Civil War (1917-1922) - an armed confrontation that involved various political, ethnic, social groups and state entities, which began as a result of the October Revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Bolshevik Party. The main events took place in the European part of the former Russian Empire, as well as in the Urals and Siberia.
Causes of the war. The civil war was a consequence of a protracted revolutionary crisis, which began with the revolution of 1905-1907. First World War became a catalyst for increasing tension in society and led to the fall royal power as a result February Revolution. However, this only deepened the socio-economic crisis, national, political and ideological contradictions in Russian society, which was especially dangerous given the extremely low political culture and lack of democratic traditions in society.
After the Bolsheviks seized power and began to pursue a harsh, repressive policy towards their opponents, these contradictions resulted in a fierce struggle throughout the country between supporters of Soviet power and anti-Bolshevik forces seeking to regain lost wealth and political influence.
Foreign intervention
The civil war was accompanied by foreign military intervention (December 1917-October 1922) from both the armed forces of the Quadruple Alliance states and the Entente. Intervention- interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of another state, encroaching on its sovereignty. May be military, political or economic in nature.
The intervention was caused by the need to fight Germany in the First World War, and after its defeat, the defense of England and France of their economic and political interests, which were under threat after the October Revolution, and the desire to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas outside Russia came to the fore. In this regard, the Entente intervention was aimed at assisting the White movement in its fight against the Bolsheviks.
Main stages of the war
October 1917-November 1918— the initial period of the Civil War. It was characterized by the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship, active intervention in the Civil War by foreign interventionists (France, Great Britain), and the emergence of national movements on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire.
Almost immediately with the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship in Petrograd, the Volunteer Army began to form in the southern regions of Russia. Generals M. Alekseev, A. Kaledin, L. Kornilov took an active part in its creation. Since April 1918, A. Denikin became the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army. At the same time, the Provisional Don Government headed by General P. Krasnov arose on the Don. Having received support from Germany, P. Krasnov’s Cossacks managed to capture most of the Donbass in the summer and autumn of 1918 and reached Tsaritsyn. After the defeat of Germany in the World War, P. Krasnov’s troops merged with the Volunteer Army.
The formation of the anti-Bolshevik opposition in the Volga region was greatly influenced by the events associated with the uprising in May 1918 of the Czechoslovak Corps, numbering over 40 thousand people. Together with representatives of the white movement, they managed to drive the Bolsheviks out of many provinces of Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region and the Far East. In the conditions of the White offensive, the Bolsheviks decide to shoot on the night of July 16-17, 1918 the royal family, which was under their arrest in Yekaterinburg.
The Bolsheviks tried to seize the initiative. The Eastern Front was created, led by S. Kamenev. During the battles for Ufa, the Red Divisional Commander V. Chapaev became famous. The counteroffensive of the Red Army forced their opponents to consolidate, and on November 18, 1918, Admiral A. Kolchak was declared Supreme Ruler of Russia in Omsk. His army, which had the support of the Entente countries, became the main driving force in the fight against Soviet Russia.
November 1918-March 1920- major battles between the Bolshevik Red Army and supporters White movement, which culminated in a radical change in favor of Soviet power, a reduction in the scale of intervention.
Having united significant anti-Bolshevik forces under his banner in the spring and summer of 1919, A. Denikin succeeded in a large-scale attack on the Red positions, as a result of which Kursk, Orel, and Voronezh came under the control of the Volunteer Army. However, the attack on Moscow ended unsuccessfully, which forced A. Denikin to turn to Ukraine. Twice during 1919 the troops of the white general N. Yudenich made unsuccessful attempts to attack Petrograd.
A. Kolchak’s army initially managed to reach the banks of the Volga, but the repressive policies of the Whites, built on exceptional laws, turned most of the population against them. This helped the Bolsheviks, who were able to push the armed forces of A. Kolchak to Siberia, to Lake Baikal, by the end of 1919.
At the beginning of 1920, the Red Army managed to take Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. Entente troops had to quickly leave Russia.
March 1920 - autumn 1922- the end of the Soviet-Polish War, the elimination of the last centers of resistance to Soviet power on the outskirts of the country. In particular, in November 1920, the Southern Front under the command of M. Frunze defeated the army of General P. Wrangel in the Crimea, and in November 1922, the Far Eastern Republic was liquidated, the remnants of the white armies went to China. This marked the end of the Civil War.
The key event of the final stage of the Civil War was the Soviet-Polish confrontation. The Entente countries wanted to create a kind of buffer zone from Poland that would protect Europe from the influence of Bolshevism. Due to these circumstances, the Polish dictator J. Pilsudski found encouragement in the West for his territorial claims in Eastern Europe. On April 25, 1920, having concluded an agreement with the representative of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) S. Petlyura, the Polish dictator gave the order to launch an offensive on the territory of Ukraine, which was under the control of the Bolsheviks. Although the Poles managed to briefly capture Kyiv, the counter-offensive of the Western (M. Tukhachevsky) and South-Western (A. Egorov) fronts of the Red Army, supported by Makhnovist detachments, forced them to retreat into Polish territory. It was stopped only in August 1920 on the outskirts of Warsaw. In March 1921, the Peace of Riga was concluded between Soviet Russia and Poland, which left the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus for the Poles, but Warsaw recognized Soviet power in the rest of Ukraine.
Results of the Civil War. As a result of the Civil War, most of the territory of the former Russian Empire came under the control of the Bolsheviks, who managed to successively defeat the armies of Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich, Wrangel, and the armed forces of the Entente countries. The new government initiated the creation of Soviet republics on the territory of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia. Poland, Finland and the Baltic countries gained independence. Almost 2 million people who did not accept Soviet power were forced to emigrate.
