The beginning of the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps. Rebellion of the White Czechs

Russian society reacts indifferently to the glorification of the Czechoslovak Corps, primarily because of ignorance. As it turned out from a survey conducted in 2013, in Chelyabinsk 64% of respondents did not know the history of the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia

The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, which took place during the Civil War, from May 1918 to March 1920, had a huge impact on the political and military situation in Soviet Russia. This uprising affected more than half of the country's territory and a number of cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway: Maryinsk, Chelyabinsk, Novo-Nikolaevsk, Penza, Syzran, Tomsk, Omsk, Samara, Zlatoust, Krasnoyarsk, Simbirsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kazan. At the time of the beginning of the armed uprising, units of the Czechoslovak Corps stretched along the Trans-Siberian Railway from the Rtishchevo station in the Penza region to Vladivostok, at a distance of about 7 thousand kilometers.

In Soviet historical science, the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps was interpreted as a planned armed anti-Soviet uprising, provoked by counter-revolutionary officers and the Entente countries. .

In Western literature, on the contrary, the notion of the independence of the Czechoslovak Corps and the extraordinary fatefulness of its performance was imposed. The Czechs were presented as "true democrats" who fought against the "terrible Bolsheviks who threatened the world." The situation in which the corps found itself in Russia was portrayed as a tragedy. And the bandit actions of the White Czechs - the hijacking of locomotives, the seizure of provisions, violence against the population - as forced by circumstances and the desire to quickly reach Vladivostok and go to France, and from there to the front, fight under the command of the French for the freedom of Czechoslovakia.

These same ideas are actively broadcast in modern Russian society.
For example, the head of the White Russia Research Center in Yekaterinburg, N. I. Dmitriev, stated that the Czechoslovaks, fighting the Bolsheviks, "made a sacrifice in the name of defending democracy and freedom of the Russian people".

As a result of Dmitriev's efforts, on November 17, 2008 in Yekaterinburg, a monument to Czechoslovak legionnaires was erected at the cemetery where the soldiers of the corps were buried.

October 20, 2011 in Chelyabinsk solemnly, with the participation of Czech, Slovak and Russian officials, a monument to Czechoslovak legionnaires was opened on the square near the station, in the city center. The inscription on this monument reads: “Czechoslovak soldiers are buried here, brave fighters for the freedom and independence of their land, Russia and all the Slavs. In brotherly land, they gave their lives for the revival of mankind. Bare your heads before the grave of heroes". These lines do not reflect anyone's private opinion, but a very ingenious general policy of recent times, according to which Kolchak is portrayed as "just" a polar explorer, Mannerheim as a "simple" tsarist general, and the Czechoslovak Corps as "just" volunteers and patriots Russian Empire who responded to the call of Nicholas II for the liberation of the Slavs. Why not heroes worthy of monuments?

Although local officials do not think too much whether they erect monuments to the worthy. After all, as the now disgraced ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk region Mikhail Yurevich noted: “To be honest, I found out about it on the Internet myself. Apparently, the municipality gave permission. Here I can’t say anything: in the history of the passage of the Czech Legion through our region, I am not strong. When I was at school, they explained to us that the Czechs were beating the Red Army, and then other information came out: that they, on the contrary, helped our soldiers, that they helped Chelyabinsk with something specific. In such trifles, believe me, as a governor I simply do not interfere. If the municipality decides to erect this monument, for God's sake, let them erect monuments to anyone.”

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Czech Ministry of Defense has developed the Legions 100 project, which involves the installation of 58 monuments to soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia. At the moment, monuments have already been installed along the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway: in addition to Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk - in Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, Buzuluk, Kungur, Nizhny Tagil, Penza, Pugachev, Syzran, Ulyanovsk, the village of Verkhny Uslon in Tatarstan and the village of Mikhailovka in the Irkutsk region.

It is obvious that Russian society reacts indifferently to the glorification of the Czechoslovak Corps, primarily because of ignorance. As it turned out from a survey conducted in 2013 in Chelyabinsk by the Agency for Cultural and Social Research (AXIO), only 30% of respondents knew about the existence of the monument. At the same time, 64% of the respondents did not know the history of the stay of the Czechoslovak Corps in Russia.

What actually was the armed action of the Czechoslovak Corps?

Let's turn to history.

The history of the creation of the Czechoslovak Corps

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slavic peoples, including Czechs and Slovaks, were subjected to national and religious persecution. Not having strong loyal feelings for the Habsburg Empire, they dreamed of creating independent states.

In 1914, about 100,000 Czechs and Slovaks lived in Russia. B O Most of them lived in Ukraine, not far from the border with Austria-Hungary.

At the beginning of the First World War, the bulk of Czech and Slovak settlers found themselves in a difficult situation in Russia. Most of them were not Russian subjects. As citizens of a country at war with Russia, they faced strict police control, internment and confiscation of property.

At the same time, the First World War gave the Czechs a chance for national liberation.

On July 25, 1914, the organization of Russian Czech colonists, the Czech National Committee (ChNK), adopted an appeal to Nicholas II which said, “that the duty falls on the Russian Czechs to give their strength to the liberation of our homeland and to be side by side with the Russian brothers-heroes ...” And on August 20, the delegation of the Czech diaspora handed over a letter to Nicholas II, in which the idea of ​​liberation expressed by him was warmly supported. "of all Slavs". The Czechs expressed the hope that it would work out “to pour into the family of Slavic peoples also our Czechoslovak people within its ethnographic boundaries, taking into account its historical rights.” The letter ended with the phrase “Let the free, independent crown of St. Wenceslas shine in the rays of the crown of the Romanovs!” hinting at the possibility of Czechoslovakia joining the Russian Empire in the event of a Russian victory and the defeat of Austria-Hungary.

On July 30, 1914, the Russian Council of Ministers approved the project for the formation of the Czech squad from volunteers of Czech and Slovak nationalities. - subjects of Russia.

By mid-September 1914, 903 Czech citizens of Austria-Hungary accepted Russian citizenship and joined the Czech squad. On September 28, 1914, in Kyiv, the Czech squad was solemnly presented with a battle banner and sent to fight at the front.

However, the Czechs linked their hopes for national liberation not only with Russia. Since 1914, national associations began to emerge in Paris, with the ultimate goal of establishing Czech (later Czechoslovak) statehood.

Czech and Slovak volunteers went to the French army, where national formations were also created. As a result, the center of the national liberation struggle of the Czechs and Slovaks was formed not in Russia, but in France. In February 1916, the Czechoslovak National Council (CNC) was established in Paris. The CNS acted as a unifying center for all Czechs and Slovaks fighting for independence, including those fighting in the Russian army.

Czechoslovak Corps from Galicia to Chelyabinsk

Gradually, the number of the Czech squad in Russia grew, including through volunteers from among the prisoners of war. The Czechs, who did not want to fight for Austria-Hungary, from the very beginning of the war massively surrendered to Russian captivity.
By the end of March 1916, there was already a Czech brigade of two regiments with a total of 5,750 people.

After the February Revolution, the number of Czech formations began to grow again. The "democratization of the army" by the Provisional Government led to the loss of the principle of unity of command in the armed forces, lynching of officers and desertion. The Czechoslovak units have passed this fate.

In May 1917, the chairman of the ChNS Tomas Masaryk sent a request to the Minister of War of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky for the departure of Czechoslovak units to France. But the land route was closed. Only later, in the autumn, about 2 thousand people were taken out on French ships through Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.

The situation at the front became more difficult. Soon the Russian command suspended the dispatch of combat-ready Czech units, not wanting to weaken the front. On the contrary, they began to actively replenish. The Czechs and Slovaks continued to fight, but did not abandon their intention to go to the Western Front - to France at the first opportunity.

In July, the second Czech division was formed, and in September, a separate Czechoslovak corps consisting of two divisions and a reserve brigade. The French charter was in force in the corps. There were many Russian officers in the higher and middle command staff of the corps.

By October 1917, the number of personnel of the corps amounted to 45,000 people. Further, according to various estimates, it will range from 30,000 to 55,000 people.

Among the soldiers and officers of the corps were both communists and monarchists. But most of the Czechoslovaks, especially among the leadership, were close in their views to the Social Revolutionaries, supported the February Revolution and the Provisional Government.

The leaders of the ChNS concluded an agreement with representatives of the Provisional Government in Kyiv. This agreement contained two clauses that contradicted each other in practice. On the one hand, Masaryk said that the corps would adhere to a policy of non-interference in Russia's internal affairs. On the other hand, the possibility of using the corps to suppress unrest was stipulated.
So, one of the regiments of the corps was involved in the suppression of the Bolshevik uprising in Kyiv in October 1917 by the commissar of the South-Western Front from the Provisional Government N. Grigoriev. Having learned about this, the leadership of the Russian branch of the ChNS protested about the use of corps units that was not coordinated with it and demanded that the regiment stop participating in the suppression of the uprising.

For some time, the corps did not really interfere in the internal affairs of Russia. The Czechs refused both the Ukrainian Rada and General Alekseev when they asked for military assistance against the Reds.

Meanwhile, the Entente countries already at the end of November 1917, on military conference in Iasi began to make plans to use the Czechs to invade Russia. This meeting was attended by representatives of the Entente, White Guard officers, the Romanian command and delegates from the Czechoslovak Corps. The representative of the Entente raised the question of the readiness of the Czechoslovaks for armed action against Soviet power and the possibility of occupying the region between the Don and Bessarabia. This region, in accordance with the "French-British Agreement of December 23, 1917" concluded in Paris on the division of Russia into spheres of influence, was defined as a French sphere of influence.

On January 15, 1918, the leadership of the ChNS, in agreement with the French government, officially proclaimed the Czechoslovak armed forces in Russia "an integral part of the Czechoslovak army, which is under the jurisdiction of the French High Command". In fact, in this way the Czechoslovak Corps became part of the French army.

The situation is very ambiguous. On the territory of Russia at the moment when the army of the Provisional Government collapsed, and the Red Army was just beginning to form, there was a fully equipped foreign unit with training, discipline and combat experience of about 50 thousand people. “Only one thing is clear, that we had an army and in Russia we were the only significant military organization,” Masaryk will write later.

The French General Staff almost immediately ordered the corps to depart for France. According to an agreement reached in February 1918 with the Soviet government, the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps were to travel by rail from Ukraine to Vladivostok and transfer there to French ships.

On March 3, the Soviet government concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. Under the terms of the treaty, all foreign troops were to be withdrawn from Russian territory. This was another argument in favor of sending the Czechs out of the country as soon as possible.

But for the transfer of thousands of people to Vladivostok, trains, wagons, food, etc. were required. The Soviet government could not quickly provide all this in the right amount in the conditions of the Civil War. Then the Czechs began to "supply" themselves on their own.

March 13, 1918 At the Bakhmach station, Czech troops captured 52 steam locomotives, 849 wagons, into which units of the 6th and 7th regiments boarded and, under the guise of echelons with the wounded, went east. In order to prevent such incidents, in mid-March in Kursk, with the participation of representatives of the ChNS, the corps and the Soviet command, an agreement was reached on the surrender of weapons by the Czechoslovaks. They were also promised assistance in the unimpeded movement of the corps to Vladivostok, provided that its soldiers did not support the counter-revolutionary uprisings in the Far East.

A 26 March in Penza, representatives of the Council of People's Commissars and the Czechoslovak Corps signed an agreement guaranteeing the dispatch of the corps to Vladivostok. At the same time, it was stipulated that the Czechs were moving not as members of military formations, but as private individuals, but to protect them from counter-revolutionary elements, a guard company of 168 people was allowed to be in each echelon. Guard companies were supposed to have 300 rounds of ammunition for each rifle and 1,200 rounds for each machine gun. The Czechs had to hand over the rest of the weapons. In fact, the agreement on the surrender of weapons was far from being fully implemented.
There were still not enough trains, and the Czechs did not want to wait. The seizures of trains, food and fodder began again. The echelons moved slowly, with stops. The corps gradually stretched along the railroad for thousands of kilometers.

