In domestic and foreign historiography, there are traditionally a number of acute debatable problems related to the history of the Civil War and foreign intervention during the years of the Great Russian Revolution.

I. The problem of the chronological framework and internal periodization of the war. In Russian historical science, there are traditionally two key problems related to the history of the Civil War:

a) the problem of determining the chronological framework of the Civil War;

b) the problem of its internal periodization.

On the first issue, there are three main points of view.

Some authors (Yu. Polyakov, V. Polikarpov, I. Ratkovsky) date the Civil War in Russia from November 1917 to December 1922: starting from the October events in Petrograd and ending with the defeat of the Japanese and American invaders in the Far East and the formation of the USSR .

Other authors (V. Brovkin, S. Kara-Murza) date the Civil War from the spring of 1918 to the summer of 1921, that is, from the emergence of the first obvious and large-scale centers of frontal confrontation between the "Whites" and "Reds" to the transition to the NEP and the suppression of the most powerful peasant movements - "Antonov rebellion" and "Makhnovshchina". At the same time, Professor S.G. Kara-Murza is absolutely right when he says that the very flywheel of the bloody fratricidal Civil War was launched not by the Bolsheviks, but by the “Russian” Freemasons and liberals during the days of the February Revolution, when the thousand-year-old Russian monarchy was overthrown.

The third group of historians (V. Naumov, N. Azovtsev, Yu. Korablev) claims that chronological framework The civil war should be limited to May 1918 - November 1920: from the rebellion of the Czechoslovaks to the defeat of the troops of General P.N. Wrangel in the Crimea.

In our opinion, all these approaches are quite legitimate, since the supporters of the first two points of view consider the Civil War as an open form of class struggle initiated by the Great Russian Revolution. And supporters of the third point of view define the Civil War as a special stage in the history of the proletarian revolution, when the military question played a key role in the development of this revolution and on the outcome of which its entire future fate depended.

With regard to internal periodization, there are several points of view here.

1) "echelon" (November 1917 - May 1918) and

2) "frontal" (summer 1918 - December 1922).

Third historians (V. Brovkin) argue that three major periods should be distinguished within the framework of this war:

1) 1918 - the period of the collapse of the Russian Empire and the field Civil War of ephemeral governments created on its ruins;

2) 1919 - the period of the decisive military confrontation between the "Reds" and the "Whites";

3) 1920-1921 - period of general peasant war against the Bolsheviks.

The 1st stage of the Civil War fell in May - November 1918, when the Czechoslovak rebellion took place and the Southern and Eastern Fronts of the Red Army were formed against the three white armies of Generals M.V. Alekseeva, P.N. Krasnov and Admiral A.V. Kolchak.

The 2nd stage of the Civil War, which took place in November 1918 - March 1919, was associated with the denunciation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the beginning of a full-scale foreign intervention of the Entente and Germany against Soviet Russia.

The 3rd stage of the Civil War, which lasted from March 1919 to March 1920, was associated with the most acute period of confrontation between the troops of the Red Army and the White armies of Admiral A.V. Kolchak and generals A.I. Denikin, N.N. Yudenich and E.A. Miller.

The 4th stage of the Civil War, which took place in April - November 1920, was associated with the Soviet-Polish war and the fighting of the Red Army troops against the White Guard army of General P.N. Wrangel in Northern Tavria and the Crimea.

II. The problem of determining the causes of the Civil War. There are two diametrically opposed points of view on this issue:

In Soviet historical science (N. Azovtsev, L. Spirin, V. Naumov, Yu. Korablev), all the blame and responsibility for the outbreak of the Civil War in the country was entirely and completely assigned to the overthrown exploiting classes. Most of this blame was placed on the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, who, having betrayed the interests of the working class and the working peasantry, refused to enter into a broad political alliance with the Bolshevik Party and deliberately went over to the camp of the monarchist and bourgeois-landlord counter-revolution.

At present, many historians, mainly of a liberal persuasion (B. Klein, V. Brovkin, I. Dolutsky), have gone to the other extreme and have begun to assert that the main responsibility for the outbreak of the fratricidal Civil War lies entirely with the Bolshevik Party, which completely deliberately through the creation of committees and the policy of surplus appropriation (food detachments) unleashed a new social war in the village, which became the breeding ground for the escalation of a large-scale war in the country.

III. The problem of determining the main military-political camps during the war.

In the broad public consciousness, there are still a number of stereotypes created in Soviet period, For example:

a) All representatives of the "white movement" were inveterate monarchists, who even in their sleep raved about the ideas of restoring the autocratic monarchy and the power of the landlords and capitalists, and all the leaders of this movement were generals P.N. Wrangel, A.I. Denikin, A.M. Kaledin, L.G. Kornilov, P.N. Krasnov, N.N. Yudenich and Admiral A.V. Kolchak were direct henchmen of the Entente.

b) The backbone of all the White Guard armies was the regular officer corps of the Russian Imperial Army, consisting entirely of representatives of the overthrown exploiting classes - the landowners and the bourgeoisie.

c) Mass demonstrations by Russian and Ukrainian peasants and the Cossacks against the policy of the Bolsheviks in the countryside were ordinary banditry, which were inspired by paid agents of the White Guard and foreign special services, etc.

However, even with a cursory glance at this problem, it is easy to see that all these ideas often contradicted real situation of things.

a) According to most modern scholars (A. Medvedev, V. Tsvetkov, S. Kara-Murza), the “white movement” was extremely heterogeneous in composition and consisted not so much of inveterate monarchists, landlords and conservatives, but of the so-called "Februaryists" - representatives of the liberal bourgeois (Kadets) and petty-bourgeois (Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks) parties. Moreover, it is the latter who are personally responsible for the overthrow of the thousand-year-old Russian monarchy and the collapse of the vast Russian Empire, the territory of which was collected bit by bit, sweat and blood by our ancestors for many centuries. In addition, not all leaders of the white movement were proteges of the Entente, since generals P.N. Krasnov and N.N. Yudenich always advocated a military and political alliance with Germany.

b) According to a number of modern historians (V. Kavtaradze, I. Livshits), more than half officer corps Russian Imperial Army (almost 75 thousand), including A.A. Brusilov, M.D. Bonch-Bruevich, P.P. Lebedev, A.I. Verkhovsky, D.P. Parsky, A.A. Svechin, A.E. Snesarev, B.M. Shaposhnikov, A.I. Egorov, S.S. Kamenev and many others formed the backbone of the officer corps of the Red Army. Moreover, in the ranks of the Red Army were two military ministers of the tsarist government - Generals A.A. Polivanov and D.S. Shuvaev. Some modern historians (A. Shuvalov) do not agree with this assessment of their colleagues and argue that 170 thousand (66%) of the Russian Imperial Army fought in the White armies, and 55 thousand (22%) of the former tsarist army fought in the Red Army, and more 30 thousand (12%) did not take part in the Civil War at all. Nevertheless, the very participation of a significant part of the old military experts in this war on the side of the Bolsheviks spoke of a serious split within Russian society, not only for class reasons, but also for other, deeper reasons.

The main supporter of attracting "military experts" into the ranks of the Red Army was the people's commissar-voenmor L.D. Trotsky, who only in 1918 published dozens of articles and speeches on this burning topic: “Officers’ Question”, “On Officers Deceived by Krasnov”, “Non-commissioned Officers, to Command Posts!”, “Military Specialists and the Red Army” and etc.

c) A broad peasant movement in the central and southern regions of Russia, Western Siberia, Left-bank Little Russia and Novorossia (“Makhnovshchina”, “Antonovshchina”) was so powerful and organized that it is not entirely legitimate to explain its causes only through the prism of banal banditry. Moreover, according to many historians (O. Radkov, O. Figes, A. Medvedev, V. Brovkin), the movement of the “greens” during the Civil War was just as significant a factor in the revolutionary process as the bloody confrontation between the “whites” and “ Reds", who at different stages of this war did not hesitate to use the armed force and power of the peasant armies in the fight against each other.

2. Fighting on the fields of the Civil War

a) The first stage of the Civil War (May - November 1918)

On May 25, 1918, the rebellion of the Separate Czechoslovak Army Corps of General V.N. began. Shokorov, as a result of which Soviet power was overthrown almost overnight in the vast territory of the country from Penza to Vladivostok and various anti-Bolshevik governments were created, in particular, the Committee Constituent Assembly in Samara (V.K. Volsky), the Ural military government in Perm (G.M. Fomichev), the Provisional Siberian government in Tomsk (P.V. Vologodsky), etc.

In this situation, the top party and state leadership of the country had to urgently reconsider their previous views on the principles of the formation of the Red Army, and already on May 29, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a resolution “On forced recruitment into the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army”.

In mid-June 1918, by decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the Eastern Front of the Red Army was created, the troops of which were led by the lieutenant colonel of the tsarist army, the Left Social Revolutionary M.A. Ants. And at the end of June 1918, at the direction of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), the Supreme Military Council of the Republic and the All-Russian General Staff formed and sent five combined arms armies to the Eastern Front, which were to take part in the upcoming general offensive against the troops of the People's, Ural Cossack and Siberian separate armies created by the Cadets, Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks to fight the Soviet regime in the eastern regions of the country.

In early July 1918, the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army, which was headed by the former tsarist colonel I.I. Vatsetis, went on the offensive against the troops of the People's and Ural Cossack armies of generals S.N. Voitsekhovsky and M.F. Martynov. This offensive ended in a major defeat and the loss of Kazan, where a good half of the entire gold reserve of the Russian Empire was located in the amount of 650 million gold rubles. On July 10, 1918, the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution "On the construction of the Red Army", which enshrined the basic principles of the construction of the Red Army: universal military duty, the class principle of construction, regularity, strict discipline, the abolition of the election of commanders of all military units and formations and the introduction of the institution of military commissars.

Simultaneously with the work of the congress on the night of July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg, in the house of the merchant N.N. Ipatiev, employees of the local Cheka, headed by Yakov Yurovsky direct order Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR Ya.M. Sverdlov shot the entire royal family and members of the royal retinue, including the former Emperor Nicholas II, former empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Tsarevich Alexei and four Grand Duchesses - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

At the end of August 1918, the troops of the Don Army of Generals P.N. Krasnova and S.V. Denisov took full control of the region of the Don troops and launched a powerful offensive in the Voronezh and Tsaritsyno directions. At the same time, the troops of the Volunteer Army of General M.V. Alekseev during the Second Kuban campaign defeated the Taman army E.I. Kovtyukh and occupied the entire territory of the Kuban, Terek and Stavropol.

In this situation, on September 2, 1918, by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Soviet Republic was declared a military camp and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) was created to manage all military operations on the war fronts, headed by the People's Commissar of the Navy L.D. Trotsky. At the same time, by decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the RVSR transferred all the rights of the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs and the abolished Supreme Military Council, whose members were former tsarist generals headed by M.D. Bonch-Bruevich. In addition, the Field Headquarters of the Red Army (P.P. Lebedev), the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (K.K. Yurenev), the Higher Military Inspectorate (N.I. Podvoisky) and the Central Administration for Supply of Troops (L.P. Krasin). At the same time, by decision of the RVSR, the High Command of the Red Army troops was created, headed by I.I. Vatsetis, and created two groupings of troops - Northern and southern front s, which were headed by former tsarist generals D.P. Parsky and P.P. Sytin.

On September 5, 1918, in response to the assassination of the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, M.S. Uritsky and severely injured V.I. Lenin issued a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On the Red Terror", in accordance with which the organs of the Cheka were granted an unprecedented right to execution without trial and investigation of all persons who were members of the White Guard organizations and were involved in various kinds of conspiracies and rebellions. In addition, the first concentration camps were created by the same decree to isolate all class enemies. Having begun to implement this decree, the organs of the Cheka only in September-November 1918 uncovered several dozen underground anti-Bolshevik centers that aimed to overthrow Soviet power in the country, including the Union for the Salvation of the Motherland, the Union of the Constituent Assembly, the Union Revival of Russia”, “Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom”, “Military League”, “Black Dot”, “White Cross”, “Everything for the Motherland” and many others.

Meanwhile in different regions the process of consolidation of the former anti-Bolshevik governments began to rapidly gain momentum. In particular, at the end of September 1918 at a meeting authorized representatives The Samara Committee of the Constituent Assembly, the Ural Provisional Government, the Turkestan Autonomous Government, the Yenisei, Siberian, Orenburg, Ural, Semirechensk and Irkutsk military Cossack governments created the Provisional All-Russian Government - the "Ufa Directory", which was headed by the leader of the People's Socialists Nikolai Dmitrievich Avksentiev.

In September - October 1918, during a series of offensive operations on the Eastern Front of the Red Army, which was led by the tsarist colonel S.S. Kamenev, troops of the 1st, 3rd and 5th armies, defeating the troops of the Volga and Ural armies enemy, occupied Kazan, Samara, Simbirsk, Izhevsk and other cities.

b) The second stage of the Civil War (November 1918 - March 1919)

On November 11, 1918, after the signing of the act of surrender by the powers of the Quadruple Bloc, the First World War ended, which claimed more than 10 million human lives. In this situation, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to launch a large-scale intervention against Soviet Russia, although the first stage of this intervention began much earlier, as early as July 1918.

In July-August 1918, troops of French, British, American, Canadian and Japanese invaders landed in different regions of Russia and, having overthrown the Bolshevik Soviets, seized power in Baku, Arkhangelsk, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Blagoveshchensk and others. Russian cities. In total, according to historians (N. Azovtsev, Yu. Korablev), the troops of nine Entente countries took part in the first stage of the intervention total strength more than 42 thousand soldiers and.

November 1918 - January 1919 during the second stage of the intervention, Anglo-French troops landed in Novorossiysk, Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaev and Sevastopol, and the old interventionist military contingents in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok were replenished with new units and formations of the armies of the allied powers. Thus, by the end of 1918, a 200,000-strong group of occupation troops was located throughout Russia.

On November 13, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR denounced the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. By decision of the RVSR, the Western and Ukrainian fronts of the Red Army were created to fight the German invaders in the Baltics, Belarus, Little Russia and Novorossia, which were headed by the former tsarist general A.E. Snesarev and member of the Bolshevik Central Committee V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko.

