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#REDIRECT ] |
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{{See also|Third Russian Revolution (disambiguation)}} |
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{{R to related topic}} |
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| date = 1918-1924 |
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{{Campaignbox Russian Civil War}} |
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'''Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks''' were a series of ]s and uprisings against the ]s led or supported by left wing groups including ], ], ], and ]. Some were in support of the ] while some tried to be an independent force. The uprisings started in 1918 and continued through the ] and after until 1922. In response the Bolsheviks increasingly abandoned attempts to get these groups to join the government and suppressed them with force. |
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==Background== |
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{{Libertarian socialism}} |
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Previously, the dominating parts of the ]s and of the ] had supported the continuation of ] by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution of 1917. The Bolsheviks called the war an ] and called for the revolutionary defeat of their own ] government. Within the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionists, there did exist factions that also opposed the war and the government, but much of their leadership was involved in both. In the ] of 1917, the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties supported suppression of the Bolsheviks. |
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The ] came to power in the ] of November 1917 through simultaneous election in the most prominent ] and an organized uprising supported by military mutiny. Several of the main reasons for which much of the population supported the Bolsheviks were to end the war and have a social revolution, exemplified by the slogan "Peace, Land, Bread". |
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===SR split=== |
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The Bolsheviks invited left SRs and ]'s ] to join the government. The Mensheviks and Right SRs walked out. The majority of SRs split to form the Left SRs (<ref name="carr1985">Carr, E.H. - The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923. W. W. Norton & Company 1985.</ref> p111) and joined the Bolshevik coalition government, supporting the Bolsheviks immediate enactment of the Socialist Revolutionary Party's land redistribution program. The Left SRs were given four Commissar positions and held high posts within the ]. The Left SRs still diverged with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the war. |
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===First party ban=== |
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The only party banned at first was the ]ist ], generally known as "The ]". |
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===SR and Menshevik support to Kaledin=== |
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The imperial Russian general ] immediately started a rebellion of the ]. This was the beginning of the White Movement and ], which would lead to the deaths of nearly ten million people. Fourteen of the biggest ] countries sent troops to help the Whites. The Bolsheviks were willing to use whatever means necessary to win as fast as possible, including the use of ] (see ]). They viewed rebellions started during the civil war as helping the Whites, both because they would fight against the Bolsheviks at the same time the Whites were, and because most forces trying to be independent of the Whites failed to do so and led to the Whites taking over their areas.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} |
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Kaledin was supported by the Kadets, SRs, and some Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks banned the Kadets as ], calling to arrest "the political leaders of the counterrevolutionary civil war".(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 113) The Bolsheviks were still trying to negotiate with SRs and Mensheviks at this point and they were not banned. |
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===Anarchist divisions=== |
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{{further2|]}} |
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Anarchists, like the Socialist Revolutionaries, were divided. Some supported the Bolsheviks, holding minor positions in the government,<ref name="avrich1968" /> some were neutral, and some actively resisted. Anarchists that supported the Soviet government were referred to as "Soviet anarchists", by anti-Bolshevik anarchists, and were lauded by Lenin in August 1919 as "the most dedicated supporters of Soviet power".<ref name="avrich1968">]. "Russian Anarchists and the Civil War", ''Russian Review'', Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1968), pp. 296-306. ]</ref> |
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==Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, early Constituent Assembly rebellions== |
