In the twentieth of May 1918, the so-called “White Czech rebellion” broke out in the country, as a result of which it spread across 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 already quite tough policies.

But before this, the anti-Bolshevik formations did not represent any real force. Thus, poorly armed and deprived of any normal supplies, the Volunteer Army numbered only 1 thousand officers and approximately 5-7 thousand soldiers and Cossacks. At that time, everyone was completely indifferent to the “whites” in the south of Russia. General A.I. Denikin recalled those days: “Rostov struck me with its abnormal life. On the main street, Sadovaya, there is a lot of people wandering around, among whom there are a lot of combat officers of all branches and guards, in ceremonial uniforms and with sabers, but... without the national chevrons on the sleeves that are distinctive for volunteers!... On us, volunteers, both the public and and the “gentlemen officers” did not pay any attention, as if we were not here!” However, after the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, the situation changed dramatically, and the anti-Soviet forces received the necessary resources.

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 polemicized with the “left communists” (A. S. Bubnov, F. E. Dzerzhinsky, N. I. Bukharin, etc.). This faction acted from a leftist position, demanding that the socialist reorganization of Russia be accelerated in every possible way. Thus, they insisted on the complete liquidation of banks and the immediate abolition of money. The “leftists” categorically objected to any use of “bourgeois” specialists. At the same time, they advocated complete decentralization of economic life.

In March, Lenin was in a relatively “compassionate” mood, believing that the main difficulties had already been overcome, and now the main thing was the rational organization of the economy. Strange as it may seem, the Bolsheviks at that moment (and even later) were not at all supporters of the immediate “expropriation of the expropriators.” In March, Lenin began writing his programmatic article “The Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power,” in which he called for a suspension of the “attack on capital” and some compromise with capital: “... It would be impossible to define the task of the present moment with a simple formula: to continue the attack on capital ... in In the interests of the success of the further offensive, it is necessary to “pause” the offensive now.”

Lenin puts the following at the forefront: “The organization of the strictest and nationwide accounting and control over the production and distribution of products is decisive. Meanwhile, in those enterprises, in those branches 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 talk of the 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 communists opposed the involvement of bourgeois specialists. And it is very significant that on this issue we are at one with the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who seem to have taken more “moderate positions” than the Bolsheviks. But no, for some reason the moderate socialists were against attracting specialists and strengthening discipline in production and in the troops.

The “leftists” criticized Lenin in every possible way for “state capitalism.” Vladimir Ilyich himself said ironically: “If, in about six months, we had established state capitalism, it would have been a huge success.” (“About “leftist” childishness and petty-bourgeoisism”). 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 movements was Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council V.P. Milyutin, who called for building socialism in alliance with capitalist monopolies (the gradual socialization of the latter was assumed). He advocated corporatizing 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 was not going to give up the idea of ​​an agreement with the bourgeoisie. Ilyich put forward his own version of a compromise. He believed that industrial enterprises should be under workers' control, and their direct management should be carried out by former owners and their specialists. (It is significant that this plan was immediately opposed by the left communists and the left Socialist Revolutionaries, who started talking about the economic Brest of Bolshevism.) In March-April, negotiations were held with the major 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 primarily “punitive”. (Its various manifestations were examined in detail by the historian V.N. Galin in his two-volume study “Trends. Interventions and Civil War.”) In most cases, it was a conflict between workers who wanted to establish production and owners whose plans included its suspension and even curtailment - “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 to produce 1,500 cars, but never fulfilled the order. After October, the factory owners disappeared, instructing the management to close the plant. The Soviet government, however, decided to allocate 5 million to the plant so that it could continue 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 take full advantage of the favorable situation that arose after the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. They began a massive purchase of shares in the country's leading industrial enterprises. The First All-Russian Congress of National Economic Councils noted that the bourgeoisie “is trying by all means to sell its shares to German citizens, trying to obtain the protection of German law through all sorts of tricks, all sorts of fictitious transactions.”

Finally, in June 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSO issued an order on the “nationalization of the largest enterprises,” according to which the state was supposed to give away enterprises with a capital of 300 thousand rubles. However, this resolution also indicated that nationalized enterprises are given for free rental 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 were not so much “expropriated” as included in the system of the new economy.

Under these conditions, long-term technocratic projects began to be conceived. Thus, on March 24, the “Flying Laboratory” of Professor Zhukovsky was created. She began working together with the Calculation and Testing Bureau at the Higher Technical School (now Bauman MSTU). Other promising projects were also planned. The Bolsheviks began to position themselves as a party of technocrats, a “party of action.”