The civil war caused enormous damage to the national economy. Industrial production in 1920 fell to 14% of the 1913 level, agricultural production decreased by almost half. The demographic losses turned out to be colossal. According to various estimates, they ranged from 12 to 15 million people.
Political programs of the parties involved
The main warring parties in the Russian Civil War were the Bolsheviks - the “Reds” and supporters of the White movement - the “Whites”. During the war, both sides sought to exercise their power through dictatorial methods.
The Bolsheviks considered armed reprisals against their opponents as the only acceptable option, not only for maintaining their power in a predominantly peasant country. The suppression of any dissent on the way to establishing a political dictatorship could allow them to turn the country into the base of the world socialist revolution, a kind of model of a classless communist society that was planned to be exported to Europe. From their point of view, this goal justified a set of punitive measures applied to opponents of Soviet power, as well as to “vacillating” elements represented by the middle strata of the city and countryside, primarily the peasants. Certain categories of the population were deprived of political and civil rights- former privileged classes, officers of the tsarist army, clergy, wide circles of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia.
Only after seizing power in October 1917, the Bolsheviks banned the activities of all bourgeois parties, arresting their leaders. Pre-revolutionary political institutions - the Senate, the Synod, the State Duma - were liquidated, and control was established over the press, trade unions, and other public organizations. In July 1918, the rebellion of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who had previously been part of a coalition with the Bolsheviks, was brutally suppressed. In the spring of 1921, the Mensheviks were massacred, which led to the actual establishment of a one-party regime.
On September 5, 1918, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars “On the Red Terror”, which was carried out by the Cheka, came into force. The reason for its appearance was the assassination attempt on V. Lenin on August 30, 1918 and the murder of the head of the Petrograd Cheka, M. Uritsky. The forms of the Red Terror were various: executions based on class, a hostage system, the creation of a network of concentration camps to contain class-hostile elements.
In addition to V. Lenin, one of the main ideologists of the Bolshevik movement was L. Trotsky(1879-1940) - revolutionary figure of the 20th century. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917. He stood at the origins of the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), which he led during the Civil War.
The basis of the White movement was the officers, Cossacks, intelligentsia, landowners, bourgeoisie, and clergy. The ideologists of the White movement A. Guchkov, V. Shulgin, N. Lvov, P. Struve saw in the Civil War an opportunity to preserve the Russian Empire, return power to their own hands and restore lost rights and privileges. In the territories conquered from the Bolsheviks, the Whites tried to recreate the army and the apparatus of civil government. The basis of their political program was the demand for the restoration of private property and freedom of enterprise. After the overthrow of the Bolshevik government, all changes in society were to be legitimized by the Constituent Assembly, whose competence would be to resolve the issue of the future political structure of the Russian state.
During the Civil War, the White movement largely discredited itself by its desire for the restoration of the monarchy on an autocratic basis, terror against peasants and workers, carrying out pogroms against Jews, significant dependence on the interests of foreign interventionists, and a sharply negative attitude towards the problems of the national outskirts of the former empire. The lack of unity in the white leadership also played an important role.
Among the leaders of the White movement, the figures of A. Kolchak and A. Denikin stood out. A. Kolchak(1874-1920) - military and political figure, admiral of the fleet. During the Civil War he was an iconic figure of the White movement. He held the positions of Supreme Ruler of Russia (1918-1920) and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. After the betrayal of the Czechoslovaks, he was handed over to the Bolsheviks and executed in January 1920.
A. Denikin(1872-1947) - military leader, political and public figure. During the Civil War he was one of the main leaders of the White movement. He commanded the Volunteer Army (1918-1919), and then the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (1919-1920). Later he emigrated to France.
Various peasant movements had a huge influence on the course of the Civil War. Many of them were close to the ideas of anarchism - the rebel army of N. Makhno (1888-1934) - the leader of the revolutionary masses of the peasantry in the southern regions of Ukraine during the Civil War. Their political platform was based on the demand for an end to the terror against the peasantry and a real, free allocation of land to them. The fluctuations of the peasantry between the Reds and the Whites repeatedly changed the balance of power during the war and, ultimately, predetermined its outcome.
Representatives of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire also took part in the Civil War, fighting for their independence from Russia (Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, Transcaucasia). This struggle met resistance both from the White movement, which wanted the restoration of a “united and indivisible Russia,” and from the Bolsheviks, who saw in it an undermining of the international unity of the working people.
Politics of War Communism
The elimination of private property in any form was the program position of the Bolshevik party and constituted its main task practical activities. This was first reflected in the Decree on Land. But Bolshevik policy during the Civil War was most fully embodied in war communism. War communism- a temporary system of emergency measures carried out by the Soviet government during the Civil War. All measures were aimed at concentrating maximum of the country's resources in the hands of the Bolshevik government.
Among its components: nationalization of industry (Decree of June 24, 1918); introduction of universal labor conscription; introduction of payment in kind, equalization of wages; provision of free government services; creation of food detachments and surplus appropriation for basic agricultural products (since May 1918); ban on private trade, card system of distribution of goods based on class; ban on leasing land and using hired labor.
In carrying out the policy of war communism in the countryside, the Bolsheviks relied on the so-called committees of the poor (kombeds), created by the Decree of June 11, 1918. Their competence included the distribution of bread and basic necessities, agricultural implements, and assistance to local food authorities in the removal of “surpluses” from wealthy peasants.
War communism had major consequences for the organization of labor. It soon became obvious that coercion would not only apply to members of the “exploiting classes.” Practice has shown that not only in politics, but also in the economic sphere, the new government relied on methods of violence and coercion. The policy of war communism soon caused mass indignation and rejection of new methods of leadership on the part of the majority of the population. The state, in fact, stopped market relations through its actions. If in the conditions of the Civil War such a policy could still somehow justify itself, then in the conditions of the transition to peacetime it was doomed to failure.
