One of the brightest episodes of the Civil War in the South of Russia was the creation of an independent people's republic on the territory of the Kuban and its struggle with both the Bolsheviks and the volunteer White Guard army, which tried to take control of it. How the events of this dramatic story unfolded is described in our article.
Territory, flag and emblem of the newly formed republic
The territory of the Kuban People's Republic, proclaimed in February 1918, was very extensive and amounted to 94,400 km². It stretched from the Yeisk estuary (a bay of the Sea of Azov) in the north to the main Caucasian ridge in the south. In its western part, it reached the Kerch Strait, and in the eastern part it reached the Black Sea province, the center of which was Novorossiysk.
The flag of the Kuban People's Republic was a panel divided horizontally by blue, crimson and green stripes, and the width of the middle stripe was twice as large as the extreme ones. The meaning of each color has not been documented, but it is generally acceptedthat crimson symbolized the Black Sea Cossacks - the descendants of the Cossacks, blue - the heirs of the Don Cossacks, and green - the Cossacks, who were Muslim highlanders. The republic also had its coat of arms, the photo of which is placed in the article.
What was the Kuban People's Republic?
The internal structure of this self-proclaimed state was a structure headed by the chief chieftain, who was at the same time the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. His competence included the appointment of members of the government, while he himself was elected for a term of 4 years by the Kuban Regional Rada, which, together with the Kuban Legislative Rada, was the highest legislative body of the state education.
The Kuban People's Republic of 1918 was very heterogeneous in its political composition, while the bulk of the population preferred the two most numerous groups. One of them, economically stronger, was called "Chernomortsy" and consisted mainly of representatives of the Black Sea Ukrainian-speaking Cossacks, standing on separatist principles. The Chernomorians called for the creation of an independent Kuban state, united with Ukraine on federal principles.
Supporters of the second political group, called "Lineytsy", advocated the entry of the Kuban into the "united and indivisible Russia". Throughout the entire period, while the Kuban People's Republic existed (1918-1920), between these political forces there wasan ongoing struggle, sometimes taking extremely sharp forms. The establishment of Bolshevik power in the Kuban gave it a special urgency.
Choice of political landmarks
In 1918, the Kuban People's Republic, as well as the territories surrounding it, became part of the general process of the transfer of power into the hands of the Bolsheviks, whose backbone was the Black Sea province, over which they established control back in December 1917.
How successful the efforts of the Bolsheviks in the Kuban could be, largely depended on which side the local Cossacks would be on, who at that time took a wait-and-see position and did not express open support for either them or their main enemy, the White Volunteer Army, who fought in the South of Russia.
Reasons that pushed the Cossacks away from the new government
However, by the autumn of 1918, a significant change occurred in the mood of the Cossacks. Its cause was the policy that was contrary to their interests, pursued by the Bolsheviks in the territories under their control. It was expressed in the confiscation of lands that previously belonged to the Cossack army, as well as the restructuring of the foundations of estate land use, which had a centuries-old tradition.
Caused protest and equalization of the rights of the Cossacks with representatives of the rest of the population of the region. This led to the incitement of inter-class hatred, often resulting in bloody conflicts. Finally, a decisive role in their choice was played by the increasing cases of looting and robbery committed by detachments of the Red Army, and the acts carried out by the Bolshevik leadership.decossackization, that is, the deprivation of the Cossacks of their political and military rights.
The beginning of the fight against the Bolsheviks
As a result, by the autumn of 1918, most of the Cossacks became opponents of the new government, and almost the entire Kuban People's Republic joined the anti-Bolshevik movement. In the current situation, the Kuban Regional Rada, and, consequently, the army subordinate to it, tried to win over to their side two anti-Bolshevik, but acting separately from each other military-political forces - the leadership of the Don Troops Region and the government of Ukraine. Such competition, which prevented joint actions, only weakened the general resistance to the advancing units of the Red Army and brought discord into the anti-Bolshevik movement.
