The History of the “Don Insurgent Army” Case. 1921–1922

Abstract. At the end of the Civil War, Soviet Russia, despite its victory over the Whites, faced an acute internal political crisis — a massive insurgency that swept through
many regions of the country, combined with increased disagreements in the RCP(b) and the emergence of internal party opposition. Despite the harsh struggle against the
oppositionists and the ban on factional activities in the RCP(b), adopted by the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921, opposition sentiments penetrated into the milieu of the army communists, where their own groups began to arise. In 1921 The CHEKA uncovered the case of the so-called “Don Insurgent Army”, whose defendants were red commanders, members of the RCP(b), who were affiliated with the “worker’s opposition”. Based on documents from the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia and other sources, including materials from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and Periodicals, the article analyzes the substantive side of the case and draws conclusions about the actual scale of the organization. It is shown that a small group of Red commanders appeared before the court, first trying to legally (for example, through an appeal to V.I. Lenin), and then illegally influence the internal policy pursued by the leadership of the RCP(b).

Keywords: Civil war, insurgency, Red Army, Cheka, GPU, Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army.