Alexander Stepanovich Antonov - one of the prominent figures during the Civil War in Russia. He led the Tambov uprising, after his name it was called "Antonovshchina". Before the revolution, he was an opponent of the tsarist regime, had a criminal record for an attempt on the life of a policeman and a forester. He was even sentenced to death, but the execution was canceled on the orders of Stolypin, sending the prisoner to hard labor. Having gained his will, he soon quarreled with the Bolsheviks and again found himself underground. His struggle against the Red Army was large-scale, but ended in the complete defeat of the Tambov uprising.
At the beginning of a revolutionary career
Alexander Stepanovich Antonov was born in 1889 in Moscow. In his youth, he was captivated by the ideas of the social revolutionaries. At the same time, it is practically unknown what he did before 1907. Having joined the party, he actually found himself in an illegal position.
Soon entered a radical movement that was engaged in the robbery of various governmentinstitutions. Formally, he was a member of the Tambov group of independent socialist revolutionaries. He had a party nickname Shurka. He was engaged in bringing money for the Socialist-Revolutionaries with the help of robberies, carried out death sentences that were pronounced on officials.
Imprisonment
For a long time, the activities of Alexander Stepanovich Antonov remained practically unpunished, even though the police were searching for him. After the arrest of Antonov's sister, the gendarmes managed to find out that the hero of our article was hiding behind the nickname Aspen.
In particular, he was charged with a robbery committed at the Inzhavino station. They could not find him for a long time, but as a result, he gave himself away when, in 1909, he revealed his identity, trying to establish contact with fellow party members. He was arrested so suddenly that Alexander Stepanovich Antonov did not even have time to get the revolver he had with him.
Court decision
Telling even a brief biography of Alexander Stepanovich Antonov, it is necessary to mention this lawsuit. He was tried by the Tambov temporary military court. During the process, which took place behind closed doors, the defendants pleaded guilty. Antonov and his three accomplices were sentenced to hang.
None of the convicts began to apply for pardon, but it had yet to be approved by the commander of the Moscow Military District. As a result, Pyotr Stolypin, who at that time was the commander of the district, replaced the death pen alty with indefinite hard labor.
Onhard labor
Even in the brief biography of Alexander Stepanovich Antonov there are many bitter and tragic pages. First, he was imprisoned in the Tambov prison, in the end, he was transferred to the Vladimir Central.
He spent there from 1912 to 1917, gaining a certain prestige among the prisoners. On the very first day, he was sent to a punishment cell to inflict bodily harm on a cellmate who tried to explain to him what rules it was necessary to live in this prison.
February Revolution
A sharp turn in the life of A. S. Antonov, whose biography is the subject of our review, occurred in February 17th. Already on March 4, a telegram from Petrograd arrived in prisons and hard labor throughout the country, in which Kerensky, who led the Provisional Government, granted freedom to all political prisoners.
Antonov spent a month recuperating in Tambov, and then went to serve in the local police, becoming a junior assistant to the head of the unit. He gained political weight, he quickly moved up the career ladder, soon becoming the head of the first police unit in the Kirsanov district.
In this post, AS Antonov, whose brief biography is given in this article, has achieved some success. In particular, he managed to reduce the level of crime, several echelons were disarmed at once, on which the military of the Czechoslovak corps moved. For this, he was noted and even awarded a Mauser.
Over time, his situation worsened. Especially after the October Revolution, when the communists began to replacerepresentatives of other parties by the Bolsheviks. This led to the rebellion of the Left SRs, which took place in the middle of the summer of 1918. Unrest began in Kirsanov. There, the Communists began to actively deprive the Socialist-Revolutionaries of power.
Antonov was not there when they came to arrest his assistant. They were accused of preparing a counter-revolutionary rebellion.
Underground again
Managing to avoid arrest, Antonov went to Samara, where he decided to fight against the Bolsheviks in the People's Army of the Committee of members of the Constituent Assembly. But he first moved to another city, and then was dispersed by Kolchak.
During the Civil War, Alexander Stepanovich Antonov first rushed aimlessly along the front for about three months until he arrived in Kirsanovsky district. On the eve of his arrival, unrest began among the peasants because of the arbitrariness of the local authorities and the robberies that the food detachments organized. The Bolsheviks hastened to blame Antonov for everything, sentencing him to death in absentia.
Leading the fighting squad
Antonov did not put up with this and gathered a fighting squad, which began to crack down on the communists. In total, the hero of our article had about 150 well-trained military men who defeated the food detachment on August 21, 1919.
Antonov then declared himself a people's leader, declaring that he was ready to fight for the interests of the peasants. In fact, this is how the time period in Russian history known as "Antonovshchina" began.
Antonov began to create a large number of partisan detachments. Already by 1920 theythe number increased to 20 regiments. They were organized into two armies with a total strength of 50,000 men. Antonov began to carry out active actions against the Soviet regime. Interestingly, the formations led by the hero of our article often combined the methods of guerrilla warfare and field combat. As a boss, he was tough and harsh, did not let his subordinates down. He behaved the same way with the Red Army soldiers, who were taken prisoner, and with local residents. Corporal punishment was introduced in the regiments and even executioners were appointed.
