Russian Civil War - Overview, Geography and Chronology, Course of events, Explanations for the Red victory, Weaknesses of the Whites

(1918–22) A war which took place in Russia following the October 1917 Revolution. Anti-Bolshevik forces (Whites) led by tsarist generals mounted a series of military and political campaigns against the new Soviet regime, supported by the intervention of allied troops and the governments of Britain, France, the USA, and Japan. They were opposed by the Soviet Red Army, created by Trotsky, which successfully fought back against the Whites between 1918 and 1922. There were five main theatres of war: the Caucasus and S Russia; Ukraine; the Baltic provinces; the Far North; and Siberia. After the end of World War 1 the military justification for allied intervention disappeared. The Red Army, which generally enjoyed more popular support than the Whites, gradually defeated the counter-revolutionary forces on all fronts, and established Soviet military and political power throughout the whole of Russia and its borderlands, with the exception of Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states, which received their independence.

Russian Civil War
Red Army soldiers during the Russian Civil War.
Date 1917-1922 Location Russia, Ukraine, Caucasus, Siberia Result Red victory
Combatants
Red Army (Bolsheviks)	White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists)
Commanders
Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny	Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno
Strength
5,427,273 (peak)	+1,000,000
Casualties
939,755 irrecoverable losses; 6,791,783 sick and wounded.

Russian Civil War
-Southern Front of the Russian Civil War-Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War-Northern Front of the Russian Civil War-Central Asian Front in the Russian Civil War-Far Eastern Front in the Russian Civil War

History of Russia
Early East Slavs
Khazars
Rus' Khaganate
Kievan Rus'
Vladimir-Suzdal
Novgorod Republic
Volga Bulgaria
Mongol invasion
Golden Horde
Muscovy
Khanate of Kazan
Russian Empire
Revolution of 1905
Revolution of 1917
Civil War
Soviet Union
Russian Federation

The Russian Civil War was fought from 1917 to 1922. The main hostilities took place between Communist forces known as the Red Army and loosely allied anti-Communist forces known as the White Army.

Overview

Following the abdication of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the turbulent Russian Revolution throughout 1917, a socialist leaning Provisional Government was established.

The Bolsheviks decided to immediately make peace with Germany and the Central Powers, as they had promised the Russian people prior to the Revolution. Signing a formal peace treaty was the only option in the eyes of the Bolsheviks, because the Russian army was demobilized and the newly formed Red Guard were incapable of stopping the advance.

In the wake of the October Revolution, the old Russian army had been demobilized and the volunteer based Red Guard was the Bolsheviks' main military arm. In January, Trotsky headed its reorganization into the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army," in order to create a more professional fighting force.

The Bolsheviks banned all non-Bolshevik political activity around the same time, even other socialist groups, when it became clear that the Bolsheviks could not hold a majority of the seats in any democratically elected governing body outside of St. Petersburg and Moscow.

While resistance to the Red Guard began on the very next day after the Bolshevik coup, the Brest-Litovsk treaty and the political ban became a catalyst for the formation of anti-Bolshevik groups both inside and outside Russia, pushing them into action against the new regime.

A loose confederation of anti-Bolshevik forces aligned against the Communist government, including republican, conservative, reactionary, pro-monarchist, liberal, non-Bolshevik socialists, and democratic reformist supporters, voluntarily united only in their opposition to Bolshevik rule. Their military forces became known as the White movement (sometimes referred to as the "White Army"), and they controlled significant parts of the former Russian empire for most of the war.

A Ukrainian nationalist movement known as the Green Army and an anarchist movement known as the Black Army played a much smaller part in the war, sometimes harrying both the Reds and the Whites, and sometimes even each other.

The Western Allies, upset at the withdrawal of Russia from the war effort, also expressed their dismay at the Bolsheviks.

The majority of the fighting ended in 1920 with the defeat of General Pyotr Wrangel in the Crimea, but a notable resistance in certain areas continued until 1922 (e.g, Kronstadt Uprising, Tambov Rebellion, and the final resistance of the White movement in the Far East).

The Soviet government held that the Bolshevik movement was an international workers' movement and not specifically Russian;

Geography and Chronology

The war was fought across three main fronts; This provoked a revolt in Don region headed by General Kaledin, where the Volunteer Army began amassing support.

Lenin was surprised by the outbreak of civil war and initially underestimated the extent of the forces that rose against his new government.

