1920?1922 buffer state in the Russian Far East
This article is about the Russian Far East buffer state during the Russian Civil War. For the worker's republic during the Russian Revolution of 1905, see
Chita Republic
.
The
Far Eastern Republic
(Russian:
Дальневосточная Республика, ДВР
,
IPA:
[d?l?n??v??stot?n?j?
r??s?publ??k?]
), sometimes called the
Chita Republic
(Russian:
Читинская Республика
,
IPA:
[t???t??nsk?j?
r??s?publ??k?]
), was a
nominally independent state
that existed from April 1920 to November 1922 in the easternmost part of the
Russian Far East
. Although nominally independent, it largely came under the control of the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
(RSFSR), which envisaged it as a
buffer state
between the RSFSR and the territories occupied by
Japan
during the
Russian Civil War
of 1917?1922. Its first president was
Alexander Krasnoshchyokov
.
The Far Eastern Republic occupied the territory of modern
Zabaykalsky Krai
,
Amur Oblast
, the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast
,
Khabarovsk Krai
, and
Primorsky Krai
of
Russia
(the former
Transbaikal
and
Amur
oblasts and
Primorsky krai
). Its capital was established at
Verkhneudinsk
(now Ulan-Ude), but in October 1920 it moved to
Chita
.
The
Red Army
occupied
Vladivostok
on 25 October 1922. Three weeks later, on 15 November 1922, the Far Eastern Republic merged with the RSFSR.
History
[
edit
]
Establishment
[
edit
]
The Far Eastern Republic was established in the later stages of the Russian Civil War. During the Civil War local authorities generally controlled the towns and cities of the Russian Far East, cooperating to a greater or lesser extent with the
White
Siberian
government of
Alexander Kolchak
and with the succeeding invading forces of the Japanese Army. When the Japanese evacuated the Trans-Baikal and Amur oblasts in the spring of 1920, a political vacuum resulted.
A new central authority was established at Chita to govern the Far Eastern Republic remaining in the Japanese wake.
[1]
The Far Eastern Republic was established comprising only the area around
Verkhneudinsk
, but during the summer of 1920, the Soviet government of the Amur territory agreed to join.
The Far Eastern Republic was formed two months after Kolchak's death with the tacit support of the government of Soviet Russia, which saw it as a temporary
buffer state
between the RSFSR and the territories occupied by
Japan
.
[2]
Many members of the
Russian Communist Party
had disagreed with the decision to allow a new government in the region, believing that their approximately 4,000 members were capable of seizing power in their own right.
[3]
However,
Vladimir Lenin
and other party leaders in Moscow felt that the approximately 70,000 Japanese and 12,000 American troops might regard such an action as a provocation, which might spur a further attack that the Soviet Republic could ill afford.
[3]
On 1 April 1920, the
American Expeditionary Force, Siberia
headed by General
William S. Graves
departed Siberia, leaving the Japanese the sole occupying power in the region with whom the Bolsheviks were forced to deal.
[4]
This detail did not change the basic equation for the Bolshevik government in Moscow, however, which continued to see the establishment of a Far Eastern Republic as a sort of
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
in the east, providing the regime with a necessary breathing space that would allow it to recover economically and militarily.
[5]
On 6 April 1920, a hastily convened Constituent Assembly gathered at
Verkhneudinsk
and proclaimed the establishment of the Far Eastern Republic. Promises were made that the republic's new constitution would guarantee free elections under the principles of universal, direct, and equal suffrage and that foreign investment in the country would be encouraged.
[3]
The Far Eastern Republic, controlled by moderate socialists, was only grudgingly recognized by the various cities of the region towards the end of 1920.
[2]
Violence, atrocities, and reprisals continued to erupt periodically for the next 18 months.
[2]
One such example occurred at the Korean enclave
Shinhanchon
, where Korean civilians were massacred by Japanese soldiers.
[6]
Japan agreed to recognize the new buffer state in a truce with the
Red Army
signed 15 July 1920, effectively abandoning Ataman
Grigory Semenov
and his
Russia Eastern Outskirts
.
[3]
By October Semenov had been expelled from his base of operations in Chita. With Semenov out of the picture, the capital of the Far Eastern Republic moved to that city.
