When was the civil war in the USSR? Russian Civil War

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

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

The main struggle for power during the Civil War was between the armed forces of the Bolsheviks and their supporters (Red Guard and Red Army) on the one hand and the armed forces White movement(White Army) - on the other, which is reflected in the persistent naming of the main parties to the conflict as “red” and “white”.

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

The decisive factor during the Civil War was the position of the peasantry, who made up more than 80% of the population, which ranged from passive wait-and-see to active armed struggle. The fluctuations of the peasantry, which reacted in this way to the policies of the Bolshevik government and the dictatorships of the white generals, radically changed the balance of forces and, ultimately, predetermined the outcome of the war. First of all, we are, of course, talking about the middle peasantry. In some areas (Volga region, Siberia), these fluctuations raised the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to power, and sometimes contributed to the advancement of the White Guards deeper into Soviet territory. However, as the Civil War progressed, the middle peasantry leaned towards Soviet power. The middle peasants saw from experience that the transfer of power to the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks inevitably leads to an undisguised dictatorship of the generals, which, in turn, inevitably leads to the return of the landowners and the restoration of pre-revolutionary relations. The strength of the middle peasants' hesitation towards Soviet power was especially evident in the combat effectiveness of the White and Red armies. White armies were essentially combat-ready only as long as they were more or less homogeneous in class terms. When, as the front expanded and moved forward, the White Guards resorted to mobilizing the peasantry, they inevitably lost their combat effectiveness and collapsed. And vice versa, the Red Army was constantly strengthening, and the mobilized middle peasant masses of the village staunchly defended Soviet power from counter-revolution.

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

An integral part of the Civil War was the armed struggle of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire for their independence and the insurrectionary movement of broad sections of the population against the troops of the main warring parties - the “Reds” and the “Whites”. Attempts to declare independence provoked resistance both from the “whites,” who fought for a “united and indivisible Russia,” and from the “reds,” who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the gains of the revolution.

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

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

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

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

Lunch of the Red Army soldiers by the fire. 1919

Armored train of the Red Army. 1918

Bulla Viktor Karlovich

Civil War Refugees
1919

Distribution of bread for 38 wounded Red Army soldiers. 1918

Red squad. 1919

Ukrainian front.

Exhibition of Civil War trophies near the Kremlin, timed to coincide with the Second Congress of the Communist International

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

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich

Red commanders of a regiment of rural poor. 1918

Soldiers of Budyonny's First Cavalry Army at a rally
January 1920

Otsup Petr Adolfovich

Funeral of the victims of the February Revolution
March 1917

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

Work at the site of a train crash after an anarchist attack. January 1920

Red commander in the new office. January 1920

Commander-in-Chief of the troops Lavr Kornilov. 1917

Chairman of the Provisional Government Alexander Kerensky. 1917

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

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

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

February revolution. Checking documents on Nevsky Prospekt
February 1917

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

Steinberg Yakov Vladimirovich

Military intervention in Soviet Russia. Command staff of White Army units with representatives of foreign troops

The station in Yekaterinburg after the capture of the city by units of the Siberian Army and the Czechoslovak Corps. 1918

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

Political workers at the headquarters car. Western Front. Voronezh direction

Military portrait

Date of filming: 1917 - 1919

In the hospital laundry. 1919

Ukrainian front.

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

In the summer of 1918, the detachments of the Red Cossacks Nikolai and Ivan Kashirin became part of the combined South Ural partisan detachment of Vasily Blucher, who carried out a raid in the mountains of the Southern Urals. Having united near Kungur in September 1918 with units of the Red Army, the partisans fought as part of the troops of the 3rd Army of the Eastern Front. After the reorganization in January 1920, these troops became known as the Army of Labor, whose goal was to restore the national economy of the Chelyabinsk province.

Red commander Anton Boliznyuk, wounded thirteen times

Mikhail Tukhachevsky

Grigory Kotovsky
1919

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

Medical examination of workers mobilized into the Red Army. 1918

On the boat "Voronezh"

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

Overcoats of the 1918 model, which came into use during the Civil War, initially in Budyonny’s army, were preserved with minor changes until the military reform of 1939. The cart is equipped with a Maxim machine gun.

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

Pavel Dybenko and Nestor Makhno. November - December 1918

Workers of the supply department of the Red Army

Koba / Joseph Stalin. 1918

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

The Defense of Tsaritsyn was a military campaign by “red” troops against “white” troops for control of the city of Tsaritsyn during the Russian Civil War.

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

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

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

Alexander Ilyich Dutov - ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army

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

Street children
1920s

Soshalsky Georgy Nikolaevich

Street children transport the city archive. 1920s

Revolutions are often accompanied by civil wars - this is too decisive a social, political and legal break. For several months of its development, the revolution managed without a civil war. But after the Bolsheviks came to power, armed clashes broke out, which either subsided or intensified.

