Troubles. 1919 year. By the spring of 1919, there were three main forces in the Crimea: the armed forces of the Entente; the white Crimean-Azov army under the command of General Borovsky; and the weak government of North Crimea, which did not have its own troops. In addition, there was a powerful red underground and partisan movement on the peninsula.
The policy of the Second Crimean government
The government of Solomon Crimea relied on the army of Denikin. The Crimean peninsula entered the scope of the Volunteer Army by agreement with the government of North Crimea, was occupied by small white units, and began recruiting volunteers. At the same time, Denikin announced non-interference in the internal affairs of Crimea.
The government of S. Crimea believed that it was a model of the “future all-Russian power”. The leading politicians in the cabinet were Justice Minister Nabokov and Foreign Minister Vinaver, they were among the leaders of the All-Russian Constitutional Democratic Party (Cadets). The Crimean government tried to cooperate with all organizations and movements that sought to "reunite a united Russia", saw allies in the Entente, intended to recreate the organs of public self-government and wage a decisive struggle against Bolshevism. Therefore, the regional government did not intervene in the repressive policy of whites ("white terror") in relation to representatives of the opposition socialist and trade union movement.
On November 26, 1918, the Entente squadron (22 pennants) arrived in Sevastopol. The Crimean regional government in full force expressed its respect to the invaders. On November 30, the western invaders occupied Yalta. The Crimean government attached great importance to the presence of the Entente forces. Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, headed by Vinaver, moved to Sevastopol, which became the main stronghold of the interventionists. At this time, the Entente, having won a victory in the world war, enjoyed great popularity among the Crimean public and intelligentsia. The cadets and representatives of the white movement believed that under the cover of such a force, they would be able to form a powerful army that would launch an offensive against Moscow. Perhaps the Entente divisions will also take part in this offensive. The Bolsheviks, as the Crimean politicians believed, were already demoralized and would quickly be defeated. After that, it will be possible to form the "all-Russian power".
However, the white Crimean-Azov army of General Borovsky did not become a full-fledged formation. Its number did not exceed 5 thousand soldiers. A chain of small white detachments stretched from the lower reaches of the Dnieper to Mariupol. In Crimea, they were able to create only one full-fledged regiment of volunteers - the 1st Simferopol, other units remained in their infancy. There were fewer officers in Crimea than in Ukraine, and they went here to sit out, not fight. Local residents, like fugitives from the central regions of Russia, also did not want to fight. They hoped for the protection of foreigners - first the Germans, then the British and French. General Borovsky himself did not show great managerial qualities. He rushed between Simferopol and Melitopol, not really doing anything (plus he turned out to be a drunkard). An attempt at mobilization in Crimea also failed.
Deteriorating situation on the peninsula
Meanwhile, the economic situation on the peninsula was gradually deteriorating. Crimea could not exist in isolation from the general economy of Russia, many ties were cut off due to the Civil War and the conflict with Kiev. Businesses were closed, unemployment grew, finance sang romances. Various monetary units were in use on the peninsula: Romanovka, Kerenki, Don paper money (bells), Ukrainian rubles, German marks, French francs, British pounds, American dollars, coupons from various interest-bearing securities, loans, lottery tickets, etc. A sharp deterioration in living conditions led to an increase in revolutionary sentiments, the popularity of the Bolsheviks. This was facilitated by the Soviet government, sending its agitators to the peninsula and organizing partisan detachments.
By the end of 1918 - the beginning of 1919, there were red underground fighters in almost all Crimean cities. Partisans were active throughout the peninsula. In January 1919, the Reds raised an uprising in Yevpatoria, which was suppressed only with the help of the battalion of the Simferopol regiment and other divisions of the whites. The remnants of the Reds, led by Commissar Petrichenko, settled in the quarries, regularly making sorties from there. After several fights, the whites were able to knock out the red ones and from there, many were shot. Under the control of the communists were the trade unions, which practically openly carried on the Bolshevik agitation. Trade unions responded with rallies, strikes and protests to the government's crackdown on policy. The peninsula was full of weapons, so not only red rebels, but also “green” bandits acted in the Crimea. The criminal revolution that began in Russia with the beginning of the Troubles swept over Crimea. Shooting was common in the streets of the city.
The volunteers responded to the activation of the red and green by tightening the "white terror". The newly formed white units were forced not to go to the front, but to maintain order and perform punitive functions. This did not contribute to the growth of the popularity of the White Army among the local population. White terror pushed many Crimeans away from the Volunteer Army.
