Movements during the Civil War. Civil War: Reds - Knowledge Hypermarket

Civil War in Russia - armed confrontation in 1917-1922. organized military-political structures and state entities, conventionally defined as “white” and “red,” as well as national-state entities on the territory of the former Russian Empire (bourgeois republics, regional state entities). Spontaneously emerging military and socio-political groups, often referred to as “third force” (rebel groups, partisan republics, etc.), also took part in the armed confrontation. Also, foreign states (referred to as “interventionists”) participated in the civil confrontation in Russia.

Periodization of the Civil War

There are 4 stages in the history of the Civil War:

First stage: summer 1917 - November 1918 - formation of the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement

Second stage: November 1918 - April 1919 - the beginning of the Entente intervention.

Reasons for intervention:

Deal with Soviet power;

Protect your interests;

Fear of socialist influence.

Third stage: May 1919 - April 1920 - simultaneous struggle of Soviet Russia against the White armies and Entente troops

Fourth stage: May 1920 - November 1922 (summer 1923) - defeat of the white armies, end of the civil war

Background and reasons

The origin of the Civil War cannot be reduced to any one cause. It was the result of deep political, socio-economic, national and spiritual contradictions. The potential for public discontent during the First World War and the devaluation of the values ​​of human life played an important role. The agrarian-peasant policy of the Bolsheviks also played a negative role (the introduction of the Committee of Poor People's Commissars and the surplus appropriation system). The Bolshevik political doctrine, according to which civil war is a natural outcome of the socialist revolution, caused by the resistance of the overthrown ruling classes, also contributed to the civil war. On the initiative of the Bolsheviks, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was dissolved, and the multi-party system was gradually eliminated.

The actual defeat in the war with Germany, the Brest-Litovsk Treaty led to the fact that the Bolsheviks began to be accused of “the destruction of Russia.”

The right of peoples to self-determination, proclaimed by the new government, and the emergence of many independent state entities in different parts of the country were perceived by supporters of “One, Indivisible” Russia as a betrayal of its interests.

Dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime was also expressed by those who opposed its demonstrative break with the historical past and with ancient traditions. The anti-church policy of the Bolsheviks was especially painful for millions of people.

The Civil War took various shapes, including uprisings, isolated armed clashes, large-scale operations involving regular armies, guerrilla actions, terror. The peculiarity of the Civil War in our country was that it turned out to be extremely long, bloody, and unfolded over a vast territory.

Chronological framework

Individual episodes of the Civil War took place already in 1917 (February events of 1917, the July “semi-uprising” in Petrograd, Kornilov’s speech, October battles in Moscow and other cities), and in the spring and summer of 1918 it acquired a large-scale, front-line character .

It is not easy to determine the final boundary of the Civil War. Front-line military operations on the territory of the European part of the country ended in 1920. But then there were also massive peasant uprisings against the Bolsheviks, and performances by Kronstadt sailors in the spring of 1921. Only in 1922-1923. The armed struggle in the Far East ended. This milestone can generally be considered the end of a large-scale Civil War.

Features of armed confrontation during the Civil War

Military operations during the Civil War differed significantly from previous periods. It was a time of unique military creativity that broke the stereotypes of troop command and control, the army recruitment system, and military discipline. The greatest successes were achieved by the military leader who commanded in a new way, using all means to achieve the task. The Civil War was a war of maneuver. Unlike the period of “positional war” of 1915-1917, there were no continuous front lines. Cities, villages, and villages could change hands several times. Therefore, active, offensive actions, caused by the desire to seize the initiative from the enemy, were of decisive importance.

The fighting during the Civil War was characterized by a variety of strategies and tactics. During the establishment of Soviet power in Petrograd and Moscow, street fighting tactics were used. In mid-October 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee created in Petrograd under the leadership of V.I. Lenin and N.I. Podvoisky developed a plan to capture the main city facilities (telephone exchange, telegraph, stations, bridges). Fighting in Moscow (October 27 - November 3, 1917, old style), between the forces of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee (leaders - G.A. Usievich, N.I. Muralov) and the Public Security Committee (commander of the Moscow Military District, Colonel K.I. Ryabtsev and the head of the garrison, Colonel L.N. Treskin) were distinguished by the offensive of the Red Guard detachments and soldiers of the reserve regiments from the outskirts to the city center, occupied by the cadets and the White Guard. Artillery was used to suppress white strongholds. Similar tactics of street fighting were used during the establishment of Soviet power in Kyiv, Kaluga, Irkutsk, and Chita.

Formation of the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement

Since the beginning of the formation of units of the White and Red armies, the scale of military operations has expanded. In 1918, they were carried out mainly along railway lines and amounted to the capture of large junction stations and cities. This period was called “echelon war.”

In January-February 1918, Red Guard units under the command of V.A. advanced along the railways. Antonov-Ovseenko and R.F. Sivers to Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk, where the forces of the Volunteer Army were concentrated under the command of generals M.V. Alekseeva and L.G. Kornilov.

In the spring of 1918, units of the Czechoslovak Corps formed from prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army took action. Located in echelons along the Trans-Siberian Railway from Penza to Vladivostok, the corps led by R. Gaida, Y. Syrov, S. Chechek was subordinate to the French military command and was sent to the Western Front. In response to demands for disarmament, the corps overthrew Soviet power in Omsk, Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok and throughout the entire territory of Siberia adjacent to the Trans-Siberian Railway during May-June 1918.

In the summer-autumn of 1918, during the 2nd Kuban campaign, the Volunteer Army captured the junction stations of Tikhoretskaya, Torgovaya, and Armavir and Stavropol actually decided the outcome of the operation in the North Caucasus.

The initial period of the Civil War was associated with the activities of the underground centers of the White movement. In all major cities of Russia there were cells associated with the former structures of military districts and military units located in these cities, as well as with underground organizations of monarchists, cadets and Socialist Revolutionaries. In the spring of 1918, on the eve of the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps, an officer underground operated in Petropavlovsk and Omsk under the leadership of Colonel P.P. Ivanov-Rinova, in Tomsk - Lieutenant Colonel A.N. Pepelyaev, in Novonikolaevsk - Colonel A.N. Grishina-Almazova.

In the summer of 1918, General Alekseev approved a secret regulation on the recruitment centers of the Volunteer Army created in Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, and Taganrog. They transmitted intelligence information, sent officers across the front line, and were also supposed to oppose the Soviet government as White Army units approached the city.