The civil war began in October 1917 and ended with the defeat of the White Army in the Far East in the fall of 1922. During this time, on the territory of Russia, various social classes and groups resolved the contradictions that arose between them using armed methods.
The main reasons for the outbreak of the civil war include the discrepancy between the goals of transforming society and the methods for achieving them, the refusal to create a coalition government, the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the nationalization of land and industry, the liquidation of commodity-money relations, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the creation of a one-party system, the danger of the revolution spreading to other countries, economic losses of Western powers during regime change in Russia.
In the spring of 1918, British, American and French troops landed in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The Japanese invaded the Far East, the British and Americans landed in Vladivostok - the intervention began.
On May 25, there was an uprising of the 45,000-strong Czechoslovak corps, which was transferred to Vladivostok for further shipment to France. A well-armed and equipped corps stretched from the Volga to the Urals. In conditions of decomposed Russian army, he became the only real force at that moment. The corps, supported by the Social Revolutionaries and White Guards, put forward demands for the overthrow of the Bolsheviks and the convening of the Constituent Assembly.
In the South, the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin was formed, which defeated the Soviets in the North Caucasus. The troops of P.N. Krasnov approached Tsaritsyn, in the Urals the Cossacks of General A.A. Dutov captured Orenburg. In November-December 1918, English troops landed in Batumi and Novorossiysk, and the French occupied Odessa. In these critical conditions, the Bolsheviks managed to create a combat-ready army by mobilizing people and resources and attracting military specialists from the tsarist army.
By the fall of 1918, the Red Army liberated the cities of Samara, Simbirsk, Kazan and Tsaritsyn.
The revolution in Germany had a significant influence on the course of the civil war. Having admitted its defeat in the First World War, Germany agreed to annul the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and withdrew its troops from the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states.
The Entente began to withdraw its troops, providing only material assistance to the White Guards.
By April 1919, the Red Army managed to stop the troops of General A.V. Kolchak. Driven deep into Siberia, they were defeated by the beginning of 1920.
In the summer of 1919, General Denikin, having captured Ukraine, moved towards Moscow and approached Tula. The troops of the first cavalry army under the command of M.V. Frunze and the Latvian riflemen concentrated on the Southern Front. In the spring of 1920, near Novorossiysk, the “Reds” defeated the White Guards.
In the north of the country they fought against the Soviets fighting troops of General N.N. Yudenich. In the spring and autumn of 1919 they made two unsuccessful attempts to capture Petrograd.
In April 1920, the conflict between Soviet Russia and Poland began. In May 1920, the Poles captured Kyiv. The troops of the Western and Southwestern Fronts launched an offensive, but failed to achieve final victory.
Realizing the impossibility of continuing the war, in March 1921 the parties signed a peace treaty.
The war ended with the defeat of General P.N. Wrangel, who led the remnants of Denikin’s troops in the Crimea. In 1920, the Far Eastern Republic was formed, and by 1922 it was finally liberated from the Japanese.
The reasons for the Bolshevik victory: support for the national outskirts and Russian peasants, deceived by the Bolshevik slogan “Land for the peasants”, the creation of a combat-ready army, the lack of a common command among the Whites, support for Soviet Russia from labor movements and communist parties of other countries.
The civil war and military intervention of 1917-1922 in Russia - an armed struggle for power between representatives various classes, social strata and groups of the former Russian Empire with the participation of the troops of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente.
The main reasons for the Civil War and military intervention were: the intransigence of the positions of various political parties, groups and classes on issues of power, economic and political course of the country; the bet of opponents of Bolshevism on the overthrow of Soviet power by armed means with the support of foreign states; the desire of the latter to protect their interests in Russia and prevent the spread of the revolutionary movement in the world; the development of national separatist movements on the territory of the former Russian Empire; the radicalism of the Bolsheviks, who considered revolutionary violence one of the most important means of achieving their political goals, and the desire of the leadership of the Bolshevik Party to put into practice the ideas of world revolution.
(Military encyclopedia. Military publishing house. Moscow. In 8 volumes - 2004)
After Russia's withdrawal from the First World War, German and Austro-Hungarian troops occupied parts of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and southern Russia in February 1918. To preserve Soviet power, Soviet Russia agreed to conclude the Brest Peace Treaty (March 1918). In March 1918, Anglo-Franco-American troops landed in Murmansk; in April, Japanese troops in Vladivostok; in May, a mutiny began in the Czechoslovak Corps, which was traveling along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the East. Samara, Kazan, Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and other cities along the entire length of the highway were captured. All this created serious problems for the new government. By the summer of 1918, numerous groups and governments had formed on 3/4 of the country’s territory that opposed Soviet power. The Soviet government began creating the Red Army and switched to a policy of war communism. In June, the government formed the Eastern Front, and in September - the Southern and Northern Fronts.
Soviet authority by the end of the summer of 1918, it was preserved mainly in the central regions of Russia and in part of the territory of Turkestan. In the 2nd half of 1918, the Red Army won its first victories on the Eastern Front and liberated the Volga region and part of the Urals.
After the revolution in Germany in November 1918, the Soviet government annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and Ukraine and Belarus were liberated. However, the policy of war communism, as well as decossackization, caused peasant and Cossack uprisings in various regions and gave the opportunity to the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik camp to form numerous armies and launch a broad offensive against the Soviet Republic.
In October 1918, in the South, the Volunteer Army of General Anton Denikin and the Don Cossack Army of General Pyotr Krasnov went on the offensive against the Red Army; Kuban and the Don region were occupied, attempts were made to cut the Volga in the Tsaritsyn area. In November 1918, Admiral Alexander Kolchak announced the establishment of a dictatorship in Omsk and proclaimed himself the supreme ruler of Russia.
