The Red Army had to chase the enemy for another three years after the capture of Vladivostok

It is generally accepted that the Russian Civil War ended on October 25, 1922, with the Red Army reaching the Pacific Ocean in Vladivostok. In fact, the bloody battles lasted for another three years and subsided only at the very end of 1925. The fratricidal war was finally stopped exactly 90 years ago.

Revolts of indigenous peoples against Soviet power took place from 1921 to 1925 in Yakutia and the Amur region, Kamchatka, Chukotka and Koryakia. And in the north of Sakhalin, until 1925, the Japanese interventionists also ruled. During these years, a significant part of the Far East was shaken by the partisan war of the local population with the Bolsheviks. Everywhere the rebel aborigines were supported by the Cossacks and the remnants of the White Guard units. All rebellions were ruthlessly suppressed by security officers and Red Army soldiers. The Evenki uprising with the creation of the Tunguska Republic is considered the largest and most widespread. At the same time, both whites and reds went to fight in the north from Vladivostok.

The employee of the Military History Museum of the Pacific Fleet, reserve lieutenant colonel Yuri Syromyatnikov, helped the “B” correspondent restore the history of that time.

Hot North

What was the Pacific outskirts of Russia like in the early 1920s? After the fall of Irkutsk and the execution of Admiral Kolchak, the Red Army quickly reached Yakutsk and began to impose workers’ and peasants’ power with bayonets. The local population began to grumble. In 1921 - 1923, a wave of revolts swept across Yakutia. Experienced officers stood at the head of the rebels. As a result, a full-fledged white partisan movement developed there. Bloody battles took place in Yakutsk, Verkhoyansk, and Nelkan.

A small detachment of the White Guard captain Yanygin remained in Okhotsk since April 1920, and a year later an expedition of Cossacks from military foreman Bochkarev arrived there from Vladivostok, which also landed a garrison in Ayan and occupied Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Later they set out on a campaign against Yakutsk, but without success. Gradually, the battle arena moved to the northwestern coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and to the eastern part of Yakutia.

Meanwhile, the Reds were consistently clearing the Far East, Uborevich was preparing for the final push to the shores of the Golden Horn. By this time, the bulk of the whites had already been squeezed out to China. It was then that General Diterichs in Vladivostok came up with the idea to separate northeastern Siberia from Russia. To do this, it was necessary to transfer troops from Primorye to the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and create there the center of a new uprising against the Reds. Moreover, the local population wanted the same. It was planned to march off-road 800 km deep into the continent and capture Yakutsk.

Ice trek

The expedition was led by 30-year-old General Anatoly Pepelyaev, who by that time had moved to Harbin. When he was asked to make an “ice campaign,” he gathered under his banner only volunteers who knew how to fight professionally. In total there were 730 people in the detachment, including 13 generals and colonels. True, they experienced a great lack of weapons; there were only two machine guns.

Sailing from Vladivostok, Pepelyaev’s group landed in Okhotsk and Ayan at the end of August 1922. In Ayan, a public gathering of the surrounding Tungus and local Russians took place, who provided the rebels with three hundred reindeer with sledges for movement across the tundra. When the second batch of troops was just about to take off from Vladivostok, Pepelyaev was already moving into the depths of the continent. Due to the lack of roads, the detachment walked slowly, with difficulty crossing swamps and rivers.

Steamships with the second wave of landing arrived in Okhotsk only in November. By this time, the Whites in Vladivostok had already been completely defeated. So the young general turned from the commander of a sabotage detachment into the leader of the main white military force in Russia. There was no one else behind me.

As the advance progressed, detachments of white partisans joined Pepelyaev, eventually accumulating about 800 bayonets. The discipline was exemplary, there were no frostbite, although the marches were carried out at temperatures below minus 30 degrees. The last village before Yakutsk, Amga, was attacked on the cold night of February 2, 1923 and took it by storm, killing a small Red garrison.

Latvian shooter

The Red forces in those places were estimated at about 3 thousand fighters in total. In the vanguard was Ivan Strod's combat-ready detachment of 400 bayonets with machine guns.

Pepelyaev first decided to destroy Strode's detachment. The Reds settled in the Sasyl-Sysy winter hut, dug in and prepared for an all-round defense. The first attack occurred on February 13. For 14 days, Pepelyaev desperately stormed several houses. The surrounded Reds bristled with machine guns and desperately fought back. Having failed, the Whites began to retreat back to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Meanwhile, two other red detachments under the command of Baikalov and Kurashev, having gathered together 760 bayonets with cannons and machine guns, attacked Amga. A group of 150 fighters left there by Pepelyaev lost more than half of their people and was forced to retreat. Baikalov’s brother died in the battle, and this predetermined the sad fate of the captured officers. They were shot immediately.

Liquidation

To suppress the White uprisings, the Soviet government sent detachments of Red Army soldiers from Vladivostok to Okhotsk and Ayan on ships of the Far East Naval Forces (predecessor of the Pacific Fleet). In April 1923, a detachment of the 1st Transbaikal Division set sail on the steamships Stavropol and Indigirka. They were commanded by the talented military leader Stepan Vostretsov.

The transition took place under difficult conditions. Ice jammed steamships in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk for almost a month. There was not enough water and food. When the ice captivity ended, the Stavropol and Indigirka secretly approached the coast.

In Okhotsk everything was decided by itself, without the intervention of the Reds. Pepelyaev’s associate, General Rakitin, prepared the northern town for a siege in early June 1923, but Okhotsk fell thanks to a workers’ uprising. Rakitin shot himself.

Pepelyaev himself with the remnants of the squad gathered in Ayan. Together with the Yakuts who had joined, 640 people remained under his command. The general decided to leave the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk back to China by sea, for which it was necessary to build boats. However, there was no more time.

On June 15, 40 km from Ayan, Vostretsov’s troops landed and secretly concentrated near the town. Two days later he attacked Ayan and quickly captured the headquarters. Pepelyaev, wanting to prevent bloodshed, gave the order to his subordinates to lay down their arms.

Not everyone followed this order. Colonel Stepanov gathered about a hundred fighters, prepared for the campaign in a few hours and went into the forests, the end of the detachment is unknown. Another colonel, Leonov, at the head of a group of a dozen people, went north along the coast, managed to contact Japanese fishermen and, with their help, moved to Japan. Another colonel, Anders, also tried to break through, but eventually surrendered. A total of 356 people, led by Pepelyaev, were captured.

Tunguska Republic

But the fight against the Soviets did not end there. In May 1924, a new uprising began in the east of Yakutia. It was caused by unjustified actions of local authorities: the closure of ports to foreign trade, interruptions in the import of goods from the mainland, the confiscation of deer from private owners, and the confiscation of vast pastures.

The rebels occupied the village of Nelkan, which became the rebel base. A group of up to 300 people was stationed here, led by an Evenk from a noble family, Pavel Karamzin. In June, his detachment took Ayan. At the congress of the Tungus and Yakuts, a temporary administration was elected, which decided to secede from the RSFSR.

In 1925, the rebels concluded a truce with the Soviet authorities and laid down their arms. Many prominent rebels were included in the Soviet governing bodies. But just two years later, a policy of “tightening the screws” began, as a result of which all the former leaders of the uprising were repressed, many of them executed.

But this was not the end of the Civil War.

Combat campaign of the "Red Pennant"

At the beginning of July 1923, the patrol ship "Red Pennant" set out to sea from Vladivostok to the northeast. He visited many bays of Kamchatka. Sailors took an active part in establishing Soviet power in remote areas of the Far East. The landing from the "Red Pennant" defeated a detachment of White Guards in the Gulf of Corfu and fought with the Whites on the western coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

In the fall of the following year, the patrolman again set off for the northern latitudes to destroy the large White Guard detachment of Staff Captain Grigoriev. It was this officer who took part in the creation of the Tunguska Republic. He managed to attract many Yakuts, Tungus, Nanais, Evenks and Russians to his side.

The superiority of the white partisans did not allow a small detachment of sailors from the Red Pennant to completely liquidate the Tunguska Republic. The ship was in Ayana Bay until the freeze-up began, and then returned to Vladivostok.

