Creation of komuch. Personal opinion International events of the year

Meetings by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on January 6, 1918.

The Komuch of the first composition included five Socialist Revolutionaries, members of the Constituent Assembly: Vladimir Volsky - chairman, Ivan Brushvit, Prokopiy Klimushkin, Boris Fortunatov and Ivan Nesterov.

The propaganda cultural and educational department of Komuch began to publish the official printed organ of the new government - the newspaper “Bulletin of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.”

In the territory where, with the help of the Czechs, it was possible to overthrow the Bolsheviks, Komuch temporarily proclaimed himself the supreme power in Russia on behalf of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly until the latter convened again. Subsequently, the Committee expanded significantly due to the entry into it of another group of former members of the Constituent Assembly (mainly Socialist Revolutionaries) who moved to Samara. At the end of September 1918, there were already 97 people in Komuch. By this time, the executive power of Komuch was concentrated in the hands of the “Council of Department Managers” under the chairmanship of Evgeniy Rogovsky (at the same time managing the state security department).

Thus, by August 1918, the “territory of the Constituent Assembly” extended from west to east for 750 versts (from Syzran to Zlatoust, from north to south - 500 versts (from Simbirsk to Volsk). The power of KOMUCH extended to Samara, part of Saratov, The Simbirsk, Kazan and Ufa provinces, the power of KOMUCH, were recognized by the Orenburg and Ural Cossacks.

Also in July, Komuch invited representatives of the Kazakh “Alash-Orda” led by Alikhan Bukeikhanov and Mustafa Shokai to Samara and concluded a military-political alliance with them against the Reds.

Relying on the accumulated military forces loyal to Komuch, the following measures were taken: an eight-hour working day was officially established, workers' meetings and peasant gatherings were allowed, factory committees and trade unions were preserved. Komuch abolished all Soviet decrees, returned plants, factories and banks to their former owners, proclaimed freedom of private enterprise, restored zemstvos, city dumas and other pre-Soviet institutions. Oscillating between red and white ideology, Komuch either publicly declared his intention to nationalize the land, or provided landowners with the opportunity to return all land plots confiscated from them in favor of the peasants, and even reap the harvests of 1917. Komuch sent paramilitary expeditions into rural areas to protect the property of landowners and wealthy peasants (in Soviet terminology, kulaks), and to recruit and, later, mobilize men into the People's Army.

In the subsequent failures of the People's Army, the main role was played by the complete lack of reserves, not prepared by the Socialist Revolutionary leadership of Komuch, despite the time that Kappel gave them with his first successes on the Volga, despite the opportunities that the vast territories under Komuch's control provided in terms of mobilization .

The reform to introduce the corps system into the People's Army was a complete failure, due to the collapse of mobilization measures, which, in turn, failed due to the ongoing and irreversible decline in the authority of Komuch and, as a consequence, the decomposition of the social support of power. The positions of the Volga working class were especially irreconcilable. Thus, the resolution of the general meeting of artisans and workers of the Samara depot workshops read:

On July 6, 1918, a large meeting of protesting railway workers took place in Samara, who were so hostile to Komuch that the city commandant was even forced to call in the troops.

Simultaneously with the announcement of mobilization, the Socialist Revolutionary leadership of Komuch returned to its old idea of ​​relying on the peasantry. To consolidate the peasantry around Komuch and successfully carry out mobilization, the government organized the convening of village assemblies, volost and district peasant congresses. The results turned out to be stunning for the Social Revolutionaries: the peasantry expressed that they did not want to take part in the Civil War, the gatherings decided not to give recruits and not even pay taxes if they went to wage war! Having been mobilized, peasants and workers refused to fight against the Bolsheviks, at the first opportunity they fled to their homes or surrendered to the Reds, bandaging their officers. Cases of open disobedience have become more frequent in the army. On September 8, two regiments located in Samara refused to go to the front. To pacify them, they had to call in 3 armored cars, a machine gun team and cavalry - the soldiers were forced to lay down their arms only under the threat of execution. On September 18, despite the threat of execution, an entire echelon of troops refused to march. There were frequent reports of executions for desertion of the 14th Ufa Regiment stationed in Samara, where cases of Bolshevik agitation were constantly noted. The uprising of the 3rd Samara Regiment, which consisted mainly of workers, was especially harshly suppressed, the reason for which was an unsuccessful attempt in this regiment and in the 1st St. George Battalion to release colleagues from the guardhouse who were arrested for desertion. As General Lyupov, who was in the city at that time, recalled, every third person was called out of the ranks and shot; Later, another 900 recruits were shot here for refusing to go to the front.

