Peasant rebellion of Sorokino

Sorokino rebellion

Part of the Russian Civil War and the Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks

Date	Early 1921
Location	Altai Krai and Kuzbass, Russia
Result	Bolshevik victory

Belligerents

Alliance of peasant rebels, anarchists, and White Army veterans

Russian SFSR

Commanders and leaders

I. P. Novoselov
P. K. Lubkov
E. P. Listkov

Unknown

Units involved

Several detachments

Red Army

5th Army's 35th Division
- 308th Regiment

ČON

Strength

5,000–10,000

Unknown

v t e Theaters of the Russian Civil War
October Revolution Left-wing uprisings Allied intervention Central Powers intervention Northern Finland North Russia Heimosodat Eastern Karelia Western Estonia Latvia Lithuania Petrograd Poland Southern Ukraine Ukrainian-Soviet War Western Ukraine South Russia Bessarabia South Caucasus Ossetia Georgia Armenia and Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Armenia Tambov Eastern Czechoslovak Legionary Revolt Siberia 1st Kazan 2nd Kazan 1st Perm Spring 1919 offensive of the White Army Spring 1919 counteroffensive of the Red Army Great Siberian Ice March Chita Mongolia Yakut revolt Central Asian Bukhara Khiva Basmachi

Theaters of the
Russian Civil War

Northern

Western

Southern

Eastern

Central Asian

v t e Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War
1st Yakut Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion Barnaul Siberian intervention 1st Kazan 2nd Kazan Simbirsk Syzran and Samara Izhevsk and Votkinsk Arsk Minusinsk 1st Perm Sheksna Spring offensive Orenburg Uralsk Chapan War Eastern Front counteroffensive Buguruslan Belebey Sarapul and Votkinsk Ufa 2nd Perm Zlatoust Yekaterinburg Chelyabinsk Tobolsk Petropavlovsk Uralsk and Guryev Bogdat Great Siberian Ice March Omsk Novonikolaevsk Krasnoyarsk Chita Starving March Pitchfork uprising West Siberian rebellion Sorokino rebellion Svobodny Incident Mongolia Khabarovsk Spassk 2nd Yakut

Eastern Front
of the Russian Civil War

The peasant rebellion of Sorokino, officially called the Kulak Rebellion of Sorokino by the Soviet Russian authorities, was a popular uprising against the Soviet policy of war communism in Altai Krai and Kuzbass in central Russia.

Prelude

After the Bolsheviks assumed control of the Russian government in the October Revolution of 1917, they implemented various policies which were unpopular among the country's rural population. As result, various anti-Communist peasant uprising erupted during the Russian Civil War. One of the largest and widespread rebellions took place in Siberia from mid-1920, after the Russian SFSR's tax policy had effectively destroyed the economic basis of many peasants. This revolt also affected the Altai Mountains, where the rebels were led by veteran anarchist partisans under I. P. Novoselov, P. K. Lubkov, and others. The Red Army managed to suppress this insurgency by fall 1920, and the revolting peasants were severely punished. Many anarchist insurgents including Novoselov and Lubkov managed to escape the government forces, however, and went into hiding.

Rebellion

A new wave of uprisings hit the Altai region in January 1921. Similarly to the 1920 rebellion, it was motivated by opposition to the Communist tax policies. The peasants took up arms in order to force the communist government from their lands, and received support by rural rebels who had already taken part in the 1920 rebellion. The uprising spread across a "huge" area to the east of Barnaul and north of Biysk, where around 5,000–10,000 armed peasants rallied around the mottos "For a clean Soviet power" and "Soviets without communists". The center of the rebellion was the locality of Sorokino.

Supported by White Army veterans as well as anarchist partisans, the peasant rebels formed units, elected commanders and began to fight both the Red Army as well as local pro-government paramilitaries. The main rebel detachments were once again led by Lubkov and Novoselov; the latter was based at Zhulanikha and Julianikh. The fact that conservative Whites and anarchists allied during this rebellion showcased how desperate both groups had become in resisting the Red Army. Nevertheless, Novoselov planned to immediately turn on the Whites in the case of victory. In February 1921, a battalion of the 308th Regiment (5th Red Army's 35th Division) as well as several regiments of local paramilitaries defeated Novoselov's detachment near Sorokino. About 400 rebels as well as five Red Army soldiers were killed in this action. The rest of Novoselov's forces retreated towards Barnaul. The further course of the rebellion is not well documented, but the government eventually crushed the uprising, and went on to denounce the rebels as rich Kulaks and bandits.

Aftermath

The history of the Sorokino rebellion eventually regained some importance when NKVD Order No. 00447 was implemented in 1937, as many former rebels were again put on trial and convicted, with those identified as insurgent commanders and former White Army officers mostly being executed.

In 1972, a monument was erected in Guryevsk for the five Red Army soldiers who had been killed at Sorokino during the rebellion. The monument includes a plaque with the inscription "To those who died for the cause of the proletariat eternal memory!"

Notes

Even though Elistar Petrovič Listkov, a former Imperial Russian Army soldier and World War I veteran, reportedly served as rebel commander during the uprising, he was not put on trial until 1938, leaving the actual extent of his activity as insurgent unclear. In that year, he was convicted and executed in course of the NKVD Order No. 00447 purges.
The Časti osobogo naznačeniâ (ČON) were paramilitary units that were organized by the RCP(b) to combat counter-revolutionary groups since 1919.

References

Jusopova (2010), pp. 106–108.
^ Jusopova (2010), p. 102.
^ Jusopova (2010), p. 92.
^ Jusopova (2010), p. 107.
^ Brovkin (1994), p. 379.
^ Frank Mintz. "A Siberian 'Makhnovshchina' [Review]". Kate Sharpley Library. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
^ Jusopova (2010), p. 94.
Jusopova (2010), pp. 103, 104.
Jusopova (2010), pp. 102, 107.
Steven (13 September 2006). "1900-1923: Anarchism in Siberia". Libcom.org. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
^ "Common Grave of Red Army Soldiers". Kemerovo Oblast. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
Jusopova (2010), pp. 106, 107.
Jusopova (2010), pp. 92, 93.
Jusopova (2010), p. 97.
Jusopova (2010), p. 103.

Works cited

Brovkin, Vladimir N. (1994). Behind the Front Lines of the Civil War: Political Parties and Social Movements in Russia, 1918-1922. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03278-5.
Jusopova, Evgenija (2010). "Vorgehen gegen die Teilnehmer des Aufstandes von Sorokino in der Altaj-Region". In Rolf Binner; Bernd Bonwetsch; Marc Junge (eds.). Stalinismus in der sowjetischen Provinz 1937–1938. Die Massenaktion aufgrund des operativen Befehls No. 00447 (in German). Berlin: Akademie Verlag. pp. 91–109. ISBN 978-3-05-004685-3.

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