Russian State (1918–1920)

On November 19, 1918, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution at the suggestion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Yury Klyuchnikov to consider the oldest spiritual anthem of the Russian Empire, How Glorious Is Our Lord in Zion, to be the national anthem of Russia. The rules of the anthem repeated the order of the hymn God Save the Tsar!.[1]

A rendition of the state emblem, 1918

In January - April 1919, in Omsk, on the initiative of the Society of Artists and Fine Art Lovers of the Steppe Territory, competitions were held to create a new text of the national anthem and a new state coat. It was announced that, under the terms of the competition, the state coat, “preserving the image of the two-headed eagle, should be compiled in more artistic forms, in the basics of the ancient Russian style, and should correspond to the modern understanding of decorativeness”, and “instead of the removed emblems of the tsarist era (crowns, scepter and powers) the coat of arms should be decorated with emblems characteristic of the new reviving statehood".[1]

During the competition, 210 versions of the text of the anthem and 97 projects of the State coat were proposed. The most likely contender for victory was considered a project created by an artist from Kazan, Gleb Ilyin, a two-headed eagle, above which stood a cross with the motto “In this, conquer!”. The regional coats of the Russian Empire were removed from the wings of the eagle, but the Moscow arms with Saint George was kept, the crowns were also removed, and the scepter was replaced by the sword. Although none of the submitted projects of the coat of arms was finally approved by the jury, the submission of Gleb Ilyin was often shown on stationery stamps, on the pages of the Siberian press, and was used on banknotes.[1]

On May 9, 1919, the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Russian government approved the symbolism of the Supreme leader is a flag and a pennant with a double-headed eagle, but without signs of “imperial” authority.[1]

Simultaneously with the competition for a new anthem and emblem, a competition was held for new State Orders - “Revival of Russia” and “Liberation of Siberia”. The submitted drafts Order of the Revival of Russia did not receive the approval of the jury. Only the draft of the Order of the Liberation of Siberia, approved by the same Gleb Ilyin, was approved.[1]

The main reason for the lack of competition results was considered the “ideological inopportunity” of such events. As a jury member, writer Sergei Auslender, recalled: “The main content of the overwhelming majority of projects was the idea of“ Russia on the march ”, which, of course, did not correspond to the task set - to create the sovereign symbolism of the updated Russian state”. The jury also expressed doubts about the lack of monarchical symbolism in the submitted projects, which went against the principle of “non-denial” declared by the white government.[1]

The Supreme leader was the sole head of state, with full supreme legislative, executive and judicial powers.[6] According to the position, he was the Supreme Commander of all land and sea armed forces of Russia. The only person holding this post was Admiral Alexander Kolchak. On January 4, 1920, he signed his last decree, in which he announced his intention to transfer the powers of the “Supreme All-Russian Power” to Anton Denikin. Pending receipt of instructions from Anton Denikin, "the full military and civilian authority throughout the Russian Eastern Fringe" was provided to Lieutenant General Grigory Semyonov. Anton Denikin did not officially enter this position, although he actually performed it.

The Council of Ministers was the highest legislative and executive authority of the Russian state, the guarantor of the supreme power of the head of state.

Composition:

The Council of the Supreme leader was an advisory and advisory body on the most important state issues under the Supreme leader of the Russian State.

Composition:

• Supreme leader - led the position;
• Chairman of the Council of Ministers - by appointment;
• Minister of Finance - by position;
• Minister of the Interior - by position;
• Minister of Foreign Affairs - by position;
• Head of the Supreme Governor and the Council of Ministers;
• Advisor to the Supreme leader - any person appointed at the discretion of the Supreme leader.

The Emergency State Economic Meeting was a consultative body on economic issues at the Council of Ministers. Performed the functions of "industrial-cooperative" representation. It existed in the original composition until May 2, 1919.

Composition:

• Chairman of the State Emergency Economic Meeting - Sergey Fedosyev;
• Minister of Finance;
• Minister of War;
• Minister of Food and Supply;
• Minister of Commerce and Industry;
• Minister of Railways;
• State Comptroller of the Supreme Ruler;
• Three representatives of private and cooperative banks;
• Five representatives of the All-Russian Council of Congresses of Trade and Industry;
• Three representatives of the Council of Cooperative Congresses.

The State Economic Meeting was a special advisory body on major economic issues under the Council of Ministers, established on May 2, 1919, by transforming the Extraordinary State Economic Meeting. Developed projects to improve economic policy, which were subsequently submitted to the Supreme Governor for review and approval.

Composition:

• Chairman of the State Economic Meeting - George Hins;
• Ministers;
• Representatives of private and cooperative banks;
• Representatives of the All-Russian Council of Congresses of Trade and Industry;
• Representatives of Zemsky assemblies and city councils;
• Representatives of the Cossack troops.

