Kuban People's Republic: history, territory, organization

One of the most striking 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 both with the Bolsheviks and with the volunteer White Guard army, which tried to take it under its control. The events of this full drama of history unfolded in our article.

Territory, flag and arms 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 km ². It stretched from the Yeisky estuary (the Gulf of the Azov Sea) 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 cloth divided horizontally by blue, crimson and green stripes, and the width of the middle band was twice as large as the extreme ones. The meaning of each color was not documented, but it is considered that the crimson symbolized the Cossacks-Chernomorets - descendants of the Cossacks, blue - the heirs of the Don Cossacks, and the green one - the Cossacks, who were Muslim mountainers. The republic also had its own 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 head ataman, who at the same time was commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He was responsible for appointing members of the government, he himself was elected for a term of 4 years by the Kuban Krai Rada, which together with the Kuban legislative rada was the highest legislative body of 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 "Chernomorets" and consisted mainly of representatives of the Black Sea Ukrainian-speaking Cossacks, standing on separatist principles. The Chernomors were in favor of creating an independent Kuban state, united with Ukraine on federal principles.

Supporters of the second political group, called the "Linea", advocated the entry of the Kuban into the "united and indivisible Russia." Throughout the period, as long as the Kuban People's Republic existed (1918-1920), an unceasing struggle was waged between these political forces, which took at times extremely harsh forms. She was especially interested in establishing the power of the Bolsheviks in the Kuban.

Selecting policy benchmarks

In 1918, the Kuban People's Republic, as well as the surrounding territories, became part of the general process of transferring power to the hands of the Bolsheviks, supported by the Black Sea province, which they established control in December 1917.

How successful were the efforts of the Bolsheviks in the Kuban, in many respects depended on the side of the local Cossacks, who at that time held a wait-and-see attitude and did not express open support to them or their main enemy - the White Volunteer Army, which fought in the South of Russia.

The reasons that pushed the Cossacks away from the new government

However, by the fall of 1918, the mood of the Cossacks was marked by a significant change. His 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 belonged to the Cossack army earlier, as well as the reorganization of the foundations of class land use, which had a centuries-old tradition.

Caused a protest and equalization in the rights of the Cossacks with representatives of the rest of the population of the region. This led to inciting inter-class discord, often resulting in bloody conflicts. Finally, the decisive role in their choice was played by frequent cases of looting and robbery by detachments of Red Army men, and acts of treachery conducted by the Bolshevik leadership, that is, depriving the Cossacks of their political and military rights.

The beginning of the struggle against the Bolsheviks

As a result, by the fall of 1918, most of the Cossacks had become opponents of the new government, and practically the entire Kuban People's Republic joined the anti-Bolshevik movement. In the current situation, the Kuban Krai, and, consequently, the troops subordinating to it, tried to win over to their side two anti-Bolshevik military forces that were separate from each other: the leadership of the Donskoi Voivodship and the government of Ukraine. Such competition, which prevented joint actions, only weakened the general resistance to the advancing parts of the Red Army and introduced discord into the anti-Bolshevik movement.

In August 1918, after the victory of the uprising that erupted in Taman, led by Colonel P.S. Peretyatko, managed to free the whole of the Right-bank Kuban from the Bolsheviks and create there a reliable outpost for the offensive of the Volunteer Army. Thanks to the new opportunities, its forward units captured Yekaterinodar on August 17.

Reckless solution

An important event in the life of the republic was the meeting of the government held not long before. It adopted a decision according to which the Kuban People's Republic continued the anti-Bolshevik struggle in alliance with the Don Volunteer Army, and not with Ukraine.

As it turned out, later this choice became the cause of many conflicts and contradictions that arose between the Kuban leaders and the Whiteguard command. The fundamental disagreement was that the Donians, considering the Kuban as an integral part of Russia, sought to limit the powers of its government and subordination of the head ataman to the commander of the Don army, General AI. Denikin (photo is shown below).

Kubans, in turn, claimed equality in solving the most important military and political issues. In addition, their discontent caused the actions of Denikin personally, who took the rule of intervening to solve internal problems of the Cossack regions and impose their own decisions on them. Thus, hardly formed alliance soon began to fall apart.

A crime with disastrous consequences

The final rift between yesterday's allies came after the June 19, 1919 incident at the South Russian conference convened in Rostov to create a single anti-Bolshevik front. On that day, the head of the Kuban government, N. Ryabovol, was shot after criticizing Denikin. His killer was one of the members of the leadership of the Volunteer Army.

This crime caused outrage among the broad strata of the inhabitants of the Kuban. Cossacks, who had joined the ranks of the Volunteer Army and constituted 68.7% of its personnel by that time, began to leave their units in mass order. This process was so intense that in 3 months Denikin's troops left less than 10% of them.

As a result, both the Volunteer Army of the South of Russia and the Kuban People's Republic suffered significant losses and weakened their fighting capacity. In the end, this was one of the reasons for the defeat of the White Movement.

Recent attempts to break the current impasse

In the early autumn of 1919, the Kuban People's Republic, whose history was coming to its 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.

Simultaneously with this, the deputies of the Kraevoy Rada conducted active propaganda for the separation of the Kuban from Russia. At the end of the same year, an attempt was made to appeal to the newly created League of Nations with a request for the adoption of the Kuban People's Republic into its membership as an independent subject.

To strengthen its military potential, the leadership of the Kuban concluded 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, as the Volunteer Army was fighting at the 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 territory was laid by the offensive of the Red Army in 1920, which caused mass desertion among the Denikin troops. The commander-in-chief tried to prevent this, sending special squads to the Cossack villages, whose task was to catch and return to the army all the people who had left their ranks unauthorized. However, this he achieved even more embitterment of the Kuban people in relation to himself and his army. During this period, many Cossacks took the side of the Red Army.

The final rout of the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Kuban and the Don Military Region took place in March 1920. Then the Red Army conducted its famous Kuban-Novorossiysk operation. Leaving the enemy Yekaterinodar, the Volunteer Corps retreated, and the Kuban army, pressed to the border with Georgia, capitulated on May 3.

Despite the fact that soon the Kuban was included in the RSFSR, some of the Cossacks' protests 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 the following years, until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in the Kuban, mass repressions were carried out with particular ruthlessness, as well as deportations and dekulakization acts that caused the famine that claimed thousands of lives.