Civil War (1917-1922)- an armed confrontation that engulfed various political, ethnic, social groups and state entities, which began as a result of the October Revolution of 1917 and the coming to power of the Bolshevik Party. The main events unfolded in the European part of the former Russian Empire, as well as in the Urals and Siberia.

Reasons for the war. The civil war was the result of a protracted revolutionary crisis, the beginning of which was laid by the revolution of 1905-1907. The First World War became a catalyst for the growth of tension in society and led to the fall of tsarist power as a result of the February Revolution. However, this only deepened the socio-economic crisis, national, political and ideological contradictions in Russian society, which was especially dangerous against the background of an extremely low political culture and the absence of democratic traditions in society.

After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, who began to pursue a tough, repressive policy towards their opponents, these contradictions resulted in a fierce struggle throughout the country between supporters of Soviet power and anti-Bolshevik forces, who sought to regain lost wealth and political influence.

foreign intervention

The civil war was accompanied by foreign military intervention (December 1917-October 1922) by both the armed forces of the states of the Quadruple Union and the Entente. Intervention- interference of foreign states in the internal affairs of another state, encroaching on its sovereignty. May be military, political or economic in nature.

The intervention was caused by the need to fight Germany in the framework of the First World War, and after its defeat, the protection by England and France of their economic and political interests, which were threatened after the October Revolution, came to the fore, the desire to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas outside of Russia. In this regard, the intervention of the Entente was aimed at helping the White movement in its fight against the Bolsheviks.

Main stages of the war

October 1917-November 1918 the beginning of the Civil War. It was characterized by the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship, active intervention in the course of the Civil War by foreign interventionists (France, Great Britain), the emergence of national movements on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire.

Almost immediately with the establishment of the Bolshevik dictatorship in Petrograd, the Volunteer Army began to form in the southern regions of Russia. Generals M. Alekseev, A. Kaledin, L. Kornilov took an active part in its creation. From April 1918, A. Denikin became the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army. At the same time, the Provisional Don Government headed by General P. Krasnov appeared on the Don. Having received support from Germany, the Cossacks of P. Krasnov managed to capture most of the Donbass in the summer - autumn of 1918 and go to Tsaritsyn. After the defeat of Germany in the World War, the detachments of P. Krasnov merged with the Volunteer Army.

The formation of the anti-Bolshevik opposition in the Volga region was greatly influenced by the events associated with the uprising in May 1918 of the Czechoslovak corps, numbering over 40 thousand people. Together with representatives of the white movement, they managed to drive the Bolsheviks out of many provinces of Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region and the Far East. In the conditions of the offensive of the Whites, the Bolsheviks decide to shoot on the night of July 16-17, 1918 the royal family, who was under their arrest in Yekaterinburg.

The Bolsheviks tried to seize the initiative. The Eastern Front was created, headed by S. Kamenev. During the battles for Ufa, the red commander V. Chapaev became famous. The counteroffensive of the Red Army forced their opponents to consolidate, and on November 18, 1918, Admiral A. Kolchak was declared the Supreme Ruler of Russia in Omsk. His army, which had the support of the Entente countries, became the main driving force in the struggle against Soviet Russia.

November 1918-March 1920- the main battles between the Bolshevik Red Army and supporters of the White movement, culminating in a radical change in favor of the Soviet government, reducing the scale of intervention.

Having united significant anti-Bolshevik forces under his banners in the spring and summer of 1919, A. Denikin succeeded in a large-scale offensive against the positions of the Reds, as a result of which Kursk, Orel, Voronezh came under the control of the Volunteer Army. However, the attack on Moscow ended unsuccessfully, which forced A. Denikin to turn to Ukraine. Twice during 1919 the troops of the White General N. Yudenich made unsuccessful attempts to attack Petrograd.

The army of A. Kolchak initially managed to reach the banks of the Volga, but the repressive policy of the Whites, built on exceptional laws, turned most of the population against them. This helped the Bolsheviks, who were able to push the armed forces of A. Kolchak to Siberia, to Baikal, by the end of 1919.

At the beginning of 1920, the Red Army managed to take Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. Entente troops had to hastily leave Russia.

March 1920 - autumn 1922- the end of the Soviet-Polish war, the elimination of the last pockets of resistance to Soviet power on the outskirts of the country. In particular, in November 1920, the Southern Front under the command of M. Frunze defeated the army of General P. Wrangel in the Crimea, and in November 1922 the Far Eastern Republic was liquidated, the remnants of the White armies went to China. This marked the end of the Civil War.

The key event of the final stage of the Civil War was the Soviet-Polish confrontation. The Entente countries wanted to create a kind of buffer zone from Poland, which would protect Europe from the influence of Bolshevism. Due to these circumstances, the Polish dictator J. Pilsudski found encouragement in the West for his territorial claims in Eastern Europe. On April 25, 1920, having concluded an agreement with the representative of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) S. Petliura, the Polish dictator ordered the start of an offensive on the territory of Ukraine, which was under the control of the Bolsheviks. Although the Poles managed to briefly capture Kyiv, the counter-offensive of the Western (M. Tukhachevsky) and South-Western (A. Egorov) fronts of the Red Army, supported by detachments of the Makhnovists, forced them to retreat to Polish territory. It was stopped only in August 1920 on the outskirts of Warsaw. In March 1921, the Peace of Riga was concluded between Soviet Russia and Poland, which left the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus behind the Poles, but Warsaw recognized Soviet power in the rest of Ukraine.

Results of the Civil War. As a result of the Civil War, most of the territory of the former Russian Empire came under the control of the Bolsheviks, who succeeded in successively defeating the armies of Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich, Wrangel, and the armed forces of the Entente countries. The new government initiated the creation of Soviet republics on the territory of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Transcaucasia. Poland, Finland and the Baltic states gained independence. Almost 2 million people who did not accept Soviet power were forced to emigrate.

The civil war caused great damage to the national economy. Industrial production in 1920 fell to 14% of the 1913 level, agricultural production was almost halved. The demographic losses were enormous. According to various estimates, they ranged from 12 to 15 million people.

Political programs of the parties involved

The main opposing sides in the Civil War in Russia were the Bolsheviks - "Reds" and supporters of the White movement - "Whites". During the war years, both sides sought to exercise their power by dictatorial methods.

