Methods of Establishing Soviet Power in Podillia (1920–1921)

Abstract

The study highlights the peculiarities of the establishment of Soviet terror across the region and the mechanisms of the formation of the repressive apparatus of power, in particular, the process of creating the Podolsk Provincial Emergency Commission by the provincial revolutionary committee. This body, in coordination with the provincial revolutionary tribunal, launched systematic activities to search for, neutralize, and physically destroy individuals and social groups classified by the authorities as «counter-revolutionary elements.» The work analyses the tools used to establish the new government, which included the widespread use of violence, including mass executions and forced requisitions. Special attention is paid to the study of the socio-political conditions under which the spontaneous formation of armed peasant detachments occurred. It is shown that these formations were a response of the local population to the repressive policy of the authorities and engaged in armed confrontation with food detachments and units of the Red Army, becoming a significant factor in destabilizing the region. The paper analyses the introduction of special mechanisms to combat the peasant insurgent movement, among which the systematic use of hostage-taking practices and the consistent expansion of the principle of collective population responsibility occupied a key place. These measures were used as a tool to pressure communities, intimidate, suppress resistance, and ensure the smooth functioning of strategically important facilities, primarily rail transport and communications. Attention is drawn to the functioning of the institution of «defendants», which was based on imposing collective responsibility on residents of settlements or districts for «bandit» or «insurgent» actions. The introduction of this system was demonstrative and public: in areas declared «unreliable» by the authorities, decisions were made at general village meetings, increasing psychological pressure on the population. It has been established that since September 1922, an extraordinary «troika» began operating in the province, whose activities extended to the entire territory of Podillia. The main tasks of this body were the operational suppression of «counter-revolutionary» and «bandit» manifestations, the implementation of extrajudicial repressive actions, as well as a campaign to seize weapons from the local population, which finally consolidated the regime of terror over the region.