A similar role was played by the Soviet underground, which was active in the White Crimea, the North Caucasus, Eastern Siberia and the Far East in 1919-1920, creating strong partisan detachments that later became part of the regular units of the Red Army.

The beginning of 1919 marks the end of the formation of the White and Red armies.

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army included 15 armies, covering the entire front in the center of European Russia. The highest military leadership was concentrated under the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) L.D. Trotsky and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic, former Colonel S.S. Kameneva. All issues of logistical support for the front, issues of regulating the economy on the territory of Soviet Russia were coordinated by the Labor and Defense Council (SLO), the chairman of which was V.I. Lenin. He also headed the Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).

They were opposed by those united under the Supreme Command of Admiral A.V. Kolchak armies of the Eastern Front (Siberian (Lieutenant General R. Gaida), Western (artillery general M.V. Khanzhin), Southern (Major General P.A. Belov) and Orenburg (Lieutenant General A.I. Dutov) , as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR), Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin, who recognized the power of Kolchak (Dobrovolskaya (Lieutenant General V.Z. May-Mayevsky), Donskaya (Lieutenant General V.I. Sidorin) were subordinate to him) and the Caucasian (Lieutenant General P. N. Wrangel) army.) In the general direction of Petrograd, the troops of the Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front, Infantry General N. N. Yudenich, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Region, Lieutenant General E. K. Miller, acted.

The period of greatest development of the Civil War

In the spring of 1919, attempts at combined attacks by the white fronts began. From that time on, military operations took the form of full-scale operations on a wide front, using all types of troops (infantry, cavalry, artillery), with the active assistance of aviation, tanks and armored trains. In March-May 1919, the offensive of the Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak began, striking in divergent directions - to Vyatka-Kotlas, to connect with the Northern Front and to the Volga - to connect with the armies of General Denikin.

The troops of the Soviet Eastern Front, under the leadership of S.S. Kamenev and, mainly, the 5th Soviet Army, under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky by the beginning of June 1919 stopped the advance of the white armies by launching counterattacks in the Southern Urals (near Buguruslan and Belebey) and in the Kama region.

In the summer of 1919, the offensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR) began on Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav and Tsaritsyn. After the latter was occupied by the army of General Wrangel, on July 3, Denikin signed a directive on the “march against Moscow.” During July-October, the AFSR troops occupied most of Ukraine and the provinces of the Black Earth Center of Russia, stopping on the line Kyiv - Bryansk - Orel - Voronezh - Tsaritsyn. Almost simultaneously with the offensive of the AFSR on Moscow, the attack of the North-Western Army of General Yudenich on Petrograd began.

For Soviet Russia, the time of autumn 1919 became the most critical. Total mobilizations of communists and Komsomol members were carried out, the slogans “Everything for the defense of Petrograd” and “Everything for the defense of Moscow” were put forward. Thanks to control over the main railway lines converging towards the center of Russia, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) could transfer troops from one front to another. So, at the height of the fighting in the Moscow direction, several divisions were transferred from Siberia, as well as from the Western Front to the Southern Front and near Petrograd. At the same time, the white armies failed to establish a common anti-Bolshevik front (with the exception of contacts at the level of individual detachments between the Northern and Eastern Fronts in May 1919, as well as between the AFSR front and the Ural Cossack Army in August 1919). Thanks to the concentration of forces from different fronts by mid-October 1919 near Orel and Voronezh, the commander of the Southern Front, former Lieutenant General V.N. Egorov managed to create a strike group, the basis of which was parts of the Latvian and Estonian rifle divisions, as well as the 1st Cavalry Army under the command of S.M. Budyonny and K.E. Voroshilov. Counterattacks were launched on the flanks of the 1st Corps of the Volunteer Army, which was advancing on Moscow, under the command of Lieutenant General A.P. Kutepova. After stubborn fighting during October-November 1919, the front of the AFSR was broken, and a general retreat of the Whites from Moscow began. In mid-November, before reaching 25 km from Petrograd, units of the North-Western Army were stopped and defeated.

The military operations of 1919 were distinguished by the widespread use of maneuver. Large cavalry formations were used to break through the front and conduct raids behind enemy lines. In the white armies, Cossack cavalry was used in this capacity. The 4th Don Corps, specially formed for this purpose, under the command of Lieutenant General K.K. Mamantova in August-September made a deep raid from Tambov to the borders with the Ryazan province and Voronezh. Siberian Cossack Corps under the command of Major General P.P. Ivanova-Rinova broke through the Red Front near Petropavlovsk in early September. The “Chervonnaya Division” from the Southern Front of the Red Army raided the rear of the Volunteer Corps in October-November. By the end of 1919, the 1st Cavalry Army began its operations, advancing in the Rostov and Novocherkassk directions.

In January-March 1920, fierce battles unfolded in the Kuban. During operations on the river. Manych and under Art. Egorlykskaya took place the last major equestrian battles in world history. Up to 50 thousand horsemen from both sides took part in them. Their result was the defeat of the AFSR and evacuation to the Crimea on ships of the Black Sea Fleet. In Crimea, in April 1920, the white troops were renamed the “Russian Army”, the command of which was taken by Lieutenant General P.N. Wrangel.

The defeat of the white armies. End of the Civil War

At the turn of 1919-1920. was finally defeated by A.V. Kolchak. His army was scattering, and partisan detachments were operating in the rear. The Supreme Ruler was captured and in February 1920 in Irkutsk he was shot by the Bolsheviks.

In January 1920 N.N. Yudenich, who had undertaken two unsuccessful campaigns against Petrograd, announced the dissolution of his North-Western Army.

After the defeat of Poland, the army of P.N., locked in Crimea. Wrangel was doomed. Having carried out a short offensive north of Crimea, it went on the defensive. The forces of the Southern Front of the Red Army (commander M.V. Frunze) defeated the Whites in October - November 1920. The 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies made a significant contribution to the victory over them. Almost 150 thousand people, military and civilians, left Crimea.

Fighting in 1920-1922. were distinguished by small territories (Tavria, Transbaikalia, Primorye), smaller troops and already included elements of trench warfare. During the defense, fortifications were used (white lines on Perekop and Chongar in Crimea in 1920, Kakhovsky fortified area of ​​the 13th Soviet Army on the Dnieper in 1920, built by the Japanese and transferred to the white Volochaevsky and Spassky fortified areas in Primorye in 1921-1922. ). To break through, long-term artillery preparation was used, as well as flamethrowers and tanks.