However, excessive urbanism of consciousness seriously interfered with this “business”. The agrarian policy of the Bolsheviks alienated the broad masses of the peasantry from Soviet power. The Bolsheviks set a course for establishing 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 Soviets resolutely opposed the dictatorship - Saratov, Samara, Simbirsk, Astrakhan, Vyatka, Kazan, which abolished fixed prices for bread and established free trade. However, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Supreme Economic Council, over the heads of the Soviets, reassigned local food authorities to the People's Commissariat for Food.

Of course, some elements of food dictatorship were necessary in those difficult conditions. Yes, they, in fact, existed - the seizure of grain, one way or another, was practiced by both the tsarist and the Provisional governments. The policy had to be toughened up somewhat, but the Bolsheviks here pretty much overdid it, which turned a lot of people against themselves. In essence, the Leninists underestimated the strength of the “peasant element”, the village’s ability to self-organize and resist. In the agrarian, peasant country, mass discontent with the Bolsheviks arose, which overlapped with the discontent of the “bourgeoisie and landowners.”

And so, in this situation, the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps took place, which made civil war inevitable. The performance itself became possible only thanks to the position of the Entente, which hoped to involve Czechoslovak units in the fight against both the Germans and the Bolsheviks. Back in December 1917, in Iasi (Romania), Allied military representatives discussed the possibility of using Czechoslovak units against the Bolsheviks. England was inclined towards this option, while France still 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 in Paris the Allies approved a document in which the Czechoslovak corps was considered as an integral part of the intervention forces 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 remain in Russia and create an eastern front against the Germans. Moreover, it was soon decided to use the corps to fight the Bolsheviks. Thus, the Entente openly set a course to sabotage the evacuation of the Czechs.

Western democracies were interested in permanent civil war. It was necessary for the Reds to beat the Whites as long as possible, and for the Whites to beat the Reds. Of course, this could not continue forever: sooner or later one side would have gained the upper hand. Therefore, the Entente decided to facilitate the conclusion of a truce between the Bolsheviks and the White governments. So, in January 1919, she made a proposal to all power structures located on the territory of the former Russian Empire to begin peace negotiations. It is quite obvious that a possible truce would be temporary and would be broken in the near future. At the same time, it would only stabilize the state of the split of Russia into a number of parts, primarily into the red RSFSR, Kolchak’s East and Denikin’s South. It is possible that the first truce would be followed by a second, and this would continue for a long time. By the way, a similar situation of permanent war developed in the 20-30s. in China, which was divided into territories controlled by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, Mao Zedong's Communists and various regional militaristic cliques. It is clear that this split only played into the hands of external forces, in particular the Japanese.

England never abandoned its plans to “reconcile” the whites with the reds. So, in the spring, in the form of an ultimatum, she proposed to start negotiations between the communists and P. Wrangel - under British arbitration. Wrangel himself resolutely rejected the British ultimatum, as a result of which in May 1920 London announced an end to aid to the 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 mainly on the Poles of J. Pilsudski, whose assistance far exceeded that of the whites. But in 1920 there was a threat of the defeat of Poland and the advance of the Red Army into 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 passed, the French stopped helping the whites.

In May 1918, an uprising of the 40,000-strong Czechoslovak Corps broke out in Chelyabinsk. The mutiny had a tremendous impact on subsequent events in Russia. Many historians are confident that it was the revolt of the legionnaires that marked the beginning of the Civil War in the country.

In Russian service

The first national unit within the Russian Imperial Army - the Czech squad - arose back in 1914. It accepted both civilian volunteers and captured Czechoslovaks - former soldiers of Austria-Hungary.

A few months later, the squad grew into a rifle regiment of about two thousand people. The future leaders of the rebellion served there - captain Radol Gaida, lieutenant Jan Syrovy and others. By the beginning of the February Revolution, the unit already had four thousand fighters.

After the fall of the monarchy, Czechoslovaks were able to find a common language with the Provisional Government and remained in military service. The regiment took part in the June offensive in Galicia and became one of the few units that achieved success on its sector of the front.

As a reward for this, the government of Alexander Kerensky lifted the restriction regarding the size of the regiment. The unit began to grow by leaps and bounds, it was replenished mostly by captured Czechs and Slovaks who wanted to fight the Germans. In the fall of 1917, the regiment turned into a corps, and its strength approached the mark of 40 thousand legionnaires.

Fear of extradition

After the October Revolution, the corps found itself in limbo. The Czechoslovaks were emphatically neutral towards the Bolsheviks, although, according to historian Oleg Airapetov, they were very worried about the peace negotiations that the new masters of the country were conducting with Kaiser Germany. There were rumors among the legionnaires that the corps could be disbanded and they themselves could be handed over to Austria-Hungary.