April 5, 1918 of the year Japan launched an intervention in Vladivostok. Fearing support for the interventionists by the Czechoslovak Corps, the Soviet government revised its agreement with the Czechs. Now we could only talk about their complete disarmament and evacuation in small groups.

These fears were not unfounded. Yes, in April 1918 at a meeting at the French embassy in Moscow representatives of the Entente decided to use the corps for intervention inside Russia. The French representative at the corps, Major A. Guinet informed the Czech command that the allies would launch an offensive at the end of June and consider the Czech army, together with the French mission attached to it, as the vanguard of the allied forces ...

And on May 11, 1918, the first Lord of the British Admiralty, J. Smuts, and the chief of the imperial general staff, G. Wilson, presented a note to the military cabinet, which stated the following: “It seems unnatural that at a time when great efforts are being made to ensure intervention by Japan ... Czechoslovak troops are about to be transferred from Russia to the Western front”. The note suggested that the Czechoslovak troops already in Vladivostok or on their way to it be "headed, organized there into effective military units... by the French government, which must be asked to until they are delivered to France, use them as part of the Allied interventionist forces...»

On May 16, British Consul in Vladivostok Hodgson received a secret telegram from the British Foreign Office, which indicated that the body "can be used in Siberia in connection with the Allied intervention..."

May 18 the French ambassador to Russia, Noulens, directly informed the military representative at the corps, Major Guinet, that “ the allies decided to intervene at the end of June and consider the Czech army as the vanguard of the allied army».

The Czechoslovak corps, as part of the French army, was obliged to obey the orders of the command, besides, it depended on France and, in general, on the Entente countries, not only formally, but also financially. At the same time, not only representatives of France, but also representatives of other countries were already present in the corps, for example, there are references to American carriages.

Communist Czechs mostly left the echelons and joined the Red Army. Among those who remained, anti-Bolshevik sentiments prevailed.

Armed rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps

Throughout the route of movement to Vladivostok, conflicts periodically broke out between the Czechs and prisoners of war Germans, Austrians and Hungarians, who were returning home according to the Brest Treaty, in which there was a clause on the exchange of prisoners. During one of the conflicts that took place May 14, 1918 years at the station Chelyabinsk, a Hungarian prisoner of war was killed by the Czechs.

May 17 the commission of inquiry arrested ten Czechs suspected of murder, and then a delegation that came to demand their release.
Then the Czech units entered the city, surrounded the station and captured the arsenal with weapons. The Chelyabinsk Council, not wanting to aggravate the situation, released the detainees.

The day after the incident, the Czechoslovak command assured the Russian authorities of its peacefulness by issuing an appeal to the population signed by the commander of the 3rd Czechoslovak regiment. The appeal stated that the Czechs "they will never go against the Soviet regime".

May 20 at a meeting of the corps command with members of the CHNS branch, a Provisional Executive Committee (VEC) was created, which included 11 people, including the commanders of the corps regiments; 3rd - Lieutenant Colonel S. N. Voitsekhovsky, 4th - Lieutenant S. Chechek and 7th - Captain R. Gaida.

May 21st in Moscow, deputy chairmen of the Russian branch of the ChNS, P. Maksa and B. Chermak, were arrested. On the same day they ordered the corps to disarm.

22nd of May The congress of delegates of the Czechoslovak corps, held in Chelyabinsk, expressed no confidence in the leadership of the ChNS branch and decided to transfer control of transporting the corps to Vladivostok to VIK. The general command of the corps was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Voitsekhovsky.

The congress decided not to carry out the disarmament order, but to keep the weapons all the way to Vladivostok as a guarantee of their safety. In other words, after the congress, the corps obeyed only the orders of its officers. And those, in turn, carried out orders coming from the French command, that is, from the Entente countries, whose leaders firmly decided to intervene in Russia.

May 25 Trotsky's order No. 377 was transmitted by telegram, obliging all local soviets to " disarm the Czechoslovaks under pain of heavy responsibility. Each echelon in which at least one armed person turns out to be thrown out of the car and imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp ... Honest Czechoslovaks who surrender their weapons and submit to Soviet power will be treated like brothers ... All railway units are informed that not a single car with Czechoslovaks should move to the East.

Trotsky's order is often justifiably criticized for being harsh and hasty. The Bolsheviks, who at that time were weaker than them, in fact could not disarm the Czechs. Several disarmament attempts made by local councils ended in clashes and did not lead to the desired result.

However, to lay the responsibility for the revolt of the Czechoslovaks on Trotsky alone, as is sometimes done (see, for example, the book of the American ideologist Richard Pipes), is very strange, given that the Czechs, in any case, in a month, according to the decision of the Entente countries, would raise an uprising, finding any other convenient reason for this.

On the same day that Trotsky's order came out, May 25 Czech units captured the Siberian city of Mariinsk, on the 26th - Novo-Nikolaevsk.

Commander of the 7th regiment, member of the VIK R. Guy-da ordered the echelons to seize the stations at which they were currently located. May 27 he telegraphed all along the line: « To all echelons of Czechoslovaks. I order you to attack Irkutsk if possible. The Soviet power to arrest. Cut off the Red Army operating against Semyonov» .

May 27, 1918. The Czechs captured Chelyabinsk, where all members of the local Soviet were arrested and shot. The prison, designed for 1,000 places, turned out to be overcrowded with supporters of the Soviet regime.

May 28 Miass was captured. A resident of the city Alexander Kuznetsov testified: « Fedor Yakovlevich Gorelov (17 years old), who was taken prisoner, was hanged, he was executed by a platoon of Czechs for rudeness with the convoy, threatened to avenge his comrades killed in battle».

On the same day, the corps captured Kansk and Penza, where most of the captured 250 Czechoslovak Red Army soldiers were killed.

The CHNS and the Soviet government took several steps towards reconciliation. Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G. Chicherin offered his assistance in the evacuation of the Czechs. May 29, 1918 Max telegraphed to Penza:
“Our comrades made a mistake speaking in Chelyabinsk. We, as honest people, must accept the consequences of this mistake. Once again on behalf of the professor Masaryk I urge you to stop all speeches and maintain complete calm. The French military mission also advises you...<...>Our name will be covered with indelible disgrace if we shed even a drop of fraternal Russian blood and prevent the Russian people from arranging their affairs as they wish in the difficult time of the most intense revolutionary struggle in our homeland ... "

However, no reconciliation took place. Yes, it couldn't happen.

May 30 taken Tomsk, June 8— Omsk.
By the beginning of June, Zlatoust, Kurgan and Petropavlovsk were captured, in which 20 members of the local Soviet were shot.
June 8 Samara was taken, where on the same day 100 Red Army soldiers were shot. In the first days after the capture of the city, at least 300 people were killed here. By June 15, the number of prisoners in Samara reached 1,680 people, by the beginning of August - more than 2 thousand.
TO Jun 9 I the entire Trans-Siberian Railway from Penza to Vladivostok was under the control of the Czechs.

After the capture of Troitsk, according to the testimony of S. Moravsky, the following happened:
“At about five in the morning on June 18, 1918, the city of Troitsk was in the hands of the Czechoslovaks. Mass killings of the remaining communists, Red Army soldiers and sympathizers of the Soviet government immediately began. A crowd of merchants, intellectuals and priests walked the streets with the Czechoslovaks and pointed to the communists and Soviet workers, whom the Czechs immediately killed. At about 7 o'clock in the morning on the day of the occupation of the city, I was in the city and from the mill to the Bashkirov hotel, not more than one mile away, I counted about 50 corpses tortured, mutilated and robbed. The killings continued for two days, and according to the staff captain Moskvichev, an officer of the garrison, the number of those tortured numbered at least a thousand people. ».

IN July Tyumen, Ufa, Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg and Shadrinsk were captured.
August 7 Kazan fell.

It would seem that the Czechs are eager to Europe with all their hearts, but for some reason they do not go to Vladivostok along the Trans-Siberian Railway, but interfere in the internal affairs of Russia. It is easy to see that Kazan, taken on August 7 by parts of the corps in cooperation with Kappel's troops, is clearly somewhat away from Vladivostok.

Not only foreigners, but also local anti-Soviet forces took part in the preparation and implementation of the rebellion.
Thus, the Czechoslovak leadership had connections with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (the Czechs, among whom there were many socialists, considered them "real democrats"). Socialist-Revolutionary Klimushkin said that the Samara Socialist-Revolutionaries "Another week and a half to two" learned that a performance of the Czechs was being prepared in Penza. “The Samara group of Socialist-Revolutionaries, then already definitely preparing an armed uprising, found it necessary to send their representatives to the Czechs ...”

According to Major I. Kratochvila, battalion commander of the 6th Czechoslovak regiment,
“Russian officers, with whom Western Siberia was overflowing, aroused and supported in us distrust of the Soviet government. Long before the speech, at the stations where we lingered for a long time .., they persuaded us to violent action ... Later, just before the speech, they contributed to successful actions with their help, as they delivered plans for cities, the placement of garrisons, etc. ”.

In June, after the first successes of the Corps, the US Ambassador to China Reinisch sent a telegram to the president in which he proposed not to withdraw the Czechoslovaks from Russia. With minimal support, the message said, “They can seize control over the whole of Siberia. If they were not in Siberia, they would have to be sent there from the farthest distance..

June 23, 1918 US Secretary of State R. Lansing offered to help the Czechs with money and weapons, expressing the hope that those “perhaps they will initiate the military occupation of the Siberian Railway”. A July 6 President of the U.S.A wilson read out a memorandum on intervention in Russia, in which he expressed hope "to achieve progress by acting in two ways - by providing economic assistance and assisting the Czechoslovaks."

British Prime Minister D. Lloyd George June 24, 1918 year informed the French about his request to the Czechoslovak units not to leave Russia, but « form the core of a possible counter-revolution in Siberia » .

Finally, in July the American leadership sent an admiral to Vladivostok Knight instructions on providing military assistance to the Czechoslovaks.

After the Czechs captured large cities on the Trans-Siberian Railway, about a dozen anti-Bolshevik governments were formed in them. The most significant of these governments are the Komuch (Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly), the rival Provisional Siberian Government (VSP) and the Czech puppet Provisional Regional Government of the Urals (VOPU). These governments were constantly in conflict with each other, which did not contribute to restoring order. And in September, a unified Provisional All-Russian Government (Directorate) was created. However, conflicts continued inside the Directory, it also turned out to be incapacitated.

After the formation of the independent Czechoslovak Republic, the majority of Czechs, who were a significant support of the Directory, completely lost their understanding of why they were in Russia. There were cases of units refusing to go to the front.

Already on the third day after the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic, October 31, 1918, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of Soviet Russia Chicherin addressed with a radiogram to the provisional government of Czechoslovakia:
"The Soviet government, despite the success of its weapons, - it said in it - seeks nothing so ardently as the end of the useless and regrettable shedding of blood and declares that it is ready to give the Czechoslovaks a full opportunity, after they lay down their arms, to proceed through Russia in order to return to their native country, with the full guarantee of their safety.

However, even after the creation of the Czechoslovakian independent state, the Czechs in no way deviated from the former course of the CNS towards cooperation with the interventionists.

Czechoslovak Corps and Kolchak

November 1918 came to power in Siberia Kolchak.
Three days after the establishment of his rule, the CNC stated that "the Czechoslovak army, fighting for the ideals of freedom and the rule of the people, cannot and will neither promote nor sympathize with violent coups that run counter to these principles" So what "The coup in Omsk on November 18 violated the beginning of legality". Soon, obeying the orders of the Entente, the Czechs nevertheless began to cooperate with Kolchak.