[2]
On 11 November 1920 a provisional national assembly for the Far East met in
Vladivostok
. The gathering recognized the government at Chita and set 9 January 1921 as the date for new elections for the Constituent Assembly of the Far Eastern Republic.
[3]
A new constitution closely resembling the
United States Constitution
was written and approved on 27 April 1921.
[3]
The 1921 coup
[
edit
]
However, right-wing elements rejected the idea of a fledgling democratic republic in the Russian Far East. On 26 May 1921 a White
coup
took place in Vladivostok, backed by
Japanese occupying forces
.
[2]
A
cordon sanitaire
of Japanese troops protected the insurgents, who established a new regime, the
Provisional Government of the Priamur
,
[7]
in the
Primorskaya Oblast
. Shortly after the coup, Kolchak's designated successor,
Ataman Semenov
, arrived in Vladivostok and attempted to proclaim himself commander-in-chief?an effort which failed when his Japanese benefactors forsook him.
[8]
The new Provisional Government of the Priamur attempted?with little success?to rally the various anti-Bolshevik forces to its banner.
[9]
Its leaders, two Vladivostok businessmen?the brothers
Spiridon Merkulov
[
ru
]
and
Nikolai Merkulov
[
ru
]
?found themselves left isolated when the Japanese Army announced on 24 June 1922 that it would remove all of its troops from Siberia by the end of October.
[9]
A July 1922
Zemsky sobor
deposed the Merkulov brothers and named a Russian general who had served with the
Czechoslovak Legion
,
M.K. Dieterichs
, as
military dictator
.
[9]
FER victory and demise, 1922
[
edit
]
With the Japanese exiting the country throughout the summer of 1922, panic swept through the
White Russian
insurgents. As the Red Army, thinly disguised as the
People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic
[
ru
]
, moved eastwards, thousands of Russians, including Dieterichs and his remaining troops, fled abroad to escape the new regime.
[2]
The army of the Far Eastern Republic retook Vladivostok on 25 October 1922, effectively bringing the Russian Civil War to a close.
With the Civil War finally over, Soviet Russia absorbed the Far Eastern Republic on 15 November 1922.
[3]
The government of the Far Eastern Republic dissolved itself and transferred all its authority and territory to the Bolshevik government in Moscow.
[9]
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Japan
retained the northern half of
Sakhalin
Island until 1925, ostensibly as compensation for
Nikolayevsk incident
- the massacre of about 700
Japanese
civilians and soldiers at
Nikolaevsk-na-Amure
in May-June 1920.
[4]
This "compensatory" motive for holding the territory belied the fact that Japanese retaliation for the actions of Russian
partisans
had taken between two and three times as many
Russian lives
.
[4]
Territory and resources
[
edit
]
Territory of the Far Eastern Republic in 1922.
The Far Eastern Republic consisted of four provinces of the former
Russian empire
?Trans-Baikal, Amur, the Maritime Province, and the northern half of
Sakhalin island
.
[1]
Primarily, it represented the boundaries of the regions of
Transbaikal
and
Outer Manchuria
. The frontiers of the short-lived nation followed the western coastline of
Lake Baikal
along the northern borders of
Mongolia
and
Manchuria
to the
Sea of Japan
and the
Sea of Okhotsk
.
The total area of the Far Eastern Republic was reckoned at approximately 730,000 square miles (1,900,000 km
2
) and its population at about 3.5 million people.
[1]
Of these an estimated 1.62 million were ethnic
Russians
and just over 1 million were of Asian extraction, with family lineages originating in China, Japan, Mongolia, and
Korea
.
[1]
The Far Eastern Republic was an area of substantial mineral wealth, including territory which produced about one-third of the entire Russian output of gold as well as that country's only source of domestically produced
tin
.
[1]
Other mineral reserves of the Far Eastern Republic included
zinc
,
iron
, and
coal
.
[1]
The fishing industry of the former Maritime Province was substantial, with a total catch exceeding that of
Iceland
and featuring ample stocks of
herring
,
salmon
, and
sturgeon
.
[1]
The Republic also boasted extensive forestry resources, including over 120 million acres (490,000 km
2
) of harvestable
pine
,
fir
,
cedar
,
poplar
, and
birch
.
