In March-April, negotiations were held with the big capitalist Meshchersky, who was offered the creation of a large metallurgical trust with 300 thousand workers. But the industrialist Stakheev, who controlled 150 enterprises in the Urals, himself turned to the state with a similar project, and his proposal was seriously considered.

As for the nationalization carried out in the first months of Soviet power, it did not have any ideological character and was, for the most part, "punitive". (Its various manifestations were examined in detail by the historian V.N. Galin in his two-volume study "Trends. Interventions and Civil War." and even folding - "until better times." In this regard, the nationalization of the AMO plant, which belonged to the Ryabushinskys, is very indicative. Even before February, they received 11 million rubles from the government for the production of 1,500 cars, but they never completed the order. After October, the factory owners fled, instructing the management to close the plant. The Soviet government, nevertheless, decided to allocate 5 million to the plant so that it continued to function. However, the management refused and the plant was nationalized.

Nationalization was also carried out to curb the expansion of German capital, which tried to make full use of the favorable situation that had developed after the conclusion of the Brest Peace. They began a massive purchase of shares in the country's leading industrial enterprises. The First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of National Economy noted that the bourgeoisie "is trying by all means to sell its shares to German citizens, trying to get the protection of German law through all kinds of handicrafts, all kinds of fictitious transactions."

Finally, in June 1918, an order of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSO was issued on the "nationalization of the largest enterprises", according to which the state was supposed to give enterprises with capital of 300 thousand rubles or more. However, this resolution also indicated that the nationalized enterprises are given for free lease use to owners who continue to finance production and make a profit. That is, even then the implementation of Lenin's state-capitalist program continued, according to which the owners of enterprises are not so much “expropriated” as they are included in the system of the new economy.

In these conditions, long-term technocratic projects began to be conceived. So, on March 24, the "Flying Laboratory" of Professor Zhukovsky was created. She began to work jointly with the Settlement and Testing Bureau at the Higher Technical School (now the Bauman Moscow State Technical University). Other promising projects were also conceived. The Bolsheviks began to position themselves as the party of technocrats, the "party of the cause."

However, the excessive urbanism of consciousness seriously interfered with this "business". The agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks alienated the broad masses of the peasantry from the Soviet regime. The Bolsheviks set out to establish a food dictatorship based on the forced confiscation of grain from the peasants. Moreover, there was opposition to this course, led by Rykov. Moreover, a number of regional councils - Saratov, Samara, Simbirsky, Astrakhan, Vyatsky, Kazansky - decisively opposed the dictatorship, which abolished fixed prices for bread and established free trade. However, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Supreme Economic Council, over the head of the Soviets, re-subordinated the local food organs to the People's Commissariat.

Of course, some elements of a food dictatorship were necessary in those difficult conditions. Yes, they, in fact, existed - the seizure of bread, one way or another, was practiced by both the tsarist and the Provisional government. The policy had to be toughened up a little, but the Bolsheviks overdid it here, and this turned very many against themselves. In fact, the Leninists underestimated the strength of the "peasant element", the ability of the village to self-organize and resist. In an agrarian, peasant country, mass dissatisfaction with the Bolsheviks arose, which was superimposed on the dissatisfaction of the "bourgeoisie and landlords."

And so, in this situation, the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps takes place, which made a civil war inevitable. The performance itself became possible only thanks to the position of the Entente, which hoped to use the Czechoslovak units in the struggle against both the Germans and the Bolsheviks. Back in December 1917, Iasi (Romania) military representatives of the Allies discussed the possibility of using Czechoslovak units against the Bolsheviks. England was inclined towards just this option, while France nevertheless considered it necessary to limit itself to the evacuation of the corps through the Far East. Disputes between the French and the British continued until April 8, 1918, when the Allies in Paris approved a document in which the Czechoslovak corps was considered as part of the interventionist troops in Russia. And on May 2, at Versailles, L. George, J. Clemenceau, V.E. Orlando, General T. Bliss and Count Mitsuoka adopted Note No. 25, ordering the Czechs to stay in Russia and create an eastern front against the Germans. And soon it was decided to use the corps to fight the Bolsheviks. Thus, the Entente openly took a course to sabotage the evacuation of the Czechs.

Western democracies were interested in permanent civil war... It was necessary that the reds beat the whites as long as possible, and the whites beat the reds. Of course, this could not continue all the time: sooner or later, one side would have gained the upper hand. Therefore, the Entente decided to facilitate the conclusion of an armistice between the Bolsheviks and the White governments. So, in January 1919, she made an offer to all power structures located on the territory of the former Russian Empire, start peace negotiations. It is quite obvious that a possible truce would be temporary and would be violated in the short term. Moreover, it would only stabilize the state of the split of Russia into a number of parts, first of all, into the red RSFSR, Kolchak's East and Denikin's South. It is possible that the first truce would have been followed by a second, and this would have continued for a long time. Incidentally, a similar state of permanent war developed in the 1920s and 1930s. in China, which was divided into territories controlled by the nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek, the communists of Mao Zedong and various regional cliques of militarists. It is clear that this split played into the hands only outside forces, in particular, to the Japanese.

England never gave up on plans to "reconcile" the whites with the reds. So, in the spring, in an ultimatum, she offered to start negotiations between the Communists and P. Wrangel - in the arbitration of Britain. Wrangel himself firmly rejected the British ultimatum, with the result that in May 1920 London announced the end of aid to whites. True, France has not yet refused this assistance and even strengthened it, but this was due to the circumstances of the Polish-Soviet war. The fact is that the French relied heavily on the Poles of Yu. Pilsudski, whose help far exceeded the help to the whites. But in 1920 there was a threat of the defeat of Poland and the advancement of the Red Army in Western Europe... It was then that the French needed the support of Wrangel, whose resistance forced the Reds to abandon the transfer of many selected units to the Polish front. But after the threat to Pilsudski had passed, the French stopped helping the whites.

Revolt of the Czechoslovak Corps

The mutiny was in progress

May-August 1918, since August - support of the White Guards. The hull was completely evacuated from Russia in February 1920.

Place

Volga region, Ural, Siberia.

Occasion:

An attempt by the Soviet authorities to disarm the corps.

The history of the mutiny

Czechoslovak Corps - this is a corps, which included Czechs and Slovaks who wanted prisoners. The corps was formed in April - June 1917 years with the aim of participating in the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. The corps numbered about 45 thousand Human.

After the victory of the October Revolution, under the influence of the Entente, part of the corps was sent to the region of Tambov and Penza (March 1918) to fight Bolsheviks, and part of the corps remained in Ukraine to continue the war with Germany.

Outwardly, the transfer of the corps to the Far East looked harmless: Russia agreed to the transfer of the corps, which was an autonomous part of France, to Western Europe to fight Germany.

26 March The Soviet government decided to withdraw the corps from Russian territory to Vladivostok, and from there to France, but subject to surrender.

May 1918- Right SRs provoked a mutiny in the corps, saying that after disarmament, everyone would be arrested and imprisoned in prisoner of war camps.

May 25th- white Czechs(as they began to be called), whose echelons stretched from Penza to Vladivostok, captured Mariinsk.

May 26-31- they overthrew Soviet power in many cities: Chelyabinsk, Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Penza, Petropavlovsk, Syzran, Tomsk. They were actively supported by the White Guards, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks.

June to August cities were taken: Kurgan, Oms, Samara, Vladivostok. Ufa, Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan.

In this way , it was huge territory Volga region, Urals, Siberia. Almost half of the country's gold reserves were stolen. Throughout the occupied territory, bourgeois power was established, the Soviets were overthrown.

Governments emerging in the occupied territory:

Constituent Assembly Committee- Komuch- in Samara

Ural government- In Ekaterinburg

Provisional Siberian Government- in Omsk

The site was white terror: they killed communists, activists from workers and peasants.

Fight against White Czechs and White Guards

June 1918 - creation of the Eastern Front under the command Vatsetis I.I.

End of August - beginning of September started counteroffensive Red Army.

End of october- the Volga region is liberated

The underground propaganda work of the Bolsheviks was carried out throughout the territory. As a result, about 4 thousand White Czechs went over to the side of the Soviets.

From the middle of 1919, the corps was used by A.V. Kolchak only to guard roads, and did not take part in hostilities.

After the defeat of Kolchak, the corps was withdrawn to the Far East, and from there it was sent home. 7 february an agreement was signed with the leadership of the corps to evacuate it. The complete evacuation of the hull ended only September 2, 1920.

Outcomes

On May 17, 1918, exactly 100 years ago, the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps began in Russia, from which many historians count the beginning of the Civil War. Thanks to the revolt of the Czechoslovak corps, which engulfed a significant part of the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, Soviet authorities were liquidated in vast territories and anti-Soviet governments were created. It was the performance of the Czechoslovakians that became the starting point for the start of large-scale military operations of the "whites" against the Soviet regime.

The Czechoslovak Corps is inextricably linked with the First World War. In the fall of 1917, the command of the Russian army decided to create a special corps of Czechs and Slovaks prisoners of war, who had previously served in the Austro-Hungarian army, were captured by Russia, and now, given their Slavic identity, they expressed a desire to fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary as part of the Russian troops.

By the way, Czech and Slovak volunteer formations, which were recruited from among the Czechs and Slovaks who lived on the territory of the Russian Empire, appeared back in 1914, when the Czech squad was created in Kiev, but they operated under the command of Russian officers. In March 1915, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, allowed Czechs and Slovaks from among the prisoners of war and deserters of the Austro-Hungarian army to be admitted to the ranks of the Czechoslovak formations. At the end of 1915, the First Czechoslovakian Rifle Regiment named after Jan Hus was created with 2,100 troops, and by the end of 1916 the regiment was transformed into a brigade of 3,500 troops. The brigade commander was appointed Colonel Vyacheslav Platonovich Troyanov, who was promoted to major general in June 1917.

After the February Revolution of 1917, a branch of the Czechoslovak National Council, founded in 1916 in Paris, appeared in Russia. The Czechoslovak National Council assumed the authority to lead all Czechoslovak military formations on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. The Provisional Government treated the Czechoslovak movement favorably, recognizing the Czechoslovak National Council as the only legitimate representative of Czechs and Slovaks in Russia. Meanwhile, the CNS was completely under the control of Great Britain and France, the influence of Russia on it was minimal, since the leadership of the CNS was in Paris. The Czechoslovak brigade, which fought on the Eastern Front, was transformed into the 1st Hussite Division, and on July 4, 1917, with the permission of the new Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Lavr Kornilov, the formation of the 2nd Czechoslovak Division began.

On September 26, 1917, the Chief of Staff of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant-General Nikolai Dukhonin, signed an order on the formation of a separate Czechoslovak corps, which included both Czechoslovak divisions with a total of 39 thousand soldiers and officers. Although the bulk of the corps' military personnel were Czechs and Slovaks, as well as Yugoslavs, Russian became the command language of the corps. Major General Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Shokorov was appointed commander of the Czechoslovak corps, and Major General Mikhail Konstantinovich Dieterichs was appointed chief of staff.

By the time of the October Revolution in Russia, units and subdivisions of the Czechoslovak corps were located on the territory of the Volyn and Poltava provinces. When the corps command received news of the victory of the Bolsheviks and the overthrow of the Provisional Government, it expressed support for the Provisional Government and advocated the further continuation of hostilities against Germany and Austria-Hungary. This position was in the interests of the Entente, which controlled the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. From the very first days of the October Revolution, the Czechoslovak Corps adopted an unequivocal position against the Bolsheviks. Already on October 28 (November 10), units of the Czechoslovak corps took part in street battles in Kiev, where the cadets of military schools opposed the local units of the Red Guard.