In November - December 1918, by agreement with the German military command, the troops Western Front The Red Army almost bloodlessly occupied the entire territory of the Baltic States and Belarus. In Ukraine, where a classic multi-government took shape, the situation developed more dramatically. In particular, the troops Ukrainian front The Red Army had to simultaneously fight against the troops of the pro-German regime of Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky and the troops of the Ukrainian People's Directory, which was headed by S.A. Petliura and V.K. Vinnichenko.

On November 18, 1918, with the active support of the All-Russian Council of Ministers, which was headed by Pyotr Vasilyevich Vologodsky, and the joint command of the occupation forces in Siberia, consisting of generals W. Grevs, O. Knight, M. Janen, A. Knox and D. Ward, a coup d'état. As a result of this coup, the former Minister of War of the Ufa Directory, Admiral A.V., came to power. Kolchak, who proclaimed himself supreme ruler Russia and the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the country. The former government of the Ufa Directory, consisting of Socialist-Revolutionaries, Popular Socialists and Mensheviks, was arrested, and all power passed to the new government, which was first headed by P.V. Vologda, and then General V.N. Pepelyaev.

At the end of November 1918, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, based on the proposals of the chairman of the RVSR L.D. Trotsky and Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army I.I. Vatsetis took a number of drastic measures aimed at strengthening the Red Army. In particular, a strict regime of revolutionary dictatorship was established in the troops, and a significant part of the powers previously held by combat commanders of marching units and formations was transferred to military commissars and members of the Revolutionary Military Council of all armies and fronts.

On November 30, 1918, by decision of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the highest military-political and economic body of the RSFSR, the Workers' and Peasants' Defense Council, was created, which initially included the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin, People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs L.D. Trotsky, People's Commissar for Nationalities I.V. Stalin and People's Commissar for Foreign Trade L.B. Krasin.

In December 1918, the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army under the command of S.S. Kamenev went on the offensive against the troops of the Ural, Orenburg and Siberian armies of A.I. Dutova, M.F. Martynov and A.V. Kolchak.

In January - February 1919, on the southern sector of the Eastern Front, the troops of the 1st, 4th and 5th Soviet armies, defeating the advanced units of Generals A.I. Dutov and M.F. Martynov, occupied Ufa, Orenburg, Uralsk and Orsk, and joined with units of the Turkestan Army of the Red Army, commanded by Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze. On the northern sector of the Eastern Front, the offensive of the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Soviet armies against the Siberian army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak ended in complete defeat: they were forced to retreat behind the Kama and leave Perm.

In mid-January 1919, Generals A.I. Denikin and P.N. Krasnov signed a joint agreement on the creation of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR), which included all the troops of the Volunteer, Don, Caucasian, Crimean-Azov, Terek-Dagestan and Separate Turkestan armies, as well as units and formations of the Black Sea navy and the Caspian military flotilla. At the head of this impressive military force, which controlled a significant part of the territory of the south of the country, was Lieutenant General of the tsarist army Anton Ivanovich Denikin.

In January - March 1919, Soviet troops carried out a number of successful offensive operations in the southern and southwestern strategic directions:

1) The troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army under the command of the former colonel of the tsarist army P.A. Slavena inflicted a number of major defeats on the troops of the Don Army of General P.N. Krasnov and entered the territory of the Region of the Don Army, where, under the leadership of members of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, G.Ya. Sokolnikov and S.I. Syrtsov began a total red terror against the Don Cossacks, which was sanctioned by the secret directive "To all responsible comrades working in the Cossack regions" of January 24, 1919. The results of this barbaric policy backfired on the Bolsheviks already in early March 1919, when: a) on On the Upper Don in the village of Vyoshenskaya, a mass anti-Bolshevik uprising began Don Cossacks; b) the combined troops of the Don and Volunteer armies under the overall command of General A.I. Denikin stopped the advance of the troops of the 9th and 10th armies of the Southern Front and withdrew in an organized manner across the Don and Manych rivers.

In mid-March 1919, the troops of the Caspian-Caucasian Front of the Red Army, which was headed by the former tsarist colonel M.S. Svechnikov, went on the offensive against the troops of the Volunteer Army. Soon, units and formations of the 11th and 12th Soviet armies were stopped, and then thrown back to their original lines, where they had to go on a forced defense along the entire front line.

2) Troops of the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army under the command of V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko, advancing in the Kiev and Kharkov directions, defeated parts of the Ukrainian People's Army and occupied Kyiv, Kharkov, Chernigov, Konotop, Bakhmach, Poltava, Yekaterinoslav, Nikolaev, Kherson and other cities. Government of the Ukrainian Directory headed by S.V. Petlyura hastily fled to Vinnitsa.

At the end of March 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, the heads of the victorious Allied Powers decided to evacuate the Anglo-French expeditionary force from the territory of Southern Novorossia and the Crimea, and already in April 1919, the troops of the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army, defeating parts of the Crimean-Azov Volunteer Army General P.N. Wrangel, occupied Odessa and Sevastopol.

On March 18-23, 1919, the VIII Congress of the RCP(b) was held in Moscow, the delegates of which discussed three main issues: 1) a new party program, 2) a change in the party's policy towards the middle peasantry, and 3) problems of military development.

1) On the first issue, the delegates of the party congress discussed and adopted the "Second Party Program", which in Soviet historiography was traditionally called the "program for the construction of socialism." This party program, which was replaced by the "Third Party Program" only in 1961, consolidated those most important principles of building socialism and its main features, which were really embodied in politics, and then in the integral system of "war communism", which collapsed in 1921

2) On the second question, after the fact, it was decided to eliminate the combos and move from "the policy of neutralizing the middle peasantry towards a close alliance with it."

3) On the third question, after a tough discussion on the problems of military development, the majority of delegates of the party forum rejected the "partisan" principles of building the Red Army, which were defended by the "military opposition" represented by I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov, A.S. Bubnova, G.L. Pyatakova, V.V. Kuibysheva, K.A. Mekhonoshina, F.I. Goloshchekina, N.I. Podvoisky and other party and military figures. IN AND. Lenin and other leaders of the party supported the principled position of L.D. Trotsky, who in his theses "Our Policy in the Creation of the Army" actively advocated the creation of a regular Red Army based on iron discipline, military regulations and extensive use of the experience and knowledge of old military experts.

In addition, the congress delegates decided to abolish the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars and create the Political Directorate of the RVSR, headed by I.T. Smilga.

c) The third stage of the Civil War (March 1919 - March 1920)

In March 1919, the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army I.I. Vatsetis presented a plan for the upcoming spring-summer military campaign for consideration by the RVSR. According to this plan, it was supposed to deliver two main blows in the southern and western strategic directions and one auxiliary blow in the eastern strategic direction. Soon the situation at the front changed dramatically and did not allow the Bolsheviks to realize their plan. In mid-March 1919, units and formations of the Siberian and Western armies of generals R. Gaida and M.V. Khanzhina unexpectedly went on the offensive against the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army. As a result of a number of successful operations in the northern sector of the front, the Siberian army of General R. Gaida, breaking through the defenses of the 2nd and 3rd Soviet armies, captured Votkinsk, Sarapul, Izhevsk and advanced 130 km. On the southern sector of the Eastern Front, the troops of the Western Army of General M.V. Khanzhin, having defeated the advanced units of the 5th Soviet Army, in mid-April they took Bugulma, Belebey, Buguruslan, Sterlitamak and Aktyubinsk.

The success of the troops of Admiral A.V. Kolchak turned out to be so unexpected that at first he could not decide where to deliver the main blow to the enemy troops. A.V. himself Kolchak, following the recommendations of the English General A. Knox, was more inclined towards the northern option of delivering the main attack and connecting with the troops of General E.K. Miller in the Vyatka region. And his chief of staff, General D.A. Lebedev insisted on the southern version of the main attack and connection with the troops of General A.I. Denikin near Tsaritsyn. In the end, the success of the Western Army, General M.V. Khanzhina in the southern sector of the Eastern Front predetermined the entire further course of events. On April 12, 1919, Admiral A. V. Kolchak gave the troops the so-called "Volga Directive", in which he set them the task of capturing strategically important bridges in the area of ​​Kazan, Syzran and Simbirsk.

By decision of the RVSR and the High Command of the Red Army, the troops of the Eastern Front were reorganized, which included the creation of two operational groups: northern group troops as part of the 2nd and 3rd armies under the command of V. I. Shorin, and Southern group troops as part of the 1st, 4th, 5th and Turkestan armies under the command of M.V. Frunze.

At the end of April 1919, the Southern Group of Forces of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive against the Western Army of General M.V. Khanzhin and the Volga Corps of General V.O. Kappel and by the beginning of May 1919 during the Ufa offensive operation captured Buguruslan, Belebey and Ufa. At the same time, the troops of M.V. Frunze repelled all the attempts of the Orenburg and Ural armies of generals A.I. Dutov and V.S. Tolstov to capture Orenburg and Uralsk. At the same time, the Northern Group of Forces of the Red Army, having carried out a successful Sarapul-Votkinsk offensive operation, inflicted a major defeat on the Siberian army of General R. Gaida and, having liberated Sarapul and Izhevsk, began fierce battles for Perm.

In the southern strategic direction, events unfolded as follows.

In March 1919, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army under the command of the former tsarist general V.N. Egorieva went on the offensive against the troops of the Don Army, General V.I. Sidorina. In the course of heavy and bloody battles in the Rostov direction, the 9th and 10th Soviet armies approached Rostov, crossed Manych and began to advance towards Bataysk and Tikhoretskaya. Soon, the offensive of the Soviet troops had to be stopped and the main forces were sent to fight the rebellious Don Cossacks and the detachments of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, father N.I. Makhno. In May 1919, units of the Southern Front of the Red Army, under powerful blows from the Volunteer Army, which went on the offensive in the Tsaritsyno and Donbas directions, were forced to leave all of the Don region, Donbass and Southern Novorossia.

In mid-March 1919, the troops of the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army under the command of V.A. Antonova-Ovseenko went on the offensive and, quickly defeating the scattered units of the Ukrainian People's Army S.V. Petliura, in April 1919 captured Odessa, Sevastopol and other cities of the Crimea and Southern New Russia. However, soon, in the rear of the troops of the Ukrainian Front, the rebellion of the former Petliura ataman N.A. began. Grigoriev, who with great difficulty managed to suppress.

In May 1919, the situation on the Western Front of the Red Army worsened sharply, where, with the support of the Finnish and Estonian troops, the North-Western Army of General N.N. Yudenich launched an attack on Petrograd. During heavy fighting, units of the White Finns captured Vidlitsa and Olonets, and the corps of General A.P. Rodzianko, breaking through the defenses of the 7th Soviet Army in the Narva direction, captured Gdov, Yamburg and Pskov. The success of the army N.N. Yudenich turned out to be short-lived and in mid-June 1919, having suppressed anti-Soviet rebellions in the forts Krasnaya Gorka and Gray Horse, the troops of the Western Front of the Red Army, led by the former tsarist general D.N. Reliable went on the offensive in the Narva and Pskov directions.

In June 1919, the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army inflicted a number of major defeats on the armies of Admiral A.V. Kolchak and occupied the entire territory of the Urals, including Perm, Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. Due to the sharp aggravation of the situation on the Southern Front, on the orders of Commander-in-Chief I.I. Vatsetis, the further advance of the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army was suspended.

The Plenum of the Central Committee, which met urgently, condemned the defeatist plan of I.I. Vatsetis, who was removed from his post. Colonel S.S. was appointed the new commander-in-chief of the Red Army troops. Kamenev, and the troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army were headed by M.V. Frunze. L.D. Trotsky, who shared the position of I.I. Vatsetis, also resigned from all military posts, but this demarche of the oracle of the revolution was decisively rejected.

Meanwhile, the troops of the Volunteer, Caucasian and Don armies of generals V.Z. May-Maevsky, P.N. Wrangel and V.I. Sidorin continued successful offensive in the Tsaritsyn and Donbas directions and soon, having defeated the advanced units of the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army, they occupied Tsaritsyn, Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav. July 3, 1919 General A.I. Denikin issued the famous “Moscow Directive”, according to which the troops of the Caucasian, Don and Volunteer armies of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR) were ordered to launch a general offensive against Moscow from three strategic directions: Penza, Voronezh and Kursk-Oryol.

On these critical days, on July 9, 1919, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) published the famous Leninist letter “Everything to fight Denikin!”, In which the main tasks of the present moment were very clearly outlined: the complete defeat of the troops of General A.I. Denikin in the southern direction and the continuation of the victorious offensive of the Soviet troops on eastbound against the armies of Admiral A.V. Kolchak.

In August-December 1919, the situation on the fronts of the war looked as follows.

The troops of the Western Front of the Red Army (D.N. Nadezhny), continuing their offensive in two operational directions, defeated the enemy army and in August 1919 occupied Yamburg, Narva and Pskov. In early October, the troops of the Northwestern Army, led by General N.N. Yudenich, launched a second campaign against Petrograd and captured Yamburg, Luga, Gatchina, Pavlovsk and Krasnoye Selo. At the end of October 1919, the troops of the North-Western Front of the Red Army, led by L.D. Trotsky, stopped the enemy on the outskirts of the northern capital, and then, having launched a counteroffensive, threw them back into Estonian territory. In November 1919, the remnants of N.N. Yudenich were disarmed, and then, by decision of the Estonian government, interned in Russia to be torn to pieces by the Bolsheviks.

Troops of the Turkestan Front of the Red Army under the command of M.V. Frunze during the Ural-Guryev offensive operation defeated the troops of the Southern and Ural armies of generals G.A. Belova and V.S. Tolstov and, having crossed the Amu Darya, approached the borders of the Khiva Khanate.

Troops of the Eastern Front of the Red Army under the command of V.I. Shorin after heavy and bloody battles with the Western Army of General M.V. Khanzhina crossed Tobol and, having liberated Petropavlovsk, Ishim and Omsk, pushed back the remnants of the army of A.V. Kolchak to the Krasnoyarsk region.

The troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army under the command of V.N. Egoryev during heavy defensive battles against two cavalry corps of generals K.K. Mamontov and A.G. Shkuro and the army corps of General A.P. Kutepova by the beginning of October 1919 left Odessa, Kyiv, Kharkov, Kursk, Orel, Voronezh and retreated to Tula.

