Anti-Soviet Organizations and Groups in the Omsk Region in 1927: Report of the Omsk Regional OGPU Department to Local Party Leadership

Written by Sushko, Aleksey V. | 09 February 2023
Posted in Publication of archival documents

Document publication

УДК 930.2 94(47)+94(571.13)

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2022-4-1125-1137

Sushko, Aleksey V.

Omsk State Technical University, Omsk, Russian Federation

Anti-Soviet Organizations and Groups in the Omsk Region in 1927: Report of the Omsk Regional OGPU Department to Local Party Leadership

Abstract

The paper studies report of the Omsk regional department of the OGPU to the local party leadership on anti-Soviet organizations and groups in the Omsk region in 1927, reflecting the efforts of Omsk security officers to combat anti-communist opposition, which in terms of the era was “anti-Soviet.” Source analysis of the OGPU information statement shows its high reliability and informative value in relation to presence and nature of opposition in the Omsk region. Thus, diachronic research has become key method for analyzing data of the source. It has helped to analyze the state of opposition in the Omsk district in 1927 and to conclude that there was no real anti-communist opposition that could have been the basis for creation of counter-revolutionary organizations allegedly exposed by Omsk Chekists in the 1930s. Statistical method has made it possible to compare the Cheka data on the number of ex-White officers groups in the Omsk district with information on the number of lishenets officers (those deprived of voting rights) and thus to assess social and political activity of this category of Soviet citizens. Biographical method has permitted to study the document in connection with life and activities of the OGPU employee D.A. Bulatov who prepared it. The author comes to the conclusion that the document objectively testifies of absence of any significant organized anti-communist activity in Omsk in the first half of 1927. The focus of the work of the secret operational unit of the Omsk District Department of the OGPU in relation to anti-Soviet groups was surveyance of ex-White officers, mostly apolitical. This also confirms assessments of contemporary historians, courts, and prosecutors concerning fabricated cases of counter-revolutionary officer organizations in Omsk in the 1930s. The work may be of interest to researchers studying Russian society and activities of Soviet special services in the Stalin era.

Keywords

Historical sources, Omsk, Civil War, Soviet special services, officers, mass political repressions.

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References

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About the authors

Sushko Aleksey Vladimirovich, PhD in History, professor, Omsk State Technical University, department of history, philosophy, and social communications, professor, Omsk, Russian Federation, +7-962-057-13-27, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The article has been prepared with the support of the Russian Science Foundation project, 22-28-20144 “White officers in Soviet Omsk: Social portrait and problem of adaptation (November 1919–1927),” implemented at the Omsk State Technical University.

Submitted 25.05.2022, published (for citation):

SUSHKO, A. V. Antisovetskie organizatsii i gruppy v Omskom okruge v 1927 g.: soobshchenie Omskogo okruzhnogo otdela OGPU mestnomu partiinomu rukovodstvu [Anti-Soviet Organizations and Groups in the Omsk Region in 1927: Report of the Omsk Regional OGPU Department to Local Party Leadership. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2022, no. 4, pp. 1125-1137. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2022-4-1125-1137