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The Constituent Assembly had been a demand of the Bolsheviks against the Provisional Government, which kept delaying it. After the October Revolution the elections were run by the body appointed by the previous Provisional Government. It was based on universal suffrage, but used party lists from before the Left-Right SR split. The anti-soviet Right SRs took the majority of the seats but this reflected the opposite of reality: the majority of SRs and the people were pro-soviet(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 111-112). Lenin's ''Theses on the Constituent Assembly'' argued in '']'' that because of class conflicts, conflicts with Ukraine, and with the Kadet-Kaledin uprising formal democracy was impossible. He argued the Constituent Assembly must unconditionally accept sovereignty of the soviet government or it would be dealt with "by revolutionary means".(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 113-115) |
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On December 30, 1917, the SR ] and some followers were arrested for organizing a conspiracy. This was the first time Bolsheviks used this kind of repression against a socialist party. '']'' said the arrest was not related to his membership in the Constituent Assembly. (,<ref name="carr1985" /> 115) |
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On January 4, 1918, the ] made a resolution saying the slogan "all power to the constituent assembly" was counterrevolutionary and equivalent to "down with the soviets".(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 115-116) |
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].]] |
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].]] |
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The Constituent Assembly met on January 18, 1918. The Right SR Chernov was elected president defeating the Bolshevik supported candidate, the Left SR ]. The majority refused to accept sovereignty of the Soviet government, and in response the Bolsheviks and Left SRs walked out. It was dispersed by an armed guard, sailor Zheleznyakov.(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 118-120) A simultaneous demonstration in favor of the Constituent Assembly was dispersed with force, but there was little protest afterward as people in general supported the Bolsheviks.(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 120-121) |
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The first large ] repression with some killings began against the ]s of Petrograd in mid-April 1918. On May 1, 1918, a pitched battle took place in Moscow between the anarchists and the police. (P.Avrich. G Maximoff) |
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===Constituent Assembly uprising=== |
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The ] was founded in Moscow in April 1918 as an underground agency organizing democratic resistance to the Bolshevik dictatorship, composed of the Popular Socialists, Right Socialist Revolutionaries, and Defensists, among others. They were tasked with propping up anti-Bolshevik forces and to create a Russian state system based on civil liberties, patriotism, and state-consciousness with the goal to liberate the country from the "Germano-Bolshevik" yolk.<ref name=WS>, Norman G. O. Pereira. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1996. ISBN 0-7735-1349-3, ISBN 978-0-7735-1349-5. p. 65</ref><ref>, Christopher Lazarski. ISBN 0-7618-4120-2, ISBN 978-0-7618-4120-3. p. 42-43</ref><ref>, Vladimir N. Brovkin. Hoover Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8179-8981-1, ISBN 978-0-8179-8981-1. p. 135</ref> |
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On May 7, 1918, the ] of the ] commenced in ] and recognized the Union's leading role, putting aside political ideology and class for the purpose of Russia's salvation. They decided to start an uprising against the Bolsheviks with the goal of reconvening the ].<ref name=WS /> While preparations were under way, the ] overthrew Bolshevik rule in ], ] and the ] region in late May-early June 1918 and the center of SR activity shifted there. On June 8, 1918, five Constituent Assembly members formed the All-Russian ] (''Komuch'') in ] and declared it the new supreme authority in the country.<ref name="komuch">See Jonathan D. Smele. Op. cit., p.32 ("Op. cit." means to refer to a work cited earlier in the citations. this means you copied it from a citation list, and are citing something that you have not read. instead you should cite what you read and say it refers to this, or if you can get the original work and look at it then you can cite it directly.)</ref> The Social Revolutionary-Menshevik ] came to power on June 29, 1918, after the uprising in ]. |
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==Left SRs disagreements== |
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The Left SRs were dismayed that the ] gave up large amounts of territory. With the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the Bolsheviks on March 3, 1918, the Socialist Revolutionary leadership "increasingly viewed" the Bolshevik government as a German proxy.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} They left the government in protest in March 1918. |
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===Mensheviks and SRs excluded from soviets=== |
