Sovietization of Chechnya: revkoms in place of Soviets, punitive operations and Cheka executions (1920-1924)
In 1920-1924 Soviet Russia imposed its control over Chechnya: it installed unelected revolutionary committees (revkoms) in place of elected Soviets, conducted military disarmament operations with the use of aviation, shot people without trial by the hands of the Cheka and took hostages. Seven years earlier Chechnya had gone through the First World War, the two revolutions of 1917 and an attempt to live in a state of its own - the Mountain Republic, proclaimed in May 1918. In 1919 Chechnya was held by the Volunteer Army of General Denikin - troops of former imperial officers who fought the Bolsheviks for the return of Russia within its former borders; its terror left behind 21 destroyed auls and 15 thousand dead (campaign C1174). By the spring of 1920 the Denikinites had rolled back from the North Caucasus, and the emirate of Sheikh Uzun-Haji, which had fought against them, fell apart on its own: the emir died, "The emirate went into the grave with him, without any political consequences for Chechnya and Dagestan"[1]. Power in the land was taken by the Bolsheviks, whom the Chechen villages had until then supported against Denikin. An order of the staff of the North Caucasus Military District prescribed: "The disarmament must begin with lowland Chechnya, so as to secure the Grozny area. The operation must be conducted in real earnest, up to the destruction of the unsubmissive auls"[1]. Commissar of the Caucasus Labor Army Vrachev complained about his own punitive apparatus: the army's special department was carrying out mass shootings of which "... almost nothing is known not only to the Revolutionary Tribunal or the Political Department of the army, but to me or the army commander either"[1].
Actors
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| G0013 | Soviet Russia (RSFSR) | 8 |
| G0010 | USSR | 1 |
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0017 | Secret Police and Security Services | 4 |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations | 3 |
| S0010 | Regular Army | 2 |
Procedures Carried Out
Soviet Russia placed an unelected extraordinary body over Chechnya: on 3 April 1920 a congress in Grozny "proclaimed the transfer of all power to the Chechen Revolutionary Committee of five members"[1]. When at the elections to the Soviets in July 1920 "the overwhelming majority of seats in the Soviets went to... representatives of the so-called 'kulak-mullah and nationalist elements'", the elected Soviets were dissolved - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov record: "within a short span the peasant Soviets were dissolved twice (in August 1921 and in July 1922) and the power of the revkom was restored again"[1]. In the autumn of 1920 "the Aldy congress was dispersed, and several Grozny party workers... arrested" on the orders of Ordzhonikidze, head of the Caucasus Bureau of the Communist Party's Central Committee[1]. The Mountain ASSR, which had given legal form to the highlanders' autonomy, "did not last long and in 1924, having fulfilled its tasks as conceived by the party leadership, ceased to exist"[1].
Soviet Russia disarmed Chechen villages by military operations through all five years of the campaign. Historian E. F. Zhupikova writes: the Caucasus Labor Army "conducted" disarmament operations "...in 1920; in March-August 1921 the Chechen auls of Gordali, Tsentoroy, Belgatoy, Dargo, Benoy, Vedeno, Groznensky and Shali, which had taken part in the mutiny of N. Gotsinsky, were disarmed"[2]. In May 1922 the troops sent into Chechnya were headed by Gikalo - secretary of the Mountain oblast committee (obkom) of the party[3], who in the war with Denikin had commanded insurgent detachments in the mountains of Chechnya[2]: "The villages of Makhkety, Goity and Katyr-Yurt were subjected to disarmament, with combat aviation used against the latter. Besides the seizure of a significant quantity of weapons, up to 30 'bandits' were captured and shot, and their property was confiscated by the authorities"[1]. The year 1924 "ended in the Chechen Autonomous Oblast with a large military operation to seize weapons, in the course of which almost 3 thousand rifles and about 400 revolvers and pistols were collected"[1].
Soviet Russia carried out executions for show: "During the Chechen congress in Grozny, by verdict of the local Cheka, 7 Chechens were demonstratively shot. The execution made such '...a devastating impression on the masses of Chechens who had not yet had time to disperse after the congress' that the command of the Caucasus Labor Army demanded that henceforth death sentences on Chechens be carried out as far away from Chechnya as possible"[1].
Over Sheikh Ali Mitaev, a member of the Chechen revkom, the GPU set "thorough surveillance", and in the spring of 1924 it "took the decision 'on the removal' of A. Mitaev from Chechnya. The official agreements with him were treacherously broken; he was suddenly arrested, taken to Rostov-on-Don and, after a brief investigation, shot"[1]; historian E. F. Zhupikova dates the arrest to 19 April 1924 and cites the GPU's formula of accusation - "for his connection with counter-revolutionary organizations"[2]. The historians call the character of the reprisal and its perpetrators by their proper names: "The murder of A. Mitaev by the Chekists," write Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov[1].
In 1923-1924 the Chechen revkom made hostage-taking an official practice of the fight against "banditry": "Measures were taken to register all criminals present in Chechnya, and the practice was introduced of taking hostages from among the close relatives of bandits in hiding"[1].
Soviet Russia gave the sharia courts official status and took it away within a month: the constituent congress of Soviets of the Mountain Republic in April 1921 resolved to introduce a sharia court system (sharia - Islamic law) - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov call this "a clear (and temporary) concession to the Muslim clergy of Chechnya and Ingushetia": "Already in May 1921 the TsIK of the GASSR by its resolution deprived the sharia courts of financing from the state budget and of the support of state bodies"[1].
In 1920 the Red Army looted the Chechen villages where it was stationed: the units quartered in Chechnya, historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write, "received almost no property or food allowance", which pushed them into "self-supply" - "...the Red Army not only ran riot, but took away grain, cattle and so forth, terrorizing the population with senseless killings"[1]. In the summer of 1920, in Tsentoroy, the Chechens routed a unit of the Caucasus Labor Army "engaged in outright plunder"[1]. The property of the killed was taken too: during the disarmament of May 1922 "up to 30 'bandits' were captured and shot, and their property was confiscated by the authorities"[1].
On 9 May 1924 the Soviet Union, by a secret resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee (TsIK), gave the OGPU "the right of extrajudicial reprisal against bandits and their accomplices, namely: expulsion from the given locality, confinement in a concentration camp for a term of up to 3 years, and the application of the supreme measure of punishment - shooting", and prescribed that the republics declare localities "unfavorable in respect of banditry", where the GPU organs "are entitled to decide at their own discretion any case of banditry"[4]. The Chechen authorities already in that same May telegraphed the center: "Sanction the creation of a tribunal or a political troika"[5]. The troikas that went to work, "composed of an official of the procuracy, the GPU and the first party leader, — as a rule, passed sentences in absentia — on the basis of the submitted documents, often without even questioning the accused. Of any participation of a defense in the proceedings there could be no talk"[1].
The special department of the Caucasus Labor Army carried out mass shootings uncontrolled even by its own command: army commissar Vrachev complained that of them "...almost nothing is known not only to the Revolutionary Tribunal or the Political Department of the army, but to me or the army commander either"[1]. During the disarmament of May 1922 people were first captured and then shot: "up to 30 'bandits' were captured and shot, and their property was confiscated by the authorities"[1].