Chronology
- 1918 I stage of the civil war - "democratic"
- 1918 June Nationalization Decree
- 1919, January Introduction of food appropriation
- 1919 The fight against A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, Yudenich
- 1920 Soviet-Polish war
- 1920 Fight against P.N. Wrangel
- 1920 November The end of the civil war in the European territory
- 1922, October End of the civil war in the Far East
Civil war and military intervention
Civil War- “armed struggle between various groups the population, which was based on deep social, national and political contradictions, went through various stages and stages with the active intervention of foreign forces ... ”(Academician Yu.A. Polyakov).
In modern historical science, there is no single definition of the concept of "civil war". In the encyclopedic dictionary we read: "Civil war is an organized armed struggle for power between classes, social groups, the most acute form of class struggle." This definition actually repeats the well-known Leninist dictum that civil war is the most acute form of class struggle.
Currently, various definitions are given, but their essence is mainly reduced to the definition of the Civil War as a large-scale armed confrontation, in which the question of power was undoubtedly resolved. The seizure of state power in Russia by the Bolsheviks and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly that followed soon can be considered the beginning of an armed confrontation in Russia. The first shots are heard in the South of Russia, in the Cossack regions, already in the fall of 1917.
General Alekseev, the last chief of staff of the tsarist army, began to form the Volunteer Army on the Don, but by the beginning of 1918 it was no more than 3,000 officers and cadets.
As A.I. Denikin in "Sketches of Russian Troubles", "the white movement grew spontaneously and inevitably."
The first months of victory Soviet power armed clashes were local in nature, all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics.
This confrontation took on a truly front-line, large-scale character in the spring of 1918. Let us single out three main stages in the development of the armed confrontation in Russia, proceeding primarily from taking into account the alignment of political forces and the peculiarities of the formation of fronts.
The first stage begins in the spring of 1918 year, when the military-political confrontation becomes global in nature, large-scale military operations begin. The defining feature of this stage is its so-called "democratic" character, when representatives of the socialist parties acted as an independent anti-Bolshevik camp with slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains of the February Revolution. It is this camp that is chronologically ahead of the White Guard camp in its organizational design.
At the end of 1918, the second stage begins- confrontation between white and red. Until the beginning of 1920, one of the main political opponents of the Bolsheviks was the White movement with the slogans of "not prejudice to the state system" and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction endangered not only the October, but also the February conquests. Their main political force was the cadet party, and the base for the formation of the army was the generals and officers of the former tsarist army. The whites were united by their hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia.
The final stage of the Civil War begins in 1920... the events of the Soviet-Polish war and the struggle against P. N. Wrangel. The defeat of Wrangel at the end of 1920 marked the end of the Civil War, but anti-Soviet armed uprisings continued in many regions Soviet Russia and during the years of the new economic policy
Nationwide scale armed struggle has acquired from the spring of 1918 and turned into the greatest calamity, the tragedy of the entire Russian people. In this war, there were no right and wrong, winners and losers. 1918 - 1920 - during these years the military question was of decisive importance for the fate of the Soviet regime and the anti-Bolshevik bloc opposing it. This period ended with the liquidation in November 1920 of the last white front in the European part of Russia (in the Crimea). In general, the country left the state of civil war in the fall of 1922 after the remnants of white formations and foreign (Japanese) military units.
A feature of the civil war in Russia was its close intertwining with anti-Soviet military intervention powers of the Entente. She acted as the main factor in the protraction and exacerbation of the bloody “Russian turmoil”.
So, in the periodization of the civil war and intervention, three stages are quite clearly distinguished. The first of them covers the time from spring to autumn 1918; the second - from the fall of 1918 to the end of 1919; and the third - from the spring of 1920 to the end of 1920.
The first stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1918)
In the first months of the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, armed clashes were of a local nature, all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics. The armed struggle acquired a nationwide scale in the spring of 1918. Back in January 1918, Romania, taking advantage of the weakness of the Soviet government, seized Bessarabia. In March - April 1918, the first contingents of the troops of England, France, the USA and Japan appeared on the territory of Russia (in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, in Vladivostok, in Central Asia). They were small and could not noticeably influence the military and political situation in the country. "War communism"
At the same time, the enemy of the Entente - Germany - occupied the Baltic states, part of Belarus, the Transcaucasus and the North Caucasus. The Germans actually ruled in Ukraine: they overthrew the bourgeois-democratic Verkhovna Rada, which they used during the occupation of the Ukrainian lands, and in April 1918 put Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky.
Under these conditions, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to use the 45-thousandth Czechoslovak Corps, who was (in agreement with Moscow) in his subordination. It consisted of captured Slavic soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army and followed the railway to Vladivostok for subsequent transfer to France.
According to the agreement concluded on March 26, 1918 with the Soviet government, the Czechoslovak legionaries were to advance "not as a combat unit, but as a group of citizens with weapons to repel armed attacks by counter-revolutionaries." However, during the movement, their conflicts with the local authorities became more frequent. Since the Czechs and Slovaks had more military weapons than envisaged by the agreement, the authorities decided to confiscate them. On May 26, in Chelyabinsk, the conflicts escalated into real battles, and the legionnaires occupied the city. Their armed uprising was immediately supported by the military missions of the Entente in Russia and anti-Bolshevik forces. As a result, in the Volga region, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Far East - wherever there were echelons with Czechoslovak legionaries - Soviet power was overthrown. At the same time, in many provinces of Russia, peasants, dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks, raised a riot (according to official data, there were at least 130 major anti-Soviet peasant uprisings alone).
Socialist parties(mainly right SR), relying on the invaders, the Czechoslovak corps and peasant rebel detachments, formed a number of Komuch governments (Committee of Constituent Assembly members) in Samara, the Supreme Directorate of the Northern Region in Arkhangelsk, the West Siberian Commissariat in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), The Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, the Trans-Caspian Provisional Government in Ashgabat, and others. In their activities, they tried to draw up “ democratic alternative”Both the Bolshevik dictatorship and the bourgeois-monarchist counter-revolution. Their programs included demands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of all citizens without exception, freedom of trade and the abandonment of strict state regulation. economic activity peasants with the preservation of a number of important provisions of the Soviet Decree on land, the establishment of "social partnership" between workers and capitalists during denationalization industrial enterprises etc.
Thus, the performance of the Czechoslovak corps gave impetus to the formation of the front, which bore the so-called "democratic coloration" and was, in the main, Socialist-Revolutionary. It was this front, not the white movement, that was decisive at the initial stage of the Civil War.
