An anti-Bolshevik revolt in Yaroslavl (July 6–21, 1918) organized by the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom under the leadership of Boris Savinkov, whose activity had been approved by the leadership of the White movement. Local representatives of the parties of the Constitutional Democrats (Kadets), Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), the Mensheviks, who opposed the policies of the Bolsheviks, were also involved in the uprising.

 

According to the Union’s plan, the cities on the Upper Volga were to be captured, and the rebels supported by the Anglo-French landing force due to land in Arkhangelsk were to head towards Moscow. Colonel Aleksander Perkhurov was appointed as the leader of the uprising in Yaroslavl, and called his forces Yaroslavl detachment of the Northern Volunteer Army (according to various estimates, 400 to 1000-strong). The core of the detachment was made up of members of the officers’ organizations.

 

The beginning of the uprising was a success. On the night of July 6, Perkhurov gathered more than a hundred soldiers at the local cemetery, who captured the Bolshevik headquarters, post office, telegraph office, radio station, and treasury. The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Yaroslavl Soviet, David Zakgeim, and the commissar of the Yaroslavl military district, Semyon Nakhimson, were killed, and up to 200 supporters of the Soviet regime were arrested.

 

Perkhurov declared himself  the Chief Commander of the Yaroslavl governorate. The Menshevik Ivan Savinov became his assistant in civil affairs. The rebels announced the restoration of the pre-October 1917 authorities, canceled all laws and regulations of the Soviet government. However, their hopes for broad support for the uprising in Yaroslavl and neighboring provinces failed to come true. The allies’ anticipated landing in Arkhangelsk did not take place either. Attempts to raise uprisings in Rybinsk (July 8) and Murom (July 9) proved a failure.

The Reds launched an offensive against Yaroslavl. The city was shelled by artillery, aviation dropped 12 poods [196.5 kg = 30 stones and 12.1 pounds] of dynamite bombs, incendiary shells were used. The resulting fires burned about a third of the city buildings, including architectural monuments and cultural values (the Demidov Lyceum library the collections of Artillery Historical Museum evacuated from Petrograd were destroyed).

 

On the night of July 15–16, a detachment of 50 people led by Aleksander Perkhurov left Yaroslavl on a steamer. The rebels continued to resist until July 20–21. To prevent getting into the hands of the Reds, they “surrendered” to the German Prisoners of War Commission. Despite the previously declared armed neutrality, the commission handed over the insurgents to the Bolsheviks. Almost all of them were shot.