The history of the anarchist movement in the Tambov province in the early 20th century

Zubarev Ivan Yur'evich ORCID: 0000-0001-6733-138X PhD in History Associate Professor of the Department of Social Sciences and Technology; Institute of Basic Education; Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education 'National Research Technological University 'MISIS' 86 Lenin Street, Voronezh, 394043, Russia, Voronezh Region iwan.zubarew2016@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

The anarchist movement in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century attracts the attention of researchers as one of the most radical phenomena of the revolutionary era. However, despite a significant number of generalizing works, the regional specifics of anarchism remain insufficiently studied. This is especially true in the provinces of the Central Black Earth region, where anarchist groups were usually small in number, and whose activities are fragmentary in archival materials. Tambov province occupies a special place in this series: during the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, it became one of the centers of the Socialist-Revolutionary and peasant movement. The study of anarchism on its territory makes it possible to trace how anarchist ideology penetrated into a predominantly agrarian environment, trying to compete with the large-scale Socialist-Revolutionary underground and fill the existing historiographical gap.

The study of the regional specifics of the anarchist underground faces objective difficulties due to the very nature of this movement. The lack of a single coordinating center or steering committee led to the fact that individual groups and circles functioned autonomously, often without accompanying their performances with systematic propaganda or agitation. An additional problem was created by the attitude of the gendarmerie: many anarchist actions were classified as criminal offenses with no political background, which seriously hinders their identification and analysis.

The problem characteristic of the study of the anarchist movement in the Central Chernozem region in the first quarter of the 20th century was identified by Voronezh historians O.N. Kvasov and M.E. Razinkov, investigating the revolutionary activities of anarchists in the Voronezh province. In particular, the authors noted the complexity of the documentation of the revolutionary period, as well as the fact that "information about the activities of anarchists at that time is fragmentary, few in number and does not answer many key questions" ^{[9, p. 81]}. This problem also arises in the study of the Tambov province, which will be demonstrated in our study.

The main part

Revolutionary organizations in the Tambov province were active even before the beginning of the First Russian Revolution. The Social Revolutionaries were actively engaged in political activities. At the end of the 19th century. They created a network of clubs in the main urban centers of the province: Tambov, Kirsanov, Kozlov and Borisoglebsk ^{[6, p. 303]}. Groups of social Democrats formed in the province at the beginning of the 20th century. They have widely deployed propaganda among the local population, leading rallies and strikes of workers. For example, in 1901, the Social Democrats organized strikes of railway workers in Tambov and Kozlov ^{[2, p. 75]}.

The anarchist movement in the Tambov province originated during the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, however, information about the political activities of Tambov anarchists during the revolution is episodic. The most comprehensive presence of anarchists in the political life of the province can be traced according to the documents of the Tambov State Duma after 1907.

The first information about the origin of the Tambov anarchist movement is related to attempts to create militant organizations among the local peasantry, because Tambov province in 1905-1907 was one of the centers of peasant unrest. At the beginning of the revolution, the Social Revolutionaries were already actively working in the countryside, creating fighting squads from peasant youth; in 1905, the anarchists of the Beznachalie group joined this process.

The Beznachal anarchists began their political activities in the province in the autumn of 1905. The leader of the Beznachaltsy, B. Speransky, organized a printing press in Tambov and began campaigning. However, soon, due to the persecution of the authorities, he was forced to leave Tambov and return to St. Petersburg ^{[7, p. 25]}. Boris Speransky's activities were continued by his comrade A. Sokolov (Kolosov), the son of a priest from Tambov province, a graduate of the theological seminary, who joined the anarchist circle in 1905 and managed to create a group of peasant anarchists, the Awakening. At the same time, the influence of the anarchists on the peasantry should not be exaggerated, since the Socialist Revolutionaries were at the head of the radical actions of the peasantry. As the researcher of anarchism, P. Evrich, rightly noted, "although anarchist groups appeared in the peasant environment, they often resembled socialist revolutionaries, who almost had a monopoly on peasant radicalism during the revolutionary period" ^{[11, p. 34]}. In November 1906, during the trial of the Beznachaltsy, A. Sokolov was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and in 1909, while in prison, committed suicide ^{[8, p. 26]}.

