Admiral Alexander Kolchak was hastily executed by firing squad in 1920 because anti-Bolshevik White Guard forces were attempting to rescue him from captivity, newly declassified Russian criminal case files have revealed.
The documents from the historical investigation were made public at an exhibition titled Kolchak: History in the First Person, organised by the National Centre for Historical Memory under the President of Russia, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Kolchak, who held the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia during the Russian Civil War, was surrounded and taken prisoner by the Red Army on 15 January 1920. He was executed by firing squad a few weeks later on 7 February 1920 in the eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk.
During the civil war that followed the 1917 Russian revolutions, the anti-communist White movement fought across the former Russian Empire to overthrow Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik government, which was defended by the Red Army.
Interrogations cut short in Irkutsk
According to the declassified criminal case materials, investigators conducted nine interrogations of Kolchak between his capture on 15 January and 6 February 1920. However, the planned interrogation programme was never completed in full.
The case files state that on 6 February 1920, the Irkutsk Revolutionary Military Committee passed a resolution ordering Kolchak to be shot because armed groups loyal to the admiral were attempting to recapture him.
Viktor Pepelyayev, who served as chairman of the Council of Ministers in Kolchak's government, was executed by firing squad alongside the admiral. State security officers carried out the sentence before they had time to interrogate Pepelyayev.
At the same time, security officials released Kolchak's wife, Princess Timireva, who had been with the admiral. According to the declassified document, she was freed from custody under a resolution issued by the commission.
Supreme Court of Russia review of the execution
The exhibition also unveiled a previously classified ruling by the Supreme Court of Russia, the country's highest judicial body, which examined whether the execution of Admiral Alexander Kolchak was legally justified. Although the court completed its review in 2000, the decision was only declassified now.
According to the exhibited documents, military operations against Soviet Russia were conducted on Kolchak's orders and with his knowledge between 1918 and 1920. The records state that those campaigns included mass repression of the civilian population, Red Army soldiers and troops sympathetic to them.
In its ruling, the military court noted that based on those circumstances and the situation at the time, execution by firing squad was a justified measure against Kolchak despite his past merits and earlier service.
Before becoming the head of the White movement's Siberian government in 1918, Kolchak was a prominent polar explorer and naval commander who fought in the Russo-Japanese War and led the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet during the First World War.
