The Civil War is one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of the Russian people. For many decades, the Russian Empire demanded reforms. Seizing the moment, the Bolsheviks seized power in the country by killing the tsar. Supporters of the monarchy did not plan to cede influence and created the White movement, which was supposed to return the old state system. The fighting on the territory of the empire changed the further development of the country - it turned into a socialist state under the rule of the communist party.

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Civil war in Russia (Russian Republic) in 1917-1922.

In short, the Civil War is a turning point that changed fate forever Russian people: its result was the victory over tsarism and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

The civil war in Russia (the Russian Republic) took place between 1917 and 1922 between two opposing sides: supporters of the monarchy and its opponents, the Bolsheviks.

Features of the Civil War consisted in the fact that many foreign countries also took part in it, including France, Germany and Great Britain.

Important! The participants in the hostilities - white and red - during the Civil War destroyed the country, putting it on the verge of a political, economic and cultural crisis.

The civil war in Russia (Russian Republic) is one of the bloodiest in the 20th century, during which more than 20 million military and civilians died.

Fragmentation of the Russian Empire during the Civil War. September 1918.

Causes of the Civil War

Historians still do not agree on the causes of the Civil War, which took place from 1917 to 1922. Of course, everyone is of the opinion that the main reason is political, ethnic and social contradictions, which were never resolved during the mass protests of the Petrograd workers and military in February 1917.

As a result, the Bolsheviks came to power and carried out a number of reforms, which are considered to be the main prerequisites for the split of the country. At present, historians agree that The key reasons were:

• liquidation of the Constituent Assembly;
• way out by signing the Brest peace treaty, which is humiliating for the Russian people;
• pressure on the peasantry;
• the nationalization of all industrial enterprises and the elimination of private property, which caused a storm of discontent among people who lost their property.

Background of the Civil War in Russia (Russian Republic) (1917-1922):

• the formation of the Red and White movement;
• creation of the Red Army;
• local skirmishes between monarchists and Bolsheviks in 1917;
• execution of the royal family.

Stages of the Civil War

Attention! Most historians believe that the beginning of the Civil War should be dated 1917. Others deny this fact, since large-scale hostilities began to occur only in 1918.

Table the generally recognized stages of the Civil War are highlighted 1917-1922:

War periods	Description
	During this period, anti-Bolshevik centers are formed - the White movement. Germany moves troops to the eastern border of Russia, where small skirmishes with the Bolsheviks begin. In May 1918, an uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps takes place, against which the commander-in-chief of the Red Army, General Vatsetis, opposes. During the fighting in the fall of 1918, the Czechoslovak Corps was defeated and retreated beyond the Urals.
Stage II (late November 1918 - winter 1920)	After the defeat of the Czechoslovak Corps, the coalition of the Entente countries begins hostilities against the Bolsheviks, supporting the White movement. In November 1918, the White Guard Admiral Kolchak launched an offensive in the East of the country. The generals of the Red Army are defeated and in December of the same year they surrender the key city of Perm. By the forces of the Red Army at the end of 1918, the offensive of the Whites was stopped. In the spring, hostilities begin again - Kolchak conducts an offensive towards the Volga, but the Reds stop him two months later. In May 1919, General Yudenich was advancing on Petrograd, but the Red Army once again managed to stop him and oust the Whites from the country. At the same time, one of the leaders of the White movement, General Denikin, seizes the territory of Ukraine and prepares to attack the capital. The forces of Nestor Makhno begin to take part in the Civil War. In response to this, the Bolsheviks open a new front under the leadership of Yegorov. In early 1920, Denikin's forces are defeated, forcing the foreign monarchs to withdraw their troops from the Russian Republic. In 1920 a radical fracture occurs in the Civil War.
Stage III (May - November 1920)	In May 1920, Poland declares war on the Bolsheviks and advances on Moscow. The Red Army in the course of bloody battles manages to stop the offensive and launch a counterattack. The "Miracle on the Vistula" allows the Poles to sign a peace treaty on favorable terms in 1921. In the spring of 1920, General Wrangel launched an attack on the territory of Eastern Ukraine, but in the autumn he was defeated, and the Whites lost Crimea. Red Army generals win on the Western Front in the Civil War - it remains to destroy the White Guard grouping in Siberia.
Stage IV (late 1920 - 1922)	In the spring of 1921, the Red Army begins to advance to the East, capturing Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. White continues to suffer one defeat after another. As a result, the commander-in-chief of the White movement, Admiral Kolchak, is betrayed and handed over to the Bolsheviks. A few weeks later the Civil War ends with the victory of the Red Army.

Civil War in Russia (Russian Republic) 1917-1922: briefly

In the period from December 1918 to the summer of 1919, the Reds and Whites converge in bloody battles, however until neither side gains an advantage.

In June 1919, the Reds seized the advantage, inflicting one defeat after another on the Whites. The Bolsheviks carry out reforms that appeal to the peasants, and therefore the Red Army gets even more recruits.

During this period there is an intervention from the countries of Western Europe. However, none of the foreign armies manage to win. By 1920, a huge part of the army of the White movement was defeated, and all their allies left the Republic.

In the next two years, the Reds advance to the east of the country, destroying one enemy grouping after another. It all ends when the admiral and the supreme commander of the White movement, Kolchak, are taken prisoner and executed.

The results of the civil war were catastrophic for the people

Results of the Civil War 1917-1922: briefly

I-IV periods of the war led to the complete ruin of the state. The results of the Civil War for the people were catastrophic: almost all enterprises lay in ruins, millions of people died.

In the Civil War, people died not only from bullets and bayonets - the strongest epidemics raged. According to foreign historians, taking into account the decline in the birth rate in the future, the Russian people lost about 26 million people.

Destroyed factories and mines brought industrial activity to a halt in the country. The working class began to starve and left the cities in search of food, usually going to the countryside. The level of industrial production fell by about 5 times compared to the pre-war level. Production volumes of cereals and other agricultural crops also fell by 45-50%.

On the other hand, the war was aimed at the intelligentsia, who owned real estate and other property. As a result, about 80% of the representatives of the intelligentsia class were destroyed, a small part took the side of the Reds, and the rest fled abroad.

Separately, it should be noted how results of the civil war loss by the state of the following territories:

• Poland;
• Latvia;
• Estonia;
• partly Ukraine;
• Belarus;
• Armenia;
• Bessarabia.

As already mentioned, the main feature of the Civil War is foreign intervention. The main reason why Britain, France and others interfered in the affairs of Russia is the fear of a worldwide socialist revolution.

In addition, the following features can be noted:

• during the hostilities, a confrontation unfolded between various parties that saw the future of the country in different ways;
• fighting took place between different sections of society;
• the national liberation character of the war;
• anarchist movement against reds and whites;
• peasant war against both regimes.

Tachanka from 1917 to 1922 was used as a means of transportation in Russia.

“every righteous blood that you shed will be exacted from you” (Luke 11:51)

95 years ago, in 1917, events took place in Russia that radically transformed the way and traditions of life of the peoples of our vast multinational country, changing its entire centuries-old history - the February and October revolutions. As a result of these two grandiose events, Russia turned from a great power, with which not only Europe, but the whole world was considered, into a certain space with dozens of self-proclaimed states, torn apart by enmity and ambitions of various rulers and leaders, a territory where the Civil War went on for years, and hundreds of thousands of people died in bloody battles, died from wounds, hunger and disease.

Who unleashed the Civil War? What are its reasons? Any revolution is a complex and lengthy process of changing moods in broad social strata. It was believed that the February Revolution was "bloodless". Minister of the Provisional Government Pavel Milyukov stated: “Both revolutions stood in complete contrast with each other. The first, February, we called "bloodless" and considered national and reasonable. But the second revolution, the October one, on the contrary, divided the nation and became the signal of a long civil war in which the worst forms of violence were used. This assessment is only partly correct, because it is precisely as a result of The February Revolution, against the background of the people's fatigue from the ongoing World War, class hatred became extremely aggravated. And here is freedom! Many understood freedom as permissiveness - you can rob and smash the landowners' estates, kill policemen, and inflict reprisals on officials and officers. But if during the February Revolution all this was of a spontaneous, unorganized nature, then the October Revolution legitimized these wild reprisals by decreeing terror, mass executions, robberies, and the arrest of hostages. Moreover, the usurpation of power by the Soviets was met with hostility, of course, by the former ruling classes. The Brest peace especially offended the patriotic feelings of the officers and most of the intelligentsia. It was after this act that voluntary detachments of the White Guard began to be massively formed. Violence from the side of the Soviet government caused retaliatory violence.