The Bolsheviks considered the armed massacre of their opponents as the only acceptable option, not only to maintain their power in a predominantly peasant country. The suppression of any dissent on the way to the establishment of a political dictatorship could allow them to turn the country into the base of the world socialist revolution, a kind of model of a classless communist society, which was planned to be exported to Europe. From their point of view, this goal justified a set of punitive measures that were applied to opponents of Soviet power, as well as to “wavering” elements in the face of the middle strata of the city and countryside, in the first place, the peasants. Separate categories of the population were deprived of political and civil rights - the former privileged classes, officers of the tsarist army, the clergy, and wide circles of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia.

Only having seized power in October 1917, the Bolsheviks banned the activities of all bourgeois parties, arresting their leaders. Pre-revolutionary political institutions were liquidated - the Senate, the Synod, the State Duma, control was established over the press, trade unions, and other public organizations. In July 1918, the rebellion of the Left SRs, who had previously been in a coalition with the Bolsheviks, was severely suppressed. In the spring of 1921, the Mensheviks were massacred, which led to the actual establishment of a one-party regime.

On September 5, 1918, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the Red Terror", which was carried out by the Cheka, came into force. The reason for its appearance was the assassination attempt on V. Lenin on August 30, 1918 and the murder of the head of the Petrograd Cheka, M. Uritsky. The forms of the Red Terror were different: executions based on class, the hostage system, the creation of a network of concentration camps to contain class-hostile elements.

In addition to V. Lenin, one of the main ideologists of the Bolshevik movement was L. Trotsky(1879-1940) - revolutionary figure of the 20th century. One of the organizers of the October Revolution of 1917. He stood at the origins of the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), which he led during the Civil War.

The basis of the White movement was the officers, the Cossacks, the intelligentsia, the landowners, the bourgeoisie, the clergy. The ideologists of the White movement A. Guchkov, V. Shulgin, N. Lvov, P. Struve saw in the Civil War an opportunity to preserve the Russian Empire, return power to their own hands and restore lost rights and privileges. In the territories conquered from the Bolsheviks, the Whites tried to recreate the army and the civil administration apparatus. The basis of their political program was the demand for the restoration of private property and freedom of enterprise. After the overthrow of the power of the Bolsheviks, the Constituent Assembly was supposed to legitimize all changes in society, in whose competence would be the decision on the future political structure of the Russian state.

During the Civil War, the White movement largely discredited itself by striving to restore the monarchy on an autocratic basis, terror against peasants and workers, carrying out Jewish pogroms, significant dependence on the interests of foreign invaders, and a sharply negative attitude towards the problems of the national outskirts of the former empire. Not the last role was played by the lack of unity in the White leadership.

Among the leaders of the White movement, the figures of A. Kolchak and A. Denikin stood out. A. Kolchak(1874-1920) - military and political figure, admiral of the fleet. During the Civil War, he was an iconic figure of the White movement. He held the positions of the Supreme Ruler of Russia (1918-1920) and the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army. After the betrayal of the Czechoslovaks, he was handed over to the Bolsheviks and shot in January 1920.

A. Denikin(1872-1947) - military leader, political and public figure. During the Civil War he was one of the main leaders of the White movement. He commanded the Volunteer Army (1918-1919), and then the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (1919-1920). Later he emigrated to France.

Various peasant movements had a huge impact on the course of the Civil War. Many of them were close to the ideas of anarchism - the rebel army of N. Makhno (1888-1934) - the leader of the revolutionary masses of the peasantry in the southern regions of Ukraine during the Civil War. Their political platform was based on the demand for an end to the terror against the peasantry and the real, gratuitous allocation of land to it. The fluctuations of the peasantry between the Reds and the Whites repeatedly changed the balance of power during the war and, ultimately, predetermined its outcome.

Representatives of the national outskirts of the former Russian Empire also participated in the Civil War, fighting for their independence from Russia (Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic States, Transcaucasia). This struggle met with resistance both from the White movement, who wanted the restoration of a "united and indivisible Russia", and from the Bolsheviks, who saw in it an undermining of the international unity of the working people.

Politics of war communism

The elimination of private property in any of its forms was the program position of the Bolshevik Party and constituted the main task of its practical activity. This was reflected for the first time in the Decree on Land. But the most complete Bolshevik policy during the years of the Civil War was embodied in war communism. war communism- a temporary system of emergency measures carried out by the Soviet authorities during the Civil War. All measures were aimed at concentrating the maximum resources of the country in the hands of the Bolshevik government.

Among its components: the nationalization of industry (Decree of June 24, 1918); the introduction of universal labor service; the introduction of payment in kind, the equalization of wages; provision of free public services; the creation of food detachments and surplus allocation for basic agricultural products (since May 1918); the prohibition of private trade, the card system for the distribution of goods according to the class principle; prohibition of the lease of land and the use of hired labor.

In pursuing the policy of war communism in the countryside, the Bolsheviks relied on the so-called Committees of the Poor (combeds), created by the Decree of June 11, 1918. Their competence included the distribution of bread and essentials, agricultural implements, assisting local food authorities in the seizure of "surpluses" the wealthy peasants.

War communism had major consequences for the organization of labor. It soon became apparent that coercion would be applied not only to members of the "exploiting classes". Practice has shown that not only in politics, but also in the economic sphere, the new government relied on methods of violence and coercion. The policy of war communism soon aroused mass indignation and rejection of the new methods of leadership by the majority of the population. The state, in fact, stopped market relations by its actions. If in the conditions of the Civil War such a policy could still somehow justify itself, then in the conditions of the transition to peacetime it was doomed to failure.

I would like to talk, first of all, about the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Usually, in all textbooks, intervention appears after the Civil War, that is, in the terminology itself - the Civil War in Russia and further allied intervention, and in scientific works such formulations are found, as if the Civil War had begun and Allied interventionists intervened in this Civil War. Now I want to shift the emphasis a little and show that in fact both the intervention and the Civil War, they were to a large extent a continuation, the tail of the First World War.

The intervention was in many ways the last stage of the First World War, which spilled over into Russia a bit and lasted here longer than usual. In fact, if we look at how the allied intervention was planned, first of all, why am I paying attention to the allied intervention, because with the German intervention in the Civil War, the seizure of the territories of the western outskirts of Russia, the situation here was even simpler - the German armies were on the offensive into the First World War and simply continued their offensive in the future. And many allied troops appeared in Russia after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, so it could look like a real invasion, intervention in the Russian Civil War.

