Antonovschina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antonovschina was a peasant uprising in Soviet Russia in 1920-1921 during the Russian Civil War, named after its leader, Alexander Antonov. The peasant army was also known as the Antonovtsi or "Blue Army" (not to be confused with Polish Blue Army), as opposed to "White Army" (anti-communist army), "Red Army" (communist army), "Green Army" (Ukrainian nationalists) and "Black Army" (anarchists of Ukraine and Russia) - all taking part in the Civil War.
Alexander Antonov, a radical member of the Left Socialist Revolutionary party, had sided with the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution in 1917, but turned on them after the Bolshevik's new farming policies came into place in 1918.
Antonov started to make attacks against the Soviet authorities and became a popular hero to the people of the Tambov region of central Russia where he started his campaigns.
By November 1920, he had an army of around 8,000 men, most of them mounted. He used this army to mount raids against Collective farms and railway junctions. He did manage to clear the Tambov region of the Bolsheviks authorities, but he had a greater ambition, and this was to march on Moscow.
In January 1921, Antonov resorted to conscription in order to increase his army. He managed to form 2 field armies. These field armies consisted of 21 'regiments', with a total strength of around 20,000-50,000 men. The army was well structured and well organised, with their own form of insignia and uniforms. The Soviets however, referred to these Antonovtsi as disorganised Kulak groups or bandits. The field armies were organised much like regular formations, with 5 brigades (2 Infantry or Cavalry regiments, along with Specialist signals, reconnaissance, medical, engineer and other units.) The armies command functions were organised by the Major Operations HQ, which had its own logistical, political and legal departments as well as a separate security regiment.
The threat of Antonov's army was great enough that the Soviets treated it as a new front and sent some of their best commanders to fight it, Tukhachevsky and Uborevich with nearly 50,000 regulars, as well as Hungarian and Chinese "internationalists" and Cheka, ChON and VOkhr units.
Tambov uprising was one of main reasons Bolsheviks abandoned the prodrazverstka (forced expropriation of grain) policy, changing it to prodnalog (essentially, a grain/food tax). On February 2, 1921, Bolshevik Party decided to tailor a special message targeting peasants of Tambov region, announcing the retirement of the old grain policy. This was done ahead of the X Party Congress, where the measure was officially adopted. The announcement started circulating in Tambov area on February 9, 1921. By May 1921, the military strength of the Red Army regiments in the region came up to 100,000 men.
In June 1921, Tukhachevsky defeated the 2nd Army, commanded by Antonov himself, and two weeks later, the 1st army, under Boguslavsky.
Antonov escaped, but was tracked down by the GPU in June 1922 and killed.
