Posted on Feb 7, 2020
Admiral Alexander Kolchak's archives have been declassified. Why is the White Army leader still...
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On February 7, 1920, Admiral Kolchak surrendered to Bolshevik troops and was executed. From the article:
"Admiral Alexander Kolchak’s archives have been declassified. Why is the White Army leader still so controversial?
On March 21, it became public knowledge that Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, had declassified documents related to the criminal case against Alexander Kolchak. Kolchak led the White Army movement that attempted to regain control of Russia from the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War of 1917 – 1923. Access to the documents declassified by the FSB remains limited: viewing them is still prohibited. Kolchak was executed by firing squad in 1920 after being convicted of war crimes, and in 1999, a Russian court declined to rehabilitate him. Rehabilitation is a legal practice typically used to exonerate the victims of Stalinist and post-Stalinist repressions, often after those victims have died. The fact that Kolchak was not accorded even that level of respect speaks to the controversy his name still inspires: in 2017, a memorial plaque mounted on the admiral’s former home in St. Petersburg was taken down just one year after its construction. At the same time, Kolchak has become the subject of various books and films, and he remains one of the most popular historical figures of the Civil War. Meduza asked history professor Andrey Ganin, a leading scholar at the Institute for Slavic Studies in the Russian Academy of Sciences, to explain contemporary attitudes toward the figure of Alexander Kolchak.
Admiral Kolchak is one of the best-known symbols of the White Army
Admiral Kolchak is one of the White Russian leaders who is best known to the public. In that sense, he personifies a number of other White Army figures for many Russians, and that means both public enthusiasm and public hatred for the White Army is concentrated on him.
In a way, Kolchak is really one of the most notable symbols of the White Army. It is Kolchak who has become the subject of the most books and films, and there has even been a memorial statue built in his honor. Efforts to memorialize places that have some relationship to his life and work are ongoing, although they are clearly controversial. And that is no surprise.
The romance of Kolchak’s arctic expeditions draws people toward him, and so do his spiritual searchings, which drew on Eastern philosophy. His heroism in war and his deep sense of patriotism (though some Russians will always be prepared to accuse Kolchak of upholding Allied interests rather than domestic ones) also play a role in his charisma. Others find themselves attracted to Kolchak’s nationalism, the love story preserved in his letters to and from Anna Vasilyevna Timireva, his uncompromising struggle to preserve his ideals during the Civil War, or, of course, his tragic end.
Kolchak was shot in February of 1920 as the White Army advanced on Irkutsk
Alexander Kolchak and Viktor Pepeliayev, the former leader of the short-lived Government of the Russian State, which opposed the Bolshevik government, were shot on February 7, 1920, in Irkutsk. Their execution was ordered by the Irkutsk Wartime Revolutionary Committee (VRK). Their bodies were deposited into a hole in the Ushakovka River, a tributary of the Angara.
The VRK order that determined the fates of Kolchak and Pepeliayev asserted that a White underground in Irkutsk might prove capable of freeing the two men alongside approaching White Army forces. The Irkutsk VRK, writing that it was “obligated to prevent unnecessary deaths and keep the city from descending into the horror of civil war while basing its decisions on information provided by the current investigation … which has found Kolchak and his government to be acting illegally,” issued a death sentence. The order concluded with a memorable slogan: “Better to kill two criminals who have long been worthy of death than to kill hundreds of innocent victims.”
Another order issued by Ivan Smirnov, a member of the Fifth Army RVK and the chair of the Siberian RVK, carries the same date. It reads: “In light of renewed wartime activities against the Czech forces, the movement of Swiss divisions toward Irkutsk, and the unstable condition of the Soviet government in Irkutsk, I hereby declare: Admiral Kolchak and Chairman of the Ministers’ Council Pepeliayev, who are currently imprisoned by yourselves, as well as all who have participated in their punitive expeditions or served Kolchak either as counterintelligence agents or as guards, must immediately be shot.”
On February 9, Smirnov wrote by telegraph to Vladimir Lenin that Kolchak and Pepeliayev were shot “in light of current unstable conditions.” It is therefore undoubtable that Smirnov had intended to carry out a politically motivated execution in order to dispose of an opposition leader amid complex operational conditions that arose near Irkutsk in early February of 1920.
Crimes were committed in the territories controlled by Kolchak, but similar crimes on Red Army territory went unpunished
It is reasonable to argue that Kolchak, as the recognized leader of the White Army, was responsible for any crimes committed on the enormous territory he controlled either by his subordinates or on his command. Those crimes included massacres of peaceful civilians. The Civil War was not conducive to compromise, and both sides used every possibility they could think of to weaken and eliminate their enemies, including the execution of prisoners and hostages as well as merciless crackdowns on partisan fighters and local populations that supported them. However, similar events likely took place on even larger scales under Soviet leaders, and no legal body has criticized the Soviet army for allowing those crimes to occur.
