Kazan operation
The Kazan Operation ( Russian Казанская операция ) is used in Russian military historiography to describe the reconquest of Kazan by the Red Army from September 5, 1918 to September 10, 1918 during the Russian Civil War . The victory of the Bolsheviks was decisive for the further course of the war.
prehistory
The uprising of the Czechoslovak legions that broke out in Chelyabinsk at the end of May 1918 led to a loss of control of the Bolshevik regime in the eastern parts of central Russia. The now "white" as the spearhead of all opposition forces operating unit enables subsequently the capture of Samara, where the on June 8, 1918 Committee of the members of the Constituent Assembly ( Ком итет членов Всероссийского Уч редительного собрания - КОМУЧ abbreviated committee of members of the constituent assembly) of former Members of the Russian Constituent Assembly was formed. Its declared goal was the restoration of bourgeois democracy in Russia. The Komutsch as a “democratically” legitimized institution began after its formation with the establishment of its own people's army, the core of which was formed by the Czechoslovak legions and which was led by Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Kappel . In contrast to Komutsch, Kappel sought to restore the monarchy in Russia. Regardless of these contradictions, the Komutsch troops succeeded in capturing Simbirsk on July 22, 1918 and Kazan on August 7, 1918. There, Kappel's troops were able to secure access to part of the gold reserves of the Russian Empire in the amount of 650 million rubles.
In the meantime, the Bolshevik regime had to struggle with serious signs of disintegration, particularly after the withdrawal of most of the red Latvian riflemen in the direction of Samara . The Bolsheviks' loss of power culminated on July 6, 1918, in the uprising of the Left Social Revolutionaries , which was suppressed in Moscow within a few days. The loss of Simbirsk on July 22, 1918, however, was also due to the defection of the social revolutionary commander Mikhail Muravyov, who had declared his support for the uprising. In Yaroslavl (July 6 to 21, 1918), Rybinsk (July 8, 1918) and Murom (July 8 to 10, 1918), uprisings initiated by Social Revolutionaries took place, which the Bolsheviks were able to suppress.
The defeats in Simbirsk and Kazan put the Soviet government in another difficult position in August. The Powolschje region as the granary of the old tsarist empire was beyond the control of the Bolsheviks, and the Bolsheviks were cut off from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia. With the loss of food supplies in particular, the Bolshevik regime would have collapsed without a quick change in the situation. The loss of gold reserves was also a major problem, as the Bolshevik regime was deprived of significant funds to purchase military equipment. As early as July 29, 1918, the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks confronted the Red Army under Leon Trotsky with the task of regaining the Volga region at any cost.
Situation of the People's Army of the KOMUTSCH
The strength of the units under Kappel's command is difficult to determine in retrospect, as they were ad-hoc formations in a civil war. At the time when Kappel took over the entire military command on July 22, 1918, the army of the Komutsch had a strength of 3000 soldiers. Due to levies in the conquered cities, the strength of the Komuch army continued to grow until the start of the Kazan operation. From August 15, 1918, it was divided into the Volga Front, under the command of the Czech General Stanislav Čeček , which was divided into two groups under Kappel's command in Kazan and Simbirsk and other groups that played no role in the defense of Kazan .
On September 5, 1918, at the beginning of the fighting for the city of Kazan, the units under Kappel's command had a strength of about 6,000 soldiers.
The equipment of the Komutsch troops was good according to the circumstances. In addition to a few ships, they also had a sufficient number of cannons and machine guns and were able to use aircraft of the French type Voisin and German LVG C.II for reconnaissance purposes , which were either sent by France as weapons aid to the Russian Empire or, after the armistice, by the German Empire to Soviet Russia had been delivered.
After the conquest of Kazan, Kappel intended to take advantage of the critical situation of the Bolsheviks and to advance to Moscow via Nizhny Novgorod. The commanders of the Czechoslovak legions and the Komutsch were against this plan, as it would have made it impossible to defend the cities of Samara, Simbirsk and Kazan. The disagreement in the leadership of the Komut army led them to defend the positions they had already reached. This gave the Red Army time to reinforce its forces and regroup.
The military starting position was difficult for the Komutsch troops near Kazan, as they were located in a promontory that was bordered to the west by the 5th Red Army and east by the 2nd Red Army. The 1st Red Army was under Tukhachevsky in the southwest . The troops of the Bolsheviks were geographically able to launch attacks on Kazan from three directions. Of these three groups, however, only the 1st Red Army was able to take offensive action in August. To delay Kappel's anticipated advance in the direction of Moscow, Tukhachevsky launched an attack in the direction of Simbirsk on August 14. Kappel was forced to return south with his troops and defend Simbirsk. This closed the time window in which a possible advance Kappel to the west would have had a chance of success.
Preparations of the Red Army
Bolshevik troops on the eastern front of the Russian Civil War were completely demoralized in early August. The 2nd Red Army, located northeast of Kazan, had no commanders until July 18, 1918, after a total of three army chiefs deserted to the white troops within a short time.
