Soviet Republic within the Russian SFSR, which existed in the North Caucasus in 1918 – early 1919.

 

In July 1918, at the 1st Congress of Soviets of the North Caucasus, Grigory Ordzhonikidze, the Extraordinary Commissar of the South of Russia, made a report on the need to unite the Soviet republics in the North Caucasus under the offensive of the Anton Denikin’s Volunteer Army. On July 7, 1918, the Congress adopted a resolution on the establishment of the North Caucasian Soviet Republic within the Russian SFSR based on the Terek, Stavropol, and Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republics (the latter was the union of the Kuban and the Black Sea republics existed from May 30, 1918, under the leadership of Yan Poluyan). The Terek republic did not send representatives to Congress and continued to function as an independent state within the North Caucasian Soviet Republic.

 

The Congress elected the Central Executive Committee, which included Abraham Rubin (the chairman), Yan Poluyan, Viktor Krainy (Moisey Shneiderman), and others. The Committee was vested with broad authority, and above all, led the Red Army of the North Caucasus. The main problem was the fight against the Cossack and peasant rebel groups, the Volunteer Army, and the troops of the Georgian Democratic Republic. On August 3, 1918, Ivan Sorokin was appointed Commander of the republic’s troops. In August, the Central Executive Committee established the Extraordinary Commission (the CheKa) that was subordinate first to the Pyatigorsk Soviet and then to the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission and the command of the 11th Army of the Red Army.

 

The troops of the Volunteer Army occupied Yekaterinodar on August 17, 1918. The Central Executive Committee of the republic moved to Armavir and then to Pyatigorsk. In October 1918, the system of army leadership was changed: the Revolutionary Military Council of the North Caucasus (headed by Yan Poluyan) was created to have all supreme military power. Commander Ivan Sorokin attempted a coup against the “tyranny of the CheKa”. The leaders of the Central Executive Committee (Rubin, Krainy, etc.) and several leaders of the Cheka were shot on October 21 by his order. In response, the Committee declared Sorokin a traitor.

 

By the end of December, most of the territory of the republic was under the control of the Whites. On January 11, 1919, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Russian SFSR adopted a resolution on the abolition of the Central Executive Committee of the North Caucasian Soviet Republic and the establishment of the Regional Executive Committee of the Soviets of the North Caucasus.