In the summer of 1925, accompanied by the Red Pennant, the Oleg transport arrived in Ayan with a detachment of Red Army soldiers on board. The landing at the port took place at night. At the same time, a detachment of sailors led by the commissar of the “Red Pennant” rounded the entrance cape of the bay in boats and landed on the shore, cutting off the rebels’ escape routes.

The Red Army soldiers began to advance at dawn. Taken by surprise, the whites began to retreat, but they were met by machine-gun fire from a detachment of sailors. A hand-to-hand fight ensued. Soon the Red Army soldiers arrived to help the sailors. Grigoriev's fighters were surrounded and captured.

Thus, the remnants of the White Guard detachments on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk were finally eliminated, and the Civil War in the Far East ended.

Sad ending

A military court in Vladivostok sentenced Pepelyaev and his fighters to varying terms of imprisonment. Initially, the general was going to be shot, but at the instigation of Kalinin, who was visiting the Far East at that time, he was pardoned. Pepelyaev received 10 years in prison, but spent all 13 there. In 1936, he was released, but not for long: after a year and a half he was arrested again and almost immediately shot. By the way, back in 1928, Stepan Vostretsov, already being the commander of the 27th Omsk Rifle Division, proposed to release his former enemy and appoint him as a military expert in the Red Army...

However, the fate of the opponents of the white general was also not happy. The red hero Ivan Strod was arrested and executed even before Pepelyaev, in 1937. The famous brigade commander Vostretsov left even earlier: in 1929 he took part in the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway, and in 1932 he committed suicide.

Dossier "B"

Anatoly Pepelyaev (1891–1938) – Russian military leader. He gained combat experience in the First World War, which he met in the position of chief of reconnaissance of a regiment. Daring operations in the front line and in the rear of the German troops brought him fame at the front: “Anna” for bravery, an honorary weapon, an officer’s “George”, “Vladimir” with swords. He finished the war as a lieutenant colonel. During the Civil War, he joined Kolchak’s army, who awarded the 27-year-old officer the rank of general. In 1920, due to a conflict with Ataman Semenov, Pepelyaev left for China with his wife and children.

Ivan Strod. Real name – Janis Strods (he was the son of a Latvian and a Polish woman). In World War I he heroically fought with the rank of ensign: he was awarded as many as four St. George's Crosses. During the Civil War he began as an anarchist, and later joined the Bolsheviks.

Stepan Vostretsov is the son of a Ural peasant. From the first days of the Civil War he was in the ranks of the Red Army, rising from an ordinary soldier to a brigade commander. Troops under his command liberated Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Spassk. Vostretsov's military merits were awarded with three Orders of the Red Banner.

Latin America is a revolutionary continent. For decades, revolutionary guerrilla organizations have been fighting in some Latin American countries, proclaiming their main goal to be the fight against American imperialism, and the most radical ones also to build a “bright communist society.” In some places, the struggle of left-wing guerrillas back in the 20th century ended in success (Cuba, Nicaragua), somewhere the left came to power without winning a guerrilla war (Venezuela, Bolivia), but in a number of Latin American countries gunshots and entire massifs are still heard mountain and forest areas are not controlled by the central government. Peru is one of these states.

Peru is the third largest country by area South America. It was here that the legendary Inca Empire originated and developed until it was colonized by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro. In 1544, the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru was established, but despite this, until the end of the 18th century, mass uprisings of the Indian population broke out here, led by the scions of the ancient Inca dynasty. When wars of independence raged throughout Latin America, Peru remained loyal to the Spanish crown for a long time. Despite the fact that on July 28, 1821, General San Martin, who invaded from Chile, proclaimed the independence of Peru, the Spaniards managed to regain power over the colony already in 1823 and hold out until the arrival in 1824 of the troops of General Sucre, an ally of the famous Simon Bolivar. It is Bolivar who can rightfully be considered the father of independent Peruvian statehood. Peru, second half of the 19th - 20th centuries. - this is the history of a typical Latin American country with all the accompanying “charms” - a series of military coups, colossal social polarization of the population, complete control of the country by American and British capital, repressions against representatives of the left and national liberation movements.

Mariátegui - the harbinger of the Shining Path

The country's socio-economic problems, the plight of the majority of the population and the existing division between the “white” elite, mestizos and the Indian peasantry, who make up the majority of the population, contributed to the growth of social protests in the country. Most often, the actions of the Indian peasantry were spontaneous and unorganized. The situation began to change when communist ideas spread to Peru, initially adopted by a small part of the urban intelligentsia and industrial workers. The origins of the Peruvian Communist Party, founded in 1928, were José Carlos Mariategui (1894-1930). Coming from the family of a small employee who left his family, Mariategui was raised by his mother. As a child, he suffered an injury to his left leg, but despite his disability, he was forced to start working at the age of 14 - first as a laborer in a printing house, and then as a journalist in a number of Peruvian newspapers. In his early youth, he became an active participant in the Peruvian labor movement, was expelled from the country and lived in Italy, where he became acquainted with the ideas of Marxism and created a small communist circle of Peruvian emigrants. Returning to his homeland, Mariátegui soon became very ill, and his leg, injured in childhood, had to be amputated. Nevertheless, he continued active work to create a communist party in the country. In 1927, Mariátegui was arrested and placed as an invalid in a military hospital, then was under house arrest. However, in 1928, he and several other comrades created the Peruvian Socialist Party, which in 1930 was renamed the Communist Party. In the same 1930, José Mariategui died before reaching thirty-six years of age. But despite this short life, his ideas had a huge influence on the formation of the communist movement in Peru, and in some other countries of Latin America. Mariategui's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism boiled down to the fact that he advocated the need to develop a revolutionary movement in Peru and Latin America as a whole, relying on local traditions, without blindly copying Russian and European experience. In principle, Mariátegui’s ideas were adopted by many Latin American revolutionary organizations, which were able to combine Marxist doctrine with left-wing Indian nationalism and proclaim reliance on the peasantry, which made up the overwhelming majority of the population in almost all countries of the continent.

Throughout its history, the Peruvian Communist Party has repeatedly experienced bans from the country's government, and sometimes brutal repression against activists. After all, for most of the twentieth century, reactionary pro-American regimes existed in the country, persecuting everyone who opposed American imperialism, foreign companies and local latifundist oligarchs. However, in the history of 20th century Peru there was also a short period when the left was in power. Moreover, the military began to implement revolutionary ideas - the government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1910-1977), which was in power from 1968 to 1975. In terms of the depth and quality of the revolutionary transformations carried out in Peru during these years, the Alvarado regime is on a par with the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutionaries.

Revolutionary Junta of Alvarado

Juan Velasco Alvarado came from a poor family of a minor official. There were 11 children in his father's family. Naturally, the family lived in poverty, but, as Alvarado later noted, this poverty was worthy. In 1929, nineteen-year-old Alvarado enlisted as a private in the armed forces. In those years, and even now, military service was sometimes the only way not only to make a career, but also simply to receive guaranteed employment and salary. For his demonstrated military abilities, Private Alvarado was selected to study at the Chorrillos Military School. By the way, he was also one of the best when graduating from the school. In 1944, Alvarado graduated from the Higher military school, where he taught tactics since 1946. In 1952, he was the head of the military school, then the chief of staff of the 4th Military Training Center of Peru. In 1959, forty-nine-year-old Alvarado was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. From 1962 to 1968, he was Peru's military attaché to France, and in January 1968, he took over as commander of the ground forces and chairman of the Unified Command of the Armed Forces of Peru. On October 3, 1968, a military coup took place in Peru. Units of the armored division surrounded the presidential palace. Officers led by Colonel Gallego Venero arrested the current president of Belaunde. Power in the country passed to the military junta - the Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces. The military elected General Juan Velasco Alvarado, who enjoys great authority in the army, as president. The chief inspector of the Peruvian armed forces, General Ernesto Montagne Sanchez (1916-1993), became the prime minister of the military government.