Red Goals were clearly indicated in the "Internationale" - the anthem of the Bolsheviks "... we will destroy the whole world of violence to the ground, and then we will build ours, we will build a new world ...", and for this it was necessary:

Seize and hold power at any cost, including by force of arms;

Destroy the old state system: legislative and executive power, local government, armed forces, police, court, prosecutor's office, advocacy;

- "Turn the imperialist war into a civil war!" (V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), and through the Civil War to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat (in fact, the Bolshevik Party), to abandon the government of the country by democratic methods; to suppress the resistance of the overthrown classes by force;

Eliminate private ownership of land, tools and means of production;

Overcoming the natural inequality of people, to impose on people a "new consciousness" - a dangerous utopia of socialism, communism, i.e. "levelling".

White Goals were diametrically opposed to the goals of the Reds. The program of General L.G. Kornilov dated January 18, 1918: It was planned: “Restoration of the rights of citizenship: all citizens are equal before the law without distinction of gender and nationality. Destruction of class privileges, preservation of the inviolability of the person and home, freedom of movement, residence, etc. Full restoration of freedom of speech and press; restoration of freedom of industry and trade, the abolition of the nationalization of private enterprises. Restoration of the Russian army on the basis of genuine military discipline. The army must be formed on a voluntary basis, without committees, commissars and elected positions; full fulfillment by Russia of allied commitments and international treaties. The war must be carried through to the end in close unity with our allies. Peace must be concluded universal and honorable on the democratic principle, that is, with the right to self-determination of the oppressed peoples. Introduction in Russia of universal compulsory primary education with broad school autonomy. The convocation of the Constituent Assembly, thwarted by the Bolsheviks, to which all the fullness of state-legal power should be transferred. It must work out the basic laws of the Constitution and finally construct the state system of Russia. Restoration of the integrity of the Russian Empire, violated by the shameful conditions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, concluded by the Bolsheviks with the Germans; restoration of order in the country, destroyed by the October coup. Restoration of the foundations of private ownership of land, tools and means of production. Obtaining by the Church full autonomy in matters of religion, the elimination of state guardianship over religious matters, freedom of religion is fully implemented. The complex agrarian question is submitted for resolution to the Constituent Assembly. Before the development of the final form of the land issue and the issuance of relevant laws, any kind of anarchist-grabbing actions of citizens are recognized as unacceptable. Equality of all citizens before the court. The death penalty remains in force, but is applied only in cases of the gravest state crimes. Preservation for the workers of all the political and economic gains of the revolution in the field of labor regulation, freedom of workers' unions, meetings and strikes, with the exception of the forcible socialization of enterprises and workers' control, leading to the death of domestic industry. Recognition for the individual peoples that are part of Russia, the right to broad local autonomy, provided, however, the preservation of state unity. Poland, Ukraine and Finland, formed into separate, national-state units, should be widely supported by the Government of Russia in their aspirations for state revival, in order to further solder the eternal and indestructible union of fraternal peoples.

Approximately the same were the programs of other leaders of the White movement: Generalov A.I. Denikin, P.N. Wrangel, A.V. Kolchak. None of them set as their goal the restoration of the monarchy, the elimination of the gains of the February Democratic Revolution, the dismemberment of Russia or its transfer to foreign interventionists. Here, for example, is the program of General A.I. Denikin: “The unity of all forces in the fight against the Bolsheviks. The unity of the country and power. The widest autonomy of the outskirts. Loyalty to agreements with allies in the war. Preservation of United and Indivisible Russia.

What was the policy of the Bolsheviks? Representatives of the ruling circles - nobles, bourgeois, officials, officers, merchants were expelled from all state and local authorities, they all lost their former rights and privileges. Their lack of rights and discrimination were enshrined in decrees of the Soviet government. The attitude towards them and their families was mostly mocking, they were treated as freeloaders and parasites. Distrust was shown even to those of them who collaborated with the Soviet government. For this reason, many representatives of the old governmentNaturally, they strove with all their might to restore their former position.

In addition, the RCP(b) did not want to share power with anyone. The activities and publication of newspapers of other parties were banned, except for the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party, but after July 6, 1918, this party as well. All civil rights and freedoms of a person, which were guaranteed by the tsar's manifesto on October 17, 1905, were abolished, namely: inviolability of the person and home, freedom of assembly, speech, press, universal, equal and direct elections by secret ballot. For the period from 1905 to 1913. elections were held to the State Duma!, 2nd, 3rd and 4th convocations from various parties, including opposition parties. The Bolsheviks were also elected to the 4th Duma: A.E. Badaev, G.I. Petrovsky, M.K. Muralov, N.R. Shagov, F.N. in 1915 from the Duma). The Pravda newspaper, published since 1912, was banned several times for anti-government articles, but after some time it was published under a new name. So Emperor Nicholas II was not so “bloody” as the Bolshevik press portrayed him. And if we talk about the "bloody" regime, then over the last 50 years of tsarist rule - from 1863 to 1913, about 7,000 people were executed. (including criminals), and in the first years of Soviet power, the number of executed was tens and hundreds of thousands of people.

Under the slogan "Expropriate the expropriators!" the Bolsheviks destroyed the centuries-old foundations of property, plundered and destroyed landowners' estates, cultural objects. In practice, mass robbery began, and not only "landlords and bourgeois", but also - mainly - ordinary peasants - the breadwinners of the Russian land. Already two days after the October Revolution, on November 9, the first food detachments took bread and other agricultural products from the peasants.

In the Cossack regions, in accordance with the letter of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) dated January 24, 1919, signed by Sverdlov, the policy of “decossackization” was carried out with cruel methods: mass terror, up to execution, in relation to the Cossacks who fought against Soviet power, confiscation bread and other agricultural products. The Cossacks were deprived of all rights and privileges and equated with newcomers "out of town".

The traditional concepts of religion and faith were destroyed, religion was declared "an opium for the people", "priestly nonsense", hundreds of churches and monasteries were looted and destroyed, desecration of shrines took place, and clergy, especially the Russian Orthodox Church, were persecuted, declared reactionaries, counter-revolutionaries; they were arrested and imprisoned in prisons and concentration camps, tens of thousands of them were executed. The most amazing thing is that all these destructions, arrests and executions were carried out by the hands of the same Russian people who yesterday still visited churches, baptized and married their children, prayed to God. Where was their faith in God? In the cross and icons? But Orthodoxy should be not only and not so much in icons and the cross, but in the minds and hearts of people, in their observance of the ten commandments of Christ. Did those who destroyed churches, mocked shrines and shot priests have a genuine Faith?!

The traditional views of the Russian people on culture and spiritual values ​​were destroyed; The concepts of “socialist culture”, “socialist morality and morality” were imposed on the people, “everything that helps to build a communist society is moral,” Lenin proclaimed. Everything else was declared "bourgeois". Creative freedom was banned. Sexual promiscuity was encouraged, even the current “Down with shame and disgrace!” arose. In some provinces, it came to decrees on the socialization of women. The internal policy of the Bolsheviks, the disdainful attitude towards the intelligentsia, pushed most of it away from cooperation with the "people's" government. As a result - mass forced emigration from Russia of scientists, engineers, doctors, teachers, writers, artists.

The cruel, anti-democratic policy of the Soviet government, and led to the beginning of the Civil War.

