Stages of the Civil War. Jewish pogroms during the Russian Civil War During the Civil War

Civil War

Period poster civil war.

Artist D. Moore, 1920

Civil War- This is an armed struggle of various social, political and national forces for power within the country.

When the event took place: October 1917-1922

Causes

Irreconcilable contradictions between the main social strata of society

Features of the policy of the Bolsheviks, which was aimed at inciting enmity in society

The desire of the bourgeoisie and nobility to restore their former position in society

Features of the civil war in Russia

Accompanied by the intervention of foreign powers ( Intervention- violent interference of one or several states in the internal affairs of other countries and peoples, maybe military (aggression), economic, diplomatic, ideological).

Was conducted with extreme cruelty ("red" and "white" terror)

Participants

The Reds are a supporter of the Soviet regime.

Whites are opponents of Soviet power

Green is against everyone

National movements

Milestones and Events

First stage: October 1917-spring 1918

The military actions of the opponents of the new government were of a local nature, they created armed formations ( Volunteer army- creator and supreme leader Alekseev V.A.). Krasnov, P.- near Petrograd, Dutov A.- in the Urals, Kaledin A.- on the Don.

Second stage: spring - December 1918

March, April... Germany occupies Ukraine, the Baltics, Crimea. England - landing troops in Murmansk, Japan - in Vladivostok

May... Mutiny Czechoslovak Corps(these are Czechs and Slovaks prisoners who crossed over to the side of the Entente and are moving in echelons to Vladivostok for transfer to France). Reason for mutiny: the Bolsheviks tried to disarm the corps under the terms of the Brest Peace. Outcome: the fall of Soviet power along the entire Trans-Siberian Railway.

June... Creation of the governments of the Social Revolutionaries: Committee of Members of the Constituent assemblies in Samara Komuch, chairman of the Socialist-Revolutionary V.K. Volsky), Provisional government Siberia in Tomsk (chairman PV Vologda), the Ural regional government in Yekaterinburg.

July... Revolts of the Left SRs in Moscow, Yaroslavl and other cities. Suppressed.

September... Created in Ufa Ufa directory- "All-Russian government" Chairman of the Socialist Revolutionary Avksentyev N.D.

November... Ufa directory dispersed Admiral Kolchak A.V., declared itself "The supreme ruler of Russia". The initiative in the counter-revolution passed from the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to the military and anarchists.

Actively acted green movement - not with reds and not with whites. Green is a symbol of will and freedom. They acted in the Black Sea region, in the Crimea, in the North Caucasus and in the south of Ukraine. Leaders: Makhno N.I., Antonov A.S. (Tambov province), Mironov F.K.

In Ukraine - detachments daddy Makhno (created a republic Walk-field). During the occupation of Ukraine by Germany, they led the partisan movement. They fought under a black flag with the inscription "Freedom or Death!" Then they began to fight against the Reds until October 1921, until Makhno was wounded (he emigrated).

Third stage: January-December 1919

The climax of the war. Relative equality of forces. Large-scale operations on all fronts. But foreign intervention has intensified.

4 white movement centers

Admiral's troops Kolchak A.V. (Ural, Siberia)

Armed Forces of the South of Russia General Denikina A.I.(Don region, North Caucasus)

Armed Forces of the North of Russia General Miller E.K.(Arkhangelsk region)

General's troops Yudenich N.N. in the Baltics

March, April... Kolchak's attack on Kazan and Moscow, the Bolsheviks mobilize all possible resources.

End of April - December... Red Army counteroffensive ( Kamenev S.S., Frunze M.V., Tukhachevsky M.N..). By the end of 1919 - complete defeat of Kolchak.

May June. The Bolsheviks with difficulty repulsed the offensive Yudenich to Petrograd. Troops Denikin captured Donbass, part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn.

September October. Denikin advancing to Moscow, reached Orel (against him - Egorov A.I., Budyonny S.M..).Yudenich the second time he tries to seize Petrograd (against him - Kork A.I.)

November. Troops Yudenich thrown back to Estonia.

Outcome: by the end of 1919 - the preponderance of forces on the side of the Bolsheviks.

Fourth stage: January - November 1920

February March... The defeat of Miller in the north of Russia, the liberation of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.

March-April. Denikin ousted to the Crimea and the North Caucasus, Denikin himself handed over command to the Baron Wrangel P.N.... and emigrated.

April... Formation of the FER - Far Eastern Republic.

April-October. War with Poland ... The Poles invaded Ukraine and captured Kiev in May. Red Army counteroffensive.

August. Tukhachevsky reaches Warsaw. Aid to Poland from France. The Red Army has been driven out to the Ukraine.

September... Offensive Wrangel to southern Ukraine.

October. Riga Peace Treaty with Poland ... Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were transferred to Poland.

November... Offensive Frunze M.V... in Crimea. Defeat Wrangel.

In the European part of Russia, the civil war is over.

Fifth stage: late 1920-1922

December 1920. White captured Khabarovsk.

February 1922.Khabarovsk is released.

October 1922. Liberation from the Japanese of Vladivostok.

Leaders of the white movement

Kolchak A.V.

Denikin A.I.

Yudenich N.N.

Wrangel P.N.

Alekseev V.A.

Wrangel

Dutov A.

Miller E.K.

Leaders of the red movement

Kamenev S.S.

Frunze M.V.

Shorin V.I.

S.M. Budyonny

Tukhachevsky M.N.

Kork A.I.

Egorov A.I.

Chapaev V.I. - the leader of one of the detachments of the Red Army.

Anarchists

Makhno N.I.

Antonov A.S.

Mironov F.K.

The most important events of the civil war

May-November 1918 ... - the struggle of the Soviet government with the so-called "Democratic counter-revolution"(former members Constituent Assembly, representatives of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, etc.); start of military intervention The Entente;

November 1918 - March 1919 g - the main battles on Southern front countries (Red Army - army Denikin); the strengthening and failure of direct intervention by the Entente;

March 1919 - March 1920 - the main military actions on Eastern Front(Red Army - army Kolchak);

April-November 1920 – Soviet-Polish war; defeat of troops Wrangel in Crimea;

1921-1922 ... - the end of the Civil War on the outskirts of Russia.

National movements.

One of important features civil war - national movements: the struggle for the acquisition of independent statehood and separation from Russia.

This was especially evident in Ukraine.

In Kiev, after the February Revolution, in March 1917, the Central Rada was created.

In January 1918 H... she entered into an agreement with the Austro-German command and declared independence.

With the support of the Germans, power passed to Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky(April-December 1918).

In November 1918 in Ukraine there was Directory, at the head - S.V. Petliura.

In January 1919, the Directory declared war on Soviet Russia.

S.V. Petliura had to confront both the Red Army and Denikin's army, which fought for a united and indivisible Russia. In October 1919, the army of the "whites" defeated the Petliurites.

Reasons for the victory of the red

The peasants were on the side of the Reds, as it was promised after the war to implement the Decree on Land. According to the agrarian program of the whites, the land remained in the hands of the landowners.

One leader - Lenin, united plans of military operations. White didn't have that.

The national policy of the Reds, attractive to the people, is the right of nations to self-determination. Whites have the slogan "United and indivisible Russia"

The Whites relied on the help of the Entente - the interventionists, therefore they looked like an anti-national force.

The policy of "War Communism" helped to mobilize all the forces of the Reds.

Consequences of the civil war

Economic crisis, devastation, 7 times decline in industrial production, agricultural production - 2 times

Demographic losses. About 10 million people died from hostilities, hunger, epidemics

The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the tough methods of government used during the war years, began to be considered as quite acceptable in peacetime.

Prepared by: Vera Melnikova

Civil War

Civil war period poster.

Artist D. Moore, 1920

Civil War- This is an armed struggle of various social, political and national forces for power within the country.

When the event took place: October 1917-1922

Causes

Irreconcilable contradictions between the main social strata of society

Features of the policy of the Bolsheviks, which was aimed at inciting enmity in society

The desire of the bourgeoisie and nobility to restore their former position in society

Features of the civil war in Russia

Was conducted with extreme cruelty ("red" and "white" terror)

Participants

The Reds are a supporter of the Soviet regime.

Whites are opponents of Soviet power

Green is against everyone

National movements

Milestones and Events

First stage: October 1917-spring 1918

Second stage: spring - December 1918

March, April... Germany occupies Ukraine, the Baltics, Crimea. England - landing troops in Murmansk, Japan - in Vladivostok

July... Revolts of the Left SRs in Moscow, Yaroslavl and other cities. Suppressed.

September... Created in Ufa Ufa directory- "All-Russian government" Chairman of the Socialist Revolutionary Avksentyev N.D.

Third stage: January-December 1919

The climax of the war. Relative equality of forces. Large-scale operations on all fronts. But foreign intervention has intensified.

4 white movement centers

Admiral's troops Kolchak A.V. (Ural, Siberia)

Armed Forces of the South of Russia General Denikina A.I.(Don region, North Caucasus)

Armed Forces of the North of Russia General Miller E.K.(Arkhangelsk region)

General's troops Yudenich N.N. in the Baltics

March, April... Kolchak's attack on Kazan and Moscow, the Bolsheviks mobilize all possible resources.

End of April - December... Red Army counteroffensive ( Kamenev S.S., Frunze M.V., Tukhachevsky M.N..). By the end of 1919 - complete defeat of Kolchak.

May June. The Bolsheviks with difficulty repulsed the offensive Yudenich to Petrograd. Troops Denikin captured Donbass, part of Ukraine, Belgorod, Tsaritsyn.

September October. Denikin advancing to Moscow, reached Orel (against him - Egorov A.I., Budyonny S.M..).Yudenich the second time he tries to seize Petrograd (against him - Kork A.I.)

November. Troops Yudenich thrown back to Estonia.

Outcome: by the end of 1919 - the preponderance of forces on the side of the Bolsheviks.

Fourth stage: January - November 1920

February March... The defeat of Miller in the north of Russia, the liberation of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.

March-April. Denikin ousted to the Crimea and the North Caucasus, Denikin himself handed over command to the Baron Wrangel P.N.... and emigrated.

April... Formation of the FER - Far Eastern Republic.

April-October. War with Poland ... The Poles invaded Ukraine and captured Kiev in May. Red Army counteroffensive.

August. Tukhachevsky reaches Warsaw. Aid to Poland from France. The Red Army has been driven out to the Ukraine.

September... Offensive Wrangel to southern Ukraine.

October. Riga Peace Treaty with Poland ... Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were transferred to Poland.

November... Offensive Frunze M.V... in Crimea. Defeat Wrangel.

In the European part of Russia, the civil war is over.

Fifth stage: late 1920-1922

December 1920. White captured Khabarovsk.

February 1922.Khabarovsk is released.

October 1922. Liberation from the Japanese of Vladivostok.

Leaders of the white movement

Kolchak A.V.

Denikin A.I.

Yudenich N.N.

Wrangel P.N.

Alekseev V.A.

Wrangel

Dutov A.

Miller E.K.

Leaders of the red movement

Kamenev S.S.

Frunze M.V.

Shorin V.I.

S.M. Budyonny

Tukhachevsky M.N.

Kork A.I.

Egorov A.I.

Chapaev V.I. - the leader of one of the detachments of the Red Army.

Anarchists

Makhno N.I.

Antonov A.S.

Mironov F.K.

The most important events of the civil war

May-November 1918 ... - the struggle of the Soviet government with the so-called "Democratic counter-revolution"(former members of the Constituent Assembly, representatives of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, etc.); start of military intervention The Entente;

November 1918 - March 1919 g - the main battles on Southern front countries (Red Army - army Denikin); the strengthening and failure of direct intervention by the Entente;

March 1919 - March 1920 - the main military actions on Eastern Front(Red Army - army Kolchak);

April-November 1920 – Soviet-Polish war; defeat of troops Wrangel in Crimea;

1921-1922 ... - the end of the Civil War on the outskirts of Russia.

National movements.

One of the important features of the civil war is the national movement: the struggle for the acquisition of independent statehood and separation from Russia.

This was especially evident in Ukraine.

In Kiev, after the February Revolution, in March 1917, the Central Rada was created.

In January 1918 H... she entered into an agreement with the Austro-German command and declared independence.

With the support of the Germans, power passed to Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky(April-December 1918).

In November 1918 in Ukraine there was Directory, at the head - S.V. Petliura.

In January 1919, the Directory declared war on Soviet Russia.

S.V. Petliura had to confront both the Red Army and Denikin's army, which fought for a united and indivisible Russia. In October 1919, the army of the "whites" defeated the Petliurites.

Reasons for the victory of the red

One leader - Lenin, united plans of military operations. White didn't have that.

The national policy of the Reds, attractive to the people, is the right of nations to self-determination. Whites have the slogan "United and indivisible Russia"

The Whites relied on the help of the Entente - the interventionists, therefore they looked like an anti-national force.

The policy of "War Communism" helped to mobilize all the forces of the Reds.

Consequences of the civil war

Economic crisis, devastation, 7 times decline in industrial production, agricultural production - 2 times

Demographic losses. About 10 million people died from hostilities, hunger, epidemics

The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the tough methods of government used during the war years, began to be considered as quite acceptable in peacetime.

Prepared by: Vera Melnikova




	Territory of the former Russian Empire, Iran, Mongolia, China.
	The victory of Soviet Russia, the formation of the USSR.
Territorial changes:	Independence of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland; the annexation of Bessarabia by Romania; the assignment of parts of the Batumi and Kars regions to Turkey.
Opponents
Soviet Russia	Makhnovtsy (from 1919)	White movement
Soviet Ukraine	Green rebels	Great Don Host
Soviet Belarus		Kuban people's republic
Far Eastern republic	Ukrainian People's Republic	Outer Mongolia
Latvian SSR	Belarusian People's Republic	Bukhara Emirate
Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic		Khiva Khanate
Turkestan ASSR	Finland
Bukhara People's Soviet Republic	Azerbaijan
Khorezm People's Soviet Republic
Persian Soviet Socialist Republic

Makhnovists (until 1919)

	Kokand autonomy
	North Caucasian Emirate
	Austro-hungary
	Germany
	Ottoman Empire
	United Kingdom

(1917-1922 / 1923) - a chain of armed conflicts between various political, ethnic and social groups on the territory of the former Russian Empire.

Preamble

The main armed struggle for power during the Civil War was fought between the Red Army of the Bolsheviks and the armed forces of the White movement, which was reflected in the stable naming of the main parties to the conflict "red" and "white". Both sides intended to exercise political power through dictatorship for the period until their complete victory and pacification of the country. Further goals were proclaimed as follows: on the part of the Reds - building a classless communist society, both in Russia and in Europe by actively supporting the "world revolution"; on the part of the whites - the convocation of a new Constituent Assembly, with the transfer of the decision of the question of the political structure of Russia to its discretion.

Characteristic feature The Civil War was the readiness of all its participants to widely use violence to achieve their political goals (see "Red Terror" and "White Terror").

An integral part The civil war was an armed struggle of the national "outskirts" of the former Russian Empire for their independence and an insurrectionary movement of broad strata of the population against the troops of the main warring parties - "red" and "white". Attempts to proclaim independence by the "outskirts" were rebuffed both by the "whites" who fought for a "united and indivisible Russia" and by the "reds" who saw the growth of nationalism as a threat to the conquests of the revolution.

The civil war unfolded in the context of foreign military intervention and was accompanied by military operations on the territory of Russia both by the troops of the Quadruple Alliance countries and by the troops of the Entente countries.

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

The result of the Civil War was the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in the main part of the territory of the former Russian Empire, the recognition of the independence of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, as well as the creation of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Transcaucasian Soviet republics on the territory controlled by the Bolsheviks, which signed an agreement on December 30, 1922 about the formation of the USSR. About 2 million people who did not share the views of the new government chose to leave the country (see White emigration).

Despite the retreat and evacuation of the White armies from Russia as a result of the direct hostilities of the Civil War, in the historical perspective the White movement did not suffer defeat: once in exile, it continued to fight against Bolshevism both in Soviet Russia and abroad. Wrangel's army retreated in battle from the Perekop positions to Sevastopol, from where it was evacuated in order. In emigration, an army of about 50 thousand fighters was retained as a combat unit based on new Kuban campaign until September 1, 1924, when the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Baron P.N. NTS against the KGB in Europe and the USSR).

Causes and chronological framework

In modern historical science many questions related to the history of the Civil War in Russia, including critical issues about its reasons and about its chronological framework, are still controversial.

Causes

Of the most important causes of the Civil War in modern historiography, it is customary to single out the social, political and national-ethnic contradictions that persisted in Russia after the February Revolution. First of all, by October 1917 such pressing issues as the question of the end of the war and the agrarian question.

The proletarian revolution was viewed by the leaders of the Bolsheviks as a "rupture of the civil world" and in this sense was equated with a civil war. The readiness of the Bolshevik leaders to initiate a civil war is confirmed by Lenin's thesis of 1914, which was later drawn up in an article for the Social Democratic press: "Let's turn the imperialist war into a civil war!" In 1917, this thesis underwent dramatic changes and, as noted by Doctor of Historical Sciences B.I. world war into world revolution. The desire of the Bolsheviks by any means, primarily violent, to stay in power, establish the dictatorship of the party and build a new society based on their theoretical principles made civil war inevitable.

The modern Russian historian and expert on the Civil War V.D. Zimina writes about the presence of integrative unity between October 1917 and the Civil War in Russia.

