I Black Sea Congress

The congress was held in an electrified atmosphere. Among the 88 delegates with a decisive vote present at the congress, there were 27 Left Social Revolutionaries , 22 Bolsheviks , 17 Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries , 16 non-partisan, 6 Mensheviks and Right Social Revolutionaries ^[2] . The composition of the delegates allowed the coalition of Bolsheviks, leftist and Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries to dictate their will to the congress ^[3] .

Modern Russian historians V. and A. Zarubin, in their work on the history of the Civil War in Crimea, drew attention to the landmark discussion about the civil war that unfolded at the congress. In their speeches, the Bolshevik N. A. Pozharov and the leader of the Ukrainian Social Revolutionary faction, the representative of the Sevastopol Ukrainian military committee K.P. Velichko argued that fear of a civil war was not necessary, that civil wars always accompanied social revolutions and were inextricably linked with them. Right Social Revolutionary S. Rish answered them that revolutions perished if they became the reason for the outbreak of civil war. In the end, seeing that their opinion would not affect the decisions of the congress, the right Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks left the congress ^[3] .

The resolution on the “current moment”, proposed by Bolshevik Yu. P. Gaven , fully supported the Bolshevik armed uprising in Petrograd: “... The Black Sea Fleet considers the newly elected Congress of CEC Councils the only source of power ... The Congress calls on all sailors, soldiers, workers and peasants to rally around their Councils and support them in the fight against counter-revolution . " The congress sent telegrams of greetings to "all fleets and armies of revolutionary Russia", to the Council of People's Commissars and V. I. Lenin , assuring them of their support ^[3] .

On behalf of the Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries, who were interested in supporting the Central Council , they proposed sending an armed detachment of sailors of the Black Sea Fleet to Kiev. The decision on this issue was adopted by 42 votes to twenty-seven.

A representative of the city’s workers' organizations, who arrived from Rostov-on-Don, called on the congress to send armed detachments to the Donskoy Region to establish Soviet power and protect it from the forces of the Don Ataman A.M. Kaledin . Representatives of the fleet command, who were supported by the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries, sharply opposed this at the congress, stating that sailors should not interfere in the "internal affairs" of the Don Cossack Region. But the Bolshevik delegates vehemently supported the Rostov proletariat. Pozharov said: "Kaledin will take Rostov, and take Kiev, if he does not oppose in the bud." After a heated debate, the opinion of the Bolsheviks prevailed ^{[3] [4]} .

The congress elected 65 delegates from the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Flotilla to the upcoming First All-Russian Congress of the Navy ^[4] .

The congress approved the Ukrainianization of the fleet, provided that this decision is supported by the All-Russian Constituent Assembly . However, it was an empty formality - Ukrainization was already proceeding spontaneously and without any permission.

The congress approved the decision of the Council of People's Commissars on the dissolution of the All-Russian Central Fleet , which did not support the October coup. On November 18, the new composition of the Central Committee of the Black Sea Fleet (Centroflot), created in late August to unite the activities of the councils and committees of the naval bases and ports of the Black Sea, elected Bolshevik sailor V.V. Romenets ^[1] instead of the Provisional Commissioner government Social Revolutionary I. Bunakov-Fondaminskogo ^[3] . M. A. Kolyshevsky became his assistant, P. F. Zinchenko was an assistant for resolving issues with the Ukrainian military committee ^[4] .

In the evening of November 19 ( December 2 ), 1917 , fulfilling the decision of the congress, all the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, with the exception of one destroyer, lowered the Andreevsky , black and " yellow- black " flags, and the next morning they raised only red ^[4] .

However, the Sevastopol Soviet, in which the Bolsheviks did not yet have a majority, opposed the sending of detachments of sailors. Only after fierce discussions and the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries joining the Bolsheviks, interested in armed support of the Central Council, the Sevastopol Soviet 182 votes in favor, with 89 votes against and 28 abstentions, approved the sending of troops to the Don and Kiev.

On November 9 (22), a train with 700 sailors set off for Kiev. On November 12 (25), a flotilla with the destroyer destroyer Captain Saken, two minesweepers, several small vessels and a landing squad of sailors left Sevastopol for Rostov. The flotilla was commanded by a “commission of five” elected by the Black Sea Congress headed by the Bolshevik sailor V.E. Drachuk. November 24 ( December 7 ), having made calls at the ports of Berdyansk , Mariupol and Taganrog , she arrived in Rostov, where the Black Sea took part in battles with Cossacks and volunteers ^[1] .

In the period from November 22–25 (December 5–8), a Black Sea detachment of about 2,500 men was sent by two echelons to the Don to fight against Kaledin. The leadership of the detachment was entrusted to A.V. Mokrousov , A.I. Tolstov, and S.N. Stepanov. On the way, the detachment received an order from the commander-in-chief of the Southern Revolutionary Front to fight the counter-revolution V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko to move to Belgorod to intercept the combined detachment of the drummers of the Western and South-Western Fronts , who made their way to the Don to join Kaledin’s troops ^[1] .

The command and officer corps of the Black Sea Fleet reacted sharply to the decision to engage sailors in the armed struggle against the "counter-revolution", which was perceived by the revolutionary masses as support for the "counter-revolution". On November 15 (28), 1917, unauthorized arrests of officers began in Sevastopol ^[3] .

The Congress’s initiative to form armed units to participate in the fight against counterrevolutionary forces in the Don came in handy for the government of Soviet Russia, which had just begun to gather together disparate forces for an offensive against Kaledin. The instruction of the Council of People's Commissars to the chief commissar of the Black Sea Fleet, Romenets, in response to his telegrams to the revolutionary Headquarters only followed on November 26 ( December 9 ): “Act with all decisiveness against the enemies of the people. Without waiting for any instructions from above ” ^[5] .

When in December 1917, the detachments of sailors who received their first combat experience in the civil war and were embittered by the losses suffered returned to Crimea, unauthorized massacres of naval and army officers began here. The concentration in Crimea of ​​a significant number of Bolshevik and anarchist sailors who took part in the first bloody clashes of the outbreak of civil war, became a powerful factor in the radicalization of the general situation on the peninsula ^[3] .

• Civil war on the Don
• Mass terror in the Crimea (1917-1918)
• II General Black Sea Congress

• Zarubin, A. G., Zarubin, V. G. Without winners. From the history of the Civil War in Crimea. - 1st. - Simferopol: Antikva, 2008 .-- S. 218. - 728 p. - 800 copies. - ISBN 978-966-2930-47-4 .