During the First Russian Revolution, Tambov, according to some sources, was part of a route for transporting weapons and propaganda literature developed by Geneva and Ukrainian anarchists ^{[5, p. 191]}. However, it was not possible to establish any details about the participation of local anarchists in this; it can be assumed that they were very passive and did not come under the supervision of the local police during this period. This is probably due to the almost complete lack of information about the terrorist activities of anarchists in the territory of the "Tambov region". High-profile political assassinations and attempts on government officials in the province, as a rule, were committed by the Socialist Revolutionaries. In addition to members of the government and gendarmes, the revolutionaries persecuted representatives of conservative and black-hundred organizations.

There has been only one political assassination attempt against anarchists during the revolutionary period. On April 7, 1907, an attempt was made in Tambov on the life of the rector of the theological seminary, Archimandrite Simeon, who was able to survive and identify the perpetrator. He turned out to be a pupil of the 2nd grade of the seminary, N.A. Arkhangelsky; on August 15, 1907, he was arrested. The criminal was hiding in Voronezh under the name Laptev, and during a search, a sheet with the signature "Tambov Combat Executive Committee of Anarchist Communists" was found in his possession. In this note, the anarchists sentenced the Archimandrite to death for his "pro-government and anti-revolutionary activities" ^{[4, p. 72]}. On November 30, 1909, N.A. Arkhangelsky was sentenced by a military court in Tambov to 10 years of hard labor ^{[4, p. 72]}. According to the memoirs of a student of this seminary and a future member of the Bolshevik Party, K.V. Ostrovityanov, "Archimandrite Simeon received anonymous letters in which he was threatened with death for black-hundred behavior, spreading espionage among seminary students and police discipline" ^{[10, p. 24]}. However, according to the gendarmerie department, it was not possible to identify any other activities of the Tambov Military Executive Committee of Anarchist Communists.

The activity of anarchist circles in the territory of the Tambov province begins to be more clearly traced according to the documents of the Tambov State Duma after 1907. An analysis of the available information showed that local organizations were mostly small in number and were mainly engaged in agitation and propaganda. The weakness of anarchist groups has been repeatedly highlighted by local law enforcement agencies. For example, in the reports of the gendarme department for 1910, the following note is often found: "I have not received any information on anarchist groups, due to the insignificance of these organizations within the Tambov province" ^{[18, l. 41]}.

Many of the clubs were not constantly monitored, and their activities are described in documents very sparsely and mostly in convictions. For example, in 1909, a 19-year-old peasant woman from the village of Stepanovka, A.N. Konovalova, was arrested in Tambov for spreading anarchist anti-government propaganda. According to the verdict, at the end of 1907, the accused joined a group of anarchist communists and was engaged in drafting and distributing proclamations. The prosecution attributed to the authorship of A.N. Konovalova an appeal "To the soldiers", containing an appeal not to obey the command, "To young people" with insults to the emperor: "The king is an idiot, a devourer of 12 million 800 thousand rubles a year" ^{[24, l. 6 vol.]}. A.N. Konovalova was sentenced to 4 years of hard labor. In 1911 She was sent for treatment to a Kazan psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of "degenerative psychosis" ^{[24, l. 10]}.

Also in 1909, the activities of a group of anarchist communists in the city of Yelatma were traced. According to the materials of the local GZHU, it consisted of seven people - local burghers who are not engaged in skilled labor, and students of the gymnasium: Belke V.F., Korzhevin V.V., Korzhevin A.N., Petrov (initials not identified), Uglovoy (initials not identified), Fedorov A.I. ^{[19, l. 147 vol.In the summer of 1909, the group had a printing house and distributed leaflets among the local peasantry with not only anti-government, but also anti-church content. In one of the proclamations, the revolutionaries reproached the church for serving the authorities rather than the people, calling it "an obedient servant of autocratic tsars and capitalists" [19, l. 74]}.

The activities of a group of anarchist communists formed in Morshansk in 1909 are described in sufficient detail in the materials of the Tambov State Penitentiary. For several years, the gendarmerie department monitored the members of the organization, but its members were quite passive and cautious. For a long time, information about the surveillance of the organization contained the following information: "During this period of time, the group did not show any activity." Nevertheless, the group was eliminated several times. On May 5, 1911, for involvement in the Morshan group of anarchist communists, the following were arrested: peasant N.P. Avchenko, 19 years old; philistine S.A. Matorin, 21 years old; his brother A.A. Matorin, 28 years old; peasant G.T. Choprov, 19 years old; peasant A.V. Mastryukov, 18 years old ^{[20, L. 88]}.

