Operation of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) and the Czechoslovak Legion forces in August 1918 to capture Kazan.

As Simbirsk was captured by Komuch’s People’s Army and the Czechoslovak Legion (July 22), there arose disagreements in the command of the People’s Army over the aim of the next blow. The commander of Komuch’s People’s Army Volga front colonel Stanislav Chechek proposed to attack Saratov, while the commander of the 1st Samara volunteer squad of the People’s Army of Komuch, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Kappel, proposed a campaign on Kazan. On August 1, ignoring Chechek’s opinion, Kappel launched an advance towards Kazan (the forces left Simbirsk by steamers). The Komuch flotilla defeated the Reds flotilla at the mouth of the Kama. On August 5, it created a threat to Kazan, as its troops had landed on the pier and on the opposite bank of the Volga. Kazan was defended by the units of the 1st Latvian Division, the Muslim Communist Detachment, the Special Socialist Detachment led by Mullanur Vakhitov, and others.

Vladimir Kappel with three companies went by passing the city from the east, while the units of the Czechoslovak Legion advanced to the city from the pier. On August 6, in the middle of the day, Kappel’s forces entered the city from the rear. The resistance of the Reds (5th Latvian Regiment) had not yet been broken though. At the critical moment, the 300-strong Serbian battalion defected the Komuch army and delivered an unexpected flank blow to the Reds. The 5th Latvian regiment was defeated. After two days of heavy fighting, despite the Reds’superiority in the number of personnel, and the presence of serious fortifications on the defending side, Kazan was captured by noon on August 7.

As a result of the capture of Kazan, the gold reserve of the Russian Empire (nominal value 657 million rubles), warehouses with weapons, ammunition, medicines, etc., were seized by the anti-Bolshevik forces. At the same time, the extension of anti-Bolshevik forces front line became one of the factors of their further defeat in the Autumn of 1918.