On the eve of the Tokyo trial. The trial of accomplices of Japanese militarists as an echo of the Russian Civil War

Buchko Nikolai Petrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-3816-8672 PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Historical Sciences, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian State University of Justice 680014, Russia, Khabarovsk, Vostochnoye highway, 49 kosta.rika.00.00@bk.ru

The history of World War II ended with trials of German Nazism and Japanese militarism. The last of them was held in the Japanese capital from May 3, 1946 to November 12, 1948 and was named the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The study of the tribunal's materials has been reflected in both domestic and foreign historiography [Golunsky, 1947; Raginsky and Rosenblit, 1950: Nikolaev, 1990; Kuznetsov D.V., 2022; Minear, Richard H. 1971; Japanese War Criminals, 2017; Zhaoqi C., 2020: Ju-ao, Mei, 2021 and However, not all studies examined in detail the content of the process in that part of it, which presented a position reflecting Japan's interference in the internal affairs of Russia during the Civil War. Highlighting this issue in the article makes it possible to actualize the problem of foreign interference in the internal affairs of countries.

Consideration of the history of the judicial process, which dealt with Japan's criminal actions against the world since the early 30s in Asia, when it embarked on the path of aggression against neighboring states, provides an opportunity to assess the events that shaped Japanese policy at the turn of the 20th century on the territory of Russia. During the work of the tribunal, he was presented with an affidavit – the protocol of the interrogation of G.M. Semenov dated April 11, 1946, the former ataman of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army, one of the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik camp of opponents of Soviet power during the Civil War in Eastern Russia[1]. The document presented was based on the materials of the trial of Semenov and other leaders of anti-Soviet organizations operating with the support of Japan in the Far East, although some participants in the process made statements that they had no evidentiary value [Raginsky, p. 61].

It seems that the study of the content of these materials makes it possible, as the purpose of the work, to analyze the nature of the policy pursued by the military forces of the anti-Bolshevik camp, its guidelines and content.

The trial of G.M. Semenov and his associates took place in Moscow from August 26 to August 30, 1946. In the dock were A.P. Baksheev, L.F. Vlasyevsky, I.A. Mikhailov, L.P. Okhotin, K.V. Rodzaevsky, G.M. Semenov, N.A. Ukhtomsky, B.N. Shepunov, then called by Soviet justice White Guards, counterrevolutionaries, spies and agents of Japanese intelligence, whose activities act as the basis of the military politicians during the Civil War in the region^[2]. An analysis of the content of the interrogations of the accused made it possible to identify the substantive component of their policy and the nature of their practical actions.

The official Soviet press reported that the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR considered the case on charges of G.M. Semenov and other participants of anti-Bolshevik organizations of high treason and waging an armed struggle against the USSR in order to overthrow the Soviet system and restore capitalism within the specified time frame^[3].

Consideration of the materials of the Tokyo Tribunal makes it possible to identify the plans of the Japanese forces in the Russian Far East in the 20s. Semenov's testimony also contained information that during his meeting on November 20, 1920 at Manchuria station in Transbaikalia with a representative of the Japanese general Staff, Colonel Isome, who arrived from Vladivostok, there were statements that the Japanese authorities planned to create a government in Primorye headed by an ataman. This was assured by G.M. Semenova and the head of the Japanese diplomatic mission in the Far East, Ts. Matsudaira, who later served as Minister of the Imperial Court in Japan. In Semenov's testimony, it was noted that Japan promised him the necessary funds, weapons and military equipment, and expected assistance from him in eliminating border formalities between the Russian region and the Japanese-occupied part of Korea, which would actually mean the annexation of Primorye to Japan^[4].

