At the first stage of the Civil War of 1917 - 1922/23, two powerful opposing forces took shape - "red" and "white". The first represented the Bolshevik camp, whose goal was a radical change in the existing system and the construction of a socialist regime, the second - the anti-Bolshevik camp, striving to return the order of the pre-revolutionary period.

The period between the February and October revolutions is the time of the formation and development of the Bolshevik regime, the stage of accumulation of forces. The main tasks of the Bolsheviks before the outbreak of the Civil War were: the formation of a social support, transformations in the country that would allow them to gain a foothold at the top of power in the country, and protect the achievements of the February Revolution.

The methods of the Bolsheviks in strengthening power were effective. First of all, this concerns propaganda among the population - the slogans of the Bolsheviks were relevant and helped to quickly form the social support of the "Reds".

The first armed detachments of the "Reds" began to appear at the preparatory stage - from March to October 1917. The main driving force behind such detachments were workers from industrial regions - this was the main force of the Bolsheviks, which helped them come to power during the October Revolution. At the time of the revolutionary events, the detachment numbered about 200,000 people.

The stage of formation of the power of the Bolsheviks required the protection of what was achieved during the revolution - for this, at the end of December 1917, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was created, headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. On January 15, 1918, the Cheka adopted a Decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, and on January 29, the Red Fleet was created.

Analyzing the actions of the Bolsheviks, historians do not come to a consensus about their goals and motivations:

The most common opinion is that the “Reds” initially planned a large-scale Civil War, which would be a logical continuation of the revolution. Fighting, the purpose of which was to promote the ideas of the revolution, would have consolidated the power of the Bolsheviks and spread socialism throughout the world. During the war, the Bolsheviks planned to destroy the bourgeoisie as a class. Thus, based on this, the ultimate goal of the "Reds" is a world revolution.

One of the admirers of the second concept is V. Galin. This version is fundamentally different from the first - according to historians, the Bolsheviks had no intention of turning the revolution into a Civil War. The goal of the Bolsheviks was to seize power, which they succeeded in the course of the revolution. But the continuation of hostilities was not included in the plans. The arguments of the fans of this concept: the transformations planned by the "Reds" demanded peace in the country, at the first stage of the struggle, the "Reds" were tolerant of other political forces. A turning point regarding political opponents occurred when in 1918 there was a threat to lose power in the state. By 1918, the "Reds" had a strong, professionally trained enemy - the White Army. Its backbone was the military times of the Russian Empire. By 1918, the fight against this enemy became purposeful, the army of the "Reds" acquired a pronounced structure.

At the first stage of the war, the actions of the Red Army were not successful. Why?

Recruitment to the army was carried out on a voluntary basis, which led to decentralization and disunity. The army was created spontaneously, without a specific structure - this led to a low level of discipline, problems in managing a large number of volunteers. The chaotic army was not characterized by a high level of combat capability. Only since 1918, when the Bolshevik power was under threat, did the "Reds" decide to recruit troops according to the mobilization principle. From June 1918, they began to mobilize the military of the tsarist army.

The second reason is closely related to the first - against the chaotic, non-professional army of the "Reds" were organized, professional military, which at the time of the Civil War, participated in more than one battle. The "Whites" with a high level of patriotism were united not only by professionalism, but also by the idea - the White movement stood for a united and indivisible Russia, for order in the state.

The most characteristic feature of the Red Army is uniformity. First of all, it concerns the class origin. Unlike the "whites", whose army included professional soldiers, workers, and peasants, the "reds" accepted only proletarians and peasants into their ranks. The bourgeoisie was to be destroyed, so an important task was to prevent hostile elements from entering the Red Army.

In parallel with the hostilities, the Bolsheviks were implementing a political and economic program. The Bolsheviks pursued a policy of "red terror" against hostile social classes. In the economic sphere, "war communism" was introduced - a set of measures in the domestic policy of the Bolsheviks throughout the Civil War.

Biggest victories for the Reds:

• 1918 - 1919 - the establishment of Bolshevik power on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia.
• The beginning of 1919 - the Red Army goes on the counteroffensive, defeating the "white" army of Krasnov.
• Spring-summer 1919 - Kolchak's troops fell under the blows of the "Reds".
• The beginning of 1920 - the "Reds" ousted the "Whites" from the northern cities of Russia.
• February-March 1920 - the defeat of the rest of the forces of Denikin's Volunteer Army.
• November 1920 - the "Reds" ousted the "Whites" from the Crimea.
• By the end of 1920, the "Reds" were opposed by scattered groups of the White Army. The civil war ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks.

Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny - Soviet military leader, commander of the First Cavalry Army of the Red Army during the Civil War, one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union.

He created a revolutionary cavalry detachment that acted against the White Guards on the Don. Together with the divisions of the 8th Army, they defeated the Cossack corps of Generals Mamontov and Shkuro. Troops under the command of Budyonny (14th Cavalry Division Gorodovikov O.I.) took part in the disarmament of the Don Corps Mironov F.K., who went to the front against Denikin A.I., allegedly for an attempt to raise a counter-revolutionary rebellion.

Post-war activities:

Budyonny is a member of the Revolutionary Military Council, and then deputy commander of the North Caucasian Military District.

Budyonny became the "godfather" of the Chechen Autonomous Region

Budyonny is appointed assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Red Army for cavalry and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Red Army cavalry inspector.

Graduates from the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze.

Budyonny commanded the troops of the Moscow Military District.

Member of the Main Military Council of the NPO of the USSR, Deputy People's Commissar.

First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense

Blucher V.K. (1890-1938)

Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher - Soviet military, state and party leader, Marshal of the Soviet Union. Cavalier of the Order of the Red Banner No. 1 and the Order of the Red Star No. 1.

He commanded the 30th Infantry Division in Siberia and fought against the troops of A. V. Kolchak.

He was the head of the 51st Infantry Division. Blucher was appointed commander of the 51st Rifle Division, which was transferred to the reserve of the High Command of the Red Army. In May, he was appointed head of the West Siberian sector of the VOKhR. Appointed Chairman of the Military Council, Commander-in-Chief of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic and Minister of War of the Far East.

Post-war activities:

He was appointed commander of the 1st Rifle Corps, then - commandant and military commissar of the Petrograd fortified area.

In 1924 he was seconded to the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR

In 1924 he was sent to China

Participated in the planning of the Northern campaign.

He served as assistant commander of the Ukrainian military district.

In 1929 he was appointed commander of the Special Far Eastern Army.

During the fighting near Lake Khasan, he led the Far Eastern Front.

• He died from beatings during the investigation in Lefortovo prison.

Tukhachevsky M.N. (1893-1937)

Kamenev S.S. (1881-1936)

Post-war activities:

Red Army Inspector.

Chief of Staff of the Red Army.

Chief Inspector.

Head of the Main Directorate of the Red Army, chief head of the tactics cycle of the Military Academy. Frunze.

At the same time a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

Deputy People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR.