The military government began serious political and socio-economic changes. Politically, all power in the country was transferred to the military - it is obvious that the revolutionary junta did not trust civilian politicians. Measures were taken to improve the position of the Indians - the indigenous population of Peru. Thus, the Quechua language, spoken by most of the Peruvian Indians, was adopted as the second official language of the country (the first is Spanish). Free ninth-grade education was introduced. In December 1970, Velasco Alvarado signed a decree on amnesty for participants in the rebel and guerrilla movements of Peruvian peasants, in January 1971 the General Confederation of Labor of Peru was officially recognized, the persecution of communists was stopped and all court cases brought against communist party activists before were closed. In foreign policy Peru has committed itself to cooperation with Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Diplomatic relations were established with the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Cuba, which were absent under previous pro-American governments.

The changes in the economy were even more profound. The Alvarado government proclaimed a course to eliminate the dominance of oligarchs and latifundists in agriculture and to improve the standard of living of the population. The nationalization of a number of sectors of the economy began, including the oil, mining, fishing industries, railways, and air transport. Most banking organizations and funds were also taken under state control mass media. Moreover, right-wing and pro-American media were censored, a number of publications were closed, and their leadership was expelled from the country for anti-national policies. Industrial communities were created at enterprises, whose tasks included ensuring the gradual transition of 50% of enterprises into the ownership of labor collectives. Similar communities were created in the fishing and mining industries. Enormous reforms were also carried out in agriculture. 90% of agricultural land, which previously belonged to 2% of the population, who made up the class of latifundists - landowners, was nationalized. Peasants united into cooperatives created on the site of nationalized latifundia. The right of peasants to own land as part of cooperatives was emphasized. At the same time, the property of the latifundists in water resources was liquidated, all the country's water resources became the property of the Peruvian state.

Naturally, the policy pursued by the Alvarado government, which actually turned Peru into a state of socialist orientation, greatly worried the United States of America. The United States was terrified of the growth of Soviet influence in Latin America and did not want the emergence of another, besides Cuba, center of socialism in the New World. Moreover, the American oligarchy did not want to see Peru, large and rich in natural resources, as a socialist country. Therefore, the American leadership switched to its proven methods - preparing to overthrow the progressive government of Peru with the help of “popular protests” (in the 21st century this is called the “Orange Revolution” or “Maidan”). The US CIA collaborated with a number of senior officers and officials of Peru who came from strata of the oligarchy and latifundists and were dissatisfied with socialist transformations. On August 29, 1975, a military coup took place, as a result of which the Alvarado government was overthrown. The general himself retired and died two years later. Francisco Morales Bermudez, who took the helm of the Peruvian state, curtailed progressive reforms and returned the country to the path of capitalist development, that is, again under the de facto power of the American and pro-American oligarchy.

Alvarado's reign contributed to the flourishing of legally operating left and radical left political organizations. By the 1960s The Communist Party of Peru - Red Flag - was active in Peru. It was a radical breakaway from the Peruvian Communist Party, oriented towards Maoist ideas. At the end of the 1960s. Maoism became increasingly widespread among Peruvian students. It seemed to be a doctrine more suitable for peasant Peru than the Soviet interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, aimed at the industrial proletariat. Moreover, in Maoism the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial pathos and the desire for the liberation of the peoples of the “third world” were more clearly visible. Mao’s ideas echoed the concept of the Peruvian communist Jose Carlos Mariategui, who, as we wrote above, discussed in his works the need for a unique Latin American path for the development of the revolution, different from European scenarios.

The beginning of the Shining Path. Chairman Gonzalo

The University of Huamanga in Ayacucho was opened after a break of almost half a century. The spirit of freethinking reigned here, especially increasing during the reign of the leftist regime of Velasco Alvarado. University students were interested in Marxism and other modern left-wing radical theories. It was at the University of Huamanga that an organization called the Shining Path (Shining Path), or more precisely the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso, appeared. This name was taken from the slogan of the founder of the Peruvian Communist Party, José Carlos Mariategui - “Marxism-Leninism opens a shining path to revolution.” At the origins of the Shining Path was a modest university teacher, who after some time was destined to become the permanent leader of one of the largest and most active armed Maoist organizations in Latin America and forever remain in the history of the Latin American revolutionary movement.

Manuel Ruben Abimael Guzman Reynoso, better known as “Chairman Gonzalo,” was born on December 3, 1934 in the port city of Mollendo, in the province of Islay. He was the illegitimate son of a wealthy businessman and from the age of 13 was raised in his father's family (his mother died when the boy was five years old). After completing secondary education at a private Catholic school, Guzman entered the National University of St. Augustine in Arequipa - the Faculty of Social Sciences. At the university, Guzman studied both philosophy and law, receiving a bachelor's degree in philosophy and jurisprudence and defending two works - “The Kantian Theory of Space” and “The Bourgeois Democratic State”. From his youth, Guzman was interested in the ideas of Marxism and gradually evolved towards Maoism. Here he was influenced by the books of José Carlos Mariategui and communication with the rector of the university, Efren Morote Besta. At the University of Huamanga in Ayacucho, Guzman taught philosophy and soon became the leader of the Maoist student group, on the basis of which the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path was created. In 1973-1975 The Shining Path brought student councils under control at the universities of Huancayo and La Cantuta, and strengthened positions on the board of the National University of San Marcos and the National University of Engineers in Lima. However, the removal of Alvarado's government, which dealt a serious blow to the positions of the Peruvian left, also contributed to the weakening of the Maoists' position in Peruvian universities. Therefore, Shining Path activists decided to gradually move their activities beyond university classrooms and move on to agitating the working population, primarily the Peruvian peasantry.

As the political regime of Peru “corrected” and the country’s government returned to pro-American policies, the dissatisfaction of the popular masses with the socio-economic conditions of life in the country grew. The Peruvian Maoists skillfully took advantage of this and undertook a “walk among the people.” From March 17, 1980, the Shining Path organized several underground meetings in Ayacucho, which became known as the Second Central Plenary Committee. At these meetings, a revolutionary directorate was formed as the political and military leadership of the party, after which groups of militants were created to be deployed into the countryside and launch a “people's war”. The first military school was founded, in which the militants of the Shining Path had to master the basics of military tactics, handling, and methods of guerrilla warfare. Also in 1980, the Shining Path took a final and uncompromising course towards carrying out a communist revolution in Peru and refused to participate in the elections. On May 17, 1980, on the eve of the presidential elections, Shining Path militants burned ballot boxes at a polling station in the town of Chuschi in Ayacucho. This seemingly harmless event became the first extremist action of the sendero luminoso, whose fame resounded throughout Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. This time the police managed to quickly arrest the arsonists, and the media paid virtually no attention to the minor incident. However, after the burning of the ballot boxes, other attacks by the radical Maoist organization began.

Guerilla in the Andes

During the 1980s. The Shining Path grew into one of the largest guerrilla organizations in Latin America, taking control of large areas, especially in the Andean region. Here in the Andes lived an undereducated and oppressed Indian peasant population. Since the central government was practically not involved in solving the daily problems of the Indian population, and some mountainous areas were not actually controlled by the authorities, the Maoists of the Shining Path quickly acquired the authority of the local population, acting as their organizers and intercessors. In Peruvian villages, peasants formed popular self-government, and the Maoists defended their interests, resorting to extremist methods - they killed farmers, traders, and managers. By the way, the latter were hated by the majority of peasants. It should be noted here that the indecisive policy of the Peruvian leadership also played a significant role in strengthening the position of the Shining Path in the Peruvian mountains. For a long time leaders of Peruvian security forces underestimated the extent of the threat to political stability from the Maoist guerrillas, confident that the senderists could be easily suppressed using ordinary police measures.