Even today, 100 years later, the wide-scale terror of the Civil War remains a subject of passionate debate insofar as that terror has been very sparsely described and because it would still be premature to define a particular level of guilt on either side. That uncertainty does encompass the actions of Bolshevik leaders because the scale of the terrorist acts committed by all sides of the conflict has been heavily mythologized.
As far as legal responsibility goes, I can provide a specific example. I recently completed a substantial biographical research project concerning V.I. Oberyukhtin, one of Kolchakov’s best-known generals. Oberyukhtin, who was directly subordinate to Kolchak and signed one of his army’s orders for repression, approved the immediate extralegal execution of a group of partisans as well as the execution of a group of hostages several days later and the destruction of inhabited areas in cases of mass resistance. The general was rehabilitated even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Oberyukhtin’s case, as in many others, it is unclear whether or how widely the orders in question were carried out.
One might argue that a declaration of national unity declaring that participation in the Civil War did not constitute a crime for any side would obviously make it necessary to rehabilitate Kolchak. However, that question is a bit odd in itself. Factually, Kolchak lost a war, was captured by his opponents, and was executed as an important leader from an opposing wartime faction. In other words, he was killed for political reasons, but Kolchak himself would have taken precisely the same actions had he defeated the leaders of the Red Army.
Kolchak’s rehabilitation is clearly necessary as a formal, legal act. The accusations against him have become the property of history, and historians should be permitted to work with the documents that describe them. However, in essence, history rehabilitated Kolchak long ago. Neither Reds nor Whites nor even the government that ordered Kolchak’s execution still exists within the Russian state."
"Admiral Alexander Kolchak’s archives have been declassified. Why is the White Army leader still so controversial?
On March 21, it became public knowledge that Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, had declassified documents related to the criminal case against Alexander Kolchak. Kolchak led the White Army movement that attempted to regain control of Russia from the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War of 1917 – 1923. Access to the documents declassified by the FSB remains limited: viewing them is still prohibited. Kolchak was executed by firing squad in 1920 after being convicted of war crimes, and in 1999, a Russian court declined to rehabilitate him. Rehabilitation is a legal practice typically used to exonerate the victims of Stalinist and post-Stalinist repressions, often after those victims have died. The fact that Kolchak was not accorded even that level of respect speaks to the controversy his name still inspires: in 2017, a memorial plaque mounted on the admiral’s former home in St. Petersburg was taken down just one year after its construction. At the same time, Kolchak has become the subject of various books and films, and he remains one of the most popular historical figures of the Civil War. Meduza asked history professor Andrey Ganin, a leading scholar at the Institute for Slavic Studies in the Russian Academy of Sciences, to explain contemporary attitudes toward the figure of Alexander Kolchak.
Admiral Kolchak is one of the best-known symbols of the White Army
Admiral Kolchak is one of the White Russian leaders who is best known to the public. In that sense, he personifies a number of other White Army figures for many Russians, and that means both public enthusiasm and public hatred for the White Army is concentrated on him.
In a way, Kolchak is really one of the most notable symbols of the White Army. It is Kolchak who has become the subject of the most books and films, and there has even been a memorial statue built in his honor. Efforts to memorialize places that have some relationship to his life and work are ongoing, although they are clearly controversial. And that is no surprise.
The romance of Kolchak’s arctic expeditions draws people toward him, and so do his spiritual searchings, which drew on Eastern philosophy. His heroism in war and his deep sense of patriotism (though some Russians will always be prepared to accuse Kolchak of upholding Allied interests rather than domestic ones) also play a role in his charisma. Others find themselves attracted to Kolchak’s nationalism, the love story preserved in his letters to and from Anna Vasilyevna Timireva, his uncompromising struggle to preserve his ideals during the Civil War, or, of course, his tragic end.
Kolchak was shot in February of 1920 as the White Army advanced on Irkutsk
Alexander Kolchak and Viktor Pepeliayev, the former leader of the short-lived Government of the Russian State, which opposed the Bolshevik government, were shot on February 7, 1920, in Irkutsk. Their execution was ordered by the Irkutsk Wartime Revolutionary Committee (VRK). Their bodies were deposited into a hole in the Ushakovka River, a tributary of the Angara.
The VRK order that determined the fates of Kolchak and Pepeliayev asserted that a White underground in Irkutsk might prove capable of freeing the two men alongside approaching White Army forces. The Irkutsk VRK, writing that it was “obligated to prevent unnecessary deaths and keep the city from descending into the horror of civil war while basing its decisions on information provided by the current investigation … which has found Kolchak and his government to be acting illegally,” issued a death sentence. The order concluded with a memorable slogan: “Better to kill two criminals who have long been worthy of death than to kill hundreds of innocent victims.”
