It started in the village of Yanga Yelan, Menzelinsky Uyezd, Ufa Governorate on February 4, 1920, where local peasants tried to resist confiscation of their food.

When they refused to give up their produce, the leader of the military food requisitioning unit ("prodotryad") arrested some of them.

On February 9 the chairman of Menzelinsk committee and the chief of Zainsk militia were killed in Yanga Yelan.

Their slogans were Down with the communist and the Civil War; long live the Constituent Assembly!

Troops for the Internal Defense of the Republic (Cheka) used heavy machine guns and artillery against them.