Civil War and Peasants’ Rebellions

During the Civil war Ishym was frequently turned into a scene for fierce battles. The Soviet regime was officially declared in 1918 in Ishym. Soon the major part of the Ishym district was captured by the White Army regiments headed by the admiral Kolchak, whose headquarters it was turned into since July till September 1919. In November Ishym was reconquered by the Red Army.

The population of the fertile agricultural lands around Ishym were for a long period resistant to the Soviet regime. In 1921 the West Siberian rebellion of peasants broke out that was considered one of the largest and the most fierce in the history of Russia. The rebellion flared up in January 31, 1921, when peasants resisted to expropriation of the harvest. Soon the rebellion embraced the whole Tyumen region.

Economics of Russia was in a drastic condition after the World War I and the Civil war. In many regions industry had been completely ruined, and agricultural production had been reduced in twice. For many reasons the peasants in Siberia took the Soviet regime far more painful than the farmers in the Central parts of Russia. First and foremost, unlike the rest of the Russian farmers who were given land in 1917, Siberian peasants had possessed it long before the revolution. Siberian peasants had been closely connected with market, since they suffered a lot from disruption of free market exchange. By summer 1921 the peasants’ rebellion in Ishym had been suppressed by the Red Army, but since then separate rebellion groups would continue their struggle.