Ziminsky partisan squad: an episode from the history of the anti-Bolshevik underground in Eastern Siberia in 1918

The article describes the history of an anti-Bolshevik underground organization previously unknown in historiography, which arose in the city of Zima, Balagan district, Irkutsk province, in early 1918, and the Ziminsky partisan squad formed by this organization. The article reveals that this underground organization was created by a group of soldiers who returned to their hometown after the collapse of the Russian Army. Unlike other anti-Bolshevik secret military organizations in Eastern Siberia, the Zima underground had no regular officers. According to their political views, a significant part of the members of Zima underground were supporters of the Socialist-Revolutionary party. In April 1918, after an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in the city and hold re-elections of the Council of Deputies, they were forced to flee to the forest, where they formed Ziminsky partisan squad. In July 1918 Ziminsky partisan squad helped units of the Czechoslovak Corps to capture the city of Zima and prevented the destruction of strategically important railway bridge across Oka River by the Reds. Based on a wide range of sources, the article reconstructs biography of leader of Ziminsky partisan detachment, Vladimir Abramovich Shishlyannikov, a member of the Subbotniks sect. The appendix to the article contains documents on the structure and main activities of the Ziminsky partisan detachment: reports by V.A. Shishlyannikov to one of the military leaders of the Czechoslovak corps R. Gaida and the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, as well as the lists of participants of the partisan squad. The introduction of these historical sources into scientific circulation significantly expands the ideas available in historical science about the activities of anti-Bolshevik under-ground organizations in Eastern Siberia in the first half of 1918.

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