After the October Revolution, the leaders of the Czechoslovak National Council began to seek recognition of the Czechoslovak military formations stationed in Russia as a foreign allied army subordinate to the French military mission. Professor Tomasz Masaryk, representing the Czechoslovak National Council, insisted on the inclusion of Czechoslovak troops in the French army. On December 19, 1917, the French government decided to subordinate the Czechoslovak corps in Russia to the command of the French army, after which the corps received an order to be sent to France. Since the Czechoslovakians were to follow to France through the territory of Soviet Russia, the leadership of the Czechoslovak National Council was not going to spoil relations with the Soviet government.

Tomasz Masaryk even agreed to allow the Bolshevik agitation in the Czechoslovak units, as a result of which about 200 Czechoslovak soldiers and officers joined the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Masaryk refused to cooperate with Generals Lavr Kornilov and Mikhail Alekseev. Gradually, Russian officers were removed from the main command posts in the Czechoslovak corps, and their places were taken by Czechoslovak officers, including those who sympathized with left-wing political ideas.

On March 26, 1918, in Penza, an agreement was signed between Soviet Russia, represented on behalf of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR by Joseph Stalin, and representatives of the Czechoslovak National Council and the Czechoslovak Corps on the unimpeded movement of units of the Czechoslovak corps through Russian territory to Vladivostok. However, this alignment caused the dissatisfaction of the German military command, which put pressure on the Soviet leadership. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR Georgy Chicherin demanded that the Krasnoyarsk Council of Workers' Deputies stop the further advance of Czechoslovak units to the east. By this time, there were about 8 thousand Czechoslovak military personnel in the Penza, Syzran and Samara region, another 8.8 thousand military personnel were in the Chelyabinsk and Miass region, 4.5 thousand military personnel in Novonikolaevsk and the surrounding area, 14 thousand military personnel in Vladivostok. Naturally, such a large number of armed and organized people with military training and combat experience represented a solid force, which the Bolshevik leadership did not think about. When the Czechoslovak servicemen learned that Chicherin had ordered not to let the Czechoslovak units to the east, they perceived this decision as a hidden attempt by the Soviet authorities to hand them over to Germany and Austria-Hungary as traitors.

On May 16, 1918, a congress of Czechoslovak military personnel began in Chelyabinsk, which lasted four days. At the congress, it was decided to break with the Bolsheviks, stop surrendering to the Soviet authorities and follow their own order to Vladivostok. Meanwhile, on May 21, the Soviet government decided to completely disarm the Czechoslovak units, and on May 25, the corresponding order was issued by the People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, Leon Trotsky. However, in Maryanovka, Irkutsk and Zlatoust, where the Red Guards tried to disarm the Czechoslovak units, the latter put up decisive resistance. The Czechoslovak corps took control of the entire Siberian road.

The Provisional Executive Committee of the Congress of the Czechoslovak Army was formed at the congress. It included the chiefs of three echelons. Lieutenant Stanislav Chechek (1886-1930), an accountant by profession, at the time of the outbreak of the First World War worked at the Skoda office in Moscow. He volunteered for the Czech squad, took part in the war, commanding a company, and then a battalion. On September 6, 1917, Chechek was appointed deputy commander of the 4th rifle regiment named after Prokop Goliy. In May 1918, he led the largest group of troops of the Czechoslovak corps - Penza.

Captain Radol Gaid (1892-1948), pharmacist by profession, passed conscript service in the mountain rifle regiment of the Austro-Hungarian army, then he married an Albanian woman and settled in the city of Shkoder. When the First World War began, he was again drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army, but in 1915 Gaida surrendered and went to serve in the Montenegrin army, and in 1916 he arrived in Russia and served as a doctor in the Serbian regiment, then in the Czechoslovak brigade. On March 26, 1917, Gaida was appointed company commander of the 2nd Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment. In the spring of 1918, he led all the Czechoslovak troops stationed east of Omsk.

Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Voitsekhovsky, a native of the nobility of the Vitebsk province, served in the Russian army since 1902, graduated from the Constantine Artillery School and the Nikolaev Military Academy General Staff. In January 1917, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the 176th Infantry Division, in February - Chief of the Operations Department of the Staff of the 3rd Caucasian Grenadier Division, then served as Chief of Staff of the 126th Infantry Division, and from August 1917, in fact, served as Chief of Staff 1st Czechoslovak division of the Russian army. In February 1918 he became the commander of the 3rd Czechoslovakian named Jan Zizka Infantry Regiment, and in May 1918 he was appointed senior military commander of the Czechoslovak troops in the Chelyabinsk region. Under his command, on the night of May 26-27, 1918, units of the 2nd and 3rd Czechoslovak rifle regiments established control over Chelyabinsk without loss. In June 1918, Voitsekhovsky was promoted to colonel and led the Western Group of Forces, which included the 2nd and 3rd Czechoslovak Rifle Regiments and the Kurgan Marching Battalion. Czechoslovak troops under the command of Colonel Voitsekhovsky occupied Troitsk, Zlatoust, and then Yekaterinburg.

Since the beginning of the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, its units and subunits no longer obeyed the Czechoslovak National Council in Moscow and did not fulfill the order of Tomas Masaryk to surrender their weapons. By this time, the Czechoslovakians already considered the Bolshevik government as potential allies of Germany and were going to continue the war with Germany and Austria-Hungary in alliance with the anti-Bolshevik Russian formations. It was under the control of the Czechoslovak troops that the formation of alternative authorities to the Soviets began in those cities that were controlled by the units of the Czechoslovak corps. So, in Samara on June 8, the Committee of the members of the constituent assembly (Komuch) was organized, and on June 23, the Provisional Siberian Government was created in Omsk. The Komuch People's Army was created, with Colonel Nikolai Galkin becoming the chief of the General Staff. The most reliable part of the Komuch People's Army was the Separate Rifle Brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Kappel.

In July 1918, Czechoslovak units, in alliance with the Kappelevites, took Syzran, then Kuznetsk, Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Chita were taken by Czechoslovak troops. However, the command of the Red Army managed to quickly mobilize the impressive forces of the Red Army to suppress the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps. Soon, the Czechoslovaks managed to be driven out of Kazan, Simbirsk, Syzran, Samara. By the fall of 1918, heavy losses of the Czechoslovak troops led the command of the Czechoslovak corps to a decision to withdraw the Czechoslovak units to the rear. The Czechoslovak units were dispersed along the Trans-Siberian Railway and no longer took part in the hostilities against the Red Army. Separate Czechoslovak units continued to serve for the protection of facilities and even for the elimination of partisans in Siberia, but the activity of the Czechoslovak corps in 1919 became less and less. During the retreat of the Kolchak troops, the Czechoslovak corps largely impeded the movement of the Kolchak troops to the east. Along the way, the Czechoslovakians took out part of the gold reserves of Russia, which turned out to be under their control during the retreat. They also issued a red admiral Kolchak.

In December 1919, the first parts of the Czechoslovak corps began to sail from Vladivostok to Europe. In total, 72,644 servicemen of the Czechoslovak corps were evacuated from Russia on 42 ships. The losses of the corps in Russia amounted to about 4 thousand people killed and missing.

Many veterans of the Czechoslovak Corps subsequently made serious military and political careers in independent Czechoslovakia. For example, the former commander of the Czechoslovak corps, General Jan Syrovy, served as chief of the general staff, then as minister of national defense and prime minister. Sergei Voitsekhovsky rose to the rank of army general in Czechoslovakia, at the time of the capture of the country by the Nazis he commanded the 1st Czechoslovak army. Lieutenant General Radola Gaida served as deputy chief of staff of the Czechoslovak army, then was actively involved in political activities... Stanislav Chechek rose to the rank of general, commanded the 5th Infantry Division of the Czechoslovak Army.

Given the complexity of the situation at that time, it is not possible to assess the actions of the Czechoslovakians unequivocally. But it must be admitted that the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps played a very important role in the history of revolutionary Russia, becoming one of the key impetus to the start of the Civil War in the country.

Soldiers of the 5th Regiment of the Czechoslovak Corps at the station they captured in Penza. May, 1918

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia says that it was "an armed counter-revolutionary action by the Czechoslovak troops stationed in Soviet Russia, provoked by representatives of the Entente."

These notorious “representatives of the Entente” are mentioned in all Soviet sources, although in no case is it deciphered - what kind of “representatives” are they?

It should be noted that in the spring of 1918 the Entente had enough worries at the front with Germany - as General Ludendorff wrote in his memoirs: “At the turn of 1917-18. As a result of Russia's withdrawal from the war, the situation was more favorable for us than a year before that ... The balance of forces was developing for us as favorably as never before. " German forces on the Western Front, due to the agreement concluded on December 5, 1917 in Brest, with the Bolsheviks on the cessation of hostilities, increased by more than a quarter - from 155 divisions to 195. In March 1918, the German army went on the offensive there., British and French troops lost 850 thousand killed and wounded, the Germans took 190 thousand prisoners, 2.5 thousand guns, 6 thousand machine guns and 200 tanks (according to TSB) ... March 23, 1918 began shelling Paris from the super long-range guns "Colossal" (aka "Long Bertha"). V May 1918 the Germans reached the Marne River, threatening Paris. Three ledges up to 80 km deep were formed, the Entente's defensive zone was broken through to its entire depth. The protrusions threatened the main highway Paris-Amiens-Arras-Calais, restricting the freedom of movement of the Entente troops. It should also be noted that although America declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, until May 28, 1918, American troops did not participate in battles with the Germans - the United States was accumulating forces in Europe, hoping that the war would end at best in 1919 ... Finally, we note that the Germans advanced in the west until July 18, 1918.

Creation of the Czechoslovak Corps

Already in August 1914 (in the first month of the World War), the formation of Czech units as part of the Russian army began. In September 1914, a Czech squad was created from defectors and prisoners, its staff consisted of 34 officers (of which 8 were Czechs) and 921 non-commissioned officers and soldiers. The commander of the squad was the Russian Colonel Lototsky. At the end of October 1914, the squad was sent to the Southwestern Front as part of the 3rd Army, commanded by the Bulgarian General Radko Dimitriev. In March 1915, Slovaks-prisoners and Czechs from Russian subjects began to be enrolled in the squad.

The command of the Southwestern Front highly appreciated the Czech squad and recommended that it be deployed into a regiment. The staff of the squad was increased to 2.090, and on December 27, 1915, the squad was renamed the 1st Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment. In the summer of 1916, the Czechoslovak Rifle Brigade was created, consisting of two regiments, a total of about 5 thousand officers and lower ranks, under the command of Colonel Troyanov. In the offensive of the Russian army in July 1917 in Galicia, the Czechoslovak brigade broke through the front in the Zborov area, took more than 3 thousand prisoners, losing up to 200 killed and up to 1000 wounded. For this success, the brigade commander was promoted to major general.

The brigade was deployed into a division, and in the fall of 1917 the 1st Czechoslovak Corps (two divisions) was created as part of 39 thousand soldiers and officers... The creation of the 2nd corps was also planned - perhaps that is why many sources indicate that there were 60, 70 or even 80 thousand “rebellious” Czechoslovakians.

(Although after the Bolshevik coup there were also those who transferred from the corps to the Red Army - in total218 man, that is0,56% ... The most famous example is Jaroslav Hasek, editor-in-chief of the newspaper of the Czechoslovak Corps. It is curious that unlike Hasek,future president of communist Czechoslovakia, General Ludvik Svobodain 1918, being a second lieutenant, he did not defect from the Czechoslovak corps.)

However, the 2nd corps was never created, since the October Revolution broke out. The Bolsheviks concluded a separate peace with Germany, and the Czechoslovak corps had to travel through Siberia to Vladivostok, in order from there, across three oceans, to reach the European Front, where the Czechoslovakians intended to fight for the independence of their homeland.