Only on December 29, 1981, three Andean mountain regions - Ayacucho, Apurimac and Huancaveliki - were declared a state of emergency. Police and military units were deployed there. The servicemen acted in black masks and therefore felt unpunished. The local population was beaten and tortured, peasant houses were robbed by soldiers, which in total did not contribute to the growth of the government's popularity among the Andean Indians and played into the hands of the senderists. On the other hand, the government began a proven anti-guerrilla tactic - the formation of counter-guerrilla detachments from among the peasants themselves, who for some reason were dissatisfied with the activities of the Maoists, or who agreed to perform punitive functions for certain remuneration and privileges. This is how the “rondas” appeared. Despite poor training and poor weapons, the Rondas inflicted significant losses on the Maoists. In particular, in January 1983, the Rondas killed 13 Shining Path militants, and in March 1983, they killed Olegario Curitomey, the leader of the Shining Path group in the city of Lucanamarca. Olegario was stoned to death, stabbed, thrown alive into the fire and then shot. The Shining Path could not help but respond to the brutal murder of one of its leaders. Armed forces of the Shining Path broke into the cities of Lucanamarca, Atacara, Yanacolpa, Llacchua, Maylacruz and killed 69 people. At the same time, it was the peasants who became the main victims of the Maoists - after all, the peasant community was directly responsible for the murder of Kuritomei. In the province of La Mar, the Maoists killed 47 peasants, including 14 children aged between four and fifteen years.

In the early 1980s. The Shining Path also switched to the tactics of urban guerrilla warfare, which included carrying out terrorist attacks and sabotage in cities, organizing the murders of government officials and political opponents. In 1983, Shining Path militants blew up power lines in Lima, cutting off power to the Peruvian capital, and burned the Bayer plant to the ground. That same year, a bomb exploded in the office of the ruling People's Action Party, and then power transmission towers were blown up again. Bombs exploded near the government palace and the palace of justice. July 16, 1992 The Shining Path detonated a bomb on Tarama Street. During the terrorist attack, 25 people died, 155 citizens were injured of varying degrees of severity. There were a number of murders of activists political parties and trade unions, primarily representatives of Marxist parties and groups, who spoke disapprovingly of the policies of the Shining Path and the methods of its resistance to power. On April 24, 1984, an assassination attempt was made on the President of the National Electoral Commission, Domingo García Rada, as a result of which he was seriously wounded and his driver was killed. In 1988, the Senderists killed the American Constantin Gregory from the Agency for International Development, in the same year - two French workers, in August 1991 - an Italian and two Polish priests of the Catholic Church in the department of Ancash. In February 1992, Maria Elena Moyano, a community leader in the slum area of ​​the Peruvian capital Lima Villa el Salvador, became the victim of a political murder committed by the senderistas.

In 1991, the Shining Path controlled much of the countryside in southern and central Peru and enjoyed the sympathy of the population in the shantytowns around Lima. The organization's ideology during this period was Maoism adapted to local Peruvian realities. All socialist states that existed in the world were considered by the senderists as revisionist states that should be fought against. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism was proclaimed to be the only true ideology. As the power of the Senderista leader, Chairman Gonzalo (Abimael Guzmán), grew in power, the organization’s ideology received the official name “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonsalism.” Gradually, the Shining Path turned into a virtually sectarian organization, deprived of the support of the majority of the working population and breaking off relations with all other left-wing groups and organizations in Peru. The Shining Path managed to enter into an armed confrontation not only with the pro-government peasant formations "rondas", but also with the Revolutionary Movement of Tupac Amaru - the second most important left-wing organization of Guevarist orientation in the country (followers of Castro and Che Guevara).

The cruelty of the Senderistas undermined their popularity

The loss of popularity among the peasant population was also due to the excessive cruelty and sectarian habits of the Maoist guerrillas. Firstly, for the slightest offense, the Senderists were sentenced in “people’s courts” to stoning, burning, hanging, strangulation, and having their throats cut. At the same time, they demonstrated disrespect for the customs and morals of the Indian population. Secondly, the Maoists strictly regulated the private life of the peasant population, including moving to such unpopular campaigns among Indians as the fight against alcohol and the ban on parties and dancing. But even more important for the loss of popularity among the peasantry was the attempt to practically implement the Maoist thesis “the village surrounds the city.” As is known, Mao Zedong assumed that in the “Third World” the revolution would take the form of a peasant guerrilla war, which the “village” would wage against the “city” as the center of exploitation and capitalism. In an effort to organize a starvation blockade of cities, the Shining Path militants prohibited peasants from supplying food to the markets of Lima and other Peruvian cities. But for the peasant population, trading agricultural products in markets was the only means of earning money. Therefore, the Maoist bans turned into attacks on the material well-being of the peasant population, which prompted many peasants who had previously sympathized with the insurgency to turn away from it. Adult peasants practically did not go to combat units senderists, therefore the Maoist leadership recruited militants from among young men, and even even teenagers.

At the same time, the measures taken by the Peruvian government to combat the rebels looked excessively cruel and criminal in the eyes of the population. In 1991, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori legalized the activities of "rondas", called "self-defense committees", weapons and the opportunity to undergo training in training camps of the Peruvian ground forces. In the central region of Peru by the mid-2000s. About 4 thousand self-defense committees were deployed, and their total number in the country reached 7226. Military personnel, police and “rondas” destroyed entire villages suspected of supporting the Shining Path, not to mention the murders of individual peasants and members of their families. In La Cantuta and Barrios Altos, a unit of the National Intelligence Service carried out a real massacre of the peasant population, leading to numerous casualties. However, the brutal methods of government troops led to certain results.

Arrest of Chairman Gonzalo and decline of the organization

Peruvian intelligence services established surveillance of an apartment above a dance studio in Surguillo, one of the districts of the Peruvian capital Lima. The police leadership had information that these apartments were visited by a number of people suspected of involvement in the Shining Path military formations. The police diligently studied any information about the apartments and their guests, including analyzing the composition of the garbage thrown out of the apartment by the cleaning lady. Empty tubes of skin cream used to treat psoriasis were found among the trash. It is known that none other than “Chairman Gonzalo” himself suffered from this disease. The police established close surveillance of the apartments. On September 12, 1992, police special forces burst into the apartment - the GEIN special reconnaissance group, which managed to capture several Shining Path militants. Among those arrested was 58-year-old citizen Abimael Guzman Reynoso, the leader of the Shining Path, Chairman Gonzalo. In exchange for guarantees of life, Guzman appealed to his followers to stop armed resistance. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which the leader of the Peruvian guerrillas is serving at a naval base on the island of San Lorenzo near Lima. In 2007, 72-year-old Abimael Guzman, serving a life sentence, married his long-time military girlfriend and party comrade, 67-year-old Elena Iparraguirre.

Following the arrest and conviction of Chairman Gonzalo, Shining Path activities in Peru began to decline. The size and number of Maoist armed formations has decreased, and the scale of the territories they control in the mountainous regions of the country has shrunk. However, the Shining Path organization continues its armed struggle to this day. In 1992-1999 The Shining Path was led by commander Oscar Ramirez, who was later captured by government forces. In April 2000, Shining Path commanders José Arcela Chiroque, nicknamed "Ormeño", and Florentino Cerrón Cardozo, nicknamed "Cirillo" or "Dalton", were captured.

By the beginning of the 2000s. Shining Path consisted of three companies - Pangoa Company - "North", Pucuta Company - "Center" and Vizcatan Company - "South". According to the leadership of Peruvian law enforcement agencies, these units focused their attention not so much on revolutionary activities, but on controlling the production and export of the drug coca. Nevertheless, even in the 21st century in Peru, terrorist attacks occur every now and then, behind which the senderists are. On March 21, 2002, a car was bombed in front of the US Embassy in Lima. 9 people were killed, 30 were injured. The explosion was timed to coincide with the upcoming visit of George W. Bush to the country. On June 9, 2003, Shining Path militants attacked a camp of workers constructing a gas pipeline from Cusco to Lima. The Maoists took 68 employees of the Argentine company and three policemen guarding the camp hostage. Two days later, the Maoists released the hostages without receiving a ransom. At the end of 2003 alone, 96 terrorist attacks occurred in Peru, killing 89 people. The police managed to arrest 209 militants and leaders of Shining Path cells. In January 2004, the new leader of the Shining Path, Florindo Flores, nicknamed “Comrade Artemio” (pictured), appealed to the Peruvian leadership demanding the release of all imprisoned senior leaders of Sendero Luminoso within 60 days. Otherwise, the partisan commander threatened to resume terrorist attacks in the country. October 20, 2005 The Shining Path attacked a police patrol in Guanuco, killing eight police officers. In response, on February 19, 2006, the Peruvian police killed one of the most dangerous rebel leaders, Hector Aponte, who was responsible for the ambush on a police patrol.