The Czechoslovakians decided to come to an agreement with the Entente. As a result, France agreed to transfer the corps to its territory to participate in the war on the Western Front. But the land route was closed, only the sea route remained - from Vladivostok. The Soviet government agreed. It was planned to deliver Czechoslovaks to the Far East in 63 trains, 40 cars each.

Incident in Chelyabinsk

The fears of the Czechoslovaks only intensified after the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty in March 1918. One of the points of the agreement was the exchange of prisoners of war. A situation arose in which Czechoslovaks moved to the East, and captured Germans and Hungarians moved to the West. There were periodic skirmishes between the two streams.

The most serious of them happened on May 14, 1918. A heavy cast-iron object flew from the carriage carrying the Hungarians into the crowd of Czechs, seriously injuring one of the fighters. They found the hooligan and dealt with him according to the laws of war - with three bayonet blows.

The situation was heating up. The Bolsheviks tried to solve the problem by arresting several Czechoslovaks, but this only provoked them into further opposition. On May 17, corps soldiers captured the Chelyabinsk arsenal, freed their fellow countrymen and called on detachments located in other cities to resist.

Corps offensive

Dividing into groups of several thousand people, the legionnaires began to capture a vast territory from Penza to Vladivostok. Irkutsk and Zlatoust quickly fell. In mid-July, corps detachments approached Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was at that moment. Fearing that the former Tsar and his household would fall into the hands of the White Czechs, the Bolsheviks shot the latter.

The capital of the Urals was taken on July 25, followed by Kazan. As a result, by the end of the summer, a colossal territory from the Volga to the Pacific Ocean was under the control of the corps; it completely controlled the most important infrastructure facility - the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Together with the whites

Anti-Bolshevik forces became more active in these territories. Many local governments and armed White Guard units were formed.

In the fall of 1918, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who entered into an alliance with the Czechoslovaks, declared himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia. Around the same time, the intervention of Entente troops began.

The Czechs and Slovaks wanted to fight less and less. They brought their units to the rear. At the same time, control over the railway gave them huge advantages and a significant bargaining chip in negotiations.

Goodbye Russia

The situation changed dramatically in November 1918. The surrender of Germany and the collapse of Austria-Hungary opened up new prospects: the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia was planned. The corps lost all desire to fight, the soldiers got ready to go home.

The departure of the Czechs and Slovaks seriously complicated Kolchak’s already plight. In January 1920, legionnaires, in exchange for the opportunity to safely leave for Vladivostok, captured the admiral and handed him over to the Irkutsk rebels. The further fate of Kolchak is known to everyone.

The evacuation of Czechoslovaks from Russia began at the beginning of 1920. On 42 ships, 72 thousand people went to Europe - not only legionnaires, but also their wives and children, whom some of them managed to acquire in Russia. The epic ended in November 1920, when the last ship left the port of Vladivostok.

The word “monument” in Russian has a very specific meaning - a sign, a symbol that helps to remember things that are important to the people.

It is no coincidence that the Bolsheviks and today’s neo-Nazi nationalists in Ukraine are actively fighting against monuments. With different ones - yes. But the general meaning is exactly this - to change MEMORY. Change history and thus remake the future.

Therefore, the erection of monuments must be approached very carefully.

Resource correspondents Nakanune.RU asked me to comment on the following news. In the city of Miass they want to erect a monument to the White Czechs - Czech legionnaires.

Let me remind you what we are talking about.

1. During the First World War, there were many Slavs in the army of Austria-Hungary. No Czech Republic, no Slovakia, no Croatia, etc. wasn't on the map. There was Austria-Hungary. Many of the Slavic soldiers of the Habsburg Empire surrendered to the Russian army with joy. There were cases of entire regiments crossing over.


2. It was decided to form two divisions from captured Czechs and Slovaks and other Slavs. And they were formed.


3. The Czechoslovak Corps was an integral part of the Russian army. Unfortunately, its final formation occurred during the period of “revolutionary unrest” of 1917. As a result, the corps actually did not reach the front.


4. Then a complex diplomatic game began. Both the Germans and the Entente put pressure on the Bolsheviks. The Entente demanded the withdrawal of the Czechs from Russia, supposedly to the Western Front. Trotsky gave the order to actually TRANSFER (donate) two divisions, uniformed and armed at Russian public expense to the Entente allies. The Czechoslovak divisions became an integral part of the French army and began to obey the French. They decided to take them to the Western Front for the war with the Germans... through Vladivostok. In fact, London and Paris, through the hands of Lev Davydovich Trotsky, decided to use the Czechs to incite a civil war in Russia. Which had never flared up before.


5. Allegedly, at the request of the Germans, Trotsky gave the order to disarm the corps, whose units were stretched throughout the Trans-Siberian Railway. In response, an uprising began, which, like a match, set fire to a mass of Russian cities, where they were just waiting for a signal and help for the uprising. Back in 1918, the Bolsheviks published documents about how much money England transferred to the leadership of the Czech corps so that they would rebel.