But before starting their journey around the world, parts of the corps until mid-March 1918 (even after the conclusion of a separate peace between the Bolsheviks and Germany) were still at war with German and Austrian troops in Ukraine. Over the past four days of fighting against the Germans in the Bakhmach area, the Czechoslovakians lost up to 600 people killed and wounded.

"Mutiny"

March 26, 1918 The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR signed an official agreement with the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia, according to which the Czechoslovakians were given the right to travel to Vladivostok as private citizens. Czechoslovak units pledged to surrender their weapons when passing through Penza. To carry out guard duty, they were allowed to leave 168 rifles and 1 machine gun in each echelon. The artillery weapons were completely surrendered (mostly they were transferred to the Red Guards even during the transition from Ukraine to Russia).

On April 5, 1918, robbers dressed in Russian soldiers' uniforms killed two Japanese in Vladivostok, and two Japanese companies landed in the city. Lenin, deciding that this was the beginning of a large-scale intervention, ordered the trains with the Czechoslovakians to be stopped. On April 10, the Vladivostok Council of Deputies informed Moscow that no increase in the number of troops was expected, and two days later Lenin's order was canceled. However, this week of delay caused great irritation among the Czechoslovakians.

V May 1918, as written in TSB, 14 thousand Czechoslovakians have already arrived in Vladivostok ( that is, more than a third of the composition of the corps), 4 thousand were in the region of Novo-Nikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), 8 thousand in the region of Chelyabinsk, 8 thousand in the Penza region (250 km west of the Volga).

Relatively start There are two versions of the Czechoslovak “rebellion” (not counting the official Soviet one - about the mythical “representatives of the Entente”). Both versions do not contradict each other, but rather complement.

According to the first version, the incident was the catalyst for the conflict. May 14, 1918 in Chelyabinsk. At the station, a train of Czechoslovakians and a train of former Hungarian prisoners released by the Bolsheviks under the terms of the Brest Treaty were in the neighborhood. As you know, in those days between the Czechs and Slovaks on the one hand, and the Hungarians on the other, there were strong national antipathies.

As a result, a Czech soldier Frantisek Dukhachek was seriously wounded by a piece of iron thrown from the Hungarian echelon. In response, the Czechoslovakians lynched the culprit. And the Bolshevik authorities of Chelyabinsk arrested several Czechoslovakians the next day, not figuring out who was right and who was wrong. The Czechoslovakians became furious, and not only freed their comrades by force, disarming the Red Guards, but also captured the city's arsenal (2,800 rifles and an artillery battery) in order to properly arm themselves.

However, it did not come to a major bloodshed between the Bolsheviks and Czechoslovakians at that time - a peace agreement was reached. However, then, according to this version, the central Bolshevik authorities ordered the immediate disarmament of the Czechoslovak corps and the execution of all Czechoslovakians found with weapons. In addition, if at least one armed person was found, it was ordered to arrest all those in the train.

(Curiously,Soviet official sourcesdate exactly May 14, 1918 the mythical meeting of "representatives of the Entente, the command of the corps and the SRs" , at which a decision was allegedly made to raise a mutiny.)

According to another version, German General Staff very much afraid of the appearance on the Western Front of the Czechoslovak corps. And supposedly under the influence of the German ambassador, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR Chicherin still April 21 1918 sent a telegram to the Krasnoyarsk Soviet of Deputies, which said:

"Czechoslovak troops must not advance east."

According to the same version, a telegram is sent to Penza from the head of the operational department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR Aralov from May, 23rd 1918:

"... immediately take urgent measures to delay, disarm and disband all units and echelons of the Czechoslovak corps, as a remnant of the old regular army."

However, this telegram is in full agreement with the first version.

Trotsky himself telegraphed May 25th 1918 to all Sovdeps from Penza to Omsk:

“I am sending reliable forces to the rear of the Czechoslovak echelons, which are instructed to teach the rebels a lesson. Not a single carriage with Czechoslovakians should move eastward. "

Interestingly, according to the initial official Soviet version, the Czechoslovak "rebellion" began 26 of May 1918. That is Trotskydeclared the Czechoslovak rebels in advance... Of course, when Trotsky's "reliable forces" began to attack the Czechoslovakians, they became "rebels", so to speak, legally, since they not only resisted, but completely crushed these "reliable forces" and occupied a bunch of cities from Penza to Krasnoyarsk.

And in the latest Soviet sources, the date of the beginning of the “rebellion” was postponed to May 25 - despite the fact that neither Trotsky himself nor his telegram of May 25 were mentioned at all.

It is noteworthy that, in general, the Czechoslovak corps then no one was in command. The former commander of the Russian corps, General Shokorov, was formally replaced by professor of philosophy Tomasz Masaryk, who had not served in the army a day before and was also in Paris at that time.

(Just as formally, the corps was already included in the French army, since no Czechoslovakia as a state existed at that time, and the Russian Empire, whose army previously included the corps, ceased to exist.)

There was practically no command at the divisional and often even regimental level - Russian officers who held many command and staff positions had mostly left the corps (this was the demand of the Bolsheviks), and there were few Czechs and Slovaks in high ranks at that time. The largest rank was held by Radol Gajda - the only one of the Czechoslovakians captain. (Therefore, the statement about some "A meeting of representatives of the Entente and command building on May 14 " - an obvious lie).

The command of the Penza group of the Czechoslovaks (8 thousand) took lieutenant Stanislav Chechek, who soon became a colonel (from July 17, 1918 - commander of the troops of the Russian People's Army). The Chelyabinsk group (8 thousand) was commanded by a Russian Lieutenant Colonel Voitsekhovsky(commander of the 3rd Czechoslovak regiment). Siberian group (4 thousand) - Captain Hyde, commander of the 7th regiment. The largest, Eastern group (14 thousand) was commanded by the chief of staff of the Czechoslovak corps Russian General Dieterichs.

In addition to these four, from the largest the commanders of the units of the Czechoslovak corps can be mentioned only Lieutenant Shvets(who soon became colonel and commander of the 1st Czechoslovak division), Russian captain Stepanov(commander of the 1st Czechoslovak regiment), Lieutenant Syrovy(who soon became the general and commander of the Czechoslovak corps), Russian Lieutenant Colonel Ushakov(killed in the battle near Krasnoyarsk in June 1918).

None of the four largest Czech military leaders were career soldiers.... Before the World War, 30-year-old Syrovy was an official, 26-year-old Gaida was a shopkeeper, 32-year-old Chechek was a representative of a company, 35-year-old Shvets was a teacher. However, the first three became generals in the summer of 1918, and the fourth became a colonel in a general position.

War against the Bolsheviks

It should be noted right away that despite the numerous statements of both Soviet and even some Western sources, "Rebel" Czechoslovakians did not at all seek to advance in the western direction against the Bolsheviks, and even more so to seize Moscow (try to do this by forces only two divisions stretched from Penza to Vladivostok would be completely ridiculous).

Initially, the Czechoslovakians overthrew the power of the Bolsheviks in those cities where their echelons stood or were nearby - on May 26 in Chelyabinsk and Novo-Nikolaevsk, on May 27 in Mariinsk, 28 in Nizhneudinsk, 29 in Kansk, Penza, Syzran, 31 in Petropavlovsk and Tomsk, 2 June in Kurgan.

The goal of the Czechoslovakians was to return to Europe, to the Western Front, through Vladivostok... However, since the Czechoslovakians were forced to find themselves in a state of war with the Bolsheviks, they could not leave their rearguard Penza group, as well as the Chelyabinsk group, to their fate.

Therefore, the largest group of Czechoslovakians continued to pull up from Transbaikalia, concentrating in Vladivostok, and the Siberian group went to join both the Vladivostok and the Chelyabinsk group. The Chelyabinsk group was to establish contact both with the Penza group in the west and with the Siberian group in the east - for this purpose it occupied Omsk on June 7, and on June 10 joined the forces of Gaida. The Penza group began to push its way to the east, through Samara and Ufa to Chelyabinsk. The Siberian and Vladivostok groups only established contact on September 1, 1918.

According to the official Bolshevik version, the "revolt of the Czechoslovakians" "was organized by the Anglo-French imperialists with the active support of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks."

And here is how the relationship between the Czechoslovakians and the Socialist-Revolutionaries is described not by anyone, but by the then member of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (Mensheviks), then a member of the government of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), I.M. Maisky (later - Soviet diplomat, historian, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, USSR Ambassador to Britain and Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR):

“And just at that moment, Czechoslovaks suddenly appeared on the stage. The details of the 1918 Czechoslovak intervention are still not fully clarified, and the circumstances that caused a clash between the Bolsheviks and Czechoslovak echelons in Penza at the end of May of the same year are also not fully clarified. Be that as it may, but this collision occurred, and as a result, the city on a short time was captured by the Czechs, and the Soviet power was deposed. The Penza events affected the Samara SRs like a breath of living water. - “Ah, here it is that external impulse, which we so passionately expected to start an open speech!” They said to themselves, and immediately took action.
Brushwit (Socialist-Revolutionary, member of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly) went to Penza and began negotiations with the Czechs. As he himself later said, the initial reception given to him at the Czech headquarters was rather unfriendly. The Czechs stated that they were now heading to the Far East to follow then to France, that they did not want to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia, and that in particular they did not have any confidence in the strength and seriousness of the organization on behalf of which Brushwit spoke. The latter tried to prove to the Czechs that it was possible to deal with the SRs, and in these forms demanded that the Samara Party Committee, even before the Czechs arrived there, make a coup and seize power. Brushwit's demand put the committee in an extremely difficult position: the Socialist-Revolutionaries themselves had absolutely insignificant forces, while the officer organization of Colonel Galkin associated with them hesitated and actually did nothing. The coup was not carried out, but the SRs managed to collect information about the location of the Bolshevik troops in Samara. This information was forwarded to Brushwit in Penza. At the same time, peasant s-era squads captured the Timashevsky plant located near Samara and set up a guard on the bridge across the Volga. Both facts, apparently, raised the prestige of the SRs and Brushwit in the eyes of the Czechs, since after that they became somewhat nicer. But all the same, their desire to participate in the Russian civil war did not increase. The Czech headquarters clearly stated that it would remain in Samara for only a few days to rest the troops and replenish supplies, and then continue on its way east. On June 7, Czech battalions approached Samara, and on the 8th, after a short battle, they broke into the city. "

This is a testimony of perfect non-involvement of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks in "Organizing the revolt of the Czechoslovakians" was published not anywhere, but in the USSR in 1923.

And what about the notorious "Anglo-French imperialists"? And about them there is evidence of the same Maisky:

“The first question that the newborn Committee had to decide was the question of the Czecho-Slovaks. I have already indicated above that the Czech headquarters did not intend to stay for a long time in Samara. And since the Committee did not have its own armed forces, the consent of the Czechs to a long-term participation in the “Volga front” against the Bolsheviks was a matter of life and death for it. The Es-eras used all their diplomatic skills to achieve this goal, and also resorted to the help of the “French consuls” who were in Samara at that time. Guinet, Jeannot and Como. Who these venerable diplomats were and in what capacity they stayed in Russia is a rather obscure matter. It later became clear, for example, that Mr. Jeannot and Comot did not have any powers from the French government, however, during the period described, they all called themselves "consuls", sometimes quarreled among themselves, accusing each other of imposture, and all were intensely engaged in anti-Bolshevik intrigues. The “French consuls” willingly assumed the role of mediators between the SRs and the Czechs, and since the Czechs were fed on French gold, they could not ignore the “friendly” advice of representatives of such a powerful “allied power”. These combined es-ero-French efforts had a very definite result: the Czechs agreed to temporarily stay on the Volga in order to give the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly time and the opportunity to form their own army, and subsequently they received from their own and allied centers already quite definite directives on armed support for the anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia. "

As you can see - and the imperialists have no part in "Organizing the revolt of the Czechoslovakians" did not accept... Although, as Maisky rightly points out, the Czechoslovak Corps had financed by France as part of its army.