Soon successful actions armies of generals P.N. Wrangel, V.Z. May-Maevsky and V.I. Sidorin was replaced by a series of major military failures, the causes of which, according to historians (V. Fedyuk, A. Butakov), were multifaceted. In particular, due to the mediocre domestic policy of the head of the South Russian government, N.M. Melnikov, a powerful uprising began in the rear of the White Guard troops Kuban Cossacks and detachments of father N.I. Makhno. In addition, serious disagreements arose between the generals A.I. Denikin and P.N. Wrangel on the issues of the white movement and the further conduct of the war.

In the meantime, by decision of the RVSR, two new groupings of troops were created against the White Guard armies of the All-Union Socialist Republic of Russia: the Southern Front of the Red Army, which was headed by the former tsarist colonel A.I. Egorov, and the South-Eastern Front of the Red Army, which was headed by V.I. Shorin.

October 1919 - January 1920 during the Voronezh-Kastornensk offensive operation, the troops of the 1st Cavalry Army S.M. Budyonny and K.E. Voroshilov was defeated by the cavalry corps of generals K.K. Mamontov and A.G. Shkuro and liberated the entire territory of Central Russia (Kursk, Orel, Voronezh, Kastornaya), Left-bank Little Russia and Novorossia (Kyiv, Kharkov, Poltava) and the Don Army Region (Tsaritsyn, Novocherkassk, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don). With the withdrawal of Soviet troops to the North Caucasus, in January 1920, by decision of the RVSR, the South-Eastern Front was renamed the Caucasian Front of the Red Army, and the Southern Front - the South-Western Front of the Red Army. At the same time, by decision of the RVSR, the Eastern Front of the Red Army was disbanded, the final defeat of A.V. Kolchak was assigned to parts of the 5th Soviet Army, which was headed by M.N. Tukhachevsky. During the rapid offensive of the 5th Army units, the remnants of the White Guard troops were completely defeated near Krasnoyarsk, Novo-Nikolaevsk and Irkutsk, and Admiral A.V. Kolchak and the head of his government V.N. Pepelyaev were taken prisoner and, by decision of the Irkutsk Military Revolutionary Committee, were shot in February 1920.

In February-April 1920, events on the fronts of the war developed as follows.

The troops of the 6th Soviet Army under the command of the former tsarist general A.A. Samoilo was defeated by the White Guard troops of the Northern Region of Generals E.K. Miller and V.V. Marushevsky and captured Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.

The troops of the Amur, Primorsky and Okhotsk fronts of the Red Army under the overall command of S.G. Lazo began hostilities against the Japanese interventionists and the White Guard troops of Ataman G.M. Semenov and General V.O. Kappel in Transbaikalia and the Far East.

The troops of the Caucasian Front of the Red Army under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky carried out the North Caucasian offensive operation and, having liberated the entire territory of the Kuban, Stavropol, Terek region and Dagestan, reached the borders of Azerbaijan and Georgia. As a result of these events, General A.I. Denikin voluntarily resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia and transferred them to Lieutenant General P.N. Wrangel, who evacuated the remnants of his troops (50 thousand bayonets and sabers) to the territory of Crimea, which was held by the Russian army of General Ya.A. Slashchev.

Troops of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army under the command of A.I. Yegorov, during the Odessa offensive operation, they liberated the entire territory of the Right-bank Little Russia and Southern New Russia and reached the borders of Romania and Galicia.

Troops of the Turkestan Front of the Red Army under the command of M.V. Frunze, having defeated the remnants of the White Army in the Central Asian region, captured the entire territory of the Bukhara Emirate and the Khiva Khanate, where the Bukhara and Khiva People's Soviet Republics were soon created.

d) The fourth stage of the Civil War (April - November 1920)

In January 1920, the Soviet government proposed to the Polish government to start peace talks on the demarcation of the state border. The People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, which in March 1918 was headed by Georgy Vasilievich Chicherin, proposed to carry out this demarcation in favor of his neighbor, that is, 200-250 kilometers east of the border line that was determined for the restored Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in July 1919.

However, its military-political leadership, headed by Jozef Pilsudski, refused this "flattering" offer, since their grandiose plans included the reconstruction of the Commonwealth "from mozh to mozh", i.e. within the borders of 1772. Starting to implement this crazy idea, the government of Marshal Yu. Pilsudsky signed with the emigrant government of the Ukrainian Directory, which continued to be headed by the fugitive independent S.V. Petlyura, an agreement on the actual occupation of the entire Right-Bank Little Russia.

On April 25, 1920, Polish troops and units of the Ukrainian People's Army launched an offensive against the 12th and 14th armies of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army, which held the defense from Pripyat to the Dniester. On April 27, the enemy captured Proskurov, Zhitomir and Zhmerinka, and on May 6 entered Kyiv. In this situation, without completing the transfer of troops of the 1st Cavalry Army, S.M. Budyonny from the Caucasian front, commander-in-chief S.S. Kamenev gave the order to go on the offensive against the Polish-Ukrainian army of the troops of the Western Front of the Red Army, which was headed by M.N. Tukhachevsky.

On May 23, 1920, the Central Committee of the RCP(b) published its theses "The Polish Front and Our Tasks", in which he called the fight against the White Poles the main task for the near future. And already on May 26, 1920, taking advantage of the transfer of part of the Polish army to central regions Belarus, the troops of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army went on the offensive against the troops of Marshal Yu. Pilsudsky, who captured Kyiv on June 12.

Meanwhile, in Southern Novorossia, the offensive of the troops of General P.N. Wrangel to the Donbass and Odessa. All attempts by the 13th Soviet Army under the command of R.P. Eideman to stop the advance of the enemy in these areas were unsuccessful, and by the end of June he captured Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa and rushed to the Donbass. In early July 1920, a joint offensive began between the troops of the Southwestern and Western fronts of the Red Army against the army of Yu. Pilsudsky, as a result of which the troops of the 1st Cavalry Army S.M. Budyonny was occupied by Rovno, and the 16th Soviet army under the command of V.K. Putny liberated Minsk.

The sharp aggravation of the situation on the Soviet-Polish front alarmed the leaders of the leading European powers. On July 12, 1920, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord J. Curzon, sent an ultimatum to the government of the RSFSR to immediately stop the offensive of Soviet troops against the sovereign Polish state and start a negotiation process on the demarcation of the state border of the two powers. The Central Committee of the RCP(b) categorically rejected the "Curzon note" and decided to start a revolutionary war in Europe.

In mid-July 1920, the Soviet troops, following the directive of the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army S.S. Kamenev, continued the offensive in the Warsaw and Lvov directions and soon, having liberated Pinsk, Baranovichi, Grodno and Vilnius, they reached the ethnic borders of Poland. On July 30, 1920, by decision of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), a pro-Soviet Polish government was created in Bialystok - the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, headed by a member of the Polish Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) Yu.B. Markhlevsky.

On the same day, the troops of the Western Front of the Red Army launched the Warsaw offensive operation, which ended in disaster for the Soviet troops and the capture of 130 thousand Red Army soldiers. In mid-August 1920, the Polish troops, led by the French General M. Weigen, delivered a powerful blow to the left flank of the armies of M.N. Tukhachevsky and surrounded the Soviet troops on the outskirts of Warsaw. During the week of fierce fighting, units and formations of the Western Front of the Red Army suffered huge losses and, having rolled back to their original positions, went over to forced defense along the entire front line from Bialystok to Brest.

Thus, the “miracle on the Vistula” not only saved the reconstituted lordly Poland from new destruction, but also put an end to the utopian plans of the top Soviet leadership to kindle the fire of the proletarian revolution in Europe and destroy the Versailles Treaty.

During the years of "Gorbachev's perestroika" and unbridled anti-Stalinism, the main blame for the catastrophe of the Western Front of the Red Army was assigned to I.V. Stalin, who, being a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southwestern Front, sabotaged in every way the decision of the Plenum of the Central Committee and the order of the commander-in-chief S.S. Kamenev about the transfer of the 1st Cavalry Army S.M. Budyonny at the disposal of M.N. Tukhachevsky. Of course, this circumstance played a certain negative role in the catastrophe of the Western Front, but it was by no means decisive. According to a number of historians (I. Mikhutin, S. Poltorak), the main reasons for the defeat of the Soviet troops in the Warsaw offensive operation consisted in the grossest miscalculations of the operational-tactical situation at the front, which M.N. himself made. Tukhachevsky and his field headquarters:

Firstly, the scale of concentration, the number and combat potential of the enemy troops located in the Warsaw region were incorrectly determined;

Secondly, the direction of the main attack on the enemy troops was incorrectly determined;

Thirdly, during the Warsaw operation, the troops of the first echelon of the Soviet troops significantly broke away not only from their rear units, but also from the front headquarters;

Finally, fourthly, a telegram from Moscow about the transfer of the 1st Cavalry Army to the Western Front arrived with a huge delay, when the troops of S.M. Budyonny had already got involved in bloody battles for Lvov and were in an extremely exhausted state.

In addition, according to the same authors, the Soviet political leadership absolutely misjudged the level of class solidarity of the Polish workers and peasants, who, completely forgetting about their class affiliation, stood up as a united national front to defend their Fatherland from Russian invaders and Bolsheviks.

The defeat of the Soviet troops near Warsaw predetermined the outcome of the entire war with Poland. On October 12, 1920, a preliminary truce was signed and the warring parties began negotiations, which ended on March 18, 1921 with the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty. Under the terms of this agreement: 1) the entire territory of Western Ukraine and Belarus departed to pan Poland; 2) Soviet Russia over the next year had to pay a military indemnity in the amount of 30 million gold rubles.

The end of hostilities in Poland allowed the top leadership of the country to concentrate the main forces against the Russian army of General P.N. Wrangel, whose troops dug in in the Crimea. On September 21, 1920, by decision of the RVSR, to fight the army of P.N. Wrangel, the Southern Front of the Red Army was created, which was headed by M.V. Frunze. The structure of the new front, in addition to the 4th, 6th and 13th Soviet armies, included the troops of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies of S.M. Budyonny and F.K. Mironov.

At the end of September, the troops of General P.N. Wrangel resumed their offensive in Northern Tavria and soon captured Aleksandrovka and Mariupol. However, all attempts to capture Kakhovka and Yuzovka were unsuccessful. On October 15, 1920, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive along the entire front line, during which they liberated the entire territory of Northern Tavria and threw back the defeated enemy units into the Crimea.

On November 7–20, 1920, during the Chongar-Perekop offensive operation, the troops of the Southern Front of the Red Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, father N.I. Makhno broke through the defenses of the White troops on the heavily fortified Perekop Isthmus and completely liberated the Crimea. A significant part of the White Guard troops, led by their commander, General P.N. Wrangel managed to leave the peninsula at the very last moment. However, about 12 thousand soldiers and the Russian army, who did not want to part with their homeland, were shot during a terror unprecedented in its cruelty, led by Joseph Drabkin, Rozalia Zemlyachka and Bela Kun.

The defeat of the Russian army of General P.N. Wrangel in the Crimea marked the end of the large-scale Civil War, although for another two years (1921–1922), Soviet troops had to suppress individual pockets of armed civil confrontation in various parts of the country, in particular in the Transcaucasus (1920–1921), Turkestan (1920– 1921), Transbaikalia (1921), and the Far East (1921–1922).

The top political leadership of the country followed especially closely the development of the situation in Transbaikalia and the Far East. The fact is that back in April 1920, by decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), on the Far Eastern borders occupied by the Japanese and Americans, for purely pragmatic reasons, a buffer state was created - the Far Eastern Republic (FER), which included the Trans-Baikal, Amur, Primorsky, Sakhalin and Kamchatka regions of the RSFSR. Throughout 1920, units and formations of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far East, led by G.Kh. Eikhe fought fierce battles with the White Guard troops of General V.O. Kappel and military ataman G.M. Semenov, who controlled most of Trans-Baikal Territory. And only at the very end of October, units of the NRA, with the support of Siberian partisans, occupied Chita.

In May 1921, a coup d'etat took place in Vladivostok, as a result of which the government of S.D. came to power in Primorye. Merkulov, and the troops of General R.F. invaded Transbaikalia from the territory of Outer Mongolia. Ungern. In June 1921 - February 1922, units and formations of the NRA, which was already headed by V.K. Blucher, as a result of a series of successful operations, including in the Volochaevka region, defeated all the White Guard troops and established their control over the territory of the Amur Territory (Khabarovsk). Then, in October 1922, part of the NRA, which was now headed by I.P. Uborevich, with the support of the coastal partisans, defeated the Japanese troops and occupied Vladivostok. On November 14, 1922, the People's Assembly of the Far East Republic announced the restoration of Soviet power on its territory and the entry of the Far Eastern Republic into the RSFSR.

3. Results and significance of the Civil War

The three-year Civil War and foreign intervention turned out to be the greatest tragedy for Russia, which had the most severe consequences. According to the majority of Soviet and Russian historians (Yu. Polyakov, Y. Korablev, S. Kara-Murza):

1) The total amount of economic damage from the Civil War amounted to more than 50 billion gold rubles.

2) Industrial production in the country has decreased many times and amounted to only 4–20% of the pre-war level in various sectors of industrial production, and a significant part of the country's scientific and technical potential simply ceased to exist.

3) Agricultural production decreased by almost 40% from the pre-war level, and the result of such a deplorable state of the agrarian sector of the national economy was not slow to affect the massive famine in the Volga region and other regions of the country, which, according to the most conservative estimates, claimed more than 3 million human lives.

4) All commodity-money relations in the country were almost completely destroyed, free trade disappeared in all its regions, and primitive naturalization of the economy reigned everywhere.

5) Irretrievable casualties in the Civil War, according to various estimates, ranged from 8 (Yu. Polyakov) to 13 (I. Ratkovsky, M. Khodyakov) million people, while only 1 million 200 thousand people fell to the share of both regular armies. The total demographic losses, according to scientists (V. Kozhinov), amounted to an astronomical figure of 25 million people.

At the same time, according to a number of Russian historians (I. Ratkovsky, M. Khodyakov), the results of the Civil War were also positive, because:

The bloody and chaotic disintegration of the Russian Empire, which began after the February Revolution of 1917, was stopped;

The union of Soviet states that arose during the Civil War, regardless of the will of its new rulers, restored the thousand-year historical space of Russia;

The victory of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War dealt a significant blow to the entire colonial system imperialism and forced the governments of all world bourgeois powers to launch large-scale social reforms in their countries.

