Tambov Rebellion (nonfiction)
The Tambov Rebellion (historically referred to in the Soviet Union as Antonovshchina), which occurred between 1920 and 1921, was one of the largest and best-organized peasant rebellions challenging the Bolshevik regime during the Russian Civil War. The uprising took place in the territories of the modern Tambov Oblast and part of the Voronezh Oblast, less than 300 miles southeast of Moscow.
In Soviet historiography, the rebellion was referred to as the "Antonov's mutiny", or Antonovschina, named so after Alexander Antonov, a former official of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, a Chief of staff of the rebels. The movement was later portrayed by the Soviets as anarchical banditry, similar to other anti-Soviet movements that opposed them during this period.
The rebellion was caused by the forced confiscation of grain by the Bolshevik authorities, a policy known in Russian as prodrazvyorstka. In 1920, the requisitions were increased from 18 million to 27 million poods in the region. This caused the peasants to reduce their grain production since they knew that anything they did not consume themselves would be immediately confiscated. Filling the state quotas meant death for many by starvation.
See also
- Alexander Antonov (nonfiction)
- Prodrazvyorstka (nonfiction) - a Bolshevik policy and campaign of confiscation of grain and other agricultural products from peasants at nominal fixed prices according to specified quotas.