100 years ago, in November 1918, Kolchak became the Supreme Ruler of Russia. The military overthrew the "left" Directory and transferred the supreme power to the "Supreme Ruler".
The Entente immediately supported the "Omsk coup". The Menshevik-Socialist-Revolutionary governments that formed in the Volga region, Siberia, the Urals and the north no longer satisfied either the Russian "whites" (large owners, capitalists and the military) or the West. During 1918, the Social Democratic governments not only failed to organize powerful armed forces and overthrow Soviet power, but they were not even able to fully gain a foothold in the territory that was conquered by the Czechoslovakians. In the area of their domination, they quickly aroused the discontent of the broad masses of the peasantry and workers, and could not ensure order in the rear. Workers' uprisings and peasant guerrilla actions in areas dominated by white governments became widespread. At the same time, during their rule, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, like the Provisional Government before them, showed their incapacity, when it was necessary to act, they debated and argued.
Therefore, the military and the Entente decided to replace them with a "tough hand" - dictatorship. In the hands of this military dictatorship, it was supposed to concentrate all power within the territory captured by the whites. The Entente, especially England and France, also demanded the creation of an all-Russian government in the form of a military dictatorship. The West needed to have a fully controlled government. It was headed by the mercenary of the West - Kolchak.
Vice-Admiral Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak
Background
Among the various white "governments" formed on the territories liberated from the Bolsheviks, two played a leading role: the so-called Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly in Samara (KOMUCH) and the Provisional Siberian Government Directory) in Omsk. Politically, these "governments" were dominated by Social Democrats - Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks (many were also Freemasons). Each of them had their own armed forces: KOMUCH had the People's Army, the Siberian government had the Siberian Army. The negotiations on the formation of a single government, which began between them back in June 1918, led to a final agreement only at the September meeting in Ufa. It was a congress of representatives of all anti-Bolshevik governments that emerged in 1918 in the regions of the country, political parties opposed to the Bolsheviks, Cossack troops and local governments.
On September 23, the State Conference in Ufa ended. The participants managed to agree on renouncing the sovereignty of regional anti-Bolshevik formations, but it was announced that a wide autonomy of the regions was inevitable, due to both the multinationality of Russia and the economic and geographical features of the regions. It was ordered to recreate a single, strong and efficient Russian army, separated from politics. The Ufa meeting called the struggle against Soviet power, reunification with the regions torn away from Russia, non-recognition of the Brest-Litovsk Peace and all other international treaties of the Bolsheviks, the continuation of the war against Germany on the side of the Entente as urgent tasks to restore the state unity and independence of Russia.
Prior to the new convocation of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, the Provisional All-Russian Government (Ufa Directory) was declared the only bearer of power throughout Russia, as the successor to the Provisional Government, which was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Socialist-Revolutionary Nikolai Avksentyev was elected chairman of the government. After the February Revolution, Avksentiev was elected a member of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Council of Peasant Deputies, was the Minister of Internal Affairs as part of the second coalition Provisional Government, was the chairman of the All-Russian Democratic Conference and the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic elected at it (the so-called "Pre-Parliament "). He was also a deputy of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. In addition to him, four other members of the Directory were the Moscow cadet, the former mayor Nikolai Astrov (actually did not take part in it, since he was in the South of Russia, with the Volunteer Army), General Vasily Boldyrev (he became the commander of the Directory), the chairman of the Siberian government Peter Vologda, Chairman of the Arkhangelsk Government of the Northern Region Nikolai Tchaikovsky. In reality, the duties of Astrov and Tchaikovsky were performed by their deputies - cadet Vladimir Vinogradov and Socialist-Revolutionary Vladimir Zenzinov.
From the very beginning, not all whites were happy with the results of the Ufa meeting. First of all, these were the military. The formed "left-liberal" Directory seemed to them weak, a repetition of the "Kerensky", which quickly fell under the onslaught of the Bolsheviks. It seemed to them that in such a difficult situation, only a strong government - a military dictatorship - could win.