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At the ] of July 4, 1918, the ] had 352 delegates compared to 745 Bolsheviks out of 1132 total. The Left SRs raised disagreements on the suppression of rival parties, the death penalty, and mainly, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Bolsheviks excluded the Right SRs and Mensheviks from the government on 14 June for associating with counterrevolutionaries and seeking to "organize armed attacks against the workers and peasants", while the Left SRs advocated forming a government of all socialist parties. The Left SRs agreed with extrajudicial execution of political opponents to stop the counterrevolution, but opposed having the government legally pronouncing death sentences, an unusual position that is best understood within the context of the group's terrorist past. The Left SRs strongly opposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and opposed Trotsky's insistence that no one try to attack German troops in the Ukraine. (,<ref name="carr1985" /> 161-164) |
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==Left SR Uprising== |
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{{Main|Left SR Uprising}} |
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Defeated at the Congress, the Left S.R.s pursued their aim of sabotaging the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and dragging ] back into war with ] by using their positions within the ] to assassinate the German ] in ], ] ], on July 6, 1918. The Leadership of the Left SRs incorrectly believed this assassination would lead to a widespread popular uprising in support of their aims. They claimed to be leading an uprising against the peace with Germany and not necessarily against the Bolsheviks and soviet power.<ref name="boniece2004" /> |
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The main rebel force was a ] commanded by ], a Left S.R. and member of the Cheka. About 1,800 revolutionaries took part in the ], ]arding the ] with ] and seizing the ] exchange and ] office. During the two days that they remained in control there, they sent out several ]s, bulletins and ]s in the name of the Left S.R. Central Committee declaring that the Left S.R.s had taken over ] and that their action had been welcomed by the whole ]. The Fifth Congress of Soviets instructed the ] to suppress the ] at once, and the group of Left S.R.s at the Congress was ]ed. |
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Left S.R.s and ]s{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} also started insurrections in ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and other ]. A telegram from the Left S. R. Central Committee stating that the Left S.R.s had seized power in Moscow, was sent to ], a Left S.R. and ] of the ]. On the pretext of attacking the Germans, he seized ] (later Ulyanovsk) and marched his forces on Moscow in support of the revolutionaries. |
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The SR terrorist ] claimed to have been financed by France to organize these uprisings, though he did not claim responsibility for the assassination of Mirbach.<ref name="carr1985" /> |
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The result of the Left SR Uprising was the suppression of the Left SRs, the last major independent party other than the Bolsheviks, leaving the Bolsheviks as the only party in government. |
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Subsequent uprisings included the ], ] and the ]. |
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===Aims and slogans=== |
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Socialist Revolutionaries tended to claim to be fighting to restore the February Revolution. Some anarchists used the slogan "Third Revolution". The slogan was later used during the Kronstadt rebellion also.<ref name="avrich1974">Avrich, Paul - Kronstadt 1921. W. W. Norton & Company 1974, 170</ref> |
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===Repression=== |
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] sent the ]s to "to introduce mass terror" in ] in response to the civilian uprising there, and "crush" peasants in ] who protested to requisition of their grain by military detachments.(<ref name=courtois></ref> August 9, and August 10, 1918) |
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]: ""It is quite clear that preparations are being made for a White Guard uprising in Nizhni Novgorod," wrote Lenin in a telegram on 9 August 1918 to the president of the Executive Committee of the Nizhni Novgorod soviet, in response to a report about peasant protests against requisitioning. "Your first response must be to establish a dictatorial troika (i.e., you, Markin, and one other person) and introduce mass terror, shooting or deporting the hundreds of prostitutes who are causing all the soldiers to drink, all the ex-officers, etc. There is not a moment to lose; you must act resolutely, with massive reprisals. Immediate execution for anyone caught in possession of a firearm. Massive deportations of Mensheviks and other suspect elements." The next day Lenin sent a similar telegram to the Central Executive Committee of the Penza soviet: |
