COSSACK ISSUE IN SIBERIA DURING THE REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIA

The paper presents the problem of the Siberian Cossacks crisis in the period of socio-political upheavals of the revolution and Civil War in 1917–1920. The aim of the paper is to examine the reasons and the essence of the regional Cossack community crisis in the course of the 1917 revolution and the Civil war as well as to identify the options and results of its resolution. The problem is investigated on the basis of the dialectical-materialistic method of cognition: each position is examined through the light of historicism, in connection with other historical events of the era and with specific historical experience. The "Cossack issue" took shape in the early XXth century amid the civil transformation of the Russian society. In Siberia the issue received internal and external content. The internal content of the issue is made up of the contradictions between the rank-and-file Cossacks and the officers due to the inequality of landholdings, as well as between the Cossack mainstream, on the one hand, and the Cossack troops’ 

lieutenant colonels, on the other, because of the problem of the land reserve exploitation and compliance with the rights and obligations equivalence in the Cossack community. The external constituent is made up of the contradictions between the privileged Cossack community in Siberia and the peasantry and minority peoples of the region concerning the land issue. Moreover, the "Cossack issue" included also a general historical tendency – the search for optimal ways to abolish the Cossack class privileges and to equalize them in rights and responsibilities with the rest of the population of Russia. Since in this period there was no class-caste unity of the Cossacks de facto, this fact was to be established de jure. And it was the 1917 revolution that was responsible for it. The "Cossack issue" resolution resulted in the acute social-political opposition both within the regional Cossack community and in the civil war of the Siberian Cossacks with the bulk of the Siberian population. The results of the study can be used when writing generalized works on the history of Siberia, lecturing on Russian history of this period, teaching courses on the history of the 1917 revolution and the Civil war.

military government, Civil war, land issue, Cossack issue, Cossack oligarchy, decossackization, council of the Cossacks' deputies

1. Poliudov E. Kazaki [Cossacks]. Sibirskaia sovetskaia entsiklopediia [The Siberian Soviet encyclopedia]. Ed. Azadovskii M. K., Alypov S. A., Anson A. A. Novosibirsk: Zapadno-Sibirskoe otdelenie OGIZ, vol. 2 (1931): 1152.

2. Gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv Omskoi oblasti (GIAOO) [State historical archive Omsk region (SHAOR)]. Found R-1015, List 3, File 4.

3. Prava i svobody cheloveka v programmnykh dokumentakh osnovnykh politicheskikh partii i ob"edinenii Rossii. XX vek [The rights and freedoms of the individual in the program documents of the main political parties and associations of Russia. XX century]. Ed. Arinin A. N., Semenova S. I., Shelokhaev V. V. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2002, 496.

4. S"ezdy, konferentsii, soveshchaniia sotsial'no-klassovykh, politicheskikh, religioznykh, natsional'nykh organizatsii v Akmolinskoi oblasti (mart 1917 – noiabr' 1918 gg.) [Congresses, conferences, meetings, social class, political, religious, national organizations in the Akmola region (march 1917 – november 1918)]. Comp. Iakimova T. V. Ed. Cherniak E. I. Tomsk: TGU, vol. 1–2 (1991).

5. Poliudov E. Sibirskoe kazachestvo [Siberian Cossacks]. Tri goda bor'by za diktaturu proletariata. 1917–1920 [Three years of struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat. 1917–1920]. Omsk: Sibirskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1920, 99–103.

6. Poliudov E. Oktiabr'skii politicheskii perevorot sredi kazachestva [The October political coup among the Cossacks]. Izvestiia Omskogo gubkoma RKP(b) = Izvestya of the Omsk regional Committee of the RCP(b), no. 4 (1922): 22–27.

7. Shuldiakov V. A. Politicheskie protsessy v Sibirskom kazach'em voiske v pervoi pol. 1918 g.: nekotorye itogi izucheniia [Political processes in the Siberian Cossack army in the first half. 1918: some results of studying]. Sovremennye nauchnye issledovaniia: teoriia, metodologiia, praktika = Modern scientific researches: theory, methodology, practice, 1, no. 3 (2013): 335–341.

8. Postanovlenie Vremennogo sibirskogo pravitel'stva «O vozvrashchenii vladel'tsam ikh imenii» [The decree of the Provisional Siberian government «On the return to owners of their estates»]. Vremennoe Sibirskoe pravitel'stvo [The provisional Siberian government]. Comp. and ed. Shishkin V. I. Novosibirsk: Sova, 2007, 132–133.

9. Postanovlenie Vremennogo sibirskogo pravitel'stva «Ob utverzhdenii vremennogo polozheniia ob uchrezhdeniiakh, vedaiushchikh zemel'nymi delami v Sibiri» [The decree of the Provisional Siberian government «On approval of interim provisions on institutions in charge of land affairs in Siberia»]. Vremennoe Sibirskoe pravitel'stvo [The provisional Siberian government]. Comp. and ed. Shishkin V. I. Novosibirsk: Sova, 2007, 193–197.

10. Shuldiakov V. A. Sibirskie kazaki v partizanskom otriade atamana B. V. Annenkova [Siberian Cossacks in the partisan detachment of ataman B. V. Annenkov]. Kazachestvo Sibiri ot Еrmaka do nashih dnei: istoriia, iazyk, kul'tura: materialy Vserossiiskoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem [The Cossacks of Siberia by Yermak to the present day: history, language, culture: Proc. all-Russian Sc.-Prac. Conf. with Intern. participation]. Ed. Evseev V. N., Zaitsev G. S. Tiumen', 2012, 255–262.

