NKVD, Summary report on reactions of Cossacks in Migulin Raion to lifting restrictions for service in Red Army. April 26, 1936

Original Source: GARF, f. 1235, op. 141, d. 1789, ll. 74-79.

Special Summary

On the Sentiments of Various Segments of the Population of Migulin Raion Based on the Government's Decision to Lift Restrictions on Cossacks for Service in the RKKA and the Order of Comrade Marshal VOROSHILOV, the USSR People's Commissar of Defense, on the Establishment of Cossack Divisions

The Government's decision to lift restrictions on the Cossacks for service in the RKKA and the order of Comrade VOROSHILOV, the People's Commissar of Defense, on the establishment of Cossack divisions were greeted by the population of Migulin Raion with great enthusiasm.

Even though explanatory work and study sessions on the government's decision and the order have not been set up well enough yet, a large portion of the kolkhoz farmers know about them. They are having spirited discussions about them, mostly expressing positive sentiments. They are responding to the Government's decisions and the order of Comrade VOROSHILOV, the People's Commissar of Defense, with production indices.

Before the discussion of the Government's decision to lift restrictions on service in the RKKA, kolkhoz farmer Roman Brekhov of Brigade No. 2 at the KIROV Kolkhoz under the Mrykhovskii Village Soviet did no more than 5 hectares of row planting, but the day after a study session on the Government's decision and the order by the People's Commissar he began to do 7.8 hectares of planting in a shift without changing oxen.

A kolkhoz farmer in Brigade No. 1 at the same kolkhoz, Roman Ivanov, was doing up to 4.5 hectares of row planting before the study session the Government's resolution and the order by the People's Commissar, and began to do no less than 5.5 to 6 hectares after the session.

Kolkhoz farmer Tat'iana Udovkina, 25 years old, was doing 3.5 hectares of harrowing before the study session and began to do 5 and 5.5 hectares on one harrow after the session.

Why didn't they take me into the service a year ago, I would have been in the army for almost a year now and would be learning, I was terribly hurt that the commission didn't allow me into the ranks of the RKKA during the call-up. Well, that's alright, I will go serve in the army in the fall anyway.

(Ivan Ivanovich Zelenkov, a Cossack from the settlement of Alekseevskii, born 1913, poorly literate.)

I want to go into the Red Army very much, but I have these really fine uncles, damn them. Two of them were removed by the NKVD, the third one vanished somewhere, and my father is no better he was also a Cossack sergeant with the Whites, don't worry, they will take me into the Army too.

(Vasilii Semyonovich Nasonov a kolkhoz farmer at the New Life Kolkhoz born 1914 called up into the RKKA on 24 April 1936 and enlisted in the cavalry.)

Well that is very good, now more of our Cossacks will come out of the Red Army developed and literate. They'll get taught there not like we used to get taught, so that we came out of the army and forgot even what we knew when we went into the service.

(Grigorii Osipovich Babkin, a Cossack 50 years old, a kolkhoz farmer at the New Life Kolkhoz under the Alekseevskii Village Soviet.)

Cossacks are people just like the rest of us. They have also realized that Soviet rule builds a comfortable life, that's why the Government met them halfway.

(Pelogeia Ivanovna Plakhova 35 years old, a milkmaid at meat and dairy state farm No. 22 non-Cossack.)

Most of the kolkhoz Cossacks, especially young people, in expressing positive sentiments often show a desire to go serve in the Red Army as volunteers. In certain cases this desire is so great that young Cossack kolkhoz farmers are demanding very persistently that the village soviets petition the Red Army to allow them to enlist.

Why don't they want to take us into the Red Army now, we want to serve too, fellows our age are being dispatched today, but for some reason they don't want to take us. Let the soviet petition them to take us too. Now all Cossacks except people stripped of their rights may serve, and we want to go into the army on our own without waiting for the call-up.

(Gavril Zemliakov a kolkhoz farmer at the Podtelkov and Krevoshlykov Kolkhoz under the Verkhnekovskii Village Soviet and Yevgenii Pshenov born 1914. They were not called up on 24 April 1936 due to a limited call-up. A total of 25 men were taken into the RKKA from Migulin Raion.)