If we look in more detail, we will see that some of the allied armies that participated in the Civil War ended up in Russia long before the revolution. In particular, this applies to the so-called Czechoslovak Corps, whose uprising marked the beginning of large-scale military operations in the Volga region and Siberia. As we know, the Czechoslovak corps began to form as early as during the First World War from Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, Slavs, Czechs and Slovaks, who, it was believed, would rather help their fellow Slavs and fight on the side of Russia than support their oppressors, the Austro-Hungarians. Hungarians.

After Soviet Russia concluded the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, there was an attempt to withdraw them somehow, because the Czechoslovaks were still determined to fight for the independence of Czechoslovakia on the side of the allies, if Russia was no longer part of the Entente, but was an ally of Germany, having concluded the Brest peace, the Czechoslovak corps had to be withdrawn somehow either through the northern ports, this option was considered, or through the eastern ports, through Vladivostok, and conflicts and skirmishes during this evacuation served as an impetus for the action of the Czechoslovaks.

Other units, such as, for example, the allied units that landed in the north of Russia in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, they appeared there from the outside, that is, they were brought on ships, but it was just like a continuation of the First World War in some respects. The landing plan was developed at Versailles by the Entente headquarters. The Entente strategists assumed that the Bolsheviks were largely proteges of the Germans, so if Germany was to be defeated, part of that victory would be to rebuild the Eastern Front against the Germans and the Bolsheviks. The restoration of the Eastern Front was possible with the support of patriotic Russian forces. And we see that after the revolution of 1717, after the Bolsheviks came to power, the allied diplomatic missions intensified their attempts to find these patriotic forces, wherever they were. These were various underground anti-Bolshevik organizations, but there were also negotiations with the Bolsheviks in an attempt to persuade them to break off relations with the Germans and restore the Eastern Front.

Unfortunately for the organizers of this event, they faced more stubborn resistance. The first flight of the Bolshevik detachments from the north turned into attempts to resist in separate areas, and then the civil war broke out in full. Many observers of this from the Allied detachments believed that German instructors were directing the fire, that is, if the Bolsheviks begin to shoot better, this means that experienced Germans have appeared. If we look at the recollections of British, American soldiers, we will see that this idea is very long, that although they are in Russia, they still fight against the Germans, and yet the First World War continues here in such exotic conditions, continued , at least until the conclusion of the Armistice of Compiègne, until the end of the First World War on the Western Front.

When the war on the Western Front ended, everyone assumed that they would now be taken back to their countries and the Civil War in Russia would somehow end. However, the problem was that it was no longer possible to carry out an active evacuation in November-December of the 18th year from the north, the White Sea froze. The second problem was that the allied powers did not yet know what to do with these units. If they sent them to help the patriotic white forces, then they could simply turn around and leave, saying that's it, we don't need you, we are withdrawing our troops. Therefore, in the following months we see such diplomatic hesitation, attempts to somehow get out of this uncomfortable situation without losing face. There were proposals, attempts, rather futile, to organize a conference on the Princes' Islands and put all the Bolsheviks and their opponents together at the same negotiating table.

All the anti-Bolshevik governments unanimously refused and said that there could be no negotiations with the Bolsheviks. The situation was complicated by the fact that the allied detachments that were on the territory of Russia, after November 18, after the evacuation that they expected did not occur, began to show more and more signs of discontent, that is, they refused to go on combat missions, wrote letters to the authorities, arranged speeches, strikes, cases of disobedience. Therefore, by the spring of 1919, we see that gradually the allied detachments begin to withdraw from hostilities.

Despite the fact that officially the intervention continued until the autumn of 1919, the combat significance of the allied forces was reduced to nothing in the spring of 1919.

That is, if we are talking about a period of active intervention, this is from the summer of 1818 to the autumn of 1818, after that there was some calm, after that there were cases of disobedience.

That is, if we return as a whole to the question of the Civil War and allied intervention, we see that at the first stages they overlap very much. In the subsequent years, already in the 19th year, the allied intervention gradually begins to fade away until the evacuation of the allied forces in the summer and autumn of the 19th year. Part of the problem of intervention, of course, was connected with this self-perception of the anti-Bolshevik forces and white governments. If until the moment when the First World War continued, they felt themselves really fighting shoulder to shoulder with the allies, then after the end of the First World War we see that among the white command, among the population, the question arises - what are they still doing here? Because these fears that we, the patriotic Russian forces, are now fighting not allies, but it is not clear with whom, they were strong enough. If the Allies still continue, the Entente countries continue to keep their troops here, do they not have any selfish interests of their own?

Undoubtedly, we see in this period, both in 1818 and 1919, that, in particular, those natural resources are being exported from the north, primarily timber, of course, that could be taken out from there. This gave reason to reproach them for colonial plunder, an attempt to plunder Russia, to take out valuable goods under the guise. On the other hand, we should not forget that at the same time, and the north is not a grain-producing territory, the allied powers were supplying food, that is, in many respects, the Arkhangelsk province was fed with imported allied bread. There were attempts to bring bread along the northern sea route from Siberia, even successful attempts. The only thing was that it was in the 19th year at the time of the collapse of the Kolchak front, that is, these volumes of transported food were minimal in the end, because, along with the retreating armies, it was not possible to organize a supply of solid food supplies to the mouths of the Ob and Yenisei.

In any case, if we look in general at the role played by the allied intervention during the years of the Civil War, we see that it helped to aggravate the military confrontation. That is, the uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps, the landing of allied units in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk marked the beginning of the emergence of such organized fronts. On the other hand, after this initial burst of activity, the importance of Allied intervention declined sharply, especially after the end of the First World War. We see fluctuations in the allied capitals, where the leadership of the Entente did not know what to do with these troops and tried to get out of an uncomfortable situation, we see demoralization in the allied forces, where they expected that now the Bolshevik government would collapse, but it did not collapse, it continued to keep power in their hands and even successfully led the offensive. All this led to the fact that in 1919 intervention was already a secondary factor in the civil war, which really acquired the character of an internal fratricidal civil war.

The “export of democracy” is not a new phenomenon. Western countries have already tried to do this in Russia 100 years ago. And they were convinced that complex geopolitical calculations against the conviction of the masses are inexpensive.

Alliance of Opponents

It is observed in the issue of anti-Russian intervention of 1819-1921, since both camps of opponents in the world war - the states of the Entente and the Quadruple Alliance with their allies - brought their troops into Russia.