In the summer of 1918, all opposition forces became a real threat to the Bolshevik government, which controlled only the territory of the center of Russia. The territory controlled by Komuch included the Volga region and part of the Urals. The Bolshevik regime was also overthrown in Siberia, where the regional government of the Siberian Duma was formed. The breakaway parts of the empire - Transcaucasia, Central Asia, the Baltic states - had their own national governments. Ukraine was captured by the Germans, Don and Kuban - Krasnov and Denikin.
On August 30, 1918, a terrorist group killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky, and the right Socialist Revolutionary Kaplan seriously wounded Lenin. The threat of losing political power from the ruling Bolshevik party became catastrophically real.
In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of a number of anti-Bolshevik governments of democratic and social orientation was held in Ufa. Under pressure from the Czechoslovakians, who threatened to open the front to the Bolsheviks, they established a single All-Russian government - the Ufa directory, headed by the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries N.D. Avksentiev and V.M. Zenzinov. Soon the directory settled in Omsk, where the famous polar explorer and scientist, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V. Kolchak.
The right, bourgeois-monarchist wing of the camp opposing the Bolsheviks as a whole had not yet recovered at that time from the defeat of its first post-October armed onslaught on them (which largely explained the "democratic coloring" of the initial stage of the civil war on the part of anti-Soviet forces). The White Volunteer Army, which, after the death of General L.G. Kornilov in April 1918 was headed by General A.I. Denikin, operated in a limited area of the Don and Kuban. Only the Cossack army of the ataman P.N. Krasnov managed to advance to Tsaritsyn and cut off the grain regions of the North Caucasus from the central regions of Russia, and ataman A.I. Dutov - to capture Orenburg.
The position of the Soviet government by the end of the summer of 1918 had become critical. Almost three quarters of the territory of the former Russian Empire was under the control of various anti-Bolshevik forces, as well as the occupying Austro-German troops.
Soon, however, a turning point took place on the main front (Eastern). Soviet troops under the command of I.I. Vatsetis and S.S. Kamenev in September 1918 went on the offensive there. Kazan fell first, then Simbirsk, in October - Samara. By winter, the Reds approached the Urals. The attempts of General P.N. Krasnov to seize Tsaritsyn, undertaken in July and September 1918.
From October 1918, the Southern Front became the main front. In the South of Russia, the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin captured the Kuban, and the Don Cossack army of the ataman P.N. Krasnova tried to take Tsaritsyn and cut the Volga.
The Soviet government launched active actions to protect its power. In 1918, the transition to general conscription, widespread mobilization has been launched. The constitution, adopted in July 1918, established discipline in the army and introduced the institution of military commissars.
As part of the Central Committee, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was allocated for the prompt solution of military and political problems. It included: V.I. Lenin - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; L. B. Krestinsky - secretary of the Central Committee of the party; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities; L. D. Trotsky - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Membership candidates were N.I. Bukharin - editor of the newspaper "Pravda", G.E. Zinoviev - Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, M.I. Kalinin - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
The Revolutionary Military Council of the republic, headed by L.D. Trotsky. The institute of military commissars was introduced in the spring of 1918, one of its important tasks was to control the activities of military specialists - former officers. Already at the end of 1918, about 7 thousand commissars were active in the Soviet armed forces. About 30% of the former generals and officers of the old army during the civil war took the side of the Red Army.
This was determined by two main factors:
- acting on the side of the Bolshevik government for ideological reasons;
- the policy of attracting "military specialists" - former tsarist officers - to the Red Army was pursued by L.D. Trotsky using repressive methods.
War communism
In 1918 the Bolsheviks introduced a system of emergency measures, economic and political, known as “ war communism policy”. The main acts this policy became Decree of May 13, 1918 g., giving broad powers to the People's Commissariat for Food (People's Commissariat for Food), and Decree of June 28, 1918 on nationalization.
The main provisions of this policy:
- nationalization of the entire industry;
- centralization of economic management;
- the prohibition of private trade;
- curtailment of commodity-money relations;
- food allocation;
- equalizing system of remuneration of workers and employees;
- remuneration in kind for workers and employees;
- free of charge utilities;
- universal labor service.
June 11, 1918 were created kombeds(committees of the poor), which were supposed to withdraw surplus agricultural products from wealthy peasants. Their actions were supported by parts of the prodarmy (food army), consisting of Bolsheviks and workers. From January 1919, the search for surplus was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriation (Reader T8 No. 5).
Each region, county had to hand over a set amount of grain and other products (potatoes, honey, butter, eggs, milk). When the surrender rate was met, the villagers received a receipt for the right to purchase industrial goods (cloth, sugar, salt, matches, kerosene).
June 28, 1918 the state has started nationalization of enterprises with capital over 500 rubles. Back in December 1917, when the Supreme Council of the National Economy (Supreme Council National economy), he took up nationalization. But the nationalization of labor was not massive (by March 1918, no more than 80 enterprises were nationalized). This was primarily a repressive measure against entrepreneurs who resisted workers' control. Now it was public policy... By November 1, 1919, 2,500 enterprises were nationalized. In November 1920, a decree was issued extending nationalization to all enterprises with more than 10 or 5 workers, but using a mechanical engine.
By decree of November 21, 1918 was established domestic trade monopoly... The Soviet government replaced trade with state distribution. The townspeople received food through the system of the People's Commissariat for Food on cards, of which, for example, in Petrograd in 1919 there were 33 types: bread, dairy, shoe, etc. The population was divided into three categories:
workers and scientists and artists equated to them;
employees;
former exploiters.
Due to the lack of food, even the wealthiest received only ¼ of the prescribed diet.
In such conditions, the "black market" flourished. The government fought against the "bagmen" by forbidding them to travel by train.
V social sphere the policy of "war communism" was based on the principle "who does not work, he does not eat." In 1918, labor conscription was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, in 1920 - universal labor conscription.
V political sphere “War communism” meant the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b). The activities of other parties (Cadets, Mensheviks, Right and Left SRs) were banned.
The consequences of the policy of "war communism" were the deepening of economic devastation, a reduction in production in industry and agriculture... However, it was precisely this policy that largely allowed the Bolsheviks to mobilize all resources and win the Civil War.
The Bolsheviks assigned a special role in the victory over the class enemy to mass terror. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution proclaiming the beginning of "mass terror against the bourgeoisie and its agents." The head of the Cheka F.E. Dzherzhinsky said: "We are terrorizing the enemies of the Soviet regime." The politics of mass terror adopted state character... Shooting on the spot became commonplace.
Second stage of the civil war (autumn 1918 - late 1919)
From November 1918, the front-line war entered the stage of confrontation between the Reds and Whites. The year 1919 was decisive for the Bolsheviks, a reliable and constantly growing Red Army was created. But their opponents, actively supported by their former allies, united among themselves. The international situation has also changed dramatically. Germany and its allies in the world war in November laid down their arms before the Entente. Revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The leadership of the RSFSR November 13, 1918 canceled, and the new governments of these countries were forced to evacuate their troops from Russia. Bourgeois-national governments arose in Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus, and the Ukraine, which immediately took the side of the Entente.