He was admitted to the CPSU (b).

He was appointed head of the Air Defense Directorate of the Red Army

• Kamenev was awarded the rank of commander of the 1st rank.

Vatsetis I.I. (1873-1938)

Ioakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis - Russian, Soviet military leader. Commander of the 2nd rank.

After the October Revolution, he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks together. He was the head of the operational department of the Revolutionary Field Headquarters at the Headquarters. He led the suppression of the rebellion of the Polish corps of General Dovbor-Musnitsky. Commander of the Latvian Rifle Division, one of the leaders of the suppression of the Left SR rebellion in Moscow in July 1918. Commander of the Eastern Front, Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the RSFSR. Simultaneously commander of the Army of Soviet Latvia. Since 1921, he has been teaching at the Military Academy of the Red Army, commander of the 2nd rank.

Commander of the established Volunteer Army. Killed on 04/13/1918 during the assault on Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) in the 1st Kuban (Ice) campaign.

Krasnov P.N. (1869-1947)

Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov - General of the Russian Imperial Army, Ataman Great Don Army, military and political figure, famous writer and publicist.

Don army Krasnov occupied the territoryRegions of the Don Cossacks, knocking out parts Red Army and he was elected chieftain Don Cossacks. The Don army in 1918 was on the verge of death, and Krasnov decided to unite with the Volunteer Army under the command of A. I. Denikin. Soon Krasnov himself was forced to resign and went toNorthwest Army Yudenich , based in Estonia.

Post-war activities:

Emigrated in 1920. Lived in Germany, near Munich

Since November 1923 - in France.

Was one of the foundersBrotherhood of Russian Truth»

Since 1936 lived in Germany.

Since September 1943 the chief Main Directorate of the Cossack TroopsImperial Ministry of Eastern Occupied Territories Germany.

In May 1945 surrendered to the British.

He was transferred to Moscow, where he was kept in the Butyrka prison.

By verdict Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSRP. N. Krasnov hanged in Moscow, inLefortovo prison January 16, 1947.

Grigory Mikhailovich Semyonov - Cossack ataman, leader of the White movement in Transbaikalia and the Far East,lieutenant general white army . Continued to form Transbaikalia equestrian Buryat-Mongolian Cossack detachment. Three new regiments were formed in Semyonov's troops: the 1st Ononsky, the 2nd Akshinsko-Mangutsky and the 3rd Purinsky. Was created military school for junkers . Semyonov was appointed commander of the 5th Amur Army Corps. Appointed commander of the 6th East Siberian Army Corps, assistant to the chief commander of the Amur Territory and assistant commander troops of the Amur Military District, commander of the troops of the Irkutsk, Trans-Baikal and Amur military districts.

In 1946 he was sentenced to death.

Yudenich N.N. (1862-1933)












Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich- Russian military leader, infantry general.

In June 1919 Kolchak appointed him commander-in-chief of the North-West. army, formed by the Russian White Guards in Estonia, and became part of the Russian White Guard North-Western government formed in Estonia. Undertook from the north-west. army second campaign against Petrograd. The offensive was defeated near Petrograd. After the defeat of the north-west. army, was arrested by General Bulak-Balakhovich, but after the intervention of the allied governments, he was released and went abroad. Died frompulmonary tuberculosis.




Results of the Civil War




In a fierce armed struggle, the Bolsheviks managed to keep power in their hands. All state formations that arose after the collapse of the Russian Empire were liquidated, with the exception of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland.


20. Civil war in Russia. The history of homeland

20. Russian Civil War

The first historiographers of the civil war were its participants. A civil war inevitably divides people into “us” and “them”. A kind of barricade lay both in understanding and in explaining the causes, nature and course of the civil war. Day by day we understand more and more that only an objective view of the civil war on both sides will make it possible to approach historical truth. But at a time when the civil war was not history, but reality, it was looked at differently.

Recently (80-90s) the following problems of the history of the civil war have been at the center of scientific discussions: the causes of the civil war; classes and political parties in the civil war; white and red terror; ideology and social essence of “war communism”. We will try to highlight some of these issues.

An inevitable companion of almost every revolution is armed clashes. Researchers have two approaches to this problem. Some consider civil war as a process of armed struggle between citizens of one country, between different parts of society, while others see civil war as only a period in the history of a country when armed conflicts determine its entire life.

As for modern armed conflicts, social, political, economic, national and religious reasons are closely intertwined in their occurrence. Pure conflicts, where there would be only one of them, are rare. Conflicts predominate, where there are many such reasons, but one dominates.

20.1. Causes and the beginning of the civil war in Russia

The dominant feature of the armed struggle in Russia in 1917-1922. there was a socio-political confrontation. But the civil war of 1917-1922. cannot be understood from the class side alone. It was a tightly woven ball of social, political, national, religious, personal interests and contradictions.

How did the civil war in Russia start? According to Pitirim Sorokin, usually the fall of a regime is not so much the result of the efforts of the revolutionaries, but rather the decrepitude, impotence and inability of the regime itself to carry out creative work. To prevent a revolution, the government must make certain reforms that would remove social tension. Neither the government of Imperial Russia nor the Provisional Government found the strength to carry out reforms. And since the escalation of events required action, they were expressed in attempts at armed violence against the people in February 1917. Civil wars do not begin in an atmosphere of social peace. The law of all revolutions is such that after the overthrow of the ruling classes, their striving and attempts to restore their position are inevitable, while the classes that have come to power try by all means to preserve it. There is a connection between revolution and civil war, in the conditions of our country the latter after October 1917 was almost inevitable. The causes of the civil war are the extreme intensification of class hatred, the exhausting First World War. The deep roots of the civil war must also be seen in the character of the October Revolution, which proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly stimulated the unleashing of the civil war. The all-Russian power was usurped, and in a society already split, torn apart by the revolution, the ideas of the Constituent Assembly, the parliament could no longer find understanding.

It should also be recognized that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk offended the patriotic feelings of the broad sections of the population, primarily the officers and the intelligentsia. It was after the conclusion of peace in Brest that the White Guard volunteer armies began to actively form.

The political and economic crisis in Russia was accompanied by a crisis of national relations. The white and red governments were forced to fight for the return of the lost territories: Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia in 1918-1919; Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Central Asia in 1920-1922 The Russian Civil War went through several phases. If we consider the civil war in Russia as a process, then it becomes

it is clear that its first act was the events in Petrograd at the end of February 1917. In the same series, there are armed clashes on the streets of the capital in April and July, the Kornilov uprising in August, the peasant uprising in September, the October events in Petrograd, Moscow and a number of others places.