In September 1918, the People's Army of Komuch suffered a series of defeats from the hastily reinforced Eastern Front of the Red Army. In Sviyazhsk, where the remnants of the defeated Red troops who had retreated from Kazan settled, even the People's Commissar for Military Affairs and Chairman of the Supreme Military Council of the Soviet Republic Trotsky personally arrived, who developed the most energetic activities there and used the most brutal measures to establish discipline in the scattered and demoralized Red troops ( every tenth retreating Red Army soldier was shot). The 5th Army quickly received reinforcements thanks to the strategically important bridge across the Volga remaining in the hands of the Bolsheviks, and soon Kazan was surrounded by the Reds on three sides. The Bolshevik leadership transferred 3 destroyers from the Baltic Fleet to the Volga, and the local Red Volga steamships were armed with heavy naval guns. The advantage on the water quickly passed to the Reds. The forces of the volunteers melted away, and the Reds, on the contrary, increased their pressure, sending their best troops to the Volga -. The Directory was supposed to report on its activities to the Constituent Assembly after the latter resumed its meetings. At the same time, it was declared that the All-Russian Constituent Assembly would resume its meeting on January 1, 1919, if by this time 250 deputies or 170 members of the Constituent Assembly had gathered by February 1, 1919. The Ufa Conference declared that instead of Komuch, all members of the Constituent Assembly collectively form Congress of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, which is a permanent state legal institution. He worked in Yekaterinburg. General Vasily Boldyrev was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all land and naval armed forces of Russia. The People's Army formally ceased to exist, having merged with the Siberian Army, but these transformations did not directly affect the military units themselves. They were left to their own devices, causing the retreat to continue. Soon the Volga was completely occupied by the Bolsheviks: Syzran fell on October 3, 1918, and Samara, the former capital of KOMUCH, fell on October 8.

Czech soldiers and deputies gathered in Ufa, where they tried to campaign against Kolchak. On November 30, 1918, he ordered the former members of the Constituent Assembly to be brought before a military court "for attempting to raise an uprising and conduct destructive agitation among the troops." On December 2, a special detachment under the command of Colonel Kruglevsky arrested some of the members of the Constituent Assembly Congress (25 people), took them to Omsk in freight cars and imprisoned them. Even earlier, on November 24, 1918, deputy Boris Moiseenko was illegally arrested by officers from Krasilnikov’s detachment and killed. After the suppression of the unsuccessful Bolshevik uprising in Omsk on the night of December 22 to December 23, 1918, Nil Fomin, a member of the Constituent Assembly, and 9 prominent Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who were held in prison, were extrajudicially hacked to pieces with swords and shot by Kolchak officers under the command of Lieutenant Bartashevsky and Captain Rubtsov. An underground group of Socialist Revolutionaries led by the former head of Komuch Vladimir Volsky, after the occupation of Ufa by the Red Army, formed the so-called “Ufa delegation”, which entered into negotiations with the Bolsheviks. Later they called for recognition of Soviet power and to unite under its leadership to fight counter-revolution.

Kappel and the Kappelites. 2nd ed., rev. and additional - M.: NP "Posev", 2007. -

KOMUCH - Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly - a government created in Samara on June 8, 1918, after the capture of the city by the Czechs. initially consisted of 5 members of the Constituent Assembly (chairman - Socialist Revolutionary V.K. Volsky). He declared himself a temporary government until the convening of the Constituent Assembly on the territory of the Samara province, and later sought to give his power “all-Russian” significance, to extend it to the entire territory captured by opponents of Soviet power. At the beginning of August 1918, there were 29 people in Komuch, at the beginning of September - 71, and at the end of September 97 people. Executive power was concentrated in the “Council of Department Managers” (chaired by E.F. Rogovsky). Komuch declared the restoration of democratic freedoms, adopted the red state flag, established an 8-hour working day, and allowed the activities of congresses and conferences. At the same time, he canceled the decrees of the Soviet government, returned nationalized industrial enterprises to their former owners, denationalized banks, restored the city duma and zemstvo, allowed freedom of private trade after the creation of the Ufa Directory, Komuch was renamed the “Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly.” The “Departmental Management Council” moved to the position of the Ufa government. November 19. After Kolchak's coup, the "Congress of Members of the Constituent Assembly" was arrested. Finally abolished on December 3, 1918.

Materials from the website of A.V. were used. Kvakina http://akvakin.narod.ru/

List of members of the Constituent Assembly

Abramov Vasily Semenovich (Romanian Front).

Brushvit Ivan Mikhailovich (Samara province).

Burevoy Konstantin Stepanovich(1888-1934), member of the Constituent Assembly: Voronezh No. 3 Social Revolutionaries.

Burov Kozma Semenovich, member of the Founding. Assembled.

