The uprising of 1920 under Antonov and its composition. Tambov (Antonov) peasant uprising. Peasant uprising in the Tambov region

Traveling around the Tambov region and collecting materials for our research, we are amazed at how firmly the people preserve their historical memory. People, especially in the outback, remember everything. And this is despite all the futile attempts of the authorities to erase the unsightly milestones of Tambov history. We are talking about a peasant uprising at the beginning of the last century. Local authorities are even afraid to immortalize this tragedy of the Tambov peasantry in a normal monument.

Stills from the filming of the film “Once Upon a Time There Was a Woman”

Tambov abandoned village

In our days, so that the extreme need and despair of the masses does not develop into the Antonov uprising, there must also be an understanding of what is happening, a “guiding idea”, there must be an organizing force capable of absorbing and accumulating the growing discontent of the people, ready to direct the spontaneous protest of the masses in the right direction and against the real enemies of progress, which is what the leading party is now trying to do. But it is not the crowd, but the Tambov people who are the creators of history; their interests, demands and actions determine social progress in our region. Moreover, if they say: “the people demand,” this does not mean at all that the whole people, all the people who make it up, demand. Often those in power hide behind the name of the Tambov people. The difference is in the nature of the requirements, in their connection with the deep needs of social development, with the interests of the vast masses of the population. After all, the people are an objective community of people, crucial part population, whose actions are determined by the long-term deep interests of the masses of the population.
It must be taken into account that the reasons that raise people to revolution and to revolt are not the same. The masses of the people come to the revolutionary movement under the influence of long-term factors - a decline in living standards, lack of political freedoms, and each participant has his own reasons that led him to the streets. And if the enemy is found, there is no doubt what the rebels will do.

Considering the Antonov uprising, we must immediately note that the economic development of the region is still more deformed than the overall Russian one. This gives rise to the feeling that any division of power from above will unleash Pugachevism, that is, disorder beyond control. Now the same fear of peasant revolt, destructive and nihilistic, has taken over the government. It is no coincidence that our society now finds itself in such a situation that these bodies and the main one among them - government– began to serve the special interests of civil servants. From servants of society, these bodies turned into its masters. Life developed in the Tambov region in such a way that when carrying out general functions management necessary for the functioning of society, the people intended for this formed a special branch of the division of labor within society and, thus, acquired special interests different from the interests of those who authorized them to manage, became independent in relation to them, and in certain conditions stood above by the entire society, pursuing their own selfish goals. This is the origin of Tambov bureaucracy and its fear of popular unrest.

Abandoned Tambov village

Each of us, faced with Tambov bureaucracy, noticed that this or that official did not show any personal interest in the essence of the matter (say, in the actual solution of the housing

problems of citizens, to the issues of privatization of housing by citizens), but, bureaucratically delaying the resolution of the issue, never takes the blame on himself: he always refers to this or that instruction, to certain real problems of the management process, to the letter and spirit of the laws, as a result why the bureaucrat’s own idleness and indifference looks like the soullessness of the state itself.

Other characteristic Tambov bureaucracy and bureaucracy - a negative attitude towards publicity, towards openness, the desire to monopolize knowledge of the management process, to do their business in secret. It is also very important that bureaucrats value not what is said, but by whom it is said, i.e. not the arguments justifying the decisions, but the ranks and positions of those who express these decisions and thoughts: authority is the principle of knowledge of the bureaucracy, and the deification of authority is its way of thinking. Neither Marx, nor Lenin, nor modern political scientists fully saw the danger of bureaucracy. Therefore, hopes that after the next social revolution the state will begin to wither away, and with it the social division of labor between managers and governed - the main source of bureaucracy - will begin to disappear, are not justified.

After the October Revolution, the cancer of bureaucracy spread wider and deeper, first to the USSR, and later to modern state, where the party-state bureaucracy represents “ new class”, usurping both political power and property. Life testified that the party-state bureaucracy, headed in the Soviet Union by I. Stalin, moved step by step to power and has successfully entrenched itself in it now. After the August 1991 coup, when the Soviet party-state bureaucracy tried to restore its omnipotence, but suffered a crushing defeat, democrats came to power, seeking to come to an agreement with the nomenklatura, creating their own bureaucratic structures and new problems in the fight against bureaucracy and bureaucracy.
It is the bureaucracy in Tambov that invariably represents the dominant force, regardless of the specific form of power. Those who used to be in the CPSU are now in “UNITED RUSSIA”. The form is changing, but the positions of the local bureaucracy remain unshakable, playing the role of a relatively autonomous filter and brake on political changes generated by representative democracy. Now, in a representative and parliamentary democracy, power is in the hands of the bureaucracy, which is called the administration.

