The ‘First Phase’ of the Russian Civil War: Soviet Karelia, October 1917–May 1918

Abstract

This essay traces the development of the Bolshevik revolution in the town of Petrozavodsk, from October 1917 to May 1918. Primarily, an analysis of the evidence reveals how weak the Bolsheviks’ influence was in the north. The result of this was a conflict of interests between the centre and Petrozavodsk over the policies introduced by the central Bolshevik government, Sovnarkom. However, this period of the Civil War was also one of survival, defined by a determined and united local soviet resistance to the economic and military crises faced by the regime.

Notes

¹ Swain’s work underlined the fact that the Russian Civil War was not a simple Red versus White conflict (the war between Bolsheviks and counter-revolutionary generals). He lucidly explained the significance of the Red versus Green conflict, the war between the Bolsheviks and their socialist rivals which began in May 1918.

² Jonathan Smele has provided a more in depth discussion of opinions about when the Civil War began and offers his own fresh interpretation, which sets the Civil War in an even wider time frame between 1916 and 1926 (Smele 2015, pp. 17–35).

³ In this respect the Civil War in Karelia reflects how, in details, each region had its own story to tell, as has become clear through the work of a growing number of regional studies that have enhanced our understanding of the Civil War (Holquist 2002; Raleigh 2002; Landis 2008; Retish 2008; Novikova 2011; Fraunholtz 2015; Karsch 2015).

⁴ I support the conclusions of Aaron Retish here who has suggested in his work on Izhevsk, Vyatka province, that the region’s unique conditions shaped the local political environment at key points but only to a certain degree (Retish 2015, pp. 321–22).

⁵ The Left SRs split with the parent SR party following the October Revolution and took up posts in Sovnarkom.

⁶ World War I divided the Menshevik party into Internationalists and Defencists. The left wing Internationalists opposed Revolutionary Defencism which stressed the importance of a swift negotiated peace, but supported the defence of the country and revolution until that could be achieved. The Internationalists often cooperated with the Bolsheviks and Left SRs in a radical bloc in 1917, but opposed the October Revolution. They believed the Bolsheviks were trying to build socialism but in the wrong way and by using the wrong methods and so tried to influence the Bolsheviks by putting forward alternative proposals (Lande 1974, pp. 6–14).

⁷ This rose sharply following the October Revolution as many people abandoned the capitals for provincial towns. The population of Petrozavodsk rose to 45,000 by September 1918 which resulted in a housing crisis. Izvestiya Olonetskogo Gubernskogo Soveta, 21 September 1918.

⁸ This increased to roughly 1,500 during World War I (Balagurov 1968, p. 181).

⁹ According to a report from the Governor for Olonets province, by October 1905 Olonets province was home to 583 exiles, 216 of whom were sent there for political crimes (Vlasova 1981, pp. 46–9). Amongst the most prominent revolutionaries who served part of their term of exile in Karelia was M. I. Kalinin, who would become chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee from March 1919. He was transferred from Siberia to Petrozavodsk and then Povenets district in 1904 (Vlasova 1981, pp. 39–40).

¹⁰ Kudzhiev was born in 1889 in Olonets district. He was the son of a teacher and he studied in the law faculty of St Petersburg University, graduating in 1915. We know little about his revolutionary activity before 1917 other than that he was dismissed from university for his part in the student unrest in St Petersburg University in 1911. Presumably he was allowed to re-enter in order to graduate in 1915 (Korablev et al. 2003, pp. 60, 532).

¹¹ The Petrozavodsk town Duma, which was elected in September 1917 and existed up until March 1918, consisted of 13 Social Democrats, eight SRs, eight Kadets, one member of the People’s Socialist party and five non-party members (Korablev et al. 2003, p. 533).

¹² According to Oliver Radkey, a special electoral process prevailed in Olonets province where each voter had two votes and voted for individual candidates instead of for party lists. With two seats to be filled for Olonets province, and the Menshevik and SR parties only offering one candidate each, citizens who voted for the SRs used their second vote to support the Mensheviks and vice versa (Radkey 1989, p. 145). For the electoral results of Olonets province and the town of Petrozavodsk see, Olonetskie Gubernskie Vedomosti, 5 December 1917.

¹³ Skachkov was found guilty of ‘separatist aspirations’, ‘ignoring the principles of revolutionary construction’ and ‘undermining the authority of the measures taken by the workers-peasant government for the creation of a Red Army’. He was sentenced to one month imprisonment and refused entry into the Red Army indefinitely. Natsional’nyi Arkhiv Respubliki Karelii (hereafter NARK), f.R-28, op.1, d.86, l.100.

¹⁴ Berdan rifles were standard issue in the Russian army from 1869 to 1891 and were also widely used as a hunting weapon.

¹⁵ Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voennyi Arkhiv (hereafter RGVA), f.1, op.1, d.175, l.20; l.46; l.52; l.60.

¹⁶ NARK, f.R-28, op.1, d.86, l.601.

¹⁷ NARK, f.R-28, op.1, d.23, ll.231–32.

¹⁸ NARK, f.R-98, op.1, d.126, l.73–73ob.

¹⁹ NARK, f.R-28, op.1, d.23, ll.151–52, 199–200.