AGAINST PEACE - FOR CIVIL WAR Party historians say that the civil war in Russia was imposed on the Soviet government by counter-revolutionaries and foreign imperialists, but again this is clearly not true. Back in 1914, Lenin wrote: “Our slogan is civil

Why did the Reds win the Civil War? This question is asked by everyone who is interested in the national history of the beginning of the 20th century. Let's try to figure it out.

Civil War

After this victory, the supporters of the monarchy no longer had resounding successes, although the Civil War continued for another three years. However, from now on, they only had to defend themselves. Serious operations and breakthroughs were not carried out, no one seriously threatened the Red troops, the advantage was now completely on their side.

Thinking about why the Reds won the Civil War, the reasons for this are three main factors that played a decisive role. Without them, the Bolsheviks would not have been able to win either the Oryol-Kromskaya operation or the Civil War as a whole. At least, this is the opinion of most historians.

Peace with Germany

One of the factors why the Reds won the Civil War is that in the spring of 1918 it became known that the Bolsheviks had made a separate peace with Germany in the First World War. After that, their Entente supporters wanted to take revenge on the Bolsheviks for their betrayal. And these were serious opponents: France, England, Italy, Japan and the USA. They decided to launch an intervention right on the territory of their yesterday's ally.

At the same time, everything was formally covered by good intentions, which, as you know, most often paved the road to hell. Russia's recent allies in the Entente responded to the call from the white movement. In fact, this was a betrayal of the ideals and interests of the opponents of Bolshevism, who were exchanged for mythical support in the fight against Vladimir Lenin and his closest associates.

Mercenaries in the Red Army

It is noteworthy that Soviet historians have always tried in every possible way to bypass the issue of the participation of military formations from other countries on the side of the Red troops. At the same time, they constantly tried to stick out feigned internationalism. Talking about the fact that a soldier and officer of any nationality and religion could be under the red banner.

At the same time, it is known for certain, documentary evidence has been preserved that entire detachments and formations made up of Chinese, Baltic and other volunteers from various countries were formed as part of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. All of them were on the side of Bolshevism. True, in reality they willingly agreed to fight for Lenin and his supporters not for ideological reasons, but for a generous reward from the rich tsarist treasury, which, as a result of the October Revolution, ended up in the hands of the Reds. Virtually none of these foreign legionnaires was an ideological communist. At the same time, they really committed atrocities during the Civil War on the territory of another country, about which a lot of documentary evidence has been preserved.

Commanding staff

Understanding why White failed to defeat the Reds, one should not forget about another important factor. Its roots go back to the autumn of 1917, when the Bolsheviks had just seized power. At that time, this came as such a surprise to them that they had no specific plans for the old leadership, except for its complete destruction. There was also no developed management system.

When the Germans openly ceased to comply with the conditions of the Brest peace concluded with them, the most pressing issue was the creation of their own combat-ready army. In addition, a full-scale Civil War began in the country with a dangerous and strong enemy, which was the white movement in 1918. Therefore, the Bolsheviks considered it necessary to devote all their resources to this task.

It was implemented in the following way. To begin with, workers began to be recruited into the Red Army, as well as sympathizers and, of course, communists loyal to the party and Lenin. Political workers and commissars became commanders in small military units at that time. Moreover, this happened even if they did not have any military experience. The Reds paid more attention to political literacy and the ability to conduct effective propaganda than to military skills.

urgent change

This method did not justify itself, it soon became obvious that it leads to disastrous consequences. Military units with such leaders could not conduct full-fledged combat operations, since most of the soldiers and their commanders had no idea about military affairs. In clashes with well-organized detachments of the white movement, the Bolsheviks often simply scattered, often suffered insulting, annoying and even humiliating defeats.

Trotsky, a close associate of Lenin, decided to radically change the situation. He decided to accept only former officers of the tsarist army as commanders. They, of course, were enemies of the emerging new system, but they knew how to fight competently and effectively. Only they could bring victory to the young Soviet state.

The turning point, which largely determined why the Reds won the Civil War, was the transition to the side of the Bolsheviks of the most talented commanders of the tsarist army. These are Bonch-Bruevich, Brusilov, Shaposhnikov, Yegorov and many other lesser-known military leaders. As a result, almost half of the former tsarist general staff began to fight on the side of the Bolsheviks.

This leveled the situation in the confrontation with the white movement.

We will build a new world

Many today are trying to sum up the results of the Civil War. Why did the Reds win? This is one of the main questions that has yet to be answered. Obviously, another important reason was the banal belief in a new world.

Moreover, in the Soviet years it was unequivocally stated that all Red Army soldiers believed in the victory of communism, after which heaven on earth would begin. But after the collapse of the USSR, many began to argue the opposite. Like, the Reds won not by skill, but by numbers. Behind them were commissar detachments that did not allow retreat even in the most hopeless situations, so they had nowhere to go. And the main ones were not socialist ideals, but the desire to get unlimited power and satisfy their basest instincts.

But in reality, the idea at that time played an important role. The idea of ​​the Reds turned out to be stronger than what the White movement could offer its soldiers and officers.