Victory over P.N. Wrangel did not yet mean the end of the Civil War. Now the main opponents of the Reds were not the Whites, but the Greens, as the representatives of the peasant insurgent movement called themselves. The most powerful peasant movement developed in the Tambov and Voronezh provinces. It began in August 1920 after the peasants were given an impossible task of food appropriation. The rebel army, commanded by the Socialist Revolutionary A.S. Antonov, managed to overthrow the Bolshevik power in several counties. At the end of 1920, units of the regular Red Army led by M.N. were sent to fight the rebels. Tukhachevsky. However, fighting the partisan peasant army turned out to be even more difficult than fighting the White Guards in open battle. Only in June 1921 was the Tambov uprising suppressed, and A.S. Antonov was killed in a shootout. During the same period, the Reds managed to win a final victory over Makhno.

The high point of the Civil War in 1921 was the uprising of Kronstadt sailors, who joined the protests of St. Petersburg workers demanding political freedoms. The uprising was brutally suppressed in March 1921.

During 1920-1921 units of the Red Army made several campaigns in Transcaucasia. As a result, independent states were liquidated on the territory of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and Soviet power was established.

To fight the White Guards and interventionists in the Far East, the Bolsheviks created a new state in April 1920 - the Far Eastern Republic (FER). For two years, the army of the republic drove Japanese troops out of Primorye and defeated several White Guard chieftains. After this, at the end of 1922, the Far Eastern Republic became part of the RSFSR.

During the same period, overcoming the resistance of the Basmachi, who fought to preserve medieval traditions, the Bolsheviks won a victory in Central Asia. Although a few rebel groups were active until the 1930s.

Results of the Civil War

The main result of the Civil War in Russia was the establishment of Bolshevik power. Among the reasons for the Reds' victory are:

1. The Bolsheviks’ use of the political sentiments of the masses, powerful propaganda (clear goals, prompt resolution of issues in the world and on earth, exit from the world war, justification of terror by the fight against the country’s enemies);

2. Control by the Council of People's Commissars of the central provinces of Russia, where the main military enterprises were located;

3. Disunity of anti-Bolshevik forces (lack of common ideological positions; struggle “against something”, but not “for something”; territorial fragmentation).

The total population losses during the Civil War amounted to 12-13 million people. Almost half of them are victims of famine and mass epidemics. Emigration from Russia became widespread. About 2 million people left their homeland.

The country's economy was in a catastrophic state. The cities were depopulated. Industrial production fell by 5-7 times compared to 1913, agricultural production by one third.

The territory of the former Russian Empire disintegrated. The largest new state was the RSFSR.

Military equipment during the Civil War

New types of military equipment were successfully used on the battlefields of the Civil War, some of which appeared in Russia for the first time. For example, in units of the AFSR, as well as the Northern and Northwestern armies, English and French tanks were actively used. The Red Guards, who did not have the skills to fight them, often retreated from their positions. However, during the assault on the Kakhovsky fortified area in October 1920, most of the white tanks were hit by artillery, and after the necessary repairs they were included in the Red Army, where they were used until the early 1930s. The presence of armored vehicles was considered a prerequisite for infantry support, both in street battles and during front-line operations.

The need for strong fire support during horse attacks gave rise to the emergence of such an original means of combat as horse-drawn carts - light two-wheeled carts with a machine gun mounted on them. Carts were first used in the rebel army of N.I. Makhno, but later began to be used in all large cavalry formations of the White and Red armies.

Air squads interacted with the ground forces. An example of a joint operation is the defeat of the cavalry corps of D.P. Rednecks by aviation and infantry of the Russian Army in June 1920. Aviation was also used for bombing fortified positions and reconnaissance. During the period of “echelon warfare” and later, armored trains, the number of which reached several dozen per army, operated together with infantry and cavalry on both sides. Special detachments were created from them.

Recruiting armies during the Civil War

In the conditions of the Civil War and the destruction of the state mobilization apparatus, the principles of recruiting armies changed. Only the Siberian Army of the Eastern Front was recruited in 1918 upon mobilization. Most units of the AFSR, as well as the Northern and Northwestern armies, were replenished from volunteers and prisoners of war. Volunteers were the most reliable in combat.

The Red Army was also characterized by the predominance of volunteers (initially, only volunteers were accepted into the Red Army, and admission required “proletarian origin” and a “recommendation” from the local party cell). The predominance of mobilized and prisoners of war became widespread at the final stage of the Civil War (in the ranks of the Russian Army of General Wrangel, as part of the 1st Cavalry in the Red Army).

The White and Red armies were distinguished by their small numbers and, as a rule, the discrepancy between the actual composition of military units and their staff (for example, divisions of 1000-1500 bayonets, regiments of 300 bayonets, a shortage of up to 35-40% was even approved).

In the command of the White armies, the role of young officers increased, and in the Red Army - party nominees. The institution of political commissars, which was completely new for the armed forces (first appeared under the Provisional Government in 1917), was established. Average age command level in the positions of division chiefs and corps commanders was 25-35 years.

The absence of an order system in the AFSR and the awarding of successive ranks led to the fact that in 1.5-2 years officers progressed from lieutenants to generals.

In the Red Army, with a relatively young command staff, a significant role was played by former officers of the General Staff who planned strategic operations (former lieutenant generals M.D. Bonch-Bruevich, V.N. Egorov, former colonels I.I. Vatsetis, S.S. Kamenev, F.M. Afanasyev, A.N. Stankevich, etc.).

Military-political factor in the Civil War

The specificity of the civil war, as a military-political confrontation between whites and reds, was also that military operations were often planned under the influence of certain political factors. In particular, the offensive of the Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak in the spring of 1919 was undertaken in anticipation of quick diplomatic recognition of him as the Supreme Ruler of Russia by the Entente countries. And the offensive of General Yudenich’s North-Western Army on Petrograd was caused not only by the hope of quickly occupying the “cradle of the revolution”, but also by fears of concluding a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia. In this case, Yudenich’s army lost its base. The offensive of the Russian army of General Wrangel in Tavria in the summer of 1920 was supposed to draw back part of the forces from the Soviet-Polish front.