However, the soldiers of the corps fought for Kolchak reluctantly, and used their position for robbery and looting.
Minister of War of the Kolchak government, General A. P. Budberg writes later in his memoirs:
“Now the Czechs are dragging about 600 loaded wagons with them, very carefully guarded ... according to counterintelligence, these wagons are filled with cars, machine tools, precious metals, paintings, various valuable furniture and utensils and other good things collected in the Urals and Siberia”.

CHNS in Paris handed over to the commander of the Entente in Siberia M. Janenu the authority to use the Czechoslovak Corps for the purposes of the interests of the allies. Together with Janin, the Minister of War of the Czechoslovak Republic M. R. Stefanik. Stefanik tried to raise the morale of the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps, but soon became convinced that they did not want to fight in Russia. The Allies and Kolchak agreed to send the corps home. Until the shipment, the Czechs undertook to protect the railways.

On the railway, the soldiers of the corps encountered sabotage by partisans. Here the Czechs often acted with the cruelty of real punishers.
« In the event of a train crash and an attack on employees and guards, they are subject to extradition to the punitive detachment, and if the perpetrators are not clarified and extradited within three days, then the first time the hostages are shot through one, the houses of the people who left with the gangs, regardless of the remaining families, are burned, and the second time, the number of hostages to be shot increases several times, suspicious villages are burned entirely » , - said in the order of the commander of the 2nd Czechoslovak division, Colonel R. Kreichi.

November 13, 1919 Czechs tried to distance themselves from politics Kolchak. The memorandum they issued stated: “Under the protection of the Czechoslovak bayonets, the local Russian military authorities allow themselves actions that will horrify the entire civilized world. The burning of villages, the beating of peaceful Russian citizens by hundreds, the execution without trial of representatives of democracy on a simple suspicion of political unreliability - is a common occurrence, and the responsibility for everything before the court of the people of the whole world falls on us. Why did we, having military force, not resist this lawlessness. Such our passivity is a direct consequence of the principle of our neutrality and non-interference in internal Russian affairs. We ourselves do not see any other way out of this situation, as only in the immediate return home ". At the same time, as we have already seen, the Czechs themselves were more than once noticed in the same thing, which they rightly accused the Kolchakites of.

Finally, the Czechs were allowed to go home. However, the way to Vladivostok was blocked by red partisans. Fulfilling the order of General Zhanen, Commander-in-Chief of the Czechoslovak Corps Jan Syrovy gave Kolchak to the Irkutsk Political Center in exchange for free passage to Vladivostok. Many white historians would then call this the "Czech betrayal".
Later, some members of the corps, including Yan Syrovy, would betray not an ally, but their own people and state. As Minister of National Defense and Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Republic, Jan Syrovy accepted the terms of the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938. Considering the resistance to the Nazis "desperate and hopeless", he ceded the Sudetenland belonging to the Czechs and handed over a significant part of the weapons of Nazi Germany. Later, in March 1939, during the offensive of the Wehrmacht on Czechoslovakia, General Syrovy, who at that time held the post of Minister of Defense, ordered the army not to resist the Germans. After that, all army warehouses, equipment and weapons of the "military forge of Europe" were handed over to the Nazis safe and sound. Until the autumn of 1939, the Syrovs worked in the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

In 1947, Jan Syrovy was convicted by a Czechoslovak court for 20 years for cooperation with the German invaders.
Another well-known Czech collaborator who served as an officer in the Czechoslovak Corps is Emmanuel Moravec. In 1919, he was an employee of the Political and Information Department of the military representation of the Chechen Republic in Siberia. Returning from Russia to his homeland, Moravec held high positions in the Czechoslovak army, was a professor at the Higher Military School, and a well-known publicist. After the Munich Agreement, Moravec wrote the book In the Role of the Moor, in which he urged the Czechs not to resist the Germans in order to save themselves. The Nazis published the book in large numbers, and Moravec was appointed Minister of Schools and Public Education in the government of the Imperial Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In this post, Moravec launched a large-scale propaganda campaign, calling on the Czechs to cooperate with the occupation regime in every possible way. Moravec was also the initiator of the creation in the Czech Republic in 1943 of the Czech League Against Bolshevism (ČLPB) and a youth fascist organization.

The sons of Moravec, Igor and Jiří, having received German citizenship, went to serve in the Wehrmacht. The eldest son Igor served in the SS units (he was executed in 1947), and Jiri was a front-line artist in the German army.
During the Prague uprising on May 5, 1945, Emmanuel Moravec shot himself.

Here's how " fighters for the freedom and independence of their land, Russia and all Slavs” erect monuments in Russian cities today.

On September 2, 1920, sea transport departed from the pier in Vladivostok, on board of which the last unit of the Czechoslovak Corps was returning home. With them, the Czechs took away a lot of stolen property.
white emigrant A. Kotomkin recalled:
“Newspapers published cartoons - feuilletons on the departing Czechs in this way: Caricature. The return of the Czechs to Prague. The legionnaire rides on a thick rubber tire. On the back is a huge load of sugar, tobacco, coffee, leather, copper, cloth, fur. Manufactories, furniture, triangle tires, gold, etc.

Hyde will call this return "anabasis", that is, "ascent", by analogy with the historical return of 10,000 Greeks under the command of Xenophon after the battle of Cunax. However, the great Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek, an eyewitness and participant in those events, had every reason to doubt such an interpretation, ironically reflected by him in one of the chapters of his book entitled “Svejk’s Budějovice Anabasis”.

So, the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps was part of the intervention of the Entente powers in Russia. Russia as such interested the Czechs and Slovaks from a very pragmatic point of view - first as a country capable of fighting the Austro-German alliance and thereby contributing to the liberation of the Czechoslovak lands, and then as an object of robbery. Having got involved in the Civil War, the Czech legionnaires acted on our territory with the harshness of the invaders.
And to call them heroes, erecting monuments to them in Russia, means to indulge in the blatant falsification of history.

Uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps- performance of the Czechoslovak troops against the Soviet regime, in May-August 1918 in the Volga region, Siberia and the Urals.

In March 1918, at the request of Germany, the Soviet government banned the sending of Czechoslovak prisoners of war through Arkhangelsk, and insisted on their withdrawal through Siberia and Vladivostok. As a result, the echelons of the first and second divisions went east - to Penza. This decision irritated the Czechoslovak soldiers. They went to the east in 63 military trains, 40 wagons each. The first echelon left on 03/27/1918 and a month later arrived in Vladivostok. The reason for the anti-Soviet uprising was the Chelyabinsk incident. On May 14, 1918, an echelon of Czechoslovaks and an echelon of former captive Hungarians released by the Bolsheviks under the terms of the Brest Treaty met in Chelyabinsk. 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 Duhacek was seriously wounded by a cast-iron leg from the stove thrown from the Hungarian echelon. In response, the Czechoslovaks lynched the prisoner of war who, in their opinion, was guilty - the Hungarian or Czech Johann Malik. He received several bayonet blows to the chest and neck. And the Bolshevik authorities of Chelyabinsk arrested several Czechoslovaks the next day.

May 17, 1918 the Czechoslovaks freed their comrades by force, disarming the Red Guards, and seized the city arsenal (2,800 rifles and an artillery battery).

After that, having defeated the superior forces of the Red Guard thrown against them, they occupied several more cities, overthrowing Soviet power in them. The Czechoslovaks began to occupy the cities that lay on their way: Chelyabinsk, Petropavlovsk, Kurgan, and opened their way to Omsk. Other units entered Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), Mariinsk, Nizhneudinsk and Kansk. In early June 1918, the Czechoslovaks entered Tomsk.

Not far from Samara, the legionnaires defeated the Soviet units (06/04-05/1918) and made it possible for themselves to cross the Volga. In Samara captured by the Czechoslovaks, the first anti-Bolshevik government was organized - the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch). This marked the beginning of the formation of other anti-Bolshevik governments throughout Russia.

The commander of the First Division, Stanislav Chechek, issued an order in which he specifically emphasized the following:

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

Russian volunteers of the General Staff of Lieutenant Colonel V.O. Kappel is taken again by Syzran (07/10/1918), and Chechek - Kuznetsk (07/15/1918). The next part of the People's Army V.O. Kappel made its way through Bugulma to Simbirsk (07/22/1918) and together they went to Saratov and Kazan. In the Northern Urals, Colonel Syrovy occupied Tyumen, and ensign Chila - Yekaterinburg (07/25/1918). In the east, General Gaida occupied Irkutsk (06/11/1918) and later - Chita.

Under the pressure of the superior forces of the Bolsheviks, units of the People's Army left Kazan on September 10, Simbirsk on September 12, and Syzran, Stavropol Volzhsky, Samara in early October. In the Czechoslovak legions, there was growing uncertainty about the need to conduct exhaustive battles in the Volga region and the Urals. The news of the declaration of an independent Czechoslovakia increased the desire to return home. The decline in the morale of the legionnaires in Siberia could not be stopped even by Milan Stefanik during his inspection in November-December 1918. Since January 1919, the Czechoslovak units began to gather to the highway, and over the next four months, 259 echelons drove off from the Urals to the east, to Baikal. On January 27, 1919, the commander of the Czechoslovak army in Russia, General Jan Syrovy, issued an order declaring the section of the highway between Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) and Irkutsk the operational area of ​​the Czechoslovak army. This and other circumstances led to a conflict with the White troops of Colonel Kappel, who also retreated along the railway in conditions of 50 degrees below zero.

Kappel challenged Jan Syrovoy to a duel for supporting the Bolsheviks and extraditing Admiral Kolchak to representatives of the Socialist Revolutionary-Menshevik Political Center in Irkutsk (after Kappel's death, this challenge was repeated by General Voitsekhovsky). At the same time, the Czechoslovak legionnaires still had to resist the attacks of the Red Army and other military groups that operated east of the Urals. Moreover, contradictions between the command and ordinary soldiers of the legion were growing. The delegates of the banned Second Congress of the Siberian Army, which took place on May 20 in Tomsk, were arrested and sent to Gornostai in Vladivostok. Ultimately, the Czechoslovaks helped the fall of the Kolchak regime in Omsk.

At this time, the last military echelon with the Czechoslovaks left Irkutsk for Vladivostok. The last obstacle was the wild division of Ataman Semenov. The victory of the legionnaires was their final military operation in Siberia.

In the end, they managed to evacuate through Vladivostok.

After long negotiations on financial support for the return of the Czechoslovak army home, in December 1919, the first ships with legionnaires began to sail from Vladivostok. On 42 ships, 72,644 people were transported to Europe (3,004 officers and 53,455 soldiers and ensigns of the Czechoslovak army). More than four thousand people - dead and missing - did not return from Russia.

In November 1920, the last echelon with legionnaires from Russia returned to Czechoslovakia.

Wars do not give the opportunity to choose for whom to fight - belonging to a particular state makes you go to the front and shed blood for the interests of the ruler, sometimes the most diverse and ridiculous. With the First World War, it turned out almost the same: completely different interests were pursued by Germany and Austria-Hungary, starting a conflict (the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand can hardly be called a weighty reason for war). And the soldiers sent to the front line to die were not asked if they wanted to, if they were ready. The history of the Czechoslovak Corps is a vivid example of this.

Corps history

Austria-Hungary in the 19th century became a multinational state: its possessions stretched for many kilometers, touching the territories modern Italy, Serbia, Austria, Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia.

If we look at the world map of that time, we will see that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of the largest and most populous states. Even the French empire of Napoleon and the Ottoman state could not boast of such vast possessions. Based on this, the army of Austria-Hungary was also multinational - it included representatives of all the conquered lands.

Participation in the First World War (and in any other) is not always death. Very many were lucky in the sense that they were captured by opponents. Making a deal with your conscience, accepting a new citizenship and fighting for another country, or defending the interests of your homeland and dying for it is the voluntary choice of every soldier.