6. Instead of helping the Russians fight the Bolsheviks, Czech units were withdrawn to the rear. They were not sent to the western front, but they began to guard the railway on Kolchak’s territory. Neither the whites nor the reds contacted the Czechs. They were like the third force inside Russia. A force that was subordinate to London and Paris.


7. The Czechs were engaged in punitive functions, robbed the population and did not fight at all with the Reds. When the whites began to retreat, THEY CONSCIOUSLY blocked the railroad. Despite the requests, the entreaties (!) of the white leadership to allow military trains, ammunition, and ambulance trains to pass through, the Czechs completely stopped the railway. The pretext is the removal of Czechoslovak trains.


8. The result of this stab in the back was a military disaster for Kolchak’s army. The defeat became a rout.


9. Because of the Czechs, tens of thousands of wounded and civilians died. Trains with wounded and refugees were leaving Omsk and other cities. And they got up in the taiga. Minus 30, minus 40. Frozen trains with the wounded and sick. The dead were women, children and old people.


10. But that's not all. In Kolchak's rear, an uprising began in Irkutsk. The scales were shaking. It was the Czechs who stabbed the whites in the back and did not allow them to suppress the uprising in the city. It was the Czechs who attacked and defeated the reinforcements sent by Ataman Semenov. All this was done on the direct orders of General Janin. The Frenchman who commanded them.


11. This was done in order to obtain a pretext for the betrayal of Kolchak, who refused to give the gold reserves to the allies. (Kolchak had half of Russia’s gold reserves. The second part remained with the Bolsheviks).


12. Allegedly, on the orders of the Political Center in Irkutsk, the Czechs arrested Kolchak and handed him over to the revolutionaries. That is, they helped start the uprising, prevented the whites from suppressing it, and then, “frightened” of the revolutionaries, GAVE Kolchak to them.


13. Kolchak’s gold reserves were partly stolen by the Czechs and taken by them to their homeland, and partly returned to the Bolsheviks. Essentially, the Czechs (French and British) came to an agreement with the Bolsheviks and divided the gold. The political center, consisting of Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, disappears, not forgetting to shoot Kolchak, power passes to the Bolsheviks.


14. In gratitude for the betrayal of Russia, the Entente creates Czechoslovakia for the Czechs. Before Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia, the Czech crown was the hardest currency. The reason is stolen Russian gold.


15. Throughout World War II, Czechs “worked peacefully” at the Skoda military factories, producing weapons for Hitler. The Slovaks, being allies of Germany, rebelled in 1944. The Czechs rebelled in May 1945. About a week after the capture of Berlin.

So is it necessary to erect a monument to the White Czechs?

The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps in the spring of 1918 is considered by some historians to be the beginning of the fratricidal Civil War. Finding themselves in a very difficult political situation on the territory of another state, the leaders of a huge military group were forced to make decisions under the influence of a number of influential political forces of that time.

Prerequisites for the formation of the Czechoslovak Corps

The history of the formation of the Czechoslovak Corps, whose uprising in the late spring of 1918 served as a signal for the beginning of the Civil War on the territory of the Russian state, still causes a lot of controversy among historians not only in Russia. Finding themselves in difficult political conditions and dreaming of continuing the fight for the liberation of their homeland, they turned out to be the “bargaining chip” of political forces not only in Russia, but also in warring Europe.

What were the prerequisites for creating the corps? First of all, the intensification of the liberation struggle against Austria-Hungary, in whose power were the lands of the Czechs and Slovaks, who dreamed of creating their own state. Its creation dates back to the beginning of the First World War, when a large number of Czech and Slovak migrants lived in Russia, who dreamed of creating their own state in the ancestral territories belonging to these peoples and under the yoke of Austria-Hungary.

Formation of the Czech squad

Taking into account these patriotic sentiments of the Slav brothers, the Russian government, meeting the numerous appeals addressed to Emperor Nicholas II, in particular, the “Czech National Committee” created in Kyiv, decided on July 30, 1914 to create a Czech squad. It was the predecessor of the Czechoslovak Corps, whose uprising occurred four years later.

This decision was accepted with enthusiasm by the Czech colonists. Already on September 28, 1914, the banner was consecrated, and in October the squad as part of the 3rd Army under the command of General Radko-Dmitriev took part in the battle for Eastern Galicia. The squad was part of the Russian troops and almost all command positions in it were occupied by Russian officers.

Replenishment of the Czech squad with prisoners of war

In May 1915, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, gave his consent to replenish the ranks of the Czech squad with prisoners of war and defectors from among the Czechs and Slovaks, who surrendered en masse to the Russian army. By the end of 1915, a regiment bearing the name of Jan Hus was formed. It consisted of more than 2,100 military personnel. In 1916, a brigade was already formed, consisting of three regiments, numbering more than 3,500 people.