[1]
People's Revolutionary Army
[
edit
]
Оn 20 July 1922, the 104th Balagansk Rifle Brigade was reorganized into the
1st Transbaikal Rifle Division
of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic. The division defended the border with Manchuria from its formation, and between 4 and 25 October took part in the
Primorsky operation
to defeat the
Zemskaya Rat
, the last remnants of the Whites in the Far East. During the operation, the 1st Transbaikal Rifle Division fought in the capture of
Grodekovo
,
Nikolsk-Ussuriysky
, and
Vladivostok
.
The
5th Army
(fourth formation) was created by order of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR of November 16, 1922 by renaming the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic. The 1st Transbaikal Rifle Division came under its command. It was based at
Vladivostok
. In honor of its defeat of White troops on the shores of Pacific and basing on the Pacific coast, the division was redesignated the 1st Pacific Rifle Division (Russian:
1-я Тихоокеанская стрелковая дивизия
,
romanized:
1-ya Tikhookeanskaya strelkovaya diviziya
) on 22 November 1922.
[10]
[11]
Chairmen of the Government (heads of state)
[
edit
]
Chairmen of the Council of Ministers (Prime Ministers)
[
edit
]
- Alexander Krasnoshchyokov 6 April 1920 ? November 1920
- Boris Shumyatsky
November 1920 ? April 1921
- Pyotr Nikiforov
8 May 1921 ? December 1921
- Nikolay Matveyev December 1921 ? 14 November 1922
- Pyotr Kobozev
14 November 1922 ? 15 November 1922
Prominent people born in the Far Eastern Republic
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
"The Far Eastern Republic,"
Russian Information and Review
, vol. 1, no. 10 (Feb. 15, 1922), pp. 232?233.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Alan Wood, "The Revolution and Civil War in Siberia," in Edward Acton, Vladimir Iu. Cherniaev, and William G. Rosenberg (eds.),
Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914?1921
. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1997; pp. 716?717.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
George Jackson and Robert Devlin (eds.),
Dictionary of the Russian Revolution
. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989; pp. 223?225.
- ^
a
b
c
N.G.O. Pereira,
White Siberia: The Politics of Civil War
. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996; pg. 153.
- ^
Pereira,
White Siberia
, pg. 152.
- ^
新, 재홍.
"4月慘變 (四月慘變)"
.
Encyclopedia of Korean Culture
. Archived from
the original
on August 21, 2023.
- ^
Wood, Alan (15 April 2011). "Revolution and Civil War".
Russia's Frozen Frontier: A History of Siberia and the Russian Far East 1581 - 1991
. London: A&C Black (published 2011). p. 189.
ISBN
9780340971246
. Retrieved
19 September
2022
.
[...] before the final Bolshevik victory in the Far East, one last desperate throw by two Vladivostok businessmen, the brothers S.D. and N.D. Merkulov, took place in the early summer of 1921. Having by various ruses managed to overthrow the Vladivostok agents of the Far Eastern Republic, they and their supporters declared the formation of a new 'Provisional Priamurskii Government'.
- ^
Pereira,
White Siberia,
pg. 155.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Pereira,
White Siberia,
pg. 156.
- ^
"39-я Тихоокеанская Краснознаменная стрелковая дивизия"
. Rkka.ru
. Retrieved
2022-03-21
.
- ^
"Историческая справка"
[Historical Reference]
(PDF)
(in Russian). Council of Veterans of the 392nd District Training Centre
. Retrieved
10 June
2017
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- A Short Outline of the History of the Far Eastern Republic.
Washington, DC: Special Delegation of the Far Eastern Republic to the United States of America, 1922.
- Alan Wood,
Russia's Frozen Frontier: A History of Siberia and the Russian Far East 1581?1991.
London: A&C Black, 2011.
ISBN
9780340971246
.
- Canfield F. Smith,
Vladivostok Under Red and White Rule: Revolution and Counterrevolution in the Russian Far East, 1920?1922.
Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975.
- Jamie Bisher,
White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian.
London: Routledge, 2005.
ISBN
9780714656908
.
- John Albert White,
The Siberian Intervention.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950.
- Richard K. Debo,
Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918?1921.
Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's Press, 1992.
ISBN
9780773562851
.
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