At the same time, the declarations of both sides were equally lofty. On paper, the interventionists achieved:

• restoration of the "constitutional system" (it is not known what kind of device is meant by this concept);
• curbing the spread of the "Bolshevik contagion";
• protection of property of foreigners;
• stopping the "red terror", saving the lives of the innocent (the white terror did not bother anyone);
• ensuring the fulfillment of contractual obligations (allied within the framework of the Entente or the conditions of the Brest peace).

In this case, only the second statement was true. Western governments were really afraid of revolutions in their own states - Bolshevism and the Soviets were popular. The fear of "exporting the revolution" then became one of the reasons for the withdrawal of troops from Russia - they successfully re-agitated there. Georges Clemenceau, announcing the withdrawal of French troops, explained this by the fact that France did not need to import 50 thousand Bolsheviks (50 thousand - the number of the French intervention corps).

For the rest, foreigners needed

• weaken Russia militarily;
• secure access to its strategic resources;
• to get a government convenient for themselves in the country.

Some British leaders even insisted on the need to dismember Russia, but not everyone agreed with them on this issue.

Section of spheres of influence

14 states took part in foreign intervention during the Civil War. They acted in different regions, according to their own geographical location, capabilities and interests. Representatives of the white movement all had contacts with the interventionists and received help from them (which they could not do without). But at the same time, various white leaders had their “sympathizers” among the intervention states. Thus, the Ukrainian hetman Skoropadsky and General Krasnov bet on Germany, preferred England and France, sympathized with the United States.

The spheres of influence section looked something like this.

1. Germany - the territory of Ukraine, part of Western Russia, Transcaucasia.
2. Turkey - Transcaucasia.
3. Austria-Hungary - Ukraine.
4. England - the Black Sea, the Far East, the Caspian Sea, the Baltic, northern ports (Murmansk, Arkhangelsk).
5. France - Black Sea region (Crimea, Odessa), northern ports.
6. USA - northern ports, Far East.
7. Japan - Far East, Sakhalin.

Both the newly created states (Poland, Finland) and the “second league players” (Romania, Serbia) managed to participate in the intervention. At the same time, everyone tried to “grab their own” from the occupied territories to the maximum.

inglorious end

After the victory of the Soviets, the interventionists even managed to "shift everything from a sick head to a healthy one", accusing the intervention ... of the Soviet leadership, no matter how hard it is to suspect the Bolsheviks of such stupidity. All this was necessary to cover up the inglorious collapse of all the political ambitions of the West.

You can say anything about the Bolsheviks, but the fact is: no terror, no mobilization could provide the Red Army with victory over the white movement, the counter-revolutionary underground, the chieftain and 14 interventionist countries combined. This could only be ensured by mass popular support. It even existed in the homeland of the interventionists themselves: volunteers signed up to fight FOR the Soviets, the West was shaken by pro-Soviet strikes and demonstrations, and the interventionist soldiers scolded the commanders and could not understand what they had forgotten in Russia.

American troops parade in Vladivostok. 1918.

Armed intervention of foreign states in the events of the revolution and civil war on the territory of the former Russian Empire.

Prerequisites for intervention

The Entente states did not recognize Soviet power and considered the Bolsheviks a pro-German force. The British War Cabinet discussed the possibility of military intervention in Russia as early as December 7, 1917. On December 7-10 (20-23), 1917, an Anglo-French agreement was reached on the division of spheres of influence during interference in Russian affairs. France was supposed to interact with the anti-Bolshevik forces in Ukraine, the Crimea and Bessarabia, Great Britain - in the Caucasus. Even though the Allies formally refused to interfere in Russian internal affairs, they considered themselves "obliged to maintain ties with Ukraine, the Cossacks, Finland, Siberia and the Caucasus, because these semi-autonomous regions represent a significant part of Russia's strength."

Intervention of the Central Block

Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire used the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 to occupy Ukraine, the Baltic States, Finland, part of the Transcaucasus and Belarus. Contrary to the terms of peace, their troops also continued to move within the RSFSR. The strategic task of Germany was to establish control over the eastern coast of the Black Sea. On April 18, 1918, the Germans entered the Crimea, on May 1 they took Taganrog, and on May 8 they occupied Rostov. Near Bataysk, German troops clashed with the forces of the Kuban-Black Sea Republic, which was part of the RSFSR. After several days of fighting on May 30, 1918, Bataysk was taken by the German-Cossack troops. A demarcation line was established behind Bataysk, but on June 10, the Red Army landed troops in Taganrog. On June 12, the Germans defeated him and, as a response, landed on the Taman Peninsula on June 14, but under pressure from the Reds, they were forced to withdraw.

On May 25, 1918, the Germans landed in Poti and, with the consent of the authorities of the Georgian Democratic Republic, occupied Georgia. The Ottoman Empire launched an offensive against Baku, controlled by the Baku Commune and then by the Central Caspian. A British detachment took part in the defense of Baku. On September 15, 1918, Baku was taken by the Turks. On November 8, 1918, they also took Port Petrovsky (Makhachkala). Germany provided support to anti-Bolshevik movements in Russia, primarily to the Don army of P. Krasnov.

Entente intervention

The intervention of the Entente gradually developed. Romania was the first to come out against Soviet Russia. December 24, 1917 (January 6, 1918) there was a skirmish between a Romanian detachment moving from Kyiv and Russian soldiers at the station. Kishinev. The Romanians were disarmed. On December 26, 1917 (January 8, 1918), the Romanian troops crossed the Prut, but they were rebuffed. On January 8 (21), 1918, Romanian troops launched an offensive in Bessarabia. The Romanian command claimed that they came at the invitation of the Moldovan representative body of power Sfatul tariy, who officially denied this. On January 13 (26), 1918, Romanian troops occupied Chisinau, and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR severed relations with Romania. The Romanian command formally restored the power of Sfatul tsarii and launched repressions against leftist forces. Supporters of Soviet power and the preservation of Moldova as part of Russia retreated to Bendery. Here the Revolutionary Committee for the Salvation of the Moldavian Republic was created. In the Danube Delta, battles broke out between Romanian and Russian ships around Vilkovo. Having taken Bender on February 7, 1918, the Romanian troops carried out executions of the captured defenders of the city. In February, there were battles between Soviet and Romanian troops on the Dniester. On March 5-9, 1918, a Soviet-Romanian agreement was signed, according to which Romania undertook to withdraw troops from Bessarabia within two months. However, in the conditions of the Austro-German offensive in Ukraine, which was left by the Soviet troops, Romania did not comply with the agreement. Moreover, the Romanians captured Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. On April 9, 1918, Romania annexed Bessarabia (Moldova).