In November-December 1918, British and French troops landed in Odessa, Sevastopol, Nikolaev, Kherson, Novorossiysk, and Batumi. In December, Kolchak’s army intensified its actions, capturing Perm, but the Red Army troops, having captured Ufa, suspended its offensive.
In January 1919, the Soviet troops of the Southern Front managed to push Krasnov’s troops away from the Volga and defeat them, the remnants of which joined the Armed Forces of the South of Russia created by Denikin. In February 1919, the Western Front was created.
Ticket
- The civil war and military intervention of 1917-1922 in Russia was an armed struggle for power between representatives of various classes, social strata and groups of the former Russian Empire with the participation of troops of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente.
1. The causes of the war and its content.
The main reasons for the Civil War and military intervention were:
· irreconcilability of the positions of various political parties, groups and classes on issues of power, economic and political course of the country;
· the bet of opponents of Bolshevism on the overthrow of Soviet power by armed means with the support of foreign states;
· the desire of the latter to protect their interests in Russia and prevent the spread of the revolutionary movement in the world; the development of national separatist movements on the territory of the former Russian Empire;
· the radicalism of the Bolsheviks, who considered revolutionary violence one of the most important means of achieving their political goals, the desire of the leadership of the Bolshevik Party to put into practice the ideas of the world revolution.
(Military encyclopedia. Military publishing house. Moscow. In 8 volumes - 2004)
After Russia's withdrawal from the First World War, German and Austro-Hungarian troops occupied parts of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and southern Russia in February 1918. To preserve Soviet power, Soviet Russia agreed to conclude the Brest Peace Treaty (March 1918). In March 1918, Anglo-Franco-American troops landed in Murmansk; in April, Japanese troops in Vladivostok; in May, a mutiny began in the Czechoslovak Corps, which was traveling along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the East. Samara, Kazan, Simbirsk, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and other cities along the entire length of the highway were captured. All this created serious problems for the new government. By the summer of 1918, numerous groups and governments had formed on 3/4 of the country’s territory that opposed Soviet power. The Soviet government began creating the Red Army and switched to a policy of war communism. In June, the government formed the Eastern Front, and in September - the Southern and Northern Fronts.
By the end of the summer of 1918, Soviet power remained mainly in the central regions of Russia and in part of the territory of Turkestan. In the 2nd half of 1918, the Red Army won its first victories on the Eastern Front and liberated the Volga region and part of the Urals.
After the revolution in Germany in November 1918, the Soviet government annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and Ukraine and Belarus were liberated. However, the policy of war communism, as well as decossackization, caused peasant and Cossack uprisings in various regions and made it possible for the leaders of the anti-Bolshevik camp to form numerous armies and launch a broad offensive against Soviet republic.
In October 1918, in the South, the Volunteer Army of General Anton Denikin and the Don Cossack Army of General Pyotr Krasnov went on the offensive against the Red Army; Kuban and the Don region were occupied, attempts were made to cut the Volga in the Tsaritsyn area. In November 1918, Admiral Alexander Kolchak announced the establishment of a dictatorship in Omsk and proclaimed himself the supreme ruler of Russia.
In November-December 1918, British and French troops landed in Odessa, Sevastopol, Nikolaev, Kherson, Novorossiysk, and Batumi. In December, Kolchak’s army intensified its actions, capturing Perm, but the Red Army troops, having captured Ufa, suspended its offensive.
In January 1919, the Soviet troops of the Southern Front managed to push Krasnov’s troops away from the Volga and defeat them, the remnants of which joined the Armed Forces of the South of Russia created by Denikin. In February 1919, the Western Front was created.
At the beginning of 1919, the offensive of French troops in the Black Sea region ended in failure; revolutionary ferment began in the French squadron, after which the French command was forced to evacuate its troops. In April, British units left Transcaucasia. In March 1919, Kolchak's army went on the offensive along the Eastern Front; by the beginning of April it had captured the Urals and was moving towards the Middle Volga.
In March-May 1919, the Red Army repelled the offensive of the White Guard forces from the east (Admiral Alexander Kolchak), south (General Anton Denikin), and west (General Nikolai Yudenich). As a result of the general counter-offensive of units of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, the Urals were occupied in May-July and, in the next six months, with the active participation of partisans, Siberia.
In April-August 1919, the interventionists were forced to evacuate their troops from the south of Ukraine, Crimea, Baku, and Central Asia. The troops of the Southern Front defeated Denikin's armies near Orel and Voronezh and by March 1920 pushed their remnants into the Crimea. In the fall of 1919, Yudenich's Army was finally defeated near Petrograd.
At the beginning of 1920, the North and the coast of the Caspian Sea were occupied. The Entente states completely withdrew their troops and lifted the blockade. After the end of the Soviet-Polish War, the Red Army launched a series of attacks on the troops of General Peter Wrangel and expelled them from Crimea.
In the territories occupied by the White Guards and interventionists, a partisan movement operated. In the Chernigov province, one of the organizers of the partisan movement was Nikolai Shchors; in Primorye, the commander-in-chief of the partisan forces was Sergei Lazo. The Ural partisan army under the command of Vasily Blucher in 1918 carried out a raid from the region of Orenburg and Verkhneuralsk through the Ural ridge in the Kama region. She defeated 7 regiments of Whites, Czechoslovaks and Poles, and disorganized the rear of the Whites. Having covered 1.5 thousand km, the partisans united with the main forces of the Eastern Front of the Red Army.
In 1921-1922, anti-Bolshevik uprisings were suppressed in Kronstadt, the Tambov region, in a number of regions of Ukraine, etc., and the remaining pockets of interventionists and White Guards in Central Asia and the Far East were eliminated (October 1922).
