The civil war in Russia is a series of armed conflicts of 1917-1922 that took place in the territories of the former Russian Empire. The opposing sides were various political, ethnic, social groups and state entities. The war began after the October Revolution, the main reason for which was the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. Let's take a closer look at the background, course and results of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.
Periodization
The main stages of the Civil War in Russia:
- Summer 1917 - late autumn 1918 The main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement were formed.
- Autumn 1918 - mid-spring 1919 The Entente began its intervention.
- Spring 1919 - spring 1920 The struggle of the Soviet authorities of Russia with the "white" armies and troops of the Entente.
- Spring 1920 - autumn 1922 The victory of power and the end of the war.
Background
There is no strictly defined cause of the Russian Civil War. It was the result of political, economic, social, national and even spiritual contradictions. An important role was played by the public discontent accumulated during the First World War and the devaluation of human life by the authorities. The agrarian-peasant Bolshevik policy also became an incentive for protest moods.
The Bolsheviks initiated the dissolution of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and the elimination of the multi-party system. In addition, after the adoption of the Brest Peace, they were accused of destroying the state. The right of self-determination of peoples and the formation of independent state entities in different parts of the country was perceived by supporters of indivisible Russia as a betrayal.
Dissatisfaction with the new government was also expressed by those who were against the break with the historical past. The anti-church Bolshevik policy caused a special resonance in society. All of the above reasons came together and led to the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.
Military confrontation took all sorts of forms: uprisings, armed clashes, partisan actions, terrorist attacks and large-scale operations involving the regular army. A feature of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was that it stood out as exceptionally long, brutal and exciting.territory.
Chronological frames
The Civil War in Russia of 1917-1922 began to take on a large-scale front-line character in the spring and summer of 1918, but separate episodes of confrontation took place as early as 1917. It is also difficult to determine the final boundary of events. On the territory of the European part of Russia, front-line battles ended in 1920. However, after that there were mass uprisings of peasants against Bolshevism and performances by Kronstadt sailors. In the Far East, the armed struggle ended altogether in 1922-1923. It is this milestone that is considered the end of a large-scale war. Sometimes you can find the phrase "Civil War in Russia 1918-1922" and other shifts of 1-2 years.
Features of confrontation
The military operations of 1917-1922 were fundamentally different from the battles of previous periods. They broke more than a dozen stereotypes regarding the management of units, the army command and control system and military discipline. Significant success was achieved by those commanders who commanded in a new way, used all possible means to achieve the task. The civil war was very maneuverable. In contrast to the positional battles of previous years, solid front lines were not used in 1917-1922. Cities and towns could change hands several times. Active offensives aimed at taking the lead from the enemy were decisive.
The Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was characterized byusing a variety of tactics and strategies. During the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow and Petrograd, street fighting tactics were used. In October 1917, the military revolutionary committee, led by V. I. Lenin and N. I. Podvoisky, developed a plan to capture the main city facilities. During the battles in Moscow (autumn 1917), Red Guard detachments advanced from the outskirts to the center of the city, which was occupied by the White Guard and junkers. Artillery was used to suppress strongholds. Similar tactics were used during the establishment of Soviet power in Kyiv, Irkutsk, Kaluga and Chita.
Formation of the centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement
With the beginning of the formation of units of the Red and White armies, the Civil War in Russia of 1917-1922 became more ambitious. In 1918, military operations were carried out, as a rule, along railway communications and were limited to the capture of important junction stations. This period was called the "tier war".
In the first months of 1918, the Red Guards led by R. F. Siver and V A. Antonova-Ovseenko. In the spring of the same year, the Czechoslovak corps, formed from Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, set off along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Western Front. During May-June, this corps overthrew the authorities in Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Novonikolaevsk and throughout the territory adjacent to the Trans-Siberian Railway.
During the second Kuban campaign (summer-autumn 1918), the Volunteer Army took the key stations: Tikhoretskaya, Torgovaya, Armavir and Stavropol, which actually determined the outcome of the North Caucasian operation.
