Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom

The Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom was a military anti-Bolshevik organization. Created by Boris Savinkov in March 1918 with the sanction of the command of the Volunteer Army in the person of Generals Lavr Kornilov and Mikhail Alekseev. In July 1918, organized the Yaroslavl, Rybinsk and Murom revolts. Uprising in Moscow and Kazan was also preparing, but the arrests of some members of the union in May 1918 thwarted them. After the suppression of the uprisings, the organization actually broke up. It had branches in Moscow, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Murom, Kazan and other cities. In January 1921, it was reinstated at a meeting of Russian emigrants in Warsaw under the name People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom. During 1921–23, the organization made attempts to fight and subversive against the Bolshevik regime: volunteers from the People's Union were sent to the Soviet Union to organize military units and underground groups in order to counter Bolshevik power, recruit supporters and conduct attempts to raise a popular uprising to overthrow Bolshevism. Every tenth day, the Information Bureau of the People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom published multi-page (at least 6–8 sheets) "Bulletins of the Information Bureau of the People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom"; at least 22 issues published; the last known, No. 22, was published on November 17, 1922. In early 1924, the main contingent of the People's Union, operating on the territory of the Soviet Union, was destroyed by OGPU during Operation Syndicate–2. The leader of the People's Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom, Boris Savinkov, died in the prison of the Joint State Political Directorate in the same year.