During the search, socialist and anarchist literature, personal correspondence, and copies of the Voskhod magazine, edited by N.P. Avchenko, were found among the members of the organization. One of the group's members, A.A. Matorin, had already been under police surveillance in 1907 for his involvement in a group of Social Democrats, and several issues of the Trudovik magazine were found in his possession, but he was released for lack of grounds for arrest. According to the investigation, later "Matorin joined the communist anarchists by conviction and in 1910-1911, while living in the city of Morshansk, he took part in organizing a local group of communist anarchists" ^{[20, l. 31]}.

The story of the Morshan anarchists did not end there. Monthly reports on the activities of anarchist groups in the city indicate the functioning of the organization up to 1913. Moreover, according to the observation data of the gendarme department, students often joined the anarchists ^{[21, l. 118 vol.-121]}. For the most part, they did not show much revolutionary activity, limiting themselves to holding meetings. On October 17, 1912, by order of the governor, local anarchists were arrested in Morshansk on suspicion of preparing a robbery ^{[22, l. 1]}. Among those arrested were pupils of a local college, from whom anarchist literature and correspondence were seized, an underground printing house was discovered, and cartridges for a revolver were found in Ya.V. Vasiliev's possession ^{[22, l. 26]}. Despite this, those arrested soon had to be released due to insufficient evidence. According to the resolution, the group's arrest was sudden. According to the investigation, the group intended to expropriate a local businessman on October 18, 1912, in order to raise funds for the installation and operation of a printing plant. Due to the news of the impending robbery, the group had to be urgently eliminated, which did not correspond to the initial plan of the gendarmes. It was proposed to make an arrest "after the group issued a printed appeal, after which the arrested would be exposed as belonging to a group of anarchists, and the evidence against them would be sufficient" ^{[22, l. 208]}. The members of the group managed to escape punishment, but the gendarmerie department continued to monitor the organization, introducing agents into it. Their reports describe in some detail the composition and type of activity of the Morshan anarcho-communists.

The reports of the Petrov agent dated July 28, 1913, contained information about the new composition of the organization. I.V. Syrkin was named the main "Petrov", describing him as follows: "He is the most intelligent of this group." As a leader, he found funds to provide for the group and kept weapons in his possession: "two revolvers and a dagger" ^{[25, l. 74 vol.]}. According to the testimony of some agents, the group intended to commit a robbery, but the case was constantly disrupted due to internal disputes that arose for various reasons, including about the division of the future loot. As one of the agents who worked in the group noted: "every time it comes to robbery, all kinds of arguments and quarrels begin in the group, mainly because of the distribution of the expected loot" ^{[26, l. 45 vol.]}. In June 1913, a certain Petrakov, who, according to the agent, was "a more serious anarchist", came to I.V. Syrkin to assist the group in the robbery, but "the members of the group did not get along, and Petrakov left 3 days later" ^{[26, l. 75]}.

An agent under the pseudonym "Ada" described similar details about the band's life. In a report dated July 30, 1913, he described I.V. Syrkin as a rather cowardly man who "only encourages others to rob, but himself avoids any illegal activities, as he is well known to the police." At the same time, the agent noted that "disputes have stopped recently and robberies are possible" ^{[26, l. 75 vol.]}. The anarchists named local entrepreneurs Samsonov and Belousov as their targets, and attacks on treasuries and post offices in the county towns of the province were also expected. The group had been preparing expropriations since February 1913, when I.V. Syrkin "got hold of two Brownings" ^{[27, l. 43]}. It is difficult to say how ready the Morshan anarchists were to commit expropriations. According to reports, it seems that they were passive and had no desire for terror, which their comrades from neighboring provinces were famous for, and had extremely weak ideological motivation to commit such actions.