However, it is worth noting that the representatives of the conquered lands dreamed of overthrowing the Austro-Hungarian emperor and liberating their native land. Czechoslovakia just belonged to such minorities. In the war, on the side of Austria-Hungary, riflemen took part, who were captured by Russian servicemen. Since they were professionals in their field, it was decided (of course, with full consent and voluntary participation) to create on their basis a special legion, which was called the Czechoslovak Corps.

Why was he called that? Everything is very simple. The name was determined by its ethnic composition - the corps consisted mostly of captive Czechs and Slovaks who wanted to liberate their native lands and oppose the hated emperor. Note that the first military units were formed from Czechs who lived in Russia at the beginning of the war. And only then captured soldiers were added to them.

Of course, they all counted on certain rewards for serving a foreign king, the most important of which was the independence of their territories, the recognition of autonomy. More than 60 thousand people stood under the flags of the Russian Empire to gain the independence of Czechoslovakia. However, fate decreed otherwise.

flare up conflict

In 1918, when it became clear that the war was nearing its logical conclusion, the foreign soldiers felt that it was time to pay the bills. In addition, Austria-Hungary lost, the lands that were once part of it gained independence. The only thing left was the recognition of Russia and assistance in this matter.

But not everything was so simple. In Paris, the Czechoslovak National Council (CNC) was created, which pursued its own goals: it wanted to create a full-fledged army of allies from the corps on the territory of Russia, under the rule of France.

President Poincare went forward and issued a corresponding decree, according to which the shooters were to come to Paris. However, for this it was necessary to drive almost through the entire west of Russia. By that time, the power of the Soviets had been established, and the Czechoslovak National Council did not want to quarrel with its neighbors. In addition, the former imperial army ceased to exist, instead it appeared, which did not differ in professionalism in battles. In fact, the corps was the only hope for the rulers of Soviet Russia in the beginning of the Civil War.

Another problem was the partial disarmament order. The CHNC agreed to this proposal, but the soldiers themselves were reluctant to hand over their weapons.

At the same time, it turned out that the Allies were negotiating with Japan about intervention in Far East. An order was given to send the Czechoslovak corps stationed there, as well as all German prisoners, closer to Moscow. He relied on a document from the German ambassador to Russia. The legionnaires considered that they were also going to be extradited to Germany and Austria-Hungary as prisoners of war. So there was a conflict that grew into a full-fledged rebellion.

A lot of legionnaires were in Ukraine, part of which, as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, came under the rule of the Kaiser of Germany. Since in Austria-Hungary and Germany Czechs and Slovaks were considered traitors to their homeland, they were in real danger of being shot on the spot without trial or investigation. Therefore, the corps hastened to leave the troubled region and go to the Far East. The target was getting closer and closer. Do not forget that formally the Czechoslovak corps was subordinate to the French government, which planned to use it in military conflicts. As soon as Berlin learned that the corps was moving towards the Pacific Ocean in order to leave Russia, it immediately sent a request to Moscow demanding that this be prevented at all costs. Soviet Russia, not wanting a new conflict with Germany, was forced to submit.

Beginning of the battle

In May 1918, the Bolsheviks tried to stop the corps near Chelyabinsk and disarm it. The Czechs responded with a decisive refusal. A battle broke out, starting a bloody war between the two sides. Since the corps was professional, they easily managed to capture cities in Siberia. They pursued their own policies in the occupied territories, even publishing a newspaper on the train. Which, by the way, was very well fortified both inside and out. In Kazan, the soldiers managed to find deposits of gold, which they packed and took with them.

When did it start Civil War, the Czechoslovak Corps sided with the White movement. Considering their professionalism, there was no doubt that White would win.

The Bolsheviks were afraid of such strong army. When a rumor spread that the corps would pass through Yekaterinburg, an urgent order was given to shoot the entire royal family. The Allies, who were concerned about the growing power of the Bolsheviks, did not stand aside either. Under the pretext of concern for the Czechs and Slovaks, the British and Americans began to intervene in Russia, hoping that their participation in the conflict would overthrow the Bolshevik regime and return the country to the war against Germany.

In August 1918, the first military units of the Allies landed on the coast of Vladivostok, consisting of Canadians, Italians, French, British and Americans. The corps continued to move towards them - the Czechs and Slovaks wanted to participate in the battles on the Western Front. Some wanted to move to France. Closer to autumn, information appeared that the war was over. The former territories of Austria-Hungary gained independence, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia, united into a single state. But the government ordered its corps to stay in Russia, which was dangerous, because a full-fledged Civil War had begun.

By 1920, the White movement began to lose and was eventually forced to flee or die at the hands of the Red Army. And then the corps put forward the terms of the deal: they give the Bolsheviks gold, and in return they let them go home. To seal the deal and show their loyalty to the new government, the Czechs arrested and handed over several white allies. The ships were waiting in the wings - someone sailed through the Indian Ocean, someone through the Panama Canal. But gradually all Czechs and Slovaks ended up in their homeland.

There is an opinion that the corps did not transfer all the gold to the Bolsheviks. They took something with them, after which Legiobanka appears in Prague. Like it or not, let the readers judge. However, three years of traveling around Russia and defending their interests were remembered for a long time by the former military subjects of Austria-Hungary.

The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps (Czechoslovak revolt) - an armed performance of the Czechoslovak Corps in May-August 1918 during the Civil War in Russia.

The uprising swept 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 start of large-scale armed actions of white troops against Soviet power. The reason for the uprising was an attempt by the Soviet authorities to disarm the legionnaires.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 5