When a single party controls simultaneously, as in the USSR the CPSU, and now “UNITED RUSSIA”, both the governing body of any organization and the organization itself, this only leads to uniformity of speech and stifles fruitful activity, since decisions are made elsewhere. As a result, people's energy is spent on competition within the party for advancement through the ranks, which is the only real incentive. Today it is funny to remember that back in 1920 Lenin and Trotsky denounced the Soviet bureaucracy, forgetting that they themselves contributed to strengthening its positions (by placing the activities of all Soviet institutions under party control, outlawing other parties, and then subordinating the parties and the state : their revolution gave birth to a new category of bureaucrats, the so-called apparatchiks. History teaches us nothing...

As we have already mentioned, the local authorities are afraid of any mention of the Antonov uprising. Thus, on the night of May 1, 2001, in Tambov, a monument to the fallen participants in the popular peasant uprising in the Tambov province was demolished and destroyed. Shortly before this, on Tambov radio, regional Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Chantsev said that he would make every effort to destroy it. Residents of Tambov filed an application to the Tambov prosecutor's office to initiate a criminal case, with little hope that appropriate measures would be taken and that the desecrators would be found and brought to justice. The history of the installation of this monument began with the opening of a memorial plaque at the same place in 1999, but it stood for less than a month and was taken away by unknown people, who were guarded by the police. Then residents of Tambov and the region literally raised funds for a national monument to freedom fighters, literally by pennies. The late famous ophthalmologist, academician Svyatoslav Fedorov, also provided great assistance. He also established the anniversary sign “Alexander Antonov. In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the start of the peasant uprising in the Tambov province." The monument was unveiled on June 24, 2000, the day of the death of A. Antonov. The monument was erected with the permission of local authorities and consecrated by the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite the rainy day, many people gathered for the opening. The pedestal of the monument was literally littered with wreaths and flowers. Ironically, on those same days, State Duma deputies demanded that the monument to Dzerzhinsky be restored in Moscow. Another coincidence was tragic: Svyatoslav Fedorov, flying by helicopter from Tambov, died in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances.

At the moment, there are no monuments to the victims of the Antonov uprising in the Tambov region. At the site of the supposed burial of Antonov himself, a monument to the composer Rachmaninov was erected. And in the Sochi park, they installed an incomprehensible popular popular man with the sugary face of the epic Sadko. Why shouldn’t Karev take the initiative to erect another monument in some area of ​​our region, dedicated to the victims of the uprising? They are trying in every possible way to erase the genetic memory of our ancestors from us, since officials have something to lose.

A fatal and unexpected blow for Tambov officials was the shooting of the film “Once Upon a Time There Was a Woman” by the most talented director and world-famous actor Andrei Smirnov about the life of Russia from 1909 to 1921, about the events Civil War and the Antonov uprising, shown through the eyes of a Tambov peasant woman. The director has been working on the film since 1987. The film was released widely in Russia in the fall of 2011. For obvious reasons, local officials were unable to prevent the filming of the film. And even if they could, they were afraid and had to make false curtsies to save face. According to A. Smirnov, in terms of plot and characters, “the film was ready 24 years ago.” Scenario

was completed in 2004 after several years of work in the archives, studying the dialect and ethnographic features of the Tambov peasantry. “In the Tambov province today there is not a single district that I have not visited: I lived in the village, talked with grandmothers, and worked with museum workers,” the director recalls. The fact that filming went well in the Tambov region was helped in no small part by the fact that funding for filming helped find such famous politicians and businessmen like Vladislav Surkov, Viktor Vekselberg, Alfred Kokha, Roman Abramovich, Leonid Gozman, Anatoly Serdyukova and Vladimir Yakunina, as well as the director’s son-in-law Anatoly Chubais. It is noted that “the film was released just before the elections, and its main (albeit somewhat veiled) message was to expose all the sins of the Soviet regime and a warning to the regional elite. And it is no coincidence that the sponsors of the film were influential people from the ruling party in Russia.”

Andrey Smirnov and Yuri Shevchuk

Why is the local government conspicuous by its complete absence at the “funeral” of the Tambov peasantry? Why? It’s clear - some are busy, some are in business, others “have a more attractive magnet.” There is only one tendency among officials - “there is an instruction.” Whose? Oh, this painful unknown... It is clear that the late Antov and thousands of Tambov peasants don’t care. As for their descendants, we do not undertake to judge. But everything that concerns such a phenomenon as the Tambov peasant uprising, both during life and after it, still has a political background. And this underlying reason is clear - the fact of rebellion is objectionable, unreliable! However, this is not a matter of natural bureaucratic ingratitude. Antonov and the uprising - a symbol. A symbol of Freedom, the destruction of bureaucracy, a symbol of the fight against a corrupt state, a symbol of real Russian revolution, a symbol of inspired crowds of people and intoxicated freedom of speech... And the attitude towards his memory on the part of the local authorities is quite symbolic!