Despite this, on August 3, 1913, the gendarme department carried out another liquidation of the group. Searches were conducted and not only well-known members of the circle, but also their immediate entourage were involved in the investigation. 15 people were searched in Morshansk and 4 people in Tambov ^{[28, l. 9]}. In addition to revolutionary literature, a revolver was found in the possession of twenty-year-old Ya.V. Vasiliev ^{[28, l. 32 vol.]}. Six arrested men were charged with involvement in the Morshan group of anarchist communists. All of them were already under secret police surveillance and had previously been tried in the 1912 case of belonging to the anarchist party. If we talk about their social status, they were mostly from peasants, as well as middle-class people who did not have a permanent job: I.V. Syrkin, a middle-class man, 23 years old; N.A. Matorin, a middle-class man, 18 years old; A.D. Kiryaev, a peasant, 27 years old; A.Ya. Ovchinnikov, peasant, 24 years old; A.N. Volodina, peasant, 21 years old; A.V. Mastryukov, peasant, 20 years old ^{[28, pp. 74-74 vol.]}.

According to the decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the members of the group were sentenced to deportation to Tomsk province under the open supervision of the police. I.V. Syrkin, as the leader of the organization, was sentenced to four years, the rest to three ^{[28, l. 93]}. The police were unable to convict the Morshan anarchists of any terrorist activity. They were only accused of involvement in the revolutionary movement.

After the arrests of members of the Morshan group, according to available archival materials, the anarchists dropped out of the political life of the province until the revolutionary events of 1917. However, our previously published research allows us to conduct a comparative analysis between the development of the anarchist movement in Tambov province and neighboring Voronezh and Oryol provinces on the basis of quantitative indicators and qualitative characteristics of anarchist activity in the period up to 1917. We will highlight the following criteria for our analysis: the documented number of anarchist organizations; the dynamics of revolutionary activity; the social composition of organizations; organizational structure; objectives and tactics. The criteria we have identified will help to make a qualitative comparison, touching on all the necessary aspects.

At the beginning of the 20th century, five groups operated on the territory of Tambov Province, whose activities were rather episodic: the Beznachaltsy group (1905-1906), A. Sokolov's Awakening (1906), A.N. Konovalova's group (1907), the Elatom group (1909) and the Morshanskaya group (1909-1913). The total number of documented participants does not exceed 22 people: for example, in the Elatom group - 7, in the Morshanskaya group - 6-7, the remaining cases are isolated ^{[19, l. 147 vol.; 20, l. 88; 28, l. 74-74 vol.; 24, l. 6 vol., 10]}.

The most active and numerous anarchist underground has developed in the Orel province, primarily in its industrial center - Bryansk district. There are at least six organizations that operated at different times: the Bezhitskaya group of anarchist Communists, the Orel Federative Group, the Bryansk Federative Group (1906-1908), the federation of P.A. Arshinov and G. Ipatov (1908-1910), the group that participated in the shootout at the Seltso station (1908), and the Ludinovsky Circle of Self-education (1909-1911) ^{[12, l. 220; 13, l. 1-3; 3, pp. 49-52]}. The number of anarchists involved in the investigation reached 40-50 people: for example, in 1907, 60 participants were arrested at the funeral of anarchist A.A. Danilov, of whom 8 were found to be involved in the federation ^{[12, pp. 220-221]}. In 1910, during the defeat of the federation, Arshinov arrested 20 people ^{[13, l. 1-3]}. In total, at least 40-50 documented defendants were involved in the cases of the Orel anarchists.

Three organizations have been documented in the Voronezh Province: a group of anarchist communists (1906-1910), the League of the Red Cord (1907-1908), and a group convicted of murdering judicial investigator S. Przyborowski (1909-1910) ^{[14, pp. 16-17; 15, L. 52]}. The total number of defendants is about 20 people. The most structured was the "League of the Red Cord", which had at least 14 participants (8 arrested, 6 wanted) ^{[16, l. 2, 23 vol.; 17, l. 1-3]}.

There is a clear correlation between the number and level of violence. In Tambov province, it was possible to confirm only one political crime related to anarchists, the assassination attempt on the rector of the theological seminary, Archimandrite Simeon, in 1907. In the neighboring Voronezh province, anarchists committed at least 12 documented criminal acts. Among them: the murder of judicial investigator S. Przyborowski and the murder of policeman Maximov; five armed robberies, including an attack on Dr. Ergolsky, three raids on shops (January-February 1908) and an attack on honorary citizen P. Dagaev (1908); four cases of extortion ("mandates") on behalf of anarchist communists (1906-1908); as well as the creation of a laboratory for the manufacture of explosives ^{[1, l. 3, 8, 12; 16, l. 1; 17, l. 2]}. A special feature of the Voronezh groups was the high degree of criminalization. Researchers O.N. Kvasov and M.E. Razinkov noted that expropriations often blurred the line between political struggle and criminal trade ^{[9, p. 81]}.

