Kuban People's Republic

Kuban Кубань Kubáń
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Ты Кубань, ты наша Родина  (Russian) Ty Kubáń, ty násha Ródina  (transliteration) You're Kuban, you're our Motherland
Capital and largest city	Yekaterinodar
Official languages	Russian, Ukrainian

The Kuban National Republic (Ukrainian: Кубанська Народна Республiка; Russian: Кубанская Народная Республика) was an anti-Bolshevik state that comprised the modern territory of the Kuban during the Russian Civil War. According to a second constitution of Kuban People Republic its territory reduced to the only Kuban oblast.

History

Prologue

Main article: Kuban Cossacks

During the Russian Empire the region of the Kuban was a Cossack territory. Like many similar provinces its demographics constituted several differences from ordinary Russian governorates. The western regions belonged to the descendants of the Black Sea Cossack Host from Ukraine in 1792. The southern and eastern regions were made from the Caucasus Line Cossack Host, descendants of the Terek Cossacks.

Historically the Kuban Cossacks were formed to guard the Russian borders from the Mountain peoples which caused the Caucasus War that lasted for six decades up until 1860. In addition, during many wars, Cossacks sent large army contingents to fight alongside the Imperial Russian Army, moreover it was the Kuban Cossacks that made the Tsar's personal bodyguard. In return for such loyalty they lived free from taxes in a semi-independent way with various privileges. The military nature of their lifestyle was also mirrored in the administration of the region, where Stanitsa settlements were in place of traditional Russian villages, and had much more autonomy such as the election of a local Ataman. However during the reforms of Tsar Alexander II, the pacified Kuban Oblast was heavily invested and extensive peasant migrants from Russian, Armenian and Ukrainian provinces migrated to cultivate the land. The question of land ownership caused extensive friction between the peasants and the Cossacks, who would carry out raids to keep it, this contributed to the negative image of the Cossacks.

February Revolution

After the February Revolution in Petrograd the inefficient Russian Provisional Government decided to prolong its involvement in the increasingly-unpopular First World War. As a result the Russian Army began to collapse. The Kuban Cossack units deserted the front lines and returned home to protect their homelands from a threatened Turkish invasion from the South.

During the Russian Empire, the Kuban was directly administered by an appointed Ataman (commander) (Nakaznoy Ataman) directly by the Tsar, usually a skilled non-Cossack general. With the sovereign's abdication, the Kuban Cossacks formed a Rada (parliament) in March 1917, with intentions to create a military government that would retain control of the Kuban, and on 17 June of that year proclaimed the Kuban People's Republic within the new Democratic Russian Republic.

The Independent Kuban National Republic

• 16 February 1918 Kuban Judicial Council proclaimed the Independent Kuban National Republic".

After the October Revolution, the people of the Kuban found themselves divided among several groups. The Bolsheviks formed a Kuban Soviet Republic, which dispersed the Rada.

In March 1918, after Lavr Kornilov's successful offensive, the Kuban Rada was re-established and placed itself under his authority. The Cossacks, formally loyal to the Russian Empire, supported the White movement. Yet after the early successes of the Volunteer Army, which rid the Kuban of the Bolsheviks, the Front lines moved north into the Don Territory.

This affected the importance of the Rada and in June 1918 friction began to grow between the head of the leadership and the Cossacks. In particular the main focal point was between the Chernomortsy and the Lineitsy. The former, disappointed with ineffective attempts of different authorities pursued a policy of attaining full independence for the Kuban. The latter however, continued to believe in a re-created Russian state.

Russian Civil War in the Kuban

Already discontent with the past struggles over land, the idea of a future Cossack state was unsuitable to many. Denikin grew increasingly dissatisfied with an increasingly isolated Rada. The final sparks came when the Rada first turned towards the Ukraine to enter a federal union with Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, and after its downfall entered a similar union with the Democratic Republic of Georgia, whilst its foreign envoys in France proclaimed independence from Russia. Some Cossacks left the government, and others defected to the Red Army.

On November 6, 1919, Denikin's forces surrounded the Rada building, and with the help of the Ataman A. Filimonov arrested ten of its members, including the Ukrainophile, P. Kurgansky, who was the premier of the Rada. He was publicly hanged for treason. Most Cossacks joined Denikin and fought in the ranks of the Volunteer Army. In December 1919, after Denikin's defeat it became clear that the Bolsheviks would overrun the Kuban, some of the pro-Ukrainian groups attempted to restore the Rada and to break away from the Volunteer Army and to fight the Bolsheviks in alliance with Ukrainian People's Republic, however by early 1920 the Red Army took most of the Kuban, and both the Rada and Denikin were evicted.

The Paris Peace Conference

In December 1918 the Judicial Council sent a delegation headed by Bych to the Paris Conference. The delegation asked for international help for the Kuban. The Kuban delegation were expecting the end to the Civil war, however this was not possible as Soviet Russia never relinquished the Kuban. The Kuban delegation proclaimed its position to the countries of the Triple Entente:

• 1) Full independence for the Kuban
• 2) The proclamation of defensive policies against Bolshevism
• 3) The condemnation of the black hundreds of Denikin, which was destroying democracy
• 4) The need for international military aid to Kuban
• 5) The refusal to collaborate with Russian political groups, in particular the Russian Volunteer Army.

This was proclaimed April 5, 1919.

Legacy

The Kuban National Republic - An evaluation

The Kuban did much to influence the movement towards independence in Ukraine According to the last premier of the Republic V. Ivanys the indecisiveness of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky saved the volunteer Cossack army. Had Skoropadsky acted immediately on the initiative of the Kuban, and taken the Kuban into the Ukrainian orbit then the outcome of the conflict with the Bolshevik forces would have been different. This could have been easily accomplished with the division led by General Natiev which was ready to be mobilized to the Kuban. The Taman peninsula had freed itself from the Bolsheviks. A German force was also ready to help free the rest of the Kuban from Bolsheviks. The German force would have strengthened the 200,000 disciplined Cossacks ready to fight for their independence. This however, required the formation of a front beyond the Volga river or in Siberia. After the joining of Kuban to Ukraine, it was predicted that the Don and the Northern Caucases would have also united with Ukraine. Such a Union would have saved Ukrainian and the Kuban from future Holodomor and other Soviet tragedies which cost an estimated loss of 15 million souls.

Literature

• Ukraine and Kuban in 1917-1921. United in conflict (In Ukrainian)
• Ukrainian Kuban(In Ukrainian)