After the abdication of the emperor, the country was seized by the euphoria of the “red-bow” unity. Despite all this, February marked the beginning of an immeasurably deeper upheaval, as well as an escalation of violence. In Petrograd and other areas, the persecution of officers began. Admirals Nepenin, Butakov, Viren, General Stronsky and other officers were killed in the Baltic Fleet. Already in the first days of the February Revolution, the anger that arose in people's souls spilled onto the streets. So, February marked the beginning of the civil war in Russia,

By the beginning of 1918, this stage had largely exhausted itself. It was precisely this position that the Socialist-Revolutionary leader V. Chernov stated when, speaking at the Constituent Assembly on January 5, 1918, he expressed hope for an early end to the civil war. It seemed to many that a turbulent period was being replaced by a more peaceful one. However, contrary to these expectations, new centers of struggle continued to emerge, and from the middle of 1918 the next period of the civil war began, ending only in November 1920 with the defeat of the army of P.N. Wrangel. However, the civil war continued after that. Its episodes were the Kronstadt uprising of the sailors and Antonovshchina in 1921, military operations in the Far East, which ended in 1922, Basmachism in Central Asia, which was mostly liquidated by 1926.

20.2. White and red movement. Red and white terror

At present, we have come to understand that a civil war is a fratricidal war. However, the question of what forces opposed each other in this struggle is still controversial.

The question of the class structure and the main class forces in Russia during the civil war is quite complicated and needs serious research. The fact is that in Russia classes and social strata, their relationships were intertwined in the most complex way. Nevertheless, in our opinion, there were three major forces in the country that differed in relation to the new government.

The Soviet government was actively supported by part of the industrial proletariat, the urban and rural poor, some of the officers and the intelligentsia. In 1917, the Bolshevik Party emerged as a freely organized, radical, revolutionary party of workers-oriented intellectuals. By mid-1918 it had become a minority party, ready to ensure its survival through mass terror. By this time, the Bolshevik Party was no longer a political party in the sense in which it used to be, since it no longer expressed the interests of any social group, it recruited its members from many social groups. Former soldiers, peasants or officials, having become communists, represented a new social group with their own rights. The Communist Party has become a military-industrial and administrative apparatus.

The effect of the civil war on the Bolshevik Party was twofold. First, there was a militarization of Bolshevism, which was reflected primarily in the way of thinking. Communists have learned to think in terms of military campaigns. The idea of ​​building socialism turned into a struggle - on the industrial front, the collectivization front, and so on. The second important consequence of the civil war was the Communist Party's fear of the peasants. The Communists have always been aware that they are a minority party in a hostile peasant environment.

Intellectual dogmatism, militarization, combined with hostility towards the peasants, created in the Leninist party all the necessary preconditions for Stalinist totalitarianism.

The forces that opposed the Soviet regime included the big industrial and financial bourgeoisie, landowners, a significant part of the officers, members of the former police and gendarmerie, and part of the highly qualified intelligentsia. However, the white movement began only as a rush of convinced and brave officers who fought against the communists, often without any hope of victory. White officers called themselves volunteers, driven by the ideas of patriotism. But in the midst of the civil war, the white movement became much more intolerant, chauvinistic, than at the beginning.

The main weakness of the white movement was that it failed to become a unifying national force. It remained almost exclusively a movement of officers. The White movement was unable to establish effective cooperation with the liberal and socialist intelligentsia. Whites were suspicious of workers and peasants. They did not have a state apparatus, administration, police, banks. Personifying themselves as a state, they tried to make up for their practical weakness by cruelly imposing their own rules.

If the White movement failed to rally the anti-Bolshevik forces, then the Kadet Party failed to lead the White movement. The Cadets were a party of professors, lawyers and entrepreneurs. There were enough people in their ranks who were able to establish a workable administration in the territory liberated from the Bolsheviks. And yet the role of the Cadets in national politics during the civil war was insignificant. Between the workers and peasants, on the one hand, and the Cadets, on the other, there was a huge cultural gap, and the Russian Revolution was presented to the majority of the Cadets as chaos, rebellion. Only the white movement, in the opinion of the Cadets, could restore Russia.

Finally, the most numerous group of the population of Russia is the vacillating part, and often just passive, who observed the events. She looked for opportunities to do without the class struggle, but was constantly drawn into it by the active actions of the first two forces. These are the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie, the peasantry, the proletarian strata who wanted "civil peace", part of the officers and a significant number of intellectuals.

But the division of forces proposed to readers should be considered conditional. In fact, they were closely intertwined, mixed with each other and scattered throughout the vast territory of the country. This situation was observed in any region, in any province, regardless of who held power. The decisive force, which largely determined the outcome of the revolutionary events, was the peasantry.

Analyzing the beginning of the war, only with great convention can we talk about the Bolshevik government of Russia. Nadele in 1918, it controlled only part of the country's territory. However, it announced its readiness to rule the whole country after it dissolved the Constituent Assembly. In 1918, the main opponents of the Bolsheviks were not whites or greens, but socialists. The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries opposed the Bolsheviks under the banner of the Constituent Assembly.

Immediately after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party began preparations for the overthrow of Soviet power. However, the Social Revolutionary leaders soon became convinced that there were very few who wanted to fight with weapons under the banner of the Constituent Assembly.

A very sensitive blow to attempts to unite the anti-Bolshevik forces was dealt from the right, by supporters of the military dictatorship of the generals. The main role among them was played by the Cadets, who resolutely opposed the use of the demand for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly of the 1917 model as the main slogan of the anti-Bolshevik movement. The Cadets headed for a one-man military dictatorship, which the Social Revolutionaries dubbed right-wing Bolshevism.

The moderate socialists, who rejected the military dictatorship, nevertheless compromised with the supporters of the general dictatorship. In order not to alienate the Cadets, the all-democratic bloc "Union of the Revival of Russia" adopted a plan to create a collective dictatorship - the Directory. To govern the country of the Directory, it was necessary to create a business ministry. The Directory was obliged to relinquish its powers of all-Russian power only before the Constituent Assembly after the end of the struggle against the Bolsheviks. At the same time, the "Union of the Revival of Russia" set the following tasks: 1) the continuation of the war with the Germans; 2) the creation of a single firm government; 3) the revival of the army; 4) restoration of scattered parts of Russia.

The summer defeat of the Bolsheviks as a result of the armed action of the Czechoslovak corps created favorable conditions. Thus, an anti-Bolshevik front arose in the Volga region and Siberia, and two anti-Bolshevik governments immediately formed - Samara and Omsk. Having received power from the hands of the Czechoslovaks, five members of the Constituent Assembly - V.K. Volsky, I.M. Brushvit, I.P. Nesterov, P.D. Klimushkin and B.K. Fortunatov - formed the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch) - the highest state body. Komuch handed over the executive power to the Board of Governors. The birth of Komuch, contrary to the plan to create the Directory, led to a split in the Socialist-Revolutionary leadership. Its right-wing leaders, led by N.D. Avksentiev, ignoring Samara, went to Omsk to prepare the formation of an all-Russian coalition government from there.

Declaring himself a temporary supreme power until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, Komuch called on other governments to recognize him as a state center. However, other regional governments refused to recognize the rights of the national center for Komuch, regarding him as a party SR power.