The Committee of the Council of Ministers on the observance of law and order in management was the control and deliberative body of the Council of Ministers, which has supervised control functions in the area of compliance with the law and the rules of order.

The Office of the Supreme Leader was a state body that performed functions in order to ensure the activities of the Supreme Leader as head of state in the exercise of supreme state power.

• The Director of the Office of the Supreme Governor was Major General Martynov.

On September 28, 1918, Lieutenant-General Vasily Boldyrev, a member of the Directorate of the General Staff, was appointed commander-in-chief of all land and naval armed forces of Russia and took command of the combined Russian armed units of Eastern Russia (the Siberian army, the Orenburg and Ural Cossack units, the remnants of the People's Army of Komuch and the Czechoslovak Corps).

At first, the unification of the Siberian and People's Armies did not lead to success: the new command could not properly use the available capabilities, and the units of the People's Army left to themselves continued the retreat that began as early as September. October 3, 1918 Syzran was left, October 8 - Samara.

In early October, General Boldyrev reorganized the command of the armed forces of the East of Russia, distributing all the troops subordinate to him on three fronts: Western, South-Western and Siberian. The structure of the Western Front included all Russian and Czechoslovak troops operating against the Soviet troops of the Eastern Front north of the line Nikolaevsk-Buzuluk-Sterlitamak-Verkhneuralsk-Kustanay-Pavlodar. The commander-in-chief of the Czechoslovak Corps, Major General Jan Syrový, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front, and General Mikhail Dieterikhs was appointed Chief of Staff of the Front. The front consisted of Russian, Bashkir and Czechoslovak military units in the Urals and in the Volga region: two divisions of the Czechoslovak Corps and the Yekaterinburg group (commanded by Radola Gajda), the Kama group (commanded by lieutenant-general Sergey Lyupov), the Samara group (all groups with rights armies), (commander - colonel (later Major General) Sergei Wojciechowski); Kama military river flotilla (commander - Rear Admiral Mikhail Smirnov). The Ural and Orenburg Cossack troops, as well as regular units operating to the south of this line on the Saratov and Tashkent directions, formed the South-Western Front, led by the ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, Lieutenant General Alexander Dutov. All anti-Bolshevik troops operating on the territory of Siberia became part of the Siberian Front, whose commander-in-chief was appointed Commander of the Siberian Army, Major General Pavel Ivanov-Rinov.

Due to the transformation of the military ministry of the Provisional Siberian Government into the military and naval ministry of the Provisional All-Russian Government, on November 2, 1918, Pavel Ivanov-Rinov was relieved of his post as governor, but retained the post of commander of the Siberian army.

The reorganization of the management of the anti-Bolshevik armed forces of the East of Russia was completed by Admiral Alexander Kolchak, as Supreme Commander. On December 18, 1918, he ordered the elimination of the corps areas of the Siberian Army and the formation of military districts instead:

• West Siberian with headquarters in Omsk (Tobolsk, Tomsk and Altai provinces, Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions);
• Mid-Siberian with headquarters in Irkutsk (Yenisei and Irkutsk provinces, Yakutsk region);
• Far East with headquarters in Khabarovsk (Amur, Primorsk and Trans-Baikal regions, northern part of Sakhalin Island).[10]

By the same order, Kolchak approved the Orenburg Military District with the headquarters in Orenburg (Orenburg province without Chelyabinsk district and Turgay region), which was formed by the order of the military circle of the Orenburg Cossack army.

In the autumn - winter of 1918, the situation on the front favored Kolchak's plans for uniting disparate anti-Bolshevik forces. On November 29, the Yekaterinburg group of the Siberian Army, having launched a decisive offensive, completely crushed the 3rd Army of the Red Army, took Kungur (December 21) and Perm (December 24), where it took huge trophies.

After the establishment in December 1918 of the headquarters of the Supreme Commander Admiral Kolchak, the Siberian army was disbanded.

On December 24, a new Siberian army was formed from the Yekaterinburg Group of Forces (as part of the 1st Mid-Siberian Corps, 3rd Steppe Siberian Corps, Votkinsk Division and Krasnoufimsky Brigade), whose temporary command was entrusted to General Radola Gajda. For the formation of the army headquarters, it was proposed to use the headquarters of the former Siberian Army, which should be redeployed from Omsk to Yekaterinburg as soon as possible. General Boris Bogoslovsky, Chief of Staff of the Yekaterinburg Group, was appointed to execute the Chief of Staff of the Siberian Army.

The Western Army, led by General Mikhail Khanzhin, commander of the 3rd Ural Corps, was formed from parts of the Samara and Kama Group of Forces, the 3rd and 6th Ural Corps. Chief of Staff of the Samara Group, General Sergey Schepikhin, was appointed Chief of the Army Staff. On the basis of the troops of the South-Western Front, the Orenburg Separate Army was formed under the command of General Alexander Dutov. The troops of the Siberian Front were reorganized into the 2nd Steppe Siberian Separate Corps of General Vladimir Brzezovsky, which operated on the Semirechensky direction.