The defeat of Germany freed up significant combat contingents of the Entente and at the same time opened for her a convenient and short road to Moscow from the southern regions. Under these conditions, the Entente leadership prevailed with the intention to crush Soviet Russia with the forces of its own armies.
In the spring of 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente developed a plan for the next military campaign. (Reader T8 # 8) As noted in one of his secret documents, the intervention was to "be expressed in the combined military actions of the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces and the armies of neighboring allied states." At the end of November 1918, a joint Anglo-French squadron of 32 pennants (12 battleships, 10 cruisers and 10 destroyers) appeared off the Black Sea coast of Russia. British troops landed in Batum and Novorossiysk, and French troops in Odessa and Sevastopol. The total number of the combat forces of the interventionists concentrated in the south of Russia was increased by February 1919 to 130 thousand people. The Entente contingents increased significantly in the Far East and Siberia (up to 150 thousand people), as well as in the North (up to 20 thousand people).
In Siberia, on November 18, 1918, Admiral A.V. Kolchak. ... He put an end to the indiscriminate actions of the anti-Bolshevik coalition.
Having dispersed the Directory, he proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia (the rest of the leaders of the white movement soon announced their obedience to him). Admiral Kolchak in March 1919 began to advance on a wide front from the Urals to the Volga. The main bases of his army were Siberia, the Urals, the Orenburg province and the Ural region. In the north, from January 1919, General E.K. Miller, in the northwest - General N.N. Yudenich. In the south, the dictatorship of the commander of the Volunteer Army A.I. Denikin, who in January 1919 subjugated the Don army of General P.N. Krasnov and created the united armed forces of the south of Russia.
In March 1919, the well-armed 300-thousandth army of A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive from the east, intending to unite with Denikin's forces for a joint attack on Moscow. Having captured Ufa, the Kolchakites fought their way to Simbirsk, Samara, Votkinsk, but were soon stopped by the Red Army. At the end of April, Soviet troops under the command of S.S. Kamenev and M.V. Frunze went on the offensive and in the summer advanced deep into Siberia. By the beginning of 1920, the Kolchakites were finally defeated, and the admiral himself was arrested and executed by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.
In the summer of 1919, the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front. (Reader T8 №7) On July 3, General A.I. Denikin issued his famous “Moscow directive,” and his army of 150,000 men launched an offensive along the entire 700-km front from Kiev to Tsaritsin. The White Front included such important centers as Voronezh, Oryol, Kiev. In this space of 1 million square meters. km with a population of up to 50 million people were located in 18 provinces and regions. By mid-autumn, Denikin's army captured Kursk and Orel. But by the end of October, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Yegorov) defeated the White regiments, and then began to crowd them along the entire front line. The remnants of Denikin's army, headed in April 1920 by General P.N. Wrangel, fortified in the Crimea.
The final stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1920)
At the beginning of 1920, as a result of hostilities, the outcome of the front-line Civil War was actually decided in favor of the Bolshevik government. At the final stage, the main hostilities were associated with the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against Wrangel's army.
Significantly aggravated the nature of the civil war Soviet-Polish war... Polish Head of State Marshal J. Pilsudski hatched a plan to create “ Greater Poland within the borders of 1772”From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which includes a large part of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, including those that have never been ruled by Warsaw. The Polish national government was supported by the Entente countries, which sought to create a "sanitary block" of Eastern European countries between Bolshevik Russia and the Western countries. On April 17, Pilsudski ordered an attack on Kiev and signed an agreement with Ataman Petliura, Poland recognized the Directory headed by Petliura as the supreme power of Ukraine. On May 7, Kiev was taken. The victory was gained with extraordinary ease, for the Soviet troops withdrew without serious resistance.
But already on May 14, a successful counteroffensive by the troops of the Western Front (commanded by M.N. Tukhachevsky) began, on May 26 - by the Southwestern Front (commanded by A.I.Egorov). In mid-July, they reached the borders of Poland. On June 12, Soviet troops occupied Kiev. The speed of the victory won can only be compared with the speed of the defeat suffered earlier.
On July 12, British Foreign Secretary Lord D. Curzon sent a note to the Soviet government - in fact, an ultimatum from the Entente demanding to stop the Red Army's offensive against Poland. The so-called “ Curzon line”, Which passed mainly along the ethnic border of the settlement of Poles.
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), clearly overestimating its own forces and underestimating the forces of the enemy, set a new strategic task for the main command of the Red Army: to continue the revolutionary war. IN AND. Lenin believed that the victorious entry of the Red Army into Poland would trigger uprisings of the Polish working class and revolutionary uprisings in Germany. For this purpose, the Soviet government of Poland was quickly formed - the Provisional Revolutionary Committee composed of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, F.M. Kon, Yu.Yu. Markhlevsky and others.
This attempt ended in disaster. The troops of the Western Front in August 1920 were defeated near Warsaw.
In October, the belligerents concluded an armistice, and in March 1921 - a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in the west of Ukraine and Belarus was transferred to Poland.
At the height of the Soviet-Polish war, General P.N. Wrangel. With the help of harsh measures, up to the public executions of demoralized officers, and with the support of France, the general turned the scattered Denikin divisions into a disciplined and efficient Russian army. In June 1920, from the Crimea, troops were landed on the Don and Kuban, and the main forces of the Wrangels were thrown into the Donbass. On October 3, the offensive of the Russian army in the northwestern direction to Kakhovka began.
The offensive of the Wrangel troops was repulsed, and during the operation of the Southern Front army under the command of M.V. Frunze completely captured the Crimea. On November 14-16, 1920, an armada of ships flying the St.Andrew's flag left the coast of the peninsula, taking the defeated white regiments and tens of thousands of civilian refugees to a foreign land. Thus, P.N. Wrangel saved them from the merciless Red Terror that hit the Crimea immediately after the evacuation of the Whites.
In the European part of Russia, after the capture of Crimea, it was eliminated last white front... The military question ceased to be the main one for Moscow, but hostilities on the outskirts of the country continued for many months.
The Red Army, having defeated Kolchak, went to the Transbaikalia in the spring of 1920. The Far East was at that time in the hands of Japan. To avoid a collision with it, the government of Soviet Russia promoted the formation in April 1920 of a formally independent "buffer" state - the Far Eastern Republic (RER) with its capital in Chita. Soon the army of the Far Eastern Republic began military operations against the White Guards, supported by the Japanese, and in October 1922 occupied Vladivostok, completely clearing the Far East of whites and interventionists. After that, it was decided to liquidate the FER and include it in the RSFSR.