In September 2008, Comrade Artemio recorded a message again, declaring that the Shining Path would continue to resist despite the Peruvian government's repression and police measures. In October 2008, there was a major clash between rebels and government forces in Vizcatan, followed by a battle between rebels and soldiers in Huancavelica, where 12 Peruvian army soldiers were killed. In 2007-2009 Senderist attacks continued on police and military patrols and military cargo convoys. As a result of rebel attacks, police and military personnel were regularly killed, and the rebels periodically killed local peasants - members of the self-defense committee and suspected of collaborating with the police and government forces. On June 14, 2007, two policemen and the prosecutor of Tokache were killed during a Maoist attack. In 2010, a sexist threw a bomb in Corvina, injuring a police officer. On February 12, 2012, Peruvian intelligence services managed to get on the trail and arrest Florindo Flores, “Comrade Artemio,” the leader of the Shining Path in last years. When the rebel leader was detained by government special forces in the province of Alto Huallaga, considered the center of cocaine production in Peru, Comrade Artemio offered armed resistance and lost his arm. After receiving assistance, he was taken to the prison hospital. Walter Diaz Vega, who replaced comrade Artemio as head of the organization, managed to remain the Maoist chairman for less than a month - at the beginning of March 2012, he was also arrested. In mid-June 2013, a Peruvian court found Florindo Flores guilty of terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering, ordering him to pay $180 million in compensation to the Peruvian government and victims.

But even after the arrest of Flores and Diaz Vega, rebel groups continued armed resistance. August 2013 was particularly bad for the rebels. In a clash with government troops in the south of the country, rebel commanders Alejandro Borda Casafranca, nicknamed “Alipio,” and Marco Quispe Palomino, better known under the pseudonym “Gabriel,” were killed. The third person killed turned out to be the closest assistant of “Comrade Alipio.” In August 2014, Operation Esperanza 2014 by government forces was carried out in the department of Junin, during which nine people were released - hostages held captive by the Sendero Luminoso. There were three children among the hostages. The territory of maximum influence of the rebels is the province of Vizcatan, where the coca fields extend. From time to time, rebel bases in Vizcatan come under fire from government helicopters, but to this day the Peruvian government, despite all its efforts, has not been able to completely suppress the guerrilla movement in the country. Currently, the center of rebel activity remains the so-called “Sector V”, which operates a militant training camp and a logistics base. The ranks of the Shining Path are rapidly growing younger - the Maoists are recruiting children and teenagers from Indian peasant families to serve in combat units. There is an increasingly close connection between communist rebels and drug cartels operating in the mountainous regions of Peru. In fact, as in Colombia, after the weakening of their political influence on the peasant masses, the communist guerrillas found no other way out than to seek their livelihood in the drug business, carrying out tasks to protect coca plantations and ensure its transportation outside Peru. The drug trade provides significant funds for the rebels and allows them to supply armed guerrilla forces with weapons and ammunition. Food is taken from local peasants, whose self-defense units are not able to resist the well-armed fighters of the “Bright Path”.

According to official data, 69,280 people died during the Peruvian civil war, which peaked between 1980 and 2000. Shining Path militants were blamed for 54% of the deaths of Peruvian citizens. At the same time, one third of the announced figure died as a result of the actions of government troops, police and Rondas units. The remaining victims are distributed between small partisan groups of the left and right. The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was responsible for 1.5% of deaths, according to the investigation. However, it is premature to talk about the end of the Maoist “people's war” in Peru. It is known that the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path is part of the Maoist international "International Revolutionary Movement". The political practice of the Senderists influenced the formation of the ideology and practical actions of Maoist rebels fighting in other regions of the planet, including South and Southeast Asia.