About terror. They write and talk a lot about white terror, about red terror. Whose terror was more cruel? The truth is that there was violence on both sides. Some, propagandized and led by the Bolsheviks, strove for a general redistribution: of the whole world, and of the neighbor's economy, his land and cattle. Others did not agree that they were being robbed, deprived of property, land, housing, which their great-grandfathers owned. Old grievances and claims broke out. The villainous murder by the Bolsheviks - contrary to all human and state laws - of the royal family, including children - opened the floodgates of general mistrust, despair, bestial hatred, unprecedented cruelty, fear, meanness and betrayal. All human and religious values ​​were trampled, the sacred was mixed with dirt, everything spiritual was forgotten, everything material was turned into a bogey. "Rob and kill!" The war was not only between the Whites and the Reds, it was between the city and the countryside, between nations and estates, between good and evil, the war entered every home, every family. War without borders and without mercy.

The writer Vladimir Nikolaev characterizes this period well in the novel “Sivtsev Vrazhek”: “Wall against wall are two fraternal armies, and each had its own truth and its own honor. There were heroes both there and here, and the happiness of the heart too, andvictims, and feats, and high extra-book humanity, and animal brutality, and fear, and disappointment, and strength, and weakness, and dull despair. It would be too simple both for people and for history if there was only one truth and only falsehood was fought; but there were and fought among themselves two truths and two honors, and the battlefield was littered with the corpses of the best and most honest.

The Soviet government gave terror mass character and the force of law. A special apparatus was created to destroy the "class enemy". In January 1918, at the 3rd Congress of Soviets, the leader of the Bolsheviks, V Ulyanov (Lenin), declared: “Not a single issue of the class struggle has ever been resolved in history except by violence. Violence, when it occurs on the part of the working people, the exploited masses against the exploiters – yes, we are for such violence.” Fulfilling the instructions of the leader, the Soviet government created the "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Fight against Counter-Revolution and Sabotage" (VChK) headed by F. Dzerzhinsky. This punitive body dealt mercilessly and cruelly with those who did not agree with the policy of the Bolsheviks. On the mere suspicion of hostile actions or statements, people were seized, imprisoned, executed - without trial or investigation. The court, the prosecutor's office, the legal profession were recognized as "bourgeois relics". It was necessary to be guided only by "revolutionary expediency". The main criterion for accusation is not specific guilt, but class affiliation, and the leaders of the Cheka Peters, Latsis, Atarbekov and others called for this. The number of repressions in connection with the murder of Volodarsky in Petrograd and the attempt on Lenin's life increased especially. The order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs No. 15 of September 4, 1918 stated: “Significant numbers of hostages must be taken from the bourgeoisie and officers. At the slightest attempt at resistance or the slightest movement among the White Guards, mass execution must be unconditionally used. And in response to the murder of Uritsky, 900 people were shot. And after the assassination attempt on Lenin, more than 6 thousand people were shot, about 15 thousand people were imprisoned, more than 6 thousand people were sent to concentration camps (that's when and where they appeared!), about 4 thousand people were taken hostage . It was the triumph of the Bolshevik "democracy"! The “work” of the Cheka was actually a war of the “Reds” against their own people. Terror against the people.

The whites did not have such directives, but there were orders for reprisals against traitors. So, for example, the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteer Army dated November 14, 1918 read: “... To the shame and disgrace of the Russian officers, many officers, even in high ranks, serve in the ranks of the Red Army. I declare that no motive will justify this act. Waging a mortal battle with Bolshevism, we do not need provocateurs. All those who did not immediately leave the ranks of the Red Army will face the curse of the people and the field court of the Russian Army - harsh and merciless. Lieutenant General Denikin. As already mentioned, the Whites also used mass brutal reprisals against those whom they considered the enemy, but these reprisals were rather spontaneous spokesmen for hatred and were not decreed from above.

The Reds won the Civil War, because the leaders of the Whites made serious mistakes: they failed to avoid moral degeneration and internal disunity; they also failed to create an effective power structure, resolve the land issue and convince the national outskirts that the slogan "United and Indivisible Russia" does not contradict their interests. A. I. Denikin’s confession, made by him in 1925, is curious: “None of the governments (anti-Bolsheviks - Z. F.) could create a flexible and strong apparatus that could swiftly and quickly overtake, force, act and force others to act. The Bolsheviks also did not capture the soul of the people, they also did not become a national phenomenon, but they were infinitely ahead of us in the pace of their actions, in energy, mobility and ability to coerce. We, with our old methods, old psychology, old vices of the civil and military bureaucracy, with the Petrine table of ranks, could not keep up with them ... ".

The inability or unwillingness of the leaders of the White movement to win over the people, the peasantry, weak, even naive propaganda, and the absence of clearly defined programs and goals also played a role. Supporters of the White movement often had a poor idea of ​​the life of the common people, their needs and aspirations, treated the workers and peasants with distrust. Even such "good" words of the Whites as democracy, the constitution, universal suffrage, the right to vote, press, assemble, etc. - did not find a response in the soul of a Russian peasant or a worker - yesterday's peasant. His thinking did not go beyond protecting his village, his home.

The Reds, on the other hand, had more active, more sophisticated propaganda. Their slogans are “Peace to the huts, war to the palaces!”, “Land to the peasants!”, “Factories to the workers!”, “The Whites bring us the return of the tsarist autocracy, the power of the landowners and capitalists”, “We will build a new, happy future”, “We are on the mountain We will fan the world fire to all the bourgeoisie!” - these slogans attracted the masses, although they carried colossal destructive power. The peasantry for the most part believed the Bolsheviks and sided with them. And when he became disillusioned with their politics, saw the lies in the Bolshevik slogans, and began to actively advocate for his rights and a “better lot”. One indicator of this was the mass desertion from the Red Army in 1919, the year of the most severe trials for Soviet power: in February - 26115 people, in March - 54696, in April - 28326, in June 146453, in July - 270737, in August - 299839, in September - 228850, in October - 190801, in November 263671, in December - 172831. And in total - 1761165 people! Often, captured Red Army soldiers fought, and quite successfully, in the ranks of the White armies. But it was already too late. Power, and considerable, was on the side of the Soviet government.

Another reason. The leaders of the White movement rejected any concessions to the supporters of national independence. At the same time, the Bolsheviks promised unlimited national self-determination, which benefited Lenin. (It is only known that the Bolsheviks did not fulfill this promise either then or later. Such was the price of their other promises.)

The territorial disunity of the White armed forces also played a significant role, while the Reds, located in the center of the European part of the country, had an advantage in replenishing the size of the army, maneuvering troops and supplying them with weapons, ammunition, and provisions. It also mattered numerically - 1.5 - 2.5 times - the advantage of the Red Army over the Whites.

We should not forget about this factor: on the side of the Reds, voluntarily or under duress, about 700 generals (!) And 50 thousand officers of the old army served, who not only developed plans for military operations against the White armies, but also professionally led the Red detachments. “Without these officers, we would not have created the Red Army,” Lenin admitted,

Yes, and assistance to the Whites from the Entente countries became more and more limited, until it stopped altogether.

Consequences of the Civil War. The peoples of Russia suffered colossal human losses. In total, 950 thousand people were killed and died from wounds in the Red Army, in the White and national armies - 650 thousand people, in partisan detachments - 900 thousand people. 1.2 million people died from the red terror, 300 thousand people from the white terror, 500 thousand people from partisan terror. Died from hunger and disease - 6 million people. Total dead10, 5 million people

The country is in ruins. Industrial production dropped to 4–20% of the 1913 level, agriculture by 40%. In most provinces, hunger and disease reigned: typhus, "Spanish flu". Peasant farms are ruined. The Bolsheviks were afraid of the peasantry, which then accounted for 83% of the population of Russia, but, treating the peasant owners as reactionaries, they demanded from them: "Bread, bread!" And they beat out bread with the help of food detachments and committees (committees of the poor), dooming the robbed to starvation and death. Leon Trotsky's dismissive statement is characteristic: "The peasantry constitutes the historical manure from which the working class grows." Due to the dissatisfaction of the peasantry with the Soviet government, which was trying to introduce “fixed prices”, due to robbery by the food detachments, a wave of peasant unrest and uprisings swept across Russia, which covered 118 counties. A particularly fierce struggle was waged in the Volga region, which was helped by the rebellion of the Czechoslovak corps, on the Don, Kuban, in Western Siberia, in Primorye. In the Tambov region, by order of M. Tukhachevsky No. 0116 of June 12, 1921, the Red troops unleashed cruel repressions on the peasants, up to executions and the use of asphyxiating gases. (The movie “Once upon a time there was a woman” tells well about this period). In 1921 sailors revolted in Kronstadt, demanding re-elections of the Soviets, but without commissars and communists. Until 1928, the Basmachi movement continued in Central Asia.