Another order issued by Ivan Smirnov, a member of the Fifth Army RVK and the chair of the Siberian RVK, carries the same date. It reads: “In light of renewed wartime activities against the Czech forces, the movement of Swiss divisions toward Irkutsk, and the unstable condition of the Soviet government in Irkutsk, I hereby declare: Admiral Kolchak and Chairman of the Ministers’ Council Pepeliayev, who are currently imprisoned by yourselves, as well as all who have participated in their punitive expeditions or served Kolchak either as counterintelligence agents or as guards, must immediately be shot.”
On February 9, Smirnov wrote by telegraph to Vladimir Lenin that Kolchak and Pepeliayev were shot “in light of current unstable conditions.” It is therefore undoubtable that Smirnov had intended to carry out a politically motivated execution in order to dispose of an opposition leader amid complex operational conditions that arose near Irkutsk in early February of 1920.
Crimes were committed in the territories controlled by Kolchak, but similar crimes on Red Army territory went unpunished
It is reasonable to argue that Kolchak, as the recognized leader of the White Army, was responsible for any crimes committed on the enormous territory he controlled either by his subordinates or on his command. Those crimes included massacres of peaceful civilians. The Civil War was not conducive to compromise, and both sides used every possibility they could think of to weaken and eliminate their enemies, including the execution of prisoners and hostages as well as merciless crackdowns on partisan fighters and local populations that supported them. However, similar events likely took place on even larger scales under Soviet leaders, and no legal body has criticized the Soviet army for allowing those crimes to occur.
Even today, 100 years later, the wide-scale terror of the Civil War remains a subject of passionate debate insofar as that terror has been very sparsely described and because it would still be premature to define a particular level of guilt on either side. That uncertainty does encompass the actions of Bolshevik leaders because the scale of the terrorist acts committed by all sides of the conflict has been heavily mythologized.
As far as legal responsibility goes, I can provide a specific example. I recently completed a substantial biographical research project concerning V.I. Oberyukhtin, one of Kolchakov’s best-known generals. Oberyukhtin, who was directly subordinate to Kolchak and signed one of his army’s orders for repression, approved the immediate extralegal execution of a group of partisans as well as the execution of a group of hostages several days later and the destruction of inhabited areas in cases of mass resistance. The general was rehabilitated even before the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Oberyukhtin’s case, as in many others, it is unclear whether or how widely the orders in question were carried out.
One might argue that a declaration of national unity declaring that participation in the Civil War did not constitute a crime for any side would obviously make it necessary to rehabilitate Kolchak. However, that question is a bit odd in itself. Factually, Kolchak lost a war, was captured by his opponents, and was executed as an important leader from an opposing wartime faction. In other words, he was killed for political reasons, but Kolchak himself would have taken precisely the same actions had he defeated the leaders of the Red Army.
Kolchak’s rehabilitation is clearly necessary as a formal, legal act. The accusations against him have become the property of history, and historians should be permitted to work with the documents that describe them. However, in essence, history rehabilitated Kolchak long ago. Neither Reds nor Whites nor even the government that ordered Kolchak’s execution still exists within the Russian state."
Admiral Alexander Kolchak's archives have been declassified. Why is the White Army leader still...
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Александр Колчак. Парад Сибирской армии 1919 / Aleksandr Kolchak. Parade of the Siberian army
Александр Колчак. Парад Сибирской армии / Aleksandr Kolchak. Parade of the Siberian army Дата съёмки - 4 апреля 1919 Жанр - Документальный, кинохроника, воен...
Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on February 7, 1920 the leader of the White Army movement that attempted to regain control of Russia from the Bolshevik Red Army Admiral Alexander Kolchak surrendered to Bolshevik troops and was executed.
Александр Колчак. Парад Сибирской армии 1919 / Aleksandr Kolchak. Parade of the Siberian army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-AdI1TnqGU
Images:
1. Admiral Alexander Kolchak (sitting) with British officers on the Eastern Front, Russia, 1918
2. Kolchak Monument on Kolchak Island.
3. Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kolchak was an Arctic explorer and naval officer, who was recognized in 1919–20 by the 'Whites' as supreme ruler of Russia
4. Admiral Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kolchak at desk
Biographies:
1. spartacus-educational.com/RUSkolchak.htm
2.rbth.com/history/326857-admiral-kolchak-patriot-or-agent
1. Background from [https://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkolchak.htm]
"Alexander Kolchak
Alexander Kolchak, the son of a major-general of the Marine Artillery, was born in St Petersburg in 1873. Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1894. He joined the Russian Navy and served in Vladivostok (1895-1899). Kolchak took part in the Polar expedition led by Eduard Toll (1900-1902).