Consequences of the war.
By 1921, Russia was literally in ruins. The territories of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Belarus, Kars region (in Armenia) and Bessarabia were ceded from the former Russian Empire. According to experts, the population in the remaining territories barely reached 135 million people. Losses in these territories as a result of wars, epidemics, emigration, and declining birth rates have amounted to at least 25 million people since 1914.
During the hostilities, the Donbass, the Baku oil region, the Urals and Siberia were especially damaged; many mines and mines were destroyed. Factories shut down due to a lack of fuel and raw materials. Workers were forced to leave the cities and go to the countryside. In general, the level of industry decreased by 5 times. The equipment has not been updated for a long time. Metallurgy produced as much metal as it was smelted under Peter I.
Agricultural production fell by 40%. Almost the entire imperial intelligentsia was destroyed. Those who remained urgently emigrated to avoid this fate. During the Civil War, from hunger, disease, terror and battles, from 8 to 13 million people died (according to various sources), including about 1 million Red Army soldiers. Up to 2 million people emigrated from the country. The number of street children increased sharply after World War I and the Civil War. According to some data, in 1921 there were 4.5 million street children in Russia, according to others, in 1922 there were 7 million street children. Damage to the national economy amounted to about 50 billion gold rubles, industrial production fell to 4-20% of the 1913 level.
Losses during the war (Table 1)
Results of the intervention
“Some exotic African troops peacefully walked along the streets of this beautiful seaside city: blacks, Algerians, Moroccans brought by the occupying French from hot and distant countries - indifferent, carefree, poorly understanding what was going on. They did not know how to fight and did not want to. They went shopping, bought all sorts of rubbish and cackled, talking in a guttural language. They themselves didn’t know exactly why they were brought here.”
Alexander Vertinsky about the French intervention in Odessa, early 1919
The leaders of the White movement were actually in a hopeless situation regarding the question of accepting or not accepting help from the “allies”: a destroyed economy that required huge financial costs; the basing of all White Guard state formations, without exception, on the outskirts of the empire, certainly with a rear at sea, which did not have industrial and material base- in contrast to the situation of the Bolsheviks, based in the center of the country with its factories and military warehouses from the First World War. Without being able to get by on our own, they were forced to place themselves in strategic dependence on the interventionists, who, as the Ph.D. writes. N.S. Kirmel, aligning himself on this issue with Doctor of Historical Sciences. N.A. Narochnitskaya, at a difficult moment they betrayed the White movement.
An important factor, skillfully used by the Bolsheviks against the White movement in the propaganda struggle, was the very presence on the territory of Russia of limited contingents of foreign troops, who, moreover, did not want to engage in the fight against the Red Army, and therefore, by the fact of their presence, brought not so much to the White movement good, so much harm, since they only discredited anti-Soviet governments among the masses and gave the Soviets a powerful propaganda trump card. Bolshevik agitators presented the White Guards as supposedly proteges of the world bourgeoisie, trading in national interests and natural resources, and their struggle as supposedly patriotic and fair.
List of used literature
1. Goldin V.I. Russia in the Civil War. Essays on modern historiography.-
M.-2000.-276s.
2. Civil war in documents and memoirs.-M.-1998.
3. History of the USSR. / Edited by Ostrovsky V.P. - M.: Prosvet, 1990.
4. Konovalov V. Civil war in Russia (1917-1922): myths and
reality // Dialogue.-1998.-No.9.-p.72-76
5. Levandovsky A.A., Shchetinov Yu.A. Russia in the 20th century: Textbook. M.: Vlados,
6. Our Fatherland. Experience of political history. T.2 – M.: Prosvet, 1991.
7. National history/ Edited by A.A. Radugin. – M.: Academy, 2003.
8. A manual on the history of the Fatherland / Ed. Kuritsina V.M. - M.: Space,
9. Shevotsukov P. A. Pages of the history of the Civil War.-M.-1995.
Related information.
(other data were given in Soviet historiography), weapons. struggle for power between representatives of various classes, social layers and groups ex. Ross. empire with the participation of the troops of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente. Basic reasons G.v. and V.I.: irreconcilability of political positions. parties, groups and classes in matters of power, economics. and watered. country rate; rate pr-kov owls. power to overthrow its armed forces. with the support of foreigners. state-in; the desire of the latter to protect their interests in Russia and prevent the spread of revolution. movements in the world; development of national separatist movements on the outskirts of the former. Ross. empires; Bolshevik radicalism. leadership, which considered one of the most important means of achieving its political goals. revolutionary goals violence, and his desire to put into practice the ideas of the “world revolution”.