In the period after the October Revolution until the beginning of the period of active hostilities in the Civil War (May 1918), the leadership of the Soviet state took a number of political steps, which some researchers attribute to the causes of the Civil War:

resistance of the previously ruling classes, which lost power and property (nationalization of industry and banks and the solution of the agrarian question in accordance with the program of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, contrary to the interests of the landowners);
dispersal of the Constituent Assembly;
withdrawal from the war by signing the ruinous Brest Peace with Germany;
the activities of the Bolshevik food detachments and kombeda in the countryside, which led to a sharp aggravation of relations between the Soviet government and the peasantry;

The civil war was accompanied by widespread interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of Russia. Foreign states supported separatist movements with the aim of spreading their influence over the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire. The intervention of the Entente states in the internal political situation in Russia through foreign intervention against the Bolsheviks was due to the desire to return Russia to the war (Russia was an ally of the Entente countries in the First World War). At the same time, foreign states sought to obtain opportunities for the exploitation of the resources of Russia, struck by a civil conflict, under the guise of hindering the spread of the world revolution, which was one of the goals of the Bolsheviks.

Chronological framework

Most modern Russian researchers consider the fighting in Petrograd during the October Revolution of 1917, carried out by the Bolsheviks, as the first act of the Civil War, and the time of its end - the defeat by the Reds of the last large anti-Bolshevik armed formations during the capture of Vladivostok in October 1922. Some authors consider the first act of the Civil War to be fighting in Petrograd during February Revolution of 1917. From the title of the Great Encyclopedia "Revolution and Civil War in Russia: 1917-1923, the date of the end of the Civil War in 1923 follows.

Some researchers, applying a narrower definition of the Civil War, refer to it only the time of the most active hostilities, which were fought from May 1918 to November 1920.

The course of the Civil War can be divided into three stages, which differ significantly in the intensity of hostilities, the composition of the participants, and foreign policy conditions.

First step- from October 1917 to November 1918, when the formation and formation of the armed forces of the opposing sides took place, as well as the formation of the main fronts of the struggle between them. This period is characterized by the fact that the Civil War unfolded simultaneously with the ongoing 1st World War, which entailed the active participation of the troops of the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente in the internal political and armed struggle in Russia. The hostilities were characterized by a gradual transition from local skirmishes, as a result of which none of the opposing sides acquired a decisive advantage, to large-scale actions.

Second phase- from November 1918 to March 1920, when the main battles between the Red Army and the White armies took place, and a radical turning point in the Civil War took place. During this period, there was a sharp reduction in hostilities on the part of foreign interventionists in connection with the end of World War I and the withdrawal of the main contingent of foreign troops from the territory of Russia. Large-scale hostilities unfolded across the entire territory of Russia, bringing first success to the "white", and then to the "red", who defeated the enemy troops and took control of the main territory of the country.

Stage three- from March 1920 to October 1922, when the main struggle took place on the outskirts of the country and no longer posed an immediate threat to the power of the Bolsheviks.

After the evacuation of the Zemskaya Rati of General Dieterichs in Russia, only the Siberian Volunteer Squad of Lieutenant General A.N. Pepelyaev, who fought in the Yakutsk Territory until June 1923 ((see Yakutsk campaign)), and the Cossack detachment of the military sergeant Bologov, who remained near Nikolsk, continued to fight -Ussuriyskiy. In Kamchatka and Chukotka Soviet authority was finally installed in 1923.

In Central Asia, the "Basmachi" operated until 1932, although individual battles and operations continued until 1938.

Prehistory of the war

On February 27, 1917, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and the Petrograd Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies were formed at the same time. On March 1, the Petrograd Soviet issued Order No. 1, which abolished the one-man command in the army and transferred the right to dispose of weapons to elected soldiers' committees.

On March 2, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated in favor of his son, then in favor of his brother Mikhail. Mikhail Alexandrovich refused to take the throne, giving the right to decide the future fate of Russia to the Constituent Assembly. On March 2, the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet signed an agreement with the Provisional Committee of the State Duma on the formation of a Provisional Government, one of the tasks of which was to govern the country until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.

To replace the Police Department, which was disbanded on March 10, on April 17, the formation of a workers' militia (Red Guard) began under local councils. Since May 1917, on the Southwestern Front, the commander of the 8th Shock Army, General L.G. Kornilov, begins the formation of volunteer units ( "Kornilovites", "shock workers").

In the period until August 1917, the composition of the Provisional Government was increasingly changing towards an increase in the number of socialists: in April, after the Provisional Government sent to the Entente governments a note of loyalty to Russia to its allied obligations and the intention to continue the war to a victorious end and in June after an unsuccessful offensive in the southwest front. After the Provisional Government recognized the autonomy of Ukraine, the cadets resigned from the government in protest. After the suppression of the armed uprising in Petrograd on July 4, 1917, the composition of the government was changed again, the representative of the left, A.F. Kerensky, became the minister-chairman for the first time, who banned the Bolshevik party and made concessions to the right, restoring the death penalty at the front. The new commander-in-chief, General of Infantry, L. G. Kornilov, also demanded the restoration of the death penalty in the rear.

On August 27, Kerensky dissolved the cabinet and arbitrarily arrogated to himself "dictatorial powers", single-handedly removed General Kornilov from office, demanded that General Krymov's horse corps, previously sent by him, be canceled, and appointed himself Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Kerensky stopped persecuting the Bolsheviks and turned to the Soviets for help. The cadets resigned from the government in protest.

For two months after the suppression of the Kornilov protest and the imprisonment of its main participants in the Bykhov prison, the number and influence of the Bolsheviks grew steadily. The councils of the country's large industrial centers, the councils of the Baltic Fleet, as well as the Northern and Western Fronts came under the control of the Bolsheviks.

The first period of the war (November 1917 - November 1918)

The coming of the Bolsheviks to power and domestic politics

October Revolution

Assessing the situation in Petrograd on October 24 (November 6) as a "state of insurrection", the head of the government, Kerensky, left Petrograd for Pskov (where the headquarters of the Northern Front was located) to meet the troops called from the front to support his government. On October 25, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Kerensky and the Chief of Staff of the Russian Army, General Dukhonin, ordered the commanders of the fronts and internal military districts and the atamans of the Cossack troops to allocate reliable units for the campaign against Petrograd and Moscow and suppress military force performance of the Bolsheviks.

On the evening of October 25, the Second Congress of Soviets opened in Petrograd, which was later proclaimed the highest legislative body. At the same time, members of the Menshevik and Socialist-Revolutionary factions, who refused to accept the Bolshevik coup, left the congress and formed the "Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution." The Bolsheviks were supported by the Left SRs, who received a number of posts in the Soviet government. The first resolutions adopted by the congress were the Decree on Peace, the Decree on Land and the abolition of the death penalty at the front. On November 2, the congress adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, which proclaimed the right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, up to the separation and formation of an independent state.

On October 25, at 21:45, a blank shot from the Aurora's bow gun gave the signal to storm the Winter Palace. The Red Guards, units of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet led by Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko was occupied Winter Palace and the Provisional Government was arrested. There was no resistance to the attackers. Subsequently, this event was viewed as the central episode of the revolution.

Not finding tangible support in Pskov from GlavkomSev Verkhovsky, Kerensky was forced to seek help from General Krasnov, who was stationed in Ostrov at that time. After some hesitation, help was received. From the Island to Petrograd, units of Krasnov's 3rd cavalry corps, numbering 700 people, moved. On October 27, these units occupied Gatchina, on October 28 - Tsarskoe Selo, reaching the nearest approaches to the capital. On October 29, an uprising of cadets broke out in Petrograd under the leadership of the Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, but it was soon suppressed by the superior forces of the Bolsheviks. In view of the extremely small number of his units and the defeat of the cadets, Krasnov began negotiations with the "Reds" on the cessation of hostilities. Meanwhile Kerensky, fearing his extradition by the Cossacks to the Bolsheviks, fled. Krasnov agreed with the commander of the red detachments Dybenko on the unhindered departure of the Cossacks from Petrograd.

The Cadet Party was outlawed, on November 28 a number of their leaders were arrested, and several Cadet publications were closed.

constituent Assembly

The elections to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, scheduled by the Provisional Government for November 12, 1917, showed that the Bolsheviks were supported by less than a quarter of those who voted. The meeting opened on January 5, 1918 at the Tauride Palace in Petrograd. After the Social Revolutionaries 'refusal to discuss the "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited People," which declared Russia the "Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers 'and Peasants' Deputies," the Bolsheviks, Left Social Revolutionaries and some delegates of national parties left the meeting. This stripped the meeting of its quorum and its decrees of legitimacy. Nevertheless, the remaining deputies, chaired by the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Viktor Chernov, continued their work and adopted resolutions on the abolition of the decrees of the II Congress of Soviets and the formation of the RDFR.

On January 5 in Petrograd and on January 6 in Moscow, rallies in support of the Constituent Assembly were shot. On January 18, the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets approved the decree on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and made a decision to remove from the legislation indications of the temporary nature of the government ("until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly"). Defense of the Constituent Assembly became one of the slogans of the White movement.

On January 19, the Epistle of Patriarch Tikhon was published with anathematization of the "madmen" who commit "bloody massacres" and condemnation of the unleashed persecution of the Orthodox Church

Left SR uprisings (1918)

In the first time after the October coup, the Left Social Revolutionaries, together with the Bolsheviks, participated in the creation of the Red Army, in the work of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK).

The gap occurred in February 1918, when, at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Left SRs voted against the signing of the Brest Peace Treaty, and then, at the IV Extraordinary Congress of Soviets, against its ratification. Unable to insist on their own, the Left SRs withdrew from the Council of People's Commissars and announced the termination of the agreement with the Bolsheviks.

In connection with the adoption by the Soviet government of decrees on the committees of the poor already in June 1918, the Central Committee of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party and the Third Party Congress decided to use all available means in order to "straighten out the line of Soviet policy." At the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets in early July 1918, the Bolsheviks, despite the opposition of the Left Social Revolutionaries, who were in the minority, adopted the first Soviet Constitution (July 10), enshrining in it the ideological principles of the new regime. Its main task was "to establish the dictatorship of the urban and rural proletariat and the poorest peasantry in the form of the mighty All-Russian Soviet state power with the aim of completely crushing the bourgeoisie." Workers could send from equal number there are 5 times more voters than peasants (the urban and rural bourgeoisie, landowners, officials and clergy still did not have voting rights in elections to the soviets). Representing the interests of the peasantry above all and being the principal opponents of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries went over to active action.

On July 6, 1918, the left Social Revolutionary Yakov Blumkin killed the German ambassador Mirbach in Moscow, which served as a signal for the start of uprisings in Moscow, Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Kovrov and other cities. On July 10, in support of his comrades-in-arms, the commander of the Eastern Front, the Left SR Muravyov, tried to raise an uprising against the Bolsheviks. But under the pretext of negotiations, he and the entire staff were lured into a trap and killed. By July 21, the uprisings were suppressed, but the situation remained difficult.

On August 30, the Social Revolutionaries made an attempt on Lenin's life, the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky M.S., was killed on September 5, the Bolsheviks declared the Red Terror - massive repression in relation to political opponents. In one night alone, 2,200 people were killed in Moscow and Petrograd.

After the radicalization of the anti-Bolshevik movement (in particular, after the overthrow of the authority of the Ufa directory in Siberia by Admiral Kolchak A.V.) at the February Socialist-Revolutionary Party conference in Petrograd in 1919, it was decided to abandon attempts to overthrow Soviet power.

The Bolsheviks and the Army in the Field

Lieutenant General Dukhonin, after Kerensky's flight, acting as the supreme commander in chief, refused to carry out the orders of the self-proclaimed "government". On November 19, he released Generals Kornilov and Denikin from prison.

At the Baltic Fleet, the power of the Bolsheviks was established by the Tsentrobalt controlled by them, placing the entire power of the fleet at the disposal of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (VRK). In late October - early November 1917, in all the armies of the Northern Front, the Bolsheviks created, subordinate to them, army military forces, which began to seize the command military units into their own hands. The Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee of the 5th Army took control of the army headquarters in Dvinsk and blocked the way for units trying to break through to support the Kerensky-Krasnov offensive. 40 thousand Latvian shooters took the side of Lenin, who played important role in establishing the power of the Bolsheviks throughout Russia. On November 7, 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee of the North-Western Region and the Front was created, which removed the front commander, and on December 3, a congress of representatives of the Western Front opened, which elected AF Myasnikov as front commander.

The victory of the Bolsheviks in the troops of the Northern and Western Fronts created the conditions for the liquidation of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The Council of People's Commissars (SNK) appointed the Bolshevik supreme commander, ensign N.V. Krylenko, who on November 20 arrived with a detachment of Red Guards and sailors at Headquarters in the city of Mogilev, where he killed General Dukhonin, who refused to start negotiations with the Germans, and, heading the central command and control apparatus, announced the cessation of hostilities at the front.

Things were different on the Southwestern, Romanian and Caucasian fronts. The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Southwestern Front (chairman of the Bolshevik G.V. Razzhivin) was created, which took command into its own hands. On the Romanian front in November, the SNK appointed S.G. Roshal as commissar of the front, but the Whites, led by the commander of the Russian armies of the front, General D.G. The armed struggle for power in the troops lasted two months, but the German occupation stopped the actions of the Bolsheviks on the Romanian front.

On December 23, a congress of the Caucasian Army opened in Tbilisi, which adopted a resolution on the recognition and support of the Council of People's Commissars and condemned the actions of the Transcaucasian Commissariat. The congress elected the regional Soviet of the Caucasian Army (chairman of the Bolshevik G. N. Korganov).

On January 15, 1918, the Soviet government issued a decree on the creation of the Red Army, and on January 29 - the Red Navy on volunteer (mercenary) principles. Detachments of the Red Guards were sent to places not under the control of the Soviet government. In Southern Russia and Ukraine, they were headed by Antonov-Ovseenko, in the Southern Urals - by Kobozev, in Belarus - by Berzin.

On March 21, 1918, the election of the commanders in the Red Army was canceled. On May 29, 1918, on the basis of universal conscription (mobilization), the creation of a regular Red Army began. The number of which in the fall of 1918 amounted to 800 thousand people, by the beginning of 1919 - 1.7 million, by December 1919 - 3 million, and by November 1, 1920 - 5.5 million.

Establishment of Soviet power. The beginning of the organization of anti-Bolshevik forces

One of the main reasons that allowed the Bolsheviks to carry out a coup d'etat, and then quite quickly seize power in many regions and cities of the Russian Empire, were numerous reserve battalions stationed throughout Russia that did not want to go to the front. It was Lenin's promise of an immediate end to the war with Germany that predetermined the transition of the Russian army, which had disintegrated during the Kerensky era, to the side of the Bolsheviks, which ensured their subsequent victory. At first, in most regions of the country, the establishment of Bolshevik power proceeded quickly and peacefully: out of 84 provincial and other large cities, only in fifteen Soviet power was established as a result of an armed struggle. This gave the Bolsheviks a reason to talk about the "triumphal march of Soviet power" in the period from October 1917 to February 1918.

The victory of the uprising in Petrograd marked the beginning of the transfer of power into the hands of the Soviets in all the largest cities of Russia. In particular, the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow took place only after the arrival of the Red Guards from Petrograd. In the central regions of Russia (Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Orekhovo-Zuevo, Shuya, Kineshma, Kostroma, Tver, Bryansk, Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Vladimir, Kovrov, Kolomna, Serpukhov, Podolsk, etc.) even before October coup many local Soviets were actually already in the power of the Bolsheviks, and therefore they took power there quite easily. This process was more complicated in Tula, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, where the influence of the Bolsheviks in the Soviets was insignificant. However, having occupied key positions by armed detachments, the Bolsheviks achieved the "re-election" of the Soviets and took power into their own hands.

In the industrial cities of the Volga region, the Bolsheviks seized power immediately after Petrograd and Moscow. In Kazan, the command of the military district, in a bloc with socialist parties and Tatar nationalists, tried to disarm the pro-Bolshevik artillery reserve brigade, but detachments of the Red Guard occupied the station, post office, telephone, telegraph, bank, surrounded the Kremlin, arrested the commander of the district troops and the commissar of the Provisional Government, and on November 8, 1917, the city was captured by the Bolsheviks. From November 1917 to January 1918, the Bolsheviks established their power in the provincial towns of the Kazan province. In Samara, the Bolsheviks under the leadership of V.V.Kuibyshev took power on November 8. On November 9-11, overcoming the resistance of the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik "Salvation Committee" and the Cadet Duma, the Bolsheviks won in Saratov. In Tsaritsyn, they fought for power from 10-11 to 17 November. In Astrakhan, fighting continued until February 7, 1918. By February 1918, the power of the Bolsheviks had been established throughout the Volga region.

On December 18, 1917, the Soviet government recognized the independence of Finland, but a month later Soviet power was established in southern Finland.

On November 7-8, 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in Narva, Revel, Yuryev, Pärnu, in late October - early November - throughout the Baltic territory not occupied by the Germans. Attempts to resist were suppressed. The plenum of Iskolat (Latvian riflemen) on November 21-22 recognized Lenin's power. The congress of workers, riflemen and landless deputies (made up of Bolsheviks and Left SRs) in Valmiera on December 29-31 formed the pro-Bolshevik government of Latvia, headed by FA Rozin (Republic of Iskolata).

