Uniforms of the Black Partisan Detachment, Minusinsk District, 1930

All material and reconstructions are by A. Karevskiy.

Between 20 August and 1 September, the following most serious banditry incidents took place in the Siberian region:

Minusinsk district

In the area of the villages of Sayanovka and Grigorievka (15-27 km southeast of Ermakovskoe) at the junction with the Karatuzsk district, a gang of more than 30 people armed with three-line and hunting rifles appeared on 11 August, consisting mainly of kulaks who had fled from their places of settlement. The gang was led by former White Army officer Mishin, the head of a counter-revolutionary rebel organisation that had been liquidated in the area, who had gone into hiding to avoid arrest.

Preparations for the uprising in the Ermakovskoe district had been underway since the spring of that year. The uprising began in the villages of Salby and Kebezh. After that other villages were swept up in the movement. Simultaneously with the preparations for the uprising in the villages, gangs of fugitive kulaks were being formed in the taiga.

At the start of the uprising, the main gang consisted of 26 people (4 kulaks and 22 wealthy peasants). The gang wore black arm-bands and called themselves "black partisans". In the first few days, 12 kulaks, 20 middle peasants, and 8 poor peasants joined. The total number of participants reached 173 people. Of these, 29 were kulaks, 22 were wealthy peasants, 104 were middle peasants, and 18 were poor peasants.

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Arm-band of members of the "Black Partisans" detachment

Reconstruction of the appearance of the "Black Partisans", wearing the most common and typical examples of everyday peasant clothing in the early 1930s.