The Civil War became the biggest drama of the 20th century and the greatest tragedy in Russia. The armed struggle that unfolded in the vastness of the country was waged with extreme tension of the forces of the opponents, was accompanied by mass terror (both white and red), and was distinguished by exceptional mutual bitterness. Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of a participant in the Civil War, telling about the soldiers of the Caucasian Front: "Well, how, son, is it not scary for a Russian to beat a Russian?" - comrades ask the recruit. "At first, it really seems awkward," he replies, "and then, if the heart is inflamed, then no, nothing." These words contain the merciless truth about the fratricidal war, into which almost the entire population of the country was drawn.
The fighting sides clearly understood that the fight can only have a fatal outcome for one of the sides. That is why the civil war in Russia has become a great tragedy for all its political camps, movements and parties.
“Red”(The Bolsheviks and their supporters) believed that they were defending not only Soviet power in Russia, but also“ the world revolution and the ideas of socialism ”.
In the political struggle against Soviet power, two political movements consolidated:
- democratic counterrevolution with the slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains of the February (1917) revolution (many Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks advocated the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, but without the Bolsheviks (“For Soviets without Bolsheviks”));
- white movement with the slogans of "non-determination of the state system" and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction endangered not only the October, but also the February conquests. The counter-revolutionary white movement was not homogeneous. It included monarchists and liberal republicans, supporters of the Constituent Assembly and adherents of a military dictatorship. Among the "whites" there were differences in foreign policy guidelines: some hoped for the support of Germany (Ataman Krasnov), others - for the help of the Entente powers (Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich). The “whites” were united by their hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia. They did not have a unified political program; the military in the leadership of the “white movement” pushed politicians into the background. There was also no clear coordination of actions between the main groupings of "whites". The leaders of the Russian counter-revolution were in competition and enmity among themselves.
In the anti-Soviet anti-Bolshevik camp, part of the political opponents of the Soviets operated under a single Socialist-Revolutionary-White Guard flag, and some - only under the White Guard flag.
Bolsheviks had a stronger social footing than their opponents. They received the strong support of the urban workers and the rural poor. The position of the bulk of the peasant mass was not stable and unequivocal, only the poorest part of the peasants consistently followed the Bolsheviks. The peasants' hesitation had their reasons: the “Reds” gave land, but then introduced a surplus appropriation system, which caused strong discontent in the countryside. However, the return of the previous order was also unacceptable for the peasantry: the victory of the "whites" threatened the return of land to the landowners and severe punishments for the destruction of the landowners' estates.
The Social Revolutionaries and anarchists were in a hurry to take advantage of the peasants' hesitation. They managed to involve a significant part of the peasantry in an armed struggle, both against the whites and against the reds.
For both warring parties essential also had what position in the conditions of the civil war the Russian officers would take. Approximately 40% of the tsarist army of officers joined the "white movement", 30% - sided with the Soviet regime, 30% - avoided participating in the civil war.
The Russian civil war was getting worse armed intervention foreign powers. The invaders waged active hostilities on the territory of the former Russian Empire, occupied some of its regions, contributed to the incitement of the civil war in the country and contributed to its protraction. The intervention turned out to be important factor"Revolutionary all-Russian turmoil", multiplied the number of victims.
CIVIL WAR 1917-22 in Russia, a chain of armed conflicts between various political, social and ethnic groups. The main fighting in the civil war, in order to seize and retain power, they were fought between the Red Army and the armed forces of the White movement - the White armies (hence the established names of the main opponents in the civil war - "red" and "white"). An integral part civil war were also armed wrestling on the national "outskirts" of the former Russian Empire (attempts to proclaim independence were rebuffed by the "whites" who advocated a "united and indivisible Russia", as well as the leadership of the RSFSR, who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the conquests of the revolution) and the insurrectionary movement of the population against the troops of the opposing sides ... Civil war accompanied by military operations on the territory of Russia by the troops of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance, as well as by the troops of the Entente countries (see Foreign military intervention in Russia 1918-22).
In modern historical science, many issues related to the history of the civil war remain controversial, among them - questions about the chronological framework of the civil war and its causes. Most modern researchers consider the fighting in Petrograd to be the first act of the civil war during the October Revolution of 1917, carried out by the Bolsheviks, and the time of its end - the defeat of the last large anti-Bolshevik armed formations by the Reds in October 1922. Some researchers believe that the period of the civil war covers only the most active hostilities that were fought from May 1918 to November 1920. Among the most important causes of the civil war, it is customary to single out the deep social, political and national-ethnic contradictions that existed in the Russian Empire and exacerbated as a result of the February Revolution of 1917, as well as the readiness to widely use violence for achieving their political goals by all its participants (see "White Terror" and "Red Terror"). Some researchers see in foreign intervention the reason for the particular bitterness and duration of the civil war.
The course of the armed struggle between the "red" and "white" can be divided into 3 stages, which differ in the composition of the participants, the intensity of hostilities and the conditions of the foreign policy situation.
At the first stage (October / November 1917 - November 1918), the formation of the armed forces of the opposing sides and the main fronts of the struggle between them took place. In this period Civil War was in the conditions of the ongoing World War I and was accompanied by active participation in the internal struggle in Russia of the troops of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente.
In October - November 1917, during the October Revolution of 1917, bolsheviks suppressed armed protests by supporters of the Provisional Government in Petrograd and its environs (see Kerensky - Krasnov speech in 1917) and in Moscow. By the end of 1917, Soviet rule had been established in most of European Russia. The first major protests against the Bolsheviks took place in the Cossack territories of the Don, Kuban and the Southern Urals (see the articles of Kaledin, speech 1917-18, Kuban Rada and Dutov, speech 1917-18). In the first months of the civil war, hostilities were fought in separate detachments, mainly along the lines railways, for large settlements and railway junctions (see "Echelon War"). In the spring of 1918, local skirmishes began to develop into larger-scale armed clashes.
The dispersal of the Constituent Assembly and the conclusion of the Brest Peace of 1918 intensified opposition to the SNK policy throughout the country. The underground anti-Bolshevik organizations created in February - May (the Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom, the Union for the Renaissance of Russia, the National Center) tried to unite the forces that fought against the Soviet regime and receive foreign aid, were engaged in transporting volunteers to the centers of concentration of anti-Bolshevik forces. At this time, the territory of the RSFSR was reduced due to the advancement of German and Austro-Hungarian troops (continued after the conclusion of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918): in February - May 1918 they occupied Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, part of the Transcaucasus and the South of European Russia. In the spring of 1918, the Entente countries, striving to resist German influence in Russia, landed armed landings in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok, which led to the fall of the SNK power here. The uprising of 1918, which began in May of the Czechoslovak Corps, eliminated the Soviet power in the Volga region, in the Urals and in Siberia, and also cut off the Turkestan Soviet Republic in Central Asia from the RSFSR.