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

✪ rebellion 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 wholeheartedly welcome you! Egor, good afternoon. Kind. About what today? Finally, we continue about the Civil War, about its unfolding. We have finished on how the Czechoslovak Corps rebelled, and today we will talk about the consequences of this uprising, because they were, indeed, a fateful share of the fate of our country, for the fate of the nascent 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 recall a little about how this uprising unfolded. I expressed the point of view that it was not that the perpetrators of this uprising ... Of course, the Entente incited, and first of all it was France, and first of all the French ambassador Noulens was a fierce supporter of the action of the Czechoslovak Corps and the formation, as it was said then, of the anti-German front, against the German-Bolshevik forces, as it was called in certain circles of the Entente. Of course, the Entente incited, and there is a lot of evidence for 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 departed from Russia as soon as possible 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 used to a sufficient extent by the Soviet leadership, it was not possible to rely on them and propagandize that Czechoslovak soldier mass, which, by and large, became a victim of deception, became a victim of propaganda, because the extremist wing of the Czechoslovaks, in fact, went on 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 Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks are some kind of completely alien story. Your internal disassembly, huh? Yes Yes. Czechoslovakia, in general, the Czechoslovak Corps, let me remind you, was formed precisely as a military force that would fight for the independence of Czechoslovakia from Austria-Hungary, i.e. this is their national affair, it is almost almost a Patriotic War being waged, however, in 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, so how to explain who they will fight here against? For this, such a semi-mythical threat was used - prisoners of war from the countries of the Quadruple Union. It was considered and officially proclaimed in this pro-Entant propaganda, which zombified the fighters of the Czechoslovak Corps, that there was a huge number of German prisoners of war in Russia. This was partly true - indeed, there were almost 2 million prisoners of war from the countries of the Quadruple Union. Wow! Let me remind you that the most ... most of the prisoners were Russians for the entire First world war more precisely, citizens of the Russian Empire, subjects of the Russian Empire. Estimates are very different, by the way, this is an interesting topic: now the estimate of General Golovin is accepted - this is a very famous emigrant historian who estimated the number of prisoners of war in the Russian Empire at 2.4 million people. This estimate is accepted by a significant part of historians, but if we read Golovin himself, we learn that it is based as follows: Golovin, wondering how this number came to be, asked two of his colleagues, an Austrian historian and a German military historian, who checked these data from the archives and sent him their results, and he deduced 2.4 from them. But no one has ever verified these figures, in any case, those historians who refer to Golovin, and this, by the way, for example, is the well-known work of General Krivosheev on the losses of the army in the wars of the 20th century, and here 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 Austria-Hungary was in second place, which, as we remember, was a patchwork empire in which, as we know, a significant number of nationalities that did not have their own statehood within a dual monarchy did not want to fight, which, in fact, can be read 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 approximately a typical story like this, the Austro-Hungarians were not far behind, and it was they who made up the bulk of these 2 million prisoners of war, and the Germans, in fact, there were only about 150 thousand of them ... Not rich, yes. Those. yes, yes, it didn’t work out that way with Germany, i.e. if we take an assessment directly for Germany, then the proportion is strongly not in favor of the Russian Empire. And in general, in terms of scale, these forces, of course, were scattered, unlike the Czechoslovak Corps, and they could not represent any kind of military force. No one was going to organize this military force, and the Germans did not demand it. But the Entente propaganda presented the matter 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 it’s with them that you will fight. For these German units, the international units of the army, the Red Guard, were issued, which, indeed, were being formed, but it must be said 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, were not going to fight further for anything, and only the most convinced, the most ardent, the most believed, 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 of ... under the command of Yaroslav Shtrombakh, also a Czech. There were 1200 people of all nationalities there, they were prisoners of war, mainly from Austria-Hungary: there were Czechs, Slovaks, Yugoslavs, Hungarians, of course. Well, i.e. a mass of people who did not want to die for either the Austrians or the Hungarians? They didn’t want to fight just, yes, and fight and die for this, in this particular war. They enrolled in a 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 Kaiser's battalions, which carry out occupational rule in Russia - it is necessary to fight against them. And in general, this propaganda was successful, but the retaliatory propaganda, the Bolshevik one, was not successful, although I recall 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 French Communist Party, and I must say that recently, by some miracle, I watched a very curious series from the TV series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, where Indiana Jones, as an agent of the French military mission, ends up in revolutionary Petrograd - here it is felt that some features of Jean Sadoul are visible in it. Have you watched this series? No. Well, quite curious: he is sent precisely with the task of preventing the Bolsheviks from coming to power, he infiltrates the labor movement in Petrograd, but he infiltrates so well that he begins to sympathize with the young workers who joined the Bolsheviks, and it is precisely there that the action takes place during the July speech of 1917, when his friends die. Quite a tragic story, but this biography of Jean Sadoul is clearly seen in the interpretation of the adventures of Indiana Jones here. But let us return, in fact, to the events connected with the uprising of the Czechoslovak Legion. It was not possible to rely on Jean Sadoul, and I recall that there was an extremely sharp telegram from Trotsky, which called for the disarmament of the Czechoslovaks by force, and those who did not obey, to be shot and imprisoned in concentration camps. But this telegram was sent to all the Soviets along the route, in fact along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and almost all the 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 Sovdep is? Soviets - Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. It's not a swear word. Yes. And here, as an example of how these Soviets were put in a difficult situation, one 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 Czechoslovaks with machine guns in Penza, and today they just left them for the front, just at that time there were still battles with ataman Dutov in the 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 answered that they couldn’t give anything special - they also sent companies to the Dutov Front, it is possible to send, however, 90 people from the International. When the Soviet understands 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 we cannot fulfill the order: “... at a distance of 100 miles there are 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 provoke an uprising against which we will not be able to 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 representatives of the military commissariat who will cowardly evade the execution of disarming the Czechoslovaks. We have taken measures to move armored trains. You must act decisively and immediately. I can't add anything more." Basically, do what 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 comes to my mind, since they were traveling in trains, only letting the trains derail. But then it is not clear... They stood. They weren't driving anymore, they were standing there. Well, in general, again, the Soviet party bodies consulted, realized that it was just, 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 Council were not enough, in order to propagate the cases of the Slovaks, other forces were needed here - representatives of the Entente military mission were needed here, i.e., from my point of view, of course, this is such, perhaps, it seems like an arrogant instruction on how to act, we know better, etc., but it seems to me that it was rational to take by the scruff of the members of the Entente military mission, who verbally said that this was an incident, this was an accident, we will explain etc., to take 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 begin to disarm, and as a result there was a battle, as a result of which the legionnaires captured Penza, and since this Czechoslovak revolutionary regiment was just standing there, the battle and subsequent events took place with extreme bitterness, because the features of the Czechoslovak civil war had already appeared here - they fought against their own, they perceived each other as traitors, enemies, and since the White Czechs defeated, they, of course, over the Red Czechs they committed a literally sadistic reprisal, which is still remembered in Penza. And in general, it must be said that from the capture of the very first cities it is manifested that the Czechs are in 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 people 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 Landsknechts, who were given the city for plunder - here they are immediately rampant robbery, murder, rape, i.e. absolutely such a horde came. Occupier, yes. Yes, the occupying horde came, and, of course, the classic story begins with the settling of scores, they show the Czechs the objectionable, the objectionable crack down on those whom they were shown, without understanding, a communist, a Bolshevik - it doesn’t matter. Well, in short, a terrible thing began. And I must say that in Penza, by the way, they did not linger, they were very afraid that they would be kicked out of there, and, having simply destroyed the local Council, plundered the city, the Czechs went to Samara, which they would soon take. Samara is a very important moment, the capture of Samara, it was possible to take it very easily, as Lieutenant Chechik, who commanded this Volga group of Czechs, said, "they took Samara like a hay rake." There were no forces, i.e. The Red Army could not just yet ... could not simply organize a competent defense yet. 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 they were mostly right SRs, with the exception of the Menshevik Ivan Maisky, who later became a Bolshevik, the Russian ambassador to London and an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who left very interesting diaries. The Right SRs, who made up the majority, they knew that the Czechs were going to revolt and expected intervention, and this indicates once again 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 rebelled, immediately 5 members of the Constituent Assembly from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party immediately arrived at the location of the Czechoslovak troops, they were brought in a car to the building of the Samara City Duma and planted there as a government, and they themselves subsequently admitted that no one supported them, no one took them seriously, and they were such wedding generals, who were planted here - and now they ... manage. How did the Entente countries perceive the events that took place? Well, firstly, here - I remind you, I spoke about this last time - a great role was played by the statement of Guinet, a member of the French military mission, who, having arrived at the disposal of the Czechoslovak troops, said that the Entente countries welcomed the action and the creation of an anti-German front. Sadoul demanded that this statement be disavowed, but the statement was not disavowed, and this testified that the Entente had already made its final choice, i.e. she stakes on the overthrow of the Soviet power and on the Czechoslovak ... on the actions of the Czechoslovaks. Let me remind you that the Czechoslovaks were not on their own, but they were officially considered part of the French army and were subordinate, respectively, to 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. In the same way, we meet with the full approval of the British. Lloyd George wrote to the head of the Czech National Council, Masaryk: “I send you my heartfelt congratulations on the impressive successes your troops have achieved in the fight against the German and Austrian detachments in Siberia. The fate and triumph of this small force is one of the most outstanding epics in history." That's it. Well, Masaryk immediately begins to hint to all his, I don’t know, colleagues, major political figures that all this is not just like that, keep your promises. In particular, with the US State Department, Masaryk wrote: “I believe that the recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council has become practically necessary. I am, I would say, master of Siberia and half of Russia. Here. Not bad. Masaryk demands recognition, yes, with an eye to the fact that this whole Czech National Council will move to Prague after the end of the war already as the government of an independent Czechoslovakia - like, we did what you wanted here, let's now pay with the recognition of Czechoslovakia. True, there were also selfish interests that 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 there. If, say, Germany had taken Paris in 1918, then American troops would have arrived for a hat-check, and in any case, it would have been possible to conclude quite a decent draw at the end of the First World War, therefore ... But the situation for the British at this moment is very, very difficult, and even worse for the French. The second reason was that, yes, indeed, it was precisely the Soviet government that was afraid, because the Soviet government had clearly set a course for the elimination of private property, and Western countries, for which private property is sacred and inviolable, naturally feared this. Well, there was a third reason, of course, the third reason is obvious - Russia has weakened, it could be plundered, and all these countries that have long coveted various Russian wealth, they naturally wanted to take advantage of this. And these 3 reasons very often went like 3 in 1, i.e., without singling out any one, the same figures tried to achieve both the first, and the second, and the third. And what is interesting in this regard is that, for example, how at this moment in the United States it is being discussed whether to participate in the intervention or not to participate. Here is Presidential Advisor Bullitt writing to Colonel House, this is Wilson's special envoy: “In favor of intervention are Russian idealistic liberals, self-interested investors who would like the American economy to leave the Western Hemisphere. 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. obviously this third motive sounds, and not only in Bullitt. It is also interesting that the Czechoslovaks are thought of as a kind of force that can hold back 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 seize control over Siberia. If they were not in Siberia, they would have to be sent there from the farthest place. The Czechs must block the Bolsheviks and push the Japanese as part of the allied interventionist forces in Russia." And the Americans of the Japanese ... Oh, twisted, listen! Those. everyone has big plans for the Czechs, but what do the Czechs do - the Czechs take city after city, rob and shoot. "Rob, drink, rest," right? Yes Yes Yes. And how many people did they kill? A lot of. 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 on, 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 will come to this now - this is extremely unfortunate 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, puts up monuments along the entire route. Well, what did the Czechoslovaks do along the way? We have evidence of this: well, for example, “in the early days of the occupation of Simbirsk, arrests were carried out right on the street on denunciations, it was enough for someone from the crowd to point out someone as a suspicious person, as a person was grabbed. Executions were carried out right there without any embarrassment on 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 unbridled revelry of the winners - mass executions not only of responsible Soviet workers, but of everyone who was suspected of recognizing Soviet power. Executions were carried out without trial, and the corpses lay all day in the street.” But the most interesting thing is that the Czechoslovaks were cursed not only by Soviet workers, not only by the communists, the Bolsheviks - later the White Guards also cursed the Czechoslovaks, because the Czechs betrayed them too, they were only engaged in ... i.e. it’s like that there - 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 in the end they left with the stolen goods. Well done! And one of Kolchak's associates, General Sakharov, even wrote an entire book in exile in Berlin, The Czech Legions in Siberia: Czechoslovak Betrayal. This book, well, as I understand it, fans of the White movement erect monuments to the Czechs, and so this book should be read to them first of all, because on behalf of the military general of the White Movement it is written with such pain about all Czech arts, I would like to tell and read a little about it. Well, firstly, Sakharov describes the behavior of the Czechs with great humor and pain, 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 like this: agents of Kaiser Germany seized power, we raised the banner of struggle here, we liberate occupied Russia, and our allies help us (well, it's something like we have the Normandie-Niemen regiment there), we, together with our allies, drive out the invaders. But these white idealists were very soon to be severely disappointed, because they turned out to be no ... allies of the Entente country only in quotation marks, because they indulged in unrestrained robbery 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 heavy losses, and had only local success. The Czech armored car did not support us, keeping all the time behind the cover of the railway recess and not even going out after our makeshift 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 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 the 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. ..” Lieutenant Colonel Smolin, after reading the finished certificate, gazed into the eyes of the Czech commander for a long time. Czech didn't even look down. Lieutenant Colonel Smolin took a deep breath, signed the paper and, without shaking hands with the Czech, went to the railroad tracks. A few minutes later, the Czech armored train left forever. For the entire 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 back of the Siberian army, there was an orgy of speculation, disobedience, and sometimes outright robbery. Officers and soldiers arriving at the front told about the capture by the Czechs of trains with uniforms en route to the front, about the conversion of stocks of weapons and firearms in their favor, about their occupation of the best apartments in the cities, and on the railways of the best wagons and steam locomotives. You didn't hold yourself back, did you? Yes. Well, what is Sakharov’s conclusion, this is 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 against the unarmed, they stole hundreds of millions of private and government property and took it out of Siberia with them to their homeland. Not even centuries, but decades will pass, and humanity, in search of a fair balance, will clash more than once in the struggle, more than once, perhaps, change the map of Europe; the bones of all these Good Ones and Pavel will rot in the earth; Russian values ​​that they brought from Siberia will also disappear, - in their place, humanity will extract and make new, different ones. But betrayal, Cain's work, on the one hand, and Russia's pure suffering on the Cross, on the other, will not pass, will not be forgotten, and will be passed down from posterity to posterity for centuries. And Blagoshi and Co. firmly fixed 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 reacted to the Jewish traitors and what they intend to do to correct the atrocities inflicted on Russia? Well, now General Sakharov received an answer to his question - they erected monuments to them along the entire route of the echelons of the Czechoslovak corps. Here, the monuments should have consisted of this tablet, if it’s in your mind. Shameless, huh! Absolutely agree, absolutely! Those. the Czechoslovak corps was marked here by robbery, murders, violence. To erect monuments to them - I don’t know ... they went crazy in general, simply. Well, someone is already there, I saw the photos, someone already painted it from a spray can, writing with red paint over the monument: “They killed the Russians.” What do people who put up such monuments think? What do they think and what do they want to get in the end? What are the unfinished Reds writing on these monuments, right? Now your power has come? Well, what did your government say about this. Well, maybe it's some wrong white? What's in their 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 remind you, is a member of Komuch, and later he will become a very prominent Soviet diplomat and academician. And now he gives an absolutely accurate, in my opinion, definition of what happened: “If Czechoslovakia had not intervened 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 become stronger, neither Denikin, nor Yudenich, nor Miller could have expanded their operations so widely. The civil war would never have assumed such fierce forms and such grandiose dimensions as they were marked by; it is even possible that 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 government to the Bolsheviks 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, ended up there. The policy was peculiar - they immediately declared that now was not the time for socialist experiments, and already on July 9, denationalization of enterprises and a timid policy of indemnifying former owners, and a very incomprehensible land policy began. This, by the way, seriously agitated the peasants, because the Bolshevik slogan “Land to the peasants!” no one canceled, everyone was worried about the question of whether the citizens of the landowners would return, who, in fact ... would they claim the 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 correctly wrote to the French ambassador Noulens, "no one doubts that without our Czechs the Committee of the Constituent Assembly would not have existed even for one week." They felt very insecure, and Socialist-Revolutionary Brushvit wrote: "Support was only from the peasants, a small handful of intelligentsia, officers and bureaucrats, all the rest stood aside." That's 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 it cannot be said that there was a huge number of people who wanted to. 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. Kappel is an extreme monarchist by conviction, 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 classic military dictatorship, but at the moment, since all the forces are on the suppression of the Bolsheviks, Kappel is arriving, since there are no others who want to lead this squad, he ... 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 breaks 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 reserves will be captured, part of which the Czechs will then take away with them, and the second important point - the Military Academy of the General Staff was evacuated to Kazan in full force, and it in full force went over to the side of the Whites. But this is not all interesting in this situation, because the Bolsheviks - this is probably a unique case in world history - will completely rebuild this Military Academy anew, using, again, the cadres 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 turn 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, intellectuals and middle urban strata, it gradually begins to become the White movement ... well, I would not say that the peasantry supports the White movement, but, let's say, the peasants begin to act in favor of the White movement, their spontaneous peasant uprisings - this is an important point. The fact is that, having come to power, the Bolsheviks faced the same problem that the tsarist government and the Provisional Government unsuccessfully solved - 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 due to the fact that the state set fixed food prices for the purchase of grain in the countryside. The prices were low, the peasants did not want to sell anything at low prices. The invisible hand of the market immediately started working, 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 appraisal. This surplus was voluntary, i.e. the peasants themselves had to hand over their surpluses to the local authorities. As a result, nothing was handed over, nothing was received, and the food crisis intensified. The interim government, realizing that the matter smells like kerosene, introduced the so-called. grain monopoly, but, again ... i.e. all surpluses must be handed over to the state, but the Provisional Government did not have any forces to withdraw these surpluses, and, of course, no one carried them on a silver platter. Moreover, what was the problem: the fact is that the trade between the city and the countryside was disrupted, the peasants could not really buy anything - not nails ... the peasants could not buy any goods in the range from nails to tea, so instead of money they held grain, they believed that we don’t really need money now, let us store grain better. Well, the Bolsheviks, having come to power, the Soviets, more precisely, having come to power, inherited this whole problem, but not just inherited this problem - it was seriously aggravated, why - yes, because Russia lost Ukraine under the Brest peace, i.e. in fact, the granary, and the grain became less and less, in general, the country was on the verge of starvation. Hunger is primarily in the cities, of course, because the grain from the countryside does not go to the city. What to do? Well, of course, the wealthy peasants, the kulaks, as before, as they did not want to give away 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 the hut. Yes, and they even have the opportunity to either advance to some local Soviets themselves, or promote proteges there, and such a village conflict begins. Well, do you need to feed the city somehow? And in this sense, the Bolsheviks begin to act quite vigorously and toughly - 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 mishandled Cossacks came and pulled everything out, separate detachments are created in the villages. committees of the poor. Yes, committees of the poor, ie. the class policy in the countryside begins to be implemented. So that the kulak does not hide grain from the state, he needs constant supervision. The food detachment came and left, who will look after him - his own, the poor. The poor have a direct goal of looking after the kulak. And so committees of the poor are being created in the countryside, which, in fact, should support the food detachments and show that this one has grain hidden, here this one has it here ... Well, that is, who does not understand, it is quite obvious - that if this one has 10 hectares of arable land, then on average this will grow from him, and then they will come and ask the question: where are ours, there, I don’t know, 1000 pounds? And he says: I only have 20. 20 won’t work, I’ll have to give everything. And these people, respectively, will show. This is what a 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 for whom is the middle peasant? That's who the middle peasant will be for, he will win, that and slippers. A struggle for the middle peasant begins: propaganda, violence, but in any case, since the summer of 1918, we have recorded more than a hundred peasant uprisings, large and small, throughout the country, because this policy cannot please the peasantry, because it provokes ... reveals an internal conflict. Well, in general, here, it seems to me, it makes no difference whether you are a fist or not a fist - from the point of view of me, as a peasant: I raised it with my sweat, blood, and for as much as I want, for as much I will sell - and then they will come and take it away simply. Yes. Peasant psychology, in general, sharply rejected all this. And after all these ... well, almost in parallel with all these events, the Soviet government makes another decision, which sharply, so to speak, the peasants, firstly, polarizes, and secondly, is not generally popular: since the enemy is not asleep, he is gathering strength, it is necessary to create an army. Let me remind you that the Red Army already exists, but it is voluntary, whoever wants, goes. Something on a voluntary basis, not very many people enter there for obvious reasons - the war has been going on for the 4th year, everyone is tired, they want a peaceful life, etc., well, not popular, the war is not popular in principle. But since the enemies are mobilizing, the Bolsheviks are forced to announce mobilization, or rather, the forced recruitment of workers into the Red Army, this happens by 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 the labor of others in the 51st county of the Volga, Ural and West Siberian military districts, located in close proximity to the theater of operations. And the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets in July already consolidated the transition from the voluntary principle of the formation of the Red Army to the creation of a regular army of workers and working peasants on the basis of military service. The peasants do not want to join the army, they disrupt the mobilization - well, it seems they fought for 4 years, they just returned, here the land ... and again they demand to fight, it is not clear against whom, why. There is a well-known song: “In the Red Army there are bayonets, tea, the Bolsheviks will manage without you.” Yes, this is Demyan Poor. Everything doesn’t want to, mobilization fails, and now we have such a document as a report by a member of the Higher Military Inspectorate Nikolaev, who informs the Council of People’s Commissars: “Mobilization has no chance of success, there is no enthusiasm, faith, desire to fight.” All this is happening against the backdrop of, well, not exactly the failure of this food policy, but this food policy, it is clear that even on paper, in the plans, it looked normal: here the food detachments, they come, here they are met by committees of the poor, they show where the kulaks have grain, there is nowhere for the kulak to go, it gives away the grain - and everything is fine. When all this begins to be put into practice, this inevitably leads to some colossal excesses: in the same Penza province, an uprising begins, because there was such a woman commissar of the food detachment, Evgenia Bosch, who, after all, was apparently not a very balanced lady, she personally shot one peasant who refused to hand over grain - this caused ... led to an uprising, well, there is a war, in fact, such a peasant one. We have data on how these attempts to take away bread took place in different places: well, for example, in some places the food detachments are simply dispersed by the 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 laying bread stacks in honor of the birth of their daughter. Such stacks, called girls' stacks, were placed every year before the wedding, being the daughter's dowry. Therefore, every owner who had daughters had stocks of bread that were inviolable before their wedding. The food orderers, who did not know this, threshed the maiden stacks, dishonored, according to the concepts of the peasants, their houses. Such tactlessness created favorable conditions for nationalist agitation and armed uprisings against the 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 a system of contracts with the peasant Soviets and paid for part of the bread in goods, i.e. he managed to fulfill the plan for grain procurements. But nevertheless, just for ourselves, we note that this policy aroused 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 the Bolsheviks faced, it faced ... became inevitable in general for any government that was organized in the space of the former Russian Empire, and this government had to do the same thing - the cities had to be fed. Therefore, from any government, they come to power, for example, the Germans, they occupied Ukraine - food detachments need to 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 thing in relation to mobilization, because when Komuch strengthened, the first thing he announced was mobilization. "Involuntarily, you will go or willingly, Vanya-Vanya, you will disappear for nothing." On June 8, already on the day of the capture of Samara, Komuch, announcing the creation of the People's Army, emphasizing the non-class character, announces mobilization - the same thing, no one wants to fight. One of the organizers of the army, Shmelev, writes that former officers, studying youth, and the intelligentsia joined the ranks of volunteer units, but the people do not want to go into it, the peasants of 5 out of 7 counties of the Samara province did not support volunteerism for the army of Komuch, only the richest counties of the province gave volunteers. But they also sent tens of thousands of poor and weak middle peasants to the Red Army, and the right-wing Socialist-Revolutionary Klimushin was forced to admit in September 1918 that "despite the general rejoicing, real support was negligible - not hundreds, but only dozens of citizens came to us." Well, as a result, almost forced mobilization begins, parts of the formed people's army travel through the villages, trying to find people there, but nothing works out for them. And in those places where the army of Komuch is already passing, there, on the contrary, sympathy for the Bolsheviks is already beginning. Here is how Shmelev writes - that the population, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the people's army, was often bitterly disappointed in their expectations almost from the first days. In the Menzelinsky district, inhabited by Tatars, during the offensive of the Czechoslovaks, a wave of peasant uprisings against Soviet power took place. But it was enough for Colonel Shch. to “walk” around the county for several days 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, we note that the peasantry as a whole is quite 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, secondly, alternative authorities are being created around which armies can be built, etc., all forces are united, flocked, 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 are in everything happening We blame the wrong policy of the Bolsheviks. Let me remind you that in tandem, in this alliance, in the coalition of the Bolsheviks and the 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, firstly, strongly disapprove of the Brest Peace, they believe that everything that is happening is all because they signed the obscene Treaty of Brest. Now, if the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had not been signed, we would have continued the revolutionary war, Germany would have already taken place, in general, a world revolution would have already taken place, we would already be, 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 Socialist-Revolutionaries are already thinking about a rebellion with the aim of a coup and coming to power. This is one problem of the Bolsheviks, in addition to this, the so-called. in historiography, it is known as a conspiracy of ambassadors, because the Entente, outwardly maintaining 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, firstly, of resuming the war against Germany, and secondly, accountable to the forces of the Entente, controlled. And thirdly, officer speeches 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, indeed created them, not just spoke, but he really created. And all this surrounds the Bolsheviks in a ring, i.e. knots are tightening around them everywhere, and it seems that it is impossible to cope with this, because there are such grandiose problems, such a roll on them that it is not clear how to cope with this, but nevertheless they coped. That's how it happened, we'll talk next time. Into the plot! Thanks, Egor. And that's all for today. See you again.

