Kamchatka Could Have Become an Independent Country, Shirikorad Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – Russians have long fantasized about the possibility that the White Armies could have held Crimea against the Bolsheviks and created an alternative Russia there. That was even the subject of Vasily Aksyonov’s 1983 novel The Island of Crimea. But there was another such possibility few have ever heard of – Kamchatka.

            In fact, Russian historian Aleksandr Shirokorad says, Kamchatka’s chances were perhaps greater than those of Crimea, given its isolation from the Russian mainland and the presence of Japanese forces in the area.  At the very least, he suggests in Novoye voennoye obozreniye, it should not be forgotten (nvo.ng.ru/history/2020-06-05/14_1095_kamchatka.html).

            The proximate cause for his article, the historian says, is the fact that Moscow is ready to officially celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Russian civil war later this year when it will be 100 years since Wrangel’s army evacuated Crimea. But in fact, the civil war didn’t end until almost two years later when Admiral Stark withdrew from Vladivostok.

            And that event had echoes in Kamchatka.  At the end of 1917, a Soviet of Soldiers and Workers deputies organized and on January 1, 1918, declared itself the supreme power on the peninsula. But six months later, local industrialists decided to declare Kamchatka autonomous and ousted the Reds from power.

            That change in rule took place on July 11, 1918, when 29 Cossack-Kamchadals arrived and replaced the red flag with the Russian tricolor. The Kamchadals are what the Soviets called those Kamchatka Russians who intermarried with local peoples, including the Itelmens, the Ainu, the Koryaks and the Chuvans.

            What is intriguing, although Shirokorad doesn’t mention it, is that the Ainu there are now seeking official recognition as a nationality (nazaccent.ru/content/33311-kmns-kamchatki-prosyat-gubernatora-i-polpreda.html). If Moscow agrees, other groups including the Kamchadal Cossacks are likely to seek similar recognition.

            Bolshevik forces again took power in Kamchatka after the collapse of Kolchak’s army in early 1920, the historian continues. But even that is not the end of the story of the peninsula’s potential as an independent state.  In the summer and fall, Japanese naval vessels arrived there, leading to a shift in power once again.

            A year later, Bolshevik forces in Kamchatka declared the region part of Soviet Russia, even though some Japanese ships remained there. But then in May 1921, there was a White coup in Vladivostok that cut Kamchatka off from Soviet territory, raising the question of its future status.

            Then, in August 1922, White General M.K. Dieterichs overthrew the Merkulov regime in Vladisvostok and proclaimed his power across an enormous swath of land, including Kamchatka. And, Shirokorad says, immediately after the coup, Dieterichs began thinking about a possible withdrawal to Kamchatka where he felt he could hold out for a lengthy period of time.

            When the Dieterichs government collapsed in October 1922, many expected him to act on this; but it was apparently too late for him to do so. As a result, a few weeks later, Bolshevik forces occupied Petropavlovsk, thus ending the dream of an independent Kamchatka and the civil war not only there but across Russia.