G.M. Semenov's testimony that he conducted negotiations with Japanese military representatives, Colonel Isome and Chief of Staff of the Japanese occupation forces, Major General Tanaka in Vladivostok on the separation of Primorye from Soviet Russia^[5] also became a vivid evidence of the proof of Japan's aggressive plans. This confirms the conclusion that Japan's aggressive plans during the period of its participation in the intervention in Russia also included tasks aimed at seizing part of Russian territory in its interests. The Japanese-funded armed forces created by Semenov were also used to implement them. The chieftain noted that at first he was assisted by the representative of Japan, Major Kuroki, and then by the representative of the Japanese military mission, Colonel Kurosawa, who was seconded to Semenov's headquarters by the Japanese government. According to Semenov, back in 1919, the special diplomatic envoy of the Japanese government to the army of the Supreme Ruler Kato, who later became vice minister in the Japanese government, informed him of the proposal of the Japanese General Staff to send eight Japanese divisions to Siberia to support the Kolchak army^[6]. As compensation for these efforts to help the anti-Bolshevik forces, Japan demanded that Russia transfer Northern Sakhalin and Primorye to it. Semenov received the same offer in 1920, but this time from Japanese General K. Tochibana, who became commander-in-chief of the Japanese expeditionary forces in Siberia in 1921^[7]. According to the opinion of the Assistant Public Prosecutor, Colonel of Justice P.A. Kulchitsky, who spoke at the trial, back in 1918. Semenov became a Japanese spy^[8]. And in 1920 The ataman, being the commander of the white army in Transbaikalia, created an extensive spy network that collected information about units of the Red Army^[9]. An analysis of the testimony of G.M. Semenov at the trial, one of the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Far East, makes it possible to conclude that in order to implement their policy, the white forces also acted in the interests of interventionist structures.

Along with G.M. Semenov, his associates in the armed struggle were also accused of crimes against the Soviet government during the Civil War.

General A.P. Baksheev met the events of 1917 as commander of the 1st Verkhneudinsky Regiment of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army. From the same year, he became a member of the Cossack Military Board. Being an associate of Semenov, Baksheev served as chief of the 1st military district of the Trans-Baikal region from February 1919, and on June 16, 1919, he was elected deputy ataman of Semenov as military ataman of the Trans-Baikal Cossack Army. A.P. Baksheev was chairman of the Cossack military government of Transbaikalia, and while in the capital of White Primorye during the establishment of power by General M.In addition to Dieterichs, he was a senior comrade of the Chairman of the Zemsky Sobor, and on July 12, 1922, he assumed the post of military ataman of the Trans-Baikal Cossack army^[10]. All this testified to the significant role of A.P. Baksheev in the organization and work of anti-Bolshevik structures during the Civil War. At a meeting on August 27, 1946, Baksheev testified that in order to suppress the revolutionary movement in Transbaikalia, he created white Cossack squads. These formations provided full support to the units of Ataman Semenov and acted against the partisan formations in Eastern Transbaikalia who were waging an armed struggle against the Japanese^[11].

L.F. Vlasyevsky appeared before the court, who began his participation in the Civil War as a senior adjutant of the Cossack brigade headquarters, after which he commanded the Cossack hundred. Since January 1919, he headed the personal office of General G.M. Semenov, and was actually in the ataman's inner circle. When Semyonov received authority from Admiral Kolchak to lead the Russian Eastern Outskirts, Vlasyevsky was chief of the personal staff of the Commander-in-Chief, and in 1920 he became head of the Cossack department of the Far Eastern Army^[12].

The "ordinary" members of the pro-Semyon structures were also in the dock in Moscow. Staff Captain B.N. Shepunov participated in the Civil War in southern Russia. In 1920, he arrived in the Far East, where he served in the units of Ataman Semenov and the Provisional Amur Government, was the commander of an officer squadron, and until 1922, as part of the Far Eastern Army^[13]. N.A. Ukhtomsky began his participation in the civil war as part of the anti-Bolshevik forces after the Czechoslovak rebellion in May 1918.^[14] At the initial stage of the Civil War, he was part of the Komuch People's Army as the personal adjutant to Colonel A.P. Stepanov, who commanded the Northern Group of Forces. Ukhtomsky continued his participation in the war as an adjutant to the commander of the Shock Corps and participated in combat operations in the Urals until the end of 1919^[15].

Along with the military, the accused group also included a representative of the non-military political anti-Bolshevik forces of Siberia, I.A. Mikhailov, who had been Minister of Finance of the Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia since the end of January 1918. He was in hiding under the Bolsheviks and in May 1918 participated in the overthrow of the Soviet Bolshevik government in Novonikolaevsk. He also served as Minister of Finance of the Provisional Siberian Government. [With Kolchak – against Kolchak, pp. 100-101]. Mikhailov served as Finance Minister in both the Provisional All-Russian Government and the Russian Government of Kolchak. Speaking at a meeting on August 29, 1946, the assistant public prosecutor, Colonel of Justice Kulchitsky, gave Mikhailov a rather unflattering characterization as a minister of the Kolchak government, calling him "a well-lived careerist, schemer and weasel." The state prosecutor also recalled Mikhailov's nickname, "Vanka–cain," which the latter was awarded for his ministerial activities^[16].