The second period of the war was the key stage, which lasted from January to November of 1919. At first the White armies' advances from the south (under Denikin), the east (under Kolchak) and the northwest (under Yudenich) were successful, pushing back the new Red Army on all three fronts. But Leon Trotsky reformed the Red Army and pushed back Kolchak's forces (in June) and Denikin's and Yudenich's armies (in October). The fighting power of all the White armies was broken almost simultaneously in mid-November.

The final period of the war was the extended siege of the last White forces in the Crimea. Wrangel had gathered the remnants of the armies of Denikin, and they had fortified their positions in the Crimea. They held these positions until the Red Army returned from Poland where they had been fighting the Polish-Soviet war. When the full force of the Red Army was turned on them the Whites were soon overwhelmed, and the remaining troops were evacuated to Constantinople in November 1920.

While historiography generally considers the Russian Civil War to be over after the defeat of Wrangel's troops, organized military resistance continued up until the evacuation of General Diterikhs' troops in Vladivostok in October of 1922, after which the Soviet Union declared itself a state.

Course of events

The first attempt to seize the power from the Bolsheviks was made by the Kerensky-Krasnov uprising in October, 1917.

The initial groups that fought against the Communists were local Cossack armies that had declared their loyalty to the Provisional Government. In November, General Alekseev, the old Tsarist Commander-in-Chief, began to organize a Volunteer Army (Добровольческая Армия, Dobrovolcheskaya Armiya) in Novocherkassk. These forces fought against the Bolshevik army all across the Ukraine.

1918

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which pulled Russia out of the war and gave Germany control over vast stretches of western Russia, came as a nasty shock to the Allies.

It was not until the spring of 1918 that the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionary Party joined the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks.

The Czech Legion had been part of the Russian army and by October 1917 numbered around 30,000 men. Most were ex-prisoners of war and deserters from the Austro-Hungarian Army. Encouraged by Tomáš Masaryk, the legion was renamed the Czecho-Slovak Army Corps and hoped to continue fighting the Germans.

The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries supported peasant fighting against Soviet control of food supplies.

However, the new government quickly came under the influence the new War Minister, Rear-Admiral Kolchak.

To the Soviets the emergence of Admiral Kolchak was a political victory because it confirmed their opponents as anti-democratic reactionaries. Following a reorganization of the People's Army, Kolchak's forces captured Perm and Ufa in December of 1918. Other Socialist-Revolutionaries attempted to rouse Red Army troops against the regime.

1919

The stage was now set for the key year of the Civil War. Against this government in the east, Admiral Kolchak had a small army and had some control over the Trans-Siberian Railroad. In the south Cossacks armies controlled much of the Don and the Ukraine. In the Caucasus, General Denikin had established an army. In the newly independent country of Estonia General Yudenich was organizing an army.

Trotsky ordered the Bolshevik army to recapture Ukraine first. The Red Army captured Kiev on February 3 1919 and ten days later, with his army in chaos, General Kaledin committed suicide. The Cossack Volunteer Army was evacuated to the Kuban, where they joined with the Kuban Cossacks to mount an abortive assault on Ekaterinodar. General Kornilov was killed in the fighting on April 13, Operational command passed to General Denikin who spent the next few months rebuilding his Cossack army. In October, General Alekseev died of a heart attack and General Denikin was (in theory at least) now the top political leader for the White armies in Southern Russia.

With Bolshevik forces seemingly triumphant in Ukraine, the French, having done almost no fighting, withdrew their troops from Odessa on April 8 1919.

While the war was going on in Ukraine, Trotsky sent another army against Kolchak's forces. This army, lead by the capable commander Tukhachevsky, recaptured Ekaterinburg on January 27 1919 and continued to push along the Trans-Siberian railroad. Both sides had victories and losses, but by the middle of summer the Red army was larger than the White army and was winning back lands it had lost earlier. The Red Army captured Omsk on November 14 1919. Admiral Kolchak lost control of his government shortly after this defeat and in fact, the White army in Siberia essentially ceased to exist by December.

Even though the United Kingdom withdrew its troops, it continued to give significant military aid (money, weapons, food, ammunition, and some military advisors) to the White armies during 1919, especially to General Yudenich. Without this support the White armies would likely have lost the war much earlier due to lack of weapons and food.

In the early summer, the Caucasus Army (now under operational command of General Wrangel) attacked north, trying to relieve the pressure on Kolchak's army or even link up with it. Trotsky responded to this threat by sending Tukhachevsky with a new army against Wrangel's troops. The Caucasus army of Wrangel, faced with superior numbers, retreated south, leaving Volgograd to the Bolsheviks.