During the Russo-Japanese War he served as an officer on the cruiser Askold, and later commanded the destroyer Serdityi. He was awarded with the Order of St. Anna for sinking the Japanese cruiser Takasago. Kolchak was given command of a coastal artillery battery during the Siege of Port Arthur. He was wounded during the fighting and was taken as a prisoner of war to Nagasaki.
After being released he was promoted to lieutenant commander in April 1905. The following year he was appointed to the Naval General Staff, with responsibility for protecting St Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland area. In 1912 he was assigned to serve in the Russian Baltic Fleet. In 1914 Kolchak was given command of the flagship Pogranichnik, and during the early stages of the First World War he oversaw the laying of extensive coastal defensive minefields. He was later put in charge of the naval forces in the Gulf of Riga. In August 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral and was given command of the Black Sea Fleet. After the fall of Tsar Nicholas II, he was recalled to Petrograd.
Alexander Kerensky, the Minister of War, feared that Kolchak might organise a military uprising against the Provisional Government. He therefore sent Kolchak to the United States as a military adviser. He also spent time in England and Japan. He was in Manchuria when the Bolsheviks gained control of the country after the November Revolution.
General Lavr Kornilov now organized a Volunteer Army and in January 1918 his forces numbered 3,000 men. Over the next few months other groups who opposed the Bolshevik government joined the struggle. Eventually these soldiers became known as the White Army.
Kolchak joined the rebellion and agreed to become a minister in the Provisional All-Russian Government based in Omsk. Others who joined included landowners who had lost their estates, factory owners who had their property nationalized, devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church who objected to the government's atheism and royalists who wanted to restore the monarchy. In November 1918, ministers who were members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party were arrested and Kolchak was named Supreme Ruler with dictatorial powers. His first action was to promote himself to Admiral.
The Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) now changed sides and joined forces with the Red Army. Kolchak reacted by bring in new laws which established capital punishment for attempting to overthrow the authorities. He also announced that “insults written, printed, and oral, are punishable by imprisonment". Other measures imposed by Kolchak included the suppression of trade unions, disbanding of soviets, and resturned factories and land to their previous owners. Kolchak was accused of committing war crimes and one report claimed that he had 25,000 people killed in Ekaterinburg. His behaviour resulted in the Czech Legion leaving the White Army.
In March, 1919, Kolchak captured Ufa and was posing a threat to Kazan and Samara. However, his acts of repression had resulted in the formation of Western Siberian Peasants' Red Army. The Red Army, led by Nestor Makhno and Mikhail Frunze, also made advances and entered Omsk in November, 1919.
Kolchak fled eastwards and was promised safe passage by the Czechoslovaks to the British military mission in Irkutsk. However, he was handed over to the Socialist Revolutionaries. He appeared before a five man commission between 21st January and 6th February. At the end of the hearing he was sentenced to death.
Alexander Kolchak was shot by firing squad on 7th February, 1920.
"
2. Background from [https://www.rbth.com/history/326857-admiral-kolchak-patriot-or-agent]
"Admiral Kolchak: A true Russian patriot or a British intelligence agent?
NOV 28 2017 by ALEXEY TIMOFEYCHEV
Alexander Kolchak was a commander in the Russian Imperial Navy during World War One and a Polar explorer. He is best known, however, as one of the leaders of the White anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia between 1918 and 1920. As such, he has recently been lauded as a true hero of Russia. But those who do not support this view, point to his close ties with foreign powers, especially Britain, going as far as labelling him a foreign spy. To what degree are these claims true?
"It is only now… that the memory of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak takes on life… The real Kolchak is revealed now: an outstanding person, an inquisitive scientist, a brave officer, a military professional of the highest class," that is how Admiral Kolchak is described in the preface to a recent compilation of his writings.
Nobel literature laureate, Ivan Bunin, expressed an apologetic view of Kolchak already in 1921: "The time will come and the name of Kolchak will be written in gold in Russian chronicles for eternal memory and glory." It seems that for many in Russia that time has come. Russian senator Elena Mizulina has dubbed Kolchak a hero and there have been attempts to erect a plaque on the building where he once lived. Some time ago the blockbuster film Admiral portrayed Kolchak as some sort of last noble hope of the empire.
Rehabilitation rejected
What is jarring for this jolly picture is the decision taken by a Russian court and the Military Prosecutor's Office not to rehabilitate Kolchak. Under Russian law he remains a criminal - just as he was judged in 1920 when captured by Siberian revolutionaries, who found him guilty - without a formal trial - of the killing of thousands of workers and peasants who had revolted against his authority.