Terrorist activity reached its greatest extent in the Orel province. According to estimates based on archival files, at least 20 proven crimes were committed here: 7 murders and attempted murders (assistant bailiff E. Nadolsky, policeman F. Khalyutin, captain P.V. Argamakov, petty bourgeois Ya. Marchenkov, bailiff A.N. Tseshkovsky, an attempt on the assistant director of the plant A.V. Morozov, an explosion in the house of MV Lando); 9 expropriations (the robbery of A. Akimov for 12,600 rubles, an attack on the cashier of the Ivota factory, the robbery of the Zhiryatinskaya post office, the post office at Vygonichi station, two wine shops, a tannery in Orel, an attack on Kiselevich's estate, etc.); 3 cases of extortion ("mandates" to the tenant in Bezhitsa, dvoryanka Adadurova, administration Ludinovsky plant); as well as the functioning of the laboratory for the manufacture of explosives ^{[12, l. 196, 205, 367, 412, 417, 474, 495; 13, l. 33-34; 1, l. 3; 16, l. 572; 17, l. 416; 1, l. 131; 3, p. 52; 4, pp. 75, 79, 211]}. It is estimated that the total number of crimes in the Orel province is more than one and a half times higher than in the other two provinces combined.

The social portrait of an anarchist in all three regions was similar: the basis was made up of peasants, burghers, workers and students. However, in the Orel province, the share of the factory proletariat was significantly higher, which provided the movement with mass support. For example, the Bryansk Federation case involved workers from the Bryansk, Bezhitsky, and Lyudinovsky factories ^{[13, l. 67; 1, p. 19]}. The anarchists maintained stable ties with Yekaterinoslav, Moscow, Kiev, Kaluga, Smolensk, and even Geneva ^{[3, p. 49; 1, p. 59-60; 12, l. 495]}. In the Voronezh province, the participation of students is noticeable: the members of the "League of the Red Cord" were pupils of the paramedic school and technical college ^{[16, l. 2; 17, l. 1]}. In the Tambov province, anarchist groups consisted mainly of peasants and burghers, had no stable contacts with all-Russian anarchist centers and were limited mainly to agitational work ^{[19, l. 147 vol.; 28, l. 74-74 vol.; 8, pp. 25-26]}.

The goals of the activity also differed. In Tambov province, anarchists focused on propaganda and the creation of circles. The Voronezh groups chose expropriation as their main means of struggle, which often turned into banal robbery. In the case of the murder of Przyborowski, the defendants sought to present the crime as criminal in order to avoid a political verdict ^{[9, p. 81]}. In the Orel province, especially in the Bryansk Federation, terror had a pronounced political, "unmotivated" character. As noted by the Moscow Security Department, the members of the federation were "propagandized in the direction of the anarchist print organ "Rebel"," adhered to "unmotivated", anti-bourgeois terror ^{[3, p. 52]}. The targets of the attacks were representatives of the factory administration, police, gendarmerie, as well as government agencies. The organization's plans included high-profile actions nationwide - an explosion at the Bolshoi Theater and a terrorist attack in the State Duma ^{[23, l. 10]}.

Thus, a comparative analysis allows us to conclude that the level of development of the anarchist movement in the provinces of the Central Chernozem region directly depended on the degree of industrialization of the region and the presence of the factory proletariat. The Orel province, which had a powerful industrial base (Bryansk, Bezhitsky, and Ludinovsky factories), became the scene of the most widespread, ideologically shaped, and politically motivated anarchism comparable to the leading centers of the Russian anarchist movement. Voronezh province provided an example of criminalized forms of anarchism with a high level of violence but a weak ideological component; here, anarchist groups tended to expropriate as a way of personal enrichment. Tambov province, while remaining predominantly agrarian, demonstrated an extremely low susceptibility to anarchist propaganda; the groups that arose here were small, passive, and could not develop into a serious political force, as evidenced by the meager source base and the absence of documented expropriations or systematic terror.

In general, after analyzing the data on the activities of anarchists in Tambov province before 1917, it is necessary to state the general weakness of the anarchist elements in the province, even in comparison with the rest of the central Chernozem region. Individual groups, of course, showed their activity, but after the arrests of the "beginnings", there is no need to talk about any serious revolutionary work by anarchists in the province.

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