On March 5, 1918, a small British detachment, with the consent of L. Trotsky and the Murmansk Soviet, landed in Murmansk to protect the property of the Entente from a possible attack by pro-German forces. On May 24, 1918, the USS Olympia arrived in Murmansk. On March 5, 1918, in response to the murder of Japanese subjects in Vladivostok, a Japanese landing of 500 soldiers and a British one of 50 soldiers were landed. However, the city was not captured by them, Soviet power was preserved in it.

A large-scale civil war in Russia unfolded in May 1918, in particular due to the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps. Since the corps was formally subordinate to the French command, this performance can be regarded as an act of intervention, although initially the Czechoslovak military personnel acted on their own initiative. In July 1918, the Supreme Union Council left the corps in Russia, deploying its movement from the east, aimed at evacuation to France, to the west - in the direction of Moscow.

On June 1-3, 1918, the Supreme Military Council of the Entente decided to occupy Murmansk and Arkhangelsk with the allied forces.

In August, Japanese and American contingents of 7,000 soldiers each entered Vladivostok. Japanese troops, whose number increased to more than 25 thousand, occupied the Trans-Siberian Railway to Verkhneudinsk and Northern Sakhalin.

On July 17, representatives of the Murmansk Soviet, contrary to the position of the central Soviet government, signed an agreement with the allies to invite their troops to Murmansk. The allies increased their grouping here to 12-15 thousand soldiers.

On August 2, 1918, the Entente troops landed in Arkhangelsk. With their support, the anti-Bolshevik government of the north of Russia was created, headed by N. Tchaikovsky. On August 23, 1918, a concentration camp was created by the occupiers on Lake Mudyug.

On July 29, 1918, speaking at an expanded meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Lenin declared: “The civil war we have now ... has merged with the external war into one inseparable whole ... We are now at war with Anglo-French imperialism and with everything that is in Russia bourgeois, capitalist, who is making an effort to frustrate the whole cause of the socialist revolution and drag us into the war.” The intervention became a factor in the deepening of the civil war in Russia, without contributing to the success of the Entente in the fight against Germany and its allies, which was the official motive for the intervention. In reality, the intervention was aimed at eliminating Soviet power.

After the defeat of the Central Block in the World War, Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had to evacuate their troops, giving way to the Entente.

After the departure of the Austro-German troops in the Black Sea ports in December 1918, the troops of France and Greece landed. Small contingents were sent by Italy and Serbia. In Transcaucasia, the Turks were replaced by the British, who also entered Turkestan. On November 14, 1918, a battle took place between the Red and British troops for Dushak station. The battlefield was left to the Reds.

Intervention continued in the Far East, where Japan and the United States played a key role, but other Entente states, including China, also participated. In 1918-1920, there was a war between Soviet Russia and new states formed on the territory of the former Russian Empire - with Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. These events are connected with the intervention and at the same time are an integral part of the civil war on the territory of the former Russian Empire. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania defended themselves from the Red troops, which included Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians. German troops with the sanction of the Entente fought in Latvia. Thus, the intervention involved nine powers of the Entente (Great Britain and its dominions, France, USA, Japan, Greece, Italy, Serbia, China, Romania), German troops and soldiers of five new states (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) .

There were about 80 thousand interventionists in Ukraine, more than 100 thousand in the Far East. In the north - about 40 thousand. However, these forces did not actively attack Moscow and Petrograd.

Each of the participants in the intervention pursued their own goals. The leading powers of the Entente hoped that a dependent liberal government would arise in Russia, neighboring states from Romania to Japan expected to receive part of the territory of the decaying Russian Empire, new states pushed the border as far east as possible, coming into conflict with other claimants to these lands and with the white movement , who was assisted by the Entente.

In the Entente states themselves, the intervention was unpopular, the soldiers and the population were tired of the war. In March 1919, under the blows of the Red Army division under the command of N. Grigoriev, the French, Greeks and White Guards left Kherson and Nikopol, were defeated at Berezovka. On April 8, 1919, the Reds entered Odessa, abandoned by the interventionists.

Japanese troops actively participated in the battles in the Far East. On April 5, 1920, in the midst of negotiations on the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the Far East, the Japanese attacked the Soviet troops and, with the help of Cossack formations, carried out terror. More than 7 thousand people died, including the leader of the coastal partisans S. Lazo. On April 6, 1920, a “buffer” Far Eastern Republic was created to prevent a clash between Japan and the RSFSR.

In April 1919, France and its allies withdrew from the northern coast of the Black Sea. In March 1919, it was decided to begin the evacuation of British troops from Turkestan. In August, the British and their allies left the Transcaucasus and Central Asia, and by October 12, 1919, the North. After the withdrawal of interventionist troops from the European part of Russia, the Entente states continued to support the White movement. In October 1918 - October 1919, about 100 thousand tons of weapons, equipment and uniforms were delivered to the Whites by Great Britain alone. Denikin in the second half of 1919 received more than 250 thousand guns, 200 guns, 30 tanks, etc. The United States left the Far East only in 1920. Japan tried to maintain control over the Russian Far East for longer, but this was contrary to US policy. By July 15, 1920, an agreement was reached on the evacuation of Japanese troops from the Russian Far East, but its implementation was delayed by the Japanese side. In 1922, under US pressure, Japan was forced to evacuate its troops from the Russian Far East. However, Japan returned North Sakhalin to Russia only in 1925.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption

For another two days they stayed at the transshipment base, Russky Island - the very one where the APEC summit was recently held, and in Soviet times, the well-known "hazing" and crime "training" of the Marine Corps of the Pacific Fleet functioned.

The island became the place where 90 years ago what is called in history "foreign military intervention of the Civil War period" ended.

Every inhabitant of the USSR has heard about the "campaign of 14 powers against the young Soviet republic" since their school years.

Most mechanically crammed to get their mark and run faster to play football. Some had a bad habit of thinking about what they read.

What are the 14 powers? From books and films, everyone knew about the British, French, American, Japanese and Polish interventionists. The most savvy have heard something about the participation of the Greeks and Romanians. Still 14 does not come out.