Bylinkin, Arseniy Sergeevich(1887-1937), member of the Constituent Assembly: Romanian Front No. 3 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasants' Deputies.

Volsky Vladimir Kazimirovich(1877-1937), member of the Constituent Assembly: Tver No. 3 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasant Deputies.

Gendelman Mikhail Yakovlevich(1881-1938), member of the Constituent Assembly: Ryazan No. 3 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasants' Deputies.

Devizorov Alexey Alekseevich(1884-1937), member of the Constituent Assembly: Altai No. 1 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasants' Deputies.

Dutov Alexander Ilyich(1879-1921), member of the Constituent Assembly: Orenburg No. 2 Orenburg Cossack Army.

Evdokimov Kuzma Afanasyevich(1892-1937), member of the Constituent Assembly: Tobolsk district. No. 6 - Social Revolutionaries and the congress of the CD. S. Peganovskoye (Ishim district). From peasants. Teacher. Eser. Participant in the meeting of the Council on January 5. In 1918 it was part of Komuch. During the years of Stalin’s “purges” he was repressed. (Sources: GA RF. F. 1781 - Office of the All-Russian Commission for Elections to the Constituent Assembly, on. 1, no. 50; Land and Freedom. Kurgan, 1917, October 13; http://socialist.memo.ru/).

Zdobnov Nikolay Vasilievich(1888-1942), member of the Constituent Assembly: Perm No. 2 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasant Deputies.

Zenzinov Vladimir Mikhailovich(Petrograd province).

Inyrev Denis Ivanovich

Klimushkin Prokopiy Diomidovich(Samara province).

Kolosov Evgeniy Evgenievich, member of the Founding. Assembled.

Kondratenkov Georgy Nikitich(Tambov province).

Kotelnikov Dmitry Pavlovich, member of the Founding Collection

Krivoshchekov Alexander Ivanovich(Orenburg province).

Krol Moisey Aronovich, member of the Constituent Assembly.

Lazarev Egor Egorovich(Samara province).

Lindberg Mikhail Yakovlevich, member of the Constituent Assembly.

Lyubimov Nikolai Mikhailovich, member of the Constituent Assembly.

Markov Boris Dmitrievich(Tomsk province).

Markov Boris Dmitrievich, member of the Constituent Assembly.

Maslov Pavel Grigorievich(Samara province).

Matushkin Vyacheslav Alexandrovich(01/27/1888, Chesmensky village, Verkhneuralsky district, Orenburg province - ?), member of the Constituent Assembly: Orenburg district. No. 2 - Orenburg Cossack army. Troitsk From the Cossacks, the son of a centurion. He graduated from the Trinity Gymnasium with a silver medal, and studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kazan University. In 1918 a member of Komuch. (Source: List of students of the Imperial Kazan University for the 1905-1906 academic year. Kazan, 1905; for the 1908-1909 academic year. Kazan, 1908; for the 1910-1911 academic year. Kazan, 1910; for the 1914-1915 academic year. Kazan, 1914.,1908-1909).

Minin Alexander Arkadevich(Saratov province).

Mikhailov Pavel Yakovlevich, member of Vseros. Established Assembled.

Mukhin Alexey Fedorovich, member of Vseros. Established Collection

Nesterov Ivan Petrovich(Minsk province).

Nikolaev Semyon Nikolaevich(Kazan province).

Omelkov Mikhail Fedorovich, member of the Constituent Assembly.

Podvitsky Viktor Vladimirovich(Smolensk province).

Pochekuev Kirill Tikhonovich(1864-1918), member of the Constituent Assembly: Simbirsk No. 2 Congress of Peasant Deputies and Social Revolutionaries.

Rakov Dmitry Fedorovich(1881-1941), member of the Constituent Assembly: Nizhny Novgorod No. 3 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasants' Deputies.

Rogovsky Evgeniy Frantsevich(1888-1950), member of the Constituent Assembly: Altai No. 2 Social Revolutionaries and the Council of Peasant Deputies.

Semenov Fedor Semenovich(1890-1973) (Lisienko Arseny Pavlovich), member of the Constituent Assembly: Tomsk No. 2 Socialist Revolutionaries.

Sukhanov Pavel Stepanovich(1869-?), Member of the Constituent Assembly: Tobolsk No. 6 Congress of Peasant Deputies and Social Revolutionaries.

Teregulov Gumer Khalibrakhmanovich(1883-1938), member of the Constituent Assembly: Ufa No. 1 Muslim National Council.

Tukhvatulin Fatykh Nasretdinovich(1894-1938), member of the Constituent Assembly: Perm No. 9 Bashkir Tatar group.

Fakhretdinov, Gabdul-Ahad-Rizaetdinovich(1892-1938), member of the Constituent Assembly: Orenburg Orenburg No. 9 Bashkir Federation.