Many operations of the Red Army, regardless of strategic reasons and military potential, were also of a purely political nature (for the sake of the so-called “triumph of the world revolution”). So, for example, in the summer of 1919, the 12th and 14th armies of the Southern Front were supposed to be sent to support the revolutionary uprising in Hungary, and the 7th and 15th armies were supposed to establish Soviet power in the Baltic republics. In 1920, during the war with Poland, troops of the Western Front, under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky, after operations to defeat the Polish armies in Western Ukraine and Belarus, transferred their operations to the territory of Poland, counting on the creation of a pro-Soviet government here. The actions of the 11th and 12th Soviet armies in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia in 1921 were of a similar nature. At the same time, under the pretext of the defeat of units of the Asian Cavalry Division of Lieutenant General R.F. Ungern-Sternberg, troops of the Far Eastern Republic and the 5th Soviet Army were introduced into the territory of Mongolia and a socialist regime was established (the first in the world after Soviet Russia).

During the Civil War, it became a practice to carry out operations dedicated to anniversaries (the beginning of the assault on Perekop by troops of the Southern Front under the command of M.V. Frunze on November 7, 1920, on the anniversary of the 1917 revolution).

The military art of the Civil War became a striking example of the combination of traditional and innovative forms of strategy and tactics in the difficult conditions of the Russian “Troubles” of 1917-1922. It determined the development of Soviet military art (in particular, the use of large cavalry formations) in the following decades, until the beginning of World War II.

By the beginning of the Civil War, the whites were superior to the reds in almost everything - it seemed that the Bolsheviks were doomed. However, it was the Reds who were destined to emerge victorious from this confrontation. Among the entire huge complex of reasons that led to this, three key ones stand out clearly.

Under the rule of chaos

"...I will immediately point out three reasons for the failure of the white movement:
1) insufficient and untimely,
aid from the allies, guided by narrow selfish considerations,
2) gradual strengthening of reactionary elements within the movement and
3) as a consequence of the second, the disappointment of the masses in the white movement...

P. Milyukov. Report on the white movement.
Newspaper Latest News (Paris), August 6, 1924

To begin with, it is worth stipulating that the definitions of “red” and “white” are largely arbitrary, as is always the case when describing civil unrest. War is chaos, and civil war is chaos raised to an infinite degree. Even now, almost a century later, the question “so who was right?” remains open and difficult to resolve.

At the same time, everything that was happening was perceived as a real end of the world, a time of complete unpredictability and uncertainty. The color of the banners, the declared beliefs - all this existed only “here and now” and in any case did not guarantee anything. Sides and beliefs changed with amazing ease, and this was not considered something abnormal or unnatural. Revolutionaries with many years of experience in the struggle - for example, the Socialist Revolutionaries - became ministers of new governments and were branded by their opponents as counter-revolutionaries. And the Bolsheviks were helped to create an army and counterintelligence by proven personnel of the tsarist regime - including nobles, guards officers, and graduates of the General Staff Academy. People, trying to somehow survive, were thrown from one extreme to another. Or the “extremes” themselves came to them - in the form of an immortal phrase: “The whites came and robbed, the reds came and robbed, so where should the poor peasant go?” Both individuals and entire military units regularly changed sides.

In the best traditions of the 18th century, prisoners could be released on parole, killed in the most savage ways, or placed in their own system. An orderly, harmonious division “these are red, these are white, those over there are green, and these are morally unstable and undecided” took shape only years later.

Therefore, it should always be remembered that when we talk about any side of a civil conflict, we are not talking about the strict ranks of regular formations, but rather “centers of power.” Points of attraction for many groups that were in constant motion and incessant conflicts of everyone with everyone.

But why did the center of power, which we collectively call “red”, win? Why did the “gentlemen” lose to the “comrades”?

Question about the "Red Terror"

"Red Terror" is often used as ultima ratio, a description of the main tool of the Bolsheviks, which allegedly threw a frightened country at their feet. This is wrong. Terror has always gone hand in hand with civil unrest, because it is derived from the extreme ferocity of this kind of conflict, in which the opponents have nowhere to run and nothing to lose. Moreover, opponents could not, in principle, avoid organized terror as a means.

It was said earlier that initially the opponents were small groups surrounded by a sea of ​​anarchist freemen and apolitical peasant masses. White general Mikhail Drozdovsky brought about two thousand people from Romania. Mikhail Alekseev and Lavr Kornilov initially had approximately the same number of volunteers. But the majority simply did not want to fight, including a very significant part of the officers. In Kyiv, officers happened to work as waiters, wearing uniforms and all the awards - “they serve more this way, sir.”

Second Drozdovsky Cavalry Regiment
rusk.ru

In order to win and realize their vision of the future, all participants needed an army (that is, conscripts) and bread. Bread for the city (military production and transport), for the army and for rations for valuable specialists and commanders.

People and bread could only be obtained in the village, from the peasant, who was not going to give either one or the other “for nothing”, and had nothing to pay with. Hence the requisitions and mobilizations, which both the Whites and the Reds (and before them, the Provisional Government) had to resort to with equal zeal. The result is unrest in the village, opposition, and the need to suppress disturbances using the most brutal methods.

Therefore, the notorious and terrible “Red Terror” was not a decisive argument or something that stood out sharply against the general background of the atrocities of the Civil War. Everyone was involved in terrorism and it was not he who brought victory to the Bolsheviks.

1. Unity of command.
2. Organization.
3. Ideology.

Let's consider these points sequentially.

1. Unity of command, or “When there is no agreement among the masters...”.

It should be noted that the Bolsheviks (or, more broadly, “socialist-revolutionaries” in general) initially had very good experience working in conditions of instability and chaos. A situation where there are enemies all around, in our own ranks there are secret police agents and in general" trust no one"- was an ordinary production process for them. With the beginning of the Civil War, the Bolsheviks, in general, continued what they had been doing before, only under more favorable conditions, because now they themselves became one of the main players. They knew how maneuver in conditions of complete confusion and everyday betrayal. But their opponents used the skill “attract an ally and betray him in time before he betrays you” much worse. Therefore, at the peak of the conflict, many white groups fought against the relatively unified (by the presence of one leader) Red camp, and each waged its own war according to its own plans and understandings.

Actually, this discord and the slowness of the overall strategy deprived White of victory back in 1918. The Entente desperately needed a Russian front against the Germans and was ready to do a lot just to maintain at least the appearance of it, pulling German troops away from the western front. The Bolsheviks were extremely weak and disorganized, and help could have been demanded at least for partial deliveries of military orders already paid for by the tsarism. But... the Whites preferred to take shells from the Germans through Krasnov for the war against the Reds - thereby creating a corresponding reputation in the eyes of the Entente. The Germans, having lost the war in the West, disappeared. The Bolsheviks steadily created an organized army instead of semi-partisan detachments and tried to establish a military industry. And in 1919, the Entente had already won its war and did not want, and could not, bear large, and most importantly, expenses that did not provide any visible benefit in a distant country. The interventionist forces left the fronts of the Civil War one after another.