In connection with these events, it is impossible not to recall the angry words of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Russia (1865-1925) from a letter with which he addressed the Council of People's Commissars on October 13 (26), 1918: “...Seizing power and calling on the people to trust you, what promises did you make to them, and how did you keep those promises? In truth, you gave him a stone instead of bread and a snake instead of a fish (Matt.-7.9.10). To the people, exhausted by the bloody war, you promised to give peace "without annexations and indemnities." Instead of annexations and indemnities, our great homeland has been conquered, dismembered, and in payment of the tribute imposed on it, you are secretly exporting to Germany the gold accumulated not by you ... You have divided the entire people into warring camps and plunged them into fratricide unprecedented in cruelty ... You replaced the love of Christ with hatred and, instead of peace, you artificially kindled class enmity. And the end of the war you have created is not foreseen, since you are striving with the hands of Russian workers and peasants to bring triumph to the specter of world revolution... Nobody feels safe, everyone lives under constant fear of search, robbery, eviction, arrest, execution... bishops, priests, monks and nuns, innocent of anything, but simply on a sweeping accusation of some kind of vague and indefinite counter-revolutionary ... By tempting the obscure and ignorant people with the possibility of easy and unpunished gain, you misled their conscience and drowned out in them the consciousness of sin , but no matter what names the atrocities hide behind, murder, violence, robbery will always remain serious and crying out to heaven for revenge by sins and crimes ... Celebrate the anniversary of your stay in power by freeing prisoners, ending bloodshed, violence, ruin, oppression of faith, turn not to destruction, but to the establishment of order and legality, give the people the desired and well-deserved rest about t internecine strife. Otherwise, “every righteous blood that you shed will be exacted from you” (Luke 11:51), “by the sword you yourselves who take the sword will perish” (Matt. 25:52).

The response of the Council of People's Commissars was silence and increased repressions against the clergy and the people.

One of the most significant consequences of the Civil War was the flight and forced evacuation of members of the former ruling classes and intellectuals. In addition to the soldiers and officers of the White armies, tens of thousands of people left Russia - voluntarily or under duress. Of the most famous, several hundred people left the country in 1917-1931, especially in 1920-1921, including world-famous people: Vladimir Zworykin, an inventor in the field of electronics, aircraft designers Igor Sikorsky and Mikhail Grigorashvili, an aeronautical engineer and pilot - Tester Boris Sergievsky, economist Vasily Leontiev, chemist Alexei Chichibabin, historians Georgy Vernadsky, Pavel Milyukov, writers Leonid Andreev, Sasha Cherny, Alexander Kuprin, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Arkady Averchenko, Ivan Bunin, Zinaida Gippius, Nadezhda Teffi, Marina Tsvetaeva , Ivan Shmelev, Evgeny Zamyatin, writer and historian Fyodor Stepun; well-known doctors: pathologist Alexander Pavlovsky, immunologist Petr Grabar, surgeon Alexander Aleksinsky, embryologist Konstantin Davydov, therapist Kazimir Buinevich, physiologist Boris Babkin, neuropathologist Grigory Troshin; famous world-famous chess player Alexander Alekhin; painter and graphic artist Grigory Kandinsky, painters Leonid Pasternak and Marc Chagall; sculptors Sergei Konenkov, Stepan Nefedov (Erzya) and Osip Zadkin; film actors Ivan Mozzhukhin and Mikhail Chekhov; legendary singer Fyodor Chaliapin; popular pop singers Pyotr Leshchenko, Alexander Vertinsky and the famous performer of Russian folk songs Nadezhda Plevitskaya; composers Sergei Rachmaninov and Alexander Grechaninov; director Fyodor Komissarzhevsky; famous musicians: violinist Yasha Kheyfets, pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Alexander Siloti, cellist Grigory Pyatigorsky; choreographers and teachers Mikhail Fokin, Serge Lifar, Georgy Balanchine, ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya and many, many others...

In 1922-1923, about 200 people were deported from the RSFSR on the so-called "philosophical ships". including philosophers Ivan Ilyin, Nikolai Lossky, Sergei Bulgakov, Semyon Frank, historians Lev Karsavin and Sergei Melgunov, sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, historiographer Fyodor Stepun and many others.

As one of the leaders of the Bolsheviks, Lev Trotsky, cynically admitted: “We expelled these people because there was no reason to shoot them, and it was impossible to endure.” It also had an effect on the fact that the Soviet government strove during these years to establish normal relations with foreign states, and such a “loyal” policy towards the intelligentsia contributed to this goal.

Total emigrated2 million people And Russia has lost everything12.5 million their sons and daughters!

What can be said at the end?

1. The February revolution in Russia was a forced and necessary action, because. the autocratic system has outlived its usefulness, hindering not only the development of the military operations of the Russian army in the war, but also the further development of Russia along the path of democracy and progress.

2. The Provisional Government, which replaced the monarchy, was also unable to rally society around itself, did not have a clear program of action, often acted against the will of the people and the voice of reason, in many cases allowing softness, short-sightedness and inability to see problems and prospects, and moreover, inability to to organize the fulfillment of vital tasks for the people. It is appropriate to quote here the words of the famous philosopher Pitirim Sorokin: “The fall of the regime is not so much the result of the efforts of the revolutionaries, but rather the decrepitude, impotence and inability for the creative work of the regime itself.”

3. The October coup was illegal and unnecessary. The Constituent Assembly elected by the people of Russia could solve many state issues on a democratic basis. But it was dispersed by the Bolsheviks, who saw themselves in a minority among the elect. The Bolsheviks usurped power. And the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk stimulated the beginning of a bloody, large-scale, fratricidal Civil War.

4. The moral and ethical aspect of the mass terror of the warring parties - "all against all" - turned out to be possible due to the general savagery of the warring parties, their extreme bitterness and categorical unwillingness to heed the voice of reason.

5. Believing the Whites, believing the Reds, having risen to the Civil War, people finally got some - life in a foreign land, often in poverty and lack of rights, and others - the construction of socialism, i.e. destruction of Temples and desecration of the Faith, endless five-year plans in four years, collective farm slavery, famine of the 30s, omnipotence of the VChK-OGPU-NKVD-KGB and fabricated lawsuits, mass repressions and the Gulag, elections without choice, constant need for food, housing , work and everywhere lies, lies, lies ...

Unfortunately, we feel the echoes of these phenomena even now, almost a century later! Yes, it is easier to invent and create something material - a new device, a car, an atomic bomb, a TV set, a computer - than to change the consciousness of a person who has been subjected to such a devastating impact of two World Wars and revolutions during the 20th century.

6. We, who live now, must understand that the path of the revolution is a dead end. Never and nowhere in the world, in any country over the past almost 100 years has a revolution led to the happiness and prosperity of people, but only to the degradation of society, the destruction of a thousand-year-old culture, to spiritual and material impoverishment of people, to murders and wars in the name of an illusory "happy future". As Patriarch Kirill rightly noted: “Not a single revolution has carried out the slogans it called for. Not a single revolution has resolved the contradictions of society.”

Whoever calls for war is a criminal!

Whoever calls for revolution and civil war is a hundred times more criminal! God save us from these criminals!

Now decide for yourself who won the Civil War.

Drawings by artist Pavel Ryzhenko

49. Civil war in Russia: causes, course, results: Causes of the civil war in historical literature

World-historical theory:materialistic direction (Kim, Kukushkin Zimin, Rabakov, Fedorov): After the October Socialist Revolution, Soviet power was established throughout the country in a few months, the people began to build a new society on communist principles. The world bourgeoisie, with the aim of restoring the capitalist order, unleashed the Civil War in Russia. The territory of Russia was divided among the capitalist countries, and the internal counter-revolution received political, economic, military assistance from world capitalism.

liberal direction (Ostrovsky, Utkin, Ionov, Pipes, Kobrin, Skrynnikov): As a result of a coup d'etat, the Bolsheviks seized power, began to eliminate private property and unleashed the Red Terror, which marked the beginning of the Civil War in Russia.

