From the history of the formation of special forces of the Nizhny Tagil district of Yekaterinburg Province in 1919-1923

The confrontation of the military-political forces during the Civil War clearly showed that the question of establishing the power was not fully resolved. The forces of different political persuasions were waging an armed struggle for gaining its influence in all regions. Together with the formation of military forces the administrative and political bodies were formed, whose aim was to suppress any anti-government protests and restore the constitutional order in the territories controlled by the soviet government. Along with the emergency committee, there were parts of special forces in an insufficient degree of scrutiny. In the article, the author considers the formation of special forces of the Nizhny Tagil district based on documents of the archives of Sverdlovsk Oblast. The author gives an overview of the literature on the research topic. Nowadays there is no objective and comprehensive analysis of features of formation and use of special forces in Yekaterinburg Province. The article aims to reflect all aspects of communist groups' activities in Nizhny Tagil and Yekaterinburg Province. The formation of the special forces in Nizhny Tagil began in autumn 1919. The article describes the structural features of Nizhny Tagil's special forces The detachment was subordinated to the local party leaders and consisted of members of RCP(b) and their supporters. On November 1919, special forces were officially included in the system of universal education, but the formation and operational management was undertaken by councils of different levels. The author believes that by the end of 1921 the combat readiness of special forces improved. During that period Nizhny Tagil's special forces became regiments, the authorities took action to improve training and accounting of the manpower. At that time, the functions of special forces included struggle against counterrevolution and banditry, detention of labor and military deserters. The main problem of special forces throughout the period of their existence was the low level of the procurement organization as well as the lack of competent managerial personnel. By the end of 1922, the quality of military training of the personnel of the forces and the material supply of the Communards improved. Nizhny Tagil's first separate troop became a combat ready unit, the number of which was 1 983 people. The author notes that the beginning of 1924 can be considered as the period of military personnel and the Communards' financial security increase. At that time small unorganized groups became a powerful military force able to repress severely any actions against the new power. The strengthening of the position of the ruling party made the special forces' activities unnecessary in most of the soviet territory, which led to their abolishment.

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