Speaking about the results and significance of the Civil War, one should recognize the correctness of those modern authors (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov, V. Brovkin, V. Kondrashin), who claim that:

Ultimately, the bloody Civil War ended with the victory of the multi-million Russian peasantry, which, having risen to the armed struggle, nevertheless forced the Bolsheviks to retreat from the harsh policy of war communism and go over to the NEP;

During the years of the Civil War, the foundations of that one-party command-administrative system in our country were modeled and laid, which lasted until the collapse of the CPSU and the Soviet state.

During the Civil War, "opium" rubles appeared in the Semirechensk region of the Turkestan Republic - banknotes backed by a supply of opium.

Such exotic money, however, did not enjoy the confidence of the local population and was exchanged for ordinary rubles as soon as possible.

In April 1918, the Turkestan Soviet Republic arose on the territory of the former Turkestan Governor-Generalship.

Despite the fact that the republic had an autonomous government, it coordinated its actions with the central government of Soviet Russia, and its monetary circulation was part of the monetary circulation of the entire federation. However, during the Civil War, the republic found itself in the ring of the Trans-Caspian, Orenburg, Fergana and Semirechensk White Guard fronts and was completely cut off from the center of Russia.

Due to the lack of banknotes in the branches of the State Bank of the Turkestan Republic central government The Turkestan Council of People's Commissars decided to issue local banknotes, called "temporary credit notes", commonly known as "turkbon".

Poor communication with Tashkent, impassability, Basmachi and rebellions did not allow timely replenishment of the financial resources of the regions.

It was especially difficult financial position Semirechensk region with the center in the city of Verny (Alma-Ata), where local authorities faced with the need to issue regional Semirechensk money. Along with organizational and technical issues related to the issue of paper money, there was a problem with their material support.

It turned out that only stocks of opium stored in the city branch of the State Bank could be used as real security for such money, later called "Verny rubles". This opium was extracted from the opium poppy, which was grown on extensive plantations in the Semirechye region.

Operation Stolen Coat.

"There were officers of a special category in the White Army. During the bloody Civil War, they developed an unwritten strict code of conduct, which they strictly adhered to. One of the main requirements is self-discipline, and very severe. Perhaps this requirement was an involuntary reaction to the anarchy and disorder that accompanied revolution, but these people endured the most severe hardships without whining or complaining, when they received orders, they sought to do the impossible.Dejected by senseless destruction, despising their less scrupulous associates, the patriots of the White Army treated the civilian population almost like knights.

In August, when the Northwestern Army was retreating under the blows of numerous enemy forces, the battalion on our left suddenly stopped. The fighting intensified, and, to our dismay, the white infantry launched a counterattack without warning. Although the purpose of this maneuver was not clear to us, our armored train took part in the operation in order to prevent a breakthrough of the front. The Reds turned back and we drove them back a mile. Then, just as suddenly, the fighting died down. Each member of the crew of the armored train was perplexed about the unexpected sortie and sought to find out its cause.

The secret was revealed that evening. Passing through the village, a white soldier entered a peasant's hut and stole a coat. By the time the officers found out about the theft, the village had already been occupied by the advancing enemy, but the battalion commander decided to teach his soldiers a lesson - the punishment for looting. The company, in which the guilty soldier served, was sent to counterattack in order to return the stolen coat to its rightful owner. When the order was carried out, the attacking unit was withdrawn from their positions, but the operation "stolen coat" left an indelible impression in the minds of the soldiers.

Nikolay Reden, "Through the Hell of the Russian Revolution. Memoirs of a Midshipman. 1914–1919".

A curious case from the book "17 months with the Drozdovites" by G.D. Venusa
(story in the hospital):

And again a few days passed. It was getting dark ... - Yes, - my neighbor on the left, the captain of the 18th Don St. George Regiment, told the cadet Rynov, who sat down next to him, my neighbor on the right. - It was like that - the devil tear his nostrils ... "Shoot!" ordered the regimental commander. Then I took this sailor: "You're naughty - I'm playing you according to all the rules!" ... Well, well! .. And he - he won’t blink an eye. He stands in front of the squad, and even in underpants alone and in a shirt, the devil tear his nostrils, and proud that your general ... "According to the sailor," I then commanded, "firing with the squad, from-de-le-nie ... "I waited ... I think I'll give him time to remember God. And the sailor - not an eye. Directly flanking at the fly looks and smiles, bitch. I raised my hand, I wanted to already - pli! - to command, and how he will tear his shirt! I look, and on his chest he has an eagle tattooed. Two-headed, with an orb, with a scepter... Come on, the devil tear him... I brought a sailor to headquarters... tear his nostrils!... So and so, I say, mister colonel. Didn't follow your orders. I can't force the Cossacks to aim at the double-headed eagle. "Correctly!" Colonel of our old military service. "Such, he says, they don't shoot. A hand! .." He shook my hand ... Yes ... Yesaul fell silent. - Excuse me, Mr. Yesaul, what happened to the sailor? Do we have him left? - Run away, the devil tear his nostrils! - Yesaul spat. - That same night ... Here! .. And you say: gu-ma - gu-ma-ni ... or whatever else ... Eh, junker!

Soviet document of April 1918. At the bottom there is a curious seal with the inscription "Commissariat of Agriculture"



Money circulation under the Kuban regional government

On February 28, 1918, the government detachment of the Kuban Army under the command of General V.L. Pokrovsky, with carts, left Yekaterinodar beyond the Kuban to meet with the Volunteer Army.229 They managed to take out a cash supply of token (billon) coins in the amount of 193,000 rubles, a small amount of credit notes in small denominations and about two million thousand-ruble "dumok" from the State Bank. 230 That's all the money the army had when they went on the march. At the very first stop - in the village of Shenji - it turned out that the detachment needed a small change. With further progress, this issue became even more aggravated. The fact is that almost all military units received maintenance from the regional treasury in thousand-ruble tickets - "dumkas".

Most of the local residents of mountain villages and auls also did not have a sufficient number of small banknotes, and they could not exchange thousand-ruble tickets when buying food for people and horses from them. Began to resort to the following method. Separate military units paid with local residents special receipts or receipts. Before the detachment left the stanitsa occupied by it, all those who received receipts or receipts took them to the stanitsa Board, where it was recorded - who contributed how much. Then the total amount was calculated, and if a round sum was obtained, then it was issued against the receipt of the ataman in thousand-ruble or other larger tickets. Often occurred stalemate: people who had several thousand-ruble tickets in cash could not buy a piece of bread, since no one could give change or exchange a ticket; the chiefs of military units could not distribute maintenance to individual members of the detachment. Then it was decided to do something to mitigate this exchange crisis.

A selection from the book by M. Weller and A. Burovsky "Civil History of Mad War"

ENTENTE SUPPORTS THE WHITES?…

On January 10, 1919, President Wilson calls on all the political forces of Russia to sit down at the negotiating table on the Princes' Islands, and the Bolsheviks immediately agree, while the Whites flatly refuse.
In the spring of 1919, the representative of the Entente in the Baltic states demanded that Yudenich and his comrades urgently and peacefully agree with the Reds, otherwise the “allies” would throw the Whites to hell to their fate and go home. Which they soon did.
In the South, Denikin is doing exactly the same thing, one scenario.
In Siberia, the Entente recognized a democratic (non-Bolshevik) government, disapproved of Kolchak's dictatorship, and ultimately kind of sanctioned the overthrow of Kolchak and his transfer to a socialist (non-Bolshevik) government that emerged as a result of the coup.
The French especially did not like the "dictatorship of the generals" and demanded from them the democratization of Russian life. The demands were not perceived, the French spat after the general's epaulettes and left for home.
The Entente perceived the generals as stranglers of Russian freedom and, as part of the peacekeeping mission, wanted to see Russia as a democratic European country with respect for human rights and social guarantees. And what did they give us?!

RED FLAG VS RED FLAG

The most combat-ready regiment in Kolchak's army was the Izhevsk workers' regiment, which went into battle under a red banner.
The Socialist-Revolutionaries in general considered the red banner to be theirs: they were the first in the country to become revolutionaries for the working cause, for the peasant breadwinner.
The Tambov peasant uprising took place under the red banner.
Most of the people were for Soviet power in the sense of the power of their councils, people's deputies. But he was against the "dictatorship of the proletariat" in the execution of the dictatorship of the top of one party, the RSDLP (b) - which, like a signboard, disguised itself with the false name "Soviet Power". For as soon as honestly and equally elected people's councils opposed the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks, they declared these councils "counter-revolutionary" and "illegal".

SOVIET REPUBLIC OF TURKISH

If anyone paid attention, the Turks have a red flag, with a star, well, plus a crescent. This red star flag appeared to them in those very times.
Britain destroyed the huge Ottoman Empire, Turkey began to seethe as a lonely "metropolis" without provinces, the Sultan was thrown off, the backward way of life was transformed by the tough and smart Mustafa Kemal into a civilized one and became Kemal Ataturk, the father of the Turks. Well, was it possible in 1919, on the eve of the World Revolution, not to extend a helping hand to the fraternal Turkish people?! Moreover, at that moment the Turks were beating the Greeks, but the British were behind the Greeks. A classic situation: the imperialist war gave Turkey a civil war, the overthrow of the old system and the liberation of the working people! W-well! - some more! And there will be communism.
The Turks were given money and a lot of Armenian lands. And Turkey became an ally of the RSFSR. And since it will soon become "ours" - the borders do not matter.
M-yes. Atatürk spat on our callused hand. He had his own views on the welfare of the Turkish people and on the meaning of the red flag.

PERSIAN SOVIET REPUBLIC

The southern coast of the Caspian was not a stranger to Russia since Griboedov's times. As if Persian, but Persia was somehow backward and incomplete. And then there are ports, routes, trade and, in general, the path to the Indian Ocean. International seaside bustle. And he was interrupted and fed there in the Civil by no one.
In May 1920, the Bolsheviks with detachments landed on the shore, organized a council in this amorphous anarchy, the British, with their small garrison, left the port of Anzeli out of harm's way: England did not want to get involved in Russian showdowns. And the northern part of Persia, without much bloodshed, became the Gilan Soviet Republic.
Did the little provincial Jewish boy Yasha Blyumkin ever dream of being the Red Commissar of Soviet Persia? No, this time of terrible and wonderful fairy tales will never repeat in history!..
So, the Cheka sent the peace-killing Chekist Blyumkin to look after the Persians and establish Bolshevik power for them. Blumkin was a man with high cultural demands and for the soul he brought with him a sidekick Seryoga Yesenin. This helped Yesenin from drinking binges, and he was tired of walking with Blumkin to look at the executions in the basements (there was such a stylish fashion in that era among secular Soviet people with big connections- look at the executions in the Cheka. Like visiting a closed privileged club).
And the power was improved! The Kremlin was delighted! Trotsky was preparing an expeditionary corps - to wash boots in Indian Ocean: and it was before that ocean - at hand!
An unexpected bastard called best friend Soviet Union Shahinshah of Iran Reza Pahlavi. Then he had not yet decided as Shah, he was a young Persian aristocrat and Russophile. He won the Great War on the Russian-German front in the Cossack units, was awarded, had a staff officer rank, Russian without an accent, a prize rider, a friend of the royal court - well, adventurism plays in his youth. He took a closer look at the Soviet republic, staged a coup d'etat, put his friend in charge of Persia, and himself, as Minister of War, drove out the Soviet and party bodies.
Lucky for the time being, Blyumkin left in advance for other urgent matters. And Yesenin wrote his " Persian motifs”, dedicating an advance copy of the book to a friend Blumkin.

EVIL WHITE POLE

In 1916 Poland was occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary. And, having agreed with the occupiers to separate from the Russian Empire, their enemy, she declared herself independent.
The leader of the formed state was the professional revolutionary and nationalist Józef Piłsudski. Until that moment, he fought in the Austrian units - against damned Russia.
Germany and Austria-Hungary tore off a piece from the hostile Russia and fixed the gap for the future. Poland has always hated its inclusion in other states and has come to love the Germans (who late XVIII centuries tore it apart with the Russians and included it, but without any preservation of the names "Poland" and other nonsense).
In 1917, under Kerensky, with the "Declaration of the Rights of Peoples", the independence of Poland was recognized by England and France.
In 1918, Soviets, strikes, the Red Guard arose in Poland - everything was as it should be. Piłsudski forced the government to give him the rights of a dictator and suppressed this disgrace with an iron fist.
Under this hand, a democratic state and a military army began to be created. In the collapse and many anarchy of Russia in 1919, they recalled Great Speech Commonwealth from sea to sea and began to clean up everything that lay badly and could be considered historically theirs. So at that time everyone did who could. Maps were redrawn rapidly, everything could be changed: the era of great changes and the fulfillment of age-old dreams of justice.
A 70,000-strong army arrived in Poland, formed on French territory from Polish American emigrants. They took Kovel (Kaunas), Vilna (Vilnius), Brest. Lithuania, also independent, only grunted: yes, cities of a common state in the past ...
In August 1918, the Bolsheviks recognized Poland's independence. At this point, they would even recognize the independence of the tail from his cat. Barely breathed.
However, when in 1919 the Kremlin sent a mission of a couple of people to Warsaw, the mission in Poland was shot down. They did not expect anything good from any Russians at all. And these - are trying to muddy the waters and organize their Jewish councils everywhere in the world - since they are now weak, and it's time to return what is possible from the times of their historical power - two.
Brest, by the way, is Belarus, it is Soviet, and it is in alliance with Moscow. The Poles pinch off where they can.
At the beginning of 1920, Pilsudski concluded an agreement with Petliura on joint actions against the Russians - both whites and reds. And in the spring, the Poles begin an offensive in Ukraine. Together with the independents, the Reds are kicked out of Kyiv, they go forward both in the east and in the southeast (this is if you look from Poland).
In May, the Reds pull up the fronts, Tukhachevsky arrives, the First Equestrian Budyonny, the Poles break in on the first number and are driven to Warsaw. And it smells like new red liberation campaign to Europe.
Well, then the “miracle on the Vistula”, the defeat of the Reds, and the Poles chop off Western Ukraine and Western Belarus for this business - which they themselves consider to be primordially Polish territories. Sha - until 1939 everything is quiet.
But. In July 1920, British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon issued an ultimatum from the West to the RSFSR and Poland: stop hostilities, withdraw troops along the demarcation line established two years ago by the Entente Council.
Lenin agreed, but Pilsudski was against it: the Poles went far beyond this border, they almost had Odessa and huge territories. A week later, the Reds drove the Poles out and rejected the ultimatum. Three days later, this ultimatum was accepted by the Poles, but it was too late - the red pearls were uncontrollable and did not want to listen.
Then the Poles drove the Reds, and the Reds accepted the ultimatum, but now Poland did not want to know it.
The world laughed at Curzon's diplomacy.
He did not laugh forever: in 1945, the Polish-Soviet border lay along that very line.

