Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

SIBERIAN COSSACK HOST. Occupying lands spread across Akmolinsk oblast′, Semipalatinsk oblast′, and parts of Tomsk guberniia, and comprising 53 stanitsy, 437 farmsteads (khutora), and 132 smaller settlements, the territories of the Siberian Cossack Host were divided into three districts (Omsk, Kokchetavsk, and Ust-Kamenogorsk), with their center at Omsk. In 1917, the Host population was 172,000, many of them the descendants of Cossacks who had been settled in Siberia from the late 16th century onward (although only formally constituted as an independent host in 1808), and of whom some 11,500 were under arms.

In January 1918, the Soviet authorities formally disbanded the Host and arrested its leaders. Thereafter, opponents of the Bolsheviks were driven underground, forming a number of secret organizations, the most powerful of which were the “Group of 13,” led by B. V. Annenkov, and the independent detachments of V. I. Volkov and I. N. Krasil′nikov. These units played a significant part in driving the Bolsheviks from Siberia during the spring and summer of 1918, and Siberian Cossack units subsequently entered the Siberian Army of the Provisional Siberian Government. In July 1918, the Host’s 4th Krug met at Omsk and elected Major General P. P. Ivanov-Rinov as Host ataman. Under his general command, Siberian Cossack units then fought as an important part of the Eastern Front of Admiral A. V. Kolchak. In September 1919, the Independent Cossack Corps of Kolchak’s forces was created, numbering some 4,000 men. As the White movement in Siberia collapsed in the autumn of 1919, most of these men retreated into Transbaikalia and formed units of the Far Eastern (White) Army of Ataman G. M. Semenov, before retreating into the Maritime Province, where at various times from late 1920 to October 1922, their units were attached to anti-Bolshevik forces such as the White Insurgent Army and the Zemstvo Host. Many of the Siberian Cossacks subsequently emigrated to either China or Australia.

SIBERIAN FLOTILLA. This term denoted the mutable concentration of naval vessels controlled by anti-Bolshevik forces in the Far East, chiefly at Vladivostok and along the Ussurii and Amur Rivers, that formed part of the White Fleet. The flotilla was first assembled in July 1918, from various forces in the region, to support the actions of the Czechoslovak Legion, and at that time it was composed of an auxiliary cruiser, a gunboat, 15 destroyers, 13 transport vessels, and other smaller ships. During 1918 and 1919, it saw limited action against Red partisans in the region. Three of the vessels of the flotilla (the cruisers Orel and Iakut and the ice-breaker Baikal) were moved to Japan in January 1920: the Baikal later returned to Vladivostok, but the others made their way to Europe, the crippled Orel was abandoned at Dubrovnik, and the Iakut reached Crimea in November 1920, in time to assist in the evacuation of the Russian Army of General P. N. Wrangel. After the formation of the Far Eastern Republic in April 1920 (and its subsequent claim to sovereignty over the Maritime Province and the flotilla’s base at Vladivostok), control over the flotilla was disputed. After the coup of May 1921 that established the Provisional Priamur Government, however, it again fell firmly into the hands of local Whites, notably the Zemstvo Host of General M. K. Diterikhs. When, in October 1922, the FER’s People’s-Revolutionary Army drove the Whites from Vladivostok, some vessels of the Siberian Flotilla were used to evacuate approximately 10,000 military and civilian refugees from Pos′et Bay to Korea. Eighteen vessels of the flotilla remained in Korea, under the care of the Red Cross; ten others (carrying 3,000 refugees) moved on to Shanghai, where they received a frosty welcome from the Chinese authorities, prompting some to journey on to the Philippines, where they arrived in January 1923. The vessels were then apparently sold, with the funds raised being partly used to provide financial aid to this largely forgotten sector of the White emigration, and the remainder being put at the disposal of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. In December 1923, the Soviet foreign minister, M. M. Litvinov, demanded that the United States (which at that time administered the Philippines) return the ships as Soviet property, but only the ice-breaker Baikal could be found. It was returned to the USSR and joined the Red Fleet.