background

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

The first national Czech unit (the Czech squad) was created from Czech volunteers who lived in Russia at the very beginning of the war, in the autumn of 1914. As part of the 3rd Army of General Radko-Dmitriev, she participated in the Battle of Galicia and later performed mainly reconnaissance and propaganda functions. Since March 1915, the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, allowed the admission of Czechs and Slovaks from among the prisoners and defectors into the ranks. As a result, by the end of 1915, it was deployed to the First Czechoslovak Infantry Regiment named after Jan Hus (with a staff strength of about 2100 people). It was in this formation that the future leaders of the rebellion began their service, and later on - prominent political and military figures of the Czechoslovak Republic - lieutenant Jan Syrovy, lieutenant Stanislav Chechek, captain Radola Gayda and others. By the end of 1916, the regiment turned into a brigade ( Československá strelecká brigada) consisting 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 was formed in Paris ( Československá národní rada). Its leaders (Tomas Masaryk, Josef Dyurich, Milan Stefanik, Edvard Benes) promoted the idea of ​​creating an independent Czechoslovak state and made active efforts to obtain the consent of the Entente countries to form an independent volunteer Czechoslovak army.

1917

The representative of the ChSNS, 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 in the White movement, Lieutenant General Sakharov, writes in his book, Masaryk first contacted all the "leaders" of the February Revolution, after which " entered entirely at the disposal of the French military mission in Russia". Masaryk himself in the 1920s called the Czechoslovak Corps " autonomous army, but at the same time an integral part of the French army", because the " we were financially dependent on France and on 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 of Austria-Hungary. In the same year, 1917, by a joint decision of the French government and the ČSNS, the Czechoslovak Legion was formed in France. The ČSNS was recognized as the sole 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 (CSNC), which sought to turn the Czechoslovak corps created by Russia into a “foreign allied army located 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 was instructed to send to France.

1918

Nevertheless, Czechoslovaks could only get to France 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 detachments advancing on it.

During the unfolding offensive of the Soviet troops on Kiev, they came into contact with units of the 2nd Czechoslovak division, which was on 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 Kyiv and established Soviet power there. On February 16, Muravyov informed Masaryk that the government of Soviet Russia had no objection to the departure of the Czechoslovaks to France.

With the consent of Masaryk, Bolshevik agitation was allowed in the Czechoslovak units. A small part of the Czechoslovaks (a little over 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 proposals for cooperation that came to him from Generals Alekseev and Kornilov (General Alekseev in early February 1918 turned to the head of the French mission in Kiev with a request to agree to send if not the entire Czechoslovak corps, then at least one division with artillery to the Yekaterinoslav-Aleksandrov-Sinelnikovo region in order to create the conditions necessary to protect the Don and form the Volunteer Army. With the same request directly to Masaryk was addressed by P. N. Milyukov). At the same time, Masaryk, in the words of K. N. Sakharov, “strongly connected with the Russian left camp; in addition to Muravyov, he strengthened his relations with a number of revolutionary figures of the semi-Bolshevik type. Russian officers were gradually removed from command posts, the CHSNS in Russia was replenished with "leftist, ultra-socialist people from prisoners of war."

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

All the efforts of the CHSNS 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 because of the Czechs' fears that the corps could be intercepted by the Germans if they went on the offensive. It was decided to send legionnaires along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok and further across the Pacific Ocean to Europe.