The fragility of Soviet power and support from the interventionists contributed to the creation in the summer and autumn of 1918 of a number of anti-Bolshevik, mainly Socialist-Revolutionary, governments: the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch; June, Samara), the Provisional Siberian Government (June, Omsk), the Supreme Administration of the Northern Region (August, Arkhangelsk), Ufa Directory (September, Ufa).
In April 1918, the Don Army was created on the territory of the Don Cossack Army, which by the end of the summer ousted the Soviet troops from the territory of the Don Army Region. Volunteer army(began to form in November 1917), which consisted mainly of officers and cadets of the former Russian army, in August 1918 occupied the Kuban (see the article Kuban campaigns of the Volunteer Army).
The successes of the opponents of the Bolsheviks caused the reform of the Red Army. Instead of the volunteer principle of the formation of the army, in May 1918, the RSFSR introduced universal military service. By attracting officers of the former Russian army to the Red Army (see Military Specialist), the command staff was strengthened, the institute of military commissars was established, in September 1918 the RVSR was created (chairman - L.D. Trotsky) and the post of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic was introduced (I.I. ). Also in September, instead of the curtains that had existed since March 1918, front-line and army associations of the Red Army were formed. In November, the Council of Workers 'and Peasants' Defense was established (chaired by V. I. Lenin). The strengthening of the army was accompanied by the strengthening of the internal situation in the RSFSR: after the defeat of the Left Social Revolutionaries of the uprising of 1918, there was no organized opposition to the Bolsheviks on the territory of the republic.
As a result, in the early autumn of 1918, the Red Army managed to change the course of the armed struggle: in September 1918 it stopped the offensive of the troops of the Volga People's Army of Komuch (started in July), by November it had pushed them back to the Urals. At the first stage of Tsaritsyn's defense of 1918-19, units of the Red Army repulsed the attempts of the Don army to seize Tsaritsyn. The successes of the Red Army somewhat stabilized the position of the RSFSR, but neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage in the course of hostilities.
At the second stage (November 1918 - March 1920), the main battles took place between the Red Army and the White armies, a turning point in the civil war took place. In connection with the end of World War I, the participation of interventionist troops in the civil war sharply decreased during this period. The withdrawal of German and Austro-Hungarian troops from the territory of the country allowed the Council of People's Commissars to return under its control a significant part of the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine. Despite the landing in November - December 1918 of additional military units of the Entente countries in Novorossiysk, Odessa and Sevastopol, the advance of British troops in Transcaucasia, the direct participation of the Entente troops in the civil war remained limited, and by the fall of 1919 the main contingent of the Allied forces had been withdrawn from the territory of Russia. Foreign states continued to provide the anti-Bolshevik governments and armed groups with material and technical assistance.
In late 1918 and early 1919, the anti-Bolshevik movement consolidated; its leadership from the Socialist-Revolutionary and Cossack governments passed into the hands of the conservative "white" officers. As a result of the coup in Omsk on 11/18/1918, the Ufa directory and came to power admiral A. V. Kolchak, who declared himself the Supreme Ruler of the Russian state. 8.1.1919 on the basis of the Volunteer and Don armies created Military establishment South of Russia (VSYUR) under the command of Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin.
Kolchak's army was the first to launch a decisive offensive. At the end of 1918, the Siberian army overcame the Ural ridge and took Perm. In March 1919, Kolchak's general offensive of 1919 followed. The troops of the Western Army of Lieutenant General MV Khanzhin, who captured Ufa (March), and at the end of April reached the approaches to the Volga, achieved the greatest success. It became possible to connect the armies of Kolchak with the AFSR, a threat to Soviet power in the central regions of the RSFSR was created. However, in May 1919, units of the Red Army, reinforced by reinforcements, seized the initiative and, during the counteroffensive of the Eastern Front in 1919, defeated the enemy and threw him back to the Urals. As a result of the 1919-20 Eastern Front offensive undertaken by the command of the Red Army, Soviet troops occupied the Urals and most of Siberia (Omsk was captured in November 1919, Irkutsk in March 1920).
In the North Caucasus, the mountain governments, relying on the military assistance of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance, came out against the power of the Council of People's Commissars. After the withdrawal of foreign troops from the territory of the so-called Mountain Republic, it was occupied by units of the ARSUR, under the pressure of which at the end of May 1919 the Mountain government ceased its activities.
The first defeats of Kolchak's armies coincided with the beginning of Denikin's 1919 Moscow campaign, which represented the most serious threat to the power of the Bolsheviks during the years of the civil war. Its initial success was facilitated by the lack of reserves in the Red Army, which were on the Eastern Front, as well as the massive influx of Cossacks into the AFSR as a result of the policy of "decossackization" carried out by the leadership of the RSFSR. The presence of Cossack cavalry and well-trained military personnel allowed the ARSUR to seize the Donbass and the Don region, take Tsaritsyn and occupy most of Ukraine. Attempts by Soviet troops to counterattack the enemy during the August 1919 offensive were unsuccessful. In August - September, the defense of the Red Army was disorganized by Mamontov's raid in 1919. In October, the ARSUR occupied Orel, creating a threat to Tula and Moscow. The offensive of the AFSR was stopped, and then gave way to a rapid retreat due to the counter-offensive of the Southern Front of 1919 undertaken by the leadership of the Red Army (it was carried out after large mobilizations in the RSFSR and the creation of the First Cavalry Army, which made it possible to eliminate the advantage of the AFSR in cavalry), the weak control of the AFSR over the occupied territories and the desire of the Cossacks confine ourselves to the defense of the Oblast by the troops of the Don and Kuban. During the offensive of the Southern and Southeastern Fronts of 1919-20, units of the Red Army forced the ARSUR to withdraw to the North Caucasus and Crimea.
In the summer - fall of 1919, the Northern Corps attacked Petrograd (from June 19 the Northern Army, from July 1 the North-Western Army) under the general command of Infantry General N.N. Yudenich (see Petrograd Defense 1919). In October - November 1919, it was stopped, the Northwest Army was defeated, and its remnants retreated to the territory of Estonia.
In the north of the European part of Russia, the troops formed by the Provisional Government of the Northern Region (the successor to the Supreme Directorate of the Northern Region) of the Northern Region, supported by the Allied Expeditionary Force, fought with units of the Soviet Northern Front. In February - March 1920, the troops of the Northern region ceased to exist (this was facilitated by the failures of the White armies in the main directions and the withdrawal of the allied expeditionary corps from the territory of the region), parts of the Red Army occupied Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.