The urge to volunteer for the army is coming not only from young people but also from adult Cossacks. This segment of the Cossacks is especially interested in serving Soviet authority and definitely in the newly established Cossack units. Among old Cossacks people are showing a desire to volunteer for the army--they are promising to achieve, honestly and through dedicated service, the highest medal the Order of the Red Banner.

Ivan Kabkin kolkhoz farmer at the October Revolution Kolkhoz 37 years old Cossack submitted a request to the village soviet addressed to Comrade Voroshilov asking him to admit him into the ranks of the Red Army and without fail through his dedicated service to achieve his decoration with the Order of the Red Banner.

Only an insignificant segment of the Cossacks and non-Cossacks mostly people on file and from the mining works consider the Government's decision and the order of Comrade VOROSHILOV, the People's Commissar of Defense, to be a sign of "the weakness of Soviet authority" in the event of war regarding the Government's measures distrustfully, and in most cases with hostility, as plain pandering to the Cossacks for fear of complications on the impending homefront.

Soviet authority always strangled the Cossacks put them on trial and exxiled them, and now that things look bad in the west and in the east, let's praise the Cossacks. They don't know that a Cossack must get a little praise then they can say he will follow us and things will be taken care of on the homefront too. And the Cossacks if they get a little praise will be happy to try, they will go all out.

(Semyon Fyodorovich Merkulov 56 years old, independent peasant working temporarily at a grain-procurement facility. On file as a former member of a punitive detachment, a counterrevolutionary-minded element.)

With this resolution and order Soviet authority is taking notice and trying to gain favor with the Cossacks, laying the groundwork for the coming war. They are creating divisions made up of the whole population, but they know themselves that there are now more non-Cossacks than Cossacks in the Cossack villages and settlements. Now, they are saying that they're creating divisions made up of the whole population in order to mix Cossacks with non-Cossacks, then they say it will be more reliable. But nothing will come of this effort. As soon as they start mixing a Cossack with a Russian peasant, they will end up with some kind of riffraff. If we have no Cossack blood, they can't serve together with the Cossacks.

(Kulak Stefan Filipovich Chikunov born 1875 Cossack on file as a kulak.)

A segment of the Cossacks, mostly older ages, active White Guards and kulaks speaking out negatively about the Government's Measures in most cases are circulating provocative reports about war coming soon and the demise of Soviet rule.

They can write a hundred resolutions and orders, nothing will come of this. We know the young people are for Soviet authority as it is, but these orders have no effect on the old people. As soon as war starts we know who will go into the woods with us, and from there we will show them on the homefront no matter where they run to.

(Aleksei Khizhnikov 56 years old Cossack Meshcheriakovskii settlement, main facility at the Nikolaev Cossack mining works.)

Soviet authority is now praising the Cossacks because war is about to break out. Well that's all right as soon as the war starts, and it is around the corner, they haven't started pandering to the Cossacks for nothing, they've sensed that there is a smell of gunpowder in the air. We will show them in the rear without waiting for the war to end on the front.

Cossack units are being organized from three oblasts because the rest of the Cossacks are closer to Japan and Germany and Poland, but these are farther away and more reliable but the others in the event of war might take off for those countries. Japan and Germany should crush them, but they are afraid of this Bolshevik plague.

There are only a few isolated negative sentiments among young people and the village intelegentsia, those among the first group are caused by a lack of work with the masses and the influence of their parents, and among the second group the a-s[anti-Soviet] minded segment of the intelegentsia by distrust of the measures that are being carried out.

In case the Cossacks have to fight, the old Cossacks will not go to fight for Soviet rule with enthusiasm but the young ones will fight with great enthusiasm, and even now you might say there are no Cossacks left all of them have either been convicted or exiled.

(Vasilii Vodurin Cossack, kolkhoz farmer 18 years old, resident of Podgorskii son of an active White Guard.)

As soon as Soviet authority started having a hard time they remembered about the Cossacks, but they forgot how they set fire to our brother and exiled him, so let them manage without our brother now there won't be a lot of people willing to go into the army if they force us to go serve, we will have to serve like it or not.

(Vasilii Mrykhin son of a kulak Podgorskii settlement in Migulin Raion placed by us on file.)
HEAD OF THE MIGULIN RAION BRANCH OF THE NKVD

Sergeant of State Security
(Signed) Osipov

Source: Lewis Siegelbaum and Andrei Sokolov, eds., Stalinism as a Way of Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), pp. 207-208.