Essentially we're talking about not one, but several civil wars: fleeting Civil War, associated with the establishment of Soviet power (“The Three Umphal March of Soviet Power” October 26, 1917 - February 1918), local armed clashes in the spring of 1918, a large-scale civil war (May 1918 - November 1920), the rise of uprisings against “war communism” under the slogans “third revolution”, etc. (late 1920 - early 1922), the end of the civil war in the Far East (1920-1922), foreign intervention of 1918-1922, a number of wars associated with the formation or attempts to form national states and social confrontation in them (“wars of independence” "and civil wars in Finland, the Baltic countries, Ukraine, the countries of Transcaucasia, Central Asia, including the Basmachi movement, which lasted until the early 30s, the Soviet-Polish war of 1919-1920). Between the “Triumphal March” and the beginning of a large-scale civil war, which cut the country into front lines in May 1918, there is a chronological break when the all-Russian civil war was not actually fought.

Supporters of Soviet power won the first war by March 1918, taking control of everything big cities and almost the entire territory of Russia, throwing the remnants of their opponents to the distant periphery, where they wandered in the hope of better times for them. Local clashes took place on the outskirts of Russia in April 1918, but there was no war on a national scale. The All-Russian War returned once in May 1918. Even after the defeat of the white armies of A. Kolchak and P. Wrangel, local centers of the Civil War covered, in contrast to April 1918, a significant part of Russia and Ukraine, including the central regions, right up to the outskirts Petrograd. The war continued continuously until 1921-1922. Therefore, when we find out who and how started the all-Russian civil war, this question should be answered twice.

Because the civil war started twice. First - after the October Revolution in several areas as a result of non-recognition of the Soviet government. And then - in May 1918. How did the fleeting civil war of late 1917 - early 1918 begin? Armed clashes broke out immediately after the Bolsheviks, relying on the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, overthrew the Provisional Government and created their own - the Council of People's Commissars (SNK). The opponents of the Bolsheviks, naturally, did not recognize the legitimacy of the October Revolution. But Kerensky’s government was not legitimate and was not created by some kind of elected body (here the Bolsheviks even had some advantage - their Council of People’s Commissars enlisted the support of the Second Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies).

Already at the beginning of November 1917, it became clear that no one was going to restore the Kerensky government, but the main political forces recognized the legitimacy and authority of the Constituent Assembly, which was elected on November 12, 1917. No one wanted to die in this fleeting civil war at the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918. What is the point when the Bolshevik government is temporary and exists until the Constituent Assembly? When the Bolshevik Party seized power in Petrograd, few of their opponents thought that Lenin's government would last long.

Petrograd was immediately paralyzed by a strike of employees. This first civil disobedience campaign of the Bolshevik era came to be known as "sabotage". Anti-Bolshevik actions in the capital were coordinated by the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution (KSRR), created by right-wing socialists N. Avksentyev, A. Gots and others. Attempts to reach an agreement between the Council of People's Commissars and the KSRR through the mediation of the Vikzhel trade union failed. The first armed clashes began in Moscow on October 27 and were largely the result of accident.

Pro-Soviet Dvintsy soldiers, who knew Moscow poorly, clashed on Red Square with cadets defending the approaches to the City Duma, the headquarters of the opponents of Bolshevism. If the “Dvintsy” had chosen a different route, it could have worked out - the moderate Bolsheviks at that time tried to come to an agreement with the City Duma and the commander of the garrison K. Ryabtsev. Kerensky tried to take revenge, but managed to obtain very insignificant forces to maintain his power: about 700 Cossacks (466 combat personnel) under the command of P. Krasnov. In Gatchina they were joined by two hundred more. However, by October 29, Krasnov had 630 people left (420 combat personnel). After the battle of Pulkovo on October 31, these meager forces were driven back, and on November 1, Kerensky fled from Gatchina into political oblivion.

More serious battles took place in Moscow, but there was also a “strange war” going on there. Nobody wanted to die. After all, hopes remained that politicians were about to reach some kind of agreement again. M. Gorky wrote about the battles in Moscow: “But all this did not disturb the normal flow of life: high school boys and girls went to study, ordinary people strolled, “tails” stood near the shops, dozens of idle curious spectators gathered on street corners, guessing where they were shooting.” . The soldiers “do not shoot very willingly, as if against their will they were fulfilling a revolutionary duty - to create as many dead as possible... - Who are you fighting with? - And there are some around the corner.