White was unable to come to an agreement with any of the limitrophes - as a result, their rear (almost all of it) hung in the air. And, as if this were not enough, each white leader had his own “chieftain” in the rear, poisoning life with all his might. Kolchak has Semenov, Denikin has the Kuban Rada with Kalabukhov and Mamontov, Wrangel has the Oryol war in Crimea, Yudenich has Bermondt-Avalov.

White movement propaganda poster
statehistory.ru

So, although outwardly the Bolsheviks seemed surrounded by enemies and a doomed camp, they were able to concentrate on selected areas, transferring at least some resources along internal transport lines - despite the collapse of the transport system. Each individual white general could beat the enemy as harshly as he liked on the battlefield - and the reds admitted these defeats - but these pogroms did not add up to a single boxing combination that would knock out the fighter in the red corner of the ring. The Bolsheviks withstood each individual attack, accumulated strength and struck back.

The year is 1918: Kornilov goes to Yekaterinodar, but other white detachments have already left there. Then the Volunteer Army gets bogged down in battles in the North Caucasus, and at the same time Krasnov’s Cossacks go to Tsaritsyn, where they get theirs from the Reds. In 1919, thanks to foreign assistance (more on this below), Donbass fell, Tsaritsyn was finally taken - but Kolchak in Siberia was already defeated. In the fall, Yudenich marches on Petrograd, having excellent chances to take it - and Denikin in the south of Russia is defeated and retreats. Wrangel, having excellent aviation and tanks, left the Crimea in 1920, the battles were initially successful for the Whites, but the Poles were already making peace with the Reds. And so on. Khachaturian - “Sabre Dance”, only much scarier.

The Whites were fully aware of the seriousness of this problem and even tried to solve it by choosing a single leader (Kolchak) and trying to coordinate actions. But by then it was already too late. Moreover, there was in fact no real coordination as a class.

“The white movement did not end in victory because the white dictatorship did not emerge. And what prevented it from taking shape were centrifugal forces, inflated by the revolution, and all the elements associated with the revolution and not breaking with it... Against the red dictatorship, a white “concentration of power...” was needed.

N. Lvov. "White Movement", 1924.

2. Organization - “the war is won on the home front”

As again mentioned above, for a long time whites had clear superiority on the battlefield. It was so tangible that to this day it is a source of pride for supporters of the white movement. Accordingly, all sorts of conspiracy theories are invented to explain why everything ended this way and where did the victories go?.. Hence the legends about the monstrous and unparalleled “Red Terror”.

And the solution is actually simple and, alas, graceless - the Whites won tactically, in battle, but lost the main battle - in their own rear.

“Not one of the [anti-Bolshevik] governments... was able to create a flexible and strong apparatus of power that could quickly and quickly overtake, coerce, act and force others to act. The Bolsheviks also did not capture the people’s soul, they also did not become a national phenomenon, but they were infinitely ahead of us in the pace of their actions, in energy, mobility and ability to coerce. We, with our old techniques, old psychology, old vices of the military and civil bureaucracy, with Peter’s table of ranks, could not keep up with them ... "

In the spring of 1919, the commander of Denikin’s artillery had only two hundred shells a day... For a single gun? No, for the entire army.

England, France and other powers, despite the later curses of the whites against them, provided considerable or even enormous assistance. In the same year, 1919, the British supplied Denikin alone with 74 tanks, one and a half hundred aircraft, hundreds of cars and dozens of tractors, more than five hundred guns, including 6-8-inch howitzers, thousands of machine guns, more than two hundred thousand rifles, hundreds of millions of cartridges and two million shells... These are very decent numbers even on the scale of the just died down Great War, it would not be a shame to bring them in the context of, say, the battle of Ypres or the Somme, describing the situation on a separate section of the front. And for a civil war, forcedly poor and ragged, this is a fabulous amount. Such an armada, concentrated in several “fists,” could by itself tear apart the Red Front like a rotten rag.

A detachment of tanks from the Shock Fire Brigade before being sent to the front
velikoe-sorokoletie.diary.ru

However, this wealth was not united into compact, crushing groups. Moreover, the overwhelming majority did not reach the front at all. Because the logistics supply organization was completely failed. And cargo (ammunition, food, uniforms, equipment...) was either stolen or filled up remote warehouses.

New British howitzers were damaged by untrained white crews within three weeks, which repeatedly dismayed the British advisers. 1920 - Wrangel, according to the Reds, fired no more than 20 shells per gun on the day of the battle. Some of the batteries had to be moved to the rear.

On all fronts, ragged soldiers and no less ragged officers of the white armies, without food or ammunition, desperately fought Bolshevism. And in the rear...

“Looking at these hosts of scoundrels, at these dressed up ladies with diamonds, at these polished young men, I felt only one thing: I prayed: “Lord, send the Bolsheviks here, at least for a week, so that at least in the midst of the horrors of the Emergency, these animals understand that they do."

Ivan Nazhivin, Russian writer and emigrant

Lack of coordination of actions and the inability to organize, in modern terms, logistics and rear discipline, led to the fact that the purely military victories of the White movement dissolved in smoke. Whites were chronically unable to “put the pressure on” the enemy, while slowly and irreversibly losing their fighting qualities. The White armies at the beginning and end of the Civil War differed fundamentally only in the degree of raggedness and mental breakdown - and not for the better by the end. But the red ones changed...

“Yesterday there was a public lecture by Colonel Kotomin, who fled the Red Army; those present did not understand the bitterness of the lecturer, who pointed out that in the commissar army there is much more order and discipline than ours, and they created a huge scandal, with an attempt to beat the lecturer, one of the most ideological workers of our national Center; They were especially offended when K. noted that in the Red Army a drunken officer is impossible, because any commissar or communist would immediately shoot him.”

Baron Budberg

Budberg somewhat idealized the picture, but appreciated the essence correctly. And not only him. There was an evolution in the nascent Red Army, the Reds fell, received painful blows, but rose and moved on, drawing conclusions from the defeats. And even in tactics, more than once or twice the efforts of the Whites were defeated by the stubborn defense of the Reds - from Ekaterinodar to the Yakut villages. On the contrary, the Whites fail and the front collapses for hundreds of kilometers, often forever.