Velidov A. "Decree" on the nationalization of women
The story of a hoax

In the first days of March 1918 in Saratov, an angry crowd gathered near the stock exchange building on the Upper Bazaar, where the anarchist club was located. It was dominated by women.

They furiously pounded on the closed door, demanding to be let into the room. Indignant cries rang out from all sides: “Herods!”, “Hooligans! There is no cross on them!”, “National treasure! Look what they invented, shameless!”. The crowd broke open the door and, crushing everything in its path, rushed into the club. The anarchists who were there barely managed to escape through the back door.

What excited the residents of Saratov so much? The reason for their indignation was the “Decree on the abolition of private ownership of women” pasted on houses and fences, allegedly issued by the “Free Association of Anarchists in the City of Saratov” ... There is no single point of view regarding this document in the historiography of the civil war. Some Soviet historians categorically deny its existence, while others pass over the issue in silence or only mention it in passing. What really happened?

In early March 1918, the newspaper Izvestia of the Saratov Council reported that a group of bandits plundered Mikhail Uvarov's tea house and killed its owner. Soon, on March 15, the newspaper published an article stating that the massacre of Uvarov was carried out not by bandits, but by a detachment of anarchists in the amount of 20 people, who were instructed to search the tea house and arrest its owner. Members of the detachment "on their own initiative" killed Uvarov, considering it "dangerous and useless" to keep a member of the "Union of the Russian People" and an ardent counter-revolutionary in prison. The newspaper also noted that the anarchists had issued a special proclamation on this subject. They declared that Uvarov's murder was "an act of revenge and just protest" for the destruction of an anarchist club and for issuing a libelous, sexist and pornographic "Decree on the Socialization of Women" on behalf of the anarchists. The "decree" in question - it was dated February 28, 1918 - resembled other decrees of the Soviet government in form. It included a preamble and 19 paragraphs. The preamble outlined the motives for issuing the document: due to social inequality and legal marriages, "all the best specimens of the fair sex" are owned by the bourgeoisie, which violates the "correct continuation of the human race." According to the "decree", from May 1, 1918, all women aged 17 to 32 years (except those with more than five children) are withdrawn from private ownership and declared "the property (property) of the people." The "decree" determined the rules for the registration of women and the procedure for using "copies of the national heritage." The distribution of "knowingly alienated women," the document said, would be carried out by the Saratov Anarchist Club. Men had the right to use one woman "no more than three times a week for three hours." To do this, they had to submit a certificate from the factory committee, trade union or local Soviet about belonging to a "working family". The ex-husband retained extraordinary access to his wife; in case of opposition, he was deprived of the right to use a woman.

Each "working member" who wanted to use a "copy of the national treasure" was obliged to deduct 9 percent of his earnings, and a man who did not belong to a "working family" - 100 rubles a month, which ranged from 2 to 40 percent of the average monthly wage worker. From these deductions, the “People's Generation” fund was created, at the expense of which assistance was paid to nationalized women in the amount of 232 rubles, allowance for pregnant women, maintenance for children born to them (they were supposed to be raised up to 17 years in shelters “People’s nursery”), as well as pensions for women who have lost their health. The "Decree on the Abolition of Private Ownership of Women" was a fake fabricated by the owner of a Saratov tea house, Mikhail Uvarov. What was Uvarov's goal in writing his "decree"? Did he want to ridicule the nihilism of the anarchists in matters of family and marriage, or was he deliberately trying to turn large sections of the population against them? Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to find out.

However, the story of the "decree" did not end with the murder of Uvarov. On the contrary, it was just beginning. With extraordinary rapidity, the libel began to spread throughout the country. In the spring of 1918 it was reprinted by many bourgeois and petty-bourgeois newspapers. Some editors published it as a curiosity to amuse readers; others - with the aim of discrediting the anarchists, and through them - the Soviet government (anarchists then participated together with the Bolsheviks in the work of the Soviets). Publications of this kind caused a wide public outcry. So, in Vyatka, the Right Socialist-Revolutionary Vinogradov, having copied the text of the "decree" from the newspaper "Ufimskaya Zhizn", published it under the title "Immortal Document" in the newspaper "Vyatsky Krai". On April 18, the Vyatka Provincial Executive Committee decided to close the newspaper, and all those involved in this publication to be tried by the revolutionary tribunal. On the same day, the issue was discussed at the provincial congress of Soviets. Representatives of all the parties that stood on the Soviet platform - Bolsheviks, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, maximalists, anarchists - sharply condemned the publication of the libel, considered that it was aimed at inciting the dark, irresponsible masses of the population against Soviet power. At the same time, the Congress of Soviets canceled the decision of the gubernia executive committee to close the newspaper, recognizing it as premature and too harsh, and obliged the gubernia executive committee to issue a warning to the editor.

At the end of April - the first half of May, on the basis of devastation and food shortages, the situation in the country greatly aggravated. In many cities there were disturbances of workers and employees, "hungry" riots. The publication in the newspapers of the "decree" on the nationalization of women further increased political tension. The Soviet state began to take more severe measures against the newspapers that published the "decree". However, the process of spreading the “decree” got out of control of the authorities. Variants began to appear. Thus, the “decree” distributed in Vladimir introduced the nationalization of women from the age of 18: “Every girl who has reached the age of 18 and has not married is obliged, under pain of punishment, to register with the bureau of free love. A registrant is given the right to choose a man between the ages of 19 and 50 for her husband-wife ... "

In some places, in remote villages, too zealous and ignorant officials They accepted the false "decree" as genuine and, in the heat of "revolutionary" zeal, were ready to carry it out. Reaction official authorities was strongly negative. In February 1919, V. I. Lenin received a complaint from Kumysnikov, Baimanov, Rakhimova against the commander of the village of Medyany, Chimbelev volost, Kurmyshevsky district. They wrote that the committee commander controls the fate of young women, “giving them to his friends, regardless of either the consent of the parents or the requirement common sense". Lenin immediately sent a telegram to the Simbirsk provincial executive committee and the provincial Cheka: “Immediately check the strictest, if confirmed, arrest the perpetrators, it is necessary to punish the bastards severely and quickly and notify the entire population. Telegraph the performance” (V. I. Lenin and the Cheka, 1987. pp. 121 - 122). Fulfilling the order of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, the Simbirsk Gubchek conducted an investigation into the complaint. It was established that the nationalization of women in Medyany was not introduced, about which the chairman of the Cheka telegraphed Lenin on March 10, 1919. Two weeks later, the chairman of the Simbirsk provincial executive committee, Gimov, in a telegram addressed to Lenin, confirmed the report of the governor and additionally reported that “Kumysnikov and Baimanov live in Petrograd, the identity of Rakhimova in Medyany is not known to anyone” (ibid., p. 122).

During the Civil War, the "Decree on the Abolition of Private Ownership of Women" was adopted by the White Guards. Attributing the authorship of this document to the Bolsheviks, they began to widely use it in agitation against Soviet power. (A curious detail - when Kolchak was arrested in January 1920, the text of this “decree” was found in his uniform pocket!). The myth about the introduction of the nationalization of women by the Bolsheviks was spread by opponents of the new system later. We meet its echoes during the period of collectivization, when there were rumors that the peasants joining the collective farm "would sleep under one common blanket."

"Decree for the abolition of private ownership of women" received wide popularity and abroad. The stereotype of the Bolsheviks - the destroyers of the family and marriage, supporters of the nationalization of women - was intensively introduced into the consciousness of the Western man in the street. Even some prominent bourgeois political and public figures believed these conjectures. In February-March 1919, in the "Overman" commission of the US Senate, during a hearing on the state of affairs in Russia, a remarkable dialogue took place between a member of the commission, Senator King, and an American, Simons, who arrived from Soviet Russia:

King: I happened to see the original Russian text and the English translation of some Soviet decrees. They actually destroy marriage and introduce so-called free love. Do you know anything about this?

Simons: You will find their program in the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels. Prior to our departure from Petrograd, if we are to believe the newspaper reports, they had already established a very definite regulation governing the so-called socialization of women.

King: So, to put it bluntly, Bolshevik Red Army men and male Bolsheviks kidnap, rape, and molest women as much as they want?

Simons: Of course they do.

The dialogue was fully included in the official report of the Senate commission, published in 1919.

More than seventy years have passed since the owner of a tea shop in Saratov, Mikhail Uvarov, made a fatal attempt to discredit the anarchists. The passions around the “decree” invented by him have long subsided. Nowadays, no one believes in idle fictions about the nationalization of women by the Bolsheviks. The "Decree on the Abolition of the Private Possession of Women" is now nothing more than a historical curiosity.

Decree of the Saratov Provincial Council of People's Commissars on the abolition of private ownership of women

Legal marriage, which took place until recently, was undoubtedly a product of that social inequality, which must be rooted out in the Soviet Republic. Until now, legal marriages have served as a serious weapon in the hands of the bourgeoisie in its struggle against the proletariat, thanks only to them all the best specimens of the fair sex were the property of the bourgeois imperialists, and such property could not but violate the correct continuation of the human race. Therefore, the Saratov Provincial Council of People's Commissars, with the approval of the Executive Committee of the Provincial Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, decided:

§ one. From January 1, 1918, the right of permanent possession of women who have reached 17 years of age is abolished. and up to 30 liters.

Note: The age of women is determined by birth certificates, passports, and in the absence of these documents by quarterly committees or elders and by appearance and testimony.

§ 2. This decree does not apply to married women with five or more children.

§ 3. The former owners (husbands) retain the right to unscheduled use of their wife. Note: In case of opposition of the ex-husband in the implementation of this decree, he is deprived of the right granted to him by this article.

§ 4. All women who fit under this decree are removed from private permanent possession and declared the property of the entire working people.

§ 5. The distribution of the management of alienated women is provided by the Sov. Slave. Sold. and Cross. Deputies of the Gubernsky, Uyezdny and Rural deputies according to their affiliation.

§ 7. Citizens of men have the right to use a woman no more than four times a week and no more than 3 hours, subject to the conditions indicated below.

§ eight. Each member of the working people is obliged to deduct 2% of his earnings to the fund of the people's generation.

§ nine. Every man who wants to use a copy of the national property must present a certificate from the workers' and factory committee or trade union that he belongs to the working class.

§ ten. Men who do not belong to the working class acquire the right to take advantage of alienated women, subject to the monthly contribution specified in § 8 to the fund of 1000 rubles.

§ eleven. All women declared by this decree to be the people's property will receive assistance from the fund of the people's generation in the amount of 280 rubles. per month.

§ 12. Women who become pregnant are released from their direct and state duties for 4 months (3 months before and one after childbirth).

§ thirteen. Babies born after a month are given to the shelter "People's Nursery", where they are brought up and receive education until the age of 17.

§ fourteen. At the birth of a twin parent, a reward of 200 rubles is given.

§ fifteen. Those responsible for the spread of venereal diseases will be brought to legal responsibility in a court of revolutionary times.

Arch. FSB Oryol region, case No. 15554-P

Now he stands and asks when the whites will shoot him. A noble white officer solemnly lets him go home (sometimes even gives him money). The defector freezes in sacred bewilderment ... And then he asks to enter the white army as a volunteer to beat the damned communists. Because they killed the priest / destroyed the church / robbed the peasants - all together and separately.

The Reds generally shoot all the priests and Cossacks without fail (the villages of the Cossacks are systematically destroyed as the territories are seized), exile the intelligentsia to labor camps and socialize women (sometimes children). There is no order, the commissars are always drunk, the communists are robbers, convicts, thieves, drunkards and greedy mediocrity, the workers and peasants hate them, and the communist army is on the verge of collapse. To strengthen it, officers of the German General Staff are used, who sit in the capital and form punitive detachments from Latvian mercenaries to Karelia. All this is confirmed by irrefutable data: eyewitness reports, letters sent by the Red Army soldiers through the front, newspaper reporters, foreign press reports, and finally, captured Soviet newspapers, documents and rumors.

The holy army beats the Bolsheviks and liberates the cities and villages. Along the way, it turns out that the Reds not only shoot in the cellars with machine guns, but also saw their prisoners with saws, execute two thousand people in one city and skin the officers. The communists and the Chinese are especially zealous (the latter always sell the things of the dead, sometimes even their meat), as well as the special communist detachments and punitive trains of Trotsky and Kedrov, in which firing squads go, executing 200 people at a time. In the field, too, initiative is often shown - for example, the commissar of the Tatar-Magyar detachment near Samara, Vuy, demanded that, in the event of death, he be buried in a coffin stained with the blood of 20 murdered bourgeois. The Bolsheviks rob churches and burn rebellious villages.

But, thank God, their end is not far off, since in the captured cities tens of thousands of patriotic workers have gone over to Denikin, the army is fleeing, and Lenin has already died (simultaneously escaped / killed / arrested / overthrown by Trotsky, who plans to flee with the loot abroad) and in Sovdepiya mass uprisings that captured Petrograd.

Great feat of two heroes.
1921, Gallipoli.

The situation of these days in the Russian military camps was convincingly conveyed in his memoirs by M. Kritsky. “Everyone,” he writes, “calculated the time when the ships would come to take us to the aid of the sailors. Antonov raised an uprising, and everyone believed that Moscow had been taken by him. They waited hour by hour that Budyonny would rebel and call the Russian army - after all, the sergeant-major of the tsar's regiment ... ".

Under the influence of these events, an attempt was even made to seize a French warship, which was on the roadstead in Gallipoli, in order to come to the aid of the rebels. Such a completely reckless enterprise was ventured by two young generals - A.V. Turkul and V.V. Manstein, and the latter was without a hand. I. Lukash mentions this case in his book: “... once at night they rushed into the icy water to attack the French destroyer. We sat in a coffee shop near the breakwater and suddenly decided to attack the destroyer, which was looming in the fog in the fog with sentry lights. They pulled out guns, both jumped and swam. They were lifted on board by a Russian launch, and they grumbled with displeasure ... ".