The materials of the indictment noted that the investigation revealed the participation of the accused in an active armed struggle against the Soviet government, the existence of plans to overthrow the Soviet system in Russia and restore capitalism. According to the prosecution, Vlasyevsky, Baksheev and Semenov were responsible "... for the villainous murder of the hero of the Civil War, the leader of the partisan movement in the Far East, Sergei Lazo, who was burned alive in the furnace of a steam locomotive by the Japanese and the White Guards," and Semenov and Baksheev were accused of establishing a military dictatorship on the territory of Transbaikalia ^[17].

Some members of the anti-Soviet forces were charged in court in Moscow with their participation in the Civil War against the Soviet government. General Semyonov, as the former commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Russian Eastern Outskirts, was accused of: attempting to organize a conspiracy in 1917 in Petrograd against the Soviet government, intending to arrest Lenin and members of the Petrograd Soviet; waging an active armed struggle against the Soviet government in the Far East in 1918 under the leadership of the Japanese occupation command; receiving large sums of money from the Japanese weapons and uniforms, as well as the formation of military detachments; active struggle against the Red Army and partisan formations led by Lazo; reprisals against the local population who supported the Soviet government; creation, on the instructions of the Japanese command, of an anti-Soviet government in Transbaikalia; participation in the formation of the Amur government in Primorye.

Soviet prosecutors cited Baksheev's crimes during the Civil War as his activities as deputy Semenov, chairman of the Cossack military government of Transbaikalia, where the accused issued orders for the forcible mobilization of the population into White Guard detachments, requisitioned food, fodder and horse livestock from civilians, created punitive squads in villages, and actively fought the partisan movement. Vlasyevsky was accused of forming White Cossack units for the armed struggle against the Red Army. Mikhailov was accused of participating in and preparing the Kolchak coup in November 1918 and organizing an armed struggle against the Red Army^[18].

Consideration of the materials of the charges against Semenov and his associates allows us to conclude that the content of the policy pursued by the military leaders of these forces was anti-national and illegal.

On August 31, 1946, the newspaper Pravda reported in the materials of the chronicle of the Moscow trial that the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR against the leaders of anti-Soviet White Guard organizations in the Far East and agents of Japanese intelligence: ataman G.M. Semenov, sentenced to death by hanging, K.V. Rodzaevsky, who headed the All-Russian Fascist Party, members of which included Russian emigrants in Manchuria, A.K. Baksheev, who served in a Special Manchurian detachment and in various command positions under the command of Semenov, who served under ataman L.F. Vlasyevsky, B.N. Shepunov, who served in the Transcaspian White Army during the Civil War, and after its completion participated in the activities of anti-Soviet structures in the Far East andA. Mikhailov, the former Minister of Finance in the Russian government, Admiral A. V. Kolchak, who was sentenced to death, was executed^[19].

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East refused to accept the text of the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR dated August 26-30, 1946 in the case of Semenov and his associates on the grounds that the mentioned persons were not brought to the Tribunal for interrogation. [Nikolaev A.N., P. 288.].

The results of the study clearly showed that the process of Japan's interference in Russia's internal affairs, which began during the Civil War, was planned and consistent in nature, aimed at implementing aggressive foreign policy plans.

The course of the Tokyo trial, as well as the trial of G.M. Semenov and his entourage in August 1946, once again clearly demonstrated the essence of the foreign policy pursued by foreign states towards Russia at that time, and the anti-Bolshevik formations led by the chieftain acted in their military and political practice with the direct support of Japan, which counted on the satisfaction of their geopolitical aspirations at that time, one of the sections of which was the acquisition of Russian territory, which only emphasized the aggressiveness and illegality of Japanese militaristic plans. And only the efforts of Soviet Russia, both at the end of the Civil War and in 1945, thwarted them, and the trials in Moscow and Tokyo, and a number of others, were the result of the policy of the Japanese authorities.