However, Russia's allies could not come to terms with the fact that its authority in the matter of creating a Czechoslovak state was increasing. The liberal intelligentsia from among the Czechs and Slovaks in Paris creates the Czechoslovak National Council. It was headed by Tomas Masaryk, who later became the first president of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Benes, later the second president, Milan Stefanik, an astronomer, general of the French army, and Joseph Dürich.

The goal is to create the state of Czechoslovakia. To do this, they tried to obtain permission from the Entente to form their own army, formally subordinating to the Council all military formations operating against the powers that fought with the Entente on all fronts. They formally included units that fought on the side of Russia.

The situation of the Czechoslovaks after the October Revolution

After the February Revolution, the Provisional Government did not change its attitude towards Czechoslovak military personnel. After the October Uprising, the Czechoslovak corps found itself in a difficult situation. The policy of the Bolsheviks, who sought to make peace with the powers of the Triple Alliance, did not suit the Czechoslovaks, who sought to continue the war in order to liberate the territory of their homeland. They support the Provisional Government, which advocates war to a victorious end.

An agreement was concluded with the Soviets, which included clauses according to which the Czechoslovak units pledged not to interfere in the internal affairs of the country on the side of any party and to continue military operations against the Austro-Germans. A small part of the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps supported the uprising in Petrograd and went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. The rest were transported from Poltava to Kyiv, where, together with cadets from military schools, they took part in street battles against soldiers and workers' councils of the city of Kyiv.

But in the future, the leadership of the Czechoslovak Corps did not want to spoil relations with the Soviet government, so the military tried not to enter into internal political conflicts. That is why they did not take part in the defense of the Central Rada from the advancing Soviet detachments. But mistrust grew day by day, which ultimately led to the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps in May 1918.

Recognition of the corps as part of the French army

Seeing the difficult situation of the Czechoslovak corps in Russia, the CSNS in Paris addressed the French government with a request to recognize it as a foreign allied military unit on Russian territory. French President Poincaré in December 1917 recognized the Czechoslovak Corps as part of the French army.

After Soviet power was established in Kyiv, the Czechoslovak Corps received assurances that the government of Soviet Russia had no objections to its sending to its homeland. There were two ways to get there. The first was through Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, but the Czechoslovakians rejected it for fear of being attacked by German submarines.

The second is through the Far East. It was this way that the decision was made to send foreign legionnaires. An agreement on this was signed between the Soviet government and representatives of the CSNS. The task was not an easy one - approximately 35 to 42 thousand people had to be transported across the entire country.

Prerequisites for the conflict

The main prerequisite for the mutiny of the Czechoslovak Corps was the tense situation around this military unit. The presence of a huge armed formation in the middle of Russia was beneficial to many. The tsarist army ceased to exist. On the Don, the formation of the White Army was in full swing. Attempts were made to create a Red Army. The only fighting unit was the corps of legionnaires, and both the Reds and the Whites tried to win it over to their side.

They did not particularly want a speedy withdrawal of the corps and the Entente country, trying to influence the course of events through the Czechoslovaks. They were not particularly interested in the rapid withdrawal of the corps of the country of the Triple Alliance, since they understood that, having arrived in Europe, this military unit would oppose them. All this served as a kind of prerequisite for the mutiny of the Czechoslovak Corps.

Tense, if not hostile, relations developed between the ChSNS, which was completely under French rule, and the Bolsheviks, who did not trust the legionnaires, remembering their support for the provisional government, thereby receiving a time bomb in their rear in the form of armed legionnaires.

Tension and mistrust delayed the disarmament process. The German government issued an ultimatum in which it demanded the return of all prisoners of war from Siberia to western and central Russia. The Soviets stop the advance of the legionnaires, this became the reason for the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps.

The beginning of the uprising

The beginning of the rebellion was a domestic incident. A quarrel between captured Hungarians and Czechoslovaks, who staged lynching of their former allies due to a legionnaire’s injury caused by negligence. Authorities in Chelyabinsk, where this happened, arrested several participants in the massacre. This was perceived as the authorities’ desire to stop the evacuation, which resulted in the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps. At the congress of the Czechoslovak Corps held in Chelyabinsk, a decision was made to break with the Bolsheviks and not surrender arms.

In turn, the Bolsheviks demanded the complete surrender of weapons. In Moscow, representatives of the ChSNS were arrested and appealed to their compatriots with orders for complete disarmament, but it was too late. When the Red Army soldiers tried to disarm the legionnaires at several stations, they showed open resistance.