This is hard to believe if you do not know the characteristics of the generals, one of whom was 25 and the other 28 years old. It was given by the same I. Lukash. “General Turkul and General Manstein,” he writes, “are the most terrible soldiers of the most terrible Civil War. Generals Turkul and Manstein - this is the wild madness of Drozdov's full-length attacks without a shot, this is the mute fury of Drozdov's invincible marches. Generals Turkul and Manstein are merciless mass executions, tatters of bloody meat and chins, cut with a blued handle of a revolver, and the cinder of furious fires, a whirlwind of madness, cemeteries, death and victories.

During the Civil War, the revolutionary masses had quite serious problems with spelling ...

How the Luga military commissariat got married

Telegram

Moscow Central Committee of the RKKP Bolsheviks
Lugi Headquarters 4th Infantry Division
MSK All-Russian Bureau of Military-Political Commissars central committee RKKP Bolshevik military commissar Trotsky Yurenev, Petrograd military commissar of the Republic of Kazakhstan Pozern Yaroslavl Military commissar Arkadiev. As a result of my marriage to the girl Neverova, which took place on July 21, according to Orthodox custom, which violated the laws of the party and the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, I am leaving the RKKP Bolsheviks and resigning the Military Commissariat. To this I emphasize that I met Neverova only 4 days ago, carried away by her and at her insistence I could not do otherwise than get married.

Luga, July 23, 1918, Ivanov military commissariat

****************************************************************************
Meadows. Headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division to the Military District Commissar Ivanov

№ 7247
27.07.1918

In response to your telegram of July 28 of this year, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee expresses to you its sincere amazement at the original identification in your mind of your personal affairs with interests of national importance and significance. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee makes it clear to you that such confusion is absolutely unacceptable and asks you not to burden your attention and not to take time from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the telegraph with similar ones that do not represent any public interest, deeds.
Church marriage is a matter of your personal opinion only. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars does not forbid marriage according to the church rite, as you misunderstand, but does not consider it obligatory.
At the same time, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee instructs you to pay the fee for telegrams, as your personal, and not caused by a publicly necessary interest, to the treasury of the 4th Infantry Division.

Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee

Civil war in Russia - armed confrontation in 1917-1922. organized military-political structures and state formations, conditionally defined as "white" and "red", as well as national-state formations on the territory of the former Russian Empire (bourgeois republics, regional state formations). The armed confrontation also involved spontaneously emerging military and socio-political groups, often referred to by the term "third force" (rebel detachments, partisan republics, etc.). Also, foreign states (denoted by the concept of "interventionists") participated in the civil confrontation in Russia.

Periodization of the Civil War

There are 4 stages in the history of the Civil War:

First stage: summer 1917 - November 1918 - formation of the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement

Second stage: November 1918 - April 1919 - beginning of the Entente intervention.

Reasons for intervention:

To deal with the Soviet power;

Protect your interests;

Fear of socialist influence.

Third stage: May 1919 - April 1920 - simultaneous struggle of Soviet Russia against the White armies and Entente troops

Fourth stage: May 1920 - November 1922 (summer 1923) - the defeat of the White armies, the end of the civil war

Background and reasons

The origin of the Civil War cannot be reduced to any one cause. It was the result of deep political, socio-economic, national and spiritual contradictions. An important role was played by the potential of public discontent during the years of the First World War, the devaluation of the values ​​of human life. The agrarian and peasant policy of the Bolsheviks also played a negative role (the introduction of committees and surplus appropriations). The Bolshevik political doctrine, according to which civil war is the natural outcome of the socialist revolution, caused by the resistance of the overthrown ruling classes, also contributed to the civil war. On the initiative of the Bolsheviks, the All-Russian Constituent Assembly was dissolved, and the multi-party system was gradually eliminated.

The actual defeat in the war with Germany, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk led to the fact that the Bolsheviks were accused of "destroying Russia."

The right of peoples to self-determination proclaimed by the new government, the emergence of many independent state formations in different parts of the country were perceived by the supporters of the "United, Indivisible" Russia as a betrayal of its interests.

Dissatisfaction with the Soviet government was also expressed by those who opposed its demonstrative break with the historical past and ancient traditions. Especially painful for millions of people was the anti-church policy of the Bolsheviks.

The civil war took various forms, including uprisings, individual armed clashes, large-scale operations with the participation of regular armies, guerrilla actions, and terror. A feature of the Civil War in our country was that it turned out to be extremely long, bloody, and unfolded over a vast territory.

Chronological framework

Separate episodes of the Civil War took place already in 1917 (the February events of 1917, the July "half-uprising" in Petrograd, Kornilov's speech, the October battles in Moscow and other cities), and in the spring - summer of 1918 it acquired a large-scale, front-line character .

It is not easy to determine the final frontier of the Civil War. Front-line military operations on the territory of the European part of the country ended in 1920. But then there were also mass peasant uprisings against the Bolsheviks, and performances by Kronstadt sailors in the spring of 1921. Only in 1922-1923. ended the armed struggle in the Far East. This milestone as a whole can be considered the time of the end of a large-scale Civil War.

Features of armed confrontation during the Civil War

Military operations during the Civil War differed significantly from previous periods. It was a time of a kind of military creativity that broke the stereotypes of command and control, the system of manning the army, and military discipline. Greatest Success the military commander who commanded in a new way, using all means to achieve the task, achieved. The civil war was a war of maneuver. Unlike the period of the "positional war" of 1915-1917, there were no continuous front lines. Cities, villages, villages could change hands several times. Therefore, active, offensive actions, caused by the desire to seize the initiative from the enemy, were of decisive importance.

The fighting during the Civil War was characterized by a variety of strategies and tactics. During the establishment of Soviet power in Petrograd and Moscow, the tactics of street fighting were used. In mid-October 1917, the Military Revolutionary Committee established in Petrograd under the leadership of V.I. Lenin and N.I. Podvoisky, a plan was developed to capture the main urban facilities (telephone exchange, telegraph, railway stations, bridges). Fights in Moscow (October 27 - November 3, 1917 old style), between the forces of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee (heads - G.A. Usievich, N.I. Muralov) and the Committee of Public Security (commander of the Moscow Military District Colonel K. I. Ryabtsev and the head of the garrison, Colonel L. N. Treskin) were distinguished by the offensive of the Red Guards and soldiers of the reserve regiments from the outskirts to the city center, occupied by the junkers and the White Guard. Artillery was used to suppress white strongholds. A similar tactic of street fighting was used in the establishment of Soviet power in Kyiv, Kaluga, Irkutsk, Chita.

Formation of the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement

Since the beginning of the formation of units of the White and Red armies, the scale of military operations has expanded. In 1918, they were conducted, mainly along the lines of railways and were reduced to the capture of large junction stations and cities. This period was called the "echelon war".

In January-February 1918, the Red Guard detachments under the command of V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko and R.F. Sivers to Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk, where the forces of the Volunteer Army under the command of Generals M.V. Alekseeva and L.G. Kornilov.

In the spring of 1918, units of the Czechoslovak Corps formed from prisoners of war of the Austro-Hungarian army took part. Located in echelons along the Trans-Siberian railway from Penza to Vladivostok, the corps headed by R. Gaida, Y. Syrov, S. Chechek was subordinate to the French military command and sent to the Western Front. In response to demands for disarmament, during May-June 1918, the corps overthrew Soviet power in Omsk, Tomsk, Novonikolaevsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok and throughout the adjacent Trans-Siberian Railway territory of Siberia.

In the summer-autumn of 1918, during the 2nd Kuban campaign, the Volunteer Army took the junction stations Tikhoretskaya, Torgovaya, gg. Armavir and Stavropol actually decided the outcome of the operation in the North Caucasus.

The initial period of the Civil War was associated with the activities of the underground centers of the White movement. In all major cities of Russia there were cells associated with the former structures of the military districts and military units located in these cities, as well as with underground organizations of monarchists, cadets and socialist-revolutionaries. In the spring of 1918, on the eve of the performance of the Czechoslovak Corps, an officer underground operated in Petropavlovsk and Omsk under the leadership of Colonel P.P. Ivanov-Rinov, in Tomsk - Lieutenant Colonel A.N. Pepelyaev, in Novonikolaevsk - Colonel A.N. Grishin-Almazova.

In the summer of 1918, General Alekseev approved the secret regulation on the recruiting centers of the Volunteer Army, created in Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Taganrog. They transmitted intelligence information, sent officers across the front line, and also had to oppose the Soviet regime at the moment the White Army units approached the city.

A similar role was played by the Soviet underground, which was active in the White Crimea, the North Caucasus, Eastern Siberia and the Far East in 1919-1920, creating strong partisan detachments, which later became part of the regular units of the Red Army.

By the beginning of 1919, the formation of the White and Red armies was completed.

As part of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, 15 armies operated, covering the entire front in the center European Russia. The highest military leadership was concentrated at the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) L.D. Trotsky and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic, former Colonel S.S. Kamenev. All issues of logistical support for the front, issues of economic regulation on the territory of Soviet Russia were coordinated by the Council of Labor and Defense (STO), whose chairman was V.I. Lenin. He also headed the Soviet government - the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).

They were opposed by the united under the Supreme command of Admiral A.V. Kolchak Army of the Eastern Front (Siberian (Lieutenant General R. Gaida), Western (Artillery General M.V. Khanzhin), Southern (Major General P.A. Belov) and Orenburg (Lieutenant General A.I. Dutov) , as well as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSYUR), Lieutenant General A.I. Denikin, who recognized the power of Kolchak (Dobrovolcheskaya (Lieutenant General V.Z. Mai-Maevsky), Donskaya (Lieutenant General V.I. Sidorin) were subordinate to him) and the Caucasian (Lieutenant-General P.N. Wrangel) armies).In the general direction, the troops of the Commander-in-Chief of the North-Western Front, General of Infantry N.N. Yudenich and the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Region, Lieutenant General E.K. Miller, acted on Petrograd.

The period of greatest development of the Civil War

In the spring of 1919, attempts at combined attacks by the white fronts began. Since that time, combat operations have been in the nature of full-scale operations on a wide front, using all branches of the armed forces (infantry, cavalry, artillery), with the active assistance of aviation, tanks and armored trains. In March-May 1919, the offensive of the Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak began, striking in divergent directions - on Vyatka-Kotlas, on the connection with the Northern Front and on the Volga - on the connection with the armies of General Denikin.

The troops of the Soviet Eastern Front, under the leadership of S.S. Kamenev and, mainly, the 5th Soviet Army, under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky by the beginning of June 1919 stopped the advance of the White armies, inflicting counter-attacks in the Southern Urals (near Buguruslan and Belebey), and in the Kama region.

In the summer of 1919, the offensive of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSUR) began on Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav and Tsaritsyn. After the occupation of the last army of General Wrangel, on July 3, Denikin signed a directive on the "march on Moscow." During July-October, the troops of the All-Union Socialist League occupied most of Ukraine and the provinces of the Black Earth Center of Russia, stopping at the line Kyiv - Bryansk - Orel - Voronezh - Tsaritsyn. Almost simultaneously with the offensive of the Armed Forces of South Russia, an offensive began on Moscow Northwestern Army General Yudenich to Petrograd.

For Soviet Russia, the time of autumn 1919 became the most critical. Total mobilization of communists and Komsomol members was carried out, the slogans "Everything - to the defense of Petrograd" and "Everything - to the defense of Moscow" were put forward. Through control over the main railway lines, converging to the center of Russia, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) could transfer troops from one front to another. So, at the height of the fighting in the Moscow direction, several divisions were transferred from Siberia, as well as from the Western Front to the Southern Front and near Petrograd. At the same time, the White armies failed to establish a common anti-Bolshevik front (with the exception of contacts at the level of individual detachments between the Northern and Eastern fronts in May 1919, as well as between the front of the All-Union Socialist Republic and the Ural Cossack Army in August 1919). Thanks to the concentration of forces from different fronts, by mid-October 1919 near Orel and Voronezh, the commander of the Southern Front, former Lieutenant General V.N. Egorov managed to create a shock group, the basis of which was made up of parts of the Latvian and Estonian rifle divisions, as well as the 1st Cavalry Army under the command of S.M. Budyonny and K.E. Voroshilov. Counterattacks were launched on the flanks of the 1st Corps of the Volunteer Army advancing on Moscow under the command of Lieutenant General A.P. Kutepova. After stubborn fighting during October-November 1919, the VSYUR front was broken, and a general retreat of the Whites from Moscow began. In mid-November, before reaching 25 km from Petrograd, units of the North-Western Army were stopped and defeated.

The hostilities of 1919 were different wide application maneuver. Large cavalry formations were used to break through the front and conduct raids behind enemy lines. In the white armies, the Cossack cavalry was used in this capacity. The 4th Don Corps, specially formed for this purpose, under the command of Lieutenant General K.K. Mamantov in August-September made a deep raid from Tambov to the borders with the Ryazan province and Voronezh. Siberian Cossack Corps under the command of Major General P.P. Ivanov-Rinov broke through the red front near Petropavlovsk in early September. The "Red Division" from the Southern Front of the Red Army raided the rear of the Volunteer Corps in October-November. By the end of 1919, the beginning of operations of the 1st Cavalry Army, advancing in the Rostov and Novocherkassk directions, dates back.

In January-March 1920, fierce battles unfolded in the Kuban. During operations on the Manych and under Art. Yegorlykskaya, the last major equestrian battles in world history took place. Up to 50 thousand horsemen from both sides participated in them. Their result was the defeat of the VSYUR and the evacuation to the Crimea, on ships Black Sea Fleet. In the Crimea, in April 1920, the White troops were renamed the "Russian Army", commanded by Lieutenant General P.N. Wrangell.

The defeat of the white armies. End of the Civil War

At the turn of 1919-1920. was finally defeated by A.V. Kolchak. His army scattered, partisan detachments were operating in the rear. The supreme ruler was taken prisoner, in February 1920 in Irkutsk he was shot by the Bolsheviks.

In January 1920, N.N. Yudenich, who undertook two unsuccessful campaigns against Petrograd, announced the dissolution of his Northwestern Army.