(first and last)

Chairman of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly
Abolished public office
Flag of the Russian Republic
Vladimir Volsky (last in office)
A country	Russia
Previous position	Head of the provisional government
Successor position	Chairman of the All-Russian Provisional Government
First in office	Vladimir Volsky
Last in office	Vladimir Volsky
Residence	Samara
Established	1917
Abolished	1918
Current Contender	No

Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly (abbreviated Komuch) - the first anti-Bolshevik all-Russian government of Russia, organized on June 8, 1918 in Samara by members of the Constituent Assembly who did not recognize the dispersal of the Assembly by the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on January 6 of the year.

The resumption of work by the deputies of the Constituent Assembly became possible thanks to the anti-Bolshevik action of the Czechoslovak Corps. Subsequently (September 23), Komuch took part in the organization of the Provisional All-Russian Government (the so-called “Ufa Directory”), and in November - December 1918 its structures were finally liquidated as a result of a military coup that transferred power into the hands of the Supreme Ruler Admiral A. V. Kolchak. In reality, Komuch's power extended only to part of the territories of the Volga region and the southern Urals.

Komuch of the first composition

The Komuch of the first composition included five Socialist Revolutionaries, members of the Constituent Assembly: V.K. Volsky - chairman, Ivan Brushvit, Prokopiy Klimushkin, Boris Fortunatov and Ivan Nesterov.

The propaganda cultural and educational department of Komuch began to publish the official printed organ of the new government - the newspaper “Bulletin of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly.”

Strengthening the power of Komuch

Members of the Provisional All-Russian Government and the Council of Ministers of the Provisional All-Russian Government

The congress of members of the Constituent Assembly tried to protest against the coup, as a result an order was given “to take measures for the immediate arrest of Chernov and other active members of the Constituent Assembly who were in Yekaterinburg.” Evicted from Yekaterinburg, either under guard or under the escort of Czech soldiers, the deputies gathered in Ufa, where they tried to campaign against Kolchak. On November 30, 1918, he ordered the former members of the Constituent Assembly to be brought before a military court “for attempting to raise an uprising and waging destructive agitation among the troops.” On December 2, a special detachment under the command of Colonel Kruglevsky arrested some of the members of the Constituent Assembly Congress (25 people), took them to Omsk in freight cars and imprisoned them. After the unsuccessful uprising of Omsk workers against the Kolchak authorities, organized by the Bolshevik underground, on December 22, 1918, members of the Constituent Assembly held in prison were shot by a detachment of Lieutenant F. Bartoshevsky.

Bibliography

Kappel and the Kappelites. 2nd ed., rev. and additional M.: NP "Posev", 2007 ISBN 978-5-85824-174-4

see also

• List of members of the Constituent Assembly included in KOMUCH

Notes

Links

• Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch, “Samara Constituent Assembly”)
• Matveev M.N. Territory Komuch
• Matveev M.N. Audio of a public lecture by Doctor of Historical Sciences Mikhail Matveev “Komuch-democratic government on the Volga in the summer of 1918” at the Samara club “Art Propaganda”. 02/14/2010
• Shilovsky M. V. Provisional All-Russian Government (Directory) September 23 - November 18, 1918
• Zhuravlev V.V. State meeting. On the history of the consolidation of the anti-Bolshevik movement in eastern Russia in July - September 1918.
• Flags of state entities during the Civil War.
• Nazyrov P. F., Nikonova O. Yu. Ufa State Conference. Documents and materials.

Literature

• Lelevich G. Review of literature about the Samara Constituent Assembly / G. Lelevich // Proletarian Revolution. – 1922. – No. 7. – P.225 – 229.
• Popov F. G., For the power of the Soviets. The defeat of the Samara Constituent Assembly, Kuibyshev, 1959.
• Garmiza V.V., The collapse of the Socialist Revolutionary governments, M., 1970.
• Matveev M.N.. Zemstvos of the Volga region in 1917-1918 / Dissertation...candidate of historical sciences. Samara – 1995- 241 p.
• Matveev M.N. Zemstvo self-government of the Samara province between the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly and KOMUCH / M.N. Matveev // Notes on local history. Samara – 1995. – P. 114 – 125.
• Medvedev V. G. White regime under the red flag: (Volga region, 1918) / V.G. Medvedev. – Ulyanovsk: Publishing house SVNTs, 1998. – 220 p.
• Lapandin V. A. Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly: power structure and political activity (June 1918 - January 1919) / V.A. Lapandin. – Samara: SCAINI, 2003. – 242 p.
• Lapandin V. A. Socialist-Revolutionary political-state formations in Russia during the civil war: a historical and bibliographic study of domestic literature 1918 – 2002. / V.A. Lapandin. – Samara: Samara Center for Analytical History and Historical Informatics, 2006. – 196 p.

