Editing Tambov Rebellion (section)

== Climax of the rebellion ==
On 5 November, two to six thousand rebels, mostly on horseback, attacked the railway station at [[Sampur, Russia|Sampur]] in two coordinated groups, capturing an artillery cannon, some machine guns, and numerous revolvers and rifles. However, they failed in their attempt to sabotage the railway lines and quickly withdrew.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=105}} At the time, Bolshevik reports said that two thousand partisans were still in the woods of [[Novokhopyorsk]], near the station.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=104}} The main source of information that the peasants had about what happened on other fronts were the red prisoners.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=136}} In that month, there were barely 5,000 Bolsheviks in the region.{{Sfnm|1a1=Powell|1y=2007|1p=219|2a1=Werth|2y=1998|2p=132}}

At the height of his power, thanks to their strong popular support,{{Sfnm|1a1=Chamberlin|1y=1965|1p=438|2a1=Mayer|2y=2002|2p=392}} between October 1920 and January 1921, the rebels mobilized 50,000 partisans.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=2014|1p=15|2a1=Khvostov|2y=1997|2p=39|3a1=Werth|3y=1998|3p=132}} By February 1921, they were between 20,000{{Sfnm|1a1=Hosking|1y=1993|1p=78|2a1=Khvostov|2y=1997|2p=39|3a1=Landis|3y=2008|3p=2|4a1=Mayer|4y=2002|4p=392}} and 40,000-strong,{{Sfnm|1a1=Blunsom|1y=2013|1p=252|2a1=Bookchin|2y=2004|2p=329|3a1=Conquest|3y=1987|3p=51|4a1=Mayer|4y=2002|4p=392|5a1=Werth|5y=1998|5p=139}} with half of them acting as full-time combatants and the other half part-time.{{Sfn|Khvostov|1997|p=39}} Around 6,000 were mounted, hindering the government troops, whose lack of mobility undermined their effectiveness.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=93}}

But they never formed an "organized guerrilla army".{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|p=391}} Because of this, most of their actions were impulsive assaults orchestrated by each band against the Bolshevik detachments in charge of requisitioning grain or repressing the villagers. This lack of coordination was, in addition to their poor weapons and training, ultimately decisive in their defeat.{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|pp=391-392}}

They were organized in two armies divided into a total of 21 regiments.{{Sfn|Khvostov|1997|p=39}} Their use of [[guerrilla warfare]] was based on the old tactic of launching [[surprise attack]]s and fleeing immediately afterwards, thanks to their superior knowledge of the terrain and the mobility of their cavalry. Each village was in charge of equipping and maintaining a group of these combatants, which was easy since many were locals defending their own communities.{{Sfn|Bookchin|2004|p=329}} That [[Localism (politics)|localism]] also played into their hands. On the contrary, being too closed in on themselves prevented them from seeking allies in other peasant movements or marching against the big cities, the control of which was what the Bolsheviks worried about because their source of support was the industrial proletariat.{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|pp=391-392}}

By the end of the year the greens had achieved one of the main objectives, the reds had stopped sending units to their territories to requisition grain. The officials in the south of Tambov were incapable of such action, as their resources were destined only to garrison the villages under their control. But the north was at peace, not being a large food-producing region, it never lived through the requisitions that had sparked the revolt.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=155}} The lack of heavy weapons prevented the rebels from taking over the cities, which became havens for communists and government officials.{{Sfn|Chamberlin|1965|p=437}} During that December, reinforcements from the [[Cheka]] began to arrive, numbering 3,500 combatants in the area.{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|p=391}} Two months later its leader, [[Felix Dzerzhinski]], would arrive to direct its operations.{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|p=393}}

During this time garrison officers and local Bolshevik militants complained of their ever-increasing abandonment by Moscow, from where fewer and fewer supplies and reinforcements were sent to them. In fact the military circles of the Red command had decided to concentrate on a great campaign of pacification of Tambov: as soon as their troops flooded the province the movement would soon be finished. In addition, it was increasingly difficult to help them because their main communication links, the armored trains, were continuously attacked in the area.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=154}} During the winter of 1920–1921, food reserves in many towns were exhausted, as in [[Michurinsk|Kozlov]] and [[Morshank]], towns located on the edge of the rebel zone and whose communist garrison saw most of its inhabitants leave or turn to the black market to survive.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=156}}

On 23 January 1921, 250 mounted cadets of the 6th Volche-Karachan regiment managed to defend the town of [[Borisoglebsk]] from a large rebel contingent. For the Bolsheviks, it was key to keep Borisoglebsk and [[Kirsanov]] in their hands, since these were their bastions in the middle of the fields controlled by the rebels.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=155}} During that month, the Bolshevik authorities demobilized 4,000 locals who served in their garrisons because they were not trusted. They immediately joined the partisans.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=216}}

By this time, only half of the desired grain had been collected by the Bolshevik requisition squads. Antonov-Ovseyenko noticed from his own experience that every other farmer in Tambov was starving.{{sfn|Pipes|2011|p=374}} To win over the population, [[Nikolai Bukharin]] was commissioned to draw up "non-coercive measures", in which he recommended that the required grain quotas be lowered.{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|p=393}} In response, on 2 February 1921, the Soviet leadership announced the end of the "''prodrazvyorstka''", and issued a special decree directed at peasants from the region implementing the "''[[prodnalog]]''" policy. The new policy was essentially a tax on grain and other foodstuffs. This was done before the [[10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|10th Congress]] of the Bolsheviks, when the measure was officially adopted. The announcement began circulating in the Tambov area on 9 February 1921.{{Sfn|Landis|2004|p=}}

On 20 March, a general amnesty was also announced for anyone who surrendered. During the two weeks that the amnesty was in place, about 3,000 rebels capitulated, but very few with weapons in hand.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=208}} By then, Bolshevik power had disappeared almost entirely from the region{{Sfn|Bookchin|2004|p=329}} despite having 32,500 foot soldiers and 8,000 cavalry plus machine guns and cannons in the area.{{Sfn|Mayer|2002|pp=393-394}}

By this time, the rebels were able to mobilize large field armies. On 11 April, Antonov gathered 5,000 partisans{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=195}} and launched a [[pincer attack]] on [[Rasskazovo]] (an hour prior he launched a diversionary attack on Nizhne-Spasskoe with a small force).{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=196}} The garrison consisted of a company of infantrymen, a unit of Bolshevik militants, a machine gun platoon, the Volga Infantry Brigade (which had arrived in January from [[Saratov]]), and the 2nd Cheka regiment,{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=195}} and it quickly collapsed. The rebels' goal was achieved: an artillery cannon with two or three hundred rounds, eleven machine guns, four hundred rifles, one hundred thousand ammunition, eighty telephones and 50 [[verst]]s of cable.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=196}} On 24 April, they gathered in the village of {{ill|Kobiaki|ru|Кобяки (Тамбовская область)}}{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=199}} five to ten thousand fighters under the command of "Vaska Karas" (identified as {{ill|Vasili Nikitin-Koroliov|ru|Никитин-Королёв, Василий Васильевич}}) and Vasili F. Selianski. Not everyone participated in the battle. They intended to take the town of Kirsanov, garrisoned by a Moscow infantry brigade led by cavalry commander V. I. Dmitrenko.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=200}} A day later they launched two equally unsuccessful assaults, abandoning 22 machine guns, small arms and ammunition of the victors.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=201}} Pursued by the enemy cavalry, the rebels had 2,000 dead in the following days according to estimates by the communist government.{{Sfn|Landis|2008|p=346}}