In documents submitted to the Military Prosecutor's Office there is a reference to the support given to Kolchak by the Allied powers - including Britain, France, Japan and the USA - that intervened on the side of the Whites during the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
Political connections in the UK and US
In Soviet times Kolchak was usually painted as a puppet of foreign powers. This is probably too extreme an assessment, but Kolchak's close ties with the UK and the US are well documented. Historians with faultlessly objective credentials point to Kolchak's contacts with foreign interests. As historian Oleg Budnitsky notes, the fact that Kolchak became a leader of the anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia is not accidental. "It is beyond any doubt that a huge role was played by the fact that he was well known, relatively well known, by political figures in Great Britain and the USA."
Kolchak, who due to revolutionary turmoil, was forced to step down as commander of the Black Sea Fleet in the summer of 1917, soon left Russia. A few months before the Bolshevik uprising, he went to the UK and then to the United States. The official aim of the US trip was to give lectures on minelaying, but he was received by a State Department head and President Woodrow Wilson himself.
On the way to Mesopotamia
Kolchak was later granted an official position by the British after asking authorities in London to allow him to continue his fight against Germany in the ranks of the British military at a time when Bolshevik leaders were trying to conclude a separate peace with Berlin. The British accepted Kolchak's services and he was dispatched to the Mesopotamian front. However, while in transit, he received an order from the Intelligence Department of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The admiral was advised to travel to the Russian Far East. The British, as Kolchak explained later, wanted to use him for the creation of an anti-Bolshevik force there.
In the autumn of 1918 Kolchak arrived in Omsk, a large city in western Siberia, as a war minister in the Siberian anti-Bolshevik liberal government. Within a fortnight of accepting the post, there was a coup. Kolchak became a dictator and was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
French officers in Omsk at the time claimed that coup was supported by the British military, as historian Vladimir Khandorin writes in his book Admiral Kolchak: Truth and Myths. At the very least, they were informed of the conspiracy. Having become the Supreme Ruler, Kolchak maintained close relations with the British military mission. Its head, Alfred Knox, said "there is no doubt that he [Kolchak] is the best Russian fit for our purposes in the Far East."
Massive foreign support
Kolchak enjoyed direct foreign military support. There were military units from France, the UK, Czechoslovakia, the USA and Japan in Siberia and the Far East. Kolchak's forces were supplied from abroad. The degree of Kolchak's dependency on his allies is revealed in his answer to a close associate, General Konstantin Sakharov, who asked Kolchak why he did not want to restore the monarchy in Russia. The Supreme Ruler answered: "What will our foreigners, the allies, say?"
In the beginning, the foreign assistance helped Kolchak and in the spring of 1919 his armies took the Urals, approached the Volga River and started to threaten Moscow. However, the Bolsheviks mobilized their forces and defeated the admiral's troops. Kolchak was handed over by a French general and the Czechs to his enemies - revolutionaries - in the city of Irkutsk. After a short investigation into his activities he was executed without trial. In the year of the centenary of the Russian revolution his figure continues to polarize the Russian public, and discussions of his allegiances continue."
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Александр Колчак. Парад Сибирской армии 1919 / Aleksandr Kolchak. Parade of the Siberian army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-AdI1TnqGU
Images:
1. Admiral Alexander Kolchak (sitting) with British officers on the Eastern Front, Russia, 1918
2. Kolchak Monument on Kolchak Island.
3. Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kolchak was an Arctic explorer and naval officer, who was recognized in 1919–20 by the 'Whites' as supreme ruler of Russia
4. Admiral Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kolchak at desk
Biographies:
1. spartacus-educational.com/RUSkolchak.htm
2.rbth.com/history/326857-admiral-kolchak-patriot-or-agent
1. Background from [https://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkolchak.htm]
"Alexander Kolchak
Alexander Kolchak, the son of a major-general of the Marine Artillery, was born in St Petersburg in 1873. Kolchak graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1894. He joined the Russian Navy and served in Vladivostok (1895-1899). Kolchak took part in the Polar expedition led by Eduard Toll (1900-1902).
During the Russo-Japanese War he served as an officer on the cruiser Askold, and later commanded the destroyer Serdityi. He was awarded with the Order of St. Anna for sinking the Japanese cruiser Takasago. Kolchak was given command of a coastal artillery battery during the Siege of Port Arthur. He was wounded during the fighting and was taken as a prisoner of war to Nagasaki.