On November 22, the Belarusian Rada did not recognize the Soviet power. On December 15, she convened the All-Belarusian Congress in Minsk, which adopted a resolution on non-recognition of local bodies of Soviet power. In January-February 1918, the anti-Bolshevik uprising of the Polish corps of General I.R.Dovbor-Musnitsky was suppressed, and power in the large cities of Belarus passed to the Bolsheviks.

In late October - early November 1917, the Bolsheviks of Donbass took power in Lugansk, Makeyevka, Horlivka, Kramatorsk and other cities. On November 7, the Central Rada in Kiev announced the independence of Ukraine and began to form a Ukrainian army to fight the Bolsheviks. In the first half of December 1917, the Antonov-Ovseenko detachments occupied the Kharkov region. On December 14, 1917, the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Kharkov proclaimed Ukraine a Republic of Soviets and elected the Soviet government of Ukraine. In December 1917 - January 1918, an armed struggle unfolded in the Ukraine for the establishment of Soviet power. As a result of the hostilities, the troops of the Central Rada were defeated and the Bolsheviks took power in Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Kremenchug, Elizavetgrad, Nikolaev, Kherson and other cities. The Bolshevik government of Russia issued an ultimatum to the Central Rada demanding to stop by force the Russian Cossacks and officers who were following through the Ukraine to the Don. In response to the ultimatum, the Central Rada on January 25, 1918, with its IV Universal, announced its secession from Russia and the state independence of Ukraine. On January 26, 1918, Kiev was taken by red troops under the command of the left Socialist-Revolutionary Muravyov. For several days of the stay of the army of Muravyov in the city, at least 2 thousand people were shot, mostly Russian officers. Then Muravyov took a large contribution from the city and moved on to Odessa.

In Sevastopol, the Bolsheviks took power on December 29, 1917, and on January 25-26, 1918, after a series of battles with Tatar nationalist units, Soviet power was established in Simferopol, and in January 1918 - throughout the Crimea. Massacres and robberies began. In just a month and a half, before the arrival of the Germans, the Bolsheviks killed more than 1,000 people in Crimea.

In Rostov-on-Don, Soviet power was proclaimed on November 8, 1917. On November 2, 1917, General Alekseev began to form the Volunteer Army in southern Russia. On the Don, ataman Kaledin announced the non-recognition of the Bolshevik coup. On December 15, after fierce battles, the troops of General Kornilov and Kaledin drove the Bolsheviks out of Rostov, and then from Taganrog, and launched an attack on the Donbass. On January 23, 1918, a self-proclaimed "congress" of front-line Cossack units in the village of Kamenskaya proclaimed Soviet power in the Don region and formed the Don Military Revolutionary Committee headed by FG Podtyolkov (later caught by the Cossacks and hanged as a traitor). Detachments of the "Red Guard" Sivers and Sablin in January 1918 pushed back the units of Kaledin and the Volunteer Army from the Donbass to the northern parts of the Don region. A significant part of the Cossacks did not support Kaledin and took neutrality.

On February 24, the red troops occupied Rostov, on February 25 - Novocherkassk. Unable to prevent the catastrophe, Kaledin himself shot himself, and the remnants of his troops retreated to the Salsk steppes. The volunteer army (4 thousand people) began a retreat with battles to the Kuban (First Kuban campaign). After the capture of Novocherkassk, the Reds killed Ataman Nazarov, who replaced Kaledin, and his entire headquarters. And in the Don cities, villages and villages - another two thousand people.

The Cossack government of the Kuban under the leadership of the ataman A.P. Filimonov also announced its non-recognition of the new government. On March 14, Sorokin's Red troops occupied Yekaterinodar. The troops of the Kuban Rada, under the command of General Pokrovsky, withdrew to the north, where they joined up with the troops of the approaching Volunteer Army. April 9-April 13, their combined forces under the command of General Kornilov unsuccessfully stormed Yekaterinodar. Kornilov was killed, and General Denikin, who replaced him, was forced to withdraw the remnants of the White Guard troops to the southern regions of the Don region, where at that time a Cossack uprising against Soviet power began.

Two-thirds of the Soviets of the Urals were Bolsheviks, therefore, in most cities and industrial settlements of the Urals (Yekaterinburg, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Izhevsk, etc.), power passed to the Bolsheviks without difficulty. More difficult, but peacefully, they managed to take power in Perm. A stubborn armed struggle for power unfolded in the Orenburg province, where on November 8 the ataman of the Orenburg Cossacks Dutov announced the non-recognition of the power of the Bolsheviks on the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army and took control of Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Verkhneuralsk. Only on January 18, 1918, as a result of the joint actions of the Bolsheviks of Orenburg and the Red detachments of Blucher that approached the city, Orenburg was captured. The remnants of Dutov's troops withdrew to the Turgai steppes.

In Siberia, in December 1917 - January 1918, the red troops suppressed the cadet's uprising in Irkutsk. In Transbaikalia, the ataman Semyonov raised an anti-Bolshevik uprising on December 1, but it was almost immediately suppressed. The remnants of the ataman's Cossack detachments retreated to Manchuria.

On November 28, the Transcaucasian Commissariat was created in Tbilisi, which declared the independence of the Transcaucasus and united Georgian Social Democrats (Mensheviks), Armenian (Dashnaks) and Azerbaijani (Musavatists) nationalists. Relying on national formations and White Guards, the commissariat extended its power to the entire Transcaucasus, except for the Baku region, where Soviet power was established. In relation to Soviet Russia and the Bolshevik Party, the Transcaucasian Commissariat took an openly hostile position, supporting all the anti-Bolshevik forces of the North Caucasus - in the Kuban, Don, Terek and Dagestan in a joint struggle against Soviet power and its supporters in the Transcaucasus. On February 23, 1918, the Transcaucasian Seim was convened in Tiflis. This legislative body included deputies elected from Transcaucasia to the Constituent Assembly, and representatives of local political parties. On April 22, 1918, the Seimas adopted a resolution proclaiming the Transcaucasia an independent Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic (ZDFR).

In Turkestan, in the central city of the region - in Tashkent, the Bolsheviks seized power as a result of fierce battles in the city (in its European part, the so-called "new" city), which lasted for several days. On the side of the Bolsheviks were the armed formations of workers in the railway workshops, and on the side anti-Bolshevik forces performed by officers of the Russian army and students of the cadet corps and the school of ensigns, who were in Tashkent. In January 1918, the Bolsheviks suppressed the anti-Bolshevik actions of the Cossack formations under the command of Colonel Zaitsev in Samarkand and Chardzhou, in February they liquidated the Kokand autonomy, and in early March - the Semirechye Cossack government in the city of Verny. All of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, except for the Khiva Khanate and the Bukhara Emirate, fell under the control of the Bolsheviks. In April 1918, the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed.

Peace of Brest. Central Powers Intervention

On November 20 (December 3), 1917, in Brest-Litovsk, the Soviet government concluded a separate armistice agreement with Germany and its allies. On December 9 (22), peace negotiations began. On December 27, 1917 (January 9, 1918), the Soviet delegation received proposals that provided for significant territorial concessions. Germany, thus, claimed the vast territories of Russia, which had large reserves food and material resources. A split occurred in the Bolshevik leadership. Lenin categorically advocated the satisfaction of all the demands of Germany. Trotsky proposed to drag out the negotiations. The Left SRs and some Bolsheviks proposed not to make peace and to continue the war with the Germans, which not only led to confrontation with Germany, but also undermined the position of the Bolsheviks in Russia, since their popularity among the soldier masses was based on the promise of a withdrawal from the war. On January 28 (February 10), 1918, the Soviet delegation with the slogan "we end the war, but we do not sign peace" broke off the negotiations. In response, on February 18, German troops launched an offensive along the entire front line. At the same time, the German-Austrian side tightened the peace conditions. On March 3, the Brest Peace Treaty was signed, according to which Russia was losing about 1 million square meters. km (including Ukraine) and pledged to demobilize the army and navy, transfer the ships and infrastructure of the Black Sea Fleet to Germany, pay an indemnity of 6 billion marks, recognize the independence of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The Fourth Extraordinary Congress of Soviets, controlled by the Bolsheviks, despite the resistance of the "Left Communists" and the Left SRs, who regarded the conclusion of peace as a betrayal of the interests of the "world revolution" and national interests, due to the complete inability of the Sovietized old army and the Red Army to resist even the limited offensive of German troops and the need in a respite to strengthen the Bolshevik regime March 15, 1918 ratified the Brest Peace Treaty.

By April 1918, with the help of German troops, the local government regained control over the entire territory of Finland. The German army freely occupied the Baltic States and eliminated Soviet power there.

The Belarusian Rada, together with the corps of Polish legionaries Dovbor-Musnitsky, occupied Minsk on the night of February 19-20, 1918 and opened it to German troops. With the permission of the German command, the Belarusian Rada created the Government of the Belarusian People's Republic headed by R. Skirmunt and in March 1918, annulling the decrees of the Soviet government, announced the separation of Belarus from Russia (until November 1918).

The government of the Central Rada in Ukraine, which did not meet the hopes of the occupiers, was dispersed, in its place on April 29 a new government was formed headed by Hetman Skoropadsky.

Romania, which entered the first world war on the side of the Entente and forced to withdraw her troops under the protection of the Russian army in 1916, she faced the need to sign a separate peace treaty with the Central Powers in May 1918, however, in the fall of 1918, after the victory of the Entente in the Balkans, she was able to become one of the winners and increase her territory at the expense of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria.

German troops entered the Don region and occupied Taganrog on May 1, 1918, and Rostov on May 8. Krasnov made an alliance with the Germans.

Turkish and German troops invaded Transcaucasia. The Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic ceased to exist, divided into three parts. On June 4, 1918, Georgia made peace with Turkey.

The beginning of the intervention of the Entente

Great Britain, France and Italy decided to support the anti-Bolshevik forces, Churchill called for "strangling Bolshevism in the cradle." On November 27, a meeting of the heads of government of these countries recognized the Transcaucasian governments. On December 22, a conference of representatives of the Entente countries in Paris recognized the need to maintain contact with the anti-Bolshevik governments of Ukraine, Cossack regions, Siberia, the Caucasus and Finland and open loans to them. On December 23, an Anglo-French agreement was concluded on the division of the spheres of future military operations in Russia: the Caucasus and the Cossack regions entered the British zone, Bessarabia, Ukraine and Crimea entered the French zone; Siberia and Far East considered as the sphere of interests of the United States and Japan.

The Entente declared its non-recognition of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, trying to negotiate with the Bolsheviks about the resumption of hostilities against Germany. On March 6, a small British landing, two companies of marines, landed in Murmansk to prevent the capture by the Germans of a huge amount of military cargo supplied by the allies to Russia, but did not take any hostile actions against the Soviet regime (until June 30).

On the night of August 2, 1918, the organization of Captain 2nd Rank Chaplin (about 500 people) overthrew Soviet power in Arkhangelsk, the 1,000th Red garrison fled without a single shot. Power in the city passed to local government and the creation of the Northern Army began. Then in Arkhangelsk, a 2,000-strong British assault force landed. By the members of the Supreme Directorate of the Northern Region, Chaplin was appointed "the commander of all the naval and land armed forces of the Supreme Directorate of the Northern Region." The armed forces at this time consisted of 5 companies, a squadron and an artillery battery. The units were formed from volunteers. The local peasantry preferred to take a neutral position, and there was little hope of mobilization. Mobilization in the Murmansk region was also not successful.

In the North, the Soviet command creates the Northern Front (commanded by the former General of the Imperial Army Dmitry Pavlovich Parsky) as part of the 6th and 7th armies.

The uprising of the Czechoslovak corps. Deployment of war in the East

In response to the killing of two Japanese citizens on April 5, two Japanese companies and half a British company landed in Vladivostok, but two weeks later they returned to the ships.

Czechoslovak Corps was formed on the territory of Russia during the First World War from prisoners of war Czechs and Slovaks of the Austro-Hungarian army who wanted to participate in the war on the side of Russia against Austria-Hungary and Germany.

On November 1, 1917, at a meeting of representatives of the Entente in Iasi, it was decided to use the corps to fight the Russian revolution, on January 15, 1918, the corps was declared part of the French army and the preparation of the corps (40 thousand people) for transfer from Ukraine through the Far Eastern ports to Western Europe to continue fighting on the side of the Entente. Echelons with Czechoslovakians were scattered along Trans-Siberian Railway on a vast stretch from Penza to Vladivostok, where the main part of the corps (14 thousand people) had already arrived, when on May 20 the corps command refused to obey the demand of the Bolshevik government for disarmament and began active hostilities against the red detachments. On May 25, 1918, an uprising of the Czechoslovakians broke out in Mariinsk (4.5 thousand people), on May 26 - in Chelyabinsk (8.8 thousand people), after which, with the support of the Czechoslovak troops, anti-Bolshevik forces overthrew the Bolshevik power in Novonikolaevsk (May 26), Penza ( May 29), Syzran (May 30), Tomsk (May 31), Kurgan (May 31), Omsk (June 7), Samara (June 8) and Krasnoyarsk (June 18). The formation of Russian combat units began.

On June 8, in Samara, liberated from the Reds, the Social Revolutionaries created the Committee of the Constituent Assembly (Komuch). He declared himself a temporary revolutionary power, which was supposed, according to the plan of its creators, to spread throughout the territory of Russia, to transfer the government of the country to the legally elected Constituent Assembly. In the territory controlled by Komuch, all banks were denationalized in July, and industrial enterprises were denationalized. Komuch created his own armed forces - the People's Army. Simultaneously, on June 23, the Provisional Siberian Government was formed in Omsk.

A detachment of 350 people, newly formed on June 9, 1918 in Samara (combined infantry battalion (2 companies, 90 bayonets), cavalry squadron (45 sabers), Volga horse battery (with 2 guns and 150 servants), mounted reconnaissance, demolition team and the economic part), Lieutenant Colonel V.O. Kappel took command of the General Staff. Under his command, the detachment in mid-June 1918 took Syzran, Stavropol Volzhsky, and also inflicted a heavy defeat on the Reds near Melekes, throwing them back to Simbirsk and securing the capital of KOMUCH Samara. On July 21, Kappel takes Simbirsk, defeating the superior forces of the Soviet commander GD Guy defending the city, for which he is promoted to colonel; appointed by the commander of the People's Army.

In July 1918, Russian and Czechoslovak troops also occupied Ufa (July 5), and the Czechs, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Voitsekhovsky, took Yekaterinburg on July 25. To the south of Samara, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel F.E.Makhin takes Khvalynsk and approaches Volsk. The Ural and Orenburg Cossack troops join the anti-Bolshevik forces of the Volga region.

As a result, by the beginning of August 1918, the "territory of the Constituent Assembly" stretched from west to east for 750 versts (from Syzran to Zlatoust, from north to south - for 500 versts (from Simbirsk to Volsk). Under his control, except for Samara, Syzran , Simbirsk and Stavropol-Volzhsky were also Sengiley, Bugulma, Buguruslan, Belebey, Buzuluk, Birsk, Ufa.

On August 7, 1918, Kappel's troops, having previously defeated the red river flotilla that had come out to meet at the mouth of the Kama, took Kazan, where they seized part of the gold reserve of the Russian Empire (650 million gold rubles in coins, 100 million rubles in credit marks, bars of gold, platinum and other valuables ), as well as huge warehouses with weapons, ammunition, medicines, ammunition. With the capture of Kazan, the General Staff Academy located in the city, headed by General A.I. Andogsky, was transferred to the anti-Bolshevik camp in full force.

To fight the Czechoslovakians and White Guards, the Soviet command on June 13, 1918, created the Eastern Front under the command of the left Socialist-Revolutionary Muravyov, who had six armies under his command.

On July 6, 1918, the Entente declared Vladivostok an international zone. Japanese and American troops landed here. But they did not overthrow the Bolshevik regime. Only on July 29 the power of the Bolsheviks was overthrown by the Czechs under the leadership of the Russian general M.K.Diterichs.

In March 1918, a powerful uprising of the Orenburg Cossacks began, led by a military sergeant major D.M. Krasnoyartsev. By the summer of 1918, they defeated the units of the Red Guard. On July 3, 1918, the Cossacks take Orenburg and liquidate the power of the Bolsheviks in the Orenburg region.

In the Ural region, back in March, the Cossacks easily dispersed the local Bolshevik revolutionary committees and destroyed the Red Guard units sent to suppress the uprising.

In mid-April 1918, the troops of Ataman Semyonov launched an offensive from Manchuria in Transbaikalia about 1000 bayonets and sabers against 5.5 thousand from the Reds. At the same time, an uprising of the Trans-Baikal Cossacks against the Bolsheviks began. By May, Semyonov's troops approached Chita, but they could not take it and retreated. The battles between Semyonov's Cossacks and the red detachments (consisting mainly of former political prisoners and Austro-Hungarian prisoners) went on with varying success in Transbaikalia until the end of July, when the Cossacks inflicted a decisive defeat on the Red troops and took Chita on August 28. Soon the Amur Cossacks drove the Bolsheviks out of their capital, Blagoveshchensk, and the Ussuri Cossacks took Khabarovsk.

By the beginning of September 1918, the Bolshevik regime had been liquidated throughout the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. Anti-Bolshevik rebel groups in Siberia fought under the white-green flag. On May 26, 1918, members of the West Siberian commissariat of the Siberian government explained that "according to the decree of the extraordinary Siberian regional congress, the colors of the white and green flag of autonomous Siberia are established - the emblem of Siberian snow and forests."