In August 1918, after the victory of the uprising that broke out in Taman under the leadership of Colonel P. S. Peretyatko managed to liberate the entire Pravoberezhnaya Kuban from the Bolsheviks and create a reliable outpost there for the offensive of the Volunteer Army. Thanks to the opportunities that opened up, its advanced units captured Yekaterinodar on August 17.
A rash decision
An important event in the life of the republic was the meeting of the government held shortly before. It adopted a decision according to which the Kuban People's Republic continued the anti-Bolshevik struggle in alliance with the Volunteer Army of the Don, and not with Ukraine.
As it turned out, later this choice became the cause of many conflicts and contradictions that arosebetween the Kuban leaders and the White Guard command. The fundamental disagreement was that the Don people, considering the Kuban as an integral part of Russia, sought to limit the powers of its government and subordinate the head ataman to the commander of the Don army, General A. I. Denikin (photo below).
Kubans, in turn, claimed equality in resolving the most important military and political issues. In addition, their dissatisfaction was caused by the actions of Denikin personally, who made it a rule to intervene in the solution of internal issues of the Cossack regions and impose his own decisions on them. Thus, the barely established alliance soon began to fall apart.
A crime with disastrous consequences
The final break between yesterday's allies came after the incident that occurred on June 19, 1919 at the South Russian Conference, convened in Rostov to create a united anti-Bolshevik front. On that day, the head of the Kuban government, N. Ryabovol, was shot dead after he criticized Denikin. His killer turned out to be one of the members of the leadership of the Volunteer Army.
This crime aroused indignation among the general population of the Kuban. The Cossacks, who had previously joined the ranks of the Volunteer Army and by that time made up 68.7% of its personnel, began to leave their units en masse. This process was so intensive that after 3 months less than 10% of them remained in Denikin's troops.
As a result and Volunteerthe army of the South of Russia, and the Kuban People's Republic suffered significant damage and weakened their combat capability. As a result, this was one of the reasons for the defeat of the White movement.
Last attempts to break the current impasse
In the early autumn of 1919, the Kuban People's Republic, whose history was coming to an end, proclaimed as opponents not only the Bolsheviks, but also the defenders of the monarchy, who found support in the volunteer White Guard movement of the Don.
At the same time, the deputies of the Regional Council were actively promoting the separation of the Kuban from Russia. At the end of the same year, an attempt was made to apply to the newly created League of Nations with a request to accept the Kuban People's Republic as an independent subject.
To strengthen its military potential, the leadership of the Kuban entered into a military alliance with the Mountain Republic - a state proclaimed in 1917 on the territory of the Terek region, the capital of which was Vladikavkaz. The consequence of this step was an even greater aggravation in relations with the command of the armed forces of the South of Russia, since the Volunteer Army was fighting at that time with the Cossack army of the Mountain Republic.
The collapse of the Kuban People's Republic
The end of their mutual enmity and claims to supreme power in this vast region was put an end to by the offensive of the Red Army in 1920, which caused mass desertion in the ranks of Denikin's troops. The commander-in-chief tried to prevent this by sending to the Cossack villagesspecial squads, whose task was to catch and return to the army all those who arbitrarily left its ranks. However, by doing this, he achieved even greater exasperation of the Kuban in relation to himself and his army. During this period, many Cossacks went over to the side of the Red Army.
The final defeat of the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Kuban and the Donskoy Region took place in March 1920. Then the Red Army carried out its well-known Kuban-Novorossiysk operation. Leaving Ekaterinodar to the enemy, the Volunteer Corps retreated, and the Kuban army, pressed to the border with Georgia, capitulated on May 3.
Despite the fact that the Kuban was soon included in the RSFSR, separate actions of the Cossacks against the new authorities continued until 1925 in the hope that the Kuban People's Republic could be reborn. This was the reason that throughout all subsequent years, until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, mass repressions were carried out with particular ruthlessness in the Kuban, as well as acts of decossackization and dispossession, which caused a famine that claimed thousands of lives.