Red commanders II Vatsetis and NE Kakurin (the first was a direct participant in hostilities against the Czechoslovakians, until the end of September 1918 - the commander of the Eastern Front, then the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the RSFSR) in their work "Civil War 1918-1921" assessed the forces the general forces of the Czechoslovak Corps, from the Volga to Vladivostok, in 30-40 thousand Human. According to their description:

“In its proximity to the vital centers of the revolution, the most dangerous were the Penza (8000 fighters) and Chelyabinsk (8750 fighters) groups of Czechs. However, both of these groups initially showed a desire to continue eastward. On June 7, Voitsekhovsky's group, after a series of clashes with the Reds, occupied Omsk. On June 10, she linked up with Haida's echelons. The Penza group headed for Samara, which they captured on June 8 after a minor battle. "

Curious that afterwards Bolshevik historians began to officially assert that 5,000 Red fighters allegedly “stubbornly defended Samara for five days”. These statements do not converge in any way with a description of events direct participants(Maisky and Vatsetis) who talk about short or minor fight and only one day.

According to the TSB (first edition, 1934), by the beginning of July 1918, the Reds had five armies on the Eastern Front:

“The 1st Red Army in the Simbirsk region (commander MN Tukhachevsky) consisted of 6,800 bayonets, 700 sabers, 50 guns; 2nd Army in the Orsk region - 2,500 bayonets, 600 sabers, 14 guns; 3rd Army in the Perm region - 18,000 bayonets, 1,800 sabers, 43 guns; 4th Army in the region of Saratov and Novouzensk - 23,000 bayonets, 3,200 sabers, 200 guns; 5th Army in the Kazan region on both banks of the Volga - 8,400 infantry, 540 sabers, 48 ​​guns. "

That is, in total, the Reds had more than 65 thousand soldiers and more than 350 guns against less than 16 thousand previously disarmed Czechoslovakians... True, June 13 against Bolsheviksworkers revolted Verkhne-Nevyanskiy and Rudyanskiy factories, later similar successful uprisings took place at several more factories, including Votkinskiy and Izhevskiy (in August). The formation of the People's Army began in Samara in June socialist-revolutionary the Komuch government. However, by July, all anti-Bolshevik forces in the Volga and the Urals, including the Czechoslovakians, rebel workers and the People's Army, did not exceed 25 thousand poorly armed soldiers.

Thus, the Bolsheviks had an almost three-fold superiority in manpower, with an overwhelming superiority in artillery and armored vehicles. Curiously, the rebel workers and the People's Army fought against Bolsheviksunder theirredbanners... It is also noteworthy that according to some sources,before 80% manpower of the redmade upGermans and Hungarians, and the basis of Tukhachevsky's army wasLatvians, that is, another order10% ... The commander of the red front was also the Latvian Vatsetis, a former colonel of the General Staff. Of the five commanders of the red armies, three were Latvians.

Vatsetis and Kakurin: “On July 5, Chechek's detachments occupy Ufa, and on July 3, at st. Minyar are united with the Chelyabinsk units of the Czecho-Slovaks. "

The most difficult and longest battle of the units of the Penza group belongs to this period. On the 20th of June, the 2nd battalion of the 1st Jan Hus Czechoslovak Regiment ( 300 fighters) for three days fought in the Buzuluk region with 3 thousand Germans and Hungarians freed by the Bolsheviks from Russian captivity under the terms of the Brest Treaty. The Bolsheviks suggested that these Germans and Hungarians, who were heading west to continue the war against Britain, France and their allied countries, should “punish the traitorous Czechs” along the way. For this, the Reds armed the Germans and Hungarians not only with rifles and machine guns, but also 20 artillery pieces and several armored cars. The Czechoslovakians in Buzuluk lacked not only artillery, but not even a single machine gun. Nevertheless, the Czechoslovakians, after stubborn battles, put the Germans and Hungarians to flight.

Vatsetis and Kakurin: “The Eastern group of Czecho-Slovaks of 14,000 people. under the command of gene. Diterichsa was passive at first. All her efforts were aimed at successfully concentrating in the Vladivostok region, for which she negotiated with local [those. red] authorities requesting assistance in advancing echelons... On July 6, she concentrated in Vladivostok and captured the city. "

Meanwhile, the Penza group of the Czechoslovaks moved eastward and occupied Ufa on July 5, and the Chelyabinsk group on July 25 recaptured Yekaterinburg from the Reds, which, as Vatsetis and Kakurin point out, “was important for the Czechs as being on their flank and threatening their messages.”

In early August, the commander of the Red Front, Vatsetis, threw his five armies into the offensive. However, despite a three-fold superiority in manpower and an overwhelming superiority in artillery and armored vehicles, the Reds did not reach no success.

Moreover, on August 6, units of the 1st Czechoslovak Regiment under the command of Captain Stepanov (according to Vatsetis - “2000 men with 4 guns”) took Kazan where was Eastern Front headquarters, guarded by the 5th Latvian Regiment and the International Serbian Battalion. As a result, the Serbs went over to the side of the Czechs, the front commander Vatsetis, as he himself wrote, "left the city on foot with a bunch of his riflemen."

Most importantly, the Bolsheviks lost what was in Kazan gold reserves of Russia... This stock was transferred to the All-Russian Provisional Government (Ufa Directory).

In August 1918 the French government (in those years - the only one in the world a government that wanted the elimination of the Bolshevik regime) tried to take control of the actions of the Czechoslovak Corps. For this, General Janin was sent to Siberia, with the task of organizing the Eastern Front against Germany and the Bolsheviks loyal to it. However, General Janin reached Omsk only in December 1918 - when the situation in the world and the mood of the soldiers of the Czechoslovak corps changed dramatically.

In August 1918, the Czechoslovakians fought on the Volga and the Urals against the Reds, most of whom were Germans and Hungarians, that is, in the opinion of the Czechoslovakians, ultimately for the independence of their homeland, albeit far from it. It was these feelings that gave them strength. As Vatsetis pointed out:

“… Near Kazan the enemy found himself in a very difficult position. Here his forces, not exceeding 2000-2500 people, occupied an arched front with a length of 100-120 km and were covered by almost five times the superior forces of the 2nd and 5th armies. "

In October 1918, when it became clear that Germany and Austria-Hungary were about to surrender, the Czechoslovakians were increasingly seized by the desire to return home as soon as possible. Some units began to leave the front, load into echelons and go east. Because of such sentiments of the corps soldiers, on October 25, the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak division, Colonel Josef Shvets, was shot. On October 28, 1918, Czechoslovakia became independent, and when this news reached the corps, the Czechoslovakians were evacuated from Ufa and Chelyabinsk in early November.

General Janin's mission

General Janin, who was formally listed from November 1918 as the “Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Siberia,” was in reality a general without an army. Neither the British nor the American, let alone the Japanese contingents in the Russian Far East obeyed him. And the actual French contingent was insignificant - one company of Vietnamese in Vladivostok.

And General Janin tried to become at the head of at least the Czechoslovak corps. Janen wanted to raise his authority in the eyes Supreme ruler Russia of Admiral Kolchak - to show him that the Allies, and first of all France, support him with troops (albeit not actually French).

However, the maximum that Janin could achieve (thanks to the pressure of the French Prime Minister Clemenceau on the president of the Czechoslovak National Council Masaryk) was an order (January 27, 1919) of the commander of the Czechoslovak Corps Syrov, according to which the Trans-Siberian Railway from Novo-Nikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) to Irkutsk was declared operational section of the body.

Thus, General Janin and the French government led by Clemenceau managed to detain the Czechoslovakians in Russia for another year. No matter how eager they were to return to their homeland - in June 1919 there was even a riot suppressed by military force - the dispatch of the Czechoslovakians by ships from Vladivostok to Europe began only in December 1919.

And in January 1920, the "valiant" French general Janin did his last "favor" to the Czechoslovakians - he ordered the extradition of Admiral Kolchak, who was under their protection, to the Irkutsk socialist-revolutionaries who had defected to the side of the Bolsheviks.

The soldiers and commanders of the Czechoslovak corps, who once bravely fought against the Germans and the Reds, having lost more than four thousand of their comrades in four years of fighting - having carried out this vile order, they covered themselves with shame forever.

Revolt of the Czechoslovak Corps (Czechoslovak mutiny) - an armed uprising of the Czechoslovak corps in May-August 1918 during the Civil War in Russia.

The uprising engulfed the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East and created a favorable situation for the liquidation of Soviet authorities, the formation of anti-Soviet governments (the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, later - the Provisional All-Russian Government) and the beginning of large-scale military actions of the White forces against Soviet power. The reason for the start of the uprising was an attempt by the Soviet authorities to disarm the legionnaires.

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✪ Intelligence poll: Yegor Yakovlev on the consequences of the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps

✪ revolt of the Czechoslovak Corps

✪ The uprising of the Czechoslovak corps. Part 1.

✪ Admiral A.V. Kolchak and the Czechoslovak Corps in 1919.

