Category:Admiral Kolchak's government

Russian Civil War White party.

In November 1918, the regional government was overthrown in a British sponsored coup d'etat. The Socialist-Revolutionary (SR) Directory leader and members were arrested on November 18. The remaining cabinet members met and voted for Kolchak to become the head of government with emergency powers. He was named Supreme Ruler (Verkhovnyi Pravitel), and he promoted himself to full Admiral.

The White forces took Ufa in March 1919 and pushed on from there to take Kazan and approach Samara on the Volga River. Anti-Communist risings in Simbirsk, Kazan, Viatka, and Samara assisted their endeavours. The Whites advanced to a line stretching from Glazov through Orenburg to Uralsk. Kolchak's territories covered over 300,000 km² and held around 7 million people. In April the Bolshevik Central Executive Committee made defeating Kolchak its top priority. But as the spring thaw arrived Kolchak's position degenerated – his armies had outrun their supply lines, they were exhausted, and the Red Army was pouring newly raised troops into the area

From 1919 Kolchak lost ground. Ufa was taken by the Red Army on June 9 and later that month the Red forces under Tukhachevsky broke through the Urals. The Reds made rapid progress, capturing Chelyabinsk on July 25 and forcing the White forces to the north and south to fall back to avoid being isolated. The White forces re-established a line along the Tobol and the Ishim rivers to temporarily halt the Reds. They held that line until October, but the constant loss of men killed or wounded was beyond the White rate of replacement. Reinforced, the Reds broke through on the Tobol in mid-October and by November the White forces were falling back towards Omsk.

On November 14 1919, the Red Army captured Omsk. In late December Irkutsk fell under the control of a leftist group (including SRs-Mensheviks) and formed the Political Centre. One of their first actions was to dismiss Kolchak. On January 4, 1920, he announced his resignation, giving his office to Denikin and passing control of his remaining forces around Irkutsk to Semyonov. White Army forces in Siberia essentially ceased to exist by December 1919. Kolchak was shot by firing squad on 7th February, 1920.

Kolchak pursued a policy of brutal repression and persecuting revolutionaries as well as Socialists of several factions. This led to prominent underground resistance in the regions controlled by Kolchak's government. These partisans were especially strong in the provinces of Altai and Yeniseysk. In the summer of 1919 partisans of the Altai Region united to form the Western Siberian Peasants' Red Army. The Taseev Soviet Partisan Republic was founded south-east of Yeniseysk in early 1919. Siberian Communists seized vast regions from Kolchak's regime even before the approach of the Red Army. In February 1920 partisans took control of the Amur region.

See also Russian Civil War and Alexander Kolchak