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Vasily Mikhailovich Chernetsov was born in 1890, came from the Cossacks of the village of Ust-Belokalitvenskaya Region of the Don Army. The son of a veterinary assistant. He received his education at the Kamensky real school, and in 1909 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack school. On Great War came out with the rank of centurion, as part of the 26th Don Cossack Regiment (4th Don Cossack Division). He stood out for his courage and fearlessness, was the best intelligence officer in the division, and was wounded three times in battle. In 1915 V.M. Chernetsov led the partisan detachment of the 4th Don Cossack Division. And this detachment covered itself and its young commander with unfading glory with a series of brilliant deeds. For military valor and military distinction, Chernetsov was promoted to podesaul and esaul, awarded many orders, received the St. George weapon, and was wounded three times. However, the main work of the life of “Ivan Tsarevich of the Don” was still ahead...
To resist the Bolsheviks who seized power, Don Ataman A.M. Kaledin, who did not recognize the power of the Soviets, counted on the Don Cossack divisions, from which it was planned to select a healthy core; before their arrival, the main burden of the struggle was to fall on improvised detachments, formed mainly from student youth. “Idealistically minded, active, studying youth - students, gymnasium students, cadets, realists, seminarians - left school and took up arms - often against the will of their parents and secretly from them - to save the dying Don, its freedom, its “liberty.” The most active organizer of the partisans was Captain V.M. Chernetsov. The detachment was formed on November 30, 1918. Quite soon, the partisan detachment of Yesaul V.M. Chernetsov received the nickname of the Don “ambulance carriage”: the Chernetsovites were transferred from front to front, traveling throughout the entire Don Army Region, invariably repelling the Bolshevik hordes rolling onto the Don. The detachment of V.M. Chernetsov was perhaps the only active force of Ataman A.M. Kaledin.
At the end of November, at a meeting of officers in Novocherkassk, the young captain addressed them with the following words:
“I’ll go fight the Bolsheviks, and if my ‘comrades’ kill me or hang me, I’ll know why; but why will they hang you up when they come?” But most of the listeners remained deaf to this call: of those present, about 800 officers signed up immediately... 27. V.M. Chernetsov was indignant: “I would bend all of you into a ram’s horn, and the first thing I would do would be to deprive you of your salary!” This passionate speech found a response - another 115 people signed up. However, the next day, only 30 people went to the front to the Likhaya station, the rest “dispersed” V.M. Chernetsov’s small partisan detachment was made up mainly of secondary students. educational institutions: cadets, high school students, realists and seminarians. On November 30, 1917, the Chernetsov detachment left Novocherkassk in a northerly direction.
For a month and a half, Chernetsov’s partisans have been operating in the Voronezh direction, while at the same time devoting forces to maintaining order within the Don region.
Even then, his partisans, who adored their commander, began to write poems and legends about him.
“At the Debaltsevo station, on the way to Makeevka, the locomotive and five cars of the Chernetsov detachment were detained by the Bolsheviks. Esaul Chernetsov, leaving the carriage, met face to face with a member of the military revolutionary committee. A soldier's overcoat, a lambskin cap, a rifle behind his back - bayonet down.
“Esaul Chernetsov?”
“Yes, and who are you?”
“I am a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee, I ask you not to point at me.”
"Soldier?"
"Yes".
“Hands at your sides! Be quiet when you talk to the captain!”
The member of the Military Revolutionary Committee stretched out his arms at his sides and looked at the captain in fear. His two companions - dejected gray figures - stretched back, away from the captain...
“Did you delay my train?”
"I…"
“So that in a quarter of an hour the train will move on!”
“I obey!”
Not a quarter of an hour later, but five minutes later, the train left the station.”
Speaking about the composition of V.M. Chernetsov’s detachment, a participant in those events noted: “... I will not be mistaken in identifying three common features in Chernetsov’s young comrades: an absolute absence of politics, a great thirst for achievement and a very developed consciousness that they, just yesterday, were sitting on the school bench , today stood up to defend their suddenly helpless older brothers, fathers and teachers. And how many tears, requests and threats the partisans had to overcome in their families before setting out on the path of heroism that attracted them under the windows of their home!
And yet these were children and young men, students, the vast majority unfamiliar with military craft and not drawn into the difficult “camp” life. In practice, it was a sharp transition from the pages of Main-Read into real cold, dirt and under enemy bullets. In many ways, it was youthful enthusiasm and lack of understanding of danger that contributed to the recklessness of the Chernetsov partisans, although when the inevitable elements of “real” and “adult” military service sometimes led to comical stories.
One of the Chernetsov partisans, who was 16 years old at the time, recalls:
“...My group of 24 people was sent to the suburb of Novocherkassk - Khotunok. We were placed in barracks, from where Bolshevik-minded soldiers (272nd and 273rd reserve infantry regiments - A.M.) had been sent “home” the day before. The night turned out to be very dark, and there was no lighting in the barracks area. My friend and I were assigned as sentries to guard the sleep of our soldiers.
Around midnight, a suspicious noise attracted our attention. It then died down, then rang out again. We could hear the heavy breathing of the hidden enemy; his fuss was already very close to the barracks. Our nerves could not stand it, and for courage we shot. Our fighting friends jumped out of the barracks with rifles, ready to immediately take up defensive positions. "What's happened?" - they asked us. After our explanation, the search for the “enemy” began. And then the light of numerous flashlights illuminated a cow peacefully grazing not far from the barracks.”
The detachment had a variable, “floating” number and structure. On his last campaign from Novocherkassk, V.M. Chernetsov set out with “his” artillery: on January 12, 1918, from the Volunteer Army he was given an artillery platoon (two guns), a machine gun team and a reconnaissance team of the Junker battery, under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel D .T.Mionchinsky. On January 15, 1918, V.M. Chernetsov moved north. His detachment occupies Zverevo station, then Likhaya. According to received information, the Reds are capturing Zverevo, cutting off the detachment from Novocherkassk; fortunately, it was only a raid and the Reds did not linger there. Having transferred the defense of Zverevo to an officer company, V. M. Chernetsov concentrated his detachment for the defense of Likhaya, which was an important railway junction at the crossing of two lines: Millerovo - Novocherkassk and Tsaritsyn - Pervozvanovka. By this time, there were 3 hundred in the detachment of the 27-year-old captain: the first - under the command of Lieutenant Vasily Kurochkin, the second - captain Brylkin (was in the department, guarding the Zverevo - Novocherkassk line and the third - headquarters captain Inozemtsev. Capable only of advancing V.M. Chernetsov decides to capture the station and the village of Kamenskaya, which follows the route north from Likhaya. At the Severo-Donetsky crossing, the Chernetsovites met with the enemy. Fighting They still alternate with negotiations and the envoys from the red side propose to disperse. An unpleasant surprise here was that the Cossacks, along with the Red Guards, were also acting against the partisans, although the villagers who formed the enemy’s left flank reported that they would not shoot. Chernetsov, who personally arrived at the place of negotiations, ordered to open fire. There was no particular bitterness: when the partisans approached 800 steps, the Reds began to retreat, the Cossacks actually did not participate in the battle, and the 12th Don Cossack battery, although it fired at the partisans, but the shrapnel was deliberately placed at a high gap and caused practically no harm.
In the morning, the Chernetsovites occupied Kamenskaya, abandoned by the Reds, without a fight. The Cossack population greeted them very friendly, the youth enrolled in the detachment (the 4th hundred were formed from the students of the village of Kamenskaya), the officers who were in the village formed a squad, and a nutrition center was set up by a women's circle at the station.
Three hours later, the partisans rushed back with two guns: the officer company was knocked out from Likha, the path to Novocherkassk was cut off, the enemy was in the rear. Instead of going to Glubaya, we had to turn back again. The battle was successful: a carriage with shells and 12 machine guns were captured, the enemy lost more than a hundred people only killed. But the losses of the partisans were also great; Chernetsov’s “right hand”, Lieutenant Kurochkin, was wounded.
On January 20, from the village of Kamenskaya, where the partisans returned, the last campaign of Colonel Chernetsov began (for the capture of Likhaya he was promoted “through the rank” of Ataman A.M. Kaledin). According to the plan, V.M. Chernetsov with a hundred of his partisans, an officer platoon and one gun was supposed to bypass Glubokaya, and two hundred with the remaining gun of Staff Captain Shperling under the general command of Roman Lazarev were supposed to strike head-on. A simultaneous attack from the front and rear was planned, and the bypass column was supposed to dismantle the railway track, thus cutting off the escape route.
The young commander overestimated the strength of himself and his partisans: instead of reaching the attack site at noon, the partisans, lost in the steppe, reached the attack line only in the evening. The first experience of getting away from the railway turned out to be lumpy. However, Chernetsov, not accustomed to stopping, decided, without waiting for the morning, to attack immediately. “The partisans, as always, were on the rise,” recalled one of the Chernetsovites, “they reached a bayonet strike, broke into the station, but there were few of them - from the south, from the Kamenskaya side, no one supported them, the attack floundered; all three machine guns jammed, a reaction set in - the partisans became yesterday’s children.” The gun also failed. In the darkness, about 60 partisans out of one and a half hundred who attacked Glubokaya gathered around V.M. Chernetsov.
After spending the night on the outskirts of the village and fixing the gun, the Chernetsovites, hungry and almost out of ammunition, began to retreat to Kamenskaya. Here Vasily Mikhailovich made a fatal mistake: wanting to try out the corrected gun, he ordered several shots fired at the outskirts of Glubokaya, where the Red Guards were gathering. Lieutenant Colonel Mionchinsky, who commanded the artillerymen, warned that by doing so he would declassify the presence of the partisans and it would be difficult to escape from the Cossack cavalry. But... the shells landed well and, to the joyful cries of the partisans, the gun fired a dozen more shells, after which the detachment moved back.
After some time, the retreat route was cut off by a mass of cavalry. These were the Cossacks of the military foreman Golubov. Chernetsov decided to take the fight. Three dozen partisans with one gun took the fight against five hundred cavalry; the guns of the former Life Guards of the 6th Don Cossack Battery opened fire. The battery firing without officers showed excellent guards training.
In his last, dying call on January 28, 1918, Ataman A.M. Kaledin noted: “... our Cossack regiments located in the Donetsk district (10th, 27th, 44th Don Cossacks and L. Guards 6- I Don Cossack Battery - A.M.), rebelled and, in alliance with the Red Guard bands and soldiers who had invaded the Donetsk district, attacked the detachment of Colonel Chernetsov, directed against the Red Guards, and destroyed part of it, after which most of the regiments participating in this vile and vile deed - they scattered among the farmsteads, abandoning their artillery and plundering the regimental sums of money, horses and property.”
The Chernetsovites damaged the weapon, which had turned into a heavy burden, and threw it into a ravine; its commander, his riders and some of the troops who mounted on Chernetsov’s orders rode on horseback to Kamenskaya.
The partisans and artillery cadets gathered around Colonel V.M. Chernetsov repelled the attacks of the Cossack cavalry with volleys. “Colonel Chernetsov loudly congratulated everyone on their promotion to ensign. The answer was a few but loud “Hurray!” But the Cossacks, having recovered, not abandoning the thought of crushing us and dealing with the partisans for their impudence, launched a second attack. The same thing happened again. Colonel Chernetsov again congratulated us on our production, but as second lieutenants. “Hurray!” followed again.
The Cossacks went for the third time, apparently deciding to complete the attack, Colonel Chernetsov let the attackers come so close that it seemed that it was too late to shoot and that the moment had been lost, when at that moment a loud and clear “Fire!” was heard. A friendly volley rang out, then another, a third, and the Cossacks, unable to bear it, turned back in confusion, leaving behind the wounded and dead. Colonel Chernetsov congratulated everyone on their promotion to lieutenant, and “Hurray!” rang out again! and the partisans, to whom many of the stragglers had managed to approach, began to cross to the other side of the ravine to retreat further.”
And at that moment V.M. Chernetsov was wounded in the leg. Unable to save their beloved leader, the young partisans decided to die with him and lay down in a circle with a radius of 20-30 steps, with the wounded V.M. Chernetsov in the center. Then came a proposal... for a truce. The partisans laid down their arms, the leading Cossacks too, but the masses that surged behind them quickly turned the Chernetsovites from “brothers” into prisoners. Calls were heard: “Beat them, machine gun them all…” The partisans were stripped and driven in their underwear towards Glubokaya.
Former military foreman Nikolai Golubov, aiming to become the Don atamans, the head of the revolutionary Cossack force wanted to appear before the defeated enemy in better light, “so that Chernetsov and we see not unbridledness, but combat units. He turned back and loudly shouted: “Regiment commanders - come to me!” Two police officers, whipping the horses, and the partisans along the way, flew forward. Golubov strictly ordered them: “Go in a column of six. People should not dare leave the line. The commanders of hundreds should go to their places!”
News arrived that the Chernetsovites from Kamenskaya were continuing their offensive. Threatening all prisoners with death, Golubov forced Chernetsov to write an order to stop the offensive. And he turned his regiments towards the attackers, leaving a small convoy with the prisoners.
Taking advantage of the moment (the approach of three horsemen), Chernetsov hit the chairman of the Donrevkom Podtelkov in the chest and shouted: “Hurray! These are ours! With a shout of “Hurray! General Chernetsov! The partisans scattered, the confused convoy gave some the opportunity to escape.
The wounded Chernetsov rode off to his native village, where he was betrayed by one of his fellow villagers and captured the next day by Podtelkov.
“On the way, Podtelkov mocked Chernetsov - Chernetsov was silent. When Podtelkov hit him with a whip, Chernetsov grabbed a small Browning gun from the inner pocket of his sheepskin coat and pointedly... clicked at Podtelkov, there was no cartridge in the barrel of the pistol - Chernetsov forgot about it, without feeding the cartridge from the clip. Podtelkov grabbed his saber, slashed him in the face, and five minutes later the Cossacks rode on, leaving Chernetsov’s chopped-up corpse in the steppe.
Golubov allegedly, upon learning of Chernetsov’s death, attacked Podtelkov with curses and even began to cry...”
And the remnants of the Chernetsov detachment left on February 9, 1918 with the Volunteer Army for the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign, joining the ranks of the Partisan Regiment.

