The Uprising (Revolt) of Aleksander Sapozhkov (Sapozhkovshchina) is an anti-Bolshevik rebellion of the 9th Cavalry Division of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army under the command of division commander Aleksander Sapozhkov. It covered the territories of Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan, Bukeyev governorate and the Ural region.

 

The protest was caused by the Bolsheviks’ emergency food policy (Prodrazvyorstka) and increased Party control and oversight of the army command staff. The leader of the movement was the famous red commander, the hero of the defense of Uralsk in 1919, Aleksander Sapozhkov.

 

The reason for the protest was the order of Konstantin Avksentyevsky, commander of the Trans-Volga Military District, to remove Sapozhkov from the post of division commander due to his incompetency. On July 9, at a meeting with commanders close to him, Sapozhkov called for protest by armed force, outlining his program: removal of commissars and old specialists, release of political prisoners, reorganization of the Soviets.

 

On July 14, 1920, the rebels occupied Buzuluk, Samara governorate (the 9th Cavalry Division was being formed in that area). On July 15, Sapozhkov renamed his division the First Red Army of Truth (Army of Truth). The rebels opposed Prodrazvyorstka [food requisition], calling as their opponents the bourgeoisie, “zolotopogonniks” [wearing gold shoulder straps, i.e. officers], and “false communists” who substituted the people’s power. On July 16, as Red Army units approached, the rebels left Buzuluk and moved southeast, meeting the sympathy of the population. Sapozhkov was joined by locals, deserters, Red Army prisoners, Ural Cossacks, and small rebel groups.

 

Sapozhkov divided his forces, sending one part of them to Uralsk, and with the other, he moved to Novouzensk. He did not plan for active combat, believing that his slogans would find widespread support, and he relied on agitation and the expansion of the movement into new territories. The rebels did not take major towns and suffered a series of defeats. On September 6, Sapozhkov, together with his staff, was overtaken by the Red Army 30 km from the village of Novaya Kazanka near Khanskaya Stavka, Bukeyev governorate and killed in battle. After the defeat of the Army of Truth, one of Sapozhkov’s followers, Vasily Serov, continued the insurgent struggle in the Transvolga and South Urals regions in 1921–1922.

 

At the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Sapozhkov’s Rebellion (Sapozhkovshchina) was mentioned along with the broad peasant movements, Makhnovshchina (Makhnovist movement), Antonovshchina (Antonov’s uprising), which influenced the replacing of Prodrazvyorstka with prodnalog [Tax in Kind].