Socialist-Revolutionary politicians did not have a specific program of democratic reforms. The issues of the grain monopoly, nationalization and municipalization, and the principles of organizing the army were not resolved. In the field of agrarian policy, Komuch limited himself to a statement about the inviolability of ten points of the land law adopted by the Constituent Assembly.

The main goal of foreign policy was declared to be the continuation of the war in the ranks of the Entente. The reliance on Western military assistance was one of Komuch's biggest strategic miscalculations. The Bolsheviks used foreign intervention to depict the struggle of the Soviet power as patriotic, and the actions of the Socialist-Revolutionaries as anti-national. Komuch's broadcast statements about the continuation of the war with Germany to a victorious end came into conflict with the mood of the masses. Komuch, who did not understand the psychology of the masses, could rely only on the bayonets of the allies.

The confrontation between the Samara and Omsk governments especially weakened the anti-Bolshevik camp. Unlike the one-party Komuch, the Provisional Siberian government was coalition. It was headed by P.V. Vologda. The left wing in the government was the Socialist-Revolutionaries B.M. Shatilov, G.B. Patushinsky, V.M. Krutovsky. The right side of the government - I.A. Mikhailov, I.N. Serebrennikov, N.N. Petrov ~ occupied cadet and promotional positions.

The government's program was shaped under considerable pressure from its right wing. Already at the beginning of July 1918, the government announced the abolition of all decrees issued by the Council of People's Commissars and the liquidation of the Soviets, the return to the owners of their estates with all inventory. The Siberian government pursued a policy of repression against dissidents, the press, meetings, etc. Komuch protested against such a policy.

Despite sharp differences, the two rival governments had to negotiate. At the Ufa State Conference, a “temporary all-Russian government” was created. The meeting ended its work with the election of the Directory. N.D. Avksentiev, N.I. Astrov, V.G. Boldyrev, P.V. Vologodsky, N.V. Chaikovsky.

In its political program, the Directory declared the struggle to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks, annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and continue the war with Germany as the main tasks. The short-term nature of the new government was emphasized by the point that the Constituent Assembly was to meet in the near future - January 1 or February 1, 1919, after which the Directory would resign.

The Directory, having abolished the Siberian government, now seemed to be able to implement an alternative program to the Bolshevik one. However, the balance between democracy and dictatorship was upset. The Samara Komuch, which represented democracy, was dissolved. The attempt made by the Socialist-Revolutionaries to restore the Constituent Assembly failed. On the night of November 17-18, 1918, the leaders of the Directory were arrested. The directory was replaced by the dictatorship of A.V. Kolchak. In 1918, the civil war was a war of ephemeral governments whose claims to power remained only on paper. In August 1918, when the Social Revolutionaries and Czechs took Kazan, the Bolsheviks were unable to recruit more than 20 thousand people into the Red Army. The Socialist-Revolutionary People's Army numbered only 30,000. During this period, the peasants, having divided the land, ignored the political struggle waged between parties and governments. However, the establishment of the Kombeds by the Bolsheviks caused the first outbreaks of resistance. From that moment on, there was a direct correlation between the Bolshevik attempts to dominate the countryside and peasant resistance. The harder the Bolsheviks tried to plant "communist relations" in the countryside, the tougher the resistance of the peasants was.

White, having in 1918. several regiments were not contenders for national power. Nevertheless, the white army of A.I. Denikin, who originally numbered 10 thousand people, was able to occupy the territory with a population of 50 million people. This was facilitated by the development of peasant uprisings in the areas held by the Bolsheviks. N. Makhno did not want to help the Whites, but his actions against the Bolsheviks contributed to the breakthrough of the Whites. The Don Cossacks rebelled against the communists and cleared the way for the advancing army of A. Denikin.

It seemed that with the promotion to the role of dictator A.V. Kolchak, the Whites had a leader who would lead the entire anti-Bolshevik movement. In the provision on the temporary structure of state power, approved on the day of the coup, the Council of Ministers, the supreme state power was temporarily transferred to the Supreme Ruler, and all the Armed Forces of the Russian state were subordinate to him. A.V. Kolchak was soon recognized as the Supreme Ruler by the leaders of the other white fronts, and the Western allies recognized him de facto.

The political and ideological ideas of the leaders and ordinary members of the white movement were as diverse as the socially heterogeneous movement itself. Of course, some part sought to restore the monarchy, the old, pre-revolutionary regime in general. But the leaders of the white movement refused to raise the monarchist banner and put forward a monarchist program. This also applies to A.V. Kolchak.

What did the Kolchak government promise positively? Kolchak agreed to convene a new Constituent Assembly after the restoration of order. He assured Western governments that there could be no "return to the regime that existed in Russia before February 1917", the broad masses of the population would be given land, and differences on religious and national grounds would be eliminated. Having confirmed the complete independence of Poland and the limited independence of Finland, Kolchak agreed to "prepare decisions" on the fate of the Baltic states, the Caucasian and Transcaspian peoples. Judging by the statements, the Kolchak government was in the position of democratic construction. But in reality, everything was different.

The most difficult for the anti-Bolshevik movement was the agrarian question. Kolchak did not succeed in solving it. The war with the Bolsheviks, as long as Kolchak waged it, could not guarantee the transfer of the landlords' land to the peasants. The national policy of the Kolchak government was marked by the same profound internal contradiction. Acting under the slogan of "one and indivisible" Russia, it did not reject "self-determination of peoples" as an ideal.

The demands of the delegations of Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, the North Caucasus, Belarus and Ukraine put forward at the Versailles Conference were actually rejected by Kolchak. Having refused to create an anti-Bolshevik conference in the regions liberated from the Bolsheviks, Kolchak pursued a policy doomed to failure.

Complex and contradictory were Kolchak's relations with the allies, who had their own interests in the Far East and Siberia and pursued their own policies. This made the position of the Kolchak government very difficult. A particularly tight knot was tied in relations with Japan. Kolchak made no secret of his antipathy towards Japan. The Japanese command responded with active support for the chieftain, which flourished in Siberia. Petty ambitious people like Semyonov and Kalmykov, with the support of the Japanese, managed to create a constant threat to the Omsk government in the deep rear of Kolchak, which weakened him. Semyonov actually cut off Kolchak from the Far East and blocked the supply of weapons, ammunition, provisions.

Strategic miscalculations in the field of domestic and foreign policy of the Kolchak government were aggravated by mistakes in the military field. The military command (generals V.N. Lebedev, K.N. Sakharov, P.P. Ivanov-Rinov) led the Siberian army to defeat. Betrayed by all, and associates and allies,

Kolchak resigned the title of Supreme Ruler and transferred it to General A.I. Denikin. Not justifying the hopes placed on him, A.V. Kolchak died courageously, like a Russian patriot. The most powerful wave of the anti-Bolshevik movement was raised in the south of the country by Generals M.V. Alekseev, L.G. Kornilov, A.I. Denikin. Unlike the little-known Kolchak, they all had big names. The conditions under which they had to operate were desperately difficult. The volunteer army, which Alekseev began to form in November 1917 in Rostov, did not have its own territory. In terms of food supplies and recruitment of troops, it was dependent on the Don and Kuban governments. The volunteer army had only the Stavropol province and the coast with Novorossiysk, only by the summer of 1919 did it conquer a vast area of ​​the southern provinces for several months.

