Details about the armed peasant uprisings at the dawn of the formation of Soviet power became known not so long ago, thanks to the removal of the "top secret" stamp from some of the archival investigative materials of the Cheka. This also applies to the peasant rebellion, which took place in 1918 in the Epifan district of the Tula province and is mentioned in the works of A. I. Solzhenitsyn.
Alarming telegram
On November 10, 1918, at 735 a.m., the duty officer of the Epifani postal and telegraph office received a telegram from the Epifan railway station: "… People with rifles approach the station from different directions, shots are heard … The station, the railway station, the postal and telegraph office are busy …"
What preceded the telegram, you can find out from the official report of the head of the postal and telegraph office at the Epifan Belyakov station: "… After sending mail to the city of Epifan, I entered the office and had not yet managed to reach my usual place near the official chest, when several armed people shouting: "Close the mail! Get out! Soviet power is being violated! "According to the text of Belyakov's report, it is further noted that" … the armed men soon left the premises. The telegraph operator took advantage of this and transmitted telegrams about the mutiny to Epiphany and Tula. Soon the bandits appeared at the office again. One with a revolver stood at the apparatus, and the other with a rifle at the front door. The employees remained in the office. A few hours later, a firefight began, with the increase in which the armed man standing by the apparatus left. Taking advantage of this, I went to the device, opened it and answered Tula who called us …"
The telegram was urgently transmitted to the district executive committee, whose chairman A. M. Doronin urgently gathered representatives of the Cheka, the military registration and enlistment office and the police …
In the direction of the Epifan railway station, reconnaissance was first sent out of the city, followed by a detachment of Red Army men, security officers and militiamen headed by the chairman of the Cheka I. Ya. Sobolev, police chief Naumov and military commissar Mitrofanov.
As follows from Naumov's report, the detachment consisted of 135 people: 25 - cavalrymen, 10 - policemen, 100 - infantrymen; in addition to rifles, revolvers and sabers, there was a machine gun in service.
The reconnaissance reported that armed chains were concentrated in the forest south of Epifan station, which fired at the scouts …
The rout
How further events developed can be traced from the notes of the leaders of the operation.
The head of Epifan militia Naumov reports: "Before reaching the station about a mile and a half, we noticed a crowd at the edge of the Karachevsky forest, which was building barricades … After a while, it was possible to establish that the crowd consisted of men from the volosts adjacent to the station …"
Chairman of the Epifan Cheka I. Ya. Sobolev continues: "… The military commissar scattered the infantry in a chain and moved it into the forest. I led a detachment of Red Army men to attack, dividing it into two groups. One, under the command of Bezhikin, went straight to the forest, the other, with the chief of militia, we led to the village of Karachevo, which quickly occupied … The infantry occupied the right edge of the forest … Then I went with two cavalrymen to the railway …"
At the railway track I. Ya. Sobolev and his entourage were fired upon. Then the chairman of the Cheka ordered the delivery of a machine gun to him, from which he opened fire on the rebels who had taken refuge in the station building. The fire was supported by infantrymen under the command of the military commissar Mitrofanov. Unable to withstand the onslaught of fire, the rebels seized a steam locomotive with four cars and tried to hide in the direction of the Bobrikovsky forest, but before reaching it, they stopped, the train was allowed back, and the railroad track was dismantled …
Meanwhile, the station was occupied by fighters under the command of the military commissar Mitrofanov and the security officers, who gradually "cleaned out" the entire adjacent territory. Representatives of the People's Commissariat for Food were released from arrest. They identified the five detained rebels as those "who arrested them and mocked them." After being confessed by the Cheka verdict, these five "were immediately shot."
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Epifan District Council A. M. Doronin said in a memo: "At" 4-5 pm I drove to the Epifan station, where I found out that it had been taken by our detachments … I declared the entire Epifan district under siege and immediately proceeded to arrest the station bourgeoisie …"
Epifan city. Photo: Homeland
Investigation
The investigation of the rebellion was carried out by the specially created headquarters of the Epifan Uyezd Cheka, headed by its leader I. Ya. Sobolev, who also included Cheka operatives V. M. Akulov and A. M. Samoilov. In the materials of the investigation it is noted that "… the initiative of the uprising came from the Spasskaya volost of the Venevsky district … Former officers Firsov, who lived at the Epifan station, took part in the uprising (according to local historians, the local pharmacist Firsov and his two officer sons were in charge of the uprising; was not far from the station. - DO), and Ivanov, who lived in the area of the railway. After the insurgents fled from the station, both officers fled. Active supporters of these White Guards were some residents of Epifan station V. Michurin, A. Michurin, A. Ushakov, S. Kachakov, V. Andriyashkin. All of them were armed with rifles. On November 10, they stopped train No. 10, searched it and shot two Red Army men traveling in it …"
It can be assumed that the mentioned Ushakov was from the Ushakov family, who owned a sewing studio at the Epifan station and a forest near the village of Granki. A certain Aleksashkin is also mentioned in the materials of the investigation. It is not excluded that he was from the family of the merchant Aleksashkin, who had a steam mill at the Epifan station and whom the newspaper "Tula Gubernskiye Vedomosti" in 1900 called the largest merchant of the Epifan station.
And here are the testimonies given by eyewitnesses. Chairman of the committee of the poor of the village of Ignatievo Dementyev: "At two o'clock in the morning on November 10, a group of people from the Venevsky district suddenly appeared in the village. All armed. We recognized one. It was Yegor Gribkov from the village of Izbishchevskaya. The gang arrested the chairman of the volost council Nikolai Ivanov and forced us to watch In the morning there was another party of horsemen, on foot and in carts, all armed. Under the threat of death, they began to drive us to the Epifan station …"
Ustinov, chairman of the village council of the village Alekseevka Grankovskaya volost: "On November 10, at dawn, armed horsemen arrived in the village. Threatening execution, they drove the residents to the gathering. They also came after me. Pushing the rifle butts, they forced to call the residents to the gathering. At the meeting, the newcomers announced that everyone went to the Epifan station. Those who did not go would be shot. They said that they would soon arrive from Venevsky district still armed with guns and machine guns. Under the threat of death, some of the peasants went to the station, but without weapons. All those who were elected to the local authorities the authorities, the bandits took them under guard. So none of us could report the incident to the higher authorities."
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Epifan District Council A. M. Doronin in a memo emphasizes: "… After the release of the members of the Council of Grankovskaya volost, they said that the uprising was actively supported by local kulaks. They, shouting loudly, demanded the arrest of representatives of the Soviet government. During my arrival, many rebel kulaks fled from the village. Six sympathizers of the rebellion were arrested and transferred to the Cheka …"
Ivan Alekseevich Vladimirov. Food appropriation. 1918 Photo: Homeland
conclusions
The materials of the investigation conclude that the mutiny was the work of the White Guards, Socialist-Revolutionaries and kulaks; he did not receive support among the broad masses of peasants, and only under the threat of death, destruction of personal property, some middle peasants and poor peasants followed the rebels, which they later bitterly regretted at village gatherings. However, as we know now, not everything was so simple.
Fulfilling Lenin's instructions: "Act in the most decisive way against the kulaks and the Left SR bastards sniffing with them … Ruthless suppression of bloodsucking kulaks is necessary," robbing people of the latter and condemning their families, in fact, to death by starvation. The wave of peasant revolts that swept across Central Russia was a response. Epiphany is not the bloodiest of them, but absolutely typical.