At the third stage (March 1920 - October 1922), the main struggle took place on the periphery of the country and did not pose an immediate threat to Soviet power in the center of Russia.
By the spring of 1920, the largest of the "white" military formations was the "Russian Army" (formed from the remnants of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia), Lieutenant General PN Wrangel, located in the Crimea. In June, taking advantage of the diversion of the main forces of the Red Army to the Polish front (see Soviet-Polish War of 1920), this army attempted to seize and fortify itself in the northern districts of the Tauride province, and also landed troops on the coast of the North Caucasus in July and August in order to raise action against the RSFSR of the Cossacks of the Oblast by the troops of the Don and Kuban (see Landings of the "Russian Army" 1920). All these plans were defeated, in October - November the "Russian Army" was defeated during the counteroffensive of the Southern Front in 1920 and the Perekop-Chongar operation in 1920 (its remnants were evacuated to Constantinople). After the defeat of the White armies in November 1920 - January 1921, the Dagestan ASSR and the Mountain ASSR were formed in the North Caucasus.
The last battles of the civil war took place in Eastern Siberia and the Far East. In 1920-22, the largest anti-Bolshevik formations there were Lieutenant General G.M.Semenov's Far Eastern Army (controlled the Chita region) and Lieutenant General M.K.Diterikhs' Zemskaya army (controlled Vladivostok and part of Primorye). They were opposed by the People's Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Far Eastern Republic (created by the leadership of the RSFSR in April 1920 in order to avoid a military clash with Japan, which retained military presence in the Far East), as well as detachments of "red" partisans. In October 1920, the NRA captured Chita and forced Semyonov's detachments to leave along the Chinese Eastern Railway in Primorye. As a result of the Primorsky operation of 1922, the Zemsky army was defeated (its remnants were evacuated to Genzan, and then to Shanghai). With the establishment of Soviet power in the Far East, the main battles of the civil war ended.
The armed struggle on the national "outskirts" of the former Russian Empire unfolded simultaneously with the main battles between the Red Army and the White armies. In the course of it, various national-state formations and political regimes arose and were liquidated, the stability of which depended on their ability to successfully maneuver between the "red" and "white", as well as support from third powers.
The right to national self-determination of Poland was recognized by the Provisional Government in the spring of 1917. During the civil war, Poland did not want to strengthen any of the opponents and during the main battles remained neutral, at the same time seeking international recognition in European capitals. A clash with Soviet troops followed during the Soviet-Polish war of 1920, after the defeat of the main forces of the "whites". As a result, Poland managed to maintain its independence and expand its borders (approved by the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921).
Finland declared independence immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd. The union with Germany, and then with the countries of the Entente, allowed to consolidate it. Contrary to the hopes of the command of the White armies for active Finnish assistance in the campaign against Petrograd, Finland's participation in the civil war was limited to the invasion of Finnish troops into the territory of Karelia, which was repulsed by the Red Army (see Karelian operation 1921).
In the Baltics, the formation of independent states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is the result of the simultaneous weakening of Russia and Germany and the prudent policy of national governments. The Estonian and Latvian leadership was able to win over the bulk of the population under the slogans of land reform and opposition to the German barons, while the German occupation in 1918 did not allow the Soviet authorities to strengthen. Subsequently, diplomatic support from the Entente countries, the unstable position of Soviet power in the region and the successes of the national armies forced the leadership of the RSFSR to conclude peace treaties in 1920 with Estonia (February), Lithuania (July) and Latvia (August).
In Ukraine and Belarus, the national movement was weakened by the lack of unity on the future socio-political structure of these countries, as well as by the greater popularity of social rather than national slogans among the population. After the October Revolution in Petrograd, the Central Rada in Kiev and the Belorusskaya Rada (see Belarusian Rada) in Minsk refused to recognize the power of the Council of People's Commissars, but could not consolidate their position. This was hampered by the offensive of both Soviet and German troops. In Ukraine, successive national-state formations were fragile. The Ukrainian State, created in April 1918, headed by Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky, existed only due to the support of Germany, and the Ukrainian People's Republic of S.V. Petliura survived while its main opponents (RSFSR and AFSR) were occupied on other fronts of the civil war. The Belarusian national governments were entirely dependent on the support of the German and Polish armies located on their territory. In the summer of 1920, after the defeat of the main White armies and the withdrawal of the Polish occupation troops from the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, the power of the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR was established there.
In Transcaucasia, the course of the civil war was predetermined by conflicts between national governments. The Transcaucasian Commissariat, created in November 1917 in Tiflis, declared the rejection of the power of the Council of People's Commissars. Proclaimed by the Transcaucasian Sejm (convened by the Transcaucasian Commissariat) in April 1918, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic already in May, due to the approach of Turkish troops, split into the Georgian Democratic Republic, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Republic of Armenia with different political orientations: Azerbaijanis acted in alliance with the Turks; Georgians and Armenians They looked for support from Germany (its troops entered Tiflis and other cities of Georgia in June 1918), and then from the Entente countries (in November - December 1918, British troops were introduced to Transcaucasia). After the end of the intervention of the Entente countries in August 1919, the national governments were unable to restore the economy and were bogged down in the border conflicts that erupted between Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. This allowed the Red Army in the course of the Baku operation of 1920 and the Tiflis operation of 1921 to extend Soviet power to the Transcaucasus.
In Central Asia, the main hostilities took place on the territory of Turkestan. There, the Bolsheviks relied on Russian settlers, which exacerbated the existing religious and national conflicts and alienated a significant part of the Muslim population from the Soviet regime, which widely participated in the anti-Soviet movement - Basmachism. An obstacle to the establishment of Soviet power in Turkestan was also the British intervention (July 1918-July 1919). The troops of the Soviet Turkestan Front took Khiva in February 1920, and Bukhara in September; The Khiva Khanate and the Bukhara Emirate were liquidated and the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic and the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic were proclaimed.
The insurrectionary movement in the civil war arose in 1918-19, and reached its greatest scope in 1920-21. The goal of the rebels was to protect the village from the policy of “war communism” pursued in the RSFSR (the main slogans of the insurgent units were “councils without communists” and freedom of trade in agricultural products), as well as from requisitions and mobilizations carried out by both the Bolsheviks and their opponents. The insurgent detachments consisted mainly of peasants (many of them deserted from the Red Army and the White armies), hid in the forests (hence their common name - "green") and enjoyed the support of the local population. Partisan tactics of struggle made them less vulnerable to regular troops. Insurgent units, often for tactical reasons, provided assistance to the "red" or"White", disrupting communications and distracting relatively large military formations from the main hostilities; while their military organization remained independent of the command of their allies. In the rear of Kolchak's armies, the most numerous rebel detachments operated in the Tomsk and Yenisei provinces, in Altai, in the area of Semipalatinsk and the Amur River valley. On the decisive days of Kolchak's offensive in 1919, the insurgent raids on railroad trains disrupted the supply of supplies and weapons to the troops. In the southeast of Ukraine, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine N.I.Makhno operated, which in different periods fought against Ukrainian nationalists, German troops, parts of the Red Army and the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.