The weak point of the anti-Bolshevik movement in general and in the south especially was the personal ambitions and contradictions of the leaders M.V. Alekseev and L.G. Kornilov. After their death, all power passed to Denikin. The unity of all forces in the struggle against the Bolsheviks, the unity of the country and the authorities, the broadest autonomy of the border regions, fidelity to agreements with the allies in the war - these are the main principles of Denikin's platform. The entire ideological and political program of Denikin was based on the idea of ​​preserving a united and indivisible Russia. The leaders of the white movement rejected any significant concessions to the supporters of national independence. All this was in contrast to the Bolshevik promises of unlimited national self-determination. The reckless recognition of the right to secede gave Lenin the opportunity to curb destructive nationalism and raised his prestige far above that of the leaders of the white movement.

The government of General Denikin was divided into two groups - right and liberal. Right - a group of generals with A.M. Drago-mirov and A.S. Lukomsky at the head. The liberal group consisted of the Cadets. A.I. Denikin took the position of the center. The reactionary line in the policy of the Denikin regime manifested itself most clearly on the agrarian question. On the territory controlled by Denikin, it was supposed: to create and strengthen small and medium-sized peasant farms, to destroy latifundia, to leave small estates to the landowners, on which cultural farming could be conducted. But instead of immediately proceeding with the transfer of the landlords' land to the peasants, an endless discussion of draft laws on land began in the commission on the agrarian question. The result was a compromise law. The transfer of part of the land to the peasants was to begin only after the civil war and end after 7 years. In the meantime, the order for the third sheaf was put into effect, according to which a third of the harvested grain went to the landowner. Denikin's land policy was one of the main reasons for his defeat. Of the two evils - Lenin's requisitioning or Denikin's requisition - the peasants preferred the lesser.

A.I. Denikin understood that without the help of the allies, defeat awaited him. Therefore, he himself prepared the text of the political declaration of the commander of the armed forces of the south of Russia, sent on April 10, 1919 to the heads of the British, American and French missions. It spoke about the convocation of a people's assembly on the basis of universal suffrage, the establishment of regional autonomy and broad local self-government, and the implementation of land reform. However, things did not go beyond broadcast promises. All attention was turned to the front, where the fate of the regime was being decided.

In the autumn of 1919, a difficult situation developed for Denikin's army at the front. This was largely due to a change in the mood of the broad peasant masses. The peasants, who rebelled in the territory subject to the whites, paved the way for the reds. The peasants were the third force and acted against both in their own interests.

In the territories occupied by both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, the peasants were at war with the authorities. The peasants did not want to fight either for the Bolsheviks, or for the Whites, or for anyone else. Many of them fled into the forests. During this period, the green movement was defensive. Since 1920, there has been less and less of a threat from the Whites, and the Bolsheviks have been asserting their power in the countryside with greater determination. The peasant war against state power engulfed the whole of Ukraine, the Chernozem region, the Cossack regions of the Don and Kuban, the Volga and Ural basins, and large regions of Siberia. In fact, all the grain-producing regions of Russia and Ukraine were a huge Vendee (in a figurative sense - a counter-revolution. - Note. ed.).

In terms of the number of people participating in the peasant war and its impact on the country, this war eclipsed the war of the Bolsheviks with the Whites and surpassed it in its duration. The Green Movement was the decisive third force in the civil war,

but it did not become an independent center claiming power more than on a regional scale.

Why did not the movement of the majority of the people prevail? The reason lies in the way of thinking of Russian peasants. The Greens defended their villages from outsiders. The peasants could not win because they never aspired to take over the state. The European concepts of a democratic republic, law and order, equality and parliamentarism, which the Social Revolutionaries brought to the peasant environment, were beyond the understanding of the peasants.

The mass of peasants participating in the war was heterogeneous. From the peasant milieu, both rebels, carried away by the idea of ​​“rob the loot,” and leaders who longed to become new “kings and masters” emerged. Those who acted on behalf of the Bolsheviks, and those who fought under the command of A.S. Antonova, N.I. Makhno, adhered to similar norms in behavior. Those who robbed and raped as part of the Bolshevik expeditions were not much different from the Antonov and Makhno rebels. The essence of the peasant war was the liberation from all power.

The peasant movement put forward its own leaders, people from the people (suffice it to name Makhno, Antonov, Kolesnikov, Sapozhkov and Vakhulin). These leaders were guided by the concepts of peasant justice and vague echoes of the platform of political parties. However, any party of peasants was associated with statehood, programs and governments, while these concepts were alien to local peasant leaders. The parties pursued a nationwide policy, and the peasants did not rise to the realization of nationwide interests.

One of the reasons why the peasant movement did not win, despite its scope, was the political life characteristic of each province, which was at odds with the rest of the country. While in one province the Greens were already defeated, in another the uprising was just beginning. None of the leaders of the Greens took action outside the immediate areas. This spontaneity, scale and breadth contained not only the strength of the movement, but also helplessness in the face of a systematic onslaught. The Bolsheviks, who had great power and had a huge army, militarily had an overwhelming superiority over the peasant movement.

Russian peasants lacked political consciousness - they did not care what form of government was in Russia. They did not understand the importance of parliament, freedom of the press and assembly. The fact that the Bolshevik dictatorship withstood the test of the civil war can be seen not as an expression of popular support, but as a manifestation of the still unformed national consciousness and the political backwardness of the majority. The tragedy of Russian society was the lack of interconnectedness between its various layers.

One of the main features of the civil war was that all the armies participating in it, red and white, Cossacks and greens, went through the same path of degradation from serving a cause based on ideals to looting and excesses.

What are the causes of the Red and White Terrors? IN AND. Lenin stated that the Red Terror during the years of the civil war in Russia was forced and became a response to the actions of the White Guards and interventionists. According to the Russian emigration (S.P. Melgunov), for example, the Red Terror had an official theoretical justification, was of a systemic, governmental nature, the White Terror was characterized “as excesses on the basis of unbridled power and revenge.” For this reason, the red terror surpassed the white terror in its scope and cruelty. At the same time, a third point of view arose, according to which any terror is inhuman and should have been abandoned as a method of fighting for power. The very comparison “one terror is worse (better) than another” is incorrect. No terror has a right to exist. The call of General L.G. is very similar to each other. Kornilov to the officers (January 1918) “do not take prisoners in battles with the Reds” and the confession of Chekist M.I. Latsis that similar orders were resorted to in relation to the Whites in the Red Army.