After being released he was promoted to lieutenant commander in April 1905. The following year he was appointed to the Naval General Staff, with responsibility for protecting St Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland area. In 1912 he was assigned to serve in the Russian Baltic Fleet. In 1914 Kolchak was given command of the flagship Pogranichnik, and during the early stages of the First World War he oversaw the laying of extensive coastal defensive minefields. He was later put in charge of the naval forces in the Gulf of Riga. In August 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral and was given command of the Black Sea Fleet. After the fall of Tsar Nicholas II, he was recalled to Petrograd.
Alexander Kerensky, the Minister of War, feared that Kolchak might organise a military uprising against the Provisional Government. He therefore sent Kolchak to the United States as a military adviser. He also spent time in England and Japan. He was in Manchuria when the Bolsheviks gained control of the country after the November Revolution.
General Lavr Kornilov now organized a Volunteer Army and in January 1918 his forces numbered 3,000 men. Over the next few months other groups who opposed the Bolshevik government joined the struggle. Eventually these soldiers became known as the White Army.
Kolchak joined the rebellion and agreed to become a minister in the Provisional All-Russian Government based in Omsk. Others who joined included landowners who had lost their estates, factory owners who had their property nationalized, devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church who objected to the government's atheism and royalists who wanted to restore the monarchy. In November 1918, ministers who were members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party were arrested and Kolchak was named Supreme Ruler with dictatorial powers. His first action was to promote himself to Admiral.
The Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) now changed sides and joined forces with the Red Army. Kolchak reacted by bring in new laws which established capital punishment for attempting to overthrow the authorities. He also announced that “insults written, printed, and oral, are punishable by imprisonment". Other measures imposed by Kolchak included the suppression of trade unions, disbanding of soviets, and resturned factories and land to their previous owners. Kolchak was accused of committing war crimes and one report claimed that he had 25,000 people killed in Ekaterinburg. His behaviour resulted in the Czech Legion leaving the White Army.
In March, 1919, Kolchak captured Ufa and was posing a threat to Kazan and Samara. However, his acts of repression had resulted in the formation of Western Siberian Peasants' Red Army. The Red Army, led by Nestor Makhno and Mikhail Frunze, also made advances and entered Omsk in November, 1919.
Kolchak fled eastwards and was promised safe passage by the Czechoslovaks to the British military mission in Irkutsk. However, he was handed over to the Socialist Revolutionaries. He appeared before a five man commission between 21st January and 6th February. At the end of the hearing he was sentenced to death.
Alexander Kolchak was shot by firing squad on 7th February, 1920.
"
2. Background from [https://www.rbth.com/history/326857-admiral-kolchak-patriot-or-agent]
"Admiral Kolchak: A true Russian patriot or a British intelligence agent?
NOV 28 2017 by ALEXEY TIMOFEYCHEV
Alexander Kolchak was a commander in the Russian Imperial Navy during World War One and a Polar explorer. He is best known, however, as one of the leaders of the White anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia between 1918 and 1920. As such, he has recently been lauded as a true hero of Russia. But those who do not support this view, point to his close ties with foreign powers, especially Britain, going as far as labelling him a foreign spy. To what degree are these claims true?
"It is only now… that the memory of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak takes on life… The real Kolchak is revealed now: an outstanding person, an inquisitive scientist, a brave officer, a military professional of the highest class," that is how Admiral Kolchak is described in the preface to a recent compilation of his writings.
Nobel literature laureate, Ivan Bunin, expressed an apologetic view of Kolchak already in 1921: "The time will come and the name of Kolchak will be written in gold in Russian chronicles for eternal memory and glory." It seems that for many in Russia that time has come. Russian senator Elena Mizulina has dubbed Kolchak a hero and there have been attempts to erect a plaque on the building where he once lived. Some time ago the blockbuster film Admiral portrayed Kolchak as some sort of last noble hope of the empire.
Rehabilitation rejected
What is jarring for this jolly picture is the decision taken by a Russian court and the Military Prosecutor's Office not to rehabilitate Kolchak. Under Russian law he remains a criminal - just as he was judged in 1920 when captured by Siberian revolutionaries, who found him guilty - without a formal trial - of the killing of thousands of workers and peasants who had revolted against his authority.
In documents submitted to the Military Prosecutor's Office there is a reference to the support given to Kolchak by the Allied powers - including Britain, France, Japan and the USA - that intervened on the side of the Whites during the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
Political connections in the UK and US
In Soviet times Kolchak was usually painted as a puppet of foreign powers. This is probably too extreme an assessment, but Kolchak's close ties with the UK and the US are well documented. Historians with faultlessly objective credentials point to Kolchak's contacts with foreign interests. As historian Oleg Budnitsky notes, the fact that Kolchak became a leader of the anti-Bolshevik movement in Siberia is not accidental. "It is beyond any doubt that a huge role was played by the fact that he was well known, relatively well known, by political figures in Great Britain and the USA."