The beginning of the Civil War in Russia was marked by the extensive activity of the underground organizations of the White movement. In the large cities of the country there were cells that were associated with the former military districts and military units of these cities, as well as local cadets, socialist-revolutionaries and monarchists. In the spring of 1918, the underground operated in Tomsk under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Pepelyaev, in Omsk - Colonel Ivanov-Rinov, in Nikolaevsk - Colonel Grishin-Almazov. In the summer of 1918, a secret regulation was approved regarding the recruitment centers for the army of volunteers in Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov and Taganrog. They were engaged in the transfer of intelligence information, sent officers across the front lines and intended to oppose the authorities when the White Army approached the city of their base.
The Soviet underground, which was active in the Crimea, Eastern Siberia, the North Caucasus and the Far East, had a similar function. It created very strong partisan detachments, which later became part of the regular units of the Red Army.
By the beginning of 1919, the White and Red armies were finally formed. The RKKR included 15 armies, which covered the entire front of the European part of the country. The top military leadership was concentrated with L. D. Trotsky, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, and S. S. Kamenev -Commander-in-Chief. The rear support of the front and the regulation of the economy in the territories of Soviet Russia was carried out by the STO (Council of Labor and Defense), whose chairman was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. He also headed the Council of People's Commissars (Council of People's Commissars) - in fact, the Soviet government.
The Red Army was opposed by the united armies of the Eastern Front under the command of Admiral A. V. Kolchak: Western, Southern, Orenburg. They were also joined by the armies of the Commander-in-Chief of the VSYUR (Armed Forces of the South of Russia), Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin: Volunteer, Don and Caucasian. In addition, in the general Petrograd direction, the troops of the infantry general N. N. Yudenich - Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front and E. K. Miller - Commander-in-Chief of the Troops of the Northern Region.
Intervention
The civil war and foreign intervention in Russia were closely linked. Intervention is called the armed intervention of foreign powers in the internal affairs of the country. Its main goals in this case are: to force Russia to continue fighting on the side of the Entente; protect personal interests in Russian territories; to provide financial, political and military support to the participants of the White movement, as well as to the governments of the countries formed after the October Revolution; and prevent the ideas of the world revolution from penetrating the countries of Europe and Asia.
War development
In the spring of 1919, the first attempts at a combined strike of the "white" fronts were made. From thisDuring the period of the Civil War in Russia, it acquired a large-scale character, all types of troops (infantry, artillery, cavalry) began to be used in it, military operations were conducted with the assistance of tanks, armored trains and aviation. In March 1919, the eastern front of Admiral Kolchak began its offensive, striking in two directions: on Vyatka-Kotlas and on the Volga.
The armies of the Soviet Eastern Front under the command of S. S. Kamenev in early June 1919 were able to hold back the advance of the Whites, inflicting counter blows on them in the South Urals and in the Kama region.
In the summer of the same year, the VSYUR began their offensive against Kharkov, Tsaritsyn and Yekaterinoslav. On July 3, when these cities were taken, Denikin signed the directive "On the campaign against Moscow." From that moment until October, the troops of the All-Union Socialist League occupied the main part of Ukraine and the Black Earth Center of Russia. They stopped on the line Kyiv - Tsaritsyn, passing through Bryansk, Orel and Voronezh. Almost simultaneously with the withdrawal of the All-Union Socialist League to Moscow, the North-Western Army of General Yudenich went to Petrograd.
Autumn 1919 was the most critical period for the Soviet army. Under the slogans "Everything for the defense of Moscow" and "Everything for the defense of Petrograd", a total mobilization of Komsomol members and communists was carried out. Control over the railway lines that converged to the center of Russia allowed the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic to transfer troops between the fronts. So, at the height of the battles in the Moscow direction near Petrograd and to the Southern Front, several divisions were transferred from Siberia and the Western Front. At the same time, the white armies were never able to establish a commonanti-Bolshevik front. The only exceptions were a few local contacts at the squad level.
The concentration of forces from different fronts allowed Lieutenant General V. N. Egorov, the commander of the southern front, to create a strike group, the basis of which were parts of the Estonian and Latvian rifle divisions, as well as the cavalry army of K. E. Voroshilov and S. M. Budyonny. Impressive blows were inflicted on the flanks of the 1st Volunteer Corps, which was under the command of Lieutenant General A. P. Kutepov and advanced on Moscow.