The former tsarist army had already ceased to exist by the summer of 1918, while the Red Army and the White armies were just beginning to form and, often, did not differ in combat readiness. The Czechoslovak Legion turns out to be almost the only combat-ready force in Russia, its number grows to 50 thousand people. The attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the Czechoslovaks was wary because of this. On the other hand, despite the consent expressed by the Czech leaders to the partial disarmament of the echelons, this was perceived with great discontent among the legionnaires themselves and became an occasion for hostile distrust of the Bolsheviks.

In the meantime, the Soviet government had become aware of secret allied talks about a Japanese intervention in Siberia and the Far East. On March 28, in the hope of preventing 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 life 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 Czechoslovaks from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.

The German General Staff, for its part, also feared the imminent appearance of a 40,000-strong 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, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs G.V.

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 started. Please use all means. Czechoslovak detachments must not move east.
Chicherin

The legionnaires took this order as the intention of the Soviet government to extradite them to Germany and Austria-Hungary as former prisoners of war. In an atmosphere of mutual distrust and suspicion, incidents were inevitable. One of them happened on May 14 at Chelyabinsk station. A Czech soldier was wounded with a cast-iron leg from a stove thrown from a passing echelon with Hungarian prisoners of war. In response, the Czechoslovaks stopped the train and lynched the culprit. Following this incident, the Soviet authorities of 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.

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, to coordinate the actions of disparate groupings of the corps, the Provisional Executive Committee of the Congress of the Czechoslovak Army was formed from three echelon chiefs (lieutenant Chechek, captain Gaida, colonel Voitsekhovsky) chaired by a member of the CHCNS Pavel. The congress resolutely took the position of breaking with the Bolsheviks and decided to stop the surrender of weapons (by this moment the weapons had not yet been surrendered by the three rear guard regiments in the Penza region) and move "in their own order" to Vladivostok.

On May 21, Maxa and Chermak, representatives of the ČSNS, were arrested in Moscow, and an order was given for the complete disarmament and disbandment of the Czechoslovak echelons. On May 23, Aralov, head of the operations department of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, 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. From the personnel of the corps, form Red Army and workers' artels ... "The representatives of the Chess Socialist Union, arrested in Moscow, accepted Trotsky's demands and gave the order on behalf of Masaryk for the Czechoslovaks to surrender all weapons, declaring the incident in Chelyabinsk a mistake and demanding an immediate cessation of all kinds of speeches that impede the implementation of the "national cause". Legionnaires, however, were already subordinate only to their "Provisional Executive Committee", elected by the congress. This emergency body sent an order to all echelons and parts of the corps: “Do not hand over weapons anywhere to the Soviets, do not cause clashes yourself, but in case of an attack, defend yourself, continue moving eastward in your own order.”

May 25 was followed by a telegram from Commissar Trotsky "to all Soviet deputies along the line from Penza to Omsk", which left no doubt about the decisive intentions of the Soviet authorities:

... All railway councils are obliged, under pain of heavy responsibility, to disarm the Czechoslovaks. Every Czechoslovak who is found armed on the railway lines must be shot on the spot; each echelon in which there is at least one armed person must be unloaded from the wagons and imprisoned 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 send reliable forces to the rear of the Czechoslovak echelons, who are instructed to teach the disobedient a lesson. Honest Czechoslovaks, who surrender their weapons and submit to Soviet power, should be treated like brothers and given them all possible support. All railroad workers are informed that not a single wagon with Czechoslovaks should move east ...
People's Commissar for Military Affairs L. Trotsky.

Quoted from the book. Parfenov "Civil War in Siberia". Page 25-26.

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

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

On June 4-5, 1918, not far from Samara, the legionnaires defeated the Soviet units and fought through the possibility of crossing the Volga. On June 4, the Entente declared the Czechoslovak Corps part of its armed forces and declared that it would consider its disarmament as an unfriendly act against the Allies. The situation was aggravated by pressure from Germany, which did not stop demanding from the Soviet government the disarmament of the Czechoslovaks. On June 8, the first anti-Bolshevik government, the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch), was organized in Samara, captured by the legionnaires, 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 commander of the 1st Czechoslovak division, Chechek issued an order in which he emphasized the following:

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

Interview with a St. Petersburg historian about the controversial role of the Czechoslovak corps in the history of Russia and the Czech Republic

2017 is an anniversary year for Russia: a revolution took place 100 years ago. Together with the ensuing civil war, it turned the course of world history. The Czechoslovak corps played an important role in these events. Realnoe Vremya continues the conversation with Russian historian, Associate Professor of the Institute of History of St Petersburg University Ilya Ratkovsky. In today's interview with a correspondent of our online newspaper, the expert spoke about how the movement of the White Czechs arose, what they have to do with the Whites and what they did on the territory of present-day Tatarstan. In addition, he spoke about the cult of Czechoslovak fighters in Prague and his attitude to the work of Yaroslav Hasek.

The idea "from below", supported by the top

- Ilya Sergeevich, tell us for a start, how did the Czechoslovak corps come about? How did such an idea come about?

In part, the idea of ​​forming volunteer military units from among the Czechs and Slovaks living in Russia appeared spontaneously, from below, at a meeting of three thousand people on August 9, 1914 (new style) in Kiev, shortly after the declaration of war. At the same time, Kyiv is not an accidental city, since it was here that the largest urban diaspora of the Czechs of the Russian Empire was located (in total, about 100 thousand of them lived in Russia). There were quite a lot of wealthy and enterprising people here. Among others, Kiev Czech industrialists and political figures can be mentioned: Jindrich Jindrichek (chairman of the Y.A. Comenius Society, owner of a gramophone factory, chairman of the above meeting), Otakar Cherveny (owner of a wind instrument factory, supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty, close acquaintance of Tomas Masaryk) and others. Therefore, it was in this city that it was decided to form a Czech squad. Similar rallies in other cities of Russia, such as St. Petersburg and Moscow, although they took place earlier, were of lesser importance.

On August 12, the Russian Council of Ministers supported the idea of ​​creating a squad. Volunteer registration began immediately at the Prague Hotel. Quite a lot was recorded: only about 500 people. At the same time, sometimes families went to the Russian army. For example, there is a case of service in the Russian army (including in the Czech squad) of ten relatives and cousins ​​and their uncles: representatives of the Klich family from the village of Semiduby, Volyn province. Obviously, it was an impulse to protect their new homeland. There was something else. The idea of ​​blowing up the Austro-Hungarian Empire from within, with the help of the fraternal Slavic peoples, was characteristic of the ideas of pan-Slavinism and was taken into account both by representatives of the Czech national circles and at the top of the Russian Empire. On August 20, Nicholas II received a Moscow Czech delegation in the Kremlin. On September 4, the emperor received a more representative "all-Russian" Czech delegation headed by Cherveny. Soon the first Czech military formation received its banner. This was the first stage in the history of the Czechoslovak corps: the Czech battalion.

Registration in the Czech detachment. 1914

- What did they have to do with the Russian army? Whom did they obey?

The first commander of the military unit was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Russian army Ludwik Lototsky (formerly the commander of the disciplinary battalion of the city of Dubno). The staff of the squad initially consisted of 34 officers, of which 8 were Czechs, the latter (ensigns and second lieutenants) had a lower status of militia officers. The battalion was formed from volunteers from Kyiv, Petrograd, Moscow and other territories. By mid-autumn, the battalion had reached 1,000 men, and it was sent to the front, led by a new commander, Lieutenant Colonel I.V. Sozentovich. Together with the new commander, Stanislav Chechek, the well-known commander of the Czechoslovak corps, arrived from Moscow in the future. Part was sent to Lvov, recently liberated by the Russian army, and then to Yaroslavl at the disposal of the commander of the 3rd Army, General of Infantry Radko Dmitrievich Dmitriev (South-Western Front).

- Did the corps soldiers participate in the battles of the First World War?

They participated in the fighting from the moment they arrived at the front. Initially, the combatants were used as scouts. At the same time, the number of the Czechoslovak part itself grew. In January 1915, the squad received the first replenishment of 259 people from among the prisoners. Initially, they were granted Russian citizenship, and then enlisted in the squad. The change in the leadership of the squad also belongs to the same period. The third commander of the Czech squad was Lieutenant Colonel Vyacheslav Platonovich Troyanov. The gradually increasing influx of prisoners of war led in January 1916 to the reorganization of the battalion into the Czech Rifle Regiment, numbering 1,700 people. Soon the formation of the second Czech regiment began and both units became part of the Czech division. In March 1917, the third regiment was included in its composition.

After February Revolution, already during the period of the Provisional Government, the idea of ​​​​a further increase in the Czechoslovak units found support at the very top. This is no coincidence, since Foreign Minister Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov was a personal friend of the Czech national leader, Tomáš Masaryk. For Milyukov, as well as for the Minister of War Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov, there was also a tendency towards the ideas of pan-Slavism. Therefore, both of them not only supported, but also promoted the idea of ​​creating a larger Czechoslovak military unit. The April crisis of 1917, which led to the resignation of both ministers, slowed down this process. However, the Czechoslovak units performed well during the June offensive of 1917, and the idea found support at the top. In the autumn of 1917, the formation of the Czechoslovak corps was completed. Major General Vladimir Nikolaevich Shokorov (until August 1918) became the new commander, and Major General Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs became the chief of staff. The number of the corps reached 60 thousand people. Characteristically, the idea of ​​a large Czechoslovak formation was supported not only by the Russian military authorities, but also by the allies. Already in the autumn of 1917, this was clearly visible: for example, the French military disciplinary regulations were introduced.

In the autumn of 1917, the formation of the Czechoslovak corps was completed. Chief of Staff, Major General Mikhail Konstantinovich Diterichs

- Is there any data on how well they were armed?

They were armed according to the standards for providing military units. Russian army. The only difference: a larger composition of military bands. Already for the Kyiv period, it became a kind of calling card of the Czechoslovaks. Subsequently, this only developed, and the orchestras of Czechoslovakia will be remembered by many for their parades. Another thing is that against the background of the volunteer red and white units, the Czechoslovak units stood out not only with the orchestra, but with the small arms remaining in them in a significant amount. The superiority in machine guns was especially impressive.

White Czechs and the White Movement

- How did the White Czech uprising happen? How did it happen that they captured almost half the country?

There are several stages here. First, after the October Revolution, the corps declared its neutrality and subordination to the French command. Although the Czechoslovaks participated in the autumn battles in Kyiv against the Bolsheviks. In the tragic January Kyiv events of 1918, the corps was no longer involved. It also did not become the basis for reflecting the German advance after the Brest Peace. The corps as a whole peacefully and in an organized manner moved to the Volga region. Naturally, his status became the subject of negotiations between the Soviet government and the command of the Czechoslovak corps, at that moment almost Czech. The result of these negotiations was an agreement dated March 26, 1918, according to which parts of the corps were evacuated through Vladivostok.

The second step is to conduct a "specified evacuation". It was accompanied not only by numerous clashes between local authorities and Czech soldiers of the evacuated echelons, but also by a clash between the latter and the Austro-Hungarian prisoners moving in the opposite direction. Trotsky's instructions under these conditions to carry out the disarmament of the Czechoslovak corps also turned out to be unsuccessful. For this, there were no necessary forces and means, and this only heated up the situation. This gave the leadership of the corps a reason to speak out against the Soviet regime. It is obvious that the spontaneous dissatisfaction of the legionnaires with their position, the difficulties of evacuation, was used by him. The performance of the Czechoslovak corps was not accidental, in fact, its preparation had already been going on for several months, it was supposed to follow. In the summer of 1918, there were supposed to be simultaneous actions of the corps, underground organizations of the Volga region and Moscow. All this together with the simultaneous intensification of intervention in the North of Russia. But there was a performance in more early term. Nevertheless, this led to success, albeit temporary.