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{{Bquote|Comrades! The kulak uprising in your five districts must be crushed without pity. The interests of the whole revolution demand such actions, for the final struggle with the kulaks has now begun. You must make an example of these people. (1) Hang (I mean hang publicly, so that people see it) at least 100 kulaks, rich bastards, and known bloodsuckers. (2) Publish their names. (3) Seize all their grain. (4) Single out the hostages per my instructions in yesterday's telegram. Do all this so that for miles around people see it all, understand it, tremble, and tell themselves that we are killing the bloodthirsty kulaks and that we will continue to do so. Reply saying you have received and carried out these instructions. Yours, Lenin. |
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''P.S. Find tougher people.''<ref name=courtois/>}} |
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===Assassination attempts=== |
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In the morning of August 30, 1918, a Social Revolutionary ], who was ]’s comrade, killed the chief of the ] in Petrograd, ], in his office. |
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On August 30, 1918 ] survived an attempted assassination by ] leaving a bullet in his neck. This contributed to the strokes<ref>''New York Post'' - November 19, 2007</ref> that prevented him from removing Stalin. |
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]]] |
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On September 5, 1918 the Cheka gave responsibility for targeting opposing parties on the left such as the Social Revolutionaries and other anti-Bolshevik groups, chiefly the ], by the policy of ]. |
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===Reinstatement of Mensheviks=== |
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In November 1918, the Sixth All-Russian Congress of Soviets met. They approved an amnesty, ordering release of those detained by the Cheka who had no definite charges within two weeks of arrest, and of hostages except those needed to guarantee hostages held by their enemies. They also held out an ] to the other socialist parties. The Menshevik conference in October 1918 had declared military support to the Soviet Government but still opposed the Cheka and terror. On November 30 the VTsIK annulled the exclusion of the Mensheviks except those who were still allied with enemies.(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 170-172) |
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==Constituent Assembly and White Armies== |
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The All-Russian Constituent Assembly Committee had the support of the ] and was able to spread its authority over much of the ]-] region. However, most of the Siberia and Urals regions were controlled by a patchwork of ethnic, ], military and liberal-rightist local governments, which constantly clashed with the Committee. The Committee functioned until September 1918, eventually growing to about 90 Constituent Assembly members, when The ] representing all the anti-Bolshevik local governments from the Volga to the Pacific Ocean formed the coalition of ] (aka the Ufa Directory) with the ultimate goal of re-convening the Constituent Assembly once the circumstances permitted: |
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:2. In its activities the government will be unswervingly guided by the indisputable supreme rights of the Constituent Assembly. It will tirelessly ensure that the actions of all organs subordinate to the Provisional Government do not in any way tend to infringe the rights of the Constituent Assembly or hinder its resumption of work. |
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:3. It will present an account of its activities to the Constituent Assembly as soon as the Constituent Assembly declares that it has resumed operation. It will subordinate itself unconditionally to the Constituent Assembly, as the only supreme authority in the country.<ref name="samara">Both quotes from the "Constitution of the Ufa Directory", first published in ''Narodovlastie'', No. 1, 1918, reprinted in ''Istoriya Rossii 1917 - 1940'', Ekaterinburg, 1993, pp. 102 - 105, English translation available </ref> |
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The All-Russian Constituent Assembly Committee continued functioning as "Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly" but had no real power, although the Directory pledged to support it: |
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:All possible assistance to the Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly, operating as a legal state organ, in its independent work of ensuring the relocation of members of the Constituent Assembly, hastening and preparing the resumption of activity by the Constituent Assembly in its present composition<ref name="samara" /> |
