Minusinsk Uprising

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Minusinsk Uprising

The Minusinsk Uprising was a peasant revolt in November 1918 near Minusinsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It happened during the Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War and lasted from November 9 to December 7, 1918.

Causes
Peasants opposed extortion, forced mobilization into the Siberian Army, and repression by White Guards.

Participants
Peasant rebels vs the White Army. Leaders were V. Oshchepkov and I. F. Shilnikov.

Strength
Rebels: about 10,000 people (8,000 unarmed). White detachment: about 3,000.

Key events
- November 9: Rebels defeat a White punitive detachment at Dubenskoe.
- November 11: Rebels capture the Cossack village of Karace.
- Mid-November: Rebels form a unified leadership and plan to attack Minusinsk to defeat Shilnikov and establish Soviet power.
- November 19: About 10,000 rebels under Oshchepkov attack Minusinsk from three sides.
- November 19–21: Shilnikov’s detachment, about 3,000 soldiers, repels the rebel attacks.
- November 27: The uprising is suppressed.
- Fights with individual detachments continue until December 7.

Why the uprising failed
The rebels were poorly armed—no artillery, only about 2,000 rifles and few cartridges—and their detachments did not act in a coordinated way.

Aftermath
The White military court punished many rebels harshly: 87 were shot, 50 forced into servitude, about 200 imprisoned, and around 300 fined. Surviving rebels scattered into the woods and continued guerrilla fighting.