Thus, there was no real power behind the government of S. Crimea. It existed only under the protection of whites and interventionists. Gradually, the first bright dreams of the Crimean politicians began to break on the harsh reality. It was not possible to form a powerful white Crimean army. The Crimeans did not want to go and defend the "united and indivisible Russia" of the whites.
Intervention policy
The invaders (mainly French and Greeks), with their main base in Sevastopol (the powerful fleet of Admiral Amet and more than 20 thousand bayonets), took a peculiar position. The garrison was located only in Sevastopol, the French were interested in control of this sea fortress. The invaders seized several ships of the former Russian fleet, as well as part of the coastal weapons stockpile.
Denikin suggested that the "allies" occupy at least small garrisons of Sivash, Perekop, Dzhankoy, Simferopol, Feodosia and Kerch in order to ensure order there, to protect the entrance to the peninsula, and to free up white units for action at the front. However, the allied command refused to do this. The invaders in Sevastopol (as well as throughout Russia) shied away from direct battles with the Reds, preferring to pit the Russians against the Russians for general exhaustion and exsanguination of the Russian civilization and the Russian people. At the same time, their troops quickly decayed and could no longer fight. Moreover, there was a threat of the transfer of revolutionary sentiments to the Western countries themselves. French Navy sailors took part in demonstrations with red flags. Lenin and his slogans were at that time very popular among the working masses of Western Europe, and the campaign "hands off Soviet Russia!" was very effective.
On the other hand, the Westerners believed that they were the masters of Crimea and that the Volunteer Army was subordinate to them. Therefore, the allied command actively intervened in the activities of the Crimean government and interfered with the activities of the Denikinites. The interventionists also prevented the start of the "white terror" in Sevastopol, where they organized "democracy", and where the Bolsheviks and the red trade unions felt good.
When the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia Denikin decided to move the Headquarters from Yekaterinodar to Sevastopol, the interventionists forbade him to do this. And the government of North Crimea tried in every possible way to curry favor with the allies, so that the Westerners would defend the peninsula from the Red Army. The Crimean government, which existed only because of the presence of Denikin's army in the South of Russia, put a spoke in the wheels of the Denikinites. At the suggestion of the government in the Crimean press, a campaign began to blame the Volunteer Army, which was considered "reactionary", "monarchist" and did not respect the autonomy of Crimea. On the issue of mobilization on the peninsula, the government of North Crimea, under pressure from General Borovsky, then the interventionists, or the trade unions, behaved inconsistently. That announced the beginning of mobilization, then canceled it, then called in officers, then called the officer's mobilization optional, voluntary.
The offensive of the Reds and the fall of the Second Crimean government
By the spring of 1919, the external situation had deteriorated sharply. In the Crimea itself, we managed to more or less restore order. However, in the north, the Reds came out to Yekaterinoslav, led by Dybenko. They joined forces with Makhno's troops. The Russian 8th corps of General Schilling (it had only 1600 fighters), which was being formed there, retreated to the Crimea. As a result, regular Soviet units and detachments of Makhno spoke out against the small volunteers, which rapidly grew in number and adopted a more correct organization. Fighting began in the Melitopol region. Denikin wanted to transfer Timanovsky's brigade from Odessa to this sector, but the allied command did not give permission.
In March 1919, the allies, unexpectedly for the white command, surrendered Kherson and Nikolaev to the red. The Reds got the opportunity to attack the Crimea from the western direction. Under the influence of the successes of the Red Army in Little Russia and Novorossia, the insurrectionary movement in the Crimea revived, both red insurgents and ordinary bandits acted. They attacked the communications of the whites, smashed the carts. Crimean trade unions demanded the removal of the White Army from the peninsula and the restoration of Soviet power. The railroad workers went on strike, refused to transport the goods of Denikin's army.
The Whites could not hold the front in Tavria with extremely weak forces. It was decided to withdraw troops to the Crimea. The evacuation of Melitopol began. However, it was difficult to retreat. From the north and west, the Reds advanced in large forces, trying to cut off the Whites from Perekop. The main part of the white troops retreated to the east, to join with the Donetsk group of the Volunteer Army. The Consolidated Guards Regiment was defeated, where the battalions were called the old Guards regiments (Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky, etc.). With battles from Melitopol to Genichesk, only the battalion of the Simferopol regiment and other small forces of General Schilling retreated. The second battalion of the Simferopol regiment took up positions at Perekop.