✪ Digital history: Yegor Yakovlev on the escalation of the Civil War

Subtitles

I welcome you categorically! Egor, good afternoon. Kind. What is it about today? Finally, we continue about the Civil War, about its unfolding. We ended up with the revolt of the Czechoslovak Corps, and today we will talk about the consequences of this uprising, because they were, indeed, fateful share of the fate of our country, for the fate of the emerging Soviet Republic and for the White movement, too, because without the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, the White movement would hardly have been able to take shape. The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps completely turned the situation inside the country, and its consequences were the most tragic. I will remind you a little of how this uprising unfolded. I've expressed the point of view that it's not that the culprits of this uprising ... Of course, the Entente instigated, and first of all it was France, and first of all, the French ambassador Noulens was an ardent supporter of the Czechoslovak corps and education, as it was then said, the anti-German front, against the German-Bolshevik forces, as it was called in certain circles of the Entente. Of course, the Entente instigated, and there is a lot of evidence of this, and I talked about all this last time. But there were also those forces within the Entente itself, which, on the contrary, sought to ensure that the Czechoslovak corps quickly left Russia and arrived on the French front, on the Western front, in order to defend France from the impending German offensive. And unfortunately, these forces were not sufficiently used by the Soviet leadership, it was not possible to rely on them and to propagandize the mass of the Czechoslovak soldiers, which, by and large, became a victim of deception, became a victim of propaganda, because the extremist wing of the Czechoslovakians was essentially went to a direct forgery, explaining to their soldiers against whom they would fight in Russia. They explained, of course, that they would fight against the same Germans, because for the Czechoslovakians, the Bolsheviks are some completely alien story absolutely. Your internal showdowns, huh? Yes Yes. Czechoslovakia, in general, the Czechoslovak corps, I recall, was formed precisely as a military force that will fight for the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, i.e. this is their national affair, it is almost almost Patriotic War is conducted, however, on an incomprehensible foreign territory, but nevertheless, here they are defending the idea of ​​an independent Czechoslovakia. It is clear that they must fight against the Austro-Hungarians and the Germans. There are no Austro-Hungarians and Germans here, here's how to explain who they will fight here? For this, such a semi-mythical threat was used - the prisoners of war of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance. It was considered and officially proclaimed in this pro-Antante propaganda, with which the soldiers of the Czechoslovak corps were brainwashed, that there is a huge number of German prisoners of war in Russia. This was partly true - indeed, there were almost 2 million prisoners of war in the countries of the Quadruple Alliance. Wow! Let me remind you that the most ... most of the prisoners were Russians in the entire First world war, more precisely, citizens of the Russian Empire, subjects of the Russian Empire. The assessments are very different, by the way, this is an interesting topic: now the assessment of General Golovin is accepted - this is an emigre historian, very famous, who estimated the number of prisoners of war in the Russian Empire at 2.4 million people. This assessment is accepted by a significant part of historians, but if we honor Golovin himself, then we learn that it is based as follows: archives and sent him their results, and he derived 2.4 from them. But no one has ever checked these figures, at least those historians who refer to Golovin, and this, by the way, for example, is the well-known work of General Krivosheev on army losses in the wars of the 20th century, and now he directly refers to Golovin, and Golovin refers to two historians who sent him these results, but no one checked these figures, they were interned there. But this is not so important for our topic, something else is important - that in second place was Austria-Hungary, which was, as we remember, a patchwork empire, in which, as we know, a significant number of nationalities that did not have their own statehood within a two-pronged monarchy , did not want to fight, which, in fact, can be read about in the famous novel by Yaroslav Hasek. And now the Russians are there, if you remember how Schweik went to surrender, and towards the Russians, who are also going to surrender. This is about a typical story, the Austro-Hungarians were not much lagging behind, and so they made up the bulk of these 2 million prisoners of war, and the Germans, in fact, of them were only about 150 thousand ... Not rich, yes. Those. yes, it didn’t work with Germany, i.e. if we take an estimate directly for Germany, then the proportion is strongly not in favor of the Russian Empire. And in general, in scale, these forces, of course, were scattered, in contrast to the Czechoslovak corps, and represent some kind of military force they couldn't. Nobody was going to organize this military force, and the Germans did not demand it. But the Entente propaganda presented the case in such a way that military units are formed from these prisoners of war, which, in fact, will be the occupation corps in Bolshevik Russia and together with the Bolsheviks they will fight against the Czechs, in particular, and in general, carry out German rule in defeated Russia, and that's what you will fight with. For these German units, international units of the army, the Red Guard were issued, which, indeed, were formed, but I must say that these were numerically insignificant units, i.e., naturally, most of the prisoners dreamed of sitting out until the end of the war in captivity, not she was going to fight for nothing further, and only the most convinced, the most ardent, the most believing, captured by this Bolshevik idea, joined the international units of the Red Guard. In Penza, for example, there was the 1st Czechoslovak revolutionary regiment, or it is also called the 1st International Revolutionary Regiment under the leadership ... under the command of Jaroslav Strombach, also a Czech. There were 1200 people of all nationalities, these were prisoners of war, mainly from Austria-Hungary: there were Czechs, Slovaks, Yugoslavs, Hungarians, of course. Well that is a lot of people who did not want to die for the Austrians or the Hungarians? They did not want to simply fight, yes, and fight, and die for this, in this particular war. They enrolled in the revolutionary regiment because they were close to the international ideas of the Bolsheviks. And the Entente propaganda tried to pass off these extremely few international units as the Kaiser's battalions, which are carrying out occupation rule in Russia - that is why we need to fight against them. And in general, this propaganda was successful, but the counter propaganda, the Bolshevik, was not successful, although I will remind you that, for example, Jean Sadoul was in the French military mission - this is a captain who was extremely sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, then he will become a member of the Communist Party France, and I must say that recently, by some miracle, I watched a very curious episode from the series "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones", where Indiana Jones, as an agent of the French military mission, finds himself in revolutionary Petrograd - here you can feel that some features are visible in it Zhana Sadul. Have you watched this episode? No. Well, quite curiously: he was sent just with the task of preventing the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, he is being introduced into the labor movement in Petrograd, but he is being introduced so well that he begins to sympathize with the young workers who have joined the Bolsheviks, and it is there that the action unfolds during the July performances in 1917, when his friends are killed. Quite a tragic story, but this biography of Jean Sadul is clearly traced in the interpretation of the adventures of Indiana Jones here. But let's get back, in fact, to the events associated with the uprising of the Czechoslovak Legion. It was not possible to rely on Zhan Sadul, and I will remind you that there was an extremely harsh telegram from Trotsky, which called for the disarming of the Czechoslovakians by force, and those who do not obey to be shot and imprisoned in concentration camps. But this telegram was sent to all Soviets along the route, in fact, along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and almost all Soviets were extremely perplexed by this telegram, since the Soviets simply did not have the Red Guard forces to carry out this task. It is necessary to explain - many do not know what the Soviets are? Soviets of Deputies - Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. This is not a dirty word. Yes. And as an example of how these Soviets were put in a difficult position, we can cite the Penza Soviet, because, having received Trotsky's telegram, he immediately gathered for a meeting and began to discuss what, in principle, could be done. And first of all, they contacted the military commissar of Simbirsk and asked for reinforcements, saying that there are now more than 2 thousand Czechoslovakians with machine guns in Penza, and today they just left for the front, just at that time there were still battles with Ataman Dutov in Orenburg region , they sent 800 people to the front, and they have little strength, the Center requires the task to be completed today or tomorrow, a conflict is inevitable, so we ask for help - what can you give? From Simbirsk they replied that they could not give much - they also sent companies to the Dutov front, it is possible to send, however, 90 people from the International. When the Council realizes that, firstly, they have few people, and secondly, they are not particularly trained, they directly inform Trotsky that they have come to the conclusion that they cannot fulfill the prescription: “... at a distance of 100 versts there is about 12 000 troops with machine guns. Ahead of us are echelons with 60 rifles for 100 people. The arrest of the officers will inevitably trigger a protest against which we cannot resist. " What Lev Davidovich answers - he answers the following: “Comrade, military orders are given not for discussion, but for execution. I will hand over to the military court all the representatives of the military commissariat who will cowardly evade the execution of disarming the Czechoslovakians. We have taken measures to move the armored trains. It is your responsibility to act decisively and immediately. I can't add anything else. " In general, do whatever you want. Well, on the one hand, you can’t argue - Lev Davydovich is right, on the other hand, I don’t know, it only occurs to me, since they were traveling in trains, only to derail the trains. But then it is not clear ... They were standing. They no longer went, they stood there. Well, in general, again, the Soviet party bodies consulted, realized that it was just, well, well, impossible, and therefore, in principle, they made the right decision - they went to engage in propaganda, to negotiate. But the forces of the Penza Soviet were not enough, in order to propagandize the Shchushlovaks, other forces were needed here - representatives of the military mission of the Entente were needed, that is, from my point of view, of course, this is, perhaps, it seems arrogant instruction, we know better how to proceed, etc., but it seems to me that it was rational to take by the scruff the members of the Entente military mission, who words spoken that this is an incident, this is an accident, we will explain, etc., to take the members of the Czech National Council loyal to the Soviet government and lead them directly, lead them and force them to disarm under their cover. Well, the Penza Soviet did not succeed, the legionnaires did not disarm, and as a result, a battle took place, as a result of which the legionnaires captured Penza, and since this Czechoslovak revolutionary regiment was just there, the battle and subsequent events took place with extreme ferocity, because here the features of the Czechoslovak civil war have already appeared - they fought against their own people, they perceived each other as traitors, enemies, and since the White Czechs defeated, they, naturally, perpetrated a literal sadistic reprisal against the Red Czechs, which is still remembered in Penza. And in general, I must say that from the capture of the very first cities, it appears that the Czechs are on a foreign land, because, for example, the whites took ... the Yaroslavl uprising won for a short time - there was no terrible pogrom there. Yes, there were ... some were killed, Soviet party workers were arrested, they were put on a barge there, they were kept under arrest, but there was no such large-scale robbery. And the Czechs, having taken Penza, immediately behave like the Landsknechts, who were given the city for plunder - so they immediately rampant robbery, murder, rape, i.e. absolutely such a horde came. Occupant, yes. Yes, the invading horde has come, while, of course, the classic story begins with the settling of scores, they point out to the Czechs the unwanted, the unwanted deal with those whom they were shown, without understanding, a communist, a Bolshevik - it doesn't matter. Well, in short, a terrible thing has begun. And I must say that, by the way, they did not stay in Penza, they were very afraid that they would be knocked out of there, and, simply destroying the local Council, plundering the city, the Czechs went to Samara, which they would soon take. Samara is a very important moment, the capture of Samara, we managed to take it very easily, as Lieutenant Chechik, who commanded this Volga group of Czechs, said, “they took Samara like a rake of hay”. There was no strength, i.e. The Red Army could not just yet ... could not just organize a competent defense. It was Samara that became the capital of an alternative government to the Bolsheviks - it was the government, the so-called. Komuch, i.e. Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly. The Czechs brought the members of the Constituent Assembly in a wagon train. I must say that these were mainly Right SRs, with the exception of the Menshevik Ivan Maisky, who later became a Bolshevik, Russian Ambassador to London and Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who left very interesting diaries. The Right SRs, who constituted the majority, they knew that the Czechs were going to revolt, and expected intervention, and this once again testifies to the fact that they had extensive connections with the leadership of the SR party, in particular, in the French military mission. This indicates that the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps was inspired by the Entente. They waited, and as soon as the Czechs revolted, immediately 5 members of the Constituent Assembly from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party arrived at the location of the Czechoslovak troops, they were brought in a car to the building of the Samara City Duma and put there as a government, and they themselves later admitted that they no one supported, no one took it seriously, and they were such wedding generals who were planted here - and now they ... rule. How did the Entente countries perceive the events that took place? Well, firstly, here - I will remind you, I spoke about this last time - a big role was played by the statement of a member of the French military mission Guinet, who, having arrived at the disposal of the Czechoslovak troops, said that the Entente countries welcomed the appearance and creation of an anti-German front. Sadul demanded to disavow this statement, but the statement was not disavowed, and this testified that the Entente had already made its choice finally, and that is, she is betting on the overthrow of the Soviet regime and on the Czechoslovak ... on the actions of the Czechoslovakians. Let me remind you that the Czechoslovakians were not on their own, but they were officially considered part of the French army and obeyed, respectively, the French commander-in-chief, so the French began to look at them as their own troops, supposed to act in the interests of the French Republic. Likewise, we meet with full approval from the British. Lloyd George wrote to the head of the Czech National Council Masaryk: “I am sending you my heartfelt congratulations on the impressive successes your troops have achieved in the fight against German and Austrian troops in Siberia. The fate and triumph of this small army constitutes one of the most outstanding epics in history. " So that's it. Well, Masaryk immediately starts hinting to all his, I don’t know, colleagues, I don’t know, to major political figures, that all this is not just that, keep your promises. In particular, Masaryk wrote to the US State Department: “I believe that the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council has become practically necessary. I am, I would say, the master of Siberia and half of Russia. " Here. Not bad. Masaryk demands recognition, yes, with an eye to the fact that this entire Czech National Council, after the end of the war, will move to Prague as the government of independent Czechoslovakia - like, we did what you wanted, let's now pay with the recognition of Czechoslovakia. True, there were also selfish interests, which are immediately recorded in the sources, because ... there were generally 3 reasons why the intervention began: the first reason is, of course, of course, an attempt to return Russia to the war, i.e. allies, all this nonsense that England deliberately overthrew the tsar, because the war had already been won - this is complete nonsense, because in the spring of 1918 the situation is such that Germany may well win the war, everything hangs in the balance. If, for example, Germany would have taken Paris in 1918, then the American troops would have arrived for a nodding analysis, and in any case it would have been possible to conclude a pretty decent draw at the end of the First World War, therefore ... But the situation for the British at this moment is very, very heavy, and even worse for the French. The second reason was that, yes, indeed, there was a fear of the Soviet government, because the Soviet government clearly took a course towards the elimination of private property, and the Western countries, for which private property is sacred and inviolable, were naturally afraid of this. Well, there was a third reason, of course, the third reason was obvious - Russia weakened, it could have been robbed, and all these countries, which had long coveted various Russian riches, they naturally wanted to take advantage of this. And these 3 reasons very often went like 3 in 1, that is, without highlighting any one, the same figures tried to achieve the first, and the second, and the third. And here it is interesting in this connection that, for example, how is it being discussed in the United States at this moment, whether to participate in the intervention or not to participate. Here is the presidential adviser Bullitt writes to Colonel House, this is Wilson's special envoy: “Russian idealist liberals, personally interested investors, who would like to leave the American economy from the Western Hemisphere, are in favor of the intervention. The only people in Russia who profit from this adventure will be landowners, bankers and merchants - they will go to Russia to protect their interests. " Those. clearly this third motive sounds, and not only in Bullitt. It is also interesting that the Czechoslovakians are thought of as some kind of force that can restrain imperialist opponents, for the Americans it is Japan, and the American ambassador to China, for example, writes to the president about the Czechs: “They can take control of Siberia. If they were not in Siberia, they would have to be sent there from the farthest. The Czechs must block the Bolsheviks and push the Japanese out as part of the allied interventionist forces in Russia. " And the Americans are Japanese ... Oh, twisted, listen! Those. Everyone has big plans for the Czechs, but what the Czechs are doing - the Czechs take city after city, rob and shoot. "Rob, booze, rest," huh? Yes Yes Yes. And they killed a lot of people? Lot. On May 26, Chelyabinsk was already captured, all members of the local Council were shot, Penza on May 29, Omsk on June 7, Samara on June 8 - and so city after city along the entire route. Do you know, yes, that a monument was erected to them in Samara? I am aware, yes, and I’ll get to this now - this is extremely regrettable news, but this is not only Samara, this is generally a whole program of the Czech Ministry of Defense, which, in agreement with the Russian Ministry of Defense, erects monuments along the entire route. Well, what did the Czechoslovakians do along the route? We have evidence of this: well, for example, “in the first days of the occupation of Simbirsk, arrests were carried out right on the street on the basis of denunciations, it was enough for someone from the crowd to point at someone, how suspicious a person was, how a person was seized. The executions were carried out right there without any hesitation in the street, and the corpses of the executed were lying around for several days. " Eyewitness Medovich about the events in Kazan: “It was a truly unrestrained revelry of the victors - mass executions of not only responsible Soviet workers, but also everyone who was suspected of recognizing Soviet power. The executions were carried out without trial, and the bodies were lying around all day in the street. " But the most interesting thing is that the Czechoslovaks were cursed not only by the Soviet workers, not only by the Communists, the Bolsheviks - later the White Guards also cursed the Czechoslovakians, because the Czechs betrayed them too, they were engaged only in ... that is. there it is - at first, it seems like they were citizens of Austria-Hungary and betrayed Austria-Hungary, then they betrayed the Reds, then they betrayed the Whites, and as a result, they left with the looted property. Well done! And now one of Kolchak's associates, General Sakharov, even wrote a whole book in exile in Berlin, "Czech Legions in Siberia: Czechoslovak Betrayal." This book, well, as I understand it, monuments to the Czechs are erected by fans of the White movement, so this book should first of all be read to them, because on behalf of the military general of the White movement there it is written with such pain about all Czech arts, I’m here I would like to tell and read a little about it. Well, first of all, Sakharov, with great humor and pain at the same time, describes the behavior of the Czechs, because, of course, no one among the Czechs wanted to die for the White Idea, i.e. obviously ... The idealists of the White movement thought as: the agents of imperial Germany seized power, we raised the banner of struggle here, liberated occupied Russia, and our allies help us (well, this is something like we have the Normandie-Niemen regiment there), we together with our allies are driving out the invaders. But these white idealists were very soon awaited by severe disappointment, because the Entente countries were no ... allies in quotes, because they indulged in unrestrained plunder and clearly realized their interventionist goals, not caring in the least about the White movement, and this was a terrible disappointment for the whites. And this is what Sakharov writes: during one of the battles they asked for reinforcements, and a Czech armored car was sent to them: “The two-day battle cost us great losses, and had only local success. The Czech armored car did not support us, keeping all the time to cover the railway cut and not even leaving after our homemade armored car, which went on the attack and damaged the Bolshevik armored car. The Czechs did not fire a single shot. After the battle, the Czechs announced their departure, but before that, the commander of the Czech armored train asked for a certificate of the participation of the Czech armored car in the battle. Lieutenant Colonel Smolin, not knowing what to write to the Czechs, suggested that the Czech commander draw up a text of the certificate, hoping for his modesty. I sat down at the typewriter, and the Czech, dictating to me, entered into the text of the certificate a phrase that I remember to this day: "... the people of the Czech armored train fought like lions ..." Czech commander. The Czech did not even look down. Lieutenant Colonel Smolin sighed deeply, signed a piece of paper and, without giving the Czech his hand, went to the railroad track. A few minutes later, the Czech armored train was gone forever. During the whole time of the offensive struggle at the front, I had no contact with the Czechs, only from the distant rear a ditty, popular at that time, flew to the front: “Russians are fighting each other, Czechs are selling sugar ...”. In the rear, behind the Siberian army, there was an orgy of speculation, insubordination, and sometimes outright robbery. Officers and soldiers arriving at the front talked about the capture by the Czechs of echelons with uniforms on their way to the front, about using stocks of weapons and firearms in their favor, about their occupation of the best apartments in cities, and on the railways of the best carriages and steam locomotives. " They didn't restrain themselves with anything, did they? Yes. Well, what Sakharov's conclusion is, is this a white general, what he writes about the allies: “They betrayed the Russian White Army and its leader, they fraternized with the Bolsheviks, they, like a cowardly herd, fled to the east, they committed violence and murder over the unarmed, they stole hundreds of millions of private and state property and took it out of Siberia with them to their homeland. Not even centuries will pass, but tens of years, and humanity, in search of a fair balance, will clash more than once in a struggle, more than once, perhaps, will change the map of Europe; the bones of all these Blessings and Paul will rot in the ground; Russian values ​​brought by them from Siberia will also disappear - in their place humanity will obtain and make new, different ones. But betrayal, a Cain cause, on the one hand, and the pure suffering of the Cross in Russia, on the other, will not pass, will not be forgotten and will be passed on from offspring to posterity for a long time, for centuries. And Blagoshi and Co. firmly reinforced the label on this: This is what the Czechoslovak corps did in Siberia! And how should Russia ask the Czech and Slovak peoples how they treated the traitorous Jews and what do they intend to do to correct the atrocities inflicted on Russia? " Well, now General Sakharov has received an answer to his question - they have erected monuments to them along the entire route of the echelons of the Czechoslovak corps. Here are the monuments that should have consisted of this tablet, if only by the mind. Shameless, eh! I absolutely agree, absolutely! Those. the Czechoslovak corps was noted here by robbery, murder, violence. To erect monuments to them - I don’t know ... they went crazy in general, just. Well, there is already someone there, I saw the photographs, someone already painted it from a spray can, writing over the monument with red paint: "They killed the Russians." What do people who erect such monuments think? What do they think and what do they want in the end? What are the unfinished Reds writing on these monuments, right? Has your power come now? Well, what did your government say about it? Well, maybe it's some kind of wrong white? What's in your heads? In addition to the fact that the Czechs robbed, killed, raped, they, of course, in principle, gave impetus to a full-scale civil war in Russia, and one can absolutely agree with Ivan Maisky, who, I recall, is a member of Komuch, and later he will become a very important Soviet diplomat. academician. And so he gives an absolutely precise, in my opinion, definition of what happened: “Do not interfere with Czechoslovakia in our struggle, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly would not have arisen, and Admiral Kolchak would not have come to power on the shoulders of the latter. For the forces of the Russian counter-revolution itself were absolutely insignificant. And if Kolchak had not been strengthened, neither Denikin, nor Yudenich, nor Miller could have deployed their operations so widely. The civil war would never have assumed such fierce forms and such grandiose proportions as they were marked; perhaps even there would not have been a civil war in the true sense of the word. " This is an absolutely accurate definition, in my opinion. But a few words about Komuch: naturally, the formation of an alternative to the Bolshevik government attracted all the anti-Bolshevik forces, well, first of all, of course, the Socialist-Revolutionaries, they all began to gather in Samara, and soon Viktor Chernov, the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, was there. The policy was peculiar - they immediately announced that now was not the time for socialist experiments, and already on July 9, the denationalization of enterprises and a timid policy of compensation for losses to former owners began, and a very incomprehensible policy with the land. This, incidentally, seriously agitated the peasants, because the Bolshevik slogan "Land for the peasants!" no one canceled, everyone was worried about whether the landowners would return, who, in fact ... would claim their rights to their former land. But so far Komuch has announced that the main task is to eliminate the power of the Bolsheviks. To eliminate the power of the Bolsheviks, an army is needed, and so far everything rests on Czech bayonets, and as, by the way, the French consul in Samara wrote quite rightly to the French ambassador Noulens, “there is no doubt for anyone that without our Czechs the Constituent Assembly Committee would not have existed. and one week. " They felt very insecure, and the Socialist-Revolutionary Brushvit wrote: "There was support only from the peasants, a small handful of intelligentsia, officers and officials, all the rest stood aside." This is what I was talking about - nobody wants war. Yes, and there was such support from the peasants, because the Socialist-Revolutionaries were known in this environment, but it is impossible to say that they have some kind of super support there. Well, first of all, Komuch creates an army, he calls it the People's Army, forms a volunteer Samara squad, but one cannot say that there was a huge number of people willing. The only thing that could be noticed in this was that Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel was arriving in Samara from the General Staff - this is a very large person for the White movement, well, Kappel is also a veteran of the First World War, after he was demobilized in the fall of 1917, he lived In Perm. By convictions, Kappel is an extreme monarchist, a talented man, like a military man, and naturally, he ... well, the Bolsheviks are not his power, he does not want to have anything to do with them, and as soon as an alternative arises, he immediately rushes to Samara. True, Komuch is also not his power, the Socialist-Revolutionaries are also practically the same for him as the Bolsheviks, and subsequently that is why he will support Admiral Kolchak, who, so to speak, is a classical military dictatorship, but at the moment, since all the forces are on suppressing the Bolsheviks, Kappel arrives, since there are no others who want to lead this squad, he ... they appoint him. And this was the right decision on the part of Komuch, because such a talented military man at the head of the forces, indeed, for some time changes the course of hostilities in favor of the anti-Bolshevik movement, in favor of the whites. Subsequently, Kappel will take Kazan, and this will be a very strong blow to the positions of the Reds, because in Kazan: a) part of the gold reserve will be captured, some of which will then be taken away by the Czechs, and the