Regarding the beginning of the Civil War, historians of different directions also disagree. materialist historians they date the war from the entry of the Entente troops into the territory of Russia and the emergence of counter-revolutionary armies, i.e. since November 1918. liberal historians. consider the beginning of the Civil War the coming of the Bolsheviks to power - i.e. from October 1917

Causes of the war

The civil war in Russia was an armed struggle between various groups of the population, which initially had a regional (local), and then acquired a national scale. Among the reasons for the start of the Civil War in Russia were:

changes in the political system in the state;

the Bolsheviks' rejection of the principles of parliamentarism (dispersal of the Constituent Assembly), other undemocratic measures of the Bolsheviks, which caused discontent not only among the intelligentsia and peasants, but also among the workers.

The economic policy of the Soviet government in the countryside, which led to the actual abolition of the Decree on Land.

The nationalization of all the land and the confiscation of the landowner's aroused fierce resistance from its former owners. The bourgeoisie, frightened by the scale of the nationalization of industry, wanted to return factories and factories. The liquidation of commodity-money relations and the establishment of a state monopoly on the distribution of products and commodities dealt a painful blow to the property position of the middle and petty bourgeoisie.

The creation of a one-party political system alienated socialist parties and democratic public organizations from the Bolsheviks.

A feature of the Civil War in Russia was the presence on its territory of a large interventionist group of troops, which led to the prolongation of the war and multiplied human casualties.

Classes and Political Parties in the Civil War

Armed confrontation between opponents and supporters of Soviet power began from the first days of the revolution. By the summer of 1918, the entire spectrum of political forces opposed to the Bolsheviks was divided into three main camps.

The first of them was represented by a coalition of the Russian bourgeoisie, the nobility, the political elite, with the leading force of the Cadets party.

The second camp of the so-called "third way" or "democratic counter-revolution" was made up of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks who joined them at various stages, whose activity in practice was expressed in the creation of self-declared governments - Komuch in Samara, the Provisional Siberian Government in Tomsk, etc.

The third political camp was represented mainly by the former allies of the Bolsheviks - anarchists and left SRs, who found themselves in opposition to the RSDLP (b) after the Brest Peace and the suppression of the Left SR rebellion.

During the years of the Civil War, the leading force in the fight against the Bolsheviks and the Soviet government became a powerful military-political force represented by the white movement, whose representatives opposed the Bolsheviks for the salvation of a united and indivisible Russia. The number of white armies was relatively small. The outcome of the Civil War was largely determined by the behavior of the peasantry.

Main stages of the Civil War

First stage: October 1917 - May 1918. During this period, armed clashes were local in nature. After the October uprising, General Kaledin rose to fight the revolution, followed by the deposed Prime Minister Kerensky, the Cossack General Krasnov. By the end of 1917, a powerful center of counter-revolution arose in the south of Russia. The Central Rada of Ukraine opposed the new government here. The Volunteer Army was formed on the Don (commander-in-chief - Kornilov, after his death - Denikin). In March-April 1918, units of the British, American and Japanese (in the Far East) troops landed.

Second stage: May - November 1918. At the end of May, an armed uprising of the Czechoslovak Corps began in Siberia. More than 200 peasant uprisings took place in the summer. The socialist parties, relying on peasant rebel groups, formed a number of governments in the summer of 1918 - Komuch in Samara; Ufa directory. Their programs included demands for the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, the restoration of the political rights of citizens, the rejection of the one-party dictatorship and strict state regulation of the economic activities of the peasants.

In November 1918, in Omsk, Admiral Kolchak carried out a coup, as a result of which the provisional governments were dispersed and a military dictatorship was established, under whose authority all Siberia, the Urals, and the Orenburg province turned out to be.

Third stage: November 1918 - spring 1919. At this stage, the military-dictatorial regimes in the East (Kolchak), South (Denikin), North-West (Yudenich) and North (Miller) became the leading force in the fight against the Bolsheviks.

By the beginning of 1919, the number of foreign armed forces had grown significantly, which caused a patriotic upsurge in the country, and in the world - a solidarity movement under the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia!".

Fourth stage: Spring 1919 - April 1920 g. - is characterized by a combined offensive of anti-Bolshevik forces. From the East, in order to connect with Denikin for a joint attack on Moscow, Kolchak's army launched an offensive (the offensive was repelled by the Eastern Front under the command of Kamenev and Frunze), in the north-west, Yudenich's army carried out military operations against Petrograd.

Simultaneously with the actions of the White armies, peasant uprisings began in the Don, Ukraine, the Urals, and the Volga region. In late 1919 - early 1920, under the blows of the Red Army and peasant rebel detachments, Kolchak's troops were finally defeated. Yudenich was pushed back to Estonia, the remnants of Denikin's army, led by General Wrangel, fortified in the Crimea.

Fifth stage: May - November 1920. In May 1920, the Red Army entered the war with Poland, trying to capture the capital and create the necessary conditions for the declaration of Soviet power there. However, this attempt ended in military failure. Under the terms of the Riga Peace Treaty, a significant part of the territory of Ukraine and Belarus went to Poland.

The main event of the final period of the Civil War was the defeat of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, led by General Wrangel. During 1920-1921. With the help of the Red Army detachments, the process of Sovietization in the territory of Central Asia and Transcaucasia was completed. The civil war ended by the end of 1920, but the peasant war continued.

Reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks.

the leaders of the white movement canceled the Decree on Land and returned the land to its former owners. This turned the peasants against them.

The slogan of preserving "one and indivisible Russia" contradicted the hopes of many peoples for independence.

The unwillingness of the leaders of the white movement to cooperate with the liberal and socialist parties narrowed its socio-political base.

Punitive expeditions, pogroms, mass executions of prisoners - all this caused discontent among the population, up to armed resistance.

During the civil war, the opponents of the Bolsheviks failed to agree on a single program and a single leader of the movement. Their actions were poorly coordinated.

The Bolsheviks won the civil war because they managed to mobilize all the resources of the country and turn it into a single military camp. The Central Committee of the RCP(b) and the Council of People's Commissars created a politicized Red Army, ready to defend Soviet power. The Bolshevik leadership was able to present itself as the defender of the Fatherland and accuse their opponents of betraying national interests.

Of great importance was international solidarity, the help of the proletariat of Europe and the USA, which undermined the unity of action of the Entente powers and weakened the strength of their military onslaught on Bolshevism.

The results of the civil war

The Bolsheviks, in the course of fierce resistance, managed to retain power, and in the fight against the forces of intervention to preserve Russian statehood.

However, the Civil War led to a further deterioration of the economic situation in the country, to complete economic ruin. Material damage amounted to more than 50 billion rubles. gold. Industrial production decreased by 7 times. The transport system was completely paralyzed.

Many segments of the population, forcibly drawn into the war by the opposing sides, became its innocent victims. In battles, from hunger, disease and terror, 8 million people died, 2 million people were forced to emigrate. Among them were many members of the intellectual elite.

We have repeatedly raised the issue of military operations in Russia in the post-revolutionary period from 1917 to 1923. Question about correct name this stage of our history. About a name that would reflect the essence that bloody war.

Was there really a civil war? Yes, there was. From the moment the communists took power and until the beginning of 1918. And then what happened? To understand, here is a short excerpt from " In the Soviet school, the emphasis was on war"red" with"white". But there was MILLION interventions from the West”:

Fought against Russia:British, Canadians, Americans, French, Algerians, Chinese, Senegalese, Italians, Greeks, Romanians, Poles, Japanese, Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Turks, Czechs...”

Wikipedia is helpful repeats what we were taught in school. Be it in Soviet times, be it in our post-Soviet suffering of reality.

„Civil War in Russia (1917-1922/1923) - a series of armed conflicts between different political, ethnic, social groups and state entities on the territory of the former Russian Empire, following the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks as a result of the October Revolution of 1917 .”

Wikipedia goes on to note that " December 23, 1917 Anglo-French agreement was concluded on the division of spheres of future military operations in Russia: the Great Britain zone included the Caucasus and the Cossack regions, the French zone - Bessarabia, Ukraine and Crimea; Siberia and the Far East were considered as the sphere of interests of the USA and Japan.”

