Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- Glossary and abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The triumphal march of reaction
- 2 The establishment of the Kolchak Government
- 3 ‘What Kolchak Wants!’: military versus polity in White Siberia
- 4 Inside Kolchakia: from ‘a land of milk and honey’ to ‘the dictatorship of the whip’
- 5 White débâcle
- 6 White agony
- Conclusion
- Appendix The Anti-Bolshevik Governments in Siberia, 1918–1920
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The establishment of the Kolchak Government
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- Glossary and abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 The triumphal march of reaction
- 2 The establishment of the Kolchak Government
- 3 ‘What Kolchak Wants!’: military versus polity in White Siberia
- 4 Inside Kolchakia: from ‘a land of milk and honey’ to ‘the dictatorship of the whip’
- 5 White débâcle
- 6 White agony
- Conclusion
- Appendix The Anti-Bolshevik Governments in Siberia, 1918–1920
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the days following the Omsk coup a series of communications, explanations and generalized promises were issued by the press agencies which had been founded by the new government:
The events which have occurred are absolutely not a consequence of the weakening of authority in eastern Russia. On the contrary – they are a consequence of the ever-increasing strengthening of our principle of state-minded responsibility.
(Iu.V. Kliuchnikov, Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23.xi.1918)With deep sincerity, I declare to you now…that I am strongly and more firmly than ever convinced that in this day and age the State may live and be revived only upon a solid, democratic foundation. I have always been a supporter of order and gosudarstvennos (‘state-minded responsibility’) and now in particular I will demand of everybody not only respect for the law but also that which is most important of all in the process of re-establishing the State – the support of order.
(A.V. Kolchak, Supreme Ruler, 28.xi.1918)In the short term, these declarations by the new government at Omsk were moderate enough to allay the fears of some of the most sceptical of observers. ‘State-mindedness’, ‘support for the law’, ‘freedom’, ‘a democratic foundation’ – what could be more encouraging? Even General Graves, Commander of the American Expeditionary Force, who was to prove himself no friend of reaction, had to admit that he was impressed. And that, of course, was precisely what had been intended. In drawing up his inaugural declarations, noted Pepeliaev, the Supreme Ruler had instructed his advisers that they should take full account of the fact that ‘the Allies want something said about democracy and the absence of reactionary intentions’.
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- Civil War in SiberiaThe Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak, 1918–1920, pp. 108 - 182Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997