Russia's Red Revolutionary and White Terror, 1917–1921: A Provincial Perspective

Abstract

This essay re-examines White and Red terror during the Russian Civil War by studying public participation in the acts of political violence. It shifts attention from the ideological and political motifs of terror to places and contexts where violence occurred. On the example of paramilitary groups of White and Red partisans in Arkhangel'sk province in the Russian North, it demonstrates how local factors, such as the nearby frontline, poor economic conditions or traditional enmity between neighbouring communities, contributed to the escalation of terror at a grass-root level.

Notes

The study was conducted in the framework of the Basic Research Program of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in 2013.

¹ Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Arkhangel'skoi oblasti (hereafter GAAO), fond 1865, opis' 1, delo 152, list 15. Report of the Shenkursk district representative to the provincial self-government (zemstvo) assembly, 12 September 1918. ‘Black Repartition’ was obviously not typical to Northern provinces; see a similar observation about Vyatka province in Retish (2008, pp. 14–15).

² See also Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Murmanskoi oblasti (hereafter GAMO), f. P-2393, op. 2, d. 104, l. 133. Memoir of V. L. Bzhezinskii, part 1; Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (hereafter GARF), f. P-5867, op. 1, d. 5, l. 39. S. N. Gorodetskii, Outline of history of Arkhangel'sk province, 1914–1917.

³ Some 65.9% of votes in Northern garrisons were cast for the Bolsheviks during the Constituent Assembly elections. On the role of military garrisons in securing Bolshevik domination in provincial Russia, see also Raleigh (1986, ch. 8).

⁴ GAAO, f. 1, op. 1, d. 12. Protocols of the Kholmogory district congress of peasant deputies, 21–26 March 1918.

⁵ Otdel dokumentov sotsial'no-politisheskoi istorii gosudarstvennogo arkhiva Arkhangel'skoi oblasti (hereafter ODSPI GAAO), f. 1, op. 1, d. 8, l. 18ob. Report of the agitator I. A. Bogdanov, 9 June 1918.

⁶ See GARF, f. 18, op. 1, d. 21. Reports of the White investigation commissions.

⁷ See also GARF, f. 18, op. 1, d. 35, ll. 5–6ob. Expenses estimates of penal facilities of the Northern region, January–June 1919.

⁸ See for example GARF, f. 29, op. 1, d. 4, ll. 264–65; f. 16, op. 1, d. 4, ll. 50ob., 70ff. Court-martial records.

⁹ See for example GAAO, f. 50, op. 5, d. 329, ll. 124–25, 129ob.–30. Report on epidemics by Arkhangel'sk city self-government, 20 February 1919. On the role of epidemics in the Civil War see Adamets (2003).

¹⁰ ODSPI GAAO, f. 1, op. 1, d. 26, ll. 55–56. Report of Stavrov, a delegate from Pinega district, at the first Arkhangel'sk provincial Communist party conference, 13–14 July 1919. See also Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv (hereafter RGVA), f. 39450, op. 1, d. 1, ll. 35, 37, 40; d. 10, l. 13. Telegrams from Pospelov, White administrator of Pinega district, and District Commissar Rogachev to Arkhangel'sk, 16, 17 and 19 September 1918; GARF, f. 3811, op. 1, d. 142, ll. 180–81. Report of F. Kobylin and A. Pervyshev, delegates from Nikitinskaya township of Pinega district, late 1918.

¹¹ GARF, f. 3811, op. 1, d. 142, ll. 180–81. Report of Kobylin and Pervyshev, late 1918. See also: Vozrozhdenie Severa, 25 and 26 December 1919.

¹² See also RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 6, ll. 77–79ob. Report of Captain Braier to General Marushevskii, 3 February 1919; Vestnik Vremennogo Pravitel'stva Severnoi Oblasti, 10 October 1918.

¹³ RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 3, l. 199. Telegram of the chairman of the district self-government Podlesnyi and Commander Mikheev, 8 December 1918; RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 6, l. 15. Report of the provincial commissar of Pechora district Ushakov, 22 January 1919.

¹⁴ RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 18, ll. 7, 25. Telegram of Captain P. T. Akutin to Marushevskii, 2 January 1919; GARF, f. 16, op. 1, d. 6, l. 96. Telegram of District Commissar Rogachev to Arkhagel'sk, 24 October 1918.

¹⁵ See for example Vozrozhdenie Severa, 25 and 26 December 1919.

¹⁶ Even in the late 1920s up to half of the population was still disenfranchised in some townships of Arkhangel'sk province because it had fought voluntarily for the Whites in the Civil War. See Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii (hereafter RGASPI), f. 17, op. 33, d. 465, l. 45. Summary of secret letter from Beik, secretary of Arkhangel'sk provincial party committee, to the Central Committee of the Communist Party, 27 April 1927.

¹⁷ RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 4, ll. 2–3. Report of Tarasovo partisan delegates to the Governor-General, 16 December 1918; ll. 7–8ob. Resolution of the assembly of the partisans from Poretskaya, Pertovskaya and Tserkovnicheskaya townships, 31 December 1918.

¹⁸ See also GARF, f. 16, op. 1, d. 8, ll. 429–29ob. Report of General Marushevskii to the Provisional Government of the Northern Region, 23 December 1918; RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 4, l. 33. Report of Marushevskii to General Miller, 6 February 1919.

¹⁹ RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 18, l. 4. Telegram from Captain Akutin, 1 January 1919.

²⁰ RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 18, l. 173. Telegram from Dilaktorskii to Marushevskii, 14 March 1919. See also: RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 29, l. 247. Telegram from Colonel Muruzi to Marushevskii, 20 May 1919; RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 4, ll. 2–2ob. Report of Tarasovo partisans, 16 December 1918.

²¹ RGVA, f. 39450, op. 1, d. 18, l. 202. Telegram from Dilaktorskii to Marushevskii, 24 March 1919.

²² Arkhiv regional'nogo upravleniya Federal'noi sluzhby bezopasnosti po Arkhangel'skoi oblasti (hereafter ARU FSB AO), d. P-18021, l. 17. Report of the commission for the reburial of White terror victims in Pinega district, May 1920.

²³ GARF, f. R-5867, op. 1, d. 23, l. 74ob. Letter from Colonel P. N. Geiman to headquarters, 8 December 1919.

²⁴ See for example ARU FSB AO, d. P-17697. Investigation materials on the organiser of Shenkursk partisan unit M. N. Rakitin, 1919–1920; d. P-18021. Investigation materials on the organiser of Pinega partisan unit S. M. Starkov, 1920; d. P-17950. Investigation materials on the members of Tserkovnoe partisan unit, 1920.

²⁵ Lists of executed can be seen, for example, in: Izvestiya Arkhangel'skogo Gubernskogo Revkoma, 28 May 1920, 10 August 1920; Izvestiya Arkhangel'skogo Gubernskogo revkoma i Arkhgubkoma RKP(b), 14 September 1920, 22 September 1920; Izvestiya Arkhgubispolkoma, 2 November 1920.