Provincial “counter-revolution” [White movement and civil war in the Russian North] Novikova Lyudmila Gennadievna

White partisans

White partisans

Partisan detachments, consisting of volunteer peasants, operated in almost all sectors of the Northern Front. They did not suffer from desertion, demonstrated high combat efficiency and were distinguished by their loyalty to the regime. Unlike the red partisan detachments or the “green” partisans, who hid in the forests from requisitions and mobilizations, almost nothing is known about the white partisans of the Civil War period. Nevertheless, they played a key role in the Civil War in the North.

The main condition for appearing in the North partisan movement the front line became relatively immobile. After the White offensive stalled in 1918, drowning in the autumn mud and in anticipation of imminent cold weather, the Northern Front set up separate combat outposts. They covered the main lines of communication along rivers, railway lines and main roads. Due to the nature of the terrain - difficult to pass, swampy and wooded - and the small number of troops involved on both sides, there was no continuous front line in the North. Therefore, front-line villages often became easy victims of destructive and brutal raids by mobile Bolshevik detachments.

Such raids, more than anything else, contributed to the emergence of the partisan movement. This is evidenced by the history of the actions of the red detachments under the command of Alexei Shchennikov on Pinega and Moritz Mandelbaum on Pechora. A small but well-armed special-purpose detachment led by a member of the Arkhangelsk Provincial Executive Committee A.P. Shchennikov was organized in Kotlas in September - October 1918. The first units of the detachment, numbering about 150 soldiers with several machine guns, appeared in the upper reaches of Pinega in mid-September. And in the second half of October, the detachment made a deep raid down the river and subjugated a number of volosts. Having captured a transport with grain on the way, sent from Arkhangelsk to feed the inhabitants of the Pinega region, Shchennikov found himself in possession of the two most important levers of power - military force and food. They were used to establish red influence in Pinega and split the Pinega village.

Relying on bayonets and the sympathy of part of the Pinega population, especially young front-line soldiers, the command of the detachment began to create committees of the poor, and in November convened a congress of Soviet district workers. As Stavrov, a participant in the raid, later admitted at the 1st Arkhangelsk provincial conference of the RCP(b): “... it cannot be said that these were chosen persons, since the Congress had to be convened almost at the discretion of Comrade Kulakov [one of the leaders of the detachment. – L.N.] and mine.” He also noted: “...at our personal discretion, a decision was made to shoot unfit elements. According to the resolutions of the Committees, the poor were shot - perhaps this would be a crime - in groups of 18 or even 20... [The] district executive committee and local executive committees generally considered this correct.”

The committees and executive committees relied in their actions on the military strength of Shchennikov’s detachment, which behaved as if it were conquered enemy territory. He terrorized the population and extensively requisitioned grain and peasant property, including horses, hay and livestock. Members of councils and executive committees and members of the detachment primarily distributed the requisitioned supplies among themselves. Monetary indemnities were widespread. Evasion or resistance resulted in death. The massacres became truly widespread when significant white and allied forces appeared in Pinega. In a number of volosts, the leadership of the detachment announced the mobilization of the population aged 17 to 50 years, along with horses and carts, in order to remove grain grain and requisitioned property from the region. To suppress possible resistance, the Red Army took hostages from the population and dealt with people suspected of sympathizing with the whites. According to eyewitnesses, in the village of Karpogorskoye alone, it was decided to execute more than forty people. Before death, their eyes were gouged out, their faces and genitals were cut off, they were tortured, repeatedly immersed in the icy Pinega River. The priest of the Chukhchenemsky parish, Mikhail Shangin, was chopped into pieces. On other victims of the massacres, the approaching white soldiers counted up to 22 bayonet wounds.

When Shchennikov’s detachment retreated, members of the Podkom and Executive Committees, fearing revenge from fellow villagers and white forces, retreated with him, often taking their families with them. They created a red partisan detachment, on the basis of which at the beginning of 1919 the 160th red rifle regiment was formed. At the same time, as the Red forces retreated from the territory they left, self-defense units were quickly created from local peasants, who sought to prevent new raids and take revenge on the offenders. Entire volosts voluntarily mobilized their available male population to fight the Reds. By the beginning of 1919, the number of permanently operating peasant detachments on Pinega reached 700 people. There were Verkhnepinezhsky, Trufanogorsky, Pechezersky, Yurolsky, Zavrasky and Podborsky detachments. They sent requests to the Arkhangelsk command for help with weapons and military force.

On Pechora, a role similar to Shchennikov’s detachment was played by a detachment under the command of the Austrian “internationalist” Moritz Mandelbaum. He acted in the fall of 1918 on the orders of the command of the Red 6th Army. A steamship with Red Army soldiers, whose number did not exceed 80–100 people, appeared on Pechora in mid-September 1918. To prevent possible resistance, sailing to the village, Mandelbaum fired at it with rifles or a cannon, after which the Red Army soldiers surrounded and occupied the village. This was followed by robberies and massacres, the victims of which at first were priests, wealthier members of the population and residents suspected of sympathizing with whites. Mandelbaum's Red Army soldiers sometimes used cruel torture. Evidence has been preserved of how people were placed naked under the open tap of a boiling samovar and kept there until all the water flowed out. Among the dead there were even women and children.

The population of the region was panicked by the fact that the detachment, having robbed the village once, often returned, and requisitions, torture and executions began anew. Thus, the village of Ust-Tsilma, the administrative center of the Pechora district, was first subjected to destruction in mid-September 1918, when Mandelbaum’s Red Army soldiers arrested and partially shot members of the local administration, requisitioned the cash of the district treasury and the property of wealthy village residents. After a short stand, the detachment moved on. However, two weeks later, when a barge with bread arrived in Ust-Tsilma from the lower reaches of the Pechora River, the steamship with Red Army soldiers appeared again. The detachment seized the food warehouse of a consumer cooperative and carried out a new series of arrests and requisitions. Outrage against Mandelbaum's actions on Pechora became widespread when, on the eve of the retreat, the detachment's command gave the order to burn warehouses with grain that could not be taken out. This caused a general protest in the region, where imported bread was in insufficient quantities. Residents of Pechora villages began to organize voluntary self-defense units, arming themselves with the primitive Berdankas they had on hand. They sent persistent requests to Arkhangelsk to send reinforcements and weapons to repel the Red raids.

