SIMBIRSK DEPARTMENT OF THE “RUSSIA’S REVIVAL UNION”: LITTLE-KNOWN EPISODES OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE MIDDLE VOLGA REGION

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The armed confrontation of the new Soviet government supporters with numerous armies of the White Movement and their foreign partners during the active phase of the Civil War in Russia took place on the territory of the entire vast country. One of the largest centers of fratricidal confrontation in its initial period was the Middle Volga region. In July 1918, one of the first military formations of the “whites”, the Komuch People’s Army, as well as Czechoslovak volunteers who joined them, occupied the town of Simbirsk, in fact, marking the beginning of a full-scale Civil War. The Red Army, hastily created by the Bolsheviks and their political allies in winter and spring of 1918, suffered a very sensitive military and moral defeat on the Volga banks. In July-September, Simbirsk Bolsheviks and their supporters (left-wing SRSs, etc.), leaving the big town almost without any serious resistance, were forced to actively defend themselves taking up arms in different regions of the governorate. At the same time, a special military administration, consisting, in particular, of officers of the Czechoslovak corps, and the apparatus of the Komuch special plenipotentiaries, who began to restore pre-revolutionary authorities in the town (the City Duma, etc.), worked fruitfully in Simbirsk. In addition, both old Russian political parties (right-wing SRSs, cadets, etc.) and new non-Bolshevik organizations functioned on the socio-political scene of the town during this period. For example, one of such political forces that emerged in summer 1918 in Simbirsk was the “Russia’s Revival Union”. So, the local department of the “Union” published a daily newspaper in the town (the Organ of the Russia’s Revival Union), participated in the elections to the City Duma and conducted mass agitation events. The author of the article tells about the leaders of the “Union”, cites historical documents of that era (orders of the military commandant, etc.). Special attention is paid to the origins of the “Union” on the national scale and its ideological roots. The author believes that this era in the history of Simbirsk region can be named without prejudice “Simbirsk Renaissance”.