This catastrophic state of affairs led to the fact that on August 3, 1918, all members of the Bolsheviks who had any experience in military leadership were sent to the front of the civil war. Immediately after the decision of the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks on July 29th, Trotsky had a train put together and drove with it towards Kazan. On the way he gathered more troops and published numerous memoranda in which drastic penalties were threatened for retreating units and the morale of the red troops should be strengthened.
The Red Guards, who held defensive positions on the left and right banks of the Volga, were merged on August 16 to form the 5th Red Army under the command of Pēteris Slavens . The 5th Semgallic Regiment of the Soviet Latvian Rifle Division was also assigned to Kazan as an elite force. The sailors of the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Fyodor Raskolnikov, were called in to reinforce the red Volga flotilla. The red Volga flotilla comprised monitors , torpedo boats and various river steamers and gave the Bolshevik forces the ability to conduct amphibious warfare .
International and national non-Russian units were also called in to strengthen the 5th Red Army. A Hungarian cavalry division, the Karl Marx regiment consisting of German and Austrian prisoners of war, the Polish-Mazovian regiment of the Red Uhlans and the Tatar-Bashkir battalion were among the units that were involved in the reconquest of Kazan.
In total, the Bolsheviks were able to muster around 15,000 soldiers off Kazan by the end of August, and their equipment was also good. In terms of numbers, the Red Army was 2.5 times superior to the Komutsch troops immediately before the start of the fighting. In general, the units of the Red Army were also ad hoc formations.
An operational plan to capture Kazan was developed. The troops of the 5th Army should bear the brunt of the fighting. The group that was on the right bank of the Volga was supposed to conquer the area from the Komuch troops up to the bend in the river at Kazan. The numerically strongest group on the left bank was supposed to advance along the railway line towards Kazan and actually take the city. In addition, parts of the 2nd Red Army were to attack Kazan from the north-east to divert themselves.
Course of the fighting
After successfully defending against Tukhachevski's attack on Simbirsk, Kappel returned to Kazan with his troops and now finally intended to go offensive towards the west. With a total of 2,000 soldiers, Kappel surprisingly advanced towards the headquarters of the 5th Red Army in Svyashsk in order to capture the local railway bridge over the Volga and thereby interrupt the railway connection to Moscow. At the same time came as a surprise to Kappel riverboat and torpedo boats of red Volga - Flotilla at sviyazhsk, which interfered with the on-board sailors of the Baltic Fleet in the fighting.
Trotsky reached the combat area with his train at the same time and inadvertently got directly into the battle. All soldiers traveling by train fought Kappel's troops, which were less than a kilometer away from Trotsky. The Komuch troops missed the opportunity to capture Trotsky during these hours because they were concentrating on the Volga Bridge at Svyazhsk. After eight hours of fighting, Kappel was forced to break off the battle against the Kronstadt troops, known as the elite unit of the Red Army, and to retreat towards Kazan. From the Komutsch's point of view, nothing had changed in the exposed location of Kazan.
After the immediate danger was over, Trotsky took drastic measures to discipline the previously demoralized troops of the 5th Red Army. During the battle with the Kappels troops, a regiment tried to capture a Volga steamer and to flee west with it. Trotsky therefore ordered the shooting of every tenth soldier in the regiment on August 29th.
After these measures, the Bolshevik forces began their attack on Kazan on September 5th. On September 7, 1918, the 5th Red Army succeeded in taking Kazan on the opposite bank of the Volga. The 5th Red Army also made progress on the opposite bank of the river and reached the mouth of the Kazanka River in the Volga. At the same time, the 2nd Red Army attacked from the northeast and was able to take control of the villages of Kinderle and Klyki east of the city. The Komutsch troops were ousted from their positions west of Kazan by the overwhelming strength of the Red Army, but were able to maintain the defense with great effort, as the Kazanka offered them an advantage in terms of terrain.
Kazan became untenable for the Komutsch troops when the red Volga flotilla, with the significant participation of Nikolai Markin , succeeded in landing in the west of Kazan on September 9, 1918 and via the swampy, swampy, sediment of the Kremlin to the west of the Kazan Kremlin Volga away from existing terrain to build a bridgehead. At the same time, the 5th Red Army and 2nd Red Army attacked again. In the further course the Komutsch troops withdrew from the city. Using their own ships, the majority of Kappel's troops were able to escape south on the Volga. Kazan finally came under the control of the Red Army on September 10, 1918.
consequences
The conquest of Kazan by the Red Army represented a decisive turning point in the Russian civil war. The communist Bolsheviks succeeded in ending the uprising of the Social Revolutionaries in the eastern part of European Russia with the victory at Kazan and the conquest of Simbirsk and Samara shortly afterwards and eliminate the Czechoslovak legions as a military threat. This gave the Bolsheviks permanent control over the population of the core area of the former tsarist empire up to the Urals, which at the end of 1918 comprised around 70 million people. In comparison, the population of the areas still under the control of the " white " opposition was at most nine million people. Thus, in the following two years of war, the Bolsheviks were able to secure the numerical superiority of the Red Army over the opposing white armies and victory in the civil war.