Since the regular army of the Bolsheviks was just being created, there was practically no one to defend Soviet power. Chelyabinsk, Irkutsk, and Zlatoust were taken. Throughout the Trans-Siberian Railway, fierce resistance was offered to units of the Red Army and the cities of Petropavlovsk, Kurgan, Omsk, Tomsk were captured, units of the Red Army were defeated near Samara, and a path was made through the Volga.

Along the entire length of the railway, temporary anti-Bolshevik governments with their own armies were created in the cities. In Samara, the army of Komuch, in Omsk - the provisional Siberian government, under whose banners all those dissatisfied with the power of the Soviets stood. But having suffered a series of crushing defeats from the Red Army and under its pressure, the detachments of the White Army and the Czechoslovak Corps were forced to leave the occupied cities.

Results of the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps

Gradually loading the trains with looted goods, the Czechoslovak legionnaires felt a desire to stop hostilities and quickly go home. By the fall of 1918, they began to move further and further to the rear, not wanting to fight, participating in security and punitive operations. The atrocities of the legionnaires even exceeded the reprisals of Kolchak’s detachments. This situation was strengthened by the news of the formation of Czechoslovakia. More than 300 trains filled with looted goods slowly moved towards Vladivostok.

Kolchak's retreating troops walked along the railroad, through mud and snow, since all the echelons, including the echelon with the gold reserve, were captured by the White Czechs, and they defended them with weapons in their hands. Of the eight echelons of the Supreme Ruler, he was left with one carriage, which departed after all the trains had passed and stood idle for weeks on sidings. In January 1920, Kolchak was handed over by the “brothers” to the Bolsheviks in exchange for an agreement on the departure of Czech legionnaires.

The shipment lasted almost a year, from December 1918 to November 1919. For this purpose, 42 ships were used, on which 72,600 people were transported to Europe. More than 4 thousand Czechoslovaks found peace in Russian soil.

CZECHOSLOVAK CORPS AND KOMUCH

There was a consolidation of anti-Bolshevik forces in the east of the country. The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps in May 1918 played a major role in their activation.

This corps was formed in Russia during the World War from prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army to participate in the war against Germany. In 1918, the corps located on Russian territory was preparing to be sent to Western Europe through the Far East. In May 1918, the Entente prepared an anti-Bolshevik uprising of the corps, the echelons of which stretched along the railway from Penza to Vladivostok. The uprising activated anti-Bolshevik forces everywhere, inciting them to armed struggle, and created local governments.

One of them was the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) in Samara, created by the Social Revolutionaries. He declared himself a temporary revolutionary power, which, according to the plan of its creators, was supposed to cover all of Russia and become part of the Constituent Assembly, designed to become a legitimate power. The chairman of the Komuch, Socialist-Revolutionary V.K. Volsky, proclaimed the goal of preparing conditions for the real unity of Russia with the socialist Constituent Assembly at its head. This idea of ​​Volsky was not supported by part of the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The Right SRs also ignored Komuch and headed to Omsk to prepare there for the creation of an all-Russian government in a coalition with the Cadets instead of the Samara Komuch. In general, anti-Bolshevik forces were hostile to the idea of ​​a Constituent Assembly. Komuch demonstrated his commitment to democracy, without having a specific socio-economic program. According to its member V.M. Zenzinov, the Committee tried to follow a program equally distant from both the socialist experiments of Soviet power and the restoration of the past. But equidistance did not work out. Property nationalized by the Bolsheviks was returned to the old owners. In the territory controlled by Komuch, all banks were denationalized in July, and the denationalization of industrial enterprises was announced. Komuch created his own armed forces - the People's Army. It was based on the Czechs, who recognized his power.

Political leaders of the Czechoslovaks began to press Komuch to unite with other anti-Bolshevik governments, but its members, considering themselves the only heirs to the legitimate power of the Constituent Assembly, resisted for some time. At the same time, the confrontation between Komuch and the coalition Provisional Government that emerged in Omsk from representatives of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Cadets grew. It came to the point of declaring a customs war on Komuch. Ultimately, the members of Komuch, in order to strengthen the front of the anti-Bolshevik forces, capitulated, agreeing to the creation of a unified government. An act was signed on the formation of the Provisional All-Russian Government - the Directory, signed on the part of Komuch by its chairman Volsky.

At the beginning of October, Komuch, without the support of the population, adopted a resolution on his liquidation. Soon the capital of Komuch Samara was occupied by the Red Army.