In September 1918, the troops of the Soviet Eastern Front (from September the commander was Sergei Kamenev), having concentrated 11 thousand bayonets and sabers near Kazan against 5 thousand from the enemy, went on the offensive. After fierce battles, they captured Kazan on September 10, and breaking through the front, then occupied Simbirsk on September 12, Samara on October 7, inflicting a heavy defeat People's Army KOMUCHA.

On August 7, 1918, a workers' uprising broke out at the arms factories in Izhevsk, and then in Votkinsk. The insurgent workers formed their own government and an army of 35,000 bayonets. The anti-Bolshevik uprising in Izhevsk-Votkinsk, prepared by the Union of front-line soldiers and local Socialist-Revolutionaries, lasted from August to November 1918.

Deployment of the war in the South

At the end of March, an anti-Bolshevik uprising of the Cossacks under the leadership of Krasnov began on the Don, as a result of which, by mid-May, the Don region was completely cleared of the Bolsheviks. On May 10, the Cossacks, together with the 1,000th detachment of Drozdovsky, who approached from Romania, occupied the capital of the Don army, Novocherkassk. After which Krasnov was elected ataman of the Great Don Host. The formation of the Don Army began, the number of which by mid-July amounted to 50 thousand people. In July, the Don army tries to take Tsaritsyn in order to link up with the Ural Cossacks in the east. In August - September 1918, the Don army goes on the offensive in two more directions: on Povorino and on Voronezh. On September 11, the Soviet command brings its troops to the Southern Front (commanded by the former General of the Imperial Army Pavel Pavlovich Sytin) as part of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th armies. By October 24, Soviet troops manage to stop the offensive of the Cossacks in the Voronezh-povorinsky direction, and on the Tsaritsynsky direction, push back Krasnov's troops across the Don.

In June, the 8,000-strong Volunteer Army begins its second campaign (the Second Kuban campaign) against the Kuban, which has completely rebelled against the Bolsheviks. General A.I. Denikin consistently utterly defeats Kalnin's 30-thousandth army near Belaya Glina and Tikhoretskaya, then in a fierce battle near Yekaterinodar - Sorokin's 30-thousandth army. On July 21, whites occupy Stavropol, on August 17, Yekaterinodar. Blocked on the Taman Peninsula, a 30,000-strong Red group under the command of Kovtyukh, the so-called "Taman Army", fought along the Black Sea coast to break through the Kuban River, where the remnants of the defeated armies of Kalnin and Sorokin fled. By the end of August, the territory Kuban troops completely cleared of the Bolsheviks, and the number of the Volunteer Army reaches 40 thousand bayonets and sabers. The volunteer army begins an offensive in the North Caucasus.

On June 18, 1918, an uprising of the Terek Cossacks began under the leadership of Bicherakhov. The Cossacks defeat the red troops and block their remnants in Grozny and Kizlyar.

On June 8, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federal Republic split into 3 states: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. German troops land in Georgia; Armenia, having lost most of its territory as a result of the Turkish offensive, concludes peace. In Azerbaijan, due to the inability to organize the defense of Baku against the Turkish-Musavat troops, the Bolshevik-Left Socialist-Revolutionary Baku Commune on July 31 handed over power to the Menshevik Central Caspian and fled the city.

In the summer of 1918, railway workers revolted in Askhabad (Transcaspian region). They defeated the local Red Guards units, and then defeated and destroyed the punishers sent from Tashkent, the Magyars-"internationalists", after which the uprising swept across the entire region. Turkmen tribes began to join the workers. By July 20, the entire Transcaspian region, including the cities of Krasnovodsk, Askhabad and Merv, was in the hands of the rebels. In mid-1918, in Tashkent, a group of former officers, a number of representatives of the Russian intelligentsia and officials of the former administration of the Turkestan Territory was organized underground organization to fight the Bolsheviks. In August 1918, it received the original name "Turkestan Union for the Struggle against Bolshevism", later it became known as the "Turkestan Military Organization" - TVO, which began to prepare an uprising against the Soviet regime in Turkestan. However, in October 1918, the special services of the Turkestan Republic made a number of arrests among the leaders of the organization, although some branches of the organization survived and continued to operate. Exactly TVO played an important role in initiating the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Tashkent in January 1919 under the leadership of Konstantin Osipov. After the defeat of this uprising, the officers who left Tashkent formed Tashkent officer partisan detachment numbering up to one hundred people, who from March to April 1919 fought with the Bolsheviks in Fergana as part of the anti-Bolshevik formations of local nationalists. During the fighting in Turkestan, officers also fought in the troops of the Trans-Caspian government and other anti-Bolshevik formations.

Second period of the war (November 1918-March 1920)

Withdrawal of German troops. The offensive of the Red Army to the West

In November 1918, the international position... After the November Revolution, Germany and its allies were defeated in the First World War. In accordance with the secret protocol to the Compiegne armistice of November 11, 1918, the German troops were to remain on Russian territory until the arrival of the Entente troops, however, by agreement with the German command, the territory from which the German troops were withdrawn began to be occupied by the Red Army and only in some points (Sevastopol, Odessa), the German troops were replaced by the Entente troops.

On the territories given to Germany by the Bolsheviks in the Brest Peace, independent states arose: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Galicia, Ukraine, which, having lost German support, reoriented to the Entente and began to form their own armies. The Soviet government ordered the deployment of its troops to occupy the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. For these purposes, at the beginning of 1919, the Western Front (commander Dmitry Nadezhny) was created as part of the 7th, Latvian, Western armies and the Ukrainian Front (commander Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko). Simultaneously Polish troops advanced to capture Lithuania and Belarus. Having defeated the Baltic and Polish troops, the Red Army occupied most of the Baltic States and Belarus by mid-January 1919, and Soviet governments were created there.

In Ukraine, Soviet troops in December - January occupied Kharkov, Poltava, Yekaterinoslav, and Kiev on February 5. The remnants of the UPR troops under the command of Petliura withdrew to the Kamenets-Podolsk region. On April 6, Soviet troops occupied Odessa and by the end of April 1919 captured the Crimea. It was planned to provide assistance to the Hungarian Soviet republic, but in connection with the White offensive that began in May, the Southern Front needed reinforcements, and the Ukrainian Front was disbanded in June.

Battles in the East

On November 7, under the blows of the Special and 2nd Consolidated Divisions of the Reds, consisting of sailors, Latvians and Magyars, the rebellious Izhevsk fell, and on November 13 - Votkinsk.

The inability to organize resistance to the Bolsheviks angered the White Guards with the Socialist-Revolutionary government. On November 18, in Omsk, a coup was carried out by a group of officers, as a result of which the Socialist-Revolutionary government was dispersed, and power was transferred to Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, popular among the Russian officers, who was declared the Supreme Ruler of Russia. He established a military dictatorship and set about reorganizing the army. Kolchak's power was recognized by Russia's allies in the Entente and by most of the other white governments.

After the coup, the Social Revolutionaries declared Kolchak and the White movement as a whole an enemy worse than Lenin, stopped fighting the Bolsheviks and began to act against the White power, organizing strikes, riots, acts of terror and sabotage. Since in the army and state apparatus of Kolchak and other white governments there were many socialists (Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries) and their supporters, and they themselves were popular among the population of Russia, primarily among the peasantry, the activities of the Socialist-Revolutionaries played an important, largely decisive, role in the defeat of Bely movement.

In December 1918, Kolchak's troops went on the offensive and captured Perm on December 24, but were defeated near Ufa and were forced to stop the offensive. All the White Guard troops in the east were united into the Western Front under the command of Kolchak, which included the Western, Siberian, Orenburg and Ural armies.

At the beginning of March 1919, A. V. Kolchak's well-armed 150,000-strong army launched an offensive from the east, intending to link up with General Miller's Northern Army (Siberian Army) in the Vologda region, and attack Moscow with its main forces.

At the same time, in the rear of the Eastern Front of the Reds, a powerful peasant uprising (Chapanna war) against the Bolsheviks began, which engulfed the Samara and Simbirsk provinces. The number of the rebels reached 150 thousand people. But the poorly organized and armed rebels were defeated by the regular units of the Red Army and the punitive detachments of the ChON by April, and the uprising was suppressed.

In March-April, Kolchak's troops, taking Ufa (March 14), Izhevsk and Votkinsk, occupied the entire Urals and fought their way to the Volga, but were soon stopped by the superior forces of the Red Army on the approaches to Samara and Kazan. On April 28, 1919, the Reds launched a counteroffensive, during which the Reds occupied Ufa on June 9.

After the completion of the Ufa operation, Kolchak's troops were pushed back to the foothills of the Urals along the entire front. The chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic Trotsky and the commander-in-chief I. I. Vatsetis proposed to stop the offensive of the armies of the Eastern Front and go over to the defensive at the achieved line. The Party's Central Committee resolutely rejected this proposal. II Vatsetis was relieved of his post and SS Kamenev was appointed to the post of commander-in-chief, and the offensive in the east was continued, despite the sharp complication of the situation in southern Russia. By August 1919, the Reds captured Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.

On August 11, the Turkestan Front was separated from the Soviet Eastern Front, whose troops, during the Aktobe operation on September 13, joined up with the troops of the North-Eastern Front of the Turkestan Republic and restored communication between Central Russia and Central Asia.

In September-October 1919, a decisive battle took place between the Whites and the Reds between the rivers Tobol and Ishim. As on other fronts, the whites, being inferior to the enemy in strength and means, were defeated. After which the front collapsed and the remnants of Kolchak's army retreated deep into Siberia. Kolchak was characterized by a reluctance to delve deeply into political issues. He sincerely hoped that under the banner of the struggle against Bolshevism he would be able to unite the most diverse political forces and create a new solid state power. At this time, the Socialist-Revolutionaries organized a number of mutinies in the rear of Kolchak, as a result of which they managed to capture Irkutsk, where the Socialist-Revolutionary Political Center took power, to which on January 15 the Czechoslovakians, among whom there were strong pro-Socialist-Revolutionary sentiments and had no desire to fight, betrayed Admiral Kolchak, who was under their protection. ...

On January 21, 1920, the Irkutsk Political Center transferred Kolchak to the Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee. Admiral Kolchak was shot on the night of February 6-7, 1920, according to a direct order from Lenin. However, there is also other information: the resolution of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee on the execution of the Supreme Ruler, Admiral Kolchak and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Pepelyaev, was signed by Shiryamov, the chairman of the committee and its members A. Soskarev, M. Levenson and Otradny. The Russian units under the command of Kappel, hurrying to the rescue of the admiral, were late and, having learned about the death of Kolchak, decided not to storm Irkutsk.

Battles in the South

In January 1919 Krasnov tried to capture Tsaritsyn for the third time, but was defeated again and was forced to retreat. Surrounded by the Red Army after the Germans left from Ukraine, seeing no help from either the Anglo-French allies or from Denikin's volunteers, under the influence of the anti-war agitation of the Bolsheviks, the Don Army began to decompose. The Cossacks began to desert or go over to the side of the Red Army - the front collapsed. The Bolsheviks broke into the Don. Mass terror began against the Cossacks, later called "decossackization". In early March, in response to the extermination terror of the Bolsheviks, an uprising of the Cossacks broke out in the Upper Don region, which was called the Vyoshensky uprising. The insurgent Cossacks formed an army of 40 thousand bayonets and sabers, including the elderly and teenagers, and fought in complete encirclement until, on June 8, 1919, units of the Don army broke through to their aid.

On January 8, 1919, the Volunteer Army became part of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (ARSUR), becoming their main striking force, and its commander, General Denikin, led the ARSUR. By the beginning of 1919, Denikin succeeded in suppressing the Bolshevik resistance in the North Caucasus, subjugating the Cossack troops of the Don and Kuban, actually removing the pro-German-oriented general Krasnov, the ataman of the Great Don Army, from power, and receiving a large amount of weapons, ammunition, and equipment from the Entente countries through the Black Sea ports. The expansion of aid by the Entente countries was also made dependent on the recognition by the White movement of new states on the territory of the Russian Empire.

In January 1919, Denikin's troops finally defeated the 90,000th 11th Bolshevik Army and completely captured the North Caucasus. In February, the transfer of volunteer troops to the north, to the Donbass and the Don, began to help the retreating units of the Don army.

All the White Guard troops in the south were united into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia under the command of Denikin, which included: the Volunteer, Don, Caucasian armies, the Turkestan army and the Black Sea Fleet. On January 31, Franco-Greek troops landed in southern Ukraine and occupied Odessa, Kherson and Nikolaev. However, in addition to the battalion of Greeks, which participated in the battles with the detachments of Ataman Grigoriev near Odessa, the rest of the Entente troops, without accepting the battle, were evacuated from Odessa and the Crimea in April 1919.

In the spring of 1919, Russia entered the most difficult stage of the Civil War. The Supreme Council of the Entente has developed a plan for the next military campaign. This time, as noted in one of the secret documents, the intervention was to "... be expressed in the combined military actions of the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces and the armies of neighboring allied states ...". The leading role in the upcoming offensive was assigned to the white armies, and the auxiliary - to the troops of the small border states - Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland.

In the summer of 1919, the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front. Using the widespread peasant-Cossack uprisings in the rear of the Red Army: Makhno, Grigoriev, Vyoshensky uprising, the Volunteer Army defeated the opposing Bolshevik forces and entered the operational space. By the end of June, she occupied Tsaritsyn, Kharkov (see the article Volunteer Army in Kharkov), Aleksandrovsk, Yekaterinoslav, Crimea. On June 12, 1919, Denikin officially recognized the power of Admiral Kolchak as the Supreme Ruler of the Russian state and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies. On July 3, 1919, Denikin issued the so-called "Moscow Directive", and on July 9, the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party published a letter "All for the fight against Denikin!" In order to disrupt the Reds counteroffensive, the 4th Don Corps of General K.K. Mamontov carried out a raid on the rear of their Southern Front on August 10-September 19, delaying the Red offensive for 2 months. Meanwhile, the white armies continued their offensive: on August 18, Nikolaev was taken, on August 23, Odessa, on August 30, Kiev, on September 20, Kursk, on September 30, Voronezh, on October 13, Oryol. The Bolsheviks were close to disaster and were preparing to go underground. An underground Moscow Party Committee was created, and government agencies began evacuating to Vologda.

A desperate slogan was proclaimed: "All to fight Denikin!" Southeastern front was renamed to Caucasian on January 16, 1920, and Tukhachevsky was appointed its commander on February 4. The task was to complete the defeat of General Denikin's Volunteer Army and capture the North Caucasus before the war with Poland began. In the front zone, the number of red troops was 50 thousand bayonets and sabers against 46 thousand for the whites. In turn, General Denikin was also preparing an offensive with the aim of capturing Rostov and Novocherkassk.

In early February, Dumenko's red cavalry corps was utterly defeated on Manych, and as a result of the offensive of the Volunteer Corps on February 20, the Whites captured Rostov and Novocherkassk, which, according to Denikin, “caused an explosion of exaggerated hopes in Yekaterinodar and Novorossiysk ... However, the movement to the north could not receive development, because the enemy was already going deep into the rear of the Volunteer Corps - to Tikhoretskaya. " Simultaneously with the offensive of the Volunteer Corps, the Strike Group of the 10th Red Army broke through the whites' defenses in the zone of responsibility of the unstable and decaying Kuban Army, and the 1st Cavalry Army was brought into the breakthrough to develop success on Tikhoretskaya. The cavalry group of General Pavlov (2nd and 4th Don corps) was put forward against it, which was defeated on February 25 in a fierce battle near Yegorlytskaya (15 thousand reds against 10 thousand whites), which decided the fate of the battle for the Kuban.

On March 1, the Volunteer Corps left Rostov, and the White armies began to withdraw to the Kuban River. The Cossack units of the Kuban armies (the most unstable part of the AFSR) finally decomposed and began to massively surrender to the Reds or go over to the side of the "greens", which led to the collapse of the White front, the retreat of the remnants of the Volunteer Army to Novorossiysk, and from there on March 26-27, 1920. departure by sea to the Crimea.

The success of the Tikhoretsk operation allowed the Reds to switch to the Kuban-Novorossiysk operation, during which on March 17 the 9th Army of the Caucasian Front under the command of I. P. Uborevich captured Yekaterinodar, forced the Kuban and on March 27 captured Novorossiysk. “The main result of the North Caucasian strategic offensive operation was the final defeat of the main grouping of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. "

On January 4, A. V. Kolchak transferred his powers of the Supreme Ruler of Russia to A. I. Denikin, and power in Siberia to General G. Semyonov.However, Denikin, given the difficult military-political situation of the White forces, did not officially accept his powers. Faced after the defeat of his troops with the activation of opposition sentiments among the white movement, Denikin on April 4, 1920 left the post of Commander-in-Chief V.S.Yu.R., transferred command to General Baron P.N. The "Emperor of India" departed together with his friend, colleague and former chief of staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Africa, General I. P. Romanovsky, to England with an intermediate stop in Constantinople, where the latter was shot to death in the building of the Russian embassy in Constantinople by Lieutenant M. A. Kharuzin, a former employee counterintelligence V.S.Yu.R.

Yudenich's offensive against Petrograd

In January 1919, the "Russian Political Committee" was created in Helsingfors under the chairmanship of the Cadet Kartashev. Oil industrialist Stepan Georgievich Lianozov, who took over the financial affairs of the committee, received about 2 million marks from Finnish banks for the needs of the future northwestern government. By the organizer military activities was Nikolai Yudenich, who planned the creation of a united North-Western Front against the Bolsheviks, based on the Baltic self-proclaimed states and Finland, with financial and military assistance from the British.

