Uniforms of the 8th Kama Admiral Kolchak Rifle Division

Pygmy Wars Notes

The original for this page is at kolchakiya.ru/uniformology/8_Kamsk_shooter_div.htm.

This illustration by A. Lebedeva is a captain of the regiment in Primor'e, with a St. George chevron for the Great Siberian Campaign on the sleeve.

Discussion on the translation choices I have made can be found here.

Flags

A banner is known for the Primor'e period, here.

History of the 8th Kamsk Rifle Division

Taken from Volkov.

Formed in September 1918 from units of the Kamsk-Buinsk Front as the Composite Ufa Rifle Division. Its core was peasant rebel detachments which in June and July 1918 had liberated almost the entire Ufa Province from the Bolsheviks, in assistance with the Czechoslovaks. Three regiments were composed exclusively from volunteer insurgent detachments and the fourth, formed in the autumn, was also largely volunteers. It was one of the largest divisions on the Eastern Front, with between 16,000 and 20,000 men, and one of the most renowned. The officers and men were mostly Russians and Tatars from the Belaya River and the left bank of the lower Kama areas.

It was renamed the 8th Kamsk Division on 1 January 1919. It was part of the 2nd Ufa Army Corps, and then from August 1919, the Ufa Group of the 3rd Army.

It was made up of the 29th Birsk, 30th Askinsk, 31st Sterlitamak, and 32nd Prikamsk Rifle Regiments, the 8th Kamsk Rifle Artillery Divizion (later Brigade, then Regiment), and Shchegolikhin's Cavalry Divizion (also formed from a partisan detachment). Units of the former 8th Perm Rifle Division were incorporated into it.

It played a leading role in the offensive in March 1919. During the retreat to the Ural Mountains and on to Chelyabinsk, it bore the brunt of the Red Army's attacks. In the second half of November, losses in the regiments reached between one-third and two-thirds of their combat strength. At one point there were only 150-200 combat-ready men per regiment. During the Siberian Ice March, up to 100% of the soldiers and 50% of the officers fell ill with typhus. It lost approximately half of its remaining combat strength near Krasnoyarsk and, upon arrival in Chita, was reformed into the 8th Kamsk Rifle Regiment in February 1920.

The 8th Kamsk Rifle Regiment

This was the largest regiment in the Far Eastern Army in Transbaikalia. Upon the withdrawal from Transbaikalia the regiment was disbanded by its commander, at Manchuria station. The remaining officers of the regiment joined the Ufa Regiment as a battalion, which briefly was known as the Kamsk-Belsk Rifle Regiment, although soon returning to simply the Ufa Regiment. Only about 150 men from the Kamsk Regiment arrived in Primor'e.

The regiment was reconstituted after the May 1921 coup and the arrival from Harbin of the regiment's former first commander, Colonel Sotnikov, but initially only as a single battalion. In the summer of 1921 the regiment was joined by Colonel Matrosov's battalion, which had previously been part of General Petukhov's detachment. The regiment was Russians (more than half), Tatars and Bashkirs. Each battalion had three companies; plus there was an officer company, a machine-gun company and a non-combat company. It was part of the Volga Brigade.

When it set out on the Khabarovsk campaign in November 1921, the regiment was able to field no more than 330 men. After the campaign, having suffered heavy losses, it was effectively reduced to a battalion. In August 1922 it was merged into the Kamsk Battalion (Company) as part of the Volga Regiment of the Volga Group.

The Independent Kamsk Cavalry Divizion was another successor unit in Primor'e.