No. 150. Order of Admiral Kolchak on the arrest of members of Komuch
Gor. Omsk, November 30, 1918 No. 56.

On the evening of December 2, the “Council of Department Managers” met for a meeting. A number of members of the Constituent Assembly congress were also present. On the same day, a special Kolchak detachment, which carried out a raid from Omsk to Ufa, “covered” this meeting. More than 20 people were arrested.

On the night of December 22, the workers of the Omsk suburb of Kulomzino and some of the city’s workers took up arms against Kolchak. They released all political prisoners who were in the Omsk regional prison, incl. all former members of the Criminal Code arrested on the night of December 3 in Ufa and all those detained along with them. The uprising was suppressed, and by the morning of December 23, almost the entire “group of the Constituent Assembly” (including Bruderer, Basov, Ninth, Markovetsky, Fomin and other Socialist Revolutionaries) came to prison themselves.
So “In retaliation for the uprising, a group of drunken officers carried out a wild raid on those arrested, took away 9 prisoners and brutally killed them.” (member of KOMUCH I.V. Svyatitsky).

There were more killed:
One after another, Captain P. Rubtsov, the head of the non-commissioned officer school, came to the prison with a convoy of 30 people, and Lieutenant F. Bartashevsky from Ataman Krasilnikov’s detachment, with a convoy of 6 people. Both demanded the extradition of the prisoners, one citing “the personal order of the supreme ruler,” the other, “the personal order of the supreme ruler.” Both with lists, both were given what they required, both “did it.” Bartashevsky even made two “walks”. 44 Bolsheviks and members of KOMUCH were shot.

So Kolchak put an end to the history of the Constituent Assembly.
These are not the bloody Bolsheviks with their “tired guard.”****

Based on materials from the book by G. Ioffe “The Kolchak adventure and its collapse”

TsGAOR collection. To the arrest of members of the Constituent Assembly in Yekaterinburg on November 19, 1918.
TsGAOR collection. P. D. Klimushkin. Civil war on the Volga, part 2. Liquidation of democracy.
Svyatitsky N. On the history of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, vol. 3. M., 1921, p. 98.
____________________________________
* P. N. Krasnov’s closest associate, commander of the Don Army, General S. V. Denisov, unequivocally stated:
"... Without exception, all the Leaders, both Senior and Junior... ordered their subordinates... to promote the New Way of Life and by no means, and never called for the defense of the Old System and did not go against the general trend... On the banners of the White Idea it was inscribed: to the Constituent Assembly, i.e. the same thing that was written on the banners of the February Revolution... The leaders and military commanders did not go against the February Revolution and never ordered any of their subordinates to follow this path."(White Russia. Album No. 1. New York, 1937. Reprint - St. Petersburg, 1991)

*** This is called incitement to murder. Kolchak could well have limited himself to demanding that the members of KOMUCH be brought to trial - “we are, they say, a respectable European government acting exclusively on the basis of humanism, the people themselves must make their impartial verdict” and in the same spirit. But he gave permission for the use of weapons, and emphasized this in § 1.
Therefore, one cannot but agree with I. Pykhalov when, in an interview, he answered the question:
— Is it known that in 1918 he gave the order to shoot deputies and participants in the constituent assembly?
He replied:
— Yes, it was. He actually carried out a military coup there and headed a dictatorship.
Moreover, it is important to note here that many current opponents of the Reds accuse them of dispersing the constituent assembly, that the whites supposedly fought for legitimate power in the person of this constituent assembly. Committees of the constituent assembly were created there - komuchs, and the Reds, they say, were usurpers.
http://www.nakanune.ru/articles/111985/

**** The Constituent Assembly was dissolved due to loss of quorum. Less than 20% of the elected delegates remained, and 34% of those who arrived after the departure of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. ( for more details see: "")

Bogdanash A.V.

The beginning of time

At the beginning of my work, I would immediately like to say that I will try to convey to you the events of 1918 without unnecessary feelings, no matter how I feel about the white and red movements in the civil war.

The death of Nicholas II gave many “politicians” a free hand; hiding behind noble slogans, they sought, like vultures, to snatch a piece of flesh from the deceased Russian Empire.

I consider myself a patriot of Samara, I have an active civic position. I love my city, I love walking along its streets, parks and squares. But the names of many streets make me feel resentful for the people whose names they received. The streets were named after murderers and deserters, and tears well up and an unknown feeling of fear appears just from the thought of what happened in those terrible times in Samara.

