История дела «Донской повстанческой армии». 1921–1922 гг.

Новое прошлое. 2025. № 2. С. 56–72.

Ганин А. В.

At the end of the Civil War, Soviet Russia, despite its victory over the Whites,
faced an acute internal political crisis — a massive insurgency that swept through
many regions of the country, combined with increased disagreements in the RCP(b)
and the emergence of internal party opposition. Despite the harsh struggle against the
oppositionists and the ban on factional activities in the RCP(b), adopted by the Tenth
Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921, opposition sentiments penetrated into the milieu
of the army communists, where their own groups began to arise. In 1921 The CHEKA
uncovered the case of the so-called “Don Insurgent Army”, whose defendants were red
commanders, members of the RCP(b), who were affiliated with the “worker’s opposition”.
Based on documents from the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia
and other sources, including materials from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political
History and Periodicals, the article analyzes the substantive side of the case and draws
conclusions about the actual scale of the organization. It is shown that a small group of
Red commanders appeared before the court, first trying to legally (for example, through
an appeal to V.I. Lenin), and then illegally influence the internal policy pursued by the
leadership of the RCP(b).

Keywords: ВЧК, the Red Army, Cheka, Гражданская война 1917-1922, Civil War in Russia, ГПУ, РККА

Publication based on the results of: War and Post-War Peace in the Russian Empire and the USSR (2025)