Volochayev Days" exhibition

Exhibition project about the participants and circumstances of the battles on the outskirts of Khabarovsk in February 1922. In the Far East of Russia the Civil War began in 1918 and lasted until 1922, two years longer than in central regions of the country.

The final battles unfolded in 1921-1922 in the Primorye and the Amur region between the People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) of the Far Eastern Republic (DVR) and the remnants of the White Army of the Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral A. Kolchak, who adopted the name "White Army".

The Battle of Volochayev, February 10-12, 1922, was one of the crucial and decisive battles of the Russian Civil War. Under the blows of the NRA, the White Guards retreated to the Primorsky Krai under the protection of the interventionists. After the defeat of the "Khabarovsk campaign", Japan withdrew its troops from the territory of Primorye, and the intervention ended. Belopovstantsy with their families went into exile in Korea and China. In November 1922 the DVR became part of the RSFSR and the Russian Civil War was over.

The Volochayev battle vividly revealed the fratricidal nature of the Civil War. Countrymen, former fellow-soldiers, divided by political and ideological views, fought against each other. After the battle, the local peasants, not caring whether the dead belonged to different sides, buried them in mass graves.

The harsh winter conditions and lack of supplies forced participants in the battle on both sides to make additional use:

• Warm shawls,
• Cossack and peasant fur hats,
• Tulupas, etc.

In the photographs both NRA fighters and White Guards look almost identically dressed, often no insignia (epaulettes, stripes, etc.) are visible. Moreover, it is impossible to identify one type of ammunition (cartridges, shells, etc.) and often weapons that would refer to a particular side, it is impossible to say, for example, that the White Army firing exclusively Arisaka rifles (made in Japan) and the NRA fighters using Mosin rifles. Both sides used the same types of weapons. It is no less symbolic that a Volochayevka villager made a pot out of a shell casing and used it for exclusively peaceful purposes. Thus, the unnatural state of the war and the things that reminded us of it were as if leveled out by themselves and by the natural course of life. 

The authors of the exhibition aim to present the events of February 1922 objectively, in terms of current data and information, in a detailed but concise way, so that the visitor can form his own historical picture of the time, interpreting the events of the Battle of Volochayev without simplified class, military-historical, etc. opposition ("red-white", "interventionists-partisans"). With the support of the Russian Historical Society and the "History of the Fatherland" Foundation. The exhibition will open in May 2022.