This was primarily due to the power vacuum in the localities. Practically here, in the Volga region and Siberia, there was no armed force that could seriously resist the performance. Separate, poorly trained and small units. In the seven provinces of the Volga region, there were only 23,484 Red Army soldiers, of which 12,443 were armed, 2,405 were trained in military affairs, and there were 2,243 ready for action, that is, approximately one in ten. The situation in Siberia was not the best. On May 26, 1918, the Czechoslovaks occupied Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk), on May 27 - Chelyabinsk, on May 29 - Penza and Syzran. Omsk fell on June 7, and Samara fell on June 8, which became the political center of the anti-Bolshevik movement in the summer and autumn of 1918.

Lebedev's telegram from Samara to the Council of People's Commissars on the fulfillment of the order of People's Commissar L. D. Trotsky on the disarmament of the Czechoslovaks. May 31, 1918

- By the way, why are they called White Czechs?

It was the action of the Czechoslovak corps against Soviet republic and determined this name. This was in contrast to the Czech Red units, which were few, but they were. The same Yaroslav Hasek accepted the revolution and was a Red Czech. Hence the name. Although it should be noted that the leadership of the Czechoslovak corps was not a supporter of a return to the monarchy and built its political line, starting from the position of the Entente, primarily France. In 1918, it was such a “democratic line”, which consisted in an attempt to overthrow the Soviet government through the efforts of the “democratic” counter-revolution: Czechoslovaks, Savinkovites, etc. It is clear that the white underground was also involved in this process. But everything was done under the banner of defending the Constituent Assembly and democratic freedoms. Although freedom was not enough.

- Can you elaborate on how they were integrated into the white movement? And how did their relationship with Kolchak develop?

Initially, as I have already said, the Czechoslovak corps "put things in order" within the framework of the "democratic" counter-revolution. However, the momentum of the Czech offensive soon fizzled out. There were many reasons for this: general fatigue, incomprehensible goals of the struggle, strange allies for the Czechs: from the Dutovites to the Kappels, losses, the ambiguous attitude of the local population and the ever-distant prospect of being sent to Europe. Already early autumn will reveal a breakdown. The subsequent defeat of Germany in general will make many slogans meaningless: what kind of war against the "pro-German" Soviet government, when the Germans are defeated? What are the democratic goals when Kolchak's coup is in the rear? First, individual autumn refusals to go on the offensive followed, and then even defense became impossible. All that was later called the decomposition of the Czechoslovak corps. All this was in the autumn of 1918. The red offensive in the fall of 1918 in the east of the country and its successes also did not encourage optimism.

The Kolchak coup itself on the night of November 17-18, 1918 was perceived negatively in the corps. All the time the soldiers and officers were told about the defense of democracy - and here is the coup. Clearly undemocratic. But the leadership of the corps was more important than the position of the allies. And those were not only aware of the coup and not only supported it after. Therefore, a kind of compromise was adopted. The troops of the Czechoslovak corps were finally withdrawn from the combat zone and assigned to guard the railways. The result was more comfortable accommodation and supplies, which satisfied many. As they would say now, “they put me on an oil needle”, and then on a railway one. Kolchak did not really like this, since there was no control over the flow of goods, but again it was a compromise solution, moreover, carried out by the allies.

Mutual rejection will remain, even intensify. The Whites will regard the Czechoslovaks as freeloaders and marauders, give them insulting nicknames, and rename them "Czechodogs" in conversations. This was partly due to the advantage in supply and rear location, partly - in the collapse of hopes for their military assistance. Hopes were high, but did not work out. In turn, the legionnaires not only saw this attitude of the whites, but also the increasing rejection of the whites by the local population. In the rear, they were next to the partisan republics, even took part in the cleansing of the partisans, as the latter endangered the railways. All this they reproached Kolchak and the Whites as a whole, even their own executions of partisans. Therefore, it was so easy for them to “surrender” Kolchak in the future.

The troops of the Czechoslovak corps were finally withdrawn from the combat zone and assigned to the protection of railways

- What is their role in the Civil War?

At least ambiguous. It was the armed action of the Czechoslovak corps that became the impetus for the consolidation of anti-Bolshevik forces in the summer of 1918 in the East of Russia. From the very beginning of the armed uprising, the capture of cities and towns was accompanied by mass repressions and terror. The troops of the Czechoslovak corps either directly participated in them, or did not prevent their allies in the anti-Bolshevik action from carrying out these actions. I have recently published two editions of the book "Chronicle white terror in Russia. Repressions and lynching (1917-1920) ”(Moscow, Algorithm, 2017), there are many examples of such actions. I tried earlier in a separate scientific article, and later in the said book, to summarize the available data on the number of those executed in 1918 by the Czechoslovaks: it turns out at least 5 thousand people. This is not counting the joint executions with the Cossacks or white formations. True, it is worth noting that the legionnaires did not always hand over the prisoners for reprisal to their allies. The exception is the Red Czechs, the Magyars, they were shot themselves. During the battle, they were usually not taken prisoner, but nevertheless, those who were captured after interrogation were often shot, in the words of the Czechs themselves, “they were sent to the land committee.”

Capture of Kazan and Kolchak's gold

- Tell us how they were able to capture Kazan? How did the local people welcome them?

On July 22, 1918, Simbirsk was captured by Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel together with the Czechs. At that time, several offensive options were considered. Actually, the leadership of Komuch, to whom Kappel was formally subordinate, insisted on a priority attack on Saratov. It was believed that the occupation of this city and the province of the same name would increase the base of the pro-SR Komuch regime. The attack on Kazan under these conditions sharply reduced the chances of simultaneous success in the Saratov direction (which happened). The capture of Kazan also potentially stretched the front and endangered Simbirsk. However, the goals of Kappel and the Czechoslovaks initially coincided. It was, on the one hand, about the gold reserves located in the city, as well as the prospects for a further Volga offensive. Therefore, almost the last joint operation of the Czechoslovak corps and units of the Komuch people's army followed.

The key moment was the organization by the Whites of an amphibious assault near the village of Verkhny Uslon with the capture of a dominant height. Obviously, White's maneuverability was higher than that of the Reds, and this played a role. Soon, on August 6-7, 1918, Kazan was captured by units of the first Czechoslovak regiment under the command of Lieutenant Josef Shvets, together with the Kappel detachment.

The capture of Kazan meant changes in the city. On the one hand, it was accompanied by massacres and executions - up to 1,000 people in the first days. Soviet workers, soldiers-internationalists, workers-activists were shot. It is unlikely that such mass executions meant that all the townspeople accepted legionnaires and Kappelites as liberators. Although there was a different attitude towards the former rulers of the city, local residents, mainly from wealthy circles, took part in the reprisals. As everywhere where the legionnaires appeared, there were also celebrations for the capture of the city with the participation of the legionary band. There was blood, there was bread and salt, there were balls, counterintelligence was also working. About a month. Then the Red Army returned.

- How did they leave Russia? How many returned home?

Departure from Russia, in the end, took place as planned in 1918: through Vladivostok. Only the circumstances have changed. Now it was as a result of the red offensive. The Reds advanced at such a pace that the legionnaires had the opportunity to move to the Far East. Well, the legionnaires tried not to linger, leaving them one by one railway station in Siberia. They left thoroughly, with everything acquired in Russia, at the same time preventing the evacuation of whites by rail. Such an unspoken parity agreement suited everyone except the whites. And then, already in Vladivostok, in calm conditions, without haste, the legionnaires loaded the ships and sailed to Europe. Almost everyone left, along with their accustomed goods and often their families.

- Did they really seize part of Kolchak's gold and built the Czechoslovak Republic with this money?

All were not clearly captured. Since a lot turned out to be with Ataman Semenov, and then in Japan. Other white officers had something left, and then it was the white emigrant officers and Siberian emigrants in general who accused the Czechs of concealing Kazan gold. In my opinion, the Czechs had gold, but obviously a smaller part. More significant was the property of legionnaires taken out by steamers. The latter did not live in poverty in their homeland.

About the cult of the corps and the soldier Schweik

- You have already mentioned the Red Czechs. Were there many?

There were not so many of them: several hundred from among the legionnaires. But more joined the red legionnaires large quantity Czech prisoners of war who had not previously joined the legion. So there were several thousand. Among the famous: the writer Yaroslav Gashek, Josif Hastened and others. There were several detachments, numbering several tens or hundreds of people. In Omsk there was a detachment of 150 Czechs. In Penza, a slightly larger detachment led by the Czech Slavojar Chastek. There were Czechs in the detachments of Kikvidze, Chapaev and other Red commanders.

How do the Czech Republic and Slovakia relate to the events of the Civil War in Russia? Who are white Czechs for them - victims, heroes, traitors?

In the Czech Republic there is a certain cult of the Czechoslovak Corps, for them this is an example of serving the Motherland, fulfilling military duty. Thus, an ambitious program of building a series of monuments in Russia along the entire route of the Czech legionnaires has been implemented for a long time. At the same time, these monuments are placed at railway stations, in other historical places. This program causes a mixed reaction in Russia. Thus, the places where monuments are erected often do not take into account historical moments, while the monuments themselves give an unambiguous interpretation of the events of our Civil War. Sometimes the place of installation of monuments looks, to put it mildly, strange, as in Samara. Here, they are trying to erect a monument on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, next to the monument to the fallen soldiers of the Red Army. And the events in Samara, where in the autumn, as in Kazan, at least 1,000 people also died (including with the participation of legionnaires), do not contribute to such a perpetuation of this tragedy. There are no monuments to the dead Red Czechs in the program. The monuments fix only one side.

Yaroslav Hasek accepted the revolution and was a Red Czech

However, not everything is so clear. We can also talk about the gradual return to Czech history after the Velvet Revolution, and the red figures, the same Yaroslav Hasek, Ludwik Svoboda (he fought as part of the legionnaires, but later headed the Czechoslovak military unit in the USSR, became a communist, even the president of Czechoslovakia). So, in Prague in 2005, a monument to Hasek appeared, and in Rivne (with Czech funding) - to the Czech units of General Svoboda, who died during the Second World War.

- Many of us love Yaroslav Hasek's novel about the soldier Schweik. What is your attitude to this work of the writer?

This is one of my favorite pieces. Because for me, it has a lot to do with it. Part of my childhood was spent in Prague, where my parents worked as teachers for 3 years. Mom, in particular, taught literature and Russian to the now famous writer and theologian Andrei Kuraev. My father taught history. There, back in 1974, I went to the first grade of the school at the USSR Embassy in Prague. Schweik, various toys were very popular then. There were such "souvenirs" in our family. A little later, already in Leningrad, at the age of 12, I read Hasek's novel for the first time with pleasure. True, I fully understood him only after serving two years in the Soviet army. He served, as it happened, in the Southern Group of Forces and the Central Group of Forces (the Central Group of Forces was just based in Czechoslovakia). There were Schweik places nearby. Then I read the novel already as a historian. Each time I re-read and re-read the novel in a new way, but always with pleasure. However, I am not the only one at the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University, many historians love and appreciate the novel by Yaroslav Hasek.

Timur Rakhmatullin, photo humus.livejournal.com

Reference

Ilya SergeevichRatkovsky- Associate Professor of the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University, Ph.D.

• In 1992 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of History of St. Petersburg State University.
• From 1993 to the present, he has been working at the Faculty of History of St. Petersburg State University (now the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University).
• In 2004, for a great contribution to the training of personnel, the development of education and science and in connection with the 280th anniversary of the St. Petersburg state university Awarded with the Honorary Diploma of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
• Area of ​​interest - the history of state institutions in Russia, the history of the revolution and civil war in Russia, history of the Cheka-NKVD USSR, history of the Great Patriotic War.
• Author of more than 150 scientific and scientific-methodical works, including several monographs.
• In 2017, his monograph "Chronicle of the White Terror in Russia (1917-1920)" was published, Moscow, Algorithm, 2017.