After the defeat of Poland, the army of P.N. Wrangel was doomed. Having carried out a short offensive north of the Crimea, she went on the defensive. The forces of the Southern Front of the Red Army (commander M.V., Frunze) defeated the Whites in October - November 1920. The 1st and 2nd Cavalry armies made a significant contribution to the victory over them. Almost 150 thousand people, military and civilian, left the Crimea.

Fighting in 1920-1922 differed in small territories (Tavria, Transbaikalia, Primorye), smaller troops and already included elements of a positional war. During the defense, fortifications were used (the White lines at Perekop and Chongar in the Crimea in 1920, the Kakhovka fortified area of ​​the 13th Soviet army on the Dnieper in 1920, built by the Japanese and transferred to the white Volochaevsky and Spassky fortified areas in Primorye in 1921-1922. ). Long-term artillery preparation, as well as flamethrowers and tanks, were used to break through them.

Victory over P.N. Wrangel did not yet mean the end of the Civil War. Now the main opponents of the Reds were not the Whites, but the Greens, as the representatives of the peasant insurrectionary movement called themselves. The most powerful peasant movement unfolded in the Tambov and Voronezh provinces. It began in August 1920 after the peasants were given an overwhelming task of surplus appropriation. The rebel army, commanded by the Socialist-Revolutionary A.S. Antonov, managed to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks in several districts. At the end of 1920, units of the regular Red Army led by M.N. were sent to fight the rebels. Tukhachevsky. However, it turned out to be even more difficult to fight the partisan peasant army than with the White Guards in open battle. Only in June 1921 the Tambov uprising was suppressed, and A.S. Antonov is killed in a shootout. In the same period, the Reds managed to win final victory over Makhno.

The high point of the Civil War in 1921 was the uprising of the sailors of Kronstadt, who joined the protests of St. Petersburg workers demanding political freedoms. The uprising was brutally crushed in March 1921.

During 1920-1921. units of the Red Army made several campaigns in Transcaucasia. As a result, independent states were liquidated on the territory of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and Soviet power was established.

To fight the White Guards and interventionists in the Far East, the Bolsheviks created in April 1920 a new state - the Far Eastern Republic (FER). The army of the republic for two years knocked out Japanese troops from Primorye and defeated several White Guard chieftains. After that, at the end of 1922, the FER became part of the RSFSR.

In the same period, having overcome the resistance of the Basmachi, who fought to preserve medieval traditions, the Bolsheviks won a victory in Central Asia. Although a few rebel groups operated until the 1930s.

Results of the Civil War

The main result of the Civil War in Russia was the establishment of the power of the Bolsheviks. Among the reasons for the victory of the Reds are:

1. The use by the Bolsheviks of the political moods of the masses, powerful propaganda (clear goals, prompt resolution of issues both in the world and on earth, exit from the world war, justification of terror by fighting the country's enemies);

2. Control by the Council of People's Commissars of the central provinces of Russia, where the main military enterprises were located;

3. The disunity of the anti-Bolshevik forces (lack of common ideological positions; the struggle "against something", but not "for something"; territorial fragmentation).

The total population losses during the years of the Civil War amounted to 12-13 million people. Almost half of them are victims of famine and mass epidemics. Emigration from Russia took on a massive character. About 2 million people left their homeland.

The country's economy was in a catastrophic state. The cities were depopulated. Industrial production has fallen in comparison with 1913 by 5-7 times, agricultural - by one third.

The territory of the former Russian Empire fell apart. The largest new state was the RSFSR.

Military equipment during the Civil War

New types of military equipment were successfully used on the battlefields of the Civil War, some of them appeared in Russia for the first time. So, for example, British and French tanks were actively used in parts of the All-Union Socialist Republic, as well as the Northern and North-Western armies. The Red Guards, who did not have the skills to deal with them, often retreated from their positions. However, during the assault on the Kakhovka fortified area in October 1920, most of the white tanks were hit by artillery, and after the necessary repairs they were included in the Red Army, where they were used until the early 1930s. A prerequisite infantry support, both in street battles and during front-line operations, the presence of armored vehicles was considered.

The need for strong fire support during cavalry attacks caused the appearance of such an original means of combat as horse-drawn carts - light carts, two-wheelers, with a machine gun mounted on them. Carts were first used in the rebel army of N.I. Makhno, but later began to be used in all large cavalry formations of the White and Red armies.

With ground forces squadrons interacted. An example of a joint operation is the defeat of D.P. Rednecks by aviation and infantry of the Russian army in June 1920. Aviation was also used to bombard fortified positions and reconnaissance. During the "echelon war" and later, along with infantry and cavalry, armored trains operated on both sides, the number of which reached several dozen per army. Of these, special units were created.

Manning armies in the Civil War

Under the conditions of the Civil War and the destruction of the state mobilization apparatus, the principles of recruiting armies changed. Only the Siberian Army of the Eastern Front was completed in 1918 by mobilization. Most units of the VSYUR, as well as the Northern and Northwestern armies, were replenished at the expense of volunteers and prisoners of war. most reliable in combat attitude were volunteers.

The Red Army was also characterized by the predominance of volunteers (initially, only volunteers were accepted into the Red Army, and admission required “proletarian origin” and “recommendation” of a local party cell). The predominance of mobilized and prisoners of war became widespread at the final stage of the Civil War (in the ranks of the Russian army of General Wrangel, as part of the 1st Cavalry in the Red Army).

The white and red armies were distinguished by a small number and, as a rule, a discrepancy between the real composition military units their staff (for example, divisions of 1000-1500 bayonets, regiments of 300 bayonets, a shortage of up to 35-40% was even approved).

In the command of the White armies, the role of young officers increased, and in the Red Army - nominees along the party line. A completely new institution of political commissars for the armed forces was established (which first appeared under the Provisional Government in 1917). The average age of the command level in the positions of chiefs of divisions and corps commanders was 25-35 years.

The absence of an order system in the All-Russian Union of Socialist Youth and the awarding of successive ranks led to the fact that in 1.5-2 years officers went through a career from lieutenants to generals.

In the Red Army, with a relatively young command staff, a significant role was played by former officers of the General Staff who planned strategic operations (former lieutenant generals M.D. Bonch-Bruevich, V.N. Egorov, former colonels I.I. Vatsetis, S.S. Kamenev, F.M. Afanasiev, A.N. Stankevich and others).

Military-political factor in the Civil War

The specifics of the civil war, as a military-political confrontation between the whites and the reds, also consisted in the fact that military operations were often planned under the influence of certain political factors. In particular, the offensive of the Eastern Front of Admiral Kolchak in the spring of 1919 was undertaken in anticipation of an early diplomatic recognition of him as the Supreme Ruler of Russia by the Entente countries. And the offensive of the North-Western Army of General Yudenich on Petrograd was caused not only by the expectation of an early occupation of the "cradle of the revolution", but also by the fear of concluding a peace treaty between Soviet Russia and Estonia. In this case, Yudenich's army lost its base. The offensive of the Russian army of General Wrangel in Tavria in the summer of 1920 was supposed to pull back part of the forces from the Soviet-Polish front.

Many operations of the Red Army, regardless of strategic reasons and military potential, were also purely political in nature (for the sake of the so-called "triumph of the world revolution"). So, for example, in the summer of 1919, the 12th and 14th armies of the Southern Front were supposed to be sent to support the revolutionary uprising in Hungary, and the 7th and 15th armies were supposed to establish Soviet power in the Baltic republics. In 1920, during the war with Poland, the troops of the Western Front, under the command of M.N. Tukhachevsky, after operations to defeat the Polish armies in the territory of Western Ukraine and Belarus, transferred their operations to the territory of Poland, counting on the creation of a pro-Soviet government here. The actions of the 11th and 12th Soviet armies in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia in 1921 were of a similar nature. At the same time, under the pretext of defeating parts of the Asian Cavalry Division, Lieutenant General R.F. Ungern-Sternberg, the troops of the Far Eastern Republic, the 5th Soviet Army were introduced into the territory of Mongolia and a socialist regime was established (the first in the world after Soviet Russia).

During the years of the Civil War, it became a practice to carry out operations dedicated to anniversaries (the beginning of the assault on Perekop by the troops of the Southern Front under the command of M.V. Frunze on November 7, 1920, on the anniversary of the 1917 revolution).

The military art of the Civil War became a vivid example of the combination of traditional and innovative forms of strategy and tactics in the difficult conditions of the Russian "distemper" of 1917-1922. It determined the development of Soviet military art (in particular, in the use of large cavalry formations) in the following decades, until the outbreak of World War II.

The October Revolution split Russian society on supporters and opponents of the revolution. Further development events intensified mutual intolerance, a deep internal split occurred, the struggle between various social political forces. A significant part of the intelligentsia, the military, the clergy opposed the Bolshevik regime, and other segments of the Russian population joined them. In the spring of 1918, a civil war broke out in Russia (1918-1920).

A civil war is an armed struggle between large, belonging to different classes and social groups, masses of people for state power.

The initial causes of the civil war were: the forcible removal of the Provisional Government; capture state power Bolsheviks, dispersal of the Constituent Assembly. Armed clashes were local in nature. From the end of 1918, armed clashes took on the character of a nationwide struggle. This was facilitated both by the measures of the Soviet government (nationalization of industry, the conclusion of the Brest peace, etc.), and the actions of opponents (the rebellion of the Czechoslovak Corps).

The alignment of political forces. The Civil War identified three main socio-political camps.

The camp of the Reds, represented by the workers and the poorest peasants, was the mainstay of the Bolsheviks.

The camp of the whites (white movement) included representatives of the former military bureaucratic elite of pre-revolutionary Russia, landowner-bourgeois circles. Their representatives were the Cadets and the Octobrists. The liberal intelligentsia was on their side. The White movement advocated a constitutional order in the country, for the preservation of the integrity of the Russian state.

The third camp in the civil war consisted of broad sections of the peasantry and the democratic intelligentsia. Their interests were expressed by the parties of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and others. Their political ideal was democratic Russia, the way to which they saw in the elections to the Constituent Assembly.

In history, the following stages of the civil war are distinguished:

Stage I: end of May - November 1918;

Phase II: November 1918 - April 1919;

I stage of the civil war (end of May - November 1918). In 1918, the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement were formed. Thus, in February 1918, the "Union of the Revival of Russia" arose in Moscow and Petrograd, uniting the Cadets, Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. In March of the same year, the "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" was formed under the leadership of B.V. Savinkov. A strong anti-Bolshevik movement unfolded among the Cossacks. On the Don and Kuban, it was headed by General P.N. Krasnov, in the Southern Urals - Ataman A.I. Dutov. In the south of Russia and the North Caucasus, under the leadership of generals M.V. Alekseeva and L.G. Kornilov began to form an officer Volunteer Army, which became the basis of the white movement. After the death of L.G. Kornilov (April 13, 1918), General A.I. took command. Denikin.

In the spring of 1918 foreign intervention began. German troops occupied Ukraine, Crimea, part of North Caucasus. Romania captured Bessarabia. The Entente countries signed an agreement on the non-recognition of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the future division of Russia.

Rebellion of the Left SRs. The Bolsheviks were opposed by their recent allies - the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. At the Fifth Congress of Soviets in July 1918, they demanded the abolition of the food dictatorship, the termination of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and the liquidation of the committees. On July 6, 1918, the Left Socialist-Revolutionary J. Blyumkin killed the German ambassador, Count V.A. Mirbach. In early July 1918, they captured a number of buildings in Moscow and fired on the Kremlin. Their performances took place in Yaroslavl, Murom, Rybinsk and other cities. On July 6-7, the Left SRs attempted to overthrow the Soviet government in Moscow. It ended in complete failure. As a result, many leaders of the Left SRs were arrested. After that, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries began to be expelled from the Soviets of all levels.

The complication of the military-political situation in the country affected the fate of the imperial family. In the spring of 1918, Nicholas II and his family were transferred from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg under the pretext of activating the monarchists. Having coordinated their actions with the Center, the Ural Regional Council shot the tsar and his family on the night of July 16-17. In the same days, the king's brother was killed Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich and 18 other members of the imperial family.

The White Volunteer Army operated in the limited territory of the Don and Kuban. Only the Cossack chieftain P.N. Krasnov managed to advance to Tsaritsyn, and the Ural Cossacks of Ataman A.I. Dutov managed to capture Orenburg.

The position of the Soviet country by the summer of 1918 became critical. Under its control was only a quarter of the territory of the former Russian Empire.

To protect their power, the Bolsheviks took decisive and purposeful actions.

Creation of the Red Army. After the October Revolution, the tsarist army ceased to exist. The only "splinter" of the old army on the side of the Soviets, which retained the spirit and military discipline, were the regiments Latvian Riflemen. The Latvian Riflemen became the mainstay of Soviet power in the first year of its existence.

The decree on the creation of the Red Army was issued on January 15 (28), 1918. And a Russian peasant immediately joined the Red Army. In the village the situation was constantly deteriorating, and in the army they were given rations, clothes, shoes. In May 1918 there were 300 thousand people. But the combat effectiveness of this army was low. In the spring, when sowing began, the peasants were irresistibly drawn back to the village. The Red Army was melting before our eyes.

Then the Bolsheviks took urgent and vigorous measures to strengthen the Red Army. The strictest discipline was established in the army. Members of their families were taken hostage for desertion.

From June 1918 the army ceased to be voluntary. The transition to universal military service was carried out. The Bolsheviks began work on conscripting the poorest peasantry and workers into the Red Army. The institute of military commissars was introduced in the army.

In September 1918, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (Revolutionary Military Council) was created, headed by L.D. Trotsky. The Revolutionary Military Council began to exercise control over the army, navy, as well as all institutions of the military and naval departments. The Revolutionary Military Council decided to create cavalry as part of the Red Army. L.D. Trotsky put forward the slogan "Proletarian! On the horse!". The slogan was extremely popular among the peasants. The cavalry in the Russian army was considered an aristocratic branch of the army and has always been the privilege of the nobility. The First Cavalry and Second Cavalry armies were created, which played a significant role during the civil war.

As a result of these and other measures, the Red Army grew and strengthened. By 1920, its number amounted to 5 million people. (as well as the royal army). One of the ministers in the government of A.V. Kolchak wrote bitterly: "Instead of the Red Army rabble, a regular Red Army has arisen, which drives and drives us to the east."

