Ruzaevka Republic

Ruzaevka Republic 

during the Revolution of 1905–07, the republic governed by the strike committee in Ruzaevka in December 1905.

On Dec. 10 (23), 1905, the railroad workers of Ruzaevka went on strike, led by an administrative committee headed by the locomotive engineer A. P. Baikuzov. The committee assumed power in the settlement of Ruzaevka and at nearby railroad stations. An armed workers’ detachment of about 150 persons commanded by the Bolshevik L. E. Vitsman maintained revolutionary order. The committee decided to let only trains carrying food and medical supplies pass through Ruzaevka. It kept records of all the food in the settlement, instituted fixed prices, forced local merchants and traders to pay special levies, and issued its own paper money.

After communications with Moscow were cut, the committee took charge of the struggle along the entire railroad. On Dec. 15 (28), 1905, delegates from stations on the Moscow-Kazan line held a conference in Ruzaevka and elected a central strike committee, headed by Baikuzov, for the whole line. On Dec. 21, 1905 (Jan. 3, 1906), after the insurrection in Moscow was suppressed and as reprisals were beginning, the leaders of the Ruzaevka Republic decided to end the strike.

On December 22 (January 4), punitive forces reached the railroad station. Many workers were arrested, and 11 persons were sentenced to imprisonment.

REFERENCES

Ocherki istorii Mordovskoi ASSR, vol. 1. Saransk, 1955.
Firstov, I. I. Mordoviia v gody Pervoi russkoi revoliutsii (Istoricheskii ocherk). Saransk, 1955.
Zarkhii, S. N. Prezident “Ruzaevskoi respubliki”: Dokumental’nyi rasskaz. Moscow, 1968.
Andrianov, F. K. Zarevo nad Ruzaevkoi: Povest’, 2nd ed. Saransk, 1968.