And in the Pacific Ocean they finished their campaign … October 25, 1922

100 years ago, on October 25, 1922, the troops of the People’s Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic entered Vladivostok. Thus ended the Civil War in Russia.

For some readers, this will seem unusual. It was fixed in the mass consciousness that the end of the Civil War was November 1920, the storming of Perekop, the evacuation of the White Army of Wrangel from the Crimea.

Of course, the victory over Denikin and Wrangel was a decisive, defining moment in history. But in the vast expanses east of Siberia, the war continued. Her picture is motley, in some places – phantasmagoric. On the one hand – the Bolshevik people’s partisan detachments, individual partisan republics, the Amur, Sakhalin, Vladivostok governments …

Everything is like in the song of Peter Parfyonov and Sergey Alymov:

Glory will not cease these years,
Will never fade!
Partisan detachments
Cities were occupied.

On the other hand, there are anti-Bolshevik state formations like the “Amur Provisional Government”, the “People’s Assembly”, the remnants of Kolchak’s army under the command of General Kappel, the troops of Ataman Semyonov, the military units of Kolchak’s General Diterikhs, the temporary ruler of the monarchical (!) State “Amur Zemsky Territory” with an army called “Zemskaya rat”.

Under these conditions, on April 6, 1920, the Far Eastern Republic was proclaimed and created. It was semi-officially called the buffer state. That is, a buffer between the RSFSR and Japan, which is actively intervening in the Far East. Moreover, such a status was beneficial to both the RSFSR and Japan. The RSFSR “helped” the Far East, Japan – the White Army. But neither side wanted a direct military-political clash.

Associate Professor of the Far Eastern Federal University Anna Savchuk notes:

“The most peaceful victories are usually preceded by the most difficult battles both on the battlefields and in the silence of diplomatic offices … An important role in ending the war was played by the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the chairman of the Genoa Conference Schanzer, who supported the demands of the Soviet delegation regarding Japan’s non-aggression on the Far East and the termination the support of the White Guards by the Japanese government… The outcome of the diplomatic struggle with Japan was influenced, first of all, by the position of the USA, England and France, which sought to limit Japan’s influence in the Far East.

A distinctive feature of 1922 in Russia is the beginning of the NEP – the New Economic Policy. A decisive turn towards the revival of private enterprise, unexpected for the mass revolutionary consciousness. On the one hand, the war is still going on, the last battle for the victory of the proletariat over the “bourgeois”, and on the other hand, in Moscow, it seems like the “return of the bourgeois order” is beginning? For Moscow, the war is somewhere far, far away, and the NEP is right next to it. In just hungry Moscow, food products appeared on sale! Markets open, even fairs.

Here is No. 146 of “Working Moscow” of August 3, 1922 (now our “Moskovskaya Pravda”) – characteristic, reflecting the reality of that time. On the front page, in full view – “Opening of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair”, the same one famous in tsarist times, and below and on the side – the information “In the Far East”.

No. 215 dated October 25 is also interesting. On this day the Civil War will end. But no one knows about it yet. At the opening of the issue, a large article under the aggressively denunciatory title “Neporylov’s undertakings” is a rebuff to the “snouts” who decided that, together with the NEP, “the power of the workers and peasants has come to an end.” Directive-ideological article. The author is Boris Volin, editor-in-chief of Rabochaya Moskva. And next to it – “Tov. Chicherin on the situation in the Far East.

Georgy Chicherin – People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR. However, international diplomacy is diplomacy, and the war of Russians with Russians is war…

From June 1921 to June 1922, Vasily Blyukher was the commander-in-chief of the People’s Revolutionary Army of the Far East. Under his leadership, the FER troops won a decisive victory near Volochaevka. Before the start of the assault, on February 9, Blucher sent a letter to the commander of the Amur Provisional Government (since July – “Zemskaya rat”), General Viktorin Molchanov, with a proposal to lay down their arms:

“Only extra blood has been shed by the already exhausted Russian people, but they will not surrender their revolutionary gains and their new free statehood to anyone. I am a soldier of the revolution and I want to speak with you before starting the last conversation in the language of cannons.