Kolchak, who due to revolutionary turmoil, was forced to step down as commander of the Black Sea Fleet in the summer of 1917, soon left Russia. A few months before the Bolshevik uprising, he went to the UK and then to the United States. The official aim of the US trip was to give lectures on minelaying, but he was received by a State Department head and President Woodrow Wilson himself.
On the way to Mesopotamia
Kolchak was later granted an official position by the British after asking authorities in London to allow him to continue his fight against Germany in the ranks of the British military at a time when Bolshevik leaders were trying to conclude a separate peace with Berlin. The British accepted Kolchak's services and he was dispatched to the Mesopotamian front. However, while in transit, he received an order from the Intelligence Department of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The admiral was advised to travel to the Russian Far East. The British, as Kolchak explained later, wanted to use him for the creation of an anti-Bolshevik force there.
In the autumn of 1918 Kolchak arrived in Omsk, a large city in western Siberia, as a war minister in the Siberian anti-Bolshevik liberal government. Within a fortnight of accepting the post, there was a coup. Kolchak became a dictator and was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
French officers in Omsk at the time claimed that coup was supported by the British military, as historian Vladimir Khandorin writes in his book Admiral Kolchak: Truth and Myths. At the very least, they were informed of the conspiracy. Having become the Supreme Ruler, Kolchak maintained close relations with the British military mission. Its head, Alfred Knox, said "there is no doubt that he [Kolchak] is the best Russian fit for our purposes in the Far East."
Massive foreign support
Kolchak enjoyed direct foreign military support. There were military units from France, the UK, Czechoslovakia, the USA and Japan in Siberia and the Far East. Kolchak's forces were supplied from abroad. The degree of Kolchak's dependency on his allies is revealed in his answer to a close associate, General Konstantin Sakharov, who asked Kolchak why he did not want to restore the monarchy in Russia. The Supreme Ruler answered: "What will our foreigners, the allies, say?"
In the beginning, the foreign assistance helped Kolchak and in the spring of 1919 his armies took the Urals, approached the Volga River and started to threaten Moscow. However, the Bolsheviks mobilized their forces and defeated the admiral's troops. Kolchak was handed over by a French general and the Czechs to his enemies - revolutionaries - in the city of Irkutsk. After a short investigation into his activities he was executed without trial. In the year of the centenary of the Russian revolution his figure continues to polarize the Russian public, and discussions of his allegiances continue."
FYI Col Carl Whicker SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Terry P. Maj Robert Thornton SFC (Join to see) SGT Steve McFarland MSG Andrew White Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Cynthia Croft ]TSgt David L.PO1 Robert George SSG Donald H "Don" Bates SSG William JonesSP5 Jesse EngelCWO3 (Join to see) PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSG Robert "Rob" WentworthSPC Nancy GreeneSSG Franklin Briant
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LTC Stephen F.
Russian Civil War - History of Russia in 100 Minutes (Part 25 of 36)
"History of Russia in 100 Minutes" is a crash course for beginners. Here you will find the complete history summarized and retold in simple language with acc...
Russian Civil War - History of Russia in 100 Minutes (Part 25 of 36)
RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR The Russian Civil War, that followed the Bolshevik coup caused more casualties than World War I. It was the bloodiest military conflict ever to take place on Russian soil. The extremely brutal, “Red Terror,” was opposed to the equally ruthless, “White Terror”. BACKGROUND One of the first steps for the Bolsheviks, after seizing power, was to extricate themselves from their commitment to World War I. In March 1918, the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany, and other Central Powers was signed. As a result, Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic states, and Poland were ceded. Many anti-Bolshevik generals and Cossacks started gathering armies, also many nationalist armies emerged. This militarization was called the “White Movement.” They were confronted by the Red Army, a newly established force, led by Leon Trotsky. WHITES AND REDS The commander-in-chief of the Whites in Siberia was Admiral Alexander Kolchak. Commanders Anton Denikin and Pyotr Wrangel attacked from the south. In October 1919, General Nikolay Yudenich tried to capture Petrograd, but the attack was stopped only 50 km from the city. The Red Army was commanded by Leon Trotsky. Other notable generals were Mikhail Frunze, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Semyon Budyonny, and Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko. When World War I came to an end on 11 November 1918, Russia’s former allies, especially Great Britain, France, and Japan also joined forces with the Whites to finish the Bolshevik power. Although altogether about 200,000 foreign troops were brought to Russia, the Allied intervention was, in fact, a minor element in the civil wars, happening around the far fringes of the country and making no big impact on the actual fighting. 1919 The lowest point for the Reds was June-October 1919 when 86% of the territory was in the hands of the Whites. The Reds were in charge of the industrial heartland, though, and the unorganized and fragmentized Whites were unable to break through. The Whites slowly withdrew their forces in November 1920. By 1922-23 all of Russia fell under communist power. RESULTS Total casualties of the Russian Civil War are estimated at 9.5 million people. They died on the battlefields, of disease, of hunger, by executions by both Reds and Whites, and from the overall collapse of the society and economy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDFoGjnm_I4
