Not much is said about the period of the Red Terror in Crimea. It is known that in mid-November (on the 14th) in 1920, the last steamer with the military of the Wrangel army set off from the Gulf of Feodosia. Only a few hours passed, and the ships met with other ships carrying Crimean refugees - people were urgently evacuated from Y alta, Kerch, Simferopol. Having united, a group of ships headed towards Constantinople.
What is it about
The Red Terror in Crimea is a punitive action organized in this area to ensure the power of the Soviets. They started in 1917 and the period of terror ended around 1921. Historically, it is customary to divide this long time period into two. At first chaos reigned after the revolution, and in the winter of 17-18 there was the first case of mass terror in the new country. The second began in November 20th and lasted a little over a year. At that time, on the lands of the peninsula, all those whom the Soviet authorities regarded as class members were massacred on a large scale.enemies. Those who could not evacuate with Wrangel suffered.
For the 1st stage of the Red Terror in the Crimea, numerous lynchings are characteristic. They were largely due to the agitation of the left radicals. The unjustified extremism of that time and the absence of real strict power in the Crimean lands turned out to be the starting conditions for the death of many innocent people. In 20-21 years, the events were the result of direct instructions from the ruling structures - the leaders of the Bolshevik Party. Subsequent historical Soviet studies mostly avoided the topic of what happened in the Crimea, hushing up that period of the formation of Soviet power.
Theory and practice
For the revolutionaries of our country, traditionally, terror was considered a theoretically substantiated method, which is absolutely acceptable to achieve good great goals. Not only the Bolsheviks were known for such an attitude towards this measure - the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the anarchists also approved of certain options and influences. The Bolshevik Party was distinguished by the fact that in theory it denied the possibility of using individual terror. That, however, did not prevent them from implementing such measures in practice. But the massive one was justified both in theory and applicable in reality. The main documentation of the party contained provisions allowing the use of such a measure at a time when the battle between classes was especially aggravated, that is, it seemed to fit perfectly into the proletarian revolutionary events. For the predominant percentage of the Bolsheviks, terror became a tactic to achieve what they wanted - the enemies were destroyed, andthe undecided and the weak were frightened.
As can be inferred from the slogans under which the revolution began, initially the Bolshevik activists were ready for a large-scale civil clash, which could subsequently be inflated into a world revolution. Terror always accompanies civil wars - this is known from the history of different countries. However, when the Civil War ended, the idea of terror still seemed good to those in power - after all, certain political goals remained unachieved.
17th year and new government
By the end of this year, the political mood in the Crimean territories has changed a lot in favor of the left. If in the summer in the elections almost all the locals spoke out against the Bolshevik authorities and only in Sevastopol one representative of this party managed to break through, then by winter the situation had changed, the new authorities received the support of the inhabitants of almost all large settlements of Crimea. Toward the end of this year, there were three power centers in Crimea. Traditional authorities, unions, workers' councils, committees, city councils were active. They did not consider the October coup to be valid, they called themselves the Tauride Council. He was first elected on 11/20/17. This meeting adhered to the all-Russian positions, condemning the actions of the Bolshevik Party.
The second center of that time was Kurultai. Its representatives opposed the transfer of power to the soviets. Kurultai supported the idea of Crimea gaining independence.
Finally, there was the Sevastopol Council. Then came the Revolutionary CommitteeCrimea. These structures were controlled by the forces of the Bolsheviks, the Socialist-Revolutionaries of the left. They rejected the other two centers of power. If the disagreements with the first were categorical, the second revolutionary committee and the councils could still contact on certain points, issues, from time to time entering into short alliances.
Additional factor
To some extent, the Provisional Government pushed the Bolsheviks to the Red Terror in the Crimea. In fact, it did not have special power, but tried to prove its rights to such. Such an abundance of people wishing to take control of the peninsula caused chaos. Instead of any power, absolute anarchy reigned. Politically, Crimea became the site of the struggle between the nationalists and the Bolsheviks. Officers, socialist directions, resisting both, practically eliminated conflict issues. At the same time, there were also two forces that opposed violence, but both of them were distinguished by weakness and a small number of followers. We are talking about the Mensheviks, the People's Socialists. Others sought violence as the most effective means of achieving what they wanted, and the Bolsheviks were the first.
First events
The establishment of Soviet power in the Crimea took place gradually. On October 17, on October 6-10, a ship congress was organized and it was decided to send sailors towards the Don, who would help to establish Soviet power and suppress the movements opposing the revolution. The officers and command of the fleet spoke out against such an event, their position was assessed as counter-revolutionary. From the 15th of the same monthbegan to arbitrarily arrest those who seemed insufficiently loyal to the Soviet regime. Soon the Black Sea were defeated. The command was blamed for this, one of the four officers was shot near Tikharetskaya. On December 10, ten sailors who died in the fight against the Cossacks arrived in Sevastopol. A day later they arrived alive. The funeral turned into a demonstration, the participants of which demanded the killing of officers. On December 12, this happened - with an officer on the Fidonisi. When the midshipman reprimanded the stoker for doing his job poorly, he attacked him and killed him.