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Antonov would not put up with the facts when a veteran lives in a collapsing house, a young

the mother is being driven out of work, forests are being cut down there, housing and communal services are being robbed here... Where can a Tambov resident go with all these problems? To the administration? Or maybe to the cozy office of the ruling party? Do not make me laugh! When it was the officials and the party serving them who cared about the people. They remember them in the run-up to the elections and forget them the morning after voting day. They have one goal - to stay in their chairs as long as possible and have time to make provisions for the rest of their lives. They need people to approve and not ask unnecessary questions. Is it any wonder that the Antonov uprising is like a thorn in their side?

A lie does not live long, says the proverb. No matter how you lie, people will still find out the truth. They will ask those who deceived them, who prevented them from changing their lives for the better. And the time is already close. Now official local historians say that many of the participants in the uprising were deceived by the organizers and rebelled over other issues.

BACKGROUND AND PROGRESS OF THE PEASANT UPRISING IN THE TAMBOV REGION

The main reason for the uprising was the “military-communist” surplus appropriation policy carried out by the Bolsheviks in the countryside during the Civil War, i.e. violent expropriation, with the help of armed forces (food detachments), from peasants of bread and other food necessary for the existence of the Red Army and the urban population. This policy was accompanied by the mobilization of peasants for military service, various kinds of duties (labor, horse-drawn, etc.). The grain-producing Tambov province experienced the full brunt of surplus appropriation. By October 1918, 50 food detachments from Petrograd, Moscow and other cities, numbering up to 5 thousand people, were operating in the province. No other province has known such a scale of confiscations. After the bread was raked clean, it often disappeared on the spot: it rotted at the nearest railway stations, was drunk by food detachments, and distilled into moonshine. Peasants everywhere were forced to choose between resistance and starvation. Added to this was the looting and closure of churches, which forced the patriarchal Orthodox peasantry to come out in defense of their shrines.

The first and most widespread form of resistance to surplus appropriation was the reduction by peasants of their farms. If in 1918 in the black earth and “grain” Tambov province there was an average of 4.3 dessiatines of crops per farm, then in 1920 – 2.8 dessiatines. Fields were sown to the extent necessary only for personal consumption.

The situation in the village deteriorated especially sharply in 1920, when the Tambov region was struck by drought, and the food surplus remained extremely high. According to one of the organizers of the suppression of the uprising, V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, the peasantry fell into complete decline, and in a number of districts of the Tambov province, residents “ate not only chaff, quinoa, but also bark and nettles.”

The uprising broke out spontaneously in mid-August 1920 in the villages of Khitrovo and Kamenka, Tambov district, where peasants refused to hand over grain and disarmed the food detachment. Within a month, popular indignation gripped several districts of the province, the number of rebels reached 4 thousand armed rebels and about 10 thousand people with pitchforks and scythes. On the territory of Kirsanovsky, Borisoglebsky and Tambov districts, a kind of “peasant republic” was formed with its center in the village of Kamenka.

The uprising was led by a tradesman from the city of Kirsanova, a former volost clerk and people's teacher, left Socialist Revolutionary Alexander Stepanovich Antonov (1889–1922). His biography included a military Socialist Revolutionary past, imprisonment during the years of tsarism, command of the police of the Kirsanov district after February Revolution. He left the post of chief of the district police voluntarily due to his rejection of the communist dictatorship and the government’s policy towards the peasantry. In the fall of 1918, Antonov formed a “fighting squad” and began an armed struggle against the Bolsheviks. His detachment became the organizational core of the partisan army.

Under Antonov's command, the rebel forces grew rapidly. This was facilitated by the clarity of the goals of the uprising (slogans of death to communists and a free peasant republic), successful military operations in favorable geographical conditions ( big number forests and other natural shelters), flexible guerrilla tactics of surprise attacks and rapid retreats. In February 1921, when the insurgency reached its greatest extent, the number of fighters reached 40 thousand people, the army was divided into 21 regiments and a separate brigade. The rebels destroyed state farms and communes and damaged railways. The uprising began to go beyond local boundaries, finding a response in the border counties of the neighboring Voronezh and Saratov provinces.

Moscow was forced to pay the most serious attention to this uprising. At the end of February - beginning of March 1921, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was formed, headed by V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko, which concentrated all power in the Tambov province in its hands. Large military contingents and equipment, including artillery, armored units and aircraft, were removed from the fronts that ended hostilities. The entire province was divided into six combat areas with field headquarters and emergency authorities - political commissions.