In fact, there was no defense of Crimea. Neither the government of the Northern Crimea, nor the interventionists, nor the whites prepared to defend the Crimean peninsula. Given the power of the Entente, such a scenario was not even considered. Franchet d'Espere, who was appointed in March as the High Commissioner of France in the South of Russia and replaced Bertello in this post, promised Borovsky that the allies would not leave Sevastopol, that Greek troops would soon be landed here to ensure the rear, and the whites should move to the front.
At the end of March, Schilling, abandoning the armored train and guns, retreated from the Chongar Peninsula to Perekop. The Whites gathered at Perekop all those who had strength: the Simferopol regiment, various divisions that had begun to form, 25 guns. The allied command sent only a company of Greeks. For three days, the Reds fired at the enemy's positions and on April 3 they went on the attack, but they repulsed it. However, simultaneously with a frontal attack, the Red Army crossed the Sivash and began to go to the rear of the Whites. This idea was proposed by Dybenko's father Makhno. White retreated and tried to hold onto the Ishun positions. The commander of the allied forces, Colonel Trusson, promised help with troops and resources. However, the rare white chains were easily broken by the red ones. A detachment of the resolute Colonel Slashchev organized the defeated units and launched a counterattack. The White Guards threw back the Reds and went to Armyansk. But the forces were unequal, the whites quickly fizzled out, and there were no reinforcements. In addition, the red command, taking full advantage of its forces, organized a landing across the Chongar Strait and on the Arabat Spit. Under the threat of complete encirclement and destruction of the White troops at Perekop, they retreated to Dzhankoy and Feodosia. The Crimean government fled to Sevastopol.
Meanwhile, Paris gave an order to withdraw the allied forces from Russia. On April 4-7, the French fled from Odessa, abandoning the whites who remained there. On April 5, the allies concluded a truce with the Bolsheviks in order to calmly carry out the evacuation from Sevastopol. They were evacuated by April 15th. The French battleship Mirabeau ran aground, so the evacuation was delayed to free the ship. Trusson and Admiral Amet proposed to the commandant of the Sevastopol fortress, General Subbotin, and the commander of the Russian ships, Admiral Sablin, that all institutions of the Volunteer Army immediately leave the city. At the same time, the allies robbed Crimea during the evacuation, taking out the values of the Crimean government transferred to them "for storage". On April 16, the last ships left, taking whites and refugees to Novorossiysk. The head of the government S. Crimea fled with the French. Many Russian refugees with their allies reached Constantinople, and further to Europe, forming the first, Odessa-Sevastopol wave of emigration.
By May 1, 1919, the Reds liberated Crimea. The remaining white forces (about 4 thousand people) retreated to the Kerch Peninsula, where they settled on the Ak-Monaysky isthmus. Here the whites were supported by Russian and British ships with fire. As a result, the 3rd Army Corps, into which the Crimean-Azov Army was transformed, held out in the east of the peninsula. The Reds themselves did not show much persistence here and stopped their attacks. It was believed that Denikin's army would soon be defeated and the whites in the Kerch region would be doomed. Therefore, the red troops limited themselves to a blockade. The main forces of the Red Army were transferred from the Crimea to other directions.
Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic
The 3rd Crimean Regional Conference of the RCP (b), which took place in Simferopol on April 2, 8-29, 1919, adopted a resolution on the formation of the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic. On May 5, 1919, the Provisional Workers 'and Peasants' Government of the KSSR was formed, headed by Dmitry Ulyanov (Lenin's younger brother). Dybenko became the people's commissar for military and naval affairs. The Crimean Soviet Army was formed from parts of the 3rd Ukrainian Soviet Division and local formations (they managed to form only one division - more than 9 thousand bayonets and sabers).
On May 6, 1919, a Government Declaration was published, in which the tasks of the republic were communicated: the creation of a regular Crimean Soviet army, the organization of the power of the soviets in the localities and the preparation of the congress of soviets. The KSSR was declared not a national, but a territorial entity, it was declared about the nationalization of industry and the confiscation of landlord, kulak and church lands. Also, banks, financial institutions, resorts, railway and water transport, the fleet, etc. were nationalized. Assessing the period of the “second Crimean Bolshevism,” a contemporary and witness to the events, Prince V. Obolensky, noted the relatively “bloodless” nature of the established regime. This time there was no mass terror.
The Soviet power in Crimea did not last long. Denikin's army in May 1919 began its offensive. June 12, 1919General Slashchev's white troops landed on the peninsula. By the end of June, the White Army captured the Crimea.