Remembering the events of 1905, on the 12th, they did not take too long with reprisals against the commanding staff. If earlier they shot rebellious sailors, now they decided to kill all those who were then involved in the case from the opposite side. Both naval and land personnel suffered. On the 15th alone, there were 32 people shot. The bodies were thrown into the water. In total, 128 people from among the commanding personnel lost their lives in Sevastopol during that time. On the 16th, the Soviets condemned the assassination, while contemporaries noted that the Bolsheviks expected such a development of events.
Beginning of the 18th
The end of December of the previous year was marked by elections, during which the main positions passed into the hands of the Social Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks. All over the peninsula, revolutionary committees began to appear, which were given the power of the soviets. From that moment on, the establishment of Soviet power in the Crimea and the Bolshevik superiority did not cause any doubts. ATAt the beginning of the 18th, the Executive Committee turned to the councils, proposing to begin work on the creation of a guard that would protect the area from the opponents of the revolution, regardless of their flag. On the 12th, a headquarters was opened, where participants from the revolutionary committees, soviets, and factory committees were sent. However, the participants turned out to be so disagreeing with each other that the idea became a failure. Another weakness was the lack of technical capabilities, a strict management system.
This period in the history of Crimea is known for its severity for the population, who suffered the most because of the chaos caused by the numerous rushing to power. In fact, the only one who could manage someone at the moment was Centroflot. This body received command from the congress of the military fleet of the entire power at the beginning of the same 18th. Centroflot was similar to the Soviets in its organizational structure. In fact, he became a political body, command, had a managerial apparatus and subjugated the managers of the Black Sea fleet, which means communications and infrastructure. They tried to take control of the sailor's freemen, to outline the limits, but the violent flow was too powerful, the Bolsheviks were not one of those who could control it.
Combat and control
The civil war on the peninsula, which influenced the further history of Crimea, unfolded at the end of the 17th, when representatives of the SNP fought with groups adhering to Bolshevik ideas. The battles affected Y alta, were noted in Evpatoria. Other towns were also affected. By the middle of the first month of the 18th, national military operations had engulfed the entire peninsula, the Russiansfought the Tatars. The first were mainly in favor of the soviets, the second defended the need for a regional government. At the same time, the soviets infiltrated the coastal cities in a monotonous manner: first, those who were loyal to the regional authorities were brought into the city, the soviets disbanded, the garrisons, set in favor of the Bolsheviks, lost their weapons. This provoked the issuance of an order to the fleet, so ships approached the city. Sometimes the initiators were local Bolsheviks who sent personal requests. The landing party from the ships, supported by the Bolsheviks and lovers of robbery, broke into the city, the resistance of the regional government was broken in a matter of hours. The massacre began on everyone who came to hand.
Yevpatoria: new authorities
The Red Terror in Yevpatoriya is explained by active local resistance - the officers, the Crimean Tatars opposed the Soviets. They began to disarm the local units, configured in favor of the Bolsheviks. On January 18, unidentified persons brutally killed Karaev. Two ships and one and a half thousand sailors and other military men came out in support of the Bolshevik regime. First, the city was shelled from cruiser guns, only after that the fighters were landed on the ground. The repressions in the city turned out to be very large. 46 officer vigilantes were seized and drowned in front of their relatives. About eight hundred people were arrested as opponents of the revolution, bourgeois. On the spot they made a commission that determined the degree of guilt. The prisoners were placed in the hold. In the first three days, about 300 people were brutally killed, the bodies were thrown into the sea. Further executions continued by local forces.activists - in the city, in landfills, on the streets, near houses. Evpatoria is the only city on the peninsula where the destruction of imaginary opponents took place with the participation of the Soviet leadership, and not only through the efforts of lumpen and nameless sailors.
Feodosia under control
The Red Terror in Feodosia began with the arrival of the Fidonisi ship, on board of which were sailors controlled by a follower of anarchism Mokrousov, determined to create a revolution with all their might. Landed troops. The sailors found the sailors and immediately killed those found - it is still unknown how many people died like that, but some historians believe that at least 63. However, there was no further extermination of the inhabitants, since the local council was under the control of the doctor Konstansov, who spoke in alliance with commandant Barsov. Both of them spoke in the vein that all the local enemies of the revolution are their own, so no alien revolutionaries have the right to fight them.