In the rear of the Red Army, the first major insurrectionary movement emerged in March - April 1919 and was called the "chapan war". In late 1920 - early 1921, thousands of peasant detachments operated in the Volga region, on the Don, Kuban and the North Caucasus, in Belarus and Central Russia... The largest uprisings were the Tambov uprising of 1920-21 and the West Siberian uprising of 1921. In the spring of 1921, on a large territory of the RSFSR, Soviet power in the countryside actually ceased to exist. The wide scale of the peasant insurrectionary movement, along with the Kronstadt uprising of 1921, forced the Bolsheviks to replace the policy of "war communism" with NEP (March 1921). However, the main centers of the uprisings were suppressed by Soviet troops only in the summer of 1921 (some detachments continued to resist until 1923). In some areas, for example, in the Volga region, the uprisings stopped because of the famine that broke out in 1921.
Results of the Civil War. As a result of a 5-year armed struggle, the Soviet republics united most of the territory of the former Russian Empire (with the exception of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus). main reason victories of the Bolsheviks in the civil war - support by the bulk of the population for their slogans ("Peace to the peoples!", "Land to the peasants!", "Factories to the workers!", "All power to the Soviets!" as well as the strategic advantage of their position, the pragmatic policy of the Soviet leadership and the fragmentation of the forces of opponents of Soviet power. Control over both capitals (Petrograd, Moscow) and central regions the country gave the SNK the opportunity to rely on large human resources (where even at the time of the greatest advancement of the opponents of the Bolsheviks, about 60 million people lived) to replenish the Red Army; use the military stocks the former Russian army and a relatively developed communication system, which made it possible to quickly transfer troops to the most threatened sectors of the front. The anti-Bolshevik forces were divided geographically and politically. They could not work out a single political platform (the "white" officers for the most part advocated a monarchical system, and the Socialist-Revolutionary governments - for a republican system), as well as coordinate the time of their offensives and, due to their outskirts location, were forced to use the help of the Cossacks and national governments, which did not supported the plans of the "whites" to recreate "a single and indivisible Russia." Foreign aid to the anti-Bolshevik forces was insufficient to help them achieve a decisive advantage over the enemy. The mass peasant movement directed against the Soviet regime, not coinciding in time with the main battles of the civil war, could not overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks due to its defensive strategy, uncoordinated actions and limited goals.
Soviet state created in the conditions of the civil war powerful armed forces (by November 1920 there were more than 5.4 million people) with a clear organizational structure and a centralized leadership, in whose ranks about 75 thousand officers and generals of the former Russian army (about 30% of the number of its officers) served, whose experience and knowledge played an important role in the victories of the Red Army on the fronts of the civil war. The most distinguished among them were I. I. Vatsetis, A. I. Egorov, S. S. Kamenev, F. K. Mironov, M. N. Tukhachevsky and others. V.K.Blyukher, S.M.Budyonny, G.I.Kotovsky, F.F.Raskolnikov, V.I. and others. The maximum number (by the middle of 1919) of the White armies was about 600 (according to other sources, about 300) thousand people. Generals M.V. Alekseev, P.N. Wrangel, A.I.Denikin, A.I.Dutov, L.G. Kornilov, E.K. Miller, G. M. Semyonov, Ya.A. Slashchev, N.N. Yudenich, Admiral A.V. Kolchak and others.
The civil war brought huge material and human losses. It completed the collapse of the economy, which began during the First World War (industrial production by 1920 was 4-20% of the 1913 level, agricultural production was almost halved). Was completely disorganized financial system state: on the territory of Russia during the civil war, over 2 thousand types of banknotes were in circulation. The most striking indicator of the crisis was the famine of 1921-22, which affected over 30 million people. Massive malnutrition and related epidemics have resulted in high mortality rates. Irrecoverable losses of Soviet troops (killed, died of wounds, disappeared without a trace, did not return from captivity, etc.) amounted to about 940 thousand people, sanitary - about 6.8 million people; their opponents (according to incomplete data) have lost more than 225 thousand people only killed. The total number of those killed during the civil war, according to various estimates, ranged from 10 to 17 million people, and share military losses did not exceed 20%. Under the influence of the civil war, up to 2 million people emigrated from the country (see the section "Emigration" in the volume "Russia"). The civil war caused the destruction of traditional economic and social ties, archaization of society and aggravated the country's foreign policy isolation. Under the influence of the civil war, specific traits Soviet political system: centralization of government and violent suppression of internal opposition.
Lit .: Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles: In 5 volumes. Paris, 1921-1926. M., 2006. T. 1-3; Directives of the command of the fronts of the Red Army (1917-1922). M., 1971-1978. T. 1-4; Civil War in the USSR: In 2 volumes. M., 1980-1986; Civil War and Military Intervention in the USSR: An Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. M., 1987; Kavtaradze A.G. Military specialists in the service of the Republic of Soviets. 1917-1920 years. M., 1988; Kakurin N.E. How the Revolution Fought: In 2 volumes, 2nd ed. M., 1990; Brovkin V.N. Behind the front lines of the Civil war: political parties and social movements in Russia, 1918-1922. Princeton, 1994; The Civil War in Russia: A Crossroads of Opinions. M., 1994; Mawdsley E. The Russian Civil war. Edinburgh, 2000.
Civil War
Civil war period poster.
Artist D. Moore, 1920
Civil War- This is an armed struggle of various social, political and national forces for power within the country.
When the event took place: October 1917-1922
Causes
Irreconcilable contradictions between the main social strata of society
Features of the policy of the Bolsheviks, which was aimed at inciting enmity in society
The desire of the bourgeoisie and nobility to return to their former position in society
Features of the civil war in Russia
Accompanied by the intervention of foreign powers ( Intervention- violent interference of one or several states in the internal affairs of other countries and peoples, maybe military (aggression), economic, diplomatic, ideological).
Was conducted with extreme cruelty ("red" and "white" terror)
Participants
The Reds are a supporter of the Soviet regime.
Whites are opponents of Soviet power
Green is against everyone
National movements
Milestones and Events
First stage: October 1917-spring 1918
The military actions of the opponents of the new government were of a local nature, they created armed formations ( Volunteer army- creator and supreme leader Alekseev V.A.). Krasnov, P.- near Petrograd, Dutov A.- in the Urals, Kaledin A.- on the Don.
