The Great Anti-Bolshevik Campaign
July-September 1924
For the duration of the summer, the thoughts dominating everyone’s minds were centered on the renewed threat of the communists. Tens of thousands had fled to Alaska seeking refuge from the red menace, but now it seemed even distant Alaska was in the crosshairs of the Bolsheviks. Would it be the next to fall? The official and major responses were two-fold, gathering a massive coalition army of factions to fight the communists, and the creation of more police units by several groups.
One man however, decided the communist menace was not worthy of consideration. Major von Zimländer ignored the Bolshevik forces and instead ordered his men to build a school in Alayskagorod. His men had worked near continuously on building projects and training since they arrived in Alaska, and they were anxious to do something else. They had come to Alaska to fight against the forces of communism after all, so why were they not going to fight their avowed enemy? His men flat-out refused to work on the school, and one hundred of them would desert to join the Great Anti-Bolshevik Expedition.
Admiral Baranov did not give much focus to the communist threat either. He continued to encourage the expansion of his All-Russian Police Force through the Alaskan interior, to moderate success, but as with less than prior seasons, as competing semi-police forces were formed by Tarakyo and Pepelyayev. 25 more members joined the ARPF, and much of central Alaska was under their watch though. The Admiral also had his men build a small medical clinic in Alayskagorod for his ships’ doctors to operate, and this was mildly successful. Health in the town has noticeably improved.
Pepelyayev sought to create a different police force than Baranov, one loyal to him, and able to function as a militia if need be. His Frontiersmen, as he named them, were primarily created in western Alaska as the Great Anti-Bolshevik Expedition entered the region, numbering 40 members by the end of the season. Pepelyayev also sent agents around Alaska, encouraging further use of the Susobuk Ruble and inquiring about issues they had. Most of Alaska had already adopted the Susobuk Ruble, so further efforts to encourage that made little impact. Many complaints were lodged with the agents, such as fears of communism, including numerous accusations of neighbors, as well as shortfalls in crops and a lack of infrastructure. Despite Pepelyayev’s efforts earlier in the year to support farmers and ensure a good harvest, it seemed yields would fall short of needs, and Alaska would need to rely on foreign aid for another winter.
Tarakyo also decided a police force was a good idea to make, though he focused his efforts on making one within Novoarkhangelsk. While it was difficult at first to find members for it, due to most able bodied men already serving one armed group or another, several ex-Wrangel men joined after another season without word from the once respected general. By the end of the summer 55 men were part of the Novoarkhangelsk Police Force, responsible primarily for the areas not directly under the supervision of Susobuk and Bralya.
By far the largest operation of the season was the gathering of the Great Anti-Bolshevik Expedition. Pepelyayev and Tarakyo were the primary organizers, with Pepelyayev determined to lead the force personally. Each sent a substantial number of men, 300 of Pepelyayev’s and 350 from Tarakyo’s joint groups, but both also spent serious efforts recruiting further support for their campaign. The primary target of this was Wrangel, who had not been seen in nearly a year, and who still had the loyalty of the largest armed group in Alaska. Wrangel’s 740 men, primarily veteran White soldiers, greatly desired to crush the communists, and defected in droves to join the expedition. 400 men joined Pepelyay, 150 joined Bralya, and 40 joined Tarakyo’s fledging police force. A mere 150 men retained enough loyalty to Wrangel to not switch their allegiance. Pyotr Doleskov, Commander of the Alaska Guard, also defected from Wragnel and joined the expedition. The American marines also volunteered a company of 100 men to join the expedition, determined to not allow a communist presence in the Western Hemisphere. In all the expedition gathered together 1,400 armed men and soldiers by the time it left the capital. A further 100 men would join at Alayskagorod, defected from the German Legion. 1,500 men entered Western Alaska to hunt down and destroy an estimated 200 communists.
At first the expedition made slow progress. Pepelyayev had spent a great deal of effort gathering supplies for the force, but much foraging was still needed. It wasn’t until mid-August when they reached the site of the Battle of White Mountain. The location had been picked clean of usable equipment and valuables by the communists, but the bodies had been left in the open all summer, leaving a ghastly sight and smell for the expedition. Anger and hate swept through the ranks, and many were tearing at the bit to hunt down and exterminate the communists, even more than previously. Though they found little evidence at the battle site of where the communists went, they found a much better lead in nearby villages. The Communists had apparently entered every village they could, forcing any able-bodied men to join their ranks. From this, it was trivially easy for the expedition to simply travel from village to village in trail of the Bolsheviks, leading further and further east. Whatever effort the Bolsheviks made to hide their movements was completely undone by their insistence on entering every village. It is estimated the Bolsheviks had managed to conscript 50 new men for their forces, but with much less experience and willingness to fight than their prior forces.