- But these are probably yours, the Soviets? - What about ours? Look, they ruined a man...” During the fighting in Moscow, the first act of execution of unarmed opponents took place - the cadets fired a machine gun at the surrendering soldiers of the Kremlin garrison there. But this excess was the result of an accident and a tense, nervous situation, and not of a pre-thought-out plan to exterminate people. The Bolsheviks were more popular among the soldiers, and gained an advantage over their opponents in manpower and artillery.

On November 2, armed resistance ceased, and Soviet power was established in Moscow, which was very important for its expansion throughout the country. In November-December 1917, relying on rear garrisons, the Bolsheviks won in most Russian cities. The largest center of resistance to the establishment of Soviet power was the region of the Don Army, where Ataman A. Kaledin and the Volunteer Army led by M. Alekseev and L. Kornilov operated. In December 1917

The Red Guard and part of the Cossacks, supporting the Bolsheviks, launched an offensive against Kaledin’s forces and defeated them. On January 29, Kaledin shot himself, and the Volunteer Army retreated to Kuban, where it carried out partisan operations. The Ural ataman A. Dutov was also defeated and retreated to the steppe. Cossack detachments of G. Semenov and others operated in Siberia. But all these forces controlled very small territories on the outskirts of Russia, and the main part of the country submitted to Soviet power. Also, pro-Soviet forces conducted successful fighting against national movements - troops of the Central Rada of Ukraine, Turkestan Autonomy. Only the Transcaucasian Commissariat was able to maintain power over its region.

In the tense socio-political situation in the spring of 1918, a corps made up of former Czech and Slovak prisoners of war was evacuated to France through Russian territory. At the end of May, after the conflict that occurred near Chelyabinsk between Czechoslovak soldiers and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, the Soviet authorities tried to disarm the Czechoslovak units. On May 25 they rebelled. The performance of the corps was supported by uprisings of opponents of Soviet power, including peasants and workers. The Volga region and the Urals came under the authority of the “Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly” (Komuch), and an autonomous Siberian government arose. During the May uprising of the Don Cossacks, P. Krasnov was elected ataman of the Don army on May 16, 1918, and the Don army launched an attack on Tsaritsyn. Terror was carried out against supporters of Soviet power.

Russia split into several parts, and a large-scale (frontal) civil war of 1918-1920 began. This war was led to by the consequences of the growing socio-economic crisis, aggravated as a result of the Bolshevik policy aimed at the accelerated nationalization of the economy; the growth of inter-ethnic contradictions, the consequences of the unsuccessful First World War for Russia and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, the intervention of the states of the Central Bloc and the Entente, the deepening of political confrontation as a result of the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly of 1918 and the Soviets opposed to the Bolsheviks. After the conclusion of the Brest Peace Treaty, the burden of the food dictatorship introduced on May 13, 1918 fell on the peasants of the Volga region, the North Caucasus and Siberia, which created the ground for mass anti-Soviet sentiment.

The immediate beginning of a large-scale civil war was the May uprising on the Don and the march of the Czechoslovak corps on May 25, 1918.

Literature: Vatsetis I. I., Kakurin N. E. Civil War 1918-1921. St. Petersburg, 2002; Gorky M. Untimely thoughts. M., 1990; Denikin A.I. Essays on Russian Troubles. In 5 T. Paris, Berlin, 1921-1926; M., 1991—2006; Kondratyev N.D. The grain market and its regulation during the war and revolution. M., 1991; Resistance to Bolshevism 1917-1918 M., 2001; Morning of the Land of Soviets. L., 1988.

Shubin A.V. The Great Russian Revolution. 10 questions. - M.: 2017. - 46 p.

Wars have been fought throughout history. People have killed people in the name of politics, religion, race and resources. In fact, it is our oldest and bloodiest pastime. Wars between countries have shaped our collective history; without them, geographic boundaries would not be what they are, rulers would not be in power, and the populations of some countries would be markedly different. Wars all happen because of global conflicts between opposing countries. Unfortunately, the same can be said about those conflicts when compatriots fight with compatriots, neighbor against neighbor, and even brother against brother. Civil wars are just as old, and have the same causes. This list contains five of the most brutal and large-scale civil wars in history. modern history who shaped the history of their countries.

Second Sudanese War (1983-2005)

One of the most tragic episodes in human history, the largest conflict in post-colonial Africa, the Second Sudanese War brought so much grief and suffering that it is difficult to describe them in one article. It is condemned for the extreme violence carried out in the name of religion and oil, as well as for the millions killed and injured.