Y alta: a bloody nightmare
In this resort town, traditionally, there were many officers undergoing rehabilitation due to previous injuries. For this reason, the Red Terror in Y alta turned out to be bloody and terrifying. The sailors, determined to support the revolution, entered into battles with the Crimean Tatars. The fighting began on the 9th, ended by the 17th of the first month of the 18th year. The forces of water aviation were used, they used artillery pieces mounted on ships. The Red Guard, sailors, having captured the city, began to hunt local residents - first officers, then everyone. People were killed in the streets. According to later researchers of those events, robbery was often the only purpose of the murder. In total, there were at least 80 victims of those days. If we take into account those who died in the following days in nearby settlements, at least two hundred.
Simferopol
The Red Terror in Simferopol was due to the fact that it was in this city that the headquarters of the military structures, the main units of the SNP and Kurultai, who opposed the Bolsheviks, were located. The sailors, the Red Guard, who supported the Soviets, set out from Sevastopol. Shortly after this news, a pro-Soviet uprising began. By January 14, all authorities opposing the Bolsheviks were liquidated, detachments from Sevastopol entered the city. They began to arrest and kill people - primarily officers and fairly we althy, well-known local residents. In the first few days, at least two hundred people were killed without trial.
Historical analysis of events
Since the mass terror in Crimea is significant for the history of the country, it was studied by certain researchers who had access to this information, which was closed during the Soviet era. During the formation of the Soviets, what was happening on the peninsula was comparable in scale to the war. Terror was mainly implemented by the hands of sailors who were like criminals, as well as lumpen from the local population. Although they considered themselves Bolsheviks, there was no talk of any ideology, and these people had nothing to do with the party. The proletariat, adequate ship crews did not participate in the red terror in Kerch and otherssettlements. Moreover, sometimes they acted against, protecting the locals.
In those days, anyone could put on a uniform and start killing and robbing people. The criminals sought to kill we althy people in order to share their we alth. This developed with xenophobia, castes, poverty, as well as the general cruelty characteristic of wartime. In addition, the terrorists were afraid of their opponents, so they took the first step so that no one could oppose.
Explaining the facts
When issues of the Red Terror were raised in Soviet times (in Sevastopol, Simferopol and other settlements), mostly scientists proposed to consider what happened as a spontaneous activity of the people, provoked by the bourgeois layer, who had previously been hiding behind organizational backs. The masses, as Soviet historians said, were exhausted from the oppression of hatred and cruelty and opposed. Of course, there were those who disagreed with such calculations, but their number turned out to be insignificant, nobody was interested in their votes.
As the situation progressed, terror converged with local Bolshevik politics. In February, there was a new outbreak, provoked by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars. In total, during that time, a thousand or more people suffered, of which the main percentage were naval officers. It was because of the terror that many survivors turned to the white movement. The officer corps suffered heavy losses. The survivors left the fleet and left the Crimea, so the combat capability dropped to zero. Demobilized sailors became extremists. Basically, these were people from Novorossiysk villages, and in their native places theyactively arranged everything in accordance with the new government, organizing semi-robber detachments. It is believed that it was because of this that the battles here were especially fierce.
20-21 years old
When the Polish conflict ended with a truce, the Soviets regrouped their troops in order to fight the army of Wrangel, who was in the Crimean territories. 09/21/20 created the Southern Front. By November 7, the offensive began. Three days later, the whites retreated from Sivash, the next day - from positions near Yinshun. Wrangel decided to evacuate the military. By about the 17th, most of the populated cities were under the heel of Soviet power. Those who surrendered were promised amnesty. It was first proposed back in April of the same year, and in mid-September they wrote an appeal through the newspapers. In December of the same year, the Crimean Extraordinary Commission was created. To organize the process, they attracted Bela Kuna, Zemlyachka, Pyatakov. It is these three leaders who are considered the main ones responsible for the Red Terror, the scale of which to this day horrifies historians who believe that there simply were no such moments before - in any country during the entire period of the existence of civilization.
Total red terror in the Crimea in 1920-1921, for the period from November to March, was the time when 1360 people came to lead the process. All of them were sent, declaring the local leadership "soft-bodied", in order to "put things in order." They created several independent bodies, the work of which was not coordinated.
KrymChK: features
This one, created to carry out the red terror in the Crimea in 1920-1921,The commission started working on the 9th day of the last month of the 20th year. It was a territorial subdivision of emergency situations of the all-state level. The post of chairman was given to Kaminsky. On the 21st of the same month, a board was assembled. The post of Kaminsky soon passed to Redens. Its representatives were sent to the counties of the peninsula. Redes worked for the Cheka in Simferopol. On April 21, they decided to abandon the special departments and reorganize the Cheka under his control. The Crimean Cheka had its own soldiers.
This structure especially appreciated denunciation and promoted it among the local population, urging them to fulfill their duty as a citizen. The appeals were not in vain, many arrests and tribunals were organized. It is known that a huge number of executions happened precisely because of neighbor denunciations, information from colleagues who simply settled scores with private people. The total number of victims is estimated at 120-150 thousand people.
