Anti-Soviet military units of Yenisei Cossacks
Subdivisions of Yenisei Cossacks fought actively against the Soviet power since it began. In October 1917 a Yenisei Cossacks hundred that escorted of General P.N. Krasnov took part in attacking Petrograd. In January 1918 in Krasnoyarsk a Yenisei Cossacks division refused to comply with the new power and left the town for Minusinsk district. Factually it began the anti-Soviet armed fight. With the collapse of the Soviet power inSiberia in summer 1918 two Yenisei mounted Cossacks regiments were organized. They consisted of six hundred people and made up the Yenisei Cossack crew. In summer 1919 detachments of self-defense were organized from Cossacks who were not subject to military recruitment. In 1919 a division of Khakasses was formed. It was organized and equipped by the Cossacks sample with the officer and non-commissioned officer staff from Yenisei Cossacks and was led by the Commander of the first Yenisei Cossacks regiment. At the end of 1919 the Yenisei Cossacks artillery battery was formed. When at the beginning of 1920 Kolchak regime ended, Yenisei Cossacks went to Transbaikalia with its regiments of 700 people, and at the end of 1920 they went to Primorye where they became a regiment with 450 people. By summer 1922 the Yenisei Cossacks regiment numbered 70 bayonets and 40 sabres and was renamed into the Yenisei Cossacks squad and became a part of the United Cossacks detachment of the Siberian Cossacks Army. When last white units went to China, Yenisei Cossacks guerrilla detachment of about 40 people acted in Primorye till the end of November 1922. Captain Kazantsev's detachment of about 450 people was formed from those Yenisei Cossacks who had retreated to Mongolia after Kolchak Army's defeat. It was apart of the Asian division headed by Ungern von Sternberg. At the end of 1921 Kazantsev's detachment was annihilated by the Soviet and Mongolian troops. After the Soviet power establishment in Yenisei province in 1920 Cossacks rebel detachments appeared here, I.N. Solovyov's detachment being the largest of them with a few hundred men. It was liquidated only in 1924. Therefore, in 1917-1924 Yenisei Cossacks formed different kinds of military formations from small guerrilla detachments to large regular units, which opposed the Red on the territory from Petrograd to Primorye.
Keywords
Siberia, Cossacks, Civil war, Сибирь, казачество, Гражданская войнаAuthors
| Name | Organization | |
| Tarasov Mikhail G. | Siberian Federal University (Krasnoyarsk) | mihell@ngs.ru |
References