The desire to understand the origins of the tragedy has given rise to several exploratory explanations. R. Conquest, for example, wrote that in 1918-1820. terror was carried out by fanatics, idealists - "people in whom one can find some features of a peculiar perverted nobility." Among them, according to the researcher, can be attributed to Lenin.

Terror during the war years was carried out not so much by fanatics as by people deprived of any nobility. Let us name only some of the instructions written by V.I. Lenin. In a note to the Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic E.M. Sklyansky (August 1920) V.I. Lenin, evaluating the plan born in the depths of this department, instructed: “A wonderful plan! Finish it with Dzerzhinsky. Under the guise of "greens" (we'll blame them later), we'll go 10-20 versts and hang kulaks, priests, landlords. Prize: 100,000 rubles for a hanged man.

In a secret letter to members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) dated March 19, 1922, V.I. Lenin proposed to take advantage of the famine in the Volga region and confiscate church valuables. This action, in his opinion, “should be carried out with merciless determination, without stopping at anything and in the shortest possible time. The more representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie we manage to shoot on this occasion, the better. It is necessary now to teach this public a lesson in such a way that for several decades they will not even dare to think about any resistance. Stalin perceived Lenin's recognition of state terror as a matter of high government, a power based on force, and not on law.

It is difficult to name the first acts of red and white terror. Usually they are associated with the beginning of the civil war in the country. Everyone committed terror: officers - participants in the ice campaign of General Kornilov; security officers who received the right to extrajudicial reprisals; revolutionary courts and tribunals.

It is characteristic that the right of the Cheka to extrajudicial reprisals, composed by L.D. Trotsky, signed by V.I. Lenin; granted unlimited rights to the tribunals by the people's commissar of justice; the decree on the red terror was endorsed by the people's commissars of justice, internal affairs and the manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars (D. Kursky, G. Petrovsky, V. Bonch-Bruevich). The leadership of the Soviet Republic officially recognized the creation of a non-legal state, where arbitrariness became the norm, and terror became the most important tool for maintaining power. Lawlessness was beneficial to the belligerents, as it allowed any actions with references to the enemy.

The commanders of all the armies, apparently, never submitted to any control. We are talking about the general savagery of society. The reality of the civil war shows that the distinction between good and evil has faded. Human life has been devalued. The refusal to see the enemy as a human being encouraged violence on an unprecedented scale. Settling scores with real and imagined enemies has become the essence of politics. The civil war meant the extreme exasperation of society and especially of its new ruling class.

Litvin A.L. Red and White Terror in Russia 1917-1922//0Russian History. 1993. No. 6. S. 47-48. There. pp. 47-48.

Murder of M.S. Uritsky and the assassination attempt on Lenin on August 30, 1918, provoked an unusually violent response. In retaliation for the murder of Uritsky, up to 900 innocent hostages were shot in Petrograd.

A much larger number of victims is associated with the attempt on Lenin's life. In the first days of September 1918, 6,185 people were shot, 14,829 were imprisoned, 6,407 were sent to concentration camps, and 4,068 people became hostages. Thus, assassination attempts on the Bolshevik leaders contributed to rampant mass terror in the country.

Simultaneously with the red in the country, the white terror rampaged. And if the Red Terror is considered to be the implementation of state policy, then, probably, one should also take into account the fact that the Whites in 1918-1919. also occupied vast territories and declared themselves as sovereign governments and state entities. The forms and methods of terror were different. But they were also used by adherents of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch in Samara, the Provisional Regional Government in the Urals), and especially the white movement.

The coming to power of the founders in the Volga region in the summer of 1918 was characterized by reprisals against many Soviet workers. One of the first departments created by Komuch were state guards, courts-martial, trains and "death barges". On September 3, 1918, they brutally suppressed the uprising of the workers in Kazan.

The political regimes that were established in Russia in 1918 are quite comparable, primarily in terms of predominantly violent methods of solving questions of the organization of power. In November 1918 A. V. Kolchak, who came to power in Siberia, began with the expulsion and murder of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. It is hardly possible to speak of support for his policy in Siberia in the Urals, if out of about 400 thousand Red partisans of that time, 150 thousand acted against him. The government of A.I. Denikin. On the territory captured by the general, the police were called state guards. By September 1919, its number reached almost 78 thousand people. Osvag's reports informed Denikin about robberies, looting, it was under his command that 226 Jewish pogroms took place, as a result of which several thousand people died. The White Terror turned out to be just as senseless to achieve the set goal as any other. Soviet historians have calculated that in 1917-1922. 15-16 million Russians died, of which 1.3 million became victims of terror, banditry, and pogroms. The civil, fratricidal war with millions of human victims turned into a national tragedy. Red and white terror became the most barbaric method of struggle for power. Its results for the progress of the country are truly disastrous.

20.3. Causes of the defeat of the white movement. The results of the civil war

Let us single out the most important reasons for the defeat of the white movement. The reliance on Western military assistance was one of the miscalculations of the Whites. The Bolsheviks used foreign interference to present the struggle of Soviet power as patriotic. The policy of the Allies was self-serving: they needed an anti-German Russia.

A deep contradiction marked the national policy of whites. Thus, Yudenich's non-recognition of the already independent Finland and Estonia may have been the main reason for the failure of the Whites on the Western Front. The non-recognition of Poland by Denikin made her a constant opponent of the Whites. All this was in contrast to the Bolshevik promises of unlimited national self-determination.

In terms of military training, combat experience and technical knowledge, the Whites had every advantage. But time was working against them. The situation was changing: in order to replenish the melting ranks, the whites also had to resort to mobilization.

The white movement did not have broad social support. The White army was not supplied with everything necessary, so it was forced to take carts, horses, supplies from the population. Local residents were drafted into the ranks of the army. All this restored the population against the whites. During the war, mass repressions and terror were closely intertwined with the dreams of millions of people who believed in new revolutionary ideals, and tens of millions lived nearby, preoccupied with purely everyday problems. The fluctuations of the peasantry played a decisive role in the dynamics of the civil war, as did various national movements. Some ethnic groups during the civil war restored their previously lost statehood (Poland, Lithuania), and Finland, Estonia and Latvia acquired it for the first time.

For Russia, the consequences of the civil war were catastrophic: a huge social upheaval, the disappearance of entire estates; huge demographic losses; rupture of economic ties and colossal economic ruin;

The conditions and experience of the civil war had a decisive influence on the political culture of Bolshevism: the curtailment of inner-party democracy, the perception by the broad party mass of the installation on the methods of coercion and violence in achieving political goals - the Bolsheviks are looking for support in the lumpenized sections of the population. All this paved the way for the strengthening of repressive elements in public policy. The Civil War is the greatest tragedy in the history of Russia.

It is very difficult to reconcile the “whites” and “reds” in our history. Every position has its own truth. After all, only 100 years ago they fought for it. The struggle was fierce, brother went to brother, father to son. For some, the heroes of Budennov will be the First Cavalry, for others, the volunteers of Kappel. Only those who, hiding behind their position on the Civil War, are wrong, they are trying to erase a whole piece of Russian history from the past. Whoever draws too far-reaching conclusions about the "anti-people character" of the Bolshevik government, denies the entire Soviet era, all its accomplishments, and in the end slides into outright Russophobia.