Indeed, the left-wing governments were unable to establish order in the rear and build on the first successes at the front. On October 1, 1918, the Red Army went from the south to the railway between Samara and Syzran and cut it, by October 3, the Whites were forced to leave Syzran. In the following days, the Red Army crossed the Volga and began to advance towards Samara, on October 7, the whites were forced to surrender the city, retreating to Buguruslan. As a result, the entire course of the Volga was again in the hands of the Reds, which made it possible to transport bread and oil products to the center of the country. Another active offensive was carried out by the Reds in the Urals - with the aim of suppressing the Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising. On October 9, the Ufa Directory, due to the threat of losing Ufa, moved to Omsk.
On October 13, after long wanderings around the world, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral and agent of Western influence, Alexander Kolchak, arrived in Omsk. In England and the United States, he was chosen to be the dictator of Russia. On October 16, Boldyrev offered Kolchak the post of military and naval minister - instead of P. P. Ivanov-Rinov, who did not satisfy the Directory). From this post, not wanting to associate himself with the Directory (at first he thought to head to the South of Russia), Kolchak at first refused, but then agreed. On November 5, 1918, he was appointed Minister of War and Naval Minister of the Provisional All-Russian Government. With his first orders, he began to form the central bodies of the War Ministry and the General Staff.
Meanwhile, the Reds continued to develop the offensive. On October 16, the Reds, pushing the Whites to the east from Kazan and Samara, occupied the city of Bugulma, on October 23 - the city of Buguruslan, on October 30, the Reds - Buzuluk. On November 7 - 8 the Reds took Izhevsk, November 11 - Votkinsk. The Izhevsk-Votkinsk uprising was suppressed.
Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government (Directory) Nikolay Dmitrievich Avksentyev
Omsk coup
On November 4, the Provisional All-Russian Government appealed to all regional governments with a demand to immediately dissolve "all Regional Governments and Regional Representative Institutions without exception" and transfer all management powers to the All-Russian Government. On the same day, on the basis of the ministries and central offices of the Provisional Siberian Government, the executive body of the Directory was formed - the All-Russian Council of Ministers, headed by Peter Vologda. Such a centralization of state power was due to the need, first of all, "to recreate the combat power of the homeland, which is so necessary in the time of the struggle for the revival of Great and United Russia", "to create the conditions necessary for supplying the army and organizing the rear on an all-Russian scale."
The predominantly center-right Council of Ministers was radically different in political overtones from the much more “leftist” Directory. The leader of the leaders of the Council of Ministers, who resolutely defended the right-wing political course, was Finance Minister I. A. Mikhailov, who enjoyed the support of G. K. Gins, N. I. Petrov, G. G. Telberg. It was this group that became the nucleus of a conspiracy aimed at establishing a strong and homogeneous power in the form of a one-man military dictatorship. A conflict broke out between the Directory and the Council of Ministers. However, the Directory, suffering one defeat after another at the front, lost the confidence of the officers and the right circles, who wanted a strong power. Thus, the Directory had no authority, its power was weak and fragile. In addition, the Directory was constantly torn apart by internal contradictions, for which the press even ironically compared the "All-Russian Government" with the Krylov swan, crayfish and pike.
The immediate reason for the overthrow of the Directory was the circular letter-proclamation of the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party - "Appeal" - written personally by VM Chernov and circulated by telegraph on October 22, 1918 with the title "Everyone, everyone, everyone." The letter condemned the move of the Directory to Omsk, expressed distrust of the Provisional All-Russian Government, contained an appeal to arm all party members to fight the Provisional Siberian Government. The “Appeal” stated: “In anticipation of possible political crises that may be caused by counterrevolutionary plans, all party forces at the moment must be mobilized, trained in military affairs and armed in order to be ready at any moment to withstand the blows of counterrevolutionary civilian organizers. wars in the rear of the anti-Bolshevik front. Work on armament, rallying, comprehensive political instruction and purely military mobilization of the party's forces should be the basis of the activity of the Central Committee … ". In fact, it was a call for the formation of their own armed forces in order to repel the right. It was a scandal. General Boldyrev demanded an explanation from Avksentiev and Zenzinov. They tried to hush up the issue, but to no avail, and opponents of the Directory were given a pretext for a coup, accusing the Socialist-Revolutionaries of preparing a conspiracy to seize power.