Lenin once said: “Any revolution is only worth something if it knows how to defend itself...” Only the wall of defense became people who loved, worked, raised children, and many were these children, but all this might not have happened, if there were no grief for politicians. Samara did not escape the activities of these unfortunate politicians.

On the verge of change

Samara is one of the regions located in the black earth belt. The priority occupation of the population is agriculture, or rather the cultivation of grain, so most of the population lived and lives in rural areas. The share of the urban population is several times smaller.

Although the power of the Bolsheviks was the power of workers and peasants, there were a large number of them dissatisfied with it. High harvests made it possible for people who worked on the land from early morning until late evening to live quite well, but the Red government sentenced them to “kulak” and thousands of people were shot. And ordinary peasants were already dissatisfied with the policy of the councils, because the Bolsheviks took away not only the surplus, but also the grain that the peasants needed for sowing, they took everything. All this made it possible for Komuch’s ideological inspirers to think about broad support from the population.

Becoming Komuch

And so on January 6, 1918, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was dissolved. The only result of his almost thirteen hours of work was the rejection of the ideas presented by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) on the approval of the “Declaration of the Rights of Workers and Exploited People” (power to the soviets. Federation of national republics, purchase-free transfer of land to peasants, democratic world without annexations and indemnities, etc. .d.) The meeting also refused to approve the decrees of Soviet power adopted by the Second Congress of Soviets. The criticism of the Bolsheviks was motivated as follows: their reforms did not meet the ideals and socialist aspirations of the Great Russian Revolution. The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly did not yet mean that the right wing had renounced its claims to decide the destinies of Russia. Shortly before the mutiny of the Czechoslovak corps, according to the testimony of the Socialist-Revolutionary P. D. Klimushkin, the right-wing socialist revolutionaries in Samara began to form an underground Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch). It initially included 5 former members of the Constituent Assembly: I.M. Brushvit, P.D. Klimushkin, B.K. Fortunatov - from the Samara province, V.K. Volsky - from Tverskaya, I.P. Nesterov - from Minsk. The result of their underground activities was the speech of the Social Revolutionary Klimushkin on February 11 to the soldiers of the fourth sapper regiment and the one hundred and forty-third infantry battalion, calling them to revolt. On February 23, 1918, an attempted uprising took place in Samara. The soldier units, led by Klimushkin and Brushvit, went from the barracks (territory of the current GPZ-4 plant) in the direction of the Pipe Plant (ZIM), counting on the support of workers, members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and Mensheviks. However, units of the Samara Military Revolutionary Committee managed to disarm the rebels without any problems. To avoid a repetition of such protests, all these military units were disbanded. On February 25, Brushvit was arrested, but then released. The Bolsheviks were still loyal to their revolutionary brothers.

On May 26, an event occurred that gave hope for success in the fight against the Bolshevik regime. This event was the mutiny of the Czechoslovak Corps.

At the end of May, Ivan Brushvit arrives in Penza, where he negotiates with the commander of the first Czechoslovak Hussite Rifle Division, Captain S. Chechek, about possible assistance to Samara. At first Chechek was hesitant, but Brushvit managed to convince him that everything in the city was ready for the meeting of the allies.

In parallel with the advance of the Czechoslovak troops, an administrative and military apparatus was formed three days before their entry into Samara. The headquarters was headed by Colonel I. Galkin.

On May 30, 1918, having received news of the offensive of the Penza group of the Czechoslovak corps under the command of S. Chechek on Samara, the Gubrevkom declared “the city of Samara and the Samara province in a state of siege.” On the same day, a revolutionary combat headquarters was created, headed by V.V. Kuibyshev. Rev. The headquarters called on Samara workers to defend their city. The working fighting squad grew from 400 to 1500-2000 people in 3-4 days. All communists were mobilized.

On June 5, the Czechoslavs began their attack on Samara; artillery was carried out continuously. firing from long-range guns directly from the platforms of Czech trains. On June 6 and 7, the capture of Syzran and Ivashchenko (now Chapaevsk).

Samara was defended by two groups of troops: Syzranskaya - on the Mylnaya - Bezenchuk line and Samaraskaya at the Lyapigi station, defeated on June 4, where the detachment commander Kadomtsev died. After this, fighting broke out near the city itself. The total number of its defenders reached 3,000 people, while the advancing legionnaires numbered about 5,000 people. The Red Army detachments, concentrated on the right bank of the Samara River, strengthened their positions at the bridge, dug trenches along the river bank, and artillery was stationed higher up on Khlebnaya Square and near the quarry. These forces held off the enemy for three days. In the meantime, Soviet institutions were evacuated from Samara, and gold reserves (37,499,510 rubles in gold and 30 million rubles in credit notes) were transported on the ship “Suvorov” to the city of Kazan.