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Initially, the agreement had the support of the Socialist Revolutionary Central Committee which delegated two of its right-wing members, Avksentiev and Zenzinov, to the five member Ufa Directory. However, when ] arrived in Samara on September 19, 1918, he was able to persuade the Central Committee to withdraw support from the Directory because he viewed it as too conservative and the SR presence there as insufficient.<ref name="ufa">See Michael Melancon. "Chernov", in ''Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution 1914-1921'', op.cit., p.137</ref> This put the Directory in a political vacuum and two months later, in November 1918, The ] was overthrown in the military '']''. Kolchak had returned to Omsk on November 16 from an inspection tour. He was approached and refused to take power. On November 18, 1918, Ufa Directory was overthrown by rightwing officers who made ] the new Supreme Ruler (''Verkhovnyi Pravitel''), and he promoted himself to ]. The ] (SR) Directory leader and members were arrested on November 18 by a troop of ]s under ] ]. The remaining cabinet members met and voted for Kolchak to become the head of government with dictatorial powers. The arrested SR politicians were expelled from Siberia and ended up in Europe. After the fall of the Ufa Directory, Chernov formulated what he called the "third path" against both the Bolsheviks and the liberal-rightist ], but the SRs' attempts to assert themselves as an independent force were unsuccessful and the party, always fractious, began to disintegrate. On the Right, ] and ] went abroad with Kolchak's permission. On the Left, some SRs became reconciled with the Bolsheviks. The SR leaders in Russia denounced Kolchak and called for him to be killed. Victor Chernov tried to stage an uprising against Kolchak. Their activities resulted in the ] Uprising on December 22, 1918, which was put down by ], who summarily executed almost 500 revolutionaries. |
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===Reinstatement of SRs=== |
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In January 1919 the SR Central Committee decided that the Bolsheviks were the lesser of two evils and gave up armed struggle against them. The SRs opened negotiations with the Bolsheviks and in February 1919 the SR People's Army joined with the ]. The VTsIK resolved on February 25, 1919 to reinstate the SRs except those who continued to directly or indirectly support counterrevolution.(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 172) |
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===Further repression=== |
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In ], the strikers and Red Army soldiers who joined them were loaded onto barges and then thrown by the hundreds into the ] with stones around their necks. Between 2,000 and 4,000 were shot or drowned from March 12 to 14, 1919. In addition, the repression also claimed the lives of some 600 to 1,000 ]. Recently published archival documents indicate this was the largest ] of workers by the Bolsheviks before the suppression of the ]. |
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On March 16, 1919, Cheka stormed the ]. More than 900 workers who went to a strike were arrested. More than 200 of them were executed without trial during next few days. Numerous strikes took place in the spring of 1919 in cities of ], ], ], ], and ]. The starving workers sought to obtain food rations matching those of Red Army soldiers. They also demanded the elimination of privileges for Communists, freedom of press, and free elections. All strikes were mercilessly suppressed by Cheka using arrests and executions. |
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===SR splits again=== |
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The Bolsheviks let the SR Central Committee re-establish itself in Moscow and start publishing a party newspaper in March 1919.<ref name="ref1919">See Ronald Grigor Suny. ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States'', Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-508105-6 p.80</ref> After the Bolsheviks 8th Party Conference the SRs split this time into three factions; one pro-Bolshevik, one pro-White, and one led by Chernov which again tried to establish a "third force". (,<ref name="carr1985" /> 173) In response SR Central Committee members were arrested. From this point on the frequent arrests by the Cheka of opposition leaders for engaging in conspiracies led to difficulties in these formally legal parties operations, and most of their rank and file left them for the Bolsheviks. (,<ref name="carr1985" /> 173-174) Chernov went undercover and eventually was forced to flee Russia. |
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===Repression=== |
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A typical report from a Cheka department stated: "] Province, 23 June 1919. The uprising of deserters in the Petropavlovskaya ''volost'' has been put down. The families of the deserters have been taken as hostages. When we started to shoot one person from each family, the ] began to come out of the woods and surrender. Thirty-four deserters were shot as an example". |
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==Anarchist attacks== |
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{{Anarchism sidebar}} |