After intense battles in October-November 1919, the VSYUR front was broken and the Whites began to retreat from Moscow. In mid-November, units of the Northwestern Army were stopped and defeated, which were 25 kilometers short of reaching Petrograd.
The battles of 1919 were marked by extensive use of maneuver. In order to break through the front and conduct a raid behind enemy lines, large cavalry formations were used. The White Army used the Cossack cavalry for this purpose. So, the fourth Don Corps, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Mamontov, in the fall of 1919, made a deep raid from the city of Tambov to the Ryazan province. And the Siberian Cossack Corps, Major General Ivanov-Rinov, managed to break through the "red" front near Petropavlovsk. Meanwhile, the "Chervona Division" of the Southern Front of the Red Army made a raid on the rear of the volunteer corps. At the end of 1919, the First Cavalry Army began to decisively attack the Rostov and Novocherkassk directions.
In the early months of 1920a fierce battle unfolded in the Kuban. As part of operations on the Manych River and near the village of Yegorlykskaya, the last massive horse battles in the history of mankind took place. The number of riders who took part in them from both sides was about 50 thousand. The result of the brutal confrontation was the defeat of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation. In April of the same year, the White troops began to be called the "Russian Army" and obey Lieutenant General Wrangel.
The end of the war
In late 1919 - early 1920, the army of A. V. Kolchak was finally defeated. In February 1920, the admiral was shot by the Bolsheviks, and only small partisan detachments remained of his troops. A month earlier, after a couple of unsuccessful campaigns, General Yudenich announced the dissolution of the Northwestern Army. After the defeat of Poland, the army of P. N. Wrangel, locked in the Crimea, was doomed. In the autumn of 1920 (by the forces of the Southern Front of the Red Army), it was defeated. In this regard, about 150 thousand people (both military and civilian) left the peninsula. It seemed that the end of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was not far off, but it was not so simple.
In 1920-1922, military operations took place in small territories (Transbaikalia, Primorye, Tavria) and began to acquire elements of a positional war. For defense, fortifications began to be actively used, for the breakthrough of which the warring side needed long-term artillery preparation, as well as flamethrower and tank support.
The defeat of the army of P. N. Wrangel did not mean at all that the Civil War inRussia is over. The Reds still had to cope with the peasant insurrectionary movements, which called themselves "greens". The most powerful of them were deployed in the Voronezh and Tambov provinces. The rebel army was led by the Socialist-Revolutionary A. S. Antonov. She even managed to overthrow the Bolsheviks from power in several areas.
At the end of 1920, the fight against the rebels was entrusted to units of the regular Red Army under the control of M. N. Tukhachevsky. However, it turned out to be even more difficult to resist the partisans of the peasant army than the open pressure of the White Guards. The Tambov uprising of the "greens" was suppressed only in 1921. A. S. Antonov was killed in a shootout. Around the same time, Makhno's army was also defeated.
During 1920-1921, the Red Army made a number of campaigns in Transcaucasia, as a result of which Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. To suppress the White Guards and interventionists in the Far East, the Bolsheviks created the FER (Far Eastern Republic) in 1921. For two years, the army of the republic held back the onslaught of Japanese troops in Primorye and neutralized several White Guard atamans. She made a significant contribution to the outcome of the Civil War and intervention in Russia. At the end of 1922, the FER joined the RSFSR. In the same period, having defeated the Basmachi, who fought to preserve medieval traditions, the Bolsheviks consolidated their power in Central Asia. Speaking about the Civil War in Russia, it is worth noting that individual rebel groups operated until the 1940s.
Reasons for the victory of the Reds
The superiority of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was due to the following reasons:
- Powerful propaganda and exploiting the political mood of the masses.
- Control of the central provinces of Russia, where the main military enterprises were located.
- Disunity and territorial fragmentation of the Whites.
Results of the Civil War in Russia
The main result of the events of 1917-1922 was the establishment of the Bolshevik government. The revolution and civil war in Russia took about 13 million lives. Almost half of them became victims of mass epidemics and famine. About 2 million Russians left their homeland in those years to protect themselves and their families. During the years of the Civil War in Russia, the state's economy fell to catastrophic levels. In 1922, compared with pre-war data, industrial production decreased by 5-7 times, and agricultural production by a third. The empire was finally destroyed, and the RSFSR became the largest of the formed states.