Without waiting for the decisions of the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b) on replacing the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) on February 2, 1921 instructed N.I. Bukharin, E.A. Preobrazhensky and L.B. Kamenev “to develop and approve the text of the appeal... to the peasants of the Tambov province in order to distribute it only in this province, without publishing it in newspapers.” The appeal, which announced the abolition of surplus appropriation and the permission of local trade exchange of agricultural products, began to be distributed on February 9.

On April 27, 1921, at the proposal of V.I. Lenin, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) adopted a resolution “On the liquidation of Antonov’s gangs in the Tambov province,” according to which M.N. Tukhachevsky was appointed commander of the operation. Together with him, famous military leaders N.E. Kakurin, I.P. Uborevich, G.I. Kotovsky arrived in the Tambov region. G.G. Yagoda, V.V. Ulrich, and Ya.A. Levin were sent from the punitive authorities. The number of Red Army soldiers was increased to 100 thousand people.

The military defeat of the so-called Antonovism began. There was a brutal military occupation of rebel areas, the destruction of farms and the destruction of houses of rebel participants and their families, the taking of hostages, including children, the creation of concentration camps and repression up to execution for disobedience, for harboring “bandits” and weapons, i.e. . terror of the civilian population was organized. During the suppression of the uprising by Tukhachevsky, many villages were destroyed using artillery, armored vehicles and poisonous gases.

In the summer of 1921, Antonov's main forces were defeated. At the end of June - beginning of July, he issued the last order, according to which the combat detachments were asked to divide into groups and hide in the forests. The uprising broke up into isolated pockets that were to be eliminated by the end of the year. Antonov and his group were destroyed in June 1922.

Encyclopedia “Around the World”

RED TERROR

Order of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on the start of

repressive measures against individual bandits and the families harboring them

N 171, Tambov

Political commissions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

rapid calming of the edge. Soviet authority sequentially

is being restored, and the working peasantry

moves on to peaceful and quiet work.

The Antonov gang was defeated by the decisive actions of our troops,

scattered and caught singly.

In order to completely eradicate the Socialist-Revolutionary-bandit roots and

in addition to previously issued orders, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee

orders:

1. Citizens who refuse to give their name will be shot on the spot

without trial.

2. Villages in which weapons are hidden, by the authority of the political commission or

the district political commission announces the verdict on the seizure of hostages

and shoot them if they do not surrender their weapons.

3. If a hidden weapon is found, shoot on the spot

without trial by the senior worker in the family.

4. The family in whose house the bandit hid is subject to arrest

and expulsion from the province, her property is confiscated, senior worker

in this family is shot without trial.

5. Families harboring family members or property of bandits,

treated as bandits, and the senior worker of this family

shoot on the spot without trial.

6. In the event of the escape of the bandit’s family, the property shall be distributed among

peasants loyal to Soviet power, and burn the abandoned houses

or disassemble.

7. This order must be implemented severely and mercilessly.

Chairman of the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Antonov-Ovseenko

Commander of the troops Tukhachevsky

Chairman of the Provincial Executive Committee Lavrov

Secretary Vasiliev

Read at village gatherings.

GATO. F.R.-4049. Op.1. D.5. L.45. Typographic copy.

Peasant uprising in the Tambov province in 1919-1921, “Antonovshchina”: documents and materials.

PROGRAM AND SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE REBEL

By mid-January 1921, the organization of the uprising had taken shape. In five districts, up to 900 village committees were created, elected by assemblies, united by volost, then district, district and, finally, provincial committees of the Unions of the Labor Peasantry (STC). The armed forces of A.S. Antonov combined the principles of building a regular army (2 armies consisting of 21 regiments, a separate brigade) with irregular armed detachments. Particular attention was paid to organizing political and propaganda work among the peasants. The army had a network of political agencies that absorbed fragments of the destroyed Socialist Revolutionary organizations. The agitation was of a simplified nature (mainly slogans like “Death to the communists!” and “Long live the working peasantry!”), but productively played up the difficulties experienced by the village (see the STC leaflet “Why the Bolsheviks cannot defeat Antonov”).

The main task of the STK was to “overthrow the power of the communist-Bolsheviks, who had brought the country to poverty, death and shame.” Among the political goals in the STC Program were the equality of all citizens without division into classes (in one of the options - “excluding the House of Romanov”). It was supposed to convene a Constituent Assembly to “establish a new political system", and before the convening of the Constituent Assembly, the creation of a temporary government "on an elective basis", but without the Bolsheviks. Some representatives of the STC supplemented this program with such demands as declaring the "cessation of the civil war" as the goal of the "armed struggle", as well as the "emancipation of people and horses in the name of equality, fraternity and freedom."

