The Establishment of Soviet power in Russia (in Soviet historiography, «Triumphal Procession of Soviet Power») was the process of establishing Soviet power throughout the territory of the former Russian Empire, with the exception of areas occupied by the troops of the Central Powers, following the seizure of power by Bolsheviks in Petrograd on , and in mostly completed by the beginning of the German offensive along the entire front on February 18, 1918.
Overview The period from November 1917 to February 1918 was distinguished by the relative speed and ease of establishing the power of the Bolsheviks and eliminating the armed resistance of their opponents (near Petrograd, in Moscow, Ukraine, Don, Kuban, etc.). This period was characterized by the presence of a broad social support among the Bolsheviks: they decisively liquidated landlord ownership, transferred land to the peasants, began to withdraw Russia from the war, introduced workers' control in industry, recognized the right of the peoples of the former empire to acquire state independence, therefore the population supported them. This massive support compensated for the numerical and organizational weakness of the armed forces of the Bolsheviks (detachments of the Red Guard, revolutionary–minded sailors and soldiers of the old army).
At the same time, the Soviets themselves, as organs of power, did not always support the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. In cases where individual councils did not agree to become the organs of the dictatorship of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), the Bolsheviks did not hesitate to disperse and replace them with extraordinary bodies – revolutionary committees, military revolutionary committees, etc.Pavel Kostogryzov. Bolsheviks and Soviets: Dynamics of Relations During the Period of "Triumphal Procession" and "Strengthening of Soviet Power" (On the Materials of the Urals) // Problems of the History of Society, State and Law. Digest of Articles. 1st Edition. Yekaterinburg: Ural State Law University, 2013 – Pages 289–309 This shows that their goal was to establish the dictatorship of their own party, and its concrete form in the form of "Soviet power" was not so important.
Anti–Bolshevik forces (volunteer officers, Cossacks of rear units, cadets) in the first post–October months did not have significant social support, so their attempts to organize resistance at the front and in the Cossack regions were relatively weak. The Don Ataman Alexey Kaledin failed to rouse the front–line Cossacks to fight against the Bolshevik regime, since the Cossacks, tired of the war, did not want to fight the Bolsheviks who had ended the war. For the same reason, Generals Mikhail Alekseev and Lavr Kornilov were unable to form a large army of volunteers on the Don.
The elimination of the first centers of resistance and anti-Bolshevik armed formations was not completed due to the poor work of the still weak bodies of Soviet power and the low combat effectiveness of the Red Guard detachments and units of the Red Army. In the cities of the Volga region, Siberia and other regions, underground officers' organizations multiplied. The Volunteer Army managed to survive and retain the main officer cadres. During this period, the White movement experienced a kind of underground partisan period of formation, when the ideological, organizational, personnel and material foundations of the future white governments and their armies were laid.
Background
Establishment of Soviet power. Beginning of the organization of anti–Bolshevik forces
One of the main circumstances that allowed the Bolsheviks to carry out the socialist revolution, and then quite quickly seize power in many regions and cities of the Russian Empire, was the presence in the large cities of Russia of numerous reserve battalions that did not want to go to the front. It was the promise of an immediate end to the war with Germany that predetermined the transition of the Russian army, which had decayed during the Kerensky era, to the side of the Bolsheviks, which ensured their subsequent victory. At first, in most regions of the country, the establishment of Bolshevik power proceeded quickly and peacefully: out of 84 provincial and other large cities, only in fifteen Soviet power was established as a result of an armed struggle. This gave the Bolsheviks a reason to talk about the "triumphal march of Soviet power" in the period from October 1917 to February 1918.
The victory of the uprising in Petrograd marked the beginning of the transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets in all major cities of Russia. In particular, the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow took place only after the arrival of the Red Guards from Petrograd. In the central regions of Russia (Ivanovo–Voznesensk, Orekhovo–Zuevo, Shuya, Kineshma, Kostroma, Tver, Bryansk, Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Vladimir, Kovrov, Kolomna, Serpukhov, Podolsk and others), even before the October Socialist Revolution, many local Soviets were in fact in the power of the Bolsheviks, and therefore they took power there quite easily. This process was more complicated in Tula, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, where the influence of the Bolsheviks in the Soviets was insignificant. However, having occupied key positions by armed detachments, the Bolsheviks achieved the "re–election" of the Soviets and took power into their own hands.