On the morning of June 5, the Czechoslovaks approached the bridge over the Samarka River and began to conduct artillery. shelling Frightened by the thunder of the cannonade, Kuibyshev and a group of party workers fled in panic from Samara to Simbirsk, leaving ordinary Red Army soldiers who valiantly defended their city to the mercy of fate. Only in the city club of communists there remained a small detachment led by A.A. Maslenikov and I.P. Teplov.

Arriving in Simbirsk, Kuibyshev establishes telephone conversations with Samara. Teplov accuses him of desertion. The alarmists return to Samara, having seen such a deplorable picture, they again leave Samara on a ship that was sent from Moscow to protect the city. Maslenikov remains in the city.

On the night of June 7, reinforcements from Simbirsk of 450 people and a Muslim detachment of up to 600 people arrived from Ufa to the defenders of the city.

In the evening, the latter replaced the soldiers who had been in the trenches continuously for four days, and at three o’clock in the morning on June 8, the Czechoslovaks began artillery. shelling of their positions, at 5 o'clock in the morning they broke through the Red Army defenses at the railway bridge and entered the city, at 8 o'clock in the morning it fell.

The wild terror of the Bolsheviks began and their sympathizers were brutally killed on the spot. All day on June 8, blood flowed in streams; F. Ventsek, I. Shtyrkin, I. Berlinsky, M. Wagner, and the poet A. Kopikhin were killed. On the banks of the Samara River, Red Army soldiers who did not have time to leave their positions were killed. Maslenikov was captured. The reprisal against captured communists threatened to develop into a bloody orgy of those offended and disadvantaged by the revolution.

The Committee and the Czechoslovaks tried to curb the pogromists. The next day, Order No. 6 of Komuch dated June 9, 1918 announced “the persecution of pogromists and those calling for the incitement of national hatred. Those guilty of violating the order are persecuted... rioters are shot on the spot.”

However, restoring order in the city did not mean an end to the persecution of dissidents. The Samara prison was overcrowded; there were cases when those arrested were not taken to prison and were shot on the spot, explaining the reprisal against them as an “attempt to escape.”

The process of establishing the power of Komuch was carried out mainly by the bayonets of the rebellious Czechoslovaks. By publishing order No. 1, the committee declared “in the name of the Constituent Assembly, the Bolshevik government in Samara and in the Samara province is declared overthrown. All commissioners are relieved of their positions. The local self-government bodies dissolved by the Soviet government are restored in their entirety of their rights: City Dumas, Zemstvo Councils.”

A new time has begun for Samara, which, albeit briefly, will change the life and destinies of Samara residents.

Komuch and his activities

And so on June 8, 1918, Samara became the capital, the center of unification of the Socialist Revolutionary forces, which began to fight the Bolsheviks for power in Russia. But in order for this struggle to proceed on an equal footing, it was necessary to create a strong central government, a combat-ready army, resolve the financial issue and gain the support of the population by resolving a number of issues that the tsarist government and the government of the councils did not resolve, namely the agrarian and labor issues. At the same time, the food crisis still had to be resolved. Let's consider the central government and local authorities created by Komuch.

Komuch restored the system of local self-government: provincial, district and volost zemstvos and city Dumas and their executive bodies. Local administrative management was carried out by the Committee through the institution of district, provincial, district and other authorized representatives.

The Presidium of Komuch and Komuch himself were bodies of legislative power.

The Committee's law enforcement agencies were represented by the security headquarters, which performed the functions of the commandant's office and counterintelligence, which was transformed in August 1918 into the Ministry of Public Order. The district, provincial and district courts that existed under the Provisional Government were restored.

In addition, there was Czech counterintelligence headed by the commandant of Samara, Rebenda, who established brutal order in the city. A network of military courts also operated separately.

The statehood of Komuch received its name - the Russian Democratic Federative Republic (RDFR). The flag became a red cloth. However, the attempt to form a democratic political system was a complete fiasco. Russia was not yet ready for democracy.

How was the work issue resolved? Yes, it’s very simple: an eight-hour working day was introduced, Komuch issued an order banning lockouts, work conferences were allowed, and a minimum wage was established.

The peasant question was more complicated. The Committee confirmed the “rule” of temporary use of land, developed by the second and fourth Samara Provincial Peasant Congresses, as reflecting the actual state of affairs and supplemented them with the first ten paragraphs of the Land Law adopted by the Constituent Assembly on January 5, 1918. The committee members recognized the nationalization of land, advocated “a fair distribution of all natural benefits among the population,” and the abolition of the sale and lease of land.

But this is where all democracy ended. For a certain bribe, the landowner could return his land for personal use. Industrial facilities are being denationalized and are being returned to their owners. In turn, these employers violate workers’ rights in every possible way.