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The first large CHEKA action against alleged anarchists where people were killed was in mid April 1918 in Petrograd. Then at the end of April and beginning of May coordinated CHEKIST attacks against alleged anarchists were launched in both Petrograd and Moscow. ( P. Avrich. G. Maximoff. ) These violent attacks without warning from the Bolsheviks forced anarchists underground and prompted measured retaliation by them in self-defense. Anarchists in ], ] and ] broke into prisons to liberate the prisoners and issued fiery proclamations calling on the people to revolt against the Bolshevik regime. The Anarchist Battle Detachments attacked the ], Reds and Germans alike. Many peasants joined the revolt, attacking their enemies with pitchforks and sickles. Meanwhile in Moscow, the ] were formed by ] and ] to be the shock troops of their revolution, infiltrating Bolshevik ranks and striking when least expected. On 25 September 1919, the Underground Anarchists struck the Bolsheviks with "their heaviest blow against the 'oppressors'".<ref name="avrich2006">Avrich, Paul - 2006 AK Press, p 188</ref> The headquarters of the Moscow Committee of the Communist Party was blown up, killing 12 and injuring 55 Party members, including ] and ]. Spurred on by their apparent success, the Underground Anarchists proclaimed a new "era of dynamite" that would finally wipe away capitalism and the State. The Bolsheviks responded by initiating a new wave of mass repression in which Kovalevich and Sobolev were the first to be shot. The remaining Underground Anarchists blew themselves up in their last battle with the ], taking much of their safe house with them. |
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===Further repression=== |
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However, strikes continued. On January 1920, Lenin sent a telegram to ] telling that "I am surprised that ... you are not immediately executing large numbers of strikers for the crime of ]." |
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On June 6, 1920, female workers in ] who refused to work on Sunday were arrested and sent to ]s. |
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===Workers Opposition=== |
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].]] |
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].]] |
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] increasingly became an internal critic of the ] and joined with her friend, ], to form a left-wing faction of the party that became known as the ]. The Workers Opposition had some similar demands to some of the rebellions, but supported the government and argued peacefully within it rather than resorting to violent uprisings. Instead the Workers Opposition energetically supported the crushing of these rebellions, including volunteering government representatives to participate in the crushing of the Kronstadt Rebellion. After the Kronstadt Rebellion, Lenin argued that the party needed unity at that time because their enemies were trying to exploit disunity. The Workers' Opposition and other factions were dissolved, but the leaders of the two main factions Workers Opposition and Democratic Centralists were included in the new leadership. |
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===Tyumen revolt=== |
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In January 1921, the largest uprising<ref></ref> in Russia since the civil war broke out. Insurgents blocked the railway, occupied ], ], ], and ], stormed ], and came within four km of ]. Both sides fought a battle of unprecedented savagery. {{dubious|date=February 2010}} Regular ] units using ]s, ]s, and other means took part in suppressing the uprising, which was finally crushed only in 1922. |
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===Mensheviks and the Democratic Republic of Georgia=== |
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].]] |
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Mensheviks took power in ] and on 1918 the ] was proclaimed with ] becoming the head. They allowed the ] and later ] to use it as a base to funnel weapons and other support to White generals Kolchak and ]. They were accused of suppressing local Bolsheviks, ethnic atrocities against ] and ], making claims on ]i and ]n territory, and starting a war with Armenia. The area was forcefully sovietized by February 25, 1921. Lenin recommended "a policy of concessions in relation to the Georgian ] and small traders" and "a coalition with ] or similar Georgian Mensheviks". There was an amnesty for Mensheviks but no coalition government was formed, nevertheless most Menshevik leaders fled to ].(,<ref name="carr1985" /> 339-350) |
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===Revolutionary Insurrectionary (Anarchist) Army=== |
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], ], and ] (Fedor Shchus).]] |
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] or Anarchist Black Army led by anarchist and former Red Army leader ] took control of most of the southern Ukraine and Crimea after its abandonment by Red Army troops in 1919. Makhno's forces fought on the side of the Bolsheviks and played an important role in the eventual defeat of the White Armies. However, they were at odds with the Bolshevik view of a unitary {Bolshevik dominated} political movement. Occasionally Makhno's Black Army troops fought Red Army forces, whom the Ukrainian anarchists had viewed with mistrust after Chekist and Red Army raids on anarchist centers, including arrests, detentions, and executions commencing in May 1918. |