The core of the conspiracy was made up of the military, including almost all the officers of the Headquarters, headed by its Quartermaster General Colonel A. Syromyatnikov. The political role in the conspiracy was played by the cadet emissary V. N. Pepelyaev and the Minister of Finance of the Directory I. A. Mikhailov, close to the right-wing circles. Pepeliaev "recruited" ministers and public figures. Some ministers and leaders of bourgeois organizations were also involved in the conspiracy. Colonel D. A. Lebedev, who arrived in Siberia from the Volunteer Army and was considered a representative of General A. I. Denikin, also played an active role in organizing the overthrow of the Directory. Unreliable military units were withdrawn from Omsk in advance under various pretexts. General R. Gaida was supposed to ensure the neutrality of the Czechs. The action was supported by the British mission of General Knox.
On the night of November 17, 1918, three high-ranking Cossack officers - the head of the Omsk garrison, colonel of the Siberian Cossack army V. I. Volkov, military foremen A. V. Katanaev and I. N. Krasilnikov - made a provocation. At a city banquet in honor of the French general Janin, they demanded to sing the Russian national anthem "God Save the Tsar." The Social Revolutionaries demanded that Kolchak arrest the Cossacks for "inappropriate behavior."Without waiting for their own arrest, Volkov and Krasilnikov on November 18 themselves made a preemptive arrest of representatives of the left wing of the Provisional All-Russian Government - Socialist-Revolutionaries N. D. Avksentiev, V. M. Zenzinov, A. A. Argunov and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs E. F. Rogovsky … The Socialist Revolutionary battalion of the Directory was disarmed. Not a single military unit of the Omsk garrison came out in support of the overthrown Directory. The public reacted to the accomplished coup either indifferently, or with hope, hoping for the establishment of solid power. The Entente countries supported Kolchak. The Czechoslovakians, subordinate to the Entente, limited themselves to a formal protest.
The Council of Ministers, which gathered the next morning after the arrest of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, recognized the Directory as non-existent (its members were expelled abroad), announced the assumption of all the supreme power and declared the need for “the complete concentration of military and civilian power in the hands of one person with an authoritative name in the military and public circles”, which will be guided by the principles of one-man management. It was decided "to transfer temporarily the exercise of supreme power to one person, relying on the assistance of the Council of Ministers, giving such a person the name of the Supreme Ruler." Was developed and adopted "Provisions on the temporary structure of state power in Russia" (the so-called "Constitution of November 18"). General VG Boldyrev, commander-in-chief of the Directorate's troops, General DL Horvat, head of the CER, and Vice-Admiral A. Kolchak, Minister of War and Naval Minister, were considered as candidates for "dictators". The Council of Ministers elected Kolchak by voting. Kolchak was promoted to full admiral, he was transferred to the exercise of supreme state power and was awarded the title of Supreme Ruler. All the armed forces of the state were subordinate to him. Denikin was considered his deputy in the south of Russia. The supreme ruler could take any measures, including emergency, to provide for the armed forces, as well as to establish civil order and legality.
Vice-Admiral A. V. Kolchak - Minister of War of the Provisional All-Russian Government with his inner circle. 1918 year
The anti-popular essence of the Kolchak regime
Kolchak defined the direction of work as the Supreme Ruler: “Having accepted the cross of this power in the extremely difficult conditions of the Civil War and the complete disruption of state affairs and life, I declare that I will not follow the path of reaction or the disastrous path of partisanship. My main goal is to create an efficient army, to defeat the Bolsheviks and to establish law and order."
The very military dictatorship in war conditions was an obvious step of the White movement and the Entente. The Bolsheviks also established a "dictatorship of the proletariat" and began to pursue a policy of "war communism", mobilizing all forces to fight the enemy and create Soviet statehood. But the Russian communists acted in the interests of the majority of the people, fought for a new development project, for social justice against exploiters, predators and parasites - their own and the West. The Soviet project embodied the ideals of Russian civilization. The White project (which continued the work of February) was a liberal-democratic project, it was promoted by Westerners, Freemasons, liberals and Social Democrats. This project was supported at the first stage by the West, interested in kindling a fratricidal war, the collapse and destruction of Rus-Russia.
The White Project was based on the idea that after the liquidation of tsarism, life could be arranged only according to Western standards. Westerners planned full economic, social, cultural and ideological integration with Europe. They planned to introduce a parliamentary-type democracy, which would be based on a hierarchical system of secret power in order, Masonic and Paramasonic structures and clubs. The market economy led to the complete power of financial and industrial capital. Ideological pluralism ensured the manipulation of public consciousness and control over the people. We observe all this in modern Russia, in which a counter-revolution was carried out in the early 1990s.