All this causes negativity among the population towards Komuch.

The “People's Army” is being created. On July 22, an order was issued appointing Colonel Chechek and Colonel Kappel as commanders of all military forces of the Samara Institution. According to military historian N.N. Kakurin in July 1918, the People's Army of Komuch consisted of 4 infantry regiments, 2 officer battalions, 200 Cossacks and 43 guns. Czechoslovak forces were estimated at 34,000 men and 33 guns, including the Western Siberian division. The basis of the People's Army was made up of officers from Galkin's underground organization and a detachment from Lieutenant Colonel Kappel of the General Staff. In the first days after the capture of Samara, 800 officers enlisted in the ranks of the Komuch army, and by August their number exceeded 5,000. The pride of the People's Army was the battalion of Lieutenant Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel. He was distinguished by amazing tenacity and fearlessness, causing genuine respect even among the Reds.

Recruitment into the People's Army was voluntary. But peasants and workers dissatisfied with Komuch’s policies were reluctant to join it, and forced mobilization had to be announced. Which further aggravated the committee's situation.

Financial support was decided at the expense of the bourgeoisie. Komuch's financial well-being was mainly based on loans. The bourgeoisie was reluctant to part with their savings, preferring to transfer them to the more reliable Siberia. Immediately after his release, Komuch convened a meeting of representatives of banks and commercial and industrial circles. A Financial Council was created under the leadership of A.K. Ershova, D.G. Markelychev and L.A. von Vacano, who collected about 30 million rubles by subscription among the bourgeoisie in support of Komuch. After the capture of Kazan in August by Kappel, the gold reserves of the Russian Republic (500 tons of gold, silver and platinum) were delivered to Samara. In July, fixed prices for bread were abolished, as a result trade picked up, and bread became somewhat cheaper. Due to the difference in prices between the territory of Komuch and Soviet Russia, speculation reached enormous proportions.

Social policy was dual in nature: on the one hand, under Komuch, education was developing; in August, the first university in Samara was opened, schools were being renovated and textbooks were being purchased, on the other hand, overcrowded prisons and “death trains.” Death trains are trains sent to the east. The passengers were people disliked by the Komuch authorities; they went there in a “light” manner without water or food in closed carriages; only a few reached their destination.

To summarize, the attempt to form a democratic political system, the social and economic policies of Komuch ultimately failed.

Castling

On September 23, the State Conference ended its work in Ufa, forming the Provisional All-Russian Government, which included three representatives of Komuch. Omsk was chosen as the capital of the government. On September 29, Komuch formed a liquidation commission. With her actions, the committee was considered dissolved. The evacuation that began after this was very reminiscent of the events of early June. Only now instead of the Bolsheviks there was Komuch. On October 3, the Reds captured Syzran and began an attack on Samara. Following the receipt of this news, the steamship Yaroslavna set off from the city of Pokrovsk, Saratov province, with the Samara Revolutionary Committee on board. While the leading comrades, led by Galaktionov and Kuibyshev, were preparing to arrive in Samara, preparations for the assault began in the city. Deciding not to repeat the mistakes of the Reds, the Czechs blew up the railway bridge across the Volga, and 3 days later the bridge across Samara. The defense of the city was held by units of Colonel Kappel and the Czechoslovak Corps. On October 2, part of Komuch near Ivashchenko destroyed more than half of the International Regiment of the First Samara Division. However, after 3 days the city had to be abandoned. On October 6, Melekess (Dimitrovgrad) and Stavropol (Tolyatti) were surrendered. On October 7, the assault on Samara began with units of the 24th Iron Division under the command of Guy and the First Samara Division of Zakharov. Street fighting continued for several hours. By evening, only the Czechs remained in the city, taking up defensive positions around the station and covering the retreat of the People's Army echelons. At about 5 pm they left and the Reds entered the city.

The Bolsheviks' revenge on Samara was terrible. According to eyewitnesses, the Red Army soldiers of Guy's division, sparing cartridges, threw those arrested from the roofs of houses onto the pavements, stabbed them with bayonets, and drowned them in the Volga. The day after the capture of Samara, the removal of corpses began, a huge number of which dotted the streets in the area of ​​the station on the banks of the Volga and threatened the emergence of cholera. On October 9, 1918, the Gubrevkom arrived in the city from evacuation and the Cheka began working.

Thus ended the history of the Committee of the Constituent Assembly in Samara.

P. S.

Many historians neglect the study of local history, considering it boring.

In my opinion, this is not correct, local history instills in us love for our land, and this is love for the Motherland. Local history should be woven into the context of all-Russian history, making it more vibrant. The whole is made up of small things.

List of used literature