How did it happen that in 1941-1942, having already completed two and a half five-year plans, having created a powerful army, having allies and suppressing internal enemies, we barely resisted Germany alone, and in 1918-1920, barefoot and hungry, we scattered almost not the whole world and their own whites to boot?

The number of intervention forces (losses are indicated in brackets)

Japan - 72 thousand (1400)

France - 35 thousand (50)

Britain (including dominions) - 22 thousand (600)

USA - 15.5 thousand (500)

Greece - 8 thousand (400)

Romania - 4 thousand (200)

Czechoslovaks - 39 thousand (4000)

Serbs - 4 thousand (500)

The answer to the first question can, after digging, be found in the specialized literature.

To get an impressive figure, communist historians included among the interventionists Canada, whose military personnel were in the ranks of the British contingent, Finland, whose participation in the intervention was reduced to the fact that she proclaimed independence, thereby encroaching on the territory that the Bolsheviks considered their own, Czechoslovakia and Serbia , whose citizens participated in the Civil War not on behalf of and on behalf of the governments of their countries, but privately, as well as Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.

The last, under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, occupied vast expanses of the former Russian Empire for several months, but they had nothing to do with the notorious Entente and not only did not seek to eliminate the Bolshevik regime, but, as it were, not vice versa.

The second answer sounds short and unexpected: because there was no serious external intervention in the Civil War.

By analogy with the "strange war" in Europe in 1939-1940, this can be called a "strange intervention".

It was politically advantageous for the Communists to present the matter in such a way that their opponents would not have held out for two weeks without "interventionists". In exactly the same way, today the Kremlin is trying to assure that without "feeding from behind the hill" there would be no opposition in Russia.

"The opponents of Soviet power had no political or economic support among the masses. And if it were not for the support provided by foreign imperialists, the Soviet state would have finished with the conspirators in a short time, crushing their resistance in the very first months after October ", - wrote the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

The corresponding chapters in the textbooks were called "Foreign Military Intervention and the Civil War of 1918-1920".

"Intervention" was put in the first place. The tragedy of a divided people was presented as a fight against external aggression, and the whites were presented as foreign puppets.

But once Vladimir Lenin let it slip. “There is no doubt that the most insignificant exertion of the forces of these three powers [Britain, France and Japan] would be quite enough to defeat us in a few months, if not a few weeks,” he wrote.

In fact, the interventionists acted with negligible forces, almost did not participate in battles with the regular Red Army, only indicating their presence on the outskirts of the country and solving private tasks, and the whites were far from unambiguously treated.

The only militarily significant acts of intervention were the actions of Japan in the Far East and the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. But the Japanese did not set themselves the task of changing power in distant Moscow, but sought to tear Primorye away from Russia. Pilsudski was also not interested in internal Russian affairs, but wanted to recreate "The Commonwealth from Sea to Sea".

Theaters of War

On December 3, 1917, the Entente Conference met in Paris to discuss the situation in Russia in connection with the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and the apparent inability and unwillingness of the new government to continue the war with Germany.

There was something to fear. In August 1917, 124 divisions of Germany and its allies were on the Eastern Front. By November 1918, 34 remained.

It was decided to prevent the Germans from occupying strategically important Russian ports, from falling into their hands of the weapons stored there, which the Entente supplied to the Tsar and Kerensky (in 1916-1917, the Allies sent about a million tons of cargo to Russia in the amount of 2.5 billion pre-revolutionary rubles) , and Baku oil.

Divided areas of responsibility. Britain got the North and the Caucasus, France - the Black Sea, Japan and the United States - the Far East.

Russian North

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption British parade in Arkhangelsk

On March 9, 1918, six days after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the British cruiser Gloria entered the port of Murmansk. A landing force of 2,000 people landed next.

On August 2, the British occupied Arkhangelsk. A day before their appearance, members of the underground white organization of Captain Chaplin raised an uprising and went to the pier with Russian tricolors to meet dear allies.

By the fall of 1918, the total number of expeditionary troops reached 23.5 thousand people, including about a thousand Americans and Frenchmen and 800 Danish volunteers - monarchists who went to fight for their king's sister, Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna.

In addition, the British command formed the Slavic Legion of 4.5 thousand people from Russian officers who received British uniforms and ranks.

A "government of the Northern Region" was formed, headed by the People's Socialist Nikolai Tchaikovsky. In the elections to the City Duma of Arkhangelsk in October 1918, 53% of the votes were received by the socialists, the rest - by the Octobrists and the Cadets. White General Yevgeny Miller led the army.

When Colonel Perkhurov raised an uprising in Yaroslavl, and Boris Savinkov in Rybinsk and Murom, the Bolsheviks panicked, deciding that they were acting in agreement with the British and wanted to "open the way to Moscow for them." But the British had no such idea.

The front from Olonets to Pechora did not budge in a year. The main burden of the fighting fell on the shoulders of the Millerites. The Allies sent teams of volunteers to participate in anti-partisan raids in impenetrable forests and lost 327 people in all the time.

Australian soldiers were especially willing to participate in such actions. Miller awarded St. George Crosses to a total of 39 foreigners.

History has left the name of the British captain Dyer, who died covering the retreat of his and Russian comrades.

The commander of the expeditionary force, General Poole, was removed by London in October 1918 for a "pro-Russian position": he demanded a build-up of forces and more active participation in hostilities. He was replaced by General Ironside.

In August 1919, the British government announced the withdrawal of its troops from Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The evacuation ended on 27 September.

Black Sea region

After the revolution in Germany, Ukraine turned into a boiling cauldron, where Reds, Whites, Petliurists and all kinds of "fathers" fought each other, the largest of which were Makhno and Grigoriev.

On October 27, 1918, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau ordered the commander of the Thessaloniki front, General d'Espera, to land troops in Ukraine in order to "destroy Russian Bolshevism."

D" Espere wrote to Paris: "My troops are not suitable for an offensive in a vast, frosty country. They [French soldiers] will not be enthusiastic about actions in Ukraine and Russia, and big problems may arise."

The operation was entrusted to the head of the French military mission in Romania, General Berthelot, who told Denikin's representatives that the allies were allocating 12 divisions for operations in southern Russia. These divisions were regularly mentioned in Soviet literature, although they never actually existed.

On December 18 and 27, 1800 and 8 thousand French soldiers landed in Odessa and Sevastopol, respectively, a significant part of which were Senegalese, Algerians and Vietnamese. On January 5, an additional 4 thousand British arrived in Odessa, and a Greek division arrived in Kherson and Nikolaev, mainly engaged in the evacuation of the Pontic Greeks to their historical homeland.