Furthermore, this victory clearly showed that the efforts of the People's Commissar for Warfare Leon Trotsky were successful in transforming the previously scattered, disorganized Red Guards into a tightly managed territorial army. The Red Army succeeded in retaking Simbirsk as the next larger city in the Volga region on September 11, 1918. In contrast, after the abandonment of Kazan, the Komuch troops were themselves demoralized.
Only the Kazan gold reserves were lost to the Bolsheviks for a long time, as Kappel organized the transport of the gold to Samara immediately after the occupation of Kazan.
reception
The victory at Kazan was first celebrated by the Red Army newspapers as the “Valmy” of the Russian Civil War, the term probably originating from Trotsky himself. As a result, the Kazan operation became the subject of works by authors close to the Bolsheviks, such as Larissa Reissner , who herself took part in the fighting as political commissar of the Volga flotilla, and Demjan Bedny , who was also there with the Volga flotilla. The events were described by these authors in terms of the ideology of the KPR (B) .
Due to the uprising of the Kronstadt sailors (→ Kronstadt sailors' uprising ), which took place in the conquest of Kazan and the rescue of Trotsky's improvised armored train , and the defeat of Trotsky in the power struggle with Stalin , the Kazan operation was forgotten until the end of the 1920s. Despite its importance, the Kazan operation received only one very brief article in the 1986 Military Encyclopedia Dictionary. It was only after the end of the Soviet Union that the fighting near Kazan received more attention.
literature
- Gerd Koenen: The Color Red - Origins and History of Communism , CH Beck, Munich, 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-71426-9
- WA Goncharov, AI Kokurin (Ed.): Guardsmen of October. The role of the peoples of the Baltic states in the establishment and strengthening of the Bolshevik regime. Indrik Moscow 2009. ISBN 978-5-91674-014-1 (Russian)
- Earl F. Ziemke: The Red Army, 1918–1941: From Vanguard of World Revolution to America's Ally , Frank Cass London New York 2004. ISBN 0-7146-5551-1 (English)
- Pennington, Reina: Amazons to Fighter Pilots - A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women (Volume Two) , Greenwood Press 2003, ISBN 978-0-313-32708-7 (English)
- Vyacheslav Kondratew, Marat Chairulin: Aviation during the Civil War , Verlag Technik - Jugend Moscow 2000, ISBN 5-93848-002-7 (Russian)
- C. Brennan, M. Frame: Russia and the Wider World in Historical Perspective , MacMillan 2000, ISBN 978-1-349-40037-9 (English)
- Dmitri Volkogonov: Trotsky: Eternal Revolutionary , The Free Press 1996. ISBN 978-0-684-82293-8 (English)
- Geoffrey Swain: The Origins of the Russian Civil War , Taylor and Francis 1996, ISBN 978-0-582-05968-9 (English)
- SF Achromeew (ed.): Military Encyclopedic Dictionary, Military Publishing House of the USSR, Moscow 1986 (Russian)
- Francesco Benvenuti: The Bolsheviks and the Red Army 1918–1921 , Cambridge University Press 1988, ISBN 0-521-25771-9 (English)
- Bernhard Jahnel (Ed.): Lenin - Telegrams 1918–1920 , Verlag Philipp Reclam Jun. Leipzig 1980
- John Erickson (Ed.): The Soviet High Command: a Military-political History, 1918–1941 , Routledge 1962, ISBN 978-0-714-65178-1 (English)
Web links
- The Military Writings of Leon Trotsky - The Battle for Kazan , (accessed December 23, 2019)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Achromeew: Military Encyclopedic Dictionary , p. 309
- ↑ Swain: The Origins of the Russian Civil War , p. ???
- ↑ Jahnel: Lenin - Telegrams 1918 - 1920 , p. 27
- ↑ a b c Ziemke: The Red Army, 1918-1941 , p. 53
- ^ Ziemke: The Red Army, 1918-1941 , p. 64
- ↑ Kondratiev, Khairulin: Aviation during the Civil War , p. ??
- ^ Ziemke: The Red Army, 1918-1941 , p. 52
- ^ Trotsky: The Military Writings of Leon Trotsky (accessed December 26, 2019)
- ↑ Brennan: Russia and the Wider World , p. 134
- ^ Erickson: The Soviet High Command , p. 55
- ↑ a b Koenen: Die Farbe Rot , p. 784
- ↑ Volkogonov: Trotsky: Eternal Revolutionary
- ^ Pennington, Reina: Amazons to Fighter Pilots , p. 358
- ↑ Reissner: Swijaschsk (accessed December 26, 2019)