The national governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which held only insignificant territories by the beginning of 1919, reorganized their armies and, with the support of Russian and German units, went over to active offensive operations. During 1919, the power of the Bolsheviks in the Baltics was abolished.

On June 10, 1919, Yudenich was appointed by A.V. Kolchak as commander-in-chief of all Russian land and naval armed forces operating against the Bolsheviks on the North-Western Front. On August 11, 1919, the Government of the North-Western Region was created in Tallinn (Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance - Stepan Lianozov, Minister of War - Nikolai Yudenich, Minister of Marine - Vladimir Pilkin, etc.). On the same day, the Government of the North-West Region, under pressure from the British, who promised for this recognition of weapons and equipment for the army, recognized the state independence of Estonia and subsequently negotiated with Finland. However, the all-Russian government of Kolchak refused to consider the separatist demands of the Finns and Balts. To Yudenich's request about the possibility of fulfilling the requirements of K.G.E. Mannerheim (which included demands for the annexation of the Pechenga Bay region and western Karelia to Finland), with which Yudenich basically agreed, Kolchak refused, and the Russian representative in Paris S. D. Sazonov, said that “the Baltic provinces cannot be recognized as an independent state. Likewise, the fate of Finland cannot be resolved without the participation of Russia ... ”.

After the establishment of the Northwest Government and its recognition of the independence of Estonia, Great Britain provided financial aid The North-Western Army in the amount of 1 million rubles, 150 thousand pounds sterling, 1 million francs; in addition, there were minor supplies of weapons and ammunition. By September 1919, British assistance to Yudenich's army with weapons and ammunition amounted to 10 thousand rifles, 20 guns, several armored vehicles, 39 thousand shells, several million cartridges.

N.N. Yudenich undertook two offensives in Petrograd (spring and autumn). As a result of the May offensive, Gdov, Yamburg and Pskov were occupied by the Northern Corps, but by August 26, as a result of the counteroffensive of the Red 7th and 15th armies of the Western Front, the Whites were driven out of these cities. Then, on August 26, in Riga, a decision was made to attack Petrograd on September 15. However, after the proposal by the Soviet government (August 31 and September 11) to begin peace negotiations with the Baltic republics on the basis of the recognition of their independence, Yudenich lost the help of the allies, part of the forces of the red Western Front was transferred to the south against Denikin. Yudenich's autumn offensive against Petrograd was unsuccessful, the Northwestern Army was pushed back to Estonia, where, after the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty between the RSFSR and Estonia, 15,000 soldiers and officers of Yudenich's Northwestern Army were first disarmed, and then 5,000 of them were captured and sent in concentration camps. The slogan of the White movement about "United and indivisible Russia", that is, non-recognition of separatist regimes, deprived Yudenich of support not only for Estonia, but also for Finland, which never provided any assistance to the North-Western Army in its battles near Petrograd. And after the change of the Mannerheim government in 1919, Finland completely took a course towards normalizing relations with the Bolsheviks, and President Ståhlberg banned the formation of military units of the Russian white movement on the territory of his country, at the same time the plan for a joint offensive of the Russian and Finnish armies on Petrograd was finally buried. These events proceeded in the general course of mutual recognition and settlement of relations between Soviet Russia and the newly independent states - similar processes have already taken place in the Baltic States.

Battles in the North

The formation of the white army in the North took place politically in the most difficult situation, since here it was created under the conditions of the dominance of left (Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik) elements in the political leadership (suffice it to say that the government fiercely opposed even the introduction of shoulder straps).

By mid-November 1918, Major General N.I. Zvyagintsev (commander of the troops in the Murmansk region with both Whites and Reds) managed to form only two companies. In November 1918, Colonel Nagornov replaced Zvegintsev. By that time, in the Northern Territory, near Murmansk, partisan detachments were already operating under the leadership of front-line officers from local natives. There were several hundred such officers, most of them coming from local peasants, such as, for example, the brothers ensign A. and P. Burkov, in the Northern Region. Most of them were strongly anti-Bolshevik, and the fight against the Reds was rather fierce. In addition, in Karelia, from the territory of Finland, the Olonets volunteer army operated.

Major General V.V. Marushevsky was temporarily appointed commander of all the troops of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. After the re-registration of army officers, about two thousand people were registered. In Kholmogory, Shenkursk and Onega, Russian volunteers joined the French Foreign Legion. As a result of this, by January 1919, the white army already numbered about 9 thousand bayonets and sabers. In November 1918, the anti-Bolshevik government of the Northern Region invited General Miller to take the post of Governor-General of the Northern Region, and Marushevsky remained in the post of commander of the white troops of the region with the rights of an army commander. On January 1, 1919, Miller arrived in Arkhangelsk, where he was appointed manager of foreign affairs of the government, and on January 15, he became governor-general of the Northern Region (which recognized A.V. Kolchak's supreme power on April 30). Since May 1919, at the same time, he was the commander-in-chief of the troops of the Northern Region - the Northern Army, since June - the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front. In September 1919 he simultaneously accepted the post of Chief Commander of the Northern Territory.

However, the growth of the army outstripped the growth of the officer corps. By the summer of 1919, in the already 25 thousandth army, only 600 officers served. The shortage of officers was aggravated by the practice of recruiting prisoners of the Red Army (who made up more than half of the personnel of the units) into the army. British and Russian military schools were organized to train officers. The Slavic-British Aviation Corps, the Arctic Ocean flotilla, a fighter battalion in the White Sea, and river flotillas (Severo-Dvinskaya and Pechora) were created. The armored trains "Admiral Kolchak" and "Admiral Nepenin" were also built. However, the combat effectiveness of the mobilized troops of the Northern Region still remained low. There were frequent cases of desertion of soldiers, disobedience and even the murder of officers and soldiers from the units of the allies. Mass desertion also led to mutinies: “Three thousand infantrymen (in the 5th Northern infantry regiment) and 1,000 servicemen of other combat arms with four 75-mm guns went over to the side of the Bolsheviks. " Miller relied on the support of the British military contingent, which took part in the hostilities against parts of the Red Army. The commander of the Allied forces in the north of Russia, disappointed in the combat capability of the troops of the Northern Region, reported in his report that: “The state of the Russian troops is such that all my efforts to strengthen the Russian national army are doomed to failure. It is necessary now to evacuate as soon as possible, unless the number of British forces here will not be increased. " By the end of 1919, Britain had largely stopped supporting anti-Bolshevik governments in Russia, and at the end of September, the Allies were evacuated from Arkhangelsk. W.E. Ironside (Commander-in-Chief allied forces) suggested that Miller evacuate the Northern Army. Miller refused "... due to the combat situation ... ordered to keep the Arkhangelsk region to the last extreme ...".

After the British left, Miller continued his fight against the Bolsheviks. To strengthen the army on August 25, 1919, the Provisional Government of the Northern Region carried out another mobilization, as a result of which, by February 1920, the troops of the Northern Region had 1,492 officers, 39,822 combatants and 13,456 non-combatant lower ranks - a total of 54.7 thousand people with 161st guns and 1.6 thousand machine guns, and in the national militia - even up to 10 thousand people. In the fall of 1919, the White Northern Army launched an offensive on the Northern Front and the Komi Territory. In a relatively short time, the Whites managed to occupy vast territories. After Kolchak's withdrawal to the east, parts of Kolchak's Siberian army were transferred under the command of Miller. In December 1919, the staff captain Chervinsky launched an offensive against the Reds in the region with. Narykars. On December 29, in a telegraphic report to Izhma (headquarters of the 10 Pechora regiment) and Arkhangelsk, he wrote:

However, in December, the Reds launched a counteroffensive, occupied Shenkursk and came close to Arkhangelsk. On February 24-25, 1920, most of the Northern Army surrendered. On February 19, 1920, Miller was forced to emigrate. Together with General Miller, more than 800 servicemen and civilian refugees left Russia, accommodated on the Kozma Minin icebreaker, the Canada icebreaker, and the Yaroslavna yacht. Despite obstacles in the form of ice fields and pursuit (with artillery shelling) by ships of the Red Fleet, the white sailors managed to bring their detachment to Norway, where they arrived on February 26. The last battles in Komi took place on March 6-9, 1920. A detachment of whites retreated from Troitsko-Pechersk to Ust-Shchugor. On March 9, the Red units that came up from the Urals surrounded Ust-Shchugor, in which there was a group of officers under the command of Captain Shulgin. The garrison capitulated. The officers were sent under escort to Cherdyn. On the way, the officers were shot by the guards. Despite the fact that the population of the north sympathized with the ideas of the white movement, and the Northern army was well armed, the white army in the north of Russia disintegrated under the blows of the Reds. This was the result of a low number of experienced officers, and the presence of a significant number of former Red Army soldiers who had no desire to fight for the interim government of the distant northern region.

Allied supplies to white

After Germany's defeat in World War I, England, France and the United States basically reoriented themselves from a direct military presence to economic aid to the governments of Kolchak and Denikin. The US Consul in Vladivostok, Caldwell, was informed: “ The government officially pledged to help Kolchak with equipment and food ...". The United States transfers to Kolchak loans issued and unused by the Provisional Government in the amount of $ 262 million, as well as weapons in the amount of $ 110 million. In the first half of 1919, Kolchak received from the United States more than 250 thousand rifles, thousands of guns and machine guns. The Red Cross supplies 300,000 sets of underwear and other property. On May 20, 1919, 640 cars and 11 steam locomotives were sent to Kolchak from Vladivostok, on June 10 - 240,000 pairs of boots, on June 26 - 12 steam locomotives with spare parts, on July 3 - two hundred guns with shells, on July 18 - 18 steam locomotives, etc. only isolated facts. However, when in the fall of 1919, rifles purchased by the Kolchak government in the United States began to arrive in Vladivostok on American ships, Graves refused to send them further by rail. He justified his actions by the fact that the weapon could fall into the hands of the units of Ataman Kalmykov, who, according to Graves, with the moral support of the Japanese, was preparing to attack the American units. Under pressure from other allies, he nevertheless sent weapons to Irkutsk.

During the winter of 1918-1919, hundreds of thousands of rifles were delivered (250-400 thousand to Kolchak and up to 380 thousand to Denikin), tanks, trucks (about 1 thousand), armored cars and aircraft, ammunition and uniforms for several hundred thousand people. The head of the supply of Kolchak's army, English General Alfred Knox, stated:

At the same time, the Entente put before the White governments the question of the need compensation for this help. General Denikin testifies:

and quite reasonably concludes that "it was no longer aid, but simply commodity exchange and trade."

The supply of weapons and equipment to whites was sometimes sabotaged by the workers of the Entente countries, who sympathized with the Bolsheviks. A.I. Kuprin wrote in his memoirs about the supply of Yudenich's army by the British:

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which formalized the defeat of Germany in the war, the assistance of the Western allies to the White movement, who saw in it primarily fighters against the Bolshevik government, gradually ceased. So the British Prime Minister Lloyd George, shortly after a failed attempt (in the interests of England) to seat the Whites and Reds at the negotiating table on the Princes' Islands, spoke in the following vein:

Lloyd George bluntly stated in October 1919 that "the Bolsheviks should be recognized, because you can trade with cannibals."

According to Denikin, there was “a final refusal to fight and to help the anti-Bolshevik forces at the most difficult moment for us ... France divided its attention between the Armed Forces of the South, Ukraine, Finland and Poland, providing more serious support to Poland alone and, only to save it subsequently entered into closer relations with the command of the South in the final, Crimean period of the struggle ... As a result, we did not receive any real help from her: neither solid diplomatic support, especially important in relation to Poland, nor credit, nor supplies. "

Third period of the war (March 1920-October 1922)

On April 25, 1920, the Polish army, equipped with funds from France, invaded Soviet Ukraine and captured Kiev on May 6. The head of the Polish state, Yu. Pilsudski, hatched a plan for the creation of a confederal state "from sea to sea", which would include the territories of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania. However, this plan was not destined to come true. On May 14, a successful counteroffensive by the troops of the Western Front (commanded by M. N. Tukhachevsky) began, and on May 26, the South-Western Front (commanded by A. I. Egorov). In mid-July, they approached the borders of Poland.

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), clearly overestimating its own forces and underestimating the forces of the enemy, put a new strategic objective: enter the territory of Poland with battles, take its capital and create conditions for the proclamation of Soviet power in the country. Trotsky, who knew the state of the Red Army, wrote in his memoirs:

“There were fervent hopes for the uprising of the Polish workers ... Lenin had a firm plan: to bring the matter to the end, that is, to enter Warsaw in order to help the Polish working people overthrow the Pilsudski government and seize power ... to end". I strongly opposed this. The Poles have already asked for peace. I believed that we had reached the culminating point of success, and if, without calculating the strength, we go further, then we can pass by the victory already won - to defeat. After colossal stress, which allowed the 4th Army to cover 650 kilometers in five weeks, it could move forward only by inertia. Everything hung on my nerves, and these are too thin threads. One strong push was enough to shake our front and turn a completely unheard of and unprecedented ... offensive impulse into a catastrophic retreat. "

Despite Trotsky's opinion, Lenin and almost all members of the Politburo rejected Trotsky's proposal for an immediate peace with Poland. The attack on Warsaw was entrusted to the Western Front, and on Lvov to the South-Western Front, led by Alexander Yegorov.

According to the statements of the Bolshevik leaders, on the whole it was an attempt to push the "red bayonet" deep into Europe and thereby "stir up the West European proletariat", to push it to support the world revolution.

This attempt ended in disaster. The troops of the Western Front in August 1920 were utterly defeated near Warsaw (the so-called "Miracle on the Vistula"), and rolled back. During the battle, of the five armies of the Western Front, only the third survived, which managed to retreat. The rest of the armies were destroyed: the Fourth Army and part of the Fifteenth fled to East Prussia and were interned, the Mozyr group, the Fifteenth, Sixteenth armies were surrounded or defeated. More than 120 thousand Red Army soldiers (up to 200 thousand) were captured, mostly captured during the battle of Warsaw, and another 40 thousand soldiers were in East Prussia in internment camps. This defeat for the Red Army is the most catastrophic in the history of the Civil War. According to Russian sources, in the future, about 80 thousand of the Red Army soldiers from the total number of those captured by the Polish died from hunger, disease, torture, bullying and executions. Negotiations on the transfer of part of the seized property to Wrangel's army did not lead to any results due to the refusal of the leadership of the White movement to recognize the independence of Poland. In October, the parties concluded an armistice, and in March 1921 - a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in the west of Ukraine and Belarus with 10 million Ukrainians and Belarusians went to Poland.

None of the sides achieved their goals during the war: Belarus and Ukraine were divided between Poland and the republics, which in 1922 entered the Soviet Union... The territory of Lithuania was divided between Poland and the independent Lithuanian state. The RSFSR, for its part, recognized the independence of Poland and the legitimacy of the Pilsudski government, temporarily abandoned plans for a "world revolution" and the elimination of the Versailles system. Despite the signing of a peace treaty, relations between the two countries remained tense over the next twenty years, which ultimately led to the USSR's participation in the partition of Poland in 1939.

The disagreements between the Entente countries that arose in 1920 over the issue of military-financial support for Poland led to the gradual cessation of support by these countries for the White movement and anti-Bolshevik forces in general, the subsequent international recognition of the Soviet Union.

Crimea

At the height of the Soviet-Polish war, Baron P.N. Wrangel went over to active operations in the south. With the help of harsh measures, including public executions of demoralized officers, the general turned the scattered Denikin divisions into a disciplined and efficient army.

After the start of the Soviet-Polish war, the Russian Army (formerly V.S.Yu.R.), having recovered from an unsuccessful offensive on Moscow, set out from the Crimea and occupied Northern Tavria by mid-June. By that time, the resources of the Crimea were practically exhausted. In the supply of weapons and ammunition, Wrangel was forced to rely on France, since England stopped helping the whites in 1919.

On August 14, 1920, an assault force (4.5 thousand bayonets and sabers) was landed from the Crimea in the Kuban under the leadership of General S. G. Ulagai, in order to unite with numerous rebels and open a second front against the Bolsheviks. But the initial successes of the landing, when the Cossacks, having defeated the red units thrown against them, had already reached the approaches to Yekaterinodar, could not be developed due to the mistakes of Ulagai, who, contrary to the original plan of a rapid attack on the capital of the Kuban, stopped the offensive and began to regroup the troops, which allowed the Red pull up reserves, create a numerical advantage, and block the Ulaagai units. The Cossacks fought back to the coast of the Sea of Azov, to Achuev, from where they evacuated (September 7) to the Crimea, taking with them 10,000 rebels who joined them. The few landings landed on Taman and in the Abrau-Dyurso area to divert the forces of the Red Army from the main Ulagayev landing, after stubborn battles, were taken back to the Crimea. 15 thousandth guerrilla army Fostikova, acting in the Armavir-Maikop area, could not break through to help the landing party.