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ORDER OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONER FOR MILITARY AFFAIRS ON THE DISARMAMENT OF THE CZECHOSLOVAKS

All Soviets are obliged, under penalty of liability, to immediately disarm the Czechoslovakians. Every Czechoslovak who is found armed on the railway line must be shot on the spot; every train containing at least one armed person must be unloaded from the wagons and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp. Local military commissars undertake to immediately carry out this order; any delay will be tantamount to dishonorable treason and will bring severe punishment on the perpetrators. At the same time, reliable forces are sent to the rear of the Czechoslovaks, tasked with teaching those who disobey a lesson. Treat honest Czechoslovaks who will surrender their weapons and submit to Soviet power as brothers and provide them with all possible support. All railway workers must be informed that not a single armed Czechoslovak carriage must move east. Whoever yields to violence and assists the Czechoslovaks in their advance to the east will be severely punished.

This order should be read to all Czechoslovak trains and communicated to all railway workers at the location of the Czechoslovaks. Each military commissar must report the execution. No. 377.

People's Commissar for Military Affairs L. Trotsky.

Quoted from the book: Parfenov P.S. Civil war in Siberia. M., 1924.

NOTE OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHICHERIN ABOUT THE CZECHOSLOVAKS

The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs transmitted a note with the following content to the head of the British mission, the French Consul General, the American Consul General and the Italian Consul General:

“The disarmament of the Czechoslovaks cannot in any case be considered as an act of unfriendliness towards the powers of the Entente. It is caused primarily by the fact that Russia, as a neutral state, cannot tolerate armed detachments on its territory that do not belong to the army of the Soviet Republic.

The immediate reason for the use of decisive and strict measures in order to disarm the Czechoslovaks was their own actions. The Czechoslovak revolt began in Chelyabinsk on May 26, where the Czechoslovaks, having captured the city, stole weapons, arrested and displaced local authorities, and in response to the demand to stop the atrocities and disarm, they met military units with fire. The further development of the rebellion led to the occupation of Penza, Samara, Novo-Nikolaevsk, Omsk and other cities by the Czechoslovaks. Czechoslovakians everywhere acted in alliance with the White Guards and counter-revolutionary Russian officers. In some places there are French officers among them.

In all points of the counter-revolutionary Czechoslovak revolt, institutions abolished by the Workers' and Peasants' Soviet Republic are being restored. The Soviet government took the most decisive measures to suppress the Czechoslovak rebellion by armed force and their unconditional disarmament. No other outcome is acceptable for the Soviet Government.

The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs expresses confidence that, after all of the above, representatives of the four powers of the Entente will not consider the disarmament of the Czechoslovak troops under their protection as an act of unfriendliness, but, on the contrary, recognize the necessity and expediency of the measures taken by the Soviet Government against the rebels.

The People's Commissariat expresses, in addition, the hope that representatives of the four powers of the Agreement will not hesitate to condemn the Czechoslovak detachments for their counter-revolutionary armed rebellion, which is the most open and decisive interference in the internal affairs of Russia.”

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin.

OVERTHROWING SOVIET AUTHORITY IN SIBERIA

From Novonikolaevsk - Mariinsk. In all cities, villages - citizens of Siberia. The hour to save the homeland has struck! Provisional Government of Sibirsk. The Regional Duma overthrew the Bolshevik government and took control into its own hands. Most of Siberia is occupied, citizens join the ranks of the people's army. The Red Guard is disarming. Bolshevik power was arrested. In Novonikolaevsk, the coup ended in 40 minutes. Authorities in the city were taken over by those authorized by the Provisional Siberian Government, who invited the city and zemstvo councils to begin work.

There were no casualties. The coup was met with sympathy. The coup was carried out by a local detachment of the Siberian Government with the assistance of Czechoslovak units. Our tasks: defending the homeland and saving the revolution through the All-Siberian Constituent Assembly. Citizens! Overthrow the power of the rapists immediately, not for a minute. Restore the work of zemstvo and city governments dispersed by the Bolsheviks. Provide assistance to government troops and helping Czechoslovak troops.

Commissioners of the Provisional Siberian Government.

Mariinsky Committee of Public Safety.

Telegram from the representatives of the Siberian Government on the overthrow of Soviet power

DENIKIN'S OPINION

As for g.g. Massarik and Max, they, wholly devoted to the idea of ​​the national revival of their people and their struggle against Germanism, in the confusing conditions of Russian reality, were unable to find the right path and, being under the influence of Russian revolutionary democracy, shared its hesitations, delusions and suspicions.

Life took cruel revenge for these mistakes. It soon forced both national forces, which so stubbornly avoided interfering “in internal Russian affairs,” to take part in our internecine strife, placing them in a hopeless position between the German army and Bolshevism.