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For his part, Makhno stated his support for "free worker-peasant soviets"<ref name="RIAdeclaration">. Peter Arshinov, Black & Red, 1974</ref> independent of centralized control by Moscow. Makhno, a rural anarchist, viewed the Bolsheviks as urban dictators out-of-touch with the people, opposing the Bolshevik-controlled "] ... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions". He called for "reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like".<ref name="RIAdeclaration" /> In practice, Makhno's Anarchist Black Army, the ''Anarchist Revolutionary Military Council'', and the Ukrainian anarchists' political arm, the ''Congress of the Confederation of Anarchists Groups'' (''NABAT'') formed an overall government over the ], though they did permit local self-governing autonomous committees of peasants. Like the Red Army, they used forced conscription and summary executions, though as a relatively popular native Ukrainian movement, these measures were not used on the same scale as that of the Bolshevik Red Army.(<ref name="avrich1988">Avrich, Paul. , 1988 Princeton University Press</ref> In the areas under his military control, the ''Anarchist Revolutionary Military Council'' banned all opposition parties<ref name="RIAdeclaration" />(,<ref name="avrich1988" /> 119), and like the Bolsheviks, used two ] counter-intelligence forces: the ] and the ].(,<ref name="footman1961">Footman, David. Frederick A.Praeger 1961</ref> 287) |
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Some members of the Bolshevik Central Committees considered allowing an independent area for Makhno's libertarian experiment,<ref name="avrich1988" /> an idea fiercely opposed by both Lenin and ], War Commissar of the ]. After each successful repulse of White Army forces, Trotsky ordered fresh attacks against Makhno and the Anarchist Black Army, halting only when White forces threatened to once again defeat the Red Army in the field. At the instructions of Moscow, the ] sent two agents to assassinate Makhno in 1920. After repudiation of two military alliances, and the final defeat of White General Wrangel in the Crimea, Trotsky ordered the mass executions of Makhnovist sympathizers, followed by the liquidation of many of Makhno's subordinate commanders and his entire headquarters staff at a 'joint planning conference' in November 1920. By August 1921, Makhno and the remainer of the Anarchist Black Army had been forced into exile. |
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===Revolts against grain requisitioning=== |
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SRs were among the main leaders of the uprisings of the ] and the ] of 1921. Protests against grain requisitioning of the peasantry were a major component of these uprisings and Lenin's New Economic Program was introduced as a concession. |
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===Kronstadt Rebellion=== |
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{{Main|Kronstadt rebellion}} |
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The ] was led by (,<ref>], La Révolution Inconnue, Tome 2</ref> 95) Social-Revolutionary ]. He initiated the change from a protest to an open rebellion by spreading a false rumor that the Bolsheviks were coming to arrest everyone(,<ref name="avrich1974" /> 85). The rebellions called for free elections to regional councils (soviets) and an end to grain requisitioning. The rebellion was supported by Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, dissident Communists, and anarchists. |
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] in ]; ] calls for "death to the ]".]] |
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The Kronstadt rebels allowed a known White agent, the former tsarist naval officer Baron ] and agent of White general ], to come to the island during the mutiny disguised as a ] worker and make agreements to secure aid for the rebellion (,<ref name="avrich1974" /> 122). The Bolsheviks pointed to the danger of the Whites supporting the rebellion or using it as an opportunity to invade and suppressed it. |
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===Kronstadt survivors and Wrangel=== |
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After the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion, Petrichenko led many survivors to Finland where they entered into an agreement with Wrangel. Historian ] writes: |
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{{Bquote|The sailors put forward a six-point program as the basis for any common venture: (1) all land to the peasants, (2) free trade unions for the workers, (3) full independence for the border states, (4) freedom of action for the Kronstadt fugitives, (5) the removal of shoulder epaulettes from all military uniforms, and (6) the retention of their slogan 'all power to the soviets but not the parties.' Surprisingly, however, the slogan was to be retained only as a 'convenient political maneuver; until the Communists had been overthrown. Once victory was in hand, the slogan would be shelved and a temporary military dictatorship installed to prevent anarchy from engulfing the country.(,<ref name="avrich1974" /> 127-128)}} |
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===Numerous minor rebellions=== |
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Numerous attacks and assassinations occurred frequently until these rebellions finally petered out in 1922. Anarchists participated in almost all of the attacks the Left SR's organized, and carried out many on their own initiative. The most celebrated figures of these rebellions, ] and ] were both Anarchists. |
