Provisional Siberian Government (Derbera)

The opening of the Siberian Regional Duma in Tomsk was postponed several times due to the lack of a quorum . This was due to the huge size of the region, the transport difficulties of the winter of 1917–1918, as well as to the boycott of the Duma by representatives of workers' organizations ^[5] . Only by the end of January 1918, about a hundred deputies gathered in Tomsk , and the first meeting was scheduled for February 1 (14), 1918 . By the time before the opening, the Socialist Revolutionaries and the "faction of nationalities" were the strongest factions. The latter included the national representatives of Siberia (Yakuts, Buryats and other nationalities), as well as Poles, Ukrainians and German colonists ^[6] .

However, the Bolsheviks in Central Siberia , which actually controlled Tomsk at that time, were not interested in the emergence of another legitimate center of power. Therefore, on the night of January 25 to 26 in the city they arrested deputies of the Duma, including I. A. Yakushev , who, by prior agreement between the factions, was planned to be nominated for the post of chairman. The next day, a resolution was issued by the executive committee of the Tomsk Provincial Council on the dissolution of the Duma ^[7] and the arrest of members of the Provisional Siberian Regional Council ^[8] .

A lot of details and facts about further events are contained in the cited memoirs of G. K. Gins . It should be remembered, however, that in June 1918, Gins himself became the managing director of the Council of Ministers in the alternative government of Vologda and in his memoirs describes the Derber government somewhat biased. For example, the meeting of 47 deputies in the premises of the Tomsk Food Board ^[9] turns into “about twenty people in a safe house”, and the process of “elections” (he puts this word in quotation marks) is described in an ironic-reduced style ^[10] :

Constantly listening to see if the Bolsheviks were coming, the brave conspirators quickly shouted out the names of the candidates, barely having time to dwell on their assessment ...

Despite the extreme conditions of formation and some errors, the composition of the cabinet, as time has shown, was by no means accidental ^[9] .

47 of the deputies who escaped the arrest on the evening of January 28 gathered for an illegal meeting in the premises of the Tomsk Food Board. The meeting was chaired by P. Ya. Derber . At this meeting, after brief discussions, the Provisional Siberian Government was formed ^[11] :

The chairman of the Duma approved Yakushev arrested by the Bolsheviks.

Due to time constraints and the absence of many deputies, many candidates that night learned about their new ministerial status a week later, such as, for example, P.V. Vologodsky, who, without his knowledge, was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. Of the elected members of the government at the meeting, except for Derber, there were only Kolobov, Moravsky, Neamitullov, Tiber-Petrov and Yudin ^[11] . Vologda, Krutovsky, I. Mikhailov and Serebrennikov, who were elected in absentia, found out about their ministerial portfolios much later. Ustrugov later preferred to enter the government (“business cabinet”) of General Horvath . Rinchino refused his post because he wanted to deal with the problems of his native Buryat people. In the same year, he became chairman of the Burnack Committee. Sulima, on the other hand, entered the Bolshevik Council of Barnaul , later fought as part of the Bolshevik special forces and died in the Altai Mountains while trying to break into Mongolia.

Since the functioning of the government in Tomsk controlled by the Bolsheviks was not possible, the transfer of members of the government to the Far East was considered a priority. In March, Derber, along with several other members of the organization, moved to Harbin , then in June - to Vladivostok . Before leaving, an underground West Siberian Commissariat (WCC) was formed of four people for representation in the territory controlled by the Bolsheviks of Derber: M. Ya. Lindberg , B. D. Markov , P. Ya. Mikhailov and V. O. Sidorov ^[13] . All of them were members of the Social Revolutionary Party.

The government had never gathered in its entirety, had no real power, and the legitimacy of its formation without a quorum and without notice to elected members raised questions from political opponents. Of historical interest is the “Declaration of the Siberian Duma”, which was adopted at the same underground meeting on January 28 ( February 10 ), 1918 . Among the political and economic declarations, it should be noted the federal structure of the future Russian republic and the broad autonomy of Siberia in it ^[14] :

The Duma will give all the forces and means to protect and speedily resume the work of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, which recognized the autonomy of Siberia and other parts of the state by the law on the federal structure of the Russian Democratic Republic.

The uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps in the spring of 1918 marked the beginning of the transfer of power in Siberia to anti-Bolshevik forces. One after another, the forces of the White Army and the Czechoslovak Corps were engaged in the cities of Western and Eastern Siberia. June 6, 1918 was busy Omsk . In his first order, according to the newly formed Omsk commandant’s office ^[15], Colonel Ivanov-Rinov announces that “all power from now on belongs to me and the authorized representative of VR. Of the Siberian Government to A. A. Kuznetsov until the transfer of power to zemstvo and city public administrations. ” The next natural step would be to facilitate the move of the Derber government from Vladivostok and transfer civil power to it. However, the political situation in June 1918 was very different from January 1918. The Derber government was Socialist-Revolutionary in its basic composition and in the distribution of the most important portfolios, that is, extremely left-wing according to the criteria of that time. Not everyone in the army wanted, just having expelled the Bolsheviks, to get the power of the Social Revolutionaries. In addition, new faces appeared with their own political ambitions. As a result, negotiations and consultations took place in Omsk all June, as a result of which on June 30, 1918, the creation of a new Provisional Siberian Government was announced, headed by P.V. Vologodsky ^[16] . Assessing the events of June 1918, N. N. Golovin writes that “the change of power that took place in Omsk was a peacefully completed coup” ^[17] .

The Derber government did not want to recognize the outcome of this coup. On June 29, a meeting was held in Vladivostok at which it was announced that it would be renamed the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia (WASP) . A few days later, governments in Omsk and Vladivostok indirectly exchanged mutually exclusive statements. First, on August 4, 1918, the Vologda government publishes a declaration that “from now on, no other authority besides the Provisional Siberian Government can act on the territory of Siberia or be obligated on its behalf” ^[18] . A few days later, on August 8, 1918, the Derber government already published the "Declaration of the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia", where it "brings to the attention of the friendly Russian powers, both allied and neutral, that June 29, N. Art. In 1918 it entered into the rights and obligations of the central state power of Siberia ” ^[19] .

In addition to the adoption of declarations, VPAS did not have other methods of struggle. Military power and support in Siberia was vested in the Vologda government. Derber himself soon after the adoption of the declaration of the "Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia" July 21, 1918 resigned all his powers in the government and left Vladivostok. Socialist-Revolutionary I. A. Lavrov became his successor as chairman of the government.

In August, at the suggestion of the Allies, negotiations were held to unite the governments of General Horvat and WPAS. Negotiations were disrupted when Colonel Tolstov, subordinate to Minister of War Krakovecki, refused to recognize the authority of the Croatian General Pleshkov .

In October 1918, WPAS self-dissolved, recognizing the power of the Provisional All-Russian Government (the “Ufa Directory”) .

The declaration on the transfer of power to the Provisional All-Russian Government was signed on November 3, 1918 in Omsk. The declaration was signed by: Chairman of the Council of Ministers P. Vologodsky, Minister of Supply I. Serebryannikov, Minister of Finance I. Mikhailov, Manager of the Council of Ministers G. Gins, Manager of the Information Bureau Mankevich ^[20] .

• Provisional Government of Russia
• Provisional Siberian Government (Vologda)
• Provisional All-Russian Government (“Ufa Directory”)
• Russian government (Kolchak)

• Gins G.K. Siberia, the Allies and Kolchak . - Beijing: Russian Spiritual Mission, 1921. - T. 1.
• Gins G.K. Siberia, the Allies and Kolchak . - Beijing: Russian Spiritual Mission, 1921. - T. 2. (unavailable link)
• Zhuravlev V.V. Birth of the Provisional Siberian Government: From the History of Political Struggle in the Counter-Revolutionary Camp // Civil War in the East of Russia. Problems of history: a compilation. - Novosibirsk: Novosib. state Univ., 2001 .-- S. 26−47 . Archived October 17, 2007.
• Lukov E.V. Individual legislative acts of Siberian governments as a source for studying their political and socio-economic programs // Problems of the history of the Kuzbass: Materials of a scientific and practical conference. - Prokopyevsk, 2002 .-- S. 30−35 . Archived October 17, 2007.
• The Provisional Siberian Government / V. Zh. Tsvetkov // Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. ed. Yu.S. Osipov . - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2004—2017.
• Shishkin V.I. From the history of the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia (July 1 - September 21, 1918) // History of White Siberia. Materials of the VII International Scientific Conference (Kemerovo, September 28-29, 2009). - Kemerovo, 2009 .-- S. 55-61.