The circumstances of the emergence of armed peasant detachments in the North of Russia were reminiscent of the reasons for the emergence of the “green” movement. However, trying, like the “greens,” to protect themselves from requisitions and take revenge on the offenders, the northern peasants did not want to protect the village from any external interference or, in principle, from the Civil War between the whites and the reds. On the contrary, they tried with all their might to gain the patronage and support of one of the parties.

Outside help was needed primarily to prevent the front line from moving. The frequent transfer of villages from enemy to enemy threatened the peasants with new military destruction, robberies and reprisals for collaborating with the enemy. In the non-grain-bearing North, the disputed volosts also more often suffered from famine, since the warring governments did not want to supply “foreign” villages with food. Therefore, peasant rebel groups sought to gain recognition and help from the authorities, thereby turning from “green” formations into white or red partisans.

Despite the fact that Soviet historiography divided the partisan detachments into red - “poor” and white - “kulak”, social factors they did not always determine the choice of “their” side. For example, in the first weeks of the existence of the Northern Region, poorer volosts, on the contrary, were inclined to support the whites in the hope of a better supply of imported food. In turn, it happened that richer villages sympathized with the Soviets.

Property differences could push fellow villagers to support the warring parties in the Civil War if they overlapped with conflicts that already existed in the village. At the same time, the labels “red” and “white” often became a way to settle personal scores. Liberal publicist A.S. Izgoev, sent at the beginning of 1919 “to mobilize the bourgeoisie” for the construction of red fortifications under the Plesetskaya station on Arkhangelskaya railway, later recalled his conversation with a peasant woman in a prisoner's carriage. The woman, through tears, whispered to a random fellow traveler that after the arrival of the Reds, fellow villagers who had plans for a prosperous economy reported on her husband that he was giving carts to the Whites. Having achieved the arrest of the husband, the neighbors then easily got rid of the remaining woman on the farm, who traditionally had a vulnerable position in the peasant world. “[Y]ou, they say, showed signals to the whites,” the villagers asserted, according to the peasant woman. Finding herself under arrest after this, she especially lamented the fate of her three young children: “The neighbors will hurt them, they will kill the last cow.” Thus, the struggle between whites and reds partly intensified internal conflicts in the village.

In turn, the peasants in the white territory also did not hesitate to involve the authorities in intra-village disputes. For example, the peasants of the Denislavsky volost of the Onega district M. Malyshev and O. Sandrovsky ensured that their fellow villagers A.N. were sent to the provincial prison. and D.N. Malyshevs. During their short stay in the volost of the Reds, the two brothers headed the volost executive committee and the village committee of the poor, respectively. But most importantly, they were not only “supporters of the Bolshevik government” and made speeches of the “Bolshevik trend,” but also “took part in the requisition of grain and property from citizens,” from which the plaintiffs themselves probably suffered. The same surname of the plaintiff and the accused suggests that the root cause of the conflict could be a dispute between relatives. Such village litigation often forced peasants to seek refuge in partisan detachments on the other side of the front.

Service in opposing armies, in turn, entailed new redistributions of property. In a typical resolution of the peasant gathering of the Rostov volost of the Shenkursky district, the 196 householders present recognized Alexander Shalagin and Anton Konstantinov and their family, who had defected to the Reds, as “Bolsheviks.” Therefore, it was decided to “exclude them from the environment of our society and deprive them of land use per capita.” The family of another “Bolshevik” - Anton Detkov - was evicted from their home by Rostov residents. Thus, sometimes it was not the poor peasants who joined the Bolsheviks, but, on the contrary, those who joined the Bolsheviks became poor, losing their property in the village.

When peasants chose “their” side in the Civil War, it was not the property status that mattered, but the age of the volunteers. Both white and red sources agree that the Soviets and the Red Army were more often supported by young people, soldiers returning from the World War, while the older generation was more likely to sympathize with the whites. As a result, the Civil War between Reds and Whites partly intensified the long-existing generational conflict in the village.

But despite this, the difference between the white and red partisan detachments, even in terms of age, was not striking. Soviet investigative materials about partisan leaders and white partisans show that the core of white detachments also, as a rule, consisted of former front-line soldiers. For example, the organizer of the Shenkursky detachment, 26-year-old Maxim Rakitin, a native of the peasants of the Shenkursky district and a rural teacher, who led the uprising of those mobilized in Shenkursk in 1918, was an ensign during the World War and, while in Petrograd in February 1917, even participated in the revolution. Savvaty Kopylov, a 23-year-old peasant from the Shenkursky district, who was captured together with Rakitin during reconnaissance in November 1919, fought in Galicia in the Preobrazhensky Regiment before the revolution. In Pinega, the organizer of the detachment was 25-year-old front-line soldier Sergei Starkov. A significant percentage of young front-line soldiers were also among the members of partisan detachments.

White peasant leaders, like their red opponents, could in the past be leaders of military committees and members of councils. For example, the commander of the white Lisestrovsky detachment Gordey Moseyev in the spring and summer of 1917 was a member and then chairman of the military committee of the 177th Infantry Regiment, and in the fall of the same year he was co-opted from the army to the Novgorod Council of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants' Deputies. A native of the village of Perkhachevskaya, Arkhangelsk district, he had already been interested in politics. Before the revolution, Moseev managed to work for several years as a worker in Petrograd, where he even joined the United Social Democratic Party. For his political activities, he was administratively expelled from the capital in 1913. Thus, politically active front-line soldiers who had connections in the past with Social Democratic or Socialist Revolutionary organizations often led not only red partisan groups and “green” detachments, but also detachments of white partisans.

Although fellow villagers sometimes fought as volunteers in opposing armies, most often one volost became the basis for only one - white or red - partisan detachment, voluntarily mobilizing the available male population into it. Despite the fact that the revolution exacerbated property disputes and generational conflict in the countryside, most peasants still preferred to act together, resisting common offenders or wanting to take revenge on their neighbors. The Civil War intensified the traditional enmity that existed between some neighboring villages and volosts, whose residents could seek support from the White or Red authorities. For example, the commander of the white 7th Infantry Regiment, emphasizing the high fighting qualities of volunteer peasants from the Tserkovnicheskaya volost of the Kholmogory district, admitted that “at the core... lies the old enmity of two adjacent volosts.” In the Onega district, a land conflict around the possessions of the Kozheozersk monastery led to the appearance of a red partisan detachment there. The peasants of the village of Krivoi Poyas seized the monastery lands and livestock despite the resistance of the neighboring Kozha volost, killing the abbot, several monks and two Kozha peasants. For months they kept the monastery in their hands thanks to the fact that they established contact with the red units, which supplied them with weapons and even sent reinforcements. In the Shenkursky district, the traditional rivalry between the “upper” and “lower” volosts determined the red-white front line that cut the district and provided “shenkuryat” volunteers for both the white and red partisan detachments. On Pinega, the “upper” volosts also supported the Reds, while the volosts along the lower reaches of the river supported the Whites for most of the Civil War. The participation of peasants in partisan detachments was often almost universal. This is evidenced by the fact that even in the mid-1920s. in some districts and volosts of the Arkhangelsk province, up to half the population was deprived of voting rights for voluntarily participating in the Civil War on the side of the whites.

Thus, the guerrilla civil war largely grew out of traditional conflicts in the northern countryside. Often, neighboring volosts served as the basis for two warring partisan detachments. Therefore, white and red volunteer peasants often hardly differed from each other in social or property status. The choice of “their” side in the Civil War by the partisans remained largely random. It primarily depended on who exactly was the main offender, which of the opponents could provide more help and prevent the volost from becoming an arena of incessant robberies.

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