EXECUTION OF PEASANT REBELS AND RURAL HOSTAGES IN TAMBOV PROVINCE 1918-1921

Abstract

The article examines the practice of using the supreme punishment - execution, used by the repressive bodies of the Soviet government in the fight against peasant protests in the Tambov province during the civil war. The research was carried out on the basis of archival sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The work uses historical-comparative and systemic methods. An analysis of the facts of the execution of peasants carried out by punitive agencies during the suppression of rural "riots" of 1918-1919 and the period of the struggle against the uprising of 1920-1921 in the Tambov province is given. The facts of extrajudicial killings in the form of public executions of peasant rebels and hostages from among the civilian population, which were resorted to by the military-party administration in the occupied regions, were established. The role of the institution of hostages as a repressive measure in the actions of government troops to suppress the peasant uprising has been clarified. It is concluded that if during the period of rural "riots" in 1918-1919 execution was applied only to their organizers, then during the peasant uprising of 1920-1921 this form of the death penalty for "active" insurgents was given a systemic character, and the shooting of hostages from among local residents became widespread.

Keywords

• rural "rebellion"
• peasant uprising
• extraordinary commission
• rebels
• hostages
• sentence
• execution
• tribunal