second important point is that the Military Academy of the General Staff was evacuated to Kazan in in full force, and she, in full force, went over to the side of the whites. But this is not all that is interesting in this situation, because the Bolsheviks - this is probably a unique case in world history - will completely rebuild this Military Academy, using, again, the personnel of the old tsarist army. And as a result of all these events, a united anti-Bolshevik front begins to form, i.e. the Bolsheviks find themselves in a very difficult situation. And here we move on to such an important topic as the relationship of the Bolsheviks with the peasantry, because in addition to the White movement, which consists of officers, the intelligentsia and the middle urban strata, gradually begins to form the White movement ... well, I would not say that the peasantry is supporting the White movement , but, let's say, the peasants are beginning to act in favor of the White movement, their spontaneous peasant uprisings are an important moment. The fact is that, having come to power, the Bolsheviks faced the same problem that the tsarist government and the Provisional Government were unsuccessfully solving - it was the problem of buying grain from the peasants. Let me remind you that by the end of 1916 a food crisis arose, it was associated with the fact that the state established fixed food prices for the purchase of grain in the countryside. Prices were low, peasants were low prices did not want to sell anything. The invisible hand of the market started working right there, right? Yes, the invisible hand of the market immediately began to work, and in this regard, on December 2, 1916, the Minister of Food Rittich introduced the surplus appropriation. This surplus was voluntary, i.e. the peasants had to hand over their surplus to the local authorities themselves. As a result, nothing was handed over, nothing was obtained, and the food crisis intensified. The provisional government, realizing that the case smells like kerosene, introduced the so-called. a grain monopoly, but, again ... that is. all surpluses must be handed over to the state, but the Provisional Government did not have any strength to withdraw these surpluses, and naturally, no one carried them on a silver platter. Moreover, what was the problem: the fact is that the trade turnover between the city and the countryside was disrupted, the peasants could not buy much - not nails ... the peasants could not buy any goods ranging from nails to tea, so instead of money they held grain , they believed that we did not really need money now, let it be better to keep the grain with us. Well, the Bolsheviks, having come to power, the Soviets, or rather, having come to power, inherited this whole problem, but they did not just inherit this problem - it was seriously aggravated, why - because according to the Brest Peace, Russia lost Ukraine, i.e. essentially a granary, and the grain became less and less, in general, the country was on the verge of hunger. Hunger is primarily in the cities, of course, because grain does not flow from the countryside to the city. What to do? Well, naturally, well-to-do peasants, kulaks, as before, as they did not want to give grain to the state, they do not want to. Well, at the same time, one must understand that it was these people who set the tone for public opinion in the villages, and whoever wanted to sell bread would have burned down the hut. Yes, and they have the opportunity even to some local Councils either to advance themselves, or to promote henchmen there, and such a village conflict begins. Well, and the city needs to be fed somehow? And in this sense, the Bolsheviks begin to act quite energetically and tough - they introduce a policy of effective surplus appropriation, sending food detachments to the villages. But so that the food detachments are not perceived in the village, as some sent Cossack women came and pulled everything out, separate commissaries are created in the villages. Committees of the poor. Yes, the committees of the poor, i.e. the class policy in the countryside begins to be implemented. To keep the fist from concealing grain from the state, it needs constant supervision. The food detachment came and went, who will look after him - his own, the poor. The poor have a direct goal of keeping an eye on the fist. And now committees of the poor are being created in the village, which, in fact, should provide support to the food detachments and show that this one has hidden grain, here this one here ... Well, who does not understand, it is quite obvious - what if this under arable land of 10 hectares, then on average this will grow from it, and then they will come and ask the question: where are ours, there, I don’t know, 1000 poods? And he says: I only have 20. 20 will not work, I have to give everything. And these people, respectively, will show. This is the same field for settling scores, grievances and all that. Well, colossal, of course, all this is happening, the result is that peasant uprisings break out, and the village begins to polarize, i.e. the poor are drawn to the Bolsheviks, to the Red Army, the kulaks are drawn to any anti-Bolsheviks in general, and to the White Army, but who is the middle peasant for? That for whom the middle peasant will be, he will win, that and the sneaker. A struggle for the middle peasant begins: agitation, violence, but in any case, already since the summer of 1918, we have recorded more than a hundred peasant uprisings, large and small, throughout the country, because the peasantry cannot like this policy, because it provokes ... reveals an internal conflict. Well, in general, here, it seems to me, it makes no difference, you are a fist, not a fist - from the point of view of me, as a peasant: I grew it with my sweat, with my blood, and for as much as I want, I will sell it for as much - and then they will come and take it away simply. Yes. Peasant psychology, in general, sharply rejected all this. And after all these ... well, practically in parallel with all these events, the Soviet government makes another decision, which, so to speak, sharply, so to speak, the peasants, firstly, polarizes, and secondly, is generally not popular: since the enemy does not sleep, gathers forces, you need to create an army. Let me remind you that the Red Army already exists, but it is voluntary, whoever wants it goes. Something on a voluntary basis, not very many people enter there for obvious reasons - the 4th year the war has been going on, everyone is tired, they want a peaceful life, etc., well, not popular, the war, in principle, is not popular. But since the enemies are mobilized, the Bolsheviks are forced to declare mobilization, or rather, the forced recruitment of workers into the Red Army, this happens by the decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on May 29, 1918. Mobilization begins on June 12, 5 ages of workers and peasants who do not exploit other people's labor in 51 districts of the Volga, Ural and West Siberian military districts, located in the immediate vicinity of the theater of military operations. And the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets in July has already consolidated the transition from the volunteer principle of the formation of the Red Army to the creation of a regular army of workers and working peasants on the basis of conscription. The peasants do not want to join the army, they disrupt the mobilization - well, they seem to have fought for 4 years, just returned, here the land ... and again demand to fight, it is not clear against whom, why. There is a well-known song: "In the Red Army, there will be bayonets, tea, the Bolsheviks will manage without you." Yes, this is Demyan Bedny. Everything, if he doesn’t want to, mobilization fails, and now we have such a document as the report of a member of the Supreme Military Inspectorate Nikolayev, who tells the Council of People's Commissars: “Mobilization has no chance of success, enthusiasm, faith, no desire to fight.” All this is happening against the background of, well, not that the failure of this food policy, but this food policy, it is clear that even on paper, in the plans it looked normal: here food detachments, they come, here they are met by the committees of the poor, they show where the grain is at the kulaks, the kulak has nowhere to go, he gives the grain - and everything is fine. When all this begins to be embodied in practice, this inevitably leads to some colossal excesses: in the same Penza province, an uprising begins, because there was such a woman commissioner of the food detachment Yevgeny Bosch, who, after all, was apparently not particularly balanced lady, she personally shot one peasant who refused to hand over the grain - it caused ... led to an uprising, well, there is a war, in fact, such a peasant war. We have data on how these attempts to pick up grain took place in different places: well, for example, in some places food detachments are simply dispersed by peasants. On the other hand, in some places food detachments consisting of workers behave in national villages, completely ignoring local national customs and traditions: for example, “one of the national traditions of the Udmurt peasants was the laying of grain stacks in honor of the birth of their daughter. Such ricks, called maidens, were set up every year before the wedding, as a dowry for the daughter. Therefore, every owner who had daughters had a supply of bread untouched before their wedding. The food detachments who did not know this, thrashing girls' hacks, dishonored, according to the notions of the peasants, their houses. Such tactlessness created favorable conditions for nationalist agitation and armed uprisings against food detachments. " But, nevertheless, the author notes that in the Vyatka province there was a very effective commissar of the food detachment, Schlichter, who applied the system of contracts with the peasant Soviets and paid for part of the grain in goods, i.e. he managed to fulfill the grain procurement plan. But nevertheless, let's just note for ourselves that this policy caused a sharp discontent among the peasantry, and the peasants swung at that moment to the whites. And in principle, these problems with the peasants will remain until the end of the Civil War, all subsequent events, all subsequent these famous peasant uprisings will be caused by the same reasons. But, in principle, the same problem that faced the Bolsheviks, it stood ... became inevitable in general for any power that was organized in the space of the former Russian Empire, and this power had to do the same - the cities needed to be fed. Therefore, in any power, for example, the Germans come to power, they occupied Ukraine - the food detachments must be seized, the grain must be seized, and also sent to Germany and Austria-Hungary, Kolchak comes - the same thing. Therefore, in principle, this problem was the same for all authorities. And we see the same in relation to mobilization, because when Komuch strengthened himself, the first thing he announced was mobilization. "Against your will, you will go or willingly, Vanya-Vanya, you will be lost for no reason." On June 8, on the day of the capture of Samara, Komuch, announcing the creation of the People's Army, emphasizing the non-class nature, announces mobilization - the same thing, no one wants to fight. One of the organizers of the army, Shmelev, writes that former officers, student youth, the intelligentsia poured into the ranks of the volunteer units, but the people do not want to go to it, the peasants of 5 of the 7 districts of the Samara province did not support volunteering for the Komuch army, only the most the rich counties of the province provided volunteers. But they also sent tens of thousands of poor and low-powered middle peasants to the Red Army, and the right SR Klimushin was forced to admit in September 1918 that "despite the general jubilation, real support was negligible - not hundreds, but only dozens of citizens came to us." Well, as a result, almost compulsory mobilization begins, parts of the formed people's army go to the villages, trying to find people there, but they do not succeed. And in those places where Komuch's army is already passing through, sympathy for the Bolsheviks already begins, on the contrary. Here is how Shmelev writes - that the population, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the people's army, often, almost from the first days, was bitterly disappointed in their expectations. In the Menzelinsky district, inhabited by Tatars, during the period of the Czechoslovak offensive, there was a wave of peasant uprisings against Soviet power. But it was enough to "walk" around the county for several days, Colonel Shch. With his fellows, as the mood completely changed in the opposite direction. When the Menzelinsky district was again occupied by Soviet troops, almost the entire male population of the district, capable of carrying weapons, without waiting for forced mobilization, joined the ranks of the Soviet troops. Strongly! A very characteristic confession. So, let us note that the peasantry as a whole is rather passive and does not want to fight at the moment. But nevertheless, the confrontation is determined, the fronts are determined, and at this moment - the middle of 1918 - the prospects for the victory of the whites begin to emerge, why - because, firstly, they enjoy the support of the Entente countries, and secondly, alternative authorities are being created, around which you can build armies, etc., all forces unite, flock, and thirdly, the Bolsheviks are losing their social base, they are losing the social base of the peasants, and they are losing their allies - the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, who blame the wrong policy of the Bolsheviks for everything that happens ... Let me remind you that in tandem, in this alliance, in the coalition of the Bolsheviks and Left SRs, the Bolsheviks are still the leaders, and the Left SRs are the followers, but the Left SRs do not really like this, and the Left SRs, first of all, extremely disapprove of Brestsky peace, they believe that everything that is happening is all because they signed the obscene Peace of Brest-Litovsk. Now, if the Brest-Litovsk Peace had not been signed, we would have continued the revolutionary war, in Germany there would have already been, in general, there would have already been a world revolution, we would have already been, in general, on horseback. And now we have only strengthened the German army, from here we are forced, after the occupation of Ukraine we are forced to start putting pressure on the peasant, which means peasant uprisings - the Bolsheviks are to blame for all this, they made the whole mess. Therefore, the Left SRs are already thinking about a mutiny with the aim of a coup and coming to power by this time. This is one problem of the Bolsheviks, in addition to this, in parallel, the so-called. in historiography, it is known as a conspiracy of ambassadors, because the Entente, while outwardly maintaining a diplomatic politeness in relation to the power of the Bolsheviks, although not recognizing it, is clearly aiming at overthrowing the Council of People's Commissars and restoring some kind of provisional government capable, first of all, to renew the war against Germany, and secondly, accountable to the forces of the Entente, controlled. And thirdly, officers' performances are being prepared in parallel, which are secretly conducted by Boris Savinkov, the Socialist Revolutionary, probably the most energetic person in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, who, having received a mandate to organize underground officer organizations from the commander of the Volunteer Army Alekseev, really created them, not just spoke and he really created. And all this surrounds the Bolsheviks in a ring, i.e. everywhere around them knots are being pulled together, and it seems that it is impossible to cope with it, because there are such enormous problems, such a rush is on them that it is not clear how to cope with it, but nevertheless they coped. This is how it happened, we'll talk next time. Into the plot! Thank you, Egor. And that's all for today. Until next time.