Once again, let us return to the history of almost a century ago. On the topic of why the Reds won the Civil War of the period 1917-1921, many works have been written, a huge number of dissertations have been defended. I decided to list the most common answers for you. Well, after this list, we will look at a couple of reasons that most researchers have not paid too much attention to.

Civil War: Why the Reds Won

Here are the reasons that appear in scientific papers and in popular science articles on history most often:

• the people under tsarist rule were greatly oppressed;
• the dream of communism fully corresponded to the people's dream of paradise;
• the Reds were subsidized by Western Jews and Masons who dreamed of weakening Russia;
• the reds had a strategic advantage, which consisted in a higher mobility of troops, and the actions of the whites were not coordinated;
• the Bolsheviks managed to mobilize several times more people through violent methods, and the whites recruited only volunteers.

One can agree or argue with all these arguments, however, researchers, as a rule, did not take into account a number of factors that were also very important for understanding why the Reds won the war. So, almost nothing is said in studies about the most severe tribal hatred of peasants and workers for the nobility, especially for the aristocracy, including the royal dynasty itself. If even poor nobles did not like aristocrats, what can we say about the rest of the estates.

Two important reasons for the victory of the Reds

In Russia at that time there were, in fact, three classes. The first is the aristocracy, the wealthy nobility and the big bourgeoisie. The second is the petty nobility (with and without estates), kulaks (wealthy peasants), the bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, small and medium-sized merchants (as they would say now - small and medium-sized businesses) and civil servants. And the third - workers and peasants. And the problem with the aristocracy was that it was opposed not only by the middle class (in fact, entirely), but also by many representatives of the second class, who sympathized with the third. This is one of the reasons. And only a few point to the second reason, but meanwhile, it lies on the surface, since this reason is ideological. One can talk as much about the "tribal" hatred of the workers and peasants for the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, but to understand why the majority of people went over to the side of the Reds, this is not enough. But what's the matter? Look at the ideology of whites and reds. What did the red people offer:

• destroy the whites;
• raise the importance and status of the worker-peasant class;
• create a "paradise on Earth", that is, communism with excellent conditions for life.

And now about what White proposed:

• destroy the reds;
• everything, since the rest of the details of the program were formulated so vaguely that not only the workers and peasants, but also some representatives of the second estate could not understand them.

That is, the whites simply did not know what they would do next, their main task was to defeat the reds, and then, as they say, "even a flood after us." Of the two ideologies offered to you, which would the majority prefer? That's right, the first, because the whites, in fact, had no ideology at all. In addition, the abdication of the king from the throne greatly broke their fighting spirit. Bottom line: the victory of the Reds was a foregone conclusion for many reasons, and there was not a single factor testifying in favor of the Whites. For these wise thoughts I would like to thank my history teacher, Yu. V. Tikhomirov, now deceased Candidate of Historical Sciences, a man who taught us to understand our native history and think critically.

Chronology

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

Civil war and military intervention

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

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

Currently, various definitions are given, but their essence basically boils down to the definition of the Civil War as a large-scale armed confrontation, in which, of course, the issue of power was decided. The seizure of state power by the Bolsheviks in Russia and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly that followed soon after can be considered the beginning of an armed confrontation in Russia. The first shots are heard in the South of Russia, in the Cossack regions, already in the autumn of 1917.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A feature of the civil war in Russia was its close interweaving with anti-Soviet military intervention powers of the Entente. It acted as the main factor in prolonging and exacerbating the bloody "Russian turmoil".

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

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

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

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

Under these conditions, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to use the 45,000th Czechoslovak Corps, who was (in agreement with Moscow) subordinate to him. It consisted of captured Slavic soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army and followed the railroad to Vladivostok for subsequent transfer to France.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Soviet government launched active actions to protect its power. In 1918, a transition was made to universal conscription, a broad mobilization was launched. The constitution, adopted in July 1918, established discipline in the army and introduced the institution of military commissars.

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

Under the direct control of the Central Committee of the party, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, headed by L.D. Trotsky. The institute of military commissars was introduced in the spring of 1918, one of its important tasks was to control the activities of military specialists - former officers. By the end of 1918, there were about 7,000 commissars in the Soviet armed forces. About 30% of the former generals and officers of the old army during the Civil War came out on the side of the Red Army.

This was determined by two main factors:

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

war communism

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

The main provisions of this policy:

• nationalization of all industry;
• centralization of economic management;
• prohibition of private trade;
• curtailment of commodity-money relations;
• food allocation;
• an equalizing system of wages for workers and employees;
• wages in kind for workers and employees;
• free public services;
• universal labor service.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the social sphere, the policy of "war communism" was based on the principle "who does not work, he does not eat." In 1918, labor service was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, and in 1920, universal labor service.

In the political sphere"war communism" meant the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b). The activities of other parties (the Cadets, Mensheviks, Right and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries) were banned.