1918, summer - Taman campaign, for prefabricated Red detachments of 27,000 bayonets and 3,500 sabers - 15 guns, at best from 5 to 10 rounds of ammunition per soldier. There is no food, fodder, convoys or kitchens.

Red Army in 1918.
Drawing by Boris Efimov
http://www.ageod-forum.com

1920, autumn - The shock fire brigade on Kakhovka has a battery of six-inch howitzers, two light batteries, two detachments of armored cars (another detachment of tanks, but it did not have time to take part in battles), more than 180 machine guns for 5.5 thousand people, a flamethrower team, the fighters are dressed to the nines and impress even the enemy with their training; the commanders received leather uniforms.

Red Army in 1921.
Drawing by Boris Efimov
http://www.ageod-forum.com

The red cavalry of Dumenko and Budyonny forced even the enemy to study their tactics. Whereas the Whites most often “shone” with a frontal attack by full-length infantry and outflanking cavalry. When the White army under Wrangel, thanks to the supply of equipment, began to resemble a modern one, it was already too late.

The Reds have a place for career officers - like Kamenev and Vatsetis, and for those making a successful career “from the bottom” of the army - Dumenko and Budyonny, and for nuggets - Frunze.

And among the whites, with all the wealth of choice, one of Kolchak’s armies is commanded by... a former paramedic. Denikin’s decisive attack on Moscow is led by Mai-Maevsky, who stands out for his drinking bouts even against the general background. Grishin-Almazov, a major general, “works” as a courier between Kolchak and Denikin, where he dies. Contempt for others flourishes in almost every part.

3. Ideology - “Vote with your rifle!”

What was the Civil War like for the average citizen, the average person? To paraphrase one of the modern researchers, in essence these turned out to be grandiose democratic elections stretched over several years under the slogan “vote with a rifle!” The man could not choose the time and place where he happened to witness amazing and terrible events of historical significance. However, he could - albeit limitedly - choose his place in the present. Or, at worst, your attitude towards him.

Let us remember what was already mentioned above - the opponents were in dire need of armed force and food. People and food could be obtained by force, but not always and not everywhere, multiplying enemies and haters. Ultimately, the winner was not determined by how brutal he was or how many individual battles he could win. And what he can offer to the huge apolitical masses, insanely tired of the hopeless and protracted end of the world. Will it be able to attract new supporters, maintain the loyalty of the former, make neutrals hesitate, and undermine the morale of enemies.

The Bolsheviks succeeded. But their opponents do not.

“What did the Reds want when they went to war? They wanted to defeat the whites and, strengthened by this victory, create from it the foundation for the solid construction of their communist statehood.

What did the whites want? They wanted to defeat the Reds. And then? Then - nothing, because only state babies could not understand that the forces that supported the building of the old statehood were destroyed to the ground, and that there were no opportunities to restore these forces.

Victory for the Reds was a means, for Whites it was a goal, and, moreover, the only one.”

Von Raupach. "Reasons for the failure of the white movement"

Ideology is a tool that is difficult to calculate mathematically, but it also has its weight. In a country where the majority of the population could barely read, it was extremely important to be able to clearly explain why it was proposed to fight and die. The Reds did it. The Whites were unable to even decide among themselves what they were fighting for. On the contrary, they considered it right to postpone ideology “for later.” » , conscious non-predetermination. Even among the whites themselves, the alliance between the "owning classes" » , officers, Cossacks and “revolutionary democracy” » They called it unnatural - how could they convince the hesitant?

« ...We have created a huge blood-sucking bank for sick Russia... The transfer of power from Soviet hands to ours would not have saved Russia. Something new is needed, something hitherto unconscious - then we can hope for a slow revival. But neither the Bolsheviks nor we will be in power, and that’s even better!”

A. Lampe. From the Diary. 1920

A Tale of Losers

In essence, our forcedly brief note became a story about the weaknesses of the Whites and, to a much lesser extent, about the Reds. This is no coincidence. In any civil war, all sides demonstrate an unimaginable, prohibitive level of chaos and disorganization. Naturally, the Bolsheviks and their fellow travelers were no exception. But the whites set an absolute record for what would now be called “gracelessness.”

In essence, it was not the Reds who won the war, they, in general, did what they had done before - fought for power and solved problems that blocked the path to their future.

It was the whites who lost the confrontation, they lost at all levels - from political declarations to tactics and organization of supplies for the active army.

The irony of fate is that the majority of whites did not defend the tsarist regime, or even took an active part in its overthrow. They knew very well and criticized all the ills of tsarism. However, at the same time, they scrupulously repeated all the main mistakes of the previous government, which led to its collapse. Only in a more explicit, even caricatured form.

Finally, I would like to cite words that were originally written in relation to the Civil War in England, but are also perfectly suitable for those terrible and great events that shook Russia almost a hundred years ago...

“They say that these people were caught in a whirlwind of events, but the matter is different. No one was dragging them anywhere, and there were no inexplicable forces or invisible hands. It’s just that every time they were faced with a choice, they made the right decisions, from their point of view, but in the end a chain of individually correct intentions led them into a dark forest... All that remained was to get lost in the evil thickets until, finally, the survivors came to light , looking in horror at the road with corpses left behind. Many have gone through this, but blessed are those who understood their enemy and then did not curse him.”

A. V. Tomsinov “The Blind Children of Kronos”.

Literature:

1. Budberg A. Diary of a White Guard. - Mn.: Harvest, M.: AST, 2001
2. Gul R.B. Ice March (with Kornilov). http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/gul_rb/index.html
3. Drozdovsky M. G. Diary. - Berlin: Otto Kirchner and Ko, 1923.
4. Zaitsov A. A. 1918. Essays on the history of the Russian Civil War. Paris, 1934.
5. Kakurin N. E., Vatsetis I. I. Civil war. 1918–1921. - St. Petersburg: Polygon, 2002.
6. Kakurin N. E. How the revolution fought. 1917–1918. M., Politizdat, 1990.
7. Kovtyukh E.I. “Iron Stream” in a military presentation. Moscow: Gosvoenizdat, 1935
8. Kornatovsky N. A. The struggle for Red Petrograd. - M: ACT, 2004.
9. Essays by E. I. Dostovalov.
10. http://feb-web.ru/feb/rosarc/ra6/ra6–637-.htm
11. Reden. Through the hell of the Russian revolution. Memoirs of a midshipman. 1914–1919. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007.
12. Wilmson Huddleston. Farewell to Don. The Russian Civil War in the diaries of a British officer. M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007.
13. LiveJournal of Evgenia Durneva http://eugend.livejournal.com - it contains various educational materials, incl. Some issues of red and white terror are considered in relation to the Tambov region and Siberia.