Home Civil war (Oct. 1917 - Feb. 1918). As a result of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the RSDLP(b) and the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party, which supported it (until July 1918), mainly expressed. interests grew up the proletariat and the poor peasantry. They were opposed by those who were variegated in their socialism. composition and often disparate forces of the other (non-proletarian) part grew up. companies represented by numerous parties, movements, associations, platforms, unions, etc., which were often at odds with each other, but, as a rule, adhered to anti-Bolsheviks. direction. An open clash in the struggle for power between these two main. watered forces in the country led to G.v. Ch. tools for achieving goals in G.V. were: on the one hand the Red Guard (then the Red Army), on the other - White Army, hence the established terminology of the G.V. period. in the designation of the warring parties - “red” and “white”. Immediately after the October armed uprising in Petrograd in 1917, the Kerensky-Krasnov revolt of 1917 broke out, which was quickly suppressed. Revolutionary fighting in Moscow. detachments of workers and soldiers against supporters of the Time. production was carried out on October 26. - November 3 (November 8–16) and ended in the defeat of the latter. On Nov. - Dec. 1917 owls power is established in most of the territory. Russia. The proclamation by the 2nd Congress of Soviets of the right of nations to self-determination was used in various ways. nationalist forces to separate from Russia and create independence. national-ter. formations. In con. 1917 – beginning 1918 Finland and Ukraine declared their independence. adv. republic, Mountain republic, Transcaucasia Commissariat, Kuban Regional Administration, Moldova. adv. rep. etc. In a number of regions of the country, Ch. arr. in the Cossack regions, local authorities refused to recognize the owls. pr-vo (see Dutov's revolt of 1917-18, Kaledin's rebellion of 1917-18). Top. commander-in-chief armed by the forces of Russia. owls rep. gen.-l. N.N. Dukhonin refused to comply with the orders of the owls. pr-va contact german. command with a proposal for a truce and for disobedience according to the instructions of the previous one. SNK V.I. Lenin was removed from office, and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command Rus. Army November 20 (December 3) busy roar. troops led by N.V. Krylenko and put into the service of the Sov. authorities in order to conclude peace with Germany and demobilize the old army. November 21 (December 4) an agreement was signed with Germany. command about time. cessation of war actions, 2 (15) Dec. a truce has been concluded. To fight counter-revolutionaries. Revolutionary forces were sent to the places. squads. The fighting on both sides was carried out by the department. squads, ch. arr. along the railway per cr. us. points and railway nodes (see “Echelon warfare”). K ser. In the spring of 1918, the first centers of counter-revolution in the country were eliminated. Basic the reason for the subsequent deployment of G.v. the military man appeared. foreign intervention state-in.
Exit Sov. Russia from the 1st world. war, fight against German-Austrian military intervention (February - May 1918). Guided by the Decree on Peace, Sov. The government invited all warring states to start peace. negotiation. 9 (22) Dec. In Brest-Litovsk, negotiations began on concluding peace between Russia and Germany. Taking advantage of the fact that the Entente refused to negotiate, German. The delegation on January 27, 1918, in the form of an ultimatum, demanded from the Sov. Russia signing peace to the annexationist. conditions. Military threat. clashes with Germany forced the Sov. government to speed up the resolution of the issue of creating a new army, because old Russian the army finally lost its combat effectiveness and could not serve as a support for the Owls. authorities. 28 Jan The Decree on the organization of the Kyrgyz Republic was adopted. army, and 11 February. - Kr. fleet. They were supposed to be staffed only by representatives of the working classes on a voluntary basis. Meanwhile, in response to German. ultimatum head of the Sov. delegation of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs del L.D. Trotsky arbitrarily interrupted the negotiations and announced a unilateral end to the war and demobilization of the Russians. army. Against the Sov. The German-Austrian military intervention began in Russia in 1918. Remains of the old Russian. The armies, unable to offer resistance, began to retreat to the East in disarray on February 22. owls The government published a decree “The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!” and called on the people to fight the invaders. 23 Feb mass entry of workers into Kr. army and construction of fortifications in the most important directions. March 3 owls The government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, which meant Russia’s withdrawal from the 1st World War. war on the side of the Entente. However, by agreement with Ukr. Center. The interventionists happily continued their offensive in Ukraine and soon completed its occupation, in March 1918. troops landed in Finland in April. captured Crimea, in the beginning. May occupied Rostov-on-Don and supported Krasnov, who acted as the head of the Don. Cossacks against the Sovs. authorities. Sov. Balt. the fleet was forced to relocate from the ports of Finland to Kronstadt, and Chernomor. The fleet, in order to prevent its capture by the Germans, was scuttled in Novorossiysk (June 18). On March 3, the Supreme Military Council was formed, which was entrusted with top functions. Command of the Armed Forces of the Sov. Republic. In April owls troops to the west the border was reduced to veils, general war was introduced in the country. training (Vsevobuch), a local military was created. apparatus - military commissariats, a military institute was established in the army and navy. Commissars, on May 29, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree on universal military service. The construction of the regulation unfolded. Kr. army.
Sov. Republic in the ring of fronts (May - November 1918). The war that began in the spring of 1918. armed intervention Entente forces were a decisive factor in the expansion of the Civil War. in Russia. Entente troops landed in Murmansk and Vladivostok and invaded Sr. Asia and Transcaucasia. Having created bridgeheads in the north, east and south of the country, the Entente organized the rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps in 1918 (May 25), which revived the internal affairs. counter-revolution. With its help, in May - July 1918, the Czechoslovaks captured Wed. Volga region, Ural, Siberia and D. Vostok. To combat them, the Eastern Front was created in 1918-20. In the south of the country, with the help of interventionists, centers of counter-revolution also arose: the White Cossacks on the Don in Ch. with Ataman Krasnov, Volunteer Army (General L. A.I. Denikin) in the Kuban, bourgeois-nationalist. regimes in Transcaucasia, Ukraine, etc. United. hike external and internal counter-revolutions against the Republic. The Soviets demanded an increase in numbers. Kr. army, improving its organizational and staffing structure, operations. and strategist. management, increasing the level of combat training and discipline, especially the eradication of remnants of partisanship. Instead of curtains, a front began to be created. and Armenian associations with the corresponding governing bodies (Southern, Northern, Western and Ukrainian fronts). Having lost 3/4 ter. countries, Sov. Rep. found itself surrounded by fronts. Under these conditions, owls. The government nationalized the country. and Wed industry, took control of small-scale industries, introduced labor conscription for the population, surplus appropriation system, and on September 2, 1918 declared the country a unified military. camp. For the strategist. military leadership actions, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RMR) was created, headed by Trotsky, and the position of commander-in-chief was introduced. VS Rep. (I.I. Vatsetis). On November 30, 1918, the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense (Lenin) was established. All these measures made it possible to turn the tide of the war. struggle and win the first victories on the fronts. During the offensive of the Eastern Front of 1918 - 19, Wed were liberated. Volga region and Kama region. Sov. troops successfully repelled the Don offensive. White Cossacks to Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) (see Tsaritsyn defense 1918-19) and Denikin’s troops to Grozny and Kizlyar. Military successes Kr. The armies somewhat stabilized the situation and accelerated the transition of the middle peasants to the side of the Sovs. authorities and expanded social owl database Rep.