In July-August, the main forces of the Wrangelites fought successful defensive battles in Northern Tavria, in particular, completely destroying the cavalry corps of the Rednecks. After the failure of the landing in the Kuban, realizing that the army blocked in the Crimea was doomed, Wrangel decided to break the encirclement and break through to meet the advancing Polish army... Before transferring hostilities to the right bank of the Dnieper, Wrangel threw parts of the Russian Army into the Donbass in order to defeat the Red Army units operating there and prevent them from hitting the rear of the main forces of the White Army preparing to attack on the Right Bank, which they successfully coped with. On October 3, the White offensive began on the Right Bank. But the initial success could not be developed and on October 15 the Wrangelites withdrew to the left bank of the Dnieper.

Meanwhile, the Poles, contrary to the promises given to Wrangel, on October 12, 1920, concluded an armistice with the Bolsheviks, who immediately began to transfer troops from the Polish front against the White Army. On October 28, units of the Southern Front of the Reds under the command of MV Frunze launched a counteroffensive, with the aim of encircling and defeating the Russian army of General Wrangel in Northern Tavria, not allowing it to retreat to the Crimea. But the planned encirclement failed. The main part of Wrangel's army withdrew to the Crimea by November 3, where it entrenched itself on the prepared defense lines.

MV Frunze, having concentrated about 190 thousand fighters against 41 thousand bayonets and sabers at Wrangel, on November 7 began the assault on the Crimea. On November 11, Frunze wrote an appeal to General Wrangel, which was broadcast by the front's radio station:

General Wrangel, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia.

In view of the obvious uselessness of further resistance by your troops, threatening only with the shedding of unnecessary streams of blood, I suggest that you stop resistance and surrender with all the troops of the army and navy, military supplies, equipment, weapons and all kinds of military equipment.

If you accept the aforementioned proposal, the Revolutionary Military Council of the armies of the Southern Front, on the basis of the powers delegated to it by the central Soviet government, guarantees the surrendering, including up to senior officers, full forgiveness for all misdeeds related to the civil strife. All those unwilling to stay and work in socialist Russia will be given the opportunity to travel abroad without hindrance, provided they refuse on word of honor from further struggle against workers 'and peasants' Russia and Soviet power. I expect an answer until midnight on November 11.

Moral responsibility for everything possible consequences in the event of a rejection of an honest offer being made, it falls on you.

Commander of the Southern Front Mikhail Frunze

After the text of the radio telegram was reported to Wrangel, he ordered the closure of all radio stations, except for one, served by officers, in order to prevent the troops from getting acquainted with Frunze's appeal. No response was sent.

Despite the significant superiority in manpower and armament, the Red troops could not break the defense of the Crimean defenders for several days, and only on November 11, when units of the Makhnovists under the command of S. Karetnik defeated Barbovich's cavalry corps near Karpovaya Balka, the defense of the Whites was broken. The Red Army broke into the Crimea. The evacuation of the Russian army and civilians began. For three days, 126 ships were loaded with troops, families of officers, part of the civilian population of the Crimean ports - Sevastopol, Yalta, Feodosia and Kerch.

On November 12, Dzhankoy was taken by the Reds, on November 13 - Simferopol, on November 15 - Sevastopol, on November 16 - Kerch.

After the capture of Crimea by the Bolsheviks, mass executions of the civilian and military population of the peninsula began. According to eyewitnesses, from November 1920 to March 1921, between 15 and 120 thousand people were killed.

On November 14-16, 1920, an armada of ships flying the St. Andrew's flag left the coast of the Crimea, taking white regiments and tens of thousands of civilian refugees to a foreign land. The total number of voluntary exiles was 150 thousand people.

On November 21, 1920, the fleet was reorganized into the Russian squadron, consisting of four detachments. Rear Admiral Kedrov was appointed its commander. On December 1, 1920, the Council of Ministers of France agreed to send a Russian squadron to the city of Bizerte in Tunisia. An army of about 50 thousand soldiers was retained as a combat unit based on new Kuban campaign until September 1, 1924, when the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General Baron P.N. Wrangel, transformed it into the Russian General Military Union.

With the fall of the White Crimea, the organized resistance of the Bolsheviks in the European part of Russia was terminated. On the agenda for the red "dictatorship of the proletariat" was the question of combating peasant uprisings that swept the whole of Russia and directed against this power.

Rebellions in the rear of the Reds

By the beginning of 1921, peasant uprisings, which had not stopped since 1918, had grown into real peasant wars, which was facilitated by the demobilization of the Red Army, as a result of which millions of men familiar with military affairs came from the army. These wars covered the Tambov region, Ukraine, Don, Kuban, the Volga region and Siberia. The peasants demanded a change in agrarian policy, the abolition of the diktat of the RCP (b), the convocation of a Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal, equal suffrage. Regular units of the Red Army with artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft were sent to suppress these uprisings.

Discontent spread to the military as well. In February 1921, strikes and protest rallies of workers with political and economic demands began in Petrograd. The Petrograd Committee of the RCP (b) qualified the unrest in the factories and factories of the city as a mutiny and introduced martial law in the city, arresting the workers' activists. But Kronstadt was worried.

On March 1, 1921, sailors and Red Army men of the military fortress of Kronstadt (garrison of 26 thousand people) under the slogan "For Soviets without Communists!" passed a resolution to support the workers of Petrograd and demanded the release from imprisonment of all representatives of the socialist parties, the re-election of the Soviets and, as follows from the slogan, the exclusion of all communists from them, the granting of freedom of speech, assembly and unions to all parties, the provision of freedom of trade, the permission of handicraft production by their own labor, allowing the peasants to freely use their land and dispose of the products of their economy, that is, the elimination of the grain monopoly. Convinced of the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the sailors, the authorities began to prepare to suppress the uprising.

On March 5, the 7th Army was restored under the command of Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who was ordered to "suppress the uprising in Kronstadt as soon as possible." On March 7, 1921, troops began shelling Kronstadt. The leader of the uprising S. Petrichenko later wrote: “ Standing up to his waist in the blood of workers, the bloody Field Marshal Trotsky was the first to open fire on the revolutionary Kronstadt, which rebelled against the rule of the Communists to restore the true power of the Soviets».

On March 8, 1921, on the day of the opening of the X Congress of the RCP (b), units of the Red Army went to the assault on Kronstadt. But the assault was repulsed, suffering heavy losses, the punitive troops retreated to their original lines. Sharing the demands of the insurgents, many Red Army men and army units refused to participate in suppressing the uprising. Mass shootings began. For the second assault, the most loyal units were drawn to Kronstadt, even the delegates of the party congress were thrown into battle. On the night of March 16, after an intensive shelling of the fortress, a new assault began. Thanks to the tactics of shooting the retreating barrage detachments and the advantage in forces and means, Tukhachevsky's troops broke into the fortress, fierce street battles began, and only by the morning of March 18, the resistance of the Kronstadters was broken. Most of the defenders of the fortress died in battle, the other went to Finland (8 thousand), the rest surrendered (of them, 2103 people were shot according to the verdicts of the revolutionary tribunals).

From the appeal of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of the city of Kronstadt:

Comrades and citizens! Our country is going through a difficult moment. Hunger, cold, economic devastation have kept us in an iron grip for three years now. The Communist Party, ruling the country, broke away from the masses and was unable to bring it out of the state of general ruin. It did not take into account the unrest that had recently taken place in Petrograd and Moscow and which clearly enough indicated that the party had lost the confidence of the masses of the workers. Neither did it take into account the demands made by the workers. She considers them to be the intrigues of the counter-revolution. She is deeply mistaken. These unrest, these demands are the voice of the entire people, of all working people. All workers, sailors and Red Army men clearly at the present moment see that only by common efforts, by the common will of the working people, it is possible to give the country bread, firewood, coal, clothe the barefoot and undressed and lead the republic out of the impasse ...

All these uprisings convincingly showed that the Bolsheviks had no support in society.

The policy of the Bolsheviks (later called "war communism"): dictatorship, grain monopoly, terror - led the Bolshevik regime to collapse, but Lenin, in spite of everything, believed that only with the help of such a policy the Bolsheviks would be able to retain power in their hands.

That is why Lenin and his adherents persisted to the last in pursuing the policy of "war communism". Only by the spring of 1921, it became obvious that the general discontent of the lower classes, their armed pressure, could lead to the overthrow of the power of the soviets headed by the communists. Therefore, Lenin decided to make a concession maneuver for the sake of maintaining power. Was introduced "New economic policy”, Which to a large extent satisfied the bulk of the country's population (85%), that is, the small peasantry. The regime concentrated on eliminating the last centers of armed resistance: in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Far East.

Operations of the Reds in Transcaucasia and Central Asia

In April 1920, the Soviet troops of the Turkestan Front defeated the Whites in Semirechye, in the same month Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan, in September 1920 - in Bukhara, in November 1920 - in Armenia. In February, peace treaties were signed with Persia and Afghanistan, in March 1921 - a peace of friendship and brotherhood with Turkey. At the same time, Soviet power was established in Georgia.

The last pockets of resistance in the Far East

Fearing the activation of Japanese forces in the Far East, the Bolsheviks, at the beginning of 1920, suspended the advance of their troops to the east. On the territory of the Far East from Baikal to The Pacific the puppet Far Eastern Republic (FER) was formed with its capital in Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude). In April - May 1920, the Bolshevik troops of the NRA twice tried to change the situation in Transbaikalia in their favor, but due to a lack of forces, both operations ended unsuccessfully. By the fall of 1920, thanks to the diplomatic efforts of the puppet FER, Japanese troops were withdrawn from Transbaikalia, and during the third Chita operation (October 1920), the troops of the Amur Front of the NRA and partisans defeated the Cossack troops of Ataman Semyonov, occupied Chita on October 22, 1920, and completed the capture of Transbaikalia in early November ... The remnants of the defeated White Guard troops retreated to Manchuria. At the same time, Japanese troops were evacuated from Khabarovsk.

On May 26, 1921, as a result of a coup, power in Vladivostok and Primorye passed to the supporters of the White movement, who created a state entity in this territory controlled by the Provisional Amur Government (in Soviet historiography it was called the Black Buffer). The Japanese took neutrality. In November 1921, the White Insurgent Army launched an offensive from Primorye to the north. On December 22, the White Guard troops occupied Khabarovsk and advanced westward to the Volochaevka station of the Amur railway. But due to a lack of forces and means, the White offensive was stopped, and they went over to the defensive on the Volochaevka - Verkhnespasskaya line, creating a fortified area here.

On February 5, 1922, units of the NRA under the command of Vasily Blucher went on the offensive, threw back the enemy's forward units, reached the fortified area and on February 10 began an assault on the Volochaev positions. For three days, with 35-degree frost and deep snow cover, the NRA fighters continuously attacked the enemy until February 12, his defense was broken.

On February 14, the NRA occupied Khabarovsk. As a result, the White Guards retreated behind the neutral zone under the cover of Japanese troops.

In September 1922, they again tried to go on the offensive. On October 4-25, 1922, the Primorskaya operation was carried out - the last major operation of the Civil War. After repelling the offensive of the White Guard Zemsky army under the command of Lieutenant General Dieterichs, the troops of the NRA under the command of Uborevich launched a counteroffensive.

On October 8-9, the Spassky fortified area was taken by storm. On October 13-14, in cooperation with the partisans on the approaches to Nikolsk-Ussuriisky (now Ussuriysk), the main White Guard forces were defeated, and on October 19, the NRA troops reached Vladivostok, where up to 20 thousand Japanese troops were still stationed.

On October 24, the Japanese command was forced to conclude an agreement with the FER government on the withdrawal of its troops from the Far East.

On October 25, NRA units and partisans entered Vladivostok. The remnants of the White Guard troops were evacuated abroad.

Battles of the Bakich detachment in Mongolia

In April 1921, Bakich's detachment (the former Orenburg army reorganized after retreating to China in 1920) was joined by the rebel People's Division of the cornet (then Colonel) Tokarev (about 1200 people) that had withdrawn from Siberia. In May 1921, due to the threat of encirclement by the Reds, a detachment led by A.S. Bakich moved east to Mongolia through the waterless steppes of Dzungaria (some historians call these events the Hungry March). Bakich's main slogan was: "Down with the communists, long live the rule of free labor." Bakich's program said that.

Near the Kobuk River, an almost unarmed detachment (of 8 thousand combat-ready people there were no more than 600, of which only a third were armed) broke through the Reds' barrier, reached the city of Shara-Sume and took it after a three-week siege, having lost more than 1000 people. At the beginning of September 1921, over 3 thousand people surrendered here in the red, and the rest left for the Mongolian Altai. After the fighting at the end of October, the remnants of the corps surrendered near Ulankom to the "red" Mongol troops, in 1922 they were extradited to Soviet Russia. Most of them were killed or died on the way, and A.S. Bakich and 5 more officers (General I.I. ) at the end of May 1922 were shot after a trial in Novonikolaevsk. However, 350 people. disappeared in the Mongolian steppes and with Colonel Kochnev they went to Guchen, from where they scattered across China until the summer of 1923.

Reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War

The reasons for the defeat of anti-Bolshevik elements in the Civil War have been discussed by historians for many decades. In general, it is obvious that the main reason was the political and geographical fragmentation and disunity of the whites and the inability of the leaders of the white movement to unite under their banners all those dissatisfied with Bolshevism. Numerous national and regional governments were not able to fight the Bolsheviks alone and they also could not create a lasting united anti-Bolshevik front due to mutual territorial and political claims and contradictions. The majority of the population of Russia was the peasantry, who did not want to leave their lands and serve in any armies: neither the Reds, nor the Whites, and despite their hatred of the Bolsheviks, they preferred to fight them on their own, proceeding from their momentary interests, which is why the suppression of numerous peasants uprisings and uprisings presented no strategic problems for the Bolsheviks. At the same time, the Bolsheviks often had support among the rural poor, who positively perceived the idea of "class struggle" with more prosperous neighbors. The presence of "green" and "black" gangs and movements that, having arisen in the rear of the whites, diverted significant forces from the front and ruined the population, led, in the eyes of the population, to obliterating the difference between being under the Reds or Whites, and generally demoralizing the Whites. army. The Denikin government did not have time to fully implement the land reform he had developed, which was to be based on the strengthening of small and medium-sized farms at the expense of state and landlord lands. A temporary Kolchak law was in force, prescribing, until the Constituent Assembly, the preservation of land for those owners in whose hands it was actually located. The violent seizure of their lands by the former owners was sharply suppressed. Nevertheless, such incidents nevertheless occurred, which, together with the robberies inevitable in any war in the front-line zone, gave food to the propaganda of the Reds and repelled the peasantry from the White camp.

The allies of the Whites from among the Entente countries also did not have a single goal and, despite the intervention in some port cities, did not provide the whites with enough military equipment to conduct successful military operations, not to mention any serious support from their forces. In his memoirs, Wrangel describes the situation in southern Russia in 1920.

... The poorly equipped army was fed exclusively at the expense of the population, laying on them an unbearable burden. Despite a large influx of volunteers from the places newly occupied by the army, its number hardly increased ... For many months, the ongoing negotiations between the main command and the governments of the Cossack regions still did not lead to positive results and a number of vital issues remained without resolution. ... Relations with the closest neighbors were hostile. The support provided to us by the British, given the two-faced policy of the British government, could not be considered adequately provided. As for France, whose interests, it would seem, coincided most with ours, and whose support seemed especially valuable to us, even here we were unable to tie strong ties. A special delegation that had just returned from Paris ... not only did not produce any significant results, but ... it received a more than indifferent reception and passed in Paris almost unnoticed.

Notes. Book One (Wrangel) / Chapter IV

Reds point of view

Like whites, Lenin saw the main condition for the victories of the Bolsheviks in the fact that throughout the Civil War, "international imperialism" could not organize general hike of all of her forces against Soviet Russia, and at each separate stage of the struggle she acted only part their. They were strong enough to create mortal threats to the Soviet state, but they were always too weak to bring the struggle to a victorious end. The Bolsheviks were able to concentrate the superior forces of the Red Army in decisive sectors, and by this they achieved victory.

The Bolsheviks also used the acute revolutionary crisis that gripped almost all the capitalist countries of Europe after the end of the First World War, and the contradictions between the leading powers of the Entente. “For three years there were English, French and Japanese armies on the territory of Russia. There is no doubt, - wrote V.I.Lenin, - that the most insignificant exertion of the forces of these three powers would have been quite enough to defeat us in a few months, if not a few weeks. And if we managed to hold off this attack, it was only by decay in the French troops, which began to ferment among the British and Japanese. We used this difference in imperialist interests all the time. " The victory of the Red Army was facilitated by the revolutionary struggle of the international proletariat against the armed intervention and economic blockade of Soviet Russia, both within their own countries in the form of strikes and sabotage, and in the ranks of the Red Army, where tens of thousands of Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Chinese and others fought.

The recognition by the Bolsheviks of the independence of the Baltic states ruled out the possibility of their participation in the intervention of the Entente in 1919.

From the point of view of the Bolsheviks, their main enemy was the landlord-bourgeois counter-revolution, which, with the direct support of the Entente and the United States, exploited the vacillations of the petty-bourgeois strata of the population, mostly peasants. The Bolsheviks recognized these hesitations as extremely dangerous for themselves, since they made it possible for the interventionists and White Guards to create territorial bases for counter-revolution and form massive armies. “In the last analysis, it was these vacillations of the peasantry, as the main representative of the petty-bourgeois mass of working people, that decided the fate of Soviet power and the power of Kolchak-Denikin,” the leader of the Reds VI Lenin echoed to the leaders of the white movement.