Finally, on September 16th, the expedition entered a village to find that the communists had left merely an hour beforehand. Not wanting to waste time, the forward elements of the expedition rushed forward, Pepelyayev at the command of 130 of his own men, 70 Susobuk men, 50 Bralya men, 20 Germans and 30 American Marines. This force of 300 hoped to catch up to the Bolsheviks and engage them before they could escape, giving time for the rest of the expedition to arrive and crush the communists through sheer numbers. After a hard march, the vanguard force came upon the Communists as they were trying to cross a creek, with sunset only a couple hours away. Wasting no time, General Pepelyayev ordered his forces to assault the Bolsheviks, who were only just realizing they had been discovered.
Only a portion of the communists were on the west bank of the creek, facing the advancing Anti-Bolshevik forces. Several of men who had been forced to join the communists tried to throw down their arms and surrender to the expedition, but more ardent communists began to shoot them, and discouraged further surrender attempts. They then attempted to finish crossing the river, to put a natural barrier between them and their enemy. A good deal of distance remained between the expedition and the communists, so they thought they had time to cross. However, they were too used to the general quality of the semi-professional units endemic to Russia and Alaska since the end of the Great War, and underestimated their opponents’ capabilities. The American marines, and to a lesser extent the members of the German legion, were better trained than any of the Russian forces, and able to put accurate fire against the Bolsheviks much sooner than they expected. Faced with a virtual massacre if they continued trying to cross the creek, the few dozen remaining communists decided to dig in on the west bank, and hope they could hold out till dusk with support from their comrades on the east bank.
Pepelyayev saw this unfolding, and began to weigh his options. He had the forces to crush the communists on his bank, even more so with the arrival of the reminder of the expedition. Yet, this would be fairly costly, and might allow the Bolsheviks on the far bank to escape. If he attempted to remain at a distance and fire on both banks, he might kill more of the communists, yet with dusk fast approaching, they were likely to slip away. He decided that the best course of action would be to ensure the destruction of the entire communist force, which he would achieve by having the main body of the expedition flanking well around the battlefield, to cross the creek at other points and encircle the Bolsheviks. The vanguard would remain with him, putting pressure on the communists, even into the night, to prevent their withdrawal. It was a solid plan, and he was certain it would bring an end to the Bolshevik menace.
The plan began well enough, with the Communists suffering losses from the exchange of fire along the banks, and the rest of the expedition reached the flanking points along the creek easily enough, roughly an hour before sundown. But the plan ran into a serious problem when the communist commander, one Abramov, noticed the large flanking forces, and realized the expedition’s true size, as well as their intentions. Deciding the battle was lost to him, Abramov ordered his forces to abandon their comrades still trapped on the west bank, and begin a retreat, hoping to escape the flanking force of the expedition before they could engage him. With the communists disengaging, the conscripted men on the east bank decided to use the confusion to attempt to defect to the expedition. Learning from the prior attempt that the communists would shoot them for this, they opened fire on the Bolsheviks first. Abramov was one of the first casualties from this “betrayal”, and mass confusion broke out. Some Bolsheviks caught on to the defection attempt and opened fire on them, however others did not, and merely saw their comrades firing on each other. Many begin to fire at random, in a panic. All attempts at an organized retreat cease.
Pepelyayev had grown quite concerned when he saw the communists on the east bank begin to withdraw, fearing correctly that his plan had been discovered. He ordered his vanguard to press the remaining Bolsheviks on the west bank with all they could to break them and allow a pursuit of the far forces. The sudden outbreak of infighting of the communist forces was not made clear to him immediately, and many of the vanguard died conducting a frontal assault against the communists. But by sundown, the west bank had been secured, and those still capable of fighting were rushed across the creek by Pepelyayev. The sight they met on arrival of the hill on the far side of the creek was shocking. Dozens of dead Bolsheviks, with the rest of the expedition in the distance finishing off the few remaining Bolsheviks. Closer to the creek, several defectors came forward, trying to explain their circumstances to Pepelyayev’s men before they were gunned down. After understanding that they had been forced to fight by the communists, and had turned on them when given a chance, Pepelyayev allowed the 8 survivors to return to their homes, after confiscating their weapons.
The Battle of Blood Creek had been much shorter than either side predicted, but it was no less costly. The entire communist force had been annihilated, barring the 8 defectors. Pepelyayev lost 70 men in the engagement, Susobuk 30 men, Bralya 30 men, the German Legion 12 men, and the American Marines 18 men. Nearly a tenth of the expedition had perished in the fighting, with many more wounded. Yet despite this, the Bolshevik menace had been crushed, and Pepelyayev and the forces with him were hailed as heroes, a firm sign that Alaska would not follow Russia in falling to communism. Pepelyayev was near universally recognized as the leader of Alaska, with the only remaining dissenters a handful of Wrangel diehards and the lands occupied by the waning Russian republic. Admiral Coontz, of the American taskforce has declared confidence in Pepelyayev, and implied that once he forms a working government, the Americans will begin to prepare for withdrawal from Alaska. As is, Alaska remains ruled by whatever ad hoc officials are called upon at present, with no official bureaucracy, institutions, or even form of government. Much work lies ahead for Pepelyayev, and whomever he relies upon to assist in the creation of a functioning state in Alaska.
[Pepelyayev +1, Zimländer -1, Abramov is dead]