Molchanov did not answer. On February 10, the assault began. On February 12, the FER army crushed the White fortifications on the dominating June-Koran hill, and on February 14 entered Khabarovsk, which became the new capital of the FER.

On February 23, Commander-in-Chief Blucher sent a new letter to General Molchanov – with a proposal to surrender:

“I would like to know how many victims, how many Russian corpses are still needed to convince you of the futility and fruitlessness of your last attempt to fight with the strength of the revolutionary Russian people, who are building their new statehood on the ashes of economic ruin? How many Russian martyrs have you been ordered to throw at the foot of Japanese and other foreign capital?.. No, General, we will not allow this. We, peasants, defending our native heritage, our native revolutionary Russian land, for the first time in centuries have seen our truly people’s power.

48 years later, in 1970, General Molchanov recalled:

“When Blucher took command and began to counterattack us, he wrote me letters in which he asked me to end the war and offered me a military position in the Red Army that corresponded to my abilities … How could I, being against the Bolsheviks, go with them? I just didn’t respond to any emails.”

Military operations continued. In June, Blucher was recalled to Moscow. He was replaced by Ieronim Uborevich.

In August, General Diterichs announced a campaign against the Far East under the slogan “For Faith, Tsar Michael and Holy Russia.” On September 2, the offensive began. But Uborevich’s troops repulsed him and launched a counteroffensive. On October 9, they stormed Spassk, the main fortified area of ​​the White Army.

And they will remain, as in fairy tales,
Like beckoning lights
Stormy nights of Spassk,
Volochaev days.

The road to Vladivostok was opened. On October 24-25, the last ships with Japanese and White Guard units left the Golden Horn Bay.

At 4 pm on October 25, 1922, the troops of the People’s Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic entered Vladivostok.

On October 26, the newspapers of the RSFSR, and Rabochaya Moskva, printed on the front page the Order of the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, Lev Trotsky, with the closing words: “Glory to the workers, peasants and soldiers of our Far East!”

Thus ended the Civil War in Russia.

The fate of the main heroes of the Far Eastern campaign of the Red Army was tragic. Like many other fates of those times.

Jerome Uborevich was shot in 1937 in the so-called “Tukhachevsky case”. Among those convicted and executed in this “case” of the highest military officials of the USSR – Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky, commanders of the 1st rank Iona Yakir and Ieronim Uborevich, commander of the 2nd rank August Cork, commanders Robert Eideman, Vitovt Putna, Boris Feldman, Vitaly Primakov.

Army commissar 1st rankHead of the Political Directorate of the Red Army Jan Gamarnik shot himself before arrest.

Members signed the verdict Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSRamong whom was Vasily Blucher.

However, this cup did not pass him. By 1935, he had reached the highest military ranks and honors: he became one of the first five marshals of the Soviet Union – Vasily Blucher, Semyon Budyonny, Kliment Voroshilov, Alexander Egorov, Mikhail Tukhachevsky. In May 1938 Blucher was arrested. In November, he died suddenly in the doctor’s office of the inner prison of the NKVD. The case was dismissed due to the death of the accused. But in 1939, he was remembered and Blucher was retroactively sentenced to death for “spying for Japan.” Marshal Yegorov was shot on February 23, 1939, in Day of the Red Army and Navy.

Civil War…

Sergei Baimukhametov.

Illustrations: Fragment of the panorama “Battle of Volochaev”

No. 146 August 3rd. Opening of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. Below and to the side – In the Far East.

No. 161 August 22. 2 lane – Column “In the Far East”

No. 218 of October 28: “Reds in Vladivostok”
“For the recognition of the government of the Far East”

No. 216 of October 26 – Speech of the People’s Revolutionary Army in Vladivostok. Order Pre RVS Trotsky.

No. 215 of 25 October. “Neporylov’s ideas” – at the opening of the issue. A rebuke to those who saw the collapse of workers’ power in the NEP. And next to it – “On the situation in the Far East.