***
Civil war in Russia - armed confrontation in 1917-1922. between various political, ethnic, social groups and state formations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, which followed the coming to power of the Bolsheviks as a result of the October Revolution of 1917. The Civil War was the result of a revolutionary crisis that struck Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907, aggravated during the World War, economic ruin, and a deep social, national, political and ideological split in Russian society. The apogee of this split was a fierce war on a national scale between the Soviet and anti-Bolshevik armed forces. The civil war ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks.

The main struggle for power during the Civil War was carried out between the armed formations of the Bolsheviks and their supporters (Red Guard and Red Army) on the one hand and the armed formations of the White Movement (White Army) on the other, which was reflected in the stable naming of the main parties to the conflict "Red ' and 'white'.

For the Bolsheviks, who relied primarily on the organized industrial proletariat, the suppression of the resistance of their opponents was the only way to maintain power in a peasant country. For many participants in the White movement - the officers, the Cossacks, the intelligentsia, the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy and the clergy - the armed resistance to the Bolsheviks was aimed at returning the lost power and restoring their socio-economic rights and privileges. All these groups were the pinnacle of the counter-revolution, its organizers and inspirers. Officers and the rural bourgeoisie created the first cadres of white troops.

The decisive factor in the course of the Civil War was the position of the peasantry, which accounted for more than 80% of the population, which ranged from passive waiting to active armed struggle. The fluctuations of the peasantry, reacting in this way to the policy of the Bolshevik government and the dictatorships of the white generals, radically changed the balance of power and, ultimately, predetermined the outcome of the war. First of all, we are certainly talking about the middle peasantry. In some areas (the Volga region, Siberia), these fluctuations raised the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to power, and sometimes contributed to the advancement of the White Guards deep into Soviet territory. However, with the course of the Civil War, the middle peasantry leaned towards Soviet power. The middle peasants saw from experience that the transfer of power to the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks inevitably leads to an undisguised general dictatorship, which, in turn, inevitably leads to the return of the landowners and the restoration of pre-revolutionary relations. The strength of the swings of the middle peasants in the direction of Soviet power was especially manifested in the combat readiness of the White and Red armies. White armies were essentially combat-ready only as long as they were more or less homogeneous in terms of class. When, as the front expanded and moved forward, the White Guards resorted to mobilizing the peasantry, they inevitably lost their combat capability and fell apart. And vice versa, the Red Army was constantly strengthened, and the mobilized middle peasant masses of the countryside staunchly defended Soviet power from the counter-revolution.

The basis of the counter-revolution in the countryside was the kulaks, especially after the organization of the Kombeds and the beginning of a decisive struggle for grain. The kulaks were only interested in liquidating large landlord farms as competitors in the exploitation of the poor and middle peasants, whose departure opened wide prospects for the kulaks. The struggle of the kulaks against the proletarian revolution took place both in the form of participation in the White Guard armies, and in the form of organizing their own detachments, and in the form of a broad insurrectionary movement in the rear of the revolution under various national, class, religious, up to anarchist, slogans. A characteristic feature of the Civil War was the willingness of all its participants to widely use violence to achieve their political goals (see "Red Terror" and "White Terror")

An integral part of the Civil War was the armed struggle of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of the general population against the troops of the main warring parties - the "red" and "white". Attempts to declare independence were rebuffed both by the "whites", who fought for a "united and indivisible Russia", and by the "reds", who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the gains of the revolution.

The civil war unfolded under conditions of foreign military intervention and was accompanied by military operations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, both by the troops of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance and the troops of the Entente countries. The motives for the active intervention of the leading Western powers were the realization of their own economic and political interests in Russia and assistance to the whites in order to eliminate the Bolshevik power. Although the possibilities of the interventionists were limited by the socio-economic crisis and political struggle in the Western countries themselves, the intervention and material assistance to the white armies significantly influenced the course of the war.

The civil war was fought not only on the territory of the former Russian Empire, but also on the territory of neighboring states - Iran (Anzelian operation), Mongolia and China.

Arrest of the emperor and his family. Nicholas II with his wife in Alexander Park. Tsarskoye Selo. May 1917



Arrest of the emperor and his family. Daughters of Nicholas II and his son Alexei. May 1917





Dinner of the Red Army at the fire. 1919



Armored train of the Red Army. 1918

Bulla Viktor Karlovich



Civil War refugees
1919



Distribution of bread for 38 wounded Red Army soldiers. 1918



Red squad. 1919

Ukrainian front.





Exhibition of trophies of the Civil War near the Kremlin, dedicated to the II Congress of the Communist International



Civil War. Eastern front. Armored train of the 6th regiment of the Czechoslovak Corps. Attack on Maryanovka. June 1918



Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich



Red commanders of the regiment of the rural poor. 1918



Soldiers of the First Cavalry Army of Budyonny at a rally
January 1920

Otsup Petr Adolfovich



Funeral of victims of the February Revolution
March 1917



July events in Petrograd. Soldiers of the Scooter Regiment, who arrived from the front to suppress the rebellion. July 1917





Work on the site of a train wreck after an anarchist attack. January 1920





Red commander in the new office. January 1920



Commander-in-Chief Lavr Kornilov. 1917



Chairman of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky. 1917



Commander of the 25th Rifle Division of the Red Army Vasily Chapaev (right) and commander Sergei Zakharov. 1918



Sound recording of Vladimir Lenin's speech in the Kremlin. 1919



Vladimir Lenin in Smolny at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars. January 1918



February Revolution. Checking documents on Nevsky Prospekt
February 1917





Fraternization of the soldiers of General Lavr Kornilov with the troops of the Provisional Government. 1 - 30 August 1917

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich







Military intervention in Soviet Russia. The command structure of the White Army units with representatives of foreign troops



Station in Yekaterinburg after the capture of the city by parts of the Siberian army and the Czechoslovak corps. 1918



Demolition of the monument to Alexander III near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior



Political workers at the staff car. Western front. Voronezh direction



Military portrait

Date of shooting: 1917 - 1919





In the hospital laundry. 1919

Ukrainian front.



Sisters of mercy of the Kashirin partisan detachment. Evdokia Aleksandrovna Davydova and Taisiya Petrovna Kuznetsova. 1919

Detachments of the Red Cossacks Nikolai and Ivan Kashirin in the summer of 1918 became part of the consolidated South Ural partisan detachment of Vasily Blucher, who raided the mountains of the Southern Urals. Having united near Kungur in September 1918 with units of the Red Army, the partisans fought as part of the troops of the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front. After the reorganization in January 1920, these troops became known as the Army of Labor, the purpose of which was to restore the national economy of the Chelyabinsk province.



