Interesting Photos

[Mike Blake]

"The armored train, captured by from the Bolsheviks."

Now this is amazing-never seen one with a slate or tile pitched roof over part of it before, and the tower looks way to big, and seems to be build from wood and stone! Would have expected it to have a heavy gun mounted in it?

I am going to have to do one of these... 

[cuprum]

This improvised armored wagons. Actually this is the usual steel wagon, usually used to transport coal. In the wall just cut slits for machine guns.
Such improvised armored trains were used frequently and everywhere. Including interventionists. Here for example an American armored train in Siberia:

[FramFramson]

Interesting that the American railcar fit on the Russian broad-gauge rails!

[cuprum]

By order of the Russian government in the United States it was made more than a thousand such railcars even before the the First World War.

Americans:



Armored railcar red:



Czech:

[FramFramson]

Ah, if they were purchased for export, that makes sense they would be made to fit Russian rails already.

Interesting that the car kept its very American logo though!

[tin shed gamer]

It's interesting to see that the American troops in the first image are in a dog toothed revetment.Turning the car into a mobile trench.I think I can see that as a model.
Mark.

[cuprum]

I think that the coat of arms of on the American armored train painted ourselves American soldiers.

[cuprum]

American soldiers, like many other interventionists, were engaged mainly the protection of railway lines in the rear of Kolchak from the red partisans. But not always successful - the partisans burned the bridge:

[Golgotha]

Fantastic resources as always I was especially gladdened by pics of Ehrhardt E/V-4 M.1915. Can download a paper one here http://www.landships.info/landships/models.html#

Always good see more trains the number of configurations seems almost endless.

[Etranger]

"The armored train, captured by from the Bolsheviks."

Now this is amazing-never seen one with a slate or tile pitched roof over part of it before, 9and the tower looks way to big, and seems to be build from wood and stone! Would have expected it to have a heavy gun mounted in it?

I am going to have to do one of these... 

Sorry to burst your bubble but they are structures behind the rail wagon. The 'tower' is probably a water tank.

[cuprum]

In Siberia and the Far East, in the rear of the Kolchak white troops fought around 100,000 Red partisans. Actually, no less than a third of them, fought under the anarchist black banners. Armies of anarchists were here even more than Makhno's army. Alas - about it little is known even in Russia itself.
Partisans had big problems with the weapons - about a third of partisans at the time of arrival of the Red Army were armed only with peaks(!), Also had a lot of hunting rifles and even capsular muskets. Often, partisans have used home-made cannon.
Partisans destroying small groups of white and interventionists, destroyed railway lines and bridges, controlled vast areas the countryside. When approaching Red Army captured the even small towns, chased the retreating enemy army.
After the arrival of Reds there were anti-Bolshevik partisans. Often these were those who had previously fought against the White Army, especially anarchists. But they were much smaller - about 30,000 people. Eventually they were defeated and disappeared.

[area23]

Brilliant!

[grant]

This is a photo of my great grandfather, who was a Mennonite living near Odessa. My family left in the 1920s during the Stalinist Harvest of Sorrow.

As Mennonites are non-resisters, he was a rebel for joining the war effort at all, most did forstei service under terms rendered from the immigration under Catherine the Great.

Interestingly, during the Revolution, the Mennonites (well, some of them) picked up arms fought off armed bands looking to pillage, loot, or collectivize their farms. As being of Germanic descent, they were stuck in the middle. The formation of selbstschutzen was a first in nearly 500 years of Anabaptist and Mennonite doctrine. I wrote a paper on it in university, using the translated archives in Winnipeg. There is also a Master's thesis published there surrounding these events. To my knowledge, there are no other investigations into this phenomenon - and Mennonites today cringe when they talk about the resistance. Back to peace, I suppose.

Nevertheless here he is, in a Red Cross or medic uniform, my guess is 1917, with his buddies. One of them scored a nice warm Cossack style hat. My great grandfather is seated far right, looking at the picture, with the cap at a jaunty angle. That's how I roll too. He is like a mirror my father, and partly me. This picture is in my possession.

I hope you find it interesting cuprum, and others - I posted it once before but the mods removed it. Now that we have a thread, I hope it stays as it is relevant and historical.

[cuprum]

Hi Grant. Photos really interesting, it's a pity that it is is not directly related to the theme of the Civil War.

I would like to to correct you some in what - in 1920 to Stalin's repressions was still very far

But the the Mennonites were really big problems. German settlements in Ukraine have been very prosperous, which caused interest among the various criminal and irregular forces. Germans brutally robbed and killed, and the Makhnovists, and the formation of Ukrainian nationalists. Red was carried out violent mobilization in the army, paying no attention to the the Mennonites pacifism. Mennonites have been forced to create armed self-defense groups in order to protect their homes and families. However on this subject among the the Mennonites was a split,  by no means all communities have decided to create such detachments. With the arrival of the white these detachments forcibly headed by the White Guard officers, automatically turning these units into the enemies of the Red Army.

Thus the Mennonites served in arms in the composition and the white and the red army.

I know three very battle-worthy red army units consisting of the Mennonites, very well showed in battles: 1st Ekaterinshtadt German Communist Infantry Regiment, 2nd Baltsersk Infantry Regiment and German cavalry brigade.


Commanders of the Ekaterinenshtadt regiment

In white served volunteers Mennonites in the crew of an armored train "Dmitry Donskoy" in the Life Guards Dragoon squadron white Volunteer Army,
was formed German Jaeger Brigade (but later the Brigade moved to the side of the Red Army).

At us in the Altai region in Siberia, also lives a lot of Germans - have extensive German rural district and the city (Slavgorod), where the predominant german population. During the Civil War, they took an active part in the uprising and guerrilla struggle against the whites and Kolchak.

[grant]

It was the Stalinist collectivization of farms at the end of the 1920s, followed by the Harvest of Sorrow in 1932 (6 million to 14 million Ukrianians are estimated to have died) that caused my family to leave. http://www.amazon.com/The-Harvest-Sorrow-Collectivization-Terror-Famine/dp/0195051807#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1446476125491

Great extra information on the forces, I know the pictures a bit early, but still the uniforms would be similar enough eh?

There's also a good book called Ruslander by Sandra Birdsell which is a fictional account of this period, but based on the experiences of Manitoba Mennonites. A very good read!