Syzran during the Czechoslovakian rebellion of 1918: main events, participants, fates

The article examines the events that took place in Syzran during the Czechoslovakian Rebellion of 1918. After making the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty between Soviet Russia and Germany and Russia's withdrawal from the war, the fate of Czechoslovakian prisoners of war became a pressing issue. It was decided to evacuate them first through Murmansk and then through Vladivostok. The trains, carrying the troops of the Czechoslovakian Corps, which numbered about 50,000 armed soldiers, stretched along the railway practically across the entire Russia, from Penza to Vladivostok. The military leadership of the Entente hoped to use these forces to overthrow the Bolshevik government. In this regard, they received support from all anti-Bolshevik forces. All major railway stations along the route of the Czechoslovakian Corps trains became involved in the events of the beginning of the Czechoslovakian Rebellion and the first period of the civil war. The city of Syzran became the second important point after Penza where the not yet fully formed forces of the "Reds" and the "Whites" clashed for the first time in a military confrontation. Almost every day from late May to early October 1918, the city, which found itself in the frontline zone, experienced dramatic events. Power changed hands several times, where each change of power was accompanied by reprisals against activists and sometimes even random people. A significant number of townspeople took a wait-and-see attitude, assuming that they would eventually support the power that proved to be stronger. The "Reds" took the upper hand, losing some of their most fervent activists. The fates of many other participants, both those who held the position of the new government and especially those who supported the "Whites," were forever changed. As a result, there was almost a complete replacement of the city's "elite," with the former nobility, merchants, and officials being replaced by new working-class people. Among those caught in the turmoil in the summer of 1918 was the former city architect of Syzran, Sergey Petrovich Shcherbakov.