Bolshevik ideology considered the historical significance of the Civil War in the fact that its practical lessons forced the peasantry to overcome vacillations and led them to a military-political alliance with the working class. This, according to the Bolsheviks, strengthened the rear of the Soviet state and created the preconditions for the formation of a massive regular Red Army, which, being peasant in its main composition, became an instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

In addition, the Bolsheviks employed experienced military specialists of the old regime in the most responsible positions, who played an important role in the building of the Red Army and its achievement of victories.

Great help, according to the Bolshevik ideologists, the Red Army was provided by the Bolshevik underground, partisan detachments operating in the rear of the whites.

The most important condition The Bolsheviks considered the victories of the Red Army to be a single center for the leadership of military operations in the form of the Defense Council, as well as active political work carried out by the Revolutionary Military Councils of fronts, districts and armies and military commissars of units and subunits. In the most difficult periods, half of the entire composition of the Bolshevik Party was in the army, where cadres were sent after party, Komsomol and trade union mobilizations ("the district committee is closed, everyone went to the front"). The Bolsheviks carried out the same vigorous activity in their rear, mobilizing efforts to restore industrial production, to procure food and fuel, and to organize the work of transport.

White's point of view

Despite the extremely sad general condition of the Soviet troops, in their mass completely corrupted by the revolution of 1917, the red command still had many advantages over us. It possessed a huge, multimillion-dollar human reserve, colossal technical and material resources left as a legacy after The great war... This circumstance allowed the Reds to send more and more new units to capture the Donetsk Basin. No matter how superior the white side was in both spirit and tactical training, it was still only a small handful of heroes, whose strength was diminishing every day. With his base in the Kuban and the Don as his neighbor, that is, an area with a bright Cossack way of life, General Denikin was deprived of the opportunity to replenish his units with Cossack contingents to the extent of their actual need. His mobilization capabilities were limited mainly to officer cadres and student youth. As for the working population, its conscription into the army was undesirable for two reasons: firstly, because of their political sympathies, the miners were not clearly on the white side and therefore were an unreliable element. Second, mobilizing workers would immediately reduce coal production. The peasantry, seeing the small number of volunteer troops, evaded service in the ranks and, apparently, waited. The districts to the south-west of Yuzovka were in Makhno's sphere of influence. Fighting daily, our units suffered heavy losses in killed, wounded, sick and melted every day. In such conditions of war, our command only with the valor of the troops and the skill of the commanders could hold back the onslaught of the Reds. As a rule, there were no reserves. They achieved success mainly by maneuver: they removed what they could from the less attacked areas and transferred them to the threatened areas. A company of 45-50 bayonets was considered strong, very strong! B. A. STEIFON.

Publicists and historians who sympathize with whites name the following reasons for the defeat of the white cause:

The Reds controlled the densely populated central regions. There were more people in these territories than in the territories controlled by the whites.
Regions that began to support the whites (for example, Don and Kuban), as a rule, before this, suffered more than others from the Red Terror.
Lack of talented white speakers. The superiority of red propaganda over white propaganda (however, some emphasize that Kolchak and Denikin were defeated by troops consisting of people who actually heard only red propaganda).
Inexperience of white leaders in politics and diplomacy. This is believed by many to be the main reason for the lack of aid from the interventionists.
White conflicts with national separatist governments over the slogan "One and indivisible." Therefore, the Whites had to fight on two fronts more than once.

Strategy and tactics of the Civil War

In the Civil War, the cart was used both for movement and for striking directly on the battlefield. The carts were especially popular among the Makhnovists. The latter used carts not only in battle, but also for transporting infantry. At the same time, the general speed of the detachment's movement corresponded to the speed of the trotting cavalry. Thus, Makhno's detachments easily covered up to 100 km a day for several days in a row. So, after a successful breakthrough near Peregonovka in September 1919, Makhno's large forces covered more than 600 km from Uman to Gulyai-Polye in 11 days, capturing the rear garrisons of the whites by surprise. During the years of the Civil War, in some operations, cavalry, both for white and red, accounted for up to 50% of the infantry. The main method of action of subunits, units and formations of cavalry was an offensive in equestrian formation (horse attack), supported by powerful fire from machine guns from carts. When terrain conditions and stubborn enemy resistance limited the actions of cavalry in a mounted formation, it fought in dismounted battle formations. During the years of the Civil War, the military command of the opposing sides was able to successfully resolve the issues of using large masses of cavalry to perform operational tasks. The creation of the world's first mobile units - horse armies - was an outstanding achievement of the art of war. Cavalry armies were the main means of strategic maneuver and the development of success; they were used massively in decisive directions against those enemy forces that at this stage represented the greatest danger.

The success of cavalry combat operations during the Civil War was facilitated by the vastness of theaters of operations, the stretching of enemy armies on wide fronts, the presence of poorly covered or not at all occupied by the troops of gaps, which were used by cavalry formations to reach the flanks of the enemy and carry out deep raids into its rear. Under these conditions, the cavalry could fully realize its combat properties and capabilities - mobility, surprise attacks, speed and decisiveness of actions.

Armored trains were widely used in the Civil War. This was due to its specifics, such as the actual absence of clear front lines, and the fierce struggle for the railways, as the main means for the rapid transfer of troops, ammunition, and bread.

Some of the armored trains were inherited by the Red Army from the tsarist army, while mass production of new ones was launched. In addition, up to 1919, the mass production of "surrogate" armored trains, assembled from scrap materials from ordinary passenger cars in the absence of any drawings, was preserved; such an "armored train" could be assembled in just a day.

Consequences of the Civil War

By 1921, Russia was literally in ruins. The territories of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Belarus, Kara region (in Armenia) and Bessarabia. According to experts, the population in the remaining territories barely reached 135 million people. Since 1914, losses in these territories as a result of wars, epidemics, emigration, and a decline in the birth rate amounted to at least 25 million people.

During the hostilities, Donbass, the Baku oil region, the Urals and Siberia were particularly affected, many mines and mines were destroyed. Due to the lack of fuel and raw materials, factories were stopped. The workers were forced to leave the cities and go to the countryside. In general, the level of industry has 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.

Rural production fell by 40%. Almost all of the imperial intelligentsia was destroyed. Those who remained urgently emigrated to avoid this fate. During the Civil War, according to various sources, from 8 to 13 million people died from hunger, disease, terror and in battles, including about 1 million soldiers of the Red Army. Up to 2 million people emigrated from the country. The number of street children increased dramatically after the First World War and the Civil War. According to some data, in 1921 there were 4.5 million homeless children in Russia, according to others - in 1922 there were 7 million homeless children. The 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)

Memory

On November 6, 1997, the President of the Russian Federation B. Yeltsin signed a decree "On the erection of a monument to Russians who died during the Civil War", according to which it is planned to erect a monument in Moscow to Russians who died during the Civil War. The government of the Russian Federation, together with the government of Moscow, was instructed to determine the site of the monument.

In works of art

Films

Death bay(Abram Room, 1926)
Arsenal(Alexander Dovzhenko, 1928)
Descendant of Genghis Khan(Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1928)
Chapaev(Georgy Vasiliev, Sergei Vasiliev, 1934)
Thirteen(Mikhail Romm, 1936)
We are from Kronstadt(Efim Dzigan, 1936)
Knight without armor(Jacques Fader, 1937)
Baltic(Alexander Fayntsimmer, 1938)
Year nineteen(Ilya Trauberg, 1938)
Shchors(Alexander Dovzhenko, 1939)
Alexander Parkhomenko(Leonid Lukov, 1942)
Pavel Korchagin(Alexander Alov, Vladimir Naumov, 1956)
Wind(Alexander Alov, Vladimir Naumov, 1958)
Elusive Avengers(Edmond Keosayan, 1966)
New adventures of the elusive(Edmond Keosayan, 1967)
Adjutant of His Excellency(Evgeny Tashkov, 1969)

In fiction

Babel I. "Cavalry" (1926)
Baryakina E.V. "Argentinian" (2011)
Bulgakov. M. "White Guard" (1924)
Ostrovsky N. "How the Steel Was Tempered" (1934)
Serafimovich A. "Iron Stream" (1924)
Tolstoy A. "The Adventure of Nevzorov, or Ibicus" (1924)
Tolstoy A. "Walking through the agony" (1922 - 1941)
Fadeev A. "The Defeat" (1927)
Furmanov D. "Chapaev" (1923)

In painting

The following works are devoted to the Civil War in Russia: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin "1918 in Petrograd" (1920), "Death of the Commissar" (1928), Isaac Brodsky "Shooting of 26 Baku Commissars" (1925), Alexander Deineka "Defense of Petrograd" (1928) ), "Mercenary of the interventionists" (1931), Fyodor Bogorodsky "Brother" (1932), Kukryniksy "Morning of an officer of the tsarist army" (1938).

Theatre

1925 - "Storm" by Vladimir Bill-Belotserkovsky (MGSPS Theater).

Chronology

1918 I stage of the civil war - "democratic"
1918 June Nationalization Decree
1919, January Introduction of food appropriation
1919 The fight against A.V. Kolchak, A.I. Denikin, Yudenich
1920 Soviet-Polish war
1920 Fight against P.N. Wrangel
1920, November End of the civil war in the European territory
1922, October End of the civil war in the Far East

Civil war and military intervention

Civil War- “The armed struggle between various groups of the population, which was based on deep social, national and political contradictions, took place with the active intervention of foreign forces at various stages and stages ...” (Academician Y. Polyakov).

In modern historical science, there is no single definition of the concept of "civil war". V encyclopedic dictionary we read: "Civil war is an organized armed struggle for power between classes, social groups, the most acute form of class struggle." This definition actually repeats the well-known Leninist dictum that civil war is the most acute form of class struggle.

At present, various definitions are given, but their essence is mainly reduced to the definition of the Civil War as a large-scale armed confrontation, in which the question of power was undoubtedly resolved. The seizure of state power in Russia by the Bolsheviks and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly that followed soon can be considered the beginning of an armed confrontation in Russia. The first shots are heard in the South of Russia, in the Cossack regions, already in the fall of 1917.

General Alekseev, the last chief of staff of the tsarist army, began to form the Volunteer Army on the Don, but by the beginning of 1918 it was no more than 3,000 officers and cadets.

As A.I. Denikin in "Sketches of Russian Troubles", "the white movement grew spontaneously and inevitably."

The first months of the victory of Soviet power, armed clashes were of a local nature, all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics.

This confrontation took on a truly front-line, large-scale character in the spring of 1918. Let us single out three main stages in the development of the armed confrontation in Russia, proceeding primarily from taking into account the alignment of political forces and the peculiarities of the formation of fronts.

The first stage begins in the spring of 1918 year, when the military-political confrontation becomes global in nature, large-scale military operations begin. The defining feature of this stage is its so-called "democratic" character, when representatives of the socialist parties came out as an independent anti-Bolshevik camp with the slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains of the February Revolution. It is this camp that is chronologically ahead of the White Guard camp in its organizational design.

At the end of 1918, the second stage begins- confrontation between white and red. Until the beginning of 1920, one of the main political opponents of the Bolsheviks was the White movement with the slogans of "not prejudice to the state system" and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction endangered not only the October, but also the February conquests. Their main political force was the cadet party, and the base for the formation of the army was the generals and officers of the former tsarist army. The whites were united by their hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia.

The final stage of the Civil War begins in 1920... the events of the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against P. N. Wrangel. The defeat of Wrangel at the end of 1920 marked the end of the Civil War, but anti-Soviet armed uprisings continued in many regions of Soviet Russia during the years of the New Economic Policy.

Nationwide armed struggle has acquired from the spring of 1918 and turned into the greatest calamity, the tragedy of the entire Russian people. In this war, there were no right and wrong, winners and losers. 1918 - 1920 - during these years, the military question was of decisive importance for the fate of the Soviet regime and the anti-Bolshevik bloc opposing it. This period ended with the liquidation in November 1920 of the last white front in the European part of Russia (in the Crimea). In general, the country left the state of civil war in the fall of 1922 after the remnants of white formations and foreign (Japanese) military units were expelled from the territory of the Russian Far East.

A feature of the civil war in Russia was its close intertwining with anti-Soviet military intervention powers of the Entente. She acted as the main factor in delaying and exacerbating the bloody “Russian turmoil”.

So, in the periodization of the civil war and intervention, three stages are quite clearly distinguished. The first of them covers the time from spring to autumn 1918; the second - from the fall of 1918 to the end of 1919; and the third - from the spring of 1920 to the end of 1920.

The first stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1918)

In the first months of the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, armed clashes were of a local nature, all opponents of the new government gradually determined their strategy and tactics. The armed struggle acquired a nationwide scale in the spring of 1918. Back in January 1918, Romania, taking advantage of the weakness of the Soviet government, seized Bessarabia. In March - April 1918, the first contingents of the troops of England, France, the USA and Japan appeared on the territory of Russia (in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, in Vladivostok, in Central Asia). They were small and could not noticeably influence the military and political situation in the country. "War communism"

At the same time, the enemy of the Entente - Germany - occupied the Baltic states, part of Belarus, the Transcaucasus and the North Caucasus. The Germans actually ruled in Ukraine: they overthrew the bourgeois-democratic Verkhovna Rada, which they used during the occupation of the Ukrainian lands, and in April 1918 put Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky.

Under these conditions, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to use the 45-thousandth Czechoslovak Corps, who was (in agreement with Moscow) in his subordination. It consisted of captured Slavic soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army and followed the railway to Vladivostok for subsequent transfer to France.

According to the agreement concluded on March 26, 1918 with the Soviet government, the Czechoslovak legionaries were to advance "not as a combat unit, but as a group of citizens with weapons to repel armed attacks by counter-revolutionaries." However, during the movement, their conflicts with the local authorities became more frequent. Insofar as combat weapons the Czechs and Slovaks had more than the agreement stipulated, the authorities decided to confiscate it. On May 26, in Chelyabinsk, the conflicts escalated into real battles, and the legionnaires occupied the city. Their armed uprising was immediately supported by the military missions of the Entente in Russia and anti-Bolshevik forces. As a result, in the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East - wherever there were echelons with Czechoslovak legionnaires - Soviet power was overthrown. At the same time, in many provinces of Russia, peasants, dissatisfied with the food policy of the Bolsheviks, revolted (according to official data, there were at least 130 major anti-Soviet peasant uprisings alone).

Socialist parties(mainly right SR), relying on the invaders' landing forces, the Czechoslovak corps and peasant rebel detachments, formed a number of Komuch governments (Committee of Constituent Assembly members) in Samara, the Supreme Directorate of the Northern Region in Arkhangelsk, the West Siberian Commissariat in Novonikolaevsk (now Novosibirsk), The Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, the Trans-Caspian Provisional Government in Ashgabat, and others. In their activities, they tried to draw up “ democratic alternative”Both the Bolshevik dictatorship and the bourgeois-monarchist counter-revolution. Their programs included demands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of all citizens without exception, freedom of trade and the rejection of strict state regulation of the economic activities of peasants while maintaining a number of important provisions of the Soviet Decree on Land, the establishment of "social partnership" of workers and capitalists in the denationalization of industrial enterprises and etc.

Thus, the performance of the Czechoslovak corps gave impetus to the formation of the front, which bore the so-called "democratic coloration" and was, in the main, Socialist-Revolutionary. It was this front, not the white movement, that was decisive at the initial stage of the Civil War.

In the summer of 1918, all opposition forces became a real threat to the Bolshevik government, which controlled only the territory of the center of Russia. The territory controlled by Komuch included the Volga region and part of the Urals. The Bolshevik regime was also overthrown in Siberia, where the regional government of the Siberian Duma was formed. The breakaway parts of the empire - Transcaucasia, Central Asia, the Baltic states - had their own national governments. Ukraine was captured by the Germans, Don and Kuban - Krasnov and Denikin.

On August 30, 1918, a terrorist group killed the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, Uritsky, and the right Socialist Revolutionary Kaplan seriously wounded Lenin. The threat of losing political power from the ruling Bolshevik party became catastrophically real.

In September 1918, a meeting of representatives of a number of anti-Bolshevik governments of democratic and social orientation was held in Ufa. Under pressure from the Czechoslovakians, who threatened to open the front to the Bolsheviks, they established a single All-Russian government - the Ufa directory, headed by the leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionaries N.D. Avksentiev and V.M. Zenzinov. Soon the directory settled in Omsk, where the famous polar explorer and scientist, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A.V. Kolchak.

The right, bourgeois-monarchist wing of the camp opposing the Bolsheviks as a whole had not yet recovered at that time from the defeat of its first post-October armed onslaught on them (which largely explained the "democratic coloration" initial stage civil war by anti-Soviet forces). The White Volunteer Army, which, after the death of General L.G. Kornilov in April 1918 was headed by General A.I. Denikin, operated in a limited area of the Don and Kuban. Only the Cossack army of the ataman P.N. Krasnov managed to advance to Tsaritsyn and cut off the grain regions of the North Caucasus from the central regions of Russia, and ataman A.I. Dutov - to capture Orenburg.

The position of the Soviet government by the end of the summer of 1918 had become critical. Almost three quarters of the territory of the former Russian Empire was under the control of various anti-Bolshevik forces, as well as the occupying Austro-German forces.

Soon, however, a turning point took place on the main front (Eastern). Soviet troops under the command of I.I. Vatsetis and S.S. Kamenev in September 1918 went on the offensive there. Kazan fell first, then Simbirsk, in October - Samara. By winter, the Reds approached the Urals. The attempts of General P.N. Krasnov to seize Tsaritsyn, undertaken in July and September 1918.