Red commander Anton Boliznyuk, wounded thirteen times



Mikhail Tukhachevsky



Grigory Kotovsky
1919



At the entrance to the building of the Smolny Institute - the headquarters of the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution. 1917



Medical examination of workers mobilized into the Red Army. 1918



On the boat "Voronezh"





Red Army soldiers in the city liberated from the whites. 1919

Overcoats of the 1918 model, which came into use during the civil war, originally in the army of Budyonny, were preserved with minor changes until the military reform of 1939. The machine gun "Maxim" is mounted on the cart.





July events in Petrograd. The funeral of the Cossacks who died during the suppression of the rebellion. 1917







Pavel Dybenko and Nestor Makhno. November - December 1918





Employees of the supply department of the Red Army



Koba / Joseph Stalin. 1918

On May 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR appointed Joseph Stalin in charge in the south of Russia and sent him as an extraordinary representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee for the procurement of grain from the North Caucasus to industrial centers.

The defense of Tsaritsyn is a military campaign of the "red" troops against the "white" troops for control of the city of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War.



People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs of the RSFSR Lev Trotsky greets soldiers near Petrograd
1919



Commander of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General Anton Denikin and Ataman of the Great Don Army Afrikan Bogaevsky at a solemn prayer service on the occasion of the liberation of the Don from the troops of the Red Army
June - August 1919



General Radola Gaida and Admiral Alexander Kolchak (left to right) with officers of the White Army
1919



Alexander Ilyich Dutov - ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army

In 1918, Alexander Dutov (1864-1921) declared the new government criminal and illegal, organized armed Cossack squads, which became the base of the Orenburg (southwestern) army. Most of the White Cossacks were in this army. For the first time the name of Dutov became known in August 1917, when he was an active participant in the Kornilov rebellion. After that, Dutov was sent by the Provisional Government to the Orenburg province, where in the fall he fortified himself in Troitsk and Verkhneuralsk. His power lasted until April 1918.



homeless children
1920s

Soshalsky Georgy Nikolaevich



Homeless children transport the city archive. 1920s



The civil war that took place in Russia from 1917 to 1922 was a bloody event, where in a brutal massacre brother went against brother, and relatives took up positions on opposite sides of the barricades. In this armed class clash on the vast territory of the former Russian Empire, the interests of opposing political structures intersected, conditionally divided into “reds” and “whites”. This struggle for power took place with the active support of foreign states that tried to extract their interests from this situation: Japan, Poland, Turkey, Romania wanted to annex part of the Russian territories, while other countries - the USA, France, Canada, Great Britain expected to receive tangible economic preferences.

As a result of such a bloody civil war, Russia turned into a weakened state, the economy and industry of which were in a state of complete ruin. But after the end of the war, the country adhered to the socialist course of development, and this influenced the course of history throughout the world.

Causes of the civil war in Russia

A civil war in any country is always caused by aggravated political, national, religious, economic and, of course, social contradictions. The territory of the former Russian Empire was no exception.

• Social inequality in Russian society has been accumulating for centuries, and at the beginning of the 20th century it reached its apogee, since the workers and peasants found themselves in an absolutely powerless position, and their working and living conditions were simply unbearable. The autocracy did not want to smooth out social contradictions and carry out any significant reforms. It was during this period that the revolutionary movement grew, which managed to lead the Bolshevik parties.
• Against the backdrop of the protracted First World War, all these contradictions became noticeably aggravated, which resulted in the February and October revolutions.
• As a result of the revolution in October 1917, the political system in the state changed, and the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia. But the overthrown classes could not reconcile themselves to the situation and made attempts to restore their former dominance.
• The establishment of Bolshevik power led to the rejection of the ideas of parliamentarism and the creation of a one-party system, which prompted the parties of the Cadets, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and Mensheviks to fight Bolshevism, that is, the struggle between the “Whites” and the “Reds” began.
• In the fight against the enemies of the revolution, the Bolsheviks used non-democratic measures - the establishment of a dictatorship, repression, the persecution of the opposition, the creation of emergency bodies. This, of course, caused discontent in society, and among those dissatisfied with the actions of the authorities were not only the intelligentsia, but also workers and peasants.
• The nationalization of land and industry caused resistance from the former owners, which led to terrorist actions on both sides.
• Despite the fact that Russia ceased its participation in the First World War in 1918, a powerful interventionist group was present on its territory, which actively supported the White Guard movement.

The course of the civil war in Russia

Before the start of the civil war, there were loosely interconnected regions on the territory of Russia: in some of them, Soviet power was firmly established, while others (south of Russia, the Chita region) were under the rule of independent governments. On the territory of Siberia, in general, one could count up to two dozen local governments, not only not recognizing the power of the Bolsheviks, but also at enmity with each other.



When the civil war began, then all the inhabitants had to decide, that is, to join the “whites” or “reds”.

The course of the civil war in Russia can be divided into several periods.

First period: October 1917 to May 1918

At the very beginning of the fratricidal war, the Bolsheviks had to suppress local armed rebellions in Petrograd, Moscow, Transbaikalia and the Don. It was at this time that a white movement was formed from those dissatisfied with the new government. In March, the young republic, after an unsuccessful war, concluded the shameful Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Second period: June to November 1918

At this time, a full-scale civil war began: the Soviet Republic was forced to fight not only with internal enemies, but also with interventionists. As a result, most of the Russian territory was captured by enemies, and this threatened the existence of the young state. In the east of the country, Kolchak dominated, in the south Denikin, in the north Miller, and their armies tried to close the ring around the capital. The Bolsheviks, in turn, created the Red Army, which achieved its first military successes.

Third period: November 1918 to spring 1919

In November 1918, the First World War ended. Soviet power was established in the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Baltic territories. But already at the end of autumn, the Entente troops landed in the Crimea, Odessa, Batumi and Baku. But this military operation was not crowned with success, since revolutionary anti-war sentiments reigned in the troops of the interventionists. During this period of the struggle against Bolshevism, the leading role belonged to the armies of Kolchak, Yudenich and Denikin.

Fourth Period: Spring 1919 to Spring 1920

During this period, the main forces of the interventionists left Russia. In the spring and autumn of 1919, the Red Army won major victories in the East, South and North-West of the country, defeating the armies of Kolchak, Denikin and Yudenich.



Fifth period: spring-autumn 1920

The internal counter-revolution was completely destroyed. And in the spring the Soviet-Polish war began, which ended in complete failure for Russia. According to the Riga Peace Treaty, part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands went to Poland.

Sixth period:: 1921-1922

During these years, all the remaining centers of the civil war were liquidated: the rebellion in Kronstadt was suppressed, the Makhnovist detachments were destroyed, the Far East was liberated, the struggle against the Basmachi in Central Asia was completed.

The results of the civil war

• As a result of hostilities and terror, more than 8 million people died from hunger and disease.
• Industry, transport and agriculture were on the verge of disaster.
• The main result of this terrible war was the final assertion of Soviet power.