Failure of the Entente's attempts to destroy the Sov. The Republic on its own (November 1918 - March 1919). On Nov. 1918 Germany, defeated in the 1st World. war, capitulated to the Entente. Revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary. 11/13/1918 owls The government annulled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Sov. troops, advancing behind those retreating from the territories they occupied. German and Austro-Hungarians. armies, began to liberate Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states (see Offensive of the Red Army in Belarus and the Baltic states 1918-19, Offensive of the Ukrainian Front 1919). At the same time, the end of the 1st world. war freed the hands of the Entente. She decided to throw the released troops against the Sovs. Russia and destroy its own. forces. The White Guards were given auxiliary support. role. New units and connections landed in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok and other cities. interventionists. Help from the Whites increased sharply. to the troops. As a result of the military. military revolution was established in Omsk. dictatorship of the adm. A.V. Kolchak, a protege of the Entente. Ch. blow military Entente strategists decided to attack Moscow from the south. For this purpose, to the Black Sea. ports landed the cr. intervention contingents. However, they met stubborn resistance from the partisans. and rebel detachments in Ukraine and were able to advance into the interior of the country only 100-150 km. The actions of the Entente were also affected by the contradictions between the allies and the lack of firm and unified control of the multinational people. forces and a sharp drop in the morale of the troops, abandoned from one war to another and for this reason not burning with the desire to fight against their recent ally - Russia. Sov. Rep. skillfully used the contradictions in the camp of her leaders and organized active work to disintegrate the intervention troops. Sov. The strategy set the goal of first defeating the troops of Kolchak and Denikin, preventing them from uniting with the interventionists, and then defeating the Entente troops. In con. 1918 The offensive of the Red Army began. armies on all fronts. Left Bank was liberated. Ukraine, Don region, South. Ural, a number of districts in the north and north-west. countries. Thus, the Entente’s plan to destroy the Soviets. authorities was thwarted. Revolutions began in her troops. speeches of soldiers and military. The Entente leadership hastily withdrew troops from Russia.
Decisive victories of Kr. armies on the Civil fronts. war (March 1919 - March 1920). In the beginning. 1919 The Entente relied on internal forces. counter-revolutions and small states adjacent to Russia. A concentric plan was developed. the attack of these forces on Moscow. Basic the role was assigned to Kolchak’s army. Aux. attacks were carried out: from the south by Denikin’s army, from the west by the Poles and Baltic troops. state-in, from the north-west. - white-haired North body and fin. troops, from the North - Whites. Northern troops region (Gen. L. E.K. Miller). Total in the combine The campaign was supposed to involve approx. 1 million people Kr. the army consisted of St. 500 thousand people In connection with the new military threat of the Sov. Rep. a course was set for further strengthening the Kr. army. The material basis for this was the strong union of the owls. authorities with the middle peasants and the design of the military-political. Union of Owls republics, which significantly strengthened the country's defense capability, made it possible to create an army of 3 million and carry out subsequent defeat of many pr-kov. In the spring of 1919 Sov. Rep. concentrated its efforts on V., where in front of Kr. The army was tasked with defeating Kolchak. During the strategist. defense, then the counter-offensive of the Eastern Front in 1919, Kolchak’s armies were defeated and thrown back beyond the Urals. In the summer of 1919, without stopping the victorious offensive in the Urals and Siberia (see Offensive of the Eastern Front 1919-20), Kr. The army repelled the offensive created on the basis of the Whites. North Corps North-West army (general from information and N.N. Yudenich) (see Petrograd defense 1919). In the fall of 1919, due to the fact that the bet on Kolchak failed and the Entente postponed Ch. blow from E. to S., main. efforts Kr. The armies were focused on the fight against Denikin’s troops, who launched an attack on Moscow (see Offensive of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia 1919). In the counter-offensive of the Southern Front of 1919, and then in the offensive of the Southern and South-Eastern Fronts of 1919-20, Denikin’s armies were defeated, and their remnants were thrown back to the North. Caucasus and Crimea. At the same time, Yudenich's new offensive against Petrograd failed, and his army was defeated. Destruction of the remnants of Denikin's troops in the North. Caucasus Kr. the army completed in the spring of 1920. In achieving decisive victories in 1919 it means. Partisans played a role (see Guerrilla movement in the Russian Civil War 1917-22).
The Soviet-Polish War and the defeat of Wrangel (Apr. - Nov. 1920). In the spring of 1920, the Entente organized a new campaign against the Soviets. Russia. This time bas. beat The Polish militarists, who planned to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth within the borders of 1772, and the Russian Army of 1920 (Len.-L. P.N. Wrangel) acted forcefully. The Soviet-Polish War of 1920 ended with Poland's withdrawal from the war (October 1920). Wrangel's troops were defeated in October. - Nov. during the counter-offensive of the Southern Front in 1920 and the Perekop-Chongar operation in 1920. The remnants of them went abroad. Basic foci of G.v. on ter. Russia were liquidated. But on the outskirts it still continued.