Apogee of the uprising
The uprising reached its apogee after the surplus appropriation, which was hated by the peasants, was abolished. At the same time, the Red Army tried in every possible way to compete with Antonovism. Already in the summer of 1921, the peasants, who did not give out the location of the Antonovites and their weapons, simply began to be shot.
To defeat the army assembled by Antonov, the Soviet troops had to send troops led by Tukhachevsky to the Tambov province.
Liquidation of the uprising
Despite the good prerequisites for being able to resist government troops, the uprising was still suppressed. At the same time, until the end of May 1922, it was unknown to many where Antonov had disappeared. As a result, officers of the Cheka found him.
The revolutionaries received information about him from the former SR railroad worker Firsov, who was approached with a request to get quinine powders by an unknown young teacherSofya Solovieva from the village of Nizhny Shibryai. She also told who needs medicine. The Bolsheviks created a capture group, which received operational information that Antonov, along with his brother, stayed at the house of Natalia Katasonova for a day. Until then, he tried to hide in different places. Alexander Antonov was also in Dyatkovo, for some time he managed to remain uncaught.
Trojan horse
The legend described below strongly resembles the story of the Trojan horse. The fact is that the participants in the uprising - 3 employees of the Cheka and 6 former Antonovites who knew their commander by sight - changed clothes, becoming ordinary carpenters. At about 20:00 "carpenters" together with the police arrived at the address. The house was promptly surrounded. Soon Antonov, noticing his former associates who were about to shoot him, began to shame them.
At this time, Pokalyukhin gave the order to set fire to the house and intensify the shelling of the windows. Antonov and his brother ran out of the house and tried to get to the forest, which required crossing a potato field. Following them, the Chekists opened fire. Dmitry fell: a bullet hit him in the leg. Alexander took his brother on himself and carried him. But even a very bad shooter can shoot from a rifle a person slowly wandering in an open field, and even with such a burden.
The exact burial place of the hero of our article remains unknown until now. His body was transported to Tambov. Initially, he was placed in the former Kazan Monastery, where the GPU department was located at that time. The further fate of the body of the oppositionist remainsunknown.
In history, Antonovshchina is one of the largest uprisings during the Civil War that took place in Russia. It lasted from 1920 to 1921. Its organizers sought to overthrow the power of the Soviets. According to historians, this is one of the first cases in world history when chemical weapons were used against an insurgent civilian population.
After his defeat, repressions began, the beginning of which was laid by Tukhachevsky. Terror began against the local population, people were taken hostage, entire villages and villages were destroyed, mass executions were carried out, concentration camps were created. So, for example, the village of Koptevo and several other settlements in the Tambov province were destroyed by artillery fire.
Under the provincial administration, concentration camps for hostages were created, in which not only adults, but also children gathered. In 1921, after a large-scale campaign to unload the camps, it was possible to estimate the total number of peasants who were subjected to repression. This is from 30 to 50 thousand people.
Various methods were used to intimidate the local population. The hostages were massacred. On June 27, the village of Osinovka was cordoned off by the Red Army. orders were issued for a two-hour deadline for the extradition of bandits, otherwise the Bolsheviks threatened to shoot the hostages, of which there were 40 people.
When the allotted time was up, in the presence of the peasant gathering, the soldiers of the Red Army shot 21 hostages. After that, the peasants had nothing to do,how to go in search of the so-called bandits and their weapons, which were hidden in hiding places. They managed to give out 5 rebels and 3 rifles. The families of the hostages who had been shot were forcibly sent to concentration camps.
Another 36 civilians taken hostage were shot in the village of Bogoslovka. This happened on July 3 and 4, 1921. If the situation developed in such a way that the threat of execution did not work, all the inhabitants of the village were evicted, their property was nationalized, and the village itself was burned to the ground. In particular, such a situation arose in the village of Vtoraya Kareevka, in which there were up to 70 houses. The soldiers of the Red Army were often ruthless to those who did not obey them.
Private life
Biography, Antonov's personal life interested his supporters and followers. In early November 1917, 28-year-old Antonov married his 25-year-old Tambov resident Sofia Vasilievna Orlova-Bogolyubskaya. There were no children in this marriage.
When Antonov was hiding from the Chekists in the village of Nizhny Shibriai, there he met Natalya Katasonova. She gave birth to a girl in December 1922, in prison, when Antonov himself had already been killed. The girl was named Eva. After serving her term, her mother recorded her in her last name and gave her patronymic Fedorovna (after her brother's name).
Famous namesakes
Antonov, a participant in the Civil War, has many famous namesakes, many of whom also left a mark on the history of our country. For example, this is the author of the book "Army tracked vehicles. Part 2" (1964) A. S. Antonov. This is a well-known specialist in the field of militaryautomotive industry.
He also wrote the books "Army vehicles. Theory", "Army vehicles. Design and calculation". His work on tracked vehicles, perhaps, has become the most popular and in demand in army universities. It was for him that many studied caterpillar movers and platforms.
The book by A. S. Antonov "Army vehicles. Theory" is still actively used in military educational institutions of our country, as well as in some republics of the former Soviet Union.