On the religious side of the conflict, the predominant Christian religious groups in the south of the country opposed the expansion of the Khartoum central government in the north and its policy of introducing Islam throughout Sudan. Concerning natural resources, then vast oil fields became the cause of conflict between the northern and southern parts of Sudan. The south of Sudan contained land for agriculture due to its proximity to the Nile River, while the north bordered the Sahara Desert, trying to control oil fields. Due to two of the world's greatest evils - oil and religion - Sudan plunged into civil war for the second time in 1983. More than two million people died during the conflict, and the number of victims of ethnic cleansing is still unconfirmed. Children were massively involved in the conflict, and millions of people fled their homes to refugee camps in the Darfur region, where they were still persecuted. As a result, a truce was reached in 2005, and the south of Sudan only became an independent country in 2011. Unfortunately, this did not stop the violence - after the end of the civil war, countless skirmishes and massacres continued between north and south.

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

The Spanish Civil War was a very brutal conflict of ideological differences between the Democratic-Republicans in the Spanish government, and the Nationalist Movement led by General Francisco Franco. The war was notable for many atrocities, especially by dictator Franco. The cleansing of all territories, the killing of civilians sympathetic to the Republicans is just a small list of all the horrors. The Civil War inflamed such hatred between the two sides that Republicans characterized the conflict as a struggle between “tyranny and democracy,” while Nationalists portrayed the war as an epic battle between “communist and anarchist red hordes” and “Christian civilization.”

Such was the rhetoric of the conflict, in which 500,000 Spaniards became victims, and the same number of people left their homes and fled the country. The Spanish Civil had enormous consequences for Spain, leading to a fascist dictatorship led by Franco that lasted 36 years. It was also a training ground for World War II, the Eastern Front in particular. Nazi Germany And Soviet Union fought on opposite sides in this conflict. The Nazis, aiding Franco, used Spain as a testing ground for their soldiers and new military technologies, especially the Luftwaffe, while the Soviet Union aided and fought for the Republicans. It was only a few years later, with Spain still suffering from civil war, that Germany and the Soviet Union met again on the battlefield of the bloodiest military campaign of all time, World War II.

Chinese Civil War (1927-1950)

Before 1946, the Chinese Civil War was an intricate series of battles and skirmishes with no clear sides. The conflict broke out between government forces Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-shek and the revolutionaries who adhered to communist party China, led by Mao Zedong. Inspired by the Russian Revolution a decade earlier, Mao, who shared Marxist-Leninist ideals, saw the need for a revolution in China. The communists decided to overcome the abuses of Chiang Kai-shek's government. For his part, Chiang Kai-shek was supported by the armed forces and decided to fight the revolutionaries. To achieve your goals, still early stages During the war, the secret police were involved in mass repressions among the communists. Mao, on the other hand, believed that uniting the poorest people in rural China would help win the war. After nearly a decade of fighting for control of China, the civil war morphed into the Second Sino-Japanese War when the Japanese invaded the country in 1937. The conflict eventually became part of the theater of World War II. After the defeat of Japan, by 1950 Mao Zedong was able to consolidate his power throughout the country.


Not wanting to see another huge country fall into communism, Western countries recognized the government in Taiwan as the true authority of China. This continued until 1971, when the Communist government on the mainland finally took its rightful place at the United Nations as China's sole representative. The Chinese Civil War inspired Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara to attempt their own successful communist revolution in Cuba, lasted nearly 45 years and caused eight million deaths. All this happened in order to create a unified communist government of China, which now plays a very important role in international relations and the global economy.

American Civil War (1861-1865)

Undoubtedly the most famous civil war in the Western Hemisphere, the American Civil War is the most important point in US history. While the Revolution declared American independence and created the country, the American Civil War defined the country's identity. From the first shot in April 1861 until the last shot in June 1865, the country underwent reconstruction and a movement for civil rights, and the course of development is chosen.

Although the formal cause of the conflict was the issue of the legality of slavery, the reasons lay much deeper. It was a war between the northern and southern states, where the issue of subordination and control of a single government was decided. The American Civil War claimed more than 700,000 lives, and its consequences are still debated to this day.

Russian Civil War (1917-1922)

The largest civil war ever fought, it changed the world forever. The Russian Civil War violently introduced a new form of government to the world. Communism is a form of government that Western capitalist countries have feared for almost 70 years. From the death of the Tsar and the fall of the monarchy in Russia, to the violence of the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war, it was a series of conflicts that changed the country forever.


The dates of the Russian Civil War are controversial: before 1918, any military action was mentioned as part of a series of revolutions. Everything that happened in 1918 and beyond was already regarded as part of the civil war. On one side in the conflict were the Red Bolsheviks. They were opposed by the Whites - Lenin's opponents were a disparate group of different political colors and ethnic groups, neither of whom had any real desire to help each other. Indeed, many times the Whites were at war even with each other, and this was the cause of their downfall. The Bolsheviks succeeded because they were united under the iron fist of Lenin and Trotsky. Almost nine million people became victims of civil war and revolution, with a real threat to global economic stability and dire consequences.

July 25, 2014 | Categories: Events , History , Topper