The final stage of the Civil War (1920-22). With the defeat of the main Counter-revolutionary forces continued fighting in Transcaucasia, Wed. Asia and the Far East. In the spring of 1920 Kr. the army came to the aid of the Azerbaijanis. Bolsheviks. As a result of the Baku operation of 1920, the Soviet Union was established. power in Azerbaijan. In May from the Whites. fleet cleared the Caspian Sea. In Aug. - Sep. 1920 Cr. the army provided assistance to Bukhara. revolutionaries who rebelled against the emir. As a result of the Bukhara operation of 1920, a bunk was established in Bukhara. power, and Bukhar. The emirate was liquidated. In the beginning. 1921 Kr. the army came to the aid of Armenia. and cargo. revolutionaries who rebelled against their bourgeois nationalist. regimes, and helped them install owls. power in Georgia and Armenia (see Erivan operation 1921, Tiflis operation 1921, Batumi operation 1921). In the D. East, the fight against the Whites. The formations were led by the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic. In the summer of 1921, in cooperation with parts of the Kr. army and numerous rebel with detachments she defeated the troops of General-L. R.F. Ungern von Sternberg, who invaded the territory. Transbaikalia from Mongolia. July 6 owls troops entered Urga (Ulaanbaatar), where Mong was proclaimed. Nar. Rep. (see Mongolian operations 1921). In Feb. in the Volochaev operation of 1922 People's Revolutionary. The army (NRA) defeated the White rebels. army of the general-m. V.M. Molchanov, and in Oct. joint liberated Primorye with partisans (see Primorsky operation of 1922). 10/25/1922 NRA (I.P. Uborevich) and Primorye partisans entered Vladivostok, abandoned by the Japanese. interventionists and White Guards. With the liberation of Primorye, the Civil War ended.
Results of the Civil War. In a fierce armed fight against internal counter-revolution and foreign military With an intervention that lasted 5 years, the Soviet Union won. Rep. Ter. the integrity of the state, which disintegrated after the collapse of Russia. empire restored. Outside the union of owls. republics, the basis of which was Russia, only Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia remained, as well as Bessarabia, annexed to Romania, Western. Ukraine and Western Belarus, which went to Poland. Basic the reason for the Soviet victory. Russia in G.V. Sov support came. authorities main mass of people. Important conditions for victory were: military-political. union of the working class and the working peasantry, union of the Soviets. republics, broad support for the just struggle of the peoples of Russia by the working people of other countries. Sov. Rep. created in the conditions of G.V. powerful aircraft with clear org. structure, centralization leadership and high warrior. discipline. K con. 1920 Cr. the army numbered 5.5 million people. During the G.V. 22 armies were formed (including 2 cavalry), 174 divisions, of which 35 cavalry, as well as a large number of divisions. parts various branches of troops. In G.v. personnel of Kr. army showed great courage and heroism. Two armies (5A and 11A) became Red Banner. 55 parts, conn. and military training. institutions were awarded hordes for military exploits. Kr. Banner (established in September 1918), and 300 - Honorary Revolutionary. Kr. banner. Ord. Kr. The banner was awarded approx. 15 thousand people, of which approx. 300 people twice and three times, and military officers V.K. Blucher, S.S. Vostretsov, Ya.F. Fabricius and I.F. Fedko - four times. In the ranks of Kr. army and navy during the Civil War. served approx. 75 thousand officers and generals of the old Russian. army, the experience and knowledge of which played important role in the building of Sov. Armed Forces and their leadership on the battlefields. Of these, cr. military talent and organizer. abilities were demonstrated by I.I. Vatsetis, V.M. Gittis, A.I. Egorov, S.S. Kamenev, A.I. Cork, F.C. Mironov, D.N. Reliable, M.N. Tukhachevsky, I.P. Uborevich, V.I. Shorin and many others etc. Successfully proved themselves as military officers and many former. soldiers, sailors and non-commissioned officers of the old Russian. army: V.K. Blucher, S.M. Budyonny, P.E. Dybenko, B.M. Dumenko, V.I. Kikvidze, G.I. Kotovsky, N.G. Markin, V.M. Primakov, F.F. Raskolnikov, V.I. Chapaev and others, as well as M.V., who had not previously served in the army. Frunze, I.E. Yakir, A.Ya. Parkhomenko et al. Hard centralization. The leadership of the army and navy was carried out by the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. Polit. work in the troops was led, as a rule, by large owls. and desk figures and prof. revolutionaries who held positions as members of the Revolutionary Military Council of fronts and armies: A.S. Bubnov, K.E. Voroshilov, S.M. Kirov, V.V. Kuibyshev, G.K. Ordzhonikidze, N.I. Podvoisky, P.P. Postyshev, I.T. Smilga, N.I. Smirnov, I.V. Stalin and many others etc. From the military. leaders of the White movement played a prominent role in the Civil War. played by generals M.V. Alekseev, P.N. Wrangel, A.I. Denikin, A.I. Dutov, L.G. Kornilov, P.N. Krasnov, E.K. Miller, G.M. Semenov, N.N. Yudenich, adm. A.V. Kolchak and others G.V. had a detrimental effect on the situation of the country, already weakened by the world. war. The total amount of damage caused to G.v. and V.I., amounted to approx. 50 billion gold rubles. K con. G.v. prom. production in Russia decreased to 4-20% of the level of 1913, and agricultural production. production - almost doubled. Irreversible losses Kr. the army amounted to 940 thousand people. (mainly from typhoid epidemics), and sanitary - approx. 6.8 million people Belogv. troops, according to incomplete data, lost 125 thousand people in battles alone. Total losses of Russia in G.V. amounted to approx. 13 million people Uncompromising political goals of the parties participating in the civil war, determined its exceptionally violent nature, led to numerous casualties, loss for a long time. time intelligence. the country's potential and the destruction of its people. x-va. Seriously aggravated the consequences of G.V. and military intervention. During the years of G.V. originated and received means. development of owls military lawsuit