Background

The Czechoslovak Corps was formed as part of the Russian army in the fall of 1917, mainly from Czechs and Slovaks who were captured, who expressed a desire to participate in the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The first national Czech unit (Czech squad) was created from Czech volunteers who lived in Russia at the very beginning of the war, in the fall of 1914. As part of the 3rd Army of General Radko-Dmitriev, she participated in the Battle of Galicia and subsequently performed mainly reconnaissance and propaganda functions. Since March 1915, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, allowed to accept Czechs and Slovaks from among prisoners and defectors into the ranks of the squad. As a result, by the end of 1915 it was deployed to the Jan Hus First Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment (with a staff of about 2,100 people). It was in this formation that the future leaders of the rebellion began their service, and later - prominent political and military leaders of the Czechoslovak Republic - Lieutenant Yan Syrovy, Lieutenant Stanislav Chechek, Captain Radola Gaida and others. By the end of 1916, the regiment turned into a brigade ( Československá střelecká brigáda) as part of three regiments, numbering approx. 3.5 thousand officers and lower ranks, under the command of Colonel V.P. Troyanov.

Meanwhile, in February 1916, the Czechoslovak National Council ( Československá národní rada). Its leaders (Tomas Masaryk, Josef Dyurich, Milan Stefanik, Edvard Beneš) promoted the idea of ​​creating an independent Czechoslovak state and made vigorous efforts to obtain the consent of the Entente countries to form an independent volunteer Czechoslovak army.

1917 year

The representative of the CSNS, the future first president of independent Czechoslovakia, Professor Tomas Masaryk spent a whole year in Russia, from May 1917 to April 1918. As a prominent figure of the White movement, Lieutenant General Sakharov writes in his book, Masaryk first contacted all the “leaders” of the February revolution, after what " entered entirely at the disposal of the French military mission in Russia". Masaryk himself in the 1920s called the Czechoslovak corps “ an autonomous army, but at the same time an integral part of the French army", insofar as " we depended on monetary terms from France and from the Entente". For the leaders of the Czech national movement, the main goal of continuing to participate in the war with Germany was the creation of a state independent from Austria-Hungary. In the same 1917, by a joint decision of the French government and the CSNS, the Czechoslovak Legion was formed in France. ČSNS was recognized as the only supreme body of all Czechoslovak military formations - this put the Czechoslovak legionnaires(and now they were called that way) in Russia, depending on the decisions of the Entente.

Meanwhile, the Czechoslovak National Council (ČSNS), seeking to transform the Russian-created Czechoslovak corps into a “foreign allied army on Russian territory,” petitioned the French government and President Poincaré to recognize all Czechoslovak military formations as part of the French army. Since December 1917, on the basis of a decree of the French government of December 19 on the organization of an autonomous Czechoslovak army in France, the Czechoslovak corps in Russia was formally subordinate to the French command and received an instruction to send it to France.

1918 year

Nevertheless, the Czechoslovakians could get to France only through the territory of Russia, where at that time Soviet power was established everywhere. In order not to spoil relations with the Soviet government of Russia, the Czechoslovak National Council categorically refrained from any action against it, and therefore refused to help the Central Rada against the Soviet troops advancing on it.

In the course of the unfolding offensive of Soviet troops on Kiev, they came into contact with units of the 2nd Czechoslovak division, which was in formation near Kiev, and Masaryk concluded an agreement on neutrality with Commander-in-Chief M.A.Muravyov. On January 26 (February 8), Soviet troops captured Kiev and established Soviet power there. On February 16, Muravyov told Masaryk that the government of Soviet Russia had no objection to the departure of the Czechoslovakians to France.

With the consent of Masaryk, Bolshevik agitation was allowed in the Czechoslovak units. A small part of the Czechoslovakians (a little more than 200 people), under the influence of revolutionary ideas, left the corps and later joined the international brigades of the Red Army. Masaryk himself, according to him, refused to accept offers of cooperation that came to him from Generals Alekseev and Kornilov (General Alekseev at the beginning of February 1918 appealed to the head of the French mission in Kiev with a request to agree to send to the Yekaterinoslav-Aleksandrov-Sinelnikovo region, if not the entire Czechoslovak corps, then at least one division with artillery in order to create the conditions necessary for the protection of the Don and the formation of the Volunteer Army. PN Milyukov addressed Masaryk directly with the same request). At the same time, Masaryk, in the words of KN Sakharov, “became firmly connected with the Russian left camp; in addition to Muravyov, he strengthened his relations with a number of revolutionary leaders of the semi-Bolshevik type. " Russian officers were gradually removed from command posts, the CSNS in Russia was replenished with "leftist, ultra-socialist prisoners of war."

At the beginning of 1918, the 1st Czechoslovak division was stationed near Zhitomir. On January 27 (February 9), a delegation of the Central Rada of the UPR in Brest-Litovsk signed a peace treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary, enlisting their military assistance in the fight against Soviet troops. After the entry of German-Austrian troops into the territory of Ukraine, which began on February 18, the 1st Czechoslovak division was urgently redeployed from near Zhitomir to the Left-Bank Ukraine, where from March 7 to March 14 in the Bakhmach region the Czechoslovakians had to act together with Soviet troops, holding back the onslaught of the German divisions to ensure the evacuation.

All efforts of the CSNS were aimed at organizing the evacuation of the corps from Russia to France. The shortest route was by sea - through Arkhangelsk and Murmansk - but it was abandoned out of fears of the Czechs that the corps could be intercepted by the Germans if they went on the offensive. It was decided to send the legionnaires along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok and further through Pacific Ocean to Europe .

Former tsarist army by the summer of 1918, it had already ceased to exist, while the Red Army and White armies had just begun to form and, often, did not differ in combat effectiveness. The Czechoslovak Legion turns out to be almost the only combat-ready force in Russia, its number increases to 50 thousand people. Because of this, the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the Czechoslovakians was wary. On the other hand, despite the agreement expressed by the Czech leaders to the partial disarmament of the trains, among the legionnaires themselves this was received with great discontent and became a reason for hostile distrust of the Bolsheviks.

In the meantime, the Soviet government became aware of secret allied negotiations on Japanese intervention in Siberia and the Far East. On March 28, hoping to prevent this, Leon Trotsky agreed to Lockhart for an all-Union landing in Vladivostok. However, on April 4, Japanese Admiral Kato, without warning the allies, landed a small detachment of marines in Vladivostok "to protect the lives and property of Japanese citizens." The Soviet government, suspecting the Entente of a double game, demanded to start new negotiations on changing the direction of the evacuation of the Czechoslovakians from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.

The German General Staff, for its part, also feared the imminent appearance of a 40,000th corps on the Western Front, at a time when France was already running out of its last manpower reserves and the so-called colonial troops were hastily sent to the front. Under pressure from the German Ambassador to Russia, Count Mirbach, on April 21, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V. Chicherin sent a telegram to the Krasnoyarsk Soviet about the suspension of the further movement of Czechoslovak echelons to the east:

Fearing a Japanese offensive in Siberia, Germany resolutely demands that an emergency evacuation of German prisoners from Eastern Siberia to Western or European Russia be initiated. Please use all means. Czechoslovak units must not move east.
Chicherin

The legionnaires took this order as an intention of the Soviet government to hand them over to Germany and Austria-Hungary as former prisoners of war. In an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and suspicion, incidents were inevitable. One of them occurred on May 14 at the Chelyabinsk station. A Czech soldier was wounded by a cast-iron leg from a stove thrown out of a train with Hungarian prisoners of war underway. In response, the Czechoslovakians stopped the train and lynched the culprit. In the wake of this incident, the Soviet authorities in Chelyabinsk arrested several legionnaires the next day. However, their comrades freed the arrested by force, disarmed the local Red Guard detachment and destroyed the weapons arsenal, capturing 2,800 rifles and an artillery battery.

The course of events during the uprising

In such an atmosphere of extreme excitement, a congress of Czechoslovak military delegates gathered in Chelyabinsk (May 16-20), at which, in order to coordinate the actions of disparate groupings of the corps, the Provisional Executive Committee of the Czechoslovak army congress was formed from three echelon commanders (Lieutenant Chechek, Captain Gaida, Colonel Voitsekhovsky) under chaired by ČSNS member Pavel. The congress decisively took the position of a break with the Bolsheviks and decided to stop the surrender of weapons (by this time the weapons had not yet been surrendered by three rearguard regiments in the Penza region) and to move "in their own order" to Vladivostok.

On May 21, Max and Cermak, representatives of the ChSNS, were arrested in Moscow, and an order was issued for the complete disarmament and disbandment of the Czechoslovak echelons. On May 23, the head of the operational department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs Aralov telegraphed to Penza: “... I propose to immediately take urgent measures to delay, disarm and disband all echelons and units of the Czechoslovak corps as a remnant of the old regular army. Form Red Army and workers' artels from the personnel of the corps ... "The representatives of the ChSNS arrested in Moscow accepted Trotsky's demands and issued on behalf of Masaryk the order for the Czechoslovakians to surrender all weapons, declaring the incident in Chelyabinsk a mistake and demanding an immediate cessation of all kinds of actions that impede the implementation of the" national cause ". The legionnaires, however, were already subordinate to their own "Provisional Executive Committee", elected by the congress. This emergency body sent an order to all the echelons and units of the corps: "Do not give up weapons anywhere to the Soviets, do not cause clashes themselves, but in case of an attack to defend themselves, continue the eastward advance in their own order."

On May 25, a telegram from the People's Commissar for Military Affairs Trotsky followed "to all Sovdeps along the line from Penza to Omsk," which left no doubt about the decisive intentions of the Soviet authorities:

... All councils on the railway are obliged, on pain of heavy responsibility, to disarm the Czechoslovakians. Every Czechoslovakian found armed on the railway lines must be shot on the spot; each echelon, in which there is at least one armed, must be unloaded from the cars and locked up in a prisoner of war camp. Local military commissariats undertake to immediately carry out this order, any delay will be tantamount to treason and will bring down severe punishment on the guilty. At the same time, I am sending reliable forces to the rear of the Czechoslovak echelons, which are instructed to teach the disobedient a lesson. With honest Czechoslovakians who will surrender their weapons and submit to Soviet power, act as with brothers and provide them with all kinds of support. All railway workers are informed that not a single carriage with Czechoslovakians should move east ...
People's Commissar for Military Affairs L. Trotsky.

Quoted from the book. Parfyonov "The Civil War in Siberia". P. 25-26.

On May 25-27, at several points where the Czechoslovak echelons were located (Maryanovka station, Irkutsk, Zlatoust), skirmishes occurred with the Red Guards who were trying to disarm the legionnaires.

On May 27, a division of Colonel Voitsekhovsky took Chelyabinsk. The Czechoslovakians, having defeated the forces of the Red Guard thrown against them, also occupied the cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway of Petropavlovsk and Kurgan, overthrowing the power of the Bolsheviks in them and opening their way to Omsk. Other units entered Novonikolaevsk, Mariinsk, Nizhneudinsk and Kansk (May 29). In early June 1918, the Czechoslovakians entered Tomsk.

On June 4-5, 1918, not far from Samara, the legionnaires defeated Soviet units and made a way for themselves to cross the Volga. On June 4, the Entente declared the Czechoslovak corps part of their armed forces and stated that she would view its disarmament as an unfriendly act against the Allies. The situation was aggravated by the pressure from Germany, which did not stop demanding that the Soviet government disarm the Czechoslovakians. In Samara, captured by the legionnaires, on June 8, the first anti-Bolshevik government was organized - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), and on June 23 in Omsk - the Provisional Siberian Government. This marked the beginning of the formation of other anti-Bolshevik governments throughout Russia.

In early July, as the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak division, Chechek gave an order, in which he emphasized the following:

Our detachment is defined as the predecessor of the allied forces, and the instructions received from the headquarters have the sole purpose of building an anti-German front in Russia in alliance with the whole Russian people and our allies.