Truth, on the total number of foreign interventionists on Wikipedia not a word. They are shy, probably. By the way, the liberals helpfully post a table of the number of deserters from the Red Army during the war years, the plate is striking. And only below, again, they bashfully hid in the text the phrase that “ T what kind of problem of mass desertion arose before the whites as soon as they tried to mobilize on"liberated" territories ”.

So, what kind of war was it, civil or still domestic, against the foreign invaders of the West and the traitors of Russia who joined them?

So far, there is every reason to either single out two stages of this bloody war: the Civil War until the spring-summer of 1918, and then - Patriotic War 1918-1923, or generally consider the Patriotic War.

Indeed, according to another article Wikipedia, „ The number of white armies fighting against the Red Army, according to intelligence estimates by June 1919, was about 300,000 people ". And there were 1,000,000 interventionists!

Although 300 thousand for whites is a rather optimistic figure. Let's see what about the numbers they say the whites themselves in " №№ 1,2 almanac "White Guard" for 1997/1998.”

„In October 1919, the VSYUR had only 150 thousand bayonets and sabers, but this is counting the bayonets and sabers of the deep rear and rear of the army(garrisons, troops of the internal counterinsurgency front, etc.). The bayonets and sabers of combat troops in the All-Union Socialist Republic in October 1919 numbered almost 120 thousand, of which at the front against the Bolsheviks - about 100 thousand. (the rest - against Petlyura, on the Georgian border and in the Terek region against the rebels of Chechnya and Dagestan). ”.

So, 100 thousand are fighting the communists, and the interventionist forces - 1000 thousand!!! Here, as they say, there is something to think about: Civil or Patriotic?

For some completeness of the picture, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with interesting material that most directly interprets the difficult topic raised.

***

The military operations of the troops of foreign states on our soil in 1918-1922 have practically been erased from our national history. On the contrary, the myth of the fratricidal civil war allegedly unleashed by the Bolsheviks is being aroused in every possible way. For the amount of technical, human and financial resources invested, the British Minister of War Churchill called Denikin's army "my army." “It would be a mistake to think,” he wrote in the book “World Crisis”, that throughout this year (1919 - B.S.) we fought on the fronts for the cause of Russians hostile to the Bolsheviks. On the contrary, the Russian White Guards fought for our cause!”

Boris Sokolov

The military operations of the troops of foreign states on our soil in 1918-1922 have practically been erased from our national history. On the contrary, the myth of the fratricidal civil war allegedly unleashed by the Bolsheviks is being aroused in every possible way.

The events that unfolded on the territory of Russia in the first years after the October Revolution remain interesting, relevant and ... little known for us. On vast territories there was a war with front lines, tanks, guns and warships, and behind the front lines there were entire partisan armies, underground groups! Who was at that time in the heart of the state, who defended and gathered it - is known. And who was on the other side?

Was that great war civil or was it some other? The only way to understand (if we want to) is to study history calmly and consistently, rethinking the known and taking into account the newly discovered facts.

Let's go back to those distant years ... Lenin put forward his well-known slogan "Let's turn the imperialist war into a civil war" in August 1914, addressing the working people and socialists of ALL the warring states, implying their SIMULTANEOUS speech against the imperialists - the organizers of the war (Lenin V.I. Complete collected works, 5th ed., vol. 26, C.32, 180, 362).

But after the victory of the October Revolution, the first decree of the Soviet government was the Decree on Peace, the cadets and Cossacks who opposed the Bolsheviks were released after being captured. And the civil war itself, the war of citizens, was very short in Russia, taking on a peculiar focal, "echelon" character. It lasted from November 1917 to March 1918 and ended with the almost complete defeat of the "centers of the white struggle."

Lenin in March 1918 had every reason to write: “In a few weeks, having overthrown the bourgeoisie, we defeated its open resistance in the civil war. We marched in a victorious triumphal march of Bolshevism from end to end of a vast country ”(V.I. Lenin. The main task of our days. Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 79.).

However, then, in the period from February to July 1918, more than 1 million foreign soldiers - invaders - entered the territory of Russia from different sides!

For some reason, this massive invasion of the troops of many states on land, at sea and in the air was fixed in history under the soft, almost gentle name "INTERVENTION", while in fact a real war of conquest began!

In the Russian north, from the summer of 1918 to the autumn of 1919, the British, Americans, Canadians, French, Italians, and Serbs fought, numbering about 24 thousand people at the end of 1918. From Finland and the Baltic States through Belarus, Ukraine up to Rostov-on-Don, from February to November 1918, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians (about 1 million people) fought. Immediately after their departure and until the end of the spring of 1919, French and Greek troops continued the war in Ukraine and Crimea, numbering about 40 thousand people.

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were occupied from winter to autumn 1918 by Germans and Turks numbering more than 30 thousand people, then, until July 1920, they were replaced by British troops of approximately the same number. The large cities of the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia were captured in the summer of 1918 by the 30,000-strong Czechoslovak legion, which was part of the French army.

In the Far East, from the summer of 1918 to the end of 1919, the Japanese, Americans, the same Czechoslovaks, the British, the French, and Italians were actively fighting, in total more than 100 thousand people at the end of 1918. Moreover, Japanese troops were evacuated only at the end of 1922!*

For the period from 1918 to 1920. only the British Royal Navy used 238 ships and vessels of all types to conduct naval operations against Soviet Russia! *

It was foreign states that by direct military intervention, not to mention various indirect ones, destroyed the de facto Soviet power recognized by the people in most of the territory of Russia, thereby breaking the natural course of Russian history. In the occupied territories, foreigners planted authoritarian military regimes, carried out political repressions, shamelessly plundered! Having put the Bolshevik government under conditions of a complete blockade, they forced it to carry out the construction of a new society according to a rigid, military scheme. A completely different war began, to which the term “Patriotic” is much more suitable!

With whom did Siberian peasants, Ukrainian peasants fight...? Together? Or, after all, the first - mainly with the Czechoslovaks, Japanese, Americans, British, etc., and the second - with the Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, etc.?

In secret note No. 25, approved by the Supreme Military Council of the Entente on May 2, 1918, signed by Clemenceau, Foch, Petain, Lloyd George and other leaders of the Western world at that time, about the Czechoslovak legionnaires, stretched in echelons from the Volga to Vladivostok, it was indicated that "... they could ... if necessary, to promote the actions of the allies in Siberia.

American researchers D. Davis and Y. Trani in their work "The First Cold War", based on numerous documents, show that the attack of the Czechoslovak legionnaires on the Soviet power as the vanguard of the Entente interventionists was approved by US President Woodrow Wilson himself!

The Eastern Front of Soviet Russia appeared precisely "thanks" to the legionnaires who fought there in the first line from June to December 1918. A well-known, but not popular now historical fact is that the approach of parts of the Czechoslovak legion to Yekaterinburg became a direct reason for the execution of the former tsar and his family. In 1919, the Czechoslovak Legion served as the backbone of the foreign occupying army on the Trans-Siberian Railway and carried out punitive and counter-guerrilla "missions".

The events of the so-called "evacuation" of Czechoslovak legionnaires from the east of Russia in the winter of 1919/1920 are little popularized: ... thanks to the Czech management on the road, artel workers could not deliver money, ... communication with the front was interrupted, all vehicles were taken away from Russian military units ...; The sale of property brought in the Czech echelons in Harbin quite clearly illustrates what interests were given preference when steam locomotives were taken away from trains with the wounded, sick, women and children.

About these and many other "affairs" of armed foreigners in Russia writes G.K. Gins in his voluminous memoirs "Siberia, allies and Kolchak". So isn't it time to call their descendants to repentance?

In 1919-1920, Polish troops, equipped by France, England and the USA, fought with Soviet Russia, among many others. They trampled Kyiv, Minsk, Vilna with their boots... The 12,000th Polish division as part of the interventionist troops killed Russians even in Siberia! "Tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers who ended up in Poland ... disappeared or died," Dmitry Medvedev recalled, speaking at a press conference in Warsaw at the end of 2010. Isn't it time for Polish officials to repent for these atrocities?

