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| Evpatoria during 1917 to 1920 |
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| The events of February 1917 in St. Petersburg that brought about the power of the provisional Russian government were experienced in a peaceful way in Crimea. The Governor delivered power to a provisional government commissar, and the governor’s administration offered its oath to the new government. During sessions in March 4 and 6, Evpatoria’s Duma announced by telegram from the Tavrian governor the formation of the provisional government. |
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The struggle for power ‘of local significance’ alternated through battles between the white and red armies. Power was transferred and mixed up like a kaleidoscope. The Crimean peninsula changed hands more than once and the terror of one faction was simply replaced by the terror of another each time the new power rose up. People nicknamed Crimea at that time the ‘all-Russian cemetery’.
There are photographic certificates of these events, such as the moment of the town garrison’s oath to the Provisional Government at the beginning of March, 1917. These events occurred on the church square area next to the St. Nickolas church. Less than a year earlier, during Nickolas II’s visit to Evpatoria, the church square had been filled with people, happily greeting the Russian autocrat. Now, at this same square, people welcomed the Tsar’s renunciation...
In accordance with the dictat of the Provisional Government, on July 16 1917 Evpatoria’s Duma was nearly completely recomposed. M. Mogilyev, a representative of an anti-globalist faction (known as the Esery) was elected Chairman. Duvan, citing bad health, laid down his duties as town head and his confirmation as city council member. Removing the decorations upon his chest, he left the assembly. Working with the new ‘revolutionary’ Duma was hardly possible for him.
On October 25, 1917 the October Uprising in St. Petersburg occurred. The military-revolutionary committee declared the overthrow of the Provisional Government and in the name of the Soviets took power in its own hands. On January 14, 1918, the red army appeared in Evpatoria. Mass arrests began of officers, people from the upper classes and those that had been denounced as counterrevolutionaries.
Crimea now opens a disgraceful chapter of the Civil War: a chapter of red and white terror. Russia’s non- Bolshevik press shuddered to write about the events that began in 1918 on the peninsula; a voice of indignation was raised by authorities such as M. Gorky and I. Bynin, however the relentless storm of destruction, rising up in Crimea, covered the whole country.
In January 1918, Soviet power was installed in Crimea by the new a military-revolutionary staff created in Sevastopol.
In March 1918, the Brest (Litovsk) peace treaty with Germany and its allies put the Baltics, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine under the control Germany. On March 29 an agreement was reached between Germany and Austro-Hungary for the occupation of Ukraine. Under this agreement, Crimea fell into the sphere of ‘German interest.’ On April 18, 1918, notwithstanding the Brest Treaty, German troops approached, breaking through the weak defense of Perekop. Some of the members of the Soviet government were captured at Alyshta and executed.
On May 1, 1918, German troops occupied Sevastopol. By this time they had already occupied Djankoy, Evpatoria and Feodosia. Things ended with this occupation. In October/November of 1918, the city was abandoned to the Germans.
A new authority came to power and there was yet again a bloody streak of terror and revenge. This was not civil war but now removing a former enemy. Acting in Crimea was the famous Hungarian communist Bela Kyn and his secretary – the not unknown "Zemlachka" distributing telegrams with the order to immediately execute all registered officers and military officials. The first night of execution by a firing squad in Crimea left thousands of victims. Those shot were not just military but also doctors and members of the Red Cross, Sisters of Mercy and journalists. In all, during 1920 to 1921, several tens of thousands were executed in Crimea.
But power once again changed, June 1919 to April 1920 was the period of General Denikin’s government. It must be said that the white government in Crimea also practiced the politics of terror with all its might. "... at the first months of 1920 by order of General Slashev, military-field courts actively sentenced all suspicious persons to execution by a firing squad (occasionally they were executed without any sentencing). General Kytepov also zealously exposed people suspected of serious crimes to the military-field court. The bodies of the executed were hung on the town’s lamp posts as a lesson. These measures inspired the population’s terror...".
The exact number lost in the course of the Civil War in Crimea has not been established. Researchers offer different amounts from 20,000 to 150,000 people. A strong blow was inflicted on the culture of Crimea. In the opinion of M. Voloshin, of every three Crimean intelligentsia, two perished. | |
