Denikin's terror in Chechnya: destroyed auls and 15 thousand dead (1919)
In 1919 the Volunteer Army of General Denikin conquered Chechnya with ultimatums, assaults and the burning of villages - the year it left behind ended with 21 destroyed auls and 15 thousand dead. After the fall of the empire (campaign C1189) the peoples of the North Caucasus tried to live in a state of their own: in May 1918 the highland political forces proclaimed the independent Mountain Republic from the Black Sea to the Caspian; its first government was headed by the Chechen Tapa Chermoyev, an oil industrialist (campaign C1173), its parliament by the Ingush Vassan-Girey Dzhabagiev[1]. In February 1919 the Terek oblast was occupied by the Volunteer Army - troops of former imperial officers under the command of Denikin, fighting the Bolsheviks for the return of Russia within its former borders; historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "The main force of the Volunteer Army was made up of Cossacks, and therefore the actions of the Denikinites in the Terek oblast were aimed, first of all, at restoring the privileged position of the Cossacks"[1]. Denikin did not recognize the Mountain Republic: he refused to receive the delegation of its government; General Lyakhov, appointed ruler of the Terek oblast, agreed to regard the republic's parliament as no more than "a consultative organ attached to his person", and as ruler of Chechnya the Volunteer Army appointed General Aliev[1]. At the negotiations with the Mountain government Lyakhov declared: "...There cannot be two masters in one house. Where I pay, I shall be the master. I demand submission to my authority, and whoever does not submit to it, let him blame himself for what will come of it"[1]. The Denikin command recorded of the resistance: "The bitterness of the Chechens and their daring reach the utmost degree"[1]. The year's total was drawn by the Soviet survey of 1920, which historian E. F. Zhupikova cites: "21 destroyed auls and 15 thousand dead Chechens is what the Denikin army left behind it"[2].
Actors
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| G0014 | White Movement (AFSR) | 8 |
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0010 | Regular Army | 8 |
Procedures Carried Out
At the end of February 1919 four regiments of the Volunteer Army - the division of General Shatilov - attacked the village of Goity with artillery, for its refusal to hand over the Red Army men sheltering there; detachments from the surrounding villages came to its aid, and the Denikinites retreated toward Grozny[1]. On 23 March the army struck from Grozny at Gudermes[1]. From 27 to 30 March battles raged for Alkhan-Yurt: "The shelling of the village was conducted by 24 guns and an armored train that had taken position near the Ermolovskaya stanitsa... the village was captured"; more than 400 of its defenders died[1]. For failure to fulfill the demand to return captured Cossacks the army stormed Tsatsan-Yurt - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "On 9 April 1919 the White troops attacked and by nightfall captured the village of Tsatsan-Yurt. In the course of the fierce battle more than 500 people died on the Chechen side, including over 400 Tsatsan-Yurt villagers proper"[1]. In October the command threw against Chechnya a force of 15 thousand soldiers and officers taken off the advance on Moscow: "On 5 October stubborn three-day battles began for Chechen-Aul, after which the villages situated near the railway were subjected to a new devastation"[1].
In its March offensive along the railway the Volunteer Army destroyed villages to the ground: "for several days stubborn battles went on, in the course of which the villages of Berdykel and Ustar-Gordoy ended up completely destroyed, and a number of other villages were captured"[1]. The year's count is kept by the Soviet survey cited by historian E. F. Zhupikova: 21 destroyed auls (27 in another publication of the same source) with 15 thousand dead[2]. The Chechen historian A. G. Avtorkhanov, who wrote of these events in emigration, gives both the motive and a list by name: the highlanders' desire "to arrange their state life at their own discretion" Denikin construed as "national Bolshevism", "hence the policy of burning auls and the extermination of the unsubmissive highlanders", and "to break the resistance of the Chechens and the Ingush, Denikin burned to the ground dozens of the largest centers of Chechnya-Ingushetia - Ekazhevo, Dolakovo, Alkhan-Yurt, Chechen-Aul, Ustar-Gardoy, Gudermes, Gerzel-Aul, Stary-Yurt and others" (Ekazhevo and Dolakovo are Ingush villages)[3].
After capturing Alkhan-Yurt at the end of March 1919 the Volunteer Army for a month did not let the residents bury their dead - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "As a punishment for the stubborn resistance, the White command for the course of a month did not permit the bodies of the village's fallen defenders to be committed to the earth"[1].
The Volunteer Army answered the uprising in Grozny in December 1919 with mass executions: after the suppression of the rising on the night of 23 December the insurgent leader Gikalo reported: "Right now there are nightmarish reprisals in Grozny: 79 people have been hanged and a mass of people shot"[1].
On 19 February 1919 General Lyakhov, at a congress of Chechnya's representatives in Aldy, announced the demands of the Volunteer Army, including mobilization: "These demands were put forward in the form of an ultimatum and were not subject to discussion," write historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov, and the congress left the ultimatum without an answer[1]. In April 1919 the command put forward a new ultimatum: "the complete submission of the Chechens to the appointed ruler of Chechnya, the handing over of all Red Army men, Bolsheviks and abreks, as well as of all the valuables carried off into Chechnya by the Red Army... the return of the pilfered materials from the railway and the organization of deliveries of provisions and fodder for the army"; for failure to fulfill a separate demand - to immediately return a group of Cossacks captured in the vicinity of the village - the army took Tsatsan-Yurt by storm[1].
In February 1919 the Volunteer Army demanded, through the Mountain government, the handing over of all Red Army men sheltering in Chechnya: "About 700 people were indeed prepared for handover, but this action met the resolute resistance of the Goity Soviet and the open discontent of the people," write historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov (the Goity Soviet - the soviet of the village of Goity); General Shatilov reported: "...unrest is taking place among the Chechens, as part of them do not want the Bolsheviks handed over"[1]. The demand to hand over "all Red Army men, Bolsheviks and abreks" entered the April ultimatum as well[1].
In February 1919 the Volunteer Army announced at the congress in Aldy a mobilization of the highlanders - at the villages' own expense: "the villages were obliged to equip and maintain the mobilized at their own cost"[1]. General Aliev, the appointed ruler of Chechnya, carried out the mobilization: "The 200-300 horsemen assembled in this way (together with Kabardians and Ingush) took part in the suppression of peasant unrest in the Stavropol region"[1]. Historian E. F. Zhupikova conveys the conclusion of the researcher P. Aptekar on the causes of the Chechens' uprising against Denikin: "the forcible mobilizations and requisitions of provisions for Denikin's army"[2].
In 1919 General Denikin refused to recognize the Mountain government and dissolved it[2]; General Lyakhov, appointed ruler of the Terek oblast, agreed to regard the republic's parliament as no more than "a consultative organ attached to his person"[1]. As ruler of Chechnya the Volunteer Army appointed a general from among the Chechens - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "As Ruler of Chechnya on behalf of the Volunteer Army was appointed a well-known military man - General Eriskhan (Iriskhan) Aliev, a Chechen by origin"[1]. On 29 March 1919 Denikin convened a conference in Grozny - as the same historians write, one "called upon to put an end to the bloodshed and to confirm E. Aliev as ruler of Chechnya" - attended by representatives of 42 villages, mostly supporters of the Atagi Soviet (the Chechen National Council, which sat in Starye Atagi), entrepreneurs and part of the clergy[1].