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

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

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

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

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

In the spring of 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente developed a plan for the next military campaign. (Reader T8 No. 8) As noted in one of his secret documents, the intervention was to be "expressed in the combined military operations of the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces and the armies of neighboring allied states." At the end of November 1918, a combined Anglo-French squadron of 32 pennants (12 battleships, 10 cruisers and 10 destroyers) appeared off the Black Sea coast of Russia. British troops landed in Batum and Novorossiysk, and French troops landed in Odessa and Sevastopol. The total number of interventionist combat forces concentrated in the south of Russia was increased by February 1919 to 130 thousand people. Entente contingents increased significantly in the Far East and Siberia (up to 150,000 men) and also in the North (up to 20,000 men).

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

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

In March 1919, the well-armed 300,000-strong army of A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive from the east, intending to unite with Denikin's forces for a joint attack on Moscow. Having captured Ufa, the Kolchakites fought their way to Simbirsk, Samara, Votkinsk, but were soon stopped by the Red Army. At the end of April, Soviet troops under the command of S.S. Kamenev and M.V. The Frunze went on the offensive and in the summer advanced deep into Siberia. By the beginning of 1920, the Kolchakites were finally defeated, and the admiral himself was arrested and shot by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee.

In the summer of 1919, the center of the armed struggle moved to the Southern Front. (Reader T8 No. 7) On July 3, General A.I. Denikin issued his famous "Moscow Directive", and his army of 150,000 men launched an offensive along the entire 700-kilometer front from Kyiv to Tsaritsin. The White Front included such important centers as Voronezh, Orel, Kyiv. In this space of 1 million square meters. km with a population of up to 50 million people located 18 provinces and regions. By mid-autumn, Denikin's army captured Kursk and Orel. But by the end of October, the troops of the Southern Front (commander A.I. Yegorov) defeated the white regiments, and then began to push them along the entire front line. The remnants of Denikin's army, headed by General P.N. Wrangel, strengthened in the Crimea.

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

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

Significantly aggravated the nature of the civil war Soviet-Polish war. Head of the Polish State Marshal Y. Pilsudsky hatched a plan to create " Greater Poland within the borders of 1772” from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, including a large part of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, including those never controlled by Warsaw. The Polish national government was supported by the Entente countries, which sought to create a "sanitary bloc" of Eastern European countries between Bolshevik Russia and the West. On April 17, Pilsudski ordered an attack on Kyiv and signed an agreement with Ataman Petliura, Poland recognized the Directory headed by Petliura as the supreme power of Ukraine. May 7 Kyiv was taken. The victory was won unusually easily, because the Soviet troops withdrew without serious resistance.

But already on May 14, a successful counter-offensive of the troops of the Western Front (commander M.N. Tukhachevsky) began, and on May 26 - the South-Western Front (commander A.I. Egorov). In mid-July, they reached the borders of Poland. On June 12, Soviet troops occupied Kyiv. The speed of a victory won can only be compared with the speed of an earlier defeat.

On July 12, British Foreign Secretary Lord D. Curzon sent a note to the Soviet government - in fact, an ultimatum from the Entente demanding to stop the Red Army's advance on Poland. As a truce, the so-called “ Curzon line”, which took place mainly along the ethnic border of the settlement of the Poles.

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

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

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

In the midst of the Soviet-Polish war, General P.N. Wrangell. With the help of harsh measures, up to public executions of demoralized officers, and relying on the support of France, the general turned Denikin's scattered divisions into a disciplined and combat-ready Russian army. In June 1920, an assault was landed from the Crimea on the Don and Kuban, and the main forces of the Wrangelites were thrown into the Donbass. On October 3, the offensive of the Russian army began in a northwestern direction towards Kakhovka.

The offensive of the Wrangel troops was repulsed, and during the operation launched on October 28 by the army of the Southern Front under the command of M.V. Frunze completely captured the Crimea. On November 14-16, 1920, an armada of ships under the St. Andrew's flag left the shores of the peninsula, taking away the broken white regiments and tens of thousands of civilian refugees to a foreign land. Thus, P.N. Wrangel saved them from the merciless red terror that hit the Crimea immediately after the evacuation of the Whites.

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

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

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

The fighting parties clearly understood that the struggle could only have a fatal outcome for one of the parties. That is why the civil war in Russia became a great tragedy for all its political camps, movements and parties.

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

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

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

In the anti-Soviet anti-Bolshevik camp, part of the political opponents of the Soviets acted under a single SR-White Guard flag, part - only under the White Guard.

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

The Socialist-Revolutionaries and Anarchists hurried to take advantage of the vacillations of the peasants. They managed to involve a significant part of the peasantry in the armed struggle, both against the whites and against the reds.

For both warring parties, it was also important what position the Russian officers would take in the conditions of the civil war. Approximately 40% of the officers of the tsarist army joined the “white movement”, 30% sided with the Soviet government, 30% evaded participation in the civil war.

The Russian Civil War escalated armed intervention foreign powers. The interventionists conducted active military operations on the territory of the former Russian Empire, occupied some of its regions, contributed to inciting a civil war in the country and contributed to its prolongation. The intervention turned out to be an important factor in the “revolutionary all-Russian turmoil”, multiplied the number of victims.