The economic program coincided with the program recommended by the letter of the Central Committee of the AKP dated May 13, 1920. It included the partial denationalization of industry, leaving large industries, especially coal and metallurgy, “in the hands of the state”; "workers' control and state supervision of production"; “implementation of the law on the socialization of the land in its entirety.” “Free production” in handicraft industry was proclaimed; supplying food and other basic necessities to “the population of cities and villages through cooperatives”; “regulation of prices for labor and production products” in state industry; "admission of Russian and foreign capital" to restore economic life. (We will see later these ideas at the basis of the Bolshevik NEP; this was another interception by the “party in power” of Socialist Revolutionary slogans, as in 1917.)

An analysis of the structure and activities of the STC shows their democratic nature, both in the method of election and in composition. Even the KGB reports do not deny the favorable attitude of the peasantry towards the STK as the future organs of democracy. In the very structure of the STC, elements of the future party are discernible (centralism, meetings of supporters of the STC, possibly membership in them). The STC Committee performs the main functions of a government body. In the military field, he organizes replenishment of volunteers, organizes the collection of money, food and clothing for the partisans, organizes medical care for them and assistance to their families. Through the "commandant's office" he is in charge of the quartering of the rebels, changing horses, organizing communications and reconnaissance.

In support of the Committee, in order to fight small parties of the “Reds”, “vohra” (internal security in the amount of 5 to 50 people per village) is organized. The STC Committee also carries out general economic and administrative work. Many decisions and actions of the STC copy the Soviet ones: political commissars and political departments in the units and formations of A. Antonov’s army, the strictest “accounting and control,” severe punishments for offenses “according to the laws of revolutionary times.” The similarities in the organization and ideology of the revolutionary forces opposing each other were manifested in many ways, right down to the address “comrade” and the red banner. (From the interrogations of the Antonovites it all started popular expression our bodies - “the Tambov wolf is your comrade!”)

To lead the rebel movement, people were required who were psychologically ready for self-sacrifice. The main leaders of the Tambov uprising of 1920 - 1921 were endowed with such traits. A.S. Antonov, A.E. Ishin, G.N. Pluzhnikov, who came “from the bottom” and gave themselves entirely to the revolution. Antonov himself was a man of immediate, “direct action”, ready to commit both “terrorist attacks” and “executives” for the sake of high ideals. Antonov's military Socialist Revolutionary background helped him become the chief of police of the Kirsanovsky district. He had to fight “agrarian terror” and disarm the echelons of Czechoslovak troops passing through Kirsanov in May 1918. Perhaps this weapon was useful later, but according to another version, Antonov was armed by Moscow, which was looking for support in the local police against the disloyal leadership of the province.

The specificity of goals, as well as the victorious results of actions, increased morale " People's Army"and attracted new forces to it. Numbered regiments were created all the time until the 21st and, in addition, Antonov was constantly accompanied by a “special regiment” and personal guards - the “Parev Hundred”. The number of fighters reached 40,000 in February 1920, Of these, a significant portion were from the fronts of the imperialist and civil wars.In addition to the "field" troops, there were also "vohra" units numbering up to 10,000 people.

But this was the limit to the growth of the uprising. By the beginning of May, the number of “Antonovites” had decreased to 21 thousand, both as a result of the decisive actions of the Red Army, and in connection with the abolition of food surplus. But the main reason was the onset of the spring suffering: the rebels, almost without exception, were from local peasants. During the “Fortnight of voluntary appearance of bandits,” which occurred at the end of March and beginning of April (the period of preparation for field work), up to 6 thousand Antonovites appeared and went home. All ordinary participants were released (despite the fact that very few surrendered their weapons), and the “organizers” received a reduced sentence.

Yu. Solozobov. The Tambov wolf is your citizen! Lessons from the Tambov uprising.

TAMBOV SONGS

A crow barks on an oak tree -

Communist! Cock the trigger!

At the last hour, funeral,

Let's take a walk once.

Oh, my share of times, a dry prison,

Valley, aspen, dark grave.

A crow barks on an oak tree -

Communist! Fire! Fire!

At the last hour, funeral

Moonshine smells like a corpse.

An authentic fragment of a song by participants in the peasant uprising of the 20s. 20th century in the Tambov region ("Antonovtsev"). Heard by Mark Sobol in the mid-30s.

The Tambov uprising, better known as the Antonovshchina, was one of the largest popular uprisings against Soviet power.

The uprising most clearly demonstrated the anti-people and criminal nature of the Bolshevik power: the peasants and Cossacks of the Tambov province were able to organize resistance to the powerful Red Army, as only a people driven to despair can do.

Commanders

The Tambov uprising was led by fairly well-known personalities.

