Armed opposition to the Soviet Government was confined chiefly to
Eastern Siberia. In the first week of June clashes occurred in
Transbaikalia between the Government troops and the anti-Bolshevist
forces led by General Semenoff. The Soviet troops were apparently
mastering the situation. It was reported that they included armed
Teuton prisoners, and that General Semenoff was expecting Japanese
reinforcements. The other leaders of anti-Bolshevist forces, Admiral
Kolchak, Colonel Orloff, and General Kalmakoff, co-operated in
protecting the railways and massed their troops, which include Russians
and Chinese, for an offensive. The Soviet Government repeatedly
protested to China against the assistance it had given to General
Semenoff, requesting that the Chinese Government should either
close the Manchurian frontier to the General's forces or permit the
Bolshevist troops to cross into Manchuria and subdue the rebel. On May
25 Ambassador Francis published a statement from Secretary Lansing to
the effect that American Consuls had given no aid to General Semenoff,
or any other anti-Bolshevist leader. The message contained an assurance
of "the friendly purposes of the United States toward Russia, which
will remain unaltered so long as Russia does not willingly accept
autocratic domination by the Central Powers."
Late in May a new Government appeared the south of Russia. It claimed
to represent the regions of Don, Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan, and Northern
Caucasus, and was emphatically Bolshevist in its orientation. It was
headed by a dictator, General Krasnoff, who had served under Kerensky
up to the fall of the Provisional Government. His manifesto declared
that the Don Government was a sovereign State, at war with the Soviet
Republic, and on friendly terms with the Ukraine. This manifesto
contained the following statement: "Yesterday's foreign foes, the
Austro-Germans, have entered our territory in alliance with us to fight
against the Red Guard and for the establishment of order on the Don."
Another anti-Bolshevist Government was formed, early in June, in
Eastern Siberia. The new State, which proclaimed itself an independent
republic, purported to include the entire territory stretching from
Lake Baikal to the Pacific, as well as the district of Irkutsk and the
Island of Sakhalin, comprising a population of 2,500,000.
Violent clashes occurred between the Soviet forces and the Czechoslovak
troops, which had joined the Russian Army to fight for the allied
cause. The Czechoslovaks defeated the Soviet army, which was trying to
enforce Trotzky's order to disarm them, seized the railway stations at
Penza, on the Volga, in an effort to force their way to Vladivostok,
and penetrated into the Ural region.