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===SR Trial=== |
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The imprisoned SR Central Committee members were put on trial starting June 8, 1922.<ref name="ref1922">See Elizabeth A. Wood. ''Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia'', Cornell University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8014-4257-5, p.83</ref> EH Carr writes: |
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:"It was the first great political trial of the regime. The general case against the SRs was formidable. Through ] they were saddled with responsibility for every act of the Provisional Government; they had played a leading part in more than one " white " government during the civil war; the assassins of Mirbach and the author of the attempt on Lenin's life had been SRs; and, where concrete acts could not be proved, there were plenty of pronouncements by leading SRs in favour of acts of terror against the Soviet power... Of the thirty-four defendants, a few were acquitted, and many sentenced to different terms and degrees of imprisonment. Fourteen were sentenced to death... It was noteworthy that throughout the proceedings it was not alleged that the SR party was in itself an illegal institution: evidence was brought against the defendants of acts which under any system of government would have been criminal." (,<ref name="carr1985" /> 182) |
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The death sentences were suspended by the government. |
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===Results=== |
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The end result of these rebellions was the suppression of rival socialist parties and anarchists, and economic concessions from the Bolsheviks with the ]. While Lenin had wanted a multi party government and recognized the continued existence of parties based on the petty bourgeois class, the military necessity of suppressing rebellions pushed the government in the direction of a one party state. EH Carr states: |
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:"The fiction of a legal opposition was, however, long since dead. Its demise cannot fairly be laid at the door of one party. If it was true that the Bolshevik regime was not prepared after the first few months to tolerate an organized opposition, it was equally true that no opposition party was prepared to remain within legal limits. The premise of dictatorship was common to both sides of the argument." (,<ref name="carr1985" /> 183) |
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] were suppressed after the Kronstadt Uprising and the forceful sovietization of Menshevik Georgia. A number of prominent Mensheviks emigrated thereafter. ] who was suffering from ill health at this time went to ]. |
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The Left SRs collapsed as a party by 1922 and existed as small cells through 1925. |
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==Later claims== |
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During the ] in 1937, it was claimed that ], ], and ] were involved in the Left SR uprising.<ref name="spitzer1990">. History and Theory, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Feb., 1990), pp. 16-37</ref> |
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] claimed the Left SR Uprising was staged by the Bolsheviks as a pretext to discredit the Left SRs. ] and ] produced research to refute this.<ref name="boniece2004">Boniece, Sally A. - . Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 5.1 (2004) 185-194</ref> |
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A 2005 article by Nick Heath on the anarchist describes uprisings of workers and peasants against the Bolsheviks between 1919–1921 and argues that "aken together they can be referred to as the third Revolution." He disputes the Bolsheviks' claim that the uprisings were in line with peasant/] class interests, saying that they were "in support of the original aims of the revolution: socialism, and workers' and peasants' self-management." Heath says the uprisings were predominantly peasant based and comments: "The aims of the Kronstadt insurgents seem to have had an echo in the peasant movements. This is hardly surprising considering many Kronstadt sailors had peasant origins." Heath finds links between the Tambov Rebellion and the Kronstadt Rebellion, but he says the slogan 'third revolution' "seems vague" and "there seems to have been little effort to combine the movements". Heath only includes Socialist Revolutionaries, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, and anarchists as leaders of the events he describes.<ref name="heath2005">Heath, Nick. . 2005</ref> |
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==See also== |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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* ] |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Anarchy!}} |
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* and during the Left-wing uprisings at omniatlas.com |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Left-Wing Uprisings Against The Bolsheviks}} |
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