For about two weeks, both the Entente and the Germans were in the ports at the same time, waiting to be sent home.

The intervention in the south of Russia lasted four months and was remembered only by the execution of the French Communist Jeanne Labourbe, who was trying to rouse the soldiers and sailors to rebellion. It should be noted that the French were the only participants in the intervention on whom the Bolshevik propaganda had at least some effect.

According to the historian Andrei Burovsky, the French command did not disdain contacts with the crime boss Mishka Yaponchik, whose people controlled the Odessa port.

In February 1919, the French units set out from Odessa to the north, but when they came into contact with the detachments of Ataman Grigoriev, they returned without engaging in battle.

The Greeks tried to defend Kherson from the Grigorievites, losing about 400 people, and left the city on March 2.

Caucasus and Turkestan

On August 4, 1918, the British command sent a detachment of General Dunsterville to Baku from Persia, consisting of 1000 people, one artillery battery, three armored cars and two airplanes, but not to fight the Bolsheviks, but to protect the city from the advancing Turks and the allied Caucasian Islamic army.

The power in Baku was in the hands of the Provisional Dictatorship of the Central Caspian, which had recently overthrown the Bolshevik Baku Commune and relied mainly on the Armenian and Russian population.

In battles with the Turks and Azerbaijani volunteers, the British lost 189 people killed and on September 14 sailed on ships to Tabriz. On September 17, Azerbaijan declared independence.

After the defeat of Turkey in the World War, the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic entered into an alliance with Britain, and on November 17, the British returned to Baku, where they remained until August 1919. This time they had no one to fight with. The Red Army entered the city eight months later.

In Turkestan, on July 13, 1918, power passed into the hands of the Socialist-Revolutionary government, headed by the locomotive engineer Funtikov. On August 11, it turned to Britain with a request for military assistance to fight the Reds, who launched an offensive against Ashgabat.

During September, about 1,200 Anglo-Indian troops arrived under the command of Colonel Knollis, who, in the battle at the Dushak railway station, defeated twice the Red forces, losing about 200 people.

It was decided to refrain from further offensive. The British limited themselves to establishing control over the Ashgabat-Merv-Krasnovodsk railway. The last time they participated in the battle with the Bolsheviks was on January 16, 1919.

On January 21, 1919, the British government decided to withdraw its troops from Turkestan, which ended on April 5.

The ballad of the commissioners

The most famous episode of the British military presence in the Caspian region is the execution of 26 Baku commissars, which, however, the British had nothing to do with.

On August 1, 1918, having taken power in Baku, the Centro-Caspian Dictatorship imprisoned the leaders of the Baku Commune, accused mainly of the brutal suppression of the March anti-Bolshevik demonstrations, during which about 10 thousand people were killed.

During the assault on the city by the Turks on September 14-15, they were able to escape in confusion and sailed on a ship to Astrakhan, but, according to some sources, they did not reach it due to lack of fuel, according to others, the sailors did not want to save them and took them to Krasnovodsk, where the Funtikov government was in power. On September 20 they were executed.

During the Civil War, both the Reds and their opponents spared no blood, and did not stand on ceremony with captured enemies. The execution of the commissars would have remained a passing event if the Bolshevik propagandists had not subsequently come up with the idea of ​​entangling the British into the cause.

The famous painting by the artist Brodsky depicts commissars with their heads held high and British officers in pith helmets standing behind the backs of the firing squad.

In fact, the commissars were not shot - they were cut off by a Turkmen executioner. The British were not present at the execution and hardly knew about this event at all, and their soldiers in Turkestan did not wear colonial helmets.

Far East

The intervention not only ended, but also began in Vladivostok. On January 12, 1918, the Japanese cruiser "Iwami" stood in its roadstead. Official Tokyo has declared that it does not intend to "intervene in the question of the political structure of Russia," and the purpose of the military presence is to protect the life and property of Japanese citizens living in the city.

On April 4, under unclear circumstances, two Japanese citizens were killed in Vladivostok. Without waiting for the results of the investigation, the Japanese landed troops the next day. By October, the number of Japanese troops reached 72 thousand people, and they occupied the vast territories of Primorye and the Amur region. The 10,000th American corps of General Graves also arrived.

Graves openly said that he did not understand what he and his people were doing in Russia. According to historians, the main purpose of the American presence was not to fight the Bolsheviks, but to prevent the Japanese from grabbing too much for their own use. On May 31, 1921, the United States sent a note to Japan warning that they would not recognize any claims or rights resulting from the Japanese occupation of Siberia.

Several dozen American soldiers and sailors married Russian girls and remained with their families after the withdrawal of troops. The Bolsheviks supplied them with agricultural implements and created a "model commune named after the American proletariat." Fortunately, almost everyone had the sense to leave during the relatively vegetarian period of NEP.

After the defeat of Kolchak in January 1920, the further advance of the Red Army to the east would have meant an open clash with Japan. Moscow proposed the creation of a buffer state, and on April 6 the Far Eastern Republic (FER) was proclaimed, with Chita as its capital.

Japan agreed and on July 17, 1920, signed the Gongot Agreement with the FER, agreeing to the withdrawal of its troops from Transbaikalia. Only Primorye remained under Japanese control.

Tokyo hoped to acquire influence in the new state, but the calculation did not materialize. The participation of non-Bolshevik parties in the government of the Far Eastern Republic turned out to be nominal, and the future Soviet Marshal Vasily Blyukher was appointed Minister of War.

Convinced of the hostility of the FER, the Japanese in May 1921 brought to power in Vladivostok the white government of the Merkulov brothers, who were soon replaced by General Dieterikhs.

Meanwhile, it became clear that Moscow would not back down from Primorye, and Japan would either have to fight in earnest or leave.

The parliamentary opposition called the military presence in Russia a costly adventure. Influential admirals at the imperial court demanded a revision of the military budget in favor of the Navy.

In April 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to withdraw all troops from Russia. By September, Japan was left alone.

In September-October 1922, the Japanese, without coming into contact with the advancing units of Blucher, left the cities of Primorye they occupied, and then Vladivostok.

Reasons for indecision

Why did Western politicians do almost nothing to, in Churchill's famous expression, "destroy in the bud" the Bolshevik regime incompatible with their values?