Already in February, during the German attack on Ukraine, the Czechoslovaks, amid the general shameful flight of Russian troops, would wage fierce battles against the Germans and their former allies - the Ukrainians on the side of the Bolsheviks. Then they will move towards the endless Siberian route, fulfilling the fantastic plan of the French command - the transfer of a 50,000-strong corps to the Western European theater, separated from the eastern one by nine thousand miles of railway track and oceans. In the spring they will take up arms against their recent allies - the Bolsheviks, who betray them to the Germans. In the summer, Allied policy will turn them back to form a front on the Volga. And for a long time they will actively participate in the Russian tragedy, causing among the Russian people an alternating feeling of anger and gratitude...

A.I. Denikin. Essays on Russian Troubles

JAROSLAV HASHEK AND THE CZECHOSLOVAK CORPS

During the Civil War in 1918, Hasek was on the side of the Reds and was in Samara, participating in its defense from the White Army and the suppression of the anarchist rebellion.

And it all started with the fact that the future writer did not want to take part in the First World War. He tried in every possible way to avoid military service, but in the end, in 1915, he was enlisted in the Austrian army and brought to the front in a prisoner's carriage. However, Hasek soon voluntarily surrendered to Russian captivity.

He ended up in the Darnitsky prisoner of war camp near Kyiv, then he was redirected to Totsky near Buzuluk. Inspired by the ideas of communism, at the beginning of 1918 he joined the RCP (b) and stood under the banner of the Bolsheviks as the Civil War flared up in Russia.

At the end of March 1918, the Czechoslovak section of the RCP(b) in Moscow sent Jaroslav Hasek to Samara at the head of a group of comrades to form an international detachment of the Red Army and carry out explanatory work among the soldiers of the Czechoslovak corps.

Arriving in Samara, Hasek launched a campaign among the corps soldiers and other Czechs and Slovaks who were in prisoner-of-war camps or working in factories. Members of Hasek's group, meeting the trains with legionnaires at the station, explained to them the policies of the Soviet government, exposed the counter-revolutionary plans of the corps command, and called on the soldiers not to leave for France, but to help the Russian proletariat in the fight against the bourgeoisie.

To work on attracting soldiers to the Red Army, the “Czech Military Department for the formation of Czech-Slovak detachments under the Red Army” was created. It was located on the second floor of the San Remo Hotel (now Kuibysheva St., 98). There was also a section of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the apartment of Yaroslav Hasek.

During April and May, a detachment of 120 fighters from Czechs and Slovaks was formed. Jaroslav Hasek became its political commissar. It was assumed that over the next two months the detachment would increase to a battalion, and possibly a regiment. But this could not be accomplished: at the end of May, a mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps began. During the days of the White Czechs’ attack on Samara, Yaroslav Hasek was located on the outskirts of the Samara railway station.

Early in the morning of June 8, 1918, under the pressure of superior forces of the White Czechs, the detachments of the defenders of Samara, including a detachment of Czechoslovak internationalists, were forced to leave the city. At the very last moment, Gashey went to the San Remo Hotel to take or destroy lists of volunteers and other documents of the military department and section of the RKB (b) so that they would not fall into the hands of enemies. He managed to destroy the materials, but it was no longer possible to return to the station to the detachment - the station was occupied by the White Czechs, and the detachment was surrounded by railway.

With great difficulty and risk, Hasek got out of the city. For about two months he hid with peasants in the villages, then he managed to cross the front. Hasek's activity as a Red Army agitator in the Czech environment was short-lived, but did not go unnoticed. In July, that is, just three months after arriving in Samara, in Omsk the field court of the Czechoslovak Legion issued an arrest warrant for Hasek as a traitor to the Czech people. For several months he was forced, hiding behind a certificate that he was “the crazy son of a German colonist from Turkestan,” to hide from patrols.

Samara local historian Alexander Zavalny gives the following story about this stage of the writer’s life: “Once, when he was hiding with his friends at one of the Samara dachas, a Czech patrol appeared. The officer decided to interrogate the unknown person, to which Hasek, playing an idiot, told how he saved a Czech officer at the Farm Laborer station: “I’m sitting and thinking. Suddenly an officer. Just like you, so delicate and puny. She purrs a German song and seems to dance like an old maid on Easter. Thanks to my proven sense of smell, I immediately see that the officer is under attack. I see he's heading straight for the restroom I just came out of. I sat down nearby. I sit for ten, twenty, thirty minutes. The officer doesn’t come out...” Then Hasek depicted how he went into the toilet and, pushing apart the rotten boards, pulled out a drunken loser from the outhouse: “By the way, do you know what award they will give me for saving the life of a Czech officer?”

Only by September Hasek crossed the front line, and in Simbirsk he again joined the Red Army units. Together with the soldiers of the 5th Army, he walked from the banks of the Volga to the Irtysh. At the end of 1920, Jaroslav Hasek returned to his homeland, where he died on January 3, 1923, still very young, about 4 months shy of 40 years old.