• Alexander Stepanovich Antonov - member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, an outstanding saboteur and conspirator;
• Dmitry Stepanovich Antonov - brother of A. S. Antonov, who also participated in the counter-revolutionary action of 1918;
• Pyotr Mikhailovich Tokmakov - officer of the Russian Imperial Army.

As we see, even the top leadership of the uprising consisted of adherents of different views - there were both revolutionary socialists and “old regime” monarchists. And although Tokmakov is considered the head of the Tambov uprising, historians firmly associate the speech with the name of Antonov.

Prerequisites

Before the revolution, the Tambov province was one of the richest and most developed provinces of the Russian Empire. The region was predominantly agricultural, favored by the climate and the best soils in the world. Products from the Tambov region were actively exported to Europe.

During the First World War, exports, of course, decreased, but as a kind of compensation, Tambov residents received large orders for the army. With the arrival of the Bolsheviks, Tambov peasants were deprived of their political and economic rights. Under the pretext that the grain now belonged to the “people,” the food detachments simply robbed the peasants.

Tambov men photo

With the establishment of Soviet power, the number of communists in general somehow increased - before the revolution, their number was very small, communism was clearly unpopular in the prosperous province. Naturally, the Bolsheviks were seen as usurpers in the eyes of local residents, and their behavior only confirmed this.

The situation was further complicated by the drought that broke out in 1920, which the Bolsheviks did not want to take into account and left food appropriation standards at a high level. The main driving force behind the uprising was the middle peasants - people who understood the value of labor and property; however, other social groups, including the poorest peasants, also took an active part.

Nonviolent resistance

At first, Tambov peasants tried to resist the Bolsheviks “non-violently” - they reduced the area under crops. Fields were sown only to the extent necessary for personal consumption. But this measure did not help. And then it was the turn of an armed uprising.

Insurrection

In mid-August, a spontaneous uprising broke out in the villages of Khitrovo and Kamenka, during which the peasants disarmed the food detachment and refused to hand over grain. Very quickly the uprising spread to several districts and involved 14 thousand people. Of these, 4 thousand were truly armed, and the rest resisted with what they had in their hands - with pitchforks and scythes.

On the territory of these counties, the peasants formed a kind of “republic”. The uprising was led by Kirsanov resident Alexander Antonov. The rebels attacked communes and state farms and damaged railways. In addition to Tambov, the performance covered certain areas of the Voronezh and Saratov provinces.

As a result, the supply of bread to the central regions of the country was difficult. The Bolsheviks had to recognize the seriousness of the protest and organize its suppression. In the early spring of 1921, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was formed, headed by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko. Artillery, armored units and aircraft freed from hostilities were sent to the Tambov province.

The entire province was divided into six parts, in each of which the Bolsheviks formed temporary authorities. At the same time, the Politburo prepared an appeal to the Tambov peasants, which proclaimed the abolition of the surplus appropriation system and the permission of trade exchange of products. The appeal was distributed only in the Tambov province and did not affect the rest of the country.

The Bolsheviks managed to convince many peasants to come over to their side and begin the fight against the Antonovshchina. On May 28, 1921, Red Army troops launched a large-scale offensive with the goal of completely eliminating the “Antonov gangs.” By July 16, the uprising was completely suppressed, and a year later Antonov himself and a small group of followers were destroyed.

Repression

When suppressing the Tambov uprising, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate in their means and subjected the local population to brutal repression. Marshal Tukhachevsky carried out mass executions, burned villages and hamlets, organized concentration camps, and also used a new type of weapon against Tambov residents - chemical weapons.

Consequences

The Tambov uprising was suppressed with particular cruelty. However, the Soviet leadership “realized” that “war communism” would not lead to anything good. Largely thanks to the Tambov speech, the NEP was established in the country of the Soviets.

The Antonov uprising, also known as the Tambov uprising, was one of the largest popular uprisings against Soviet power in history.

Alexander Antonov, after whom the uprising is usually called, was one of its leaders, but the supreme head was Pyotr Tokmakov, commander of the United Partisan Army and head of the Union of Working People.

Background

The Tambov province in the Russian Empire was one of the richest and most developed regions and was considered the main breadbasket of the country and a significant supplier of agricultural products in Europe. The province was located on the best black soil in the world, which ensured its prosperity.

Even the first World War did not shake the position of the Tambov region: some sales markets were lost, but large army orders came in return. Tambov peasants are accustomed to consider themselves masters of their land.

Naturally, they met the Soviet government unfriendly, because it deprived them of all political rights and economic independence. Moreover, there were few communists in the province before the revolution. The Bolsheviks took away the grain by force, and the food detachments went on rampages.