Later in the summer, another Cossack force called the Don Army under the command of Cossack General Mamontov and attacked into Ukraine. The Red army, stretched thin by fighting on all fronts, was forced out of Kiev on September 2 1919. Mamontov's Don Army continued north towards Voronezh but there they were defeated by Tukhachevsky's army on October 24. Tukhachevsky's army then turned towards yet another threat, the rebuilt Volunteer Army, and destroyed that army at Orel in October. The Red Army recaptured Kiev on December 17 and the defeated Cossacks fled back towards the Black Sea.

While the White Armies were being defeated in the south, the center and the east, there was still one more threat to the Bolshevik government. This threat came from General Yudenich who had spent the spring and summer organizing a small army in Estonia, with British support. The attack was well executed, with night attacks and maneuvers to turn the flanks of the defending Red army. Within a few weeks the Red army defending Petrograd had tripled in size and outnumbered Yudenich three to one. At this point Yudenich gave up his attack and withdrew his army back to Estonia. Upon his return to Estonia, his army was disarmed by order of the Estonian government. The Bolshevik forces that followed Yudenich were beaten back by the Estonian army.

These victories by the Bolsheviks over Mamontov's Cossack army at Voronezh, Yudenich at Petrograd, and Kolchak at Omsk—all in a one month period—transformed the war.

1920

In Siberia, Admiral Kolchak's army had disintegrated. He himself gave up command after the loss of Omsk and designated Semenov as the new leader of the White Army in Siberia. Kolchak was turned over to the Red army in February 1920 and executed two weeks later (likely on Lenin's order).

The Czech Legion had no real interest in fighting in the Russian Civil War. They wanted to fight the German army, but with the end of World War I, that desire died.

Most of the White Armies were evacuated by British ships during the winter-spring of 1920. his army remained an organized force in the Crimea throughout the summer of 1920. Then, trying to take advantage of the Red Army defeat in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, General Wrangel attacked north. This offensive was rapidly halted by the Red Army and his troops were forced to retreat back to the Crimea in November 1920. Tens of thousands of Russians tried to escape from the Red army but were unable to find transport on the British ships.

The Japanese, who had plans to annex the Amur region of Eastern Siberia, finally pulled their troops out in October of 1922 as the Bolshevik forces gradually asserted control over all of Siberia.

Explanations for the Red victory

The Reds held the central, industrial area, which gave them control over railways and the production of amunitions. They also controlled a huge population base from which they could conscript large armies (which they did starting in 1919).

The core area which the Bolsheviks controlled was the most populous area of Russia and, when the decisive battles took place at the end of 1919, they had more than 3,000,000 men under arms. By the end of the Civil war in 1921 they had 5,000,000 men in their army. More than 75,000 ex-Tsarist officers served in the Red army. Compared to this, the strength of the White armies never exceeded 250,000 men. The core area which the Bolsheviks controlled contained the main industrial regions and almost all of the weapons of the Czarist army. These inner lines of communication allowed Trotsky to shift Tukhachevsky and some of his best troops from the east - where they were fighting against Kolchak's army - to the south - where they fought against Wrangel's army at Volgograd; From a core of Red Guards, which had been armed by the Provisional Government during the Kornilov Revolt, Trotsky built up the Red Army through conscription. Traveling on his legendary train, he boosted the Red Army's morale. Trotsky was personally responsible for ending the panic in Petrograd and turning back Yudenich's army.

Weaknesses of the Whites

Victory for the Bolsheviks was partially due to the weaknesses of the Whites.

Admiral Kolchak was a capable naval officer but was not politically educated and had no prior experience in commanding a land based army.

The Whites were unable to gain support from three powers that had an interest in the conflict: Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States.

The Whites suffered because of their strategic position, which was scattered throughout the country, while the Bolsheviks were centralized.

Aftermath

At the end of the Civil War, Soviet Russia was exhausted and near ruin. The war had taken an estimated 15 million lives, including at least one million soldiers of the Russian Red Army who died in battle.

Another million people, known as the White emigres, fled Russia - many with General Wrangel, some through the Far East, others fled west into the newly independent Baltic countries in order to escape the ravages of the war, the famine, or the rule of either warring faction.

War Communism saved the Soviet government during the Civil War, but much of the Russian economy ground to a standstill.

Although Russia eventually recovered and even experienced extremely rapid economic growth in the 1930s, the combined effect of World War One and the Civil War left a lasting scar in Russian society, and had permanent effects on the later history of the Soviet Union.

Many socialist theorists, particularly those in the Trotskyist tradition, cite the combined devastation of these two experiences as the basis for Stalin's rise to power and the reason for the dissolution of the workers' state established by Lenin and the original Bolsheviks.