Historians cite two main reasons, the first of which was that helping the Whites and, moreover, participating in hostilities in Russia were unpopular.

In Britain, the only prominent politician who advocated an uncompromising struggle against the Bolsheviks was Churchill, and the only cultural figure was Kipling.

By 1918 the peoples were dead tired of the war. In the eyes of Western inhabitants and soldiers, Russian communists were, first of all, people who decided to end the war - and they did the right thing!

The intellectuals almost without exception adhered to the left views. Pre-revolutionary Russia was for them "a country of whips and pogroms", which was not worth saving.

The expediency of assisting Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin is an issue all the more controversial because they are fighting for a united Russia David Lloyd George,
British Prime Minister

In the 1920s, Ivan Bunin, who found himself in exile, sent an open letter to Bernard Shaw, in which he recalled the atrocities of the Cheka and demanded that moral support for the Bolsheviks be stopped. Shaw replied that he knew the facts, but Western civilization, in his opinion, is at an impasse, and a grandiose alternative experiment is being set up in Russia.

When Secretary of War Churchill, at a cabinet meeting on December 23, 1918, demanded "not to leave the Russians to boil in their own juice," Prime Minister Lloyd George replied: "The socialist press already makes our interference in Russian affairs its main topic."

The political friends of the West in tsarist Russia were the Cadets and the Octobrists. They would have been willing to deal with them, but during the Civil War, the liberals did not show themselves in any way.

From Kolchak and Denikin, the allies, ignoring wartime conditions, demanded to immediately hold elections in the controlled territories and "democratize the regime."

They sought guarantees that after the victory over the Reds, Russia would be a democratic republic.

The leaders of the white movement, for their part, firmly adhered to the "principle of non-predecision": let's take Moscow, convene a Constituent Assembly, and let the legally elected representatives of the people decide the future of the country. However, their highly moral position did not find understanding either within the country or in the West. Kolchak and Denikin were suspected of being cunning and secretly dreaming of a dictatorship.

The representative of the Entente in Siberia, the French General Janin, did not lift a finger to save Kolchak. The participants in the events had the feeling that he considered the massacre of the "reactionary" just.

The second reason was that influential Western circles did not at all want the restoration of a strong Russian Empire.

Representatives of Kolchak, allegedly recognized by the Entente as the supreme ruler of Russia, were not invited to the Versailles Peace Conference.

"I am personally very afraid that a united Russia will become a great threat to us," Lloyd George told Churchill during Denikin's summer offensive in 1919.

"The expediency of assisting Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin is a matter all the more controversial because they are fighting for a united Russia. It is not for me to indicate whether this slogan is in line with British policy. One of our great people, Lord Beaconsfield, saw in a vast, mighty and great Russia, rolling like a glacier towards Persia, Afghanistan and India, the most formidable danger to the British Empire," said Lloyd George in the House of Commons.

The American State Department in 1919 prepared a memorandum with the words: "Russia should be divided into large natural areas, while none should form a strong state," to which a corresponding map was attached.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Soviet propaganda portrayed whites as foreign puppets

In the business and analytical circles of the United States, the point of view was widespread that the victory of the Bolsheviks was in the American interests, since they would drive Russia into poverty and backwardness with their policies.

The calculation was justified by half. The Soviet Union really did not become a competitor to the United States in world markets, but American experts did not foresee that the communists would create a monstrous war machine at the cost of unthinkable people's sacrifices and repressions.

According to historians, if the whites recognized the independence of all who wished it, they would have been helped in a completely different way. But at the helm of the movement were patriots - "non-dividers", who, even in the face of collapse, did not abandon the slogan: "Not an inch of land for help."

In the summer of 1919, Finnish President Kaarlo Stolberg offered Denikin to move the Finnish army to Petrograd in exchange for recognition of Finland's independence. Denikin replied that he would, of course, hang Lenin first, but Stolberg would be the second.

The Bolsheviks easily recognized the independence of the former national outskirts in words, and, having come into force, again crushed them under them. The Whites, with their officers' and intellectuals' notions of honor, considered it below their dignity to resort to such tricks.

Peace Appeals

The West has made attempts to establish a civil dialogue in Russia.

On January 10, 1919, US President Woodrow Wilson called on "all Russian governments" to hold a peace conference on the Princes' Islands in the Sea of ​​Marmara.

On February 4, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin, in a radio address, agreed in principle. In March, the American diplomat William Bullitt came to Moscow to discuss the details, who met with Lenin and was fed black caviar in the Kremlin.

The Whites flatly refused. General Kutepov said that the plan "is unacceptable on moral grounds, since the Bolsheviks are corrupt traitors in international affairs and brigands, robbers and murderers in internal affairs." Denikin sent a protest to the Supreme Commander of the Entente, Marshal Foch. In Arkhangelsk, Wilson's portraits were removed from shop windows.

In 1920, the British government called for negotiations between the Bolsheviks and Wrangel. This time they balked in Moscow.

Stingy help

Soviet films showed Red Army soldiers in bast shoes and well-groomed, well-fed, in uniforms from a brand new white.

The country lay in ruins, armies were formed in a hurry. There were also sandals, but the Reds got the huge arsenals of the tsarist army, located mainly in the central part of the country. Artillery, armored cars and airplanes they had in abundance.

Difficulties with weapons and equipment experienced just white. In the elite Denikin division of General Markov, dirty and burnt overcoats were considered special officer chic.

After the end of the World War, the Western governments had at their disposal huge surplus stocks of military equipment, and there were also captured German weapons. However, whites were helped sparingly and mostly for money. Kolchak handed over 147 tons of gold in payment for the supply.

Sometimes they slipped out worthless junk. Of the 20 tanks and 40 airplanes received by Yudenich from the British, only one tank and one aircraft were in good condition. Instead of Colt machine guns, Kolchak was sent obsolete and heavy French Saint-Etienne machine guns.

Deliveries rose when whites failed and fell when they succeeded. According to the historian Andrei Burovsky, the Allies were satisfied that the civil war in Russia lasted as long as possible.

The last act, according to some, sanity, according to others, betrayal, the West committed in the summer and autumn of 1920, leaving Wrangel without support.

Many historians are sure that if Britain had done for Wrangel what the United States did for Chiang Kai-shek in 1949, that is, sent the fleet into the Black Sea and took Perekop at the sight of naval guns, the dream of a "other Russia" on the "island Crimea" could materialize.