Progress of the uprising

Having taken Tambov on August 18, 1919, Mamantov handed over a large number of weapons to the local partisans. This ensured a significant scope of anti-Bolshevik protests. The uprising itself can be considered to have broken out on August 15, when the partisans of the village of Khitrovo captured and disarmed the food detachment. Subsequently, the rebellion spread to neighboring settlements.

uprising in Tambov region photo

The peasants refused to hand over grain to the Bolshevik detachments and opposed them with weapons. Soon the uprising covered most of the province's districts. The rebels destroyed the communists, their military garrisons, and took power into their own hands. The chairman of the Tambov executive committee, Schlichter, organized a punitive detachment, but suffered a crushing defeat and fled in disgrace.

Having learned about the uprising in the Tambov region, he instructed Kornev and Sklyansky to defeat the rebels at an accelerated pace. By October 15, the number of Red Army troops increased significantly due to full-scale mobilization. At the same time, the disparate rebel groups decided to unite into a coherent army, the head of which was Lieutenant Tokmakov, a Knight of St. George.

By February, the rebels were able to take possession of the entire Tambov province with the exception of cities, of which there were few here: most of the population lived in rural areas. They destroyed 60 state farms, blocked the railway, and thus blocked the Bolsheviks' offensive routes.

Antonov uprising (Tambov) photo

It is curious that the Bolsheviks sent a man with an almost similar surname - V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko - to fight the Antonov uprising. He headed the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which was to deal with the rebels “to the fullest extent.” The struggle for the time being went on with varying degrees of success. The Antonovites fought bravely, but the commanders noted that in their ranks “the fighting spirit began to weaken.”

A turning point in the struggle

However, the Soviet-Polish war ended and Crimean War against Wrangel, and the Bolsheviks were able to deliver additional forces to Tambov. Famous Civil War figures were deployed against the rebels, including:

• Berry;
• Uborevich;
• Kotovsky.

Tukhachevsky received an order to deal with the rebels as soon as possible, no more than a month. The radical strengthening of the Soviet army and the tough actions of the commanders made it possible to complete this task, which was very difficult - by that time, the self-proclaimed Provisional Democratic Republic of the Tambov Partisan Region had been formed in the Tambov region.

The defeat of the uprising

The crushing defeat of the Antonovshchina was accompanied by unprecedented measures of mass cruelty: Tukhachevsky carried out terror against local population, organized concentration camps where not only adults, but also children were kept, shot Tambov residents in crowds and even used chemical weapons against them - for the first time in world military practice. By the summer of 1921, the uprising was almost completely eliminated, although isolated clashes continued into the following year.

The Tambov uprising of 1920−1921 is one of the largest during the Civil War in Russia popular uprisings against the power of the Soviets.

The Tambov province, huge in area, had a population of 3.6 million people as of 1920. The vast majority of residents lived in villages, engaged in agriculture, because the Tambov province was located on very fertile black soil. Despite the dense population, the number of communists in the province was small: in August 1920, there were 13,490 communists and candidates for party membership, of which only 4,492 were in rural areas.

Before the revolution, the Tambov province was one of the breadbaskets of Russia. Many other territories of the state, as well as part of Europe, fed on Tambov bread. However, the surplus appropriation system imposed by the Soviet government turned out to be unbearable for the province. The situation of the inhabitants of the province became critical in 1920, when the Tambov region was struck by drought. A 12-pound harvest even without surplus appropriation put the population in a hopeless situation, while the provincial appropriation remained extremely high - 11.5 million poods. The peasant faced the elementary problem of physical survival. The population had to either rebel or starve.

On August 19, 1920, in several villages at once (Kamenka, Tambov district, Tugolukovo, Borisoglebsk district), peasants refused to hand over grain and, with the support of partisans, destroyed food detachments, local communists and security officers. On the same day, in the village of Afanasyevka, Tambov district, several small rebel groups united, and the uprising began to quickly spread. Soon the uprising spread to the territories of the Tambov, Kirsanovsky, Borisoglebsky, Morshansky and Kozlovsky districts of the Tambov province, as well as the neighboring districts of the Saratov and Voronezh provinces. The rebels liquidated the organs of Soviet power, destroyed its representatives and military garrisons, and took power into their own hands.

On August 21, 1920, at a meeting of the Tambov Provincial Committee of the RCP (b), an emergency operational headquarters was created, a state of siege was introduced in the province, but control over the development of events was already lost. The uprising became widespread and protracted.

2 Progress of the uprising

On November 14, 1920, the rebels decided to unite all their forces under a single command. From the 1st and 2nd rebel armies and the 3rd cavalry mobile they created the United Partisan Army of the Tambov Territory. The United Army of St. George was headed by Lieutenant Pyotr Tokmakov, a native of the peasants of the village of Inokovka, Kirsanovsky district. The political program of the uprising was built on a democratic basis under the slogans of overthrowing the Bolshevik dictatorship, convening the Constituent Assembly, and restoring political and economic freedoms.

