Statistics of the Red Terror against the White Guards in Crimea, 1920—1921

Abstract

The goal: to generalize earlier published and newly found archival sources, dedicated to the largest act of the Red Terror during the civil war on the territory of the former Russian empire — executions in Crimea in November 1920 — April 1921. Finally, determine the number of victims, both condemned to execution and those that went through VChk filtration and ultimately were released. The methodology is based on the principles of scientism, historicism, and a comprehensive study of the archival sources. Case study, chronological, comparative, and genealogy-searching methods were used. Scientific novelty. Previous studies and publications dedicated to said issue were focused on determining the number of those condemned to execution. This article analyzes previously published and newly found sources that concern the number and the ultimate fate of the people who managed to survive during the Red Terror in Crimea. Conclusions. From November 1920 to April 1921, on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, the bodies of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission performed an operation to destroy the remnants of the White Army of General P.M. Wrangel. As a result of the action of different bodies of the Extraordinary Commission, up to 12 thousand people were executed, mostly officers. Executions were performed not only on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, but also outside of it, where the first groups of P.O.W. were brought: in Melitopol, Kherson, and Kharkiv. Privates of the White Army were en masse sent to reinforce the Red Army without any checks by the bodies of the Extraordinary Commission. Soviet penal bodies ultimately registered, investigated, and later released only 9 thousand men. Among the officer cadre that remained in the Crimean Peninsula and were registered later by the bodies of the Extraordinary Commission, the survival rate was approximately 10 %, primarily comprising individuals with academic or technical education. Yet, determining the full number of the White Guards and refugees that survived the Red Terror in Crimea is impossible, because apart from those who immediately joined the Red Army, some were heavily injured and ill in hospitals or hid among the local population.