Tatiana Igorevna Morozova,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“…He is Dying to Become the Secretary of the Uyezd Committee”. The Struggle for Power in the Kirensky Administrative Division of the Irkutsk Governorate (September – December 1925)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-6-3
The article studies one of the episodes of such a mass phenomenon of political everyday life in the 1920s as interpersonal conflicts. Based on the previously unknown archival documents the author establishes the background, reconstructes the main events and describes the results of the struggle for the post of secretary of the Kirensk Uyezd Committee of the RCP(b). Until June 1925, this position was held by P.P. Bagryantsev, and after his recall, the Irkutsk Governorate Committee of the RCP(b) refused to send a new official and proposed to the Uyezd Committee of the party to nominate one from locals. As a result, the plenum of the Kirensk Uyezd Committee unanimously elected S.I. Tychkov, who had recently arrived in Kirensk to work as chairman of the Uyezd Executive Committee of the Soviets. Lack of experience, hostage relations with the new chairman of the Uyezd Executive Committee M.I. Belousov and the head of the Uyezd Financial Department I.V. Kurmakin, as well as the long absence from the uyezd weakened positions of S.I. Tychkov crucially. An additional factor that led to an imbalance in the power dynamic was the appointment of N.V. Ovsyannikov as the head of the organizing department, and later – deputy secretary of the Kirensky Uyezd Committee of the RCP(b). Being a young, energetic and ambitious communist, he stood out noticeably from the rest due to the knowledge that he obtained during the courses for uyezd party workers under the Central Committee of the RCP(b). M.I. Belousov and I.V. Kurmakin supported the career aspirations of N.V. Ovsyannikov, which ultimately resulted in a campaign of members of the presidium to remove S.I. Tychkov from the post of secretary of the Uyezd Committee. On December 22nd 1925, the presidium decided to send S.I. Tychkov to Irkutsk, and on December 23rd – to expel him from the RCP(b). The presidium, without any agreement with the Governorate Committee of the party, appointed N.V. Ovsyannikov as a new secretary of the Uyezd Committee. In this conflict, the governorate party leadership initially supported S.I. Tychkov and ordered to recall M.I. Belousov, I.V. Kurmakin and N.V. Ovsyannikov from Kirensk. The article shows that it was the decision that draw N.V. Ovsyannikov to commit suicide. It concludes that the Governorate Control Commission, which investigated the incident and justified the actions of the Irkutsk Governorate Committee, wrongfully claimed uyezd party leadership, including S.I. Tychkov, was responsible for everything that happened. Thus, suicide became not only the culminatiun, but also a real turning point of the described conflict, which noticeably distinguishes it from many others.
Publishing: 28/12/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 03/10/2022
How to cite: Morozova T.I. “…He is Dying to Become the Secretary of the Uyezd Committee”. The Struggle for Power in the Kirensky Administrative Division of the Irkutsk Governorate (September – December 1925) // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 6 (26), pp. 39–54. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-6-03.pdf]
Links: Issue 6 2022
Keywords: RCP(b); Kirensk Uyezd Committee of the RCP(b); party and Soviet leadership; power struggle; conflict; interpersonal conflict; suicide; Siberia; Kirensk