On the eve of the new year 1921, a meeting was held in Moscow under the chairmanship of the head of the Cheka F. E. Dzerzhinsky, it was attended by the commander-in-chief of the Red Army S. S. Kamenev and representatives from the Tambov province - A. G. Shlikhter and V. N. Meshcheryakov. It was decided to allocate more significant forces to suppress the peasant uprising. At the same time, a new commander of the troops was appointed - A.V. Pavlov, who arrived in Tambov on January 6, 1921.

In January 1921, fierce fighting between the rebels and the newly arrived troops with Pavlov began in the province with renewed vigor. The rebels showed initiative. On the morning of January 26, the partisans defeated the garrison of the urban village of Uvarovo. And in the middle of the day there was a battle with the Red cavalry regiments near the villages of Verkhotsenye and Sampur, as well as with a fairly large infantry unit and an armored train. In two hours of battle, the Red cavalry regiments were defeated. The armored train was destroyed, and traffic was stopped on the Gryazi-Povorino and Tambov-Balashov railway lines. On the same day, Tokarevka station was taken by partisans.

The uprising reached its maximum extent by February 1921, when the number of rebels reached 50 thousand people. The rebels destroyed 60 state farms, took control of almost the entire Tambov province (except for the cities), paralyzed traffic on the Ryazan-Ural railway, and successfully repulsed attempts by the Red Army to invade the territory of the uprising.

On February 6, 1921, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, headed by V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, was sent to the province, which became the highest body in the fight against the uprising.

On February 12, 1921, based on the decision of the People's Commissariat of Food, food allocation was stopped in the Tambov province, and in March 1921, the X Congress of the RCP (b) decided to abolish food allocation, instead of which a fixed food tax was introduced. An amnesty was declared for ordinary rebels (subject to the surrender of weapons and information about the whereabouts of commanders). The measures taken were widely covered in the press and promotional materials.

The abolition of surplus appropriation did not make the proper impression on the Tambov peasants. Antonov-Ovseenko issued an appeal to the peasants to surrender all on April 12. But the rebels commemorated this day by capturing the urban-type settlement of Rasskazovo near Tambov. The entire battalion of the Red Army was captured by the partisans, despite the fact that it was armed with 11 machine guns and 1 gun.

3 Fracture

The situation changed dramatically with the end of the Soviet-Polish war and the defeat of Wrangel's Russian army in Crimea. This allowed the Bolsheviks to release additional Red Army forces against the rebels.

On April 27, 1921, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) appointed M. N. Tukhachevsky as commander of the troops of the Tambov province, I. P. Uborevich as his deputy, and N. E. Kakurin as chief of staff. G.I. Kotovsky was also sent to the Tambov region, G.G. Yagoda and V.V. Ulrikh were sent from the Cheka. Tukhachevsky received a directive to liquidate the Tambov uprising no later than within a month.

The number of Red Army troops in the Tambov province quickly increased and by the end of May 1921 amounted to 43 thousand Red Army soldiers. The workers of the carriage workshops built an “armored vehicle” consisting of an armored steam locomotive, three armored cars and two cargo platforms with installed weapons: one 76-mm gun and three machine guns. The “Armored Train” was at the disposal of the transport Cheka and was used to ensure security along the railway line.

On May 25, 1921, Kotovsky’s separate cavalry brigade defeated and scattered two rebel regiments under the command of Selyansky, who was mortally wounded. In the battles that lasted from May 28 to June 7, 1921, in the area of ​​the Inzhavino station, units of the Red Army under the overall command of Uborevich defeated the 2nd Army of the rebels. After this, the 1st Rebel Army avoided the “general battle”. The initiative passed to the Red Army troops.

4 The defeat of the uprising

On June 11, 1921, the Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued order No. 171 “On the beginning of repressive measures against individual bandits and the families sheltering them.”

Artillery, aviation, armored vehicles and even chemical weapons were used against the rebels. The decision to use gases to “smoke out” the remaining rebel detachments from the forests was made on June 9, 1921 at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee committee chaired by V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko. Three cases of the use of AJO-type projectiles with chloropicrin gas with tear action have been documented.

In the summer of 1921, the main forces of the rebels were defeated. At the beginning of July, the leadership of the uprising issued an order, according to which the combat detachments were asked to divide into groups, hide in the forests and switch to partisan actions or go home. The uprising broke up into a number of small isolated pockets, and the rebels returned to guerrilla tactics. The fighting in the Tambov region continued until the summer of 1922 and gradually faded away. On July 16, 1922, Tukhachevsky reported to the Central Committee of the RCP (b): “The rebellion has been eliminated, Soviet power has been restored everywhere.”