In the industrial cities of the Volga region, the Bolsheviks seized power immediately after Petrograd and Moscow. In Kazan, the command of the military district, in a bloc with the socialist parties and Tatar nationalists, tried to disarm the Bolshevized artillery reserve brigade, but the Red Guards occupied the station, post office, telephone, telegraph, bank, surrounded the Kremlin, arrested the commander of the district troops and the Commissioner of the Provisional Government, and on November 8 the city was captured by the Bolsheviks. From November 1917 to January 1918, the Bolsheviks established their power in the provincial towns of the Kazan Governorate. In Samara, the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Valerian Kuibyshev took power on November 8. On November 9–11, overcoming the resistance of the Socialist Revolutionary–Menshevik "Salvation Committee" and the Cadet Duma, the Bolsheviks won in Saratov. In Tsaritsyn, they fought for power from November 10 to 17. In Astrakhan, fighting continued until February 7, 1918. By this time, the power of the Bolsheviks had been established throughout the Volga region.
On November 7–8, 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Narva, Revel, Yuryev, Pärnu, and in the following days – throughout the entire Baltic territory not occupied by the Germans. The plenum of the executive committee of the Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Landless Deputies of Latvia (Latvian Riflemen) on November 21–22 recognized the authority of the Council of People's Commissars. The Congress of Workers, Riflemen and Landless Deputies (made up of Bolsheviks and Left Social Revolutionaries) in Valmiera on December 29–31 formed the pro–Bolshevik government of Latvia, headed by Fricis Rozin.
In November 1917, congresses of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies of the Western Oblast, the 3rd Congress of Peasants' Deputies of the Minsk and Vilna Provinces and the 2nd Congress of the Armies of the Western Front were held in Minsk, the executive committee of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies of the Western Region and Front and the Council of People's Commissars were formed Western region. The Great Belarusian Rada did not recognize the authority of the executive committee of the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies of the Western Region and the Front, considering it as an exclusively front–line organ. The First All–Belarusian Congress, convened by the Great Belarusian Rada, was dispersed by the Bolsheviks. In January – February 1918, the anti–Bolshevik uprising of the Polish Corps of General Dovbor–Musnitsky was suppressed, and power in the large cities of Belarus passed to the Bolsheviks.
The Ukrainian Central Rada took advantage of the fall of the Provisional Government to gain full power in Ukraine. After the failed Bolshevik uprising and the withdrawal from Kiev of troops loyal to the Provisional Government, the Central Rada on November 20 proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic on the territory of eight provinces: Kiev, Volyn, Podolsk, Kherson, Chernigov, Poltava, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav and the districts of Northern Tavria. The leadership of the Ukrainian People's Republic did not recognize the results of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia and sought to prevent a repetition of the Petrograd riots in the Ukrainian provinces. The Central Rada declared its complete disobedience to the Petrograd Soviet of People's Commissars and sought to turn Kiev into the center of the creation of a new Russia as a federation of autonomous republics. Rada agreed to an alliance with the ataman of the Don Host Kaledin.
Having received news of the successful Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd, the Bolsheviks of the Lugansk region, who by that time had a majority in many Soviets, proclaimed the transfer of power locally to the Soviets by peaceful means, despite the opposition of the national democratic forces and moderate socialists. The Bolsheviks of Donbas took power in Lugansk, Makeyevka, Gorlovka, Kramatorsk and other cities. In the Donbas, the formation of the Red Guard units began.
In Rostov–on–Don, Soviet power was proclaimed on November 8. On the same day, military ataman Alexey Kaledin in Novocherkassk introduced martial law in the Oblast of the Don Army. The military (Cossack) government assumed the entirety of state power in the Oblast. On November 15, General Alekseev, who arrived in Novocherkassk, announced the beginning of the formation of the Volunteer Army to fight the Bolsheviks and continue the war with an external enemy (Central Powers). On November 20, ataman Kaledin announced that the Military Government did not recognize the Bolshevik government, and therefore the Oblast was proclaimed independent until the legitimate Russian government was formed. On December 15, after fierce battles, volunteer detachments and the troops of General Kaledin drove the Bolsheviks out of Rostov, and then from Taganrog, and launched an offensive on Donbas.
Meanwhile, the Central Rada refused to satisfy the demand of the government of Soviet Russia to allow Soviet troops to pass through the territory of Ukraine, heading for the Don against the ataman Kaledin. On December 9, the Council of People's Commissars issued an appeal to the entire population "On the Fight Against the Counter–Revolutionary Uprising of Kaledin, Kornilov, Dutov, Supported by the Central Rada". It was clear to the Soviet leadership that the defeat of the supporters of Soviet power in Rostov opened the way for the further advance of the Kaledin forces into the depths of the Donetsk basin and further north. It was possible to stop them only by using and gaining a foothold in those territories that the Central Rada proclaimed Ukrainian.
On December 19, the Council of People's Commissars formed the Southern Revolutionary Front to Fight Counter–Revolution. Vladimir Antonov–Ovseenko was appointed commander–in–chief of the front.Red Banner Kiev. Essays on the History of the Red Banner Kiev Military District (1919–1979). Kiev, 1979