The anti-Bolshevik uprising of the population of Western Siberia. The largest armed uprising against the Communist regime during the Civil War and the entire period of Soviet power, both in terms of the territory covered and the number of participants.

 

The main cause of the uprising was the policy of War Communism pursued by the Bolsheviks, primarily Prodrazvyorstka [food requisition]. The immediate cause was the abuses of the Soviet authorities in Ishim district of Tyumen governorate, which led to open conflict of the local peasant population with the authorities in late January – early February 1921. Units of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army quickly suppressed the first pockets of insurgency. However, it was impossible to stop the spread of the rebellion to other areas. During February the insurgents disrupted the direct telegraph connection between Siberia and the center, occupied several stations on the Trans-Siberian railroad, and suspended the transportation of food from Siberia to European Russia. This contributed to a worsening food crisis in Moscow, Petrograd, and other industrial areas.

 

The main mass of the insurgents were peasants. Cossacks, Tatars, Khanty, and others also took an active part in the movement. The rebel command sought to unite the insurgent detachments and form them into army units with strict military discipline based on sole command and centralism. On the whole, however, the uprising was spontaneous. Few commanders had a military education. Rebels often put forward the slogan of establishing Soviet power without Communists, which is typical of Greens movements. By the end of February, the number of participants in the movement had reached 50,000. As a result of the uprising, the Bolsheviks were forced to abandon some cities in Western Siberia: Tobolsk (February 20), Kokchetav (February 21), Surgut (March 8), and Berezov (March 21).

 

On February 12, to direct the suppression of the uprising, the Bolsheviks created an empowered troika [three] (Ivan Smirnov, Vasily Shorin, Ivan Pavlunovsky) and sent additional armed forces to the region. By early March, thanks to the successful actions of the Red Army, the Omsk-Tyumen and Omsk-Chelyabinsk railway connection had been restored, and by early June the main pockets of the uprising had been liquidated. Individual insurgent units continued to resist until mid-1922. As a result of the suppression of the uprising, several thousand insurgents were killed (according to some reports, more than 20,000 people).

 

Along with other mass movements in 1920 – early 1921, the West Siberian rebellion was one of the reasons why in March 1921 the 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) – RCP(b) decided to replace Prodrazvyorstka with prodnalog [Tax in Kind].