The problem was that the European version of development was not for Russia. Russia is a separate distinctive civilization, it has its own path. The "Golden Calf" - materialism, can win in Russia only after the destruction of the Russian superethnos, the transformation of Russians into "ethnographic material." The image of a "sweet", prosperous, peaceful, well-equipped Europe is acceptable for a significant part of the Russian intelligentsia, struck by cosmopolitanism, Westernism, for large property owners, capitalists, the comprador bourgeoisie, which is building its future at the expense of selling off the Motherland. This group also includes people with a "philistine", "kulak" psychology. However, the powerful traditional cultural layers of the Russian civilization - its matrix-code, resist the processes of Westernization of Russia. Russians do not accept the European (Western) path of development. Thus, there is a gap between the interests of the westernized elite of society, the intelligentsia, and civilizational, national projects. And this break always leads to disaster.
Kolchak's dictatorship had no chance of success. The white project is Western in nature. Antipopular. In the interests of the masters of the West and the pro-Western stratum of the population in Russia itself, which is extremely insignificant. The concentration in the hands of the dictator of military, political and economic power made it possible for the whites to recover from the defeats suffered in the Volga region in the fall of 1918 and go on a new offensive. But the successes were short-lived. The political, social base of the White movement has become even narrower. The leadership of the Czechoslovak Corps considered the admiral a "usurper", the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks condemned the "Omsk coup".
Kolchak's regime immediately aroused powerful resistance. The Social Revolutionaries called for armed resistance. The members of the Constituent Assembly, who were in Ufa and Yekaterinburg, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionary Chernov, declared that they did not recognize the authority of Admiral Kolchak and would oppose the new government with all their might. As a result, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party went underground, from where it began a struggle against the rule of the new dictator. Kolchak introduced exceptional laws, the death penalty and martial law for the rear territories. The arbitrariness of the military authorities pushed away from Kolchak and moderate democracy, which initially supported him. At the same time, in Eastern Siberia, local counter-revolutionary forces headed by atamans Semyonov and Kalmykov were in opposition to Kolchak and almost obviously opposed him.
From the very first days of his coming to power, the admiral showed complete intolerance towards the labor movement, eradicating any traces of the recent domination of Soviet power. Communists and non-party advanced workers who had previously taken part in the work of Soviet organs were mercilessly destroyed. At the same time, the mass organizations of the proletariat were smashed, primarily the trade unions. All the actions of the workers were bloodily suppressed.
The establishment of "law and order" in fact led to the return to the capitalists and landowners of their rights to the property taken from them. On the question of land, the policy of the white government was to return to the landowners the lands, agricultural implements and livestock taken from them by the Soviet regime. Part of the land was supposed to be transferred to the kulaks for a fee. It is not surprising that the peasantry suffered the most from the Kolchak regime. The appearance of white troops meant for the peasantry, according to one of the former ministers of the Kolchak government, Hins, the onset of an era of unlimited requisitions, all kinds of duties and complete arbitrariness of the military authorities."The peasants were flogged," says Hins. In turn, the peasantry waged a struggle against the whites through incessant uprisings. The whites responded with bloody punitive expeditions, which not only did not stop the uprisings, but even more expanded the areas affected by the peasant war. The peasant war, as well as the forced mobilization of the peasants, significantly reduced the combat capability of Kolchak's army and became the main reason for the internal collapse.
In addition, Kolchak's policy contributed to the transformation of Russia into a semi-colony of the West. Representatives of the Entente, primarily England, the USA and France, were the actual masters of the White movement. They dictated their will to white. Despite the lack of grain and raw materials (ore, fuel, wool) in the white-occupied regions of Russia, all this was exported abroad on a large scale at the first request of the allies. As retribution for the received military property, the largest enterprises passed into the hands of Western European and American capitalists. In the east, foreign capitalists have received a number of concessions. Satisfying the demands of the allies, Kolchak turned Russia into China, plundered and torn apart by foreign predators.
Thus, Kolchak's regime was anti-popular, reactionary, in the interests of the West and the pro-Western White project in Russia itself. Its future collapse is natural.
Caricature of Admiral Kolchak during the Civil War