Can the troops of Kolchak, Miller, Yudenich, Denikin, forcibly mobilized and equipped at foreign expense, be considered primarily the "Russian army"? The rear of Kolchak was provided for the whole of 1919 by almost 200 thousand foreign army, consisting of Japanese, Czechoslovaks, Americans, Poles, British, Canadians, Australians, French, Italians, Serbs, Romanians! She controlled the Trans-Siberian Railway and fought with a 100,000-strong army of red partisans.

On the Kola Peninsula and the Northern Dvina, it was not so much the forcibly mobilized Russians of the Northern Army of General Miller who fought, but the English volunteers of General Ironside with their ships, planes, armored trains and tanks, as well as the Americans, French and others who helped them.

Yudenich's small army was formed and equipped through the efforts of the English generals Gough and March. Together with it, the Estonian army, equipped with the same British, advanced on red Petrograd, and from the sea in the Baltic they were supported by the English fleet. In the south of Russia, under Denikin's army, a 2,000-strong British military mission fought against Soviet Russia - staff officers, instructors, pilots, tankers, artillerymen. For the amount of technical, human and financial resources invested, the British Minister of War Churchill called Denikin's army "my army."

“It would be a mistake to think,” he wrote in the book “World Crisis”, that throughout this year (1919 - B.S.) we fought on the fronts for the cause of Russians hostile to the Bolsheviks. On the contrary, the Russian White Guards fought for our cause!”

A wide foreign “trace” of those tragic events for Russia is vividly written out by Sholokhov in The Quiet Don. While reading, we see how an old Cossack on the Don is running away from the German invaders, who are trying to take away his britzka along with his horses, how Grigory Melekhov drinks and heartily chats with an English tanker, how the English battleship "Emperor of India" "bitches" the Reds from the main caliber near Novorossiysk, how Grigory goes with the Reds to the Polish front!

So what was this war? Civil or unknown Patriotic?

The political and military atmosphere that surrounds modern Russia compels us to turn to the almost century-old past. Let's put next to (or open on the Internet) maps of the Russian Empire, Soviet Russia in the ring of fronts of 1918-1919, the USSR and the Russian Federation. It is enough to look at these 4 cards to think sadly - the situation is repeating itself. The Baltics are once again separated from Russia, part of the aggressive NATO military bloc, German, British and American planes and ships ply the Baltic space. NATO is advancing eastward in the Black Sea region, probing Central Asia. The leadership of Poland again, taking a position unfriendly to Russia, is hosting American missilemen, as in 1920 it hosted American pilots. There is a recent experience of Yugoslavia, which, unlike Soviet Russia, the Western powers managed to dismember completely in several steps. The almost ten-year presence of Western interventionists of the 21st century in Afghanistan and Iraq also suggests that they are “present” there not only to fight terrorists…

Without realizing the similarity of processes and without drawing appropriate conclusions, we, in conditions of economic instability, weakening of the state and the army, also risk getting a new intervention! And someone, apparently, will be like Bunin in "Cursed Days" joyfully waiting and meeting the occupiers.

*data on the number of foreign troops are given on the basis of A. Deryabin's books "Civil War in Russia 1917 - 1922. Interventionist Troops" and "Civil War in Russia 1917 - 1922. National Armies".

After reading the article, I have an opinion about that. that now, that is, after perestroika, the Entente has won, since the goals set by the Entente interventionists have now been fulfilled, that is, the country has been turned into a raw materials appendage, industry is breathing heavily and 70% of our industry belongs to foreign companies. The country of the USSR is divided into small states. Is not it?

More about the Civil War:
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The civil war in Russia is a series of armed conflicts of 1917-1922 that took place in the territories of the former Russian Empire. The opposing sides were various political, ethnic, social groups and state entities. The war began after the October Revolution, the main reason for which was the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. Let's take a closer look at the prerequisites, course and results of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.

periodization

The main stages of the Civil War in Russia:

1. Summer 1917 - late autumn 1918 The main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement were formed.
2. Autumn 1918 - mid-spring 1919 The Entente began its intervention.
3. Spring 1919 - spring 1920 The struggle of the Soviet authorities of Russia with the "white" armies and troops of the Entente.
4. Spring 1920 - autumn 1922 The victory of power and the end of the war.

Prerequisites

There is no strictly defined cause of the Russian Civil War. It was the result of political, economic, social, national and even spiritual contradictions. An important role was played by the public discontent accumulated during the First World War and the devaluation of human life by the authorities. The agrarian-peasant Bolshevik policy also became an incentive for protest moods.

The Bolsheviks initiated the dissolution of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly and the liquidation of the multi-party system. In addition, after the adoption of the Brest Peace, they were accused of destroying the state. The right of self-determination of peoples and the formation of independent state formations in different parts of the country was perceived by supporters of indivisible Russia as a betrayal.

Dissatisfaction with the new government was also expressed by those who were against a break with the historical past. The anti-church Bolshevik policy caused a special resonance in society. All the reasons listed above came together and led to the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922.

The military confrontation took on all sorts of forms: clashes, guerrilla actions, terrorist attacks and large-scale operations involving the regular army. A feature of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was that it stood out as exceptionally long, cruel and capturing vast territories.

Chronological framework

The Civil War in Russia of 1917-1922 began to take on a large-scale front-line character in the spring and summer of 1918, but separate episodes of confrontation took place as early as 1917. It is also difficult to determine the final boundary of events. On the territory of the European part of Russia, front-line battles ended in 1920. However, after that there were mass uprisings of peasants against Bolshevism and performances by Kronstadt sailors. In the Far East, the armed struggle ended altogether in 1922-1923. It is this milestone that is considered the end of a large-scale war. Sometimes you can find the phrase "Civil War in Russia 1918-1922" and other shifts of 1-2 years.

Confrontation features

The military operations of 1917-1922 were fundamentally different from the battles of previous periods. They broke more than a dozen stereotypes regarding the management of units, the army command and control system and military discipline. Significant successes were achieved by those commanders who commanded in a new way, used all possible means to achieve the task. The civil war was very maneuverable. In contrast to the positional battles of previous years, solid front lines were not used in 1917-1922. Cities and towns could change hands several times. Of decisive importance were active offensives aimed at seizing the championship from the enemy.

The Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was characterized by the use of diverse tactics and strategies. During the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow and Petrograd, street fighting tactics were used. In October 1917, the military revolutionary committee, headed by V. I. Lenin and N. I. Podvoisky, developed a plan to capture the main city facilities. During the battles in Moscow (autumn 1917), Red Guard detachments advanced from the outskirts to the center of the city, which was occupied by the White Guard and junkers. Artillery was used to suppress strongholds. Similar tactics were used during the establishment of Soviet power in Kyiv, Irkutsk, Kaluga and Chita.

Formation of the centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement

With the beginning of the formation of parts of the Red and White armies, the Civil War in Russia of 1917-1922 became more ambitious. In 1918, military operations were carried out, as a rule, along railway communications and were limited to the capture of important junction stations. This period was called the "echelon war".

In the first months of 1918, in Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk, where the forces of volunteer units of Generals L. G. Kornilov and M. V. Alekseev were concentrated, the Red Guards were advancing under the leadership of R. F. Siver and V. A. Antonov- Ovseyenko. In the spring of the same year, the Czechoslovak corps, formed from Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, set off along the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Western Front. During May-June, this corps overthrew the authorities in Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Novonikolaevsk and throughout the territory adjacent to the Trans-Siberian Railway.

During the second Kuban campaign (summer-autumn 1918), the Volunteer Army took the junction stations: Tikhoretskaya, Torgovaya, Armavir and Stavropol, which actually determined the outcome of the North Caucasian operation.

The beginning of the Civil War in Russia was marked by the extensive activity of the underground organizations of the White movement. In the large cities of the country there were cells that were associated with the former military districts and military units of these cities, as well as local cadets, socialist-revolutionaries and monarchists. In the spring of 1918, the underground operated in Tomsk under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Pepelyaev, in Omsk - Colonel Ivanov-Rinov, in Nikolaevsk - Colonel Grishin-Almazov. In the summer of 1918, a secret regulation was approved regarding the recruiting centers for the army of volunteers in Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov and Taganrog. They were engaged in the transfer of intelligence information, sent officers across the front line and intended to oppose the authorities when the White Army approached their home city.