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

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

Soviet power 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 loosely organized radical revolutionary party of intellectuals, oriented towards the working class.

However, 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 had been before, 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 your rights. The Communist Party turned into a military-industrial and administrative apparatus.

The impact of the Civil War on the Bolshevik Party was twofold. Firstly, there was a militarization of Bolshevism, which affected, first of all, 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, etc. 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 opposing Soviet power included the large 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 an impulse of convinced and brave officers who fought against the communists, often without any hope of victory. White officers called themselves volunteers, motivated by ideas of patriotism. But at the height of the civil war, the white movement became much more intolerant and 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, or banks. Personifying themselves as a state, they tried to compensate for their practical weakness by brutally imposing their own rules.

If the white movement was unable 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. In their ranks there were enough people capable of establishing 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.

There was a huge cultural gap between the workers and peasants, on the one hand, and the Cadets, on the other, and the Russian Revolution was presented to most Cadets as chaos and rebellion. Only the white movement, according to the cadets, could restore Russia.

Finally, the largest group of the Russian population is the wavering part, and often simply passive, observing events. She looked for opportunities to do without the class struggle, but was constantly drawn into it active actions 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 representatives of the intelligentsia.

But such a division of forces should be considered conditional. In fact, they were closely intertwined, mixed together and scattered throughout the vast territory of the country. This situation was observed in any region, in any province, regardless of whose hands were in power. The decisive force that largely determined the outcome of revolutionary events was the peasantry.

Analyzing the beginning of the war, it is only with great convention that we can talk about the Bolshevik government of Russia. In fact, in 1918 it controlled only part of the country's territory. However, it declared its readiness to rule the entire country after dissolving the Constituent Assembly. In 1918, the main opponents of the Bolsheviks were not the Whites or the Greens, but the Socialists. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries opposed the Bolsheviks under the banner of the Constituent Assembly. Immediately after the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist Revolutionary Party began preparing for the overthrow of Soviet power. However, soon the leaders of the Socialist Revolutionaries became convinced that there were very few people willing to fight with weapons under the banner of the Constituent Assembly.

A very sensitive blow to attempts to unite 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 convening 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 Socialist Revolutionaries dubbed right-wing Bolshevism.

Moderate socialists, who rejected the military dictatorship, nevertheless compromised with the supporters of the generals' dictatorship. In order not to alienate the cadets, the general democratic bloc “Union for the Revival of Russia” adopted a plan for creating a collective dictatorship - the Directory. To govern the country, the Directory had to create a business ministry. The Directory was obliged to resign its powers of all-Russian power only before the Constituent Assembly after the end of the fight against the Bolsheviks. At the same time, the “Union for the Revival of Russia” set the following tasks:

• 1) continuation of the war with the Germans;
• 2) creation of a single firm government;
• 3) revival of the army;
• 4) restoration of scattered parts of Russia.

The summer defeat of the Bolsheviks as a result of the armed uprising of the Czechoslovak corps created favorable conditions. This is how the anti-Bolshevik front arose in the Volga region and Siberia, and two anti-Bolshevik governments were 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 transferred executive power to the Board of Governors. The birth of Komuch, contrary to the plan for creating the Directory, led to a split in the Socialist Revolutionary elite. Its right-wing leaders, led by N.D. Avksentiev, ignoring Samara, headed to Omsk to prepare from there the formation of an all-Russian coalition government.

Declaring himself the temporary supreme power until the convening of the Constituent Assembly, Komuch called on other governments to recognize him state center. However, other regional governments refused to recognize Komuch's rights as a national center, regarding him as a party Socialist Revolutionary power.

Socialist Revolutionary politicians did not have a specific program for democratic reforms. The issues of the grain monopoly, nationalization and municipalization, and the principles of army organization 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 foreign policy the continuation of the war in the ranks of the Entente was announced. Relying on Western military assistance was one of Komuch's biggest strategic miscalculations. The Bolsheviks used foreign intervention to portray the struggle of Soviet power as patriotic and the actions of the Socialist Revolutionaries as anti-national. Komuch's broadcast statements about continuing the war with Germany to a victorious end came into conflict with the sentiments of the popular masses. Komuch, who did not understand the psychology of the masses, could rely only on the bayonets of the allies.

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

The government's program was formed under significant pressure from its right wing. Already at the beginning of July 1918, the government announced the cancellation of all decrees issued by the Council of People's Commissars, the liquidation of the Soviets, and the return of their estates to the owners 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 meeting, a “temporary all-Russian government” was created. The meeting concluded its work with the election of the Directory. N.D. was elected to the latter. Avksentyev, N.I. Astrov, V.G. Boldyrev, P.V. Vologodsky, N.V. Chaikovsky.

In its political program, the Directory declared the main tasks to be the struggle to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks, the annulment of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and the continuation of the war with Germany. The short-term nature of the new government was emphasized by the clause 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, could now, it seemed, implement an alternative program to the Bolshevik. However, the balance between democracy and dictatorship was upset. The Samara Komuch, representing democracy, was dissolved. The Social Revolutionaries' attempt 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 Socialist Revolutionaries and Czechs took Kazan, the Bolsheviks were unable to recruit more than 20 thousand people into the Red Army. The people's army of the Social Revolutionaries numbered 30 thousand.

During this period, the peasants, having divided the land, ignored the political struggle that parties and governments waged among themselves. However, the establishment by the Bolsheviks of the Pobedy Committees caused the first outbreaks of resistance. From this moment on, there was a direct relationship between the Bolshevik attempts to dominate the countryside and the peasant resistance. The harder the Bolsheviks tried to impose “communist relations” in the countryside, the tougher the resistance of the peasants.

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

It seemed that with the nomination of A.V. to the role of dictator. 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 other white fronts, and the Western allies recognized him de facto.

The political and ideological ideas of the leaders and ordinary participants in the white movement were as diverse as the movement itself was socially heterogeneous. 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 monarchical banner and put forward a monarchical program. This also applies to A.V. Kolchak.

What positive things did the Kolchak government promise? Kolchak agreed to convene a new Constituent Assembly after order was restored. 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 allocated land, and differences along religious and national lines would be eliminated. Having confirmed the full independence of Poland and the limited independence of Finland, Kolchak agreed to “prepare decisions” on the fate of the Baltic states, Caucasian and Trans-Caspian peoples. Judging by the statements, the Kolchak government took the position of democratic construction. But in reality everything was different.

