[RUSSIAN REVOLUTION & CIVIL WAR — SIBERIA] Five Original Photographs of Victims of the December 1917 Fighting in Irkutsk and Civil War Violence in Siberia

Item #1670

Irkutsk, Taishet, and other locations in Siberia, 1917–1919. Five original gelatin silver photographs on thin photographic paper, approximately 13.5 × 9.5 to 15 × 10 cm. Four with contemporary Russian captions incorporated photographically into the negatives or written directly on the images; versos with later pencil identifications in German and dates. Unmounted. The condition is generally very good. Several photos with small edge tears or handling creases.

A disturbing documentary group of five original photographs recording casualties of the Russian Revolution and Civil War in eastern Siberia, including victims of the December 1917 fighting in Irkutsk and later violence associated with the Siberian Civil War in 1919. The photographs appear to have circulated as documentary images: they are printed on comparatively thin photographic paper, and several carry Russian captions incorporated into the image.

Two photographs relate specifically to the December 1917 fighting in Irkutsk, the armed struggle for control of the city following the October Revolution. Fighting between the Military Revolutionary Committee and Red Guard forces on one side and military cadets, officers, and Cossacks on the other lasted roughly from 8 to 17 December 1917.

The most immediately identifiable photograph depicts numerous clothed bodies crowded together in what appears to be an improvised morgue or collection point. Written directly into the negative is the caption "[Irkutsk, 18 December 1917]". Its verso repeats the location and date in later pencil: “IRKUTSK / 18. 12. 1917.” The date is particularly significant: it immediately follows the cessation of the principal fighting, and historical documentation records that official registration of the dead began on 19 December. One contemporary account cited in the medical literature states that approximately 200 bodies remained unidentified during the subsequent registration process. A photograph described in the Canadian Siberian Expedition digital archive as showing a “pile of dead bodies” following the fighting in Irkutsk bears precisely the same Russian caption, “Irkutsk. 18 December 1917,” suggesting that photographs of this scene entered Allied and military photographic collections.

A second image shows several nude male corpses arranged one upon another. Its Russian photographic caption reads “[Victims of the December Events. In Irkutsk. 1917]". The verso carries a later pencil identification, “IRKUTSK 1917.” The wording explicitly associates the photograph with the celebrated—and exceptionally violent—“December Events” [Dekabrskie sobytiia] in Irkutsk.

The remaining three photographs document violence during the 1919 Civil War in Siberia. One shows bodies lying amid snow, debris, bedding, and heavy blocks of ice or masonry, captioned "[December Events. Irkutsk. 1919]". Its verso is dated "IRKUTSK / 19.12.1919." This photograph therefore belongs not to the 1917 fighting but to the renewed revolutionary crisis in Irkutsk at the end of 1919, when anti-Kolchak forces challenged the White administration as Admiral Kolchak's Siberian regime disintegrated.

Another photograph depicts numerous bodies scattered beside a wooden fence and buildings. The caption reads approximately "[Bodies after the battle at Taishet Station]". The verso carries a later German identification, "BAUERN. FABRIK STADT ORTSCHAFT", evidently an imprecise attempt to describe the subject rather than an original caption. The Russian caption is the more authoritative identification and places the photograph at Taishet, an important settlement and station on the Trans-Siberian Railway west of Irkutsk.

The fifth and perhaps most graphic photograph shows a large number of nude bodies laid out on the ground in an open rural compound. Its partly faded Russian caption reads “[The results of the peasant uprising at the Ocher… works/factory]". The image clearly belongs to the photographic documentation of peasant violence and suppression during the Civil War.

***Historical Content Notice: This group of original photographs is offered solely as historical documentary material relating to the Russian Revolution and Civil War in Siberia, 1917–1919. Several images contain graphic depictions of deceased persons and the aftermath of armed conflict. They are presented for their historical, documentary, scholarly, and collecting significance. The sale and description of these photographs do not endorse, glorify, or promote violence, political extremism, or the acts depicted.

Price: $2,000.00