Chapaev's adversaries: the Trans-Volga peasants in 1918

The article examines the creation and development of volunteer anti-Bolshevik peasant formations in Nikolaev District of Samara Province at the initial stage of the Russian Civil War. The author argues that a complex study of the history of opposing military formations on the same territory has a big potential. The article is aimed at demonstrating an interrelation between the volunteer military formations of the Red Army commanded by V.I. Chapaev and the opposing military formations which became part of anti-Bolshevik People’s Army. The sources used in the article are unique archival documents which were never mentioned in historical research before. In Nikolaev District large masses of rural population were involved in the military activities of the warring parties of the Civil War. Numerous opponents of the Bolshevik power among the peasants started fighting against the Red Guard and the Red Army, raised uprisings, and formed rebel units. Soon these units joined the anti-Bolshevik People’s Army and the Ural Cossack Host. It was them who actively fought against the military units under Chapaev’s commandment. The author analyzes the destiny of the peasants’ volunteer detachments after they left their native places. It is concluded that the reorganization of peasant volunteer formations into the units of a regular army appeared to be a big difficulty for the anti-Bolshevik governments and their military administration. This problem was solved by the anti-Bolshevik power, by far, less successfully than by the Red Army’s commandment.