Semenovshchina

the counterrevolutionary military dictatorship established by Ataman G. M. Semenov in Transbaikalia from 1918 to 1920, with the support of the Japanese imperialists.

The elite of the Transbaikal Cossacks and the kulak strata among the peasantry (including the Buriat and Mongols) formed the social base of the Semenovshchina. After the overthrow of Soviet power in Siberia in August 1918, as a result of the revolt by the Czechoslovak Corps, Semenov entered Transbaikalia from Manchuria and in January 1919 established the Transbaikal Counterrevolutionary Government in Chita. He formed an army by means of a compulsory mobilization and instituted a military dictatorship. The prerevolutionary order was restored—for example, nationalized businesses were returned to their owners and a military administration was imposed on the railroads and factories.

The Semenovshchina was characterized by mass terror and mass executions. (In the vicinity of Adrianovka station in the summer of 1919 alone, 1,600 people were shot.) Eleven permanent torture chambers and death houses were established, where Semenov’s henchmen, such as Baron R. F. Ungern fon Sternberg, and Baron A. I. Tirbakh, B. P. Rezukhin, Ia. G. Lap-shakov, and P. P. Levitskii, applied the most refined forms of torture. Thousands of Communists and non-Communists fell victim to Semenov’s savagery. In spite of the bloody repressions, however, the working people of Transbaikalia, led by the Communists and other leaders from among the people, such as P. N. Zhuravlev, M. M. Iakimov, F. A. Pogodaev, and Ia. N. Korotaev, developed a mass anti-Semenov partisan movement.

At first, Semenov, who was under the influence of his Japanese interventionist supporters, would not subordinate himself to Admiral A. V. Kolchak, but subsequently, under pressure from American, British, and French representatives, a reconciliation was arranged. After the defeat of Kolchak’s forces and the formation of the Far East Republic in April 1920, Semenov managed to hold on, thanks to the support of Japanese troops. After the Japanese withdrew from Transbaikalia in August 1920, Semenov resorted to “democratic” methods in an attempt to shore up his regime—a “Regional Assembly” was convened in June, and in September, a “Provisional Popular Assembly of Eastern Transbaikalia,” in which the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, and “People’s Socialists” held the majority. As a result of the successful operations of the People’s Revolutionary Army of the Amur Front and the partisan detachments, Semenov’s gangs were completely defeated and driven from Transbaikalia in November 1920.