Peasant rebellion of Sorokino

Prelude

After the Bolsheviks took power in the October Revolution of 1917, their policies became unpopular among rural populations. A large anti-Communist peasant uprising in Siberia began in mid-1920, driven by tax policies that ruined many peasants. The revolt reached the Altai Mountains, where anarchist partisans under I. P. Novoselov and P. K. Lubkov led the rebels. The Red Army suppressed this insurgency by fall 1920, punishing the peasants severely, though Novoselov and Lubkov escaped into hiding.

Rebellion

A new wave of uprisings hit the Altai region in January 1921, again motivated by opposition to Communist tax policies. Peasants armed themselves to force the communist government from their lands, supported by veterans of the 1920 rebellion. The uprising spread over a huge area east of Barnaul and north of Biysk, with 5,000–10,000 armed peasants rallying under the mottos "For a clean Soviet power" and "Soviets without communists". The center was Sorokino.

White Army veterans and anarchist partisans supported the rebels, who formed units and elected commanders. Main detachments were led by Lubkov and Novoselov, the latter based at Zhulanikha and Julianikh. The alliance of conservative Whites and anarchists showed their desperation against the Red Army; Novoselov planned to turn on the Whites if victorious. In February 1921, a battalion of the 308th Regiment (5th Red Army's 35th Division) and several paramilitary regiments defeated Novoselov's detachment near Sorokino, killing about 400 rebels and five Red Army soldiers.

The rest retreated toward Barnaul. The rebellion's further course is not well documented, but the government eventually crushed it and denounced the rebels as rich Kulaks and bandits.

Aftermath

The Sorokino rebellion regained importance during NKVD Order No. 00447 in 1937, when many former rebels were retried and convicted; those identified as commanders or former White Army officers were mostly executed. In 1972, a monument was erected in Guryevsk for the five Red Army soldiers killed at Sorokino, bearing a plaque reading "To those who died for the cause of the proletariat eternal memory!"