Second stage: spring - December 1918
March, April... Germany occupies Ukraine, the Baltic States, Crimea. England - landing troops in Murmansk, Japan - in Vladivostok
May... Mutiny Czechoslovak Corps(these are Czechs and Slovaks prisoners who crossed over to the side of the Entente and are moving in echelons to Vladivostok for transfer to France). Reason for mutiny: the Bolsheviks tried to disarm the corps under the terms of the Brest Peace. Outcome: the fall of Soviet power along the entire Trans-Siberian Railway.
June... Creation of the governments of the Social Revolutionaries: Committee of Members of the Constituent assemblies in Samara Komuch, chairman of the Socialist-Revolutionary V.K. Volsky), Provisional government Siberia in Tomsk (chairman PV Vologda), the Ural regional government in Yekaterinburg.
July... Revolts of the Left SRs in Moscow, Yaroslavl and other cities. Suppressed.
September... Created in Ufa Ufa directory- "All-Russian government" Chairman of the Socialist Revolutionary Avksentyev N.D.
November... Ufa directory dispersed Admiral Kolchak A.V., declared itself "The supreme ruler of Russia". The initiative in the counter-revolution passed from the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to the military and anarchists.
Actively acted green movement - not with reds and not with whites. Green is a symbol of will and freedom. They acted in the Black Sea region, in the Crimea, in the North Caucasus and in the south of Ukraine. Leaders: Makhno N.I., Antonov A.S. (Tambov province), Mironov F.K.
In Ukraine - detachments daddy Makhno (created a republic Walk-field). During the occupation of Ukraine by Germany, they led the partisan movement. They fought under a black flag with the words "Freedom or Death!" Then they began to fight against the Reds until October 1921, until Makhno was wounded (he emigrated).
Third stage: January-December 1919
The climax of the war. Relative equality of forces. Large-scale operations on all fronts. But foreign intervention has intensified.
4 centers of white movement
Admiral's troops Kolchak A.V. (Ural, Siberia)
Armed Forces of the South of Russia General Denikina A.I.(Don region, North Caucasus)
Armed Forces of the North of Russia General Miller E.K.(Arkhangelsk region)
General's troops Yudenich N.N. in the Baltics
March, April... Kolchak's attack on Kazan and Moscow, the Bolsheviks mobilize all possible resources.
End of April - December... Red Army counteroffensive ( Kamenev S.S., Frunze M.V., Tukhachevsky M.N..). By the end of 1919 - complete defeat of Kolchak.
May June. The Bolsheviks with difficulty repulsed the offensive Yudenich to Petrograd. Troops Denikin captured Donbass, part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn.
September October. Denikin advancing to Moscow, reached Orel (against him - Egorov A.I., Budyonny S.M..).Yudenich the second time he tries to seize Petrograd (against him - Kork A.I.)
November. Troops Yudenich thrown back to Estonia.
Outcome: by the end of 1919 - the preponderance of forces on the side of the Bolsheviks.
Fourth stage: January - November 1920
February March... The defeat of Miller in the north of Russia, the liberation of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
March-April. Denikin ousted to the Crimea and the North Caucasus, Denikin himself handed over command to the Baron Wrangel P.N.... and emigrated.
April... Formation of the FER - Far Eastern Republic.
April-October. War with Poland ... The Poles invaded Ukraine and captured Kiev in May. Red Army counteroffensive.
August. Tukhachevsky reaches Warsaw. Aid to Poland from France. The Red Army has been driven out to the Ukraine.
September... Offensive Wrangel to southern Ukraine.
October. Riga Peace Treaty with Poland ... Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were transferred to Poland.
November... Offensive Frunze M.V... in Crimea. Defeat Wrangel.
In the European part of Russia, the civil war is over.
Fifth stage: late 1920-1922
December 1920. White captured Khabarovsk.
February 1922.Khabarovsk was released.
October 1922. Liberation from the Japanese of Vladivostok.
Leaders of the white movement
Kolchak A.V.
Denikin A.I.
Yudenich N.N.
Wrangel P.N.
Alekseev V.A.
Wrangel
Dutov A.
A.
P.
Miller E.K.
Leaders of the red movement
Kamenev S.S.
Frunze M.V.
Shorin V.I.
S.M. Budyonny
Tukhachevsky M.N.
Kork A.I.
Egorov A.I.
Chapaev V.I. - the leader of one of the detachments of the Red Army.
Anarchists
Makhno N.I.
Antonov A.S.
Mironov F.K.
The most important events of the civil war
May-November 1918 ... - the struggle of the Soviet government with the so-called "Democratic counter-revolution"(former members of the Constituent Assembly, representatives of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, etc.); start of military intervention The Entente;
November 1918 - March 1919 g - the main battles on Southern front countries (Red Army - army Denikin); the strengthening and failure of direct intervention by the Entente;
March 1919 - March 1920 - the main military actions on Eastern Front(Red Army - army Kolchak);
April-November 1920 – Soviet-Polish war; defeat of troops Wrangel in Crimea;
1921-1922 ... - the end of the Civil War on the outskirts of Russia.
National movements.
One of the important features of the civil war is national movements: the struggle for the acquisition of independent statehood and separation from Russia.
This was especially evident in Ukraine.
In Kiev, after the February Revolution, in March 1917, the Central Rada was created.
In January 1918 H... she entered into an agreement with the Austro-German command and declared independence.
With the support of the Germans, power passed to Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky(April-December 1918).
In November 1918 in Ukraine there was Directory, at the head - S.V. Petliura.
In January 1919, the Directory declared war on Soviet Russia.
S.V. Petliura had to confront both the Red Army and Denikin's army, which fought for a united and indivisible Russia. In October 1919, the army of the "whites" defeated the Petliurites.
Reasons for the victory of the red
The peasants were on the side of the Reds, as it was promised after the war to implement the Decree on Land. According to the agrarian program of the Whites, the land remained in the hands of the landowners.
One leader - Lenin, united plans of military operations. White didn't have that.
The national policy of the Reds, attractive to the people, is the right of nations to self-determination. Whites have the slogan "United and indivisible Russia"
The Whites relied on the help of the Entente - the interventionists, therefore they looked like an anti-national force.
The policy of "War Communism" helped to mobilize all the forces of the Reds.
Consequences of the civil war
Economic crisis, devastation, fall industrial production 7 times, agricultural - 2 times
Demographic losses. About 10 million people died from hostilities, hunger, epidemics
The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the tough methods of government used during the war years, began to be seen as quite acceptable in peacetime.
Prepared by: Vera Melnikova