11. Shuldiakov V. A. Gibel' Sibirskogo kazach'ego voiska [The death of the Siberian Cossack troops]. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, vol. 1 (2004): 748.

12. Shilovskii M. V. Omskie sobytiia poslednei dekady sentiabria 1918 g. [Omsk events of the last decade of September, 1918]. Voprosy istorii Sibiri XX v. [Questions of history of Siberia of the XX century]. Ed. Shilovskii M. I. Novosibirsk, 1993, 21–38.

13. Shuldiakov V. A. Verkhovnyi pravitel' Rossii admiral A. V. Kolchak i Sibirskoe kazach'e voisko [Kolchak A. V. was a scientist, Admiral, Supreme Ruler of Russia]. Istoricheskie chteniia, posviashchennye 130-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Kolchaka A. V. Omsk, 4 noiabria 2004 [Historical readings dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the birth of Kolchak A. V.]. Ed. of V. A. Shuldiakov. Omsk, 2005, 19–30.

14. Shuldiakov V. A. Annenkovtsy Karbyshev M. F., Bernikov E. A., Razmazin N. I – geroi Sibirskogo kazach'ego voiska [Annenkovtsy Karbyshev M. F., Bernikov E. A., Razmazin N. I. – heroes of the Siberian Cossack troops]. Grazhdanskaia voina v Sibiri: materialy Vserossiiskoi zaochnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii [Civil war in Siberia: Proc. all-Russian correspondence Sc.-Prac. Conf.]. Ed. Petina D. I., Terekhina T. A. Omsk: Archival Department of the Ministry of state-legal development of the Omsk region Омsk, 2013, 181–200.

15. Gins G. K. Sibir', soiuzniki i Kolchak: povorotnyi moment russkoi istorii. 1918–1920 gg. [Siberia, the allies and Kolchak: turning point of Russian history]. Moscow: Airis-Press, 2008, 672.

16. Parshukov V. A. P'ianstvo, besporiadki v 1-m Eniseiskom kazach'em voiske [Alcoholism, disorders in the 1st Yenisei Cossack army]. Bulletin of the Kemerovo state university, 6, no. 2 (2013): 222–227.

17. Iaroslavskii Em. Urok [Lesson]. Sovetskaia Sibir' (Omsk) = Soviet Siberia (Omsk), February 23 (1921).

18. Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Altaiskogo kraia (GAAK) [The State archives of Altai Krai (GAAK)]. Found P-2, List 1, File 127.

19. Bogutskii A. E. Passivnaia forma sibirskoi atamanshchiny v gody Grazhdanskoi voiny [The passive form of the Siberian atamanovsky during the Civil war]. Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i iuridicheskie nauki, kul'turologiia i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki = Historical, philosophical, political and law Sciences, Culturology and study of art. Issues of theory and practice, no. 3-1 (2012): 40–46.

20. Dekret VTsIK i SNK ob unichtozhenii soslovii i grazhdanskikh chinov [The decree of the Central Executive Committee and the CPC on the destruction of estates and civil ranks]. Dekrety Sovetskoi vlasti [Decrees of the Soviet government]. Comp. Valk S. N., Zagoskin I. V., Rostopchina L. N., Akhapkin Iu. A., Kazantsev B. N. Ed. Obichkin G. D., Valk S. N., Gaponenko L. S., Novosel'skii A. A., Stuchebnikova M. D. Moscow: Politizdat, vol. I (1957): 71–72.

21. K rabochim, krest'ianam, inorodcheskomu naseleniiu i trudovomu kazachestvu Sibiri [To the workers, peasants, indigenous people, indigenous populations and to the working Cossacks of Siberia]. Dekrety Sovetskoi vlasti [Decrees of the Soviet government]. Comp. Valk S. N., Akhapkin Iu. A., Masal'skaia A. S., Pokrovskii A. S., Nechaeva L. K. Ed. Valk S. N., Zagoskina I. V., Korablev Iu. I., Obichkin G. D., Pavlenko N. I., Rodionov P. A., Solov'ev A. A. Moscow: Politizdat, vol. VI (1973): 29–31.

22. Khvostov N. A. Gosudarstvennoe i partiinoe stroitel'stvo sredi sibirskogo kazachestva posle razgroma Kolchaka [State and party building among the Siberian Cossacks after the defeat of Kolchak]. Voprosy sotsial'no-klassovykh otnoshenii v sotsialisticheskom obshchestve [Questions of social and class relations in socialist society]. Comp. N. E. Ul'ianov. Ed. Ul'ianov N. E., Bogomolov T. I. Omsk: OGPI, 1974, 62–79.

23. Deklaratsiia Sibrevkoma o poriadke nadeleniia i pol'zovaniia zemlei [Declaration Sibrevkoma about the order of granting and use of land]. Sibirskii revoliutsionnyi komitet (Sibrevkom) [Siberian revolutionary committee (Sibrevkom)]. Сomp. Blokhina A. N., Vertogradskaia N. D., Dvoriadkina N. N., Dediushina N. A., Kuzmenchuk V. Ia., Petrova E. I., Ryzhik E. Ia. Ed. Ushakova L. A. Novosibirsk: Novosibirskoe kn. izd., 1959, 275–279.

24. Vypiska iz protokola № 17 zasedaniia Sibirskogo oblastnogo biuro RKP(b) [Extract from the minutes No. 17 of the meeting of the Siberian regional Bureau of the RCP(b)]. Sibirskaia Vandeia [Siberian Vendee]. Ed. Iakovlev A. N., Kabanov V. T. Comp. Shishkin V. I. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnyi fond «Demokratiia», vol. 1 (2000): 18–19.