Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

Following the October Revolution, Toporkov joined the Volunteer Army upon its foundation (December 1917) and served as commander, successively, of an independent Kuban Cossack detachment (March–June 1918), the 1st Zaporozhian Regiment of the 1st Kuban Mounted Division (June–October 1918), and the 2nd Mounted Brigade of the 1st Mounted Division (2 November 1918–January 1919). Following the creation of the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR), he commanded the 1st Mounted Division of the 1st Kuban Mounted Corps (January–April 1919). From 19 January 1919, Toporkov was also commander of the 1st Terek Cossack Division, which was in the process of formation. With the latter, during May and June 1919, he undertook a remarkable raid in the rear of the Red Army, penetrating into Soviet territory as far as Khar′kov (which was then some 400 miles from the front). He captured and briefly held that city (as would the later Mamontov raid). From 22 July to September 1919, he commanded the 4th Mounted Corps of the Caucasian Army, and was then placed in command of the 2nd Kuban Corps of the same army (October–November 1919). From December 1919 to March 1920, during the collapse of the AFSR, he commanded the Composite Kuban–Terek Mounted Corps, the main reserve force of the retreating Whites. Following the evacuation of White forces from Novorossiisk to Crimea, he participated in the military council of March 1920 at Sevastopol′ that selected General P. N. Wrangel as supreme commander and was then placed in command of the Composite Cossack Corps in Wrangel’s Russian Army (April–November 1920). He was evacuated to Turkey in November 1920, and in emigration settled in Serbia. Toporkov died in Belgrade and was buried in that city’s New Cemetery.

Trabzon Peace Conference. This conference, which brought together delegations from the Ottoman Empire and the Transcaucasian Sejm, led by Rear Admiral Rauf Bey and Akaki Chkhenkeli, respectively, opened on 14 March 1918. Its aim was to reconcile the different views that were taken by Turkey and the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic with regard to the border that had been established between Turkey and the former Transcaucasian provinces of the Russian Empire by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918). Essentially, the Turks were willing to accept the Brest settlement (although they harbored ambitions for much greater territorial expansion into Transcaucasia), as were, with some reluctance, the Georgians, but the Armenians, who had the most to lose (as claimants to much of eastern Anatolia), were not. Hostilities were then resumed between Turkey and Armenia in April 1918, and on 4 June 1918, the Democratic Republic of Armenia was forced to accept the Treaty of Batumi.

TRADE UNIONS. Trade union membership skyrocketed in Russia during the revolutionary year of 1917. On the eve of the collapse of tsarism (12 years after union activity had been legalized in the Russian Empire), just three unions were operating legally, with 1,500 members; by July 1917, there were almost 1,000 unions, with membership approaching 2,000,000. When the Third All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions (the first since the February Revolution) met in Petrograd on 21–28 June 1917, a majority (55.5 percent) of delegates were Mensheviks; 36.4 percent were Bolsheviks. However, the Bolsheviks predominated in the newly legalized factory committees, which competed for influence with the trade unions. This facilitated the October Revolution and was useful in the implementation of workers’ control by the new Soviet government, but as that policy became discredited over the winter of 1917–1918, factory committees were ordered to subject themselves to the now Bolshevik-dominated unions at the All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions on 20–27 January 1918. (Between congresses, the unions were subordinated to the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions.)