Yakut Revolt

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The Yakut Revolt (Russian: Якутский мятеж) or the Yakut Expedition (Russian: Якутский поход) was the last episode of the Russian Civil War. The hostilities took place between September 1921 and June 1923 and were centred on the Ayano-Maysky District of the Russian Far East.

A formidable rising flared up in this part of Yakutia in September 1921. About 200 White Russians were led by kornet Mikhail Korobeinikov. In March 1922 they established the Provisional Yakut Regional People's Government in Churapcha. On 23 March Korobeinikov's "Yakut People's Army" took the major town of Yakutsk, with six machine-guns. The Red Army garrison was decimated.

In April, the rebels contacted the Provisional Priamurye Government in Vladivostok, asking for help. On 27 April, the Soviets declared the Yakut ASSR and sent an expedition to put down the rebellion. In summer 1922, the Whites were ousted from Yakutsk and withdrew to the Pacific coast. They occupied the port towns of Okhotsk and Ayan and again asked Vladivostok for reinforcements.

On 30 August, the Pacific Ocean Flotilla, manned by about 750 volunteers under Gen. Anatoly Pepelyayev, sailed from Vladivostok to assist the rebels. Three days later, this force disembarked in Ayan and moved upon Yakutsk. By the end of October, when Pepelyayev occupied the town of Nelkan, he learned that the Red Army had wrested Vladivostok from the Whites and the Civil War was officially over.

When the Soviet Union was formed on December 31, the only Russian territory still controlled by the Whites was the region of the so-called Pepelyayevshchina ("пепеляевщина"), that is, Ayan, Okhotsk, and Nelkan. A unit of Bolsheviks under Ivan Strod was sent against Pepelyayev in February. On 12 February, they defeated the Pepelyayevists near Sasyl-Sasyg; in March the Whites were ousted from Amga.

On 24 April, 1923 the ships Stavropol and Indigirka sailed from Vladivostok for Ayan. They contained a contingent of the Red Army under Stepan Vostretsov. Upon his arrival in Ayan on 6 April, Vostretsov learnt that Pepelyayev had evacuated Nelkan. The remains of the White Army were defeated near Okhotsk on 6 June and near Ayan on 16 June. The general, 103 White officers, and 230 soldiers were taken prisoner and transported to Vladivostok.

[edit] References

• Последние бои на Дальнем Востоке. М., Центрполиграф, 2005.
• Александр Петрушин. Омск, Аян, Лубянка… Три жизни генерала Пепеляева. // «Родина», 1996 № 9.
• Клипель В. И. Аргонавты снегов. О неудавшемся походе генерала А. Пепеляева. [1]
• Пепеляевщина. 6 сентября 1922 — 17 июня 1923 гг. [2]
• Грачев Г. П. Якутский поход генерала Пепеляева (под ред. П. К. Конкина) [3]