FYI CPT Paul Whitmer SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson 1stsgt Glenn Brackin Sgt Kelli Mays Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Cpl James R. " Jim" Gossett JrSP5 Jeannie Carle LTC Jeff Shearer CWO3 Dennis M. SFC William Farrell SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LTC Greg Henning SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnellSGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCord [~655611:spc-douglas-bolton SSgt Boyd Herrst
RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR The Russian Civil War, that followed the Bolshevik coup caused more casualties than World War I. It was the bloodiest military conflict ever to take place on Russian soil. The extremely brutal, “Red Terror,” was opposed to the equally ruthless, “White Terror”. BACKGROUND One of the first steps for the Bolsheviks, after seizing power, was to extricate themselves from their commitment to World War I. In March 1918, the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with Germany, and other Central Powers was signed. As a result, Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic states, and Poland were ceded. Many anti-Bolshevik generals and Cossacks started gathering armies, also many nationalist armies emerged. This militarization was called the “White Movement.” They were confronted by the Red Army, a newly established force, led by Leon Trotsky. WHITES AND REDS The commander-in-chief of the Whites in Siberia was Admiral Alexander Kolchak. Commanders Anton Denikin and Pyotr Wrangel attacked from the south. In October 1919, General Nikolay Yudenich tried to capture Petrograd, but the attack was stopped only 50 km from the city. The Red Army was commanded by Leon Trotsky. Other notable generals were Mikhail Frunze, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Semyon Budyonny, and Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko. When World War I came to an end on 11 November 1918, Russia’s former allies, especially Great Britain, France, and Japan also joined forces with the Whites to finish the Bolshevik power. Although altogether about 200,000 foreign troops were brought to Russia, the Allied intervention was, in fact, a minor element in the civil wars, happening around the far fringes of the country and making no big impact on the actual fighting. 1919 The lowest point for the Reds was June-October 1919 when 86% of the territory was in the hands of the Whites. The Reds were in charge of the industrial heartland, though, and the unorganized and fragmentized Whites were unable to break through. The Whites slowly withdrew their forces in November 1920. By 1922-23 all of Russia fell under communist power. RESULTS Total casualties of the Russian Civil War are estimated at 9.5 million people. They died on the battlefields, of disease, of hunger, by executions by both Reds and Whites, and from the overall collapse of the society and economy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDFoGjnm_I4
FYI CPT Paul Whitmer SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson 1stsgt Glenn Brackin Sgt Kelli Mays Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Cpl James R. " Jim" Gossett JrSP5 Jeannie Carle LTC Jeff Shearer CWO3 Dennis M. SFC William Farrell SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LTC Greg Henning SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnellSGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCord [~655611:spc-douglas-bolton SSgt Boyd Herrst
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The Russian Civil War was a savage and brutal one, only overshadowed by WWII for the carnage it brought to the Russian people.
Here's a fun fact: more US troops were deployed in support of the White Army in the Russian Civil War than France for WWI. And it wasn't close. It also made for some strange bedfellows. as US and other allied Soldiers found themselves on the same team as the Imperial Japanese Army, but with very different goals. The allies were trying to keep the trans-Siberian railroad open; the Japanese were interested in establishing a foothold that would lead to their eventual conquest of Manchukuo (Manchuria).
Here's a fun fact: more US troops were deployed in support of the White Army in the Russian Civil War than France for WWI. And it wasn't close. It also made for some strange bedfellows. as US and other allied Soldiers found themselves on the same team as the Imperial Japanese Army, but with very different goals. The allies were trying to keep the trans-Siberian railroad open; the Japanese were interested in establishing a foothold that would lead to their eventual conquest of Manchukuo (Manchuria).
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SPC David S.
Very astute military historian - in addition to the Siberia force there was another force sent to the north to secure a rather large cache of arms in Archangel (Archangelsk) Russia. The U.S. Army’s 339th regiment, were chosen for the deployment because they were mostly from Michigan, so military commanders figured they could handle the war zone’s extreme cold. Their training in England included a lesson from famed Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton on surviving below-zero conditions. Landing in Archangel, just below the Arctic Circle, in September 1918, they nicknamed themselves the Polar Bear Expedition.
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