From October 1918, the Southern Front became the main front. In the South of Russia, the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin captured the Kuban, and the Don Cossack army of the ataman P.N. Krasnova tried to take Tsaritsyn and cut the Volga.

The Soviet government launched active actions to protect its power. In 1918, the transition to general conscription, widespread mobilization has been launched. The constitution, adopted in July 1918, established discipline in the army and introduced the institution of military commissars.

You volunteered poster

As part of the Central Committee, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was allocated for the prompt solution of military and political problems. It included: V.I. Lenin - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; L. B. Krestinsky - secretary of the Central Committee of the party; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities; L. D. Trotsky - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Membership candidates were N.I. Bukharin - editor of the newspaper "Pravda", G.E. Zinoviev - Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, M.I. Kalinin - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

The Revolutionary Military Council of the republic, headed by L.D. Trotsky. The institute of military commissars was introduced in the spring of 1918, one of its important tasks was to control the activities of military specialists - former officers. Already at the end of 1918, about 7 thousand commissars were active in the Soviet armed forces. About 30% of the former generals and officers of the old army during the civil war took the side of the Red Army.

This was determined by two main factors:

acting on the side of the Bolshevik government for ideological reasons;
the policy of attracting "military specialists" - former tsarist officers - to the Red Army was pursued by L.D. Trotsky using repressive methods.

War communism

In 1918 the Bolsheviks introduced a system of emergency measures, economic and political, known as “ war communism policy”. The main acts this policy became Decree of May 13, 1918 g., giving broad powers to the People's Commissariat for Food (People's Commissariat for Food), and Decree of 28 June 1918 on nationalization.

The main provisions of this policy:

the nationalization of the entire industry;
centralization of economic management;
the prohibition of private trade;
curtailment of commodity-money relations;
food allocation;
equalizing system of remuneration of workers and employees;
remuneration in kind for workers and employees;
free of charge utilities;
universal labor service.

June 11, 1918 were created kombeds(committees of the poor), which were supposed to withdraw surplus agricultural products from wealthy peasants. Their actions were supported by parts of the prodarmy (food army), consisting of Bolsheviks and workers. From January 1919, the search for surplus was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriation (Reader T8 No. 5).

Each region, county had to hand over a set amount of grain and other products (potatoes, honey, butter, eggs, milk). When the surrender rate was met, the villagers received a receipt for the right to purchase industrial goods (cloth, sugar, salt, matches, kerosene).

June 28, 1918 the state has started nationalization of enterprises with capital over 500 rubles. Back in December 1917, when the Supreme Council of the National Economy (Supreme Council National economy), he took up nationalization. But the nationalization of labor was not massive (by March 1918, no more than 80 enterprises were nationalized). This was primarily a repressive measure against entrepreneurs who resisted workers' control. It was now government policy. By November 1, 1919, 2,500 enterprises were nationalized. In November 1920, a decree was issued extending nationalization to all enterprises with more than 10 or 5 workers, but using a mechanical engine.

By decree of November 21, 1918 was established domestic trade monopoly... The Soviet government replaced trade with state distribution. The townspeople received food through the system of the People's Commissariat for Food on cards, of which, for example, in Petrograd in 1919 there were 33 types: bread, dairy, shoe, etc. The population was divided into three categories:
workers and scientists and artists equated to them;
employees;
former exploiters.

Due to the lack of food, even the wealthiest received only ¼ of the prescribed diet.

In such conditions, the “black market” flourished. The government fought against the "bagmen" by forbidding them to travel by train.

In the social sphere, the policy of "War Communism" was based on the principle "who does not work, he does not eat." In 1918, labor conscription was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, in 1920 - universal labor conscription.

In the political sphere“War communism” meant the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b). The activities of other parties (Cadets, Mensheviks, Right and Left SRs) were banned.

The consequences of the policy of "war communism" were the deepening of economic devastation, a reduction in production in industry and agriculture... However, it was precisely this policy that largely allowed the Bolsheviks to mobilize all resources and win the Civil War.

The Bolsheviks assigned a special role in the victory over the class enemy to mass terror. On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution proclaiming the beginning of "mass terror against the bourgeoisie and its agents." The head of the Cheka F.E. Dzherzhinsky said: "We are terrorizing the enemies of the Soviet regime." The policy of mass terror took on a state character. Shooting on the spot became commonplace.

The second stage of the civil war (autumn 1918 - late 1919)

From November 1918, the front-line war entered the stage of confrontation between the Reds and Whites. The year 1919 was decisive for the Bolsheviks, a reliable and constantly growing Red Army was created. But their opponents, actively supported former allies, united among themselves. The international situation has also changed dramatically. Germany and its allies in the world war in November laid down their arms in front of the Entente. Revolutions took place in Germany and Austria-Hungary. The leadership of the RSFSR November 13, 1918 canceled, and the new governments of these countries were forced to evacuate their troops from Russia. Bourgeois-national governments arose in Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus, and the Ukraine, which immediately took the side of the Entente.

The defeat of Germany freed up significant combat contingents of the Entente and at the same time opened for her a convenient and short road to Moscow from the southern regions. Under these conditions, the Entente leadership prevailed with the intention to crush Soviet Russia with its own armies.

In the spring of 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente developed a plan for the next military campaign. (Reader T8 # 8) As noted in one of his secret documents, the intervention was to "be expressed in the combined military actions of the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces and the armies of neighboring allied states." At the end of November 1918, a joint Anglo-French squadron of 32 pennants (12 battleships, 10 cruisers and 10 destroyers) appeared off the Black Sea coast of Russia. British troops landed in Batum and Novorossiysk, and French troops in Odessa and Sevastopol. Total number By February 1919, the fighting forces of the interventionists concentrated in the south of Russia were brought to 130 thousand people. The Entente contingents increased significantly in the Far East and Siberia (up to 150 thousand people), as well as in the North (up to 20 thousand people).

Beginning of foreign military intervention and civil war (February 1918 - March 1919)

In Siberia, on November 18, 1918, Admiral A.V. Kolchak. ... He put an end to the indiscriminate actions of the anti-Bolshevik coalition.

Having dispersed the Directory, he proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia (the rest of the leaders of the white movement soon announced their obedience to him). Admiral Kolchak in March 1919 began wide front advance from the Urals to the Volga. The main bases of his army were Siberia, the Urals, the Orenburg province and the Ural region. In the north, from January 1919, General E.K. Miller, in the northwest - General N.N. Yudenich. In the south, the dictatorship of the commander of the Volunteer Army A.I. Denikin, who in January 1919 subjugated the Don army of General P.N. Krasnov and created the united armed forces of the south of Russia.

Second stage of the civil war (autumn 1918 - late 1919)

In March 1919, the well-armed 300-thousandth army of A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive from the east, intending to unite with Denikin's forces for a joint attack on Moscow. Having captured Ufa, the Kolchakites fought their way to Simbirsk, Samara, Votkinsk, but were soon stopped by the Red Army. At the end of April, Soviet troops under the command of S.S. Kamenev and M.V. Frunze went on the offensive and in the summer advanced deep into Siberia. By the beginning of 1920, the Kolchakites were finally defeated, and the admiral himself was arrested and executed by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.

In the summer of 1919, the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front. (Reader T8 №7) On July 3, General A.I. Denikin issued his famous "Moscow directive", and his army of 150 thousand men launched an offensive along the entire 700-km front from Kiev to Tsaritsin. The White Front included such important centers as Voronezh, Oryol, Kiev. In this space of 1 million square meters. km with a population of up to 50 million people were located in 18 provinces and regions. By mid-autumn, Denikin's army captured Kursk and Orel. But by the end of October, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Yegorov) defeated the White regiments, and then began to crowd them along the entire front line. The remnants of Denikin's army, led by General P.N. Wrangel, fortified in the Crimea.

The final stage of the civil war (spring - autumn 1920)

At the beginning of 1920, as a result of hostilities, the outcome of the front-line Civil War was actually decided in favor of the Bolshevik government. At the final stage, the main hostilities were associated with the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against Wrangel's army.

Significantly aggravated the nature of the civil war Soviet-Polish war... Polish Head of State Marshal J. Pilsudski hatched a plan to create “ Greater Poland within the borders of 1772”From the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which includes a large part of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, including those that have never been ruled by Warsaw. The Polish national government was supported by the Entente countries, seeking to create a "sanitary block" of Eastern European countries between Bolshevik Russia and Western countries. On April 17, Pilsudski ordered an offensive on Kiev and signed an agreement with Ataman Petliura, Poland recognized the Directory headed by Petliura as the supreme power of Ukraine. On May 7, Kiev was taken. The victory was gained with extraordinary ease, for the Soviet troops withdrew without serious resistance.

But already on May 14, a successful counteroffensive by the troops of the Western Front (commanded by M.N. Tukhachevsky) began, on May 26 - by the Southwestern Front (commanded by A.I.Egorov). In mid-July, they reached the borders of Poland. On June 12, Soviet troops occupied Kiev. The speed of the victory won can only be compared with the speed of the defeat suffered earlier.

War with bourgeois landlord Poland and the defeat of Wrangel's troops (IV-XI 1920)

On July 12, British Foreign Secretary Lord D. Curzon sent a note to the Soviet government - in fact, an ultimatum from the Entente demanding to stop the Red Army's offensive against Poland. The so-called “ Curzon line”, Which passed mainly along the ethnic border of the settlement of Poles.

The Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), clearly overestimating its own forces and underestimating the forces of the enemy, set a new strategic task for the main command of the Red Army: to continue the revolutionary war. IN AND. Lenin believed that the victorious entry of the Red Army into Poland would trigger uprisings of the Polish working class and revolutionary uprisings in Germany. For this purpose, the Soviet government of Poland was quickly formed - the Provisional Revolutionary Committee composed of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, F.M. Kon, Yu.Yu. Markhlevsky and others.

This attempt ended in disaster. The troops of the Western Front in August 1920 were defeated near Warsaw.

In October, the belligerents concluded an armistice, and in March 1921 - a peace treaty. Under its terms, a significant part of the lands in the west of Ukraine and Belarus was transferred to Poland.

In the midst of the Soviet-Polish war, General P.N. Wrangel. With the help of harsh measures, up to the public executions of demoralized officers, and with the support of France, the general turned the scattered Denikin divisions into a disciplined and efficient Russian army. In June 1920, a landing was made from the Crimea to the Don and Kuban, and the main forces of the Wrangels were thrown into the Donbass. On October 3, the Russian army began an offensive in the northwestern direction to Kakhovka.

The offensive of the Wrangel troops was repulsed, and during the operation of the Southern Front army under the command of M.V. Frunze completely captured the Crimea. On November 14-16, 1920, an armada of ships flying the St.Andrew's flag left the coast of the peninsula, taking the defeated white regiments and tens of thousands of civilian refugees to a foreign land. Thus, P.N. Wrangel saved them from the merciless Red Terror that hit the Crimea immediately after the evacuation of the Whites.

In the European part of Russia, after the capture of Crimea, it was eliminated last white front... The military question ceased to be the main one for Moscow, but hostilities on the outskirts of the country continued for many months.

The Red Army, having defeated Kolchak, went to the Transbaikalia in the spring of 1920. The Far East was at that time in the hands of Japan. To avoid a collision with it, the government of Soviet Russia promoted the formation in April 1920 of a formally independent "buffer" state - the Far Eastern Republic (RER) with its capital in Chita. Soon the army of the Far East began military operations against the White Guards, supported by the Japanese, and in October 1922 occupied Vladivostok, completely clearing the Far East of whites and interventionists. After that, it was decided to liquidate the FER and include it in the RSFSR.

Defeat of the interventionists and White Guards in Eastern Siberia and the Far East (1918-1922)

The Civil War became the biggest drama of the 20th century and the greatest tragedy in Russia. The armed struggle that unfolded in the vastness of the country was waged with extreme tension of the forces of the opponents, was accompanied by mass terror (both white and red), and was distinguished by exceptional mutual bitterness. Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of a Civil War participant who tells about the soldiers of the Caucasian Front: "Well, how, son, is it not scary for a Russian to beat a Russian?" - comrades ask the recruit. "At first, it really seems awkward," he replies, "and then, if the heart is inflamed, then no, nothing." These words contain the merciless truth about the fratricidal war, into which almost the entire population of the country was drawn.

The fighting sides clearly understood that the fight can only have a fatal outcome for one side. That is why the civil war in Russia has become a great tragedy for all its political camps, movements and parties.

“Red”(The Bolsheviks and their supporters) believed that they were defending not only Soviet power in Russia, but also“ the world revolution and the ideas of socialism ”.

In the political struggle against Soviet power, two political movements consolidated:

democratic counterrevolution with the slogans of returning political power to the Constituent Assembly and restoring the gains of the February (1917) revolution (many Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks advocated the establishment of Soviet power in Russia, but without the Bolsheviks (“For Soviets without Bolsheviks”));
white movement with the slogans of "non-determination of the state system" and the elimination of Soviet power. This direction endangered not only the October, but also the February conquests. The counter-revolutionary white movement was not homogeneous. It included monarchists and liberal republicans, supporters of the Constituent Assembly and adherents of a military dictatorship. Among the "whites" there were differences in foreign policy guidelines: some hoped for the support of Germany (Ataman Krasnov), others - for the help of the Entente powers (Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich). The “whites” were united by their hatred of the Soviet regime and the Bolsheviks, the desire to preserve a united and indivisible Russia. They did not have a unified political program, the military in the leadership of the “white movement” pushed politicians into the background. There was also no clear coordination of actions between the main groupings of "whites". The leaders of the Russian counter-revolution were in competition and enmity among themselves.

In the anti-Soviet anti-Bolshevik camp, some of the political opponents of the Soviets operated under a single Socialist-Revolutionary-White Guard flag, and some - only under the White Guard flag.

Bolsheviks had a stronger social footing than their opponents. They received the strong support of the urban workers and the rural poor. The position of the main peasant masses was not stable and unequivocal, only the poorest part of the peasants consistently followed the Bolsheviks. The peasants' hesitation had their reasons: the “Reds” gave land, but then introduced a surplus appropriation system, which caused strong discontent in the countryside. However, the return of the previous order was also unacceptable for the peasantry: the victory of the "whites" threatened the return of land to the landowners and severe punishments for the destruction of the landowners' estates.

The Social Revolutionaries and anarchists were in a hurry to take advantage of the peasants' hesitation. They managed to involve a significant part of the peasantry in an armed struggle, both against the whites and against the reds.

For both warring parties, it was also important what position the Russian officers would take in the conditions of the civil war. Approximately 40% of the tsarist army of officers joined the "white movement", 30% - sided with the Soviet regime, 30% - avoided participating in the civil war.

The Russian civil war was getting worse armed intervention foreign powers. The invaders waged active hostilities on the territory of the former Russian Empire, occupied some of its regions, contributed to the incitement of the civil war in the country and contributed to its protraction. The intervention turned out to be an important factor in the “revolutionary all-Russian turmoil” and multiplied the number of victims.

After the October Revolution, a struggle for power began in the country, and against the background of this struggle, Civil War... Thus, October 25, 1917 can be considered the date of the beginning of the civil war, which lasted until October 1922. differ significantly from each other.

Civil War- the first stage (Stages of the civil war ) .

The first stage of the civil war began with the armed seizure of power by the Bolsheviks on October 25, 1917 and continued until March 1918. This period can be safely called moderate, since no active hostilities were observed at this stage. The reasons for this are that the "white" movement at this stage was just emerging, and the political opponents of the Bolsheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, preferred to seize power by political means. After the Bolsheviks announced the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries realized that they would not be able to seize power by peaceful means, and began to prepare for an armed seizure.

Civil War- the second stage (Stages of the civil war ) .

The second stage of the war is characterized by active military actions, both on the part of the Mensheviks and on the part of the "whites". Until the end of the autumn of 1918, a roar of distrust of the new government swept through the country, the reason for which was given by the Bolsheviks themselves. At this time, a food dictatorship was declared and class struggle in the villages. Wealthy peasants, as well as the middle stratum, actively opposed the Bolsheviks.

From December 1918 to June 1919, bloody battles between the Red and White armies took place in the country. From July 1919 until September 1920, the White Army was defeated in the war with the Reds. At the same time, at the 8th Congress of Soviets, the Soviet government announced the urgent need to focus on the needs of the middle class of peasants. This forced many wealthy peasants to reconsider their positions and again support the Bolsheviks. However, after the introduction of the policy of "War Communism", the attitude of wealthy peasants towards the Bolsheviks again noticeably deteriorated. This led to massive peasant uprisings that took place in the country until the end of 1922. The policy of war communism introduced by the Bolsheviks again strengthened the position of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries in the country. As a result, the Soviet government was forced to significantly soften its policy.

The civil war ended with the victory of the Bolsheviks, who were able to assert their power, even though the country was subjected to foreign intervention by Western countries. Russia's foreign intervention began in December 1917, when Romania, taking advantage of Russia's weakness, occupied the region of Bessarabia.

Russian foreign intervention continued actively after the end of the First World War. The Entente countries, under the pretext of fulfilling their allied obligations to Russia, occupied the Far East, part of the Caucasus, the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. At the same time, foreign armies behaved like real invaders. However, after the first major victories the Red Army invaders for the most part left the country. Already in 1920, Russia's foreign intervention by England and America was completed. After them the troops of other countries also left the country. Only the Japanese army continued its presence in the Far East until October 1922.