Anti-bolshevik Insurgencies in Vohlynia in 1919–1920

Abstract

The study examines the resistance of the population of Vohlynia against the Bolshevik government from the spring of 1919 to the fall of 1920. The author carried out a heuristic search for documents (archival-criminal cases) opened by the employees of the All-Russian Emergency Commission (Vserossiyskaia odzhdenskaia komisia – VChk, in Russian) in the Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine in Rivne, which reveal the specified topic, systematized and analyzed them. On the basis of the narrative synthesized from archival and criminal cases, the author came to the conclusion that the Cheka’s repressions against the participants of anti-Bolshevik insurgencies had an illegal, brutal, chaotic character, systematically violated elementary human rights, and not only the participants of the anti-Bolshevik uprisings, but also ordinary civilians became their victims. At the same time, the scope and implacability of anti-Soviet demonstrations in Vohlynia in 1919–1920, together with the actions of regular Ukrainian and Polish military units, delayed the establishment of the Bolshevik regime there for twenty years. The discussed topic can become the subject of a separate multi-faceted study on the basis of the considered documentary array originating from the departmental archives of the Ukrainian special services. foto 1. Rivne residents Edmund and Maria Żołądziewski with children.Source: HDA SBU, Rivne, f. 5(R), spr. P-10147. foto 2. Director of the 1st Cavalry Army theatrical group, Yefim Gerasimov.HDA SBU, Rivne, f. 4(R), spr. 559.