In January–February 1919, the reorganized Siberian Army repulsed the Red Army counter-offensive against Perm.

In early March, the Siberian and Western armies launched an offensive.

The Siberian army, advancing on Vyatka and Kazan, in April took Sarapul, Votkinsk and Izhevsk and entered the approaches to Kazan. The Western army occupied Ufa (March 14), Belebey, Birsk, Bugulma (April 10), Buguruslan, and approached Samara. The South Army group of the 4th Army Corps and the Consolidated Sterlitamak Corps, which was attacking Aktobe-Orenburg, which is under its operational subordination, entered the suburbs of Orenburg and together with the Orenburg Cossacks laid siege to the city in late April.

As a result of the general offensive, the whole of the Ural was occupied, and Kolchak's troops came very close to the Volga.

It was at that moment that the strategic miscalculation of the White Army command became obvious: the offensive that developed along concentric divergent directions was stopped by the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, and on April 28 the Southern Group of the Eastern Front of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive against the Western Army. She defeated her near Buguruslan and Belebei and threw her across the White River. At the end of May, the troops of the Western Army were consolidated into the Volga, Ural and Ufa groups. In the battle for Ufa (May 25-June 19), the Western army was again defeated and retreated to Chelyabinsk.

The Siberian army was forced to stop its offensive and start a withdrawal due to the threat to its left flank. In June, due to the continuing retreat of the Western Army, parts of the Siberian Army were forced to begin a hasty retreat along the entire front and in July they withdrew to the Trans-Urals. Ekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk were left.

On July 22, 1919, the Siberian army was divided into the 1st (on the Tyumen direction) and the 2nd (on the Kurgan direction) Siberian armies, which together with the 3rd army (the former Western army) formed the Eastern Front under the command of General Mikhail Diterikhs .

The southern army group of the Western army did not manage to take Orenburg, and in August, after the beginning of the general retreat of the whites, it also retreated to the east.

The 1st and 2nd Siberian armies successfully participated in the Tobolsk offensive operation (August - October 1919), but after the collapse of the Eastern front, which took place in October–November 1919, their remnants retreated to Transbaikalia, where they continued to fight against the Bolsheviks until November 1920.

At first, the governments of Britain and France believed that the whole struggle against the Bolsheviks in Russia should be conducted under Western leadership. General Maurice Janin, the head of the Allied mission, who arrived in Omsk via Vladivostok at the end of 1918, presented a mandate signed by Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George, according to which he was authorized to command all the troops in Siberia, both allied and Russian. Alexander Kolchak categorically rejected this mandate, saying that he would rather refuse foreign aid altogether rather than agree to such conditions. After the negotiations, the Allied governments made concessions, and a compromise was reached: Admiral Kolchak remained the Supreme Commander of the Russian troops, and Maurice Janin was appointed by the Kolchak order of January 19, 1919, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces, that is, the Czechs, as well as the smaller detachments of Serbs, Italians who arrived later, Romanians and Poles. Janin, however, did not forgive Kolchak of his decline in status. The British military mission under Kolchak was headed by General Alfred Knox, who was responsible for supplying the Kolchak army. He, unlike Janin, was loyal to Kolchak and showed a friendly attitude.[7]

The units of the Allied forces were located in the rear. On the front for a short time there were only a small French detachment and an English brigade, in which the rank and file was recruited mainly from the Russians. The Japanese and American troops stationed in the Far East did not submit to Janin. The Japanese kept in the territory from the Pacific Ocean to Transbaikalia a 40-thousand corps (originally even up to 70 thousand military men), the Americans - only 7-thousand brigade.[7]

The main assistance of the British and French allies was reduced to supplying the armies of Kolchak and Denikin with weapons and uniforms. The Czechoslovak Corps, despite the efforts of the Allied representatives, failed to return to the front. After the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary in the war, they sought to return home, not wanting to fight in a foreign country for goals they did not understand, especially after the Kolchak coup in Omsk, which the Czechs categorically did not support. With all the ostentatious "friendliness", the relationship between the Russians and the Czechs became increasingly strained. The only thing that the Czechs agreed to under pressure from representatives of the Entente was to carry in the rear security guards of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Novonikolayevsk to Irkutsk.[7]

As for the USA and Japan, they were limited mainly to maintaining political relations with Kolchak and the role of "friendly" observers in the Far East, waiting for the development of the situation, pursuing their economic interests and competing among themselves for the predominant influence in the region. At the same time, the American command was not inclined to actively intervene in Russian affairs, and even essentially hostile to the Kolchak regime because of its “undemocratic” nature and white terror. The Japanese, however, not only intervened, but also actively sought to subjugate the Far East to their influence. In the Far East, due to its remoteness, the small number of Russian troops and the presence of foreign troops, the power of the All-Russian government was almost nominal.