The Soviet underground, which was active in the Crimea, Eastern Siberia, the North Caucasus and the Far East, had a similar function. It created very strong partisan detachments, which later became part of the regular units of the Red Army.

By the beginning of 1919, the White and Red armies were finally formed. The RKKR included 15 armies, which covered the entire front of the European part of the country. The highest military leadership was concentrated with L.D. Trotsky - Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) and S.S. Kamenev - Commander-in-Chief. The rear support of the front and the regulation of the economy in the territories of Soviet Russia was carried out by the STO (Council of Labor and Defense), whose chairman was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. He also headed the Council of People's Commissars (Council of People's Commissars) - in fact, the Soviet government.

The Red Army was opposed by the united armies of the Eastern Front under the command of Admiral A. V. Kolchak: Western, Southern, Orenburg. They were also joined by the armies of the Commander-in-Chief of the VSYUR (Armed Forces of the South of Russia), Lieutenant General A. I. Denikin: Volunteer, Don and Caucasian. In addition, in the general Petrograd direction, the troops of the infantry general N.N. Yudenich - Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front and E.K. Miller - Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Region.

Intervention

The civil war and foreign intervention in Russia were closely linked. Intervention is called the armed intervention of foreign powers in the internal affairs of the country. Its main goals in this case are: to force Russia to continue fighting on the side of the Entente; protect personal interests in Russian territories; to provide financial, political and military support to the participants of the White movement, as well as to the governments of the countries formed after the October Revolution; and to prevent the ideas of the world revolution from penetrating the countries of Europe and Asia.

War development

In the spring of 1919, the first attempts at a combined strike by the "white" fronts were made. From this period, the Civil War in Russia acquired a large-scale character, all types of troops (infantry, artillery, cavalry) began to be used in it, military operations were conducted with the assistance of tanks, armored trains and aviation. In March 1919, the eastern front of Admiral Kolchak began its offensive, striking in two directions: on Vyatka-Kotlas and on the Volga.

The armies of the Soviet Eastern Front under the command of S. S. Kamenev at the beginning of June 1919 were able to contain the offensive of the Whites, inflicting counter blows on them in the Southern Urals and in the Kama region.

In the summer of the same year, the VSYUR began its offensive against Kharkov, Tsaritsyn and Yekaterinoslav. On July 3, when these cities were taken, Denikin signed the directive "On the March on Moscow." From that moment until October, the AFSR troops occupied the main part of Ukraine and the Black Earth Center of Russia. They stopped on the line Kyiv - Tsaritsyn, passing through Bryansk, Orel and Voronezh. Almost simultaneously with the withdrawal of the All-Union Socialist League to Moscow, the North-Western Army of General Yudenich went to Petrograd.

The autumn of 1919 became the most critical period for the Soviet army. Under the slogans "Everything - for the defense of Moscow" and "Everything - for the defense of Petrograd", a total mobilization of Komsomol members and communists was carried out. Control over the railway lines that converged to the center of Russia allowed the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic to transfer troops between the fronts. So, at the height of the battles in the Moscow direction near Petrograd and to the Southern Front, several divisions were transferred from Siberia and the Western Front. At the same time, the White armies failed to establish a common anti-Bolshevik front. The only exceptions were a few local contacts at the squad level.

The concentration of forces from different fronts allowed Lieutenant General V.N. Egorov, the commander of the southern front, to create a strike group, the basis of which were parts of the Estonian and Latvian rifle divisions, as well as the cavalry army of K.E. Voroshilov and S.M. Budyonny. Impressive blows were dealt to the flanks of the 1st Volunteer Corps, which was under the command of Lieutenant General A.P. Kutepov and advanced on Moscow.

After intense fighting in October-November 1919, the VSYUR front was broken and the Whites began to retreat from Moscow. In mid-November, units of the North-Western Army were stopped and defeated, which were 25 kilometers short of reaching Petrograd.

The battles of 1919 were notable for their extensive use of maneuver. In order to break through the front and conduct a raid behind enemy lines, large cavalry formations were used. The White Army used the Cossack cavalry for this purpose. So, the fourth Don Corps, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Mamontov, in the fall of 1919, made a deep raid from the city of Tambov to the Ryazan province. And the Siberian Cossack Corps, Major General Ivanov-Rinov, managed to break through the "red" front near Petropavlovsk. Meanwhile, the "Chervona Division" of the Southern Front of the Red Army made a raid on the rear of the volunteer corps. At the end of 1919, it began to decisively attack the Rostov and Novocherkassk directions.

In the first months of 1920, a fierce battle unfolded in the Kuban. As part of operations on the Manych River and near the village of Yegorlykskaya, the last massive horse battles in the history of mankind took place. The number of riders who took part in them from both sides was about 50 thousand. The result of the brutal confrontation was the defeat of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation. In April of the same year, the White troops began to be called the "Russian Army" and obey Lieutenant General Wrangel.

End of the war

In late 1919 - early 1920, the army of A.V. Kolchak was finally defeated. In February 1920, the admiral was shot by the Bolsheviks, and only small partisan detachments remained of his troops. A month earlier, after a couple of unsuccessful campaigns, General Yudenich announced the dissolution of the Northwestern Army. After the defeat of Poland, the army of P. N. Wrangel, locked in the Crimea, was doomed. In the autumn of 1920 (by the forces of the Southern Front of the Red Army), it was defeated. In this regard, about 150 thousand people (both military and civilian) left the peninsula. It seemed that the end of the Civil War in Russia of 1917-1922 was not far off, but everything was not so simple.

In 1920-1922, hostilities took place in small territories (Transbaikalia, Primorye, Tavria) and began to acquire elements of a positional war. For defense, fortifications began to be actively used, for the breakthrough of which the warring side needed long-term artillery preparation, as well as flamethrower and tank support.

The defeat of the army of P.N. Wrangel did not mean at all that the Civil War in Russia was over. The Reds still had to cope with the peasant insurrectionary movements, which called themselves "greens". The most powerful of them were deployed in the Voronezh and Tambov provinces. The rebel army was led by the Socialist-Revolutionary A. S. Antonov. She even managed to overthrow the Bolsheviks from power in several areas.

At the end of 1920, the fight against the rebels was entrusted to units of the regular Red Army under the control of M. N. Tukhachevsky. However, it turned out to be even more difficult to resist the partisans of the peasant army than the open pressure of the White Guards. The Tambov uprising of the "greens" was suppressed only in 1921. A. S. Antonov was killed in a shootout. Around the same time, Makhno's army was also defeated.

During 1920-1921, the Red Army made a number of campaigns in the Transcaucasus, as a result of which Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. To suppress the White Guards and interventionists in the Far East, the Bolsheviks created the FER (Far Eastern Republic) in 1921. For two years, the army of the republic held back the onslaught of Japanese troops in Primorye and neutralized several White Guard atamans. She made a significant contribution to the outcome of the Civil War and intervention in Russia. At the end of 1922, the FER joined the RSFSR. In the same period, having defeated the Basmachi, who fought to preserve medieval traditions, the Bolsheviks consolidated their power in Central Asia. Speaking about the Civil War in Russia, it is worth noting that individual rebel groups operated until the 1940s.

Reasons for the Reds' victory

The superiority of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 was due to the following reasons:

1. Powerful propaganda and use of the political mood of the masses.
2. Control of the central provinces of Russia, in which the main military enterprises were located.
3. Disunity and territorial fragmentation of the Whites.

The main result of the events of 1917-1922 was the establishment of Bolshevik power. The revolution and civil war in Russia took about 13 million lives. Almost half of them became victims of mass epidemics and famine. About 2 million Russians left their homeland in those years to protect themselves and their families. During the years of the Civil War in Russia, the state's economy fell to catastrophic levels. In 1922, compared with pre-war data, industrial production decreased by 5-7 times, and agricultural - by a third. The empire was finally destroyed, and the RSFSR became the largest of the formed states.