Already in June 1918, the Eastern Front was formed against the rebellious Czechoslovak Corps under the command of I.I. Vatsetis (from July 1919 - S.S. Kamenev). Special communist and trade union mobilizations were carried out to the Eastern Front, troops were transferred from other regions. The Bolsheviks achieved a numerical superiority of military forces, and in early September 1918 the Red Army went on the offensive and during October - November drove the enemy beyond the Urals.

Changes were made in the rear. At the end of February 1918, the Bolsheviks restored the death penalty, which had been abolished by the Second Congress of Soviets. The powers of the punitive body of the Cheka were significantly expanded. In September 1918, after the assassination attempt on V.I. Lenin and the murder of the head of the Petrograd Chekists M.S. Uritsky, the Council of People's Commissars announced the "Red Terror" against the opponents of Soviet power. The authorities began to take hostages en masse from among the "exploiting classes": the nobility, the bourgeoisie, officers, and priests.

By a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in September 1918, the Soviet Republic was declared a "single military camp." All party, Soviet, public organizations focused on the mobilization of human and material resources to defeat the enemy. In November 1918, the Workers' and Peasants' Defense Council was established under the chairmanship of V.I. Lenin. In June 1919, all the then existing republics - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - entered into a military alliance, creating a single military command, uniting the management of finance, industry, and transport. In the autumn of 1919, the Soviets in the front-line and front-line areas were subordinated to emergency bodies - revolutionary committees.

The policy of "war communism". After the revolution, the Bolsheviks did not allow free trade in grain, as this contradicted their ideas about a non-commodity, non-market economy. Under the conditions of the outbreak of the civil war, the economic ties between the city and the countryside were broken, the city could not provide industrial goods to the countryside. The peasants began to hold back the bread. In the spring of 1918, a catastrophic food situation arose in the cities. In response to this, the Soviet government during the civil war took a number of temporary, emergency, forced economic and administrative measures, which later became known as "war communism".

The policy of "war communism" was aimed at concentrating in the hands of the state the necessary material, food and labor resources for the most expedient use in the interests of defense, to save the population from starvation.

The main elements of the policy of "war communism" were:

the method of assault in the fight against capitalist elements; almost complete displacement of them from the economy;

the unification in the hands of the state of almost all industry, transport and other commanding heights in the economy;

an attempt to quickly pass to the socialist foundations of production and distribution;

the strictest centralization of the management of production and distribution, the deprivation of enterprises of economic independence;

After the October Revolution, a tense socio-political situation developed in the country. The establishment of Soviet power in the autumn of 1917 - in the spring of 1918 was accompanied by many anti-Bolshevik demonstrations in different regions of Russia, but all of them were scattered and had a local character. At first, only separate, not numerous groups of the population were drawn into them. A large-scale struggle, in which huge masses from the most diverse social strata, marked the deployment of the Civil War - a general social armed confrontation.

In historiography, there is no consensus on the time of the start of the Civil War. Some historians attribute it to October 1917, others to the spring-summer of 1918, when strong political and well-organized anti-Soviet pockets formed and foreign intervention began. Disputes among historians also raise the question of who was responsible for unleashing this fratricidal war: representatives of the classes that had lost power, property and influence; the Bolshevik leadership, which imposed its own method of transforming society on the country; or both of these socio-political forces, which the popular masses used in the struggle for power.

The overthrow of the Provisional Government and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly, the economic and socio-political measures of the Soviet government turned against it the nobles, the bourgeoisie, the wealthy intelligentsia, the clergy, and the officers. The discrepancy between the goals of transforming society and the methods for achieving them alienated the democratic intelligentsia, the Cossacks, the kulaks and the middle peasants from the Bolsheviks. Thus, domestic politics Bolshevik leadership was one of the causes of the Civil War.

The nationalization of all the land and the confiscation of the landowner's aroused fierce resistance from its former owners. The bourgeoisie, confused by the sweep of the nationalization of industry, wanted to return factories and plants. 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. Thus, the desire of the overthrown classes to preserve private property and their privileged position was the reason for the start of the Civil War.

Creation of a one-party political system and the "dictatorship of the proletariat", in fact - the dictatorship of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), alienated the socialist parties and democratic public organizations from the Bolsheviks. With the Decrees "On the Arrest of the Leaders of the Civil War against the Revolution" (November 1917) and on the "Red Terror", the Bolshevik leadership legally justified the "right" to violent reprisals against their political opponents. Therefore, the Mensheviks, right and left SRs, anarchists refused to cooperate with the new government and took part in the Civil War.

The peculiarity of the Civil War in Russia was the close interweaving of the internal political struggle with foreign intervention. Both Germany and the Entente allies incited the anti-Bolshevik forces, supplied them with weapons, ammunition, financial and political support. On the one hand, their policy was dictated by the desire to put an end to the Bolshevik regime, return the lost property of foreign citizens, and prevent the "spread" of the revolution. On the other hand, they pursued their own expansionist plans aimed at dismembering Russia, gaining new territories and spheres of influence at the expense of it.

Civil War in 1918

In 1918, the main centers of the anti-Bolshevik movement were formed, differing in their socio-political composition. In February, the "Union of the Revival of Russia" arose in Moscow and Petrograd, uniting the Cadets, Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries. In March 1918, the "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom" was formed under the leadership of the well-known Social Revolutionary, terrorist B.V. Savinkov. A strong anti-Bolshevik movement unfolded among the Cossacks. In the Don and Kuban they were led by General P. N. Krasnov, in the Southern Urals - Ataman A. I. Dutov. In the south of Russia and the North Caucasus, under the leadership of Generals M. V. Alekseev and L. I. Kornilov began to form an officer Volunteer Army. She became the basis of the White movement. After the death of L. G. Kornilov, General A. I. Denikin took command.

In the spring of 1918 foreign intervention began. German troops occupied Ukraine, Crimea and part of the North Caucasus. Romania captured Bessarabia. The Entente countries signed an agreement on the non-recognition of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the future division of Russia into spheres of influence. In March, an English expeditionary force was landed in Murmansk, which was later joined by French and American troops. In April, Vladivostok was occupied by Japanese troops. Then detachments of the British, French and Americans appeared in the Far East.

In May 1918, the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Corps rebelled. Slavic prisoners of war from the Austro-Hungarian army were gathered there, who expressed a desire to participate in the war against Germany on the side of the Entente. The corps was sent by the Soviet government along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Far East. It was assumed that he would then be delivered to France. The uprising led to the overthrow of Soviet power in the Volga region and Siberia. In Samara, Ufa and Omsk, governments were created from the Cadets, Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks. Their activity was based on the idea of ​​the revival of the Constituent Assembly, expressed in opposition to both the Bolsheviks and the extreme right-wing monarchists. These governments did not last long and were swept away during the Civil War.

In the summer of 1918, the anti-Bolshevik movement led by the Socialist-Revolutionaries assumed enormous proportions. They organized performances in many cities of Central Russia (Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, etc.). On July 6-7, the Left SRs attempted to overthrow the Soviet government in Moscow. It ended in complete failure. As a result, many of their leaders were arrested. Representatives of the Left SRs who opposed the policies of the Bolsheviks were expelled from the Soviets of all levels and state bodies.

The complication of the military-political situation in the country affected the fate of the imperial family. In the spring of 1918, Nicholas II with his wife and children, under the pretext of activating the monarchists, was transferred from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. Having coordinated their actions with the center, the Ural Regional Council on July 16, 1918 shot the tsar and his family. In the same days, the tsar's brother Michael and 18 other members of the imperial family were killed.

The Soviet government launched active actions to protect its power. The Red Army was reorganized on new military-political principles. A transition was made to universal military service, and extensive mobilization was launched. Strict discipline was established in the army, the institution of military commissars was introduced. Organizational measures to strengthen the Red Army were completed by the creation of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) and the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense.

In June 1918, the Eastern Front was formed against the rebellious Czechoslovak corps and the anti-Soviet forces of the Urals and Siberia under the command of I. I. Vatsetis (since July 1919 - S. S. Kamenev). At the beginning of September 1918, the Red Army went on the offensive and during October-November drove the enemy beyond the Urals. The restoration of Soviet power in the Urals and the Volga region ended the first stage of the Civil War.

Escalation of the Civil War

In late 1918 - early 1919, the white movement reached its maximum scope. In Siberia, Admiral A.V. Kolchak, who was declared the "Supreme Ruler of Russia", seized power. In the Kuban and the North Caucasus, A.I. Denikin united the Don and Volunteer armies into the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. In the north, with the help of the Entente, General E. K. Miller formed his army. In the Baltic states, General N. N. Yudenich was preparing for a campaign against Petrograd. From November 1918, after the end of the First World War, the Allies increased their assistance to the White movement, supplying it with ammunition, uniforms, tanks, and aircraft. The scale of intervention has expanded. The British occupied Baku, landed in Batum and Novorossiysk, the French - in Odessa and Sevastopol.

In November 1918, A.V. Kolchak launched an offensive in the Urals with the aim of connecting with the detachments of General E.K. Miller and organizing a joint attack on Moscow. Again, the Eastern Front became the main one. On December 25, the troops of A. V. Kolchak took Perm, but already on December 31, their offensive was stopped by the Red Army. In the east, the front temporarily stabilized.

In 1919, a plan was created for a simultaneous attack on Soviet power: from the east (A. V. Kolchak), the south (A. I. Denikin) and the west (N. N. Yudenich). However, it was not possible to carry out a combined performance.

In March 1919, A.V. Kolchak launched a new offensive from the Urals towards the Volga. In April, the troops of S. S. Kamenev and M. V. Frunze stopped him, and in the summer they drove him to Siberia. A powerful peasant uprising and partisan movement against the government of A.V. Kolchak helped the Red Army to establish Soviet power in Siberia. In February 1920, by the verdict of the Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee, Admiral A.V. Kolchak was shot.

In May 1919, when the Red Army was winning decisive victories in the east, N. N. Yudenich moved to Petrograd. In June, he was stopped and his troops driven back to Estonia, where the bourgeoisie came to power. The second offensive of N. N. Yudenich on Petrograd in October 1919 also ended in defeat. His troops were disarmed and interned by the Estonian government, which did not want to come into conflict with Soviet Russia, which offered to recognize the independence of Estonia.

In July 1919, A. I. Denikin captured Ukraine and, having carried out a mobilization, launched an attack on Moscow (Moscow directive) In September, Kursk, Orel and Voronezh occupied his troops. I. Denikin. The Southern Front was formed under the command of A.I. Egorov. In October, the Red Army went on the offensive. She was supported by the insurgent peasant movement led by N. I. Makhno, who deployed a “second front” in the rear of the Volunteer Army. In December 1919 - early 1920, the troops of A.I. Denikin were defeated. Soviet power was restored in southern Russia, Ukraine and the North Caucasus. The remnants of the Volunteer Army took refuge on the Crimean Peninsula, the command of which A. I. Denikin transferred to General P. N. Wrangel.

In 1919, revolutionary fermentation began in the occupying units of the Allies, intensified by Bolshevik propaganda. The interventionists were forced to withdraw their troops. This was facilitated by a powerful social movement in Europe and the USA under the slogan "Hands off Soviet Russia!".

The final stage of the Civil War

In 1920, the main events were the Soviet-Polish war and the fight against P. N. Wrangel. Having recognized the independence of Poland, the Soviet government began negotiations with it on territorial delimitation and the establishment of a state border. They reached a dead end, as the Polish government, headed by Marshal Yu. Pilsudski, presented exorbitant territorial claims. To restore "Greater Poland", Polish troops invaded Belarus and Ukraine in May, captured Kyiv. The Red Army under the command of M. N. Tukhachevsky and A. I. Yegorov in July 1920 defeated the Polish grouping in Ukraine and Belarus. The attack on Warsaw began. It was perceived by the Polish people as an intervention. In this regard, all the forces of the Poles, materially supported by Western countries, were directed to resist the Red Army. In August, the offensive of M. N. Tukhachevsky bogged down. The Soviet-Polish war was ended by a peace signed in Riga in March 1921. According to it, Poland received the lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. In Eastern Belarus, the power of the Belarusian Soviet socialist republic.

Since April 1920, the anti-Soviet struggle was led by General P. N. Wrangel, who was elected "ruler of the south of Russia." He formed the “Russian Army” in Crimea, which launched an offensive against the Donbass in June. To repel it, the Southern Front was formed under the command of M.V. Frunze. At the end of October, the troops of P. I. Wrangel were defeated in Northern Tavria and pushed back to the Crimea. In November, units of the Red Army stormed the fortifications of the Perekop Isthmus, crossed Lake Sivash and broke into the Crimea. The defeat of P. N. Wrangel marked the end of the Civil War. The remnants of his troops and part of the civilian population opposed to the Soviet regime were evacuated with the help of the allies to Turkey. In November 1920, the Civil War actually ended. Only isolated pockets of resistance to Soviet power remained on the outskirts of Russia.

In 1920, with the support of the troops of the Turkestan Front (under the command of M.V. Frunze), the power of the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva was overthrown. The Bukhara and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics were formed on the territory of Central Asia. In Transcaucasia, Soviet power was established as a result of military intervention by the government of the RSFSR, material and moral and political assistance from the Central Committee of the RCP (b). In April 1920, the Musavatist government was overthrown and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. In November 1920, after the liquidation of the power of the Dashnaks, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was created. In February 1921, Soviet troops, violating the peace treaty with the government of Georgia (May 1920), captured Tiflis, where the creation of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed. In April 1920, by decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the government of the RSFSR, a buffer Far Eastern Republic was created, and in 1922 the Far East was finally liberated from the Japanese invaders. Thus, on the territory of the former Russian Empire (with the exception of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland), the Soviet government won.

The Bolsheviks won the Civil War and repelled foreign intervention. They managed to keep the main part of the territory of the former Russian Empire. At the same time, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states separated from Russia and gained independence. Were lost Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Bessarabia.

Reasons for the victory of the Bolsheviks

The defeat of the anti-Soviet forces was due to a number of reasons. Their leaders 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, widespread violation of legal norms - 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. Various social groups were attracted by loud revolutionary slogans, the promise of social and national justice. 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.

The civil war was a terrible disaster for Russia. It 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. Was completely paralyzed transport system. 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. Irreplaceable moral and ethical losses had profound socio-cultural consequences, which for a long time affected the history of the Soviet country.