The most difficult issue for the anti-Bolshevik movement was the agrarian question. Kolchak never managed to solve it. The war with the Bolsheviks, while Kolchak was waging it, could not guarantee the peasants the transfer of landowners' land to them. The national policy of the Kolchak government is marked by the same deep internal contradiction. Acting under the slogan of a “united and indivisible” Russia, it did not reject “self-determination of peoples” as an ideal.

Kolchak actually rejected the demands of the delegations of Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, the North Caucasus, Belarus and Ukraine put forward at the Versailles Conference. By refusing to create in the regions liberated from the Bolsheviks against the Bolshevik conference, Kolchak pursued a policy doomed to failure.

Kolchak’s relations with his allies, who had their own interests in the Far East and Siberia and pursued their own policies, were complex and contradictory. This made the position of the Kolchak government very difficult. A particularly tight knot was tied in relations with Japan.

Kolchak did not hide his antipathy towards Japan. The Japanese command responded with active support for the ataman system, which flourished in Siberia. Small ambitious people like Semenov and Kalmykov, with the support of the Japanese, managed to create a constant threat to the Omsk government deep in Kolchak’s rear, which weakened it. Semenov actually cut off Kolchak from the Far East and blocked the supply of weapons, ammunition, and 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 everyone, both comrades and allies, Kolchak resigned the title of Supreme Ruler and handed it over to General A.I. Denikin. Having not lived up to 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 in 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 supply 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 fight against the Bolsheviks, the unity of the country and power, the broadest autonomy of the outskirts, loyalty to agreements with allies in the war - these are the main principles of Denikin’s platform. Denikin’s entire ideological and political program was based on the idea of ​​preserving a united and indivisible Russia.

The leaders of the white movement rejected any significant concessions to supporters of national independence. All this stood in contrast to the Bolsheviks' promises of unlimited national self-determination. The reckless recognition of the right to secession gave Lenin the opportunity to curb destructive nationalism and raised his prestige much higher than 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. Dragomirov and A.S. Lukomsky at the head. The liberal group consisted of cadets. A.I. Denikin took the position of center.

The most clearly reactionary line in the policy of the Denikin regime manifested itself on the agrarian issue. In the territory controlled by Denikin, it was planned to: create and strengthen small and medium-sized peasant farms, destroy latifundia, and leave landowners with small estates on which cultural farming could be conducted.

But instead of immediately starting to transfer the landowners' land to the peasants, the commission on the agrarian question began an endless discussion of the draft law on land. As a result, a compromise law was adopted. The transfer of part of the land to the peasants was supposed to begin only after the civil war and end 7 years later. In the meantime, the order for the third sheaf was put into effect, according to which a third of the collected grain went to the landowner. Denikin's land policy was one of the main reasons for his defeat. Of the two evils - Lenin's surplus appropriation system or Denikin's requisition - the peasants preferred the lesser.

A.I. Denikin understood that without the help of his allies, defeat awaited him. Therefore, he himself prepared the text of the political declaration of the commander of the armed forces of southern Russia, sent on April 10, 1919 to the heads of the British, American and French missions. It spoke of convening a national assembly on the basis of universal suffrage, establishing regional autonomy and broad local self-government, and carrying out 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 fall of 1919, a difficult situation developed at the front for Denikin’s army. This was largely due to a change in the mood of the broad peasant masses. Peasants who rebelled in territory controlled by the whites paved the way for the reds. The peasants were a third force and acted against both in their own interests.

But this, as they say, is a separate topic that goes beyond the scope of my research. Although, undoubtedly, without a thorough analysis of the peasant war, it is simply impossible to study the history of the Civil War in Russia and draw the right conclusions.

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 outrages.

Every Russian knows that in the Civil War of 1917-1922 there were two movements – “red” and “white” – that opposed each other. But among historians there is still no consensus on where it began. Some believe that the reason was Krasnov's March on the Russian capital (October 25); others believe that the war began when, in the near future, the commander of the Volunteer Army Alekseev arrived on the Don (November 2); There is also an opinion that the war began with Miliukov proclaiming the “Declaration of the Volunteer Army”, delivering a speech at the ceremony called the Don (December 27). Another popular opinion, which is far from unfounded, is the opinion that the Civil War began immediately after the February Revolution, when the entire society was split into supporters and opponents of the Romanov monarchy.

"White" movement in Russia

"Red" movement

Results of the Civil War

The Civil War, which took place in Russia from 1917 to 1922, was a bloody event where brother went against brother in brutal carnage, and relatives took 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, conventionally divided into “red and white,” intersected. This struggle for power took place with the active support of foreign states, which tried to extract their interests from this situation: Japan, Poland, Turkey, Romania wanted to annex part of Russian territories, and other countries - the USA, France, Canada, Great Britain hoped to receive tangible economic preferences.

As a result of such a bloody civil war, Russia turned into a weakened state, whose economy and industry 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

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 accumulated over centuries, and at the beginning of the 20th century it reached its apogee, as workers and peasants found themselves in a completely 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 party.
• Against the backdrop of the protracted First World War, all these contradictions intensified noticeably, 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 come to terms with the situation and made attempts to restore their former dominance.
• The establishment of Bolshevik power led to the abandonment of the ideas of parliamentarism and the creation of a one-party system, which prompted 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 undemocratic measures - the establishment of a dictatorship, repression, persecution of the opposition, and 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 the workers and peasants.
• The nationalization of land and industry caused resistance on the part of 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, there was a powerful interventionist group on its territory that actively supported the White Guard movement.

The course of the civil war in Russia

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

When the civil war began, then all residents had to decide whether to join the “whites” or the “reds”.

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

First period: from October 1917 to May 1918

At the very beginning of the fratricidal war, the Bolsheviks had to suppress local armed uprisings 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 invaders. As a result, most of Russian territory was captured by enemies, and this threatened the existence of the young state. Kolchak dominated in the east of the country, Denikin in the south, Miller in the north, and their armies tried to close a ring around the capital. The Bolsheviks, in turn, created the Red Army, which achieved its first military successes.

Third period: from November 1918 to spring 1919

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

Fourth period: from 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 remaining centers of the civil war were eliminated: the rebellion in Kronstadt was suppressed, the Makhnovist detachments were destroyed, the Far East, the fight against the Basmachi in Central Asia is over.

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 brink of disaster.

• The main result of this terrible war was the final establishment of Soviet power.